The all important work Christmas Soirée

Thursday after the panto I had a made mad dash to a shopping centre to find something to wear. Yes, yes I know - why couldn't I have just worn something in my closet. I would have, but the only thing that I thought I could wear, I wore last year to the Christmas partee' ... and plus I kind of fancied wearing a dress. (I don't wear dresses - I've worn one in the last 7 years!) Dress found, new shoes also bought (both on sale) I started the 45 minute search for my car. Most people have had some experience of parking the car in a massive car park and not remembering where they parked. This wasn't one of these moments. I couldn't find the way to the car park. Only me. Only I could pull off such an incredibly stupid adventure such as loosing a multi-story car park that is attached to the shopping centre I was in! I even asked for directions - twice! And still couldn't find it! Flustered and running late I found the car park, my car and headed home. Somehow I managed to make it out of the house and into the city for the party on time. Amazing really. Especially when I think of the afternoon I had!

Not a lot of pictures were taken (how rubbish am I?!) but here's what I ended up with.

Party was at a very nice hotel in the city. Someone had my camera and this picture was taken of the table.

Jess & I

Another blurry photo (and a very wide-eyed and scary looking me)
Me, Tesca & Jess

The dance floor at the end of the night

And the disco ended with Rob, Ken and Tyrone serenading us.

The dinner and disco over, the new day begun (it was just past midnight) we decided to go for more dancing at a club where Matt joined in on the fun (said club was where my coat got stolen last year after the Christmas party - grrr!). My feet weren't working very well by this point (why is it that women buy and wear shoes that are designed to look pretty on a shelf and never meant to be worn!) and I ended up spending most of time at the club off my feet and chatting. I did brave the dance floor for a couple minutes before I had to sit before I fell (this was very annoying for me - I love to dance!) My tired and painful feel finally made it home around 3 in the morning. Luckily I got to sleep in on Friday and spend the day lazing around the flat. Very thankful for comfortable warm beds!

I managed to make it through the whole evening without getting a picture of my outfit - not usually something I do, but I was wearing a dress! This is an occasion that should have been documented, so I could prove that I did wear a dress. As I was getting ready, I had a few different options of shoes and dresses so I took a photos and emailed to to Clare (ex-flatmate, friend, and fashion goo-roo) for her advise.

Not the best looking photo of me, but here's the dress .. and the shoes that could have been used as murder weapons as they are so high!

I sang? In front of 1000 people? Oh my!

Thursday was the last day of school for the term, and at BTG (the school where I work) the staff put on a panto for the student. In other words the staff dress up ridiculously and make fools out of ourselves. This year was Jack and the Bean Stalk, with some liberties taken. There was Jack and a giant and a beanstalk and a cow ... but there were also prisoners and a fairy and lolly pop ladies and school girls and an X Factor excerpt - it all got a bit confusing!

Vicki and I

The PE department - Teon (a prisoner) Tyrone (a school girl) and Kelli (another prisoner)
Chaos before the "show"
(Starting with Vicki's ponytails) Vicki, Dominic, the top of Rob's head, Teon, Brendan, Ken, The yellow arm of Mary B, Pink hair of Tyrone and Simon is front and centre.

The prisoners all had to preform a talent so the Giant didn't eat us for dinner. Clare, Cate and I sang Santa baby ... in front of the whole school! I'm still slightly perplexed by the whole event. How they got me to sing ... in front of people I still don't know. (I try to reserve my singing talents to the shower!) Regardless, the students seemed to enjoy it and the staff that preformed had a blast. Defiantly a success!

The only proof I can find of me being on stage. Pictured with some other frightened prisoners. (I'm the second from right just by Ahmet, Ed is hiding behind me, then there's Simon, Teon, Geoffrey, Kelli & Claire.)

Tis the season...

..for Christmas parties!!!!! Friday night was my first Christmas party. Clare and Rob's parties always amuse me as there is a great divide: Clare's friends on one side of the room, Rob's on the other side. This time one of Rob's friend's braved the great divide and survived. Next party I reckon I might even chance the divide!
I was only able to stay a couple hours, but I had a good time while I was there. I love Christmas time!!

Clare and I

A weekend in Paris - the original one

I had the most AMAZING weekend! The MOST amazing time!!! I went to Paris – the original one!!! I’ve lived in England for almost 10 years now and I had never been on the continent. Paris is less than 2 and ½ hours by train away from me, but I’d never been. It’s always been something I wanted to do, but never done it. So when Matt surprised me with a trip to Paris, I was gob-smacked! I had the BIGGEST smile on my face that I couldn’t get rid of! The down side to going to Paris was a 5:30am start on Saturday morning, but I really didn’t care – I was on my way to PARIS!

I met Matt St Pancras train station where we caught the Eurostar. I’m certain my over excitement was annoying to witness. Poor Matt had 2 days of a scarily grinning Karen. After a short trip to the hotel to drop off our bags, we went to Bastille (if I remember correctly Bastille is an area of Paris where the French Revolution started) where we had lunch in a lovely little French cafe. The weather was a bit miserable (ok more than a bit - it was cold, windy and rainy) but my smile was not dampened in the slightest - I WAS IN PARIS!!!! After lunch we braved the weather for about a minute to run across the street to another little cafe where Matt had been before to get some coffee and cake. Matt's much more familiar with Paris than I (what am I saying - he knows his way around Paris - I didn't know a thing about Paris!) and I was just blindly following him as he showed me around (he made a great tour guide).

We went to the Notre Dame Cathedral,

the Louvre (the hotel we stayed at was very near here),

and ended Saturday's sight seeing walking up the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triumph. As we walked up the Champs Elysees evening fell and the Christmas lights we switched on. Let me tell you - the French know how to do Christmas lights! City of Lights is right!

view from Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triumph

in front of the Arc de Triumph

I was pleased to find out that you could go up the Arc de Triumph ... not as pleased to know there were 274 steps to climb to get to the top though. Arg, what a work out!

Matt climbing the stairs - we were around stair 80 here

The view from the of the Arc de Triumph was worth every stair! It was breath taking!
the Champs Elysees from the top of of the Arc de Triumph

The visibility due to the night and bad weather wasn't spectacular, it was spectacular!

The Eiffel Tower from the top of of the Arc de Triumph

Cold, wet, hungry, tired and in Matt's case pain (he had twisted his neck funny/ trapped a nerve on the train ride to Paris - he was a trooper and I can't remember him complaining once, but you could see he was in quite a bit of pain), we looked in vain for shelter in a taxi. After walking back down the Champs Elysees we managed to find a free taxi who took us back to the hotel.

view of some of the lights from the taxi - the lights were amazing!

We took advantage of the spa at the hotel in hopes of curing Matt's neck (see above). The pool was luxurious and the massage after was just divine! I've never had a proper massage before - it was just so amazing! I was so relaxed at one point I forgot I was in France having a massage. Matt asked me if I enjoyed the massage to which I responded with a goofy grin and a "uh huh". Divine. De-vine!

(Hotel pool)

Sunday was cloudy, rainy and cold again - but again it didn't matter as we were still in PARIS! And, and, AND we were going to the Eiffel Tower!

The imposing structure itself - hidden by the clouds when we arrived

Matt's not a huge fan of photos, but he tolerated my picture snapping quite well.

At the bottom of the Eiffel Tower before going up

Matt preferred this picture "moody Matt" - I prefer the smiling version (above), what do you think?

on the elevator going up the Eiffel Tower

view of military academy(?) from the top

as you can tell from my hair, it was pretty windy at the top!

Me at the top (if you squint really hard and look to the right of my left ear, you'll see the Arc de Triumph

Back on the ground I was trying to get a picture of the Eiffel Tower, but I was teetering very close to the edge of the road with cars coming by. This is the kind of picture you get when you hear "quick, move, move now" as Matt tried to save me being splashed by a passing bus.

Attempt number 6 - How magnificent it is! (the structure, not my picture)

After the Eiffel Tower it was to the train station via the Hard Rock Cafe (I accidentally started a bit of a collection of hurricane glasses from the Hard Rock Cafes, so it's something I have to keep up now). We were at the train station in plenty of time, but due to my incredible time wasting skills were were told off by the lady on the gate. This was a new experience for Matt as he's normally hours early. Sadly enough this is a normal occurrence for me while traveling. I push the time limits a bit too much!

I had an incredible time! I'm still smiling!!!

This was actually the first photo I took in Paris (right outside the Notre Dame) Can you see the banana Christmas tree - I thought it was hilarious!

Celebrating Friendship

A few years ago at Camp Shamrock (a summer camp for the youth) during a bible class, we asked the campers to draw a picture of "something they couldn't live without". As I started to think about it, I struggled to think of something I literally couldn't live without. There's obviously the more "shallow" mod-cons that I love and don't like to do without - bed, shower, central heating, car etc. There then the deeper thought of loved ones, for instance a newly wed that summer drew a picture of her husband. At that time I had recently been through the breakdown of my marriage - I knew I could literally live without my ex-husband because I had to and I was. Likewise, as much as I love my family members and friends, if someone passed away, I knew that I would be able to live without them - I would be in pain, but I would still be able to live. So what couldn't I literally live without? After a bit of time I decided that I couldn't live without my support network: my family and friends spread out in the States and the UK - I don't think I could make it through life all alone in the world.


I enjoy life and God has truly blessed me. I'm happy and content. Over the last few years though, I've had a lot of "less happy" times. Sometimes it's hard to find anything good with through all the rubbish around you. My friends and family have supported and helped me through my rougher times and I wanted to say thanks. This all sparked my Wednesday evening gathering to celebrate my friends:

I wish I could have invited more people, I wish I could have had all of my friends and family together, but distance and time prevent this. I did have a good "gaggle" of ladies that turned up and created a fun and memorable evening. Most of the people that descended on my flat were from work. London being London with it's busy and time consuming transport system, a lot of people found it easier to come straight from work. So from around 5pm people started showing up (if you can imagine me running around like a headless chicken trying to get ready - there was much of this going on).

A few early arrivers

I got home in time to have a shower and get dressed before the buzzer started ring with arrivals. Which was great - there's not a lot worse than waiting around for people to arrive. Plus I had lots of extra hands to help me prepare food and such!

Mary watching the stove for me

Amy, Helen, Cate, Mary, Vicki, Jess & Tesca enjoying a good natter before dinner was served

Dinner was Mexican Hats - a childhood favourite of mine, and a great / easy meal to prepare for large groups of people. Mexican Hats are basically a Tex-Mex build your own salad. Yum yum!

Mary & Becky building their Mexican Hats

I found it slightly amusing that the conversation pretty much died as soon as people had food to eat. (I also found it complimentary that the food was good - either that or it was so bad that people struggling so much to eat it that they couldn't make conversation at the same time. Hmm. I'll stick with the complimentary version!)

Hayley, Jess, and Claire
Amy, Helen, Cate & Mary (sheesh, I think Mary managed to sneak in every photo!)

Tesca, Amy & Helen

Food eaten there was more chatting - there were 18 women in one room what else would you expect?!

Cate & Clare

Vicki, Kelli & Mary B

Lindsay & I

Something else I was amused with, and loved, was that we ended up in one big circle instead of little groups here and there chatting amongst each other.

Starting at the bottom centre (with Tesca's back): Tesca, Claire, Helen, Cate, Clare, Vicki, Kelli, Mary B, Becky, Hayley, Lindsay & Jess

This gathering/party originally began as a champagne & cake party, so after the Mexican hats had time to settle, it was onto the champers. I love and am equally terrified of opening champagne bottles ...

as you can see from the face I pull while opening a bottle

pouring champagne

still pouring - it takes a while to pour for 18! (You can also see the scrummy chocolate cake at the bottom of this picture.)

It was a fabulous evening with the girlies, and to top it all off as I took out the rubbish around 1:30am it was snowing! I LOVE snow! What a wonderful end to the evening. Now Thursday morning was slightly less wonderful - I was seriously sleep deprived! (So sleep deprived, in fact, that I was asleep in bed before 9pm! That never happens to this insomniac!)

To my family, friends and support network that are too far away to have come Wednesday night:

Thank you! Thank you for being a part of my life!! Thank you for your love and support! I love you and miss you often!

An unexpected great night with a friend

My friend, Mary, is just a ball of energy and fun! I needed to go to a shop in central London and as Mary travels through central London to get home, we decided to go for coffee first. Coffee had, we went in search for the shop. I had assumed Mary would leave me to shop and she would head home, but to my delight she decided to join me on my shopping expedition. I had printed a map from Google maps (wonderful map finder if you've never used it) and we were off. I hadn't noticed when copying and pasting the street address from the shop's website to Goggle maps that the street address had changed from 20 street name to Flat 20 street name. I didn't notice this til we ended up next to a block of flats.

Mary thought the shop might be in the block of flats ("like a Tupperware party" says she), so she rang the flat intercom to ask. Imagine the man's surprise when she asked. Oh what fun!!!

We did eventually find the shop, which didn't have what I was after. Grr! After failing to find said item in two other stores, we gave up and decided we needed food.

The restaurant we wondered into had tables covered in paper and crayons - so we had fun being artist! Mary was impressed with my ability to draw block letters upside down:

a bit of photo rotation for you - this is our art work "right side up" - our initials

Art work done, I decided Mary would make a good Rudolf, so I tried to give her a red nose

What a great Monday evening we had. Girlie chit chat, shopping, colouring and heaps of fun!