Summer is Here!

Well, summer is finally here. I know you are thinking that its July, nearly August, so I must be a bit slow. The thing is when you work with teenagers and have a middle-school aged stepchild, summer is defined by when school is out.

I can honestly say that English summer totally sucks. The past 24 hours my friends and I have been trying to arrange one weekend over the "summer" when we can go camping together. Here is the problem, instead of three luxurious months off like American kids, British kids get six weeks and actually for some students this year its only 5 1/2 weeks. When you sit down and look at it, it fills up incredibly quickly.

Leeimi finished school on Friday so we we are planning to do lots with her over her 6 weeks off. First of all Jason and I booked a holiday to Blackpool with her, our first family vacation together and something I'm really excited about.

Let me pause for a moment because Max just let out a fart so smelly that he must need to go outside and do his business and exiting the premises for a few minutes should allow me some time to breathe and air out the flat.

Back, I hate interrupting my writing. I tend to over-think things when its not "stream of consciousness" and I'm never happy with any writing of mine that is over-thought. Back to planning out my six week summer.

First of all, during the six weeks holidays Red Dreams is really ramping up its programs while the kids are off school. I am getting involved in a show choir. We aren't quite sure yet how many kids we will get interested, but we are hoping with the success of Glee it will attract lots of kids and we will have a good sized show choir. I'm really looking forward to it, although it is a bigger time commitment, another three hours a week on Thursdays for the next six weeks. Other than that, here is my summer schedule so far.

Next weekend: relax before the madness

August 6-11: The Tall Ships come to Hartlepool! This will be both an amazing experience and a headache at the same time. I'm trying to stay positive but the idea of tens of thousands of people swarming my "front yard" for 4 days makes me panic a little bit.

August 13-15: Blackpool! Not sure what attractions/events we're going to go to yet, but we've got the hotel booked and I'm researching some stuff to do. Blackpool is like a seaside resort with a big amusement park as well, think Cedar Point and Atlantic City rolled into one.

August 21-22: Red Dreams Pitch Invasion, this is Red Dreams' own musical festival. I'd love to attend if I can, especially since I've been helping one of my students plan her acoustic set for the past few weeks. They have been my favorite lessons, she comes in with her guitar and we brainstorm ideas for her set and she tries things out and cares what I think.

For now that is all I have planned, but there is quite a bit of stuff I want to cram in between it all, including *hopefully* a camping trip.

This past week has been interesting to say the least. Last week while I was watching a favorite show of mine, Question Time on BBC One, they mentioned that the following week they would be in Hartlepool. Question Time is a town hall style political debate show, they travel around the country and each week in a different city/town they assemble a different panel of 5 politicians that come on and the audience made of local people gets the opportunity to set the questions and challenge the politicians. Its a great show and I love it so I decided to apply to be in the audience in Hartlepool and was invited to come be a part of it. The experience turned into much more than I had expected, and my brief appearance (in front of a national audience of millions of people) became one of the highlights of the show (this is what people tell me, I'm not tooting my own horn here).

I'm writing more about it later this week in my Anglotopia post so be sure to check it out on Wednesday and get the full story.

As for this blog, I've had a few ideas about it. One idea is to dedicate more time to it (oh joy!) I'm thinking every other Sunday is a good target. Sunday nights are probably the slowest for me so I think that will work. I'm also toying with the idea of making the move over to Word Press. I use Word Press for my posting on Anglotopia and I love it, and I'm especially getting sick of all the Spam comments here on Blogger. Word Press does a better job of filtering this stuff out. I think I get about two messages a day to approve comments, and they are all gibberish in Chinese characters and its really getting on my nerves and makes me think much less of Google and Blogger in general that it doesn't have the capabilities to filter out these blatantly Spammy comments. Unless of course my blog has become wildly popular in China and my Chinese fans are writing back to me in their native tongue. Doubtful, so I'm going to chalk it up to a giant Google fail. Sorry Google, I'm sure you're crying your eyes out over this and wiping your tears with $100 bills.

I'll let you know if I'm going to go the Word Press direction, but it does seem like something I would do doesn't it. I mean, I did switch to a Mac and an iPhone, so it would only make sense that Google should go the way of the PC.

Hello Again!

Wow, its been a long time since I have posted. Sorry, I've cut down on all of my blogging over the past month. I've reduced my Anglotopia posts to every other week and this blog kind of when I have something to say. I keep myself pretty busy, with about 15-20 hours a week at the radio station and about 10 hours a week at Red Dreams. Yes I know that still doesn't add up to a full time job, but its all spread out over the week so along with choir practice on Monday and Tuesday it ends up that the only evening I have free is Wednesday and the only morning I have free is Sunday. It's nice to stay busy!

The big news to share is that yesterday I passed my Life in the UK test! I had to pass the test in order to  apply for permanent settlement. It is similar to the test immigrants to the US have to take to become a citizen, and the test is the same for both settlement and citizenship. The test required lots of studying on a wide range of information from census statistics to the UK government and also culture and religion. It was only 24 questions and after weeks of studying it took me less than 10 minutes to complete the test. Now that I'm done I just need to fill out the application, pay the fee and send in all the necessary documents and wait for my visa to arrive, this one with no expiration date!

Vocal Coaching

Lately I've been keeping really busy, through my volunteering at Radio Hartlepool I was introduced to a local charity geared at giving teens an opportunity to express themselves through music and creativity. Red Dreams charity was started by Dawn and Ian McManus after their 16-year-old son tragically died in 2007. He was a musician and poet and his creativity inspired them to start Red Dreams in his honor to give local teens an outlet for their creativity. They also have a recording studio on site so all the kids who come in have the opportunity to make their own recordings, and they can also help bands and singer/songwriters create demo recordings.

Red Dreams mentors bands, singer/songwriters, aspiring recording artists and kids interested in theatre and other creative arts. They needed some new vocal coaches so I put myself forward to come on board and join the team at Red Dreams.

I started a few weeks ago with just two students, and now I've got 8! They are all teens between the ages of 14-17 and have a wide range of talents and abilities, but I really love teaching them and watching them learn and grow. They work mostly on pop songs, whatever artists they are interested in at the time, and when they have finished working on a song they get to record it and sometimes even have it played on Radio Hartlepool during Red Dreams weekly slot on Tuesday during the Morning Show.

Vocal coaching is really rewarding for me, especially in this environment where the kids are just there to have fun and gain some confidence. Working with teenagers is definitely challenging but Red Dreams is a place they all feel like themselves and its such an amazing place for them to come to.

I'm really enjoying my volunteering with Red Dreams, I'll keep you posted on the progress of my students and post any links to recordings if they get posted up anywhere on the internet.

Happy Adoptiversary Max!

Nearly a year ago on May 1st 2009, Jason and I drove to the Dogs Trust center in nearby Sadberge hoping we would be returning home with Max, a 2-year-old crossbreed who came to the Dogs Trust shelter as a stray. I still remember the feeling as we drove there hoping to pick him up. Over the couple weeks that we met with the staff at Dogs Trust and went through to process of applying to adopt Max I never allowed myself to get attached to the idea that we were taking him home. I didn't want to get my hopes up and risk having them crushed if something went wrong and we couldn't adopt him. The night before we were scheduled to go pick him up we went to the pet store to buy him some bowls, toys, a leash and some dog shampoo as he was still filthy from the time he spent as a stray. However, I wouldn't even let Jason take any of the tags off the new toys or packaging off the leash until the ink was dry on the adoption papers and I was sure we were bringing Max home.

It is a bit pathetic to say, and Jason still makes fun of me for this, but that day as soon as we had Max in the car and were pulling away from Dogs Trust I began to cry. It was a cathartic moment, he was our perfect dog and he was coming home with us. After a couple weeks of suppressing my emotions and trying not to get attached to Max I finally embraced the feeling that we were about to embark on a journey that would change both our lives and Max's for the better.

The first thing on the agenda (after a bath of course) was to fatten him up. When we brought Max home he was barely 40 lbs and so skinny that his ribs were clearly visible.

This was the first night we brought him home. Soooooo skinny! I can't believe how lean he was, especially his legs and chest!

Today Max weighs a bit over 50 lbs and our vet says he is at his ideal weight. As he gained weight we saw him transform into a completely different dog.

Comparing these recent photos with the photos above you can see how he has filled out in the chest and legs and no longer has ribs poking out!

Oops, someone forgot to tell Max he's no longer the dainty dog we brought home a year ago!

Early on we also learned a very important lesson, Max was going to require more than your run of the mill toys. He was on a mission to destroy every toy we gave him. Luckily he focused his energy on the toys and never on our furniture or belongings.

He was able to gut this stuffed penguin in a matter of seconds.

We had to opt for only tough rubber toys, and his favorite is his yellow ball which you see in nearly every photo of him on the beach! That is no tennis ball (he can easily shred those in just one trip to the beach) this is a solid rubber ball and the best £6 we ever spent since it seems virtually indestructible.

If you have been reading my blog for the past year, you probably feel like you know Max. He has a very unique personality and he endears himself to all he meets. 

He also has some peculiar sleeping positions. Like this one...

... and this one...

Yes, it seems wherever Max goes a bit of comedy seems to follow

Furry, fast and funny but above all Max's favorite thing is to be close to us.

Happy Adoptiversary Max!

Over this past year you have made our best moments even better and our worst moments bearable. You know when it is time to play and when I need a snuggle and kisses. You have brought so much energy, laughter and love to our home.

Kitchen Remodel = DONE!!!

Wow, this has been such a big project and I am amazed with the results. Here are some before and after photos.

I didn't take a ton of "before" pictures but here is one photo I took while Leeimi was helping us paint. You can see the old cabinets and the old blue walls. I love blue, and actually the paint color we chose "frosted steel" is slightly blue but the old blue was just a bit too much. The old cabinets were a really cheap vinyl covered chipboard and they showed every finger print and the finger prints were impossible to wipe off.

Ta da!!! I love the new color and the cabinets make such a difference. We also removed a cabinet that was to the left of the oven on its own, it kind of got in the way and made the wall a bit closed off. I think it looks so much better without that cabinet and since we gained another shelf on each of the overhead cabinets we made up the space there.

Here you can see the new cabinet doors on the left, and one of the old doors on the right. They didn't even have nice handles, just these plastic slats across the top to pull out.

The old drawers and base unit doors, and that shade of blue

The same area shown above with the new drawers and cabinet doors!

The new doors weren't going to fit our old cabinets because the old cabinets were much shorter, so we bought new wall units and installed them ourselves. 

Here is a closeup of the new wall units. The area on the far right of the photo is where there used to be a single cabinet, I think it flows much better without it there.

I also got some new canisters for the counter, I wanted something with a bit of color but nothing too bold or modern. I love these little crocks with their green lids!

We had an empty wall so we decided to put in some shelves to create a bit more storage. Its a great place to display my nice wooden salad bowls and to keep pasta, flour, sugar, olive oil and of course a candy jar and Max's cookie tin there on the bottom shelf.

I am so thrilled with how this turned out and even more proud that we did all of the work ourselves. It was kind of an intimidating project but we learned a lot and feel like DIY experts now!

East Candy Gripe

I love Easter candy, especially Starburst Jelly Beans, marshmallow Peeps and most importantly Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs.

Here, Easter candy is all chocolate. Instead of Easter baskets, kids get Easter eggs from friends and relatives which are big hollow chocolate eggs that usually come with a piece of candy in the box. They come in a ridiculous amount of packaging that is twice the size of the actual chocolate egg. Usually they have a couple pieces of candy or a little toy or prize in the box as well. I think they are a bit ridiculous. I could never eat that much chocolate.

This is representative of typical Easter candy in the UK. The large boxes are the Easter Eggs, then there are of course Cadbury Creme Eggs and Cadbury Mini Eggs. I can eat maybe one creme egg, and I'm definitely a fan of the mini eggs (you can get the creme eggs and mini eggs in the US) but every supermarket in the UK has at least one entire aisle stacked floor to ceiling with boxes upon boxes of various Easter Eggs from all the major candy companies. There are Mars bar eggs, KitKat eggs and Cadbury's makes several different kinds but the big eggs themselves are pretty much all the same, just a milk chocolate shell. The only thing that changes is the extra little pieces of candy that come in the box or little toys and trinkets. At least they are cheap, right now ASDA is selling most of their Easter Eggs for £1 each.

I am really missing American Easter candy this year, I really should have had someone ship me over some Starburst Jelly Beans, Peeps and Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs. I miss the vast variety of chocolatey and fruity candy available at Easter time in the US. 

Home Improvement

This past week Jason and I have been very busy with a big home improvement project. It was an ideal place to make major changes. This little "nook" that we have at the front of our flat is the first thing you see when you walk into the flat. Since the windows look out to sea it is the first thing that everyone looks to when they walk in our front room. This started out as a plan just to tear up the carpet and refinish the wood floor underneath, but it ended up turning into much more...

Phase 1: After tearing up the carpet Jason sanded down the floorboards. I had a moment of panic when the carpet first came up and the floorboards were dull and black with age and had large paint can rings all over. I couldn't have been more impressed with how beautifully they came up!

Phase 2: Painting the walls. This was not part of the original plan, we had only planned on refinishing the floor but then we figured as long as we have the area cleared why not paint as well? The new coat of paint makes this really look like two separate rooms instead of one room with a little nook. The darker shade instantly made the space look much bigger and created a sense of depth. The color is "cookie dough" although I think it looks like chocolate milk

Phase 3: Varnishing the floors. We bought a "yacht varnish" from a local hardware store. It was much cheaper than other varnishes made especially for floors, but I was really impressed with the results. It did take a long time to dry between coats, but I can't imagine that spending extra money would have yielded an incrementally better result. I am so happy with the way the floors turned out!

Phase 4: Finishing touches. The finishing touches were definitely not part of the plan when we set out to refinish the floors but as long as we had to take down the old curtains in order to paint the walls (home improvement is addictive) it seemed like a bit of shame to put the bland dusty old curtains back up. I knew exactly what I wanted and scoured all the stores looking for my vision until I found it. I love the chocolate brown with lime green accents and I think it gives the area its own unique look but also complements the red accents we have in the adjoining living room area. I bought the new rug a couple weeks ago and it goes great with the new curtains.

Jason also had an idea to get a bookcase to put in the room. (He will probably not be too happy that I revealed that he did have some creative input, he would have you believe that I did all the designing and he did all the labor.) I've got books and little decorative things stashed all over the house and I thought it was a great idea. We got the bookcase for quite cheap and had to assemble it ourselves (which you may remember is something I actually quite enjoy) and it fit perfectly in the space and is a great little display area as well as a practical storage solution. I love when form and function come together! To put a cherry on top I got a couple little lime green decorative pieces to put on the shelves and I think they give the whole project a catalog finish!

Last night we had our first dinner in the new improved space! I made Jason a special meal of penne pasta with a roasted vegetable puree sauce to reward him for all the hard work and elbow grease he has put into the project. I feel really confident about our upcoming kitchen remodel after seeing the results of this project and how well Jason rose to challenge.

It has always been my favorite place in the flat since I can sit there and tinker away on my laptop while watching the waves and the people walking along the coast, but now its just as beautiful a view inside as it is outside! I'm beyond thrilled with how it turned out, and even more happy with how cheap the project ended up being.