Monday, September 26, 2005
Finding Neverland - 4 Stars
I did lots of crying, it brings out the need for parental love and belonging to part of a family. How important fantasy and play is too. Kate and Johnny on top form.
Before Ellen and Dan came round, having cleaned the kitchen while tob was at waitrose. By the time he came back, I'd started on the roast potatoes, he said, can I help with anything? I said, you can do the potatoes and veg while I go out into the garden! I planted the house leaks, re-potted the olive tree, money tree and loads of other re-potting, taking rosemary cuttings, Planted some hollyhock seeds and some oriental poppy seeds from the oriental poppy in Ellen's garden.
The significance of this picture? I've spent the last few hours on the sofa ordering pictures on the boots site for Ellen and Dan and putting the pictures from the wedding onto a dedicated blog site so that mum and michelle etc can see the pictures. I've done 14 -10, and I have 9-1 to go. It's exhausting, one by one blogging them. has to be done!
South park is on now but there was a 2 hour documentary about what would happen to the American economy if a hurricane took out the oil platforms and pipe line off the coast of Texas. Basically, the worst crash since the 30's. It was really quite scary and so possible. America could be facing just that after hurricane Rita. America will continue to guzzle and waste Oil until people in their country, white middle class people start dropping like flies. Then they might just stop drinking the stuff like it was water. The documentary covered a year out from August 2005, lots of chain reactions. Quite depressing though.
Another week starts. And so to bed.
Finally yesterday I invited Ellen and Dan round for sunday dinner. Before we moved in I'd promised we would do a good sunday roast round at ours. This morning Tob went down to Waitrose and got a bit of roasting beef and among other delights, horseradish sauce, goats milk cream, normal cream, brownies, wheat free brownies, you name it, he got loads of 'nice things' I only asked him to get the first two things plus milk and bread. Thats the danger with going to Waitrose, it's all too lovely. I'm kicking myself i didn't get it from the farmers market yesterday. i decided to do the roast after we'd done town. I will get one next week and freeze it. The meal went down well, including apple crumble with cream.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
What the bleep to we know - 4 stars
Very thought provoking. It does use very similar theoretical information to Landmark with a few actual 'scientific' bits about the workings of the brain. It goes into quantum physics for non physicians like me and I understand that fundementally it says that we create our world in our heads not the other way round. Another interesting part is how when you learn to experience emotions, we become addicted to them and the chemicals released - loss, heart break, triumph, love, fear, pain, longing etc and our brains find ways to recreate the emotions to get it's fix hense explaining why we seem to repeat the same relationships that don't work. I leant it to Dad too, he found it very interesting too. I can see how through Landmark I've re-mapped parts of my brain away from lonely, unloveable, invisible christine to sexy energetic and fulfilled christine. Makes sense.
This is taken with my new camera phone, It's pretty clear, the camera is 1meg pictures. It's also 3G, I'm not bothered too much about that. The biggest thing is if the battery life is any good. Yesterday it died in less than 24 hours with only a couple of small calls, I have a week left on my 14 day trail to work out if I want to keep it. The camera is pretty good.
See, there's my bottles to deter the cats. The idea is they dont like the moving water and reflection. The sticks are rose and bramble thorns. behind the strange mini willow thing is the pea shingle that I dug up. it now has the alpines in it and it will have the house leaks too. It will mean you can still get to the meters but there is some nice green ground cover. I might put a couple of big stones for feet so they can get to the meter without stepping on plants.
I've been in the front garden again, and I'm testing my new camera phone. I planted all them hundreds of bulbs last weekend, this week I found 3 days of cat/small dog poo in my freshly dug soil. So I've put down spikey rose and bramble branches, some upside down plastic bottles half filled with water and some anti cat spray. I've also put the alpines I had growing round the back in the herb pots from Victoria Chambers out the front in the pea shingle I dug up to make way for the bulbs and Ellens donated me some house leaks so the stoney bit has lots of little hardy ground cover. I got three herb plants from the farmers market today, sage, grapefruit mint and something with little flowers I've forgotton the name of to give it some green interest. I took some of the chamomile from the Acer pot too which will spread as ground cover. Hopefully that will all keep the cat at bay. I've got some cutting and house plant loam compost too so I can take cuttings. Ellens given us some money towards a little potting shed too which is really generous of her. She was thinking of giving us their little shed but it looks great down the bottom of their garden. We moved it today to make way for their conservatory.
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Bulbs
I finished reading Girl with a Pearl Earring on Wednesday on my way back from Landmark. It would have been Tuesday but for me leaving my wallet on the sofa Monday night and facing an embarrassing scene at the ticket booth at Cabridge station. I smiled sweetly and said looks like I wont be going to London this evening, don't worry I know exactly where my wallet is - on the sofa!
Girl with a pearl earring was an amazing read, better than the film. It was a glimse into 17th Century life in Delft. Good fun.
I still haven't started any fitness classes, Tob and I are colluding badly here on this one. It must start soon. We are to start evening classes too, me basic garden design and Tob basic Dutch. He decided that if he was married to a bilingual family, he too must make an effort to learn a bit of it. I'm very impressed.
Today I spent a hard 5 hours digging up the front garden infront of the house, enlarging the bed and taking the stones and putting them in corner where I will soon plant some alpine and house leeks - they like stones and rocks. the other bit is now dug down about 12 inches with three layers, deepest daffodil bulbs, then Tulips, then crocuses. I've planted some other bulbs that I can't remember their names and sewn some cornflower seeds. Plus I've dug a bed right at the front with daffs and tulips and then some Heather on top for some winter interest.
I put the grass from on top in the compost and given my lollypop tree a good licking so it's nice and round. It should be Ok for when it goes to sleep for winter.
I even had a couple of bulbs left over for the back garden.
Tob's parents have just bought a conservatory and the little shed they have on the patio would be in the way so they asked if we would like it. We have done some measuring and it would fit sideways down under the trees at the back. that corner is too shady for anything to grow so it would be fine and all the crap (forks, rakes, pots etc) we have in the corner of the patio would go in there so we could actually use the patio next summer. I can't wait for next spring now to see if my bulbs come up OK. Very exciting!
Tomorrow my new phone arrives at work. I rang vodafone on friday cos my contract has run out and I fancy a better camera phone (for blogging etc) I was going to ask for my puk code and take my number elsewhere to get a new free phone. They asked me why I was leaving and offered me a new camera phone if I'd stay and put me on a cheaper package. It wasn't for nothing, the contract is 18 months instead of 12 but I don't have to phaf about changing stuff to a new network and I hope I have a better phone than the one I would have chosen. I was going to go for another nokia flip phone, main differences being a better camera and a built in music player. The guy has sold me a Samsung with a much better camera and it's a 3G phone so it has a much larger memory. I don't intend to go 3g but It will be interesting fiddling about with the phone. I get 14 days to see if I like it. The only thing that I'm a bit worried about is what kind of charger it needs, we have about 5 nokia chargers, I don't know what type of charger this takes, I'm praying it'st he same sort but I doubt it. It will have to be a super phone for me to give up the convienience of being able to charge it easily.
I'm looking forward to spending all tomorrow evening playing with it.
Girl with a pearl earring was an amazing read, better than the film. It was a glimse into 17th Century life in Delft. Good fun.
I still haven't started any fitness classes, Tob and I are colluding badly here on this one. It must start soon. We are to start evening classes too, me basic garden design and Tob basic Dutch. He decided that if he was married to a bilingual family, he too must make an effort to learn a bit of it. I'm very impressed.
Today I spent a hard 5 hours digging up the front garden infront of the house, enlarging the bed and taking the stones and putting them in corner where I will soon plant some alpine and house leeks - they like stones and rocks. the other bit is now dug down about 12 inches with three layers, deepest daffodil bulbs, then Tulips, then crocuses. I've planted some other bulbs that I can't remember their names and sewn some cornflower seeds. Plus I've dug a bed right at the front with daffs and tulips and then some Heather on top for some winter interest.
I put the grass from on top in the compost and given my lollypop tree a good licking so it's nice and round. It should be Ok for when it goes to sleep for winter.
I even had a couple of bulbs left over for the back garden.
Tob's parents have just bought a conservatory and the little shed they have on the patio would be in the way so they asked if we would like it. We have done some measuring and it would fit sideways down under the trees at the back. that corner is too shady for anything to grow so it would be fine and all the crap (forks, rakes, pots etc) we have in the corner of the patio would go in there so we could actually use the patio next summer. I can't wait for next spring now to see if my bulbs come up OK. Very exciting!
Tomorrow my new phone arrives at work. I rang vodafone on friday cos my contract has run out and I fancy a better camera phone (for blogging etc) I was going to ask for my puk code and take my number elsewhere to get a new free phone. They asked me why I was leaving and offered me a new camera phone if I'd stay and put me on a cheaper package. It wasn't for nothing, the contract is 18 months instead of 12 but I don't have to phaf about changing stuff to a new network and I hope I have a better phone than the one I would have chosen. I was going to go for another nokia flip phone, main differences being a better camera and a built in music player. The guy has sold me a Samsung with a much better camera and it's a 3G phone so it has a much larger memory. I don't intend to go 3g but It will be interesting fiddling about with the phone. I get 14 days to see if I like it. The only thing that I'm a bit worried about is what kind of charger it needs, we have about 5 nokia chargers, I don't know what type of charger this takes, I'm praying it'st he same sort but I doubt it. It will have to be a super phone for me to give up the convienience of being able to charge it easily.
I'm looking forward to spending all tomorrow evening playing with it.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Dutch Master
Just finished Girl with a pearl earring, the book of the film of the painting. Jan Vermeer's Girl with a pearl earring, the Mona Lisa of the north. The story made up based on what factual background they had about Jan Vermeer plus the times, 1660's in Delft, the plague etc. Amazing really captured my imagination. That period in History is incredible, so many things were being descovered yet the cruelty and hardship that most people had to live with for one reason or another is unimaginable now.
What really struck me was how in the book, it's narrated from the point of view of the girl in the painting. Her wit and intelligence coupled with a real understanding of her place in the world. Some things haven't changed, we all have our place even now, it's very unconcious and unspoken. I know how to behave at my work. I know my place. I have alot more freedom than she would have had but the principle is the same. What I find really interesting is how different that is when you don't take it personally. It is after all made up anyway and not by those around us playing the game, they are as much part of the game as anyone. Noone is above playing their part in life. We all fit in somehow.
I really enjoyed the book. I've ordered volume one of the Pepys Diary, that will be my next read I think. I still have a load of history books floating around for haveing nose in and a brouse when the fancy takes me.
Now that the LRP weekend is cancelled I will try to get down to the library on saturday.
And so to bed.
What really struck me was how in the book, it's narrated from the point of view of the girl in the painting. Her wit and intelligence coupled with a real understanding of her place in the world. Some things haven't changed, we all have our place even now, it's very unconcious and unspoken. I know how to behave at my work. I know my place. I have alot more freedom than she would have had but the principle is the same. What I find really interesting is how different that is when you don't take it personally. It is after all made up anyway and not by those around us playing the game, they are as much part of the game as anyone. Noone is above playing their part in life. We all fit in somehow.
I really enjoyed the book. I've ordered volume one of the Pepys Diary, that will be my next read I think. I still have a load of history books floating around for haveing nose in and a brouse when the fancy takes me.
Now that the LRP weekend is cancelled I will try to get down to the library on saturday.
And so to bed.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
back to work tomorrow
Three days off work, didn't manage to see the doctor today, I had an appointment at the wrong surgery!!! How crap is that? I have found the right surgery and have an appointment for Monday. I need to get the ball rolling again to have my left leg sorted out - it's wider than my right leg due to a flappy valve in my thigh. If they burn it shut and take out the vein, it should return to normal. It was scheduled this time last year, then got cancelled and cos the new date was after moving up to Ely, I said I'd sort it out up here.
I was off cos I had some viral thing, my glands were up, my head felt like it was full of goo and I basically was good for nothing but sleep for up until yesterday. I'm back now, and back to work tomorrow. I did take the opportunity to join the library this afternoon and have a healthy selection of history books - the Oxford illustrated history of Tudor and Stuart Britain, the history of the fens and a bit of light reading Girl with a pearl earring - I have just seen the film and fancy reading the book. My fascination with history is becoming like a pet, the more I feed it the bigger it gets, it seems to revolve around religious history and the context/superstitions that put people under. I'm in process of unraveling the restoration period how Protestantism came to be, the church of England, then the reformists, Quakers, Calvinist etc. It's all about 'how am I saved' from what I can tell for the common person but they are pawns in the power and politics that sway from monarch to monarch. It's all about context for me, it's helping me to understand the context of this country. Don't ask me to explain. On honeymoon, I opened up lots of doors into history, pre history too from Avebury and Uffington, to 5 mile chapels and alms houses I want to know more!
Oh and Excel for dummys. I consider myself quite a wizz with excel but I'm fully aware that I still only use about 15% of it's bits and doodars. See what I find out...
To top it off I grilled lamb leg steaks with some garam masala, made some veg curry and pan fried some new potatoes in mustard and cumin seeds with a bit of colour - yellow sweet peppers and fresh flat leaf parsley. Yum. I think there's still abit of apple crumble left for afters...
Toby is patiently trying to install a wireless network while i tap away, feet up on the couch. The telly's off, it's quiet. I might switch it on at 9, see what's in the radiotimes... The network doesn't want to install on tobys crappy pc, he says it's designed to wind him up. Fingers crossed. Tobes reading the other book I got from the library, Mark Steel, Reasons to be cheerful, a biography of a committed trouble maker growing up in the 80's. It looks like it's cheered Tobe up, the computer is chugging away as it re boots for the umteenth time. Maybe before long the bright blue Ethernet cables that trail round the room like rivers on a satellite picture will go and I can tap away anywhere in the house I like. OK what's on telly tonight?
I was off cos I had some viral thing, my glands were up, my head felt like it was full of goo and I basically was good for nothing but sleep for up until yesterday. I'm back now, and back to work tomorrow. I did take the opportunity to join the library this afternoon and have a healthy selection of history books - the Oxford illustrated history of Tudor and Stuart Britain, the history of the fens and a bit of light reading Girl with a pearl earring - I have just seen the film and fancy reading the book. My fascination with history is becoming like a pet, the more I feed it the bigger it gets, it seems to revolve around religious history and the context/superstitions that put people under. I'm in process of unraveling the restoration period how Protestantism came to be, the church of England, then the reformists, Quakers, Calvinist etc. It's all about 'how am I saved' from what I can tell for the common person but they are pawns in the power and politics that sway from monarch to monarch. It's all about context for me, it's helping me to understand the context of this country. Don't ask me to explain. On honeymoon, I opened up lots of doors into history, pre history too from Avebury and Uffington, to 5 mile chapels and alms houses I want to know more!
Oh and Excel for dummys. I consider myself quite a wizz with excel but I'm fully aware that I still only use about 15% of it's bits and doodars. See what I find out...
To top it off I grilled lamb leg steaks with some garam masala, made some veg curry and pan fried some new potatoes in mustard and cumin seeds with a bit of colour - yellow sweet peppers and fresh flat leaf parsley. Yum. I think there's still abit of apple crumble left for afters...
Toby is patiently trying to install a wireless network while i tap away, feet up on the couch. The telly's off, it's quiet. I might switch it on at 9, see what's in the radiotimes... The network doesn't want to install on tobys crappy pc, he says it's designed to wind him up. Fingers crossed. Tobes reading the other book I got from the library, Mark Steel, Reasons to be cheerful, a biography of a committed trouble maker growing up in the 80's. It looks like it's cheered Tobe up, the computer is chugging away as it re boots for the umteenth time. Maybe before long the bright blue Ethernet cables that trail round the room like rivers on a satellite picture will go and I can tap away anywhere in the house I like. OK what's on telly tonight?
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Saturday, September 03, 2005
A quiet weekend
The bug has landed!
I put a bug on the wedding list, hoping and praying someone would get it for us and they did. The other presents are all brilliant and what we wanted, but the Bug is just what I've been wanting and would have bought had we not being saving up for a wedding! God bless Lizi.
Tobe was off thursday and friday with a cold, he gave it to his mum, I thought I'd managed to miss it. I woke up with it tody, glands up etc. I'm not as bad as tobe was, I'be taken it easy = ahh what a shame, I have to eat and watch TV all day. I've seen 3 episodes of Charmed!
I did do a load of gardening in the afternoon, swept up loads of garden debris and chopped a load more Mahonia back in the font garden - generated 3 sacks of debris. It's only a little garden! I came in with some new ideas for what I will do with the front garden next spring. Then watched 2 back to back episodes of ground force and speculated about what and where to put a water feature. I'm feeling pretty good, I wonder what tomorrow will bring...
I put a bug on the wedding list, hoping and praying someone would get it for us and they did. The other presents are all brilliant and what we wanted, but the Bug is just what I've been wanting and would have bought had we not being saving up for a wedding! God bless Lizi.
Tobe was off thursday and friday with a cold, he gave it to his mum, I thought I'd managed to miss it. I woke up with it tody, glands up etc. I'm not as bad as tobe was, I'be taken it easy = ahh what a shame, I have to eat and watch TV all day. I've seen 3 episodes of Charmed!
I did do a load of gardening in the afternoon, swept up loads of garden debris and chopped a load more Mahonia back in the font garden - generated 3 sacks of debris. It's only a little garden! I came in with some new ideas for what I will do with the front garden next spring. Then watched 2 back to back episodes of ground force and speculated about what and where to put a water feature. I'm feeling pretty good, I wonder what tomorrow will bring...
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Fresh Blog
It's been thundering and flashing outside. Not enough rain though. I'm back at work after a fab honeymoon, a 2k payrise and a contract until the end of the year. Lots to think about now. Mostly how to get money to square one, and create a plan for paying family back and saving up for this that and the other. I really should go to bed.
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