Bren's stuff

Half Term

2009-02-21T18:43:00.002Z

Wednesday Frank and I went to London for the day. We caught the train from Northampton as it is cheaper than from Wellingborough, but there had been a broken down train a little earlier and all those passengers were on the train we caught. We were like sardines and couldn't fall over when the train swayed as there wasn't room! We got to London around 11 am and went to Leicester Square tube station to buy some tickets for a show that evening. We decided on The Jersey Boys. Frank and I went for a coffee and then headed over towards London Bridge as we had decided to visit a museum about the second world war. Next trip to London will find us visiting the Cabinet War Rooms I think.

We lunched before visiting the museum and then spent a couple of hours looking around the exhibits. This included an Anderson Shelter that you could sit in, lots of war time memorabilia and a mock up of a town caught in the blitz.

We then wandered over towards Trafalgar Square and stopped off in Ed's for a drink. I had one of their delicious malts and Frank had a Root Beer. We met up with Katie, who had been to an interview at UCL and then went to Pizza Express before the show started. The show was excellent and we all enjoyed it. We caught the 11 pm train and arrived home about 12.45am. Poor Katie's train didn't get into Bath until gone 1am so she was very late home.

Thursday was a trip to Manchester. Frank had a meeting there and while he was in his meeting, I wandered around the Trafford Centre. We then headed to Liverpool and met up with Lizzie. We took her to Wagamamas for dinner and then drove home. We got in about 11pm. It was good seeing both girls again.

Days 19 and 20

2009-01-07T17:25:00.004Z

All I managed to do today was these two pages. I don't know why it takes me so long.

The Santa page took a while as I had to find photos of when Katie and Lizzie were little and visiting Santa in Milton Keynes. They were so cute and I wish they were little like that again.

'In the Post' should have been quick as it doesn't have very much on the page, but it wasn't!

Tomorrow I have to go back to work so it will take me ages to finish this album I think!

JYC pages 15, 16, 17 and 18

2009-01-06T17:33:00.011Z

I managed to complete pages 15, 16 and 17 before Christmas and had page 18 ready for the photo of our Christmas dinner. I didn't get much access to the computer over the holiday period and had even less access to my scrapbooking things so this is my first real chance to update things.

Here are the next four completed pages for my journal. Tomorrow I plan to complete a few more! Watch this space.

Page 15 is 'Visitors' in which I talk about the family Christmases that we have had and the slightly smaller one we were going to have this year.

Page 16 is basically just a list of things that I am grateful for. Now Frank may face redundancy I think I should have put that I was grateful for us both being employed!

Page 17 is a short entry about presents and Page 18 is a discussion about Christmas food. I have included a photograph of the 2008 Christmas lunch which was indeed duck! And delicious it was too.

JYC Day 14

2008-12-16T23:45:00.007Z

This is my page about opening presents. We always open them on Christmas Day but don't really have any traditions about the way this is done!

The journalling reads:

'I don't remember a tradition about handing out presents when I was young. The presents were given ou and opened as you got them, so sometimes that meant several people were opening them at the same time. It was something that never occurred to me at the time, but we didn't see what each other had received or from whom. We then showed the presents around after we had opened them.

When Katie and Lizzie were little, they took forever to open presents - sometimes the whole of Christmas Day. This meant that we got to watch them actually opening them and playing with them.

Now they are older we distribute presents to one or two people at a time and wait for those to be opened before passing out some more.'

JYC Days 10, 11, 12 and 13

2008-12-14T08:36:00.010Z

I have got quite a long way behind but have finally managed to finish 4 pages and photograph them.

'Wrapping gifts' uses some of the paper that we use each year to wrap our presents in. We bought a huge pack of paper from Costco a few years ago and will be using it for the foreseeable future I think. It is nice paper though!

'Our Tree' was almost finished a few days ago, but I wanted to wait for a photograph of our decorated tree to add to the page. The tree is a real one but it is a bit unstable I think! Hopefully it will stay vertical until we take it down again in January!

In the Day 12 entry I compare various Christmases. My childhood Christmases, those of 25 years ago, when I first met Frank, 20 years ago when we had Katie and Lizzie and then again with how we spend Christmas today.

The final page here lists some of my favourite Christmas songs. Not carols, but more popular songs. I love hearing these on the radio as you get nearer and nearer to Christmas!

The girls are home

2008-12-14T08:32:00.002Z

Early yesterday morning, Frank and I set off in opposite directions to get our daugthers. The weather was AWFUL! It rained all the way to Liverpool and the spray on the motorway made the visibility very difficult. However, I arrivedjust after 11 am, we got Lizzie's things packed up and left her flat at about 12.15. We stopped for lunch at Sandbach services and made it home at around 3.30 pm - not long after Frank got home with Katie. It is good to have them both home again!

Today I think it is time to buy the tree and get the house decorated. And then we have to write the Christmas cards and get them mailed!

Staff party

2008-12-14T08:22:00.002Z

Friday night was the staff party at college. I left work at 11.30 as I had finished teaching for the day and came home to cook. I made the puff pastry first so that it could rest and then set about cooking the onions and preparing the rest of the stuff. I made puff pastry triangles, which were topped with red onions, stilton and pear and also filo pastry triangles that were stuffed with bacon, pate and chives. They all turned out pretty well considering it was the first time I had cooked them. I had intended to make twice as many but ran out of time, so the rest of the puff pastry is in the freezer waiting for me to make sausage rolls with it!

My Secret Santa was Malcolm - the head of maintenance. I had absolutely no idea who had been buying gifts for me but the gifts were all fantastic! A cookery book - all chocolate recipes; some bath salts; a countdown holiday clock; some chocolate biscuits and a Place in the Sun magazine and the final gift which he gave me on Friday was the book Chocolat, by Joanne Harris and a bar of chocolate.

We were supposed to be having a Beetle Drive after we had eaten but it was decided at the last minute that it wasn't a good idea as people don't want to sit with people they don't know very well! Personally I think that was the wrong choice as we all ended up sitting with those we work most closely with and what is the fun in that! You never get to know anyone else unless someone makes an effort and a beetle drive would have been the ideal way to do this! Hopefully the beetle drive will take place as a stand alone event next term! But I won't hold my breath.

JYC page 9

2008-12-14T08:16:00.002Z

Traditions! This was a hard one for me as we don't really have many traditions at Christmas! Each year we do most things differently! No traditional Christmas dinner, no routine to where we go etc.

There are just a few things we do the same each year! We decorate the house with streamers and a Christmas tree, we open our presents on Christmas morning and we play board games throughout the holiday period.

Anyhow - here is my page!

JYC Day 8

2008-12-09T22:01:00.002Z

I caught up and now I am a little behind again.

Yesterday Frank was staying away for the night and I had planned on doing some scrapping, other than my JYC page. But I developed a headache and after completing my page for JYC decided to go to bed before midnight for a change.

This page is based on how things are changing around us. I decided to go for some simple shots of decorations and wrapping rather than think about things like the credit crunch.

After my early night I woke up at 5.00 and then couldn't get back to sleep until it was time to get up again. Consequently I have still got a headache and I have not given much thought to Day 9. So - that means I will be playing catch up again tomorrow or Thursday.

JYC Day 7

2008-12-07T16:25:00.004Z

This is my to do list! I am sure I have missed things off and I might tick when they are done - I haven't yet decided. In actual fact I have already completed the bottom 3 things on the list but felt they were part of the regular Christmas list of things to do. The birthday presents are for Frank (December 23rd) and for Katie (January 1st).

Student's Christmas party

2008-12-07T12:37:00.010Z

I picked Gill up at 7 o'clock and we headed out to Northampton. We were really lucky and found a parking space near the Derngate. The Guildhall is a fantastic venue and we were greated by a man dressed like he was from a Dicken's novel. It turned out that he doubled up as the magician that wandered around the tables. There was also artificial snow around the building!

When we arrived there were more staff than students but by 9 o'clock it had filled up nicely. There was a rolling buffet of rolls and snacks and staff were allowed 2 free drinks. The decorations inside the building were stunning. Drapes from the ceiling, lots of lighted trees and beautifully decorated tables.

Here's a photo of me ready to go out. I am wearing one of Katie's dresses and I'm wearing Lizzie's shoes too. Having grown up daughters is so nice! And on the right is a photo of me with Rosa Nguyen - one of my Vietnamese students.

A couple of ex students came back for the party but not as many as in previous years. Gill and I left at 10 o'clock as it was getting very cold outside! It was a pleasant evening though.

JYC Day 6

2008-12-07T12:29:00.003Z

I managed to get up to date before I went out last night and finished Saturday's page.

I found this one quite hard as there haven't been any really bad Christmases. There have been a couple where we have had arguments with the family over trivial things! One in Birmingham when my parents dog stole some of the pieces of the new jigsaw and left his teethmarks in them. And then the following year I fell out with Frank's mother. On both occasions it was a case of staying too long after Christmas and just getting on each others' nerves. From then on we make visits shorter or go away for Christmas.

My childhood Christmases were not great fun as we ALWAYS had to go to one or other set of grandparent's houses or they would come to us. And that always meant getting up early and rushing to open presents before driving to Worcester or Bournemouth, or opening them before they arrived at our house. I can't ever remember a Christmas when it was just my parents and me - but I can't write all this in the journal as they would be devastated to read it!

Good Christmases have been most of them, so again choosing just one was not easy! Anyway - here is my page for Day 6!

JYC Days 4 and 5

2008-12-06T15:49:00.006Z

I have spent much of today playing catch up with my Christmas journal. I must say it has been so nice not to have to spend time on college work which is the first weekend in about 6 weeks.

I have talked about my perfect Christmas and about Advent and the tradition we now have in our family. I think the journalling is clear enough to read so I won't repeat it here.

And this evening is the college student Christmas Party. It is being held at the Guildhall in Northampton and I am hoping that it will be a good evening. I hope lots of students attend and I know full well that most of the evening will be spent having photos taken with them all. They like to take photos of their teachers home to show their families!

JYC Day 2 and 3

2008-12-04T22:01:00.008Z

Today I managed to get the pages finished for the 2nd and 3rd day of the journal. Weather and Cards! It was parents evening at college last night so there was no time to complete my journal page yesterday. The first parents evening that I have been a teacher at for 22 years!

I really enjoy the journalling part of it which is quiet a surprise to me as I am not used to writing much on scrapbook pages! My pages usually tell the date and the place and not much else. I know I need to expand on this so that future generations can read about life in the early 21st Century and maybe this journal will give me the confidence to carry it over onto scrapbook pages.

Here are the two pages for Days 2 and 3.

JYC Day 2

2008-12-02T22:55:00.007Z

Today I finally got my page complete for yesterday's prompt. I toyed with several different papers and then decided on something quite simple. I also played around with several photos and then had trouble with the colour when printing, but this is my completed page!

Today's prompt is about the weather and this is what I have journalled about it. As it is parent's evening tomorrow I don't imagine I will get chance to create my page until Thursday. And I can't find the photographs I want either - I think they are in the loft so I may have to think again about what photos to include!

"Christmas Weather!

Winter in England – A white Christmas is something many of us dream about. As a child I’m sure we used to get more snow than we do now, but still not on Christmas Day I guess!

We have actually experienced snow on Christmas Day twice – the first time was back in 1993 . We were on an 8 day holiday to EuroDisney (as it was called then!) and were spending the day in the park. During the afternoon it started to snow and that was such a magical feeling – Walking down Main Street, USA, looking at all the fantastic decorations, listening to the singing and watching REAL snow fall. The next morning we awoke to find thick snow and some boys were building a Mickey Mouse snowman outside our window.

The second time it snowed on Christmas Day was in Wales in 2001. We were staying in a log cabin just outside Carmarthen. We had a lovely log fire and the cabins were nestled in a wood. And on Christmas Day we looked out of the window to see snow falling. What a wonderful way to spend Christmas – sat in front of a warm fire watching the snow falling all around.

In 2005 we went to the other extreme and celebrated a warm Christmas. This was the year we went to Florida. Christmas was spent in an apartment on the west coast of Florida in a little place called Anna Maria Island (near Bradenton). The weather was not that hot but it was warm enough for Frank and I to stroll along the beach wearing just a cardigan or jumper.

I wonder what the weather will be like on Christmas Day this year and where we will spend next Christmas!"

First Day of JYC

2008-12-01T22:59:00.003Z

Today I waited eagerly for the first prompt, but all to no avail. Some hiccup with the email meant that I didn't get it first thing this morning, like I expected. But that wasn't a real problem - I emailed Shimelle and she sent it to me, but the prompts are also available on her forum.

So the first prompt is to write a sort of Manifesto - why you are doing the JYC, what is special about this time of year, what you want to get out of this experience ...

So - here goes!

Starting today, December 1st, I will keep a Christmas journal. In it, I will write something everyday (hopefully!) to reflect on the holidays of my past, enjoy the holidays of the present and dream about the holidays of the future. I plan to give at least 15 minutes of each day to this task, no matter how crazy the season becomes. This Christmas I will create something of my own which will be filled with my own memories and my wishes. It will be something for my family to look back on in the future and hopefully it will remind them of the good times we had.

Advent

2008-11-30T19:01:00.021Z

Tomorrow is the first day of Advent and consequently the first day of JYC by Shimelle. I am really looking forward to getting involved in this and hopefully keeping up with at least some of the prompts.

Today I put all the Christmas stash I have in a box so that it is easily accessible and that way I don't have to hunt around for what I have got. I treated myself to some wonderful K & Co paper, chipboard and tags on Thursday and can't wait to start using it. I have lots of Chrismas scrapbooking paper left from a pad I bought a few years ago too so I have no doubt that I have enough. Enough for several years I think.

I also managed to scrap some more of our summer holiday 2007! It has been hanging around so long now that I am bored with it. But - I have only got 3 spreads left to do and it will be finished. It was the trip to Sipan in Croatia. Here are 4 of the pages I did today.

On the top left is our new bedroom! The one we got moved to after the electricity went in our first room.
The one on the top right is the view from our room - this is the terrace where we ate all our meals and you can see how close it was to the sea.
Bottom left is looking from our room window again, but out to sea rather than down at the hotel. You can see how beautiful the Adriatic is!
And bottom right is a view of the front of our hotel. Frank is outside the restaurant that they use for visitors.

As tomorrow is the first day of Advent, Katie and Lizzie will be opening their first present on their calendar. I hope they like the little gifts I have chosen for them.

Journal your Christmas

2008-11-27T09:03:00.006Z

I have signed up to take part in Shimelle's Journal your Christmas. I am hoping this will give me something to look back on in years to come and remind me of what we were doing in 2008. And hopefully I will take part in future years too.

Christmas has always been a favourite time of year, especially since having children. And even though they are now adults it is still a special time of the year. We very much enjoy each other's company (well I enjoy theirs anyway!) and have lots of laughs doing things together. Some years we go away for Christmas and other years we stay at home and have family around. This year we are staying at home.

I can't wait till December 1st arrives and I can get started on this project. I just hope that I can keep motivated for the whole time. Some friends on an online group are taking part too so we are hoping to motivate each other!

Weekend

2008-11-04T22:42:00.010Z

For the first time in ages we spent a whole weekend at home!

Frank spent much of the weekend working on his model boat - he will need a new one soon! And I spent some time scrapping some of our US holiday photos. My big problem is deciding which ones to leave out of the layouts, consequently I end up putting most of them in and I think my 2 albums with extra pages won't be enough for the whole 3 week vacation.

The photo on the left is of the Lincoln Memorial from various angles, the one on the right is of the reflecting pool. The bottom photo on this page is of Frank trying to photograph his finger on the top of the Washington Memorial! It didn't quite work out as he planned.

So far I have got to the end of day 2 - 30th March. This was the first of our two days in Washington DC! We visited the White House, Lincoln Memorial and National World War II Memorial.

These two photographs are of the National WWII Memorial. The photo on the left is one of the gateways into the memorial. It took us ages to get the photograph of the fountain without anyone in front of it. The photo on the right is of quotes and carvings. The carvings depict different aspects of the war!

Saturday evening we had invited a work collegue around for dinner, and as he is vegetarian we had a no meat Indian meal. Frank cooked a selection of dishes - Bindi Fry, Stuffed aubergines, dahl, mushroom curry, coconut rice and we had some naan bread too. It was all absolutely delicious.

Jongleurs

2008-10-31T23:35:00.003Z

This evening I went to see 'Jongleurs' at the Castle Theatre in Wellingborough with my neighbour, Jackie and a couple of her friends. I had no idea what it was, other than a comedy show. It was listed as 'alternative comedy' but there wasn't really much alternative about it! It was just pure comedy.

The evening comprised of a compere, Dominic Frisby and two comedians in the first half and the compere and another comedian in the second half. I didn't expect it to be very good but all the acts were very funny and I haven't laughed so much in ages. Sadly I don't remember the names of the comedians but it was an excellent evening of entertainment.

Peter's funeral

2008-10-29T18:51:00.005Z

This has to be the saddest day that I can remember.

Lizzie travelled down to Southampton on Monday evening with Spencer and Frank and I also decided to stay overnight with Mum. We picked up the flowers from the florist near where we live, had some dinner and then drove down to Southampton.

Tuesday morning we delivered the flowers to the funeral directors and bumped into Frank's cousin Dennis, who was taking a look at the location of the church. Dennis is famous in our family for something called 'Eggs like Dennis'. When he later met Katie and Lizzie and Katie mentioned this, he had to have it explained to him as he never knew Frank's family had eggs like he did!

We went back to Mum's, collected Lizzie and then went to meet Katie at the station. Back to Mum's for a quick lunch, a change into our black outfits and then over to Caroyln's.

It was all ok until the hearse arrived and I then started to think that Peter was in that coffin. That was the start of many tears that were shed throughout the rest of the day. Frank, Simon, Ron and Maher carried him into church and just looking around the full church showed how popular he was. The minister took the service, Frank read from John 14, Anne-Marie read a tribute to her Dad and Simon read a poem. How they all held it together I don't know. Many paper tissues later and it was time to take him to the crematorium. After another short service they played 'The Carnival is Over' by The Seekers which was a very special song to Caroyln and Peter. This was the saddest part as you knew Peter was going to be taken away to be cremated. I think all the women and a lot of the men were crying by now. Everyone had special memories of Peter and there will never be anyone else like him.

The club that we went to after the crematorium was only partly full, and I think this was because a lot of people went home when we went to the crematorium. There were albums of photographs for us to look at and they caused even more tears. I got meet Peter's second cousins - Dianne and Gloria! His young life was so like mine in some ways as these were the only children in his family that he could mix with. My second cousins were the only ones in my life too! One of the sad parts of being an only child and it was that which made Peter and I understand each other so well.

There was still time for a little fun though, and as the immediate family had been driven to the church in a limosine there was no car for Simon to go home in. Jessica came with us and Simon hitched a lift in the boot. Just the sort of thing his father would have done!

I'll miss you Peter.

Tuesday

2008-10-26T16:17:00.007Z

I am not looking forward to Tuesday at all, which I suppose is only to be expected. It is the funeral of my brother-in-law. To be perfectly correct he is Frank's brother-in-law but I think that makes him mine too!

The last time I saw Peter up and about was at Anne-Marie's house when we went down for the day to celebrate Simon's 40th Birthday. He was still getting over the treatment he had had for prostate cancer but was chatty and good company as one might expect. Even then though, Carolyn knew he was not well and things got much worse over the next few weeks. Carolyn and Peter, Anne-Marie and Maher went to Greece at the end of August and it was after that holiday, when Peter could hardly walk, that things started to go downhill rapidly.

A short stay in hospital revealed Peter had cancer in every organ in his body (apart from the liver) and that he had a very short time left to live. He went home and Carolyn nursed him, with the help of her family and nurses until he died on October 16th at 11.50pm. He was 68. I will miss him so much as he was such lovely company.

He was brought up as an only child and like me, was used to being with older people for most of his young life. We could take the piss of each other and wind each other up, knowing we were not being serious. We played many games of cribbage together when Frank and I were in Southampton and I remember the games of sardines that the family used to play when Frank and I were first married. So many happy memories.

The holidays we spent together as a family were always great fun. Peter would go fishing but rarely caught anything that I can remember. When we were in France before Katie was born Peter and I would sometimes walk down to the bakery together early in the morning to buy bread for breakfast. He was always an early riser! During that same holiday we took a day trip over to Jersey and we hired a minibus which Peter drove around the island. He showed us all the places that had been important to him as a child and I was sat in such a position that I could see him in the rear view mirror. The look on his face showed just how delighted he was to be showing us all his island. I can also remember the beach at Val-André! That was one of Peter's favourite beaches and we spent quite a few days of our holiday there. There was to be another family holiday next April - the first that we had had since Tunisia in 2000 and I was so looking forward to spending some fun times with Peter again. But sadly it was not to be.

Thankfully we got to spend a little time with him in the few weeks before he died and the cancer did not take away the old Peter. He knew who we were and was still able to joke with us from time to time. Tuesday will be a very sad day for us all. Frank has been asked to do a reading and that will so hard for him! But I am glad he is going to do it. And at the crematorium he is going to be one of the men carrying the coffin. I can't imagine how horrible that will be for them all - knowing Peter's body is in there.

He will always have a very special place in my heart as he was the best brother-in-law anyone could have wished for. If there is an afterlife then I am sure that he will carry on being the life and soul of the party and if he is reunited with his father-in-law then I am sure they are having great fun together again.

Rest in Peace Peter!

Wednesday

2008-09-04T17:05:00.002+01:00

It was a strange 50th Birthday. I'm not one for big celebrations of birthdays, other than for children and 18th Birthdays, as it always seems silly to be making a big thing of reaching something like 40 or 50 or 60. Getting to such an age is not really an achievement as quite a lot of people do and it doesn't take much of an effort! Now special anniversaries are worth celebrating! Being married for 25 or 30 or 40 years IS an achievement. It is something you work at and lots of people give up long before that.

Anyway - my birthday! I was called early (as usual!) by my parents and my aunt. Katie had made me breakfast of chocolate croissant and fruit salad with yoghurt which was delicious. Then I had a call from Lizzie who was at the airport in Newark waiting to come home. It was 5.15 am her time. Frank got home from Wales in the afternoon and I opened my presents. A daylight lamp from Frank, which was just what I wanted so that I can scrapbook later into the night! And jewellery and chocolates from Katie. I had some more earrings from Lizzie when she got home.

We left here at around 6pm and got to the airport in time to meet the 8.00pm plane. At 8.45 itwas announced that the baggage was in the hall, but at 9.30 there was still no sign of Lizzie. She did send us texts to keep us informed of what was happening and at 10.30pm we finally left Heathrow. One of the baggage trolley's had got mislaid in the airport and it took them a while to find it! But eventually they did! It was lovely to have the family back together again after more than 12 months.

The worst part of the day was waiting for news about Peter, my brother-in-law! He has cancer and we were waiting to see how far it had spread. Sadly it has spread to his stomach and his spine and also his brain. We should find out today if anything can be done!

Scrapbooking

2008-09-02T22:56:00.002+01:00

I have been trying hard over the summer to get some of my albums finished as I want to start scrapping our April trip to the USA. I have been completing challenges on various groups and forums which has given me the push I have needed to get more pages finished. I will try to post more to the blog in future!

This is the most recent page I have completed. It is for the September Week 1 challenge on UKScrappers. I had to include a BeeGees song in the title, use the colour red, ribbon, bling and buttons. They all have some connection with the first week in September - 1st September 1946 was when Barry Gibb was born; 2nd September 1994 Roy Castle died so the ribbon is for this; Dallas was first broadcast on 5th September 1979 so that is the bling; Buttons because that is the name of the group setting the challenge and the red is nothing specific. Here is my layout anyway!

Maze Album

2008-08-30T08:00:00.007+01:00

I have created a little Maze album for my mother-in-law. We are going to Southampton next weekend to see the family and will give it to her then. It has 27 photos in it - all of them are her children, grand children and great grand children and some of their spouses. I hope she likes it!

Lizzie and Katie

2008-08-30T07:57:00.002+01:00

Katie has been home from the US about a month now. She has had a fabulous time studying in Purdue and then travelling around the States. She managed to visit 47 of the the States and also saw a tiny bit of Canada. Her photos are fantastic and I want to go and see more of the country!

Lizzie arrives home on my birthday which will be nice. She has also been to Niagara Falls so this year we have all been there but all at different times! She is now in NYC for a few days and according to Facebook, she seems to be having a great time.

Walking

2008-07-09T16:43:00.013+01:00

I am trying to do more walking! It is not something that I could say I enjoy as I would much rather be scrapping but I know I need some exercise and need to get fitter.

I recently bought some new walking shoes and just over a week ago Frank and I decided to go for a walk! We did a circular walk that started and finished at Welford. We timed it so that we could walk and then finish at the pub in Welford for lunch.

The walk started along the canal bank - along a branch of the Grand Union that only went to the pub!

Then we walked along the main Grand Union towpath for a while before cutting across the fields to end up back at the village.

It was a little under 5 miles in total and a very nice walk.

We stopped at the pub for a lovely lunch. I had some absolutely delicious mushrooms and Frank had a ploughman's lunch that was big enough to feed a family. I chose cider to drink but the beer Frank chose was delicious. I would love to go back there so that I could have the beer. It tasted like butterscotch! Wonderful.

The following Tuesday (1st July) I went for another walk!

This time with Ron Annies (Biology teacher from work). Now he is a big walker and much fitter than me so when he told me we were to go a circular walk that was about 8 miles I was a little apprehensive. We started at Brigstock Country Park and then saw the sign that said the Lyveden Way walk, which was the one we were doing, was actually 9 and a half miles. I did have the option to turn around but after about 4 miles I was still feeling fine and we were nearly at Wadenhoe which is where we planned to stop for lunch, at the pub!

I was really pleased to find that the following day I didn't even ache! The next walk, weather permitting will be next Tuesday (15th July!).

16 week challenge

2008-07-09T16:41:00.003+01:00

I finally decided not to carry on with this challenge. The opposites were not things that I would normally scrap and as I have hundreds of photos that need scrapping I decided I could better use my time working on other albums.

16 Week Challenge - City and Country

2008-06-19T00:27:00.002+01:00

For this opposites challenge we had to use the words City and Country. I chose Bath and the two pictures show the huge differences that there are in one city. We can see the old streets of the centre of town and the rolling countryside from just outside the city centre.

Culture Day

2008-06-18T23:52:00.011+01:00

Today was culture day at college. It is always an interesting day as we have displays from several countries represented at the college, national dress, traditional food and then a concert of music and entertainment from several different nationalities.

On the left are 3 girls from Eastern Europe - Russia or Ukraine. On the left is a group of Vietnamese students.

The picture on the left shows the Vietnamese student's table. There is information about their country behind them on the wall, a computer showing pictures of their country and there was some lovely pork and sticky rice to eat! On the right is a table from the Indian students.

In the afternoon there was a short concert. This consisted of 5 Vietnamese students singing a traditional song. From left to right they are Yun, Lynn, Christine, Helen and Chloe.

A chinese girl called Cindy sang a solo, another Chinese girl called Stephanie played the piano and a British student, Sunny, representing India played drums.

Sunny and Krishan then entertained us with their version of Signature - they were BRILLIANT! So funny and so entertaining. And they only decided to do this at lunchtime so they had 2 hours to rehearse!

After that we had some groups - Nigerians talking about their national dress and singing the National Anthem, followed by a group of Vietnamese singing their national anthem and finally the malaysian students sang together.

Overall a very entertaining afternoon.

Scrapping challenge

2008-06-16T21:02:00.004+01:00

I have just completed the layout for week 4 which was to choose 2 words from Fire/Earth/Wind/Water. My chosen words were Fire and Water.

I am using this as part of my Disney scrapbook as the photographs are taken from the Backlot Tour at Walt Disney Studios Park in Disneyland Paris. They were from our visit in October 2006.

Saturday 14th June Barbecue

2008-06-15T17:25:00.004+01:00

Isn't British weather a pain!

Saturday morning the weather was lovely! Hot and dry and ideal for a barbecue. And fine all day until about 6pm when Frank started cooking! About 10 minutes later it was pouring with rain. Here are a couple of photos of him finishing off the cooking!

Sunday 8th June 2008 - Tall Ship day

2008-06-15T17:01:00.011+01:00

For Frank's birthday last year the three of us bought him a day on a tall ship. And Sunday was the day he chose to go.

Lizzie was already in Southampton as she had been visiting her grandmother and little cousins down there so Frank and I drove down on Saturday to join her. Sunday morning the three of us went to Portsmouth so that Frank could start his day on the tall ship. Thankfully the weather was lovely! Calm and hot so not much chance of their being anyone seasick on the boat.

The photo on the right is the ship that they went on! It is called Artemis.

It was 10am when the passengers got on the ship and it sailed at about 10.15. Frank soon got chatting to the other people who were enjoying the same experience. There were several ladies waving off their husbands and they planned to spend the day shopping. Lizzie and I did a little shopping but had a leasurely lunch and then sat with a glass of cider for a couple of hours and watched the activity in the harbour.

Frank's sister, Carolyn, her husband Peter and Frank's Mum came to Portsmouth to wait for Frank to come back, so that they could talk to him about his day out. He had caught a little bit of sun and had a really relaxing day I think. He said he thoroughtly enjoyed his day! I hope he did!

Scrapping challenge

2008-05-21T20:22:00.004+01:00

I have signed up for a 16 week challenge - hopefully this will help me to create some layouts. We are given two words which are opposites and we have to create a layout using these words.

The first set of words were: Awake and Asleep.

I chose pictures of Willow taken in January 2007!

Saturday 19th April

2008-05-03T22:13:00.002+01:00

We got our connecting flight from Amsterdam without a hitch and arrived in Birmingham on time. We waited for our luggage and 3 of the bags arrived ok but there was no sign of the fourth. Apparently they left it in Amsterdam by mistake.

We had to go and fill in forms about this piece of luggage before we could go and finish our journey home. Lizzie was waiting in the arrivals lounge for us and we then drove home.

Next day the missing suitcase was delivered to our door. I cannot complain about the service as they were very prompt. And with the amount of luggage each airport deals with, I guess it is no surprise that a few bits and pieces get left behind!

Friday 18th April 2008

2008-04-24T10:01:00.004+01:00

After breakfast we had to pack our cases! I hate packing to go home. Even though we arrived with 2 we are going home with 4! When we were with Katie we collected one of the suitcases she took with her last August and put her skiing outfit, her ball gowns, scarfs etc., in it so that we could take them home for her and we also collected the suitcase that Lizzie had left there. We have filled that with new clothes for Frank and me!

After leaving our bags at the hotel we went back into NYC to do the uptown tour. The guy taking the tour was called Tony, he was 75 and came from The Bronx. He was so interesting. He told us loads about Harlem and The Bronx and what it was like when he was growing up there. We saw where John Lennon was shot and where Bill Clinton has his office! We were unable to travel the proper uptown route as roads were closed due to the Pope's visit. This meant we didn't get to go right around Central Park. We just drove up one side of it!

After the tour we had lunch then headed back to the hotel to get our luggage and then finally back to the airport. Our flight was scheduled for 8.30pm but it finally took off at 9.30pm. The flight was pretty uneventful - we only landed in Amsterdam about 10 minutes late and then we had a 2 hour wait for our flight to Birmingham.

Thursday 17th April 2008

2008-04-18T05:39:00.005+01:00

We bought a ticket to see around NYC on an open top bus today. This included entrance into the Empire State Building so we did this first, missing all the queues because we already had tickets!!

The view from the 86th floor was good but it was a little hazy so we were not able to see as much as you would do on a clear day!

We then toured around Downtown NYC on the bus and got off to have lunch (at around 3pm!!!) at Katz's Deli - the place where Harry met Sally! We wandered through Greenwich Village and boarded the bus again to see more of the city. We got off in Times Square and joined the night bus which took us to Brooklyn over the Manhattan Bridge. The daytime tours were very interesting and we hope to do Uptown tomorrow before catching our plane. The night time tour guide was not so interesting!

Wednesday 16th April

2008-04-18T05:34:00.002+01:00

Today we bought tickets to see a show on Broadway. We got half price tickets for a musical comedy whodunnit called Curtains. The lead man was David Hyde Pierce from Frazier. He was excellent as was the rest of the cast. The whole show was very entertaining and we had a thoroughly good afternoon.

After the show we went to World of Disney, then into Trump tower for a coffee at Starbucks. We also went into Borders for a while and then met up with an ex student of mine - Mike Chung - for dinner. He has been working on Wall Street for 8 years now and it is 10 years since he left college. We had a really good evening and a fantastic Chinese meal at a restaurant called Tao. It was really good to see him again.

Tuesday 15th April 2008

2008-04-16T04:28:00.008+01:00

We took the car back to the rental place and then caught the airbus to Newark Airport. From there we got the NJ Transit for one stop ($7.75 each!!!!) and then finally got onto the PATH train to the World Trade Centre. We were on this train for about 20 minutes and it only cost $1.75 each!!

We walked along the banks of the Hudson River as far as where you get the boat to Liberty and Ellis Island. We queued for over an hour before catching the ferry! We had to have our bags scanned and the scanner picked up a letter opener (like a knife) in an envelope that I had ready for posting. Eventually they let us through after someone behind us had something in their bag that concerned them.

We decided not to get off at Liberty Island as we only had 2 hours till Ellis Island closed.

We took the guided tour around the Immigration Station and learnt that until 6 years ago New York State and New Jersey State were fighting over who it belonged to. As the original Ellis Island belonged to NY they now own the actual building but NJ own the surrounding land. NY are now arguing about this as the dirt used to extend the island came from NY subways so they claim it is theirs!
The chandelier on the left is an original from the building (1892) and is by Tiffany. When they refurbished it in the 1980s they only had to replace 17 of the ceiling tiles and none of the chandeliers. This is from the registry room.

Returning on the ferry gave us some wonderful views of NYC!

After eating in a restaurant called SouthWest NY we headed home to our hotel.

Monday 14th April 2008

2008-04-16T04:05:00.004+01:00

We left Scranton, PA and headed towards New York to visit Uncle Larry and Auntie Kay.

We stopped off to buy some coffee to take home from Walmart and also to have a quick lunch. We arrived at Uncle Larry's at 3pm and they made us very welcome. We were given a wonderful meal of barbecued steak, mashed potatoes and green beens and lots of wine!

We chatted for quite a while and had a lovely time. We took some photos before heading off to our hotel for the rest of the holiday.

We left there at about 7.30 and according to the sat nav it was 1 hour 15 minutes to get to the hotel. We had petrol to last 20 miles more than our journey! After taking the wrong turn several times we decided to fill up with fuel and it was a good job we did. It took us 2 hours to finally get to the hotel and with all the u turns and quick changes of direction, by the time I got to the hotel I felt quite sick!

Sunday 13th April 2008

2008-04-14T01:57:00.004+01:00

We left our hotel after breakfast and started our journey towards New York City. We planned on staying at Scranton in Pennsylvania for the night. This would leave us about 2 hours drive tomorrow to get to Frank's aunt and uncle, just north of NYC.

We stopped at a little town called Binghamton and looked around the Roberson Museum. This had a wide range of displays - from planes and a model railway to paintings of birds and local scenes. The museum also included a planitarium where we heard about other planets and the stars that we can see throughout the night in April. The museum was attached to the Roberson Mansion House which you were also able to walk through - some of the rooms were displaying furniture as would have been in the house originally and some were museum exhibits of more paintings.

We then drove the rest of the way to our hotel, crossing into Pennsylvania on the journey. Here is a photo of Frank NOT smiling (just to be silly!)

Tomorrow we will cross back into New York and then go and visit his uncle.

Saturday 12th April 2008

2008-04-14T00:52:00.011+01:00

We arrived at Niagara Falls at midday! The first thing you see is the American Rapids and you can hear the roar of the water as you approach. We walked to the visitors centre and onto the observation platform to view the American Falls before taking the trolley ride to Goat Island to get a closer view of both the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls. Left is Frank by the American Rapids, Right are the American Falls.

We took the lift (elevator!) down to see the falls from below. There is a pedestrian walkway that they build during April, ready for when the season begins in May, but as yet the construction has not been started due to the thickness of the snow. They are spraying it with warm water to try to melt it! And sadly the boat 'Maid of the Mist' doesn't start running until May either.

We then went to see the Horseshoe falls. This too was closed due to the thick snow - normally you can get quite close to the falls but it is fenced off now for safety reasons. It is good to see that normally you could get quite close - this would not be allowed in England now due to the ridiculous laws regarding Health and Safely. They would have to build an eight foot fence or something silly!

By the time we had seen most of what was open it was dinner time and for the first time we ate in Hard Rock Cafe. The prices we find prohibitive in UK but here they are dollars for pounds. We were very impressed with the meal and the surroundings. It was news to us to find that it originated in Britain!

After our meal we decided to take a walk into Canada. There is a footbridge across from USA to Canada and Frank took a photo of me at the border marker on the bridge! (see pic on right!) At the Canadian border we got our passports checked and stamped and we went to see the Falls from the Canadian side. They are much more impressive to look at from Canada as you can see all 3 of the falls at the same time. The gardens are well kept there too but glancing up the street away from the Falls, it looked like you were in Blackpool! We went to a souvenir shop before making our way back into USA. Crossing back into the US cost us 50c each and again we needed our passports checked.

By now it was getting dark and we went to look at the American Rapids when they are lit. We also took a walk onto Goat Island before going to find our hotel.

Friday 11th April 2008

2008-04-12T05:22:00.002+01:00

Not much to say about today really!

We woke up to a lovely sunny day (typical!) and thought about going into Chicago again for a couple of hours. We decided against this though, as we would rather wait till we can get back here sometime for a longer visit.

Instead we went shopping! We went to Archivers and Jo-Anns - both scrapbooking shops for those who don't know! I had a voucher Sue had sent me but even so, I was very restrained and didn't spend much at all. We also found a shoe shop that had some shoes I liked.

We started driving towards our next stop - a place called Sandusky in Ohio. We stopped for lunch in Michigan City and visited the outlet shopping centre and found some jeans for Frank. I think we are done shopping now!

The rest of the journey was a mixture of sunshine and torrential rain. We finally got to our hotel around 8pm and for the first time this trip, tried out the pool.

Thursday 10th April 2008

2008-04-12T04:50:00.008+01:00

Today we went into Chicago. Unfortunately it poured with rain all day but we saw enough of the city to know that we want to come back in the future and explore it more.

At Sue's suggestion we took the trolley ride around the city. It enables you to get on and off when you want and the driver gives a detailed commentary about the city as you travel along. The architecture is fantastic - a real mixture of styles - and there are many sculptures around the city. Sadly, because of the weather it was difficult to take many photographs! Here are two of the many sculptures however.

Our first stop was the theatre district. We saw the Chicago Theatre - they used the frontage of this in the film.

We went and booked a show for the evening. We decided on the Drowsy Chaperone. This is on at the West End starring Elaine Paige and it would be interesting to see how it transfers to London.

Back on the bus - we waited around 20 minutes for the bus and it was by now raining even harder. We stopped on the bus as it took us around the museum area and got off for a look at Navy Pier. As it was still raining heavily we just looked inside at the tourist type shops rather than look at the ships and boats on the lake.

Our next trip on the bus took us over the river that flows the wrong way!

We drove along the Magnificent Mile which is where all the expensive shops are and got off at the water tower. Here is the worlds first vertical shopping mall. Again - expensive shops!

We also looked in the Hershey's shop and walked past Ghiradelli's! Our final trip on the bus took us to the restaurant that we planned to eat at that evening. This is thanks to our daughters who found it when they were there in January. It is called Brazzazz and is a Brazillian steakhouse. We ate at a different Brazillian steakhouse in Orlando a couple of years ago and if you like meat then this is the place for you!

After our meal we got wet again walking to the theatre. The show was very good and very funny. Well worth seeing!

Wednesday 9th April 2008

2008-04-10T05:10:00.009+01:00

We checked out of our hotel and picked up Katie at 8.30am. This was going to be our last chance for breakfast at IHOP! Katie had a regular breakfast with ham, eggs and pancakes, Frank had sirloin tipps and onions with pancakes and eggs and I had T bone steak, hash browns, eggs and pancakes. We then returned to the university and Katie gave us a tour of the campus. We saw the Chemistry department, the Maths dept., the Bell Tower and the Engineering dept., with the statue of Neil Armstrong outside. We all had our photo taken with him - first of all standing in front of him and then Katie climbed up to sit next to him!

We then walked up to the Purdue Football Stadium. It was closed as the season has finished so we went to take a look in the shop - the nickname used is the Boilermakers and there is a huge statue just outside the stadium - Purdue Pete is their mascot!

We went back to the union and had a coffee at Starbucks and then took Katie back to her apartment (flat!). We left her there in time to go to her class! It will be mid July before we see her again.

We visited Walmart and Hobby Lobby in Lafayette before setting off for Chicago. I sent Sue Benner a text message on the way there and she called me when we got to our hotel room. We arranged to meet in a lovely restaurant called White Fence Farm - it serves farmhouse style fried chicken and came with sides of bean salad, coleslaw, cottage cheese, pickled beetroot and corn fritters. We had a delicious meal and it was really good to meet Sue. She told us a lot about Chicago and made suggestions of what we should do tomorrow!

Left photo: Bren and Sue; Right photo: Sue, Bren and Frank

One thing that Frank got excited about was that we had to drive on Route 66 to meet Sue!

Tuesday 8th April 2008

2008-04-09T05:00:00.002+01:00

Breakfast and then we started our journey back towards Purdue. One stop on the way for a drink and a break and then we headed into Lafayette for a very unhealthy snack of a Krispy Kreme donut for lunch!

We parked near to the hotel and dropped off our luggage. Katie then took us to the bank to cash some travellers cheques and she called in to get a smoothie from one of the uni cafes. We took a look in the university bookshop which sells lots of Purdue stuff and then I went back to the hotel to do some washing, while Frank took Katie back to her 'apartment'!. I had just put the stuff in the machine when the electricity went off. It was off for about an hour so when Frank and Katie returned to collect me (we were eating in one of the Uni food halls and meeting her friends at 6.30), the stuff was still in the dryer.

We met her friends in the food court and Katie showed us all the stuff that we could have. Frank chose chicken and I chose a stirfry. It was a very nice meal but I can understand how they get fed up with it after several weeks.

We returned to the hotel, took the washing out of the dryer, booked a hotel for Chicago and then collected Katie again and we went to an Irish pub - the Nine Irish Brothers. Katie and I both had Strongbow Cider (English!) and Frank had Murphys (Irish). It was a very pleasant evening and the bar was lovely. There was Irish dancing when we arrived and the atmosphere was good!

Monday 7th April 2008

2008-04-08T02:58:00.007+01:00

Today we wanted to visit Frank's aunt and uncle! We called them again before we left the hotel but sadly there was still no answer! We decided to drive across to where they lived just in case we could find them in as our hotel was only a few miles from where they live. We pulled up outside the house and Frank tried knocking but there was no answer. Katie went to see if they were on the deck in the back but they weren't! We knew we had the right house though, as there was a picture of a shamrock in the window!

We were about to pull away when a car came around the corner, and I recognised Johnny from photos I have seen of him. We waited till they had put the car away and knocked again. As you can imagine, Nuala was shocked to see her nephew from England! They were so welcoming! They had been on vacation and had just arrived back from a week in Houston, Texas. We were given tea and cake and it was really lovely to finally get to meet them. Frank has seen them before but neither Katie nor I had ever met them before.

Nuala is so like her sister!

We left Detroit and our overnight stop was to be Kalamazoo. We stopped off at the Kalamazoo Nature park and took a walk in the woods there, down to the Kalamazoo river. As it is just the very beginning of spring most things were still showing no signs of life! It will be very pretty there in a few months time. They cater for lots of birds and wildlife of all sorts there.

Sunday 6th April 2008

2008-04-06T23:24:00.005+01:00

We breakfasted in the hotel and left Findlay at around 9.30am. We stopped at the tourist centre when we entered Michigan and looked at the information about the state, then continued on our way to Detroit. We arrived at the Henry Ford museum at around midday.

It is another place where you could spend days looking around. Greenfield Village is still closed for the winter but the museum kept us busy until closing time. We looked at the various types of transport on display there - planes, cars, bicycles, trains .... , and various other exhibitions. Some of the presidential vehicles are there - The car Reagan was in when there was an attempt made on his life (which is the same vehicle that Gerald Ford was in when someone tried to assassinate him!), the car Kennedy was in when he was killed and other vehicles used by presidents.

There are some bicycles which include what we call Penny Farthings in England. It was mentioned that they were made in Britain but no mention of their name! I don't suppose US folk would understand why they are called that - These bicycles are the ones with a very big front wheel and a tiny back wheel. And in Old English currency, the farthing was a very tiny coin whereas the penny was a large coin.

Another part of the museum is dedicated to Liberty and Justice for all and includes information about Independence, Freedom and Union, Votes for Women and the Civil Rights Movement. The exhibits include the chair that Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot and the bus that Rosa Parks was riding in in 1955.

The part of the museum dedicated to America in the 20th Century includes the Dymaxion House We were given a guided tour of this circular house and shown just how forward thinking they were back in 1946. The house had a built in kitchen with a fridge built into the cupboard drawers , a freezer, dishwasher and laundry area and the bathroom was self cleaning.

After checking in to our hotel we went for dinner at a little Greek restaurant called 'Little Daddy's Parthenon'. It was a very pleasant meal with American sized portions of course!

We called Frank's aunt and uncle but had to leave a message on their answer phone as there was no-one home. We will try again in the morning and if they are still not home, then we will head back towards Purdue!

Saturday 5th April 2008

2008-04-06T03:09:00.006+01:00

We picked up Katie at 8.30am, went to IHOP for breakfast and then headed towards Ohio. We stopped briefly on the way for coffee, and then for lunch and finally arrived at Wapakoneta (Neil Armstrong's birthplace) at around 2.30pm.

We spent a couple of hours looking at the exhibits there and learning a bit more about the trips to the moon. It seems that if you want to be an astronaut you stand a much better chance if you have been born in Ohio! More astronauts seem to have come from Ohio than any other state.

We left the museum at 5pm and travelled for about an hour to Findlay and to our hotel. This evening we ate at 'Olive Garden' which is an Italian restaurant recommended to us by Katie. It is good having her with us as she knows what is good and what should be avoided. Tomorrow we will be in Detroit, all being well!

Friday 4th April 2008

2008-04-05T12:22:00.003+01:00

We left the Universtity Inn at Kentucky University, which was VERY nice and started heading north. The Interstates all look the same and I can't remember what number it was, but it took us past the Edinburgh outlet mall so we called in for a look around. And there was a Van Heusen store! Every trip to US we find one of these and stock up on stuff for the years until our next trip over. And that is what we did again! Trousers, shirts, teeshirts, jacket, ties ...... Plenty of stuff for us both.

We got to Katie at about 5.30pm. It was easy to find her flat as Lizzie had told us that Katie's friend Jen, who lives next door to Katie, had a Welsh flag in the window. When we saw a window with a Welsh flag and a Canadian flag, we knew that was Mira and Jen's flat. It was good to see Katie again after so many months and we met Mira, Jen, Ashley, Danielle and some of her other friends, albeit briefly.

We went and booked into the Purdue University Hotel and the took Katie to the Outback Steakhouse for dinner. Tomorrow we are heading into Ohio so we are picking her up at 8.30 and then going for breakfast!

Thursday 3rd April 2008

2008-04-04T02:36:00.007+01:00

We stayed in the Holiday Inn last night, in Johnson City! We were given a nice non-smoking room except it smelt horribly of cigarette smoke! The lady on reception moved us to another room, which was even better, and didn't smell! And she gave us a complimentary breakfast each. However, the extractor fan in the bathroom didn't switch off so it kept me awake most of the night so I was not a happy bunny this morning!

We had our free breakfast (very nice thank you) and then drove to Davy Crockett's birthplace. The State park that it is in is fantastic! A wonderful place for families with young children to have lots of fun. We were just leaving and it started to pour with rain. And I mean pour! We set off towards Kentucky on our 4 hour journey. We stopped for coffee at Wendy's and then about an hour and a half from our destination, we stopped for a meal and tried Cracker Barrel! Very nice it was too!

We arrived at the University Inn Motel in Lexington at around 6pm. It is next to the University of Kentucky and what a hotel! It is really lovely and very reasonably priced. We then went to Walmart to find some fruit to eat as that seems rather lacking in our travels. Sadly no fruit or vegetables in Walmart but some very nice jeans and teeshirts which I had to buy! And Frank bought some too. We then went to Krogers to get the fruit we wanted and are now going to relax and eat it, have some coffee and watch a bit of TV before hitting the sack. Last leg on our journey to see Katie tomorrow! It will seem strange to be with her again after about 8 months without her!

Wednesday 2nd April 2008

2008-04-03T02:23:00.009+01:00

We left our hotel after a lovely breakfast of pancakes, eggs and sausage patties. We drove to the Fallingwater Cascades and walked down through the forest to see the waterfalls. It was not quite so easy walking back up but it was well worth the trip.

Starting our journey to our next stop took us through a little town called Buchanan. This was so pretty we stopped here and had a wander down the high street. We stopped at a soda fountain and treated ourselves! Frank had a coke float and I had a caramel sundae.

After another couple of hours on the interstate we stopped for a coffee and cookies and filled the car with 'gas'. We got to Johnson City, Tennessee at around 4.30pm. We has seen a place advertised called Jonesborough which is the oldest town in TN so decided to take a look around. It was an old Frontier town and was worth seeing.

We called in at Dixie Barbecue for dinner which was fantastic. A tiny little restaurant run by one lady and the cook. Not at all a tourist trap and not part of a huge chain, so well worth trying!

Tomorrow we hope to go to Davy Crockett's birthplace before heading north for the night, somewhere in Kentucky!

Tuesday April 1st 2008

2008-04-03T02:15:00.009+01:00

Despite the date on the blog site, this post was added on Wednesday 2nd April at around 9.15pm. The computer is on UK time, which is currently 2.15am!

On Tuesday 1st April we left our hotel and headed towards Harpers Ferry - there had been an accident on the freeway so we stopped at a Starbucks for a doughnut and a coffee and watched for the traffic to start moving a little more freely. It was just before 11am when we arrived at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and what a fantastic place that is (Thank you so much JUD!).

It is such an interesting place with so much history there and so pretty too. We spent about an hour and half there (we could have spent much more but had a long way to drive) and then set off for the Blue Ridge Mountains. The weather, which had started off horrible got better as the day progressed and it was a beautiful day by the time we got to the start of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

We drove the 85 miles through the parkway to our hotel. We stopped numerous times to take photos of the views and to take little walks and got to our hotel - The Peaks of Otter - at about 6.30pm. We went to the restaurant for dinner, which like our room, overlooked the lakes and the mountains. Unfortunately the lake had been drained but that didn't really detract from the view.

USA

2008-04-01T02:47:00.006+01:00

I guess now is the time to update my blog!

We arrived in Newark on Saturday afternoon, after leaving home early in the morning, UK time. We got to Birmingham airport at around 5am and caught the plane to Amsterdam. We left Amsterdam at 9.30 am UK time and the journey was good! I watched Batman and Robin and half of Cars on the in flight entertainment. I fell asleep and didn't give myself enough time to watch it all, sadly.

We spent our first night at Hilton Newark Airport hotel - it was really nice there and dinner and breakfast were excellent too. On Sunday, after breakfast, we went and picked up our car and drove south along the New Jersey Turnpike towards Washington DC. It was a journey of about 240 miles and would have taken a little over 4 hours except we stopped on the way for a coffee and a cake! We drove past Baltimore (good morning Baltimore!) and then on to where we were staying just outside DC. After checking in, we caught the metro into DC and spent the rest of the afternoon looking at the sights - The White House, Lincoln's memorial etc.

Monday 31st April, we went to IHOP for breakfast and then went back into DC to the Smithsonian museum - we looked around the Air and Space museum which was fantastic. You could spend days in that museum alone. We went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner and then wandered around the mall near the metro station. Then it was back to our hotel to pack ready for tomorrow - we will be off to Harper's Ferry!

So long!

2008-03-06T21:05:00.002Z

I cannot believe it is so long since I posted on here!

Today Lizzie has gone to London to get her Visa for her summer job in America. Kat went with her and after spending the rest of the day wandering around they are going to go and see Avenue Q. Lizzie has wanted to see this for ages, but it just doesn't appeal to me at all. People walking around the stage carrying Sesame Street type puppets doesn't seem very entertaining but I am sure she will tell me I am wrong when she gets home.

Only 3 weeks left until Frank and I fly off to the States. We have our car booked and our first night in New York and now we just need to plan the other 19 days! I am so looking forward to it!

Films

2008-02-07T21:48:00.000Z

Frank and I went to see 'Sweeney Todd' a couple of weeks ago at the recommendation of Katie and Lizzie who had seen it in Chicago, before it even opened over here. That is one good film. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter work so well together and it was interesting to see people such as Alan Rickman singing. I must say that I have enjoyed all the Johnny Depp films I have seen and he does a very good job of being English. I enjoyed 'Hell' too!

Yesterday Lizzie and I went to see 'Over Her Dead Body' and I haven't laughed so much in ages. What a brilliant film. Eva Longoria Parker is really funny in the role. Apparently she was originally auditioned for the role of Ashley but she is much better suited as Kate. So funny!

New Year

2008-01-11T18:07:00.000Z

So much time seems to have passed since my last post! I don't seem to have any inclination to write on here and I don't really have anything much of interest to say!

Frank, Lizzie and I went to Wales for Christmas - we hired a little cottage and spent most of the week playing board games together. It is amazing how much fun you can have when there is no computer distracting us all. Lizzie then flew out to New York to meet up with Katie and her friends. They celebrated New Year's Eve in Times Square and so Katie got to turn 21 in a fabulous location. Katie and Lizzie went to see Rent on Broadway and both enjoyed it. Lizzie is now half way through her holiday in America!

Our New Year was spent quietly here at home. We had one guest and we had a lot of laughs playing on the Wii. It was good to catch up with a friend from the past and has spurred me into contacting lots of people that we have lost touch with over the years.

Last Saturday I went to Birmingham to meet up with some old school friends as one of them lives in Israel and only gets across once a year or so. It was good to catch up with them all but was weird to find that out of 7 of us, I was the only one still married!

College is now well under way and we have lots of new students. Mainly Vietnamese it would seem but as usual, they are all lovely. Only 5 more weeks till half term and only 13 more teaching weeks until the AS exams start! How scary is that?

All work and no play!

2007-11-20T00:16:00.000Z

This weekend I decided to try to break the back of reports and do what UCAS references I could. ALL DAY Saturday and most of Sunday was spent doing just that. I managed to write 5 references and complete 2 sets of reports. How come that is all I managed to do?

Monday and Tuesday are the final groups tests so after I have marked them, I can complete their reports. I am determined to finish them before the weekend so that I don't have to spend another whole weekend working on them. The references of course are another matter. We have about 25 references still to write and they will be done before we break up for Christmas come what may. At least we have more people writing them this year which takes some of the pressure of Sheila and me!

Thursday is again my scrapbooking evening. I still have to find time to finish the challenge but I WILL do it!

And there are only 3 weeks work left until we break up for Christmas! How good is that.

Scrapbooking crop

2007-11-10T10:17:00.000Z

Thurdsay was another evening crop at Coleman's warehouse. I tried to put the extra pages in the scrapbook I am using for our Croatian holiday but the extender posts don't fit the posts in the book. This is really annoying as they were sold specifically for that album. That wasted quite a while as I then had to put it all back the way it was before I could start any scrapbooking.

I took the Chinese Whispers page home this week so now I have to use this as inspiration for a page of my own (not copy it, just let it inspire me). This is the page on the left! I will take my page into the next crop in two weeks time and this will then be taken home by someone for them to use as inspiration.

As I am busy with UCAS forms, references, tests and reports at the moment I cannot imagine me having much time to do any scrapbooking over the next two weeks, except this Chinese Whispers page! Only 4 more weeks until my Christmas holiday begins!

Murder

2007-10-22T20:40:00.000+01:00

We were invited to a murder weekend! We have been to 4 before, all run by the same people - Padwick and Ball - and they are such good fun. 3 times we have been sleuths and this is the second time we have been involved in the storyline.

We were sent a brief description of what we were going to do on Friday evening in the post a week or so before hand so we know a little of what was going to happen. We travelled down to Guildford on Friday afternoon as we had to meet Peter and Christine (Padwick and Ball) at 6.30 so we could meet the other 6 participants.

The meal started at 7.30 and after most people had finished their meal someone died. Shortly after this a second person died and then everyone met in a conference room to discuss possible suspects and clues. On Friday evening, neither Frank nor I were suspects. After a little more discussion everyone moved into the bar to continue questioning suspects. I chatted to another Maths teacher called Lawrence who picked up on something I said, which he connected with something mentioned by someone else that evening.

Saturday morning we all had breakfast and met again to discuss suspects. This time I was added to the suspect list! Christine then gave a very interesting talk about hanging and various murderers who had been hanged - Ruth Ellis who was the last female to be hanged (1955), Timothy Evans and John Christie - both from the famous 10 Rillington Place and Derek Bentley. A fascinating talk, it has to be said.

This is a picture of Christine!

We were then free to do what we wanted for Saturday afternoon so went to Wisley Gardens. It is so beautiful. There is a fabulous glasshouse which is divided into different areas - Tropical, Desert etc. We wandered around the various different gardens, looked at the fruit festival that was there that weekend and tasted some apples. Here are some of the pictures from the glasshouse - orchids and cacti!

In the evening we met again for our evening meal at 7.30 pm and after dinner we moved once again to the conference room. Christine and Peter entertain the guests with some jokes, some music and songs before the final interrogation of suspects. A third murder had taken place during the coffee break in the morning and just before the show started there was a fourth! (Klara on the left was victim number 4).

After the show there was another discussion about who should be suspects and the final four surviving suspects were questioned by the guests. At the end of this round of questioning Frank died and so became the fifth victim.

And so to bed for our last night. Breakfast on Sunday morning was followed by Peter's talk about 'The smallest room'. As we expected this was very interesting and very funny! While this is taking place, Christine is reading all the solutions that were handed in that morning and deciding on who to give prizes to.

The final part of the weekend is the explanation of the plot and the murderers are revealed to those who have been totally baffled. The final three suspects had to stand out at the front of the room and help Peter explain what had happened. Frank had, in fact, murdered 4 of the victims and Klara had managed to murder him using poison, even though she too died by his hand. John decided it was my fault that his wife had died and tried to strangle me - but then Gary shot us both as he blamed both of us for his wife, Klara dying!

Over the weekend more of the story is revealed to us, bit by bit, and we are told what information we have to impart to our guests. It is fantastic fun and we love every minute of it!

Almost a month!

2007-10-22T20:23:00.000+01:00

I really must concentrate on writing stuff on here more often! It is almost a month since I updated my blog!

Since the last entry, Frank, Lizzie and I have been to London to see Joseph which was fantastic, and Lizzie and I have also been to London to see Hairspray.

'Joseph' was brilliant and Lee was good at the role. I think he was the right choice from those that auditioned. Unfortunately one of the people we particularly wanted to see was not in it! Lizzie used to dance with Lucie Downer at Kilburn Dancing School in Wellingborough and Lucie then went off to Italia Conti in London. She has just graduated from there and is playing Dan's wife in 'Joseph'. Typically of our luck, Lucie was on holiday for 3 days in September and one of those was the day we went!

As I mentioned, Lizzie and I also went to see Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. We went to the opening night and the lead guy is played by Ben James-Ellis who was one of the 'Joseph' hopefuls. He was 4th I think in the 'Joseph' competition but they did him a favour voting him off. In Hairspray he is terrific. Much more suited to the role which includes a lot of dancing and singing. I wouldn't hesitate to see this show again as it had the whole audience totally immersed in the show. Michael Ball and Mel Smith are also starring and as you might imagine, they are also fantastic.

Scrapping Crop

2007-09-23T12:38:00.001+01:00

I went to my first all day crop last Saturday and managed to complete a couple of pages! One of them was for the kit which was provided. It was using Tim Holtz Distress Inks but it didn't quite work out for any of us! I have been able to make the inks bleed at home so I think maybe the card we were given was too absorbant, or even the inkpads could have been too dry. As I have a few of these myself in my small amount of stash (LOL) I will probably have another go at this technique sometime. The rest of it worked ok though! We had to cut around images to make them go over the border and I chose to do the same over the photo. The photograph I used was of Frank, sitting on the terrace at Hotel Sipan in Croatia.

The other layouts I did were of our trip to DLP last October.

This first layout used some paper that I was sent from US. It has ghosts on it, so I thought it was ideal for Halloween. I thought the grey was a good background for these photos and the orange pumpkin was a die cut that another lady in US sent me. One of the ladies at the crop gave me the orange ribbon/fibre which seemed to really go well with this layout.

At Coleman's Warehouse I found some other Halloween paper and also some embellishments - these are what I have used on the layouts showing the Halloween Parade.

The next crop is Thursday evening! Watch this space to see if I finish anything else!

Back at College

2007-09-23T12:36:00.001+01:00

Term has now been started for one week. It is good to be back and see all the students again, but I do miss being at home and being able to do some scrapbooking, crafting, messing around etc..

The students are, as usual, lovely, but it has been very hectic trying to get them the options they want. I am in charge of all the AS students (year 12 to the folk in UK and aged about 17/18 to those of you not in UK!). The college I work at gives them a free choice of subjects and we construct an individual timetable for each student. When they arrive at college they have already chosen what subjects they want, but often these are not exactly what they thought they were! Sometimes their English skills are just not up to what they have chosen so they want to change to a different subject (We have students from 22 different countries!). Needless to say the first couple of weeks is a bit of a nightmare, but then things settle down and it all runs smoothly.

After these AS students are settled, then I have to start on the UCAS references. The Vice Principal writes all the references for the Oxbridge entries (those wanting to apply to Oxford or Cambridge) and all the medical applicants as these have to be completed within 4 weeks of us returning. There are usually about 25 of these and then the rest are divided mainly between myself and the lady in charge of A2 students (those one year older than mine!). We usually write about 35 of them each and it takes up most of our time between now and December 7th when college closes for Christmas.

Hopefully, this will still leave me time for some fun!

Disneyland Paris

2007-09-23T12:11:00.000+01:00

We had a great time as usual! We decided to go into Paris for two evenings and eat there rather than in Disney, so that was good. The first evening we were there we ate at a Mexican restaurant near our hotel (in a small place called Torcy) and that was very pleasant. Our first meal in Paris was at Le Petit Bofinger (at Bastille) and I had exactly the same meal as I had last year on our anniversary. It was SO delicious. Calf's liver served in a raspberry sauce and Rum Baba for dessert. The dessert is huge and overflowing with rum! Lizzie and Frank both had snails for starters and then their main course was Duck served in a peach sauce. The following evening we went to a restaurant that specialised in mussels. This was also at Bastille! As I am allergic to fish I went for steak but Frank and Lizzie tucked into a bucket of Moules each. French food is wonderful!

At Disney we were able to get into the park early with our Annual Pass, so were able to ride all the Fantasyland rides before the park opened to the public. It was really lovely with hardly any people there. Needless to say at 10am when it opened properly it got much busier. We still didn't have to queue for very long. We have been so often now, we have it off to a fine art. The only time we did queue was in the Disney Studios, for the new ride Crush's Coaster. There is no fast pass so we had no choice but to join the queue if we wanted to go on it! 90 minutes we queued! It was a good ride and I would go on it again, but not until the queue has got to a reasonable length.

There is a small show based on High School Musical at the Studios Park and Lizzie managed to tape most of it on her camera. We knew there was a girl from Northampton in this show and since getting home we have discovered that it was a girl who used to dance with Katie and Lizzie. She went to Kilburn School of Dancing in Wellingborough. Apparently, before joining this show she has been several of the characters at DLP!

We had to come home on my birthday which was a shame, but it was an enjoyable trip.

Longer time no blog!

2007-08-29T22:47:00.000+01:00

It is ages since I wrote anything on here!

Since my last entry, Lizzie and I have booked tickets to see the first night of Hairspray in London, and we have also got tickets for the three of us (Frank, Lizzie and me) to see a play at the Derngate and Royal in Northampton in about 10 days time. It apparently takes place in the whole theatre. I believe the audience moves around - the Derngate, the Royal and the bar! Should be interesting!

Katie has finally got her computer and is now able to update her blog on Life in Purdue, so if anyone reading this wants to read what she is up to, the follow the link on the right!

We (F, L and me) are off to Paris tomorrow and will spend some of Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Disneyland and then we will return home on Monday. Hopefully there will be an update on that when we get home!

Long time no blog!

2007-08-17T00:03:00.000+01:00

I cannot believe it is almost two weeks since I wrote on here! Where does the time go?

A lot has happened since my last entry. Katie, Lizzie and I went to see Hairspray, which was a very funny film. We want to go and see the stage version which has Ben from the Joseph show on BBC playing the lead role and Michael Ball playing the mother!

Katie flew out to Purdue on Monday 13th August and arrived safely at the university on Tuesday. We are having great problems buying her the laptop she needs as there is a problem with the Apple website not accepting UK credit cards, but this is a long story which I will not go into!

Lizzie got her A level results today and she is thrilled with them. She had been told she would fail her Geography but she got a D and that included a B in one of the papers! Her other A levels were both grade C - one was Drama and the other was Philosophy and Ethics. Her AS Music was a grade D too (another long story as the Music teacher was new to A level teaching and didn't prepare them properly for the written paper!). She is really pleased with all her results as she now has 3 A levels grades C, C and D and 3 AS levels, also grades C, C and D. She will now start applying to universities for next September to study Performing Arts. She is especially pleased with her performance grade in her Drama exam as she was given 83 marks out of a possible 90.

Tonight I went to a scrapbooking crop for the second time. Last time I managed to stick 3 photos on a sheet of paper in 3 hours and that was all. At least tonight I managed to complete one page which was an achievement!

I have also completed the second page of my journal (I know - I am VERY slow) - Things I love. Now to decide which prompt to follow next!

Name page

2007-08-05T19:56:00.001+01:00

I finished my name page in the sketchbook today! I decided I didn't want to do much too it as the lettering took up quite a lot of the page.

Now to think about the next page!

Anniversary

2007-08-05T19:49:00.001+01:00

Yesterday was our 23rd Wedding Anniversary. Frank bought me some wonderful earring and I bought him some binoculars. Katie and Lizzie have something coming by mail but it has been held up with the strikes - so we get a second day of pressies so that will be good!

We went to London in the afternoon as we had tickets to see Lord of the Rings and before the show we ate in Carluccio's restaurant at Canary Wharf. Really lovely Italian food!

If anyone gets the chance to see Lord of the Rings on stage in London, it is brilliant. It has had mixed reviews but we thought it was excellent. Get there early because there is pre-show entertainment by all the hobbits and at several points in the show the cast intermingle with the audience. Naturally most of this happens in the stalls, but a couple of the cast did go up into the circle.

The way the stage moves is very clever with different levels rising and falling and rotating. The guy who plays Golum is also really good. A really good evening's entertainment.

Name Page

2007-08-03T23:06:00.001+01:00

I only had 4 letters to find adjectives for! I thought it would be easy! In the end I decided on Broadminded, Right!, Encouraging and Nosy.

So far all I have done is add the words to the page. I now need to think of something else to add to the rather plain page!

Tomorrow is our 23rd Anniversary and all four of us are going to London to see the stage show 'Lord of the Rings'. I have heard mixed reviews but I am expecting it to be good. I will get back to the sketchbook Monday evening, hopefully, as I have to go back into work on Monday!

Stuff

2007-08-03T12:22:00.000+01:00

Last night I went to my first ever Scrapbook crop. It was a fun evening and in 3 hours I managed to stick 3 photographs to a sheet of paper. That was it! Nothing fancy, not even matted because I thought they looked better straight onto the paper. I looked around the craft warehouse where the crop was held (20% off everything while you are there) but couldn't find any letters that would go well on the page and nothing else that took my fancy either. Back to the computer I guess for a title and then try to find some suitable embellishments to decorate what is a very plain page. My excuse is that I had an awful headache and when I did get home I went straight to bed. These crops are held every two weeks and I will definitely go again but I know to go better prepared with exactly what I want to do, rather than just some odd photos and a few bits of paper. I have also signed up for an all day crop at the same place on 15th September, which will be just before the new term starts at college. I know I have to have lots of stuff prepared to do that day!

This morning I got a couple of magazines that had been sent me by the Gay Switchboard in Colchester. I had contacted them to see how an old friend of mine was - I had lost touch with him a couple of years ago and sadly I discovered he had died in December. The magazines contained photos of him and an obituary written by one of his many friends. Such a shame!

Sketchbook Journal

2007-08-01T14:04:00.000+01:00

Trish has suggested a sketchbook challenge!

After buying a sketchbook we were to colour one side of the first five pages in different colours. I decided to use different techniques for the colours.

The first is Twinkling H2Os in two shades of light blue.
The second is DTP using Pearlescent Crimson Brilliance inkpad.

The third is brayered using a rainbow Big and Juicy pad in Waterfall colour (blues and greens).
The fourth is simply two shades of brown acrylic paint.

The fifth is DTP using Tangerine Chalk inkpad.

Now we wait to find out what we need to do next!

Abstract ATCs

2007-07-30T06:31:00.000+01:00

Frank left for Wales again early this morning and for once it was sunny outside. Unfortunately the sun was streaming through my window to such an extent that I couldn't get back to sleep again. I decided to get up and get a cup of tea instead of just lying there!

Here is my abstract ATC for the swap on CCSwaps. The colours don't seem to have come out well on the scan but it gives a general idea of what it looks like. Hopefully I will get these and the ABR ATCs finished today and then I need to work on some backgrounds for Pea's swap! Then it will be time for some more scrapbooking I think!

Hanging ATCs

2007-07-25T10:37:00.000+01:00

I finished Harry Potter on Monday evening! What a fabulous book. It tied up some loose ends and had some nice twists to it.

Anyway, back to some stamping! I decided to have a go at Adrienne's Hanging ATC swap. It is ages since I had used the alcohol inks that I have here so thought I would start with those as a background.

I used the brown collection of Caramel, Ginger and Latte with just a little of the gold added. I tried to keep a lot of the white background showing as I wanted to overstamp with a brown image.I am not very good at getting a good image with photo stamps but decided to give it a try and I used three of the images from the Brick Artishapes sheet of Chapel Road Artstamps. The ink was sepia and I finally got three fairly good images that I could use.

I then added some brown raffia which I attached using eyelets and my new Crop-A-Dile, and then a fringe and something to hang them by.

Now to get back to the Anything but Rubber swap.

Harry Potter

2007-07-23T12:27:00.000+01:00

I cannot imagine getting much of anything done today! I have even asked Katie to cook me dinner tonight! I have read just over 400 pages and have 200 left to go. I decided to take a bit of a break to check emails but after lunch I will read some more!

Anything but Rubber ATC

2007-07-21T18:57:00.000+01:00

I started this last night while I was waiting for my husband to get back from Wales and Katie to get back from the Harry Potter book launch in Milton Keynes.

Frank was stuck on the motorway just outside Wales as many of the roads were cut off due to flooding. He was stationary from 6pm until just after midnight, when the police, who had opened up a gap in the central reservation in order to turn the cars around, got to where Frank was. I went to bed after Katie had told me about the party, which was around 1am and Frank finally got home around 3.15am.

I started the ATC and then as I was on my own, decided to finish it. One down, eight more to go! I don't think they will all be identical but as similar as I can make them.

The picture on the left is after laying down the pale blue wash for the background.

The right hand picture now has the yellow added to give the cala lily some colour.

The left hand picture here has had the green added to the leaves and to the flower and the final picture on the right has had brown accents added and the ATC has been matted onto some gold paper and then put onto cardstock.

I used watercolour paper for this so that the twinkling H2Os would give a proper watercolour effect.

Croatia

2007-07-19T11:22:00.000+01:00

We have been back from our weeks holiday in Croatia almost two weeks now! It was really quiet and relaxing with beautiful weather. We stayed on a small island (one of the Elafiti islands) called Sipan and our hotel was a converted olive oil factory.

Hotel Sipan

The population of the village we were in was 300 and that is the most populated of the villages on any of the islands. Cars are allowed on Sipan and there is a car ferry that goes from Dubrovnik to Sudarad (village on the other side of the island) each day. Lots of people use wheelbarrows to carry stuff, so if you get off the ferry with luggage and you are being met by someone from your hotel, they will meet you with a wheelbarrow!

We went into Dubrovnik one day and walked to the old town (one hour walk, up hill and then down again in hot sun at about midday - foolish or what??) but it was well worth it. We went down this little alley lined with shops and then at the bottom we entered this huge courtyard which was spectacular.

We could have spent much longer there but needed to get back to the ferry as they only run a couple of times a day!

There was no swimming pool at the hotel but the Adriatic sea was literally a few metres from the front door of the hotel and it was crystal clear, so swimming in it was not a problem.

Here are some other photos of our holiday!

These are views from our bedroom window. It is looking over the harbour and you can see how green and undeveloped the island is.

And here is a picture of my husband, Frank. He is sitting on the hotel terrace, reading a book and waiting for his beer to arrive. There was no problem with the sun as the terrace is covered with plants which offer natural shading.

And here is a picture of one of the old buildings in the village. We think it was an old chapel as there are pews and evidence of an alter there, but it may well be used as the schoolroom now.

Holiday from work

2007-07-19T00:25:00.000+01:00

I am now into my third week of the school summer holiday and Katie has just got home from her 5 week tour of Europe. Lizzie is in Turkey and flies home in 5 days time and Frank is in Wales, working for Welsh Water.

I am trying to catch up with some of the scrapbook pages that I wanted to do, to document our Anniversary last year. We went to Paris for 3 days!

This year we are going to see Lord of the Rings, the musical, in London on our anniversary. All four of us are going as it will be the last chance we get to do anything as a complete family until Christmas as Katie flies out to Purdue University in Indiana, USA on 13th August to begin her year of study abroad.

It is now half past midnight and time I retired to bed. Maybe I will have another go at this tomorrow and even post some pictures (maybe!)

First attempt

2007-05-12T00:12:00.000+01:00

So - I have finally started a blog! I am not sure how a lot of the stuff on here works but it will be interesting to find out.

I have got a couple of pictures uploaded so I guess that is a good start!