December 29, 2009

I'm pretty well adjusted to the time difference now thankfully- it always seems to be easy for me to adjust to the time change, but the problem is usually not feeling hungry when I should. Making myself eat when I'm not hungry is just not a fun thing to do. Today I've been helping organise our old family photos- I've made it to 1983 so far. It's great to have a photographic history of our family- besides just birthdays and Christmases, random family events and photos taken just because. If I work on it a bit every day we'll be up to the digital age in no time, and then for designing yearly photo album books. :) 

Tomorrow my mom and I and my sister in law are going into Adrian to do a little bit of shopping. I'm after some decent photography books of Michigan, a US map, and other information about Michigan and about the US. I have tons of those sorts of books that I got second hand in the UK, so if I bring some back our international friends will be able to have a better idea about America instead of what they see on TV. 

It's almost 9:45pm, so I'm feeling tired as I should be. :) I can't believe it's Wednesday tomorrow, my 5th day here!

December 26, 2009

I'm writing a quick post from the bus to Heathrow- I'll be landing in Detroit around 2pm EST. I'm SO looking forward to seeing everyone! Although I'm officially on holiday I'll still be doing aa bit of foto work- I'm behind. :) Today is called Boxing Day here- no idea why.

See you all soon!



-- Post From My iPhone

December 21, 2009

There's still snow and ice on the ground here, and snow and ice on the trees too. Everywhere you go, there's ice. And snow. :) What you don't see (or hear for that matter) are plow trucks- no plow trucks, no "here comes the plow truck" sound, no salt flying everywhere, no pieces of rock flying onto your windshield....think 1950s snow storm, that's what it looks like here. Our road is solid ice, as are most non primary roads, and most people are still freaked out by driving in the snow, although after this they'll have plenty of experience. :)

I had a lovely compliment Friday at my BNI Christmas thingie- one of the guys said "no offense, but this morning you definitely looked like an American- we were all dressed like usual but you looked like you'd been through this a million times." I took that as a compliment- yes I was the only one sensibly dressed, with proper layers, and proper clothing. It was a Christmas lunch which generally means dress nicely, but I decided that a wool sweater and nice jeans (the pair that I can wear fleece long johns under) looked nice enough. :) I've been the only person in every group I've met this week that has been warm enough- except maybe for G as he's never cold anyway. :)

My camera club is having a night photo shoot so I have to run!

December 19, 2009- Snow day!

Hi everyone! Believe it or not, we have about 4 inches on the ground here in Cambridge. The snow started coming down blizzard style Thursday night, and it actually stuck which is almost as rare as getting snow in the first place. It's been below freezing all day today, all day yesterday, and will be tonight as well. We're due more snow in tonight from what I hear. I am LOVING the snow- snow is all that Cambridge needs to be stunningly, gorgeously beautiful in the winter. I went out to Anglesey Abbey very early yesterday morning to photograph in the snow, and must have canvassed the property 2 times over by the time I was done. It was just so fantastically beautiful- there were only 3 gardeners in, so I gave them a hand whacking snow off trees on the paths and stuff and making snow angels, and all sorts of fun gardener jobs. :)

This week I've had lots of Christmas events- every group I'm a part of has a Christmas end of the year party of some sort, and I've eaten very well indeed this week that's for sure. :) Enjoyed myself and got photos, and now I have to catch up with the processing.

Our street looks like a scene from The Christmas Story with all our 1930s houses and the ice covered pavement and sidewalks.

Tonight Z is having some folks from StAG over for a game night- we're playing Settlers of Catan, always a favorite. :)

December 16, 2009

Wow has it been 16 days since my last post? The time has just flown by here- as with everywhere the run up to Christmas is manic, but here it's also filled with Christmas dinners and Christmas dos for every group that you happen to be a part of. This week alone I have one event every evening, most of them involving a dinner. Whew. I've just managed to lose the weight I put on while I was on holiday in China! :)

For me it's 10 days till I'm back in Michigan- I can hardly believe it! I'll start thinking about it Monday, after the dust settles and I'm done with work for awhile. I'm looking forward to hanging out with my family and stateside friends!

I finally settled on 361 Photography as my business name. I haven't sorted out how to insert the degree symbol yet, but it'll be in the logo whenever that gets sorted. I'm excited about it- it's really cool to finally be moving ahead with that. When the logo is done then I'll get the web guys cracking on a new site for me, and hopefully things will be ready for the end of January.

It's been below freezing here this week- very cold for Cambridge, and the fog makes it feel even colder. I've picked up a cold from our international weekend away this past weekend, so I'm sticking close to home for the most part trying to get over it. Traveling a lot and working with moms of young kids as well as internationals means I pick up colds and bugs left and right. Job hazard. :)

December 1, 2009

December already- wow. And it's almost 2010 already- another wow. 2009 has actually gone by rather slowly- that's not a complaint, it's just a comment since most people say how fast the year went by when they get near the end of one. Not me- this year has been very full with a lot of new things and lots of changes, plenty of adventure and plenty of just plain old life stuff. So I expect the rest of it to continue as it has carried on being. :)

I made up a new syndrome today- I'm calling it Post Shopping Stress Trauma, PSST for short (think psst!). I don't know about other people but I always seem to get it. :) My family can attest to moments of "what the heck is her problem- why can't she just decide which boots to buy and get on with it?!" from like 13 years ago, but it was definitely made worse by my going to Cambodia. Everything is so easy to get in Asia, life is really convenient in most ways- except the stuff I don't really care about like squatties. :) I never have to worry about too many options, too many choices, not having what I want, or other problems that seem to contribute to PSST. :) Anyway all I wanted was a grey hat and black gloves to wear with my dress coat- nothing fancy, just ordinary. I went to 4 stores, no 5- no luck. After 2 hours of "shopping" (read searching desperately through the crowds of people and piles of stuff that I don't care about) I gave up and came home to unwind. Hope pointed out to me on facebook that perhaps I should not go shopping by myself- I hadn't thought of that, but from now on I'm going to have to recruit a shopping buddy who will kindly come along and prevent me from feeling waves of "Why is this so hard AHHHHH!!!" from sending me packing for home. :)

It's a nice quiet week here this week- I'm catching up, G is away working on a project for his company in Kansas City, and Nelly is trying new antics for getting attention including jumping at my face which is a bit new, and yowling from mysterious parts of the house as if she's trapped in a closet (which she never is.) I'm over jetlag, though not hungry at the right times still, but sleeping just fine (those 2 days outside pretty much reset my clock).

Tomorrow I'm out to photograph some trees being powerwashed. :) Anglesey Abbey has to power wash their white birches to keep them looking their best, and they've asked me to photograph them doing it. Good fun!