Off to Sweden for a couple of days
Keep us posted in case anything exciting happens while we're away.

Long, boring, another rambling entry
Mood:  loud
Topic: Stephen Says
Hi folks, Stephen here. Long time no see. Haven’t been doing much, you know. Alotta work, I guess. What’s that you say? Work? Weeeeeelllll….

I’ve been meaning to tell y’all about Thorpe Park. It was a fun day out for some of the younger residents and out reach clients that we have over at Snowdon. Man, I don’t know where to start. Thorpe Park is one of those rare U.S./U.K. hybrids that actually work amazingly well! There’s very few big rides at the park, but holy moley, they’re hard core! Look, I’m not theme park wimp, but some of these suckers had me making hot fudge in my pantaloons. And unlike American theme parks, everything was grassy, over-grown and you didn’t so much mind the line ups because you’re standing next to a pond with little quack-quacks swimming around and oh! Look over there! Someone’s put an old ’57 Chevy in the middle of the lake!

Yup, work, work, work. Yobbo got arrested the other day – it looks like he finally snapped. He hit his girl friend, made his child cry and smashed something really big and loud. So the police came and took him away. An ambulance came and made sure that his girl was okay. And boy, does their five year old have a pair of lungs! He can scream ‘fuck off!’ at his mommy AND daddy just like his mommy and daddy.

So the Grange development is kinda quiet now. Well, except for the guy who lives below us. He smokes drugs and plays his loud ‘hippity hop’ music all the time. But I don’t really mind. ‘Ghost Face Killer’ is numero uno in my books!

Well, we’re off to Sweden this weekend. Boy, I bet that will be a lot of fun! Discovering new cultures and new civilizations can be fun. Even if they are a little backward. Thank goodness that there are lots of good Christian missionaries around to make us all see how happy we can be. I’m happy. Are you happy???

Boy, I’ve got nothin’ to say and I can’t keep up this happy crappy persona much longer! Things are good with me, blah, blah, blah and I’m ? way through the new Harry Potter which is really what counts. Oh, and work rocks. I got to talk to the mayor of Woking today. Politicians and professors at Royal Holloway are a lot alike – pompous prick who expect for you to agree with every piece of rhetoric that comes from their mouth, no matter how idiotic or wrong it is.

Anyway, the point of this blog is that I wanted to put up a blog at last and I’m not good at re-capping things so much as dealing with things as they come.

Dinner tonight was brought to you by triple pepper, double cheese, mushroom pita pizzas (with red wine & shallot sauce) and an Australian shiraz. Oh, and the sign that you’re blog has reached the end of its pointless rambling?

You’re blogging about the wine.

Maybe Tuesday, Maybe Not
Mood:  lyrical
Now Playing: Nothing, as usual
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
There is no point to me blogging today, as I can't think of anything to say. This is probably why most blogs are REALLY boring, because people start talking about how their cat did something really cute, or how they overheard a conversation on a bus, or wouldn't it be great to be Hermione in Harry Potter.

I put too much sauce on my spaghetti. There was a huge swan standing on the canal bank. Our secretary was burnt out today (after less than a month on the job) so I bought her a chocolate ginger bread man. Stephen remembered to take out the garbage when he left for work (before me) this morning. Stephen is still working, and it 20:52. Avocado and tomotao taste wonderful together. Pear shaped women are scientifically healthier than stick-thin rails of women. It's true. Japan isn't all that different from England. There's rain on the horizon. We have no pets. I do not like being a personal assistant. I would never want a personal assistant. There is never enough time to relax, or make good music. I think I'm a better cook than I am. I said I can type 80 words per minute with 88% accuracy on my CV. I think this is a lie. It is really windy. Stephen is half way through Harry Potter. Hair is not about the cut, it's about the style. Italians always speak in Italian. I've got an email! Gotta go.

Ciao.

The Verdict
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
Why is incredulous a mood?

Ok, so we decided to split the stuffed vegetables two last night: onions & mushrooms a and have courgettes & peppers tonight.

The verdict on last night came as clear as a fog horn in the night. Yup, baking an onion and eating it doesn't seem to please our colons.

And the mushroom recipe that I used was pretty bland. It was only parsley, breadcrums, olive oil, and garlic. It really need cheese or the zing of lemon juice, you know, something!

Anyway, tonight's menu should be more palatable.

Stephen's off at work again having his Sunday roast/barbeque.

Nothing else is happening...but we are starting to prepare for our Swedish excursion next weekend to visit my parents. Yay another trip!

Have a relaxing day y'all!

Lame and Lamer
Mood:  spacey
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
It's a Lame and Lamer Friday here in 31 Dorchester Court. Stephen is sleeping over at work tonight, so what do I do as soon as I've eaten dinner? Embark upon a 3 hour cleaning session, leaving the kitchen & bathroom scrubbed, de-moulded, de-crusted, the carpets up and downstairs vacuumed, and 2 loads of laundry completed.

I thought I would get everything out of the way tonight so I can enjoy the rest of the weekend. Plus it would keep me up until mid-night so I can get the new Harry Potter book. But alas, I am so lame, that cleaning has made me too tired to bother.

I'll just get it tomorrow since Stephen pre-ordered the book months ago.

Not much else to say...I'm planning the week's menu to prepare for the shoppoing tomorrow. I've decided on a theme for Sat. dinner: Stuff It.

This is nothing dirty or lewd, but rather a combination-platter of :

Stuffed Peppers
Stuffed Mushrooms
Stuffed Zucchini (Courgettes in the UK, ok)
Stuffed Red Onions

Does anyone know another other stuffed recipes? Any ideas for a dessert within this theme? Even if you think of something well after tomorrow night, it's alway good to know for future.

Ok culinary wizards or otherwise, I'm pooped.

G'night.

You say it's your Birthday?
Mood:  amorous
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
Today has been absolutely lovely! It started last night when Stephen finally came home after a 24 hour shift...see blog below...and we had a relaxing lie-in this morning. Stephen brought all the cards & presents up to the bed, and I opened the cards, and 2 DVDS (Belleville Rendez-vous, Goldmember), 3 books (The Xenophobe's Guide to America; Carol Ann Duffy's Anthology: Out of Fashion; & Alexander McCalls: The Sunday Philosophy Club). I also received some lotion stuff from Jane my co-worker, and who for the 2nd year in a row supplied us with a Thorntons cake of which most was eaten for breakfast.

Instead of a card, Stephen gave me a completed Risk Assessment Form. Some highlights include: "Risk to Self: Will take risks while riding a bicycle. Has led to several minor injuries in the past" and "History of Hostage Taking: Forced husband into unholy matrimony"...and so it goes on and on....absolutely uplifting.

I also ordered a bra & skivvies from figleaves.com, which arrived right on time this morning...a little birthday present to myself.

So Stephen having a day off (coincidently) and myself having taken leave for the day, we set out to Shere, Surrey voted "The Best Village" many times. No Internet sight or description will do this little quintessentially English village justice. It is tiny, but filled with listed houses, some dating back to the 1500s, and previous. One of the these such buildings is an independent pub, where we enjoyed a brew & some real pub food (ie. not pre-made somewhere else, and reheated...Stephen was even served an apple with his ploughman's lunch.)

From the pub we wandered up to the church (dating as far back as the 1300s I believe), and behind the church cemetery was the trickling stream of the Tillingbourne:

There's the birthday girl, clearly enjoying the day..

Following our stroll, I dragged Stephen into a boutique where I bought a nice pair of earings. Then we went for another stroll past vegetable gardens, scarecrows, a ford, and lots of old houses. Hot and tired, we went to the Lucky Duck to enjoy some refreshing tea, coffee, cake & scones. We really felt transported back to 1970s England (because we were there yo...). Afterwards we decided we were too sober to go home, and stopped at a pub by the trainstation for a quick tipple before waiting at the station for 40 min. for the next train...they run once an hour out of this village station. To give you an idea of how remote this station is: There are no electronic signs displaying the train schedule. There are 2 platforms, but not across from each other. Where one platform ends on one side of the track the other begins for the opposite direction. And how does one get from one side to the other? An overpass? Underpass? No, you have to read a warning sign before opening the gate cross through the middle of the tracks. Dangerous much after a quick drink?

But we made it home eventually. Stephen got a frozen pizza for dinner, I got a yummy prawn & cashew takeaway at So's Kitchen.

While the sun set, I was struck by a bird on a wire (or antennae):

And now it is almost time to go to bed...but there's still some cake left...

Best wishes to all!

E

This title is optional
Now Playing: The News
Topic: Stephen Says
As life goes back to normal over here, contrary to what is being reported overseas, I'm gearing up for a busy couple of days (Working this evening, doing a sleep in, doing an hour tomorrow before taking off to Basingstoke all day for training & then going to Camberley to play D&D [nerd] before returning to Woking to kiss my wife, who will already be asleep in bed, goodnight sometime tomorrow night around midnight) and Elisabeth has recovered from the mental scarring from her recent biking accidents to pick up Kelly II again and ride the canals, We're perparing for Elisabeth's birthday on Wednesday. Details are still sketchy.

Also on Wednesday are my grad ceremonies that I was sent no information about (No, that's not true - I was invited & registered and THEN they stopped sending me info. Royal Holloway: Serving a big plate of suck for over 100 years!). Anyway, petty griping aside, Congratulations to all my fellow grads - y'all stuck it out! Have fun Piccolo's & watch out who you snog with.

No real news, otherwise. We spent the weekend being lazy and buying a stereo so that we can now properly listen to all of Tim's CD's without any (superfluous) feedback and bizarre stopping & starting and skipping of tracks. It's damn hot out here and I'm very happy that I work in an environment where shorts are allowed and water fights are a daily occurence.

In conclusion, who is that sexy guy???

London bombing blogging II
Now Playing: Primus
Topic: Stephen Says
Man, I'm lazy.
It's 2 pm & all I(we)'ve managed to do is eat breakfast and talk about how we should go out & buy a CD player & maybe some food for dinner. I'm also too lazy to comment, in my own words, on the other day. But that's ok - I've found someone who pretty much sums up exactly my opinion of things. So click here, please.
Righty-ho, I've got to get a move on.

London Bombing blogging
Now Playing: Maceo & All the King's Men - Funky Women
Topic: Stephen Says
I'm trying real hard, now that I'm home & have read how the American press has reported the bombings in London (Granted, I get all my news from those dirty Left-Wingers so I might be a little biased), not to comment until things unfold. Instead I'll leave it up to George Galloway who, even though he's off his rocker, makes a helluva lot more sense than Chimpy.

Anywho, E&I have our first weekend off together for 3 weeks. We're detoxing. Sort of. She's gone to the pub & I'm drinking cider and I think we're still rough from this past Wednesday. Mark & Jenn? I think I've found a group of people who can party even harder than you. They're wackyer, anyway. I was thrice almost kicked out of the karaoke pub and I only remember two of the warnings.

And howzabout that? I used 'thrice' in a sentence. Bully for me!

Joking Aside,
Topic: Stephen Says
I was supposed to go into London for some training this morning and am quite happy that I chose instead to get pissed, sing karaoke & eat curry last night, which negated my ability to get my act together enough this morning to get up in time.