Before China

Well, we did warn you that we had a whirlwind coming up and we've neglected the blog a little in that time. Anyway, to make things easier, we thought we'd split the blog into pre and post-China!


So, before we headed out to the Far East, Annalie had resumed her footballing days of old and she's been getting plenty of action on the pitch! In her last two games she's scored and has been setting up her fellow team members as well. The rules about the guys not being able to tackle the girls helps somewhat, but that doesn't stop some of them getting a bit physical at times. But anyone who's seen Annalie play will know full well that she can hold her own on that side of things! With Beijing and New Zealand though, she's missing most of the session, which lasts about 8 weeks - so she's only getting to play about half of it.


We also had a flying visit back to the UK to be at TC and James' wedding - we wouldn't have missed it for the world. It was a great weekend catching up with old friends and seeing two of our favourite people get married. The wearing of hats had been requested, but because of the additional complication of travelling, Annalie decided that a "fascinator" might be the more transportable option. However, upon embarking on a quest to find one before departing the States, she soon realised that they aren't particularly fashionable over here. The last resort was one of the most expensive department stores in the US - Nordstrom. And as she suspected, here is where they could be found. And the first one she picked up turned out to be an almost perfect match for her dress, as evidenced by this photo.

As for the wedding itself, after the crappy summer that the UK has had, the happy couple could not have asked for better weather. It was a stunning day and the bride and groom looked blissfully happy. And they scrubbed up pretty good too ;o) See the photo album for proof. They were particularly pleased with the wedding present we provided them with - several bags of Cheetos! At special request of course!


Ian has got his head together with a couple of the ladies out here and they are now aiming to run the New York Marathon next year! If they can get in of course. So training has started just to start building up some miles and fitness. Ian has worked on the training plan, Vicky is looking up diet and nutrition, and Wendu has her action as well. Annalie is sure that Ian is just using this as an excuse to buy some new trainers ;o) It does mean that his Nike+ application is getting used in anger finally. He's bought himself an iTouch so that links up with the device in his trainer to record distance and time, plus minutes per mile, and keeps a training log for him. he's already seeing some improvements in his times.


It also means Maddy is getting a bit more exercise too. Although for some reason she doesn't seem to be losing much weight. Part of that might be the treats we have to give her as part of her own training regime. Ian did use the Nike+ on some of our regular walks with Maddy and we're averaging around 2 miles on some of our favoured local routes. Ian has also been taking her out on his bike so he's forcing her to run more, because she can be a lazy pooch at times! Her recall is getting better though, but as she's a beagle, it's definitely better when there's food involved.


And finally we thought we'd share some great pics of the Glastonbury area from a different perspective. Ian took a camera up on one of his flying lessons so you can see how green the surrounding area is, and how big some of the houses are! For those of you who have visited, you might just about recognise this place...

The whirlwind begins

Well, its been a pretty hectic couple of weeks, hence our lack of blogging, but we thought we'd better make time to put something in writing. But before we go any further, we have to tell you that you must register with this site otherwise you may not be able to come back and view it.

The first major bit of news is that Annalie has received her Masters result and has achieved a 2:1, despite scoring Firsts the rest of the way through the course. Her dissertation was a 2:1 due to the lack of primary research - but that's hardly surprising considering the amount of trouble she had getting JetBlue to respond to her emails, let alone arrange anything for her. Still, it's an excellent result, achieved alongside a full time job. The Graduation date has been set for Friday 27th November so we will be heading back to the UK for that. Luckily it is Thanksgiving Friday, so Annalie doesn't have to take any extra time off work - which would have been tricky considering all her holiday is going to be used up for New Zealand :-D

Ian has been carrying on with his flying lessons where time allows. His instructor is very popular so Ian sometimes struggles to find space in his diary. But he's still managed to sneak a few in. He's now doing pre-flight checks on his own and various maneouvres, like turns whilst changing altitude, approaches, taxiing, turns to headings and he is progressing well according to his instructor, who is very impressed. He claims it's like a duck to water!

A lot of our activities have been doggie-based lately as we've tried to get out and about and get Maddy even more settled. First there was the annual Dog Swim organised by the Wethersfield Dog Park. Annalie's friend Jenn introduced us, and Maddy, to her lab x Great Dane Isabelle, who is a gentle giant. Maddy was extremely uninterested in the swimming part of the dog swim, instead attempting to escape on numerous occasions to investigate a quieter part of the lakeside.

Then we went to "Bark in the Park", a doggie themed night at the local amateur (or semi-pro) baseball team, the inappropriately named (for this event at least!) New Britain Rock Cats! Maddy wasn't very interested in the game, but definitely showed a liking for our hot dogs! We also bumped into her lookalikey again, Chase, as he was there with his parents too. I don't think Maddy and Chase remembered each other though. There were some interesting dogs on show, including some that we recognised from the dog swim. One such dog was very recognisable, a young harlequin coloured Great Dane, or miniature horse! Here's a picture as proof - and it's not even fully-grown!

We've also had a visit from a dog trainer as we intend to start taking Maddy to obedience training once we get back from New Zealand. Jenn recommended some classes that are linked to an adoption charity so they are very cost-effective and do a lot of work with recent rescues. The trainer was pleased to come to a house where the issues are very minor compared to many new adopters who have severe behavioural problems to deal with. We have no such problems at all with Maddy and even the trainer suggested that she would make a great therapy dog as she's so calm and people-oriented, so we may look into that. We'd love her to help people out in some way. Anyway, we've got some homework to be getting on with before we start obedience, just to prepare the ground work. She doesn't need much work, but being a beagle, her recall skills aren't exactly spot on, so we're going out armed with plenty of treats to work on that one!

For instance, Annalie and Maddy went for a (very) wet Sunday morning walk down at Cotton Hollow. After some good recalls on the lead, Annalie got brave and let Maddy off. She was doing fairly well, stopping when called, but then she took off and just ignored Annalie's attempts to get her back. She'd spotted a person! It turned out that Veronica and her Spaniel, live right around the corner from us, so they joined up for the remainder of the walk. Even though Maddy was off the lead for the whole time, she managed to stay with us most of the way.

We've also played a little bit of golf lately. Annalie has been going to the IAE golf league a few times and we caught up with our mate Danny for a round at Minnechaug. We had to get some practice in as we were taking part in the annual IAE Charity Golf Day at Wintonbury Hills Golf Club. Although it is all fun and in the name of chariddeee (mate ;o) we didn't want to let the side down. Plus, one of our foursome had never even hit a golf ball in his life before that day! So we felt we had to make up for the (literal) handicap. Luckily our friend Andy lent us his brother-in-law as well, which worked in our favour as he was the best golfer of the three of us. Tom was also a really nice guy so we had a good laugh as well as playing some good golf. Ian was gutted though as we took the "Longest Drive" hole pretty early on, but he monstered his tee shot and easily took the lead. Unfortunately it wasn't there at the end though and he ended up clearly out-driven. There were some very good golfers out there though. Still, we enjoyed it.

For some strange reason, Annalie has decided to take up football/soccer again! Well, now that her group personal training has finished, she needs something to push her along! She has joined an indoor 7-a-side mixed team that some of her colleagues play on. The first night she turned up they lost power after 13 minutes so she didn't get much of a run out. The problem was that on week 2, the had a double-header, which meant two hours of football back-to-back!! Thankfully it's unlimited roll-on/roll-off subs, so she could grab a rest when needed, but it still hurt for a few days afterwards! She has decided to join up for the next session, even though she's not around for much of it with all her travelling.

When Annalie went out for the regular Girls' Night Out, Ian volunteered to look after Joe so that his Mum, Vicky, could come out with us. The two lads went off to Haddam Neck County Fair to see some real redneck activities like truck pulling! Boys and their toys ;o) Meanwhile the girls went for a change of scenery to West Hartford, a slightly more cosmopolitan and lively area. It was mainly the non-parents who turned out for this one (with a couple of exceptions of course!) and Annalie got back way past her bedtime ;o) Still, it is a long weekend as we have Labor Day on Monday, so there's plenty of time to recover.