Caturday

Some kitty pics for you:

Mani helping with the washing


Mani's new friend. He makes a racket. Phill has given him food. Ooops! We don't know where he lives as he doesn't have a collar but I don't think he's a stray as he is a fatty with lovely fur! Mum and Phill have named him Felix. This will need to change =)

Darn It!

Yesterday, I darned one of my socks. There was a hole appearing in the heel this was stopping me from wearing them as I was scared of wrecking my socks. They are so pretty and comfortable and I missed them. I thought I would practice that old adage of "a stitch in time saves 9" as the thought of darning an actual hole filled me with terror. It involves a sort of weaving and making new stitches where there are none. Doing it before the hole appears is easier as you just follow the path of the old stitches with the new thread.

Doesn't it look lovely!

The inside.

Iain

My friend Iain passed away last night. He was 33. He will be missed by a huge number of people.

(Picture stolen from Facebook, taken by Emerson)

Spring!

The first sign of spring... Daffs coming up on the road into town, hoorah!

A piss up in a brewery

A couple of weekends ago was Big Dave's birthday. I headed up to Gloucester for the weekend and the first order of play was a trip to Prescott Brewery in Cheltenham. Prescott is a micro brewery which, we learned, means that they only supply beer to Cheltenham. This is sad as their beer was well good!


They showed us all their fancy brewing equipment (including vats of hot and cold liquer fnar fnar). They let us loose on their beer which we managed to pour all over the floor and after the tour, we sat in their office for hours drinking and chatting.

It was a fab afternoon and they even had a go trying on my sock that I had just finished. So it seems Dave can organise a piss up in a brewery. I fully reccommend Prescott Ales if you happen to be in Cheltenham.

Pancake Day!

It's pancake day! And what could be better than pancakes than pancakes with bacon? Yum yum!

Cook your bacon. It needs to be crispy!

Chop half of it up into little bits.

Mix up your batter (I did 8oz flour, 1pt milk and 2 eggs as we want some for pud too)

Make the first, requisite crap pancake

Next one, put bacon in the middle of the pan and add a ladle of batter and spread it out

Make a couple and top with more bacon. Add ketchup or maple syrup and enjoy.

So long, Beautiful Chloe

Beautiful Chloe has gone to the car park in the sky :( Last week she went for a service and it turned out it would cost twice as much to make her road worthy as she is actually worth. Chloe was my first car and I have had her for six years. I probably didn't look after her properly (note missing hubcaps and mismatched wing mirrors) but we did a lot together. She has done about 80000 miles with me, travelling the length of the country, from Edinburgh to Land's End, Swansea to Kent and Bangor to Newcastle. She has driven me to work and to interviews, to college and just to the shops or home to my parents and I will miss her.

The Knit Signal

Knitters Without Borders is a fundraiser started by the Yarn Harlot. It is to raise money to support Medicine Sans Frontiers. From Stephanies blog:

Who is MSF/DWB?
MSF is a medical relief organization dedicated to bringing help to people in the worst circumstances in the world. MSF goes where other relief organizations (NGO's) will not. Where circumstances are the most desperate, the most dangerous and the most hopeless... you will find Médecins Sans Frontières. MSF is transparent and neutral without any political or religious affiliations, and does not accept donations from Pharmaceutical companies or companies that make Tobacco or Alcohol. Part of their job is to witness and report violations of human rights and dignity. MSF helps all persons who need them, regardless of their race, religion, politics or gender. MSF won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.

If you have some pennies to spare, please please consider sending some of them to MSF to support their work in Haiti. Their hospital there was badly damaged and they are now having to treat patients in the courtyard. And don't forget to Gift Aid if you can. Then, let Stephanie know through the link on her page (or via the button on my page). They are nearing $100000 CAD since starting this campaign.

A Saturday Together

Phill normally works Saturdays and has a day off in the week instead. This week, though, his day off was Saturday! Hoorah! A whole weekend together =) Due to the snow and lack of past Christmas funds, we decided not to go anywhere but stay in Portsmouth.

We arranged to go and meet the events manager at HMS Warrior to discuss holding our wedding there. We walked into town and through Victoria Park where they have an aviary. Half of the aviary is actually a home for guinea pigs and rabbits. We wanted to check they weren't too cold. The rabbits were all snuggled together except for this one who had commandeed the hay! Most of the piggies were in their little houses.


We had already pretty much decided on Warrior for our wedding but it was good to talk to the events manager and hear how it would be set up etc. Now we are definitely having it there! We are provisionally booked and just need to check with the registrar now.

After lunch at Gun Wharf Quays, we went for a walk in the snow round the front to Southsea. It was nice to ahave another bit of an explore of our new city and Southsea is lovely. Nicer even that Portsmouth itself!

By the sea walls, there was a little inlet with had frozen over. There were some interesting giant circles of ice. Any science peeps know how that happens?


We walked along through Southsea Common where someone had built an igloo!


Further along the front we passed an steep area where people were sledding! We walked along the beach which had snow on too!


The Canoe lake was completely iced over and the little swan boats were locked at the center of the lake!


We had been recommended a cafe at the mini golf course, The Tenth Whole Cafe for its amazing cake. We didn't heed the warning about the size of the portions and had a piece each. This was an error as the pieces were HUGE!


For next time, one piece is enough for two! They had about 20 different types of cake to chose from so I see many return trips in my future to try the rest.

After a wander along Albert Street (which I mistakenly thought was the high street) we caught the bus home as it was getting dark. Albert Street is fabulous and I can see why it wins "Best Street" competitions. There were no chain stores (except local chains), just independent businesses. Next time we will try and find the center so that I can visit John Lewis for a habedashery fix. We did pass a shop called the Yarn Barn on the bus so I shall be checking that out too!

Meet Frosty!

It snowed a whole lot yesterday, stopped overnight and then started again this morning. Unfortunately, it didn't really get going until after we had left for work, meaning that I was halfway there when I got the call to say not to come in. It was snowing very heavily in Chichester so I stuck my head in the door and got straight back on a train home. Snow Day!

Phill got sent home at lunchtime when the shopping center his branch is in was closed by management.

We spent this afternoon making a huuuge snowman in the garden. I reckon we had about 4 inches altogether! I don't think I've ever made a snowman this high, not here in the UK anyway.

Mani, however, was not so impressed...

He very carefully avoided touching the deep snow by walking down the edge of the path and in our footprints!