<!--extended-->

My garden has been thriving of late, with the tomato plants growing so big their bamboo stakes were useless and I resorted to propping them up with chairs. Flowers have been appearing on the sweet peas and the two gigantic tomato bushes (calling them plants is doing them an injustice). Aphids were plenty but so were the wee ants which seemed to be keeping damage to a manageable level and I was day dreaming about the salads I could make with my home grown lettuce and toms.

But disaster has now struck. This week has been a pretty punishing one, with several late nights and early starts thanks to work so the plants had been forgotten. This morning I opened the door to the outside world and found the neglect had taken its toll.

The once flourishing deep green lettuce has wilted to brown limp shreds, the coriander is yellow and my one producing tomato plant was unhealthy and limp. There was frantic splashing as water was hurriedly applied and I hope some of the damage may yet be undone.

Maybe it is too soon for a puppy......

<!--extended-->

After visiting Dona (James' mum) in April and eating the fresh veges from her garden, I decided it was time to grow my own. A fine idea, but more difficult to put into practice when you don't have a car to carry things back in. Especially as the small outside area in my flat is fully tiled, meaning for the first time in my life I would have to buy soil. I seem to have spent most of my childhood moving it, growing in it, shaping it, forming it and even rolling in it (football). But never before have I ever been so short of soil that I needed to buy it.

I did look at getting plants delivered and found you can basically have an entire kitchen garden delivered to your door (link). But decided it would be better to start small and actually have room to move outside. So a trip to the local DIY superstore beckoned - well I say local but the main aim was to find one near a Tube or rail station. I roped James in and we braved odd looks in the carriage to return with bags of soil and some very small seedlings to plant - tomato and lettuce plants at about 5 cm high.

Now about 1 month later I have a flourishing garden to defend from the local slugs and snails, and lovely cherry tomatoes which actually have taste! My 'beefsteak' and 'italian' tomato plants have flourished from 5cms high to about half a metre and have flowers so hopefully not long till we have some large toms too!

<!--extended-->

Ok this blog has been sadly neglected for many months, but I'll feeling more like correcting that than I have in a while so here goes....

For the last few months life has seemed either too busy or too slow to write about. Too much to do rather than write and then nothing to write about. But of course that isn't true.

Since August I've been to Ireland, France, Germany and even back to NZ, I've joined a footy team again (yay) and broken my hand (boo), sat three exams, been to a wedding, taken many baths and spent entire weekends doing nothing but Warcraft. Sounds like a lot when you put it like that.

The latest adventure on the list was the trip to NZ for Jen's wedding. My sister is at last happily married and it was a lovely day (pics here). A super 2 weeks in NZ and off work seems to have kick started my brain from its winter slumber and I'm waking up again.

So no promises to keep this very updated but it is a start. Even if its a fair bet that most of my blogs will involve footy, WOW and my very new and very small garden. (Huzzah for tomatos which actually have some taste!)

<!--extended-->

Following the torrents of bad weather through June and July, summer finally arrived with a vengeance this weekend. After sweating through 27 degree heat yesterday we saw the forecast for today was over 30! So I forced James out of the house and off to the traditional seaside home for Londoners - Brighton.

Seemed like everyone else in London had the same idea so the train was packed this morning. So much so that James had a chance to do a little first aiding as someone fainted in the heat. Typically though, after shouting frantically for a first aider they then ignored everything he said so it was with relief we were finally released from the sweltering carriage.

First stop was the 'Royal Pavilion' built for the playboy Prince Regent who was later George the IV. Its a fantasy of Indian architecture which was all the rage when the villa was being rebuilt. An odd sight in the midst of the city, and one can see why it wasn't a favorite of the conservative Queen Victoria. She sold it to the town in 1850. James took a few photos of the exterior (the interior was £8 entry and the beach was beckoning.)

After a meander along the pier - taking in the ride which inspired the Beatles hit 'Helter Skelter' we made camp in the shade of the ruined 'West Pier' for swimming. It was fantastic to be in the water again and beach filled up ridiculously quickly. The heat sent us back into the town for a huge lunch at a nice wee Italian before sweltering on the train back to London to investigate my sunburn (whoops).

<!--extended-->

Just came across a story of a flight in NZ delayed so the Pilots could get their takeaways. Only in NZ would the plane load of passangers sit on a plane while the pilot went inside to pick up his fish and chips. Only in NZ would they know not to get between a man and his Watties sauce.

More here.

<!--extended-->

The exhibition of the Heart is on at the Wellcome collection here in London. An eccentric millionaire, who James hopes one day to emulate, collected thousands of medical curios and some of Sir Henry Wellcome's collections are on permanent display here in the Galleries on Euston Road.

Last Sunday, James and I took a break from the thunderstorms of the current English summer to have a nose. And it was well worth the look. The 'Heart' exhibition was a collection of all sorts of things, brought together as they had something to do with that organ. From early Greek teachings that the heart and lungs were separate, to a film about open heart surgery (I didn't manage that one for too long.)

There were Arabic and chinese teachings from the dark ages in the same room as films of MRI scans showing a healthy and diseased heart beating away. It wasn't all about teaching though. This guy had managed to collect an original Aztec knife and alter used for their human sacrifices. These were displayed opposite a 1960's newsreel about the first heart transplant and the South African doctor - oddly it fitted.

Aside from the operation video, set to bloody ranting of some American evangelist, the other other object to give me a turn was also fascinatingly grotesque. They were two large tables from northern Italy circa 15th century. The veins of an unnamed person had been painstakingly extracted and laid out on the table in position before being varnished down. That these men had done this to further their understanding at a time when the all-powerful church condemned dissection was admirable, the result was fascinating and disturbing all at once.

Upstairs, the random collection continued, from torture masks and chairs to models used to teach early obstetrics. There were shoes for people with bound feet next to scarifying kits and Victorian snuff boxes hiding erotic scenes.

An odd and fascinating collecting, well worth a look on these damp, Sunday afternoons.

<!--extended-->

James has rediscovered the joys of World of Warcraft and after only a few weeks hard grafting with his new Mage character is now a level 45. This has taken quite a few evenings and one might think I've been using my time wisely writing and blogging. But Sean Bean has been on the box. UKTV History have been doing re-runs of the 1990's series of 'Sharpe' and frankly what else is a girl to do?

Still its coming to an end just in time for the second series of 'Rome', the joint effort between HBO and the BBC. It is quite fantastic, American money thrown behind a british script and actors make for ripping viewing. Well worth watching. The first series leads up the the assassination of Julius Caeser and this next covers the power struggle following.

It is just as well the viewing has been good as the weather certainly hasn't been. One month into summer and we are struggling to get over 20 degrees. The UK has had the wettest June on record with thousands forced from their homes up north. London has missed most of it but at the moment the Wimbledon Tennis Open is on so the weather has truly packed up. On Tuesday this week a freak thunderstorm flooded main roads and the hail was banked up ankle deep. I've been rained on every day this week - Ah a British summer. (James' photo of the hail from our flat).

Still finish on a laugh as they say and I've just come across this in the Harpers Wine and Spirit magazine. A new series of Manga comics devoted to the subject of fine wine is proving popular in Japan. Kami no Shizuku ('The Drops of God') had this tasting note:

"The aroma is like a rock concert, with notes of butterflies dancing over a pond and an aftertaste of Jesus Christ and his disciples."

Damn I'd love to try that wine.

<!--extended-->

Its been something I've been meaning to do for donkeys years, every one has 'learn a language' on their 'to do at some point' list. My language to learn is French. I've had a notion it would be a handy language to get a grip on ever since I started working in wineries.

<!--extended-->

Well thanks to the free trial on offer after their 'Burning Crusades' release, I've wasted most of my weekend playing World of Warcraft (WOW) again. Impressively my character was still on their system. They say they keep them for at least six months, but as it has been a year since my subscription lapsed I was expecting to have to start all over again.

<!--extended-->

Today I was a happy cyclist. My rides to work and back felt the safest and fastest yet. This is because I rode in the middle of the road and made drivers think about me. The fact I was there and made myself an issue on the road meant they had to allow for me as they drove.