Jul 2011 b

Not a huge amount happening this fortnight...

Mon 18 Jul 2011
Tonight we rented the Harry Potter final movie (Part 1) in preparation for watching Part 2 at the cinema Tuesday night.

Wed 20 Jul 2011
Steve goes off to SCA fighter practice, adding new tricks to other peoples' games.

Thu 21 Jul 2011
Tonight Jen brought home most of her team workmates for dinner. Steve cooked up a fabulous NZ lamb dish - cooked in a little olive oil, corriander, leeks and garum (fish sauce). Went very well indeed. All finished off with chocolate ice cream and fresh strawberries for desert mmmmmm.  Recipe for the lamb dish can be found on Steve's food blog:  http://alaricofbangor.weebly.com/roman-apicius.html

 

Sat 23 Jul 2011
Today we had Kev and Tash over today, to watch movies and drink Ale! Movies watched were: Dune; Whalerider; and Hawk the Slayer. Steve also cooked up succulent juicy meat steaks and oven roasted veggies. YUM!

Sun 24 Jul 2011
Steve cooked up eggs benedict for breakfast this morning, and we waved Kev and Tash bye bye about lunch time. We took it easy for the rest of the afternoon.

Tue 26 Jul 2011
So, today, after waiting with other peoples' screaming kids for 2.5 hours, and forking over £1.3k ... Jen is now officially allowed to stay in the UK for as long as she likes. Steve's visa doesn't run out till 2015 so there's plenty of time to spread out any future costs. Another year in the future Jen will be able to fork out the same again to become a UK citizen if she so chooses.

Wed 27 Jul 2011
One year to go til the Olympics! This shot taken at Jen's work, with the Olympic stadium and the "ArcelorMittal Orbit" in the background (the red thing). This thing's going to look a bit like the Eiffel Tower on acid. It's going together like a giant Meccano set. We heard that it's being put together by only 4 blokes.

The red thing is called the ArcelorMittal Orbit

Tonight Steve went off to fighter practice again.

Thu 28 Jul 2011

This morning Steve got up early and dropped the car off with our favourite mechanic, where it will stay for about the next 3 weeks in all likelihood. It needs a service but also a new windscreen and generally a good look over.

Fri 29 Jul 2011
Jen wakes up with a sore throat and sniffles. Just her luck. Must focus on getting better, as we'll be celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary in France next week.

Sat 30 Jul 2011
Mary came all the way from Bristol, and together with Jen they set off for Edith's hen's do at the 'Make Lounge'. Here about 10 of us sheilas mucked about with fragrances and created massage bars, bath bombs, lip balm and sugar scrubs. Then off to a pub for a couple of hours and topped off with dinner at a Turkish restaurant.
Meanwhile at home, Steve pulled apart is PC. It "blue-screened" on him last night, and he eventually found that one of the memory cards is flaky and plays up when it gets hot. At least he now knows where the problem lies.

Sun 31 Jul 2011
Steve cooked eggs benedict with home-made hollandaise sauce for breakfast and after some jokey phone conversations with Finn, we saw Mary off back home. As it was such a sunny nice day we took a stroll in the local park which includes a nice rose garden. Here's Jen smelling the roses in her "summer jacket."