Big Things

Hello Dear Readers,

This weekend Chris and I traveled to Kingston on Thames at 8 am to see an 8:45 showing of The Dark Knight Rises (the latest and last Batman movie) in IMAX.  It was a bit early for me, and the show was 3 hours long, but it was a good one.  What I enjoyed at least as much was exploring the little town of Kingston.  It has some good shopping including a mall and the "Old London Road" quaint shops.  It has a little Quay by the river (pronounced "Key") and a fantastic medieval square with a little farmer's market on the Saturday morning we went.

We also found this gem, which I had seen in photographs before but had no idea it was so accessible or so local!  It's no the most interesting town in London perhaps, but I was blown away by it's charm.

 Speaking blown away, what have we here?  A Coca Cola bottle with Olympic branding?

 What is my whole team from the office doing standing outside in the middle of the day?  (Notice what a fantastic looking group we are, and how it's not raining, but seriously, these guys are great to work with).

 Who is that standing behind me?

Why it's the Olympic torch relay, passing right through Kew gardens!  We were able to take some flexi time off to see the torch being run through the gardens.  Impossible to get a good photo, but it was a fun little break in the middle of the day.  The first Olympic event is today (soccer) but the opening ceremonies aren't till Friday.  We're all a twitter here, big things happening, I'll keep you updated!
I am having a little trouble with my shoulders - too much stress and typing- so knitting is out and I'm limiting my out of office typing so I still plan to blog, they will just probably be short and sweet for a while.

Cheers!

Ufh Dah.... still raining

Hello Dear Readers,


Grumble grumble, it's the middle of July and it's cold and rainy.  And it's been cold and rainy since April.  Now I don't mind being able to wear my sweaters for a bit longer, and I love a rainy day to sit at home and knit, craft, read or just sunggle.  BUT 3 AND A HALF FRICKIN MONTHS OF SOLID RAIN EVERY DAY?!?!?!  I'm starting to get a little bit of cabin fever.  So with Chris off in Cyprus last week, I took a FlexiLeave day on Friday and headed up to Cambridge for a little relief.

Oh yeah, it was still RAINING up there, but it was a change of scene kind of rain.  Even little Katelyn was a little tired of it.

 I knit up some socks (in the car from the train to her house - talk about last minute!) in yarn that my friend Toad gave me, it has chitin in it. Yup, you Googled correctly, it's crab and shrimp shells.  They were warm and toasty, just what you need for an English summer.  Molly wore them when we went to the Cambridge Botanic Garden on Sunday.  She was comfy.





Of course I also had to make something for Katelyn, while she still can't argue about what she is wearing.  I used some lovely lush brown wool (also for free from Toad, seeing a pattern here?) and trimmed it with some hand spun green fiber (uh, from Toad, again). Check out those awesome corn buttons! From Helen, formerly of the Hammersmith Stitch 'n Bitch, but now sadly moved to New Zealand.  That's how I can afford to knit so much, people just give me yarn, but I love it.

We went out for the whole day Saturday to an art open house in Cambridge, it was delightful.  We had coffee in an artsy cafe, then walked around to the houses in between rain showers.  We had lunch in a french cafe nearby, where Katelyn ate as much as me, and that's a lot! then finished off with a banana which she ate, then smooshed into our shirts.   (Jennifer, I found a good home for your pineapple shirt, Molly loved it, it wouldn't fit over my boobs... )

Molly and George had evening engagements Friday and Saturday nights, here they are before going out to a friend's wedding.  Luckily I introduced Molly to Call Me Maybe so she knew how to rock out.  If you haven't heard this song  yet, you have to, it's the song of the summer.  Not that there is much summer to be had around here.  Noticing a theme?


The last day when we went to the Botanic Gardens, which I've been meaning to go to forever, I asked if they had an agreement with Kew as some gardens allow you to get in free if you are a member or staff member of another garden.  The woman looked at me through the flood of rain hitting the plexiglass of the ticket booth and said, "Normally no, but go ahead."  I guess she figured if we were crazy enough to go to the gardens in the POURING rain, we must really want to.  Luckily there were green houses and a lovely tea room to sit in after getting soaked.  Here I am enjoying what is called a Jade Plant from Thailand.  Lovely big bean pods.  I'm wearing a tank top, short sleeve shirt, thin cardigan, Holister Hoodie (cause I couldn't afford to dress trendy when I WAS 16) ....... and a bulky aran jumper.  In July.  And I am comfortable.  Sigh.

To look forward to next month, trip to Whitby, home of Dracula and Lewis Carroll.  Visit from Cousin Elias, visit from Cat and Jeff.  Oh yeah, and the Olympics.  And rain. More rain. Probably.


Hope everyone else is managing to stay warm and dry, I'm going to go snuggle under my quilt with a hot water bottle......


Cheers!

and even more visitors!

Hello Dear Readers,

Well well well, the bar is being set pretty high here folks.  Jennifer, Amy, Adam and Melch, Luke, Matt and now....... Devin!  That's 7 out of 11 Skippies who have come to visit me in London.  Susan, KT, Jon and J-fer? Buller?  Your know what to do.

Last weekend completely out of the blue my friend Devin said, "hey Heather, I'm in London over the weekend, you around?"  Turns out he was here with another high school friend of mine to be the best man (and maid of honor) for a surprise destination wedding.  Not a surprise to the bride (I asked) but to the parents of the happy couple.  We met up at Piccadilly Circus, walked to Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, had dinner in a pub (mmmm Eton Mess and Banoffee!) then wandered around the south bank, St. James' Park, Buckingham Palace and back to Piccadilly just in time.

It was so great to catch up with him since it's been about 5 years at least.  It's so weird how seeing old friends can make it seem like absolutely no time has passed at all.  Its always like that and yet I'm always surprised.  Pleasantly surprised.

Yesterday we had another (somewhat surprise as it was arranged last minute) guest, Christiana, Chris's cousin who lives about an hour south in Guildford.  She came up for the day to just enjoy our company (and my cooking, she lives in a dorm).  We walked along the Thames path up to Hammersmith, such an amazing day.  Cool and breezy but sunny and warm enough if you are walking.  Typical English summer I guess. After that we headed to the Mall in Shepherds Bush, but were pretty exhausted so we went back home shortly, ate more food and then chilled.