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

Lazy Sunday

Time Here: 1:00pm
Washington Time: 5:00am
Temp/weather: 35° cloudy and rainy

Yesterday Mal and I went down to the Spaceport to meet up with Cheryl, Dan and Darren. We were going to see The Art Of Doctor Who which was a really cool exhibition. After that we went to the Cafe next door to have some lunch. This was the first time I'd been down to the Ferry Terminal (aka Evil Job) since I walked out of there over a year ago. I was a bit worried about what I'd feel about going back, and who I'd run into. But it was all good in the end we all had a very nice time.

Mal rode back in the car with Darren and Dan while Cheryl and I walked along the prom, since we don't see each other or talk to each other as often as we did when she lived near me we thought we'd it'd be nice to walk back that way we'd have a chance to catch up on things. By the time we got back to the house, the boys were already happily flopped on the couch with hot drinks and they were all either geeking or had their noses in books. So pretty much some degree of geeking or another. Cheryl and I kept on chatting with the boys geeked and once in a while they actually joined in on the conversation!

After they all left to go to Cheryls Mum's house I rang Mom. She sounded pretty out of it and at first I wasn't even sure I had the right room. But that was just because her voice sounded odd. I didn't talk to her long because she said that her throat was still pretty sore from the breathing tube. But when I rang her back later she sounded more awake and more like herself. It seems she does have some peritonitis after all. Trust Mom to also have some kind of infection that isn't normal in these kind of cases as well. But they are treating her with two types of antibiotics so she'll be right as rain in no time at all.

Today I'm being really lazy, I've not even bothered to get dressed. It's never really got light out today so I'm happily snuggled on the couch watching films. Tomorrow it's back to normal life. My two week vacation/holiday is over and Tuesday it's back to work. But tomorrow it's normal stuff and lunch with John, which will be nice we haven't had lunch together in probably close to a month.



What am I listening to/watching: Battle For The Planet Of The Apes

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