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!