November Spawned A Monster

I don't know about you, but I've spent far too much time enjoying this in November: shoes, endless pictures of shoes! That and working my tail off so I can use up the rest of my holiday days and lieu days before going home for Christmas (irony, no?).

One of the most exciting things that has happened to me lately is this:


(I've cut off the part with the incriminating stuff on it.) I haven't been this excited since getting my Metro Toronto Zoo Littlefoot Club card all those years ago. (My gym card doesn't quite bring such joy, redolent as it is of sweat, pain and tears.) Doesn't come close to matching the crazy but awesome giant LFC tattoo my friend just got, but now I'm at least an official fan. So yep, we're gonna put our names in the hat for tickets to another match this year. Fingers crossed! Not that the team has been performing well, but hey, you can't beat the experience of a match at Anfield. Especially when they win ... mind-blowing stuff.

We had a great long weekend in Wales while Jeff's parents were here. And except for the foul-mouthed, madly-gesticulating drivers I fell in love with the place. And wondered all over again why I don't just spend all my days rambling over hill and dale in the Brecon Beacons. While we were there I read, with envy, an article about a young couple who'd given up a hectic life in London City, and moved out to Wales to start a mail-order outdoor gear company. I'm torn between wanting to live in a place where you have endless green outside your door, and a place where you have a Second Cup and a Sephora close at hand. (Among other essential amenities.) But while I deliberate further, here are some photos from Southeastern Wales.

The ruins of Llanthony Priory, with a newer (but still quite old!) cottage built into them.

Hay-on-Wye.

Brecon Beacons (those are the ruins of an Iron Age fort in the foreground).

Tintern Abbey, of the Wordsworth poem.


What else? Ah, yes, the Tudors. We visited Hampton Court Palace recently and got our fill of Henry VIII trivia, so I was stoked to watch The Tudors on TV. Except, except ... what possessed them to cast the unlikeable Jonathan Rhys Meyers as a man meant to have been ginger-haired, strong, well over six feet tall and handsome (in his youth, at least)? And why use an actress with an LA fake tan, collagen lips and implants as a medieval princess? Not to mention the amusing departures from historical record and the video-game graphics when they show Whitehall in London. (That last part bothers Jeff more than it bothers me.) Oh well, that's entertainment! At least until we can get more episodes of 30 Rock.

Monthly progress report:
Number of slugs found in the bathtub: 1 (um, gross?!)
Number of Portugal travel guides purchased: 2
Number of frivolous magazines purchased: 3 (*hangs head*)
Number of mince tarts consumed: 4
Number of days I spent hobbling about in agony after an overzealous session on the leg press at the gym: 5
Number of days before I had handily reinjured myself at football: 1
Number of weeks I plan to stretch out this excuse for inactivity: 6! At least until New Year's Resolution time, heh.