A busy weekend!

On Saturday me and Al visited Homebase (the obligatory monthly visit!) and got prepared for the re-potting of the mamoth courgette plant. Can't find any tips on gardening courgette/zuchini, specifically F1 Storr's Green courgette, in either my encyclopedia or the website, so if anyone knows about gardening please let me know!

Anyway (...I'm just now watching Spain vrs Tunisia in the World cup on the telly so I'm a bit distracted!) I went to the nearby primary school to see Linda (new BioCare buddy) and her friend Sarah selling their wares at the school's fair. While there I purchased some goodies for Father's next day.

Then I headed off to the church to have a guided tour of the Old Grammar School and the Wool Merchant's House and Saracen's head. It was really interesting. I know bits of facts about the site but it's easier to piece it all together when you are standing on the site. What with it being my local church, where we're planning to get married, and also I'm working on the community project I'm slowly getting to know everyone and everything about the place!

The old wool merchants house was huge. Here's a picture and the line shows the old front of the existing tudor building:















Alo in the Old Grammar School there is 19th century graffiti on the old school desks, carved out with chisels:














And still attached to the underneath of the desk are beautifully copied out lines, maybe written under duress as punishment for some boyish misdemeanor, that reads 'Industry leads to independence' - a very Victorian sentiment!:















There are some very unusual details about the OGS too, (sorry I won't bore you for too long...) such as the fact that the lower part is 15th century while the upper part is older, from the 14th century! And the window at the far end of that part is taken from a church or chapel, and we have dated it to be from the 13th century! What a mish-mash!
The school had schoolboys being sent from across the country to Kings Norton from about the 13th century until the end of the 19th, and even in 1900 when the new school got overcrowded. At one point this small building, smaller than mine and Alex's house held an impressive library collection and up to 200 schoolboys! As for the wool merchants house (known by the name the Saracen's Head because that was the name of the pub part of it was refurbished and turned into in Georgian/Victorian times) it displays in turns craftiness, cowboyish construction and delicate craftmaship. The coyboys of the 16th century added on an extensio that makes the fiascos on the television programme DIY SOS look accomplished! I mean it's all wonky and off at angles - it makes me feel sea sick! Crafty because they put s sign over a window - it said "DAIRY" but it was to fool the taxman and avoid wondow tax! But beautiful all the same. I can't wait until the whole place is open to the public again... in time for our WEDDING!!! Yey!

Seeking Lourdes

I just got a message from my friend Lourdes Ramos Isorna, Laura - she's moved to Madrid as well! Can you look out for her? She's a Sevillana (I can't imagine her ever losing that accent!) and she has curly dark her, and a deep laugh, and she's lovely! If you see her you might remember her from the boat party in Sevilla in 2001! Fingers crossed, the world is not so big...

Acabo de recibir un mensage de Lourdes, una amiga de mi ano en Sevilla. Parece ser que ha trasladado a Madrid. Seria genial a saber si conoce a Laura, por uno de estos coincidencias enormes de la vida!

Afterwards I got dressed up, a real chore when it is soooo hot, and went out to meet Annette for her 30th birthday. We went to the Mailbox, a lovely canalside development of many bars and restaurants and shops. It was Annette's 30th birthday, she was my manager when I worked at the NEC, an d a lovlier lady it is hard to find. I had fun with her and her significant other Paul and friends, here are a few snaps of them:










But my two favourite snaps are from earlier that day. We spent a year and a half waiting to see what the creeper in our garden would look like when it finally blossomed, and here it is in vivid purple. And Emma, the little madam, who since learning how to remove hats from her head has not kept a single one on!









Finally I had a go at yoga on Friday and I survived my gym class again today, so it's all good news. I doubt that I'll be quite as sprightly in the morning though..!

A Thank You

A big thank you to everyone for leaving such lovely messages of support. I feel loved!

I have started my second week at Biocare and it was a busy weekend too so there's lots to tell you, so lets start with...

BioCare. I have been taking my lunches in the sun, enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather we've been having recently. And to give you an idea of this little oasis I took some more pictures... Sorry if this is boring you, just skip to the next bit!






We went gosling hunting so I could get a shot of the cute little fluffy babies, but the second I brought a camera to work they went into hiding... I haven't given up yet though!






And this is the view from my desk! The herons make a lot of noise for no apparent reason, they just like to make a fuss. There's a main road just behind the bushes - if you look you can just about see a white truck going past, but it feels like we're in the middle of the countryside!



The first week went well. The training was very much just get stuck in, and I did. I feel like I pretty much know what I'm doing already!

This weekend the world cup began, like we hadn't noticed! Alex is currently glued to the box, watching his third match of the day, his sixth in two days! The man is a machine! So Nathan and Laura came over with Emma and we had a pre-match barbeque. There are George crosses all over the close and quite a party atmosphere here. Nathan and Alex disappeared upstairs to watch England vrs Paraguay and me and Laura entertained Emma for a few hours. Unfortunately Emma had been in close contact with her cousin who next day came out in very strong chicken pox, and because I've never had chicken pox I kept Emma at arms length. We had fun but she did occasionally frown at me as though she realised I wasn't acting normally because usually I pick her up and throw her all over the place!

BioCare

I've been at BioCare for 2 days so it's time for an update. IT'S LOVELY!

My manager is Karen, then there's Linda and Wayne and another guy just joined today. We're the marketing and design bunch. In the office next door are the new business and export ladies. Nikki does new business and both she and Linda speak Spanish, so we chat away in Spanish for fun which is lovely! And it turns out that my manager's hubby is a PE examiner for OCR, which means at some point he'll meet Alex, small world hey?

Next room along the corridor is the MD James, who seems lovely, very hands on and respectful. We sit next to a lake where herons nest and he bought a plastic heron to keep the birds from attacking each other's territory! Every so often he nips down to the lake to move the plastic heron to a new lakeside location, he is a real Bill Oddy!

Next along the corridor is Sarah, the HR manager, who is lovely. Her name is Sarah Bannister, and I thought it was odd that her surname is the same as my godfather's (Bob) as it is such a rare name. But Rachel at church is also called Bannister so maybe Kings Norton is the centre of an ancient Bannister tribe!!! Note to self, ask Bob in case he has Kings Norton relatives...

And further along the corridor are offices for technical, sales teamc, other management people and then downstairs is the despatch, where the boys sing along to the radio as they package up the goods ready for postage. It used to be a transport museum, and before that it was a victorian factory I think, but anyway it's like a rabbit warren. I know my route in and out and I don't deviate from the route otherwise I might never be seen again!

I can't describe how different it is working in-house to for an agency. It's exciting because they are growing like crazy and the marketing had been pretty reactive instead of planned, now we're getting to do anything and everything. I come up with an idea and hey presto I get to go and do it. Time frames are different too. With agencies clients take ages to approve anything, here though Karen says we need a poster and later that day it's printed and up on display. We have loads of machines, big poster machines and printers, labelling machines, and a post machine that's bigger than our hallway, no joke! It makes our old marketing department at the NEC look really small.

But the best bit of all is the geese! In the mornings I walk in and walk past the mummy and daddy geese with their gosling babies, all fluffy and diddy! Bleeeeess! What cuties! I'm going to take photos tomorrow..!

Buuuf, no puedo traducir todo esto, perdoname! A ver, hoy fue mi segunda dia con la compania BioCare, mi nuevo empleo. En fin, ha sido genial! Claro no es perfecto, ninguna sitio es perfecto, pero me encanta. Esta situada al lado de un lago enorme, donde viven pajaros, y tenemos una vista de ello todo el dia. Antes estaba en el centro de una ciudad; que diferencia! La gente parece muy relajado y las horas de trabajo me parecen estupendo! Antes trabajaba de las 9 a las 5.30 pero si dejaste entonces te sentias como mala persona. Ahorra toda mi compania se va a las 5, y con solamente una caminada de 20 minutos en vez de conducir para una hora o mas, estoy en el cielo! Te lo ire contando, pero de momento no puedo creer mi buena suerte!

Photos!

Our tree is covered in blossoms and they are green in colour...











But soon they'll all be like this!












Our courgette plant is growing rapidly, can you spot the first courgettes?



















Our Antirrhinum will soon be covered in these beautiful blossoms


















Pads likes our garden furniture, she gets a brand new sun spot...










... and a brand new vista! The cutie...















And me, proud as punch!

Last few days

Well, I had a very lovely week off and full made the most of it. Being a lady of leisure was fun, but I was really looking forward to the new job so I tried to keep busy to keep my mind off from worrying about what the new place would be like. Poor Alex worked every day, he had to work both sundays of the last 2 weeks and even the bank holiday monday, but I played the role of good wifey and looked after him properly! Now it's my week at work and he's got a few days off so the roles are reversed!

On the last Saturday it was a beautiful day. We had Laura and Nathan over with Emma, Alex and Nathan watched the England football game while me and Laura and Emma sat in the garden all day and waited for the barbeque to begin! Emma played on her rug, refusing to move off it because she didn't like the feel of the freshly mowed lawn! Bless her.

The last 2 weeks have been extremely changeable weather, but for the first time in ages there wasn't a drop of rain and it couldn't have been better timed. The boys came downstairs from the England Jamaica football game, which finished 6-0, so they were in pretty high spirits. Then we started the barbecue which wasn't a minute too soon as it was 4pm and all we'd had was 2 slices of toast!

I walked to Spar to pick up pudding, and we were all very satisfied with the day. Then Alex couldn't keep his eyes open and Laura's hang-over from the night before kicked in properly and we called it a day... at 7pm! It was very peculiar. Alex went to bed and I was full of energy, so I attached the gardening, replanting herbs in the border, pruning, weeding, and moving plants about from where they were too cramped. I was gardening away quite happily until 10pm when I ran out of jobs to do and the light was fading. Then I just stood there, feeling very proud of myself, drinking in the quietness, until it was too cold to stay outside any longer.

Next morning, still rather pleased with my results I took photos... see next post!

Then I caught up with parents, Spanish friends who I haven't seen in years Margarita, Natasha and her sons, and my best buddies Lisa and Danielle during a visit to Coventry which was lovely. Lisa bought a house in March and finally moved in after her dad did all the diy, John is a great man to have on-side! It's a perfectly lisa house, with a minimalist garden and a purle theme running through the house and a purple chandelier in the bedroom!!! The gerbil seemed very at home and she seemed like a content woman, I couldn't have been more chuffed for her!

Lady of leisure

This past week has been great!
I have been busy but lazy simultaneously. The big plus has been a free pass for the Livingwell gym in Solihull which I got from Rowena on my last day at Bright. It's meant I've been swimming and I've relaxed in the sauna, jacuzzi and steam room and I've had a go at a couple of classes. I wish I could afford a similar level of luxury on a more long term basis, but hey ho it's been great for a week! Last session will be tomorrow, sob. I'm planning to get there early to make the most of it.

Today I spent some time with my dad, which was lovely. We went to Baginton in Coventry to search for an Anglo Saxon burial ground, as you do. Bless him, we clambered over grassy banks, unsuccessfully attempted to scale tall fences, and walked around avoiding stinging nettles and the like. We found the land we think the burial ground was located, and it is quite exciting as dad thinks it may pre-date Anglo Saxon times and have been originally established by Celts...

On a similar historical note, a piece of news caught my attention recently on the BBC. "The burial ground of Queen Boudicca could be next to a burger restaurant in Birmingham, it has been claimed. An excavation is to take place at the site in Kings Norton after evidence it has Roman remains buried there." So as well as being the site of our church restoration project it is possible the Queen of the Iceni fought here against the Romans too!

I can almost feel your excitement...

Next week I start my new job at BioCare. I'm very excited!

La semana que viene empiezo mi nuevo trabajo, y tengo nervios pero tambien quiero empezar ya! Esta semana lo he pasado muy de calma pero tambien haciendo muchas tareas pequenas. He ido a un gimnasio unos veces y he usado la sauna y la piscina etc, y con mucho gusto, pues en mi ultimo dia de Bright mi companera me di un pass gratis para un gimnasio de lujo, donde tienes que ser parte del club. Te dan toallas y todo es limpio y bonito, no como la piscina municipal tonde suelo ir! Pues me gustaria ir a uno de estos gimnasios de lujo pero no tengo el dinerillo asi que esta semana ha sido un gran lujo!

Last Bright photo

Also am attaching a photo of Kelly who had gone on holiday before my last day so I couldn't get a photo on the day; looking good, Kel!