Sof:
So, it is appearing as though we are managing one blog every month! They do say the more interesting your life is the less time you have to shout about it! So please take it as a good thing!!
I want to tell you guys some other stuff what we did (LOVE the grammar!) when Paul's Mum and partner came over. It might make u wanna come on over and visit us even more!
Firstly though, some things I like:
The fact that petrol (or should I say GAS) stations nearly all have a garage attached to them. I love this. I can't quantify this. I just do.
The long aisles of ice cream.......
The fact I can get away with free coffee cos I am British (or big boobed - whichever floats your boat!) and the fact that EVERY supermarket has a coffee shop inside and you can drink your purchase whilst shopping, with, indeed, a place to puit said coffee in your cart!
My covertible car, Christine. If I could take you home (and not look like I have had a mid life crisis) I would my darling....sigh......
Patrick Stewart and Harrison Ford (my 2 favourite men) are both born on the SAME DAY. Wierd......
Things I don't so much like:
Men (and this is 95% of the male DC/VA population) who wear their mobile phones on their pants in a carry case - you look like a DICK!! Take it off and put it in your fecking pocket! Honestly!
My nail varnish chipping
The dead shrews outside my balcony door.....thanks Cat!
The cost of replacing tires due to glass, potholes, lumps in the road.......
So that is it so far.
Anyway, onto our fun times.
We went to a Nascar type event at the local speed track in Manassass. Banger racing with style. Infact, there were many crashes - more than usual. I think the drivers wanted to def cause a fuss. Wierd looking mini cars (which we later found out were driven by 9-11 year olds!), small beetle type affairs, and dead fast banger cars. They got so beat up, one was driving around with all his engine exposed. SO funny! And all for $15. Bargain. ANd what was better was all the free stuff Paul got for Bob cause he loves Nascar and was British and visiting! Excellent!
We went to the National Printing and Engraving museum - basically the national mint. There is one here and one in Texas. I was watching more money being printed than I could ever earn in mine and Pauls lifetime!
Now that I have started writing, I can't think of what we did!! Bloody typical!
We went over the the Maryland side of Great Falls - beautiful waterfall. Much nicer over that side. Even the loos. Infact the VA side was so horrid, I wrote a complaint email!! I just never change!!
I meant to take them to Arlington National Cemetery, but took a wrong turn and ended up in Alexandria! I do love it here, and managed to see the harbourside for the first time. It was SO HUMID though - seriously thought I was going to melt!
Pauls mum drank enough brandy, the cows actually started talking about how drunk Mum was on their way home. That was Paul's offering!! haha!! BUT - she did stop smoking the whole time she was here! We were so PROUD of her! Well done mum - hope you keep it up!
We found a fab little shop in Manassas - amazing stuff, like a little bazaar! And then we found a great little antique shop, and a SECOND HAND BOOK STORE!!! With it's own resident cat! I WAS IN HEAVEN!!!!
We obviously did more, but because I leave it so long I really can't remember what else we did now!
SO to the present day. I have managed to get my hours up to full time - I also have a temp job in the COnsular office helping those poor distressed British Nationals!! Work with an amzing team here too.....gotta be careful mind - my co-worker is my friend on Facebook now!! SO that is keeping me busy all week! I still haven't heard about the OT decsion yet! BUt I did go on a night out with Carrie and there was an OT there (she is a social worker in a residential home, so not much of a coincidence) and he said I should be fine with my qualifications. Their 'Masters' degree is just a small research project - exactly waht I did at the end of my degree. But I am still not holding much hope up. Lets see what happens.....
SO my training for the half marathon is going well, and not so well. The weather is seriously a problem (apparently they haven't had this kind of continuous heat and humidity for a LONG LONG TIME - first snow, now this - I reckon we have jinxed something). Because I start at 7am 3 days a week, I am unable to go out early morning then. By the time I get home it is TOO HOT! Nightime is STILL HOT. SO I do go out on the Thur or Fri of the other 2 days in the mroning. I try the treadmill at work, but hate it. 1 mile feels like 10. ANd weekends I am getting up at 6am to do a long run - I managed nearly 11 miles the other week!! YAY!!
I have also been inspired by my amazing friend, Sue Friend. She has been seeing a personal trainer, and she has come SO FAR! So I decided to look for one too. I found one (she is $40 an hour, outside - great!) and saw her recently. She put me through my paces - WOW. I have discovered why I get groin injuries (no, sex has nothing to do with it!!) and learnt some new things to help me run faster! I am seeing her weekly until the half and then every so often. BUt I can only see her at weekends, so I have to get up early BOTH DAYS OF THE WEEKEND!!! E.u.r.g.h. Nasty. AT least I can give it a break when I get back from the UK!!
That is right - I am back again, for another wedding. This time I will be spending most of it down in Cornwall though, so I really don't have too much time on my hands. I am having a general get together with local Bristol friends on Friday 3rd Sept, 7.30 onwards - not sure when. I will contact you all soon!! BUt I will be on my British mobile though. I can't drink, but it would be great to see everyone again, especially as we probably won't be coming back again for a long time - the wedding we were planning on coming to has been put back a year, so we won't be coming over in May 2011. Maybe summer.......
So Paul has come back from his 3 week stint away - one week in California, then straight to the UK for 2 weeks. He has seen the odd people about. I kept myself busy with running, P90xing and watching Bones. My friend came over to cook me dinner - YUM! Celebrated another friends birthday! ALl in all, it wasn't too bad!! My turn next, as he loves to remind me!
He has returned with Jacob - blimey - he has grown at least 3 inches!! Wow! BUt they have time off together to spend at the pool.
We managed to get a coupon today for them both to go fishing for a couple of hours and recieve proper instruction. Jacob wasn't too pleased that he had to get up at 6.30am!!
So we get in the car, popped the top back on the car, and started driving. The radio was blathering on about some storms north of us....hmmmm....we think, nothing about here! How things change! 10 minutes in and the black clouds roll over. Lightening starts, and the RAIN!! The RAIN!! ANd the wind. We have had some real crazy storms here recently - tress being blown over by 80mph winds ontop of house and cars. It has been a scary few weeks with these summer storms. Likewise this morning. Crawling along becuase visibility is so reduced and the roads are proper flooded (5" rain water). Roads closed becasue the are impassable. Sirens everywhere. Horrid. But we all got in safe, and the storm blew over for them to have a fab time fishing! I was 10 minutes late for work, so not bad!
So this weekend is going to be a BBQ with Pauls work mates. Looking forward to that!
Lets hope the weather stays well for it!
Until next time xxxxxxx
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Time warp!
Sof:
Hola mis amigos!
Lo siento por .....I mean, I am sorry about the massive time warps between blogs! Life has been super busy, which I suppose is a good thing!!
To follow on from my dearest husband, I did indeed visit the UK ( I am terribly sorry to all those I didn't get round to see. I really had NO time to myself and was exhausted by the end of it!) for 3 of my extremely good friends weddings, my nieces 18th birthday and to help my friend in London move house....although actually she arranged that for the day after I flew in cos I was there! Love you Charlotte! But although I was a ZOMBIE for the day (I seriously didn't appreciate being woken at 9am, with my body doth protesting it was indeed 4am) and we worked our balls off, it was amazing to see Charlotte and Mr Moff and to spend some quality time in her new flat with A ROOF TERRACE!!! In London - so cool! And it was certainly appreciated that Miss Simmonds also sleep deprived herself to come visit on Sunday morning to partake of breakfast with us. Thank you people.
I had the wedding of Ali and Howard, make a new friend - hey Rachel! - and had a cracking time - HOW HOT!!???? I really think I brought the weather with me - it was soooo hot for the two weeks I came over - lovely!
Charlotte's 18th birthday was the following day, fab time spent with the family and a BBQ in the evening where I put my OT skills to use to prevent all the food being charcoal after 5 seconds! hehe!
I travelled up to Stoke on Trent for Claire and Ian's wedding - such a lovely and intimate affair. Thanks sweetie for allowing me to be a part of your special day! You must remember to send me photos / DVDs of the day!
And finally Ed and Becky's wedding. One of my oldest friends, finally being all grown up....HAHA that's a joke! Ed is a s grown up as me (love you!) Another amazing day, catching up with old school friends (Leann, we MUST stay in touch better). It was such a fantastic day, I was sad to have to leave early to drive back!
And with seeing all my other wonderful friends, and them feeding me and giving me a bed - I am so LUCKY to have these people in my life. You all know who you are. Thank you. And DAMN YOU!! It made it so much harder to leave!!
But, the good thing to hear is that I wanted to come back - I really feel like the US is my home. I think Paul being here was part of that (as he technically is my home!), but I wasn't ready to come back to the UK. People kept asking "was it strange to see your house", and I was like - no - this isn't my house, it is Rachel's, and I don't feel a connection to it right now. SO all is GOOD!
So coming back to the US, well, I had a job interview the following day (luckily jet lag isn't so bad coming over here - returning to the UK is a bitch) at the British Embassy. Well, that was certainly a funny interview. Got there, they took me upstairs, and detailed the job. They asked me if I had any questions. I said no, as I had asked most of what I wanted to know when I spoke to them on the phone. I then said, do you have any questions for me. My boss then said, well, I suppose I had better ask a question and asked me how I dealt with difficult callers!!! How funny. I think the interview was obviously a courtesy. I had a feeling it was, as they contacted me the day before I flew to the UK in response to my CV and offered me an interview the following week. I cursed (not on the phone!) as i thought I had missed my opportunity by flying back. I explained the situation, and the call was terminated. That's it. I thought, no fecking job for me....imagine my surprise when 10 minutes later I had a call back to tell me that they would interview me when I get back...and by the way could I start straight away if I was successful?! RIGHT ON!!
So I got the job, and started that Thursday. But in the meantime, Sheila (Paul's mum) and her partner, Bob, flew in the next day, to stay with us for a month. So we had a hectic household! Needless to say my sax practise went down the pan! And the weather became impossible. Humidity reaching 90% with temperatures reaching 101 degrees - we are still in the 'heat wave' although it is tropical raining today as I type. Made doing the touristy things quite difficult, but we had such a fantastic time! I did things that I hadn't yet done or seen, we had a road trip up to Canada, dropping the parents off at Niagara Falls for them to do their own thing. They got a train from there to NYC and then trained back to us a few days after. We went up to Canada for BBQ's, pool parties and fun fun fun! It is a 9 hour drive, so completely doable. Fuel is so cheap it only cost us around $60 to drive there (about 40GBP). We can't wait to go back in Aug to spend some time with the Munro's and their friends at their cottage by the lake - Canadians call this type of holiday 'cottaging'. Please don't laugh!!!! You dirty people! And Jacob will be with us: even better!
We have joined a local outdoor pool, 5 min drive down the road, and it is really nice. The parents and Paul have enjoyed it, but I haven't yet - planning on that tomorrow if the weather is OK! Mainly joined for Jacob's benefit, as he is a water baby, and August will be so bloody hot (although, in all honesty, it is August weather right now!) so a pool was ideal!
I am really enjoying my job. Working on the switchboard (yes - phones, I know) but it is different. I am not surgically attached to the headset, my calls aren't monitored, I have other duties to attend to (admin stuff) and I am my own boss. Really relaxed, and 2 days a week. Lovely!
We celebrated the 4th July with Terry and Brenda (Paul worked with Terry in the UK). I am not sure if we have mentioned them, they are an American family based in Maryland. I have become friends with their daughter - Megan. We had a 'cook-off' (BBQ) and they lit fireworks in their back yard / field! Fun fun fun again! The only bad thing was forgetting they had a pool and not bringing our swim suits!
The fireworks here are, I would say, TOO BLOODY LOUD! Honestly, it was like being in a war zone. The British were back to reclaim their territory! hehe! Seriously though, never heard anything like it!
So the last thing I will say is that I have signed up for the Bristol half marathon again in September. Which, in hindsight, was so foolish. The weather out here is not very conducive to training - so humid and hot. I am not sure I I will manage it, but I will give it a go! Bloody chafing!!
Anyway - that is it for now. I will try to keep up with this more regularly (I know we say that every time!).
Love you all xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hola mis amigos!
Lo siento por .....I mean, I am sorry about the massive time warps between blogs! Life has been super busy, which I suppose is a good thing!!
To follow on from my dearest husband, I did indeed visit the UK ( I am terribly sorry to all those I didn't get round to see. I really had NO time to myself and was exhausted by the end of it!) for 3 of my extremely good friends weddings, my nieces 18th birthday and to help my friend in London move house....although actually she arranged that for the day after I flew in cos I was there! Love you Charlotte! But although I was a ZOMBIE for the day (I seriously didn't appreciate being woken at 9am, with my body doth protesting it was indeed 4am) and we worked our balls off, it was amazing to see Charlotte and Mr Moff and to spend some quality time in her new flat with A ROOF TERRACE!!! In London - so cool! And it was certainly appreciated that Miss Simmonds also sleep deprived herself to come visit on Sunday morning to partake of breakfast with us. Thank you people.
I had the wedding of Ali and Howard, make a new friend - hey Rachel! - and had a cracking time - HOW HOT!!???? I really think I brought the weather with me - it was soooo hot for the two weeks I came over - lovely!
Charlotte's 18th birthday was the following day, fab time spent with the family and a BBQ in the evening where I put my OT skills to use to prevent all the food being charcoal after 5 seconds! hehe!
I travelled up to Stoke on Trent for Claire and Ian's wedding - such a lovely and intimate affair. Thanks sweetie for allowing me to be a part of your special day! You must remember to send me photos / DVDs of the day!
And finally Ed and Becky's wedding. One of my oldest friends, finally being all grown up....HAHA that's a joke! Ed is a s grown up as me (love you!) Another amazing day, catching up with old school friends (Leann, we MUST stay in touch better). It was such a fantastic day, I was sad to have to leave early to drive back!
And with seeing all my other wonderful friends, and them feeding me and giving me a bed - I am so LUCKY to have these people in my life. You all know who you are. Thank you. And DAMN YOU!! It made it so much harder to leave!!
But, the good thing to hear is that I wanted to come back - I really feel like the US is my home. I think Paul being here was part of that (as he technically is my home!), but I wasn't ready to come back to the UK. People kept asking "was it strange to see your house", and I was like - no - this isn't my house, it is Rachel's, and I don't feel a connection to it right now. SO all is GOOD!
So coming back to the US, well, I had a job interview the following day (luckily jet lag isn't so bad coming over here - returning to the UK is a bitch) at the British Embassy. Well, that was certainly a funny interview. Got there, they took me upstairs, and detailed the job. They asked me if I had any questions. I said no, as I had asked most of what I wanted to know when I spoke to them on the phone. I then said, do you have any questions for me. My boss then said, well, I suppose I had better ask a question and asked me how I dealt with difficult callers!!! How funny. I think the interview was obviously a courtesy. I had a feeling it was, as they contacted me the day before I flew to the UK in response to my CV and offered me an interview the following week. I cursed (not on the phone!) as i thought I had missed my opportunity by flying back. I explained the situation, and the call was terminated. That's it. I thought, no fecking job for me....imagine my surprise when 10 minutes later I had a call back to tell me that they would interview me when I get back...and by the way could I start straight away if I was successful?! RIGHT ON!!
So I got the job, and started that Thursday. But in the meantime, Sheila (Paul's mum) and her partner, Bob, flew in the next day, to stay with us for a month. So we had a hectic household! Needless to say my sax practise went down the pan! And the weather became impossible. Humidity reaching 90% with temperatures reaching 101 degrees - we are still in the 'heat wave' although it is tropical raining today as I type. Made doing the touristy things quite difficult, but we had such a fantastic time! I did things that I hadn't yet done or seen, we had a road trip up to Canada, dropping the parents off at Niagara Falls for them to do their own thing. They got a train from there to NYC and then trained back to us a few days after. We went up to Canada for BBQ's, pool parties and fun fun fun! It is a 9 hour drive, so completely doable. Fuel is so cheap it only cost us around $60 to drive there (about 40GBP). We can't wait to go back in Aug to spend some time with the Munro's and their friends at their cottage by the lake - Canadians call this type of holiday 'cottaging'. Please don't laugh!!!! You dirty people! And Jacob will be with us: even better!
We have joined a local outdoor pool, 5 min drive down the road, and it is really nice. The parents and Paul have enjoyed it, but I haven't yet - planning on that tomorrow if the weather is OK! Mainly joined for Jacob's benefit, as he is a water baby, and August will be so bloody hot (although, in all honesty, it is August weather right now!) so a pool was ideal!
I am really enjoying my job. Working on the switchboard (yes - phones, I know) but it is different. I am not surgically attached to the headset, my calls aren't monitored, I have other duties to attend to (admin stuff) and I am my own boss. Really relaxed, and 2 days a week. Lovely!
We celebrated the 4th July with Terry and Brenda (Paul worked with Terry in the UK). I am not sure if we have mentioned them, they are an American family based in Maryland. I have become friends with their daughter - Megan. We had a 'cook-off' (BBQ) and they lit fireworks in their back yard / field! Fun fun fun again! The only bad thing was forgetting they had a pool and not bringing our swim suits!
The fireworks here are, I would say, TOO BLOODY LOUD! Honestly, it was like being in a war zone. The British were back to reclaim their territory! hehe! Seriously though, never heard anything like it!
So the last thing I will say is that I have signed up for the Bristol half marathon again in September. Which, in hindsight, was so foolish. The weather out here is not very conducive to training - so humid and hot. I am not sure I I will manage it, but I will give it a go! Bloody chafing!!
Anyway - that is it for now. I will try to keep up with this more regularly (I know we say that every time!).
Love you all xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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