Nightmare commuting

We only live a couple of miles from where I work. My home and my work are both a short distance off the same A-road. However, it takes me longer to catch the bus to work than it does for Taffy to drive 22 miles to his. The major problem is the bus. It is supposed to come every 10 minutes. However I regularly wait half an hour for it. Usually 3 turn up at the same time. I was phoning up the bus company to complain until I realised they were charging me for the phone calls. It'll be worse next week - the students are back and I work in the middle of the uni campus. Rumour has it that I may not even be able to get on the bus home.
Remind me again, why did we come back here?

Little boxes

Everywhere you look in Britain, they are building flats. They are an environmental & health nightmare. We have a garden flat, but the body corporate rules prevent you from hanging washing out. So you either tumble dry it (waste of power), or leave it hanging around the flat (water, water everywhere). Also none of the bathrooms have windows and extractor fans still aren't that good. We will be breeding a nation of asthmatics. I can't see where it will all end.
A few comments on our flat. There is one small storage cupboard. There are no towel rails or toilet roll holders. There are 4 small kitchen cupboards. For some reason, there are 2 bathrooms. I'd swap one for a storage cupboard. The lounge, kitchen dining room are all one room. Lovely sitting listening to the washing machine whilst you eat your dinner or watch TV. I can live with it for a short while, but I pity families who live like this permanently.

Fore!

A couple of weekend ago we were awakened by golfers shouting 'Fore'. We live across the road from a golf course. I never realised before what a loud noise is made by hitting a ball with a club.
Luckily we haven't had any broken windows yet. Here is the view.

Busy busy busy

Haven't posted for a while as we've been seriously shifting boxes around. Then we went to Soton for the weekend. My niece has taken her first few steps - what a clever girl.
Apart from that we're still trying to adjust to life in England.

Lost in the woods

R and I went for a walk on Thursday to look at a house. On the way back, we walked through the local woods. It was spectacular, with streams, ponds, rustic bridges and craggy bluffs. I couldn't believe it was walking distance from home. It was getting dark and we were navigating using an A to Z (not very detailed in the woods). We eventually got a bit lost. Luckily a dogwalker took pity on us and guided us safely to the road.

Lovely weekend

It's been a beautiful sunny weekend. I went for a potter round the local village on Saturday. I bought all the plugs in the hardware store. (Rob has replaced about 12 plugs so far and we've still loads to go.) It also has a lovely craft shop with lots of card making supplies. Not that I need any more. I have spent ages this weekend unpacking boxes, sorting stuff and repacking to go into storage. This flat seems a lot smaller now it has stuff in it. There is also only one small cupboard, and hardly any in the kitchen. Still, for all that, it's lovely to have a home again.
The picture was taken in the village. It's just one of the side streets. England has so many fascinating old buildings. Unfortunately it has a LOT of cars too.

Stuff

Our stuff arrived yesterday from New Zealand. If you are ever moving, I can recommend NZ vanlines. Great service. The movers this end had the most huge lorry. Our whole household fit into a 3rd of it.
We now have an absolutely chocca flat. The spare room is full floor to ceiling with boxes.
Our lounge is lovely - sofas to relax on. Our NZ TV works here too - much to Rob's relief.
We also have our bed. I slept like a 100 year old log last night - bliss!
I have someone to have a bit of a laugh with at work - big relief. Also the manager got around to helping me. Do you think he reads my blog?

Miserable Monday

Well, it was my 5th Monday at work today and I still have only talked to one person. I'm getting a real complex about it now and I'm struggling to even ask for help when I need it. I knew I'd have problems as I'm not good with strangers, but nobody has made any effort to make me feel welcome. I didn't even get introduced around the office when I started. HR did send me a 'Welcome' email though - how heartwarming.
Oh well, here is a gratuitous photo of a card I made.

Kite Festival

There was a kite festival in Ashton Gate today. The wind was really strong. People can be so clever - have you ever seen 5 kites flying in sync? Very impressive.

This mermaid was about 5 meters long. They couldn't fly her as it was too windy (ah, just like Wellington).

I particularly liked this kite:

Weston-Super-Mare

R and I went for a look in W-S-M yesterday to see if we fancied living there. We had a long walk along beach and ended up in Uphill. We also had a yummy portion of British chips - wicked!
It was really windy and there were loads of windsurfers out. In spite of that (or because of it?) we decided WSM was not for us. Did get a great shot of a sandcastle though. Well, actually, it's King Kong eating the pier.

Friday night tradition

Yes, you guessed it - curry and beer. (Apologies to Violet for reminding her of lost Friday nights). We went into W-o-T for a pint in the White Lion and the Queen Vic. We then had a wicked curry in the British Raj.
Woke up in the night feeling dreadful and didn't get up to 10:30 today. Still, it is raining, so who cares?

The Race

I walk home along a back alley. Today a squirrel raced me all the way. He won.

Clifton

I work in Clifton. It's a lovely part of Bristol. The streets are tree-lined. (Unfortunately they are car-lined too.) I like to go and explore at lunchtime. Today I walked across the suspension bridge. It was designed by Brunel who never lived to see it finished. It's 200 years this year since he was born and there are loads of celebratory events. Yesterday a baby was born on the bridge!
Here are my photos - I couldn't get the whole thing in one shot.

Long Weekend

Lytham St. Annes.
We've just had a long weekend, so R and I headed up north to visit his sister and brother. They have 3 kids each. His sisters are all teenagers (well, G is 12). His brother's are all under 4. They all have interesting personalities, but are all lovely kids. G likes to do creative things, so we went to Lytham St. Annes on Saturday to paint pottery. R came with us and planned to go for a walk. We ended up with G painting a pencil pot, me doing a piggy bank and R actually painted a tile. He painted windsurfers, but he doesn't normally do creative things, so we were very impressed. Can't wait to get them back (they've gone off to be fired).
We had a lovely day with the little kids on Sunday. They are pretty full on, especially D who decided to make coffee from plant pot dirt and pee on the floor. Very hard to keep a straight face when he's being told off.
We spent our bank holiday helping R's sister strip wallpaper. I like doing that sort of thing, but I think R was bored.

Our Flat

Our flat is nice apart from the fact you can hear upstairs moving around. Our stuff hasn't arrived from NZ yet, so we're camping out. Here is R in our living room and our airbed bedroom.

New Forest

R and I took my parents out for a drive in the New Forest on Saturday. I had it in mind to visit Burley as I'd been camping there when I was a Guide. The drive through the forest was lovely. It is such a tranquil place. The ponies really do run wild. I snapped these just outside a tea shop in Burley. We stopped for a cuppa in the garden of the tea shop. The next people in forgot to shut the gate. The large pony came in and nicked the sugar from the bowl on the table next to us. It was a bit surreal. I couldn't get my brain around a pony in the tea garden. Glad he didn't fancy my teacake!
Burley was a bit of a disappointment. It was full of shops selling trinkets and ornaments and absolute rubbish. There seems to be some link with witchcraft. I'd never heard of witches in the forest - probably just a gimmick.
Still, Mum and Dad enjoyed the trip.

What's new?

Hello dear friends,
I have created this blog so I can keep in touch with all the lovely people I have sadly had to leave on the other side of the world.
First of all, for Wanda and Flipper, my show and tell is below.















I don't have all my card making gear yet, so these aren't too flash. Still, it's nice to start crafting again.
R and I are living in a nice (if noisy) flat in W-o-T. I have been at work for 2.5 weeks. Rob starts a week on Tuesday. He's looking forward to it as he's been a bit bored.
My job is odd. No-one really seems to chat to each other. There are mainly men in the office, but there are 5 other women. Not one of them has spoken to me yet. Ah, England!
I have 2 screens on my computer. It's very handy when multi tasking.
I love being back amongst family. Didn't realise I'd missed out on so much. I still miss NZ and all the friends I have there.