I would like you to meet...

the new man in my life. His name is Herbie.

Yes, I have a different car. Blue - the name of my last car, has gone onto new pastures, without too many public tears from me. In private however.... a different matter. So many things about that car are precious memories of my mother and the times we spent together getting lost in the Worcesterchire countryside. However, it was time for us both to move on.
Hence Herbie. He is gorgeous, a VW Beetle with Herbie markings. My brother-in-law obviously fell in love with him, so as I ws going to change my car this year - he fitted the bill! Driving 200 miles to change your car is silly, but he's lovely and to repeat that phrase,"He's worth it!"

Within 20 miles of setting off to drive home, I had had several new experiences - and I am in the middle ages of life.
I have never been propositioned by total strangers driving past on the motorway before - not that I want this to happen in life, but it was new and funny! The young men going to Reading were obviously smitten with him.
The engine seems to have two modes - speeds up to 70mph and then faster!! To my horror I found myself in the second stage without even realising it on the journey home from Fleet - what a bad car!! I shall need to keep an eye on the speedometer very carefully from now on.
My only worry is that all those drivers on my journey to work won't realise that Herbie is the new Blue. We have good relationships - waiting at the passing points and waving as we pass each day. I think a sign is needed, but then, they didn't know that my last car was called Blue.
Oh, what d you do in this kind of situation?!!!

I have seen the rust...

I visited my sister this week-end and saw the work she has done on her 'vehicle', it is most impressive. The engine is hanging from a pole, waiting to be totally taken out of the frame. I am most impressed with what she has done and also what she intends to do, it involves things like welding and replacing parts of the frame. Now I can wield a paint brush and drill a few holes in walls, but as for rebuilding a car - leave me out of it!! Look at her site - it is the Green Blatherings to see what I mean.
An unusual sight that greeted me on the journey was the diversity of road kill: pheasants, a pole cat, an owl (sadly) and a deer. Now if I had been a braver woman I would have been ou of the car, knife in hand and I would have gutted the beast and taken a joint to my sister fo rher freezer. But of course, I didn't, what a chicken!
Now tomorrow I have to produce two thousand words, OK, let's do it!

Tami, you are wonderful!

I returned home tonight to find a little chit in my postbox telling me that the Post Office had tried to deliver a parcel. Are you like me and LOVE receiving parcels? (Childhood happiness was the unexpected parcel arriving in the post!)
However, fast forward x number of years, the feeling is just the same. So I dashed into Newport to the Post Office to pick it up and realised immediately what it was from the faint cinnamon aroma. I still haven't unpacked it, I am sitting here sniffing the parcel with a silly grin on my face!
Thank you so much Tami for sending these over. I am even going to see my sister at the week-end, so I shall be sharing some with her, as she is also an addict!
Happiness is Cinnamon Altoids!
Thank you.

Geekery!

Oooh, I have found a gadget that I was curious about, bought it, connected it to the pooter - and it works!! It is one of the online phones - now all I need is someon to ring - for free!!

Playing Hookey!

I escaped from the writing today and went down to London to the BETT show - its the computer geeks equivalent for teachers! The show was great, I picked up lots of ideas and met up with past colleagues which was wonderful!
However, what struck me was the difference between this train journey and the last one I took. Did I tell you aabout my train journeys in India? Well, where to start?
Let's consider the tickets, I went on line here, booked them and picked them up at the station, time taken? about 10 minutes maximum. Now, as for India....
Well, about 40 minutes by tuck tuck to the station,(this included a race with another couple who were also vrgin tuck tuck passengers!) then a queue at one kiosk for about 60 minutes to find out about the train and pick up the all important time and name of the train. Dash over to the next kiosk for women, disabled people and the elderley only to pick up our tickets. Thsi queue was also lengthy and full of perfectly able-bodied men; now I spoke no Hindu, but there was perfect communication between several Indian women and Shirley and I about this state of affairs! The elbows came into play and we blocked the men at several stages very effectively, however that too took about 40 minutes!There were about 8 other kiosks in action as well, all with queues of at least a hundred men waiting for tickets, what a system!! The Indians really use their railways.
It might have been an unwieldy set up, but we had the tickets. Catching the train as another matter! Our tickets had practically all our personal details on them and we were told to look for our names on the outside of the carriage, together with our seat numbers. Fine! Have you seen how long those Indian trains are?? Even with help from a lovely gentleman, it took us half an hour of walking the full length of the train, reading the passenger lists on every carriage to find our names.(We were laden down with our rucksacks and it was mid-day, just to add to the discomfort!) All would be well if the name were correctly written out, but that was not quite the case. However, we found our places and settled down for a wonderful trip throughthe countryside to Agra. People were very friendly and quite amused when the Scrabble Board came out, The Chai man even stopped to look as he made his frequent journeys from end to end shouting 'Chai!' in every carriage.
The seats were those firm curved bench shape, covered in shiny leather, but they did the job. We arrived to the welcome of all rickshaw riders wanting to take us to our destination. We dashed out of the forecourt down a side road to escape them! Luckily one of them followed us because we were heading for no-man's land!
My other over-riding memory was our return to Delhi in the dark. We had views of people living in house which can only be described as Hogarthian - parts of the buildings were missing, there was no electricity, and very little by way of home comforts. However, people were seated around fires, eating and talking well into the middle of the night. It was possible to see the shadows of people walking up the steps to parts of rooms that were open to the skies, I presume to go to bed. It was quite an emotional realisation that these people had very little by way of worldly goods but they had everything by way of community living. They were talking together, something that those of us whose houses have all four walls perhaps don't do so much of.

After the sins - the penance!

Talk about bad timing! Today's paper has LOTS of articles about weight loss. It takes using over 2000 'things' (calories?) of energy to get rid of one pound of the weight that I have put on over Christmas, and as I put on 10 pounds, that's an awful lot of exercise. DRAT!
25 minutes of walking on the treadmill used up the vast number of 100 calories, so that is rather losing like a molehill compared with the mountain of fat! Come in Jonny Wilkinson, I need your determination to do something about this.
So, only one of those delicious almond cakes has passed my lips today and I am now going to cook a very healthy lunch. Instead of only going to the gym twicw a week, I shall do an extra set of exercises at home whilst I am looking for an excuse not to write the weekly 1000 words needed to finish my dissertation.
Do you get the impression that I am panicking?
YES!

I am sinning!

This week-end sees the polishing up of the methodologoy part of my dissertation. Now there has to be some kind of inducement to do this, so I treated myself to a packet of Italian biscuits - they are called Ricciarelli. Oh my goodness, they are the bees knees for sinful biscuits. Yummm! Ground almonds and apricot stone innards (can't remember the name of them at the mo) and what must be oodles of sugar. Oooh, bliss! Must get on with the work - then in one hour I will allow myself another one!

First reminder

I am trying to imagine that the first reminder I received to go the gym is from Johnny Wilkinson - such a sad case! However, it is working, I feel that I want to go to the gym to rid myself of the Buddha belly.

As for the real world, what do you feel about the situation of Kennedy and his alcoholism? Should he resign from the leadership of his party? I just don't know how I stand on this one, he has been extremely brave to 'go public' but does that make him a better leader? Then I ask how long this has been going on and whether the last election results could have been even better for the Lib Dems? Interesting... and I wonder how many more people have alcoholic problems which they are not facing up to. (Meanwhile, I am enjoying a second G & T, so where do I fit in all of this!!?)

Day 1

I have signed up with the Boots website and also went to the gym after school today. I feel that this is a good omen!
The days are miserably dark and cold, so I am really looking forward to the spring and some gardening. I have also arranged for another bathroom plumber to come and look at my bathroom and tell me what he thinks of my ideas for changing it into a wet room. I had better make the list of the tiles and things that I want so he can make up a quote. Exciting! That is not really spring like, but it is a change and that is something I always enjoy.

Johnny Wilkinson

I have just read an article written about Johhny Wilkinson in yesterday's paper. He is a sportsman I have much admired, but did not realise that he has been so afflicted by injuries; that is so awful for players of any sport. However, I liked the way he deals with it and what is more he is also helping Boots in their new website. This is all about improving one thing in our lives, giving up smoking, losing weight etc. I am going to try it and see if it helps me as I have the determination of a kitkat! Sign on day is tomorrow, if I manage that, then the signs are good!

Shall I, or shan't I?

Make a list.... I think I shall, it hasn't been done for several years, so I feel the urge coming upon me. I am going to follow the advice in the Sunday Times supplement which advised not aiming to lose weight to fit those tight jeans, but to throw away the jeans - sound like a good idea to me!
So the list heading is going to be;
Things to throw away in 2006.

If you like, you could suggest some things to go on the list - but DLG, spare my blushes please!!