Sockies

New (hand- knitted) socks from The Bishop's sister in Shetland. Hooray!!

Sockies
Originally uploaded by bellyacher

New Keys

New Keys
Originally uploaded by bellyacher

Church in Wokingham

Taken from the railway bridge at Wokingham station.

Church in Wokingham
Originally uploaded by bellyacher

Red sky at night...

I took this from the front window....and found that I have a really hard time keeping my hand steady. Oh well...you get the point.

Red sky at night..., originally uploaded by bellyacher.

Wants

I've been spending a lot of time surfing the internet today (ahhhh...Saturday) and have found several little items that I wouldn't mind having. Read on...

Mini anchor necklace (YES!!)


Vinyl ship necklace (I love it so much!!)


The octopus necklace (Gasp)


A Squidlet from Sereneonion


Stationery (or anything) from The black apple



I guess that's it for now. (disclaimer: I do not in ANY WAY expect these items to be purchased for me. This was really just an exercise in list making...titled "Wants")

Lamp

Lamp, originally uploaded by bellyacher.

This is my first daily photo...one of the lamps at The Bridge pub.

Home...

...alone. Eek! The Bishop just left for work so I now get to entertain myself for the next 9 hours or so. I figure there will be some web surfing, then perhaps some house cleaning and maybe some TV watching. Oh...maybe I should write some letters too.

Adventure

As promised, we went to London yesterday to see the Terracotta Army at the British Museum. Unfortunately we got to the museum too late to buy tickets to see it so we wandered around and looked and everything else instead. We had a great time even though I didn't want to ask for directions to the museum (getting lost is much more fun) AND I started getting some pesky cold symptoms. Later, we explored the south bank with The Bishop's friend Jon and then caught the train back to Bracknell. Today I'm suffering from a full-blown cold so I haven't done much of anything. Anyway, on to the photos!!


This is the sign at the Bracknell train station (We were on our way out, though)



The train to london



Hungerford Bridge



A view of Waterloo Bridge (with a double decker bus)



The London Eye



On the way towards Parliament



Big Ben



Parliament (and a plane)



Blue sky on the way to the British Museum!



The British Museum




Rosetta Stone



Sculptures from the Parthenon 1



Sculptures from the Parthenon 2



London Eye and Big Ben at night

Oopsy

I didn't post anything yesterday because I didn't do anything worth posting about. It's just nice getting to relax for a few days after all the packing and traveling. Unfortunately, today will be much of the same. We have some errands to run (food is always a nice thing to have around) and that's about it. I think we'll go to London tomorrow, though...that should be fun and I'll try to act like a good little tourist and take lots of photos.

First day

I must say that my first full day here in Bracknell has been rather uneventful. The Bishop and I watched some TV, played on the computer (um...it kind of sucks to be 8 hours ahead of everyone I know) and generally lazed about until about 3 when I decided that we MUST walk to Binfield. I lived in a dorm at Newbold College (in Binfield) for 9 months when I was 20 so I was anxious to see my old stomping grounds.

BUT, for those of you who really, really want to see some photos of where I live, here you go:

This is the view out the front room window



This is a view OF the front room window



A sign that I was pretty excited to see last night



Okay so on to Binfield...

This the pub where I practically lived 8 years ago (the cute little front area didn't exist then, though)



These are some ponies that I used to visit regularly. It was nice to see them again.







This is the back garden at the Victoria Arms pub where we had drinks this afternoon

Odyssey

This is what's been going on over the last few days:

On Monday I slept most of the way to Los Angeles in the car with my parents. Once we got there we lounged around our hotel room and later ate a wonderful dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. After that, we had a couple of pints at The Scotland Yard pub in Sherman Oaks, then went back to the hotel for the night. I must say...my parents are pretty fun to go out with!!

Tuesday morning was spent taking my mom to a day-long appointment with David Robin where she learned some kick-ass video editing techniques. After we dropped her off (and had a nice chat with Mr. Robin), my dad took me shopping (yay shopping) in Pasadena and then he dropped me off with my great-aunt. She took me to lunch, then took me shopping and then out to dinner (even though I was still full from lunch...eek)

Wednesday was pretty weird. My parents met us for lunch in Pasadena and then I said good-bye to mom and dad...in a parking lot. I won't be seeing them for at least 5 months so it was strange to just hug and say, "see ya." Believe me, there were some tears but we all held it together pretty well. My aunt then took me to run some errands and before going back to her house where I shoved some last remaining items into my already VERY full suitcases and zipped them up. Luckily, I was able to take a short nap (yes, I take naps and I'm proud of it) before the airport shuttle came to take me away.

I got to the airport 4 hours before my flight so there was absolutely NO wait to check in and get my boarding pass...then all I had to do was wait...so i hit the bar. Here's the deal...I HATE FLYING! I'm always convinced that my plane will crash and I will die a violent and fiery death. So getting slightly buzzed is a must.

The flight itself was rather uneventful. Our plane was strangely not full so I didn't feel AS cramped as I normally do but I sat next to a very nice lady who had just spent 17 days visiting her daughter in L.A. There was quite a selection of movies and TV shows to watch so it wasn't that boring either. The first movie I watched was Superbad...which was stupid but I still laughed out loud...a lot. After that, I watched some TV shows and tried to sleep. Unfortunately, sleeping was hard due to babies crying, people talking (loudly), not having enough room, and a sore tail bone (yes...my butt was hurting). I still managed to get a little bit of rest, but not much. Finally, after being given the wrong time by the people in front of me, I decided to wake up and watch another movie. This time I chose The Darjeeling Limited which I loved. Another unfortunate thing happened during this time, though...TURBULENCE...and lots of it. It was actually so bad at one point that the lady next to me grabbed my hand in fear. Fun stuff.

Anyway, blah blah blah...the plane landed, we all had to walk forever to reach immigration and the baggage claim (which caused me to work up a sweat), then I finally emerged in a room FULL of people standing behind barriers waiting to claim their friends and loved ones. Let me just say that this was, by far, the weirdest point in the whole journey. It was like I was on display..."Look at me! I just spent 10 hours on a plane and I feel and look like crap!! Hooray!" Oh...and the whole time I was trying in vain to locate The Bishop (not his real name) amongst the sea of people...luckily, since I was on display, he found me first and waved his arm (thank goodness, because I wasn't wearing my glasses so everyone was blurred and scary).

Two things...(at this point RIGHT NOW I've realized that this silly British keyboard DOES NOT HAVE a number sign!! It's been replaced with THIS: £) Number 1: Remember how I just told you that I had worked up a sweat while trekking across the airport?? Well, I was actually HAPPY to walk outside to the cold and rain because I was so hot inside. Number 2: Remember how I told you a while ago that I hate flying and that I am always convinced that my plane will crash. Hmmm...um...so right after The Bishop found me he informed me that THIS had happened at Heathrow about 2 hours before I landed:



I don't even know what to say...oh, except, THANK GOD THAT WASN'T MY PLANE!!!! Luckily, nobody was seriously injured...but still...

Okay, where was I? Oh yeah...went outside, got into a taxi with all my heavy bags, took a train to Bracknell (may I say that I might just be the only person to actually be excited about arriving in Bracknell...it was familiar yet different all at the same time - oh...I lived here 8 years ago, in case you didn't know), took another taxi to get home and that's it. Now I'm lounging around on Friday morning, safe and sound.

Ready...set...

In just a few minutes I will be leaving for L.A. with my parents. It's really odd to know that these are my last moments in sunny Fresno. Ho hum...

The next time you hear from me I'll be across the pond. (Expect photos of my last night out in Fresno as well as photos of my first moments in the UK)

Bye!!

YEP....

I have a very expensive little sticker in my passport now which means I am free to move about the UK.

Uh huh....I HAVE MY VISA!!!

Good news...and other news...

Well...here we are at the 9th of January and I am not preparing to fly away today. Due to some minor gliches, I had to postpone my great escape until next week. Good thing too, because I am NOT ready to go (anyone want to help sort stuff...and does anyone want to tell me how ended up with SO MUCH JUNK!?!).

Anyway, the good news is that Virgin Atlantic called off their strike so everything should run smoothly for all of those who WILL be flying today. Hooray!!

Well, that's it for today. I wish I had something fun to post...or at least something halfway interesting...but I don't. Check back in the next couple of days though to find out what stress can do to a person right before they move out of the country. That should be interesting....right?? RIGHT???