More Snow Pictures

I only just got around to getting these off my camera, but here's more proof that we had snow.

And there's nothing at all to be done about that

Bonus points if you know what song that line is from.

We've had a really busy few days which is why I haven't blogged for a while. On Monday we worked out on the bike (and did programs that were pretty tough too. We made it to the end of them, but it explains some towards why we were so tired). A lot of the rest of the day was tidying up in the house and going out to run errands. We went to a Goodwill (which is so huge. I will never look at charity shops back home in the same light. Maybe I'll take pictures at some point). and I found two tops and some dungarees which is so cool. I just have a thing about dungarees and haven't had any since I was little. I need to lose a few more pounds before I can wear them without looking and feeling extremely stupid, but hopefully that won't be too far away :-)

After Goodwill we went to the post office and then on to Walmart. When you're out with four boys in tow somehow just going to three stores can take most of the day. In the evening we did some prep for our ladies bible study (which we went to today) and just chatted for a while. I had tried to write an email to all the people in my small group earlier in the day, but just as I pressed send the internet connection went down and I lost the whole thing. That made me a bit sad, but I feel ok now.

Today we were out from 8.30am until 6pm. This morning we had ladies bible study at church which was good. Especially since I got to cuddle a not at all old (I think maybe a month old?)beautiful baby girl. Which of course, for me, made it a great morning :-)
After bible study we went to drum lessons (Andrew and Daniel take lessons with a man from the church called Eric) and we ate lunch there with Lisa (Eric's wife) and their two children, and then this afternoon we went to their house and did some fun crafty stuff. We made some paper mache balls, which next week we will go back and paint and turn into Christmas decorations. Toward the end of the afternoon we went, along with some other kids from that street, to a park and the older kids enjoyed playing football, while the younger ones were on the climbing frame and slides.

By the time we got home we were all sleepy so we got a quick dinner (I love eating leftovers :-) ) and then once we'd got the kids off to bed I sat down to read and sort out my emails. About an hour later I finally got around to writing this post, and now it's 9.20pm and if the internet connection stays on long enough for me to put this post up then I will be very happy and totally ready to go to bed.

I am alive really

Just very busy. I will try to post some more later.

Snow

Snow Snow Snow. We got snow :-)
Earlier in the week I was going out with short sleeves and wearing sandals, today we have snow. How bizarre!

Potatoes and Tomatoes

I just had my first real shopping experience and it was bad. Blest and I are watching one of the stores where she sells her stuff (the owner is off on a birthday trip so we're helping out for the day). The problem is that we managed to forget to bring any water with us and there was only one bottle in the back of the truck. Blest has been drinking coffee, but was ready for some water so she sent me out to the restaurant opposite to buy her a bottle of water. This I did, but I discovered two things

1. They really do talk a different language. I had to say 'water' three times before they knew what I was asking for.

2. I need a lesson in American coins. I had two dollar bills and some coins, but when the woman said $2.43 I realised I had no idea if what I held in my hand was enough. After a split second panic I just got out my purse and found another dollar bill, it was less embarrassing than asking how much I had in my hand!

If music be the food of love, play on

I just discovered something else that has a different name here in the States. Musical notes. 

Back home we call the minims, crotchets, quavers and the like.  Here they call them half, quarter and eighth notes. (Please don't take those as direct translations, because I couldn't remember which order the English notes come in!)

It's a small world after all

Ok, so I have absolutely no inspiration to write today, and yet I'm going to do it anyway. Feel free to switch off the TV and do something less boring instead. 

Actually, that really is it. That's all I have right now. Come on guys, help me out.  Ask me some questions or something cos I got nothing.

Happy Thanksgiving

Sorry I haven't posted for a couple of days, we've been really busy and I was all set to do it last night, but in the end I crashed out and was asleep before 8pm! Don't know if it was just the busy day, or that now my body had got used to this timezone it wanted to try and catch up on some of the sleep it didn't get when it tried to wake me up in the middle of the night because it thought it was the middle of the day. That last sentence made sense to me, but probably no one else, but never mind!

Today is Thanksgiving and I am thankful that I get to experience it firsthand with blest and her family. (Hey, did I ever gloat over the fact I know her real name? Well, I do, so there! Actually it's really hard because I still haven't quite figured out whether to call her blest or ___.

We've had a lovely day so far. We will be eating our Thanksgiving dinner this evening, so I can't tell you all about that yet, but we have done lots of fun stuff. Blest found some cool activity sheets on the internet where the two oldest got to pick words to fill in the missing gaps in a story and they just loved doing that. See here because I'm not explaining it so well.

After that we each had a sheet of paper with the phrase "I'm thankful for..." at the top and blest got out her huge box of stickers. They're all ones that she has for scrapbooking, but she said that since she probably wouldn't be doing any of that for a while (with her business and all) so we could use them. We stuck on stickers to represent all the things we are thankful for, and then each person got to show everybody and explain what each sticker stood for. The boys were so cute when they got up to show their posters, especially the youngest who said "I'm so thank-you for ...".

This afternoon blest and I played a game of scrabble, which she won (of course!), but it was a good game. Now the boys are watching Hook on DVD, blest is getting the turkey ready to go in the oven, and I am blogging and catching up with emails. (Or I will be once the internet signal comes back)

Today

Today has been really great. This morning I worked out with Blest. She taught me how to use her exercise bike, and also talked me through some weights training for my upper body. I don't ache too much at the moment, but we'll have to see what I'm like in the morning!

After all that Kellie and Leann (both OWOA ladies) came over, and Leann brought three of her four children with her. We had a great, fairly crazy time chatting and eating lunch together. Then of course we had to have a photo session to put the evidence on our blogs (I'll upload my photos at some point soome hopefully. I just need blest to remind me how to do it on this computer, and also possibly a bit more brainpower to be able to follow those instructions!)
[Edited to add: You can see the picture here]

Kellie had to go, but the three of us left decided to play scrabble. Now, for anyone that doesn't alread know, scrabble is one of blest's things. She brought out not just any old scrabble borad, oh no, we were going to play Super Scrabble. Super Scrabble has twice the number of tiles and the board is a lot bigger and has extra scoring opportunities (you can get quadruple letter scores and words scores) and is really fun. I took a picture of our finished game so you can get an idea of the size of the board, but again, I've got to upload that later.

Leann and her kids left around half four, and blest's oldest son took her place. It was a good game. I started off with a 7 letter word on my first go, and had several good turns after that, but by the end the inspiration was beginning to flag, and blest managed to catch up and overtake me to win the game.

This evening we might have gone out to a concert, but both blest and I are feeling pretty wacked out, so instead we've stayed in. My eyes are struggling to stay open, so I don't think it'll be a late night tonight, but I guess that makes sense with working out this morning and all the talking and stuff this afternoon. I have no idea what we'll be doing tomorrow, but I'm sure it'll be fun. I'll keep taking pictures and try to get some up soon.

Meeting bloggy buddies

Right now I'm in a house with blest, Leann and Kellie (all fellow OWOA-ers) and we're having so much fun :-)
More later...

Today

Today I learnt that over here adults go to Sunday School too (back home, that's what we call the kids stuff) and got to experience Target for the firast time. I've also realised I need to change the time zone this blog thinks I'm in, because otherwise posts are appearing at even odder times than when I'm actually writing them.

Shopping the American Way

Ok, so yesterday I got to have the Walmart experience (oh my, it is so so so big) and today we've been to Lane Bryant, Kohls, Goodwill, and, of course, Starbucks.

Going to Walmart was the whole four kids deal, and certainly an experience. Today Danny watched the kids and Blest and I got to escape for the afternoon. I got to see the two places Blest has her jewelery for sale, and we got to do some shopping for ourselves.

Goodwill was also really big. The layout really reminded me of TK Max at home, with huge long rails which were divided up into different types of clothes. We headed for the jeans row and started rummaging. They weren't arranged by size, so you do just have to look at everything, and also we weren't sure what my American size would be (come to think of it, at the moment I don't really know what my UK size is right now). We found about 4 pairs for me to try, and some stuff for Blest too. There was one pair I tried which were the right size round, but just didn't really do it lengthwise since they stopped right on the knee. They gave us a good laugh though. I found a pair of jeans that fitted around my middle, and were also a brilliant length for me. Then we went back out and had a look at books (well you can't leave a charity shop without looking at the books, right?) and then had a quick look at the skirts and found a one, which I tried on and it fitted beautifully. Blest told me we had to get it, and you can't argue with that.

Lane Bryant was really fun. We went round the whole store picking up a whole load of stuff (and in particular anything that was purple, and then once we had a huge pile I took it all to the changing room. I gave Blest my camera and we had a little fashion show...

This is the pyjama top (I liked it, but it just reminded me a little bit too much of pyjamas! In fact looking at the photo I think I like it better here than I did when I was wearing it!)

This is the lampshade top. I don't know if you can see it in the photo, but it had these tassells on the sleeves that just reminded me of the sort you find hanging from lampshades! This is the dress Blest picked out, forgetting that I'm a little bit taller than her. First time I put it on was without the trousers (don't make me call them pants!), but then I put the trousers on so that we could take a photo.

This was our favourite, and in fact the things we actually bought. I fell in love with the trousers the moment I put them on, and I love the top too.

We also found another top and got that too, but we didn't take any pictures of that one.
While all this was going on there were a couple of Spanish ladies sitting out with Blest (I think they were waiting for someone in one of the other changing rooms, although I never actually saw that person!) They were really funny and kept making remarks in Spanish, which unfortunately we had no hope of understanding, but they seemed pretty excited by the outfit we bought, so we took that as a good sign :-)

This evening Blest has made me a necklace to go with the top, and I'm gonna wear it tomorrow. hopefully we'll take some pictures of me and Blest together and will probably post them on one weigh or another at some point in the near future.

Meeting the boys

I woke up super early (well, for me anyway, Blest had already been up for an hour, and she's only got about 2 hours sleep altogether) and the boys came down about an hour later. They were really cute, being super shy and hiding behind the furniture. This went on for a fair while, until all four were down and they'd started eating breakfast. At that point Blest went for a quick shower, and all of a sudden it was like the floodgates had opened. You literally could not stop them talking. As I said to Blest when she came out 'Ok, so they're talking now. Is there any way to get them to take turns?!'

Part two

It's just taken me about half an hour from getting on the computer to actually being able to start writing this post. What with reading emails, replying to emails, checking my amazon account, checking facebook, and stopping to give hugs on request, it's somehow taken longer than I thought. Anyway, on with the post..

When I got to the right terminal I realised that the first thing I had to do was go through security, and that since I hadn't even started on my second bottle of water I had to drink it while waiting in line or put it in the bin. So even though it was big, I drank it all standing in the queue (and over the next few hours, while waiting at Chicago, I got to use several of their toilet facilities, but that's another story. I so wanted to write 'restrooms' there, but I had to resist! My accent is so screwed up already, what's it gonna be like after three months here?!)
(Oh yeah, the three months thing, can't remember if I ever mentioned that. For anyone that doesn't know, it was too difficult to get an au pair visa given our circumstances, so instead I'm here for 85 days for an extended holiday)

They didn't really have any people telling you what to do, but I just did what the people in front of me did. Here they did everything at once (whereas at Heathrow it was bags and coats first and then shoes were separate), and I actually had to go back and take off my zippy top as well as my fleece to send them through the x-ray machine before I walked through the metal detector.

I was meant to have about a three hour wait at Chicago, but my flight was delayed for another hour. I walked up and down the whole terminal a few times, but then I just sat down against the wall and read my book because I was just too tired to do much else. We finally got on the plane about an hour after we were meant to have taken off, but then just sat there for a long long long time before we finally got to take off. The second plane was a lot smaller, with only two seats on either side of the main gangway. And there was no fancy safety video, but we actually got to see the air hostess and steward doing their thing with the pointing and the oxygen masks and everything.

The flight was kinda long and I was getting drowsy by this point. I dozed a little bit, but was mostly just in a kind of daze. It was great to see the lights of El Paso as we came in to land. You could see big patches of light, but then also huge areas in between that were dark and I wondered what they were. (When we went out in the light yesterday I could see that they were pretty much just large empty desert like areas). I got off the plane and walked down some corridors and stairs and was just starting to head for the baggage collection point when I heard some one calling my name. I looked across and there was Blest. It was great to see her in the flesh for the first time. I have to admit that even though I know she's short, I actually thought that she'd be taller than she was!

We walked together to the baggage claim carousel and eventually one of my bags came through. But then the bags stopped coming and my second bag hadn't come. If that had happened at Chicago I would have totally panicked, but I think by this point I had Blest with me to reassure me that it wasn't an unusual occurrence, and besides I was too tired to really be able to panic. I just had to go into a little office and leave them an address and phone number that they could contact me on. I'd seen it at Chicago, so I knew at least that it was in the country, and I was better off than the guy in front of me because they'd lost two of his bags, and all he had was his baby seat (he didn't even have a baby, but we were pretty sure that they airport people hadn't lost the baby!)

Finally we got to leave the airport and got in the truck. It's actually Danny's truck, and it's kinda funny to see such a little lady like Blest driving such a big vehicle (she totally makes up in personality anything that she lacks in height!) She drove us home, and although it was strange to be on the 'wrong' side of the road I think I was too tired to notice properly. We got home and I got to meet Danny, who was just like Blest had described, and we stayed up talking for quite a while before we finally headed for bed.

In Chicago I'd taken my medicine, but since that was several hours before my Mum and I had decided I would probably need to fit in another dose for the day, so I took some more before I went to bed. Unfortunately I think it was probably a bit too much medicine for my body, and combined with the adrenalin I'd been running off all day my heart was really pounding and I don't think I got to sleep until about 1.30am (by which point I'd been awake for around 27 and a half hours, since I don't count the dozing on the plane). And then my body shouting at me that it was 2pm in the afternoon, combined with the garbage truck outside my window meant that I woke up at 6am the next morning.

And that is where we leave this post, since it was only meant to be about my first day, and besides Blest's already started eating her lunch and I wanna get mine! More about meeting the boys soon. (I got to peep at them fast asleep that first night, but didn't properly meet them until the next morning).

The Longest Day of My life (actual length in hours) Part One

Tuesday evening B, J and their Mum came over to say goodbye and gave me some beautiful presents, including a fantastic picture drawn by B.

Wednesday was the day that it all suddenly felt real. All of a sudden I was leaving tomorrow and I hadn't packed much and it seemed like there were a million things to do. In the morning it all came to a head when I realised that we had Bekki's walking boots and mine were in Cambridge. Luckily my Mum was able to home for a couple of hours before work in the afternoon. She calmed me down, and a visit from Little One, Little Flower and their Mum also helped to make me feel better. Actually, in the end, a two hour drive to and from Cambridge was probably a good thing because it meant I couldn't be at home by myself panicking, and I got to see Bekki one last time.

Wednesday evening went in a bit of a blur. We got my bags packed and then had the chance to play the 'take things out again until the bag is under the weight limit' game. I got to play that again in the morning having thought of a couple more things that really did need to go in.

Thursday morning we'd set the alarm for 5am. Actually, I set it for 5.05am because that didn't sound quite so bad. We got up and got the last few bits and pieces sorted out and finally left the house around 7am. It was quite slow on the motorway, but we made it the Heathrow with plenty of time. I spent ages at check in because we were trying to find out if they would be able to put my luggage in the heated section of the hold (because apparently asthma meds can freeze at altitude which can affect their effectiveness). In the end I don't think they were going to put them there, but to be honest I don't really remember, it's all a bit hazy. But while I was waiting I got to finish filling in my green card and the lady on check-in checked it and told me I'd done it right.

I went upstairs and said goodbye to Mummy and Daddy for the last time, and then headed into the security checks. I have to say that I think the system was better explained at Heathrow but they were more thorough at Chicago. Once I was through those (bag, body and shoes got checked) I was into the shops bit of the terminal. I went in WHSmith and got a couple of bottles of water and then had a wander. I had ages to wait and they hadn't even posted a gate number so I pretty much had to either wander or sit somewhere and I was too hyper to sit down! I found a place that had watches and bought myself one (I've been meaning to all week, but time had disappeared. I use my mobile phone when I'm home, but I was leaving that with my Dad for him to use while I'm gone. So, if you try to ring or text me you'll get him)

They put the gate number up so I decided to head down there even though there was loads of time left. I ended up sitting there a while, but that was ok, it was fun to people watch! We boarded the plane and I found me seat. I was on the end of the row of seats in the midde (There were 2, 5, 2 and I was on the right hand end of the 5). I said hi to my neighbour and told her it was my first ever flight which really surprised her :-)

On the ascent I was aware of my ears popping a lot, but I kept swallowing and sucking on some mints and yawning (all flying tips given to me by various people) all of which seemed to help. We got to have a choice of various things to watch so I got to see Hairspray, and also caught an episode of New Tricks (It was the one about the ice cream sellers). About 5 hours into the flight I'd pretty much had enough, but we still had another 3 hours to go.

Hmm, other things I noticed on the flight - the noise the toilet makes when it flushes is kind of scary, I could not have slept even if I'd wanted to because I had too much adrenalin rushing around my body, and the whole ears popping thing goes on for a very long time. I'd alway assumed, for some bizare reason, that it was literally the moment of take-off that you had to make sure you were sucking\swallowing\yawning, but actually that goes on for a lot longer. I guess it makes sense because you go up really high (35,000 feet), but it did surprise me at the time. I also noticed when we started to descend, even though the captain hadn't come on to say we were, again because of the air popping. Also, it was amazing to look out as we descended and see the clouds like a fluffy layer of cotton wool. (I'd write that more poetically, but I'm tired people!)

I was a bit nervous at Chicago because I knew I had to go through immigration, customs collect my luggage and re-check it and myself. It was immigration first and they take an electronic fingerprint of both index fingers. The guy kept telling my to press harder and it began to hurt because I was pressing so much, but I guess it must have worked in the end because he let me through. Next I had to collect my bags and boy was I glad that I didn't have black bags because there were so many of them. One other person did appear to have the same bags as me, but as they had a lot more labels on their bags it was easy enough to look at them and see they weren't mine. Both my bags came out eventually, and I just about managed to get them off the carosel without bopping anyone on the head. Customs was ok, all I had to do was hand over the form I'd completed on the plane, the tricky part was wheeling two suitcases and holding a form in my hand at the same time.

I went through door for people transfering to another flight and got to hand over my bags again and then walked out and panicked. I had no idea where I was meant to be going next or how I was supposed to get there. I followed the crowd and a helpful airline guy looked at my ticket and told me to get on the train that was waiting and get off at terminal 3. One thing I noticed was that the trains run of the opposite sides of the tracks, although I guess that makes sense with the whole drive on the other side thing too.

Ok, this post has to end here because it's almost dinner time and my brain is going a little fuzzy. More about the rest of the journey and meeting Blest and her family either later on or tomorrow.

Morning

Well, it's morning here in Texas anyway!

I'm here :-)

Haven't has much sleep, but had to get up cos my body was shouting 'what are you doing? It's 2 o'clock in the afternoon, get up'

More later.

Last Day

I've kind of got to that trying not to panic stage where I realise I only have one more day and there are still an awful lot of things to be done in the course of that day.
I'd better go and get dressed and eat breakfast and get on with it...

Medication, that's what you need (To be sung to the tune of the record breakers song)

In the past I've shared with you all a beautiful tower made from medicine I take. In case you missed it, or want to see it again you can find that here
However, that sculpture pales into insignificance compared to the tower I made this week with all thisI've included the front and side views so you can understand the sheer size of this creation(!)

The firework post (even if it is a bit late)

Taking pictures of fireworks is always pretty tricky, especially if there's a delay between pressing the button and the picture taking, so since I was taking these with my phone, I'm quite impressed.

I went to a small group social on Tuesday last week where we had fireworks. This was a low down fountain type firework. I like the way you can see the silhouettes of people in front.This was a firework up in the sky, but to be honest it's not that exciting!This is my favourite, it was taken on Wednesday, at another church small group social. We didn't have fireworks, but some of us did have sparklers (and I got to go in the hot tub, but that's another story!) I managed to take this one holding my phone in one hand and spinning the sparkler around in a circle with the other. I like it :-)

More things about me

1. I like hugs, no actually I love hugs. I somehow just need lots of hugs. Today at church was great because I was given lots of hugs, but also sad because I'm not going to see most of those people again until I'm back in the UK in February.

2. I'm allergic to a lot of things. These include feathers, dust, grass, pollen and pet hair. (Actually that should just be animal hair because I'm also allergic to reindeer and goats and things like that which you wouldn't keep as pets as a general rule, unless you were Father Christmas or something). Mostly they just make me sneeze, and actually some of my allergies have got better over the last couple of years, however I like to make sure I've always got a box of tissues around just in case!

3. I take more medicine in one day than lots of people take in a year (but which I meant number of different types of medication, rather than volume of medicine that I inhale\swallow!) I have four inhalers and three different types of pills. That's before you add in anything like vitamins. It's fun being me :-)

4. I am a quarter of a century old. I can't quite work out how that happened, I mean I know times passes and all that, but still, it went pretty quickly!

5. At the moment I seem to be addicted to using exclamation marks and smiley faces. I am trying to wean myself off them, but it's hard. I blame texting.

Things you might not know about me

1. I am quite a noisy sleeper. I may grind my teeth, talk, toss and turn or even sleepwalk. It's quite a good excuse to use for getting your own room though - In the past when we've gone on family holidays I've often got to have a room on my own while HP and Bekki shared because neither of them wanted to share with me!

2. I cannot get to sleep if there is a ticking clock in the room. For some people it's a comfort, but for me it's sheer torture, I lie there waiting for the next tick to come.

3. I don't eat fish. I don't know if it's an actual food allergy or just psychological, but I just can't eat it. There's a particular stir-fry my parents like which has fish sauce in it, and I even hate the smell of it, as a consequence they usually only eat it when I'm out! HP loves tuna, and one of the family traditions used to be that my Dad would cook on a Saturday night and he'd made tuna risotto, but I never ate that either. I have a vague feeling that my dislike maybe connected to a time that I was ill already and my Mum cooked fish, and I now associate the two, but who knows. My Mum says I've never really liked eating fish, even from when I was little.

4. My favourite colour is purple. Actually, I'm sure you all must know that by now, but in case you don't! I'm very proud of how little time it seems to take the children I look after (babysitting, child-minding, in school, at church etc) to work that one out. Although the purple car\fleece\trousers etc may help. The last time I looked after The Little One I taught him all about the colour purple, and now instead of just spotting "Debbie's car" every time he sees a similar modal\size to mine, he can say "Debbie's purple car" :-)

5. I don't like butter or margarine in my sandwiches, or mayonnaise for that matter. In fact, I've given up ever eating a shop-bought sandwich because it's nigh on impossible to find a sandwich without mayonnaise, and if it doesn't have mayo then it has salsa or yoghurt or something else equally yucky in.

(Bonus picture of the alien in B and J's kitchen)

Overwhelmed

As I count down the days to leaving these shores and continue to break the news to people that "we've finally sorted it out, and yes, it really is that soon" I am overwhelmed by the love and kindness that people around me are showing me. I have some amazing friends and family who I am going to really miss while I'm gone, and I am very privileged to know that while I am away they'll be thinking of me, praying for me and following my adventures by reading my blog and my status changes on facebook. Thanks everyone who has wished me well on this journey, I am so blessed to be known and loved by you.

Ready, Steady, Go

My flights are booked and I'm going to Texas on the 15th November. Yes that is only 11 days away. Oh my goodness all the things that need to be done between then and now. The list lover in me is working overtime!

excitement

Certain obstacles result in plans changing, but moving swiftly forward. More news soon.

Walthamstow

I've lived in Walthamstow all my life, apart from when I was away at university and the year after I was at university, and actually I spent quite a lot of that year at home which with having one car after another (I lived back at home in-between cars, and somehow during the course of the year went from my first car to my third car, but that's another story)

We've also always lived in the same house. I've had the same bedroom all my life, at various points I've shared it with either Bekki or HP, but I don't think I've ever had the boxroom as my bedroom. Sure, I've slept in it, think I've slept in most of the rooms in the house, but that's not the point. Actually I've forgotten what the point was, lets start a new paragraph and see what happens.

Walthamstow is famous for a number of reasons (or should that be infamous?). Apparently the market is the longest street market in Europe. I love wandering down the market, feeling the atmosphere and being surrounded by people from many different countries and cities across the world.

Walthamstow has the post code E17 (the E stands for east) and as such is the origins of the band East 17. I'm not sure people know who they are if you talk about them now, but they were famous enough when I was growing up that people in my class at school would be excited if they'd seen them out and about (I might have got excited had I had a clue of what they looked like and therefore able to identify if I had seen them).

When we went on holiday to a tiny little town\village\hamlet (can't remember what it called itself) people knew exactly where we were from because we could tell them 'yes, we live just round the corner from one of the terrorist's houses that was raided at the weekend' - those were there raids that are now known as the failed London bombings and would have come a year after the London bombings on the tube. I'm not saying I'm proud of living round the corner from a potential terrorist, I'm just saying that although that's what Walthamstow can be like, it's also the place that is home for me.

I guess as I'm looking to move to another country, another city, another world, I'm looking around me and realising again just what makes London home for me. My parents moved to London when they were married as that's where my Dad was working at the time. I don't think they ever envisioned staying in London this long, yet here we are still, and they've raised three Londoners! I think Bekki is happy to live other places (at the moment she's in Cambridge) and I have been for certain periods of time, but somehow I've always wanted to come home. Growing up in London creates certain expectations of things like public transport -I know when I was living in a little village (GC) and my car died, I actually felt trapped, not able to escape easily if I had wanted to.

It'll be interesting to see what going to the States does to my sense of being a Londoner and belonging here. Watch this space...

(Now that I've clicked publish I realise there are so many things about Walthamstow that I haven't talked about. maybe I'll write some more about it in another post. In the meantime what do you feel about where you live? Is it just for a season, or is it home? How does somewhere begin to feel like home? Let me know what you think, pretty please :-) )

I'm still alive

I've blogged here and here in the last couple of days, but not here, and I apologise. I've had a busy few days. I've been on the train with the little one, I've sat in a traffic jam for 2 hours and arrived an hour late for my doctors appointment, and I've done lots of other stuff that I can't remember!
The doctor did let me still see him rather than having to make a new appointment, and I'm now set up with prescriptions for medication for the next 6 months. Another step closer to going to Texas...

Here we are on the train on Monday,and here I am eating lunch with J today.

Photos now uploaded :-)

Accountability In My Eating

Over the last few months my weight-loss journey (as talked about more over at one weigh or another than here) seems to have been more of a weight-gain journey. In an attempt to be accountable and be aware of everything I eat I've resolved to take a picture of every single thing I eat during the next week.
These pictures can be found on my blog Can Big Change to Beautiful
Please feel free to drop over there and see what I'm eating, or just ignore it, as you wish!
Just a warning, the omlette I had this morning didn't really look all that appetising because it pretty much fell apart as I tried to put it on the plate, however it did taste ok!

In other news I'm really sneezy today, and collapsing in a big heap after my way too busy week. Actually, I'm not totally collapsed, I'm doing all the things that need to be done at home (catch up with my accounts, tidy my room, make something exciting with sewing that I'm not going to tell you what it is in case it's a surprise for someone - I haven't totally decided yet, take photos of things to put on ebay, list things on e-bay, think about buying an mp3 player and camera, and start making lists of things to take to Texas) So not too much then.

Editedto add: Some of those things may get done, but something has come up so I'm going to be looking after the little one today for a few hours.

Today

Even if it does seem like all I do lately is put up pictures, I just want to share a few more from my time today with Suzanne and Sarah. We've had a day full of sharing news, good food and and awful lot of giggling.

We ate at TGI Fridays.Sarah didn't like this picture, but I though it was sweet. (She wants me to point out that making that face was deliberate rather than accidental. I'll just say that I've got several that look worse than this one, so I think she got away lightly on this occasion. If only I could get videos off my phone it'd be a different story...!)After going in TGI Fridays we wandered around Homebase for a little while. I told Suzanne to stand next to the groovy chick thing and she did, so I took her picture.Sarah then posed with a basket on her head, so I had to take a picture of that too.Finally, a picture of the three of us together sat on the sofa back at Suzanne's house.We had a lovely day :-)

Sue's Birthday

Updated to inclure comments on the photos

I have no idea what Adrian is doing in this picture (right hand side). Sue, the birthday girl is in red.Adrian, Andree and their youngest son, George
Fran tucking in to the yummy food
Nikki and baby George
George waving (or at least waving his arms around so it looks like he's waving!)

Will add comments later. Have to go now as I'm late for getting to Suz-pie's house to see her and Crox (two friends from university, aka Suzanne and Sarah!)
Better still, feel free to comment in the comments!

A day up London

Today I met up with my friend Jenny. We'd arranged to meet as she is on half term at the moment, and she suggested going to Tate Modern, so we did. Maybe it was because we were both quite tried, or maybe we're just uncultured, but neither of us really saw anything that really appealed, however it was a good day out. We started at Tate Modern (well, actually we started at Jen's house, but once we were up town). Come to think of it, that's not right either. We got off the tube at Blackfriers so that we could walk across the Millennium Bridge and we took some pictures of the view up and down the river.

Looking towards London Bridge

Looking towards Blackfriers bridge. Jenny taking a picture of me taking a picture of her.
Jenny, with a spider behind her (not actually on her head, despite appearances)The view looking from the top floor of Tate Modern. You can just see a little of the spider in the bottom of the photo.The reflection of our legs on a mirror cube in the surrealism section. It wasn't that impressive, but we thought it made a cool picture.
After the Tate Modern we walked along the river to London Bridge and had a bit of a wander in Borough Market and then got the tube and train back to Jenny's house because we were totally worn out by that point!
Right, now I must go and get dressed to go out to celebrate Sue's birthday (Mum of the little one and the little flower). Pictures to follow if I remember to take any...

The presliced banana trick

Rather than try to explain it in long and complicated detail which would probably not make much sense anyway you can look here or here or here. (Depending on whether you prefer written instructions, video or a diagram!) I think they are all variations on the theme, but try it and see which works for you!

Books

I've decided I need to read more of the classics. By which I mean things like Jane Eyre or Pride and Prejudice. I've seen both those books in at least one screen adaptation, but it occurs to me that I have never actually read the books themselves. To start to rectify this at once I am taking copies of both out babysitting with me tonight, in the hope that one of them will draw me in. And even if it doesn't straight away, they're the sort of books that it seems worth keeping reading on in hope(!)

Thanks much go to HP because I just raided her bookshelf for copies of both these books, and once I've read these I might go back and get Rebecca.

Update: I'm home from babysitting and halfway through Pride and Prejudice. I'm finding it really funny in places and it helps that I've seen it so can remember what happens. I think the problem with Jane Eyre is that I'll want to skip past the stuff where she's growing up to when she starts to live at Thornfield Manor, so we'll have to see how that goes. I read a couple of pages, but then put in down in favour of the other.

The banana trick

Have you ever opened a banana and discovered it was pre-sliced?
Simeon has....

Tune in next next time to find out how.

Appointments aplenty

(Myself, Alison and Sarah at Imogen and Greg's wedding)

This morning I finally had the opportunity to sleep in a bit, which was great. I tihnk I'm generally just a bit run down and needed to catch up on some sleep. I finally went to see the doctor on Friday for the cough and nasty gunk that I've had on and off for the last few of months. I'd tell myself I really ought to go to the doctor, but then I'd begin to feel better again and not go. This timeI told myself I had to go whatever I felt like because it wasn't going to go away on its own, and sure enough he gave me antibiotics which I'm hoping will kick the cough and gunk out once and for all. I've still got the cough (pause for coughing fit - does it know what I'm typing?) but there are still several days of antibiotics left so I haven't given up hope on their working.

I've got to go to the dentist this afternoon. It occurred to me that I was actually meant to go for my six monthly check-up in about May, and since it's now October and I'm going to be away for the next year, that maybe it might be a good time to go and get my teeth checked any any work that needs to be done out of the way before I head off to Texas. I'm really not keen on going to the dentist. So far as those sorts of appointments go (haircut, eye test, visit to the doctor, seeing the dentist) it's my least favourite so I probably put it off for longer than I ought to. Hopefully I won't have a coughing fit while in the dentist chair!

Life seems to be full of those appointments at the moment. Last week I saw the doctor and a couple of weeks before that I saw a nurse about my asthma medication. She wanted me to see a different nurse, so that appointment is coming up next week. Tomorrow I'm going to get a tetanus shot so that I'm up to date with that. I got my hair cut last week, and went to the opticians in the summer and got new glasses. Finally, I need to make an appointment with the main doctor at my surgery to ask if he authorise me having more than two months worth of medication in one prescription, otherwise my parents are going to have to post stuff out to me in Texas every two months. I think that's pretty much all the different appointments of that nature covered!

On Friday I got my photograph taken (passport sized pictures) and was able to get my International Driving Permit issued. Talking of photos, I need one for my visa application and on the form it says it should be 50x50mm. However, normal passport photos which are used for this sort of thing are usually 50x40mm ish. Is the 50x50mm a typical size for American photos for this sort of thing? Do you think I can just use one of the photos I have, or should I get one done specially to be that size? Any suggestions?! I'm going to try to go on the American Embassy site and see if I can find anything useful regarding photos on there.

Picture (maybe we'll be able to see it in this post!)

Imogen and Greg

I had a lovely day at Imogen and Greg's wedding. It was a chance to catch up with old friends and enjoy celebrating the start of Imogen and Greg's lives together.

This was taken outside after the wedding service.

Ok, in my post as I'm writing it I can see the picture, why can't I see it once the post is published?

Introducing

Tales from Exeter

Yes, HP and Barney (that's HP's boyfriend) now have a blog.
Go welcome them to the blogosphere.

Can't think of a good title for this post

Ok, so after this weekend I'm hoping that maybe life can get a little less chaotic and I might actually find some time to blog (who am I kidding, with a visa application to get done, insurance to get sorted, Christmas presents to buy...).

This weekend is the weekend of the weddings. Unfortunatly I have owned up to the fact that Leicestershire and Bristol are too far for me to even think of driving from one to the other to make a bit of both the wedding celebrations I wanted to be at, so instead I'm going to the whole of Imogen and Greg's,

and sending lots of love and hugs to Sarah and Jon.

I have a few blog posts I want to write. In particular one about living in Walthamstow. More of that next week hopefully...

CHEESE

I had a wonderful time with J yesterday. His Mum had to work so I looked after B and J for an extra morning. Firstly I finally got to go and discover for myself the delights of Edmonton Green shops. They are quite close to where B and J live, but somehow I'd not yet been to them. So adter we dropped B at school and been home again for J to have some more breakfast we headed to the shops.

I can see why noone thought I was missing much when I said I'd never been to them. Actually, that's a bit harsh. There are lots of market stalls, so it looks like it would be a good place to get fresh fruit and vegetables. There's also Boots, Tesco, HSBC, the post office and an awful lot of pound shops. The sorts of shops which are good for a lookif you have lots of time because you might find a bargain, although you may just find lots of clutter. Finally, there's Woolworths which has a big bargain section at the back of the store. It's the place where all the end of line stuff gets put, and ovbiously not ever looked at again. I had great fun rummaging through the piles of stuff, but the best thing I found was this.
(Notice the date, and then that it still costs £2.49!)

Later back at J's house we had great fun playing with bricks and saying 'cheese' for the camera. The photo at the top of the post was J walking towards the camera while saying cheese - a trickier combination than you might have thought!

when shall we three meet again?

Me on the Beach

Happy Birthday Bekki

She probably won't like this picture, but hey, it's my blog!
We're going to Cambridge for her birthday party this evening. Yay :-)

The morning after the night before

This photograph was taken outside Imogen's house on the morning after our girly sleepover. We all look pretty awake surprisingly.

Scruffy Debs

I'm home from my weekend of assorted visiting. I've has a lovely time but now feel really tired. I'm off to bed now (half 8) in the hope that I'll be more awake tomorrow.
I've got some photos to upload of the hen parties (I think you call them bachelorette parties in the US), but in the menatime this is one I took of myself the other evening when I was having a bit of a scruffy moment!

jon's joke

My dog's got a damp nose.

How does he smell?

Damp.

Debs is going going gone

Well nearly, I'm kind of still in my pyjamas. But once I've found al lthe stuff on HP's list, packed, had breakfast, posted a parcel, wrapped a parcel, got in the car, bought some petrol, brushed my hair (not necessarily in that order) I am off to Exeter to see HP, then at the weekend it's Bud's hen party in Bristol, and then I'm going to see my grandparents for a couple of days. Blogging may or may not happen, so I'll see you when I see you, or rather when you see me. Hmm, too confusing.
I'm gone.

This is me and Bud and Mucker (aka Sarah and Sarah) outside out house in Cambridge a couple of years ago. I think I look different now, so the other two probably do too, but hey!

Debs is...

Ok, so this is one of those posts that I was going to write eventually, so I might as well get it over with, and then Bekki can teach me how to... wait a second, let's start at the beginning.

I have a facebook account. I'm not one of these people who spends every minute of every day on facebook (would would do that when there are so many cool blogs out there to read?) but I do log in a couple of times a day, and most times I log on I change my status. For those of you who don't know facebook, it's basically a little box that says 'Debs is..' and I can complete the sentence. Then anyone who is my friend can see (if they so desire) what I am doing.

That's about all I have to say about facebook. I think it's the sort of thing that you either love or hate and you don't really need me talking about it. However, I do want to share with you some of my favourite 'Debs is..' moments from the last week.

Debs is pretty sure that eating chalk can't kill you.

Debs is having fun.

Debs is Tuesday tackling in ten minute time slots.

Debs is hungry. It must be dinner time soon.

Debs is excited about all the people she's friends with on facebook. (ok, so that one was pretty sad, but I'd just connected with some lovely people that I hadn't been in touch with for ages, and I was excited!)

Debs is happy but tired, or should that be tired but happy?

Debs is happy that the engineer fixed our internet and it's been working ever since. Long may it last :-).

Debs is freaking out about all the stuff that needs to be done before November.

And those are just highlights of the last week. Hmmm, maybe I do spend too much time on there.

(Turns out the spellchecker on blogger doesn't like the word facebook. Come on people, get with
the technology!)
(So Bekki, how do you turn a blog post into a note on facebook?)

Works for me Wednesday with a difference

I'm going to be moving to El Paso, Texas from London, UK in early November to go and work for a lovely family as an au pair.
Does anyone have any tips that could work for me?

* I've never been an au pair before, so any experience you could share on that would be great.

* I've also never been on a plane before.

* Does anyone have experience of getting\providing health insurance for Brits coming to live in the US?

* What are the essentials of life I ought to be packing?

* Do you have any sort of experience related to this kind of thing that you'd like to share?

(Sorry to ask so many questions!)

Most of all, thanks to Shannon for coming up with this genius idea of a WFMW which provides me with a whole host of people whose brains I can pick.

Tackling on Tuesday in Ten minute Time slots (or I like alliteration)

I've always thought that Tackle it Tuesday was a cool idea, well as Janice and Susan say it makes housework blog-able and therefore actually gives me something to write about today.

I'd like to say that this is my first tackle it Tuesday, but I have a feeling I may have done it before. Certainly it's my first tackle it Tuesday for a very long while!

Anyway, down to business. Today I tackled several of the rooms in the house, but before anyone faints with exhaustion at the thought of that, let me explain. I have a countdown timer on my phone and I set it for 10 minutes. I give myself ten minutes in each room, and try to go in an order that means I can move things that need to be moved without spending all my time going here there and everywhere.

I started in my bedroom and got all my clothes put away, books on bookshelves and the bed tidy. I didn't dust or hoover, but the way is made clear to do that later on. Then I moved to the landing and the bathroom and did a quick sort out of those areas - cleaning the sink, tidying the towels and then carrying a pile of washing downstairs to the kitchen which is the next room. I got the washing on and did the washing up, and then moved on the hall. I tidied up the desk in the hall and found found several things that needed to go up to my bedroom. At the end of that ten minutes I took those things upstairs and quickly put them away in my bedroom. I'd come full circle, spent less than a hour tidying and several areas of the house looked significantly tidier. I still need to travel round with the duster and hoover, but now that all the 'stuff' is away that will be much quicker.

That left me with enough time to write a blog post and check my emails before I think about making dinner.

and the leaves that are green turn to brown