Standing Room Only…

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One of the things that really struck me in moving over here was the whole low cost travel thing – you know the pay £20 to fight the hoards to get to a(n unallocated) seat only to find no room in the overhead compartments and a simply foul cup of coffee costs you an arm and a leg.

Bloody bonkas, I remember thinking, who would actually do this?

It would seem quite a lot (including me on the odd occasion). 

But I’ve seen everything now…

Called The Skyrider, one literally ‘saddles up’ for the duration of their inflight tenancy and enjoys just 23 inches of legroom – 7 inches LESS legroom than the average aircraft seat offers. That’s shorter than 2 normal-sized rulers!

And apparently there’s storage space….baaahaahaaa!

But I laughed the loudest at the quote from the manufacturer, Avio Interiors Group:

The seat…is like a saddle.  Cowboys ride eight hours on their horses during the day and still feel comfortable in the saddle.

Yeah right! I usually leave my chaps and spurs at home and anyway, have you seen the way those cowboys walk?

Here’s what some others had to say…

Never say never…but really, would you pay for this?

Have Your Two Cents Worth…

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I’ve been thinking about updating my look for a while now so in honour of yesterday’s 150th post, I’ve decided to give Gidday from the UK a bit of a makeover.

I really like the general look of this new template but have crashed and burned seriously on the getting the followers and networked blogs widgets happening and am not fond of the way that this template puts some things in CAPS so fingers crossed that I can get these sorted out!

I am also exploring some other interesting things to put in the margins.  (I have a feeling that margins is a distinctly un-blogg-y term so once you have stopped sniggering and being ‘too cool for school’ feel free to go right ahead and enlighten me as to what these side bits are called!)  So I am creating this unprecedented opportunity for my erstwhile Peanut Gallery to chuck their two cents worth in with:

  • Any good ideas you’ve seen?
  • Anything you’d particularly like to see?

Can’t promise it’ll turn up, blogger neophyte as I am, but I’ll have a crack at it…promise!

Also, please be patient if things move around a bit while I play around and basically work out how to get things looking their best…

 

A Blogger’s Journey…

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I’ve been blogging now for a couple of years (in fact this is post 150 – hurrah!)  It was a slow start as I wondered what on earth to write about and would anybody read it anyway.  But under the guise of sharing everyday thoughts and moments with my family and friends across the other side of the world, I set off…

Along the way, I’ve checked out a whole lot of blogs. I’ve followed some. Some remain on the list. Others have fallen by the wayside as I learnt what I loved to dip into each day (during my commute) or each week (when I have more time to ponder a post’s particular point of view or wallow in it’s sheer wit/wisdom).  As a result of my last post, I’ve even learned about The Archers (thanks to matthew_in_ham).

I’ve had ‘were we separated at birth?’ moments with fellow expats bloggers (Marmite and Fluff’s Sarcasm for Sale produced one of these).  I think there’s an unerring poignancy and recognition between people who’ve chosen a life away from family and childhood friends and as a result, I feel like I have a small but growing fellowship of like-minded souls.

I’ve even been interviewed on expat blog Seen The Elephant. 

Over the last little while, I’ve been been exploring this whole blogging community thing and have linked my blog to Networked Blogs on Facebook and a site called Expat Blogs.  It’s opened up a whole world of other topics to have my say about.

My most recent discovery is a site called Seeded Buzz and I’ve just been dipping my first tentative toe into the water.  And I found a great post ‘What has blogging taught you?’ that inspired this one…

So what has blogging taught me?

…that the world is a big place…

…that there’s something for everyone in it…

…that everyone loves an audience…

And that I love it!

So thanks to all of you who, through your fan-dom/ follower status/ comments/ secretly-reading-and-resisting-any-public-declaration-of-this, make up the Gidday from the UK peanut gallery and give me an audience. 

Commuting Gems…The Midlife Manual…

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Each weekend I buy the Saturday Times newspaper and each Monday I pack The Times Magazine into my handbag to while away my trip to work.  Reading is one of the true joys of commuting (vs driving) for me and I tend to move from magazines to books and back again (alongside my daily topup of free news and views in the Metro) as the week progresses.  Anyway, sometimes I find some gems…and it wasn’t until last night’s journey home that I dug out last weekend’s magazine and read an extract from the book billed to be ‘the funniest of the year’, The Midlife Manual.

Having only just turned 41, I have not really considered myself to be mid-life (although in a purely literal and slightly morbid sense, 82 is not a bad innings).  And admittedly I didn’t say ‘Yes’ to many of the statements in the opening questionnaire although 14. (Tired. Just really, really tired.) and 16. (And angry. Christ, where does that anger come from? Why did no one prepare you for it.) struck a bit of a chord.  But it was turning the page and reading the following list that had me nodding in vigorous agreement:

Things that pass for excitement these days
A double espresso
Amen to that – the ONLY way to end a great meal!

A new organic cafe opening on your high street

Is there really? I didn’t hear about it. Oh no there’s not? Well we definitely need one!

The arrival of the new Boden catalogue

And the discount vouchers contained therein.

Finishing Wolf Hall

I read the back cover of someone else’s copy at work and I’m REALLY interested in reading this. Does this mean I am on the threshold rather than in the thick of mid-life?

A bountiful tomato harvest from your grow bag

Remember my ‘news from the patch’ exploits last year? Those tomatoes were so beautifully  sweet.

Ordering dessert

Another amen to that most holy of trios – cheesecake, pecan pie and tiramisu.

Successful erection of flat-pack furniture

Given that I have been doing this since my 20s, does this mean I was old before my time? Erk!

Being out in town after 11.30pm

…in the middle of winter and marvelling at the hordes of ‘young people’ wandering around wearing ‘not very much’…it makes me feel colder/older just looking at them.

Finding out someone famous has moved in across the street from you

Rick Astley lives in the next street – does he still count as famous?

The fact there’s an Argos iPhone app

I hate Argos.  Hate them, hate them, hate them (see earlier reference to anger). It’s a long story from more than 5 years ago.  And I’m still hanging on to it.

Losing 2lb

The only upside in morning after hangovers (when did these get so hard?) and illness.  Water retention is such a curse!

Cupcakes

So sweet and pretty at first, like a 6 year old girl’s birthday party. 
The cleanup afterwards though?  Not so great…lifetime on the hips and all that.

Beating a younger colleague at squash

I haven’t done this – does that mean I am not yet mid-life (aka desparately clutching at straws)?

A racy storyline in the Archers

What is Archers please?

The first of the season’s asparagus in your vegbox

Bless them – so tender and just perfect in a spring risotto.

Buggar me (in the Australian sense please!).  When did this happen?  And given I’ve ticked off most of these exciting things, I am now starting to wonder what’s left…so I’m off before stocks run out – you can buy The Midlife Manual on Amazon too if you want…but stand in line, ok?  I got here first!

Note to JF:  I think this will be the best use of birthday Amazon voucher!  Thanks mate x

Goodbye To Summer…

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The thing about the August Bank Holiday in the UK is that it’s like this last ‘hurrah’ of Summer.  Even though for the last week it’s been cooler on the walk to and from home each day and it’s dark enough each night when I get home for me to leave the outside light on when I leave in the morning, there’s something about our last long weekend of the year (not counting when the fat man in the red suit visits) that’s a little laden with regret.
It’s been a cloudy Bank Holiday Monday too – perfect weather for some daytime telly and an indulgent dvd (Julie and Julia if you must know). This has followed on from much sleeping in, considerable reading and highly-intensive jigsaw-puzzling and as a result, I’m feeling extraordinarily relaxed and reflective as I sit down to tap this farewell to Summer post. 
And then just as I’m sitting down at my computer positioned smack-bang in my front window, a blinding shaft of sunlight bursts through the clouds – making the late afternoon all golden and hazy for a moment – and then it disappears again. The light is soft and beautiful and takes me back to when I first arrived here and how struck I was by how softly the light bathed everything it touched compared with Australia’s harsh and brilliantly hued landscape.
I know it’s a day early: but today it’s goodbye to cardy-less commuting and twilight evenings around the barbie…
…and welcome to my favourite season of the year, the soft, golden hues of Autumn.

Picking Up The Pieces…

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Over this August bank holiday weekend I have been indulging in something I haven’t done for a while – a jigsaw puzzle.  I always used to do these as a kid on holidays so there’s something about doing this that’s intrinsically linked to holidays for me. 

It’s also the perfect thing for cosying up inside and shutting out world (and some pretty ordinary weather – I think Summer might really be over!) and it’s kept me completely absorbed for a few hours over each of the last 2 days.  So Friday night, I  spread the puzzle roll mat out on the dining table, cracked open the bag of pieces and surrendered myself completely…

THE FIRST 24 HOURS (3-hours Friday night and 4-hours Saturday afternoon)
The border is done (I always do the border first) and centre strip (with lots of interesting bits) is well on the way!

SUNDAY 6.30pm (After another 5-hour stint):
Tah Daaaah!!!!  All done!
Fuelled by chocolate and other snack-ettes I have built my 1000 piece world piece by piece and am currently basking in a quiet glow of self-indulgent achievement – like I have achieved something just for myself without the pressure of chores and other ‘things to do’.  Now I just have to keep that feeling all through tomorrow and that will be one excellent long weekend!

ps…BTW the puzzle roll thing that its on? Don’t trouble yourself with getting one- rolling it all up only produces frustration and disappointment as all the little pieces come apart again. That patent was a real waste of money…

Life In The UK…Neighbours

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For the first time in 5 years, I am back to the car-less status I held when I first arrived in the UK..and I had to do my first sans car grocery shop.  The trouble is that now I have to plan my shop and stick to the list with considerable rigor as there are 3 important things to manage:  My items fitting in the 2 shopping bags I take, the even distribution of their weight between the 2 bags and actually carrying said weight to the bus stop and then from the bus stop to home.

You see, the bus back up Kingston Hill is fine but that walk up the hill, down the hill and up the hill again to home is a killer at the best of times and if the shop has gone awry, well, it ain’t pretty!  So today, I was ready with my small-ish, well-planned list and on the way, I knocked on J’s door to do the neighbourly thing and find out whether there was anything he wanted me to pick up for him.
 
Well…his few items grew and grew until his list WAS bigger than mine.  But it still all looked do-able so off I set, list in hand…but milk, orange juice, pasta sauce and soup (just to name a few) are not exactly light so let’s just say there was a bit of mental f-ing and blinding going on as I walked from Sainsbury’s to the bus stop and from the bus stop to home.

Next time, I might stop being so bloody independent and ‘I can do it’ and get him to take me.  We could have a date night at the supermarket!  Or not…

We’ll see…

Summertime…and the blackberries are easy

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We went blackberry picking today….hunting out those fat juicy gems in amongst the thorns and undergrowth…in our car park!

For those of you new to Gidday from the UK or those that have simply forgotten, it was just over a year ago that I discovered the joys of plump, juicy, fresh blackberries and bemoaned the fact it had taken me 40 years to do this.

So today, being J’s birthday and all (Happy Birthday honey!) and before the little blighters got eaten by other wildlife (human or otherwise), we ventured out into our street and car park to snaffle as many as we could.  And snaffle we did…an almost-full ice-cream container.  And I have the proud scratches on my forearms and hands to prove it.

We were going to indulge in these tonight as a post birthday dinner treat but I’d already promised to make my first ever apple crumble (after a birthday resolution to master some basic dessert skills beyond cheese arrangement) so the blackberries are being held in abeyance until tomorrow – but are still on hand if the crumble is appalling.

 

Wish me luck!

Inspired by….Sunflowers

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I was walking home from the bus stop earlier this afternoon, silently cursing the sticky weather and wishing that puff of cool breeze I could feel would just exert itself a little more when I was stopped by the most unexpected and glorious sight…
Beautiful happy sunflowers…at least 2.5 times my height with their blooms dipping slightly with their own weightiness…in an otherwise unspectacular front garden on an ordinary suburban street.  I would never had seen them had I not been walking back from the bus stop so I whipped out the Desire and snapped away to capture their magnificence.
 
The thing is, this small moment lifted my entire day and I finished the rest of my bag-laden trudge around the corner and up the hill to home still smiling at the memory.

Up, Up and Away…

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Now I’ve done some high-flying things in my time (like jumping out of a perfectly good plane strapped to the front of a burly sky-diving instructor) but in reading Friday’s Metro, I was inspired to new heights by an article about the new Palletways Dragon balloon and its maiden flight over the town of Bath in Somerset. This photo encapsulates the birds-eye view from this glass-bottomed beauty:

I do not know which pair of feet belong to this intrepid Metro photographer but it looks to me like a breathtaking and slightly scary experience.  And forget the pony, I think I want one!

I’d also be looking for a bunch of brave souls (and perhaps a small windfall to cover the expense) to trip this light fantastic with me…

Any takers?

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