Coves d'Arta

Getting a bit behind on my holiday blog because we are being kept very busy by our host. Which means we are seeing and enjoying a lot that this island has to offer. On Tuesday morning we taken to the east side of the island to the Coves d'Arta, which are 150m above sea level. It started as slightly over cast in the morning, but the sun was trying to come through by the time we reached our destination. We bought our tickets, but had just missed a tour so we had to sit outside for about 20 - 1/2 hour for the next tour. We took this time to write out some postcards, read the free guide book and just soak up the atmosphere. The the bell rang and the tour was about to begin. We were taken into the entrance of the caves and introduced to our guide. He asked what language people spoke of which there was Spanish, German, French and of course English. So he introduced himself and the caves in 4 different languages. The rest of the tour was also always translated into the 4 languages. Each time seeming to get a shorter and shorter translation by the time it came to the English. We were told that the caves are limestone and then had the difference about stalactite (forming from the ceiling down) and stalagmite (forming from the ground up). Some of the highlights from the caves is the "Queen of Columns" which is 22m tall and doesn't quiet yet reach the roof. The remaining few centimeter to the ceiling may take another thousand year to complete. The was another area where they played music and did a light show on the rock with red and green coloured lights. Another impressive sight was the "Room of Flags" where there are two very large, flat crystallization hanging from the wall. Also in the "room" are "The Bells". The Bells are a group of columns that when struck make very different yet harmonious resenting sounds. When you leave the caves you are greeted by a wonderful view of the bay area and the blue sky against the turquoise sea.

After our tour we headed over to the Bay of Alcudia to a place called "Colonia de Saint Pere" for lunch. It was a quiet idyllic little village with an amazing view of the bay. We nibbled on olives, bread, aioli, another tomato based dip. Then we shard a tomato and goat cheese salad. For our main course I had chicken in cream sauce and Peter had loin of pork with pepper sauce. When we first sat down we could just about make out the Alcudia across the bay, but as time went by the town was slowly engulfed in grey clouds. Then just as we finished our main course it started to rain. We retreated inside for coffee and to watch the torrents of rain come down. After a mad dash back to the car, it was back to base for the rest of the day. The afternoon was spent read, relaxing and sleeping. While the evening was spent talking, laughing and enjoying our host company. Then it was early to bed to be fresh for our big day on Wednesday.

Lazy Sunday!

After not much sleep Friday night, as we had to leave for the airport at 4:30am, we decided to have a relaxing day on Sunday. After a late breakfast of fruit (one of which was a flat or donut peach), pastries and coffee we headed out to the pool. We enjoyed the garden (especially the passionflowers pictured below) and read by the pool as the day warmed up, but it was still cooler than the day before. Peter did go in for a swim, but I only managed to get in up to my waist, as the water was just too cold for me. A friend of our hosts was coming over for lunch, so we had a lovely meal set out for us. We had slow roasted Mallora lamb served with mashed potato crushed with olive oil (no butter) nutmeg, mace and black pepper and green beans cooked in olive oil with onion and tomato. At this point the weather changed and grey clouds rolled in and not soon after we sat down to eat a thunderstorm started (see video below). Then after lunch the men chatted, while I retired for a "siesta" and the our host dozed in front of the telly. A very relaxing day in deed!

Gourmet Burger Kitchen

Well today is my birthday and also my last day to have our fourth meal out. This time I decided to go out for lunch, as it's back to work tomorrow I didn't want to have a late night out. So we headed over to Beckenham to the Gourmet Burger Kitchen. We got there and it was very quiet. Only one other table was occupied. We found a nice little corner booth and perused the menu. We first ordered a couple of shakes. I had an oreo and Peter had a banana. Then we made our order, a Buffalo burger for Peter and I got a Greek Lamb with houmus, tzatziki and a tomato relish. We also ordered a portion of chips to share. The burgers came they they were so huge, you couldn't get your mouth around them. I opted to not eat the big white bun and use a knife and fork for the rest. Where as Peter ate his in layers from the top down.

After lunch we went around to the in-laws who were baby sitting my neices. They had taken them up into town and had brought back some Cin-a-bons. They put in some candles in the buns, sung me Happy Birthday and my neices helped me blow out my candles.

This brought an end to my four meals for each decades. Peter asked me which meal represented which decades. So I thought about it and came up with this order. I think the brunch would represent my first decade. As it was made up of eggs, which is the beggining of life. Then the Gourmet burger was my teen years. The picnic would be my 20's because during most of this time in my life I lived by the lakeshore. That would leave the Tapas to represent the last 10 years of my life. I think this is good because in the last 10 years I've moved to England and visited European countires.

I hope that you have all enjoyed reading all my adventures for my 40th birthday.

Picnic in the Park

RIMG0008b, originally uploaded by Bio-hazar.

Sunday saw another beautiful day of sunshine, so we made plans to meet some friends at Danton park for a picnic. After church we picked up a few things from home and then headed to the park to meet our friends. We got there just on time, but our friends who live closer to the park and have been before got lost and was late. LOL

We found a nice bit in the park under some trees and set up for the day. We had some lunch and then played a bit of cricket. We split up into teams and played an over each player. In the end we ended up in a draw. Almost like proper cricket! Then the kids ran around for a bit, played on the monkey bars and kicked around the football for awhile. While the adults had a lazy day sitting in the shade and having a nice chat catching up. We spent the whole afternoon in the park. Then after our friends to take the kids home for a good bath, Peter and I took a nice walk down though the park, by the manor house and along the boating lake. Where we saw lots of different ducks, Coots, Geese, Mute Swan. We also saw lots of baby ducks as well. It was a nice way to finish off the day. I think I got a bit of sun though, as when we got home I felt very wiped out, but didn't do anything all day so it must have been the heat.

Stash Shopping

Just a quick blog today. I'm feeling a lot better now, and am back to work. So that means a little less time to do crafts. That doesn't mean that I stop thinking about crafts though. I went out on my lunch break today and popped into Poundland. I didn't mean to buy any more Christmas stash for my cards this year. However, I saw these and couldn't resist. I usually don't like the craft items in Poundland, but was impressed with the quality of how these looked. There were a few other designs but I decided to just get these five. Now all I need to do is get making some more cards!

Another Day Another BBQ

Well Yvonne's visit is having a great effect on the weather here. Today was yet again another hot sunny day. After church we were invited around out our friend for another BBQ. We had some lovely marianded pork, beef sausages ( a first for Yvonne), salad, and the garlic and onions we bought at bourgh market the day before. We sat out in there lovely garden and enjoyed some nice wine and fine company. We had a nice relaxing afternoon just watching the planes fly over head and the next door cat chase the flies. It was a great way to spend a lazy sunday afternoon. A big thank you to Wulf and Jane!

She's Arrived!

How exciting! My sister has arrived for her first trip to England. She was in Germany for the last two weeks, so popped over for a brief visit this week. Today we started the day early and headed down to the South Bank for our pre-booked trip on the London Eye. We managed to get there early enough to get on the the first flight of the day. It was such a beautiful sunny clear morning, so we got some good views. By the time we got off the Eye was before our flight was even pre-booked for. So with so much time on our hands we decided to head over to Borough Market. In all the years of living in London I had never been. Boy, was I missing out! It is such a lively vibrate place with so much wonderful food on display. We had to be very restraint an only bought a few things, like garlic marinated in chili and olive oil, balsamic onions, Burt Sugar hot ginger fudge, strawberry cream tart (for me), Baileys chocolate cheesecake (for Peter) and Yvonne got her a slice of banoffee pie to try.

After a short detour home, we headed over to my sister-in-laws for a belated Canada Day BBQ. Only 25 days late, but the weather was great and the company even better. Had a great time playing with the nieces. They put on a circus for us and did several dance routines. Then surprised me with a special Canada Bush, which was a bush in there back garden that they stuck Canadian flags in. Lots of great sausages and burgers were BBQ and served with fresh rolls, salads, crisps and dips. Yvonne had her first taste of Pimms and enjoyed that too.

In the evening we popped over to PPPs for a quick stopped that ended up being not so quick and had a nice chat drinking iced water and sitting in front of the fan. Then explored the garden in the evening breeze to check on the frogs in the pond. Tonight I think it will be an early night and who knows what tomorrow might bring.

Day 3 - Isle of White

Sorry that this post is so late. We didn't get to another internet connection while on the Isle. We are now home safe, but would still like to make a few post about our hoilday. On our third day on the Isle was a very wet one, so we decided to find some indoor activities. So we went to a place called Dinasour Isle. I had seen it advertised on the web before we went and thought it looks good. They had lots of fossiles there which had been found on the Isle and some hands on activites for youngesters. Thorton the bear even had a go at brushing sand off some old bones. In the main area they had quiet a few models of dinasours and a couple of animacronic ones as well.

After Dinasour Isle we were looking for some where to have lunch. We found a leaflet for the Old Thatched Tearoom, so we made our way to a place called Shanklin Old Village. It was a quaint little area with lots of little thatched shops. After lunch and a little shoping we decided to go hunting windmills and found the last standing windmill on the Isle. Unfortunally it was closed, so we didn't get to look inside, but had a nice short walk around as it was still raining.

On the way home we desided to follow the coast road and stop off at the life boat station. It was still raining but we managed to get a few photo of the coast.

Bright Kazel Kraft Card

Bright Kazel Kraft Card, originally uploaded by Bio-hazar.

Yesterday I had a wonderful day out despite the down pour of rain. I took my in-law to the Craft Barn in Surrey and they let me pick out a few things for my up coming birthday present. I got some of the new Nick Bantock Inks, some Glimmer Mist and a couple of new stamps. Then we went out for a nice pub lunch at a place called the Old Cage, which use to be the town jail. I enjoyed a nice "Curry Buger" followed by a naughty chocolate cake with chocoate sauce. YUM!

When I got home I desided to have a play with my new inks and came up with this card done for a friend up coming birhtday. It was done using my new Nick Bantock inks and Tim Holtz wax batik technique. Stamp used is from Kazel Kraft again as I'm really enjoying these new stamps. Papers are Bill Hill Create papers and ribbon is K&Co paper ribbon. Added embellishments of a bird brad and buttons were used.

Fajitas, Friends and Faith

Just came back from lunch at a friends house. We had a great lunch of chicken fajitas served with cheese, sour cream, guacamole, and salsa. Followed by lots of little cheese cakes, mini meringues and tiramisu. It was lovely to be there as it had been a long time since we had got together. There four wonderful kids are all growing up so fast. They were lovely to play with, although very exhausting! As soon as you lift one of them up to try to touch the ceiling, they all want a go. After a couple of round each, I just couldn't lift them anymore. While there we meet another friend of theirs who was picking Peter's brain about building web pages, web hosting and domains. As the friends is a Paster planting a new church in the area, we were often diverted in our conversation. All in all it was a great day for Fajitas, Friends and Faith.

The Bead Shop

The Bead Shop Window, originally uploaded by Bio-hazar.

Long time no blog! I seem to be very behind this week in updating my blog. This might be because I've not really done any crafts this week. My one day when I usually get to do crafts is Wednesday, but this Wednesday I took a friend of a friend up to London. I meet Kelly through a friend at church. She and her family are over from America for a few months but head back soon. I meet Kelly and her daughter at Lewisham Station and we traveled up into London together. While there we visited three very different bead shops. First one was called "The Bead Shop", then we visited "The London Bead Company". Finally we popped into "Aura Beads" in Neal's Yard. Then we enjoyed a lovely lunch at the "Cafe Eterno" which is run by the London City Mission.

The above photo is from the window of the "The Bead Shop" and below is some photo's taken at Neal's Yard.

Mothering Sunday

Just For Mum, originally uploaded by Bio-hazar.

I'm a couple of days late posting this, but this is the card I made for my Mother-in-law for Mothering Sunday. I haven't made my mother one yet, because Canada doesn't celebrate Mother's Day till second Sunday in May.

We decided we would take my MIL out for lunch after church. We went to our first choice only to find a 45 min wait. So it was decided that we would try someplace else. We drove around in very bad traffic trying to find somewhere that still had room on Mother's Day when we hadn't booked a table. We ended up at one of my MILs favourite restaurants in Black Heath called Cafe Uno. We had a lovely appraisers of goats cheese on toasted crusty bread. My Father in Law and I had thin crust Italian pizza's, Peter had steak and my MIL had mushroom crepes. It was a lovely meal and even better that we used MILs loyalty card and got 15% off our meal!

The card was made using my new Cuttlebug "Build-a-Flower" cut and emboss die system. That I just received from the US the day before. I coloured the petals with Ranger Paint Dabbers and put the flower together with a crystal brad. Background paper is We R Memory Keepers Urban Window Collection. The ribbon is Die Cut With a View self adhesive ribbon. The text was done using Rubbadubbadoo Stick 'n Stamp magnetic range and the scroll is my new Basic Grey Two Scoops Swirlie stamps.

Thanks for looking :)