Look at this Hunter!

CATS ON TUESDAYS

Such a big brave cat finishing off the camera cord....

Meme for Saturday

Hello: Coco and Julie tagged me for a meme. I had thought that I would rattle through it now, but when I started I got stuck for facts. Firstly though I would like to tell you: I hate the name Mary.

The rules seem straightforward:

1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name game facts.
4. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog. (I'll tell you straight away - I'm breaking this rule).

M - I am a Musician.

I love music to play and to listen to, but I hate music as an academic subject. This is the main reason I went to a music school (conservatoire in Glasgow) instead of University.

A - I live in a flat/Apartment...

My sister introduced me some years ago to 'Apartment Pants'. My Mum's a bit weird and would not permit us to come downstairs in pyjamas even on weekends. This didn't really bother me as I am usually up early, but my sister hated it. The solution was joggers that she would put on instead of PJ's in the morning. These morphed over the years, and are known in our family nowadays as 'Party Pants'. Party Pants are comfy!

R - Reading...

I am about to go and finish the book that I am Reading now. It's not great... It's called Getting Rid of Matthew and is (shockingly) about a woman trying to get rid of a bloke called Matthew.

Y - For lunch I had a Yoghurt-coated Apricot and Almond bar.

It was delicious.

Please let me know if you play: I've had a quick browse and have seen this on most blogs today so I am not tagging.

Edinburgh Fringe

This week the Edinburgh Fringe has started.... and I'm in Edinburgh now until Monday.

I'll pop in for updates as often as poss but won't be home for a while so internet access may be difficult.

Concert-wise: Tomorrow & Thurs - Bach B minor Mass Cannongate Kirk

Sunday - Glasgow Chamber Choir gig... don't know where or what I'm playing.

Sunday 19th August at 8pm St Cuthberts Church - Trumpet trio recital with organ in St Cuthbert's church.

It's all fun. Though Edinburgh is completely mental during August - there are people everywhere. I try to be tolerant, but it can be difficult when you are running late for a rehearsal and have to try to get a path through the crowds of tourists standing looking around... I have to resist the temptation to use my trumpet as a battering ram to force my way through!

So: If you're about in Edinburgh on the 19th we would very much appreciate your support! It's free entry & unticketed (although we will need donations or we won't get paid...).

Makeup

I've been out again. Tonight I met my friends for some beers and a curry. My friend has been telling me about a fantastic curry place on the South of the city for ages so we decided to go to see if he was right.

We had more than a couple of beers so didn't move over for a curry til pretty late. I had spinach & mushroom puri followed by fish curry. I love spinach and mushroom. And fish. But there was far too much to attempt to get through it all! My boyfriend stuck to a more standard meal of onion bajis (or onion rings actually) and a chicken curry. I tried a bit of everything and can confirm that it is indeed a lovely curry shop. Unfortunately I have forgotten the name already.

Since coming home my boyfriend has put himself to bed. I had intended to join him until I tried to get the layers of eye make-up I had plastered on - off. The eyeliner is called 'long lasting effects'. Says it all!

So the plan now is to give up, go to bed and check the damage in the morning. If it still doesn't want to shift... I'll just reapply it to tidy it up!

Weekends

For the last month or so weekends have actually felt like weekends. I am not teaching as schools are off on holiday, and most of my concerts have been during the week.

The result has been: I have weekends again!

And I love them. Yesterday I did the usual practise... that has to happen anyway. But other than that I blogged (with my snail-slow internet), went to the shops, played with the cat, watched some tv and went to a party. Fab! Today I have been up for an hour or so and I am once more online. I am also watching telly. Soon I will go and make a cup of tea before starting practise again. I also have to do some crafty things and arrange an organ part out of a string section part for the telemann concerto no3 in D (for 2 oboes, tpt and strings... or in this case for 3 trumpets and organ. I've done the trumpet parts already - so only the organ to go. It's much harder to do though). I plan to save this job for the evening as it doesn't make as much noise!

It's been a quiet couple of weeks, so there wouldn't have been too much to tell you about anyway. I've mainly been in the office doing overtime. I had an office party at which I was not very drunk... don't know how that happened.

We did go to see the Transformers film - and I loved it. I do remember Transformers well though from childhood. They were amazing. My wee brother had them but never had Optimus Prime. I think our cousin Alex had him though.

Anway - enough rambling. If anything exciting happens I'll let you know...

P.S. I am having trouble leaving comments - think it's just this connection. Sorry chaps.

back...sort of

hello.... I now have a basic internet connection (wired... dial-up non-broadband). It's really slow and is quite frustrating. I really want to see what everyone has been up to but have much work to do today too so I'll do my best. I'll post again when I have time to write properly later on (though I have an important party to go to tonight so it might be tomorrow!)

So pleased to be online...

Manic Monday - MISS!

Just realised this is Mo's word today.

Think it's a bit late to try to post on the topic... but I'll just say:

I have missed you all for the last few days. It's the sign of an addict!

Hope it's not for much longer.

Internet Connection Down AGAIN!

And guess what... Orange are blaming the floods.

I live in Scotland. The nearest flood has to be several hundred miles away!

I can't read comments easily as I have chosen Easy Internet (the easyjet internet cafe) to get online and it is painfully slow.

As soon as I am back up and running I will get to see your comments and come to visit.

If you're a travelling journals participant: I'm starting to panic now! But will try to get the book off on time even if it means more visits to the worst internet cafe the world has seen.

Hope all is well. I have about 8 mins left so I'll get round a few folk if I can. Can't believe it's taken me nearly an hour just to get to read my e-mails and log onto blogger!!!

Cortes

I'm slightly embarassed posting this today, as it's gonna let slip that I had GMTV on in the background to my blog-hop this morning. For those who don't know GMTV suffice to say it's rubbish.

However, they had this guy on this morning and he is quite pretty.... I thought that you might like him too. He's an Icelandic singer called Cortes. I was listening to this reading Kyra's blog... cheery.

Floods back home

It seems for once that I have a lucky escape from rain being up here in Glasgow.

I had spoken to my parents, but they had not really mentioned the flooding much as they live up on the hill. Today I looked at the website of our local paper (which is fab usually for a laugh), only to find the flooding is worse than I have seen before.

I'll show you what I mean:

Mental!

It's all gone nuts again here... but today is a day off... woo hoo! I'll have a quick browse just now to see what you're up to but must start practising soon.

Have you seen what's going on down South? It's scary! My hometown is flooded, but our house is at the top of a hill, so Mum and Dad are ok.

While I realise it's not a laughing matter this photo is funny. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6914349.stm

Before I head for the spare room to tootle on my trumpet, I would like to ask you for top tips:

Does anyone know how to clean silver using any household stuff (ie. without having to go and buy silver cleaning things)?

Diversimode Gig

We held a rehearsal on Friday for our concert. We have been working & researching the programme for a while so it was just time for a runthrough.

After listening to the Scottish tunes played by our cellist look what happened to the soprano! (ok so it may have been more to do with the late nights and early train journey)

Fortunately our performance did not induce our audience to sleep and it seemed to go down quite well!

It was throroughly enjoyable - and I love getting audience feedback that is positive.

Country Dew & Caty have asked whether I have any clips they could hear. I've been busy (as regular readers will know is pretty much always the case) so have not managed to get together with the guys for a recording session for a LOOOONG time.

I have some clips from shortly after we formed. They're decidedly dodgy and please believe me when I tell you that we're much improved!! However if you do still want to hear them the link is: http://badjokesandovenchips.blogspot.com/2006/12/diversimode.html

Fun in Dundee

After our concert I met a friend who lives in Dundee and we headed out of the hall.

There was a strange sort of fair event on in the city, and we headed straight for the Bavarian Beer Halle outside.

She got us some beers and a gigantic sausage each - this is Audrey with her sausage.

It wasn't long before the rain started (it is Scotland after all), so we moved inside. From the safety of the beer tent, we watched the damp grey Dundee afternoon.

Good Luck Matt!

“Please Visit Dixie and Matt and Wish Them Well As He Leaves For Parris Island And The Marines on Sunday, July 22, 2007.Just click HERE.”

Away

I have a gig tomorrow in Dundee so will be away for a few days. I'll try to get round to see people this morning but I also have to practise (or the gig will be rubbish).

If anyone is in Dundee and fancies coming:

Marryat Hall 21st July - 10.30 am coffee served

11.00 am - Diversimode (early music group) Cappuccino Concert.

Sounds very civilized, eh?!

Partick Thistle 2 - 0 Falkirk

Last night my boyfriend and I went to watch Partick Thistle football team play Falkirk. My office job company is currently sponsoring the team, so they get tickets for some matches. We were given hospitality tickets, and were fairly excited as we have had no money ALL month so haven't been out since mid June.

The info from work said that there would be a finger buffet and I got a pass for the bar.

We arrived and hung around outside for a while as I couldn't remember the instructions for where we go in. After a while I gave up and phoned my Mum to ask her to break into my e-mail and get the details. We found we were to go in through the main entrance in the new stand.

When we went through and said that I worked for Resolution we were ushered immediately upstairs, and through into the bar. Fab!

I was a bit shy as I wasn't sure quite what was going on, but everyone was welcoming and we got ourselves a couple of drinks. We were then told that there was food, and we moved to the nicely laid tables.

We were given a whole dinner - Chilli with salad & bread. We were offered wine etc until kick off when we moved out to the stand.

Partick Thistle have been my favourite team for years, as we used to live near the stadium. It was great to see them play again (haven't been for years).

At half-time we were offered meat pies and coffee or tea.

In the 2nd half Partick Thistle scored twice... and Falkirk did not! Ha ha.

After the match there was a free bar again, but we had to get home so only had one quick drink before heading home.

It was GREAT!

I also have tickets for Tuesday. I'm not sure whether we get hospitality for this match, but I'm looking forward to it anyway. I don't have a gig on Weds/Thurs next week so should be able to make better use of the freebies if we do get the bar.... Fingers crossed x

Thursday Thirteen #20

Thursday Thirteen: Thirteen things I would like to do more of/know more about.

1. Knitting - I have had a go. When I was at school I made a scarf. That's the most I've ever managed.




2. Sewing - I do this a bit - rarely. I used to do a lot more, make clothes etc. I have used the excuse of not having time for years, but I could probably find the time.




3. Theatre Music - I studied this a bit at music college. It still fascinates me & I want to know more.




4. Early Music - I do this for work - and pleasure. I have only really read up about Italian and English early trumpet playing. I am sure that there is an awful lot left to investigate, and soak up.




5. Cookery




6. Finance and Account keeping. I am RUBBISH and make my self-employed tax return season a nightmare for myself. I know almost nothing about this topic.




7. Plants - The science of plants is my boyfriend's speciality. It's something that really interests him, and I find that over the years it has been rubbing off on me. I used to politely pretend to be interested when he was showing me the 24 different types of grass that are growing in our lawn, and to tell me the minute differences between them. Now I am genuinely interested... for longer than I used to be.




8. Gardening - I have a beautiful garden. I love it and wish that I looked after it better. Unfortunately we have so much rain, and I work so often at the weekend, that I do not get the inclination to garden as often as I should.




9. Drawing/Painting... I'd like to be artistic.



10. History.



11. Geography. I didn't know Turkey neighboured Greece... We were looking at restaurants to go to next Wednesday (pay day!) and I read a Turkish menu that I thought was quite Greek-sounding. When I commented to my boyfriend he looked at me like I was a moron. I definitely need to brush up on my Geography.



12. Sense of Direction. I'm not sure you can learn this. So I'll just wish I had a better one.



13. Self-discipline. I should still be practising really.

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things.

nervous

I'm the worst waiter in the world. I don't mean waiter as in person who serves food (although I'm not the best at that), I mean waiter as in person who is waiting for something/someone.

My boyfriend phoned to say he was having a pretty rotten day and to tell me that he would need to stay at work for several hours longer than usual.... He seemed genuinely p'd off and I still don't really know what's going on. And it's meant that I have done nothing useful all evening.

I've practised trumpet.

I've made some food.

I've blog-hopped a lot.

Which is all I really had to do this evening anyway... I'm just worried. And I want him to hurry up and get home to tell me about it.

Manic Monday - Marble

I was having a blog-browse (avoiding work) and came across Mo's Manic Monday theme on Travis' blog.

What country do you imagine this is from?

Shri Swaminarayan Mandir.

As it happens I was watching a BBC programme last night on Britain - and they showed this amazing Hindu temple. I had not heard of it, and I live in Britain... and actually come from a town within 100 miles of it.

Build on this temple began in 1993 and was finished in 1995. I would love to know whether it was British built too, as I have never seen a new marble building like this before here. It's located in a North London suburb, and is built in the style of traditional Indian temples.

Thursday Thirteen #19

Thirteen ingredients I actually have at the moment in the house. Only have a few bits in... mostly veg.

1 - Jam

2 - Marmalade (tried this in a sandwich-didn't like it)

3 - Banana (tried this too in a sarnie - didn't like it!)

4 - 1 courgette

http://seeds.thompson-morgan.com/pix/m/seeds/1/161.jpg

5 - 4 carrots

6 - LOTS of onions

7 - 6 mushrooms

8 - a few green beans

9 - burgers

10 - OVEN CHIPS!!

11 - garlic bread

12 - icecream

13 - cucumber

All I need now is Mags to make me a recipe!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen.

Health Kick!

On top of the worries about my teeth (which are a bit sore - but the dentist said they would be after he had a good poke about on Monday), we also are a little strapped for cash this month.... So as a solution to this I am walking home from work rather than taking the bus. As I am doing a lot of overtime in the office (school holidays and not many gigs this month) I am also taking in lunch, or at the very least keeping lunch under £1.



I am rather proud of this though I'm not sure how long I'll keep it up. Yesterday was Day 1 of the plan. I took in one banana and one marmalade sandwich (not the usual sandwich fillings I know, but you have to work with what you've got!) and was certain I'd stick to it.



By lunch-time I was HUNGRY! But after eating my sandwiches I realised why these are not usual fillings. It's because they're GRIM!



Work was busy, so I didn't finish til late. My boyfriend walked in to town and met me after work. We then walked home. All 5.69 miles (9km). If you're good at maths you will realise this meant he walked 11 and a bit miles..... half of that just for me!



Today I took it a bit easier. I walked half way home, and got my boyfriend to pick me up on his way home. This was MUCH nicer!!!!! It took a LONG time to get home yesterday. Today only took me about 40 minutes walking plus about 10-15 mins in the car.



I think I can keep it up. Unless I have a gig - which means cash so the deal doesn't apply! I'm interested to see if I lose weight... I'll let you know!

HOORAY! - teeth ok!

My teeth, it seems, are to remain intact for a while longer.

I had actually been totally terrified that I had done real damage and thought I could feel my teeth wobbling over the last two days.

It seems in fact that there is NO wobble, and that although I have some gum damage, it is only caused by over-vigorous brushing (which you do when you get paranoid about teeth problems). It is not reversible - which is bad I suppose. But it's also not serious, and doesn't mean your teeth are weakened.

Phew!!!!!!!!!!!

haha ha ha ha - I love this! It's so true that my weakness is Quizzes - not only do I LOVE them, I'm also usually appalling at them.

Your Superhero Profile

Your Superhero Name is The Gorilla Robot Your Superpower is Mutant Your Weakness is Quizzes Your Weapon is Your Web Claws Your Mode of Transportation is Segway

What's your Superhero Name?

Quite quiet

I'm going through one of the blogger 'I can't think of anything to say' phases at the moment. To get back into the swing of things I'll try a diary post for today.

I got up early despite not having any work on today, as my boyfriend woke me up before he left for work. I quite wanted to get some housework done anyway so this was fine by me. It is now after 6pm and all I have managed to achieve is a bit of washing up.

Where did the day go?!

Over the past 4 or 5 weeks I've been a wee bit concerned about my teeth. I stabbed myself in the gum a few weeks ago, and it was fairly painful. Afterwards the gum seemed to have receded a little. 4 weeks on, the gum has still not returned to normal.

To try not to aggravate things other than on Party Night (and at my cousin's wedding) I have avoided booze. This is quite a big concession to illness - and not one I would usually make - but it doesn't seem to be working. (Although Party Night and my cousin's wedding probably made up for 3 weeks off booze by themselves..... )

Tonight my friend Lisa turns 30 - so we're having a party. I'd like a few glasses of wine... but I'm a trumpet player and have no job if I damage my teeth......

It's a dilemma!

Actually it's quite a day for dilemmas. Earlier today I was mulling over whether to go use some vouchers I got for my birthday to buy a present for Lisa, or whether to give her the vouchers. I've decided to get her a present with them as they're worth quite a bit and I might be able to get myself a present too. Thanks must go to my boyfriend and my sister for their assistance with my quandary!

Thursday Thirteen #18

In a SHOCKING turn of events....... Thirteen HOLIDAY SNAPS! (sorry x)

It's Wild Carrot!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well!

Wales

Last week my boyfriend and I went to Wales. We stopped in Leeds for a few days to help my sister move into her beautiful new house, then moved on to camp in Trearddur Bay, Anglesey.

My parents are Welsh. My Dad was born in Holyhead on Anglesey, and as children we used to visit the island fairly often.

It still feels familiar, although I hadn't been back there for years.

We arrived on Tuesday and parked our tent on a nice piece of grass not too far from the toilet block. We then set off to Holyhead to go to the supermarket to get some basics before coming back for a walk around the campsite until the sun set.

As you can see, the clifftop location of the campsite meant the views on our walk were spectacular.

the aftermath

Party is over.. mess is yet to be cleaned up!

This was what I found when I opened the freezer earlier:

I'm actually quite impressed that we had that much beer left! Although I would prefer that my pal had not put it in the freezer and left it overnight........

Cats on Tuesdays

Last night Dixie was the star attraction of our party! He very obligingly played with some people, and then settled down later on to snooze happily on others.

He licked indiscriminately, and was stroked, mauled and petted all evening.

And he loved it!

It's Party Time!

We're just back from our week in Wales and there are so many things I want to blog about that I'm struggling to work out where to start.



Perhaps I will follow Gattina's example and set myself up a holiday blog. I'm aware that it will be very dull if I bombard any readers with the whole lot in one go!



For now I'll leave it at this, as today is PARTY DAY... and I have preparations to make.

HOLIDAYS A COMIN!

It's summer!!!!!!!!!!! School ends next week and I've taken time off the office job...... so I'll be away. Hope every1 has agood week. Apologies for 1 finger typing - but Dixie likes best sitting in my way.

We plan to go to Wales on Tuesday hopefully, and stay til Sunday or Monday, as my cousin gets married there next weekend. I haven't seen her to speak to since she was 10 years old so I find this inviting of relatives a bit weird. I can't help but wonder whether it isn't more to do with her mum and my dad than being her own choice.

Still it's nice to have a reason to go back for a visit to Anglesey. It's home for my Dad, and we have been there many many times over the years!

I'll post pictures for you when I get back as it's beautiful. Annelisa - hope you're still doing ok x

For Annelisa's friend Julia:

Happy Birthday!!!

Thursday Thirteen #17

Thursday Thirteen (Lost count of how many I've done now)
13 things we'll be cooking on the barbie on Party Day (2nd July)

1 Sausages

2 Burgers

3 Kebabs

4 Spicy Chicken

5 Minty lamb ribs

6 Chinese-style pork ribs

7 Steak (aye right... when we wake up millionaires)

8 Courgettes

9 fish... possibly

10 vegetarian sausages

11 veggie burgers

12 marshmallows

13 bananas with chocolate

CATS ON TUESDAYS

CATS ON TUESDAYS

DIXIE SAYS HELLO!

but it seems to have exhausted him...

HAPPY FATHERS' DAY PA!

for Dad: Happy Fathers' Day!

Britain (has not) got Talent

wtf!

I've just watched a replay of the semifinals of Britain's Got Talent.

I firmly believe that there is plenty of talent in Great Britain. For some reason though it has all successfully avoided appearing on the new Simon Cowell show "Britain's Got Talent".

It was HORRIBLE! I haven't managed to stay watching it throughout as I found better things to do (such as peeling potatoes, cleaning out the sink overflow pipe, gouging out my own eyes.... you know, the usual) however the bits I have seen have been unbelievably appalling. Oh yeah - they also had to remove a contestant as he turned out to be a known sex offender. (although it seems he's a foot fetishist rather than a paedo or rapist etc.. and is off the register this year... I don't know the facts... think it's a bit odd to put yourself on national tv if you're on the sex offenders register though)

I am off now to try to find a clip or two to show you. Trav - you should love these!



This made me want to vomit. I hate singing toddlers anyway. Wouldn't you know it - she got through.



I didn't hate this. They didn't get through.



This one involved alcohol (sort of) and is therefore automatically ok by me. They are through.

Gift Exchange

A message for Judy - my partner in the gift exchange - I haven't heard from you... have you e-mailed?

Otherwise: it's another French Horn testing day today. It will be finished though at 12pm and I am SO looking forward to an afternoon off. Need to do some practise really but I might just NOT - because an afternoon of watching rubbish telly or making stuff sounds so much nicer.

No need to decide now anyway.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Travelling Journals & other news

Craftiness ahoy!

I like to make things - think it's one of the reasons I do Brownies still (despite many hassles involved).

A few weeks ago I asked Uschi to be part of her project:

"I would like to find 12 people who each start a journal writing/drawing/painting/glueing/sewing something about their part of the world, the way they live, the art they do, the things they like and...so...on...

After one month, the journals should travel to the next participant...and... so... on....

and...after 12 months they will come back to their author, like a small ( or big) all-around-the-world-treasure-box, filled with emotions, impressions and inspiration. "

Well it seems I was promoted from the reserve list - and the project is now afoot! I believe that Uschi is still looking for a couple of participants if anyone feels like some hard work.

____________________________________________________

Other news: The gig last night was great fun. I went to the pub afterwards, as most of the people playing were friends of mine. My boyfriend met me before the gig, and came to the pub afterwards. I asked him what he would like to drink at which point he said "oh, I don't know. I brought the car, but I could just leave it here. I wouldn't need to pick it up til 9.30 according to the meter". So I bought him a beer. SEVERAL beers later we left by taxi.

This morning we left to pick the car up at around 9am. We got off the bus at Great Western Road (where he had left it) to find NO cars parked. My immediate thoughts were: It's been towed. Or stolen.

I guessed correctly with 'towed' - and when I checked the parking meter I discovered that he had parked in a no parking zone(between 7am & 9.30am). I can see how he made the mistake, as the no parking zone description was written in smallprint under a big sign that read:

CHARGES EFFECTIVE 9.30 am - 4.30 pm

list of charges

no parking zone 7am-9.30am, 4.30pm-6.00pm

SO I feel quite sorry for him. I phoned the council and found the address of the vehicle pound. We went there, coughed up £135!! then took our car home. So what if we are back to celery for dinner every day - things could be worse!

back!

Phew! That's two gigs down - and one VERY different one to go.

Keep thinking I can come round to visit everyone but I have SO much work to do it really will have to wait. I hope everyone is well - and thanks for your comments on Peace globe day etc...

any1 left not vomiting?

Apologies for my irritatingly chirpy outlook earlier! Hope I didn't p'ss you all off too much.

Just wanted to let you know I'm away this weekend (most of the time) at various gigs (Diversimode gig tomorrow - Genius of England is my favourite thing in the programme. Think it's my audio on my profile page, Vivaldi double tpt concerto this Sunday and Bernstein & Gershwin etc on Monday) so I don't have time to visit all TT participants who've left comments. I will try to catch up on Tuesday so please bear with me!

Thursday Thirteen # 20

Thirteen things I LOVED about Peace Globe Day

1 The Blogosphere (in the most part) was SO happy overall yesterday.

2 Not just happy - thoughtful too.

3 This meant my morning started off well!

4 School was fine - my pupils all played pretty well.

5 I had good reports back that my little 7yr old boy pupil (at the all girls school)
played really well in the junior school concert on Tuesday.

6 The weather was STUNNING on the way home from school, making the drive beautiful.

7 I picked my boyfriend up from work, and when I arrived he was actually pretty much
ready to go! That NEVER happens. I'm glad too, as on Peace Day I wouldn't have been able to rant at him.

8 We decided on the way home to have a bbq.

9 My fella went a-shopping and came home with a burger challenge: Could I make burgers to rival Morrisons' 'Best' range burgers.

10 My burgers won the challenge! (wise boyfriend overall yesterday...)

11 The cat played in the garden near us the whole time we were outside. It was nice.

12 When I got in I listened to Blogtalk radio - Dr Blogstein's Happy Hour and loved it.

13 Bed-time was not TOO late, and I have woken up feeling good!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Dona Nobis Pacem

Peace

I think the idea is that everyone today post deep meaningful messages on their hopes or plans for peace.

'fraid I can't help you there. Deep and meaningful just isn't my thing.

In fact - I'm not overly hopeful that peace is possible on a great global level, so doubted the wisdom or function of the blogblast.

Until I thought - Unless we all individually do our bit then of course peace cannot be.

So I'll try my best and do my bit - and I'll hope that one day all of us do this together.

p.s. AAGH! Just tried to use Mimi's Mr Linky thing - but hit refresh coz I didn't think it was taking - and have ended up on the list 3 times!!!!!!! I'm so embarassed.

Peace Globes

I've been avoiding posting a globe for ages coz I haven't had time to do it properly.



The time has come: 6th June is the blogblast for peace day (as decreed by Queen Mimi).



Here is my globe.... I'll re-post on Weds.

P.S. DIDN'T REALISE MORGEN WAS MANIC MONDAYING 'PEACE' TODAY.... OR I'D HAVE WRITTEN SOMETHING MORE MEANINGFUL.

WHO AM I KIDDING? I'D HAVE AVOIDED THE TOPIC AND SAVED THE GLOBE FOR WEDNESDAY!

Testing, testing, 1,2,3.

This morning I have been testing potential French Horn pupils. The region offer primary kids (P6 who I think are 9yrs old) the opportunity to test out 'endangered species' instruments. I was in a room and 2o-30 kids approx came to try horn, and my job was to get them to try playing it and to say 'yes' or 'no' to whether we should call them back.

I actually enjoyed it quite a lot. And many of the kids were great!

The point of the exercise is to select children who will be offered the chance to have lessons for a year for free. They'll get the instrument, and the lessons for the year paid for by the region. It's a great initiative - unlike anything we were offered back in the Shire. Having taught some of last year's selection I definitely think it's worthwhile.