It's a Bute

Bute Park is blooming FINALLY!! Its still cold here (in the 50's) But its nice when the sun comes out everyone smiles.
Here are some pictures of Alex and I cycling in the park on a tandem bike.

The Henge

Alex and recently went to Stonehenge on our bikes. We took the train to Salsbury and then rode our bikes to the Henge. It was awesome but really weird. We cycled through these great little villages and then all of the sudden we came over a hill and there it was. It's in the middle of a field and there are sheep all around it. There is also a major highway going right through the middle of the field. Totally weird. Here are some pictures...

On the subject

So if you take the Lost quiz on this blog like I did, make sure you aren't like Michael Dawson. After last few episodes of Lost we all have seen that Mr Dawson sucks big time and is working for Benjamin Linus. I just want to make it clear that I AM NOT LIKE MICHEAL DAWSON even though it says so on my Blog. I would never work for Ben. But on the other hand, Sayid said he would never work for Ben but he did in the end...
To much drama.
Maybe I should talk about the Clinton/Obama run off instead.
:)
on a lighter note, my good friend Keri sent me this random picture of a banana fish.

Lost

Ifound this on the web somewhere and thought it was funny

2 Westbury Terrace

This is our house in Cardiff. I have opened the door in this picture so it seems very inviting for all our friends and family so they will want to come visit. It's on the end of the terrace and our neighbors are really nice.
Speaking of our neighbors, we got a Christmas card through our mail slot this year addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Bush. It was from the neighbors in #12 who we gathered starred as R2D2 in Star Wars because they added a flyer with the card that advertised a "5th annual Star Wars Christmas Event, with guest star Kenny Baker, R2D2" With an arrow to the picture of R2D2 that said "Resides at #12" . I went to meet this Kenny Baker and to thank the Bakers for the card and was greeted by "Oh the American woman!" "I'm sorry, love, I didn't know your name and Bush was the only American name I knew!" Mr Baker- who introduced himself as John (?why?) and his wife Anne had also signed their card "Welcome to the home of the not so brave!!!" and on the next line "Any Gum chum??"
Yes our neighbors are weird I must say, but funny none the less and we fit right in.
The British are also very safe with electricity. - with the roads its much different, they are as crazy as my neighbors but with electricity they are so overly safe it's annoying. every wall socket has a swicth that much be on for anything to work and every plug has a fuse just in case the fuse in the switched socket fails and you somehow get your finger in between the huge plug and the wall. It is against the law to have a socket in the bathroom but put an electric water heating shower instead of using the water heater for the house. BUT! to turn on the shower you have to pull a knob (it's safely a wooded knob on a long string coming from a fused switch in the ceiling) to turn on the power to the shower before you get in the shower and push a fused on/off button to start or stop the water. There is also a longer string with a bigger knob to pull for the lights in the bathroom. Can't be too safe.
This is my bike.There are baskets to go on the sides that aren't shown but are with me pretty much wherever I go. Since we don't have a car I walk and ride all over the place and cart things around in these bags. I love my bike. I hope it doesn't get stolen.

welcome to the 21st century Tumlinsons!

We finally got internet at the house here in Cardiff. LONG story but it's all over so I can finally begin to write again in my blog- so Im going to get some great pictures and post them so you can see.

Specialized Americans

Alex and I are finally leaving for Cardiff on Tuesday and I have no idea what I'm going to be doing there, I haven't found a job. I have been looking at ads for Engineers but I fear that I'm too specialized, that I'm not going to be good to start anything new since there is hardly any Aerospace in Cardiff- or at least I haven't found anything yet. You see we Americans (and I'm sure a good portions of citizens from western societies) go to school or learn a trade and that's it, you can't change. If you wanted to, lets say be an Engineer and then go to San Francisco to be a tailor, you have to go to school again for it. Even if you already know how to sew. I was thinking how awesome it would be to be a rancher or a farmer; But even if I had the money to buy ranch/farm land, I would have no idea of what to do with it. My only experience with plants and animals was my quick stint in Africa and my little yard here in Tucson. I have no idea about fertilizers, pest control, watering amounts, space requirements and choosing which crop, harvesting times, where to buy seed, who to sell the stuff to and at what prices- etc. I have no idea. I'm not even really that good with plants, my mothers garden yields more vegetables in a week than I produced in three years in my back yard. I asked her how she does it but she shrugs and says, I don't know, if you want any feel free to take as much as you want...

I'm thinking of getting a part time job at a nursery so maybe I could pick up some tips, but I'm not sure they would hire me since I'm an Engineer and what could I bring to their business?

I have another example. Alex's friend Garrett. He is an awesome photographer but because he is in Optics, photography has become his "hobby", as gardening has become mine, and even though he is a better photographer than I have seen in a long time, he is an Optical Engineer, and that's what he does. Here are the pictures he took for our wedding

http://www.flickr.com/photos/garretb/collections/72157602213252924/

here are others he has taken. http://www.flickr.com/photos/garretb/

He is so good that I feel bad that they are on flickr! that anyone can take them for free! I think he could easily make a living off the ones he has already taken! Here are some of my favorites...

Not in a million years could I take such good pictures. Thanks Garrett for taking our wedding photographs and even more for giving me hope for engineers.

RIP Turbo

I haven't written in very long time, but I have an excuse; I can do what I want, it's my Blog.

But I am mournful today. Turbo died. I haven't included a picture of the poor thing after the incident because frankly it was just too terrible a scene. I know on my siblings Blogs you have seen cute pictures of West Highland White Terriers but don't be fooled, they are not as cute to helpless undeserving tortoises (or anything else!). Turbo was the smaller of the two, Jet, couldn't fit himself in between the bars in the garden but Turbo, cute, tiny Turbo, did. Only to be chewed up by non other than a hound from hell. We buried her under a mesquite tree in the front yard. Rest in Peace my sweet tortoise. I'm glad you and Pippa will be going in opposite directions when she dies so she can't torment you any more.

When Jet gets older, I'm sure he will get his revenge. http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoID=916555776

FYI

Alex told me the other day that he read my blog and took the "Which LOST character are you?" quiz.

All I have to say is, Sayid rocks.

Floor Eating!

So another thing that I have noticed since I've been back form Ghana is that Americans are clean. Actually I remember the first week I was home I didn't shower for 3 days and I remember looking in the mirror after those 3 days and saying "Damn my hair looks good!" and I really thought so too. I have since been acclimatized but I also remember thinking the floors in my parents house were so clean and I frequently found myself wanting to lay down on the carpet and thinking how great wall to wall carpeting was and how clean a society needed to be so that we could have permanent carpeting and not have to take it outside and beat it everyday. I'm sure all of my Peace Corps friends remember the Swish swishing of the palm frond brooms in the morning and remember wondering when we first got there why they swept so often and why they swept the dirt drives in front of the buildings.
Well my fellow Americans, I hope we can all come to the realization that America is A LOT cleaner than a lot of other places in the world and our floors really are clean enough to eat off of.
Here is an article that Ingrid alerted me to, that proves we already know it.
The 5-second rule is America.