This is the wintery scene that greeted me as I left home to go to work on Friday morning. Walking to St Albans station was like walking through a blizzard - I was wearing wellies and my ski jacket and was white with snow when I reached the station. There the staff were advising us not to venture into London as there could be no guarantees that we'd actually get home again. I pressed on though and actually felt quite silly by the time I got into London as there everything was just grey and miserable looking. My colleagues had a good laugh though when I appeared in the office dressed for ... read more
It’s not easy being green…
... but they seem to be suggesting that it is expensive and rather middle class!This evening I've caught up on episodes of the BBC programme It's not easy being green featuring Dick Strawbridge. Now, I have to admit that the first series of this programme really made me aware of all things green and made me start thinking properly about my impact on the planet on which we live.When I heard that there was a third series I was quite excited. Unfortunately though I'm now left feeling rather disappointed. The show has taken on a bit of a "magazine format" - ... read more
Newspaper sales
I was fascinated to see something like the above on many lampposts across Vienna. Luckily my guide book provided an explanation: it seems that this is the way in which newspapers are sold in Vienna. People are supposed to use the small plastic bit as a honesty box and then take a paper from the plastic bag. The guide book also told us that everyone in Austria was so law abiding that they always pay before taking a paper. It was quite interesting therefore that the only person that we say taking a paper did so without paying! ... read more
Vienna steps
This picture shows what must have been one of the scariest staircases that I've ever climbed. I will provide a full explanation just as soon as I have time, but I can tell you that it was in Karlskirche in Vienna, and did provide Mr C and I with a much closer view of the baroque painting on the dome. ... read more
Trip round Europe
Sorry that I've not been here blogging for the last week. Last week was incredibly busy, but then Mr C and I had a nice, peaceful weekend away planned. We flew out to Vienna last Friday and had a great weekend exploring the city. The slight problem came on Monday. After watching the news in our hotel room that morning there was no surprise when we turned up at the airport to find that our flight back to London was cancelled. In fact, no flights left Austria for London at all that day due to the snow back home!We'd flown with Easyjet and the truth behind those cheap flights is that if ... read more
Precious friends
While Mr C was at a work event this evening I met up with some dear friends for dinner in London. It's the first time that we've managed to catch up this year, but just an evening together makes me realise just how important friendship is. (All the two for one vouchers at chain restaurants that are freely available on the web at the moment also help the dinner out stretch a bit further than usual!)When busy at work I can be quite bad at making time to see friends, but it really is so, so worth it. I just need to try and do it a bit more often! ... read more
Spotty pink tote bag
I feel like I've really achieved something this evening since coming home from work. Back at the Knitting and Stitching show in November I bought this fantastic pink spotty fabric and straight away wanted to use it to make a tote bag to carry my things to and from work every day. I don't need to carry a huge amount of stuff, just a book, my knitting, a bottle of water, umbrella and possibly my hat and scarf. I did want something a bit more attractive than the conference freebie that I've been carrying around for a while. Tonight I finally made this happen.I didn't use any ... read more
RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch
This morning Mr C and I were taking part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. This annual birdwatch has been taking place now for 30 years here in the UK, and Compost Woman recently wrote about how the event had grown from it's beginnings into being an incredibly important piece of research into British birds and also into a fantastic activity for children wanting to learn more.I'm not sure if Mr C and I fit into the children category, but I certainly learnt much more about birds by taking part. We don't have a garden, so instead headed down to our local nature ... read more
No time for goodbye – Linwood Barclay
The title of this book has this week more significance than I realised when I read it a week or so ago. Sadly this this week has had a complete lack of time for anything other than work and sleep, and a friend of Mr C's was tragically and suddenly taken away from him and his friends with no time for any of them to stay goodbye. Life can be incredibly cruel sometimes.------------------------------ Linwood Barclay's book tells the story of Cynthia who twenty-five years ago woke up one morning (with a teenage hangover) to find a silent house and no sign of her parents or brother. Even ... read more
Xmas X-stitch
I didn't really manage to be very organised this last Christmas and as a result it was Sunday evening (i.e. 18 January!) when I finished what was supposed to be a Christmas decoration. I say "finished" in the loosest possible way - the stitching is finished, but it is yet to be mounted. I just hope I get round to doing so before Christmas 2009!The design came from Jo Verso's Cross Stitch Year which is a fantastic book full of cute little charts all arranged by times of year. If you ever want to design any cross stitch yourself then I would highly recommend either ... read more