Saturday 28 April 2007

why don't people update?

I get annoyed when the blogs I check/read haven't been updated in ages... and then I feel guilty because I haven't really updated in ages either - oops. And its crazy, because there is lots to talk about - overseas visitors, trips to foreign places, movies and books and plays to review, items crossed off my 101 things list, fun things about owning a wii, frustrations with the british way of doing, well, pretty much everything. Writing it out like that makes my life sound somewhat exciting - trust me, most of the time it isn't. Anyway, silly Graeme bought me a pro account on flickr today, because I was complaining that I was almost at my free limit of displayed photos and that I wanted to be able to make more sets (albums, basically) to define my photos better. So, of course, that's taking up my time - organising photos, working out what new stuff to upload, deciding how much pic-spam I can do without all my contacts hating me (or at least ignoring my photos), etc. That, and the fact that I don't actually enjoy spending 24hrs a day in front of a computer, is why, right now, you aren't going to get a real update either - sorry. I promise that over the next few days I will sit down and write up some of the posts that are banging around in my head...

Read More......


Thursday 19 April 2007

whipsnade photos are up...

... as well as a few from monkey world.

mum and baby

We are still trying to decide what we're doing with our website gallery, so the new photos are only my best ones and are on my flickr. Still got a tonne to sort through from easter weekend...

Read More......


Monday 16 April 2007

Shopping Adventure

Today, we made the 1.5 hour trek to what is apparently Britain's 2nd largest shopping centre. Crazy to go all that way for a shopping centre, right? But we have been hearing about it since we arrived and had some shopping to do anyway, so we decided to check it out. It was OK, but nothing to write home about. Oh, wait, I guess I'm kinda doing that... Anyway, by Australian standards, it was still decent sized, I guess, but wouldn't be considered huge. What really makes it big is the way it is laid out and the fact that it is built into an old quarry or something and has artificial lakes and bike tracks and stuff in addition to the shops. Ok, I guess it was kinda cool. But it even made Graeme homesick, so maybe thats why I have mixed feelings about it. We realised how much we missed going to a real shopping centre. Does that mean we are massive consumers? Not really. We didn't even buy that much today. But its nice to go to one place for all (well, most) of your shopping needs, to have a food court or other options for eating, to be undercover the whole time. We are realising we belong in the suburbs of a biggish city, not the centre of a massive one.

Read More......


Sunday 15 April 2007

reminder: watch robin hood on abc, australia

it seems i may have been wrong last week and that it actually starts tomorrow (tonight, your time).
watch it - you won't regret it.

Read More......


Elephants, Rhinos and Bears - oh my

OK, so we saw Lions and Tigers too, and I could've used the line properly, but the elephants and rhinos were the highlights, so they had to go in the title.

Today we went to Whipsnade, which is an open plains zoo just north of London. The main reason for going was that they have very successful breeding programmes that mean they have, among others, a baby elephant and a baby rhino. And I mean little babies, as in less than 4 months old. Anyone who knows me knows I would not pass up an opportunity to see a baby elephant up close. It wasn't until part way through the day we discovered how close we would get to see the elephants - they take them on a walk around the park and literally pass within metres of people watching.

elephant line

This is the second youngest calf they have there - I think I heard/read 2 1/2 years old. Cute, huh?

I have photos of the baby too, obviously, but I have just got home and this is probably the best elephant shot I got, so its the one I've uploaded for now. I will go through properly and upload more soon.

Other than the elephants, the highlights included seeing rhinos very close up, including the baby who was covered in mud and had straw stuck to him; touching a lemur, which apparently we weren't meant to do, but it was sitting right there and didn't seem to care when some kid "patted" it, so we did too; the fact that they had animals that were just roaming free on the grounds, including wallabies :); watching them feed the big fluffy bears that looked very cuddly; and the beautiful warm weather that meant i was in jeans and a t-shirt (ie, no jacket) for most of the day.

Read More......


updating?

The problem I have with blogging is I start to compose posts in my head and think about the things I should write and kind of put them in order, so that I feel like I need to "catch up" on the old ones before I post about new things, and then I end up not posting at all for ages.

So, as of right now, I am determined to make myself not only blog the little things and more often, but to actually sit and post asap rather than putting it off. And as usually happens when I actually log into blogger and start posting, there may be several posts appear today (since I like to keep one post about one topic, usually, and besides, I'm not doing very well towards my posting target at the moment...)

OK, I'll start typing up the real post I came here to write.

Read More......


Tuesday 10 April 2007

the wii is here...

...so a decent update may be a day or two away :)

Read More......


Watch it: Robin Hood

A quick announcement for all my Australian friends and family - Robin Hood started on the ABC on Sunday (yesterday) and you should all be watching it. I only just found this out today, so I couldn't warn you earlier - maybe they will do a re-run during the week.

Have just got back from Easter weekend away and will update properly later...

EDIT: Graeme just informed me that I subconsciously put bbc instead of abc. It is made by and shown on bbc in england, but is on the abc in australia - hope no-one got confused...
Also, I checked for the re-run and it doesn't seem to be happening, but I think my brother might have a copy of it if you want to see it - it is unlike other robin hoods, so you really should see the first episode first, to set the scene properly.

Read More......


Friday 6 April 2007

i just bought a wii

yeah, so graeme decided a couple of weeks ago that he couldn't wait any longer to buy a wii. problem is that the whole country is pretty much out of stock. so he found a website that automatically checks a bunch of places and updates when there is stock. he actually bought one a couple of days ago, but after a load of hassle this afternoon, where the company we ordered it through (comet - they are now on our blacklist) and the credit card company (which we are now convinced we should investigate changing) had simultaneous royal screw-ups, we were left wii-less again. graeme left work to come home, but not before leaving me instructions to keep an eye out and buy it if it came up on amazon (the only place who doesn't make you buy a big bundle worth over 300 quid) and amazingly, about 15 minutes later, it did. i never knew my heartrate could get so high while just sitting on my butt using my laptop. seriously, i was so nervous that i would miss out, i could've ordered anything - i hardly even looked at the buttons i was hitting to process the order... graeme's justification for buying a wii (when we already own an xbox 360 and a nintendo ds each) is that you can get exercise using the wii.

and while i was writing this, graeme got home and i have since placed another like 5 amazon orders to get all the extra stuff (we combine them into smaller orders, because they seem to arrive faster that way).

ok, out for dinner and its easter weekend - yay!

Read More......


Wednesday 4 April 2007

YAY visitors

Yesterday, I got a totally out of the blue email from Alison's parents to say they will be in London in a couple of weeks and heard we had a spare room (some of their plans fell through, thus the short notice). Our spare room has been turned into our study and there isn't actually a spare bed, but we offered them an airbed on our loungeroom floor instead. Now we just have to acquire an airbed - but we were planning on doing so anyway :) We're actually going to Amsterdam for 2 out of the 4 days that they will be here, but that's cool. We get more visitors. Oh, and for anyone who doesn't know much about my "early years", Alison and I have been friends for like 12 1/2 years, so its not that weird that her parents will be here - we know each other pretty well.

Now, if only I can get my own parents or Alison herself to come and visit...

Read More......


Monday 2 April 2007

Randomness

Sorry. I feel like all I've been posting about lately is Harry Potter. And I know that must be frustrating for those of you who have no interest or haven't read all of the books (btw, Sharon, I promise that I will always avoid any real spoilers, I've even been looking up how to hide part of a post so you can totally skip it).

So, I promise to do some more interesting non-hp posts, starting with this one of random things you might like to know, written in the order I think of them...

I have a few projects I have finished for my 50 projects in 2007, but I haven't taken photos yet and I don't want to just tell, I want to show, so I will try to get those up over the next few days. Its very hard being crafty here, because I feel bad buying stuff if I know I have plenty of it already (even though its all back in Sydney), but I want some new skirts for spring/summer and most of the stuff in the shops here is either ugly or expensive (usually both), so I will hopefully be doing some sewing over the next couple of weeks, assuming I can find fabrics I like and draft a decent pattern.

Its school holidays now, so I have officially gone a whole term without working - the agency I have applied to do some work through is still checking references or something. I just hope that it gets sorted this week so I can actually do some work when school goes back. More than anything, we need the money so we can book some more trips.

We went to Tate Modern yesterday, mainly to see the slides, but also because we'd never been. Looking around a Modern Art gallery with Graeme is an experience not to be missed - I highly recommend it. We were laughing very loudly and innappropriately (judging by the ambient noise level) for most of the afternoon, mainly due to the comments he kept making. It was quite apparent that he didn't think most of the stuff we saw counted as art, which I have to admit, I kind of agreed with, especially because everything is accompanied by a pretentious blurb trying to explain why it is art (or, more accurately, why it was worth spending stupid amounts of money on).

slides
The slides in Tate Modern

We used our Tussaud's annual pass for the last time today and had the crappiest day we have had while using the pass. We went to Thorpe Park and thats all the attention I want to give that piece of news, other than to say I'm glad I didn't go to the recruitment day, as I had considered doing.

It's Easter next weekend and we are going to Monkey World. I am very excited about this. Although, as we were looking stuff up and organising what we would do for the weekend, we found out that Jim Cronin passed away, which is very sad. You can read more at the Monkey World website. We're going to other places in the south-west too, but this is the one I am most looking forward to (probably since I have been saying we should go there for longer than we've been living in the UK).

Read More......


April Fools = Totally Lame

I just feel the need to tell the world that I think the whole concept of April Fool's Day is pretty lame. And I think websites and whatnot that actually think they are fooling anyone need to get a life. For example, The Leaky Cauldron, claims they are going to stop being a Harry Potter fan site after book 7 is released... Funny? No. Fear-inducing? Not in the slightest. Honestly, their site has been annoying me for awhile now, and this just cemented that it is not worth my time, so I have removed them from my bookmarks - you are a fan site, stop taking yourselves so seriously. At least Mugglenet posted fake spoilers from book 7 and some of them were funny.

Do a real practical JOKE or give up.

Read More......