Update on Cardiff life

Hello!

Looks like a good time for an update. ;)

We still live in Cardiff in the same tiny cosy house. We're working in the same places as before, though, I'll be made redudant some time this year, because my office will be closed and moved (without most of the people, though). Mats work is doing well, as far as I know. :) And I, as you may have guessed, will be looking for a new job soon.

We're finally having a car! Nothing new and fancy, but very nice going and even with climate control and other nice stuff that we didn't expect to see in a car from this price range. Funny enough, these Saabs ;) cost 3-4 times more in Sweden and in Latvia. UK is a funny place. Less funny when you add tax and insurance costs... :)

I have my very own DSLR camera and a couple of photobooks. The only things that is still missing is my beautiful pictures. :)

Sooo... what else? I don't know really.

Ah, I cut my hair, yes. There is no picture of my latest-latest hairstyle, but it is short. And it will be shorter when I'll visit hairstylist next time.

How much snow do you need for chaos?

Very little, in fact. :)

It was snowing for about a week in many parts in UK, but already in the first day situation was quite chaotic. It's all a bit funny for people who are used to snow. During this week I've seen some snow in the air and barely any snow on the ground. Yes-yes, I mean it, I barely saw more than a couple of centimeters of snow on the ground and it wasn't covering all the ground. I promise. :) It seems like it was snowing more in some other parts of Britain, though, still up to a few centimeters. Kind of funny for us, "Northerners", but not as funny for country parts where it's said it was a largest snowfall in last 20 years. So, I am not laughing too much, really.

Traffic was quite bad (they have summer tires! you wouldn't like to drive on snow with your summer tires either ;)), many buses and trains cancelled, schools closed etc. Even both of two bridges that connect us to South West England were closed at some point! Apparently pieces of ice were falling from the parts that hold bridges in the air (forgot what they're called) right on the cars... Luckily no one was injured, though, some cars were damaged.

We went to London yesterday, were a bit worried ourselves about how it'd go. But all went well, one bridge and (i think) later another bridge were open when we crossed to and from "the other side". No sign of snow in London besides remains of many many snowmen and some carrot noses on the grass. Looks like people used they chance to enjoy this "bad weather". Happy for them! :)

Cardiff people

We are Cardiff people now. :)

We moved to Cardiff 4 weeks ago. House is still a mess, first we didn't manage to get our bed upstairs, then we didn't have screws to reassemble it and all the other excuses. But eventually everything will be as it has to be.

Our new house is nice. Even tinier than before, but location is very good, rent is good for the place as well and landlords seem to be very nice people.

Last week was cold and we realised that it's quite cold inside. So now we have a new heater and a bunch of isolation stuff for the door and windows, just need to fix it all and we'll see if it will help.

Cardiff is still nice as well. :) We meet more people, Mats started going to the gym, and at the moment he's watching Bond film in a cinema. There was no cinemas in Chepstow, and here is at least 3 that I know about. So, as you see, much more things to do... including shopping. ;)

Ah, shopping... We went to Ikea today and bought some Swedish food.

Life is good. ;)

I was looking for a book for my Reading Club, and because there was no new edition I decided to buy a used one at amazon. Or to be more exact from one of the companies that sell used books through amazon. It was quite a nice experience, but I was worried to say the least. There are some things that I don't like to receive used, that I enjoy having new... and books (appart from some study materials) is one of these things. They stated condition as good - not perfect, you see... so I held my breath opening the package. Hmmm.... Book looks... not used even. It is just old, little yellow page borders... it reminded me something and... it smells just like books at the grandmoms attic.

Nice unexpected memories. :)

Lucky me

My colleague said that if birdie lands a shit on your head, you'll be rich. As it indicates I won't be rich any soon, but I consider myself lucky since shit landed on the strip of my handbag and not on my head. :)
It happened on Tuesday. On the very next day I had difficulties to wake up, almost missed a breakfast (but didn’t, thanks to Mats) and was allround grumpy. And besides left home few minutes later than usually. Sooo… grumpy, sleepy, you got the picture?... and I am heading towards train station to catch the train. The only thing I enjoyed was my shoes. I put my nice office shoesies in the bag and walked out in much more stable and speedy, but less office-like ones.
I have to say that I walk down right by the road with heavy traffic, so I have loads of cars on one side and on some parts of the road a solid stone fence on the other. I don’t always feel cosy there, I must say, but that’s the pay for leaving home too late; this way is the shortest. So remember: cars, stone fence and I’m walking in between.
Still a bit tired, I notice a lorry on the opposite line of the road. One unusual thing about it was it’s length, but we’re used to long lorries, because they deliver huge parts of the bridge. More unusual was that the traffic wasn’t blocked. Our road is quite narrow and curvy, and these lorries take a bit of space on turns, so normally police stops the traffic for few minutes to let them pass. Well, not this time. Maybe it wasn’t long enough.

I was kind of wondering if this in any way can affect my journey when I saw another lorry in the meeting traffic. Not as big, though. Ouch, I thought, but I continued walking, while being alert and watching if I’ll have enough space when trucks meet. As you may have guessed, of course, they would meet when they pass me. When the first lorry was getting closer, I realised, that it was enough space, although the closest car had to drive up to the footpath a bit. I relaxed. For a second… because then I saw a water pouring from the closest lorry. Or liquid perhaps? Anyway, I knew, it wasn’t a pure clean water. I didn’t think any longer (and if I would, it wouldn’t be an “ouch!” this time, but at least “oh, shit!”). I just turned around and started to run; hoping that the end of the stone fence is somewhere close and I’ll escape being showered with that unpleasant stuff. How I run! One bag on my shoulder, another in my hand (the one with shoes, remember?). And I was lucky, just after 10-15 meters I could turn around the corner. Lucky and happy about shoes I chose that morning, I'm not sure that I would succeed in the other ones.
Then I got to know what the water was. The lorry transported cows…
So… lucky me, escaped a shit on the head and some pee as well. Sorry for details.

Any guess what my colleague will say about the cows?

Summer, huh?

Today I went to Newport. It's a town about 20 minutes away by train. I had a valid train ticket, I needed to do some shopping, so why not? So I got ready, looked at the thermometer that showed 18C outside... and I went out in a T-shirt (and jeans :P). For the first time this summer, I think. In fact, just earlier this week I had my trench on, so... no way to explain why I didn't grab a jacket or a sweater. Needless to say, it became windy shortly, started raining and by the time I got back home (in a brand new sweater ;)) it was just 14C. I don't get this summer, I need a huge warm cup of tea (since my warm hug is in Northern Sweden).

Miss spelling

Ouch, this time I had my name misspelled. I am miss Melchakona on my train tickets... though, I think señorita sounds better. :P