Alien Spouse

Speed Mobility System - From Milan.

It is utterly bizarre to me that I have somehow stumbled into a life in which I am shopping for motorcycle accessories.  How the hell did that happen?

I bought a SMS Visione in pearl white with black stripes, and it arrived yesterday.  I am very happy with it; it fits snuggly whilst still being nice and light, and I love how it looks.  There is a definite hint of Princess from G-Force about it, now all I need is a pink dress, a white cloak and some high white boots.

Originally I was heavily leaning towards a sliver glitter helmet, which was rather stunning, but that didn't have a face visor and I decided that whilst looking like a mirror ball might be fun, it might also be a little over the top.  So I went with something classic (and a good $50 cheaper...).

The SMS website has the following information about their designers:

"SMS is an Italian designed helmet line.  Mr. Landi is the main designer behind these exclusive scooter helmets.  Mr. Landi lives and works in Milan, where he finds much of his design inspiration in this beautiful old European city in the heart of Italy.  Guiseppe is the other Italian designer, responsible for building high quality, safe helmets with a stylish look.  Together they have created this elite line of scooter helmets with a distinct European retro feel."

I love that!  Mr Landi and Guiseppe!  

"Whadda You Got?"

Saturday is my only day off at the moment (which sounds worse than it is!), and we have a nice little routine going.  I love listening to NPR's "Car Talk", "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" and "The Splendid Table" with Doc C and Eva whilst we eat a leisurely breakfast, play silly baby games and generally sit around in our pyjamas.  It's very civilised.

The afternoon varies depending on our mood; so today we got out the scooter for a short scoot and a short photo shoot.

The weather wasn't very nice today so I really didn't do much more than ride up and down in front of the house at a top speed of about 12 miles an hour.  It was exactly like something out of "The Wild One".

After that we went out for a lunch of burritos, a walk around the UNCA Botanical Gardens (Eva loves it there!) and then we went to three different motorcycle dealers to look at helmets.  A helmet was included with the scooter - but the previous owner was quite a heavy smoker, so it does smell of cigarettes and besides I have no idea how old it is and therefore how sound it still it is.  So I want a new one.  No luck today, but there's no rush.  I want to buy something that I really like the look of, co-ordinates with the scooter (obviously!) and that keeps me safe.

Today has been fun and we even have some frozen yogurt for desert.  Yum!

Blue and White with Chrome.

Well... I own a second-hand Keeway Agora scooter.  It's pretty cool looking, don't you think?

I chickened out of riding it home, which was probably a less than ten minutes journey, but I suddenly felt very aware that I haven't driven anything for twenty years.  Doc brought Eva and I home, walked back to collect it and then rode it home.  He liked it a lot - But he'd better not get too used to it, I tracked down a local motorcycle riding instructor and I've already e-mailed to set up some training.  Then those roads will be MINE!

A Runabout.

Doc C has been doing our taxes today, and thinks we might have a bit of money coming back to us; which would be lovely.  We are doing some fantasy shopping with the money (which we'll probably end up paying bills with - but let's pretend, eh?); my current favourite notion is buying a scooter, so I can zoom around town on my own.  It would be so much easier than having to drag the entire family out in the car, not to mention it looks like fun.

Ideally I'd like something like a classic Vespa in a nice cream with a pearl finish, but I expect you pay over the odds for the name and I'm not that fussed about the colour - Just so long as it isn't pink!

 

Second First Day! Wheeeee!

Squee! First day at the video production company was great, and my new job title is "Production Manager".

Of course there always has to be something doesn't there? Today we hopped in the car with plenty of time to get there... And discovered that a road crew had started to dig a trench right across our street... Which is a dead end, so we had to wait for them to use the digger to fill it in a bit with rubble (it was like watching an enormous mechanised cat scrabbling in a litter tray).

So I was about twenty minutes late on my first day - But I had a really good explanation and a mobile phone photo to prove it should that be necessary.  Because that has to be the worst excuse ever, doesn't it?

Happy Mothday!

Today is my lovely Mum's birthday - So I'm boxing up Eva and sending her via airmail!

Happy Birthday Moth!

I'm joking, obviously I'd never put a baby in a large cardboard box with a bunch of packing peanuts and then tape the lid shut.

Edith on the other hand...

That is her idea of heaven, plus she loves to travel and meet new people!

Again, I'm kidding!  Please don't put either babies or cats in a cardboard box and ship them internationally.  I'm pretty sure there would be some shipping tax issues for starters.

(In all seriousness the baby was never let out of my sight whilst lying on the packing peanuts, because I wouldn't trust her not to choke on one and that would be so awful - Edith knows better then that and simply bats the packing peanuts around with her paws.)

Big Box.

Doc C is the youngest of 9 children, and all of his siblings already have kids - So we've been getting a lot of stuff sent to us for Eva over the last few months.  One of Doc's sisters had a particularly posh pram slash pushchair that her own daughter had just grown out of, so my Mother-in-Law paid for it to be shipped it to us along with a big bundle of clothes.  We knew to expect it, but when the UPS guy knocked on the door with a box almost as big as he was, well, it was still a surprise!

This thing is ENORMOUS.  I mean I knew that Jamie had only just grown out of it, and she's now five, but this is really built like an upholstered tank.  We weren't sure if we would actually be able to fit it in the car (we can!), and it is totally impractical for this apartment unfortunately.  Fortunately our current pram will be fine for a while yet, and then we can switch to the super-fancy-hand-me-down when we really need to. By that point we may well have moved apartments, and I think we really do have to find something on the ground floor next time.

In the mean time we've been forced to put it in storage, because it was taking up so much floor space and because Edith had decided it was a mobile cat condo.  Having taken that away from her we haven't quite had the heart throw away the box yet, so Edith been throwing herself around in that this afternoon.

Primary Carer (For Four Days Anyway!)

Doc C is at a conference this week and he won't be back until Saturday night, so it's just me, the cats and my darling baby at the moment.  

Eva's been really good, but she's still not very chatty so I walked down to the bakery with her this afternoon partly to make sure I had at least one adult conversation today - Even if that conversation was purely "Could I have a multi-grain sandwich loaf please? Thanks!" Actually I also asked for a bear claw and a iced raspberry tea, so it was really quite the chat!

Eva's Transportation Options.

Today Eva and I tried out both of her carriers (she has a Moby, which is essentially a long strip of fabric, and one of those backwards backpack types too) and walked around the apartment with them on.  Actually we did try leaving the house for a walk, I'm trying to get a walk in every day, but it started to rain almost the moment we got outside.

Still, it was good to try out the carriers, and I think it's going to be really useful to have different transportation options for Evalyn Alice.  Particularly on a day like today when I realised that we'd left the wheels to her pram in the boot of the car, which is only a problem because it's one of Doc's teaching days so the car, and therefore the wheels, are with him!

Never mind though, there isn't anywhere either myself or Eva need to be right now; except snuggled up at home reading Agatha Christie (Me) and being super cute (Eva).

My Mum and My Baby.

Moth's flight home was yesterday morning, so I walked to her hotel with Eva to have breakfast before she left.  Eva was a fairly well behaved baby, but she did want to be held; this actually turned out to be very useful because I suddenly realised I hadn't taken any pictures of my Mum holding her.  What was I thinking?!?!  I got a couple of really nice pictures of the two of them, which made me very happy!

I was really sad to see Moth go, but that's the problem with moving to a foreign country isn't it?  The very definition of it being foreign is that it's far away from home, and that sometimes sucks quite frankly.

On the other hand Eva is a little bit fractious at the moment, which I think is because she's hitting a developmental stage (yes, I have a book about that too.  This one's called "The Wonder Weeks", and it apparently predicts these points in a baby's young life so you can brace for them.  You can't avoid them, just be slighltly more mentally prepared.)  Eva was really quite well behaved and snuggly whilst Moth was here, so that was actually pretty great timing in many ways.

I just hope that the next time Moth visits or we go home to England (I think it's Evalyn's home too, right?) it can be for longer, of course by then Eva will be a little bit older too, so she might be more aware of things.  That would be lovely.

Girl's Night In.

Doc C's teaching schedule means he has to stay with our friends Randy and Laura twice a week, and tonight is the first time he's been away over night since Eva was born.  I know it was really difficult for him to leave this morning, and I miss having him here, but at the same time that was the deal we accepted when we moved here and I'm certain it was the right choice for us.

Of course, when Doc's away that means that I'm the responsible adult in the house.  

Yikes,

Right now, I am responsibly typing with one hand whilst Edith and Eva are both sleeping on my lap (Eva is actually snuggled under the waistband of one of my maternity skirts, just like she was two weeks ago!) - Let's hope Nancy doesn't try to join them, because there is no more lap visible at this point.

Practice Run.

In the spirit of "I could go into labour ANY minute", whilst we were out getting a few things for dinner, we also drove over to the hospital and made sure we knew where the maternity ward is.

I think Doc C feels a little bit better about the impending panic run now.  Not good, but a leetle teeny bit better.

The Bella of Cars.

A quick summary: Last week we moved to a new flat in a new city, where we are expecting to have a baby in about 6 or 7 weeks time.  Naturally this is the perfect time to also buy a new (used) car.

So we did.

We traded in the red Mini and got a black Honda Fit.  It's nice!  It's not a Mini (which we must have said at least 50 times today - we were, after all, at a Mini dealership, surrounded by Minis and everyone in the building was wearing a t-shirt proclaiming their love of Minis), but it's nice!

Of course my good opinion was immediately secured when we went for our test drive, because when I opened the car door it smelled like a really nice packet of orange almond cookies.  We now own a car that smells delicious.  Beat that!

Car Seat : Mouse Tested!

Last week we ordered the car seat from Amazon, and we picked it up from the post office today!  Very exciting!  Neither cat has exhibited any interest in being a stunt-baby (in fact you might call their attitude to this idea "total aversion"), so we used Miss Mouse as a stand in for Eva.

She fits the new-born seat insert pretty well, doesn't she?  I imagine Eva might be a bit bigger, but not much really; so it's really weird to realise that she'll totally outgrow this seat before I'm even completely used to the idea that I have a daughter.

We chose this car seat because it clicks into a base in the car, so it's really easy to lift in and out, but also because there is a wheel base that goes with it so the car seat turns into a pram.  It doesn't hurt that it was actually one of the cheaper options we found, but we mostly were impressed by the reviews it got on Amazon and the ratings that Consumer Report awarded it.  We looked into this very thoroughly before committing to a choice as you can see, and actually I think it's going to work really well.  It seems to be well designed and sturdy, but it's still light enough for me to be able to carry it with one hand (you see this is where the cats would have come in handy as they are about the weight Eva will be when I'm lugging her around in the thing at first).

The car seat itself and the base for it both have an info-graphic on it to show the correct orientation of the seat, and that info-graphic is quite clearly of a Mini-Cooper. Doc C has been very much of the opinion that we HAD to change the car because getting a baby seat in and out of it would be too complicated.  I thought that this info-graphic might indicate that he was wrong about that, so we did practice setting up the base in the car and took turns putting the chair in and taking it out.  I'll admit it was not ideal, particularly because once the car seat was safely installed then you couldn't put the driver's seat back in place.  Hmmmm, Doc may have a point here.

A Very Warm Weekend.

I am very glad that we had plenty of time to pack for this move, because it is TOO HOT to pack more than one small box before stopping for a large glass of water and, possibly, a restorative two hour nap.  At least  I am not whining about it too much and I know this because Doc C has commented several times about how my tolearance for warm weather has improved over the years we have lived here.

This weekend was actually pretty good for heat avoidance.

Saturday we spent at Randy and Laura's for Jasmine's send off to Australia, which was lovely.  There was a cake with a map of Australia on it and everything!  Jasmine is going to be spending a semester in Oz, but her visa is for six months so she might stay a bit longer to explore under her own steam.  I am so excited for her, it is going to be a proper adventure whilst still helping her to get her undergraduate degree - Bonus!

On Sunday it was as hot as the surface of the sun.  I am sure of it.  It was desperately uncomfortable in the house, and we basically both ended up fitfully napping under the living room ceiling fan, until Doc C finally snapped and demanded we go to the cinema just to get some air-condtioning.  There was nothing we really desperately wanted to see, but "The Amazing Spiderman" will always be pertinent to our interests so we watched that.  Eva seemed to particularly enjoy it, and was extremely wriggly through out; for once she actually carried on bumping around after Doc put his hand on my tummy so he got to feel her moving too.

The Proverbial Till.

I promise that I was only inside the Franklin Fountain long enough to order a ice cream sundae, have it made for me and then pay, before heading to the tables outside to eat it - So what's that? Probably less than ten minutes? Not long anyway, but it was thoroughly enjoyable to be in a place where there was so much to look at and admire for it's charming attention to detail.

Even the cash register was appealling - and inspired a short photo essay!

As you can see it's a gorgeous vintage till, with pressed tin sides and a big glass display for the prices - except the prices on the tabs have been removed, so instead when your total is rung up you get a proverb! The family standing a couple of people ahead of me in the queue got "Search Others for Virtue, Thyself for Vices".

The men in front of me (covered in tattoos and clearly both tough as nuts, but still in the mood for some ice cream with hot fudge sauce) got "A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned"

Mine was "Talk is Cheap Because Supply Exceeds Demand", which I quite like.

I also very much like the soda jerk uniform for the Fountain, although I feel bad about referring to them as "Soda Jerks" because everyone there was lovely despite a line of customers going out of the door meaning they really didn't have a second to even turn round between customers! Still, aren't the uniforms great? I particularly love the classic combination of the little hat and the bow tie.

An Ice Cream Sundae.

So on Friday, not four days ago, I was in Philadelphia sitting outside in the sunshine eating ice cream.

It was snowing here yesterday, and it's really not that much warmer today.

I also ate a lot of salad, fresh vegetables and fruit whilst we were away - It wasn't just ice cream! I only have photo evidence of some of the fruit though.

 

Extremely Comfortable Cats.

When we are away for a few nights I make a nest on our bed for the cats, it's just made out of pillows underneath the covers so that they've got a little nook to curl up in that smells like us. Not that I think the cats themselves are sentimental, but they do like a certain reliable routineness to their surroundings.

Anyway...

We got back from Philladelphia last night and it was obvious that the cats had been sleeping in the nest I made them. And yes, ok FINE, I did think that was very sweet so when I got up this morning I did put it back together and Nancy immediately curled up in it. Edith meanwhile spent her morning following me around the house (I booked an extra day off because I wasn't sure how late we'd be getting home, or how Eva was going to like flying this time).

Then I noticed I no longer had a floofy grey shadow, and went upstairs to discover both cats curled up on the bed. You can tell by the look on Nancy's face that she is only doing this because it's cold here today.

Of course the minute she heard the camera Edith started posing and flirting with the lens, and she looks gorgeous - But Nancy looks super gormless in those particular shots, so I stuck with the ones where she merely looks annoyed to have been caught in this position.

Phriday.

Friday and I'm in Philadelphia! Yay!

I started off my day with a forty minute walk uptown to get to the book fair, with a couple of detours to Lush (Fresh Farmacy soap & Imperialis moisturiser) and H&M (nothing in my current size). The books were ok, but nothing amazing. I bought an anthology of Campion murder mysteries & a trashy murder mystery set in Philly, with some nice over art.

By this point it was lunch time, so I re-traced my steps to a falafel place I spotted earlier. I had forgotten how much I like falafel. I finished my lunch,and bought three falafel balls to tide me over for the rest of the walk back to the hotel. And I stopped at a different falafel place a bit further on, because they had juices as well and I thought a nice vegetable juice would be a good counterpart to my plans to get ice cream later.

Obviously by the time I got back to the hotel there was just time to say hi to Doc C, have my after lunch nap and then go out for ice-cream. What? The baby needs calcium! Ok, she perhaps didn't need that calcium to be covered in hot fudge sauce, but that was just how it came! In an appealing rum-raisin / pistachio flavored format!

Doc still had some conferencing to do, so I came back to the hotel to wait for him, and then took him to a martini bar nearby that had good reviews for food. Those reviews were well earned.

So yes, I ate my way around town today and I'll probably do it again tomorrow!

Sunny Philadelphia.

We are in Philadelphia! Yay!

We were in town for no more than three hours before we found ourselves a cup of coffee, a park bench and then a really good second-hand bookshop (I cleaned them out of Nero Wolf mysteries and Doc bought a couple of philosophy texts). Doc C doesn't start conferencing until tomorrow morning, so we spent the afternoon strolling around some beautiful sunny parks, full of flowers and leafy trees. For dinner we had curry, which was delicious.

Tomorrow I intend to go to a huge book sale which the nice lady in the bookshop gave me a flyer for, as well as the obligatory visit to Lush and maybe H&M. I have also just discovered there is an old fashioned soda fountain just around the corner from the hotel, so I suspect there is a banana split in my future.

As for as my plans for Saturday, I got really excited when I saw that both "The Artist" and "We Need To Talk About Kevin" were playing, but the first ended it's run this afternoon and the second is only screening across town. The cinema around the corner is a really good art house cinema with five screens, but I just don't fancy any of the films they'll be playing this weekend.

So far the only disappointment has been that the fantastic deli diner I found last time we were here has closed, and I was planning to take Doc there on Sunday! Oh well! Still, it's just so lovely to be in a beautiful and historically rich city. An urban setting is simply my true mise en scene.

A Field of Buttercups.

When we were in Winston-Salem for the ultrasound we couldn't park right next to the clinic we were going to, so Doc C dropped me off and went to park the car somewhere else. It turned out to be next to a field full of buttercups!  So pretty!

For some reason Doc laughed when I suggested Buttercup as a middle name - Which is weird, because I know he loves "The Princess Bride" as much as the next card-carrying geek.

Such a Girl!

On Monday we drove to Winston Salem for Genetics Counseling ("Are you related?" "No, that seems highly unlikely - Did you clock the accents?" * ) and an ultrasound. At this point they can say, with 95% degree of accuracy, what gender your baby is and our tech was pretty certain that the alien spawn is a girl!

This is especially good because we were finding it difficult to choose a name for a boy, but we both really like the name Evalyn for a girl. I had a Great-Aunt Eveline who I was very fond of, and, whilst Doc C never met her, he just really loves the name. Just like my Aunty our daughter will be Eva for short, but we are going with a different spelling to make the pronunciation clearer - If we spell it Eveline she will almost certainly be referred to as "Eve Line" or possibly "Ever Line", and we want her name to be pronounced "Eva Lin". 

We were just brain-storming names when I first threw Evalyn out as a suggestion and I didn't think much more about it, until the Doc brought it up again when we were having the same discussion on another occasion. He really liked the name and was already very keen that we call our child that if she were a girl (I don't think I was even pregnant at this point!). I do think it's a pretty name, but it's also good that Aunty Eva was actually quite amazing in her own way. Eva was a Major in the army, which was one of those details of her earlier life that blew my mind as a child; because to me she was the woman who knitted me hooded cardigans, made me elaborate soft toys, gave me books like the "Chronicle of the 20th Century" and could be relied upon for incredibly rich tea-time confections. I also think it was damn cool that she didn't marry and never seemed to regret that particularly; she was proudly independent and self-reliant, so, whilst I'm sure we would disagree on things like politics if she were still alive today, her strength of character is definitely something that I hope my daughter will be inspired by.

 

* When we lived in London and were taking the night-bus home one evening, the drunk guy sitting in front of us turned around and, having clearly been eavesdropping on our bus-ride banter, abruptly asked "Are you brother and sister?" and then said "No, because you are British and he's American, so are you a couple?". Drunk guy's girlfriend was mortified, but it was really funny!

Accessorises.

I bought this vintage Samsonite travel bag on Etsy specifically to use as my carry-on luggage when we flew to Vegas. After we got home I simply never transferred my stuff back out of it again, so it's become my everyday handbag.

It's ironic that I think this bag is so fabulous when it is only a shade or two brighter than the green that made my school uniform so very hideous and despised. Seriously, who dresses an entire girl's school in mushy pea green blazers and skirts?

The shades have long been a favourite of mine, but I could only wear them when I had my contacts in - until I got prescription lenses put in! Also just in time for the Vegas trip! 

Dry Shampoo.

When we went to Las Vegas in January I spent most of my money in two shops; Lush Cosmetics and H&M (Maternity Wear Department). Yes, I went to Vegas and came back with a great deal of fancy soap and a pair of maternity jeans. I think, perhaps, I misunderstood the point of Vegas, you know?

We can put the trip to H&M to one side, you don't need an essay on how comfortable maternity jeans are, but Lush had a revelation in store for me this time. I love being able to browse in an actual Lush shop, because, whilst I know a lot of their products really well at this point, there is always something new that I either haven't heard of before, or that I want to smell &/or ask questions about before I buy it. This time I discovered they had brought out a dry shampoo, No Drought, which seemed interesting.

Ok, so WHY didn't anyone tell me about dry shampoo before? Did everyone know except for me? I have very fine hair, I've been washing it every day for years now and that then necessitates putting products in to try and get some volume and texture.  It turns out that if I wash it every other day, and then use dry shampoo on the second day. That works really well, and I'm starting to think that my hair looks better on the second day.

This is great for three main reasons; first of all it saves me time when I'm getting ready on the alternate mornings, secondly I'm bound to use less hair product this way and therefore save money and, thirdly, this is the perfect excuse to buy a retro-glamorous shower cap (I know point two was about saving money, and point three is about spending it - But this is a one-time purchase of a shower cap at $23, as opposed to repeated purchases of, say, textured hair cream at $26 a tube).

This may seem trivial, in fact it is trivial, but it's important to find and appreciate the small things that make one happy (especially when one isn't allowed a martini). A good book? Captivating! Birds singing? Adorable! A blue sky? Enchanting! Your hair behave the way you want it to? Luscious!

Cake and Asheville Therapy.

Here is a nice slice of cake from a hippy cafe that we went to in Asheville. (Well, I say it was a hippy cafe, all of the lovely smiley girls behind the counter had dreadlocks and/or tattoos of trees, but then it had a very clear "brand identity" and logo, plus really plush bathrooms so it was distinctly upmarket hippy.)

 

This was a chocolate almond cake made with beet sugar, which is why it looks slightly pink. This adds fuel to my theory that Red Velvet Cake really does not need to be made with three bottles of cochineal in it, but that the same effect could be achieved in a much less artificial manner. It was quite dense, not too sweet and altogether a nice bit of cake. 

 

This was the introductory snack to my Asheville day trip therapy which also included:

• A two-hour drive there, listening to Kylie all the way (I was DJing, obviously, and in dire need of some handbag pop)
• A haircut from Naomi
• Browsing second-hand books
• Delicious lunch (I had really good fish-and-chips, Doc C had shrimp stuffed salmon that he was just ecstatic about)
• Shopping for maternity clothes (a striped grey dress, a skirt, a blouse and two t-shirts) and anti-stretchmark body lotion
• Unexpected bonus purchases of make-up and a picture book about London.
• A two-hour drive home, listening to Ok Go (I was DJing again, but being kinder to the Doc)

My lobbying for us to move to Asheville has been moved up a notch.

Hydration.

Clearly whilst on the flight back from Las Vegas I didn't drink enough water, which you would have thought would hit me yesterday but it was actually this morning I woke up with a headache and a raging thirst, so clearly I had dropped below acceptable water levels. Doc C got up to feed the cats, then he brought me a bottle of Perrier water and the iPad, so I could e-mail in to work as de-hydrated.

I stayed in bed until about ten, and got to work at eleven thirty (a mere three and a half hours late). I brought with me a large coffee (Don't tell me the coffee is a diuretic, I know that, I still needed the caffeine), a litre of water and half a litre of Gatorade which Doc made me to make sure I got my electrolytes.

With all of that, I should have been able to swim home.

Las Vegas Recap.

As you can see Edith felt very strongly that she should be coming to Las Vegas with us, and attempted to pack herself in to my suitcase on Thursday evening. She would make a fabulous show girl actually, with that plumey tail and gorgeous figure (it's hard to believe she's had kittens).

I didn't really take many photos over the weekend, because all the suff I'd want to have a picture of was either something I was prohibited from photographing (for example Doc C intentally scrutinising our crime scene at the CSI Experience) or something I didn't think would photograph well without some professional level lighting equipment (for example the jellyfish display at the Mandalay Bay Shark Reef Aquarium).

It was obviously imperative to take a photo of our hotel at night, because it was a quite ridiculous fake castle with turrets and other such nonsense.

It was annoying that I couldn't get a shot of both The Excalibur and New York, New York's Faux Liberty without the walkway's guard rail in it, but I think you get the point. Ridiculousness.

Home Safely - Yay!

At the start of the flight we thought we'd never take off, because we were delayed by returning back to our gate to fet medical attention for a passenger (I have no idea what was wrong, or how serious it was, or if he's ok - So it's kind of hard to be sincerely sympathetic if I'm totally honest. It was a pain in the backside for everyone else on the flight frankly!). At the end of the flight we thought we'd never land, because we were already delayed and then we got caught in fog. I am so glad to be off that plane and home in my own bed.

Leaving Las Vegas (Which, OMG, is a depressing film)

Last breakfast at Krispy Kreme before we catch the flight back to Charlotte. We're both pretty tired this morning, but Doc made $450 at the MGM poker table last night, so he's talking about upgrading to first class on the way home!

Viva Las Vegas! (Unoriginal But Apt)

Vegas is pretty much what you might expect it to be, you can find anything you want at any time of day or night - except free Wi-Fi. Fortunately Krispy Kreme has come to our rescue! Oh our tasty delicious dougnutty friends! I shall update thoroughly when I get home, promise!

To Do List.

I had planned to do some stuff to do this weekend, and I did absolutely none of it. We fly out for a 5th anniversary weekend away on Friday morning, so I have to squish everything in to the next four days.

Monday: Laundry!
Tuesday: Clean the downstairs bathroom!
Wednesday: Re-Load all my CDs back onto my iPod! (I had to re-sync and lost 2/3 of my tunes. sigh.)
Thursday: Pack for Vegas, Baby!

Asheville Saturday - December.

Journey - We drove to Asheville today for my haircut, on the way we stopped in a shop that we've been interested in going to for a while because it also serves slices of pie with coffee. The pies are baked in house and are really delecious; we both got pecan pie this time, but I'm going to have to try the coconut cream pie next time.

Shopping - Even with a stop for pie, we still were 45 minutes early so we shopped for books. I scored two kids books by Catharine Jinks and "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain. Doc C was giddy to snap up a $2 copy of a Bertrand Russell book, so that was good too.

Haircut - Seeing as I won't be at work for a couple of weeks, I asked Naomi for a slightly edgier cut than I usually get and I think she enjoys having a bit of creative freedom! She took a couple of photos with her phone for her portfolio.

Food - Sushi! We ate miso soup and seaweed salad, then an excellent selection of sashimi and sushi. So delicious.

After that we came home.

It was a good day.

Saturday Lists.

Morning - Tea. Toast. Honey.

Afternoon - Asheville. Sushi. Window-shopping. Haircut. Iced latte. Home.

Evening - Pizza. "Eureka". Cats.

Mini. Tea. Sofa. Cabinet. Focus.

Today we drove to Charlotte because the car needed a check-up at the Mini dealership; so we took the opportunity to test drive a Mini Countryman whilst we were there. Doc C insists on having four wheel drive before next winter.

We then went to World Market to buy tea bags and Hobnobs, before the most exciting part of the day. A trip to Ikea.

Mostly this was so we could test drive sofas, but you know what Ikea is like. Once you are in the labyrinth you must maintain a steely eyed focus, or find yourself packing the car with tea lights and curtains for windows you don't even have. I'm not kidding, I've bought totally unnecessary curtains at Ikea before. The sofa will have to wait until next month, but it was definitely useful to try all the seating options out. An arm chair we had both thought would be great in the living room turned out to be just not what we wanted at all.

This was Doc C's first visit to Ikea, and he got a headache just as we'd started on the second floor. Fortunately I knew what had to be done, so I sent him back to the car and I carried out a solo mission. It was a succesful foray, and I'm very excited to report that we now have a new television stand! It is SO much better than the unbelievably hideous tables that we had been using (they were given to us, and they were better than nothing. Apparently.)

We got home, made a cup of tea and put together the TV cabinet. All in all a most satisfactory day, and worth the headaches we both got.

A Visit from My Mother-in-Law.

After the Power of the Pumps walk we met up with Alison (Doc's Mum) and her friend Mike, who had detoured on their drive back to Massachussets after wintering in Florida. They had arrived in town just before the walk, so they saw The Wedges before going to get some lunch whilst the actual walk was in progress.

The last time they visited we were still living in our old house, so we were excited about showing off our current home because it is a much prettier house and neighbourhood. They were staying over-night (after Doc guilt-tripped them), so we went out for dinner and an evening tour of the town, before getting frozen custard. We know how to show visitors the very best of our small town. It was actually a really good evening for them to visit, with the town being neither in the full-on tourist mode of summer or the full-on student mode of the start of a semester (it's exam week - The students should all be revising...) and the weather being actually quite pleasant instead of miserably cold and damp.

This morning Doc dropped me off at work before going to meet them for breakfast, and then they will continue on their way back to New England.

A Dress (or a Skirt) A Day.

...As I've said before, everyone should have total clothing rights. - Eddie Izzard

Since returning to work from my trip back to England I have worn a skirt or dress to the office every day, with only one exception, which is part of my determination to rotate more skirts and dresses off the hanger and onto my body. It's not that I suddenly hate trousers or anything, but I don't want to wear jeans-and-a-top every day; not least because that is exactly what 99.5% of all of the students on campus wear regardless of gender. Of course they are mostly twenty-somethings who tend to be wearing an over-sized university sweatshirt or t-shirt, so it's really not as though I'm ever mistaken for a student, but it's still nice to dress like an individual and a grown-up lady.  I have been thinking a lot about the non-verbal communication of clothes and how important it is (for me at least) to actually think about what I want to be projecting about myself through my wardrobe. I want to look interesting, intelligent, witty and at least somewhat professional, at present my clothes are probably indicating that I've been watching our "Mad Men" DVD boxsets every night after work.

An added bonus about the trip home was retrieving almost all my jewelry from Mum's, so I've also been wearing all the earrings, bracelets and necklaces I've been missing (althought not all at the same time, however tempting an option that might be). I was getting a bit sick of small silver hoop earrings, but I kept thinking I'd be home soon and so I didn't want to start a new collection only to find there was duplication when I finally merged the two. 

There is little danger of this becoming a fully fledged fashion blog, I'll leave that to bloggers who are more expert in fabulousness than I, so I sincerly doubt I'll start photographing my outfits everyday - But I did want to record the start of my personal skirt revolution. 

Normal Service Resumed.

Hello from our desk top computer in the study, that I never use and can't quite get used to!

So essentially what happened was that Doc C had been using our laptop at his conference, so on Friday afternoon I got back to our room and saw the laptop I pounced on it. I plugged it in, checked my e-mail, looked at some websites and wrote a post. I noticed that the battery icon in the bottom left-hand corner was running down, but it would occasionally change to the power cord icon so I thought there was something odd going on with the socket I was using.

By the time Doc got back the laptop's battery had died, and I had realised that in my rush to connect with the web I had plugged in the power adaptor for the speakers which is a slightly higher voltage than the laptop requires... And this seems to have fried the laptop... Oops.

At that point I decided to just take a weekend break from the internet, and that's exactly what I did.

Philadelphia 2011!

Philadelphia! It took thirteen hours to get here, with one traffic jam, a detour through Washington's rush hour traffic and a flaming eighteen wheeler at a nice safe distance on the other side of the highway (one of the wheels exploded when we went past - which was pretty exciting!)What is with the heavy rain every time I come to visit you? It does not make a girl feel very welcome you know.

However I do appreciate that you are clearly the place for conferences, as my friend Danny was also here and I haven't seen him in years so it was lovely to have lunch and catch up with him.

After lunch, I went to Blick to buy art supplies; Lush to buy moisturiser etc; and then Grocery for a vegan wrap and a cupcake.

Now I'm back at the hotel, hoping to dry off before going for curry with my husband and other philosophers.

Ah Philadelphia! Love you!

Prepping for Philly.

We're going to Philadelphia tomorrow for a conference and we will be there for four days. Neither of us has packed yet, and the house needs to be tidied before we leave. 

Naturally, I've baked some cookies and we have watched 3 episodes of "Mad Men" so far this evening. I have managed to do a load of laundry though, so there is some hope that I'll at least have clean clothes to throw in a bag as I run past the clothes horse in the morning.

Pedestrian Angel Crossing.

I really like it when the addition of a simple sticker makes a traffic sign much more charming.

Disco Chicken.

This is Disco Chicken, and she's Doc C's favourite objet d'art for illustrating kitsch in lectures. She's extremely well travelled for an ugly bird statue. Disco Chicken's origins are misty but she came into Doc life when she was abandoned at the recording studio he worked at in Boston, then she came to London with him, and she went to stay with my Mum for an extended visit to the beautiful Norfolk countryside when we moved to North Carolina.

I managed to fit her in one of my suitcases, as a special surprise for the Doc, and I feel I should mention that she's about the same size as my Brown Betty teapot, so it was really quite the sacrifice on my part. Still, it will not be another three years before I go home for another visit so hopefully I won't regret this great generosity.

Back with a Cold.

My very least favourite of my souvenirs of the trip to England is this stinking head cold. I must have used pure will-power to keep it subdued for the last few days of my visit and the flight home, because I just didn't have time to be ill. The worst part of the journey was the landing in Charlotte, because as the air pressure changed I couldn't get my right ear to pop, no matter how much I chewed gum or yawned. The pressure in my ear felt wrong, until I blew my nose - but then it didn't pop, it squeaked. That can't be good, can it? 

Fortunately Doc C was his usual thoughtful self and had brought me some cold medicine to take in the car, so I was able to take that as soon as I got to the car. By the time I got home I wasn't too bad, but I was totally exhausted. When I woke up this morning I couldn't breathe out of my nose, so I'm having to mouth breathe, which is never a good look and doesn't seem to be helping my sore throat either.

The only member of the household who is loving this is Edith, because I am curled up on the sofa with a blanket and she is lounging around on me. This is Edith's idea of a particularly good Sunday.

Over-Sized Colour Co-Ordinated Tea Cups.

I have a huge cup of green tea with my breakfast every morning, and when I saw that Whitards had the same style of tea cup on sale I asked Mum to buy me a couple more. That was about six months ago, and they travelled back with me in my hand luggage yesterday.

I love how well the new cups co-ordinate with the colours of the original cup's stars. The added bonus is the new Union Jack tea-cosy being in a satisfyingly similarly colour-way.

Gorgeous.

American Home.

I bloody hate air-travel. It's not so much the flying, I quite like that bit, although I hate having no room to swing a hamster let alone a cat. It's all the palaver of checking-in, going through security, then reporting to the gate before boarding and then having to do the whole thing in reverse at the other end.

You know when someone asks you to do that thing where you pat your head and rub your stomach? Doesn't it feel like that when you have to keep your passport and boarding pass in your hand; and carry all of your hand luggage in such a way that pick-pockets can't rob you or drug smugglers plant stuff on you; and separate out any fluids or gels that you might have brought; and remember what things about your person might set off the metal detector; and find your way through a maze-like building full of equally harassed people; and get something decent to eat from Pret a Manger whilst you have the chance? I mean I can easily do all of those things individually, but put them together and I feel quite overwhelmed.

Still I have safely made it back, and so did all the Marmite - So that's alright.

Brighton - The Old Manor.

I am in Brighton and I am clearly seeing why I loved living here so very much. Also Marmite Cashews have been sourced. Bonus.

A Day Out in Aldburgh.

We got a whole bunch of things ticked off my "To-Do whilst in England" list today! This included some of the more important items, such as a visit to a Norfolk beach, have fish and chips on said beach, go for a walk and then have a cream tea in a proper tea-room.

The picturesque seaside town of Aldeburgh provided all this and more, and it was a lovely place to go for a stroll with my parents. The tea-room was even having a tea-cosy beauty contest, but fortunately they were a bit too busy to press us for our votes because it would have been a very difficult decision.

I also managed to track down a Vivian Westwood t-shirt printed with a picture of Blackadder's "absolutely divine and regal, and yet and at the same time very pretty and rather accessible" Queenie, and a Liberty print silk scarf; both of these delightful items are on sale to raise money for Comic Relief's Red Nose Day next week. I'll definitely wear the scarf, but the Queenie t-shirt is going to be stretched on a canvas frame and hung on the wall when I get home.

Speaking of Elizabethan beauty, here is Aldeburgh's cinema and gallery which happens to be housed in a gorgeous Tudor house. I've always liked the incongruity of that.

 

 

Two Hours in Norwich.

Mum had a meeting this morning so she took me into Norwich with her, and turned me loose for two hours. It's always disconcerting to realise how much a city has changed, but I could still find my way around without too much difficulty.

One of my first stops was Waterstones, where they had a Dalek plonked next to the escalator apparently browsing the Classics section. He was suitably grumpy, and threatened to exterminate me, which was thrilling. There was a sign taped to the front saying to please be gentle with him because he was very old, but I don't know why he was there or if he was an original cast member or anything really. Still, a DALEK!

Then I went to the bank to see if I could remember what the PIN for my cashcard might be. Now sometimes when one is writing a blog one has to consider the likely audience, and I know this week that Doc C will be reading this, so I'm almost reluctant to blog about this... But I thought it was funny, so bugger it!

I put my card into the ATM, and typed in the PIN that I thought was most likely. The machine happily brought up the screen asking how much money I wanted, I decided on £50, whereupon it told me by card had expired and spat the thing out. Oh. Hmmm. Good thing Doc C gave me his cashcard and PIN before I left, eh? That worked beautifully, so I do have access to British currency whilst I'm here. Hoorah! Iknow that Doc will now fret about what i would have done had he not lent me his card, but I'd have been fine. If necessary I was thinking I could have transfered the money into Mum's account and she could get it out for me. No problem, just a touch more complicated.

Back Home.

I'm back home at my parent's house! Actually "home" is a relatively fluid concept, because they have moved house 5 or 6 times since I left for University - But they moved back to the village that I went to primary school in, so this feels very familiar indeed despite it being the first time I've been in this house.

The flight was fine, I didn't sleep of course, but I did try to and I didn't spend the entire eight hours watching crappy films. Just the three hours.

I'd promised Mum that I wouldn't sleep in the car on the way to her house from the airport. That's about a three hour drive, and towards the end of it I was going a bit cross-eyed from the effort of keeping my eyes open and my responses relatively lucid. But I did it! Yay! It is possible, it's just not at all pretty.

As soon as Mum had finished the tour of the new house, I climbed into bed and slept for five hours.

And relax. With a glass of wine.

Jet Set.

I've packed a variety of clothes and a crochet project, selected three books (Smiley's People; Hons and Rebels; Neuromancer) and cleaned the cats litter tray.

My work here is done for now. Time to catch a plane.

Book Choices.

My suitcase is packed and, as usual, I have a major dilemma over which books to take on the plane with me.

I've narrowed it down to:

• The Great Escape - Anton Gill
• Young Men in Spats - PG Wodehouse
• Hons and Rebels - Jessica Mitford
• Neuromancer - William Gibson
• The Oxford Book of Victorian Detective Stories
• Smiley's People - John Le Carre

 I've made a stack of these books next to my traveling clothes and I'll choose the finalists in the morning.