Desk Completion!

Happy 1st Anniversary Kyle & Paulette!

Finally finished with the desk and left it as we had decided last night. It looks so good! I'm very happy with it. It totally transforms the dining room/office into a much tidier space. I didn't realize until after I moved the old desk out yesterday that I didn't have any pictures of it to do a before and after. Oh well, you'll just have to take my word for it that it looks a lot better.

While Keith finished off the dining room, I put the shelving together for the storage room. Keith did all the organizing once it was together and I swapped places with him and organized everything in the desk, drawers and shelves. I also cleared out the small appliances from the kitchen cupboards that we just weren't using. We drug them all to the garage to be stored until we need them. Now we have much more room and it's more organized. It was quite an accomplished weekend.

Keith has been talking about attempting homemade soup for weeks so today he tried Broccoli soup. It was a super easy recipe he found and it was really good soup.

This evening I got to talk/see Nan & Gampie via webcam! It was awesome. Since my birthday is in a few days, Dad wanted to get them to his place and on the webcam so we could see each other. Dad's in Ben Eion for the week so we decided tonight would be the best. We spent an hour online and it definitely made my day!

The Lizard & Another Church Cove

Keith, Speedy & Justin headed off surfing again this morning. Rachel and I decided not to go along this time. I spent the morning relaxing at home. It turned out to be a beautiful, sunny and warm day. Just after lunch I was tired of being in the house and in an odd mood so I jumped in the car and went to the Lizard. I drove down to Lizard Point just taking my good 'ole time. On the way back I decided to check out another Church Cove I say signs for. Not sure why there are two Church Coves on the same peninsula (one is on the West side and this one I found today is on the East side).

I drove through a really neat little neighborhood in the village called Lizard where I found a car park close to the Cove. I wasn't sure which way to walk so I followed signs for the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute) Lifeboat Station. It was maybe a 1/4 mile walk and it was beautiful. I realized quickly I was walking in the opposite direction of the cove, but that was okay because I got the panoramic views of it instead. The station is located on a hill overlooking the ocean surrounded by the usual rugged coastline.

I walked for a bit, and spent some time just sitting on the benches along the way taking in the scenery. It was so peaceful the only sounds I could hear were the birds, insects buzzing around, a slight ripple from the waves below, and even the grass moving in the light breeze. It was fantastic. Just what my mind and body needed today...a complete getaway for a short break. At a few points it felt a little eerie, like I was the only person in the world.

Once I finished touring this area I walked back towards the car and visited a small church and graveyard close by. The church looked very old and worn and the graveyard was very eerie. It kind of looked like a small eartquake had occured some years ago and unsettled the ground. There were graves at unequal levels and seemed like they were just thrown in places. It was really strange. I wanted to take a picture but it felt wrong to take pictures in there. I wasn't long getting out of there!

I am now starving so it's time to head home. Keith was home when I got back. After I had some grub we headed into B&Q to grab some shelving. Our storage room is just a big heap of stuff, it's driving me batty. Once we got back, our evening consisted of the desk assembly and not much else. It took awhile to put together, which Keith did all himself as too many hands aren't always helpful. Once complete it took us forever to decide on the positioning of it all. We eventually decided to finish it tomorrow and went to bed.

Disaster Zone

Today was a day for getting things done. Making calls, doing some cleaning, etc. The desk arrived around 11am and of course I was too anxious to wait until tomorrow for Keith & I to put it together. So I started clearing everything off the current desk, and piling it all on the dining room table. Next, I moved the old desk out of the way and started to open the boxes of the new one. At this point all of the assembled desk pieces, flat packed pieces, and my old desk are jammed in the dining room. Oh well.

I get started and get some of the way - really not far, until I realized I need to use a drill. A drill! Me with a drill! Dear God, this isn't gonna be pretty! I used, and when I say used I mean held, a drill years ago but have never needed to use one so I never learned. Well, today was my day to learn. I hauled Keith's fancy drill out of the closet and went to work reading the instructions. I knew how to put the drill bit in and turn it on but that's about it. I attempted drilling but learned later that I need more strength behind me to drill through this material. Oh well, at least I tried. So with that, the desk was left spread all over the floor. What a mess!

Speedy & Rachel came over for the evening. Actually, Rach stayed here with me while Speedy & Keith went to Ferg's to watch the rugby game. While they were gone Rach and I ordered pizza and chatted. This was our first pizza experience since we've been here. Mostly because the ingredients on most of the pizza are bizarre. Who eats tuna and sweet corn pizza? Corn does not belong on pizza! However, almost every combo they listed had sweet corn. Strange! And the only sizes to order were 9" and 12". The biggest pizza is only 12"! I wasn't really thinking about it when I ordered them and was shocked when the delivery guy came with these little boxes. Wow, a 12" pizza doesn't go very far...especially when Keith & Speedy come back for some. It wasn't anywhere close to as good as Pizza Time in Eastern Passage but it'll have to do I guess!

Bought A Desk

Since we bought our sofa the beginning of September, I have been trying to buy a desk that Trago had on their showroom floor. The desk they are displaying is perfect for us but currently out of stock and may be discontinued. I have called a few times asking if they are getting them back in, but to no avail. Today I decided to pop in on my lunch break and ask again. Sure enough, the desk has been discontinued BUT the floor model is for sale. Yea! They actually still have a desk and one of the drawer units boxed but everything else would be the floor models. I'll take it! So for £200 (bit of a discount with partial floor models) we get an entire office. The 'office' has a 5 piece - desk with hutch, 2 units that are drawers and file drawers, a closed 2 door cabinet, and a book shelf that sits on the cabinet. It's the usual low quality, flat packed desks we get at home, but it'll serve its purpose. I'm so excited to get rid of the current desk that has no shelves or drawers so everything we have is out in plain view with no type of organization. It will all be delivered tomorrow. Sweet!

Busy afternoon at work. Thursday afternoons tend to be a bit busier since I'm not in on Fridays. Just trying to get everything done before I leave. Keith has had a painful week at work with an overwhelming amount of work - trainors, flights, and simulators. This is more work then they had between April to August combined. He has been in everyday at 7am and left no earlier than 6pm. He's happy tomorrow is finally Friday to get a break. He's even doing work tonight for a sim he has tomorrow.

While he worked I spent 2.5 hours on the phone with Mom! Good thing for cheap calling!

Getting Older

Happy 30th Birthday Kelly!

Kelly's birthday is always a marker for me...one week left until mine. Didn't I just turn 30? The last year has passed with such speed, my head is still spinning. I said to Keith the other day, "we're in England!". Haha. Sounds funny but it really doesn't feel like we're so far away, let alone in a different country. Maybe after a year it may feel like we're no longer in Canada. 31 is coming very fast and I thought I'd be scared of it, but I'm not thinking much about it really. Sometimes I think, oh my God, I'm almost 31 and still not ready for kids! I suppose someday I will be. That might be when I'm 50. Haha. Time will tell.

Nothing exciting at work today, the week has kept half decently busy. I've determined today that my boss is very much the parent of a child parent relationship. He seems to like to be the parent in many situations and treat others like a child. I don't mean this as bad as it sounds. Today it was like he was scolding his counterpart (another director) for whatever reason, treating and talking to him like a child. I had noticed this before with things he's asked me to do, not scolding me, but giving such explanation that you wonder if he thinks I have any brains. No comments from the peanut gallery! Anyway, it's somewhat bizarre and I'm just glad he's aims it at someone else and not me!

Worky Worky

Julia starts her new job today. Good luck Julia!

Ahhh much better day at work. I was busy all day and it was wonderful. Hopefully tomorrow will be the same. Quite an uneventful day really. I seem to be feeling better this evening...hopefully that's a good sign. I'm always so relieved when Mondays are over..I'm sure most people feel the same. Keith had a busy day at work as well. Lots going on and not enough hours in the day for him - the rest of the week looks the same. His course is on cruise control now so they are actually learning, flying, and getting somewhere. He's quite happy. Well, that his course is moving along, not so much that he has a brief tomorrow morning at 7:30am and is possibly looking at a late day.

Today was very bizarre weather wise. It was beautiful, but every hour or so the heavens would open and it would just pour rain. I think tomorrow is suppose to be the same.

Some of these posts may seem very boring to most of you, but it's also a diary/journal for me to look back on. So I tend to put as much info/detail as I can so when I do look back I can remember the day and the experience that much better.

Lazy Sunday

Still not feeling any better. Grrr. Got up at 8:30am and came downstairs to sleep on the couch for a few hours as I was coughing and blowing my nose enough at that point to keep Keith awake. Both of us finally got up around 12pm. I was happy it was a dreary day so I didn't have to feel guilty about being totally lazy. We basically did nothing all day. I did muster up some ambition in the afternoon to go to Tesco to get a few groceries but that was the extent of our excitement. The boys had a good time last night. Once the Green Dayz thing was over they headed into to town to one of the pubs. Keith doesn't even remember when he got home so he clearly had a good night. Haha. I really don't want tomorrow to be Monday. Boooo.

Surfing at Gwithian Towans

This is very wrong for a Saturday but we were up by 7:30am this morning! It was actually very nice to be up. Justin picked Keith up at 8am and Rachel picked me up at 8:15am to go surfing. Rachel and I were going as spectators. We drove to a beach beach in Hayle - about a 25 minute drive from here. Keith borrowed one of Speedy's wet suits and Simon's board.

The boys - Keith, Justin, Speedy got into their wet suits then Justin, being a seasoned surfer, gave Keith the run down on how to surf. They spent the next 2 hours having a blast in the ocean. Rachel and I relaxed while we chatted and entertained their dog Max. There were very few people on the beach, even for a beautiful day so it was great. Keith has now decided he loved surfing.

I think I might grab a boogie board and a wet suit and go too sometime. I think I'll stay away from surfing as it doesn't interest me, but I think boogie/body boarding would be fun. Rachel has surfed before but she hurt her knee and now has a hard time surfing, but maybe able to body board. I have to try one or the other before we leave here because all the English surfers flock to Cornwall for the amazing surfing. I need to take advantage with all these beaches almost on our doorstep.

After the fun at the beach, we went to the Old Key House pub in Hayle and had lunch. We ate in the garden outside and it was really nice. We didn't get home until almost 3pm. Keith and I then popped into town for a minute and I crashed for a nap when we got back. This cold was needing some rest. There is a cover band called Green Dayz playing at a venue around the corner from here so a few of the crew are going. They are coming here first so we can all go together. I decided not to go as I figure I'd be better off staying home and not drinking and getting some sleep. Once everyone left I got on the phone and called Mom and I've now gabbed to her, Nan & Gampie, Dad, and Kelly for the last 2.5 hours. Good Lord! Figured I'd update this while I had a chance. Then it's off to bed.

Work Painfully Slow

Okay this cold sucks. I'm getting tired from chasing my runny nose! Haha. Work felt like days today - so slow! Today was the quarterly board meeting so my boss and the other director in our office were tied up in that all day so weren't around to hand me mindless stuff to do. I'll be glad when things pick up so I don't feel like a secretary. Not that that's a bad thing, it's just not what I signed up for and I'm not good at being bored.

We did however just win the tender for an English Heritage project which is pretty big. ABG does a lot of Heritage work like the signage for the Tower of London, packaging for the Jewel House which is part of the Tower, Historic Scotland, external signage for the University of Liverpool, and many more. I learned today that we submitted a bid for something graphic design related for the Olympics. Well, minus the horrible logo! I didn't catch all the details of what the tender is actually for. It would be amazing to win it.

Quiet night for Keith and I. Just staying in watching TV. Tomorrow we're going surfing! Okay, I'm not going surfing but Keith, Speedy, and Justin are and Rachel and I are going along to watch the entertainment. Well, most of the entertainment will be Keith as he's never surfed before but the other guys have. Rachel and I will hang out with the dogs (hers and they have Dave's Rotti) and relax on the beach.

A Cold!

Woke up with a full on cold this morning. Dammit!!! Funky feeling in my throat, sneezing, sniffles, and sinuses full. How fantastic. So nice to come home to Keith. I really enjoyed the day to myself but am quite happy to have him home.

Viewing Old Posts

I'm here hammering out August's posts to get caught up. Now that I've gotten August complete, all the posts I wrote last night and this morning are not showing on the main page. To view the last few days of our vacation and any posts from August 17th on, just open up the August link on the right side of the page and click the links.

I still have to add the photo album in for our vacation. That'll be a few more days yet before I have time. I'll let you know when it's available to view.

Off Today

Happy Birthday Michael!! My cousins getting older makes me feel old!

I'm off today instead of Friday this week. Friday we have a board meeting and the Aukett and Brockliss of Aukett Brockliss Guy from the London studio will be at our Penryn studio for the day. My boss has asked me if I minded coming in on Friday instead so I can meet everyone. So here I am off on hump day - good way to break up the week.

I have spent the morning finishing the rest of the blog. Thank God it's finally updated! Well, for now anyway. It's now almost lunch time and it's time for me to head into town to run some errands. Since the boys are away, Rachel and I are going to have a girls movie night tonight. She'll drop over after work and we'll watch a chick flick and get fat. Haha.

Did some running around in the afternoon. Rachel came over around 9pm once she finished work. I made fajitas for us, then we ended up gabbing for 2 hours or so and never ended up watching the movie I picked up. It was great to have a girl's night and just chat about girlie stuff.

All By Myself

Keith left this morning for the Scillys. Forgot the feeling of coming home to an empty house - I'm really not a fan of that feeling. It's different when I know Keith will be home later, but when I know he's not coming home, it feels lonely. That was the first time he's been away overnight since we moved. Really not looking forward to living that everyday for 6 months in the future when he's finished his course.

I spent the evening updating the blog, and am almost caught up. Atleast I have finally finished our Scotland vacation and the month of August. I'll be glad to have it done so I no longer have to wonder when I'll have time to do it. The weather has been so nice I haven't wanted to sit inside on the computer. I will finish the rest tomorrow.

Getting Ready for the Scillys

Happy Anniversary Shannon & Keith!

Work was much more enjoyable today, I was busy throughout the day which was great. I still have so much to learn, but yet I can't learn it until we get a new project. It is quite frustrating to me as I didn't get the training I needed before Siobhan left on maternity leave so now when something new does come up I don't know what to do and sometimes it's a very simple task. Normally, the first month or two of a job is frustrating learning everything, but I think my frustration is going to last longer as I can't just learn everything at once. Oh well, atleast I'm working - I know I shouldn't complain.

Keith is getting ready to head to the Isles of Scilly tomorrow. The Isles of Scilly form an archipelago of six inhabited islands and numerous other small rocky islets about 45 kms off the coast here. They are actually sub tropical islands! Here's a link to them:
. I plan to visit them sometime during our posting here. I was quite jealous when Keith told me he was going to spend a few days on the Scillys with work. A Merlin will fly them to the largest island of St. Mary's tomorrow morning where they will spend a few days doing community work. They return Thursday afternoon.

The Handymen

Happy Anniversary Karen & Jason!

Dale put Keith to work today helping him with some handyman work in the kitchen. Lauren and I enjoyed a lazy day with girl chat. Keith and I hit the road at 5:30pm and got back around 7:30pm. Why does tomorrow have to be Monday?

A Day In Exeter & Olivia's Birthday Party

Woke up to another beautiful, sunny day. We're getting spoiled with all this sunshine, not that I'm complaining! We packed up the cars and headed into Exeter which is about a 30-45 minute drive from Dale & Lauren's. We parked the cars and walked along the Quay checking out the small market and browsing the antique shops.

Next we headed to a neat grassy area nestled between a cathedral and shops. It's quite a large area and obviously very popular as it was packed with people laying on the grass, hanging out with friends, and picnicking. We brought a lunch with us so we rolled out the blankets and enjoyed our sandwiches in the sunshine. Once finished the boys and Olivia threw around the football. Olivia looked like she was playing monkey in the middle because she just ran back and forth between the boys.

We arrived back home around 4pm and started getting ready for the BBQ and Keith put Olivia's trike together. Lauren's parents and brother arrived over and Olivia had no shortage of attention or gifts. Terry & Jane had bought Olivia a trike as well so now she has one of home and at their place. She was in her element. Dale cooked up an excellent feast then we got stuffed on the black forest cake he made for Olivia. It was fantastic. We sat around and chatted, Olivia opened her gifts, and we played a game of pass the parcel - she loved it.

Off to Chulmleigh

Happy 2nd Birthday Olivia!!

This picture is out our front window. I took it this morning around 7:30am - it looked really cool the way the fog was laying.

I can't believe Olivia is 2 today. She is growing to be such a little lady and every time we see her are more amazed with how much she's progressed and more of personality she's gotten. We'll head up to Dale & Lauren's this afternoon as we want to spend Olivia's birthday with her. We bought her a very girlie Barbie Tryke. She'll look so cute trying to ride it. Against Keith's wishes I also picked up some girlie accessories to kit it out - a bell, streamers, water bottle, and mirror all in pink. He didn't want to make it too girlie! She's a girl! And every girl needs streamers on her bike. Haha.

Pretty quiet week as I wasn't feeling up to par for most of the beginning of the week. Wednesday I finally felt back to normal except for having a sinus cold. Grrrr. Because of this I didn't get any running in - disappointing. We didn't do movie night this week as Rachel's parents are down from Newcastle.

This week at work was super slow. I thought August was slow, but this week definitely tops the cake. I had to drag everything out to such a slow pace so I wouldn't have times where I had noting to do. I wanted to shoot myself. It's definitely a different world than working at Jacques where it was beyond busy all the time. I enjoy being busy, so this is a bit tough for me. But it is nice not to be stressed, so I am quite enjoying that part.

I have spent the morning updating some of the blog. I am super behind. it takes so much time to complete the Scotland portion with the uploading of pictures and so much detail to type. Eventually I will be caught up. I'm sure you're all wishing I'd hurry up!

When Keith got back form work he headed back out again to meet the boys for a beer and to go charity shop shopping as they are going to the Isles of Scilly next week for work and of course there will be fancy dress involved. I decided not to go with him and stay here and get some stuff down before we left for Chulmleigh. We headed out around 4pm and arrived in Chulmleigh around 6pm. Jack has filled out quite a bit since we saw him the beginning of August and he can roll over (he could do this at a month old actually) and has quite the neck and leg strength. I was joking with Dale & Lauren that he's going to be walking at 4 months! Tomorrow will be Olivia's birthday party with a BBQ and her grandparents.

Not Feeling Great

Happy 30th Birthday Deanna!!

Was up last night sick and didn't get half as much sleep as I needed. Wasn't even sure when I got up if I could go to work, but made myself go anyway. The day was a bit rough with moments I figured I'd have to come home, but I made it through the day.

Called Deanna in the evening to wish her happy birthday and to see how she's feeling. She's due in the next several weeks I believe. She wasn't home so hopefully I'll get to talk to her soon.

Great Run

Keith and Dale wanted to do a coastal walk so they took Olivia around Mullion Cove. I wanted to go for a run so they went on without me. I was feeling super lazy today but made myself go for a run anyway. I went down to the path that runs by Loe Pool. I forgot how much I enjoy this path, it's through the woods, a small field, by the lake and is mostly shaded so you're not roasting in the sun. The beginning was rough but then I came around. It was my best run yet out of the last two weeks. I came home feeling refreshed and proud of myself.

The boys and Olivia returned around 3:30pm. They dropped Keith off and headed home. I didn't feel the greatest the rest of the day and evening.

Church Cove

A day at the beach. We've had the most amazing weather since we returned from Scotland. Figures! It's been sunny and warm for weeks with rare signs of a light rain. It's quite the opposite of what the summer has been. We packed up Dale's car and headed to Church Cove which is only a ten minute drive from here. We spent a few hours relaxing on the beach playing in the sand with Olivia.

Around 4pm we headed back here and Olivia was ready for a nap. Her and I stayed here while Keith and Dale went to Porthleven for a beer on a patio. They arrived back around 6pm with lots of food so we whipped up a bunch of munchies for supper. Ferg was having a gathering at his place this evening to watch one of the Rugby games so we eventually made it there around 9pm. The game was over by then but everyone was still hanging around drinking beer. We stayed until 11pm then came back home as everyone was starting to leave.

Dale & Olivia Visiting

Spent the day running errands going to Pool to the big Tesco and Homebase, dropping off the recyclables, cleaning up a bit, etc. Dale & Olivia are coming for the weekend as Lauren and Jack are in Estonia at a conference for the week. We also decided to have everyone over for a BBQ tonight as it's been awhile since we've all been together and it's a good chance for Dale to meet Keith's buddies.

Dale & Olivia arrived around 5pm and we had a bit of time to spend with them before everyone arrived at 7:30pm. There were about 14 of us as not everyone could make it. Keith did his usual magic on the BBQ while the rest of us relaxed enjoying drinks. I watched my first little bit of Rugby. I had never watched it before but these guys are big rugby fans so we had it turned on since it's now the World Cup playoffs (or whatever term they use for rugby). It turned out to be a great night.

These pictures are of Bungy and Speedy & Rachel.