I ate Meatloaf and I liked it.

3 months later and this is my gripping comeback. But true- the other night a German friend made proper German meatloaf – without the horrid addition of tomato paste/sauce/soup or other awful ingredients that I was forced to eat once a week my entire childhood. And I liked it. And I like discovering the ways we have bankrupted other cultures. (Again on the food front, my German flatmates are disgusted by the idea of goulash being hamburg, macaroni, peas and ketchup. I don’t see what’s funny about it… do you Dad?)

In other news… Windsor life is good. I live in a 100 year-old terrace house (town house but with brick walls so a tad bit quieter than the Brown’s Court years). It was completely redone before we moved in and so is really nice with a little garden in the back. There are 6 girls here – 2 English, 1 South African and the 2 aforementioned Germans. All are early/mid 20s working full time and all get along well. Some of us see a lot more of each other than others as 4 of us are Euro London employees – 20% of the office living in the same house. For the most part it’s great, but well you all know me and my tolerance levels. And during the week our social lives are highly intertwined, as we are all relatively new to the area.

And more of my weekends are being spent in Windsor now as many of our London crew has disbanded to return to their homelands or continue their travels. There’s still a fun few around, but the numbers have dwindled dramatically from the 15 or so we had starting the summer off! Ahh the crazy antics we got up too… Not too many out of town adventures as it seemed every weekend we had to gather to send another off in good form.

We had an amazing weekend camping on the Gower peninsula in Wales – 2 rental cars (I drove in London centre the morning of Live 8 – scarier than bungee jumping, no joke), 9 people, 2 tents (eventually…), some Roman remains, a wicked beach and serious kite flying. Many more days were spent lounging in the London parks with an array of Frisbees and newspapers, usually following a recovery breakfast at our local café. There were a lot of beach days down in Brighton (1 hour by train) … not quite Thunder Cove as it’s covered in rocks and absolutely rammed with people, but a beach and the sea nonetheless.

My roommates have seen a bit sillier side of me (Silly? Gasp! No!) on the occasions when I have played host to London. The boys have been a hit out here I tell ya… But I’ve visitors from farther & wider. Chad was here about 2 months ago. He didn’t make it to Windsor as he had only a few hours on a layover, but we had a great chat fest trying to catch up. Unfortunately I can count on 1 hand the amount of times I’ve seen my siblings in the past 2 years, so any visit, however brief, is a welcome one. Early in August Sarah came down from the Lake District (northwest England) where she & Paul have been since January before a trip home specifically to get one last Rainbow Valley day in (so jealous!). We had a great weekend in London with shopping (oops), theatre (The Big Life – was amazing), and palaces (the interior of Lizzy’s London townhouse, the B’ham Palacio).

And just a few weeks ago Raeanne popped by for a holiday! She had a couple days with me, then some in Edinburgh, back to Windsor so we could have a weekend away. Again with the rental (avoiding London this time) we took off up to Stratford-upon-Avon. Why Stratford? Well there was a gathering off international Stratford choirs there of course! Well, in particular, there was the Stratford PEI choir there with that studly little pianist, Mr Mark Ramsay! And meeting us there to jump on the bandwagon of fun (a Ford Fiesta we named Rebel Ruth) was the newest Manchurian candidate, Sarah Denman! (I know, I thought it too – I just saw her like a month ago, really!)

So we kidnapped Mark on 2 separate evenings but spent our days gettin all edumacated wha. Stratford is Shakespeare’s hometown so we jumped on Willy’s trail, seeing his birthplace, his wife’s house, daughter’s house and granddaughter’s house, a walking historical tour and, no trip would be complete without it, a live production of A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream. It was incredible – particularly since I realized that was the first time I had watched Shakespeare merely for pleasure with no test or essay to follow.

But that wasn’t all we did! I had taken 2 days off, so we also went down to the historic Roman city of Bath. We did another walking tour there, which was so interesting and informative that I actually can’t remember many specifics, as the history was so great. The roman baths in the centre of the city were only uncovered in the late 19th century as the original Roman city and Roman walls of about 1000 AD lie about 6 feet below the present city. As the years passed and the civilizations changed, new buildings were built on the foundations of their predecessors.

(Note… I’m now in my 3rd day of writing this – you have probably grown facial hair while reading. I’ve borrowed a flatmate’s laptop and am doing one big go).

What else needs to be told… uh, um uh… well there is that whole issue of Christmas. Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be making it home this year. It’s a very expensive 8 or 9 days that I just can’t afford right now, not when I could have a proper holiday at home a few months later for the same cost when, without the hustle & bustle of the holidays, we would have time for proper visits. And besides, a Christmas in Rome/Berlin/Croatia/wherever is a 1 time only deal. So I’ll miss you all, but will have more to appreciate the following year.

My new goal is to blog once a week... will do my best! I miss it – it’s such a great record for me and keeps you all writing emails more frequently as well. Hopefully soon I’ll start replying to those … if anyone wants to contact me beyond email, my address is:
66 Alexandra Road
Windsor, Berkshire
SL4 1HU
UK

Mobile (dialing from North America): 011 44 788 695 7560