Harry's Birthday Weekend

I picked Adam up on Friday afternoon and he spent the night with me. We drove down to Brighton on Saturday afternoon and went shopping for Harry's present. We had to take Harry with us so he could choose his own Thomas paraphernalia. That done, we crashed with pizza in front of the telly to watch XFactor. Next morning was party day. Adam, Harry and I went to the park to give the Mummies a chance to do party prep. We stopped on the way for some sustenance - see the boys enjoying their Baby Chinos.




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Harry's cake was baked by Mummy Ali but the decorating was the skill and handiwork of Mummy Sian.
Needless to say, Harry was inundated with all things 'Thomas'. That would be The Tank Engine for those who aren't au fait with 3 yr olds.

The Wardrobe-Lion No-Witch Maybe

I finally managed to get myself to Ikea to buy a wardrobe. It was so heavy and large that it had to be delivered even though it was in pieces. There it was, at my door on Tuesday but, because of the size and weight, it would need two people to get it upstairs and then to put it together. "On whom shall I confer this privilege?" I asked myself. As luck would have it, I had a phone call from John T that very day and I promised him lunch if he would come round to take on the heavy labour. He very kindly turned up yesterday and we got to work. I say 'we' advisedly because I did help. We were about half way through when we decided to break for lunch. Of course we had the obligatory couple of glasses of wine with the soup and cheese then got back to work. Well, he got back to work. I sat down and took pictures and giggled a lot. The job is done and it looks good (shut up, Alison you know I will never get over my infatuation with Ikea) and fits the space. I'm well pleased.

John hard at work


If you look at the mirror, you will see me sitting down taking the picture


God bless him. He did the lying on the floor bits

December is here

24 days till Christmas. I'm looking forward to it this year for the first time in five years. I will be in Eastbourne with Pat and John (Sian's family). Rachel also invited me so I am feeling pretty good. It is literally freezing outside. We have snow on the ground; not enough for a snowman but at least I can drive. I'm taking Roger for a scan this morning so driving is essential. I'm still going down to his place once a week to read to him. I enjoy this so much. He always has the London Review of Books or the New York Review of Books and; as I don't subscribe to either, it is my chance for some high class reading. We read an article by Sheila Fitzpatrick on her visits to Russia during the Cold War and I wished I had had Jane with us to say the Russian words and to do a little explaining.

Diets

I have been having a bit of trouble with my knee so I bought a book about the 7 Day Arthritis Diet. The first day is a fast and then gradually adding fruit and veg - you know, the usual rabbit food. But I thought it would be worth a try so I fasted on Friday and this meant, in addition to no food, no coffee; ditto for the 7 days. By Sat. evening I had a ferocious headache and then Leo invited me for dinner so, guess what? End of 7 day diet. Lots of coffee this morning - feel great. This morning I was surfing around the net and I stumbled upon the diet for me. See below.


Man loses weight eating sugary snacks
A nutrition expert has managed to lose nearly two stone in 10 weeks by just eating sugary snacks. How?

Apparently what he discovered during this research was that it is the calories that count not the type of food. (Do you think someone actually funded this research?) Anyway, I like his approach and I'm willing to give it a try. Today is the perfect day to start since I am having a friend and her friends around for a birthday supper for her. She is a celiac so I offered to make a gluten free birthday cake. The cake is baked and looks okay but the proof of the pudding is in the blah blah blah. Of course I have a fridge full of healthy food for the now defunct arthritis diet and I should eat that before I go out and stock up with cake, crisps, pizzas etc. I will post updates on this scientific investigation.

My first fire

I had some people round for dinner on Wednesday and one of them offered to come a bit early to light a fire for me in my big old stone fireplace. I had the chimney swept two years ago but never took the next step; i.e. firelighting. I provided the wood and he set to work. Unfortunately, the chimney failed to draw properly and we soon had a room full of smoke. I opened the doors and waved a towel around but when the rest of the people arrived, they had to sit in a cold room watching a smoking fire. James rushed across the road to the Baptist Church and borrowed a fire extinguisher just in case. The one thing that worked perfectly was the fire alarm. In spite of this excitement, it was a great evening. We moved into the smoke free back room and enjoyed dinner.

Adam

Adam came yesterday afternoon and spent the night. We usually go out for a film and a meal but he was all worn out from having been at a birthday party so we stayed home with the telly and some sausages. We are up and at it this morning although 'at it' in our case means cartoons for him and blogging for me. Apparently he had a better night last night by which I mean that he only had to leave my room once for a snoring interlude (me, not him). We took the battery out of the clock so he didn't have to listen to it ticking. When I am with him, I am reminded of what it used to be like when I had good hearing. We will get dressed pretty soon and hit Starbucks.

Down to earth after Halloween

This is no trick. It is Sian with her treat.



The boy with his best girls

More Halloween

Carving pumpkins is a hoot. Mummy Ali looking good as a witch!

Weekend in Brighton

I love Halloween especially when there is a kid involved.

Sunday morning in bed with the Mummies (Grandma behind the camera)

Bicycle photo

Very kind of you Alison to ask to see the bicycle photo. It's not perfect by any means but the background is suitably blurred and the cyclist is fairly clear. The idea is to give the effect of movement.

Photography class

I am back from a day in London doing a photography class. When I woke up this morning at 7 and realized that I had to get up, I was cursisng myself. I was wrong. It turned out to be an excellent day. I'm finding aperture and fstop very confusing but I'm a little farther ahead than I was this time yesterday and; more importantly, I have the desire to go out to practice what I think I may have learned. We went out onto the streets of London and practiced panning shots, etc. How cool is that. I won't post the pictures I took because there are 137. Most are rubbish but a few not too bad. I think one panning shot of a bicycle is okay. Anyway, a good day was had by me.

Rachel's Birthday

It was Rachel's birthday on Monday so we had a little tea party at the farm. I took a cake and there were presents and cards. The best card was from Chloe (see picture).






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Home

I have been back in Oxford ten days now and very glad to be home. The trip was excellent but it is always nice to be in one's own bed. The weather here suits me. I left LA in temp of 109F and got off the plane at Heathrow to 59F. What a relief. I went to Brighton my first weekend to see the girls and Harry. They are all wonderful. Harry loves his suitcase on wheels (see Alison's blog). I have started two evening classes; one on Critical Reading which I'm enjoying and one on Meditation which I love. Otherwise it is the usual round of family, friends and neighbours and that suits me. I had gotten away from the dinner party thing but I'm going to get back into that again. I like to cook and I like to see people. The days get shorter and the clocks go back in three weeks. It suits me. Judith and I will be putting the garden to sleep for winter. Because I have several large trees, this involves a lot of raking and composting of leaves. But then there is a break of several months and that's good too. I was going to post some pictures from Brighton but I seem to have permanently deleted them from the Big Mac. I was having trouble with it and I thought that possibly having 10,000 pictures on it might be the cause of the slowdown. Apparently not but by the time I had it sorted, I had precipitously dumped my photos. Ugh. Most of them are backed up on a hard drive so all is not lost. Adam is having a sleepover with me tonight. I'm glad to have bought the MacNugget because I have something to write on while he is playing games on the Big Mac. He and the Gee family are going to London tomorrow to get Chloe settled in for a week of work experience. She will spend Monday to Friday working at a PR firm in central London, staying with her godfather in Hampstead. I thought I felt old when my baby turned 40 in September but this is worse. She is a grandchild and not even my oldest grandchild. Oh well.

Catch Up 2

On the day before I left Burbank, I invited the Hacking/Jacoys and Darcy and Joe for Sunday lunch. Here are a few pictures.



Olivia has started dressing for Halloween already. She plans on being a witch but she is obsessed with the Wizard of Oz so I couldn't resist a Dorothy wig.





Daddy reads a bedtime story to his little girl.

Catch Up 1-Daniel's new school

I went to Daniel's school to look around and to meet a few teachers. They couldn't say enough good things about our boy. I was swelled up with pride but couldn't resist saying that it was a pleasure to be coming to see Daniel at a Middle School where he was in charge, not in trouble.



The Principal Dr. Hacking at his desk and by the anchor





A music class - about 70 kids mostly playing stringed instruments. This is one hell of a school!

Resolutions

You may remember a few months ago, Alison posted that she had 40 things to accomplish before her 40th birthday on 4th Sept. I have a big birthday coming up next year (70) so I thought I would do the same thing. Jane pointed out that finding 70 things to do would be mighty difficult so she suggested I settle for 7. That would be one for each decade. I will make a list (suggestions welcome) and post it when I get a chance.

Capitol Reef

The white cliffs of Dover have competition from the red mountains of Utah





Jane smelling a tree at Craig's behest (I guess they're still in love!)




We left on Friday afternoon for the four hour drive to C R. The closer we got, the more impressive was the scenery. I had brought my proper big camera and enjoyed picture taking. I was only sorry that I didn't have a better grasp of F stops and all that stuff. We stayed in a motel and Jane had booked two rooms, one for her and Craig and one for me and the children. I put a stop to that immediately. I couldn't inflict my snoring/sleep apnea gasping on the poor little things so I got a room of my own. Everyone was happy. The weekend was excellent; beautiful weather and scenery to die for. Sunday afternoon saw us back in SLC.

I went to see Kathryn on Monday. It was a marathon session but lots was accomplished. Jane and Catherine and I went to the nail shop for mani/pedi. My nails look better than they have in months if not years. Ryan is coming for dinner tonight.

Burbank

Here I am. Travelled all day yesterday without incident and arrived at Daniel and Michelle's at 4:30PM. I'm now travelling Economy class having lost my Travel Agent but it wasn't too bad. I had an aisle seat in the front row of the 'cattle car' which meant more leg room and no one in front of me putting their seat back in my lap. I came supplied with IPod, laptop, books and a magazine and I also watched a really bad movie (The Backup Plan). The food wasn't too dreadful and, being Economy, I was spared the task of making a menu choice. I brought my own roasted, salted pecans to enjoy with my diet coke. All in all, pretty good. I had arranged to take the Super Shuttle from the airport to Daniel's house and that also worked well. I'm going to Salt Lake City on Thursday and really looking forward to seeing Jane & Co.

Olivia is cute as a button. I will post pictures later. She talks a blue streak. It's a toss up which parent she gets that from. Probably both. She looks much older than her three years.

It is now 5:30AM. Of course I'm awake but I might snooze a bit more before I get up properly. I brought my latest toy (MacBook) with me. It's great. Now I have Big Mac at home and Mac Nugget for travel.

Brighton Pictures

Harry on the rope walk



Spent 24 hours in Brighton with Harry so Mummy Ali and Mummy Sian could go away for the weekend (Pat came on Saturday to do the second 24 hours. The girls don't think either of us could manage 48. Actually, I have to confess to feeling quite tired when I got back to Oxford. I spent the evening watching Wallander and eating a huge plate of my home grown vegetables which were delicious. I haven't got to the tomatoes yet; I may have to give them to Judith. Also, I've given up on the courgettes. I don't like them so she can have those as well. I'm hoping that when I get back from America there will be lots of carrots, onions and beetroot. I love beetroot. I don't have any lettuce but I think I will give it a go next year.

I'm off to LA on Tuesday. I'll be taking the MacNugget with me so I plan to keep blogging. I will be home at the end of September.

Rosie's Birthday Party

Pretty in Pink

Everything has to be pink - my dress, my presents, my cake, everything



My grandma gave me a ballet outfit (I'm starting lessons soon) and Mummy helps me to put on the gear



Check it out - I'm going to wash my face before my first ballet lesson!



Mummy made my birthday cake (I helped)



Blowing out the candles is the best part

Modern World

Smug driver vindicated as SatNav confirms his usual route

An Isle of Wight resident was reportedly feeling particularly smug this week after the purchase of a Satellite Navigation system confirmed to him that all the routes he normally takes are exactly the one his Global Positioning system would recommend if he didn’t already know exactly where he was going.
Matthew Gratton, became the latest to feel the 21st century emotion of ‘SatNavisfaction’ when his newly acquired Garmin Nuvi 265, with a 3.5″ touch screen and pre-loaded UK and Western Europe maps, not only directed him to his destination, the business park outside Ventnor where he works, but also chose the exact same route that he normally uses.

I'm jealous. I wish I had a SatNav. Seriously, I've been lost a few times around cities in heavy traffic and it's a nightmare. Also my silly side would enjoy driving my usual routes to check with Ms SN. Do you think I might have too much time on my hands?

Pyramids

Check it out

I have been hard at it sorting and hurling and here is the result so far. I'm going to leave this room for now and get to work on the shed/studio. My garden has that end of summer look. I mowed the meadow this week and I have been harvesting beans and courgettes. I even used a large bulbous courgette to make a chocolate cake. It was very successful and a talking point when I had people to dinner on Wednesday evening.

Whooppee

My new Macbook arrived this morning and I am writing on it. It is going to be so wonderful. It already is. Adam is here with me this evening for an overnight. He is playing games on Big Mac and I am enjoying myself on Little Mac. We went to see Dogs and Cats in 3D this afternoon and followed up with a meal at Dong Dong. Tomorrow morning we will have coffee at Starbucks with Zoe and then back to the farm for a driving lesson with Chloe. It's all go.

Brighton Pictures

I went down on Friday afternoon. We had an early night because the boy has been waking up between five and six so the Mummies were exhausted and I always like an early night. Anyway, next day was Gay Pride in Brighton so we all walked into town to see the throng. There were lots of excellent costumes. I wanted to go to the Apple Store so I left Alison and Harry heading for the parade. In retrospect, I wish I had gone with them. The Apple Store was super crowded but I did corner a salesgirl long enough to ask if there was any point in buying a Macbook from them for £999 when I could get one from Amazon for £881. I came away satisfied that it would be fine to go with Amazon and that leaves me with £119 to put toward the Applecare Plan. I have one with my big IMac and I have made good use of it. I want the Macbook for travelling and taking to the studio or to bed with me. How sad is that! Sleeping with something called Mac which isn't a burger or a Scotsman! I put in my order today so hope to have the new toy in a couple of days. My next self indulgent item will be an A3 printer.

I have been working on the home sorting, sifting and hurling process and it is going quite well. My plan is to have my whole life in perfect order by the time I go to California. Then when I come back, I will turn into a productive, move ahead kind of girl. Oh well, I can dream. I will go to Brighton on the 3rd Sept for an overnight with Harry. The 4th is Alison's birthday (the big 40) and she and Sian want to go away for the weekend to a spa. I'm going to do the Friday night and Pat (Sian's Mum) will do Saturday night. Strangely enough, they don't want to take Harry with them. By the way, for anyone who doesn't know, Sian is pregnant; baby due in February. We are all thrilled.

Weekend in Brighton

Pictures

Making biscuits with Grandma



Mowing the lawn with Mummy Sian



You think I'm a wild and crazy two year old but I'm really an intellectual