Clothes Swap Party

On Saturday I was meant to get up and got for indoor triathlon training but there was no way I was going to manage to surface at 6am, so I missed it! I was pretty slow in the morning although I had to get going as Laura, Lyndsey and I were hosting a clothes swap party at mine for a load of girlies. Laura stopped by at about 10am after her footie game to discuss food plans. I had to go for a run having missed all my training this week with being in Rio, so that was the first thing to do. My four miles seemed like a breeze compared to the previous week - maybe the rest did me good. I saw Andy cycling on the Bayou and I said I cant stop so he had to cycle next to me at my snail running pace, while huffed and puffed at him! He did not last long and took off. Next was shopping - since we were all bringing items, I just concentrated getting some things I could heat up in the oven and crudites to be a little healthy. Of course, wine also featured on the list:) Laura and I spent the afternoon preparing the food. She was making some very alcoholic (as we discovered later in the evening) chocolate mousse shots, while I got on the crudities chopping, preparing the cheese board and finding some clothes to swap in my wardrobe. We had to work out how to display the clothes and with Laura's bag of stuff we pretty much covered the two clothes horses, banister and book case, by the time everyone else arrived it was chaos, but utilising all space - backs of sofa, chars and dinning room table, we got every put out in some fashion.

There are no rules in the clothes swap party - just don't say anything too rude about any of the clothes just in case their original owner is standing close by! We had the bedroom and dressing room to do the trying on - Laura wasn't too fussed about going there though! There were many laughs of miss fitting garments - especially Laura and me, who are not too ashamed to show how bad something can look when you have too many lumps and bumps. But everyone came away with a selection of new clothes and accessories. I managed to control myself to one pair of shoes and then quite a lot of clothes - more than I put in to be honest. We have about 6 bags left to take to someone who needs it an now most people, with the exception of me have room in their wardrobes to go and buy more clothes.

Lyndsey brought some of her mum's clothes and they ranged from things she wore when she was younger to sequined jackets and tops that she is bored of wearing. I for some reason fitted all her dresses, so I did very well with those, as for the sequined tops, they just featured more and more in the photos as the night went on! The girls left at about midnight, but since Chris and Rory, Laura and Lyndsey respective other half's, had been ousted to the pub all evening we walked around to see them - oh yes, the Ashford Pub comes through again. We played darts until kick out time at 2am and all we back to the house. While we were at the pub however, (I think I mentioned when we were there for Halloween there was a guy dressed as a ladies feminine parts), anyway, guess who I spotted last night - yes him, but just to make sure, I went up and asked him! The answer was a sheepish 'yes'! Before we knew what happened last night, it was 4am and we were wearing our wig collection while dancing to Abba.

There was very little mess this morning - somehow, and it was quite a slow morning for all. Chris and I were first up with the others surfacing many hours later - Laura last again! However, I had to make myself feel alright as today was a 6 mile run! (note to self: must stop partying on Saturday nights). Cecelia was meant to come around so we would run together, but I couldn't get hold of her (I was later to discover she had fallen asleep on the sofa - alright for some). I ran the six miles without an issue, but I think the additional mile warm up and mile cool down was little tough at this stage and I can feel my hamstrings tonight - thank goodness it is a rest day tomorrow!

I nearly forgot to mention how cold it is here we are on par with Aberdeen, although without the snow! When I was down the Bayou there were people, those that decided to brave the weather, dressed in clothes more suitable for the Arctic! I have to admit I have worn my thermal running top more than anytime I did back in Aberdeen! I hope Emma M warm enough today - a she was running the 'Lumphanan Detox - 10km' in Aberdeenshire! It has be postponed a number of time, since the 1st January!

Once I have finished the blog it is a well deserved lie down on the sofa, with scrambled egg, or maybe Heinz baked beans :)

Short stay in Rio

Rio is of course in summer so we arrived into glorious 34 degC it was, however a little sticky but us Houstonians are used to that! It is four hours ahead in Rio at this time of year so you don't get in until midday and by the time you clear immigration and customs and then take the 40 minute car ride to the hotel there is no way to arrange a meeting any earlier than 2pm. We had ours a 3 o'clock and we already knew we had enough material to keep our audience entertained for at least two hours. So as expected, the meeting went on until 6pm! But it was well worth it so we cant complain. The only bad thing was the office is currently suffering from failure of the air conditioning system so with just one standing fan to keep us cool the meeting room was rather toasty by the end. I kept asking if anyone needed a break but those Brazilians just laughed at me getting too hot:)

That night there was a dinner arranged in a lovely Italian restaurant. The food is always great in Rio and the restaurants we get taken too are definitely 'fine dining'. The traffic from the office was horrible (as I am coming to understand - it is always horrible), so we didn't have time to get out of our 'business dress', not to mention both Dorte and I were starving, so asked the driver to take us straight to the restaurant where we ate all the bread sticks before anyone else got a look in! I had a lovely squid and shrimp pasta dish followed by a nutty homemade ice cream dessert. However, I also had a little too much to drink, although I wasn't alone. Two caipirinha's and red wine meant I kept waking in the night for drinks of water!

I forgot to set me alarm (hmmm too much to drink?!), but fortunately woke up in enough time to get dressed, fed and out for the second meeting planned in our trip. Again that all went fine and finished by eleven thirty so after an early lunch provided by the hosts of the meeting, we really didn't have anything else to do.

The company was very nice and told Dorte and I to go off sightseeing with the company driver. Dorte had never been up Sugar Loaf mountain so that was the first point of call. It is even better the second time, for me, the views are great. The only down side was that we couldn't go back to the hotel as it was in the opposite direction so we both ended up in the heat in our black work trousers and heels! After two hours of sweating lots we got back in to the lovely air conditioned car to go and look at the stadium where Rio celebrates carnival (starts next weekend I think). The stadium was in Rio Central, and there the buildings become old fashioned and ornate, but very run down, howeve, it does have a strange charm about it even if we only saw it through the car windows. I thought the carnival parades/floats would be along Copacabana or something like that, however, in Rio they have this specially designed stadium. Basically it is a two lane road with staging up one side and on the other is 'boxes' for companies to rent and the floats just go up this make-shift road. We then headed back to the hotel to change and go for a walk along Ipanema beach. Neither of us had brought swim stuff because we didn't think we would have time, so instead we paddled in the water. I was wearing a long summer skirt hitched up and while we were admiring the big waves and people gtting semi drowned by them, a big one got us. My white skirt was now see through and clinging to my legs - Dorte also had skirt issues!! Embarrassed, we continued to walk hoping to dry out. We sat on the rocks at the headland that separates Ipanema from Copacabana, but not for long, as the rocks were very hot. By the time we got back to the hotel I think I had burnt the soles of my feet!

The evening flight doesn't leave until 11pm so we decided to get some dinner otherwise it was going to be a long wait and it is always more difficult to sleep on a full stomach. We arrived in Houston at 5am to a thunderstorm and flooding!

Then work :(

Home Alone

I am home alone tonight after dropping Stuart at the airport to fly back to Aberdeen for a couple of weeks. It feels very odd being by myself again - I was quite nervous coming back to the house in the dark, having been at work!, and I have gone back to my old way of turning all the lights on as it makes it feel safer!

Before Stuart heading off we had a busy weekend and a couple of late nights, hence the lack of blogs. The week was spectacularly sunny and warm, and so on Friday night we went out to the Gingerman pub in Rice Village. Stuart was laughing when I parallel parked in Rice, because I was worried about hitting the car behind - but just look at it!! The Gingerman is one of these pubs that is better outside in the 'beer garden' than inside so we have not been there all winter because it was too cold to be outside. It is also one of these places you always see faces you know, and we went there to meet up with Andy and a colleague, but also saw a number of people from work. Stuart tried different beers as usual - the one in the photo was some weird one that was a different colour at the bottom of the glass than the top (I cant remeber what he called it). It was fun, although we were not planning a late one because we had to be up early the next day. As with tradition we went off to the Turkish place around the corner for dinner and as always it was very good. I had an aubergine (eggplant) and spice lamb kebab. The kebabs don't all come in pita bread like home which is nicer, I think. We must have been back before midnight, however, when the alarm went off at 063 it was painful to wake up.

We headed to Cinco Ranch, about 10 miles out west, on Saturday morning to go on an organised cycle ride with folk from the gym. They had three groups, beginners, intermediates and advanced. The difference was based on average speed and distance. Stuart talked me into the intermediate group and it was OK, but I was always near or at the back. But in my defence, everyone else had nice slick road tires on their bikes, while I have my hybrid. I pedalled hard and we did 30 miles in two hours. In Houston, you barely ever see cyclists except on the bayou, i.e. off the roads, however, obviously Cinco Ranch is the place to go and cycle because we saw most of Houston there on Saturday morning. There were a number of oil company cycling teams going out training for the MS 150. We were all overtaken at one point by a group of fit cycling men in their lycra, they must have been going about 30 miles an hour, however, not that long after, we passed them because they had had a big crash and were waiting for the ambulance - tortoise and the hare springs to mind! The roads out of Cinco Ranch are quiet and I guess all the residents stay at home on the weekend mornings as it is too difficult to drive anywhere. Even the police were out helping all the cyclist and cars occupy the road together. In the last stretch I was at the back, again, but another guy stayed with me so we chatted all the was back to the car park. When I pulled up Stuart just looked at me as he knew I had been too busy exercising my mouth rather than moving my legs!

In the afternoon we were out and about. First of all we went to Jiffy Lube for a quick oil change, I said to Stu I bet the guy asks me if I need new windowscreen wipers. Oh yes, like clock work! I of course said no, but then five minutes later he comes back with my rear windowscreen wiper in his hand, pulling the rubber from one end of it! I said fine, change it!!! We then went off to a framing shop not far from us to get our beautiful picture we were given by Sarah Forbes. The really weird thing was the guy was English and then his wife came out the front and she was ultimately English. They have been in Houston for 25 years, after working in the oil industry but getting laid off in the 80's downturn. He was having difficulties understanding us because he has obviously tuned his ear to the American accent. He asked us whether we needed a 'mount' for the picture, but called it something really strange. Stu and I looked at each other and he said he could not remember what it was called in the UK. Then he pointed to the mounts and we went 'oh mounts!!' It is more expensive to get the picture framed than back home but I am not sure why. We were however talked into getting something called 'museum glass' rather than standard picture glass. It doesn't have the same problem with reflections so you can see the picture much more clearly - I will let you know if it is worth it! The final task was going to buy whisky for the Burn's Supper we were heading off to that evening. Stuart debated for a while and finally brought a bottle of Bunnahabhain. Whisky is pretty expensive here but I guess that is understandable as it is all imported in.

The Burn's Night was fun and great to have haggis, neaps and tatties. We had tinned haggis which was pretty similar to the real McCoy, however we were told you can occasionally get real haggis at the British Isles shop in Rice Village. Plenty of whisky was consumed by the men wearing kilts! Since I am not a whisky drinker I was the natural duty driver. Although I did drink a whisky cocktail that was tasty, similar to a whisky mac, with whisky, ginger beer and honey. It didn't smell or taste of whisky so I guess that is why I liked it! I finally dragged Stu away from the whisky selection at about 1 am, after he had finished teaching Rene how to ceilidh dance!.

Another blue sky day, but I didn't get to enjoy it. I didn't have the energy to go for a run (bad girl!). Stuart did the usual boy thing of throwing all his clothes into the suitcase at the last minute today! We went off to the airport and I just dropped him there as I was going back straight into work - boohoo! Dorte was already atwork and we both worked hard, but as usual time flies when you are having fun, and it was 1830 before we knew what happened!

Tonight I have sliced the loaf of bread Stu baked for me and had some Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup. I also have two seasons of Sex in the City to watch thanks to Sam (she has the same as we both managed to buy each other the same birthday present!!!).

It is heating up

I was out last night at my first evening HGS, Houston's Geological Society, event. There was quite an interesting talk going on about Mass Transport Deposits (for all those geologist out there)! It was a considerable larger event than the standard Aberdeen PESGB monthly meetings. There was at least 150 people there and it was a sit down dinner and talk. The food was quite good, but the real disappointment was the fact it was a cash bar! In Aberdeen drinks are free and of course I didn't have much cash, but managed to scrap together five bucks for a glass of wine.

For the past two mornings I have managed to turn my alarm off so it was a rush for work! It is quite nice as our floor is quiet this week with a number of people away at a conference. But it sucks to be inside when we finally have the warmer weather back. Tonight I went for my run and it was 24 degC! Of course I was dressed for cooler temperatures so I nearly expired. But with the warmer weather comes the increased stickiness and now thunderstorms are forecast. Secretly, I am looking forward to a good thunderstorm as it seem like a lifetime since the last one :)

After anther night of vegetable stir fry it is a night in front of the TV watching my favourite - NCIS!!

Cracked it today

Stuart disappeared off cycling at 7am, I enjoyed going back to sleep finally dragging myself from bed at about 9am, as I knew I needed to go for a run before he came back. By the time I got home, Stuart was back just after I left because his bike ride with the neighbour was much shorter than the previous time. Anyway, after falling of my bike yesterday I was determined to crack the cleats so we went back out for an hour along the bayou and this time I had no problems, but I did have to think about every stop!

We had no idea what to this afternoon so like true townies we ended up at Ikea with 50,000 other. The car park was madness, but actually inside wasn't too bad and we only came away with two useful items! Next was the supermarket. We went to a place neither of us have been to called Ranch Market. To me that would been all American beef etc, however it is actually an Asian supermarket. It was wonderful and we bought way more things than were on our list! We have had a great dinner of steamed dumplings followed by vegetable stir fry - yummy :)

It is meant to be in the seventies tomorrow - yippee, come on hot weather I want you back.

The same old story ...

I can hardly believe I have not been updating you with my life since Tuesday - the week has flown by again.

On Wednesday, Stuart and joined Laura and her Fugro team at the Richmond Arms quiz. Unfortunately, the lady with the mic was extremely difficult to hear and even when she she came around each table for a second read out of the questions I couldn't understand her. With no thanks to me, our team came 4th out of about eight teams. Because I got up for spin of Wednesday morning I decided I didn't have to do my run training, however, Thursday was a miserable day and the thought of plodding in the rain didn't interest me nor going on the treadmill at the gym. I was suitably worn out so went home and was asleep on the sofa by 8pm wrapped up in my snuggie! Stuart spent most of Thursday baking for our department breakfast that I had to bring in on Friday. Stuart made a sourdough and jalapeno and cheese pull apart bread. Both went down a treat with the cheese and salami. Actually, it had nearly gone in 30 minutes of laying it out so the gannets were obviously hungry!! Friday was also miserable, but I knew I had to go for a run so I managed to coax Stuart into joining me along the bayou as it was quite dark (because of the rain) and I wanted a bodyguard! Anyway, on leaving the office with some of the others, I quickly decided that there was no way I was going running and headed for the gym instead. Treadmills are just so boring though! Mind you the only bit of excitement I had was when I nearly fell off because I was being nosey looking around, and the next thing I knew my trainer had caught on the edge of the machine. It let off a very loud squeak, and I stumbled, but managed to right myself before coming off the back. That will teach me! We went out to try the local Chinese and Vietnamese place down the road. It was an enormous build and there were other people eating but because the size of it, it looked empty. There was also enough staff for one waiter per table! The food was good, nothing spectacular, but nice. I had orange spicy shrimp that I would recommend, although I would have it spicier!

This morning we got up an went to spin. Another hard session! That is something you can always guarantee that it is going to be hard. The class was packed, much more than 0530 classes! There was a rather large lady in front of me and her feet kept coming out of the cages and she could not get them back in. I was painful to watch and I did consider jumping of my bike to help her - but I didn't. In the end the teacher noticed her issue and helped. We thought we would go to the yoga class straight after, but in the end we were pooped and decided against it. I had to do a run later anyway - although that was more of a walk with my tired legs.

I had a good natter to Sam on skype. Hearing all about the UK weather and now the snow is melting and there is heavy rain that places are getting flooded - there just seems no end to the winter this year. Lucky for us the weather has improved and sun even came out this afternoon. Sam and I also had discussion about bike cleats. As I told her Stuart was fitting my new cleat pedals to my bike, and she said she had only done it once and fell off and that is the same story I have heard from everyone. It is the stress of getting your foot released when you come to a stop - you have to twist your heel outwards to release. Anyway, Stuart got me to try them out just before I went out on my run. He said cycle up and down our road. The first time I did it with no trouble. However, the second attempt was not so good! Stuart told me to work out which foot I like to put down when I stop, well I decided to try the other foot. Apparently it all happened in slow motion as I released my right foot but lent to the left and well that was it, I was splat on the road with the bike on top of me. I grazed my knee and got one of the handle bars in my chest but other than that I was fine. I was laughing because I was so embarrassed as one of the neighbour was watching. Well I have done it now, and now I know that I like to stop with my left foot down so may it not happen again! Stuart kindly fixed up my knee with savalon :(

We have got no plans for tonight or tomorrow, for that matter, and since I have managed clean the house and do all the laundry we can have a quiet one.

Oh and the gym is still awaiting officially confirmation of the Guinness record book attempt - apparently it will take about two weeks! However, we saw the article in today's newspaper.

World Record Setter!

It looks like it is official now, we have set a new world record for the largest cycling event. See the posting on the gym's website to get a better view of this aerial photograph - Stuart and I are in the left section as you look at the picture, three rows back from the front and about middle on that row (on the right of a lady in her black top)! Total riders for the two hours was just less than 600, but still enough to beat the previous record holders. I still cant find all video clips yet and it is not on the Guinness Book of World Records website yet but guess it will be there soon :)

For my Mum and Dad, this is what the spin bikes look at!

We are now back to more reasonable temperatures this afternoon - 63 degF when I went for a run after work. May it now continue on the upwards trend!

Easy Sunday

The ultimate easy going Sunday! It wasn't that I got up late, but we had nothing planned so I got up and went for my training run - just a little 4 miles today, but I was quite pleased as it was pretty cold this morning. Actually, there was barely anyone on the bayou this morning because of the weather - wimps!!

After many hours of skyping and phone calls, we headed off to see Laura stopping by recycling on the way. I haven't been around to Laura's for ages, well it must have been since Stuart arrived as he had never been. I wanted to check out progress on the garage apartment that Laura and I had started to paint in the summer. It was a lot cooler in there today, but the bathroom now looks amazing and the new kitchen floor is a dramatic improvement. She still has some work to do before March when she plans to have a guy move in but it is looking good.

Since it was not too much out the way we had to take a trip to Central Market - the posh supermarket with a great cheese selection. It took us over an hour to get around and as always I spent over $100 on nothing, but it a treat for us.

There was the most beautiful sunset on the way home after a day of clear crisp blue skies. Oh and since I didn't mention it - no, we had no frozen pipes this morning, however I know there were some others with not as much luck.

So I think you can tell, it was not a day much, but still good :) Back to work tomorrow boohoo!

Pedal, Pedal, Pedal ....

This morning I went to the bathroom and oh no! No water! We had frozen pipes. Yes, Houston did get below freezing and I forgot to put the kitchen tap to drip because I was sleepy and headed straight to bed. Stuart got up with my shouting. After establishing we had no water, we used the remainder of the 'hurricane' water to fill the kettle. Since we knew where the pipe was going to be frozen it only took a little bit of boiling water to get it all flowing again - thank goodness!

Today, was our big day doing the Guinness Book Of Records attempt - taking part in the largest spin class of 600 riders. Although we don't actually know whether we managed it because they didn't say anything at the time, from a quick search on the web it would appear to be the biggest cycle, as before us was 458 in Barcelona (or something like that). The guy leading the cycle was the founder and CEO of Lifetime Fitness (the gym) and he liked the sound of his own voice. By the end we all agreed he talked too much. However, we did manage 2 hours of spinning and based on my heart monitor that was a swift 1000 plus calories burnt. It was still below freezing when we started, but the sun was shining so we really couldn't complain. We both wore long sleeve tops under our 'uniform' cycling top. I opted for my thermal top and about 20 minutes in I wished I was wearing less as it was getting toasty. The 600 bikes were all squeezed into a small space so we were almost handle bar to handle bar - another reason why it wasn't quite as cold as it could have been. We had a DJ doing the music and unfortunately we sat close to one set of speakers - it was so loud and you could feel your insides shake. I have to admit I was quite pleased when the two hours were up. I drank near 3 bottle of water! They were filming and taking lots of photos so we will have to see if we get in the news!

I got my Christmas and Birthday presents from Laura today. One was some gel toe spreaders to help with sore feet - so this was perfect as I was feeling after wearing my cycling shoes for two hours and my other present was a 'beautiful' leopard print snuggie! If you are an avid reader of the blog you may remember I talked about snuggies and how ridiculous they look - blankets that you put your arms through. Well, it may look ridiculous but it is very snuggie with this cold weather we are having. I see Aberdeen is only 1 deg cooler than us and I think we will be back below freezing tonight.

On a final note, I have to say congratulations to Laura and Robert who tied the knot today!

My lovely flowers

First of all, I must apologise for not posting the picture of my beautiful flowers that were delivered on my birthday for M&D. They are giving the very white kitchen some colour. Thank you.I have a husband again tonight after days of feeling like I have been home alone! He is still deaf, but feeling much better in himself. So he had a busy day getting all the forms we need to fill in for letting the house back home. Let me tell you there are a lot of forms and hurdles to go through, but we will get there :) We were having debates on the type of people, how many of them and whether they can have pets!

Work has seemed to ramp right back up there - disappointingly. My colleague has just returned from the Christmas hols in New Zealand and she looks very healthy as it appears the southern hemisphere are having a lovely summer, unlike us in the northern hemisphere with the harsh winter weather. Even Houston has been issued a freeze warning between Thursday 9pm - Sunday 9am. We are all getting warned about freezing pipes since none of them are insulated and most are just beneath the ground level. I am more worried about how cold the house is going to get! I cant get over how cold it has been - I moved to a hot place.

This morning was hard to get out of bed when the alarm went off at ten to five. I stuck my nose out and it was very chilly. I was seriously debating getting up, however, eventually dragged myself out of bed to spin class. My new shoes are good and, as always, I was suitably pooped after the hour. Unfortunately, I still had to my run this evening but that was a struggle as I was hungry before I went to the gym!

Training - Day One!

Thank you to everyone for my birthday wishes yesterday. It was a normal working day for me but in the evening we went to the monthly wine dinner and there were two of us with our birthday's on the 4th! I dragged Stuart along, who is still unwell, and I have agreed I owe him 2 million brownie points! And he even drove, which was lovely. I wore my new cowboy boots and got lots of oohs and ahhs from the other girls :)

It was a struggle to get up this morning as it was after 1am before I fell asleep - I am near the end of my book and it is getting good :)

I did the first run on my 12 week training plan for the half marathon! It was pretty dull on the treadmill but I certainly wasn't alone as all the New Year resolutions have brought everyone to the gym. No doubt by February the numbers will be back down! I also took my new cycling shoes with cleats to go and practice getting them into the pedals before spin class at 5:30am. For my parents, you have a small arrow shaped plate on the ball of your foot that clips in to the pedal on the bike. Stuart explained the principle to me but it took me a little minute before I got it. But then t comes to releasing it - twist your foot outwards. That was not too hard. I only got to actually cycle with them for a few minutes (a class was about to start) but they felt really good and comfortable with lots of power because you can pull up the pedal as well pushing down.

We took down the Christmas decorations this evening but I notice the Christmas tree at the end of our street is still up I assume it will come down sometime tomorrow?!

I just have to make a little addition to the blog to tell you of our little electrical surprise this evening. I was sitting on the sofa when I could hear a funny noise from the kitchen. When I turned around I could see the plug socket (with nothing plugged into it) was sparking! I had noticed at the weekend it was a little lively, but this is just ridiculous. I had to get Stuart off his death bed to help. I sorted turning off the power and he discovered there was lots of fluff behind the face panel and one of the screws was lose causing the sparks. It appears to be fine now!! I should reassure you that we have a number of smoke alarms, that are all working.

What is your goal for the New Year?

When we woke up this morning Stuart had bad ear ache. So the poor guy has been suffering all day, even with pills. He has actually slept most of the day, I just hope he can sleep tonight. Right now, he is quietly snoring away on the other sofa as I type.

I went off to spin class by myself this morning and it was as hard as usual, next Saturday we are both doing a two hour spin class (rather than one hour) for a Guinness Book of World Records attempt - the most people doing a spin class at once - 600 bikes!!! I think we might both die :)

I went off shopping in the afternoon and only bought a few things:) One thing I did manage to buy was a Cowboy Boot calendar for Stuart. It is amazing that 3 days after New Year and all the calendars and diaries are already 50% off.

Tonight I have baked my birthday cake to take to work - a carrot cake. I just hope it is alright, I hate making cakes as it is not like you can taste test it before serving unlike biscuits! It looks good and I have my cream cheese and icing sugar topping to spread on tomorrow :) But talking of icing sugar, it is not known as icing sugar as I found out at the supermarket. After staring at shelves in the baking aisle I realised 'Powdered Sugar' is their equivalent. Just so you know.

Last night I signed up for a half marathon in Austin in March. I have exactly 12 weeks to train and I have convinced two other girls from work to take part :) I am also planning, in madness possibly, to do a second one two weeks later in Houston!! That is my first goal for 2010 and I know it is going to keep me busy. I just hope I am not going to be this stiff for the whole first part of the year :) No doubt I will be moaning in the blog :)

If the boot fits ....

We did a wee bit of shopping today - well, to get our Christmas presents for one another.

We first went off to this amazing shop of all things old - second hand. It is called the 'Texas Junk Company' which is quite an accurate description. It was in an old wooden shack of a building and stuffed with random items from picture frames, water skis, filing cabinets and so much more. But what we were going for was second hand cowboy boots. Stuart had a conversation with Eric and Cecelia on Hogmanay who said it was worth a visit as you can pick up good quality boots for very little. There were lots, actually they claim 1,000 pairs! There was a lot of choice for men - I guess more men wear cowboy boots, most of the ladies were too small for me not that I have large feet! We found some pairs that still had the horses poo on them! Most pairs were worn but some shoe polish would easily bring them back to life. So Stuart got his Christmas present (for a quarter the price I was prepared to pay)!

Since he had his pair, I needed mine. Unfortunately, I am going to have break mine in because I had to go and get a brand new pair. They are fantastic and I am so pleased - brown leather with blue bits. They are made of laser etched goat - sounds quite painful!! They are really quite comfortable - surprisingly :) Oh and I should say they are now my Christmas and Birthday present!!!

Both pairs are on the shoe rack at the back door. Yeehaa :) We will be line dancing before long!

Happy New Year!

Here we are on 1st January 2010 - it is the first time I have written it!

Last night Stuart and I went around to Danny's for a party. We brought food, well lots of home baked bread, drink and chairs:) It was going to be the last supper of 2009 as we had many courses thanks to everyone preparing a dish. There was nothing rushed about dinner, which was good as we were continually eating. We had guests come and go as they moved on or arrived from other parties. It was a very international party - there were Americans, Belgians, Scots, an Englishman, a South African, an Australian, and a German!

We realised it was nearly midnight and we were sitting at table, however, we had to sneak in a German (and Scandinavian) New Year tradition to watch a 15 minute comedy sketch called 'Dinner for One'. Danny was so excited when Stuart arrived with it and he was amazed he had even heard about it. The script was written by a Brit, but it was filmed and produced in Germany and never made it to the UK. It is extremely silly and the first 5 minutes are funny then it becomes stupid:) Anyway, we went by the tradition and all stood and watched this before going out on to the front porch to pop the bottles of champagne.

After some debate about who actually had the right time, we let the host tell us when! It was a lovely evening, a little cold but dry. There weren't many fireworks because you are not allowed most types of them (including firing pistols n the air!) within the city limits. I think we were all making enough noise to make up for that.

Let's just say the party went on to 4am and we managed a dip in the pool - the very leafy cold pool! All of just undressed down to our underwear and jumped in, about 5 minutes later Danny turns up in his swimming trunks and is really disappointed because we have already been in. Louise, Danny's girlfriend, and I took pitty and went in for a second time. The second time was much worse! I am now bearing a scar, having removed the skin from a portion of my foot - I missed the deep end! Apart from that we all survived. To conclude the evening, and warm up, the dancing started - well, I did!! I had to apologise to Danny this morning, as with any occasion of alcohol and music, I ended up on his dining room table dancing! For some reason I was dancing around the ceiling fan (it wasn't on), but I was spinning it and then going up and down between the blades!

We missed half of the1st, only getting up at midday but we had a great breakfast eating more of Stuart's bread with boiled eggs, cheese and meats. There was not too much mess at Danny's so the room was put back together in minutes. It was the most amazing day - blues skies with not a cloud to be seen. It was about 15 degC in the sun - it almost reminded me of days in Aberdeen going to walk along the beach on New Years Day.

This afternoon, after getting home, we managed a walk to the shops for provisions and then both of us fell asleep on the sofa. Yup just like it always is on the 1st!

Happy New Year and Best Wishes for 2010.