2008 - The Year That Was

Here's a little slideshow I created of my 2008...

And also, mostly for those based in the UK, you might enjoy Rich's New Year's Quiz for 2008 - click here and enjoy!

Christmas 2008

Well, yesterday was truly a magnificent day, a really fab Christmas, complete with heat (but not too hot all the time), food, swimming, more food, presents, trailbikes, BBQ, and oh, did I mention the food?

Here's a little slideshow of our exploits - PS the two little girls are Marcella (Beck's girl) and Bethany (Mel's girl). Marcella is the older one (2 years old) with the pigtails.

Enjoy Christmas - Aussie style!

Singapore Sling and the Big Welcome Home

No, this post is not about the drink. I just couldn't think of anything else to add to the word "Singapore" - and "Singapore Fling" sounds like something dodgy was going on... so "Singapore Sling" it is...

Usually I like flying. I really like the excitement of knowing that in a few hours you'll be in some exotic destination, with a fab holiday hopefully mapped out in front of you, great fun and silliness to be had. Maybe I'm a bit crazy, but I like the idea of not being able to do too much, just sit there, have food and drinks brought to you when you like, watch a few movies and so on - its a forced relaxation, and for someone like me, who never ever relaxes, its just perfect.  Or should I say, its just perfect - for a few hours.

But on these silly long haul flights, 13 hours to Singapore and so on - it sure gets old very quickly.  And then uncomfortable, as you struggle to find any sort of temperature regulation, or any sort of comfortable position to sleep in - we all know there's no where near enough room in economy class.  Especially if, as is always the case for me, the Murphy's law of airline travel applies, which is - You'll always have some dipstick sitting in front of you who has to fling their chair back as far as they can so you can't eat your food or watch your personal tv, or freely breathe the air around you...

It always happens to me!  Why?  You've then got 13 hours cooped up in the tiniest of spaces, soooo uncomfortable!  I'm not normallly claustrophobic, but I seriously nearly flipped out on this one! It was just too hot, too cramped, too unpleasant for words.   And the worst thing was, the stewardess managed to remember to ask ME to put MY seat up for the 'food service' for the chick behind (who was having a special meal so she got hers ages earlier than the rest of us) - but never remembered to ask Mr Fatty Fatty Fat Fat to put his up when I got my meal!  Soon put that right, mind!  

But anyway, after an indeterminable time, we finally arrived in Singapore, which was brill.  We got there around 2.30 or so in the afternoon, faffed around a bit getting our bags and going through customs (have to remember that if you're laying over for more than 24 hours you can't check your luggage straight through to Brisbane - which suited me this time, as I have a load of Wensleydale cheese to give Mum), and then made our way to the Singapore stopover counter for the bus ride to our hotel, Furama Riverside.  Incidently, Furama Riverside doesn't actually appear to be near any river... just a trickle in a drain canal outside...

Anyway, the hotel was really lovely - they'd upgraded us to a deluxe room (to be fair, I'd hate to see the size of the regular room), which was nice - the pool was gorgeous, and there's a spa there (I got my eybrows done as I know Beck will comment on them if they're unruly).

So I had a bit of a relax and then it was time to go off and meet Jun and Zabrina for dinner.  We went to a place in Potong Pasir, a real local sort of eatery type place, and had the most amazing Chinese food.  Then we headed to Clarke Quay and had a bit of a wander and so on, and I experimented with my new camera taking photos of the bridge.

Jun and I at Clarke Quay

The next day I decided to go to the Botanic Gardens, as I have never been there, and do some more experimenting with my camera.  I had a fab time, but boy, was it hot!  I was just melting, and at one point, I'm ashamed to say, I had to actually sit down in the shade and try and cool off for a few minutes.  Fortunately then it rained a little, bringing a brief but welcome respite from the heat.  After this, I hit the Orchard Road for some serious shopping!

Some of my Orchid attempts

So it was quite late in the afternoon when I returned to the hotel.  Unfortunately Mal had not been well all day so she had phoned up and asked for the late checkout (6pm) - and they'd given it free of charge!  How good is that?  So when I got back, I packed and re-packed my bags (Agnieszka would tell you that is something I quite regularly do whilst on holiday), went to the spa place for an eyebrow tidy-up, then Mal and I hit the pool.  Oh how lovely it was!

After this, we checked out - and Mal went and hung out in the restaurant / cafe and I went for dinner with Jun and Zabrina (Mal didn't feel well enough to come for dinner).  We had this strange Japanese curry thing - everything in the restaurant is curry, its quite strange - but actually quite nice - and then I had to literally fly back to the hotel in a taxi so we could get our shuttle to the airport.

Zabrina and I at Mr Curry

We made our flight in good time, and it was a pretty uneventful journey - aside from the fact that, being a midnight flight, I only got 2 hours sleep - because they keep the lights on for a couple of hours after take off, and then wake you up again a few hours before you arrive.  If you factor in that the flight is only 7 hours, with 2 hours either side, you've only got a maximum of 4 possible sleep hours - and that's only if you can actually manage it in the confined space.

So, we arrived in Brisbane on time, and then it was the big customs palaver.  Australian customs are renowned for their diligence in not allowing many things into Australia.  Last year the little Hitler man confiscated my Wensleydale cheese, but I wasn't about to let that happen this year.  No way.  I phoned up well in advance to find out if I could bring it in!

No this time, the thing I was most worried about was my reindeer skin that I had bought in Finland.  But it was all ok - the worst of it was a few quick quips about it being Christmas Eve, and how can Santa fly his sleigh if I've got Rudolph in my bag?  And then it was all ok, and we headed off to the exit.

Oh boy, what a reception we got!  Everyone was there, Mum, Dad, Beck, Mel, Lach, Haz, Marcella and Grandma.   And when they saw us, they spontaneously broke forth into a very embarrassing rendition of "Give Me A Home Among the Gumtrees" - oh how I wish the ground could've swallowed me up then!  No actually, it was very sweet - and lovely to see them all.  And then Lach and Haz ran over to me and started covering me in Australian flag stickers - to 'decontaminate' me - and draped a dirty great big flag over my shoulders - and then it was off to the car.  That was the next surprise, Dad had hired a minivan so we could all travel together, and it was like a mini roadtrip.  They had chicken crimpies, chocolates, drinks, streamers, balloons, whistles... you name it, it was there.  It was soooo sweet...

We dropped Mal off at Nanny's and that was when I got to say hi to Nanny and Grandpa.  After that, we headed back home where I literally crashed.

What an adventure!

The party bus 

-Mum, Lach, Grandma, Beck, Mal, Me, Mel, Bethany (Marcella is behind Mal but you can't see her)

Grandpa Drews and I

Nanny and I

Marcella 'smiles' for the camera!

The One Where Kylie Nearly Misses The Plane

So in my previous blog I left you with basically Katie, Andy and Laura dropping me off at Mal and Ken's so we could head off to Heathrow.

What then transpired was a near disaster...

You see, Ken hasn't been very well this past week, and has actually had to have time off (very very VERY unusual for him).  So when I arrived at Mals at around 2.30pm, bearing in mind we wanted to be at the airport around 3.15, we basically took the bags straight out to the back porch and dumped them all there.  I then went to say goodbye to Katie, Andy and Laura, and then came back inside.  Mal said something about having to carry our bags down the back as Ken wasn't well - I misunderstood her at first and thought she was talking about when we get to the airport, which I thought was odd as Ken always drops us off at the drop-off lanes and then leaves.

So I didn't think any more of it until it was time to leave - and then I realised what she'd said.  So I grabbed as many bags as I could, and headed off down the back yard.  Mal grabbed some bags, and basically Ken followed behind.  I thought he was carrying some bags too.  We dumped them in the car and then headed off for Heathrow.

Once we arrived at Heathrow, we unloaded, said goodbye to Ken, who then drove off, and I ran off to get some trolleys whilst Mal stayed with the bags.  We loaded our luggage up on the trolleys and set off for check-in.

At the check-in counter the chick, who to be honest, was just more than a little stressy for her own good, asked about how many pieces of carry-on luggage we had.  Now I had checked the Singapore Airlines rules on the website, and it distinctly said that you could have 1 carry-on, plus a number of 'free' items - including a garment bag, a handbag, a laptop, an umbrella.... yada yada.  So I'd planned my carry-on stuff with that in mind, and I had a backpack, a laptop and a handbag.  Therefore I announced to the stressy chick that I had 3 bags - and she freaked.  Well, she would - she's the stressy chick.  

But as I went to hold them up, I realised a grave, terrible thing.  My backpack wasn't there...  MY BACKPACK WASN'T THERE!!!!!! Where could it be? It's got my hard drives, my big camera lens, my camcorder, my money, all my clothes for Singapore.... where is it?  I left Mal at the counter, arguing with the stressy chick about how much hand luggage we had, and I raced, literally tore through the airport, back outside to where we had unloaded the car.  Frantically looking around for any staff, I rushed up to the first I could find and practically screamed at them "Have you seen a black Targus backpack?"  No, he hadn't - maybe I should try the police.  I ran to them, but again, no luck.  They suggested going inside to the information counter - and they hadn't seen anything either, or had anything handed in.  Aaaaggghhh! 

I raced back to Mal, we finished our check in of our regular luggage and then tried to think what might've happened to it.  And that's when I realised it - no one had gone back up the back yard to check that all the luggage had been taken from the porch.  I hadn't done it, I had assumed that Mal and Ken, having followed me down the yard, would've done - and Mal said she hadn't - so I could only assume that probably Ken hadn't either.  I had actually thought about it at the time, but thought they had brought everything, so I didn't bother.  Why oh why didn't I go with my gut instinct?

Thus began the frantic phoning of Ken - but he never answers his mobile, and most definitely not when he's driving - so what to do?  We decided that, as we had a little time, rather than just go through Departures, we would have a quick coffee, keep trying Ken, and make a decision once we'd heard from him.

However, it took Ken a good 45 minutes to get home, and even then, because it was so dark, if the backpack had been on the porch, he mightnt've noticed it.  I went off again to ask airport staff about whether they'd seen my bag, and when I got back to Mal, she'd finally got on to Ken - and fortunately, he had my bag.  She put me on the phone to him, and in the background she was saying "he's really sick, he can't come back out here with it", but at the same time I was saying to him "well, how can you get the bag to me if not now?".  There was absolutely nothing for it, unless Ken came back out now, it would've been extremely difficult to get the bag back - and with all the important things in it, it would've been a real pain to be without it.  So Ken, being the trooper he is, jumped straight back in the car...

I sent Mal through Departures and told her to please try and hold the plane, or at least, not to go without me (but with Mal's panics she assured me that would not happen), as I knew that we would be cutting it very close to the mark if Ken managed to get back to Heathrow in 45 minutes - and that could only happen if the traffic remained good.  According to our boarding passes, our plane was due to board at 5.15pm, and we'd managed to get on to Ken a little after 4 - so theoretically it could work.  It was just whether it would work in practice.

But hallelujah, Knight in Shining Armour Ken rocked up with his Cadillac cavalier at 5.10, and I raced back in to the terminal, flew through customs, dived through the scanners (even the silly shoe one), and made it in time.

What a lucky break!

So the moral of the story is - always check to see if you've left anything behind...!

The Wrap Up

Well, after a very stressful few weeks, the madness is finally all over. No more time for procrastinating, the packing has to be finished, farewells said, and off we go.

The weekend was particularly busy. On Friday, school finished at 1200, but not for us. Still so much work to do for the 'handover' to the new guys. And then it was off to hear our girls perform with Kinetika at the Royal Festival Hall - they were totally fab, too - and then off to see the Lost and Found Orchestra, which I really enjoyed as well. The Lost and Found Orchestra is run by the same people who did Stomp, which was brill - and its much the same sort of concept, which is making music using unusual instruments, like bits of rubber tubing, water bottles and so on. The opening number was a bunch of people banging on some cello cases. I've embedded a few clips here which I found on youtube of the performance:

Then Saturday, I had to go into school, because I didn't get everything finished on Friday, plus also the girls were doing exams. I managed to get my stuff done by about midday, then headed off for lunch with Heather in Wimbledon, as I had to try and bank cheques and cash. Fortunately I managed to get that done - no mean feat, as I had a load of coins because of collecting for Erik's leaving present - and no bank counter was open at the time. So we asked a load of street vendors if they would exchange my coins for notes, which they did - such a relief.

After our banking expedition / lunch, it was off to Katie and Andy's for take away and the Muppet Christmas Carol with Katie, Andy and Laura - and then off home to finish packing. Suffice to say 3am came and went, and I was still packing...

Sunday was the big one - kids band and Adult choir at church, which I was directing. Actually I need to mention a few things about the Army. I didn't finish telling about the fabulous leaving do that Jo organised for me at Jimmy Spices a few weeks back, which was just wonderful. This place is awesome, you can have food from pretty much anywhere Asian - plus some British / Italian stuff - so I had heaps of sushi, Chinese food, Indian kormas, a bit of roast beef and some yorkshire pud, man, it was soooo delicious and soooo wonderful. Plus what was really touching was how many people from church came! We fair booked out half the place!

And then the most touching thing though was the Kids Christmas the next day - the kids band was on in the afternoon, and then after the service, we had a bit of a party and a movie (one of my favourites - The Santa Clause) and then they presented me with the most gorgeous watch, one of those Citzen Eco-drive ones - I was so touched.

So anyway, I said my farewells, had a quick bite at Katie and Andy's, and then it was off to Mal and Ken's to then head out to the airport...

The Adult Choir

The Kids (Kidult?) Band - so many kids were away that a load of adults had to step in...!

Final Music Concert

Well Wednesday saw a very busy, and very emotional, final Music concert for myself and Erik.

The day started off with Erik and Mat heading off to Brooke to set up for the concert during period 1.  I had tried to devise a schedule of rehearsals but it seemed that it didn't suit everybody, so it was quite difficult to juggle it all around.  Eventually a reasonable solution was found, so I took advantage of the 'free' time in period 1 to finalise the programme and get it printed.  Mistake 1.  The Murphy's law of school concerts is that you should never print the programme until the absolute last minute, as there are always changes.  Oh well.

The rehearsals throughout the day all ran very smoothly, and contrary to my usual form, I didn't appear the least bit stressed (although I will admit, I was a bit).

So the start time comes, and then we have a mini-freak out.  There's no-one there.  To be fair though, that is quite usual for our concerts, as, in the words of my girls, we run to 'Brixton time' - which means that 6pm is really 6.30 and so on... its a habit I've been trying to break for 10 years, but with very little success.  Surprisingly though this time, it was the school governors who were late!  And there was a surprise guest too, our previous headteacher - who had the vision and foresight to direct funds into the music budget and get the second specialism running - without her our department would really be nothing.

So we managed to kick off around 6.15pm, and I will admit, for the first part we seemed to be firing through the programme at an incredibly brisk pace - quite unlike our regular concerts.  I actually thought we may finish well within the alloted hour and a half.

However with the arrival of the concert band for their numbers, we soon lost pace again, as the pieces they played were a lot longer than I had anticipated.  We played 'Instant Concert', 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' (leaving off Mvt III Violet Beauregarde as no-one could really play it) and 'The Blues Brothers'.  Then I gave my little speeches, made my presentations, including an impromptu speech to Erik as I hadn't really planned to say too much about him at this event, as tomorrow night would be the big staff farewell - and the pressureful speech moment.  After this, the band wrapped it up with 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and that was that.  Or so I mistakenly thought.

The Deputy Head got up and said, "You don't really think you're going to have the last word, do you?" and then up got Nana, who read out a lovely speech to Erik and I.  Phew, that over, I thought we could go home.  No, up gets Mat - and suddenly Myrtle and Funmi, past students from 2 years ago, come out of the audience with their instruments, and the whole group performed an arrangement of "Land of the Silver Birch" for Erik, and "Waltzing Matilda (coupled with a few bars of "Auld Lang Syne") for me.  It was a complete and utter surprise, and I had no idea of how they managed to even pull it off - although I found out later that the students had all stayed back for rehearsal the day before until 5pm - how lovely that they would do this for us.  I was deeply moved, and of course the tears started to flow - and then out came the gifts.  I was overwhelmed by the generosity of the students and the instrumental teachers - they gave me the most lovely amber earrings, and the string orchestra had arranged a photo and frame of them at Bowles, and other students gave me individual things including chocolates, and teddy bears, and perfume... it was just overwhelming.  And the teachers gave me a gorgeous box with 2 mollard conductors batons - these are the best in the business - with a lovely inscription.  I was truly moved and touched.

Afterwards we went to the Dark Horse for our Christmas meal, just yummy - and then it was the time to say goodbye to all the team... so sad....

So I just want to take the time now to say thanks to all my students, and thanks to all my team - I love you guys and I will miss you terribly... please do stay in touch.  All the best.

Procrastinating Yet Again

So I'm right now supposed to be packing. Which means that I'm blogging instead.

I know things have been quiet on the blog front recently, and I'm sorry for that - but if ever you want to busy yourself up, leave the country. There's just too much to do! And no sleep to be had, which makes one more and more emotional - which causes tears at the drop of a hat, especially during leaving speeches and so on... but more on that later.

In the meantime, be aware that yes, I am still alive - only just - and will update the blog upon touchdown in the lovely Bris Vegas.

Merry Christmas!

Spoons

This past week I've been on our annual music camp to the Bowles Outdoor Education Centre.

The week was just fab, with a few exceptions. I have to say we will never ever again use that coach company. First of all, the guy couldn't find the school - he was just using a regular A-Z after all - but hey, its marked very clearly on the map so why he couldn't find it, I just don't know. I guess some men just don't know how to read maps, do they?

Anyway, the pick up time came, and went - and still no coach. Finally we made contact on the phone, and found out he was parked outside the church about a 15 minute walk away from the school. What a dope! So I had to send June down to find him, and then direct him to the school - which then presented problem number 2 - the luggage.

You see, Erik had asked for a trailer, and had been told by the company, no, it wasn't necessary. He checked several times, pointing out it was a music camp, the kids would have instruments - but they reassured us that we didn't need it - and that the drivers don't like towing one anyway.  So the bus eventually turns up (we'd booked a 79-seater so they sent us a double decker bus - but from the outset it was clear it was not designed for 79 passengers and their luggage, let alone 79 passengers, luggage, and musical instruments...! So we had a devil of a time getting everything on the coach. We ended up with instruments stored in the toilet, kids sitting on top of instruments, tubas on kids' laps and so on... for a 2 hour or so journey to Tunbridge Wells... how ridiculous is that? And then 20 minutes into the journey I get a phone call from the head honcho at the coach company complaining that the driver feels unsafe with all this luggage stored as it was, and requesting I book a trailer for the return journey. I soon set her straight, we should've had one from the word go. Then she tried to tell me it would cost £60 extra for the trailer - but because I wasn't in the office and couldn't pay in advance, she wasn't sure if they could do it. I mean, come on? We're away for 4 days - how on earth can I arrange payment in advance, and even if I could, why is that necessary? Its a school, its not going anywhere, if we default on the payment you could look up the address very easily - and seeing as we'd already paid some £1000 for the coach, why can't they just assume they'll get their money?  So, she said she'd phone me back if there was a problem, and seeing as she didn't call back, I assumed all was good.

We arrived then at Bowles and the kids quickly got into the swing of the routine.  Food, music / activities, more food, music / activities, more music / activites, free time, more food, more music / activites, then evening activity.  I have to say I was a little apprehensive at first as we had more kids on this year's camp than ever - but my fears were most certainly unfounded and everyone threw themselves into all the activities with such willingness and gusto, that an absolutely fab time was had by all.

In fact, this year it was so stress-free from the point of view of the kids' behaviour, but yet so labour intensive for the staff (as there were many more rehearsal slots and often several staff had to run two bands, so when the kids were doing outdoor activities, you often didn't get to be with your band but were running sectionals with another band or something) - that we decided to 'spice it up' a little.  This meant that at the start of the day, someone would come up with a word or phrase for the day, which you had to somehow get into your rehearsals or announcements in public.  So, the first day, the word was 'spoons'.  I have to say, I think I won that day, although Andy did come a close second with his singing of Mary Poppin's "Spoonful of Sugar" during one rehearsal, where he accused a girl of 'spooning the note' before telling another girl that she would get better if ... and then he sang the song.  My spoon mentions came more during the dinner time announcements, where I outlined suitable acts for our "CEBS Factor" evening - including, of course, playing the spoons - or when I told the girls they needed to get an early night's sleep to stop getting ill, as we didn't have any medicine jugs or spoons for them... I'm sure the kids must've thought all the staff had suddenly flipped out with all these mentions of 'spoons'!

The next day the saying was something like "I've never heard it called that before" which actually I think Jim and Andy won - to be fair, by default, as I didn't really have the energy having been up til 3am the night supervising our little treasure's bedtime...

The final day I just gave up on completely.  The phrase was something like "hot and cold" - and I just didn't have the creativity anymore to wangle that one into everyday conversation.  But the game "Spoons" sure made for many laughs at the staff table!

The talent evening on the Thursday night was just fab.  So many kids got up and did acts, and they were really good too - and then the staff did a few numbers.  Ruth and Jim decided to play the 'Trello' - which consisted of Ruth, the cellist, pressing down the valves on the trumpet whilst Jim blew the notes, and bowing the strings whilst Jim pressed the strings in the right position.  Very funny!

And then Erik got up and did a soppy number, 'You Raise Me Up', which had some kids in tears (and to be fair, me too - but probably not just because of leaving CEBS but also because it was played at Grandpa's funeral).

Anyway, it was a top night, and a totally fab camp, and I will keep it and my girls in my heart forever...

Ms Grant beating me in the sledging!

The cake the girls arranged for us

The staff band and "Ole Joe Clark"

Jim and Ruth and the "Trello"

It may not look like it, but I am hard at work here

My lovely girls and colleagues

Stop The World, I Want To Get Off! (AKA kmuki's Whirlwind Few Weeks...)

Stop the world, I want to get off! Oh my goodness, I would just love to have a night in, for a change...!

If you ever want to guilt your friends into spending some time with you, leave the country. Seriously. And that goes for rellies, too.

Let me see, for the past few weeks I have:

* karaoke'd my little heart out at Lucky Voice for Erik's farewell do

* spent the equivalent of a 3rd world country's national debt on a day trip to France with Erik and Natasha

* enjoyed a huge Sunday lunch with Mal, Ken and Jeff at the Toby Carvery, Epsom

* experienced a German Christmas market, Ping Pong dumplings, and heard Abdullah Ibrahim at the world famous Ronnie Scott's Jazz club with Heather and her husband, Johnny

* attempted to do my best Kenny G impersonation with Mat's soprano sax at band practise - and dismally failed, but hey... it was fun... sort of... - but only after playing Tuba with the Salvo's at the lighting of the christmas tree in Wimbledon by St Raphael's hospice

* had the most glorious leaving do at the Skylon restaurant, Royal Festival Hall, with my work colleagues - and enjoyed the most magnificent views of London whilst feasting on chicken and avocado salad, roast duck with puy lentils, and yummy chocolate brownie... fab!

* recorded some 27 students performing their GCSE coursework in front of parents, family, friends - and colleagues

* spent a lovely couple of hours with good friends Jessie and husband Rich at Wagamama's after wandering around the German christmas market again...

And all of that in just one week! Phew!

And next week is no better - I've got a leaving do with the Sutton SA crew tonight in Epsom, Kid's Christmas services tomorrow (my band is playing), shock, horror - a night off on Monday night (although Agnieszka wants to meet up), then we're taking 70 odd kids on a 4 day outdoor team building music camp extravaganza to Bowles Outdoor Education Centre...!

No wonder I say, 'Stop the World, I want to get off!' And I've still got silly boxes to pack!!!!! Aaaaggghhhhh!

Moore Updates From The London Jazz Festival

So as I said in a previous post, its the London Jazz Festival at the moment, and boy is there a lot going on!

I was unfortunately unable to get tickets to Herbie Hancock, such a bummer, would've loved to go, and also didn't manage to get tickets to Chick Corea, which I would also have loved to have heard, but hey, again, they were sold out.

So, I hear you say, what did you actually get to go and see?  To be fair, not that much in the end, but the stuff I saw was sheer quality.  I managed the other day to get to hear again Take Six and an amazing guy called Cleveland Watkiss, who was just brill.  He had this electronic foot pedal thing, the same that Freddy LaFont from Vocal Sampling used at the World Choral Symposium recently, which allows you to record something and then loop it straight away.  He was just amazing!  We'd got there a little late but we managed to hear quite a few numbers (I went with Ira and Jean) and although I don't know what they were, they were just captivating, as you heard him lay down each layer one after the other.  Just lovely.

Then we heard Take Six, who as usual, were just brilliant.  They've put out a new album now, called 'The Standard', which is a collection of mostly Jazz and some RnB standards, but to be honest, they didn't perform all that many from that album, preferring to stick to some of their older stuff (which we were very happy about).  The funniest moment was when they did a trip down memory lane and the young bloke did his Michael Jackson impersonation, which was very good and very, very funny.  They are just so talented, so musical - and I enjoyed every second of the performance.

Then today I went up town to catch a bit more jazz, and saw the wonderful Tokyo Chutei-Iki, a 10 piece Baritone Saxophone ensemble, performing at Foyle's Bookshop on Charing Cross Road.  Oh my goodness, how fabulous were they!  I've never heard anything quite like it...  Just astonishing - I had absolutely no idea you could do that with a baritone saxophone!  Here's a few pics I managed to sneak on my phone...

Then on Sunday, being the Festival finale, although I had missed getting tickets to Chick Corea, I managed to get a ticket to hear the Bireli Lagrene Trio and Martin Taylor.  It's quite funny how I managed to get these tickets, because I knew that Major Mingay and Neil were going to be going up to hear them, and had tickets, but I hadn't got any and didn't really want to gate crash - so I happened to mention to Neil that I thought I would maybe go up and see if I could get a ticket.  He told me the row they were in, and low and behold, the only seat left in that row was right next to theirs!  So I snapped that up real quick...

Anyway, Martin Taylor was on first, he's a guitarist with just the most beautiful touch, his music was beautiful.  The write up in Time Out advertising this event went like this:

Dream double bill for guitar fans featuring our own internationally acclaimed solo guitar virtuoso Taylor and phenomenal French gypsy jazz master Lagrene. Both pay tribute to iconic jazz violinist (and their old boss) Stephane Grappelli in the 100th year of his birth. Taylor opens with a unique duet with himself (using pre-recorded parts) creating beautifully interwoven lines, before the sparks fly in a frantic gypsy jazz guitar face-off with Lagrene.

I have to say they were right, it was a 'dream double bill'.  Taylor played on his own for a bit, amazing improvs, and then Lagrene came on and improv'd with him - so clever his music was, cleverly weaving snippets of famous tunes in and out of his improv, it was just wonderful.  And then the trio played, again that was amazing.  They were finally joined again by Taylor for the big finale and received 2 encores.

What a fab festival!

Femi Kuti and the Positive Force

Every November, for around 10 days, the London Jazz Festival takes place at music venues all around London.  The festival is absolutely magnificent, its a wonderful opportunity to hear some absolutely top quality musicians from all round the world at very reasonable prices - and because its an annual event, you'd think I'd be able to sort myself out to find out in advance what's going on, so I can give myself the best chance at scoring some top seats for some brilliant gigs.  But alas, this is me we're talking about - and whilst I can make a fair stab of organising stuff in my job, I'm rubbish at it in my home life.  So again, the Jazz Festival arrives - and I manage to secure very cheap (£2.50 anyone?) tickets for the kids to some good gigs (its part of the 'New Audiences' programme), but I never manage to book anything for myself.

So last night I was sitting there at the Royal Festival Hall with 15 or so kids from school waiting to see Femi Kuti, son of legendary Fela Kuti, and as you do, I was leafing through the festival brochure - and kicking myself.  Absolutely kicking myself.  Why?  Because I discovered, whilst sitting there, that tomorrow night, Saturday night, Herbie Hancock was performing.  Herbie Hancock!  Wow, that would've been fab - and I say would've, because as we all know, the tickets would be sold out by now (and they were - I checked).  So what an opportunity missed.

But I'm determined not to miss anything else if I can.  So hopefully, fingers crossed, this week I'll get to see Take 6, Andy Sheppard (who wrote the Saxophone Massive thing I did last year) and maybe even Chick Corea... if I can get tickets, that is...

So anyway, back to Femi Kuti.  The concert was pretty good, my only criticism was that it went way too long (for me with my 15 kids who needed to be home at a reasonable hour).  Femi didn't come on until the second half, after the supporting artist Ayo, a French singer who was very good.  But anyway, when he got on - well, I obviously never saw Fela Kuti in real life, but from all accounts, he was very flamboyant, energetic, extremely talented performer - and this was how Femi was.  To be fair, I wasn't quite expecting all the dancing, and all the singing (and all the political stuff) but hey, it was still a very good concert.  He played both trumpet and saxophone, and really wasn't bad at either.  Oh and a bit of keyboard too.

So let's see if we can get to anything else in the Jazz Festival, eh?  Need to make the most of these opportunities while I can...

 

The Most Stupid Thing I Ever Heard

For those who don't know, my school is in a borough of London called Lambeth. It's one of the toughest in terms of gangs, gun crime, knife crime - and generally some parts of the borough e.g. Brixton are considered to be very unpleasant places to live. This has repercussions on the classroom (seeing as many of the kids live in Brixton), as we have some of the toughest, hardest kids you would ever hope to meet. You know you can cut it as a teacher if you can teach in a Lambeth school (and by teach, I mean - keep the kids in the class and not killing each other!).

So that's why I think this has just got to be the most stupid, most absurd thing I've ever heard:

Foot massages calm unruly pupils

Disruptive schoolchildren in south London will be given foot massages by therapists to help get their aggressiveness under control.

Reflexologists will visit 74 primary and secondary schools in Lambeth and tend to children under 13.

Lambeth Council has budgeted £90,000 next year for reflexologists from London-based charity Bud Umbrella.

The council said it makes "no apologies for using different and innovative methods" to tackle aggressive children.

"We need to deal with the root causes of young people's behavioural problems and nip them in the bud" - Lambeth Council spokeswoman

Bud Umbrella's website says the therapy can calm aggressive feelings, improve listening skills and concentration as well as relieve anxiety and stress.

A spokeswoman for Lambeth Council said: "We make no apologies for using different and innovative methods, but this obviously won't replace more traditional ways of dealing with anti-social behaviour.

"We need to deal with the root causes of young people's behavioural problems and nip them in the bud."

The council said it had put an extra £2m into youth services and its programmes used traditional and innovative measures to tackle anti-social behaviour.

It said its programmes had led to a 50% increase in attendance and 60% decrease in exclusions among young people in the borough.

Reflexologists apply pressure on specific points on the feet to treat a number of conditions.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/london/7707019.stm

Published: 2008/11/03 18:43:52 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

What?!  You've got to be kidding, right?  Now isn't that the most stupid thing you ever heard?  

You know it was so stupid that even LBC, "London's Biggest Conversation" had something to say about it - and I can assure it was not in the least bit complementary.  What stupid burke thought up this one?  Any idiot can see that this is a completely ridiculous idea.

So when little Miss X (because I can't use her name, I'm still at the school) kicks off this week in my lessons, I'm supposed to be assured that her behaviour will be dealt with seriously and severely by a ... reflexologist?  (What does that even mean, anyway, aren't they just people who test your reflexes?  Suppose it wouldn't be so bad if Miss X got a whack on the knee with a hammer when she got sent out...) 

It seriously beggars belief, and poses the question - what planet are these people on?! - cos it sure ain't the same as the rest of us!  I dare any of the idiotic bureaucrats who came up with this dumb idea to come into my classroom after their 'treatment' has been administered - and just see how 'beneficial' its been to the student... bet they wouldn't last 5 minutes in the class!

What is the world coming to?

Oh How I Hate Packing!

Aaagghhhh!  I have literally been tearing my hair out the past few days with this silly packing!  I'm beginning to think that coming home was not really the smartest idea I've ever had...

You see, there's not enough room in my room to build the boxes, dump stuff, document every single tiny little thing that I pack, actually pack the stuff - and then try to heft the box down the stairs ready for the fella to pick up this week.  Its just madness!  So I started to move everything I needed to pack out into the garage, but the weather has been rubbish, and it is absolutely freezing cold in there - so there's no way I can stay any length of time in there and pack.  Therefore Jean suggested I put everything in the living room, as it'll only be there a few days, which I've done - but it is still painstakingly slow going - and very emotional, too, as I try to chuck out as much as I can.  But you can't chuck out photos, and you can't chuck out souvenirs that you bought, and you can't chuck out many clothes as - let's be honest - I won't be paid for about 2 months, so I won't really be able to go out and buy new clothes now will I?

So I had made quite good progress on the packing front, and then today I phoned up Anglo Pacific to book my collection date, and found out that every single little wooden thing has to be put into a different box, to make it easier for the customs guys - so that has now meant unpacking everything already packed!  Aaaggghhh!  It's enough to make my brown eyes turn... RED!!!!

Anyway, bring on Thursday when the whole bang lot will have had to have gone...

Tearing my hair out!

Two hours on, and there's still so much to pack! 

(in fact it looks like there's even more to do than there was before...!)

Three - The Internet Non-Provider

I'm just feeling the need to vent some anger!

I'm with the crappest internet provider on the planet!  Seriously! I phoned them up about 2 weeks ago, absolutely fed up to the back teeth with their poor service, and got some bloke in Delhi on the phone trying to solve my problem.  Which, I might add, he obviously didn't - BECAUSE I AM STILL HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM!!!!!! AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!

There's only a handful of internet sites I visit regularly at home - facebook, youtube and blogger.  And every evening, without fail, these websites simply will not load up!  This is why my blog output is so pov, because I have to type it up in Word or Stickies or something, then copy and paste when I am on an internet connection that doesn't cost me £15 a month and ISN'T CRAPPY OL' THREE!!!!!

It's like, tonight, I have been online for an hour and a half, trying to type up 3 quick blogs - and I get part way through and this happens:

Now I know you probably can't read that - but what it says in the lovely red writing on the bottom is 'Could not connect to blogger.com.  Saving and publishing may fail...' which means 'The internet dropped out again you dufus and saving and publishing?  No chance!'  Do you know how annoying this is? Aaaaggghh!  You see, obviously as a woman I am able to multitask quite effectively, so I'm doing several things at once.  Being a Mac, my computer can handle it absolutely no worries.  But Three and their dodgy internet?  No, they suck!  I'm trying to send an online birthday card on facebook, upload some video on youtube(so I can put it on blogger) and update my blog - and my internet provider lets me down without fail - you could lay money on it!  Both sites can't be connected.  It's madness for me to be paying £15 a month for this non-service - yet when you phone up and complain, they tell you their service in your area (like the man in Delhi can really see this information) is working fine.

It's working so fine that Stella doesn't get her birthday card and thinks I've forgotten, and I can't upload video I wanted to post on my blog - which doesn't matter, as I can't save to my blog anyway!  I'll just have to go downstairs and use the neighbour's free internet instead (obviously they're not with Three!).  So everyone, take heed - do not get your internet connection from three - unless you like paying good money for absolutely nothing...

Big Bangin' Fireworks

As many of you will know, November 5th is Guy Fawkes day in Britain.  This essentially stems from some gunpowder plot where a fella called Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament but the plans were foiled, and he was hung, drawn and quartered for his crimes.  How that now constitutes into 'fireworks night' I don't quite know - but basically its a good excuse for the Brits to put together a dirty great big pile of rubbish, stick a fake figure on it (calling it the 'guy'), set off a load of fireworks (nearly taking off their arms in the process) and release the inner pyromaniac in all of us.

So Laura, Sara, Katie, Andy and I set off on Saturday night to the display in Carshalton.  It was really good too, the fireworks went on for ages, and were, to be fair, rather impressive.  Not 'light up the Harbour bridge' impressive, but still - for a local display, they were pretty spesh.  And the music was really good (well, except for the unfortunate Celine Dion moment, but I guess we can forgive them that).

I couldn't quite believe just how many people turned out for this event, considering that at any time the heavens were about to erupt and dump a deluge on us (like it had been doing all day).  The one bad thing about it all was that with the weather having been bad all day, the park was like "Wet 'n' Wild" - slip and slide!  I was lucky not to stack it several times, including the one where Laura and I did a little slam dance (which caused a twinge in my back as I landed wrong - ow!).

Afterwards we went back to Katie and Andy's for chili jacket potatoes and to watch Wallace and Grommit (seeing as I have never seen any of the episodes and Laura had been going on about it because we were at the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes recently...) - it was really good, a top evening!

Anyway, here's a bit of video I captured on my phone:

Keeping My Eye On Barama

Now, I know this is going to be a big whacked out for many of those who know me, as although you know me as a practising Christian, I'm not normally prone to outbursts about profound Christian concepts, and particularly not stuff about end times theology (not like I once did as a teenager, put it that way).  But recent world events coupled with some stuff at church has got me thinking about this, and I wouldn't be being true to myself or my faith if I didn't put pen to paper (electronically speaking) and share my thoughts in a Nostradamus type way. You can choose what you do with them. Anyway, the reasons for this thinking have been a combination of Major Mingay, Gill Bonner and the Songsters, a movie I watched and the US election coverage on the BBC. How? Well, there are Major Mingay has been preaching a series called 'Cosmic Jesus' which is about the book of Revelation, Gill Bonner did a devotion at Songsters on Thursday night about Barack Obama, I recently rewatched 'Left Behind' (well I needed to have a perv on Kirk Cameron) and finally, the BBC haven't stopped showing their coverage of the whole US election and its effect on not just the US, but the whole world. So there I was on Thursday night, listening to Gill talk about Barama, and I suddenly got to thinking about Barry Smith. Barry Smith was a NZ evangelist who used to travel around the world preaching eschatology (that's 'end times theology' to us plebs). He wrote several excellent books, which I can highly recommend, especially if you, like me, find Revelation pretty heavy going - First Warning, Second Warning, Third Warning and Final Notice. In these books, and in his sermons, he would talk a lot about the signs of the times, and how they point to Jesus' Second Coming. There's lots of schools of thought on exactly how this will happen, but the end result is usually the same - Jesus takes the believers back to Heaven, and the non-believers get judged and sent to Hell (that's it in a nutshell). Another good series of books about this were written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, called the 'Left Behind' series. They actually made this into a film, and I was watching it the other day. In this series, suddenly millions of people vanish from the face of the earth, and then a charismatic, incredibly intelligent, well-spoken leader rises as the head of the UN, who eventually becomes the leader of the whole world. This is a young man who is able to relate to so many different people because of his international background. They made these books into movies, and if you can excuse the obviously much lower budget than your average Hollywood flick, they are really quite gripping and quite well done. So anyway, I'm rambling a bit now - but all this has got me to thinking about Barack Obama. Can he be this leader that is prophesied in the book of Revelation and Daniel, who will bring about a 7 year peace treaty in the Middle East, but breaks it after 3 1/2 years? Could he be the antichrist that is prophesied? Now before you think I'm completely whacked out, I urge you - do your own research. I typed in "Barack Obama antichrist" and "Barack Obama 666" into google, and I've seen the hundreds of webpages and blogs that others have written along these lines. I checked some of them out, and some of them don't even quote the bible properly - so how they think they're making a plausible argument is beyond me. I'm not trying to do that. I'm just telling you that I'm going to be watching Barack carefully, matching up what I know from my own research with what he does - and if I see signs of the following, I'll know that its true: 1. He will confer a 7 year peace treaty in the Middle East and break it after 3 1/2 years. 2. Either at that time, or at the end of the 7 years, there will be a mass vanishing of people - the Christians will have been taken into Heaven 3. He will cause everyone to have a chip or some sort of device implanted in their right hand or forehead so that they can function financially - there will be no more cash, no more fantastic plastic - you will be your own walking debit / credit card. 4. Then there will be a series of plagues and devastations before the final judgement. I know, you think it all sounds nuts - and that's ok, but if ever any of that happens, you'll remember reading this, and it will get you thinking. I suggest reading the LaHaye / Jenkins books, and having a look at Barry Smith. Anyway, that's it. That's why I'll be taking a closer look at Barama when he comes to power...

Meanwhile, here's the trailer for the Left Behind movie:

Barama and The Fish N Chips Man!

I don't know about you, but if I hear one more thing about the US elections, I'm going to scream.

I mean, last time I checked, I was still in the UK, not the US.  So why is it that every time I turn on the TV, or the radio, or heaven forbid, read a newspaper, I am bombarded with US election crap?  They're reporting more on that here than they do for their own election!  Like, even LBC, the radio station I normally listen to in the morning, are broadcasting their daily breakfast show this week from Chicago, so we can get more involved in the elections!  Honestly, I could care less!

I understand that the President of the United States is a very powerful man, and we know that the current one has seriously mucked up various countries around the globe, pulling the Poms and even us Aussies blindly into the muck too - but really!  None of us have a vote in this election, so do we really need to be bombarded with all this hullabaloo?  I know, its history, history, history - but it isn't my history!  

Today, whilst they were waiting for the result, they got so desperate for 'new' news (let's be honest - how many times can we hear the reports of people queuing around the corner yada yada yada to vote, care factor really), that they even crossed over to Kenya to do a report on Barama's (I can't be bothered to say Barack Obama) Kenyan grandma.  Honestly!

And as for McCain, the fish n chip man, well, did he even have a chance?  Of course not!

I'm glad that the whole thing is now finally over... maybe now we'll have some peace and quiet....

The Search For Janet Foss

Here's episode 2.... what do you think?

In Search of The Yorkshire Yeti

This week, having been the half term week, I went away with my friend Laura to the Yorkshire Dales for a week of walking.

We had an absolutely fabulous time!  The weather was really good (despite being cold), and we did heaps of walking around Ingleton, Malham and Hawes.  We ended up walking some 33 miles in total, which was pretty good!  We used a fab book which I had been given by a lovely old man called Tom on my last trip up to the Dales - the book was Mark Reid's Walking Weekends in the Yorkshire Dales - I can thoroughly recommend the walks in this book, they were just brill.

Having taken a video camera this time, and with not much to do in the evenings, we decided to have a bit of fun... so here's the first episode in our "In The Wild" series... see what you think!

Totally Tapas!

So recently at Sutton they've reinstigated the "Friday Night Food Project" - only now it's the Saturday night food project.   Basically what happens is that each month, one of the small groups gets together and caters a night of food from a different country.  Last month Gill and Adrian's small group did Sweden - and let's be honest, they cheated - they bought a load of meatballs and stuff from Ikea!  Don't get me wrong, it was lovely, and the entertainment was brill, but still - it was cheating.

Anyway, this month it was Steve's small group - which basically consists of him and Neil (and Col occasionally).  Last year when it was Steve's group's turn, he asked me to join in, as the theme was Oriental food - so we cooked up a load of Chinese food, had green tea and so on as well - and I taught the fellas how to make sushi.  It was a huge success - so when it came around this time, Steve was anxious to ensure that we lived up to our reputation.

The theme this time was 'Totally Tapas'.  We decided to make a whole load of tapas dishes - gazpacho, croquetas, chorizo, garlic mushrooms, nastillas... so Col and I went around Steve's the week before for Sunday lunch, and we downloaded the various recipes and planned what we would make.  Then, on the Saturday, we met at the hall quite early (well I was a bit later because I was giving Jamie a piano lesson - he has his Grade 3 exam in a few weeks).  Steve and Neil were there from 9, and then went shopping, and I joined them later at 11.  This might not seem like a big deal to you, but put it this way, the evening didn't start until 7pm, and we basically cooked all day non-stop!  In fact, the only break we had was a quick, on-the-go coffee and toastie from Tariro's (which is based at the hall anyway, so it's not like we got to leave the hall or anything).

I'd decided to do gazpacho and croquetas, and then help out with whatever other dishes I could.  The gazpacho (cold vegetable soup) was easy enough - although took a little while on account of we had about 50 people to cater for - but the croquetas!  Well they also were easy enough, but took ABSOLUTELY FOREVER!!!!  Have a look at the recipe here.

Those things are well fiddly, and took so long to make that I didn't get to help out with much of any of the other recipes (other than to make non-alcoholic sangria, which went down a treat!).  But we had an absolutely brilliant day preparing all the food, non-stop whistling (particularly of 'Doh, a Dear' - because Steve's son Alex had come into the kids' hall next to the kitchen and started playing it on piano - nothing is so difficult than to get rid of an annoying tune like that from your head!).

Our culinary efforts were very well received by those in attendance, so it was all worth it in the end.  What a fab day!

Ruby's Been Healed!

Finally!  Ruby has been healed!  And what a palaver that has been!

Basically, where I left you was that I had contacted a guy about buying a new bonnet, in the same colour, and then Ken was going to fit it.  The bonnet arrived, and Ken went to fit it - and it was the wrong colour, had a dirty great big scratch down it (worse than Ruby's already was) and wasn't even for the right model Ford.  I wrote back to the guy but he has conveniently gone quiet - so whatever you do people, don't use the Nationwide Car Repair people - they really suck.

So then Ken advised me to go down to the local body shop and ask them to do a 'blow-over' - but the guy quoted me £175 for that - or £20 for a pot of paint to do it myself - and then he couldn't match the colour!  So I was really starting to despair...

However Mat, my mate at work, had a brainwave.  He suggested that I ask Kirk, the fit young Jamaican school-keeper, to take the car to one of the body shops and try to pass it off as his own - therefore more than likely getting a better quote than I ever could.  Kirk actually went one better than this, he had a mate of his own who could do it for me!  Brilliant!

The quote was around £70 or so, which I thought was quite reasonable, and the only inconvenience was that Ruby was out of action for the best part of a week, as this bloke was obviously fitting her in in his spare time (a bit of pocket money for him, I guess).  I didn't mind (well only one day, but that was when there was a problem with the Tube) - and when you see the results, I think you'll agree with me that it was worth it.

Have a look for yourself:  here's the "before" shot:

And the "after" shot:

He's done a good job, hasn't he?  You can't see the scratch at all!  Thanks, Kirk (and Kirk's friend)!

We're Big, Brunette and BEAUTIFUL!!!!

One of the lovely things about living in London is the opportunity to go to the theatre. Not that you don't get that chance in Brisbane, but in London, there's literally 20 or 30 odd shows on at any given time (and the rest!) that you can go and see - in Brisbane, you're lucky if 2 or 3 visit QPAC in a year... alas...!

Anyway, I have recently realised that with the return to the Bris Vegas fast approaching, I need to fit in as many shows as I can (plus it's one of the things I said in my phone interview, so I suppose I better do it!). So on Wednesday night I went with Laura to see Hairspray.

I've never seen the film - just snippets of it - so I wasn't really sure what to expect - but I thought it was just brilliant. Michael Ball played the mother and he was hilarious!  I had always thought he was a good singer, but he's a pretty good actor too, and he just made the whole thing.

The music was terribly catchy - I have to borrow Laura's CD or buy my own or something - you just leave the theatre singing all the songs.  My favourites were 'Big, Blonde and Beautiful', 'Hey Momma, welcome to the 60s' and the last one which I've now forgotten the name of! 

Accidentally Friday Street - Revisited

Saturday morning.  You'd think, after my big night the night before, at French and Saunders - and after a busy working week - I'd have a bit of a lie-in.  You're kidding, right?  Me?  Sit still for one minute? Ha!

I'd made arrangements with Laura and Katie (and Andy) to spend the day walking at my favourite, localish to London walking place - Friday Street.  We'd planned to meet at 10.30, but then that was scuppered slightly by...

...the fact that I got a job!  I thought to myself, as I was procrastinating and sort of getting ready, oh I'll quickly check my email - and discovered one from my new headteacher, the one from that absolutely diabolical interview the other day - and they'd gone and given me the job (they need their heads to be read, seriously!).  So there was much whooping (shame that Jean wasn't there - I could only whoop to myself) and then frantic calling to Mum and Dad to share the news - which resulted in my being a little late to Katie and Andy's.

That wasn't a big deal, seeing as actually Andy was at the barbers at the time, and also he was a bit crook too - at one stage we thought he mightn't make it.  But fortunately he did, and about 11.30 or so we set off...

We made good time down to Friday street and then embarked upon the printed out walk from www.walkingworld.com.  Now what you have to understand is, I have done this walk 3 times or so, but I have never ever managed to do it exactly as it is printed out.  And you have to also understand, Katie and Andy are walking gurus.  So I can't afford to look like a dipstick (she who has done this walk 3 times before!), and I need to save face - so I tried to pass off the directions sheet to Katie (I mean, seriously, she had the full on OS map of the area, and I'm sure if I looked in her backpack, she probably would've had a compass or something in there!  hehehe).  Katie, however, is an extremely intelligent woman - and passed the flippin' sheet straight back!  Hmm...

I needn't have worried.  Andy has ridden his bike around here several times and therefore knows the area like the back of his hand.  In fact, he was pointing out a whole load of very dangerous looking bike jumps and shortcuts (sheer vertical drop, anyone?) - which I am pleased we didn't take.

About halfway through the walk we arrived in the village of Coldharbour, which has a lovely little pub in it, strategically placed at the exit of our walk - which was just as well, as we were in need of the facilities.  We then headed out to the beergarden at the back, and with myself and Laura on the lookout for the publican, we proceeded to have a little picnic.  We had bought drinks there - Katie and Laura, in true Famous Five style, drank "lashings and lashings" of gingerbeer, whilst I restrained myself with just a diet coke, as usual.

Anyway, after our lunch we set off again in the direction of Leith Hill, which we eventually managed to climb (I practically hyperventilated my way up the hill, all the time pretending to the others that I was Miss Superfit, and therefore all right).  The view from the top of the tower was lovely... even though a little overcast...

We then started to make our way back, and it was at this point that the diet coke in the pub, the water en route, the frappucino at lunch, and the cup of tea at the tower started to take its toll on me.  Seriously.  Where's the 'Depend' when you need them? (Tena lady for the UK readers).  So I hopped over the hedge and went behind a tree, and was no sooner in position, bottom at the ready, when 2 cyclists come flying up the hill.  You have never seen me move so fast!  Trousers straight up, zip up, and then I had to try and look like a botanist, and not like someone who had been caught short... I don't think I fooled them though!

We made it back in good time, and then headed back to Katie and Andy's for a quick cuppa before everyone came over to Jeans for a bit of pasta (literally only a bit, I underestimated the size of the gnocchi and so everyone's plate was a bit light on) and a movie...

What a fab day...!