Things that make you go Aaaaarrrghh……..

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So who woulda thunk setting up a website if you’re not a website designer could be so hard? In the long list of things that make me want to throw my computer through the window (it has to be through the glass  for that satisfying double-destruction effect. An open window won’t do), trying to select pictures whose pixellation goes mental the minute I set them up in the Revolution Slider is way up there. If you don’t know what a Revolution Slider, or indeed a pixel is, get on your knees and thank the Lord. A plague on all your houses, recalcitrant photos everywhere.

Upon reflecting that I cannot afford a) a new computer, and b) a new window, I have decided to increase my happiness by looking at pictures that actually make me happy. Hope you like them too.

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Candie Girl

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Views from the amazing Candie Gardens in Guernsey. This is a perfect oasis in the middle of St. Peter Port. It also features a lovely fish pond full of aquatic plants which clean the water, a rose and lavender garden which has the most incredible scents and a resident family of the cleverest crows I’ve ever seen. I feel I should be on commission from the Guernsey Tourist Board. Highly recommended.

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Should I stay or should I go?

London vs Guernsey

I’ve just been offered a job in Guernsey. Having always sworn that I would never move out of London, unless it’s to go to an even bigger,  more intense city, I find myself re-considering my stance after seeing videos and pictures of the latest tube strike. (photos: Evening Standard, The Guardian)

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I have been comparing that scenario to my evening after work today, larking about in Candie Gardens before strolling back to the hotel.

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Looking at the mayhem going on in London, I can only thank God that I have been away from the lunacy. I truly feel for my fellow commuters. I’m still getting flashbacks from the last series of strikes. If there were any possibility of running AlaraApothecary from Guernsey, I’d be seriously reviewing the situation. Hope tomorrow is a better day for you all. Roll on the weekend.

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Lovely Carol & the Herm Island Rotisserie

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Meet the lovely Carol, uber-English Rose who has managed to burn her face while watching her husband in the Herm boat race:

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Despite slathering herself repeatedly with industrial quantities of suntan lotion and wearing a hat the size of a wagon wheel she still got burnt, with both the wind and the sun contributing to mess with her schoolgirl complexion. Her wifely devotion cannot be questioned, that’s for sure!

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I have promised to whip us some Factor 2000 SPF cream  for Carol when I return to London. The problem is that she is a bit of a Princess and her skin reacts to creams not made from gold-leaf and fairy dust. In the meantime, I recommend lavish application of Aloe Vera gel and a Hazmat suit.

PS: Hubby’s team won their race so it was all worth it. Well done, boys.

 

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Pastoral Rhapsody

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Walking in the woods, fully equipped with the only essential needed– caramel-flavoured Mr Whippy ice-cream. Brave new world that has such wonders in it, to borrow a phrase. Now, if only scientists could make some progress in providing us with the jet-propulsion boots promised to us in cartoons/sci-fi magazines decades ago, the world would be perfect.

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You cannot imagine how wonderful it is to stroll through these woods. It’s almost completely silent, even the birds seem to have passed out from the heat. Added bonus : coming across the occasional fellow-travellers. We say hello to one another, because that’s allowed in the woods, but not on the pavements. If I could bottle the scent of the woods, I believe I would die happy, I really would. That wondrous mix of greenery/sap/wildflowers/animal musk/tree bark and a touch of ozone. It’s a thing of beauty, it really is.

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