Shhh

I'm scared to say it too loudly in case it goes away, but it seems we finally have internet access at home. And to think it only took 3 months of waiting and hassling our 'service provider'.

We've posted some photos from our Berlin trip last December on our Flickr site. Enjoy! More London photos to come, and then Paris next month.

Grumble

Phone calls from banks irritate me. Someone will call me on my mobile purporting to be from my bank. There will almost certainly be very poor reception and I will struggle to hear. That someone will then explain that for my protection they need to verify who I am and would I please give them my full name, address and account details. And then be mystefied when I explain that no, I wont do that. I have no idea who they are or where they are calling from and I'm certainly not going to pass on such details to a complete stranger. If you are from my bank, please write to me if you want to contact me. Or give me some way of checking you are who you say you are.

If it's not raining, why am I getting wet?

There is a kind of rain here in London that we just don't get in Australia. It's sneaky. It doesn't really look like rain, it doesn't feel like rain, but walk in it for a couple of minutes and you'll find yourself quite damp. Other times, like lunchtime today when I went for a walk, it rains properly. Then you get absolutely soaked.

Lovely day

Yesterday was much too nice a day to go to work, especially with my glands imitating footballs. There were a few of inches of snow when we woke up, which were steadily added to during the day. Lots of lovely soft, white snow. So pretty. We stayed home, drank tea, watched the West Wing and had afternoon tea with our neighbours. Oh, and we made a snowman :) Photos to come when we finally have Internet access at home (don't get me started).

This and that

It amazes me the extent to which music affects my emotions. On the way to work this morning, I was listening to Matisyahu and then Norah Jones. Despite the many reasons to be feeling a bit down at the moment, I've been walking along the corridors humming to myself, bursting into chorus in the stairwells if I think no one is there to hear. The music somehow reminds me how lucky I am - a wonderful husband, the best of family and friends, pretty good health (no signs of yellowness recently, and the other day I had six glasses of wine with no nasty repercussions - that's worthy of a toast, I think!), a good job with lots of potential, living in a great city, in a lovely unit. All in all, I'm feeling cheerful.

This weekend we have some good friends coming over to dinner at long last. This is the first weekend this year that both couples were free. I'd like to think my busy social life was the reason, but sadly not. On the menu: sweet potato and goats' cheese pies and my mum's wonderful lemon delicious pudding. I'm also planning to experiment with a chocolate chili cake.

Happy Friday, all!