Divided loyalties... well sort of

England face Portugal in the quarter finals on Saturday... if England win, then my sweepstake win hopes are out the window.... but if Portugal win the country will plunge into mourning and despair. Caught between a rock and a hard place am I!

O2 Wireless Festival

Went to the O2 Wireless Festival last night in Hyde Park. Headliners were The Strokes who were pretty damn good. But the highlight for me was The Raconteurs - they were really good. I missed the Super Furry Animals - Maya and I went off to the loo and then they wouldn't let us back in cos the tent was too full. I'm fated not to see them I think - I was meant to go and see them after the July 7 bombs last year but didn't fancy it, and this time I couldn't get in! Check out the line-ups here.

The arrival of the prodigal niece

So M day arrived on Saturday with the arrival of Maya at 15.15...

I've never had to wait so long for someone to clear customs as had to wait for her - she didn't come out until just before 5. I was just convincing myself that they had her a room somewhere grilling her about why she was here when she finally emerged into the arrivals hall... Landing at the same time as flights from the Middle East and India isn't such a good idea.

The waiting in queues continued on Monday when we spent almost two hours in the bank so Maya could get her bank card...

So Maya's having a quintessential British experience for now! Just need that footie game in the pub on Sunday and we'll be set...

Game number 2 for England...

Trinidad & Tobago vs England kicks off at 5pm today - not a great time so probably won't end up watching it - or not much of it anyhow.

As has been noted England do need to step their game up a bit, but a win is a win, 3 points is 3 points, and if they win their group, and Germany win their group (which is looking likely) then they won't have to play each other in the next round - a good thing! Let's hope that England don't fall apart in this afternoon's game....

I've been enjoying reading the Guardian's minute by minute reports of the games - definitely worth checking out, even after the fact. You can access them via their World Cup site here. Make sure you look for the minute by minute coverage not just the article on the game.

And Portugal have won their first game so my sweepstake hopes are still alive :-)

It just gets better and better!

Check out the website for the cat big brother here.

Once you've read the bios and blogs check out the alternative bios here...

I know what website I'll be monitoring for the next few weeks!

Book musings

Wandered out at lunch-time and bought Casting Off - the 4th book in the Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard. I've been reading them for about a month or so now and am finally on the 3rd book. I've really enjoyed them - a very 'solid' sort of read, with so much detail about English life during the war, but really great characterisation as well. It was filmed in the UK a few years ago - I've wanted to read them ever since watching the series on tele.

As I was admiring my new book it made me think about how exciting it is to have a new book, which looks pristine, just drawing you into it - I love new books! But then I also love my books to look well read - something very comfortable and familiar about a well-read book :-).

I bought this one from Crockatt and Powell - a fab independent bookshop close to work. And I've just realised they also have a blog which you can check out here. I do try and buy from them, as there are so few independent bookshops left, but when you can get 3 for 2 from the big chains it does make it much harder. But I so admire what they are doing that everytime I go in I recommit to shopping there, but then forget when I go into a big Waterstones or Borders... but I am trying!

I have now seen everything....

Check this out - only in the States!!

go kitties!!

Big Brother for Cats

Oh the woe of travel....

Well it hasn't happened for a while, but on the day when I felt incredibly hot and uncomfortable all day at work, the trains packed up...

So I left work on Monday just after 5.30pm and got home just before 8pm - not a bad effort I thought. Two trains and two very hot sweaty buses later I was very pleased to finally get home.

So I couldn't get home and Kevin couldn't get in to town to play footie so neither of us won last night!

And so it's begun...!

The World Cup is finally upon us! It kicked off on Friday and England's first game was on Saturday. They won but it was through Paraguay's own goal. But 3 points are 3 points!

Our World Cup started off on Friday night going to an Embrace gig - another one of our fave live bands, and also the one who have recorded the official England World Cup song - 'World At Your Feet'. And they played a two hour gig so it was fab!! Great start to the tournament. Just need England to win now - I've heard a rumour that if they do we get a day off so thats another reason to keep our fingers crossed for an England victory!!

Next game is Thursday night and if they win that they'll top the group...

Keep an eye out forPortugal as well - thats who I've got in the sweepstake at work!

Happy birthday week!

So I had a lovely birthday week - the summer hung around all week and the sun continued to shine.

I took the day off on Wednesday and had a lovely low key day. Started with Eryn ringing me first thing - as he always does :-). Don't think my birthday would be the same without him calling me!

In the evening Kevin and I went to Kempton Park to the races. After the races Starsailor were playing - one of our fave live bands at the mo, and also the band that gave me the name for this blog last year! And it was a beautiful lovely warm evening - all very nice. I had a betting strategy of placing bets on every horse that was number 7 but that wasn't so successful! But on the last race my horses came in - one which had 'birthday' in its name and then another one which I liked the sound of and they came in first and second! So I came out about even in the end. Kevin came out way on top - he studies the form rather than going for the names like I do!!

On Thursday evening there were joint birthday drinks with me, Mhairi, Allison and Patrick from work who are all June babies - in fact Pat's birthday is also the 7th!

Standing up and being counted...

I took part in this census recently and they've just published the results. I am definitely in the older age group for NZers living away from NZ - perhaps I've passed my prime!! Check out Every One Counts here.

Summer sunny weekend

London is lovely in the sun... :-)

After lots of crappy weather the sun came out this weekend - heaven!

Yesterday I went to my first bar-b-q of the season at Daphne and Pete's place. A joint celebration of their 10th wedding anniversary and their daughter Olivia's 1st birthday. So it was a lovely afternoon sat outside eating lots of delish food, and meeting new people and catching up with others I hadn't seen for a long time. And in honour of the sun I wore a summery skirt and a pair of jandals...

Nine years ago, me, Kevin, Chris and Anita helped Daph & Pete celebrate their first wedding anniversary with a picnic in Kew gardens and it was a gorgeous day that day as well - they certainly know how to pick them!

Waking up on Sunday the sun was still shining! So we walked off to Kingston, did some chores and then walked back along the river, stopping for a 99 (snow freeze with a flake) on the way back. Lovely! I do love London in the sun!

Many more photos to come...

But it is taking so long... So check out Flickr and the ones I've blogged. More to come!

Da Vinci Code

So we went to see this... Kevin is off to Paris next week for work and they are doing a Da Vinci Code tour. We thought it would be good to have seen the film before he did that...

It isn't rubbish - but is about as good as the book. Which ain't necessarily saying much...

Ceileidh Club - second time around

Me, Julia and Owen headed off to the Ceileidh Club again on Friday night. It wasn't anywhere near as busy as it had been the first time, and there were loads of different dances but it was still really good fun. I was a bit of a wallflower this time though - Owen found a Brazilian girl to dance with and Julia was soon snaffled by a group - I wasn't quite so lucky, but usually managed to find some people to dance with!

Crete tales...

Are being added below - on the correct date. Photos will be added as soon as I've downloaded them off my camera. Hopefully over the next couple of days...

Crete was fab....

Just back from our week in Crete - absolutely wonderful. We stayed on Stalos Beach at Pavlakis Beach. Weather was superb - straight sun every day - and it was hitting over 30 for the last couple of days. Will update the blog later this week with more detail and photos - and boy did I take a lot!!

Crete - Day 7 - Last day

And so it came to the last day. Neither of us wanted to leave, and Antonios had been urging us to stay for another week for ages. But sadly we had no choice...

We had a lovely brunch with the group before we left, and I made a big fuss of the cute (but pregnant) kitten that I had made friends with and then we had to head off.

Back to London where it was grey, cold and wet.

Crete - Day 6 - Samaria Gorge

Didn't do anything of note on Sunday - we had a very lazy day lying around the pool reading and swimming - bliss :-).

On Monday it was an early start as we headed off up to walk the Samaria Gorge. The Gorge is 13km long, with an extra 3km at the end down to the village where you can get the boat from.

And it was hard work.

We didn't walk much with Kath and Janice (Paul and Marilyn weren't walking it), as we had a faster pace than them, but it was really quite tough. Downhill on rocks for what felt like forever - we kept thinking we had got to the bottom only to realise that we hadn't as we headed off down again.

But it was absolutely fantastic. The views were just stunning and the geography was amazing. I'm not sure my photos really do it justice, but do check them out on Flickr! We had taken our walking boots and I'm really pleased we had. Some people were just doing it in sandals which struck me as being particularly crazy, but they did all do it. They have donkeys in the Gorge to ferry out people who can't complete it - and apparently a heli-pad but we didn't see that.

We did have to keep remembering to stop and admire the view - it was very easy to just focus completely on where your next foot was going and not look up at all.

We started walking at 8.30 and finished the Gorge at 2pm, got to the village at 2.30 and got the 3.45 ferry back to Sfakia. Kath and Janice got the later ferry, so Kevin and I didn't wait but jumped on a bus from Sfakia to Hania.

I was also really interested in Sfakia as that is where the soldiers were evacuated from after the Battle, so I was somewhere where I really knew my Dad had been. It felt quite strange. The road up out of Sfakia was incredible - I've taken loads of photos for my family of the terrain, but check out this one of the road - very very steep and very very windy! I was glad I was on a full sized bus - although it is also the first time that I've put my seatbelt on in a bus!

Sfakia - windy road

Sfakia - windy road
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.