Sadly, Auntie Alice died on 19th September 2009 so I won’t be able to visit her anymore. I did go as ofte as I could, but it probably wasn’t as often as once a month. I feel I have failed on this one so I’ll think about replacing it with something else.
Auntie Alice was much loved and will be sorely missed. But at least she is not suffering any more.
Finally, 800 or so emails down to about 4! Deleted a load, sorted the rest into folders, must now keep on top of incoming emails to make sure it doesn’t get too full again. I know webmail accounts have such large size limits now that it would just about be possible to keep every email ever sent or received but really there is no point. Am I really ever going to need to read them all again? Probably not. So better to just delete them and keep life as clutter free as possible, even if it is only virtual clutter.
Also I have reaised that the servers needed to store all that info and suport the internet consume huge amounts of electricity. So reducing the number of servers needed by reducing the amount of information stored electronically is a good way to reduce environmental impact too. Obviously I realise that deleting my few hundred emails will have virtually no impact whatosever, but it’s the principle that matters – and Mark is always telling me I need to stick to my principles more.
I made a start on this task a couple of days ago. I have planted seeds of rosemary, oregano, thyme and mint in trays and am now waiting for them to germinate. Hope they grow! I already have parsley growing outside under cover and I grew that from seed, so if these survive, I’ll have 5 herbs in my little herb garden.
Now that we both have long commutes to work, Mark and I decided that we were fed up with spending our evenings and weekends cleaning the house. We both leave the house by 7.30am, Mark doesn’t get in until 6.45 pm and I get home some time between 6pm and 9pm. So the last thing either of us want to do with our spare time is clean the house. The problem was that in order to have a cleaner, the house has to be tidy enough to allow them to clean! Anyway, we recently decided that we needed to somehow create more time for ourselves and getting a cleaner seemed the most obvious solution.
So in preparation for a cleaner coming in on Tuesday, we spent last weekend making sure that all the surfaces that they were supposed to be cleaning were clear. It was so nice to come home to a clean house on Tuesday evening! And I haven’t done any cleaning in the last week because they’re coming in next Tuesday too…and every Tueday after that! Hooray! No more cleaning. Except for washing up and tidying obviously…but now that it’s tidy hopefully we can keep it that way. The only areas that they’re not cleaning at the moment are the bedrooms because they are still jam packed full of stuff and it would be difficult (impossible actually) for them to clean them well.
I have to admit that they are much more expensive than I thought they’d be. Since we don’t know anyone with a cleaner, we couldn’t get a recommendation. And since we’ll be out of the house when they come in to clean, we didn’t want to just employ some random who has a card in the newsagent’s window – they’ll have a key to our house after all. So we went through a local cleaning company called Housekeepers of Hitchin. They are fully insured so we don’t need to worry about things going missing of being broken or losing keys etc. They are charging us about £32 for one cleaner for 2 hours – they did do a good job, but I thought that’s rather a lot to pay for 2 hours cleaning. Comments from anyone who knows a reliable but cheaper cleaner welcome…
About 6 years ago Mark and I went on our first holiday together. We went on a last minute all inclusive package to Malaga - the sort of holiday where you don’t need to take any spending money because absolutely everything is already included. Anyway, we had a really good time and one of our favourite activities that we both tried for the first time while we were there was archery. I have to say, we were both pretty damn good at it compared to the others who tried it out, and by the end of the two weeks we could both hit the centre of the target almost every time. Each session ended with a competition which generally one of us would win every time.
I haven’t ever done archery again since then so I decided that it might be fun to try it out again. And the opportunity presented itself a few weeks ago when we went on holiday with some friends to Centre Parcs. Centre Parcs was much like the all inclusive package holiday we went on in terms of the activities that you could do, but this time nothing was included and we had to pay for every activity. But anyway, Mark and I decided to try archery again and see how we got on. Not very well is the answer. We have definitely lost our touch! Mark’s excuse is that his eyesight has deteriorated so badly over the last 6 years that he had to aim 2 metres to the right of his target in order to actually hit it, (I’m not even exaggerating either!). I haven’t got an excuse, but I’m sure the bow was different. We were both pretty bad at it although we did improve over the session.
Although I enjoyed it, I didn’t enjoy it so much that I’d like to take it up as a hobby. And finding out if I’d enjoy it as a hobby was really the point of trying out archery again so although it’s a no, it was definitely worth doing just to find that out.
Finally got around to digging up my tulip bulbs from last year and re planting them in new soil a couple of weeks ago. Most are in pots so they can be moved around easily. Also put in dome daffodils, snow drops and narcissus. A bit late I know but at least it’s done. It always makes me smile to see spring flowers in the garden – it reminds me that winter is nearly over! Anyway, hopefully they’ll come up ok.
My Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) at Alara Wholefoods officially ended on 6th September and I had to send in a final report with details of successes, failures, improvements etc. It’s nothing exciting really, just something I had to get done. Anyway it’s done now so that’s another one ticked off the list!
I started my new job last Monday and have been cycling from Kings Cross to Borough to avoid the having to use the underground. I don’t normally mind getting the tube but in the mornings and evenings when all the commuters are going to and from work it is not pleasant. For one thing, the Northern line platform gets so crowded in the mornings at about 8am that they close the main entrance to Kings Cross St Pancras underground station. When you are finally allowed down to the platforms they can be so packed that sometimes you have to let a couple of trains go by before you can even get on! Once you do get on a train, it’s unlikely you’ll get a seat so you probably end up standing nose to armpit with another sweaty commuter for most of the journey. When you get off the train, you then have to fight your way through the crowds and on to the lift, wait while the doors open and close 5 times because some late arrival has tried to sqeeze into a non existant gap rather than wait for the next lift, and pray that the lift doesn’t break down as it groans and creaks it’s way up to street level. Not a great way to start your day so I deceided that cycling would probably be better on balance.
Although I have a bike, its pretty old, heavy and it rattles a lot. It’s really pretty crap for cycling around London on so I decided to get a better one. Mark and I went to our local bike shop, Paul’s bikes at the weekend to see if he had any second hand ones that might be better. He had two – an old ladies one and a men’s mountain bike. I went with the mountain bike for £70. It was newer, lighter, had better gears and brakes, came with lights and it’s red. I like my new red bike! So the next day I took it to London to leave it at Kings Cross ready for me to cycle to work on Monday.
It’s a much nicer ride to work now. It’s definitely less bumpy but I think that’s because it still has the mountain bike tyres on it. I’m going to change those for slicks since I’m only going to be riding on roads. My journey from Kings Cross to work takes about 25 minutes each way which is a bit longer than I’d hoped really but I spend a significant amount of time stationary at traffic lights during the journey so I’m now looking for a route that cuts out all the major junctions, so hopefully the journey will eventually be a bit quicker than that.
The other good thing about cycling to work is that I can cycle to meetings or site visits if they’re not too far away and I can claim bike expenses for that at 20p per mile. I think that’s fantastic! I’ve never known a company that gives bike expenses before – mind you, I’ve never heard of a company before that actively encourages its employees to cycle to meetings wherever possible! And of course it’ll also keep me fit so I don’t need to worry about not getting enough exercise.
Yesterday was our first wedding anniversary but since it happened to fall on a Monday and that particular Monday happened to be my first day at my new job, we decided to celebrate properly over the weekend. So Mark surprised me and booked a night in a 5 star hotel in Chelsea Harbour called the Wyndham. It was a beautiful hotel. We had a suite with a living room, bedroom and flashy bathroom. We ordered room service and used the pool. There were two sinks in the bathroom. We had big white fluffy bathrobes. There was an umbrella just in case it rained. There were 6 magazines to read and 2 new books. And there was a model boat in the bathroom. It was great!
On Saturday evening we decided to go on the London Eye and enjoy the nightime city skyline. It was so beautiful, looking out over all the famous buildings and their lights. Cities definitely look better at night. London can look a bit grey during the day but at night it sparkles. You get a great view of Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, St Paul’s Cathedral, the Ghurkin, the Tate Modern, the Oxo Tower and loads of other famous London landmarks. The “flight” takes about half an hour and if you pre book tickets the queues aren’t that bad. I’ve been on the London Eye both during the day and at night now and I definitely preferred the night time flight. It’s also a very romantic way to spend an evening, particularly if you are fortunate enough not to have lots of noisy kids joining you in your gondola! Alas, we were not so lucky…but it was still a lovely evening.
So last night was date night and I managed to surprise Mark by taking him to a new place in town called Just Desserts. We went on our bikes so that we could at least have one glass on wine each and I confused him by taking him to Que Pasa first. The idea was to have a light main meal first by ordering just a couple of dishes from their tapas menu before going on to Just Desserts where we could gorge on sweet things. It worked well but we only managed one dessert each (I thought we might be able to manage two each but we were too full).
Just Desserts is a family owned cafe and wine bar and they serve freshly made cakes and desserts all day. The place is nicely decorated and feels like cosy coffee shop, the sort of place where friends meet for a chat whilst indulging in the guilty pleasures of full fat desserts and alcoholic beverages! But to describe it as simply a cafe is doing it an injustice – it’s much more than that. More modern than an old English tea room but less flashy than Starbucks, more upmarket than the local pub but less trendy than Vinopolis, Just Desserts strikes a good balance between coffee shop and wine bar. And thankfully, unlike Starbucks there are no strangely named hot beverages, no paper cups and disposable cutlery, no long queues of impatient commuters desparate for a hit of caffine who tut impatiently as you dither over what you want to order from the indeciferable menu (how are you supposed to know that tall actually means small? And what exactly is a Grande Mocha Valencia?). It’s just a really nice place to go and enjoy good food and good wine and the best part of it is that unlike most coffee shops, it’s open in the evenings so it makes a great way to finish off a night out.
On the menu was a large selection of crepes, waffles, sundaes and other desserts. I had the New York Cheesecake and Mark had the special of the day, Double Chocolate Chip Brownie with ice cream and chocolate sauce. We would give both desserts 7 out of 10 but we are hard to please so that’s a very good score. Next time, I’d like to try a crepe or two, or maybe the apple pie. Overall a great place to go for a date, a little unusual and a friendly atmosphere and I would definitely go there again.
