Christmas eve "with the family"

This year I'm in London while my family are in Arkansas. Sad, I agree, but with modern technology, I can still be there. Mom and Dad called me earlier this eve, and then I had a Skype call with Mom, Madi and Cheryl.

Madi singing Jingle Bells:

Madi sneezing on Mom during "We wishhhhhhh you a Merry Christmas"

Home made Christmas cookies - tis the season!

Last night I made chocolate mud cookies and sugar cookies that I decorated with green Christmas trees (I don't have any Christmas cookie cutters or I would have dug them out too) to share with my neighbours and work colleagues. How domestic am I?!

Last night my kitchen was bursting at the brim with cookies!



This evening I plated them all up for the neighbours


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Christmas tree trimming

It's been my tradition since arriving in England to get a tree and put it up the weekend of Thanksgiving, and I've always managed to. Some years I just buy the tree and it gets put in the stand for days or sometimes a week or so before it's decorated but I always get my tree up Thanksgiving weekend. With the exception of the year I came to England (1999) and 2004 (when I was away for 1/2 of December) I've always (even as a child) had a real Christmas tree. So this year didn't quite go to tradition. As I only got back from a visit to the States the second week of December, my tree was late going up. And since I'm broke and I was late, the fake tree of 1999 (I keep everything!) came out of storage this year.

Andrea putting up the lights

This picture is for my seester ... recognise the ornament I'm putting up? (It's a Sister ornament you gave me in 2002.)

The tree angel was a bit to big for this 3 footer, so she's sitting on the table, but all in all I think it's a might fine tree.

Our flat, in Christmas glory (take note of the ornaments recorded...)

Great fun. Great neighbours.

It all started with a little air guitar and "air singing" to Use Somebody by Kings of Leon after dinner...

"uuuuuuse somebody" can you hear it?

And once the paparazzi, eg Alex, started, there was no stopping him!

Andrea

More Andrea (although, I had stolen the camera at this point in the evening)


An attempt to get away from the paparazzi after some crazy dancing

At one point late in the evening it all got too much and Andrea rested her eyes on the couch. Alex has a interesting game that he plays when people fall asleep - putting hats on them and taking photos. I wa happy to join in on the fun. (Mom, do you recognise the hat?)

Yes, Andrea is in the cusions somewhere!

The photographer wasn't too keen on the camera being turned on him....

Andrea tried to get him out of hiding in the kitchen

"I hate my photo being taken" Can you see the word hate being said with passion here?

Alex spent a large portion of time hiding from the camera

So Andrea and I spent a large portion of time trying to get him in front of the camera.

So he decided to be goofy instead

Arnie's got nothing on me

Bond, James Bond

Andrea's efforts finally paid off...

Alex smiling on camera. Good times!

Andrea and I had a great time Friday night with Alex. Alex cooked us a fabulous roast chicken dinner with an asparagus wrapped in prosciutto starter. Quite the dab hand in the kitchen - who knew! Lots of fun was had. Lots of photos were taken. Lots of music, loud music. Lots of silliness and dancing. Lots of laughter.

I've got some great neighbours!!

Sushi time!!!!

After a very hard start to the week (working some ridiculous hours at work), Andrea suggested we got out for sushi last night. Happy days! I love this japense restaraunt just down the road from us - scrummy! And it was such a welcome break from my long hours (worked until 20:30 Monday, 20:30 Tuesday plus 3 hours once I got home home, 18:00 Wednesday plus I started at 07:15, and a whopping 23:30 tonight - killer stuff!), and good to spend time with Andrea. We might live together, but I've barely seen her in the last fortnight!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I am flabbergasted!

Once in the last five years (probably longer) have I forgotten my phone at home. My phone is an attachment of my body. In fact, I think the only time I'm without it is while I'm in the shower or swimming. If you call me, regardless of the time or what I'm doing, I will generally answer (with a few exceptions like I won't answer if I'm in church).
Today however I not only forgot my phone at home, I didn't realise I was without my phone until 6pm!!! The last time I forgot my phone at home I realised I had forgotten it within 10 minutes of leaving home. I can't bull-eeve I went an entire day without my phone!!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Fun Fairs aren't just for kids

Last night Matt and I went to his old stomping ground to for the bonfire and to watch fireworks. There was also a fun fair on and we embrassed our youthful side and enjoyed...

There was dodge 'ems (bumper cars for the American readers)




We also tres our hand at rock climbing. Neither of us had tried it before, but thouroughly enjoyed it (well I did at least). My arms were quite shakey after I came off that I couldn't manage to hold my arm steady for a photo:




To finish off the evening, there was a ma-who-sive bonfire




And fireworks, but those photos are on my other camera


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A long awaited evening out

Reena is a good friend who lives in London. Reena and I often make plans to meet up in the city and if we managed to keep to our plans, then we'd probably see each other once a month at least. Reena and I have trouble sticking to our arrangements and one of us usually cancels which means we see each other once every 6 months. We always vow to be better at no cancelling, but we never are better. Anywho, we finally manage to keep our date and met up last night. It was a fun night with lots of laughter I recall and lots of catching up!

We tried to get a good-ish backdrop for our self portrait, but we ended up with the huddle and bustle of London. That's Billy Elliot in the background amongst other busy-ness.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A facelift for the lounge

Last night when I got home, I was greeted by a re-arranged lounge:



My washing machine is not plumbed in so you have to put te drainage pipe out the window when washing clothes (I plumbed in the dishwasher instead...priorities!). Last night while doing laundry, Andrea forgot to put the drainage pipe out the window and slightly flooded upstairs - whoops! It was bound to happen one day, yesterday was the day.


Andrea "hiding" from the camera:



Andrea commeted when I took the camera out to take pictures of the new lounge look. I simply replied, "if this isn't blog worthy, I don't know what is!" :-)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

An afternoon of wanting to heave!

While eating my pear tht I packed for lunch I bit into this:



...which made me instantly wretch and put me off eating. It also made me feel like vomitting all afternoon. Ewwww!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My beautiful new blue handbag!

I've been wanting a blue handbag for 2 years. I have found blue bags where I love te colour, but I never like the style. A month ago I found the colour of the bag and the style...but not they were different bags. Luckily the cute handbag shop guy ordered me the style I liked in the colour I liked - yea! I finally picked it up today. Love it!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sam and Nick got married - yea!!

I'm SO oober happy for my good friends Samrinder and Nick as they got married today!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

An adventurous day with Roxy

It all started this morning with a bad hair day. I had a big meeting this morning at work that I intended to be early to as I was co-chairing the meeting. Because I spent too long trying to make my hair presentable I was running late, which meant I would only be a few minutes early (if the traffic was nice to me) or I'd be just on time to my meeting. As I was rushing to work in my car, Roxy (my car) started making an unusual noise. Said unusual noise ended up being a flat tyre. This meant I wasn't going to make it to my important work meeting on time, let alone early. As I was only a mile and a half away from work, I ditched Roxy on the side of the road and high-tailed it to my meeting. I arrived a mere 15 minutes late.

After the meeting an extremely kind colleague of mine not only gave me a lift back to Roxy, but he also put the spare tyre on for me. What a hero!

Adam putting on the spare



I made a few phone calls from work and managed to find a tyre place that had a tyre that would fit Roxy in stock. The tyres Roxy uses are not the most common size and thus hard to find and expensive. After work I headed to the tyre place. My tyres have a special nut that requires a special bolt thingy to get off (some kind of security feature so my tyres are harder to steal). I could not find it when I got to tyre plae. I emptied out my boot and my hand bag and glove box and and and. I called the colelague who changed the tyre, he couldn't find it in his car or jacket. 30 minutes minutes after the search began I found the bit hiding on the side of the parcel shelf. Excelent. Mister tyre man began fixing tyre. I tres to restore my car to the state it was in before I tore it apart looking for the bolt.

Because I wasn't in the safest of areas, I locked the car while I reassembled the boot. As I needed both hands to tidy the boot, I put my keys on the parcel shelf (you see where this is going, don't you?). After boot was tidy, I closed the boot. About a milisecond after the boot closed, I realised that my keys were in the boot. My boot was locked. Seriously?! A flat tyre and locked keys in the car ON THE SAME DAY?!!

The man at the tyre place tried to get in my car.




He made a valant effort and even managed to flick the door unlocked and open the handle from the inside. This is when he asked me if I deadbolted the car. "Deadbolt the car, how do you do that?" I asked. "Click the lock button twice", said he. "Oh. Quite possibly", groaned I just before I dialed the car recorvery service.

30 minutes after they said they'd be there and 2 hours after I arrived at the tyre place and 30 minutes after the tyre place closed, the recovery man turned up.





15 minutes later after a few attempts, the recovery guy pulled my keys out of a very securely locked Roxy. I drove home starving (I missed breakfast and lunch, my only nurishment for the day had been a yoghurt), frusterated and sad that I was now running too late and had to cancel my evening plans (I was due to go into north London and pick up a hand bag that I have been waiting 3 weeks to pick up!). **Sigh**

Silver lining for the day:
*it wasn't raining today while I walked to work or when I changed the tyre or while I waited for the recovery man.
*the tyre man waited behind to make sure I got in my car safely.
*my flat tyre happened close enough to work that i could walk.
*the flat happened today and not tomorrow (tomorrow I'm driving 4 hours north for a wedding).
*the recovery man was able to get my keys out of my locked car (my spare key was also in my car so if he wasn't successful I would have had to break (and pay for a replacement) window).
*I learned how to deadbolt my car door.
*my car is very secure from potential thiefs

Andrea's back!!!

My friend, Andrea, has come back to London - yea! I met Andrea in 2005 when I lived in the midlands and she was working with the church for a couple of years. She's come back to visit for a couple days and then a week last year, this is trip number 3 and she's staying for 3 months - super yea! My hope is that she falls in love with London and decides she needs to get a job and stay and be my roommate!

Andrea has claimed the chair by the window as her spot. I often find her playing Suduko or reading here.





Last Friday (the day after she arrived) we went out to one of my favourite Japanese restaraunts in the Palace. I couldn't help snap a picture at the fun way Andrea attacked her noodle soup!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Work goodness

A couple weeks ago I was at one of the academies I support to help them out for a few days. They decided to buy me a bunch of flowers to say thank you for my help. How sweet is that?!!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

It's hard for me to keep up with myself!

Where does time go?! I'm enjoying my social life, but it's so hard to keep track of where I'm going! Last week: Tuesday I was out with Claude (enjoying desert!)







Wednesday I went out with my neighbour Alex. It was actually the first time we'd ever gone out (we've been neighbours for 4 years!), and I had a great time! Thursday morning was slightly hard as I didn't get in bed till 2am on Wednesday night. Although I still managed to go out with my friend PC Paul. Friday I had a few drinks after work and then home for an early night, but I was back to socialising Saturday when I went up to visor Hayley in London.

Sunday Mary Hennelly and I went to see Vernon Kay's All Star Family Fortunes recorded (for those Americans, Family Fortunes = Family Fued). Lots of fun catching up with Mary! During the 3 hour queue wait, Mary posed for a picture with Alan Carr's (a comedian) hands:





Monday night was my night in before I was off socialising again (otherwise known as laundry night). Yesterday Tracy and I went for some Sushi in Crystal Palace. Tonight I met a former colleague from my days at Serco, now good friend, Reena. Tomorrow I'm due to meet my friend Jess... sheesh! You think it's hard to keep up with me - now you know why: I can't keep up with myself!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My very first London friend

Claude was my very first friend in London. If it weren't for our weekly Monday trips to the Harvestor, I wouldn't have had a social life at all. For several months we would make our weekly trips to Harester until they became every other week and then once a month until life took over and our trips were no more. Harvestor Mondays with claude are such good memories for me. Tuesday Claude and I met up again at te Harvestor for old times sake and it was another great night. I'm so lucky to have Claude as a friend!

I never knew how much Claude loves apple crumble with custard!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cat sitting

For the last two weeks I've been cat sitting for some friends of mine. I have cat-sat for my neighbours quite a few times so thought nothing of saying "yes" whn my friends asked this time. Let me tell you, this is a different experience to my neighbours cats. My neighbours have indoor cats that never leave the flat and are right next door to me, so no travel is required to cat-sit. My friends live 30 minutes away so I've been staying at their house, and their cats are outdoor cats so I never know when I'll see them. Pauline is the black cat and she's older and is usually around. Rocky has given me much to worry about as I don't see him much. I didn't see him for 3 full days when my friends first left: I was so nervous something had happened to him and I was going to have to explain that I had lost him! Luckily I've seen more of him in recent days and my friends are due back Saturday. I'm almost there... just have to make it through 2 more days of keeping the little darlings alive :-)





Rocky got very affectionate tonight and decided to make himself at home on me.









- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone