Only three weeks left in beautiful Monstein and inevitably I feel like I haven’t taken advantage of the opportunities to explore as much as I could have! But you know.. I think I’m ok with that. I know when I need to chill out and I’m glad I didn’t send myself insane trying to do too much. (Thats what I’m telling myself anyway)

Last week I did go for a hike up a nearby mountain and that was ggreaaatt!!! Cant wait to do that again next weekend..

Just a few things I want to say before I go…

What else happened.. Squirrels have taken over my brain and I can’t remember..

Buckingham Palace

The weather was really nice the first day I arrived, which was LOVELY! I wandered around the gardens near the palace taking pictures and being a tourist..  Sadly, after that it got cold and wet and miserable. I spent so much time on the underground (subway) getting from place to place. I actually really like the underground system, it was sooo easy to get where I needed to go.

The first night I was there I went to see Les Miserables! It was really excellent.. The set design was neat too – the stage had a circular revolving platform built into the floor (a turntable I guess) which just meant people could move around a lot more.. And .. ah I can’t even explain the sets properly.. They were just really smart and looked really cool. Nice work John Napier (I think?)

I also spent an obscene amount of time in two different comic books shops and ended up spending toooo much money *sigh* but it was WORTH IT!

Thanks all for now..

If you can be bothered sitting through 8 minutes of me talking to myself / animals there are some cute bits in this video..

Hannah

I like your Tube system.. I like your efficiently presented maps and time tables. I like your pretty parks and your free wifi at Starbucks. I like that you drive on the left hand side of the road and I like your hairstyles. I like that you have special seats designated for the elderly on the trains and buses with politely worded signs encouraging people to be considerate. I like that people obey these signs. I like Big Ben, but it’s not as big as I thought it would be. Buckingham Palace isn’t that amazing looking a building, but I like it too. I like Westminster Abbey but I don’t like that it was closed to pesky tourists today. I like all that you have lots of Musicals and I like that you have Porridge at McDonalds. I like how easy it was to find my way around and I like how cheap the beer was that I just drank.

Your kebabs are a little salty though…

from
Hannah

Long story short I got a (very kindly done) schooling on what I have to BRING WITH ME next time I fly.. I must have looked innocently bewildered enough that the nice lady took pity on me and let me into her country.. Nice lady..

Then there was some fun trying to locate my lift! An exercise which was complicated by my phone running out of credit.

But alls well that ends well and I ate a kebab and got to chill out in a really cool Victorian style house. The hosts are really friendly and very helpful.

That’s all for now. Cheerio!

Youtube said that my video looked shaky and would I like them to fix it.. and I said yes… which is why it zooms all crazy! Kinda like the effect though..

This was a work in progress postcard I was making for a friend of mine. We didn’t end up using it, but I wanted to share it with the world anyway! I just love the guys face.. Makes me laugh every time.

Today was good Friday.. I find it absurd that I had a fun day in a ridiculously beautiful and awesome place on a such a day. Actually, I have found ordinary life strange and surprising almost everyday since coming to Switzerland.. The whole exercise of obtaining bread for the day, for instance, is exciting. “IM WALKING DOWN A MOUNTAIN IN THE ALPS TO THE SHOP! OH MY GOD THERE’S SOME SNOW! HOLY SHIT MAYBE I’LL BUY MILK! SOMEONE JUST SAID HELLO!!!!!!!!!” and etc.. Of course I am exaggerating but how it be if I lived everyday for the rest of my existence in constant delight over “ordinary” things? Some part of me thinks that would be to live more in touch with reality… Another part just thinks it would be tiring.

1. When you first use the WordPress Android app I think it gives you a screen like this (below). Click the ‘add a self hosted wordpress blog’ to enter the details the app will need to connect to the kitchen table blog. If you don’t see a screen like this then press the ‘menu’ button and select ‘add account’.

2. Now you should see a screen like this one. Enter the kitchen table url in the blog url field (http://kitchen-table.8the.net) and your name and password in the next two fields. If you have forgotten either of those you can give me a yell or go to the blog and click on the login link and then on the ‘I’ve forgotten my password’ link.

3. After clicking ‘save’ on the screen above you should see something like this:

Now we are ready to add a new blog post, so click on the “New Post” button.

4. Here is where we start waxing lyrical to the world about what has been happening.

Give your post a title. This can be changed later if needed, but it also forms the address (url) for the post – so if you send that link to anyone and then change the title the link may not work anymore.

5. Then in the ‘Content’ field say what you want to say. Even if you mainly want to just upload a photo or two please give us a description. We really do want to read what you want to say.

6. To upload a photo click on the camera icon below the bottom right-hand corner of the content field. You will then be given a choice to select a photo / video from the gallery on your phone / tablet or take a new one. We’re going to select from the gallery.

7. So next we see choose the gallery folder …

8. and then the photo from withing the folder … in both cases simply by clicking on it …

9. and a thumbnail of the photo appears in the content box. You can cut and paste to move it around or remove it completely if you want.

10. When you’ve finished editing your new post for now just click the ‘go back’ button on your phone or tablet.

11. You will then come back to the main post editing screen. Here we can do things like set the status of the post. In this case I want to save it as a draft and continue it later so I’m going to click on ‘Draft’ rather than ‘Publish’.

12. I’m also going to select a category to apply to my post. Categories are just a way to classify posts to make them easier to find later on. The ability to find posts by category makes some interesting things possible. For instance I apply a ‘table bits’ category to all posts on my personal blog that I want to be shared onto the kitchen table automatically. The list presented includes any categories that have been used in the past, but you can any new categories that take your fancy. I think the one I’m selecting in this case was originally used by Hannah in one of her blog posts. It feels appropriate here.

13. Next I’m going to push the ‘save’ button to save this gem for posterity. Up to this point all my hard work has been automatically saved within the app on the phone or tablet, but it has not been uploaded to the kitchen table blog server. If you have included a few big photos be prepared to wait while the upload takes place.

14. This brings me back to the main screen in the app. To see my saved post – possibly to resume editing – I can click on the ‘posts’ button.

15. From here I could press and hold the post title in the left column for a pop-up menu allowing me to do things to the post, or press the android menu button to add a new post, or press the android ‘back’ button to go back to the main screen.

That’s it for now folks. If you’ve got an Android phone or tablet grab the app and play with it. Just remember to set the post status to draft if you don’t want to offer your masterpiece to the unsuspecting world before it is fully baked.

Where is the cat? Is he ok? How do I pack snowboard boots? They’re huge! I ate too much asparagus. How will I know when to switch from a train to a bus tomorrow? I need to borrow that phone from Nick. How much is it to send an sms here? I hope my Citybank letter arrives soon. What about visa? Will I get a fine? How much money will this weekend cost? What is it to live in the spirit? Are wrist tattoo’s really a lesbian thing? I hope my washing dries before tomorrow morning. Will there be food on the train? Will the snow be any good at saas-fee? Will I get on with Kylies friends? I’m I going to get my period while snowboarding? Do I have pain killers? What will I do if I lose my painkillers? I mustn’t forget to clean up my room before I go. Don’t forget the garbage. I should have used less water when I stewed those apples. Am I keeping the place clean enough? Where is the cat? Is he ok? How do I pack……..

And so on and so forth.. I realised I was doing it before and made me laugh.