...

but sometimes I miss South Africa, home, and you ... dreadfully

Ten Things About Living Together

Some of the secrets I'm learning ...

1. The logistics involved in fitting two adult bodies in a 200 x 200cm double bed can make for long, involved and hysterically funny conversations with other couples in a pub. In fact, it's a sure-fire way of making a lot of new friends you never would have met when you were single ...

2. Men and women will always view loo etiquette differently. Different worlds, universes apart. Nuff said.

3. Women either have to find a diplomatic way to explain that you can't split the food budget in half because you don't both eat the same, or get over it.

4. Men and women have entirely different understandings of the phrase "clean up the dishes".

5. Sex on a plate can lead to a surfeit. You either gorge and gross out, or learn to become a gourmet.

6. Time spent apart increases the joy you feel when you're together.

7. Two salaries combined really does give you four times the spending power.

8. Men are wilder, edgier, more dangerous. They take more risks. Women however, are clever, manipulative, deceitful and subversive. They don't need to take more risks; they just let the men do it for them.

9. But men are more fragile emotionally ... and women are stronger that way.

10. Sometimes the most special gift of all is the cup of coffee he makes for you every morning.

Five years since we were last together ...

So there we were ...

... Tina moving out, and ...
















... Guy moving in.

AND ALL AT THE SAME TIME! ARRRRGH CHAOS!

Breaking News

After a fraught morning in which at least three of us were manning up to four computers, we were all able to buy tickets to the Glastonbury Festival, for which we had pre-registered months in advance. Ticket sales opened at 9am this morning, and we tried endlessly to link to the site and process our credit card payments, while outside the whirling snowstorm continued until noon.

When we finally got confirmation that we are, all, indeed going to one of the lucky few to be going to the Festival, it was almost an anti-climax. I had already completed The World's Most Elegant Snowman, and developed a migraine. G had headed off to visit a friend; T continued to pack.

But now I'm surfing through the site, the links, the news, the updates and I'M STARTING TO GET EXCITED! This is as exciting as Burning Man, folks! Eleven weeks to go! We have to buy tents, wellies, ponchos, airbeds ... the list is endless. We hadn't even thought of the music acts we are going to see. We hadn't thought of the days, the trip, the money, the work consequences.

WE'RE GOING TO THE GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL AND, RIGHT NOW, NOTHING ELSE IN THE WORLD IS AS EXCITING! :)

The World's Most Elegant Snowman

Yes Cinderella, you're going to the Ball

Patterns

On the door of St Alban's Cathedral
One thousand years old




















Mosaic tiles on ancient Roman floor, built with underfloor heating
City of Verulamiam, St Alban's
Two thousand years old

Illumination

Even the longest winter must finally come to an end, and so it is with this one. In just the last few weeks so many things have changed in sync with the season. The days are finally finally getting longer, and what a joy it was to change the clocks forward last weekend, and come home from work in the daylight.

I planted pink heather and japonica in the planter near my bedroom window, and was amazed to discover that the Bleeding Hearts I had planted last year were in shoot again; they have shot up in the last few weeks, completely dwarfing the other plants and flowering their petite pink heart bell shaped buds beautifully.

There are bird feeders hanging above them and we've already seen robins, coal tits and blackbirds in passing. Even the squirrels hustle up to steal the seeds - little blighters!

Inside our house, there are packing cases everywhere. After 5 years of happiness here, T is finally moving on, into a house with her B. This means my G is moving in with me and I'm filled with fear, trepidation, delight and utter joy. I can't wait for our time together to begin ...

Already his collection of swords and crossbows, hats and masks and coats and suits have begun to accumulate in amongst my own things; we are cluttered, too cluttered, but looking forward to rearranging our little world together once the space is ours.

I spent a day in St Albans with my dear friend D. We had lunch in the Cathedral Cafe, then meandered through the gorgeous building - over a thousand years old. We had a magical encounter with an historian archivist, who was poring over an incredible parchment, 700 years old, filled with Latin recordings of the Manor Courts held by the Bishop for the villagers of the area. It was breathtaking to be inches away from the illuminated script drawn by monks in the 14th century. I found myself catching my breath, eyes brimming, overwhelmed by the sense of history.

Then D guided me past the glorious shrine to St Alban, the first English saint, and outside to the grave of the Baron Grimthorpe, who saved the Cathedral in Victorian times. Then on and out to the high street, filled with quaint and arty boutiques. He bought a lava lamp - glorious neon red and yellow; I bought a bedside lamp for G and me - LED lit with morphing colours of red and blue and green. Yes, ridiculous, I know, but who cares!

The day ends warm and lit as I sit in my window, munching on chocolate ginger in the soft glow of the changing colours, looking outside in the hope I will catch a glimpse of the robin trying out the new bird-feeder.

With every change comes new things - a new job, a new housemate, new friends and a new view on my world - my England.