Wheels of Time

Once again it seems that time has escaped me and I've again neglected my poor blog. So what's new in my world..... Well I just got back from a trip back to Idaho, it was great to see friends and family again though I didn't get to see everyone I wanted to. But there will be another trip come November for another week, so hopefully I will be able to see those I saw last time plus the ones I didn't. Will make for a very busy week, but its always great to catch up with everyone.

So yeah other than a trip to the states, nothing new to report. Fairly boring life, I go to work I come home fill out job applications for other jobs in hopes I might get one that pays more and actually pertains to my degree that I spent a small fortune on, then I go to bed and get up and do the same thing all over again. Thats my life for now.....

Nothing New

Don't have anything new to report, but sort of feel as if I should give a bit of an update as its been awhile. Still working for the Cathedral, but I'm on the hunt for the better job. Still loving living in England, more so now than ever before. Things are going well, I'm happy, not wealthy, but a bit more wise or so I like to think.

Oh I'm going back to Idaho for a visit next month....

View from the Top

One of the perks of working at Canterbury Cathedral is the opportunity to take a special tour of the parts of the cathedral the general public does not get to see. It required a hard hat and a lot of stamina to climb the 200 feet to the top, but the view was well worth it. The tour was led by Heather one of the stone masons employed by the cathedral. She took us up the scaffolding on the outside of the southwest transept and showed us how much the building has shifted and the restoration taking place. From there we climbed back down, turned in our hard hats and made ascent to the top of the Bell Harry Tower. It was a long climb, but well worth it in the end. The views from the top of the cathedral were amazing. After the tower we climbed back down part way and went to where the bells are kept and were able to see the pulley system for ringing the bells in action. Loud but cool :P from there we went to the top of the Quire and saw where the organ pipes are. All in all it was a pretty amazing time.

Its Been Ages Again.....

So one would think with all the free time I have now that I'm no longer a uni student that I would be able to keep more up to date on my blog. But the truth is now that I'm not chained to my computer I don't remember to do the little things like update my blog.
So here goes what you've all missed in the last 2 months...
American Thanksgiving: I do recall I tried to post pics but stupid blogger wouldn't comply so I posted them instead on facebook. I hosted my first every thanksgiving with the help of my housemate Jenna and a friend of ours Lizzie. I roasted a turkey, peeled and mashed a billion potatoes, made sweet potatoes, stuffing and made a pumpkin pie completely from scratch! Lizzie brought roast potatoes and parsnips and Jenna made a lovely broken glass cake. All in all it was a success I would say :)

December 24th was Jenna's big 14th birthday. She had a party on the 12th since most people would be gone on the 24th, but we still had a cake and sang happy birthday on her actual birthday.

Christmas was fairly quiet, spent the day just chillin, Jenna and Zaza and I exchanged presents and then as I was feeling ill due to a cold and inner ear thingy I went back to bed for the better part of the day. Watched a few episodes of Big Bang Theory and just relaxed.
For Christmas Jenna got me an awesome fish tank for a new fish since my last one committed suicide.

Boxing day we made up for Christmas day. Jenna roasted a chicken and we had mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts as sides. Simple dinner, but very tasty. We had vanilla cupcakes that I had made for Jenna's birthday for pudding.


New Years Eve, Jenna and Zaza and I met up with some friends and brought in the new year. That leads us up to the present. I'm working on my visa application so that I can get it renewed and still working at the cathedral. Oh yeah I think I forgot to mention that. With all the free time I had I was bored and so I applied for a job at the cathedral. I work in the gift shop and the cathedral itself a few times a week. Nothing spectacular, but I do like the time I spend in the cathedral even if it is freezing cold.

Anyway, that's pretty much it and now your up to date on all that is me.

It's the Polite Thing To Do....

So Annette and I stayed at a hotel on the last night to avoid having to get up way beyond the crack of dawn for her to make her flight. The hotel was nice, near the airport, etc... Looking around we came across the usual signs to post outside the door, do not disturb, etc... we also came across one we found amusing.
Apparently in Great Britain it is considered rude to run out into the corridor and shout fire, instead the "proper English" thing to do is to hang this sign outside of your door and wait for help to arrive.








Only joking, we read the back and it said that guests should hang this sign outside the door if assistance is needed. But honestly its a fireman with a hosepipe, our explanation is so much better and far more amusing. :)

When Idaho Conquered England

My childhood friend Annette came and spent the week in England with me. While she was here we did a whirlwind trip to see as many sights as possible in 6 days. We did London, Canterbury, Whitstable, Dover Castle, Windsor, Stonehenge, Lacock and Bath. Not bad I'd say. It was a lot of fun and I got to see things I had already seen before as well as new things. Here are a few pics of what we did and saw.

Ages and Ages

Gosh I feel as if it has been ages since I posted anything and seeing as the last blog was dated 21/8/09 I'd say it has been a long time. A lot has happened since my last posting. I wrote and turned in a dissertation, I moved to a new house in Wincheap with my flatmate Jenna. We also have another housemate Daphne. Over the past month we have had a variety of guests stay with us. Neil was the couch crasher that we rarely ever saw. Shenah stayed with us for a week, then Armando and Heather came to stay for a few weeks. It was nice having so many people in the house and now that it is just the three of us again (Jenna, Daphne and I) it feels a bit strange. While Heather and Armando were here they went through all their things and boxed up a lot of things to be shipped to America including a few things that didn't belong in bags or boxes.... That crazy Armando, just look at what he started packing!

Make Mine Trout

Those who know me, know that I love to bake, I'm always on the lookout for a new recipe to try and I often like to create my own. I have spent countless hours in kitchens coming up with new cookie recipes, brownie recipes and the like. Some have been triumphs such as porcupine cookies (named because they are a vanilla cookie rolled in slivered almonds and when baked kind of have a porcupine appearance- I didn't name them though that was my friend Chris) others have been failures and given names like skunk suckers (a hard candy experiment that went horribly wrong and quite literally smelled like skunk :P).
Today I decided to look around and see if I could find a better cheesecake recipe than the one I already have. While I know that mine is reliable and I've tweaked it so it comes out the way I like, I thought it might be nice to try a new one. I read through the first several recipes and they seemed pretty standard, some called for lemon, others almond extract, there was one however that I had to look at twice as I thought I had read it wrong. The title was normal, it just said delicious cheesecake, I clicked on the title to have a look at the ingredients and the directions. Skimming the ingredients I had to look twice, fourth ingredient down, trout. Yes, I said trout. I thought for sure I had read it wrong so I looked again, but there it was T R O U T. While I do like fish and I'm not at all opposed to trying new things for the most part, I draw the line at adding trout to mine or anyone else's cheesecake. Cheesecake can have chocolate, nuts, berries, fruit, candy, even cookies in it, but not fish. That just crosses the line......

This hobbits tale

What do post graduates do when they are fed up with work and need a break? Why they run away to London to see William Fitzsimmons live. Yep Jenna and I took a break from our "long hours" of "constant work" to see him perform live this evening.
What an adventure it was, walked into town to catch the coach to London, only to have coach drive up to university, we laughed over it and called our pointless walk into town much needed exercise. We experienced odd smells on the coach, really rank manure which was just yuck, then a very strong smell of onion, we're talking so strong the eyes were almost burning.
Anyway, made it to London and found the right underground line to take us in the right direction. We got there with quite a bit of time to spare so we decided to grab a bite to eat at the KFC across the street. After dinner we headed out of the restaurant and in search of the building the performance was being held. We weren't entirely sure where to go, we knew we were on the right street, so it wasn't to big a deal and we had plenty of time. As we walked we noticed the big shiny egg building ( I forget what its really called) and were talking about what we called it, it dawned on us that we were walking in the wrong direction as the concert was north of London and we were heading south, so we changed direction and continued our search. We walked several blocks before realizing again that we had missed our mark, the building was in the 30-40 range and we were not in the 90's so we once again turned and headed back. Finally found the small chalk sign for the performance and made our way down into the building. Jenna found us a place to sit after we stood leaning against a wall for a few minutes. She picked the perfect spot, nice big comfy chair and a really good view from the side.
The music was so amazing, it was the best concert I have ever been to. He's just wow, all I can say is wow. The music started a bit later than we thought it would and William was doing a second encore when we realized we should begin our journey back towards the coach station. Here is where the story gets interesting. So we make it to the train station in plenty of time, only problem is a train won't be there for another 20 minutes. We look at the time and think "okay we're cutting it close, but we can make it". Train is late, but we get to the underground and still think "we're okay" only had to wait about 30 seconds, then we were off. We're still looking at the time and wondering if we're going to make but figure we're okay. By the time we get to Victoria rail station and up and out of the underground the coach will be leaving in 2 minutes. We realize at this time there is no way we can catch the coach so, okay we figure back up plan we'll take a train.
Jenna and I look up and quickly begin scanning the departure board looking for Canterbury, guess what, no Canterbury. Closest we can get is Faversham, then take a bus to Whitstable, from there we would have to walk. We look at each other and think it though and decide walking a footpath through the forest in the middle of the night is not the most brilliant thing to do. Jenna sends a text message off to Tom our flatmate and asks how much a taxi is from Faversham to Canterbury, the reply around £25 but probably more as it will be late when we arrive, but if we drop Tom's name we might get a discount. We laugh a bit over this then go back to wondering what the heck to do. Neither of us is to keen on sleeping in a train station or a coach station until we can get transport out, and walking doesn't seem the best idea either. In the end it was our flatmate James who came to the rescue, we took the train to Faversham where he picked us up and delivered us to VW. The ride wasn't without being poked fun of for being stranded in London and then Faversham, but all in good fun. Jenna and I are now baking slaves until the end of term, but seeing as how I love to bake I'm okay with that.
Anyway to sum it all up, the night was full of adventure and I wouldn't trade it. I had an amazing time. I got to hang out with one of my best friends, listen to one of my favourite artists live, see the awesomeness of his beard, and I have a story to tell about I got there and back again. Yep definitely a top night :D