Which almost doesn’t need saying.

My 2 weeks off have finished (well, technically they finished Monday but hey – that’s what procrastinating is all about) and I’ve been avoiding going back to PB. No particular reason, except if I go back I have to start work on my honey project again. I don’t particularly mind that, but for some reason I am doing my utmost to avoid going back. Time wasting. Once I’m there I’ll be fine – it’s this anticipation of having to change, and knowing that I only have 2 weeks left to finish my project and after that I have 8 weeks of sheer hell (supposedly – Equine Surgery followed by Small Animal Surgery – the two most infamous rotations). Then in the 4 weeks after that I’m expected to write up my honey and two case reports that are coinscidentally due in at the same time. Oh and you don’t get any free time on the surgeries. So I should really be doing something now too. Like honey. After the 4 weeks I go on to do EMS for two weeks (which is irritating as my case reports are due in the Friday before I go on EMS to collect the information about them – which obviously doesn’t work). Then Christmas. Then 2 more weeks of EMS. However, to further confuse things, my vet is away the first week in Jan so I have to see if I can do that week in my 4 week November block instead. When I’m supposed to be writing 3 bloody reports.

Arsey arsey poo bum willy fart.

I just got my seemingly weekly call at the moment to deal with a bird that had been caught by our cats in the garden. The little thing was fluttering head first in the lawn, disoriented, being protected from the cat by my Dad. I picked it up and discovered it was a robin. I had a look at it and couldn’t find any external wounds bar a damp patch, probably from the cat mouthing it as she tends to do. Then as I’m wandering about impotently trying to think of a safe place to put a bird to recover from shock where the cats won’t get it, it went limp in my hand and died.

Bloody cats.

Yes, I went on holiday again. My Dad is a private pilot (soon to be flight instructor) and flies a nice little light plane that can carry about 3 people and minimal luggage. My parents and I flew to Orleans via Le Touquet. We flew out in the morning of the 23rd (Tuesday) at about 11am BST.

A ship we saw on the way over! With sails and rigging and everything!

The crossing was fine – very sunny weather and not too bumpy. A bit hazy. It took about 45 minutes to reach Le Touquet where we had a cuppa and refuelled. We refuelled the plane that is.

On finals at Le Touquet. The shaded thing on the left is the prop.

Us having a coffee in the bar of the aeroclub. They make better coffee over there.

We then took off again for Orleans. It took about 90 minutes to get there, which is about my limit with flying. I get a little nauseous, especially when asked to map read etc. So we get there at about 5pm local time (4pm BST, 3pm GMT. Aren’t times fun), and the hire car didn’t turn up. So we had to order a cab to the hire car place, and then argue with a girl we couldn’t speak the same language as until we sorted out the car. Then we had to find the hotel. That was fun – we had no maps (the silly hire car place didn’t provide maps) and we had a very vague and incorrect address for the hotel. We eventually found it at about 7.40pm local time. Luckily although the guy didn’t speak any English either he had a sense of humour and just spoke slowly and did actions so we could understand!

The hotel was in a very strange place – it was in a kind of industrial/retail park! We kept expecting to see a Curries or something. Anyway, having found it (eventually) we dumped our bags and went to the local Buffalo Grill for dinner. Which was really nice – nice atmosphere and delicious food.

The next day (Wednesday) we went to Blois, which had a large chateau in it that was steeped in the history of the royal family.

Mum and Dad get ideas for the hall…

Nice decor… the whole place was covered in gold leaf. It was stunning, and of course, unlike England, there weren’t any of these silly rules about taking photos inside historic buildings. So I went a bit barmy Lovely views as well:

It was built in 4 parts over 600 years

We then went to the House of Magie opposite which was dedicated to the magician and illusionist, Houndin. Not Houdini – Houdin. Houdini called himself that in recognition of Houdin’s genius.

The dragon show from the House of Magie – they howled and moved for about 10 minutes.

That evening we went back to the Buffalo Grill. Bit more crowded this time but still very nice food and atmosphere.

The next day we got up and drove out to the airport to check opening times. Naturally, it closed for lunch. The weather was abyssmal – raining torrentially. Updates from my Dad’s pilot friends let us know that hopefully the weather would clear later in the day as we planned to fly home… Since there was no way we’d take off before lunch we went to a maratime museum nearby at the Chateauneuf. Despite my inability to read even English historical information for any length of time, that was very interesting, and we wandered around the gardens outside afterwards, with the trees dripping and the sky being threatening. However when we got to the airport and by the time Dad had checked the weather reports, the cloud level had raised enough and was starting to break up, so we were ok to take off at about 3pm.

The flight back was rather bumpy as scattered clouds make for scattered thermals. Mum finds it boring when it’s not bumpy, so she was happy. I was going between happy and nauseous.

Dad and Mum

Me And yes, I did take it myself. I was chief camerawoman who resorted to snapping herself since everyone else was either busy or asleep. Note seemingly oblivious pose though – must keep up the appearance of being snapped. I took over 250 photos in total – most of scenery when flying admittedly but I have worried my parents a little – how one can take so many photos in 3 days…

Although the flight was stunning we landed at Le Touquet being chucked about a bit – helluva crosswind. We then got a cab into a very windy Le Touquet, ate crepes and went to the beach. Mum paddled and I filmed seagulls who had to walk sideways to save being blown over. It was blinding sunshine but a very strong wind.

We ended up walking back to the airport as there were no cabs, complete with clinking bottles from the intermarche. It takes about 30 minutes at a fast walk. As we were walking the weather slowly drew in. As we walked into the airport it really drew in and became very menacing, with thunder to the west. We legged it into the plane, did the fastest pre-flight checks ever and even the tower responded to us as fast as possible as they could tell we were trying to escape the thunderstorm that was about to hit the area. Had we not escaped it we would have been stuck in Le Touquet overnight. As we climbed out the storm neatly moved in and the airport disappeared…

Outrunning the storm.

We had to make a few adjustments to our course to avoid the storm and the rainclouds that popped up left and right, but it wasn’t too difficult. The plane can outrun storms of that size quite easily. One nice thing about bad weather though is it makes for spectacular scenery.

Wow…

Poor bunny. She doesn’t like being home – she gets locked in her cage for long periods.

To continue my holiday saga, on the 20th we did plan to do something but got waylaid and ended up doing sod all. I read my book pretty much all day. In the evening I went to my cousin’s house, had pie and chips, watched Round the World in 80 Days, and chatted about rabbits (rabbited…). She has a 7 year old cream Netherland Dwarf boy who only recently became a house rabbit. He’s tiny compared to the beast! She’s probably 3 times his size and weight… she is a large breed I hasten to add.

On the 21st we were going home but actually managed to fit a lot in in the morning. We first went to a garden centre and browsed – I decided I want a Bonsai tree. After seeing my cousin’s fiance’s tree the evening before I think I want to try keeping these tricky little shrubberies again. Gonna do my research though… *googles*

After the garden center we went to Pevensey Castle. A fun history, Pevensey Castle was a Roman fort initially, and then when the Roman’s left the Britons used it for trading. Some Saxons came along at one point and slaughtered them all. Then William the Conquerer used the fort walls (for the castle was not built at that time) to camp his army in when he landed on England, prior to the Battle of Hastings. He then built Pevensey Castle within the walls. Years passed (as they are wont to do) and in WWII the walls and castle had pillboxes installed to protect the coast against a German landing. Now that’s a military history. It reminded me a lot of Bernard Cornwell’s Grail Quest – or rather Heretic, since that’s the only one I’ve read so far.

Pevensey Castle and Roman Fort walls

Then we drove to the beach near where my cousin’s live as my Mum wanted to see the sea before we left.

Nan, Mum and the beach

After that we went to my cousins’ house for a cuppa before heading home. My cousin had just finish a 7 hour shift as a nursing auxillary and so was rather sleepy, but still managed to make half a cup of tea

Got home, and tried to install our new wireless router, but as usual had lost various passwords! So it had to wait until this morning to be finished when we could contact support etc.

And yes, I’d taken my lappy with me and written the last two entries on that as I went This blog engine let’s me post date entries! Very handy!

Dismal day today – it’s been raining non-stop for about 8 hours now. Most off putting!

I have no survival instinct with regards to heat, I’ve discovered. My right hand has a large inch long scar from 2 months ago, burning my hand on the oven, and right next to it is an identical new wound made a week ago doing exactly the same thing. My ring finger is still peeling from where I tried to pick up a pyrex dish that had been in the oven for 30 minutes – my thumb and middle finger didn’t scar from that encounter due to being in water for 4 hours afterwards. My left wrist has a scar on the top from the oven again, and one on the bottom from the iron. I burnt the side of my left index finger on my hair straighteners this morning. I just don’t feel the pain intensely enough to move away!

Today we went to Pevensey Bay where there is a marina, and we had a lunch at a Harvester. The weather was abysmal – so gloriously hot yesterday with blinding sunshine, and so dismal today. However, some folk had it worse… poor Ding is excavating in Surrey. Apparently she got a bit damp today… poor lamb! We then went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – me and mum have already seen it but Nan hasn’t and we decided we’d rather see that again than Bewitched. Not much of a range! It was highly amusing still – although this time we were watching it with an audience with an average age of abour 2.5 years. They didn’t really get the jokes… They did enjoy the slapstick though.

Then we drove to Battle. I love Battle – gorgeous town. I did work experience at the vets there once before going to college. The vets has an amusing name – Senlac – it’s the olde name of the area. Means “lake of blood”, i.e. from the bastardisation of the French for that phrase. As we were parking I heard a phone going off. I couldn’t see anyone so spent a few seconds looking mightily confused. Turn out that the phone was on the roof of a car nearby. I called back the last number that called and got the owner’s daughter. Eventually decided to leave the phone in a local pub on her instructions. People seemed shocked that I’d bothered! Signs of the times… We met up with my Aunt and had a meal in the Italian in Battle. Very nice food – good looking Italian waiter as well.

After that we drove back to my Aunt’s house for a coffee. Cousin Tols and her bf were there, and my uncle, so we had a coffee and a chat (well, I had a tea). And subsequently got a stomach ache.

I don’t know if you know, but I’m allergic to cows’ milk – I have to drink goats’ milk. However we ran out of goats’ a few days ago as we’re at my Nan’s, and because I always doubt I actually do have an intolerance to cows’ milk I’ve blithely accepted tea and cereal with cows’ milk since. Two days later a simple cup of tea causes stomach pains. So, I have learned something. I can get away with cows’ milk as a one off, say when visiting friends who naturally don’t stock alternative species’ milk, but I can’t drink it long term without unpleasant gut pains. Worth knowing!

I’m hoping to see my cousin tomorrow – her and her fiance live in a flat nearby that I haven’t seen yet, so I’m hoping to see them and their new pad tomorrow.

Mum’s now trying to teach Nan how to text. Nan has a mobile, and has had one for almost as long as me. Mum considers herself a textpert. They’ve had to turn off predictive text…

I’m at my Nan’s house for a few days! Today we went to a house and gardens called Great Dixter. Lovely stunning gardens and a old timber beamed house. It’s only open 2-5pm. According to a lady we met it’s incredibly labour intensive, keeping all of those gardens going. Also the owner of the house lives in it still, which makes for quite an interesting effect. The house is very much 15th century but has the occasional modern lamp or table and chairs. Expensive stuff too. The ancient parlour has an old chair with an old table, complete with bills and paperwork and a phone! Very striking.

No photos allowed inside the house but here are some of the gardens.

An architectural shot of the barn roof

Spikey plants with the house in the background

Nan and Mum in the Peacock Garden

Ok ok, I know, weather changes.

I am embarking on a healthy living project. As I did get up at noon and have spent all day since on the computer, I realise this is a either long overdue or impossible. But hey! Worth a try!

My Dad passed his commerical pilot licence yesterday! He’s now a commercial pilot! (or complete pillock as Mum loves to say).

Woo Dad!

And so that was summer, my dear friends. Did you enjoy it? My summer holiday starts on Monday. Lucky me.

I had a sense of nostalgia today. When I was at school I used to get to school about 30 mins before I needed to be there, thanks to cadging lifts with someone who was much more organised than myself (not difficult). Due to not getting on with anyone in my class (wasn’t talking to Pink Clogs at that point in time – we have a rocky history), I used to wander the grounds before school, and my school had some fantastic grounds. A little strip of the forest cut across the grounds, around the Greek Theatre. So come rain, shine or snow I’d be wandering around. I was never organised enough to have an umbrella or even a coat (we wore blazers) so have spent the rest of my life irritating my mother with a total disregard to being rained on, having been used to it at school. The best times were when it was raining like it is today. Too damp for any sane pupil to be out, so the woods were deserted, damp and dripping. Deserted bar one lone recluse wandering about with her brain on hold, just absorbing the sounds and smells of the damp earth and dripping trees. Probably explains why I find this weather so calming and why I adore walking in wooded areas. So much so I might go and stand by my backdoor a little longer.

Since losing the entire contents of my hard drive when my laptop first failed in September 2004 (blogs are very handy for records) I have become extremely wary of storing photos on my hard drives. Why I feel a knackered 3 year old smartcard is a better option, I’m not entirely sure. So I took the plunge today and cleaned out the smartcard, adding all my photos to neatly arranged folders on the hard drive. I shall now in a paranoid and nervous manner proceed to burn them to cds. *picks up top cd in column and finds it covered in tiny scratches* um… not that one, then… Oo there’s my aerosmith cd.

At least – I attempted to burn them to cd. The cd is still showing those little “waiting to be burned to cd” icons and yet is claiming there is no cd in the drive. So we shall go eat dinner, and return after a reboot to see if this situation is remedied.

Computers. A law unto themselves. And a law against Kais.