Budapest Trip

Hello, see how diligent I'm being I'm already writing about my Budapest trip. Ok so it was over a week ago... but at least I'm going it before I forget all about it!

Anyway I caught the train down to London on Thursday night. But the end of the 2 hour train trip it was blatantly obvious that I was coming down with something. Luckily Kings Cross station is complete with a pharmacy so I went straight there and bought some lemsip cold and flu and some strepsils and they did a fine job all weekend!

Sarah and I had a not too late night and got up bright and early to catch the plane to Budapest. The plane was delayed slightly but all came through in the end and we made our connecting flight and arrived safe and sound in Budapest. Driving into a town from the airport is always interesting as you often get to see the worst parts of a city which I think was sort of true in this case.

Our four star hotel was lovely a nice smart though quite small room. So after dropping off our bags we headed out to explore. It was about 3.30 at this time and already starting to get dark. We were staying very near the river and so walked across the bridge to see this amazing cave Church. It was a Church built in a series of caves, with some external structures also built on. An order of Monks live there too. We had a look around there, there was a small portion of the caves open to the public. We then poked our head in the famous Gellert Baths and Hotel just across the road.

Pretty much dark by now we walked back across the bridge and walked along the river looking at the beautiful Christmas Lights and buildings. Heading back inland we stumbled on a lovely Christmas Childrens market in front of the large St Stephen's basilica. There were a couple of stalls with things that looked like the children had made, and even better they were giving away free raisin bread, roasted chestnuts and mulled wine. Which was a bonus as Sarah and I had been planning to find somewhere to buy some!

Then came the real thing... I'm addicted to markets... I love them! And Budapest has a great Christmas market. It was great! Lots of stalls of Christmas things, and pottery and porcelain, amazing food, and all kinds of other random stalls. Sarah and I began our weekend theme of having authentic Hungarian cuisine. We were brave and had cabbage rolls! Which were nice, the sauce was really delicious actually. It rained a little at this point, the only rain of the whole trip (despite forecasts to the contrary) and the rain wasn't too bad really.

After the markets we went to the first cake shop, Budapest is famous for cake shops. They had tons of beautifully presented layered torts. All looked so pretty and so yummy! So after much deliberation we both managed to choose a cake and they were delicious! We then found our way back to the hotel through lovely streets lit up with Christmas decorations.

Day 2

We had our free hotel breakfast, and I had quite a lot of it actually (it was yummy, muesli, cold meats, eggs, sausages, fresh bread and pastries). Then we began our mega walking day with a walk up a hill to see a beautiful peace monument. There were very good views of the city, it was quite misty unfortunately but this made it all the more romantic really. We continued heading up (or was it down the river) to the castle and national gallery which was in the old palace. We caught a little short gondola type train up the hill.

Up the top of the hill we came at just perfect time to see the changing of the guard. Quite an interesting display, a very precise choreography - an almost dance like march. We walked around the buildings and looked at the statues up there. Such a nice view from up there too! Oh it was up here I went to the most amazing toilet. As with a few of the loos around the place you had to pay (100 forints - about 30p, or 90NZc) and the lady who took care of it had such a set up in there! Pictures all over the walls, a heater, a couch, stickers on the mirror... it was so funny! I wish I'd got a photo!

Sarah and I then visited the fisherman's bastion which was a fantastic structure, check out our photos on bebo these ones I found on the web. It's hard to explain was it was exactly, oh hang, I'll be good and look it up. Ok here goes: The Halászbástya or Fisherman's Bastion is a terrace in new-Gothic and neo-Romanesque style situated on the Buda bank of the Danube, on the Castle hill in Budapest, around Matthias Church. It was built about the turn of the century (last century that is).





We then went to Matthias Church which was a lovely Church. Quite different looking inside to many I've seen already. There was a tiny museum section in it too where to my disgust there was a human foot! And a scull on display. The foot was particularly bad as it seemed to be still decaying, well it was pretty much decayed but it wasn't just skeleton if you know what I mean. I just found out for those who actually like facts that the Church was named after the greatest Hungarian King, Matthias Corvinus. Sorry despite looking it up I can't see whose foot it was.

Ok I'm going to move this along a bit faster. We had the best cakes ever at the most famous (or was it the oldest) cake shop in Budapest. They were delicious, but surprisingly even more impressive was the hot chocolate I had! It was so rich! Anyway then walked back along the river and quickly stopped in at the hotel to pick up togs to go to spa! The spas were stressful initially it took so long to get someone to tell us which kind of tickets to buy, and for someone to sell them, then to find a place to get changed. But once we were in Sarah and I had a lovely relaxing hour and a half or so.

Saturday night we went out in search of a good Hungarian restaurant and found a lovely one. It had such character and the food was good too! Especially these paprika bread rolls which I couldn't get enough of! Sarah had paprika chicken and I had goulash... yum! That left us too full for desert so we hit the streets to walk it off and search for bars.

The first bar we found was ok, the next one lovely! But we thought we could do better well at least find one we liked as much, the one we headed for was closed. However almost back at the hotel we found another one which was really funny. There were huge tubs, well almost buckets of roasted peanuts still in shells on each table. The floor was littered with shells! It was amazing - I've never seen so many peanuts in one place (I've also never had peanuts in shells that weren't raw before!). So that was a nice place to end a good night, me munching through the peanuts and Sarah playing with the candles.

Day 3

Our tie up ends day. We made it all the way along the river to see parliament finally. It was an impressive building, we didn't go in or do a tour however. But there was a small market outside and I finally tried some roasted chestnuts! I didn't love them but they were ok, nice to keep hands warm anyway. They tasted surprisingly like potatoes. We stopped into St Stephen's basilica on the way to the Christmas Market and popped our head in. It was a lovely Church too.

Back at the markets we finally got to try Kürtöskalács (this translate to chimney cake) which were delicious sweet things... sort of like donuts but not fried at all, instead dough wrapped around a pole then cooked while the pole rotated and glazed with sugar. It was at this point we totally lost track of time (but not so badly that we were running late). But we got a waggle on and headed back to our hotel to catch the taxi back to the plane station.



The trip to the airport was interesting (the taxi driver was a lovely old man who offered us some strepsils and called them lollies, and was a slightly scary driver, especially when his cab just stopped and he didn't know why). We got there safe and sound to find out soon after our flight had been canceled. This turned out not to be a problem at all though as they put us on different flights that got us back to London at almost the same time, plus we got a free meal out of it!

Anyway that was my trip to Budapest! Now I'm all up to date. With my international travel at least.

:)
Mindy

Rome Blog

Hello,

Ok now I'm ready to talk about my trip to Rome. It started off with a very early (3.45am) morning for me and Darren before heading down to East Midlands airport. We arrived in Rome at 10am local time and it was immediately obvious we were missing a vital accessory for this trip... sunglasses! We haven't really needed them here in the UK (surprise surprise!) but it was so bright in Rome! Once we'd caught the bus into town we picked some up for a street vendor.

Me having to eat every few hours otherwise I nearly die (did I ever mention I exaggerate) we went to a McDonalds like pizza chain for lunch. I ordered by number and Darren got a huge slice of pizza with fries, and I got a huge slice of pizza with mozzarella balls... which were delicious! I love mozzarella now! We found our b&b with not too much difficulty and it was lovely. The guy who ran it was so friendly and gave us lots of good local information which was so incredibly helpful!

The first afternoon we spend wandering around the streets by the Colosseum and Roman Forum ruins. They were about 10 minutes walk from our B&B. It was astounding just how much stuff there was to see all in one area. Just block after block of ruins... and every block you wandered around in town you'd come across a beautiful old building, or square, or monument. The whole place was so beautiful. But also a bit dirtier than normal. Like the parks weren't as nicely tended, grass gone to dirt etc, and pavements littered with dog waste!

We stopped and got a drink and a pastry which was yummy... pointing proved useful for ordering things! Then Darren got us lost which was funny as! Anyway we arrived back at the b&b and sort of collapsed. Then me being me, hunger got the better of me and dragged Darren out for pizza! It was funny we walked around for ages before finding somewhere I was brave enough to try and order it. It was weird as you didn't know how much it was going to cost as they just cut a slab and weighed it, and the cost was based on weight.

Day 2

Well we got up nice and early for our b&b breakfast then down to the Colosseum. We had got there quite early so the queues weren't bad at all, then we had a good long look around. It was pretty cool. Way bigger and way more... umm... technical than I thought! I had thought it was just a big round set of walls! But there's tons more to it than that, a whole underground system which Darren explained was used for trap doors etc. And pulley systems to get the animals up to ground level etc. Anyway it was pretty awesome. We spent a wee while at the Colosseum just watching the gladiators con people into giving them huge amounts of money to get their photo taken with them. We watched one guy get what must have been over 100 euros for one photo with a bunch of Japanese tourists! Anyway Darren decided it would be funny to see what they'd do it we didn't pay. We found out they chase you and then watch over your shoulder forcing you to delete the photos off your camera!

Next we went to the Palentine. This was my second favourite part of the trip. It was a huge mass of ruins, with ancient gardens and things all around. It was on top of a big hill. And the sun was out and compared to the bustle of tourists around the Colosseum this just felt away from everything, and it was so nice and peaceful, and imagining what the buildings must have been like was just breath-taking. From the Palentine it was onto wandering around the ruins of the Roman Forum. This was also very cool, very typical ruins with beautiful columns and lots of tourists again.

We then wandering in towards the Pantheon where it started raining. It was amazing, as soon as the rain drops came down out popped all these guys selling umbrellas (expensive too!). The Pantheon was great, a very busy tourist square though, it was absolutely packed with tourists.

We walked back to the B&B the long way and spent quite some time looking in some cool shops. And past a beautiful big Church, which I can't be bothered checking the name of sorry! Haha. Then we had pizza for tea (surprise surprise!).

Day 3

Today was the big one... the Vatican Museums. Darren and I decided to walk it, even though it was quite a long way away. It was a good walk though. I think it took us 45 minutes to get there. St Peter's Basilica Square was amazing. We found our way round to the queue for the museums, it was already around the block. This was at 9.25 still 40 minutes before the place opened! Whilst in the queue someone came round offering a tour of the place. We had already considered doing a tour so we decided to do it. I was very nervous leaving our place in the queue to follow the lady round the side streets to the tour office. But it was all legit and I needn't have worried, once all set up with headsets we got back in the queue (somehow jumping a large portion of it) then only had a 10 minute wait before we got through the doors. (Well through the gates then the metal detectors) Haha.

The tour guide was fantastic! He was an Italian called Massimo but spoke excellent English (albiet with an American accent), he also did art restoration as his other job and painting as a hobby so he had a fantastic knowledge off all the sculptures in the museum and the paintings... and of course the frescoes in the Sistene Chapel. The museums were amazing, my words won't really do them justice, just rooms and rooms fulls of beautiful sculptures, tapestries with 24 carat gold threaded through then, amazing paintings.

The highlight of the whole trip for me though was St Peters Basilica. Being the least religious person in my family, and often feeling a bit uncomfortable in Churches this came as a huge surprise. The place was just phenomenal! The scale of it - it was absolutely huge! And entirely made of marble. And there were amazing things in it, like dead popes in open coffins, and apparently Veronica's veil, and the spear head that speared Jesus. And amazing mosaics which were replicas of Raphael paintings. I wanna go back!

After that we took the afternoon easy. We had spent about 3 and a half hours wandering around the Vatican. We just walked back to the B&B getting some lunch on the way. We also walked past the triple fountain thingee on the way (sorry I'm tired and can't be bothered looking things up) it was where Saint Peter (or was it Paul) was beheaded and his head bounced three times and at each place a fount popped up and now there's a beautiful (huge) fountain there.

Very exhausted by now we half heartedly looked around for souvenirs and picked up some nice prints and Darren got a cool gladiator model.

Then it was back home to lay down again. I popped out again that night to explore a little bit myself and found a shop that sold really cool beads so I bought some of those to make a necklace to remember my trip to Rome!

Then we went to sleep and got up early and caught the bus then plane home again!

And that was our trip to Rome!

xxx

Xmas Season

Tis the season to be too tired to write proper blogs or accounts of trips to Rome and Budapest. I'm sorry. I will get to it, maybe tonight?? Last night we had our work Christmas meal for Jade. It was actually really lovely. I wasn't too sure as I don't know all the people who work at Jade over here so didn't know what it would be like. I should have based it on my experience of Jade employees in general as the ones I hadn't previously met were all lovely people.

We caught the train up to Leeds, we actually missed out intended train but they come pretty regularly so it didn't matter too much. Then saw Leeds for the first time. Well saw everything in the 1km between the train station and the dinner location hehe. But Leeds looks lovely. Pretty large. You can get a good idea of how big a city is by the size of it's train station and Leeds is pretty big. I knew that I guess, I should look up how big exactly but I can't be bothered right now. Sorry!

Anyway we ended up getting our meals at 9.45 which was very late for me! Consequently it was a bit of a rush to get the last train back at 10.40 but we made it :) It was weird catching a late night train like that, quite empty very different from the normal day time business.

I guess I should say as well that Budapest was brilliant. Sarah was such a lovely travel partner... thanks Sarah! And I would definitely recommend the city as a place to go visit! Here's my bebo photos, just poached from Sarah's bebo: Budapest Photos

Love
Mindy

Rome

Rome was AMAZING! Sorry I haven't had time to write a proper blog but did manage to sneak a few pictures up to my bebo site so have a look if you're interested: Rome photos!

Off to London tonight then Budapest tomorrow!

Rome Tomorrow

Guess where I am?

Come on, guess...

Oh ok I'll tell you, I'm at Tamworth, actually now I'm not now I'm somewhere else. I am infact on a train back home on the way the Doncaster writing my Friday blog and watching Scrubs. Do I feel cool. Yes, yes I do. Why I'm not exactly sure but still. It's just cool that I'm using the trip to watch my show!

So in about an hour and a half I'll be back in Doncaster, my plans for the afternoon are to say hello to Darren and then maybe walking down to my outlet mall and buying these really cheap good shoes I saw last weekend, I need some new walking shoes for Rome, as my running shoes are really wearing out.

Well I'm glad I went to Milton Keynes as the World Vision people I work with were so lovely and it was great to meet them, and probably good for them to meet me too, though I am so glad to be going home. And I managed to see almost none of Milton Keynes which is very lazy of me, though I did like the pub we went to last night for dinner. Trisha ordered pheasant and gave me a mouthful to try so I got to try pheasant for the first time... it was interesting but I wouldn't say my favourite. I also had a delicious white chocolate raspberry tart for desert which was delicious!

I'm excited about eating in Rome! Though I'm a little concerned understandably about eating too much. Any my blog will have a break for a few days while in Rome, because I'll be doing what the Romans do. Hahah. Get it? But I promise to write a big update when I get back and no doubt Darren will take about 500 photos!

Have a good week everyone!

Love,
Mindy

The Pudding Club

Well I went out for a lovely dinner tonight with the people from work here (who are also lovely) but that's not what this post is about. This post is about something Trisha told me at dinner.

Sorry the details are sketchy, I'll probably do some research on this for the future but don't have time right now. Anyway there is this restaurant somewhere here in the UK, Cotswold I think. And once a month or something like that they have something called the pudding club. You pay a set price and have a small dinner - you choose one of three option - then then they bring out the puddings! There is about seven, each is presented and has it's own special introduction describing it then the idea is you try a portion of each pudding at a time. The catch is though that you can't go back up if you still have something left in your bowl. You can see then that you'd need a smart strategy to make it through all the deserts! If you don't have the one you like the most early on, you might not have room for it at the end, but then if you have it first you've already had the best! The trick would be to have as tiny a portions as possible I think to get through them all then go back for more of the ones you really like. Obviously it would all depends on your stomach capacity too!

I love puddings these days! When I was younger I didn't have as much of a sweet tooth but I've definitely developed one!

Love Mindy

Better Mood

Hello!

I didn't have a very good day today... but despite that I'm in a much better mood tonight that I was yesterday. Though I'm starting to get tired, I stayed up late last night watching Scrubs. Scrubs is awesome!

Despite having a good day I still can't think of things to say.

I could write a list of things I want for Christmas... but there's not really anything (apart from gold earrings, and also an iron). Maybe I should just buy myself the iron. Don't get me wrong I'm not going to start ironing my clothes, so don't worry about that, but I do need it to iron my jersey when I finish knitting it! I should be there soon, I've finished another sleeve... well the first sleeve.

With everyone coming for Christmas I'm thinking about what food to cook, mostly for desert as dinner will just be normal stuff like meat, veges, tatoes, etc. And as everyone will be there I know they won't be expecting me to do anything but I'm so excited about it I just want to! I love cooking and stuff, and provided I have time I'll probably make stuff for desert. I think I'll make a pavlova, I've never made one before but I should be able to, or I might make merienges as I've never made them either and I haven't had them for such a long time! Also I'm very tempted to make the apple cake thing we had at our gym party the other week, I've got the recipe. Hehe might be a good idea to do a trial run with a compulsory taste test!

Well done to everyone who's taken part in Movember! I'm sure you all had awesome mos. And to those at Jade have a fun time at the Movember bbq on Friday! Darren didn't grow a mo but a whole beard! I loved it, I'm a facial hair fan. I think he quite liked not shaving too, but it's funny because facial hair is even less common in Doncaster than in Christchurch, when we were out on Saturday night I did not see one man with any facial hair and I was really paying attention.

Well two nights in Milton Keynes, one night in Doncaster then three nights in Rome!

I can't wait for Christmas! It's almost very nearly December! Woo! Hey I should buy an advent calendar!

Love
Mindy

Boring Post

Ok sitting in my hotel again.

Today at work was ok. Not much to report there.

And since there's nothing else in my life at the moment then that's it.

Ok I'll try and think of something else to say. Oh yeah I thought of something, I saw something really cool today and I want one! Though I don't really need one! What it was was a little rear view mirror on someone's monitor - such a good idea so you can see who is coming up behind you or who is looking at your screen!

Man I used way too many exclamation marks in that paragraph.

I miss everyone at the moment quite a lot. I miss the people in my life in Christchurh - I think when we first moved away people tried to keep in touch more but now they're used to us not being there so it's phased out a bit, which I suppose is understandable. But it's hard to feel like they just don't care anymore when I'm still thinking about them just as much as ever.

Ok I'm going to stop moping now and watch another episode of Scrubs.

Away for the week

Dear World,

Well I'm sitting here in my holiday inn express hotel room in Milton Keynes settling in for the night. I'm doing two things that I haven't really done before. One is drinking a cup of tea, and two is watching Coronation Street. Ok sorry I changed channel I decided I still don't really want to get into Coronation Street, but I've still got my tea! Instead I'm watching one of the many quiz shows on TV here. They're good though, they actually have what I classify as intelligent questions. Intelligent questions are ones where I can answer or guess about a fifth correctly.

Today I got and packed and was at the train station (courtesy of my love) waiting for my train at 7.40. I had to get three trains to get here, I feel like I've tripped over the country! My first train went to Sheffield first which feels like back tracking when going South, though it's not really! I went to Derby first then Birmingham then here Milton Keynes. This is my first business trip that I've done completely on my own bat so I feel quite grown up hehe... though I guess I was in Melbourne myself... though I didn't book any of that. Also in Melbourne I had a kitchen and didn't have to eat in a restaurant by myself this time I do. I managed ok today but that waits (for someone to take your order, bring your order, take your plate, bring the bill, bring your change) are more annoying when you're by yourself. Tomorrow I might take a book which I haven't seen anyone else do, but I don't really care!

Oooh yay! The university challenge is on. Now these questions are more than intelligent I can only ever answer like one! The program I was watching before I found out was called Mastermind if you're interested.

I must have someone else to talk about. I had lamb steak for tea. It was weird, it was apparently grilled but it was the same colour all the way through so I think it was pre-cooked. Which I don't mind as I'm not fussy about food, it was just weird as I only ever normally have roast lamb. I then had a chocolate popcorn cheesecake for desert, I don't think I should have desert again, just have it as a treat for the first night.

Ok well sorry that was boring. I'm bored though so it was fitting.

Oh wait I thought of something, Darren and I watched Apocalypto last night and I quite liked it - it wasn't phenomenal but was enjoyable! It had subtitles but there wasn't a huge amount of talking, and that actually worked out ok as our sound got out of sync with the picture during the film.

Ok goodnight (don't be confused by the time, I'm writing this offline and will be posting it when I get to work in the morning!).

Love from Mindy

ps Miss you Darren!

Christmas Tree!

Hello Everyone,

Well two things. Firstly I put up our Christmas tree last night, then put all the presents round underneath it! Aren't we spoiled with all the things we've been sent! The three large cardboard boxes the tree is sitting on is what they were sent in!



Secondly as mentioned yesterday Darren and I went out for dinner. Dinner was lovely. The even better thing was going out afterwards! We went to dinner at 6pm then finished up just after 7pm, and went out to a pub which was already filled with people! By about 7.30 they turned the music on, 8pm we went to a different pub which was almost packed by the time we left there at 9pm. We then went to a couple more bars all were totally full! People dancing and everything. By 11 we'd been out for 4 hours, had a few drinks, had a bit of a boogie, seen girls in all the different costumes you could imagine, police, nurses, devils, prisoners (they seem to like dressing up over here!) and went home and were in bed by 11.30 :) So great for oldies like us - a full night out without having to have a late night. It was just amazing how quickly things got going in town and how many people were out!

Other observations: the guys didn't really dress up much at all, but the girls dressed up all the way. I mean parades of teeny tiny party frocks! And have I mentioned how cold it is outside these girls didn't have coats! I can't believe how hard core that is! Um drinks were not that expensive at all, neither was the taxi. Hmmm what else... oh yeah guys are weird. Darren and I were totally indulging in people watching, and he was commenting on some hot girls who were apparently the hottest ones in the bar. Talking to him later he didn't like their makeup thought it was all wrong, didn't like their dresses... but still they were the hottest! Weird eh? Makes you realise all that dressing up and making up girls do for guys probably is totally unnecessary!

Off to Milton Keynes tomorrow... it will be good to meet the World Vision people but it'll be a bit lonely having a week in a hotel by myself! But then when I get back it's Rome here we come!

Love
Mindy

Vacuum

Well today I vacuumed. It may not immediately be obvious why this is blog worthy news, so I'll explain. I have no vacuumed since we've moved into our apartment! Yes that's right. Sad I know. But a vacuum cleaner was last on our priority of things to buy... in fact we still haven't bought one. Someone in our building threw one away so I nicked it out of the garbage - what can I say it was perfectly fine, just missing the floor piece. Today I bit the bullet and bought a new floor piece. So I can conclude we hopefully have less carpet mites than we did yesterday, and the apartment looks much nicer and tidier too!

In other news Darren and I went out for a lovely Italian meal.

Ok bed time now.

Good night!

In Bed Early

Well it's not even 8pm and I'm in bed already. All tucked um with a hottie and my pjs and also my jersey. The reason... our boiler is broken again! This means no hot water and no heating. This is particularly wonderful on a night where it's below freezing outside!

Otherwise I'm good. It's the weekend, we're finally going out tomorrow night to experience Doncaster's nightlife! This time we're not missing it as we've got reservations for dinner though given the temperature I'll have to make sure I take a jacket. Though actually tomorrow it's going to rain and it's not as cold in the rain.

I don't really have much news. We booked out hotel for Rome, got a pretty good deal actually I think. I'm getting even more excited now. It's going to be a lonely week away for work but at least Rome to look forward to at the end! And then Budapest the weekend after woo!

I'm watching the 5th season of scrubs now, so funny.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Back Again!

Hello!

I went away for two days. Well I didn't write, did ya notice? I know some of you did (hi Susannah!).

Today was notable for two reasons.

1) I got to use my umbrella for a second time.
2) Actually just the umbrella thing, but it didn't feel right saying it was notable for only one reason.

I really love porridge. Haha trying to write love made me realise my v key was stuck down, it's fixed now so I'm lucky I decided to write that. Even though it wasn't a very profound thing to write, and indeed is something I've written many times before!

Darren and I have been watching Lexx which is a weird sci fi from the late 1990s. It's funny because I didn't know anything about it, but Darren used to watch it on TV. I was saying to him it's quite odd for a sci fi hi explicitly sexual it was, (this was something I'd read about it, and noticed myself in the first episode) and he denied that. Then we watched it some more and there was full female nudity! He was shocked and realised that a lot of that stuff must have been edited out for tv. Anyway it's very bizarre, so if you like bizarre weird sci fi you might like it. Or if you like nude females.

Tonight we are hopefully watching the second feature of the Tarantino-Rodriguez double feature Grindhouse. We watched Death Proof and I loved it, tonight it Planet Terror.

Ok goodbye!
Mindy

Race Results

Well I did the run in 51 minutes 43 seconds. A personal best, but I think that I should keep doing them so I can get faster and faster and faster. I wonder if I can ever do it in 45 minutes. Maybe. Hmm the woman who got 8th in our group did it in that time so that's pretty good but probably achievable. I've been running tons better over here, no hip pain hardly.

Anyway today was a lazy day though very busy as work, a couple of big problems that I happily dealt with. I love it when things go wrong and things need doing quickly. I love working reactively, I love the pressure and find it more interesting as there's normally something very strange going on if bugs get all the way to the user without being detected. So yeah I like fixing urgent things.

I also love porridge, I'm having it for desert.

Sorry this isn't very long I have to go and watch Grey's Anatomy now.

:)
Mindy

Race Day!

Hey hey hey!

Today was race day. It was a bit sad doing a race without supporters (Dad is the best cheerleader - he makes sure he knows the course and will pop up several times to cheer you on), but regardless it was fun. Though huge thanks to Darren for driving me out on such a horrible day and missing out from meeting up with Jeremy on xbox. Thanks hun! But like I said I said it was fun! Eventually. Did I mention we haven't had much rain here, until today that is!



Everyday last week was sunny, or at least had no rain, then of course look at the horrible grey picture for race day! As an aside I can really see how things flood badly here, it only started raining in the middle of last night, and all through the race course were huge puddles!

Anyway not only was it raining, but freezing cold. When I got out of the car ten minutes before the race (leaving it to the last possible minute) I have never been as cold before in my life. Well ok I'm sure I have, but that's the kind of thing that's hard to measure. The wind was bitingly cold. I had a t-shirt on and at the last minute decided on a long sleeved top underneath, I was very glad I did!

Anyway the run itself was brilliant. It was so cool, first you ran through the little town streets then the rest of it was nice wee country lanes. The really weird thing was it was a 10km race, so logically you'd assume you may have markers every kilometer or maybe every 2 km. Not so, the race had markers each mile! Luckily I knew about this before hand. I still thought it was funny. It does make sense though as a lot of runners would only be used to thinking and timing themselves in miles over here.

There were also 3 nice wee hills in the race. Having only ever done events in Christchurch before (which is flat!) I wasn't expecting that, and it was hard! But fun! I should try and add some hills into my training.

Now it's back to a warm home (and bath) a yummy lunch of nachos and an afternoon veg-ing out.

Hope everyone else had a nice weekend!

:)
Mindy

New Boots

Don't you just love new boots. I bought some today and I'm in love. They're special ultra comfort ones, and I thought yeah right, but they really are comfortable. 10cm comfortable heels who would've thought.

Today was also second Christmas Cake day. I am happy to report that it is safely wrapped in a tea towel all in one piece cooling. And the first Christmas cake is almost gone now! I love fruit cake, we should have it all year round!

Um not much else to report, I'm excited about my run tomorrow, I'll be letting everyone know how it goes.

Love
Mindy

Friday!

Yay it's Friday. And it's not sad at all that I'm home on a Friday night writing to a blog. I work hard all week, I'm exhausted by Friday! We had an issue at work that I had to deal with today so that was not the most relaxing Friday.

Also there's a big charity event over here at the moment to raise money for children, by the BBC. Part of it is our gym had a challenge to do 160km in the first 16 days of November - running, swimming, biking, whatever, I didn't do it but today at the gynm we went to support the people finishing, and our gym instructor Mark made a delicious cake for the occasion! It was so delicious - I'm going to make one soon, it was called Bustrengo. I've looked into it and it's a recipe from San Marino. Really nice.

Ok that's all, it is Friday night afterall!

Love
Mindy

Scarf Finished!

Hello!

I decided last week I needed a scarf because it was so cold walking to work. So I got online and ordered some wool, it arrived on Saturday and so I started knitting! Now my scarf is totally finished and I wore it to work today. I love the pattern a lot, and I absolutely loved the wool, it was so fun to knit with (it was Debbie Bliss Soho), but I'm not sure I like the colours. The colours look fantastic together as you can see them mixed up in the tassles, they all go well, but I'm not sure how well the blocks of colour go together. None the less it still looks quite good on, and it's nice and warm so overall I'm happy with it. Did I mention I absolutely loved the wool!

Not that many of my readers knit, but if they do here's a link to the pattern: Noro Scarf



In other news... actually I have no other news. Oh yeah I'm making a second Christmas Cake. I'm going to eat the first. Hehe! And it's show day tomorrow so it feels like it should be a weekend tomorrow but it's not for me! But I like work anyway so I don't mind going tomorrow. If I didn't go I wouldn't get to see all my nice workmates, and it's going to be fun at the gym tomorrow - there's going to be a wee celebration as some work people are finishing up a 16 day exercise related fundraising thing.

Ok bye!

Love
Mindy

About Me Version 2

I was looking through my old blogs and I wrote 50 interesting facts about myself in August 2005. How times have changed. I'll write the same facts though make them true now and then below that paste the original facts then people can spot the difference!

November 2007:

1. I am left-handed
2. I have a birthmark the shape of Spain on my back
3. My natural hair colour is medium-brown
4. I studied Law for two years before deciding I wanted to do Computer Science
5. I have over 100 CDs but have bought less than 10 in the past three years
6. I can do this really cool thing with my tongue, but I can't explain it. It's like rolling it but better!
7. I have never been to hospital as a patient
8. I adore Andrew Lloyd Weber musicals
9. I have only had two boyfriends
10. I have kissed about 30 people
11. I have kissed a girl
12. I am allergic to some cats, but not others
13. I skipped a year at primary school
14. I have my full driver's licence!
15. I have lived most of my life in Christchurch New Zealand, but now live in Doncaster, United Kingdom
16. I have never cheated in my life (except maybe in card games with my sisters).
17. I never got a detention in my life.
18. I never bunked school
19. My family is very close, and so is my extended family (they almost all live in Chch and my cousins Kirsty and Andrew are two of my best friends)
20. I LOVE cornflakes.
21. I LOVE porridge
22. I could eat breakfast foods all day.
23. I go to the gym or go for a run every single weekday at lunchtime with some workmates.
24. I own 4 guitars (I play piano and guitar).
25. I didn't get my ears pierced until I turned 22.
26. 2007 has been the best year of my life.
27. When I was 15 my penfriend in Ghana proposed to me (I turned him down).
28. I can waterski on one ski but I can't wake board (yet!).
29. I still count my high school friends amongst my best friends and I'm in contact with almost all of them (8 years on!)
30. Every morning I watch Everybody love Raymond because I don't like watching news in the morning and that's the only thing that's on.
31. I love dressing up.
32. I love wearing pjs all day.
33. My little sister Amy has a scar on her back from when I pushed her off the bed and she fell onto a stereo.
34. I have one scar on my leg that I got from a burn caused from sap of a giant hogweed reacting with uv ray
35. I am addicted to diet coke and coke zero and trying to cut down
36. I like peas, but they're not my favourite vegetable
37. I do like apples! But I like them more when they are cut up.
38. I have never played a game of netball in my life (and don't ever plan to).
39. When I was little I wanted to be a mermaid.
40. I wrote in a diary every single night for about 6 or 7 years.
41. I love the movie Desperado.
42. I try to go to bed around 9.30pm Sunday through Thursday.
43. I hate hidden tracks on albums.
44. I have all the Flying Circus (Monty Python) episodes on DVD.
45. I am the eldest of all my cousins on my Mum's side.
46. The most expensive thing I own is my engagement ring.
47. When I was little I was so scared of burglars that I couldn't close my own curtains after dark.
48. I am over my fear of aliens (when I saw Signs I had my eyes closed for most of the movie, and my fingers in my ears).
49. I often love movies that other people think are crap (eg From Hell)

And finally....

50. I have over 30 pairs of shoes

August 2005:

1. I am left-handed
2. I have a birthmark the shape of Spain on my back
3. My natural hair colour is medium-brown
4. I studied Law for two years before deciding I wanted to do Computer Science
5. I have over 100 CDs but haven't bought any in the past 8 months
6. I can do this really cool thing with my tongue, but I can't explain it. It's like rolling it but better!
7. I have never been to hospital as a patient
8. I adore Andrew Lloyd Weber musicals
9. I have only had two boyfriends
10. I have kissed about 30 people
11. I have never kissed a girl
12. I am allergic to some cats, but not others
13. I skipped a year at primary school
14. I only have my restricted drivers license (I have had it for over 3 years now!)
15. I have lived my whole life in Christchurch
16. I have never cheated in my life (except maybe in card games with my sisters).
17. I never got a detention in my life.
18. I never bunked school.
19. My family is very close, and so is my extended family (they almost all live in Chch, and I flat with my two wonderful cousins Kirsty and Andrew)
20. I LOVE cornflakes.
21. I also love porridge.
22. I could eat breakfast foods all day.
23. I try to go to the gym every morning, in reality I end up going about three mornings a week.
24. I own 4 guitars (I play piano and guitar).
25. I didn't get my ears pierced until I turned 22.
26. 2005 has been the best year of my life.
27. When I was 15 my penfriend in Ghana proposed to me (I turned him down).
28. I can waterski on one ski but I can't wake board (yet!).
29. I still count my high school friends amongst my best friends and I'm in contact with almost all of them (6 years on!)
30. Every morning I watch the Wild Thornberries because I love it.
31. I love dressing up.
32. I love wearing pjs all day.
33. My little sister Amy has a scar on her back from when I pushed her off the bed and she fell onto a stereo.
34. I have no scars.
35. I am addicted to diet coke and trying to cut down.
36. I hate peas! But I don't really mind the taste of them.
37. I also hate apples... I just don't like them!
38. I have never played a game of netball in my life (and don't ever plan to).
39. When I was little I wanted to be a mermaid.
40. I wrote in a diary every single night for about 6 or 7 years.
41. I love the movie Desperado.
42. I try to go to bed around 9.30pm Sunday through Thursday.
43. I hate hidden tracks on albums.
44. I have all the Flying Circus (Monty Python) episodes on DVD.
45. I am the eldest of all my cousins on my Mum's side.
46. The most expensive thing I own is my Ovation Guitar.
47. When I was little I was so scared of burglars that I couldn't close my own curtains after dark.
48. I am getting over a fear of aliens (when I saw Signs I had my eyes closed for most of the movie, and my fingers in my ears).
49. I often love movies that other people think are crap (eg From Hell)

And finally....

50. I have over 17 pairs of shoes

Joke

Ok ok sorry I forgot to write and don't have time, but so you're not too disappointed here's a joke:

A certain old cat had made his home in the alley behind Gabe's bar for some time, subsisting on scraps and occasional handouts from the bartender. One evening, emboldened by hunger, the feline attempted to follow Gabe through the back door. Regrettably, only the his body had made it through when Gabe slammed the door, severing the cat's tail at its base. This proved too much for the old creature, who looked sadly at Gabe and expired on the spot.
Gabe put the carcass back out in the alley and went back to business. The mandatory closing time arrived and Gabe was in the process of locking up after the last customers had gone. Approaching the back door he was startled to see an apparition of the old cat mournfully holding its severed tail out, silently pleading for Gabe to put the tail back on its corpse so at it could go on to the kitty afterworld complete. Gabe shook his had sadly and said to the ghost: "I can't. You know the law: I can't retail spirits after 2:00 AM."

---

Oops!

I almost forgot to write today.

Well today was ok. Man it's getting cold here. Last week it felt normal temp this week freezing! Though admittedly it hasn't even frozen a little bit yet. Work was good. Lunchtime went out for run and got cold arms, but my fingers were warm. Julia who I was running with sensibly had a long sleeved top on and her arms were warm but she had cold fingers. I got a headache from being cold though I think. It was only 4 degrees despite being a perfect blue sky and sunny! Oh well.

I've had a lovely chatty evening tonight. I called my Gran in Christchurch and talked to her, and then my Dad, and talked to Susannah in Holland! Finally! We'd been meaning to meet up on Skype but kept missing each other, mostly because I'd forget to sign on at home.

In other news my scarf that I'm knitting is going well though I'd hoped it would be finished by now and it's not. It will be soon though... and the best thing about scarves... no sewing up once the knitting part is done!

Tomorrow is Tuesday and I think we're going to a trip at work to a yard. That is exciting. I love going to yards and seeing all the wagons and locos and stuff like that. Isn't that strange? I'm a weirdo. But I guess you get so immersed in them and learn so much about them writing software for them... that when you get to see these things in real life it's actually exciting.

Ok well that's a pretty decent post considering I almost forgot to write it.

Oh and congratulations to Jeremy and Charlotte who got engaged in the weekend, so happy for you guys.

Love
Mindy

Ridiculous British Laws

These have been circulating round offices etc here but may not have quite made it to NZ yet... I'm fixing that! The percentages are I think a vote for which was the most ridiculous!

Most ridiculous British law:

1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament (27 percent)

2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside-down (seven percent)

3. In Liverpool, it is illegal for a woman to be topless except as a clerk in a tropical fish store (six percent)

4. Mince pies cannot be eaten on Christmas Day (five percent)

5. In Scotland, if someone knocks on your door and requires the use of your toilet, you must let them enter (four percent)

6. A pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman's helmet (four percent)

7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the king, and the tail of the queen (3.5 percent)

8. It is illegal to avoid telling the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing (three percent)

9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament in a suit of armour (three percent)

10. In the city of York it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow (two percent)

Good and Bad Day

I've been in a little bit of a down mood today... but I'm ok now. I'm not sure why because when I look at what I achieved today it really should have been a good day! First I went for a 10km run which went really well, I'm doing a race next Sunday so this was practice. It's the first time I've run that far since the last time I did a 10km race! All my short lunchtime runs and gym sessions must be helping.

Also I made my Christmas cake. I unfortunately broke it when taking it out of the pan though. But It's not the end of the world. Instead of being a 8" x 8" cake it's not a 8" x 4" cake which is really much more sensible for two people. Well of course we'll start it on Christmas day when everyone is here but you only really have small pieces of cake anyway. I also managed to salvage a 4" x 4" inch square so I'll ice that up as a separate mini cake. And Darren and I ate the rest of it today, and it was delicious! I kinda want to make another one, but there's really only so much fruit cake one household needs.

Possibly what made me so down today was watching the final 3 episodes of season 3 Grey's Anatomy. It took me SO long to watch that season but I've finally seen them all now, months and month after the rest of the world. It was very sad, tears galore.

Then to burn off some of the fruit cake I walked to the outlet shops and finished my Christmas shopping that's going to be posted. I got tons of good stuff I think, hopefully people will like it!

Lots of love

Mindy

Friday!

Hello!

I have a little bit of lunchtime left after the gym so I'm blogging now.

Fridays are always quiet here at work, just me and Chris at our set of desks. And no chocolate today either (we get a lot of chocolate at work here, people hand it out for any occasion at all, possibly because there is a Cadbury Factory outlet across the road). Had a great session at the gym today - we were doing sparring with boxing gloves, so fun! I've never done anything like that before I'm going to see if Darren will have a go with me in the weekend too now.

It has suddenly got very cold here. The temperature isn't too bad, just 2 degrees but it's the wind chill that gets you. It really feels a lot colder than Christchurch. I'm loving the big winter jacket I bought in Melbourne, I don't leave the house without it now.

So cake day tomorrow. I found a mistake in the recipe, the instructions called for the butter and sugar to be creamed, but there was no mention of butter in the ingredients list. Luckily I used my noggin and found the exact same recipe on the internet (who would have though the recipe that my Mum made in 1985 and kindly typed up for me a couple of weeks ago is sitting there on the internet) so now I know how much butter to use. 8oz if you're interested. Or 226g. I am going to need to go buy butter, though I forgot to get a lemon too so I need to go out anyway. A trip to the market tomorrow might be on the cards!

I love the market here. The food section is great! Really good interesting stuff, amazing cheeses and sausages etc. And then the non-food section, just stalls and stalls of crap. I love it! You can buy anything, and cheap! Actually all I've bought so far from the market is my little pepper plant I got last weekend with Lara, but I might buy something tomorrow, if I find things for Christmas presents.

Well I'm in a talkative mood and could probably think of more things to say and bore you with but I really should get back to work now.

Love to all,
Mindy

Random

Hello! Well I have very few things to say among them are these things:

• I bought a new knife today
• I cut up the fruit for my Christmas cake
• My new knife is sharp
• My finger also got cut, though not badly

Instead of more content I am simply going to post a funny photo, can you spot the problem? xxxMindy

Windy here!

Hello!

Well again another ordinary day though it was very windy here! Way windier than I can remember in Christchurch.

I don't have much news. I guess I can write about our upcoming plans. This weekend I'm going to make my Christmas cake. It'll be my first one, and I have to do it since I'm not going to be at home and I still want nice homemade Christmassy stuff. It's going to be great I've already got most of the ingredients, it's going to be real fruity too!

Then the next thing coming up is a trip to Rome! Darren and I are going for three nights in December... still got a lot of planning to do for that trip but we've got a bit of time. Then two days after that Sarah and I are going for a girls weekend to Budapest to celebrate her birthday.

Then my next plan is to see Claire when she comes over! She's thinking about coming over for Christmas, that'll be SO cool! I can't wait to see her. Also she'll be able to bring over some marmite for me and some tomato sauce for Darren! Then hopefully Sarah and Andrew will come up and we'll all have Christmas together.

Right then we'll say goodbye to Claire which will be sad but then we're going to Dublin for a weekend yay!

Ok those are my plans.

Hope you are good!

Love
Mindy

ps Rach and Greg arrive soon, can't wait to see them!

Windy here!

Hello!

Well again another ordinary day though it was very windy here! Way windier than I can remember in Christchurch.

I don't have much news. I guess I can write about our upcoming plans. This weekend I'm going to make my Christmas cake. It'll be my first one, and I have to do it since I'm not going to be at home and I still want nice homemade Christmassy stuff. It's going to be great I've already got most of the ingredients, it's going to be real fruity too!

Then the next thing coming up is a trip to Rome! Darren and I are going for three nights in December... still got a lot of planning to do for that trip but we've got a bit of time. Then two days after that Sarah and I are going for a girls weekend to Budapest to celebrate her birthday.

Then my next plan is to see Claire when she comes over! She's thinking about coming over for Christmas, that'll be SO cool! I can't wait to see her. Also she'll be able to bring over some marmite for me and some tomato sauce for Darren! Then hopefully Sarah and Andrew will come up and we'll all have Christmas together.

Right then we'll say goodbye to Claire which will be sad but then we're going to Dublin for a weekend yay!

Ok those are my plans.

Hope you are good!

Love
Mindy

ps Rach and Greg arrive soon, can't wait to see them!

Interesting Thing

Well a really interesting thing happened today. Unfortunately it wasn't to me. Was it to you? If so please tell me about it, I'd love to hear!

Today was just another ordinary day at work. Here's how my ordinary day goes (this will help all you people who have ambitions to stalk me). I got up at 7.25am which is actually 5 minutes later than normal because I uncharacteristically pushed snooze. Though Kirsty rang me up at about 7.22 so it didn't matter. Then I ate made breakfast, made lunch, ate breakfast while watching Everybody loves Raymond, then out the door at 8am. Walk to work and realised it was pretty chilly and I'll soon need a scarf. So I'll have to knit one because a scarf is a silly thing to buy if you love knitting!

Got to work and said hello to Marian and Ann and then did some work. Today I uncharacteristically didn't go to the gym or run at lunchtime (that's the first time in weeks!). Come to think of it today wasn't an ordinary day it was a lazy day! What with all the snoozing and not running. Then I had my ham sandwiches and pear for lunch, then did some more work. Then at 5.08 I walked home.

Walking home it was dark and also chilly.

I am really going to need to think of something better to write tomorrow.

Love
Mindy

Bye Lara!

Well I took the afternoon off today which was very exciting. Lara and Darren and I had a nice lunch out then we came home, Lara packed and then we drove to East Midlands airport to drop her off. Now it's quiet here just the two of us again, and back to a full day at work tomorrow as well. And probably should go for a run early tomorrow morning too.

Well it's Guy Fawkes today there's been lots of Fire Works since 5pm. It was really cool driving back from the airport watching them all on the horizon. We didn't get any but it doesn't matter we just need to stand out on the balcony to see some!

I bought a wee pepper plant in the weekend. Our house looks so much better for just having one wee plant in it! It just didn't look like a home before now it does :) I want one for my desk at work too, I'll have to keep my eyes out for one.

Lots of love
Mindy

Bra Shopping

Don't worry I'm not going to go into details. But Lara and I had a good shopping trip today, her spending ages finding the perfect boots and me spending even longer buying some new bras that actually fit me! I don't convert things to NZ dollars much anymore, but I like doing it when working out how much I save buying things on sale! Hehe. For example today I bought what would have been $185.92NZ dollars of underwear, 3 bras and 2 pairs of knickers. It only cost me $51.95NZ dollars! What a bargain. I love outlet malls!

Also we went to the Hare and Tortoise for dinner tonight to get typical English pub fare. It was very good, I like it there, you definitely get your money's worth (though converting the cost of the meal was $150NZD hehe - converting the cost of eating out is always depressing!). Tomorrow afternoon Lara goes back :( Just me and Darren again. But this is a public announcement that we do have a Lara approved airbed so people can come visit and be comfy!

Not much other news today sorry. I'm thinking about taking tomorrow afternoon off to spend with Lara before she goes as that would be nice. Oooh and it's guy fawkes tomorrow which is exciting... the one good thing about getting dark at 5pm is you don't have to stay up very late for fireworks to show up well! There's been quite a few last night and even more tonight, and obviously tomorrow will be the big one!

Lots of love to all,
Mindy

Yippee!

Hello!

Guess what Lara is visiting me today and tomorrow and Monday from Norway! This is very exciting :) Today we went and looked at wedding dresses which was very exciting - the dress shops are so cool here. They take you into a little room and just keep bringing in more and more dresses for you to try! It was super fun!

Another thing that happens was I got lost, well not really lost but ended up going a wee bit out of my way! And also I crashed into another car. But it was just a very well crash into the back of someone I was almost stopped but forgot to stop completely. Both our cars were absolutely fine. But still it was a bit dumb of me. I'll be more careful from now on!

Also tonight we made gingerbread men. From scratch this time. So yummy! They turned out really well. We just cut out all kinds of shapes and then Darren, Lara and I iced them. Pictures to come.

Tomorrow I'm not sure what we'll do. Going to York is a possibility. Also going for a drive in the country. We will decide on the day!

Lots of love to all and good luck to my mum for her triathlon, which actually she's already finished probably as it's now noon NZ time! Well I hope she's finished.

Mindy

300 Workout

Firstly sorry my link yesterday didn't work. Just google 300 workout and then follow the first link... and you'll find it!

Secondly just for Adam! An explanation of how to do it!

Pullups: These are self explanation enough. Grip the bar with your palms facing away from you and use as wide a grip as you can. Because we're in a gym amd we're weak girls we do them on a machine which means we don't lift out whole body weight. (That's called assisted pullups)

Deadlifts: Get a bar with weights either side. Squat down pick up the bar, stand up straight, then bend down again to put it down. Important to get the right technique here, so check out the diagram I poached. You should be using your quads not your back to do the lifting.



Pushups: Just pushups (I do girly ones)

24 inch box jumps: Find a box that is 24 inches tall, jump onto it with both feet together, then jump off it again. That is 1 rep. Easy!

Floor wipers: Get a bar with weights either end. Lie on the floor on your back. Head resting on the mat. Hold the weight directly above you with both arms. Now raise yours legs straight together to one side, bring them down to the floor then up to the other side.



Single-arm Clean-and-Press: Grab a dumbell, put it on the floor by your right leg, bend your knees pick up the dumbell with your right arm, stand straight, then lift it up to your shoulder, then raise it above your head then back down again. Then do 25 reps then do your left arm. Just like the clean and press weight lifters do in the Olympics but only one arm at a time!

Then do some more pullups! These totally kill me. I managed to do 15 then 10 then 5 then 3 then 2!

That's it! Easy! If you want further explanations I'm sure all these exercises can be found on the internet... no excuses!

Love
Mindy

The Darkness

It is so bizarre, since we changed the clocks here it is totally dark at 5pm. I swear, I looked out the window at 5.56 and thought man it's almost dark, then 4 minutes later whoosh completely dark. I don't know why they changed the clocks! Sure it means it's light if you get up at 6.30, but just don't get up at 6.30! I'd much rather have light in the evening than the morning anyway. But maybe that's just because I work all day and I'm not being fair to everyone else.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before but the people at work here are really nice. Almost straight after I started a group of women who go running and to the gym together invited me to join them, and I've been doing something with them almost everyday since. Coinciding with my starting here was also the start of a new trainer at the gym (this is our work gym), Mark, who is really good. Because it's such a small gym it's like having a personal trainer, and you can also book 1 2 1 sessions with him anyway. He's been making us do some really cool workouts, working way harder than I ever would by myself. Today we did this: 300 Workout It is really good. The first time we did it it was SO hard and I was sore for days after, but this time it did seem a bit easier! It's the workout some of the actors did to get in shape for The 300, and it also involves 300 reps! Here's what we did if you can't be bothered following the link:

a) Pullups - 25 reps

b) Deadlifts - 50 reps

c) Pushups - 50 reps

d) 24-inch Box jumps - 50 reps

e) Floor wipers - 50 reps

f) Single-arm Clean-and-Press with Kettlebell - 50 reps

g) Pullups - 25 reps

The Challenge is to do it as fast as you can, for us though the challenge is just to do it stopping as fewer times as you can, such hard work!

Everyone go try it!

:)
Mindy

Baking

Gave movie night a miss tonight and opted to stay home and do some baking instead! Well first I went out to the supermarket then I did some baking and made these wee guys for Darren. They actually came in a box set with everything you need but now I've got the Dalek cookie cutter I can make them anytime I like!

Tuesday in Birmingham

Well I'm listening to More FM again yay! I actually only just got home an hour ago - had a day out for work down in Birmingham for the Jade User Group meeting. It was an interesting day but long by the time we got to work at 7.30am to leave, and then got home again 8pm! I'm a bit tired. We got stuck in traffic on the way out there, it was horrible, I'm so glad I can walk to work and don't have to drive!

Well that's all I'll say because I really am tired and going to be now. But at least I wrote something...

Lots of love
Mindy

Resolution

Hello!

I'm going to try and write a blog everyday, even if it's just a small one.

Anyway this weekend we went to London it was great. I can't be bothered writing about it now summary: Andrew and Grace, Tower of London, Leceister Square, Ben and Jerrys Icecream, seeing Danielle and Tim for tea, Spamalot, woken up by noisey flatmates playing music 7am, Buckingham Palace, Westminster, Big Ben, lunch with Sarah, Camden Market in the rain.

I'm listening to More FM now the morning show, which was a great idea. I used to love listening to Si and Gary every morning and I'm so glad I remembered I could listen to them in the evenings here. It'll help me keep up to date with what's happening in good ole Christchurch. Starting to miss home a little bit. New Zealand is great. Gosh it was nice seeing all my friends in the weekend, nice to be around New Zealand accents again! I am so immersed by Yorkshire accents here that it's like a breath of fresh air hearing a New Zealander talk again, it's just less work to hear them. Which is why I'm enjoying listening to the radio right now!

Also something people do here in Yorkshire is miss out words all the time so that makes it a bit harder I think to understand them. I'm going to have to write down some examples because I can't think of any right now that sound quite right.

But England is still great and it's not like I want to go home or anything!

Darren and I are going to watch the second half of the transformers movie soon - we watched the first half the other day. I thought it was quite good, better than I expected. But it took ages for the transformers to feature I will admit! We also watched Die Hard 4.0 which I enjoyed immensely. We watch a lot of things over here. Well we did in Christchurch too.

Also the cell phone provider we are both with gives you 2 for 1 movie tickets on Wednesday so we've made Wednesday night our movie night. So far we've had two weeks of it: first week we saw Resident Evil Extinction, which I thought was exactly the same level as the last two movies, and then Ratatouille which was good. The animation was amazing and the storyline was enjoyable, but not as good as some of the other pixar ones I didn't think.

Ok well time for transformers!

Lots of love
Mindy

Paraparaumu

Well Mindy isn't the only one doing exciting travel in our family. Today thomas and I went on a big adventure. We went on the train to Paraparaumu! The train was very fun, we went up the coast and there were some very nice views and lots of tunnels.

When we got to coastlands we went to whitcoulls and farmers and sounds and a christmas store which wasn't very good. Thomas went to mcds and I went to subway. We were going to eat it on the beach but we couldn't find the beach so we ate by the river. It was great. We played pooh sticks. I won.

Then we went to the warehouse. That was great as I really don't like the new Warehouse in Wellington. I got some more beads for my camels and thomas got lots of music dvds which he was happy with. Then we went back on the train and decided to stop at Porirua as there was a warehouse there too which we didn't know when we went on our big trip to Porirua. So we went to the warehouse there too. I didn't buy anything but Thomas got a single for like 30c. And then we saw that there was a spotlight which is a shame as had we known it would have been awesome but it was too late by then. Thomas said he wanted tea on the 'beach' so we went to pac and sav. That was fun as we always go to New World in town. We had tea but didn't stay long as it was cold. Then we caught the train home.

Beat that Mindy!

PHONE!!!

WE HAVE A PHONE!!!! YAY!!!!

AND THEREFORE INTERNET AT HOME!

I am SOOOOO Happy!

Sludge

Guess what!? I got to drive a train! Ok I didn't. So I lied. But I did get to ride in the front of a loco, AND toot the horn! It's a really loud horn! It was a class 66 something or other, this one was getting ready to carry a load of steel so it's only able to go around 60 miles per hour. Also it takes about a mile and half to brake! That's a lot. This got us on... ok hold up. I'll explain who us is, some back ground info.

For work I got a trip with Ann (one of the people who is sort of my boss, I have about 6 bosses now) to Rotherham to have a meeting with one of their big customers who manufacture steel. On now would be good point to explain the title of this blog, sludge. Across from where we parked there was a huge drum labelled neutralised sludge. I have no idea what that is but I took a picture because for some reason I find this absolutely hilarious!





The meeting was fine and we spent a lot of time talking about the yards that the steel got delivered from and to. So on the way back home (to Doncaster) Ann took me to one of the yards.

It was quite interesting seeing all the steel laid out, but most excitingly one of the drivers took us for a ride on a loco! We were just shunting wagons around, but got to go up and down the yard a few times, and they let me toot the horn. It was awesome! Though train driving must be a pretty lonely job, but I reckon it'd be an ok way to earn a living.

So we were, Ann, myself, the train driver, and the boss of the yard. Anyway back to where I started they started talking about suicides on the track. It was horrible. It'd be horrible for the drivers too because they just can't stop, they have to just run into anything that's lying on the tracks. Of course they start stopping but 1.5 miles is a long way before coming to a halt! :( Ok Now I'm sad thinking about it. Sorry!

Right onto work to cheer me up.

:)
Mindy

Bristol

Hi Everybody!

Well we had a fantastic weekend in Bristol! Bristol was a place that I knew nothing about except that people there talk like pirates (well that's what Kirsty told me and it didn't quite prove to be true) and that the name Bristol sounds like gristle. So it was these two facts that I based my preconceptions of Bristol on. Which meant of course I was very pleasantly surprised to find it such a really lovely city! With hardly any gristle.

Bristol is really cool. It helped that we were staying with Nick's parents who were lovely and had a really lovely home on the edge of the water, so you could see boats going past and the excitement of the swinging bridges (they had to swing to let boats through).

We arrived Saturday night 6.30 after a longish (3.5 hours) trip down in our good wee car. Found our way to Nick's parents house to be greeted by Kirsty and Nick. It was so lovely to see them! Then we had a lovely dinner with Nick's family and shortly after that Andrew and his girlfriend Grace got picked up from the bus station.

The next morning we had Nick as a wonderful guide. He took us through this scary path:


Then up to this really lovely park. There are so many photos of the lovely water features etc but I'll save those for later. There was a big memorial tower in the middle of the park (which was on a hill anyway). And we all climbed up to to get some pretty good views despite the mist. That's me and Nick up there in this pic.


After that feeding squirrels was on the agenda. We all managed to get a squirrel eating out of our hands... Kirsty had bought peanuts specially for the occasion. They were very cute coming right up to you and grabbing them with their teeth our of your hands, then clasping them with their hands as they chewed off the shell, or ran away to bury the nuts. Here's Darren with his wee friend (just after this photo was taken Darren lifted the nut almost out of the poor squirrels reach! But the squirrel won in the end and got the nut).


We then visited a cool graveyard, looking for more squirrels.


After that we went to Clifton and had lunch before heading up for a closer look at the suspension bridge.

I skipped across it (everyone else was boring and walked!) then we went up to see the Camera Obscura. On the way Nick showed us the "Rock Slide" that everyone but Kirsty and I had a go on.


This is the tower that the Camera Obsura is in: have a look here if you want to know what it is. Also you can see in this picture a lookout cave which we walked to.


Here's a picture of me outside the cave.


We then meandered back home and watched the rugby that night.

Sunday morning we took a walk round the harbour. In this photo you can see some of the really pretty buildings and at the waters edge is where we were staying in one of the brick houses.


We walked around town a little, and had lunch at a lovely cafe before heading home and driving back to Doncaster.

It was a really lovely weekend. So fantastic to see Kirsty and Nick, and Andrew and Grace, and meet Nick's parents! Plus get to experience a lovely city!

xxx Mindy

Weekend and Dr Who

How are you? Alright?

Anyway like I said yesterday we had a great weekend. On Friday evening Darren forced me to play Halo 3 with him. I don't really love playing xbox because I'm so uncoordinated. But I almost had fun. I can't believe it's fun for him playing with me because I'm not good cover or anything. I hold things up by dying all the time too. My biggest problem is I can move around when I'm shooting, I just can't do the two things at once!

Anyway so that was Friday night. Saturday morning we got up bright and early and headed out to Manchester using our new sat nav system. I think Darren is going to have a love hate relationship with that thing. Unfortunately most of Saturday was a hate relationship as it took us on a strange route. I think the thing is you have to specify the quick route as opposed to the short route. But anyway we got there! And found a car park even! Then it was time for Dr Who.

The exhibition was good, but just an exhibition. Lots of kids around. And it was mostly based on season 2 and 3. Which is good because I found out I'd watched a lot more of season 2 than I thought I had, and I'd seen all of season 3. They had some good actual props... it's funny as a lot look a lot better on screen. Ahhh the magic of television. Although particularly cool was the scale model of the big ben they used for the episode in series 2 when the space craft smashed into it. That was a really cool model.

The had some costumes and some props which were cool. The face of Boe was pretty awesome. And the cybermen were cool, pretty scary looking. They also of course had a dalek section and there was this cool darlek you could go inside and move it's weapons around and talk through a dalek microphone. I had a go and Darren thought it was so hilarious.

I think the highlight for Darren though would be what he bought from the giftshop afterwards! We go some cool fridge magnets, he got tardis socks, a mug and a calendar.

Here is Darren and the face of Boe.

Darren and a dalek, I'm not sure which one.

Darren and a cyberman.

Me and the Queen of Racnoss (I think that's her name) - she moved!

Ok so that was Dr Who. We walked around Manchester a tiny bit and had lunch but I was freezing cold as I'd dressed inappropriately then went home on a route Darren approved of much more. We got home and it was time for more xbox then I dragged Darren out to our local pub for a couple of drinks because I wanted to see if the rugby was playing there. It was not. But the pub was quite nice. Big restaurant and a loungey pub area. We got home in time to watch the end of the rugby, that was sad.

On Sunday we went out and I did some Christmas shopping! Yes Christmas shopping! It was fun. I like buying stuff for people, I got Amy's present and Tom's and Mum's. If I'd wanted to send them cheaply then I would have needed to post them last Monday so it's a pity I wasn't a tad more organised. Oh well.

Ok well rightio love,

Bye!

Our Apartment

Hello! Well we had a great weekend, but as I'm at work I'll write about that later. For now here are just some pictures of our new home.
This isn't our apartment building but ours looks exactly the same as these ones. This is the view off our balcony and is pretty much our neighbourhood. Although I'll confess there's not always a hot air balloon outside.


This is another view from our balcony - this time looking out across the lake. Notice the beautiful English weather... superb!

This is our hallway when you first walk into our house. To the left is the bathroom, to the right is a cloak room the door further left is to our study/storage room. Directly down the hall is the bedroom, and the open door on the right is the kitchen/lounge.

This is our bedroom and bed. There's more to the room like a big wardrobe with mirrors, but that's too boring to warrant it's own photo.

This is our cute wee bathroom. To the left is the bath/shower.

And here is a photo of the bath/shower.

This is our lounge, notice how coordinated all our furniture is. And that's farscape playing on the TV.

And lsat but not least this is the kitchen... the little window you can see looks directly out onto the lake.

Ok lots of love,
Mindy

Still Alive

Hello World!

I thought you'd all be glad to hear I'm still alive. Darren and I moved into our place last Monday. It's very nice, but then the place we were in in Christchurch was very nice too. This is a newish place... I'd say built in the 90s and everything is cream, and all the carpets are light beige. It's nice having somewhere! And we've got all our furniture now. We splashed out and bought new furniture and appliances, but nothing flash (20 pounds for a jug, toaster and toastie pie machine).

Work is going very well, I'm really happy but so busy! The days go by so quickly! Infact I've been so busy that I'm writing this at work because I need a break! I've been working late every night.

I've met a group of women at work who go for runs and to the gym at lunch time. And they're so lovely and friendly which is great so I'm going along with them. Been everyday this week, though today (Friday) is going to have to be a rest day because my muscles need a bit of recovery time! Having a gym at work is so brilliant!

Anyway what else is news. The weather is gorgeous at the moment. Not really hot but we've had so many blue sky days. Sometimes it gets quite windy here but at the moment it's pretty still. Actually here's a work story. Once it was so windy that at the container terminal at Manchester the containers were blowing around! Yes these are the bigger-than-a-shed sized container, just rolling around. That is some wind!

Speaking of Manchester if all goes to plan we're going there tomorrow. We bought a sat nav to help us find our way around, I can't wait to try it out. We're going to a Doctor Who exhibition. Yes Darren has me hooked on Dr Who now too. I half watched the first two new seasons but thought it was a bit out there. But after watching the third season in quick succession it's great! And I can't wait to watch the first two again. Also been watching Torchwood which is a related spin off... which I'm enjoying too! Not at much as Dr Who but still good. AND we're now onto the third season of Farscape, which is brilliant. We got a cheap brand new LCD 32 inch, and Farscape looks fantastic on it. Our older season Stargate DVDs don't look quite so good but the newer ones should look ok.

Soo..... my biggest moan which I don't want to write much about it the phone company here. BT. If England has a higher suicide rate than NZ then it's coz of BT. We don't even want a phoneline, we just need to get one so we can get the internet at home, and we're desperate for the internet at home... really desperate.

Ok what else is news. Oh some fun England facts, well observations:

- When you are going somewhere they don't base it on North and South. Like if you were in Christchurch you would say you're going down to Dunedin because you're heading South. London is South of Doncaster, but because London is a big centre you say you're going up to London. Confusing!!!
- At some schools here girls and boys wear the same uniform... very cool. Just a school jersery and black pants.
- There are millions more snails here. I see about 5 on the footpath when I'm on my way to work and on my home again.
- They call sports gear and any kind of gear kit.
- Instead of asking how you are, they say "how you going, alright?" which is nice because they're even answering for you as well as asking.
- A lot of them don't use the correct past tense, present tense grammar as part of their accent. Ie they'll say "those papers are just sat over there" instead of saying "those paper are just sitting over there".
- There have entire shops that only sell greeting cards... lots of chain shops!
- Stag dos almost always involve travel to another city, sometimes a European one, are for a whole weekend too. Darren might have to have one over here! Hen's nights are not so big... probably because girls are sensible.

Ok well I'm starting to miss everyone now. But I'm really happy over here still. Apart from dealing with BT. Grrr.

Lots of love,
Mindy

Not much to say

Hi Everybody,

I have a feeling I don't have much to say, but we'll see how we go. First of all here is a picture of this cool moth that was hanging around our living room. Sorry the picture is out of focus, it was taken with my phone:

I have sad news about the moth though, as it is actually dead now :( I haven't buried it or anything but I've thought about it. It's still pretty now though.

Secondly Darren and I went for a nice walk through the fields yesterday evening. And we saw lots of rabbits, and a whole lot of rabbit holes and took some pictures to remember the experience. One thing I've noticed that is different here is there are often tons and tons of jet streams in the sky, which is evidenced by these photos.






In the background of this one is our hotel. There were pictures of me and Darren, not just me but I don't look good in the ones he's in therefore they don't get published! Hehe.

Today we went and picked up the new car, it's still good. We got some seat covers with it too which I think are pretty cool, Darren thinks they're lame but that's ok. The important thing is they'll protect the seats so the car will still look pretty good when we come to sell it when we leave! The family we bought it from were really nice, and they had a couple of nice wee dogs. I think I'm going to miss having animal friends over here.

We also went shopping again today and there was this really cute wee market right in the middle of town. There's a big market here on Saturdays which I'll go to one week soon, but this was just a wee small one. With a few nice food stalls, and stalls that had huge arrays of cheeses, or sausages, or lollies or nuts. It was great! Darren doesn't love markets like I do though so he was very patient keeping me company while I checked it out.

Ok well I've managed to say something. Whether it was interesting or not who knows but there we go anyway!

Lots of love,
Mindy