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Thursday, June 25, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Caveat emptor
I think that means may the buyer beware. Looks like Team Alpha Super Awesome Cool Dynamite Wolf Squadron (that would be Andrew & I, plus the kittehs) need to buy yet another cordless phone. Well, technically that's not entirely true, we do have the 10+ year old cordless phone that my folks gave us, that holds a charge for 60 minutes or so. The brand new phone we bought about a year ago (5.8 Ghz! LCD display! awesome silver & white trim!) for $30 decided tonight that it was retiring. We know this because it steadfastly refused to aceept any of our button-pushing, which is frustrating when you're trying to order in a pizza. Like "they" say, you get what you pay for. So don't pay for a silver & white GE 5.8 Ghz phone, no matter how cheap it is, because that's what it is - cheap. So I guess I'll be checking out the cordless phone deals on my way home from work tomorrow! Ah, retail therapy.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Doro What?
Now that I'm done recounting my riveting UK holiday, I can now get back to the minutiae of my everyday life. It's not all champagne wishes & caviar dreams, you know. While we haven't really done much since we returned (this is especially true for my more-than-lardy arse), this weekend was actually eventful. Friday was quiet, but the early hours of Saturday brought us that most precious of gifts - the hairball. We don't even get up to try to get Pippin onto a tile floor anymore, we just let her let it rip & do the damage control when she's done. She's now on hairball control food, so hopefully that will help her pass them in a less spectacular fashion. After that fairly rude awakening we were off to Ethiopian cooking class with our fellow Milton adopting couples (at least, the ones that are with our social worker). This class was organized by Alicia, with one of the presenters of our agency's class presenters, Mibrak (I seem to recall her hosting the Ethiopian culture class, part 1). We all met up in a church in a nearby bustling metropolis, to learn how to cook doro wat, a beef stew (the name of which escapes me), a lentil stew & a vegetable dish. We didn't do much of the cooking ourselves, but we were given recipes & were able to see what the food should look like at various stages of preparation. The lentil dish used the same base (onions, garlic, ginger & berbere) as the doro wat. The beef dish wasn't spicy, except for the large chunks of chili added at the end. The veggie dish was onions, carrots & cabbage, stir-fried with ginger & garlic added later. Then we learned how to make injera (on a big circular griddle). It was sooooo yummy, especially the injera, which was made properly, with a starter (something I haven't done yet). We each got some starter to take with us, so we can try making injera at home (once Andrew & I get a flat griddle with a lid). We always have fun with those 2 couples, so it was great to see them again. We're getting together this week for coffee/ chicken wings, and the next day for the local multicultural festival.
After our class we headed down to my parents place, to take my dad out for Father's Day. He picked the restaurant - one of the local steak places - and we had a great time. I think it's the first time he's been out for dinner since his surgery (though he's been out to breakfast a few times). He's doing really well, but he still tires very easily. For his gift, we got him an apron for barbequing (emblazoned with Big Green Egg - that's his fancy BBQ/smoker) and some BBQ rub. He was really impressed with the apron, it had the funniest/weirdest sticker on it - see operators manual for applications. Like you couldn't figure out how to operate an apron? Heh. Good times. I think he was really pleased that we came down. I'm sure he would have also liked to have seen my brother & his family - Evie (the first grandchild) is only 2.5 months old, and Mom & Dad haven't seen her in 3 weeks, which is a lifetime when they're that young. Hopefully they (my brother & his family) will motivate themselves to go see Dad soon. I know it's tough when you've got a little one, but your father also just had major, life-savng surgery & can't travel yet. Not that he visited that often before Dad was diagnosed. Rant over.
That's about it for today. Be well!
After our class we headed down to my parents place, to take my dad out for Father's Day. He picked the restaurant - one of the local steak places - and we had a great time. I think it's the first time he's been out for dinner since his surgery (though he's been out to breakfast a few times). He's doing really well, but he still tires very easily. For his gift, we got him an apron for barbequing (emblazoned with Big Green Egg - that's his fancy BBQ/smoker) and some BBQ rub. He was really impressed with the apron, it had the funniest/weirdest sticker on it - see operators manual for applications. Like you couldn't figure out how to operate an apron? Heh. Good times. I think he was really pleased that we came down. I'm sure he would have also liked to have seen my brother & his family - Evie (the first grandchild) is only 2.5 months old, and Mom & Dad haven't seen her in 3 weeks, which is a lifetime when they're that young. Hopefully they (my brother & his family) will motivate themselves to go see Dad soon. I know it's tough when you've got a little one, but your father also just had major, life-savng surgery & can't travel yet. Not that he visited that often before Dad was diagnosed. Rant over.
That's about it for today. Be well!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
UK Trip, Days 8-10
Here we are, in the home stretch! I'm sure you're about as happy to stop reading about this as I am to stop writing about it. I'm still finding my writing groove….
Day 8 - This was a DRIVING DAY. I hate being in the car for longer than a couple of hours at a time, so this day was not good, mostly. We had an early breakfast at the guesthouse, after another mediocre night of sleep, then we hit the road! We took a different route south than we had on our way north, driving through the Cairngorms towards Perth. All went pretty well, except for the odd bathroom break, until our GPS tried to direct us off our beaten path onto a route which appeared to lead northwards again. Well, we were having none of that! We decided we knew better and turned back around so we were heading toward Perth again. What we didn't notice until a fair bit later was that the time to destination on the GPS jumped 2 hours when we did that. Yeah, that's how we roll. We stopped for lunch somewhere in the Lowlands, close to the border. Andrew ordered scampi (I think) & I ordered a burger. Turns out the burger takes 30 min to cook, which they bloody well could have warned patrons about on the menu. If I'd known it would take that long I'd have ordered something else, as we were anxious to get back on the road. We asked some fellow patrons in the pub for directions as to how to get going towards the west coast again (our self-imposed detour had us heading towards the east coast) and hit the road yet again, our GPS taunting us all the way (telling us to head the way she wanted us to go). We finally turned the GPS off until we hit the motorway. After leaving Inverness at 8am, we finally arrived in Hereford at 7pm. Blech. Anyway, as luck would have it, I had booked the best accommodation for that night, a small boutique hotel (Castle House) that I believe was made from 2 or 3 18th century townhouses. It was an oasis to us. They showed us to our room, carrying our suitcases for us. In the luxurious room there was a bowl of fresh fruit, a decanter of sherry, sparkling mineral water & a toiletry bag full of luxury toiletries (body butter, liquid soap & shampoo) - all on the house. We quickly freshened up & headed downstairs for dinner. We sat outside on the edge of the water (the only remaining part of the castle that was destroyed in the mid-1600s) for drinks & nibbles, and the waiter even took our order down by the water. Once our meal was ready he called us inside. The dinner was very yummy, most of the meat & produce was from the hotel owner's farm. After that it was an early night - Andrew was exhausted from driving and I was tired from having slept in the car most of the day. My life is so hard.
Day 9 - After a nice, but quick breakfast, we walked just down the street to Hereford Cathedral (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereford_Cathedral). This is my favourite cathedral I've visited. It was fairly quiet, being a weekday & fairly early in the morning. I mean quite people-wise, not noise-wise. Almost the whole time we were there someone was playing the enormous pipe-organ, which was really spooky, kind of. It's hard to describe, but it really produces an emotional response in me, walking through a place that has been a house of worship for almost a thousand years, listening to music that sends chills up your spine. While we were there I lit another candle for my father (I had lit one at Westminster Abbey as well). Then we went to see the special chained library & Mappa Mundi exhibit. I just find it amazing to look at books & maps that people wrote & drew so long ago, to see the world how they saw the world. After that it was back in the car, on our way to Dorset, to see the attraction that was the whole reason Andrew brought me on this trip - Monkey World. To give you a little background, ever since we moved back to Canada I've been watching a show called Monkey Business, whenever it was on. This show is about the inhabitants of Monkey World - rescued chimpanzees, orangutans, gibbons, macaques, capuchin monkeys & other primates. They've been rescued from lives as photographers props (drugged, sometimes with their teeth pulled), pets, laboratory subjects, etc, and brought to a place where they can live out the rest of their lives in peace. We only got to spend 1.5 hours there but it was great to see the monkeys in person. They're so cute you can see why people would want them as pets, but it's just not the right thing for these wild animals. Then we checked into our B&B, headed out for some dinner, came back & watched a special Time Team episode about Stonehenge, and crashed.
Day 10 - Had a great home-cooked breakfast (for me - porridge - I love it, it doesn't love me back, not sure why I had it that day - fresh fruit & a freshly made croissant; for Andrew - poached egg, farm sausage, toast, mushrooms & tomato) and loaded our bags into the car for the last time. Managed to get to Gatwick in record time (well, less than the GPS said), offloaded the car, checked out bags in & had some lunch. After lunch we hit the duty-free shops (Andrew got some scotch & some cologne, I got a little something for myself) and then waited for our flight to be called. Then it was on to our not-so-nice flight (which I mentioned in a previous post, no need to revisit it here).
We picked up the kittehs the next day - Pippin was happy to see us & went straight into her carrier for the ride home (she loves her carrier, that one). Willow was a different story. She sat at the very back of her kennel & howled the riot act at us. Eventually Andrew had to crouch down & go in to get her. She's used to spending our vacations at my parent's place, but that wasn't possible this time, with my dad's surgery & all.
Now you're up to date!
Day 8 - This was a DRIVING DAY. I hate being in the car for longer than a couple of hours at a time, so this day was not good, mostly. We had an early breakfast at the guesthouse, after another mediocre night of sleep, then we hit the road! We took a different route south than we had on our way north, driving through the Cairngorms towards Perth. All went pretty well, except for the odd bathroom break, until our GPS tried to direct us off our beaten path onto a route which appeared to lead northwards again. Well, we were having none of that! We decided we knew better and turned back around so we were heading toward Perth again. What we didn't notice until a fair bit later was that the time to destination on the GPS jumped 2 hours when we did that. Yeah, that's how we roll. We stopped for lunch somewhere in the Lowlands, close to the border. Andrew ordered scampi (I think) & I ordered a burger. Turns out the burger takes 30 min to cook, which they bloody well could have warned patrons about on the menu. If I'd known it would take that long I'd have ordered something else, as we were anxious to get back on the road. We asked some fellow patrons in the pub for directions as to how to get going towards the west coast again (our self-imposed detour had us heading towards the east coast) and hit the road yet again, our GPS taunting us all the way (telling us to head the way she wanted us to go). We finally turned the GPS off until we hit the motorway. After leaving Inverness at 8am, we finally arrived in Hereford at 7pm. Blech. Anyway, as luck would have it, I had booked the best accommodation for that night, a small boutique hotel (Castle House) that I believe was made from 2 or 3 18th century townhouses. It was an oasis to us. They showed us to our room, carrying our suitcases for us. In the luxurious room there was a bowl of fresh fruit, a decanter of sherry, sparkling mineral water & a toiletry bag full of luxury toiletries (body butter, liquid soap & shampoo) - all on the house. We quickly freshened up & headed downstairs for dinner. We sat outside on the edge of the water (the only remaining part of the castle that was destroyed in the mid-1600s) for drinks & nibbles, and the waiter even took our order down by the water. Once our meal was ready he called us inside. The dinner was very yummy, most of the meat & produce was from the hotel owner's farm. After that it was an early night - Andrew was exhausted from driving and I was tired from having slept in the car most of the day. My life is so hard.
Day 9 - After a nice, but quick breakfast, we walked just down the street to Hereford Cathedral (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereford_Cathedral). This is my favourite cathedral I've visited. It was fairly quiet, being a weekday & fairly early in the morning. I mean quite people-wise, not noise-wise. Almost the whole time we were there someone was playing the enormous pipe-organ, which was really spooky, kind of. It's hard to describe, but it really produces an emotional response in me, walking through a place that has been a house of worship for almost a thousand years, listening to music that sends chills up your spine. While we were there I lit another candle for my father (I had lit one at Westminster Abbey as well). Then we went to see the special chained library & Mappa Mundi exhibit. I just find it amazing to look at books & maps that people wrote & drew so long ago, to see the world how they saw the world. After that it was back in the car, on our way to Dorset, to see the attraction that was the whole reason Andrew brought me on this trip - Monkey World. To give you a little background, ever since we moved back to Canada I've been watching a show called Monkey Business, whenever it was on. This show is about the inhabitants of Monkey World - rescued chimpanzees, orangutans, gibbons, macaques, capuchin monkeys & other primates. They've been rescued from lives as photographers props (drugged, sometimes with their teeth pulled), pets, laboratory subjects, etc, and brought to a place where they can live out the rest of their lives in peace. We only got to spend 1.5 hours there but it was great to see the monkeys in person. They're so cute you can see why people would want them as pets, but it's just not the right thing for these wild animals. Then we checked into our B&B, headed out for some dinner, came back & watched a special Time Team episode about Stonehenge, and crashed.
Day 10 - Had a great home-cooked breakfast (for me - porridge - I love it, it doesn't love me back, not sure why I had it that day - fresh fruit & a freshly made croissant; for Andrew - poached egg, farm sausage, toast, mushrooms & tomato) and loaded our bags into the car for the last time. Managed to get to Gatwick in record time (well, less than the GPS said), offloaded the car, checked out bags in & had some lunch. After lunch we hit the duty-free shops (Andrew got some scotch & some cologne, I got a little something for myself) and then waited for our flight to be called. Then it was on to our not-so-nice flight (which I mentioned in a previous post, no need to revisit it here).
We picked up the kittehs the next day - Pippin was happy to see us & went straight into her carrier for the ride home (she loves her carrier, that one). Willow was a different story. She sat at the very back of her kennel & howled the riot act at us. Eventually Andrew had to crouch down & go in to get her. She's used to spending our vacations at my parent's place, but that wasn't possible this time, with my dad's surgery & all.
Now you're up to date!
Saturday, June 13, 2009
UK Trip Days 8-10 pics
Again, it's come up in reverse. You'd think I'd learn! First pic is part of the gardens & the shed of the B&B we stayed in (Honeycombe Cottage in Shitterton - no, I'm not joking), second is the B&B itself (it's a 550 year old cottage), third is a Capuchin monkey at Monkey World - they are such characters!, fourth is the ruins of Tintern Abbey, and the last picture is of the freebies (sorry - amenities!) at Castle House in Hereford.
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