Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Silence
Well, Am here in sunny (slightly foggy) London, but no real thanks to my TomTom. It went suspiciously quiet at the very moment I got a little lost today! Fingers crossed for the journey home!
Monday, March 26, 2007
The Road to Auschwitz
We had a great weekend in Kraków, Poland this last weekend. This was my treat for Mark's birthday, and am chuffed that it all went to plan...
Got up at ridiculous-a-clock (3am or something) on Friday to catch the early morning flight out of Stansted. All pretty straightforward really... Kurt dropped us off at the airport in plenty of time for the plane (we parked at Mark's work), landed in Kraków on time, and the taxi was waiting for us at the other end to take us to the Hotel Pod Wawallem (thanks for the recommendation, Nigel!). That lunch time we mooched around in the rain for a bit, and sat in a cafe and had a few beers... then headed home for a snooze before a night out in an underground bar called The Tower Bar (these smoky little cellars are everywhere in the city), and then to a rather nice fish restaurant called Farina. We both had delicious food there - starting with a lovely seafood soup, bread with mushroom pate and truffle oil, and then a steamed Dorado fish with spinach and courgettes and salt roast potatos... followed by a naughty ice-cream with caramel sauce and a decent bottle of Malbec. Very nice!
Saturday, we got up fairly early for the trip to Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau; the two WWII concentration camps in the area. My goodness... words do not do it justice. A very humbling experience, and extremely moving. The sites were situated about an hour and a half away from Kraków by mini-bus, and we were shown around in a small group by an extremely sombre female tour guide. We walked around the camp itself, saw the 2.5 tonnes of human hair the Germans had collected from their victims to make fabrics for clothes with, and saw the thousands and thousands of pairs of shoes they had stockpiled from their victims. For me, the most harrowing part was the children's clothes and shoes, and for Mark the prosthetic limbs (of which there were many) made him realise that each of these very personal items represented a lost human life. The weather that day was befittingly cold and bleak... when we get our photographs online, I will let them do the talking for us. Not sure I can say I "enjoyed" the trip, but it was deeply moving and very interesting.
That evening, we went for a few drinks in the city, caught up with the football in an internet cafe, and then went to a polish folk-style restaurant for dinner, called Chlopskie Jadlo. An interesting assortment of food here! First off they serve you bread, with a mug of cottage cheese and (wait for it), a mug of lard!!?!!!! Is it possible that ANY country would serve this instead of butter these days?! I secretly found it delicious, but made sufficient puke noises for Mark's vegetarian benefit ;-) I then had a lovely pork and plum dish, with red cabbage and potatoes... delicious!
Sunday, we got up early (thankfully realised the clocks had changed - which could have ended in disaster with regard to flight times - made me wonder *how many* people missed their flight as a result of that!). We walked in the morning to the "wrong side of town", to find Oskar Schindler's factory. This was in a fairly bleak industrial part of town, inhabited mainly by very vocal polish drunks and their dogs... the factory is pretty amazing to see, but is made hardly anything of by the Polish tourist board - although we got the impression that this was due to change in the next year. I am amazed that they hadn't jumped on the bandwagon when the film was released? Anyway, we were given a brief tour by a polite young man that seemed to be something to do with the regeneration programme, although we weren't quite sure... lunch time we headed to the ancient Jewish quarter called Kazimierz and visited an interesting Jewish bookstore (bought our reading material for the flight home; books about Schindler and Auschwitz). We had some delicious lunch (spinach and mozarella on toast) in a little square there overlooking the Old Synagogue, and then spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around in the sunshine (glorious weather on Sunday) and sitting in the main square and drinking iced coffee and the rather gorgeous polish cheesecake. In fact my cheesecake quota and Omnicek beer quota was fairly impressive over the course of the weekend ;-> (......and garlic - the Poles LOVE their garlic!).
We had a rather nice pizza in an Italian-polish folk restaurant, watched the sunset over the Wistla river by the Castle, and then sadly got our taxi back to the airport... fantastic! We had a lovely weekend, and Mark loved it too (which was the main thing!).
Tomorrow, I am off to London for work, but then am heading off on my own to visit Jen in Glasgow on Weds night - cannot wait to see her!!!!!!!!!!! Like many of my friends, it has been far too long since I saw her last! SOOO looking forward to meeting her child, Helena, too.
Speak soon - wish me luck for the drive tomorrow. Let's hope my TomTom makes it! ;-)
Best wishes
Hayls
xxxx
Got up at ridiculous-a-clock (3am or something) on Friday to catch the early morning flight out of Stansted. All pretty straightforward really... Kurt dropped us off at the airport in plenty of time for the plane (we parked at Mark's work), landed in Kraków on time, and the taxi was waiting for us at the other end to take us to the Hotel Pod Wawallem (thanks for the recommendation, Nigel!). That lunch time we mooched around in the rain for a bit, and sat in a cafe and had a few beers... then headed home for a snooze before a night out in an underground bar called The Tower Bar (these smoky little cellars are everywhere in the city), and then to a rather nice fish restaurant called Farina. We both had delicious food there - starting with a lovely seafood soup, bread with mushroom pate and truffle oil, and then a steamed Dorado fish with spinach and courgettes and salt roast potatos... followed by a naughty ice-cream with caramel sauce and a decent bottle of Malbec. Very nice!
Saturday, we got up fairly early for the trip to Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau; the two WWII concentration camps in the area. My goodness... words do not do it justice. A very humbling experience, and extremely moving. The sites were situated about an hour and a half away from Kraków by mini-bus, and we were shown around in a small group by an extremely sombre female tour guide. We walked around the camp itself, saw the 2.5 tonnes of human hair the Germans had collected from their victims to make fabrics for clothes with, and saw the thousands and thousands of pairs of shoes they had stockpiled from their victims. For me, the most harrowing part was the children's clothes and shoes, and for Mark the prosthetic limbs (of which there were many) made him realise that each of these very personal items represented a lost human life. The weather that day was befittingly cold and bleak... when we get our photographs online, I will let them do the talking for us. Not sure I can say I "enjoyed" the trip, but it was deeply moving and very interesting.
That evening, we went for a few drinks in the city, caught up with the football in an internet cafe, and then went to a polish folk-style restaurant for dinner, called Chlopskie Jadlo. An interesting assortment of food here! First off they serve you bread, with a mug of cottage cheese and (wait for it), a mug of lard!!?!!!! Is it possible that ANY country would serve this instead of butter these days?! I secretly found it delicious, but made sufficient puke noises for Mark's vegetarian benefit ;-) I then had a lovely pork and plum dish, with red cabbage and potatoes... delicious!
Sunday, we got up early (thankfully realised the clocks had changed - which could have ended in disaster with regard to flight times - made me wonder *how many* people missed their flight as a result of that!). We walked in the morning to the "wrong side of town", to find Oskar Schindler's factory. This was in a fairly bleak industrial part of town, inhabited mainly by very vocal polish drunks and their dogs... the factory is pretty amazing to see, but is made hardly anything of by the Polish tourist board - although we got the impression that this was due to change in the next year. I am amazed that they hadn't jumped on the bandwagon when the film was released? Anyway, we were given a brief tour by a polite young man that seemed to be something to do with the regeneration programme, although we weren't quite sure... lunch time we headed to the ancient Jewish quarter called Kazimierz and visited an interesting Jewish bookstore (bought our reading material for the flight home; books about Schindler and Auschwitz). We had some delicious lunch (spinach and mozarella on toast) in a little square there overlooking the Old Synagogue, and then spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around in the sunshine (glorious weather on Sunday) and sitting in the main square and drinking iced coffee and the rather gorgeous polish cheesecake. In fact my cheesecake quota and Omnicek beer quota was fairly impressive over the course of the weekend ;-> (......and garlic - the Poles LOVE their garlic!).
We had a rather nice pizza in an Italian-polish folk restaurant, watched the sunset over the Wistla river by the Castle, and then sadly got our taxi back to the airport... fantastic! We had a lovely weekend, and Mark loved it too (which was the main thing!).
Tomorrow, I am off to London for work, but then am heading off on my own to visit Jen in Glasgow on Weds night - cannot wait to see her!!!!!!!!!!! Like many of my friends, it has been far too long since I saw her last! SOOO looking forward to meeting her child, Helena, too.
Speak soon - wish me luck for the drive tomorrow. Let's hope my TomTom makes it! ;-)
Best wishes
Hayls
xxxx
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Elvis has left the building...
Elvis is dead. This may seem like old news to some of you, but believe me - the death of my goldfish "Elvis" was wholly unexpected, particularly under the circumstances surrounding his death. Did Priscilla bludgeon him to death with a plastic pond plant? Did one of the Hungarian mafia peck him to death (the shoal of silver minnows in the tank)? No. He was murdered though, it appears.... and the culprit is.... Me. So it would seem.
So this is my confession... but I am pleading diminished responsibility for my actions... you see, your honour, I was asleep!!!! Christ-on-a-bike I have excelled myself this time guys! I don't know how many of you are aware of my little problem - in fact if you are a friend of mine, chances are that you will have experienced this first hand (PLEASE resist the temptation to share your stories here!). Saturday night, I escaped the bedroom clad in just knickers (thankfully large ones) and wandered into poor Kurt's room - who by chance, happened to be having a night off work and was blissfully asleep. I took the lid off the fish tank and did something that resulted in the death of just poor Elvis (perhaps he died of shock at the sight of me in my underwear?), and then proceeded to try to climb out of the window. Thankfully (or not!) Kurt was awakened by the sight of me trying to step on his bedside table to get out of the window! He managed to shout at me ferociously enough to send me running out of the room onto the landing, where I proceeded to run up and down for quite some time - freaking poor Kurt out in the meantime! Oh dear...
Anyway.... heh. Change of topic. Have not blogged for a long time as have been very busy! Forgot to mention is was my Sister's birthday on the 8th, so HUGE happy birthday to her... and it was Mark's 40th last week on the 15th. We have had a very busy week celebrating his birthday, and it still hasn't finished yet... Last Tuesday we went to see the local team play, and I managed to bribe a mention for Mark on the tannoy and a signed card etc... which Mark was delighted with! Wednesday, I drove to London and had yet another exciting (I got lost again!) journey home - which has perturbed me enough to invest in a TomTom 510 GPS system for future trips! On return home, I went to Robert and Emma's for a delicious dinner...
Thursday was Mark's birthday, and in the evening I took him for a posh dinner at The Hotel Felix, which was bloody delicious! I had the "Rustic Potato and Salt Cod Soup with Curried Cod and Sourdough", followed by "Slow Roast Belly of Gloucester Old Spot Pork, Savoy Cabbage, Fondant Potato, Home Made Black Pudding, Apple Puree, Calvados Jus", and a "Pomegranate and Ginger Brulee, Poached Rhubarb, Yoghurt Sherbet and Vanilla Fudge"... a simple menu, as you can see! Mark had fancy spring rolls and pink bream... We had a really nice time there - can highly recommend it for special occasions.
Friday, we met up with quite a few people down at the pub in the village, which was lovely! We were joined by Robert and Emma, Jamie and Adele, Chris and Francesca, Doug, and Toby and Sofie... was a real laugh.
Saturday, my parents came over for the day and we joined Mark's family for a really nice lunch in Pizza Express on Jesus Lane. We took my parents to a garden centre in the afternoon for a look around, and in the evening we went to see the amazing progress at Jamie and Adele's new place and met Kurt for a couple of drinks later.
Sunday (after I cringed over my Saturday night sleep-walking shenanigans), we went to see Julian and Antonia's new house in Stotfold (I say new - they moved in 18 months ago, and we haven't seem them for over two years!), which was nice. We did a bit of shopping in Hitchin, and then we went to Toby and Sofie's place so that Mark could test drive Sofie's car with a view to buying it... in the evening we popped to Mark's parent's place for Mother's day stuff, and went home and watched a rather funny DVD - "Thank You For Smoking".
Yesterday, I went on a first aid course for the day - which was quite alot of fun! The other attendants were all porters and groundsmen at King's College, and they had me in stitches! The church hall where the course was held was just around the corner from Mark's Sister's place, so I popped in to see Caroline and the kids on my way home...
Anyway! Better do some work... got a busy week! I have Friday off this week as I am taking Mark away for the weekend (he doesn't know where he is going yet!). I am really looking forward to it! I also have an interview this week with Age Concern - am going to be doing some voluntary work for them hopefully... will teach me how to handle Mark I guess ;-)
Much love
Hayls
xxx
So this is my confession... but I am pleading diminished responsibility for my actions... you see, your honour, I was asleep!!!! Christ-on-a-bike I have excelled myself this time guys! I don't know how many of you are aware of my little problem - in fact if you are a friend of mine, chances are that you will have experienced this first hand (PLEASE resist the temptation to share your stories here!). Saturday night, I escaped the bedroom clad in just knickers (thankfully large ones) and wandered into poor Kurt's room - who by chance, happened to be having a night off work and was blissfully asleep. I took the lid off the fish tank and did something that resulted in the death of just poor Elvis (perhaps he died of shock at the sight of me in my underwear?), and then proceeded to try to climb out of the window. Thankfully (or not!) Kurt was awakened by the sight of me trying to step on his bedside table to get out of the window! He managed to shout at me ferociously enough to send me running out of the room onto the landing, where I proceeded to run up and down for quite some time - freaking poor Kurt out in the meantime! Oh dear...
Anyway.... heh. Change of topic. Have not blogged for a long time as have been very busy! Forgot to mention is was my Sister's birthday on the 8th, so HUGE happy birthday to her... and it was Mark's 40th last week on the 15th. We have had a very busy week celebrating his birthday, and it still hasn't finished yet... Last Tuesday we went to see the local team play, and I managed to bribe a mention for Mark on the tannoy and a signed card etc... which Mark was delighted with! Wednesday, I drove to London and had yet another exciting (I got lost again!) journey home - which has perturbed me enough to invest in a TomTom 510 GPS system for future trips! On return home, I went to Robert and Emma's for a delicious dinner...
Thursday was Mark's birthday, and in the evening I took him for a posh dinner at The Hotel Felix, which was bloody delicious! I had the "Rustic Potato and Salt Cod Soup with Curried Cod and Sourdough", followed by "Slow Roast Belly of Gloucester Old Spot Pork, Savoy Cabbage, Fondant Potato, Home Made Black Pudding, Apple Puree, Calvados Jus", and a "Pomegranate and Ginger Brulee, Poached Rhubarb, Yoghurt Sherbet and Vanilla Fudge"... a simple menu, as you can see! Mark had fancy spring rolls and pink bream... We had a really nice time there - can highly recommend it for special occasions.
Friday, we met up with quite a few people down at the pub in the village, which was lovely! We were joined by Robert and Emma, Jamie and Adele, Chris and Francesca, Doug, and Toby and Sofie... was a real laugh.
Saturday, my parents came over for the day and we joined Mark's family for a really nice lunch in Pizza Express on Jesus Lane. We took my parents to a garden centre in the afternoon for a look around, and in the evening we went to see the amazing progress at Jamie and Adele's new place and met Kurt for a couple of drinks later.
Sunday (after I cringed over my Saturday night sleep-walking shenanigans), we went to see Julian and Antonia's new house in Stotfold (I say new - they moved in 18 months ago, and we haven't seem them for over two years!), which was nice. We did a bit of shopping in Hitchin, and then we went to Toby and Sofie's place so that Mark could test drive Sofie's car with a view to buying it... in the evening we popped to Mark's parent's place for Mother's day stuff, and went home and watched a rather funny DVD - "Thank You For Smoking".
Yesterday, I went on a first aid course for the day - which was quite alot of fun! The other attendants were all porters and groundsmen at King's College, and they had me in stitches! The church hall where the course was held was just around the corner from Mark's Sister's place, so I popped in to see Caroline and the kids on my way home...
Anyway! Better do some work... got a busy week! I have Friday off this week as I am taking Mark away for the weekend (he doesn't know where he is going yet!). I am really looking forward to it! I also have an interview this week with Age Concern - am going to be doing some voluntary work for them hopefully... will teach me how to handle Mark I guess ;-)
Much love
Hayls
xxx
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Why?
Why is it that when you are on a diet, EVERYONE wants to go out for dinner... or buy you a cake...?
I have lost 19 pounds so far (8.6kg) - but am still 7 (appx. 3) off my target weight (and my target date is next week - Mark's 40th!)... obviously this will not happen, and I accept that fully! However, before that I have to navigate my dieting ass through a dinner with the guys from Monis on Thursday night and a two work lunches... one with the boys here on Friday, and one next Weds with the Girls at Monis, not to mention all the between times (the biscuit drawer at work, the choccie bars we have in the fridge at home, the stream of Carlsberg Kurt is currently providing...). I hate saying no all the time, as this exposes my obsessive nature, but man... watching them all wade in, while I pick out some yucky 'low fat' alternative is annoying. Should I just say "blow it", as I always end up doing (and yo-yo-ing), or should I stick to the plan...?! Hmmm......
Maybe I should just run more...
I have lost 19 pounds so far (8.6kg) - but am still 7 (appx. 3) off my target weight (and my target date is next week - Mark's 40th!)... obviously this will not happen, and I accept that fully! However, before that I have to navigate my dieting ass through a dinner with the guys from Monis on Thursday night and a two work lunches... one with the boys here on Friday, and one next Weds with the Girls at Monis, not to mention all the between times (the biscuit drawer at work, the choccie bars we have in the fridge at home, the stream of Carlsberg Kurt is currently providing...). I hate saying no all the time, as this exposes my obsessive nature, but man... watching them all wade in, while I pick out some yucky 'low fat' alternative is annoying. Should I just say "blow it", as I always end up doing (and yo-yo-ing), or should I stick to the plan...?! Hmmm......
Maybe I should just run more...
Monday, March 05, 2007
Tillykke med fodselsdagen!
Happy birthday Sofie... I hope the clothes fit, and you get spoilt rotten by Jean! ;-) Am sorry to admit that it has been a full two years since I last visited Sofie in Copenhagen, but we will have to sort that out this year! Speaking of anniversaries... I have now officially been living in Cambridge a whole year! How time has flown!!!!!!!
Anyway... the weekend just gone was quite busy, and very nice! Friday consisted of a dental appointment for me (a filling... hmmm...), and a full medical check-up for Mark, which went really well! So we are not certified fit and healthy - well me orally, and him physically... Friday night we just popped to the local for a bit, and had a bit of an early night ready for Mark to return to work Saturday. The filling made me realise how bad life must be for Mark's mum at the moment with her ongoing facial numbness... I only had to endure a couple of hours with a numb mouth (after a local anaesthetic for the filling), but it put me in a bad enough mood (I felt very self-conscious) that I didn't go with the usual suspects to the pub on Friday. A little insight which only served to make me feel more concern for her - I really don't know how she copes.
Saturday morning I went to view progress at Jamie and Adele's new place. They are making progress with it, and it looks like it is starting to come together! Cannot believe how many frogs they have in one of the ponds in their garden!! Mia would be in frog-murder-heaven... although, I think their cat Pepe is managing to diminish numbers slowly! Saturday afternoon I went with Kurt and John (Mark's dad) to see the local footie team play - we won, which was a good result! Although the pitch looked like chocolate pudding after the match, which was down to all the rain we have had in the last few days! In the evening, I cooked sausage and mash for Mark, Kurt and myself, and we watched Gattaca, which is a film I really like... very cosy ;-)
Sunday, I popped over to TK Maxx with Robert and Emma - huge mistake, as I always a) spend too much, and b) end up with clothes I am not sure I like when I get home... this time though, I was fairly restrained and got away with a pair of Miss Sixty jeans (I only bought those as have never managed to get a pair on before, as they are a bit mean with their sizes!!!!), and a very cheap (£13, down from £150) but gorgeous Ice Maiden jacket, which I can add to the mountain of jackets I already have! I think I will have to pacify Mark by taking some old ones to the charity shop... In the afternoon, I went to Mark's parents for lunch, and spent some time there with Mark's sister and her children, which is always fun. Katie (3.5 years old) and I ran a pretend cafe, but I kept messing things up by mistaking the pretend pot of coffee granules for the pretend sugar, and the cereal box for a block of cheese... it meant that our cafe had to be closed down for a half hour while we had a "kitchen meeting" to sort out what pretend container contained what! ;-) Obviously I need more training... Last night, we just had an early night in prep for work today.
Tonight am planning a run immediately after work, and a bit of a clean-up! Having two men to look after isn't easy you know! ;-) Add a cat into the mix who has run out of treat biscuits (the only way to shut her up), and who has recently discovered a small nest of homeless mice in the garden following the demolition of our old outhouse, you get chaos!
Take care,
Hayls
xxxxxxxx
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