ready for a break

i know christmas wasn't that long ago, but it seems like everything has been moving slightly slower than normal in the last two months. it's not that i haven't been busy. there has only been one weekend that i haven't been working or at school.

i think i'm pretty much recovered from the sinus cold now. i ended up taking thursday off as well and leaving a little early on friday. school was really, really good this weekend. i never really thought i would *enjoy* it so much and i probably won't be saying that when i have to write my dissertation.

so four more days of work - running a workshop saturday - and then i'm off to coventry for a week. i'm feeling quite guiltly for not having been down there since november, but i'll make up for it by painting the living room and getting davoud's house ready for viewings.

dripping

i've got a cold. it's a sinus cold so my eyes are watering, my nose is dripping and my head is aching. so, dear blog readers you're getting the brunt of my moaning because there is no one here to moan to! don't despair, i have lemons, oj, gingerale, sugar-free cherry halls, my quilt and some olbass oil to hand. there's a selection of dvd's on the shelf and a couple of books to get through so hopefully i won't get too bored.

there is this fabulous thing called the bbc iplayer that allows you to watch television without having a television. well, not all television just the select shows the bbc decides to upload. i just got through watching kd lang in session on bbc four with the orchestra and all playing at st. luke's church in london. she's pretty phenomenal live and i had the pleasure once in montreal, but this was just as good. i'm not sure that folk in canada can download it, but if you can it's worth watching. i love her cover of helpless, always makes me feel like going straight to the cottage.

do you remember that debacle more than a year again that i had with bt over my phone line? after all was said and done they owed me £50, but apparently weren't going to pay me back until a year of my contract had passed. i never really expected that to happen and was rather surprised yesterday when i opened my quarterly statement to discover that they had in fact credited my account. happy days.

when i used to be home sick as a kid, i remember watching television series like anne of green gables or pride and prejudice to pass the time. so anne may need to go on a bit later today, that's sure to stop the dripping.

recent snaps

the place davoud and i journeyed to earlier in january

davoud will give you all the details on these!

inside the victorian palm house in sefton park; where it's always guaranteed to be green

harriet in her *hen* gear

harriet keeping her sister and bridesmaid, emily, in control! too funny

hen nights

so tonight i'm going on my first official hen do aka a bachelorette party for those on the other side of the atlantic. stag and hen nights are a really big deal in the uk and i'd probably be looking forward to it a lot more if i wasn't working tomorrow.

unfortunately there won't be the usual 'L' plates, boas and balloons because the comedy club we're going to has a ban on all stag/hen nights. they can get really rowdy and even some hotels in the uk don't allow them. crazy i know, but that's how it goes. most people end up going to eastern europe for cheap beer.

i do have sunday and monday off this week before gearing up for the hectic half term holiday, so with any luck that will give me enough time to recover from the cold i've picked up. feels like spring here already, but i still wish i was back in all the snow in ontario.

oh yeah, the jackpot for the euro lottery is £97 million and all the staff at the lady lever - including myself - have put in a pound. so if we win the jackpot, i'll be home before you know it!

weekend round-up

it feels like i had a weekend, which is nice for a change. it didn't involve any work or school, but did involve indulgent things like haircuts, movies in the afternoon and big cafetiere's of coffee.

davoud and i met in manchester on thursday night to see one of my favourite canadian bands, stars, which was really great. i took friday off as i'd built up too many hours at work and they needed to be taken! i got to sleep in before heading into town for a haircut, movie and a mission to find peanut butter that was just peanuts. it's not exactly the bread spread of choice in these parts, but i was able to find one without dreaded palm oil in it.

friday night davoud, val and i went to dinner and a play, 3 sisters of hope street at the everyman theatre. it was good, but a little overacted and dramatic. davoud and i topped the night off at our favourite bar in liverpool. it's always quiet, classy and they make the best old fashioneds in town. i was getting a bit peckish by this point and even though the kitchen was closed they brought out some humus, guacamole and bread. god bless 'em.

it was actually sunny on saturday even though there were "severe weather warnings" in effect, so we walked to sudley house through sefton park. a lovely saturday constitutional. had some friends over for dinner on saturday and spent much of sunday lazing around the house.

and now back to work, 6 days on the trot, and next week's half term holiday to look forward to...