Bittersweet

Hello dear family and friends. I am slightly sad that this is my last post ever on "a hop skip and a jump across a big big pond." I know you've enjoyed it and I have too. But there always comes a time when things must come to an end.

Now before you start getting teary eyed, don't you fret. This is not the end of me blogging - quite the contrary.

The past month it is true I've been pretty much without my beloved mac as Tom confiscated it for his dissertation work, but I've also been working on a little project.

My project is a new and improved blog - from jenn ♥ with love.

Please go there now and bookmark my new blog, add it to your menu bar, whatever you do to make it easy to stay up to date with me and what I'm up to here in Brighton.

But before I say my last goodbye, I leave you with some my best pictures from home this summer:

Goodbye!

Busy in the kitchen

I've been very busy in the kitchen lately making many delicious dishes. Here are a few I recommend, and that I remembered to take pictures of:

Mexican Lasagne

Wood pigeon with sweet potato rosti, buttered cabbage and red wine sauce

Courgette (zucchinni) and goat's cheese tart

Beet and caramelised onion tart

Love

Tom's hurt ankle

Tom has hurt his ankle. He came home from rugby on Wednesday evening limping horribly. He could barley walk, but elevated his ankle and put some ice on it thinking that would do the trick.

It didn't work. He woke me up at 4am saying he was in absolute agony. So being the good girlfriend I am I offered to drive him to hospital (that's how they say it here, not the hospital). We arrived by 4.30am. Despite being ridiculously early, it was actually nice. It was very easy to find a parking space, the nurse saw Tom right away and he even got his x-ray taken immediately. We probably hadn't been there half an hour when all of that was done.

Then it turned bad. We had to wait HOURS to get the results. Seriously, it was 7.30 by the time they called Tom back for his results. We were both tired and bored by this time, luckily I had a book on me.

The diagnoses - a severe sprain. The doctor had to get a second opinion because he said it looked broken with all of the swelling, but nothing was showing in the x-ray. Doctor man said that breaks don't always show on x-rays in the first 24 hours, so that's when he went for a second opinion. When he got back he asked Tom to try and walk. Tom was able to shuffle for a few steps, so doctor man decided not to plaster his ankle. He was just sent home with pain killers and told to completely rest for the next two days.

Six days later and Tom's ankle is still big and he is still having difficulty walking. But he does say it's not really painful, unless he moves it in the wrong direction. He is lucky that he can work from home and is taking advantage of that this week.

I'm taking good care of him, making lots of yummy food. But more on that in a later post.

Love

My day job

I've been a Marketing Executive for over four months now, and I Love it! I think this probably surprises my parents who say I get bored of everything after three months. I just hadn't found the right job until now. Since I spend so much of my time at my office I figure you might be interested in what I'm working on.

This week we had a three day strategy meeting. I was involved in the last two days and was so happy the meeting took place at a hotel in Hove, which meant I got to sleep in and walk to work. During the meeting each department presented on what they are working on, how it is going and their future goals. The meeting ended in overall business planning and budgeting.

So what has Marketing been working on? I've been so busy completing the numerous tasks my boss assigns. Here are most of current projects (I've probably forgot one or two):

Book Launch: The founder of my company, David Miller, has just released his book Successful Change. My job is to promote it. I've sent a press release to many publications, bloggers and professional bodies in hopes of securing book reviews. The book is getting a very good response, I've secured about 6 reviews, an interview with a blogger out of Seattle and a partner deal with a large professional body who is going to do a lot of promotion of the book to their members based on the discount we are giving them. This week I'll be releasing the book to our database of contacts and spreading it on social media.

White papers: We release a white paper about every other month. I've just been assigned to research and write the next one.

Webinars: Alongside each white paper we host a webinar on the same topic. Our last webinar I created most of the slides for and I'm sure I'll do the same for the next one. I also participate in the webinar, introducing the presenters and taking questions.

PPC: Google Adwords is a form of advertising where you create short ads that appear on Google searches, and whenever anyone clicks on them you have to pay a little. I've been re-evaluating our current ads and putting together a new strategy to hopefully improve our results.

Landing pages: When someone clicks on one of our PPC ads obviously they are directed to another webpage. I've been creating pages, called landing pages, that directly relate to the ads and give people the content they are looking for without any hassel.

Twitter: I'm in charge of the company Twitter account, daily tweeting and retweeting.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn is one of our most used social media platforms. I post many discussions in our Changefirst group. I also, post discussions in many other relevant groups hoping to spread awareness of Changefirst and increase our network.

Slideshare: On Slideshare you can post powerpoint presentations and short videos. I've been cutting up each of our webinars into segments and posting them on Slideshare. We are getting a very good response here.

Ahh, I'm sure there is loads more that I do, but these tasks are what come to mind right away. As we are a small company pretty much all of our marketing is online due to it being most cost effective. I'm loving getting to play online every day, and all of our stats have increased significantly since I've started which keeps the bosses happy.

Love

Pram Race 2011

I know I've been a bit bad at posting here lately. I've been very busy with work, which is still going very well and I love, working out in the evenings and doing a lot more cooking.

This past weekend however was an event worth writing about. It was Oxted's annual pram race. Tom and his friends have participated for the past three years. It's not really something that appeals to me, but spectating is fun. For this event each team has to race through Oxted whilst pushing a pram with someone inside, the end bit of the run is up a steep hill. It takes each team about 10min or so to complete. There are eight pubs along the way and they have to stop at each to quickly down a half pint of beer. To add to the fun loads of kids line the streets armed with water ballons, guns and buckets of water to attack the participants with.

This years Tom's team dressed up as The Axis of Evil. Slightly bad taste I would say, but I had fun sewing him a white dress thing to make up part of his Taliban costume. His team ended up starting 5th out of over 70. I think this proved to be a disadvantage. All of the little kids had been standing on the side of the street in anticipation for ages and since Tom's team was one of the first to go the kids had plenty of ammo to attack them with. By the end they were absolutely soaked!

I was a little disappointed the other girls bailed at the last minute, but luckily I ran into Tom's cousin Holly and her little girl Sophie and chatted to them during the race. Afterwards the village turns into one big party. Many of the pubs had live bands and BBQ's/Hog roasts. It's like a big street party as people mingle and mosey between pubs.

It was a fun night that ended in an hour long walk back to Brook Farm. There are not many cabs in Oxted, and with that many people out it's near impossible to get one. I enjoyed the walk though, even when it started raining - I had my umbrella.

Love

Barn Dance

Saturday night, after the girly spa experience, was the Barn Dance at the farm just over the road. It's actually where one of Tom's aunts lives. I'd never been to a barn dance before. I was quite excited. Freddie and Emma joined our group for a few drinks around the pool before we went over to dance the night away. We got so lucky with the weather too, it's been hot again this weekend! In fact today I got very silly tan lines in the shape of a V across my chest.

Then it was off to the dance we went. I knew a lot of the people there, many of Tom's parent's friends. First order of business was food. They had put on a massive hog roast. There were two pigs spinning on their spits, Tom's Dad cooked something like 400 venison sausages, and there were plenty of salads to go with the meat. It was tasty!

I cant believe what I did next... I rode the mechanical bull! I think Tom talked me into it. Sooo embarrassing! I think I did alright.

Then we danced, danced, danced the night away. The bad they had was really good and we had a great time bopping about. No line dancing though. I thought there might be some organised line dancing, but it wasn't that hick. We had a great time.

We all got up bright and early today as it was hot! The sun starting shinning through the windows way before we wanted to see it. But good weather meant more time by the pool, like I said I've got some silly lines. To end this weekend Tom and Siobhan went for a pub lunch with us. I opted for a yummy blue cheese, poached pear and walnut salad rather than a roast because I still felt a bit full from the night before.

All in all a good weekend! And it's back to the farm next weekend for the Pram Race.

My first spa experience

This weekend Tom and I invited some friends to Brook Farm. There was a big barn dance on Saturday night at a neighboring farm, which I'll tell you about in a later post. James and Megan came from the Cotswolds and Tom and Siobhan came down from Brighton. Everyone arrived in time for a BBQ early on Saturday afternoon. After enjoying a variety of burgers us girls went off to the spa for some girly time.

For a while we've been talking about doing a spa day as we never do things just the girls. But, we found it very difficult to plan a weekend when everone was available. I stumbled across an amazing spa deal a few weeks ago that happened to be only 10 minutes away from Brook Farm, at Breathe Spa, which I thought would be perfect - most of our friends from this group were already planning on being together.

We were booked in for a mud serial bath. I imagined we would all lie down on a comfortable table and have mud massaged into us. It was not at all like I imagined. A very friendly girl greeted us and gave us towels, robes and slippers. Once changed we were led to our treatment room. As we walked in a big bowl of mud was staring at us. We just started laughing. There were three little spatulas in the pot and we had to cover ourselves with the mud!! It took ages using the spatulas and after not too long we just reaching in with our hands and covering ourselves with the lovely brown mud. I was really sad I didn't take my camera in with me! Once fully covered we stepped into the steam room. We sat there chatting and relaxing waiting until it would start to rain "like we were in a rainforest". That's what the girl said. But the "rainforest" was actually two shower heads that came on suddenly at full force. Siobhan and I both screamed!

Once rinsed of mud us girls enjoyed the sauna, ice shower and the pool. It actually was a really fun experience and my leg do feel very smooth now!

Love

My UK driving license

It's finally here (well I've had it about a week, but was a bit late with this post). My UK driving license. Isn't it pretty:

Don't mind the picture its agggeeessss old! Horrendous.

It's really nice finally having a UK license. First of all I do feel a lot more comfortable driving. If something were to accidently happen I'm sure it's much easier to deal with with a proper license rather than a combination of the provisional and foreign license I was using. Also, it's much easier when I get ID'd at the shops and stuff. People know where to look for the date.

Cool, huh?

Love

A wedding in the country

Saturday evening Tom and I attended a lovely wedding in the country. Kim, who joined my company only about a month ago, was kind enough to invite everyone in the office + 1's to share in her special day. There are only 8 of us in my office. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures!

One of the coolest things about the wedding I thought is that Kim's younger sister is a fashion designer for Karen Millen and so she designed Kim's wedding dress. How special is that to have her sister do her dress!

In England it is common for the wedding ceremony to be attended by close family and friends. Then there is be a meal, and in the evening the party opens up and many others join in the celebration. We were invited to the evening bit of the wedding. I think this is one of the main differences between English and American weddings. Also, Americans have many more bridesmaids, in England they usually only have one or two!

This evening do took place on the groom's fathers farm. It was lovely! The marque was set up alongside a large pond complete with ducks. They got so lucky with the weather too. Lately its been pouring every day, but Saturday was bright and sunny all day. The evening stayed warm until about 10 I'd say.

Tom and I spent the evening chatting to my colleagues. David, the founder of my company was there with his wife Susan, and our new Head of Customer Relations, Jonathan, was there with his wife Lisa. I enjoyed seeing my colleages outside of work and getting to know them a bit better. For a little while Tom spent time talking to David whilst I danced with Susan - luckily they have Amex in common.

After my colleagues left, Tom and I danced for a bit before retiring to our tent for the night. Yep, we camped for this wedding. Because it was out on the farm anyone who wanted was able to pitch a tent in a field next to where the festivities occurred so there was no need to worry about transportation home. Tom and I thought this would be best as we were about half an hour away from Hove and knew we would each have a few drinks. It worked very well. I packed loads of blankets and pillows, and two duvets. I had a very comfortable nights sleep.

It was a wonderful evening. But I knew it would be, everyone loves a wedding.

Love

Official London to Brighton Video

My London to Brighton

Yesterday I completed the 54 mile London to Brighton Bike Ride with 28,000 other people!  It was mad, and so much fun!  Check out this great news coverage

My start time was 9am.  One of the later times of the day (some people started at 6.30), but it meant I got to sleep in kinda.  Tom and I stayed at Brook Farm the night before so we wouldn't have as far to drive in the morning.  I was very happy that Tom was able to drive me up there and wish me good luck as I set off.  Very much appreciated!

Getting out of London was insane!  It took at least an hour to go the first 5 miles.  I didn’t even clip into my pedals properly for ages because we were so stop and go.   But the atmosphere was great.  Everyone was fresh and excited for the day, joking around as we crawled along.

After a while the cycling began, well until we got to the first hill.  It was so congested I had to get off my bike and start walking with the crowd.  I chatted a bit with the man walking next to me who said the previous year his team broke a record for cycling to Brighton, back to the start in London and down to Brighton again in six and a half hours – Crazy!

The majority of the ride was really enjoyable.  Tom's parents watched out  for me from a village near their home which I thought was very sweet.  Seeing as my own Mom and Dad obviously couldn't be there like they always were when I was growing up, it was nice that Tom's parents came to support me. When I spotted them I stopped for a quick chat and they had brought me a treat =).  I was surprised at how many refreshment stops were set up along the route swarming with people milling about and making a relaxing day of the event.  I sped past most of the stops eager to get to the finish.  However, I did stop in Lindfield for a quick refresh break.  I needed to use the loo and quickly down an energy bar to help get me to the end.

I’m proud of myself for powering up Turners Hill and attempting Ditchling Beacon “the hill”.  I made it half way up. I figured I had to at least try to cycle it.  But then it started raining and I was scared I would get to a horribly steep bit where I would struggle, and with so many people walking around me I decided to take the safer option and join them.

As I reached the top of Ditchling Beacon the ride turned to hell for about 30 min.  It began to absolutely pour!  I could barely see the rain was coming down so hard.  I cycled past a lady being put in a neck brace with an emergency blanket over her, and I just thought, “this ride is not safe anymore.”  I wanted to cycle fast just to get to through the last 9 miles, but at the same time I was scared of going too fast on the wet road.   I was absolutely terrified on the next downhill I came to.  Police were motioning to slow down, but I was holding my breaks as tight as I possibly could, and pumping them and I couldn't slow down.  The hill got congested for a couple of seconds and I thought people were stopping.  There was no way my bike was going stop and I seriously for a second thought to myself, “what is going to be the best way to crash.”  Luckily just then the policeman moved back over to the side so people spread out and I didn’t die.  Of course when I got just past the bottom of that hill the sun came out again.

I crossed the finish line fairly dry and smiling.  I loved all of the people clapping and cheering near the end, I thought, “yes I did achieve something good, I deserve that clapping.”  It was a good feeling!  In fact I was on a high the rest of the day.  Plus this is something I've wanted to do for a few years and I'm so happy I've actually done it.  I even got a medal.

I really liked cycling before but now I love cycling.  I am now hooked.  In fact this morning, despite being a bit sore, I signed up for another ride in late September, this time 100 miles, the Brighton 100.  After my day of rest today I will be back on my bike training hard.

Love

Wakehurst Place

I'm lucky this month to have a few random days off.  My holiday entitlement at work runs June - June so I had 4 days to use or loose.  Today I used one of them to visit Wakehurst Place with Tom's Mum.

Wakehurst Place is a country estate botanical garden.  It is lovely!  Sarah has been going there for about 30 years with many different people and loves it.  I had heard a lot about it from her, but had never been there.  So when she suggested we go on one of the days I needed to take off I was well up for it.

We began our day in the stately home and adjacent walled garden.  It was just like I used to love reading about - I could imagine a victorian family living there and spending their afternoons walking around their gardens and the lawns of the estate.  Sarah loves flowers and gardening which makes her an excellent guide as she knows the names of all the pretty things.

After the garden we walked along the paths around the outskirts seeing many gorgeous trees.  Luckily it only rained for a short while and was sunny the rest of the day.  The main thing I learnt was to identify a common spotted orchid.

There were many beautiful trees, flowers and lots of ducks.  I really enjoyed spending the day walking around outdoors and looking at everything.  We had a delicious lunch of quiche and salad in the cafe, and after a look around the Millennium seed bank went back for tea and cake.  I was shocked when I looked at the clock when I got back to the car and realised it was already 3pm!  Time does fly when you are having fun.

I definitely recommend Wakehurst Place if you're looking for a brilliant day out.

Love

Best of British

On Saturday Will, one of Shaun's old housemates, invited us to a mini-festival he co-hosted at a friends farm.  It was a wonderful day and we got very lucky with the super hot weather.

To take everyone from Brighton to the farm, Will hired a bus that runs on vegetable oil from a company called The Big Lemon.  They are very popular here in Brighton. After a rushed morning of packing Tom and I met friends and were on our way.  We were looking forward to meeting Freddie, Emma and Mark (friends from Tom's home) there.

When we arrived I was very impressed.  It looked a lot more like a festival than I expected.  They had a stage set up, ping pong, a tea and cakes van, and big bbq and a Lamb Roast!  It was delish!  Only problem was they didn't start the bbq or serve the lamb until 7pm, and all I had had was a bowl of cereal for breakfast.  I was starving, and its not smart to have a few drinks in the afternoon without food.

We had a great time playing in the sun.  Emma and I worked on posters for the colouring competition, but I got bored half way through and didn't enter mine.  The skirt I wore I made!  That is my first creation with my sewing machine.  There are a couple of pics below, I really like the bow in the back.

As the night wore on the bands started to play, unfortunately my camera battery died.  I wasn't impressed with all of the music, some was a lot more shouty than I like.  Better music came on later in the night.

The one really bad part of the night was sleeping.  I hadn't thought to much about this when I was packing.  Luckily I did have warm pajamas.  But no sleeping bags, mats or socks!  So my toes froze!  And the ground was so hard and bumpy.  Plus I went to sleep quite a while before the music stopped so I couldn't sleep for ages.  It was definitely one of the worst nights of sleep I have had ever.  I sound like an old lady saying this, eek.

We did have fun and it was a great event, the epitome of British summer complete with Cath Kidston bunting.  

Love

I Passed!

Friday afternoon I had my practical driving test, take 2.  I was not near as nervous this time.  My test was at half three and I think it was really good it was later.  Last time I had to rush straight from work and I think that made me more stressed.  Instead, this time I got to meet Tom for a lovely picnic at the park in the warm sunshine before my test.

There had been loads of drama in the morning though.  We got back from fashion week late on Thursday and when I went to get the documents I needed for the test I couldn't find them!  I looked everywhere.  I swore I had put them in my bedside table drawer, but they weren't there.  Eventually it was late so I had to just go to bed.  I set my alarm for 6am, and after a fitful nights sleep I was up with the birds.  After another hour of searching I was still out of luck.  No documents Anywhere!  So I showered and got ready for work and was starting to accept the fact that I just wouldn't be able to take my test that day.  Then, luckily Tom saved my life.  He woke up and asked if I'd taken the drawer out and looked behind it.  You see it was a very messy drawer for a couple of weeks until just a few days before.  Two seconds later I could see my documents!  I was sooo happy!  If I hadn't taken it or if I had failed it would have been disastrous because my theory (written) test was about to expire so I would have had to start everything all over again.  And it's expensive to get a license over here!

I met my driving instructor and hour early to warm up and get in the right mode for the test.  I felt relaxed and positive.  My heart sank a little when the guy giving my test came out, and was the same one who failed me the first time!   I had feared this would happen.  But I didn't let it get to me and just tried chatting  to him and being as nice as possible.  As my test began I was asked the same 2 questions I got on my first test and was beginning to think my entire test would be the same.  It wasn't though.

I stayed calm and relaxed the entire time, driving along just as I should.  There were a couple of times I worried I had messed up.  The first was during my maneuver (you get tested on one of four maneuvers) when a car had to wait for me to finish.  I knew if you stopped traffic its an automatic fail.  Luckily I was fine because I had already started the maneuver before they had to stop.  Part of the test is a 10 min independent drive where they tell you to drive to a certain location and you have to pay attention and follow the signs.  Well a motorcycle came really close on my back right corner so I was watching him closely making sure the test man know I was aware of him and being safe, but I missed a sign.  The test man had to tell me which way to go and I feared I would get marked down for that.  Luckily I didn't.

I passed with only 3 minors.  In England you can get up to 16 minors.  So I did pretty well.  I was so happy when the man said I passed!  I didn't realise how stressful this actually was until I was done and felt that a weight had been lifted.  I felt proud of myself too.

Zoom, zoom, zoom

Love

Brighton Fashion Week

This week since returning from Ireland has been incredibly busy!  Brighton Fashion Week was here.  I went on both Thursday and Friday.

Thursday:  Thursday night was the Theatrical Frocks Show.  My fashion designer friend Joy Williams showed her latest collection on this night.  She showed last year as well and amazed everyone.  This year they kept asking her to come back but its so expensive to show and she just couldn't afford it.  Eventually they called and told her they were sponsoring her because they really wanted her there.  How amazing is that!  She designs in latex and is very impressive.  She works in latex because she found a gap in the market and got a break in this area during uni.  She would love to work with fabric, but is doing very well experimenting with texturing latex.  To her latex is just another medium to design in, she really just loves fashion.

The night was entertaining. Tom and his friends actually came along to see Joy as well.  I was a bit surprised that he was interested in coming, I would have never imagined Tom at a fashion show.  But when Joy's boyfriend invited him he thought it sounded like fun.

I think Joy definitely stood out as one of the top.  Although, she was devastated and disappointed because three of the models ripped her clothes as they were dressing!  So only 8 of her outfits went out.    A couple of the designers I wasn't impressed with at all.  But it was a very enjoyable night, and fun that we were there supporting one of the designers.

Friday: The Couture Show.  Wow, Friday was impressive!  Unlike Thursday, there was not one designer I thought wasn't great.  The standard had definitely been raised, and you could tell the models were even more slim and trim.  I loved the first collection that went out, it was like a modern take on victorian clothes with huge neck collars the dresses hung down from.  

One designers collection was called Road Kill.  She used road kill to create amazing looking fur pieces.  You would never imagine the clothes came from animals she found on the side of the road.

I went on Friday with my friend Katie who I used to work with.  We had a great time.  A few drinks with my old work people before the show (although the majority of people there were too new for me to know) and then a great time watching the stunning fashion.

A wonderful two nights, I can't wait to go back next year!

Love