Highlights of Krystyne's Trip to England

From Valentine’s Day until that Friday after Valentine’s day Ben and Chris took Krystyne ‘hooning’, or driving around like they were filming The Fast and the Furious in Cardiff, Wales. It wasn’t until late Friday night that we got to see them again.

From Friday until Tuesday our small flat was a crowded hostel of friends: Chris, Ben, and Krystyne. It’s a good thing we got the queen size air bed.

Friday 17th: Night Out #1


We went out drinking, then got a take-away (“take-out”) meal from one of our local shops called Pan Pizza, which is where the last photo was taken.

Saturday 18th: We ended up going over to Alice’s and raiding her refrigerator and making ourselves a MASSIVE full English Breakfast, then spent the day wandering around Gloucester(including to the Cathedral where part of Harry Potter was filmed) until Robert had to go to work at 6pm.

While Rob was at work Chris, Krystyne, Ben and I went Geocaching. ((Geocaching is a phenomenon that’s been going on for years and I had NO idea it existed until Krystyne introduced us to it. Basically, using a website that catalogues all geocaches and a mobile GPS device you locate ‘hidden treasures’ that have been hidden all over the world. SO COOL. Look it up))



After Geocaching, we stopped in at the Kings Head for a pint and to visit Rob while he was working.



Sunday 19th: Rob had to get up early to go to work, but the gang slept in and then we went shopping for EPIC MEAL TIME. Sunday was Chris’s 22nd Birthday and he wanted a cake shaped like an engine. So we shopped for things that could build an edible engine and put it together.
Engine Cake Baked and Constructed.


Frosted.


The Car Guys figuring out ‘what goes where’ on the engine cake.


The Finished Product…The Engine Cake, which looks more like a face than anything else. :P


The NORTON V6 Engine.


The Magic Engine Cake Oil….Maple Syrup.

Besides the EPIC BIRTHDAY ENGINE CAKE…we went out to the pubs, yet again for Chris’ Birthday.



(Cue "How I Met Your Mother" Theme Song)



Monday 20th: Ben had to take Chris back to University(Cardiff), then turned right back around and came back to Ross to hang out some more.

I had MEGA errands to run and the house to clean up after having 5 people living in a 1-2person flat for 3 days, and the hubby was yet again at work, so I convinced Ben to take Krystyne to her first Castle. She ended up liking it, even though she swears she hates Castles. LOL Then we watched a show called Skins and went to sleep. The End.

Tuesday 21st: Robert was yet again had to get up early to go to work. Ben headed home midday, after I cooked him a bacon sandwich. Then Krystyne and I watched the Pancake Races on the Ross high street because it’s PANCAKE TUESDAY! People over here celebrate Pancake Tuesday, the Tuesday that Lent starts. Go figure. Anyway!




Then when Robert came home, we went to Alice’s and I made pancakes for dinner…which was strange for the Vidlers because they only have Pancakes as a breakfast or dessert. They’ve never done Breakfast for dinner and it was an odd thing for me and Krystyne to witness.

Wednesday 22nd: We went to Hereford and browsed around the market as well as Rob and I picking up last minute supplies for our Paris trip. AT the Market we saw an American Food stall that has imported goods from American that we don’t have over here including Specialty M&Ms, Lucky Charms, and Root Beer.


Then we went to Café Moka for lunch, browsed some more, found another Geocach on our way back to town before Rob had to go into work in the evening.

Thursday 23rd: Robert worked. Krystyne and I wandered around town. I got my hair cut in anticipation of my birthday. It's SOOOOOO nice to have it "California Short" again.


Then the whole Vidler clan (plus Taub) had a meal at the Kings Head. Even father-in-law James sat down and ate with us…and basically told me his life story/job history, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I love when he puts the business part aside and talks candidly about his life; helps me get to know my father in law more.


Friday 24th: Yesterday was my birthday, so in California fashion….we went for Sushi. I wanted sushi and the only decent place was in Birmingham which is about an hour and a half drive. It was sooooooo worth it. Along for the ride were Robert, Krystyne, Ben and Chris (who has now been converted to loving the sushi bar).



Then we came back to Ross on Wye and had a traditional Birthday Pub Crawl, with the 5 of us, followed by a few other friends.


And as of 4am this morning, Chris and Ben took Krystyne to Heathrow. It’s been a crazy few weeks, but we’re on for our next adventure….Disneyland Paris. Bring it on.

Valentine's Day

First bit of news is TAUB is here! My friend Krystyne Taub is in the UK visiting me and the hubby. Before coming to us, she spent 2 days in London with some friends…who, on Sunday night, got her absolutely wasted before putting her on the 2 hour train ride to us. Not the smartest idea, but she had fun.

Monday was our first day with her. Robert was at work, so I took her around the town. We stopped off at the Kings head so she could use the Wi-fi to upload all her pictures from her 2 day stay in London (she had maxed out her 8GB memory card and then some…on her iphone, maxing out that card as well). While we were at the Kings Head we had some cream teas and a sandwich, then we were on our way. We spent MOST of the day sleeping, then at the Kings head, so wandering around town happened after all the shops had closed. Then that night for dinner, we went over to Alice’s to have Lasagna….it was the first time since Christmas that every sat down for dinner at the same time. AMAZING.


Tuesday we made another start at wandering town and actually succeeded. I took her all over the place, including to the grocery store for the week’s food shopping, and down by the river to feed the ducks.

I even showed Krystyne the 'all in one' sink in the bathrooms at the grocery store. It's soap, water and blow dry ALL IN ONE!

Then she helped get me beautiful for an evening in with my husband by painting my nails red to match my dress.

…and then she got kidnapped by Russell, so the couple can have some ‘alone time’ for Valentine’s day.

Robert and I decided not to go out and have dinner(like most couples do out here—every night is an excuse to go out and have a good local pub/restaurant meal ESPECAILLY VALENTINE’S night). Instead we decided to stay in.

I surprised him by cooking Spicy Chorizo Sausages and vegetable rice…

…and then he added an English mustard sauce to go with it.

But his main contribution was appetizers: olives and crouton bread, a little red wine,

…Malts for dessert,

And to finish off, popcorn and a movie (X-Men First Class--something we both REALLY wanted to see, and REALLY enjoied--) to finish off our evening.

Lots of cuddling and lovey doveiness pursued. But all in all a very successful, action packed, well fed, romantic, and low budget evening.

Part one: pictures, part 2: life

It’s been about 2 weeks and I feel like talking. So for those of you wanting a short, fun, picture filled blog…..well, I’ll talk about that first, but then, I want to share with you guys(for those who want to know or will read it) some thoughts, goals and ambitions that have been on my mind lately.

TO THE FUN BLOG!:
Over the past 12ish days since my last blog James and I have embarked on a number of daily adventures.


1) Vowing to stick to our newly capped budget (Let’s call that a new year’s resolution) so that when the time comes we can do things we want to do…like go to Paris-and afford it-for my birthday.

2) Two Sundays ago, the 15th, James and I had a day off together…but we ended up babysitting Tony (while mum was at the hotel working). We took him to the park

We took him down by the river to see the ducks and swans...

And I played around with my camera....alot.

3) We’ve stuck to our other New Years Resolution of going to Wye Leisure(our gym/spa) at least 2 times a week. We’re on by the skin of our teeth on that one, but some exercise is better than no exercise. Unfortunately yesterday, and today (and probably tomorrow too) we’re unable to go to the gym because they’re doing maintenance on it…so by the end of this week we will probably go twice in a row to make up for the fact that it’s been closed.

4) This last Sunday, I was woken up yet again by the pitter patter of Tony feet. Mum was working at the hotel again, so she brought tony into town and had him dropped off at the flat for me to look after him. So I took him to the park again.

Hanging out with Tony is alright and I don’t mind it so much, but it’s the fact that it’s sprung on me, on my day off, when I’m unprepared for it, and NO ONE ASKS me if it’s alright that I look after Tony. It’s just assumed. And you know what they say about the word assume…it makes an ass- out of –u- and –me-.


That’s all for the fun picture blog. Serious life changing blog/Jenny rant blog is up next:

RANT!
I’ve been thinking a lot about life, rent, how to get by, what I want to make of my life, etc, etc, etc. Since our recent spending spree over Christmas, James and I have been thinking of new ways to ‘cut the budget’ so we can afford our Paris trip which is half paid for, as well as affording rent and such.

So far, our rent gets taken out at the end of every month and we’ve paid our property tax(called council tax over here) up until march. That’s standard. But we have yet to see an electric/gas bill in the FOUR MONTHS we’ve been here. We’ve talked to the company we switched to and they said they’d take care of telling the current company that they’re now in charge of our property gas/electrics. Well, we haven’t seen a bill, new or old and we still have power so, I’m not complaining. It just puts us a little on edge that no one’s contacted us to read the meter(cause it’s inside our gated complex), and if and when we DO get a bill we have NO clue how high it will be.

Our other, more ongoing problem is that we spend way too much on food when we could be cutting back to save money. Food is standard, but when you’re poor you can’t afford to be eating like you live in a hotel. James has been brought up with ‘fancy food tastes’ as I call it. He can’t just have simple mac and cheese, so we buy things that jazzes up pasta to his taste. It’s good, but we’ve spending money we can’t afford to garnish our food. And when we ‘run out of food’ the excuse it always, “it’s okay. I have some tips from tonight”. Tips and wages alike, I think all money earned should be put to good use. So…that way of thinking worries me.

Thinking about money in the long and the short run: Short run is, can we afford our living? Rent, bills, etc? And the long run is a lot more ‘what if’. What if we can’t save enough money for our future? James’ plan in life is to open his own restaurant/hotel/etc once his father either fires him or sells the hotel. If we don’t have any money saved up, and something suddenly happens that lands him out of a job, how can we afford to start our own place(oh yeah, his dream involves me working with him). I know there are certain securities to working with your father…father owns business, you have job for as long as that stays the status quo. But if he sells the business to retire, suddenly, your secure job is poof! It makes me worry.

And then there’s other future plans: Travels, babies, buying a house, pets, and career plans.

1) James and I have plans to travel all over the place, including back to America for my last brother’s wedding(whenever it may be) and to visit my parents, ESPECIALLY when it’s their time to leave us(whenever that may be). But with all these places we want to go (some of which include France, Italy, Germany), how are we ever going to afford to go to them if we can’t save money properly? Our forever fluxing bank account tells us that as soon as we put money in, more money gets taken out for our expenses. So, to me that means we need to cut back on things to save money, or make more money.

2) Babies. Don’t worry, there’s none yet. But when we do have kids, that’s another expense that is going to be difficult for us. Babies are needy and money hoggers. As soon as I can’t work and have to take care of a child, our bank account will decrease rapidly to negative intervals, unless we have money saved aside. Again, this tells me that before we think about having kids, we need to change our spending patterns and save.

3) Buying a home. A standard. But James is very specific in what he wants our dream home to be, which I’m fine with. It’s just financially, it’s the more expensive option. We want a little country house with fields around us and a nice garden. Whether we get a house like this in future years is completely up to our financial stability.

4) Pets. James is forever a dog person so we have leveled with each other and decided that later in our middle age when we’ve got a house with a garden, we’ll buy(because no one will ever GIVE you a dog here…you have to BUY dogs) a Malamute Husky puppy…which will set us back a few hundred pounds. Dogs are expensive.

5) Career.

I’ve thought a lot about what I want to do for a career. Something that would actually make us more money than me working part time, minimum wage and barely getting by. I’ve thought about being a school teacher(I’ve been told, you can get a teaching degree over here by 2 years of schooling and interning simultaneously). I’ve also thought about being some sort of RN, in a hospital, or a mental institution because there are LOADS of jobs going for Nurses in the Herefordshire County. I’ve also thought about going back to Psychology, but I don’t know how successful that would be over here. It seems like there’s more therapy jobs in demand for all the Yuppy, over-reacting Americans than there is a need for them here.

All of these jobs though, take money. Money to go back to school and study. And I don’t know if I can handle going to school, spending money to GO to school, and not working all that I can so that we stay afloat. But at the same time, I want James and I to have our best chance at a good life and for that to happen we need a more stable income than me being paid the same amount in a month, that I could earn in a week at six flags.

In a way, I kind of want to take a chance on my artistic side and see if I can start my own business. Like writing. Has Nanowrimo prepared me to take the next step to revising and trying to publish books? Or, alternatively, I’ve recently thought about learning to use my camera better, so that I can take pictures and sell canvas photos. Ya know, take artsy photos and then have them printed on canvases to sell to the public. But I don’t know if I could actually pull it off to make a bit of quick dosh(cash).

If any of my friends/family are reading this and have an opinion of it, please share.

News, if you can call it that

I've been bugged by a few people about when I'm blogging next. I try not to blog unless there's something important or big happening, but here are this month's highlights so far...the little stuff:

1. James and I working more hours because people are sick/unable to come in/let go/etc. Us working more = More money

2. We spent way too much on Christmas and James' birthday London trip so we're trying to bump up our bank account. SO far, it's looking pretty good because we're not spending money too much and we're being penny pinchers until my birthday in February. ALong with living expenses, we have my birthday, my friend from America--Krystyne--coming over, and a belated birthday trip to Paris ALL in february to come. So, money is essential. For living, and for saving up for my birthday.

3. Since December, James and I have been going to the Gym, Wye Leisure. It's a very nice facility (hopefully pictures will come soon so I can show you how posh, nice, it is). We've been there at least once a week, even when our schedules are crazy(except for Christmas...because we were Christmasing and then Londoning). Last week we managed to go twice, which is good and this week we aim on going 3 times (once already, hopefully again tonight, then Saturday as well).

These machines kick your bum. When you sign up they put you on a "program", basically what they know you can achieve on each machine based on a physical assessment they do at the start.

Coolest part about this Gym is that all the machines are on a key tog system. You insert the key into the tredmill or the abdductor machine and it programs the machine to set itself to the specifications set in your program. You CAN change it on the machine...for instance, if lifting 30kg is too light, you can change it to 35kg or whatever, but when you "Check out" at the end of your gym session on this little kiosk at the door, it will tell you which exercises you haven't completed, or which ones you've done more training than your program expects you to do. It's really cool. And it's hard. I struggle, but it's because I'm out of shape.

4. I FINALLY got the right SD card for my camera. So, I've been taking pictures ALOT and messing around with my cool new Samsung Multiview camera. There's some really odd, but really cool things it can do.

My husband's head on a graffiti wall and on the cover of a newspaper, courtesy of the "Magic Frame" feature.

Again, my husband, the subject of every shot practically. This time messing around with level, brightness, and contrast.

A week or so ago we went up to Mum's house and took the dogs for a walk through the fields. I brought my camera to mess around with some scenic photography...and got some of my husband and the dogs too.

This is one of the 'vintage' effects, making it look like an old timey photo with the center somewhat faded and the corners of the picture dark.

Classic black and white. COOOOOOOL tree picture. I fell in love with this shot when I took it.

Vintage, faded picture again, this time of some trees and a duck pond with loads of ducks.

And I'm not sure if these will come out full view, but these are some panoramic shots my camera took from the top of the hill. Look at all that beautiful countryside.

Those are the highlights for now, for those of you who want to keep up on all the latest news.

Hopefully I'll write again soon,

Jenny V