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.