Crabby Mo - TGIF

SO I left work 2 hours early yesterday and made it to the queue (British for line) by 5pm. Murray arrived about an hour later, and we waited and waited. I had got us a booking for free tickets to the taping of a great show here called Friday Night Project. The taping was at the ITV studios, and since we have been turned away before (they ALWAYS overbook to make sure they can fill the studio, and once it's full it's full) I knew it was important to get there early. (we have also seen a few tapings there - Charlotte Church was a highlight!). However I underestimated how popular this show is. When I got there there was already TONS of people in line! But I was hopeful (as eventually there was TONS of people behind us too). So we waited, and waited, and waited - and 2 1/2 hours later we were at the front of the line. Then the guy came out and said the studio was full. I admit it - there were a few tears. Partly because I really wanted to see the show, partly because I had been standing in the cold in sandals for nearly 3 hours for NOTHING. :(

Oh well - what can you do? So we got on the train and went back to Putney for some lovely pizza at our old favourite Il Mascalzone. Our favourite waiter was there and shook Murray's hand as we entered. The service was fabulous as always, the food was great, and Murray brought my ring back from the work safe all pretty & sparkly. So, not a complete wasted evening:)

Ahhhh one GREAT thing about this weekend too - I am sending my passport off to the Australian embassy tomorrow to get my residency visa put it in YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't WAIT for this process to finally be complete:)

Almost Friday!

Ok, we're not going to get photos sorted until next week! I just didn't realise how many picture Murray had taken (silly me)! They are all on his little external hard drive - so we need to sit down and upload them all, sort through them, and THEN I can post them - will post by next Monday at the latest I promise!

SO, in lieu of picture - a Russia story for you.

One of the sites to see in Moscow is Lenin's Mausoleum in Red Square. Is it just me? Until I read through our guide book I had NO idea that Lenin's embalmed body was on display (and has been there since 1924!!!!)- ewwwwwwww! So our first day in Moscow we went to red Square to check out St. Basil's Cathedral and do the tour! By the time we headed back to go to Lenin's Mausoleum we realized it was closed for the day - oops! Apparently it's only open til 1pm! So the next day we headed straight to Red Square again - and at about 12:30 we walked down to get in line. BUT oh dear - the line was already closed! They had guards who sectioned off the line and when we when up and said 'Lenin' he barked back 'No - Closed' and shooed us away. OH DEAR! Then thankfully, a man came up to us and said 'My friends, you have come to late to get in! But you can still get in if you hire me as your guide.' Turned out he would do it for cheap - so we agreed. Then he looked at the cranky guards, then back at us and said 'we must run up to the other entrance NOW.' Ok - so we ran BACK through to the other entrance and it was all good - the guards let us through - whew that was close! He checked our bag for us (after shouting at me 'hey lady don't you want to go in - hurry up!) but hey there was NO way I was checking our bag with our passports in it!!! You have to check your bags cause NO cameras are allowed inside, not even camera phones. SO I quickly got our passports out and then we proceeded through the checkpoint and metal detectors.

We finally got in and then slowly walked around the glass case containing Lenin's body. Ummm ewwww - it was gross and made me feel kinda sick to my stomach. I can't believe they actually have him on display - our guidebook says it was done against his wishes as well - nice. But we saw him - briefly (looked like a wax model if you ask me) and I hope I never see something like that again - bleh.

But otherwise - Moscow was AMAZING! Wow there are so many great sites to see - gorgeous Cathedrals, really nice shopping centres, and SO much history! St. Petersburg was lovely, but felt a lot more 'European.' Looking forward to posting the photos!!!! :)

Things I learned from this trip:

1. Eyewitness guide books rock! I already knew that, but WOW we would have been lost without it! They have GREAT pictures & maps to help you get around, but also really helpful advice like how much cabs should cost, etc etc.

2. We just can NOT walk 10 hours a day when we go to South America! Oh my gosh I am STILL knackered! We'll have to pace our selves a LOT more on our big trip (since we'll be gone for so long)! Granted we'll probably never go back to Russia and we had SUCH limited time, so had to fit a lot in - but South/Central America SHOULD be more leisurely - or at least not at the crazy pace of last weekend!

3. Even if you have a comfy bed and sleeping pills, it's hard to sleep on a moving train!

Wednesday - YAY

No pictures yet, will try and get them organised tonight if I don't pass out by 9pm.
SO tired!!!

Last night on the bus ride home the pages started going all swirly and I could barely read them, VERY overtired! So I got home, did TONS of laundry, and went to bed - lovely.

I can't quite believe that we only have 35 days to go in London. I'm excited to see my family and then Murray's family & our friends. And I'm excited to go travelling! But I'm kinda sad to be leaving London, a city I love and our friends and family here. It's tough! We leave exactly 5 weeks from today - and gosh I feel like we still have SO much to do - SO many people to see before we hop on a plane to Minnesota and leave London behind. Wow - I just can't quite get my head around it yet - wow.

Ahhh back to the land of sensible shoes!

We're Back!

Whew - my heels, ankles, knees, calves, thighs etc etc are KILLING me today!
(oh and in regards to the post title - Russian women love their heels - WOW. We saw TONS of women out seeing the tourist sites - in HUGE heels - my feet were killing me in my Pumas! It was shocking! Mini skirt and huge heels are not my idea of holiday clothing:)

We walked and walked and walked - but WOW what a great weekend:)

The flights were long - or felt like it at least. We flew to Frankfurt (1 1/2 hours) and then BARELY made our next flight to Moscow because of delays out of London. Wow that was CLOSE (we RAN and only JUST made it!!!) - then flew the final 2 1/2 hours on to Moscow.

OH MY GOSH the queue (line) at Moscow airport for customs - wow - just wow. I have never seen such insane chaos in my LIFE! (it was even worse than the crowd of people and no signs in Zimbabwe)! There were no lines really - but sort of 'group lines.' However the locals thought nothing of just walking past all of us who had been standing there for AGES and going straight to the front!

When finally got almost to the front a Russian lady from the line over decided to join our line and stuck her shoulder in front me of me. Ummmm NO! I put my shoulder in front of her, and then wedged myself in behind the American couple in front of us so she couldn't push in front - CHEEKY! When we finally got to the front and we were up next, a lady from the next line RAN up to customs control before we could step forward!!! So once she was done I ran for the counter with Murray before someone ELSE could cut in front. Wow. So that was our introduction to the push to the front of wait in line for hours Russian way or queueing.

We got a cab into the city and our cab driver FINALLY found the hotel (drama!) and then tried to cheat us out of our change. Thankfully Murray sat it out til the guy ' oh - found some change.' The hotel was quite nice - but it was straight to bed for us - even though we had gone ahead 3 hours in time zones, we were still exhausted! Seeing St. Basil's lit up on our drive to the hotel though was SOOOOOOOOOO cool!

I'll go through all the details & stories later this week once we get photos uploaded. But in summary - it was great! Probably the most challenging trip we have ever taken (the Cyrillic alphabet is SO confusing!!) but it was such an amazing experience:)

Zdravstvuite

Apparently that means HELLO in Russian (pronounced: Strav_stveetia).

Now I just need to try & remember that!

We're packed & ready to go! We managed to fit everything into 2 backpacks so we don't have to check bags (YAY)!

Passports - check
Flight paper tickets (WHY all tickets aren't electronic now I do now know!) - check
Hotel confirmation - check
Train tickets - check
Ring in safe - check (just in case! don't wanna attract any extra attention - but OUCH it hurt to take it off - feels WEIRD not to have it on)!

AND we're off to Moscow this afternoon!!!!

We arrive at 10:30pm tonight (we have to go via Frankfurt & there is a 3 hour time difference).
Then we have all day Saturday & Sunday in Moscow to explore! Sunday night at midnight we are catching an overnight train to St. Petersburg which arrives at 8:30am Monday morning. I'm SUPER excited about the train! Neither of us has done an overnight train journey before - and we splurged and got a private cabin for just the two of us - ekkk I'm EXCITED!

SO we'll be back in London Monday night! This is our belated second anniversary trip - since we didn't go anywhere in May. GOSH I'm excited!!!!!

Oh and today is my 400th blog post - WOW - kinda cool :)

Oh - and a great quote I came across yesterday about travel...........

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.
Mark Twain

Almost FRIDAY!

WOW I am cold today! My hands are like icicles!

Last night we went and saw the Bourne Ultimatum with Lorraine. It was nice to see her and a very good action packed movie!

Nothing else new really - just have to pack tonight for Russia!!! WHOO HOOO

I'm excited as this is our belated second anniversary trip! And I'm excited to see Moscow and St. Petersburg, and I'm excited that we are going to go on an overnight train trip in our own little cabin! !!!

COLD

Burrrrrrrr I am COLD today! Back to long sleeve shirts and close toed shoes! Oh well
I hear it's nice in Moscow! I hope that weather holds out!

Last night I suddenly remembered that our plane tickets for Friday are paper tickets and ummmm where are they? So we did a frantic search of the flat (praying they didn't get thrown away in the move) and whew we found them!

My trip to the dentist went well. The hygienist wasn't as mean as last time - she even said 'I can see improvement.' Must be my new electric toothbrush:) At one point she did poke a very sensitive spot a number of times and eventually I had to put my hand up and say 'ouch that really hurts.' Then she was a bit more careful! When I went to leave she said 'ok see you in 6 months' and WOW was I happy to say 'oh no I'm leaving the country, so won't be back here ever.' She then replied 'well for your condition you should go every 6 months, so find a hygienist in your new country.' My condition? Huh? Whatever.

Thank GOODNESS I had no cavities. I had my fingers crossed the entire time while the dentist poked around. He's from Sydney and moving back next year - so he said 'maybe I'll see you around.' Ha! That would be weird! One more thing checked off the to do list though - so that felt good! Now - we just need to pack for Russia!

A lovely Autumn morning

Ahhhhh darn you blogger! I just wrote a long post and it deleted it!!! So now I have to start over again:(

Ok – SO

It’s cold here – feels like autumn (makes me happy at least to see the forecast for Moscow – HOT!!! Whooo hoooo). I really can't believe this is AUGUST! :(

Now, back to the weekend review!

Firstly, a cute story from the baby shower on Saturday. We knew that one of the pregnant ladies (Jackie) would be going home on public transport. So we packed up all of her gifts and a box full of cake and cookies for her and put it into the granny cart I had brought along! I hauled my stuff to Libby’s house in it cause I had more than I could carry! However since I’m leaving soon I won’t need it anymore, so thought it could at least help Jackie get her stash of pressies home. We packed it up and tied the basket the gifts were in to the top (wouldn’t fit inside) and then tied her ‘congrats it’s a boy’ balloon to the handle! I got this cart last year - I remember it was Halloween cause I bought a bunch of pumpkins then realised it was more than I could carry!!! So I FINALLY broke down and got myself a granny cart (a little cart with wheels so you can pull around your shopping). Anyhow, Jackie was thrilled that I was giving her the cart – apparently she has wanted one for awhile!!! And I guess even her husband came around to it once he saw how well it handles corners – ha ha:)

A picture of the granny cart with the basket attached on top!

SO, back to the weekend.

Saturday I got home from the shower at about 7pm and then rushed to get ready to go into central London with Murray. We were going out to have leaving drinks with our friends Jenny and Stuart. They are moving back to California (where Jenny is from) soon! Their other photography friend Dan was there as well with his lovely girlfriend. We had a nice night chatting and dancing and ended up getting the night bus home at 1am!

Jenny, Murray & Dan

Sunday we had a nice sleep in (YAY) and then went into central London again to meet up with our friends Jeanne and Brad for lunch! We went to a new Mexican restaurant in Covent Garden called Wahaca. Nice food, good prices, and unique atmosphere (and a very friendly waiter!) I quite liked it!

After lunch we all wandered down to check out the Cabinet War Rooms & Churchill Museum. WOW it was excellent!!! It was interested to actually see the rooms where Churchill and his advisors lived and worked in during WW2. But also, the Churchill museum was fantastic!!! It was really unique – touch screen displays, sensors that started films when you stepped on them, LOADS of memorabilia, etc. My only criticism would be that it would have been less confusing if they had laid out a path for you to follow since there is so much to see! We were in the museum for about an hour and a half and only saw about half of it – bummer! But was definitely worth the trip (fun to be a tourist in your own city sometimes)!!

WOW what a GREAT weekend :)

The weekend went by SO quickly - I can't believe it's actually Monday already! It was SO SO fun though - so many great memories:)

Friday night I went to see Prince at the new O2 stadium in the docklands (it's in the building which used to be the 'millennium dome.')

We went for dinner before hand at Chilis (and American restaurant) at Canary Wharf. The food was just ok - but it was still fun to go there. The Andrea, Teresa, Jackie & I headed over to the stadium. We had PERFECT timing - got there just as the main show was about to start. I was quite pleased with our seats as well - we had a great view! The show was fabulous - as expected - he sure is a showman! I got one cute video on my mobile - will try to get that uploaded to youtube later this week! One highlight was when he brought a bunch of girls to the stage to dance and one started singing - the we realised it was actually Julia Styles singing! So that was cool:) Overall - a great concert - really enjoyed it!

Saturday I got up EARLY (6 am!!!) (and hey - that IS early when you go to bed at 1am after rushing home from a concert)! I got up early in order to work on my crafty project - corsages! Saturday was the day of the baby shower a group of us decided to throw for some American friends who live in London. Ok yes - I admit it - we all met through the internet. But we also have become good friends in real life, and I was thrilled to be able to be part of throwing this party for two of them to celebrate their pregnancies! SO anyway, corsages. I took floriculture classes back in high school, so thought I could probably still remember how to do them! I went to the florist near us the week before and got ribbon, so I could make the bows ahead of time. Then the morning of the party I assembled the greens, flowers, and fillers flowers along with my fancy bows to make corsages! They (in my opinion) turned out SO nice - I CANNOT believe I forgot to take a photo of them *sigh* oh well. So keep an eye out in the photos below. The ones for the two pregnant ladies whom the shower was for were large creamy pink roses, with cream bows that had baby charms in them. I also made corsages for Andrea's Mom and Mother-in-law which were pink roses with pink roses. Then there were two more corsages for two other friends who attended who recently told us about their pregnancies (Teresa & Abby) - their corsages were a lovely white flower with a purple accent flower. SO pics of JUST the corsages - but you can see them in some of the photos below!

The party was a BLAST! It was fun to be able to celebrate with everyone :)

(click on the photo to see a larger version)

The lovely Libby hosted the shower at her flat:)

The cake (yummy red velvet cake that we ordered from a nice London bakery!), the punch (bowl and yummy punch courtesy of Teresa) and the gorgeous pram cookies (hand made by Jeanne)!

the sign for Andrea

the cake - up close!
sign for Jackie

The cookies - how CUTE are they? They tasted lovely too!


The pregnant ladies - Jackie & Andrea (please note the corsages as well:)

The group! (from left)
Back row: Jessica, Andrea, Caitlin, Liane, Lauren, Joanna, Christina
Middle Row: Jackie, Me, Lane, Abby, Teresa
Front Row: Jeanne, Libby


Andrea's Mom flew over from the states to surprise her - we were ALL in tears when they saw each other:)

SO nice that she could make it:)
The pregnant ladies getting ready to chop up the yummy cake!

Present time!
The baskets full of presents for Jackie & Andrea
Lots of pressies!
Christina, Teresa, Jessica
Abby, Lane, Lauren
Me & Heather

One of the things we decided to do was decorate plain onesies for each of the girls - each one had a theme and we provided puffy paint

The above pic is of one of the 'international themed' onesie (or as they call them here - babygro)
Libby working on her onesie decoration

One of the 'best wishes' onesies

Teresa, Jackie, Heather & Jessica

Liane, Lauren, Caitlin & Joanna
(from left) Andrea's Mom, Mother-in-law, Sister-in-law & Andrea

The layout for lunch!

More yummy food! (thanks again to everyone who brought stuff)!
Our cute themed plates & napkins!

Libby, Jeanne and me! (busy busy in the kitchen)!
Me, Andrea & Heather
Jeanne's gorgeous crafty project - she made cookies with cute little labels for everyone!

One of the labels

Everyone got one as they left- as a Thank You for coming to the party!

I will post about what we did yesterday in tomorrow's post since this one is already SO long!

And a BIG thank you to Jeanne for the photos (my battery died so nearly all of these are from her)!

Tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999 !!!

or - maybe 2007.

Going to see PRINCE tonight!!!!!!!!!!! WHOOO HOOOO I can't wait!

I'm going with three pregnant ladies, so I don't think there will be much 'partying like 1999' ha ha, but I can't wait!

I hear the show is fabulous (he's doing 21 nights at the stadium, so I know some people who have already been)! I imagine it will be better than the last time I saw him in Wisconsin, years ago, with my sister-in-law Helen. He made us wait SO long that we got cold and damp (we were sitting on grass) and it was a bit miserable really!

I am also quite excited that tonight we are meeting at the only Chili's restaurant in London!!! I have been there twice before - ahhhh American comfort food - gotta love it:)

This is going to be a GREAT weekend (now if it just doesn't rain)! The forecast is calling for light showers but I really really really hope they are wrong (or it just rains in the morning then clears up)!

Tomorrow I'm helping out with a baby shower for two American friends who live in London. I can't talk about any of the details yet (cause most of it's a surprise for the ladies too)! But I'll take lots of pictures and post them on Monday!

Cross your fingers for me that my crafty project for the shower turns out well - gosh I hope so!

This day is going quickly!

Wow it's already lunch time - nice!

Last night we got back to our weekly Wednesday routine - gym, Nandos and then a half price movie (Wednesday is 2 ticket for the price of 1 night).

The gym was good - did some cardio which felt great. Nandos (Portuguese chicken place) was lovely as usual, and we saw Rush Hour 3 which was quite funny.

I was just a bit surprised and shocked by the people sitting next to us. They brought their 2 or 3 ? year old son with them to the movie. He was obviously too young for an adult movie (had his hands over his ears in the beginning because it was too loud). ALSO there is a lot of graphic material, violence and adult content in the movie. I turned with my mouth hanging open in shock when their child started clapping and cheering for the characters in the movie as they shot and stabbed people. Is it just me? I don't think a child that young should be exposed to that kind of violence - disgusting.

But anyhow, it was a lovely night:) I also finished reading The Constant Princess - it was quite an interesting story to read after reading The Other Boleyn. It is the story of Queen Katherine - who was married to Henry the 8th (who eventually left her for a Boleyn girl). VERY interesting! I'm on to a lighter book now (I need a little break from historical fiction). I'm reading 'Water for Elephants' - very good so far!

Friday?

Oh no, only Wednesday.

It's been a good week so far though.

I'm slowly getting used to this new office.

Good things:
*We have hot water for tea! (I have been in England long enough now that I NEED my morning tea!)
*It's kinda nice to have access to a locker room (where I change into my safety gear every morning) - nice to be able to freshen up after work! (Also I'm happy for the locker room cause there is NO way I would consider wearing my huge boots and yellow vest on the tube!!!)
*It's a much quieter office now that it's only our company in here (expect for when they are running tests - then it's so loud I can't even hear myself think!)
*As of today we do actually have hand soap in the bathroom (the lady I sit by brought some in and I took it down there). We are HOPING it won't get stolen since the lady's loo has a key code lock on it (that only the women on site have) so not many people use it!

Bad things:
*My hard hat ruins my hair!
*The bathrooms are SO far away - and I hate having to put on a hard hat, steel toed boots and yellow vest every time I need to go!
*There's no sink to wash my coffee cup in
*They keep changing the routes we can walk through - thus I keep having to find new ways to our little basement office!

But - I will live! It's not all that bad - and I do only have 31 working days to go!!!!

I didn't go to the gym last night - but had a good excuse. Firstly, my body was SO sore (I think my body was in shock after not exercising for so long) and secondly - I had to figure out where we were going to go in Wales. We have decided to do a weekend in Wales in September - just because. Because it's not actually that far from London (a couple hours drive) and I only went once when I was 16 (and can't really remember that at all?) and Murray has never been. So while Murray cooked us a VERY yummy dinner I got out the guidebooks I borrowed from the library last weekend and worked on deciding where to go. And - success! We have decided on an area and we booked a SUPER cute B&B to stay in (it even has a view of a castle - how cool is THAT)!

oh AND
HAPPY HAPPY Birthday to my sister Megan who turns 22 today :)

CONGRATS STEVE & SELINA!

Just sending out a big CONGRATULATIONS to our good friends Steve and Selina in Australia.

Their second baby Clara was born today ! She weighs 9 pounds 3 ounces !

Can't wait to meet her in October!!!!!

:)

Abbey Road - our recreation - 2007

FINALLY - the photo! Here is (from left) Lance, Stuart, Steve and Murray - recreating the Abbey Road album cover photo (I'm the photographer)!

It was SUCH fun to do - Shelly was the spotter - telling me when I had to get out of the middle of the road because cars were coming. Don't you think it turned out well? Check out the original pic here.

I didn't get up to too much last night. FINALLY made it back to the gym! I did a body pump class which was exhausting - but fun! Gosh I could feel how weak I have become by slacking for a few weeks! But I'm back on the band wagon now - going again tonight!

We also watched the newest episode of Courtney Cox's new show 'DIRT' last night. We REALLY like her in that role - so convincing that you actually forget that she is Monica!

It's a bit of a miserable day today - rain rain rain. However, that's fine with me - I hope it rains like crazy all week and is SUNNY and gorgeous on the weekend!!

Monday, Noisy Monday

We had a VERY relaxing weekend which was nice:) Murray was still feeling a bit weak, so we decided to just take it easy. We spent most of Saturday at Wandsworth park just relaxing in the sun with our lovely picnic. It felt GREAT to get some sun - gosh I have missed that bit yellow ball! I got a bit over excited though, and only put sunblock on my face and shoulders - oops! Burnt my back, my legs and my forearms. Oh well - won't do that again! I just forgot !!


Sunday afternoon we went over to our ex-flat mate's house (Debs). She made us a LOVELY lunch and we chatted for hours.

This little rascal kept hopping up on the table trying to steal food - he was fearless!

Murray also tried out Debs' fancy food massager machine - left your feet all tingly after the 15 minute cycle - SO SO nice!

And now - it's Monday - again!

We have moved offices, I'm looking forward to finding out where the bathrooms are though - ekkk! No more tea for me this morning until I do!

It's dusty and noisy down here :( But oh well - only 35 working days to go! I work on a construction site - but for the last 3 years us 'office people' have been in temporary buildings next to the site. For all those years I only had to put on my safety gear when I went onto the building site itself. But now I'm IN the building - in a temporary office in the basement! So this morning I had to go to the ladies locker room and change into my hard hat, steel toed boots, yellow vest, gloves and glasses. Fun fun fun. It's not as bad as I thought it would be though. I found the room ok this morning (it's a bit of a maze to get down here!) and they had the network up by 8:30, so not too bad:) I don't think I'll bother doing my hair tomorrow though - the hard hat kinda ruined it! I'm just glad I can take my hard hat & stuff off when I get to my desk - just need to remember to bring desk slipper tomorrow!

Oh and BIG happy birthday wishes today to my Grandma Sally who turns 87 today!!! :)

Friday, Glorious FRIDAY!

Ok so I am in a GREAT GREAT GREAT mood.................

because...........

Murray found my sunnies!!!!!!!! He was up in Richard's room yesterday chatting, and noticed my sunnies, ON THE FLOOR! Apparently I left them on the kitchen table, and Richard thought they were his (huh?) and took them up to his room! Well whatever - I'm SO SO SO happy to have them back:) Whooo hooo

Last night we were asked for input on the project our flatmate is working on. She works on documentaries for the BBC as an assistant producer, but decided she also wanted to do a project on her own. It's about mental illness. Apparently 90% of people who are diagnosed with mental illness are taken care of by the local government mental health services, but what happens to the other 10%? That's the question of this doco. It's based around a Putney regular she calls 'The Walking Man.' He walks around through Putney & the south west every single day - I have seen him quite a few times. He speaks to no one and won't make eye contact and just walks and walks. He seems quite lonely, the whole situation is quite sad really. She interviews people who see him every day, other mentally ill people in the community (such as the woman who pretends she is blind because she is lonely - even though she compliments people on what they are wearing!!) and she interviews mental health professionals asking why these people aren't receiving the help they need. It was just a 10 minute 'taster' that she has prepared to try and get funding to do a full hour show, or even a series. But we both thought it was really well done, interesting, and definitely something I would watch on tv. Lots of characters I recognised from the area too - almost all of them are harmless - but they definitely do need more help than they are receiving.

The lady who got in my face in Hammersmith last week was even in the show! Last week I saw her turning in circles outside the station yelling 'help me, help me, someone just help me.' I saw lots of people stop and try to help - but she won't take any money or food and just keeps yelling the same thing. She's obviously NOT hurt, just has some mental issues. I walked by her and sort of smiled like - can I do something to help. She came up to me and yelled - in my face - 'don't smile at me, HELP me.' I quickly moved on into Starbucks as she was making me nervous. I know NOW she's harmless, but you can never really be sure you know? Anyhow, we gave our input and they edited some stuff a bit differently, then we watched it again. I think it's a very well done documentary, fingers crossed she gets the funding she needs to get it on television!

Looking forward to another warm weekend. The forecast is 24c (78f) tomorrow and SUNNY! I'm SO glad to hear that, because after last weekends gorgeous weather the weather people were saying that was it - that we'd just have rain for the rest of the summer now. Guess they were wrong! Imagine that? Ha ha

YAY for Friday - YAY for the weekend

Only bad thing today? I am presently packing up my desk. We're moving to a new office on Monday which does NOT sound nice:( I don't wanna move.................... oh well - it's only for 7 more weeks!

Oh and - Murray is doing better. His throat is still REALLY sore, and he can't really leave the house, but he seems to be improving day by day. I hope he feels good on Monday when he has to go back to the office! Last night we were sharing some praline ice cream (I was eating the pralines and he has the ice cream). He gave me the spoon heaped with praelines, then after I ate it he said 'Oh, that was the praline I spit out yesterday cause I couldn't eat it.' NICE! Ha ha - oh well, it was still nice:)

No blog

Sorry - just to quickly say - no blog today

I'm busy busy at work and have to leave a little early to go see the 'travel nurse' at the gp's office to discuss what needs to be done before we leave.

Just thought I would 'check in' as I know there are a few people who worry when I don't do my daily post :)

Only Wednesday

WHY does this week feel so LONG?

I have nothing much to say - other than what I have been reading.

I have started reading Philippa Gregory books again. I read 'The Other Boleyn Girl' ages ago and LOVED it! I have been meaning to start on another one of her other books for awhile, after a friend recommended them. So earlier this week I finished 'The Virgin's Lover' and today I started on 'The Constant Princess.' I really lover her writing, and although it's historical fiction, I love reading what it was like in the days of Kings and Queens in Europe - fascinating!

I just reserved 'The Queen's Fool' and 'The Boleyn Inheritance' from the library as well - good thing I have a long commute!

Oh and today is 8/8 - that's kinda cool. Or not, I guess. Will be even cooler next year - 8/8/08!

Anyhow, back to work!

Toooooooooooosay

Tired Tired

7 Weeks and 3 1/2 days left of work

And I lost my sun glasses :( :(

I'm SURE I had them on my commute home on Friday. Couldn't find them Saturday morning - they must have fallen off of my head on the walk home or something? Shoot.
I'm still hoping they will turn up - and just are misplaced somewhere. I know it's unlikely since we have searched the flat top to bottom, and they weren't on my desk when I came back on Monday. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed:(

So today I brought the cute tortoise shell pattern sunnies I got in Australia, but they are too tight on my big head and hurt after awhile. *sigh* Is it Friday yet?

Oh one cute story though.

Coming home on the tube from Kensington on Sunday there was a nice Australian family sitting near me. Mom, Dad, Grandma & Grandpa & a little girl who was about 9/10 months old?? She was getting upset because she was hot (the tube was BOILING! felt like a sauna). When the train stopped & there was no air flow it was HOT! They stripped her down to her diaper (sorry I still cannot say the word nappy - still sounds odd to me) but she was still miserable. She started being a bit noisy & turning quite red so her Dad took her up to one of the little windows at the end of the carriage and stuck his head out along with her to try & get some air (while the train was stopped). He turned to me and apologised for her being noisy - saying she was also very jet lagged. Then I remembered - I had a fan in my bag - that free one I got from lastminute.com last week! So I got it out and gave it to the Dad. He sat down and started fanning her & it helps SO much - she calmed and cooled down a bit, then became much more interested in trying to grab the fan. Just the other day I was thinking 'why am I carrying this around - I'm never going to use it.' Kinda nice that it got put to good use:)

Monday Monday

It was a nice weekend - went much too quickly as usual though.

Caught up with some friends on Saturday at a lovely park in Wimbledon for their 'leaving picnic.' What a gorgeous day - shame Murray was stuck at home:( His throat is still quite sore, and he's not supposed to go out in crowds due to risk of infection:(

It's a bummer with the timing - because yesterday was the nicest day of the year so far! It got up to 30 Celsius (78 Fahrenheit)! Just gorgeous!

Yesterday I caught up with some friends in the morning, then another friend in the afternoon. Sue (who I used to work with) and I went in the afternoon do the Kensington Palace tour. It's something I have been meaning to do for AGES so it was nice to finally go! I must say though - I was a bit disappointed. They advertise the tour as 'all about Diana' and a display of her dresses - so I was expecting to see rooms full of her gowns. They had 6! The rest of the Diana display was videos and photos - nice - but nothing I haven't seen on tv 100 times. The rest of the tour was interesting, but not what I was expecting. They had clothing on display from the 18 and early 1900's and a good little commentary 'phone' that you carried around to hear about all the displays. But really - £10 for that? What a rip off. Oh well - I'm still glad I went - and the views of the park from the windows in the palace - WOW!

Afterwards we had some fancy & very lovely tea & cake and then did a bit oh shopping - well, looking:)

Last night (after the new episode of Smallville) we watched Imagining Argentina starring Antonio Banderas and Emma Thompson. Quite a good movie - interesting story!

Looking forward to a busy week!

TGIF!!!!!!!!!!!

Whew I'm SO glad it's Friday!

I had to leave work a little bit early yesterday to go and meet with my accountant. That was fun - as expected - not. Of course I laid out my spreadsheets and said 'this is what I was told on the phone by someone else in your department, is this correct.' No, no and no - add this tax, that tax, oh and this fee and that fee - oh ok that's correct now. *sigh*
Oh well, at least it's all sorted now!

I hurried home after the meeting last night to spend a relaxing evening with Murray. We watched the movie 'Little Children' (wow, great movie, Kate Winslet is SUCH an amazing actress) and had a very early night. Tonight - same plan.

The weather has FINALLY improved - about darn time since it is officially August now! It has been in mid 20's Celsius (low 80's Fahrenheit) which is just perfect, for the past few days. And that's the forecast for the weekend as well!

AND.......

TWO MONTHS TWO MONTHS TWO MONTHS (sorry - had to *yell* a bit cause I'm excited)

Today is officially 2 months until we leave (we fly out 3 October) - ekkkk that means we only have 9 weekends left in London.... and this weekend and next are shot since Murray can't be in crowded places - so 7 weekends to do ALL of the London things we still wanna do... AHHH the pressure!

Oh and...... more bridge updates. Sounds like everyone we know is ok - thank goodness. We have friends who live near the bridge, and family and friends who travel over it EVERY day. So I really thank God that they are all ok, and I pray for those poor families who lost people in this tragedy.

Almost Friday

Last night I caught up for a drink with two ladies (Aileen & Suze) who I worked with at my FIRST job in London - nearly 6 years ago - WOW! It was nice to see them & chat & hear what they have been up to.

I also spoke to family and friends yesterday, and have come to a conclusion about why I was so upset at the hospital. Now don't get me wrong, it was a great hospital. Private hospital, private nice room with private en suite bathroom and new flat screen tv with cable! The nurses were lovely, the doctor and anesthesiologist were great. The thing is - I expected - updates - to know what was going on! ? !

Ok I know now that you can't go into the recovery room, but I though they could at least let me KNOW when he was in there and out of the operating theatre. Especially since they were saying it could be anywhere from half an hour to a couple of hours. When I asked they didn't brush me off, but pretty much just told me no - that it wasn't possible. The nurse said 'it will only be about half an hour.' Ummm that's not the point - I just wanted to be kept informed you know? I thought maybe I was being ridiculous or something since they all seemed to look at me like 'huh? what are you talking about?' But now, after talking to my Mom and my aunt I know that that IS acceptable. That when my cousin had surgery the doctor came out right afterwards to let the family know how it went. They knew when he was out & when he was in recovery, etc etc.

OH well. I am putting it down to a cultural difference. I'm thinking maybe because the British are more reserved, that having an American asking so many questions was out of the ordinary for them. But you know what - overall it was still a positive experience.

The only REAL complaint that I can make is that they were OH SO slow with the jelly (which I call jell-o). When he first got out he just sipped on water (and even that was very painful). Then he felt like maybe something cold would be soothing. So they brought him some lemon sorbet. We knew that he shouldn't be having anything acidic, but he decided to try a little bit. Bad bad bad idea. Called the nurse in and asked if she could bring jelly instead, that the lemon was too painful. She said sure - left - and never came back! About 2 hours later the night nurse came in to introduce herself & we asked about the jelly - again. She finally did find some for him and came back about half an hour later (does it really take that long to find jelly???). It was the perfect snack for a sore throat though - finally!

And now.......... some hospital pictures

The hand - ouch

Ahhhh dry toast :( In the old days it used to be ice cream for the patient! Now they recommend you have toast to help get rid of some of the gunk on the wound... fun fun.

HOWEVER, I am happy to report that the patient is doing amazingly well! He is up and about and feeling pretty darn good! He's back to eating fairly normally (but just no acidic or dry rough food), and hasn't really spent any time in bed other than the first day back home, for a little rest. He's back to work from home today (can't really leave the house due to risk of infection) but he's feeling good! I'm so happy that he has come around so quickly:)

I have been reading up on the net today about the bridge collapse in Minneapolis. I haven't heard from my family yet, so I am assuming that no news is good news. I will give them a call this morning, but since none of them work downtown anymore, it's unlikely that anyone would have been travelling that way. Gosh I hope so - will call them soon just to check. MN friends who read this blog - please leave me a comment as well so I know you & your family are ok - THANKS!

UPDATE:
I spoke to my Mom and everyone is ok. My Dad had crossed that bridge on his way to the airport, and my aunt (thankfully) left work early so they both missed the collapse. Thank God for that.

Ok Morning

Well, I got sent home by my boss yesterday.

Two hours travelling in to the office (*sigh*) and then I was here about an hour when I just broke down. I had a big splotch of white gum all over the back of my black trousers (who DOES that - leave gum on a bus seat - geez)! So I had MANY people telling me about it, tried to get it out with a suggested use of hair spray - that didn't work. I handed back the hairspray to a lady at work then just broke down. Just over tired, stressed about Murray being home alone when I should have been there taking care of him, etc etc. The boss took one look at me crying and said 'I'm sending you home right now, that's an order.' So I travelled another 2 hours home, and I was glad to do so. (gosh I am SICK of this commute)!

I stopped on the way home and signed up for a Blockbuster account (as we have just shipped ALL of our dvds - great timing ha?). I got him a stack of dvds, and stopped and picked up some additional food he had requested on the way home.

He's doing ok! We spent the evening relaxing in front of the tv, and eating soft non-acidic food, and went VERY early to bed (we both needed it)! Oh and the movie School for Scoundrels - actually VERY funny! The pain killers seem to be doing the trick and he seems to be handling the pain really well. He's very drowsy from the medicine though, and of course his throat does still hurt quite a lot. And can I just say - cola flavoured iced lollies? Ewwww - he loves them though!

So - back to work now! Fun fun - not. Wish I could take the week off to take care of him, but some one's gotta bring home the bacon - ha ha:) I'm sure he'll be ok at home on his own, and I'll take orders today for anything else he wants me to pick up on the way home. Amazing how much better you feel after a good night's sleep and a starbucks Chai latte though!