There'll Always be an England...

Firstly, let me say that I know I'm a neglectful blogger. It's been weeks since I last posted--but there are reasons, people! Fall has really flown by--there are only like 5 weeks left until Christmas, and I can hardly believe it! Do you like my new toque? More about it later...




Also, as I've mentioned it before but never been one to show it, I thought y'all might want to be introduced to the most important invention of all time: my Garmin SatNav. No more tears, people. It literally tells me where to go and how to do it. 'Turn right in 500 meters..' and all that. In a British voice no less, despite the fact that it's an American company! LOL. It's like having a trusty sidekick in the passenger seat full time--it's Robin to my Batman.


Things are grey and dreary here.... Yes, this is my vase. Sad, isn't it? I am resisting the temptation to purchase household goods that I may become attached to and experience negative emotions when feeling compelled to leave them behind when we leave. Also, as I've been feeling relatively skittish and slightly discontent lately (particularly surrounding work), I've been working on the basis of being able to walk out of our place here in 25 minutes or less to head to an airport. Things are (of course--you must get sick of reading this and think in your head: 'get over it already!') very up and down. Some days I'm lovin' it, others I loathe it. Some decisions have been made last week, though, that have made things a lot more bearable. We'll be back for the last week in May 2008 at the latest.

Non-sequiter time: I know Mike mentioned it in his post, but truly he underreported the fabulousness of Hampton Court Gardens. There are hidden passages behind waterfalls, underground passages, sunken gardens, reflecting pools and level-based irrigation systems...You wanna' know how to spend 7 million pounds on a garden...? I'm sure these guys can help you out.



News: I applied for and have been granted conditional acceptance into the MacEwan Nursing program. Florence Nightingale I ain't, but in my struggles to do my job here I have realized it might be sooner rather than later that I'll want/need to switch careers. So, as of September 2008, I will officially be back in full time school. I still have to submit immunization records, criminal record checks, etc. to make the admission offer final, but I'm sure that will be fine.

What Mike also forgot to mention in his last post was Bonfire Night 2007 at the Hereford Race Course! This is the night the Brits burn effigies of Guy Fawkes, set off fireworks and drink beer to mock his failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament to kill King James I on 5 November 1605.







We went to the Hereford Race Course on a Saturday night to watch the giant fire, drink coffee and listen to some cheesy music accompanied by stripper-like dancing ('children's entertainment, anyone...?) in the background. It was awesome.





We met up with my coworker Colleen and her partner Nick to engage in mutual revelry. It was really, really fun.







I headed to Berlin last weekend to check in on Claire and wish her an early Happy 26th Birthday Claire!






We saw some stuff and did some things...It was really lovely. It snowed (of course!) so our journeys were considerably shorter than they were initially planned to be, but we had fun all the same. Berlin is a wicked city--lots to see and do, and things are remarkably affordable there as well, which makes for nice goings-on. Also, her roommates were lovely and were up for loads of conversation and the opportunity to educate me about the Berlin wall and Soviet Communism, which was loads of fun...LOL.











Last night Mike and I headed to Manchester to see The Sex Pistols, and it totally rocked. Johnny Rotten was in good form--apparently. I dunno. I'm sure those of you that know me well are thinking...Really? Meredith at a concert? In an arena? As it's not really my thing, it was a brand new and exciting experience. It was 5 hours of driving--with me on the wrong side of the road at one point!--but it was totally worth it. Also, from what we saw of it, Manchester is a rockin' city worthy of extensive exploration. I'm definitely going to be heading back there sooner rather than later. It was really nice to be in a real city again, actually. Also a good reminder that we need to get ourselves out of Hereford more often--lots of fun is to be had elsewhere!

As for the story of the The Toque, it's slowly making it's way around the office, which gives me the perfect excuse to take pictures of people I work with and therefore share them with you. This is Tony, Keith and Suzanna in descending order. They are all Social Workers in the team--Mike and I helped Suzanna move houses in Cheltenham a couple weekends ago, Tony helps me with my vehicle and other-related issues, and Keith brings me candy. Apparently the brought candy he bought in the parking lot of a pub (read: stolen). I'm still not sure how I feel about that...


People make fun of me for wearing it, but the joke's on them--it's been mighty cold here, and I'm the one with warm ears all the time! It's actually snowing here today. How can it rain and snow at the same time, you ask? Well, it does. Colleen actually asked me, 'you wear that out in public...?'

But my spirit refuses to be quashed, people! The Toque will prevail. Besides, things have been so crap at work lately, some levity is desperately needed. The head of the Herefordshire Council is being asked to resign due to alleged misappropriation and mismanagement of funds, we're another more workers up but none down for the car park--last count 60 cars for the 18 spaces--and I'm resenting the nature of Statutory Social Work these days...

Also, my latest vehicle mishap, which is actually kind of funny and not at all costly: Last week before I headed to Berlin, my right headlight burned out, but I didn't have time to take the car to the rental agents to get it fixed as I had limited time to get to the airport. And, really, I didn't think much of it. I really should have as a number of events conspired against me to make me take 75 minutes to drive 3.9 miles in the WORST traffic jam in the entire world. It began when the fog fell in the valley on Wednesday night at 4:45pm--it was dark with visibility limited to 10 feet max and the other freakin' light went! GAH! So, it took me 45 minutes to drive home 2.9 miles as every time another car came in the opposite direction, I had to pull over and kill my bright lights as they made the already-problematic visibility problems even worse. Off to work I went the next day, with the intention of cutting out at 4 to take the half hour to drive the 3 miles to the rental agents. That's right--average traveling time around here these days is that slow. I made it there in time, got the lights fixed before it became dark, and went to go home. And it took me 75 minutes to travel the 3.9 miles home. I know how far 'cause my SatNav told me. This island MUST be in danger of sinking under the weight of the cars on it. Not that I can talk right now, what with 2 scooters and a car for only 2 people, but whatever. It's just an observation, anyway...

Love and hugs to everyone! And, you'll shortly be getting the postcards from Amsterdam and Rome. I know--totally lame to get them late. I figure if I write the ones from Berlin, they should be in your hot little hands by Easter...

XOXO, and don't you laugh at the new and woolly Pink Toque.

My heart's in the highlands...

Oh my goodness, it's been a month since our last post...sorry about that. Well, what have we been up to? Lots of stuff actually. It's amazingly been a pretty decent month, which we have attributed to getting rid of Pinky. Meredith is driving a rental now, which costs a bit of money but it's a drop in the ocean compared to what the pink monster was costing us. Funny story; we sold the car for 250 gbp, as/is to a guy who works for the Council. We made sure to let him know everything that was wrong with it. Meredith got a sketchy vibe from him at the time but we didn't think about it. Anyway, a couple of weeks later he calls Meredith and says he wants to take the car to Doug, a mechanic who worked on it before. However, he wants her to tell Doug that it's still her car and that this guy is borrowing it so he can get a discount. Naturally, Meredith told him to forget it. The whole point of selling the car was to not have to worry about it anymore. So, no disasters lately. Meredith hates her job and I'm really feeling understimulated by mine. Man, I miss doing storytimes at the library.

We have decided on when we are returning to Canada. It'll be the last week in May. I have asked work to extend my LOA until the beginning of June but haven't gotten 100% confirmation yet. However, it shouldn't be a problem. I think that has helped matters as well, since we've (mostly I've) spent the last few months fluctuating between coming home next spring to next summer to "screw it, let's just catch the next flight home". Having somewhat of a schedule brings clarity, I think.

Anyway, pictures. In the first week of October, Walter and Dorothy came to visit and we went up to Scotland for a weekend. I got to meet some inlaws that I didn't even know existed. They all live in Darvel, which is about 30 minutes southwest of Glasgow. It's kind of like the Devon of Scotland). We had a lot of fun, and they are just 'salt of the earth' people. I had some strange nostalgic feelings from this. Being in John and Jenny's (Walter's aunt and uncle) house totally brought me back to being in Grandma and Grandpa Eaton's house in Innisfail. The furniture was exactly the same, the food was the same, it was even too hot in their house by about 10 degrees...hahaha. We were at their house on Saturday.


On Sunday we went to Glasgow for the morning and visited the People's Palace. It is basically a museum of Glasgow's history, with replicas of what a home looked like during the 30s, or an air raid shelter complete with a siren. It also had a greenhouse area kind of like the Muttart Conservatory. After that, we went to the outlying area to see where Walter grew up. He showed us his old stomping grounds and told us how it's changed over the years.

Later that day we went back to Darvel and had dinner at Jim and Jeanette's house (just what is it with the J names ^_^). This is where I had my other strange nostalgic moment. Jeanette reminded me so much of Carmen, it was kind of scary. I just got the same vibe from her, in that she has that sense of what's really important and that 'go for it' mentality.
I couldn't help but feel that they are really lucky to have someone like that. I suppose everyone needs a Carmen in their family.


These last few weekends have been pretty busy. A couple of weeks ago, we went for lunch and a hike with Alan's parents. They're a sweet couple, and we had lots of fun. Also, at lunch Meredith dodged having to eat roast beef with real class. I, on the other hand was in heaven because I got to eat all the roast and yorkshire puddings I could handle. Last weekend we went to Hampton court, which is a big house and garden near our place. It was beautiful.






As you can see, there is an underground garden with a pathway that leads up to the middle of a hedge maze. So cool.










This weekend, Meredith is in Berlin visiting Claire. I opted to stay home, as I couldn't get time off and I'm really not up for flying right now. I'm sure they're having a rocking good time though. Next weekend we're off to Manchester to see the Sex Pistols!!! Meredith scored some tickets in an online lottery thing for my birthday. It's going to be really cool to see them live, even though it's like 30 years past their prime. It's totally a band I'd never get to see in Canada, and they are a big part of rock history. I'm pumped. Meredith isn't too familiar with them, so it'll be fun to see what she thinks. Well, that's it for now. Have a groovy day and if a guy in a green shirt is trying to sell you a pink Volkswagon, don't do it. Love you all.