Strange what you see around the corner!

So there I was walking around London yesterday morning, and what do I find round the corner?

Not one, but two baby elephants! I mean full size baby elephants. 

OK, so they are part of Elephant Parade London 2010, but even so, it is still such fun and so cheery, you can't help but smile,

So let me introduce:

'Map Elephant' by Anna Simmons

 

'Map Elephant' by Lily Marneffe

So what is this all about? This is taken from the Elephant Parade London 2010 website:

Elephant Parade London celebrates the beauty of the magnificent Asian elephant. And this year – with 258 painted elephants in locations across central London – it is the biggest and most beautiful outdoor art event the city has ever seen.

The elephants are on the streets of London from May until July, and are attracting an estimated audience of 25 million, raising a projected £2 million and benefiting 17 conservation charities in the UK alone. Download the official route map from the Elephant Parade London website and please sign our petition to call on governments for securing a viable future for the endangered Asian elephant.

"All those who grew up with Colonel Hathi in the Jungle Book film, or those even older (like me) who remember him from the book of Mowgli by Kipling, must be shaken to know that without our help the magnificent Asian elephant may die out altogether. How dreadful to think that we may cause the extinction of this giant in our lives: and how fabulous to know that by supporting Elephant Parade and Elephant Family we can turn the tide and ensure their survival. Don't leave it until it is too late: join me and a thousand thousand others, and give now. Remember: elephants never forget. Let's make sure they will still be there to remember that we didn't turn our backs on them." Joanna Lumley, May 2010

 

For more information go to the website Elephant Parade London 2010

I just love coming across surprises like this, it just puts a smile on my face and makes the day so much better, I hope you all agree. Let me know what you think.

Have a good time until we meet again. Liz xx

What we have been doing recently

A week ago we returned from our wonderful holiday in Germany. This had been planned for many months and had been talked about for a few years. Some good friends of ours grew up in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse just over the German border, near Alsace, and they were always telling us that we should join them there for a holiday. Finally late last year, we managed to get a date in the diary when the four of us would all be available to take a week off and travel over.

We decided that, as the cycling was reported as being so good there, we would drive and take our bikes with us, planning to cycle to most of the destinations that we intended to go to. There was the added advantage that we would not have to worry about drinking (or not!) and driving if we took our bikes.

And so the day finally came and we all drove down to Dover, The Man and I only just making it in time for the ferry, thanks to the dreadful service at the Service station on the M2, and the appalling traffic once we got to Dover, but we made it which was all that mattered. And so the holiday began.

Once we docked in France, The Man handed the driving over to me, he is not a great one for driving on the Continent, and even less good at driving at speed, which was going to happen. So, we followed our friends through France and Belgium (stopping for a meal early in the afternoon - I had not even realised that we had crossed into Belgium at this stage!). We then changed drivers and drove to Luxembourg where we filled up with petrol (very cheap) and changed drivers again for the end of our journey into Germany. If I had thought that they drove fast thus far, Germany was something else. We were driving at about 85 miles an hour most of the way and although a few cars overtook us, they did not do so at any great speed, Germany was a different matter; cars overtook us as if they were on a race track. Truly scary!

At about 9pm, twelve hours after we left home, we arrived at our destination, Gimmeldingen, a village just outside Neustadt.

Our landlord for the week, a friend of our holiday companions, kindly laid on supper for us, with some of the local wine to help wash it down. Now, when I say local, I mean local, this was the view from our flat, and where the wine came from:

If the wine did not travel well, that would have been fine bearing in mind that it only had to travel a few yards from the Weingut, or Vineyard. We did visit the vineyard on our final day to buy some Sekt, which was very pleasant and very cheap at €7.60 a bottle, more of that later. 

So, after a long day, we finally got to bed.

So here we go again

Yet again, I am going to see if I can keep a blog going. I think this is the third time I have tried, and they do say that third time is lucky, so here we go again!

Well, let's see if being really bored can get me to write something here!

Life has been interesting over the past couple of weeks. Having had a frozen right shoulder a few years ago, which was successfully treated, I developed the same problem in my left one just before Christmas. Happily, knowing the symptoms all too well, I did not hang around and got myself referred back to the Consultant that I saw last time really quickly and he confirmed that I should have the same treatment this time around.

I have to say this was just as well and the speed with which it has developed this time is phenomenal, and I have been in serious pain for about 2 weeks, not sleeping well etc.

So I was due to have the treatment yesterday, and all was going well until we woke on Monday morning to 8 inches of snow. Not a problem in itself, but I knew that the Consultant Radiologist who was due to undertake the treatment was away for a long weekend skiing - no flights into the UK was, therefore a bit of a worry. I rang the hospital late on Monday and was assured that they had heard from him and that he was sure he would be back by the Tuesday afternoon.

I had planned to go to the office on Tuesday morning and, as the trains were running, there seemed no reason not to. Martin gave me a lift to Twickenham Station, which had more chance of trains that Whitton, and I duly got into Waterloo with very little trouble. Then the fun started. I had put my bag on the luggage rack so, after we had pulled into Waterloo and the carriage had emptied a bit, I reached up to get my bag down but lost my footing on the very wet floor, grabbed out to stop my fall and ended up 'dangling' from the luggage rack by my left (bad) arm.

The pain was indescribable, I got off the train and within a few steps I had collapsed on the concourse. Surprise, surprise, no one came to my aid.

So, by now I am in serious pain and shock, so why wouldn't I keep going to the office. I have no memory of the journey, but by the time I got there I was in tears and in a right old state. I took one look at my desk and broke down. Happily, no one else was in the office, so I had no witnesses, but, because she had sent me a text to see if I was OK getting into the office, I did call Amanda and blubbed down the phone at her and told her I was going straight home. I did have the presence of mind to grab my laptop and then I left.

Anyway, cutting the long short, that pretty much wrote the rest of the morning off.

I got to the hospital well in time for my appointment in the afternoon so was there to witness the Radiologist arriving at the hospital with a major limp! He had broken his leg the day before, having decided that as he was delayed coming back to the UK he might as well carry on skiing - on his last run, he fell and broke his leg. But he refused to have it plastered or even strapped up, after all it was only a fracture, he had another bone in his leg and the pain would go away soon! This is the man that was about to stab a needle into my really painful shoulder - me worried, why would I be worried?

It was excruciating having the treatment done, but at least the x-ray confirmed that there was no bone damage to my shoulder, just soft tissue, following my fall/dangle.

So here I am today in more pain than I can remember for some time, off work and banned, by the office, from travelling into town for the rest of the week even if I can do some work (that will have to be working from home). So I will get a few lie ins - every cloud . . .

So the next question is whether I am going to be fit to demo this weekend? Watch this space.

Oh, in case you were wondering, the photo is of my shoulder during yesterday's treatment - that straight white line is the needle.

And so we enter August, or is that April!

Well, the blog that was meant to happen every day, seems to be more of a monthly thing. Must try to do better.

I have been really busy since I last wrote here; had a training day in Nottingham -on Christmas! and have already had my first Christmas Demonstration, it was last weekend and it must have been well over 30c, sitting in, what was in effect, a large greenhouse. But there were a really great bunch of folk there and it was great fun, particulaly one young lad who was there against his better judgement, but got involved and decided that the origami fold that I was showing him made a much better stealth fighter than it did a butterfly or Christmas Tree!

Work has been manic and I am getting more and more to do, with less and less time in which to do it. Just to help, we moved office over last weekend, so spent 2 days packing only to find on Monday that I had no power, IT or Phone working. Hey Ho, life goes on.

I am so looking forward to going down to Greyshott in a couple of weeks, I am going to do nothing, or very little, can't decide which yet. I booked some additional treatments today and, not unsurprisingly, they are all aimed at de-stressing and relaxing me.

Well after a really drearly start to the day today, here I am at nearly 7pm and the sun is shining and it is a really lovely evening.

Tomorrow we are going over to see my parents and my brother and his family for lunch. Curry at the local Tandoori. Really looking forward to seeing my brother and his family, we have not seen them for an age.

Well I have supper to finish off so had better finish now and get the food sorted!!

Will it never end?

Well, here we are on 10 July and for the first time in, what seems like days, there is some sunshine. The forecast for the day is quite good as well, but rain again tomorrow.

I have not been on the Brompton this week, because of the weather, which is a real shame as I was beginning to really enjoy being out in the open at the start and end of my day. I saw some great birdlife last week too, particularly on the ride to the station in the morning. Green Woodpecker and a Kestral in the same week. Surely that is what life is all about!

Work has been really tough these last few weeks, I never seem to be able to get away on time and, not unreasonably, I think Martin is beginning to get a little hacked off with me always being late home. I am hopeful that things will calm down soon, but that may be wishful thinking.

Oh well, I guess I will just have to do what I can to keep it all together.

What happened to June?

Well June went by without me even noticing.

I really must get into the habit of keeping up to date with this or there is little point.

Work was hectic again today, I sometimes wonder if my brain is actually coping, then I realise that it is not! I also wonder if I am speaking a different language from everyone else. I told some of the guys on the Project Team that I would not be available to help them tomorrow and must spend the day going through MY work, which they were fine about. But before I left their room one of them said he was going to ask me for some assistance tomorrow - I obviously don't speak clearly enough - I had to make the point again that I was NOT going to be available for them tomorrow, and again was being asked for help tomorrow, only to be told that they want to show me how to use an E-room that we were told earlier in the day would not be available tomorrow - I GIVE UP!!!!

Lovely day today though, the weather was amazing and it was a delight to cycle home.
Back soon I hope.