To make it a little easier for me, I'm going to do it with some pictures. Here we GO!
First of all though, there's no pics of the dress up party, which is a shame as it was a lot of fun and there were some good costumes. It was a few weeks ago now, and the theme was movies. Me being a fan of horror movies and Mark being a Geiger fan went as a cvictim cheerleader and Alien herself (respectively) Just before heading off for it I ducked over to our local store to graba afew beers for the night. Whilst sstood at the fridge pondering the nights beer selection Eddie (the shop man) walked in, grabbed his chest and shouted at me (in his American accent)OH MY GOD! Are you alright? What's happened to you?! Obviously my fake blood had done the trick. I had (pretend, obviously) slashes accross my chest and a cut throat, as well as blood running down my arms as slasher movie victims always get blood on their hands, always.
It was a great night, for a lot of Marks mate's the last time to catch up with everyone before they headed home for the summer break after finishing their various degrees.
The following Sunday we woke early and hauled arse to Brighton. Unfortunately though the trains were again delayed and I didn't make it in time for the play that Kathrin was in. I missed making it at intermission even by a skerrick! But we did make it to the windmill - a pub that holds a few memories for me - and managed a pint and a bite to eat before catching Kathrin after the show.
This is actually from the last time we headed down to Brighton to see one of Kathrin's plays but you get the gist of the pub...
After a few more beers and catching p - it's been months since I've made it down that way we headed back to Kathrin's for some silliness and sleep.
So after an eventful weekend Monday rocked around, unwelcome but unstoppable too and I headed to London for a two day course on Humanitarian Responses in times of disaster. It was really interesting, moving an emotionally draining. But well worth it and has given me a load of ideas and things to do for our own Care Team at work, which I am responsible for administering and coordinating.
That week seemed to fly by. As well as the course I had the chance to catch up with a good friend of mine while in London before she heads off to Thailand for the school holidays - oh to be a teacher and have that freedom! Still I doubt I could do it or have the patience it takes to be a good teacher. My talents may be many, but patience isn't one of my virtues.
The following weekend we took it quietly, much needed since the weeks prior had been pretty mad with Mark finishing his PG Dip. me returning from a trip home and settling into my new(ish) job.
So after another week of work where a payrise was confirmed (YAY!), tripping around the countryside to Exeter to chat with various people about my current work project, Mark off to London to see his Mum and me getting right into some exercise on my new rowing machine at last the weekend arrived again like a savious of sanity!
Rather than keeping it quiet again we took the oportunity to visit a friend of ours in Buckinghamshire/Bedfordshire and tag some wild geese in Tring. I met Jo through Mark as she studied on the same course. She's already a bird specialist and expert on neanderthal man, a really smart person and exceptionally nice. Her interest in birds has led her to have a pet parottlet called Widget. She's the sweetest li'l thing with such a personality and a liking for the rustling of plastic or jingling of keys.
Anyway on Sunday as planned we all travelled out to Roxton to tag/ring the wild barnicle geese. They're quite small and sweet looking things and reasonably easy to handle, although tagging Ostrich is a little easier - stick a sock on their heads and the stand still.
Herding the geese and getting them into the holding pen was surprisingly easy. I suppose being wild they weren't too keen on humans getting to close so we simply walked to the end of the lake while others in canoes paddled in a line in the same direction until the geese got to the other end, waddled out of the lake and into the pen. Apparently Barnicle geese shed all their feathers at the same time and around the same time of year, so they hadn't grown in their flight feathers leaving them near flightless and therfore trapped in the craftily assembled holding area. We also inadvertantly tapped a Canadian goose so not to waste an oportunity she got tagged too.
After that it was just a matter of reaching in, grabbing one by the neck(!) pulling it out whilst hastily trying to get a hold under its belly, or by the legs and taking it over to where they were putting rings on their legs.
As you can see from our expressions, it was a lot easier to write about than to actually do!
After they'd had a coloured ring and a metal ring put on each foot (which I am reliably told is no more inhibiting than wearing a watch or bangle) it was one more trip in the arms of the enemy and back to the lake.
Releasing th geese back to the lake and the rest of the flock would've had to have been the best thing about the whole process. Life should be free and unfettered!
While we were there for the weekend, Jo tentatively invited us both on a dig next Easter - in MOROCCO! They need people to drive two landrovers there and as both of us have expereince on road trips (me across Aus, and Mark all over the place) they've asked us if we'd consider. I'm trying not to get too excited as I have to clear 5 weeks leave with work, and we still have to meet the guy who's running it for an informal interview. But it's hard not to - I'd love to go to Morocco, and to work on a neanderthal dig would be amazing.
So now that's pretty much all my news. Life slips along easily for the both of us and although there's precious little sunshine at the moment and awhole lot of rain we're enjoying the summer.
