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We haven’t really posted that much about what we have been doing lately.  We seem to have posted more about what we haven’t been doing! So here is a little something. Not sure its that interesting though!

A few weeks ago we went to a club rugby game (actually it was the Saturday just before the snow arrived – you know the snowfall that shut London down for the day).  Any thought of posting anything non-snow related just didn’t seem right at the time.

Through Bec’s boss we got tickets to a club rugby game: Saints v Harlequins at Twickenham.  So the pair of us and a few of Bec’s work-mates met up for an afternoon out together.  It was played at the Harlequins’ rugby ground just around the corner from the big Twickenham ground, (so on that scale the ground was just a little one).  And because it was a bit smaller, it had a really great atmosphere. And it was packed!

The ground did sort of bring home how big a pastime rugby is in New Zealand compared to the UK though. These teams are in the premier league of UK rugby, and the stands are still only fairly teeny.  Not quite on the  Lancaster Park or Carrisbroke scale. And that’s before taking into account the small difference of a few 10s of millions of potential seat warmers between the countries!

It was also a little odd watching the game and not really having any idea who we wanted to win, as normally there’s at least some reason to lean towards supporting one team or the other, but not this time. We’ll have to assume the best team won on the day!

Weather? Freeeeeezing!  Bloody ffreeezzzing! (It did dump huge amounts of snow just after that, remember?!.  The Harlequins were the winners – that was apparently a bit of a no brainer to those in the know.  But it was a fun day out, with a few pints of Guinness to warm all the boys up…. but Bec says drinking Guinness (the only time she really ever drinks it is at a rugby game), is like having a meal – you don’t need that much before you are full!

Oh and did we mention it was bloody cold, even with jackets, gloves and hats and scarfs on?!?!

Something a bit different for tea the other night.  Filled wraps for dinner. Actually, filled wraps are quite usual here, but using home “baked” tortillas instead of the store bought ones (which we didn’t have) was new.

They were pretty easy to make, and tasted pretty yummy too. Not bad for just flour, water and salt, with a bit of time and muscle power.  I haven’t really got the knack of making them round yet though. But who needs perfectly round anyway!

Now I’ll always be wondering whether to use home made or purchased ones whenever we need any…

As Jo thought, I seem to have given up smoking. At least I haven’t had a cigarette now for (checks clock) just over a full week.

So that’s the hard work done then, I think. Actually, while I wouldn’t say it’s been easy, it hasn’t been as hard as I’ve thought it might be either. Probably helped by the fact that I’ve been smoking the lowest nicotine content cigarettes for ages now, so the drop isn’t as bad as it could have been.

I can’t tell you if I’ve done it the easy or hard way by not using any NRT patches, gum etc., but replacing nicotine with nicotine somehow doesn’t seem like it’s going to help in the long run, so cold turkey it was. And so far I seem to have managed to avoid replacing it with anything else either, like food or gum etc.

Why, and why now?  I have no idea really.  I just seemed to get the right amount of information on what you need to do to quit, and what you’re going to have to deal with when quitting.  I recommend Alan Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking to anyone.  Even if you don’t stop when you’ve read it a lot of what’s in there just rattles around in your brain building up a bit of momentum for when you are randomly ready to give stopping a go.

I guess a constant prod comes over time from others at work quitting or attempting to quit.  Somehow someone who actually smokes quitting seems to have a lot bigger impact than someone who doesn’t telling you you should stop. Not that we talk about it much.  Those of us that are quitting/just quit at work seem to just be doing it in our own way, and talking about it seems just to make things harder, as we’re used to talking outside over a cigarette. Not really the best support network you could have!

Sites like this one are quite good to read too, as they help to understand what’s gong on: http://whyquit.com/whyquit/A_Symptoms.html But there’s a really fine line between helpful advice and too much doom and gloom that might just put you off even trying.  Some sites really go too far down the scary track!

Worst part so far has been having to limit coffee a bit.  Instead of going for a walk to have a smoke at work, going to get a coffee is another decent reason to stretch your legs. But apparently as your nicotine intake drops, you need about half the caffeine that you previously did to get the same caffeine hit. And I’d believe that from my experience over the last week. So I guess getting glasses of water might just have to do for some trips.

So, now that the almost-kinda-not-really-hard-work is done and the first week over, now I just have to keep up the slightly easier work for the next few weeks, then the really easy bit for the rest of forever…

Hopefully I’ve not been too cranky for Bec, but she can fill you in on her side of things if she feels the need.

People getting confused? This is fun!
Is it:

1. The number of hours I’ve stayed awake in the name of scientific research?
2. The length of time we’ve been married?
3. The number of hours since the temperature last dipped below freezing?
4. The time since I had my last cigarette?
5. How long I’ve had my arm in plaster after falling on some ice?
6. All of the above?
7. None of the above?

And still counting.

Jo, at least you know now which direction in time we’re going!

And counting.

This time when the weather peoples said there was snow on the way, it actually arrived! And boy did it!  Walking around this morning it was about 6 inches deep all over the place. And more still forecast for the rest of the day. A good day to work at home, rather than face transport chaos.

It’s the wrong type of snow for “snowperson” making though, but we did give it a small go.  It’s all too light and fluffy. I sound like Transport for London now…

Great for walking around in though.  We might even have to go for another walk a bit later!

YAY! I like snow!

No, not like these crazy guys on this site who see if they can get stuff to reduce to small particles, I’m talking about using some cool free software, Blender,  to make 3d models to visualise some rooms.

My first effort has been a snooker room.  Partly because it’s got some interesting stuff in it that has been really useful in terms of learning the tools, and partly because it’s an easy room to model as there are some pretty firm dimensions required for a given size snooker table.

I have to admit to cheating and using someone else’s chairs and bookcases, but the hard work in terms of the snooker table etc. is all mine.

A couple of pics here (clicky for big uns).  Not 100% happy with the colours, lighting and shadows, but it’s a start.

A huge thanks has to go those that put their models up for download. Cheers!

And the problem is that we’re not in Houston any more!

As we had no room in the new flat for a Christmas tree this year, we decided to go somewhere rather than sit around staring at each other for the holidays, and as it’s less than half the distance to home we decided to visit Megan and Michael and the kids in Houston.

The trip started as well as could be imagined when we found we’d somehow managed to score a random upgrade to business class!!  Upstairs on a 747 in a flat bed is certainly a bit different to riding cattle at the back and trying to find a comfy position to sleep in that doesn’t involve chopping your legs off above the knee. Just a pity that we didn’t really make the most of it and couldn’t really sleep too well at that time of the afternoon/evening UK time, but as we were stuck on the tarmac for an extra two hours before we left as the technicians examined a dodgy wheel or something, it was all good. They kept bringing around more champers to keep us happy, and the extra room to stretch out was lovely.

So we were still relatively refreshed when we arrived in Houston, and didn’t need 3 days to get over any jetlag.  Good to hit the ground running.

Christmas was fun. A bit different for us to have kids around getting excited about their presents, although luckily if my memory’s right they stayed in bed longer than us on Christmas morning!  (We didn’t really do presents this year, except for the kids.  We’re at the stage where we seem to have everything we need or want, so spending for the sake of it seemed a bit stupid. If we see something we like during the year, we’ll buy it and think of it as a Christmas gift.)

As we’d never been to what seems to be the sole tourist highlight in Galveston, just out of Houston*, we took a trip out to NASA.  All good fun having a look at the space shuttle cockpit, and hearing a talk on how to go to the bathroom on the space station…  Walking along a Saturn rocket, seeing all the different stages and how much tubing was involved in getting a motor going was cool too. It really brings home how much fuel you need to get a little bit of stuff up into space.  Bring on the space elevator!  And Dylan was lucky enough to require Mum and Dad to buy him an astronaut suit – and he looked very cute!

New Year’s eve was just as much fun as Christmas.  We were joined by some of Megan and Michael’s friends, and also by seemingly most of the neighbourhood for dessert and drinkies.  Good conversation, good dessert, and a few nice drinkies kept us up far, far longer than we’ve managed for the last few years. (Last year it was just to two of us at home, and we’d fallen asleep on the couches by about 10, woke up about 20 to midnight, looked at each other and just decided not to even bother waiting till midnight, and went straight to bed before we woke up too much. Sad really!)

Other than that it was just a relaxing time, filled with shopping (not so relaxing, but still hugely more enjoyable than trying to shop in London), eating in and eating out (though our two attempts at producing a dinner showed us that simple ingredients like pastry and coconut milk seem to vary across the ditch, and we need a bit more practice with the American versions to be able to cook things as we’d have liked and expect to), and sitting around or playing with kids. And occasionally communing with lizards in the back yard.

Unfortunately we  didn’t manage to repeat the upgrade luck for the return trip, so had to decide whether or not to chop our legs off, but as it was only Sunday midday when we were landing we decided that we could grimace and bear it, and even managed to get a bit of sleep anyway. And here we have to add another little grumble.  We were looking forward to landing at the brand new terminal 5 at Heathrow as it’s meant to be great for a quick exit…  But then we noticed that we weren’t actually pulling up to the terminal but parking a wee way away for the dreaded bus ride from the plane to the terminal again. ARRGGGHHH!!  A completely full 747.  And buses. You have to be kidding!  BA, sort it out!

And also on arriving back we found that the UK had entered a small ice-age, with temperatures barely above freezing all week, even in central London. Not nice after the heat and sun!

Thanks for having us, Houston (and M&M!), can we please come back until spring?!

*Although I’ve since been told by someone at work that the art galleries in Houston are lovely to walk around if you’re into that sort of stuff. Apparently they’re completely empty all of the time.

In contrast to any stories about bread, this post is one we’ve been putting off for ages, as it’ll probably take a bit more effort!

Every now and then we feel the need to get out of London for a day or two, and a perfect opportunity came along to do that one weekend. The village that one of our friends live in was having a fundraising night for the local hall. A night at the races!

Well, not really at the races.  It was all based in said hall, which was fine by us, as it was nice and warm, and the bar was only a few steps away.  All good!  The races themselves were videos, which you bet on by buying a runner, or owner of a runner in each race, or by placing bets.  Notice I didn’t say horses there. The runners turned out (once the video started – you didn’t know beforehand) to be horses, dogs, and even pigs. All good fun. But I’m not sure we really got into the fundraising spirit of things, as we seemed to be quite good at picking winners so came out ahead on the tote for the night. But not on the bar, so that presumably worked out OK.

The afternoon before ‘race night’ we had a great walk around the village. A pleasant Autumn/Winter day can be a great time to have a stroll. As a bonus we got to take a neighbour’s dog for a walk with us, and a very well behaved chappie he was too. Didn’t even object too much to being dragged past a dead rabbit or two.

You never know what you’ll spot by the roadsides. And this mushroom/toadstool/fungus was pretty impressive.  As were the apples we cadged from one of the trees by the road…

All quite a different pace and feel for a weekend. Very enjoyable.  Thanks Liz and Dave!