The Reason Why

If you wondered why I gained weight when I moved here - besides just the stress - it might just be the food. Dana and Cheryl took a lot of pictures of the food and snacks they ate while visiting. Here's the local flavor:

And we didn't even get a picture of Takeaway Feast #3 - Indian take 2, or the 2 nights of Sticky Toffee Pudding with Custard. Good Times.

I am awake - even though it is 1:35am. I am just too excited to sleep. I am flying to Oregon on Thursday morning - that means I have loads to do tomorrow, but then I get to go home. I'll be there until July 5th. I'll get to see the fireworks!!

I am interviewing for that Dream Job (@ Intel) on Tuesday - so think good thoughts. I am also thrilled because I'll get my hair cut and colored (badly needed), my eyebrows done, my toes done. PLUS I'll get to see Pippin and family and friends. It will be so great - even though I'll be working crazy hours to stay current on my tasks here. Oh well - the price for opportunity. And it all just got booked this morning. Things happen very quickly. :)

Today I even made a list of things that I need to sell when I leave - let me know if you are interested in some bargains. :)

Also planned this week is Mom and Dad's tour of Europe this summer - they are going to Venice, Salzburg, Prague and Munich. I'll join them in Venice (well, they'll just pick me up at the airport and we'll drive to Salzburg - I've already seen Venice - it was GREAT!). And in between my Oregon trip and my Europe holiday - I turn 30. Crazy. I might just do that in Bruges in Belgium - it remains to be seen.

All in all - it is the beginning of an exciting 4 weeks!!

Yay! Dana & Cheryl are HERE!

Dana and Cheryl arrived on Sunday. I woke up to find a gloriously sunny day and got ready for church. I just taught Sunbeams and then left my kids in sharing time and took off for the airport. Dana & Cheryl had met up in Philadelphia and were coming into terminal 1 at Heathrow - they were about 30 minutes early, but I still managed to get there just in time to greet them as they came out of customs.

They were surprisingly perky - so we headed to Windsor. I just walked them around the town and showed them the castle - but we didn't go it. The Royal Standard (flag of the Windsor family) was flying - which means one was actually in residence - a first for me. :) The weather was great for a couple of hours in Windsor. We came home and just got to talking - I didn't get dinner ready until nearly 7:30. After dinner the girls' energy started to flag a bit - so we decided to walk around Wroughton. I got 3 mosquito bites on my left elbow - horrid! We came home and Cheryl went to bed - but Dana and I were up until nearly midnight.

On Monday I had to work. Dana and Cheryl slept in. Gotta love that jet lag. I came home at lunch and after eating drove them out to Avebury where they could spend the afternoon while I finished up work. I picked them up before traffic got nasty - and we came home and made a gorgeous Carrot & Coriander (cilantro) soup. Yum!

I was off work today - YAY! We planned a day out to Salisbury (to see the Cathedral and Poundland :) ) and Stonehenge. First to Salisbury. We spend 2 hours - during which the morning clouds burnt off. Fabulous weather resulted. Dana and Cheryl had their first taste of a Cornish Pasty. :)

I haven't been inside Stonehenge since my trip in August '06 with Kathy, Mom and Aunt Jeanne. That time Kathy stayed in the car as she had already seen it. Since then, I have been staying in the car, or just taking people to the free version of Stonehenge - which keeps a chain-link fence between you and the stones...I have just seen it. This time I decided to have another go.

The audio tour was still the same - except this time the speaker thingy was much smaller - just palm size. A lot of conjecture about how and why Stonehenge was built (and by whom) - and some cool facts about the stones.

We had a FANTASTIC time walking around the stones. We kept getting attacked by these beetles - as were all of the other tourists. There were frequent yelps and dances trying to get them off our clothes. But somehow that just made the energy very light. We took a lot of pictures. It is so fun being with friends!

nasty beetle

Just as I snapped the above shot I told Dana to excuse my sweaty armpits - thus the laughter. :) Very candid.

We were snapping photos - and suddenly this guy was hopping over the ropes, diving in and out of the ditch and crouching by one of the stones - his friend got a picture. Then on the run back - the guy did a shoulder role - it was like he was on the Degenerate A-Team. Funny - and lucky for him to have not been caught.

Dana and Cheryl had Indian Takeaway (Chicken Korma, Veg Curry, Samosas, Bhaji, Pilau Rice & Naan- actually from Tesco) for dinner. All in all it was a great day. Tomorrow I'm back at work - but Dana and Cheryl are taking the train (something I've yet to do) to Bath. Then on Thursday they are taking a coach (bus) into London. Then on Friday we are all heading into London after work to see Wicked! (SO excited!) We'll stay the weekend with Ginger and do all of the normal London things - including the single's ward.

Next week Dana and Cheryl will fly to Edinburgh for Mon, Tues, Wed. Then I have Thursday off to do something fabulous - we still don't know what. Then I think Friday will just be a day of rest (for D&C - I have to work) and then they go back to the US on Saturday. Then I will be sad.

Cornwall - Late May Bank Holiday (or Memorial Day)

It's been a little while - but continuing on with my last post. After the temple, Ginger and I went home to her place in Stockwell (in London just south of the Thames at Vauxhall). We stayed up far too late chatting and decided to shoot for leaving sometime between 9 and 10 the next morning.

We were leaving London with the rest of the holiday takers. It took nearly 2 hours to make our way out of central London and down the M25 (the ring around London). Finally we were on the M3 headed towards Bournemouth. We were taking a kind of scenic route to Cornwall - trying to see as much of the south as we could. We went by Bournemouth and Weymouth, then we were into Devon. We ate breakfast at about 9 - and by 3 we were getting quite peckish. We stopped at a place called Little Chef that tattoos the roadsides in England. It was the first time for both of us. I thought that it would just be a UK home grown fast food joint - but no - we were directed to a table and given menus. I decided on a Tomato & Basil soup with salad and Gin had a roast chicken. We were both happy with the food. We may have just been extremely hungry. We got back on the road and drove through Devon seeing all sorts of roadside signs for Cream Tea. We didn't stop. When we made it to Exeter the end was in site. We were staying an a hotel just outside of Plymouth - which is just at the start of Cornwall.

My impression of Cornwall was based on adverts on TV. Mostly it came across as the home of happy cows - like California, but rainy. I expected lots of farms. Cornwall is where all of the good dairy comes from. We did have a little rain on the way, but when we checked into our hotel at 5:30 it was dry. We decided to head a little farther into Cornwall and take advantage of the dryness since we had a lot of light left. We went to a small coastal town called Fowey. April told me about it. It is situated on a steep hill facing the sea on a small bay. Ginger and I parked the car at the very top and then walked down and around. It was gorgeous. We spent a couple hours there and got a bite to eat. The walk back to the car was a bit more round-about (and up) than it could have been, but after the day in the car, it was nice to be walking around (probably nicer for Ginger than for me).
We went back to the hotel and had a dessert waffle and watched Eurovision (which is worth looking up if you have never heard of it). We owe Eurovision for the glories of Abba's Waterloo and the 80's classic Hold Me Now by Johnny Logan. Good times. You have to love the concept - don't fight, sing. :)

We set out plans for Sunday expecting rain. We got up and weren't surprised with the grey and mist. Our first stop was about 90 minutes away at Trevarno Gardens. Ginger found these in a pamphlet at the hotel. It took about an hour to wander through the grounds - which were gorgeous. Rachel, what is this enormous flower?But probably the most memorable bit of Trevarno was the peacocks. I'll post in a slide show just of the peacocks. They were so funny and everywhere - mostly on top of things (statues, picnic tables...) keeping their tails out of the wet. I think they look like vultures wearing a pretty coat. Their necks and feet are so ugly. And they seem to have very square shoulders. I had never noticed before. There was also a pair of a bird that is the most dinosaur-like I have seen. It is at the end of the slide show with a very stiff and long tail. If you know what it is, please comment. Trevarno is a working estate - besides the gardens they make soap and skincare. We went into the shop but couldn't differentiate the scents - there was just a big overwhelming herby-ness.

By the time we left the garden it was misty, but still not raining. The next stop was St Michael's Mount. It is kind of like a mini Mont Saint Michel for England. During some parts of the year the tide goes out far enough to walk to it - but now you have to take a boat. It was still yucky outside, so we decided to skip it with just a photo. Then it was onto Penzance - the land of pirates. I was shocked that Ginger had never heard of the Gilbert & Sullivan extravaganza that is Pirates of Penzance. So we listened to the operetta for the next couple of hours. I was kind of disappointed with Penzance - only one sign with a pirate - and it was for a pub. We continued on to Land's End - England's most westward point. It was funny because it was set up to be so touristy. There was even a Doctor Who experience (which we skipped). My favorite part was a photo op with a sign pointing to many places all showing the mileage to that place. You had to pay to get a picture with the sign (and a customized sign). I didn't go for it, but I did look and see that Portland, Oregon was 5986 miles away. So far!!
We stood in line for a long time(thankfully the rain had stopped - for the rest of the day) for a genuine Cornish Pasty which we ate with potato wedges - so so healthy. It was just that kind of a weekend. Next we went to St. Ives. We just drove through - but it was gorgeous. It has the feel of Santa Cruz with lots of surfers, but is situated on a steep hill. Sadly, I didn't take any photos of St. Ives.

Our last stop in Cornwall was The Cornish Cyder Farm. They mostly make hard cider, but also have some animals (the biggest pig I have ever seen) and make jam. We tried the apple juice, but not the cider (they had loads to sample). Then we had tea. I had cream tea - which con sits of 2 scones and a big dollop of clotted cream and another of strawberry jam. I had never had it before. The clotted cream nearly had the consistency of honey, and tasted of a very mild but sweet butter. Instead of the pot of tea, I had a bottle of water. Ginger had some scone, but had a apple cake.

It was time to drive home to Swindon. It would only be about 3 hours - and we passed the time with the Carpenters. They are just so great to sing to. :) We got home and then had to run up to April's to get Life As A House (a GREAT movie - but sometimes hard), which Ginger wanted to see. April gave us some popcorn - which was plenty for dinner. We ate so much over the weekend.

On Monday morning I took Ginger to a B&Q (the UK's Home Depot) to buy a few things and then took her to the train station. A quick trip to Costco on my way home finished the excitement for the weekend. :)