Things that make me happy

My boss buying everybody in the office a round of ice creams because the sun is shining...

Magic Green Fingers

It’s official, I have green fingers! Not only have I spent 3 days in a row gardening, weeding and digging my vegetable patch, I also planted some seeds. I carefully sowed them in little pots and put them in front of the window in the kitchen so they would be nice and warm all day in the sunshine. After only 2 days, they’ve started sprouting!!! I have little baby carrots, turnips and cabbage growing. Perhaps I should focus more on nursing them instead of my actual baby nursing cravings… I carefully prepared a corner of the garden to turn it into my vegetable patch, broke some serious sweat over it digging roots (it’s weird how I still have this longing desire to find a treasure buried in the ground – I guess it doesn’t go away when you become an adult) until Stu then casually mentions that that part of the garden hardly sees any sunshine and is therefore not ideal. POO. That’s why I’m chopping trees down this weekend!

Am also officially old. Because I don’t feel like clubbing and getting drunk anymore, I’m classed as an old grumpy bag. Nice. Not sure why I don’t feel like a) spending money I don’t have to start with, b) spending time in a place where the music is so loud I will hear bells ring in my ears for the next 2 days, c) being pushed and stepped on all evening as there are far too many people in such a small confined area (do not get me started on the health and safety issues), d) having other people’s smelly arm pits thrown in my face, e) drinking until I can’t really stand up anymore (as that’s what you’re supposed to do when you want to have fun) and f) spending an entire day recovering from the night before. No thanks. I’d rather you called me old and grumpy in that case. Or is this just me?

Other bits and bobs:

• Told the Old Timer garage Dino is definitely up for sale now – if I don’t hear from them in the next 2 weeks, I’ll put him on Ebay
• Manya at work has resigned after 3 weeks of work (horrible colleagues!) due to family circumstances
• Bernie gave birth to a baby girl called Isabella last week!!
• Have I mentioned I have bed?? (still surprises me every time I walk in the bedroom!)
• Having another struggle deciding whether I should join the gym again or not as there’s a special promotion currently

Some photos from last weekend

The Bolsens family set in the beautiful English gardens of Groombridge Place

Yannalotte - she has the most amazing big eyes!

Laureanne and me

And this is Jenoah - you can tell by this cheeky little face he wasn't sure about being caught on camera - so he subsequently covered his face with his hands for most of the day whenever I was holding me camera - so pretty much all day really.

And so the adventure starts... Before you get to the Enchanted Forest (or het Elfenbos for the kids) you need to climb a rather steep hill and with Jenoah, Yannalotte and an entire picknick basket underneath, it's like working out in the gym.

Yannalotte just all let it happen really - check out the feet!

And then the adults become children... Stu on one of the Giant Swings!

Groombridge Place isn't particularly suited for disabeled people and parents with buggies in some places. Kurt and Stu didn't let a 5 metre high Fort stop them from having fun so up and down the buggy went.

Stu and Laureanne

Yannalotte does this cool thing where she folds her hands together as if she's praying (who knows?!) and then sticks her thumb in her mouth to keep herself quiet. Amazing to see such a wee baby keep herself happy...

And then some children got tired after a day of fun... We sat down for a while and had an ice cream. It didn't take much for Stu to wonder off into the wonderful world that is called Sleep.

Obviously, Stu lying there asleep is just too much of a temptation for the kids. So Jenoah couldn't think of anything better than to tickle Stu's leg and wait for his reaction...

This is photo still cracks me up everytime I see it! It just shows 100% how much he enjoyed teasing Stu! Too bad the picture can't play you his little giggle!!

He had it coming...

Last night, last weekend, last week

Am fully aware of my slacking. Have also read on Yasmine's blog that it's vital for her general well-being to keep up blogging so here we go...

First of all, am swamped with work at the moment which doesn't help. Am Project Managing the latest London Fire Brigade job, managing a Fire Safety leaflet laid out in Quark, translated into 19 languages. (the most exotic ones first). Quark is officially doing my head in as I still haven't found out how to attach the original artwork to the master prints. Anyone? HELP.

On top of working during the day, I tend to take on some evening work as well... New translation agencies are contacting me every other day and it's very difficult to say no to new business relationships (and money!).

This weekend, Kurt and Co came over from Belgium. I met Kurt at the Proms and we got on like a house on fire from the start. He has 3 adorable children, Laureanne (5), Jenoah (3,5) and Yannalotte (8 months). They all have very different little characters and are extremely well behaved. On Saturday we went to Groombridge place, which is where they filmed Pride & Prejudice. Their Giant Swings, Giant Rabbit and Enchanted Forest get even adults excited!! We were very lucky with the weather and had a brilliant time. The kids (and the adults!) had a wicked day of crawling up, under, over and in things. All of us, and I believe Stu even more than the kids, were exhausted from a day out. Fell asleep like a baby. Stu had some slight issues with the waking up pattern of young children but I can assure you, there's nothing better than seeing Stu being woken up on a Sunday morning 8 AM with a 3,5 year old jumping up and down on top of him!! (I told Jenoah to do so; they really are well educated so he wouldn't have done so otherwise - mind you...?!) :-)

After they left on Sunday, Dan and Stu had the most genius idea of going to Ikea with the trailer. Dan was buying bookshelves, Stu and I would finally get the bed we've been trying to purchase for the last 5 years. Got the aisle number etc, got to the end to pick up all the bits and pieces and then realised they didn't have the actual bed frame in stock. @$%&"£! Went back home with with all the other bits apart from the actual bed. (even got a new duvet cover!) However, Stu and Dan decided to go to a different Ikea last night and hurrah we now have a bed!! At 00.07AM Stu got back home (he first helped Dan to put his bookcases together) and decided to build the bed. By 1.04AM, after annoying the lady underneath with the banging and drilling, we managed to climb (we're off the ground!!!) in our bed...

Whilst Stu went to Ikea after work, I decided to garden. I first worked in Stu's dad vegetable patch, tieing up the tomatoes, digging potatoes, picking beans and cutting some rhubarb for crumble. (Now his mum and dad are in Denmark with the boat, I'm in charge of the garden!) I then continued gardening at home, doing my flower beds. I worked out that gardening for 3 hours is as intensive (and cheaper!) than going to the gym... Spent the rest of the night in the bath with Harry. I'm half way through and am determined to finish him by this weekend. Which btw is when Jana will be visiting; my cousin who's working as an au-pair West of London. She'll be coming down on the train on Saturday and we'll drive her back on Sunday - can't wait to see her private jacuzzi! (might need to sneak in my bikini just in case)

Torrential downpour

Drove to work this morning although it looked like the evening was falling. By the time I got to work, the skies opened and rain came out like I've never seen it. Not even in Florida. It was absolutely pitch black outside, lightning flashing through the skies and a curtain of rain stopped you from looking 2 metres in the distance. As a result all the manholes started spitting out water and the office car park started to flood. After 15 minutes of absolutely chucking it down and no end to it in sight, people from other offices decided to move their cars as their exhaust pipes had disappeared under water! A foot of water in 15 minutes, it must have been some form of record I'm sure.

Luckily I drove to work in Beast which is a metre of the ground. Stu surgically implanted a new heart - read battery - yesterday and he's running smoothly again.

Went to the doctors this morning to get my back checked out. I'm still suffering from rather painful aches due to being stuck in the same position for over a month trying to finish my degree. I really do look like an old lady waking up in the morning. Doctor prescribed me physio. Jeej for getting free massages on the NHS. Boo for probably having to wait 2 months before I can get an appointment.

Went to the Star in Old Heathfield yesterday to celebrate our 5th Anniversary. The Star has been my absolute favourite pub in England because of its cosiness (the ceilings are that low, Stu needs to duck when he enters), the food (wicked chef and brilliant menu - written on the wall btw) and atmosphere (it has 2 big fire places you can sit in).

Got there and the menus on the wall were gone, were replaced with paper menus (now who would do such a thing!?) and many of the cute wonky tables had disappeared as well. Turns out they changed owners, have a new chef and changed the menu entirely. The lasagna I'd been looking forward to, for the last 4 months probably, wasn't on the menu any longer! WHAT?! Nor did they do the scampi and chips anymore. Stu and I told the 16 year old waitress we were thinking of heading home again. She wasn't quite sure what to make of it. She did come back however telling me the chef would do me scampi & chips if I wanted to. Yes please. Stu got the T-bone steak which was done and not medium rare, and our chips were Mc Donald's chips and not home made ones. Poo-hoo. Last time we went there. (they've got a lovely beer garden though, perhaps we should just drink there instead)

First attempt to my new health regime

6.20 PM. Went into the pool (with glasses on – first time there, I wouldn’t have had a clue where to walk, go, swim or put my towel down without my glasses!). St. Johns is the town sports centre a bit further down the road from us. I’ve always known it was there, I’d just never actually been there.

7.10 PM. Sixty lengths and 1,5 kilometre further, I came out. I did surprisingly well considering I have not worked out for 6 months. Felt incredibly alive and full of energy even though my legs were a little wobbly and my left hand went in a spastic cramp for about half an hour.

7.45 PM. Arrival at Sainsbury’s to shop for delicious salad and healthy food. Walking through the crisps isle, Sarah and I were drawn to the half a price off offer of (talking about poetry!) Sensation crisps. Decided to buy 3 bags, all different flavours, so we could spread eating them over the next 3 weeks. Naughty.

8.10 PM. Climbed back in Beast. And then it happened. The Beast died. Not even a clunk, nothing. Phoned Stu to come to the rescue – thank god for having the Vectra at home. Thought about opening up the bonnet and pretending I knew what I was doing but decided against it.

8.15 PM. Still no Stu. Sarah and I were getting increasingly hungry…

8.20 PM. One Sensation bag of crisps down.

8.21 PM. Got rid of the evidence by throwing the bag in a bin at the other end of the car park.

8.30 PM. Stu arrives and decides the battery has had it. He manages however to jump start it with cables so I could drive home. However, if I was to stall the Beast, he would die again. Tremor and fears.

9.00 PM. Finally got to eat my lovely and healthy salad but felt surprisingly full after a few bites.

Talking about adventure

Went to the wedding on Saturday. Was a clear day – can’t really say it was sunny – but at least it wasn’t tipping it down, which meant I got to go up in the plane!!

And not only did I get to go in the plane, I got to fly it myself as well!!!! Stu and Dan drove me to Mr. Royce’s house, which has a 5 kilometre drive (and I’m not joking). Mr Royce then introduced me to one of his pilots who was going to take me up in the air. I was given some brief instructions on how to behave in a small aircraft. And when I say small, I mean small. I wasn’t quite sure whether it would go up in the air as it just looked like a steal frame with a curtain around it. I was asked about my movement sickness, which is pretty much non-existent, and was explained how to open the door if I would be sick mid-air. Hmmm.

The flight itself was brilliant. I got to see the sea in the distance, the South Downs, Mayfield and Crowborough on top of the hill, and obviously the wedding guests who had all gathered outside and stood waving at me. In taking in the scenery I nearly forgot to take pictures… After doing several circles around the farm, he asked me if I wanted to have a go. So there I was, holding the steering wheel, going left right and centre. Absolutely brilliant!

(spot the landing strip!)

The rest of the night was spent dancing and eating a very yummy hog roast. We were the last ones on the dance floor and actually turned the lights off when we left. Everybody crashed at Ad and Lucie’s, where we had some bacon butties to get over the hang-overs. (may I note I didn’t drink all night and actually drove all the drunkards home – 7 in the Beast + 4 crates of beer) Cosy.

During the evening Chris and Lin also announced they are going to have a baby!!!!! Jeeej for all of us growing up!!!!

Wedding weekend

Have to attend Jamie's twin sister's wedding tomorrow. Weather permitting I will be taken up into the sky by Mr. Royce to take pictures of the farm from above. Apparently his son his turning 21 tomorrow and they are having a big party at the Rolls Royce estate; I'm just hoping he won't have had too much to drink by the time he takes me up in his plane. Must also make mental note to wear some form of shorts underneath my dress as I'm thinking it could be pretty windy up there, and guests might start taking pictures of me instead of me of them...

Work got a little busier towards the end of the week which makes time pass more quickly. Still not the biggest Brainjuicer fan though.

Went late night shopping to buy a dress for the wedding and ended up running to Starbucks for a Chocolate Frappachino. Probably been a good year since I had one last. YuMieeee.

Signed up on Facebook.com, which seems to be very much the latest fashion. Cool thing is that I found loads of ex-MW Summer Schoolers on there!

Will post some pictures after the weekend. (also of the flat - I know I'm slacking!)

Brain-dead

I have never ever known work to be so quiet is it is currently. There's literally not one project at the moment which means I've resorted myself (and everybody else in the office) to update the Supplier's lists. Although these are much in need of an update, which should have happened half a century ago, it's drop dead boring to say the least. There's only so many emails you can sent out each day asking for the same information. If this continues any longer, I might get permanent braindeadness - a serious condition which is lacking proper research if you ask me.

Danny's pictures of last weekend are online!

Not much else going on at the moment. Being out of the house from 8am till 6pm on a daily basis makes me not want to do an awful lot in the evenings... It's difficult finding the energy and enthusiasm to continue unpacking boxes, painting and cleaning when the only thing you want to do is curl up with a book in your bath. It's all about compromising I guess.

We did make an attempt to go to Ikea yesterday to buy a bed - JEEEEJ - but realised that it wouldn't fit in the car. Poo. Think we might measure the trailer to see if that would do the trick and then perhaps give it another go, maybe tonight. Anything is better than sitting on your knees in the bathroom scrubbing dirt of tiles!

Moving-in party

It was so nice to see everybody together, to have some yummy food and to drink Pimms on the lawn. And, we were so lucky with the weather, it turned it into a very good weekend. There was lovely barbecue food and Lin and Lucy did an amazing job with the puddings! We even had marsh mellows around the 'barbecue turned into bonfire'. All very lovely. The Tour de France on Sunday was pretty cool as well, although we did wait two hours beforehand on the edge of the road, to then see them fly passed in under 5 seconds. But it was fun anyway, doesn't happen every year that Kent hosts the take off.

Am very excited that Kim Clijsters is pregnant!

Am also very very excited that an increasing amount of people have started blogging!! Keep an eye out for Mie's blog and also Sarah who's going to start this week as a try-out for when she's in Russia next month.

So far, she's doing really well on her second day at work. She also hasn't grabbed my arm yet in the car, but probably because it looks like the pheasant, deer, rabbit and 'Moose' society is on holiday at the moment.

Saw Bella real quick this morning but she was more excited about going for walkies then she was seeing me... That's what you get when you don't see your God-dog on a regular basis.

Went for a very long walk with Stu last night. Although we said we'd wait until January to start looking for a house to buy, it only took us a week to get excited! We walked to our 2 favourite streets in Tunbridge Wells to see if there are any houses up for sale. There was only one, but the garden looked too small - never mind the asking price!