Watch out for the Crabs!!!

Today was a quiet day. Mom and I went to Felixtowe which was looking beautiful in the spring sunshine. I took a picture of a road Sign for Ang, (being a Norman Girl, I thought she might like the street name). Also, I managed to find a sign in a shop which is probably the BEST thing I have found this year!!!

"life is a beach - watch out for the crabs".

I saw it and knew there was no way I was going to get away without buying it. After my crab oriented purchase, we drove a little way through town to a beach where there were no touristy places, no noisy arcade promenade, and where Monty could be let off the lead in safe knowlege that he wouldn't cause trouble.

Mom and I just watched the ships sail in and out of the Port of Feloxtowe. The sun was shining and the air was warm (Mom still managed to get cold however, so she borrowed my hoodie).

It is amazing what sunshine and a soft breeze can do. I am not a 'beach' person by nature, inasmuch as I hate sunbathing and I dislike sand inbetween my toes and having nothing to do except get sand under your fingernails, (Fishing is fine. you wear wellies, a hat, and generally get cold and have a great time casting, baiting and -hopefully- hauling in fish). Today however, I actually threw caution to the winds kicked off my boots (which never usually leave my feet), rolled up my jeans and explored the beach with monty hot on my heels. A nice change.

Tonight I am by planning on cosying down with some dinner and some Deadliest Catch. Nothing changes there, but I think my saying of "shut up, I'm happy" would be an acceptable thing to say at this juncture.

Have a very happy Thursday everyone!

Nightingale

just a quick post here to say that there is a Nightingale singing outside my bedroom window! and it is 01:00 am! How good life is!

Getting distracted! - Facebook is EEEEVIL!

One of the worst things about being a Deadliest Catch fan in England is that nothing ever happens here!!!! Sometimes I wish I lived in the USA so that I could take part in events and meet and greets like Catch Con which was this weekend. I have seen a few pictures that one Captain Sig Hansen has posted on 'Flikr' and they look like everything was set up for a brilliant party. Maybe next year I will be able to go.

My Weekend was fun! Since Stephy was home, we did so much together as a family and it was a good break from the usual weekend routine. We were able to take a car journey out to Westleton near the coast which was very nostalgic. We spent alot of time there when we were kids as our Grandparents owned a carvan very nearby. Since we last went, The village of westleton seems to have shrunk a tiny bit! The duck pond is definately smaller than I remember it. This however is the sad thing about growing up. Ponds which seem as vast as a lake or an ocean can shrink and seem less impressive in only a matter of years! Today was the sad day of departure for Little Sis. we spent a couple of hours in Ipswich after church and she boarded the midday train back to Scotland. It is always so sad to see her leave but thankfully it is not too long until St. Andrews University sends all the students back home again. We have about a month Untill Steph once again graces our doorstep.

~Little Sis all ready to go back home. 16 hours travelling for a 30 hour stay in Ipswich. The girl must be bonkers!~

Steph Returns!!!

~Little Sis Steph is back for the weekend!!!~

~Here is Steph flying Baby Sis's huge kite (which damn near killed her!)~

~Little Sis would kill me if she saw I had put this picture of her up but I might be safe. I dont think she bothers to read my blog.~ All week I have been dying to tell you all a huge piece of news!!!

Steph has come home for the weekend for a surprise visit!

I was the only one in on the secret and so was sworn to secrecy. even my blog is not safe to broadcast secrets as I have a feeling that Baby Sis reads my posts from time to time if she is bored (and has told me to stop calling her Baby Sis. wether I will or not is a different matter altogether). All week long I have been preparing things on the hush hush. I sorted out a family get together for tomorrow, I have tidied (with mom's help, even though she thought we were tidying for tidy's sake) I dusted, and all the time had to remain boring and normal instead of doing the exact opposit and getting myself excited about seeing my sis who spends most of the year in Scotland Watching peoples reactions to seeing Steph today was very fun! She made her own way home from the train station and so when she rang the doorbell, Mom answered the door and gaspes saying "what on earth are you doing here!" Baby Sis disolved into tears (of joy, I must add), and when Dad came home, steph was in the kitchen so Dad was lead in. Thinking that we had something specil for tea, he did a double take when he saw Steph and exclaimed "wow! are you edible then??"

After tea, we all went kite flying! we almost lost steph as the kite was big enough to actually haul her of the ground for a second. Various remarks such as "we need someone holding onto her waist" were made, but fortunately Steph managed to stay on the ground for the remainder of the evening.

Have fun everyone! happy Friday!!!

Lonely evenings for a while.

~only a small segment of the huge breakage in my laptops screen. I dont think I could manage to do that again if I tried!~

What does an insomniac do when she doesn't have a laptop?

...

good question.

Last night my laptop broke. Ok, if you must twist my arm... I broke my laptop. I was picking it up and my mind was occupid on a different train of thought. The flex which was charging my laptop got caught around the arm of my chair, the computer flew out of my hands and landed on the screen which promptly smashed.

I seem to have a bad way with computers. I always get the ones that either break, go frustratingly slow or have major personality issues!

Fortunately, I took out an insurance policy on my laptop when I bought it a month and a half ago. With this little handy piece of luck, I have been able to send my laptop to some people who will either repair or replace it.

All this means however that I am without a laptop for however long it takes for the "fixing people" to come up with a fixing strategy. Since I am a complete insomniac, my laptop is a bit of a lifeline. I can trawl the deadliest catch websites and forums and I can talk to my friends from around the world (who always do a marvelous job of keeping me entertained when theorhetically, I should be sleeping) so what I shall do instead, I have no idea!

I am thinking I might get through a whole lot of Deadliest Catch DVDs!

So everyone, Keep your minds on the task at hand and dont drop your laptops! if you do, you end up with a whole lot of mess to clean up!

~~~

Dad moment of the week..

"everyone knows tomatoes are 100% water, held together by a red colored gravity field!"

EXCITEMENT!

~I thought that before I started this blog today, I would post a picture of Obscuria who inspired the Northwestern eggs! I wanted to post one of the pictures yesterday but I wanted to ask her permission first :D I wish I had been able to figure out how to get my eggs blue and white!!! :D ~

So! what does the word excitement mean to me? It means, Butterflies my stomach, Restlessness, a permanent excited smile and my parents giving me that "knowing" look. In 18 minutes, My 3 hours of Deadliest Catch shall begin with a Deadliest catch round up, and then Episode 1 of SEASON FIVE!!!! I have been very nice to the parents by doing the washing up for them so that they let me watch DC on the downstairs TV. (Dad saw through this little ploy but he doesn't seem to mind). I have also got in all my Deadliest Catch essentials! Reeses cups / Nutilicious bars, Cheesy Doritos and 'Irn Bru' (a lovely orange colour fizzy drink). I am going for the orange look tonight evidently!!! I have to dash now... my clock is now a T-minus 10 minutes!!!

~My very orangey theme! what use are snacks if they are not in the "neon" food group!~ ~Mom and Dad actually sitting together watching DC for once! (I had nicked Dad's chair as It is the only chair I can sit in to watch DC)~ ~Me and my neon drink!!! Lovely!!! its scottish! and one of my favourites ever!~

~LATER~ What An evening!!!!! I did not think I could get more excited than I was earlier at the beginning of this post. as "Deadliest Catch Up" ended however, I was on my feet and pacing the room waiting for Episode one to start! I had drunk so much Irn Bru by this time and eaten so much candy that I was hyper on top of excited! Mom looked at dad and said "im wondering who Fizz's dealer is!"

I calmed down eventually. I gasped at all the tense moments in DC, giggled at the funny moments and very nearly cried when Captain Phil Harris got left at the dock.

I have decided to stop watching the episode previews since the previews for episode 1 left little to be discovered. I knew what was coming. Having decided this therefore, I have no idea what is coming next week so please no one spoil it for me :D

For now, I leave you with a reminiscence of Edgar Hansen's shifty eyes as Sig demended "no more stress!" you can't help but love Edgar!

Fizzy's Northwestern Tribute!

Tadaaaaaa!!!!

My Northwestern Hard boiled eggs are finished!!! (now there is a sentence I never thought I would say!)

After the very cool Obscuria made some of these for easter and posted about them on her blog at the Northwestern forums, I felt I just had to have a go! Easter is over (technically speaking) so I cannot claim them to be easter eggs but season 5 of Deadliest Catch is premiering tomorrow for us in Britain, so I thought the eggs could be made in honour of that!

To make them, I 'hatched' the very cunning plan of printing out some Northwestern crests, drawing round them with pencil, and then transferring the pencil lines onto the egg so that I wouldn't have to draw the crest. Every time in the past that I have tried to draw the NW crest It has come out looking just a tad demented. I thought therefore that this would be a time saver. It wasn't. Unfortunately, my cunning plan did not work (dont ask me why), so I therefore drew them freehand and actually for once managed to get the crest looking ok!!!

~~~ There is now

1 Day, 3 Hours, 45 Minutes

to go before I get to see the first episode and Im not sure it is possible to be more excited than I am now!

Mom and Dad got to see the new trailer for DC last night and to my surprise, they actually fell silent to watch it!!! Are maybe Mom and Dad as excited as me?? probably not, but they are intregued and that is a bit better from being indifferent I guess!

I am on Tenterhooks waiting for tomorow! It's going to be a brilliant evening with Discovery giving us 2 HOURS of DC before the 1st episode of season 5 begins. I shall be getting in Doritos, Reeses cups and Pepsi for my DC night and THEN I shall finally be allowed to see the episode 1 discussion threads on the NW forums! (what a pity that everyone in the USA will be discussing episode two by then!)

Enjoy the rest of your Monday everyone!

~this is just about as big as the fishing boats get in this neck of the woods~

Today was so pretty! Therefore, Mom Dad, Baby Sis and I went for a walk in Levington which is near to the coast. we saw so much fun stuff (my favourite of which is a yacht called Celtic Fizz and a Huge heavy duty truck with wheels almost as tall as me!) Monty hadn't had his walk yet when we went out, so as you can imagine, he was a very happy dog and I managed to get quite a cool picture of him running full pelt past me. he must have been going at such a rate because I felt the ground shake beneath me! (I have also just noticed that in the picture no part of him is actually touching the ground! I have a flying dog!!!)

There was so much to photograph today! for the past few days I have been in a very unimaginative mood. Therefore, I havent been able to take very many photographs. I guess spring and summer are not going to be my friends for photography. Everything seems to look the same on sunny days! I shall persevere and hopefully find my inspiration again.

Dad Has been trying to speak Norwegian today... This is probably very hard to explain to someone who has never experienced Dad's foreign language attempts. Basically, Dad's attempts at Norwegian sound very much like a rendition of "Bill and Ben the flowerpot men" (which was a childrens television program in the 50s I think. Bill and Ben had a vocbulary of one phrase. "flobb-a-dobb"). Dad's one word that he knows in Norsk is "Ja!" so after that, he reverts to "flobb-a-dobb-a-dobb" which is quite offputting when one is reading to yourself from a Norwegian coursebook.

I shall leave you with two of the fun photographs of the day! I really couldn't believe the boat Celtic Fizz! that was sort of odd!

Have a great day everyone! and I reccomend you go and check out Brooke's blog! she's such a good photographer and I love reading her blog "Canadian Voices" http://13rook3.blogspot.com/

je suis... "storm killer"

Big News!!! we had our first thunderstorm of the year last night! Quite an early one aswell, seeing as its only the first part of April! I must admit however, the picture above is not from last night. It was taken during a huge storm a couple of years ago from my window.

I did not feel like the storm last night would last very long if I tried to photograph it. I have been told before that I am a "storm killer" (a person who can make a storm fizzle out as soon as they notice it.) I did not therefore want to tempt the storm into maliciously dissappearing on Baby Sis and I who were both hanging out of an upstairs window trying to get a better view of the lightning. (for once I wish Lightning would travel a little slower!)

I have loved thunderstorms ever since I was about 8 and I saw the film Twister (which remains my favourite film to this day). Ever day for months after I saw Twister, I found myself wanting to find out more and more and more about the weather. It didnt even matter if I was learning about storms. If it was weather, it was all good. the weather is still one of my great loves but now I have moved on to phtographing it.

....or attempting to anyway....

The storm last night was brilliant. the sky was lighting up for at least an hour and I am sure it is because I did not take my camera upstairs with me to try and photograh the lightening. I will get lightning pictures before the year is out though!

1 Week to go!!!

Well the wait is over for alot of the global collection of Deadliest Catch fans. As season 5 premiered last night in the USA, I looked at my countdown timer, telling me how long I had to go until the first episode is shown in Britain. Only a week to go!!! ONLY! it might as well be a year! time dragged for the past 3 months, making it seem like season 5 would never arrive. Now, If possible, Old Man Time has taken it upon himself to go even slower! I take comfort from my Countdown timer which tells me that I have

6 days, 2 hours, 46 minutes and 30 seconds

to go until I settle myself down with my Coffee, Doritos, and Chocolate and hopefully find a way of locking my living room door so mum doesn't come swanning in talking on the phone and so that I can watch in PEACE!!! I love my family dearly but they dont have the same level of excitement for it that I do. For them, an episode of DC is just mildly interesting. A show that can easily be recorded and watched a couple of weeks later at their leasure.

After next tuesday, they might consider getting out the Deadliest Catch Swear Box again.

This swear box was the bane of my life for a week last August. If anyone mentioned ANYTHING to do with a certain mass of water (the Bering Sea), or yummy things with hard shells (crabs) or Vikings Pirates (the Hansen brothers) or a direction on the compass (the Northwestern), they were likely to get yelled at and would be made to put £1 in the box. I ended up after three days, owing the box about £30 I think! Fortunately, I wasn't made to pay as my family saw the looks of pain in my eyes as I thought of topics of Deadliest Catch conversation and quickly had to button my bouth so as to not discuss this vitally important subject. If the Swear Box makes a return, you shall have to excuse me from going slightly loopy.

So, I am now on Excitement overload for the next... 8 weeks (by eight weeks, King Crab season will have finished and we will be waiting for the second part of season 5! -scary thought)

For now though, I leave to have my tea of Chicken sandwich and easter eggs! mmm! nutritious!!!

An Easter weekend of weddings and chocolate.

~Mr and Mrs Wildon~

As I sit here in my usual spot writing my blog and eating some skittles, I am rather at a loss as to how I should relate my adventures this weekend.

I guess I should start out by saying a big "CONGRATULATIONS!!!" to my cousin Lucy and her now husband Tony who became Mr and Mrs Wildon on Saturday. The service as so special and held in a church with the most fantastic stained glass window above the altar. It is always a strange thing to see a member of your family marrying into another. I guess the feeling is different if you are in the family being married into. At this point Dad interjects with this point: "Its all a matter of perspective really. In a way, Tony's family have married into ours!" (a scary thought for them I think)

After the marriage and family photos outside the church, we traipsed over the other side of town for the wedding recption which had a marvellous theme! a mix of Xbox games (of which Tony is enraptured) and Cadbury chocolate (with which Lucy is a definate fan! -which woman isnt?-). All the tables were named after Levels on the Xbox game 'Halo'. Our table was named 'Sacred Promise' and there were other names such as 'Truth and Reconciliation' 'Far Sight Lost' and 'Forward Unto Dawn'. There was also a Mario Cart wedding cake with Princess Peaches and Mario on top instead of the traditional husband and wife figurines. On all of the tables there were place names in the form of china cups! and also favours in boxes with Cadbury easter eggs in! After an uproarous dinner sitting at a table with Tony's Aunt and Uncle Dawn and Andy, we signed two guestbooks. I wrote in Norwegian in the second Guestbook as Andy dared me to! (never dare me to do anything as I will do it!) I did of course translate so they could read what I wrote but it did show Andy that I did infact know my stuff : )

The speeches came after dinner which were such a treat! I always love the speeches at the end of dinner. Every single one was incredibly heartwarming and full of laughter and love and even Lucy wrote a speech! Never one to go with tradition, Lucy thought that it was time the bride was heared from and this got a big thumbs up from everyone!

The wonderful thing about the venue for the reception is that it had a pagoda outside! After dinner, the disco started up and since Baby Sis and I are not the biggest fans of "disco music" (which seems to incorporate the worst music selections from the past 40 years), we both went and spent some time dancing in the pagoda. Baby Sis taught me to waltz and how to do the jive (both of which I think I remember!). Needless to say, since I have two left feet and the grace of a cinderblock, I kept standing on her feet so she gave up and suggested we go back to the disco (I really must have hurt her feet if that was her only option out!). It turns out that it was a good idea to go in at that point as the chocolate fountain was then getting set up! a tall scrumptious tower of chocolate set upon a lit up table with all sorts of dip-able treats, this was one of the main attractions of the night (and much better than the chocolate fountain at Aimée's birthday party in January which almost killed us by firing chocolate at high speeds round the kitchen. My faith in chocolate fountains is restored!)

Saturday was a beautiful, sunny, happy, wonderful day and one that shall never be forgotten, especially not as it was followed by Easter Day!

we spent Easter Day at Grandma and Grandad's house and after Lucy and Tony's wedding yesterday and a definate lack of sleep last night (I think I got about 3 hours of sleep) I found myself falling asleep at every opportunity! (A fact that my family found quite hilarious). I am therefore very ready for some rest tonight and might even get to bed early! (...maybe)

I leave you with a picture of my Easter chocolate. My family even got given Marshmallow Peeps by an American friend at church and im now a BIG fan of Peeps! Dad and I are now watching tghe "sudden death" final of the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta GA. Dad giving out golfing advice to pros is very amusing : )

Happy Easter!

A treasure chest of wonders!

Tonight was the perfect night for taking photographs!!! Almost too good infact. I couldn't work out which to photograph first. To the West, a perfect sunset and to the East, a full moon rising from the treetops against a bruised purple sky.

I realised as I was busy snapping away, that I had been neglecting my photography over the past few weeks. I love heading out with my camera and searching for the perfect shot is very enjoyable; Somehow with the arrival of spring however, I have felt less inspired. It should work the other way around I know. Spring should theorhetically inspire with its blossom, new buds on the trees and warm days, yet I still yearn for the gone days of Winter.

The tree in the picture below is one of my Favourite trees in Ipswich. It died a few years ago now and yet it still stands, spiky and mean looking.

Nights like these do not come around very often I am sure. The combination of a full moon, and a sunset in the sky at the same time was a veritable photographic treasure chest! I fear there might not be another opportunity like this for a while so I made sure I made the most of it while I could.

This week is obviously the weeek for Parcels! My Parcel from Cecilie in Norway got here today! Since she is very kindly helping me to learn Norwegian, she sent me a dictionary!! when I bought my Norwegian learning books, I could only find a very very small pocket dictionary which, although good, is too small to be of any real use. The dictionary that Cecilie sent me however weighs a ton and is 991 pages long. (why they didn't make it a full 1,000 I dont know! maybe that is just the perfectionist in me) I am very excited therefore and spent the whole morning studying Norwegian today! I love days like that.

The rest of my day was spent Going to Mass and confession (this being Holy Week, now is the time for me to get sorted and start afresh and hopefully not sin too much before Easter) and this evening I saw Aimée again! We spent quite alot of our time looking at 'Twilight' trailers and discussing a certain male lead. I was trying so hard not to catch the "twilight bug" as it were. ah well, these things happen for a reason I guess!

My plans for tonight are Pride and Prejudice (which Brooke sent me a link to on the internet as I have never seen it before) and eating M&Ms! yummy! Enjoy your evenings everyone!!!

A Northwestern Pillow! and loooots of candies!

~All my lovely treats from Angela!~

~Any question as to what my favourite candy in the universe is??~ ~The FANTASTIC and unexpected present of a Northwestern pillow!~

~My favourite pillow!~

What a day!!! Before I had even woken up and finished my morning cup of coffee, there was a ring on the doorbell! Still half asleep, I didn't really relish the thought of getting up and dealing with a stranger on the doorstep. I therefore let Mom go and answer the door and two minutes later she came and dumped a cardboard box on my bed. There were two countries that this box could have come from, Norway or the U.S.A. and reading the label I discovered it was indeed from Angela in the U.S.A. I also found a label saying what the package contained. "Candy and Pillow".

I couldnt wait to open the package but I thought that I would wait. Aimee was coming round so I thought she might like to help me open the parcel. Aimée is on holiday now from work for two weeks so I shall hopefully be seeing much more of her soon. Today she came with the film 'Twilight'. Before watching the DVD however, we decided to open the parcel and discover what was inside. The first thing to come out of the box was my NW pillow! I dont know how Ang made it but it is amazing and it shall probably follow me around the house for a while! out of the box next came the candies and probably the most intregueing thing in the parcel is a packet of charleston chews! they sound very fun! Also there are some Ho Hos and Hostess bars (I think Hostess bars are twinkie bars? I love twinkies but havent had one in about 16 years). Angela sent some other things aswell such as Ranch Dressing! Finally I get to find out what that is as everyone seems to love it across the pond.

After discovering the fantastic contents of the parcel, Aimée and I settled down to watch 'Twilight' which I must admit, is brilliant. I havent really caught the Twilight "bug" yet but after seeing the film, I am quite interested in reading the books! (also a very handsome male lead doesn't hurt)

Now, I am watching Trawlermen. a lesser BBC Deadliest Catch rip off. Stil with some great pictures of stormy seas and fishing boats though. Only watch it if you are VERY deadliest Catch deprived is my tip!

For tonight however, Have fun, be happy, and happy Tuesday for tomorrow!

Dont be crabby! :D

I have bought the greatest shirt in the known universe!!!! Most of you who know me, know that I am a dedicated deadliest catch fan and so, when I saw the crab top yesterday, I simply couldn't resist. The slogan "dont be crabby" has now become my motto of the year! Baby Sis very kindly took this picture because I wanted to show you all my new top. Hope you like it!

Today was Palm Sunday! It was the beginning of Holy Week, so easter really begins now! Mom, Baby Sis and I went to church for an extra special Mass. Palm Sunday Mass consists of holding palm leaves, Reading aloud from the Gospel of Mark, and being sprinkled with Holy Water. I didnt so much get "sprinkled" but doused" with Holy Water! This is what I get from standing where Father Leeder walked past twice!

After Church, we came home and after lunch, we got to meet our new neighbors! Niall Stacey and their two year old (and Very cute) daughter Zoe came round to introduce themselves. They moved in last tuesday and since the weather was beautiful, we spent an enjoyable afternoon in the garden drinking tea and eating biscuits! (how british that sounds!)

After a great evening snuggled on the couch with Grandma and Grandad who came round for tea, I am now settled down with a cup of coffee and Monty and I are going to watch LA Ink.

Have fun guys and dont be crabby!!!