Coastal command memorial

Hello there,

The girls were with my folks in London over Easter week, and I came up for a day and then flew home with them at the end.

While we were there, we went to Westminster Abbey and had a look at the memorial they have just put up for all the members of coastal command.

Here are the photos I took. I fiddled them a bit to bring up the contrast a bit so you can read them better.

This first photo is the main memorial stone.



This was carved into the wall at the bottom and slightly to the right of the main sculpture.



You may have to click on this to read it properly, but this is the inscription below the sculpture.



I might add that it SNOWED that day...it was FREEZING! I am turning into a wimp.

Poland and back

Here are some pics of Poland - not many of Krakow because my camera got stuck open and despite my attempts stayed that way until I took it into the camera shop in Cardiff when it went back in the first time the guy tried. Don't you hate it when inanimate objects make you look a complete fool?


The top one is the square in the old town of Warsaw. What is extraordinary is that all the buildings in the old town have been built since the war as the Germans flattened Warsaw before they left. after the war the Poles rebuilt it from pictures done in the 18th century. Unfortunately for Warsaw the Russians also did a lot of building so a lot of Warsaw is hideous concrete communist blocks. However I didn't take pictures of those.



This is the church in the centre square in Krakow which is unremarkable outside but is seriously gilded and painted inside. we did our last concert in here. There is atrumpeter who plays a warning fanfare every hour on the hour which cuts off before the end because someone did so in the 12th century and was shot by an arrow before he finished but it warned the people and the fended off the enemy. Now that is really keeping a tradition going. Must be the most frustrating music job going as you get to play the same piece every hour of every day and never get to finish it.

This lopsided picture Brian took when we were having lunch in Warsaw with some students. That huge loaf of bread in the spare place is full of saurkraut and sausage and was a starter!!

We had a good time there and the choir sang really well, and the weather was mostly kind as we only had one wet day and it wasn't too cold. Thankfully the rain is following the Martins around instead of me. The Oki Doki youth hostel was actually very good and I can recommend it to you.

It's official! We are the new Peggy!

We have just returned from a lovely long weekend in Rome to celebrate my half century and three of the five days we were there it poured! OK, that is not enough evidence that we have inherited Peggy’s strange talent for attracting precipitation. However it rained on our holiday in Brittany last year, on our holiday in the Cevenne the year before. We have had two weekends away with friends and it has poured for the entire weekend. Honestly, a few years ago we stayed about 40 miles from Madrid in August and it rained. I fear that we are indeed the new Peggy. I think if we were to go to Alice Springs it would rain for the first time since Peggy’s visit when it rained for the first time in years.
Actually, people should pay us either to visit very arid places or to stay away from places.
That said, it didn’t spoil our enthusiasm for the eternal city. Goodness, but it’s chock full of art and history. We came to the conclusion that we are now of an age to appreciate Bernini. I think he is like anchovies and you just won’t like him when you’re too young. We did have a mostly sunny day for my birthday when we did the Ancient Roman stuff. I shall have to rewatch I Claudius and Gladiator now that I can picture it all. To be honest nearly all I know about ancient Rome is from I Claudius and Shakespeare.
If you want to see pictures of Rome you can look at Helen’s from December.

Beyond my ken.

I sometimes realise how very little I understand of the work that goes on in the Scientific institution where I am employed. The other day everyone in the institute received this email:
"Sorry for the hinx mail.We urgently need some anti-goat antibody conjugated with HRP for acouple ofWestern blots. Does anyone have some to spare? Thanks a lot"
Now the words are english. The sentences are properly constructed and yet it makes no sense to me. Ah well it keeps life full of mysteries.
There was a visitor at work last week - none other than the Archbishop of Canterbury - rather random really

Here is Brian with the orchestra on Tuesday - taking his bow at the end of the piece!!!!!!

Answers

I will put the answers as a comment. So that you can't see them by accident.

Quiz

Well done, Brian, I look forward to hearing the concert on the radio.
So from the sublime to the ridiculous. I have to set a round for a quiz next week. It is going to be lyrics from musicals and films. I thought I might test it out on my extended family and see if I've pitched it right. Could you let me know how many you get without googling it - I will tell you the answers if you like.

1.A lady doesn't leave her escort
It isn't fair, it isn't nice
A lady doesn't wander all over the room
And blow on some other guy's dice.

2. Is he tough? Listen, Bud! He’s got radioactive blood.

3. Now when you pick a pawpaw
Or a prickly pear
And you prick a raw paw
Next time beware

4. Lots of chocolates for me to eat,
Lots of coal making lots of 'eat.
Warm face, warm hands, warm feet,

5. If it should chance to be
We should see
Some harder days
Empty larder days
Why grouse?

6. Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man: no time to talk.

7. We're drawin' the line,
So keep your noses hidden!
We're hangin' a sign,
Says "Visitors forbidden"
And we ain't kiddin'!

8. But now these days are gone, I’m not so self assured
Now I find I’ve changed my mind I’ve opened up the doors

9. Don't see lights a flashin'
Plays by sense of smell
Always gets a replay
Never tilts at all

10. There's a sad sort of clanging from the clock in the hall
And the bells in the steeple too

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....