Rainy Sundays

Hello Dear Readers,

Rainy Sundays don't get me down, just lots of catching up on Vampire Diaries with Chris and of course, knitting! Yesterday in between rain showers Chris and I cycled into the city. He is interested in cycling into work so we timed the route to see how long it would take. It was gorgeous and sunny for about 50 min, then down poured again, just enough time for us to nip into Costa coffee to split a hot chocolate and a chocolate tiffin then cycle home again. I'm proud of him for making it all the way there and back, it's really the best way to enjoy the city.

When we got home there was a sighting of the elusive Patsquash, back from a victorious race at the Marlow Regatta. His boat came in first in the coxless four division, and as far as I know it's the first time he's won! Go Pat!

I've also been working on this mystery number in addition to my sister's sweater.

The colors should be a dead giveaway as to what the pattern is to any serious obsessive knitters such as myself....... but I'm not sure if I'll have enough peach yarn for my vision, I'll keep you posted.

I was so tired this weekend I ended up taking a nap this afternoon instead of going to my extremly strict gym instructor. Oh well, guess I'll just have to enjoy my homemade french fries and salad dinner with a little guilt instead of katsup!

Cheers.

Little bit of Catch up on a Rainy Day

Hello Dear Readers,

Believe it or not the UK has been in a bit of a drought this year, and we finally have had a full rainy day today, which I'm using to catch up a bit on blogging. We finally got good Internet back in the house (hurray!) and seem to be running at full speed now. On the down side, our little external hard drive fell from a height of just 2 feet the other day while plugged in and now it just makes a pathetic croaking noise. Bummer. Anyone know how to extract data off a defunct hard drive? Anyone? Bueler?

Before we went to Boston my awesome Skippy friend Jennifer Imamura came to visit me in London. Gold star to you Jennifer! We went to Kew one day, the NHM, saw a show at the Globe Theatre and then spent a day running around town. We had amazing tea at Liberty Department Store, and even caught a glimpse of Barak Obama leaving Buckingham Palace. I guess he's part of the cotton candy principle too..... life is just better with skippies around.

In other news, Chris got a new job, which he starts at some undetermined time in the future. It's still with the government, but it's with Her Majesties Revenue and Customs (IRS equivalent for my American friends). So now we are both fully employed at least until next year, how good is that?

I've been doing a lot of practice with my Greek class (I missed two classes going to Boston) Soaking up Dr. Who (I TOTALLY called River Song, ask Chris, I called it!!), eagerly awaiting the start of True Blood, and have been knitting up a storm while listening to A Game of Thrones on my iPod. Shout out to Mad E for turning me onto the series, even if it has taken me 2 years to get to chapter 45.....

Here is a picture of a little dragon I made for my adopted nephew George (the dragon slayer in Christian mythology)

I'm also working on this sweater for my sister. Don't you just love a knit in the round top down that you can just crank out while listening to a good book?

I'm just about to head off to the gym to be punished by a sadistic South African, but in a good way. At least I keep telling myself that, and my upper arms and curiously strong thighs agree.

Cheers

Best vacation EVAH!

Hello Dear Readers,

Fear not, I have not perished from this earth, nor was I raptured a few weekends ago, for various reasons we lost internet at home and haven't been able to get it back. And every time I tried to log into blogger at work to write a quick note explaining why, blogger was inevitably down! That meant no Dr. Who, no Vampire Diaries and *gasp* no posting my achievements on Assasin's Creed Brotherhood online for the world to see.

But now I am in sunny, HOT Boston living it up having the BEST. VACATION. EVAH.

My favorite sister (pictured above, on the right, that's me on the left) as a birthday treat flew Chris and I out to Boston this week for a true holiday. We got in on Thursday after a lovely flight with British Airways and took the T and bus to her house. She was at work still so Chis and I had 5 whole hours to ourselves, no roommates, no neighbors, just peace and quiet. So naturally we took advantage of instant and unlimited hot water for showers, played with kitties, flipped through all the trashy TV channels about 50 times and gorged ourselves on Cheez-its, Triscuits, Graham crackers and Ritz crackers with peanut butter. Actually, that was all me in about 10 min of walking in the door.

Friday was reserved for Bridesmaid dress shopping and general pigging out on American culture. First stop was Express where Chris got some work shirts he can't find in the UK, then on to Abercrombie and Fitch, the sale rack, where I got my fix until I can get back to the US and cheap prices. A&F in the UK is RIDICULOUS, in terms of prices and how seriously they take themselves. I will wear my clothes with great irony, though no one else will probably notice. I also got my Quiznos and Chik Filet waffle fry fix at the mall, ahhh, food court. Sadly no bridesmaid dress yet, but we finished the evening with an amazing Vegan dinner at a local restaurant. Definitely going back in October.

Saturday we went to Walden Pond to see where Henry David Thoreau lived for two years and wrote many books, something Chris has been interested in doing since he has read a lot of philosophy. It's also just a lovely park to enjoy. I even saw several ladyslipper orchids growing wild. We stopped off at the wedding site on our way, which is in a lovely old house right next to a park.

Sunday was a great day because we got to meet the other half of the wedding, Jeff's parents and the best man Eli. We went to an amazing Chinese restaurant and ordered from the "Authentic" menu, in Mandarin (well, Mrs. Wu did anyway). We were so stuffed we had to walk it all off with another trip to a different mall. We split up into girls and boys and man did Cat and I hit that mall hard, scouring for any semblance of a red dress. Finally with 15 min to spare at the last shop we scored a lovely strapless number that is going to make me look smokin', second only to the bride of course. Success! Good thing because I didn't want to be stuck looking for a dress on my own in London!

With important wedding stuff out of the way we were free to relax, Monday was a lazy day mooching off of the Netflix and setting all the high scores on the Wii Sports Resort (just try to beat my Frisbee scores, Cat).

We surprised Cat at the pharmacy where she was working that day (see photo above) and had lunch with her, she even let me behind the counter to look at, but not touch, the drugs. That night we played one of the funniest games of Taboo I've played in a while, and Chris and i managed to be only 4 points behind Cat and Jeff, not bad for the foreigners!

Tuesday we enjoyed more Netflix, and walked around Harvard square looking into all the neat bookshops and souvenir shops around and indulged in that American treat, Baskin&Robbins. We also went to see Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides, Chris's first 3D feature film. Today was more laziness, Wii and Cat and I had facials! I've never done one before, but it certainly made a difference! I think I'm hooked now and will have to do some more in a few months. I hear Lush does facials just a few miles away from our house, and Chris wants to come too!

Shiny happy sisters!

Right now we are enjoying a thunderstorm, watching for tornadoes, and waiting for a friend of Catherine's to come so we can go out for dinner. I can't remember the last time I was so treated, so pampered, wined and dined and well rested. Did I mention? Best vacation. Ever.

Hopefully I'll have some more internet when I get home, but if you don't hear from me, I'm probably just not plugged in and will try to be as soon as possible.

Cheers.

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!