Hello All, and MERRY CHRISTMAS
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas
Hello All, and MERRY CHRISTMAS
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Vacation on my Vacation
Now what to say about Jo and Ray........ Where to begin?.. *giggles* Well first, I should tell you... (just kidding).......They were soo nice and funny. They are great cooks too. Ray spoilt me most of the week when I woke up to breakfast in bed. mmm Thanx Ray! I enjoyed talking with them about a lotta different things, they are very open and easy to talk to. I had to introduce them to Blue Collar Comedy Tour. I think they really enjoyed themselves watching it. Especially 15 Degrees off Cool with Bill Engvall with the Thunderbirds.
When we got there we walked down the right side of the beach and then we walked up the left side, then walked back to the middle and had a lil picnic which Ray prepared. Tuna sandwiches and tomato soup which was very good. During the picnic we noticed that the Military aircrafts were flying overhead and doing pratice bomb drops. This didnt phase the seals at all. Sometimes it got very loud with the seals and the jets flying over head. But it was beautiful. Then we walked back to the left side of the beach and noticed a pup that was recently born. It was all wet still and very wobbly and the mother still had bloody stains from passing the baby. I got a few cute pictures of the baby and mother. I could have stayed there all day but we had to head back.
I fell in love with Toby and Billy (Billy didnt fall much in love with me though... especially my camera) they are Jo and Ray's dogs. So cute, they got to sleep in my room with me for the week. Billy slept at the foot of my bed, but by the end of the night took up more than just the foot (2/3 of the bed). But thats okay cuz I am used to that sleeping with Mariah. I wanted to take Toby home with me, but Madre said I would have to find somewhere else to live if I brought him home.
I also got to meet Stuart's grandparents. They were very nice and they were funny. We had some interesting discussions. Most of them revolved around the little skit of "Why when I was young....luxury.... and we were lucky.... we were happy" Quite funny! I also got to meet Ray's cousin Carol and her husband. They were really nice. We ate soooo much food though, wow. Great Food.
I just want to send out a very special thanx to Jo and Ray for having me over and for everything that they did for me during the stay. I will never forget your kindness. And I hope you were serious in your offer.. I may just take you up on that offer! If you ever need someone to take care of the place/dogs when you guys go on vacation, lemme know! hehe. I have to admit that it was hard leaving Lincolnshire, I did have a few tears in my eyes as we drove off. They truely were great people and I hope to see them again sometime. If you guys ever make it to the US, I want you to know I will try to accommodate you guys as you have done for me. I may not have a ton of little bits of useless information, but I am sure I can make some up *winks*
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Isle of White and Fancy Dinners
Thursday, October 16, 2008
One Month Reflection
I have got to eat a few very interesting dishes since being here. Nearly everything you eat here is home cooked.. it isn't fast food or delivery here. There are a few places over here that you can find back home such as KFC, Burger King, McDonald's, Subway, Pizza Hut. Anyways, So I had the pigeon that I believe I mentioned in an earlier post. That was really good. it was 3pounds for 2 birds, so basically $6. Stuart made them with a really nice sauce and put it over Mashed Potatoes. Really good. As seen below (and I think in a previous post as well)
I have had Pad Thai which so far is my most favorite dish. We have had it 3 times since I got here... each time though it gets spicier and spicier. We had it last night and it was like WOW.. that is hot. but I ate most of it, because it was just sooo good. Now I know why they drink white wine with it, it does take the burn out unlike water. I will have to get the recipe before I leave, cuz it will definitely be something I am gonna try to make when I get home for the family... Wont be as good as Stuart's but I will try. Also each time we make it, seems to have more of it. The first time there was this much (below), the 2nd time more and last night the bowl/plate was completely covered.. mmmmmm!
Okay, I have also finally tried the Haggis. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Though it wasn't a true Haggis because it was not in a sheep's stomach, it was in a bag. It tasted more like a sausage type with a different texture. The ingredients of Haggis is usually a sheep's stomach filled with lungs, fat, liver, herbs, and a few other things that I can not think of at the moment. But to see it, you wouldn't know that was all in there, because it is like all mixed in, I guess my thoughts were that I was going to see all the different parts inside, and I think that is what grossed me out more than anything. But it didn't look bad, smell bad, or taste bad. I admit it is not a favorite dish, partly because I have never really been a huge fan of "sausage" to begin with, I eat it, but I don't crave it. We also had mashed potatoes and swedes along with the Haggis. Stuart made a whisky sauce as well.
Other than the fact that there is no such thing as Mt Dew over here... I am getting used to the no sugar thing. I still joke about it, but it really isn't an issue for me anymore. So that is good and I have made progress!
Okay let's see.. what else have we done.. We don't just sit around and eat all the time. We have done quite a bit of cycling the first 2.5 weeks. The cycle to Bristol was the last time though. My bike is put back together now I will have you know... Stuart did it last night. I need to learn how to do it because we have been discussing the possibilities of me taking the bike home with me in December. (so when he comes back to the US we can cycle)
I have got to meet his Mother Beth, his brother Robin, his grandparents Jean and Fred. Some of his friends from work and Akido. We have gone to Akido 2 times, tonight we are going again I believe, its Thursday. I got to meet Madeline, Jason, and Rosa. Stuart's nephews and family. Been to the pub 1nce.
We have been to Stone Henge, Wookey Hole, Cheddar Gorge and Caves, Lyme Regis, and Redhill. We are planning our London trip the first weekend of November. I will get to see Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, The Eye (But we aren't riding it... nooo way Jose), The palace, and we are going to eat at the School Dinner's restaurant (LOADS OF FUN) hehe. Then stay at Mike and Diane's house Saturday night and then come back home Sunday. The week of November 10th we are going to travel up to Stuart's father's house for a few days so that I can meet them. That will be fun, they seem very nice and I cant wait to meet them.
Of course we have seen a lot of Bath. We go into town quite regularly park in the Victoria Park which is free parking for 3 hours. Then we usually make our way to Pret a little place in the center of town. He gets a latte and a croissant.. I get a water and croissant. Then we make our way around to at least 1 book shop, and sometimes a few clothing shops just to look around.
Oh another neat story, I got to be in the Circus.. that was neat. But not what you people back home are thinking... there are no animals.. well maybe a cat or dog.. not sure. But the Circus is a group of 3 buildings that are in the shape of a circle. It surrounds one of the most famous "roundabouts" in Bath if I remember correctly. The Circus has 3 apartments per section. (Not sure how many sections per building times 3) But they are very nice apartments. Stuart has a friend who lives in the Circus so that is how I got to be in the Circus. hehe.
Types of vehicles are different here as well. I have seen a total of like 3 pick-up trucks here. You either have a car or possibly a van. The vans are even small by our standards. There are a lot of those "smart cars" riding around, they are soo cute, I would love to take a ride in one before I go. Not sure if that is possible. They have double decker buses that is kinda neat, haven't got to ride one of them yet either. I had my first train ride on the way back from the Bristol cycle we did a few weeks ago. That was neat.
I am somewhat sometimes getting a little home sick. But it isn't bothering me too bad as I talk to my mother nearly every day, my older sister nearly every day, my father and stepmother on Thursdays and Sundays, and then just the random friendly phone call to other people as well. I try to keep in touch with everyone. With my skype program it only cost me 2cents a minute to talk on the phone. Luckily a lot of the people I talk to have a skype account, so if I need to talk to someone I will call them and tell them to get on there. So that is free and saves me quite a bit of money.
I did have a little bit of a spell that lasted about a week, where I got quite depressed inside, but I tried not to show it, and it just stayed all bottled up until it finally surfaced. I couldn't sleep for a few nights and then one night I journaled all my thoughts and feelings and it made me feel a little better. I emailed my thoughts and feelings to Stuart, we talked about them, and now I feel great again. I just have a hard time sometimes expressing my thoughts and feelings verbally. But now I feel a lot better having got my thoughts and feelings down and then out. so Horray!
As far as Second Life goes.. I keep in contact with the important people in there. But Stuart nor I have had the urge to really go in and spend time. I have been in there maybe a total of 4 times. One it is kinda hard with the time zone difference. I feel bad that we don't get to spend any time with Gordon, Stuart gets to talk to Zeb occasionally on yahoo, but it is just soo late to be up to see them. That doesn't mean that I don't think about them. I miss them a lot too!
Ohh and another thing that has been a topic of my interest. I recently just found out, that the Queen Elizabeth.. she has no power, she is not allowed to vote or be political in any way. Basically she just has lots of money, has the title of being the Queen. Its the government that has all the power cuz like us they are a democracy. I was totally like whoa, wait the Queen has no power? what is her purpose then... Basically what it boils down to (IN MY UNDERSTANDING... I COULD BE WRONG) this country used to be ruled by the King and or Queen. That is bloodline... Now that they are a democracy the Government has the power. But they are not going to take the Queen's title from her. I believe there will always be a King or Queen or Prince or Princess whatever... Because they have family and stuff.. so it is basically only the blood that makes them have the title. (0r marriage). So yeah that was interesting I thought.
Something else I found kinda interesting.. there are some places in Bath.. prolly all of England where windows are bricked out. Because there used to be a "Window Tax".. so depending on how many windows your house has, you pay a certain amount of tax for it... so people started bricking up their windows. Then apparently there was a period of time where it just became kinda kewl to brick up the windows and when building a house they would make a spot for a window but brick it up the same way without ever really having a window there.. I will try and get a few good pictures of what I am talking about, its kinda neat.
There are no houses made out of wood or anything other than stone and that sorta stuff. Even out in the country side... the entire country there is no wooden houses.. everything is made from stone, brick, or some plastery looking stuff. You can find some houses with thatch roofs tho that was kinda neat.
Well I guess it is about time to wrap this up for now. That is pretty much it all in a nutshell. Hope you didn't find it too boring.
Until next time
Donna
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Lyme Regis and Wookie Hole
Monday was a long day, Stuart was gone all day at work, and then most the night due to his sailing classes. I entertained myself with talking with my family, chatting online, checking my sites, and watching movies. Very glad to see Stuart when he arrived home!
Tuesday we went into town and walked around a little bit, and then went and had tea and dinner at Beth's (Stuart's mother's house) and Robin, (Stuart's younger brother). For dinner we had keesh, baked potato, and then for desert there was like a fruit pie. It was very good, and I had a lovely time getting to know them more, they seem like very nice people. Next time we go out, we talked about me teaching Beth some line dances, if she doesn't already know them. She goes to line dancing school, but I might know a few she hasn't learned.. She also has a greyhound named Eli. He is cute, but seeing him makes me miss Mariah terribly, but it is nice to enteract with another dog. We finally headed back prolly a little later than we should have, because we had to get up early on Wednesday for Lyme Regis, but we were enjoying the company very much.
Stuart had an interview for a Boat Building course Wednesday afternoon. Luckily we planned on getting lost, because we did, but we still made it on time. After we got a lovely tour of the school, and the residentual area he had his actual interview. That went well. Then after that we walked all along the beach and I got to stand in the ocean for the first time ever! That was totally amazing. We got to see all kinds of fossils. If you find them along side the beach you are allowed to take them if you wish, as long as you dont take them from the hillside/wall. Unfortunately the only ones we saw were ones that were in rocks that weighed at least 50lbs or more... so there was no way we could have taken those rocks.. but I got plenty of pictures of them. Then we went and got something to eat as it neared dinner time. We each got a steak. We ordered rare but it came back medium-well, but it was good none the less. Then it was quite dark and we walked around a little more then headed back for home.
We got home pretty late so we both just crashed out after watching a film.
Thursday neither of us were feeling above the weather so we stayed home and didn't do much of anything. Stuart picked Rosa up from school and she came over for a few hours and we watched The Dark is Rising. A pretty good film. Then on Stuart's way taking Rosa back home he passed his nephews Alexander and Finnin (hopefully I spelt that right, sorry if I haven't). They came to the house for a little while and then their family invited us to dinner. So we went over and had dinner. It was very lovely. Beef stew, fried squash, baked potato, and there was something else, I can't remember, and then for desert we had ice cream. Thank you Alice and Tom.
Friday Stuart went to work, again I entertained myself with chatting with family and friends, playing around online, and watching movies. I also cleaned up the kitchen and that sort of thing. When he came home we watched a few films. Stuart enoys Bill Engvall, Larry the Cable Guy, Jeff Foxworthy and Ron White. I have been introducing him to them the past few weeks. He is getting pretty good at understanding them a little better everytime we watch them.
GIT-R-DONE!!!
Saturday mostly I was unconcious because I took my seroquil the night before and it knocked me out. I woke up and we went into town got something to eat, and did a little window shopping and then went grocery shopping then came back home, and I sadly fell back to sleep as I still wasnt feeling too great. But in between sleeping spells, we watched our weekly show Merlin. (Great show btw I will miss it when I go back to America). And then a few episodes of Beavis and Butthead... I am Cornholio.... anyways.. then we went to sleep.
Today we went to Wookie Hole. For real this time, last time we went to see the caves of Cheddar we thought we were in Wookie, and turned out to not be there, so we took Rosa today. We had a lot of fun and the caves were amazing. After that we headed to Beth's house to visit, but they weren't home so we stopped at Fred and Jean's (Stuart's Grandparents). We had a cup of tea and visited for a little while and then headed home. Once home we finished The Dark is Rising and started a little of Pirates of the Caribbean 3, At World's End. Then Stuart took Rosa home, and now here I am... So now I will stop talking and start showing pictures... hope you enjoy...
Lyme Regis
Standing in the Ocean for the first time... WOW! Wasn't as cold as I thought it was gonna be.
Stuart resting on a great big fossil. Some were HUGE!
Another neat Fossil
A Bunch of little Fossils
Wookey Hole Caves
Inside the caves. The lights made them purple!!! WHOOT!
Some more of the Caves.
And Again....
The Fairy Garden and Mermaid Statue with a pretty waterfall.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Cycle to Bristol... and other things
THIS IS WHAT THE TRAINS LOOKED LIKE, NEATO
Monday, September 29, 2008
Cheddar Gorge and Stone Henge
We went to Cheddar Gorge with Rosa on Saturday. It was about an hour and a half drive there. It is in the town of Cheddar where they first made cheddar cheese. There was 3 different caves that you could explore and a little museum as well. Lots of tourist shops and it was rather expensive. We had creme tea (tea with scones) not nearly as good as the ones along the canal that we had a few days before. There was no butter and the scones were cold and not as big. Then we walked up the roughly 280 steps to the top of the Gorge. Each step repesented 1million years in time. After you walked up a few steps then there woud be a stopping point where you could have a rest (for the less fit people aka ME) and you could read about what was happening in that specific era of time. For those that are more fit, or younger they ran right up the steps (aka Rosa) giving the not so fit (me) a heart attack just watching. Once we got to the top there was a tower, that Rosa and Stuart went straight up while I stayed safely on the ground... not that the tower was unsafe but I was already up high enough. Then we began to start the 3 mile walk down and around the gorge. Luckily for me Rosa did not want to go any further and wanted to turn back as I did as well, but Stuart would have made me go anyways lols. Here are some of the pictures I took at Cheddar Caves:
Monday we went to Stone Henge
This was totally amazing place to be, and the day was great. It was sorta cloudy but no rain and it was pretty sunny as well. I learned a lot about these stones because like Wookie Hole you go around and you take a "walkie talkie" type thing and you push a button that corresponds to what you are looking at. It describes the history, stories, myths, whatever. Each one is about 5-10 minutes long, so it is kinda like having a personal tour that you can go at your own pace. You can learn all sorts of things this way, and you do not have to listen to any of them or all of them.This was me listening to the walkie talkie things (as seen below). A few of the interesting facts that I can remember. The stones can weigh up to 45tons. It used to be in a full circle, but with the time and weather some of the stones have fallen down, or people have sorta vandalized or taken pieces of the stone as souvineers. This is all that is left of Stone Henge today, but now you are not able to touch them you have to stay on the path that goes all the way around it. These stones were said to heal people if you touched them. There is a few myths of how they came to get here, one of the most famous myths is that Merlin himself used his magic to put them here, or that they were placed there by giants. There is even the myth that the Devil did it. There was soo much information that I may have got a few of the things wrong, or in the wrong order. I appologize if I got anything mixed up. It was just an amazing sight to see.
(top: the Heel Stone)(below: the Slaughter Stone)