Sunday in the Park

Ah...finally, we get a day free (the usual Sunday football match was cancelled. I silently rejoiced. My boyfriend all to myself? And no standing in the freezing cold for 90 minutes hoping he won't injure himself!) to escape city life and go for a bracing walk, taking in some Royal flora and fauna.



Richmond /www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/richmond_park/ is the largest of all the Royal Parks, home to at least 650 deer.

We live really close to it, and I've wanted to take the man on a stroll around it for a while. So here we are, with a hot dog to share (you can't see it, but I had a hot chocolate too!) on the sunniest day of the year so far.

We managed to catch a few sightings of this Robin. Nothing really says English Winter like the red-flash and chirp of one of these birds!

We parked in the first available place we saw (decent days in the UK in January, on a day off=busy parks) and walked through the nearest gated wildlife preservation area, the Isabella Plantation.

It's name is something of a mystery (no Princess Isabella, then?) but it offered much in the way of the afforementioned f&f.

There's this babbling stream,

these weird ducks (have you ever seen these?)

this gnarled old tree that had been fenced off due to it's significant age and value I guess (reminds me of an Ent in Lord of The Rings)

and these new Crocusses.

I was having a discussion with one of my Actor friends the other day, and they had a soliloque that included the word crocus. If you're English and have ever tried to say the word "Crocus" in a New York accent you'll see how difficult it is! Anyway...The star of the day was this Stag. He had let the rest of the herd roam, but seemed authoritative and magestic to me totally disinterested in my presence.
And look! An even better sighting!
Man and beast together!

A New Life (and I should probably change my blog header, too!)

My oh my. Time has passed. There is a reason, dear reader, for my lack of blog-work other than laziness. I was reluctant to write about it before, just in case it never actually came into fruition (counting eggs before they've hatched etc. etc) but What-the-Hell, it's happened now: ERIC AND I HAVE LEFT THE CRUISE-SHIP GAME, AND MOVED TO LONDON! This is the face of Freedom, waiting for the Airport transfer to leave, folks. We had a 12-hour wait at LAX before we could even check in for our flight, but do we look like we care?

I love this shirt (Christmas present from my Mum!) as does The Bass Player in question.
We officially left, having given 4 months notice (you see! It seems like it never WILL happen, you have to wait 4 months 'til they deign to let you loose!) on Dec 21st, and went on a celebratory 10-day vacation in Barbados, where we met up with my sister and my parents (whose 30th wedding anniversary was incidentally during the 10-day stint, on NYE! Nice!) where a good time was had by all. Here are my folks on their anniversary, where we ate a super-swanky West Coast restaurant called Tides.

There was one hiccup (well, it turned into more, if you'll pardon the pun) in the form of food poisoning, caught from a fast-food outlet called Chefette, native to Barbados and a place I've frequented with no adverse side-effects on previous visits to the island. See, all looks well here...

but half an hour later, don't these two look ill?

Anyways, we rallied well, and soon enough Dad was hanging with the locals

and Eric and I were playing at all the activities a good Caribbean beach affords a healthy tourist.

Just because I want to put a picture of my gorgeous sister in, here she is, at our favourite drinking venue, with Eric.

So, back in the U.K., Eric and I have done what's been coined the "IKEA Boogie" twice now and I'm becoming a dab-hand at flat-pack furniture assembly. Check it out!

This is the 'Before'....

but the place still doesn't look quite wonderful enough for the 'After' (check back in a month...maybe)!

So how are we readjusting to "Land life"? Well, the weird-but-wonderful realisation that we don't have to be back on for All Aboard, EVER is still fresh, and comes in waves over me (wow, another pun?) still, each and every day.

I've auditioned for various West End shows with relative success ("Well done Rebecca. We'll call you...") and am currently doing a Short Film.

Eric is doing some jamming (musically, as shown here at The Grey Horse Blues Jam)

and is excited about going to play with a good fusion band (not sure what they fuse yet) on Friday. He's proved himself to be something of a footie player too...

Now, how to change my blog...