Dec 2011

Fri 02 Dec 2011

So here is our lovely Christmas tree... click on the pic to see it larger.

Sat 03 Dec 2011

This morning we drove up to the Cambridge area for SCA event Yule Ball. Steve spent some training time with his newest squire Alex, and fought in the tourney. Jen asked how did the tourney go - Steve said yeah I did OK. The penny didn't drop for Jen until Steve was given the winners baldric in the evening. Here are a few photos from the evening's revelry...

Above: Alaric and his newest squire Alex.

Mon 12 Dec 2011

Jen's work team were abuzz with the latest exciting news from our team's Graduate Comms Officer, Ashley. She won a young entrepeneur competition (she co-owns startup business LOUD fashion) and was flown business class to South Africa for the weekend to meet and chat with Richard Branson! Wow! Here she is (right) having given him a little bow tie she and her business partner designed for the ocassion.

Fri 16 Dec 2011

After a pretty hectic week at work, Jen's team took the afternoon off to celebrate the end of the year and Christmas together, playing ping pong in the Shoreditch area.

Mon 19 Dec 2011

Today Jen considered not going to work but went anyway. Over the weekend she'd had a few little moments of dizziness. She was quite grey and pale for much of the day, and was in a pretty bad way after the bus ride home... straight to bed. 

Next day called in sick, saw the doctor in the afternoon, was diagnosed with labrynthitis, and told to take the rest of the week off work (and 3 tablets a day). The next few days she slept an average of about 12-14 hours each night, just exhausted. Slowly over the week the dizziness was less frequent.

Steve brilliantly took care of Jen when he wasn't at work.

Sat 24 Dec 2011

This morning Jen was still a little bit dizzy on occasion, but OK. We packed and headed over to Mary's place (near Bristol) to commence our week of cat sitting.

Sun 25 Dec 2011

Merry Christmas! 

Jen's feeling OK today, hooray! Still taking it easy though. 

Played with Mary's cats again today - Jazz and Pixie.

We opened the pressies we brought with us, mainly DVDs and some books, plus heraldic embroidery from Mary (thank you)! Jen got a bunch of second hand Organ Pipes, which we hope to work into making a portative organ - a medieval musical instrument - a little portable pipe organ you play with one hand and pump a bellows with the other. It'll take a bit of time to clean up the pipes though. This will hopefully be our crafty project for the year.

Tue 27 Dec 2011

After a few restful days, we finally ventured out of the house for a couple of hours, and wandered about the pretty little English village of Lacock, filled to bursting with "quaint".

Next, we stopped in for lunch at the George Inn, and checked out the stuffed dog on the mantel. It's a Turnspit Dog, a tiny type of dog which was bred for this work. Like a guinea pig you put it in the wheel and this then connects through cogs and chain to turn the spit by the hearth.

Wed 28 Dec 2011

Steve has cooked tasty dinners every night this week. Good hubby!

Today we visited 'Arthur's Stone' near the Welsh border. It's actually a late Neolithic chambered tomb, but the local legend has King Arthur fighting a giant here, who broke the top of this stone structure with its elbow when it fell.

As it was darned cold out here, and windy to boot!

Sat 31 Dec 2011

Stayed up for the New Year countdown, celebrating with Cava, and watching the London fireworks live on BBC1. Next morning we watched the Sydney fireworks on the net.