Author: Carleen Dekarski

Would you like a vowel? Yes thanks, I’ll have a T.

I was in Borders bookstore yesterday and came across a new recipe book by Bill Grainger. He has a great little restaurant in Sydney (aptly named Bill’s) where they do the most impressive and delicious chocolate dessert I have ever had!
However, I have digressed…The reason I mention this book (Holidays) is that the writing is wonderful. He recounts a story before each new section to lead in to the food theme e.g. BBQ’s, Breakfasts etc. What captured me with this book was the imagery he was clearly able to evoke within his storytelling. One such story was of his family going to France for a holiday and the experiences they shared of warm summer days, strolling through and being awestruck by the local fresh food markets, the excitement of buying freshly made croissants and bread each morning from the bolangerie. Possibly it is because this tale is one I also share from our wonderful experiences in France but more importantly it brought to the forefront how boring blogs can be. It is so easy to get into a rhythm of just pounding them out and losing sight of what the blog is about. As mine were originally intended to provide a silicon memory of what we get up to (in order to back up my own bad memory) then I need to provide a better recount of the event.
So what is with the title of this blog?
I recall, still with embarrassment for the man, a celebrity Wheel of Fortune show. The celebrity at the time obviously didn’t understand the difference between a vowel and a consonant. Each time his turn came around the host would try to be helpful and say “would you like a vowel” the celebrity would say “yes thanks, I’ll have a T”, the host would say “so you would like a consonant” and the reply would be “no, I’d like a T please” (I paraphase of course). My point being, we seem to continue to lose an understanding of our language and more importantly the joy of using it intelligently, expressively, descriptively etc. See, I ran out of words…

Kiwi mates and outdoor events

Thursday night we took off to Oxford to met up with some kiwi mates that are in the UK for a holiday. It was fabulous to catch up, swap stories, talk about NZ and generally have some laughs together. The town was packed with new Uni students! Seriously this time of year is probably not the best for visiting Oxford, thankfully we did it during a week day. I think the weekend would be cranking! We did a walking tour of Oxford as I limped along with my bung leg. Ann and Peter it was great catching up with you both. Hope the rest of your time in the UK goes well.
On Friday we then drove up to Sheffield as Cliffhanger 2009 was on. Basically a weekend of outdoor events, showcasing, stalls, displays and competitions in bouldering, climbing, fell running, orienteering and the like. Sheffield really turns it on. Attempts were made to break the world dyno record (didn’t get broken), scuba diving was underway, kayaking, canoeing, fly casting lessons etc.
On Saturday we headed home and as we got closer to Bristol the weather really packed it in. Oh well, it was a great couple of days away anyway.

Bridge of Sighs - Oxford
Mr Tumnus!
Kayaks
Mountain biking mad tricks
Dyno competition

Movie: Transformers 2 Revenge of the Fallen

Seriously could they make Megan Fox look any more tooly than they did! She is a great looking girl but there’s natural beauty and then there’s vamping it up specifically for the drool factor. What a shame.
However still loved the movie itself. How can you not love Optimis Prime, the cool graphics, great soundtrack, Shia LaBeouf etc. Shia is amazing and really draws you into the film. The comedy is terrific. The only thing I would say let the film down a bit was the graphics. As the transformation of the machines are quite complex it would be beneficial to slow it down a bit so you could see more, they seemed to go through so quickly that it’s hard to keep up with the action! Loved the locations especially Egypt. 4 out of 5.

Movie: Public Enemies

Never really been a fan of Johnny Depp or gangster movies so why did I bother seeing this? Because my leg was killing me and there wasn’t anything else to do Friday night that didn’t involve walking places! When you have a pulled calf muscle walking is rather painful!
Retelling the real life drama of John Dilinger (first public enemy number 1 to the emerging FBI) this is the tale about his pursuit and a look into his bank robbing rampages. Filled with slick cars, lots of rat-a-tat-tat old fashioned gangster shoot outs and a great cast it filled the 2 hours 15 minutes quite well. I will admit about 1 hour into it I was wondering whether to walk out as it was rather slow but thereafter it took off and was quite an enjoyable bit of entertainment. I think I have decided though that Christian Bale really has only one style of acting which is rather dead pan. However I’ll forgive that because I still think he’s delish! 2 out of 5.

Take her down!

I am currently holed up at home nursing an injury. I love playing squash and regularly play a game each week with a fellow work mate. In between the gym, running and squash something had to give. My calf muscle it would seem!
I played on Wednesday during lunch with another work colleague and after I expressly told him to turn it on and play the game hard, he obliged. I enjoyed the game, until mid stretch for a shot I felt the calf muscle in my right leg ping just like a rubber band. Agonizing pain followed, thankfully no expletives left my mouth (probably because the pain left me breathless) and my poor squash partner was left wondering how to help this writhing, incoherent person.
Thankfully I have been able to work from home which has enabled quite a speedy recovery so far. The first nights sleep was a bit uncomfortable but last night was a vast improvement. My internet medical diagnosis (yes, I am aware that this is a rather misguided notion) tells me that I probably have a level 2 sprain. I am finding a combination of massage and gentle walking/stretching makes it feel much more comfortable. If it is rested for too long it feels very stiff and painful. Walking and rubbing actually feels good.
Anyway, not sure when I will be getting back on the court so at this stage I have to watch everything that goes in the mouth at the moment until I can get the activity level back up again.

You’re doing what?

It’s a fabulously warm today here in Bristol. The sky is blue, the mercy has hit 23 degrees, only a slight breeze and where am I? Doing laundry at home!!!
Sadly this is a great day to finally air the dooner, pillows, wash everything in sight so it can hang out to dry in the wonderful sunshine for a change. Rather embarrassingly I will admit that another rather odd pet like is the smell and feel of freshly washed and sun dried laundry.
I will manage to try and claw back some sort of dignity by saying this is probably only the 5th time I have been given a day worthy of laundry drying in the 2 years we have been here! Does that somehow make it less embarrassing?

Cars, ferries, buses and feet

Finally we had a chance to get away for a weekend. We took off mid afternoon Friday and hit the road to Dover. Probably not the best idea hitting London traffic on a Friday afternoon but amazingly it only added about an extra 15 minutes to our travel time.
From Bristol to Dover is about 3 1/2 hours of mostly highway driving so very easy going however incredibly boring. With the long days of summer in full swing we got to Dover with plenty of daylight hours left to explore.
We stayed just outside of Dover in Alkham at The Marquis. I have yet to do my Trip Advisor recommendation on this hotel but in short it was a lovely stay, fabulously comfortable bed, excellent shower and they even put together a breakfast tray for us as we were leaving in the morning before the normal breakfast sitting started. All this for only 55 pounds. Not bad.
Dover on the other hand was rather less glamorous however this was to be expected as a port city. We got to see the White Cliffs of Dover and Samphire Hoe. This was rather interesting as Samphire Hoe looks like it is a natural cliff face however it has actually been man made from the materials extracted during the Euro Tunnel Channel construction. Amazing! Much less amazing were the White Cliffs. Pretty yes, interesting, not really. I am glad I have seen them but to be honest they didn’t really excite me at all.
It was then off to Folkstone for fish and chips for dinner before hitting bed ready for our ferry adventure to Calais.
Generally foot passengers are a rarity on the ferries. Some don’t even accept them onboard (e.g. Norfolk Line). Here I was being all organised and pre-booking etc and in reality the guy at the counter said there were another 280 seats still available for foot passengers. Even during peak season you can generally be guaranteed a seat.
It was great to go back into France. We spent Saturday eating cheese, bread and pastries, walking on the beach and generally walking all over the town. Then we took a bus ride out to Cite Europe to visit the hypermarkets. This place is HUGE. It has the largest Carrefour supermarket I have ever seen! It could take you hours to walk around here but we weren’t really that keen on doing any shopping. Traditionally Brits come here to stock up on tax free items such as wine, spirits etc. To be honest, unless you are a regular drinker or own a shop I don’t know that it is really that worthwhile. We didn’t even bother buying any cheese as the brands on offer were no different from what we can get in England and the prices were marginally cheaper.
Calais was holding a music festival all weekend so by 4pm the streets had been closed off to cars and we had the run of the town. Live music, food stalls, good vibes. Thankfully our hotel was tucked just off the main street as the music was very loud!
Sunday was spent eating more cheese, bread, pastries and I even had some mussels with Roquefort cheese. Delicious!
Most people I have spoken to wondered why we bothered going to Calais. Personally it was an ideal weekend destination which we found relaxing, full of good food places, a lovely long beach and very easy to walk around. It was only 15 minutes walking time to the port from the city centre so we didn’t even need to bother with the bus. It was also a great opportunity to practice my tragic french! Once I finish downloading the photos I will post some.