O HAPPY DAY!

In a few short hours, my Mom and Dad will be HERE!!

I absolutely can't wait to spend a couple of weeks with two of the people I most admire. We are going to have a great time romping around Cambridge as it'll be Dad's first visit to this part of England, and then we'll join Ray in Heidelberg, Germany for several days (he will be attending a conference there). Fun, fun, fun!

I probably won't be blogging much for the next few weeks - see you in a bit!

CARS

CARS
Originally uploaded by raygrout.

Tonight's activity was dinner with our great friends Tim & Cassandra, which ended up in the ladies agreeing to take Tim & I to see a movie close to our hearts: Cars! Strangely enough, attendance was low, and we seemed to be the only ones waiting for the theatre to be cleaned. In any case, we were so excited that it didn't bother us and we were soon seated. At the moment we are waiting for the show to start, hopefully good things will be shown soon! (this blog brought to you from my cell phone - I'm excited about the new technology, hence lots of input from me lately!)

WET!

We've had some wetness of late; I tried to take a couple of pictures of the rain but they didn't come out so well. Instead, here's a representative sample of what all those caught out in the rain looked like. Normally, I'd be included in that group as the rain started while I was at work yesterday afternoon, but my most wonderful wife was kind enough to collect me on her way home :) Today it's been really nice out, and having finally finished up my poster the weekend is most welcome. It's looking to be a good one: we have been invited out for dinner tonight and tomorrow, and on Sunday morning some very special visitors are scheduled to arrive, but I'll let Amanda blog about them...

NO SUCH LUCK

Unfortunately the stove guy turned up after Ray had spent the entire morning waiting for him...and he spent exactly six minutes (per the invoice) FAILING TO INSTALL THE FRONTPLATE. Apparently he brought the part with him, but not the tools to attach it. This is the SPECIALTY. STOVE. REPAIR. GUY.

Is it just Ray and I that have these problems, or are all fix-it guys in the UK completely incompetent!!??

WAITING AGAIN

This is the before picture of our stove; after the previous adventure to get the element replaced our landlord has decided that since the numbers have worn off it would be a good idea to have the frontplate replaced, so I'm at home again waiting for someone to show up between 8&1. Last time around the stove fixit guy was on time and professional (unlike some other fixit guys... and no, I don't think the boiler guy did ever notice the troubleshooting guide :) ) so hopefully I'll be able to put up an 'after' photo soon.

TWO MORE GREAT READS

I've added two more blog links to the right side of the screen:

SuperKate: The Adventures Continue...: I've known Kate since we were about three feet tall on a good day and she still continues to impress and inspire me with her fast-paced life and insightful comments. Kate's been blogging for several years and I enjoyed reading about her adventures so much that I decided to start Life Without a Gogglebox.

Lithe Librarian: Alicia is a librarian with a great talent for writing witty book reviews and relating them back to everyday life. Plus, who knew the library was full of such kooky people with their odd requests? Reminds me of the time I spent working at Gap; like shops, libraries aren't allowed to have "weirdo sensors" on their doors.

Enjoy!

UPDATE: THE RETURN OF HOT WATER

After poor Ray being stuck home for hours keeping an eye on the repair guy, I'm thrilled to report that we've returned to the land of hot water. O happy day!

STUCK AT HOME

Good news: Fix-it guy has shown up to (hopefully) fix our boiler and return us to the land of reliable hot water.

Less good news: We only became aware of fix-it guy's impending arrival last night when our ever-helpful landlord slipped a note through the door. Thanks to Amanda going into work a few minutes late, and my talking the boys into cutting our morning row short, we managed to get overlap and let the guy in. I'm now stuck at home, about as bored as possible...

Worse news: Last time I dared go downstairs, our kitchen looked thus:

.

Since then, I've heard two sliding noises, a CRASH, assorted banging, several assorted grunts of varying intensity, and the sound of running water. I'm scared to look...

UPDATE: Fix-it guy has finished cleaning scale out of the heat exchanger, which is what he reckoned was causing the trouble; sounds reasonable enough to me I guess, the heat exchanger probably needed to be cleaned anyway. I was pleased to see that he's installed a filter in the return line from the heating circuit as a general principle, but I can't see how that will help limescale on the other side of the heat exchanger. In any case, having made his repairs, burner is not lighting / lighting but not staying lit... Now, it could be that this is related to the problem we've been having all week (i.e., the burner lights, but then goes out and cycles on/off), but, wait, no, what passes for a "Boiler Engineer" in England has decided that he MUST have bumped something and caused this problem while he played with a totally unrelated component!!! I've tried to casually flip through the troubleshooting manual and leave it open to the page which describes the current behaviour (helpfully complete with a list of sensors to check) whilst I go upstairs and take a deep breath, but I doubt it'll do any good....

HOT, HOT, HOT!

Temperature records were broken in England today; the hottest July day in nearly a hundred years. I am so happy! After a long dreary winter the heat is finally starting to seep into my marrow.

Because these temperatures are unusual in Britain, people are treating it like a bit of a catastrophe - quite a bit of complaining, stories of roads "melting", schools needing to close, trains stopping running, folks getting stranded in the sun and so on. I know it's warm, but geez - it's not like we're talking Sahara over here. Whip off some clothes (I'm currently prancing about in my bikini, and am quite comfortable, thankyouverymuch), soak your feet in a cool tub, and drink lots of water...you'll be just fine.

Disclaimer: Despite my obnoxious droning on about how great the heat is, I accept that some people/critters are genuinely uncomfortable and I feel a bit badly about that. Top of my list are Ray, who is having trouble sleeping, and Kappa, who is unable to shed his fur coat and is really feeling the effects of the temperatures. Poor kitty spends most of the day moaning and refusing to move except to flop out on his other side. I've tried to convince him that if he'd let me give him a bath he'd be more comfortable, but I fear that course of action would result in me ending up scratched/bitten/soaked, with a dry cat...so he gets to stay hot and dry.

TEAM MALE

A while ago (see "HEAT WAVE"), the suggestion was made that the males in our household (or perhaps males more generally) had a somewhat weak constitution when faced with warm weather as we erroneously concluded that it was too hot out to be comfortable. A few days later the stormclouds rolled in, the heat wave broke, and we've had mild weather for some time. However, the temperatures have again started to climb. Our boiler's been on the injured list of late, so I'm actually pretty happy with the warm temperatures (makes a semi-cold shower more enjoyable!), although Kappa's been grumbling quite a bit and his disgust is plain. However, this time around, there is one more vote to count... I give you Basil, who was happy and cheerful this morning; the state you see him in is the best that a dousing with water has been able to restore him to:

.

... seems to me that Basil is definitely on "team male".

SPOUSAL PRESSURE

Ok, ok, I give in :-) Way back when the tennis at Wimbledon was back in its second day, I joined a contingent setting out from Cambridge to spend the day hanging out in reasonably close proximity to a lot of people with substantial skill. In order to accomplish this, on the day ticket sales being limited in number, our itinerary looked something like this:

2:15 am. Assemble at Cambridge bus stop
2:30 am. Wonder where bus is, and if they've decided not to bother at this insane hour.
2:40 am. Realize that bus actually is supposed to leave at 2:45, followed by a hasty embarking.
3:30 am. Arrive at Stanstead, ostensibly with an hour wait for the next bus; seeing as we've arrived 10 minutes early, get let onto bus leaving at 3:40 for London.
4:45 am. Arrive at Victoria station. Observe that tube line doesn't start to run until 5:10.
5:11 am. Determine that although tube station is open at 5:10, ticket office where we can buy group save tickets doesn't open until 5:30.
5:32 am. Learn that group tickets are only valid off-peak.
5:33 am. Buy regular tickets, find that first train towards Wimbledon doesn't run until 5:50.
6:14 am. Arrive in queue for Wimbledon ticket sales; in England, people love to queue and are proud to demonstrate their skills in that area; this one is really impressive, complete with "Queue Cards" which have an embossed number indicating in which order you arrived in case of doubt, and friendly chaps distributing booklets entitled "A guide to queuing at Wimbledon".
9:30 am. Ticket sales begin.
10:45 am. We enter the grounds, grab an overpriced sandwich for breakfast, and grab a free picnic table.
11:30 am. Find a court with free seats and watch some tennis.
7:30 pm. Decide we've had enough tennis, go back towards the bus stop and find a sketchy pub that's serving food.
11:45 pm. Arrive back in Cambridge, having had a great day watching in person something that I loved to watch on TV back when I lived with Ma & Pop, but haven't really seen since I moved out and said goodbye to cable.

A collection of pictures taken by those along can be found on my friend's website: Oli's website . All in all, in terms of watching the big names the gogglebox is probably better, but the atmosphere here was really great, and the experience is certainly something you can't get on TV.

TAKING THE PRESSURE OFF

You may have noticed that I don't always have time to blog (ha!). Aside from trying to publicly bully my husband into writing about his recent trip to Wimbledon (hint, hint, Ray), I've also brought some friends on board who happen to be talented writers willing to share their experiences with the online community.

Thus, I give you Kim the Scientist: a wittily-written and highly amusing account of life in the boondocks (read: Edmonton) by my awesome sister. She's just recently started blogging and her site has quickly become the first one I check out when I log on.

And I present to you Out of South Africa: written by my good friend Claire, a former South African-ite, who lives near Cambridge and has a very nice way of explaining life in this part of the world. Claire's writing can give you a perspective on Cambridge and England beyond my Canadian-out-of-water approach.

I have a couple of more friends that I'm in the process of contacting about adding their links, so keep your eyes peeled to the box at the right for more interesting reading!

THE SEINFELD POST

Remember Seinfeld, the "show about nothing"? That's the theme of tonight's entry. The weather has been lovely and we're only inside to sleep and prepare meals - we're eating in the garden and spending most of our evenings out there reading and visiting with the neighbours. The flowers are blooming, bumblebees are buzzing, and Kappa is shedding like crazy. Bliss!

THESE COBBLES AIN'T MADE FOR WALKIN'

I am getting to be a regular client of our local cobbler, thanks in part to the cobbles and paving stones that abound in Cambridge. Who knew that they were so much harder on shoes than ordinary (read: North American-style) sidewalks? Or is it just that I walk so much more here than I did back in Canada that is causing my shoes to constantly wear down?

This week I had new heels put on two pairs of summer sandals; one pair was being cobbled for the second time and the other, while only its first trip to the cobbler, was worn right through the rubber/plastic/hard stuff portion of the heel to the wood base. Yikes. I've also had two sets of heels put on my leather boots (the uppers are still nearly flawless after two winters - good boots!) and I suspect that my black dress sandals will require a visit with the shoe doctor soon. At least the shoe guys are friendly so I don't mind keeping them in business!

CANDY WITH A CONSCIENCE

About a year ago, I wrote about our handsoap that was labelled as "suitable for vegetarians". Just exactly which vegetarians are running around out there, devouring vanilla handsoap, I don't know...but there you go. Next time you get a rumblin' in your tumblin', chow down on some good, clean, food.

In another case of interesting labelling, I was enjoying my Marks & Spencer Fizzy Piglets this afternoon when the bag fell over and I was faced with a cheery warning note (in pink!) on the back: "Remember to brush your teeth at least twice a day!" In a country renowned for poor dental hygiene - although admittedly I have been pleasantly surprised that British teeth are not nearly so gungy as depicted by Hollywood - this advice cracks me up. Enjoy our candy, kiddies, but keep your dentists happy! Together we fight tooth decay!

LITTLE FRUSTRATIONS

Sometimes I really wish we owned our house, even if it would mean more hassles in the end. Lately a lot of little things have been breaking - our oven, the upper lock on our front door, the boiler - and while the cost of getting them fixed lies with our landlord, Ray and I could sure get it done a lot more efficiently if we were in charge.

Take the oven: the element failed two Thursdays ago. Our landlord came out the following week to confirm that yes, it was actually broken and it wasn't just a case of me forgetting how to turn it on. The repair guy is scheduled to come out Tuesday - almost two weeks after the problem surfaced. Good thing we don't tend to eat a lot of roasts at this time of year - stovetop cooking is all we can do at the moment.

We figured out a way to get our door to stay locked but I have a feeling this is only a temporary solution. I know that if the problem gets worse, and we have to call our landlord, it'll take another couple of weeks to be fixed. Ditto for our boiler, if it breaks again (it was fixed back in the spring but has been giving us problems recently).

For two people who are fairly handy and can figure out how to fix most household problems, it is infuriating to have things move at this slow, ineffective pace. Give me a hammer, and Ray a wrench (and a few spare parts) and we could be good to go...

SPOUSAL PRESSURE...

...is being applied to my wonderful husband, who had a great experience last week and still hasn't blogged about it. I didn't share in the experience, so it's up to him!

(Nudge, nudge, Ray...you know what I'm on about)

TRUE CAMBRIDGE-IAN

We've just returned from a lovely dinner out at a friend's house and although it is nigh time for bed I must brag about a major accomplishment this evening: I successfully cycled in a skirt and heels. I did not fall over, I did not lose a shoe, I did not get my skirt wound up in my wheels, and I most certainly did not expose myself to passing motorists. (This last has been my most pressing excuse for not previously cycling in skirts). While the breeze did provide some challenges, I think I fared well overall; all I had to do was remember to cycle at a more ladylike pace and give a couple of extra hops when mounting and dismounting from Myrtle.

We are currently camera-less, but once we have a return to the digital world I will make sure Ray takes a photo of me in action. Two years ago I never would have believed tonight's event possible; perhaps two years after we've left Cambridge I won't believe that I ever did it. Photographic evidence will be necessary!

DO I LOOK STUPID? (DON'T ANSWER THAT!)

Our landlord, while generally a lovable old English gentleman, has one serious flaw: he thinks that I am stupid.

While in many areas his characterization would be correct he is way off the mark when it comes to household appliances, particularly those relating to food preparation. I LOVE FOOD, THEREFORE I MAKE DARN SURE I KNOW HOW TO USE THE TOOLS. So when my oven becomes cold, mid-cookie-bake, I know that it's not losing heat because I forgot how to turn it on. Which is what our landlord first suggested might be the problem. Also: Did I have the timer set incorrectly? Had I forgotten to turn on the mains power? How, pray tell, did I know it was the elements that had conked out?

This was Thursday. After talking to Ray to confirm that the lil' missus didn't simply forget to turn the oven on, our landlord finally showed up tonight and tested the oven himself to confirm what I knew almost a week ago. The element(s) are broken. Whoop-dee-doo.

At least he also thinks that Ray is two bricks short of a load. A couple of months ago, when our boiler (which heats our water) broke, our landlord sounded sceptical when Ray phoned him about the problem. After repeatedly asking if we were sure that the boiler wasn't working, he finally visited our house and turned on the hot water tap himself to confirm that yep, the water coming out was ice-cold.

On the flip side, though, and to be fair...he trusted us enough not to trash the place that he let us adopt Kappa. I guess you could say that we have an interesting relationship.

PS. The cookies were saved by my friend Charmaine, who gallantly took home batter and baked it in her own - functioning - oven. Thanks, Charmaine!

HEAT WAVE!

While Ray, Kappa and I agree on most items of concern in the Family Grout, a clear line has been drawn between the sexes regarding our attitudes towards the recent arrival of higher daily temperatures.

Me (standing in for Team Female): I LOVE the warm weather - I wouldn't even be upset if it got hotter. Right now we're reaching high 20s or low 30s and it is lovely. I just want to spend all of my time outside in the sun, soaking the heat right into the very marrow of my bones. I need to stock up for the arrival of colder weather in a couple of months! The only request I could have at this point would be to be near the ocean so that I could go for a quick refreshing swim after work.

Ray and Kappa (Team Male): most disgruntled. Kappa has been wandering disconsolantly about the house meowing at Ray and I to please make it cooler. Bummer to have fur in this heat! Ray has been doing much the same, although he's handling it much better than last year. The addition of sandals - and finally agreeing to wear them WITHOUT SOCKS - has likely contributed to his increased comfort.

In any case, it's supposed to cool off a bit in the next few days, hopefully to a temperature that all three Grouts find comfortable...