Saturday, October 28, 2006

Bat crazy

Today is a saturday, and as I mentioned on a previous post I had quite an unnusual morning planned. The buildings on The Green in Kings Norton that won the BBC Restoration have been found to be the home of a variety of 4 different bat varieties; the Common Pipistrelle, the Soprano Pipistrelle, the Brown Long Eared Bat and the Natterer’s Bat. More info at:
http://www.bats.org.uk/

Anyway, before the big building work begins on the buildings we have to re-home the bats because they are an endangered species. So this morning we invited the local community to build bat boxes! Bat boxes, from what I can see are rather like bird houses, and there are instructions on how to build them on that website above. As with all these things you never know how big a success to expect; I always prepare myself for worst case scenario (I wore heels so that under no circumstance could I be forced to climb a tree to knock one of these boxes up!!!). In fact about 60 people turned up, all different ages, sizes and I suspect very few were familliar with knocking nails into wood. Still we followed instructions and had a great time. Tea and biscuits were on tap fortunately and in under two hours we'd constructed 50 boxes!!! I made 2!!!! I used to hate woodworking at school, but I loved it this time. If aggression was required the knock the nail in I just remembered my old PE teacher...! Here are the photos of my efforts:
My first bat box!
















My TWO boxes!
















Me getting friendly with my hammer!
















Finally, a well-meaning and industrious volunteer has not only signed his box for posterity but he's put a contact number on! Maybe the bats can call him to say thank you!













Pues este manana fue estrano pero muy interesante. Construi 2 cajas para murcielagos. El murcielago es una especie bajo proteccion, y hasta hoy han vivido en los edificios que ahora queremos restaurar. En fin, Eramos unos 60 voluntarios esta manana, ninos, padres, abuelos, personas de cualquier tipo y origen, y constuimos 50 cajas para los vecinos murcielagos! Yo construi DOS, y en la escuela odiaba clases de construccion o madera... Fue un gran exito!

The dress

A couple of weeks ago, as you know, I went shopping with Uncle David and his fiancee Angela for the bridesmaid dress I'm going to wear for their wedding next summer. I'd love to put a picture of it on here but as you know my camera is broken. But as we trawled the shops of Birmingham we ended up in a few bridal shops in order to find a suitable dress for Angela's cousin, their younger bridesmaid Vanessa. And being surrounded by so many wedding dresses got me in the mood... Here's a picture of me taken on my phone of one wedding dress that I couldn't help but try on! Couldn't walk in it though.











Sabes que hace un par de semanas fui de compras para un vestido para la boda de mi tio - yo sera una de dos amas de boda. Pues estaba rodeada por vestidos de boda, claro, y esto es una foto de un vestido en particular que me atrayo. Bueno, me pareci dificil andar llevandolo pero bueno, te da una impresion...

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

some research

I like a project, as you all know, or rather I like to distract myself with random stuff... So my current project is family history. You see, although everyone knows that mum's spanish and dad's english, sorry Celt, ahem... well, few know that back in 1852 a certain Elizabeth Richards, daughter of William and Elizabeth (nee Higgins) was born. She went onto great things. From her home in Wales she grew up, went to school, went on to be a governess and moved to Madrid, where she had some pretty important neighbours - she lived right next to the royal palace!
I'd love to trace her movements, find out if she settled in Spain, and see if I have another spanish line in our family! If anyone knows of a useful website/forum etc then please let me know!



Thursday, October 12, 2006

New date for your diaries

Ta daaaa..!
Gemma and Alex are happy to announce the date of their forthcoming marriage: Saturday April 5th, 2008, at 12 o'clock midday, in the church of St Nicholas, Kings Norton, Birmingham.

Finalmente, Gemma y Alex se celebran poder dar noticia de la fecha de su matrimonio: el 5 de Abril, un sabado, de 2008, a las 12 de mediodia, en la iglesia de St Nicholas, Kings Norton, Birmingham.

Woo hoo!

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Technical Hitch

My digital camera has thrown a wobbly and I've had to send it back to the shop, via my parents in Coventry, so I can't put any pictures on here for a while, sorry! Thank you mum and dad!

Have just been to see Alex play football, his team is a bunch of lovely lads. They drew 2-2 with this team called Water Orton United. I wouldn't say this other team cheated exactly, but there were so many hand balls I did start to wonder if they were actually playing rugby rather than 'the beautiful game'... On the plus side Alex scored!

Next time I go I'll have my camera and I'll get some shots of my boys here for you all to see.

Mi camera no funciona muy bien y he tenido que enviarlo a la tienda donde mis padres lo compraron, asi que no podre anadir fotos al blog pa un ratillo... Perdona! Gracias mum y dad!

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Allotment fever

Wedding fever might be replaced by allotment fever.

See fellow allotment blog at http://allotment21.blogspot.com/ and marvel...

To explain: Alex plays for footie team called Mosely Town FC, two of his mates have acquired green fingers, both heterosexual men with partners and responsibilities, yes, and they are just about to get what is by all accounts a rather large allotment. Me and Alex will cultivate a third and we're planning much more green fingeredness for 2007...

We'll be eating more fresh healthy food and I must say, as our crops in the garden dwindle I'm loathing Sainsbury's more than ever and looking forward to pulling my first potatoes out of the new plot.

Vicky and Pete's response was one of horror, but just wait until we invite them to a barbeque, then they'll come to eat their words. No we're not getting old, it's a perfectly respectable occupation for a pair of 20 somethings I'm told for the 21st century... Allotments are IN!

No big announcement

Stoopid church. Stoopid wedding...
We went along at 7pm to St Nicholas' church tonight and there were about 20 people waiting in the pews ahead of us. We were told the clerks stopped at 8pm and there was no way we were waiting for a whole hour if undoubtedly there wouldn't be the time to get sorted anyway.
So. Humph. No date for another week.
Apart from the wedding, work is insanely busy, so I'm off to finish off my glass of red wine and then I'm off to bed.
Na night.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Sorry

Sorry, I'm sorry I'm so sorry....
I'm rubbish, ok? Agreed? right...

My weeks are as follows:
Monday nights- Body attack
Tuesday nights - Nutrition course
Wednesday nights - 7-8 Church, 9-10 Al's football training
Thursday nights - FREE NIGHT (woohoo, what that means is ironing, cooking etc)
Friday nights - Yoga
In between I fit in homework, restoration work and overtime.
By the way, ta da: Anyone up for a spot of bat box building?





Last of all, the big wedding date will be announced tomorrow - hold onto your hats folks!