Country Living

One of the things I should have blogged about last year was buying our escape-to-the-country home. We've left concrete Croydon and moved to the Chilterns.

Here's the view from our bedroom window:

It's green and beautiful and it makes it difficult to go into grey, crowded London for work. The village is tiny and lovely, and we have wonderful next door neighbours who welcomed us on our first evening and have been good friends ever since.

Of course, we can't resist redecorating and renovating. We're redoing the kitchen, IKEA-style, just as we did in Croydon. We're turning bedroom three into a nursery, and doing a few bits and pieces everywhere else (new fireplace, new floors, painting everywhere...).

Progress so far:
We have had the hideous Artex ceiling plastered over by a skilful, efficient and clean workman (yay!), and we've had custom bookshelves made by affordable and skilled but not very communicative pine bookcase builders.

Artex ceiling:

Artex celing no more:

We've also bought a new couch:

My darling hubby has pointed out that my New Year's resolution about getting all the DIY done by the end of the year isn't really fair on him, but I've always been a little ambitious...

I'm off to IKEA on Monday to finalize the kitchen and place the order for everything, so I expect you'll see a picture of the stack of flat pack in the near future.

It's 2009!

If there is anyone out there still reading: I can't believe it's been six months since I've posted! I apologize for my lack of follow through. Since it's a new year, I'm going to get back on the blogging horse.

I have a couple of things to blog about from the second half of last year that I will post in the coming weeks, but this post is a combination "big news" post and 2009 goals. Lots of my blogging friends are posting their goals for the year for all to see, and perceived pressure from all you people watching me will help get me get them done.

My first goal is combined with my "big news".

1. Give birth.
Yup. If you didn't know already (but I'm guessing you do!) I'm six months pregnant with a baby boy, due at the end of April. This and what follows will take up the majority of my energy and efforts, so the rest of my list will be short.

2. End the DIY.
Help my husband install a new kitchen, set up the nursery (both before baby, I hope!)and decorate the rest of the house so that it's completely done by 2010.

3. Begin the gardening.
One of my dreams for moving out to the country and having a proper backyard (oh yeah, we've moved!) is to be able to grow my own vegetables. I'm pretty good at killing house plants, but I'm going to try to garden anyway.

4. Become a better publishing employee.
Read at least 30 non-work books, to beat the measley 25 I read in 2008. Write those articles I've been meaning to write. As much as possible while I'm away from work, stay involved in the children's publishing world.

5. Enjoy the inevitable chaos.
I won't sweat the small stuff. I will make lots of mistakes, but it won't matter. I will not be hard on myself and I will have fun with my baby boy.

6. Don't disappear.
I will stay in touch with friends and let myself take a break when I need to in the hobbies that I love. I will post on this blog and play as much Scrabble on Facebook as baby will allow.

5th of July

We had a barbeque today, celebrating American independence a day late, and the requirements to attend were to:

1. Be named Sara or Sarah
2. Be American
3. Be married to a Brit
4. Be married to an American named Sara(h)
5. Be my brother

We did sing some American songs (tee hee!) and there was debate over the American revolution. I baked a cake from one of my favorite blogs The Pioneer Woman. It was decorated with a yummy cream cheese icing and raspberries and blueberries, and it was really easy to do!


and found sparklers in letter form, which spelled out USA. (Feel free to start up the chant: U-S-A! U-S-A!)


My brother did the cooking.It got a little smokey at times!


It's the last time we'll entertain at our Croydon flat, as it will soon be sold. We've agreed a price on a new house and hope to move soon! I'll keep you posted on that...

Adventure Holiday

Here are some highlights of the adventure part of my vacation in Utah.

I went rock climbing for the first time, and it was a real thrill. Adrenaline pumping, heart thumping, scared witless rock climbing. I loved it.


The climbing shoes were incredible. They were painfully tight, but the grippy stuff on the bottoms were SO grippy. Most of the first climb was about learning to trust that your foot would actually stay in that 2mm deep crevice when you put all your weight onto it. Wahoo! I can't wait to go again.

My dad gets some kudos for climbing. He's pretty old. Not too old. But, you know, old. (Tee hee!)


Sorry, I don't have video of me climbing. However, I do have video of The Husband. Unlike the indoor skydiving, Neil was so much better at climbing than I was. To make up for me being a little mean in that indoor skydiving post, Neil gets the video feature in this post. He was a real monkey.


I also went white water rafting for the first time. Any hard core rafters will mock my excitement, as these rapids were not very big. But it was exciting to me, and extra kudos go to my mom who came rafting, too, despite not being a fan of thrill-seeking. (I think she liked the thrill!) Next time, we'll go for bigger rapids.


We're all smiling there, but when the water splashed into the boat, it was COLD! Here's a video of our longest and bumpiest rapid:

Grand Canyon (no The)

I am in Grand Canyon! (No one puts a "the" in front of it round these here parts.)


It is a stunning place. We woke up at ridiculous o'clock to get to a trailhead by 7am. Then, we hiked down a steep trail to Cedar Ridge for gorgeous views of the canyon -- though the river remained elusive. Here's me on the trail (in the white hat):


We had a fantastic guide who was so enthusiastic about the area; she kept us all in good spirits, which managed to last through the strenuous and sweaty trip back up. She taught us about the plant that tequila gets made front, how the Ponderosa Pine smells like butterscotch and Ooh-Aah Point. I don't know how long the trail was, but it was 1200 feet down into the canyon.

We got to see some sure-footed mules coming down the trail, though I think the wranglers didn't like having thier picture taken.

Rained Out :(

I have no videos of chasing cheese to show you.

The pouring rain woke us up at about 7am and hadn't stopped by the time we were supposed to get ready, nor had it stopped by the time we were supposed to be leaving. We decided that, rather than swim down the hill, we'd wait until next year. So... stay tuned for next year! Rumor has it that my brother might be joining in on the fun!

So as not to disappoint my rabid fans hungry for entertainment, I can provide some footage of the practice runs. We went to Blue Bell Hill near Maidstone and the husband took a few tumbles. The idea is to use his Aikido ukemi to keep the speed momentum when falling... It's harder than he thought!





And, just for the fun of it, I tried running down the hill. It was scary, and I wasn't even trying to ukemi!

Chasing the Cheese

If you are wondering what I'll be doing on my Bank Holiday Monday tomorrow... I will be filming my husband doing this:

http://www.cheese-rolling.co.uk

I hope to put a clip up here, and the only reason I won't is if it turns out to be a film of him breaking his neck.