The Adventures of Bear and Butterfly

So we’ve been pretty good at getting our pics & vids up, but for some reason the blogging side keeps getting pushed back later & later.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, & besides, we are busy people!!  Too busy doing stuff, which is the whole point of us being here… but I know our mummys & daddys want to hear more from us so here goes the catch up…  I’ve made links along the way (the writing in a different colour) so you can easily find the websites, pics or vids that go with the tale…

Out & about:  We had some snow at the beginning of April in Reading, Portishead, Derren Brown (he came to Reading!  We are convinced that he is very, very spooky), Bjork (such an amazing concert which Kim & Ez accompanied me to- Toumani Diabate performed  as well- he’s a Kora player from Mali), a beautiful Inka Essenhigh exhibition at the Victorio Miro gallery with Kim, fun drinks out with Kim & her teacher friends, a walk from Pangbourne to Theale through a Bluebell Forest, the Grand Design show in London, Kim taught me how to make wings, Foo Fighters concert in June with Rachael (where Jimmy Page & John Paul Jones from Led Zep joined for the encore), a Silent Disco with Chantal & Josh,  Radiohead (with Ez, Kim, Nik & Dawn- Bodra doesn’t care much for Radiohead- his loss!!!), Shihad with Paul & Rach, a funny photo shoot with Kim at Studio64, a delicious chocolate experience with friends at William Curley in London, exploring the English Countryside at Basildon Park & the Vyne with Dewi, friends having babies (Sarah & Lukas, Gareth & Angela, Tibor & Lavinia, Jo & Chris), Boom Festival… & I’m sure there is more that I just can’t remember right now!

Travel: Sweeps Festival in Rochester May 3rd, Glastonbury for a weekend away from Reading at the end of May (where we stayed at Jasmin Cottage & had a lovely long walk in the drizzle), Bodra went to Paris for Blizzard Geek World Wide Invitational at the end of June, Lisbon in Portugal, South of Spain & Barcelona in August, Malta for Bodra’s Birthday, Totnes in Devon, England in September…

We moved flat again in the middle of July & we were lucky enough to have Paul, Rachael & David make it a fairly stress-free event.  As our apartment was mostly unfurnished Paul & Rachael gifted us with some lovely bits n pieces- I’m still raving about the actual non-stick frying pan!  (Getting very domestic these days- scary!)  Our apartment block is very close to the River Thames so bird life is very close-by!

I started my first temp position via a recruitment agency at Thames Water.  Data-base admin, nothing too exciting.  That position ended up becoming a bit unpredictable as the whole interest-crashy-mortgage-market-thing impacted the work we had so I wasn’t working as much as I wanted.  So I told them where they can stick their job… no I didn’t.  Anyway, this Tuesday I begin a new job working for CfBT an Education Trust Charity thingy… admin again but hopefully more stable & it will pay me an extra squid per hour- yahoo!!

Bodra continues with Symantec, visiting far-flung places like Turin (blurgggghhh!!!) & his favourite place- Riyadh!  Hopefully not for much longer as the other BCE dude from Egypt is meant to be covering that region… Bodra will also be going to Dublin again in October for some more training & boozing/socialising.

So our big trips since our last blog… PORTUGAL!  Not bad at all for Europe, wasn’t too hot, Lisbon was kind of pretty with it’s murals of tiles all over the buildings & walls.  We really liked their aquarium which is designed to show all the different oceans around our little world.  We saw puffins for the first time, were quite astounded by the massive sunfish, & enamoured by the leafy sea-dragon & cuttlefish.

Our Lisbon pics can be viewed:here

Aquarium vids are here: & one Lisbon vid:

We had loads of fun at the Boom festival, camping in a Unesco Geopark- Naturetejo- trying to dodge the sun, swimming in the Lake Idanha-a-Nova, dancing a wee bit, eating yummy vege fare, enjoying the festive atmosphere & spending some time with our new & old friends!

Our Boom pics can be viewed: here Our Boom vids can be viewed: here

After the Festival we bussed by night to Sevilla in Spain- Bodra is now sworn off travelling by coach (I thought our trip to Germany sealed that deal?).  Sevilla had Bodra in the bunk bed of our hostel trying to recover from Boom Belly, while Mike, Dan & I braved the heat to explore the city & had a tour through El Alcazar.  Sometimes it can be hard to appreciate where you are when you have to deal with heat, but we made a pretty good attempt at getting to know Sevilla.  I really liked it when we stopped at the Haggen Daas cafe for ice cream.

The South of Spain did not live up to any expectations we may have had.  Bodra says “In fact it sucked.”  (He isn’t always so eloquent you know.)  Very hot, even at night it was hot.  The beaches were littered & crowded, the water was polluted, cigarette butts everywhere.  Crappy Spanish food to contend with too.  We are officially over Europe.

Barcelona was wonderful- great vegetarian food, clean (ish- for Europe anyway), loads to do that interested us.  We thought the Gaudi buildings were pretty cool- I especially liked the atmosphere at the Park Guell, Bodra thinks they should definitely hold a rave there.  Bodra has promised to take me back to the Sagrada Familia once it’s finished- they’ve been building it for over a century now so it can’t be too far off… can it?  Barcelona restored our faith that Europe can be a pleasant experience…

Spain pics can be viewed: here & our vids.

We had a unique dining experience for Bodra’s birthday- Mike, Chantal, Ezra, Kim, Paul & Rachael joined us for dining in the dark!  We went to a restaurant called Dans le Noir, where the wait staff are blind & the meals are a mystery!

Russell, Alanna, Paul, Rachael, Bodra & I all went to Malta for a few days after Bodra’s 29th.  It was a fairly relaxed holiday despite the major humidity we suffered.  Food started off good but then got progressively worse (our fault for not eating fish), our hotel was pretty cruddy (Bodra has promised me we never need to do 3 star hotels ever again) but it did have one redeeming feature- an Escher-like stairwell that tripped Bodra out everytime he walked down it.  We enjoyed fireworks in the evening which I initially thought was part of a pirate invasion re-enactment as they sounded like cannons blasting.  Apparently Malta is famous for fireworks.   We really enjoyed our swims out at Comino & Gozo Island- easily the highlights of this Summer.

Malta pics can be viewed here: Malta vids can be viewed here:

So yes, we went to Totnes while I did my first Yoga workshop.  I have started a correspondence diploma in Yoga Teacher Training- more that I just want to understand Yoga more, & if it all makes sense then perhaps I will teach it one day when my hair is white & flowing & I look more like a sage.  Bodra drove me down there & while I was on the course he went for a drive through Dartmoor National Park to Lydford Gorge.  The area was mostly rocky & barren, but there was a pretty river there as well as the Devil’s Cauldron!! That evening, Bodra took me to the coast where we enjoyed some time by the ocean on a pebbly beach called Blackpool Sands.  Here’s a vid showing what the country roads are like… & what the countryside is like…

Yesterday we went for a massive 8 mile hike from Marlow to Henley on Thames with our lovely friend Dewi.  It was very foggy, cool & crisp in the morning, but it wasn’t very long into our walk where that all burnt off & we had a nice sunny day.  Walking along the Thames Path enjoying the bird life & nature, eating at the lovely Flower Pot Inn… very achey & tired by the end of it!!  Here’s a little vid of a spot along the way.

Hopefully this blog will be sufficient.  Now I need to do some study!!  We hope you are all super & healthy & enjoying every moment!

<3 Jasmin & Bodra

We’ve had a great relaxing weekend, yummy food, a movie yesterday (’The Number 23′ semi-entertaining thriller with Jim Carey as a paranoid dog-catcher), Lunar Eclipse last night & lots of reading & massage today! I’m munching on a rich, creamy Belgian truffle right now- buttery & chocolate goodness!

I am three weeks into my new job with David. It is wonderful going to work & doing my job, being appreciated, having the time fly by & soon it is Friday again & I have had a completely stress-free week which hasn’t zapped me of all my energy! At this stage the job is pretty mundane, I am going through each of the mortgage offers he has completed & putting them onto a system. He has three cabinets (two drawers each) filled with folders containing the mortgage process for each client. I am challenging myself by trying to go faster & trying to be as observant as I can about each case, so I can learn the various ways a mortgage can go. I am looking forward to having a more active role with his new cases & seeing where that will lead.

Bodra & I are doing really well. We have just started ordering our food from Abel & Cole, a company which delivers locally grown organic groceries. We saw a movie recently- ‘An Inconvenient Truth’- which made us realise we were contributing unnecessarily to carbon pollution by purchasing food which is air-freighted here. I thought it was quite exotic having beans from Egypt & apples from Brazil. But now I realise how that also contributes to the carbon crisis the Earth is facing right now… So now we are eating even more healthily & we feel awesome, energetic & very happy!

Last weekend we went to Bristol for a dance party. Bodra hired a car so it was great not having to plan around public transport. We didn’t have presale tickets so we had to get there when the doors opened & then stand in queue waiting for a ticket. It was a good opportunity to check out the different people attending- everyone seemed very friendly & positive. Lots of feral looking people. A hippie bus turned up & parked opposite the queue & an elder hippie man jumped out, his mongrel dog perched on the dashboard watching his Master go into the club.

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We were a bit worried as there were heaps of people in the queue & apparently only 70 tickets on door sale. One of the girls ahead of us kept pacing from the front of the queue to her place trying to count how many people there were & it looked like it was going to be a slim chance for us to get in. It started to rain aswell, so Bodra & I waited, hoods up gradually becoming quite saturated & increasingly anxious as to whether our efforts would prove futile. Luckily the Gods of Psy were looking upon us favourably as we moved closer to the front & the bouncer said ‘Only five more!’ Bodra & I were the last two! Yahoo!

That part of the night over we joined the next queue- coat check. The music was so good a lot of us were bouncing around while waiting. You get used to waiting in queues in this country & just make the most of the situation. There were lots of people with UV face paint with neat tribal designs painted on their skin. Very colourful people.
The club was amazing. Every wall had UV art work on it. In the main room the DJ was set up in a Space Ship Control Centre stage. In another room the walls were painted with characters & excerpts from The Jabberwocky. The chill out room was decorated like a butterfly jungle. We’ll definitely be returning there in July once the smoke-ban is in place.
We had a really good night together- lasted until 4am before we were getting dangerously weary for the drive home. Naturally I had a wee snooze during the ride home, I tried really hard to keep my eyes open to help Bodra but he was fine. I only dozed for a few minutes. Bodra took the car back to the hire place while I de-smoked myself & prepared for a welcome rest.

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This weekend we’ve managed to sort out our tickets for our trip to Italy in September with my Mummy & Daddy. Really looking forward to that adventure- now we need to plan where we go & sort out transport, & I can tell you I am not that excited about those Internet searches.

Not too much planned until our trip to Thailand in April. (Can’t wait for the warmth & the ocean!) A friend who I met through Ayurveda Retreat, Dewi, will be using me as her Case Study for her Aroma-massage & Reiki practice. I am so lucky!!! Next weekend I will be having some lovely ladies over while Bodra goes to Earl’s Court for his weekend course on Spread-betting. The following week I will be having some Shamanic Healing done on me by Chris Waters http://www.life-times.co.uk/ - I wonder what that will reveal! Then, the next weekend we will be going into London to watch NZ vs England in Cricket at the Temple Walkabout. That Saturday, St. Patricks Day, it will be a whole year since we left NZ! Hmmm… seems like there is a lot going on!

Keep the postcards coming! Kim & Ez sent us one from Paris- they had a lovely holiday there over Valentines, lots of sightseeing & stair climbing!