Day out at Woburn Safari Park

First of all, my apologies for being a very sporadic blogger right now. We are at our busiest time of year at work and my college course is starting to become time-consuming. I don't get much time to browse blogs at the moment, but will probably catch up one day.....!

Andy and I had a wonderful day out yesterday at Woburn Safari Park in Bedfordshire for a pre-birthday treat (my birthday is tomorrow). You can see my Woburn photo album here. And here are a couple of my favourites:

We were up close to the Siberian tigers. Yes, that is my wing mirror in the picture!

I also got up close to the cute wallabies! I'm never satisfied unless I can actually touch a creature!!

The best moment of the day though, was driving through the monkey enclosure. Several cars around us had monkeys leaping onto them and then leaping off again and we were heading towards the way out, without having had any monkeys being even slightly tempted to jump onto my car. I suddenly heard a little noise, almost like a shreiking noise and I noticed at the foot of a tree next to my car was a baby monkey calling for its mum! It looked so tiny and lost and I felt really distraught that it seemed to be so lost and alone. Suddenly this little baby took a running leap and landed on the roof of my little car! All the cars around us stopped and people were all fixed on my car roof!! Although I have a sunroof, the baby monkey was sitting at the back of the roof, so we couldn't see him from inside. Although I did see a little monkey paw resting on the back window for a few moments! Baby monkey continued shreiking from the top of my car. I really wasn't sure whether I should start driving and hope that little monkey would jump off safely or not. Anyway, I decided to stay put and sure enough, little monkey's mum eventually came out of hiding. Mum and baby gave each other a hug and we continued on our way!

There were lots of other beautiful and amazing animals to see. I loved the bears! I'd seen a polar bear before, but these were North American black bears and soooooooo cute!!! There were also some darling little marmosets who looked very mischevious, running along the fence to their enclosure and staring at all the people in a curious, tilted head way! I was sure that if I'd stood there much longer remarking on how sweet they were, one would probably have jumped onto my shoulder for a ride! There were also some very naughty squirrel monkeys - one stole a chocolate bar from a little boy's pocket and ran up the nearest tree to eat it! We had a fabulous day, but then I love animals so it was just my sort of thing.

On my big day tomorrow I'm going out for lunch with my brother and SIL to a little village called Fittleworth in the north of West Sussex which should be good. I also went out for lunch with my Dad on Saturday. Eeeek... so many calories! Then at the weekend it is Catriona's christening, so I'm going up to Yorkshire for a long weekend to do my duty as Godmother. It's Sharon's birthday at the end of the month, so we have plans for a girlie night out (well, as girlie as you can get in her little village!!). I'll try to blog again soon! :o)

Phew!

Thanks for all your good wishes. Catkin is absolutely fine. I have no idea what was wrong with her leg, but the vet gave her a thorough checkover, watched her walking and of course, she was no longer limping and back to her normal self! It cost us £27 to find out she was fine mind you.... It's money well spent though, I would never begrudge paying out for the health of my little furry friends.

Talking of which, we've been discussing the possibilities of getting a house bunny, which I would absolutely love, but Andy's not so sure. I have this new habit of going into the huge pet store near Dad's each week and admiring the bunnies they have for sale, even naming the ones I particularly like the look of! So we've had Sir Galahad (a silver bunny), Cinnamon, Honey, Scamp..... and yesterday I absolutely fell in love with this gorgeous little bundle of lop eared fluff who I named Tigerlily. Why Tigerlily? Well, she was a beautiful pale golden ginger colour with bits of white and very subtle grey markings which looked a little like stripes, so she reminded me of a tiger. I soooooo wanted to bring her home with me, but came home empty handed. :o(

Andy's brother Rob is staying with us for the weekend. The boys have gone out for a coffee on the seafront whilst I catch up on some documents for work. We're then going out for lunch at The Bull, which is a historical and locally famous pub in the village of Ditchling. The weather is beautiful - blue skies with a few fluffy clouds..... I guess I really must get on and go through my work documents so I can be ready when the boys come back! ;o)

Clumsy Clot :o(

I really could kick myself sometimes you know! I've managed to damage the USB port on my digi camera so now I am unable to upload my pics to the PC. I think I may have wrenched the lead out too harshly last time I was using it & the piece inside with the contacts in seems to have been pushed over to one side. I just hope I can get it fixed without too much expense :o/ I am a little heavy handed at times which I guess is a little unusual for a stitcher! Somehow I can manage to do these dainty little stitches with my clumsy hands ok, but with other things I sometimes seem to be a one-woman trail of destruction! Whoops.

Thanks everyone for your really lovely comments about my photo :o) Does wonders for a girl's esteem! Gill, lol I really giggled at your comment about Pete saying I looked like you :o) And Faith Ann, your comment was very sweet, thank you.

I had planned to share piccies of what we got up to last weekend when Andy's mum came to stay. I guess I'll have to share them once I get my camera fixed. We had a lovely time at Weald & Downland Open Air Museum on a beautiful spring day. There's lots of historic buildings that have been dismantled from their original sites which were due to be destroyed for redevelopment. They are then re-erected at the museum for future generations to explore. Andy's taking his class there on a school trip soon so wanted to explore before the big day. I'd been there several times many years ago, though my last visit was in 1990. Despite that, I remembered my way around pretty well. Andy managed to pick up lots of useful info for the trip & we had a delicious lunch too! Homemade soup with rolls baked using flour from the mill on-site. There are also lots of farm type animals around the museum. It's lambing season, so we saw lots of sweet baby lambs who were basking in the sun! They also have shire horses and having been obsessed by horses ever since I was small, so I made a beeline for them :o) They are gentle giants indeed. One of them even gave my hand a kiss!! Awwwww.

I've had a busy week. As it's the Easter holidays I only needed to work 3 days this week & one of those I spent at Tonbridge store (in Kent) helping with HR files. I work 4 days a week & my predecessor works the other 1 day plus she is a newly promoted HR Manager at Tonbridge store. She needed some help with the filing system so asked if I would assist her. It was very interesting to see another store. It's around a third the size of mine & all on one floor. I don't envy her commute every day though, around the M25. I'm much happier on my little bus which trundles along by the sea :o)

I've just finished making some chocolate cornflake Easter nests. Anyone want one? ;o) Yummmmmmm! Needless to say I made a bit of a mess & had to lick out the bowl I melted the choccie in afterwards. Guess I'd better go check on them before the Easter bunny finds them... Happy Easter everyone!

Oooh my aching thighs!

We've had a lovely day today. It's been sunny mainly with a smattering of clouds now & then but rather windy. So me & Andy decided to meander off on our bicycles with no plan whatsoever! We got to a little cafe between here & Brighton so stopped off for tea & toast. It was pretty packed inside so we were brave & sat outside where it was a little breezy! I always take ages to drink tea as it's always far too hot for me so I have to let it cool. Needless to say, sat outside in the cold breeze, I didn't have to wait for long before I could drink it! We then decided to venture on further east, to Brighton pier which didn't take very long & as it was such a lovely bright day we found ourselves trekking onwards towards Brighton Marina! It was a nice, easy ride as the wind didn't seem that strong & was with us. We had to stop just past the pier & walk for a way as the road had been cordoned off for the Morris Minor owners meet! They're such lovely old cars & there must've been around a hundred or so there in various colours & forms. Me & Andy have often fondly talked about getting a VW Camper to trek around the countryside in, though they're pretty pricey as they're collectors pieces now, so maybe getting a Morris Minor would be good! There was a beautiful green & cream one with a picnic basket strapped to the back :o) That would be a wonderful way to spend an afternoon!! We mounted our cycles again once we'd passed the meet & made our way to the Marina. I was able to pick up a few bargains at the huge Asda store there (including a lovely pair of boots for £10!) and we sat for a while at another cafe drinking more tea whilst devouring some delicious apple strudel - yum! And then... the journey home. It had been such a lovely, gentle ride eastward, but travelling back west again the wind was very much against us & really strong! It was such hard work that it took nearly 2 hours to get home again!!! I'm sure I am going to feel it in my thighs big time tomorrow! :o(

I've got a couple of piccies to share with you, showing my progress on Titania. I've not backstitched her face yet, so she still looks a little odd! I've also arranged the packs of beads I bought at Olympia last week around her so you can get some idea of the colours I'd like to use in her wings:

And here are the beads & her face a little bit closer:

The beads on the left are a really pretty silvery purple, the middle ones are a bluey silver and the right ones are silvery pink. I hope they are going to work with what I have in mind! :o)