snow!

snow!
Originally uploaded by zela.

It's snowing again today, seems to be sticking to the grass, had about 1 inch i think?
Not quite as mush as in the picture, that was from the big on at the start of the year (I've been saving this pic to sen d to my sister in sunny NZ)
Think we had a couple of feet (we all have a couple of feet but you know!) and then the snow plow came along and smushed it all up against the tree outside the front of the house.
Note my winter 'duvet' aka a lovely feather coat the MIL gave me. Might have to drag it out today again as I've got to load some chair to squeeeeeeze into the storage area, before M gets back. They are his favourite leather chairs and pretty nice, but wrong colour (black)and there is no room in the inn...no matter how many times he moves them around the living room.
He sounded really tired on the phone last night...although he did try and convince me that the offices were awful, the weather was bad and the people unfriendly in our texas office...in a vain attempt to convince me that we shouldn't have moved to there in stead of chicago when we had the oppotunity.
Think the picture says it all matey!

been a few days

and you should all be tired of the house pictures by now. Not really been up to much, the realtor came round to look at our house before taking us to see more (one possible - others no) and pronounced it all good.
Though we have to clean the front, which we knew, just waiting for a nice day (might be a while)
M is off in sunny Houston today and tomorrow for work of course...there better be a bit of sunshine leaking out of his suitcase when he gets back.
Finally went to get the health assessment done at the gym and found out I have relatively high cholesterol...so lets do a tally
I'm 37
I need 2 root canals, one to be replaced by a crown and the other by a titanium post and fake tooth once the artificial bone has grown in
I have bursitis in my hip, currently treated by cortisone injection and exercises
I wear orthotics in my shoes, glasses on my head and drink aloe vera juice for IBS
How the hell am I going to make it past 40!
oh well, just reminded myself why i have to get serious about exercise again...sigh
need that flexibility to get me past 50
and on that cheery note: back to work.

Guest Room

Guest Room
Originally uploaded by zela.

The flash has bleached the soft green cover to blue...but I'm sitting on the brown chair typing away!
well i would be if i wasn't taking the photo

Guest Bath

Guest Bath
Originally uploaded by zela.

Lovely shot of the guest bath with its little bit of bright orange to cheer us up...no ones said the words 'Hari Krishna'yet, but I'm waiting

Big Bedroom

Big Bedroom
Originally uploaded by zela.

hmmmnnn duvet doesn't look so shiny in real life...gotta work on the flash technique

Big Bedroom

Big Bedroom
Originally uploaded by zela.

hmmmnnn duvet doesn't look so shiny in real life...gotta work on the flash technique

Master bath

Master bath
Originally uploaded by zela.

Maybe I was drunk when I fixed this...seems to be on a lean

Hallway to bedrooms

Hallway to bedrooms
Originally uploaded by zela.

note pile of stuff STILL to go into storage!
and we still haven't hung up the mongolian ger cloth yet

Dehumidifer

Dehumidifer
Originally uploaded by zela.

sorry, Dining area. French doors obscured by badly pulled curtains lead out to little balcony.

Mrs Weaver goes to school

A while ago in a moment of rash altruism I signed up for Junior Achievement. This notable cause teaches children of all ages how business works and offers the opportunity for business people to work in schools.
I think I did it for a few (mostly good) reasons: I loved school - it was a safe and ordered world away from the emotional chaos we called home, I like the idea of business giving something back (using my powers for good not evil) and it might stretch my boundaries a little...ohmylord, what was I thinking?
Today i discovered two things...1)I'm quite happy to stand up in front of a global CEO and his/her many minions and tell them how we're going to do something but commanding a bunch of 7 year olds is a whole new level of terror and 2)I suddenly have a completely different level of understanding and respect for I know teachers - no wonder they think they are underpaid!....Frances, Brenda, Judi, Katie, Connie and Karina, how do you do it and why don't don't you collapse in a small screaming heap at the end of each day?
These were all nice kids and pretty well behaved, but it was like taking 7 cats for a walk trying to keep their attention.
Today was only observation, I was looking and helping to get a feel for how the class works, we wrote some stuff about the local tribe in the area and did a science experiment with bubbles. In April I actually have to stand up in front of them and get them to listen to me, though I learnt two new phases today that might help 'All eyes on me' and 'sit down and put your hands on the desk' I'm thinking of testing them out next time I'm stuck in a directionless meeting that's droning on and on and on and on..
Luckily all the materials are prepared, you have to follow through on the activity book and work through the activities (2nd grade is around 'Community') so the prep part should be easy....and Mrs T has done this lots of time, so should be pretty good at not letting me get into trouble.
So how was going back to school....apart from feeling like a giant, I can tell you kids still get very excited when it's break/recess time and the little girl from Brazil can spell better than me!
The weirdest thing is being called 'Mrs Weaver'...I kept looking around for the MIL, who actually was a teacher before retiring. The school is in my neighborhood, so I'm prob going to freak out when someone calls out 'Mrs Weaver' in the supermarket! They probabley won't recognize me in my weekend slob clothes...or worse still they will...and as for the boundaries...I can feel a whole loooooooot of stretch coming up!

Was in the lift/elevator today

and complimented the woman traveling with me on her bright and cheery scarf...to which she responded 'you have to bring your own sunshine with you'
Nice thought I thought I'd share:>)

Mangroves

Mangroves
Originally uploaded by zela.

Gliding along the river, looking at endless mangroves, very soothing.

The worlds f@#$%&g scariest cablecar

The worlds f@#$%&g scariest cablecar
Originally uploaded by zela.

hopefully the picture says it all..two trips (so long they made us get off and get onto another one) in the middle. M's not good with heights, and neither was I at the end of this.

Christmas 020

Christmas 020
Originally uploaded by zela.

ok, maybe this will work

Hooray, finally figured out how to do this...expect some photo madness.
and by the way, those are flamigos we saw in a bird park in Malaysia.

testing testing 1-2-3

Need to see if I can post a picture .
That would be a no then...might need to try something else Click this link and it should take you to a lovely picture of my hand in the new scanner/printer/fax thingy...but still can't get the pictures to insert.
Ok, Heather from Halifax gave me some ideas on how to do this...lets see how it goes

ahhhh classic fm and a new PC

Got the new PC up and running...has a whizzy printer/scanner/photo thingy so my mission this afternoon is to figure out how to post pictures...then I shall run around the house taking photo's of the good bits for all you have asked to see.
You won't be seeing the towel rail that fell of the wall or the misc scatter of tools across the shelves downstairs...but maybe if you are good then I'll show you the tower of appliances including the infamous pizza oven.
M kept raving about this whilst we were in the UK. Seems that his parents gave this to him when he was in college, long before the days of picking them up for a tenner at Walmart and it was a genuine 'behind the bar' industrial job. He's had it in storage all this time, and was eagerly awaiting the day he could drag it out.
Well its here and it's the size of an old hard drive. Its not that ugly (gen-u-ine stainless steel)but our kitchen is not big, galley in a very small ship kinda thing. So where do we put this monster, and the microwave and the knife block and everything else you need to have in a kitchen. Our solution is to buy a wine fridge!
Without sounding like fish (yeah right...shut up Dave), in our little family wine is often the solution to many difficult design challenges, well at least pausing to have a drinkypoo puts the problem to one side sort of solution.
Anyway, this makes more sense than you think, solves the wine cellar problem, makes the house look more funky modern, and provides an extension of the benchtop to put the microwave on...which is a perfect place to put the pizza oven. Dadaaah!
So now we have the tower of appliances. And while it's true that the pizza oven is the perfect thing for cooking pizza, and more than 2 muffins at a time, it's gonna go when we start showing the house. I haven't put all those hours in watching 'selling houses' programmes where people with no idea of selling are slagged mercilessly, no sirree, all those hours on the couch are not in vain.
Pizza oven out, glamorous wine fridge in the spotlight.
and besides...people might think we only ate pizza!
This blog is brought to you by our lovely new PC and classic FM, a UK classical station I can finally hear again over the internet...what will they think of next?

Clearing out

Vanessa and I usually talk on sametime(a little programme that lets us 'chat' by typing stuff in) each day or so...it's not the same as being there in person, but lets us catch up. Today we were talking about clearing out stuff, something I've had to become much better at over the years...she likes my tips so the rest of you get to have them today as well!
ps:Nessa, I've taken out cat references and the bits no one else needs to know!

Vanessa ... well i hope you have a great day - i'm off home to do tidying and work out how to give my house the 'life laundry treatment'
Hazel /... you really need me today :>)
Hazel /... being bossy and making you throw stuff out and buy storage stuff
Vanessa ... i know - can't you come over???
Hazel /... think about the end result...what do you really want to carry forward into your new life (pictures of Jo, 15 travel treasures etc) and what do you just have around due to habit (gifts from people you love)
Vanessa ... that last one is the tough one
Hazel /... i have no probs with you throwing out stuff that I gave you
Vanessa ... i hate giving things away when friends or family have given them to me
Hazel /... try thinking about it this way...if the house was burning down and you had time to grab a few things...what would you take?
Hazel /... I actually say out loud (to myself and the universe) 'Thank you for giving me this wonderful gift with love, and now I'm going to pass it on for someone else to love' Seems silly but seems to work
Hazel /... try it, you'll feel lots better about putting it into a box. Don't get rid of it immediately, just put the box somewhere and if you don't go and get it out in a couple of weeks, it's good to go
Vanessa ... yeah that's an idea
Vanessa ... ok have a lovely day in the snow
Vanessa ... i'm off outta here!
Hazel /... works for me....and in case you're worrying, i usually keep your gifts!
Vanessa ... ;-)
Vanessa ... of course!

pps: please don't stop giving me stuff...I'll always love it I promise

Craving crumpets

This morning I really missed crumpets for breakfast...I've had longings before but today I could have really really scoffed a crumpet or two. Crisp and hard on the outside and chewy and springy on the inside...with lots of melted butter falling through the holes...I always like to toast them twice to get them the right colour...scuse me a moment whilst I wipe the drool of the PC.
So I'll be adding those to the list of things friends can bring to the US.
It's not that I don't like the crumpet substitutes here. I can finally get a proper chewy bagel, and this weekend we discovered that we had a real Jewish deli (small but perfectly formed) next to the supermarket. Not really surprising find since we live in a Jewish neighborhood, but we'd never ventured in there. HoppelPoppel anyone?
Fabulous bagels and lots of strange(to me) cuts of fish....I'll have a piece of fish belly please?
So bagels are great, 'English' muffins are ok, the dark rye bread and pumpernickel is wonderful and if you stray into the super organic (read very expensive/very delicious) supermarket then you might even find a loaf of Vogels bread, or an adequate substitute.
Then there is the stuff the USians 'invented'...mmmmmmmnnnnn sourdough. If it's made well and/or comes from San Fran it's pretty damn delicious...had some sourdough French bread yesterday...mon dieu! Probable illegal to call it that and the French food police will be down like a tonne of goose lard.
So it's all pretty good except for the regular sandwich loaf. Kinda like eating a bunched up paper towel with sugar on top (not that I've done that yet, but ask anyone with a toddler and they can probably tell you that they've seen it) Even the brown bread tastes white (resisting the urge to have a crack at MJackson)
"It's pap" as Mewett would say.
So anything vaguely 'artisan'...which is a posh way for saying 'doesn't look like it comes out of a machine' tastes ok...otherwise it's back to muffins, bagels, rye and longing for crumpets....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmnnnnnnmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm crumpets!

You know you've married someone from Wisconsin...

If they consider it a sport to gather their food by drilling through 8 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by, they might live in Wisconsin.

If their local Dairy Queen is closed from November through March, they might live in Wisconsin.

If someone in a store offers they assistance, and they don't work there, they might live in Wisconsin.

If they may not have actually eaten it, but they have heard of Lutefisk, they might live in Wisconsin.

If they have worn shorts and a parka at the same time, they might live in Wisconsin.

If they have either a pet or a child named "Brett", they might live in Wisconsin.

If their town has an equal number of bars and churches, they might live in Wisconsin.

If they have had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, they might live in Wisconsin.

If they know how to say Oconomowoc, Waukesha, Menominee and Manitowoc, they might live in Wisconsin.

their idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor on the highway.

"Vacation" means going up north past Hwy 8 (Tomahawk) for the weekend.

They measure distance in hours.

They know several people who have hit deer more than once.

They often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back again.

their whole family wears Packer Green to church on Sunday.

They can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.

They see people wearing camouflage at social events...including weddings.

They install security lights on their house and garage and leave both unlocked.

They think of the major food groups as beer, fish, and venison.

They carry jumper cables in their car and their girlfriend knows how to use them.

There are 7 empty cars with their engines running in the parking lot at Mill's Fleet Farm at any given time.

They design their kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.

They refer to the Packers as "we."

They know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction.

They can identify a southern or eastern accent.

They have no problem pronouncing Lac Du Flambeau.

They consider Minneapolis exotic.

They know how to polka.

their idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a deer next to their blue spruce.

They were unaware that there is a legal drinking age.

Down South to they means Illinois.

A brat is something they eat.

their neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new pole barn.

They go out to fish fry every Friday.

their 4th of July picnic was moved indoors due to frost.

They have more miles on their snow blower than their car.

They find 0 degrees "a little chilly."

Thanks to the MIL, who is both proud to be a Georgia peach and a rabid Wisconsin Green Bay Packer fan!

House's that

Bad title but the best I can do...no good unless you understand cricket so apologies to the USians reading this.
we saw 8 houses last night...from the sublime to the ridiculous...at times I thought I was flashing back to 70's visiting friends grandparents with the way the kitchen and living rooms were set out. Saw many turquoise blue bathroom sets...but best of all, got to see my first 'prom' staircase...a grand curving white wrought iron affair, where the prom princess would make her grand entrance down to meet the date...it's actually called that.
The other high point in interior decor was a luxurious chocolate brown shagpile from the 70's....almost looked like it needed whipped cream on top.
The aim of the game was to look at the types of houses in our min and more than max (as any good realtor will do!) in the area's we are interested in. Interestingly enough the two at the upper end were pretty dissimilar...one was really nicely finished and the other had lots of space but needed heaps of work. Makes us happier about buying lower and doing up.
The area's are nice with lots of tree's (this is the substitute for gardens when you don't get much summer), a lot of the smaller houses are slowly getting torn down and replaced with big monsters.
After years of living in little houses, it felt strange to be contemplating a big 'grown-ups' house, even more cos they were all older (60's/70's)
Still, we know more about what we like (open plan, larger b/rooms) and what we don't...gotta get my hands on one with a prom staircase...that was superb!

Who woulda thunk it?

a couple of things in the 'Only in America' files today..
Meaty sauce in a squirty bottle to put on your dry dog food to 'flavor it up'. Actually a pretty good idea since dried food is cheaper and better for your dog (I think?)
memoriam rear window stickers. Drove behind a car last night that had the following:
In memoriam
Kids Name (Stankel I think)
MM DD 1990 - MM DD 2004
and a hunting shooting fishing graphic

hmmmmmnnnnn, not so sure about that...maybe they didn't want to bury him so have no grave stone and he loved riding in the car...

Who woulda thunk it?

The past comes in color too

was blogging away(at lunchtime of course) and found my way to this , reminding us that the French invented color photography, so the photo's from WW1 are French...wow...aside from the outfits, moustaches and fresh graves...pretty much all the scenery and building looks as it does today...I swear you could turn the corner and see a sign pointing to 'Carrefor'
And that lead to Russian photos..doesn't seem right that this far back is color, but fascinated nevertheless. Click on the year links to see more.
Oh well, back to work (I mean lunch)

Pie time

Today's it's a recipe...the MIL wants it as I cooked it last time they were all down here(or is that up here as they're in Florida at the moment)

Translations to American words are provided alongside. I haven't used a recipe for this since I was 10...so feel free to experiment until it tastes good to you. I like the meat to taste meaty (It should sort of resemble dog food but I won't suggest using that as a substitute)
I've written it in the order I do things to make it. (if I make this in the Le Crueset then I just put the potatoes on top when I'm finished with the meat, whack the whole thing in the oven, open a bottle of wine and I'm done.

Shepherds/Cottage Pie(If you use lamb mince it;s shepherd and beef mince makes it cottage!)
Work out which dish you are going to finish it all up in. This should make enough for 2-3 hungry people
Cut up and put to boil enough potatoes to fill 1/3 of the dish when mashed (cut up they should fill about half the dish before cooking)
Put a good dollop of olive oil in the bottom of a large frypan or saucepan and tip the mince(ground beef) in and start browning it on a medium heat. Break it up into chunks but don't mush it up to much. While that's cooking chop up a medium onion and put that in to cook, grate 1 carrot and add that as well. I sometimes add a crushed clove of garlic as well) Once the meat is browned, turn onto a low heat and cover.
Turn your oven on if you are dining later and grill (Broiler) if you plan to eat when you have finished cooking.
Add the following in no particular order
about 1 cup of chopped green beans and/or peas (frozen ones are fine but tinned(canned) ones are too mushy)
1 large or 2 small crumbled beef bouillon cubes (I get friends to send me OXO cubes cos they;re the best). If you have the sort that don't crumble then melt them in a little hot water.
Good grind of pepper and salt
big sprinkle of parsley flakes
splash of soy sauce (leave this out if you don't have any)
big squirt of tomato sauce (ketchup to the USians)
Mix it all in and put the lid on.
There should be a little liquid but not heaps of runny at this point, if it seems a little dry add some water from the potatoes(and don't forget to check to the potatoes cos they are usually done at this point)
If the potatoes are done, drain them and put in a dash of milk, hunk of butter (at least 1/2 a stick) and lots of pepper and a good dash of salt. Turn the heat off, put the lid back on and put to one side for the moment (you need the butter to melt before you mash them)
go back to the meat and mix up 2/3 tablespoons of brown (beef) gravy mix with a little bit of hot water and pour in. I have the gravy granules so don't bother premixing, and just keep tossing enough in until it thickens. Turn the heat up to speed up the process if you need to. Taste (should be meaty) and add more salt or any more of the seasonings you think might make it taste better.
It should be thick enough to not slop off the spoon quickly, but not sticking to the pan or as runny as sloppy joes. When you think you've cooked it, turn it down to a low heat and mash the potatoes. I like them mashed with the masher and quite stiff. Add more salt and pepper to taste or more milk if they are too runny.
Spoon the meat into the casserole dish (or clean off the top if you are using the one you cooked in) and carefully pile the mashed potatoes to cover it. Ruffle it up with the fork and sprinkle cheese on top, add a slice of tomato(if you have a husband that eats them) or sprinkle a little paprika. We're big on cheese so we always make it nice and thick...crushed up potato chips are always good as well...this is comfort food, not low calorie!
If you are doing this in advance, bake in a medium over for about 40 minutes or until the cheese has melted, if you are eating immediately then just make sure it is still hot and the cheese is grilled on top.
I usually force a few more vegetables down M's throat by serving this by microwaving whatever is left lurking in the vege crisper...broccoli etc but it's good on it;s own.
Both Nana and Mum used to make this by grinding up leftover roast beef and mutton and adding the gravy. In other variations I've added fresh parsley to mash potatoes and more tomato to the meat.
Let me know how you get on...and enjoy!

that sinking feeling

they came, they sawed/hammered/glued/sanded and they went...and if we're really lucky, someday they'll come back.

those of you that have been following the progress of us 'tidying' up the house for maximum resale will know that this weekend was the (hopefully) last big push. BIL and SIL (Brother in law and sister in law) willingly volunteered to help us do this, probabley cos they knew we would kill ourselves or each other if we attempted it alone. M conveniently arranged to be a godfather to Angie two years ago in preparation for missing out the start of the demolition (one of the things I love about him is he is so well organized like that!) and had to go to her birthday. I didn't want to pass on my germs so couldn't go.
BIL, SIL and MWBTD (Morgan - worlds best trained dog) made the journey and the massacre commenced. We started out so optimistically, and pretty much everything that could go wrong did go wrong (you had to laugh or you cried). Should have realized when I was heading to Home Depot to pick up a second piece of bench top 1 hour into the project, and really should have known when I came back to find that the garbage disposal didn't come out of the sink. so on the up side i got the opportunity to kick the old one several times under the guise of trying to get it out of the sink...that'll teach it not to eat the garbage.
So after the realization that the walls were not straight (corner piece has to be angle cut), the old bench tops were glued down with some sort of industrial strength gunk that had hardened to concrete over time and there was barely enough room under the bench to fix the new sink...several medicinal beers, a lot of US/Kiwi ingenuity and way more glue than we probabley needed, the Home Depots finest(read only ones you can buy and take home) counter tops, double sink and garbage disposal are in and working...and looking pretty smashing if I may say so myself. They're a nice dark green fleck, which looks good with the oak cabinets. Pictures will be up on the web eventually.
and then we started on the master bath...should be easy after the kitchen right....nope...not a hope.
The old one came out with any bits of wall attached and we measured and cut the new one...popped it on the cabinets to realize that the cabinet was too small underneath and therefore the bench hangover in a most disconcerting way...several mini tantrums and name calling episodes later (and it was not me that measured it in the first place) we were nailing chunks of wood together to push the cabinet out from the wall. Everything else seemed to go smoothly after that...though I still have several tidy up jobs left to do, including putting a new side to the cabinet on.
Things we have learned from this weekend:
Measure 72 times...cut once or twice...if you're lucky
When you''re connecting the plumbing and testing if it works...don't point the tap to the sink with the big hole where you plan to put the new garbage disposal
Never clean under the sink hole you've just cut, sawdust absorbs water quite well
If in doubt...buy more glue
Ignore any manufacturer instructions when installing a sink and just go with what works...put the sink in then glue the bench-top down.
Hope that potential buyers never read this blog
'She'll be right mate' helps in most situations
So a really big thanks to SIL, BIL and MWBTD for all your help...and we promise that the next time we invite you down it will just be for dinner!

Doors, floors and foreign shores.

Finally getting around to getting the lovingly painted (4 coats!) interior doors back on. I've checked the DIY manual and the FIL but despite hanging them from the top first I still can't manage to get the middle and lower hinges to line up...so the new method is do the top one then unscrew the bottom two, put the hinge pins on and screw them back on the door. Seems to work except the bathroom door now sticks out at the top and won't close.
At this point I gave up and went to watch the start of survivor...cracking start too. Still, not quite the same if I can't ring mands and talk to her about it.
and as for the doors...oh well, if B&S (handypersons extrodinaire) can't figure out why when they come down this weekend then I'm calling Jack, Carrons dad who is like god of fixing things, and should probley have a website called www.bestnzdadatfixingthings.com
I'm going to do the other 3 tonight (M does not seem to be particularly inspired to help at the moment - though to give him his due, we're both addicted to CSI, and should be able to commit the perfect crime should we ever want to) so hopefully if they shut ok, then it must just be something about that door.
and the other thing we did yesterday was start the great house hunt. Never mind being green with envy about getting an email from D&R about moving into their new built house, we're just starting to look. What an eye opener. Several years of watching 'House doctor' in the UK lead me to believe that everyone would realize that you should at least vacuum your carpet if you are going to show your house...not to mention getting smelly pets out. But not these two. I know you need to look outside of the decor etc and look at the bones of the house, but still, cat pee in the basement and a master bedroom furnished like a dusty wild west saloon (complete with swinging doors on the wardrobe) can be a little distracting.
Neither house is what we want, though I'm not sure we exactly know what that is either, but we can agree that next to big road and needing lots more construction than pushing a few walls out are probably not the way to go.
Still it's given us(well me at least - the boss just wants it all to be over like a bad dream) a bit more inspiration to get cracking so we can put ours on the market...though I'm wondering what people will say about it (probably that we are boringly tidy and have some strange pictures)
and the foreign shores bit...my blister(sister) is officially booked (it was our chrissy present to her thanks to the vast amount of miles we accumulated last year) and will be in the US on the 24th of July...she drives me nuts and it's probably better if we never live together again in our lives, but I love her to bits and miss her...besides, think of the savings on telephone bills.
toodlepip til next time

Cute shoes or snow shoes

Every workday morning I have a dilemma, cute shoes or snow shoes? For some reason when working out the workday clothes I've always started bottom up and I now have a little 'Chicago' routine to get me through the daily decison making.
I start my asking M how cold it is outside as the temperature thingy is on his side of the bed. This usually determine how woolly the trousers have to be and how thick the sweater is on top...then I look outside. If it's raining (not very often) or the snow is melting (even less) then nothing made of fabric or suede will touch my feeties that day. If the snow is deep or the path is icy, then anything which will cause me to fall on my butt in an embarrassing manner (is there any other sort?) is also out.
At the moment this leaves me with a selection of about 5 pairs of boots/shoes, one red, one brown and the others are of course black (Can you tell I've have been living in the UK for the last 5 years?). So once again I reach for the 'snow shoes' and all my cute little shoes in their little cardboard coffins stare reproachfully back.
If the weather doesn't clear up by tomorrow, I'm off snow shoe shopping on Friday night!

Happy valentines day

Today feels like England, it's raining and grey (but not cold - hooray) and the palaver and hoo-haa of valentines day is finally over. When i was single i always thought that v-day would be much better as a couple. Now it's nice to share gifts (anytime is a good time for gifts in my book) and make a special meal, but the red hearts and must be with someone you love still annoys me a lot. In a way it's somewhat better in the states as it encompasses everyone you share joy with in your life (kids/secretary/useful service people) and not just your main bonk...well lets hope not!
I think I subscribe to the Tinholt theory that P&K came up with...if you buy flowers for your sweetie at least once a month to tell them how special they are, then you can eschrew the ridiculous overpriced stuff on v-day, knowing they already know you love them. Of course we always give him a hard time for being tight due to his Dutch ancestry....but that's another story.
Anyways...went to Florida to hang with the MIL and FIL last weekend. The locals all complained cos it got down to a cool 14 degree's on Saturday...but still felt pretty warm to me, and by the time it was 25 on Sunday we were lying by the pool in our togs blinding the locals with body parts that had not seen daylight since Malaysia
Florida is a very good place for license spotting, since it is packed full of 'snowbirds' (retired people who've done their time in cold states). We saw plates from Ontario, New York and just about every cold place in between those states and Florida...we may have easily been the youngest people in town as well.
MIL and FIL have a nice little condo overlooking a lake and it was good to spend time with them. Went to a craft fair and bought some guava jelly (closest I'm going to get to feijoa's for a while) and swamp cabbage salsa...remember when you were growing up and you learnt that you could cook and eat the heart of the cabbage tree...that's swamp cabbage in Florida. It did remind me a lot of the BOP, cold crisp mornings and warm days...not to mention large groves of oranges (sorta pre-kiwifruit BOP actually). MIL wanted to go to a grove to pick oranges and take a picture of us next to an orange tree(strange but true)...had flashbacks to living in kati and when the owner figured this out I got to spend the next 15 minutes regurgitating all I knew about kiwifruit production as he wants to have a go growing them. Who would have thought all those seasons of picking/packing/pruning/pollinating would come handy some day on the other side of the world. By the time we got to T-bar vs Pergola everyone's else eyes were glazing over so we headed of with some very tasty oranges and the knowledge that I might have planted the seeds of the next kiwifruit market....Oops.
Didn't do much else cept eat lots of fresh fish and lolling around reading and catching up...then managed to get an earlier plane home to a very sodden Chicago.
Off to sit through 2 hours of someone's presentation of a test plan...might need some coffee.

Back to blog

Well I've not been bloggin for a while, busy with work and diy is not much of an excuse so if you are finally checking back in sorry mate - got a bit distracted. My goal is to try at least 3 times a week, just to keep my hand in. No idea what I'll talk about cos I'm getting worried with my obsession with the weather (by the way - the snow is almost gone but we're due for a little flurry - just to keep us on our toes) but I continue to go back to and enjoy http://elisson1.blogspot.com/ on a daily basis...so he can be my inspiration...and he's given me a great gumbo recipe I'm dying to try out.
It's fat Tuesday here today (Mardi Gras) before ash Wednesday and lent so I think we might be justified in having a slap up dinner tonight...okdokey, back to work and see you all later.

A happy Nu Ear

Been so disctracted reading other peoples blogs haven't been putting anything on mine...Check out carnival of the cats

Well we had a quiet but fun new year in the D mansion in burbs of Milwaukee. D built a great new house a few years ago but in typical bloke fashion has not yet filled it with much...perhaps he's going for the Zen look, perhaps he feels no need for frilly cushions in his life(very likely)but more likely he's never home. Made a mental note to stop buying him fishing stuff and start buying him serving platters from now on, or perhaps frilly cushions featuring fish. He was a great host and we could have been snowed in for days and not starved or run out of martini ingredients.
Speaking of snow, it's been a very tropical 6-12 degrees over the weekend but has now turned into a winter storm with 3 inches of snow last night and lots of God's dandruff swirling around there now. I went to get the groceries at lunch time and another inch was on the car....loving those 4wd braking system thingy that works today. Hoping I never have to see how the side airbags work! Supposed to get another 3-8 inches today and we might well do. It's not too cold, just slushy when it melts in your car and windy getting to the car.
Unfortunately they are pretty used to it here and don't close the office unless its really severe...what must that be? half a metre perhaps. At least we are having the weather we are expecting. Albs emailed me today and I quote 'The weather throughout NZ has been shabby to say the least this Summer (coldest December for 60 yrs and windiest on record since 1896) so you haven't been missing much.' Still wet ad warm is better than cold. Snow is still a novelty though that may have worn off by Feb. I think I might be too old to lie down and make a snow angel perhaps.
Spoke to MIL today and they had a UFO invasion last night...well that's the talk of the town, though they suspect it might be a meteor shower. They heard a whopping great thump and thought someone had smacked into the tree in the front of the house. Aunt J apparently had such a bright light shining in her mirror that she pulled over to see a big light go overhead...such weirdness. I like the alien theory myself..if you are going to land anywhere, a town like Merrill might be a good idea. You can live in all the pine tree's and people are allowed to be whatever they want...might have to like cheese a lot though.
Enough rambling...time to get back to work.
Toodle-pip

My car has a moon roof - I think it's called a moonroof cos there is no sun!

It's -14 today, down from a balmy -4 yesterday and I've taken to wearing thermal underwear under my sweaters (practice the lingo Hazel - Jersey is a place in NY, not a garment) as my office gets quite cold.
It's the last day at work(love those short weeks) and pretty much deserted. The car is holding up well though already has a scratch...Which we think happened when M took it to the supermarket to get a plunger for the garbage disposal...The scratch looks suspiciously trolley height - I shall have to remember who scratched MY car....Hopefully we'll pick up his today and I can scratch it in return :>)
The garbage disposal suffers from that well known kids disease 'I don't wanna eat my veges' and requires everything to be chopped up into little pieces, well I know this now after the unfortunate stirfry remains incident.
Well, better get cracking at work...think the document has finally loaded up for me. Have a wonderful warm Christmas where ever you are.

Walking in a winter freezerland

Today is a balmy -10 degrees, an improvement on yesterday when it was -16 when we first looked at the thermometer. I'm not sure I can cope with weather this cold, and it's only December. Apparently it gets much colder, but S says that after a while it all feels the same temp, and you don't notice the 5 to 10 +ve or -ve. I'll have to harden up a lot before then, and stop thinking about kiwi Christmas at the beach as well. The in-laws went to the Packers game on Sunday and that's in an outdoor stadium, they had ski suits on and were about 3 sizes larger due to excessive amount of Thermal layers...I'm surprised they could bend enough to get into the car. Gotta admire that for hardcore fanaticism, specially when the Packers lost...to a team from FLORIDA. Still only a light dusting of snow on Saturday though, just as everyone headed of to the hardware store.
We had the Weaver whanau down helping this weekend and they did a smashing job...Literally when B moved the wardrobe door into the light shade! We had a long list of tasks and they had accomplished 1/2 of them by Friday night. Finally got all the wedding presents into the house (they've been stored up in Merrill) and boxes moved to storage and the tree decorated (thanks J) and new doorhandles, wardrobe doors and they even put a new fan up in the lounge while we went out for work drinks at the bosses. Not sure we'll need the fan for a while, but it looks great. We've now booked them for 'electrical weekend' and 'plumbing weekend' in which the lighting gets changed and we put in new bathroom units. Think we might be doing some extended dog sitting in return.
Get to pick up my car tonight, looking forward to 2 bits of it the most. Heated seats and sat nav. In NZ, heated seats are what you get when you forget to put a towel on the vinyl seats of your old ford falcon after a day at the beach (ouch - just remembered how it hurt when you leap off the hot seat, and your skin stayed behind). Our rental at the moment take about 10 mins to warm up, by which time we're usually just getting to work, or I've frozen in the hunched shape of the seat. I shall probabley spend the first five minutes in the new car making embarrassingly orgasmic noises of pleasure as the seat heats around my back and bottom.
Satellite navigation will also be great as I'm still getting lost. This is someone who's driven in most European countries, sometimes in the dark and up (and almost off) steep hillsides looking for hotels, with completely unintelligible signs...Ross and I never did work out what 'farten' in Norway meant, but we still laughed everytime we saw it on a sign. Here it's flat and the roads are usually cross over in neat squares with some running north/south etc...and I still get lost getting from the house to the supermarket...all of 5 minutes away.
I worked out why the other day. I navigate by landmarks...'go down to the Shell station, turn right and then the supermarket is on the left after Target' etc. This worked fine in the UK with a pub on every corner and a roundabout on every other. You missed where you were going, just turn around at the next round about and come back. Everything looks the same here and there is an indentical Walgreens (pharmacy chain) on every corner (apparently this is actually their mission statement and they are pretty close to achieving it)...all the corners look the same, all the housing looks similar and I'm still concentrating on driving on the right side of the road. Bring on the sat nav now please...I'm hoping I can push a button and it will just get me there with no pain or detours...Funny how I hate M giving me directions inthe car but I'm happy for an anonymous voice to do the same at an extra $1,500...I wonder if you can chose the voice...I think I'd like Shawn Connery to be telling me' turn right at the next lights onto Cobbler lane'....now that would be good.

Interesting things I have noticed since moving to the US

• If it snows and then freezes and then you whack the snow off your car (to stop it falling into the boot on the groceries - tip 1) it also takes the dirt of and cleans the car...though this is negated by the runny brown slush that splashes when you drive through puddles
• we learnt fractions at school for a reason...you have to use them if you're stuck with imperial measurements, so you don't sound stupid in front of the carpet salesmen...duh-oh 12 inches and 14 sixteenth would be 12 and 7/8ths...I really miss metric!
• In the middle of the fruit section you can buy caramel dip for your apples...gotta be good for you cos it's in the fruit section right?
• you can buy postage stamps on the internet, and print out your shipping labels
• a 'red hot' is a hot dog as in 'Michaels Red Hots' is a hot dog shop, not a stripper joint named after my husband
• Drive through banking and pharmacies and drive up post boxes are a really really great idea when it starts to snow
• The bigger the car, the less need to use your indicators ( I think this might actually be an international fact)
• Most houses don't have overhead lighting, but do have overhead fans...must be good business for the lamp sellers
• Fanny Mae is a brand of chocolates...some with creamy centres ;>)
• All light bulbs are screw in (very sensible after having to buy both bayonet and screw in UK)
• The US is at least 2 generations behind in mobile technology and it's cool to wear your flip phone on your belt (In Russia its cool to wear it hanging down your front)
• Most people drink tea iced (if they drink tea at all) and don't put milk in it if it's hot
• Red sweets are usually cinnamon (bleeeeeeech -icky yucky-poo) and not raspberry or peppermint.
• Our office has a tiny inhouse StarBucks, Ramadan prayer room, and each meal on the lunch menu has calories and carbs listed (doesn't stop me eating chips...I think I might be pro-carbs)
• Everyone is real friendly and 1/20 will see through my 'English' accent and ask me if I'm from Australia!

On the train again...ah jest can't wait to get on that train again...

Day X plus 1 - Ulan Bataar to Chinese Border: expore the joys of stripmining, get to see wild camels, half a dog and the wheels come off the wagon.
It's a cold and frosty morning and after we've said goodbye to the boys (Goomba and Ita) we get onto the nice warm train. The carriage is much cleaner than the last one, but the decor is older than the Russian train and very floral. We tie the curtains back and use our patented cheese cooler (use the curtain tabs to hold the bag of cheese to the colder train wall!) spread our belongings around and we're off. Some of the faces in the first class carriage are starting to look very familiar. Mark and Julie finally board (we thought they were ahead of us and it turns out they slept through 2 wakeup calls and 1 alarm clock and only just made the train). They find out they are sharing a four berth carriage with a family of 3! General mayhem ensues but but no other option, they wedge themselves in for the ride.
Our first sight out of the station and 'ger-burbs is a man pooing in a field next to the rails...niiiice! I'm more amazed by the fact he's doing this over 2 inches of snow...not that it's in front of a 15 carriage train. It's the start of a day of peculiar sights.
We're retracing some of our steps through the national park, and this gives a perspective of just how vast the land is, and how small and lonely the settlements look at we trundle through. Even though we don't stop at most of them, each one has a railway guard waving a flag to let us through. People either go about their everyday business, hauling water, sweeping or tinkering with engines of some variety, usually the kids will wave back.
There are some good curves so you can really see the train and the first stop is a dusty station with pink and blue buildings and a silver painted statue of the cosmonaut.
The day becomes a constant drift of looking at the view, talking to our new train friends, reading and trying to spot wild camels...which we do, and they are wearing their special hairy winter coats.
We plan the toilet breaks carefully as at the end of the day we'll be going through the border. The usual amount of running around and hiding stuff takes effect and we stash the cash again.
The Mongolian guards are through fairly quickly and then we sit in no mans land, waiting to get though to the other side. Our german neighbours tell us the've used the half a puppy left on the rails as a cautionary tale to their 7 year old, who is prone to wandering off. We're all quite excited (well those of us with an inner rail geek) as they're going to be taking the wheels off on the Mongolian side and putting the smaller ones on for the Chinese side...You'd think it would be more sensible to have the same size...But I think this is one of those Russian/Chinese things that Mongolia got stuck with.
Customs on the Chinese side takes ages, everything is inspected, though they are not bothering so much with the foreigners, so we amuse ourselves by looking for guards with machine guns hiding in the bushes and the darkness (we spot 3) and trying to work out what they are signaling each out about (given what happens when they flash the lights I think the answer is 'time for a ciggie break')
Eventually we get through and after a bit of shunting we end up in the railway shed. It's all quite efficient and fast and similar to going to Jiffy Lube for a tire change. They put you on the lifters, unclip your underneath bits, raise you up, slide out all the wheels and slide in the new one. The funny part is the provinistia's putting on their grubby clothes and having to work with the rail guards to do the job. The more dainty (or lazy ones) obviously don't want to get their nails broken(despite the white gloves) so they flirt with the workshop guys to get more done. Lots more shunting later and the train is hooked back up with the Chinese dining car and we trundle through to the station...it's 1:00am and 3.5 hours later! There's lots of leg crossing going on at this stage and no-one is drinking anything.
We have about 15 minutes in the station then the sellers pack up and leave...but we don't move. Seems like something has broken down as guards and the fat conductor keep walking through the train. Another 1/2 hour and the provinesta takes pity on us and opens the toilet, at this point I don't care that I can see the station underneath. M has crashed out by now and I give up at 2:00 and go to bed...nice to be stationary in some ways, I wonder where we'll wake up in China.

made it to the US

In case you're wondering why it all stopped...just been a bit busy settling in. I'm back at work and will try and squeeze a little time out of the evening (when we're not doing car buying stuff or house settling stuff) to finish off...then let you know all the fun stuff I've learnt since I've been in the windy city...ps had snow, got rained away, might be getting some just before the movers turn up(hopefully on Saturday - keep your fingers crossed for now)...gotta run, my email at work should just about be firing up, I'm still connected to the UK server so it's sloooooooow!

Two Buddhist monks go round the outside, round the outside...

Lost track of the days (last day in UB): Ulaan Baator - see a large number of poorly stuffed animals, eat gourmet Mongol food and learn all about Mongolia's first (and possibly ast) cosmonaut.
Goomba, Ita, M and I set off after a smoky night in the Ger, and a bread and omelet breakfast. We've never figured out where the showers are, so decide the smoky smell of sleeping in the coal powered ger is probably a good thing. We take a slight detour to drive around the dead carcass of the horse Goomba and the other guide dragged over in the night to see if there are any wolf tracks but luckily there are only foxes. We're not sure what the the vegetarians in the other car (Mark and Julie will make of this) We go a different way out today, and it seems appropiate that our last sight of national park is the lone horseman trotting his shaggy beast across the plain, as his forbearers must have done for the last few centuries.
Today is the city tour, and once back in the hustle and honking of UB we stop first at the buddist temple, a cheerful multicoloured concoction of buildings in the snow on the hill. The temple was restored once communism was quietly done away with, and is now teaching and worshiping again. Scantily clad (for the cold) saffron monks are walking about, along with elderly tribesman from out of town. Everyone walks around and rotate the drums and kisses the building on the corners etc. We make do with admiring the buildings (they are pretty cool really) and trying to avoid the flock of pigeons that are annoyed we haven't brought them food...I hate the damn things...rats with wings.
The shrine at the back has the tallest Buddha in Asia, coated with gold and it's pretty awe inspiring...then it's back out into the cold and back to the car.
In the afternoon we visit the natural and the national museum...not easily confused as one holds a very old and moulting collection of stuffed animals and the other interesting tribal hats, modern history and lots of information about Chiggis Khan(you DON"T say Ghengis in Mongolia...or at least you only say it once before you are politely corrected), and his considerable efforts to rule China...all of which goes a long way towards explaining why the Mongols plumped for Russia over China when push came to shove.
We've run out of stuff to talk to Ita about and run out of historic places to see, so Ita drops us off at a cashmere shop (yes folks...some of you will be luck enough to get cashmere from Mongolia this Christmas) and trudge home, nostrils freezing in the cold to stock up on train food and do once more wash before our last day or so on the train.

I wonder what wolf really tastes like?

Day X - Terilj National Park: Go hunting for wolves, finally get to see inside a ger, eat frozen clotted cream and learn how to play Mongolian checkers.
It snows in the night and now UB looks clean and lovely...with the outline of factories belching smoke on the horizon somehow rendered more attractive. There are no such things as snow sweepers so various workers are out in the mornings sweeping and chipping the snow of the side of the kerbs to provide markers for the cars to see which lines to stay inside of, used as a loose guideline of course!
Ita and Gomba (the driver) pick us up in a Mitzi 4WD and take us off the the national park. We soon leave the traffic (and occasional car head first in a ditch) and head out through the 'ger burbs' The govt is trying to encourage people into town so you can move your ger in and put a fence around it, and there are lots of area's of this. Ger's are round almost flat roofed tents, on wooden frames, with thick felt and canvas covering them. Basically the height of people standing up, with a wood burning stove in the middle. There are usually animals tied up somewhere near,and as we passed in the morning, the kids were up on top sweeping the snow off, before it melted. The land is flat flat flat, with little vegetation, until we head into the hills and then it still doesn't really get that high. The paved road takes us past a river in the process of freezing, yaks, goats, cows and sturdy little horses. All around are 'Ger Camp's (summer camps) as every one leaves the town to live in the tents or small houses over summer. We embarrass ourselves by asking if the set of ornate temples is a Buddhist monastery to find out it's an elaborate themed Summer Camp. As it's winter very few are open and those that do cater for mad tourists, group bonding sessions or hunters. Mongolians love to hunt and one of their few entries into the Olympics was a highly places shooting team.
The ute leaves the road and heads out along the plain, winding over and round tracks, and there is no road in sight. I think the driver has done this many times before and just points the car towards the hills and drives around anything (rocks/people/houses) he can't be bothered driving over...It's very entertaining and quite bouncy, as by now we are heading up through the hills.
We stop at a prayer rock, made up of a mound of stones with any number of flags attached and they both walk around 3 times as a matter of course. I think the Mongolians have interrogated religion in a very practical way, perhaps to do with having been the second country to declare as Communist( we find out later that going with the Russians was more appealing than going with the Chinese). Gomba has been telling us about all the animals that are in the woods (anything that's not for hunting is either livestock or a plant!) and is interested to know if M is a hunter. M had to confess that he doesn't hunt, but his dad does, and quickly points out this includes ferocious Wisconsin deer...as duck seem a little tame next to hunting for fox, wolf and a wild mountain sheep/goat thing that costs US$10,000 to hunt. Gomba shows us his guns and loads up, apparently he got a wolf 3 days ago and is keen for another. Ita rides shotgun (literally) and we take off again to the camp, I'm concentrating on looking at the wonderful scenery (there's lots of eagles soaring in the sky) and trying not to think of loaded firearms in a bouncy car. All of a sudden Goomba sees a wolf and sure enough, there on the hill side is a lone wolf going from rock to rock. We screech to a halt and he gets out and starts blasting away. He's obviously a good shot as he only misses by about 6-8 m from 500m away in the valley. I'm secretly glad as i quite like wolves and went walking with them in the sanctuary in Reading...M's just glad we don't have a dead wolf draped on the luggage for the rest of the trip. We keep moving, keeping our eyes peeled but only see vultures and eagles (obviously not tasty enough), and make it through the isolated passes to the camp.
We go and say hello to the family and only the kids are home, get served bowls of yoghurt, something that resembles frozen clotted cream and cold donuts...Interesting food..not good for the no dairy or wheat regime but when in Rome...
the family Ger is like being on a long camping holiday, every thing seems to have it's place and we sit at on small stools at a little table, kind of like being at the kids table for Christmas dinner. They have a small shrine that includes a picture of the Dalai Lama. We eat our fill of the yoghurt etc but haven't mastered the art of licking the bowl clean as the driver does...our guide informs us that he hasn't either.
We get to our own ger, with cheery yellow and red curtains around the insides, and a lovely warm wood burning fire. This is attended to by a couple of girls who pop in at unexpected moments to put more wood on, cuts down on the snogging, and we work out a plan that involves getting up every two hours throughout the night to keep the wood on, only to discover they put great big lumps of coal in for the night...glad about that from the 'keeping warm' point of view, but will wake up smelling like a hangi, with a new rattle to the hacking cough I've developed especially to keep M awake.
We get to rest for a little then go for lunch. Mongolians eat 3 courses at lunch and two at dinner and they like to eat dinner early as they think that eating late is bad(v. true to) We get salad (potato with unidentified verges - but good), delicious mushroom soup that even M (A known mushroom hater) likes and delicious stew, very like a stronganoff, all under the watchful eyes of the most enormous stuffed and glaring mountain goat, mounted high on the wall of the dining room above us. This turns out to the be wild prized sheep that all hunters want to bag. It has curly horn and is easily the scariest looking beast I've seen.
We get to go trekking on small sturdy hairy horses in saddles like rocking chairs. Quite comforting to the non rider (me!) and I plan what to tell Carron in her postcard...me actually riding a horse. Still feels like a long way from the ground as the poor thing plods over the snowy hill, huffing and puffing as it drags my yoghurt filled carcass. I concentrate on admiring the view whilst hunching into the saddle as it's absolutely freezing, especially in the wind, easily the coldest we've been so far. I look at the scenery ( wonderful views over the valley), I tell myself how glad I am being in Mongolia, I pretend that I'm a trader going into the village BC (before car) and I console myself that M looks at least as cold and he's from Wisconsin. On the way home I'm so numb I can barely hold on, and I'm trying not to think about how many days until we're in Malaysia and focus on the stove in the Ger...feel the warmth. The horse picks up it's speed as it knows it's going home...it's barely moving in a fast walk, I fall on the saddle in a not very graceful dismount and head of the Ger and HEAT.

Managing Mongolia

I'm in China writing about Mongolia, hopefully I'll get caught up today...I can't read the blog (I think it might be trying to translate it into Chinese!) so if anyone put any responses, thanks heaps, hopefully I'll get to read them in Hong Kong tomorrow sometime.
Day X - Ulaan Baatar Recover from train in UB's poshest hotel, stroll the streets smiling at everyone cos they smile back, eat mutton dumplings, provide background noise for Mongolian National TV, and do the washing.
UB is a very small capital city and a very cold one, there is not much green around but the buildings are varied and many are brightly painted, the Mongolians love colour, especially on the children...to match their rosy cheeks (something to do with the cold I think). WE saw purple buildings, green buildings red buildings and lots of marble inbetween, not a great idea walking on marble steps when it gets icy.
We spread our stuff around the hotel room and sent the big stuff off the the laundry. Our room looks into town, and over the Mongolian Olympic offical building (apparently they're big at shooting...more about that later). We walked into town to the main square (Suhkbataar)over the bridge, about 15 minutes to get to the centre. The wind is freezing and the non goretex bits soon get a bit cold so we speed up. Everyone is a lot more smiley than Russia, and there is a real entreprenurial spirit to doing things, though a lot of things seems to be held together with string and good luck. People stand on street corners with wireless push button phones so others can dial home (for a fee)...we kept looking for the wire to see if they had just taken the phone out of the house. Traffic is of the 'more you hoot, the better you drive' variety and you take your life in your hands when you step out on the road. We fall back on our usual trick of 'drafting' the locals...hoping that the red jackets are seen as a warning, not a target.
Lots of older people still wear native dress, and in winter this consists of heavy padded coat with silk outer and a yellow/gold/orange sash tied low on the waist, and heavy leather boots with the toes pointing up. All quite sensible and warm. Everyone else favours the black leather or woolen coat look, and big hairy hats with dangling animals bits (tails or testicles usually) are almost as popular here as in Russia. Pointy highheeled boots again feature for the fasionable lady.
We look around the square and set off the find the english book store as I've almost run out. We end up in the old state store, now private, and stock up on a couple of christmas gifts (don't worry Mands, wouldn't dream of buying you a Christmas pressie from Mongolia), postcards and a old (about 30 years) appliqued hanging from inside a ger. M refuses to let me buy the one with authentic water stain(or maybe it's yoghurt) so I settle for the faded look. Those of you that visit, look out for it appearing in a Weaver room someday soon. We go down a floor and buy a lovely cashmere blanket at a price we keep pinching ourselves over and finally set off for lunch. Very unsuccessful at finding the reccomended resturant (if anyone can tell us where Be Pou is - we're still looking) we end up in something called 'Silk Road', surprisingly good and they start filming some business discussion at the table next to us. We end up having to slurp our coffee and remove ourselves and our crackly plastic bags very quietly, the waiter delighting in the comedy value of this...but hey - it's not often you can say you've almost been on Mongolian National TV.
We waddle home...freezing wind spuring us on...tears on the eyelashes freezing, and me trying to work out how to blow my nose without taking my gloves off!
Do some laundry and make use of the extensive radiator (just like being in England again) then catch up on BBC World, write some postcards. Tomorrow we're off the the ger!

Walking in the dark

Day 6 - Irktusk to Lake Baikal: get up at 5:00 to get off train, nice Alexander the driver takes us to Hotel Baikal at Lake Baikal, catch up on sleep in bed that's not moving(happy about that), walk to town, learn to walk home in dark coldness and eat pancakes.
It's -15 degrees when we get off the train and apparently unseasonably warm for this time of year...ouch - M says it's good practice for Chicago...I say I'm not sure I'm ready for Chicago...I want to go back to little old soggy England at this point. We take a long drive out to the lake through valleys of skinny feathery pines and snow, with little peeps of the lake along the way. The hotel is a scary concrete monolith from the soviet era perched on top of the cliff with wonderful views of the lake. I covet the 'retro' red and white plastic light fixture and red rotary phone.
Baikal is the oldest lake in the world(how can a lake be the oldest - answers from all the FESC's I know please) It's deep, it's freshwater and has lots of species that don't live anywhere else, including a freshwater seal, they call them Nerpa's. I'm still recovering from my cold and a poor nights sleep as the train was running late and seemed to be trying to make up time by cantering along the lines at a jolting pace. So much so that at one point we were both convinced our carriage had gone careering off on it's own.
The hotel is in it's out of season time and there are very few guests and the main restaurant is closed...so it's pancakes (and saveloys/hotdogs, eggs, a cheese like tofu and yoghurt for breakfast). We walk down to the town along the lake front, and the view is spectacular, it seems very big with lots of mountains surrounding it. The water hasn't frozen yet, though the guide tells us later that the water is so clear you can see beneath the ice. The houses along the water are either small cottages that the locals live in, that seem to be made up of any piece of wood around at the time, or log cabins with the corners chopped off. Despite the ramshackle appearance, I think they seem well cared for, something proven later when we get invited in. It's getting dark when we get to the fish market in the middle of Listvyanka (the main town on the lake where we are) but I get to taste smoked omul, which the the local delicacy, and a wonderful (hot) slightly salmony fish. I've only got tissues to wipe my hands so my gloves smell slightly fishy for a couple of days and dogs seem strangely attracted to me.
street lighting is a foreign concept so we make our way home in the dark up the icy hill to more pancakes for dinner.

• if you dip your hand in Lake Baikal waters you gain a year extra, 5 for a foot and 25 for your whole body...if you live through the cold that is!

Day 7 - Lake Baikal: see many dead fish, inside of a Siberian house and go on mammoth trek in wood. Eat more pancakes.
Liana meets us at 9 and takes us to the Baikal Natural museum which is actually quite interesting, and small so you're not overwhelmed. She whispers to us what each dead fish in a jar is as they don't like the private guards to speak too loudly. We learn about the deepness and the cleanness and get to see some cute sea lions in a very small tank. Apparently they've been rescued from an illegal hunter (he just wounded the mother, a good hunter would kill instantly!) and never lived outside. They're very fat cos its winter.
She walks down to Listvanka with us to meet the trekking guide and as her English is very good, we ask lots of annoying tourist type questions. She's just completed a 4 year child psychology degree but didn't like it so is now doing journalism for the next 3 years, whilst guiding is paying the way. Pizza is her favorite food and has become very popular in Siberia over the last 15 years. She has a fatalism I expected to see in Russian, ie 'we don't complain cos we don't expect any better' She doesn't remember much about being under communist rule (she's only 23) but her parents both work in a factory and I got the sense that it didn't affect them.
She takes us to the small orthodox church in Listvanka that has only recently been turned back into a church. It's interior is light and airy(quite unusual for a Russian church), with wonderful icons on every way. It's not much bigger than a meeting room(with high ceilings) but seems to rejoice in being allowed to be a church again.
We go to Rita's house and she makes us tea before we set out on the trek with Sacha. Very few houses (apart from the large ones being built as holiday homes) have indoor water and plumbing. They have microwaves and DVD player...but still use the outhouse/longdrop down the back of the garden. Water comes from the nearby well or sometimes the lake. I can imagine the arguments in our house if the water ran out...no you get it, no it's your turn, I can't be bothered..can we dial a drop?
We've asked the guide for a shorter walk (only 3 hours) as I'm still having problems with the cold and I'm not very fit. He agrees to take us in for an hour, hour for lunch, and then out again. We pick up his neighbor's dog (the adorable Mischa - bear in Russian) and walking sticks and set off. It soon appears that Sacha operates at Russian speed (about twice as fast - we get passed by old ladies up a hill later). He ends up waiting a lot, but is very patient about it. We start up hill and it's slightly warmer in the trees and the snows about 4 inches deep. I'm puffing and blowing like a steam train, with frequent nose wiping included, but it's beutiful in the trees. Sacha points out sable tracks and the hunter that is tracking it. We keep going over hill and dale, pausing on ridge lines to admire the view and stop me from going into cardiac arrest. After about 2 hours Sacha tells us he is going on ahead to light the fire for lunch and we can follow his tracks. He soon speeds of and we trudge uphill with cold wet boots. We jokingly come up with a plan if we get lost (IN THE SIBERIAN WOODS IN WINTER) which involves ring Intourist in the first instance and the UK police in the second...Luckily my girl guide skills M being the son of a hunter must have paid off as we soon spotted Mischa's dog pee in the snow and figured out we were still on the right track.
Sacha had a fire going (I think he regards his day job of teaching maths secondary to his outdoor skills) and made us soup of potato, onion and mackerel...very good when you're freezing your butt of in the Siberian forest. After lunch we heaved ourselves up to the top of the ridge and then began the long walk/slip/slide all the way home. Down hill was definitely better than uphill, though we could have done with a sled to go faster. Sacha kept going ahead then checking that we were still in sight and Mischa gave up entirely and went home, don't blame him, we definitely weren't fast. Eventually came out at the other side of Listvyanka and started the long walk home. Somehow the 3 hour walk turned into a 7 hour journey from the museum back to the hotel...and once again we were trudging home in the dark...and before you ask...not a taxi to be found.
More pancakes, a nicely frosted bottle of champagne and bit of repacking and we're ready for a 4am pick-up to get the train to Mongolia.

• UK's poor reputation for snow survival is mocked by Siberians...Liana asked 'Is is true that in Enlgand it stops when it snow'...to which we had to shamefacely reply 'YES'
• Thanks Pam and Nick for the possum fur knitted scarf you gave me for for christmas...its the best...and now Russian proof

ps - if anyone is reading this, can they pop a reply in, cos it gets awfully lonely on the road (even when travelling with your nearest and dearest) and now that's I've spent an hour writing this in Mongolia (I'll tell you about Mongolia when I get to China - promise) I'd like to know that at least one person was reading it.

"how do you say thank you in Russian again?"

Spa sea bar
We've made it as far as Ulan Bator and the trip has been pretty interesting so far. Although I could write for hours (when was the last time an Internet cafe charged $3.00 per hour) I'll give you a brief synopsis of the days and tell you about any interesting observations (well at least interestingly me) I've found along the the way.
Day 2 - Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod: Spend day schelping around Moscow avoiding the rain and furry hat sellers, then had last grand dinner (caviar...mmmnnnnnnn) and set off for train. Wait in one station and then tour guide takes us around the back to get on Train 2 - Moscow to Irkutsk. It's dark and cold and but we have a nice 'provanitska' (train attendant) and follow rule number one in our bible - the TranSib guide and tip her well.
The train is very new and clean, and by British standards...tall! There's not much room between the beds on either side (about a metre if that), but at least we're not sharing with anyone.
With a big clatter and sudden lurch we're off!
There is a Tyanet (vague attempt at spelling the Russian word for toilet) at each end...and after a few thwarted attempts, the kindly Russian lady at the cabin at the end points out that the red light goes on in the corridor when someone's in there or it's locked cos we're stopping at a station...duhhhhh -how many planes have you really been on Hazel!
The toilet is about as cold and smelly as you would imagine a railway toilet that does not have a holding tank to be...but at least the paper does not run out until day 4.

• The benefits of sitting on a toilet that is not moving are not to be disregarded lightly

Day 3 - Vyatka to Yekaterinburg: gaze at scenery, start eating contents of coolie bag, Hazel has a cold and the train is kept really hot, with no windows to open, M learns to point for food.
It's clear and bright and there is lots of snow around. People look cold when we pass them, and most favor the black coat and high furry hat look, quite sensible too.
We master the use of the water boiler down the end and get stuck into the soup. M makes several successful forays out onto the station and brings back salami (venison and almost as good as Paul's home made variety), diet coke, cough lozenges, cheese and a yummy bread. People sell very interesting stuff at the smaller stations, wizened little grandmothers with what looks like beetroot or cabbage in sourcream in little tubs, fish on a stick, newspapers and Russian romance novels. Each area we pass through seems to have a different specialty...we never did find the really great gingerbread we bought one one station...though we manfully sampled several other types of cake along the way.

• the window is the coldest place in the train and ties for the curtain make an excellent cheese holder
• fur is worn guilt free in Russia, and women have the amazing ability to walk on slippery ice with the skinniest stiletto boots

Day 4 - Tyumen to Bogotol: Hazel coughs a lot, M almost gets left behind, more soup gets eaten and we see some interesting factories.
Although I'm getting very used to lying around, eating, reading and gazing out the window inbetween coughing and blowing my nose, I make the effort to go out onto one of the stations to purchase some provisions, including orange to drink with our vodka (not quite up to the neat stuff yet). I manage to bring back two lots of yoghurt instead(well it did have fruit on the front and come in a carton), but rather than make a new and possibly quite interesting cocktail, we eat it as desert..though meal separation has become somewhat neglected in favor of grazing anytime we're bored. M discovers a new breakfast alternative and eats large plain cookies covered with peanut butter, whilst I plump for the ever popular marmite and cheese.
The countryside has hills and water and trees and we're still laughing at the fact that it looks like Wisconsin woods, given that we've spent all this money and time to get here...I think this could be more of a novelty to me than M. The silver birch and pine seem especially gloomy in the twilight, but we haven't gone through as much forest as flat plains and small hills, with lots of clumps of Dacha everywhere. Sergei (the Moscow guide) explained that this is what every Russian wants, a small place (and some of them are very small - no bigger than garden sheds) with a patch of land for gardening around. They are not quite allotments as the garden only forms part of the land, more like the back garden to a house...with the front being an apartment somewhere else in another town or city. Not very many are in use, as you can't do much digging this time of year, but they must be nice little communities, with the dacha being passed down between family member. They seem quite lonely, here next to the tracks waiting for spring.

• climbing UNDER a stationary train to get to the platform to sell stuff is quite safe as long as you are over 60 and short, it's just a little scary to watch
• never say the words chicken and soup too far apart in a sentence or you'll end up with the soup and the roast chicken...both very tasty, but not conducive to fitting back through the skinny doors between the carriages on the walk back to the cabin.

Day 5 - aching 1 to Irkutsk: cold reduced to coughing and less frequent nose blowing, Siberia gets progressively cold and more beautiful, M beats Hazel at scrabble again and we prepare to leave the train.
The towns have been less frequent and the tiny villages more so, with the odd huge messy city (Omsk etc), full of looming factories (well the train was never going to go thorough the nice part of town was it!) and peeling apartment blocks. There are less old ladies and a few more Mongolian and Chinese (I can just about tell the difference) selling things on the platform. Most stuff is sold out of little stores and Coke fridges (I bet Coke doesn't know their brand covers smoked fish and cigarettes - yes folks, I think you keep the cigarettes warm in fridges in Siberia). We're glad to be getting off the train and dying to stretch our legs.

• remember when you learnt to use the abacus as school? some of the storekeepers still use an abacus to work out the total, then type it into a calculator for us to understand. There's something ironic about someone using an abacus to calcuate something for someone with a wireless PDA in his pocket....more so when you consider the blackberry doesn't get a signal to transmit!

1st day in Russia

Completely knackered when we boarded aeroflots hard leather seats. Possibly even more knackered when we got to the other end an hour early due to daylight saving. No pickup but managed to rustle up intourist agent and get the first of many scary cabs for the day. Makes driving in india seem safe. hotel is very grand in a used way. Breakfast room has 3 gaudy chandeliers and a large assortment of food ranging from cucumber to saveloys for breakfast. M has a meringue cake as well, most unlike him. We go back to our single beds (not our choice but we're too tired to care).

Did the intourist tour with sergei and now know the history of every “yellowish building to the left” as every building seems to have a historic past...though they could be making it up and we'd never know.Got the giude to tell us a good place for dinner and thawed out over mulled wine. M had 'tabbacco chicken' which looked like road kill flattened out on his plate, but tasted like peking duck. He could hardly cut into it but had backup dumplings to fill him up. Did the usual trick of getting posh hotel to get taxi back to ours as everyone has been warning us not to use the private cabs and we really do look like tourists. Maybe we should buy and light some ciggies to walk around with, to blend in.

Now hanging in the lobby bar having a 'gasser' local beer...any lighter and it could be called 'bud' (sorry americans) watching a couple of hookers waiting for the lift (it is a safe hotel really) as my mum would say, they'll catch they're death of cold dressed like that. The other interesting sight today is watching a well dressed woman at the airport put out her cigarette by spitting onto a piece of paper, stubbing it out in the spittle before folding it all up and carefully putting the whole lot in her pocket!

last day

Up at 5:00 to get the cleaning finished
last day at work
feels like another day with huge amount to do..feeling very guilty about all the things I haven't done, trying not to get upset about it
Reuters team and Katie gave me a nice bottle of champagne to say thank you, very thoughtful...couple of other people popped by to wish me well
Think M got a bit of a leaving do..nice they think so much of him
no time left, have to get back to work
later gator

Almost there...We've made it to Thursday

The movers have taken everything off in a giant orange 40ft container. Too late now to worry if we've packed anything we might need for the next 6 weeks.
Onto the cleaning, and finger crossing to get the bond back.
Not much time today to post as I got to work late due to the large amount of things that had to be done this morning...you know you''ve got too much in your suitcase when you have to sit on it to close it.
The nice Kiwi bloke I spoke to on the phone today (just remembered to cancel the car insurance!) asked for my favorite travel tips, so I thought I would post them today for you all:

1. http://www.priceline.com/ is the site to bid for hotel room, try being as cheeky as you can (we stayed in a 4 star in Zurich for £40 for 2 per night)
2. http://www.smoothhound.co.uk is the best site I've found for B&B's in the UK and sometimes overseas...huge variety and price
3. http://www.highways.gov.uk/trafficinfo/ if you're planning on traveling anywhere in the UK and don't know what the traffic is like...useful for bank holidays and trying to get to the airport or ferry on time!. Check if your mobile phone provider offers a road news service or tune into 1152am (traffic updates every 10 minutes in the morning that will help you on that hell trip around the M25)...so NOT going to miss the words 'experiencing severe delays on the Heathrow stretch...'
4. http://www.regentpalacehotel.co.uk/ for a cheapo hotel (for London) if you want to have the night out and don't want to train home (or have lots of whanau wanting to visit) - it's not flash (I think they hide their two stars under a pile of laundry) but it's handy
5. Go to Germany/France/Switzerland etc in winter as they have cool Christmas markets, and the Gluwien helps keep the cold away
6. If you're flying sleazy jet or lyin air (easy or ryan), booking cars through the site usually works out the best price but plan for one person picking up the bags and the other nipping through to get to the front of the queue, particularly in teeny-tiny airports to some obscure place, where the whole flight needs a hire car. ALWAYS ask where the nearest fill up petrol station is on the map, AND if they are open on Sunday (can you tell we've been caught out and had to pay exorbitant petrol fees!)
7. Look for a European hotel through easyjet(they're not bad) then look for the hotel itself online and see if you can book direct, it's sometimes cheaper, so is ringing them (but get a fax confirmation)
8. Any food product with a reindeer picture in Scandanavia is not showing their national symbol (like a kiwi or bulldog)...you really are eating Rudolf made into salami...but it's quite tasty!

4 days to go

The house is a halfpacked bombsite..the NTL people have not turned up to pick up the cable boxes and we're knackered - not bad for a Tuesday!. I think we've spent about 4 hours on hold to NTL so far. They were supposed to pick it up yesterday morning at 8 and when I finally go through to someone they suggested a new appointment next week...um NO...we'll be in Russia...well how about leaving it with a neighbour...um NO, we wouldn't dream of asking them to stay around waiting for your guys to NOT turn up, and besides most of them work...so how about sending it to us...let me think about that for a moment...two heavy cable boxes and wires to that we pay to post to Scotland...um NO WAY. They can't tell us a depot to drop them off at and they can't tell us when someone can come and they don't seem keen on us leaving them outside the front door in a plastic bag...today it's M's day to call them, just checked with him and he says the supervisor is going to ring him back. He told them that if she didn't by 5pm that he would ring the president of the company. Hokey dokey...you'll have to wait for tomorrow for the next exciting installment of the NTL saga.
Need a mental break from looking at the spreadsheet I'm working on so went to look at the hotel we're staying in Moscow for 2 days...holy cow, I think the words 'it looks like a wedding cake' spring to mind.
Tommorow I'm sending this link out to all with our new address...hope no one gives me too much of a hard time!

The Weavers are leaver - part 1...el tapas

ohhhhhhh...the hangovers are finally wearing off...we had the bestest leaving do, in conjuction with Gills birthday. Managed to scrape together 17 of our nearest and dearest living in the UK (would say British but the Welsh, Irish and Shi Lanka contingent will be offended)and trundled off to our favorite tapas bar Los Hermanos in Sutton. What better way to say farewell to old blighty by drinking sangria and singing Delilah with the entire restaurant...all together now...WHY WHY WHY DELIAH LAH LAH LAH MY MY MY DELILAH... Those that had never been before thought we were joking about the singing bit, but we've always had a fab time and weren't disappointed. There was dancing, there was singing, there were flaming B52s (and I SWORE I was never going to drink on of those foul concoctions after last time) and the old classic 'oops upside your face' which somehow involves everyone sitting on the floor pretending to row.
I think I remember doing my version of salsa with one of the chefs when I went to pay the bill and eventually they kicked us out at 1:00. Staggered off home propping my drunken sot of a husband (it doesn't happen very often but it's awfully funny when it does!) and remebered to take on an alka seltzer and take of my earrings, so must have had some command of faculties after all.
M was so hangover the next morning he let Dylan (V's monster cat) lick his face..I swear that cat thinks its a dog somedays...lots of water and a greenfaced drive home, then it's back to the packing.

Finally ready for the packers at about 11:30 last night (NEVER try inventoring your household contents late at night on a hangover...how much is a drawer of sleepwear really worth!)I know I've moved 22 times in the last 18 years, but I think from this day forth the only packers I ever want to hear about are the sort that run around in a stadium in Greenbay

so five sleeps left to go...we move into the motel tonight...just spoken to M (he's on 'packer shift' today and there are four of them in the house.

Geoff and Amy get hitched

Thursday Midnight
Get through new fingerprint and eyeball camera shot stuff at airport, find shuttle to car rental, breathe in warm air and smile about leaving cold England.
Fire up in car mobile phone sat navigation system and gasp at paying $3.00 toll to LEAVE airport...This must be how they are still paying for the 'Big Dig'.
Get hopelessly lost at roadworks following sat nav instructions and having to press reroute button, yell at each other (cos that always make things better - yeah - right!), turn off sat nav, pull out paper instructions and get there in 10 minutes. M collapses into bed and I pull out lap-top to finish ghastly uncompleted work. Pad downstairs to fax stuff to UK at 4:00am and make friends with night manager whilst waiting. Crawl into bed too wired to fall asleep easily.
Friday
Lovely sunny day (27 degrees) and Boston is having autumn while UK missed it entirely. Go to cafe for breakfast (spinach/mushroom/feta omelette - definitely not the full English), wander into town after checking with stressed bridal party for tonight's arrangements and spend morning puttering around Quincy Square and Fanueil hall behaving like tourists (well we are!)

M has to buy shorts and polo shirt it's so hot..Soak up the sun and head to the Prudential Tower to look at the view...360 degrees of Boston and very entertaining audio tour, favorite part being the tidal wave of treacle that killed 13 people (you'd think they'd be able to get away from a wave of TREACLE)
Catch Ross about to quality assess 'house of cheesecake' product though he denies this and says he's only buying a coffee to get a seat whilst waiting for us.
Go home, nap and watch TV marveling at advertising standards...You can actually advertise a drug by slagging off what a similar drug can't do!
Catch up with Sara, meet new in-laws and reassure stressed bridal couple that everything will be alright on the day...Feel small amount of satisfaction that stress is not own from own wedding.
Out to dinner at nice Italian restaurant in the middle of renovation with very not-so-calm bridegroom, ply him with wine and all head home under strict instructions not to be late. Remind brother to iron his new shirt or be disowned.
Saturday
Go to scary old lady hair salon in basement of hotel, get crispy curls put in, learn Massachusetts is home of Dunkin Donuts when making suggestion that Krispy Kreme were the best donuts in the world when Husband comes by to flaunt breakfast in face before proceeding to room. Smile nicely when older salon owner suggests that I get a 'set' next time as the curls will last longer, whilst thinking how much i will miss my glamorous UK hairdresser.
Scare husband with large hair, gulp down donuts and go off to do The Duck (amphibious vehicle) tour of Boston. Can highly recommend this, very entertaining, fun to be out on the water and even more fun making 'quack quack' noises to every small child who quacks at us. Even more fun making 'silent quacking' sounds with hands in the posh neighborhoods.
Scary curls have settled down now thanks to surprisingly fast amphibious vehicle, get glammed up and attempt to use sat nav to ceremony (it works this time)
The ceremony
Amy has just sent a link with some photo's from the wedding
pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/pluton74/album?.dir=/8872&.src=ph&.tok=phxOA5BBMdElIbDc
She had quite an unusual dress in that it was quite classical and she looked very cute in it. it had 3 diamond shaped cutouts in a vertical row down the back, with a bow joining each one together. Sara stepped down a step funny an hour before the ceremony and twisted her ankle, but 2 ibuprofen, an ice pack and an elastic bandage later she managed to carefully walk up the aisle, slip her shoes off under her long dress (thank goodness) and discretely walk back down the aisle with bare feet...no one noticed as everyone was looking at Amy and Geoff, until we had to retrieve her shoes and prop her foot up.
It was a very informal and personal wedding and very suited to both of them. I read out a message from Yvonne and Allen (Geoff's mum and dad), and phoned them after the ceremony to let them know their baby boy was married.
The reserve was lovely and the house very grand, but in need of a family to love it, I think it's now just used as a meeting space etc. We then drove back to the hotel (Geoff and Amy wanted us to bring back some stuff from the ceremony), had a wee bit of a nap and then went to the Chinese restaurant for dinner. Amy changed into this beautiful pink/gold brocade gown made from fabric that had belonged to her grandmother...a real mix of cultures as we were all going'''ohhhh, that's a lovely idea', and to the Chinese, to use something old like that is a sign of being poor!, She wanted to wear something of her grandmothers, so i think her western side won out.
We managed to be at the vegetarian table, which meant some interesting things to eat, they even had one dish where the noodles were tied into knots like skeins of wool, no idea how they did that. Had some wonderful dishes though, got to see the tea ceremony where the bride and groom serve tea to all the older relatives and they give gifts of money, and listen to Geoff give a speech in cantonese...having been coached by his father in law. There were some strange expressions on the Chinese people when he said the words, so hopefully he didn't call his mother-in-law a fat red horse or anything.
We all went to a club for dancing afterwards (and a much needed cocktail) and crawled home at 1:30...ready to get up to take Sarah to the airport at 5:30...Sunday seemed like a very long day after that (had brunch with Geoff and Amy, Ross and Geoff's friend Greg from NZ) and I think I was still tired when we crawled off the plane at 6:00am.