Talking about genius, and about the pressures of being a writer. What she talks about can be applied to any creative aspect of your life. Its a long video about 19 minutes but she is captivating as a speaker and it will change your mind about the pressure of success. I keep coming back to listen to what she has to say. Beverley
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
All mobile phones go onto the directory next week
From next week the mobile phone directory goes live and unless you register this week to go ex-directory on this, your number and those of your children will be available to people cold calling over the phone.
The BBC have commented on it here.
To remove your phone number from the directory go here Once there, click on Ex Directory, (you will need your mobile phone by you to do this) they will text you a code which you have to enter on to their website. The code has to be entered within a few minutes of receiving it.
The BBC have commented on it here.
To remove your phone number from the directory go here Once there, click on Ex Directory, (you will need your mobile phone by you to do this) they will text you a code which you have to enter on to their website. The code has to be entered within a few minutes of receiving it.
I hope the rain will pass
Having spent the past couple of weeks feeling like the whole country had been airlifted to the South of France, we are now faced with rain. In some ways its nice as the gardens sorely needed the water, but the thunderstorms. As kids we used to say it was God bashing his dustbin lids together trying to make music. Funny the things you think of as children and the things you used to say. I still remember my brother used to in the car say "quick Dad put your winker on and take over that car" we used to laugh, at which he would get cross. Translated it meant, Quick Dad put your indicator on and overtake that car!
I started reading a book yesterday Working on yourself doesn't work by Ariel and Shya Kane, which talks about memories from your childhood and how we can blow things out of proportion in our child's mind and then carry those memories with us. I haven't got very far in the book but so far its easy reading and seems to make sense. I have decided that I will not buy any more books until I have read some of the ones I have purchased in recent months. Its not an economy drive, simply because I have them stacking up and I am so easily influenced by another person's experience of a book that I end up buying it myself.
Anyhow back to the weather, I hope this rain does not stay as DD has to do the for real part of her Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award next week. She goes off on Wednesday, is taken to the site where they will camp for the first night, then next morning she packs her rucksack with all she will need, sleeping, cooking, food, clothes and off they go. They then walk for about 11 miles to the site where they will make camp for the night and generally take care of themselves cooking food, pitching tents, etc. Next morning they break camp and then return back to the first camp again, where they stay another night then come home on the Saturday. It maybe doesn't sound alot but walking for 11 miles each day for two days when you are only just over 5 feet tall with a huge heavy backpack is quite a challenge. I am not sure which is the best weather, the damp and cold or the heat. I am putting my order in for them, for dry weather, some sun and a light breeze. She will be in a group of about five or six, so they will keep each others spirits up no doubt. She enjoyed it last time during the practice and it was jolly hot that weekend and boy was she tired. Atleast once they are finished on the Saturday, school is then out for the summer so she will have seven weeks to recover LOL.
Knitting report: Up to the raglan shaping on the back. Knitting it on Bamboo needles, haven't done that in a while, usually I am an Addi Turbo kind of a girl!
Beverley
I started reading a book yesterday Working on yourself doesn't work by Ariel and Shya Kane, which talks about memories from your childhood and how we can blow things out of proportion in our child's mind and then carry those memories with us. I haven't got very far in the book but so far its easy reading and seems to make sense. I have decided that I will not buy any more books until I have read some of the ones I have purchased in recent months. Its not an economy drive, simply because I have them stacking up and I am so easily influenced by another person's experience of a book that I end up buying it myself.Anyhow back to the weather, I hope this rain does not stay as DD has to do the for real part of her Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award next week. She goes off on Wednesday, is taken to the site where they will camp for the first night, then next morning she packs her rucksack with all she will need, sleeping, cooking, food, clothes and off they go. They then walk for about 11 miles to the site where they will make camp for the night and generally take care of themselves cooking food, pitching tents, etc. Next morning they break camp and then return back to the first camp again, where they stay another night then come home on the Saturday. It maybe doesn't sound alot but walking for 11 miles each day for two days when you are only just over 5 feet tall with a huge heavy backpack is quite a challenge. I am not sure which is the best weather, the damp and cold or the heat. I am putting my order in for them, for dry weather, some sun and a light breeze. She will be in a group of about five or six, so they will keep each others spirits up no doubt. She enjoyed it last time during the practice and it was jolly hot that weekend and boy was she tired. Atleast once they are finished on the Saturday, school is then out for the summer so she will have seven weeks to recover LOL.
Knitting report: Up to the raglan shaping on the back. Knitting it on Bamboo needles, haven't done that in a while, usually I am an Addi Turbo kind of a girl!
Beverley
Monday, July 06, 2009
A wonderful weekend away
While DD was off exploring Normandy with others from her school, DH and I went off for a weekend away on our own. When DH and I met back in late 1990, he was a single parent with two children, I was just me! (well me and two cats). Unbeknown to me at the time DH is allergic to cats but he took the whole package. I was allergic to kids, but I too took the whole package! LOL Although this was all great what it did mean was that time alone, especially in those early days were quite limited. We did have every other weekend when the children visited their Mother, but that was unpredictable and likely to change at a moments notice, so planning anything was tricky. Both of his children are grown and left home now, the eldest is 30 years old and has her own three children. However at the point where they considered leaving home we had by then our own child who is now 14. Both our Mothers have died and so sitters are tricky to find. We are quiet people who don't mix much so don't have that contact list of people willing to sit, so we just haven't gone out much, unless it was somewhere our daughter could come too. Now she is at secondary school there have been one or two trips away which have mean't we have been able to go away for the occasional overnight. This latest occasion we dropped her off at school at the ungodly hour of 3.30am, along with other bleary eyed students and parents. We waved a fond farewell as they drove off into the night becoming the morning and retreated back to the house. As we had already showered and dressed, returning back to bed seemed stupid so we busied ourselves getting sorted out and by 6.30am we were off on an adventure of our own.
We didn't go far, to the East Coast. A place that I grew up and as an adult love more now than I ever did as a child. I love the open feel, the sea, the sound of the wind as it travels across the beach. The friendliness of the people, the relaxed feeling, the feeling like you are on the edge of something (I know its the East coast, but all the same). We booked a nice comfortable hotel, nothing too grand, I can't stand being somewhere where you don't feel comfortable. I have stayed in hotels where everytime you move a porter jumps to attention and asks if they can help, thats fine if you enjoy that sort of thing, but its not my style I'm afraid. I feel very uncomfortable if people have to wait on me. DH says I am a closet Socialist LOL
We arrived at Felixstowe Ferry after a couple of stops to have a cup of coffee to keep us bright eyed and bushy tailed. It was a glorious day, the sun shining and the beach was practically deserted. Just to spend those few hours walking hand in hand along the beach with someone who means the world to you is a feeling that money can't buy. I know I am a very lucky person, lots of things have happened along the way, and those things just make me the person I am today. It is more important to me that I like myself than worry about what others think of me. I spent far too long trying to get people to like me and losing sight of the fact that as a result I didn't much like myself anymore.
Old Felixstowe Beach, looking across to Bawdsey Manor. A lovely beach which gets quite busy at the weekends as we discovered on the Saturday. Dead quiet on a Thursday though.
This is the Ferry boat that takes you across the River Deben, for the princely sum of £2.50 return each.
Felixstowe Ferry is to many I am sure a backwater, too far from anywhere, not a Starbucks in sight. There is a tiny ferry that takes you across the river to Bawdsey, where we walked along a deserted beach, then called in at the cafe for home made smoked mackerel pate and olives with crusty bread. Most people we came across were school children on a school trip or people who were retired, so we felt like we were playing hookey, but it was great. Tired but happy we checked into the hotel. DH had organised Champagne to be delivered to the room along with lovely chocolates chilling in the small refridgerator. I was so tired that part way through dinner I had to ask for a coffee to help keep me awake as by then we had been up for so long and added to that the sea air, I was done in, not to mention sun burned, despite my best efforts not to be. I was however environmentally unfriendly grateful for the air conditioning in the room.
One of four remaining Tide Mills in the UK, the Woodbridge one being one of the finest examples. A nice friendly town, with a small but busy high street.
Friday, saw us visiting Woodbridge, where I would love to move to when we are able to, and then Aldeburgh. I love nearby Aldeburgh too and fish and chips eaten on the beach from the paper they are wrapped in is the best meal in the whole world in my opinion.
One of the two fish and chip shops in Aldeburgh. It always amuses us that there appears to be a longer queue at one than the other. Both are owned and run by the same people but if you don't know that then you are in for a long wait. The queues can be really long in the height of summer, reaching far down the road. People will get a pint of beer from the pub next door and drink it while they wait in the queue.
We have holidayed in Aldeburgh for the past couple of summers, and the place is wonderful, but call in there in the midst of December and most of the houses are closed up. They are bought up by people who live in other parts of the country, bought years ago when prices were cheap, and now the locals can no longer afford to live there. I would move there, but having to put up with these rude ill mannered people who visit at the weekends and badly park their giant cars would drive me insane. Manners are free and can make a huge difference. People used to hold open a door for another person, if you passed someone while walking alone a path or the beach you would say good morning to them, now they eye you as if you are planning to mug them, or the weekenders who look down their noses to see if there are any visible well known labels about your person before considering if you are worth replying to LOL, if only they knew how ignorant they come across. Despite all this, which you get in any seaside town where there are people with more money than sense, Aldeburgh is a lovely town, without the dreaded amusements and endless ice cream and candyfloss stands.
Here you can see the town of Aldeburgh is almost on the beach. During the winter and the Spring High tides the town can flood. In fact parts of the town have been lost to flooding, which is a shame. We wondered if it is possible to get insurance for the houses there given the high probability of flooding. Francis Drake had his ships built, including the Cutty Sark at the once famous shipbuilders that were to be found in the Aldeburgh and Woodbridge area. It must have been a hive of activity at one time.
The boats are hauled up on to the beach. The fishermen go day fishing, so the fish for sale is always very fresh and extremely popular. They are used to the day trippers who buy their fish and need it packed in ice to survive the journey back to London or further down the coast into Essex.
Saturday we went back to Felixstowe Ferry to sit on the beach and watch the sailing boats go by. Unfortunately we hadn't factored in the jet skis and the speed boats zipping around dragging behind them huge inflateables with screaming teenagers attached LOL. It was amusing if nothing else. It struck me though that wherever there is a place of solitude where you might like to sit and watch the world go by, someone will turn up with their jet ski and whizz back and forth through your world!!
We didn't go far, to the East Coast. A place that I grew up and as an adult love more now than I ever did as a child. I love the open feel, the sea, the sound of the wind as it travels across the beach. The friendliness of the people, the relaxed feeling, the feeling like you are on the edge of something (I know its the East coast, but all the same). We booked a nice comfortable hotel, nothing too grand, I can't stand being somewhere where you don't feel comfortable. I have stayed in hotels where everytime you move a porter jumps to attention and asks if they can help, thats fine if you enjoy that sort of thing, but its not my style I'm afraid. I feel very uncomfortable if people have to wait on me. DH says I am a closet Socialist LOL
We arrived at Felixstowe Ferry after a couple of stops to have a cup of coffee to keep us bright eyed and bushy tailed. It was a glorious day, the sun shining and the beach was practically deserted. Just to spend those few hours walking hand in hand along the beach with someone who means the world to you is a feeling that money can't buy. I know I am a very lucky person, lots of things have happened along the way, and those things just make me the person I am today. It is more important to me that I like myself than worry about what others think of me. I spent far too long trying to get people to like me and losing sight of the fact that as a result I didn't much like myself anymore.
Old Felixstowe Beach, looking across to Bawdsey Manor. A lovely beach which gets quite busy at the weekends as we discovered on the Saturday. Dead quiet on a Thursday though.
This is the Ferry boat that takes you across the River Deben, for the princely sum of £2.50 return each.
Felixstowe Ferry is to many I am sure a backwater, too far from anywhere, not a Starbucks in sight. There is a tiny ferry that takes you across the river to Bawdsey, where we walked along a deserted beach, then called in at the cafe for home made smoked mackerel pate and olives with crusty bread. Most people we came across were school children on a school trip or people who were retired, so we felt like we were playing hookey, but it was great. Tired but happy we checked into the hotel. DH had organised Champagne to be delivered to the room along with lovely chocolates chilling in the small refridgerator. I was so tired that part way through dinner I had to ask for a coffee to help keep me awake as by then we had been up for so long and added to that the sea air, I was done in, not to mention sun burned, despite my best efforts not to be. I was however environmentally unfriendly grateful for the air conditioning in the room.
One of four remaining Tide Mills in the UK, the Woodbridge one being one of the finest examples. A nice friendly town, with a small but busy high street.
Friday, saw us visiting Woodbridge, where I would love to move to when we are able to, and then Aldeburgh. I love nearby Aldeburgh too and fish and chips eaten on the beach from the paper they are wrapped in is the best meal in the whole world in my opinion.
One of the two fish and chip shops in Aldeburgh. It always amuses us that there appears to be a longer queue at one than the other. Both are owned and run by the same people but if you don't know that then you are in for a long wait. The queues can be really long in the height of summer, reaching far down the road. People will get a pint of beer from the pub next door and drink it while they wait in the queue.
We have holidayed in Aldeburgh for the past couple of summers, and the place is wonderful, but call in there in the midst of December and most of the houses are closed up. They are bought up by people who live in other parts of the country, bought years ago when prices were cheap, and now the locals can no longer afford to live there. I would move there, but having to put up with these rude ill mannered people who visit at the weekends and badly park their giant cars would drive me insane. Manners are free and can make a huge difference. People used to hold open a door for another person, if you passed someone while walking alone a path or the beach you would say good morning to them, now they eye you as if you are planning to mug them, or the weekenders who look down their noses to see if there are any visible well known labels about your person before considering if you are worth replying to LOL, if only they knew how ignorant they come across. Despite all this, which you get in any seaside town where there are people with more money than sense, Aldeburgh is a lovely town, without the dreaded amusements and endless ice cream and candyfloss stands.
Here you can see the town of Aldeburgh is almost on the beach. During the winter and the Spring High tides the town can flood. In fact parts of the town have been lost to flooding, which is a shame. We wondered if it is possible to get insurance for the houses there given the high probability of flooding. Francis Drake had his ships built, including the Cutty Sark at the once famous shipbuilders that were to be found in the Aldeburgh and Woodbridge area. It must have been a hive of activity at one time.
The boats are hauled up on to the beach. The fishermen go day fishing, so the fish for sale is always very fresh and extremely popular. They are used to the day trippers who buy their fish and need it packed in ice to survive the journey back to London or further down the coast into Essex.
Saturday we went back to Felixstowe Ferry to sit on the beach and watch the sailing boats go by. Unfortunately we hadn't factored in the jet skis and the speed boats zipping around dragging behind them huge inflateables with screaming teenagers attached LOL. It was amusing if nothing else. It struck me though that wherever there is a place of solitude where you might like to sit and watch the world go by, someone will turn up with their jet ski and whizz back and forth through your world!!
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
RIP Michael Jackson
Such sad news we have woken up to today. It was announced last night he had collapsed, and then a report that he had died, but we thought it a hoax. It has been confirmed on our news this morning.
All through my life Michael Jackson has been in the limelight. As I grew up so did he and I have seen the changes, both in my life and in his, well the reported changes in his life. My fondest memories will be really before he began to change his appearance so dramatically. I loved the Thriller and Bad albums and when I think of him I will always remember those times.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
A quiet Thursday I hope
DH gave himself the day off work yesterday and after spending part of the morning replying to emails regarding work, I packed him off to the boatyard. He then spent a day sailing on the lake which obviously was a good destresser for him. He got to meet up with some friends and talk boats, so he was a happy camper. I seemed to have one of those days where things were done but it was difficult to put my finger on things I had achieved.
While J was volunteering at the youth group last night, Brian and I went for a coffee in Starbucks and flicked through some books. I settled on this one and fortunately Mr Borders had supplied me with a 20% off token, so that helped bring the price down. I did a workshop a couple of weekends ago on stained glass and I am hoping to do a longer course in the autumn, which will involve lead work. I also managed to exchange the Ready Readers for the correct magnification, so happy days.
DH had a guided tour of the National Bloodbank Facility as part of a conference he attended this week. Listening to what he had to say about it was fascinating, and a timely reminder that I need to go back to volunteering as a blood donor. It's something I haven't done for ages. I think the problem was I was at work and J is terrified of needles so going when she was with me was not an option LOL. Now I work from home, I can pretty much suit myself, so I have no excuse.
Monday I start my 21 day plan. A friend of mine posted a challenge earlier in the year which had a number of elements in it to follow. To every day during the 21 days to write morning pages, create a small artwork(can be a simple doodle), write 5 things you are grateful for, go for a walk, plus an artist date once a week, and I am adding to this that I am going to try to wean myself off added sugar during those 21 days. It't not going to be easy, but I need to try to make an effort. I am hoping that as I am going to be journalling the whole thing, it will keep me in check. I have hit a potential barrier as DH and I are going away next weekend on our own, which means staying in a nice hotel somewhere,lazy days and good hotel meals, it will just have to be without sugar, and my dear old friend chocolate! :0(
Edit: (1 hour later) Having just realised it is Friday tomorrow and DH has the day off, I realised all my jobs I had planned for tomorrow will likely not get done, so now furiously cleaning bathrooms, dusting and hoovering so its all done and out of the way. Also realised its the end of the month, so need to do invoicing, Tax return and salaries, sheesh!! Me and my big mouth.
While J was volunteering at the youth group last night, Brian and I went for a coffee in Starbucks and flicked through some books. I settled on this one and fortunately Mr Borders had supplied me with a 20% off token, so that helped bring the price down. I did a workshop a couple of weekends ago on stained glass and I am hoping to do a longer course in the autumn, which will involve lead work. I also managed to exchange the Ready Readers for the correct magnification, so happy days.
DH had a guided tour of the National Bloodbank Facility as part of a conference he attended this week. Listening to what he had to say about it was fascinating, and a timely reminder that I need to go back to volunteering as a blood donor. It's something I haven't done for ages. I think the problem was I was at work and J is terrified of needles so going when she was with me was not an option LOL. Now I work from home, I can pretty much suit myself, so I have no excuse.
Monday I start my 21 day plan. A friend of mine posted a challenge earlier in the year which had a number of elements in it to follow. To every day during the 21 days to write morning pages, create a small artwork(can be a simple doodle), write 5 things you are grateful for, go for a walk, plus an artist date once a week, and I am adding to this that I am going to try to wean myself off added sugar during those 21 days. It't not going to be easy, but I need to try to make an effort. I am hoping that as I am going to be journalling the whole thing, it will keep me in check. I have hit a potential barrier as DH and I are going away next weekend on our own, which means staying in a nice hotel somewhere,lazy days and good hotel meals, it will just have to be without sugar, and my dear old friend chocolate! :0(
Edit: (1 hour later) Having just realised it is Friday tomorrow and DH has the day off, I realised all my jobs I had planned for tomorrow will likely not get done, so now furiously cleaning bathrooms, dusting and hoovering so its all done and out of the way. Also realised its the end of the month, so need to do invoicing, Tax return and salaries, sheesh!! Me and my big mouth.
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