March Madness

March has been an absolutely mad month for Luke and I, we always knew it would be busy but I don't think either of us were expecting how busy it truly would end up being. First off, Luke spent the first two weeks of March in Germany for work. (Hence my unusual commute as discussed in my previous post.) He's currently in the middle of a massive transition to the way his work manages business operations. Work has also been incredibly busy for me, I spent March arranging product launches all across Europe. Which included putting together running orders, creating presentations, and shipping off materials. I'll spare you the details, let's just say after a month of launches I'm really looking forward to the bank holiday weekend (we get Good Friday and Easter Monday off in England).

Packing up one of our exhibition stands.

March 17th is of course St. Patrick's Day, and I had a very enjoyable one this year. Luke was playing rugby so I walked down to meet him at the club and watch him play or at least that was the plan. While making my way down to the club, I believed I had discovered a short cut but instead I ended up a bit lost. First I ended up in a pretty neighbourhood, then a park, before making my way to what I thought was the rugby club only to discover it was a secondary school. By the time I finally made it to the correct rugby club the game was over and Luke was waiting bemused for me in the bar. All was not lost as we had prime seats to watch the final of the 6 Nations, England v. Ireland, with some of his teammates. I was told the drinking of Guinness was unpatriotic during the match by some of the lads, but no one shall deny me Guinness of St. Paddy's day! The 'luck of the Irish' wasn't with Ireland, a bit ironic given the date, and England won the match. I felt a bit sorry for the Irish really, but it was a quality match.

Guinness on St. Patrick's Day is a must!

This is going to sound a bit peculiar to my American readers, but March 18th is Mother's Day here in England. This is my second Mother's Day here and I still find the early date odd, as we don't celebrate it in America until May. So of course we went to Southam to celebrate it with Luke's mum. We had a lovely meal, a bit of a Greek buffet with everything homemade by Lindsay (before you scoff at the mother cooking, it had been done the day before and just thrown in the oven). It was a relaxed and enjoyable day.

Now I have received a lot of queries over the past months over the state of our new flat. Well, the battle is still raging on with the estate agents but FINALLY we have new carpets in the hall and lounge, which happened only last Tuesday. We're still waiting for the walls to be repainted, but as the landlady is abroad for three weeks we've been told there is nothing they can do. I know, it was idiotic for them to put the carpets in before they painted, but if they mess up the new carpets that's their issue as they'll have to do them again. We've given up living in a limbo at the house and have started to fully unpack to make it our home. To celebrate this I finally ordered my black, white, and red Moulin Rouge prints for my bedroom! I've been wanted a Moulin Rouge themed room since I can remember and have found some fantastic prints by René Gruau! 

Source



Source

Besides the obvious hiccups, the flat is coming along rather nicely. We've got a lot of work to do on it this weekend as the following weekend we're getting a special visitor - my mum! I'm so excited to see her, and of course for her to see our new abode! I just hope the brilliant weather we experienced at the end of March will return for her, as this chilly start to April is not appreciated. But that's quintessentially English weather for you, always unpredictable!

Erin x

Lions and Tigers and Randy Elephants? OH MY

April 3^rd was Mother’s Day here in England, and to celebrate Luke and I took Lindsay (mum), Ian (stepdad), and Bob (granddad) to West Midlands Safari Park. It was a great day out, full of a LOT of laughs. On the drive up I was ridiculed for my fear of camels that developed on my last visit to the Safari Park, but when a 9’ animal comes and sticks his head in the window of the car (for which his head takes up the entire width of the window I think it is entirely justified. Lindsay was trying to feed a baby camel (which was still 6’ tall) when a larger camel decided it wanted the food. Instead of feeding the animal to get rid of it, Lindsay panicked and hid her head on my shoulder which of course made the camel stick it’s head only further inside the vehicle. Ian and Luke were crying with laughter in the front seats as I confronted my fears and tried to help Lindsay get the camel out. In her hurry to close the window on it she actually trapped the poor thing’s muzzle in the window! Luke continued laughing into a curious camel popped his head into his window which made Luke jump and stall the car. We all went away with a new found desire to stay away from camels, except for Ian who just found the whole experience hilarious.

One of the smaller of the scary camels!

Baby Gazelle/Deer animals, so cute!

Ian feeding one of cute little deer.

It wasn’t just the camels who gave us some laughs. We were able to watch a rather clever African Wild Dog makes it’s bid for freedom by trying to run directly into the Lion’s den.  It took the ranger several minutes of chasing it around in her Landrover to finally get the AWD back on it’s turf. I thought the African Wild Dogs really cute in a scruffy “I could kill you if I wanted to” sort of way, although I was alone in the car of thinking so. In the Lion’s den we were able to witness some of the youngsters playing a game of hide and seek amongst the bushes. I was reminded of Simba and Nala, the playful cubs of The Lion King fame, they really do play like that. Adorable! Not all big cat fights were just friendly playing. Two White Tigers got into a bit of a tiff after the female was surprise attacked from behind by the male. I can confidently say the male because he was twice the size of her. She didn’t like the surprise very much and gave him a swipe which of course turned into a bit of a skirmish.

An African Wild Dog

Young male lion starting hide and go seek.

It wasn’t all lovers’ spats, for the grand finale of our safari we met two very amorous elephants. This was my second time at West Midlands Safari Park, my second time seeing the elephants, and my second time witnessing them getting it on. Considering that last time I came it was in summer and now it is spring I can only assume that these are just two very randy elephants. I couldn’t believe I was watching these elephants a second time around and can now with confidence make a nature programme describing elephant courtship habits, David Attenbourgh watch out!  I’ll spare the full details of the events, after all a picture is worth a thousand words.

Elephant Courtship, notice the male elephant's spare trunk!

x