TIRED, AND BUSY...

...but still blogging!

(At least two sentences...doesn't this count?)

I don't expect to blog this weekend, as we have plans for both Friday and Saturday night and the weather is supposed to be wonderful during the day, but you can expect to find me back in business on Sunday or Monday. Have a great weekend, everyone!

EAT YER HEART OUT, CINDERELLA

Well, it's been a week since the Peterhouse Ball and I've finally warmed up enough to write about it. (Seriously. It was cold Cold COLD).

After months of planning and preparations - finding the perfect dress, getting the perfect dress tailored (thank-you again, Gill!), finding shoes that had heels but wouldn't sink into a lawn, putting together jewellry, wraps, clutch and gloves (thank-you Megan!), and a half-hour in the hair stylist's chair - I was ready. As for Ray? The man was ready weeks ago, all he had to do was make sure he shaved and remember to do up his fly.

Despite the disparity in preparations, I think we both cleaned up rather well (just goes to show that underneath it all, Ray is better looking than me because he takes so much less prep time!). I give you Exhibit A:



And while we look very classy indeed, not two minutes after this photo Ray, along with Graeme and Rob, showed their true colours. See what two women taunting "You look like penguins!!" can do to three otherwise reasonable men? (And yes, I still believe that they looked like penguins. Quack quack.)



Beside the penguins, Engineering Claire and I rather look like summer flowers. Don't you think? (And Rob is quite the lucky man to be on the arm of such fine ladies!)



After the photos at Claire's place we headed over to Peterhouse and began the ball in style with champagne and crepes. Unfortunately as the ball started at 9pm it got dark shortly after the doors opened and it was impossible to get good photos throughout the night (95% of the ball was outside and there wasn't much ambient lighting). Plus, it was tricky to work the camera once my fingers started to lose their feeling! But I did get one shot of Ray, Claire, Graeme and Rob just as the party was getting underway:



The ball itself was, first and foremost, interesting, and secondly, fun. It was so totally different from anything that we would experience in Canada that I enjoyed the evening on that fact alone. Most of the college grounds were taken up by the ball; the Deer Park had a ferris wheel and carrosel, the Fellow's Garden food tents and a DJ marquee, the hall a movie theatre with a casino above, and the courtyards various live music acts, dance floors, and bars. Suffice to say we had plenty of opportunities to keep busy, at least until 3am when I finally gave into the cold and convinced Ray to call it a night.

Even when we weren't dancing, eating, drinking or riding the carnival amusements the ball offered plenty of entertainment. I enjoyed people-watching immensely; so many girls in beautiful dresses and the men looked sharp too. Of course there were a few girls who fell far short of the white tie dress code, but they certainly made for interesting viewing, as did those in high fashion gowns (read: impractical and odd, but definitely more creative and adventurous than I). I kept thinking to myself that at least with a proper full-length gown and gloves that I was warmer than those in short skirts.

The men were just as interesting, but in a different manner (no crazy tuxes, much to my disappointment). Maybe it's just that I haven't spent time with a large number of Cambridge undergraduates before, or maybe they were playing up to the attire and occasion, but I found the men almost effete. They smoked like women, gesturing wildly with their cigarettes (and so many of them smoked!), enjoyed the dandyish aspects of white tie (the white gloves, overcoat and top hat), and nary a one - save those in my party - looked like they could fell a tree with a few sharp chops of an axe. What on earth would we have done had a herd of moose (meeses?) ran amok through the ancient gardens and courtyards?

GADZOOKS

Tragedy!

My most favorite-est jeans have sprung a leak in a most un-ladylike location. Why oh why does this always have to happen to Favorite Jeans? I mean, I understand the physics of the situation, but still....

The leak means that I will have to go jeans shopping this weekend, and just the thought of that activity is enough to make Ray go all twitchy. Let's hope he doesn't read this blog entry until Saturday morning, by which point it will be far too late to lodge a protest.

Even in the face of adversity, though, I must remember that all is not lost: the leak was discovered tonight when I pulled my jeans from the dryer, not tomorrow, in front of my colleagues!

JUST A SLICE

In keeping with my pledge to blog more regularly, I took my computer to bed last night and quietly typed as Ray snoozed beside me. Ray grumbles that by "typing quietly" I actually mean "typing like a herd of elephants running across the keyboard", but that's a topic for another day.

As I sat in the darkness, Ray by my side and Kappa at my feet, I heard a faint grinding noise. I turned towards the usual suspect but it turned out to be the cat, not Ray, sawing logs. Kappa was stretched out on his side to his full length, blissfully dreaming about beating up the orange kitty from across the street who insists on passing through our garden and using it as his/her litterbox, snoring like there was no tomorrow. That cat has the faintest purr ever (I have to put my head close to his to hear anything) but when it comes to snoring he can really belt it out.

LIFE AT 100 MPH...

...is what I often find myself thinking would be a more appropriate title for this blog. Our life here in Cambridge is so busy and jam-packed with activities that I rarely have time to blog these days. Which is good, mostly - because it means that Ray and I aren't sitting at home by ourselves. We are out exploring the English countryside, visiting with friends, and strolling around the city. But the lack of blogging time has made me feel like I am further away from my friends and family back "home", and I don't like to feel quite so distant.

I think that up until this point I had looked at this blog as a means for people to stay in touch with me; what I (and Ray) have been up to, my thoughts on the experience of moving to a foreign country, any insights that I might be gaining along the way. However over the last few months as I've had less and less time to write I've felt that the lack of blogging has meant that that I am less in touch with everyone else. It's so much more a two-way communication tool than I had originally envisioned.

It means an awful lot to me to know that you, dear family and friends, are out there all over the world and sharing in my and Ray's lives. Thank-you for sticking with this blog even though the new posts have been far and few in between. I miss you all, and am going to make a much more concerted effort to get back into the habit of posting regularly. Because you see, when life is moving by this quickly and is so adventure-packed, it absolutely must be shared!

ADDENDUM: WEATHER

I meant to write up this thought the other week when I was complaining about the weather, but only found time to put my ideas to keyboard tonight.

I think that everyone complains about the weather - it gives us something to bitch about when there aren't more immediate concerns such as famine or war - but English and Canadian cultures complain in different ways. Brits seem to relate their weather complaints to the previous year's, or decade's, patterns. "It took even longer for summer to arrive back in '02!" can be heard in many circles. Complaints also centre around practicalities - laundry left out to dry that is now re-soaked through, or, in Cambridge's case, blown half-way across the shire.

Canadians, on the other hand, complain about the weather as a way of demonstrating their brawny skill in the face of daunting climes. It's all about bravery and while we complain about it being minus 40, we're really secretely pleased that we're so tough. Heaven forbid we don't suffer through a winter where our fingers nearly froze off on six separate occasions - we have an international reputation to uphold!

(This latter issue becomes tricky when I try to explain to people that I am from the one warm region of Canada...I don't want them to think that the country is all icebergs and polar bears, but I'd like to lay claim to a little of that Canadian bravado. Maybe I'll steal it from Kim, who really does live where it gets to minus 40!)

SAME OLD, SAME OLD

What a surprise, we've been busy lately!

Since my last post, I've spent a weekend running around Cambridge getting ready for the ball (as in, Cinderella-type-ball, not Basket-or-Base-type-ball) season and Ray has spent most of his waking hours preparing for the May Bumps. It is the end of term here in Cambridge and the summer party season has begun.

Next week we are attending a ball at Peterhouse College (Darwin isn't holding one this year) and I'm quite looking forward to the occasion. It will be my and Ray's first white tie event and we will be dressed to the nines. Translation: I have spent a many hours finding a ballgown (thanks again, Gill for tailoring it for me!!), gloves, clutch, wrap, shoes and a suitable hairstylist. Shoes have been the trickiest part of the ensemble because I need something fancy enough for white tie but practical enough to withstand an all-night party on a college lawn. (I've settled on sensible 2-inch wedge heels).

The May Bumps are Cambridge's annual rowing competition on the River Cam; the river isn't wide enough to accomodate side-by-side racing, so boats race in a line and if they catch up with the boat in front it is considered a "bump". Often bumping involves actual physical contact, so things can get quite interesting! In any case, Ray's boat is racing once or twice a day for the next three days and he is currently eating, sleeping and dreaming rowing.

Other than these traditional Cambridge activities we have been keeping busy by throwing a BBQ with two neighbouring couples - we brought the margaritas, they brought the Pimms - and I was down in London last night with Engineering Claire to take in "Footloose" the musical. Ray and I were also in London on Sunday visiting my Auntie Iris, Uncle Jos and my second cousin Leslie...and getting in some more shopping. Whew!

I am always impressed by just how much one can cram into one's schedule if they aren't sitting on their butt in front of a television.

COWGIRL UP

Well, after my whiney post of last Thursday, I sheepishly return to the blogosphere to announce that the very next day the weather did a 180-degree turn and we've been basking in heat and blue skies ever since. I've not been on the computer because I've not wanted to waste a minute of the nice weather by being inside - Ray and I have only really been indoors to sleep, prepare food and work. I'd almost forgotten how idyllic it is to stroll along the river on a warm summer's evening, watching other people doing the same, or how tasty food can be if eaten under the trees with your wonderful husband.

Despite the weather's turn for the better, I have to admit that my cousin Brandi's comment galvanized me for whatever weather was to come. The gist of her comment was that since I couldn't do anything about the weather I should deal with it - in horsey terms, "cowgirl up" - and think in a more positive way. It's good advice at any age and I'm really trying to take it to heart.

JUNE...OR MAYBE NOVEMBER??!!

Happy 1st of June! Summer is upon us, the fields and forests are abounding with baby critters, and warm, gentle breezes waft through our sunny days. Except - scratch the part about warm, gentle, and sunny; maybe even the summer. It's bloody freezing cold here in England, and I'm longingly looking at weather reports from Canada, a country supposedly full of igloos and polar bears.

I wore a thick top and a scarf(!) to work today and still was uncomfortably cold; silly me, I hadn't worn a thick jacket. The latest news on the weather is that England just experienced the wettest May in 27 years. This is not good. I have cute summer clothes, and even cuter sandals, to wear! Vitamin D that needs to be produced to stock up for the long winter months ahead.

At least the bad weather is saving me money. The urge to buy more flirty clothes has completely left me...I'm now holding out until parka season.