The Krispy Kreme fairy visits Bury St Edmunds

Well. Yesterday morning I got an email from a colleague who commutes up from London every day. He stopped on his way in at one of the Krispy Kreme shops in London, and bought two dozen donuts to bring to the office.

I would say that the definition of happiness on a Friday morning at around 9:30 (I start work at 8, so 9:30 is definitely mid-morning) is below. An Americano from my Aeropress, in the Kate [Rusby] & Doris mug, with an original glazed donut. Sigh.

Verdi Birdie

At work yesterday, we were having a meeting when suddenly this little guy wanted to join us. He couldn't really see us, since the windows are kind of mirrored on the outside, so he was quite happily hopping around and looking at us. The picture's kind of crap, since I took it through the window and there was stuff in the way.

We decided he needed a name. As he's a green finch, it had to be Verdi!

Tea

Went back to work yesterday - I was in for a few days between Christmas and New Year's so it was really nice to not have zillions of work emails to catch up on. Plenty of work to do, but not the usual inbox inundation that I get after a break.

Our 'tea lady' broke her wrist in December, and the usual sub is out this week, so I've been making the teas and coffees with my old boss. It's been kind of fun - I wouldn't want to do it every day but it's an interesting diversion. One more day tomorrow and then back to regular purchasing. At least we have a dishwasher so I don't have to wash all the cups...

I usually listen to the Mike Harding folk show on BBC radio 2 on Wednesday nights, and they've been pushing podcasts quite a bit recently. I subscribed to the podcast and started listening to it tonight. "That's funny," I thought, "the show's usually an hour and the podcast is only 17 minutes." Turns out that's because the podcast is an abridged version of the show where it's edited down and the songs get faded in and out. *^#% that! I'm listening to the 'listen again' stream, which is the full version. Harumph.

Vacation!

Well, it's official - I know have 2 weeks off from work. Eek. I realized that I've never taken two whole weeks at once before - it's always been a week here or a few days there. I'm sure they'll be fine without me - I'm not one of those people who compulsively checks email or leaves rambling auto-responses giving details of their cell phone(s), personal emails, Skype names (!? - I had one of those today), other phones, and a detailed itinerary. Nope. If they need to find me, they will.

My dad has been scanning a lot of slides from his epic collection - here's a picture of me at the piano. Who knew that I'd end up in the music biz? (Well, maybe my parents did...)


We're going to see John's brother for a few days - it's always nice to just get away from stuff and veg at their house. Hopefully the sun will come out for at least part of the time we're there - it's been raining and COLD here for a solid week. Ugh.

John made a gorgeous dinner tonight - fresh cherry tomatoes from his mom's garden, roasted with garlic, onion and a chili, and then he added mushrooms and courgettes and some oregano and paprika. We had it over pasta and it was SO GOOD. I'll miss it when we go back to work and I don't have a full-time chef...

I heard a really funny term on the radio tonight while I was driving home (yes, the car is back!). It refers to someone who is slavishly devoted to their GPS (or Sat-Nav as it's known here), to the exclusion of all rational thought and external stimuli. The term? SatChav. I love it. Travis (my F-i-L) is the poster child SatChav.

My personal chef

The hubby is on vacation this week (I'm off next week and the week after) and he's been cooking every night. We also have the small boy, so John's been making reasonably adventurous stuff but nothing too crazy. Monday night - a glorious chickpea curry from *scratch* - not even the curry paste that I use. He mixed all the spices and started from there. It was SO good. Last night we had roasted veggies with penne, and tonight he made paella. I could get used to having a house-husband! I think tomorrow he's making veggie chili and has planned some extravagant potato-bake thing for Friday. Mmm.

I've been having some transportation adventures this week, as our car was out of commission for a few days (it's back as of this afternoon). As the Brits will know, the weather here has been absolutely appalling - gray, cold and rainy. Ugh. So getting up at 5:30 to walk to the 7:08 train (in the rain) and then walk up-hill for half an hour (still raining) in Bury hasn't exactly been my favourite thing. Then more rainy walks back in the other direction, although at least once I get home I can take a hot shower and put on my fleece pants (YES, in August) and a hoodie. Brrrr. Fred & George (the duck slippers) have been getting a lot of use this summer - they're usually in the closet from May through September.

Woah, I've nearly made it 'til 10pm - I've been in bed at 9 all week. ::yawn:: Ok, I'm not going to be a hero. At least I've only got 2 more days of the train (and house-husband is DRIVING me to the station tomorrow morning - what decadence)!

Phew

It's been an insane week. John left on Sunday afternoon for a business trip and came back on Wednesday. I've been going flat-out at work - 8 to 6 every day with half an hour at lunch to inhale my sandwich. Things are starting to get under control, which is a relief. It's funny...when I started the new job 3 weeks ago, I didn't give myself the same 'new job allowance' - where I expect to be tired all the time, really frustrated at all the new info, etc - because I was still sitting in the same office. Different desk, but the same room. Then it hit me this week - it's still a NEW job, filled with things that I don't know. My mom always maintains that it takes a month to get to the point where you can pretty much do stuff and 6 months to get good at all of it. A month puts me at the end of next week, at which point I'm going on vacation for 2 weeks. Seemed like a good idea when I was planning it - not so much now.

Last Saturday I got a package from Kristen. John and I had helped her with her website (mostly proof-reading and stuff). She's selling really clever wine tags - check them out at Tag-it.biz. She's also the one who made the notebooks that I gave Andrea and my mom for their birthdays. I'd been meaning to order one for myself but I have kind of a notebook fetish and have some unwritten-in-ones that I kept thinking I should use up first. Anyway, she mentioned that she'd send me 'a little something' as a thank-you.

'A little something' included this:


And these (pardon the picture - ick):


And, best of all, my very own mini-Taylor book.


With a starfish clasp:


It's gorgeous. I'm almost done with my current moleskine and then I'm going to transfer all the important stuff over to the new book and carry on. I can't wait - I keep thinking of things that don't really need to go in the moleskine, just so I can finish it and start on the new book.

I'm also obsessed with the wine tags on 'tag-it' - I think they're SO clever and we're always bringing bottles of wine to people. The only problem now is that when I BRING the wine, I'm so excited about the tags that I have to tell everyone about them. Oh, and there were more that were in the original package but I gave a pack to my friend Sandy, who has similar wine-giving requirements. She got all excited...woohoo!

So after the zany, care-package-filled week, we went over to our friends' house for dinner last night and had a bbq. American wife, brit (tech-y) husband. Just like us. It was great to see them and catch up.

And this morning, I was so inspired by how pretty my breakfast looked that I had to take a picture. Lucky you.

Land of the 10pm Sun

OK, so it's not the midnight sun, but it'll have to do. Unless you live under a rock, you'll know that yesterday was solstice/the first day of summer/etc. Which never seemed like a big deal in NY, but here in northern Europe I find I really notice it. Last night we were zonked and went to bed at 10pm, and it was still light out. Dusky, but light. Glorious.

James is using his new Mets towel tonight (thanks, M & D) - he requested it specially and is v. psyched about it. 'Uncle Ed' had one when he was about the same age - Grandma bought us two - Mets and Yankees. It's a venerable tradition.

I'm feeling like I've turned a corner at work (which I'm always reluctant to blog about). I'm starting to really get a solid handle on my new job, although it's still crazy busy. Hopefully it'll calm down some more once I get grease on some more wheels.

I'm 'between books' again - I've started 19 Minutes (Jodi Picoult) but I can't seem to get in to it. I enjoyed Bill Bryson's Walk In The Woods, a few weeks ago, and I have Dorothy Sayers' Nine Tailors (Mom's recommendation) waiting for me at the library tomorrow.

I also splurged and ordered TWO craft books on Amazon (eek!) - I got an email that they've shipped today so they should be at the office on Monday. The books, if you're interested, are Simple Sewing and Bend The Rules Sewing. I can't wait!

Computer Geek-In-Training

John's been tinkering with Ubuntu Linux on his computer for a few weeks now (he's having a blast...), and keeps threatening to install it on my mac. Not a chance.

I'm helping out in another department at work, in addition to some of the stuff I was doing in my other job. Part of what I'm doing involves using a different interface to access the same data that I used before - I'd been told by the IT geeks that it was much faster but I hadn't given it a shot until last week. And they're right, it IS faster, although I had one problem.

I'm addicted to the keyboard shortcuts for copy and paste (if you don't use them, you're missing out), and the interface that I was using didn't seem to support them - it would error whenever I pressed CTRL C or CTRL V. BAH. So I asked the programmers if there were any hacks or workarounds, and they said no.

John said that he thought it could be done, although he didn't know exactly how to do it. So this morning after using my mouse to paste something in for the umpty-leventh time, I started digging around under the hood of the interface. And found the keyboard remapping section. And remapped my keyboard (and my colleague's) so that we can use our keyboard shortcuts. And then marched triumphantly into the programmers' office to tell them that not only was it possible, but I'd done it. By myself.

I was more excited than I should have been...but it was one of those little nuisances that was making a really good interface annoying. FIXED!

One Of Those Days

I've been feeling not far from the end of my tether lately - it's been the combination of the move, a whole bunch of stuff going on at work, and miscellaneous other stresses. I've been trying to move some cash from the US to our account here to help with the moving expenses and it's taken over 3 weeks. Both banks are blaming the other one and generally making a mess of things. It LOOKS like it's going to come through, finally. Fingers crossed.

I had my physio appointment tonight and we've come to the conclusion that I need to take a break for a few weeks and rejig my office workspace again, since all the good that's being done in my appointment every week is being undone again at work. Looks like a new chair is in order - my physio has recommended a place not far from the office where they'll let me sit in a chair for 45 minutes during my lunch break and test it out.

When she pointed out that the progress on my back had stagnated, I dropped my basket. I'd been on the edge of tears all day and I just lost it. She (and John) looked totally alarmed, and she immediately offered me a cup of tea, which made me laugh. John and I had fish & chips for dinner (which we haven't had in AGES) and then settled in to watch Rick Stein (a cross between Alton Brown and Mr. Rogers) and the Hairy Bikers (the unofficial successors to the Two Fat Ladies). Not sure if the Bikers are on BBC America, or if you can get DVDs, but they were really funny.

I also took my physio's advice and had a cup of tea. My mom sent me some special teas that she got in the Village a few months ago - my favorite is the Kemun Imperial blend - John made a cup for me and used the teapot and everything.

I feel revived, and tomorrow is looking much more promising.

Excitement at work

Had quite an exciting day at the office today - my colleague had mentioned that there was a Christmas Promo pack in the bulk warehouse that one of us needed to check, and since it was technically a new title, it was my job.

I trundled over to find that it had been put away already, on a shelf. "Ok," I said, "can I just go and check it out to see what's in it before I write the description?"

"Sure," said John (the warehouse guy, not the hubby), "hop on the lift!" He gestured towards one of the big industrial forklift riser thingys. I climbed into the cabin, thinking we'd drive along the bottom of the aisle and then lift the forks up to the location, pull the stuff down, look at it, and put it back.

Not so. Up we went (while moving forwards), until we were about 50 feet in the air. I was clinging desperately to the back of the chair and trying to be nonchalant about leaning over the edge to open the box and look in it. I think John sensed that I was not a happy bunny, so he opened the box himself and looked at it, reading off the contents to me as I wrote them down in my notebook.

As he zipped back down to the ground, he commented that he'd really gotten the willies the other day when he'd had to go up to the ceiling to change a lightbulb...at least when you're in the stacks you have a reference point that's right next to you - he was all on his own, 90 feet in the air.

I didn't feel unsafe - the Brits are FANATICAL about 'Health and Safety,' I just had a bit of a thrill. The notes that I took are complete gobledeygook, by the way.