Christmas 2006

Well, 2006 is nearly over!!

James, Lisa and I had a quiet Christmas at home. We did the usual... eat lots, stayed inside where it was nice and warm and watched TV.


Lisa is going to a Kylie Minogue concert tomorrow night to see in the new year. I think she's quite excited about that. Apparently Kylie puts on a really good show, so I'm sure she'll be snapping away taking pics on her cell phone.

James and I are going out to an Aussie restuarant for dinner tomorrow and then will probably park off at my place and watch DVD's the rest of the evening.

Christmas Dinners...

James and I went to a church Christmas dinner last night.
It was an enjoyable evening, with everyone making an effort to look
really smart. The food was pretty good. I spent some time at the
gym this afternoon working it off. We have another Christmas dinner tomorrow night. I guess I'll be heading back down to the gym...

The night life...

The other night we spotted this little chap outside James' place. A 'real live' hedgehog (as opposed to 'roadkill' )...

I did a bit of reading up about them on the net...

The European Hedgehog is about 20 cm in length, nocturnal and eats slugs, earthworms, beetles and other insects, and sometimes frogs, small rodents, young birds and birds' eggs. Urghh!

Talk about pest control! Apparently a single hedgehog can keep an average garden free of pests by eating up to 200 grams of insects each night. Therefore, it is common throughout the United Kingdom to see people attempting to lure hedgehogs into their gardens with treats and hedgehog-sized holes in their fences. Some people even keep them as pets.

... consider yourself now educated about hedgehogs.

Working Shift

What a way to spend a Saturday!

Sitting at work for 12 hours with next to nothing to do...

Weeks seem to fly by and I'm left feeling that I haven't accomplished much. Hence why I find sitting at work with nothing to do so frustrating.

I had the day off yesterday and had to go and drop off our 'certificate for marriage' with the Minister at Trinity church in Enfield. James joined me and we stopped for brunch at a cafe in town on the way home. A woman with her little boy came and sat at the table next to us. She 'dumped' her child's bag on our table while she 'rearranged' herself and child. A couple of minutes later she realised the bag was missing and without a word removed it from our table. She then took our menu to look at while her child played with the one already on their table. It was quite an education... we soon wandered up the road to Starbucks for a decent coffee and a bit more 'space'.

A day in Cambridge.

James and I went up to Cambridge yesterday. It was great to be able to get out for the day. We did the 'park and ride' (parked the car and caught the bus into town).

The first thing that struck me about Cambridge is the number of bicycles. Most people seem to cycle around town. It seemed a bit of a foreign concept.



Cambridge is really beautiful. We spent most of the time just wandering around. It would have been nice to do some punting on the river, but it was a little cold. Maybe in the Spring...

My little table

I recently aquired my first item of furniture here in the UK.
I found a pine table outside someone's house with the following note attached.
"Please take me if you can give me a good home"
... so I took the little orphan in... :-)

I'm quite chuffed with my table, despite the 'junkie pine' comments I received...
I guess people leaving old furniture out for whoever wants to take it is still a novelty for me.

Out in the park...

It seems every hour is rush hour here. There always seem to be traffic jams and people hurrying everywhere. The last week has been really exhausting work-wise with our supervisor being away and leaving me in charge... I found it quite stressful, especially not knowing what I was doing half the time. A couple of days off has come as a welcome respite.

I walked up into town and spent some time in the Town park yesterday, just to 'chill out' for a while. Getting out into nature helps me slow down. It makes me feel more relaxed and helps 'recharge my batteries'. I sat and watched the trees and listened to the birds. I took some bread with and fed the ducks too. They must be the most well fed ducks in Enfield!

My piano...

I bought myself an electronic piano not so long ago.

It's been over a year since I stopped taking piano lessons and I've become quite 'rusty'. It's going to take a while to get back into it, especially with everything else going on in my life at the moment.

I'm looking forward to it.

Time flies when you're having fun...

Well, it's been a while... I'm amazed by how time seems to fly by.

Our wedding plans are going well. We have booked a venue for the reception (a community centre not too far from the church) and feel we got quite a good deal on it. The price includes tables and chairs to seat up to 250 people.

We've been really blessed by how many people from church have offered their assistance... from alterations to my wedding dress to flowers, music, food... you name it! I've been for a dress fitting and have spoken with the lady who is helping with the flowers... so things are moving along.

It's definitely happening on the 10th March, people, so for a front row seat... book your tickets/flights now!

Winter is surely on its way... there's a chill in the air and I've started making soup!


I suddenly felt like gardening and growing flowers this morning... what a dumb time of year to start gardening! I'm so looking forward to having a garden of our own... somehow when you are renting a place, you just don't feel like putting in the effort to turn the weed infested jungle (so called garden) into an flowering paradise.

Well, the rain has stopped, so I'm off to do some shopping... guess who's coming for dinner tonight...

A day out in Kent

James and I both had the day off on Wednesday, so we headed off to Kent for the day. We went to fetch James's 'new' Mac laptop from his friend, Paul, who stays near Maidstone and then headed to the coast and up to Folkestone.

The weather was great and we stopped off at the beach for a while. It's the first time I've been at a pebble beach. It felt quite strange as I'm so used to sand beaches like we have in South Africa. We even saw a dolphin quite close to shore, although from the photo it probably looks like trying to find the Loch Ness monster...

It's there... really it is!

In the beginning...

I finally created a blog!

Now I've just got to think of something to write on it...