Happy Thanksgiving!

I was just looking at my blog post from last Thanksgiving, this year was a bit more understated. Once again the Bullocks had me round their house. The journey up from London took longer than expected (traffic traffic traffic!) and I missed Thanksgiving dinner - I finally arrived as dessert was being dished up. I made it for the important part of the meal I guess :-) (Patty said she would have made everyone wait for me, but as church was at 7, they didn't have time to wait - I arrived at 6.)

Patty & John washing up after church (don't fret mother, after I took the picture I helped with the drying).

Patty & I after the washing was done

I normally make my annual "ring round" and speak to my family but as I only had my mobile, it was too pricey for long conversations. I was hoping that the family would have rung me (and saved me the bill) but no such luck. (Because of the time difference I was heading to bed as my family would just be finishing dinner.) I made a quick phone call to say Happy Thanksgiving and send my love. Mom passed the phone around so I got to say hi to everyone.

Mom also snapped a picture of Dad talking to me

Do you remember my Thanksgiving catastrophe from last year? (Click here and read the last paragraph of my post to remind yourself) The short version: I have a "Thanksgiving shirt" that my mom bought me when I was a teenager. I lost it sometime between Thanksgiving 2006 and Thanksgiving 2007. The good news ....

I found it! (Of course it was stuffed in the back of a cupboard and forgotten about as I don't wear it but once a year.) I was happy to have it back this year - as overly American and cheesy as the shirt is!

Friday morning was a lazy one. I met James and Nick (who I used to work with) for lunch at 1 .... and we didn't leave until 8 that night. It was a long lunch. We went to a restaurant near their work and as work finished Nick spotted everyone heading to the pub next door, so we went over to say hi.

James & Nick (laughing at my bad efforts to take and inconspicuous picture)

Saturday morning around 5am I woke up all bothered from a bad dream I had - I can't remember the last time I had a bad dream! Very peculiar!! I had a pretty lazy morning again (how I enjoy my lazy mornings) until I wasted so much time that I was running late for my lunch date with another former colleague (and friend), Sam.

Me and Sam

After lunch I headed across the street to get my hair cut

...and then it was back to the Bullocks. Exciting Saturday night activities included the movies with Susan and Ashley to see Four Christmases.

Susan & Ashley leaving the movies

Susan's 15 weeks pregnant with their first child. She'd been in a bit of pain throughout the day and it got worse during the end of the movies. She got pretty scared by this and we decided to head to A&E to make sure everything was ok before heading home.

Ashley trying to comfort Susan and convince her not to worry

I called Patty and John to let them know what was going on, and like the good parents they are, they couldn't stay away. So Patty and joined us waiting around at the hospital. By this time Susan had been transferred to the other hospital in the city (the one with the A&E doesn't have "women" doctors or a maternity suite.) There was a lot of waiting. But after a lot of Susan's blood was taken and tests were run and Susan & Ashley got to hear their ickle one's heart beat (for the first time mind you), Susan was released with a clean bill of health.

And there was more waiting (this blurring picture is of John)...

...and more waiting (Patty pictured here)...

Susan's arm started gushing blood from where they had put in a iv drip thing, so we waited as she stopped bleeding and got cleaned up - full of excitement our night was!

Patty, Ashley & Susan headed home (by this time it was around 2am)

Sunday morning I joined the Bullocks at church and for the fellowship meal* that followed.

John, Ken & Susan just finishing dessert

I left pretty quickly after the meal so that I could have a quick drink with Grant (another friend from my former job) before heading back on the road home.

A pretty relaxing weekend but full of visits with friends and family - just like Thanksgiving weekend should be!

*fellowship meal / pot luck (for the American readers) is a meal where everyone brings a savoury dish and sweet dish and you put them on a big table and get a little portion of whatever you fancy. Yum yum!

My hero's in hospital

Do you remember my post about my IT hero a few weeks back? (Click here) Well my hero has landed himself back in hospital. Poor guy has not had a great year, being in and out of hospital! Kelli (another friend from work) and I went to visit him Wednesday night after work.

Claude, Kelli and I

Claude had another visitor there when we got there, here's the four of us:

Jo (I think) Claude, Kelli and I

I passes around a card at work on Wednesday for everyone to sign - this guy is seriously loved at our school! We seriously miss him! I also bought him a few bits and bobs to help him through the boredom of a hospital visit: one of them being silly string. I thought this would be a fun and amusing novelty gift... I didn't think "Claude is in hospital because of lung problems - silly string is in a high pressured gas cylinder thing - the two should not mix". I felt really bad when we were playing with it and he started coughing! Good one Karen!

The good news is that Claude got discharged today - hopefully he'll stay healthy. Keep him in your prayers!

I never thought I'd be one of "those" people

You know, those people who have pictures of their kids plastered all over their desk / office. It's even worse for me as I have no children of my own. I can't even say, "yes, those are my precious darlings" - no instead I say "no, not mine, my niece". I have 12 pictures of my niece in my office - TWELVE! Sheesh! But she is pretty cute!

My family has basically invaded my office over the past year - and they've never even been here! Check it out...

Bottom left of picture: picture frame of 5 of Madilyn's (niece) pictures; stack of circle boxes to right of picture frame from my mother a few Christmases ago. Bottom right: recent photo of Cheryl (sister) and Madiyn

On shelf: 9 month old Madilyn with Cheryl & Scott (bro-in-law), funny card from Cheryl, Thanksgiving card from Mom (Thanksgiving card obviously not a permanent fixture). Below shelf: little notes that Mom has hidden amongst my things in my luggage when I have visited her.

Bottom right window: picture frame with 4 of Madilyn's photos. (Not family oriented, but do you recognised the "paintings" above the windows? This is what I stare at all day - or rather what my desk faces, I stare at the computer screen all day.)

1/2 of my bulletin board here (the non-work side). Quite a few of the things on it are words of wisdom / poems / inspirational thoughts that my mother sent me. Down at the very bottom you can just make out 3 photos - me and my family. To the left of the photos, a Paris, Texas postcard - Eiffel Tower, complete with cowboy hat! (click photo to enlarge)

Now do you see why I say my family has invaded my office?! (Also ... did you enjoy the "tour" round my office / second home.)

What am I doing to myself?

A quiet and uneventful weekend - well I half pulled it off. That's pretty good for me. My days were quiet and lazy, but my evenings were late. Very late. Too late for this old gal! I'm 28 now - no spring chicken!!!

Friday night a friend came over and I introduced them to Mexican Hats, a favourite Tex-Mex dish from my childhood. Mexican Hats are a "build your own" Mexican salad: you start with crushed up tortilla chips (in the States you would use Fritos, but we don't have those here so I have to improvise) then mince meat (ground beef for you American readers) then seasoned pinto beans (Stateside you could use Ranch style beans, but once again England fails to supply those for me), then lettuce, tomato, onion, olives, cheese, sour cream, and salsa. Yum yum!!!! Then to top off our overly filled tummies, I had bought lemon cheesecake and made a rather yummy raspberry sauce. This raspberry sauce, as delicious as it turned out, will not be made by me again - do you know how time consuming and ridiculous it is to make a raspberry sauce and get the seeds out? Sheesh!!! Friday night saw me in one of my sarcastic, childish moods in which nothing was off-limits, so watching a James Bond movie from the 70s was a bit too much for me. I don't think my friend will ever watch a dvd with me again - I couldn't shut up and leave the movie alone - everything was worthy of being made fun of. Oh dear. If you know me, it comes as no surprise that I couldn't shut up and it would also come as no surprise to hear that we were chatting til around 4 in the morning when finally tiredness hit and it was time for me to head to bed!

Saturday I was awake at 8am - what's with my inner alarm clock, I used to be able to sleep til 3 in the afternoon! How I miss those days. Only having around 4 hours of sleep I was pretty useless on Saturday and ended up having one of my lazy pj days (you know - a day that you stay in your pjs all day) in which I took a little nap. My nap geared me up to have enough for Helen's housewarming party I went to on Saturday night. (Helen used to work at the school where I work ... until she moved "up London" and the commute was just too much.) Meghan (another friend from work) came over to mine and I drove to Helen's. I would typically take public transport in London, but it took around 50 minutes to drive and would have been near enough 2 hours by public transport - go figure! Helen's house is loverly and her housemates are so sweet. It was a really good night ... but another stoncher that didn't get me in bed till 3:30 in the morning!

Me, Meghan & Helen

Meghan got really excited about me driving over London Bridge when we came home, "I've never been on London Bridge before!" She did get slightly disappointed to realise it was actually Tower Bridge (not London Bridge) that she wanted to see / go on - this is a very common mistake made about London Bridge. Luckily there is a beautiful view of Tower Bridge from London Bridge, and lucky for Meghan that she was with a crazy American who decided it was okay to park on the side of the road on London Bridge, jump the pedestrian barriers and take a picture of her momentous occasion. It was 2:30 am, so there wasn't much traffic around!

Sunday morning I was up bright and early again, this time awoken by a text message. Rubbish! I saw Meghan and pretty much had a lazy Sunday afternoon, deciding on a nice chic-flick for the afternoon. I had forgotten how good Nottinghill was - what a great film! I didn't get to bed until around midnight which meant Monday was SUPER hard going! I was SOOO tired! One day I'll learn!

OUCH!

Know your limits. This is what I need to work on learning – my limits! In the two weeks since getting back from the States I’ve done a total of a 25 minute workout session. While in the States I did an hour work out twice a week. Before going to the States I was generally working out 3 times a week, sometimes only managing twice a week. So it’s been on my mind that I need to get my routine back – must work out. But I HATE working out!!! While “planning” my week, I knew that I would be out on Monday and Wednesday and Friday and Claude was coming over to fix my computer Tuesday. On Thursdays there is a “keep fit” class offered to the staff at the school where I work. Ok, “this is good” I tell myself. I can go to Keep Fit Thursday and I’ll try to work out before Claude arrives Tuesday.
Monday after Cate left I decided to “put a few things away”. This turned into a 4 hour clean / organise the flat session, putting me in bed near 2am. Tuesday I was beyond knackered, but with some encouragement from a friend I managed to gear up for a workout. But I decided to do a new workout routine (one of Davina's DVDs - pictured above). Why?! Let’s use muscles that aren’t used to being worked Karen – yes that’s a good idea! (Just in case you didn’t catch it – that statement is dripping in sarcasm!) With Claude coming round after my workout, I managed another late night on Tuesday. I expected to be really sore Wednesday, which I was, but I didn’t feel like my abs and arms got a work out. I had a pretty early return home Wednesday from my girlie night out (getting in a 9:30pm) and decided it would be an excellent time to work out my abs and arms. Am I insane?! Yes is the answer. By the time I’d finished my hour workout, managed to recompose and take a bath and get into bed it was well past midnight, so yet another late night. Yesterday my calves were KILLING me – they were so tight and bothersome. For some reason only known to God, I decided I’d still do Keep Fit. Eugene, the personal trainer that leads keep fit, varies what he has us do depending on who and how many are there. Yesterday only two of us turned up and we got worked out. Sheesh! There was a lot of abs (I’d just done a work out specifically for my abs, ouch!) and boxing (in which I managed to box some of the skin off my knuckles) and kick boxing and weights (my arms were shaking with pain). Here’s a bigger problem than working out three days running – I don’t do it half hearted. I probably would have on Thursday, but Eugene got the boxing gloves out. I can’t help but give it my all – I hold nothing back when I can impact my punch onto the gloves. If he’d just left the gloves in the storage cupboard I’d been able to give a half-hearted effort yesterday. Today I curse his name! Ouch!
Oh how sore I am today! I ache from my left elbow to my neck to my right elbow all the way to my ankles. Sniff sniff. I feel sorry for myself and the pain I caused myself with lack of sleep and new workouts. When will I learn my limitations I ask?!
Well, at least I got my 3 works outs for the week done … now for a quiet, uneventful, relaxing weekend. (Anyone else sceptical that I can pull of an uneventful weekend? Trouble tends to follow me around! :-)

A girlie night out

Two girlie nights this week, one girlie night in and one girlie night out – I am one lucky girl! Last night I met up with my friend, Hayley, in central London for a quick drink. Well, that’s what I thought anyway. Problem 1: Hayley and I have often gone out and would eat as she sat there and watched me eat because she’d already had dinner or had plans later that evening. Yesterday Hayley told me she wasn’t going to eat but would be willing to “watch me eat” if I wanted food. Problem 2: I am notorious for being late. I’m ALWAYS late. Even why I try to be early something always scuppers my plans: a late train, a flat tyre, bad traffic – there’s always something that happens.
So yesterday I managed to catch the early train into London giving me 20 minutes to grab a quick bite to eat before meeting Hayley and then she wouldn’t have to “watch me eat” this time. Well said early train was actually late and by the time it got into London I had 12 minutes before Hayley and I were meant to meet. No problem. I still ran into Yo-sushi (a favourite of mine. It’s one of those sushi bars that have sushi on the conveyer belt thing in from of your table – love it!) and quickly scarfed down some sushi. As I was paying the bill I sent Hayley a text saying I was paying my bill and I’d see her in a second (Yo-sushi is just upstairs from where I was meant to meet Hayley). As I came out the Yo-sushi door Hayley and a friend were there to greet me, “Please tell me you haven’t eaten” says Hayley.
“I just shoved some sushi down my throat and I’m pretty stuffed” says I.
“D’oh!” says she.
Hayley had arrived about 20 minutes before 6 (when we were due to meet) with a friend, Sarah. Hayley told Sarah that because I was always late, they’d have time for a quick drink before I arrived and then we could all go for dinner somewhere (Hayley, knowing I always made her watch me eat, knew that I wouldn’t have had any dinner yet). Foiled!

All in all it was a good night out and Sarah seemed to be a good laugh.

I've been robbed!

I’ve been robbed I say, cheated, foiled! Bar my 2 week holiday in the States, I’ve been “detoxing” since mid-August (click here & here for my previous blog entries re: detoxing). I was feeling a bit sluggish and generally rubbish, so I thought I’d give myself a got kick start with a 28 day detox, which turned into more of a semi-permanent thing (as I’m still “detoxing” 3 months later). During my 2 week holiday stateside I ate SO much crap, I mean serious crap – and I felt worse for wear. I know jet lag played a bit of a part to it, but I was tired all the time, had no energy for anything and just didn’t feel right. (Don’t get me wrong here – I enjoyed every bite of the crappy, un-nourishing food, just didn’t enjoy the after effects.) Since coming back home I’m back eating my 5-a-day and eating healthy again, and I certainly notice a big difference!
Back to why I feel robbed. Part of the detox is to not have caffeine. This is a biggy for me. Several times I have gotten myself addicted to coke (the coca cola type). And when I realise my addiction gets out of control and I can’t function without a coke, I have to give it up (this was one of the reasons I started the detox in August). So mid-August I gave up coke and normal tea and all caffeine as I knew it. Sigh. How I missed my tea in the morning. After a few weeks I started buying herbal teas, drinking them occasionally and gradually I started to enjoy them. Green tea became my tea of choice. Lots of people drink green tea when they detox – something about it having antioxidants or something? So for the past three months I have been walking around proud of myself for not having any caffeine – not even to get through my excruciatingly long journeys to the States, not to help get through jet lag – nope, no caffeine. Sigh. I googled green tea today. It has caffeine in it. Sob. I’ve been robbed. I’m so gutted! All this time I could have been drinking my lovely morning tea and drinking Coca Cola which I love so dearly! But NO, I wanted to be good and not have caffeine. I’m so disappointed. Sigh.
I guess the only saving grace that I can comfort myself with is that green tea has less caffeine than normal tea, coke and coffee:
“..Green tea is generally brewed with water below the boiling point for 2-4 minutes. Less caffeine comes out of the leaves in the brewing process than from roasted tea. The content varies based on it's type and preparation. Sources quote anywhere from 3 to 30 mg of caffeine in a cup of green tea. Regular tea contains between 30 and 60 mg. A can of Coke contains 34 mg. Instant coffee contains between 65 and 100 mg. Drip filtered coffee can contain up to 200 mg.”

My hero!

For the first time in a year I finally have my home pc back up and running in my house! Apparently I had let my pc fall into discord with viruses fighting viruses and it finally had enough and died. My friend, Claude, mended it for me and restored it back to health. Claude was over tonight to return my healthy pc.

Claude setting up my pc at home, making sure it's all up and running

Claude was a lifesaver when I moved to London and a great friend. In the 2 years since moving here our lives have gotten busier and I don't get to see him much anymore so it was good to be able to catch up!

Thanks again for all your work Claude!

A girlie night in

This evening was a girlie night full of all the right ingredients: food, laughter and gossip about the boys. All it was missing was popcorn and a movie. Clare, Cate and I went out for a lovely Chinese meal after work today and headed back to the flat for a bit more gossip and games.

Me, Clare & Cate

Clare bashing Cate with the game piece

My attempt at taking a photo of us playing the game, Sorry. You can see Clare, then Cate's legs, then mine (notice I'd already changed into my colourful pjs by this time!

After Cate left I was headed downstairs to get into bed but instead somehow ended up spending the next four hours sorting out my flat - cleaning, organising, unpacking the rest of my luggage from my trip to the States, blah blah blah. Now it's 1:30 am and I'm blogging... where does all the time go?! Must get some sleep.

A Cambridge Tutorial

So when you think of Cambridge, you think of what?

Cambridge University, of course - me too. This is King's Chapel, the chapel for Kings College, part of Cambridge University

So other than having a prestigious university, all I knew was Cambridge was probably in the countryside and full of amazing architecture. This weekend, my friend Matt and I took a train to Cambridge to get out of the city. Matt, being a history buff and all around good source of knowledge, knew quite a bit about Cambridge and showed me the sights.

Cambridge is on the river Cams and apparently is well known for punting.

You can hire out boats and punt yourself or go on a guided boat. Matt had booked us on a "ghost tour" Saturday early evening (it's dark here by 5 - how rubbish is that?!). Now for those of you who know me at all, you must be wondering why I agreed to go on this ghost tour. I'm wondering this too. I am the BIGGEST scaredy cat in the world, it takes very little to make me jump out of my skin. So why would I go on a tour that was meant to scare me? Thankfully the ghost tour wasn't spooky or scary to me; it was more informative about stories of Cambridge University and Cambridge town. This sceptic has been proven wrong - it was a really good tour. Good call Matt!

After the punting ghost tour, the tour continued around the city centre where we past this rather unusual & grossly expensive clock. Apparently it's a rather new addition to Cambridge and no one seemed to know the complete story on why it was built and put up ... but it is rather unusual, no?

The Eagle Pub was the last stop on the tour. Amongst some ghost stories, the pub has quite a history to it. I especially liked the ceiling in the back room that Airmen would sign during the world wars before going off to fight.

I was flabbergasted with the number of bikes that were in Cambridge. This is the scene outside the train station. Have you ever scene this many bikes in one place?!
Matt & I outside the train station

My Frightful Friday

So Friday night I was meant to go over to Ed's house for a quiet night of dinner and a movie. This was not to be as Ed had another visitor, and unlike me this was an unwanted guest - of the mouse variety. You would expect nothing less than me to scream like a girl and jump on the couch. I did not let you down ... upon seeing the rodent, I squealed like a girl and immediately jumped on the couch and made Ed sort his guest out. Unfortunately Ed was a scared of the mouse as I was. Oh dear. So here was the plan ....

The mouse had decided to hide behind the curtain, so we decided to trap the mouse in a make-shift cage.

Make-shift cage up, I lifted the curtain and Ed was meant to put a box over the mouse to trap it so we could dispose of it. You'll not be surprised that the mouse easily escaped our cage and Ed decided to chuck the box at the mouse in the insane idea that somehow the mouse would be under the box. The mouse escaped the flying box and ran away.

As I continued to be a scaredy cat on top of the couch, Ed searched for the mouse again.

Mouse found again, Ed needed a bit of courage from his glass before attempt 2 of catching the mouse.

With a bit of encouragement the mouse ran back to the curtain and we built the cage again, lift the curtain ready to trap the mouse in the box - and there was no mouse! After a bit of pondering and searching, Ed saw the mouse had run up the curtain.

So with a bit of coaxing we managed to get the mouse in a bag and Ed kindly rehomed the mouse outside.

An eventful and funny night to remember!

The shed devistation! Part IV, will it ever end?

Do you remember the adventurous life that my shed has lived? If not, here's some links to help remind yourself:

Part 1 - The Shed Fiasco - February - This ruined quite a bit of the contents of my shed. Very sad, but nothing hugely important - the leak was small.
The Shed Fiasco Part Duex - October 2 - Again, not much important lost here, a few bits and bobs thrown away, but most of it ok.
The shed Disaster - October 4 - All Thanksgiving decorations lost that were brought over for me by my mother years agao, some that I knew from my childhood. Very very upsetting!

When I got home from the states late Friday morning, for some reason I went outside briefly and was greeted by the after effects of my shed vomiting. One of the doors to the shed had come open and more of my stuff had been ruined by weather and rain. This time ... this time it was 10 years worth of pictures that were sitting in water. Devastating!

I had to bring what I could inside on Friday, but I was rushing to get a train up north for the weekend, so there wasn't a lot I could do. Monday after work I went to the local DIY shop to buy a new shed - I'd had enough shed disasters. They didn't have any shed. Poo! They did say another shop "down the road" had them, so off "down the road" I go. Half and hour later I got to the next shop and bought Shed Number 2. Exactly the same shed, just without a broken lid.

Getting it in the car, while it rained, was interesting, but I was determined to get it in the car (I didn't remember how tight of a fit it was in my car.

Check how far forward my seat is ... I'm sure it was illegal to drive like this! Remember, I'm a leggy 5'10"! I felt like I was crammed in a clown car! I somehow managed the painful 20 minute drive home.

By the time I managed to get home, I was exhausted and hungry (this was 9:30pm). So the shed stayed flat packed on my stairwell and the contents of the shed were in my hallway. Tuesday I was ill and Wednesday I was in the city to watch the fireworks .. so my hallway was a bit of an assault course this week!

I didn't get any pictures of the damaged stuff or the hallway with all the shed contents that survived, but here are a few pictures from me putting the shed together in the dark and rain last night. I have such a fun life!

This looks like all the ruined stuff

To try to make room, I put the patio chairs and the ruined stuff in the old shed

The chaos and packaging of the new shed

The new shed with a lid without a crack in it. Fingers crossed this one doesn't leak!!!

The shed now has all the shed contents back in it. It's been a rainy-ish day, so I guess I can check out how water proof it is tonight.

The Part 1 - The journey across the pond

I can't BEGIN to tell you how tired I was when I got up to get ready for my long journey to the States. My flight left at 6:30am, this meant I had to be at the airport by 4:30am, this meant that I had to leave my house for the airport by 3:30am, THIS meant I had to get up no later than 2:30, this meant my alarm clock had to go off by 2am. 2am?! Seriously?! My plan Thursday night (I travelled Friday morning the 17th) was to go home from work at 4:30pm, do an hour work out, have a bath and get in bed by 6 and I could still get my 8 hours before the alarm went off. Well for any of you who know me, you know this didn't happen. One thing after another prevented me from getting into my bed as I watched time pass by: I left work 2 1/2 hours later than expected; my mom was sue to pick me up from the airport, but then wasn't going to be able to - so this meant I had to find a car rental at a decent price and book it; I still had to finish packing (my version of packing is to throw stuff in the suitcase); I had a friend staying at my flat while I was away and I had to sort some stuff out for her; and the list continued. I finally made it to my bed and got to sleep around 10. 4 hours of sleep isn't that bad - pretty good for me before a flight (on numerous occasions I've pulled an all-nighter packing and getting ready for the flight as I'm a last minute gal), but I knew I had a super long day in front of me and I was knackered!!!

The taxi driver that picked me up is a really sweet old guy originally from Turkey. He's drove me to the airport back in May when I went to the States in May. Bless him, he is sweet but he was hitting on me a bit too much for that early in the morning. How could he find me attractive without make up and with HUGE bags under my eyes?! I was flattered never-the-less. He told me to call him and he'd drive me around the city so I could see how beautiful it was at night. I came back with "oh, that'd be too expensive for me to do in a taxi". He said that I misunderstood, he wasn't going to charge me. [grimise] Slightly uncomfortable but I plastered on a smile and somehow tried to change the topic.

Now let me state something for the record here. I hate flying. The more I fly, the more I grow to hate it. I'm uncomfortable, my skin gets really dry, so dry that it itches. My blood sugars plummet when we land which makes me feel sick unwell - this means I have to wear travel sick bands and make sure I have bought an over-priced juice from the airport once I'm through security. Basically I just hate it, but I love visiting new places and I love to see my family, so I endure the flights. This trip I had a flight from London to Amsterdam and then from Amsterdam to Dallas.

First leg of the journey was a packed flight to Amsterdam. It was only an hour and I had a window seat, so not too bad of a flight. I was amused by the 50 year old guy that sat next to me that was hitting on me throughout the flight. He was nice enough - but seriously?! He was a foot shorter than me and twice my age - seriously?! Man number 2 hitting on me while I'm half asleep with no makeup ... interesting. His efforts kept me amused and flattered for the journey, so all was well.

Once I had passed through security in London, I bought some drinks that my sister and brother-in-law like (I'd planned on getting them after work on Thursday, but as mentioned above, I ran out of time) and had had shoved them in my carry on. In Amsterdam I only had about 30 minutes to get from one gate to the other (my arriving flight was slightly delayed). I was surprised when I got to my gate in Amsterdam to see a security check point - apparently in Amsterdam the security point (ie where they confiscate liquids) is at each individual gate! This meant that the drinks I bought got taken off me. I was outraged - I'd spent an extortionate price on them as I'd gotten them at the airport. Grrr! Oh well, expensive lesson learned.

The flight from Amsterdam to Dallas was my best economy* transatlantic flight. It was a pretty empty flight and I ended up having the 4 middle seats to myself ... I got to stretch out and sleep! Yippee! Granted it wasn't the most comfortable sleep and I woke up every 30 minutes or so ... but come on - I wasn't cramped in one little bucket seat with no leg room and someone drooling on my shoulder that had fallen asleep next to me. I was happy! I struck up a conversation with the couple seated next to "my row" and they were a pretty nice couple. We have even exchanged emails since the flight. Over all that flight was pretty tolerable.

Me trying to get some shut eye at the beginning of the trip - look how pathetic I look! Dear me!

Bright-eyed and bushy tailed I am here, just before landing in Dallas. I guess the broken sleep did me good, cause I wasn't really tired, and I was excited to get to see my mother!

So I mentioned that my mother was meant to pick me up, but then she couldn't pick me up, but then (at 4am) while in the airport in London, I spoke to Mom (10pm her time) and she said she was going to pick me up. Yippee hoary! It's so much nicer to be greeted at the airport, and I can't remember the last trip I made where someone was waiting to pick me up! Such a nice treat. Well ... I say someone waiting for me. Mom got stuck in traffic, so I actually waited for her for a little.

This is typical of my mother: she doesn't rush out of the car to give her baby girl a hug and tell her how happy she is to see her - she rushes out of the car to take a picture, then she gives her baby girl a hug and greeting. We love her anyway, and her pictures :-)

Usually one of the first things out of my mouth when I arrive in America is "where's Taco Bell?" Taco Bell is one of my favourite restaurants. It's a fast food tex-mex and super yummy. Mom snapped a picture of me heading back to the car with my yummy food in hand.

Mom was getting stressed and irritated by driving, so I took over the wheel. She had the camera at the ready!

I needed to go to Paris for my reunion, but as Mom and Dad moved, I had no home to go back to. Bob and Martha (Martha's one of my faithful blog readers) were kind enough to host Mom and my whirlwind trip through Paris. I felt bad coming and going from their home, but I was glad to get to spend some time with them!

This is me arriving at their house (Mom always has the camera ready!)

Martha, me & Bob

Thanks again Bob & Martha for having us! It was very kind of you and I enjoyed spending time with you!!!!

Sheesh, that's a long post and it's just about the journey across ... how am I to find time to tell you about the next 2 weeks?!

* I was once lucky enough to go business class - now that was nice!