Out Of S Africa

Wales - Day 2

2007-05-31T09:32:00.000+01:00

Before you panic and think you have missed Day 1 of my holiday in Wales, don't worry... I have excluded Day 1 as that was the day we travelled to Wales and visited my brother's house and moved into our accommodation... nothing majorly exciting other than spending time with family.

So, Day 2 started off with me and my folks going for a walk through the countryside near to our accommodation (which was at a farm). Here come the pictures...

After our walk we met up with the rest of the family and headed into Newtown to have a look around...

And to end off our touristy activities for the day, we headed into Montgomery to have a walk around and visited the church yard, and the even landed up being invited into the bell-tower to have a look while the curator changed the church's clock...

A good start to the month of March

2007-05-31T08:51:00.000+01:00

March started off well, with a couple of celebrations. Firstly we had a party lunch for my mom who celebrated another birthday (won't divulge her age though but it was one of the big ones) and all had a wonderful time. The second joyous occasion was the fact that my friend J, from school days, had her first child... a little boy K, born naturally on his due date! I think that bodes well for his future! He is a gorgeous baby and I wish the parents, and baby K, all the best for the years to come.

Unfortunately the joy at the start of the month didn't last that long... work went down hill a couple of days later when we found out our grant application failed... this did not bode well for me, as my search for alternative work had to be increased rapidly and my stress levels increased exponentially... weekends were spent filling in job applications, some for jobs I didn't really want. Work itself also became busier in an attempt to finish all that needed to be done by the time my contract ran out. This was beneficial to me in some ways though, as I was learning new techniques, but I also found some of those moments rather stressful too. What a little wreck I felt, but looking back I feel I have (hopefully) grown from the experience... my favourite saying during all this time was "what does not kill me makes me stronger" in the hope that by saying this I would remain calm(ish) and I wouldn't actually land up seriously hurting someone!

Thankfully I have such a great family and great friends who provided me with support through all my little trials and tribulations. Again, my friends A and R stepped in to assist in keeping me in some form of sanity by inviting me around for meals and letting me rant and rave to them over the phone. B was also a major support by being at the other end of the computer and just reading through my rants about things in general. And my poor parents had a lot to deal with too, hearing pretty much the same rantings at least three times a week. I will take this moment to say thanks to my family and friends for being there for me and I am sorry I was such a wreck!

The nice thing about March is that it ended on a good note, with me actually being able to take some holiday to spend time with my family, including my niece and nephew who were visiting from SA. We spent a week in Wales doing various things, news of which I will post separately to this entry...

Trip to London

2007-05-31T08:22:00.000+01:00

24 February saw me on a train to London to meet up with a Rhodes friend, and old digsmate, K who was over in the UK for a brief visit before heading to the US for a conference. I hadn't seen K for many years and I was excited to see her again and catch up on news that we had missed in our email correspondence. To be honest I was pretty nervous about travelling to and through London by myself (so many people... I am not a fan of crowds, especially when I am not 100% sure where I am going) but managed and met up with K and her friend S for a day of laughs, walking around and food. Sorry I didn't stick around for too long K, but I did enjoy our time together and it was great to meet S.

And just to prove I was in London, here is a pic...

Oh, and since that visit I have been back to London on my lonesome and was more confident about the journey and getting through the crowds. However this visit to London wasn't brilliant as I got annoyed with the Brits again for not labelling their streets properly... it really does help to have street names at the corners of every road instead of not there at all or half way down the road where they are unlikely to be useful!!! Oh, and it also helps if diversions are properly marked! Little rant over now and my conclusion is that it is always better to go to London with friends... must admit that London isn't really my cup-of-tea. Am willing to go there for special occasions, but doubt I would ever live there (sorry to friends living in London, I am sure you enjoy it but it just isn't for me!).

Anglesey Abbey

2007-05-31T07:54:00.000+01:00

This was built in 1600 on the site of an Augustinian priory. It is full of treasures collected by the first Lord Fairhaven, who also created a fine garden (info taken from AA map book). It was this fine garden that my friends invited me along to walk through and what a lovely garden it was...

Some flower pictures first...

And now some pics of the birch grove...

And a pic of a "house" in the gardens (not the Abbey itself though)...
My friends AG and RG took some nice photos too and I seem to recall they are available for viewing on their blog: www.lifewithoutagogglebox.blogspot.com (hope you guys don't mind me including this link?).

All in all the afternoon turned out to be a pleasant one and I enjoyed the walk through the gardens. I will be sure to visit the gardens again and hopefully will be in a better frame of mind when I do so :).

When things go wrong...

2007-05-31T07:35:00.001+01:00

This seems a bit silly to write up about but at the time I found this experience slightly traumatic; now looking back I find it rather amusing. Anyhoo, February didn't seem to be a friendly month for me (other than the snow which was fun) as a lot of things seemed to be going wrong... my tv started to break down and the colours became rather odd... green sky, blue people, and other odd combinations of colour. Now people who know me will realise that I spend a fair amount of time in front of my tv (hey I don't have a life!) and having the colour go was just not funny (at the time). Along with dealing with my tv, I also had MAJOR TOOTHACHE as my wisdom teeth decided to play havoc in my mouth. FLIP FLIP FLIP!!! That was really sore and I actually landed up going to the emergency dentist hoping that the tooth (mainly one killing me) could be ripped out. Alas, in typical me-style, things were not that easy and I couldn't have the tooth taken out there and then as it is going to be a difficult extraction. I was however provided with painkillers and spent the next week in a daze (powerful painkillers), which in some ways was a good thing, but not for driving around. The good news is that my teeth are okay at present and I am due to have three wisdom teeth removed in August. Other things that seemed to be going wrong included my microwave door playing up (not opening) and my central heating making funny noises. As I said, looking back these seem piddly little things but I was stressed and in pain and at the time these things were just so HUGE!!! Thankfully now all seem to be working well. Thanks to my friends though for attempting to take my mind off things at the time and for putting up with me, especially on a specific Sunday when they invited ONE GRUMPY buddy to join them at Anglesey Abbey...

Let's play catchup...

2007-05-31T07:28:00.000+01:00

Oops, didn't realise that the last time I blogged was over a month ago... but a lot has happened in that time (I think), including me having employment again, starting tomorrow. YAY! So now I don't have to search for work, nor do I have to run around doing various job-search related things and I can take some time today to play catchup with my news. Will just rattle my brain for a few moments and will then carry on with my postings...

Quiet!

2007-04-22T09:53:00.000+01:00

So I know I have been VERY quiet for a long time and I keep thinking I should blog! Then I get going with all sorts of other things and never quite get around to the blogging. Sorry! I promise there are stories I want to pass on including my holiday in Wales, a hedge-laying day and some other general stories. But I ask for a bit more patience as I have other more pressing things to do at present, including finding a job! My current post is coming to an end and so far I haven't got another position to go to yet (holding thumbs and hoping for some positive news). So while I am in this pickle I have to spend time searching for that desirable employment!

Until then, keep popping into my blog and hopefully soon I will play catchup and get my news onto the pages!

C

Snow Day!!

2007-02-08T17:06:00.000Z

After many warnings that it was going to snow heavily today, the forecasters have managed to get things correct! I must admit I was a little sad when I woke up this morning and saw that no snow had settled on the ground. However it looked like it had just started snowing and quite heavily too. I proceeded to get myself ready for work and watched the news and weather items to see what was happening and by the time I was ready to leave for work there was a fair covering of snow.

These first two photos were taken at about 7:30am, after approximately 2 hrs of snowing... and it was still snowing!

It was at this point that I decided that I was not going to brave the traffic (aka I wimped out!). Why bother going into bad driving conditions when I could work comfortably from home. Probably a good choice too, as I have since heard that there were about 4 minor accidents this morning, on the road I travel along to get to work.

While working, I did take the opportunity to keep an eye on what was going on outside to determine when to actually head into the office. And it was fun to see what the neighbours were doing... I saw some inventive parents who didn't have a sled for their child, so hooked up a rope to the recycling tubs and sat their kid in the tub and dragged him around...

And I saw a group of parents and kids making a snowman, the following pictures showing the process from giving him a lower body....

... an upper body (note the ladder in the background and that these people are average height)...

... and a head, complete with a nose adjustment and a pretty big smile!!

I also noted that driving conditions were pretty bad, with one car getting stuck... I commend the driver though for trying to go out in the snow... after getting stuck in the driveway, he abandoned his vehicle on the side of the road and moved onto his sled!

Later, during an eye-break and after taking some more photos of the snow in my garden....

I decided to see how deep the snow actually was outside my back door... it was about 3.5cm deep and very cold... got cold feet. Lesson to learn: even if you are going outside for a very short time, wear shoes (ha ha ha)...

At lunchtime the snow was starting to melt and I actually headed into work for a short period of time. Commute in and back home were fine despite it being slushy in areas. Sadly the snow is continuing to melt, but I for one have enjoyed seeing it and the effects it has on people - most were happy to play in it and take the time to enjoy the outdoors. Driving home I noted various other little snowmen and could imagine the fun the kids/adults had had putting these together... unfortunately I didn't get to make my snowman family...

And on that note, best I go check my supper!!! Bye.

Update

2007-01-27T09:43:00.000Z

Life feels like it has been pretty busy lately. Not sure why but that is the case. So thanks to you for persisting in coming back to check if my blog has been updated at all! I have done a quick update this morning, adding the ghost-dog photos (realise that old post read ghost-ogs, sorry about lack of editing) to the entry "and on the right", about two postings before this one. I still think these are really cool pics.

Otherwise, I don't really have much news at present. Winter has hit the UK at long last, not good timing really as all the bulbs are appearing (confused little plants) and some trees have blossoms on their branches. But we had snow this Wednesday (have taken a photo but will only put this on at a later stage - now added, 08/2/07) and it was nice to wake up to white fluffy snow.

Was a bit sad to see that it had all melted by the afternoon but I did manage to make three small snowballs to throw at a work colleague. Unfortunately I have not had much practice with throwing snowballs and I missed on each attempt! Silly me.

Not much else is happening in my life at present, other than the usual... work and relaxing. Did have another lovely meal at my friends' house this Wednesday night and enjoyed the company. The evening was a success and I left very relaxed. Other "exciting" news is I went on a cross-country trip a couple of weeks back to collect some "work consumables" from Oxford. What a drive... 2 and a bit hours there and then back again. Was a nice morning out of the office though and I got to see a bit more of the British countryside (once I got off the main roads). Discovered again that the Brits do not like using proper roadsigns especially in major towns and had to go around to different roundabouts twice before I got into the right lane for departing the roundabout! Coming back I was much wiser and managed to find the correct lane first time round. Didn't take my camera with me though (again, silly me) but believe me when I say the countryside by Oxford is just beautiful. Did help that the sun was shining that day.

And that is about it. I need to go now: Saturday chores are a-calling!

2007

2007-01-04T17:01:00.000Z

Happy New Year!!!

And thank goodness 2006 is over. May this year be a better one...

So far so good I suppose, work is quiet and mostly stress free at present. Proposed work looks promising.

So looking back over the Christmas season, I don't really have much to report. I had a pretty good time. Was glad to be on holiday and managed to catch up with the family, travelling between Cheshire and Yorkshire on occasion. Got some nice presents for Christmas too including a sheep footstool (see left picture), a sheep and border-collie noughts and crosses game (see right picture), a book, clothing, stationery, biscuits, chocolates, mugs and a tray (and I am now praying I haven't forgotten anything...).

New Years itself was alright. Did the same as every other day really - quiet night in and to bed as usual at 10pm-ish. Difference being I was woken up by the fireworks going off in the neighbourhood. Nothing spectacular, but then again I prefer the quiet life really.

Not much else to say really. So here is wishing all a HAPPY NEW YEAR, and best wishes for 2007! Thanks to all who sent me messages over the festive season, appreciate hearing from you. And now I am off to do housy things...

And on the right we have...

2006-12-08T15:16:00.000Z

The weekend of the 4/5 November, my folks were kind enough to allow me to decend on them with my Cambridge friends. I decided that since neither of them (my friends) had seen much (or any) of Cheshire that it would be nice to treat them to a weekend away. So, on the Saturday morning we headed north… all was going well until we reached the M6, a couple of miles before the junction where I usually come off. It was at this point that there was a pretty large accident involving about 5 cars and a minivan all in the fast lane. It had just happened and the emergency services were arriving on the scene to deal with the situation. Most of the cars in front of me managed to get passed the scene before a road-block was set up (I landed up at the front of the roadblock, giving us a view of what was going on around the accident scene). We were amazed how no-one (except one driver who had by the looks of things twisted his ankle) was seriously hurt. Based on the damage to some of the cars I am amazed no-one was killed! There was a lotus (had passed us early) which was pretty much crumpled junk in the middle of everything and then another car where the boot was now part of the backseat! And people were walking away from the scene… wow. We had the opportunity to see how an accident scene is assessed and then cleared up rapidly to get the flow of traffic going again. It is amazing (I know I am using this word a lot, but hey) how much these MAINTENANCE vehicles can store in the back – cones galore, little signs, barriers, brooms, jackets, and those were just the things that were taken out!

After our short stop, we were back on our way and got to my folks within another half hour. We had a chat, a cup of tea, lunch and then headed to Chester! I think we all had a good time in Chester and enjoyed wandering around and even had the opportunity to listen to a choir practice in the chapel. The conductor was a very enthusiastic chap and a perfectionist too… some of the singers didn’t seem to appreciate the interruptions though, while others didn’t even seem to care and decided that having a nap was the better option!

After Chester, we headed to my folks’ via Dellamere forest to watch some husky racing in the dark. This was fun as we couldn’t quite see where we were going (no torch, but thankfully a full moon to provide us with some light) and weren’t quite sure where we were going. We arrived at a barrier and stopped to listen. For about half an hour we stood by the barrier, listening and waiting… at all times we could hear lots of dogs barking in the distance and then occasionally we would hear barking approaching… then see an eerie light appearing over the hill and then a "sled" team would come zooming by. A "sled" team would consist of three dogs in harness, attached to a large tricycle type contraption, on which stood the driver yelling his/her instructions. Each "sled" needed a light, so they could see where they were going, and fast reactions as there were a lot of trees around and also uneven ground. It was fun to see and there was even an incident where two teams came passed us very close to each other and as they headed away from us we could hear the two drivers conversing "are your dogs all female"… "yes they are, are your dogs male?"… "yes they are!"… "argh" (as the male dogs all leapt onto the female dogs and there was a tangling of harness lines). (Photos added below of the races …can’t really see much … look like ghost-dogs,). The evening was spent a my folks’ eating, drinking and chatting…

Sunday morning we headed back to Dellamere forest to see it in the light! We had a nice walk around (got a bit lost but found our way to the car again) and then headed through Northwich to visit the Anderton boat lift, with a quick gallop through Northwich town centre too. After lunch, it was time to say cheerio to my folks and head back south. However, our goodbyes were short lived. Within about 10 mins of driving, I had a puncture… I somehow drove over a screw while overtaking an idiot rolling backwards down a hill in the village between my folks’ and the motorway. The tyre went down pretty quick and we had to pull over to change the wheel. What a mission – my folks came out to assist us and after a half-hour delay we were back on the road. The rest of the journey was uneventful (thankfully) and we arrived back in Cambridge at around 6pm. Overall I had a good weekend and hopefully managed to be a good tour-guide. Thanks Mom for all the good food and thanks Dad for driving us around!

Tea for three...

2006-12-08T15:15:00.000Z

Lunch-time on the 31 October saw me ducking out of work (with permission) to join friends who I know from Rhodes days, visiting/working in Cambridge, for lunch. After exchanging some insults over the mobile (cell) phone and finally finding each other, we popped into Autie’s Kitchen (a tea-house) for lunch and a good catch-up chat. The food was good and, despite the insults (ha ha), so was the company. So thanks guys for the lunch, not sure if you made it to Europe (have just completely forgotten where you were going to go, Poland?) but if you did, I hope you had a brilliant time.

Green fingers...

2006-12-08T15:14:00.000Z

Before winter hit (we are still waiting!) I decided to take the opportunity to do some gardening on the weekend of 28/29 October when the weather proved to be marvellous for such a task. I did a good clean up removing weeds and dead leaves in inconvenient places (tend to leave some leaves under bushes just in case another toad appears or even a hedgehog - if it can fit under my gate). I also dug proper borders for my beds, planted some winter pansies and banished a couple of my indoor cyclamens to the garden pots. At the end of the weekend I was really proud of my garden and of the work I had managed to do. Only problem now is that since winter has sort of hit I can’t really see my garden during the week (I leave home in the dark and return in the dark) and on the weekends I haven’t really bothered to venture outside much, so I am suspecting that my garden needs another clearing! Any volunteers? I must let you know though, that my banished cyclamens are doing really well and are still growing and flowering and looking all pretty. Clearly they like cool, wet weather and don’t mind all the winds we have been having. At least I still have some colour in the garden other than green!

Departmental talk...

2006-12-08T15:12:00.000Z

Skipping ahead to the end of October, I had the joy of being asked to give a talk to my work colleagues about my PhD studies. Little did I know that just preparing it would take me TWO weekends and a lot of evening work. It was good to be working on stuff I understood though and going through my data again was fun because of all the memories that the work brought back… trips to Thomas Baines and seeing Tom; trips to Mountain Zebra Park; spending time out in the warm sun (or freezing weather) weighing little mice… I miss those days sometimes. Anyway, the talk went alright and most people seemed to enjoy hearing what I did. I even had the honour of speaking to some of my colleagues who don’t normally attend the seminars! I think (and hope) it will be a while before I have to prepare another talk though, still prefer poster presentations :) .

Canadian Thanksgiving...

2006-12-08T15:11:00.000Z

I am bored at work and really don’t have the energy to read scientific papers, so am taking the sneaky opportunity to do some more blogging. Naughty naughty me… but seriously WE HAVE NOTHING TO DO!!!

So, I have been very quiet yet again and know this and apologise for this to those who have been wondering where I have been. Let me just say that life has not been brilliant at the moment and I have been pretty stressed out and hating computers/or too tired to do anything. That is the short and sweet side of things!

So back to my news... let us cast our minds back to the 9th of October, which for my friends was a very special day, as it was their Thanksgiving (they are Canadian!). And since they are such sweet people, they invited me around (plus others) for a Thanksgiving meal… another yummy meal it was too. I think I know one of the reasons why I have put some weight on (not much mind you but some) since I have moved to England… I have a friend who likes to cook and since her food is so good, I tend to eat a fair amount of it. A great evening was had by all and I won’t say "no" to another Canadian Thanksgiving invite! A belated "Thanks" for the good food and good company.

Celebrations

2006-11-12T08:47:00.000Z

The weekend of the 24th September (yes, I know it is now the 12 of November and I am really behind in my news) was a fantastic weekend for me, despite it being the end of another year of my life (scary)! I had a full house, with my folks and my brother and his fiance visiting me for the weekend. They all arrived just before lunch, which was a mix of cold meats, pork-pies, salad, chips and... sushi!! I thought I would see if I could pass my new addiction on to my family members and was impressed that everyone tried at least one piece. Lunch was enjoyed and after clearing things up we did stuff. I say stuff because I can't actually remember what we did really other than chat, look at my bike, laughing at my brother riding around on a pink bike tinkling the bell, getting ideas as to how to "jazz" up my bike (cards in the spokes and streamers on the handle-bars) and then opening presents (me). I got some very nice things including money (always goes down well), an ornament of a wren (picture to right), a book (Power of One by Bryce Courtenay) and a very large, fluffy hedgehog.

Later in the day we were joined by my friends who brought me some lovely flowers and an ornamental hedgehog (I see a theme developing here but not sure why...). On introducing my new hedgehogs to each other (picture to left) we headed to the local pub to try out the food and drink. We had great meals and the "entertainment" (aka people watching) was amusing. Little did I know that there would be a toga party happening at the pub (many guys walking around with sheets around them), but it added to the amusement of the evening.

Sunday saw us catching up on "X-factor" and "Who wants to be a millionaire?" (sad lot us!), fixing a lock to my sliding door, more chatting and doing of stuff and then saying cheerios to the family both before and after lunch. Later that evening I was treated to a meal out by my friends to help wrap up the celebrations. Thanks to all involved in making the weekend a fantastic one! Really appreciate the visits and the laughs. And of course the presents!

I'm addicted!

2006-11-12T08:20:00.000Z

Before you panic that I am addicted to something really bad... it isn't true! Rather, I am addicted to something good and healthy. I have recently (last couple of months) been introduced to Sushi and since this introduction I have enjoyed not only eating the stuff but preparing it myself... yummy. As a child I was never fed Sushi and probably because one straight away thinks that sushi means raw fish is involved (which is yuck). But my Canadian friends, who have a range of tastes due to the ethnic mix of people they have in Canada, have shown me that raw fish doesn't need to be involved in the making of sushi at all. So, it was on one of my visits to their house for a meal, when I was taught how to make sushi rolls (there is a special name for them but it is too early in the morning to recall this). We made vegetarian sushi rolls (mango, peppers, cucumber, carrot) and fish sushi rolls (same ingredients but with smoked salmon included), then cut them into bite-size bits and ate them. With chopsticks! Ha ha. And I didn't drop or flick any food across the room either (which I tend to do if trying to eat with chopsticks). A good experience and since then I have made sushi (using tuna and crabmeat as ingredients too - tuna good, crab meat not really) at home a number of times and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Remember though, if you try sushi, watch out for the Wasabi sauce... man that can blow your head off if you aren't careful. Definitely clears the sinuses too.

Hair-do

2006-10-29T09:08:00.000Z

So where was I? Yip, I know, the silence has been long again and again the excuses are work related: the last couple of weekends I have been working on a talk that I was giving to work mates and found that the preparation did really take a lot longer than anticipated. Oh and the health hasn't been good either (but I am much better now). So, back to my question of "where was I?" and the reply being the last news I passed on was about cat-sitting. On with the stories...

I am not much of a person to pamper themselves, hair-cut now and then, don't go to the beauty salon to get nails done etc. So it was with great excitement (granted more my friend's excitement than mine) that we headed off to get our hair cut and styled. I was little nervous because I never know what to say to the hairdresser and never know what style to go for. Anyway, after a little confusion as to which hairdresser we were getting (I was supposed to get the guy and friend was supposed to get the girl, but there was a mixup and I got the girl and friend got the guy) our hair was attacked. Both styles turned out great and if I spend a little time in the mornings sorting my hair out it turns out really curly (which it is naturally so anyway) with my fringe to the side. No pictures... sorry! But I was really happy with it and still am! And the price wasn't too bad either. My friend's hair also looked good and I think she was happy with it too. So all in all a nice little pamper session followed by good food, cooked by my friends! They are good to me!

Here kitty kitty kitty...

2006-10-08T09:41:00.000+01:00

A number of weekends ago (16 Sept) my friends had to go away for the weekend and asked if I wouldn't mind cat-sitting. I said not, as the cat is a cool cat and I was willing to help my friends out too. However, I decided that instead of cat sitting at their house, I would see how he (the cat) felt about staying at my place. The weather was going to be rubbish the whole weekend anyway (according to the forecast) so the cat wouldn't be going outside, so why not try it (this would be a useful experiment too for later possible cat-sitting moments)?

So, Friday after work I headed to the cat's house (his name is Kappa) and bundled him into his carrier without too much hassle (although he wasn't happy to be in the box)! The drive home was a little long, interrupted by the odd "meeeow" as if to say "are we there yet?" On arriving at my place I released the cat and he started exploring the house under my watchful eye: to be honest I was a little nervous about him wanting to scratch things, although he doesn't seem to do this in his own home! After a little while following him around, I decided to collect the rest of his stuff out of the car and then settle in for the evening (taking some photos in the process)...

(Left) Initially Kappa seemed a bit nervous and found a spot on the bed looking out my upstairs window for some comfort...

(Right)... after a bit of food and more exploring things went pretty quiet and I went looking for my guest, only to find that he was "relaxing" in the dark, two steps down from the top of my staircase - I still wish I knew why this was considered a "good spot".

That night I, admittedly, didn't sleep too well as I was concerned about rolling ontop of the cat; he found his blanket at the foot of the bed (on the bed) so was technically out of the way, but still I do tend to kick and move while sleeping, so didn't want to hurt him. He did wander off a bit during the night and at one stage when I was in a deep sleep he thought it would be a good idea to jump on my back (I was sleeping on my tummy at this point). I freaked as I had temporarily forgotten about the cat and didn't know what was going on! Unfortunately he also got a fright, due to my reaction! We did both manage to settle down again, with no further incidents.

By Saturday Kappa seemed pretty settled in...

... making me wish I could be a cat too! How peaceful he looks! We spent the day relaxing, with me reading or watching tv (attempted to blog but Kappa wanted to sit on the computer and I didn't want him to, so stopped all computer work) and Kappy mostly sleeping and looking for attention. We even played a bit with his toys (which is amazing as he doesn't play that often according to his owners!)

Sunday morning saw me trying to get Kappa back in the box! He didn't like this and managed to escape me... but not for long. I thought I had "lost" him when he ducked behind my couch, however he was silly enough to keep running a popped out the other end where I managed to grab him and put him in the box. I was impressed that he didn't try to scratch or bite me, but instead protested with lots of meows and scrabbling legs (claws retracted). Once in the box though he settled nicely and our journey back to his home was uneventful (with a couple more "are we there yet" meows).

It was a fun weekend (for me at least) and made me wish I had a pet, although not a cat as I am still very much a dog-person. Oh well, something to look forward to in the future (way, way in the future!) when I have more time and money!

Slow, slow. Quick! Quick! Slow…

2006-10-07T15:35:00.000+01:00

Tuesday nights have now become another activity night for me, since my friend and I joined local classes of ballroom dancing! So far we have had three lessons and have learnt steps for the fox-trot, the cha-cha and the modern waltz. I know I have covered these before in other classes, but I am hoping to use this course as a refresher course (which I do need as I have forgotten a number of steps) before moving to the intermediate levels. It is also another way for me to meet more people from the area and to feel more involved in the community. So, between ballroom and tennis I feel pretty active, or I would if the weather was good enough to stay dry on Monday and Wednesday nights for tennis, and if my body would decide to stop feeling ill at other times when the weather looked great!! Hopefully at some point soon I will also return to squash, which technically was going to be tonight (1st October) but I really don’t see that happening despite me feeling better (I have been fighting off a cold bug thing these last couple of days which has been making me feel rather exhausted and out of it!). Maybe next weekend I will pluck up the energy and go smack a squash ball around – could prove amusing for a number of reasons! Updates will be provided.

I want to ride my bicycle...

2006-10-07T15:34:00.000+01:00

Yip, I now have new wheels… a bicycle! You may laugh! I know people did when I borrowed a bike while living in Grahamstown and I decided to try cycling around instead of using my car. But I don’t care! I have been thinking about getting a bike for a while now (granted a short while, but still) and have been spurred on by my mom constantly mentioning she would love to get a bike and also by my friends letting me cycle on a borrowed bike through Cambridge. So during July, when I felt I could spend money, I ordered a bike through my brother’s work. After a long wait (about 7 weeks) it finally arrived at my house and I opened the box with enthusiasm, only to discover that I had to put the bike together myself. This didn’t floor me for too long though despite my complete lack of knowledge about bicycles and their gears etc. Last time I owned a bike, in fact I don’t think I have ever OWNED a bike, was when I had use of a BMX when I was about 6 or 7. I am sure the bike was in fact my brother’s and if I had use of it, it was probably because he had been given a more up to date bike. Anyway, I digress… I haven’t been a fan of bikes for many years and therefore know pretty much nothing about them, other than they have pedals, brakes and you need to keep moving or you fall off (unless you are propping yourself up with your foot). After finding the instructions on how to get the bike out of the box and also how to put it together, I took the brave step of actually putting the bike together whilst reading the instructions (this reading of instructions is a rare thing for me!). I managed pretty well and only made one little mistake, which I managed to rectify quite easily. Once the bike was all set up, I gave it a go outside on the front drive-way; it worked except the gears didn’t change properly. I have since managed to fix this too and now feel pretty confident about maintaining a bike! Overall I am enjoying my new-wheels, although I haven’t been out on it for a while now due to ill-health and bad weather. I still have to get used to its colour though – pity I didn’t have a choice of colours, as I sure wouldn’t naturally choose a bike that is mostly PINK! Oh well, it is a LADIES bike, so what other colours would you expect?

Ghost-busters?

2006-10-07T15:24:00.000+01:00

It was a bright and sunny afternoon (ha ha) and I arrived at my friends’ house a couple of hours before heading off to the mini-ball. After being welcomed into the house and led up the stairs to deposit my bag in “my room”, I entered the room to find a ghost figure in front of me making panicked noises and flaying about… "what was this?" Quickly, I grabbed my camera to get evidence of this apparition, much to the apparition’s dismay and further panic. Click! “Gotcha!”

As you can see or deduce from the pic, this “ghost” is nothing more than my friend putting a duvet cover on the duvet! And you thought I was amazing at staying so calm at seeing a real ghost (or that I have completely cracked and that you should send the men in their white coats to come and fetch me…if it is the latter, please make sure the men are young and cute!). Oh, and all the panicked noises I heard and have semi-described, were my friend not wanting me to take photos of him being domestic or even seeing him being all domestic.

But my question now is “who truly climbs into the duvet cover and then drags the duvet in with them, just to put the cover on the duvet?” I have never seen anyone put a cover on a duvet in this fashion before and find it rather amusing. I am not saying it is the wrong way to do things and it sure looks fun (especially when the duvet cover is white and you can make ghoulish noises in the process) but it does seem a little too taxing. I personally wash and iron the cover inside out and then turn the cover the right way round as I put it over the duvet! I think my mom used to just shove the duvet into the cover and then shake it until all was flat, but that was also too energetic for me (okay I am lazy when it comes to putting duvets into their covers). Just out of curiosity I would love to hear how other folks put their duvets’ covers on!

I'm back... (Sunday 1 October)

2006-10-07T15:19:00.000+01:00

(Remember, we are casting our minds back... this was written on the 1st October)

I was just reading my book whilst relaxing on my couch when it dawned on me, yet again, that I haven’t blogged for a while. Excuses? Main one is that I have been waiting to be connected to broadband (yip, still) and although this has actually occurred, I do not yet have the correct equipment to actually access the internet via broadband. This equipment is still arriving in the post, with a “little delay” due to the internet provider I am using sending the required information etc to the wrong address and now the postal business messing me around! Dah! I think I am forever going to be dealing with incompetent people!!! Once I was “connected” to broadband, I had the joys of not being able to access the internet at all and had to contact the providers to request that they keep me on dial-up until my broadband stuff arrived… that was two weeks ago. Oh well there is hope that by next weekend I will be on-line through broadband and wireless!!!

Other excuses for not blogging include the fact that work lately has involved a lot of computer work and when I get home in the evenings the last thing I want to do is stare at a computer screen. At present I feel I can handle the computer for a while as I haven’t looked at one for a whole day, but I will have to pace myself as this coming week seems like it is going to be another spent in front of the computer screen! I have also been busy at times with other activities including sporting activities – tennis, ballroom dancing and cycling; entertaining friends and family and also cat sitting again. It was at the time of cat sitting that I was contemplating blogging, until the cat decided to try sit on the computer and I wouldn’t let him – I was not impressed (neither was the cat) and decided that working on the computer was not going to happen (this cheered the cat up a bit).

So, let me think what I have been up to that I can make into stories worth telling. While I think, let me run upstairs to close windows as it has now decided to rain a tad…

Ah yes, I forgot to mention the possible ghost I saw recently when I joined my friends at the mini-ball and stayed over at their place that night; I have acquired my last “large” purchase of August; I have joined another activity in the local community which is proving enjoyable; I have again cat-sat, with a difference; have expanded my tastes and become addicted; have had a hair-chop; and have celebrated another “year gone by”! So, let me start with the ghost…

On LINE!!!! And cruising...

2006-10-07T15:10:00.000+01:00

I am so excited... not only am I connected to broadband (at long last) but I am also typing this will connected WIRELESSLY! YAY!!! The joy is immense!!

So, now I can say sorry for not blogging for so long. As you will see with my "coming news" I did attempt to blog last week and did my typing off-line and was all prepared to actually add the stuff on-line when I discovered that I had been thrown off Dial-up yet again. Due to my lack of energy to deal with my providers and knowing I had a package waiting for me at the postoffice which was likely to be my broadband stuff, I decided to wait until I was sorted with the broadband before actually posting my news. This has meant a delay of another week before posting: so caste your minds back to last Sunday and just pretend that the news is the latest I have for now....

Oysters!

2006-09-03T15:37:00.000+01:00

When I was in high school, a group of us went to Knysna for a school holiday trip. It was during this trip that I tried my first oyster and decided it was going to be my last. Now I admit I tend to eat some odd things and in the past have eaten snails (a number of times and a favourite starter of mine), mopane worm (while on a trip to Zimbabwe and had to try the local cuisine) and various other shellfish, but there is something about oysters that I don’t particularly like. Well, my decision to never have another oyster was thwarted on Friday (25th August), when I was treated to a meal at a seafood restaurant (Loch Fyne) by my friends, for looking after their cat Kappa (see earlier entry). As starters we ordered a salad, some squid (my order) and some oysters (definitely NOT my order). I was offered some oyster and “no thanks” wasn’t going to be accepted, so I tried one for the second time (I am willing to admit that my tastes can change so am willing to try things a second time if need be) and again decided that oysters are not my cup of tea! Thanks but no thanks. I was very happy to have had a glass of water by my side and my plate of scrumptious food in front of me to remove the taste of the oyster! They were enjoyed though, which is a good thing, at least they weren’t wasted! The main meals were good too and I thoroughly enjoyed my evening. Thanks for the treat guys!

... and other wildlife (more).

2006-09-03T15:36:00.000+01:00

After my night of spotting some nocturnal wildlife, I had a day in the garden watching birds flock to my feeders (mainly sparrows), at one stage having approximately 20 birds sitting around the feeder and along the fence. While clearing some of the garden I also noticed some caterpillars feeding happily on one of my small trees (belonging to the buff-tip moth - see pics below) and more slugs and snails. Once it had gone dark again I was able to do some bat watching too as three bats were merrily flying around my back garden looking for insects. These bats seem to like frequenting my garden, as I have seen them (presuming they are the same ones) around a couple of times now. Unfortunately I have been unable to identify them, as they are a little too quick for me to see them properly in the dark!

Two foxes...

2006-09-03T15:31:00.001+01:00

No, I am not referring to a pub but rather two foxes that awoke me during the wee hours of Sunday morning (1:30am-ish). My dreams were shattered when some strange noise tore its way into my mind. It sounded like crackling of tin cans but with an added eerie aspect to it. Clambering out of bed I looked out my window to see what was potting, only to see a red streak darting down the road; a fox. I kept watching though as the noise was still there and soon afterwards quietened down as another fox came trotting down the road (in the same direction as the streak went) busy padding about and marking its territory. I was pretty impressed as I hadn’t clicked that there could be foxes in the neighbourhood willing enough to come into the streets, clearly I was mistaken, which isn’t surprising as I do live near some wooded areas (see pic). It was nice to see them, albeit at 1:30 in the morning and luckily I was able to go back to sleep and carry on with my dreams.

Since that night I have been awoken again by the strange tin-can crackling noise but thankfully I was able to identify this sound previously, as it can be rather freaky during the early hours of a dark morning. Pity I wasn’t able to see the foxes again but at least one was out there!

Tennis fun day

2006-09-03T15:31:00.000+01:00

This is going to be a short entry: from 1pm to 5pm on Saturday 19 Aug, I was down by the local tennis courts joining other tennis club members for a fun tennis day. This proved to be a great opportunity to meet other tennis club members and have some fun on the courts. Although I was pretty exhausted from the night before (mini-ball) I managed to play some good games (losing them all but still had fun) and managed not to be hit by any balls (always a good thing). The weather wasn’t too bad and we only had to play a couple of games in the rain! And we managed to bbq before the rains came. I will admit that after the tennis I was shattered and looking forward to a good night’s sleep!

Mini-ball

2006-09-03T15:29:00.000+01:00

On Friday 18th August I attended what was called a “mini-ball” at one of the colleges at Cambridge (Downing college) with my friend, her husband and some friends/work colleagues of his. I was interested in going not only to have a fun evening out but also to make a comparison with the Rhodes’ balls. Overall the two types of ball are pretty similar – the promise of good food, good wine and a lot of drunk people. A couple of differences included the presence of a bouncy castle (yip, for the adult-children!), a croquet lawn (although not many people were playing due to the rain) and a piñata (more on this later), none of which have featured at the Rhodes’ balls I have attended! Everyone looked lovely (thanks to my buddy for doing my make-up, I really am not a “make-up and nails” girl, and for lending me a dress too) and the grounds were amazing (to me at least). It was like entering an American styled place and forgetting that one was in Cambridge in a college surrounded by BUSY roads – the traffic sounds didn’t enter the grounds and one could pretend that beyond the areas where we were hanging around there were forests or rolling hills! Very relaxing.

Soon after arriving at the college, we were treated to pre-dinner drinks and snacks while listening to a string quartet and chatting to different people. We were then ushered into the dinning hall to have dinner. The food was pretty good (duck was the main course and dessert was some sort of mousse which I didn’t eat; none of the usual chicken kiev and peppermint surprise that we faced oh so many times at Rhodes!), however the wine was a bit dodgy, both white and red left a bit of a foul taste in one’s mouth. Towards the end of the meal the crowds were getting a bit bored and at our table there was a “contest” as to who could come up with the best activity using the balloons present on our table (the decorations). To the right were the guys sucking what we are hoping was helium and try to speak with a squeaky voice. This didn’t quite work, hence the query as to whether the gas filling the balloons was indeed helium. What else it could be I am not too sure, but apparently helium isn’t necessarily the only gas one can use to fill balloons. To the left the experiment being conducted was to get the balloons to float at head-level across the room. This was a bit more successful once the box holding down the balloons was emptied of its gravel, had its sides and bottom ripped off, the little handles ripped off and then various sections of ribbon ripped off. The balloons were then sent on their way across the room much to the delight of the chap who did all the scheming and to the ball-attendants who were fascinated by the balloons being at head-level. Granted at this point there were a number of tipsy folk, so little things were clearly amusing them! (photo is of the dinning hall; you can see balloons in the background - there were some that had been set "free" and were making their way up and down the far wall!)

After dinner we headed to another venue where folks started jumping on the castle (we did take a photo but that doesn’t seem to have come out) and dancing to the live music, oh and grabbing more booze and generally enjoying the party. We sat outside for a while and watched the activity around the piñata – a fish filled with boiled sweets and some chocolates. All was going well and some people were doing well the whack the fish pretty hard with the stick and break open various parts of the piñata. The first sign of problems though was when one chap was brought forward, blindfolded and spun around. He then just stood there for a moment or two before falling over! A mate did catch him before he could hurt himself and he was led off presumable to recover for a while. The next guy was very enthusiastic and gave the fish a good couple of hits before building up for the final smack. The swing came, the fish was missed but the stick ‘broke’ into two (it was made of two parts which screwed into each other, clearly it wasn’t screwed together properly), with the top part flying forward into a window with a loud bang… amazingly the window didn’t break and on closer inspection there wasn’t even a scratch on the glass. Needless to say, the piñata was abandoned (just in case!), and folks moved inside to party!

At the end of our evening, we headed to the college entrance to meet with the ordered cab. The cab (a people carrier of sorts) arrived and we piled in (three of us). The cabbie then put the vehicle into gear and our final adventure started… the music was turned up (disco style), the lights were turned on (really disco style – red, yellow and I think green lights too) and we were left speechless. What was this? Were we on candid camera? Wide-eyed we were taken back towards my friends’ place but a street or two away we asked the cabby to pull over and let us out (we FELT like walking for a while). He did pull over but I don’t think he was impressed and soon was pulling along side us to try get more money off us, which he didn’t succeed in doing and drove off in a huff. We were glad to duck indoors and be out of sight of the cabby in case he decided to try find us again. I learnt a lesson from this experience – never give the cabby your home number, just give the street name and then tell the cabby when to stop. Also wait until the cabby is out of sight before entering your property! And the biggest lesson of the evening was – NEVER go in THAT cab again!!!

All in all a fun evening though and we didn’t even have sore heads the next morning, although I was pretty tired for the rest of the weekend which proved a little difficult for me and my concentration levels… more on that shortly.

New computer...

2006-09-03T15:28:00.000+01:00

What a mission it proved to be to get my new computer. I won’t go into the details though as I just can’t stand the thought of reliving the hassle! However, after three attempts of getting my computer delivered, it finally arrived three days later than the original set date and way out of the set time limit that had been arranged. Despite the hassles, I am beginning to enjoy my computer and hopefully I will soon be connected to wireless broadband; can’t wait! The use of the computer at home has increased though already which is just great! Hopefully, when the broadband is connected I will be able to keep a bit more up-to-date with my blogging and adding in various pics (if I can solve the problem as to why the pics aren’t being uploaded)! So to many happy computer days…

Coffee house...

2006-09-03T15:26:00.000+01:00

My day off, after a fun weekend, proved to be fun too. I was able to catch up on some town-stuff including banking – just love putting money into the account!! And then I joined my friend for coffee. Well she had the coffee while I had my usual hot chocolate with cream – yum! I am not sure how long we sat and chatted but it was nice to catch up as we hadn’t seen each other for a week and in my friend’s case, a lot can happen in a week. And during quiet moments we just watched the people wandering by; there can be some odd folk in Cambridge and I am trying to decide which town “houses” the oddest – Cambridge or Grahamstown during the Arts Festival? After departing town, I headed home to relax and enjoy some time to myself. That evening I attended tennis coaching and had a good session, despite getting 5 balls over the fence.

Wedding bells and Worcester

2006-08-28T16:17:00.000+01:00

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.

2006-08-26T09:20:00.000+01:00

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

2006-08-26T09:13:00.000+01:00

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...

2006-08-21T08:01:00.000+01:00

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...

2006-08-05T19:42:00.000+01:00

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!

2006-08-02T07:57:00.000+01:00

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...

2006-08-01T07:45:00.000+01:00

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

Twilight Zone

2006-07-28T07:51:00.000+01:00

Aah the joys of mist; I woke up this morning to a misty outlook and for a moment I could imagine that I was in the mountains. Alas this isn't the case (live in the Fens which are FLAT!) but at least I had a moment to dream! The mist did give the drive into work a "Twilight Zone" feel though, especially since there were very few cars around. This led me to start questioning myself as to what day it really is, "it is Friday, isn't it?" Granted it is the holiday season for the school kids, but this whole week has been the holiday season, so why so few cars today compared to say yesterday when I got slowed drastically after about 2 minutes of driving (today it took me 10 minutes of driving before encountering the morning queues)? Oh well, this will add to my ODD week anyway and hopefully the journey home will be as pleasant and quiet as it was this morning.

So, on to my odd week. Monday and Tuesday are blurry days - didn't really enjoy either of these days as I was frustrated with life in general. Thankfully my good friend and work colleague was there to keep me sane (and prevent me from throttling anyone!). Monday evening was fun though as I went to tennis (now joined) and managed to keep most of the balls in the court area, although I am still struggling to keep the balls in the limits of the various white lines on the court. Two balls did escape me and the court though, much to the amusement of the coach and other tennis players.

Wednesday started off as a normal day - get to work, start working... the usual. At morning tea though things became a little more interesting: the building fire-alarm started to wail and continued to wail. After a little confusion the building was evacutated and the wait for the fire department to arrive started. This took half an hour (alarm constantly wailing) as the Cambridge fire department were busy with other emergencies, so the fire truck had to come from someplace east of Cambridge, a long drive away. Thankfully the building wasn't on fire or it would have burnt down by the time the truck got there. The problem was that a little bug had managed to get into the sensory system and set the alarm off. Wednesday evening I planned to go watch some Shakespeare (no I haven't cracked) with some friends. This plan was altered when the heavens opened and the rain came accompanied with lightening flashes and rumbles of thunder (oh man I miss those thunder storms!). This change in plan wasn't too bad though as I was happy just to have the rain, so the evening was spent in a cosy lounge chatting with my friends and annoying their cat. A wonderful evening! On returning home (driving through heavy rain), I discovered that my day of alarms going off hadn't ended as a neighbour's house alarm was blaring for 15 minutes before it was silenced.

Yesterday was an alright day: work went okay, went to the pub for lunch which was pleasant and we had storms again which was great. I was unhappy to have not had my camera with me on my drive home as the lightening was spectacular. Although even if I had had my camera with me I doubt I would have caught the flashes of light since I was having to drive and avoid puddles of water on the road. It was a pretty amazing sight though. And all that rain led to the misty morning to which I awoke!

And now it is Friday. Work colleagues are entering the building so I know that I haven't overslept by a day and the sun is shining! So best I get on with work now...

Those Kodak moments...

2006-07-23T11:05:00.000+01:00

So I have taken the great leap and have joined the digital camera world and so far I am enjoying being on board! Yip, I have bought myself a new camera, since my old one decided to bite the bullet after over 14 years of service. I may still attempt to get the normal camera fixed in the future, but at present the buying of a new camera seemed the more sensible thing to do. I would show you what the new camera looks like but unfortunately I can't take a picture of it! Anyway, it is a Kodak model and I am really happy with it. And to show off how happy I am with it, here are some pictures I have taken with it... I take this opportunity to show you stuff growing in my garden...

Left: my first tomato - it is about the size of a marble but I am oh so proud of it... I grew this from seed.

Right: my first chilli - also about the size of a funny shaped marble. There are plenty more appearing on the plants but this is the largest one for now.

Left: a flower in my garden.

Right: a Viola in my garden.

And now I think I will quit as the computer is really slow in loading these pictures up and doesn't seem to want to load the ones that I really want to show you... will try one last time and then will quit....

Oh miracles never cease... the computer decided at long last to load this picture (poppy below). I was about to take it and the hover-fly just landed. I like really like this picture. Anyway, I think that is enough from me at present. CJ

Cambridge

2006-07-18T11:11:00.000+01:00

So here are some photos from Cambridge. The first lot are taken along the "Backs" while we were being punted along.

This is the "Bridge of sighs"... the bridge that students go across before (or after) their exams and sigh because they are worried or think they did badly in the exams. I think it is a nice looking bridge!

Right: this is the "Mathematical bridge"

Left: This is my bridge, or better known as "Clare Bridge".

Right: The back of Kings College Chapel

Left: This is the back of the marvelous, wonderful Darwin College which is full of wonderful people (well the ones I have met! - is that better Ray? Sorry about my earlier entry :) ).

The next set of photos are taken from the Cambridgeshire County Fair from 2005... the huskies are the ones I have been wanting to see perform twice but alas have missed them due to different circumstances (we were late the one year and they didn't come the next!).

Right: these are Alpacas, aren't their faces just so cute? Although I felt sorry for them on this day as it was hot and look at all the wool they have!

Left and below: these chaps are Morris Dancers, they dance around to music and tap sticks together or wave hankies around. Odd but hey! After the Crow Festival, this tradition doesn't seem too weird.

And now I have to finish up again as I need to drive back to Cambridge. Will hopefully add more photos soon. CJ

My UK life so far...

2006-07-18T08:51:00.000+01:00

While I am able to use my Dad's computer and since I have found a number of photos on it showing various aspects of my life in the UK so far I thought I would take the opportunity to share these moments with my friends. The photos will include places where I applied for jobs and got interviews but in the end either didn't get the job or declined to take it, where I have lived (Cottenham) and where I live now (although things have changed a bit) and various sites around Cambridge. So here goes...

Let me first look at the Rainforest centre where I had my first interview, these are just pics from around the forest centre.

Pretty flowers all around....

... and animals too.

Next are photos from the Cumbria zoo at which I was offered a job (although not the one I applied for originally). It was an amazing place but the salary (as is usual with anything to do with zoos or animal work) was a bit on the low side. There were very few bars around and the animals were kept in their enclosures by electric fencing. It was much more open and free.

The Caoti enclosure (left) was one such enclosure that if the caoti climbed to the end of the branches of the trees and dropped down they would land outside the enclosure. Not sure if they ever tried but they seemed pretty happy where they were.

The Lemars (right) were all zenned out! And they had free reign over the park, except at night they were put back into their cages. Oh and they weren't allowed into the Australian section.

The Australian section had various animals from, um, Australia. This was a great area as the public could walk around amongst the animals, just had to be wary around the emus and the back legs of the kangaroos.

It was during this interview that I came face to face with a giraffe (at the giraffe's head level) and it licked me... how amazing is that!!! A memory that will stay with me forever, along with touching a rhino and stroking a cheetah.

The next photos are taken from around Cottenham - some of the inside of my flat and the outside (not really that exciting) and then also the village itself.

Left: The lounge (before I added all my stuff).

The outside of the flat block (right)

And the village green (left).

This is Madingley Hall, close to where I work. We sometimes come walking here at lunch time to visit the geese and feed the fish and ducks (if they are around).

I think I will publish this post now and at a later stage I will show pics from Cambridge itself and of my new home. I have a dental appointment to get to and it has taken me longer than anticipated to get all these photos up. Hopefully the wait for the next load of pics won't be too long. CJ

The end is near...

2006-07-17T12:38:00.000+01:00

Our second last day in Gran Canaria saw us heading west again but this time in a bus. I think I would have preferred to have done the bus trip before we drove places, but I managed to keep my eyes off the road and pretended that the bus-driver was quite capable of keeping the bus on the road. We jumped off the bus at Arguineguin and decided to walk for a bit (not out of fear mind you, just because that was where we were heading). On our little walk we managed to accidentally head out of Arguineguin (tiny place really) and landed up in an area called Anfi Del Mar (photo to left), which was even smaller than Arguineguin. It was a pleasant little place and we spent a fair amount of time around here looking at the shops, sitting on the beach, watching fish (right) in the little river going under a bridge and walking around some little gardens.

In the afternoon we left Anfi and headed to Peurto Rico via boat. This was a fun trip and gave us an opportunity to see the coastline from the sea.

Left: Peurto Rico from a distance

Right: The harbour of Peurto Rico

After walking around PR for a while, we caught the bus again and headed back to our "home". After dinner we decided to end our last evening in Gran Canaria with a walk on the Maspalomas dunes. Despite my being an idiot and injuring my toe on a stick while walking to the dunes (oh the pain and the blood!) the walk and view were a good ending to the holiday.

Our last day in GC doesn't warrant a new entry... we didn't do much except relax around the pool and go to the beach for a while until it was time for us to catch our cab to the airport. During this last car trip in GC I decided that taxi-drivers in GC should all be shot! The first taxi-driver we had (Day 1) was a maniac and insisted on driving top speed (through roadworks) while chatting on his mobile phone. The guy we had on the last day was more sedate but I soon realised that this was due to his being sleepy and practically falling asleep at the wheel while doing about 120km/h. I was not amused and despite thinking my two days in the hired car were low days for car travel, this last car trip proved that the hired car trip was a day in heaven in comparison. Man oh man was I glad to get out of that death-trap and get onto a plane. Not a good end to a pretty good holiday. I would recommend the visit to Gran Canaria, but seriously, pick your taxi-drivers with care and don't look at the roads when driving around (unless of course you are the driver!).

And that endith my Gran Canaria holiday.

Return to Gran Canaria

2006-07-17T11:56:00.000+01:00

Okay, I must admit that the Interlude from the holiday went on a lot longer than anticipated. So for those of you who have been holding your breath for all this time... please breathe now! Hopefully I will now be able to get a bit closer to finishing chatting about my holiday in Gran Canaria.

So a brief recap - My folks and I went on holiday to Gran Canaria in March. After 7 days of walking around checking out the various places on the island, my Dad hired a car and we braved the roads. My last entry on this subject, entitled "Kerb", saw us on day one of the car hire where we ventured into the interior regions of the island. This entry is now day two of the car hire where we decided that the coastal route to the west of the island was a good idea...

Again I was placed in the front passenger seat with the map in one hand and the eyes on the roadside, yelling "KERB" on the odd occasion (or more likely all the time due to my panicked state not really due to my Dads driving!). The coastal roads were in fact more windy and busy than the interior roads and I was in a state most of the way. Our aim was to get to the look out point at Anden Verde, going through Puerto Rico, Mogan and San Nicolas De Tolentino. We initially stopped at a look out area called Mirador de Balcon to take pictures...

This (left) is looking to the south of the lookout point.

And to the right is the view looking north.

After this stop, we continued north to the Anden Verde lookout and stopped again to take a couple more photos. The one shown on the left is of the view looking north. If you have good eyes and you look carefully at the photo, you can see Tenerife in the distance with its snow capped mountain.

At each of these stops I took the opportunity to take a breather and try reduce my adrenalin levels (didn't quite work but hey!). I was fascinated at these points (and this goes for the first day of the car hire) to find that at the tops of these mountains there was always a cyclist or two having a little rest before continuing on their way... and they never seemed to be going downhill! Crazy cyclists!

On the way back towards Maspalomas, we stopped off at various spots to take in the view or to just have a break. The first of these stops was to look at a geological wonder - we didn't know what it was, hence the "wonder". We reckoned that this (pic) formation was due to an old lava flow and that the various minerals in the flow were making their presence known. The photo doesn't quite give the formation justice - the green was a lot more spectacular! You have to see it in real life to appreciate it fully.

The main stop we made was at Puerto de Morgan where we decided to relax on the beach and people watch. Some of the sights were pretty scary - thongs and g-string swimming costumes were a bit off-putting, especially on people who shouldn't be wearing them! While sitting on the beach and relaxing, the peace was often disturbed by hooting horns in the distance (oh and the occasional angle-grinder at the building site not far off). On listening to the horns, the observant type would realize that it was only horns that belonged to big vehicles that were sounding - buses, trucks and any other HGV. Looking up at the side of the mountain (which was a backdrop to the bay/beach where we were sitting), one could see the reason for this honking of horns. About a quarter of the way down from the top of the mountain (pic) was a road and at the one point the road did a major turn. The honking of horns was to warn people on one side of the mountain that something big was about to come around the corner and needed to use both lanes of the road to do so. So basically the big vehicles were saying "yahoo, I am coming ready or not! Get out of the way!!!". Amazingly no two large vehicles traveling in opposite directions ever seemed to want to come around the corner at the same time. I presume "first to hoot" gets right of way. Scary.

After this revelation, it was time for us to face that same road. I was not amused but we made it safely back to our accommodation and I was happy to see the back of that hire car.

Old MacDonald had a Farm!

2006-07-17T07:50:00.000+01:00

Sunday afternoon saw us (me and my folks) at the Tatton Park (Cheshire) farm yard looking at all the rare breeds of farm animals they had there. It was a lovely visit and I got my full of stroking animals and chatting to them, I even tickled some pigs noses (varsity friends will know what I am talking about). So, here are some photos to show you what we saw...

(Left) This is "Blue" the male Clydesdale horse. Nice and friendly and got a good scratch and pat from all visitors!

(Right) This is a Clydesdale foal and it is seven weeks old... it is not a little foal! It was already reaching shoulder height of adult humans!

(Left) And this is Mom... very relaxed lady considering her foal had been taken "away" from her for the first time and was surrounded by people - she was watching very carefully though to make sure no harm came to her youngster (it was off to the right of the picture).

(Right) This is a Red Poll. Didn't stroke these as they were not that friendly (or just fed up with people) so weren't standing by the fences...

(Left) Some piglets. There were a number of different pig breeds in the pens but we only managed to get photos of these pink ones, can't recall their names as I was too busy stroking them and tickling their noses. There was a really friendly black pig that came over to the fence rather rapidly and lifted its nose up to me to get a scratch. Aaah cute!

(Right) A sheep - these guys were confused and couldn't decide if they wanted to be friendly or not. Approached us for a sniff and stuck their heads through the fence to get a tickle but then retracted as soon as the hand came near... typical sheep really!

And finally the donkeys (Left). Donkeys always look so sad! But these ones were pretty friendly and I manage to give one a good stroke and tickly behind the ear.

Then it was off to wash the hands as they were pretty mucky by now. Oh but the fun of the visit was worth dirty hands. After a last wander around the farm yard, we headed off to the gardens to have a look at the flowers and then it was time for heading home. A good day in all, so thanks Mum and Dad for the treat.

Moulton Crow Festival!

2006-07-16T09:01:00.000+01:00

Right, so I am on holiday and have been for a week. I haven't really done anything too exciting but have enjoyed my time just being at home and doing whatever. The whatever included painting my staircase walls and ceiling and the upper landing walls and ceiling. The ceiling painting started on Tuesday and thanks to Ray popping around to help (thanks Ray, although I may still not forgive you for taking photos :), ps would you please send them to me, ta!) the day turned into a fantastic one! I (sorry, we) finished the ceilings by lunchtime, only to discover I had no edible food (mostly frozen at this point) in the house, so off to the pub we went. Getting to the pub (Ray's choice) was an adventure in itself and despite not knowing where the closest pubs are to Cambourne (where I live) I now have a list of about 10 pubs that could be potential stops in the future! The pub lunch was really good, so if you are ever in Fenstaton (Cambridge) go to the pub at the bottom of the hill (Ray - what is the name of the pub?). Good food for a good price. After the pub the rest of the day was spent relaxing - no more painting was done!

Wednesday and Thursday was spent painting and painting and, oh, painting. This time I focussed on the walls and managed to do a pretty good job (or so I thought!), despite not having the proper tools (a really high ladder for one!). Friday I touched up the wall painting (when I discovered that I had missed painting part of the wall - how I missed that area I am still not 100% sure) and then proceeded with cleaning the house. Busy busy day, but felt really good and tired at the end of the day knowing my house was clean and there wasn't much else that needed to be done. Wow.

Saturday morning saw me heading up to Cheshire (folks) for the weekend. The roads were busy but okay. Must be school holidays or something...

Saturday afternoon my folks were kind enough to take me to the local Moulton Crow Festival. It was being held on the local football/playing field and man the place was HAPPENIN'!!! There was a little tent with a brass band in it (photo)... and if you look carefully in the photo, you can see the DJ's tent in the background. Not sure who was competing with whom, the but DJ was winning big time!

There were a number of tents containing stalls that were selling sweets, books, toys etc (all kiddies things really). And there were two activity tents/areas - a coconut shy (although I was too shy to try it... ha ha ha!) and a race for kids where the kid had to dress in varioud clothes and then hoola hoop for a while before running back to a table to finish some other little activity. This was all timed and the fastest child got a prize. Whee, what fun!

At about 3pm the BIG event occurred... the Crows came out. Now I cannot explain what this festival is all about and my folks couldn't help with that either. My mom has asked locals about it but all she gets in response is a gleeful giggle - a lot of help that!!! So, I will just explain what happens at the festival and maybe one day I will find out the traditional meaning...

All starts off with a scarecrow being wheeled into the central areana and being left there! Next a flock of crows (grown men dressed up as crows) enters the areana while dancing various steps. The crows then proceed to dance around the areana and "flock" towards the scarecrow and then run away....

Meanwhile, Mr Farmer walks around with his shotgun and occasionally pretends to shoot the crows (killing one which then gets dragged out of the areana!)

Then the crows and farmer leave the areana and after a long time the scarecrow comes to life, wanders around the areana (looking for the exit as he can't see much at all) and eventually leaves the areana (when a helpful soul or two goes out and assists him to the exit point). Then the crows, farmer and scarecrow all gather and have their photos taken.

And that was the end of the "show". These British traditions are weird!!!

Today we are going to a show of Rare Farm Breeds. I am presuming it will be more exciting and understandable than the Crow Festival. I had fun though but doubt I will get all excited about it next year, despite it being absolutely hilarious!

Summer news...

2006-07-03T08:02:00.000+01:00

Whoever still calls England "mud island" should visit Anglia (or possibly other areas of England!). It is hot hot hot! And there has been little to NO proper rain for weeks. My poor lawn is cracking, as are my flower beds and my poor plants are looking all shrivelled and dry (despite my giving them water!).

But despite the heat and lack of rain, I have managed to enjoy some of the summer so far. Last weekend I was kindly invited to a braai at the Darwin Rowing club... I can call it a braai as there was WORS!. Joy of joys, wors.... oh how I have missed seeing you. And the chap who had bought the wors along was kind enough to let me have some. Oh more joy of joys!!! He was also kind enough to tell me where he got it from, and I now know of a local SA shop! Elusive little place but oh so welcome to be on my list of shops. After the braai, my friends and I spent the evening watching movies - Valiant and Broke-Back Mountain. I enjoyed both, but much preferred Valiant. Found BBM a bit slow, despite the good acting. Oh well. Last Sunday was a day spent with friends shopping and visiting a farm yard place. All very nice and a lot of fun. Thanks guys for a brilliant weekend.

This past week has been filled with ups and downs. Downs include being not so well so haven't been eating too well. Friend left work too, so was sad to say cheerio to him. My sliding door lock packed in on me and wouldn't lock, so had to spend money on getting a locksmith out because I couldn't solve the problem. Argh. My camera isn't working for some obscure reason. Oh and believe it or not my wisdom tooth has been acting up again and I have been in mild pain for the weekend. Stupidly last night I decided to BASH my jaw (tender area) while cleaning my teeth and then I was in AGONY! Why can't I be normal for once with regards wisdom teeth etc... come on I am in my 30s I should have had my wisdom teeth erupted and out by now!!! Anyway, the UPs include: my feeling better (healthwise); my sliding door lock is working again; my friend is coming back soon for a short time so hopefully I will see him again, so it wasn't a GOODBYE but rather a SEE YOU LATER. My tooth isn't too sore today (so far) so hopefully it will stop erupting and hopefully my dentist will be able to see me and organise for this tooth to be removed (yikes... never had problem with my teeth before so this is going to be scary!). Last week ended on a high with our annual BBQ (no wors) at work which was a great evening out (despite not feeling well). I found the SA shop so managed to buy and cook wors and some Zoo biscuits for my work friends to try. Considering I haven't eaten these things for years I am dubious as to how they taste these days. Oh well. And the last of my ups include the fact that my sweetpeas have started to flower... yay!

And on that happy note I best get on with work....

PS: I haven't forgotten about the rest of my Gran Canaria holiday, I just haven't had the will power or a decent computer to work on, but hopefully soon I will finish with this 'interlude' and I will continue with my holiday stories. Until next time!

A Traditional Day

2006-06-21T07:53:00.000+01:00

For the first time in just over two years of living in Cambridge, I have experienced some of the more traditional features of the area. Saturday was supposed to be a day of shopping for clothing, which I wasn't really keen on, so I was happy when my friend invited me along to watch the Cambridge bumps (one traditional event). Little did I realise that I would be subjected to a more common tradition on the same day, until the Friday night when it was discussed that we would be CYCLING around Cambridge, since we would be needing to use bicycles to get to the BUMPs.

Now I don't mind cycling but I have never really cycled in traffic and would rather cycle on the pavements (a general no-no in the UK). So Saturday morning saw me apprehensively cycling DOWNHILL towards town with my friend in the lead. Thank goodness her bike (which I was borrowing) had good brakes. I was nervous to say the least and a bit wobbly as I haven't cycled for about a year now and have lost my natural balance (for cycling anyway). I survived the journey into town though and despite there being cars around I managed to deal with those pretty well too. It was the BIG RED BUS following me at one stage which was freaking me out though but I managed to stay in front and not get run over; yay for side roads.

The shopping was semi-successful but I won't go into detail as this wasn't really that exciting. After the shopping we (now joined by another friend) headed down river to find a spot to watch the bumps. This journey took us through town down busy busy roads (FREAK OUT!!!!) and then into quieter areas where I felt I could enjoy the cycle. After dumping the bikes at a pub by the river side we proceeded to walk for about half an hour (or more) along the river towards the starting point for the bumps, until we found a good spot to sit and watch the activities.

Now for those who do not know what bumps are... here is an explanation (as far as my understanding goes). Bumps are rowing races with a slightly different take on things. Instead of the crews racing next to each other (which would require a very wide river/lake), the crews race in line down the river. All boats set off at the same time but start off in a grid-like fashion (similar to how the GrandPrix races cars are set up at the start of their races - I think, although I didn't actually get to see the start of the races). The point of the race is really to try and bump into the crew/boat ahead of you in the gird and also to try avoid being bumped by the crew behind you. If you bump or are bumped, you have to rapidly move to the riverbank to avoid getting in the way of the other racing teams who will continue racing until all teams have bumped or are bumped, or the boats cross the finish line. While at the side, the crew/boat that did the bumping will be given branches and leaves from the nearby willow tree which are then placed into the crew's hair and this shows that they were victorious in their challenge. The bumped team just sit there all grumpy! Once the "race" is over, all the teams return their boats to the various club houses but have to pass all the crowds who will cheer or boo or clap politely depending on their feelings with regards the passing boat. All great fun really.

While the races are on, one has to be aware of the bank parties that belong to the crews. The bank parties are generally made up of the coach and some supporting members. They tend to be on bikes too and have to try keep up with the rowers, so tend to have to cycle pretty fast while yelling (and looking) at the crew racing. This is can be a dangerous thing though as there are crowds all down the tow-path so the potential for an accident is pretty high. The way around this though is for the bank party to yell various calls to clear the tow-path and warn observers of their arrival (and quick departure). Yells include "Tow-path" (very informative - NOT!) and "Move please" (polite lot here). But generally you can hear the bank party approaching during the race due to their comments being yelled at the crew (whether the crew hear these yells or not I haven't confirmed yet). This yelling of comments proved very amusing at one stage when the crew for Jesus College went rowing past and the coach (bank party) were yelling "COME ON, JESUS!". No one was disputing that call, whether they were supporters of Jesus College or not. When the bank party moved on, what was left behind them was a rather amused crowd chuckling quietly!

So, we were there to support Darwin College, specifically the crew which was being captained by my friend's husband. They did very well on the day and managed to bump the team ahead of them, thus landing up at the top of their division. They however had to race again in the next division but unfortunately didn't manage to bump again. Their final position was therefore at the top of their original division (fourth I think). Well done Darwin!! Apparently their other teams did pretty well too, so congratultions to them too.

After watching the races, we headed back to the other side of Cambridge (on bike again) with a pitstop to pick up a big bunch of flowers from a local market stall, and thus ended my TRADITIONAL DAY! And what a great day it was!

Bakkie spotting

2006-06-06T07:55:00.000+01:00

Sad as this is, the highlight of my day so far is spotting a true bakkie! Isuzu. Double-cab and with removable canopy. I point out the removable canopy as I have seen many vehicles similar to bakkies but none have had the removable canopy, thus making them more mini-vans. But this morning was a rare sighting (for me anyway, not so if you actually live in South Africa), so had to share the news. Don't you feel better now for knowing this arb information?

Meet Ralph!

2006-06-05T08:32:00.000+01:00

This is what Ralph, my little BBQ (braai), looks like. He stands about knee high, so isn't very big but if I put enough coals in him he does produce a lot of heat for his size. So far, enough to cook 11 kebabs/sosaties and a turkey steak. I have no idea why he has been named Ralph but my friends named him, so ask them! Anyway, he is cute and pretty good. I hope I have many happy days with him!

Summer!

2006-06-05T07:54:00.000+01:00

Summer arrived this weekend and what a joy it was to see (and hear). Lawn-mowers were running, kids were playing, birds were singing and the smell of BBQs was wafting around. Aaaah lovely!

Saturday morning started off with some domestic cleaning and then shopping and then into the garden I got! My parents were visiting and arrived as I started to mow the lawn. Good timing Dad (ha ha!). I continued with the mowing after a bit of a delay and then Dad and I went around to the front to cut the grass there and to sort out the hedge. Nice to be outside in dry weather soaking up sun while doing gardening! Rest of the day was just spent relaxing and annoying my Mom who was trying to do a crossword.

Sunday was a maginificant day overall. We (folks and Cambridge friends) went to the Cambridge County Show and had a great time. Arrived in time to see the Husky display only to discover it had been cancelled (this is the second time I was hoping to see this display and the second time I have missed it. Is this a sign?). We did watch the gun-dog display, the agility show and then we wandered around a bit until the Quarter horse display started. This dragged on a tad but only because the next display was running late (stuck in traffic). The Terrier racing was next and proved to be as hilarious as usual! The best was when one dog (during the races when the public's dogs were racing) tripped up a poor little pooch during the race... the little dog did a pretty spectacular forward-roll! It was okay but a little dazed! Another amusing moment was when a greyhound overtook the "rabbit" and then stopped. Could imagine it thinking "okay, I have caught up with the rabbit, now what?". Other displays we watched included the spanish horse display and then the sheepdog display which I thought was excellent. How the farmer managed to control FIVE border collies in one go amazes me. And with distractions - one kid kept wandering up to the dogs while they were working and kept trying to stroke the dogs. They ignored him and carried on working.

After that display we left (folks had actually left quite a bit earlier as they needed to head home!) and returned to my house to test my new little braai (BBQ). After a couple of attempts to get it started (and then watching the fire die) I eventually got the fire going and we managed to cook a number of kebabs/sosaties on it (this is impressive if you actually see the size of the braai! - I will try get a photo of it on the blog in the near future).

A successful enjoyable weekend if I say so myself! I am feeling pretty relaxed at present and so glad this weekend was sunny and fill of family and friends. Just what I needed! Thanks!

Until next time! CJ

PS: if there are spelling mistakes please let me know - the spell check isn't working and I can't be bothered to proof-read my work! Ta!

Shosholoza!

2006-05-17T07:42:00.000+01:00

Okay, so this isn't quite the Canaries but I have this urge to blog (as I haven't for such a long time) and news about the Canaries requires photos and therefore takes a bit more time than just a quick entry like this... plus I have work to do so shouldn't even be blogging at present (naughty me!!!).

So, to the title of this entry then. Shosholoza! I will admit now that I grew to hate this song when I was in Grahamstown many years ago (can't recall when the song came out but it was linked to either a big rugby event or football event) and it was being sung EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME! But hearing it the other night was just AMAZING! Especially since it was being sung by the group Ladysmith Black Mambazo (a South African group) live! Mmmm, made my spine tingle.

But I jump to the end of the show (which is when this song was sung). So lets get to the start of the story. Cambridge had the pleasure of hosting LBM last week Thursday and my friends and I went to check out the performance. I was a little nervous as my friends are from Canada and have never heard African music before and I was also concerned about how I would feel listening to songs I hadn't heard for a while. We all had a good time though (Yay) and it was cool to spot the South Africans in the crowd (Springbok jerseys all around!). The opening act for the evening were pretty good (I can't recall their name) but when LBM came on stage I was mesmorized! Songs like Homeless and Shosholoza just gave me a lump in my throat and goosebumps! And yip I missed South Africa at the time but also had thoughts going through my head like "if only we could all live in harmony like LBM sing in harmony! " A brilliant evening!

So, if you get a chance to see LBM then I would recommend it 100%!!!! And on that note I best get on with work.

Keep well!
C

PS: I am not sure when I will post again but please be patient. Life is hectic at present and I am sick of computers by the end of the working day/week!

Interlude: MY CHICKEN...

2006-04-26T06:49:00.000+01:00

More on this story later - but this is my Easter "egg". If strangle chicken it squirms and makes choking noises...
oh and the cheeks light up and the eyes pop out...

KERB!!!

2006-04-26T06:45:00.000+01:00

I think this word "Kerb" will forever bring fear to my heart and nightmares to my Dad! But before I explain things, I must firstly apologise to my Dad (who will probably read this) in saying I really appreciate your driving and you being brave enough to drive on the "wrong" side of the road, but seriously I did not exactly enjoy this part of the trip (however, there was a worse moment, so don't feel too bad... all in good humor!)

So, you may have guessed from that little interlude that we did some driving. Um, let me clarify that, my Dad did some driving and I did a lot of "backseat driving" and yelling! It was decided that it would be a good idea to hire a car for two days and to go driving into the interior of the island. Sounded good. We picked the car up on the Monday morning and had a little practice run of driving on the right hand side of the road (note we are used to driving on the left hand side of the road... the CORRECT side!!). All was fine, bar going around a small roundabout the wrong way (for the Canarians) the correct way for us (the Brits!). Thankfully no-one was in the area to witness this little mishap and we found it rather amusing (probably the only moment I found amusing!) After finding our accommodation (eventually) and packing to have a day in the interior, we set off all ready for adventure... Dad driving, Mom in the back (behind Dad) and me in the passenger seat with the map. Who said I could read maps anyway!!! Especially in a foreign language.

Okay, I am generally pretty good at giving directions (I will blow my own horn here) but it doesn't help if I have a map that isn't exactly clear about where roads go and which roads join into others (or not). I got us lost! And in the process got us onto the MOTORWAY before we were actually ready to get onto a busy road (oops!). Still things were okay at this point (despite us heading in the wrong direction). After our little diversion and a couple more wrong turns, I eventually got us onto the correct road to head inland (why oh why did I do this??? I had the map, I should have taken us elsewhere! Why inland?).

Initially things went well. I had the added task, now, of letting my Dad know if we were likely to hit the kerb/cars/walls/anything to the right of the car. Which was okay. The odd yell of "kerb" saw us move to the left a little. No harm done... there was room on the right for some error, so I wasn't too stressed at present. Not a problem.

So the journey began. I had a chance to look at the view as we headed for the hills (mountains!) and enjoy the vegetation and geology. As we traveled, we decided to stop off at an Aboriginal village, which we didn't even know was there but saw this "touristy" place so stopped. On having a quick look at the outside entrance, we decided to venture into the village and have a look around. At the entrance we came across a novel idea: there were various breeds of dogs (someone's pets presumably) all sitting along a wall with a signpost asking visitors to feel free to take the dogs for a walk. My Mom and I took a dog each but shortly into our tour of the village I landed up with both dogs. So, some photos of the village and scenes around the village:

Left: scene from village.

Right: geese at village... with goslings.

After our visit of the Aboriginal village, which told us of how the original Canarians lived and all about their society, religious beliefs and way of life, we carried on with our journey into the interior. At this point I started losing interest in the scenery and became very aware of the kerb (or lack thereof) and the sudden drop (disappearance of tarmac and solid ground) on the right. Any sign of the car going a bit too far to the right was met with a yelp of "KERB" from me. I don't recall the rest of the journey that well at all. I know we traveled through villages and towns, namely San Bartolome De Tirajana, Tejeda, Artenara, Valleseco and Teror because I had to look out for those signs and keep us it the right direction, but the road and the white line depicting the edge of the road were my main focus. I think what made things bad for me was that I was not used to being on the right side of the car where there was no road on the right of me (I know as a driver one tends to sit on the right hand side of the car, but it is rather off-putting when there actually is no road to the right of you, as would be the case if you were actually driving in the UK); also the roads were narrow and windy (very, very windy!), and there was no room for error - if we went over the white line we went off the road! And to add to all of this, the drivers coming in the opposite direction all seemed to want to be on our side of the road! This just totally freaked me out and poor Dad got the brunt of it. Kerb... Kerb... kerb.... KERB... For the next oh I don't know how many hours my adrenalin was pumping and I felt ILL! I can't even remember where we stopped off for lunch, I am just amazed I managed to eat. I did enjoy the stops though (could breath again and pry my eyes off the road) but alas dreaded getting back into the car. But, to be a trooper, here are some photos of the area (which admittedly I was glad to have seen - even if it was later when I looked at the photos!)...

Left: I haven't a clue where this is, but think it may be close to the Aboriginal village...

Right: still no clue. But nice scenery.

Above: looking up from road (we had stopped). There were signs of caves at the top in the rock formation.

After driving through Teror, we headed towards Las Palmas and got ourselves onto the motorway heading back towards our accommodation. At this point I could relax, as there was plenty of room for error - the "emergency lane" was great!!!! I also didn't need to yell kerb anymore as the cat's eyes did the job of informing us that we were wandering out of the lane... thub thub thub! This I am sure was a relief for my Dad too as I think he was getting a little tense with me and my nerves!

I will admit that I did get a good nights sleep after this trip, so at least one good thing came out of this days adventures... and boy did I need a good nights sleep. I knew that the next day would probably be just the same but hopefully not worse ...

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!

2006-04-25T19:03:00.000+01:00

On the weekend we decided not to visit any major tourist places as we are not keen on crowds. So it was decided to spend the next two days relaxing and exploring along the beach-front. This also included visiting the shopping complexes again and finding new areas to sit and watch the world go by.

Our beach walk took us to the west of Maspalomas beyond the lighthouse and the first set of shops that we had been through before. This time we took photos during our walk and the first one (left) is of one of the shopping areas with "garden" in front of it.

Further along the walkway we came across a hotel complex which we thought was pretty larney! So took a photo of that too (right). We thought about going into the complex but signs insisted that the area was for guests only... no curious tourists! We initially thought the building in the background was a place of worship but later discovered that it was a hotel! Kept thinking of Sun City in South Africa when walking passed this complex, had a similar feel to it.

Not much else happened on the weekend other than relaxing, walking, sitting on the beach, people watching and relaxing (oh, said that!). I think we were preparing ourselves of the next two days (Monday and Tuesday)... without realizing it...

Las Palmas

2006-04-16T11:52:00.000+01:00

The capital of Gran Canaria!

Friday morning saw us walking to another bus stop and waiting for yet another bus. This one was a tour bus so we knew it had to come, but whether it would be on time was another question! It was late but at least it came (I was starting to wonder if we had the right bus stop) and the tour guide even apologised for being late!

The tour was to Las Palmas which is on the North Western "corner" of the island. We went to two different shopping areas but instead of looking at shops alone we did a bit of sight-seeing too. The first of the two stops found us near Christopher Columbus Museum (and house) which we planned to visit. We had to find it first and took a little diversion to find the information kiosk. This diversion took us down a pedestrian area between various shops. What interested us down here though were all these statues of dogs (pic to left). We found out later that these statues are the emblems of the island: the island is named after dogs (not canaries) and what the islanders did was to produce various statues of these dogs (not sure of breed although we did ask) and then artists painted them in various manners - some bold colours, others with flags on, and some (like the picture) with designs on. Cool!

Back to our visit. We did manage to find out how to get to the museum and had a wander around the museum which showed interested parties the various expeditions that Christopher went on plus various inventions that occurred during his time. The museum also gave a brief history of Gran Canaria. The picture shows the outside of the museum - beautiful!

At this point we had to head back to the bus so we could move on to the next stop. At the second stop we went towards the beach to find somewhere to eat and landed up walking along the beach where we saw this artwork in the sand (the urge to build a sandcastle dissipated at this point!)- see picture below...

Another try at the local food saw me ordering a seafood sandwich (that actually sounds disgusting but it was good) that had salmon and prawns on it. And there were chips too - all for about Â£2. Pretty good price!

After lunch we headed north up the beach to find a castle (not a sand castle mind you). However on finding the castle we couldn't get in as there were renovations occurring. This was a bit of a disappointment but we didn't let it dampen our holiday! Off we went again to look around and head towards the shops (since that is what the tour was about). And the shops were pretty impressive... pictures!! First one is of the outside of the shopping area we went to and then the next two are of displays inside the centre...

After the visit to the shopping area, it was time to catch the bus back to Maspalomas! A good trip was had by all (and we were good at not spending too much money!).

And now I must go help cook lunch... next installment will follow soon (I hope)

Waiting for the bus...

2006-04-16T09:08:00.000+01:00

where's the bus?

Thursday
23 March 2006
09h30

Mission: test out public transport and visit Puerto de Morgan (port of Morgan)

Report: Um, we failed... big time!

Details:
Okay, I will quit with the formal stuff (if anyone caught on to what I was trying to do, good for you!!!) What we attempted to do on Thursday morning was to catch a bus to Puerto de Morgan. We got to the bus-stop early and waited and waited and waited... oh and waited. Buses came and went but not the bus we were looking for. And as each bus came (and went) the number of passengers on those buses increased to maximum point! This made us worry a tad as we thought there would be no way we would be able to fit on the required bus, if it ever came. Especially since the crowd of passenger hopefuls at the stop had increased from 6 (including the 3 of us) to about 60! (exaggeration is fun sometimes!). After about an hour and a half of waiting (and crowd watching) we decided to abort current mission and create a new mission - to the beach!!! At least we knew we would get there! So back to the bungalow to put on swimming costumes and off to the beach...

This time we went to the left (facing the sea) of the walkway to the beach (yesterday was to the
right of the walkway) and actually touched the sand with barefeet!

The view that greeted us initially was nice (pic) but then as we went further east I started losing my interest in the views (I have innocent eyes!!! ha ha!) and just wanted to find a "quiet" area to sit down so I could put my nose into my book.

Once settled we had some lunch (oh were to look) and then I lay down for a bit to read my book. Mom and Dad decided, after a while, to go for a walk which I declined to join them on as usually their walks are pretty long and I was a little tired from all the walking (my excuse!). Anyway, they proved me wrong as they were back within seconds (or minutes!) with wry smiles on their faces. Mom proceeded to tell me of the adventure and why the quick return! They found the nudist beach (ha ha ha!) and it wasn't a pretty sight. I am so glad I stayed where I was.

A second attempt of a walk then occurred (again I stayed behind) into the dunes and again the return was rapid - sand was too hot! After this we headed back to the bungalow to end another day in GC. Oh, I think at this point Mom and I decided to go for a swim in the pool... I didn't last long in the water; I froze! man oh man was the water chilly. Good end to the day though.

Let's go a wandering...

2006-04-16T08:38:00.000+01:00

After our lunch on Wednesday we decided to go a wandering. At this stage my brain has gone foggy again as to where we actually went but we landed up at a shopping centre west of Maspalomas beach which I think was called C.C (whatever CC stands for??) Varadero. Within the shopping centre we checked out the various shops as we made our way from one end to the other. Exiting the shopping centre we found we were facing the sea, nice view!

Turning left we walked past various other shops as we followed the beach walkway. There were plenty of restaurants and we had a good look at what foods were on offer. Yummy foods! We didn't stop to try any out though, which was okay as it was still a bit early to eat supper.

The wandering continued and we eventually came to the illusive lighthouse! (see pic). And a nice lighthouse it was, although we couldn't get into it to have a look around which I think would have made the "discovery" that more interesting! Oh well. After the lighthouse we headed back "home" to soak up some sun while trying to be all intelligent with sudoku's, crosswords etc.

Mealies!!

2006-04-12T06:27:00.000+01:00

(aka Market day - or more like Market Morning)

Wednesday morning saw us walking back to the Wednesday market (which was now open) and we spent the morning wandering around the market spying out the wares! What a mix there was ranging from foods (meats, fruit and veg and baked goods) to clothing and then the usual nik-naks - bags, belts, ornaments etc etc etc. Amazingly we didn't actually buy that much (well I didn't anyway - ha ha!). Dad bought some shorts and Mom went wild (kidding!) with getting a tablecloth for my Gran and some trousers for herself. The place was pretty packed so I tended to find the quiet spots and watched the crowds go by. Although I am still not a fan of busy places, I had a nice time seeing what was on offer and also listening to the tourists trying to bargain in Spanish...
"DROP THE PRICE?"
"Qui?"
"TOO MUCH!"
"Qui?"
... alright, this didn't actually happen but the messages were getting muddled and the voices of some of the tourists did begin to increase in volume at times.

After visiting each stand (some twice!), we headed back "home" via the garden (so if you want to see the pics again, see Gran Canaria Days 1 and 2.)

Gran Canaria... Days 1 and 2

2006-04-11T19:50:00.000+01:00

And here is the reason why I eventually got my blog under way! My holiday to Gran Canaria!

We flew to Gran Canaria on the morning of 20 March 06 and landed in sunny GC (Gran Canaria) around lunch-time. After finding our taxi and taking a hair-raising ride to our "home" for the next ten days, our holiday started. I know some people reckon the holiday starts at the airports, but after our journey, I prefer to think of our holiday starting at the bungalow where we were to stay.
So our holiday started at El Palmeral Bungalows in an area of GC called Campo International, which is just north of Maspalomas (southern part of the island). The picture to the left is of the pool area between palms, but in the background one can sortof see the bungalows. The picture below is of the pool and bar area. Photo taken at a quiet time, usually the area was crawling with people!

The first night in GC we ate out at one of the local resturants in the local shopping area (Faro2). I tried the squid steaks which turned out to be lovely...yum yum. The potatoes were also nice but beware if you don't like salty things as the potatoes were caked in salt! Bit much for me.
End Day 1! Enjoyed the warmth, sunshine and blue skies!

Morning of Day 2 we set off in search of the beach and the sea! Since we were a bit away from the beach we had about a half hour walk before reaching the beach itself (the walk was leisurely!). Our aim for the morning was to reach the LIGHTHOUSE! Our walk towards the beach took us along a pathway beside a canal (which was pretty dry) which lead (eventually) into an estuary. On the one side of the canal we had houses/shops etc and on the other side DUNES! lovely. Anyway, here are some scenes from our walk (before reaching the beach).

Left :Some camels! One could go on a camel safari
if one so desired!

Right: The estuary and dunes in background.

Once getting to the beach we turned right to go through a market place and towards the lighthouse! Unfortunately we got "hi-jacked!". Nothing too serious, just some people trying to sell "timeshare"- Some holiday thing where you hand money over and then get cheap holidays whenever you want (we never saw the fine print!). So, yes, we got caught in to going and chatting to the "dealer" and finding out about this scheme. It took about 2 hrs of chatting before we managed to escape, however we didn't leave with empty hands - we managed to get two t-shirts (although I seem to have lost mine already! Mom? Was going to play squash in that, or even better do the gardening in it!). We also managed to leave with two bottles of white wine which didn't taste too bad and some watches (oooh!! I won't describe those! Let us say they were not real gold!). Oh, and we left with information about the island, so not a total loss! After leaving though we didn't have time to get to the lighthouse as we were hungry and our food was back at the bungalow, so back "home" we went.

And now the brain becomes fuzzy! (is this a sign of a good holiday! Day 2 and forgetting what I did!).

Based on the photographs, and assuming most are in order, I think we went for a walk past Faro 2 (the shopping centre) and towards the "Wednesday Market" place (just to see where it was).

On the way back we walked through a lovely garden area in which there were roses (left pic) ...

...and a lovely view towards the centre of the island (right pic).

And now I must post this as I have work to get on with in the next couple of minutes. Next part will follow in the near future...

Amazing...

2006-04-10T13:42:00.000+01:00

how you create a new website and are all excited about spreading news and then you can't get a moment to actually add to the site! That has been my problem for the last week and will probably remain a problem until I get myself sorted out with a new computer! And some enthusiasm too!

But, for now I would like to take a moment to welcome Family, Friends and strangers to my blog. I hope that you enjoy my future postings, although I will admit now (although some may already know this) that I am not very good with creative writing (English was not my favourite subject at school) so you may find I ramble sometimes.

For those who do not know me, here is a little about me: I was born and raised in South Africa (mostly in Johannesburg) but moved out to the UK in 2003 (...hence the title "Out of S Africa"for my blog). I studied zoology at Rhodes University (in Grahamstown, SA) and, since moving to the UK, I have been working in Cambridge. I enjoy playing squash, reading books and watching tv and movies. I love animals but currently do not have any pets, although I would love to have another Border Collie! And that is about it for me...

And on that note I best get on with work.

Let it begin...

2006-04-05T22:48:00.000+01:00

I have decided to join the world of blogging! Hopefully I will actually decide to stick to it too. I have been contemplating this move for a while now, but since being on a recent holiday I thought "hey, this is a good opportunity to try something new." And also it is (hopefully) a good way of showing photos to friends without them having to spend hours downloading!

However, since this is my first posting, I will hold all news etc, just in case something goes wrong (plus I don't have my thoughts gathered at present, so gobbledy-gook is likely to be present!).

So, heres to the start of my world blogging debut!

PS: The time now is 23:00!