Little reflection on the "Naughties"

As the "Naughties" draws to a close, I am amazed how much my life has changed in these past ten years. I am no longer the single, teenage student as I was at the start of the decade, but a married and working 20-something. Ten years has made such a difference in my own life, and of course, in the world.

The highlight of the decade for me is of course meeting and marrying Veggie Hubby. Getting my degree would rank quite highly too, as would fantastic holidays in Canada, Greece (Olympics) and France, and seeing some amazing sights in the USA. Although doing 'Camp America' in 2000 was one of the lows of the decade for me, it was like a miserable couple of months in a prison camp.

I tried to make a list of my favourite things of the decade: favourite song, film, book etc., but I can't manage to do this. I think so many songs for instance have special meanings in their own year, it is difficult to pick favourites. Can you?

Wishing any readers of this blog a very Happy New Year and decade ahead. xx

SNOW BABY!!!

Hi everyone, i thought i would check in and let you all know that i had a little baby boy on friday 18th december at 3.48am, weighing 6lb 7oz! He is teeny and cute! Not to mention the fact he chose to come just as a snow blizzard was starting!! And lucky he came then, as 2 days later everyone was snowed in!!!!
x

Yeah or Nay?

Things currently on my 'yeah' and 'nay' list..

Yeah :-)

• Weird food combinations e.g. pineapple cottage cheese with filled pasta!!! (dinner tonight)
  
• I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here is keeping me entertained most evenings at the moment
  
• Pub lunches
• Graze boxes (when they don't contain nuts)
• It's nearly Christmas
  

Nay :-(

• The inept and slow Home Office
• Estate agents' extortionate 'administration' fees
  
• Working overtime
• Nuts
• Strictly Come Dancing (it's 'dull, dull, dull' this year in the words of judge Craig Revel Horwood)
  

The Graze Craze

There is a new craze going around my office, called grazing. Using the Graze website, you can order boxes of healthy dried or fresh treats to your desk or home to snack on.

On the website you can look through all their products and rate them as items you 'love' 'like' 'want to try' or 'bin'. They arrive in postbox-sized recyclable boxes. I have tried one box so far, it contained a dried pina colada mix (2 portions of fruit), delicious chili rice crackers, dairy free chocolate beans (like Smarties) and yoghurt coated apricots. These are based on things I like, other boxes I've seen have been healthier than mine, containing nuts, seeds and more dried fruits. I would have taken a photo of my box, but thought it would have looked a bit odd in the office if I did that! Here is a pic from the website.If you go on the website and enter the following code you can get a free Graze box.
Free graze code: 2TXJBKQ
It would also give me a pound off my next box, or a pound to donate to the Rainforest Alliance. Following the free box, the next box is half price (£1.49) and following boxes are priced at £2.99. I don't know for how long I'll get these boxes, I think £2.99 is quite expensive, but actually I've had a look and similar products can be quite expensive in shops too. P.S. I am not on commission for Graze - honestly!

Trapped!

I have come to a realisation that I am trapped in England. The Home Office has my passport and have had it for 1.5 months whilst processing VeggieHubby's visa. I don't know when I will get it back, it could be up to 6 months and we are not allowed to contact them. I want VH to get his visa more, but also I want my passport back! Even my dog Sky has a pet passport and can travel. Friends and colleagues seem to be making quick winter escapes, and I'd love to do that too. I just don't want to be trapped here for Christmas when I thought it would be the first Christmas I would spend with my family (who I haven't seen for nearly a year) since I got married.

Not only I am trapped in my country, I am also trapped because of the heavy wind and rain currently battering the south of England. It just makes me want to stay indoors. Having said that it is a good weekend for this severe weather; because it is the first in over a month where I had no real plans. There is also something quite nice and cosy about staying inside while it is raining outside - so I will make the best of my weekend in with my friends the X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing.

Putting a giraffe in the fridge

I heard this short quiz on the radio today. How well do you do? Disclaimer - the wording below is not my own!
1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?

















The correct answer is: Open the refrigerator, insert the giraffe, and close the door.

This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.

2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?

Did you say, "Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant, and close the door"?

Wrong answer.

Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door. This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your previous actions.

3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend except one. Which animal does not attend?

Correct Answer: The elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator. You just put him in there. This tests your memory.

OK, even if you didn't answer the first three questions correctly, you still have one more chance to show your true abilities.

4. There is a river you must cross but it is inhabited by crocodiles. How do you manage it?

Correct Answer: You swim across. All the crocodiles are attending the animal conference. This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

According to Anderson Consulting Worldwide, around 90% of the professionals they tested got all questions wrong, but many preschoolers got several correct answers. Anderson Consulting says this conclusively disproves the theory that most professionals have the brains of a four-year-old.

Christmas on Carnaby Street

I now have a new favourite street in London: Carnaby Street. I can't believe I've never been down this street before. It is a really funky, hip little street with quirky off-beat shops. The Christmas decorations are up already, usually I would find this irritating with it only being early November; but these decorations with their message of love, peace and joy are forgiven. The decorations may be inflatable but they are not tacky like inflatable Santas. Well perhaps the pink reindeer are just ever so slightly tacky, but I love them all the same. If you're ever in London I would recommend that you take a walk down this fun street, and hopefully you will love it too.

La di dah

I am feeling really happy today. I had a good day at work, which makes a change from the past few weeks which have been quite difficult. VeggieHubby also went to a kind of job interview today, and now has a new job. It's a small one, but close to home and will hopefully lead to something better in the future. I have a good few weekends planned too:

• This weekend I'm meeting up with some friends from work. I'm quite lucky to have some colleagues who started around a similar time to me last year who are a similar age, and we all get along well which makes my job fun. We have hour-long lunch breaks when we go out for a meal somewhere nice at least once a week. We also usually have half-hour tea breaks in the mornings, and sometimes 15-minute afternoon breaks too. So my job is pretty good like that. Another good thing is that I can work from home sometimes, which I'm going to do tomorrow, so it will feel like a three-day weekend too.
  
• Next week, I'm going to take some time off work & visit my long-lost sister (well, not exactly but we don't see each other often enough) for a long weekend. She lives in a nice area of the country, so exploring the historic cities near to where she lives will be fun too.
• Then it's my birthday weekend, and I'm going to enjoy still being in my 20's for another year. I don't know what I'm going to be doing exactly (apart from seeing my uni friends J and W), but I have a sneaky feeling a surprise is in store.

P.S. Picture above is of my niece's gorgeous cat.

Perfection

I have just spent the weekend building a PlayMobil castle, playing Pictionary Mania, and going on a woodland walk with my lovely niece. This is how weekends should be :)

One word meme

1. Where is your mobile? table

2. Your hair? messy

3. Your mother? frankofile

4. Your father? grumpy

5. Your favorite food? pasta

6. Your dream last night? forgotten

7.Your favorite drink? mocha

8. Your dream/goal? australia

9. What room are you in? living

10. Your hobby? internet

11. Your fear? numerous

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? somewhere

13. Where were you last night? home

14. Something that you aren't? outgoing

15. Muffins? breakfast

16. Wish list item? house

17. Where did you grow up? derbyshire

18. Last thing you did? strictly

19. What are you wearing? smart(ish)

20. Your TV? small

21. Your pets? sky

22. Friends? far

23. Your life? okay

24. Your mood? thoughtful

25. Missing someone? sky

26. Vehicle? corsa

27. Something you're not wearing? shoes

28. Your favorite store? waitrose

29. Your favorite color? pink

30. When was the last time you laughed? today

31. Last time you cried? yesterday

32. Your best friend? all

33. One place that I go to over and over? work

34. One person who emails me regularly? VeggieHubby

35. Favorite place to eat? sofa

36. Phobia? spiders

37. Time of day? evening

* Meme taken from French Fancy, I added the last one, you can add your own if you wish.

Autumn

Wow I last posted about my (late) summer holiday, and now the leaves are falling, the nights are drawing in and Christmas decorations are already in shops. I find this quite sad, how is 2009 going so quickly, am I really in my late 20's, and have I really been married for two years?

It's back to normality in the Veggie(ish) household. Not much is happening now, but we are expecting things to be more exciting in the near future.

The main things in our life right now:

• VH is looking for a job.
  
• I'm trying to not lose mine!
  
• We're waiting for VH to hopefully get his permanent visa so he is not sent back to cold Canada.
  
• We both have colds!
• I have major car problems, but at least it still moves.
• The good TV season has started: especially Strictly Come Dancing, the X Factor and Desperate Housewives.
  
• We're looking forward to visiting our niece in a couple of weeks, and have other exciting weekend plans.
• I'm enjoying reading other blogs, as I'm not contributing to my own very much, which is very lazy I know, letting other people do the work while I just have fun reading it.
  

Animals of Vancouver

Apologies for my blogging and commenting absence for the past few weeks, I have been (and still am) on holiday in Canada. I'm currently in Montréal, which feels a bit like home now, but I have just returned from a week away in Vancouver. I have previously blogged about the animals in Brittany, so I thought I'd blog about some of the animals we saw in Vancouver.

One of the main things I wanted to do in Vancouver was go whale-watching. We went with a company called Prince of Whales. However, although they did find us some killer whales (see pic below) I was quite disappointed as they spent a while trying to find the whales, and as soon as they did and we started getting good pictures, they decided to move the boat on. In fact, when we got really close, my camera battery died so I missed the opportunity. We saw three transient killer whales, but no large pod of resident orcas, and nothing else (such as bald eagles or porpoises like they said we would). Most of the boat trip was spent travelling through thick fog. However, at least we got to see a couple of wild whales. It was very exciting when they came out of the water.

We also saw beluga whales at the Vancouver Acquarium in Stanley Park. Not as exciting obviously as seeing whales in the wild, but fun nevertheless. The mother recently had a calf (2 months old) and her mother had also recently had a calf (14 months old) to the same father! So beluga society is quite strange. The beluga calfs are really cute; they are grey until they grow into beautiful white adult belugas.
Also, although we didn't see any bald eagles, we did see some at an eagle show, and there are also 170 painted eagles around the Vancouver area to celebrate the Vancouver Winter Olympics, which will be held in Feb 2010. The statues will be auctioned off after the Olympics for charity.

We also went up a mountain to the north of Vancouver called 'Grouse Mountain' in a cable car, where there were some orphan grizzly bears in a large enclosure. They were gentle giants, and we could get really close to them.
We also saw some wild deer on the mountain (mother and fawn).

Finally, yesterday we happened to see a seagull eating a large starfish! He swallowed it down whole.

Schadenfreude

It is nearly two years since I got married. I cannot believe how quickly time flies.

I had the most fantastic wedding day, yet the immediate time after I got married was very difficult. We didn't go on honeymoon (and still haven't actually). My parents moved away. Neither VH nor I had a job. VH didn't have a visa, so we had to go through the stress of the visa application. We were lodging with a couple, which wasn't fun. I had to temp for two months in order for VH to get his visa, and my colleguges there were really nasty.

Then, VH got a job! I left my temping job and the place we were temporarily lodging in :-) but we had to make a fast quick to the town VH's new company was based in. As we didn't have a home we had to live in B&B's. It was very expensive living in B&Bs and having to eat out every night, and we were draining money. They were not even nice B&B's, it was like living in someone else's house, paying, yet not feeling at home, as we couldn't use the washing machine/kitchen etc. We were, technically, homeless.

At last, we were able to move into our flat where we still live. We put loads of money into moving into the flat, and agreed to a six-month minimum contract. Six weeks later, just after Christmas 2008 VH lost his job, for no reason. The company seemed to hire employees and 'let them go' at will. So neither of us had a job, yet were trapped in this expensive contract. This was around the time I started blogging...

Anyway, the reason I have become so reflective about this is because I have been waiting for something bad to happen to this evil company. This week, the happy day came, most likely due to a lot of disgruntled ex-employees including third world country workers. An investigation by the BBC revealed the company's dirty secret. The company is making a loss, and employees are currenly being paid in shares now rather than cash. Hopefully it is not much longer before the company spins out of control, crashes, and burns.... schadenfreude.

It just takes one

It just takes one bad moment to spoil a day....
Missing the train
Getting caught in the rain
Spilling a drink on new clothes
Being tailgated
Somebody being rude.

Sometimes, just one thing can spoil something you used to enjoy.

At Waitrose yesterday, we were overcharged on a couple of food products, which had been misleadingly priced. We tried to return them tonight, but the checkout girl said that we couldn't return them as they were from the chiller cabinet and it's against the law. I can understand that, but she was giving us very dirty looks. She called the manager who let us exchange them (& requested the items we returned to be binned) but she was also quite rude. They made us feel like dirt. I used to love shopping in Waitrose, but not any more. It is frustrating too, as we recently signed a petition to save their jobs, as this Waitrose is going to close down in December to be replaced by another supermarket.

I used to enjoy my job (!). However, my boss, who I used to get along with, ruined it for me by accusing me of saying something that I didn't say. There is not much worse than being unjustly accused of something you didn't do. I'd often like to write a lot more about my job as it's a big part of my life, especially today as it would be therapeutic, but unfortunately as I've mentioned before, I don't feel I can. Hopefully this will be forgotten soon, and I'll start to enjoy it again, but I'm not convinced.

To help recover from my bad week at work last week, I forced myself into having a good weekend. On Saturday I saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince which I enjoyed (despite other people finding it a let-down). We then went out for some lovely Spanish tapas at La Tasca, which VH has already blogged about. Then, the icing on the cake was booking our trip to Vancouver yesterday. I'm looking forward to seeing the whales already.

The rabbit wears Prada

Following a request, please see my new glasses modelled beautifully by "Yellowy". I think that they look much cuter on him than on me! Yellowy is a gift from a friend at university, and became quite a celebrity during my university years.

Close-up of my new specs below:

As they have thicker plastic around the edges than I'm used to, I'm having to get used to losing my peripheral vision. A small sacrifice for wearing Prada. Actually I'm not designer label driven, but I liked these glasses and there wasn't much difference in price between these and non-label ones.

A quiet Sunday night

As I'm sitting here, Veggie Hubby is busy studying for the 'Life in the UK' test, a test which will hopefully enable him to become a British citizen, and stay here with me. I think it's a pretty pointless test, because even being British myself I am unable to answer all of the questions correctly. At the moment, he's learning about the House of Lords (exciting stuff!!).

We had a quiet weekend. I accompanied VH yesterday to a fete with the French children he teaches at weekends. He had them singing lots of French songs, and it was lovely to see. I baked a marble cake for the occasion, but again the marble effect didn't work very well. Today we've been singing (in French) together, a sweet song which we'll perhaps sing together at a certain wedding this summer. It's nearly time for our summer holiday :-) Although we still need to book part of it (trip to Vancouver).

I also got a new pair of glasses yesterday. After five years, my old ones were a bit broken, so I'm really happy to have a new pair. I find contact lenses too much hassle, so prefer to wear glasses, and it's great to have a pair that I now like.

Masks

I've been making masks at work today, for the work summer (masked) ball. I feel that my work is some kind of Women's Institute sometimes. (Not that we do crafts during working hours by the way, just during lunchtime)

I made a mask for me, and one for VH (can you guess which is which?). Unlike other people at work, who made plain masks for their other halves, I made something a bit more adventurous. A kind of pirate/bandit/musketeer mask. It will be the first time he meets my colleagues too. We might be lucky enough to get some real masks from an acquaintance of his tomorrow, in which case we won't need to wear these handmade ones.

2009 Update! (and trains rant)

Hello all,


Its June! I can't believe how the time flies, i don't think i have blogged once this year at all, so i thought i would check in before VeggieCarrie decides to remove me altogether! Well alot has been happening at my end keeping me busy, including hubbys job search, home search, packing up our old house, moving to a new location in the south, and AlmostDentist Hubby is now officially DentistHubby! AND Cutybaby is going to have a little brother or sister later this year! So i have been keeping very busy. Of course i have still the occasional cake craving so i have now switched from cupcakes over to square cakes, like this one.....

I had a wonderful day out in london yesterday, it was so hot and sunny. I met my brother and we went to Oxford Street and Hamleys. I had never been to Hamleys before and must say it was exciting, worth the visit even if its all overpriced! HOWEVER i have to blog about trains now....basically i cannot understand how the tube service is still up and running, instead of a smooth running system, it seems to be collapsing under the weight of people there. I mean literally I was expecting to have a lovely day whizzing from one end of london to another, the reality is that by 3.30pm the trains are heaving with people, the doors actually squeeze shut past peoples squashed faces, most people are standing, ITS HOT, theres no air conditioning at all, when you get off theres a huge gap between the train and the pavement and if you are small you sort of have to do a mini leap to get off! People are all walking so fast and trains are whizzing past, if you happened to trip/lose balance/get knocked you may quite likely fall into the way of the train. Then when you are off theres a huge trek through tunnels getting to next place, loads of stairs up and down, massive escalators!!!!!!!! Oh the escalators, if they are broken which they frequently are then you have to walk all the way up or down them, not for the faint hearted, in the heat i was actally feeling dizzy. What happened to all the health and safety regulations??? what happened to disabled access??? Why are there no lifts!!! It seems the tubes designed solely for the single healthy fit person. They are totally prejudiced against the elderly, disabled, pregnant,mums with buggies, people with luggage! Why?? The only good thing is that people are so helpful, i had men (and women) offer to help with my buggy. I dont know why something isnt done to improve the service, especially in light of the recent press given to MP's greedy spending. It seems appalling.

x

Evening at the races

I went from under water yesterday to above ground this evening, for an evening at the race course with my colleagues. Running horses in bad lighting are nearly as difficult to photograph as fish! I placed a few cheap bets for fun, but won nothing. Oh well! I love the names of some of the horses: my favourite name tonight was Fajita (who I didn't place a bet on, but didn't win).

Under the sea: the good, the bad and the ugly

VH and I had a lovely afternoon today at the London Sea Life Aquarium, which has recently been refurbished. There were all kinds of fish and amphibians, the good, the bad and the ugly (although it would have been nice if there had been some other animals in the aquarium, like penguins, otters or polar bears). The above photo shows one of their new exhibitions, with a giant skeleton of a blue whale. The good sea life we saw included the turtles, and 'Nemo' and 'Dory' fish (Clown fish, and Blue Tang fish). By the way, you will have to excuse the photography here; it is incredibly difficult to take photos of fast-moving fish behind glass and water, especially when you are not able to use flash photography.




The 'bad' fish we saw included piranhas (which actually didn't look that scary) and several varieties of sharks. We were able to walk over the top of the glass shark aquarium (taking 'the shark walk'), and look down on them which was quite exciting.
Fish are quite weird creatures, and we saw many strange and even 'ugly' types of fish, including stonefish (not pictured) and catfish.







As you exit the sealife centre, you enter into McDonalds where you are able to purchase fish-fingers if you wish. We didn't go there, but to a nicer restaurant on the Southbank (Giraffe) where both VH and I ate vegetarian.

Summer

Well it's officially the start of my week-long holidays. The week will just fly by, I know it, but it's good to be able to take nine days off work in a row, when I only need to use three days of my annual leave allowance to do so. I think I have chosen a good week to take off, as it's sunny. Today was the hottest day of the year so far. Our little flat gets so hot (being on the top floor) that we have to keep the heating off, and the windows open, yet it's still like an oven.

Perhaps it's the start of the hot summer that the weather forcasters are promising. Unlike the miserable 'summers' of 2007 and 2008, it is really looking like we will have a proper summer this year. Summer 2009 will be a time for summery walks, food and drinks. A time for summer balls, long sunny evenings, weddings, dresses, barbeques, picnics and holidays. Perfect. As you can probably tell, I love the summer, it's my favourite season of the year.

In the news

UK news....
1) It wasn't Jade's time, but it was Norway's fairytale win. I don't mind too much, at least the UK coming 5th in Eurovision shows that Europe doesn't hate us.
2) MPs spend our money buying chandeliers, heating swimming pools, flatscreen TVs, paying off mortgages they've already paid off. Surprise, surprise, MPs are dishonest, it makes me feel sick, as do their rules (designed by MPs, for MPs) that such extravagent spending of public money is justified.
3) Jordan and Peter split up :-( Yes, it was inevitable that it would someday happen, but somehow I believed that despite their arguments, they could survive. It saddens me, especially for their kids whom Peter adores. (OK, not really 'news' but it interests me).
4) Swine flu has arrived! I know someone who was scarily close to catching it. However, so far it seems quite mild outside Mexico, & I'm hoping it stays that way.
VC news...
1) I have four days of work left, including some days out of the office, and then a week off! No plans yet but hopefully will catch up with some friends, and have a barbecue.
2) I am trying to read lots recently, as I have loads of library books to get through, and then some of my own which I couldn't resist buying, including Twilight, Q&A (Slumdog Millionaire book), and the Booker Prize winner, White Tiger.

Dancing parrot

I learnt today that not only can parrots talk, they can dance too. What an amazing talent! I love Snowball's moves, his rhythm, his headbanging, and his amazing hairstyle.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8026592.stm

Joining the 21st Century

I am very behind the times! I don't own an i-pod or MP3 player. VH now has an i-pod, which he received at Christmas & loves, but I don't. However, I decided to start downloading music nevertheless, from Amazon. You can buy some music tracks for 29p - great value for money. I bought the Slumdog Millionaire Ja'i Ho song on Easter weekend, which is so fun and great to listen to in the sun. This caused a minor Easter day disaster - my bank account got temporarily closed down, as fraud was suspected. Which is weird as it wasn't a big sum of money being taken out from abroad, but just a mere 29p.

Anyway, last night I decided to download some more tracks, and then burnt a CD of them. I never thought of doing this before, I don't need an i-pod, I can just listen to them in my car. I am very pleased with my first self-made music CD, it's great. There are even some tracks VH and I both like on it, including Ruby by the Kaiser Chief's which reminds us of our wedding day, as I danced with my niece to it.

Ten little moments of happiness today

1) Speaking to my niece, who told me all about Doctor Who and Prince Caspian
2) Walking around the park in the sun
3) Driving to and exploring a nearby village
4) Eating Cadbury's mini-eggs, and chick
5) Drinking a Starbucks mocha light frappuccino, followed by a relaxing glass of white wine
6) Wearing a dress for a change
7) Finding out that my bank account hasn't been subject to fraud
8) Getting into cleaning mode, and cleaning the kitchen
9) Reading my Jodi Picoult book
10) Hearing that my goddaughter took her first steps today

Happy Easter!

Veggie Hubby knows that while I am vegetarian, I enjoy eating animals when made out of chocolate. From left to right meet: Baby Basil the duck, Lucy the lamb, the white rabbit, Molly Moo (my present to him) and chick. I haven't started any of them yet, and will try and eat them very slowly.

Hope you are having a nice Easter. I am enjoying my five-day weekend, even although it is a quiet one.

By the river

When we are not doing anything out of the ordinary on Sundays, and the weather is nice enough, VH like to go for a stroll in the park and along the river Thames, looking at/feeding the ducks, geese and swans. The way they beg for food reminds me a little of my dog Sky. The Canadian goose above was particularly vocal today; whereas the other birds didn't make any sounds, this particular goose knew how to shout! Nevertheless, the other birds were good at asking for food in quieter ways.
I always like the birds that are a bit different. Last week, there was a small very strange looking brown bird with big eyes, and I hoped to see it again today. Although we didn't, we saw a bird which I later identified as a tufted duck. It stayed away from the other birds, and the food.

Cinderella

Here is a tiny admission - I am a girl who doesn't particularly like shoe shopping, or shoes. I far prefer shopping for other things; such as clothes, bags, books, or even food. Like Cinderella, it's difficult to get shoes that fit perfectly. Shoe shopping also requires the attendance of a shop assistant, whereas I prefer to shop in peace. This means that I don't own many pairs of shoes, and mainly wear a pair of black boots. But these boots are now scuffed, and are falling apart. In fact, the heel fell off last week, and someone I don't even know at work commented on the state of them, so I felt I should get some more!

I bought some shoes in France the other week (right), but I haven't worn them out as they still hurt. So after my colleague's comment on Wednesday, I decided there was no choice, I had to buy another pair. After a lot of shopping around today, I ended up with a second pair of work shoes (left). Now, I have my work shoes but I still need others... new boots, summer shoes (e.g. sandals/flip-flops) and trainers for the weekends. It is never-ending!

Basil has a baby brother

VH is now off on Easter holidays for two weeks, while I still have to work. :-( Lucky for some! In my opinion, everyone should work school terms, then the world would be a happier place. Well at least it's Friday night, and there is the whole weekend to look forward to. Shopping time! It is is also starting to feel like summer. It's getting sunnier (sometimes even sunny) and the evenings are nice and long. It's getting dark around 8pm - perfect.

We bought a new basil plant last week. It isn't a replacement for old basil, just a brother. After all the love and attention we have given to basil, we cannot bring ourselves throw him out, even though he has brown stalks. New basil is hopefully of higher quality than old basil, grown in organic soil. Unlike old basil, it looks much healthier in many respects, and has green stalks. However, new basil is not perfect either, which I will take the blame for. When we got new basil to the check-out till to pay for it, we realised it was already injured, squashed underneath all of our shopping. So new basil looks somewhat flat, and lop-sided. It seems that we are not very good at taking care of basils!

Spot the difference:

The sounds of Brittany

VH and I are in Brittany again, for a short break. Outside in the garden, the stars can be seen shining brightly at night; if you look carefully you can see lizards; and if you listen, you can hear birds singing. It is enjoyable to sit in the garden, close your eyes, and listen to the birdsong. I was doing this when I heard the sound of... an elephant? Surely not, in rural France? As we drove to the supermarché later, we passed the origin of the noise: a travelling circus, with camels, llamas and donkeys tied up on a field. Quite a strange sight, one which you wouldn't see in England.

Another common sound here is the sound of VH's constant cough, caught from school. It doesn't stop, and now I have a very sore throat myself. So it isn't quite the relaxing holiday I had hoped for, but enjoyable to be with my family and little black friend nevertheless.

London and back

VH and I went into London for a day out today. It was a lovely, sunny day, and London looked beautiful. We walked along the Thames, and in the parks. We had an enjoyable meal out in Las Iguanas; it felt like the summer. Then, we went on the London Eye, and saw some fantastic views over the city. It was a nearly perfect day... slightly ruined, by one very selfish man we encountered on our journey home.

Our journey home was very very long. Sunday travel is never good, there are always maintenance works on the railways. And the dreaded replacement bus services.... We had taken a long journey on the underground, another train journey (standing, as there were no seats) and then we had to get the replacement bus. We missed one by a few minutes, so had to wait nearly an hour for the next. We eventually got on it, and just as we were about ten minutes away from home, the driver stopped to let some people on. Big mistake!

The bus driver refused to let them on because they didn't have tickets, and besides they wanted to travel in the other direction. One man however, refused to listen. He said that it was impossible for him to buy tickets as the ticket office was closed and the driver couldn't sell them, so he was getting in the bus anyway. He came in and sat down on the seat in front of us. The bus driver came over and started yelling at him to get off, or he would call the police, but the man stood his ground and shouted back. It was quite scary. The driver rang the bus company, who told him to ring the police, which he did. We had to wait for a while until they arrived. VH and I spoke to him a little; I did understand his point of view, as he did not have a way of getting tickets. When the police arrived, they asked him to leave the bus, but he refused. They said that he could not remain on the bus because he was holding everybody else up, and people had lives to get back to. When they threatened to remove him by force, he eventually got off, swearing at them. I was very impressed with the way the police handled the situation, and also very relieved when he left. I wonder what happened to him, he was still arguing with the police as we drove off. He was incredibly selfish, causing a scene just to try to prove a point, but I also think that this demonstrates how useless public transport is in this country.

Five days in the life of...

Thursday March 5th- Veggie Hubby went to visit a school, and they offered him a job! It was that simple! :-)

Friday March 6th - I had a nice meal out at Nando's with my colleagues at lunch (not the ideal place for a vegetarian, but I still love it, as they make the best veggie burgers). After work I stopped by at J&J's house and we made some delicous vegetarian pizzas, and laughed over old photos (and hairstyles!). Anglophile Veggie Hubby stayed home alone, ate fish and chips, and watched James Bond.

Saturday March 7th - Veggie Hubby and I went to visit my goddaughter and my other second cousins for my goddaughter's first birthday party. We gave them all presents which they seemed to love (I couldn't give a present - fluffy pink bunny - just to my goddaughter, and not the others). We got the boys "boy" toys (Power Rangers) and the cute little sister a girlie toy (a bright pink My Little Pony, which just happened to match her dress). I got home, and watched Lost which is my favourite TV show at the moment by far.

Sunday March 8th - VH and I went out for a meal at an Italian place nearby, to celebrate his job. We were just about the only people in there. The meal wasn't the best, but it was nevertheless enjoyable. It was a relaxing, rainy day before the big day today.

Monday March 9th - VH started his new job! This involves the commute from hell (15 minute walk, 4 train changes, followed by a very long walk) but is ideal apart from that. I'm so proud and pleased for him, for his persistence has paid off.

Friendship

It's the weekend, and I haven't blogged for a while, so I thought I'd let you know I am still here.... We just had a school friend and her husband over to visit for the afternoon. It was really nice to catch up with them, as we hardly see them anymore now we no longer live next door like we did we were growing up. My friend and I were inseparable as children/teenagers, and interchangeable. As we grew up, we grew apart, but still remain in contact. The last time we saw them was at our wedding over a year ago, and the time we both saw them was at her wedding three years ago. Veggie Hubby had never even properly met them - just on these formal occasions. We have decided to meet up again in the summer, to go to the beach!

Two weeks ago we went to visit friends who live up north, and next weekend we're going to visit family (including my goddaughter) to the west. It's always nice to have friends live nearby; it is something we lack here. We do not even know our (elderly) neighbours in our block of flats well, and are in a pocket of isolation as we don't have any friends in our town. I think it's sad as our friends and family live around the country - and in other countries - everyone is dispersed. I think it is important to keep in touch but takes an effort to meet up with busy lives. So my moral for the day is to make the effort to keep in contact with friends and family, because they are what matters in life.

Busy busy busy

I feel like I can barely find time to blog these days. I am trying to blog inbetween.... working, travelling to and back from work through hours of roadworks (the non-event that this takes up most of my life!) reading "The Secret Life of Bees" travelling to visit friends in Liverpool for the weekend, going to a party, going out for a delicious Valentine's meal at Cafe Rouge, preparing to give a presentation tomorrow... oh yes, and sleeping!

Weird

VH and I went to the supermarket yesterday, and bought a towel, some light bulbs, a pack of Valentine's cupcakes and a pie. VH commented that it was quite a weird shop.

Other weird things that have been happening recently...Firstly, it has been snowing lots. The most snow in England for 18 years. (Not as much as in Canada however). Beautiful, but impractical.

Secondly, I went to get my haircut yesterday. I tried out a new place, run by some crazy (gay?) Italians who cut hair in a unique Italian way, using razors instead of scissors. They encouraged me to have a different kind of hair cut, rather than my normal straight one. I had the impression that they were hair artists. It was quite an experience, but I don't think they did a bad job, it's certainly different! VH didn't notice though, which I think is a male thing, as my dad is exactly the same.

Edit: Third (forgot to mention earlier) we have been having some weird food this weekend. We had a mock-duck stirfry last night. Mock-duck is vegan duck with the appearance of a plucked duck! It tasted nice, but the appearance was a bit off-putting. VH had a banana sandwich for lunch today. Tonight, we are trying a vegetarian haggis. I'm curious about it, as I've never had real haggis before, although I'm not convinced it will taste good. Edit: it was vile.

None of this is quite as weird though as the man who smuggled pigeons into Australia under his trousers!

Movies

Veggie Hubby and I went to see Slumdog Millionaire last week, and we both really enjoyed it. I love seeing films that we can both appreciate, and that we quite often have the same tastes in films.

We haven't always been so lucky though. On our first movie date, we went to see X2, which VH dragged me along to see. I'm not sure if he liked it, but I certainly didn't. To make up, we went to see a girly movie a couple of weeks later, A Guy Thing. We both hated it!! Things started looking up and we saw some movies at the cinema that we both enjoyed: Lost in Translation and Brokeback Mountain being some of my favourites. Last year, we saw some better movies of my choice (The Kite Runner, Juno) and his (The Dark Knight, Indiana Jones and Quantum of Solace) - although I admit I didn't like his choices so much! With the Aquatic Life with Steve Zissou which we weren't sure if it was good or bad.

With Veggie Hubby, and perhaps before that, I have discovered that whilst I still enjoy some blockbusters, I prefer to watch smaller independent movies. My taste in movies became more eclectic, I think. Veggie Hubby bought me Mamma Mia! for Christmas (as I had hinted at!) but I saw it on the plane before he gave it to me, and found it too cheesy. We exchanged it for the Chronicles of Narnia boxset.

Have you seen any films recently that you enjoyed? What kind of films do you like?

Winter brownies

Snow is fun, rain is most definately not. Today it rained all day long, tomorrow i have a friend and baby coming over so after a long baking (and blogging) holiday, i made chocolate brownies hmmmmmmm they were soft and gooey inside, perfect on a horrible wet day, enjoy...

xxx

First post of 2009

Happy new year! I haven't blogged yet in 2009, but I haven't had much to blog about really. After a lovely (but chilly!) trip to Quebec, I returned home last weekend. I pretty much slept all day and stayed awake all night last Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and thought being at work this week would be really difficult. However, it only took a couple of days to recover from the jet lag, and I felt fine again by Tuesday. I had a pretty uneventful week... and uneventful weekend this weekend, apart from a visit to Pizza Express with Veggie Hubby tonight. Life is fine ... but dull. The most exciting thing is that Veggie Hubby has got a new job working on Saturday morning teaching French to 5 year olds, which he began yesterday!

This month, I am looking forward to...

1) Obama's inauguration, which I think will start a new era of hope for the USA and world. I'm fairly excited about it
2) Lost season 5 starting
3) The Oscar nominations. I am hoping Penelope Cruz wins for her role in Vicky Barcelona Cristina, which played on my flight home from Canada.
(Okay, I think I am sounding American now).
4) Seeing friends
5) Finding out who will represent the UK in Eurovision this year, and what song Andrew Lloyd Webber will compose for them.

I am not looking forward to...

1) Having to wake up at 6am tomorrow to travel all the way to Leicester and back in a day.
2) Spending Saturday mornings alone while Veggie Hubby works.