What's up!

Daylight saving has finally arrived, so our sunlight hours have dramatically increased, well by an hour anyhow. So its light till around 7:30pm, (you'd love it Ev its even still light at 6am too) so it will be even better in the middle of the summer time. Before I came to London, I always imagined that it was grey most of the time, however it's not, it's just really really bleak when it is grey and cloudy.

Today for example, there was a thick pea soupy type of smog with low clouds all about the city, it made the sun look all watery and washed out. It more actually looked like it does when its really hot, humid and cloudy, though at a balmy 17 was not exactly hot. The weather is much warmer though and thank goodness the cold snap (back to less than 5) that we had last week has gone away and we are back to proper sunshine - I am so glad I can get my sunnies out again.

We are keeping busy, but having fun. Last Friday we went out for drinks at Canary Wharf for our friend Tanya, which resulted in Tanya, Laura and Michael staying at our flat for the night so it was a bit squishy, but fun. On the Saturday after we sweated the poor things out (the heating was on overnight - we lack blankets for guests - and by morning the flat was 31 degrees), Mark, Michael, Amhad, and Reshard were lucky enough to be off to Wembly Stadium.

It was the first game ever at the brand spanking new Wembly stadium, an under 21's match between Italy and England, and the boys managed between the 4 of them to get the £10 tickets. The match sold out pretty much straight away, which is to be expected with the London touts, but they were then selling on Ebay for £250 after that. Oh and for the boys the score was 3 all. We have pictures and a camera phone video of one of the England goals.

Mark has been a busy boy, he is actually out tonight too at a pub quiz, and had lucky practically front row tickets at the Teenage Cancer Trust Noel Gallagher concert (think band member and brother of former troublemaker lead singer of Oasis if you have forgotten - I did!!). Again there were a few of us keen to go, but tickets sold out, but while Mark was on the phone to Ticketmaster, two tickets came up and he snapped them up for him and Michael. I get to keep the programme - lucky me.

Oh and Mark is also going to be going to see Arsenal play soon, he is pretty excited as being Arsenal are an extremely popular team tickets are hard to come by, but one of the clients from his work had tickets, so he gets to go. Alas, again I miss out.

I, however, get to make up for all that in just under 5 weeks when I go away to sun and fun in Bodrum, Turkey on the Aegean sea. I am going with Anne and it will be amazing, as I know from going last year that the weather is gorgeous and the beaches pristine. I hope to go on a day trip up to Hierapolis, to Pamukkale, where they have these spectacular white travertine terraces (white from the hot springs on limestone).

Aside from that work is going well, and if all goes to plan I will be looking for a new job at the end of June. I just really could do with a change of scenery, get closer to the square mile, home, restaurants, pubs and clubs. The JV is, as it turns out, is supposed to be winding up around then - so it works out perfectly.

Though the extra travelling is a good opportunity to read on the train, and as another blog I am going to give a run down of all the books I have read over here, or maybe the tops ones as there are seriously loads at the rate I read anyway. Some days I just grab the Metro or the Lite Evening Standard (both free - not the London paper because the ink comes off on your hands) to read, so the books take a little longer to finish. At the moment I am on The Night Watch by Sarah Waters, its quite good and she writes really well, lots of details but not too heavy that you have to gloss over it too much.

Its late.. night...I have rambled far to long, though it was interrupted with Desperate Housewifes and the new season of The Apprentice (the Sir Alan Sugar English version, which is always a clever comical farce!!).

I've got twins......

No sorry to cause some mothers across the oceans, anxious moments, but Mark and I are the proud parents of twin girls, Jasmine and Jemima. No I haven't been hiding a pregnancy, not to mention twins, that would be damn hard!!!

We have two new baby girl guinea pigs, who are kind of hidding in this picture, but I am sure there will be more so I can show them off better soon.

Don't worry we plan to have real children one day, but there is nothing wrong with treating pets like family. :-)

Congratulations to Andy & Anne

Congratulations to Mark's Uncle Andy on his wedding to Anne last Saturday 17th March 2007. We wish them both the very best for the future.

James...

We learnt today that our littlest family member, our guinea pig "James" died.

He was the sweetest little thing and was the boss of his bigger sibling "Jasper" the bunny and "Bunny" the bunny before that. We knew this because he always ate the food first and climbed over their shoulders (think of a shawl) to nap - very cute.

He was about 6 years old and died of old age. So RIP James - 24th March 2007 xxx

Check out these funny ads with guinea pigs...I think James would have thought them funny too.

Egg Money - cute clips with Guinea Pigs

Oliver's Bath

This is one of the latest of a whole load of pictures of my nephew Oliver, this is a photo I will use to embarrass him on his 21st birthday...too cute!!

Off to Windsor to visit the Queen

Windsor Castle Entrance

Yesterday after a very lazy morning we decided enough is enough, its time to be tourists again especially since for the last week we have had the most lovely bright spring days. So we headed to Paddington Station and took a train out to Windsor.

Its only about 30 minutes out so it wasn't long cruising along before Windsor castle popped into view in the distance and the train practically drives up to the Queens front door.

Now there are no photos of the inside, as per usual you are not allowed to, but I do have a couple that I have from the following site...http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page574.asp, to show how grand it is.


St Georges Hall & The Crimson Drawing Rooms

As soon as we arrived Mark said he'd be able to tell if the Queen was in, apparently she is there if the flag with her coat of arms is flying, and it was. Normally when she is not there the Union Jack is flying.

Windsor is quite a posh, quaint little town with the castle in the centre. It's noisy though as it is quite near Heathrow and planes fly over every few minutes - we now know why the queen wouldn't be too concerned about not being able to sit in the pretty gardens, complete with a waterfall, around the Round Tower. The Round Tower Gardens (note the plane)

It's the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world and has been occupied for around 1,000 years, but by various rulers starting with Sir William the Conqueror back in 1070.

We first visited the St George Chapel (the patron saint of the Order of the Garter), an amazing example of medieval architecture. It is the resting place of Ten British monarchs (including Henry VIII, Charles I, George VI). Princess Margaret's ashes are interred there too with her parents, so The Queen Mother.

Before we entered the state rooms, we went through to see Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, which is massive and takes up a room larger than my current living space, it has electric lights, cars and even a mini Hoover.
You then enter the State rooms via a Grand Vestibule, with treasures from then ancient lands, including a large golden tiger with crystal teeth. There is a grand hall dedicated to those who knew and fought Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and another hall, called St Georges hall, where the Queen holds grand dinners. It is massive and the dining table for 160 people is set using a ruler to ensure its all perfect, it apparently looks awful if even a spoon is out of place!

We were lucky to have visited when the semi-state rooms were open (see the little pic of the Crimson drawing room above). These are closed for part of the year, at Easter time, as the Queen has guests to stay in these rooms. The occasions when the guests stay are known as "eat and sleeps" as they have dinner, stay over and leave following breakfast the next morning. It's good to see the Queen is against drink driving....

The castle was well worth the visit as its extremely well maintained and is fully restored to as it was in the 1700's.

It was good to finally get out and about again, and next weekend we hope to go away to the countryside...
Mark at Windsor
View to inside the Stateroom gardens

The Windsor Castle Mail box!

Lisa at Windsor
Residences of palace staff, with the Round Tower in the background.