Last day of summer!

The mornings have really cooled down and even the humidity has been pretty low all things considered. This is the last day of summer, however, being a realist about this, it is still over 90F in the afternoons, so not exactly autumnal yet :) I am not stopping swimming outside any point soon.

The schools went back last week so my morning commute has at least three cars now, but still not too bad. The worse parts are the 20 mile an hour school zones. It is key to observed these speed limits as there are always police around, and as of tomorrow a new driving rule comes in. You are not allowed to use mobile phones in school zones. It is a really good idea, but a shame it is not a total ban of mobiles. I was only saying to Stuart that I must have no friends as I am barely ever on my mobile, out of the car, yet I see every second driver with the phone to their ear, and all those not talking to someone, are texting - great even safer!

I nearly 'rear-ended' (drive in to the back) of someone today - indicating is optional and generally you are all driving along a a reasonable speed then the person in front decides to turn with no warning. Fortunately, there was no one behind me, otherwise I might have been rear-ended! Laura is always telling me it is a matter of time before you or the person behind you does it. Quite often it is at lights! It also explains why many of the cars are missing bumpers. I don't know if it just a Houston thing - I have a suspicion it is. I was reading in the Houston Press that Houston is probably the most car-centric city in the nation. They also say 'if you walk here, you get funny looks'. I know that to be true! I thought I would let you see what you pay for petrol here compared to home! Not a lot really, hence why you can be car-centric, and do your commute with a V8 engine.

I forgot to tell you I think the head is coming off my 5 iron. I was speaking to Andy at work, and he said because of the heat, the glue melts and hence your club head becomes lose. I did play with yesterday, and fortunately it didn't come off mid swing, but I have been told about a place close to the office that I can take it to get fixed. It is my trusty club, so cant survive without it!

Another chilli plant - this time with chillis already on it - and they are hot!!! I couldn't speak for at least 5 minutes after trying a really small dried one.

Fore!

It was a day of golf at Redstone. Certainly not a cheap place to play, but worth it. Mark ( a colleague from work) and Alex (his friend) picked me up about 8 am to start off out of Houston to the north. Redstone appears out of nowhere, surrounded by some new build homes and then the golf course. The only other thing around, is the road in and out and a couple of places up and down it!

We had a caddie who spotted balls, gave advice and generally kept play moving. Our caddie was called Jimmy and he was a pianist in a 60's band hoping, one day, to get big enough to travel abroad. He was fit, running ahead of us, and too good at gold laying down the odd ball to take a shot at and normally putting us all to shame. On the 18th hole he decided to give some coaching, which was useful but as any golfer knows when you are told something to change you forget about something else and therefore it all goes to pot! My over swing came into play at the end, nicely photographed by Mark, and probably due to the two beers consumed! It was so nice to be out on the golf course and need to do more!!!!

My game is in need of some serious practice but I am not sure the driving range is everything I need, generally more golf would help!!

Laura returned from Brazil today and she came around for a swim. Hic! It was fab to catch up and become like a prune in the pool. I am now definitely ready for my bed!

Chilli on the brain

Today started with a morning run outside. When I got up at 7:30 I went outside to evaluate the humidity. It was really pleasant, even possibly cool (relatively!). To make up for the naughty ice cream last night I decided I needed to make myself work for it. So I ran for an hour and the nice cool weather soon changed when the sun came up!! At least this time I remembered to take a towel for the car seat:)

Stu and I worked out everything that he needs to move to the States and what needs to head down to Mum and Dad's for 3 years. I am hoping he managed to get through some of our champagne and drink's cabinet at tonight's cocktail party!

I went to Central Market, a big supermarket inside the loop (so quite a drive for me), and what else I realised is that it is owned by HEB - where I was last night! They were having a chilli pepper event and I wanted to see what it was all about. I met up with Danny and we tried some roasted 'hatch' chillis. Apparently, hatch chillis only get harvested once a year and you get mild and hot ones. They are best served roasted, which they were doing outside the store in a big barrel. The mild ones were very mild, actually more like a standard pepper, whist the hot ones had a delayed kick, but nice heat. Slightly bizarrely, I bought three of the hatch chillis last night, but didn't realise what they were. I thought they were just regular funny shaped peppers! I also don't know whether I bought the hot or the mild ones!

I had to go and practice my golf as I am playing tomorrow morning at the same course they play the Houston Open! It is called Redstone and is north of Houston. It is certainly not cheap, but I decided since I hadn't really spent my gift from the company in the UK, this was a chance to blow it all in one go! I haven't played for a while so I am a little nervous, but apparently we get a caddie who is our ball spotter - well he is going to have his work cut out with me!

I decided to look around for a new electricity provider because I hadn't signed in to a fix contact I had no tie but my price was also variable and it has only gone up! So the thing here is there is plenty of competition, which is good for the customer. I just applied online and got an email straight back saying I had sufficient credit not to have to pay a deposit - that is good! I was slightly worried though because I couldn't find out how you notify your existing supplier. Today it all became clear, I received a letter from a third party company who do the switch and you do nothing as everything is taken care of. It sounds so straight forward, no written letters, it is great (well maybe I should reserve that comment until it is all done and I have got my deposit back from my previous supplier!).

Chilli Plants

I have just discovered American ice cream is really rich and now I have the worse case of indigestion ever! It was only meant to be a treat, but I am severely regretting it now!

I managed to buy Stuart a 'welcome to his new home' present, two chilli plants that he can look after (I will help), and hopefully harvest them in 80 days (it sounds a bit like Farmville!), anyway one is a habanaro and the other is some sort of Tabasco chilli plant. The difference is where in the UK we had to try and get the greenhouse warm enough to grow them, they should manage just fine outdoors (except when a hurricane rips through that is!). I made little saucers for them out of some of my reycled bottles - what a recycler!!

I am now a supermarket convert - going to the other side! I went to my first new large HEB's and it was amazing. HEB is a cheaper supermarket than Randall's and this one, which is not quite as convenient as Randall's to the house, has so much more, especially in terms of fresh produce. I watched one guy picking out lobsters from the tank. The fishmonger put the lobster on the scales and walked away - as you can guess the lobster tried to make a run for it, but fortunately was caught before dropping to its death off the counter. They had decorated cheese - I don't really know how to describe except, for example, there was a ball of goats cheese that looked like a scotch egg with a chilli sticking out of it. It was called a 'spicy goats cheese ball'!!! There was just so much, 24 hour Tesco's is going to seem like a breeze to get myself in and out of now. Aside from the weird decorated cheese, they had a good selection of tasty, not flavourless yellow coloured slabs you normally get. On the topic of cheese I was told you don't want to buy something labelled 'cheese food' as that means it has never seen a cow! They have a British section with HP sauce, baked beans etc, I felt strangely homesick while looking at it. No Twinning Assam tea bags though, only earl grey and English breakfast. I bought some Rose's Lime Jam, at great expense, as I am running out of my British bought marmalade. However, it is because I got overly excited in the big shop that I have my indigestion now :(

I went for a swim tonight because I was feeling gym guilty. I have only been for my personal training session this week and nothing extra. I was really proud of myself as I managed to get my heart rate up the most I have ever done at swimming, while wearing the monitor. As you can imagine, straight after, I thought I was going to die as it was not a sustainable level, unlike running.

Stuff...

It must have been like paddies market here today. I had the gardener, the pool man and the exterminator! I cant resist a clean pool so I had to jump in when I got home and it was lovely :) I did notice that the cowboy hat, I thought was the pool guys, obviously wasn't. I had put it in the garage for him to collect, but it is still there! Unfortunately, whose every it was had a very small head, even smaller than my little on!

Tonight has been a night of doing stuff. I managed to get a second set of key for the car. I went and got a new pair cut and just hope I will be able to claim back OK (I did ring the car fleet management company and they said I could go ahead with it - but not cheap, over $100!). Anyhow, it now means Stu has a set and I don't need to be so paranoid about looking myself out the whole time! I got told I didn't sound like the 'lucky charm', an advert, which, as the name suggests has an Irish accent! I did point this out, but got they didn't understand. Other jobs completed, washing (in desperate need - not of myself, my clothes!) and changing the hose on the reel. There are two houses with the house and one reel. One hose had a damaged end so I couldn't get my spray attachment on it, and since I am about to buy plants, I needed to be able to water them:)

As you have guessed I have now finished the work that kept me late last night, and it all went well thank you!

Working like a trojan

Join me have a turkey sandwich from the gym for my dinner back at work! The turkey sandwich was a rip off - if I have to pay $7 for a wee sandwich I expect it to be tasty, not a health, boring, dry one! I even went in the hunt of mayo in the office to give it a bit of moisture - but couldn't find it! Why was I at work? Well, as Stu knows me so well, it is my inability to not do something high standard - I am trying hard to do just what is required but I find it tough. Anyway, the work we (the team) are doing gets presented tomorrow so all the stress is over :) I have to say as that is officially the latest I have been in that office, until 9pm, I didn't feel very comfortable mainly because all the sensor lights switch off around you, even my office one did when I am not moving anything apart from my hand!

We had a really weird thing happen at work during the day. Basically the power cut out. The first time it happened so quickly (off and on) my PC went black, but came back up - no work lost. The second time, I wasn't so lucky! I don't think it did any of our big computers any good!

Outside work there has been lots of dumper trucks gathering for the past two nights. There must have been at least 30 of them along the road. I can only assume there is some big road or building works happening nearby. It would have been a cool photo, but it was dark when I got the opportunity.

I managed my hour with the trainer, between work, so I now cant move as I have very stiff hip flexers. I can't believe I only have four sessions left with him. I still need to continue my cardio programme, but I will have to do all the strength and flexibility exercises myself!

I am envious of Danny, as he was going off to watch Ghost Busters at the Miller Outdoor Theatre which would have been fun. Stu and I will have to keep an eye open for all the things to go and do and not just at weekends. I must pick up the 'Houston Press' tomorrow for all weekend things happening.

Opps, slept in!

This morning started badly. My mobile phone ran out of battery in the night, my alarm clock, and I woke just after 6am! At least, I have my husband to wake me up, even on the other side of the Atlantic!

I stayed at work until 6pm and funnily enough I didn't feel like going to gym, so instead I went to 'Lowes' to look at plants. I have been told they are reasonable value there. Well, it was pretty sold out of plants so I spoke to a shop assistant and asked when more where coming in. He said if I go on Friday they will have all of this weeks delivery out on the shelves. It was such a great feeling looking for plants! I don't want buy to many but something to brighten up the back a little will be great.

I checked the 'Vortex', the insect killer Stu bought me last week, and even though I had it up all Saturday there was nothing in it! I would like to think it is because there are no mosquitoes in my backyard, but I know there was, as I have the bites to prove it! I will continue trying to use it to get some results!

I was hoping to have a picture of some new plants (exciting for me), but as I didn't manage to buy any, I took a picture of the Texas star that is on all the bridges on the freeway. While I have been driving around I have also found myself looking at cars for Stuart. We get a month with a hire car so at least he is not totally car-less, but it will have to happen quite quickly. We were trying to look for something economical, but that is actually quite difficult!