I've been neglecting the blog, sorry! I have some new responsibilities at work and am getting a bit snowed under. Instead of a post from me today, you get one from Martin - this is a copy of a letter he wrote today to a friend of ours in America.

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The Autumnal weather is now with us in London - cold nights, chilly damp mornings, and starting to get dark early in the evening. In the next 3 weeks the clocks will change, and it'll be dark before we finish office work for the day.

A month ago after getting my bike back in good riding order I started cycling to work regularly, and bought a new helmet, reflective vest and armbands etc, to encourage me, but haven't managed a full journey for over a week due to feeling a bit under the weather. I never got ill enough to have a day off work, but did feel rough. Tomorrow I'll start cycling the whole journey again, so tonight I need to make sure my bike had good working lights.

A couple of weekends ago Beth and I took part in the "Day of Bicycles", an event in Central London where they closed off a loop of road between Buckingham Palace and London Bridge, for cyclists to ride without worrying about traffic. Beth and I went in on the tube and cycled the course, and also rode some odd bicycles that they had there, such as one where the pedals go backwards. Beth wants to get a more comfortable saddle for her bike, and then thinks she might cycle more.

This weekend just past I spend Saturday assembling a set of bunk beds in my "study". The beds come flat packed, so I spent the day screwing bits of wood together - luckily with an electric screwdriver for some of it. I've assembled lots of things like this before over the years, most recently helping Beth build her "mid-rise" bed that gives her more open floorspace in her small back bedroom study. So we now have three single beds and a double in the house, for when friends visit, or children arrive. In the meantime I have more storage space in my room using the top bunk for various instruments etc.

Did I tell you that my brother Richard and his family are emigrating to Tokyo? His wife and daughter are already there now, but he's stayed behind to finish selling their flat (now done), and to sell off some of the contents that they aren't keeping (Beth and I got some bookcases, a big sofa and a few electrical items for free, for helping him clear the flat). He's currently living at my parents house in Ealing, about a mile from my house, until he is ready to go over, and still working for Sony in central London until it's time to go.

Beth has started her evening classes for the Autumn, one in beginner's Japanese (just for her own interest), and one in building web pages, each week. The University she works for pay for both, so it doesn't cost her anything, except time and effort. I used to do 2 evenings out each week ten years ago, but at my age it's too much, so I limit myself to my Monday evening Morris Dancing, which has also just re-started in earnest for the Autumn practise season. Beth's classes are on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we each have evenings in alone during the week.

Other than Morris, my other two current hobbies are collecting Playmobil, and making fiddle-playing videos for YouTube. Do any of the children have any Playmobil? I used to have it when I was young, and have recently started collecting again, with a view to doing little photostories with the figures, but mostly just so I can have some playtime! Of course Beth and I also play computer games at times, but it's nice to have something physical to do. I'm also learning a bit more about photography and lighting through trying to set up my dioramas in poor lighting conditions. Beth is doing latch-hook and other craft stuff still, and reads tons of books from the library.

We're looking forward to some quiet weekends this month now, tidying the house, and quite possibly selling things on eBay that we don't want anymore - we're investing in a special mini-studio thing (a kind of white umbrella that help photographing small items). Then in November I have a weekend away at a Melodeon workshop.

That's all for now!

Still working very hard and not getting much free time, but the busy period is almost done. The new students will arrive on the 24th, things will be hectic for another week or two, and then everything should settle down. I hope!

There's a tube strike on in London right now which makes it very difficult to get across the city to/from work. It's really irritating and they say there may be another one next week. I really don't see why the workers need to strike, and from the comments in the papers neither does anyone else, including the Mayor and the Prime Minister. It's really like toddlers throwing tantrums to get more sweets, in my opinion. Unions might be important for some things but these guys are really just throwing their weight around and enjoying the side effects that are impacting 3.2 million London commuters twice a day. ...I think you can probably tell I'm ticked off about it, hehe.

Last night Little Black came home in the middle of the night and without her new collar. We're not really sure what happened. We are wondering if she DOES have an owner and the owner removed it. But she spends so much time at our house it's hard to believe she lives somewhere else, and it had been on for several days when it disappeared. I feel very guilty for not getting an ID tag for the collar. I meant to last week but have been so busy it completely slipped my mind. So we are out the cost of the collar, which was a nice reflective one, and somewhat nervous that Little Black isn't really ours after all. We're hoping to get a new collar and a tag on Friday.

Last weekend we helped Richard move some of his furniture out of his flat prior to selling it. As a result we also got some new furniture! (And other goodies too, like televisions and power toosl that won't work in Japan.) Our sofa was pretty old but now we have a nice squishy feather-filled one, and we have three new bookshelves and a small table and chair set. So I have a new chair for spinning, and Martin has a new chair for his computer and also a small table to set up Playmobile worlds on. It looks pretty cool, actually. We also sent loads of old stuff to the dump - since we had hired a van for the day we tried to make the most of it. Poor Martin got a headache from driving in heavy traffic all day and a backache from moving furniture.

I've signed up for two evening classes for next term. Starting in October, for ten weeks I'll study Japanese on Tuesday nights and a type of computer programming called PHP/MySQL on Wednesday nights. It should be fun. I've always been interested in Japanese but been very intimidated by it, but with Richard and co. moving to Japan, as well as having Japanese next door neighbours, I have some incentive to use what I learn. I got a languange learning CD called Earworms: Rapid Japanese which is pretty cool. Only Level 1 is out so far but they are working on a Level 2. I might get the Spanish ones to refresh my Spanish, too...but I want to be careful how much I spend right now because I'm still recovering from the America trip, as well as some student loan payments that I've made recently.

On September 15th I am taking a test called the Life in the UK Test. I need to take it as part of the procedure to stay in the country. it should be pretty easy - most Americans I know who took the test finished it in just a few minutes. And the test centre is across the road from my house - easy! After I take it I have to send away my passport to get a new one in my married name, and hope that it comes back before January because that's when I need to start the next step in the process (ILR).

It's been a busy week! Or two. I don't know what day it is offhand, actually.

On the 16th of August a process called Clearing started in the UK. There's no US equivalent that I know of. Basically it is a time when all the students who don't have a university place for the coming year start frantically trying to find one - so we get lots of phone calls, drop-ins, etc. This is triggered by the release of exam marks on that day, kind of like when Harry Potter receives his OWL or NEWT results. As I'm involved with Admissions for my department, I was right in the thick of it.

But it's settling down now and we are turning our sights to the arrival of new and returning students. Over the next few weeks we will prepare for student induction and the return of the hordes in late September. I'm actually looking forward to it.

In other news, our cat is still missing (since May) but another stray has wandered to our doorstep and made herself at home. We call her Little Black and she is a long haired black cat who likes nothing better than to curl up on someone's lap. This, naturally, has made me a very happy camper indeed, as it's been decades since I had a lap cat, and never one as enthusiastic about it as this one.

Martin's been happily collecting Playmobil characters, which were an enjoyment of his as a child. Now he has the money to buy the bigger sets, so there are Roman Coliseums (well, just one) and Viking Ships all over the living room. It's good to see him so happy about them though. I have picked up my guitar again in yet another attempt to learn the blasted thing - my skin really isn't suited to the whole build-up-finger-calluses thing so I always struggle. I've bought myself a Strumstick from the states, though (www.strumstick.com) which I've had my eye on for a year or so, and hopefully that will be as fun to play with as I think it will be. It should arrive in a week or two.

Monday is a Bank Holiday here, which means no work - yay! On Sunday we are going to meet up with Martin's parents and brothers for lunch. One of his brothers, and his family, are moving to Japan. The wife and daughter have already left, but Martin's brother still needs to finish selling the house. I'm sad that they're leaving, but we didn't get to see a huge amount of them while they were here anyway. And we get to have some of their electrical stuff that won't be of use to them in Japan! :D I might get a few power tools.

That's about it for now, I think...have a good weekend!

I nicked this from Theresa's blog, but the answers are mine.

5 Things in my refrigerator:
1. Skim milk
2. Welch's juice
3. whipped cream (to go with the ice cream in the freezer!)
4. American cheese
5. eggs

5 Things on my desk: (this one was supposed to be about my car but I don't have one)
1. Wedding photo
2. Books in Irish
3. HP scanner
4. Fan
5. University prospectus

5 Things in my backpack:
1. Sunglasses
2. Gameboy
3. Umbrella
4. Lunch
5. MP3 player

5 Things in my closet:
1. Craft supplies
2. Vests/waistcoats
3. A sweatshirt with Irish on it
4. A t-shirt with French on it
5. My mom's wedding dress

5 Things in the world I want to see before I die:
1. Australia
2. Ancient Greece (what's left of it anyway)
3. Wild dolphins
4. My brother safely home after being on the moon
5. My husband holding our great grandchildren

Last night we went to an Irish music session in Richmond. It's every Monday but Martin usually has Morris at the same time, and I'm way to shy to barge in on a predetermined social group on my own! Plus until July 1st it was very smokey in there.

So, since Morris doesn't meet in August, we went last night. Boy, was it fun! I think I got more out of it than Martin, as he leans more toward dance music than speedy Irish session stuff, but ... wow. If I hadn't had work the next day I would have stayed there all night.

I am pathetically out of practice on the whistle though, and need to rectify that. Unfortunately there aren't many times and places where I can practice without bothering anyone. I am planning on buying the Zoom H2 Handy Recorder device when it becomes available though, so I can record session tunes and practice them.

This weekend was really, really hot, so I didn't do much moving around. Everyone is lamenting the end of British Summer (that was supposed to be the last hot weather) but I am silently cheering. I love fall/autumn and it's on its way!

What else did I do this weekend...I read the new Harry Potter. Martin reckons it took me about six hours, heehee. I liked it a lot. It might be my favourite of the set.

And in other news...my brother is an aquanaut and is living underwater for 11 days off the coast of Florida. Very cool. There's a webcam that links into his habitat thing so I can watch him eat lunch, hehehe. Modern technology!