Wellie shopping

I thought it was time to remove the raindrops from my blog and put up a new spring background and picture. The weather has really started to improve. No rain over the weekend, just sunshine! I still can't really call it hot or even warm but I will call it mild instead of cold now. It is amazing what a bit of sunshine can do.

But we did still need wellies. Where we're staying with friends at the moment there is a lot of forest area and lovely walks to do. But up until now we had to stick to tarred roads as I didn't bring any appropriate shoes for mud. 

I discovered a website where you can order your wellies online. But there's no way I can buy shoes online without trying them on first (I don't know how you do it Simóne!) even if it is only wellies. So on Friday André and I went to the warehouse after they said it's okay for us to come by. Good thing too because I would have had to send back so many pairs and still wouldn't have had the right wellies by now. 

I must have tried on at least seven different pairs. Different sizes and different designs. I did feel rather bad for making the lady run around the warehouse finding what I wanted. Since it's not a shop there's nothing on display. We sat in the little office choosing what we liked off the website and then she goes off to fetch it. Then I either don't like the shade of pink or the type of flowers... And I have to try it in one size bigger or smaller just to be sure I've got the  right size. Eventually we walked out with four pairs of wellies: a pair each for Andre and I and then for our friends too. 

And here you can see what I mean by needing wellies to go for a walk over here... it really is muddy!

Did you know you can even get wellies with a wedge heel? I didn't! Check them out here.

Facebook friends, excuse the repeat of some pictures. I know some blog readers are not on facebook so I add a few fb pictures for those who has not seen them yet. If you're not my facebook friend yet and I know you, join me there to see the rest of our pictures.

A day out in London

Are you keeping up with my blog? I seem to be writing every day now! Lots of new things to write about.

Yesterday we had a day at home recovering from our very very long day out the day before. We left home at 10 in the morning and got home at 11 that night. But I must add that it takes an hour with the train to get to London from where we're staying and we don't plan to live much closer to the city at the moment. I will miss being able to go into town for a night out. In Switzerland it took us only 15 minutes with the train to Zürich and we didn't live in the city then either.

We were in the UK 18months ago for a few days holiday and Andre showed me some of the sights in London then. So this time I said, let's just walk and see what we see. I didn't want to have to search for places and follow maps. So we just walked. And walked. And walked.

We first went to meet a friend who we stayed with last time we were here. We had coffee together and chatted for a bit until he had to get back to work. Then Andre and I went to Hamleys, a huge toy store, since we were right there.

We wanted to have sushi for lunch and while searching for a sushi restaurant we happened to walk through China Town.

A little way from that we found a sushi restaurant that looked nice and shared a light lunch.

Then we headed to the German embassy. I have to go there next month to renew my passport so I wanted to make sure I know where to go. It was easy to find and right by Hyde Park. So afterwards we bought ice creams and strolled trough the park. It was my first time in Hyde Park and it was really beautiful. Especially since it was such a perfect sunny day. Even warm at times!

At this stage I was getting a bit tired and kept trying to head over to a bench for a rest. I even suggested sitting on the grass for a while, but Andre wanted to go take pictures here and there and everywhere and then remembered about a shop selling rollerblades so off we went again!

We didn't do any shopping. Andre just bought a TinTin book at this shop:

He has started a TinTin collection.

By this time it was home time for the working people in London and we decided not to get squashed on the trains and instead wait until after rush hour. I had to sit down so we decided to stay in town for dinner and go to Brick Lane for curry. Which meant a little bit more walking and a train ride.

Brick Lane is an area where I assume also many Indian people live. There you will find one curry house (restaurant) after another and they all have someone standing outside each door trying to get you inside by offering specials on meals or a free beer etc. It was impossible to pick one. We walked down the road for a bit and then just picked one randomly. The curry was great. You don't have to go to Brick Lane to get the best curry but it was an interesting experience. Here is a website with more info and a quote from this website:

Brick Lane is a street in the East End of London, site of a Sunday market, heart of the city's Bangladeshi community, former heart of the city's Jewish community, and before that, of its Huguenot community. The 'curry houses' of Brick Lane are known for their cheap and cheerful food, and for allowing customers to bring their own beer (often the curry house itself will not sell alcohol as most are run by Muslims).

The end of Easter weekend

I'm getting a lot of blogging done since we've moved to England. Same as when we just moved to Switzerland a year ago. See, I'm not working yet. I like not working. I really really do. I can be a housewife anytime. But I wont. I've got no reason (yet) to stay at home so I'll soon go out and make us some money. I'm just waiting to see where we will be living so I can try and hopefully get a job as close to home as possible. But since I'm not working yet I get to do a lot of blogging.

Yesterday we went to London and my feet still hurt from all the walking! But before I tell you all about that, here are some more Easter weekend photos.

We had relaxing times at home. Well at our friends' lovely home. The guys sneaked out a few times to inspect the garden...

See Andre hiding above?

We went for a walk in a nearby forest. It's a huge place and you can go cycling too. There were so many families out. A great place for kids to just go wild. They also have an interactive science centre. The lady at the reception desk explained that it's ideal for kids between 5 and 12 years old. As soon as we find a kid that age we're going too.

And then there's this for the older kids. Or the grown-ups who still like to be kids occasionally. It's called "Go Ape!" I think we'll be back for this. I will be following on the ground and taking the pictures. I have no desire to be that high up.

We came home and the guys cooked dinner. They made a roast with lots of veg AND Yorkshire pudding.

It was my first time having yorkshire pudding and I liked it. A lot!

Butcheries and Burford

On Saturday we visited two butcheries, the first one in a town which won this award a very long time ago. Before I was born!

Then we went to this one.

We'll definitely be back. It was a great shop. Vegetables, so many different kinds of meat like pigeon, rabbit and things like that. A huge turkey- dead. A stuffed fox- not for sale. And fresh seafood too.

After the food shopping our friends took us to Burford. It's a very pretty town. I'm not going to say much about it, you can see for yourself, although the pictures don't show nearly how pretty it really was.

We had lunch at this pub. Delicious.

The flowers outside the windows were so pretty. I think Andre was focusing on the mermaid here though! He took all the pictures on Saturday.

Easter weekend

Here's what we did on Friday:

We had lots of fun playing the game 30 Seconds.

We discovered that I need to brush up a bit (quite a bit) on my general knowledge.

Andre told me I need to subscribe to a news feed so I can read the news daily and know what's happening.

I will be doing that. Reading about local and international news. Then try playing this game with me in a few months time!

Last night we also played cards and I was reminded that I'm not much good at that either. Two years ago we played this card game and for some reason that no one can remember anymore I was labeled a cheater at games. I can't remember any cheating. If I do I'm not much good at that either since I'm still losing! In this other game the loser was the donkey.

I was the donkey for many rounds.

The donkey has to do all the work like deal and get drinks and whatever else.

And of course the winner of the round gets to be the queen (or king) and wear the crown. And boss the donkey around. And sit in the best seat. And gets the best cards. Know that game? It's fun. It's not the one we played last night though.

Anyway, back to the Easter weekend. We took a lovely drive yesterday and visited the cutest little town. I like cute, old little towns. Very pretty. But I'll tell you about that next time. Too many photos for one post.

Geocaching

Andre and I went on another geocache walk yesterday. It's a good way to get outdoors and get some exercise and fresh air. And a way of discovering new places you wouldn't normally go to. If you haven't heard of geocaching before you can click here to go to the website. Here is an explanation from the website: 


"Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online."


So it's kind of like an Easter egg hunt! Or a treasure hunt. Minus the easter eggs and with not much of a treasure. There's usually some things in and you can take something if you want, but then you must replace it with something of equal value.


It took a little time finding the container, and Andre was the one who finally found it. I was not really in the mood for poking around in the leaves. I was also not happy about the mud we had to walk through. But I guess mud will now be a part of my life. I must go find some stylish wellies soon. 

There was even a travel bug inside, but we didn't take it this time. Travel bugs want to travel so if you take it you have to go find another cache somewhere to go and put it in. They can travel all over the world. Here's the one we found. Quite a mean looking one. He looks dangerous. Maybe that's why we decided not to bring him with us. 

Happy Easter everybody!
xx

Earth Hour 2010

We switched the power off for Earth Hour again this year and had some fun making this video. Make sure you have your sound on when you watch this one. And if for some reason it won't play here, you can go see it on vimeo along with my other videos by clicking here.


Earth Hour 2010 from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.