Scattered Strawberry Summer

I've booked tickets to Lithuania- woop woop! I haven't been there for almost two years, we're planning to visit our grandparents and that's pretty much it. I think all my friends and former classmates in the capital now and we're not planning to go there, there won't be time. It will be interesting to see my hometown, where I spent my first 19 years and there I met my SO.

I haven't got any summer holidays booked. I'm not sure if I will. We're going to Spain in May for a wedding, short trip but it will be expensive. I wouldn't be fussed by not going away somewhere warm, if summers here wouldn't suck so bad... What's the point living by a seaside if the weather is hardly ever good enough for a nice swim in the sea?..

But also I think I will really need a good holiday this year. It's been very stressful at work, my new role is not easy but it's not only that, there are changes in the company and there's been resistance to these changes. On more positive note, my old manager has come back to the company in a different role, she is my all time favourite manager and I can't wait to see her.

I'm staying at a hotel again,. I'm away for a conference. Only took me 5 hours to get here. It' might quite nice change to get away from the office as there's been very negative atmosphere.

I've been away a lot lately, but I won't have many travels after this trip.It's nice to go away but I don't like being away from my SO and eating out whilst away when you're vegetarian always sucks. Is it me or most vegetarian options are with tomato and mozarella. Sometimes I just want to shout "you know there are plenty of other vegetarian ingredients!!.  And how many options are marked vegetarian but are made with Parmesan.

Also, I just found out that: The next few years could spell more for restaurateurs than disappointed diners, as the terms "vegetarian" and "vegan" will soon have legal status. UK Food Standards Agency labelling guidelines were adopted in principle by the European Union in 2010, and following a five year period for compliance civil suits may be brought against anyone misusing the terms from 2015. Just as a maker of parmesan can bring action against anyone outside the region using the p-word, so could offended diners against clueless chefs. Restaurants, manufacturers and publishers will really have to know their cheeses.". 

This is pretty amazing. I know it sucks for the restaurants, but you know what, tough. I've had my share of arguments with chefs about Parmesan.  

I'm upset. Why? I bought a new "toy" for myself and it hasn't arrived  today as promised.  Let me explain. I have Amazon Prime trial, which gives you free next day delivery, which worked perfectly when I bought my laptop, excellent service from DPD, even received an estimated hour of delivery. I bought yesterday a lens lumix 45-200mm from Amazon even though there was a cheaper one on ebay but delivery from 7 business days, so I thought I'll get one from Amazon and I'll enjoy my toy the next day.It was sent with HDNL. It was out for delivery, I was super excited and now it's back in the depot. Now I have to wait till Monday, I will be complaining to Amazon as  their guaranteed delivery is what convinced me to buy the lens from  them.

I also bought a phone. I could have bought something like Samsung Galaxy S3 (my god that screen is bright) but I find it ridiculous  that it costs the same as my laptop, so I decided to go for a mid range smartphone and  for left over money to get a lens that I have wanted for a long time. You see, I used to have a bridge camera with a 18x optical zoom and I feel limited with my 14-42mm lens.I would also like to get a prime lens, but I'm not very keen on Lumix 20mm F1.7,  as it's not that good for portraits. I might get olympus m.zuiko 45mm F1.8,but not yet, from next salary I'm getting a trip to Barcelona.

About the phone, it took me ages to decide which phone to buy. I had decided to buy HTC desire C when I saw reviews  that it's  quite slow, so I got Nokia Lumia 710, still not sure about it because it's windows phone. Will I like the tiles? I played with it the shop and I thought yeah I can get used to this. It's coming on Monday because Royal Mail doesn't do next day delivery on Saturdays, well not unless you pay extra £3.

We're also looking for a new flat, it's not easy, demand is high here and supply is very limited but I do hope to get out of this flat before another cold winter, fingers crossed.

Did you watch the Olympics opening ceremony? Did you also miss Benedict Cumberbatch's opening video? I didn't know he was going to be there and I was actually watching Scandal in Belgravia with a friend who hasn't seen it.

I'm going to boot fair tomorrow. so yay. I hope to find some good bargains

The big freeze started in November and today was the first time I saw some pavements being covered with grit. So far haven't seen any other effort to make this situation better in my town.  Last friday, my bf's journey from work lasted 6 hours instead of 1. Again, it was more because of the fear of  snow and ice than the actual snow and ice.  I was at work when it started snowing for the first time t hsi year, a colleauge  was afraid to  be snowed in. She actually feared she will have to spend a night at work because of no more than 5 cm of snow. and she lives 30+40 minutes walk away. Jeez.

Apparently, it costed 4bn pounds to British economy so far. and the argument for not buying enough equipment to deal with snow is that it might cost too much, especially because it doesn't snow that often. maybe, it's time to change this view.