Back down to earth…

It seems like ages since I last 'blogged'.

We successfully saw Jamie installed in his accommodation and he is very happy. He has lucked-out with the house he is in. He has the largest room in a decent house in a nice, tree lined, street convenient for the University, College and local amenities (bars, take-aways, discount booze shops etc.). There are 5 other first-year guys in the house and, apart from one; he is getting on well with them. He has found is way around to most places (the Student Union, Campus night-club 'Asylum'. Oh! And his classes).

We spent last week in France with my Aunt and Uncle at a hotel in a tiny hilltop village of Fox Amphoux in the Provence region.

As is usual for our holidays the main driving themes were food, wine and local culture. The first was easily achieved, as our expanded waistline can attest. Similarly there was no shortage of the second and we managed to sample quite a few of the local varieties, many of which are little known outside of Provence. The last was found in the many small villages and towns in the region (for those of you even remotely interested I will try and detail some of these in a separate blog).

I am back at work again plodding alone doing the same-old same old. I have moved to another area of the office where I can see out of a window now at the industrial estate and the trees, which are starting to yellow with the autumn leaves.

I had to get a new thermostat and water pump for the car the other day and I was very pleased to only pay £200 for the repairs. I was worried that the head gasket might have blown, and that could have been almost as expensive as the car itself.

Many of our summer crops are coming to an end at the allotment. Sue has frozen plenty of tomatoes, corn, blackberries and other bits and pieces, and she has made many sauces, chutneys and pickles too. The cucumbers, courgettes, and tomatoes are pretty much at an end now. Now that the weather has started to cool down we are looking at the greens and root vegetables for hot dishes. We have done really well with potatoes having about three big sacks to see us through next year. Unfortunately we didn't do well with the garlic, but we did pick a lovely bunch while we were in France (wonder what the sniffer dog thought of that - especially as we stuck it in the bag with the dirty washing!)

Sue is now busily clearing out Jamie's old room in preparation for redecoration (reconstruction more like). We are hoping to make into a study-computer-games room with a sofa bed for when Jamie is back during the holidays.

Our small gaming group has been playing tabletop 'war-games' for the last few weeks. We all have Games Workshop 40K armies and have been facing off against each other in quick games of Kill-Teams (small groups in hit and run type skirmishes). I play an Ork army and so far they are the only Kill-Team that has succeeded in its mission. James plays Tau and Kevin plays Dark Eldar, there are still a few different combinations to go so things are certain to change.

I am still doing my writing with the NZIBS on their student forum bulletin board and I am enjoying it very much. The other students and tutors are very supportive and are encouraging me to submit a few stories to publishers. I would love to have something turned into print, so I am certainly thinking about it.