Category: General Musings

House sitting

This weekend we are house sitting for a friend. Well in effect house sitting would mean that no one else is here, and considering another flat mate is still here we are really probably just keeping her company. Had a great sleep last night, the first time in ages without having to wear ear plugs to bed! It is pretty incredible what you can hear in the dead quiet of night. It was so silent that I could hear the blood pulsing in my ears. Does that make sense? Anyhow, very interesting.

The house also has Sky TV. The joy of channel surfing. Woo hoo. Small pleasures I know. We don’t watch telly at our house as there is nothing on. In fact, there is not much on Sky TV either come to think of it, just the pleasure of pushing all the buttons to see what pops up.

Sunday we head to London (yet again) this time to meet up in the afternoon with another friend from Australia. Unfortunately she is not here for long so it will be a fleeting visit before she goes to Scotland then France. For having been in the UK for over a year now, we have not really spent much time in London at all. However, over June and July I will have been there 7 times (3 times for work, the rest for pleasure).

Anyway, it is time to get back to my channel surfing, maybe even make myself a delicious jam crumpet for breakfast. Speaking of crumpets, did you know that another X-Files movie is being released. Looking forward to it.

Cheers – Carleen

P.s. A bit of trivia for you in case you are wondering what a crumpet has to do with the X-Files. The character of Scully played by Gillian Anderson was referred to as “the thinking man’s crumpet”.

One of those moments

I was in London for work over the past two days. I came out of my hotel this morning to head for work which is based at Millbank, right on the River Thames (next to MI5 if I might add). Anyway, I had one of those "oh my goodness" moments when I had to call Steve. Here I was walking down along the Thames River with Big Ben and the parlimentary buildings in front of me, the Millenium wheel, full sunshine and walking along into work past all the tourists. I don’t really have that much of a passion for London but this was one of those days when you just go "I can’t believe I am here". Totally cool. Thought I would just share that with you. Now however, I have had a very long day after a long day at work, my train trip home, straight to a birthday party down at Bristol Harbour and now time for bed. Night.

Widgets

Just had to share with you the outlook on this weeks weather forecast!!! Steve set these widgets up on my desktop quite a while back. There are tons more that you can download for free i.e. joke of the day, daily devotionals, picture of the day, games, etc. However I seem to get quite a kick out of constantly checking the weather picture and how terribly the pound is doing against the Australian dollar!

Newest arrival – Ashton Samuel Peter Sears

The newest arrival to the Sears family and a gorgeous wee brother for Emerson. Congratulations Garrison and Gemma to the newest addition to your family. For photos see Gemma’s blog with links to Emerson’s website. http://iriscreations.blogspot.com/

Take the opportunity to have a look at Gemma’s photographic work as well. I may be biased but I think she produces incredible work. Can’t wait to enlist her services if we ever decide to have some sprogs.

Love Aunty Carleen & Uncle Steve

We bought a tent

We finally decided on a tent to purchase. We ended up getting the Vango Sigma 300+. After having bought it we took it to the local park to practice putting it up. It says 10 minutes on the instructions, however 30 minutes later we had it up. Believe me when I say had Steve not been there I am pretty sure I would have put a match to it. I really don’t have much patience for tent instructions!

I am quite chuffed with it. The locals walking by seemed to think we were attempting to squat in the park. Anyway, here is the end result. Looks just like the picture on the instructions (minus the bent peg that I managed to create within the first 5 minutes. Note to self, don’t use a big hefty boot to push the pegs into the ground with!)

Fencing

This week we tried a bit of fencing. That would be the type with swords not number 8 fencing wire. After 2 hours of it we were already tired and hot as those masks get pretty hot inside. I don’t think I was also expecting it to sting so much when you get hit. Mind you I am a whimp when it comes to pain however Steve did complain when I accidently hit his bare hand in error. I think I came out worse though as I had both Steve and a guy from work that I was practicing the moves with and both of them managed to get me on the same arm. Needless to say I now have an arm full of bruises. It was good fun and I’m keen to try a few more times to see if it is something I want to continue on with. I think however I need to stop laughing so much and concentrate more. Hey, what can I say, it’s my secret plan to put the other person off their game! 🙂