The ties that bind.

Like most people (I imagine), Mark and I have our weekday morning routine. This has been a bit more varied, now that I'm working from home a lot more because of the new job, but it still tends to run along the same lines.

Mark gets out of bed, gets dressed and heads to the bathroom first. He wakes up without an alarm (which I am completely and permanently unable to do) and is the more responsible person of the two of us, so is actually able to instigate the day. As he does his ablutions, I get a few more mintues to laze in bed, talking myself into getting into a sitting position.

Mark moves to the kitchen, gets his cereal for breakfast and I do my bathroom things. Then he returns and brushes his teeth while I get dressed. Then we tend to both sit down on the bed and put on our shoes at about the same time.

It was at this stage one morning recently that I discovered that we are in fact, different people. We see eye-to-eye on the sock-sock-shoe-shoe issue, but it turns out that when tying his shoes, Mark makes the right loop first and holds that with his right hand, while doing the round-the-loop bit with his left hand. Crazy. I'm the exact opposite, holding the stationary loop with my left while my right goes around and through.

There was a moment of stunned silence while we both contemplated the discovery. We talked it through, and worked out the reason for the difference, so everything ended well. We've worked through it and come out stronger on the other side, accepting and enjoying our differences.

But let me tell you, thank goodness he doesn't do the make-two-loops-then-entwine-together...even the strongest love can only survive so much.

Browse this.

I've just discovered Flock. I don't know if I'm just behind the times, and this is yesterday's software, but I only just found out about it. I was introduced to it via a news article from the BBC about it, so it can't be new or cutting edge...I think I've just really not been paying attention. But I've tried it, and I kinda like it.

If you haven't heard of it, it's a web browser designed to take better advantage of, dare I say it, 'web 2.0' sites. It calls itself the "social web browser," which almost drove me away, but I've been using Firefox for a while now, and I'm curious about other browsers, so I decided to give it a try. I've only been trying it for about 10 minutes, and already I have figured out how to use some of it's gizmos (which means it's pretty intuitive, even though it looks overly-complicated with lots of buttons and tabs and windows-within-windows). I like how it deals with web mail, and I've already set up the RSS feeds for all the family blogs.

I'm posting this from within Flock, rather than using the dashboard at Blogger, and so far, so good. But I did have to open up a window in Firefox to find the urls for the links above, so I don't think I'm there yet. But hey, it's only been 10 minutes...give me a couple days and we'll see how it goes.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Meet the newest member of Team Vallentine.

Meet...uh, well, we don't have the name settled yet, but here he/she is, in all his/her glory.

It is a Suzuki DL650 V-Strom and it is rapidly taking my place in Mark's affections. We bought it on Saturday after about three weeks of research. It was kind of the out-from-nowhere contender, since until about a week ago Mark was pretty sure that he wanted a BMW F650GS or possibly, if we couldn't find a BMW in our price bracket, a Honda Transalp. (He really would have wanted one of the new Honda Transalps, but those are definitely OUTSIDE Team Vallentine's budget, so he was going to have to have one of the boring older ones that didn't have all the neat-o improvements that the 2008 model has.)

Mark had sort of dismissed the V-Strom as a contender until it was recommended by Dad. He then started keeping an eye out for them and on Friday one appeared on the web site for our local BMW dealer. It was a new listing of a used bike that had come in as a trade-in. Mark went up on Saturday for a test ride and was sold before he even got back to the shop.

I went out for a ride on it on Sunday, and it was pretty cold even though it was sunny, so we just went up to Portishead and back. It's really comfortable, and once we get a top box for it, will be pretty much as comfortable for a passenger as Smedley, the Varadero we had previously. I think we could actually tour with it, and we talked about maybe going over to France with it. (Until we saw how much ferry tickets cost....but maybe some day!)

Mark rode it to work today and walked in this evening smiling and going on and on about how versatile and responsive it is, so I think it will probably be a long time before it loses its appeal...especially now that summer is coming! So now all we need is the name...

SeanSean

It's been a couple of weeks now since I was introduced to SatNav. In those two weeks, I've been to (googlemaps UK at the ready, everybody?): Slough, Plymouth, Exeter, and Mitcheldean in the Forest of Dean, for work and to South Wales for pleasure (to look at motorcycles with Mark).

I used the SatNav on all of these occasions and so far, it's going pretty well. I've tried out Sean, Ken, Kathy (briefly) and Bonnie. They're all quite companionable and it's going to be difficult to choose who I want to spend the rest of my (driving) time with.

Kathy, unfortunately, was in the car when I had a sort of bad driving morning (a bit lost, even with the SatNav, stupid drivers, etc), and I don't like the way she says "roundabout" (which, as you can imagine, she has to say a lot), so I think I'm probably going to leave her in the dust.

Ken is nice and we had a good trip to Plymouth together, but he's just not Aussie enough for me. I don't need Crocodile Dundee, but could do with Baz Luhrmann.

Bonnie is great because she reminds me of home. It's like having a college friend in the car. The best part is that she calls it the "highway" rather than "motorway," which makes me feel cozy and comfortable and brings back memories of roadtrips across the States. One issue is that it makes me feel a bit too nationalistic to go with the American voice. (I guess I could just use it in the privacy of solo drives, and switch over when other people are in the car, but that seems a bit extreme.) The other problem is that she uses the word "rotary" rather than "roundabout" which just sounds goofy to me. And, as mentioned previously, she has to use the word a lot. So I'm not too sure if I can commit to a long-term relationship with her if every other word is going to be jarring.

So that leaves Sean, dear Sean. When I arrived at the meeting in Slough, where I met two of my colleagues, I made some comment about the SatNav. We talked about it for a little bit and it transpired that all three of us, (all women - I don't know if that had anything to do with it) had chosen to be with Sean. I hate playing the favorite, but it looks like it's just the way of the driving world.

At least until Sean Connery decides to license his voice to TomTom. Now THAT's a voice I could commit to.

Stupid people ruining everyone else's fun.

I just had to delete a comment, left by some anonymous person, which included a link to porn site. I apologize if anyone unwittingly clicked on the link. (Although perhaps Dad's anti-phishing training means that everyone hovered over the link and saw that it was not something familiar and so didn't follow it. I can only hope!)

I hate people who do that. Hate hate hate. I know I should rise above it, but it just makes me angry.

Pip pip cheerio and all that rot

Today I became a British citizen.

Yes, that's right. I've joined the ranks of Winston Churchill, Paddington Bear, Lawrence Olivier, Margaret Thatcher, Dame Judi Dench, Ricky Gervais and even her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second.

The occasion was the right mix of British formality and British kookiness, particularly since it was presided over by the head of the North Somerset District Council and ably assisted by the Assistant Chief Registrar (or somesuch...I didn't take down names).


When you submit your acceptance to attend the ceremony, you have to choose if you are going to take an Oath or an Affirmation. The wording is the same for both, except for the beginning, in which you either swear to the Almighty God or you say you really, really mean it (or something to that affect). (As an interesting side bar, you also got to tick a box to express your preference to NOT shake hands. I was tempted, just to see how it was handled, and what you got instead, but couldn't go through with it).

On the day, the about-to-be-citizens were divided into two groups on two sides of the room, the Oath-takers and the Affirmation-makers. It kind of felt like West Side Story, actually, like we were going to rumble at any moment. Fortunately we didn't, because I was with the Oath-takers and we were way out-numbered by the Affirmation-makers.

As you would expect, there was official business (incuding a somewhat extended scripted monologue about how great North Somerset is - particularly Clevedon - by the Council Chair), then we stood up and repeated after the registrar person, who said the oath we were taking in small manageable chunks. Even smaller chunks than when you take your wedding vows, actually, even though we had the words written out for us on little laminated cards. I think they do that for people who are not fluent in English, which is nice, but at the same time, it made it really hard to say. Not to mention the lady next to me was really lovely and enthusiastic, so I couldn't really hear what I was saying. We have the whole thing on video, so I can check if I actually said it and said it properly. (And if you play it backwards, I say, "Paul is Dead, Paul is Dead.")

After the Oath-takers said ours, the Affirmation-makers said theirs. Then, we got called up one by one to shake the hand of the Council Chairman and get our "Citizenship Pack."



I was hoping to get one of those medallion things, but I think that's what you get after 5 years of citizenship.

The Chairman said a witty little aside for each person, and did a good job throughout putting everyone at ease. He also played the stern authoritarian and gave us a little speech about freedom. After that, they played the national anthem on a little boom box, which was quite sweet and a slightly awkward moment, particularly when the administration support lady accidentally let the next verse start, but cut it off right after. Then they served tea and biscuits in an anteroom. We didn't stay for the biscuits, but everyone was very nice.

All in all, a very pleasant experience. There was even a moment, when a newly-minted citizen was asked why he was smiling so much, he said "Because I was a man without a country. And now I have one!" So yes, we laughed, we cried, we discussed civic involvement.

It's great to be an American.

I mean, long live the Queen!

All good things...

Ralph died Friday night, in his sleep - Mark's mum found him on Saturday morning. Mark and I went down to Brean on Saturday and helped her bury him in the garden, near the sea. It was tough, but not as tough as it has been for his mum.

Ralph was suffering from a canine form of leukemia, which became apparent around Christmas. He was on steroids and it seemed he was making a recovery, so it has been a bit of a shock that he's gone. But it is for the best, because it is likely that he would have just suffered more in the future, even with the medication.

So let's all raise a glass, even if you never knew him, to Ralph the sheepdog.