House Warming

Lovely house warming bbq at Lauren and Jay's new house in Bushmead. We all had fun - especially using an app called Face Juggler which swapped peoples faces round in photos, producing some hilarious results! Lauren and Jay's house is really nice - perfect for the two of them - and Misha the dog!

Much laughter was created from an app called 'Face Juggler' which swaps over faces from one person to another whilst keeping everything else the same - the hilarious results had us in stitches!

                                                                              
                                                                           

Baby Showers

I have been to two Baby Showers in the last few weeks - both for young women at work. It is a very American idea that is growing in popularity in the UK.

We played some games, had food and gave gifts to the expectant mums to be. They were both fun evenings and it was good to socialize with my colleagues.

 

 

 

Tiles

We need to have an extra bit of tiling done in the kitchen as we are changing things round a little. I took a photo of the tiles and Sam and I set out to find some matching ones. We tried several tile places and found a couple of similar ones but no exact match. Then a man in one tile shop identified them for us as Pilkington Fresco - but with the unfortunate news that Pilkington had gone bust a couple of years ago. He also said these tiles had been discontinues 4 years ago.
Once home, and armed with the name of the tiles, a quick search on the wonderful Ebay found the exact tiles we need. I ordered two square metres, which cost £13.00 plus £15 for the courier. They arrived today - and are a perfect match!

'Translating the British, 2012' by Carol Ann Duffy

The poet laureate captures the mood of London's Olympic Games -

A summer of rain, then a gap in the clouds
and The Queen jumped from the sky
to the cheering crowds.
               We speak Shakespeare here,
a hundred tongues, one-voiced; the moon bronze or silver,
sun gold, from Cardiff to Edinburgh
               by way of London Town,
on the Giant's Causeway;
we say we want to be who we truly are,
now, we roar it. Welcome to us.
We've had our pockets picked,
               the soft, white hands of bankers,
bold as brass, filching our gold, our silver;
we want it back.
We are Mo Farah lifting the 10,000 metres gold.
We want new running-tracks in his name.
For Jessica Ennis, the same; for the Brownlee brothers,
Rutherford, Ohuruogu, Whitlock, Tweddle,
for every medal earned,
we want school playing-fields returned.
Enough of the soundbite abstract nouns,
austerity, policy, legacy, of tightening metaphorical belts;
we got on our real bikes,
for we are Bradley Wiggins,
               side-burned, Mod, god;
we are Sir Chris Hoy,
Laura Trott, Victoria Pendleton, Kenny, Hindes,
Clancy, Burke, Kennaugh and Geraint Thomas,
               Olympian names.
We want more cycle lanes.
               Or we saddled our steed,
or we paddled our own canoe,
or we rowed in an eight or a four or a two;
our names, Glover and Stanning; Baillie and Stott;
Adlington, Ainslie, Wilson, Murray,
               Valegro (Dujardin's horse).
We saw what we did. We are Nicola Adams and Jade Jones,
bring on the fighting kids.
               We sense new weather.
We are on our marks. We are all in this together.

Olympic Closing Ceremony

Last night was the closing ceremony of London 2012. It was a mix of British music and dance, entertainment and formality. The Olympic flag was handed over to Brazil, who host the next games and the flame was extinguished.

Boris hands over the flag

The flame is eqtinguished

 I said on my post about the opening ceremony that I probably wouldn't watch much of the games - how wrong was I! I really enjoyed lots of the events, especially the cycling, diving, swimming, synchronised swimming, gymnastics, rowing and equestrian. I have spent  time watching track and field too - especially Mo Farrah and Usain Bolt and the wonderful Jess Ennis.

The amazing Chris Hoy

Tom Daley staying focussed

Jess Ennis

Two of our fab rowing team!

Team GB ended up with 65 medals - 29 gold, 17 silver and 19 bronze - finishing 3rd overall, a massive achievement!

Mo Farrah

The GB Equestrian Team

I think that the whole country has been caught up in Olympic fever - and there is a feeling of pride and goodwill that did not exist this time last year at the time of the riots. A big thank you was given to The 70,000 Games Makers - volunteers like Liam!

All in all a great Olympic Games!   

Showjumping Fan

Pixel loved the Olympic show-jumping !

New Boys

We have two new boys - Jack and Tom. Twinny has been so lonely and sad since Joe died last week that we decided to re-home these boys to keep him company. They have been awaiting re-homing for some time - I saw them about ten days go and they were still there yesterday when we popped in with Pixel.   We introduced them to Twinny in the run in the garden and then put them into the cage together - and they have settled in fine. The lady in Pets At Home said Tom was not very keen to be handles when they first came in and would need some work, but he has been fine with us. We have decided to rename them Smudge and Spot as we are mixing them up!

Olympic Volunteer

Liam has been volunteering at the rowing for the Olympics - we are all proud of him.

 

With Alan Campbell's bronze medal!

Goodbye Joe

Our biggest ever ratty boy Joe died out of the blue this morning. I found him in the cage showing signs of respiratory distress and he died about 20 minutes later.
We only have one Twinny left now so will have to make sure he gets lots of attention as rats are sociable creatures and get lonely on their own.  

Poor Pixel

  Pixel is not happy - he had his op a week ago today but started swelling up around the wound on Sunday. He went back to the vets today and needs to calm down to allow swelling to subside - no infection though which is good.