Wedding bells and Worcester

On Saturday 12 August I awoke knowing that I had another trip to go on, driving across country. This time my destination was Worcester, an area I have never been to. The drive was pleasant enough, except a really bumpy section on the M42 which was probably made worse by having hardened suspension on the car! It was fun to be humming during this section of the drive though, as it made my humming sound funnier than normal (I had to amuse myself somehow!). Amazingly I didn't get lost either. Well to be honest, I missed my final turning into the road where my brother lives, but I will blame that on his directions and on the pub that I was looking out for; it had lost its distinguishing factor of having scaffolding outside (was taken down that morning!). Anyway, I made good time and was happy to see the family again.

Lunch was had at the next door pub and of all the places to meet another South African, our waiter turned out to be one! My brother was very good at picking out the accent and we found out the waiter was from Jo'burg too. Small world! After lunch we spent time looking around the village where my brother lives and also chatting between us.

That evening was the event we (folks and I) had made the journey for - my friend's wedding reception. This is a friend I have known since I was about 2 yrs old and although we don't see each other often we do keep in touch, mainly through our moms. The reception was being held at a place called The Nash, a very smart place which dates back to 799 although the house is Elizabethan. When we arrived, the wedding party were still listening to speeches so we went to the lounge with some friends and started catching up on news! Shortly the bride made her appearance and looked stunning! The one bridesmaid also made her appearance and also looked stunning (not surprisingly though as she is the bride's twin) although slightly stressed. I never saw the other bridesmaid so cannot comment on her looks! The evening as a whole was very pleasant. We spent a lot of time catching up with friends and visiting the various rooms in the house to watch the dancing, to dance a little ourselves, to eat and we even ventured outside to watch a fireworks display. I even had the chance of meeting the groom whom I had only heard about but had never even met. He seems very pleasant and a gentleman! At midnight we departed, after wishing the happy couple a blessed future, and headed to our beds!

The next morning we had a brief visit to my brother's to say cheerio to my brother's future in-laws and then we headed into Worcester to have a look around. We had a wander around the Cathedral, which was impressive, and then wandered down a pedestrianised street before landing up in Nandos for lunch (yummy!).

So here are some scenes from Worcester:


Left: some art work flapping in the wind outside the front of the cathedral.



Right: a crooked house...





To finish off I will say that the journey back to Cambridge after Sunday's lunch wasn't bad, although I would have preferred a few more signposts indicating that I was indeed going in the right direction. If there had been more around I wouldn't have needed to do a last minute lane change (it was safe!!) when I glimpsed the sign for the M6 south bound! Who knows where I could have landed up if I had missed that off-ramp!

Thankfully I had taken the Monday off as I was pretty exhausted by the time I got home on the Sunday. But more news on what I got up to on the Monday will follow in the, hopefully, not-too-distant future. For now though, I am going to consider going to bed to read... good night! CJ
(PS: it is now 8:30pm, just in case you thought I was being a lazy so-and-so considering going to bed at 4:30ish pm! Clearly the time indicated on the entry is for when I first started writing this entry not for the time I finally posted it.)

Kitty sitting.

A couple of months ago my Cambridge friends extended their family by adopting a cat, Kappa, from the local animal sanctuary. Kappa is a gorgeous cat and very friendly and has added much excitement to my friends’ lives. The joy of them getting the cat though is that they included me in the process of adoption and they have nominated me as the kitty-god-parent! This means that I have some responsibilities to the cat, which I gladly accepted, and the week between the 7th and 11th August was my first stint as kitty carer, while my friends were out of town. The good news is that I didn’t kill the cat and was happy to visit him on a daily basis! What therapy he proved to be too. It is very soothing to play with a carefree cat and give it a stroke when all you want to do is scream due to work stresses. It was a pleasure to kitty-sit and my friends can know that I will do it again, with pleasure!

Family braai

Right, so I am sitting on my couch on a Saturday morning of a long weekend and thought it is now time for me to add to my blog. So here goes, the first of my stories. Going back to the weekend of the 5/6th August when our family had a braai up at my folks’ on the Saturday! I can call it a braai (bbq for none South Africans) as the majority of guests were South African and we had boerewors as our main meal ingredient… yummy! The guests included my brother and his fiancé and her parents, my parents and our grandparents. A large gathering for a British event! Overall the day was a success with lots of food, laughter and family chatter! The wors was perfectly cooked (thanks Dad) and I don’t think we forgot to put anything out on the table (a tradition of the family when we lived in South Africa – always leave something in the oven until way after the party!).

Sunday morning saw us wandering around fields (no we weren’t drunk) on our way to fetch the morning newspaper – the long route! It was a pleasant walk though and much improved when we came across a border collie (my favourite dog breed) and it was friendly enough to allow me to give it a pat! Later in the morning I also ordered a new laptop after much um-ing and aah-ing, and had the joy of looking forward to having an up-to-date computer to work on at home.

After a yummy lunch, I was back on the road for my usual approximate 2.5 hr journey home! After 10 minutes of driving just getting to the motorway, I was faced with a huge traffic jam… there had been an accident on the one side of the motorway and it had affected both northbound and southbound lanes – both closed. Since I was already on the motorway and was between junctions I couldn’t go anywhere but forwards, with a slight diversion into the services to update the folk’s on my situation, at a very slow pace. It took me an hour to go a mile!!! After getting to the junction and leaving my usual route I drove across country on various ‘A roads’ to the next motorway. My drive at this point was not amusing and all I wanted to do was to get home.

Trusting my luck though, as I got onto the next motorway, I was faced with another traffic jam and another accident. Thankfully the accident didn’t look like it had taken any casualties although it was pretty horrendous… a caravan was on its roof. Another thankful thing was that the traffic jam didn’t last long and I eventually got home…admittedly I was grumpy at this point. Do you blame me though? I had just taken 5.5hrs to drive approximately 180 miles and I had the added thought of having to drive across country again the next weekend.

Quick update...

So I know I have been quiet for a while now but work has been busy, so I haven't had the chance to blog while there (naughty of me to do so anyway) and I have also been waiting for my new toy - a laptop computer - for my own home use. I did have a laptop but it was a bit slow and prone to crashing with no warning. I now have my new toy and am enjoying it (despite the hassle of getting it) and am now waiting to be connected to broadband before I update my blog even more. I do have quite a few stories to pass on including news of a wedding and a trip to Worcester; a mini-ball at one of the Cambridge colleges and the experiences there; quick news on more wildlife spotted in the area around my house and probably a few more stories. So until then... bye!

Making Comments...

Just a quick entry really about making comments in my blog. I have had to change my settings with regards making comments on my blog as someone (no name left) keeps making a comment about links that I may be interested in... I am however not interested in these links and would like the person to stop doing this. Since they don't leave a name I can't tell them to stop, so preventing anonymous souls from adding comments to my blog seems to be the easiest thing to do. I hope this doesn't stop the comments coming though from legitimate folk though!

Am currently visiting family, so I best stop being anti-social!

Tennis: English style!

As you may or may not know, I have decided to take up tennis, not only as a means of getting exercise but also so I can get involved in my local community and meet people from the neighbourhood. I have only been to the coaching sessions for now, as I need to get my skills sorted first before I attempt to play any games. I think the last time I played "serious" tennis, my friend and I were at high school and we soon gave up with the match considering I kept hitting the balls OUT of the court - like over and beyond the fencing! I did try a little friendly match of tennis when I was at university, but didn't play for long despite managing to keep the balls in the court area (then again it was a double court so it was easier to keep things in the court!).

Back to my recent tennis adventures though. The first night of coaching (group coaching) I was impressed to have only one ball over the fence, but realised that I hit the balls too hard and have no direction control what-so-ever! My serves are awful too. The second lesson was a bit better, despite my having two balls over the fence, but thankfully most of the balls actually went close to where they were supposed to be going! My aim was improving.

Monday night was my latest lesson and I nearly didn't go as I was unsure how "dedicated" the local players were; it was overcast and had been raining and it looked like more rain was due. I decided to give it a go though and if no-one was there it wasnt a problem, I would just go home again! I was happy to find more players and the coach there when I arrived, so the lesson began. I soon learnt that I am still hitting the balls too hard (or too soft) and my aim is still off!. It didn't help when the winds picked up (I was hitting into the wind at the time) meaning that most of my balls either went into the net or way over my opponents head. She was very relaxed though and didn't mind my bad aim. When the rains came, it did become a bit more difficult to play, but I persisted. However my gaming partner departed and I was left hitting the ball into the various squares of the court trying to improve my aim. The coach was very good at this point and gave me about 20 min of personal coaching - yay to him. By the time we were resembling drowned rats (the rain just kept getting heavier) and the coach called an end to the sessoin, my aim and force of hitting the balls had improved. I may even attempt a game of tennis tonight, if the rains aren't too heavy!

Oh, and since I joined the tennis club to meet people: The first night I was with the club I met a girl who went to the same university as me! How small is this world!!! Granted she wasn't there when I was but hey, we aren't too picky with these things. All the other people that I have met seem nice but I still have to learn their names and have a lot of other members to meet (there are about 100 members in the club, I have met about 10!).

By the way, if there are any tennis players reading this and they have any pointers for me, I would appreciate to hear them.

Until next time... CJ

Garden wildlife...

This weekend I decided to attack my garden a bit and give it a clean-up. Since it has been so hot recently, I have been reluctant to distrub the soil and plants. However this weekend was cooler, so the attack began...

While working at the back of my garden I was very happy to come across a little wildlife in the leaf litter - there were harvestmen (look like spiders with pretty small bodies but really long legs) and woodlice and then to my amazement (and a little bit of a shock for both of us) I came across a common frog!

He (I am presuming it was a he) gave me quite a fright (as I did him) at first as I was not expecting his presence. But once I located the brown flash that I had seen scurrying into a bush, I was happy to dash into the house to grab my camera and take some shots of him. He as pretty good too in not moving very far, although since taking the photos and doing a bit more gardening I have lost my frog. I am hoping he is still in the garden but will not blame him if he has moved to pastures new! While I was taking photos of the frog, a slug was silly enough to emerge from the undergrowth and, after I took its photo (left), it was thrown into the green bin (bin for garden waste) along with all the other slugs and snails I locate amongst the plants.

So after giving my garden a clean, I thought I would take some photos of it. Right: the right side of my garden...

Left: the back part of my garden (where I found the frog)...

Right: the left side of my garden.

Things are looking a bit brown and scarce at the moment, but note that this is a new garden and it has just faced a hot July. It is looking better than it has for a while! On that note, I best be off...CJ