20 years ago today.....

...... there was a storm - it was a bad storm - I nearly died. That is my version of the storms of '87 that hit South East England. Joe always teases me for saying 'I almost died' but I only just found out that is because the storm only really hit the south east so bypassed Swindon.

I remember the night well, I was eight years old - it amazes me it was 20 years ago!! We had some of our neighbours children staying they were about the same ages as my and Rich. Their parents were away for the night. I awoke to an almighty noise outside my bedroom window which was inches from my head. My bed was covered in debris from the trees, that had blown through the frame of the window. There right in front of my face was the top of a tree, had the tree been taller or our house a little further back that tree would have landed in my head. This however was not the only thing going on in the house, the kids from down the road went screaming in to Mum and Dad's room thinking the window has shattered in their room. Dad went to investigate to find a tree had come through the roof and in to the bedroom. I to this day am so impressed how cool, calm and collected my parents were. If a tree were to fall through my roof right now I do not think I would be calm. They did not panic or begin to worry about how they will fix the roof. We all went downstairs and sat in the middle of the living room - deemed the safest place in the house and waited for the storm to blow over.

We used to have 12 huge pine trees in our back garden after the storm we had 6. The huge pine tree in the front was still standing and to this day is the only one that is. The council came to take down all the existing trees, our next door neighbour refused so her remaining trees still stand.

The neighbours whose children were in our house did not fare as well as us. A tree fell on the house and cut the roof in half down the middle, with the trunk sitting on the front and back walls of the house. The tree fell directly on top of the room of the girl who was sleeping in our house - it is amazing they were at our house that night.

East Anglia was not the worst affected area with the South coast getting the worst of the storm, many buildings damaged and 18 killed. I hope we never see another storm like it.

St Ives

To complete our little collection on mini trips away Joe and I went to St Ives (Cornwall) last week to spend a few days with Emily in her family's house. We had a fantastic time and with weather was brill. I have wanted to visit the Eden project for ages so as we were down that way we went. It was fantastic, especially as in the tropical dome they had a Cameroon section - so we spent ages looking at all the familiar plants. The domes are fantastic and the variety of plants they grow is amazing. I was taken by how well they use the space and you do not only walk around the floor of the dome but go up in to the top. We had a great day there.

We had some fantastic food - as holidays is all about the eating for Joe and I. I had some delicious grilled Mackerel to continue my reminiscing about Cameroon and it was so tempting to eat it with my fingers but thought better of it.

Emily and I even donned wet suits and went bodybording which was great fun, I rode some of the waves pretty well and at one point a seal even joined us in the sea!

My Thai

Five years ago from now Joe and I were in Thailand on our Honeymoon, so we decided what better way to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary than with a Thai meal. That is after our plans went wrong as the hotel we planned on going to closed down!

We heard about this Thai restaurant in London with a Michelin star so thought we would give it ago. As our original plan included a hotel stay we looked at local hotels, the hotel attached to the restaurant was getting on for £350 a night to soon knocked that on the head and went cheap and cheerful from lastminute.com. The meal was magnificent, we chose one of each of the five options, soup, salad, relish, curry and main dish. This was all served together after a lovely noodle starter. Then exotic fruit to end, some of which we were familiar with with from Cameroon others were very strange.

We then spent the next day in London (to avoid congestions charge and other reasons) went to both Tate gallery's and had a nice day hanging around in the rain.

All that is left is to say

"Cheers for a great five years"

Oktoberfest

Last week Joe and I went to Munich to visit Conny (fellow volunteer from Buea). We also chose this week to go as it is Oktoberfest in Munich. We had a great time, visited a castle outside Munich and saw all the sights of Munich.

Oktoberfest was like nothing I have ever seen before. Everyone goes in traditional Bavarian dress. The second time we went I borrowed one of Conny's so I would fit in! The first night we went we could not get in to a tent so we sat in a beer garden. We get served beer in 2 litre glasses and enjoy. The fest is basically a huge funfair selling lots of beer. Many drunk people on various rides, the oldest ride is this helterskelter ride where you have to go up a very fast escalator to get up (felix goes first, friend of Conny's then Joe then me with some help!)

The second night we went we managed to get in to a tent which was fantastic. A band playing a great selection of songs, everyone dancing on th benches and generally 100's of people having fun. The tents are amazing structures and to think they only have them up for 2 weeks of the year - only Germans could organise such an event! I am now very tired and could do with another holiday to recover!

Truck Festival

When telling my friends I was spending last weekend at Truck festival they all said they never thought I was in to trucks, truth is I am not in to trucks as Truck festival has little to do with trucks!

The first festival was in 1998, almost a year after I moved to Oxford and I think I remember hearing something on the radio. 10 years on and I finally get round to attending! Truck festival is held just outside Didcot, not far from us yet we have never got round to going. So this year before we even had time to figure out what we were doing with our life Joe was offered tickets. Sadly Truck was called off in July due to the terrible flooding the area suffered. The festival was rescheduled for last weekend so we finally got to go.

Truck is a great festival just the correct size so you do not feel like you are camping on top of each other and you will never find your friends but big enough to have 5 stages. Most the bands are local or ones I have never heard of but the highlights for me were:
Schla la las
Foy Vance
Skylarkin
Tommy Traux

So we had a great weekend and I would certainly go again, thankfully the rain stayed off - mostly. The only thing that bugs me is that whilst camping on Sunday morning I got woken up by a bunch of youths in the tents next door. I was certain Pete and Heidi's kids would be the first in there but oh no it was a bunch of 17 year olds that were the early risers - grrrr.

Drat and double drat

This week has been a week of calamities - and it is only Tuesday!!

On Sunday I had to pop in to town for a quick lunch and do a mystery shopper job. I left Joe in town and went to get the car to go to work. I promptly drove in to a brick wall and burst the tyre. I must add it was a very small brick wall that I could not see and did no further damage to the car or myself. So I phoned my husband to come and rescue me. We got the spare wheel from under the car and proceeded to get the flat wheel off. Got the wheel nuts undone no trouble but the wheel would not come off the car. We pulled with all our might - got some very nice, polite and strong me from the Old Parsonage Hotel but still it would not budge. I thought as time was getting on I had better get a taxi to work and leave Joe to it. A quick phone call to a friend - thanks Nick and the wonders of google they found the secret to releasing a wheel off a Ford Fiesta and Joe was able to collect me from work later. It has something to do with putting on the wheel nuts loosely and wiggling the steering 'till it releases.

So after recovering from my car troubles and spending yesterday in a garage having a new tyre fitted today I get a phone call from Satis House, a very nice hotel and Malaysian restaurant in Suffolk where we were planning on spending our anniversary is closing so we cannot stay there. Gutted. Now we need to find an alternative, any ideas? Nice Hotel and Restaurnt in the Suffolk area?

Book review: Venus as a boy

This book was bought for me by Rich and Clare for my birthday - thanks. They got it off me wishlist, I put it there because it was one of those 'people who read this also read this'. So I thought I would give it a try. It took a little while to get in too but you found yourself getting to attached to the main character. A lad who grows up in Orkney and has a troubled childhood, moves to the bright lights of London and works as a prostitute. Maybe not my usual reading subject but pretty good all the same. Written as if it is Desiree himself was speaking who could never get over his first love. It is very raw but touching and very well written.

Cameroon movie

I have meaning for some time to make a film about our life in Cameroon, so here it is. A snapshot of life in Cameroon. Music by Tata Kingue our pop star friend. the film ends with a snippet of an interview with our best friend Didimus.

This is my first attempt at film making and it was fun once I got a hang of the software.

Enjoy

For Sale

Our house is now on the market, it has been for about a month now. We decided while we were in Cameroon as part of our new 'perfect life' we would move to a similar house but in a nicer area.

This house has served its purpose, we were first time buyers desperate to get on the ever increasing market and went for what we could get meaning location was not important to us.

However after lots of inconsiderate neighbours parking their car in front of our drive and keeping us awake at night we have decided it is time to move up the ladder a bit on to pastures new. There is no better time for us to do it as we have only half unpacked our stuff and it is all in boxes in the loft.

I thought selling up and moving on would be a nice task for me to get my stuck teeth in to after Cameroon. So I got the house ready and on the market. I have enjoyed collecting particulars of houses and now I am just getting fed up. Nice houses come and go and we are still waiting. Estate agents talk the talk and say how sellable our house it - large rooms, next to the canal but still no offers. I am finding it difficult to look at houses now thinking we will lose one I love.

Week in Wales

From Wales

Rich and Clare very kindly invited us on holiday with them this year to a fantastic house in Mid-Wales. so last week we went with them and Steve and Kim.

We had a fantastic time, the house was right by the sea, evenings would be spend eating loads of fantastic food playing ring of fire or sing star watching the sunset over the sea.

Days were spent doing a variety of things, a great long walk in the hills, going down a cave, visits to Portmerion and Harlech Castle and even a day sunbathing on the beach. Then there was Steve's birthday where we decided to do a fancy dress in the reverse of our ages so I became 82 and Rich became 3!! Joe and Kim were able to swap ages with each other!

Due to us being away for Rich's 30th we decided to treat him to a day of fun whilst we we were on holiday. All did not quite go to plan, we had decided on mountain boarding as he is a fan of snow boarding and mountain biking - out the two together and see what you get! Unfortunately all the local centres to where we were staying we closed - boo so we had a mammoth drive to get there. We all got on he boards and had a few trial runs, soon after Rich sprained his ankle but he jumped back up and carried on. To break up the journey home we stopped for fish and chips on the sea front - a true British holiday!

OUCS save the day again

Again we owe many thinks to Joe's colleagues at OUCS. This time it was not my fault! On Sunday our beloved computer would not turn on - grr. I was annoyed as I needed to check something on the internet. Joe had a look at it and still it would not work.

Then we realised if the computer was dead we have lost everything - we backed it up before going to Cameroon but had not yet gotten round to it since our return. that would mean we would have lost all our photos of Cameroon, all the work did there, it was a very depressing thought.

So Joe took the computer to work this week and the wonderful staff not only saved all our data but also restored and updates the machine - yippee!!

We then went to back up the machine and our external hard drive would not turn on - why do all these bad things happen to us! So thankfully it is under warranty and Joe has to get it sent back.

We will now remember to back up all the time!

Book review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

What can I say, what a book. Life has been busy so I have been struggling to find time to read Harry Potter, every spare minute was spend with my nose in this book.

The seventh and final book certainly did not disappoint. Harry and co. have a great adventure in the final battle against he who must not be named. I will not give anything away but the book gave a very satisfying finish to a fantastic series. It will be sad to think no more Harry Potter books will come but we still have the films come.

So this is a fond farewell to a fantastic series of books - bye Harry!

The Lost photos

I have mentioned before that whilst in Cameroon I stupidly deleted all my photos of our send off parties from my camera without putting them on to the computer - doh! Well Joe told me to fear not they will just be marked for deleted and as long I did not over write them they can be salvaged. So i started to use my other memory card and left that one well alone. Once Joe started back at work he set a couple of of very nice computer people to work and they saved them. yipiee, the videos and a few photos were lost but most are there - my husband is great. So you can view the album on Picasa.

From Send forth

Thanks Joe and the great staff at OUCS

Scissors sisters

Last night I went to see the Scissor sisters in concert by accident - you may ask how I accidentally ended up being in the O2 arena going to such an event. Well on Wednesday Becky and I were on an admin day and up pops this email from charitable funds saying they have 2 tickets to the concert first come first served money to Sobel house hospice. We often get these emails but as we are ward based it is always days after the event so as we were there at the time we thought we would give it a try thinking they would have gone already. I phone them up and the tickets are ours - bargain. Only problem Becky was doing a late the next day so many frantic phone calls to other staff and the lovely John swapped - thanks John you are a star. We then figured out how we would get to the arena which is the old millennium dome and Becky said she would drive.

So last night we pootled down there, straight through the middle of London past St Paul's, the Gherkin, Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square it took just a mere 4 hours! The arena is great loads of restaurants around the outside then once inside loads of fast food places. We missed the support act who we had never heard of and got our seats ready for the main act. Pretty good seats in the first tier right by the stage. They did a bunch of stuff off the new album I do not have but played all the old faithfuls also. It was a great show but I did expect more costume changes! I did love the guitarists half black half sequined suit though and the stage was shaped like the logo which was pretty cool. all in all it was a great show. Then we had great fun driving home through the middle of London taking a wrong turn and driving over Tower Bridge twice - satnav is rubbish - well I already knew that but now I have it confirmed.

mmmm Starters mmmmmm Deserts

It has to be said that the two best bits of a meal are the starters and deserts. So when Mum told me about this pub in Suffolk that has a starters and puddings evening we were desperate to go. They run the evening in The Lion Inn about once every few months so she got the dates for us and we planed a trip to Suffolk to see the parents and have a feast. We have been planning this for ages as they first told us about the pub before we went to Cameroon!

The evening did not disappoint. you get four courses, ordering each one one at a time. You can choose how many starters and how many deserts you have. Paul, a family friend went for one starter and three deserts where Joe and I went three starters and one desert. The food was delicious and there was a great choice, which made it difficult to narrow it down to four in total.

It was a great way to spread an evening as the staff did not rush you from course to course. So I have brie squares, then butterfly king prawns and breaded mushrooms (shared half and half with Joe) then chicken tika rolls. Then for my desert toffee lumpy bumpy. What a wonderful evening.

five course cheese meal!

From 5 Course Chee...

Thursday was my birthday so to celebrate I cooked a five course cheese meal. You may think this is a little odd but if you remember back to some of the posts I wrote whilst in Cameroon, cheese was one of the biggest things I missed. I have been planning and fantasising about this meal for months - no really I have!!

So it went like this

To nibble - (whilst opening presents) Baked Camembert with french bread
To start - Feta with asparagus, parma ham and salad
For main - Salmon with almonds and Gruyere with rice
For desert - what else buy cheese cake
And of course to end cheese and biscuits.

It was wonderful I spend the morning getting the stuff together, lazy lunch in town with Emily then cooked in the evening. I only felt too cheesed out by the cheese and biscuits. It was my first attempt at cheese cake and as I forgot to add the lemon juice (oops) it did not quite set!! But tasted yummy!!

There are photos to come but we do not have the computer set up at home yet so watch this space.

PS My husband is so fantastic that he recovered my deleted photos from Cameroon of our send off parties so they will soon be on Picasa.

Nun's on the run

Last weekend I went on a hen night to Spain - i know this sounds very glamorous after spending a year in Cameroon and being skint but my friends and Joe offered to pay my flight and we stayed in the hens Grandma's apartment so I could not say no!

It was a complete reversal to the life I had become used to, out every night with so many drinks to choose from I got quite lost in it all!!

We had great fun spending each day on the beach, now I really look like I have been in Africa for a year. the big night out was in Benidorm which i was dreading. It is really not my scene and I am far to old for this sort of thing. We arrived and I really did not want to get out of the car it was terrifying. We were dressed as nuns which attracted lots of unwanted attention but we all took it on the chin and soon put the men in their place. We actually had a great time. Tessa and I were completely lost trying to dance as she too has been out the country. I just went for the good old Cameroonian shrug of the shoulders - goes great with dance music. Louise was a star fulfilling all her dares and we got home at 8:30am.

The rest of the week was a little quieter staying in Calpe few drinks and a bit of karaoke. A great time was had by all and a special well done to Frankie and Tessa the two non-nurses, especially as I was being filling in on so much nursey talk all the time! (photos to follow)

Life as a nomad

We are currently living as nomads, I worked out over the space of a month I would be sleeping in 10 different places. moving round trying to see everyone filling in time before we get our house back on the 7th July. Living out of a suitcase is not easy and trying to remember where we out everything before we left - Joe cannot find his battle of the planets t-shirt and is gutted.

Soon however we have the mammoth task of driving around the country collecting our stuff from various family members - thanks guys and trying to unpack our house. It has been tough feeling we do not belong anywhere and cannot completely settle, I look forward to relaxing again in our own house. but it will not be for long we hope to sell up and move away from the chaves. We would love our Cameroonian neighbours to come and live next to us as apposed to the noisy neighbours we have now - but we cannot have everything.

We have pretty much settled in to life in the UK, it was not too hard. starting work on Monday will be strange but i am looking forward to it, getting my teeth in to some acute nursing will be fun!

Have more photos and stuff to post but will wait till we are set up at home with broadband again - any suggestions of a good provider?

Keep a weather eye on the horizon

Last night Joe and I went to to see Pirates of the Caribbean, At worlds End. We were very excited about it as we got a little obsessed with pirates while we were in Cameroon and watched the two first films about 5 times each.

when we got home everyone told us the new film was pretty rubbish but we had to see it for ourselves and just watching Captain Jack was bound to be fun.

Well we enjoyed it, some parts were very silly but that is pirates for you we expect it. Captain Jack did not let us down and at points there were loads of him of screen at once. the story line was complicated but easy enough to follow especially if you know the history of the characters. It was great to watch it on the big screen, just like film night at Bills place but the pop corn cost way more!!

All in all a very enjoyable evening.

Book review: the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

I have read quite a lot of American literature whilst in Cameroon, this is because our great local book shop - books and things mostly sold American books. I have really enjoyed them all and also enjoyed Huckleberry Finn. Once you get used to the dialects people are speaking in it becomes an easy read with a charming story.

The book is as you would expect full of adventure and mishap as Huckleberry Finn and Jim make there way down river. I guess I should now read the adventures of Tom Sawyer to find out what antics he and his friends get up to.