The concert was fantastic

Just to say that the performance of "Points of Decision" last night by the BBC was absolutely fantastic. Hearing it performed by a really wonderful orchestra was amazing. Brian was really pleased with it all - the piece, the performance, the orchestra - everything. A truly magic experience.

That's it really. We will get a cd in a couple of weeks and I'll post the date of theBBC radio performance when we know it

Out and about

Having reached the end of a manic two weeks on Sunday night, I am only just beginning to recover and feel even slightly awake. Having deposited Saffy on mum, first up was an exhibition in London Olympia. This is where Moira works but who I only saw fleetingly from a distance before she had to go home poorly unfortunately - hope you're feeling better if you read this! Following two exhausting days of working, drinking with Dutch people and watching belly dancing (long story) was a trip to Paris for another exhibition. I was lucky enough to get to go out there a couple of days early to get some sight seeing and shopping time in which was awesome, I looooove Paris. Then it was back home for a night before dashing off to Sussex for a wedding. It was the first of my school friends to get married and the weather was unbelievable lovely for February - we had drinks and photos outside in the sun, which was great as Buxted Park where it was held was absolutely stunning. I'd definitely recommend it if you fancied a nice weekend away (although it's not cheap!)

All very exhausting but excellent fun :) And as I got some nice piccies along the way and have actually managed to upload them from my camera for once I thought I'd post them. Next up if I get my way at work are trips to Rome and Barcelona, so Christine I might be paying you guys a visit soon!

Love Kate xxxx

Flowers in winter

This camelia has come into flower for some reason, even though it is warm it is only just February, and it is the first time it has flowered. It is a gorgeous colour but I hope we don't have any frost or it is done for

Here we have Kate explaining to Saffy why she is wearing an elf outfit (because we are cruel and like to laugh at you) on Christmas day too.

Does anyone else get all their text underlined in Blogger or does is just not like me/Macs?

Radio Stars!!!!!!!

Just to let you know that we have found out that Brian's piece will be on Radio 3!!!!!!!!! we don't have a date yet, and it will be hidden in the contemporary music ghetto at 11pm but with listen again you can get it at a more reasonable time (though on the computer which buggers the sound). He is now even more nervous.

Also - just to add to the pressure - the choir is going to be on thePolish equivalent of Radio 3 and we will be singing live ! No time to do it again, get it right, not panic - do it live why don't you - with a bunch of teenagers most of whom hadn't sung a note till 15 weeks ago. Eeek. Other than that we are looking forward to Poland.

love Helen

Book group continued.

Does anyone want my copy of the book? I could pop it in the post if you like. (OK, I admit it. I'm not a fast reader - just a bit of a quitter!)

snow

Just had dinner with Peggy who is doing very well. we had about six inches of snow today, which is a pain if you are driving, but as I was on subway and foot was no problem. The snow in the parks is magical. I still remember the first time I saw real canadian snow at about age 13 and just rushed out and rolled in it.
You really can't believe how beautiful it is.
But then if you live here and it goes on and on and on yuch.

Sea Dog

Trivia

I got an excellent book for Xmas from Erin's boyfriend, Mike. It is full of information about animals. One interesting fact that I have learned is that most domestic cows are made to ingest a magnet. This then sits in their first stomach for their entire lives and attracts any piece of metal that they accidently eat thus preventing hardware disease. Sounds all rather unlikely eh? But if you google cow magnet the first thing that comes up is a company that manufactures them.
Mind you the entry for donkeys claims that female donkeys can be called a jenny or a donkeyess - haven't found any back up for the latter on the internet!

Book nomination....

OK, since J in PL requested it.....

Karen Connelly, One Room in a Castle

I was leaning towards Bruce Chatwin, and was undecided about which...I thought Patagonia as it is non-European, and beautiful, but with a French twist requested....

We have our nominee....

When is the due date?

March 1? How does that sound?

Book club

Hi there, I may have missed it, but do we have a book on the go? Just asking, because it might be fun to do again...

Anyone interested in giving it another shot?

Two things...

...first of all just a quick update on the diet. A few pesky pounds went on over Christmas (of course) but I'm not thankfully back on track and back to where I was before the festive season.

Second of all, I am thinking of doing a run for Sport Relief which is a charity related to Comic Relief (big annual telethon fundraiser event for those of you abroad): http://www2.sportrelief.com/. This year they are setting different distances of 1, 3 and 6 miles. So, linked to the above diet schedule plus the need to motivate myself I think having something to aim for would be a good idea so think I'm going to do the 6 mile run (it's just shy of 10km for those of you who are metric). The run is 2 months today (eek!) so I'm basically wondering; would anyone sponsor me if I do it?

And further to Boo's comments below I now like marmite, olives and anchovies which I didn't used to like, however I suspect I'm in a weird transitional phase where I still like Haribo sweets and Krispy Kreme doughnuts as well! Hence the constant diet :)

Love Kate xxxx

Changing tastes

On Christine's blog there has been a discussion on ham in which I contributed with a comment about pork scratchings - a hairy snack. I have to admit in my younger days I loved pork scratchings but I'm not sure I still would as tastes change as we get older. Sometimes our tastes improve - I now like things like anchovies and olives which I detested when younger.
Recently, I found an example of something that should have been left well alone in my memory.
In the two university holidays when I was 18 and 19 I went to babysit Christine and Joanne in Toronto. Aren't kids resilient? They've both turned into two well adjusted lovely women anyway. One of the activities we used to do was go to an outdoor swimming pool. It was about one tube ride north and then a bit of a walk East. Outside the tube station was a donut shop. I have to say, I found this donut shop rather exotic and exciting - this was before we had even Macdonalds in the UK. Anyway we would go to the swimming pool, the girls would have a great time and I would either have a swim or sit on the benches around the pool and read a book. Inevitably, the time would come when we would head back. I think Joanne was usually ready to go but Christine never wanted to. And she would be quite literally turning BLUE! Now I didn't know a lot about kids then but I could tell this was not good. At that stage I didn't understand about the stick part of child care (I am going to count to 5 by which time you are to be out of the pool and dressed!) I only really knew about the carrot. So what better carrot than that donut shop. Both kids were ready in the wink of an eye. We stopped at the donut shop and bought a variety of donuts which we would scoff on the train on the way home.
Now, I have imagined since that those donuts were fantastic probably better than they ever actually were. In the last few years in the UK Krispy Kremes have started a few emporia over here but not near us. Everyone raved about them, even the Guardian. Recently when somebody left work she brought round a tray of kripsy kremes to say goodbye. I was quite excited, thinking that I would be reliving my youth. I saved it up for my post prandial cuppa, bit into it and YUCK! Soooo Sweeeeet! What a disappointment. I felt a bit sick for the rest of the day! (Because I had to eat it all to make sure I didn't like it!)
Ah well, the moral of that story is that I had better leave the Findus Crispy pancakes safely in my memory!

Boxes and more boxes

Here am I at my desk at work. As you can see we are short of space and long on boxes and books. Christopher took this to show the health and safety officer - not really a safe working environment, but we've been there for 10 years and are unlikely to get moved anywhere better in the current economic climate.

Rather exciting news

For those of you yet to be phoned or excitedly emailed by my mother, I have some news. On new year's eve I proposed to Alice, and she said yes! I am rather excited, and very happy. Alice says she is also happy, which is a good thing really....

The original Elf

And here is the original owner of the elf clothes - plus Carl

Christmas Elf

It had to happen. Someone bought clothes for Gromit - well for Saffy, so it is a borrow really. Look how happy he looks!

Random generation

Well, I hope you all had an excellent Christmas. One of the guilty pleasures I enjoy in the run up to Christmas is Strictly Come Dancing. It takes me to a better sparkly sequin filled place. In fact I am a little obsessed with it. However I am not alone in this obsession as Erin (and Trev, actually) share it with me.

Anyway after the series final and the Christmas special Erin and I had reached a new pitch of enthusiasm and decided to try for tickets to the live show that is touring at the beginning of the year (without success!)

Here is the strange thing. When Erin checked for ticket availability on line the website asked her to type in the random letters that it showed. As blogger and various sites do - I believe to prove you are not a machine. The first time it was a collection of random letters. The next time it spelt Loser and the third time it spelt Bumboat!

Talk about adding insult to injury

Bridesmaid Diet Update

Some of you may remember at the start of the year I embarked on a quest: The Bridesmaid Diet. Despite abandoning my blog updates, you'll be pleased (hopefully) to hear that I did not abandon my quest. Said wedding was postponed from November '07 to June '08 which was a in some ways a blessing as it gave me more time to shift the pounds, but also a bad thing as it allowed me a real hiatus at the end of the summer/early autumn where I basically ate everything in sight :(

However, I have managed to maintain my weightloss, albeit at a painfully slow rate and am now a stone and a half lighter than I was at the start of 2007 :)

As I approach Christmas with some trepidation (how to avoid all that food and booze?), I thought I'd post on here to say that I will be pursuing my quest with renewed vigour in the New Year as we will be going shopping for bridesmaid dresses at Easter. My overall goal is to lose 2 and a half stone. So I shall be posting regularly again and even if you're not that interested, it acts as a kind of confessional for me to stop me cheating!

Merry Christmas one and all and have a mince pie for me.

Love Kate xxxx

Garfield and Odi

We just stopped off at a local shop to buy a paper. There was a terrier like dog tied up outside gazing at the door with devotion. Not unusual you will agree. However what was strange was the cat next to it. It kept rubbing itself against the dog - and I mean it's bum against the dog's face but the dog continued staring at the door. Eventually the cat sat down companionably close to the dog who continued to ignore it. I can only conclude that they had been introduced on a previous occasion!

Rome

This is me outside the tiny little studio flat we had in Rome where we have been for 3 days. It was minute but great as we had our own little kitchen, table and chairs and sofa to lounge on, as well as immaculately clean bathroom and very comfy bed (once you negotiated the very steep very narrow stairs to the mezzanine where the bed was). It was so small I couldn't get a picture of the inside. However it was brilliantly situated and we really liked it. We crammed in a day in the Vatican, did some of the Vatican galleries, Sistine Chapel and St Peters. St Peters is really hideous - that very chopped liver look you get with lots of marble never has done much for me. However the view from the top when you have climbed the steps is well worth it.


This is the front of the Temple of Saturn and then Brian in front of the temple and the rostrum. It is extraordinary to stand where Julius Caesar strolled around. I was really impressed with Rome and found it a much easier city to navigate around than I expected -
much more compact and less "big cityish" than I though it might be. We walked miles!! By then end of day two my feet were starting to complain in earnest, but well worth it.

This is a view of St Peters which is quite nice outside, just ugly from inside.

We didn't see everything on our list, as we ran out of time and the Bernini sculptures will have to wait for another time (fingers crossed), but we did thoroughly enjoy it.

On another note I have heard from Nicky and she is enjoying her job in Denmark, and has fallen in love with one of her horses. They are at a big Christmas show this week on the mainland bit of Denmark, and then in the spring they will be going to shows in italy!! Not bad is it?

I am having an operation on my right wrist for carpel tunnel syndrome on Thursday so won't be typing for a week or two (or at least one fingered and left handed which will be about the same thing - I can't type one handed) It is done under a local and doesn't sound as though it will be any worse than some dental treatment. Fingers crossed (while I still can!). love Helen

Southampton

This weekend we went to visit Kieran and Alice who now live in Southampton. Over the months that he has lived there we have made enquiries about what is the best thing about Southampton and everyone has said that it is near really nice places like Winchester and the New Forest and is easy to get out of. Even the brochure in our hotel said pretty much the same. It would appear it has been the victim of Nazi town planning; a difficult look to master and one that poor old Southampton doesn't quite manage. So who are we to argue with general opinion. On Saturday we took ourselves off to Portsmouth which has managed the Nazi town planning a little more attractively! Here is the Spinnaker tower. Amazing views!
Here are Alice and Kieran on HMS Warrior. I'm sure her aiming a cannon on my eldest born is nothing to worry about.
Here is HMS Victory. We also went to look at the Mary Rose but it is constantly sprayed with waxy solution to stop it dissolving. It looks like an atmospheric ghost ship but the photos were rubbish.
So. That was Saturday. Maybe we gave Soton a chance on Sunday. No way - we popped into Winchester on our way home which is very pretty and the Cathedral cafe had some seriously yummy cakes! (Oh and the Cathederal is very beautiful! No pictures it was pouring)