It's California Weather! Are you sure it's March?

For the past few weeks the weather has been outstanding, considering it has been March. We’ve had mostly full sunny days, and some that were even warm, which is NOT common in England for the end of March.

Last Sunday, The Kings Head Hotel had a BBQ to raise money. A few of the staff members are doing an event in June called The Three Peak’s Challenge, where they will climb 3 proper big mountains (one in Scotland, one in England, and one in Wales) within 24 hours…that includes driving time(to give you an idea, it’s probably 5-6 hours to get to Scotland from wales, so it’s quite a bit of driving time in between as well). To qualify, the team has to raise enough money(I think it’s like 2000 for the team) for the entrance fee…all of which goes to charity in the end.

I helped out, and was the ‘ticket taker/cash handler’ for the 3ish hours…which I enjoyed. I like handling money, even if it’s not mine. I just like counting it all up. Does this come from being an accountant’s daughter?

It was a good turn out (about 50-70 people in just the restaurant and back padio, which is quite small compared to what’s normal for a fundraiser function room in California) and The Kings Head raised quite a bit of money.


Loads of merchants donated food and drink to the Kings Head, so that was nice, and made the initial cost less. And The food was good…nothing like a BBQ at home, but it was nice. I will say that hot English mustard is the best thing ever on Hamburgers…it may seem insignificant, but it really gives a spicy taste the burger that’s really good.

Harry cooked the food.


Rob and I helped set up, and he helped bartend.


A load of other waitresses helped serve behind the bar and set up as well. There was even a live one-man band.


He was a good performer…seemed like the kind of act that would sing at weddings because he was asking for requests and knew a range of songs….even some country(did Sweet Home Alabama, and another country song I have no idea what it was…but I was in a country mood that day so it suited me).

I’ve been diving deeper into the country waters as well. Ever since I watched the latest season of America’s The Voice….and saw RayLynn perform “Hell on Heels” I can’t get it out of my head. I’ve listened to that, a few Blake Shelton songs, and some other random songs from country artists. I like SOME country songs, but they really have to have fire and attitude behind them(Like Hell on Heels, or “Kiss my Country #&$” by Blake Shelton), or just be really off beat in some way(like “Safe & Sound” from the hunger games soundtrack…it’s sad, but it’s really heartfelt and has a creepy melody).
I HATE the normal country songs that tell a story and talk about the pickup truck, the drinking, the dog, the southern way of life ….and I hate the sad sappy sort of stories about people dying(like Jesus Take the Wheel). SOME country I like, though. And we’ll keep it at that.


My diet has been going well. I’ve been watching what I eat, counting my calories & logging it daily on a website Kaiti gave me, and exercising every day, even if it’s just my 10min Pilates in the morning. I’ve been doing this for 10days and I’ve lost 4.5 pounds already. YAY ME! My goal is to lose AT LEAST 15 in total. No particular date, I just want to lose it as fast as I can so I can fit into my jeans again!

Since it’s been nice out, Robert and I have been going walking after we get off work, or on our days off. The seasons are definitely changing for us. The scenery is getting brighter and greener. SO of course, I get my camera out at every possible chance and take pictures.



And Spring is defiantly coming early for us because new life is being born already. One walk we went on was just through the fields in a nearby town and we saw a herd of cattle with baby coooows!


This is a Hereford Bull...biggest Bull you'll find in the UK. It's Massive. It's head alone is about the size of a large 'hand ball'(you know the big bouncy red ones you used to play with on the school playground? about 2-3x the size of a basketball...).


Some bulls playing in the mud at the end of the feild.

The walk that we went on yesterday was interesting. It was in the Forest of Dean, a place called Cannop Ponds(which the scenery around there reminded me alot of Arrowhead). It’s basically a group of manmade ponds that were once used to supply power to the coal miner’s equipment. Now they’re just a group of ponds in the forest with picnic tables and a place where people can come to walk, and just soak up the sun.






(Swans, building some sort of nest together)




Weirdest Duck I've ever scene. Looks like a Pidgeotto from Pokemon.

MARCH MADNESS!

It occurred to me that I haven’t posted a blog this month, so this is going to be a hodge-podge of everything that’s been happening lately (kind of like all my other blogs, really).

First of all….’Dear reader’s I’m afraid I’ve been baking. A dangerous pastime (I know).’ …… If you caught the song parody, I give you ten points. If not, well there’s still more blog:
My first experiment in Baking was to see if I could potentially, successfully have a baking business on the side…..bake cookies, cupcakes, etc and sell them in a market stall. So, I baked a batch of sugar cookies and a batch of chocolate chip cookies just so I could see what one batch of my ingredients could make me….and therefore, how much I could potentially sell off at X amount to make X amount of profit, less the cost of supplies. I’ve found out I COULD make a profit, but will I do it? …That’s an undecided venture at the moment.

In any case, the cookies I baked went to work, because the girls claim they love my baking treats:


The second baking venture came from making my now 8-year-old brother in law his birthday cake. He had a special request and I did my best to fulfill it…..a Patrick Star(from the cartoon Spongebob Squarepants) cake:




As an added bonus…..I made him SpongeBob rice krispie treats, but those didn’t turn out as great as I had hoped:






After all this baking(and tons of consuming it) combined with the fact that the hubby and I haven’t been to the gym as much as I would’ve liked this year(2 weeks because a friend was visiting, 1 week out of sheer laziness, 1 week out of being too busy to go, 1 week out of transportation issues, and this last weekend because the gym was closed)….I have decided that I need to majorly get back into shape.

Ever since I’ve moved here, I’ve been WAY unhappy with my weight….because most of my clothes won’t fit me. I’ve noticed either my movement becoming restricted because my clothes are too tight, or worse….my clothes not being able to fit at all.

I know I’m still a skinny girl, but the fact that I brought over 6 pairs of jeans and only 2 of them fit(and fit TIGHT, to the point where it’s hard to breath while wearing them) is a little discouraging.
Last night I was comparing old photos of myself to how I look now. I took a screen cap of a head shot and a body shot every year from 2009 to present to compare the chubbiness in my face and my overall figure. It became clear that, although I looked fit and healthy in 2009 AND 2010, (as opposed to 2011 and this year where I keep getting chubbier as months go on), I liked my appearance FAR better in 2010.

From then, it became a puzzle as to why 2010 was my best year. What was I doing differently in regards to my health in 2010 that I wasn’t doing these past 2 years. It became clear to me that in 2009 and 2010…I took Pilates classes at my college. Also, in 2010, I had started an experiment with my eating habits(I limited my eating and stuck to dishing out ‘portions’ for myself to make sure I got a healthy amount of all the food groups per day), which I didn’t keep up with for long, for whatever reason(probably sheer laziness).

In any case, this brings me to my action plan:

1. Go to the gym as much as possible(which doesn’t always happen because by the time hubby and I get home, cook dinner, eat dinner, and drive to fownhope(where the gym is), it’s far too late for us to do our full workout before the gym closes. Either that or we need to go to mum’s after work to do laundry….)


2. When we can’t Gym-it, walk-it. Today I took a walk all over town, from 11am until 2pm. Up hill, down hill, flat ground, by the river, …everywhere. And I feel better already.


3. Take up pilates again. It’s hard to take up something I haven’t done in a while…especially something that needs motivation like working out. I have the equipment(the mat, exercise ball, etc), I just never use it. TIME TO CHANGE THAT! To start me off, I’ve borrowed a book from the library called “Pilates on the Go”. I’m hoping it will force me to fit Pilates into my busy schedule.


4. Change the way I eat. Portion out my meals, Count calories, focus on the food groups…ANYTHING to help me get the energy I need without overstuffing my belly.
   GOALS SET!

Now….on to the last part of this blog….Today’s walk.

Ross on Wye is what’s known as a walking town. People are encouraged to go walking, especially through nature and there are several designated trails in and around town, so on a sunny day like today, you can find loads of people out and about town.

I got up and walked the hubby to work at 11am and didn’t get back to the flat until about 2:15pm. I walked EVERYWHERE and visited a lot of places in the town I hadn’t seen before, like the quaint little book sellers shop(Rossiter Books), and visited places that I love to go to: The River and The Cemetery.

Most people might find Graveyards too sad or scary to go into, but for some reason when I walk into a graveyard/cemetery…I feel clarity. There is nothing more calming or reverent for me that walking among the dearly departed. Weird…I know, but that’s the truth. Where people see death, dying, depression and old deteriorating headstones.....


....I see serenity, simplicity, and scintillating stories. As much as it is sad, I love looking at the headstones and imaging the type of people they were when they were living. I see it as paying my respects to humanity, and it puts things WAY into perspective.

While I was visiting today, I took a few shots of one reason why I find graveyards so beautiful....
...flowers. The bright colors bring life to the graves. It's a happy reminder that those graves with brightly colored flowers on them have not been forgotten, but it's all the more sad to know that graves without flowers have no one to pay tribute to their memory anymore.

After the cemetary, I took a walk down to the River, where I found some very funny ducks.
Here's one in mid 'scratch', trying to reveal an itch from it's neck.

A duck, taking a nap on a high wall, away from the other ducks.

A panoramic scene of the River bend where i like to go.

A little glimmer of sun through the trees....a reminder of home.

Disneyland Paris Review/Comparison to D-land Anaheim

Disneyland Paris

Basically, it’s Anaheim Disneyland, except slightly different and definitely more European. The lands and the layout were pretty much all the same (with the exception of Toon Town, which was non-existent): Main Street at the front, Castle leading into Fantasyland at the back, Adventure land and Frontier land to the left of Main Street, and The Land of Tomorrow or “Discoveryland” as they call it to the right of Main street.

The layout of each land was slightly different, because of the different space and quantity of rides, but all the rides belonging in each land pretty much remained the same…except for It’s a Small World which was in the corner between Fantasyland and Discoveryland instead of being at the back of fantasyland in Anaheim Disneyland.

PHANTOM MANOR
Californian Counterpart: Haunted Mansion

Massive Manor on top of a hill, with a proper garden queuing system. This ‘Haunted Mansion’-like ride is slightly different in story-line and design. The story was basically a bride who’s groom mysteriously disappears before the wedding due to a phantom menace. Other phantoms haunt the house, and have a party, while the dismal bride sulks around the house waiting for her groom to return, but he never does. The ride, like Haunted Mansion, goes through the house but starts with a grand staircase (where you get on to the ride) in the back ground, and ends in the underground with the ghosts in their graves and the underworld.


SPACE MOUNTAIN: MISSION II
Californian Counterpart: Space Mountain
Better than Space Mountain. It’s Faster. It’s got flips, cork screw turns, loops. And it starts off with shooting you up out of a canon. AMAZING!


PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN/BLUE LAGOON
Californian Counterpart: Pirates of the Caribbean/Blue Bayou

Basically exactly the same as the one in Anaheim, except no Captain Jack Sparrow ad-ons and the music wasn’t prominently played(it only played in the Burning City room). The ride even goes through the ‘Blue Bayou’ restaurant at the start…except they call theirs “Blue Lagoon”.



INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF PERIL
Californian Counterpart: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Completely different experience than the Anaheim one. For one thing, it’s completely outdoors—it’s made to look like a rail car on scaffolding. It’s also more of a roller coaster than a sort of movie magic experience. It’s got 1 loop, and tons of drops, twists and turns.


BIG THUNDER MOUNTAIN
Californian Counterpart: Thunder Mountain

Also Completely different for its Californian counterpart, this ride starts off on mainland, drops you into a darkened underground(and underwater) tunnel and pops you up on your own private rollercoaster island. No joke, this rollercoaster is on its own island surrounded by an entire lake (think Tom Sawyer’s Island, except you can’t boat across to the island and ‘explore’ because it’s entirely made up on rollercoaster tracks). There is however a little river boat cruise that goes around this island and the surrounding mainland, so the underground railroad tunnel has to be deep enough so that the boat can pass over it. Pretty cool huh? The rollercoaster on the island itself is fast and has a great view of Phantom Manor while you’re on it.


BUZZ LIGHT YEAR LASER BLAST
Californian Counterpart: Buzz Light Year Astro Blasters
Basically exactly the same except Buzz and everyone else is shouting commands in French.



STAR TOURS
Californian Counterpart: Star Tours—The Classic version

Same cuing system and design, and the same storyline as the old star Tours (none of this beginning middle and end storyline mix and match silliness). I know that this old storyline is outdated to the Californian folk, but for me being so far away from home, it’s like a blast from the past of how Star Tours used to be in the good old days…before it got outdated. What especially tickled my fancy was understanding what Rex says on the journey(partially from rote memorization of the storyline and partially from using what French words I know to translate what he was saying).
For example….French Rex calls “R2DR”, “air-do-day-do” which is how R2D2 is pronounced in French. They pronounce the letter R as ‘air’, which makes it very fun to say R2D2 in French for some reason. Anyway….



We got a park hopper, so we got to go into both Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios, which is exactly like California Adventure. It’s themed more as a ‘back lot hollywood’ than anything else(it doesn’t have a frontier sort of area, so no Grizzly River Run).

The “Lands” Consisted of:

• Studio 1-The entrance to the park with all the shops, and themed Hollywood restaurants, etc.
  


• Production Courtyard—Has a few attractions, all having to do with Studio/filming things….Stitch Live!(which I can only assume is like Turtle Talk with Crush), the Playhouse Disney show, Studio Tram Tour (which is more like taking the tram tour at Universal Studios), and some Armageddon show. The main thing in this land was the Tower of Terror, which looked exactly the same is it’s counterpart from the outside, so we didn’t bother with it.



• Backlot—Had Rock n roller coaster, and a “Moteurs…Action! Stunt Show Spectacular” which was a movie magic car stunt show that featured some pretty cool car stunts, car stunt filming movie magic and an appearance by Lightening McQueen from “Cars”.



• Toon Studios—Had Crush’s Coaster(which seemed more like a rollercoaster spinning version of the little mermaid ride), and TOY STORY PLAYLAND which consisted of 3 rides inspired by Toy Story the movie—Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop, RC Racer, and Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin.
  

In Walt Disney Studios(Cal Adv.), there was only really one ride to compare to:

ROCK N’ ROLLAR COASTER
Californian Counterpart: California Screaming

I think I like this one way better than California Screaming, even though it did scare me at the beginning(IMMIDIATE gigantic Loop RIGHT after taking off—scared me to death, I wasn’t prepared for it that soon). This ride is all indoors and is fast pace, with a laser light show to Aerosmith music….think Space Mountain Anaheim when they turned it into ROCKIN’ Space Mountain.
The cuing system and story were also a whole lot more fun than California Screaming (which just appears to be a Mickey mouse sea side roller coaster, nothing more). The premise in the cuing system is that you’re in a recording studio tour, viewing Aerosmith working on a new song for the Disney roller coaster. (There’s even a 2-3 min little holographic bit where Aerosmith—mostly Steven Tyler—talks to you about how awesome the ride is).

Those are the majority of rides. Disneyland Paris/Walt Disney Studios did have some usual rides/attractions like Tower of Terror, It’s a small world, a majority of the little kid fairytale rides, Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, Adventure Isle, The Robinson treehouse, The Captain EO show, Autotopia, and the Railway system going through each land..but we didn’t bother stopping to do most of those that looked pretty much the same as the ones in California.

The rides/attractions that Disneyland Paris didn’t have an equivalent of, which are major ones for me in California, are: Grizzly River Run, Soaring over California, Mickey’s Farris Wheel, Splash Mountain, Innoventions, Matterhorn, Jungle Cruise, and The New Orleans Square area. Everything else there was at least some attempt at an Anaheim recreation or replica.

Le voyage à la France

For a late Birthday present, Robert wanted to take me to France because we found a deal in The Sun (daily Newspaper) for a cheap Disneyland Paris package. The Package consisted of 2 Adult Disneyland Park Hopper tickets, 2 Nights in a Disneyland Hotel, and a 1 car/2 passenger ferry ticket when we self-drive to Disneyland...all for around 200 pounds. It was a 3 and a half hour drive to Dover Ferry Port, then an hour and a half ride on the ferry, followed by a 3 hour drive from Calais ferry port down to Disneyland Paris.




THE DRIVE to Disneyland: Driving in the French Countryside was beautiful, but quite daunting. Robert was absolutely exhausted from driving all day, but we made it. Driving in France is a cross between English and American Driving. It’s similar to English driving because there’s similar road markings, tons of roundabouts, and the countryside is all green surrounding the motorways/freeways. It’s similar to American Driving because everything is on the right(driving on the right of opposite traffic, onramps are on the right, you turn right on all roundabouts). It was an interesting experience being even a passenger in the car.






THE LANGUAGE: I thought going to France for my birthday was going to be this grand experience where I would show off that I can speak some French. I got a slightly different reality. Not necessarily a bad thing, just…I need to brush up on my French a little more before I try again. I got by with a few things—ordering food was alright, but everything else I basically spoke in English because we were in Disneyland most of the time where everyone is trained to speak in multiple languages.

THE HOTEL: At Disneyland Paris there are 6 hotels in the surrounding area outside the Park. We were at the Hotel Cheyenne, which was themed like a Western Town, complete with 14 western shaped buildings, each holding probably 50-200 rooms. Then there was a town hall(Reception) building, restaurant and old western saloon.






Disneyland Hotels are great….if you’re a family. They’re themed, which is pretty cool, and fun to take pictures of, but it’s WAY TOO overcrowded with families of screaming kids and foreigners. It’s REALLY annoying. Given that Robert and I were foreigners, but the ones we ran into were worse. Everywhere you go it’s like your personal space is being invaded.

Robert and I went to the buffet the first night and it was ALL sorts of crowded…and this was at 10pm. There was this kid in the back of me that every time the line moved up, and I moved to get away from him, he would get so close to me I swear his nose was touching my hair. A little too close for my taste. Also, wherever you went you had to be extra careful that no one was going to ram into you and knock your food over because people were rushing around and switching lanes in crowded spaces like it was rush hour traffic in LA.



Robert and I ended up getting up for our allocated breakfast at 7am, hoping it would be less crowded…which it was. We then enjoyed a nice, quiet, free continental breakfast before walking to Downtown Disney or “Disney Village” as they call theirs, at just after 8am. The good thing about staying at a Disneyland Hotel is that you get limited access to the pack 2 hours earlier than anyone else.

DISNEYLAND PARK: Basically Disneyland Paris was like an alternate universe version of Disneyland California. Everything was the same, but slightly different…and slightly European.





The overall experience was great. Some things we liked better than the Californian
Counterpart, some things were cooler, but some things we just missed about the Anaheim Disney.


Main Street USA.


DiscoveryLand(AKA TomorrowLand)


The Castle of Sleeping Beauty.


The Entrance to Adventureland (AKA Agraba)


The Cinderella Inn Restaraunt.


Jack's Garden/Bean Stock.


AKA Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.....outside rollercoaster experience!


Robert looking like a Western Cowboy in Frontierland.


Frontierland train DEPOT.


Robert acting like a Frenchman eating his croissent...I'm just happy to be in France!


Big Thunder Mountain...on it's own private ISLAND! (The Station is on the mainland, but then it drops you into a deep dark tunnel underwater and you come up on the other side on you're own rollercoaster island!


Phantom Manor (AKA Haunted Mansion).



Wandering around the log cabin/fort thing that is the entrance to Frontierland.


Outside one of the shops there was this statue of a stack of suitcases. I like old fashion luggage, so we took a picture of me by them, and then went inside a shop for souvineirs.


Down main street, right before the round about area in front of Sleeping beauty's castle there was a MAIN PARK INFORMATION board. I thought it was pretty cool, even if it wasn't 100% accurate.


Star Tours! (The old version with Rex!)


Just enjoying our day.


The Castle and Main Street USA all lite up at night.


Walt Disney Studios(aka California Adventure) entrance.


(Monster's Inc. SCREAM Monitors. Scream into them and see how powerful your scream is.)


Cool display of old license plates, and a coca cola machine in a shop in Walt Disney Studios.


Water Tower outside Walt Disney Studios.


Hollywood backdrop and a raised camera to set the scene in Walt Diseny Studios.


Walt Diseny Studios, with tower of Terror looming in the distance.


Rock n Roller Coaster--SOOOOO much better than California Screaming. Indoor laser lightshow roller coaster set to songs by Aerosmith.


A Car Stunt show featuring Lightening McQueen from CARS. Pretty epic.



Toystory Playland...small area(like a Bugs Life in CA), with 3 rides inspired by Toy Story.

AND THAT...was disneyland. (For a full detailed report and comparison of Disneyland Paris to Anaheim DIsneyland, see my next blog.)

On the way back to Calais (the ferry port) the next day, Robert and I stopped off at a museum/ex-Nazi underground missile bunker in Saint Omar. This was once the place where Hitler commissioned thousands of missiles to be built underground and then launched towards London and parts of Belgium. It was interesting to be in a place where Nazis once were but also a bit eerie. It took us about 3 hours to wander around the place and look at everything and see most of the short films on missiles and the wars and stuff. The saddest part was at the end where they talked about the concentration camps and they had some of the uniforms and personal effects on display.


The Dome, from a distance.


The inner workings of the V2 Rocket.


The "Flying Bomb".


(The Tunnel to the entrance of the dome bunker. Back in the war, this was used as an underground railway tunnel that delivered the half built rockets to be assembled and launched out of the dome.)


However, one of my favorite things during his museum was to learn more about Wernher Von Braun. He started off as a teenager in Russia, wanting to build rockets just as a hobby. Then he was recruited by Nazis to build missiles for the war, only to be fired later on during the war. Just before WWII ended, Von Braun was hired by US Military to work for them. He was pardoned for being an ex-Nazi and granted US citizenship and went on to be part of NASA and was the chief architect of the Saturn V. Pretty impressive.