Catching Up

Time Here: 4:33pm
Washington Time: 8:33am
Temp/weather: 36° windy but clear

Well I have been a busy bee the last few weeks.

I've finally completed all of my core training at work. Three one day courses in three weeks. Okay so that doesn't sound like much but when you factor in travel time it makes for very long days. Now that I'm done with all of the core training I can start on the elective ones such as, fire marshal training, dealing with the media, all kinds of good things coming my way.

Winter has finally arrived here in the past few days. The Met Office was predicting blizzards from Russia late last week. Seems they hit with force Sunday night in the south, London was pretty much closed on Monday morning with no bus service or underground service. But up this way in the northwest, it was just like being at home. Wonderful snow all around me and not a flake in site! At least that was my thought Sunday night.

How wrong I was! I woke up on Monday morning to a dusting of snow. Or what most people called here Oh My God SNOW!!! Now normally I go to lunch on Mondays with my friend John, we meet up in Liverpool, go to a pub have good food catch up for an hour. Then he goes back to work and I come back home.

Not yesterday, I was smart and stayed at home, tucked up and warm. It was a good thing too since it started to snow again about 1pm then snowed again for a couple hours more around 4pm. The last snow storm dumped enough snow on us to stick. Thankfully Mal got what we call the good bus, which means that he didn't have to do the mile walk from the nearest town Liscard.

Today when we woke up all the snow had melted. So very typical of here! But it was nice while it lasted. We both had the day off work because our new fridge was being delivered. We slept in a bit and then got busy getting the kitchen ready. Before now we had what I've always called, one of those executive fridges. You know the ones that have no freezer and fit under a counter top. There was never anyway to have it full of a weeks worth of food unless you wanted to play Tetris every time you wanted to put something in or take something out of the blasted thing. The freezer is right next to it and is also an under the counter top deal. And it's not frost free. So to have a 'real' fridge and freezer all in one makes me feel like I've joined the 21st century in many ways. Now to just get the rest of the kitchen sorted!

We have both registered for an Open University course in digital photography which starts in May. I'm very excited about this, my first ever University class! So once that starts in May I'll have to start working out how to juggle that, the job course work I'll still be doing and juggling a social life!

I'm tired just thinking about it!




What am I listening to/watching: Who Do You Think You Are on the TV

It's A New Dawn, It's A New Day.....

Time Here: 5:00pm
Washington Time: 9:00am
Temp/weather: 40° windy

So history has a brand new shiny page.

As I sit here and type this out, John Williams new piece of music is being played at the Presidential Inauguration.

I have to admit I feel very emotional right now, its a first for me. Then again it's the first time ever that I've wanted to sit down and watch an Inauguration. It's the first time I've felt so strongly about a President. He reminds me of Kennedy. I know others have said the exact same thing.

But there he is taking the oath right now. And there we are, a new President. And here I am with tears in my eyes. Listening to this man who not only has swept up a nation with his words and his beliefs. But he's swept up nations all over the world.



I feel proud to be an American today. With Obama in charge I feel positive, a feeling that I never felt before with any other President in my life time. I wonder, is this what it's like to believe in a President? To feel the power of someones words and believe that he believes it? That not only is he saying the words but he believes with his entire heart in what he's saying?

If it is then I feel privileged to be alive today. To see this, to hear him speak, to follow his words and to believe in them.

There is still hope, he's awakened it me and thousands more like me the world over.

What am I listening to/watching: Barak Obama's first speech as President.

So It's 2009

Time Here: 4:40pm
Washington Time: 8:40am
Temp/weather: 27 degrees and before it got dark it was overcast and a bit misty out there

While I did manage to stay awake until midnight. I didn't go out of the house and was in fact in bed when midnight arrived. I heard everyone come up from the houses on the river (on the prom) to count down and to sing in the new year.

Mal came down from the computer room to give me a kiss and then I went to sleep. I wasn't even ready to get up come 8:30 this morning. But there was the promise of a bacon butty and tea so Mal knows how to get me out of bed.

I don't do the resolution stuff, I'll only let myself down when I don't achieve any of them. I'd rather set myself goals throughout the year, one small step at a time and gratification quicker than I would be if I set myself a whole list of stuff to do by the end of the year. Besides I'd rather have a bunch of smaller goals than 5 huge ones that I should do by the end of the year.

It's my last day of holiday/vacation time. Tomorrow is just a normal day off work. Mal goes back to work tomorrow. I'll be cleaning all of downstairs and putting the Christmas tree away for another year. It's past time, I'm ready to see the back of this tree, I want to see if I can re-arrange things in here so it's not the same old same old. Sadly the room is long and narrow so there isn't much I can do with the room. But I want to do something to make the room look... different.


What am I listening to/watching: Coast to Coast AM Dec 17th 2006 broadcast