As I wrote a daily diary whilst we were on holiday, it seems to make sense for me to put a good chunk of it up here, rather than rewrite it, and take another couple of months to get everything sorted out! Note that these posts were written as we went along (often a couple of times a day)...
There are photos to accompany the next few posts, and I will get them uploaded, but I am currently blogging from my in-laws garden (I love netbooks and wireless connections!), and the photos are on our PC back at home...
So - let us begin with:
7th September (Monday)
We are currently on the Eurostar to Brussels – very excited – I've never been on the Eurostar, nor to Brussels (nor to Paris, our destination on Wednesday) before. Loads of new experiences to come!
It has already been an interesting start to the holiday – we came up to London on Saturday morning to stay with Uncle Simon; I had a TKD seminar in Stevenage to go to on Sunday, and it was a convenient stopping point, as well as being lovely to be able to impose on Simon and get to see him and Anneli (quite possibly for the last time for any length of time before we go to NZ – we are going to be seeing Simon briefly next Sunday as he has very kindly offered to look after my TKD kit whilst we are away). We had a lovely time on Saturday – a very easy journey to London and across to Finsbury Park, with a walk up to Ali Pali after lunch (rather sadly the sun that had so beautifully illuminated the transmitter aerial whilst we were having lunch (Simon has a great view from his window!) had disappeared by the time we got out); we were probably walking for about an hour and a half through the shops of Crouch End and back up to the Palace Park. It was so nice to be able to see the green spaces being used by so many people (Simon pointing out that there weren't that many of them about, so therefore people did use those that they had access to).
In the evening, we went out to an Iranian restaurant, which was interesting – they use a lot of fruit in their cooking – John had a chicken risotto with orange, and my risotto came with pomegranate seeds (it had been billed as “with forest fruits” - we weren't sure how foresty pomegranates are...) - very nice, but really rather oversweet for a main course – although the plate wasn't piled overly high, I found myself completely full by the time I'd gotten half way through! (and it was a genuine full – I wasn't feeling hungry again by the end of the evening) After the meal, we headed over to a chapel in Islington, which, although being used as a church during the week, has regular comedy club nights. It is a gorgeous venue, although the acoustics were a bit bad for two of the comedians who had a slight tendency to rush their words – the manic comedy probably fine if you were at the front, but we were sat up at the back in the gallery and there was a lot of echoing by the time that the words (and songs – we had two musical comedians) reached us. But the other two billed comedians and the compere were excellent – not holding your sides funny, but a great laugh. It was slightly surreal realising that this was a place of worship (even though I have no great feelings either way), and the visiting comedians also thought so – they all made either reference to church services or did a brief “Sorry, God” as part of their act. But then my thought was that if there is a God, then that deity (I'm not going to do the incredibly patronising s/he thing – why would a God have a gender?) would rather enjoy the fact that people were laughing and enjoying themselves – places of worship are far too solemn!
The evening was slightly marred when we got back by my discovering that I'd left my dobok back in Bristol – this was at about 1am, and there was no conceivable way that I could get home to Bristol to pick it and then back to London and then Stevenage in time for the training the next day. This did lead to a rather broken night's sleep (even though my fairly fatalistic conscious brain had concluded that, aside from the text that I had sent to Kerry asking whether she had a spare one I could borrow, there was nothing I could do about the situation, my sub-conscious was going to beat me up about it all night!), before I received the text the next day from Kerry saying that yes, she had a spare dobok that she had got for another club member, and it happened to be in my size.
(I believe we are currently going through the Channel Tunnel – no announcement about it, but we were definitely on the south coast about 10 minutes ago (a carved white horse on the hill), and we have been going through a tunnel ever since...)
The TKD course was brilliant! It was led by Grand Master Choi (pronounced Che, which did confuse me for a while...) and Grand Master Wheatley (an Irish chap who had very floppy hair – not quite a comb over, but enough that it went completely wild with a life of its own when he was demonstrating moves!) - and was a very intensive class. There were approximately 230 of us there, from yellow belt up to 6th Dan black belt, and all ages from about 8 through to mid 60s (one of the 6th Dans was one of the people who introduced TKD to Ireland in 1968). The theme of the course was power – how to get more power into both our attacks and our blocks (which would then be a form of attack in themselves, though I'm still quite intrigued by the idea of being able to break someone's leg or arm with a block. I could definitely see it happening when the Grand Masters were doing it, but couldn't see that it would ever be that I could get to that stage! But you never know – I'm still very much a beginner at all of this!). There was also a touch of the philosophy, and a little bit of the politics. It was really rather exhausting – even doing the very basic patterns with the power that they were expecting us to left me breathless and my heart thumping (which was what they wanted – they effectively said that one should be so exhausted from doing one pattern that you shouldn't be able to then go on to do another straight away). It was also quite difficult to sit cross legged (particularly with both my ankle and knee strapped up) as the carpeted floor was actually quite uncomfortable for 20 minutes at a time!
(Now have crossed the Channel – that really didn't take long at all! Possibly 20 minutes!)
But I think that I learnt a great deal, and it was definitely worth the £45 just to gain the insight and the workout! Hopefully I will be able to carry it forward into my everyday TKD (although I'm going to have to put a lot of personal practice in as I'm not going to be training now till the beginning of October – we have so much travelling to do and it all happens on a Sunday!) I'm starting to stiffen up a bit now though, particularly in my back!
Then off down to St Pancras this morning – a very easy journey from Finsbury Park – it's only two stops down the line – and onto the Eurostar.
You can tell that we have crossed over into France now – the sky is blue and there are only wispy clouds The fields are a post-summer brown interspersed with a few green crops (possibly cabbage?) The other (teeny-tiny) clue was that the announcement as soon as we came out of the tunnel (advertising the Brussels metro system) started off in French then into Dutch (possibly Flemish) and the English translation came third... Not that I'm complaining – I would really love the opportunity to improve my French this week!
Later – about 9.30 pm (Brussels time (herein referred to as BT). It has been a brilliant day. A little bit of mild stress as we got going towards the B&B as we couldn't find our initial road to start off with (following Google Directions), and John has a slightly inflamed tendon, which wasn't helped by our bag bumping into his feet. It probably took us about half an hour in the end to get to the Hotel Rembrandt. After being greeted by the hotelier (who understood my French – very pleased about that :-) ) and finding our room (up a very teeny lift – we elected not to take the winding staircase with our big holdall!), we headed out into the streets of Brussels to find our lunch (though as it was now about 3.00, we probably couldn't term it “lunch” any more!). After a little bit of wandering, we found ourself a waffle stand and had a couple of Belgian waffles. Hunger assuaged, we then found our way to the Place Royale, a square which not only had the tourist centre, but also the Magritte museum and the Museum of Instruments (both closed as it was a Monday). We picked up our Brussels cards (prebought), which will give us free entry to the museums, plus free rides on all the public transport in the city. We spent quite a while studying the maps that came with the card, then, as we started to leave the tourist information centre, we were told that they had an exhibition of Brussels up the lift. So, of course, we had to go and have a look! There was a clever greenscreen room where we could overlay a shot of ourselves with scenery of Brussels and then email out to people. As it didn't let you put a message on it, we weren't sure exactly what it would send, so we just sent a couple of shots to my email... We then met a very enthusiastic guide (again, he understood our French, but switched to English after asking whether we were Belgian!) who wanted to show us everything that was there... He was very eager that we understood what was available in every room, then would go away, only to come back again a few minutes later as we moved on to the next (I suspect he might have been a trifle bored!) Rather sadly (as there was actually quite a lot more that I wanted to see – whilst some of it was a bit odd, there were some lovely pieces, particularly a series of what looked like lamps hanging down from the ceiling to about waist height, which you lifted up, and some started playing music (at a quiet level – you did have to hold them up to your ear to hear), others played short films), he did come back at about quarter to six to tell us that the exhibition was about to shut, and that the lights were going to go off automatically in about five minutes. He did then want to show us other bits of the museum, despite the fact that they were closing! It took assurances that we'd go back the next day (though fortunately, he isn't working tomorrow, so if we aren't able to get there (we do have five museums planned!), he isn't going to know) before he accepted that we were going to leave!
We then had a lovely wander about, looking at some of the glorious architecture of Brussels. It is a a real mixture of styles from 17/18C through industrial blocks to modern (pretty). There hasn't been an apparent attempt to blend the architecture, but the mish mash really does work, I think mainly because the modern stuff really is pretty. Unfortunately, we are a couple of weeks too early for the Mont des Art which is a square which is being completely redesigned for a grand opening on the 20th Sept. It is already looking amazing (though the lift / escalator area, which, although you could go through the doors, you couldn't go down in, was all in glass, and even though it was getting on for evening, it was like a greenhouse in there!), and it is a bit of a shame that we won't get to see the completed area. We started to feel that it was getting on for supper time (given that we'd only had a waffle each since breakfast at Simon's at 9), and started looking for restaurants. For some reason, there does seem to be a preponderance of Italians round the area that we were walking through, and, as I'm avoiding too much wheat for the sake of my stomach, I really didn't fancy pizza nor pasta. Neither was I particularly enthused by the Lebanese restaurant which had on its menu “meat kebabs”. I really do prefer to know what kind of meat I am eating! So we ended up at Moshi-Moshi, a Japanese restaurant which had the majority of its seating outside. It was a glorious evening, probably still about 25 degrees (I wasn't feeling the need for a jumper at all, and I normally start feeling the chill on my arms once it dips to 20 C). The food was delicious, and we were able to have a (complementary) starter, main course, dessert and three glasses of wine (John had two...) for E45 including a E5 tip. The desserts were interesting to say the least – Green tea ice-cream, which was wrapped in a very odd suet-like case (probably a flour base), and what was described as a spongy gateau with a green tea sirop inside. However, it probably had a high gelatine base to it – it wasn't exactly a sponge cake, but more of a sticky sweet. Interesting flavour and texture! I'm glad I've had it, but I don't think I'll have it again...
Then, after a look at their national monument; a very tall pillar which celebrated the creation of Belgium in 1830, plus the tomb of the unknown soldier for 1914-18, the war memorial for 1940-45 and a tribute to those who had died in the cause of peace; we started to make our way back up to the hotel. There are loads of urban murals about, and I've tried to get some pics of them – I'm not sure whether they are graffiti or council sanctioned, but they are glorious! We headed through a lovely Park (not sure whether it was a park of peace, or just dedicated to it), which had hidden Victorian and modern sculptures, as well as some very noisy magpies coming in to roost!
Back in the hotel room now, having made a fuss of the hotel cat and made our rough plans for tomorrow. These do include 5 museums (Museum of Instruments, Magritte, Comics, Atomium and the Toone museum (which appears to be dedicated to puppets) in the evening). Whether we get them all done remains to be seen, but it is a good plan! And now, even though it is merely 10.15 BT, it is time for bed...
Sunday, 27 September 2009
Monday, 21 September 2009
Will blog more soon...
I know this blog seems to have stalled, but we didn't really have much time in August or the beginning part of September for me to get online!
Upcoming updates will include:
Edinburgh Fringe
Holiday in Brussels/Paris
NZ update
Hopefully before the end of the year!
Upcoming updates will include:
Edinburgh Fringe
Holiday in Brussels/Paris
NZ update
Hopefully before the end of the year!
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
Update
Well, I know that it has been a little while since I last blogged - I was waiting for a New Zealand update until there was something to say! (I could post about lots of job application rejections, but they get a bit boring after a while...)
So...
We now have news - after everything going really slowly for the last month, in the past week, we have:
Set up a HiFX account for transferring our money across - we're going to be doing this in two stages; a lump sum as soon as the exchange rate comes out of the deep dark hole that it has been lying in for the last few weeks, and then another lump once we've moved out to NZ - this will include our last month's pay, our flat deposit, and any tax return that we manage to prize from Alistair Darling's cold, dead fingers... Out of all the various companies that do foreign transfers, HiFX got my business for the simple reason that once I'd managed to get hold of a human being that would speak to me outside of office hours, she was able to tell me how many NZ$ I would get for my £. You would think this would be an easy question to answer (assuming the rate of exchange at the time), but nooooo.... I'd not got anything other than "It depends" from anyone else! She was even able to set up the account for me over the phone :-)
Set up a Westpac joint bank account for myself and John for us to transfer our money into. I've been incredibly impressed with their pre-sales service - given the 11 hours time difference between NZ and the UK, they have been very quick in getting back to me with queries, and even answered the questions I didn't ask (I had mentioned that I was looking into whether it was worth investing in a short term savings account (60 days) prior to arrival, or waiting for the exchange rate to improve - there was 0.75% gross interest rate difference; he came back to me this morning to say that, after tax, there would only be $11 between the two, so it was worth waiting for the exchange rate to go up!). And, if John gets a civil service job, then we don't have to pay bank fees, either :-) (one of the issues with NZ banks - fees for everything {sigh})
Booked our flights...!! Yes, in 80 days, 7 hours and 25 minutes (if I get this post finished soon ;-) ), we will be on the plane and leaving the UK on a one way ticket! (That's 21:05 on the 5th November to save everyone doing the maths...) This has suddenly made everything get a lot closer and a lot more real - even with the visas, I don't think it had really sunk in. Now we have an unchangeable (well - it would cost too much to change it without a real emergency!) deadline...
I have failed (so far) to book the venue for our leaving party. However this is not for want of trying - the booking clerk for the original venue went on a 6 week caravanning holiday and didn't provide for any deputy to cover for her; the second venue I tried was fully booked; John is looking at a third venue for me, and the fourth is shut today, so I have to go back tomorrow...
Next major task is booking a shipping company...
So...
We now have news - after everything going really slowly for the last month, in the past week, we have:
Set up a HiFX account for transferring our money across - we're going to be doing this in two stages; a lump sum as soon as the exchange rate comes out of the deep dark hole that it has been lying in for the last few weeks, and then another lump once we've moved out to NZ - this will include our last month's pay, our flat deposit, and any tax return that we manage to prize from Alistair Darling's cold, dead fingers... Out of all the various companies that do foreign transfers, HiFX got my business for the simple reason that once I'd managed to get hold of a human being that would speak to me outside of office hours, she was able to tell me how many NZ$ I would get for my £. You would think this would be an easy question to answer (assuming the rate of exchange at the time), but nooooo.... I'd not got anything other than "It depends" from anyone else! She was even able to set up the account for me over the phone :-)
Set up a Westpac joint bank account for myself and John for us to transfer our money into. I've been incredibly impressed with their pre-sales service - given the 11 hours time difference between NZ and the UK, they have been very quick in getting back to me with queries, and even answered the questions I didn't ask (I had mentioned that I was looking into whether it was worth investing in a short term savings account (60 days) prior to arrival, or waiting for the exchange rate to improve - there was 0.75% gross interest rate difference; he came back to me this morning to say that, after tax, there would only be $11 between the two, so it was worth waiting for the exchange rate to go up!). And, if John gets a civil service job, then we don't have to pay bank fees, either :-) (one of the issues with NZ banks - fees for everything {sigh})
Booked our flights...!! Yes, in 80 days, 7 hours and 25 minutes (if I get this post finished soon ;-) ), we will be on the plane and leaving the UK on a one way ticket! (That's 21:05 on the 5th November to save everyone doing the maths...) This has suddenly made everything get a lot closer and a lot more real - even with the visas, I don't think it had really sunk in. Now we have an unchangeable (well - it would cost too much to change it without a real emergency!) deadline...
I have failed (so far) to book the venue for our leaving party. However this is not for want of trying - the booking clerk for the original venue went on a 6 week caravanning holiday and didn't provide for any deputy to cover for her; the second venue I tried was fully booked; John is looking at a third venue for me, and the fourth is shut today, so I have to go back tomorrow...
Next major task is booking a shipping company...
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
Spectacles!
No, not the type that you wear, but the type that make you go ooooh!
I've had the immense good fortune to have gone to some amazing shows over the last few weeks.
My lovely friend Sarah bought me my ticket to go and see Lion King, after I'd mentioned earlier this year that I'd never been. Even more than that, she was brilliant and organised it for a group of us to go, including for two of our friends from Glasgow who I've not seen in far too long.
What can I say about the Lion King that won't be filled with superlatives? The music was brilliant - it included two of the side boxes (one on each side of the stage) being filled with percussion instruments (and a man on each side to play them). The story line was pretty much the Disney story, no major changes needed. The design... Oh my.... The design was *mindblowing*. The costumes/characters were a mixture of masks, material, body paint and puppets; animals and representations of concepts mixed together. The stage design was gorgeous; with very simple sets (aside from the Elephants' Graveyard, which must have taken a whole chunk of the budget), and mainly using lights and colour to reflect the African landscape. And *nothing* is going to compare to having an elephant walk past my shoulder in the opening sequence.
I could post pictures, but Disney have got clips...
Then John and I went to see War of the Worlds in concert. I am a big fan of the original, and did have a little squeee moment when I realised that Jeff Wayne himself was conducting the orchestra (for some reason, I hadn't twigged that he'd be there). The stage set up was brilliant - the strings section on one side, the rock and percussion section on the other, Jeff in the middle conducting, and looming over the lot, a giant animatronic Tripod, with a heat ray that fired (ok, only dry ice, and then red, orange and yellow lights into the audience, but it still fired!) An animated Richard Burton on the far left of the stage, a projected backdrop of CGI actors, and live actors at the front of the stage for the singing parts completed the set up. It was even better than I'd hoped it would be (even if I was rooting for the Martians during the Spirit of Man - really not sure how they could have someone professional missing the notes *that* badly!) This link gives a 3 minute video of the 2006 tour, which seems to have had a reasonably similar cast to the one that we saw.
In addition, spectacular in a different way, we took a trip to Weston Super Mare to see the Sand Sculptures. These are (as it says on the tin) sculptures carved out of the sand. But not your normal sandcastles on the beach - these were full statues, 3D sculptures that you could walk past and (in some cases) round, with detail that was astonishing.
The festival is on until the beginning of Sept, and it only costs £3 - well worth a visit if you are in the area!
I've had the immense good fortune to have gone to some amazing shows over the last few weeks.
My lovely friend Sarah bought me my ticket to go and see Lion King, after I'd mentioned earlier this year that I'd never been. Even more than that, she was brilliant and organised it for a group of us to go, including for two of our friends from Glasgow who I've not seen in far too long.
What can I say about the Lion King that won't be filled with superlatives? The music was brilliant - it included two of the side boxes (one on each side of the stage) being filled with percussion instruments (and a man on each side to play them). The story line was pretty much the Disney story, no major changes needed. The design... Oh my.... The design was *mindblowing*. The costumes/characters were a mixture of masks, material, body paint and puppets; animals and representations of concepts mixed together. The stage design was gorgeous; with very simple sets (aside from the Elephants' Graveyard, which must have taken a whole chunk of the budget), and mainly using lights and colour to reflect the African landscape. And *nothing* is going to compare to having an elephant walk past my shoulder in the opening sequence.
I could post pictures, but Disney have got clips...
Then John and I went to see War of the Worlds in concert. I am a big fan of the original, and did have a little squeee moment when I realised that Jeff Wayne himself was conducting the orchestra (for some reason, I hadn't twigged that he'd be there). The stage set up was brilliant - the strings section on one side, the rock and percussion section on the other, Jeff in the middle conducting, and looming over the lot, a giant animatronic Tripod, with a heat ray that fired (ok, only dry ice, and then red, orange and yellow lights into the audience, but it still fired!) An animated Richard Burton on the far left of the stage, a projected backdrop of CGI actors, and live actors at the front of the stage for the singing parts completed the set up. It was even better than I'd hoped it would be (even if I was rooting for the Martians during the Spirit of Man - really not sure how they could have someone professional missing the notes *that* badly!) This link gives a 3 minute video of the 2006 tour, which seems to have had a reasonably similar cast to the one that we saw.
In addition, spectacular in a different way, we took a trip to Weston Super Mare to see the Sand Sculptures. These are (as it says on the tin) sculptures carved out of the sand. But not your normal sandcastles on the beach - these were full statues, 3D sculptures that you could walk past and (in some cases) round, with detail that was astonishing.
The festival is on until the beginning of Sept, and it only costs £3 - well worth a visit if you are in the area!
Sunday, 28 June 2009
News
I haven't posted much about New Zealand, mainly because there has been very little to post. We submitted our application for permanent residency at the beginning of April, they took the money, and then it all went quiet. This was to be expected; the London branch website has a rather nice little application processing time note on it (which is not updated as regularly as anyone who is waiting would like) which gives the processing time to be just under three months, taking us to the 4th July before anybody actually opened our envelope. (and this, in branch times, is actually a good waiting period - the poor folks whose main branch is NZIS Bejing have to wait up to a year).
So imagine my suprise to open my emails up Monday evening to see that we'd been allocated a Visa Officer two weeks ahead of when I was expecting, and he wanted a bit of extra paperwork to prove that we were still in a relationship (marriage certificates and the like don't count for much - all that proves is that you went through a ceremony!), and then asked whether I'd be available for a phone interview at 11am on Thursday.
My first feeling was of relief - we've got to the next stage; they don't want to look further at John's medicals (a couple of elevated results, not by much, and even noted by the Dr as being ok, but if you get an arsey officer, they can refer anything they want up to the Medical Assessor which means more tests, more time, more money); they don't want us to actually travel to London for the interview. Then panic... I had a business trip that was going to last from Tuesday afternoon to Weds evening - it was going to be difficult to find the time to prepare. But, I wanted to get it over and done with, so I agreed to the Thursday.
Concentrating properly over the next couple of days was very difficult, and I actually stopped breathing for about ten seconds when the phone rang at 11am on Thursday morning. But I needn't have worried - Tom was absolutely lovely. He had a great way of putting me at my ease (and it helped that he laughed at my Lord of the Rings joke and that he is a Welly boy, meaning that I could really enthuse about the city!), and the 45 minutes just flew by. At the end of the interview, he told me that he had three options open to him; the first was to decline us "and I'm not going to do that", the second was to grant us Work to Residence, the option open to him if he didn't think that we were serious about finding work or settling "and you've proved to me that that is not the case"; the third option was full Permanent Residence, "which is the most likely". So already, I was feeling pretty good. He then said that he would make the decision by the end of the week, and get it signed off (someone else has to check it just in case we were trying to bribe him!) at the beginning of next.
Again, I was wondering how I'd be able to concentrate over the next day and a half of work, and then through the weekend... So it was amazing to hear the phone ring on Friday afternoon, and Tom's voice saying that he'd approved us for full PR, and that it had been signed off, and did we want the visas put in our passports now?
I've been floating around a little bit over the last day or so - getting our visas is still only part of the challenge (we've also got to find jobs), but it is such a major hurdle to clear, and so much sooner than we expected (the website said that it would take 1-3 months to be given a decision after allocation, so we weren't expecting anything till August at the soonest!). We're expecting to clear out of the UK by the beginning of November; we've got a number of things going on over the Autumn (seeing David Attenborough doing a narration of "Nature's Great Events" with the BBC Concert Orchestra in September; doing a 10k run September; the Reading TKD competition on the 11th October) that I don't want to miss!
There are going to be major stresses over the next few months; job hunting, sorting out removals, working out when we hand in our notices at work and on the flat, many logistics that I haven't even thought about. But for now, I can relax...
And how better to do that than sat outside at my in-laws using their wireless network on my new netbook, and waiting to go to see War of the Worlds in concert? :-D
So imagine my suprise to open my emails up Monday evening to see that we'd been allocated a Visa Officer two weeks ahead of when I was expecting, and he wanted a bit of extra paperwork to prove that we were still in a relationship (marriage certificates and the like don't count for much - all that proves is that you went through a ceremony!), and then asked whether I'd be available for a phone interview at 11am on Thursday.
My first feeling was of relief - we've got to the next stage; they don't want to look further at John's medicals (a couple of elevated results, not by much, and even noted by the Dr as being ok, but if you get an arsey officer, they can refer anything they want up to the Medical Assessor which means more tests, more time, more money); they don't want us to actually travel to London for the interview. Then panic... I had a business trip that was going to last from Tuesday afternoon to Weds evening - it was going to be difficult to find the time to prepare. But, I wanted to get it over and done with, so I agreed to the Thursday.
Concentrating properly over the next couple of days was very difficult, and I actually stopped breathing for about ten seconds when the phone rang at 11am on Thursday morning. But I needn't have worried - Tom was absolutely lovely. He had a great way of putting me at my ease (and it helped that he laughed at my Lord of the Rings joke and that he is a Welly boy, meaning that I could really enthuse about the city!), and the 45 minutes just flew by. At the end of the interview, he told me that he had three options open to him; the first was to decline us "and I'm not going to do that", the second was to grant us Work to Residence, the option open to him if he didn't think that we were serious about finding work or settling "and you've proved to me that that is not the case"; the third option was full Permanent Residence, "which is the most likely". So already, I was feeling pretty good. He then said that he would make the decision by the end of the week, and get it signed off (someone else has to check it just in case we were trying to bribe him!) at the beginning of next.
Again, I was wondering how I'd be able to concentrate over the next day and a half of work, and then through the weekend... So it was amazing to hear the phone ring on Friday afternoon, and Tom's voice saying that he'd approved us for full PR, and that it had been signed off, and did we want the visas put in our passports now?
I've been floating around a little bit over the last day or so - getting our visas is still only part of the challenge (we've also got to find jobs), but it is such a major hurdle to clear, and so much sooner than we expected (the website said that it would take 1-3 months to be given a decision after allocation, so we weren't expecting anything till August at the soonest!). We're expecting to clear out of the UK by the beginning of November; we've got a number of things going on over the Autumn (seeing David Attenborough doing a narration of "Nature's Great Events" with the BBC Concert Orchestra in September; doing a 10k run September; the Reading TKD competition on the 11th October) that I don't want to miss!
There are going to be major stresses over the next few months; job hunting, sorting out removals, working out when we hand in our notices at work and on the flat, many logistics that I haven't even thought about. But for now, I can relax...
And how better to do that than sat outside at my in-laws using their wireless network on my new netbook, and waiting to go to see War of the Worlds in concert? :-D
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Another post mainly about sport...
June is half over already - this is incredibly scary! I've had a lot of sport recently; no hockey, as the matches have been on Thursdays for the last month, and I'm not missing orchestra for anything, however, TKD and running have more than made up for it!
I had the Cornish TKD competition two weekends ago - it was a great atmosphere as 15 of us from our club were competing (plus associated families and supporters); I came away with two bronzes - my patterns one I don't really feel that I deserved, particularly as I mucked up, and only got the medal because I had a bye into the second round. However, the sparring one was definitely mine! My first match was very tough - it was against someone who I've fought before and lost (she is two belts above me); however, as I was really frustrated at mucking up on the patterns, I really went at it hammer and tongs (apparantly quite scary from the sidelines!), and ended up with a draw after the initial two minute round. So we had another thirty seconds, which ended in another draw, then *another* thirty seconds, which was a draw again! So the umpires all put their heads together, and decided to make it a sudden death round; first point to be scored was the winner. I was very lucky in that about a month earlier in the squad training, we'd actually done this, so I knew the tactics :-) Unfortunately, the first time they ran it, it relied on three of the four corner judges actually seeing the point, and only two of them saw me bop her on the head... So they changed the rules, and, after stop-starting it two more times, I finally got them to see one of the points that I scored!
So - through to the second round... The next person I was fighting was three belts higher than me, and I was already incredibly exhausted from the first round - however I wasn't going to give up ;-) We actually had the fight stopped because the umpire thought we were being a bit too heavy handed (ironic given what happened later on...), and after the 2 minutes, it was a draw... (I'm ready to melt into a little puddle by this point!) We then had the next thirty seconds; when that was up, all I could think of was "I don't care if I win or lose, just please not a draw!" I did end up losing it, but it couldn't have been by much, because of the flags I could see, one was for me, and one was a draw (the other two were for the other person).
However, I was very pleased with my performance, and actually quite glad that I didn't get into the next round, as the other finalist was the lady that I'd been losing weight to avoid (unfortunately as there were so few of us competing, they'd lumped together both the belts and the weight categories...). She and the lady I'd been facing started the final, but it wasn't long into it before the scary lady thumped my opponent extra hard (after she'd been pummeling her all over the ring without the umpire stopping it!), and she collapsed... To compound it, the umpire decided to take off her helmet - not good with a potential head injury, and this was verified when she came round about ten seconds later complaining about a pain in her neck and not being able to feel her legs!
Obviously an ambulance was called, and they had a medic on duty as well, and fortunately, by the time the ambulance actually got her into the big white van, she had regained feeling in her legs and was laughing and joking - my instructor said later that she had been discharged at 7.30 with nothing wrong (apart from being annoyed at missing the rest of the competition!).
John and I stayed down in Cornwall for the Monday, and took a trip around the Lost Gardens of Helligan - definitely worth a visit if you are ever in Cornwall - a most amazing story, where the 200 acres of gardens had become completely overgrown following the loss of most of the garden staff during WW1 - the same chap who did the Eden Project was involved in their restoration, and the result is astounding!
Then back up to Bristol Monday evening, and had a relaxing but busy birthday on the Tuesday; we went out to an all you can eat pan-asian restaurant for lunch (we were a bit disappointed that, although we could watch the sushi chef making sushi, we weren't allowed to actually have any of it - it was all for the evening diners! However, they did make up for it with an amazing dessert selection...) and did some shopping (which did include buying some takeaway sushi for tea - I was determined to have my birthday sushi!), and then loads of baking in the evening for cakes for work (I have the most *amazing* brownie recipe - the "Secret" ingredient really does work!).
This weekend just gone has also been manic! All the running training that I've been putting in paid off dividends. The Race for Life went really well - not only did Alice and I run it in a new personal best of 32 mins - helped by having to overtake a whole load of people who went into the "runners" section, ran about 50 yards, then decided to walk, and also by an amazing sprint at the end - I paid for it the next day with thighs that did not want to speak to me! There was also a whole load of my TKD group there (most of them being completely insane and running it in their doboks!), and we ended up having a 'blink and you'll miss it' slot on TV - as John was doing his 'photographer' act (with about 8 cameras) for the post-run group photo, the HTV cameras snuck up behind him. I missed the actual broadcast, and can't catch up on it, so I'm waiting for someone from the TKD group to post their recordings online...
I've managed to raise £249 for Cancer Research as well, which is a fantastic bonus - everyone has been so generous!
I'm really looking forward to the next challenge now - there are a few 10K races coming up in September, and I'm hoping that with a bit of a push, I'll be able to take part in those as well.
Sunday we did manage to grab a bit of a lie-in (finally! First time in weeks!), and I had my TKD grading in the evening. It went reasonably well - I'm a bit disappointed that I fluffed some of the step-sparring (but I've never been very good at them in a pressure situation - I can do them in lessons, but I seem to lose concentration when I'm being examined on them), but when sneaking a look at my grading card (I like being able to read upside down!), I got B's across the board again, so should be getting my blue belt next lesson! (This puts me at the highest grade in the Adult Juniors group, and I'm not likely to grade again before we leave for NZ, so it is a nice goal to have met...)
I also have a nice new toy - an Acer Aspire Netbook - it is a very small laptop (it fits onto an A4 sheet of paper with space all round the outside); whilst it isn't something that I could use to play mega computer games on, it is absolutely perfect for writing stories and surfing the net (when I can get wireless access!) It's also Linux based, rather than Windows, which means that when I turn it on, it is fully loaded within a few seconds - I am able to get a lot of writing done on the 8 minute train journey to and from work! (webpage link - ignore the spelling errors!) There is a possibility that when not working on my story (it's currently at 4,000 words, and most of those have been Twittered to myself), I might even get some blog posts done, which might make my updates a little more frequent than they have been!
I had the Cornish TKD competition two weekends ago - it was a great atmosphere as 15 of us from our club were competing (plus associated families and supporters); I came away with two bronzes - my patterns one I don't really feel that I deserved, particularly as I mucked up, and only got the medal because I had a bye into the second round. However, the sparring one was definitely mine! My first match was very tough - it was against someone who I've fought before and lost (she is two belts above me); however, as I was really frustrated at mucking up on the patterns, I really went at it hammer and tongs (apparantly quite scary from the sidelines!), and ended up with a draw after the initial two minute round. So we had another thirty seconds, which ended in another draw, then *another* thirty seconds, which was a draw again! So the umpires all put their heads together, and decided to make it a sudden death round; first point to be scored was the winner. I was very lucky in that about a month earlier in the squad training, we'd actually done this, so I knew the tactics :-) Unfortunately, the first time they ran it, it relied on three of the four corner judges actually seeing the point, and only two of them saw me bop her on the head... So they changed the rules, and, after stop-starting it two more times, I finally got them to see one of the points that I scored!
So - through to the second round... The next person I was fighting was three belts higher than me, and I was already incredibly exhausted from the first round - however I wasn't going to give up ;-) We actually had the fight stopped because the umpire thought we were being a bit too heavy handed (ironic given what happened later on...), and after the 2 minutes, it was a draw... (I'm ready to melt into a little puddle by this point!) We then had the next thirty seconds; when that was up, all I could think of was "I don't care if I win or lose, just please not a draw!" I did end up losing it, but it couldn't have been by much, because of the flags I could see, one was for me, and one was a draw (the other two were for the other person).
However, I was very pleased with my performance, and actually quite glad that I didn't get into the next round, as the other finalist was the lady that I'd been losing weight to avoid (unfortunately as there were so few of us competing, they'd lumped together both the belts and the weight categories...). She and the lady I'd been facing started the final, but it wasn't long into it before the scary lady thumped my opponent extra hard (after she'd been pummeling her all over the ring without the umpire stopping it!), and she collapsed... To compound it, the umpire decided to take off her helmet - not good with a potential head injury, and this was verified when she came round about ten seconds later complaining about a pain in her neck and not being able to feel her legs!
Obviously an ambulance was called, and they had a medic on duty as well, and fortunately, by the time the ambulance actually got her into the big white van, she had regained feeling in her legs and was laughing and joking - my instructor said later that she had been discharged at 7.30 with nothing wrong (apart from being annoyed at missing the rest of the competition!).
John and I stayed down in Cornwall for the Monday, and took a trip around the Lost Gardens of Helligan - definitely worth a visit if you are ever in Cornwall - a most amazing story, where the 200 acres of gardens had become completely overgrown following the loss of most of the garden staff during WW1 - the same chap who did the Eden Project was involved in their restoration, and the result is astounding!
Then back up to Bristol Monday evening, and had a relaxing but busy birthday on the Tuesday; we went out to an all you can eat pan-asian restaurant for lunch (we were a bit disappointed that, although we could watch the sushi chef making sushi, we weren't allowed to actually have any of it - it was all for the evening diners! However, they did make up for it with an amazing dessert selection...) and did some shopping (which did include buying some takeaway sushi for tea - I was determined to have my birthday sushi!), and then loads of baking in the evening for cakes for work (I have the most *amazing* brownie recipe - the "Secret" ingredient really does work!).
This weekend just gone has also been manic! All the running training that I've been putting in paid off dividends. The Race for Life went really well - not only did Alice and I run it in a new personal best of 32 mins - helped by having to overtake a whole load of people who went into the "runners" section, ran about 50 yards, then decided to walk, and also by an amazing sprint at the end - I paid for it the next day with thighs that did not want to speak to me! There was also a whole load of my TKD group there (most of them being completely insane and running it in their doboks!), and we ended up having a 'blink and you'll miss it' slot on TV - as John was doing his 'photographer' act (with about 8 cameras) for the post-run group photo, the HTV cameras snuck up behind him. I missed the actual broadcast, and can't catch up on it, so I'm waiting for someone from the TKD group to post their recordings online...
I've managed to raise £249 for Cancer Research as well, which is a fantastic bonus - everyone has been so generous!
I'm really looking forward to the next challenge now - there are a few 10K races coming up in September, and I'm hoping that with a bit of a push, I'll be able to take part in those as well.
Sunday we did manage to grab a bit of a lie-in (finally! First time in weeks!), and I had my TKD grading in the evening. It went reasonably well - I'm a bit disappointed that I fluffed some of the step-sparring (but I've never been very good at them in a pressure situation - I can do them in lessons, but I seem to lose concentration when I'm being examined on them), but when sneaking a look at my grading card (I like being able to read upside down!), I got B's across the board again, so should be getting my blue belt next lesson! (This puts me at the highest grade in the Adult Juniors group, and I'm not likely to grade again before we leave for NZ, so it is a nice goal to have met...)
I also have a nice new toy - an Acer Aspire Netbook - it is a very small laptop (it fits onto an A4 sheet of paper with space all round the outside); whilst it isn't something that I could use to play mega computer games on, it is absolutely perfect for writing stories and surfing the net (when I can get wireless access!) It's also Linux based, rather than Windows, which means that when I turn it on, it is fully loaded within a few seconds - I am able to get a lot of writing done on the 8 minute train journey to and from work! (webpage link - ignore the spelling errors!) There is a possibility that when not working on my story (it's currently at 4,000 words, and most of those have been Twittered to myself), I might even get some blog posts done, which might make my updates a little more frequent than they have been!
Monday, 1 June 2009
5 Minute Chocolate Cake
This one isn't my recipe; I got sent it on an email on Friday. I had to try it out over the weekend - I'm not a big microwave cooker, using it mainly for reheating or defrosting, so I was a little sceptical on how this would work...
5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
4 tablespoons self raising flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
Chocolate syrup (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug (MicroSafe) (I used my large Starbucks mug, and the mixture rose about an inch above the edge)
Add dry ingredients to a bowl, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.
Pour a little chocolate syrup into the bottom of the mug; just enough to coat the bottom. Pour the cake mixture in.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (My microwave is 800 watts, and 3 1/2 mins was enough to cook it through). The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. (though I ate it directly from the mug with a fork whilst it was still steaming hot :-) )
EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous).
This is an amazing recipe - incredibly easy, and makes a very good sponge. Without the chocolate chips and the syrup, it might be a bit dry, though...
5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
4 tablespoons self raising flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
Chocolate syrup (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug (MicroSafe) (I used my large Starbucks mug, and the mixture rose about an inch above the edge)
Add dry ingredients to a bowl, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.
Pour a little chocolate syrup into the bottom of the mug; just enough to coat the bottom. Pour the cake mixture in.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (My microwave is 800 watts, and 3 1/2 mins was enough to cook it through). The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. (though I ate it directly from the mug with a fork whilst it was still steaming hot :-) )
EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous).
This is an amazing recipe - incredibly easy, and makes a very good sponge. Without the chocolate chips and the syrup, it might be a bit dry, though...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)