>>> News On The Street! <<<

Gosh this has a whirlwind week! Routines started, moi the chauffeur again to the boys and everything back to normal!

The start of the week was extremely cold. Snow fell but only a little but the temperature was below 0 degree celcius so it kept the snow on the ground for a while, making driving conditions pretty bad, especially in place where they were not gritted (like the slope up to my driveway!!!) The boys didn't go back to school till the 6th and had a field time playing in the snow.

My little punk sweeping the snow off!

Since my Nikon 18-55mm broke (it became stuck and while removing it, heard a crack and that was it! Kaput!) I was devastated as it was one of my well-used lens. I've got another 55-200mm lens but not suitable for closeups! Hence I was debating whether to get another 18-55mm with VR. Then mid-week, a friend mentioned she got the 18-200mm lens... which got me thinking of the possibility of switching to that as I was constantly changing between my lens! Anyway, after a few searches on the net, found one selling rather cheaply at John Lewis! Didn't hesitated and got it straightaway! So today, I'm a proud owner of a monster lens.... who would have thought I will be so excited over a piece of glass!

Isn't she a beauty?!!!

I cherish the thought of not having to change between my lens now! Gotta go sell off my 55-200mm lens. It's no longer needed! Next on the list is a Nikon flash gun SB600! I need that badly!

Finally the last piece of good news is that I bought my air tix and I'm going home in summer! Yay!!!! Have been on the hunt since the beginning of this week and managed to find cheap fares provided I leave before the middle of July. After that, fares increased to double the price! I just couldn't believe it. Again after a few surfs, found a travel agent which sold the cheapest flight fares. Then hubs told me to check Emirates site and I discovered that it wasn't that much dearer, in fact it was £15 (overall fare) more to get from Emirates site. In this economic climate, I reckon Emirates is less likely to go under than a travel agent (which I've not used before!) so I ended up booking on the Emirate site. What more, I even sorted out meals as well as seating arrangements too (gotta luv the internet, god knows what I'll do without it now). So now my electronic tickets are all printed out and kept safely. Will even check in online a day before departure! Now I can sleep easy. In fact, this year's flight fares is far cheaper than last year and I thought I had net a bargain last year! Which makes me wonder, how do they set a flight fare... imagine a seat selling for £450 can suddenly double to £900 at certain periods.... just doesn't make sense! I supposed it's the same with Next clothes where one may find a coat for £80 and during sales, drop to £30! You just wonder, what is the nett price?!!

I'm sure I'm gonna regret slightly for leaving before term ends as the boys will miss out on a fair number of activities... most likely sports days, parties etc. BUT I'm not paying double price fares during school hols! That's daylight robbery!

All I can say, this has been a happy week for me! ;) Let's hope next week is equally good! TTFN!