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I was so shocked and saddened this weekend when I found out that Frank - my PEG buddy, who had CUP like me and who had his first chemo session the same day that I did, has died. I couldn't believe it - it happened back in May. I hadn't seen it in the paper - or heard about it from anyone at the hospital - but I guess patient confidentiality is sacrosanct. It was very upsetting to hear - after all we've been through together.
The last time we saw him in the hospital was back in February:
"We had quite a wait in the main waiting room. That was fine though - as we saw Frank and his wife waiting there too so we could catch up. It was so nice to see him!
He was looking quite thin - but he said that he had his PEG out a couple of weeks ago (horrendous experience he said - and I would agree!) so was actually eating real food now - supplemented by the liquid food. So, hopefully he'll fatten up a bit soon. Nothing tastes nice though - and he can't eat a lot. He has a very dry mouth and needs water with everything. It is some progress though.
The not so good news though was that he has another lump in his neck and one in his chest. So last week he was back having another scan. He was waiting for the results today. I hope it is not serious. On the good news side - they have booked a holiday and are looking forward to that in May."
The first time we met properly was in March 2012 - on PEG insertion day:
"So I turned up to Ward 107 yesterday at 8am with my little overnight bag and a sense of dread in the pit of my (empty) stomach. They didn't have a bed for me so sent me to the Day Room until they'd had the 8.30am Bed Allocation Meeting. In there I met a chap who was also in for the PEG insertion. I remember that I'd seen him before in the Radiotherapy Suite - he had a CT Scan with his mask just before I did. Another member of the exclusive CUP Club!
We exchanged stories and experiences so far - both very similar. He said that he'd said to his wife the day before "I want this day to go on forever" as he was dreading this morning as much as me. He said also that he was totally determined not to use this thing even though we had to have them put in. I agreed - although I guess one day we might just be glad of them. That's why I hadn't actually refused to have it done - though it was a close-run thing!
He hit the nail on the head when he said the worst thing was that we were going to be awake for the whole procedure. He'd had to stop reading the information leaflet before the end whereas I had read even more on the Internet and watched a video."
We saw him and his wife so many times in between - mainly in waiting rooms. He was always upbeat, cheerful and smiling. It felt good to be going through this with someone who had the same thing. We could compare scars and treatment plans. It won't be the same going for check-ups and not seeing him there. :-(
RIP Frank
Just an ordinary librarian in a lovely little village library who loves playing poker and longs to go to Las Vegas. Then one day she discovers a lump in her neck...this is the story of what happens next.
Monday, 26 August 2013
Wednesday, 21 August 2013
Trip to Liverpool
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Look who I met when I went to Liverpool for the day last week. Firstly the seagull - just sitting outside the Walker Art Gallery - which was out first port of call.
We went up there on the train with Nathan's parents. They got on at Stone and we got on at Stoke - it worked pretty well! We changed at Crewe - and got into Liverpool mid-morning.
We were lucky to have a warm dry day too to wander around. We went because Nathan was at University there and he and his parents spent quite a lot of time there over the three years. They had wanted to go back for some time - it was lovely to go with them! I used to live right next door - in St Helens for six years - so I knew it quite well too. Although it had been quite a few years since I had been there too.
We met Ken Dodd at the station - in a sculpture called "Chance Meeting" that also featured the former MP Bessie Braddock - who did much to improve the conditions of the working class.- she was a British Labour Party politician. Known as an ardent socialist and fiery campaigner, nicknamed 'Battling Bessie', her special interests included maternity, child welfare and youth crime. I'm not exactly sure why she is holding an egg though :-)
We had a look around the Walker Art Gallery first - attracted to the old building by the brightly coloured birds all along its roof and under its eaves. They looked very effective!
Then we walked down to the Liverpool Central Library which had a very interesting "Literary Pavement" leading up to it. Some of the words were written in red and they were supposed to give you a clue to one of the rare books housed within. We managed to work out the line "The Cyclops in the Wood" - but we haven't managed to guess which author and title it refers to. Any help gratefully received - we could win a prize!!
Nathan was very impressed that not only did the library rent out games - but they also had a Games Room where you could go and play them - with Playstations and X-Boxes.
There was a huge circular children's area and on the day we were there they had a clown entertaining them! He must have been good as we only saw one little girl screaming in terror at him.
Further down the same road was the Museum of the World, where we saw more weird exhibits and visited the aquarium on the first floor. I liked the pterodactyl skeleton flying over head and I did NOT like the Spider Crab - far too big ( and spider-like) for comfort.
We stopped for lunch then - went to an old haunt of N's - The Welkin. It is named after an old word for the sky - in memory of the "Father of Astronomy" Jeremiah Horrocks, who was one of Liverpool's famous sons. It was certainly busy - but we managed to find a table and eventually get served at the bar!
After we'd eaten N's mum and I went off to do a spot of shopping in the city centre while N and his dad stayed to have another pint and reminisce.
The centre was heaving with people and so many buskers and those live statues! We saw one called "Windswept Man" who was exactly that - he stood frozen in the middle of the square looking as if he was battling against a hurricane! There wasn't even a breeze! He got a lot of puzzled looks from passers-by. We thought he was brilliant! Lots of people were taking his photo and putting money in his tin. We stopped to watch some break dances too - they had a huge circle around them - you could hardly get down the street. What was sweet was an old chap who was trying to copy their moves. He was the star!
We visited some famous outlets and purveyors of fine clothes - for an hour or so. Didn't come back with too many bags! The boys were still in the pub when we got back!
We then decided to walk up the hill to find The Philharmonic Rooms - a pub and old dining hall that used to be known as "the most ornate pub in England" It was most impressive with its wood panelling and stained glass windows and magnificent chandeliers. We sat and had a drink before walking back down into the centre of Liverpool again.
On the way we passed the Bombed Out Church - St Lukes. It has been stood empty with no roof since the Liverpool Blitz in 1941 when it was hit and burned out. Trees are growing inside it - and it does look rather nice.
Before going back to Lime Street station to get our train back home we decided to go into the Adelphi Hotel - the one made famous by the TV series featuring it, with its staff and any visitors. We thought it would be nice to have an afternoon tea - as advertised in its glossy brochure in the foyer. Sadly though - due to staff cuts they no longer serve afternoon tea. They said we could sit in the sumptuous lounge and go and get ourselves a drink of tea from the bar down below. However - they would only let us take it in polystyrene cups - so we decided to pass on that.
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| Friendly Local :-) |
We went up there on the train with Nathan's parents. They got on at Stone and we got on at Stoke - it worked pretty well! We changed at Crewe - and got into Liverpool mid-morning.
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| Ken Dodd at the station - tattyfilarious! |
We were lucky to have a warm dry day too to wander around. We went because Nathan was at University there and he and his parents spent quite a lot of time there over the three years. They had wanted to go back for some time - it was lovely to go with them! I used to live right next door - in St Helens for six years - so I knew it quite well too. Although it had been quite a few years since I had been there too.
We met Ken Dodd at the station - in a sculpture called "Chance Meeting" that also featured the former MP Bessie Braddock - who did much to improve the conditions of the working class.- she was a British Labour Party politician. Known as an ardent socialist and fiery campaigner, nicknamed 'Battling Bessie', her special interests included maternity, child welfare and youth crime. I'm not exactly sure why she is holding an egg though :-)
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| Me and Ken Dodd! |
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| Battling Bessie Braddock |
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| Walker Art Gallery and its Birds! |
Then we walked down to the Liverpool Central Library which had a very interesting "Literary Pavement" leading up to it. Some of the words were written in red and they were supposed to give you a clue to one of the rare books housed within. We managed to work out the line "The Cyclops in the Wood" - but we haven't managed to guess which author and title it refers to. Any help gratefully received - we could win a prize!!
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| Liverpool Library |
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| Literary Pavement |
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| Games Room!! |
Nathan was very impressed that not only did the library rent out games - but they also had a Games Room where you could go and play them - with Playstations and X-Boxes.
There was a huge circular children's area and on the day we were there they had a clown entertaining them! He must have been good as we only saw one little girl screaming in terror at him.
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| Nathan's Mum admires the Spider Crab |
Further down the same road was the Museum of the World, where we saw more weird exhibits and visited the aquarium on the first floor. I liked the pterodactyl skeleton flying over head and I did NOT like the Spider Crab - far too big ( and spider-like) for comfort.
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| Times for Lunch in The Welkin |
We stopped for lunch then - went to an old haunt of N's - The Welkin. It is named after an old word for the sky - in memory of the "Father of Astronomy" Jeremiah Horrocks, who was one of Liverpool's famous sons. It was certainly busy - but we managed to find a table and eventually get served at the bar!
After we'd eaten N's mum and I went off to do a spot of shopping in the city centre while N and his dad stayed to have another pint and reminisce.
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| It's "Wind-Swept Man" |
The centre was heaving with people and so many buskers and those live statues! We saw one called "Windswept Man" who was exactly that - he stood frozen in the middle of the square looking as if he was battling against a hurricane! There wasn't even a breeze! He got a lot of puzzled looks from passers-by. We thought he was brilliant! Lots of people were taking his photo and putting money in his tin. We stopped to watch some break dances too - they had a huge circle around them - you could hardly get down the street. What was sweet was an old chap who was trying to copy their moves. He was the star!
We visited some famous outlets and purveyors of fine clothes - for an hour or so. Didn't come back with too many bags! The boys were still in the pub when we got back!
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| Come On! We've finished shopping! |
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| Into the Philharmonic Rooms |
We then decided to walk up the hill to find The Philharmonic Rooms - a pub and old dining hall that used to be known as "the most ornate pub in England" It was most impressive with its wood panelling and stained glass windows and magnificent chandeliers. We sat and had a drink before walking back down into the centre of Liverpool again.
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| The Bombed-Out Church - been like this for 60 years! |
On the way we passed the Bombed Out Church - St Lukes. It has been stood empty with no roof since the Liverpool Blitz in 1941 when it was hit and burned out. Trees are growing inside it - and it does look rather nice.
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| N's Dad at The Adelphi Hotel |
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| It's "Windswept Man" |
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| Water Feature in the City Centre |
After that it was time to go back to Lime Street Station to catch our trains home :-)
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| The Famous Adelphi Hotel |
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| The amazing library roof |
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| I love this Library!! |
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| Adelphi - nice but where are the Cream Teas???? |
Saturday, 10 August 2013
Daleks and Willow Trees
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Had an unexpected day off today :-) At the last minute I decided to take the day off - thanks Tracy for covering!! I really wanted to go somewhere to take a photo for the cover of my book - so that I can launch it on Amazon Kindle. I wanted a willow tree on the cover - for reasons that may become apparent if you read it! :-)
My first plan went somewhat awry when I asked the National Trust if I could take a picture outdoors at Biddulph Grange - and they said it would be better if I used one of their photos (I looked - they all had people on them - this book is set in the Victorian era!) If this wasn't suitable I could take my own photo - but they would charge and I would need public liability insurance to do it!
So instead I decided to go some where public and take a photo there. I found many willow trees just a few miles away at Westport Lake, What a beautiful place! There was so much wildlife too - we were watched by an inquisitive squirrel from his tree truck as we walked past and a pigeon sat on blinked at us as we stood close to him. There were so many ducks, geese, coots, swans and moorhens on the lake.
Every time we stopped to look at the view some came swimming up to us at speed hoping for food. We felt a bit bad for not having brought any bread - but I have just read that they ask you NOT to feed them bread as it doesn't have enough nutrients to keep them healthy. It is best to buy special food from the new Visitors Centre. We'll definitely do that next time!
Nathan took lots of photos for me - he is great at framing shots correctly. There are quite a few to choose from - so I will have to look through them all carefully. :-)
We walked round both the big lake and the small one. There were lots of people there - in fact there was a Race for Life going on too - as we saw lots of ladies in pink with the numbers on their backs.
It turned out to be quite a warm day - so we decided to go off to Nantwich to Snugburys Ice Cream Farm. You may have heard of it - every year the build an amazing straw sculpture in their field on the approach to the place. We had heard it was REALLY something this year!!
We could see it from the road - but when we got up close to it we realised that it actually lights up, moves and says "Exterminate" an awful lot!
Very impressive - it is made from five tons of steel and six tons of straw! It certainly is a great attraction - you should have seen the queue for ice cream. They were offering loads of flavours and a special "Da-Lick" ice cream which was a cone with three scoops of your choice - and a dalek wafer in the top and two mint choc arms sticking out of the front. Of curse - we couldn't resist that!
Nathan had mint chocolate, chocolate brownie and death by chocolate in his (you may have spotted a theme there) and I chose honeycomb, banana caramel and my absolute favourite - rum and raisin. Yummy!!!!
Had an unexpected day off today :-) At the last minute I decided to take the day off - thanks Tracy for covering!! I really wanted to go somewhere to take a photo for the cover of my book - so that I can launch it on Amazon Kindle. I wanted a willow tree on the cover - for reasons that may become apparent if you read it! :-)
My first plan went somewhat awry when I asked the National Trust if I could take a picture outdoors at Biddulph Grange - and they said it would be better if I used one of their photos (I looked - they all had people on them - this book is set in the Victorian era!) If this wasn't suitable I could take my own photo - but they would charge and I would need public liability insurance to do it!
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| Westport Lake |
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| Cute pigeon :-) |
Every time we stopped to look at the view some came swimming up to us at speed hoping for food. We felt a bit bad for not having brought any bread - but I have just read that they ask you NOT to feed them bread as it doesn't have enough nutrients to keep them healthy. It is best to buy special food from the new Visitors Centre. We'll definitely do that next time!
Nathan took lots of photos for me - he is great at framing shots correctly. There are quite a few to choose from - so I will have to look through them all carefully. :-)
We walked round both the big lake and the small one. There were lots of people there - in fact there was a Race for Life going on too - as we saw lots of ladies in pink with the numbers on their backs.It turned out to be quite a warm day - so we decided to go off to Nantwich to Snugburys Ice Cream Farm. You may have heard of it - every year the build an amazing straw sculpture in their field on the approach to the place. We had heard it was REALLY something this year!!
We could see it from the road - but when we got up close to it we realised that it actually lights up, moves and says "Exterminate" an awful lot!
Very impressive - it is made from five tons of steel and six tons of straw! It certainly is a great attraction - you should have seen the queue for ice cream. They were offering loads of flavours and a special "Da-Lick" ice cream which was a cone with three scoops of your choice - and a dalek wafer in the top and two mint choc arms sticking out of the front. Of curse - we couldn't resist that!
Nathan had mint chocolate, chocolate brownie and death by chocolate in his (you may have spotted a theme there) and I chose honeycomb, banana caramel and my absolute favourite - rum and raisin. Yummy!!!!Wednesday, 7 August 2013
Edinburgh Festival
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We had a fab weekend at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival! It was so nice to catch up with Nathan's friend Danilo - who had kindly said we could stay with him for the weekend. The weather co-operated and it was fine and pretty hot some of the time. We set off up the M6 on Friday morning - then stopped at the country's favourite Service Station - Tebay.
It's pretty nice to have a bit of lunch by a duck pond and then visit the farm shop afterwards. It made a nice break! We carried on to Edinburgh - coming off the motorway over the border to take the scenic route. Saw a lot of wind turbines!
By afternoon we'd located Danilo's flat and managed to get a parking space in the next street. I like the sound of Orwell Place - not sure if George Orwell had connections with Edinburgh? There were a couple of roads named after him.
Then we walked the thirty minutes or so into the centre of Edinburgh - which was packed with people and swelteringly hot! We had to pick up some tickets in the main festival box office in the High Street. It was so full of music and performers and all manner of dressed-up people trying to give us flyers for their shows - it was difficult to move!
We had pre-booked tickets to see Susan Calman - and also the Festival of the Spoken Nerd - Full Frontal Nerdity. The first of these was early Friday evening - so we got the tickets and set off for the New Town to find the venue known as The Stand III. It turned out that it was in the basement of a hotel! We managed to get a nice cool cider full of ice in the hotel bar - before going into the packed room below.
It was worth it - she was very funny. She's just come back from a trip to Venice on the Orient Express. I didn't realise that when you book a trip on that train you get a massive handbook through your door - all about the etiquette and dress code for the journey. Sounds wonderful!!
When we emerged from that it was time to meet up with Danilo who had finished work and was on his way! We headed for the outdoor bars in George Square, where they were promoting a strange drink called Aperol - it was a liqueur made from oranges and apples - I think! The promo girl saw us waiting in the queue for the bar and told us that they'd run out of ice and the drink tasted "disgusting" without it. She offered us each a free pair of bright orange sunglasses if we would wait until the ice arrived. We waited for the sunglasses.....
We went off to another bar soon after and got a bottle of chilled white wine instead! Danilo suggested a very fine restaurant called Gusto, for dinner. There was a bit of a wait - but more wine in the bar waiting area went down well - until we got a table. It was worth the wait as the food was sublime! I tried calamari for the first time (well - just nicked a bit of Danilo's starter!) It wasn't as bad as I'd feared - nice and crispy in fact :-) I had chicken with polenta chips. It was lovely.
We did chat for quite a long time and it was after midnight when we finished and walked home.
Saturday was not quite so hot - but still no rain! We had some porridge made by Danilo - which was just gorgeous. He says you have to learn how to make porridge properly if you live in Scotland - but wouldn't divulge the secret recipe! He made it in a pan - not microwave - and I did see him put some butter in! It certainly set us up for a very busy day!
We strolled into the city centre once more to see what was going on. We paused for a while to watch a very funny half-naked man with a red Mohawk haircut - juggle with a chainsaw. he was quite impressive - although he did remind me of Keith from the Prodigy in his Firestarter days. We wandered through the main streets and squares, looking at the stalls in the Grass Market and by the time we decided to stop at Garfunkels for some early lunch we had a bag full of flyers to look through.
Just before we got there though we saw a Victorian-looking gentleman standing in front of us - with nothing in his hands. As each of us passed him though - he magically produced a calling card with the details of his show. We all decided there and then we'd have to go and see it.
We had also had a chat with a friendly chap with a coffin outside there. He told us about his play, on at 9.10pm that evening, in which a hypochondriac is tragically diagnosed with immortality. "It's a comedy - honest!" he said. We put that on our "to-see" list too!
After lunch we headed over to the Gilded Balloon venue - as that is where we were seeing the Full Frontal Nerdity later. We were once more accosted by a leafleter - who told us of a free show, starting in only 15 minutes in the pub across the road. It was a comedian who had been part of a comedy group called the Three Englishmen - but was now striking out on his own. We had nothing on - so went over, got ourselves drinks and stood (as the place was packed) to watch Nick Hall. He seemed a little nervous and was obviously used to performing in the evenings as he kept saying "tonight" instead of this afternoon. But once he got going he was very funny. Basically told us of his life so far - starting off in Watford where he was born and raised. It was very clever as at the end he managed to précis it all and give us a very positive message at the end. He was great - and got a big cheer after the hour was up. He passed a milk jug round for contributions :-)
We had a little time before the Victorian Magicians Morgan and West - so went to investigate what was going on in the BBC area in Potterow. We sat under the welcome shade of their big pink tent and watched the Rastamouse show. He made a brief appearance towards the end - but it was mainly embarrassed BBC employees singing and dancing and trying to get the little ones to join in. It as quite funny to watch :-)
We did get the "Make a little pie" song in our heads for the rest of the weekend though!
Soon after that we were queueing outside the Dining Room in the Gilded Balloon, having our tickets checked, for the amazing Morgan and West.
As we entered the theatre there was one of them (sorry - not sure which is which..) sitting writing his journal on the stage. There was lots of magic - but the best thing about the show was that there was a story - and they were both very funny as well as being great magicians. Nathan told me afterwards that it said on the leaflet that they had won that show where magicians tried to trick Penn and Teller.
We liked it so much that we are thinking of going to see them again when they come to Stafford's Gatehouse Theatre on 2nd November. Want to come with us? It will be great!!
One funny part of the show was that they kept trying to sell us a tea towel with their names on as a souvenir. I guess they didn't do t-shirts in Victorian times! We liked it so much we bought one at the end :-) It has pride of place in our office now. No - we are not going to use it to dry up with!!
After that show it was very nearly time for the one that Nathan and Danilo had been looking forward to the most. Over in a lecture theatre at the University were the Spoken Nerds - consisting of a stand-up mathematician Matt Parker, a geeky songwriter Helen Arney and experiments maestro Steve Mould.
I have to say - as a non-scientist - it as very funny, especially when the experiments went wrong. I have yet to see a pickle plugged into the mains - as it fused when they tried it! Seems it would have gone yellow like a street light - I think!
It was really good and I think I kept up. Matt's binary scarf knitted by his mother was very impressive. There was just a joke at the end I was perplexed by - something to do with...I don't know. But it spelt out N E R D anyway. I think it was maths....
Definitely a good show - I would recommend it to anyone :-)
By that time we were getting hungry and wondered if there was maybe a curry place in the centre of Edinburgh. Dan wasn't sure - but then we looked across the road and there was a man with a big sign saying Indian/Thai Restaurant this way. We followed the arrow and found ourselves above the High Street looking down on the crowds and eating some very fine chicken satay and coconut rice, in my case.
We had ordered starters too - then realised that in less than 40 minutes we had to be across the road in time for the start of Life Sentence. The play about immortality.
We had to keep quiet and concentrate on eating - and we just made it across the road in time for.. well actually we were late. The play had started but they let us in quietly and we managed to get the last three seats. I don't think that we had missed much - we soon picked up what had happened and went with it. it was unusual - but very thought-provoking.
By now we had seen four very different and enjoyable shows - and we were too tired to stay out late. We walked home and went to bed!
On Sunday morning, after porridge, we decided to go to South Queensferry for the morning before we went home.
Dan said we'd be able to see the Forth Bridge and maybe have lunch in a fish restaurant. We drove over there and it turned out to be a very pretty little village - houses all painted pastel colours. I did sneak a peek in through the library's window - to see how they had decorated it for the Creepy House Summer Reading Challenge. Could only spot a lame skeleton (not even life-size like ours!) and a cut-out picture of a witch.
It was a lovely place though - smelled salty and seaside-y. We had a walk and then gazed at the sea and the bridges. We had lunch at The Boat House, which had a lovely view over the sea. There was lots of fish on the menu - I had haddock and Nathan had fish cake. Scotland does very good food :-)
Sadly after that we had to get back on the motorway and wend our way back to England and home.
We had a fab weekend at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival! It was so nice to catch up with Nathan's friend Danilo - who had kindly said we could stay with him for the weekend. The weather co-operated and it was fine and pretty hot some of the time. We set off up the M6 on Friday morning - then stopped at the country's favourite Service Station - Tebay.It's pretty nice to have a bit of lunch by a duck pond and then visit the farm shop afterwards. It made a nice break! We carried on to Edinburgh - coming off the motorway over the border to take the scenic route. Saw a lot of wind turbines!
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| Lunch at Tebay |
Then we walked the thirty minutes or so into the centre of Edinburgh - which was packed with people and swelteringly hot! We had to pick up some tickets in the main festival box office in the High Street. It was so full of music and performers and all manner of dressed-up people trying to give us flyers for their shows - it was difficult to move!
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| Susan Calman |
It was worth it - she was very funny. She's just come back from a trip to Venice on the Orient Express. I didn't realise that when you book a trip on that train you get a massive handbook through your door - all about the etiquette and dress code for the journey. Sounds wonderful!!
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| Nicely Chilled White :-) |
We went off to another bar soon after and got a bottle of chilled white wine instead! Danilo suggested a very fine restaurant called Gusto, for dinner. There was a bit of a wait - but more wine in the bar waiting area went down well - until we got a table. It was worth the wait as the food was sublime! I tried calamari for the first time (well - just nicked a bit of Danilo's starter!) It wasn't as bad as I'd feared - nice and crispy in fact :-) I had chicken with polenta chips. It was lovely.
We did chat for quite a long time and it was after midnight when we finished and walked home.
Saturday was not quite so hot - but still no rain! We had some porridge made by Danilo - which was just gorgeous. He says you have to learn how to make porridge properly if you live in Scotland - but wouldn't divulge the secret recipe! He made it in a pan - not microwave - and I did see him put some butter in! It certainly set us up for a very busy day!
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| Busy Edinburgh - from upstairs at Garfunkels |
We strolled into the city centre once more to see what was going on. We paused for a while to watch a very funny half-naked man with a red Mohawk haircut - juggle with a chainsaw. he was quite impressive - although he did remind me of Keith from the Prodigy in his Firestarter days. We wandered through the main streets and squares, looking at the stalls in the Grass Market and by the time we decided to stop at Garfunkels for some early lunch we had a bag full of flyers to look through.
Just before we got there though we saw a Victorian-looking gentleman standing in front of us - with nothing in his hands. As each of us passed him though - he magically produced a calling card with the details of his show. We all decided there and then we'd have to go and see it.
We had also had a chat with a friendly chap with a coffin outside there. He told us about his play, on at 9.10pm that evening, in which a hypochondriac is tragically diagnosed with immortality. "It's a comedy - honest!" he said. We put that on our "to-see" list too!
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| Nick Hall - from Watford |
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| In Rastamouse's Tent |
We had a little time before the Victorian Magicians Morgan and West - so went to investigate what was going on in the BBC area in Potterow. We sat under the welcome shade of their big pink tent and watched the Rastamouse show. He made a brief appearance towards the end - but it was mainly embarrassed BBC employees singing and dancing and trying to get the little ones to join in. It as quite funny to watch :-)
We did get the "Make a little pie" song in our heads for the rest of the weekend though!
 |
| Morgan..or West... |
As we entered the theatre there was one of them (sorry - not sure which is which..) sitting writing his journal on the stage. There was lots of magic - but the best thing about the show was that there was a story - and they were both very funny as well as being great magicians. Nathan told me afterwards that it said on the leaflet that they had won that show where magicians tried to trick Penn and Teller.
We liked it so much that we are thinking of going to see them again when they come to Stafford's Gatehouse Theatre on 2nd November. Want to come with us? It will be great!!
One funny part of the show was that they kept trying to sell us a tea towel with their names on as a souvenir. I guess they didn't do t-shirts in Victorian times! We liked it so much we bought one at the end :-) It has pride of place in our office now. No - we are not going to use it to dry up with!!After that show it was very nearly time for the one that Nathan and Danilo had been looking forward to the most. Over in a lecture theatre at the University were the Spoken Nerds - consisting of a stand-up mathematician Matt Parker, a geeky songwriter Helen Arney and experiments maestro Steve Mould.
I have to say - as a non-scientist - it as very funny, especially when the experiments went wrong. I have yet to see a pickle plugged into the mains - as it fused when they tried it! Seems it would have gone yellow like a street light - I think!
It was really good and I think I kept up. Matt's binary scarf knitted by his mother was very impressive. There was just a joke at the end I was perplexed by - something to do with...I don't know. But it spelt out N E R D anyway. I think it was maths....
Definitely a good show - I would recommend it to anyone :-)
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| Yes - it really was a comedy! |
We had ordered starters too - then realised that in less than 40 minutes we had to be across the road in time for the start of Life Sentence. The play about immortality.
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| Fun for all the Family! |
We had to keep quiet and concentrate on eating - and we just made it across the road in time for.. well actually we were late. The play had started but they let us in quietly and we managed to get the last three seats. I don't think that we had missed much - we soon picked up what had happened and went with it. it was unusual - but very thought-provoking.
By now we had seen four very different and enjoyable shows - and we were too tired to stay out late. We walked home and went to bed!
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| Nathan and Danilo in Gusto |
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| Me and Nathan in Gusto |
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| The Forth rail Bridge |
Dan said we'd be able to see the Forth Bridge and maybe have lunch in a fish restaurant. We drove over there and it turned out to be a very pretty little village - houses all painted pastel colours. I did sneak a peek in through the library's window - to see how they had decorated it for the Creepy House Summer Reading Challenge. Could only spot a lame skeleton (not even life-size like ours!) and a cut-out picture of a witch.
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| Nat and Dan putting the world to rights :-) |
Sadly after that we had to get back on the motorway and wend our way back to England and home.
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| A Beautiful Day |
Saturday, 27 July 2013
Getting Crafty :-)
New to this? Check out the First Post
I had a fun morning at work.
Yesterday Tracy and I were sent a big box full of craft materials - ready for the craft sessions we are doing with the kids in the library on 28th August. Tracy suggested that we have a go at each project before we had to show the kids how to do them. Also, that would mean we'd have an example of how each one should look when it was finished - if we managed to make them correctly!! "Here's one I made earlier" type of thing :-)
The first one I tackled was a window decoration - a translucent sheet with various creepy designs on them - just waiting to be coloured in.
I chose a spider :-) That was pretty easy to start with.. Then I tried the coaster - a foam spider shape with slits in so you could weave some coloured ribbon through it.
Then there was another self-adhesive shape to stick on the back to hide the ends of the ribbons. Then you finished it off with some stick on eyes, mouth and fangs. Lovely :-) I am really happy with that - I'll put my mug on it.
Then I had to try the scratch art skeleton. A body shape in black - with a wooden scraper tool so that you could etch a design in it - to show the rainbow colours underneath. I had to find a good picture of a skeleton on the internet - just to guide me when drawing on the shapes. Then I got scraping! It reminded me of when I was little and used to have whole set of these - with metal tools of different shapes which you could use to make quite intricate designs. (If you were artistic!)
I was really pleased with how this came out! Tracy had chosen to so a mobile - which had a LOT of pieces. She had to colour each one in - and she was making such a good job of it that it isn't quite finished yet. It is going to be epic!!
So now we can put them on display and encourage the real kids to sign up for our session! :-)
The afternoon was really warm - so I decided to sit in the shade of my shed and read a book. I wanted to make the most of the warm weather. I found a perfect spot to sit and read my book.
I managed to finish it too. It is called "The Girl from Station X - My Mother's Unknown Life" about a woman who discovers through her mother's diaries that she worked at Bletchley Park during the war. it is fascinating - I loved it.
It was a very pleasant afternoon - but now I'm sat by the open French Windows listening to the rain. It is nice to be cool!
We shall see if this is the end of the heatwave!
I had a fun morning at work.
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| Window Spider! |
The first one I tackled was a window decoration - a translucent sheet with various creepy designs on them - just waiting to be coloured in.
I chose a spider :-) That was pretty easy to start with.. Then I tried the coaster - a foam spider shape with slits in so you could weave some coloured ribbon through it.
 |
| Awesome Coaster :-) |
Then there was another self-adhesive shape to stick on the back to hide the ends of the ribbons. Then you finished it off with some stick on eyes, mouth and fangs. Lovely :-) I am really happy with that - I'll put my mug on it.
 |
| My Scratched-out Skeleton |
I was really pleased with how this came out! Tracy had chosen to so a mobile - which had a LOT of pieces. She had to colour each one in - and she was making such a good job of it that it isn't quite finished yet. It is going to be epic!!
So now we can put them on display and encourage the real kids to sign up for our session! :-)
 |
| Peaceful afternoon |
I managed to finish it too. It is called "The Girl from Station X - My Mother's Unknown Life" about a woman who discovers through her mother's diaries that she worked at Bletchley Park during the war. it is fascinating - I loved it.
It was a very pleasant afternoon - but now I'm sat by the open French Windows listening to the rain. It is nice to be cool!
We shall see if this is the end of the heatwave!
Friday, 26 July 2013
Things I am looking forward to....
New to this? Check out the First Post
Hi
How are you all coping in the heat?
I am quite liking it - apart from the nights when it's impossible to sleep. If we are going to have proper summers for a few years I think we need to adopt a continental mentality where you have a nice siesta in the afternoons and stay up late at night. :-)
Glad it's Friday - we are looking forward to strolling into town and seeing The World's End tonight - hopefully in a severely air-conditioned cinema! In preparation we have already watched this week - Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz - as World's End is the third in the Cornetto Trilogy. I have high hopes for it!!
Something else we are REALLY looking forward to is a trip to Edinburgh next weekend - to see a bit of the Festival Fringe. I have been once before and it was just great! Everywhere you go you get handed leaflets and are beseeched to "Come and see our show!" We ended up seeing a wonderful play about a hairdresser who secretly wanted to be a plumber. It also included video they had taken on the streets of Edinburgh asking them what they secretly want to do. It was really good - and then afterwards the cast came into the audience and asked us what we wanted to be!
This year, however we have booked a couple of shows ahead - as we really don't want to miss them. The first is Susan Calman 's show - a comedian who we love from The News Quiz and Dead Boss - which was a great comedy on TV that I really hope is coming back :-) Nathan was particularly keen when I showed him one of her tweets from when she was in Venice. She said she spent the time looking at the building for handholds so she could climb them - like she did in Assassin's Creed. He is just the same! I'll mention a place - like maybe Boston and he'll go "Oh, I've been there" and I say when did you go to Boston??? And he says "In Assassin's Creed!"
That should be fun. The other one we've booked - chosen by him this time is Festival of the Spoken Nerd - which as you might have guessed is a show with some pretty geeky people in it - including Matt Parker the stand-up maths comedian who he saw there a few years ago.
The rest of it we'll leave to chance - and see what happens. N is particularly excited as Ray Guns Look Real Enough (the band we saw at Modern Jago at the Critter Awards - you remember the guy who wore the tiger onesie!) are also in Edinburgh when we are - so we may get to catch them. I'd also like to see the Distraction Club if we can - featuring another Radio 4 regular - Mitch Benn. I saw also that he has a book out, called Terra - I really must buy it. Maybe I could get it signed if I bump into him???
In other news I am now the Social Media Manager for Interference - yeah - I've been promoted from just Moderator!! That means I will be tweeting and mentioning it on Facebook quite a lot. It is already showing improvement on how many people are talking about it - N looked at the stats and showed me! It's an experiment for a month - see if it increases the number of games played or new members! I even got a book out of my library about Online Marketing to help :-)
If you haven't had a go yet - jump in and try it. Or just have a look at the pictures that some of our players are drawing - they are amazing! I love Dusel's stuff (as does everyone on there!) It you look at the first page - you can see which drawings have been voted the best of the week - and all time. Check them out :-)
Off to get a cold, cold drink now... Have a good weekend!
xx
Hi
How are you all coping in the heat?
I am quite liking it - apart from the nights when it's impossible to sleep. If we are going to have proper summers for a few years I think we need to adopt a continental mentality where you have a nice siesta in the afternoons and stay up late at night. :-)
Glad it's Friday - we are looking forward to strolling into town and seeing The World's End tonight - hopefully in a severely air-conditioned cinema! In preparation we have already watched this week - Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz - as World's End is the third in the Cornetto Trilogy. I have high hopes for it!!
Something else we are REALLY looking forward to is a trip to Edinburgh next weekend - to see a bit of the Festival Fringe. I have been once before and it was just great! Everywhere you go you get handed leaflets and are beseeched to "Come and see our show!" We ended up seeing a wonderful play about a hairdresser who secretly wanted to be a plumber. It also included video they had taken on the streets of Edinburgh asking them what they secretly want to do. It was really good - and then afterwards the cast came into the audience and asked us what we wanted to be!
This year, however we have booked a couple of shows ahead - as we really don't want to miss them. The first is Susan Calman 's show - a comedian who we love from The News Quiz and Dead Boss - which was a great comedy on TV that I really hope is coming back :-) Nathan was particularly keen when I showed him one of her tweets from when she was in Venice. She said she spent the time looking at the building for handholds so she could climb them - like she did in Assassin's Creed. He is just the same! I'll mention a place - like maybe Boston and he'll go "Oh, I've been there" and I say when did you go to Boston??? And he says "In Assassin's Creed!"
That should be fun. The other one we've booked - chosen by him this time is Festival of the Spoken Nerd - which as you might have guessed is a show with some pretty geeky people in it - including Matt Parker the stand-up maths comedian who he saw there a few years ago.
The rest of it we'll leave to chance - and see what happens. N is particularly excited as Ray Guns Look Real Enough (the band we saw at Modern Jago at the Critter Awards - you remember the guy who wore the tiger onesie!) are also in Edinburgh when we are - so we may get to catch them. I'd also like to see the Distraction Club if we can - featuring another Radio 4 regular - Mitch Benn. I saw also that he has a book out, called Terra - I really must buy it. Maybe I could get it signed if I bump into him???
In other news I am now the Social Media Manager for Interference - yeah - I've been promoted from just Moderator!! That means I will be tweeting and mentioning it on Facebook quite a lot. It is already showing improvement on how many people are talking about it - N looked at the stats and showed me! It's an experiment for a month - see if it increases the number of games played or new members! I even got a book out of my library about Online Marketing to help :-)
If you haven't had a go yet - jump in and try it. Or just have a look at the pictures that some of our players are drawing - they are amazing! I love Dusel's stuff (as does everyone on there!) It you look at the first page - you can see which drawings have been voted the best of the week - and all time. Check them out :-)
Off to get a cold, cold drink now... Have a good weekend!
xx
Wednesday, 17 July 2013
I want a Library Cat!
New to this? Check out the First Post
Hi
I am back at work this week. However - before I came back we did have a last fun day having a new boiler put in!
Isn't it a beauty? The old one had been on the blink for a while and finally gave up the ghost on Thursday night and the plumber was coming the very next morning to put in the new one. Good timing! Except that it happened half-way through Laura having a shower. She wasn't pleased :-)
The plumber, Lawrence was wonderful and arrived when he said he would and put in the new boiler and sorted out our dodgy pipework (which involved going in through the roof!) all in one day. He was very tidy too. I'd recommend him to anyone. Get in touch if you want his details!
Actually the fun day was on Sunday. Nathan. Laura and I went to the free Stone Music Festival. We'd caught a bit of it last year - in the pouring rain - and enjoyed a band called the Kaiser Monkey Killers. We heard that they were on again this year so we decided to go.
What a difference this year - the sun was shining and the town was packed with families enjoying the warmth and the good music and food and drinks from various outlets and stalls. Murphy's Marbles were on when we got there - bizarrely singing Fairy Tale of New York in the blazing sun. It was quite funny as everyone was singing along and when they'd finished one bloke in front of us shouted "Merry Christmas" and everyone laughed :-)
We grabbed some food in the Poste of Stone then went out to see what else was happening. The KMK were on after lunch. They do Indie Covers - songs by the Kaiser Chiefs, Arctic Monkeys and can you guess which other band??? :-) They do lots of others too. They sound really good and everyone sing along because we all know the words. Good fun.
Then we watched a band called Honey Ryder (named after the Bond girl) who were a little more folky - like Fleetwood Mac. They were pretty good and seemed to have quite a few fans wearing their t-shirts. Then later in the evening the headline band came on stage - The Christians. I remembered their songs from the 80s - especially Ideal World and Harvest for the World. They were great and brought the festival to a close brilliantly. It's a shame we'd only managed to get down there for one day - it had been on all week, with many different kinds of music available.
Then Monday it was back to work!! It was lovely to see Tracy again and catch up with her and all the customers. We even had an extra customer - a cat!
I've always wanted a library cat since I read the book about Dewey the Library Cat in America. It is a great book and such a heart-warming story. I think every library should have a cat. Maybe ours will pop in again soon. :-)
Hi
 |
| The Alpha Boiler |
Isn't it a beauty? The old one had been on the blink for a while and finally gave up the ghost on Thursday night and the plumber was coming the very next morning to put in the new one. Good timing! Except that it happened half-way through Laura having a shower. She wasn't pleased :-)
The plumber, Lawrence was wonderful and arrived when he said he would and put in the new boiler and sorted out our dodgy pipework (which involved going in through the roof!) all in one day. He was very tidy too. I'd recommend him to anyone. Get in touch if you want his details!
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| Me and Laura rocking out :-) |
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| I'm only drinking water :-) |
 |
| The Christians |
What a difference this year - the sun was shining and the town was packed with families enjoying the warmth and the good music and food and drinks from various outlets and stalls. Murphy's Marbles were on when we got there - bizarrely singing Fairy Tale of New York in the blazing sun. It was quite funny as everyone was singing along and when they'd finished one bloke in front of us shouted "Merry Christmas" and everyone laughed :-)
We grabbed some food in the Poste of Stone then went out to see what else was happening. The KMK were on after lunch. They do Indie Covers - songs by the Kaiser Chiefs, Arctic Monkeys and can you guess which other band??? :-) They do lots of others too. They sound really good and everyone sing along because we all know the words. Good fun.
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| Feline customer :-) |
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| He had a wander around |
I've always wanted a library cat since I read the book about Dewey the Library Cat in America. It is a great book and such a heart-warming story. I think every library should have a cat. Maybe ours will pop in again soon. :-)
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| Having a look through the front door. |
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| I love this book! |
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| Another Favourite Cat book :-) |
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