In a Land Far Far Away

Random thoughts for the week. . .

- this was the first time in my entire life I didn't have a Thanksgiving. I was really missing the family dinner and watching the Macy's parade. Next year we'll hopefully be settled in our own house so I can start a new Thanksgiving tradition. Although the ovens look tiny.

- cars. . .I like cars. Personally, I've been a Jaguar fan since I was 16 (I've had 3), but I still notice and enjoy the cars that are out and about. The #1 car I've seen around this area (and remember this is one of the wealthiest counties in England as it's right next to London) is the Land Rover. Yep. They're like pickups in Texas - everyone has one. Have also seen three 3-wheel cars. Now THOSE are interesting to see!

- on Saturday we were driving through Farnham when I spotted this man in colonel clothes walking though town. Fancy dress ball? Nope. He's the town crier. Seems like a lot of the villages have these. They have a bell and handouts to announce any town activities. In this case, it was the Christmas lighting. That's a neat tradition. I wish I had had my camera.

- I was reading the article in Outdoor magazine about the upcoming US presidential candidates. It was giving their views and agendas for the environment. After reading the whole article there wasn't one person worth a flip. No matter how good they talked the talk, their outside relationships and voting showed a different story. That was depressing. Someone who actually did sound interesting was Richard Branson. He's doing an amazing amount of 'green' things. Of course, is he really doing it for the greater good? or just for his own benefit? hmmm.

-Haven't done any geocaching or letterboxing this past week. Got excited that a new lb was at Box Hill, but then found I had already gotten this one elsewhere. Boo. Still need to go there though to plant one of the hedgehog boxes. I REALLY want to hit 200 caches by the end of the year, but not feeling very motivated lately. Temps in the 30s and 40s, so a bit cold to me. I normally spent the last 10 years in shorts at this time of year, not hats, scarfs, boots, gloves, and scraping frost off the car window in the morning. I'm just hoping I can get all these hedgehog boxes planted soon. Still have about 6 to go.

- Something I used to do over the post-Thanksgiving weekend was to go down to this Hallmark store and pick out a new Dept 56 Dickens Village house. I only did one a year - at Christmas. Then I'd race home and get all my others out (about 6, LOL) and set them all out. I really enjoyed that. But now, I have a two-fold problem - the electric plugs are US not UK, and no one sells them around here. I found a similar line - Lemax. UK based. But it just isn't the same as my Dickens Village. :(

-To consol myself over the above, I got us all a Hornby Hogwarts Express train set. Oooohhh. Cool. I had some second cousins who used to put up a really awesome train and village scene around their tree every year. I always thought that was so neat. So, once I get the train laid out, I'm going to see if I can add Village houses to it. If not, I may just have to jump ship and make and buy the train houses and scenery. Next, I'll be up in the attic like Alec Baldwin in Beetlejuice. :)

- TV. . .haven't watched much TV at all really. Mr. TeamKing usually plants himself in for the football (soccer) games. So, I've been downloading some of my favorites from iTunes and watching them that way. Grey's Anatomy, Survivor, etc. I love that I can still see my US shows. Although they don't have The Amazing Race as a download option. Boo. Still, I'm happy with what I can get. Is the writers strike over yet?

- Went to the Windsor Theatre the week before and saw a really great show 'Absurd Personal Singular'. 3 couples and their interactions. One of the funniest plays I've seen in a long time. One of the stars was Jane Horrocks - she was Bubble in Absolutely Fabulous, and the lead role in the film Little Voice. I think I'll have to go to some more.

- That's all for now. I'll ponder some new things this week and let you know all about them. LOL.

Cheers.