Liz Going On

I meant July not November a couple of posts before. I’m starting work in Aus on 19th July. That’s not far away. I haven’t started counting in days, but I might. Although that would probably scare me more. There is so much to do.

I’ve recently amazed some people by being able to touch type. I think many hours wasted on msn messenger made me learn how to do it. I don’t do it properly. I’ve just noticed that i use three fingers of my left hand, but I only use my right index finger. But it works for me.

I’ve sung a lot today. Uncle Mark at the BWH in preparation for Thursday’s concert. Its going to be really good. I’m especially looking forward to the first piece, I hope we get to hear it. Its Tippett. And after that we practiced for the wedding next weekend. I was a lot of fun, and at the end we sounded quite good. Well, not awful! I need to practice more as I have discovered that I’m not very good at singing the tune! I auto harmonise.

Yesterday we went to the National Coal Mining museam. The other young Mr and Mrs Threlfall came too. It was a really really interesting place and it was free too. Hurrah.

Another post for my readers.

In the last 24 hours I have

1) employed a cleaner. Hurrah! I feel very middle class.

2) had my hair done. Goodbye grey hair.  Ooh, this computer has an American spellchecker and got all annoyed about grey. Rubbish! 

3) worked out and applied for Australian medical registration

4) been approved by my work and the deanery to have six months off, yay!

5) accidently taken the ICU registrar on call bleep home. oops.

6) bought some fake Ugg boots from Tesco (WITH BUTTONS!!!) for only ten pounds. I feel such a chav.

7) had 12 hours sleep. I love a good sleep.

I’m not sure why I felt the need to write a numbered list. Perhaps its because I still have about a million things on my to-to list so I wanted to feel productive. I feel a little grotty too. It started with the swine flu jab, but is malingering on too long for that. Hope its not real flu.

Time to cut up some melon before choir.

Ah, yes. I should explain about Australia.

I applied for a job there. Moving very poorly little people around in helicopters and planes and things to take them somewhere to make them better. It sounded scary but fun, and I’d learn lots of stuff I can’t do in the UK.

I didn’t expect to get the job, but I did despite being half asleep during the nighttime teleconference with the interview panel.

So, all things being well (being allowed off my rotation for six months, getting the right medical license in Aus, getting a visa, saving up enough money to pay for home while I’m gone, passing a strict medical) I’ll be starting work in Sydeny on 19th Nov 2010.

That’s not that far away really.

EEk!

Oh my giddy aunt. Its been almost three months since I last wrote to you guys.

How am I meant to blog three months. Possibly the busiest three months of my life! 

I shall start with a bullet list, to get something going. I may or may not elaborate.

September. 

Hen do. Much fun. Amazing fun actually. Thank you ladies

Wedding planning. Was fun! Work got in the way a bit and I got a little stressed when the dining room floor was coming up all by itself and the reception venue was being rubbish and said we had too many guests and people were inviting themselves to stay. But it turned out right in the end.

October.

Wedding. Amazing. I could talk about it for hours. Most people reading this will have been there, so I can spare you that.

Honeymoon. Also amazing. So much fun! 

Burglary. Not fun. I hate them. But its almost ok now, when the insurance give me my stuff back.

Work, lots to do, but I seem to be getting through it. Have high challenges ahead, but I need something to aim for otherwise I’ll cause too much trouble.

Oh yes, and I’m going to Australia. To work for six months. That is exciting!

That’s enough for now. Something is better than nothing I think.

We have a lot of tomatoes, but none of them have shown any signs of going red yet. I worry about this as there are a lot of them. About 80 or 90 on three plants.  If they stay green then I suspect I’ll make lashings and lashings of chutney, and then I’ll give it to all my friends and family as Christmas presents.

How do tomatoes go red?

I love raspberries. They’re my favourite fruit. Maybe I should try and grow some next year.

Wood.

Andrew and I have taken up part of the dining room floor. This is because it appeared to be self levitating, which was a little worrying. It wasn’t easy to take up, and now some of its moved there’s no obvious reason why the rising up happened. And it hasn’t really stopped rising up. Its not rising up and lumpy with gaps in it. This isn’t really ideal.

I discovered yesterday that one of the consultants I work with is going to be in Mauritius at the same time that Andrew and I are there for honeymoon. I think they’re in the same resort but not the same hotel. Possibly. We’ll probably see them either all the time, or not at all. He’s a nice consultant so it’d not be too bad to see him, but I’d rather not hang out in my swimming costume with people I know at home!

Wedding plans are going quite well. Some people have had to decline, but lots of people have said they’re coming, which is excellent. And I’ve booked the fitting for my frock. I can’t wait!

I bought Mum a new mobile. She managed to use it without any help. Nokias are wonderful things, and I’m dead proud of her tackling technology so well.  Hurrah for Mum!

I still have a rash, but its getting better. Applying cream five times a day is a bit of an annoyance, but at least its working and I’m not a lizard anymore!

I went to the cinema yesterday and it was crap. But I liked it nevertheless. The film was A Perfect Getaway.  Bits of it was like the orange mobile phone film trailers. Really. It was so bad I laughed a lot. But don’t go see it as its not that bad/good.

This blog post has been presented in the style of a lot of twitter posts tagged together. Sorry.

Andrew and I have just bought a Wii. I think I’d rather a kitten, but you can’t get one of those on ebay. And you can leave a Wii for the weekend and it won’t die/wee on your sofa/scratch your skirtingboards.

I’ve bought quite a lot this week. And its only Wednesday. Oops.

Three pairs of shoes (for me! wooo, and I threw three rubbish falling apart pairs away).

A shiny black skirt (in the Laura Ashley sale. It was 75 quid. I paid 19)

A grey wool frock for the day after the wedding.

A denim skirt half price in the fat face sale. And a white t shirt.

Two suits. For the ushers.

Seven ties. I’m particularly pleased with these. They’re ace!

Next weekend is the field wedding. I’m really looking forward to this, althought I need to practice my singing and get a bottle of port. And the day after the wedding there’s canoing, which will be good as well (and probably quite wet!).

Hopefully the Wii will arrive soon. I’m looking forward to Wii fit. Come visit and play with us!

I’ve needed to speak to a few people today. Its been remarkably difficult.

Firstly Andrew and I need a license to marry. This involves going to the registry office with some bits of paper and cash and getting a permit. I think. But you have to book an appointment. I dialed them constantly for a very long time (I redialed 72 times, according to my mobile phone). Finally I got through.  Our appointment isn’t for a month though as that’s all that is available. Thankfully the wedding is in two months, so we’ll have the piece of paper in time.

I also tried to speak to the doctors. I haven’t registered yet with a GP since moving here. But speaking to the practice involved a lot of holding. Boo to them.

And the hotel I’ve told people to stay at for the wedding are being a nightmare too. So I went in to speak to them today. The trouble is they’ve not given me the vital piece of information which should have gone out with the invites. I told them that it would have been helpful if they’d told me this at the time of arranging, but they were useless.  Boo to them.

However, I have managed to knock quite a few things off the to do list, which makes me feel much happier. And the bathroom is sparkling like it never has before! (bet it doesn’t stay like that for long!).

Sorry if this is a boring blog post. I’m just not allowed to blog about the exciting things in my life. You’ll have to get me drunk…

Hello all,

Today I’m between a rock and a hard place.  I’m off work sick. I’m not near death, but I’m certainly not well and as I’m on call tomorrow I wanted to be well for then. I’ve got so many adventures to tell you all about from the last 4 days, but as I’m poorly I’ll probably get tired and bored before I finish the story.

Thursday morning we left Manchester in a big thunderstorm on the bus to London.  Its never that much fun sitting on a coach for six hours, but the company made it a lot better.  I was coach mother, but all went to plan (except for locking someone on the coach at the service station stop!).  The proms were amazing. We’re still on the BBC’s iplayer until wednesday, so you can see me! (and the 199 other people in the choir). Sadly there’s no close ups of me, but I am there, on the right.  I’d never sung in the Royal Albert Hall before, and wasn’t sure what it’d be like, as people say its difficult to sing in, but it was really really good! And an almost packed house too.

Mum and Andrew were in the audience as well. Its so much nicer singing when there’s someone there you know. Andrew and I had a wedding the next day, so it fitted in really well, but Mum just came down for a few days to see me sing! Bless!

After the concert we went to a place called ‘Beirut Express’. We ate lots and lots and lots of yummy food. So much that I had problems walking home afterwards! And we were all on a post concert high so it was a very merry event.

The next morning I was still full at breakfast time! 

I put my posh frock on and we walked to the wedding. It was a good coincidence that the wedding was only ten minutes walk from the proms hotel.  I can’t quite believe the coincidence really as the proms are on for about 10 weeks, and the wedding could have been any day this summer! 

We met at a pub for some drinks in the sunshine. I was merrily drinking my glass of wine when disaster struck! A bird pooed on me. I was pretty devastated, but managed to wash it off my dress (a rather expensive all silk dry clean only affair!) and half way through the reception Andrew spilt red wine on me, so the dress was washed again…

The wedding was lovely, the speeches were great and the reception was good also. I got suitably drunk and ate too much! Andrew danced for hours and hours!!!

On Saturday I met up with Mum and we explored Tate modern and ate sushi. It was lovely. I love London and I love my Mum. So the two together are an excellent combination. It was tiring carrying around all my stuff though. 

Saturday afternoon Andrew and I made our way to see Charlotte and Dan in their new lovely flat. We played on their new wii. Lots. And Lots.  I ended up quite good at the ski jump and the hoola hoop. Much to my surprise as in real life I can’t keep a hoola hoop up for even one spin and I can’t even ski, yet alone jump.

I’ve had enough writing now. Time for a nap.

e

x

"’The Field’ - which isn’t actually a field, but merely a place containing fewer rocks than any other place on the island".

I had a bizarre series of telephone conversations yesterday.

Andrew and I are going to a wedding in three weeks. Its about 25 miles from Mum’s house, so Mum was going to kindly drive us, but now she has to miss the wedding so I spent some of yesterday looking at different options.

Firstly I thought about a taxi. But as its quite a way it would cost 75 pounds return.

Then I phoned all the bed and breakfast places near the hotel (the hotel itself is quite small and very very pricey). The first one b and b was fully booked, but she suggested I phone Emily, who also had a b and b. 

I managed to phone the whole village and it was all booked.

So I thought about camping.  I searched and found a phone number for the "Lake Vyrnwy Tourist Information office" so I called it .  Sadly the office closed many years ago, said the nice lady. But she wouldn’t let me go, and offered to help me. 

I told her the situation and how I was looking for a campsite preferably walking distance from the hotel.  Firstly she listed all the b and b’s which I’d already phoned (just to check I hadn’t missed any) and then she said there wasn’t really a campsite, but there was "the field".

She went on at length about this field. It had no water or facilities, but the public toilets are sort of near by. She said we could probably pitch a tent there, and it was a bit of a walk from the hotel, but it’d be downhill for us and very very dark.

I asked who owned the field and was told to phone a number and I could speak to any of the family. It was just getting weirder and weirder…. However then she told me the name of the field owner, so I phoned him.

I felt like quite a fruitcake phoning up to ask if I could camp in "the field". I asked where it was and it was next to "the football pitch", just along from "the shop" and 400 yards from "the public toilets". The farmer man said if I asked in the shop they’d tell me where the field was. And it only costs £2 per night to camp there. 

So while the rest of the wedding party are living it up in the posh hotel, Andrew and I will be braving it in "the field". I’m sure it’ll be a great adventure…..

RIP Father Ted. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Luck,_Father_Ted

Last night Cass and I went to see West Side Story. I’d never seen it live before, but was excited before. And it really lived up to expectation. The dancing was amazing. The band played well (except the timp played kept texting during his rests) and the singing was especially good. Particularly the rendition of "America".

Also yesterday I was commissioned to write an article for publication.  I’m not really sure that the people asking me to write have got the right person to do it, as I’m not an expert in the field, and my grasp of English is quite poor, to be honest (as regular readers of this intermittant blog probably know!). Wish me luck!

A and I have just installed our new telly. Its quite a monster, but has a good picture and good sound. And was free, as a friend is moving house and doesn’t need the TV at the moment, so we’re babysitting it.  

I went to choir tonight, but left before the singing started as I was too tired to sing. This made me sad. But I need sleep. Night night.