Better late than never

I have been lucky enough over the last few months to have had a few visits from a little kitchen fairy bearing food parcels (for the sad and suffering - if I may say so myself!).

Jane has turned up several times with such delights as veggie lasagna, sweet potato soup, vodka sauce and pasta, apple crumble etc. But the Piece De Resistance would have to have been the rhubarb crumble. And I hope that makes it worthwhile having spent $10 on rhubarb! It was mighty fine and I'd come again if I knew it were on the menu - although a little warning may be needed.

(Belated) thanks very much kitchen fairy - come visiting in London any time you need a new kitchen to work in!

Time to smell the roses

I've just arrived in Toronto and made it to Pam's place. She is not here and I have the place to myself until her flatmate gets home. I am listening to Leonard Cohen and playing on my computer, the doors are open and there is a light breeze. It's overcast and cooler then NY.

AND A CAT JUST WANDERED BY ME AND STARTED EATING FROM A BOWL UNDER THE TABLE!!!!

It doesn't get too much better then this! Pam and Isaac have a new cat and I'm already in love with him. I am guessing he is a he as he is enormous and looks like a boy cat.

But I feel more relaxed and ready to enjoy a wind down after 12 weeks of madness. I have absolutely loved being in the same city as Jane. It is so different being in the same place for 3 months rather then our usual 1-2 week intensive visits. This way we could chill out and not feel like we ought to be doing something all the time or of course we could do something if we felt so inclined.

It's been very nice and was very sad to say goodbye this morning...

I want one of those!!

I wish I could have one in my kitchen...

One heck of a gator-crasher
ITN - Wednesday, April 23 02:25 pm

A Florida woman got the fright of her life when she found an eight-foot alligator in her kitchen.

Sandra Frosti, 69, came across the uninvited guest at her home in Oldsmar, just north of Tampa.

She said: "I heard a noise from the kitchen, and was much too loud to have been my cat, so I went to check it out. Much to my surprise, a very large alligator was in my kitchen."

Ms Frosti phoned the police, who called in a wildlife expert to remove the 200 pound reptile.

It's thought the gator came from a nearby pond, and across Ms Frosti's back lawn before breaking in through a screen door.

"He looked awfully well fed. The police seem to think he was checking out my cat," Ms Frosti said.

Crocodile hunting in New York

Today I went croc hunting and found more crocs then you can poke a stick at!

I found a shop called Kieselstein-Cord which seems to specialise in things crocodilian. Although the nice man in the shop seemed to think they were alligators.

I was in a state of absolute bliss - almost too excited actually - I was sweating and doing very quick calculations of my credit card and then my mortgage after finding out the price of one piece...

But I was able to plan a small purchase - I must remember to go back on Wednesday to pick it up...

Pope Idol '81

The Pope just drove past my front door. I wanted to invite him in for a nice cup of tea, but he got away too quickly.

He is staying 4 blocks from me and while out walking the boys this morning I came across his vehicles all 'parked' in 76th St. I say parked, but the fact remains that the buses didn't really fit and the long cars were a bit awkward too. He has one helluva big entourage which it seemed was not much appreciated by the local traffic... Especially one other very large car on the road - part of another cavalcade it seems - who tried to run the boys over in his haste to turn the corner while I was on a pedestrian crossing with a 'go' sign!

After a moments vigorous waving of my hand he slunk sheepishly and much more sedately off down the road - no doubt regretting his stupidity after seeing the expression of his passenger in the back!

Anyway, back to the Pope... he picked a great day, the sun at full burst and the warmest day of the year so far. A very lovely 81F/27C. It went from spring to summer in only a few days and I feel sorely cheated.

Oops back to the Pope... There were at least 25-30 motorcycles and many large vehicles carrying armed folk. One SUV had his back door open revealing a couple of guys armed with large scary machine gun-type things. An ambulance, many many uniform police cars, plain clothes cars with serious people on board - no chance a joke or two. A tow truck??? Heck knows why... More bikes, 2 black sinister looking buses, two official cars - one carrying the Pope of course.

And no sign whatsoever of Gordon Brown who I hear is also on a visit to the US of A.

Gordon who...?

Slacker then a wet towel...

I have had the worst couple of days in my job since the last worst couple of days that I had a while ago...

And in the midst of it I was talking (ranting) to mum this morning and at the end hung up without saying

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

So here it is for mum today



And - if you were wondering - my day has had a miniscule improvement since this morning...

It's late and I am tired...

...but I'm receiving complaints loud and clear from around the world about my lack of chatter on here lately.

As seen on my previous post I am tired and grumpy and ready to move on to the next adventure. It's been a long 10.5 weeks so far and the last 1.5 weeks look to be no different. Although, with luck, I will be busy so the time will pass easier.

The sun came out again on Thursday and I was able to walk to the park a couple of times (narrowly missing at least 3 dog-rats). But the sun went away again yesterday... Maybe tomorrow, but I will never know if I don't go to bed now as I will not be able to get up in time to see daylight at this rate.

Goodnight...

zz