Carter family

Not performed on the night

2012-02-03T18:09:00.000Z

Brian's piece wasn't performed in the concert last night, which I was very miffed about - especially as they just said 'it's too long'. However in a spirit of fairness I think they actually meant that they didn't have enough rehearsal time to do it properly and perform it that night, which is a more valid excuse.

Brian did get to hear it though. They worked through all 6 pieces chosed for the workshop and did record them so we have a recording of the second run through, which is far from perfect but still nice to have.

He was very happy with it. It has done what he wanted it to do, and sounds really good, even in the not fully rehearsed version we have. There were lots of people in the Wales music world there and he got lots and lots of positive comments about the piece which is all really encouraging. The conductor, Jac van Steen, is back in my good books now because he has told B to keep in touch and will see if he can find a European orchestra which might be interested.

It has definitely raised his profile locally and let people know the quality of his work, which they didn't before and that is important and could be something really solid to build on.

The other thing - and I can't remember if I mentioned this before is that there is an American company called Parma recordings who are going to record the same piece in a cd with other composer's works. The recording is being done in St Petersburg so B isn't going over there, but will be Skyping into the rehearsals. He does have to pay towards it, but although not cheap, you couldn't get the quality of the cd and the marketing etc doing anything yourself so he has decided it is a worthwhile investment (not financially but in all other respects). So when that is available it is sold through Naxos and we can look him up on Amazon!

How exciting will that be??

Candid camera

2012-01-28T16:56:00.001Z

Walton beach

Folly at Wimpole Hall. This was built so people could admire it from the house

Hill climbing in Cambridgeshire

Tea on the pier

This winter has been surprisingly mild. Jolly good too, if you ask me. So Trev and I have been making the most of it and going for interesting walks at the weekend. Trev longs to take “a moment of magic” photo. However half the time his camera is in his back pack. We went for a walk in Hatfield Forest recently with Jill and while we were pausing for some water a deer ran past, then two more deer ran past, then about twenty deer ran past. Then Trev said “I’m getting my camera out!”. Needless to say that was the end of any native wild life for that day.

So today Trev had his camera out and was ready but most of our encounters with nature were aural. We heard a woodpecker (really a little early in the year for that sort of thing) then we heard a tawny owl. He took a few photos but when I went to take a photo of him the batteries had died. Hey ho! It’ll happen one day.

Here are some pictures of our walks, including some of our walk with Mike and Linda at Walton on the Naze. It has a very pretty nature reserve near it but is rather a “kiss me quick” kind of a resort which hasn’t moved on from the 1950s. We ended the walk with tea on the pier and were impressed with Linda’s optimism in asking for green tea. She got a cup of hot water with the teabag on the side.

Parts in

2012-01-09T20:11:00.000Z

Brian has spent the last 3 weeks - since he was told the piece was being done by the BBC - creating and printing the parts. He had 3 days off over Christmas and one day off for his birthday but the rest of the time he was hard at it.

Theoretically the computer can do it. However the computer doesn't pay attention to convenient page turns, put in cues etc etc, so it still takes a lot of human input apparently.

He handed it all in to the BBC on Thursday, so now we just have to wait until 2 Feb.

Exciting!!

New Year resolutions

2012-01-02T07:54:00.000Z

Hmm. It's that time of year when I resolve to make myself a better person. Last year I resolved to actually finish all the books for my book group which I did, sometime moaning like a small child through the entire tome. The year before I resolved to try a new recipe every week. Which I sort of did but it's not always practical.
So this year I was thinking of having a screen free day once a week (obviously, not counting work). BUT I don't think I can do it. No computer, email, TV or cinema. I am not that strong! Just do the eating less and taking more excercise as usual I suppose. Sigh!
Maybe I should read Proust of War and Peace or something but I'm not convinced it will improve me.
Good luck with your resolutions whatever they are.

I hate blogger!

2011-12-31T16:50:00.000Z

I have tried 4 times to load some photos and it has stuck each time.

Here is the link again - which works for me, but the last one did too so??????

Fingers crossed

Happy New Year everyone!!

Christmas pics

2011-12-29T16:09:00.000Z

Hi

Here are some pics of us over Christmas.

Nic's huge present was a saddle rack, a horse rug rack and bridle hook. Brian's tiny present was a pen thing to use with the iPad. All very useful.

We all had lovely gifts from lovely people, and a lovely time as well.

Here's hoping everyone has a good and happy 2012

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T13:26:00.000Z

I hope everyone is having a lovely Christmas. We had a very good Christmas last night, and so today feels like Boxing Day even though it is Christmas day. Very relaxing for those of us not working.

Brian is having a very busy Christmas. He submitted a piece to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for a Welsh Composers workshop series and had had it accepted!!!!! They workshop about 6-8 pieces over a few days and then perform 4 of them in a concert in the Hoddinot Hall ( small concert hall in the Millenium Centre). So the chances of getting it performed by the BBC are really pretty good.

He was told on Monday 19th and has to have all the orchestral parts submitted to the BBC by 6 January, so instead of having a relaxing Christmas he is working his socks off preparing all the orchestral parts instead, however it is all in a good cause and is really very exciting!!

However he has just said the magic 'lunch' word so I shall toddle off and eat some ham. As Nic and Adam are both working today and Kate is having lunch with Carl's parents we have gone Scandanavian this year and did Christmas presents and dinner last night. As we always have a ham on Xmas eve we stuck to that, and have decided to go for a piece of beef for tonight. So no turkey. Gosh, how radical are we?

I hope you are all having a lovely time

Christmas Preparation 2011

2011-12-19T18:06:00.001Z

Well, we decided to see Sherlock Holmes on Sunday, so set off early to get parked for free in Cambridge. Very successful that was, but once we got there it started sleeting and was very cold. So our initial stroll round the Botanics became a close inspection of the greenhouses. Imagine our surprise when we came across these in the alpine display:

Alpine gardens plus

Yes, it is Santa!

So that was fun. The sleet stopped so we had a shop and saw Sherlock, great fun as you'll know from Facebook posts. This year we decided to follow up our triumph with the Yew tree with the top of our Holly tree. So here it is, we're so green!

Tree resting en route

Tree in position

Great thing about the tree is it has its own berries, so half the decorating is done already.

Peggy's photo album

2011-11-27T16:59:00.000Z

The photos that I put into an album for Peggy's birthday are on Picassa, and the link is here

I have borrowed Brian's scanner, so can do more of the old pictures which I have if people want to see them.

Any requests????

Sarah & Chris's wedding photos

2011-11-22T21:14:00.000Z

Here are some photos of Sarah and Chris's wedding - don't we all look smart!

Sarah and Chris's wedding

2011-11-15T19:01:00.001Z

After a foggy, misty moisty week the 12th November was dry and mild. The wedding was at Hengrave Hall near Bury St Edmunds. It was an enchanting setting for a perfect wedding. The chapel had a turret and crenallations. It just about fitted us all in. The page boys looked adorable. Sarah looked beautiful. Her dress was lovely from the front and the back and the veil had little glittery bits in it.
Then on to the reception. We congregated in a posh courtyard and when we got a bit cold we could go into the lovely sitting rooms while the photos were being taken. The place was like the setting for Cluedo but fortunately without the murder.
The food was exceptional and the setting had hosted Elizabeth I. Nicky was of the opinion that Good Queen Bess would have sat where she was as she would be near the bar.

Sarah and Chris's wedding

The speeches were excellent and the first dance was lovely. Although Sarah and Chris did have a look at the end as if they hadn't realised how long that song went on for. Erin and Nicky were the dancing queens and rocked the night away whilst most of the clan found a comfy sitting room to chat.
All absolutely lovely.

Remember, remember the fifth of November

2011-11-06T10:17:00.000Z

Yesterday was fireworks/Guy Fawkes day. I haven't been to public display of fireworks since the kids were old enough to go on their own. Being freezing or more likely soaked while watching and listening to fireworks was never really my idea of fun.
However, yesterday we had friends over for dinner and I thought I would buy some indoor fireworks. We have had these before and they were really a bit rubbish. And the first ones, called Snakes, were a bit rubbish. They looked like turds! But it was most amusing.
The discovery of the evening though was finding that our friend, Peter, who is a rather conservative sort who works for KPMG, turns out to be a pyromaniac! He was totally reviving the spirit of our who considered the instructions "Don't go back to the firework if it fails to ignite" as a challenge to their manliness.
Peter was right in there reigniting the failed ones while previous ones were still burning. To be honest, his degree was in biochemsitry and as we know most chemists are a little insane.
We saved the best to last. it was a sort of Roman candle. Here are some pics.

Maybe I will get some more for when the family are here next weekend!

Lens envy continued

2011-10-17T20:26:00.000+01:00

A few months ago I spoke about a visit to Minsmere a nature reserve where the size of the camera lenses and viewing equipment was only rivalled by the paparazzi! Trev got lens envy so for his birthday he got a spotting scope. It's basically a kick ass monocular. He did the research as I would never presume to buy a gadget for him. However the first weekend he had it we went to Yorkshire to meet up with Sue and as is the wont of that county it rained the whole time we were there.

Wet walk

Wet Haworth
It was shrouded in romantic mist for the entire time. However on the way home we managed to escape the cloud cover and we stopped at a stately home where he could study the deer in the distance.

Trev with new toy

This weekend the weather was beautiful. So we went to Welney Wash which is in the fens. It is owned by the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust and every winter thousands of Bewick and Whooper swans over winter there. Not all had arrived but there were a good few so we walked between various hides and peered through our lenses.
It was a very freindly bunch we met in the hides. Quite often bird watchers are bordering on Asperger's but the people we met were mostly smiley and shared information. However lens envy hasn't totally disappeared. There were a couple with impressive equipment who spotted a crane ( I didn't actually know there were cranes in the UK). They told everyone where to look and then let us look through there spotting scope. When I discussed this with Trev afterwards he was of the opinion that they were showing off the size of their lens!! (Could be true actually).

Fens

Cafe

The crane is in the distance

Still it is a lovely place to visit with a great cafe and we shall pop back this winter to see even more swans!

Welsh Wanderings and Malvern Marvels

2011-09-28T22:32:00.019+01:00

I thought I would add some of our pictures to the vast myriad of pictures already here, although as I combined my attandance with my first study school for the MSc Information and Library Studies (no I'm not embrarssed!) there are also some shots of Aber.

The Study School was great, an I very much enjoyed meeting all my contemporaries on the course. It was a grey few days in Aber, but I happen to find moody coastal skies rather beautiful...
It's a bit small, but that's Aber's old building on the right. We were escorted around Aberystwyth very graciously by a charming Polish student... which we all found a little odd considering the adjustments we had been making to our surroundings already.

Probably every student at Aber has photographed these... or am I mistaken? I think they should have anyway!
So I am now a student once again, only this time I'm working 20hrs per week on top of my nearly full time job. The first full day of the course focussed soley on coping strategies for distance learning, which sounds dreadful but it was reassuring to know how experienced the University is in supporting students like myself. It was an intensive week, and I actually needed to take naps in the day once I got to the Malverns just to recover!

And now for something completely different...

The Malverns!

So, there was a lot of walking, note Trev in his signature hat... :o)

Benches,

Lovely views,

a cave,
Mushrooms,
Tea,
And Martins (birds) but my particular expertise is spotting the behaviours of an altogether different species of Martin....
They really had no idea they were doing this... until now!
xxx

Scotch eggs - I'm a convert!

2011-09-25T10:30:00.000+01:00

Just returned from Herefordshire. Two relaxing weeks with family in the middle was perfectly lovely. A few more pictures are included.

Trev beside a large mouse sculpture at Charlecote Park en route

Won't go on too much about it but points of interest include the local butcher round the corner who sold home made scotch eggs not the least like they were at school.

Herefordshire drivers make French drivers look good. There is hardly any dualed road in the county and a lot of tractors so there is a lot of overtaking. However do they really have to wait until the blind bend to zoom out of the stream of traffic. Mind you another thing we learned is that the tea shops close rather early (one in Malvern before 3!) so maybe they are in a rush to get a cream tea.
We aimed to climb a mountain near Hay called Lord Hereford's Knob!! Unfortunately, the weather defeated us and we only got up Hay Bluff. That was in a bit of a gale but somebody had put a picnic table at the top so we felt we ought to have a windy picnic up there.

Waitrose car park in Great Malvern. Quite the view.

Alice the Mycologist and a very windy picnic on Hay Bluff

It was cider apple harvest and potato harvest while we were there so, as I have said, there were a lot of tractors towing trailers overflowing with spuds or apples. Infact our lane became strewn with escaped apples and most of our walks smelt rather appley which is a smell that takes me back to my childhood. Our cottage was a converted cider press infact so it had a huge press in it. It also had crazy plumbing and both Alice and I managed to flood one of the bathrooms. Taking wet rooms to the extreme.
So many buzzards! They are fairly rare in Essex so we were excited at first but got a bit bored with them later. Although seeing a flock of rooks mob one was fascinating.

Bishop's Frome walk before we all got lost thanks to annoying misdirecting farmer. We had our revenge by scrumping his damsons! Ha!

One of the many black and white buildings in the county

The cider press in our cottage

An exciting hand pulled ferry.

Lastly, I am enamoured of the Malvern Hills. Only 9 miles of them but absolutely lovely views and all publicly owned so no annoying farmers removing waymarks (As in the Bishop's Frome walk). Also when we were there the house martins were busy filling there little bellies before the journey south so were spectacular to watch.
A very rural and rather old fashioned part of the world

Weekend in the Malvern Hills

2011-09-19T20:54:00.000+01:00

The view to the Vale of Evesham from the Malvern Beacon

Where are we going?

Climbing over one of many stiles on a walk from Bishops Frome

This is - we decided - a stuffed woodpecker which someone has nailed to a tree. We looked for a good 5 minutes and it never moved

Alice coming down a very steep hill

Brian, Alice and Kieran in the cafe at St Anne's Well

Here we are on top of the Malvern Beacon (in the rain), looking towards Wales

We had a lovely long weekend in Herefordshire with Boo, Trev, Kieran and Alice. We did some lovely walks in stunning scenery and less than wonderful weather. However it never poured on us, just showered sometimes. From up on the top of the Beacon you can see miles and miles to east and west. It's not an area I had ever visited properly before, though I have driven round it, and it is beautiful in a very hilly way!

Llanelli Wetlands trust day out

2011-08-30T17:51:00.000+01:00

We had a day out at the Llanelli Wetlands and Wildlife trust yesterday. We started off on the estuary side where we failed to see very many birds at all. We did see this heron, and some gulls, and a few ducks, but it was pretty birdless so we went round to the other side where they have resident birds.

They have a family group of Whooper swans - of which this is one. They had them arranged in continents, though the birds seemed to be declining to stay in their carefully arranged pools and popped up in different pools.

The moorhen wasn't supposed to be in the tundra area for instance.

This cute child ( don't know who she belonged to) was having a lovely time feeding the geese

This is a very pretty duck but I can't remember what type of duck as there are loads and loads of them.

We had a very pleasant day pottering about. They offer you the use of bikes for the part with no birds in it, but we decided to walk. You can also go on a canoe safari which might be fun another time. The use of the bikes and canoes is included in the admission charge which I thought was pretty good.

The cafe was nice and we had a pot of tea with extra hot water, also the cakes were home made and the coffee and walnut cake Brian had ( and I had a bit of) was very good indeed. They also had comfy couches which overlooked pools where you could sit and watch the birds in warmth and comfort with tea. Excellent.

We felt very seriously inadequate on the camera front because some of the camera lenses there looked like they could put the Hubble telescope out of business. They were huge! Feet long! There was a lady sitting reading her book in the cafe so we came to the conclusion she was a bird spotting widow.

However you really do need a decent pair of binoculars to get the benefit of the wild side (maybe that's why we couldn't see any other than the heron) There was a chap there selling them and I did have a look through some, which did make the distance come really close and were very impressive, however as I don't have £90 to spare at the moment (spending all my extra money on exciting things like guttering and getting Nic's window fixed - ho hum) we didn't buy any.

It was a lovely day, and as we had been working hard the previous two days it was even more enjoyable.

More Moore.

2011-08-21T08:45:00.000+01:00

I have lived in this area for most of my life but have never been to the Henry Moore foundation untill this year and as of yesterday I have been there twice this year. I went with Helen and Brian when they were over earlier in the year and as Trev and I were in the Stortford area for car reasons I suggested going again as Trev had never been. (In the unlikely event we go to the Yorkshire Sculpture park when we are meeting up with Sue in Yorks in October then I could do a post titled More Moore on a Moor! Actually we could go and see Othello first then we would have More Moore on a Moor after the Moor! (I must stop now))

It is a brilliant place. He moved out here during the war. Apparently he came to the village for a weekend and while he was here his studio was bombed so he decided to move here permanently. It gave him a lot of space and that is when he started working on his monumental sculptures of which there are a couple of dozen on display in the grounds.
As it happened the light shower forecast came down in stair rods for well over half an hour so Trev and I spent quite a long time in the converted out buildings chatting to the room attendants. In the maquette shed I asked about some old photos on display. Apparently they are on the land of a wealthy banker in Scotland. During the 50s he had been staying in the area and had been converting a house and wanted bronze taps for his bath. He had heard there was somebody in Perry Green who worked in bronze so knocked on the door. Moore welcomed him in and managed to sell 4 huge sculptures!

It does sound that Moore was a very canny business man. At sometime during the 60s he was paying a million pounds tax a year. It was then that he set up the Henry Moore foundation and he also bought the pub in the village. You have to love that. (Very nice lunch there too)
We went into another barn, which I somehow missed in my earlier visit, where they had a series of tapestries that Moore commisioned near the end of his life. They were created from Moores drawings and they are stunning. All hand woven. The room attendant was telling us about the process of weaving them and it is mind boggling. At the beginning they were actually weaving them from the wrong side so how they knew when to change colour just bamboozles me. She also showed us the wrong side of them where you could see all the ends of wool.

Anyway, I could go on. It is a fascinating and they do good tea and cake too. What more can you ask for?

Some clever cloggs/disney addict noticed this!

2011-08-18T17:59:00.003+01:00

Just a bit of silliness on a rainy afternoon! Disney vs the royal wedding!!

The Secret Garden

2011-08-11T15:08:00.000+01:00

London has been going through a tumultous few days so what better time was it for Erin and me to have a day of fun in the city. A friend had told me about a roof garden in Kensington which I had never heard of. It is on the the top of what was the department store Derry and Toms in Kensington. It is open to the public but not that often. They hire it out for weddings etc. But if you ever get the chance I would recommend it. Here are some pictures. Apologies for the quality but they were taken by my phone. The flamingos are real

Erin looking strangely laid back

It is a little oasis of calm in the city and it has flamingos and ducks. Just amazing.
We went for a lovely meal at the restaurant in the same building, where I had the curious feeling of being invisible. I have obviously been for meals out with my attractive daughter before but seldom have I seen such obvious fauning by the waiting staff over her. Seriously, who was paying the bill here - that's what they should always remember.
As we left the building with the restaurant and roof garden in I joked to the receptionist that we liked it so much we might have Erin's wedding there. She immediately responded with a "It's much cheaper than you might imagine, I could give you a brochure!" I quickly informed her that Erin didn't actually have a boyfriend at the moment.
After that we decided to go to Kensington Palace. Linda told me that it was the one place in London that Christine's girls had wanted to revisit. It is have set it up as an enchanted palace and it is absolutely brilliant. Also not very busy at all. I supposethe advantage of having riots in London that an awful lot of people were avoiding it. So it was us and the overseas visitors. See, every cloud does have a silver lining. In the grounds they had hung red balls where people had put their secrets or wishes (secret garden again). Some were really sweet: I wish I had a dog, I really believe in dragons. Others were a little inappropriate: Never stay in a loveless marriage. But the effect was enchanting.

We finished the day with a stroll around the 3 nearby royal parks. We had tea by the serpentine.

A heron just near the cafe

We had been thinking of going for a swim in it but it wasn't quite warm enough and besides Erin is scared of geese and might have had one as a swimming companion! We finished in St James's Park as I had told her about a photo in the paper of one of the pelicans eating a pigeon. By the time we got there the pelicans must have been sated with pigeons as they were just sleeping.

Still a day of fun indeed and good to go into London, a city I love, and find that it is still the city I love and the lawlessness is just caused by a minority.

Working in the big city

2011-07-30T17:50:00.001+01:00

When I started my job in one of many central London open plan office buildings, I didn't expect much of the location. Regent's place is on the north side of Euston Road, opposite Warren street tube and next to Euston Tower, a 32 storey 60's behomoth. However, the Regent's place landlords are very keen to promote the area and since March I have observed the following:
- a weekly international food market (Caribean, South American, African, French, Spanish and more)
- shooting of a Jude Law and Anthony Hopkins film, involving converting several shop fronts to a street in Berlin
- an Anthony Gormley pair
- some art for school trips (I think)
- dog team display
- horse riding demonstrations
- formation dancing
- numerous singers and jazz and folk bands
- a display of supercars and a large Scalextric track
- Segway demonstrations

All of the above tend to be on through lunch and early afternoon, all free except for food of course. All in all a remarkable place to work near. Here are a few pictures from the wonder of Blackberry so don't expect too much.

Jude Law is in the group centre of picture but far away

Turning London into Berlin

This location was used for the entry of one of the Apprentice contestants

Dogs jumping through fire

How to ride a segway

Art for young people

More art for young people

London's biggest carpark

2011-07-26T17:17:00.000+01:00

This weekend we went to visit Kieran and Alice in Southampton. We had arranged this a while ago forgetting that it was the first weekend of the school holidays and the M25 grinds to a halt! Bad move! The journey which normally takes 2.5 to 3 hours took from 9.50 to 5.00!! However, I should qualify this. As it happens we had K and A in the car with us as Kieran had been at a conference in Cambridge and Alice visiting her parents so at least we had the pleasure of their company all be it in a traffic jam. Also having progressed very slowly we stopped at the beautiful Cliveden House for a picnic lunch on route. Where we had a walk, admired the views and got lost in the maze. So actually it wasn't all bad at all and at one stage in the traffic jam when I saw the children in the back seat of the car infront walloping each other I remembered that it could have been so much worse.
Here are a few pictures of the weekend.
Mostly Cliveden but also Southampton. Including a horsedrawn carriage that was driving down the main road in Southampton

Rather over the top bell tower

Doubling as Versaille

Hopes are High in Southampton

2011-07-12T20:16:00.002+01:00

Now, we at Southampton City College Learning Centre are a hard working bunch. Recently we had the college-wide staff conference, for which we prepared a 'pop video'. Different departments created their own presentations, but we won top prize for our efforts. I felt it was worth sharing, it took a lot of work and although I am sick of the song, I couldn't resist giving you all a laugh! This is Southampton City College Learning Centre 'singing' High Hopes. To make it work click on the link above the media player and download the file. It's like this because of college security. Enjoy!

Try again

2011-06-28T22:04:00.000+01:00

Here are the pictures - I hope

Blogger and I don't seem to have a loving relationship at the moment

Scattering of Matt's ashes

2011-06-28T22:01:00.000+01:00

Here is a link to the rest of the photos I took over the weekend.

In my struggles with Blogger in the last post I seem to have missed out Sue completely!! She was definitely there, so I blame Blogger entirely

Here are the pictures

Scattering of Matt's ashes

2011-06-25T18:27:00.000+01:00

View from where we scattered the ashes


Pack Horse Inn - one of Matt's favourite pubs where we had lunch

Getting ready to scatter the ashes

Scattering the ashes


Lunch in the pub

Boo, Trev, Brian and I all met up in Hebden Bridge this weekend to scatter Matt's ashes. He had told her where he wanted them scattered, under a single oak tree where other members of her family have had their ashes scattered. The weather was a bit moist, but it didn't pour with rain so we set off to find the tree, and then all scattered them as close to the tree that we could get.

This is the view from the spot.

As Blogger is playing up I am having problems putting these into order, so next picture shows the pub Matt really liked where we went to have lunch after we had scattered the ashes.

Although it looks like we are scattering them around the telegraph pole, we are actually throwing them towards the single oak tree down hill from where we are standing.

The view from the tree is lovely and the valley is quite beautiful. It is a lovely spot

Lens envy

2011-06-15T18:03:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks ago the sun was shining and Trev and I decided to head for the seaside resort of Dunwich Heath. Our plan to have a picnic then walk along the coast for a few miles. Find a cream tea and consume it and then head back.
So when we got there we had our picnic in a force 10 gale. We had to hold onto the entire meal before it went flying off towards the Netherlands. So a quick rethink!
We both quite like birdwatching so we decided to do the adjacent bird sanctuary Minsmere which is behind the sea wall and more sheltered.

It is several meres with many an observation hide. We strolled for a bit then climbed up to the first hide only to realise the flagrant amateur birders that we are. I have never seen camera equipment and observation gear like it unless it was at the Royal Wedding or an observatory. These people had thousands of pounds worth of equipment! It was mind boggling. Whereas Trev had a normal camera and normal binoculars and I had a monocular. I looked like I was heading for a stamp collectors fare and had lost my way.
The true birders ignored us as we were not worthy of their attention. They were there for the day and were not giving up their seats for rank part timers like us.
Some of them had their children there. If every my children complain about the boring things I may have made them do in their childhood (OK they do have a point with Kenneth Brannagh's four hour Hamlet) I will point out how much more bored they could have been.
Anyway, we enjoyed looking at the birds very much and I think Trev is hankering after some better binoculars for his birthday when I thought I had planted the idea of a Kindle in his mind. Jill did point out that at a place like that you could stare intensely into a tree and you were bound to attract a crowd!
By the way the photos(Avocet and Marsh Harrier) were obviously not ours but of somebody at the RSPB with killer equipment!

Alice and Kieran's peak district adventures

2011-06-12T22:57:00.000+01:00

I've been intending to write this blog for over a week now, so this is a little out of date, but never mind. For our anniversary Alice and I decided this year to go on a brief break to the peak district. We picked a location that was accessible by train, and a hotel that was inexpensive (more on that later). The weather was a little worrying, as unlike two years ago storm clouds were threatening, but actually we ended up only being rained on once, so all in all a result.

Considering we were only in Castleton for two days we managed to pack quite a lot in. We began with a tour of the amusingly named "Devil's arse", or peak cavern if you're being boring, so named because theres a part of the cavern which, thanks to the flowing of water, would give out loud farting noises across the valley, startling the locals, who naturally assumed Satan was hanging out in the caves eating a diet of baked beans and cabbage.

The tour was quite fun- the guide had a rather laconic manner that took a while to sink in. At one point she started talking about most haunted's visit, and I inwardly sighed and prepared to hear some nonsense about the ghosts of former miners... until she called them all idiots! Twas very pleasing. We also managed to gather a photo for Alice's extreme reading she has been doing for work

On the same day we went on a couple of short walks, one across the excellent little valley of cave dale, a very quick walk I'd found online which led us slightly off the beaten path, to the point where we were basically half walking/ half falling down a hill. Still, stunning views!

We visited another cave as well on the same day, feeling we'd met our quota (Castleton has four caves in the area), and ended the day with an awesome cream tea, with freshly made scones.

The next day we went on a 5 and a half hour walk around the whole of Castleton, covering the main hills, including Lose Hill and MAM TOR (it must always be named in capital letters!) We got some great views of the whole of the valley, and at the end of it felt like we had "done" Castleton successfully

All in all it was an excellent holiday, with awesome food at the Cheshire Cheese (definitely the place to eat if you visit Castleton), and great walks. The only downside was the hotel at which we stayed, Fern Cottage. It was a B and B that had seen better days. The owner had little to no manner, and barely seemed happy to see us. He also smelt so strongly that his odor infused the entire hotel, although thankfully the rooms were immune. The room wasn't too bad, but the bed had clearly seen better days, and was ludicrously creaky and not terribly comfortable. The breakfasts were actually ok, primarily because the fried food, cooked by the nice Irish house keeper who came in for the mornings, drove away the smell. Still, if we went again we definitely wouldn't be going to Fern cottage.

That said, it wasn't a massive draw back, as we spent most of our time enjoying the countryside.

Alice's Jurassic Adventure

2011-05-29T16:44:00.014+01:00

Last weekend three friends and I went on a girls walking weekend to the Jurassic Coast. Although Kieran and I have lived in the "deep-south" for approximately 3.5 years, we haven't ventured further than the more generically recognised parts of the south coast like Bournemouth and Portsmouth. This was my first chance to see the coast the way the locals have grown up seeing it... and it was beautiful:

We started off with coffee in the village of Abbotsbury, and walked 11 miles to Portland where we were staying. We reckoned the name Abbotsbury had something to do with this...

If you can't tell, it's a small Abbey on the top of a hill...It'd be a bit of a treck up there on a Sunday morning!

Clare and I take in the view, and the wind!

The journey wasn't without it's hazzards and tricky negotiations had to be made when this lot totally blocked off the path half way round...

Mmmmmooooooooooooooo!

Tempting as she was, this old girl was in need of some drastic repair so we stuck to the footpath.

11 miles covered and in need of fuel we went for fish'n'chips. It was a special treat, not just in it's own right, but all three friends are extremely gluten intolerant, so these were specially prepared, and very well done gluten free ones!

That was a real fish tank in the background. Slightly disturbing as we were eating fish!
(The waitress taking the picture obviously didn't think Anna would mind being only half a face!)

After good grub and a sleep in the BnB (run by divers - that's another story - picture many dry suits/wet suits, oxygen canisters and tanned middle aged people acting like excited teens - it was 'rad' dudes, yah!!)

Now for the really beautiful bit -
We drove along the coast to Durdle Door and walked to Lulworth Cove:

and walked down some scary steps...
and up and over and down some other scary steps...
This strange rock formation was like a back bone stretching out way into the water.

The sky was blue and the water clear and breathtakingly powerful against the rocks. Just lovely.
Ice-cream in Lulworth and then home.

More anon.

The Gnome Office

2011-05-22T11:59:00.001+01:00

Here are some pictures of my work. As you can see it all very futuristic and snazzy looking (apart from the Georgian Hall on whose grounds it is built). We study whole genomes here - famously the human genome - but many others too. Hence our address is the Genome Campus.( You should probably know that the study of genomes is genomics - when I told Jill this while she was drinking she laughed so much that she choked!) Anyway a few years ago some local wags erased the appropriate letters on the road signs leading up to campus so that it read Gnome Camp. To be honest I expect it was one of the overly educated people I work with but I will never know. Everyone was amused by this and behold two little gnomes appeared on a futuristic water feature by one of the buildings trying to fish for something.
I think most people were rather fond of them but when Princess Ann visited campus they mysteriously vanished. Actually, when she visited many trees in pots suddenly appeared only to disappear after she went.

Years went by and the the road sign was corrected but there were no small plastic creatures to amuse us until last week!
Look who has reappeared!

Along with his little fishing freind who is too shy to transfer his photo from my phone. Hurray!
Let's hope no passing royalty makes him disappear again!

Dagger judging

2011-05-17T19:44:00.000+01:00

Here is a pic of the Dagger in the library judges

we had lunch in a basement this year. Chez Gerard off Picadilly, which was very nice indeed. As you can see we were having a very good time

A new tea shop experience in Grantchester

2011-05-08T17:22:00.002+01:00

So today we had lunch at the Orchard in Grantchester and then walked into Cambridge with Jill. Boo then suggested trying a tea room in Grantchester called Byron's Lodge (yes after he of poetic fame). Luckily we were early (2.15 ish) as this place gets booked up and they lock their door later on. Well we had 2 cream teas, fruit cake and tea for 3 with proper pot, extra water and decent cups for £8.25. result! Here is a picture of the tea.

Byron's Cream Tea - Romance on a plate!

Brian's new website

2011-05-02T17:41:00.002+01:00

We have produced a new version of Brian's website with lots more information about the works, plus sample scores and a few mp3s as well

Here is the address.

www.briannoyes.co.uk

If you see any mistakes please let us know - proof reading on screen is really difficult.

A few more views of Highgate

2011-05-02T17:39:00.000+01:00

Here are a few more pics from the day out at Highgate

Frankenstein

2011-05-02T09:39:00.000+01:00

One of the hottest tickets in London theatre at the moment is a new adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. It is directed by Danny Boyle and stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller who alternate between playing the the creature and Dr Frankenstein. It has been fantastically well reviewed and you just can't get tickets for it. So I was pleased to see that our local Arts Picturehouse Cinema was doing a live broadcast of it and got tickets to see it yesterday.
Arthouse cinemas often do live broadcasts from theatre, ballet and opera nowadays but I have resisted the temptation simply because I feel that live theatre requires overacting and cinema/tv requires underacting. I love live theatre but I think on the whole a play needs to be adapted to play to film's strengths for it to work at the cinema or on TV.
So my opinion. It is a fantastic play and the two leads were amazing. It sticks fairly closely to the original text and follows the creature learning about humanity and becoming a reasoning being. As in the original text it asks more questions then can be answered and I noticed many a sixth former in the audience obviously doing it for A level.
There is no chance that we would have seen it otherwise but there were times when it was a bit shouty as the actors were throwing their voices to the gods. Also we discovered that it isn't a live broadcast as they interupted it at the beginning as they were playing the wrong version of it (we should have had Cumberbatch as the creature) and the overly liberal cinema manager put it to the vote as to whether we would prefer the other version which would mean starting again. (We stuck with what we had and those unhappy got their money back). Also towards the end the sound left us temporarily. These things were annoying anyway but part of theatre is the willingness to suspend disbelief and to be brought back to earth so suddenly didn't help.
However, where the cinema improved on the theatre is that you got close ups of the actors, which was brilliant and also the music was amazing with Lucas THX sound.
So I am very glad I saw this and would recommend seeing the play in whatever way you can but I'm not too sure I will being rushing to buy tickets to similar "live" broadcasts.

April in London

2011-05-01T10:31:00.001+01:00

Several of us read or half read "Her Fearful Symmetry" by Audrey Niffineger last year. When we met up and talked about it most of us said it was disappointing, nowhere near as good as the Time Traveler's Wife but we would like to visit Highgate Cemetery (where it is mostly set).

So that is what we did yesterday. We met up for lunch at Cafe Rouge in Highgate. Highgate village is REALLY nice but probably not the cheapest part of London. Trev had printed off a Google Map which let us down somewhat meanwhile Erin was directing us with the GPS on her smart phone. It all got rather competitive and it meant that we saw a great deal more of Highgate then we had intended. I felt that the extra exercise totally justified having chocolate cake for pudding after lunch.
Lunch was lovely with much talk of the royal wedding, of course. After which we ventured to the cemetery. Luckily Linda had a better map and a better idea of the area so we followed her advice. The cemetery is in two parts. The East which is the current working one and costs only £3 to go round and you can just wander round yourself and the West which you have to go round with a guide and costs £7. However you can't book a guided tour on a weekend but it said if your party is less than 10 you can just queue and it is first come first served, there were 9 of us. However that was not the way the hatchet faced battle axe at the gate saw it.
Three people went in before us then she let people in after us because we should have booked apparently. Brian did try and argue with her but she was having none of it. Wearing her badge of being a volunteer as a deadly weapon.
So we went to the East side which I actually think suited us better. We could wonder round at our own pace and it had both Douglas Adams and George Elliott who are better than the Rosettis anyway!

It is absolutely beautiful. Incredibly crowded with graves of all denomination and design. It is overgrown in places with ivy and holly and rosemary and bluebells. It was a perfect day weather wise and we had a lovely time.
After this we went for a stroll on Hampstead Heath where you can get a fantastic view of London then on the bus back to Linda's for tea and home made cakes. Kieran and I managed to have an altercation with an old bag on Parliament Hill.

Seriously, these people live in the wealthiest parts of one of the wealthiest cities in the world but it doesn't seem to make them happy. Erin pronounced, loyally, that she would die alone and Helen added that she would also be eaten by an Alsatian. We are not a vindictive family in the slightest!

It was a lovely day topped off for us by yummy nibbles from Marks and Sparks in front of Dr Who!
Perfect

Flora and fauna

2011-04-15T17:41:00.000+01:00

See this bush? It looks like any yellow flowering bush doesn't it? Infact it is SAFFRON WALDEN HOUSE SPARROW CENTRAL!!
They absolutely love it. It is always a cauldron of high pitched excitable twittering. Sometime a few of them will come flying out while involved in some arguments. On several occasions I have almost had them collide with me when I am hanging out the washing as they ae rushing to this bush. Who knows what makes it so attractive. They like it in winter when there is no foliage and in summer when there is plenty. Last year a blackbird nested there - I'm surprised she could cope with the noise.
All in all it is a very entertaing bit of foliage to have in the garden.

Madinat al Zahra

2011-03-21T20:47:00.000Z

Here are my pics of Madinat al Zahra

That didn't work

2011-03-21T20:27:00.000Z

The pictures aren't there , but might be here

Pictures of Cordoba

2011-03-21T20:24:00.002Z

There are pictures of Cordoba here

Lovely holiday in Cordoba

2011-03-21T19:34:00.000Z

This is the most famous thing in Cordoba. It is the Mezquita - it was once the mosque until the Christians put a cathedral in the middle of it. It is extraordinary. The mosque could have 40,000 people worshipping at the same time - it is huge. One of the guide books said that if you got there before 10am you could go in for free so we did that. You have to be quiet because there was a mass in progress in the cathedral which was actually really quite moving. There was an old lady having confession - the confessional was in the middle of the building which was odd and quite open in some ways - and she must have been really sinful because she was there for ages!

This is another bit of the Mezquita.

Brian in the garden of the Alcazar which was lovely. They are doing huge amounts of work everywhere you look in Cordoba because they are a nominated city for the City of Culture in 2016. They were doing huge amounts of work in the gardens

This is a city outside Cordoba called Madinat al Zahra. It was built by the Caliph in the 10th century (I think) and was used for 80 years before it was left. The museum for it was one of the best I have ever seen because the film showed you ruins, and then showed you an animated look at what it would have looked like and told you a lot about how the place worked. They have only excavated 12% of it till now, and what they have done so far is fascinating. We happily spent hours pottering round it.

This is a very typical little alley which make up most of the old part of Cordoba. There is a modern city as well, but that isn't so interesting. These areas are very easy to get lost in and you can spend a lot of time wandering round trying to get to a specific place. However it is a very felicitous place to wander round because all the alleys are different and have lovely little features, or flowers, or something interesting to see.
We were lucky with the weather as it was sunny and pleasant all week and we were in short sleeves and sandals by the end of the week. Three days is probably a bit too long for Cordoba in some ways, but it meant that we had a lovely pottering sort of time, not feeling at all rushed. Though we didn't see everything by any manner of means.

This is us on Malaga beach. The flight was 7pm so we had all afternoon to mooch on the beach which was only about 10 mins from the airport. Brian managed to get a bit sunburnt.

I will put more pictures onto Picassa and add a link when I have done that if people want to see them.

We went to see a Spanish riding school show on the Wednesday night which we both enjoyed. Here is one of the horses doing a levade. I filmed some of these, so need to work out how to edit them now.

A week in March

2011-03-19T11:34:00.000Z

Last week was my 53rd birthday and to celebrate the fact Trev and I went to Whipsnade Zoo. It was a really lovely day. Warm enough to have a picnic.
The animals seemed to be really appreciating the weather too and were all outside and active. Here is a ring tailed lemur sunning itself

And here is a peacock that was lurking around the cafe on the lookout for crumbs. It looks like it is having a cup of tea at this picnic bench.

Last weekend we went down to Southampton to go to a performance of Alice's orchestra at a tiny arts centre which is a converted barn. Linda came too. It was a lovely concert inspite of the annoying woman behind me who kept talking and fiddling around with her handbag right down my ear. The final piece was Hayden's Farewell Symphony. The tradition of this is at the end for the orchestra members to leave one by one. We didn't know this and Alice was the first member to leave. We looked at each other in concern incase she had been taken ill. However, Kieran was remarkably calm about it and as other members left we realised what was happening.
It was a lovely weekend of meals out and walks on the common and taking in the sights of Southampton. H

ere we all are outside Southampton Art Gallery which has a remarkably good collection.

Behind the scenes at the BBC

2011-02-28T10:50:00.000Z

So yesterday was the recording of our appearance in Pointless. It was great fun but exhausting!
Jill and I had to be at the studio at 9.15am.. I discovered that the first train out of Audley End is at 7.47 which left just about enough time. Luckily I bought my ticket the day before because the ticket office was empty and the waiting room is locked. Poor people who have to work on a Sunday.One advantage of starting so early was that I didn't have time to get nervous. On the train I listened to movie review podcast I like which pretty much took my mind off things but I was thinking. Hereafter with Matt Damon, I must remember that if Matt Damon comes up as a question.
I got to the BBC just about on time and we were all taken to the green room. The BBC TV centre is huge. Corridor after corridor and other than going to the loo I'm not sure I'd have been able to find my way back. Once we got to the green room the nerves were beginning to kick in a little. They started out reading and 10 page document explaining the rules and, harnessing the spirit of my 13 year old self, I managed not to listen to them. When they had finished after half an hour I said to Jill. They're pretty much the same aren't they? Only to find they were a little different and she had to explain the changes to me. Still she knew what she was getting when she chose me as a team mate. I hate reading game rules and usually get Trev or Kieran to explain them to me. She just had to fulfill that role.
One rule I did listen to was that you must disclose if you knew another contestant. Strangely enough I did. On the basis that I always seem to be bumping into people I know. It turned out that the brother of one of Erin's school friends was a fellow contestant. However we weren't to be on the same show and they considered it not too close a connection so no drastic actions was necessary.
Rather excitingly one of the other contestants had been on Bullseye many moons ago. It was a pretty naff quiz show that Trev and I were a bit obsessed with. It would be two friends on it and they could win things like a motor boat, which you always thought - how are they going to split that?. Anyway this bloke went on with his brother in law and they won a caravan. At the time his brother in law was 18 with no car and the the contestant only had a Lada which was barely capable of getting itself up a hill let alone towing anything. So apparently they sold it.
After the rule reading it was time for hair and make up and I have to say this is one of the most exciting things of the day. They had told us that they wouldn't make us up and I had put a little bit on. However the make up girl that I had obviously decided that I was to be her blank canvas. She worked on me for half an hour. She put individual false eye lashes on with tweezers. At the end I was totally evoking the spirit of Cleopatra. Here is a picture of what I looked like when I got home.

Meanwhile my friends and family were gathering to support me. They had put no limit on the amount of people I could invite so I invited pretty much everyone on my Xmas card list who was in the country. Apparently nobody else had this idea and they were rather surprised by the large proportion of the audience made up of Carters/ Martins and Saffron Walden massive but actually please because it would have been rather empty without them. Many thanks to them for coming. Here are some of Trev's pictures of them at the BBC. Apparently they had to do much ooing and clapping and laughting and were exhausted at the end of it.

Back in the green room lunch arrived, which was just sandwiches and by then I was really getting to nervous to eat. I ate about half my sandwich but made sure I had my banana so that I had some energy.
Then it was off to the studio for the floor manager to go through the ropes. It was here that I was really getting nervous and there is something about me being nervous that I stop listening. Luckily Jill isn't similarly affected so I could ask her about anything I had missed.
After that we went to get changed. Wardrobe had decided which of our 5 outfits were most suitable and had ironed them to perfection.
Then is was SHOWTIME!
Fear was setting in now and thought I am going to giggle idiotically or start gabbling like a loon. However, these people do know what they are doing. They took us to a room adjacent to the studio (where they used to film Top of the Pops) where they would mike us up and touch up our make up. It was now that the production team started to come and chat with us and it had the calming effect necessary. When we went into the studio I was relieved to see that I could see the audience but because of the lights couldn't make eye contact so was less likely to giggle.
The production team stayed with us and kept us talking and I found that the nerves did calm down. The two stars Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman both chatted with us. Apparently Alexander's uncle lives in Saffron Walden and Richard Osman came from Billaricay originally. (Honestly being from Essex is a bit like being from an ostracized group - all day we had people telling us that Essex was lovely really and they all knew people from Essex.)
Anyway the show went on and we didn't make idiots of ourselves. I found that the nerves did stay under control and I did relax. I do now have a lot of respect for people who do well in really hard quiz shows because it is hard not to blank on questions to which you should really know the answers. I did make a few mistakes but nothing catastrophic. It was very exciting when between rounds the make up people came and touch up our make up. Like being a real star. Just before the final I managed to spill water on my top so they had to lead me off and blow dry me.
It was all great fun and a real learning experience. Totally exhausting.
We didn't win the jackpot but the boy I new in the green room won it in the show after ours. So it goes to show Essex rules.

Plumbing the Library Knowledge... if you please!

2011-02-15T19:58:00.003Z

Some of you know and some of you don't, that I jumped on the Librarian bandwaggon some 18 months ago and am intrepidly making my way in my second library role as Senior Learning Centre Assistant for Curriculum Liaison (I plan to try telling people my job title after a few drinks one day, just to see what happens!) at an FE college in Southampton. I am thrilled to have this job, as I can be creative and do all kinds of things that really excite me about library work. I am currently trying to arrange for a guest speaker to come visit the library. I have had many a conversation and email exchanges with charming authors of fine fiction, but sadly still no confirmation or success in booking someone. Target audience is Adult Learners who for various reasons are learning to read/write in English and the plan is that the visit will drum up enthusiasm for reading and literacy in general. Have any amongst you marvelous relatives-in-law had any success with organising this kind of thing? And can you give your Niece/Daughter/Cousin-Law some advice?

That's dinner sorted

2011-02-14T19:18:00.000Z

On Saturday we popped into Cambridge after visiting the family in Newmarket. Driving along the dual carriageway a very silly pheasant - and lets face it they are the silliest of all birds - decided to cross the road in front of us. It did not live to tell the tale.
We thought no more about it and arrived in Cambridge, parked the car by a meter in the lovely collegy area called the backs and went off to do our shopping. It was only when we got back to the car an hour or so later that we realised that the dead pheasant had somehow remained attached to the front of the car and it was stuck in the front like a trophy! A little emabarrasing to say the least. Anyway, Trev, managed to kick the corpse off so infact some fox or cat will probably have a delicious dinner.

Pointless

2011-02-10T16:34:00.000Z

Well, as all of you know my friend Jill and I successfully auditioned for the show Pointless. They are recording at the end of February and some of you will come and see it being recorded and if it's not too awful I may even let you know when it's on TV.
Here is it's wikipedia entry which explains it in detail. Basically they ask general knowledge questions. They have already surveyed 100 people and you win by choosing the least popular, or even better, the answer not chosen by the survey (the pointless answer in fact). For example if they were to say landlocked countries in Europe Switzerland would be the most popular but the chances are few or hopefully nobody would have said Andorra.
I am a mine of useless information at the moment as I am trying to learn obscure American sports teams and the flags and capitals of little known countries. My mind is full of menomics such as "Bleat me in St Louis" to remind me of the St Louis rams! I must learn some facts about Canada. Everybody always thinks I know about the land of my birth and it will be shameful if we fail because of my ignorance.
Jill and I have both received a large email with instruction mostly about what we can wear. We have to think Smartie colours but not brown or red. Not pastel colours, grey, black, white, busy patterns, polka dots, logos. Nearly all Jill's clothes have got logos so I think she will be hitting the internet soon! What's more we have to bring 5 outfits from this limited repetoire of colours! I have just about managed it and am popping into Marks and Spencer this weekend to take care of the under clothes. I feel I need to dye out the grey routes, bleach the moustache etc. I don't think I put this much effort into Kieran and Alice's wedding (or even my own!).
The young researcher (and they are all young - the place is like Logan's Run) rang me yesterday to go through my biography. I think I have got jobs with less information then they know about me. She was trying to find out unusual information about me and I let slip that I find dressing up dogs amusing. That is certainly going to come back to haunt me. Gromit will be in heaven laughing at me as he finally gets his revenge. I also mentioned that I enjoyed playing Scrabble so she concluded that meant I was a good team player. Clearly she has never entered the cutthroat world of the small plastic tiles.
Anyway, it should be fun. As it's on during the day I'm hoping that the good and the great at work won't even be aware of my appearence.
Wish us luck and pray that we don't have a performance like this one!

Web site - well page really

2011-02-05T16:28:00.000Z

I have started a web site to promote me. The only reason to blog about it is to add a link which may then get picked up by google. Anyone else who'd like to add a link to their sites/blogs/facebook please do.

www.trevormartinconsulting.com

Very boring to start with unless someone needs the exact skills described!

Chinese statues

2011-01-29T16:20:00.003Z

The National Museum in Cardiff has an exhibition of Buddhist statues from Dazu in China, which we went to see this morning - see here

Having missed the terracotta warriors (still sad about that) I was determined to see these.

They are really quite extraordinary because they are so old, and in such good condition. You can see the paint still on some of them, which gives an idea of how bright they must have been when they were new (1000 years ago or so).

The numbers of them in China are extraordinary too.

Here are a couple of photos from another website.

An attempt to get my 15 minutes

2011-01-20T18:49:00.000Z

Because of the weather and the fact that I realised that I had a bit more holiday then I had calculated I decided to take some leave on the week before Christmas. Also because of the weather we didn't wander far from home. Slipping and sliding into tow n and slipping and sliding home again. We were home by 4 every evening and infront of the telly. I think I was beginning to lose touch with the outside world. During this time we became rather addicted to a quiz show called Pointless. It's quite funny and requires both general knowledge and a little bit of psychology.

After Xmas my friend Jill came for a visit and we discussed the quiz show and she quite liked it too. She suggested that she and I apply for it. As by this time I had existed in a winter wonderland for over a week and the outside world seemed a dim memory so I agreed. The application form was enormous - 5 pages! Anyway, we sent them off not thinking that we would hear anything further. The snow went and we all went back to work and forgot about it.

However we received phone calls last week and we got called to an audition yesterday

The production company was in a rather unprepossessing office block in west London. They had glammed up the reception area. However when we ventured out of that area into the kitchen we discovered that the it resembled a student flat with dirty dishes piled in the sink! Still it's not surprising as the employees all seemed to be about 15 years old. Still not quite the glamour I had imagined.

While we were waiting in reception Jimmy Carr and Charlie Brooker, who are reasonably famous in the UK. I showed how I took it in my stride by texting all the family. At least I didn't take a photo or ask for their autograph.

The audition was in a board room. There were 7 other couples. We had to do a tiny little dummy run of the show including making all ooing and aahing noises at appropriate times. We acquitted ourselves fairly well. Then we had to wait again in reception to see if they wanted us back for a screen test which they did! That involved us talking about ourselves infront of the camera. Not too sure how that went.

Anyway, we shall see in the next few days. They auditioned 500 people for 150 places so I'm not holding out too much hope.

All in all it was great fun and a good way to cheer up a dull January evening

I do like to be beside the seaside

2011-01-10T16:54:00.000Z

One thing I'll say about this inclement weather we've been having is that you really appreciate good weather when you get it. Yesterday we had been planning to have a trip up to London and take in an exhibition but when the sun came up and it was as clear as can be we decided to go to the coast. It was still a cold day but lovely and sunny.
We went to Walton on the Naze on the Essex Coast. It is rather a kiss me quick kind of a resort. It actually has some fantastic architecture but it's a little neglected these days. Here are some of the beach huts. I love them. They look a bit like a shanty town but they're bright and cheerful.

The big attraction of Walton for us however is not the pier and the sticks of rock but the Naze. It is a peninsula of a about 3 miles that has cliffs and salt marshes. It is scientifically very important as some of the first fossils ever discovered were from the cliffs and as well it is a fantastic place for bird watching.
Brent geese overwinter there in their thousands. I suspect they have nothing to do with the London Borough of Brent as when Trev spoke to them in a cockney accent they looked at him with cool disdain.

We were particularly taken by Sanderlings. They can fly and swim but they choose to run up and down. They feed from the water's edge and when an extra large wave comes they all run away from it. Most amusing.
We finished up after our walk having a cup of tea underneath Walton Tower. Here it is casting huge shadows. It looks particularly Middle Earthish blocking the sun

Unfortunately the Naze seems to have a desire to become sea. The cliffs are tumbling away as you can see and there are marshes within the sea wall so who know what will happen to it. But for now it is a lovely place to spend a winter's afternoon

Merry Christmas

2010-12-29T17:36:00.002Z

This is the exciting game we got with the box of crackers this year. Instead of a token we got a wind up reindeer in our cracker, and the box had a race track on the back, so after dinner we wound up our reindeer and had races. It was actually quite good fun, though Nic's reindeer had a distinct steer to port, so anyone to the left of it got barged into which led to some corrections.

The picture below is Saffy looking very fetching in her Christmas scarf and leggings.

Poor hard done by doggy.

Happy New Year everyone

Christmas food shopping

2010-12-22T20:50:00.002Z

I have done most of Xmas food shopping but went into Waitrose at lunchtime today to get some things that had been forgotten. It was really busy! Our Waitrose is never busy except at Christmas and today it was busy. There were lots of people queueing for the tills, but they had got it well organised. There were staff at the end of every aisle organising people into neat queues and then sending them on to the tills, and rewarding you for your patience by giving you a chocolate when you got to the top of the queue.

It made queueing almost enjoyable!

Glad tidings

2010-12-22T13:25:00.000Z

Supermarket shopping with young children is seldom a pleasure really. Shopping with young children at this time of year is HELL. Luckily we are way past that. This morning we needed to pop to our supermarket to get victuals for a quickly(due to weather) rearranged lunch with Trev's sister. The place was heaving. Not surprisingly given that it is two days before Xmas and the roads are the clearest they've been of snow since Saturday. Waitrose, our supermaket gives you the chance to self scan what you buy and then check it out yourself. You carry a hand held device and scan each bar code as you read it. We got round to the far end of the shop and there was a very harrassed mother trying to be reasonable with her 5 year old who was holding the scanner. Suddenly she snapped, a voice that sounded like the girl from the excorsist suddenly issued forth: GIVE ME THE SCANNER. To be honest, I don't know if that was succesful as Trev and I made a hasty retreat to giggle unobserved.
Hey ho! Sometimes I can really appreciate my kids being in their 20s

More Frosty Pictures

2010-12-08T10:16:00.000Z

Another sub zero day plus the end of yesterday produced more picture taking opportunities, so here they are:

Yesterday the Cow Parsley made a great frame for the late afternoon light

We also had our own entrance to Narnia:

And even the bins were decorated

Cold weather not all bad after all. But it would be nice to be able to drive off without spending 10 minutes defrosting.

What do "experts" know?

2010-12-07T11:33:00.000Z

David Quarmby, chairman of the RAC foundation and co-author of the Winter Resilience Review, is quoted on the BBC saying: "This is a very early onset of winter but it is also a bit different from what we are used to - although temperatures are not particularly cold..."

Well I don't know where he hangs out, but I maintain it is ******* cold, particular or not! Just look at this Willow tree.............

A particularly cold Willow tree

Minus 6 degrees - Narnia in Saffron Walden

2010-12-07T08:48:00.000Z

A cool start to the day, so a couple of pictures of the scene 100 metres from our door.

Never has a recycling centre looked so festive

Cold but pretty

Nicky takes flight

2010-12-01T19:47:00.005Z

This is a picture of Nicola taken by a bystander at the races in the spring sometime. The horse, called No More Whispers, was acting up - as you can see - and she rashly hung on.

The owner has used the picture as his Christmas card, so Nic will be on all his cards!

She is glad she has her back to the camera because she says she was probably pulling a really daft face.

What is lovely is that the person who took the picture took the trouble to send it to Evan, just because he liked it, and thought other people would as well.

Kindness of strangers.

Christmas Cake

2010-11-25T18:54:00.000Z

It is that time of year. For the past million (well maybe a bit less but a lot) my parents (and in the last 3 my dad) have provided the Christmas cake, latterly shop bought, which is fine. Having a bit of extra time before Christmas (should be cooking leave not gardening!) I decided to try out the Delia cake kit from Waitrose. So far so good. Here it is cooling down:

Next I get to feed it (with alcohol, tee hee) and then it is the icing question. I never liked icing, and really dislike marzipan, but if not covered then it will dry out more quickly. So all you cake makers (well Helen at least!) let's have the advice. :0)

Trev

Welcome compensation

2010-11-12T16:42:00.000Z

Aha, les welcome cottages etait donnez £100 pour le goodwill a nous. Une bon result nest pas? Vive les vacances!

Trendy tango

2010-11-12T13:44:00.002Z

Carl found this on YouTube and loves it. Shows how much I've sucked him into the Strictly world, he said 'Check out these Argentine Tango moves set to hip hop music'. No thinking it was just ordinary tango moves for him :)

Click here to view.

Love Kate xxxx

Turning corners in the UK

2010-11-04T09:25:00.000Z

Is it just me, or do driving lessons now instruct people to turn every corner as if the were driving a bus or articulated lorry? It used to be OK to approach a roundabout and assess whether someone entering was going to carry on or turn off from their positioning, even if no indicators were operating (shock). Nowadays, an enormous number of people start to turn in the opposite direction to that required, so their imaginary bus won't mount invisible obstacles.

What the what! (copyright Tina Fey) There is a one way street in Saffron Walden, at the end of which two cars can fit comfortably, one going right, the other left. Sadly drivers of tanks and small hatchbacks all feel the need to swing the wrong way, so a simple turn is now a challenge to keep paintwork unscraped. No wonder the Lib dems don't know which way is right.................

Provence Pictures

2010-11-02T17:32:00.000Z

Just a few:

A Borie

Even the French dogs have style

You don't want to stay here!

It's himself (Maquis de Sade)

Mont Ventoux- it was everywhere

Very windy Pont d'Avignon - sur it!

View from Lacoste - the Maqu's pad

Un week a Provence

2010-11-02T17:04:00.000Z

Bonjour, Nous sommes back en Angleterre apres a week a Provence. Nous were tres concerned about le striking and le problems de transport. But bon news, Les Hertz providez une voiture avec le tank plein. Je recommende hotel "Mas Entremont", prez de Aix-en-Provence. Pas cheap mais tres comfortable et manger magnifique. Notre villa a Joucas etait OK, but needed encore d'illumination et heating pour les froid nuits. Aussi there was the travaux de maison - floor laying commencement a 8.15am! Nous have complained. La femme de le patron gave us a bouteille de vin Rose by way of apology (il est a crap bouteille), mais Je demande £100 from le Welcome cottages. We'll voix how that faits.

Provence etait magnifique, les temps etait bon tous les jours except on notre anniversaire (30th), quand le Mistral popped up. Nous nearly etait blown off le pont d'Avignon. Nous regardons quelque gorges, et experienced le Musee de Lavendre. Apparently only real Lavender existe sur les montagne depuis 800 et 1100 metres. Le rest is Lavendin, une clone - bad luck Norfolk.

Je recommende Provence, mais pas le villa a Joucas until les travaux est terminee. Le pictures will follow.

Trevor

Sugar Loaf walk

2010-10-25T19:45:00.002+01:00

We went for a walk yesterday up the Sugar Loaf. This is the hill you can see in the picture behind Brian and is named Sugar Loaf because that is what it looks like.

It is just outside Abergavenny just inside the Brecon Beacons national park. As you can see from the pictures the scenery is stunning and you can see for miles in all directions from the top. The weather was lovely and bright sunlight, though the wind was a bit chilly.

It was not really a climb, but it was a steep walk, especially when you are unfit as I am, so we had quite a few pauses for breath - for me to catch my breath and for Brian to stand around waiting.

It is an area I haven't been to before and it is absolutely lovely. We had problems finding the car park and ended up dashing into Smiths to buy a OS map which showed us the car park up (and I mean UP) a single track road. However now we have invested in the map we will have to explore the area more. Though probably most of that will be after the winter - it will get cold and snowy up there in the winter.

Edinburgh

2010-10-17T19:56:00.002+01:00

Carl and I have just spent a really great weekend in Edinburgh. Having thought I had never been there, I actually realised I've been there twice but once was just at the airport and the other was for a conference, both work related and both precluded seeing anything of the city. We went to meet up with some of our friends from our Cyprus days. Alison and Craig live in Lanark which is about an hour away from Edinburgh. They now have two little girls, so Alison's parents who live in Austin, Texas, have set themselves up with a flat in Edinburgh so they can visit more often. Nice for some - and nice for us as it turns out - free posh digs right in the city centre! We were also joined by our friends Buzz and Emma who flew up from Cheltenham.

It was a lovely weekend with too much food and FAR too much alcohol (when in Rome, or Edinburgh...) and we also really fell for Edinburgh. It's got a really great atmosphere with loads of history, loads of things to see, lots going on - we loved it. Will post some pics once I get them off my camera. We went to the castle, then went on a whiskey tour (complete with hangover) which was very well thought out and not a boring museum-y experience at all. They'd worked really hard to make it interesting and interactive and we really enjoyed it. Then we pottered about and ended up in the National Museum of Scotland which was good and in amongst the relics of the Stewarts was a science bit where we went to visit Dolly the cloned sheep who now resides like a Damien Hirst piece in a perspex box.

If you haven't been I'd definitely recommend it for a weekend. Pics to follow.

Kate xxxx

GMail ad that I think is just lovely!

2010-10-09T11:31:00.001+01:00

Still using my time profitably...

GMail are doing something right with their advertising!

More anon

Dogs

2010-10-09T10:19:00.004+01:00

Following Kieran's previous post about YouTube videos I just had to post this. I never sit and watch YouTube but Carl does. A lot. Most of what he watches is rubbish (Taff Wars anyone?!) but this is genius and apparently done in one take which I find a bit difficult to believe!

YouTube Doggie Video

Kate xxxx

A comparative media project

2010-10-09T09:37:00.002+01:00

Alice and I have, as always, been spending our time profitably by watching videos on you tube. As we explored the vast internet, we came across an amusing ad campaign by Old Spice in the US. This was extended by a series of answers to twitterers.

We can tell its gone mainstream, as now sesame street have done a version

Chox away

2010-10-04T17:08:00.000+01:00

We decided to have Trev's birthday celebration yesterday as he has to go to London on his actual birthday. The forecast was fairly soggy so that ruled out really outdoor stuff and the railways were having engineering works so that ruled out London. So we decided to got to the Imperial Museum at Duxford which is just a short drive from us.
Erin clearly wasn't enthused about this idea and decided she had urgent shoe shopping to do. She declared, infact, that if she went she would be rolling around on the floor within 5 minutes. (As a child if she was bored this tended to be where she ended up!)
So Trev and I went on our own and had a lovely, if windy, time. It is mostly undercover but you have to walk between hangars. We got a little damp but not too bad.

Anyway, here are three things I learned yesterday. The wind whistling through the safety barrier made a very strange Aeolian Harp sort of noise. No wonder there are always rumours about WWII airfield being haunted.
When the GIs were in East Anglia in their thousands there was a rodeo in Norwich!!!
An alsation called Brian joined the paratroupers. On his arrival in Normandy he was scared of the noise and barked madly. Apparently, he was "assisted" out of the plane and landed on a tree from where he had to be rescued. Anyway he survived the war and was awarded a Dickin medal for his services

Scilly Isles and gardens

2010-09-26T15:48:00.001+01:00

And here are some pictures of the Scilly Isles.

Lovely in the sunshine but not for foul weather or foodies (unless scones and coffee)

Try 2 didn't work let's try 3

2010-09-26T14:52:00.003+01:00

Here

Ship figureheads

2010-09-26T14:50:00.000+01:00

Ship figure heads attempt 2

They should be here

Northumberland

2010-09-25T11:05:00.008+01:00

We have just returned from a fantastic fortnight in Northumberland. It is a county full of romantic ruins and high winds and that isn't even including Trev and me. We had many a walk on heathery bracken moors, some of which we got lost on! Whenever I was on a windy moor Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights etched itself on to my brain. It's probably done that to you to now! The higher the moor the more of the strange Red Grouse we saw who make the strangest noise. Here is a picture from Simonside, near Rothbury of some of the countryside
Our cottage was a barn conversion and this was our welcoming committee
There were three of them and they belonged to the next door neighbours. Clearly previous residents had fed them as they came and fixed us with their beady eyes when it was warm enough to sit outside.
If we got fed up with the the moors and the ruins then we could go on the beaches which are fabulous. Unfortunately, they are attached to the North Sea so I think you'd need to be a hardy soul to brave the waters.
It has to be the friendliest most unspoiled place I have stayed in the UK. Every shop that you went into they were interested in where you came and recommended places to go. It is like it being transported into a more Northerly James Herriot novel. I would recommend it to anyone who likes walking and ruins.
What it is not is a fine dining experience. I had fish and chips three times while I was there! Still, I haven't gained any weight while I've been away.
Funnily, enough, Alice's parents were on holiday in Alnwick at the same time so we met up with them at Alnwick castle and gardens. This seriously is making me look like the family stalker now and that I am practicing so that I can chance upon Linda in London landmarks again this winter!
If you would like to be bored with more photos they are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Martinphtots/Northumberland#

Ship figureheads

2010-09-20T20:35:00.005+01:00

In the Abbey Gardens in Tresco they have an area they call Valhalla where they have lots of ships' figureheads from ships that have been wrecked in the seas around the islands.

Most of them have been restored and repainted, and when they have information about the ship and what happened to her they have written it up beside the figurehead.

Brian found it a bit ghoulish, but I thought it was touching, and the effort to give the ships a place in history for people who come later was quite moving.

We don't like your sort round here.

2010-09-02T17:30:00.002+01:00

After the disaster of last week's wash out Shakespeare, my girls and I decided to go to a quiz at a local hostelry. I drive past the pub, The Fighting Cocks (a name that always made Kieran giggle) most days when I take Erin to the station and noticed a blackboard sign outside saying Pub Quiz Every Wednesday, free entry cash prize. We do enjoy a quiz and thought we would have a go. None of us have ever been in this pub as it has a reputation as a bikers' pub in the past. Still, it has changed landlord several times and anyway most bikers seem to be my age nowadays and frequenting tea shops.
I thought it was strange when I rang at lunch time and the phone seemed dead but I drove past it on my way home and the blackboard sign was still there. So Judy and I turned up in the first car and went into the pub which had about 4 people in it. The landlord took one look at us and said "Sorry, ladies, I was just about to close up"
He didn't look like he was about to close up. It appeared that we were not the kind of clientele he wanted. It was almost like that scene in American Werewolf in London where all the locals stop talking when the strangers walk in.
Anyway we made our way to another pub and had a very convivial evening and then on the way home drove past The Fighting Cocks again and the lights were on!
I've never been barred from a pub - still you're never too old apparently!

Stormy weather

2010-08-25T15:17:00.002+01:00

Tonight I am going to see Twelfth Night, outside, at one of the colleges in Cambridge. Guess what the weather is doing. Can I just say The Tempest might be more appropriate! I think it is a constant reminder of the triumph of hope over experience when you consider the amount of things there are to do outside in a British summer. Festivals all over the country and outdoor theatre at the very least. In this week alone, I have the outdoor theatre, an outdoor party and a treasure hunt!Wwish me luck.
On another note my colleague Andrew was drooling over the Apple Website when he came across this description of what the Apple i phone can do:
"Its advanced backside illumination sensor delivers great-looking video in both bright and low-light settings. And in dark environments, you can brighten the scene with the built-in LED light. "
Not sure anyone would appreciate my backside being illuminated! Teehee! (I'm getting hysterical about the weather now and had better sign off)

3D or not 3D

2010-08-08T07:41:00.002+01:00

Hollywood has gone 3D mad. Ever since Avatar was made films have been reengineered to be 3D and others have been made from 3D at the outset. I suspect the joke doing the rounds at Comiccon “If you can’t make it good, make it 3-D.” may have an element of truth. Until yesterday I had never seen one.
Like many people reading this blog I have a lazy eye or amblyopia to give it it's correct name. Apparently a person with Amblyopia does not see in 3D. Now I think I do see in 3D but obviously I have never looked through somebody elses eyes so how would I know?
Thus I have a bit of a resistance to 3D movies. I feel a bit excluded from the club. Erin and I have had moany conversations about bloody 3D for several months now. To be honest, there have been very few films so far that I would have wanted to see. I tend to like films that were made for a shilling, with no special effects and preferably not in English. However that is not always the case. I would put the Star Wars films among my favourites and there is nothing Arty about them.
So Toy Story 3 has come out. I saw the first when my children were children and have enjoyed the previous 2 very much. I was very keen to finish the trilogy off. Here's the thing. There are only two cinemas locally I am prepared to frequent. The Arts Picture House in Cambridge and our local, volunteer run Saffron Screen. I knew that when it arrives at the latter it would be a matinee and I really did want to see it with mostly kids. The former meant donning the glasses. So with some trepidation I bought the tickets (plus a supplement for the glasses and another supplement for the priviledge of the 3D experience).
So it's a great film but to me it looked the same as any other film. But the good thing was it didn't make me feel sick or force me to shut one eye as I had feared. Trev said it was clever but the 3D didn't really add that much to it. So I shall be able to see the new Harry Potter in 3D safely and we have now purchased our glasses. Who knows how long and how far this will go as a trend. To be honest, I think Inception which was made in 2D was a much more cinematic film. You would be fine watching Toy Story 3 on DVD.

Cuts close to home

2010-08-05T18:42:00.002+01:00

The first cuts are hitting close to home.

Adam works in a specialist hospital for spinal injuries and similar long term patients called Rookwood. It is in old buildings but has a special atmosphere just because so many of the patients are there for months at a time. However it has been announced that the hospital is to be closed.

Hopefully that doesn't mean that Adam's job is under threat, but it does mean he will be moved to one of the other hospitals in the area, and the patients will be scattered around as well. It is a shame for everyone concerned.

For Adam he may end up at a more commuting convenient hospital, but it won't be as friendly or supportive as Rookwood. The domestics in Rookwood are part of the team, not interchangeable minions and some of the bigger hospitals won't see the domestic staff in the same way.

Fingers crossed that it works out ok. It is a real shame.

New job

2010-07-24T09:15:00.002+01:00

So, big news, I have a new job! Has all happened a bit quickly, but basically another company in the e-learning industry have pretty much tapped me up and made me an offer I couldn't refuse to go and head up their marketing. It's a bit out of the blue but I have been a bit bored where I was for a while now. Yesterday I handed my notice in, after going out until 3am for our company 'do' the night before. I could've picked a better time than when I felt knackered, hungover and nauseous to be honest! However, they were really good about it despite the fact I'm going to a company which is a competitor.

They're not hanging around though and the job ad for my existing job is going up on Monday morning which is a horrible feeling. Someone else is going to come in and be me! But the opportunity I've got is a great one - I'll be looking after all the marketing for a much bigger company and the package is also really good. I'll be nominally based in London but only have to be physically in the office 2 - 3 days a week. So I'm going to turn into a train commuter and will have to become a lot more punctual so I actually get to the train station on time in the mornings! The company is called Redtray if you want to check them out, although their website is quite rubbish and that's one of the first things I'll be sorting out :)

After the hangover recovery and the adrenalin rush of actually resigning, I came home completely exhausted and was in bed by 8.30pm. Not much of a celebration! But I'm very happy with my decision. Slightly terrified, but excited too!

xxxx

Olympics!

2010-07-20T16:10:00.002+01:00

I am attempting to do housework but it is very hot and I keep flopping. See I have flopped infront of the computer and started thinking about the olympics. Only 2 years time and within 30 miles of where I am typing now. Here's my plan. We should all go and see something. I pretty much don't mind what I see (except boxing). We could all go and see something horsey! Most of that stuff is Greenwich Park. We could stay at my house and catch the train and DLR. Brilliant. Or even nearer is the kayaking which I believe is all happening on the River Lee which is even nearer than London. You can register an interest now and when the tickets are available we can all try and go to the same event.
OK better go and do something more productive now.

Barbeque and show

2010-07-19T14:36:00.002+01:00

Here are pictures of the barbeque at Kate and Carl's house, and a few of the horse show.

Nic and Five-A-Side both looking very smart and me being the groom.

It was fun.

Forgotten ......

2010-07-13T18:09:00.002+01:00

Nic is going to Ibiza on holiday tomorrow. Yesterday she went off to Essex to stay with Sally, the friend she is going on holiday with. She spent yesterday sorting things out, packing , doing all sorts of things that she should have done earlier and hadn't (nothing new there!)

However I got home from work, and other than a note asking me to take her car to get its MOT all seemed fine.

Then I got a phone call from our intrepid traveller. Bear in mind she spent 2 summers travelling round the USA, 6 months in Denmark and other holidays, so travelling is not a new experience.

"Mum, I forgot my passport"

Stunned silence at my end of the phone.

"You what?" I finally managed (eloquent eh?)

She had packed everything except her passport! I checked it was where she thought it was (it was).

They are flying early on Wednesday morning so there was no time to post it, even 24 hour guaranteed post. We hang up the phone and they contact Sally's mum to find out the name of a courier company.

The phone goes again. How far from Benfleet to Llantwit (214 miles) which at 90p per mile was extremely expensive. Sally doesn't have the internet in her new flat, so I looked up the trains. A return from was £2 cheaper than a single (!) but was only £66. So she could get to Cardiff and back, but could we get the passport to Cardiff?

Adam was working. I had meetings all day. Nic phoned Mike who could manage it.

So Adam took the passport to drop it throught the letterbox of Mike's office on his way to work this morning. Mike then took the passport to Cardiff station for 1.30, handed it over. Nic then got onto the 2.25 train back.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Warm summer BBQ

2010-07-11T16:46:00.005+01:00

Well this summer is turning out to be a bit of a barbecue summer. Hose pipe bans in Cumbria - all manner of craziness. Anyway, most of us are sure it will change sooner or later and are making the most of this sunny spell. This weekend the McNabbs, Grahams, Martins and Stocks got together at Kate and Carl's new house near Reading where we ate and drank and talked. A really lovely day. We had originally been toying with the idea of of meeting in Stratford and taking in a play, but the only day that was mutually suitable had a rubbish production on so Kate and Carl were volunteered. They do live conveniently in the middle and have a large garden and plenty of parking. It was very kind and we are all grateful.

Most of us stayed the night which was very cosy but fine. Nic had even bought her horse down for a show on the Sunday. He stayed in livery however so we didn't get to see him. Unfortunately, our hosts had to sleep in a tent which we didn't get round to erecting until we were all a little tipsy. Basically Helen was the foreman, she had one or two useful helpers and the rest of watched, making helpful suggestions. I don't think any of us have got Ray Mears worried that we could take over his job. I am not a keen camper and know nothing about erecting tents, Erin said that she usually makes a rubbish attempt at work like this till a man does it for her. Trev and Brian were blowing up air beds but that seemed to involve watching the electric pump work, whilst having a glass of wine. Kate, Alice and Nic were quite helpful I think, or at least looked like they were. Carl and Kate were having a bit of a marital which you can hear below! Good times! Here are videos. You can also see more pictures here but you will see a few other Martin summer events too.

an amusing entry

2010-07-07T12:13:00.000+01:00

I thought the dog lovers amongst us might enjoy this link

2010-07-04T10:18:00.001+01:00

Last night Trev and I went to see Quartet in Cambridge - very enjoyable it was too. I would recommend it if it comes to a theatre near you or it is made into a film (apparently Dustin Hoffman has bought the rights). Now there are two things you may or may not know about Trevor. The first is that if we are out for the day and eating in a pub or restaurant he likes to eat at noon on the dot or he will begin to panic. The second is that he treats where we sit in a theatre or cinema with the strategic acumen of Julius Caesar. So we thought we had picked perfect seats. Third row up in the Circle. Then Trevor said"These are supreme seats" No sooner had he said this than a couple sat in front of us. The man was in front of me and he had the biggest head I have ever seen. Seriously, he was like a freak of nature. He was like a Wii Mii. If you have ever seen one. Unfortunaely, this was a very static play and the action was all taking place where his big fat bonce was blocking my view. What's more his girlfriend couldn't sit still either. Clearly she had got used to shifting constantly around so she could get a bit of light eclipsed by the bloke's giant noggin!. So we spent the first act craning our necks to see some of the play. Luckily, the theatre was not full so we could remove ourselves to different seats in the interval where we had an excellent view.

How exciting!

2010-06-30T16:04:00.002+01:00

Have you seen the trailer for the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?! OMG, so exciting! Big debate on Twitter now about what's better, HP or the Twilight series. Uh, hello, no contest!

Here is link in case you haven't seen it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EC2tmFVNNE

Wonder if they're going to explain why they made that fundamental change at the end of the last film with Harry on the top of the tower?

Feel the urge to re-read the books all over again! But we've got until November (sigh).

Kate
xxxx

No to gite say McNabb/Noyes

2010-06-25T18:09:00.002+01:00

We have decided against buying a gite. For the economic reasons see my blog.

The other reasons are largely because it would mean Brian being away on his own for long periods to do the place up, and as I am still working I could only get there 4 weeks of the year anyway. If we were both retired and could spend a few months there at a time we would have been more tempted, but in the current circumstances it just doesn't pan out sadly.

Nice idea but not the right idea.

It wasn't so much the doing up of a place because unlike Chris and Xavier we would have done most of it ourselves (ie Brian) and there would have been no time pressure to finish so no need for architects and builders. France doesn't have building inspectors coming to see that you have done everything right, they apparently work on the theory that if you are going to live there you will make sure it is ok. You have to get a qualified electrician to do the junction box and wire in the sockets, we would have got someone to install a fosse septique, but the rest they leave you to it.

They have a really good way of doing roofing slates with a thing like a crochet hook which means you don't need to nail the slates and therefore they don't split. They sell lovely staircases in Mr Bricolage that you can just buy step by step. They have lovely windows and doors, especially the doors which have a window part in the top half so you can open the window but the door is still shut. Had my car been bigger we might have brought one home for the cottage, they would be ideal.

It was fascinating and we learnt a lot, but won't be buying anything.

France - bits of it anyway

2010-06-24T13:53:00.003+01:00

This is a picture of a heron which I took when we were having a picnic. It got in by mistake and now is refusing to go away! It was meant to be a photo of Brian and me having the picnic.

We have been to France, as some will know, and had a lovely, but very busy time. Brian is toying with the idea of investing his savings into a (to be done up) French property as an investment/holiday home. So we unexpectedly - not having planned to go abroad at all this year, especially as we have a holiday booked in the Scilly Isles in September- went to France. We had a 2 centre holiday.
This being blogger here is Brian outside the second gite which was in the Morbihan area of Brittany, near a town called Josselin and about half an hour from Vannes. From here we explored an amazing amount of Brittany, but also had a day at the beach at Carnac.
This is me outside the first gite - a basic, but very cheap and perfectly adequate apartment in Normandy, a few miles outside Domfront. You will notice that the glass of wine was already being put to good use
Here I am again in Bagnoles sur l'Orne which is a spa town and very pretty. It reminded us both of Uriage, though I think Uriage is prettier.
This is the remains of supper on day 1. If you ever travel to France on a Sunday REMEMBER to take two days worth of food with you. Everything between Le Havre and Domfront was shut except one boulangerie somewhere or other. It had this pizza. I do use the word pizza with some reservations because no Italian would have recognised it as one. It was a pizza base, with tomato puree and then what looked like all the onions left after you have drained the soup from a french onion soup. Only hunger made us eat half of it, the other half went into the bin. Thankfully we also got bread, and the welcome pack from the gite contained cheese and wine, so we survived. We did have tea, coffee, sugar, biscuits etc, but not meals.

No more pics because I can't be bothered to fight with blogger to get them in. We had a good time. The weather was mixed in week one but fab in week two. We saw a fair few houses round the south of Normandy, and although the would probably be affordable the area didn't really appeal. It has some lovely places, but the area is clearly suffering a bit and we didn't feel there would be enough to do there in some ways. We went off to the coast near Mont St Michel which was about an hour away and instantly felt happier, so came to the conclusion that Normandy is just too far inland for us and we need to be nearer the sea.

Brittany was more us. We were staying in the Morbihan area which we both really liked, but which was perhaps a bit more genteel than we are - more Cowbridge than Llantwit. We loved Dinan, and so many of the towns round there are just lovely. So much mediaeval housing is retained in the town centres, and they have lots and lots of flowers everywhere, with parks, walks, no litter and no grafitti. It was lovely. We went to a town called Heulgoat in finistere for the day, and saw some houses there, and that area is now heading the popularity stakes for a few reasons. One is cost - it is cheaper there than the rest of Brittany, but the coast is half an hour away, the area is lovely, and Brian seems to have a tendency to go to nearly the end of a peninsula, not quite fall off, and feel he likes it there!

It was great fun, and we have lots of information now to think about whether it is sensible or worth doing, whether it would be too much work (we are talking cheap renovation projects here) etc etc.

We are now back in Pembs for the last few days of my hols (back to work on Monday!) with lots of food for thought, and a much,much nicer pizza for lunch!!!

Pink elephants (and many other colours) on parade.

2010-06-13T18:23:00.013+01:00

Before I get started can I just say that we spotted Alice on Songs of Praise. She is on the left hand side of the cathedral and you can see her briefly during the third hymn. What a strange programme that is. The cameraman was obsessed with the vaulting so we saw more ceiling than people. And they cut the lovely soprano singing Handel to a flock of sheep!!

Anyway, I digress. Trev and I decided to go in search of elephants in London today. It is a huge art exhibition of over 250 elephants to highlight and raise money for Asian elephants. They are being herded up on Friday before they go to Chelsea Royal Hospital. From there they are going to be auctioned. I would love to buy one but I think they would be a little out of my league. They are all different and designed by different artists.

We spotted our first two outside Guardian Royal Exchange from the bus. Then we came across another six in Trafalgar Square. The first picture is me sitting in front of one.

From there we walked down to St James's Park where we saw 6 more. We then walked to Green Park and were passed by soldiers on parade! Something to do with the Queen's birthday I would think.

In Green Park there was a happy herd - there must have been 20 or 30 I think. Here are a few.

That top elephant should buy some good moisturiser.

We stopped for lunch on Picadilly and found this princess in Burlington Arcade. (That's the blue one I am not wasting any more time trying to get these pictures where I want them)
She is covered in Swarovski crystals! We also saw a 3 excellent hares outside the Royal Academy by Barry Flannagan. They had also decorated the statue of Sir Joshua Reynolds with a garland.

After that we went back to Green Park then walked back to the river and saw some more on the South Bank. Eventually recrossing the river and seeing a couple more by St Paul's. If you want to see the lot you can look here. It made a brilliant walk and was great fun. I hope they make a lot of money for the cause.

I'm On't Telly!

2010-06-07T23:19:00.003+01:00

Well, I might be anyway. Yes, for all of you who live in the UK you're in for a treat. As you all know, I am super-cool, but what you may not know is that I'm in a Church Choir. Woot!

A couple of months ago I, with some of my fellow choir members, took part in a recording for Songs of Praise, coolest TV show ever I'm sure you agree, and it's just possible I may be in the large group shots when they show the hymns in Winchester Cathedral. I know for certain they will have close ups of some of the cute trebles from our choir not that you'll know who they are, but I was standing nearby!

Anyway, I know you won't be able to contain your excitement when I tell you it's on Sunday 13th June BBC1, 15:30. Enjoy!

More anon

Spanish sojourn

2010-06-05T00:02:00.004+01:00

So I had a wonderful time in Spain last week on my friend Sam's hen do. Sounds extravagant to travel all that way for a hen do but it was a bloody great excuse for a holiday, and actually worked out less than I've paid for some hen dos in the UK!

We went to a tiny village called Cortes des Baza in Granada and stayed in this amazing cave house. It's like something out of Grand Designs, carved out of the rock, and apparently are quite a feature of the region. It was an incredibly sleepy place to say the least and I think the arrival of a group of British girls for the week was the talk of the town. The locals were very nice though, albeit a bit too friendly - the local goat herder decided to invite himself over for a drink at around midnight on evening which we could've done without!!

We didn't do anything touristy (the Alhambra Palace will have to wait) we just really relaxed by the pool and ate and drank way too much. It was fabulous. I read a lovely book called 'Eat.Pray.Love' which I would definitely recommend for holiday reading and also got stuck into the Steig Larsson Millenium trilogy which I've been saving up. We had a few trips out to the local bars but it was really very chilled out and not crazy hen do-ish at all - I think we're all past that now!

To carry on the international flavour, Sam and Ian's wedding is in Italy in August which has definitely softened the blow of this fabulous Spanish trip being over.

Because blogger (and Facebook for that matter) hates me and won't let me upload any photos, I've resorted to another Picasa album instead:

Spanish Sojourn Pics

Love Kate xxxx

Afternoon in Picton Castle gardens

2010-05-30T18:36:00.002+01:00

We have taken a break from unpacking the contents of both Brian's houses and putting them into the cottage this afternoon. We did extremely well yesterday and the kitchen is now pretty ship shape, today we unpacked the clothes and did the bathroom, so the main things left to do are all the paperwork boxes, music scores, and connecting tv and hi fi. However as the aerial man won't be here till next week at the earliest there is no great rush for that.

So we took this sunny afternoon off and went to Picton Castle. I wanted to see the rhododendrons in flower, and although they were past their best, there were still enough of them out to make quite a spectacular show.
Here are some lovely red ones
This is taken from the inside of a bower made of woven (willow maybe?) like a little round tent.
More lovely flowers.

The top picture is Brian sitting beside the pond in the walled garden. It was really lovely. We had a very nice tea with carrot cake (me) and raspberry and coconut slice (Brian).

Tomorrow we will need to do more work, but today was very relaxing.

As you can tell perhaps, we have also got Brian's broadband connection up and running. This is a very good thing.

Wales May 2010

2010-05-25T17:20:00.001+01:00

Hot sunny weekend

2010-05-23T18:23:00.002+01:00

Boo and Trev came down this weekend. We had tickets to go see the Strictly Come Dancing Professionals show on the Saturday night, which we did, and it was brilliant. However the star of the weekend was the weather! It was fabulous. We had heat and sunshine all weekend. Here we are on the Sunday walking along the coast path towards the lighthouse.
However the other star of the weekend is Miss Muffet. Nic's friend Chloe had a Welsh pony mare who had to be put down on Wednesday and who left behind a 2 day old foal. Here is Miss Muffet taken on Saturday when she was 5 days old. Chloe is having to bottle feed her every 2 hours at the moment which is asking a lot of anyone. Luckily she lives on a farm so they have the space, but she also has 3 boys under 6 so is busy at the best of time. They are trying to teach her to drink from a bucket because it would be better not to be hand reared by people. She needs to know she is a horse. Although Chloe has another pony mare with a month old foal the little one is so young that they are too nervous to put her with them until she is older. So Chloe, Nic and Keely have gone off to see if they can get a small donkey to be a companion for her, because apparently donkeys are less likely to kick or bite.
Here she is again - unbelievably cute and so beautiful.
Here are Boo and Trev on Llantwit beach enjoying an ice lolly.

We also had a barbeque because this may be the only weekend we can do so.

It has been like a little holiday this weekend, absolutely wonderful.

Adventures near and afar

2010-05-17T18:31:00.005+01:00

This weekend we went to Southampton to visit Kieran and Alice and we decided to go for a bluebell walk in the New Forest. I suspect that Mike would argue that it is neither new nor a forest. However it was new 900 years ago when it was created by William I and there is common grazing hence the heathland - but there are also wooded bits. What it doesn't have is many bluebells or waymarks on it's walks We were following a walk from a book, which is usually very reliable. It did warn us that it might be boggy but we thought that we'd be OK as it has been a dry spring. The walk started well as we encountered wild ponies and highland cows(!) on the common. Then when we entered the woods the path was blocked by a fallen tree. So we diverted out of the woods onto a clearing. We realised that it might be a bit muddy here as the ponies were up to their knees (or whatever that joint is called in a horse) in mud. Also the path was very unclear.The going was incredibly hard work. The woods were now behind a wire fence and Kieran suggested that the path actually should be on the wood side of the fence. We weren't all convinced but it was much drier that side so we all climbed over or scrambled under the fence. However after a while we saw a sign which informed us we were in a reserve for red deer and we realised we should be on the other side. So we all clambered or crawled under or over the fence again. We all saw a herd of red deer apart from Trev who was in mid clamber. We made progress using fallen trees as bridges without disappearing too deeply into the bog and then we found the path again. Hurray! After a while we came upon a field that was in the instructions. We had to walk miles around it to find a way over the brook that wasn't mentioned in the instruction. Then we saw a gate. We decided that this must definitely be the stile in the instructions and clambered over it. We came across a gravel path which seemed right. However I suspect we were meant to join it later as we had to cross a ford! It was at this stage that Trev announced we were only about half way around the walk. When we came to a road and Trev suggested we could cut out a large corner from the walk by staying on the road. The thought that the footpaths could be adventurous as the first half meant that we all agreed. It was actually great fun but we definitely felt we deserved an icecream at the end

We went to see Hairspray in the evening at the Mayflower theatre in Southampton. It's a fantastic Victorian theatre which miraculously escaped the blitz. The show was brilliant apart from the annoying women who came in late and stepped on Alice's foot to get to their seats and then kept talking. Grrr!
A fabulous weekend all round.
I have included some further pictures of Erin's travels. She has left Vietnam and is now in Cambodia. She wasn't able to download photos in Vietnam but had an excellent time there. She hasn't labelled many of these photos so it is partly guess work on my part.

When Toys Turn to the Dark Side

2010-05-06T21:03:00.003+01:00

This may be a little obscure, expecially because I haven't blogged here in a long time. However I thought this might be a comical and slightly horrifying talking point. A friend of mine alerted me to this little treat from the world of advertising. It's so scary I felt I should share it to make the horror dilute and then I'll be able to sleep at night! Do you think anyone was tempted to buy it? Watch it if you DARE!!!

More anon xx

Small town

2010-04-28T18:07:00.002+01:00

Today I travelled up to London to do some training on a database we use at work. It finished at 12.30 leaving me the rest of the day in London. Hurray! I had lunch in the refectory at Southwark Cathedral (can I just say I have rarely had disappointing eating experiences in Cathedral refectories.) Then I went to a lovely exhibition of Renaissance drawings at the British Museum. Who did I chance upon at this exhibition but Linda! We have decided that we need never email or phone to make arrangements because we will simply meet up through telepathy!!

Gardening

2010-04-15T15:36:00.002+01:00

Before I get to the subject is Mike trying to leave the country? Because this is the first time I've ever heard of all airports being closed because of volcanic ash and he does seem to court bizarre transport issues.
But anyway, gardening. I really hate it. It is a nice day here and the weeds are waiting for removal but yet I am in here on the computer and after that I will do some hoovering. Because gardening is like housework outdoors but worse. You get scratched, there is dirt under your nails, your back and/or knees hurt and there are yucky creepy crawlies. Don't get me wrong, I adore a lovely garden, but I just don't like being involved in the process of creating it.
Here's the thing though, my keen gardening freinds and neighbours feel the need to change my opinion with the religious zeal of a Jehovah's witnesses. They keep giving me cuttings or bulbs and I suspect they think that I will suddenly see the light. I know they are being kind and I am being churlish but to me it's as if somebody gave me a new duster so that I would finally do something about the dust on my ventian blinds.
Actually, nearly everyone I know seems obsessed with gardening. People at work will go "Ooh the weather is good - I will get on in the garden this weekend, at last". And again, like a religion, gardeners will keep talking to each other in Latin. Even Helen, who actually was the worst gardener in the world, now has Mum's gardening talents reincarnated in her has become quite enthusiastic.
My neighbour - who is a lovely neighbour, often gives me cuttings and bulbs and I have to plant them conspicuosly and water them as she can see the garden from her house. Sometimes I send Trev to bring the washing in in the evening in case she gives me bulbs (actually, that is largely because she could talk for Britain. Seriously, if it were an olympic sport Nic would get a distant silver to her gold!) Anyway, the other day we were given some bulbs by our neighbour and I asked Trev to plant them. His enthusiasm for gardening matches mine but he did so in the front garden -right next to our neighbour's drive. Later on in the week we noticed that the neigbour had run over theem in their car! Still, she gave Trev some more bulbs last week when I sent him to get them washing so I think I should just accept the kindness and be grateful it's bulbs and not dusters I'm getting.

Technology gone mad!

2010-04-12T16:22:00.006+01:00

In sci fi films and the original Star Trek series every so often there would be a computer/robot that was too big for it's boots and started taking over the joint. The only way to conquer this machine was to give it an unsolvable problem. So Captain Kirk would say something like "I am lying". The computer/robot would start talking in a high pitched voice, smoke would come out of it and sometimes it would twirl around until finally it died. Uppity technology put in it's place by a quick thinking twinkly eyed homo sapiens.
Well, yesterday we had our own bit of technology gone mad. It will probably surprise nobody to know it was our SatNav. Now you would think we knew better but every so often it is really useful. We were off on a walk in the Chilterns and sometimes it is hard to find the beginning of a walk. I must say, I started losing faith when it took us on a bizarre route through Luton- not the one I had plotted on the map but I thought it might know something I didn't. Apparently not! Right through the town centre and then the town centre of Dunstable. If you have never been to Luton or Dunstable, I wouldn't bother, you haven't missed much. Anyway, having got to Dunstable Downs which are on the edge of the Chilterns, we could really appreciate their beauty after the ugliness of the two towns! But when we got near our destination the GPS went mad. It kept going "Turn right, turn right,turn right" On and on and there wasn't a right turn. Luckily it has no control over us or the car so we didn't end up with a Hal/2001 situation and simply turned it off.
The walk was outstanding and I would recommend it to anyone. Along the Ridgeway with amazing views. Really a perfect walk with no naff road bits which you sometimes get in circle walks And it ended in a tea shop at a visitors centre where there were clean toilets. Bliss! I have included some photos.

The white chalk lion is at Whipsnade zoo

I have included some more links to Erin's travels. They are of her jungle trek in Thailand and her couple of weeks in Laos. Laos, according to Wikipedia, is the most bombed country in the world. It had more bombs landing on it in the Vietnam war then all the countries in the World War II. Anyway, it is very beautiful apparently, but what seemed to impress Erin the most was that the French influence has meant that you get really good cakes. I think there are more photos of cakes than countryside on her Facebook pages. I have not included them here.When I spoke to her yesterday she and Heather were catching a bus to Hanoi that would take 22 hours. She is probably still on it now.

Washing machine crisis!

2010-04-04T17:50:00.002+01:00

Thursday night last week, and I was heading for bed.

A shout comes up from downstairs.

"Mum! Water is shooting out of the washing machine!" yelled Adam.

Bugger!

I didn't actually see the water shooting out of the soap dispenser as Adam had turned the machine off by the time I got downstairs, however the floor was soaking. Luckily the washing machine is in the garage, so it could have been a lot worse. We made sure it was off and went to bed (that took nearly an hour).

Friday morning while having the early morning tea in bed I was on the internet looking at new washing machines. The last time I spent money on the old one I said I would spend no more on it, so it was for the chop. I have gone for one with a bigger drum than the old one because Nic creates huge amounts of washing (working outdoors etc) and a high spin speed (drying quicker). Then Brian and I got up and went downstairs to wrestle with the washing machine. Eventually he managed to get it out and the cold water inlet pipe turned off, but the hot water one wouldn't turn. He got the waste pipe off and we drained a bit of the water out of the machine into a bucket, but not much of it I tried opening the door and it did open, though it shouldn't have because there was lots of water in there, but we caught lots of it in a sort of large bucket/washing basket thing. The we had a cup of tea and Brian worked out how to turn off the hot pipe, we then manhandled the washing machine out. The we chucked out the carpet from that part of the garage.

After a coffee I ordered the washing machine we had decided on and it was delivered on the Saturday, a 2 hour time slot was given and they were within that - really excellent service!

Carl plumbed it in for me, and it has been working away today!

However as I had to put a new exhaust on the car on Thursday as well April has started off as a very expensive month!!!