Saturday, August 21, 2010

Gorgeous English village

... and the surrounding countryside as I forgot to take any pictures of the actual town! Well not quiet true, I took some, but it is hard to take good pictures of a town half way up the only hills around unless you go further up the hill which I didn't have time for.This is the gorgeous young lass who took me for a walk on the commons earlier in the week when I had some time off. It wasn't the loveliest weather so the horizon in the pictures is basically a bit of grey blur because it basically was a grey blur... but it did look a lot nicer in reality than the pictures give justice to.
I did love looking out from the hills
at all the little towns around the place. They're all separate little villages I think, but they practically merge in to each other when you get a view from up the hill. It's all so pretty!


And you can see how this gave me a Hansel and Gretel moment, yeah? I decided to explore the edge of the commons because there was this neat little lane with stone
walls down each side, it was all shady and dark
and a bit damp...
Fairy tale house! I think so anyway.





This house at the bottom is where I'm staying when I have time off; I love it! I wish we had stone houses like these at home! But it's like that everywhere here, if they aren't brick then they're stone I'm sure of it. I'm not sure if I've seen any wooden houses at all... I'm sure I must have but I can't picture any in my head.




Well I was going to put up one of the village centre as it is very picturesque, but I knew my photos weren't great because there was a lack of any really good vantage points. So I've put one of the train station. Not the most exciting, I was in a rush to get on the train! It otherwise looks prettier from a different angle where you can actually see the whole thing.





I was going to put some more pictures on here but the formatting on here is an absolute nightmare so I've given up in frustration. And I start work in ten minutes and want an early night! Hope you enjoy the pictures and the formatting actually comes out vaguely as planned, or at least so you can read it.

I just ditched IE for Google Chrome. How totally liberating!

I love Netty, but she was a bit slow before... turns out it was just retarded Windows IE. But to their credit Windows 7 did offer me alternative browsers which I actually want to use, such as Firefox and Google Chrome. My internet is now significantly faster. I think I will cry when I go back to IE on the work computers. Oh and it has actually taken me an entire week to even notice that I could choose to have a different browser! How depressing. All this time I've been blaming poor coverage from Vodafone but actually it was IE stomping all over my little Netty. I've tried to download both GC and Firefox a couple of times at various points in order to make things go faster, but Windows kept eating them when I tried to download and they would fail to install for some reason... presumably because they were secretly already there or something.

Anyway, yay for useful internet!

Now time for pictures. I shall post again soon.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Two days off in a row!!

How exciting, I can something more than just keeping up with my washing! I think I shall go for a walk in the hills tomorrow, assuming it doesn't rain. Otherwise... well I've got some shopping to do so I guess I could go and explore Worcester. They make sauce there, right?

Hmmm not much else to report on really, but hopefully I will have some pretty pictures to put up here tomorrow, once I've got my camera going again (I have lots of batteries now!). I joined the local library last week, admittedly most so that I could use their free internet service, but I may use the books too. Assuming I get a chance. I still haven't finished The God of Small Things which I read quite a fair way in to before I left London. It's a slow book I have to say. Interesting ideas, but very slow, not what I could call a page turner. I could read it before going to sleep and not end up staying up all night reading. It's an interesting style, but... I'm just not quite convinced yet. Maybe it will have an amazing twist in it, but I have a feeling not... they tell you the end and then rewind and tell the story of how it got to the end. At least I'm pretty sure thats what is happening. Otherwise I'm just terribly lost.

In other news having a backspace key smaller than you are used too is exceptionally annoying!!! I keep going to correct my typing only add lines of equals symbols instead. But I seem to have come to grips with the @ key now, which is good.

Oh and I don't think I'm ever going to catch buses in this country. Honestly I looked at the ones in London and decided to accept the significantly higher costs of the tube for the sake of my sanity. Today I tried to catch a bus to the train station as I was feeling lazy. Looked at the journey planner online which told me there was one leaving Hales Lane at Pear Tree Rd (yes that's actually what the street was called) which was an 89. So I head down to the bus stop and wait for about 20 minutes watching multiple buses stop across the street going the other way. Eventually one turns up and when I ask the driver if he is going to the stop I need he informs me that I need the stop across the street. Great. So I go and wait. For about another ages because lots had gone past while I waited at the other stop. Finally an 89 turns up. Upon asking the driver informs me that he isn't going to my stop (not an out of the way place, a railway station, if you ask me!). So I wait. A different bus turns up so I ask the driver if he is going in my direction. Nope, about the dead opposite. So. I begin waiting for another bus. Not due for about 15 minutes. Then I realise that they don't give change on the buses and I only have about 60 pence. Not enough. And I'm sure as hell not paying £10 for a bus trip, a taxi would only be about £3.5. So I went back to work. My workmate was due to finish in about 3/4 of an hour and she agrees to drop me off at the train station.

God damned buses. Never again!!! Ohhh apparently work are looking at getting bikes for us, I am very keen on this plan, although I think I am going to attempt to fit driving lessons in to my schedual somehow. I don't fancy biking places in the rain in winter. I'm such a sissy!

Gah time for dinner and maybe the pub. Yay pub!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

I have a dongle...

Ah the joys of portable internet. I am happy :)
And likely to blog more now.

Dongle you say? I have no idea either... but it gives me internet.

Monday, August 9, 2010

On the topic of mad Brits...

I cannot comprehend the geography in this country. I just can't. I don't dare to try and take a short cut, it is guaranteed to lead me somewhere behind where I started. We have two houses on the same street, and I've looked at a map... the road just goes in the wrong direction. Almost the dead opposite of what you expect. No kidding. I actually turned left in to it thinking that was the end of the street I needed to be heading to. Nope. Needed to turn right. Up the hill. Which totally goes away from the direction I came from on the map. It doesn't in real life, it just doesn't. It doubles back on itself, I'm sure of it!!!

Ahem. The roads in this country are just phenomenally incomprehensible. I dread the day somebody asks me the fastest way to somewhere. I know how to get places, by only because I memorise the route, not because I know what direction it is in.

I do love the fact that practically the only place open on a Sunday to get lunch is the pub. No cafes, bakeries or anything like that, it *all* shuts on a Sunday (as I found out last weekend when I was hungry). Except the pub. They have a special Sunday lunch menu. Which I totally ignored for the £2.99 menu which has perfectly reasonable food on it too although I won't bother with the bangers and mash again, the sausages must've been more bread than sausage. But the steak pie was good, I'll definitely do that again... I think I have a local pub! I haven't even had a pint there yet, only food. What's got in to me?! This responsibility thing... I'm just not sure about it yet... no beer!

Hey everyone :)

Ahh long time since my last update. Or it feels like it anyway. I've been working pretty much flat out, double shifts almost every day, four, five or six days in a row. Off today, tonight and tomorrow morning. Yay!!! I can do some washing, make my own dinner and possibly even get eight hours sleep. That'll be novel!

I am enjoying it though, very interesting work, and I have really lovely workmates, I like all of them! It would be a very difficult job without them I can promise you that.

I'm juggling money at the moment, I think I can make it work, if only I could remember or reset the pin on my credit card!!! Hahaha who else would go to the other side of the world and not remember their credit card pin... ah well. Hardly anything on my credit card so I can use it fine most of the time, only problem is that only some places will let you sign for it! They've mostly moved to having a chip in the cards here, which I don't think mine has. But even if it does I don't know the number, so I can't get cash from a money machine, only pay for things in shops! Lol ah well. They let me pay for my train tickets with it, and my shopping, so there isn't much I really *need* cash for. But having said that I will now inevitably find I need cash on a regular basis for something. I can tell! The reason I am lacking in £'s by the way is that they think paying on a monthly basis is sensible. Bloody Brits! If I had all the money I've earned from the hours I've done I wouldn't be feeling broke at all! But hopefully will have my money situation sorted soon, I think I should have a UK bank card at home, when I finally get there.

Speaking of home, I'm really just about ready to go. But felt it was time to give a brief update before I disappear back to the black hole of work tomorrow morning! I don't even know when my next day off is, but Monday at the earliest by the looks of the rota! Oh and I'm doing two waking night shifts this week. Joy. The world can meet caffine-hyped Sam at 4am! This should end well... or at least end. Ohhh I'm so sleep deprived, listen to me babble! I slept on a two-seater couch last night, a family who don't usually have supervision at night had to have someone last night, and I didn't realise that the other couch in the office was a fold-out couch... Le sigh! At least I did sleep, I was so tired it didn't *really* stop me sleeping. I didn't even fall off it, which surprised me. Probably the last time I will sleep there though, until we get a new family in anyway. No more couch sleeping for me. *remembers my bed at 'home'* I think I shall go and put some washing on, then I can crawl in to bed earlier. I am *so* sleepy.

*loves and hugs*