A training course, an exam, a work placement, a hen do, a trip up to Newcastle, a Monopoly pub crawl, a wedding and a world financial crisis later - here I am.

We've been really busy over the last month, with barely one weekend at home. When we did have one, we finally bought some curtains for our living room, to help keep the heat in, what with the dark nights, climate change, the credit crunch and all that jazz.

Some recent pics...

Labels: seeing_doing

London. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it. All this in one day.

London is where people are drawn by greed to fore-go the pure and simple joys of life and to sacrifice too much of their precious time on this earth. Fuelled by caffeine, drink, drugs, but most of all by other people.

London is a strikingly beautiful landscape built around a curvaceous and enduring river, conceived in the minds of people who were driven and fuelled by a desire to make it a successful, strong and prosperous place for the good of other people.

Labels: seeing_doing

On Saturday we flew to Edinburgh and then drove to North Berwick for the marriage of our friends Jenny and Hugh at The Marine Hotel. It was a lovely day, (as we are beginning to find out, all weddings are). Jenny looked gorgeous and the setting was wonderful - by the sea.

The evening celebrations took the form of a traditional Scottish ceilidh and it was brilliant. Everyone got involved and danced the Gay Gordons amongst other more complicated formations which Dom and I managed with varying success!

Labels: seeing_doing

Look, look! They have arrived!

Labels: gardening

Really, where is the summer? I must have blinked and missed it. I know British summers have a reputation for being rubbish, but I'd always thought that was a bit unfair as actually, they weren't that bad, but this year definitely feels worse than others.

I know that even if it was sunny we'd be stuck in our offices unable to appreciate it, but even from indoors, just knowing it's sunny outside gives you that reassuring feeling that summer is here and helps to lift the mood.

In the last two weeks there has been one day of blue sky. The rest have suffered from a dull, grey coating of cloud. Here is a photo from that blue sky day. It's the Stella Artois airship flying over our house. A rare occurrence indeed (the summers day that is).

If like me, you have questions like, "Aren't they dangerous?" and "Is an airship the same as a blimp?" you can learn all the technical ins and outs on Wikipedia. You never know when it might come up in a pub quiz!

Labels: seeing_doing

Eight weeks old and look at them now! Pretty big and they have their first yellow flowers appearing.

So, I have been checking out t'internet for what happens next and there seems to be a whole debate about whether tomatoes grown indoors self pollinate, or need help pollinating. I've read a lot of different articles and forum responses but many of them conflict. Wikipedia seems to give the most comprehensive explanation, but I don't understand whether they need pollination to bear fruit or whether that just makes the fruits bigger and better.

Without bees many sites recommend replicating a bee's buzz with an electric toothbrush?! Or gently vibrating the plant at the pace of a bee's buzz. Hmmmm.

Labels: gardening

Friday night I was out for a drink with my friend Jill down at Shad Thames. I'd never been there before and thought it was a great outdoor eating and drinking area along the banks of the river. Definitely somewhere to go in the future.

Saturday, my sister and her boyfriend came to stay. We walked along the Thames at Greenhithe in the afternoon, and sat out for a few pints by the river in the beer garden at our local. I put on a bit of an Italian spread in the evening and we all drank lots of red wine. It was a lovely day

Sunday was Dom's birthday treat. We hadn't been able to celebrate his birthday properly last week because we were at Smita's wedding, so we postponed the fun. I had bought him an hour's helicopter lesson with Polar Helicopters at Manston Airport, so that was our first stop. He's had a couple of lessons before, and he seemed to be thrilled with this one. He's a total flying nut.

After that I took him for Sunday lunch at 81 Beach Street in Deal on the Kent coast. I found the restaurant through Top Table. It certainly lived up to expectations and offered a delicious 2-course roast. We both went for the slow roasted duck, and I followed with plum crumble and cream while Dom had bread and butter pudding. Yum!

We had a bracing walk along the beach front and up the pier before heading home to rest.

Labels: seeing_doing