I'm tired - is it Friday yet? Do I say this every week? Probably so..... oh well.

Last night had a great evening of girly chat & yummy Thai at Heather's place. It was fun to catch up :)

This morning I came across this link for a A Minute In The Life: The Simultaneous Photography Project. I thought it was a really cool idea!!!! So.... spread the word - and Murray I expect you to take part as well - especially since you're doing a photography course this weekend!!

So.... This Map shows that London photos should be taken at 7pm - that's doable! Although East Coast Australia time for this project is 3am - ekkk! Well maybe you could set your alarm - wake up exactly at 3 and take a pic of your dark bedroom? Just an idea:) I'm interested to see how it turns out - will definitely be checking his site for the results!

So these are my new boots - I'm kinda excited about wearing them in! Although I still think they are kinda chunky.... and not the prettiest (just a LITTLE pink would be nice).... however I do know that comfort IS the most important thing - right? I guess as a girl who regularly buys shoes for their prettiness rather than comfort, it's just hard for me to come to terms with big chunky hiking shoes:)

Last night I was good and went straight home and cleaned and then sat down to do some Spanish study. It was hard to motivate myself to do it on my own.... but I got through 2 chapters - so not too bad. Made up some cute little flip cards and wrote down vocab in my notebook. Fun fun.

I studied until 9 and then gave up and watch Gordon Ramsey's show The F Word (food is what he CLAIMS the 'F' stands for - ha ha). I really like that show - all of the different little bits put together into 1 hour make it really interesting. I can't stop thinking about the section where Janet Street Porter went to France to see what happens at a Fois Gras farm though. It was so disturbing to see how they force feed the ducks & geese. *shudder*

I love long weekends :)

I love long weekends - even when the weather stinks!

Caught up on American Idol - Good final show - although AGAIN I am so disappointed in our free daily paper The Metro who AGAIN this year ruined the finale for us by printing the winner before it was aired here:( Bummer! And yes I did email them to complain - no response back though....

We also went to the Kylie exhibition at the Victoria & Albert museum. It was great! Loads of costumes, photos and a room with a bag stage documentary. Very interesting!

The weather was rainy & gross here this weekend, just like last year (yes I remember it raining while moving last year too - that was fun). Yesterday was SO cold! We were out shopping in the city in the afternoon & I wished I had brought my winter coat along! Broke my umbrella too - ahhh good times. We did make an exciting purchase though - some hiking boots! Thought they would be good for our long rambling walks:) I let Murray convince me to go for comfort rather than looks - but oh it was hard - they are UGLY!!! But compared the the cute pink ones - I have to admit they really are so so much more comfy! But to make up for the non attractiveness of the boots I also got a super cute pair of shorts - city shorts - not hiking - but Ohhhhh are they cute! Can't wait for it to warm up so I can wear them!!!!

And YAY I am SO SO glad it's Tuesday already! Whooo hoooo :) And I'm glad it's not raining again today - let's hope it starts to get WARM again now!

Yesterday for our anniversary we went out for a YUMMY Thai meal - gosh I love Thai!!! And then we went to King Gong at The Comedy Store. It was great - very funny:) It was all amateur comedians - who the crowd either cheered or jeered - and if they got enough boos the mc would hit the big gong and they were kicked off stage. We really enjoyed it! Was a fun unusual night out! Although I can't imagine getting up on that stage - the crowd was brutal! I think the record last night was 20 seconds. As the night went on and the crowd got more rowdy - if the person didn't start with a good joke they would get booed off straight away. One guy just said 'Hi I'm xxx, I'm from Egypt' - which got booed!!! We thought that was a bit unfair! If you lasted for 5 minutes you made it into the final and then the 2 finalists had 1 minute each to out joke each other. The two guys last night actually tied - both were hilarious!

2 Years 2 Years 2 Years ! :)

Gosh I'm excited this is a long weekend - no work on Monday YAY! We need it too - we have a huge 'to do' list of lots of little jobs that need to get sorted out. And I could use a bit of a sleep in - I'm tired!

Firstly - HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my 'little' brother Marcus who turns 25 on Sunday :)

AND

Happy Anniversary to ME and Murray :) It's our second wedding anniversary on Monday! And can I just say I am SO glad that we're not moving again! Last year we had to move this weekend, which was a total bummer as we had wanted to go away for the weekend. This year we decided instead of actually going away on our anniversary - we'll go out to a show and dinner - and have a weekend away later in August to celebrate! SO we booked our flights - for the long weekend in August we're going to go to RUSSIA!!!! I think we're going to fly into Moscow, check it out, and then take the night train up to St. Petersburg. I'm SO excited!!!! This is a trip we have wanted to do for YEARS! Can't wait:)

And just because..... I really LOVE our wedding photos - here's a couple of my favourites:) (well, the ones I have on my work pc at least)

The ceremony

Just Married!

By the lake :)
A quick dip :)
At our Hawaiian themed shower

Happy Anniversary Murray:) I love you more than ever and can't wait to spend the rest of our lives together :)

Thursday..........

I'm tired - is it Friday yet?

Not much to say today

So just a few congrats on this lovely Thursday...........

Congrats to Ange & Chris on the birth of their baby Sarah Isabelle - we are SO happy for you guys:)

And Happy Birthday to Murray's half brother Graham - today is the big 50 !

And also.... I'm not sure of the exact date - but I wanted to say a BIG congrats to my sister Mandie for completing her secretarial course. We are SO SO proud of you - well done:)

Wow the Harmonica IS cool!

Last night we went with Heather & Jason to the Koko Club in Camden to see G Love & Special Sauce perform. It was our first visit to Koko and WOW what a cool place!!!! It has more of a very funky nightclub feel to it - rather than a music venue. It's GREAT because it's quite small AND there are loads of different levels - so you can get right up at the railings and still have a great view of the band - fantastic! G Love was great - sort of a mix between folk/rock/blues/rap - strange mix - I know! But he pulled it off! His rapping/singing reminded me of Jason Mraz, his hair reminded me of Kramer from Seinfeld, and his enthusiasm was catching! We didn't know any of the songs but totally loved the concert it was great! AND he even had one of those goofy harmonica holder things around his neck - so he could play at any time - wow he was good too! And he was the lead singer and lead guitar player - pretty impressive! His band (Special Sauce) was SO geeky - but very talented:)

Got home quite late though (WOW that was the longest encore performance I have ever seen)!
So I'm EXHAUSTED today!!!! And I forgot my darn keys so I can't get into my desk for my green tea bags and I don't have keys to get back into the flat tonight *sigh*!

OH well.

Bloggy blog

Oh yes - I forgot to blog this morning....

Nothing exciting going on. I went to the gym last night, it was tiring but fun (YAY body pump)! Last night our downstairs neighbour was having some kind of party which echoed bass into our room, once asked to quiet down they finally stopped. Who has a party on a Monday night anyhow?

This morning on the tube a ticket inspector asked to see every one's tickets, he was accompanied by two policemen (well, one policeman and one police woman). I have seen this happening a LOT lately though.... in the last month my ticket has probably been checked 4 times? I wonder why they are checking so much more recently? Granted they always seem to find someone to fine! I saw him getting off the carriage with a lady who had the wrong ticket - £20 fine for her! Hmmmmmm

It's SUNNY IN LONDON! Again - finally - lovely day today. Shame it isn't meant to last. They say tomorrow it will be 25c (80f) WHOO HOOO! But then it is supposed to start raining again - great. The towel covering the bowl on Murray's bedside table was wet again yesterday - so must have rained during the day. No good!!!!

London at Night

Murray attended a 'London Night Photography' course last night... here are a few of the shots :)

(click on each photo to see a larger version....)

Monday Again!

We had a nice relaxing weekend.

American Idol was good, I got lots of great catch up sleep, went to a tough but fun class at the gym, and did a LOT of crocheting!

Yesterday we did a long but GREAT walk from Richmond to Wimbledon Common. WOW Richmond park is just MASSIVE!!! I was amazed as well at one point where Murray had me turn around and look across the park - you could see Central London!!! I could clearly see the London Eye and the Gherkin - cool! It's just strange because I felt like we were in the middle of the country - but that was a great reminder of - nope we are still in London - just a few miles out from the centre! We stopped at the ice cream van and I asked for a 'Mint Cornetto and a water please.' The ice cream man replied 'You said that perfectly darling.' Ha ha ha - I guess he thought I was a tourist:)

We ended our many mile walk at 'The Windmill' which was a tiny little pub/restaurant near the top of Putney Hill, and then caught the bus back. It ended up being a perfect day - sunny - but not hot. And it was fun to walk through the park and see all the different kinds of dogs enjoying themselves in the open space, and we saw a nesting swan!!! There was a orange fencing all around her, and a sign that said this was the first time swans had nested in that park in 50 years!!! So to please keep your distance. Wow that's amazing!

I'm SO excited... and I just can't HIDE it....

Ha ha - oh WOW I am in a good mood now!!!! I was looking around on the web this morning for cheap theatre tickets and stumbled upon a site that said the Beasite Boys would be playing at Brixton Academy in September. OH MY GOSH. For them to play such a small venue is unheard of!!!!! We saw them a few years ago in Wembley which is HUGE. Oh WOW WOW WOW I'm excited. The B-Boys are my favourite band of all time - and now we're seeing them in September in a TINY venue (well, not huge at least) oh WOW I'm EXCITED!!!!!

SO that starts my weekend off on a very happy note :)

What we're doing this weekend ??? I don't know..... will just see what happens I guess. No plans really - which is kinda nice:)

However - JACK IS BACK!!!! So we may have to have some 'catching up time.'

Season 4 & 5 and part of 6 of '24' arrived the mail yesterday (thanks Mom!!) so now we have over FIFTY hours of the show to watch - WOW that'll keep us busy:)

ONLY Thursday????????

I really feel like it must be Friday - surely? Gosh this week has been LONG! Doesn't help that I work for a Dutch company and they all have today and tomorrow off for some reason, which makes this office VERY quiet!!!! Oh well.

Last night I watched The Queen on dvd (I borrowed it from a friend at work - thanks Pete)! Hmmmmm I do sort of think that it would have been better as a 'made for TV movie' rather than a big production Hollywood film. However, it was interesting! Some of the characters came across MUCH differently to how I imagine them to be. I thought Charles would be a bit more snooty (and that guy who played him barely looked like him which made it confusing at times)! Also I was quite surprised with Prince Phillip (the Queen's husband) he came across as quite a meany! I guess I can understand both sides of the story..... the Queen was just following 400 years of tradition and doing what she thought her 'people' expected of her.... not understanding that the public really loved Diana and wanted the Queen to mourn with them publicly. However Tony (Mr. Blair) could see what was happening and tried to get her to see sense... cause he's just a normal guy - right? Hmmm it was interesting too that they had real clips mixed in with the actors. And GOSH did that Tony actor look a LOT like him - kinda scary!

Also, I finished the book the Alchemist yesterday and thought it was excellent (although quite short)! Today I started reading a chick lit book and I must say it does feel good to just read a silly story on the way into work - helps me relax. Especially this morning, since I only left a few minutes late - but that meant I missed my bus and had to take another. Which made me catch a later tube, and miss the bus to work - resulting in my being almost half an hour late :(
Bummer

BRING ON FRIDAY!!!! (AND SUN!!! what the heck - they said it was supposed to get up to 20c (70F) today but it's cold and rainy)!!!

A bit of a nicer day ?

It's a bit nicer out today.... kinda. Warm enough that I wasn't cold when I walked to the bus with a wet head which was nice. The paper says it will be 20c (70f) tomorrow - - gosh I HOPE so! This chilly weather is making me into a lazy blob. Haven't been to the gym once yet this week... all I want to do is go home and snuggle up on the couch with Murray and work on my crocheting while watching TV - productive ha? Ah well

The other day I finished reading The Kite Runner, a novel about an Afghan boy who grows up in Kabul and ends up living in California. Wow what a moving, fantastic book. It was a bit depressing, but quite an amazing story!

Now I'm working on The Alchemist. I found it the other day when I was cleaning out our attic... and remembered that I read on the tube on Monday that it was voted as one of the most attractive books for a man to be seen reading on the tube? Ha ha - apparently it was voted so highly because women said if they saw a man reading that book they would probably be a romantic kind of guy? Intrigued me, so I am about half way done reading it now - WOW it's amazing! I keep marking pages with great quotes - quite and inspirational book!

Oh and - Chris the builder did come last night. Apparently it IS the suspected tile that's causing all the damage. However, it's a big job to sort it out. All he has to do is replace a roof tile or two, but to get access to it he's going to have scaffolding put up (it's 4 stories up - too high for a ladder!). SO goodness knows when THAT will happen! I'm glad to hear though that our landlord has been emailing him every day - hassling him to get over to the flat and sort out the leak. Good to know she's on top of it, gosh I'm glad I won't have to pay the bill though! He said it's an easy job - just have to slip the broken tiles out & put in new ones - it's just the access that's difficult - gonna be spendy! OH well - I'll just pray for NO RAIN until he can sort out getting it fixed!

Busy Chilly Day!

Just a quick post as this is going to be a very busy day for me - I have LOADS to get done before a meeting this afternoon.

Last night I cleared out everything we have stored in the attic and brought it down into the living room while Murray cooked a fantastic dinner. We had to clear it out for Chris the builder - who apparently is coming by tonight (cross your fingers he actually shows up this time) so he can crawl in there and see what damage the leaking roof has done! It was good to get everything out and just see what all we have as well. And to pack a few suitcases within suitcases to create a bit more space - WOW we have a lot of bags - I'd say probably about 10/12 suitcases & bags!

I'm feeling a bit down this week.... as my parents and grandparents are enjoying the sun in Hawaii ... wish I was there :( And the weather here stinks recently which doesn't help. Seems like it was just a tease that summer was on it's way to London... now we're back to a bit chilly (around 12c, 55f) every day. Bummer. BRING ON THE SUN! I really need some sun to cheer me up!

Monday Again .... Already?

I had a nice weekend.... although this rain is getting a bit old now!

Friday night we went to see Roger Waters from Pink Floyd perform at Earl's Court. It was good! I only knew two songs in the three hour long concert.... but wow it was more of a show then a concert. Lots of smoke, balloons they flew over the crowd (a giant pig with anti war slogans and an astronaut that looked quite realistic!), and a massive screen behind him that really added to the show! One of the best songs was a new one.... along with the song he had a comic strip playing on the giant screen describing the story behind the song - very moving!

(this is one of the slides)

Saturday morning..... I met an American who lives in Putney for coffee - that was fun:) Nice to chat to a fellow yank and gosh I do love having a skinny blueberry muffic & chai latte for breakie!

That evening our Kiwi friend Debs held a BBQ, even though it rained all day! Luckily the rain had finished by the time we got there.... but it was COLD! Many people ended up wrapping up in blankets to keep warm while chatting in the garden:) The sausages and Pimms were yummy though - a fun night! Oh and I made pumpkin pie! I found a can of pumpkin in the cupboard the other day (can't remember why or when I bought that)???? So Saturday morning I went on a hunt for a pie tin. Ah one of the very hard to find things here!!!! It was fun trying to explain to workers in the grocery store 'do you have a pie tin that has crust already in it that you just fill and then bake?' They looked at me like I was crazy! I did eventually find ONE in Sainsbury's... but it was broken on one side! Oh well, better than nothing! It was an already cooked shortcrust pasty tin - really meant to just be filled - not baked again. But thankfully the pumpkin pie mix was so soupy that it kept the crust moist enough that it tasted ok:) The Kiwi's were impressed and many commented on how it was their first piece of pumpkin pie ever - fun! We coated it with whip cream from a can before serving it as well which just added to the flavour - yummmmm! And yes I did consider making the crust myself... but I have done that before and yuck it was not nice - so broken crust already in tin was the better choice!

Yesterday niece Lorraine came over for a dvd day:) We had a nice time chatting to her and catching up on what she has been up to. We watched 'Brokeback Mountain' ummm wow quite an interesting movie! And then we watched American Idol!!!! Barry Gibb is looking a bit funny isn't he? What's up with his upper lip? I thought he was a great mentor though and wow he really is a legend!

And now back to Monday............ (my Monday rant....)

It's raining and miserable today - again - and the builder STILL hasn't come so our roof is still leaking. And on the tube this morning I got stuck sitting next to two girls (who looked like they came from Eastern Europe ... the fashion is just so out there)! They cracked open some bacardi breezers (yes alcohol - at 8am - on a Monday)! And then they got out a mobile phone and blasted dance music while singing along. I just couldn't be bothered to get up and move to another carriage, and I didn't dare say anything... they looked like they wouldn't appreciate a 'can you please turn that off.' *SIGH*

OH well. Looking forward to hitting the gym this week.... and getting a lot of sleep. Exciting ha? Now WHERE IS OUR SUMMER WEATHER? I'm ready for some sun:)

Oh and of course

Wishing a VERY Happy Mothers Day to My Mom, My Mother-In-Law & all my other readers who are Moms. Hope you have a GREAT Day :)

FRIDAY - FINALLY!

Murray had a terrible night's sleep last night AGAIN from this leaking spot on the ceiling (which has doubled in size over the last couple of days..........)

Caused by this suspected broken roof tile............(look towards the back in the middle - there's a dark spot which is a tile that's broken).

The land lord is sending 'Chris the builder' around asap apparently. The only problem is in order to work on our roof they have to notify the neighbours and have them move their cars for the builder to get his ladder & junk in. So who knows when it will actually get fixed......

Last time 'Chris' came around he replaced a few tiles... but they were down near the edge and we think that only fixed the UPSTAIRS link meanwhile he didn't replace ALL the broken tiles - so we still have a leak in our room. I tried looking in the crawl space last night to see how much damage there was up there - but it's just too small & crowded to get into. Oh well.

Oh well, at least we notified them right away AND we're not liable for the cost of repair:)

Ahhhh and the LOVELY dessert we had the other night at Mascalzone....... :)

Looking forward to the weekend - everyone please do their 'no rain dance in Southwest London' dance for me please!

Oh AND we're going to see Roger Waters perform "The Dark Side of the Moon Live" tonight - should be interesting!

English water torture

I woke up at 1am last night from the heavy rain that was pouring down (it was SO loud sounded like someone was rustling tin foil in my ear)! Then I woke up at 2 from the dripping noises - our ceiling was leaking ALL over, splashing onto our bed & Murray - again! We finally got a bowl and towel set up so at least we wouldn't be sleeping in a swimming pool and laid back down, but the dripping noise was SO loud we were both up for hours trying to get back to sleep.
*sigh*
Our landlord hasn't responded to our text messages, so we'll have to call the agent today - so annoying. She is usually quite good - but is out of the country a lot.... I think maybe that's why she's not responding right now??? Who knows....

We had this leak awhile ago and she came round with 2 builders and they looked around and decided it was just the broken roof tiles that were causing it, they came back & fixed the tiles & one of the leaks was sorted (the upstairs one). It hasn't rained since - but now ours is still leaking just as bad if not worse - not good!

The builders did say 'oh i wonder if it's from the crawl space' but they didn't check it - it MUST be from there as the room above us isn't leaking anymore.
*sigh*
We'll get on the agent today and have her send a builder over asap - not only is it annoying for us - but we have to let them know right away when something big like this goes wrong so we can't be held responsible for damage

I think tonight I'll clear our many many suitcases and boxes out of the attic/storage space and see if 1. all our things are ok and 2. if we can see where it's leaking

How annoying.....

Now my neck is aching, my eyes are tired and I feel awful:( Waking up at 2am and then listening to water drip for AGES is not good:(

While I was lying awake I did remember another weird commuting story though!

The other day on my tube ride from work to the gym I sat down next to a normal looking guy. I was reading my book and sniffed a little bit (I'm a sniffy person - don't usually sniff - but was on a good page and didn't have time to reach for a tissue). Then he sniffed. Ok, maybe we both just have allergies? But then he continued to do it - every couple of seconds - for the half an hour ride. Ok, understandable, this is that sniffy time of year. Then (those of you who know me REALLY well will know what I mean......) I moved my shoulders around to get my clothes sitting comfortably (yes I'm weird - you don't have to tell me...) then I noticed he did the same thing right after me.... So yes I think this guy had tics that he picked up from the people around him. No big deal, but it kinda weirded me out. So I sat completely still for the rest of the journey while he sniffed and moved his shoulders around next to me.... ahhh public transport - gotta love it:)

You know the only time I really HATE the tube is when Chelsea (football - or as we'd say in the US 'soccer') games are on. Last night I had the pleasure (not) of being squished in like a sardine with someone's giant belly pushing up against my side.... ewwwwwwwwwww. Ah well, most of the time I don't mind the bus and the tube - it's cheap and gives me lots of reading time (which i LOVE)!!! Right now I'm reading 'The Kite Runner' by Khaled Hosseini and ohhhhh it is SO good! I wish I could sit and read it all day:)

Busy busy

Last night I was going to work late, but then the power in my part of the building went down at 5:30pm, so I left. What a pain. However that did mean that I made it to the gym in time for 7pm body pump! WOW was it packed - the most people I have EVER seen in that studio! The instructor was great too - I loved his music selection!!! (always fun to work out to a little Gwen, Kylie & Bon Jovi - had me tapping my toe while doing bicep curls that's for sure!)

I was walking behind two girls while leaving the gym, I could over hear them talking and could tell they were from North America.... (it's often hard to tell the difference between Canadians & Americans.....). One of the girls opened the door for me so I said 'Thank You.' She turned around to me and said 'Are you from here?'
At first I thought - oh she's asking if I'm American! I said 'No' (and then she had a funny look on her face - so I thought oh maybe she was asking about THIS part of London? like she was looking for something in the area or something???) so I continued to say 'Oh, do you mean Fulham?' She said 'No, the UK.'
Me 'Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh ok - no I'm from Minnesota:) I heard you guys talking and thought you might be American but was afriad to ask and hear back 'NO I'M CANADIAN.' Where are you guys from?'

One of them was from Philadelphia, the other from New York. We rode the escalator down together & they were asking me why so many men at the gym wear speedos (in the pool of course) & tight tight shorts (we all agreed this was ewwwwwwwwwww). They were really nice (the girls - not the tight shorts:) I hope I run into them again! (didn't have time to ask their names or anything as they were going to a restaurant and I was on my way to the tube - oh well, next time).

Then I got on the tube, and then my bus home. On the bus I was sitting reading my magazine with my leg hanging near the aisle, and my shoe fell off! Ha ha - just as a guy was about to get off - he looked down and just laughed! I did too and just said 'Sorry' and quickly grabbed it! My shoes are SO comfy - but a bit stretched out I guess since they just fall off - ha ha! Oh well - I love them:)

This morning when I got on the bus there was a guy at the front who handed me a survey & a little pen - that was odd! It was just asking where I came from, what transport I use & where I was going to & why. Hmmmm interesting.... they better not cancel this route darn it! It's so convenient for me!

Oh and yesterday when I got off the tube (district line) I heard the district line's own 'Losing my Religion' guy on one of the carriages. Oh dear. This guy has been playing on the district line (and maybe others - I don't know - but I've only ever heard him on ours) for YEARS! Always the same song (and yes it does quite suit his voice - but still....), he plays guitar and sings and has a little hat where you can leave him money. It's quite sad - we can see that over the years he's looking worse & worse (toooo many drugs) shame.

Monday? no Tuesday!!! YAY!

Ahhhhh I LOVE long weekends:)

We didn't get up to much - just relaaaaaaaaaaaaxed which was LOVELY!

The weather was so so - kinda chilly and rained a LOT yesterday, so it was a good weekend for catching up on stuff and taking it easy. I read a lot (finished the Other Boleyn Sister this morning - WOW was that good!!! and ok yes so glad to read it was based on the true story!). I crocheted a bit, watched a few dvds (Come in Spinner had a good ending! I also watched the Doris Day and Rock Hudson movie 'Pillow Talk' which was totally cute. And the thriller 'Hard Candy' wow that was hard to watch! Shocking!), we also went to the movies and saw Spiderman 3...... hmmmm it was ok - funnier then I expected, but still totally cheesy. There were some amazing special effects though! Also I did actually drag myself out on Sunday and went to a class at the gym which felt great!

After 3 days of sleeping in though it was difficult to get up this morning! Before we left today we set up a towel and bowl for our leaking ceiling, just in case it rains while we are at work. Our ceiling started leaking - AGAIN - yesterday after a two hour downpour. Our land lord had a builder come in last time this happened and he decided it was due to a few broken roof tiles, and he replaced them. Guess that wasn't the problem though since yesterday, while I was hanging up laundry to dry in our room, I could hear drip drip drip - finally realized it was the celing leaking onto the corner of our bed and on the bedstand!!!! Not good! So fingers crossed the builder comes asap and finds the ACTUAL source of the leak (I have the feeling there's a leak somewhere in the attic.... hmmmm).

Hooray for a short week- now I'm just praying for our sun to come back!

Friday - Finally

I'm feeling exhausted and I'm SO ready for the weekend!

I avoided the internet yesterday (well, American sites at least) so that I wouldn't find out who got kicked off of American Idol. It's shown on Tuesday/Wednesday in the states, then both shows are on Friday night here (tonight - whooo hooo)! And can I just say we are SO excited that Bon Jovi is the 'mentor' this week!!!!! I LOVE Bon Jovi! Murray and I saw the band perform in Minneapolis years ago, and WOW what an amazing show. They are the kind of band who don't need a fancy stage or dancers or anything - just a plain brick wall and the band and it was one of the best concerts I have EVER been to!

I'm REALLY REALLY hoping for good weather this weekend. Well, anything other than rain will do! We have a number of things we'd like to do..... but they all depend on the weather being good - so fingers crossed!

I did body pump last night and I worked SO hard! It was one of those nights where I just thought 'I think someone is trying to tell me that I should just go home and skip the gym tonight.' The locker ate my token, so I had to go back to the front desk and tell them and get a new one (it's a PAIN after you've already unloaded all your stuff then have to pack it all back up)! Then I went to get ready and realized I had forgotten to pack socks - yuck. So it was either go sockless (yuuuuuck) or wear my tall thin black socks (ummmm No that's so not going to happen). I stopped and thought - I really should just go home. But I promised myself that since I had resisted for TWO WEEKS that if I worked REALLY hard at the gym I could have 1 krispy kreme on the way home. So I went sockless, and it felt really really gross. But the workout was great. I loaded up the weights for squats, did as much weight as I comfortably could for biceps, triceps etc. And OH OH OH am I sore today - but in a good 'I worked out hard' way. I'm hoping to go tonight and once or twice this weekend too (well, maybe once this weekend - and then HOPEFULLY some tennis with Murray for exercise one of the other days - I haven't played yet this year)! And WOW that maple iced glazed donut was heaven - for real!

SO - I'll be back to posting on Tuesday - fingers crossed for a WARM rain free weekend!

And...............

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEN :) (hope you have a GREAT B-day:)

Almost the weekend?

I wish it was Friday.... but thankfully not ONLY is Friday tomorrow (whoo hooo) also we have the 3 day bank holiday weekend coming up - so exciting!

Last night I was SO tired and didn't do much at the gym (ok, I left after a few minutes, just couldn't motivate myself - bleh). Worst of all, I changed and went down to the lobby to read my book (I'm addicted to the Boleyn sisters - wow it's good!) and THEN I realized that there WAS a class on I could have done:( I always forget about the 'Dance Sculpt' class that's on Wednesdays because it's in a different aerobics room - shoot! I will TRY TRY TRY to remember next Wednesday - I really want to try that class out - looks fun!

We also saw the movie Next, and I must say it was MUCH better than I expected! I love half price movie Wednesdays:) We sort of randomly picked that movie because the start time worked well for us, but wow it was quite an interesting story! It's about a guy who can see into the future (Nicolas Cage) and the FBI wants him to help them on a case. I won't say anymore as I don't want to give away the plot - but it was good - some really interesting story twists! The casting was just so so though. Nic Cage's hair - yuck - he looked so old and greasy - made it hard to believe that a girl like Jessica Biel would like him. Even JUST a hair cut would have been enough to make ME believe, but he did act the part really well! Julianne Moore wasn't right for the part either I don't think - she just didn't come across as tough enough for that role?

Anyhow.....

Murray emailed me this photo..... saying 'Our Next BIG TRIP - Capetown to New York Road Trip'

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I don't know - seems a bit out there if you ask me! And is it just me or does that tent look scary! On TOP of a truck? Well I guess that at least keeps some of the critters away!

Licking Glass

It's Wednesday and I woke up wishing it was Friday. Why do the weeks go so slowly when the weather is beautiful and you're stuck in the office?

I just thought I'd post this OH so lovely picture of me from Istanbul that our friend Steve sent.

I have no idea what I was doing! Just admiring the Turkish Delights I think....

I SWEAR I was NOT licking the glass! ha ha ha

And just because..... a lovely picture my mother and father-in-law took in New Zealand earlier this year - pretty ha!

TOOOOSDAY

Nice Sunny morning! Puts a spring in my step!

First of all - most importantly - HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(p.s. we're holding your pressie ransom at our flat - come by and visit us some time to get it:)

I totally forgot until yesterday that we're coming up to another bank holiday weekend! WOW it feels like the Easter weekend was just the other day! I love May - 2 short 4 day weeks to due 'bank holidays' whatever that means! I'm just happy to have an extra day off to enjoy the sun!

It's going to be another very busy work day today - I just hope I can leave in time to make it to the gym for the class I want to attend tonight!

I feel like I'm dipping my toes into so many different parts of history lately - kinda strange!

Murray and I have been watching the dvd Peking to Paris in which a group of Australian men and women (and one Dutchman) attempt to re-enact the historic 1907 car rally overland from Peking to Paris - in vintage cars that are just like those used in the Original Race! It's SO good!!!! We're up to the last episode now - looking forward to seeing how it will end. They have met some wonderful people along the way (the Russians were SO SO generous and welcoming!), and it's fun to see them re-enact some of the famous photos from the original rally, which was used to prove to people that yes cars are here to stay and are reliable!

I'm also reading The Other Boleyn Girl about life in the court of Henry the 8th in the 1500's. It's actually really fascinating - I don't want to put it down! One of those books where I'm sad when I get home from my hour and a half commute because I want to keep reading (AND I'm only 100 pages into a 500+ page book - long way to go)!

Also I'm watching the Australian made for TV movie series Welcome Back Spinner (which I can't seem to find a link about anywhere online)! It's about Sydney during World War 2, how a small group of women dealt with their men being away in the war and having their city over run by handsome Americans:) It's quite a dramatic storyline! I'm really enjoying it!

OH and I keep meaning to mention......
If you're an expat and like reading blogs, or if you just like reading blogs, or just like pretty pink websites check out the new Expat Women Blog Directory on which I am listed:) Although I do find it confusing that the UK is listed as 'Northern Europe.' Seems like every other resource you find on the net says that the UK is 'West' or 'North' Europe... hmmmmmm. Well as far as I'm concerned - I'm in Western Europe thank you very much:)