Sayonara

This could well be my last blog post from London. Things are wrapping up here and in a couple of days the laptop will be packed up and shipped back to Canada. Unless something really exciting happens in the next couple of days I may not update the blog.

I was surprised to see that it's been 2 weeks since I last posted, time sure does fly! It's not that there hasn't been anything going on, but more that we've been pretty busy. We're just about ready for the shippers; we've sorted out and piled up the things that are to be shipped, and we've both got our backpacks packed. I really feel like I'm missing something, though!

We are in the midst of selling off a few things. I'm surprised at how difficult it has proven. The vespa sold within a day, as did the TV, but I've been trying to sell the couch (which is in excellent condition and a bargain price) for weeks now and no takers. The weird thing is that people will email in response to the ad, all interested and so on, and then never get back to me again. Some of them will even discuss timing for when they can come and then they disappear off the face of the earth. One girl emailed me about the chair and said she definitely would take it, and she would come that night and probably take the couch too. Great, I thought! Then she turns up with her husband and sister and brother-in-law, they all check out the furniture and sit on it, etc, then they say they're going out to dinner and will let us know (they had said on the phone that they'd stop by and view the items on their way to dinner, then get money and come back). So by 11pm no word from them, after we've waited around all night. AND after I've held off on contacting someone else interested in the items because this girl had said she was taking them. I get a friendly email in the morning to say that they'd decided the furniture didn't really fit with their space after all ('cause it doesn't look anything like the pictures I posted with the ads or anything - cue sarcasm). To top it all off, these inconsiderate morons were CANADIAN! I was embarrassed for them. Anyway, someone is supposed to be coming this morning to look at the couch, chair and dishes, and if she doesn't take them I am going to post the couch online for free if someone will just come and pick it up.

Anyway, rant over. Tomorrow I am having a job interview over Skype - a first for me! I don't know if anything will come of the job, as they are looking for someone ASAP, but it is for a large group which owns several practices in Toronto so perhaps something else will open up with them with better timing. Good to get my foot in, at least.

In other news, I have started running again. Things have been in a downward cycle since the winter in terms of my general fitness. A few things happened, starting when Buggy died. I was no longer walking a dog one or two times a day, I started drinking more pepsi (my comfort food), and it was quite cold through the winter so I started taking the bus from the station to work rather than walking the 10-minute walk each way. I have vowed that if I can't get myself into shape while I am unemployed, I will never manage it! So I'm working on it.

Speaking of being unemployed - it rocks! For now, anyway. It's amazing how much you can get done when you're spending 12 hours a day at home instead of at work! Good timing, though, and I'm glad that Noise and I agreed that I would take this last week off, I've had a lot to do around the house in preparation.

Well, I feel like I should say something profound - this likely being my last post from London. But I'm not feeling profound at the moment. Just, goodbye London and thanks for everything. We'll miss you like a great friend, but we'll miss the friends we made here even more.

Catch you on the flip side.

Rolling along...

So it turns out I can't post on the blog via the iPod. Too bad. So while we're away I probably won't blog much, I'm more likely to send out group emails with updates. Which leads me to request that anyone who would actually like to receive these updates please let me know so I can add you to my list!

We visited the travel clinic this weekend, and I was vaccinated against typhoid, and Noise against typhoid and hep A. I am now able to move my arm again so all is well. We also got advice regarding anti-malarial medication (not needed for the specific areas we are visiting- whoo hoo!), and other travel health information. We purchased a traveler's anti-diarrhea kit which includes rehydration sachets, antibiotics, and immodium, as well as a recipe for make-your-own rehydration fluids. Looking forward to Delhi-belly. Should be a blast.

I have created our travel first aid kit as well (including the items listed above) but also band-aids, bandage materials, pain killers, cold medications, and gravol. I also now have Finding Nemo on the iPod (thank you Noise!) so I've got something to keep me entertained on the long plane and train rides. Any other suggestions for good movies?

I have 2 weeks left of work, and Noise has 3. We've both got our leaving parties planned. I am so sad to leave behind the friends that I have made here. But I will also admit that I am very much looking forward to a bit of a break from the working world, and to our travels together. And to being home! I'm in the process now of sorting out resigning my RCVS membership and reapplying for membership with the CVO in Ontario. And then I need to find a job. Blah. I hate job searching. Let's not think about that right now.

We leave London 3 weeks tomorrow! I cannot believe how fast the past 2 years have flown by. I have such mixed feelings about leaving London - I will miss so many people and so many things, but I am also excited about the trip and looking forward to being home.

Deja-vu all over again...

I can't believe that time has come around again. I've started posting ads on gumtree (the UK equivalent of Kijiji) to try to sell some items in preparation for moving back across the ocean. It's tough, though, because a lot of the items can't really be sold yet. I have posted ads for a couch and a chair (neither of which we ever sit on anymore) and also the BBQ, figuring we can live without those things now. But there are lots of other items like the dishes, the kettle and toaster, various kitchen items, the TV, etc, that we really don't want to be without yet. The question is when will be the best time to advertise these things? Anyway, within half an hour I had an inquiry about the couch, so hopefully gumtree works as well as Kijiji. :)

We have an appointment on Saturday to visit the travel clinic to discuss vaccines and medications for our trip. We need advice about malaria as it appears that the places we are visiting are low-risk for malaria but it's not non-existent. And it looks like we maybe need to be vaccinated against typhoid (Mom, have I been?) Also Noise should have hepatitis A, but I am covered. Yellow Fever is required for all the countries we are visiting IF we have passed through South America or Africa on the way, which we won't have. But we need more official advice on that one too.

We have decided that we are going to be careful and as safe as possible, but we are unlikely to alter our travel plans much based on any advisories. Nowhere is safe, including Times Square, so we're off to see some more of the world and the risks that go with it. Wish us luck!

Musings of the week...

So as the days and weeks wear on it is becoming increasingly a concern that we may need to alter our travel plans... the protesters in Bangkok are not giving up and things are becoming increasingly violent. At the moment the UK foreign office is advising against travel to the whole of Thailand, not just to Bangkok. I am supremely po'd, as the main destination for this entire trip was meant to be Thailand and now I am worried that we will have to skip the entire country. To make matters worse, our flight from Phuket to Saigon has been canceled (the airline no longer flies that route, thanks a heap) and so we will now have to travel back through Bangkok to get on to Vietnam. I was thinking that worst case we would just skip over Bangkok, but now I hear there have been bombings in Chiang Mai as well. I am remaining hopeful that perhaps in the 7 weeks between now and when we are actually supposed to arrive in Thailand they will be able to resolve the protests, but time is starting to run out.

On a brighter note, only 14 more shifts at work before I am unemployed, which has pros and cons. Mostly pros aside from the money thing. And I'm going to miss my coworkers here.

Did I tell you that we got our visas for China? So that's all been sorted out, now we just need to figure out what to do about Thailand....

Big shout out and thanks go to the Singer for introducing me to the Goodlife Fitness at Home website. Loving the exercise videos! In the comfort of my own home and no gym fees (which are exorbitant here in the UK).

I don't think there's much else going on. Noise is in Copenhagen for work (now that you can fly in Europe again!) What a fiasco, by the way. 6 days of no flights in and out of the UK and nearly that in Europe. Noise was meant to fly home for his grandfather's funeral but never made it. It's so much harder to cope with a loss like that when you can't be there and with your family. Now the planes are back and somehow seem louder when they fly overhead every 90 seconds. Don't get me wrong, I don't blame them for taking steps to ensure our safety, but the whole situation was just ridiculous. For God's sake, they had to send the Royal Navy over to bring Brits home!

That's all from me - either it's been a quiet week or I just haven't left it long enough between blogs. ;)

On moving ahead... and saying goodbye.

Time for a bit of a catch up, me thinks! Time is starting to fly by and I really don't know where it's going.

Let's see... I'll start by catching you up on the plans for the big trip. There were some tense moments a few weeks ago when the visa advisor at Trailfinders told us that we were unlikely to get visas for either India or China (the start and end points of our trip) due to the fact that our UK visas would be expiring while we traveled. In other words, they don't like it if you don't have permission to return to the country in which you applied for the visa. We were a bit thrown by this news as it had never occurred to us (nor had it ever been said to us when we sought advice) that we would be expected to return to the UK. I mean, we have valid Canadian passports so there's somewhere they can kick us out to, right? On top of that, we have a flight itinerary which clearly shows us leaving both countries and eventually landing in Toronto, and Noise has a written contract to prove that he has a job in Toronto, so what's the problem? Do they really, seriously think that we would try to STAY in either country? I don't think so. However, all that said, the Trailfinders chap told us that they wouldn't be able to handle the India visa for us but suggested that we give it a try on our own, which really just meant that Noise had to stop in there on his way to work one morning and submit the applications, and I went a few days later on my day off and picked them up. Let me just point out that the timing was FOUR days. Four days and we had our passports back with Indian visas installed. I'm really not sure what the problem was at Trailfinders, but they certainly lost themselves two customers and several hundred pounds in fees, because we decided at that point that we might as well do them all ourselves. Yesterday I collected our passports from the Vietnamese embassy with fresh visas applies and tomorrow Noise will submit them to the Chinese visa application centre. I'm still a bit nervous about China, but we'll see how it goes. We don't need a visa for Thailand.

Speaking of Thailand, we're really hoping that the protests in Bangkok are under control before we go, otherwise we may have to avoid Bangkok. Which would be a real shame. I've started looking at hotels again, I stopped booking things when we had the visa debacle but now we need to get started again. Last night I managed to find what appears to be a decent inexpensive hotel in Delhi (it's impossible to find a hotel in India that doesn't receive mixed reviews, but this one at least has the majority of reviews positive), and saw a couple of options for Udaipur as well. I've singled out a hotel in Hanoi in Vietnam based on recommendations from our friends P and K who are traveling at the moment and stayed there (backed up by rave reviews on tripadvisor). I've also chosen a hotel for Bangkok, assuming that we go there! I haven't booked any of them yet, waiting for confirmation from Noise that I'm not missing some important point. We've already booked the hotels in Chiang Mai and Ko Phi Phi in Thailand. Oh, and in Beijing. Let's see, that just leaves Agra, Mumbai, Phuket, Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang, Hoi An, Shanghai, and Xi'an. Hmm, well at least I'm making progress!

I packed my bag yesterday. :) I just wanted to get an idea of how much space I really have. Anyway, I pulled out everything I wanted to take and it fills up about 85% of my backpack. I might do a cull at a later date but I refuse to go to Asia for 7 weeks with only one pair of shorts and two tank tops!! But I will be traveling pretty light. Then I put on my backpack to see how heavy it is full of clothes and it's not bad at all! Unfortunately the other items I still have to add are the heavy ones - like the 4 Lonely Planet books. We can carry 2 each, I guess, and I claim the Vietnam and Thailand ones! The Vietnam book is about a third of the size of the India book.

We're wrapping up things here in London as well. Our flat has been let and the good news is that the new tenants want our patio furniture! One less thing we have to get rid of. It will soon be time to start selling things, though. Too bad we can't have another yard sale! We've booked the shippers to come on the Saturday morning on that last weekend and the goal is that once they've gone and taken all those items with them it should just be us and our backpacks left here. Then we need somewhere to stay for a couple of days, preferably with sheets and pillows. The cleaners will come Saturday afternoon to do the professional clean on the flat and then we're done. I've only got 5 and a half weeks left of work, which I am extremely excited about. :) I've figured out that I have 23 more days to work. I can do it!!

In other news, it was my birthday this past weekend and I was able to celebrate with a whole weekend of specialness. On Saturday Noise took me on the London Eye, something that I had been wanting to do for 2 years! He booked us a champagne flight so we sipped a glass of bubbly while making our way around. It was quite fun and I have always been fascinated by the mechanics of the thing. After the flight we made our way to a restaurant on the south bank called Ping Pong. It's a dim sum restaurant and we had made arrangements to meet some friends there for dinner. How lucky I am to be able to have a birthday dinner with such good friends!!

Sad point of the evening, though, was in having to say goodbye to my good friend AT. She started as a colleague but it didn't take long before we were very good friends. I owe a lot of how much I have enjoyed my time in London to her (and other friends), and I always knew that we would make friends here and then move away, but didn't think it would be so hard. I know that we'll be friends for life, but it seems that I always make these great friends and then can't ever live close by to them! All my best friends are long distance relationships. :( Except for Noise, of course. I don't know when I'll see her again, but cross your fingers for me that it will be at her wedding in South Africa next April!!! We're working on our budget. :)

Noise spoiled me, as usual, on my birthday. He made me cupcakes which I am still enjoying, and cooked me my favourite dinner of BBQ'd hamburgers. And he had gone out and gotten me a present which was a surprise and I hadn't asked for, but very thoughtful and something I definitely wanted. Ok, it's track pants, which I know sounds silly but I really wanted them and he remembered! So points to him. Then for our usual Sunday afternoon, half hour before the stores are closing, mad dash on impulse buy, we went to the Apple store on Regent Street and bought ourselves an iPod touch. And I know we bought it on my birthday, but it's not my present and is for us to share. I can remember that, really. Oh iPod touch, where have you been all my life?! I cannot believe that we went this long without one. I had no idea how awesome it would be. Anyway, the main reason that we bought one now is to take on our trip. This way we can watch movies while traveling, use it as a computer whenever there's a wi-fi connection, and play games and so on. Seriously, 10 minutes with this thing and I was ready to toss my beloved Blackberry out the window and get an iPhone. So yesterday I went on amazon and used my 20 GBP gift card to buy some items. Namely, a case for the touch, an ear phone splitter so that we can both watch movies, and a mains plug so we can charge it (and our nanos) from the wall while traveling. I also bought another 2GB SD card for our camera and a lightweight bike lock that we can use on our bags when traveling by train for security, and some earplugs. All for 19.99. :) Such fun.

Well, I think this post is plenty long enough, so I'll sign off for now. Sorry for the delay between posts (and hence the length of this one) but I was busy hosting my favourite sister for a week as well! It was fantastic having her here, and next time I see her it'll be at home! Catch you on the flip side!!

What will I miss about London?

The following is a list of things I will miss when (in just over 2 months) we leave London, in no particular order:

1. Ferrari *
2. Lamborghini
3. Maserati **
4. Bentley *
5. Rolls Royce
6. Aston Martin
7. Porsche *
8. Jaguar, BMW and Mercedes***

* Spotted last night while I was ducking, dodging and zipping through traffic on the Vespa**** The others may have been there, too, I was just too focused on the task at hand to notice them all
** There was one parked out front of our flat this week. I pretended it was mine
*** The super versions of these that you don't normally see on the streets of, say, Gananoque
**** Another thing I will miss - both the Vespa itself, as well as the ability to "filter" through traffic and effectively get across town faster than the above

I'm sure there will be other things, but that's all for now.

The Perks

Suggestion: If you want to move to another country for awhile to live and work, and then want to move home again, try to arrange it so you transfer within a large company. When we moved here, Noise's firm covered a lot of the costs - flights, visas, shipping of our personal belongings, temporary accommodation, a small stipend to cover initial expenses, etc. This despite the fact that Noise had requested and applied for the job in London, nobody made him go. So now two years have passed and it is time to move home again. So again, Noise had to apply for a job within the Canadian firm, nobody made him go home again. And what do they tell him this week? They will, once again, cover our flights, shipping (plus 10% because they seem to think that we might have accumulated things over here - perhaps they know about Noise's habit of purchasing musical instruments in countries we've visited), our three months of health insurance (see last post), temporary accommodation the first month in Toronto, a lump sum to cover expenses such as deposits on hydro, etc, and so on and so forth. And, ironically, this time they have also offered to cover the cost of transporting a pet. (Which some of you may remember from 2 years ago - it costs two or three times as much to fly a dog as it does to fly a person. Hello? You don't have to feed them or offer them drinks or blankets or movies.) Of course it no longer applies to us, but it sure would have been a nice bonus had we still been expecting to pay 1500 pounds to fly Buggy home.

Now some of you may ask - when they say they'll pay for our flights home, do they mean via India, Thailand, Vietnam and China? Wouldn't that be beautiful? Of course not, but we're assuming they'll cover the equivalent cost of a London-Toronto flight, even though we're not flying directly there.

So the lesson learned here is to that there are major perks to working for a large company. Which I don't, of course. I just bask in the fallout.

Leaving on a jet plane...

It's actually happening! We spent a whole whack of money this weekend. :) We booked our flights home, via Delhi, Mumbai, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Shanghai, Beijing, Vancouver and finally arriving in Toronto late July. We still need to arrange some rail transport in all 4 countries, but we can't book India and Thailand until a couple of months before, and both the Vietnamese and Chinese rail systems don't really allow for easy online pre-booking so we'll likely book those trains when we arrive. That goes against my preferred method of doing things, which is to have everything arranged and organized in advance, but maybe it's time for me to branch out a bit. Live a little.

I've been having some fun looking at various accommodation options. We've booked a room in Chiang Mai for only 13 pounds a night. Such fun. We're also arranging a few activities in advance. We've booked a day at an elephant breeding farm to learn how to care for the elephants, and go for a bareback ride through the jungle. And we're planning to book a 2-night cruise on Halong Bay on a Chinese junk boat, including a trek in the jungle on Cat Ba Island.

Major stress this week as we tried to sort out insurance. The problem is that we will basically be in limbo for the time that we're traveling - not technically considered to be permanent residents of any country. We will have left the UK (and our visas will expire) yet not have re-established residency in Canada, having been gone for more than a year. In Ontario there is a 3-month waiting period before anyone emigrating to (or returning to) the province is eligible for OHIP. The problem is that in order to get travel insurance, the insurer wants to be able to return you to somewhere where you can then get long term health care if necessary. So we're not eligible for any travel insurance. Explain this to me - if we're willing to pay their premium, shouldn't someone be willing to cover us for medical insurance? Some tense moments ensued as we tried to figure out how to establish ourselves as residents in one country or the other. But a google search and travel forum later and I found a company which offers exactly what we need - 3 month visitor insurance for people emigrating to Canada or Canadians returning from an extended absence, with optional pay-by-the-day travel insurance to cover the period of time (up to 2 months) that it takes you to get there. Their example is suppose you are moving to Canada from the UK and want to spend a week in Hong Kong on the way - much dancing and cheering in our house when we found this. Problem solved. Hurrah!

Next step is we need to arrange visas for each country - apparently India and China can both be a little bit tricky. Let's hope it works out or we'll be out a lot of money for plane tickets! And we also need to be vaccinated (and be able to show proof) for yellow fever. So next stop is to the Trailfinders visa centre and travel clinic!

However! Before all of that - I am off to the Canary Islands with some girlfriends next weekend, and Noise and I are going to Amsterdam the weekend after that. And I do believe that will be the end of our European Travel Adventure. Off to Asia instead, just for a change. ;)

And even more fun - The Singer is winging her way here over Easter for a visit! And we've got tickets to see Love Never Dies - Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel to the Phantom of the Opera - which has just opened in London last week. So we'll be on the cutting edge of musical theatre. Go us.

Song of the week: Defying Gravity as a duet recorded by the cast of Glee. Enjoy it!

Weekend update

I'm sitting here in the early hours of the morning watching the Olympics and waiting for my cousin to compete. Wish I was in Vancouver with the rest of the family, if only to make it so the figure skating was in the afternoon rather than at 3am! But since I'm trying to stay awake I thought I'd share a few things with you.

I am starting to get the hang of the Indian Railways website. Once you get going it's actually quite straight-forward. It's amazing to me that you can travel for 12 hours overnight on a train (with a bed), therefore saving the cost of a night's accommodation, for the cost of a pizza here in London. Our rough itinerary is starting to come together, and it is looking pretty likely that Noise and I will spend our wedding anniversary this year in Agra at the Taj Mahal. Can't ask for much more romantic than that!

Last night we went to see Megan Mullally perform. If there is anyone out there reading this who doesn't know who she is, she is best known as Karen on Will & Grace. However, she has had a lengthy career on Broadway and is a wonderful singer. We thoroughly enjoyed the show, which was mainly bluesy and almost bluegrassy. Interestingly, it had not occurred to us that we would not be the main demographic group being catered to, but we felt distinctly out of place as one of the few heterosexual couples there. I don't know if it's the Will & Grace link, or just the type of show in general? I will say that it was a real pleasure, for the first time that I can remember in my life, to go to the bathroom at intermission and find it EMPTY. I almost didn't bother because I didn't want to wait in the queue. I guess being one of only a few women in the audience has its perks. :)

Today we went to see Invictus, at the new cinema at Westfield. The best part was the huge amount of legroom. Ok, the movie was pretty good too. :) An interesting look at the politics of South Africa and entertaining as well!

Not much else to comment on tonight, and it's too late for me to be very clever, so I'll leave you now and watch some skating! Cheerio!

Lots of news...

Where to begin? I know I have not been a very good blogger lately, but I do have a bit of an excuse! For the past few months our thoughts and discussions have been pretty consumed by one topic - where to live when we return to Canada - and I didn't want to make all of you have to listen to the endless talks, and back and forth, until a decision had been made. It was bad enough that I made my friend A hear it every day! Anyway, it's all settled now so I can update you all on the plans.

But first, the second distraction - our threesome has become two. We've lost a member of our team. Two weeks ago now, we lost our beloved Buggy. I won't get into details, and most of you already know what happened, but it was sudden and a shock, but he didn't have to suffer for very long and we were able to say our goodbyes and hold him in our arms when he died. It has been absolutely devastating for both of us, Buggy was everything to us and we miss him desperately. He was the best friend, a constant companion, and endlessly entertaining. We will never forget him.

But every day gets a little bit easier. While we can't move on, we need to move forward. And here I come to the plans for our return home! A much happier topic. :)

After much debate and discussion, Noise and I have made the decision to relocate to Toronto. As I say, it took months to make this decision, so I will not bore you with all the factors. But we are very excited about Toronto, and a bit scared as well. We're hoping that if we handled London we can handle Toronto, but that remains to be seen. The biggest factor at the end of the day was that Noise was being offered an excellent opportunity with his firm at the Toronto office, and the job opportunities in Ottawa were not as promising in terms of career advancement. We are hoping to be able to enjoy some of the cultural and entertainment experiences offered in Toronto. In particular, we are keen Leafs fans and Jays fans, so we're looking forward to the chance to see some live action. The Jays in particular are fun, because you can rock up to the Skydome (sorry, Rogers Centre - stupid name) for an afternoon game and buy tickets on the spot. I am also hoping to be able to get out to Wonderland once or twice a summer as well. I do think that Toronto is not as good for outdoorsy sports as Ottawa - but at least it has lovely beaches and places to swim! Our biggest problem is that neither of us knows Toronto that well and we're not sure where to live! But we didn't know Ottawa that well when we moved there either, and we had no idea about London!!! So we'll sort it out. Certainly we'll rent for awhile until we figure out where we really want to live - be it more downtown like Yonge and Eglinton, suburbia either east or west, or north of the city in Richmond Hill or somewhere. I have lots of friends in the Toronto area, and they have all made suggestions to help us out.

We are very sad to not be returning to Ottawa and the friends we left behind there. It is my greatest wish that we will be able to maintain those friendships as they mean the world to us. On a brighter note, though, both Noise and my best friends live just outside Toronto (one east and one west) and we are excited to be able to visit with them more.

So it is with mixed emotions that we make this move, but the overwhelming feeling is one of excitement and anticipation. And if we hate it there is nothing to make us stay! It's our country, we can go where we want!

The timing has only been hammered out last week. We will both be finishing work here at the end of May, and are planning to be leaving London around the first of June. Our plans include 6 or 7 weeks traveling through Asia before we arrive in Toronto mid-to-late July. Noise begins work in Toronto on August 30th, so we should have a month to sort out various things like somewhere to live, buying a car, reclaiming our Ontario drivers' licenses, etc. We're hoping to spend most of that time in Gananoque with our families. We've missed them very much.

Now we're into the thick of planning the trip through Asia on the way home. Our itinerary has varied widely, but now I think we have come up with the basic outline. We're looking to concentrate on 4 countries, rather than peek into a lot but not really see them. Our plans include India (Delhi and the Taj Mahal, Mumbai), Thailand (the beaches of Phuket and Koh Phi Phi, the jungle of Chiang Mai, Bangkok), Vietnam (Saigon, the beaches of Nha Trang and Hoi An, Hanoi and a boat trip on Halong Bay), and China (Shanghai, the terracotta warriors in Xian, and Beijing and the Great Wall). Then we plan to fly from Beijing to Toronto. It promises to be amazing, although I think after 6 weeks in Asia we will be happy to get home and see a Tim Hortons on every corner!

So that's what's been happening with us, and why I've been so slow to post any updates. There have been lots of little things as well, which were overshadowed by events (particularly by Buggy's death). We've just spent 3 days skiing in the French Alps last week. The trip was already booked and paid for and we were due to leave the day after Buggy died. We decided to go ahead and found it to be a very good distraction in the first few days of grief. We stayed in La Tania and skiied into Courchevel most days and the skiing was amazing. Also trying to concentrate on not killing myself was a good distraction from thinking about Buggy. :)

We've got a couple of events coming up as well. We were walking down the Strand on the weekend and saw advertisements for a show by Megan Mullally so we stopped in and bought tickets for this Saturday. Also we bought tickets ages ago for a concert by Julie Andrews - her first since her botched throat surgery - in May at the O2 which it looks like we will be able to go to after all. There was some question of whether we would leave here May 1st but now we're going to stay until June. We also still want to get to Amsterdam for a weekend, which we'll probably try to do in March, and I've got a girls' weekend coming up in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, in the middle of March. I'm planning to attend Crufts dog show (the British equivalent of Westminster in New York) with my friend A in March - we're going to watch one of our clients, a beagle breeder, while she shows the boys. And if we've got any other time left over there's still a lot of England that we haven't seen! We are now (sadly) able to up and go on a whim some weekend, instead of needing to arrange boarding for Buggy, or find a pet-friendly hotel, and book a car to take him. So perhaps we'll take a few weekends away.

First and foremost in my mind at the moment, though, is the Olympics!!! We get 24/7 coverage on Eurosport, although of course most of the events happen in the middle of the night here. :) The beauty of it, too, is that Eurosport is completely unbiased. They show all the competitors and they don't cheer for anyone (except the Brits but there aren't that many of them!) It's fantastic. Next week I have taken some days off (I had holidays to use up) and plan to watch all the ice dancing live. Gotta provide family support! Even though the rest of the fam is actually attending the Olympics, I will provide the UK support. Go T&B!! Thanks to friends and family at home, we have our red mittens and wear them and wave at the tv (ok, that's mainly me) when the Canadians are competing. And on Saturday we stopped by Trafalgar Square where there were Olympic celebrations going on and someone asked us where we got our mitts and could they buy them somewhere nearby. We had to dash his hopes and tell him that they had been sent to us from Canada (not to mention that for months they were impossible to find!)

So there you go. You are up to date and I can stop feeling guilty that I haven't posted a blog entry. Now that things are starting to be in motion for the move home, I will try to keep you updated as things happen.

Go Canada Go!!!

What a difference a few days makes!

Here is Arlington Row in Bibury when we were there this weekend...

... And here it is today.

We've been hit with a blizzard here in the UK, and travel is a bit of a challenge. Today my work closed early in order for us all to get home safely. Trains are few and far between but I was lucky and arrived at the station just as one was coming through. Buggy is excited! He loves snow!

Welcome 2010!

Well, Christmas has come and gone, and another visit from the PetParents has ended. We had a lovely quiet Christmas, just Noise and Buggy and me. For dinner we went to our friends' house where we were fed a delicious meal of turkey, gammon, stuffing, vegetables, roasted potatoes, and gravy. Yummy! Noise spoiled me as usual on Christmas, although I like to think that he got a few nice things as well. :) We had several skype conversations with our families at home, although that certainly doesn't make up for not being there with them.

On Boxing Day we went to New Bond Street to exchange one of my Christmas presents (a Louis Vuitton wallet, needed to exchange for a different style), and discovered that apparently Boxing Day is the day when all the Asian tourists descend on the designer shops in London. We lined up outside the store for about 45 minutes to get in, then it was another half-hour or so before we were able to complete the exchange. We were the only caucasion people in the entire store! And the only ones not also carrying shopping bags from Gucci and D&G and Burberry. But it was worth it to get the exchange done and start using my lovely new wallet!!

The next day the PetParents arrived. Noise and I met them at Heathrow; they were only an hour late which wasn't too bad considering they were 2 hours late leaving Ottawa. You know, freezing rain, de-icing, and so on. We had a second Christmas then, as the PetParents had brought over presents for us from everyone at home. Thanks again, everyone!

We had a nice couple of days in London, visited the Tate Modern, walked around Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park, visited the Victoria and Albert Museum, ate home-cooked bangers and mash, and so on.

Then on New Year's Eve we headed out to the Cotswolds for 3 days. We stayed at the Lamb Inn in Great Rissington for 2 nights, including a lovely New Year's Eve dinner and party. And we spent time driving around the Romantic Road, visiting all the pretty little villages and towns of the Cotswolds. A great time was had by all, and we were lucky to have 2 days of sunshine despite the cold (for England) temperatures.

We returned to London on Saturday and delivered the PetParents back to Heathrow on Sunday, and thus ends another Christmas holidays. But it was relaxing and quiet and leaves us all with great memories.

And amidst all that I got the news that one of my best friends got engaged on New Year's Eve! Congratulations K! Can't wait to hear about all the plans and details.

But... at the moment there is nothing specific planned to look forward to, so I need to turn my attention to the next trip. We're looking at skiing in the 3 valleys in the French Alps next month. And that should keep me occupied for a little while at least. :)

Wiener Christkindlmarkt!

So there does appear to be a bit of a difference between the German and the Austrian Christmas markets. The general idea is the same, the wooden huts and lights and Christmas trees, selling edible treats, gluhwein, heisse shokolade (hot chocolate) and Christmas trinkets. But then there are some differences as well - most notably the addition of a Christmas Punsch as well as the gluhwein. In a variety of flavours. Which we discovered varied from delicious warm orange and tropical flavours to something which tasted very reminiscent of liquid Ricola cough drops. (The last one ended up in the rubbish bin after a couple of sips!)

There were some new foods for us to try as well. Our favourites were the langos (large flat fried bread with garlic flavour), and the kartoffelpuffers which were basically big hash browns. Noise was also particularly enamoured with the hot dogs shoved down inside a baguette with a lid on them.

The market closest to our hotel was the big one at City Hall at Rathausplatz. It was from here that we got our souvenir mugs this year, a nice complement to our Gendarmenmarkt mugs from Berlin.

We arrived at Vienna airport and easily found our way to the S-bahn to get into the city. When we arrived at the platform there was a train waiting to go, so we rushed to the machine to buy tickets. Which was slower than you would expect since we were trying to use all the euro coins that the Singer and Serdic had left with us. The Viennese subway system was well laid-out and user-friendly. It's a nice 24 minute ride into the city centre from the airport.

Our first day we decided to get an overview of the city and followed Rick's walking tour. We saw all the major sights - the Hofburg Palace, New Palace, St Stephen's Cathedral, and the Vienna Opera House, as well as some smaller sights as well. Just beyond the Hofburg Palace there was a courtyard set back from the street and I wondered what some of the people were looking at - lo and behold it was the Lipizzaner stallions in their stables! Very exciting. We stopped into the Sacher Hotel to try out the famous Original Sacher Torte (chocolate cake layered with apricot jam and a dark chocolate coating... yummy!) We also had a look around inside St Stephen's Cathedral, a very gothic building and very dark on the inside. It is interesting because it has a north and south tower but the north tower is only half the height of the south because they ran out of money when building it. They say the cathedral helped put Vienna on the map as a major city in its time.

One of the nicest things about Vienna is its size - everything is easily reached on foot. The only time we needed public transport was to and from the airport and to visit Schonbrunn Palace. We went out there one afternoon to check out the Christmas market and discovered they had apfel gluhwein - like warm apple cider with dried apples floating in it. Sooooo yummy! I had two. :)

Probably the highlight of the trip for me was attending the performance of the Lipizzaner stallions at the Spanish Riding School. Dressage at its best! Growing up as a horse-lover it was always a dream for me to see these beautiful animals, and I was thrilled to get the chance. The show was about an hour and consisted of several parts - the first section was a showcase of four of the young stallions who are just starting out their training. They were all around 3-5 years old and it was cute to watch them. Of course any of them would ace a basic dressage test, but some of them were acting up a bit and it was just obvious that they weren't as polished as the older stallions. We then saw some of the older stallions through their paces, and then they did some work on the long reins and on the ground - the schools above the ground where they do the levante and the caprioles. This is probably the most exciting bit for the non-riders in the audience. Next the chief rider did a solo routine on his chief horse - one-handed - which was fabulous, and then they did an 8-horse exercise which was incredible. Even just being inside the building was a treat for me!

We also attended a concert by the famous Vienna Boys Choir, although to be honest we were a bit disappointed in this. It all just felt a bit amateurish, kind of like when I was in the church junior choir growing up. Not what we expected from a world famous boys' choir. But for 5 euros we couldn't really complain too much!

We had a restaurant dinner on our first night (and after that just ate at the markets) and chose to eat at Figlmuller, famous for its Wiener schnitzel. SO DELICIOUS! Ok, and the truth is we had Wiener schnitzel again on our last day for lunch. :) Because it's just that yummy. And who knows when we'll be in Wien again.

Those are the highlights! We did do a bit of shopping, and finally bought ourselves the creche we've been looking for for a couple of years. Now every year when we decorate for Christmas and set up our creche we will think of Vienna.

Now we need to plan the next trip - we're thinking skiing in France in February. But we'll see how it goes.

What are the odds...???

So I had this random occurrence of happenstance several months ago, which at the time I was very moved by it and almost rushed home to spread my dumbfounded pleasure. I had crafted the perfect entry, which was going to shatter all previous records of wit, intrigue and enjoyable reading. But it was first thing in the morning on my way to work, and by the end of the day I had lost interest.

Then along came this week...

SPOILER ALERT - this may only be interesting to me, so you can stop reading now...

As background, my route to work involves a train to Waterloo and then a bus (either the 26 or 76) to Ludgate Circus. For those of you not familiar with London terminology, I am not any sort of lion tamer or side show freak, though that could be up for debate - it basically means the intersection at Farringdon Road and Fleet Street on one side and Ludgate Hill on the other.

A week or so ago, for no particular reason, I noticed this dude come off the bus and start to head in the direction I was going. I basically followed him (because he was heading the same way) all the way to my office, and then in the front door. Turns out he works here. How interesting, but I guess that happens.

Then along came this week...(did I already say that?).

In a nutshell, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I saw this same dude come off my bus and head to "our" office...and not only that, but 2 of those days, I saw him getting ON to the bus at Waterloo....now that's crazy!! What are the odds of the that?

I have no idea what his route is, but somehow it converges with mine at just the right time that we are both waiting patiently in the queue at Waterloo for the same 26 or 76...


Oh yeah, that random bit of "what are the odds?" from before:

A while ago (when living in Fulham and taking the tube to work), I noticed another person getting on the tube - I think he had a really weird scarf or something. We both got on the same carriage of the District Line at Baron's Court and got off at Westminster. At that point I lost track of him in the cluster of enjoyment that is the scramble to the Jubilee Line in the morning rush. I carried on my merry way...got to work and noticed the same said man get on to the lift (read: elevator) at the office building I was working in!

Apparently he got on the same tube as me, got off at the same stop, got on the other same tube as me, got off at the same stop, walked to the same office tower as me and got into the same lift as me....fortunately he got off a different floor. Otherwise I would think I was having an out of body experience!!!!

What are the odds of that....?

Much to do!

Since we returned from our lovely trip to the homeland we have been busy bees creating our social calendar for the next two months! We were already planning a Christmas party in early December, but now we're completely booked up from late November through New Year's!

First up is a Christmas market trip to Vienna the last weekend in November. Three nights of Christmas lights, hot chocolate, gluhwein, and whatever other yummy treats they serve at the Vienna markets! And last night I booked tickets to see the Lipizzaner stallions perform at the Spanish Riding School - childhood dream number one coming up!

We've also booked tickets to go skating at Somerset House again this year - last year was great fun but here's hoping that it doesn't rain this time! And we're attending a concert at Royal Albert Hall on December 20th entitled White Christmas - a choral and orchestral concert of Christmas favourites. That should kick off the Christmas week!

We're planning a quiet Christmas Day, hoping to not get out of our pjs until dinner time, then dinner at a friend's. The PetParents are arriving the day after Boxing Day for a week, and we've got big plans for New Year's. Two nights at a country inn in the Cotswolds with the PetParents and Buggy, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Now we need to start planning beyond New Year's! We're thinking ski trip to the French Alps, weekend in Amsterdam, south of France? ... other thoughts?

Update

So it turns out that the landlord did speak to the neighbours awhile ago and agreed for the trees to be cut down. However, he hadn't heard anything from them since nor did he know that they were coming last week. So although it appears that the neighbours did have permission to cut down the trees, I still find them at fault for not informing us or our landlord that they would be climbing into our garden one day to cut down our trees. We still feel like it was an invasion of our privacy, also annoying because we do have personal property in the garden which we would like to think is secure.

Anyway, mystery solved, and to look on the bright side (pun intended!) at least there is a bit more light in the garden...

The Curious Case of the Disappearing Trees

I know, I know, I have been a terrible blogger recently. For once, though, it's not because I've had nothing to chat about - instead I've had way too much going on! I promise soon to catch you up on our most recent adventures, including our trip to Greece (fabulous!) and also our trip home for the Singer and Serdic's wedding (also fabulous!!). But today I must instead share with you the most curious case of the disappearing trees.

A little background: our flat has a private garden which can only be accessed through our flat, as it is surrounded on three sides by stone walls and on the fourth by the house. Along the north wall between our garden and the next door neighbour's garden we have several small bushes and plants and two large (maybe 15-20 foot?) trees.

When we arrived home, jet-lagged and bleary, from our trip to Ottawa on Tuesday I noticed as soon as I walked through the door that something was different. Looking out through the back door to the garden I could only see walls and sky, no trees. How odd, I thought. My first thought was that in fact the trees had been in the neighbour's garden and had been cut down. On further inspection, though, we discovered that BOTH trees in our back garden had been cut down, with just small stumps left in the ground. While there was evidence of sawdust among the beds, the actual trees were nowhere to be found.

This left us with a list of interesting questions... why had the seemingly healthy trees been cut down? Had the neighbours requested it because they were encroaching on their garden? How had the tree-cutter-downers gotten into our garden? Had they climbed the wall from the neighbour's or had they actually been into our flat? What particularly annoyed us was that whether they were in the flat or not, they were certainly in the garden and we should have been given notice of that. Major breach of our privacy! As it happens we were away, but nobody knew that.

As an aside I would also like to point out that our clothesline had been tied to one of these trees and is now lying on the ground.

As our detective work continued, Noise remembered that there had been a parking restriction for out front of our neighbour's house during the week we were away for a "crane or something". The parking restriction sign was helpfully still in place so we read it and lo and behold it was for "tree surgery". Aha! Fingers are starting to point at the next door neighbours. However, I could not believe that anyone would be so stupid as to climb a wall onto someone else's property and cut down two trees without permission, so we assumed that they had been given permission by our landlord for some reason.

Please also note that it states very clearly in our lease that we are NOT allowed to remove any plants or cut down any trees in the garden without permission. To this effect we immediately contacted the estate agents who manage our flat to find out what had happened, as we wanted it made very clear that we certainly had not been responsible.

And what response did we get today? No, the estate agents know nothing about it, did not give anyone access to our flat, and are also perturbed to hear that someone has been climbing the walls. They are checking with the landlord to see if he happens to know anything about it, but at this point it is really starting to look like our neighbours hired someone to come in, climb our wall, and cut down our trees without asking permission or telling anyone. What my knowledgable friends at work tell me is that this in fact breaking three laws: trespass, damaging property, and also stealing our wood! Not to mention that planning permission is apparently required around here to cut down trees. Now we may find out tomorrow that the landlord knew all about it, in which case I will go back to being very annoyed that we were not given notice. But it will be very interesting to hear how it all plays out!

In the meantime we now have a tree-less garden, which is sad in itself, and a real waste. And we need to do something about that clothesline... But tonight I have been out taking pictures of the parking restriction sign, in case it's needed for evidence in court!

Very intriguing, and I will keep you posted on the outcome! Also I promise to chat soon about the recent trips and the Singer and Serdic's wonderful wedding!

London outings

We've had a busy weekend, trying to be all cultural and active at the same time. Friday evening we went with some friends to a comedy club at a pub in Balham. We had dinner, a pint, and watched some quite funny stand up acts. This place has a comedy show every Friday evening, so perhaps we will get a chance to go again. Sad to say that the acts were much better than those we saw at the Fringe Festival.

Yesterday I worked all day but while I was busy Noise popped in to the tkts booth at Leicester Square and picked up tickets to see Sister Act. We didn't know much about the show (except that it's based on the movie which I will admit I'm not a fan of - I think this is mostly because I don't like Whoopi Goldberg, though). So I went in with no real expectations... and LOVED it. It was hugely entertaining. I sat through much of the show with a grin on my face, laughed, cheered, and at the end actually leapt to my feet to dance. Can't ask for better than that! The show has an original score, not the music from the movie, which was composed by Alan Menken (of The Little Mermaid and Beauty & the Beast fame for those who don't know him). The cast were all fantastic, even all the secondary characters. Vastly entertaining night out.

Interestingly, the show is playing at the London Palladium, which is where we saw our first West End show the first week we were in London - The Sound of Music. And when you think about it, it's amazing how many parallels you can draw between SofM and Sister Act. Both are about nuns. Both are about someone who doesn't quite fit in. Both are about someone teaching others to sing. Both feature someone hiding out in a convent. And so on...

Speaking of West End musicals, word on the street is that there are a couple of exciting things coming up. First off, in March they should be opening Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel to Phantom, at the Adelphi. And then, to my unending delight, they will be doing a West End revival of the Wizard of Oz!!! Apparently they're going to do a BBC reality show to cast Dorothy (and also Toto) and then open the show in 2010. I may have to stay in London just for that. Or else come back.

And today we ran the Great Capital 5K Run in Regent's Park. This was quite an interesting experience, as there were nearly 2000 people running. We were split into 4 waves of runners depending on our predicted time, so Noise headed off in the first group while my friend AT and I were in the third wave. I was pleased with our run, we managed it in 33:41, with just two short breaks, one at 15 minutes and again at 24 minutes. I didn't think I was going to make it through the last 1.5K, which was cruelly uphill, but I dug deep and managed it. And just for fun I got to wrap up in a foil blanket afterwards like I'd just run a marathon. ;) Then for a reward afterwards AT and I went to MAC and I got to buy a new shimmery brown eyeshadow for the Singer's wedding.

Once home we took the Bugster for a nice walk and now are chillaxing at home for the rest of the day. Back to work tomorrow, but I only have to work 2 days this week and then I am flying to CANADA!!! I am so excited for my imminent return to the homeland for my friend Andi's wedding. Besides the obvious excitement of being in Canada (you know, Tim Hortons, proper cottage cheese, Mongolian Grill, everything written in French and English, etc), it also promises to be a fabulous girls' weekend with my two best friends. Who I don't get to see nearly often enough.

That's it from me for now. Later.

Scotland (and happy 100th!)

Apparently this is my 100th post - congrats to me! I'm not sure what category that milestone goes in but it's a milestone nonetheless.

I have promised to write a blog post about our recent trip to Scotland, and have unfortunately not had a free moment to do it until now. Work, work, work all the time! I worked the last 8 days out of 9 and the one free day I was busy with other things (like going to Piccadilly Circus to find the lone London branch of Tim Horton's and having a Boston Cream - important stuff!).

But here I am! Ready to regale you with stories of our Scottish jaunt. We flew from Gatwick bright and early Saturday morning and arrived in Edinburgh an hour later. Now that is the way to travel. Especially since in that hour we were served a full hot English breakfast onboard! Score one for BA! At Edinburgh airport we picked up our rental car and headed out for the highlands. We meandered our way up towards Inverness, stopping here and there for a photo op of the hills and heather. In Inverness we stopped for lunch and wandered around the town a bit, up and down both sides of the River Ness. No time to be wasted, though, and we pressed on down the western shore of Loch Ness. We stopped and visited Urquhart Castle on the shores of Loch Ness, dating from the 1200s. We also had ourselves a photoshoot as it seemed appropriate with one of the world's most famous lakes as a backdrop. Noise is insistent that he saw Nessie but I remain sceptical.

Saturday evening we spent in a small place called Invergarry, just south of Loch Ness. We stayed in the Invergarry Hotel, and it was absolutely lovely. If anyone ever wants to stay in Invergarry, I know just the place. We were somehow assigned the biggest room in the hotel, on the corner with a view out over the river. Dinner was included so we enjoyed the full 3 courses down in the restaurant and then retired to the bar with a pint. And that's about when we crashed, having been up at 4:30am to get to the airport.

On Sunday we headed south again, making a stop at the Nevis mountain range. They have a gondola system there which takes you 650m up on Aonach Mor. In winter it is a ski hill. This was the only day that it rained on us in Scotland, for which we are grateful, but it was unfortunately a bit unpleasant on top of this mountain... it was so windy that it felt like we might get blown off the side! Noise's hair was standing straight up and he looked like Kramer. But the views down over the range and of Fort William and the lochs was beautiful. In Fort William we stopped in to a shop selling woven goods and bought a couple of souvenirs (a blanket for our living room, and also a beautiful cashmere scarf for me). Our journey then took us through the beautiful area of Glen Coe. We stopped a few times to take some photos and at one point had a bit of a dilemma when we couldn't get the car doors shut against the wind! We drove on over the Rannoch Moor and finally to our goal - Loch Lomond. We drove all down the western side of Loch Lomond and then around the southern edge, before detouring off our route and down a tiny side road to Rowardennan to get some photos. Of course for the entire drive we had to sing - "ye take the high road and I'll take the low...."

We spent Sunday night in the small village of Killearn, at the Black Bull Hotel. The resident dogs were a Westie and a Scottie - a bit cliche if you ask me, but cute all the same. Monday we set off to return to Edinburgh via St Andrews. Noise had been to St Andrews a few weeks previously with his friend E, but was quite insistent that I should experience the thrill as well. (The truth being that he just really wanted to go back.) It really is a lovely town, and since the sun was shining we took a walk along the edge of the course to revisit Noise's triumph (or lack thereof) on the 17th and 18th holes of the Old Course. I enjoyed seeing where he had hit the roof of the hotel on the 17th tee as I hadn't fully understood before how it was possible.

We returned to Edinburgh and dropped off the car, then caught the bus into the city. After checking in to the Hilton (booked cheap on hotwire, as usual) we set out to explore. What a gorgeous city! As the Fringe Festival was on, there was of course a lot of buzz, and the Royal Mile was jampacked with crowds and street performers. We found the booth selling Fringe tickets half-price and bought tickets to that evening's comedy show at the Caves. Then we found a store selling bagpipes and bought a set of practice pipes to learn on. Oooops. For the record, I am not coordinated enough to manage it, but Noise can at least make sounds on them. Dinner was in fact Italian that night, before we made our way to the comedy show. While the comedy left something to be desired, the setting was very cool! It was in a little bar in a "cave", built down below the archways of a bridge. You walked in through this stooped little hallway, and then all of a sudden were in this big open room with arched ceiling. Very neat.

Tuesday we had some time before returning to the airport, and decided to go check out The Elephant House, the cafe where JK Rowling wrote (or at least started writing) Harry Potter. We got ourselves a drink and a cookie and settled down in the back room where it is said she did her writing. There was a gorgeous view of Edinburgh Castle from the windows there. We also wandered up to see the castle close up but didn't bother to go inside. After a final wander down the Royal Mile and view of the performers we collected our luggage and headed back to the airport.

Although it wasn't a fancy or exotic trip, it was a fantastic time all the same. No work, no pressures, no worries. Just lots of laughter, memories, good food and good wine. Photos are here.

Not much else in the way of news. Noise has been working on a big project at work which has kept him late this week. Work is the same for me. We do have a few things coming up to take our minds off work- less than 2 weeks until I return to the homeland! A long weekend in the Toronto area, then the weekend after I return from that we are heading to Greece for a week. We'll be flying into Athens on Saturday, then Sunday morning taking the ferry to Santorini. We've booked 4 nights at the Reverie in Firostefani and intend to not do much more than eat, sleep, and swim (and rent a scooter to drive around the island). Then we'll return to Athens before flying back to London. And 2 weeks after that we will be flying to OTTAWA!!! And that should get us through until November. Then I need to plan another Christmas markets trip for December. :) The planning never stops!

Tomorrow we are planning to pop up to Cambridge to visit some friends from Ottawa who are in town, and meet their new additions. Then we're going to dress up and go out somewhere posh for dinner to celebrate Noise's 30th. He seems less distressed about it than I expected, so hopefully he won't break down and cry. We'll have to get a few cocktails first. Tonight we're going to build a fort in the living room and camp out with Buggy, he likes it when we do that. A nice treat for him.

I'm out! Till next time!

Sorry, sorry...

I expect by now all my readers have given up on me. I figured I had better post an update today because I was perilously close to having gone an entire month without a new post.

Therein lies the problem... I have nothing to say. To all intents and purposes it has been a fairly quiet month. No earth-shattering news to share or even any insightful comments. It seems that everyone else has interesting things going on, but for me it's just wake up in the morning, go to work, come home and go to bed.

That said, since my last post I did have a wonderful visit from PetMom, Aunt C, and Dadamom. It was so great to have them here and have some free time to visit with them. On one of my days off while they were here I went with them to visit Leeds Castle in Kent, which was a very nice outing. An excellent day trip from London if anyone is looking for one!

Noise has been a much busier bee. He has been to Scotland twice this month - once to Glasgow to watch the Open Championship at Turnberry, and then to St Andrew's for a few days of golfing heaven with his friend E, over from Canada for the occasion. They had a wonderful time, and another goal has been crossed off Noise's list. :) Today he is flying to Copenhagen for work - how annoying for me! We have a long weekend coming up and had debated going to Copenhagen, but now I'm glad we didn't. Instead we are spending 4 days in the Scottish highlands - around Loch Ness, Loch Lomond, and then to Edinburgh. Here's hoping it doesn't pour rain the entire time! It should be good fun and I am really looking forward to it. We've booked two nights at country inns in the highlands, and one night in Edinburgh at the Hilton - booked on hotwire for cheap. Gotta love hotwire.

Mostly consuming my mind at this time is the debate over what happens next. Now that we are into our second year here in London, it will soon be time to decide where we will go next and start making plans to that effect. Basically, do we stay here another year, go somewhere else, or return home. It was so easy when we decided to come here - not that the decision to leave home was easy, but we only ever really considered London if we decided to go anywhere. But now it's harder. Do we go somewhere in Europe for a year? Stay in London? Home to Ottawa? Or somewhere else in Canada? I'm pushing for the Cayman Islands, would anyone visit me there?

So there you have it - my August update. I'll try to post more often, but for now I want to send a shout out to the Singer and also to Dadamom for their birthdays later this week! Wish I was there!

Watch this space, only 10 days until we head on our Scottish adventure, and it's only 5 weeks and 2 days until I am flying to CANADA!!! Cottage cheese, here I come.