I had a smashing day off yesterday. I had Sarah and Orlaith over to our flat for a stitch and bitch session! Well, in reality, not much bitching, but lots of chatting and talking to and about Orlaith. She is lovely, getting to be very giggly and excitable, which makes her quite endearing. :-)

Sarah taught me how to knit with four needles. Sounds scarey, but in reality you knit with two and the other two are just holding the other stitches in place. I have started to knit a sock! I bought a sock kit months ago, with self striping wool. I am really enjoying it so far. I will probably take it to Scotland with me and see if I have time to do any knitting.

Speaking of Scotland, we leave tomorrow night! I am so excited! I think I will be doing all the driving, as there was a long wait for licences at the driving authority here, so it will probably arrive when we get back. But I am happy doing the driving. We will be on the sleeper train at quarter to midnight and arrive Friday morning at 7am.

Email me if you want something from Scotland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My museum has re-introduced bag checking on every visitor who walks thru the front door. This is due to the terrorist threats etc. Paranoia slightly, but still. I was on the bag check table today, and a small girl came up to me holding products from the shop. I told her she had to talk to her mum about buying things, as she had the money and I didn't have any. She kept at me (as much as a 4 year old can). I told her again to talk to her mum and ask her if she would buy them for her.

"But mum will say no"

So her solution? Ask a stranger to buy them for you!

I know who you are now. Thank you Parents!!

:-D

To M&P: Thank you for your love! But please, tell everyone who you are!!

xxx

Feeling a bit homesick today. Not sure why, just one of those days I think. I dreamt about my parents just turning up on the doorstep last night. I think it probably made me think/remember that that's almost an impossibility, seeing as though I am on the other side of the world from them at the moment. But, I spoke to them today, all is well with them. Just missing them and home and friends I think. Sometimes I wornder if people will forget me. Kind of an out of sight out of mind thing. I am sure it wouldn't happen, but I do wonder sometimes. Irrationally I am sure.

Had a wander about the shopping centre near work today in my lunch hour. I had a long lunch so I took full advantage and wandered about looking at the funny office workers, and the shops too. Decided I need a new pillow. I think I want to get highlights put in my hair again. Not sure yet. I will have to find a place that will do it cheaply!

This post is a bit random. I am feeling a bit random, a bit disconnected. I know this will pass. Just need a cuddle.

On the bright side, I have a phone date with my friend from home Maree! It has been ages since I have spoken to her. And I should get to speak to her kids as well - well, only two can talk as far as I know. Trinity is 9 now and Bowen is 4. Her third child, Corbin is about 10 months old, so not great to chat to on the phone yet.

Should be getting the internet at home in the next week or so - fingers crossed anyway. Our home phone number will not change, but we will be able to make international phone calls for free, as well as catch up with people on the internet with msn etc. I am looking forward to it, as I really miss having the internet at my finger tips!

Wednesday! Two more days til payday! I have been waiting a long time for this. Well, a month or so, but I'm not used to it. I have never, ever been paid anything other than weekly. It has been a steep learning curve. :-)

Not much to say really. Saw Sarah and Orlaith yesterday. They had gone to a movie with Sarah's friend and they dropped in to my museum afterwards. I signed all the necessary photographs and forms for Sarah's and Orlaith's Australian passports. It was lovely to see them. It is always nice to be able to show off my museum. They enjoyed themselves, and I met them after work for dinner. Orlaith was very happy and giggly which is nice.

Scott got in from work at 4.45am this morning. Poor thing.

We go to Edinburgh in a week and a day!

It's Monday, and it's a rainy, cloudy, and generally dreary day. So much for summer!!

On Saturday we trekked out to Gidea Park in Essex to Sarah and Jake's house for a barbeque. My quinoa salad was very tasty. The ingredients were: quinoa, chickpeas, corn kernals, celery, mushrooms, lemon jiuce and chopped fresh mint. I was very impressed with it. :) And it was so easy as well. All I had to do was cook the quinoa and mix in the vegies. I didn't cook any of the vegies, so there were some crunchy bits and some soft bits.

The barbeque was nice. There were new people to meet and talk to, as well as others who we had met at the wedding. Orlaith was mega grumpy for the first little while, but soon settled after being fed. She was like a child possessed when she saw Sarah's plate had some avacado on it. She lunged at the plate, grabbed the avocado and started stuffing it all into her mouth. It was very amusing to watch, especially as her hand-eye coordination is still developing!! So I ended up with avocado smooshed into my denim skirt and she ended up with it all up her arms.

Sunday we hung around the house a bit. Then headed up to Canary Wharf for some lunch and some shopping. Whilst in HMV, Scott got a call from the partner on his case asking if Scott could go into work for a few hours. This was at 4pm mind you! But he went in, and was home again by 8pm, the partner told him to take a cab home which saves him half an hour in travel time.

And it is another week of work. :-)

Friday!

Go Nessie go!!! Someone had a little to much time on their hands methinks!

It's Friday, I'm in the call centre, and I am a wee bit bored!

But...on the upside, I get to catch up on emails, figure out where to go in Scotland and chat to Dad on emails! So not a day wasted at all. This afternoon I shall be looking through the genealogy files my dad sent me over so I can update my database further. I am hoping to have it all up to date before we go to Scotland in 13 days (not counting of course!!!!) so it's all done.

Tuesday this week I caught up with Sarah and Orlaith. We went to see Cars (still funny the second time) at a mother and baby session. It was nice to see mums out with their babies. I dare say it can be a bit lonely/frustrating/etc to be at home all the time with just one small person. I know Sarah says she craves adult company (not sure how much of that I can provide though!!). After that we had a look through one of the two health food shops at Stratford shopping centre and at the wool shop. Sarah is a vegan, so I introduced her to two new things. Chocolate covered rice cakes, which sound odd but are really yummy, and to tofu weiners (sausages) which you can eat hot or cold. They have a yummy smokey flavour to them. We grabbed some lunch at a cafe, where poor Sarah was unlucky enough to bite on an insanely hot chilli pepper. After drinking copious amounts of water, sucking on ice and drinking my rice milk Sarah recovered. I felt really bad for her, as all I could do was hold Orlaith and watch. :-(

After lunch we jumped on the DLR and headed to Greenwich. We sat in Greenwich park and watched the drunk teenagers and chatted. Time really flew, as by the time we got on the DLR again, after ditching the idea of grabbing dinner because of a tired and grumpy Orlaith, it was 7.30pm! I think next time we get together, I think there will be knitting to be done.

My latest knitting project is a knitted bunny, no reason, just because. I have never knitted a toy before. It was meant to be a girl bunny, but I have made him a boy. He is holding a beach ball and wearing bright yellow shorts. I will put a photo here when I am finished him.

Last night we caught up with our old landlady, Gayle. We trekked over to Willesden Green in north west London. We had not been back since we left there in September last year. Gayle brought her new man, Phil, who is really lovely. I am happy she is finished with Mark, the loser we used to live with. Mark, so I hear, is living in a caravan outside Chelmsford somewhere (Chelmsford is east of London in Essex, the home of chavs). *insert comment about trailer trash here* We had a fantastic night, catching up on the gossip. She loves Scott and I, not sure why!! We get along really well. She is 48 (??) but acts about 30. We were talking about the people we used to live with, whom I have not thought about in a very long time, so that was a bit odd really. I am glad we are out of the sharehousing thing though. Reminiscing made me realise this and be thankful that Scott and I are in a place of our own. It's funny, as yes in sharehousing you have the opportunity to meet people, but that is only if you get along well etc. I have made close friendships at my work, as well as keeping in contact with people who are over here from home. Scott is lucky as well as his work peoples are young and he gets along well with them.

Tomorrow we are going to a barbeque at Sarah and Jake's house. I asked Sarah if she would like me to bring anything, she said either a salad or a dessert. I have a packet of quinoa at home, so I might make a salad out of that. I will make it vegan so Sarah can eat it too.

Off to listen to the silent phones in the call centre and to play with my family tree.

xxx

Picked up my shiny passport on Friday, so it's all official. I am a Hungarian. Just need to learn the language now. I understood quite a bit as a kid, but not much, if anything now. My friend Sarah, who has the same heritage as me, mentioned us learning Hungarian together. Now that she has a 5 month old baby, I'm not sure that will happen!! I will have to look around for a class myself.

Work was the same as usual. Although I did have the all time best example of visitor stupidity ever. I was asked by a lady where the toilets were, so I showed her the door to go out so she could duck upstairs and use the ones on the third floor. My museum is a bit of a maze, but we do have points where you can leave, all known by the staff. Next thing I know she is popping the emergency catch on the emergency exit from the gallery and is walking through. STOOPID! I showed her where to go, and she cannot follow instructions. And the big sign on the door saying "EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY" should have rung alarm bells, surely??? Humans are daft creatures.

Off to see Cars again tomorrow. I saw it last night with Scott. It was really great - funny, clever, great animation as usual. Tomorrow I am seeing it with Sarah. It is one of these mother baby sessions, so if your baby yells etc, it won't be alone. I wanted to see it before I went tomorrow just in case I missed anything, which I am sure I will as it is school holidays over here now, and I am sure there will be lots of kiddies around.

Forgot to mention yesterday that whilst on the barge I received a phone call from the Hungarian embassy in London. They left a message on my voicemail (in Hungarian) but I picked up the word embassy. Tried to call them, but gave up as the signal on my phone was not good enough. Sent my mum a text asking her to give them a call. She then rang me back with some very good news - my passport is waiting for me at the embassy in London! All I need to do is pick it up! YAY!!!! It is certainly a weight off my mind. I can tell you! I have been having stressed out dreams/nightmares about it.

So I am a Hungarian! I will pick up my passport tomorrow.

For those of you wondering why I have gone through the hassle.. I can work in the UK with a Hungarian passport without requiring a visa - Hungary is in the European Union now. :-)