You must try this!

There has been much hilarity amongst members of a walking group that I am lucky to belong to. We have been translating our names into Viking equivalents and then plan to use them as the basis for a fancy dress party. Gudrid the Flatulent is,however, having problems with her costume - as you might guess!
Have a go with your name http://archaeoastronomy.co.uk/toys/vikingname.php
is the site. (I have just tried to sort out one of my names and it is true to form: Gudrun, the one we don't let steer. I am so good at getting lost in places, this can be my new name I think!)
And on a completely different tack, has anyone tried to walk 10,000 or more steps a day? I have just started to wear a pedometer and even with a strenouous work out in the gym I only managed 6,500 steps, gulp! How on earth do people manage 10,000 or more in an ordinary day's work?

Wellies

It is pouring with rain here but not as heavily as in Delhi where they are being deluged with rain. (Sorry, couldn't resist that.) Do you think I should pack my wellies and mac?

Drat, drat and double drat!!!

I am in clear up mode - finding the floor and surfaces in my little study. Easy peasy you might think, but I have also been shredding all old receipts etc. Add to that envelopes and those cheques that the credit card firms keep sending, but I don't want to use or leave lying about.
In amongst all this was an envelope from my good friend in which was a Christmas card and.... those Christmas sequin things - trees and baubles etc. Have you guessed yet? Well, they are now all over the place and it isn't even Christmas!!! I can just hear her laughing at the thought, perhaps I should spread them even more with the little hand fan I also rediscovered and which I will take to India? Why not!

I have just got to own up to this. I lost my credit card a few weeks ago and so did the sensible thing, rang the bank, put a stop on it and ordered a new one. I knew that I hadn't been without it for any real length of time, so I must have put it down somewhere at home. Well, could I find it? Like hecky thump. Tonight I have another plumber coming round to see if he will give me a quote for the work in the bathroom -(bear with me, it all ties in!) so I have had to clean all the bedrooms as well as the bathroom because if he needs to see the access points, they are in the bedrooms. So I retrieved the thick bedspread from the cupboard and spread it out on the bed, only to find? You've got it, the credit card. It is now in many pieces and I feel relieved that it no longer exists. Meanwhile I have sorted out more rooms and feel a lot better for it.

Rattle those pills.

In an attempt to dissuade the pesky mosquitos from biting me, I am not only taking the proper pills to prevent malaria taking its hold on me, but also brewers yeast. This apparently makes your body change its characteristic smell, so that the mossies are not attracted any more. So it is 6 yeast pills a day, no doubt one or two of those the nurse decides are the 'ones' to take and then I shall rattle off to meet the bugs. If these work then at least I may not need that fiendish sounding device to suck out the goo from the bites, but on the other hand, I usually develope huge blisters, so the sucky out thing might be a useful tool to take with me. Such decisions to make!

Holidays!

That nine o'clock hour is past and I now really feel on holiday - silly isn't it!!? However, the lists shave been started - all the things for India, which now include vitamin B to act as an extra mosquito repellant, with a small jar of marmite to back this up. Yes, it sounds odd, but another woman who was also sceptical did it and was only bitten once, so I am all for it. Those little blighters love my flesh!
Then there are the domestic things, the hoover has had some exercize today, it was feeling very neglected, but hey life is tough at times! The fridge has been degummed, the lost shelf replaced - my sister will be pleased to hear! (More small tins of tonic put at the back to aid the clearing process.)
And I have written 2300 words of the literature review - only another 4000 or so to go, in the next 10 days.... can I panic now please?

Flowers, flowers everywhere.

I returned home last night from the last day of term with armsful of flowers, so today I have had to buy two more vases and have had a lovely time arranging the blooms. The children who were leaving the school did themselves proud at the final service, they were doing a drama thing which went extremely well. After the school day's activites were over we all decamped to one of the parent's home and barbecued until the dark hours. It was an excellent ending to their junior school years.
The exciting thing now is to book some nights in a hotal in Rajastahn which was a palace, sort out train tickets and internal flights and then -- India here we come!! I am as excited as a child at this moment in time.

This is it!

The last day of term.Oh yes!!!!

Getting lost.

How easy is it for one to get lost? Well, the roads at least have turnings to help excuse the extra mileage, however, last night I was invited out to dinner on the canal. Easy peasy to find it - yes!! ?
Off I trundled after school, it is only about a mile from the village, found a place to park and then started to search for the boat. First block of boats by the bridge - no success, but had an interesting conversation about the relative success rate of wind power and solar power to keep the batteries on the boats going. Wind gives less power but provides it year round - so both is a good option. Met some lovely white dogs too. Then I explored the boats the other side of the bridge - ditto, no luck. The next step was to find the nearest moorings up the canal, so off I went in a circular route to the nearest bridge, where I found a gaggle of men collecting! Careful - they were fishermen, not just farmers gathering around a gate to gossip! Deadly serious matter - there were working out the draw. So I set off to walk the next length of the canal, still no success, but met a family who were on holiday and explained the address system of the numbered bridges, two of those later, I turned back. Only to find that I had walked past the Bright Spark fairly early on! Doh, BUT, it was the other side of the canal and there was no obvious way up to the bridge, so I hied me off to the woods and found a track through the woods to what was obviously a farmer's bridge, crossed over and went hollering outside the boat. Thank goodness she was there!
We sat outside her boat and the evening just unfolded. It was warm and so quiet, the baby ducklings visited with mum several times, the swans did one of their rather supercilious inspections, the fish nibbled something off the outside off the next boat and then the sun set. WOW! I was looking down canal towards the bridge so there was the circular effect of the bridge reflecting in the water. To one side of this the reflection of the sun gently appeared in the water then grew stronger and larger - it was incredibly beautiful - I can't do justice to it with words. The glow gently moved slightly and then just as gracefully disappeared. It was one of those moments in life that was so beautiful and peaceful that you want to keep inside you for ever.
All that was washed down with the most delicious camambert cheese, salad and fruit. I now want to try a trip on a boat as I have never travelled on one. Just that short experience has opened up another can of experience that looks fun.

Cherries. delicious cherries

The present crop is from the cherry tree - this year there are laden branches of beautiful yellowy-red fruits. This is the best crop I have ever picked from a cherry tree.
Sadly, I think the reason that the red currents were also cropping so well, was becuase there are fewer blackbirds in the garden, The neighbours have cats galore and they certainly kill off the bird population, so my luck sadly mirrors the bad luck of the blackbirds.
And the sun is shining today - it is wonderfully hot, training for my holiday in India!

Old Friends and New Year Resolutions

I met up with a college friend last week-end in London and this week-end went to the school summer fair.(Wait for it, there is a connection!) This is the first one I have been to and it was fun - lots of stalls and the children were all friendly and talkative. Then I saw a woman I have not met up with for several years. What a joy to see her again - she is a free spirit and great fun. I met her first in the wonderful cheese shop in Newport, she was helping a friend to run it and we used to talk and talk until the queue became long and fractious! Then her friend sold the shop and Ro at the same time sold her home and bought a canal boat - not one of the long ones, but a sort of cut in half canal boat! Since then I have met up with her only occasionally, but today we sat and nattered for hours, watched the helicopter do its thing at the fete and then set off for our homes. We are going to keep in touch and I am not going to be complacent about this.
I think you would agree that it is not a very exciting happening, but it has been one of the things I have done these last few weeks which made me realise how bad I am at keeping in touch with my friends and they are one of the most important things in life. The bombs in London also are a more drastic way of reinforcing this realisation. So, my new year's resolution is to keep in touch more frequently with my friends - who mostly seem to live far away, but that makes it all the more exciting!

What can one say?

My most heartfelt commiserations go to those families who have lost a friend or relation in to day's London bombings.

London at its best.

I went down to London to meet up with my college friend who lives in the States and comes over to visit once a year. Last year we met up at my home, this year we met at Tate Britain and looked at the exhibition about British landscapes. There were some lovely paintings there, some early Turners which were a complete surprise to me - I think I had supposed that he was always an impressionist, but not so! I will also admit that I am not a fan of Constable, the man who painted the Haywain, but I rather liked his sketches of trees very much. We followed this with a flying visit to the Reynolds exhibition - called the Creation of Celebrity. Well! What a lot of oddities he painted, including himself - 30 times!! I thought the best pictures were those of two children, a prostitute and Omai, the rather delicious eastern gentleman who was brought over as an experiment!
Well, we high-tailed it out of there to the museum of garden history over the road. Lunch first in a walled garden, the food was wonderful, tasty, good proportions and of course tasted better for being eaten outside. Two hours later we walked around the museum part in the church which was rather lovely, homely and interesting if you like gardening. My goodness we talk for England when we meet up, so realizing that she had to meet her sister and I had a train to catch we walked down to Tate Modern beside the river Thames. There were lots of people mingling around, down past County Hall there were many street entertainers, musicians, mime artists, jugglers etc. We sat and listened to a folk group just beside the Festival Hall then carried on to meet her sister and friend. They were going to dinner in a restaurant beside the Globe theatre so I joined them for a glass of wine and an hors d'oeuvre. Oh they were delicious, so I was rather peeved to have to leave. But it was one of those magical days when London was lovely to stroll through, the crowds were not too enormous and we were entertained by many different groups.
It was good to come back to the country though!