Warm summer BBQ

Well this summer is turning out to be a bit of a barbecue summer. Hose pipe bans in Cumbria - all manner of craziness. Anyway, most of us are sure it will change sooner or later and are making the most of this sunny spell. This weekend the McNabbs, Grahams, Martins and Stocks got together at Kate and Carl's new house near Reading where we ate and drank and talked. A really lovely day. We had originally been toying with the idea of of meeting in Stratford and taking in a play, but the only day that was mutually suitable had a rubbish production on so Kate and Carl were volunteered. They do live conveniently in the middle and have a large garden and plenty of parking. It was very kind and we are all grateful.

Most of us stayed the night which was very cosy but fine. Nic had even bought her horse down for a show on the Sunday. He stayed in livery however so we didn't get to see him. Unfortunately, our hosts had to sleep in a tent which we didn't get round to erecting until we were all a little tipsy. Basically Helen was the foreman, she had one or two useful helpers and the rest of watched, making helpful suggestions. I don't think any of us have got Ray Mears worried that we could take over his job. I am not a keen camper and know nothing about erecting tents, Erin said that she usually makes a rubbish attempt at work like this till a man does it for her. Trev and Brian were blowing up air beds but that seemed to involve watching the electric pump work, whilst having a glass of wine. Kate, Alice and Nic were quite helpful I think, or at least looked like they were. Carl and Kate were having a bit of a marital which you can hear below! Good times! Here are videos. You can also see more pictures here but you will see a few other Martin summer events too.

an amusing entry

I thought the dog lovers amongst us might enjoy this link

Last night Trev and I went to see Quartet in Cambridge - very enjoyable it was too. I would recommend it if it comes to a theatre near you or it is made into a film (apparently Dustin Hoffman has bought the rights). Now there are two things you may or may not know about Trevor. The first is that if we are out for the day and eating in a pub or restaurant he likes to eat at noon on the dot or he will begin to panic. The second is that he treats where we sit in a theatre or cinema with the strategic acumen of Julius Caesar. So we thought we had picked perfect seats. Third row up in the Circle. Then Trevor said"These are supreme seats" No sooner had he said this than a couple sat in front of us. The man was in front of me and he had the biggest head I have ever seen. Seriously, he was like a freak of nature. He was like a Wii Mii. If you have ever seen one. Unfortunaely, this was a very static play and the action was all taking place where his big fat bonce was blocking my view. What's more his girlfriend couldn't sit still either. Clearly she had got used to shifting constantly around so she could get a bit of light eclipsed by the bloke's giant noggin!. So we spent the first act craning our necks to see some of the play. Luckily, the theatre was not full so we could remove ourselves to different seats in the interval where we had an excellent view.

How exciting!

Have you seen the trailer for the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?! OMG, so exciting! Big debate on Twitter now about what's better, HP or the Twilight series. Uh, hello, no contest!

Here is link in case you haven't seen it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EC2tmFVNNE

Wonder if they're going to explain why they made that fundamental change at the end of the last film with Harry on the top of the tower?

Feel the urge to re-read the books all over again! But we've got until November (sigh).

Kate
xxxx

No to gite say McNabb/Noyes

We have decided against buying a gite. For the economic reasons see my blog.

The other reasons are largely because it would mean Brian being away on his own for long periods to do the place up, and as I am still working I could only get there 4 weeks of the year anyway. If we were both retired and could spend a few months there at a time we would have been more tempted, but in the current circumstances it just doesn't pan out sadly.

Nice idea but not the right idea.

It wasn't so much the doing up of a place because unlike Chris and Xavier we would have done most of it ourselves (ie Brian) and there would have been no time pressure to finish so no need for architects and builders. France doesn't have building inspectors coming to see that you have done everything right, they apparently work on the theory that if you are going to live there you will make sure it is ok. You have to get a qualified electrician to do the junction box and wire in the sockets, we would have got someone to install a fosse septique, but the rest they leave you to it.

They have a really good way of doing roofing slates with a thing like a crochet hook which means you don't need to nail the slates and therefore they don't split. They sell lovely staircases in Mr Bricolage that you can just buy step by step. They have lovely windows and doors, especially the doors which have a window part in the top half so you can open the window but the door is still shut. Had my car been bigger we might have brought one home for the cottage, they would be ideal.

It was fascinating and we learnt a lot, but won't be buying anything.

France - bits of it anyway

This is a picture of a heron which I took when we were having a picnic. It got in by mistake and now is refusing to go away! It was meant to be a photo of Brian and me having the picnic.

We have been to France, as some will know, and had a lovely, but very busy time. Brian is toying with the idea of investing his savings into a (to be done up) French property as an investment/holiday home. So we unexpectedly - not having planned to go abroad at all this year, especially as we have a holiday booked in the Scilly Isles in September- went to France. We had a 2 centre holiday.
This being blogger here is Brian outside the second gite which was in the Morbihan area of Brittany, near a town called Josselin and about half an hour from Vannes. From here we explored an amazing amount of Brittany, but also had a day at the beach at Carnac.
This is me outside the first gite - a basic, but very cheap and perfectly adequate apartment in Normandy, a few miles outside Domfront. You will notice that the glass of wine was already being put to good use
Here I am again in Bagnoles sur l'Orne which is a spa town and very pretty. It reminded us both of Uriage, though I think Uriage is prettier.
This is the remains of supper on day 1. If you ever travel to France on a Sunday REMEMBER to take two days worth of food with you. Everything between Le Havre and Domfront was shut except one boulangerie somewhere or other. It had this pizza. I do use the word pizza with some reservations because no Italian would have recognised it as one. It was a pizza base, with tomato puree and then what looked like all the onions left after you have drained the soup from a french onion soup. Only hunger made us eat half of it, the other half went into the bin. Thankfully we also got bread, and the welcome pack from the gite contained cheese and wine, so we survived. We did have tea, coffee, sugar, biscuits etc, but not meals.

No more pics because I can't be bothered to fight with blogger to get them in. We had a good time. The weather was mixed in week one but fab in week two. We saw a fair few houses round the south of Normandy, and although the would probably be affordable the area didn't really appeal. It has some lovely places, but the area is clearly suffering a bit and we didn't feel there would be enough to do there in some ways. We went off to the coast near Mont St Michel which was about an hour away and instantly felt happier, so came to the conclusion that Normandy is just too far inland for us and we need to be nearer the sea.

Brittany was more us. We were staying in the Morbihan area which we both really liked, but which was perhaps a bit more genteel than we are - more Cowbridge than Llantwit. We loved Dinan, and so many of the towns round there are just lovely. So much mediaeval housing is retained in the town centres, and they have lots and lots of flowers everywhere, with parks, walks, no litter and no grafitti. It was lovely. We went to a town called Heulgoat in finistere for the day, and saw some houses there, and that area is now heading the popularity stakes for a few reasons. One is cost - it is cheaper there than the rest of Brittany, but the coast is half an hour away, the area is lovely, and Brian seems to have a tendency to go to nearly the end of a peninsula, not quite fall off, and feel he likes it there!

It was great fun, and we have lots of information now to think about whether it is sensible or worth doing, whether it would be too much work (we are talking cheap renovation projects here) etc etc.

We are now back in Pembs for the last few days of my hols (back to work on Monday!) with lots of food for thought, and a much,much nicer pizza for lunch!!!

Pink elephants (and many other colours) on parade.

Before I get started can I just say that we spotted Alice on Songs of Praise. She is on the left hand side of the cathedral and you can see her briefly during the third hymn. What a strange programme that is. The cameraman was obsessed with the vaulting so we saw more ceiling than people. And they cut the lovely soprano singing Handel to a flock of sheep!!

Anyway, I digress. Trev and I decided to go in search of elephants in London today. It is a huge art exhibition of over 250 elephants to highlight and raise money for Asian elephants. They are being herded up on Friday before they go to Chelsea Royal Hospital. From there they are going to be auctioned. I would love to buy one but I think they would be a little out of my league. They are all different and designed by different artists.

We spotted our first two outside Guardian Royal Exchange from the bus. Then we came across another six in Trafalgar Square. The first picture is me sitting in front of one.

From there we walked down to St James's Park where we saw 6 more. We then walked to Green Park and were passed by soldiers on parade! Something to do with the Queen's birthday I would think.

In Green Park there was a happy herd - there must have been 20 or 30 I think. Here are a few.








That top elephant should buy some good moisturiser.








We stopped for lunch on Picadilly and found this princess in Burlington Arcade. (That's the blue one I am not wasting any more time trying to get these pictures where I want them)
She is covered in Swarovski crystals! We also saw a 3 excellent hares outside the Royal Academy by Barry Flannagan. They had also decorated the statue of Sir Joshua Reynolds with a garland.

After that we went back to Green Park then walked back to the river and saw some more on the South Bank. Eventually recrossing the river and seeing a couple more by St Paul's. If you want to see the lot you can look here. It made a brilliant walk and was great fun. I hope they make a lot of money for the cause.

I'm On't Telly!

Well, I might be anyway. Yes, for all of you who live in the UK you're in for a treat. As you all know, I am super-cool, but what you may not know is that I'm in a Church Choir. Woot!

A couple of months ago I, with some of my fellow choir members, took part in a recording for Songs of Praise, coolest TV show ever I'm sure you agree, and it's just possible I may be in the large group shots when they show the hymns in Winchester Cathedral. I know for certain they will have close ups of some of the cute trebles from our choir not that you'll know who they are, but I was standing nearby!

Anyway, I know you won't be able to contain your excitement when I tell you it's on Sunday 13th June BBC1, 15:30. Enjoy!

More anon

Spanish sojourn

So I had a wonderful time in Spain last week on my friend Sam's hen do. Sounds extravagant to travel all that way for a hen do but it was a bloody great excuse for a holiday, and actually worked out less than I've paid for some hen dos in the UK!

We went to a tiny village called Cortes des Baza in Granada and stayed in this amazing cave house. It's like something out of Grand Designs, carved out of the rock, and apparently are quite a feature of the region. It was an incredibly sleepy place to say the least and I think the arrival of a group of British girls for the week was the talk of the town. The locals were very nice though, albeit a bit too friendly - the local goat herder decided to invite himself over for a drink at around midnight on evening which we could've done without!!

We didn't do anything touristy (the Alhambra Palace will have to wait) we just really relaxed by the pool and ate and drank way too much. It was fabulous. I read a lovely book called 'Eat.Pray.Love' which I would definitely recommend for holiday reading and also got stuck into the Steig Larsson Millenium trilogy which I've been saving up. We had a few trips out to the local bars but it was really very chilled out and not crazy hen do-ish at all - I think we're all past that now!

To carry on the international flavour, Sam and Ian's wedding is in Italy in August which has definitely softened the blow of this fabulous Spanish trip being over.

Because blogger (and Facebook for that matter) hates me and won't let me upload any photos, I've resorted to another Picasa album instead:

Spanish Sojourn Pics

Love Kate xxxx

Afternoon in Picton Castle gardens

We have taken a break from unpacking the contents of both Brian's houses and putting them into the cottage this afternoon. We did extremely well yesterday and the kitchen is now pretty ship shape, today we unpacked the clothes and did the bathroom, so the main things left to do are all the paperwork boxes, music scores, and connecting tv and hi fi. However as the aerial man won't be here till next week at the earliest there is no great rush for that.

So we took this sunny afternoon off and went to Picton Castle. I wanted to see the rhododendrons in flower, and although they were past their best, there were still enough of them out to make quite a spectacular show.
Here are some lovely red ones
This is taken from the inside of a bower made of woven (willow maybe?) like a little round tent.
More lovely flowers.

The top picture is Brian sitting beside the pond in the walled garden. It was really lovely. We had a very nice tea with carrot cake (me) and raspberry and coconut slice (Brian).

Tomorrow we will need to do more work, but today was very relaxing.

As you can tell perhaps, we have also got Brian's broadband connection up and running. This is a very good thing.

Wales May 2010

Hot sunny weekend

Boo and Trev came down this weekend. We had tickets to go see the Strictly Come Dancing Professionals show on the Saturday night, which we did, and it was brilliant. However the star of the weekend was the weather! It was fabulous. We had heat and sunshine all weekend. Here we are on the Sunday walking along the coast path towards the lighthouse.
However the other star of the weekend is Miss Muffet. Nic's friend Chloe had a Welsh pony mare who had to be put down on Wednesday and who left behind a 2 day old foal. Here is Miss Muffet taken on Saturday when she was 5 days old. Chloe is having to bottle feed her every 2 hours at the moment which is asking a lot of anyone. Luckily she lives on a farm so they have the space, but she also has 3 boys under 6 so is busy at the best of time. They are trying to teach her to drink from a bucket because it would be better not to be hand reared by people. She needs to know she is a horse. Although Chloe has another pony mare with a month old foal the little one is so young that they are too nervous to put her with them until she is older. So Chloe, Nic and Keely have gone off to see if they can get a small donkey to be a companion for her, because apparently donkeys are less likely to kick or bite.
Here she is again - unbelievably cute and so beautiful.
Here are Boo and Trev on Llantwit beach enjoying an ice lolly.

We also had a barbeque because this may be the only weekend we can do so.

It has been like a little holiday this weekend, absolutely wonderful.

Adventures near and afar

This weekend we went to Southampton to visit Kieran and Alice and we decided to go for a bluebell walk in the New Forest. I suspect that Mike would argue that it is neither new nor a forest. However it was new 900 years ago when it was created by William I and there is common grazing hence the heathland - but there are also wooded bits. What it doesn't have is many bluebells or waymarks on it's walks We were following a walk from a book, which is usually very reliable. It did warn us that it might be boggy but we thought that we'd be OK as it has been a dry spring. The walk started well as we encountered wild ponies and highland cows(!) on the common. Then when we entered the woods the path was blocked by a fallen tree. So we diverted out of the woods onto a clearing. We realised that it might be a bit muddy here as the ponies were up to their knees (or whatever that joint is called in a horse) in mud. Also the path was very unclear.The going was incredibly hard work. The woods were now behind a wire fence and Kieran suggested that the path actually should be on the wood side of the fence. We weren't all convinced but it was much drier that side so we all climbed over or scrambled under the fence. However after a while we saw a sign which informed us we were in a reserve for red deer and we realised we should be on the other side. So we all clambered or crawled under or over the fence again. We all saw a herd of red deer apart from Trev who was in mid clamber. We made progress using fallen trees as bridges without disappearing too deeply into the bog and then we found the path again. Hurray! After a while we came upon a field that was in the instructions. We had to walk miles around it to find a way over the brook that wasn't mentioned in the instruction. Then we saw a gate. We decided that this must definitely be the stile in the instructions and clambered over it. We came across a gravel path which seemed right. However I suspect we were meant to join it later as we had to cross a ford! It was at this stage that Trev announced we were only about half way around the walk. When we came to a road and Trev suggested we could cut out a large corner from the walk by staying on the road. The thought that the footpaths could be adventurous as the first half meant that we all agreed. It was actually great fun but we definitely felt we deserved an icecream at the end

We went to see Hairspray in the evening at the Mayflower theatre in Southampton. It's a fantastic Victorian theatre which miraculously escaped the blitz. The show was brilliant apart from the annoying women who came in late and stepped on Alice's foot to get to their seats and then kept talking. Grrr!
A fabulous weekend all round.
I have included some further pictures of Erin's travels. She has left Vietnam and is now in Cambodia. She wasn't able to download photos in Vietnam but had an excellent time there. She hasn't labelled many of these photos so it is partly guess work on my part.

When Toys Turn to the Dark Side

This may be a little obscure, expecially because I haven't blogged here in a long time. However I thought this might be a comical and slightly horrifying talking point. A friend of mine alerted me to this little treat from the world of advertising. It's so scary I felt I should share it to make the horror dilute and then I'll be able to sleep at night! Do you think anyone was tempted to buy it? Watch it if you DARE!!!

More anon xx

Small town

Today I travelled up to London to do some training on a database we use at work. It finished at 12.30 leaving me the rest of the day in London. Hurray! I had lunch in the refectory at Southwark Cathedral (can I just say I have rarely had disappointing eating experiences in Cathedral refectories.) Then I went to a lovely exhibition of Renaissance drawings at the British Museum. Who did I chance upon at this exhibition but Linda! We have decided that we need never email or phone to make arrangements because we will simply meet up through telepathy!!

Gardening

Before I get to the subject is Mike trying to leave the country? Because this is the first time I've ever heard of all airports being closed because of volcanic ash and he does seem to court bizarre transport issues.
But anyway, gardening. I really hate it. It is a nice day here and the weeds are waiting for removal but yet I am in here on the computer and after that I will do some hoovering. Because gardening is like housework outdoors but worse. You get scratched, there is dirt under your nails, your back and/or knees hurt and there are yucky creepy crawlies. Don't get me wrong, I adore a lovely garden, but I just don't like being involved in the process of creating it.
Here's the thing though, my keen gardening freinds and neighbours feel the need to change my opinion with the religious zeal of a Jehovah's witnesses. They keep giving me cuttings or bulbs and I suspect they think that I will suddenly see the light. I know they are being kind and I am being churlish but to me it's as if somebody gave me a new duster so that I would finally do something about the dust on my ventian blinds.
Actually, nearly everyone I know seems obsessed with gardening. People at work will go "Ooh the weather is good - I will get on in the garden this weekend, at last". And again, like a religion, gardeners will keep talking to each other in Latin. Even Helen, who actually was the worst gardener in the world, now has Mum's gardening talents reincarnated in her has become quite enthusiastic.
My neighbour - who is a lovely neighbour, often gives me cuttings and bulbs and I have to plant them conspicuosly and water them as she can see the garden from her house. Sometimes I send Trev to bring the washing in in the evening in case she gives me bulbs (actually, that is largely because she could talk for Britain. Seriously, if it were an olympic sport Nic would get a distant silver to her gold!) Anyway, the other day we were given some bulbs by our neighbour and I asked Trev to plant them. His enthusiasm for gardening matches mine but he did so in the front garden -right next to our neighbour's drive. Later on in the week we noticed that the neigbour had run over theem in their car! Still, she gave Trev some more bulbs last week when I sent him to get them washing so I think I should just accept the kindness and be grateful it's bulbs and not dusters I'm getting.

Technology gone mad!

In sci fi films and the original Star Trek series every so often there would be a computer/robot that was too big for it's boots and started taking over the joint. The only way to conquer this machine was to give it an unsolvable problem. So Captain Kirk would say something like "I am lying". The computer/robot would start talking in a high pitched voice, smoke would come out of it and sometimes it would twirl around until finally it died. Uppity technology put in it's place by a quick thinking twinkly eyed homo sapiens.
Well, yesterday we had our own bit of technology gone mad. It will probably surprise nobody to know it was our SatNav. Now you would think we knew better but every so often it is really useful. We were off on a walk in the Chilterns and sometimes it is hard to find the beginning of a walk. I must say, I started losing faith when it took us on a bizarre route through Luton- not the one I had plotted on the map but I thought it might know something I didn't. Apparently not! Right through the town centre and then the town centre of Dunstable. If you have never been to Luton or Dunstable, I wouldn't bother, you haven't missed much. Anyway, having got to Dunstable Downs which are on the edge of the Chilterns, we could really appreciate their beauty after the ugliness of the two towns! But when we got near our destination the GPS went mad. It kept going "Turn right, turn right,turn right" On and on and there wasn't a right turn. Luckily it has no control over us or the car so we didn't end up with a Hal/2001 situation and simply turned it off.
The walk was outstanding and I would recommend it to anyone. Along the Ridgeway with amazing views. Really a perfect walk with no naff road bits which you sometimes get in circle walks And it ended in a tea shop at a visitors centre where there were clean toilets. Bliss! I have included some photos.


The white chalk lion is at Whipsnade zoo

I have included some more links to Erin's travels. They are of her jungle trek in Thailand and her couple of weeks in Laos. Laos, according to Wikipedia, is the most bombed country in the world. It had more bombs landing on it in the Vietnam war then all the countries in the World War II. Anyway, it is very beautiful apparently, but what seemed to impress Erin the most was that the French influence has meant that you get really good cakes. I think there are more photos of cakes than countryside on her Facebook pages. I have not included them here.When I spoke to her yesterday she and Heather were catching a bus to Hanoi that would take 22 hours. She is probably still on it now.

Washing machine crisis!

Thursday night last week, and I was heading for bed.

A shout comes up from downstairs.

"Mum! Water is shooting out of the washing machine!" yelled Adam.

Bugger!

I didn't actually see the water shooting out of the soap dispenser as Adam had turned the machine off by the time I got downstairs, however the floor was soaking. Luckily the washing machine is in the garage, so it could have been a lot worse. We made sure it was off and went to bed (that took nearly an hour).

Friday morning while having the early morning tea in bed I was on the internet looking at new washing machines. The last time I spent money on the old one I said I would spend no more on it, so it was for the chop. I have gone for one with a bigger drum than the old one because Nic creates huge amounts of washing (working outdoors etc) and a high spin speed (drying quicker). Then Brian and I got up and went downstairs to wrestle with the washing machine. Eventually he managed to get it out and the cold water inlet pipe turned off, but the hot water one wouldn't turn. He got the waste pipe off and we drained a bit of the water out of the machine into a bucket, but not much of it I tried opening the door and it did open, though it shouldn't have because there was lots of water in there, but we caught lots of it in a sort of large bucket/washing basket thing. The we had a cup of tea and Brian worked out how to turn off the hot pipe, we then manhandled the washing machine out. The we chucked out the carpet from that part of the garage.

After a coffee I ordered the washing machine we had decided on and it was delivered on the Saturday, a 2 hour time slot was given and they were within that - really excellent service!

Carl plumbed it in for me, and it has been working away today!

However as I had to put a new exhaust on the car on Thursday as well April has started off as a very expensive month!!!

Kitchen sink drama

This is rather a random post really but it does include a kitchen which has a sink, although there was not much drama really - but it could be argued that I was unnecessarily dramatic about it all!
To start off here is a picture of two blonds on an elephant.

I am sure there is a joke in there somewhere but I'd rather not hear it. This is part of Erin and Heather's jungle adventure in Thailand. They have now left Thailand and are in Laos. You might all be amused to know that the hair straighteners have now finished their world trip and are back in Essex!


Closer to home and infinitely less interesting here is progress on the kitchen. It really is one of the most disruptive things ever. We had to store the kitchen units the week before and empty the kitchen too. So the new units were in the computer room and the garage, the car had to live on the street and the computer was discombobulated and put in Kieran's room. The kitchen filled Erin's room, the spare room, and the sitting room. Luckily, we can both eat at work so we survived pretty well with just bottled water, a kettle and a toaster functioning but I wouldn't like to have gone on for more than a week. My admiration to all these people who undertake major projects - they are clearly made of more Stirling stuff than me!
The kitchen is mostly done now but the work surface and the sink will be fitted in 3 weeks time and the alarmingly wobbly larder unit is being replaced and then we need to choose tiles and flooring. We had Kevin the carpenter and Brian the builder and we have been recommended to use Tim the Tiler. Gotta love alliteration!



Here is the kitchen in it's present state.

Finally, we went for a walk on the Stour estuary and were surprised to see this!
It is the remains of Richard Branson's transatlantic balloon.

Apparently his recently deceased co pilot lived in the village.
We were also pleasantly surprised to see a sweet chestnut wood full of Wood Anemones.
It was actually more spectacular than this photo looks.
We also spotted this posh school on the other side of the river.
It looks a bit like Greenwich (from a distance, anyway)

Holiday in Barcelona

Adam, Nicky and I have just come home from a lovely short holiday with Chris and Xavier in Villasar. We did the usual things - the Sagrada Familia church, the Parc Guell, and the Picasso museum. They are the usual things because they are well worth seeing, and we really enjoyed it all. Gaudi was a truly original mind.

We also went for a walk on the mountain, and down to the beach. Unfortunately the beach created a huge allergic reaction in Adam, and his eyes were streaming and itchy, so we had to give up and go back to the flat. I've no idea what caused it because he hasn't had a violent reaction like that before. Luckily the anti hystamine sorted it out.

The weather was great, as it was warm and sunny with a bit of wind, like a nice summer day here. we were out in t shirts and , had we brought them, could have worn sandals.

There are some pictures on Picassa here

Love for librarians

I'm fairly sure certain members of the family will enjoy this:

http://www.zencollegelife.com/2009/12/29/85-reasons-to-be-thankful-for-librarians/

(I'm clearly doing something wrong with Blogger as it doesn't seem to want to activate the link - copy and paste it into your brower instead!)

xxxx

Day at the races

So having a sister who works for a National Hunt trainer has finally paid off :) I had a marvellous day out at the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Friday which is something of a tradition where I work, and was happily joined for much of the day by said sister and sister's best friend Sally. It's always a brilliant day out and this year was no different despite the absolutely vile weather (it rained all day). Luckily I'd been to Asda and bought a brolly the day before so was well prepared and it was probably the best £1 I've ever spent.

Two days before hand, Nicky had given me an outside tip for a horse at her yard who was running in the first race. Barizan was priced on William Hill at 40 - 1 but rumour had it Tony McCoy (ace jockey) might decide to ride him on the day in which case his odds would plummet. So I thought I'd place a little bet online. Unlike my gambling mother, I didn't already have an online betting account and setting one up was a real pain because I'm currently between surnames and between swapping addresses so it's all very confusing when registering for anything at the moment. I was going to give up at one point but persevered. And wasn't I glad when Barizan surprised almost everyone, nearly winning by about 20 lengths! He was unfortunately pipped to the winning post at the last but as I'd bet each (as advised) I knew I was in the money. So for the rest of the day I gambled and drank with gay abandon knowing that I had that money in the bank, it was fabulous! I had two more seconds and the winner in the Gold Cup itself too.

It was lovely to spend the day with Nicky who was christened 'Mini McNabb' by the boys I work with, and after the stress of moving and an incredibly busy time at work, it was brilliant just to have a fun day out. Boringly, normal service resumed on Saturday with the painting of our Swindon house, which is very nearly done now - hurrah!

And I've just tried to add some pictures of Barizan the horse and also a comedy picture of Nicky from her work's website which I just stumbled across when searching for the horse picture, but Blogger doesn't seem to want to upload them for some reason :(
Love Kate xxxx

Further adventures of Erin

For those of an envious disposition I would ignore this post. This is all Thailand and it all looks fantastic and most of the pictures seem to involve eating and drinking.
Apparently they had to catch a night ferry where the accommodation was just mattresses on the floor. When they got going they turned off the fans and the lights and the cockroaches all came out! Yuck - not all perfect in paradise!

Language and Travels

Well, we just had a marvellous weekend in Grenoble with Sue. But before that, a new word from National Express. On a slow journey to work last week, the driver announced there was a failed train ahead, and the driver of that train was "de-passengerising".... He spluttered a bit as he wanted to say "his passengers", but changed it to "getting them off the train". So watch out if you travel National Express..

To France and beautiful sunny weather, but with some cold wind and nights. We saw a cornucopia of birds on Sue's terrace, including: Robin, Sparrow, Blackbird, (hmm, no one impressed yet)Great Tit, Blue Tit, Chaffinch,(still no excitement) Serin, Brambling, GoldCrest, Hawfinch, Siskin and Long Tailed Tit (good finish eh?)

One or two pictures below.

First a Great Tit and two Goldcrests (in the original file size it is more impressive)



Here is the classic coffee stop, note snowdrops in the background.



I forgot to mention the yellow and black salamanders. The head is at the bottom of this picture.



Then we noticed on the bus back to the airport the English translation was machine driven. Say in your head in a French accent "Place de la Resistance" and then repeat the same words but with English pronunciations of "Place" and Resistance". Made us giggle.

I'll let my wife tell you about the joy of Lyons airport in another post.

Finally two girls in the mountains;

London Zoo

For my birthday treat we went to London Zoo! Inspired by Kate and Carl's adventures in South Africa we decided to have our own safari with Kieran and Alice. OK no Sani pass (think that was Erin not K and C) but instead we got lost in the one way system in Camden High Street - almost as adventurous.
I love London Zoo but the catering is a bit rubbish. The cafe was so cramped that the chairs were clearly designed for people without limbs. We decided to brave the elements and sit outside for lunch.
It was a lovely day but very cold. So cold in fact that Trev's glasses were so steamed up when we went into the butterfly house that he almost trod on a butterfly. I literally had to push him out of the way. I bet they lose a few butterflies that way each year.
London zoo is plagued by brilliant architecture like the penguin pool ,snazzy, but unsuitable for Pingu and friends and now empty and the Mappin terrace which now has Australian animals as it wasn't suitable for the bears it was meant for. These things are grade 1 listed so the poor zoo is stuck with them. The upside of that is that you can enjoy architecture and animals on you zoo visit.


Who let these animals out?



Our big 5 didn't include the usually kind as the bigger creatures are mostly in Whipsnade where they have more room. Here they are
Number one Ocapi. This really is a horse designed by a committee



Otters, singing and playing waiting for their lunch (horsemeat rather mysteriously)
Warthogs with snazzy Flock of Seagulls hairstyles
The excellently named Spledid Starling
And finally these guys need no introduction

Honeymoon

As promised, here's a link to a Picasa album of our honeymoon shots. Again, there are hundreds so have pruned them but thanks largely in part to Mum's super duper camera there are some pretty great shots so there are quite a lot of pics to browse through.

Who needs New Zealand, hey Erin? Pah! A few months travelling is nothing compared with what we crammed into two weeks in South Africa....not that I'm jealous that her trip is still going and ours is over...

Honeymoon

Kate xxxx

Catching up

So now we're into the new house and I have at least some internet access (courtesy of a shaky 3G dongle) I am making an attempt to catch up on my photos which I'm aware are horribly overdue.

For starters I've done a Picasa album of some of the official pictures of the wedding. There are literally hundreds so I've just done a selection. I have all the originals on a CD so if you'd like copies of any just let me know and I'll post them to you. As I say, there are lots I've not included here but I don't want to bore everyone!

South Africa pics are to follow and then some of the new house!

I'm then going to start keeping a log of my training as I've signed up to do the Bristol half marathon in September. I'm quite horrified I've agreed to do this as I've done no exercise since before the wedding and have managed to stick back on quite a bit of weight in the meantime. Rubbish. But the challenge will do me good I feel and I'm going to raise money for charity which can only be a good thing.

Here's the link to the Picasa album - never done one of these before so if you can't see it let me know and I'll change the settings!

Official Wedding Pics