Feeling patriotic

I'm very proud of being British at the best of times and like it when people notice. Occasionally I feel that my accent is slipping and do my best to pronouce words properly and not slip into Australianisms. I still manage to surprise people with British sayings and phrases which always makes me happy :) I felt exceptionally patriotic when on Wednesday night Graham and I settled down to watch the opening overs of the first Ashes Test at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff. I smiled as the camera panned over Cardiff, I loved the Welsh flags everywhere and I made Graham laugh when I along to Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau. I still think that that's one of the best national anthems ever :) I love cricket. I inherited the habit from my mother of watching cricket on tv with the sound turned down and listening to it on the radio. You can't beat Test Match Special, there' s just something about Henry Blofeld's voice that to me means summer. I shut my eyes and I can see the kitchen window at home open and see the cricket on the tv and the sound drifting out into the summer day. To me, that is almost as close to heaven as you can possibly get while still being alive. Graham and I both want to go to an Ashes Test in Britain one day so that should be fun to plan :) I was really happy with England's performance until Australia came in to bat. I'm still hopeful though :) I just wish I got to see more than an hour or so's worth of cricket before going to bed :( p.s. Am I the only one to think that Skysports commentary team is not only a bit dull but also one sided? They had a West Indian on day one but it's the Ashes for crying out loud? Where are the guest Aussie commentators? All they could say is that they 'may' have Shane Warne for one day of a test. Yay

blast

I just lost my entire post. Grrr

*sigh* [Scanned]

If time goes any slower, it will start going backwards.   Why did I get out of bed today?

Paradise lost? [Scanned]

I went on in the last post about living in a wonderful place.  And I do.   I would like to point out, however, that where I grew up is wonderful too and although it’s not a lot of people’s idea of paradise that’s because they have no idea what they’re missing.  It’s got more variety than the tropics do.  Sure it’s hot here, occasionally cooling down to warm but the seasons just don’t happen and that’s a crying shame in itself.   How can you not love bluebells in a wood in spring and daffodils over every roadside?  Watching the bare hedges and trees bud and bloom with early spring flowers and leaves?  Watching the hills rise out of the mist like out of some enchanted sea first thing in the morning? An avenue of trees covered in cherry blossom?   Those warm summer days where it’s just perfect to sit outside with friends and family in a pub garden with a beer or a gin and tonic and smell the honeysuckle?  Proper beer?  Proper pubs (they just aren’t right here)?   Kicking up piles of dead leaves in autumn?   Or how about wrapping up in gloves and a scarf against the wind?  Snow covering everything on a crisp winter’s day?  Sledging?  Sitting in front of a warm fire safe in the knowledge that it’s bloody miserable outside?   If I could have all those things and more, with the palm trees and the heat just occasionally, I really would be in paradise.

Paradise found? [Scanned]

It is so easy, sometimes, to take for granted what there is around us.  I’ve taken to driving to work a slightly longer way every morning, but a way that takes me down onto the Esplanade with its palm trees and grassy strip before the sea stretches out (or the mudflats depending on the tide – you can’t have everything) and it’s beautiful.  Even in the rain and wind it just amazes me to think that I live here, almost in paradise, every day.  In a place where people come for once in a lifetime holidays - and I LIVE here.   We went for a walk along the beach the other day.  It’s a two minute walk from our front door and it stretches for ages.  People were laughing, swimming and further down, kite surfing.  It was windy but clear and still absolutely lovely.   I have a wonderful husband, a lovely home, a car and a boat.  It couldn’t really get much better than this.

Murder on the dance floor [Scanned]

It all began last September when I went to my sister’s wedding.  The bride and groom had been taking dancing lessons and when the day came, after several drinks, I got flung around the dance floor by my new brother-in-law (much to everyone’s amusement I suspect) but I thought there and then that learning to do something like Salsa would be really quite fun.   Six months ago I went out for dinner with my husband and noticed that there were Salsa lessons at the place and I mentioned that it would be something I would quite like to do.  Much to Graham’s amusement, I suspect.    Nothing much happened until last week when I was out for lunch with the girls from work and we were talking about getting fit and the gym (neither of which are things that I do) and things like that and I mentioned that I’d always wanted to take Salsa lessons.  Then one of my colleagues goes ‘well, I’m starting Salsa lessons on Tuesday and it’s two for one for four lessons, why don’t you come along?’   Now those of you who know me know I’m a great one for wanting to do things but never actually quite getting round to doing it.  It’s a failing I know, but hey ho.   Anyway, I agreed to go and on Thursday this seemed like a great idea (even though Graham was openly amused by this – and flatly refused to join me).  By Tuesday not so much a good idea and I did try to back out of it (to be fair, I was absolutely knackered and just wanted to go home and collapse).  Somehow though at 6pm I found myself at the bar where the lessons were taking place (it’s amazing what the offer of a glass of wine will do).   I must say, I had fun.  However, I’m not sure I can say the same about the teacher who has possibly never seen someone have quite so much trouble with not only left and right but backwards and forwards as well.  I have also completely forgotten at least one of the four steps that she taught us and have strained my right leg and foot (I’ve been limping for 2 days).   Still, I’ve paid for another 3 lessons.  You never know, I may have got the hang of it by then, otherwise it really might be murder on the dance floor…

urgh [Scanned]

I feel urgh.  I hate feeling urgh and I especially dislike being at work and feeling quite this urgh.  Ah well.

The curious phenomenon of passport photos [Scanned]

Firstly, good news!  I have my new passport (finally!).  This is a Very Good Thing.   Secondly, I don’t really know how I managed it but I did.   For years I hated my passport photo.  About 6 months after I had it taken I cut all my hair off and for the majority of the next decade, wherever I went I had passport officials scrutinising my photo and me as if they were thinking ‘Is that really her?’  I even had bleach blonde short hair at one point and that took a little bit of explaining to the official I was trying to persuade to let me into Australia.   Even with the differences in hair style, I hated that photo.  I looked chubby, I looked pale (dark clothes didn’t help), my fringe was curling every which way and my eyebrows were in really, truly quite desperate need of an appointment with a lot of wax.   In effort to correct this with my shiny new passport, I wore a light shirt and my hair looked good and neat on the day I had the photos taken.  Of course, the Foreign Office then sent me the whole sodding application back as the photos had too much glare.  Grr.  So, I had them done at Australia Post across the road and that took 3 goes to get shots that were the right size and didn’t have any glare on them.    I was in a rush.  I was harassed and consequently, in my new passport photo, I look pale (dark tops again), my fringe is curling every which way and although I don’t look quite so chubby but there are more lines than a decade ago.  The only good thing about the whole debacle is that my eyebrows are now, at least, not in desperate need of tweezers.   I really don’t know how I managed to end up with a practically identical photo but I have.  I think cameras have it in for me.