Emily and Mitchell in the USA

This week at the garden, one of the technicians found an enormous spider in the office! He called it a tarantula, and it was certainly big and hairy enough to be one.  I also had an all staff day for the library and got to meet other staff members from other branches. It was held at the boathouse in Fairmount Park, which was really nice, and we got to go out and feed the ducks at lunchtime. We did some workshops and development presentations, and also got these little ducks we could dress up.  I showed Mitchell this duck when we went out for Indian food that evening. Someone had suggested this place a few times, and it was pretty good. The portions were huge, so we ate the leftovers the next day for dinner too.  On Saturday, we'd been invited to go for dinner and drinks at the beach, but by the time I'd finished work, it didn'e seem worth it, and we were getting worried about the tropical storm closing in on California. Hurricane Hillary had been upgraded to a category 4 ...

I've been enjoying my work in the gardens, and on Friday they held a potluck for all the staff (which is only about 15 of us). I got to meet everyone I hadn't met already and we shared a BBQ at lunchtime.  The weekend kicked off with some Karaoke in Riverside. On Friday night we all went to Marine's for some dinner and drinks before heading out. There were quite a few of us, but that was ok as her house is massive! She has two roommates, one of which is also French and who joined us for the evening.  When we were ready, we went to the bar for some singing and had a lot of fun, even when Bruno tried to order a long island iced tea and just got regular iced tea. It worked out though, as one of the Germans had a bit too much Jager and needed something plain to drink. Like before, we had songs in all sorts of languages, and it was very fun.  On the Sunday, we were up early to go to an immersive art exhibit in LA called Bubble World. It was a series of rooms, each with a diffe...

Hey! It happened! After an incredible amount of appointments and booking and waiting and scanning, this week I had surgery on my knee. We'd been prepping the weekend before as I'd been told I'd need someone to come with me and then take me home and supervise me for 6 hours afterwards. Since Emily was starting work at 4pm she would be able to do at least the surgery supervision as long as it was the morning but we didn't get a time slot until the day before! We had some friends who'd volunteered to help out if they were needed but in the end the surgery was booked for 8am so we needn't have worried. Once we were there I signed a few forms and almost immediately had to say goodbye to Emily and head through, I got into a gown and they set up a drip going into my hand (on the second try). I was then waiting for slightly longer than an hour with the only interesting thing that happened being a bubble going down my IV which apparently isn't actually a problem as I...

As we all went to see Oppenheimer last week, this week we had to go and see Barbie. The boys had decided at Pam's leaving party that they were going to see it on a boys trip, so us girls decided to go as a group too. We booked tickets and a table for dinner, and all wore matching pink clothes. The boys are going at some point next week and will maybe manage to feed themselves beforehand.  We went to a Japanese restaurant, where they have a hibatchi grill in the centre, and a cook comes to prepare the food right in front of you. That was fun to watch and we enjoyed some pink cocktails too.  On Friday, we went to Makbule's for her regular potlucks for the international department. It was a very busy night, with lots of people attending this time. We brought some chocolate chip cookies and ate a lot of food.  On Sunday, we went to the train station very early to catch the morning train south.  After an hour and a half on the train, we got off at San Juan Capistrano for ...

This week has been filled with lots of little things while I start my new jobs and Mitchell's knee is still in recovery.  During the week, we went with a group to the cinema to watch Oppenheimer, and then later in the week we all went for dinner for Pam's last week. We went to the Yardhouse and had some enormous portions and some drinks.  On Saturday, I worked while Mitchell went to the beach with the group. Apparently Marine - being very French - brought an entire brie and a baguette as a picnic. They played some beach volleyball and Mitchell only got a little bit burnt. I started my new job this week in the city library. I'm on the desks helping people and shelving books, and it fits very well with my job at the botanic gardens. That Saturday, Riverside was holding the International Food Festival, so during my lunch break I went to go and look at what they had to offer. There were three street filled with food trucks with food from all over the world. I saw Jamaican, Mexi...