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.............