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so I guess we are home as our cats are finally with us.  Actually, they've been here about a month but I've just been so lax in writing anything - not just this, can't seem to get out of my own way (again).  I guess I need to look at the idea of 'little and often' rather than having long posts (not that I think this one will be short by any means), then maybe I'll be able to sustain it... maybe.

The cats, having moved from a small room, with a bit of outside space albeit still caged, to a large(ish) house with a big garden and fields to explore, are loving it.  I've not taken any pictures of them as yet but you can check the webshots link in my profile and find pictures of them (in the family album) if you are wondering what they look like.  Of course, now we have to deal with the hunter instincts as it looks like Kanga is single-handedly decimating the local shrew population.  Can't really blame her for doing what comes naturally I guess.  It is lovely to have them around and they have settled in well but have taken to calling for us whenever they come in as they probably want to check that we are still around.

First winter back in the UK was the worst there had been for 18 years - we remember that one well - but hoping that the bad January means we will have a good summer, which would be nice.  I don't seem to have acclimatised as yet so I hope that changes for the summer! 

Getting back into some sort of routine is what is needed - outside work rather than within work as that got back to normal with me working silly hours leading up/around/during/after the festive season, but having been somewhere for three years with not enough to do (by my standards), that was quite a welcome feeling and the fact that my boss appreciated it with words and actions has been good.  There are things that I miss of my old life, and by that, I mean the previous one in the UK because we were pretty happy really and then we decided to move half way around the world... seemed like a good idea at the time.  Hopefully, as things come together here more and more, that feeling will change and I may even start to feel less annoyed/frustrated/disappointed or whatever about the three years spent in South Africa... we'll see.

Other major change since the last entry is that we have moved house again - just five minutes away but somewhere bigger that will accommodate our boxes and allow us to unpack as many of the as we feel comfortable.  Hoping this will be a long term thing as I really don't fancy moving again - especially not with all the unpacking we've done.

Quick round up...
Books - just not read much apart from online stuff, some magazines and the like though I did re-read Watchmen in time for the movie as I wanted to see how much was missing and how much changed. 

Film: various bits and pieces, classic and otherwise but most recently been to the cinema to see Watchmen.  Had to be done as I'd been waiting several years for that movie to be made.  Really enjoyed it, R really enjoyed it too which was great.  Of course, there was stuff changed and left out (so the extended DVD beckons) but overall, thought it was great.

TV: ok, not put this in before but I do watch a lot I guess (years ago I was on the viewers panel for the Independent Television Commission and I don't seem to have lost the habit) and two of my favourite programmes have been on lately: Dexter and Pushing Daisies - couldn't choose more opposite things if I tried probably!  Very sad that Pushing Daisies has been cancelled in the US but heard rumours that there may be a movie to tie up the loose ends which would be great.  Also been using my LoveFilm account to catch up with some series of things that I missed in the transition between South Africa and the UK plus the fact that you can't get Channel 5 in my area of Kent so that means I miss out on some programmes I like.

Stitching: nothing, lost my stitching bug so if anyone sees it off enjoying itself, send it back home as I have stuff to do - mostly birth samplers as I have two friends and two family expecting this year (actually, one little chap has already arrived).  Once those are done then perhaps I can attempt something for myself.

Music: not really bought anything new for a while, downloaded various things on iTunes and been getting reacquainted with things on my iPod since R had a stereo fitted for my birthday that runs my iPod.  Keep meaning to put most of my vinyl onto CD and the iPod, especially now that it's all unpacked but there's rather a lot there...

Well, this is longer than I wanted it to be, so going to stop now but first I have to apologise (yet again) for not having posted stuff about the US trip last year.  It's coming up to a year ago that we went and when life changed immensely and sometimes, we find it hard to believe we were really there.  Maybe posting the journal and getting the pictures sorted will make it all a bit more real... and encourage us to go again sometime.

Well truly, the title and feeling are not quite right for now but it's the main reason for this post.  Thanks to Telkom (bunch of w@%$ers) I've pretty much been offline since the afternoon of 27 Feb - today was my first day back with access because it's a new month and everything 'resets'.  Starting from the beginning, ADSL here is expensive mainly because Telkom have a monopoly on the telephone things and they charge what they want.  Several people don't even bother with landlines because of that and rely solely on mobile phones.  It is also slow (though they don't think so) and very unreliable at times.  Facts to back this up are... it costs us per month here what we were paying per quarter in the UK for a 10th of the access (3GB as opposed to 30GB) plus they charge you for your phone line and the ADSL line, even though it's only one line!; they can barely manage 1MB here when were were on 4MB in the UK and heading to 8MB speed; even though you are supposed to be connected all the time with ADSL, there are times you just cannot get on.

Anyway, we reached our monthly limit on the afternoon of 27 Feb.  As there were a couple more days to go in the month, I decided we needed to buy a top up gig which you can do online... well, you could if it was working - which it wasn't.  So, had to buy it on the phone which meant I was given a new user name and password temporarily to access this extra space but the person on the phone couldn't tell me how to do this, I had to speak to someone in the technical department.  Hmm, I wondered, are those the same technical experts who run the site and can't make sure that you can top up online towards the end of a month?

To cut a long story short... a very long time on hold, several phone calls, cut off a couple of times, technical not being able to make this user name and password work, sales being unhelpful again, someone else in technical giving us instructions that screwed with our machine... in total FIVE HOURS on the phone and the upshot was we couldn't get the new user name and password to work - and now the old one wasn't working either.  R had some very interesting things to say to the technical 'expert' on the phone!  I finally got our proper user name and password to be accepted and we've been holding our breath until this morning, hoping that everything would reset, which thankfully it has.  To add insult to injury, we had to remember to call them yesterday to tell them to cancel the extra gig for next month or we'd automatically be allocated it and charged! Grrr.

So, I've not been a happy bunny.  One of the things we checked before moving here was broadband/ADSL access - R actually asked my dad about it and said, "if you don't, she won't move!"  There were other things that we should have really checked out before moving here but that's another post for another time.  Not having access to the real internet (ie sites outside of South Africa) has just been horrible.  Not only could I not go to my favourite places, I couldn't talk to my friends on messenger, couldn't call them on Skype, couldn't access my email on Gmail and couldn't do anything for our hobby business or other bits of work as they need to be accessed online!  Add to that the fact that we wanted to book bits for the holiday but couldn't and the things just pile up on you.  All of this may seem very melodramatic but it brought so many frustrations and disappointments to the fore that I have to say that it was some of the worst time we've had here.  Decisions are going to have to be made and I'm sure they will appear in here as and when.  I said in the last entry that things would wear me down soon enough though I'd rather have been proved wrong about that...

Film:  haven't really watched anything recently.  Have to admit though, two of my favourite tv programmes are back on this weekend - Supernatural and Dexter.  I'm going to try not to miss those so I don't end up with loads of them on tape and having to catch up... or trying to catch up and just not succeeding!  So much to do, so little time!

Books:  Finished Velocity.  Hmm.  Not much to say really, disappointed, all a bit pat for my liking, tried for the twist ending but I'd seen that coming and the 'ordinary hero', well, he despatched the baddies far too easily for me.  Sorry, Mr Koontz, not your best but that's just my opinion.  Now I have a confession... I have read a lot, R built me a library in the attic of our old house to take the books that I had read - some of which didn't look read because I'm so careful with them (the main reason why I won't lend out my books) - and downstairs I had a bookshelf filled with those I had yet to read.  I'm an avid book buyer as well as reader, so there are a lot of things on that shelf but the stack is going down because books are so damned expensive over here that I just don't buy that many anymore and that's another frustration over here!  Things that we like - books, games, films/dvds are really expensive.  Books, well, it works out cheaper to buy from Amazon UK, pay for the shipping and duty into the country than to buy books over here!  There are exceptions as there are some good cut price bookshops but they don't always have what I want or need.  So, the confession is that I have stacks to read and what I read isn't necessarily that new but rather what grabs me at the time I choose my new tome.  So, my current pick is The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.  I bought it ages ago, when it first appeared in paperback, from Amazon actually and it's sat on the shelf waiting to be chosen.  Okay, I admit, one reason I'm reading it now is before the film comes out because sometimes I like to see what they get right, what they get wrong and what they just change (eg Neil Gaiman's Stardust).  I'll leave commenting about it until I'm a bit further in...

Stitching: finishing the RR piece and then moving on to finish the two birth samplers. I'm also sorting out patterns and materials for my really good friend L who visited me recently and who I taught to stitch when she was here.  I actually stitched her a piece as a gift a few years back before we left the UK as a little something to remember me by before we moved.  I can't believe that she's stitching now and actually enjoying it, which is great.  I've actually taught half a dozen people to stitch since I moved here which is nice and eventually I'd like to have a stitching group here as I did back in the UK.  People are always surprised when they find out I stitch.  They tell me that I don't look like 'the type', though when questioned, they can't actually tell me what 'the type' is.

Music:  been sorting out my iTunes categories and looking at putting some of my vinyl onto CD, then onto iTunes and ultimately my iPod - especially for the California road trip... next month, oh my, it will be next month!  Wow!  The only vinyl album I've put onto iTunes at the moment is Colourbox by Colourbox and I transferred this ages ago but I've listened to it a few times over the past few days while I've been working and I still love it, still believe it was ahead of its time - a true classic of the 80s.

Holiday: so far we've booked flights there and back with our stop in London on the way back to catch up with people; booked the flight from San Diego to Las Vegas; the hotel in Vegas; and the Grand Canyon trip.  Now that the internet is back at our fingertips, we can book the rest soon!

Well, time to end another long entry...