Arkansas

My parents have an apple computer, which is a great computer (love them blah blah blah) but not so blogger friendly. So I'm down to bare minimums and can only blog in HTML (for those non-geeks out there ... that's internet language) which I'm not fluent in. So please forgive the lack of editting and the non-spell checkd postings.

I of course needed to post more Madilyn photos ... she IS a cutie after all. Her expressions are so fun... she has the cutest little smile.
These are of Madilyn in her Auntie gear: her "I love my auntie" bib and the outfit I gave her.
Notice she's waving to say hello to blogger world

So cute - she has the habbit of folding her hands together praying ... what can I say, they start 'em young in the Bible belt :-)

Cheryl and I just before I left Arkansas

****WARNING - Dodgey photos coming*****





Cheryl and Scott have a huge whirlpool bathtub in the en-suite: as soon as I saw it I knew I had to get in it before I left. When I was waiting for the tub to fill Cheryl made some comment about me posting pictures on my blog. I would have ever though to put a picture of my in a bath on my blog ... but then he thought was stuck in my head. So here's me enjoying the whirl pool bath at my sisters. (Don't worry, I of course am wearing a swimming suit, cough)

Christmas in Paris

With my family on Christmas evening (clockwise from left: Mom, Dad, Christmas tree, me, sister, Cheryl, Madilyn and Scott


The star of the show (no Scott, not you - the baby!)


And of course me ... with Madilyn:

At the Savage* house; Madilyn is wearing the outfit I brought over from England; it's a bit too big, but still cute!

Christmas morning looking a bit rough

Again at the Savages. Madilyn is wearing a Christmas present I got: a bib saying "I love Auntie". I was very particular that I would be auntie - no aunt. Cheryl did good finding a bib saying auntie!**


*My sister and bro-in-law's house in Arkansas
**Most American's have "ant"s, not aunties. It was no small task to find something with auntie on it I'm sure. Well done Cheryl!

Five States in as many days!

Instead of flying into Minneapolis, Minnesota, our flight was detoured to Fargo, South Dakota due to snow. So we sat on the runway for a few hours waiting for the runways in Minneapolis to be cleared, the plane to be refueled, and a new departure time to be set. We finally arrived in Minneapolis 5 hours late and I had missed all the connections to DFW (my final destination in Texas) so after standing in line for another 2-3 hours, I had a ticket booked for Monday morning to go to DFW. As I'd been awake and in transit for 22 hours, I wasn't up for airport sleeping; so I spoke to a few strangers and decided to book a hotel together to split the cost ... I started with sharing a hotel room with one stranger and in 30 minutes it had gone to 4 of us ... so I suggested getting 2 hotels. I stayed with a girl called Melissa who was absolutely ace. If we lived closer, I'm sure we would fast become good friends. I'm telling you, being stranded in an airport makes you bond with strangers! Melissa and I headed to the hotel where we ordered some pizza and made snow angels (after all, when life gives you lemons, you got to make lemonade...or snow angels - either way :-)
Monday (Christmas Eve) I finally arrived in Dallas, Texas, where I was greeted by my niece, sister and Dad (thanks for making two trips to the airport!) We headed to Paris* via Chipotle (a Tex-Mex place, my sister's favourite) and Ikea. By the time I made it to Paris I think I'd been in transit around 42 hours. My family has a Christmas eve tradition of driving around looking at Christmas lights, then coming home to open 1 present. This year we opened a present first (as that turned out to be our evening meal. My grandfather (a retired marine) sent over some MREs for us to try. I must say they weren't the best of food (not the worst either) but trying them was pretty cool! Thanks Papa!
Christmas was spent in Paris with my family. Normal family squabbles throughout the day, but that's what I'd expect. Dad forgot the turkey bag** so he went driving around to find an open store. This meant we opened presents a bit later and we ate a bit later, but the food was scrummy and we all ate too much. Around 6 some of my parents friends, the Schlutz, came over for Christmas desserts. I've met them over the last few years I've been to Texas and it was good to get to share dessert with their family.
Wednesday (Boxing Day) Cheryl, Scott, Madilyn and I headed for their home in Springdale, Arkansas, via Babies-R-Us in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We made it to the Savage's (my sisters) around 7pm. Scott emptied out the cars while Cheryl put stuff away and I explored their house (I say explored, Cheryl says noised round - potatoes/pototoes). I was super tired and wasn't up very long before I crashed in the spare room. I did however manage to watch a bit of the Simpsons in "Scott's Room" - a envy of any man. He's got it decked out with his transformer collection and the necessities - a fridge a projector and flipping big screen and some super comfy armchairs.
Thursday Cheryl had to take Max, the Savage's dog, to the vet - where he still is, bless him, he's not very well. We then went shopping. Shopping started around 2 and ended at 9 with a trip to the vets and meal at the Olive Garden (my favourite Italian restaurant in America) in between the shops. That's far too much shopping for me - I pushed my limits, but enjoyed the good bargains I got. I'm loving the dollar / pound exchange rate!!!
That brings us to today. I wanted to put some pictures up for you, but my sister's computer is not playing nice. So you'll just have to wait to see my pretty face again. When I asked what today's plan was, she said shopping :-)

*Paris, Texas of course - why would I have been heading to Paris, France, think about it :P

**Most Americans cook their turkey in a big plastic bag - a turkey bag. My father doesn't think it's possible to cook a turkey without a turkey bag.

"Merry Christmas Ya'll!"

... How could I resist that one? I wil try to do a more detailed post (as I know my life is SO very important and you mut know everything :) but I'm too sleep deprived to try now. I had a very good Christmas with my family. Santa came in the night with lots of goodies for all three generations here.

As it's been so long since I last gave you a lovely picture of me ....
This is the only picture I have uploaded at the minute. My sister and niece surprised me at the airport on Monday. This picture was taken litterally 60 seconds after I arrived in Dallas.
"My dad's girls"

Finally

I had a bit of an epic journey to get to Texas, but 34 hours, 12 queues, 4 airports, 3 hotels, a fog episode, a snow storm and 2 snow angels later ...I finally made it to Texas.

Texas bound

...yawn. It's past my bed time. I'm off to bed and then to Texas in the morning. The more I fly the more I hate and dread flying again. This time I'll be facing the travels without my ipod* ... how did I survive before ipods? Anyone have a walkman they can loan me :)

*I found out ipods don't work well after being dropped int he bath. boo.

Be back soon

I'm off to Texas to visit my family tomorrow (Sunday), so this will (presumably) be my last post for a while. So let me start off by

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and great 2008!

The last few days have been busy for me. Thursday was our last day at school. I was in the school "pantomime": every year the staff put on a show for the students. The last few years we've done tv shows and this year was Strictly Come Dancing*. My partner twisted his ankle a day before the show but I had a wonderful substitute. Andrew and I danced the twist to "Twisting the Night away". The students didn't make us the winners (which was fine) but there were many many staff members that came up afterwards and complimented us ... saying that we were very good and even a few said we were the best. True or not - it does the ego good to hear :) Andrew and I had a lot of fun with our routine - it was dripping in cheese! Very high energy and full of childness and fun!
Thursday night was our staff Christmas party at a swanky hotel in central London. Andrew (a different Andrew), a friend from Nottingham, came down and joined us as well - that was a nice treat for me! It was a really good night. I continued on the dance floor, so my feet are now paying the price. After the Christmas party was over we headed to a night club where my coat vanished from. I'm really bummed! As I was dressed up quite swanky I wore my nice (and flipping expensive) long black coat. When we were leaving the night club my coat was nowhere to be found. Grr! I've tried calling the night club today, but have had no word back. I fear my lovely coat is gone forever. Looking at the silver lining, I'm thankful my phone / keys / wallet weren't in my coat! ...If anyone's struggling for a Christmas present idea for me - I'm in the need of a nice long black coat :-)
After the 4am bed time from Thursday night / Friday morning, Andrew and I decided to have a nice lie in this morning. Andrew was up and out of the flat in search of milk before I emerged from my bedroom. I was quite surprised he managed to get ready and leave without waking me: he's staying in my spare room and the walls are very thin. In my defense he only just left before I was up. Around 2 we headed into London to go to the British museum, but as it was so late (and we were both quite dead) we decided to go tomorrow. Instead we strolled up the north bank of the Thames and ended up going for a late lunch at a very nice burger place opposite St Paul's Cathedral. We of course had to stop by St Paul's. There was a service starting, so we stayed for a bit of that before heading for some coffee. I'm suffering from a nasty cold so I feel really rough and Andrew's stomach wasn't quite right so neither of us were up for a big night. Somehow when deciding what we could do we decided on going to see The Sound of Music in the West End. It was a brillant show: we were lucky enough to get front row tickets so were in the thick of the action. Very cool. I was ever so impressed with the quality of the sets - there were a lot of changes and they were all done very impressively.
Tomorrow I think we're headed to the British museum to see the part of China's Terracotta Army there and then we're off to a choral Renaissance performance by The Tallis Scholars. Sunday Andrew's heading back to Nottingham and I'm off to Texas for a fortnight.
And through all the hustle and bustle, I have a cold and feel pretty horrible! Woe is me.

Apologies for the lack of photos. I have quite a few, I just can't get them on the pc at the moment.

* US equivalent = Dancing with the Stars I believe

The little Christmas ornament with a big story

Make sure your sound is on!

This little guy's story just keeps lengthening each year. I got this in my stocking from Santa when I was about 16. I took the rip out of my other something chronic because it was sooo stupid and cheesy! I was 16 for crying out loud (and my sister who got a similar one was going on 20). Little did I know how I'd come to appreciate this little thing!
Two years later was my first Christmas away from my family - far far away in England. While decorating in December I mentioned to my mother how much I missed this ornament - even as cheesy as it was, it was the one piece of Christmas decor I missed most. To my delight on Christmas while opening my gifts, I opened this ornament - Mom had wrapped it up and sent it to me. Oh how it made me smile. Through a bit of miscommunication (and me pouting that my own parents didn't even want to talk to me on Christmas day) not only was Christmas of 1999 my first away from home, I didn't even get to speak to my family. That night I cried myself to sleep playing this message over and over and over again. Ah.
After that it held a prized place on the tree. A few years later when I got him out of his box, there was only a clicking noise when I pressed the play button. Horror! The wire hook for hanging the ornament on the tree had been pushed into the 'record' hole and recorded a bunch of nothing. Devastation! Off it went in the post to America for "Santa and Mrs Clause" to re-record the message. The following year, 2003, for the third time I unwrapped this little guy on Christmas morning.
This year his saga continues - I went to show a friend my favourite ornament - and it doesn't work. I think he's just out of batteries as I played it earlier last week. What ever the case - this little thing hold a very special place in my heart - and on my tree!

a freezing weekend

Thursday night Mary came over for a "girly night." After a healthy dinner, we made ourselves sick on Ben & Jerry's ice cream while watching Elf

... while I watched Elf and Mary "closed her eyes for 10 minutes". Bless.

Friday I made a trip into London to see Hayley one last time before the New Year. Bit of a nightmare getting there, but it was good to see Hayley as always!

After Hayley and I parted, I went cross London to meet up with "S" & "N,"some friends who had come down from Derby to go to a party of a uni mate of S's. As good as it was to see S & N, I must admit it was kind of awkward being a friend of a friend.*

Saturday I was struggling to wake up, but I needed to get into Waterloo to meet up with Mary - we had tickets to see a live tv show with Westlife. It was another nightmare journey into London - a 30 minute trip took 1 hour 20 min - grr. I arrive at 3:30 and met Mary who was already standing in the queue, freezing. We queued in the 1 degree temperatures until 6. I was ok bar my feet; I was cold, but it was tolerable ... my feet however I could not feel ... heels not such a good idea. Mary on the other hand - I don't know how she survived, bless her. She had a dress on that only came to her knees and a thin (very very thin) little jacket / cardigan. She was such a trooper to endure it. But we got in and now it's just a distant memory. It was a great night - filled with lots of freezing memories ... including one of "whisktea" :-)

There was strickly no photos .... so I wasn't looking through the view finder as I tried to sneak a few. I managed to get all 4 of them though - amazingly!

* Oh yeah - I forgot the best bit - Some random tube worker hit on me when I was headed home. He said I made his heart beat faster cause I was that pretty. Ah! Random tube workers hitting on you - can you think of anything better? :-)

Happy Christmas from Flat 7

I like Christmas time - you just have to smile. It's Christmas ... and the kid side comes out. Love it!

I finally decorated the flat. Very unlike me to do it so late ... and I'm only going to be around for a week and a half before I go away for Christmas - but it still looks nice. I was selective in my ornaments this year - I only put up 13 ... but they're nice ones. My mother has sent me a few of my childhood ornaments over the last few years. They didn't get on the tree this year - I spent my teenage years trying to take them off the tree or hide them deep within the tree, but now they make me smile (and remember my disgust of my mother putting them on the tree - oh how fickle I am!)

My Weekend Antics

Thursday I met up with Hayley and went to the see the Christmas lights switched on at Trafalgar Square. It was raining, windy and cold. We went. We waited. We saw. We left. And then went looking for food. We walked past The Texas Embassy a (very) touristy Tex-Mex res truant. I remember seeing it from the tour bus while my family was visiting a few years ago. It was, well, the main course wasn't as good as the starter, but it was the best Tex-Mex I've had in Britain. Most Mexican restaurants have very non-Mexican food ... since when is char-grilled Shark Mexican food?

L to R: The Sq before the lights were switched on (check out all the umbrellas out in the bottom of the pic); Tree after lights on; Me and the tree (with my brolly); The Texas Embassy

Friday night I couldn't be bothered to do anything so I went home and crashed on the couch. I couldn't decide if I was tired enough for bed, so I made the mistake of deciding to watch "1" episode of Heroes before bed (this was at 11pm). 5 episodes later I went to bed around 4. Heroes is SO addicting! I figured it wasn't that big of deal as I could sleep in on Saturday. Which I did, but only till 10:30. As I was going out Saturday night, I decided on taking a couple hours nap. Around 8pm I went to a house party in south London for a few hours and then around 11pm headed to Camden (north London) to celebrate 2 friends birthday - I accidentally said yes to 2 people about going out. I would normally make my apologies to the second booking, but as it was 2 mates birthdays, I went to both. I forgot to take pictures at the house party, but I had a really good time. I love Christmas parties!
I met the 2 Marys (the 2 birthday girls) at a pub and we left went they closed (I'm assuming this was 2am-ish). As I drove, I'd been drinking a lot of coke by this time and wasn't feeling the hour. We headed back to Mary H's flat via a friends house to pick up his guitar. The partying continued at Mary's flat until 7:30am. Yawn. I was back up at 10:00 on Sunday - ouch! Everyone emerged from the flat for some sustenance around 1. We all headed for the high street and had a greasy fry-up ... just what the doctor ordered (although it tasted superb, my stomach spent several hours recovering from it.) Mary H was on the search for slippers so we did a bit of shopping. I bought my Christmas tree* while we were out. It's not the best of trees, but it's real and it smells good. Paul, Mary H's brother, was kind enough to carry it all the way back to my car! Loving him! I bought the tree while Mary H was in the grocery store and as it was cold, wet and windy (surprise surprise) Paul, Elizabeth and I headed back to the flat. We arrived quite a bit before Mary H (and the keys) got back so we sat in the car. As the tree was in my backseat, Elizabeth and Paul shared the front seat - comfy!

Between 4 and 5am Dave whiled us with his guitar playing skills (how much did Mary H's neighbours love us!). There's 6 clips here (I couldn't choose): 1 - A good ole sing along; 2 - Hallelujah; 3 - I asked for a "good ole Irish gig", this is what I got, pure class! 4 - Jack decided to chime in ... such talent; 5 - Fairytale in New York, classic Irish Christmas tune; 6 - With or without you
I crashed on the couch not long after I got home (much to my efforts of trying not to take a nap) and woke up around 8 ... and couldn't get back to sleep until 1am. Needless to say Monday I was feeling much too old for weekends like I had! Monday I went home and crashed on the couch again! I must stop this nap thing! It's SO not good for insomniacs! And now it's Tuesday. I was pottering about at work until 7 and then headed home - in the cold, wet and wind.

*I usually get my Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, but I was away that weekend and didn't manage it. This is the first year I didn't get a Christmas tree that weekend. Oh dear.

too busy to post - who'd have thunk it!

Last Monday I had a hospital appointment in the city. I went to buy my train ticket and realised I didn't have enough cash with me. I was horrified - I needed to get the train or I'd miss my appointment. So I bought a single. I will try to make it a short story, but more details would make it more suspenseful. I was worried I might be trapped int he city - no way home. You see my mother (in Texas) has my bank card to pay my credit card bill in the States, so I have to go to the bank to get cash in person, and have to pay for everything in cash. The banks were closed after my appointment, so couldn't go to bank. Luckily I've just changed my surname on my bank card and had the new one with me - and it worked! How happy was I. How relieved was I! God sure was looking out for me!
I decided to go grocery shopping when I got back to the train station and cleaned out my car after that. My car was in SERIOUS need of a clean. There were 3 bin bags and 2 boxes full of stuff I needed to give to the charity shop (mostly clothes). This stuff has pretty much been in my car since I moved to London - it's that bad!
When I got home, my flatmate was on her way out - moving out. So now, I'm all alone in my flat. Helen's stay in the fault was short lived, but she was a great housemate. It'll be some job to replace her! There are some good bits about living alone (like not worrying about cleaning up after yourself) and some not good points (like having to wake yourself up in the morning cause your lovely flatmate's no longer knocking on your door in the morning to tell you it's time to get up.)

Tuesday some friends and I went to see a recording of The Graham Norton show. For those regular blog readers you might remember I went in October to see a show as well. I was irritated by the place they sat us last time I emailed in a whinging letter (I tried to put a bit of humour amongst my whinging); within 15 minutes of emailing a lovely guy called me back and arranged for more tickets. This time he reserved seats for me. They were awesome seats! We were 2 rows back from everything with a good view. The guests were Nigela Lawson, Marilyn Manson and the musical guest was Rihanna. I wasn't too impressed by the guests, but to my shock I found Marilyn Manson hilarious! He was very crass and crude, but I was in stitches! My mother wouldn't have approved at all, but she wasn't there :-) When I saw the show on tele last night it wasn't as funny - they cut quite a bit of the crudeness out. At one point in the show, they panned out to the guy next to me and you could see my profile making a horrible disgusted face - way to use my 15 minutes of fame, right? Wednesday must have been a pretty mundane day, can't remember what I did Wednesday night after work.

I've been walking all over London recently, and my feet aren't liking the shoes I'm choosing!I can find my camera connection to the computer to download my pictures from Thursday onwards, so I'll have to leave you in suspense about my weekend. I'll just say that I'm still recovering from my weekend....or is it that I am still feeling the effects of my weekend?

There is a new post...

but you'll have to look at Thursday ... I started it Thursday but posted it today .

A full two days

After I had my hair done, I realised I left my clothes in London, so I went into town in search of something appropriate to wear. I didn't find any black trousers, so I stayed in my jeans (not the best, but I make jeans look good :-) but I did find a lovely Cashmere cardigan - nice! Well I like it anyway!

at the concert

Saturday night I stayed with friends from Nottingham church of Christ. Simon and Pam have 2 small girls. Sunday at church they were colouring under the seat - I found it too cute not to take a photo of!

You complaints will fall on deaf ears if those American readers complain about petrol prices. I was flabbergasted when I filled up with petrol on my way home. I didn't even have an empty tank and it cost £57 (that's around $115) to fill up! So ridiculous I wanted to share.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Great look for me, no? I especially like the lobster bib.

This post should be self explanatory by the photos, but in case you're not the sharpest tool in the box - I got my hair done on Saturday. I still go to a hairdresser where I used to live. My appointment was at noon on Saturday, so it meant an 8am start for me on Saturday - urg!