I'm back...

...following Carl's tinkering with things he knows nothing about and breaking our laptop, it's now been mended so I'm back contributing posts again.

Diet updates will resume this week as I'm still plugging away with the weightloss.

I just wanted to a) exhort everybody to finish Harry asap so we can discuss! And b) post some piccies up of our trip to Marrakech which is now nearly 2 months ago. However, it's a wonderful place and one I'd thoroughly recommend - lots to see and do, bargains to be had in the souks and great food :)

Love Kate xxxxx

No spoilers please!!!

OK OK OK.....


SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooo

how is it???

Holes by Louis Sachar

Well at last I am ready to blog. I have been putting this off as it was becoming like and English essay. Anyway here goes. It is not an in depth analysis but if I don't post what I've got so far I never will!

Holes
Although this is obviously a children’s book I think it has appeal to all ages. I first heard of it when the BBC did a list of the top 100 most loved books as voted for by the public. It had all the usual suspects – Austen, Brontes etc. As well as some, like the Da Vinci Code, which will probably prove more passing popularity? This however was the only book I had never heard of. I decided I needed to see why so many had voted for it.
I suppose a lot of its popularity is down to the fact it is about an underdog becoming triumphant and a hero. However I think there are a lot of layers to the story which makes it stand out. It is written like a folk story. Sachar simply expects you to believe in ancient curses and bad luck. So it is like going to the opera where you have to suspend disbelief. That done you enter into Stanley’s world and can empathize with him more fully. Like many good folk stories it has horrible baddies, mythical beasts (the lizards) a lost civilization and magical food (the onions). Like a lot of children’s literature, such as Secret Garden, the Narnia books and of course Harry Potter, Stanley ditches his parents and all the trammels of his previous life which have been holding him back. This allows him to start from scratch and it means that everything is as new to him as it is to us. So we see this whole new rather alarming world through his eyes. On this new stage Stanley manages to make friends for the first time in his life and actually have some respect in his new community.
This is a book that I know is taught in schools so I looked on the Web for crib notes. And apparently the main themes in it are the benefits of friendship, fate reuniting people and the importance of history in every day life. There are also adult themes like racism. I think the power of fate could be an annoying theme (Ok, Helen – let’s not start the Thomas Hardy thing up again!) however the way it is handled just emphasises the folk story feel. So it becomes like Greek legends or even the Bible. However fate also means that Stanley and Zero meet again and make right ancient wrongs. I liked the way the history was introduced and made relevant to the current story being told. I suppose it could be argued that the coincidences were a bit hard to believe but this has not held back a lot of great literature – Oliver Twist for example.
Basically, sweeping themes or not I enjoyed this book because I rooted for Stanley and Zero and was glad that it ended happily. I think it was like a Shawshank Redemption for children and as that is in my top ten films ever what further compliment can I give it?

Travels between Universities

Nice to see so many posts! We spent last weekend picking up Kieran's stuff from Bath, including staying a night and taking Kieran and his housemate (landlord sort of - well it's his parent's money) out for dinner. Here is a picture of Kieran and Fred in Yak Yeti Yak (great name and a great restaurant).

On Sunday we went out for lunch at Demuths, a marvellous vegetarian restaurant, this time with Kieran and Kate. Annoyingly, although I took the camera and spare batteries, I didn't take any pictures.

We had a wet drive home with Kieran's chattels. On Wednesday we're going back to Bath to see him get his degree in Bath Abbey - we're going by train this time. Then on Friday we're off to York to collect Erin and her belongings. Maybe there is a business opportunity for someone here......

Holidays

View from ramparts of a nearby village The gite from the front
Brian on the stepping stones in the river by the gite
To give you some idea of the frescos and painting in the churches - this is just one of many


Wine on the terrace
We got back from a week in France yesterday and had a lovely restful time. The gite was in the Vienne in the middle of France and the place was really quiet. The roads were great long straight two lane roads (these were the minor white ones on the map) and we were usually the only car on them! It is really beautiful there but you can also see that it is very poor. Highlights were the frescos in the churches which were unbelievable - a tiny village of a couple of hundred people with a 10th century church and the walls still covered with frescos. And there are so many of them!! It really makes you realise what britain lost between the reformation and the puritans - our churches used to look like that. We went to a plainsong mass at a Benedictine abbey which was wonderful. We went to Oradur sur Glane, a village where the Germans set fire to the church with the whole village inside as a reprisal for resistance activities, then they burnt the rest of the village. It has been left ruined as a memorial, and as you go round there are plaques saying who lived in which house, where the hairdresser was, etc. There are rusting bedsteads and cars, it is really very evocative.


We also saw kingfishers, heron, grebes and buzzards, but no red squirrels despite what the comments book in the gite said. We managed to find one (only ) tourist office open, and not many cafes - despite the opening hours saying that they were open a lot of the time. There is a little supermarket called 8 a huit - opening hours are 9-12.30, 3-7. Good eh? They haven't quite got the hang of tourism there which is a shame because i think they could use the money.

We mostly had nice weather, a few thunderstorms but mostly at night, so we were lucky there i think

I have no idea why I can't get the photos to go where I want them, or why the text is underlined!! Oh well

.

Nicky has gone off to the USA for the summer now and left me with a mess (called her bedroom) a bill to pay for her glasses, and a car to sell!! Some things never change it seems.

Banana Bread

That is SO weird - just made banana bread this morning with George, I Love banana bread because despite the overwhelming majority of ingredients being things like sugar, butter and white flour, you stll somehow feel like it is ok to eat it as it is "based" on fruit - yummy. To save some calories - we gave some to our neighbors :-)

Book group

I'm thinking that I will post about the book group at the beginning of July. I think everyone who is going to read it will have read it by then.
I could do it now I suppose but I'm going to make a banana cake instead as we have overripe bananas and too many eggs.

Joanne and the boys in Spain...

As you can see, we went to the sea! We had a fantastic time, painting and swimming and playing and eating....the kids had fun together and it was great to see Nana....the dog was deeply infatuated with her as well....

Colne Viaduct

We had a lovely walk today near the River colne from a village called Chappel. Here are pictures of the Colne Viaduct.



First from far away:
















Then from close up:















And finally from inside:

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 :)