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!