Bristol

Here is a gratuitous picture of Bristol. I am really getting to like living here, although it will never be quite the same as Wellington. It's a shame you can't windsurf in the harbour - we'd be here for life if you could!

Anzac Biscuits

They went down a treat. Well, I did only make them for my team and they are all far too polite to criticise my cooking (yeah, right). I thought they tasted something like oaty cardboard, but as I haven't had a sense of taste for a few months, I couldn't be sure.
Anyway it was just a tiny memorial to those great men and women who fought to keep us safe.

St. Georges Day

Now that I've rediscovered my Englishness, I thought it would be nice to celebrate St. Georges Day (April 23rd). So I bought a load of English cakes - Chelsea Buns, Yorkshire Tea Loaf and scones with jam & cream - to share with my colleagues. Didn't go down all that well. People ate them eventually, but no-one seemed bothered. Oh well, I like to celebrate being English.
To commemorate my other nationality, I have baked Anzac cookies for tomorrow. If no-one wants them, I'll eat them myself!

Eden Project

Just before Easter, Taf and I went down to Cornwall with my bruv, s-i-l and JJ. We stayed in a beautiful thatched cottage in Bosinver. Cornwall is so pretty with its rugged coastlines. On the Sunday we went to the Eden Project. It was pretty cool. Unfortunately I had a bad cold so didn't appreciate it as much as I should. The biodomes were amazing with plants you wouldn't normally see in England, like bananas and mangoes. As it was spring there were also thousands of daffodils, hyacinths and tulips - a spectacular show. I spent a lot of time chasing JJ who thought it was completely boring (well, she is only 19 months old) and wanted to go her own way.

Airbus

I was walking across the Downs today when I spotted a massive airplane in the sky (obviously). They are building the new Airbus here and I guess it was on a test flight. Big bugger, but boring to look at.

Spring

boing boing boing.

It's the first day of spring today and it's been an absolute cracker. Loads of sun, but still quite cold. We had a frog or toad in our garden. Isn't he lovely?

Brean Down

I don't know why they are called Downs when they are definitely Ups. Taf and I went for a wonderful explore of Brean Down. It was as windy as Wellington. The Down pokes out into the sea and at the end is an abandoned fort. It was never used much in the defense of these shores, but a soldier did manage to blow himself up there.

Fairy Godmother

Years ago I was asked to be godmother to my eldest niece. I'm not in the slightest bit religious, but felt I couldn't say no. I have to say I made a really bad job of it and now I don't have any contact with said niece.
Luckily, I have been given the chance to redeem myself. Gerbera has asked me to be LJs fairy godmother. I feel I can cope a lot more with this. No religious connotations at all, just a fun thing to do. I hope it doesn't make him scared of fairies!

Say 'Cheese'

Taf and I went for a lovely walk in the Mendips, near Cheddar. It's one of the walks we used to do when we lived here before. There was a lot of mud and a fair few hills, but it was a lovely day. We sat in a hollow to eat our lunch and were joined by 3 guests. The weather was amazing although we could see that it was raining in Devon and Wiltshire. We ended up in Cheddar where they make the world's yummiest cheese. We had a bit of a taste, but were too tight to buy any!

Ikea

Now don't get me wrong, this is a great store. It has some lovely products at reasonable prices.
Taf and I had heard horror stories about shopping there, but didn't really believe it. Anyway, we needed a desk, so off we set to Ikea one Sunday morning. Bad move. The off-ramp from the M32 was chocca - all going to Ikea. The car park had a queue to get in. Once in, there is a travellator to take you to the shopping. I'm not joking, half of Bristol had decided to have an Ikea experience. It was a nightmare - wall-to-wall people. The shop is larger than 4 Warehouse Stores combined and it has 2 floors. You have no choice but to follow the allocated path round. If you are mad enough to want to look at something, it is a fight to get to it. When you've decided what you want, you then have to go and find it in the warehouse part of the store. Big problem - we couldn't find the way out. By this time, I'm on the verge of a panic attack, so Taf did what he always does at times of max stress - went for a pee. So I'm left at the top of the travellator, (incoming only) which is spewing forth more of the Bristol population, trying to remember to breathe. After we found our desk in the warehouse (last one, slightly damaged box, but dammit, we are NOT going home empty handed), we joined the queue. By golly, my compatriots know how to queue. Half an hour standing in the line gives you a good chance to look at what everyone else is buying. We were really amazed at the crap people buy - we couldn't even tell what some of it was. Well, we eventually got out intact with our purchase precariously perched on the trolley - can't get down the down travellator - purchase is too wide. So we do battle for the lift. Had to be sneaky and devious, but finally made it.
The moral of the story? Go to Ikea at 8pm on a Monday. Have a list of what you want to purchase. Take sandwiches and an oxygen bottle.
I haven't the heart to tell Taf that I've seen some bookcases there that I really must have...

Demented, not scary

We've got a quiz night on Friday and it's fancy dress. The theme is TV and my team is going as Dr. Who. I'm a bit of a Who fan and I love David Tennant. He's the best Doctor ever (sorry Tom). I'm going dressed elegantly and with style as befits a woman of my age. It's amazing what you can do with papier mache and a bit of silver paint. I wonder if the BBC are looking for any costume designers?

Where the heart is..

It's valentines day today and I have really enjoyed watching men and women running around with bunches of flowers and boxes of chocs. It's all very romantic. Except for our local radio station, GWR who gave away a divorce as a Valentine gift. Taf and I exchanged cards. The photo is of the one he gave me. Can you spot the (not deliberate) mistake. We had such a laugh when he realised. I LOVE that man. Wouldn't change him for the world. In fact I may well be the only woman in the world who couldn't care less if the toilet seat is up.

We're going to cook ourselves a lovely meal following one of Delia's recipes. If our marriage can survive that, it can survive anything.

crafty stuff

There's a new craft magazine out here (much to Taf's delight). It's called 'Let's Make Cards' and includes all the stuff you need to make the cards. Of course, I don't really need any more craft stuff, but I couldn't resist it. Here's a picture of a card I made for my sister-in-law.

seasons

I don't know about global warming, but my garden doesn't know what season it is. I've got winter berries and snowdrops at the same time. It's pretty though:

Yikes!

The guy at the petrol station insisted that I had an Australian accent. It doesn't get much worse than that. Thing is, I've lived in so many places, I can't remember what my accent is. It certainly isn't bloody Australian though.

Why I came home

I don't have much to report today, so I thought I'd post the picture that brought be back to England.

HOUSEY

Yay, On December 20th we finally completed on the purchase of our lovely little house. Unfortunately we didn't have time to move in until this weekend.

It's a cute little place with scrumptious central heating. There are 3 bedrooms, one of which is just an oversized cupboard. We also have an enormous garage.

The main bedroom had been painted with shiny blue paint and had an awful built in wardrobe. So we dismantled the wardrobe and painted the walls magnolia (definite sign of middle age).

The window is munted so we've just got a quote to replace it - 1750 pounds. Wow!

We are still getting sorted out, but here is a picture of the lounge. The far end is an integral conservatory.

Iron Men

It's Taf's birthday on New Year's day. We went for a walk in Crosby to see Gormley's Iron Men. They were amazing. 100 iron statues gazing out to sea. Some were actually in the sea and some were half buried in the sand. It was an awesome sight.

Happy New Year

I know it's a bit late, but we've not had internet for a while, so I haven't been able to blog. Not to worry, I'm back now.

We spent New Years Eve in Formby with Taf's family. It was really brilliant. At midnight we went out into the street. There were heaps of people and a person playing bagpipes. Unfortunately we had just been playing 'ibble dibble', so we had cork marks on our faces.

Stuffed

and not just the turkey. I think I've eaten the world in the past week. It was mostly pretty tasty too. We had a marvellous Christmas. It was cold, but it's supposed to be (sorry NZ). We all trotted over to my brother and sister-in-laws. S-i-l did the most amazing dinner. Well delicious. It was washed down with a few bottles of Lindauer - real champagne, not like that French stuff! My Mum had us all in fits of laughter. She is such a hoot. I thought Dad and I were going to die from lack of breath at one point.
Well, hope you all had a lovely time.
Happy New Year to one and all.