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