Honeymoon

As promised, here's a link to a Picasa album of our honeymoon shots. Again, there are hundreds so have pruned them but thanks largely in part to Mum's super duper camera there are some pretty great shots so there are quite a lot of pics to browse through.

Who needs New Zealand, hey Erin? Pah! A few months travelling is nothing compared with what we crammed into two weeks in South Africa....not that I'm jealous that her trip is still going and ours is over...

Honeymoon

Kate xxxx

Catching up

So now we're into the new house and I have at least some internet access (courtesy of a shaky 3G dongle) I am making an attempt to catch up on my photos which I'm aware are horribly overdue.

For starters I've done a Picasa album of some of the official pictures of the wedding. There are literally hundreds so I've just done a selection. I have all the originals on a CD so if you'd like copies of any just let me know and I'll post them to you. As I say, there are lots I've not included here but I don't want to bore everyone!

South Africa pics are to follow and then some of the new house!

I'm then going to start keeping a log of my training as I've signed up to do the Bristol half marathon in September. I'm quite horrified I've agreed to do this as I've done no exercise since before the wedding and have managed to stick back on quite a bit of weight in the meantime. Rubbish. But the challenge will do me good I feel and I'm going to raise money for charity which can only be a good thing.

Here's the link to the Picasa album - never done one of these before so if you can't see it let me know and I'll change the settings!

Official Wedding Pics

Merry Christmas!

Somewhat later than planned the Martins and McNabbs have managed to have a Christmas weekend (the parents anyway, none of the young could make it this time).

We had a great weekend.

There was much laughter, wine and playing on the Wii, which caused much of the laughter.

Brian was very good at being a flying chicken and leading a marching band, I was surprisingly good at frisbee golf and ten pin bowling (both of which I am rubbish at in real life). It was great fun.

We went to Cambridge and to the Fitzwilliam Museum which had an exhibition of Japanese netsuke which are fantastic, so incredibly detailed and so tiny.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netsuke

Here is a Wikipedia article on them.

On the way home we stopped at Kate and Carl's new house. They are near Reading now, in a modern semi which is very pleasant, and right on the edge of the countryside. While sitting having lunch we saw a heron fly past, then a kite, and goldcrests outside. Looks like it will be a good place for birdwatching.

Further adventures of Erin

Here are a few more pictures lifted from Heather's photos. They are all of the North island of New Zealand. There are a few captions, but Heather hasn't captioned many so it is guess work on my part sometimes. They are still having a fabulous time as you can see.

Erin's adventures

Well, as you know Erin is on her travels and she is keeping in touch but we aren't seeing many pictures. So through a process of wheedling and guilt trips I have managed to become Heather's friend on Facebook, thus I can actually see pictures of Erin. It sounds like she is having an amazing time. I have put less scenery and more Erin - it is very beautiful but you can just look at National Geographic or watch Lord of the Rings if you want to see what New Zealand looks like. The pictures are mostly South Island NZ. Sydney and Tokyo are obvious. Nothing is labelled because I am too lazy to back reference to Heather's photos, and it is not in order either
I think that Helen and I are holidaying vicariously through our daughters at the moment!
Enjoy the photos.

English and languages.

Sorry if you have been commenting and nothing has happened I thought they would email me but I have to keep checking. Anyway got another spammer so worth doing.
Anyway I am developing a theory as to why the English are so bad at other languages. OK it's largely because we are lazy and English is an international language. But my theory is that we get a bit embarrassed at pronunciation.
Most days I give and Indian colleague a lift home. We were talking about the Himalayas. Now I know from watching a documentary that they are pronounced Himaaaarleears in the Subcontinent unlike HimaLAYas in England. When talking to Mamta I pronounced them as she does but if I was talking to somebody English I would use the second pronunciation because I feel a bit pretentious.
For example, I would never say that I am going to see my niece in Parreeeee. I would say I was going to Paris.
I remember when Kieran came to chose which language he wanted to do at school, he could choose between French and German. He chose the latter. Partly, I think, because as a mathematician he could appreciate a language that had rules and stuck to them. But also it's a less embarrassing language to pronounce. The boys could all bark at each other like prison guards from the Great Escape (the language of Schiller and Beethoven probably wasn't on the agenda). Whereas French is hard to get right and can be a bit camp.
Anyway such are my thoughts

Some of Kate and Carl's pics

Here is a link to some of Kate and Carl's pictures

It is only a fraction of them but it shows some of the animals they saw, and a little bit of the scenery.

Fabulous.

Honeymoon Part 1 (Sort of)

....apologies for being completely rubbish and not posting about our (fabulous) honeymoon or the (pretty-good-if-I-do-say-so-myself) photos. With Carl being posted we are moving in a week's time so it's all a bit hectic here, and Carl has had to go away for training and he's taken the laptop with him that has all our photos on.

I am rubbish, there's no excuse but I promise, promise to get the pictures from Carl this weekend and post extensively and bore the pants off you all about the joys of South Africa.

Official thanks are now on their way to you all but whilst I'm here we both want to say a huge thank you for your generous donations to our travel fund. It really was the holiday of a life time :)

Pics and details to follow!
Kate
xxxx

Lodgers

Well many members of this family have been to exotic and warm places recently but they are choosing not to share the experience with the rest of us. So here is a blog that will bring you down to earth with a bump.
I love garden birds, a love that probably came from Mum. I have always been delighted that a family of starlings have chosen to nest under the eaves of our roof every year. They are positioned over the loo so they don't wake us with those 4.30am feeds in mid June. They vacate the nest in the late summer but occasionally shelter in the loft when it is very cold. Trev did a brilliant recreation of "The Birds" when he went to put something in the loft one evening and startled the starling. (Although unlike the film there was no eye gouging or rubbish acting).
However, we are now beginning to wonder if the starlings are such an honour.
When Kieran moved to Southampton we redecorated his room including changing his carpet. So over the summer when he and Alice were staying and Alice mentioned that she thought she saw some beetles in the carpet, I was convinced that it was simply the carpet settling down. Why would creatures be in this brand new carpet. Erin has a 20 year old carpet in a fairly appalling state. Infact whenever you try to vacuum in there the hoover hangs back and starts crying!
However at Xmas Alice mentioned it again and I had to admit that she was right (and that probably she has made a mental note to definitely not take us in when we are in our dotage).
We attacked the black bugs with fly spray and that seemed to do the trick. However they have appeared again. A friend suggested that they could be carpet beetles. So I looked them up and apparently the likeliest source is sparrow or starling nests!
I think the existing structure will be demolished on Saturday in daylight but I don't think there is much we can do to stop the starling rebuilding it and if the nest is active it is against the law to remove it. I think if we remove it every autumn then hopefully it won't be full of so much ancient feathers and stuff. Hey ho Bill Oddie never mentioned this in Spring watch!

Up and Away

Well today we took Erin and her best friend, Heather, to Heathrow where they begin their 5 month adventure. They are going to Japan, Australia, New Zealand and various parts of South East Asia. Here they are with their back packs at Heathrow.

At Kate's wedding Erin asked Christine advice about what to take on her travels. Christine pretty much said you'll be fine with two pairs of knickers and a toothbrush. Erin and Heather took this advice to heart and decided that they should only take one hair dryer and one hair straightener between them!

Anyway, it was an emotional time for me and Trev. That's our baby leaving the nest. We decided to cheer ourselves up by going to Kew Gardens since we are seldom in that part of London before 10 am and it was a lovely day. Great decision especially as we bumped into Linda in the cafe at lunch time! Purely by coincidence! So we ended up having a lovely day and as Linda has been through all this with the aforementioned niece we had a kindred spirit.

Anyway, I'm sure Erin and Heather will have fantastic adventures and I believe that they have formed a Facebook Group where you can follow them (heavily edited so that I don't have to worry too much.

Here are some pictures of our day. That robin is actually in one of the greenhouses!

Well I don't know about this Island. We tried toget off it two days in a row last week to go to Barcelona and failed. First time was legit it was a snowstorm, but the second day was bright and sunny, but apparently the runway was icy? Ever heard of salt? So anyway we stayed and had a lovely walk along the Thames in about 4 ins of dry snow, lovely. Watched a lot of birda and the rowers were out. as long as you were rowing fine, but the poor coxes must have been freezing.
Having had so much trouble getting to Paris before Christmas train to Dover.3 hour wait, ferry to Calais, no connections, two more trains to Paris, the incentives to travel are small. However, I am going to try foe Canada tomorrow, but snow is in the forecast and teh Queen Mary doesn't start running until April.

Linda and Mike

Stormy weather

Just before Christmas we had a snowy, icy spell which made travelling rather more interesting than we would like. I think the trouble is that we are just not used to driving in this weather and forget how to drive properly. Even though we have all been taught it doesn't happen that often (Climate change permitting!)
Anyway my neighbour told me amusing story. In one of the villages near us the roads were in a very poor condition. A woman was trying to drive her car up a small hill, the wheels were spinning and she was panicking. A small queue formed behind her and at the back of the queue was a white van. The white van man got out and told the woman how she should be driving but with colourful and unpleasant language. However , the woman managed to gain control of her car and drove off but the while the man was being vile his van had slid down the hill and landed in a ditch.
There is a God!

Christmas

Here are some Christmas pictures.
Nic really liked her present.
Saffy in her new collar. She was a lot more excited by the bags of doggy treats though
Here is me opening a present from Brian - very pretty undies!

We had a very nice day. Ate too much of a rather aerobically inclined turkey - had real muscles in his legs, though the breast meat was (actually still is as we have lots left) very tender. I made an Italian nut christmas cake from Delia's new book which is very tasty indeed. We also had lovely cheese. And wine. A good day.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

So having battled my post wedding blues, I've set about trying to feel festive but thus far Christmas cheer has been eluding me. I've got tons on at work, am completely over excited about and therefore distracted by our honeymoon and I'm also really quite skint which never helps when buying lots of lovely presents. In order to combat this I thought that this weekend I'd put our tree up, despite the fact we'll be back in Wales for Christmas day itself. So yesterday I headed out to buy a tree but was really surprised a) by how few there are available this year and b) by how expensive they are! Something about the exchange rate was the only answer I could divulge - has anyone else has this problem? Anyway, I found one that was actually under £20 when I randomly drove past a newsagents of all places.

Great I thought, now the fun can begin. Having got said tree home though I couldn't find our tree holder device, so had to improvise Blue Peter-style with an empty washing powder pot filled with gravel from the garden, which I was pretty pleased with! So with tree up I set about decorating it. After the wedding we have tons of fairy lights as we bought extra to put up at Court Colman. Again, great I thought. Apart from, most of them are broken and of course I didn't check they were working before I wrapped them around the tree :( So I then had to unwrap them upon realising they didn't work and start all over again. Tiresome. But on I go and get on some lights that work, all the baubles, etc until I'm happy with it all. I then make the rookie mistake of turning my back on the damn thing and go into the kitchen, and my home-made tree holding device lets me down and the whole thing falls flat on the floor!!!!

I really was feeling anything other than festive at this point despite my best efforts and those of Bing on the CD player. However, I dusted myself off and did a bit more wedging of the tree with a bit of additional garden gravel, re-applied all the baubles and voila! It's been standing now for about 5 hours so fingers crossed it stays that way over night. I'm sure you'll agree it was a lot of effort for a little tree! But my lights are now twinkling brightly and I have left over wedding candles burning as well for good measure. So mission accomplished, I am actually feeling quite festive now and looking forward to mince pies at Boo's next weekend. We are really looking forward to seeing everyone who is going :)

Love Kate xxxx

Music on a winter's afternoon

We have just had a lovely weekend in Southampton visiting Kieran and Alice. We spent Saturday in nearby Winchester, which is a lovely cathedral city. I managed to buy a few Xmas presents and bizarrely we bumped into a former neighbour's daughter who used to babysit for us. We were just passing the cathedral and there she was. Small world eh?
Alice is in a couple of orchestras and fortuitously we had chosen to come when one of them was holding a concert. It was in a village outside of Southampton called Chandler's Ford where Peggy was always visiting some relative back in the day. We were a little late as the SatNav chose to take us to the village of Easliegh instead. Just when I trust that technology it lets me down. Trev is like an abused wife over it. He refuses to hear criticism of it and always says he must have programmed it wrongly hmmmm.
Anyway we missed most of the Wasps by Vaughn Williams but luckily the hall was such that we could sneak in the back without making too much noise. The programme included Sibelius but the highlight for me was Pictures at an Exhibition. They had got in extra percussionists and a harpist for it and the sound was great. The percussion section was fascinating as they seemed to have to take it in turns to play the gong so they were all swapping places and instruments so the right person was free to play the gong. I am sure there was method in all this. I was very pleased to see also that one of the clarinetist looked as if he had escaped from Pickwick papers. All sideburns. Of course the best section was the violins and the first violin players were subperb!
It was a really lovely concert and I was very impressed. I recommend them if you are ever in the Southampton ares

Back to reality...

...it's amazing how quickly life has returned to normal post-wedding. I have struggled through the past few days really with post-wedding blues and can see why it's the tradition for newlyweds to go on honeymoon straight away because going back to work only 2 days later really sucked.

I have to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who came to the wedding and to everyone who's so generously donated to our Trailfinders list. We've been frankly overwhelmed with the generosity and want to say a big, big thank you. We are sooooo excited about our trip to South Africa - less than a month to go now, whoop! The biggest thank you however has to go to Mum who was a total hero and not only made 110 cupcakes, arranged all the flowers, got up at 5am on the wedding day to try and coax the tiger lillies into opening (which they didn't but we did get a bit of a refund at least), and was altering my dress at the last minute - not only did she do all this but she was calm and supportive throughout, even when I was getting bridezilla-ish and stressed. AND she looked fabulous on the day after all her hard work :) So thank you Mum, you are the best.

Needless to say we both had an absolutely amazing time on the wedding day - the best day ever in fact - and hope everyone did who came too. I'm not going to post any more pictures as everyone must be sick of the sight of us by now, but I will do a Picasa album of the professional pictures once they come through. I'm very excited about getting them and feel really glad this is something we spent some money on because the day after the wedding when we woke up and it was all over and you realise how much money you spent it's quite scary! But the pictures should be something we treasure forever.

We had a lovely couple of days at Brian's cottage post wedding and mostly slept and ate left over cheese and curry which was just what we needed (thank you Brian).

So again, a big thank you and I leave you with just one picture which is of our best present (thank you Erin!) and also to say that it is soooooo exciting that Moira and John are now engaged!! Think I might turn into some kind of wedding groupie now as I know just how fantastic a time they have ahead of them! Congrats guys :)

Love Kate xxxx

More wedding photos

Here are some more wedding pictures, which I think are mine, though as I have been collecting other peoples as well one or two might have sneaked it

A few more photos

For those who don't see Facebook here are our photos.
Fantastic, lovely romantic day.

Mr & Mrs Graham

Here is the absolutely beautiful bride. Kate looked stunning as you can see from the above photo. We had a really great day. The weather wasn't wonderful, but was nothing like as bad as had been forecast and no one got drenched. The hotel came up trumps and everything worked smoothly and - although not following Kate's minute by minute itinerary to the minute - was pretty seamless and very easy as a guest.
Here is Kate and Carl on the stairs which were the main location for the photos as the weather pretty much precluded outdoor photos. It is an Edwardian country house so is really lovely, and you had the feeling that you were living in a country house, with the various lounges and the ballroom etc.
This is the cake of cheese. The bottom layer was Caerphilly, the next layer was a Spanish blue, the top was a really smooth, light creamy cheese, with heart shaped brie and little black wrapped Black bomber cheddars. it was fabulous. Before that we had curry - lamb and chicken and veg, veg lasagne, all of which was equally fabulous. It was a fantastic meal. We had seconds of the cheese plate, and we have the remnants at home now. Carl's brother's girlfriend had made marrow chutney which is delectably tasty and went brilliantly with the cheeses. As something sweet I had made 120 fairy cakes in 5 different sorts, which also went down very well, and there were no leftovers of those.
Here is the ringbearer, bride and bridesmaids coming down the stairs at the beginning. Saffy didn't really like being a ringbearer for most of the time, though the photographer was brilliant at getting her attention. She too was dressed up for the day as she had a beautiful diamante collar and a big bow, very fetching.

We had a casino playing roulette and pontoon after which was fun, though Boo won so much she had problems losing it and had to give it to her children, which as everyone knows that children are very good at getting rid of parental money, worked very well.

We had a really good time, though I had problems keeping awake at the end while we were waiting for the minibus to come and collect us.

I haven't had time to edit the photos yet, so I will put a link to a file on Picassa when I have done so later in the week probably.

Kate and Carl had a lovely day with lots of their friends and family there to wish them well, the readings were lovely and very appropriate, read by Emilie and Alyson. The Registrar was smiling, and very upbeat and created a happy atmosphere from the beginning, the speeches from Mike, Carl and Luke (best man) were funny and touching at the same time, and Carl's brother Paul kept everything under control as master of ceremonies. It was a wonderful day. I thought I might cry, but actually didn't, though Kate, Nicky and Mike all did. I just felt really really happy.

Cinema

I love films and I love seeing them in the cinema. Multiplex cinemas are awful as people seem to like to talk all the way through the film. However in Saffron Walden we are blessed with two lovely cinemas nearby. There is our local one, Saffron Screen, of which we are all very proud. It is in the local school and it is run almost entirely by volunteers. It has proper Dolby sound and it gets the films a little later than the big chains but before they come out on dvd, It has such a nice atmosphere as I think everyone really treasures it. On the whole people don't talk through films there although there are some posh people who clearly have to shout at each other to be heard in the echoing halls of their stately homes who don't seem to be able to whisper.
Our other cinema is Cambridge Arts Cinema. People are so quiet there that they barely talk through the adverts and quite often they sit through the credits too! That's how serious they are. All those brainboxes, I suppose.
Anyway with this wealth of lovely cinemas we go to the pictures quite often but I have excelled myself in the last week by going to 3 films! All brilliant in their different ways. An Education, District 9 and Mesrine, public enemy number 1. The last one I dragged Erin to as Trev was busy. It was the second of a 2 parter but it made sense on it's own. Erin was surprised that I wanted to go to a gangster film as they are not usually my cup of tea but it was subtitled. I love foreign films because I am so arsey. District 9 is a South African film with aliens a thinly veiled analogy for apartheid. I don't think you have to like Sci Fi to enjoy this. Really touching and the lead actor had never acted before (plus the Africaans for f**k makes them sound like they come from Manchester, which is quite amusing) and an education is set in early 60s London, a very touching coming of age drama. I recommend them all

Here are some pictures which I used to create a calendar for 2010. It is a very select, limited edition, so here are a few of the pictures to brighten the winter days. This heron was in Northumberland in the summer
This cat came and sat on the bird table at the cottage, clearly waiting for a bird to just come into his orbit. Hilarious
Brian and Helen deciding whether or not to get on going
These lambs were so funny, both looking at the ewe as if asking what we were doing looking over the fence.

Less than a week to go...

...we are very busy and very excited and also pretty flipping tired in the build up to the wedding. Everything is pretty much done, I just really wish I didn't have to work Monday and Tuesday this week. Carl has already been off for 10 days, a fact I'm extremely bitter about.

We've been spending money like water and I've panic bought a few last bits but in truth I think we are all sorted. It's been a lot of fun actually planning everything, despite the fact it's not that dissimilar to organising a conference (favours instead of delegate packs!) but I must admit I'm looking forward to getting my evenings back and not juggling the wedding and work!

Mostly though we're just excited and can't wait to see lots of you on Saturday and for those of you who can't make it, we will miss you very much and promise to post lots of pics and bore you rigid with a recap :)
Love Kate (and Carl) xxxx

Dry ice

I work at a Genetic research institute as I think most of you know. It is built in the grounds of an old stately pile and the grounds are very nicely maintained. Most Lunch breaks I go for a walk to give my back a stretch and my eyes a break from the computer. The other day I was walking on one of the paths past a laboratory where a lorry was filling up a nitrogen tank. However a lot of it was leaking so we had a strange mist escaping all over the place. It was like being in a musical with all the dry ice on the ground. I'm assuming it wasn't dangerous as the man controlling the tank didn't seem to have any protective clothing. However I'm sure that is the same stuff that chemistry teacher's used to dunk a banana in which then went brittle.

Adam has a new job

Hooray hooray!!

Adam has a new job.

It is very difficult to find work at the moment, and it is even more difficult for some people athan others, so I am even more pleased that Adam has been successful.

He has been looking for a while now and although he hasn't been successful up till now, I think he has found a good niche now.

He has a full time job as a cleaner in Rookwood hospital. Rookwood is based in Llandaff in Cardiff so it is on the right side of Cardiff for travelling, and it is the spinal injuries unit for this area. It is one of 12 specialist units across the UK, and in addition to spinal injuries it is a rehabilitation unit, so that there are a lot of long term patients rather than people in who are ill for a short period of time. Mike's partner Karin is a nurse, and her mum is also a nurse and used to work there and says it is a lovely hospital to work in, really good atmosphere and very nice place to work. His shift is 7am-3pm 5 days a week, so he will avoid all the rush hour traffic which is a good thing and makes the journey so much easier.

He has finished at Cowbridge school yesterday, because next week is half term so he isn't in work, and he starts in the hospital next Friday.

So hooray for Adam. We are all delighted.

Wedding!

I am now terribly excited and starting to get a bit nervous as our wedding is now less than a month away! After a frankly hideous month or so at work I finally have some time to actually spend doing wedding stuff and finish getting everything sorted out. Carl to his credit hasn't been the useless groom that I seem to hear talked about a lot - he's done loads and is at this very moment sorting out our cake of cheese (that's as opposed to a cheese cake). All I have left to do is sort out what I call niff naff details like favours, centre pieces and flowers - oh and of course tone myself up so I look like Cindy Crawford or one of the female Strictly dancers by the big day :)

Can't wait to see all of you who are coming and for those of you who aren't and have asked about wedding list details, we have our list with Trailfinders and would gladly accept any contributions to our honeymoon trip to South Africa! Almost more excited about that than the day itself to be honest! We're flying to Cape Town on the 30th December so will have New Year's Eve out there which should be fun. We're then aiming to squeeze in some cricket, some sightseeing, lots of wine tasting and some safari action. As someone who usually goes camping in the UK on her holidays I cannot tell you how much I'm looking forward to the sun. Details are here:

https://secure.trailfinders.co.uk/WeddingListService/contribute/WedGiftform.jsp

And the ID for the list is: 5B2EJ9

In the meantime, hopefully I've managed to avoid turning into this:

Love Kate xxxx

some photos of the area around our neighbourhood at this time of year. Notice the magic carpet one walks on.

Parrot Fun (Uhem!)

I've decided, from looking at the Lincoln pictures, that I've definitely missed out. It looks like a lovely place.

However, the true reason for my blogging here is this clip which, I think you'll agree, is extremely funny... sadly you may not be able to see it if you're not in the UK.

More anon... xxxx

Lincoln

Well, I am beginning to feel a bit sorry for Kate so have decided to put some more modern pictures up.
We have just returned from a weekend in Lincoln. Lincolnshire is famously flat so we laughed when we found a street sign called "Steep Hill" - we weren't laughing when we had to climb up it!

Lincoln is very pretty. The cathedral is amazing. It was the tallest building in the UK until the 20th century and you can see it from 17 miles away. It has a famous imp in it's stonework.

We didn't manage to spot him until a family going round at the same time paid to have the spotlight shone on him! It is amazing what stone masons could create.
Lincoln castle is also very impressive. We walked around the walls and the Red arrows happened to be practicing at the same time. Lincoln castle used to house the town prison and during the 19th century they decided on a policy called separate imprisonment which they copied from Quaker example(!) in New England. It meant that the prisoners were kept in solitary confinement and if they came out of their cells they had to wear masks. They had to attend chapel which was laid out like a lecture theatre but with individual cells and they were only allowed to take off their masks once they were locked in. Seriously, I don't think it was the Elizabeth Fry branch of penal reform.

We also had a trip to the coast which is lovely. Huge beaches, vast salt marshes and miles of dunes with hardly a person in site. Here are some Pictures.

Hairdresser Helen

Love those giraffes, Alice!
Anyway Helen talking about her talents as a hairdresser led me to dig out a couple of examples. Also I will be missing the Hen night so this is a small embarresment for the blushing bride at the same time.
Rather clumsy images as the scanner at work only produces pdfs and the help that I found suggested using something called Scribd.
Enjoy!
Kate 2
Kate

Not meaning to hog the blog, but...

... lookie lookie at this wonderful site. This is one of the great things possible with the existence of the internet...

:oD xx

Hair Despair (Oh yes, you know from the title it'll be great!)

I have known for a long time now that I am not gifted in the ways of vanity. By this, I mean that there have been certain things in terms of make-up and preening ones hair that have totally passsed me by. It took me absolutely ages to master simple make-up, after some horrible clown-like experiements. And now it would seem I have a new lack of skill to add to my incompetencies.

Today, before settling down to apply for some library jobs, I went to Boots (chemists) with a gift token given to me recently for my birthday. With it I purchased a curling iron/brush/thing. Fairly dull, you may be thinking, but I was curious to see whether I might be able to achieve curly hair (I can almost see Frances's look of distain at me now! :oD)

So when I got home I decided to try to curl my hair. It was baffling. I was feeling quite positive about the whole thing when reading the instructions, which made it sound very easy indeed. I then proceeded to get the curling iron stuck in my hair, over and over again, and pulling it out of my hair in a somewhat panic-stricken fashion. Not only is it fiddly to try to curl the back of one's hair, but it also gets extremely hot! I looked like a haystack with glasses on. My hair was sticking out in all directions: not the pre-raphaelite look I was really going for!

Surely this is not the usual experience of curling one's hair. If it is I'm sure hairdressers would have been sued by now!

Anyway, I did apply for a job today in spite of the trauma...

I really do need a job!

More anon.

Lakes Continued

The Lake District is a fantastic place. I absolutely love it especially when it's not raining. If you want to see our photos they are here
Anyway I am going to do this like an award ceremony.

1. Most appropriate family name. This house
was on Peggy's Hill!

2.Best Lord of The Rings name. The Jaws of Borrowdale! We climbed Castle Crag which is one of the teeth

3. Champion urinator. Helen. Seriously, it's like a super power. Any fern and she's in and out quicker than a Jack Russel cocking his leg.

4. Most like a Mountain Goat. Mike (closely followed by Erin). He was always sure footed and in the lead sometimes running up mountains and advocating running down them too.

5. Most ubiquitous intellectual. Wordworth - the poet who stayed in, built or wrote about almost every building and landscape in Cumbria.

6. Tufty award for road safety. Trev for managing not to squash the red squirrel that ran in front of the car.

7. Award for managing a challenging walk while having a streaming (literally) cold.
Alice.


8. Billy Bunter award for secret stash. Trevor. On these walks we shared the carrying of the picnic (except Helen who was eating astronaut food as part of her diet and was admirable in her adherence to it when all around her were scoffing cream teas). However, we noticed at the top of Skiddaw, our mountain and most hard work walk, that Trev had a Snickers bar and a packet of crisps he was keeping to himself.

9. Biggest challenge to Cumbrian Plumbing. Kieran. We thought it was only Greek plumbing that couldn't handle him.

10. Bravery in the face of freezing water and very stony ground. Erin, Mike, Boo and Kieran for swimming in Derwent water.

11. Best tea. V. hard competition, but probably the tea shop in Hawkshead. Lovely cake. Helen paid even though she was strictly adhering to her diet.

12. Worst tea. Grassmere. We went into the teashop at 4.40 when they closed at 5.00. They cleared up noisily around us and made us feel really rushed and we had just climbed a mountain we deserved that tea and cake.

13. Worst dressed for climbing a mountain. Erin. The weather was quite nice at sea level but a cloud engulfed the summit and there was a howling gale. We were all badly dressed but Erin had shorts on.



Anyway, I had better stop now. Brilliant holiday.

Lakes

Here we are in the Lake district. I went up to join Boo and Trev last weekend for a few days. We had a lovely time, going for a boat trip on Windermere on day 1, with a bus trip to Hawkshead as well, then on day 2 we got a bus to Grasmere and walked back. The weather turned very kind on the second day as you can see from the picture. Later on we even got the jumpers off and were in shirt sleeves!

It was great.

The youngest trainspotter...

I do like to keep up with current news stories and while browsing through today's most serious of items this one caught my eye. I am both amused and worried... but mostly amused! This is a story about a train enthusiast.

More anon!

E Bay

If the expression "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" is actually true then we are a Richard Dawkins kind of a family. Erin is spectacularly untidy, really, even by the standards set by our family. However, she has hit upon a novel and profit making way of tidying her room. Instead of putting her clothes in drawers and wardrobes she is selling them on E bay! You must admit that's smart. She's already made about £100.
Actually, we were all fascinated to see that somebody called Steven had bought her pink stiletto shoes.
Now all she has to do is not buy any more clothes with the money she makes

Who are those people in my picture

I expect you've all seen this. A couple were posing for a picture on the timer in Banff when a curious rodent took a look

Hamlet

Last weekend I went to London with my lovely friend Emilie and some of her other friends to see Hamlet. I got to go for free because somebody else dropped out (excellent for me) and was really looking forward to doing something vaguely cultural for once. It was also made more exciting by the fact that Hamlet was being played by Jude Law. Jude Law, if you don't know, is a film star, bit of a play boy but generally agreed to be really rather nice looking. Here he is:

I thought I was going to the Donmar Warehouse but it was actually part of the Donmar's year long residency at the Wyndhams Theatre which is a very different venue! I don't really go to the theatre as much as I'd like so am not qualified to be a critic at all, but I do know Hamlet pretty well having studied it at A-level. I've never been to one of these 'star' plays where they have someone ultra famous in the lead role and pretty well nobody else you've ever heard of in the rest of the cast, so I was interested to see what effect it had on the play overall. They also did it in modern dress which some people have an issue with. I don't if they do something with it but more on that later. My unqualified opinion was that Jude was actually pretty good. He was a troubled and dramatic Hamlet rather than a cocky or a funny one, which is fine I think as that is one interpretation of the character. What I did find was that he out-acted everyone else in the cast. The only other person I thought was any good at all was the guy playing Polonius who did the flappy Dad/politician bit really well. Penelope Wilton was Gertrude and alright, Gertrude is a bit of a rubbish part overall I think, but she didn't bring much to the stage at all. Having said that I've never seen a good Gertrude so maybe it is just the part.

The scenary was very dramatic and looked like the ramparts of a castle which was quite mean and moody and felt right for the play but I had an issue with the costumes, or lack of them. They were in modern dress, which is fine, but all the clothes were black or grey which just gave no interest to the eye on stage and made it all feel a bit oppressive. At the beginning when they urge Hamlet to 'cast off his inky cloak' I was thinking that it would make no difference as everyone else was dressed like they were going to a funeral as well!

However, that aside I did really enjoy it. I'd forgotten how many famous quotes come from Hamlet and let's face it, when Hamlet looks like Jude it doesn't really matter what he's wearing :)

Here is what The Independent thought of it (they're a bit harsher than I was I think):

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/first-night-hamlet-wyndhams-theatre-london-1696528.html

A lovely day was then finished off by wine and grub at Pizza Express and left me thinking I must make more effort to get tickets to things like this. I also managed to squeeze in a quick trip to the Liberty's haberdashery to get bits for customising our wedding invitations - it's like a treasure trove in there I could've spent hours digging around!

Love Kate xxxx

Momento

We have just had a lovely walk from Great Chesterford to Saffron Walden across footpaths. It is a sunny walk and we got to a staggering 90 metres at one stage! Can you imagine? When we got there there was a thoughtfully placed bench. I love it when people put benches in parks and on footpaths so that their loved one, dog or whoever can be remembered fondly by them and appreciated by those who want a sit down and a chance to admire the view. However the plaque on this bench was thus!

What's all that about?
The little plaque next to it had been scratched out but you could still read:
To David from Gertrude. Happy Birthday!
Clearly somebody really didn't like David. I wonder if we will ever find out who.

Fat cat.

This is Maru a japanese cat who is obsessed with boxes. Brilliant! This is totally what the internet is for!

Day out in Warwick Castle

Here we are at Warwick Castle. All the Martins and partners, plus Kate, Brian and I had a get together in the middle(ish) which was Warwick Castle. The weather in our lovely sun drenched island was - wet actually. It rained, significantly for most of the day. However not all day - here we are during a dry bit outside the orangery.
Here is Alice shooting a bow and arrow. Underneath are Mike and Kieran shooting bows and arrows. Alice was actually better and got more arrows into the target.
Here we are trying on hats in the castle. All very entertaining.
Here we are having lunch. There aren't that many picnic benches, and very few under cover, so we sat on plastic bags for our picnic. We has a really good lunch, and not much overlap of food. Kate is not here because she got stuck behind a horse box and then a caravan, and then had no change for the car park, and then having got change, the machine ate her money and she had to phone the car parking people. I think she needed gin when she arrived, but had to make do with food instead.
We had a really nice day. The castle is a bit too 'hollywood; and doesn't actually feel really like a mediaeval castle. Having done lots of castles this year and spending a lot of time in a medieval castle at St Donats we consider ourselves pretty up on castles. There were some things that were excellent - the trebuchet firing a fireball at the end was brilliant. Lots of things like the fighting, the jousting (which actually was rained off for us but is usually there) and such like would be great for kids, who seemed to be having a great time. However it was heaving so you were in queues a lot of the time, and in wet weather the restaurants were insufficient for the numbers, but we were unfortunate with the weather.

Picnics

Yesterday we went for a picnic in the grounds of Anglesey Abbey. It is not in Anglesey and it is no longer an abbey but that aside it is very pretty. Our companions for the day were Andy and Phyll, Greg and Charlie. I was getting serious picnic envy over their picnics. Home made quiche, and lemon drizzle cake and cold sausages and their seats were more comfy too!
Aside from my envy we had a lovley day and I remembered why two year olds love picnics. They can run around for the entire meal, eat with their fingers and pretty much get away with eating only cold sausages and crisps! Happy days.

Graduation

This week we went to Erin's graduation ceremony. This is the second graduation ceremony I have been to (I didn't actually go to my own) and they are interesting to compare. Kieran's was at Bath. Bath University is on a 60s campus on the edge of a beautiful historic town. Erin's was at York. York University is also a 60s campus university on the edge of a beautiful historic town. The difference between them was that Kieran's ceremony was in Bath Abbey whereas Erin's was on Campus. There are advantages to both. Obviously Bath Abbey is lovely but goodness the pews are hard. The thing is Graduation ceremonies are just a little bit boring. Obviously you are proud and eager to see your little darling get their piece of paper and you are a bit interested at seeing their friends get theirs but other than that you don't really care. The advantage of having the ceremony in a lecture theatre was that the chairs were comfier and you could see better. So comfy in fact that I was dozing off during the medics receiving their degrees. Mind you I woke up when I realized there was a new Dr Shipman in the world!
I was very impressed with the chancellor at Erin's. It was Greg Dyke who is a TV bigwig here. He gave a really good speech and he managed to look genuinely pleased for each student. Whether he is still as pleased by the end of the 8th ceremony on Monday who knows.
I think the best thing about having the ceremony on campus was that Erin got to see her freinds doing different subjects who were at the following ceremony whereas at Bath it all sort of petered out. Still Bath is a spectacular setting.
Students who are graduating now have grown up with the Harry Potter novels. Kieran started out the same age as Harry and by the last novel Erin was the same age. So everyone quite likes wearing the robes because they look like wizards! I noticed that the PhD students have to wear very silly medieval hats at York. I'm hoping they do at Southampton too as I shall definitely look forward to seeing Kieran in a silly hat in a couple of years time when he gets his doctorate!