Weekend at home

Mark is busy writing so Vera and I are doing house work and tending to our small,  but lovely garden. 
Our street,  Dewar Drive from the top. We live at the bottom end. Sheffield is very hilly,  but lovely views!

Quiet Easter

After two intense weeks at my new job, manically trying to learn people's names; how things work; and a little bit bit about mechanical seals ;-) - it was nice to have a chilled Easter weekend. On Friday we walked down to Millhouses Park where Vera enjoyed the playground and a bouncy castle. On the way back, we stopped at our local cafe, which has just re-opened. On Saturday, we had prepared an Easter Egg hunt in the garden, which Vera greatly enjoyed! Then I made my life's first Pavlova snd then went to have my hair done! On Sunday we went for a walk to the wonderful Ecclesall Woods, full of ancient trees, dens and spring flowers. Today Vera and I met one of my new Sheffield friends Becky, her husband Simon and their daughter Maisie, who's just turned three, in Endcliffe Park, for the annual Duck race. Each duck cost £1 and about 1000 of them went into the river Rivelin. The weather was beautiful and we sat on the grass, had an ice cream and the girls were playing and running around! Vera is doing really well, we've nearly cracked the potty training, with a few set backs. She wants to chose all her own clothes every morning and is really enjoying nursery. She has her set of friends who she plays with every day and is enjoying all the activities that they get up to (movements to music, gardening, drama, painting etc). She is very forward and social and has been looking after the smaller children who've just moved up to the Big Bears room, by giving them cuddles, sweet! I'm really settling in her in Sheffield. Last Thursday at my WI meeting there was a really interesting talk by a guy from Warp Films, a small film production company based here in Sheffield. They make independent films such as the awarded Ths=is is England. WI support a charity every year and this year it's the Young Women's Housing Project - which is a project for young women aged 16 to 25 who have been affected by sexual abuse, sexual exploitation or sexual/domestic violence. Part of this year's events to get money for the charity include a cake stall at the Sheffield Food Festival at the end of May, for which I've offered to bake and work on the stall. Should be fun, but what to bake?!

Easter

And it's April...

Long time no speak! I left CSR on 21st March and with it my laptop, which is one of the reasons for my lack of updates. The other: our holiday in Sweden and my new job. I'll try and summarise a few very busy weeks and hopefully I won't leave out too much. During my last week at work I went down for a last work dinner, which was a lovely event at Trinity College. It was so nice to be able to say good bye in person to my colleagues, quite a few of whom were over from the US. Also present were our European distributors, many who I've known for the nearly 10 years I've been at CSR. On the very last day, I drove down at 5:30 in the morning and spent the day in the office finishing off a few projects. As I didn't want a big fuss or a big send off, we had a quiet lunch in the Old Spring with the team. I was given flowers, champagne, jewellery and a huge Panasonic breadmaker! At 4pm I took my laptop etc over to IT, handed in my access pass and set off in the car heading for home. It felt very sad, like my last ties with Cambridge were cut off. Apart from friends of course. After a quiet weekend, on the Tuesday we set off for Sweden. We drove across the infamous Snake Pass across the Peak District and got caught in the fog and later Manchester rush hour traffic. But parked up and made the flight no problem and had a safe trip over. We had a wonderful days at home, spending time with family, eating Swedish delicacies and enjoying the beautiful weather. Highlights include Vera having fun in the snow, playing with her cousins and momma and moffa, dog sledding, some cross country skiing for me and of course the wonderful day that was Catrine & Magnus' wedding! The ceremony took place in the town hall and was followed by a relaxed dinner at Catrine and Magnus' beautiful new house. We also managed a lovely fika date with Anna, Cory, Freya, Denali and Amaya! Isn't amazing, we don't see each other for years and months on end, and just finish off where we left off. Albeit with a few more and older children! The sign of a true friend. The only downside was that Vera managed to catch chickenpox before we went and was a bit poorly and itchy for a few days. But all in all, it wasn't too bad and she had to have it at some stage and why not when we were both off anyway and could look after her. Mark and I even managed a night out just the two of us. Few and far between!

Sweden