This is NOT the right country to live in if you dislike spiders!

Towards the end of April, we were seeing 2 - 3 spiders every day, and having to escort them outside. The one in the photo had taken up residence in our bedroom! Because I’m a big dork, instead of getting rid of it right away, I grabbed the camera and a pound coin to document how insanely big the little buggers can get!

Right after I took the photo, Kismet ran up and smacked our little friend here, which made him run behind the wardrobe, out of my reach.. so he may still be at large!

Today we visited The University of Oxford Botanic Garden. They had one or two inane plants:

..but the rest were really lovely!

Our timing with regards to the impending rain was perfect — the sky only opened up after we’d walked around the garden and had gone into the glasshouses! I managed to get quite a few good photos, including some of a pair of ducks napping under a tree, oblivious to people walking past and/or taking pictures of them!

Yesterday, we went to Brighton. Thanks to an overcast sky, it wasn’t very crowded at all. The rain held off, though, and we were able to stroll around without getting soaked!

Today, we decided to pick up a pasta salad from Morrison’s and have lunch in Prestwood Nature Reserve’s picnic area. We spotted a lovely red bug who was kind enough to pose for a few pictures!

Apparently it’s a cardinal beetle — so pretty!

The best part of the day was when I met a slow worm!!! It was about 20 - 25 cm long, and pale beige with no markings, like the one in this picture. They’re not snakes, but legless lizards! They have eyelids, although unfortunately I wasn’t quite close enough to see if it winked at me or anything.. Contrary to its name, this one moved pretty fast — I didn’t have time to snap a photo before it he disappeared back below the undergrowth. They’re a protected species, and not seen very often, so I was really lucky to have happened across one!

Slow Worm Crossing ;)

Spotted while at a red light in Windsor: It doesn’t show up in the photo very well, but in the window to the left of the lamp pole, there’s a picture of David Hasselhoff. Wearing nothing but a leather jacket and England flag Y-front underwear.

Artist’s reconstruction:

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Went to Bournemouth and Swanage this past weekend.

Will’s gone to Venlo again for work training, this time for 2 weeks!! At least I’ve got Halo installed on my PC to keep me entertained while he’s away!

My posts are so boring!

How many Canadians does it take to change a light bulb?

As I learned tonight, some British lightbulbs have a bayonet fitting. This means they have two contacts mounted on opposite sides of a cylindrical base without threads, so you push & twist them into the socket. The light sockets have two spring loaded pins that hold the bulb in place.

Apparently, these are less likely to come undone than a screw fitting — but more likely to frustrate a Canadian who spent over 5 bloody minutes trying to unscrew a burnt-out lightbulb.

I haven’t been able to find bakery pizza around here yet. I’ve described it to Ploes, and he hasn’t heard of anything like it. I didn’t buy it all that often, but have been craving it lately!

I didn’t know it was also called tomato pie, though. I’d just refer to it as bakery pizza, or ‘the slab of cold pizza off the shelves’. It might be interesting to ask around for tomato pie just to see what I’m actually given, since they have a very different interpretation of what a pie is over here!

Instead of going out of town for the Bank Holiday weekend, maybe we should go on a tour featuring a cheese rolling competition!

I logged into the Canada Revenue Agency website to check on the status of my 2005 tax return today, and read the following:

Your 2005 return was assessed and a refund of $1,596.24 was mailed to you on May 18, 2006.

1) They are sending me money.

2) They have manipulated the time/space continuum in such a way that’s allowed them to have already mailed me something.. FROM THE FUTURE!!!

doo-dee-doo-doo

doo-dee-doo-doo

I bet Canada Post charged them more than $1.49 for the stamp though!