Monday 14 January 2008

Tell You What I Want, What I Really Really Want....

Best second day of work EVER!

I managed to score last minute free tickets to see the Spice Girls at the O2 Arena in London last Tuesday, which, as you can probably tell, I was mildly pleased with.
We had both (yes, Kent as well) talked about how rubbish it was that they would be playing in the UK while we were here but that it was sold-out and we couldn't get tickets, even though we were both rather keen on seeing them... until through a series happy coincidences, I got my paws on a double pass...hooray!

Into the tiny car we jumped, along with my bosses' GPS thingy, bit of a stroke of luck that machine was, without it, we surely wouldn't have made it to the right place at all... as it was we did cut the timing fairly fine, seeing as we didn't get the tickets till 7.30 and the doors had opened, over an hour's drive and tube-ride away at 6.30...eek!

We did make it though - and the drive, tube, waiting, cold and rush were SO worth it... you're not supposed to take videos, but we did manage to sneak one or two... which we can't upload, something about copyright infringement, blah blah blah - so photos will just have to do (click on the photo and it will take you to the album online):


Photos don't exactly do the concert justice - it really was just brilliant... we're so lucky to have been in the right place at the right time... Radio in Britian: so far, so good!

Take care,
K & E x

Saturday 12 January 2008

Goodbye retirement... Hello Ipswich!

It feels like the last week and a half has flown past - shortly (and I mean literally minutes!) after having a small breakdown because I was jobless, my phone rang with a request for an interview for the one and only job I'd applied for - in Ipswich. Hooray - but what to wear?!

The next morning we woke up to the snow that had been promised, very pretty, but not really ideal conditions for driving a long way - luckily it wasn't too heavy... here's a pic from Rod & Lou's place:


Long story short, I got the job and started four days later... no mucking about for us!
My official title is Music Scheduler/Programme Assistant for Tindle Radio - it's a company that owns 12 or 13 radio stations around the country and I help out with the 6 in the East Anglia region - it's sort of similar to some of the office work I've done in the past, but on a bigger scale.
In the meantime we had to buy a car, find a house and make the 3 hour drive back to Ipswich from Sheffield - it doesn't rain but it pours, huh?

Car-wise, we spent a long day tyre-kicking and test driving, and eventually we picked up a 1L (yes, just 973 cubic centimetres of engine - about a quarter of the size of Mum & Dad's car!!) Vauxhall Corsa, which is exactly like a Holden Barina, only European... it's silver and very small, but seems to run on the smell of an oily rag and, most importantly, sits on 70 mph on the M1 with no problems... it needs a wash and then we can show you some photos... just have to wait for a day without rain... and an outside tap... and a hose... it could be a while, but at least silver doesn't show the dirt!

House-wise... on second thoughts, we don't have long enough to type that particular ordeal just now, but trust me, it might be one of the most epic tales ever told...
Till next time,
Kent & Eryn x

Wednesday 2 January 2008

C-C-C-C-C-COLD...

Man alive - they tell you about the cold here, but I clearly underestimated the chill. To put it mildly, it's rather... bracing. It's quite good though as there's something quite fun about wrapping up in coat after coat, hats, scarves, gloves etc. My face was numb for most of today, as it was especially nippy - apparently most of Britain will get snow sometime tonight or tomorrow. Just quietly, I can't wait!

After a fairly quiet New Year's Eve (playing Transformers Risk... geeky, huh?!) some bright spark decided New Year's Day would see us up early for a nice wee walk up to top of the Moor.
We didn't wake up till 11 - so far, so good... and from there it's all about the numbers...
  • Times Eryn fell over in the peat swampy-bog thing: 3.
  • Amount of sympathy from Kent, Rod & Louise: 0.
  • Temperature: I hate to think, but it felt about 2 or 3 degrees... if I round up.
  • How long Rod said the whole affair would take: 1 hr 20 tops.
  • Length of time it really took: 2hr 30min... okay, okay, maybe it was less, but it felt like ages!
It was actually really great, despite me being covered in mud for about half the duration of the walk, the Moors are really quite beautiful, in a vast and lonely way, and at the top there is the wreckage of a bomber plane which crashed in 1948 - even though it's been up there for almost 60 years, quite a bit of the fuselage is still identifiable - there's even some rubber left on one of the wheels! Kent was fascinated and took lots of photos... here's a few:


After that, things all started happening rather quickly... but as it's taken us almost 2 weeks to get this update published, we'd better save it until next time!

Be good
Kent & Eryn x