~Off Topic Thread~

[redkitty 0]

It was so gorgeous and sunny in Bristol again today, and supposed to be the same tomorrow! But later in the week it will return to our usual shade of grey... And all the daffies are coming up early!

[Alex & Rachel 78]

the hint with midges is eat stuff with yeast in it (real beer, marmite, doughy bread) around 24 hours before...you sweat it out through skin pores and midges hate it. Although you can't smell it they can and they will leave you alone. I also spray all my clothes with citronella.

Useful to know! Thanks

lemme know when you get acquainted with chiggers in the usa

Ouch, that's the only thing I don't like about the US! I'm leaving what must be one of the safest countries in the world (no proper hurricanes, no tsunamis, few damaging earthquakes or tornadoes, only one poisonous creature, no giant spiders, no rabies, etc.) for a state that has poison oak and black widows and a huge fault line running straight through! Oh well, California also has humming-birds, and I love humming-birds, so it's not all bad.

Daffodils and snowbells a-plenty here, too! I'm hoping that maybe when I visit my parents in March the bluebells will be out; they flowered early last year, and my parents live very close to some fabulous bluebell woods.

[j4k 0]

morning! i'm staying home today...don't want to deal with that icy mess! we got about 6 inches of snow and now the freezing rain is coming down on top of it. yuck.

we have humming birds here too...when it's warm enough! my mom always had a humming bird feeder.

[Ban Hammer 13,340]

the hint with midges is eat stuff with yeast in it (real beer, marmite, doughy bread) around 24 hours before...you sweat it out through skin pores and midges hate it. Although you can't smell it they can and they will leave you alone. I also spray all my clothes with citronella.

Useful to know! Thanks

lemme know when you get acquainted with chiggers in the usa

Ouch, that's the only thing I don't like about the US! I'm leaving what must be one of the safest countries in the world (no proper hurricanes, no tsunamis, few damaging earthquakes or tornadoes, only one poisonous creature, no giant spiders, no rabies, etc.) for a state that has poison oak and black widows and a huge fault line running straight through! Oh well, California also has humming-birds, and I love humming-birds, so it's not all bad.

Daffodils and snowbells a-plenty here, too! I'm hoping that maybe when I visit my parents in March the bluebells will be out; they flowered early last year, and my parents live very close to some fabulous bluebell woods.

oh you are going to cali they have tornados there too. along with poisionous snakes, spiders, and so on

good morning uk

[bakofoil 27]

oh you are going to cali they have tornados there too. along with poisionous snakes, spiders, and so on

good morning uk

How comforting of you! Good morning

[weedebz 0]

i'm leaving the gorgeous hills, mountains, glens, lochs and rugged coastlines of Scotland all gently covered with heather and dotted with sheep...

... I'm going to the utter flatness, cornfields, cows and no coastline of Nebraska. Freezing winters, roasting summers and tornados in between.

the things we do for love!!!

[mustang-sally 8]

Debz

Im leaving the mild East of England, with its beaches and green green countryside, winter temperatures hardy ever below freezing. We are in a niche, we miss the snow and bad weather 80% of the time although we do get the winds off the North Sea that lead to cooler summers too. We don't seem to have seasons here anymore, one just runs into the next. The birds have started nesting a few weeks ago and the spring bulbs started coming up about a month ago.

I'm going to Wisconsin where the winters can be -35C and the summers in the 40's. I love the people, the life, ect. The weather does worry me some though, I havent seen snow in over 2 years here!!!

Yes, the things we do for love

[Alex & Rachel 78]

I'm a cold-blooded person who loves to bask in the sun, so I'm actually pretty happy to be moving to California. I have visited at the height of summer so I know how hot it can get, but to be fair I've not actually worked in such hot weather, and I know living in a hot climate can be very different from holidaying in one.

Still, if I go in autumn I'll have a very enjoyable warm, sunny winter and spring before I start complaining about how I'm meeeeeelting.

It's actually rather worrying how the UK doesn't really have seasons any more. I swear that as a child in the 80s phrases such as 'April showers' still held true. Now anything seems to go!

[Krikit 1,164]

I'm a cold-blooded person who loves to bask in the sun, so I'm actually pretty happy to be moving to California. I have visited at the height of summer so I know how hot it can get, but to be fair I've not actually worked in such hot weather, and I know living in a hot climate can be very different from holidaying in one.

Long before I met my husband, everyone used to tell me I needed to move to a warmer climate because I was always cold. It's funny the paths that life takes you down. My husband was transferred to Florida two years after we met. And I can tell you.... living in a hot climate ROCKS!!!!

[Ban Hammer 13,340]

i'm leaving the gorgeous hills, mountains, glens, lochs and rugged coastlines of Scotland all gently covered with heather and dotted with sheep...

... I'm going to the utter flatness, cornfields, cows and no coastline of Nebraska. Freezing winters, roasting summers and tornados in between.

the things we do for love!!!

oh sounds like nebraska. brown recluses, black widows, rattlesnakes....

eta: and chiggers!

Edited February 13, 2008 by charlesandnessa

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

I'm suffering through my first "real" winter since 1994/95 -- oh my god, is that really true? -- and I can't believe I managed to even like New England winters as a kid. Yesterday about 2 or 3 inches of snow came down; overnight it changed to rain, which is now pounding down unabated and turning everything into deep puddles of slush.

But life goes on as normal despite the snow/slush/rain, in a way that would totally incapactitate London. I remember my very first job in London, which was at what eventually became Edexcel, the people who set the GCSEs, A-Levels, BTECs etc. I did a little light filing but mostly I packed exams into boxes, applied shipping labels and brought the boxes to the mailroom. It ranks in the top three cr*p jobs I have ever held, mostly because I used to be made fun of by the guys in the mailroom who took umbrage with my American accent and tried to look up my skirt. I spent a lot of time crying in various bathrooms.

Anyway, I digress. One February night, there was some snow. I mean, about an inch, if that much. Since I grew up in Connecticut, I just pulled on my boots and trudged my way up the hill from my bedsit to the Finchley Road tube. When I got to work, about two-thirds of the staff was AWOL. My supervisor (just about the only person I could stand) came bustling up to me, saying "I can't believe you made it in! You clever, clever girl!" I asked why the office was so empty, and why it was such a big deal I made it all the way from Swiss Cottage to Russell Square.

"All that snow... so treacherous. No wonder so many people couldn't make it in."

I saw this scene repeated again and again -- a dusting stopped the trains and snarled the roads. The only time I ever saw more than 2 inches on the ground -- and saw it stick -- must have been Christmas 1999 or 2001 (memory a bit fuzzy) in Suffolk, when about 6 inches came down. Other than that, infinitesimal. But you would have thought the Apocalypse had arrived every time the flakes came down.

[j4k 0]

sounds like when i lived in the south.

[Alex & Rachel 78]

Hmm...I'm not really sure what to think about this:

I broke up with my ex a week before I started dating Alex, so I expected there to be some resentment, but after a couple of months we started to meet up again as friends and he seemed fine. This was back in June 2006 and since then I've seen him maybe once a month, we'd meet up for a chat and a film.

Anyway, all seemed fine until December, when I was 'officially' engaged. My ex said congratulations, etc., and continued to chat to me, but then I found a blog entry (on his website, and also linked through facebook, so I was hardly snooping) talking about our relationship, and how much he blamed me, and he sounded really bitter. I thought it a bit sad that he hasn't been able to move on after 1 1/2 years but decided that I was better off ignoring it.

After I came back from California we met up again last month for a cinema trip and he seemed very amiable and I lent him a few DS games as I promised (my favourite games, too - just wanted to share )

After that trip...nothing. He wasn't online for a week afterwards (I could usually find him on AIM every day when I was at work). I stopped signing into AIM at work after a while because I only used to sign in to chat to him in the first place.

Now today, I was idly checking facebook and he's..de-friended me. I've also been blocked on skype/AIM (or I presume I've been blocked, skype suddenly said 'no contact details have been shared with you.' Um, harsh! He hasn't de-friended any of my friends (who are also on his friends list, despite the fact that he has never seen or talked to them without me). I don't know...it's one thing to stop chatting to someone, it's going a step further to physically block them (I hadn't even been messaging him or trying to get hold of him lately...) Plus he has my games! They'll probably have to be written off as lost now

I'm disappointed that this has just suddenly happened, a year and a half after we broke up, and that he didn't have the decency to at least say 'I need to stop talking to you'. Bit suspicious too to do it the week after I've lent him some games! (All imported for me by Alex).

[ginger1981 0]

i'm leaving the gorgeous hills, mountains, glens, lochs and rugged coastlines of Scotland all gently covered with heather and dotted with sheep...

... I'm going to the utter flatness, cornfields, cows and no coastline of Nebraska. Freezing winters, roasting summers and tornados in between.

the things we do for love!!!

oh sounds like nebraska. brown recluses, black widows, rattlesnakes....

eta: and chiggers!

Eh it's only flat in that area around GI. Omaha is killer to drive in when it's icy with the hills.

Oh, Debz is going to need to read Night of the Twisters! Every school child in Nebraska is required to read that I believe.

Anyways, don't forget the suicidal deer who love to jump in front of any moving vehicle. And the occasional cougar/mountain lion, and neighbors with shotguns who "don't like you on their property."

The best things are tubing on the Niobrara River, Indian Caves State Park, Lazlo's Restaurant, Empyrean Ales, thunderstorms in the spring, Czech Days in Wilber, Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, and Saddle Creek Records.

[Ban Hammer 13,340]

Anyways, don't forget the suicidal deer who love to jump in front of any moving vehicle. And the occasional cougar/mountain lion, and neighbors with shotguns who "don't like you on their property."

oh yeah, forgot about the suicidal deer. have them here in kansas. allegedly we have mountain lions, not seen one. got plenty of coyotes.

happy valentine's day for everyone