tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-342830112012-01-21T21:40:08.196Z2 colonials, moving to Britain. The saga begins...ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.comBlogger1891100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-66530137230008926282012-01-21T21:39:00.000Z2012-01-21T21:40:08.203Z

This post is about Mitchell. Mitch is nearly two and a half at the moment and he's great fun to be around most of the time. He's very talkative, but one issue we have with him is how difficult it is to understand him sometimes. Of course, most children are somewhat unclear when learning to talk, but I had the feeling this was something a little more than average difficulties, so I took him to the

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-89105833817179262062012-01-04T21:01:00.000Z2012-01-04T21:04:26.432Z

This arrived for me today:    There is slight debate in the household as to whether this is a "toy" in the sense it's just a pleasure item. I have been told it's a hobby. I point out it saves us money; that it's an investment. Time will tell. But in the meantime, isn't it shiny and fabulous?? I don't even know what most of these stitches are for yet, but it looks impressive. I also

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-74174777249883565442011-12-30T15:44:00.009Z2011-12-30T16:55:05.512Z

We have been extremely sedentary during the Christmas school break. Partly because I think Lena needed to recharge her batteries with some time off, partly because there was a 5th birthday and a Christmas to organise and partly because I am lazy. So today I decided was the day we would DO SOMETHING. Lena was keen on going swimming, but I'm not so fond of taking the two swimming on my own. I

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-80751237516813768282011-12-30T15:36:00.005Z2011-12-30T15:44:12.922Z

I explained before why I wasn't updating this blog much. Things just aren't that new and different here to me anymore. So instead, I've decided to try and just do more day to day blogging on this blog, of the regular course of our lives. Many people have commented that they do enjoy my blog and that makes me happy and also motivates me to keep writing, so I will. So rather than waiting until

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-86995135175895583312011-10-11T19:56:00.002+01:002011-10-11T20:13:40.101+01:00

As I mentioned in my last post, it's been nearly 5 years since we moved to the U.K. This means that we are now eligible for permanent residency. To get this, you need to pay a big heap of money (like a couple of thousand pounds) and you need to pass a 24 question test entitled, "Life in the UK". This is a variety of questions about Britain's history, demographics, holidays, politics and etc. It's

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-15869617529490422162011-09-09T20:29:00.003+01:002011-09-09T21:05:41.330+01:00

Time has done its one-way linear trick of making 5 years pass since I started this blog. I now have a daughter old enough to go to school in Britain. This will probably bring about a whole new set of posts about how things are different. But it's a question as to whether things are different because of location or different because of the passage of time. For example, when I was little, I walked

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-6634252588672532862011-07-18T21:42:00.005+01:002011-07-18T21:58:33.234+01:00

I'm sorry. Really, I am.I haven't been updating this the way I should. One of the main reasons that I haven't been doing it is simply because all those funny British habits, products, customs and names no longer are so strange. We've been here long enough that most things are (or seem) normal now. A friend said, "Haha! Your assimilation is complete!" in a joking victorious tone. I responded that

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-38110287853695084362011-02-08T17:53:00.005Z2011-02-08T18:10:57.520Z

Ah, the best laid plans of mice and moms. I thought I would have blogged more in the past few months. Well, let's try again, shall we?We were in Australia for the holidays. Well, we left the UK on Christmas Eve (December 24) and arrived Boxing Day (December 26) in Sydney. We weren't delayed by the snow in the UK, we actually planned the trip that way. It was £100 cheaper per seat and it only

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-40291213412028665892010-10-24T13:47:00.011+01:002010-10-24T15:47:37.147+01:00

Halloween is starting to become bigger here in the UK and I thought I would share some ideas and tips for those who aren't used to doing anything for Halloween. I know the idea of Halloween started on this side of the Atlantic, but believe me, the other side in North America has truly expanded upon the concept. 1. Pumpkin. First, get yourself a pumpkin. Now is a good time to find one, about a

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-80252160689458808882010-10-01T20:55:00.007+01:002010-10-01T21:19:12.456+01:00

I'm feeling a lot of anger towards the DVLA today. DVLA stands for Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. They are the people who issue UK driver licenses. And they are useless.I'm finally changing my Canadian license to a UK one. This should have been done a few years ago according to my insurance and they are a bit ticked off it wasn't done before. Ticked off enough to strike me off our car

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-61056487266920285292010-09-01T23:46:00.005+01:002010-09-02T00:10:30.657+01:00

I can't believe I haven't posted in 3 months. Twenty lashes with a wet noodle for that. Well, the World Cup came and went, with all 3 teams I was willing to cheer for going out. May, June and July saw absolutely gorgeous weather here in southern England, which makes me not exactly happy with the lousy cold and damp August, but more willing to forgive and forget it. We had a very nice "staycation"

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-64509693320847640502010-05-22T20:33:00.007+01:002010-05-22T21:09:13.403+01:00

No big news today, just a quick note.It seems I have missed one of the main events of the Cookham social calendar. Let's Rock the Moor is happening as I type this. I thought it was free in the afternoon, only costing in the evening. This was incorrect and you need tickets for the whole thing. By the time I realised this, they were sold out. It was starting to become embarrassing, with everyone I

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-21090374387868903112010-05-06T10:12:00.003+01:002010-05-06T10:50:59.829+01:00

Today is the general election in the United Kingdom. It's the first time EVER that I have been living in a country and allowed to vote in the election, which actually made it a bit exciting for me. In case you are wondering, all Commonwealth citizens residing in the UK are allowed to vote. So both colonials in this house have voted. I had just moved to Germany when the first election happened in

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-11681965748699389942010-04-09T23:07:00.005+01:002010-04-10T00:03:45.985+01:00

I have been thinking about the subject of this blog post for a few days now and it's rumbled around long enough that I felt the need to put it down on paper. Well, not paper, on electrons perhaps is more accurate. Please bear with me while I give you some background information.When I first moved to Munich, I ended up joining a Bavarian oom-pah-pah band. I was a member of the Pullacher Blasmusik,

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-55547783934265775072010-03-28T12:27:00.004+01:002010-03-28T12:42:30.891+01:00

I blogged a few months ago about how it's dark too early in the evening in the UK and also too bright early in the day. Finally, there is an organised group who agree with me and I am only too happy to lend my little blog space to shout their praises.http://www.lighterlater.org/ is a campaign to push British time back one hour, throughout the year. Meaning going onto the equivalent of central

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-81348059187857606812010-01-29T09:45:00.008Z2010-02-08T09:45:02.073Z

It's 2 weeks until the 2010 Winter Olympics start in Vancouver, Canada. Thanks to my friend Cristy for showing me this ad which really captures a bit of Canadiana. Even my Canadian friends who aren't sports fans will understand this ad.For me, this really captures how I sometimes feel about hockey. Nowadays, living away from Canada, I don't get to watch much hockey. I did have a very exciting

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-10774168793248228262010-01-18T20:36:00.002Z2010-01-18T20:48:22.907Z

I just noticed that The Royal Oak, Paley Street has received a Michelin Star in today's new Michelin guide. Congratulations to them, that is great news. I'm guessing the reviewer didn't eat there the same day I did, as I had a slightly different review of The Royal Oak, but it pleases me that it seems my experience there was very much a one-off. I'll be happy to go back at some point.

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-84566026087589800072010-01-13T22:16:00.004Z2010-01-13T22:37:38.469Z

(singing the title of this post to a Tina Turner tune...)Just a short little comment about some of the inherent sexism there is around raising children that I've noticed in the UK. It's all about Mummy. Some many groups for young children and adults to go to are called "Mums and Toddlers" or a variation of that, but not varying on the Mum or Mother bit. Yes, I would agree that mothers are still

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-59328454275157494682009-12-22T14:43:00.002Z2009-12-22T15:02:20.792Z

Back in February, I blogged about snow in a mild climate. Well it has snowed again here in southern England and once again there is chaos on the roads. I will cut slightly more slack for yesterday, when it rained in the afternoon which slowly turned to snow as the temperature dropped. That, on top of the snow that has been around since Friday made for very slippery conditions. People in the

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-28367887406202975072009-12-02T16:29:00.003Z2009-12-02T18:40:49.625Z

There's several things that I don't understand about the UK, but the one that plagues me the most is why they insist on being in a different zone than most of the rest of Europe. Right now it's 4:30pm here and with the rain, it's horribly, horribly dark and depressing. If it was 5:30pm, like it is in France and Spain, due south of here, it might be almost tolerable. But no, being an hour later

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-16088074820450246362009-10-16T14:01:00.007+01:002009-10-16T14:43:37.102+01:00

We have a mission. We have the attack clones, now we have our mission. We've decided while we are here in Britain, to try and spend the holidays that take place in this country visiting the various British major island groups. So far we have been to the Isle of Wight and to the Inner Hebrides; specifically, the Isle of Mull. That takes care of two of them. What do we have left? Well, the Outer

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-55345003051357404642009-09-28T10:07:00.005+01:002009-09-28T10:34:33.438+01:00

Sorry I was so quiet over the summer. It was a busy time, with lots of long-term visitors and also the birth of our next clone/colonial, Mitchell. He's a wonderful little guy and I will post some recent pictures in the next day or two, but I'm guessing most readers of this blog will have seen pictures of him already, hence my lack of urgency about this. I have lots of ideas for new posts, so

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-83822737227007255202009-04-28T21:23:00.007+01:002009-04-28T23:33:17.793+01:00

We are redoing the floors in our house, replacing the carpet with new floor boards. G and his dad found a few pages of newspaper under the boards in the living room dated May 31, 1974. It's from the Maidenhead Advertiser, the local once a week paper. The pages are quite interesting. Let me quote you one of the ads of a house for sale: "COOKHAM DEAN: This charming semi-detached cottage is situated

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-23118210567256345632009-04-19T20:04:00.007+01:002009-04-19T21:21:12.062+01:00

Today was rather exciting, as we found buried treasure in my garden! My father-in-law was helping me dig over the allotment and he found an old coin. The date on the coin is 1735, which makes it really old in my colonial eyes. I cleaned it up a bit to have a better look at it and as much as we can tell, it's not a British coin. Here's a couple of pictures of both sides.You can see the date at the

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-26554095778140114892009-03-22T21:00:00.003Z2009-03-22T21:20:17.368Z

The past 7 days have been absolutely spectacular spring weather. It's been sunny and warm every day. It's still only spring, because as soon as you are out of the sun you can feel there is still a nip in the air, but out in the sun you would think it was late May rather than late March. Lena and I have been enjoying the backyard and also trips up to the park and the allotment. Lena is much more

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-18456257041008432762009-02-24T20:57:00.006Z2009-03-10T14:06:03.322Z

I really don't want to give this review because it's a bad one and I have been really hoping this place would be a success. But it's not. Eats of Eden has both a cafeteria and a farm shop set-up within the Flowerland garden centre. I don't have any complaints about the farm shop and often buy bits and bobs there. In fact, I heartily recommend the great selection of bread from the farm shop. This

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-51705177313773123422009-02-06T10:32:00.003Z2009-02-06T10:54:17.796Z

This week it has been snowing all over in the UK. And this is actual snow, not just what Canadians would dismiss as dust. Monday, February 2, was a big downfall, followed by another load overnight to wake up to on Thursday and now today it's snowing again as I type. It's pretty warm still, hovering around zero, so it's not going to last forever. But it was enough snow to build a snowman on Monday

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-17309393377017696852008-12-10T19:33:00.002Z2008-12-10T20:02:24.772Z

One of the negatives of living as an expat means that your extended family usually isn't close. Some people might actually view this as a positive, but they tend to be wrong. If for no other reason that we can't take advantage of Lena's grandparents for babysitting opportunities. It's hardly like we are total socialites with a busy events calendar, but there are occasions when it is an

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-6036549382009567902008-11-14T00:02:00.004Z2008-11-14T00:30:16.078Z

Lena is starting to talk quite a bit nowadays and this is great. But is presenting me with an interesting question to ponder. She spends most of her time with me, so she is learning most of her language from me. And I don't say things always the way the Brits do. I've mentioned before about bilingual baby vocabulary, and now I have a bit of toddler vocabulary. When Lena gets dressed, she wears

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-31060629281435401082008-10-07T22:37:00.006+01:002008-10-07T23:43:24.786+01:00

We were in Munich a couple of weekends ago for another visit. G had to go for work, which he does on occasion. It just happened that this occasion was also during Oktoberfest. Last year was the first year time I missed it after 14 years in a row. Last year I didn't mind, but this year I really was pining for it. Oktoberfest is not for the faint-hearted, or is it for a quiet tete-a-tete with a

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-58358267313825412912008-09-17T20:48:00.002+01:002008-09-17T20:57:39.841+01:00

For anyone who would like to know more of the history of Cookham, a fellow blogger, James Hatch, has set up an interesting blog called Historical Cookham. James is a bit of a windbag on the Cookham forum (sorry James), but the posts on his blog are worth a read. A good perspective into Cookham 60-120 years ago. Oooh, I correct myself, there's a new post from yesterday that talks about the area

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-51984692080674073362008-09-14T21:36:00.005+01:002008-09-14T22:02:49.397+01:00

I'm very annoyed that I missed the Cookham Gravity Grand Prix today. Lena had a long nap, which she very much needed, but it meant that by the time she woke up, it was nearly over. G was playing cricket, so I couldn't go without her. What made me very annoyed is the fact that I missed it last year too! I was very ill on the day and couldn't go. G managed to go and take some photos, so a couple of

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-64772710695939056972008-08-28T23:33:00.003+01:002008-08-29T00:24:19.751+01:00

We went to dinner at The Royal Oak earlier this week. The Royal Oak is partly known for being run by Nick, the son of Michael Parkinson. In case you can't be bothered to click, Michael Parkinson used to be a famous TV interviewer. I never saw any of his shows, other than his final goodbye program. I've seen more of him doing ads for some sort of retirement scheme on TV than anything else. Still,

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-41666434528877690902008-08-26T10:23:00.003+01:002008-08-26T10:43:00.741+01:00

So I've finally made it to another show, after being at the Thame Country show last year. We went to the Littlewick Show yesterday. My favourite bit there was the traditional gardening and baking competitions. Some of the baked products looked very nice, but to be honest the vegetables on display were nicer. I was very impressed with some of the carrots, onions and leeks that were there. The size

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-51314572797279275972008-08-17T19:49:00.004+01:002008-08-17T23:17:12.692+01:00

Once again, we have been on holidays. This may seem rather excessive to some, but I always say everyone makes their own choices in life. We live in a small house, only have one car and live well within our means. We choose to spend our money on travel. Others make other choices and that's their choice. Plus, if we didn't travel, we'd hardly ever see any of our family or friends. So this trip was

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-83837827245690411482008-07-21T00:17:00.006+01:002008-10-22T14:13:03.742+01:00

I made a Yorkshire pudding today. It was the first time I ever made one and it was a great success, if I do say so myself. I was a bit worried about it, having tried to make popovers before and failed. As it was my first attempt, i just made it on its own, rather than putting sausages in it to make the very amusingly-named Toad-in-a-Hole meal. They were good sausages from Maceys, so I didn't want

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-18792083747725315902008-06-29T23:14:00.002+01:002008-06-29T23:29:58.574+01:00

I'm back in Canada at the moment and have been noticing some of the little differences between where we live in England to where my parents live in Canada. Just a few things I've noticed this past week. Rounded curbs, rather than straight edge ones, are the norm here in the suburbs.Bigger parking spaces everywhere, but not much reserved parking for parents with little kids.Cheaper gas. It's

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-83477472870221312392008-06-18T19:37:00.003+01:002008-06-18T20:04:49.479+01:00

I know that gardening isn't everyone's idea of a fun activity, and even fewer find reading about it to be stimulating. Hence the warning in the post title today. My husband could be considered one of those who don't find gardening that thrilling, which is part of the reason I went to the Open Gardens Day in Cookham Dean on Sunday without him. I made it to 4 out of the 5 gardens and it looked like

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-52580300860612538202008-06-12T11:05:00.003+01:002008-06-12T11:25:31.207+01:00

So I have another check on my list of British experiences. My bank card details have been stolen. There was a call yesterday from my bank's fraud department, asking to call back urgently. I only got the message this morning and dutifully called. After doing a few security check questions, it seems that someone has been trying to use a fake copy of my debit card in Canada and the U.S. They managed

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-43139676938832547772008-05-24T19:11:00.002+01:002008-05-24T19:51:32.272+01:00

The Eurovision Song Contest is tonight. My North American and Australian readers might be saying, "The what?" to that announcement. That was certainly my reaction when I first heard people in Munich talking about the Grand Prix. I assumed they were talking about car racing at first, as that's the name by which I knew Formula 1. But with all the talk of costumes, voting and oh yeah, singing; I

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-67375731023830835412008-05-20T23:04:00.004+01:002008-05-21T21:41:02.830+01:00

First of all, an apology for the lack of posts for so long. We were away for a few weeks and I've fallen out of the habit. Hopefully this will be the start of a revival. So, the idea of this blog is that we are the colonials infiltrating the Brits. However, I think the Brits are infiltrating me. I found myself watching coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show last night. Okay, I admit it, I watched an

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-66381768315636700242008-03-28T07:52:00.006Z2008-03-28T19:53:25.673Z

I saw my first famous person this week. Well, other than the Queen, but that was hardly an unexpected siting, driving down to Ascot. This week, I almost literally bumped into Michel Roux as I was walking down Maidenhead High Street. This is the elder Michel Roux, not his nephew. It took me nearly until I had passed him to recognise him, as obviously I wasn't really on the lookout. All I really

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-67857774507960245732008-03-16T14:03:00.003Z2008-03-16T14:26:49.282Z

Lena is coming on in leaps and bounds in every way. She has a small vocabulary of about five words (mama, dada, more, slide, up) and a few signs to communicate with. She is walking quite well and really enjoys singing nursery rhymes now. So below you can see a few videos of her in action.This first one is her doing the actions to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. You'll notice that she's ahead of the

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-66995628561324653812008-03-01T19:58:00.004Z2008-03-01T20:26:17.096Z

The weather has been quite nice lately. It was apparently the sunniest February on record for the UK. It's gotten me itchy to plant things and get things growing in our backyard and in my allotment. I started off some pepper plant seeds a few weeks ago and was very pleased to find that all of them had sprouted. My secret? A wet paper towel in a plastic tray, covered with plastic wrap and put into

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-56685227617721057182008-02-16T13:13:00.003Z2008-02-16T13:28:10.416Z

This post is off my normal subject of life in the UK. This is a post about a good friend of mine who is running in the Alberta provincial election on March 3rd. Earl J. Woods is running in the riding of Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville, which just happens to be the same riding as Ed Stelmach, the current premiere of Alberta. The current premiere is a member of the Conservative Party, who have been in

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-79341581898274275722008-02-05T21:38:00.000Z2008-02-05T22:11:21.024Z

Today, in case the less religious amongst you doesn't know, is Shrove Tuesday. Also known as Pancake Tuesday or Pancake Day in the UK; Mardi Gras in New Orleans and most of South America; Fasching, Fastnacht or Karneval in Germany. Basically, it's the last day before Lent, the last day you can really party and eat up before setting down to 40 days of fasting. The reason for the pancakes is to use

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-60142895745410020812008-01-28T10:23:00.000Z2008-01-28T10:50:41.061Z

We have a leak in the roof over our bathroom. This was discovered during some of the monsoon weather earlier this month. Who knew that January was the rainy season in England? Anyways, this will hopefully be fixed soon. But it does lead to a topic of great interest to Brits. DIY. Do It Yourself. It was years ago when I first heard the term, but I do remember not having a clue what the person was

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-36160598781073119692007-12-23T22:09:00.000Z2007-12-23T23:38:18.882Z

This month has a few anniversaries. It was our second anniversary on the 9th. We went to a very nice restaurant, which I'll review in another post. We picked up our turkey for Christmas today. It was sourced very locally, Copas Turkeys, in Cookham Dean. Copas celebrates their 50 year anniversary this year. We got a lovely free-range bronze turkey from them. If you want to see our turkey enjoying

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-82422829099080270842007-12-12T21:29:00.001Z2007-12-12T22:12:09.814Z

A few Decembers ago, I was in Manchester for a few days. I stayed at a very nice hostel and was witness for the first time to an English phenomenon. It was Saturday night and quite cold, being December and all. I was wearing my ski jacket, but everyone else who was obviously headed out for a night on the town was dressed like it was a summer night on a Mediterranean island. The gents were in thin

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-75206677401957381622007-12-03T14:01:00.000Z2007-12-03T14:10:23.480Z

We received news today that Lena has a brand new little cousin. Eleanor Rose was born in Australia at 7:30am local time today. This makes Lena the youngest cousin on one side of the family and the oldest on the other side. All the best to Matthew and Justine and their new daughter! As I don't have a picture of Eleanor to share with you, here's a picture of G and his sister Claire first hearing

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-15731017883147984992007-11-19T14:30:00.000Z2007-11-19T14:58:17.876Z

This post is about the way English use their language. Two words and the meaning behind them. Absolutely is a word that some Brits tend to use a lot. Absolutely is a word to back up whatever you were saying or to happily agree with another person. It reminds me of how the Germans use the word genau (meaning - exactly. Read more about the genau phenomenon here). Basically when you hear it, you can

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-1099746974790985842007-11-15T21:56:00.000Z2007-11-15T22:08:17.147Z

...or rather, feel the lack of heat. There was a very heavy frost last night here and tonight the temperature is supposed to drop down to -3°C or so. I'm getting a good idea of why the Victorians always wore hats to bed. Actually, that's not so true; our bedrooms upstairs are pretty comfortable. It's our downstairs that is cold. I don't mean it's slightly cool, it's Cold with a capital C. We only

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-44381282263514554342007-11-06T20:54:00.000Z2007-11-06T22:34:02.056Z

For the first time since we moved into our new house, we are without houseguests. G's dad left yesterday and my mom left this morning. I have real mixed emotions about it. It was great having them here, especially have G's dad here to help us out so much. It was also good for Lena to have interaction with different people and for me to have the freedom to pop out for a few minutes, knowing there

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-51833502912986719562007-10-24T14:12:00.000+01:002007-10-24T14:22:26.627+01:00

I met someone else who reads my blog and I realise that perhaps I haven't made things clear to people who don't personally know us well. We have moved, but only within the village of Cookham. And not that far even in the village! So you can continue to expect posts about life in and around Cookham from me. I met Liz, one of the great volunteers who looks after the fantastic Cookham website. She

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-75105122296010998942007-10-22T10:03:00.000+01:002007-10-22T10:12:59.153+01:00

We moved into the new house a couple of weeks ago and it's starting to feel more like home everyday. We had major problems with our internet connection, which is why I haven't posted recently. It was only reconnected on Friday. You should see the length of the complaint letter they are getting. 18 days without internet access is a long time in the 21st century.We are also in the middle of a run

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-59468590070631263672007-09-25T12:25:00.000+01:002007-09-25T15:09:10.646+01:00

This is an update from an earlier post about allotments and Monopoly. Getting an allotment was a great idea. I have really enjoyed going down there to potter about; weeding, watering and sowing seeds. G. didn't think much of the idea at the start of the time, seeing all the weeds that had to be removed. But since having had several delicious meals featuring homegrown produce, he has come around.

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-37736167515160463652007-09-19T10:50:00.000+01:002007-09-19T10:57:46.961+01:00

Fall is definitely on its way. The air has a certain bite to it in the mornings that wasn't there before, even in the lousy cool days of summer. Fall, or autumn if you prefer, is my favourite season. I think it's related to going back to school; that it was the start of a new year. In Edmonton, one of my favourite things was how it seemed overnight the trees would turn colour and there would be

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-36282094036930827962007-09-13T18:30:00.000+01:002007-09-13T18:48:57.062+01:00

Last Friday, we finally exchanged on our house. Exchange, for those who might not be familiar with the ins and outs of the process, is when we basically put down 5-10% of the purchase price of the house and both parties agree to go through with the sale. Completion is the next bit, which is when we actually get the keys to the house. That happens on October 1 for us. We have our rental place

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-66592495247040698072007-08-29T18:42:00.000+01:002007-08-29T19:06:21.288+01:00

Probably the most famous person to come out of Cookham is Stanley Spencer. Stanley Spencer was a painter in the first half of the 20th century. He was very attached to Cookham, spending more or less his whole life here. Lots of his art features scenes of Cookham and the house he was born and grew up in is just a stone's throw from ours. He is very much a local boy, so it's fitting that a gallery

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-76553941435245761672007-08-24T22:48:00.001+01:002007-08-24T22:59:09.595+01:00

This is the start of the August long weekend here in England. Notice I say England, because it's not a UK holiday, Scotland had their August bank holiday at the beginning of the month. We aren't going away mainly because we are looking after the neighbours' pets for a couple of weeks and I don't think they'd travel well. Anyways, we had our summer holiday back in July. So to celebrate 3 days in

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-44686246996523624102007-08-22T16:38:00.000+01:002007-08-22T16:55:13.708+01:00

Germany is playing England in football today. It's taking place at the new Wembley Stadium, which opened just this year. It's a friendly game, meaning it doesn't count towards a tournament or anything. Which is just as well, as both teams are missing several of their best players. What I find interesting is that this is the first time I'll be watching a game from the English side. In big soccer

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-38213858268349773992007-08-20T22:08:00.001+01:002007-08-20T22:33:10.950+01:00

I had a couple of amusing examples of differences in the local English and my version on the weekend. I've talked about it before, but this wasn't so baby related. We were watching a movie on the weekend, Robots. One of the female characters in the movie has rather large buttocks. In the American version, this character's name is Aunt Fanny. But as we were watching this in the UK, the name was

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-73364960134364691822007-08-15T22:24:00.000+01:002007-08-15T23:18:46.336+01:00

I've been a bit slow posting this past month because we are trying to buy a house. I would love to post about it, but it feels unlucky to post anything before we actually have the house. In Canada, when buyer and seller agree on the price, the buyer puts down a deposit and the deal is done. In England, until the day you are actually given the keys to the house, the thing could fall apart at any

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-45419998513299047942007-08-07T13:28:00.000+01:002007-08-07T14:03:22.154+01:00

One interesting thing about living in Germany was how easy it was to not know what was happening in the entertainment world. Not to be wrapped up in celebrity gossip, not to know the latest funny saying from a TV show, not to even know the TV show. It wasn't a perfect vacuum of course; I knew about OJ Simpson's trials and had heard of Paris Hilton even before she came to Oktoberfest to promote

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-69898662794250982102007-07-25T15:36:00.000+01:002007-07-25T15:52:44.109+01:00

If you are savvy enough to be reading this online, you are probably aware of the flooding in England. It's been very bad in places, but you don't have to worry about us yet. We personally won't get flooded, as we are up two hills from the Thames. There's a flood warning, but not a severe one. I haven't started stockpiling drinking water or bought a campstove for cooking on, and hopefully this

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-5178002341881397602007-07-20T14:07:00.000+01:002007-07-20T14:20:39.827+01:00

The final book in the Harry Potter "saga" goes on sale tomorrow. I've already heard or read more about it than I care to already. I read something about what the last word was supposedly to be and then I saw JK Rowling interviewed by Jonathon Ross a couple of weeks ago and felt I heard too much there. Twice in the past 24 hours I was listening to BBC's Radio 1 and had to quickly turn it off to

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-53533227098089454162007-07-17T09:36:00.000+01:002007-07-17T09:48:51.969+01:00

We're back from our little jaunt to Scotland. Sorry for not warning you about it, but I'm a bit reluctant to mention our house being deserted for over a week before that actually happens. Anyways, Scotland was a very nice holiday, we all really enjoyed it. Both seeing interesting historic sites, beautiful scenery and also meeting several friends during the trip. Pictures should be available soon.

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-11942480319785631312007-07-06T21:39:00.000+01:002007-07-06T22:02:06.107+01:00

On July 1st, England banned smoking in nearly any public place. This is of course a good thing in my non-smoking opinion. But it's funny, because it's been so rare that I've been bothered by cigarette smoke since moving to here, it won't make much of an impact on my day-to-day life. One, I don't head out to smoky places very much nowadays. Partly due to not wanting to expose Lena to smoke but

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-81077938736707543642007-06-28T22:56:00.000+01:002007-06-28T23:17:01.289+01:00

June 16 - July 1 is the Bucks Visual Arts event. Basically for these two weeks, many painters, potters, jewellers, photographers, etc etc from around Buckinghamshire open their studios up to the public. This is the 22nd year it's happened and apparently over 400 artists are involved. I think that's pretty impressive, getting 400 people to let the public wander around their work and creative space

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-59723830215806730822007-06-24T18:24:00.000+01:002007-06-24T18:24:39.566+01:00

We celebrated 6 months of parenthood this weekend. Champagne and homemade pizza for the dinner. I think in the future we might have a mid-year birthday party for Lena in June, as having your birthday 2 days before Christmas is tough to celebrate properly. In honour of the occasion, I present a small selection of photos of the reason for the celebration, taken over the last 6 months. And a fresh

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-13022196709402793002007-06-22T13:45:00.000+01:002007-06-22T14:10:16.512+01:00

A few snippets of news in the life of us.Lena is eating solid food, 3 meals a day now. Parsnip, carrot and potato is well-liked, as is zucchini. She is also quite adept at eating Italian breadsticks. I'll try and add a video over the weekend. At first it was tough to remember to actually feed her 3 times a day (to go from none to 3 times makes a big difference), but I've gotten used to it and she

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-42007120659372289932007-06-17T21:10:00.000+01:002007-06-17T21:31:54.305+01:00

We went down to the Cookham Festival yesterday. It was a fete put on by the Scouts. I thought it was nice, even though we went down really late so missed out in some of the entertainment and tombolas (raffles to you North Americans). We had a plate of lovely Piri Piri, a spicy chicken dish. It features heavily in the following video. It was followed up by some scones and washed down with beer, so

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-19289053930855311302007-06-11T13:27:00.001+01:002007-06-11T14:15:04.920+01:00

It was a lovely weekend just gone and I found myself missing Munich on Saturday. One specific thing about Munich. Beergardens. Beergardens in Bavaria aren't like the ones here in England. In England, if a pub has an outside space that's not on the street, they call it a beergarden. That's not a beergarden in my opinion. A beergarden is a wonderful thing when properly done. It's an area usually

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-49671799348716918912007-06-07T14:26:00.000+01:002007-06-07T15:31:14.837+01:00

We received some presents for our birthdays this week. C. gave me an allotment gardening book and G. got a shirt. We got a package from R. & T. which had a couple of CDs and a game - Trivial Pursuit. This is an updated version; Trivial Pursuit the 90s. I thought I would have done well on this but I was sadly mistaken. A lot of the questions were very UK-based and I had no chance to know the

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-21294742964271516102007-06-02T13:22:00.001+01:002007-06-02T13:28:22.266+01:00

The weather has once again turned glorious and we enjoyed pancakes with maple syrup out on our patio this morning. We are also heading out for dinner somewhere tonight, but it's being left a surprise for me. Details another day perhaps. And here is a video of Lena feasting on butternut squash puree.Enjoy your meals today.

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-22132179942155757682007-05-30T12:17:00.000+01:002007-05-30T12:27:07.123+01:00

G. has put up lots of photos from the last few weeks. From his mum's visit, to my parents' visit, our trip to Devon and our big day in London visiting friends. If you want to take a look-see, click here!

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-19868042902335974702007-05-29T15:09:00.001+01:002007-05-30T12:31:02.955+01:00

I did a fair amount of work on Saturday on the allotment. Which was good timing, as it poured rain most of Sunday and Monday. Not really weather condusive to being outdoors, at least not when it will also involve a lot of mud. The first crop I had sprout from the earth was rocket/arugula. I was very excited about it, but I was less excited to find slugs or birds had eaten nearly all of it. Plus

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-92115455177321148642007-05-26T13:49:00.000+01:002007-05-26T14:27:50.896+01:00

This is the Spring Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK. It's always the last Monday in May. I made my little joke in the post title because it always came up when I was teaching business English in Germany. In German, there is one word for when you take several days off out of your job (Urlaub) and another word for when it's an official public day off (Feiertag). It was confusing for them when I

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-16520868849519345462007-05-22T22:06:00.000+01:002007-05-22T22:07:37.901+01:00

The Tarrystone Players are a local theatre group in Cookham. So named after the Tarrystone, a big rock at the end of the High Street where legend has it, people used to wait around (or "tarry") before doing some sporting competitions. During the Cookham Festival,the Players had an open-air performance of The Pardoner's Tale from The Canterbury Tales. G, my mom, G's sister, Lena and I walked down

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-47772879968231459342007-05-15T12:41:00.000+01:002007-05-15T13:47:35.731+01:00

It's just me and Lena today; all our visitors left this morning. It's great having visitors, but it's nice to have the place back to ourselves as well. It's a tiny house, and having 5 full-grown adults plus a baby in it makes it tight. So I'm taking today to relax and to fully recover from a cold that suddenly cropped up on the weekend. To amuse you in the meantime, here's (yet another) cute shot

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-14055230655286671582007-05-13T21:19:00.000+01:002007-05-13T21:25:07.644+01:00

Just a quick filler post to let you know that I am not on an undercover mission to infiltrate into British Parliment and mind control Gordon Brown. Although I'm sure there are a few who would like that. We've been away in Devon for a week and we still have a house full of guests, namely my parents and Lena's Aunty C. In the next few days I'll have updates of my allotment, our visitors, and some

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-57507449426564696662007-05-03T17:30:00.000+01:002007-05-03T17:54:07.973+01:00

My parents are here and we went to Ascot yesterday, along with some of the girls I know from our NCT class and baby massage. It was just a regular race day, not the Royal Ascot that everyone knows about. None the less, most people were really well dressed, the ladies with hats and the gents in suit and tie. I wonder who all these people who were able to take the day to go to the races. Certainly

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-17705859353307858772007-04-29T16:48:00.000+01:002007-04-29T16:48:09.948+01:00

So I took the plunge and got an allotment. Very exciting. Actually, everyone I've talked to about having an allotment seems kind of excited about the idea too. It must be trendy. I went down there yesterday to do a bit of weeding. It's accurate to say a bit, I probably cleared one square meter out of the around fifty I have. But it's a start at least. It was funny, walking down there with my

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-85630536962992107482007-04-26T23:21:00.000+01:002007-04-26T23:45:32.518+01:00

What's in a name? That which we call my last name would be just as difficult for the English to spell. Which is particularly funny, because it's a very common Scottish surname. Yes, there are many variations of it, and yes, it's not spelled the way it sounds. But honestly, I've had more misspellings of my name here, on this tiny island where the origin of the name is a mere 1000km away, than I

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-71094433670718481532007-04-24T22:44:00.000+01:002007-04-24T23:03:09.309+01:00

Well, perhaps not famous, but I received two bits of recognition for my blog today. One, on the Cookham discussion forum, someone said mentioned my blog and said that I'm "obviously quite a bright spark". Thank you, that's very kind of you to say. I sometimes feel more like the burnt ember, but glad to know I come across more as a bright spark. Two happened in person. The Cookham parish phoned me

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-24765891250953011672007-04-23T21:33:00.000+01:002007-04-23T22:16:17.796+01:00

I just was suddenly transplanted back to Germany whilst watching TV. One of the video channels is doing a 90s classic video hour. This alone is enough to bring back memories of Munich, as I lived there for nearly the entire decade, and certainly did my share of dancing to pop music then. It's amazing how a piece of music or a smell can remind you so strongly of another place and time. But what

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-51537321157410438892007-04-18T15:07:00.000+01:002007-04-18T15:20:35.346+01:00

Just a couple of photos from our grand day out at the Thame Spring Show. Next time I think I'll have to take my camera, as G didn't get many pictures. He claims it's because he didn't have his "big lens" with him, but I'm not so sure. I think he just didn't find the animals as interesting as others did. I know at least one person who would have liked some close-ups of the hamsters in their castle

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-27623671594151877502007-04-17T21:16:00.000+01:002007-04-18T15:21:09.685+01:00

This post has nothing to do with our move to England. But it's funny. There is a bit of harsh language, so you might want to take older adults out of the room.After the fun of recording Lena when she was angry, I know what I have to look forward to.

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-21983125096392762942007-04-10T20:33:00.000+01:002007-04-10T21:14:16.025+01:00

I have to give the English credit - they do a good Spring. The end of Fall that I experienced wasn't anything spectacular and Winter was a wimpy affair. But Spring is here and it's very very nice. There are flowers everywhere, the sun is shining, the air feels soft, I even saw lambs gamboling in the fields yesterday. It really is nice around here. It's so nice, I'm even considering spending more

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-56771734347406132452007-04-05T17:26:00.000+01:002007-04-05T17:34:03.942+01:00

This is my 100th post on this blog. In honour of this special occasion, I present 3 Lena videos. All filmed on the same day.This first video was just as we got up. Being the cruel mother that I am, (it's not only step-mothers you know), I filmed my child crying. She wasn't seriously upset, and it's cute. Well, me and my twisted sense of things thinks it's cute.But she soon cheered up and started

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-22770472915678780932007-04-04T20:39:00.000+01:002007-04-04T21:37:58.298+01:00

We visited The Hinds Head for lunch a while ago. We went fairly late, around 1:30pm. They are open for lunch until 2:30 though, so it wasn't a problem. As it wasn't very busy, we sat in the bar section rather than the restaurant. Although the restaurant has only been open since 2004 in its current form, the building is well over 500 years old. It has the look of an old pub about it, with all the

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-19082237961934685062007-04-03T20:22:00.000+01:002007-04-03T20:56:22.915+01:00

Some pictures from our biergarten visit back in March. Not everyone's picture is here, but stay tuned, they should be up on our website gallery soon enough. Kathie cuddling the kid. Katie cuddling the kid. Katrina cuddling the kid. (do you see a trend here?) Phil and myself. It was Phil's brilliant idea to go to have a slackers' beer garden visit. Thanks Phil! It was chilly, but fun. Nicola

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-48341206749931297512007-03-31T21:15:00.000+01:002007-03-31T21:59:58.469+01:00

Sorry I haven't been updating that much recently. The cold we caught in Munich really hung around for a long time. G's mom (he says I should write "mum", but this is my blog, so I will use my terminology, thank you very much) is away right now, visiting Wales and Ireland, so fortunately she's avoided us and our illness for the most part. Lena had her second set of shots this past Thursday. They

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-18993548288119222272007-03-28T10:43:00.000+01:002007-03-28T10:53:42.179+01:00

I bought a little video camera to take videos of Lena. A couple you have seen, as I put them up on the web. Unfortunately you won't see any more for a while, as it seems the cheap little video cam really was cheap and crap. Vivitar is the manufacturer, and it's a Vivitar DVR-510. Basically, it won't turn on. Even with fresh batteries. What a piece of junk! Now if I was back in Germany, I would

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-56302134343882485942007-03-21T18:32:00.000Z2007-03-21T18:51:54.838Z

We had a great little trip to Munich. Lena was a trooper, not making much of a fuss no matter what situation we put her in. Whether it was being mauled/hugged/kissed by two older pre-school boys, staying up waaaaay past her bedtime or getting her to sit through an entire concert of music, she hardly cried at all. I will post some pictures and a longer post once I shake the cold I took back as a

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-37334128544135813232007-03-14T11:24:00.000Z2007-03-14T11:23:43.249Z

We are gambling on Lena's passport arriving tomorrow. If it does, we are off to Munich on Friday for a few days to visit all our friends there and of course show off our lovely daughter. Keep your fingers crossed for us that the passport arrives!!EDIT: Less than an hour after posting this, the passport arrived. Thanks for all your finger crossing, and if you are in Munich, hopefully see you this

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-52183836712317324372007-03-11T18:17:00.000Z2007-03-20T11:09:05.635Z

My mother-in-law is here for the next little while, so my posting might be erratic for a week or two. Or I might find I have more time than I thought and be able to post lots. Either way, here's a little video of Lena and I hanging out together on the bed. All my videos are a bit dark because the video camera doesn't do well in anything but the brightest light, my apologies. The volume is okay at

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-41536976894096158472007-03-10T09:37:00.000Z2007-03-10T09:58:11.200Z

On Thursday I met up with some of the women with from our NCT class to go for a walk. We met right next to Windsor Castle and walked The Long Walk, a path in Windsor Great Park. It was an absolutely great day, very sunny but not too hot with a slight breeze. Two weeks earlier we were going to do the walk but the weather wasn't so good. They had hummed and hawed about going, but decided not to; I

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-51056429475178676522007-03-07T21:32:00.000Z2007-03-07T22:01:24.856Z

Today I took Lena to a Bookstart meeting at the local library. Bookstart is a program in England to promote a love of reading from a young age. They have a little pack of baby books they give you and an application form for the library too. The books are free, so if nothing else, I think it's nice to get a couple of age-appropriate books for your child to read with them. The kids ranged in age

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34283011.post-57424259485067213182007-03-03T23:27:00.000Z2007-03-03T23:27:54.887Z

There's a total eclipse of the moon happening tonight and we are lucky enough to have clear skies for it. Here are some pictures; I'll be updating it as it happens.

ZeeBridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com0