Minsmere Nature Reserve

I visited the Minsmere RSPB nature reserve today. It's a nice place to visit. There are two 1.5 mile walks dotted with birdwatching blinds. The RSPB looks like they've put a lot of thought into the design of the place. It's just unfortunate that Suffolk has been under a bit of a drought lately and so the lakes there have shrunk and in some cases disappeared. Still, there was a nice selection of birds and other critters around the reserve. My favourite was a magpie that seemed to be following us around the reserve. On second thought, it could have been several magpies...

Inspired

After watching The Lost Land of the Volcano I was inspired to get out search for some wildlife discovers of my own. Granted I may have only made it as far as the back garden and I doubt I discovered any new species but I think I managed to get some interesting macro shots.

CELTA precourse task

Bloody modal auxiliary verbs and progressive aspects and participle clauses. This precourse task that I initially dismissed as just being time consuming is proving itself to be both difficult and time consuming.
As a native English speaker I implicitly know a lot of grammar rules. I can tell when a sentence is correct or not. I'm now realising that I need to be able to explain why its correct as well. This precourse task is actually pretty useful in that respect. It's just my own fault for not having started to chip away at it earlier. Still, I've got over a week to do it.
I have made good progress in other areas of preparation for my move to Thailand. I booked my flight pretty quick, I've got accommodation booked and paid for. I've bought most of the odd bits and bobs I want to take along to Thailand.
That said there's still a whole bunch of little things I need to sort out. Things that I could probably sort out in a well spent day or two. It's just that I've got very good at not doing much with my days. I blame the two evils of broadband internet and satellite television. Obviously it's nothing to do with a lack of willpower or poor time management on my behalf. Hmmm.

Strange Lakes

On a walk along a beach in Seaham, County Durham, I came across these wonderfully colourful lakes. The beach was used as a dumping ground for mining waste until the practice was banned in 1991. The dumping devastated the local ecology but the mineral deposits left behind these strange and interesting pools. Enjoy.

Colchester

Met up with some university friends yesterday in Colchester. We had a great time catching up on the year gone by. It's great to see friends for whom so much and so little has changed. We're all very much the same as we've always been and yet we're all at new and exciting points in our lives. I'm off to Thailand soon, Dan is soon to finish his Masters course and Sean is about to start one. I'm glad to have friends that, after a year of absence I can see again as though no time has passed. Plus playing Halo 3 again with Dan has been a long time coming :)

Getting fit, again.

Went out on a bike ride with Dan yesterday. We covered about 30 miles, which isn't bad for my first time back on the saddle for over a year. I did get the feeling that 'Ironman' Dan was probably finding the ride to be an easy one, despite his claims of also being out of shape.
We went from my folks place, through Ipswich and then towards Hadleigh. I don't really know the area and Dan only has a slightly better idea than me, but he managed to take us on a decent route. It wasn't intended as a training ride, more of something to do while we chatted. It was a great day for it, albeit a little windy.
It's given me some motivation to start to try and get back into proper shape. I shouldn't be too hard on myself, but I can't help but feel like I'm being lazy when, at university, I was spending about 14 hours a week training, which went down to about 5 hours a week, at best, in Korea. Dan did point out that working full time might have something to do with that. Still it would be nice to try and get back into a routine again. At the moment I'm not even getting 5 hours a week in so I should try and make a start soon.

Suffolk Birds

Family on the water

Katherine crewing a Lark

Dad at the front of the Squib, back of the race

Back

It's nice to be back in the UK. Understanding what people are saying, being able to read signs without sounding them out, tea. It's also great to see the folks again. They were good enough to pick me up from the airport and now I've got a place to stay. Bonus.
I'm looking forward to meeting up with old friends and family. I'm also looking forward to taking lots of lovely pictures here in the UK. Last night my dad and I were pouring over OS maps of the area for nice places to go. I've got the use of my sister's car, which isn't of much use to her yet as she hasn't passed her driving test. We'll see how that goes.
I've also got a years worth of Professional Photographer magazine to work through since I forgot to cancel that subscription before I left. Kind of glad I didn't cancel it now.

Out

As of 12:50pm RoK time I am no longer calling South Korea home. Technically I moved out of my Korean apartment before I went to Korea and returned to Korea as a tourist but now I am on my way back to the UK. At the time of writing I am in the departures lounge of Moscow airport waiting for my 20:45 aeroflot flight to London Heathrow.
I had a hell of a time checking out of Korea. My bags were over-weight so I tried removing all my books but that wasn't enough so I had to re-pack stuff I would need more immediately and mailing everything else to myself in the UK. Courtney was an amazing help through this. She took the initiative going to the post office and grabbing a box. Despite getting to Incheon an hour before my check-in even opened I was still in a rush to get to my gate. Still, in the grand scheme of things its not that bad. It added an extra element to a day that was already full of extra elements but it wasn't like I was in mortal danger or anything. I suppose I should use this as something to think back on next time I consider acquiring more stuff.