Hooray!

Well we finally have a relief carer! She comes tomorrow, and then on Friday I'm on holiday!! The house has been cleaned, and I've started packing... tomorrow I plan to do a heap of washing (please be kind to me weather :P) and finish packing :) On Saturday I am going to see the stage production of Priscilla Queen of the Dessert with Vicki. I'm getting very cultured being over here - this will the the 4th musical I've seen in a year! It's lucky prices are so cheap :) Tom arrives next Tuesday, and then next Thursday we're off to Cologne, staying in a HOTEL (Hilton). Note the lack of an 'S; in that. It will be weird staying in a hotel, especially one in Germany (Some of the hotels I stayed in in Egypt and Turkey left a LOT to be desired...) It is near the Cathedral, so should be a good location :) Anywho, will let you know how my trip goes when I get back! Cya!

What a day!

On Friday we had a bit of a bad luck day. First the car keys managed to get dropped down one of the street drains - It started with me parking over the drain, and then I put the keys on the seat, which was directly over the drain, and then my client's boyfriend took the shopping out of the car, but instead of lifting the bag, he pulled it along the seat, which of course pushed the key off the seat...

After multiple calls to see if anyone could help us get the keys back, it became apparent that we had to try and get them back ourselves. So I used a magnet which I tied to the end of one of those gripper claw things and went searching for keys in the dirty, mucky water. The drain is quite deep and the bottom has a nice layer of silt. I did manage to find the keys, but before I had a good grip on them the silly things fell again, and after about 20/30mins more of searching had to finally admit defeat that we weren't going to get the keys back. It was especially annoying as I was sooo close to getting them back!!

Later that evening we had another watery accident. This time my clients bf spilt coffee over the telephone, and while we could still receive calls, the button were no longer working, which meant that no outgoing calls could be made. My client and I went to buy a new phone on Saturday, and I suppose the silver lining to this story is that the new phone works much better than the old phone, which would make it hard for the person on the other end to hear you, as it was very crackly. My client called her mum, and she said it was now crystal clear :)

Bring on Holidays!!!

In 4 days I will be on holidays. And I need them! I am really feeling the lack of social interaction at the moment. Being in the middle of 2 towns makes it hard (and expensive) to get to either of them. I miss the gym, it got me out of the house and I could actually say hello to other people... occasionally have a bit of a conversation with them. Only if it was the fact that I was in the company of people other than my client, and her regular visitors. I hate that it costs over 4GBP to get to the gym, and that the gym costs more here than it did in Chichester (that's why I cancelled my membership, it wasn't worth it). I hate that it takes half an hour to walk to the nearest town, and that if I just miss the bus, it's actually quicker to walk. And I also hate that gyms don't advertise their membership fees online, and that you need to give all your details just to find out that information. I don't want to give all my details if there isn't a chance that I'm actually going to use the service. (I have been looking into gyms lately to see if it is worth it, but not one of them have been helpful!)

I am really looking forward to my holidays... I booked off holidays for 10 days, which I didn't really want to do, but now I am glad that I did. It gives me a chance to catch up with a few of my friends over here, as well as go to Cologne and visit Kati. Though, we haven't actually got a relief carer yet! We had one lined up, but she pulled out.... I guess we'll just have to hope for the best, but either way, come Friday at 2pm - I'm outta here!!

I made Jam :)

Blackberries ripening on the bush

It's blackberry season at them moment, so I decided to pick some - they grow wild over here, and there are heaps of big juicy ones to choose. I picked so many that I decided to make some jam out of them. Considering I didn't actually weigh how much fruit I had to get the amount of sugar I would need (I just guessed) the jam turned out ok :) I tried some without toast and it was VERY sweet, and also had an after taste of salsa, as that was the jar I was using. Apparently I didn't wash it out very well! The good news is hat when you spread it on toast, the sweetness is cut, and you can't even taste the salsa :P I made 2 jars of jam, and the other jar was an old apple, raspberry, and blackberry jam jar, so if that one has an after taste, at least it will taste of jam!

The finished product!

So Pretty

 I was treated to an awesome sight on Saturday - A full rainbow, with an almost full double, right outside my bedroom window :)

Blondie and Birthdays

Nice sunset

Last Thursday (28th July), my client, her boyfriend, and I went to Epsom Downs raceway to see Blondie as part of their birthday celebrations for the 29th (client's) and 30th July (boyfriend's). There were races beforehand, and it was my first time seeing a horse race. It wasn't that exciting really, but I did choose the winner... pity I did't actually bet on it :P I suppose under different circumstances with a group of friends, betting and a bit of alcohol in me it could be a bit more fun! But the main reason we were there was to see Blondie. It was pretty good, even though I only knew four of the songs :P And I thought the band was awesome.. the singing was soso, it definitely wasn't a Glee concert :P It was a bit hard to understand what Debbie Harry was singing at times. We had a pretty awesome spot though - up on the balcony (due to health and safety, we weren't allowed in the 'mosh' with the wheelchair), so could see everything, without having to worry about tall people in front blocking our view!

Run Horsey, run!

LOTS of people

Trying to be clever - got Debbie on the stage and in the
reflection

Encore

On the 30th we went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner called Zen Garden - we had the set menu for 3, and my favourite bit was the crunchy seaweed. It was definitely different! I also really enjoyed my dessert - black sesame balls in a coconut milk soup. It was also different, but very tasty :) I was very full after dinner!

Oxford Day Trip

On the 2nd July I went with Gillian for a day trip to Oxford, it was only about 10GBP return for the approx 1hr journey. We were meant to be going with her sister as well, she wasn't feeling so good that morning (it was self induced from the night before!), so we ended up going by ourselves. We arrived about 8.30 in the morning, with a rough idea of what we were going to do for the day. We wanted to go on a free walking tour of Oxford that started at 11am, so after walking from the train station to the main street, we had a look in a few tourist shops, walked up to the castle (but did not pay to go in), and then went for a walk to a little old church, where we both lit a candle.

Quite a cosy little church - and the seats
even had padding!

Lots of gargoyles and grotesques in Oxford

The tour is based on a tip system, where you tip what you think it is worth. After an enjoyable and informative 2 hour tour, Gill and I tipped 5GBP each. I think we tipped more than other people, but the other prepaid tours were around 8GBP, and there were no guarantees that you would actually like it. The university colleges are spread throughout the town, and we visited a fair few of them, as well as other sites around Oxford. The itinerary can be found here. The tour didn't include actual entry into any of the buildings, but it was good to get the history of the place, and then if you wanted you could go back later to explore more.

A very photographed bridge

Radcliffe Camera

Apparently the door that inspired Aslan and Mr
Tumnus in 'The Lion, the Witch, and the
Wardrobe'

Christ Church - one of the colleges, and the inspiration
for the great hall in Harry Potter

Sheldonian theatre

Carved head on the fence of
Sheldonian theatre - each
carving is different

The geese, before they got too crazy

After the tour finished I met up with one of Chris's primary school friend, who I had only met on the internet! We all had a bit of a picnic lunch together in a park. While we were there somebody decided to feed the (crazy as) geese, and we had a swarm of about 8 of the silly things come a bit too close for comfort. It was great to finally meet Dan, who I have known for about 8 years!

We met!

Concentrating hard, so I don't fall in!

Dan then took as to a location where we could go punting before we said goodbye (he had to go pack for his holiday to Disneyland Paris). Punting requires pushing a boat along, with a long pole. It was quite fun, even if both me and Gill were rather unco at it! (though to be honest, I was doing 'okay' until the very end, when I had to park the silly thing, in amongst other people coming and going). You can get chaffeured punt boats, but we didn't think that would be as much fun :P

Ah, this is better - much more relaxing :)

We finished our day in Oxford with dinner at 'the Turf' pub, which was recommended to us by both our tour guide and Dan. We shared a jug of Pimm's and lemonade, though it was 'low' in fruit according to the bartender. Generally Pimm's is served with strawberry's, orange, lemon, cucumber (not my favorite part lol), and mint... well this one only contained the mint! Gill had lasagne for her dinner, and I had a yorkshire pudding wrapped beef thingy, complete with chips, gravy, and a onion relish. It was quite nice! After dinner we made our way back to the train station, and finally made it back to London, after a long and exhausting, but great day out :)