Friday Squirrel Blogging

squirrel 1, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Stalking with squirrels

squirrel 4, originally uploaded by Racmol.

To celebrate spring, here is a sleek and fluffy squirrel, enjoying itself in Queen's Park. (We bought new cameras yesterday, so I had to go looking for some wildlife to try mine out on.)

Hope to find something bigger to practise on soon...

Friday cat blogging from Egypt

Sinai cat, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Dead Sea mud wrap vs Turkish bath

Jules at the Dead Sea, originally uploaded by Racmol.

After trying out the various beauty treatments of Jordan, Jules feels the Turkish Bath had a greater effect on his skin than the dead sea mud treatment (self application method).

And another thing - what's with all the snow and hail in London?

Trekking with camels

jordan first 227, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Blog postings a bit thin on the ground this trip - much like emails and comments, I might add!

Highlights of the past fortnight, in brief:
- climbing Mt Sinai's 3750 steps of repentance and watching the sunset from the top
- spending a night at a Bedouin camp in the desert at Wadi Rum
- driving through the hills to Petra in thick fog with snow on the ground
- two days in Petra, including climbs to the High Place of Sacrifice and the Monastery
- a swim in the Dead Sea today (very quick in my case as my skin turned red and started to tingle instantly). Great pictures to come of Jules covered in Dead Sea mud, though.
- yesterday a very vigorous Turkish bath, removing a thick layer of grey-black skin
Tomorrow we arrive in Amman at the end of our travels. Photos will appear when we have a proper Internet connection again.

A pyramid and a quick hello

DSC03075, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Hi again - we're still alive. Now in Luxor and heading back to Cairo by sleeper train tonight.

Had a fantastic day today - up at 5 for a balloon ride over the temples on the other side of the Nile and then we got on donkeys and rode up and over the saddle of the hill and down into the Valley of the Kings. It was a spectacular climb with huge red rock formations and crevasses. My donkey was a bit competitive - had to be in the lead so was always trying to overtake all the other donkeys, on the outside along the cliff edge.

Have only been violently ill once (or 3 times, if you want to be literal about it) but that was just dehydration related so I was fine the next day. Unfortunately the urge to throw up struck while J and I were having afternoon tea at the Old Cataract Hotel in Aswan (where Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile). The bathrooms are probably the poshest place I've ever been sick in!

We spent one day and one night on a felucca sailing down the Nile from Aswan but due to a combination of high winds (which meant we were stopped by the Nile police for 4 hours) and then not enough wind, we only managed to get about 5 km down the river before stopping for the night. You could still see the lights of Aswan in the distance! Still, it was nice and relaxing, lying in the sun, reading and doing nothing all day.

Have to go now - have a train to catch...

Camels 2, hissy fits 1

Just a quick hello as we are off for dinner soon and the computers are too ancient to talk to the camera so no piccies today.

We caught the overnight train from Cairo to Aswan last night - very civilised, individual sleeping cabins for two people. Today we took a boat over to Elephantine Island and then went on a camel ride out past St Simeon's Monastery in the desert. My first camel refused point blank to carry me - locked its knees and growled and spat. It took ages before the camel driver could even get it to sit down so I could get off, but the second camel was much better behaved. Still don't think it's a preferred mode of transport though - was kept far too busy hanging on to take pictures.

Yesterday we were out at Giza visiting the pyramids and the sphinx. I hate to say it, but I was a bit underwhelmed by the whole experience. I guess once you've seen the image 50,000 times already in your life, you get there and it looks just like you'd expect. Plus the sphinx is much smaller than you'd think.

Anyway, the weather is lovely - just pleasantly warm. And nobody has got sick yet...

Skiing statistics

Group mugshot, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Broken skis - 1, Broken limbs - 0, bruised ribs - 2.

Our week at Val d'Isere was the usual mixture of pleasure and pain that makes up any ski holiday. After a spectacularly sunny and enjoyable Sunday, the weather packed up and we spent the next two days blundering around in white-out conditions. Things picked up again on Thursday, another clear day, until Jules tipped himself off his skis and bruised his ribs - had to retire hurt and visit the English doctor.

Fortunately, when he took his skis back to the hire place, they were too busy to notice that one was bent...

Thursday night we had booked ourselves in for a 'toboggan to dinner' trip to Tignes. This sounded like fun, a gentle ride through the trees to a lovely dinner, but it was terrifying. You couldn't see a thing, the slopes were very steep and bumpy and I fell out twice, ending up covered in snow and with icicles all through my hair. Jules was lucky to avoid it.

Friday was another beautiful clear day, and we finished on a high note with a nice lunch outdoors up the mountain and then dinner at the little stone restaurant across the road from where we were staying.

Highlight of the week: hot chocolate and crepes at the Grand Marnier creperie.

Friday Cat Blogging

Wilbur in repose, originally uploaded by Racmol.

My favourite living cat enjoys a warm Dunedin day.

We're off to France at the crack of dawn tomorrow for a week in Val d'Isere with S & H. It is a lastminute job - £149 for flights and 7 nights' accommodation - so expectations are not sky-high. Have not skied or spoken French since 2003...

Frisking about in the snow...

Frisking about in the snow, originally uploaded by Racmol.

..conclusive proof that Jules did actually come with me to St Petersburg.

Stupid things I have done this week:

1. Plugged in my old phone to charge for S & H to use, without noticing it was set to a completely different time zone. Leapt out of bed when the alarm rang, had a shower, got dressed, dried my hair and then thought: 'Hmm, it's very dark out.' 2.10am, it was. Not a good first day back at work.

2. Announced I was going for a run at lunchtime, charged downstairs and got changed then found I didn't have my running shoes. Workmates said this proved that subconsciously I hadn't really intended to go!

St Petersburg in the snow

Looking back over Troitsky Most, originally uploaded by Racmol.

We're back safe and sound after a fabulous holiday in St Petersburg and I've even managed to upload a few photos to flickr. More to come in January - apparently I've reached my upload limit for December.

Jules would like to draw everyone's attention to his sequence of me drinking Georgian vodka, by the way.

I think the best thing about St Petersburg was the snow. There was much more of it than I'd expected and it made everything more spectacular somehow. Of course, it's pretty impressive anyway - 85% of the buildings in the central city are over 150 years old.

It was damn cold, around -6 to -8. The locals say that's about as cold as it ever feels, because once you get down to -12, the humidity drops away and it's easier to bear.

Our first night we went to a nearby huntsman restaurant, Kalinka Malinka. The decorations were wolfskins and bearskins, complete with heads and paws. One bear's head must have been a bit of a mess, because someone had hung a blue tinsel pompom over it! A bit flippant, I thought.

Christmas Day we woke up at dawn (10 am) and almost missed breakfast. Then we spent the day at the Hermitage, which was excellent - great to see brand new paintings by your favourite artists that you've never seen before because...uh...they're in the Hermitage. Also ghoulishly well-preserved people and horses dug up out of peat in the Russian anthropology section.

That night we went to a Georgian bar/restaurant, Kavkas, which was the scene of the Georgian vodka experience. Basically, we had Christmas Stew instead of Christmas Turkey, but it was quite tasty.

Have to go and prepare a guinea fowl for our houseguests now so more later. Since they've been here, the wireless connection has broken down and now the phoneline doesn't work. When they went to bed last night, Jules muttered: Dadster's only been in the house a matter of minutes and look at the damage!

King Kong: moving, beautiful but far too long

We went to see King Kong last night at the Vue Finchley Road. And the reviews are right - it is truly moving. A hero who will rip a Tyranosaurus Rex apart for you - what more could any girl want?

It's also about 40 minutes too long. There are only so many minutes of animated dinosaurs trampling people that I want to watch. And don't get me started on the giant wetas, which starred for a good ten minutes in their own right. An in-joke that only kiwis and animators will get is a wee bit self-indulgent.

But the centre of the story, the relationship between Kong and Ann Darrow, was perfect. Kong was definitely a sentient being, and all he wanted was a friend. Heartbreaking.

Other highlights of the week:

Monday's lunchtime run in the sun along the river

Tuesday night's birthday party at the Cinnamon Club, complete with ice sculpture

Lowlights:

The end of the series of Grey's Anatomy

Jules's continued ill-health (now much improved)

Hungarian Parliament at sunset

Parliament at sunset, originally uploaded by Racmol.

We had a fabulous time in Budapest. One of those holidays where you eat far too much, walk everywhere and sleep like a log.

I didn't expect it to be so beautiful and I certainly didn't expect a fine, clear Sunday. The weather forecast said light rain on Saturday and Sunday and heavy rain on Monday, so good weather was an unexpected joy.

We were pretty wrecked when we arrived late on Saturday morning. Jules had fallen asleep on the tube on the way home from work drinks the night before so we didn't get a great deal of sleep before the alarm went at 5 am. So we spent Saturday afternoon in the Gellert thermal baths - and unwound.

Culturally, the baths were very different to Western swimming pools. In the women's hot pools, the young slim women wore bikinis and the older, obese women nothing at all. And the lovely thing was - they weren't ashamed of their bulk. One woman thought nothing of raising her bottom in the air to massage it under the hot jets spurting out from one wall - a sight to behold and maybe one you only need to see once! Anyway, it was very relaxing.

We came out of the baths and had a very late lunch before visiting the Christmas market for a mulled wine. I collapsed on the bed and snored, and then we went out again for dinner. Which was also lovely.

Sunday was spectacularly sunny and we walked up Castle Hill, enjoying the view and wandering around on the top. We went in to the National Gallery for an hour or two, but it was really too nice a day so we spent most of it outdoors. The one mistake was not enough of a gap between lunch and dinner - when the mains arrived at dinner we just couldn't do justice to them. But that may have been the fault of the coffee and cake before lunch - the city is famous for its coffee houses, after all. (And we only visited two, in total!)

Monday brought the promised heavy rain so we visited St Stephen's basilica (complete with hand of St Stephen - urrgh!) and went shopping. And had some more cake - to pass the time, like.

And today we're back to the real world with a bump - Jules's contract is not being extended past 4 January. Still, that will give him time to play with our visitors, won't it? And master the art of the slow-cooked pheasant!

Cat-free Friday

Just a quick hello as I'm hard at work (at home).

Highlights of the past fortnight:

1. Being part of a live studio audience for a new BBC sitcom, 'Home Again', about a young couple living in her parents' spare room - two couples driving each other mad, to sum up briefly. It's by the makers of 'My Family', and the actors are just as good.

2. Going to see Franz Ferdinand at Alexandra Palace. Still not a die-hard fan but it was a fun night out.

3. Visiting the Christmas market at Canary Wharf. Jules has resolved to fill the freezer with ducks, pheasants and wild hares. Think he has been watching too much of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

And tomorrow, Budapest!

PS. If any of this is sounding as though our life is glamorous in any way, it isn't. We get up in the dark and come home in the dark and the washing machine is still threatening to destroy itself every time it spins. And we still don't have a cat.

PPS. Iona's cat Maggie did not have cancer, just some benign cysts.

Missing stand at Twickenham

missing stand at Twickenham, originally uploaded by Racmol.

See what I mean? It's just not there!

All Blacks on top at Twickenham

Yesterday was one of those magic days when everything goes swimmingly from the start. We went for a run early (with music) and it was sunny and crisp and there was frost on all the logs in the park...so pretty. Listening to J complain I thought: finally the massive investment in sports bras pays off - MY chest feels quite toasty, thanks!

Then we had a delicious breakfast at home with sun pouring into the kitchen and moseyed down to the train station. Stopped for a hot chocolate and got on the train to Richmond at 1.23. You would think this was plenty early enough for a 2.45 kick-off but we ended up running up flights and flights of stairs while some unknown woman sung the NZ national anthem. Got to our seats in time for the new haka though - not sure about it, to be honest. I knew the words to the old one - maybe that's the problem.

It was a little weird from where we were sitting, behind the goal line, because the opposite end of the ground was just not there. After the goal posts, there was dirt and bull-dozers and all the little matching houses of Twickenham. It's like someone stole a whole stand - or like in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, when Mr Wonka Sr. says 'If you go, I won't be here when you get back' and then there's just a gaping hole in the row of terraced houses.

Anyway, back to my point. The noise was incredible, the atmostphere electric. My throat hurts a bit today!

The actual game - well, we weren't too bad, I thought. The defense was pretty good, anyway. Would have liked to see someone streak down the field towards our end and score but other than that, can't complain. You do feel a bit smug when your team spent most of the second half with fourteen men and still won.

At full time I got a little, resigned text from Matt: come on then. I'm not very good at texting and walking down stairs at the same time so I was not nearly as cutting as I wanted to be in reply but it was still fun. And then he was silent. Ha!

Met up with D & J in the Costa coffee place at Waitrose (everywhere around the station was packed) and we sat there for an hour or so and then made our way to a pub called The Fox. Huddled in the courtyard outside under one of those outdoor heaters - weird to have cold feet and feel like your hair might catch fire!

Later we went to a little French restaurant - confit de canard et mousse au chocolat, ou peutetre une demi-mousse au chocolat, par le temps Jules a fini avec elle! I went to the bathroom and got back to discover that the half that was covered by my chocolate wafer was just a gaping hole! The cheek of it!

Afterwards, we took the train to Richmond and went to a different bar with disco lights and all the works but D was starting to fade, having just flown back from Oz this week so we only stayed briefly and were home around midnight.

All in all a good day and the luck of the All Blacks jersey continues. I've never worn it to a game that we've lost.

Now it's Sunday and I have a little task to do in Islington. The return of the second left boot!

Friday Cat Blogging

Get well, Maggie, originally uploaded by Racmol.

A special Get Well wish for Maggie, Iona's cat and housemate. Paws crossed.

St Petersburg boots

St Petersburg boots, originally uploaded by Racmol.

...or one of them. It turns out I only have one left foot so I'll be going back to Islington next weekend to return the second left boot! If only they'd let me buy the pair I tried on...

The one boot I have IS definitely waterproof and has a ridged sole for walking in the snow. Plus a funky pink stripe to match the turn-downs down the back.

Had a nice lazy day having lunch in Islington (disappointing overcooked NZ lamb roast) and doing a spot of shopping with Manz. A perfect sunny, crisp Sunday for once.

All Blacks v. Ireland

all blacks lineout 12.11.05, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Courtesy of Jules and his flash new phone, who seem to have enjoyed their 24 hours in Dublin. Luckily their seats were not in the burnt-out North stand!

Sundown at the Llanelli Wetlands Centre

sundown at the llanelli wetlands2, originally uploaded by Racmol.

See, we did have some nice weather in Wales. Apart from the complete lack of interesting wildlife and the scary birdwatchers camped out for the day with anoraks and binoculars on tripods, the Wetlands Centre was a nice spot for an afternoon walk. Followed by some hot refreshments :-D