Bristol Calling

So C&O got home Ok, but with an unplanned extra day in LA, and sans luggage. They made the most of the stopover by going to Universal Studios, and the lack of luggage was only a smalls problem for C. It turned up three or four days later.



The IRD gave her a fright as they chased her to find out why she had been getting income from an investment company. It turned out to be her employer's company name, so it wasn't a problem. We have our own tax issues to sort out as we are still considered NZ resident and have to file a return there that multiplies our UK income by three and puts us into the top tax bracket! Anyway...



A planned poker night didn't come together so we went out with our Italian neighbour, who was all alone while his family were at home in Milan for a break. It was a nice evening getting to know him a bit.



J's been crazy at work, while I've been rather quiet. I've been creating lots of charts in Excel so I'm getting to know my way around them pretty well. Pivot tables and charts. Yee ha.



We're trying to get our heads around our next trip. It'll be more expensive this time because we're moving around and we won't be able to get a university student flat like last time. We've been looking on the 'Net and the prices have been... daunting. Still, there'll be three sharing the cost (or perhaps four). A bigger question is how to manage the move to Edinburgh...



I checked out the Book Barn last weekend. It's massive and I didn't manage to get through the military section in the 5 hours I was there. Mind you, there is no organisation so you have to look at every book. I bought none.



We had dinner at M, C & m's which was nice. We made balloon animals (all of which looked like sausage dogs), and talked about M's granddad who had won a Military Medal in WW2. M hadn't quite realised its significance, and when I got home I did a bit of delving to give him some avenues to research. The man was in the Royal Horse Artillery and must have won the medal in the early battles in North Africa. Late 1940 I think. I'll follow it up in the NA next time I'm in there, and M's going to have a look at his granddad's local newspaper as well.



I've been mapping on Google Earth to fill in the hours, but picked up another Richard Morgan book - Market Forces. I liked this author's first three books, and while this is not in the same 'universe' as the others, it's a good read. All about what happens if capitalism has no regulation. I recommend him to SciFi fans.



I put some photos into the previous post, so you might like to check back. Follow the link there anyway to see Barcelona.