In the cold

Boy is it cold currently. I am in the computer room (a room in our house containing the computer and all the discarded Christmas packaging that won't fit in the bin) which is not well heated or insulated. Boo and Erin are in the warm lounge with their netbook and laptop respectively. Maybe I should just dig out my work laptop and join them. Then we can all sit on the same room MSNing each other. Is that a verb?

Modern technology eh, it brings families out of the cold...............

Horses

Most Saturdays we go to visit Trev's mum in her nursing home and on those Saturdays we watch horse racing on her TV (It is Newmarket). We are now almost experts on matters equine and maybe we will earn a living becoming the new Dick Francis. When we have made a fortune obviously we will have to buy a horse with the many millions of pounds we make. What amuses us is to imagine the name of the horse. In the UK a horse's name can have 18 characters but if it is all 18 characters there can't be any spaces. There are some very silly names out there. We have toyed with the idea of calling our future horse A Whisker so then the rider who came second to our horse could say they were beaten by a whisker. Similary we could call it by a nose or a short head. However our favourite choice is Neck and Neck Thus giving the commentator the chance to say it's Neck and Neck neck and neck with Red Rum........
Better get writing that novel!

Fancy dress party

My friend from university Lucy turned 30 at the weekend and had a party in Devon, where she lives, to celebrate. The genius theme of the fancy dress party was that everyone had to come dressed as a song title, which I thought was brilliant as there's a huge amount of scope to be quite creative. I ended up going as 'Purple Rain' by Prince, mainly because I had a new purple dress I wanted to wear so needed to theme my outfit around that. However I did get quite creative with the cardboard and the sellotape to create the rain element of my ensemble (that's a cloud on my head by the way...just in case you were wondering...)
There were some really brilliant costumes though, my favourite being a guy who came in full Arab regalia and had a long string around his neck with a rattle tied one end and a bread roll tied to the other - so he was 'Shake, Rattle and Roll' (or more accurately, 'Sheikh, Rattle and Roll'). Loved it. Below are some of the other girls including Cath (far left - 'Killer Queen'), Emilie (middle - 'Moulin Rouge') and Lucy the birthday girl (far right - 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds') who had the pleasure of living with me for 3 years at Aston. So was a fun party and a great excuse for a bit of a reunion. Love Kate xxxx

It'll be lonely this Christmas...

...well, it won't really be that lonely as I'll be going to mum's, but Carl won't be here to join in the festivities as the RAF in their infinite wisdom have chosen to send him to the Middle East for Yule. Booooo. However, he's out of harms way and apparently gets some form of Christmas present from the Queen - how exciting!

And of course I've got Saffy to keep me company too. Now once upon a time when Saffy lived at mum's, she was used to living under a tough regime, ruled by mum's iron fist. In this world she spent lonely nights sleeping in the kitchen and had to perch on the floor whilst the family watched TV. However, now she lives in clover at our house - sitting on sofas, sleeping on beds and all sorts. And spoilt pooch that she is, mum has now relaxed the fist of iron when Saffy goes to hers and has turned into a form of spoiling grandmother! Saff now gets loads of biccies (thanks Brian) gets bought huge bones (thanks Nicky) and even gets to sit on the sofa (gasp!). And when she came back recently she even had a new collar that mum had bought for her. So here are some pics of her modelling said collar in festive red - apparently Saff wasn't being very decisive in the pet shop between a blue one or a red one so mum had to make the ultimate decision :) Suits her don't you think?

Love Kate xxxx

P.S You can really tell how much Saffy loves having her photo taken.

For this relief much thanks!

There is a film, I think a Carry On film or a Road to film, involving the Foreign Legion. There is a scene in it where our hero and his side kick are crawling through the desert dying of thirst, they manage to get over a sand dune to find a refreshment booth. Imagine their joy! But then they realise that it is a mirage and crawl away. The camera then pans to the refreshment booth and one of the owners is saying to the other " I told you this was a stupid place to open up this business!"

Anyway, last week we went on holiday to Cornwall. Very nice it was too. There was much eating and drinking and walking and sight seeing. One day we decide to go for a walk in Tintagel. The walk book said it was 2 miles, which is no great stretch even for East Anglians, like us, coping with hills and cliffs. However we thought we should probably have some coffee and cake in the village of Tintagel before we walked along the cliffs to the castle. Little did we realise that the village of Tintagel is an ARMPIT! But not only that, an armpit that was shut for winter. No joy at the Pendragon Tea rooms or the Camelot coffee shop. We managed to get a coffee at the King Arthur Inn but nothing to eat. Still we thought we would be OK and we could go on for lunch at the much more attractive Boscastle nearby.

What we hadn't realised was the two miles didn't include a visit to the island where the castle remains were. And they are AMAZING


So we paid our money and had a good explore. The island is quite hilly. There were many steps and many amazing views and it took us a good hour to cover it all. At the end of which we were starving and we still had the rest of the walk to do before sustenance.
But lo! As we left the castle there was and English Heritage tea room. And we almost didn't go in because I was convinced it would be shut. However it wasn't a mirage and we had the best of bacon butties. Then just to ensure it wasn't a mirage we had cakes and tea. Lovely!
Refreshed we continued the walk - a little more walking to build up an appetite for tea in Boscastle.
I love holidays and I love a walk that starts with a coffee shop, has a pub lunch in the middle and finishes with a crea tea.

No Firebird

We went to see the ballet at the Millenium Centre last night. 3 short Stravinsky ballets - Petruchka, Fairy's Kiss and Firebird. Saw the first 2 and then sat down for the third, the orchestra began playing, curtain stayed down, and then someone came on stage to say there had been "an incident" and we all had to leave. We all filed out and eventually some fire engines turned up and I gave up and went home (it was 10.15 by then).

However - had the Firebird set the stage alight?
Or (and this will only make sense to those who watch Torchwood, so everyone else can stop reading now) - was the "incident" something to do with the rift and Torchwood? Perhaps a real firebird from another planet come through!!! Who can tell? It does make life more exciting going to the theatre on top of an interdimensional time rift.

Kitlers

Well with all this economic doom and gloom I thought you might all enjoy this website.
I saw it on a TV show. It's called cats that look like Hitler

Really what isn't amusing about that!

Senior Moment

The other day I came in from work. I had a couple of phone calls to make and I had to write a cheque before I went to a friends house. All succesfully performed. I went to my friends and when I came home received a phone call. I could not find the phone anywhere. I could hear it but not accurately enough to locate it. I rushed upstairs to answer the extenstion. Afterwards I enlisted Erin's help to find the phone. I pressed the button on the phone's cradle which makes the phones trill and she followed the noise with her more youthfull and accurate hearing. Lo and behold she found it. I had put it in the drawer where the cheque book lives! Fortunately I hadn't followed through and tried to put the cheque book where the phone lives!
Blush! Can't even blame the Large Hadron Collider anymore!

End of the world not nigh for another year

We can all live another year as they had to turn the Collider off as it sprang a leak. When they turn it on again next year the world may come to an end. Isn't that reassuring?

George Bush joke

Well, although I shan't be sad to see him go I do think W has been an excellent source of humour. So on that note I shall start the week with a joke I lifted from the Guardian.
Three George Bushes were walking along when they came to a river which they couldn't figure out how to cross. However at that moment a genie appeared and granted them a wish each.
The first George Bush wished to be 10 times as clever as he was. Lo and behold it was granted so that George Bush lashed together some logs to form a raft and crossed the river.
The second George Bush wished to be 100 times as clever as he was. Lo and behold it was granted so that George Bush swung from a vine and crossed the river.
The third George Bush wished to be 1000 times as clever as he was. Lo and behold it was granted so that George Bush crossed the bridge across the river.

Did it!

So this morning I ran 10k in 1 hour and 14 minutes for Cancer Research UK. This is a slower time than I had hoped to do, however the course was way harder than I thought it was going to be! We rounded the first corner and there was a HUGE hill, followed by several other hills, a nice bit of down hill in the middle and then another couple of the beggars at the end. It was also 'multi-terrain' i.e. mud track which I haven't really practised on. But I'm making no excuses, I'm proud of my achievement and it was a beautiful day so I got to see some great views of the Wiltshire country side too (it's quite nice outside of Swindon). Here's a pic of me with two other girls I know that also ran today.

Thank you very much to everyone who has sponsored me - I have had a lot of support and let me tell you, it really helps when you're puffing up hill wondering what the bloody hell you're doing there! Between online and offline donations I've actually already beaten my target of £250 but obviously it would be great to donate as much as I can. If you haven't already, you can still sponsor me here (mum!): http://www.run10ksponsorme.org/katemcnabb
Love Kate xxxx

Not Bruges

Well we managed to get booked into a hotel on the Norfolk coast and had some lovely walks, some lovely food saw some interesting birds and went on a boat trip to see seals. The weather was kind so it was a pretty good non Belgian weekend. Can't really be too angry with the large Hadron Collider. Though apparently it's more likely to bring about the end of days in 2 or 3 weeks. So we all need to keep planning that last supper!

I blame the hadron collider...

...between flooding (which did admittedly start before the collider thing kicked off), euro tunnel incidents and server meltdowns there's definitely something going on. e2train's server decided to call it a day on Thursday night and shuffle off into the dark night of the hardware graveyard. We've therefore been without email, internet, intranet and shared drive access ever since which has actually made it quite hard to get any work done! Doesn't compare with mum's rubbish working situation really but is a pain in the bum when you're trying to organise your company's annual conference.

I've also had a headache now for over 24 hours and am starting to feel really quite grumpy about it. So in my scientific opinion, this collider thingy might not have caused the world to end but might just explain some of this other crap that's going on?
Love Kate xxxx

PS: Despite all this though, there must still be a god because Strictly starts next Saturday! Did everyone see the swimmer Mark Foster, who's taking part this year, wearing a skimpy waistcoat in the preview last week? :)

WATER WATER EVERYWHERE

Hackneyed quote but quite appropriate. The weekend before this one our office was under 6 inches of water, which although not biblical in scale, in nevertheless quite sufficient to mean we have lost at least £20,000 worth of stock and loads of furniture etc. We spent 2 days chucking wet books, carpet, boxes etc onto skips, and moving dry books etc to dry places - shoving them into corners in 2 other buildings, and shoving me and my 2 colleagues into the meeting room in Barry library, the admin staff into a corner of another room in Barry library, another member of staff is borrowing Sully library when it is closed, and Christopher is of no fixed abode. Staff phone and ask where he is and we just say to email him, as he'll pick them up eventually.

It is a real pain. The loss adjuster said that it would be 3-9 months before we are back in, and we can't stay where we are till then, but the boss is in Greece (lucky her) till 22 Sept so we are all in a state of great uncertainty which is very frustrating!!!!!

However when all said and done it's better than your home being flooded because none of it is personal stuff (bloody irritating though - we keep saying "where is..." or turning to get something which is either on a skip or 3 miles away.

Weekend in Belgium

This weekend we were due to have a lovely weekend in Brussels and Bruges. This is our view from the restaurant at lunchtime
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Looks like London doesn't it. That's because it is. The view of St Paul's from the Tate Modern. Yes, being green we had decided to go by Eurostar instead of a cheapy airline. Fire in the tunnel on Thursday no trains on Friday. Ah well, you can't win them all.
On a more succesful note Matt came over for a visit a fortnight ago (Trev has only just uploaded the photos.)
Here we are at West Mersea.
Here is a rather atmospheric shot of the estuary at West Mersea

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At the weekend we went to see A Midsummer Night's Dream at Stratford. One of the few sunny weekends this summer and we were in a theatre! However it was an excellent production. It contained a fart joke which I found far funnier than anybody else in the audience (note to self, must grow up sometime). We met up with Helen, Brian and Kate and here is a picture of us strolling around the park after the theatre and before dinner.

Brian is hiding behind me as he is very camera shy now he is famous and on the radio.

A legitimate blogger...

...that's me! Hello!

I am currently listening to a new orchestral work on iPlayer by a chap named Brian Noyes... Marvelous. I find it beautiful, eerie, disturbing, and as I am an amateur musician, rather intimidating. What a fantastic sound it creates from the orchestra! I particularly love the core influence of John Clares life... I may have to hit the books to find out more. :oD

More anon. Alice xxx

End of days

Over the last few days there has been a lot of news about the large hadron collider in Cern, Geneva which was switched on today. Some people were saying that it would actually create a black hole and destroy the earth.
So yesterday at my coffee break at work I thought I would treat myself to a pain au chocolat. May as well push the boat out if the planet was only going to exist for another few hours. Imagine my disappointment to find they had all been eaten. Clearly everyone else had the same idea. But if that was true my fellow diners were all remarkably calm. This is a group of people who almost riot when the prices in the cafeteria are raised so you'd think they might panic a bit when the end of the world was nigh.
Anyway, the planet hasn't vapourised so it was just as well that I had a healthy banana instead. I also had a perfectly normal dinner but if I was going to plan my last supper I would have roast duck, with crackling, and roast potatoes followed by Choccie denver and raspberries.

Birthdays etc

Inspired by Alice I will put on some piccies of the succession of birthdays we have in July/Aug.

Here is Carl and his mum Lynne - just to prove to Matt and Sue that he does exist and isn't Kate's imaginary friend. As you can see I managed to have my birthday on the one hot day in July and August and we needed the umbrella for shade!! Incredible as it may seem having had nothing but rain and clouds for the last month.

Here are Nicky and I enjoying our personal passions in self indulgence!

Moving on to Kate's birthday lunch here are Lynne, Adam and Kate - not the barbeque this time, instead a Mexican feast indoors.

And here are Adam, Kate and Nic

Here is Kate being a bridesmaid for her friend's wedding, with Carl

Here is Nic being a bridesmaid - also a sunny day this summer. These were seriously lucky brides!

I can't find the picture of Nic's birthday so it must still be in the camera.

Brian and I were glued to the radio last night listening to the programme with Points of Decision in it. I know we have the cd but it was still very exciting to hear it actually on the Radio!!! And Brian talking on the radio too.

Gay Pareeeee... Uhem!

Hello, this is Alice. I have hijacked Kierans login to blog on his behalf, as he is currently dissertationing, and therefore has no time for such piffling pursuits at Blogging!

This time last week we were in Paris (oh what a shame we're not still there) and were being uber touristy, as is acceptable in such places as Paris.

After arriving into Paris very late on Friday 22nd Aug, we got to our hotel and crashed out at about 1am... The bed was the most comfortable I've ever known (due to the fact that there was a feather duvet underneath the sheets as well as on top of us) so sleep was pretty much instantaneous...

When we woke up and left to begin our adventure properly we found that, rather conveniently, our hotel was situated a two minute walk from La Defense metro station which we needed to see pretty much everything we'd planned to see and more. These included (cue photos...)


...The Louvre, inevitably...

As you can see, the Venus de Milo was surrounded by people snapping at her feverishly. But we did get a photo up close, with some weirdo in the foreground;

We had a Chocolat Chaud each, which took rather a long time to arrive at our table. I blame Kieran, who spoke to the waiter in English... one of those waiters who like to have a bit of fun if he doesn't like certain customers perhaps!...
25 minutes later...

Anyway, we made our way out of the Louvre and towards the Champs Elysees, where we bought the grand total of two chocolate eclairs and a fruit juice as everything else was way out of our price range. We did stop by this old thing though...

And there's Kieran too...
After returning to La Defense for a nap, as we were shattered (Here's Kieran in a kind of lollypop land, not in his dreams but actually La Defense),

Then we went out for dinner at 8pm at which I managed to order raw beef... which was pretty nice actually... although obviously a stark contrast to the veggie option K had (Pasta).
Then we took a stroll around Les Jardins Tuileries where there was a funfair...

After another night's sleep in the most comfortable bed in the world, and hot chocolate and pain au raisins, we went to a landmark that needs no introduction...

...to my embarrassment while buying the tickets I tripped up in my French pronunciation, and instead of saying deux personnes moins vingt-cinque ans sil vous plais [sp] I said deux poissons moins vingt-cinque ans sil vous plais Thankfully I was understood just the same, given the circumstances... marvelous...
And then we climbed the many many many steps... gloating at the people still queuing as we did so...

Then after a lunch of sandwiches and because I love the film of Amelie, we climbed some more steps to the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur... and looked out over the garden used in the film, realising of course the way that it had been dressed up in the name of artistic license.
Looking up the hill...

And down the hill...

We went inside too, but we are respectful tourists and therefore did not take photos. I lit a candle too, which was rather nice... The nuns' singing mass was beautiful and the atmosphere was certainly a blessed one... even the most talkative tourists were hushed into peaceful silence!

As we were apparently in the mood to marvel at cathedrals we made our way to Notre Dame, and got in very quickly. However, we left there steaming with rage (Kieran more than me) at the way in which hundreds of people were chatting, squeaking their shoes on the floor, videoing the worship, and generally gawking at the people in funny costumes as if it had all been put on like a circus show. We decided the best thing to do was to get some supper...

Where my Date became very animated in conversation.

And its a shame this picture came out blurry...

...but the waiter was really moody, so we didn't think we'd ask him to do a re-take. Please also notice the ketchup bottle on the table... maybe he thought that we English/American people couldn't eat a meal without it!
We had the best weather on the last day and even found a place less likely to be found by tourists passing through... and I was quite pleased to be able to direct a little old french lady, in french, to the boulangerie, as seen here...

Yummy!

Anyway, I am aware that this blog post is insanely long, and Kieran wouldn't have written half so much, or put in so many pictures... you lucky things!

So I bid you adieu. More anon.

Modern Pentathlon

It would appear you can't put links on comments.
Anyway here is a bit of slapstick