Love my Kindle

Totally enjoying my new Kindle and currently reading a book that I originally downloaded as a sample called, "Confessions of a GP". Light, funny, and simply told from a young man's point of view of his every day encounters as a family doctor. Gosh, they sure have to deal with some loo loo's.

Enjoying Every Moment

The countdown is on. There are officially four weeks left of school for Rick and my contract at EY is done on July 22nd. We have booked our flights home for 19th of August and with our “Going out of Business” party and sale over and done with, we are starting to concentrate of what else we need to either sell or donate to charity and what we can take home. Rick is interested in going in a “boot sale” to try our luck selling some of our things. Purely for the experience, he says. And for my Canadian friends a boot sale is not a sale of boots and shoes but a type of garage or yard sale only from the trunk of your car (or at least what you can transport to the sale in the trunk of your car). The Brits are nuts about their boot sales and I have to confess that throughout our travels in this country, we have stopped and done some poking around and managed to pick up a deal or two ourselves. My favourite purchase to date is our wok for 2 pounds which I use to cook stir fries with on a regular basis or my “Dickies” rain jacket brand new tag still attached for 5 pounds. The coat has proved to be very useful for camping.

The weeks have flown by and we had a terrific break with my aunt and uncle at their new caravan, just south of Ludlow, during Rick’s final school break at the beginning of June. The weather was fine, and as I anticipated, we spent a lot of time outdoors going for walks around the lake and playing games of bocci and bowls. We drove to Wales and visited the Elan Valley Reservoir, in the county of Powys near the town of Rhayader. What a spectacular journey that was. We stopped at four of the reservoirs, which incidentally were built to supply the city of Birmingham (which is about 100 miles east) with fresh water. Wales is such a rugged country and there is an abundance of sheep wandering the hills and snoozing or munching on the side of their narrow roads. The air was very fresh and it felt good to be hiking and soaking up the scenery. We still have not been able to figure out their language, however. The closest we have come to translating is their “Araf” signs painted on the roads which means “slow” but the rest is so riddled with consonants that it is next to impossible to even attempt to figure out. We generally just end up sounding like a couple of horking fools, tripping over our tongues and left in a fit of laughter at how ridiculous we sound.

We also managed to catch up with MFC (my fav cousin) Stephen, and his wife Amanda, and Alice the Warrior (their teenage daughter) for lunch in Worcester. It certainly has been great being able to reconnect with my family and say, hey want to meet up for lunch at such and such and catch up where we left off the last time we visited?

The summer party, as I mentioned, that I planned for the recruitment staff at EY was a huge success and apart from the grief that the boating company’s accounts payable clerk gave me over our bill, let’s just call her Barracuda Betty, we drank, ate and were merry as we plugged along the Thames. I spent so much time with my head out the window taking photos of this and that along the way, that I suddenly understood why dogs do this in a car. The wind in my hair and the smell of the murky water turned me into a slobbering wide-eyed puppy. It was London from an angle I had never seen before. Needless to say, I got lots of sloppy hugs when I left for the night and was presented with a fabulous bouquet of flowers from the Senior Management team and all around appreciation for arranging the shin dig. It was nice to be appreciated.

My final bit of excitement lately was cashing in on a gift certificate that Rick got me for Valentine’s Day. I had my hair and makeup done at a studio in London and had a one hour photo shoot session with a professional photographer. It is hard not to feel self conscious about some part of your body and or face once you reach 45, and I really didn’t want to end up looking like “mutton dressed up as lamb” either so when it was all said and done and we were viewing the photos the next day, I was really happy (and surprised) with the outcome. These were photos I could be proud of and not embarrassed to show my kids. I also tried to soak up every aspect of my night at the studio because I thought when will I ever get the chance to do something like this again? So my initial apprehension of receiving this gift turned into another great life experience here in the UK.

P.S. Today is our 9th Wedding Anniversary. What an amazing adventure this has been. Love you the most, Ricky xo