My Quest to Make Friends

On Friday I had dinner with my book club/discussion group. We went to a Caribbean restaurant called The Mango Room. We had a nice time and had good conversations. Victor was supposed to come and meet my friends, but he ended up going to a year-end happy hour with his co-workers. Oh well, maybe next time.

Not too much else has been going on...I am trying to think of other ways to meet more people, and I found a website called gumtree.com where people put up personal ads to find friends. At first I thought it was weird, but when you think about it, how else are you going to meet people these days? In college, it was easy to meet people because you were all lumped in one centralized location and you automatically had something in common, but once you're out of school, you are just sort of floating in the atmosphere and its not like people are going to come up to you in the grocery store and say, "Hey, you look like someone I'd like to get to know. Let's be buddies." So, I looked through the ads and found several ads for black girls around my age that were looking for the same things I am looking for: friends to do stuff with and chat with. I'm just glad I'm not the only one looking for friends! There were also couples looking for other couples to hang out with. I responded to some of the ads and have gotten a few responses back already. I know it sounds a little sketchy, but at this point I don't know what else to do. I work from home, so I don't have any co-workers, and the gym and church we go to is filled with middle-aged people with kids. And much to my disappointment, there is not a Delta chapter here, so I have run out of options. We'll see what happens!

Marathon Training????

Well, I officially started my marathon training this week and I hate to say that I am already looking for excuses to quit!!!!!!!! What's wrong with me? On Monday I was supposed to run 6 miles, so I had mapped out a nice course along the Basingstoke Canal because I read that there are nice walking trails along the canal. Conveniently, one of the entrances to the walking trail is only half a mile from our apartment so I thought, "How nice! I will get to run amongst nature!" WRONG! When I got there I got scared because the trail is secluded from civilization and I was positive someone would be waiting in the bushes to attack me, plus the canal was level with the running trial and they were separated only by some mud and grass, and all it would take was a gust of wind for me to go running into the water. Also, the water was dark, so I have no clue how deep it was which creeps me out, and I kept imagining a sea monster coming up from the depths of the water to snatch me up. Anyway, against my better judgement I started running on the trail because I had spent so much time mapping out my running and I didn't want all the planning to go to waste. As I was running though, my imagination kept getting more and more vivid and I was sure that someone was out to get me, so I only ended up running a quarter of a mile on the trail and I got off the trail at the next opening. Part of me wanted to keep going on the trail because--I must admit--it was very pretty and there were ducks floating in the water and stuff, but my intuition told me to find somewhere else to run that wasn't so secluded, plus it gets dark here at 4 PM and it was already 3:45, and I was not about to be stuck in the woods at nighttime!! Anyway, since I had set out to run 6 miles, I knew I needed to keep running, so I ran around town. I figured I would head home after it felt like I had ran 6 miles, and then I would use Google Maps to figure out how far I had actually run. Well, I got home and I was feeling pretty good about myself because I THOUGHT that I ran AT LEAST 4 or 5 miles, but when I mapped it on the internet guess how far I ran?? 2.65 miles!! That's it!! I was so disappointed in myself because I really thought that I ran alot further than that. After I got over my disappointment, I decided to go ahead and map out Tuesday's run so that I would know exactly where I would be running and exactly how far I would be running. On Tuesday I was supposed to run 3 miles and the plan that I mapped out was 3.1, so I thought, "Perfect!" WRONG!! I started out running on Tuesday and I stepped of the curb wrong and my ankle started hurting very early into my run, so I ended up having to walk most of the way. Today I am supposed to run 3 miles and I am determined to do so, even if it kills me!!! I really do want to run the marathon and I do not want to give up, so I am just going to have to make running a non-negotiable part of my daily life.

Christmas Bonus

Here is another funny commercial. This one is for the Christmas Bonus Lottery. I especially like the turkey running along the beach with her braids flowing behind her: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwokqKZLpPA

Anyway, I ordered my office furniture today. Yeah! I think it will take a week or two to get here. It was fun picking out what I wanted. I will be glad once I have everything together. Not much went on today. Oh, I bought some car insurance! At first they tried to tell me it would be £1900 a year, but I was able to bargain them down to £625 by agreeing to get a letter from my previous insurer saying that I have been claim-free for the past five years. Whew! It wouldn't have made a huge difference to me personally since my company is paying for my insurance, but I am glad that I was able to save them a lot of money.

Victor is still working long hours, but their busy season is over on Friday so his workload should ease up a little after that. I am so proud of how well he is doing at work and they even gave him a little shout-out in their company newsletter. Here is what it said: "Victor Yarbrough is now well on board and running the claims function previously conducted by Irina in Investigations. Victor, who comes from Cincinnati, Ohio, has made a real impact in a short period of time. " Isn't that nice? I like to brag on my man. :) Speaking of newsletters, I wrote an article for my company newsletter about relocating to a different country and it was published this month. I would post it but it is sort of long.

God is really blessing us here and we thank Him every night for allowing us the wonderful opportunity of living abroad. Please pray for us that we continue to follow the will of God and remain sensitive to His desires for us.

UK Commercials

UK commercials tickle me. I am going to start posting commercials that I think are funny, weird, or interesting. Here are a couple:

This Nutrigrain commercial is funny but borderline weird: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8567695671324387491 I FEEL GREAT!!!

Here is another one that makes me giggle: http://youtube.com/watch?v=zy9h8G2EcQ0&feature=related "Does anyone have any aqua mineral?" Hee hee

And I hate this commercial because it is supposed to be about chocolate but it is just a gorilla playing the drums. I hate it!!http://youtube.com/watch?v=TApA1fyoSdk&feature=related

The Price of Gas

Someone was asking about the price of gas here (I believe it was Daddy). Right now gas is about £1 per liter. How does that translate into US prices? Well, there are approximately 4 liters in a gallon, so that would be £4 a gallon and when you do the currency conversion, that comes out to be about $8 a gallon. So quit your crying about your $2.50/gallon gasoline! Hee hee. :)

I'm On My Way!

I finally got my internet and phone lines hooked up in the apartment--whoo hoo! My quality of life has shot up by 97% since I no longer have to trudge to the library everyday and clamor for a computer. Now I can work out of the comfort of my home. This week's tasks will include getting my home office together and ordering office furniture. Fun fun!!

So, what have we been up to? Last week I drove to Wales for a business trip. Although it was very windy, dreary, and rainy, Wales was very pretty. The hills were lush and green and there were cute little sheep everywhere. We also went down by the coast one day and it was so pretty watching the water crash up against the rocks. Anyway, the drive up was about 3 hours. I have come quite a long way with my driving. A couple of weeks ago I would have never driven farther than the grocery store or the gym, but now I'm driving to different countries. Now that's what I call progress!

This past weekend I had a team meeting in London. There are only seven of us in the UK, so this was a nice way for us all time meet face to face. We went to a medieval banquet. Basically we were down in a dungeon and the performers were dressed in medieval clothes and there was lots of loud medieval music and entertainment. I had gone to a medieval banquet in Germany last year, so I knew what to expect. We had a pretty good time, but I think two medieval banquets in one lifetime are more than enough for me!! Here are some pictures:

http://lydiaandvictor.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album02

I went to the store on Saturday and discovered some more interesting potato chip flavors:

• Lemon Roasted Chicken with Rosemary and Thyme




• Yogurt & Green Onion




• Spare Ribs




• Roasted Red Pepper with Goat Cheese




• Heinz Tomato Ketchup




• Lamb & Mint

I need to start bringing my camera to the grocery store so that I can take pictures of the bags. I'm going to bring a few home for folks to try during the holidays!!

Speaking of the holidays, I was so bummed not be home for Thanksgiving this year. I spent the entire day thinking about what I would be doing if I was at home and wandering what my family was up to. Thankfully, I spoked to my family several times on Thanksgiving, so I felt like I was in the loop. My sister Camille also took pity on me and fulfilled my request of detailing what each person was doing in the house so that I could have a mental picture of what everyone was doing at home. Although I was sad that I wasn't at home, I took comfort in knowing that I would be home for Christmas. Yay!

Still Waiting...

This week was full of ups and downs in my quest for normalcy. While I did finally receive my check card, I had to fight with DHL in order for them to deliver it to me in a timely manner. I finally got the phone line hooked up, but only after 3 additional calls to BT and a whole lot of arguing, threatening, and crying (by any means necessary!!). Since the phone line was finally activated, I was able to call the internet company on Friday to order broadband. They said that they would send out the equipment within 5 days, but it will take up to 15 days for the internet to be activated in the apartment. WHAT??? At this point, I really don’t care—I just want to be able to work from home instead of going to the library everyday!!

Anyway, aside from my daily struggles with DHL, BT, and Citibank, the rest of the week was not too bad. I worked out 4 days this week, which is good for me because I usually start out the week with these lofty fitness goals and by Tuesday I have talked myself out of doing more than a few minutes on the treadmill and a few crunches. This week I actually did all of the workouts that I had set out to do, so I am happy about that. I also registered for the Paris marathon (April 6, 2008) so I guess I have to do it now!! I’m excited!

We also got satellite television this week, but we were disappointed to find that satellite television is nothing more than 500 channels of American reruns. L It is sort of funny because all of the shows that failed in died in the US are thriving and successful here. It was nice to watch some oldies but goodies though, like “The Goonies” and “Real World” episodes from 6 seasons ago. :)

On Saturday Victor and I tried to go to the Museum of Branding & Advertising in Notting Hill, but we couldn’t find it and of course no one we asked knew where it was, so we ended up going to a nice outdoor market that had lots of yummy fruits and vegetables and nick nacks. We bought some really good strawberries and blueberries for only £1.50 each and 5 avocados for £1. The good thing about London is that even though housing is expensive, food is really cheap! Then we went to Harrod’s to look around at the merchandise. We’ll have to go back there to shop after a couple of extra zero’s have been added to our paychecks!! After that we met up with some of Victor’s co-workers and we had dinner at a cozy little Thai restaurant, then headed home and got in around 1 am.

Victor is doing well at his job. He gets compliments from his managers all the time because he is such hard worker and he goes the extra mile to produce quality work. I am very proud of him and all that he has accomplished so far.

The other day when I was at the grocery store I noticed that the potato chips here have fancy flavors with long elaborate names. My favorites that I have tried so far are:
· Vintage Farmhouse Cheddar with Pan Fried Shallots
· Balsamic Vinegar with Olive Oil and Chili
· Thai Sweet Chili with Roasted Red Peppers
I also noticed that there are a lot of meat –flavored chips, like roast beef, pork, roasted chicken, prawns…it’s sort of weird.