Alex: Setbacks

The Jones family have encountered a setback to the ongoing transplant process. Rebecca, Alex's mother, was first in line to provide a replacement kidney, as she was a good match. Recently, it has been discovered that her effective kidney function was slightly below the threshold for making her a viable donor candidate. A retest was done - but this just confirmed their fears - the hospital assures her she is not in danger from this - but they no longer consider it safe for her to be a donor. This came shortly after Mark & Rebecca receiving a letter from the transplant team saying it was a 'go'.
Understandably - this is a blow to the perceived path that this transplant was taking - after the miracle surrounding the heart condition discovered in Alex that subsequently just disappeared - the family were cautiously hopeful that they were on track for transplant.
As expected, the person who is handling this the best is, of course, Alex. We are thankful for his indomitable spirit and seemingly unshakable faith.

Please remember them in prayer.

Our Weekend

This weekend we got quite a bit done. On Friday Christian and I stopped at Thomas Cook to sign the last of our paperwork regarding our trip to Asia this September. Then he bought me a pretty spring dress I saw in NEXT. I love my new dress. Friday after work we went straight to Bromley, where we had Japanese dinner at Miso before going to see Agatha Christie's "The Hollow" at the Churchhill Theatre on the High Street. It was a spectacular production. The actors were amazing, as was the set. The storyline wasn't the strongest I'd seen in a play, but the characters more than made up for it. One of the patrons sitting behind us (we had the best seats in the house, Row F, Centre) couldn't stay for the Patron Champagne Social after the production so they gave the tickets to us. We were really excited till we walked in and realized all the patrons kinda knew each other and might figure out that we are not Mr. and Mrs. Peters, so we left.

On Saturday we finally watched "Memoirs of a Geisha", which we'd never seen before, and then went to Heather and Peters house for a Fajita night. Heather leaves no stone unturned, she had a Mexican flag on the front door, and little 4 year old Cameron opened the door wearing the most adorable Black and red Spanish dress. Tille was just as festive wearing a Minnie Mouse costume. I'm not sure what the connection is but when it comes to how cute she is, who really cares?
The food was, as usual, unbelievable. Heather's attention to detail is legendary. I did however stuff myself silly and have to unzip my skirt, but thats what makes a great meal.

Sunday was Mother's Day here in England, we picked up Christian's mum and took her to Church, where Heidi met us later. Afterwards, we picked up Nan as well and all went to the New World Noodle House in Orpington.

Grocery Bags of Joy

Christian & I have achieved a new level in our marriage. Tonight, for the first time, we had our groceries delivered to our door. This is when life begins.

We often did our shopping at one of two stores. Either the Morrisons in Biggin Hill or Sainsburys in Locksbottom, which is on our way home from work. Unfortunately, sometime in February they removed our town Morrisons & replaced it with a Waitrose. For those familiar with this store, I feel your empathy. For those who are not, it is a very nice shop that is too expensive for weekly shopping.

We did give it a try. We've been there several times, after all, we both work for a living. But the choices were few & the prices, in some cases, four times what we paid at Sainsburys. Then when we were coming home one day we saw a Sainsburys truck delivering groceries next door. I ran over & the driver told me it was about £5 per delivery, more than worth it if it spares us the 45 minutes a week we dedicate to our shopping.

Then we thought, if Sainsburys delivers, perhaps Tesco does too. Tesco is very good with alot of variety & excellent prices, but way too far out to make it sensible for us to drive there. Luckily, they did deliver. We just had a full weeks shopping dropped off for a £3.99 delivery charge. I also did like for like online between Sainsburys & Tesco, & its cheaper for us to have our groceries delivered than to actually go into Sainsburys.

This is a great day.

Asia here we come!!

During lunch today Christian & I visited our travel agent to put the finishing touches on our trip to Asia later this year.
It was custom built for us so it has everything we wanted. We'll be departing Heathrow Airport on September 7 to Beijing. In the ensuing days, we will see Suzhou, Xi'an, Guilin, Shanghai, & Hong Kong. We're getting the "Honeymoon Seats" on the flight to Hong Kong. I'm not sure what that means, but apparently it's only 2 seats together & we get plenty of legroom. She's so good to us.
Then off to Sydney. We'll be arriving there on September 20. Kristen's wedding is on the 23rd, then we will be flying back to Heathrow on the 25th, arriving on the 26th, very early in the morning with the full day to recover. The following day, back at work to finish paying for it!

11:39am

So I'm minding my own business working away at my desk when I get a phone call.
"(Company name), this is Kelly." I answer as usual. What I get is a long dialogue from a very upset British teenager. She was freaking out about her boyfriend stuck over in Iran. After a good 40 seconds of her ranting I cut in "Just a second, hon, just who do you think you called?" "The agency who can help my boyfriend" she replied.

That helps a lot.

So I asked her what number she dialed. It was 0870 XXY ZZZZ, & they told her to call my number, which is close at 02XX YYY ZZZZ, so I can see the mistake. I advised her that she had the wrong number & she kept going on, so to calm her down I starting asking her about what she'd done so far. Had she called the British Embassy? In Britain, yes. What about in Iran, did she call that? Well no, the British Embassy in Britain told her to & she hadn't yet. Well maybe it would be better if you had your boyfriend call the Embassy in Iran. Does he have a British passport? Well no. But he has a Kurdish passport.

Great.

"See, the thing is, Britain isn't all that keen on allowing people in permanently that do not have British Passports. Take this from me as an American living in London". So she went absolutely berserk at this point, saying that I had to understand that she has to help him in any way she could. It is QUITE apparent at this point that she still hasn't gotten the fact that I was a wrong number. Then she asked if she went over to him, would they let him back with her.

"No way" I replied "Dont even think about it. He doesnt have a British Passport, you're going over there will accomplish nothing, I KNOW that for sure". So I jumped online & found her the telephone number for the Embassy in Tehran (its 98 21 6670 5018, by the way) AND I connected her to it. When I told her she was connected to the Embassy in Tehran she just said "OK".

You're welcome.

New Laptop

Kelly just took delivery of her new Dell 630m laptop - which I have to say is very nice. I won't bore you with the technical specifications - just take it from me that I approve - and it's safe to say that HOPEFULLY this will mean less of me finding myself asleep in front of (or - more worringly - UNDER) my computer in the study.

Kelly's Eye....number One!

Its back....again.... I have Iritis. It should be called Irrititis, for all it does to my life. So I got the tell tale signs on Monday. Redness, sensitivity to light, soreness. It only gets worse till I get it sorted. So I made an appointment to see my doctor at Moorfields Eye Hospital this morning. Luckily, my doctor is wonderful & made sure I had meds in the fridge for when this happened again, so I was able to start my meds last night. I went into the hospital this morning in dark sunglasses with a very dilated right pupil. Had a hot cocoa as I waited, reading The Green Mile on my pocket pc which I keep putting off. Finally seen after 20 minutes (oh the wonder of private medicine). The doctor was not my usual one, but he was great. Very patient & helpful. Looked me over, told me I was doing the right thing, & charged me £150 for the privilege. Thats one expensive cup of hot cocoa. So I came back to the backlog of work waiting for me, gave Christian back his cell phone, as I left mine at home...again, & went straight to a fax machine to try to get that money back from Cigna.

Fun times.

Belated birthday meal

As if the Pizza excesses of last night were not enough - we served ourselves up more gastronomic punishment at the capable hands of FLUFFYBIRD DOGSTAND (aka Graeme Martin) ably assisted by the enormous beef joint we've had languishing in our freezer since August 2005. After much stomach-stuffing and quaffing and assorted nibbling we stretched our engorged frames around various parts of their living room whilst I tinkered idly with their new MONSTER PC which I'm sure is about to become self aware and take over mankind. I for one would like to welcome our metallic overlords, and stress that I for one will turn in any rebel.... you get the picture....

Cancer Research Quiz

This evening we attended a most entertaining charity quiz in aid of CANCER RESEARCH UK at the Hayes Village Hall. In attendance were Mother Sculpher, John & Sheila Wilkes and the Branchflowers. We didn't win - but came a respectable 5th place, which surprised us all as we'd sat around waiting for the nod to start reading our ROUND ONE question sheet - whilst all around us other teams beavered away answering questions. D'OH! Much Pizza was consumed, probably more than is safe without a net, but all in all an enjoyable time was had by all.

Dogstand Gig, the Catapult Club, New Cross

Friday was fun. After leaving a very long day at the office, Christian & I went to the local Thomas Cook to meet with our travel agent Jyoti (she booked our anniversary trip to Austria last May, we love her).
We're currently planning a trip to Australia later this year, for Kristen's wedding to Damien in September. Christian thought it would be a great opportunity to touch base in China as well. We had to stop off at the agents to go over the agenda Jyoti organized for us. It will be a multi-centre trip, touching base in Beijing, & a few other places I dont know how to spell.
We sent Jyoti away with some homework (to find out the prices of dinners, which didnt seem included, & to see if she can drop a 2 day stint in Hong Kong, as I feel its cutting it close). She should be getting back to us today on that.

Afterwards, we went to Wagamamas for dinner; a Japanese place in London that we really enjoy. As usual, I had my Salmon Ramen, which is just too divine.

After that, we jumped on the train to New Cross, to go see our friends band. Of course, when we got out of the station, we walked 2 miles in both directions, in the cold, before finally giving in to the fact we were lost, so Christian called Caroline. New Cross is a place in London where you dont want to get lost.

We finally arrived at the pub, the Amersham Arms, at 7:30ish. The bands didnt kick off till almost 10pm, & while I must admit we were super tired and dreadfully sensitive to the amount of cigarette smoke in there, the band was absolutely kicking. Theyre called DOGSTAND (connect to their website) and we love them. I had to contain the screaming groupie banging to get out of me. Christian photographed the event, and the pictures will be on our website soon.

I had heard their music before, as Caroline had given us a CD, but its just not the same. You can listen to their stuff on their myspace website here.

Sometime around almost 2 we left with Caroline and Graeme, and stopped for chips and kebab, before heading off to their house for this very very late supper.

Christian & I slept till 1pm on Saturday. Oh, we needed that.