Day 324 of 365: Empty Handed

Sooooo.....

My camera has been a moron lately and basically decided that it doesn't want to work too often, so whenever I go to take a photo, it shuts off. Not cool.

Annnndddd....I got a new mobile which takes MUCH better photos than my old mobile, but it didn't come with a USB cord, so even if I do take photos on there, I can't get them to my laptop.

The blog is at a standstill....

Day 323 of 365: I Really Enjoy...

...looking at signs in England, because sometimes they're hilarious!

Day 322 of 365: Lookie Lookie!

It's been MONTHS since I've seen Fudge (I originally introduced her HERE in my blog adventure).

Tonight we swung by my MIL's place to see if there was any mail sitting in the front hallway, and Fudge came up to see us.

I almost cried when I saw her, because I'm a big ol' baby!

Day 321 of 365: Ooooo La La!

Walking down Stockbridge's High Street

Ian has been on call this weekend, so when he woke up this morning he told me to stay in bed and try to get some more sleep.

An hour or so later I was woken by him asking if I wanted to go to Stockbridge and meet up with Lucy and Chris to go to a French market. "There will be cheese!" is what made me spring out of bed. :p

It was a lovely day though. The sun was shining, the breeze was not really cold, and the volcanic dust was spread across the cars (lol).

After the market, trying some free wine, and watching a Frenchman sneeze into his hand and then serve roasted nuts to customers, Ian, Lucy, Chris, their friend Vic, and I went to the Mayfly. We sat next to the River Test while watching duck rape, experienced a cheese tragedy, and drank a £17 jug of Pimms.

Lovely LOVELY day. Thanks, guys, for inviting Ian and I along!

Day 320 of 365: It Was One Year Ago Today

A beautiful robin chillin' on a birdbath at the hospital where my MIL is.

Ian and I went to see my MIL today at the hospital. She's been moved to one closer to home, but still not officially out yet.

Buuutt....I reminded her that it was one year ago today that Ian and I landed at Heathrow airport, thus beginning our life in England together. Can't believe it's been a year already!

It's had its ups and downs, I will say...buuutt...I'm living and learning, and I've made some great friends since living here. Don't know what I'd do without my peeps, especially my expat friends (I will quote Jamie on this one, because aside from Ian my expat friends are my bezzies). Plus I've gained a pretty cool English family.

I've seen lots of great things, experienced a lot, felt a lot of heartache dealing with distance, lack of communication, and missing people and things, but also had a lot of laughs.

Moving away and living in a new country certainly puts things in a different perspective. It has made me look at how my life really was when I was living in Ohio. I can now see why my Dad encouraged me to move. Won't go into too much detail, because I do not want to hurt anyone by saying something here, and I don't know who actually reads my blog...but the way things have been since I moved have not gone the way I had imagined them too. I think my expectations were too high? I have a lot of "What if's" that go through my brain, but then I have to try and listen to the advice of Ian and others. And I know if I need a good cry I can go to Ian and others.

No matter how hard things get though, or how I feel, at least I have some great people along side of me to help me on my journey. :) So thank you!

Day 319 of 365: Boo Hoo

So, no photos lately because I've been busy with trying to NOT worry about the practical driving test that I took yesterday....which I failed...but I won't go into any details.

Photos will resume tomorrow!

Day 318 of 365: We Are All Made of Stars

Absolutely GORGEOUS day today...

...but no time to really enjoy it because around 10am this morning, I met a woman that would decide the fate of my working career at the residential home.

It was the inspector from the CQC!!!

We had been waiting for months and months to have our "make or break" inspection. Was supposed to happen shortly after Christmas. But, it's now past Easter and it's finally happening.

Everyone working today had a short interview with her. She walked around the home. She looked at care plans. We all waited with baited breath.

Finally....at the end of the normal working day, we got the news.

We got the star that we needed to stay open and start admitting new residents!!!!!

The inspector said she wanted to give us 2 stars, but it's not something that can happen (to go from zero stars to two). So....they'll be back in October and if things are still going well or have gotten even better (which I'm hoping things'll get MUCH better), we can bump up to 2 stars!!

Definitely a wonderful day. It's nice to know that none of the residents have to move somewhere else.

And my co-worker, Jean, got me flowers as a way of saying thank you for driving her up to Basingstoke for our food training course a few weeks ago.


Now I'm absolutely knackered, and about to head out to dinner with Ian, Jon, and Amanda. :)

And also, thank you to Kathryn and Cheryl for picking me up from work today!!!!

Day 317 of 365: WOOOOO HOOOOO!!

Today was the warmest day of the year, thus far. And it was absolutely gorgeous!

Unfortunately, I couldn't appreciate it to the fullest because I had a long training day at the council offices. Although, the training was QUITE interesting and can't wait to learn and practice more.

Annnnnnddd......coolest thing. I went to bed early last night, but woke up when Ian came to bed. I had the greatest, sleepy laugh when I saw his most AWESOME mustache.

Ian and his co-worker decided it would be awesome to have weird mustaches for their meeting today, but I seriously think Ian should keep his for awhile. :)

Day 316 of 365: I Love....

...that spring has arrived.

I was able to have the day off today from work because I was owed a day from my holiday. Since I can't drive the car at the moment, and I had an appointment with the asthma nurse at the surgery right smack dab in the middle of the day, I took the bus into Winchester.

On the way in, I saw a woman with one of those personal, shopping trolley carrier thingies on the bus.

Little did I know that I had to sit next to her on the way back into the city, and she talked to the WINDOW the WHOLE TIME!!! When we got to the bus station, as soon as those doors opened I zoomed out.

Had a lovely walk around the city though, looking for hats for the residents for Ascot Day, and picked up a cheese and onion pasty and just HAD to look at this while I ate my lunch:


I love the cathedral. There were lots of children around today though. I think since it's Easter break for schools lots of kids had trips down this way to check out the historical city.

Also had a pretty good driving lesson today. Only 8 days until the test. *craps a brick*

Now.....time to make tea!

Day 315 of 365: Chirp Chirp

O.k....so this is a bit of a cheat entry today, because I didn't actually take the photo. It was taken by Jenny T, the kitchen assistant at work (she's a sweetheart, btw).

These little feathery things are the baby chicks that hatched over Easter weekend. My boss and I got a flyer in the post about a company called Living Eggs. So, we thought it would be adorable for Easter so we had it all set up. They were delivered early last week when I was on holiday, and today was the first day I had seen them. I picked them up, changed their bedding, almost killed them (the light fixture blew the bulb off of the unit and it shot across the box...the poor chicks! It LITERALLY scared the poop out of them), had some of the residents hold the chicks, and one of the carers and I gave most of them a bath in the sink in the toilet to wash the poo off their bums.

They go to a hobby farm this coming Saturday, but we still want to keep them. Just a shame that we no longer have grass in our courtyard because they could live out there free of harm. Oh well....hopefully they will go to a good home.

But aren't they adorable?!

Day 314 of 365: Oh Deer.....

There's Aggie, once again "hurt" because on our way to the pub quiz tonight (with Lucy and Chris in tow), a young buck ran out in front of the car. Its head smacked right into the headlight and bumper there, rolled up onto the hood a bit, and then skidded off to the other side of the road. If you click on the picture, you can see fur stuck in the car in two places.

I can't remember everything, because I closed my eyes thinking that the deer would come through the windshield and really hurt Ian and I.

After the guys examined the damage, we drove back to the house. Lucy drove the rest of the evening.

Buuutt....I managed to lock ourselves out of the house (had to go to the local pub to ask for a knife to break into our house. The barman said "Yeah right....you're going to go on a murderous rampage!"), then we did the worst EVER on the quiz last night. I think it was just because we couldn't think. My head kept bouncing from the deer to the car, and now I'm worried about how much the repairs are going to cost.

So hopefully tomorrow won't be as bad as today. And atleast we ended the evening on a nicer note because we ate some pumpkin pie.....

Day 313 of 365: Dr. What????

Tonight I watched my first ever, full episode of Dr. Who....and I actually really enjoyed it!

I've never been one to like Sci-Fi things, but between Dr. Who tonight, and Star Trek movie earlier this week, I think I may just be getting into the genre????

Day 312 of 365: Lordy Lordy!

Nice swim trunks, honey! :P

Ian and Kathryn are 40!!!

The Husband and K turned 40 today. Can't believe it, really.

They both got lots of cards, K got some lovely treats (like skincare, and massage vouchers, etc). Had a dinner out at the local pub, The Dolphin Inn. It was Ian, Kathryn, Yog, Matt, Carole, Lucy, Chris, Spencer, and I. We also took part in the pub quiz and came in 10th out of 16 teams...although, the Abbey Hotel need to do what The Dolphin does and give EVERYONE a prize. We got some Smarties Easter eggs.

After everything was finished, Ian, K, Yog, Lucy, Chris, and I came back to the house to drink, laugh, and eat some cake.

Was a lovely evening. :)