A True Brit

Good news. I spoke to an immigration lawyer today and she tells me that my background, assets, family, and general and specific wonderfulness mean that I can apply to become naturalized and there should be no problem having it come through. I can get a British passport and, equally important, I can change my name. For those of you who don't already know, I will be Anne Richards when this happy day arrives.

Earnley

I spent the weekend at Earnley Concourse. I was doing a course called Fantasy Art in Watercolour This was chosen on the basis of time - I wanted to be away this particular weekend and the word 'watercolour'. What I didn't take into account was the word 'fantasy'. I was thinking about daydreams and making stuff up. This is what it is but the emphasis was/is on faeries and dragons. Great wings and tails everywhere and sexy girls with long wispy curly hair twining around their scantily clad bodies. "Oh dear", I thought but I didn't give up. There were only two of us in the class plus the teacher. She was terrific and I learned a lot about watercolour techniques. The other student was an older man who had taken up painting when he retired ten years ago. The first task was to choose a picture from the many books that Sharon (teacher) had brought. Barry quickly found himself a dragon and this lady and got to work.




I was searching frantically for something that didn't have fire coming out of its mouth or big doe eyes and I came across THE RABBIT. I knew immediately that this was my picture.



I used Rabbit to learn about tracedown paper, masking fluid, salt technique and, most importantly, blending and blurring and outlining. It was a terrific weekend. I also bought some decent supplies. I used to assume that it was pretentious crap to go on about sable brushes. Not so. They are wonderful so I now have a set.

This is a partially finished picture by the tutor. She was using it to demonstrate various techniques.




By the way, we were told that we should always give our pictures names. Mine is called 'Redundancy'.

Rosie's Birthday Party

The Jungle Cake



Today Rosie is four and I went to her house a for birthday tea party. Her mother made and decorated the cake. The woman is amazing and this is only round one. She will have her friends for a party on Sunday and mother will be mixing, baking and decorating yet again.

Flylady

I have discovered a new 'get things done' guru. It is called Flylady and Alison told me about it. This is a follow-on in my feeble attempts to get organized and to get my life going smoothly. She, Alison, started me with 'Eat that Frog' which concentrates on defining the worst job you have on your list (I live with lists) and doing it first. I then moved on to 'Pomodoro' which is a 25 minute timer that you use when you have a long drawn out job; i.e. sorting the bookshelves or wardrobe. You set the timer and when it goes off, you can take a break for 5 or 10 minutes and then reset it and get back to work. The latest 'improve yourself' effort is called Flylady. You start off with a 28 day program of gradually getting things in order and keeping them that way. Day 1 was easy. It was called 'shine your sink'. The idea is that if you always have a clean shiny kitchen sink, you will feel good about yourself. Before I went to bed last night, I cleaned and polished my sink and I have to say that when I got up this morning, I did feel good not having to face dirty dishes. Day 2 (today) was to start the day by getting dressed. My usual routine is to sit at the computer in my nightwear drinking coffee and wasting time. Well, not today. I'm still wasting time but at least I'm showered and dressed whilst doing it. The Book Club is meeting at my house tonight so I have to be both tidy and intelligent. We are reading "Mother's Milk" by Edward St. Aubyn. I won't say here what I thought of it because I must save my opinions for the group.

My children and their spouses

This was taken at my birthday party. They are my Super 8.

Where Am I?

I seem to be checking Facebook these days. I don't write on it and I have been ignoring my blog. I am fed up with my laziness so here I am. Now, what to say? Summer is almost over. That was interesting and original. I'm cleaning my house and sorting my life and making room for the new me to express herself. I have taken up pottery. Sabina is teaching me. I will be sure to let you know how I am doing because I know you will be eagerly awaiting an update. I may even take a picture of one of my efforts.

I went to two films last week with the grandchildren - Super 8 with Adam & Chloe and Smurfs 3D with Rosie. I liked Smurfs better. Adam and I agreed that the alien in Super 8 was miscast and we thought there were weaknesses in the plot! Just so you don't think I have completely reverted to second childhood, I went to the Coffee Concert on Sunday and heard a super rendition of a Mozart clarinet quintet.

Coming down to earth

Daniel, Michelle and Olivia left today at noon. I told her that I was going to miss her and she said, "It will be nice for you Grandma Anne because the house won't be so loud!" She is right about that but it is also very empty.

The party was nine days ago. I have pictures but I haven't sorted them yet. They will follow in next blog. It was a superb party. There was a bit of rain at the start but not for long and I had hired a marquee (that's English for tent) and we were protected as needed. We also had a bouncy castle for the children and two more gazebos; one for the bar and one for conversation. A lot of people came including all my children and their spouses and nine grandchildren. I even hired a photographer so I have excellent pictures and I could be in front of the camera. As the party wore on, the weak ones went home but the stalwarts stayed to dance. I had made a music ipod from the 60's and 70's. So good. I did do some clearing up on Sat & Sun but mostly I have been on lounge duty. Daniel was fantastic at helping me prepare the garden for the onslaught and Judith (my gardener) worked non stop on the flower beds until ten minutes before the first guests arrived. Darcy and Joe and Craig put up the gazebos. The caterer, bar tenders and wait staff turned up at 4 and started making the most wonderful hors d'oeuvres and preparing the glasses and the drinks. This was not a budget party but it was worth every penny because I didn't have to do anything except enjoy myself. I am very grateful to my family and friends for such a brilliant celebration.