HAVE PASSPORT, WILL TRAVEL

We're off on another adventure tomorrow, this time to Amsterdam. Ray and I will be travelling with the usual suspects, Tim and Cassandra, and the four of us are looking forward to canals (we are staying in a small hotel right on the Amstel), tulips and cafes. There is a Rembrandt/Caravaggio exhibition going on at the Van Gogh Museum, and we'll also check out Anne Frank House and of course a clog shop or two.

I'll be back, with photos to share and tales to tell, on Sunday. Until then, heb een groot weekend!

JUST BACK FROM THE THEATRE

Ray and I got to enjoy a last-minute excursion tonight - we were given tickets to the main theatre in town and saw a great production, "The Shell Seekers", based on the novel of the same name. It was a fantastic, gripping performance and such a treat to go out on the town for un unplanned date.

There's not much else to report - it's been very blustery today but other than that the weather is much more spring-like than a week ago. Temperatures are actually well above freezing and it feels almost balmy. (You know it's been a slow day if I've taken to reporting weather patterns!)

HER NAME IS GRETCHEN AND SHE MEANS FREEDOM

I absolutely love having the freedom that a car affords. It's something that I took for granted when we lived in Canada because I had access to a vehicle from the time I first got my license (thank-you, Mom and Dad!). After a year and half of cycling everywhere and bumming rides off of kind-hearted friends it is blissful to be able to leave Cambridge whenever we want, without having to bundle up in eighteen layers of cold- or waterproof clothing. No more carefully calibrating the fullness of our shopping cart to the maximum volume of groceries we can get home on two bikes. No more hassles of being organized and renting a car whenever we want to go somewhere or bring home large items like gardening gear. No more groaning at the thought of travelling to friends' homes outside town because it would mean a cold lonely cycle home at the end of the evening, when we'd rather be warm and cozy. F-R-E-E-D-O-M!

After a good roadtrip up to Scotland to put her through her paces and allow us to get to know each other, the purveyor of freedom has been christened Gretchen. Ray had originally suggested Heidi - we had decided that we needed a female German name, because Volkswagens are German and all cars should have female names - but I vetoed that suggestion. You see, Ray had also wanted to get a "bra" for the car (a leather cover for the front of the hood, to protect it from grit on the roads) but I told him there was no way that he was going to buy our car some leather lingerie and then name her after a German bombshell. Gretchen seemed like a good compromise, and we are forgoeing the bra - I think all the other cars would beat Gretchen up if she wandered out onto the streets wearing such a travesty.

Along with having this freedom Ray and I are making a conscious effort to be responsible and to avoid regressing to our totally car-centric Vancouver existence. We still plan to cycle for our groceries much of the time and to events and friends' homes within the Cambridge area. Frankly, cycling home on a warm summer evening is a pretty enjoyable activity and it would be a shame to give it up. It just sure is nice to have the option of wimping out, even if we don't intend to exercise that option very often.

JUST A QUICKIE

Soooooo tired!

We had a very busy but rewarding weekend, which I'm hoping to write about in the next couple of days. My last post (which should have been on Thursday) was sucked out into cyberspace - highly demoralizing - and I'm too tired to make a decent attempt at another right now.

I will mention that we made homemade pasta today, and it actually turned out pretty well. Ray made the pasta itself:



...and I made the pesto sauce to go on top. There sure is something satisfying about making a meal entirely from raw ingredients, and having it taste delicious at the end of a long day.

SUPER KIM!

Today is my bestest little sister's birthday, although she's not exactly little any more. Happy 25th, Kim! Welcome to the second quarter-century!

One of the hardest aspects of living in England is the distance it puts between me and my family and friends back in Canada. In the case of my sister this distance seems particularly onerous because we are very close friends and this friendship is something that we had to wait most of our lives for.

In a land and time far far away, when we were little girls, Kim and I shared a bedroom. This did not go over well, as we had very different personal styles and requirements for a bedroom space. Me: everything in it's place; Kim: chaos. (Funny that these days she rivals me in tidy-ness and keeps a spotless house). I vaguely remember lots of yelling, the odd hair pull, and the requisite line of masking tape down the middle of the floor. I also remember Kim gleefully getting me back for the 'honour' of having the top bunk bed - being on the bottom meant she could lie on her back, stick her legs in the air and give my mattess a good kick!

As we grew older we continued to develop different interests but still shared a pretty good bond as teen-aged sisters. Kim was always the fun, sporty tomboy who provided a good foil to my nerdy bookish-ness. We still continued to argue every now and again, particularly over my driving abilities (when I used to drive us to school), but we also shared a lot of amazing experiences together on our journey into adulthood.

Now when I look at my baby sister I see a beautiful, intelligent, confident young woman who has the ability to take on the world - and win. I am extremely proud of the person she is and the very deep friendship we have developed over the last few years. She is doing so well in her pursuit of her doctorate degree and still manages to keep a balance life in terms of sports and a long-term relationship with Garrett (a truly terrific guy, I might add). I only wish she was finished her degree, and making tons of cash, so she could hop on a plane at a moment's notice for a little visit.

Happy, happy birthday, Kim. Do you have any idea how much I'd like to just swing by your place, bundle you in the car, and take you out for chocolate cake?

A WEE BIT OF BONNY SCOTLAND

First let me get a quick rant of the way: it is FRICKIN' COLD despite the official arrival of Springtime. COLD! I know spring weather can be variable but really, this is getting a bit ridiculous. People were swimming (ill-advisedly, but swimming nevertheless) in the Cam this time last year. Time for winter to be over, already!

Ah. I feel much better now.

Onto more exciting ventures - I've had a chance to organize the photos from last weekend and present them below for your viewing pleasure:


Tim and Casey catching some much-needed and much-deserved Zzzzz's on our way out of Cambridgeshire


Yes, we really did encounter a restaurant called the Rumblin' Tum. We didn't have the courage to eat there, but Tim and Casey had great fun posing for this shot and generating concerned looks from passersby. Something tells me this pose wasn't good for business.


On the scenic route to Edinburgh


The remains of an old train bridge actually blended in pretty well in this landscape. The white blobs in the left of the photo (barely visible) are sheep!


Oddly enough, Scotland is full of Scotch pines


A view over rolling winter hills towards the mountains, on our way to Loch Lommond


Loch Lommond...and three adventurous butts!


On the bonny shores of Loch Lommond, looking North


I was there too, even though my butt failed to make an appearance


Eloping at Gretna Green! Only trouble is...we're already married. I'm sure they would have married us again if we had coughed up some money, though.


All lassies know that Tartan is the fashion wave of the future


What would a trip to Scotland be without the Highland Cattle? We saw thousands of sheep and lambs too, but oddly enough failed to get a single photo beyond the white blobs in the fourth photo above.


We took a "mountain" pass between Keswick and Windermere in the Lake District. The already-too-narrow roads bordered by stone walls were now bordered on the inside with plowed snow. Made for some challenging but scenic driving on the part of Tim and Ray, but they were up for it!

GRETNA GETAWAY

We're back from our Scottish adventure and I'm happy to report that we had a fabulous time. The weather was cold but we were ensconced in our nice warm car so the late winter chill failed to dampen our spirits. Scotland was beautiful as always and the people were friendly and welcoming.

I'm going to post a full account of our trip and a bunch of photos in the next day or two. I had planned to do it tonight but just finished downloading the photos from our camera and realized that we took quite a bit more than I remember...it's going to take some time to get them organized.

In the meantime, check out Ray and the new wheels, on a stop somewhere along the "scenic route" to Edinburgh:

VROOM VROOM

So. You arrive home from work yesterday only to find the house empty but dishevelled-looking. A quick inventory reassures you that you have not been robbed but makes you wonder where the person (read: husband) whom is undoubtedly the source of the dishevellment can be found. Time passes, an hour and a half to be exact. Maybe you should get dinner started?

Your husband calls and as you pick up the phone you hear "I just bought a car!!" followed by some general whooping and giggling. "I'm in South London, and I'll be home in a couple of hours. Did I mention that I just BOUGHT A CAR??!!"

Luckily for my nerves we had officially started car shopping - even though we only really started looking at vehicles this past weekend (one source of the tireness and brain farts) - and so this development was not entirely unanticipated. We hadn't dared hope, however, to find a wonderful car after such a brief search.

Ray popped back down to London this afternoon and brought her home - we are now the proud owners of a 1999 VW Passat! She's hunter green with a grey interior, has a turbo engine and is parked right outside my living room window. She's gawgeous!

To break her in (to us, in any case), we're off on a road trip to Scotland tomorrow with Tim and Cassandra. I'll be back on Sunday night with tales from the road and hopefully photos of our newest member of the family.

COMPLETE AND UTTER BRAIN FART

For the last week or so, on each night, I've sat in front of my computer and tried to come up with something witty to write in my blog. And for each of those nights I've come up with nada. We've been doing interesting stuff, it just seems as though I don't have much mental energy left at the end of a long day. Regarding those ideas that I do come up with, I am having terrible trouble putting the appropriate words to what I'd like to express.

Tonight's no exception, I'm afraid. I'm going to head up to bed and hopefully a good night's sleep will provide some inspiration for tomorrow.

FOOD THERAPY

I had forgotten just how much fun - and just how messy - making rice krispie squares could be.

But first let me take you back in time a few hours. I had a not-so-great day at work today, one of those days where nothing goes spectacularly wrong but enough little things go awry that taken as a whole the day goes down in the books as poopy. My brain was in slo-mo and I did a couple of minor yet stupid things that have made me resolve to be super efficient and faultless tomorrow. I ended up staying much later than I had planned, and had to take the bus home instead of getting a ride straight to my doorstep. Stuff like that.

Enter Ray, Husband Extraordinaire. This is the guy to whom I only have to send a one-sentence email, one with the subject line "Rrrrriiiiiccccceeeeee Kkkkkkrrrrriiiiisssspppppiiiiiieeeeeesssss Ssssssqqqqqquuuuuaaaaaarrrrreeeeesssss!", and he shows up on our doorstep several hours later with the ingredients to make just such a treat. AND he even got gooey with me, helping to mix the marshmallows and pouring the rice krispies at the critical moment.

From arriving home feeling shattered, and scarfing down a big bag of potato chips (pathetic, I know) to making a healthy meal (satay and salad) and fun snack with Ray, my relationship with food flipped 180 degrees tonight...and luckily in the right direction!

HAPPY TUESDAY!

...because it's an otherwise uninspiring day, and my internet connection is on the fritz tonight. I'd hate to write out a long entry only to have it sucked into the vast sphere of cyberspace.

SUNDAY OPTIMISM

What a great day!

Today was filled with a whole lot of little events, none of which were special in and of themselves, but together they combined to create an almost perfect winter weekend day. This is particularly remarkable because I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning and poor Ray had to deal with a decidely grumpy Amanda for the first few hours of the day. Not sure why I was so grumpy, but it sure was unfortunate to be owly on such a beautiful morning.

Speaking of a beautiful morning, today was another cold but clear day - the temperatures just rising above freezing but with only little fluffy clouds in the sky. I don't mind cold as long as it's clear and beautiful like today! In any case, the nice weather made our chores (grocery shopping - generously done by Ray, miscellaneous shopping, etc.) much more pleasant and in general cast a cheerier note for the day. Ray shopped while I cleaned the house and when he got home we did a bunch of spring cleaning - washed some windows (including a particularly pleasing victory when we figured out how to wash the outside of our upstairs window, from the inside!), cleaned up some mould, swept up some dust bunnies. We had to go uptown to find some new bedding and actually found what we were looking for without too much trouble, or getting jostled by other shoppers; another pleasant surprise. We found ourselves back home in time to make use of the afternoon by doing a bit of gardening - I am determined to pull up as many weeds as possible now, before the growing season really gets going and yardwork. Although our garden is still brown, we are starting to see our plans take shape for later in the season. It is gratifying to have all the work we put in last year behind us and now we can really start to improve the space.

I still wasn't tired after we gardened so we came inside and had a cup of tea...and then I baked some apple cinnamon muffins. The whole house smelled wonderful as the sun was setting and we started making dinner. After a yummy meal and a relaxing after-dinner chat, Ray and I spent the evening puttering about our little nest getting ready for the start of the week.

I'm not entirely sure how we transformed a grumpy start to the day into a terrific, fun, relaxing time; if only all days could be this simple! But in the meantime, I'm not complaining. I hope you all had a very nice weekend too, and are about to embark on a rewarding week.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY KIMBERLEY

I didn't blog last night, although we spent the evening at home (rare for a Friday!) and it's all my sister's fault. You see, she was amazingly sweet and sent me a book earlier this week, totally out of the blue. Kim has impeccible taste in both clothing and books and this most recent gift was no exception; I highly recommend "After Helen" by Paul Cavanaugh.

It's been a shamefully long while since I sat for an extended length of time and just read a great ficton book. I tend to be a bit of an internet whore and surf the web for hours on end - the internet has become my surrogate TV. But I decided to take the evening off of the computer - didn't even turn it on - and got comfy on the couch with a cup of tea, a blanket and my book. Four or so hours later, I had finished the rather gripping story and was so relaxed that it was easy to "just say no" to checking my email one last time before toddling off to bed. I think I should do this more often...if only I could get past Blog Guilt a.k.a. the guilt of wilfully "forgetting" to blog one evening!

CHILLY CHILLY

Winter is throwing forth one last blast before allowing Spring to really get going. (At least I hope it's just one last blast). After weeks of above-average temperatures, the last few days have seen us barely clearing zero and today we even got a brief snowfall. A few flakes were sitting on the ground when I got home from work so it looks like if we get any more snow it might stick around for a few days. I just hope it holds off until the weekend because it'll be a pain to get out to the village where I work if there is much snow on the roads.

I have adjusted to the cold, particularly with respect to how uncomfortable I was at the beginning of the winter, but I am definitely looking forward to the return of warmer weather. The first of the Spring clothes are appearing in stores - far too early, as usual - and I am craving pretty skirts and high-heeled sandals. And to think I used to be a tomboy!

We put up a bird feeder a few weeks ago and it is getting pretty regular traffic; with this cold snap I am particularly glad to be helping the wee birdies out. I have tried to take a photo of birds at the feeder but they are pretty skittish and I've not been able to get close enough to have them appear as anything more than a smudge on the camera. Oh well, I have a lot of time to work on getting a good photo, particularly once the weather improves.

My homesickness has subsided a bit since my last post, thanks to the kind words of many of you and those of my friends here. I know it will pass; I just wish it would pass SOON. On balance, I am enjoying my time here in England and our adventures are worth suffering through the occasional bout of homesickness. Thanks, Bev, for the focaccia recipe - I may very well give it a try this weekend...and perhaps a walk through some of the meadows.