Brendan is...

feeling guilty for not making any blog posts and leaving Tina to do them all.

That was all I had to say. Who needs Twitter to microblog when you have laziness?

Singing exams at Odiham

This afternoon another choir member and I went to the village of Odiham (near the RAF base), about 10 miles away from Basingstoke. We were to to sit choral singing exams run by the Royal School of Church Music, at the church of All Saints. 

This is a window installed in the church by the RAF. I like the helicopters!

While Sue was having her exam, one of the bellringers arrived to wind the clock in the belltower, so I got to climb up the rickety ladders to see it. The clock mechanism is actually 150 years old!

There are 6 bells. This is the one which makes the "dong!" sound on each hour. The wheel on the left is the mechanical ringer, I think. On Sundays and special occasions there are 6 bellringers to make the chimes. Sue says it's all about following the patterns.  

 

After, we had a traditional British cream tea in the local pub. Enormous, warm scones and little ramekins of jam and clotted cream, which looks a little bit like whipped butter.

We're going on a car hunt...

... this weekend. Because we absolutely need one. The bus/train/bus combo only works for Brendan if the train is perfectly on time and the bus is late. And I need a car for client meetings.

I'm really enjoying my new job, although it's super-super busy. I get to do lots of writing and work with cool people.

The other "interesting" thing is that we are currently sitting in our room surrounded by candles, because our flatmates didn't pay the power bill. And we didn't realise until Tuesday, when the lights didn't work. Tymek is on his way home from holiday in Poland, so hopefully that's sorted soon.

A quick update....

Still no car. It's a bit awkward, since the buses become a bit sporadic after dark. I walked home an hour in the dusk the other day rather than wait 1.5 hours for a 10-min bus. However I did get to see a tiny deer in the forest by our house, so it wasn't all wasted.  

Brendan is enjoying the sights of Las Vegas this week for a work conference. Or more accurately, he's in conference rooms during the day and hearing the sights of Las Vegas rumble as he tries to get early nights. (Comment from him today during our talk on Skype: "I get to bed much earlier without you!"*) I, on the other hand, have been revelling in late nights and a lack of socks on the floor. ;)

But all this is about to change - on Monday, I start a new job in marketing/communications! I'm really excited since I worked really hard to get it. I'll be doing a lot of creative work (and hopefully use my filmmaking/writing/design skills) as well as learning to have my own clients, which is awesome.  

In other news, here are some gratuitous pictures of the countryside/woodland park next to our house. Enjoy. 

Here are some bluebells next to the path I walk through the woods to get to Tescos/the bus stop. The forest is filled with them, and occasionally I'll get a whiff of the most gorgeous smell coming from the flowers. 

(What you can't see is that to the left of this image, people have been dumping their rubbish as the path opens out into the corner of the car park. Disgusting. Before I took this shot I removed all the plastic bags scattered over this area, and put them in the communal bins downstairs. And then a spider jumped out of one onto my hand!)

I also discovered this pretty cluster hidden inside the tree belt between the houses and the field next door. 

The fields are lush with dark green barley at the moment. I think a lot of people walk their dogs here, because this is a right-of-way footpath.

*It's not that he's inherently an early bird, because he most definitely is not. It's because he needs more sleep than me, and takes longer to get to that point.