Presents and a prize

Rented bicycle in Berlin, March 2013

It's been present-tastic at Lola Towers, partly due to my birthday and Mr A's birthday being less than a week apart, and partly because I've won another blog prize - this time, a box full of gluten-free snacks from Veronica's Snacks via The Happy Coeliac blog, and a tote bag to carry my snacks in. All I had to do was to suggest a new flavour for their crisps.

It's been a while since I gave you a social update, so in brief:

• Mr A and I have done a lot of 'gardening', which consists of pruning, hacking, bagging and dumping vast amounts of shrubbery, and in Mr A's case, sawing down and then digging out the roots of our sadly deceased ceanothus.
• We have had another posh dinner at Queans to celebrate our birthdays.
• I have had ongoing car trouble involving the brakes, ever since the service in March. The car has done over 180,000 miles and (apart from the brakes) is still in perfect working order, but will unfortunately need further attention from the garage. They are being very reasonable about it, acknowledging the fault and trying to remedy it without charge, but so far without success.
• I have a new Nexus 7 tablet, which I am still getting used to. Unfortunately, it is not quite as good as a laptop for Facebook and blogging (which is mostly what I do), and complains that it isn't compatible with BBC iPlayer or the Carbs & Cals app. It does run Skype, which my laptop has stopped doing, so that's one benefit I suppose, but I'm hoping to mend my laptop as soon as I find the MS Office CD.
• I have been out for pizza twice with work colleagues - once with the new lot and once with the ones from my previous job. I like the old lot better, and there may be a Diabetes job advertised there soon, but it is likely to be part time and temporary, and therefore not as good as the job I have now.
• I tried to do some homework on my case study, but my housemates came home and turned on the TV. My room is too small to work effectively, and at work they won't allow wireless access for personal laptops. I have put in a request for an update to the browser on the office PC, because at the moment the technology they're using is so rubbish that I can't use it properly for academic research.
• I have been cycling to work a bit, which has been a great deal easier since Dr Bike adjusted my saddle. The Trust is very supportive of cycling, and will fund half an hour for free basic servicing with Dr Bike up to once a month for staff. I also have a locker in a changing room with showers and free use of towels.

There will probably be more cycling news soon, because I have taken some photos of my route to work on a sunny day this week. I can also announce that, for the first time, I managed to cycle all the way up the steep hill to my weekday lodging. My legs subsequently turned to jelly and I felt sick, but I'm hoping it will get easier!

Prizes!