Cyprus!

Hello Dear Readers,

Well I won't say I'm on holiday, but certainly I'm in Cyprus. Why not on Holiday? Because we have been so incredibly busy we've just been falling into bed exausted every night and dragging ourselves up again early the next day with the roosters! We got in late Sunday and had a big Easter dinner with the family. (Used the iPad on the plane, FANTSTIC! Love that device!).

Monday was get up early, see Chris's friend Stavros who's wife just had a second baby.

Those kids are the ones I knit the sock monkies for, though there is no word in Greek for Sock Monkey apparently.....
Later we went to see his friend Valandis and give him all the tech we brought back from him from the UK. Tuesday was visiting with his Aunt and Uncle from Phaphos and then Later his Aunt and Uncle from Limasol (neighboring city) and then seeing some other friends in the evening. Wedsnesday Chris spent the morning formatting his cousins computers, and I visited with some family of his cousins, then the afternoon we went to the dentist, who is also his cousin. Being our 10 year anniversary that day we decided to have a quiet dinner together at a cafe right on the sea at the port.

Thursday we spent the whole day from 8 am to 9 pm touring the occupied part, which was really special and deserves it's own post. After we got back we spent a few hours with chri's good friend George. Friday I was recovering from the lingering cold I've had for a few weeks that exploded full blown when I got here, while Chris went wiht his aunt and uncle again to see some land in Vouni. I also managed to get myself a new retainer (had the last one at least 12 years!) and we saw his Godmother who loved the slippers I knit for her.

We saw George again and had some amazing souvlaki and then went to a cafe where there was live music. George was showing off his versatile hat.

Phew! Now it's Saturday morning, and we still have to see his friend Costas and his sister's family before we fly out at Midnight on Monday. Can't wait to get back home and relax!!

Lovely weather, lovely room

Hello Dear Readers,

The last day of work before 11 days off, I'm at Kew Gardens (working) and the sun is shining and it's pretty hard to stay motivated to database fern specimens, but I'm doing my best with some good BBC radio programs in my ears. Last weekend we took a short train journey to the lovely town of Guildford, as seems to be our Rite of Spring.

We visited Chris's cousin who is in her last year of studying Math at the university there. We had tea on the 5th floor of House of Fraser (a department store). The sun came out just after we finished, but we had a nice view of the city and I had a "Very English Tea" and Welsh rarebit. We walked around the town a bit doing some shopping then went to Christiana's house where I crocheted and practiced my Greek listening skills, gearing up for the trip to Cyprus this Sunday.

Two nights ago I came home to this lovely sight:

It's my anniversary present from Chris, a nice organized sewing area! He got the shelves, the 3 baskets and the lovely Japanese style lantern. Now I can vertically organize my sewing and knitting supplies together. He even managed to keep it *almost* a surprise this year, only spilling the beans by letting me know that I should expect something, but I had no idea what. Now the room really feels like a proper organized space, with his desk for him and my craft area. Tommorow is a national holiday, Good Friday and Easter are both what are called Bank Holiday's, and then the following Friday and Monday are off for the Royal Wedding and May Bank Holiday respectivly. We are leaving for Cyprus on Monday for 10 days there. I've been taking Greek courses once a week since January so I'm excited to go and have a better framework for understanding everyone. Hopefully I'll come back with enough skills to impress my class next semester!

Next time I'll be posting from Cyprus, Cheerio!

Sir David Frederick Attenborough

Dear Readers,

This is why I love my job. I'm working from Kew today and they are filming a 3D series for Sky TV on Kew and who is presenting but the man David Frederick Attenborough himself. I just popped by after morning tea to watch him film a segment. How cool is that!

Party Girl

Hello Dear Readers,

April has been a party month, last weekend a friend from work had a duel birthday party with her fiance. They are both from Cyprus so I got to practice my Greek a little bit.

Here I am, sporting my REAL pearls (thank's Mom, I love 'em) and my convertible top/skirt. It isn't quite warm enough here for strapless tops, but I'm gearing up for our trip to Cyprus next week.

This week was the opening of the butterfly exibit at the Natural History Museum. They had face painting there for the Friends and Family event, and Hannah and I had ours done. To my knowledge it was the first time I had it done. We requested ferns, but I think it was a little outside the scope of her expertise....

The best part was going home with it, I haven't had that many looks and double takes on my way home. Of course I would forget that I had it on and think, why is that person looking at me funny? The weather was so lovely and so are we!

Cyprus trip on the 24th, lots of lovely photos promised for that!

Spring is here and weekends are back!

Hello Dear Readers,

Well we changed the clocks this weekend and none too soon, the sun gets up so early it doesn't let us sleep! Last weekend was my last Saturday working at Kew, I finally finished databasing all 5000 Danthonioid grasses, phew! To celebrate Chris came up after I finished and we walked around the gardens.
They were amazing, all the spring flowers in bloom. Behind me is a field of crocus and behind that fields of daffodils. People were out WITHOUT COATS ON. Amazing. I'll still be working at Kew a bit with my job at the Natural History Museum, but thankfully it will be during the week and not on Saturdays!

This weekend was the big Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge Universities. It's always a big deal, and the best thing is the starting line is just two blocks from my house.
Chris managed to reach up and grab a shot of them as they went by, with a flotilla of camera crews and good old boys (former rowers) following behind. We watched the beginning in person, then walked home and watched the end (Oxford won by about 13 seconds) at home on the tv.

In further celebration of my new found free time, I spent all morning crafting away.
Can you guess what this is? Given my past history, perhaps you can..... it's a pair of underwear made from a really neat gaming t-shirt Patrick handed down to me. This is Prince of Persia in some of his old 8 bit incarnations (Apple II!). Perhaps it will inspire me to jump further and higher at the gym, esp. with Jake Gyllenhaal on my bottom giving me a boost.

I've also been working on some spinning with this lovely silk and alpaca given to me by a friend in my knitting group (she also gave me this awesome spindle to go with it, I love it!) I made another lavender birdie sachet and a fabric flower for some friends who are having a birthday party next weekend.

I'm also working on a small prodded rug for our shoes in the room. I'm running out of fabric for crafts! I'm planning on stocking up again when I visit my sister at the end of May, or maybe Patrick will have a clean-out of his closet. It's such a nice day today I'll probably go out and work on my 'garden' which consists of 2 pots of plants. I got some strawberry seeds from my friends when I left Kew and I'm going to get the soil ready to plant today.

Cheerio!

Last Minute Reprieve

Hello Dear Readers,

As usually seems to happen to me, I've been saved from destitution and poverty at (nearly) the last minute! The guy in charge of the project I've been working on has been able to secure extensions for our team and I'll be working at the museum until next April! This is great news as it's very likely Chris will lose the job he has now with all the government re-structuring they are doing.

Just wanted to pass on the happy news and encourage anyone who wants to get a behind the scenes tour of the Natural History Museum at London do to so before next April!

P.S. Amy, this means it's on! Break out the Krazy Glue...

Happy Birthday....to me!

Hello Dear Readers,

Yesterday was my 29th birthday and what a wonderful day it was! First, unexpectedly, I got a lovely card from all my friends at the Natural History Museum and THEN they sang Happy Birthday To You. In the middle of free tea Fridays in the tea room. Though my back was to the rest of the room, apparently the director of science was there too and joined in. How fantastic! I believe I turned a brilliant shade of crimson, but it was really lovely to see how many friends I've made there in such a short time.

Shortly after my good friend from Graduate School who lives in Cambridge arrived.

Here she is, 9 months along and still has the energy to come down here and celebrate my birthday with me, what a trooper! We had an amazing day, I showed her around the back scenes at the museum (while she checked out every ladies bathroom......;-) ) and then we went up to High Street Kensington for a little Starbucks and some shopping. Later we met up with some friends at the Museum at a pub, but then had to dash off to dinner at a vegan place.

With us were Jess, Patrick, Chris, Molly, and a friend from work, Hannah, who made it all the way out despite having to pop out early because of another engagement (and I forgot to take a photo till after she left). Thanks for coming Hannah!

The food was great but the service extra slow, maybe that was just because we knew there was birthday cake waiting at home! We just made the 74 bus and rode it home and then devoured the extra special Lindon Family Traditional Birthday Cake which I made with ingredients Patrick smuggled in when he went to the US for Thanksgiving (and which I had snuck in last year to surprise Patrick).

Finally, I got tons of really sweet presents and excellent cards (Patrick and Jeff going the extra mile to personalize the cards for me...)

I love March because it means I get to stop washing my face with Coal Tar soap and start using lovely Lush products again! A friend suggested I have my own Lush spa day and I think that's exactly what I'll do today! Special bath, face mask, moisturize my skin, wash with 9-5 and toner, then finish off with a little massage on my legs which are sore from running to work 3 days last week. Notice the pair of socks I bought yesterday at UniQlo specifically for running in. They have a L and a R! No more aching feet..... I hope.

I have been working Saturdays and Sundays since December, but today I'm taking THE WHOLE WEEKEND OFF which so far has been amazing and it's only 11 am.... beautiful sunny day, I'm going to go hang the laundry out back and perhaps take a walk by the river. I may even have time for TWO posts this weekend!

Thanks for all the lovely birthday wishes everyone, and a special shout out to Susan Clarks's mother who I found out reads this blog! I think that brings the readership up to 5? I'm doing better than Car Talk!