Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Spring!
The sun is shining and it seems as though Spring has arrived. This morning I saw two male greenfinches hopping around with nesting material in their beaks, trying to attract the female who was also in the area. Blackbird cocks are posturing and mock fighting, and my camellias are almost bursting out (yes I know that 'down south' they've been out for ages!).
And on my regular walks with the dog the verges and trees are liberally strewn with ... not daisies or leaves ... litter. Beer cans, chip cartons, dog bags, tatty plastic, etc. etc. etc.
I'm with Paxo on this one. We have become a dirty, uncaring, selfish nation when it comes to disposing of our rubbish.
When we moved into Beverley nearly 13 years ago (gulp), we marvelled at how litter-free it was compared to our previous place in the city. Now there's hardly anything to separate us - in fact, since Hull City Council make quite strenuous efforts to keep on top of litter, with teams out nearly every day - it could even be said that Beverley is now more littered than Hull.
I seem to be incapable of dropping litter - if a bit blows out of the car door when it opens I go scuttling after it, feeling really guilty if I can't recover it. Am I mad? Are we the only people on our road who pick up rubbish from in front of our house - even if we haven't dropped it? Are we mad? What has happened to seemingly sensible people that they don't teach their kids that littering is not an option?
Sometimes, I despair. But then I put on my selective glasses again, and try to ignore it, until the next time!
And on my regular walks with the dog the verges and trees are liberally strewn with ... not daisies or leaves ... litter. Beer cans, chip cartons, dog bags, tatty plastic, etc. etc. etc.
I'm with Paxo on this one. We have become a dirty, uncaring, selfish nation when it comes to disposing of our rubbish.
When we moved into Beverley nearly 13 years ago (gulp), we marvelled at how litter-free it was compared to our previous place in the city. Now there's hardly anything to separate us - in fact, since Hull City Council make quite strenuous efforts to keep on top of litter, with teams out nearly every day - it could even be said that Beverley is now more littered than Hull.
I seem to be incapable of dropping litter - if a bit blows out of the car door when it opens I go scuttling after it, feeling really guilty if I can't recover it. Am I mad? Are we the only people on our road who pick up rubbish from in front of our house - even if we haven't dropped it? Are we mad? What has happened to seemingly sensible people that they don't teach their kids that littering is not an option?
Sometimes, I despair. But then I put on my selective glasses again, and try to ignore it, until the next time!
Thursday, December 14, 2006
I just turned away from the keyboard for a moment ...
... and all of a sudden its nearly Christmas!
Where have the last 3 months gone? Passed in an absolute blur, thats where. Life seems to be speeding out of control as the years pass.
Do you remember when you were a kid? Each day seemed endless; a week, a month, a whole year impossible to comprehend. Hot summer days went on for ever; cosy cold winter days seemed not much shorter.
What has changed?
Life, that's what. I go to Yoga every week, and our instructor is always saying 'don't be thinking of what is to come - be in the moment, keep what you have experienced'. She is so right. I seem to spend my entire life thinking of the thing I will be doing next, before I've even finished what I'm doing. There is so much 'ordinary' stuff that needs to be accomplished, that doesn't take thought, that seems, to be blunt, to be totally unrewarding. Days filled with that pass in a flash.
And so the days pass. I do try - walking the dog I listen to the birds, check the sky for our local sparrowhawk, and at night marvel at the stars (I saw two shooting stars tonight while I was out - thats 2 wishes). I try to be 'in the moment'.
Life is short, life is precious, life is to be lived. I am trying. Honest!
And school finishes tomorrow. Yay!
Where have the last 3 months gone? Passed in an absolute blur, thats where. Life seems to be speeding out of control as the years pass.
Do you remember when you were a kid? Each day seemed endless; a week, a month, a whole year impossible to comprehend. Hot summer days went on for ever; cosy cold winter days seemed not much shorter.
What has changed?
Life, that's what. I go to Yoga every week, and our instructor is always saying 'don't be thinking of what is to come - be in the moment, keep what you have experienced'. She is so right. I seem to spend my entire life thinking of the thing I will be doing next, before I've even finished what I'm doing. There is so much 'ordinary' stuff that needs to be accomplished, that doesn't take thought, that seems, to be blunt, to be totally unrewarding. Days filled with that pass in a flash.
And so the days pass. I do try - walking the dog I listen to the birds, check the sky for our local sparrowhawk, and at night marvel at the stars (I saw two shooting stars tonight while I was out - thats 2 wishes). I try to be 'in the moment'.
Life is short, life is precious, life is to be lived. I am trying. Honest!
And school finishes tomorrow. Yay!
Saturday, September 09, 2006
What a summer! Part One.
Well, its been all quiet on the blog front for far too long. I plead extreme laziness and an inability to get on either of our two computers for long enough!
Its been a lovely summer. We started by getting on holiday straight away, and enjoyed two lovely weeks on mainland Greece near Kalamata. We've always said that we would never go to the Med in the summer as its too hot, but friends were going, and we got a great deal, so off we went. It was hot. But due to an onshore breeze each and every day it was bearable (in the shade). Walking anywhere reduced us to dripping wrecks.
The resort had loads of water sports for free, with free taster tuition, so after a VERY lazy start (I haven't spent so long on a sun lounger ever!) we took advantage of this. I learned to sail - and capsize - a one-person boat, and I learned the basics of sea kayaking. This last was exhilarating (but exhausting). Luckily the onshore breeze meant that you could stop paddling and still get back to shore!!!
We couldn't go to Greece without seeing something of the area, so we hired a car and took the kids to Olympia - the site of the original games. They still light the flame there every four years. Although the site itself is basically ruins, there was a lovely museum nearby which houses a wide selection of the finds from the site, which was wonderful - all the more so because it was air-conditioned.
Apart from a tour of the local peninsula on another day, that was all we did as it was really too hot for comfortable sightseeing AND the Greek drivers are mad!!!!! Talk about stressful driving. We nearly came to blows over who was going to drive.
All in all it was a great holiday, with everyone doing a bit of what they wanted to do and no pressure. What a way to start 6 weeks off!!
Its been a lovely summer. We started by getting on holiday straight away, and enjoyed two lovely weeks on mainland Greece near Kalamata. We've always said that we would never go to the Med in the summer as its too hot, but friends were going, and we got a great deal, so off we went. It was hot. But due to an onshore breeze each and every day it was bearable (in the shade). Walking anywhere reduced us to dripping wrecks.
The resort had loads of water sports for free, with free taster tuition, so after a VERY lazy start (I haven't spent so long on a sun lounger ever!) we took advantage of this. I learned to sail - and capsize - a one-person boat, and I learned the basics of sea kayaking. This last was exhilarating (but exhausting). Luckily the onshore breeze meant that you could stop paddling and still get back to shore!!!
We couldn't go to Greece without seeing something of the area, so we hired a car and took the kids to Olympia - the site of the original games. They still light the flame there every four years. Although the site itself is basically ruins, there was a lovely museum nearby which houses a wide selection of the finds from the site, which was wonderful - all the more so because it was air-conditioned.
Apart from a tour of the local peninsula on another day, that was all we did as it was really too hot for comfortable sightseeing AND the Greek drivers are mad!!!!! Talk about stressful driving. We nearly came to blows over who was going to drive.
All in all it was a great holiday, with everyone doing a bit of what they wanted to do and no pressure. What a way to start 6 weeks off!!
Monday, May 01, 2006
The joy of buying a car
From the moment I got the verdict back on the old Citroen - "alive, but only just", I knew we could put off the inevitable no longer. We would have to bite the bullet. Buy the classifieds. Pore over Parkers Online. Survive the sharks on the car showroom forecourts. Part with our hard-won pennies. All the time with a feeling of dread and worry that we would be taken for a ride. Again.
Round One
Saturday afternoon. Hull West. I would rather be back home baking biscuits and buns. Here we are at Dixons: Dixons Nissan, Dixons Citroen and Dixons Renault. The three sides of a square industrial estate nicely finished of with (hallelujia) Network Q Vauxhall. Battle plan: Start in one corner and finish in the same. Balloons everywhere. Ah yes. Bank Holiday weekend. Trying to pull the family punters in. Car? Finance? Balloon? One or two possibilities, but why do we get the feeling that each salesperson is telling us what they think we want to hear? Does what they say bear any relationship to reality?
Round Two
Later Saturday afternoon. Hull Central. Not much here, but a very nice man tells us he has the full resources of the group - 40 garages!! - to draw from. We have but to let him know what we want, how much for, and he can 'get his hands on one for us to try'. It all sounds as if it is going to take far too long. Old Citroen is going to STOP very soon now. Probably in the middle of the bypass road. We need something now.
Round Three
Even later Saturday afternoon. Hull East. A small forecourt. Cars squished in so much you wonder how they ever move any of them! But no-one bothers us. We open doors and boots and have a good old puggle. Still no-one comes. There are three or four here that are very good possibilities. Shall we? Yes, lets. Hello? Anyone there? We are shown the papers for the two we are most interested in. Both 'one lady owner' cars. In fact half the stock seems to be this. 9000 miles only? Too good to be true? No, all above board. It was her 'second car' - trips to the golf club and hairdressers only!! Looking better by the minute.
By this time, David and the salesman had worked out that they both know the same people from Hull City Police days (30 years or more ago) and are getting along swimmingly. Can we test drive it? Yes - and off we go on our own, with no minder and nothing as 'bail'. Being an ex-policeman has its perks! Do we like it? Yes. Shall we buy it? Yes. He offers us £200 for our old banger, unseen !!!!!! We feel rather guilty at this, they are such nice people. No deposit needed. Deal done. Whew!
Yay. A nearly new, shiny black Polo, 1 careful lady owner, 9200 miles. Pick it up on Friday.
(We don't have to do that again until the Galaxy needs replacing, so 18 months to recover.)
Round One
Saturday afternoon. Hull West. I would rather be back home baking biscuits and buns. Here we are at Dixons: Dixons Nissan, Dixons Citroen and Dixons Renault. The three sides of a square industrial estate nicely finished of with (hallelujia) Network Q Vauxhall. Battle plan: Start in one corner and finish in the same. Balloons everywhere. Ah yes. Bank Holiday weekend. Trying to pull the family punters in. Car? Finance? Balloon? One or two possibilities, but why do we get the feeling that each salesperson is telling us what they think we want to hear? Does what they say bear any relationship to reality?
Round Two
Later Saturday afternoon. Hull Central. Not much here, but a very nice man tells us he has the full resources of the group - 40 garages!! - to draw from. We have but to let him know what we want, how much for, and he can 'get his hands on one for us to try'. It all sounds as if it is going to take far too long. Old Citroen is going to STOP very soon now. Probably in the middle of the bypass road. We need something now.
Round Three
Even later Saturday afternoon. Hull East. A small forecourt. Cars squished in so much you wonder how they ever move any of them! But no-one bothers us. We open doors and boots and have a good old puggle. Still no-one comes. There are three or four here that are very good possibilities. Shall we? Yes, lets. Hello? Anyone there? We are shown the papers for the two we are most interested in. Both 'one lady owner' cars. In fact half the stock seems to be this. 9000 miles only? Too good to be true? No, all above board. It was her 'second car' - trips to the golf club and hairdressers only!! Looking better by the minute.
By this time, David and the salesman had worked out that they both know the same people from Hull City Police days (30 years or more ago) and are getting along swimmingly. Can we test drive it? Yes - and off we go on our own, with no minder and nothing as 'bail'. Being an ex-policeman has its perks! Do we like it? Yes. Shall we buy it? Yes. He offers us £200 for our old banger, unseen !!!!!! We feel rather guilty at this, they are such nice people. No deposit needed. Deal done. Whew!
Yay. A nearly new, shiny black Polo, 1 careful lady owner, 9200 miles. Pick it up on Friday.
(We don't have to do that again until the Galaxy needs replacing, so 18 months to recover.)
Friday, March 24, 2006
Memories
So, we decided that we really must start clearing out all the old boxes in the garage. At present they are stored in a huge Edwardian mahogany wardrobe that we had in our previous house, but which did not fit into this one. Into the garage it went, 'just in case someone may want it later' ... 12 years later we have decided that we need the garage space more! Over those years it has filled up with box upon box. Mine, his, and the girl's.
It was just like Christmas! Box down, open the flap. Wham Posters? That must be Louise's. Saxaphone music - Elizabeth's. Crockery - old stuff of ours that we kept 'just in case'.
And then I hit gold. My boxes! Essays from university (did I really write those?!), english crit essays from A levels, Needlework folder from O levels (darning, anyone?), and finally exercise books from the early 1970's. What a trip down memory lane.
It got better. A whole plastic bag full of my earliest photographic attempts. I knew I was missing large chunks of these. Eagerly I took them indoors, and promptly lost 2 hours going through them. They brought back so many memories, and Mike and Ellie could not believe some of the sights they were seeing (Grandad with a beard was a particular favourite).
But worryingly, there were loads of people in them that I could not for the life of me put names to. They obviously were good friends at the time, but at most for some of them I could dredge up a first name, and some of them left me thinking 'who the heck was that'. I was left feeling that I must have sleep-walked through certain periods of my life! David often says to me 'Do you remember the time ....' and my answer is invariably 'No'.
My next find helped me out - a bit. Another plastic bag, this time full of letters. Remember them? Paper, pen, an envelope and a stamp. It seems that for a certain period of time I and my friends were prolific letter writers. During this time I lived in France, Switzerland, Surrey and Hull. As I opened each letter their addresses brought back strong memories of place. And as I read through them names cropped up that I could put to faces. It was weird. The tone and content of each letter was so personal, showed that the writer and I had shared experiences that led to friendships. And yet, I am in touch with none of them now. I still can't remember surnames. But reading them again I remember the feeling of anticipation when I was far from home and one of them arrived on the door mat. Pre-mobile, pre internet it was the only way to communicate regularly and cheaply. I so enjoyed receiving them, and writing back.
It is ironic that as communication has become simpler, we seem to do less of it.
It was just like Christmas! Box down, open the flap. Wham Posters? That must be Louise's. Saxaphone music - Elizabeth's. Crockery - old stuff of ours that we kept 'just in case'.
And then I hit gold. My boxes! Essays from university (did I really write those?!), english crit essays from A levels, Needlework folder from O levels (darning, anyone?), and finally exercise books from the early 1970's. What a trip down memory lane.
It got better. A whole plastic bag full of my earliest photographic attempts. I knew I was missing large chunks of these. Eagerly I took them indoors, and promptly lost 2 hours going through them. They brought back so many memories, and Mike and Ellie could not believe some of the sights they were seeing (Grandad with a beard was a particular favourite).
But worryingly, there were loads of people in them that I could not for the life of me put names to. They obviously were good friends at the time, but at most for some of them I could dredge up a first name, and some of them left me thinking 'who the heck was that'. I was left feeling that I must have sleep-walked through certain periods of my life! David often says to me 'Do you remember the time ....' and my answer is invariably 'No'.
My next find helped me out - a bit. Another plastic bag, this time full of letters. Remember them? Paper, pen, an envelope and a stamp. It seems that for a certain period of time I and my friends were prolific letter writers. During this time I lived in France, Switzerland, Surrey and Hull. As I opened each letter their addresses brought back strong memories of place. And as I read through them names cropped up that I could put to faces. It was weird. The tone and content of each letter was so personal, showed that the writer and I had shared experiences that led to friendships. And yet, I am in touch with none of them now. I still can't remember surnames. But reading them again I remember the feeling of anticipation when I was far from home and one of them arrived on the door mat. Pre-mobile, pre internet it was the only way to communicate regularly and cheaply. I so enjoyed receiving them, and writing back.
It is ironic that as communication has become simpler, we seem to do less of it.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
The Hills Were Alive
With the sound of laughter. Conrad, our ever patient instructor had just repeated, for the n'th time: "put the weight on the lower ski", when two of our party (no names, no pack drill) did a graceful fall into each other, resulting in a rather compromising tangle on the piste (sorry, no pictures dammit). Realising he would get no joy from us for the next 10 minutes, Conrad gave up trying and joined in.
Just one of a treasury of memories we now have to brighten our days back in cold, gloomy Blighty. We all survived - all 15 of us - with no injuries. Which is more than can be said for 6 other fellow travellers on the coach back to the airport.
Despite the rather sad circumstances just before we left for our holiday, we managed to have a good time - time out, if you like. The kids skied up hill and down dale (well, chair-lift up), while us old folks got to grips with the start of parallel turns - almost had it when we had to come home. Ah well, reason enough to go again.
Pictures on flikr soon.
Just one of a treasury of memories we now have to brighten our days back in cold, gloomy Blighty. We all survived - all 15 of us - with no injuries. Which is more than can be said for 6 other fellow travellers on the coach back to the airport.
Despite the rather sad circumstances just before we left for our holiday, we managed to have a good time - time out, if you like. The kids skied up hill and down dale (well, chair-lift up), while us old folks got to grips with the start of parallel turns - almost had it when we had to come home. Ah well, reason enough to go again.
Pictures on flikr soon.
Friday, February 17, 2006
In Memory
Edna Metcalf. November 1920 to February 2006. Much loved Mum, Nana and mother-in-law. Lived a long, eventful life, which ended peacefully with family around.
