New baby

Here is Baby Carter with proud parents, Greg and Paula. I've resized the picture from Sarah's email - note to non techys, use Microsoft Office Picture Manager if you have it, it has a really easy resize option under edit pictures.

Ze ball

I am almost finished at bath university, and have been to the final ball, where there were dodgems and, even better, the Wurzels.

some photos.

Myself and Alice, outside Cafe uno for a pre-ball meal

Candy floss!

OK - (embarassed tone) - what was the book AGAIN?

spending more time in galleries than reading lately really - ha ha ha - but I DO read fast so there is still hope ;-)

When is the book review?

This is a boring one without pictures - but when are we supposed to have read the book by? Is it June or July? I now have a copy and need to know my deadline.

Beach day in Spain

Went to the beach today, the girls had a blast...JC in Poland is going to be coming down and visiting us briefly in June with the boys...so we had to try it out and see if the beach is as much fun as we remembered:



Yup, it was, even if wimpy Mom didn't go in...




I don't think we'll let the boys climb up this one... The girls asked why there wasn't anything so cool in N America...can you say LAWSUIT???


They had a pretty good time though.

University life

Here is a taste of life from Erin from University :

"On the walk back from the City Centre to Campus, we went past the an accomodation block, and Eli pointed to a tree outside one of the flats and said "look at those knickers, theyve been there for ages", I looked at them having not noticed them before, hanging on a tree, even though i walk past it almost every day... and found they were MY knickers!!!! just that morning I'd noticed that they weren't in my room, and somehow they've ended up on a tree!"!! My only guess is thatI must have left them in the laundrette and someone decided to hang them on a tree. I wanted to go retreive them as I've only worn them once and they're new(obviously I'd wash them first) but Mike "(boyfriend)" forbade me. We have started a faceboook group to try and find the culprit!! "

Since then the knickers have been taken down or fallen down as they were on the floor this morning

A Famous Victory

Well nobody has posted for a while so I have decided to relate a moment of triumph I had last weekend. As you probably know Cambridge is an ancient seat of learning full of clever clogs with unusual facial hair (and that's just the women! ho!ho!) Once a year they have a book festival which ends in a literary quiz. So mybook group, including me, entered. A quiz without a sports round? Bliss! It was packed and we managed to come joint first with two other teams! Clever us! Anyway there was a tie breaker and it was here that we blew our chances. Just before the tie breaker the organizer of the quiz gave a speech. It was then that Judy's (one of our team) hand bag started making a loud noise. It was her rape alarm which had decided to go off of it's own accord! She took it out of the bag to stop it and of course it got louder and she couldn't stop it. She went into the porch with it, thinking she had stopped it and came in again and it went off again. Eventually she did stop it. It was absolutely hilarious. Our jaws were aching with laughter. Anyway after that we came third! (no coincidence). As it happened the prize was to choose a book donated by authors who had appeared at the festival. First place gets first choice etc. But as it happens the book I went for I would have chosen even if we had have come first.
Meanwhile Trev too is having famous victories. His bridge team are in an intercounty competion and he has now got to the stage where he might play international players next!
All exciting stuff.

Bridesmaid diet progress: yipee!!

Well, I've been taking my own sweet time but I have finally hit the magical stone mark on my diet. So that's one down, one to go (going to have to extend my chart). Might have taken me longer than I wanted but it feels reeeaaaaallly good :)

Matt's 60th at Helen's - some pictures

Here are some pictures, every one tells a story so first of all we present a study in switching off from your sister's story......

This next lot certainly found it funny:

Then we have one of those scary creatures, a relative of JAWS perhaps...

I think we need an interlude after that, here is the South Wales coastline, looking towards St Donats







Much better now. Let's see how people enjoyed the evening.....

That is a bit depressing. Could it be connected with the return of JAWS?









I see everyone is trying to ignore him again. But at least some people enjoyed themselves...



Happy 60th Matt, great to see you again.

Here we all are on the cliff at llantwit beach just prior to getting a cup of coffee in the cafe. For some reason I couldn't get this photo to behave in the last post - it kept going into the wrong places, hiding other photos and generally behaving like a brat, so it got it's own spot to itself.

Birthday bash

I cannot believe the weather! I do find it worrying that I watered the garden tonight and it is April and I am in Wales. It is enough to make the most sceptical believe in global warming I think. However on the plus side we had beautiful weather when we got together for Matt's 60th birthday over Easter, so although it looks like the Med, it is sunny Wales. Actually southern Spain had awful weather - maybe we have swenjoyedapped altogether, which is a scary thought. Nothing interesting happening really. Brian and I attacked the garden at the cottage last weekend and I am attacking mine this weekend, though the grass is ok here as Adam keeps on top of it, and it had really the weather down in Pembrokeshire and was a good 6-8 inches high.

New shoes...

....oooo, these little beauties called to me from outside the shop, beckoned me in and whispered 'Buy me Kate, buy me now'. Who was I to argue? :)

Well here is Gromit and his lizard tongue, under control of Nicky.

Welsh Easter

We are here in Sunny ~Wales enjoying lunch outdoors after a walk along the cliffs. And We have been allowed in here by our sibling what an honour.

Sea Dog

Vegetarian? Can you say PASTA? yum yum yum

All of my favorite veggie dishes basically revolve around PASTA! Pasta putanesca (you can skip the anchovies), macaroni and cheese (family recipe - can pass it on if you like - excellent and easy), pasta with red pesto, Pad Thai (without the chicken and shrimps - still excellent), and just plain pasta with olive oil, tons of garlics and herbs on it - oh yum yum yum yum yum. We are on a serious diet here and I have not eaten pasta for like 4 weeks - and just thinking about it is making me droooooool.....

Vegetarian food

Indeed we are meeting for the 60th. Food and drink will be consumed I should imagine.
Talking of which. As many of you know Kieran has become a vegetarian, so when he is home for the hols we too become vegetarians. I am feeling that my repetoire of vegetarian dishes is limited. We've pretty much got curries covered but I feel there must be good vegetarian food that does not involve either chillies or cheese. If anyone has the odd tried and tested recipe I would be eternally grateful. (Not tofu, though. Food is not meant to squeak against your teeth!)
Tonight we are having Chilli con Quorny (geddit? Erin's joke) . So we have got food pretending to be meat covered too. (hmm kidney beans and I have book group at our house. I will have to make sure the dog is in the room incase of gas leakage!)

SIXTY IN LLANTWIT (how DO you spell that?)

I gather you're all meeting up for the big 60! Have fun, I wish I could be there....


Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you....yaddah yaddah yaddah...

Pencil marks

OK, dumb language question number 143....the thing that you remove pencil lines with...what do you call it in the UK? The local, read non-native speaking teachers at the language school are using 'rubber'. In N. America, this is a, hmmmmm, prophylactic device, worn by men to prevent babies and the spread of AIDS. Yup, it's a condom. You would look pretty odd asking to borrow someone's, or asking if they have one....

So what do you call an eraser there?

Bridesmaid diet progress

So, things reeeeallly slowing down now and for the first time I've fallen below the predicted trajectory of 1lb a week :(

However! I will not be defeated! I will keep plugging away until I reach my goal!! And I'm so goddamn close to shifting a stone that I can't give up now. Was very hard at the weekend sitting around not drinking whilst watching Carl happily drink lots of cider and wine and talking him out of buying Indian takeaways...

On a different note, Kieran I'm v.impressed and, a little bit scared by your level of HP knowledge!! Particularly the Regulus Black thing...very intriguing. For the record, I am almost 100% certain Hagrid is going to snuff it, mainly because it will be so gut wrenching.

Also, could someone remind of the book we nominated to read for our book club? I get paid tomorrow so can hit Amazon over the weekend :)

Kate xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Time

Here is a dumb question. In the UK I have heard people use the phrase, "It's half two (or whatever)" when telling the time. What the heck does this mean????? Is it 1:00, one being half of two? I assume not. Is it 1:30? Or 2:30???? I keep having to teach my students time, and they ask me and I have NO IDEA.

Help please....

Just to join in on Harry Potter

I posted this on my blog, but for your enjoyment, a list of predictions!

• -Voldemort will die. Well. This one isn't wild
• -Harry will not- I just don't think it's that kind of book. If he does die, it will obviously be in the final battle
• -Snape will die, relatively soon after revealing that A-he was in love will Lily and B-he was on the side of good. He will sacrifice himself to help fight Voldemort
• -A main good character will die. Possibly a Weasly, possibly Hagrid. If it's Lupin I will be depressed.
• -RAB=Regulus Black. I have a lot to back up this theory, primarily that it required two wizards to get the locket, and only one wizard can get on. Solution? A house elf! Kreacher would be bound to help his young master, especially if he was tricked. Additionally drinking that potion could have been what drove Kreacher mad. Rowling has mentioned that Kreacher is very important- I figure he either knows the location of the locket, or at least the back story.
• -Dumbledore is dead, but will have certainly have left some kind of message- possibly the penseive will give clues.... The look of triumph has yet to be explained, and shall doubtless be the key to Voldemort's defeat. We still have yet to see exactly how love will defeat Voldemort
• -I honestly can't guess where the horcruxes are. But I predict that one will be located somewhere in Hogwarts, leading to a big show down- either the final battle or penultimate.
• -Malfoy will have to redeem himself- possibly by uniting slytherin to help fight against Voldemort.
• -Pettigrew has to pay off his blood debt somehow, mentioned in Azkaban.
• -It'd be nice if Harry stopped using bloody unforgivable curses already! He's earned about twenty sentences in Azkaban.
• -The door they could not open in the ministry of magic will probably feature.

So theres some predictions. I'm confident about most of these, I have made them bold 'cause I'm crazy like that- no hedging about on some of these! My record is not excellent, I will add... I was convinced Harry was going to get together with Luna....

Now the question is, will he mind this being published? Currently considering career options, and just happened to be in Bath's postal museum.............

Lovely presents

Presents are great aren't they? I like presents that maybe other people wouldn't. Infact it is something of a challenge between me and certain members of the family to buy the silliest present available. Well, I think I am losing the battle. A couple of years ago Sarah bought us a pottery half a dog. An excellent addition to the sitting room and giving the whole family the joy of playing half a dog hoopla with Gromit's collar. You would think that my joy was complete but no! Matt and Sue sent me for my birthday two lovely bits of astro turf with plastic daffodils. Surely, this was a marriage made in heaven. Now half a dog has some lovely plastic turf to burrow in and we have a lovely objet d'art! Heaven!

Bridesmaid diet progress

Just a quick update - after woefully plateauing for a few weeks and then going out to eat and drink to celebrate Carl's return last week, I seem to be making some progress again and have reached 10lbs off. Hurrah :)

New motivation has come in the form of a holiday, hopefully some time in May, hopefully somewhere hot. The thought of baring flesh that has been covered up for months by sleeves, tights, trousers etc is just horrific so is more than enough to spur me on with the diet!

Also, off to Cheltenham Gold Cup tomorrow with a thoroughly over-excited Nicky. Fabulous for me as I get to crash at her house for free, fabulous for her as she's got big sis to buy her bevvies. I've only got a small budget to gamble so doubt I'll be making my fortune but v.much looking forward to having a flutter.

Love Kate xxxx

Back from Austria and still coughing

(Choir doing an impromptu sing outside Stefansdom in Vienna)

We - ie Brian and I - have been in Austria with the choir for the last week. Typically, having avoided colds allwinter I started tonsillitus and a cold on the Tuesday before we left, so unfortunately didn't actually sing through any of the concerts. I managed about half of one half, miming the notes I couldn't reach and all the quiet bits as I was croaking, which was a bummer and really frustrating. However although I still have the cough I began feeling better by about day 3 and we saw a lot. We landed in Graz., which is where Ryanair fly to, and it is absolutely lovely. The old part of the city is a world heritage site, and it is not in the least bit touristy, in fact we couldn't find a shop selling postcards, and really lovely to walk round. I was very smitten with it, more so than either Salzburg which is very pretty but very touristy, or Innsbruch which we didn't seem much of and was wet(not a fair test - all the mountains were invisible under cloud). The concert in Graz was a great success with at least 200 people there and all very complimentary, and indeed the choir sang very well indeed. The we went to Vienna where we went to the UN building at the same time as some kurdish protesters had stormed the building so ended up waiting around a lot before we got in. We did our little sing in the rotunda in the middle of the building which was ok, but we did feel that the Austrian police roughing up the protesters was a greater entertainment for all the staff than we were. Possibly correct. This is us singing in the UN rotunda (if you count UK nationals separately we were 24 nationalities in the choir)







Then in the evening we did a concert in the Diplomatic Academy which went very well, including the piano part Brian has written for the British Ambassador to play with the arrangement of an Austrian folk song which he has arranged. It got the laugh it was aiming for and the Ambassador seemed to enjoy it. The students mixed well and did a very good sales pitch for the UWC movement to all the bigwigs there, which will hopefully enable the Austrian national committee to raise the funds for a scholarship to the new college in Bosnia. We had the next day off in Vienna and the weather was so warm - about 19 someone said. We went to see the Opera house and the Musicwerein (sp) and walked around soaking up the centre. I would really like to go back to Vienna to see more, we liked it. It also has great public transport. In fact all Austria has great public transport. We went round on trains this time - a first - and they are great! So comfortable and clean and punctual. Great. In fact we went on coach, plane, train, bus, tram and underground - ie every mass transport system available other than boat. The last concert in Vienna was a joint one with a local school which went very well too, then off to Innsbruck, via Salzburg where we had a 4 hour stop to eat and look round quickly. The last concert in Innsbruck went well too and then we had the 18 hour trip home via bus (4am to station), 3 trains, plane and coach. Brian and I feel we are getting a bit elderly for all this.

These pix are me outside the Hofburg palace and Brian outside the Statsopera building








High points - the concerts went very well, the choir sang really well, and if you had heard them 3 weeks before that was by no means a certainty. Brian has turned the sow's ear into a silk purse yet again.
- the choir themselves - a really nice bunch, not a pain in the 40 of them, helpful and good at catching trains too
- cafes - we sat in a few cafes and drank tea/coffee ate cake, and relaxed. The Viennese cafes are so relaxing, papers provided, no feel of being rushed out, the staff so pleasant
- all our hosts - all very nice again, and helpful
- not missing any trains
This is me in Salzburg - expect Julie Andrews any moment


Low points
- the damn cold (ie mine not the weather)
- discovering at 10pm on the last night (prior to the 3am rise) that the Innsbruck youth hostel wanted payment in cash and didn't take credit cards even when paying for 43 people!!!!! Can you believe it? They said it was on the booking form, which of course we didn't see as we didn't book it, and the local organiser had neglected to mention that bit. So off we go, in concert clothes to locate the bank, and then use 2 debit cards and 1 credit card in order to get enough cash out of the machine to pay.
- early starts (middle of thenight at beginning and end)
- not enough fruit and veg

Attached are a few photos (I hope)> It was lovely to see these places but I was glad to get back to my bed last night, though I could live without going to work on Monday. Brian is coming back to marking - his least favourite activity. Down to earth with a bit of a bump but that is always the way with holidays I think
love
Helen

BLOOD...... Just learned about titles - have to make the most of it!

I - who generally consider myself to be invincible, and until i had kids - immune to all kinds of squeamishness - discovered in university that in fact once i had bravely gone to give blood, and was lying there watching the bag going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth.... i suddenly found some kind of artistic soul (having until that point been pure logic all the way) and realized that it felt as if my life essence was being sucked out of me down that tube and had better stop leaving me immediately. Subsequently waved feebly at a nurse who YANKED the tube out of my arm and spun me straight into a head down - feet in the air position - without even asking me what was up... what if i just wanted to go to the bathroom? Anyway - ever since have felt that i have a legitimate reason to NOT try again. Wonder greatly at poor Indian people who despite total hunger give blood once a week to make money....
Speaking of hunger - bravo Kate! Tadziu is on a nauseatingly disciplined diet - eats and drinks almost nothing and has lost 7 kilos in something like 10 days. Yes - am about to kill him naturally :-) Keep it up - your graph looks very impressive - am about to adopt that technique for work :-)

If you prick me do I not bleed? Umm, apparently not..

So, in my bid to do something good for mankind I decided to become a blood donor. Off I traipsed to my nearest session, bit nervous as you can imagine. Whilst I was waiting someone fainted after having donated their pint and on his way down to the floor took out the little old lady who was serving everyone weak squash and digestive biscuits. Eeeek thought I.

I made my way over to the bed, more scared than I care to admit and then they stuck a needle into me which really hurt actually....turns out the reason it hurt so much is that my vein 'ran away' and my arm immediately bruised up! So they abandoned that arm and then tried my other one...only for exactly the same thing to happen again.

So I now I look like an intravenous junkie scummer and didn't actually manage to help save mankind. Great. What a waste of an hour and a half on a Wednesday evening!!

Quick update on the bridesmaid diet too, having stayed the same all week despite being incredibly disciplined, I have now managed to shave off another pound meaning there is more progress on my chart. Hurrah :)

Calcotada and Peggy

My folks came down for a long weekend last week, and we were lucky enough to be invited down to my husband's families place for a day, and for a calcotada. This is a very traditional Catalan celebration. A calcot is a member of the onion family, and is somewhere between a leek and a green onion. They cook them over a very hot fire, literally. All kindling, big flames and no coals. They cooked them on a metal bed frame, which probably doesn't date back all that far, but is now the usual technique. Once they are removed from the flames, they are piled into newspapers, and eaten out of doors, with a Romesco sauce though the one we had was looser than in the recipe you will find if you click on the name. Needless to say it is messy. You have to pull off the charred exterior, dip it, and then raise it above your head and eat it rabbit style. Mmmmm.






Here is a lovely photo of Peggy from November in Spain. Irrepressible as always, she will be hopping onto the Queen Mary II again and visiting Joanne in Poland in the spring.

Count me in

Have fallen behind on reading the blogs - just spent the evening catching up on both oreneta and carter family. One book every 3 months sounds like fun and my kind of speed at the moment (ruthlessly prioritized life - kids, work, husband, personal hygiene, book every 3 months) - have always wanted to be in a book club and somehow never have been. Can we read new Harry Potter next - yes yes yes!

Books etc

My book club does still get books and we do discuss them. However we also eat meals and swap recipes as well. And drink wine. And go to Pembrokeshire once a year for the weekend. It's got most things you need. I'm up for reading one book every 3 months. I'm not sure aboutMSN and would have to get educated on it by my offspring, and the last time we tried it with the Mac they didn't like each other very much. For the record I have just finished Desmond Tutu's biography which was excellent, a sort of biographical set of reminiscences by Miles Kington which was very funny, am rereading Thud by Terry Pratchett over breakfast, and rereading a Short History of Nearly Everything in the upstairs loo, while the Quite Interesting book holds sway in the downstairs loo. I have just started the new Lindsay Davis book Saturnalia which promises to be as good as usual, and have found a Margery Allingham that i missed up till now (beckoning Lady) at work which I am reading at lunch time (between looking at books on the menopause and Vienna (and of the 2 I prefer Vienna by a long way). it all sounds very trivial next to Chris's list. Holes is nice and short anyway so I will have to get a copy from one of the libraries. This is quite exciting isn't it. (or does that comment mean my life in general is not exciting??)

The packing was excellent. The best I think I have ever seen. Unlike our CD suppliers who pad everything beautifully into a box so that nothing can move. They seal up the box with tape and then wrap it absolutely meticulously with brown paper and more tape - it is a master piece each time. And somehow there is always at least 1 damaged cd. How?

love Helen

Packaging, the Virgin experience

Well Virgin has taken over/merged with NTL. We recently ordered a new remote control from them. Painless to do and delivered within days. But have a look at the box it was sent in above.

So I expect you think it is very carefully packed with lots of polystyrene, as did I.

But then we opened the box, and look what we saw.......................

Yes, gentle reader, that small box was sent in that large box with no packing or tape so it has rattled around on its journey, consuming enough space for 20 boxes. Thankfully the remote works. Well done Virgin................

First book

Ok. Here is my idea for the first book.
Holes by Louis Sachar.
It is a kid’s book but would suit kids of all ages and after all it was a kid’s book that started this all off. I first came across it when it appeared in a BBC list a few years ago of the nations 100 favourite books. It was the only one I had never heard of so I read it. I like it very much. It’s not too new so it is available from libraries, Amazon, ebay etc. There is also a film of it for those too lazy to read. I have a copy which could be posted to Spain when we’ve reread it. Your girls may like it too, Chris.
So shall we say 1st June to discuss it and we’ll work out the intricacies nearer the time.

Book club and diet crash..

...as opposed to crash diet! Spent last week in Germany for work drinking beer and eating sausages so completely crashed my diet!! Can't face the scales so being good this week and I'll weigh in again next week - lame perhaps but sanity saving too.

On the subject of the book club, I love the idea!! Don't mind how we do it but I love getting suggestions from other people. Think the best way to do it would be to take it in turns to pick a book and we all try and read it. And as Kieran says we could be terribly cutting edge and have a virtual meeting to discuss it!!!

Whatever's decided count me in :)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Book group continued...

Well, the book group that I'm in has 7 members and we take it in turns to choose a book. We meet once a month, discuss the book and then have choccy biccies and tea! Helen's book group seems to have abandoned books altogether and just have bring and share suppers! (I think I can hear the outrage from here!) Our only rule is that the book should be no fatter than an inch - although this isn't strongly adhered to. It does mean we get a chance to read something else as well. We have gone as low brow as The Da Vinci Code and as high brow as Turgenev. (the best thing to say about that is that the covers were nicely close together). However, we have been meeting for some years and we do know each others tastes. Some people won't read fantasy and others refuse to touch children's literature.

I think we need to limit ourselves to one book say every three months. I'm open to suggestions about this. I think the fact that we have people from around the globe in the family might widen our horizons. Infact I might write to Peggy and suggest she gets involved. She could always write her opinions.

I'll maybe send out a family email to see if people who don't read the blog are interested.

Family book group

OK, I'm game for this, how do you want to structure it? I've never done any sort of book group before. I'm reading Persuasion by Jane Austin, which I am enjoying more while I read it than when I think about reading it. That may sound strange but it is true. I think I am not in love with the story line, so I don't look forward to it much, but the writing is so good that once my nose is in it I'm off. D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover is also on the go. I've never read it, and it keeps being referred to. It's time. Also The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck, although I am not really enjoying that one, it is pre-revolution wealth peasant life in China, and I am just waiting for the shoe to drop.....Also a book about Parc Guell in Barcelona. Did you know that some of Gaudi's imagery was also Masonic? I find this hard to believe in such a staunch Catholic. Plus I have Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi lined up. I started it last summer then it got put aside. Someone brought me a copy, and I'll give it another go.

I am not really into depressing books, although the extensive selection of Virginia Woolf's at the local library may head me in that direction.

So, how does this work?

Ihave just ordered 30 copies of Harry P for the libraries -though that is one we are all going to buy for ourselves in our office. Plus I have to buy one for Nic and send it to America so she gets the right edition ie the real English edition. Anyway, it's the most exciting thing to happen for a while. Though I will try to put pictures onto here when we get back from Austria, and hope I manage a bit better than i did last time.

Books

Well I think it's interesting that Harry Potter has got our blog the liveliest it's ever been. Perhaps we should start a family book group! Some of the best books I've ever read came as a result of my book group - and some of the worst as well.

More Harry...

... in today's Observer there's an interview with Daniel Radcliffe who plays Harry P in the films (accompanied with disturbing photos of him half naked which seems very wrong somehow) but in the interview he talks about J.K Rowling coming to visit the film set of Order of the Phoenix and he says:

'J.K came down to the film set at one point and I said "hello, what are you doing here today?". To which she said 'Oh I just needed a break fro the book - Dumbledore's giving me a lot of trouble' And he said 'But isn't he dead?' and she said 'Yeah but it's mor complex....'

Oooo that so means that Dumbledore's not properly gone!!!! And more importantly of course, that I was right in my previous entry below :)

Love Kate

Bridesmaid diet: Weigh in (and a word about Harry...)

Well I managed to miss my weigh in last week due to being in London for an event. I will also miss next week's as I shall be in Germany for another event with work. I know, get me and my jet set lifestyle.

Anyway, despite being back on the booze and, since the weather got cold, being hungry ALL the time, I have still managed to lose 2lbs since my last weigh in, taking total weight loss to 8lbs and moving past the milestone of the first half a stone :)

For some reason my updated graph won't upload, but it's looking pretty good!

Also a quick word on the subject of Harry. I am convinced a) Dumbledore's not dead...yet! He might well die at the end though, b) Hagrid will die because he's so lovely and it will make everyone cry and c) Voldemort's obviously got to go as well. So that's three people who almost certainly have to die - Harry will live and be the hero I think.

Link and Hagrid

Thanks for the link Boo and Trev, i have to confess, I would rather have Harry kick off than Hagrid, sort of like kicking a sweet old lady, or driving over the dog to do that..

New Link

Have added a link to Christine's blog - look at the "Links" list on the right.

Harry again

JKR also said something in a recent interview about not wanting to have other people write additional HP stories after she has finished and the best way to do that was bump off Harry. I think it is really up for grabs about who dies. Also with so many questions created by the last book - ie did Dumbledore die? Are Draco and Snape baddies or goodies? What are the other horcruxes? It is so exciting!!

I have finally - thanks to Trevor's expertise finally got back into the blog as my computer didn't like talking to it when it moved to Google, but it seems to be working now. Or if it isn'then there is very little point in me typing this. So it is nice to be back in the mix.

Harry continued

Well, I hope Harry doesn't cop it. I can't honestly think of much kid's literature where the hero dies. And anyway, apparently JK Rowling did a conference thing in New York last summer. She took some questions from the audience and somebody asked her if you could have anyone of your characters to dinner who would it be. She replied, Harry, Hermione and Ron then she said do they have to be alive at the end of the series. The questioner said no so she said in that case Dumbledore and Hagrid!
So what does it mean. I think it could mean the main three are alive at the end and possibly that Hagrid cops it.
Well, all will be revealed soon!

Harry should survive

Harry should really survive - just to make me happy and continue the long tradition of happy endings in..... wait a minute - english literature (ok - maybe I'm going a bit far with the word literature) doesn't have much of a tradition of happy endings does it? In any case - I can totally see Harry growing up, and having a brood of young magicians and keeping on with it all... and in the meantime providing us with really great reading once every year or so...
Didn't mention this in my list of 6 weird things - but I am also really totally into HP.

H day

Now you see, I can't picture how Harry can survive...what do you do with him after this? Go work at a government job? Can't picture it.

Testing

I'm really just blogging to check that it works. But while I am on may I say how excited I am about H day on 21st July!! In my opinion it will be voldemort and Snape who cop it. I think Harry will survive or it will be a bummer of a finish to the series!

I AM INNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WoooooHooooo, thanks to Boo and Trevor's tireless efforts and at least 13 invitations IT WORKED!!!!Yeah yeah yeah and thanks you two.

So, am I officially a Carter now?

Converted

Apparently the blog is now converted. You'll need to use the switch option in order to post new items I think. Painless, you have to create a google account but can use the same email and password you've used for the blog anyway. I'll let you know if there is anything new. The text display actually looks clearer whilst I write this, so that is something............

Trevor

New Blog

You may have noticed that there is a new version of the blog, so we'll be switching soon. This shouldn't affect your access or what it looks like, but no doubt it'll be worth everyone moving once we have. I'll let you know if it is painful....

Trevor

Christine's Blog

Hi,

If you're interested in Christine's new life in Spain then go to http://orenetaaground.blogspot.com/. Loads to read and entertaining.

Weekly weigh-in

It's that time again, and this week I actually did fall off the wagon :(

Well, more like I dangled my legs off as I had two glasses of wine on Friday night. I did plan to abstain from alcohol until this Saturday (27th) but unfortunately I'm weak and the girl whose wedding I'm actually dieting for convinced me to give in and have a drink!

However, I'm pleased to say I've had another pound off which means 6lbs in total so I should reach my first goal of half a stone off by the end of January. A good week's progress I feel. Although it could yet go horribly wrong as I have a free champagne party to go to on Saturday and am in London for an exhibtion (cue copious amounts of drinking on bosses company credit card) so fingers crossed I retain a smidgen of will power to see me through!

Love Kate xxxx

Nintendo Wii

This Christmas we bought Kieran a Nintendo wii. Well when I say we bought one for Christmas we went on a waiting list for one before Christmas at a local Computer emporium. This meant that we could go into a shop and say we wanted a wii!
Anyway, as you may or may not know wiis are very hard to come by and we didn't expect it until his birthday in March. However, imagine our surprise when we got the phone call last week to say it had arrived. Kieran had left for university and we're not likely to see him till March. Clearly we had to check that it worked properly. So we had a go this weekend. IT IS BRILLIANT. It's like being in the holodeck in Star Trek. You have this controller and you control the ball, tennis racquet, golf club etc. It is sooooo clever. Unfortunately we are hobbling around feeling rather stiff today from lobbing virtual balls, bats etc in the sitting room.
Anyway, if you have a chance to have a go with one you should. Great fun! Great choice of present, K!

Weddings galore

Why I wonder is my birthday this year proving the day to have a wedding? My friend Louise's daughter Jenny is getting married on 28 July and I was all set to go to Glasgow for the wedding, when in the post came the invite to Jon and Niamh's wedding onthe same day! Then when I told Louise I wouldn't be able to come to Jenny's wedding she told me another friend was also unable to come because her niece was getting married in Cyprus on the same day as well. Having not been invited to any weddings for years it seems odd that they are all coming at once. Is there I wonder some secret significance to 28 July this year - other than it being my birthday of course.

Helen

Congratulations Kate - and can I just say that that graph is really impressive!
Seriously though - best of luck.
I am personally overjoyed to announce that I have finally managed to log in to the new blogger for the first time since I signed up for the new blogger - so had to post something just to celebrate.

I still owe 6 weird things about myself so here goes:

1) I live in Poland
2) I'm married to a Polish guy
3) I work for McDonald's
4) I LIKE working for McDonald's ;-)
5) I prefer shopping alone - and have my own system of scanning an entire store and then trying on every single think that looks half decent - so I take about 40 items into the dressing room with me at a time
6) All the other things I can think of are pretty embarassing - hmmm - ok - totally love Bob Marley - always have - always will

Bridesmaid diet: Weigh in, week 2

So far, so good! Pleased to say I've lost another 3lbs this week so that's 5lbs in total :)

Even having been out for dinner twice over the weekend, I managed to stay on the wagon and on the diet. Subsequently am ahead of schedule which is great but it really does illustrate how much not drinking helps which means I must really drink a lot usually, hmmm.....

Have also headed back to the gym and am aiming to do a 10km run sometime in 2007 (thanks for the tip Boo!) and weirdly I'm quite enjoying it...though there's plenty of time for that to wear off!!

Carl is getting on OK in Qatar, slightly bored if anything which certainly beats ducking mortars in Basra I suppose.

Love to all
Kate xxxxx

First weekly weigh-in...

Well, week 1 of the bridesmaid diet has passed and I'm pleased to say I've lost 2lbs :)

Not a flying start but a start nonetheless. I haven't posted the chart up as you can't really see it, but hopefully next week I'll have lost some more and you'll be able to see the little pink line creeping up towards my target.

I've got to say it's been pretty easy this week. I think having eaten and drunk anything that came within 5 feet of me over Christmas I was pretty ready to stop eating rubbish and certainly ready to lay off the booze for a bit. We shall see if it continues to be easy but having resisted all the post-christmas office chocolates and the constant runs to the chippy or McDonald's (unfortunately I work in an office where everyone is obsessed with food!) I feel pretty optimistic. Quite fancy a glass of wine though, hmmm.

Also, Carl has jetted off today to Qatar for at least 2 months, possibly 3, so I'm now temporarily a single parent to Saffy and a bit miserable, but hey, there's always the diet to cheer me up.....

Love to all
Kate xxxx

Bridesmaid Diet 2007

So how do most of us start off the new year? On the wagon and on a diet if you're me. However, 2007 holds particular significance for me as on November 4th I shall be a bridesmaid for my best friend.

Miss Kelsie Newton (the bride) is a size 8. The other two bridesmaids are my other best friend Alyson who is approximately a size 10 and Kelsie's cousin Sophie who is also a size 10. So you can see my dilemma as I am not a size 8, nor indeed a size 10. Not even close.

So, bridesmaid bootcamp started yesterday and will continue throughout 2007. Bridesmaid dresses I am told, need to be bought around early September so there will be a particular focus for this date. I am DETERMINED not to be the only fatty in the wedding pictures.

As I am too ashamed to actually tell you all what I actually weigh, I have instead created a graph to chart my weight loss to my goal of 20 lbs (not quite 2 stone). In order to make me stick to this regime I will be posting an update every week to confess how much I have (or haven't) lost. Kind of an online diary room for the dietary challenged.

So here's the graph at the bottom and hopefully I'll be at the top come September.

Wish me luck :)
Love Kate

MC Gromster

Here is a video of Gromit's best moves, who needs TV when you can watch this- it even has outtakes at the end.

Photos of Florence

here we have pictures of Brian at the top of the Campanile with the dome of the Duomo in the background - and there were a lot of stairs to get up there!!!

A picture of the Ponte Vecchio and a picture of Florence at night and Brian eating hot chestnuts - which bucked the trend by being delicious and not expensive as well as being one of Brian's favourite things


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6 wierd things

I don't know 6 other bloggers - this is my only blog!!

I don't have any wierd things as I am completely normal in every respect and only other people are a bit odd. However make what you will of the following

1) I am still a science fiction fan even though I am no longer a member of the British science Fiction Association
2) I would much rather sit at home with a book or the tv than go out to a party in most instances
3) Scissors do not like me - no matter how many pairs I buy we can never find any in the house
4) I had leprechauns as friends up to the age of 5
5) I go on diets and stick to them religiously and still fail to lose any weight (I can't figure it out)
6) Electrical equipment will take a dislike to me and die despite me being nice to them - we are currently going through toasters at a daft rate. I have also had a bad effect of fridges.

love Helen

Travels with Helen

Hi - I am getting to be nearly as well travelled as the Polish/Canadian/Hungarian/Spanish Carters - not quite but still. However this last couple of months I have been to Barcelona with everyone else for Peggy's birthday which was lovely and so warm (!). It was really nice to spend time with Chris and the girls and meet George and Oscar at last. Then in the middle of December Brian and I went to Florence. He has wanted to see Michaelangelo's David for ages so we had 5 days in Florence and walked our feet until they were begging for mercy. Highlights were all the various Michaelangelo sculptures in various places, not only the David, which gave us a chance to see different moods and different types of his sculptures in real life which is not something you can do in many places, and to study them in relative peace as there weren't hordes of tourists around. I loved seeing all the early art - Fra Angelico, Giotto etc which (being frescos mostly) you can only see in situ and which mean a lot more when you see them in context, and see them together. The Duomo is magnificent, the Baptistry is absolutly stunning and the Duomo museum is wonderful. The Accademia, in addition to David, has a really good little musical instrument museum which we spent ages looking at. They have 2 Stradivarius violins (in cases - a shame, they should be played) an original fortepiano by Christofieri (not sure about the spelling here) who invented the piano, and lots of other really interesting things. We sightsaw solidly every day we were there and still only saw parts of what there is to see. Down sides were the food which was exorbitantly expensive and not very good - after one awful lunch I did even say that I would have preferred to go to McDonalds (which is not a place I go to (sorry Joanne)), so that was disappointing. The other big disappointment was the Uffizi. We had prebooked tickets on the internet for which you are charged more than the cost of the ticket, and the way they had it set up when we got there you had to go elsewhere (not marked, you got told to go when you reached the ticket desk) then get your ticket there and come back to the entrance you had just left - by which time a busfull of Japanese had arrived. We queue jumped. In december you don't need to prebook. But the real disappointment was the gallery. The paintings were not well lit, they weren't even well marked - they had no information up about them, the place was shabby with cracks in the paint and looking just a bit down at heel. Some of the pictures were unavailable and a lot were in different places from the locations in the guide book, so it was generally just a bit of a let down. Not nearly as good as some of the other places we went to, which considering its reputation is sad. We were really lucky with the weather which was dry, clear and sunny every day. I would recommend Florence in December if you want to go - everything was open, there were lots of tourists, but no crowds, we saw everything we wanted and spent as much time as we wanted in every place. It was pleasant to walk around, not boiling hot as in the summer. However I would go self catering and not bother spending a lot on mediocre food. Fantastic experience though, and looking through art books for the Xmas art quiz I can see lots of paintings that I have now seen in real life which is a thrill and gives a different perspective onto things.

Just thought of another weird thing...

Am obsessed with strictly come dancing and may I just say what a travesty it is that lovely Emma Bunton has gone out and rubbish old Matt Dawson is still in. An abomination.

6 weird things about me? There are so many, where to begin?!

1. I love my job
2. Now when people tell me that having the dog is like having a child substitute, an inner voice tells me they might be right...
3. I want the new Girls Aloud greatest hits album
4. I used to hate marmite and now I love it - have totally crossed over to the dark side
5. I can leave the dishes unwashed for days but can't leave the cushions unarranged on the sofa
6. When I should know better and stop drinking and go to bed, I never do

So I now need to tag other people? Don't think we have enough other bloggers for me to tag....

Will be able to contribute lots more in the new year as I think Santa's getting me a digital camera for Christmas :)

Tagged

Well, you can all blame Christine for this. She tagged Mr K and he tagged us.
I have to say 6 wierd things about Trev and me. (Only 6?)
OK
1. It is a truth universally acknowledge that I am probably a bit obsessed with poo. I'm not proud of it but toilet humour always makes me laugh. Ho hum!
2. I do like to dress up the dog in clothes - luckily Trev stops me.
3. Trevor and I do the dog's voice. He has whole conversations where we are giving him a part in the proceedings.
4. I do have problems opening gates and doors. I am like the opposite of Houdini
5. I am probably more interested in Harry Potter than is normal
6. Trevor is always singing the lyrics Shields Up Shields down to the tune of the Darth Vadar march from Empire strikes back.

OK now I have to tag six people which will have to be contributors because I don't think I know many more bloggers so I tag Joanne, Kate, Helen, Moira, Matt Carter and Matthew Hull. Now you have to write 6 wierd things about yourselves and tag 6 other bloggers. Good luck! Boo

And we're back. Having spent 2 weeks in France in October, 3 days in York at the begining of November and now 4 days in Barcelona, its kind of nice to stay at home for Christmas. Below are some photos from Barcelona, and one of Erin and Boo in York.

First, Erin and Boo




Now Matt and Boo



Next John and Matt



Inside of Sagradia Famillia (Christine may correct the spelling!)



On the roof of Casa Mila



Boo and Helen in Placa Catalunya