gemandalex

A review

2012-01-26T20:51:00.003-01:00

Josh is about to turn 14 weeks and we've just started to arrange his baptism. The days have a semi-rhythmical pattern of feeds and nappy changes to them and even bedtime appears to be settling down. It's as though I'm distanced enough from the birth and the chaos of the first weeks to write something constructive. So here is what we've learned:

If your labour is as long and arduous as mine it can really affect the first few weeks of your life together and that can be distressing. We were rocked by it all and it didn't help the breast feeding. All the literature says not to mix bottles and breast until they're at least 6 weeks old. This is I now know, pap. Utter pap. Quite a lot of the government literature is pap I've discovered. I know women who rescued their breast feeding by giving a bottle of formula at night so they could get some sleep. Some even gave it up for a week or two and then resumed it when they felt well enough, expressing all the while to keep their milk flowing. My first lesson I learned was, too late, stuff the rules.
From the start of his third week, when Alex went on paternity leave, I went to a mum and baby yoga class. This was a lifeline. Firstly I overcame the challenge of getting there on the bus with a baby, getting him dressed and fed, and generally functioning which made me feel wonderful. The breath of fresh air and the walk was good for him and for me and stopped me going crazy stuck in the house. The company of other mums also going through the same stuff made me feel much less alone. And the exercises we did together made me feel much more confident at handling him, knowing what to expect from him and able to encourage his development. Overall a thumbs up!
Sleep deprivation is absolutely the hardest thing to deal with in the whole world; no exaggeration. We were lucky that our big baby physically outgrew his moses basket and at 7 weeks (6 months is the government recommendation) had to move to his nursery. I learned that the mute button can be your best friend. This sounds awful but it is true. Babies are noisy sleepers. We disturbed him and vice versa. Add to that the basic fact that a newborn considers nighttime to be playtime and it becomes very hard going. Josh is fab though. As soon as he started to get interested in the world around him instead of sleeping all day he started sleeping better at night. And again I suppose bottle feeding came in handy here too because he could sustain playtime for longer between naps because bottles fill you up more. I'm still very sad we didn't breast feed but I don't imagine he'd be sleeping 10 hours a night like he does now if we had.
Colic can be overcome and medical professionals don't know what the hell they're talking about. Colic is described by the NHS as any unexplained crying. When I asked about colic and said he was crying A LOT they patronisingly said 'well babies do cry'. Colic can be made better (at least Josh's was) and here's what we did: Used probiotic; Changed him and laid him flat using a cushion/pillow; Raised his moses basket mattress at one end with a towel so his head was raised; Did a daily tummy time (it helps their digestion); Kept an eye on nappies for signs of any intolerances; Gave him water where possible; Burped him thoroughly and soothed him as much as possible; Tried Infacol (placebo effect I think) and Colief in his milk which actually worked; finally We changed his feed to Aptamil formula for colic and constipation. I couldn't say which one clinched it, maybe all of them, but at 10 weeks or so he just seemed to stop crying due to colic...
Only to be replaced by teething! Teething has made him crabby and I've found it easier to deal with than colic. For a start the cause is clear and by the time teething kicked in a) I was a more experienced mum and b) had discovered the dummy. The dummy was our best friend from about his 2nd week of life. To anyone who says they are unnecessary I say: pooh to you with knows on. We've tried baby Bongela and Anbesol; both recommended but the last two days Calpol had to be used as baby Joshua's cries became more anguished. But for a baby who needs to suck for comfort a dummy is an absolute must-have.
That said we have recently decided to cut down use of the dummy to a bare minimum and, proudly, I can report some success. He now uses it on average once a day, gets himself off to sleep for most naps without it and even some nights at least starts without it. The reason was purely because he woud thrash about at night searching for his beloved dummy; driving himself crazy he'd almost break his neck in the search. We're hoping cutting the use of it down will result in a better nights sleep for all of us. In defense of the dummy a speech and language therapist friend told us that non-nutritive sucking is very good for babies. Also, as it was one of the most familliar objects in Josh's life it was the first thing he tried to grab at, which improved his hand eye coordination enormously. Most importantly it helped to calm and soothe him at an age where very few other things could.

I think this summarises most major points but we learn new things daily. If asked would I do it again the answer is an emphatic 'yes'!

The start of the adventure

Was he really this small?

Getting out and about #1

Getting out and about #2

Al feeding

Bath time

Asleep in our bed

Xmas with dad, uncles Dave and Nathan, aunties Claire and Laura

What a good grip

Discovering the Christmas tree

On Christmas day

with Great Nan, Nan and Grandad

Godmother Danielle gets a hug too

Laughing with dad

Posing for mum

10 weeks old - Joshua's First Christmas

2011-12-27T22:16:00.001-01:00

So, Joshua is 10 weeks old and he experienced his first Christmas! He slept through most of it and was adorable and quiet and well-behaved. We have a bedtime routine now and life has a certain amount of rhythm but we need to get better at being flexible at nighttimes - we spent Christmas Eve away from home until midnight and Josh was awake the whole time, he just refused to sleep at all!

Still, we had a wonderful time. Alex put up the Christmas decoratioons and joshua eventually noticed the tree and was mesmerised by the lights. He also made two delicious stollen that we are still eating and we collected our hamper from the butcher on his first day off. We had a relaxing Christmas Eve mooching about in dressing gowns eating stollen. Bernadette came to visit and then we headed out to Jess and Graham's apartment in Edgbaston. She'd outdone herself and made masses of food and everything looked beautiful. We introduced Joshua and he sat on my knee looking interestedly at everything, wide-eyed. Then we drove to Nathan and Laura's. Apart from a 40 minute period of irritability on the part of Joshua the evening continued to be very pleasant. We dropped off our presents and picked up some new ones and saw Dave and Claire, wished Emma and Ben a happy Christmas and goodnight and then put Josh to bed. Bless him he spent about 40 minutes wide awake just staring up at the ceiling after we'd "put him to bed" until finally he'd had enough and he hollered and we went to get him..! But then until we left he sat contentedly on Al's knee looking around. We walked home and went to bed at about 1am. He fell asleep in his pushchair at last and bless him I took him out of his car seat, coat, hat annd pout him into his sleeping bag without waking him up - he slept soundly til 6.30am.

I've never gone to bed feeling so tired on Christmas Eve or woken up on Christmas day feeling less alert!!! Still, parenthood has its benefits and the main one is seeing Josh in the morning - he's so smiley on his changing mat. Tonight in fact he displayed his newest party trick - he laughed! Three times he laughed out loud and it made my heart explode with happiness to hear it. It was especially funny because he'd just done the biggest nastiest poo in days and seemed particularly happy about it!

Christmas was tiring but very enjoyable. We dressed him up in his santa suit and me mum and dad took him to church. He was definitely the cutest member of the congregation and slept through most of it too! When we got back home Al's parents and nan were home already and the meal was well under way. Alex cooked a delicious meal and afterwards we spent hours opening the many many presents, mostly Josh's; it was lovely. Finally we put him to bed and spent the night eating turkey sandwiched and watching the Goonies on telly, surrounded by the chaos of opened presents!

It's been lovely so far and there's still the new year to go!

Big Thank You

2011-11-11T10:52:00.001-01:00

Today is the first day we've not received post including a card or present; the generosity of our friends and family has been amazing. Friends from church Jean and Mike, Al's cousin Penny and Laura and Nathan have been invaluable sources of kindness and support, so have Pauline and Jo from church and everyone has been on the phone with offers of help and concern in the first few weeks. Countless books and toys, clothes and other gifts have arrived; I'm not sure we have even kept track properly of who has given us what as we were so bamboozled in the first days. It's been amazing.

As he's growing Joshua is starting to explore the world, meeting a great many people and seeing it from different vantage points like his swing and car seat. He's doing very well and says thank you for all his many gifts! xx

Family Time

2011-11-10T19:39:00.001-01:00

October 15th
After a gruelling 33 hours our baby boy Joshua Tomas Harris was born at an alarming 9lb 12 oz.

Alex was a wonderful birth partner, the midwives and doctors were very good and the experience was an unforgetable one. I was so grateful when they told me it was nearly over and I could feel my baby's head come into the world. It was not the birth we had planned for. We had prepared for a natural birth in the birth centre which is how things began. However we ended up after 24 hours being transferred to the delivery suite where I had an epidural, an IV drip, hormone injection and in the end a forcep delivery. I think I was in shock for several days after and in truth the first two weeks were really hard for us both. A huge disappointment was not being able to keep up with breast feeding. Having learned from experience I now think that for the first two weeks any new mother needs to stay virtually in bed 100% of the time just eating, sleeping and feeding the baby. I think I tried to do too much, and after a traumatic birth I think I came close to exhaustion what with suffering from sleep deprivation at nights... Silly me. Not clever. So for the last 3 weeks I've been expressing and bottle feeding. It broke my heart to begin bottle feeding but it was absolutely the right thing to do.

So Joshua is nearly 4 weeks old and a beautiful, healthy, thriving baby. He's strong, with long legs, big beautiful eyes and a strong neck. Alex has gone back to work now but he's been a hands on dad and he's a wonderful parent; I'm so proud of him. Right now we're sat on the sofa together after dinner and he's winding Joshua like a pro!

Night times are hard going with Al back at work but we're doing really well overall and things are starting to feel normal; or at least the days are. Nights are... well, less normal at the moment! The first day that Al went back to work I really missed him; it's still odd not having him around but me and Josh are getting used to each other.

A summary of what I've learned before our new arrival

2011-10-05T07:05:00.001-01:00

The whole process of making and awaiting the arrival of a new baby has been quite enlightening. If sometimes I've not dwelled on the finer details of our thought processes along the way in this blog it's either been because it was too painful (this blog is my happy space for recording achivements and fun times not heartbreak), or we felt it too soon to look so far ahead, or suddenly we felt confident but it now seemed too late for a retrospective. However now here we are at 39 weeks and 2 day and there may be no better time for a bit of a summary.

Pregnancy's been a massive learning curve. Whatever you think you know beforehand turns out to insufficiently prepare you for the reality of it all. Here's a compendium of what I have learned so far:

#1 - People are very kind. I've learned that total strangers on the bus are often delightfully kind and considerate, complete strangers on the street will ask you how you are and bus drivers pause for an extra second to let you take a seat (most of the time).

#2 - You can't rely on female colleagues to be understanding but a good working environment absolutely can make or break your state of mind during this time. A supportive and flexible environment is a must because the reality of midwife and other appointments tends to make life additionally haphazard and there's nothing you can do about that.

#3 - Taking on the part of Olive Madison in the Odd Couple was a genius way of distracting myself from the stress of being pregnant. I had a project to focus on that seemed much more iminent, was directly under my control, and which without my full commitment assured public humiliation on a massive scale. So for those early months when I could have driven myself crazy paying attention to every fluctuation and change I had a good project to dive into to keep myself sane. Yes it was tiring but well worth it. Not many guides to pregnancy suggest this bit of advice but if you're a worrier it might actually be a good idea to take on a new separate challenge that knackers you out! After all it may be your last chance for a while to do something that's all about you.

#4 - When the chaos of the play had calmed down at nearly 6 months I was desperate to focus my attention on actually being pregnant. It was a real relief to start Cat's Pregnancy Yoga class in Moseley and to do something for the little guy inside. The last few weeks of the play had made me feel very conflicted; scared that I wasn't resting enough, guilty about not being any use around the house and desperate to prove to myself that I could achieve something special. When it was over I needed to step back and feel like I could start to support Al again around the house with little things but also start to get my head around this pregnancy lark. I also felt very fragile. The yoga class gave me back some confidence in my own physicality, connect with the changes in my body and begin to advance towards making sensible decisions! I have always liked moving around and done different dance and gym classes but when I came out of the play bubble I suddenly had no idea about what my body could do, all I knew was everyone was telling me 'Be careful' about a hundred times a day. It felt great to be with other ladies who didn't constatntly comment on the bump and find out how to avoid practical issues like back aches etc. The class has saved me!

#5 - After ages of hoping for a baby and seemingly ages of thinking this might finally be it but not being able to tell anyone suddenly everyone's saying 'Won't be long now!' and it dawns on you that you've got about a thousand things to buy and sort out. For ages we didn't dare even talk about after Bean's birth' then there was a shift and we started to accept reality and talk about things even though we didn't buy anything until about 7 months in. I'm a great list-maker and at 6 months began approaching project Bean like with my usual attention to detail. It helps me get my head around things. We got the guest room ready which was the first step towards being able to sort out the nursery. When we finally got started on Bean's nursery it felt like a massive deal to me! I kept crossing things off my lists and making new ones and eventually, now, I have officially run out of things to do!

#6 - After the play I suddenly had loads of energy because the rehearsals had been so energy sapping in the last 8 weeks. So even though I was in the 3rd trimester and officially supposed to be feeling rubbish I felt great! This carried me through until relatively recently and even now I still feel fine just with the need to sit a lot more than normal... As a result we packed in loads of socialising and I think this will have been very important when we're feeling knackered in a few months time and looking back!

#7 - Friends and family are amazingly generous. There have been so many kind gifts over the last weeks from people who really didn't have to at all that I'd like to name them here.
Lucy from CRT managed to get her hands on a beautifully crafted hand-made blanket and then because I missed my last official day she wasn't even there for me to thank!
Marilyn, also from CRT, who must have spent hours and hours sewing the most intricate and beautiful 4 traditional style gowns.
Teresa who knitted a baby hat in blue and green while they stayed with us, bless! and who also gave me loads of useful advice about breastfeeding and re-usable nappies - thank you so much!
Tieta Teresa who sent a package including 2 home made bibs and told mum it would be like she was there to give him a hug if he wore them!
The baby shower girls Danielle St Leon, Danielle Sumner, Susie Emerton, Ruth Gallagher, Vicki Gilhouly, Laura Collins with Emma, Ben (honorary girl for the day) and mum Gill Nunnerly, Wendy St Leon, my mum (of course :)), Pauline Weaver, Teresa Salter with Sian, Catherine Shelley and Claire Davies,who were so incredibly generous in their gifts.
Bernadette Anne and Laura Collins (LC) who missed the official baby shower and brought cake and MORE presents with them - just the cake would have been enough guys!
Nathan and Laura Collins who have sorted us out with so much stuff and advice we can't begin to thank them enough. All we can do is hope that over the years we can repay them!
Thanks also to Pilar Balsells for the socks and to the many people who I know have been praying for and thinking of us because they've told mum. It's very much appreciated!

#8 - The theory may not end up having anything to do with reality but I always feel better going into something if I'm prepared. I've read a lot of books and talked to a lot of women, mothers midwives and experts. The Womens Hospital in Birmingham is quite progressive it seems and follows a philosophy of 'active' rather than 'managed' birth. That's to say they try and avoid interventions. Giving birth in the birth centre means you're not tied to a bed like you see on telly, there is a bed but there are also birth balls to sit on, the use of a birth pool, a fabric loop to hang off and comfy squishy things for you or parrtner to lie about on. Instead of being strapped to a bed you're able to wander about, stretch, take a bath, eat and basically jiggle around until baby comes out. Anatomically lying down is the worst position to be in for birth as your baby has to fight against gravity. Me and Al have both taken the Parent Education (organised by the charity NCT) and Yoga Birth preparation classes now and I think feel a lot clearer about how it's supposed to work. Combined with a meditation cd and all the yoga classes I'm feeling very calm indeed. Of course we'll see once the pain kicks in but at the moment I really want to do this without any drugs at all: wish us luck!

#9 - Waiting is the worst bit. Just no idea how long he'll be but as long as he's ok I don't mind. Been keeping busy cooking but have now officially run out of tupperware and space in the freezer so guess I'll have to stop! The sun came out in a last, bright and beautiful, Indian summer and it's been easy enough to fill the time visiting nurseries, doing breastfeeding and first aid class, visiting Kings Heath Breastfeeding club, meeting other pregnant ladies for a drink and so on. Now though the bags are packed, there's nothing good on telly and the blog is up to date. There's nothing left to say except 'Come on Bean'!

A trip to Twickenham, and a last Goodbye

2011-09-22T08:35:00.002-01:00

So, after the beautiful baby shower things haven't slowed down at all! Not one bit; we've been very busy having fun!

On the 3rd September we had tickets to see a double header at Englands spiritual home of Rugby, Twickenham. We took Al's parents as a joint fathers day/wedding anniversary present. I'd only been to see Coventry play at the Butts previously and even though both my in-laws enjoy watching rugby on the telly every chance they get they had never been to see a live game. So it was quite exciting! Alex drove us all down to Twickenham and we parked at Rosebine where we eat our packed lunches on the grass, then we walked the 10 minutes to the stadium. Here we are in front of the ground.

Les, me, Bean and Alex

Les and Fran and hubby Al

We saw London Irish play vrs Harlequins and Saracens play vrs London Wasps - see I was paying attention!

London Irish

Our seats were right at the front!

Saracens and Wasps was the better game

The atmosphere was great, loads of famillies and fun and many fans had turned up to support 2 teams; one per game. Two rows in front of us was the touch line, we were so close to everything. It was a great way to spend a day doing something different and it was the first time literally in years that we four had done something together a bit different from sunday dinner or family meals. I got asked about a million times if I was alright but really, apart from needing a good night's sleep that night I was fine and thought it an excellent way to spend a day. Me and Al really enjoyed ourselves!

The next weekend Alex went to Phil's stag do and I went to Bath. I literally had 2 days left at work and am what would be termed heavily pregnant and for any other friends I probably wouldn't have gone but boy I'm glad I did! These girls are the absolute best mates anyone could wish to have - we all lived together in the first year and they carried on for a further 2 years while I thought it clever to get a place separately. It was not and I've wish thousands of times since that I'd carried on living with them, but there you are. We're all clever with hindsight aren't we?

I arrived at Susie's home and Emily was already there, bless her, helping to tidy up. It was the first time I'd seen Susie's new flat and it's pretty nice. We went and sat in the garden with a cup of tea to admire her mum's planting and have a chat while we waited for Sarah and Hannah to arrive. Once they got there we all chinwagged some more over a glass of wine (or juice for me :)) in the garden and had a real good laugh. Sarah got a great photo of us all on timer which I must get hold of. Whenever we see each other it's like no time has passed and there's always so much to catch up on. Susie's just left her dance teaching position in Bath, Hannah's writing a book and living her new married life in Bath, Emily's loving her teaching job in Southampton and being a mummy for the first time, and Sarah is nearing the end of her maternity in London. We all have partners and lives and gossip and quite frankly there's never enough time to cover it all!

After our gossip session we sprung into action and changed and went out for a delicious meal at Wagamama's. It amuses me that every building looks like something out of a Jane Austen novel, even Wagamama's. Then we walked to a sweet little cocktail bar where we had a cocktail or mocktail or two...

Cocktails in Bath

The next morning we went for breakfast (delicious) and then to Thermae Bath Spa for the best 3 hours of my life (apart from my wedding and maybe some life-altering holidays that currently escape me - it's that good). Seriously, it's a temple to water. If you like getting wet go there, if not probably best you stay away... although I reckon it could change your mind. The picture I'll always remember is of the rooftop pool glistening in the sunlight under the blue sky with picturesque Bath spread around and the rolling countryside spreading out away from us. You're in the city centre but feel like you're in paradise. And for me, feeling light as a feather for a few hours was a real joy. Getting dressed afterwards was a real pain! The spa is 3 floors and I'm not going into detail here or you'll think I'm on comission but I think everyone should go. Afterwards we separated to go back to homes and partners but it had been a delicious weekend

Susie Hannah Sarah and Emily

Pretty as a picture

The next day I had my penultimate day in work before maternity leave began but unfortunately I began to feel ill and went home early. I didn't make it in til the Thursday but I was fine and so was Bean, thank goodness. The girls and boys at Ernst & Young's CRT department made such a fuss over me and gave me a brilliant play mat (Ocean Wonders Kick and Crawl Gym, Fisher Price) and a gorgeous hand-made blanket that I have now packed in my hospital bag.

The play mat CRT got us, bless!

The Friday was my first day of maternity, although technically it was booked as holiday. Al had booked the day off so we could take his parents over to chez Richards for my parents' 35th wedding anniversary buffet. Mum outdid herself with delicious home made macarrones, chicken croquetas, salads, nibbles and more puddings than you could shake a stick at. It was a good chance to see auntie Shelagh and uncle David before the birth too and we were lucky with the weather otherwise I'm not sure we'd have all squeezed in! We all have a glass of Cava Codorniu and dad promised to write the children's stories down for me that he used to tell me at bed time (dad - take note; it is written down and you had witnesses, you have to actually do it this time). We all had a nice family day together and I hope that my parents had a good anniversary (a day early).

Dad, Shelagh, Al, me, mum Fran and Les

The reason my parents celebrated their anniversary a day early was that Saturday was Leon and Teresa's leaving do and I couldn't have coped with both on one day. I could barely cope with the leaving do as it was. Leon and Al lived together all through university. He's probably my best male friend (apart from Al, obviously) and the only one to have made an effort with Danielle and Lisa. We've seen each other through rough times and good. He's always been there for me. And I've tried to be there for him. In recent years I've been so proud to see him get his masters, marry the most perfect girl for him ever, become a da and we've done 2 plays together. He also gives brilliant hugs; a vital thing in any friend. He met Teresa (who's a New Zealander) and she is sweet, fun, kind, a real laugh and has adopted all of us crazy Brits without reservation. She's also supported him, sncouraged him and generally they're the nicest couple you could hope to meet. And tomorrow they fly to New Zealand to start their new life as a family. I couldn't be happier for them. But selfishly I couldn't be more sad! We (me and Al, Danielle, Nathan and Laura) got to the pub for 6.30pm and helped them set up - Nathan got the karaoke machine set up, we blew up balloons and tied them up with ribbons and generally helped out and waited for the first guests to arrive. In the end there were loads of us and Nathan became 'the compere without compare' manning the karaoke machine and putting on music in between our shocking renditions. Leon started things off with 'Lazy (I'm wicked and I'm)' which had us all in fits of laughter and got the party going properly. We all danced about then me and Leon sang possibly the worst rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen ever sung - complete with air guitar and head banging and generally atrocious singing on both our parts. About 10 seconds in I realised what a long song it was but it was too late to back out! It was hilarious and seemed to make everyone else laugh. Finally, after hours of hilarity, and I mean jaw achingly funny, midnight came and went and we were asked to turn off the music. No one wanted to leave. So many people had cried that night, miraculously not me (I'd already blubbed at the kitchen table that morning just putting together a photo album). We played one last song by James - Sit Down and all sat on the floor, just like when I was 17 at the Colosseum. After the song ended Alex got up and said a few words which were very touching about how we all knew they were perfect for each other and how although we'd miss them we knew they were going to be happy which is what made it ok. I could have kissed that husband of mine. A few others echoed Al's words and sat on the floor I heard people crying, saw people hug and knew that very few people in the world could engender this kind of reaction of love and sadness. It was something very moving to see so many men cry. But I was numb, and it only came out the next morning before church with Danielle. So tomorrow the Salters emmigrate. Leon Teresa and Sian I have three words for you: SKYPE US, PRONTO.

Leon, Teresa, Nath, Al and Laura
before the party began

Leon Phil and Al

Bohemian Rhapsody on karaoke

Fun times

The fun part 2

2011-08-29T08:11:00.000-01:00

There's more...
This week me and mum had arranged to go shopping for baby bedding. We went to Mothercare at Shirley Retail Park and my two mum's were very good to Bean, very good indeed! Bless him, the little chap's being spoilt to death and he's not even out... To say thankyou I took us for lunch at Mortons in Dickens Heath as it's on the way home and we had a very pleasant day together.

Mum, Fran and me

Then, yesterday, lovely Laura came by for me at 3pm to take me to an unnamed location... Intriguing! Her sat nav said Knowle was the destination, and I suspected there was some kind of baby shower awaiting me but had no idea what to expect. Final destination was, it turned out, the Heron's Nest pub in Knowle where around 15 of my friends and my mum were waiting for me alongside the brains behind the operation, Danielle. It was such a surprise and so wonderful to see everyone together! Friends who aren't normally thrown together getting along like a house on fire; that really floats my particular boat!

Claire and the cake 'assembled' by Danielle

Teresa playing 'Stick the dummy on the baby'

The baby

And the winner is..!

The group

There was Danielle Sumner and Susie Emerton, Ruth Gallagher, Vicky Gilhoully, Laura with Emma, ben and mum Gill, Danielle and mum Wendy, my mum (of course :)), Pauline Weaver, Teresa Salter with Sian, Catherine Shelley, Claire Davies, and if I've forgotton anyone then my hugest apologies. I was shaking for a few minutes then after catching up with people, some of whom I hadn't seen in YEARS, I settled down to opening presents! Oh my goodness were our friends generous! Danielle's mum had made flower arrangements for the table and helped Danielle set up, Laura had had the brainwave of games and Danielle had pulled the whole thing together. And all the guests had driven through the wilds of Warwickshire to come together and spol little Bean rotten. He now has more outfits than me! And impressively there was a smattering of clothes across the ages newborn, 0-3 months, 3-6 months and 6-9 months so they bought SMART. Mum bought everyone's drink to say thank you. Emma, who hadn't been feeling well for days, rallied and was at her most charming. Everyone contributed. I must say I am massively grateful to all my lovely friends... words aren't enough.

At church yesterday the vicar Jane gave me communion and said a blessing on the child within, a personal touch of hers that is just eautiful. She blessed him and I thought 'he truly is blessed'. It's a bank holiday Monday today and yesterday afternoon Alex put the icing on the cake by building his cot. So Bean has a bed and a wardrobe! I'm starting to pinch myself and think this long-dreamed of baby is going to be a reality soon. Happy days.

The fun...

2011-08-29T07:29:00.000-01:00

Well to start with the next Tuesday our very good friend came to visit. James Alex and Leon had lived together throughout their 3 years at university. In the first year I lived on the floor above them, got to know and love them all and then in the second year they moved into one house one Pershore Rd and I moved into another in Selly Oak. Since by then me and Al were seeing each other I carried on seeing quite a bit of the lads. After university Leon stayed in Brum but James went on to London, from there to Dubai after a few years and now he lives in Australia. Last time he and Zoe came back to Birmingham for a visit me and Al were away on holiday in Barcelona and were gutted to miss him. But that Tuesday I sat waiting in the Patrick Kavanagh pub in Mosely to see my 3 favourite boys in the same place at the same time for possibly the last time in... well who knows? Leon's moving to New Zealand, there's more chance they'll manage an antipodean catch up next time so Lord knows.

James Alex and Leon

Me and James and Al

It was gorgeous to see James again, and Zoe's just as nice as ever. But tinged with sadness cause 1 night is not enough! But still, the best thing is that we just picked up where we left off, as though no time had passed. After the pub we went to La Fibule for some dinner and then back to the pub for some after dinner chinwagging. Everyone was there; all the girls still left in Birmingham from Zoe's house were there and it's just such a pleasure to catch up with them all. So many of us had married and had children, I think James and Zoe said it's only their Birmingham friends who've all had babies so maybe there's something in the water! I eventually put my foot down and drove Al and Leon home as it was getting late for a 'school night' - but honestly I'd have stayed for hours more if I could have.

The next day Leon and Teresa's rent finished on their home in Kings Heath and they moved in with us. It was delightful to come home from work and have dinner together. Sian was already being bathed and put to bed when I got in so we had a grown up dinner the 4 of us; Al had had the day off so he'd cooked. And so began a very pleasurable 5 days of just hanging out together. I had the Thursday off so the next day it was me Leon Teresa and Sian, then we both went to work on Friday and then we had the weekend all together. It was like a mini holiday!

So they moved in and gave us all their condiments and herbs and spices so we spent Thursday morning just sorting through it all - it was AMAZING! The day before Al had gone to their allotment with Leon and they'd brought back kale, beans and beetroots and various vegetables that we cooked up over the course of the week. And they kept thanking us!!! I mean, honestly; we'ver never been so rich in either food or company I think and I really missed them when they moved out the following Monday.

Just waking up - Teresa and Sian

Sian propped up on our sofa

Me and Teresa went to visit her friend Becky to talk about nappies cause she used re-usable nappies and that's what I'd like to do also. It was really interesting and useful and I'm definitely confident enough to use them now. We watched True Grit together one night, sort of, being as parenthood took its toll on the Salters' ability to keep their eyes open ha ha! And on the Saturday the boys watched some footie together then we all went for a meal at a really nice steak house in Dickens Heath (Miller & Carver) before taking a stroll around Earlswood Lakes. It was good to get a breath of fresh air and some exercise after that steak!

Having lunch at a steak house

Walking by Earlswood Lakes, Leon and Al

Al and Sian

Leon and Teresa

On the Sunday Teresa and I took Sian to church and Alex took Leon to the first game of the Sunday League season. He's always so happy to be back playing in proper games! So me and Teresa caught up with Jo (from theatre, AKA Mickey the cop in The Odd Couple) and as soon as we gave her Sian she just played and sat with her for the whole service. Her grandsons were the same, both adorable boys and so sweet with Sian. They just played for the whole service, quietly and gently. Sian didn't make a peep except during the singing when she gave it a good go! We had a lovely service and afterwards introduced her to Rob the vicar. As ever his first instinct was to pick her up so Sian got another cuddle before we left the church and left the church having made friends with just about everyone! When we got home we weren't expecting to find Alex covered in blood and bandaged up, but that's what we got! His head had made contact with the goalie's elbow he thought and had left a deep-looking gash on one side of his forehead. A quick inspection and I drove him to Accident & Emergency which is where we stayed for the next few hours until they reassured us that he was alright, cleaned and glued him up and gave him a jab. Once they'd removed the bandage his headache and nausea stopped and I stopped worrying. All in all the staff at the new QE hospital were very good and very nice and all's well that ends well.

So we got back to the day's plan of having a bbq and invited the Collins family over. When Jill and Richard came over to pick up Emma and of course stayed for a while to say hello it really was a full house! The weather held and Nathan didn't set fire to the trees so all in all it was a success! It really was lovely. Emma took such a shine to Sian, and all the kids behaved impeckably around the cat - whose nerves by this time were a little raw (she's only just calming down...), and we eat like kings! And that was our last night together because next day the Salters moved out to go see Leon's nan and we got on with restoring the house to some order (I say 'we' but really it was mostly Alex who went on something of a cleaning frenzy)

Jo and her boys entertaining Sian during the service

Rob the vicar with Sian

Nath doing his best to set fire to our garden

Richard Leon and Nath at the bbq

Emma and Ben

What an amazing few weeks

2011-08-29T06:36:00.000-01:00

It's been an incredible time. We've had worldwide concern for our welfare, seen the worst and best of humanity, and enjoyed ourselves immensely with some of the best friends we could wish for.
Two weeks ago I began the week expecting a normal-ish week and then the riots happened. Birmingham city centre became a scary place for a few days and I'm very grateful that for two days I was allowed to work from home. But apart from feeling a little exposed and vulnerable and there being a weird a sense of aggression and the occasional riot van I didn't witness anything except the fear of the unknown. Work allowed me to stay and work at home and so I actually really only heard the reports and watched the news with increasing alarm, thinking of my friends at work in the city centre. The weirdest thing was being there in the morning. The shop where I buy my breakfast sometimes was full of business owners also there to pick up food whose shops had been attacked. They were normal people, just having a really rubbish week and I felt so sorry for them. The sandwich shop where I buy my lunch was all boarded up after being looted; another independent retailer. My friend who lived in the city centre had been forced to walk home from work along Broad St and through a massive gang of lads ripping into every shop they could get their hands on. It was the proximity of it all and the feeling of being 8 months pregnant and very exposed. The weirdest thing actually was on a lunch break or when being evacuated we saw these 'youths' and you would normally have just walked past them unthinking, but there they were grinning and laughing about yesterday's axploits, bold as brass. I was furious with them for holding a whole city to ransom. A city, by the way, already struggling with enough financial problems. Talk about kicking a chap when he's already down.

But the week drew to a close. On the Friday I received messages of support from colleagues in London and India, and all the family in Spain had sent texts, even Laura holidaying in Boston with Luis and Eric had seen something was afoot. And how can you feel too upset with so many people caring about you?
That said on the Thursday night me and Alex were eating our dinner when the next door neighbour's house was broken into and riot vans and policemen turned up. I go for months without seeing policemen and in Birmingham I can honestly say I've always felt very safe. To suddenly discover your neighbour's house has been attacked while you're innocently tucking into your shepherd's pie is bizarre and not a little unsettling. I felt just as sorry for the neighbours (who were in at the time and ran for their lives out the back door) as I did for the policeman who came and sat on our sofa and looked half dead with tiredness. The poor guy had workd 60 out of the last 70 odd hours and was on his last legs. He was awfully nice. Yet another victim of the looters. I had a nightmare that night about our house being attacked and Alex ending up dead, but otherwise have remained relatively sensible (if at times slightly highly strung).

That sunday I went to church with Emma. The sermons are always highly relevant to topical concerns at St Nicolas and Rev John talked about the looters' need for respect and forgiveness and forced me to take a good look at my own reactions. Had my anger (justifiable or not) been a Christian reaction? Probably not. No, I'd say not. Last night, 2 weeks after the service I said to Emma it was my turn to write the prayers and did she have anything she thought I should say and she said "Ask him to help the rioters never happen again and for us all to love each other". So in and amongst the sadness and confusion there is at least one 6 year old who's learned something valuable. Bless her.

After the riots came the fun...

Time flying by

2011-08-11T08:28:00.000-01:00

Wow we were 25 weeks pregnant in the last post and are now rapidly approaching 32 weeks; all I can say is time really has flown!

In chronological order, then, Me and Al went out with the Billesley Players for a meal the following week to congratulate ourselves on a job well done. but Sheila, the director of the next play in November had a sad announcement. There are simply not enough male members in the group to do the next play so it was cancelled. I wasn't going to be in it anyway but it's a sad situation for the group. It's not that men haven't joined but they've all either left after one or two plays or they've walked out half way through the rehearsals process; which is always a nightmare. Girls have joined and stayed but boys just don't seem to care enough about the community aspect to not bother about letting the rest of us down. Of course, Sheila could have directed a play with just girls in it but at the end of the day she has to direct a play she likes and she couldn't find anything appropriate. I think it was a bit of a shock for the group and the problem will take some thinking over...

We had a couple of weeks after this of just normal life. We went to work, I went to church, we rested, we cooked; it was nice! This in itself deserves a mention as it's been all go for months and to have a couple of weekends where the biggest plan involved going to the pub was amazing. I think Alex is enjoying the bonus of having a designated driver, and to be honest I really don't miss the drinks - there are some great non alcoholic beers out there; I'm quite partial to a Cobra. Then we celebrated Sam from thatre's wedding and Emma's birthday on the same day and for one day it was busy busy again.

The following weekend I went to see We will Rock You (click on the link to see the tour's official photographs) with mum and dad. I'm still not convinced they recognised half the songs but we had a great time which is all that counts! It was at the Birmingham Hippodrome and it was brilliant. I mean, don't go if you want something with a super clever storyline, or even a plot that holds together all that well; but it has great one liners, witty characters (Scaramouche, for want of a better word, rocks!) and of course stellar music. We finished on a real high, on our feet crooning to Bohemian Rhapsody, arms in the air and generally high as kites! I had to sit down for the last minute or two as all the excitement had worn me out but I still gave Scaramouch a standing ovation, along with the rest of the audience. The only weker point was Galileo who seemed to much of a sweetiepie to be the rock star super hero that we were meant to believe him to be. Maybe it was because I read in the programme that he'd starred in Grease musical on stage as Danny Zucho - or maybe it was because he actually still looked like him with the white T shirt. He wasn't a Freddie Mercury at all - but then who on earth could claim to be?

The next week was my 28 week blood teast and with it the midwife measured the bump and plotted Bean's size on a graph. He is apparently just slightly over the average size but I'm not taking it with more than a pinch of salt. Those graphs are based on average sizes and basically until he's out we're not going to know. And, as Alex puts it, a few ounces either side won't make too much difference; it's still going to hurt. Thanks hon!

That Saturday me Danielle Laura and Claire went to the IMAX in Birmingham to see Harry Potter in 3d. If you want to get a feeling for what it was like basically click on the link above to see the trailer and you'll get about 2%. The 3d film was spectacular, a proper roller coaster, the 3d element wasn't gimmicky it was really cleverly done. The first image of Hogwarts from the air shorouded in mist and dementors would have been great on any cinema screen. But in 3d you actually float through the sky and through the dementors, like they're just THERE! OK it was my first 3d experience and it's probably not worth it for many films but go and see Harry Potter at the IMAX (Thinktank, Millennium Point, Bham, Midlands, UK - ok?) if you see it at all because it's brilliant!

The next day we awoke with plans to take a leisurely shopping trip for baby items. But the best laid plans of mice and men as they say... The old freezer had broken so we had to defrost it and rescue what food we could before heading out to choose and buy a new one. That said in one day we did well; we bought a travel cot and monitor, changing mats and a few other bits from Mothercare, and a normal cot from John Lewis. In fact John Lewis took so long serving us they knocked 30% off the price which was good! Finally Alex went off to collect the freezer, he took the old freezer into the garden, unpacked and turned the doors over on the new one, and got the kitchen back to normal while I cooked. Restful it was not; but it was damn useful.

The next Tuesday me and Alex attended our Parent Education class at the Womens Hospital. We learned about the labour itself; types of pain relief; what to expect and the likely order of things; the differences between the delivery suite, birth centre and a home birth; we got a tour of the delivery suite (a normal hospital room where all types of pain relief and doctors are available) and birth centre (a more relaxing environment that can be used with more flexibility); and got to ask as many questions as we liked. We also did a tiny intro to breathing and massage. It was really useful and made us feel loads more prepared and involved.

So now we approach 32 weeks and I feel like we're getting 'there' - wherever there is. It feels good. Four weeks and 2 days left at work and then it'll be Bean time proper! Bring it on!

A Wedding, a play, a room finished, a ballet, another play and Bean update

2011-07-02T09:53:00.002-01:00

As you can see from the title it's been a busy month since we met our boy Bean... yes mum I know they sometimes get the sex wrong but I'm just going to go with the boy thing for now ok? It's been a busy month since that scan; so busy and fulfilling and exciting. So here we go with a catch up of all that the Harris-Richards family have been up to!

The scan was on the 23 May and the following saturday was the last of 3 spring-summer weddings; Dawn and Ash's big day. It was a truly wonderful day with a pretty english church, brass band procession, cricket green and aussie bbq - the bride is from England and the groom from Australia... It was also a wonderful chance to catch up with a great many old uni friends; Pete and Vicky who'd recently got married themselves, Kate and John, Michelle and Nick, and Steve, gorgeous Steve, who kept pointing at my belly and saying "You're pregnant... I mean... pregnant!!!" and many friends besides.

The happy couple Dawn and Ash

The gang, new and old

We then had a week's grace in which to finish off the spare room - Emily see the finished picture - we love it! The cat, Pads, has certainly settled in and now finally we have a proper computer desk to update the blog from - the first time in months it's all been plugged in and working properly.

Our beautiful guest room

The next week the Billesley Players moved into the Old Rep theatre on the 6th June to prepare for the biggest event of the group's calendar: the summer play. Because I was pregnant and a bit useless they told me (in the nices possible way) not to move my costumes in til the 7th and having not been able to attend set building I had no idea what it would all look like or how finished it'd be. I walked onto the stage to find, gasp, a fully finished set. It was beautiful!

My name in lights! (sort of)

Doug putting finishing touches

Pat, backstage

Sam strike a pose!

Jo - or Mickey the cop

Leon - got you!

Spanish Leon

1st night - all the cast

Parents and Auntie Shelagh are excited about the poster too!

The girls onstage

1st night celebrating with the folks

The team in various states of hun-overedness
breaking down the set on Sunday morning...

The play got 4 stars! The review can be found online by clicking here but here is a major part:

Florence – or Flo – is the hygienic, fussy fanatic, though no one seeing her pick up those littering crisps on the first night, not on the same day that they had been dropped because the curtain had also dropped in the meantime, would have had cause to suspect this, had the unscripted tidying been seen in isolation.

But this account by Sheila Parkes is a delight of disciplined orderliness – spiced at one point by her extraordinary attempt to unblock Flo’s ears and only straining her throat for her trouble.

INNOCENT IMPISHNESS

Gemma Harris, as Olive, is a joy of innocent impishness beneath a wondrously curly wig which at times she did not seem to trust to remain in place. Not that this was allowed to get in the way of a lovely performance as the woman required against her will to keep her hormones in check in the absence of any male company.

She has a way of puffing her cheeks as part of a wild, wide-eyed grin that is irresistibly infectious.

This is a splendid pairing and it thrives on its responsibilities as the centrepiece of the plot – but it does have amusing support all round, particularly from Leon Salter and Edward Fellows in their version of two amiable Spaniards who are inadvertently at war with the English language.

Then there are Claire Davies (Silvie), Patricia Hands (Renée), Samantha Broome (Vera, the blonde who has been known to spend 20 minutes talking to a security guard before discovering he was a statue) and Jo Wall (Mickey, the New York cop who appears to spend her off-duty life in uniform as she joins the others in an eternal board game). All make a pleasing contribution, with Claire Davies having a particularly joyful exit line.

This is a happy production by a talented group. It is a shame that its two-day run is over before the world at large realises it has started, but those patrons alert to its circumscribing are very well rewarded, To 11.06.11.

Here is my chance to say two things. I think it's the proudest I've ever felt about a single achievement in my entire life. And I'd like to also give my most profound thanks to all our friends who gave up their time to come along, in some cases travelling half way across the country. You are truly appreciated. Finally to the family generally and in particular to Alex, because without him I'd never have been able to do it. I was so big and pregnant and tired for the last 8 weeks that I was increasingly then utterly useless around the house and Alex really looked after me and the cat, kept the housework going, cooked, cleaned... everything so I could get my cat naps in. Alex - you're the best husband ever and I love you lots.

Ok so enough about the play. Afterwards there was a bit of a vacuum, mentally, with my life having been so consumed by it for so long that I didn't know what to do with myself. But I didn't have long to wallow. One week after our goddaughter Emma came to see me in the play with her mum and Alex she came with me and my mum to see the ballet Copellia. We had a great afternoon; Emma enjoyed the ballet a lot and got to see the theatre pit and was totally engaged and a dream of well-behavedness. Bless her. The ballet was super and engaging and fun and Emma wants to go back. This was her birthday treat from me and Al and it also involved a sleepover at ours, a film (Kung Foo Panda - funny) and her favourite meal cooked by uncle Alex; Shepherds-Cottage pie followed by Simpsons Monopoly. We had a lovely time then spent the next day with our respective dads for fathers day. And so another weekend flew by!

Dr Coppellius and the doll

Outside the theatre

I have begun maternity yoga; it's very relaxing and make you feel less like a rolly poly cause we're all in the same boat. That was on the Monday and the weekend afterward, the 25th June, me and Danielle went to London to watch Much Ado About Nothing starring the beautiful David Tennant (or my Scottish Rat according to Al) and funny funny Catherine Tate. It was Shakespeare as I'd never seen it before...

It was absolutely brilliant. I mean truly. Not just David, who was exceptionally funny and clever but Catherine too. Everyone must get a ticket and go. I mean it. The whole concept was brilliant, setting it on 1980's Gibraltar. It included a golf buggy, cross dressing and some hilarious wire work and was brilliant from the get go. The only slight mis-hit was the bad buy character, Don John, who in the end is just a short man with a chip on his shoulder and not nearly threatning enough.

Me in London

Danielle in front of the theatre

Not only did we stay in a great little hotel, the Megaro is right next to Kings Cross, very nicely done out and with a decent bar/restaurant of its own, but we also managed to fit in lunch on the Sunday with my friends Sam and Sarah in a fabulously sunny and hot Covent Garden. I had Gazpacho... mmmm.

Which finally brings us up to date. Phew! I'm going to be a hermit for at least a fortnight.

As for Bean, he's kicking away and getting stronger too. We're both well and happy (obviously I'm speaking for him at the moment but I imagine he is..!) The next job is putting finishing touches to what will be his nursery. I'm 26 weeks now and following the best book ever, called The Rough Guide to Pregnancy & Birth, lent to me by Laura and it's properly sensible stuff - very grounding. We have exciting things to look forward to, among them a blood test, more midwife sessions, a Parenting Class and a breast feeding workshop! But all that's weeks away. Meanwhile I have compiled a list of what I think we're going to have to buy that we haven't already got or are borrowing. If anyone has any advice on brands or anything useful to say on the below list I'd be most grateful:

Moses Basket and stand
Cot
Baby monitor
Travel cot
Changing mat
Night light
Baby bath
Electric breast pump
Nappy bucket

Gosh, think that's it. Well that's me done... I'll try not to leave it so long til the next post... speak to you all soon!

Boy Bean! Niño Bean!

2011-06-04T09:43:00.000-01:00

It's official!|We went to the Women's hospital for our scan and it's a boy! We told the folks as soon as we got home and were in a daze for a few days. It's a strange thing I've felt increasingly conscious of him minute by minute since knowing he's a boy. The knowledge that bean is a little boy, not just an impending baby Harris, has made him seem more real than ever. And in response he's been making his presence felt; kicking and wriggling increasingly regularly. We're very excited!

Estamos muy felices al poder anunciar que Bean es un niño - el hecho de saberlo nos hace su presencia aun mas real. Aquí tienes el scan del hospital que enseña que crece bien y que esta sano y salvo. Estamos muy felices, claro. Y el nos ha dicho hola varios veces, dando patadas cada dia cada vez mas fuertes.

Boy bean

We've been readying the house for his arrival doing lots of odd jobs and organising, tidying and sorting. Now the guest room is almost ready - we're just awaiting the delivery of a bed - and thanks to Ale and his dad's hard work the room is gorgeous. We're now able to sort out the box room and do the car boot sale we've been promising to do for months. In addition Alex has worked really hard on the garden. He's out there mowing the lawn as we speak but he's also planted potatoes, onions, spring onions, tomatoes, herbs.. I lose count to be honest. And we harvested our first strawberry yesterday - it was huge and sweet and juicy and delicious! We're waiiting for the raspberries to ripen now and for the potato plants to flower. The garden is an abundance of bushy greens.

Sanding the room

Building extra planters

Guest room mid diy

Today is the last episode of Doctor Who - it promises to be a good-un, and then we're going to Nath and Laura's to chill out. I think Al and Nath are planning to watch some football - can't remember what game. We watched the Barcelona Man U game from Dawn and Ash's wedding reception last week and were the only Barna fans in the room - so chuffed to see them win.

On the subject of weddings we've been to three weddings in the last three weeks and we enjoyed them all; an eveningreception, a daytime civic ceremony and an afternoon and evening church and village hall affair. They were all so uniquely creative and each day was so particular to the bride and groom. Carl and Catherine's was a star Wars themed wedding and a real hoot. Plus bride and groom managed somehow to look immaculate throughout, even at 12 o'clock at night. The family wedding was very touching, with groom and bride both contributing to the style of the day - one thing I didn't know was how beautiful Coventry Registry office is. And finally after the ceremony we followed Dawn and Ash along the road behind a brass band in the sunshine to the village hall - it was spectacular. It was like a royal event in a way with some of Newton Regis' villagers coming out to wave and the couple or just to see what the hubbub was about. Absolutely amazing. The bbq and reception was exactly as relaxed as Dawn and Ash themselves, and the ozzie-brit theme was evident throughout. It was a gorgeous day. All we can say is we wish all our friends who got married this year the absolute best time together, forever. Also, Pete and Vicky, your thank you card was inspired and makes me chuckle every time I walk past it! Steven Heighway this is your cure to post a comment as promised at the bbq - especially as you make a star appearance on the card - absolutely hilarious!

Finally, it's a week before the play. Can't beliieve it! Got my lines all down (nearly). The group move into the theatre on monday and rehearsals start Tuesday night after work. It's been a long haul. I've had to catch a rest where possible, the problem being that I'm onstage nearly throughout so there's not been much opportunity. Work sent me to London on Thursday so I was out the house from 6.15am - 11pm and on the go nearly throughout. But I took Friday off to recover and I'm glad I did, I was totally utterly ruined for the day. No joke. I dozed until 9am, took 2 siestas, was knackered after standing for 5 minutes and went to bed at 10, only to sleep through until almost 9 this morning. I feel great now though!

News!

2011-05-01T21:13:00.000-01:00

We are excited to annouce the impending arrival of a baby Harris in October! Approaching our next scan on May 23rd. For the time being we're referring to the lil' one as the Bean, being as we're not sure if it's a boy or girl... We have been able to share our news by word of mouth for the most part so now we're ready to share the news online. Wish us luck!

¡Estamos muy felices al poder anunciar la llegada esperada de un bebe Harris en Octubre! Tendremos el proximos scan el 23 de Mayo. Por el momento llamamos al bebe como Bean, ya que no sabemos si es niño o niña... Hemos podido compartir nuestra noticia de boca en boca, pues ahora es la hora para comparirlo por el blog. ¡Deseamos suerte!

The Bean

Reunion, Birthday Picnic and Barbeque

2011-04-26T19:58:00.000-01:00

Hello all, another instalment in the happy world of Gemma and Alex. And it really is happy at the moment, with my birthday, Easter day, easter week holiday booked off, the Royal wedding holiday and bank holiday Monday to boot! We've been aiming for this week off for months, it's as good as the Christmas holidays!

The weekend before the holiday I actually met up with Lisa, Danielle St Leon and Danielle Sumner, all friends from Blue Coat. Lisa and Danielle I get to catch up with regularly, they are two of my best friends in all the world. But it was a good chance to catch up with Danielle Sumner, aka Ruck as she was when we all went to school together. We'd also hoped to see Susie but unfortunately she couldn't make it. Anyway the three of us and Danielle's little girl had a lovely meal together and a good old catch up.

Danielle and Amelia

Danielle Danielle and Lisa

Playtime

Then that evening me and Danielle went to see mum in her World Song choir concert. It was joyous and loud and invigorating, as ever. Una May the conductor sang beautifully and led the choir and I was proud as punch to watch her. Their website gives a flavour of the style, colour and flamboyance, as well as a little of their repertoire. Go to: www.worldsong.co.uk/

Mum's concert

Then 4 days of work dragged by like nobody's business and finally... we started our holiday with Good Friday. We basically had a relaxing day in the build up to my birthday next day, visited B&Q and chose some wallpaper for our guestroom. The plan was to get the diy underway in our week off for the spare guest room. It's a pretty green design, a bit classy I think, if we can get it up alright!

Saturday I woke up and Alex presented me with my card and my birthday present, the much anticipated Harry Potter dvd, yey! And after a brief visit to Sainsbury's for some picnic ingredients we drove to Cannon Hill Park. We took my parents in the car and met Danielle, then Nathan Laura and kids Emma and Ben, Ben and Lauren, Pete and Vicky, LC and daughter Leah, Claire, Dave, Milly Rob and their neice Holly, Phil Jo and his son Lewis. The sun shone and the food was abundant! The boys kicked/threw/caught a ball/frisbie and the rest of us chilled out and caught up. I opened a few presents and cards and enjoyed the fresh air. The only downer was poor Lisa. Bless her she set off from Coventry but her sat nav played up and she never quite figured out how to get to the park. After two hours of driving around in circles poor Lisa headed home in desperation, I am quite sure vowing never to return to Birmingham!

The picnic

Me, obviously

Danielle and Claire

Then all of a sudden the storm clouds blew over and for 5 minutes the rain fell. Even though the rain was very brief we decided that as we'd been out for about 4 hours we'd head home for a bbq - that way if more rain fell we could at least shelter in the house! As it happened, it didn't rain at all and we spent a very pleasant evening and then a night at home. Emma and Holly were best friends by the time they parted after hours eating, playing lego and colouring in. The boys crowded around the bbq and got the burgers and sausages cooking and left over picnic food was out on the table and we all chilled out on the lawn until it finally got too cold.

Al and dad

the bbq

By 11 o'clock I was knackered! Dave, who'd got off a 30 hour flight from New Zealand, slept over, and Vicky was asleep on the sofa until well after I went to bed. The last two up were Pete and Alex, playing darts into the night.

These days I seem to wake up before Alex but go to bed earlier too, and Easter Sunday was no different. I headed off to church where I caught up with Jean and Mike, Sue and many other friends cause the church was packed for Easter. After the service me and Sue ran the tea and coffee and caught up with lots of the congregation. Afterwards I ran over in the car to Nathan and Laura's to sit in the sun with them and their parents while they got their bbq underway to wish them a happy easter while Alex got himself ready for Sunday lunch at his parents. and then we went for food with the Harris', a chat with Nan and a quick nap on the sofa... a gentle day all round rounded up with stacking up all our chocolate eggs :) !

Easter eggs!

Next post... NEWS!

Progress and normality

2011-03-27T09:34:00.000-01:00

Last Saturday it was mum's birthday, and a glorious day. Sheer summer. We went to Kenilworth and sat in the Queen and Castle, literally opposite the beautiful castle remains. Only trouble was it took so long for the food to arrive that we missed most of the good weather ond only squeezed in a five minute walk before heading back to the car park... Still, mum seemed to enjoy herself and it was a good opportunity to catch up with auntie Shelagh and uncle David who we don't get to see too often. David's always full of stories cause he volunteers for the talking newspaper for the blind in Coventry. I just checked out the newspaper's website and I'm amazed at how much more technologically advanced they've become. Years ago they'd distribute cassettes of magazine-style news and feature stories and interviews. Now you can also download them as a podcast. Uncle David is a driven man. He seizes every opportunity to get a story for the paper. The moment a famous person comes within 50 miles of the city he jumps in his car and uses his charm to get an interview by hook or by crook. This shy man has met everyone from Buzz Aldrin to his holiness the Dalai Lama. It's pretty remarkable actually. As a result the blind community in Coventry benefit from his efforts - It's a gorgeous idea the talking newspaper. And I'm extra fond of it because as a child uncle David got me a few features on the programme, interviewing people or telling stories. It was quite a confidence boost! One time a blind couple wrote in to thank me for my rambling story-telling and sent me a bracelet as a thank you, which I've kep to this day even though it's hopelesly too small for me now. I't's put me touch with people that I'd never have got the chance to meet; like the blind farmer on Kenilworth Rd whose hobby was archery. It's cool.

Last sunday was a normal sunday; church and chilling at home. The weather was still pretty fine, and Alex came home with the usual football injuries but otherwise ok. Mosely Town had lost but he'd scored so overall he was ok! The next day was Uncle Ken's funeral. Uncle Ken Cartwright was a delightful man. He was married to Alex's aunt, one of nan's sisters. Whenever I saw his he had a smile for me, always made a joke, and after decades of living in Birmingham he spoke with a real shropshire accent. He loved his garden and up until the last year he worked on the neighbours' gardens. Twinkly eyes and a smile is what I'll always remember. Alex was particularly fond of his uncle. He recognises that as a child he was very full of beans; the family had to work pretty hard to keep up with him and tried everything they could to tire him out! He has many happy memories of spending days with uncle Ken doing just that; taking him to the hobby shop, or to walk the dog or kick a ball around. The funeral came around and the day was another glorious one weather wise. We gathered at the crem and it was a sad day obviously but a friendly and warm family occasion in many ways and I was glad to attend with Alex and his parents. In honour of Ken, after the wake, we went home and did our garden and enjoyed the outdoors. With any luck he knew!

Uncle Ken on the left, Nan and uncle Tom at Nan's 95th birthday 3 years ago

On Friday we (Al, Nath, Laura and Phil Blakey) went to the Patrick Kavanagh pub in Mosely for Claire's 30th birthday. As Claire is in the next play alongside me she'd used the evening for some 'shameless self promotion' and put up posters on the walls to help sell tickets. It would be marvellous to sell as many as possible... We had such fun! Half the Billesley Players were there and we all bumped into people we hadn't caught up with in ages. I danced all night and we had a whale of a time!

Everyone!

Birthday girl - Claire - aka Sylvie in the Odd Couple

After a week's effort we've finished the bottom of the garden and it finally looks tidy and something to be proud of. Alex researched plants that grow under connifers and we went out and got some herbs too for that old basin that's been in the garden waiting for us to fill it up. He cut up a new end to the lawn and in the process discovered several massive concrete blocks (aha - no wonder the grass never grew there...). Then we spent yesterday (Saturday) afternoon getting out fresh compost from the composter ( I love that we make our own compost - it's magic! You put crap in at one end and life giving soil comes out at the other!) to bank up the new rockery area and plant it all up. I love looking out of our bedroom window now!

Herbs in the old basin

One half of the new rockery
- wild flower seeds, lavender and daffodils

Researched plants plus mint, rosemary bush and curry plant

Raspberry bushes are growing up! Fruit hopefully this year!

Finally; the play's progress. We had theatre on Thursday and I'm reapplying myself. It was our first rehearsal in a couple of weeks and I felt a little nervous. I'd forgotten large chunks and the scare has really been good for me. Even though everyone else seemed to think it went ok I'm going to be stuck to my script for a few weeks I think. It'm getting into the detail of it now. There are so many elements to research and think through; the intonation, pauses, rhythm, breathing, movements and quirks of every phrase need thinking through and analysing now that I've memorised the broad outline of each conversation. We're getting there!

An invasion and a wedding

2011-03-06T12:40:00.001-01:00

Invasion first.

We had all the girls from Griffin visit, Emily, Sarah Susie Hannah, two husbands, Jonathon and Jon, and two babies Samuel (4 months) and Caroline (1 year), followed by Hannah's 2 boys Jack and Oscar for the afternoon and finally Nathan Laura Emma and Ben for good measure. Our house was fit to bursing point and it was marvellous if knackering fun!

After lunch we decided it would be a good idea to go to the park, which is opposite Nathan and Laura's house - and it's the only time I managed to take photos!

Laura and Ben

Sarah and Sam

Oscar

Emily and Caroline

Susie

Hannah with Jack and Oscar

The kids ran around, Emma got stuck in the mud following Jack around, and we all enjoyed a breath of fresh air. All of us that is except Al and John who made the most of the peace and quiet with Nathan to watch sport on telly! Han took Jack and Ozzie back to their grandparents in Wolverhampton and we hung out throughout the house. We had a mattress party in the upstairs room because there was absolutely no floorspace left, it was just mattresses - but add a glass of red wine or two and it becomess a party, right? Then people started bathing their babies and bedtime rituals, Nathan and Laura took the kids home and at last we all sat down, looked around, and: no kids! The curry was on its way, the telly was on and we all just chilled out in front of the box talking nonsence. After the curry people started nodding off and at midnight: bedtime!

After a semi-disturbed night's sleep (but no worse than our gettogethers usually are just this time interrupted by children rather than drunk adults) we awoke at 7.30. It was a very slow start for everyone. Babies were fed, Emily went back to bed, breakfast was made and we all just enjoyed each other's company some more. Then finally people started heading off to pack up their cars, Al had already gone off for his sunday match, and it was just me and the cat. 2 hours of very determined cleaning later I was done in, with almost no energy for anything and a very lazy afternoon slipped into an early night...

One week later it was Pete and Vicky's wedding! It was held at Holy Trinity RC church in Sutton Coldfield. Vicky wore a be-u-ti-ful dress and looked even skinnier than ever. Pete looked like the cat who'd got the cream. Failed to get any good photos of the two of them together - except the dancing ones on video. The priest was Vietnamese and hilarious - a real crowd pleaser wherever the solemnity of the service allowed. He was obviously very fond of them both and of the whole Gilhooly clan. When we got to Aston Villa they ran mini stadium tours before the meal, which was very unnusual for a wedding day and really great. It meant no one got bored waiting for the stragglers to arrive because we were mooching around the dressing rooms and the tunnel pretending to be (very bad) footballers!
Pete's family is part Irish, so after the speeches before the meal Pete's dad led us all in saying Grace and included a Gaelic blessing or grace in there too. After the meal, which was delicious, there was a folk band and lods of Irish dancing before the pop started. I had a go at the Irish dancing and I have just one word to describe it - knackering! I barely lifted by legs but all that jumping around nearly killed me!
The whole day was fab! We drove home at midnight after saying our goodbyes and left the party in full swing - they were going to be carrying on until 3am! But Al had football and I was driving so it was definitely bedtime - not that Pete was entirely happy with our excuses!

Michelle, Teresa me and Kate

Posing in the dressing rooms

Ash 'interviewing' Nick

Pitchside with Chelle and Nick

Leon and Teresa blowing bubbles

Pete with Leon

Laura with Emma and Ben

Nathan and Emma

First dance

February 2011

2011-02-19T11:46:00.000-01:00

It's been another busy month so here's a snap shot.

At church I signed up last year to do the intercessionary prayers. This is the section of the service that is almost meditational, and it's quite a big deal. You write the prayers and then you present them by standing at the front and meditating out loud, leading the congregation. These are usually in several sections - praying for our neighbourhood, our country our world, or thereabouts - but the emphases are up to you entirely. I've been praying in my head since I could think, I think. At church I've stood up to do the readings since I was about 13/14 - I remember practicing the pronounciation of long words and the pacing of the thing with dad when I was still a kid. How hard could this new responsibility be? But then the reality of leading between 50 and 200 people's private, most innermost and deepest thoughts started to sink in. Writing one of these Intercessions is a big deal. Well I've done two now, the most recent in February, and I'm just glad I don't have to do it weekly. But all the same it is a rare thing, and one that gives me some satisfaction. I've had some good feedback, and as I tend to be quite heartfelt they usually see that, at least, I'm in earnest. This was my most recent attempt:

Intercession Prayers

Help us to follow our consciences honestly, and stay close to You in thought and word and deed; not to judge ourselves too harshly and to seek inner peace day by day in this busy world.

Help us to be nurturing, loving missionaries of your truth, Lord. Help us to forgive ourselves and others, letting go of guilt and ridding ourselves of any obstacles to a healthy relationship with You.

In Your mercy... Hear our prayer

This Valentines day and every day help us to build loving relationships with each other; with members of the church congregation, with family and friends. Help us not to succomb to celebrating the superficialities of modern life but to develop meaningful relationships with each other, celebrating the example you set for us. Help us to do this daily in remembrance of You.

In Your mercy... Hear our prayer

Lord God, help us to be mindful of our motivations and integrate our celebration of You into our daily lives and not push you into the corner. We pray that with Your guidance we accept the joy of knowing You; help us to avoid lapses into self doubt or arrogance, and the pitfalls of imposing our particular belief systems onto others. Help us to truly love our neighbour and accept them, not to find them threatening but have the faith that You will guide each of us on our own journey.

Help us to avoid arrogance and self-congratulartion but to seek out humility. Not to be self-congratulatory

In Your mercy... Hear our prayer

Lord, we place our friends and family into Your care for safe-keeping. Guard their hearts, bodies and minds from pain and injury and guide them in their life's journey. Help us to let go of personal sadness and place into your hands that which we cannot control. We commemorate those known particularly to us who are in discomfort or pain, facing financial or emotional problems. We particularly remember...

In Your mercy… Hear our prayer

Finally...

God, grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, Courage to change the things we can, And wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; Taking,

as Jesus did, this sinful world As it is, not as we would have it; Trusting that You will make all things right If we surrender to Your Will; So that we may be reasonably happy in this life And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen

A few weeks ago Al brought home his newest toy, a very nice silver Ford Mondeo! It's gorgeous to drive and as it's diesel it'll hopefully be more economical to drive... we hope! I drove it to Worcester to see my old workmate from Leukaemia CARE, Kirsty. It was great to see her and her little girl. We hadn't seen each other since her last day at the charity before she went on maternity and now she's got a toddler plus another one on the way! Shocking how time goes by...

Me Lisa and Danielle went to see Russell Howard on tour at the NEC, and despite almost never having seen him on telly and not knowing what to expect, he was really good! We had a great night out anyway. Me and Danielle met in Birmingham at Chez Jules, a gorgeous little french bistro that is around the corner from Cafe Rouge. It's cheaper and nicer I think, and more genuine. The idiosyncratic chaotic organisation of the place just lends to the French bistro feel, the waiters are all french, or nearly, and it's just lovely. Anyway we had a good meal and then headed out to the NEC to meet Lisa, who finished work later than Danielle. I hadn't been at what is now called the 02 Arena since Smash Hits Poll Winners Part in 1993, when I went with mum who sa through the whole thing with her fingers in her ears! To be fair, I don't blame her, some of it was fairly appalling - 2 Unlimited I'm thinking of you. Before that, when we were about 9, me and Lisa had been in the same stadium to see Kylie Monogue on her Locomotion tour!!! And now something like 22 years later we were back there together to see a comedy show! One guy and a comfy chair (a lazy boy recliner, like in Friends) didn't fill the stage quite like Kylie and her band had, but once I got used to the venue and Russel Howard's quirky style I couldn't stop laughing! Must get hold of Danielle's photos from the night.

The next day I went out on Vicky's hen do which was quite a hoot! We met up at Red Pepper in the Mailbox and then hit a few bars. Collette set us all off on a mission to write dares for Vicky to complete and pretty soon she was asking blokes in the bar to wear her veil or buy her a drink; all very innocent but a real giggle. Feeling tired I headed home at about midnight and they were in full swing. The week after Alex, Nathan and Leon all headed off to Pete's stag do; clay pidgeon shooting followed by drinks in Moseley. Al came home in good spirits, competitive spirit satisfied and once more I mused on how creative the boys have all been when it came to their stag do's. They's had such a variety of activities I've always been a tad jealous at not being an honorary boy!

Kate and Vicky the bride to be

Back to... reality

2011-01-29T07:12:00.001-01:00

I'm back at Ernst & Young and pretty much over my cold. Alex has had a course of antibiotics and thankfully is back on top again. We are starting a new shift pattern however of two weeks starting at 8am followed by 1 week starting at 9.30. I thought I'd die when they announced it! Mosely Town FC have even won the last few games so we're full of new year cheer!

Work's going well; it's busy season for us and for Alex too. But we've booked off a few days in April so we have something to aim for - no actual plans yet. We wondered about going awy, maybe abroad, maybe Britain... we'll see.

We've started back at theatre too, which is great cause I was very keen to get going with again. Having had 6 months off I'd really misssed the intereaction, having a project, developing new skills and the weekly fun of being in the group. Thanks to a combination of factors (in particular a certain A.D.) the last show had been particularly stressful. But I've got gret feelings about the new show. Everyone is gelling and there is a fabulous atmosphere; a real team spirit.

I'll let the poster do the talking:

Odd Couple poster 2011

That's right - I'm joint lead and thrilled!
Thrilled because my friends have all got parts, but mainly cause I'll learn so much from Sheila. Sheila's brilliant and very experienced and she's going to be hilarious; so wish me luck!

The original Odd Couple film poster is below for you to compare

Original poster

Our photo was shot on Thursday night, thanks to Graham's talents at getting and organising favours. He is 'the man who can' in the group! We went to a photographers' studio in the council house and changed. I had been asked to get a beer and a burger which I'd bought at lunchtime, so by this time it was warm beer and cold burger! We must've had 50 shots taken some were of me eating the burger and drinking the beer; yuuuk! Every so often I'd burst out laughing or Sheila would smile. But in the end they got enough shots that they thought they could do something with them! It was a fun experience. All those times that Uncle David got me to pose when I was growing up might have actually paid off! Wouldn't like to do it for a living though...

Now all I have to do is learn my lines and get the New York accent straight...

Feliz Navidad y un prospero ano nuevo

2011-01-01T16:37:00.000-01:00

Just a quick message from the Harris household to all friends and family: Happy 2011!

It is very weird to think that yet another year has gone by. For our goddaughter Emma a year constitutes a major percentage of her short life. The children of friends and family are growing up; our jobs change; our skills develop; our house improves and the years pass. We moved here on 10 December 2004 and it feels like a lifetime ago.

So here's to 2011 - may it bring us all surprises and new experiences. May our families strengthen their bonds, and those close to us grow in confidence and strength of purpose. Let 2011 be the best year yet!

Un mensaje rapido del hogar de los Harris a nuestro familia y amigos: ¡Feliz 2011!

Es muy raro pensar que otro año mas está terminado. Para nuestro ahijada Emma un año constituye un porcentaje mayor de su vida corta. Los hijos de amigos y familia se hacen grande; nuestros trabajos cambian; nuestros habilidades desarollan; mejoramos nuestro casa y los años pasan. Mudamos aqui el 10 de Diciembre 2004 y me parece como si pertenecía a otra vida entera.

Asi que brindamos al año 2011 - que nos traiga sorporesas y experiencias nuevas. Que nuestras familias se fortalecen, y que la gente a quien más queremos crecen en felicidad y determinación. ¡Que 2011 sea el mejor año aún!

Then suddenly it's Christmas; Y ahora Navidad

2010-12-23T15:20:00.000-01:00

So Christmassy it's untrue!

I went along with Laura, Emma, auntie Vanessa and granny Gill and grandad Richard to the Dudley Canal Trust's Christmas event to see a mini panto of Cinderella. We got to go on a barge through the tunnels to see Cinders, Buttons Griselda and finally Santa himself. And warmed back up again with a cuppa and a mince pie. Needless to say Emma had a ball!

The Collins Family

Look at that!

Then I drove to Coventry to see my mum in her choir's Christmas concert. She's in One Voice which does a mixture of lively and quiet international songs and carols. They sing Polish, German, French, South African, Gospel and just about any song from anywhere in the original language. The concert was very good, as ever, and itwas heart-warming to see mum singing her heart out. There is something really great about singing in a choir - maybe in a few years I'll go back to it because it is a joyous sensation. So here they are in action. Many people will not associate the words 'a shrinking violet' with my mother but due to her short stature and her unwillingness to stand on the front row for more than 5 minutes it was blinking difficult to get any decent footage.

And then the flu came. It was faily inescapable that after everyone in the office and also Alex got the killer bug that I would get it too. For over a week now I've been pathetic; coughing lots and generally sounding a bit like the devil. But I'm recovering, and just in time too because...

It's Christmas!

So excited... I'm getting better, all cosy and warm and the snow outside is making the world very pretty. I'm sorry. I know everyone's having a really tough time because the car won't start; their plane's been cancelled and that evil snow is making them put on 50 layers of clothing each time they need to leave the house but for me it's not been so bad. The buses carried on regardless (thank you Travel West Midlands); the streets were not completely full of annoying people because they'd all stayed at home; I've not had to face a full-on shop at Sainsbury's because we can't drive there; and a few days ago I had the first snowball fight that I can remember having (except when I got pelted in the face by Alan Cartwright at school in about the 3rd year, thank you Alan).

The tree

The hearth

el pesebre

Pads blending in

On Saturday Emma came over to help me make choc chip cookies as a Christmas present for Claire. It was the heaviest snowfall yet and instead of going on to the shops Nath and Laura ended up staying while we made our cookies. Almost 12 hours later they went home. We had the best day! Even in my flu-riddled state I enjoyed the day. We made the cookies obviously; me and Emma played lots of hide and seek, chase the cat and jump on the bed (her 3 favourite games); had dinner; watched a film; played ten pin bowling; and Alex rugby tackled me to the ground mid-snow fight. It was the best day snowed in ever!

Me and Emma mid-fight

The only inconenience was not being able to get the car out of the drive for a few days, even despite a push from our neighbour Paddy. This could potentially put an end to our hopes for a Christmas in Coventry with my parents so watch this space...

Trying in vain to get the car out

Walking to Al's parents

And suddenly it was advent! ¡Y de repente era Adviento!

2010-12-10T15:18:00.001-01:00

Me and Alex have been very cosy this winter. Alex has been making some delicious treats, experimenting with pastry to makedelicious apple turnovers and a caramelised banana tart... yummy. All I've wanted the last month and a half is to seek out heat. Eat yummy food and hibernate.

turnovers

We've also had some fun nights out recently. It was Laura's 30th in November and we went to La Banca in Cotteridge for a delicious Italian meal. We also met up with Pete, Vicky Steve and Leon and Teresa for a night out in honour of it being Leon's birthday, a reunion and also Pete and Vicky's engagement.

Laura's bday celebs

Pete and Vicky looking glam

Al and Steve

Leon and Teresa

I was sat in St Nicolas a few Sundays ago and suddenly it was the first weekend in Advent. The Jesse tree was up, the first advent candle was being lit and we were singing our first carol; 'Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel'. Suddenly there was something to get excited about. The last few months have been hard; the wintry nights have drawn in, the wait for the bus has got colder and my bus partner Marilyn has been put on a new rota so we no longer get to chat to pass along the time. Then suddenly the German Christmas market made its annual appearance and the lights went up and the city centre became a twinkly forest of Christmas goodies. I felt very upbeat.

That sunday, after a very lovely service, Rob the vicar announced that during the Restoration they had found the body of a small baby buried just outside the church boundary. The small child had died in the 1500's, and no doubt had been buried in secret by a distraught mother, perhaps this anonymous buriel was the closest she could get her child to salvation. After the service Rob said that he was going to give the baby a buriel and that anyone who wanted to attend would be very welcome. In the end the majority of the congregation piled out into the wintery cemetary to commemorate this sad event. It was amazing to be a part of that community. Kings Norton was a village 500 years ago and it still is in many ways. For the sake of a mother who lived centuries before any of us were born; for the love of her child we buried that baby, and felt the bonds of our own family ties all the more strongly. And that's Christmas isn't it? For the love of a small child men crossed a continent on camels looking for a miracle; Parents risked their lives and a King fled his own nightmares. God knows the trials that mother endured back in 1500. But ever since her and for many more centuries men and women will visit this church and bring their own pain and tragedy with them in the hope that they'll find some sort of peace. I love Christmas, but not just for the sparkly decorations and the presents, but because it honestly does remind me of how loved and lucky I've been. I was glad to be able to do that small thing for that mother; I hope she knows she's not been forgotten.

The congregation gather

Selling off our forests

2010-11-27T11:22:00.000-01:00

A few weeks ago I heard on the news about the government's planned sell-off of about 40,000 hectares of our ancients forests and woodland.

Here's how another, more well-informed, blogger sees it:

At the moment, the whole of the public forest estate is independently certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council – the Forestry Commission being the first forest service in the world to achieve this status. New owners will not be required to certify their forests, and the likelihood is that most of them won’t. Only 16% of private woodlands are currently certified. All Forestry Commission woodlands are managed under a Forest Design Plan, which determines the balance between commercial value from the timber, public benefit and environmental protection – the essence of what is known as ‘multifunctional forest management’. There’s more in those forests than money alone. However, there will be no requirement for new owners to maintain any kind of forest design plan, and their track record in this area is hardly encouraging.
And as to access, anyone who buys land freehold from the Forestry Commission is indeed required to allow access on foot, under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act, and indeed to keep open public rights of way. However, there will be no requirement to maintain forests walks in good condition, or to provide any kind of parking facilities.
And here’s the rub for Mrs Spelman and her chums in the Forestry Industry. Treasury’s principal concern here is to maximize the financial value of any forest disposals. The harder Defra tries to protect the conservation and amenity value of the forests that are being sold, the lower the sale price they will be able to command on the open market.

http://www.jonathonporritt.com/pages/2010/11/forests_on_the_front_line.html

Having signed the petition (click here for petition) I've looked up my MP (using this link) and shall be emailing to register my concern that if this has to be done at all, that it be done well.

I love the fact that in Britain there is so much free and easy access to land that is green and in its natural state. The fresh air and the break from city life is a great plus to living in this country and the ancient woodland is our birthright; a living legacy. This is an issue that is much more than about earning some money in the short term; and if we're in such dire straits that we're forced to consider this then we should impose restrictions on how the land can be managed post-sale; thereby lowering the value as Jonathon makes in his final point and rendering the whole thing useless. Surely we could be doing better things with our time and effort than attacking such and important natural resource?

LONDON!

2010-10-30T10:38:00.001-01:00

I'd been looking forward and planning this trip for months with Leon and we finally went. It was a great 3 day holiday; loads of fun!

We arrived in London at 11.50 at London Victoria, hot and sweaty after a 2 and a half hour trip on the Megabus which with ten minutes to go the driver suddenly realised he hadn't switched on the fans. We were all half boiled to death, but it was very entertaining to see how embarrased the driver was! Anyway we walked to Buck house and along the Pall Mall to Oxford St for a nibble and then to Leicester Square and up Shaftesbury Avenue for the 2.30pm matinee performance of Yes Prime Minister at the Gielgud Theatre.

It's an update on the timeless classic TV show, one of mine and Al's favourites, set in a coalition government familliar for all the old YES PM jokes like 'Oh god, have I been corageous?!' - Jim Hacker (PM). It was very funny, even though we all thought the second half wimpered out a little, it still had us all howling.

Afterwards we took the tube to London Limehouse and walked to the Holiday Inn Express to check in. Our rooms were really great, it was a really decent price and even though not as central as some locations I'd definately recommend it.

Afterwards we went to Islington to a gig organised by Dan and Jo, Leon's brother and sister in Law. It was an evening of assorted rock music, quite experimental, but a good time was had by all even though we all flaked out at 11pm, meaning we missed Dan's set at the end of the night...

But we had to keep our energy up because the next day was a busy one. After a big breakfast we went to St Paul's cathedral. We were allowed in during the service and we were able to soak up the timeless energy and peace of the place while the vicar did his semon. It always humbles me to think of these places, sources of rest, healing and inspiration for thousands of people over hundreds of years. It's a beautiful place. Then we walked across Millennium Bridge to Tate Modern and spent the next 2 jhours absorbing the mass of artistic endeavours in that place. Some inspire, some frankly I find difficult to take seriously at all. But it's a great place to visit. And as with almost everything we visited, free! Sundays in the capital have a lovely atmosphere, somehow it feels calm and relaxed even though there are still loads of people about: it still has that Sunday essence. After a quick leemonade and a rest in a pub we all separated, Leon and Teresa to go and visit family and we went to see Will, Al's mate from school.

Helen Will Al and me

We met Will and Helen in Green Park station. It was a beautiful day with clear fresh air and blue skies and so everywhere we walked was extra pretty. They took us to an area not far from Green Park called Shepherds's Market, a place that reminded me of Greenwich Village in New York. We eat lunch together in a pub that was really nice, although they did have a bit of a nightmare with not having things in when we ordered. Still, even with a long wait for our food, it was a great way to relax and catch up, as we rarely get to see Will since he moved to London.

Later on we caught back up with Leon and Teresa in Covent Garden over a cup of coffee. There was a classical concert taking place a few metres away which was very entertaining and the usual mish mash of entertainers sprinkled around the square. We took a walk to soak up the atmosphere and ended up carrying on through Soho until Leon and Teresa went home. Me and Al went on to China Town and caught a live jazz band in a bar there called Huw and Bukky. They were magnificent! We really enjoyed listening to the music and then afterwards got the munchies and headed for some food. We were in China Town so what else would we do, we found the restaurant with the most chinese eating there and sat down for a very satisfying meal. We had duck with noodles and I displayed some pretty good chopstick action even if I do say do!

Next day we went to South Kensington for The Natural History museum but unfortunately the queue went around the block so off we went to the Science Museum. Afterwards we went to Kew Gardens. We met my lovely ex flatmate Sarah at a cafe there as that's where she lives and she's currently on maternity leave and had a natter over lunch before heading to Kew Gardens itself.

I must say that Kew, though I wasn't expecting it, was the highlight. It's beautiful. And in autumn with the leaves turning even mor so. After 2 days of hecticness it was the perfect antidote. We took the treetop walk, found the Pagoda and saw one of the glass houses in detail, but honestly it's so huge you could go back 10 times before you saw it all. It's not cheap but it was worth every penny. Fabulous.

Then it was a last trip back to the centre and a meal at the American diner (We had burgers and shakes) before a very comfortable and quick train ride home, courtesy of Megabus also - cheap as chips - genius!

Garden Attack

2010-10-02T09:49:00.000-01:00

You should have seen the cat's face when three men and a lorry turned up a few weeks ago to massacre the garden, sorry her garden... Appalled.

Nevertheless the pictures do a little justice to the immense amount of chopping that went on that day. 6 trees were reduced to three and the remaining three were halved in height.

It was quite exciting! It's amazing how much more light and rain gets in down the end and our poor lawn at that end is even starting to recover, just a bit. Got a project in mind to restore it to some health but that's all got to wait til the spring.

Meantime we're just enjoying our new view, and appealing to the cat for forgiveness...

Post Holiday blues

2010-09-26T09:02:00.003-01:00

Well, not really all that blue to be honest. Things are going well at our respective workplaces and life is feeling settled and more or less harmonious.

While I was on holiday my colleague Hayley worked the last weeks of her notice and flew off to Hong Kong to live her exciting life 6500 miles away! So now I'm following her fun blog called Hong Kong Hayley.

Also happening with our Blogtastic friends, our friend Hez moved to the Outer Hebrides with his wife Becky last year and there they live with their little baby girl Freya and Europe's stupidest greyhound. Well it turns out Hez, who describes himself as an aspiring writer but is rather more than aspiring, has his own blog where he's published his work so I'm bust catching up with that too It's called Cruel Harvest and I'm reading his latest work, The Casebook of Edmund Forrester. It's really good so far!

Technology is also helping us stay in touch with friends and family elsewhere through the wonderful world of Skype. We've been chatting with my cousin Laura in Madrid for the last few months and when I finally bought a little camera for the computer it opened up a whole new world! Since then I've caught up with Gemma Pardo in Barcelona and most recently with Nausheen in New York. It's been marvellous, my heart leaps to think that they feel so near when usually they feel so far away!

Me, obviously

Gemma P

Laura y Erik

Nausheen

A couple of weeks ago we went to ArtsFest with Leon and Teresa; A free annual festival of arts held in Centenary Square in the heart of the city which includes comedians, bands, dance, orchestras, artists and singers. It was brilliant; we saw a solo pianist, a rock band, a brass band, a funk/soul band at the Yardbird, a dj, some short films and the opera and classical concert at the end. We visited stalls, eat an ostrich burger and an icecream, and there was absolutely masses that we didn't see. Was gutted to miss the ballet and the theatre and got lost trying to find the poetry in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, but wound up seeing the Stafforshire Hoard instead! All in all it was brill.

Planning a trip to London with them next - so many things to see and do before they go to live in New Zealand next year - we'll miss them so much!

Finally, at the bottom of our garden today 3 tree surgeons are attacking the trees with some ferocity - visit the blog to find out how it went!

Summer holiday

2010-09-18T15:34:00.000-01:00

It was a couple of weeks later that we headed off for a very long overdue holiday. Chicken soup for the soul. We were so knacked that I felt we were virtually dragging our feet through life and it was a real relief to get away.

Click here to see holiday photos

We spent the first 5 days in Cubelles and the last 4 in Barcelona, flying in and out of Reus airport (otherwise known as the chicken coop). We are lucky enough to stay in Cubelles thanks to the generosity of my tiets, my uncle Ramón and aunt Teresa in Igualada, Catalunya, about 2 hours away.

We love the place. It has almost no Brits, not a single translated menu, everything is in Catalan first, it's quiet, peaceful, family friendly and basically everyone in every direction is chilled out and happy. I've never once seen a policeman, or a fight, or a disturbance, or any kind of semi-impolite behaviour (except the old ladies who don't wait to be served in the queue for fresh bread at the bakery - but then that hardly counts). The kids are all out with their parents and family friends and uncles and aunts, and like I was 20 years ago they're just excited about the prospect of being allowed to stay up late and get an icecream after dinner.

We spent every day on the beach, Alex under his two parasols, the biggest variety being varying the time we spent on the beach. One day it was the afternoon, another day it was the morning and afternoon with a siesta back at the flat in between, another time it was all day with a packed lunch on the beach... The biggest difficulty of each day consisted in deciding which beach accessory to take and who would carry the cool bag. Life slowed down to Cubelles pace... just thinking about it makes me happy.

On the beach

We wandered across the river to discover a whole new section of the town that can only have been built in the last few years. Thank God the authorities are keeping to their original rule - no more than 4 storeys. One day as we walked along the new Paseo at around 8pm there was a table of yound girls, around 11, selling home made bracelets. Alex bought me one for a euro and the girls were so excited (they were only asking for 35 cents each) that we got an excited cheer as we walked away. They were so sweet! Points for being motivated enough to get together too, I hope they sold lots more.

Basically, we eat like kings, slept peacefully (even though Alex's feet hang off the end of the short bed) and felt fully relaxed by the time we arrived in Barcelona.

I was particularly excited to stay in Barcelona because I had never stayed in the city before, and even though I'd seen it on endless day trips I didn't really understand the geography of the city. Alex had his reservations but was willing to have a few days there and try it out. He wasn't sure he'd like it as much as Madrid. It's true, our visit to Madrid had been difficult to beat. We had enjoyed Amsterdam but not as much as the Spanish capital and even I had mu doubts. I'm happy to report it was ACE!

We had a wonderful time walking round, exploring the Barri Gotic, la Rivera, la Ciutat Vella. Neus and Edu came to visit us andgave us a guided tour and we also went for a drink and a meal together. It was fantastic to see them. And then Gemma P and husband Fran also popped in to say hello.

Edu Neus me and Alex

Fran Gemma me and Alex

The photos taken of us are taken on the hotel's roof - we had a bar and a swimming pool. I was a very happy girl. I must say I tried to make the most of it. I spent a few hours on a couple of afternoons sat by the pool danging my legs in the water and reading a book. I read 4 books in 9 days; Sense and Sensibility, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The White Queen by Philippa Gregory. I loved it!

Tinc que dir les gracies per les esforços de la meva familia, L'Edu i la Neus, La Gemma i Fran, i sobretot els meus tiets amats per ajudeu-nos tenir unes vacances moltíssim relaxants i feliços. Van ser estupendes. L'Alex i jo estem sempre pensant dels nostres vacances catalans i sempre tenim anims per un altra cop! Cada any que tenim que decidir-nos on anar ens encontrem sense poder pensar d'un altra destinació on estarem tan felices. Es com estar a casa un altre vegada, i jo sempre tindre la sensació de ser una catalana, encara si es una Catalana sense manera de parlar catalan...

Van ser vacances estupendes - They were wonderful holidays!

August-September

2010-09-18T14:40:00.000-01:00

Well I say, it's been a bit of a while since I last updated but it's been a busy old time and we've had lots of fun. So here we go.

I got back from Gemma Pardo's wedding and 2 weeks later we went to Bath for the wedding of my old uni flat mate Hannah and her lovely fiancee Jonathan. Theirs has been a real love story and it was a huge pleasure to see them get hitched. The wedding was entirely them, thit is to say it felt completely unique to them. Jonathan lives in Bath which is where Hannah and her two boys have now moved to and the wedding was in a beautiful little church in Upper Swainswick, overlooking Bath and the beautiful surrounding countryside. (Click for a link to this beautiful little church).

The ceremony was done very sensitively by a lovely priest (Valerie Howes) who proved that a church wedding can be joyful, glorious and all without thrusting religion down everyone's throats.

The bride had been brought up the steep hill from Bath in one of the groom's 'fleet' of 6 ancient, semi-decrepit Citroens, and after the photos and the obligatory confetti attack of the happy couple they drove away with a bang back down the hill in the direction of Bath and Jonathan's house. All the congregation followed and congregated again in the open plan setting of the Reeves' new home where Jonathan's nephew and his friends were very professionally dolling out canapes and seemingly endless glasses of champaign. Everyone milled, mingled, and munched until the ushers carried out another of their duties and began to sweep us all out out of the house and towards the little village hall. Myself and Alex walked with the bride and groom and Jack and Oscar (the real best men) to help steer the boys in a roughly straight line and away from the park amid calls of 'Can we go play mummy...?

Hannah, looked an absolutely stunning bride, and all the more for at least appearing sunny and relaxed even while juggling her guests, sons and a dozen other considerations. Jonathan was exactly himself, in a suit, happy, relaxed, floppy haired and delighted with his bride.

Click here for Wedding photos

Laughing at the Best Man's speech

Myself and my friend Sam had travelled up the evening before and we'd helped prepare the village hall and then made the most of the evening by visiting Bath. We'd taken in the sights and eaten out and it was really good. Alex, poor love, had had to work and he joined us at the University halls of residence where we'd elected to stay, literally 15 minutes before we were due to go to the church. The hall was light and airy and quite cute, we all sat down to a curry and then Jonathan endured a ribbing to end all others by his Best Man. The speech was lengthy, but I was too busy laughing to count how long it went on for.

After the puddings came the music and the dancing and it was midnight before were turfed out, somewhat worse the wear thanks to a free bar.

It was an emotional, but beautiful day

Gemma Pardo's wedding

2010-07-23T09:40:00.001-01:00

Click on the photo to see the album from our weekend in Barcelona/ Haz click en la foto para ver el álbum de nuestro finde en Barcelona

ahora en español...

Mi primita Gemma Pardo Cruxent. La primera vez que nos conocimos tenia cinco anos y ella unos cuatro. Fuimos a jugar y desde entonces se veía que era una chica con corazón de ángel. Es paciente, hermosa, leal y calmada. Esto fue su día.

Llegamos a su casa por la mañana y la esperamos. Su papa estaba muy orgulloso y llevaba un traje muy elegante. Cuando llegaron Gemma estaba radiante y su vestido era preciosa. Nos saludamos, que bonita era verla!, y empezaron las fotos. Parece ser que en España es tradicional que el padre de bodas dese a la novia el ramo de flores y la lea una poema. La poema que la leí fue muy bonita y muy emocional y espero encontrarla y ponerla aquí. Fue bonito poder estar parte de esta tradición, aunque creo que para Gemma hubiera sido mas bonito al ser algo privada, pero quien puede contradecir las tradiciones..? Fuimos caminando a la basílica que estaba casi alrededor de su casa con los otros miembros de la familia, los tíos y tías de Gemma, y la esperábamos con paciencia. Cosas diferentes a la boda Inglesa; pues el marido entra con su madre y hace una entrada casi como la de la novia, acompañada por música, vaya! Los padres pasa toda la ceremonia mirado el uno al otro de parte de la zona elevada enfrente de los novios, o sea a ambos lados del cura. La ceremonia fue católica, claro, pero siendo un Cristiana pudo observar la mayoría de los costumbres, rezas y promesas que intercambian. No hubo canciones, claro, pero básicamente era lo mismo que cualquier ceremonia del mundo, cosa que nos une a través del globo. La ahijada, hija de amiga de Gemma, Cristina, les trajeron los anillos y un niño de la familia de Fran trajo monedas para indicar que todo que tenia Fran se lo daba a Gemma y vice versa. La ceremonia fue en Castellano, y me hizo reír que tuvo mas catalán en mi ceremonia que en suyo (mi prima Laura leyó 1 Corinteo) , pero claro habían mucho mas Castellano hablantes que Catalanes allí. Pero Gemma y Fran habían escogido la misma lectura que nosotros, algo que me hizo sonreír porque es mi favorito parte de toda la biblia. Y bueno y esta, cosa hecha, no? Parecían tan felices al salir de la iglesia y tenia unos flores espectaculares a la entrada. En fin; todo muy bello.

De allí fuimos en coche siguiendo los primos de Perpignan, (otra Gemma (!!) y Oriol) hasta Gava. Había una recepción muy buena, muy profesional todo, y comimos y bebimos esperando la comida. Cuando nos llamaros nos sentamos al lado de la mesa de los novios con Gemma y Oriol y creo que comí mi propio peso en comida, dios mio... Todo fue delicioso. Había un disk jockey que llamo la atención cada vez que entraron los camareros, fue muy guay he hizo un ambiente muy festivo. Aun mas por que los padres de Fran son muy animados. Gritamos "Los Novios" y "Que se besen" unos mil veces hasta que reí tanto que mi cara dolía!!! Hubo un momento cuando os sentamos por primera vez en la mesa que me hizo pensar en mi prima Laura, que no pudo estar debido a tener un bebe suyo, el guapísimo Eric. Todos teniamos estas targetas con nuestros nombres escritos. El mio esta escrita Gemma Richards, pero desde casar soy Gemma Harris ya que en Inglaterra cambiamos los apellidos. Fue un momento casi casi de ja vu porque el mismo paso a Laura en reves en nuestra boda. O sea su targeta leí Laura Rodriguez aunque su nombre es y siempre sera Laura Tomas Avellana. Por eso la foto, por que me entreteno mucho! Después de todo el pastel se elevo por arriba desde el suelo acompañado por música llamativa y la pareja se lo corto con una espada!!! Imagínate! Osea que hubo un gran fiesta. Después nos trasladaron a una habitación con aire acondicionado (gracias a dios) y bailamos allí hasta el fin de la fiesta. Las cosas terminaron a las 8 de la tarde, que me sorprendió, pero Gemma estaba feliz así que yo también. Yo, mis padres y tíos volvimos al Paseo de Gracia en Barcelona para sentar y tomar el aire, ya un poco mas fresco, y bebimos una clara (o champú).

Estuvimos muy felices poder ser parte de su gran día. Esperemos que tengan todo la suerte y les envían nuestro amor desde Inglaterra!

Life since the play

2010-07-23T08:28:00.000-01:00

It's been a bit hectic since the play. So what I hear you cry. Or I would if anyone posted any comments for me to respond to... grrrr. Sorry, I know some of you do. I digress.

It's been a bit hectic so to summarise:
June 13th (the night after I last updated the blog) me and Hannah went on our trial hen do night out! We basically didn't know the area too well that our apartment was in so we had an excuse to party in preparation for the big night out on July 10th. It was fab. We eat very well in Pasta di Piazza of St Paul's square - the only criticism being Hannah's 'the tomatoes aren't special'. We went out to 4 bars and repeated all of them on the actual hen do so that was a success! I'd printed a map and we tottered between venues following our map, giggling as we went. It was the same night as England's opening world cup match but it was the only night we both had free. At the start of the night as I sat and waited for Hannah to turn up the match was just about to start - she was late as usual - I felt slightly bad to miss it. But considering the dire performances throughout the cup I'm glad we went out and had fun instead!

We've also had hospital appointments, Al's had to work the odd weekend and it's his busy period so he's a bit tired at the moment, we've had dentist appointments, and at work we've had the culmination of a super busy 4 month-long project that began in April. At last things in the office are a bit more 'normal'. Whatever that is. The one subject that is only conspicuous by it's absense is the topic of babies. Ours, not other people's, they of course are everywhere! Let me just say that it is on my mind probably 50% of the time, making my mind a very boring place to be right now. But at Al's request, and quite sensibly, this is a baby-free zone. At least until there is something official to report.

Then on 19 June me Alison Keizer Amie Wiberley and Gemma Morris from school all got together for Amie's 30th in Leamington. It was lovely. We went to Leamington Peace Festival which was marvellous. There was live music and lots of stalls. There was a mexican hammock company - man did I want one! I had to phone Alex cause I knew he'd be sensible and remind me we have no space for one... Later that evening we had some food and went out for drinks and it was lovely to catch up again. It was a very chilled and peaceful atmosphere at the festival. Most of the stalls sold organic and fresh produce and one had even made it's own freezer from mdf and straw! Remarkable!
It's very cool that the three of us have had very separate lives and then, through the miracle of Facebook, have renewed our friendship. We were so nervous when we got together for the first time on my birthday in April!

On the 26th June the new Doctor Who series ended and life has been a tiny bit duller since. Well at least televisually... It was a brilliant finale and even though I did take a while to warm to the new combo I had fallen in love by the end. And then, just like that it's gone and I'm forced to wait for the Christmas special. Thank goodness we're back to the series format though, I don't think I could have taken another year of those awful specials, as much as I loved DT.

On the 2nd July me and teresa drove to Cov and met up with Lisa and Danielle to go to the Godiva Festival on the memorial park. We saw some live music and hung out and bumped into people and eat possibly the worst crepes ever made and went home. It was cool! The Christians were very good. The next night we went out for LC's birthday, just a quiet one in Brindley place with me, Alex, Nathan and Claire. Claire drove us back home so we all got to have a sensible night!

The next week was Pete's 30th which Alex went to and Hannah's hen do which I went to. Alex, bless him, was my chauffeur for the day... He took me out for lunch then we bought breakfast ingredients for the next morning (getting exasperated with Tesco's in the process - NEVER shop at the one on New St...), drove me to the apartment reception to collect the keys then dropped me off at the apartment where I waited for the girls. They arrived in small groups, my mobile going off every few minutes from different hen girls saying 'I'm at the train station, do you need anything', 'where are you again?... I'm lost!', 'where do we park the car?', 'what floor is it' and finally 'we're here!' Hectic hectic hectic. But finally the hen and her chics were all gathered and we began this raucous party with... a cup of tea! Of course, me Sarah Hannah and Susie and Emily (Emily sadly couldn't make it) started off university with so many cups of tea and dunking of biscuits that we nearly missed Freshers week! We did however ditch the mugs for glasses after the first cup. I gave Hannah the memories book I'd made with all the photos the girls had given me and we got ready to go out.

What fun! My photos are absolutely rubbish unfotunately but here's an idea of what we did. We went to the Jekyl & Hyde, a funky pub near Colmore Row, for a burlesque class with the marvellous Danny de Milo (think along the lines of the Venus de Milo, not as in Danny de Vito, got it?) Then we went to the Pasta di Piazza for a lovely Italian meal, then to some Jewellery quarter bars (the Rectory and the Vault) followed by some very cheesy dancing at Meechu on Summer Row. We walked everywhere and got free entry everywhere we went which was really hassle free and excellent. Everyone had a good giggle, especially in the burlesque class, and it was really nice to have the apartment to all be together again. In the morning I made evryone their cups of tea and we sat down to breakfast at the table, the 7 of us scoffing pancakes, berries, syrup and glasses of juice thanks to Alex's brainwave the day before. I'm so pleased Hannah had a good time, it meant a lot to be able to do that for her!

The Play - for real now

2010-06-12T07:31:00.000-01:00

Ok, so you've had birds eye view, now here it was from ground level. The play that last week took on a life of it's own. We rehearsed every night in the theatre. I loved walking from Colmore Row to the Theatre District (all of 10 minutes) after work every day and mooching about in the theatre. It's one of life's great pleasures. There is a green room and dressing rooms and toilets upstairs. The green room has a kitchenette area and it started to feel like home after a week as we were generally there from 6-11pm each night. I got home and saw Alex in bed, usually half asleep, we'd exchange some tiny bit of information and then be fast asleep.
It was marred fundamentally by the ongoing nonsense of a major member of the cast and while there is expected to be a certain amount of last minute panicking the stress she gave us all on Tuesday night was entirely un-called for. But hey, we carried on through and did ourselves proud, even without her there on the one night. People were still learning their lines and there was a lot of nervousness back stage. But also a growing excitement that we might actually pull it off!
There are at least 2 floors above the stage and one below as well as the wings for people to get lost in and lose track of time. You have to be on the ball not to miss an entrance and there was one occasion when I had to go scurrying off to find Mike and grab him from under the stage with only mili-second to spare before we were on. My costume changes were pretty fast so behind the scenes I was throwing clothes on and off with no dignity intact whatsoever. I suppose it's a relief to many actresses that many actors are gay... The first time I changed I made a vague effort to hide behind some thing but pretty soon I was stood in my bra for all the world to see without a second thought! Fortunately everyone else was so busy there was no time for embarrassment. In the dress rehearsal I missed an entrance because I was desperately trying to get Sam's zip up and failing. Also mine and Anna's nurse's dresses were altered wrongly and we had a bit of a time working out how we were going to wear them. In the end I wore Anna's and she wore mine. Mine was too big for her but it at least covered her bum when she danced and was picked up by Iain. Anna is a size 10, I am a 14 - so to say her dress was tight on me was an understatement! I had to wear leggings otherwise I wasn't going on stage - but in the end it only managed to make more of a comedy of the situation...
On the Friday night we took our bows after the first performance and Leon and I gave each other the most squeezable hug ever. So very proud of us all. That night we went for a quick drink with Lisa and Danielle for some self congratulating and I felt great. On a huge high. By Saturday night my pervading emotion was of being exhausted. But looking back at it now I can really enjoy the memory.
Girls from work came to see it and said it was really good, as did all my friends and family, but I can quite understand why some actors are a bit needy or get insecure. It makes you insecure; you feel very exposed. You know in your head how you want it to look, how you think you look and sound, but there's no way of knowing. You end up asking everyone if it was ok and then 'was it really?' and again...
On the Saturday night Al, me, Sam, Claire, Iain, Amanda and Jo and Carl and Catherine all went to the Victoria and ended up staying until 2.30. Al's opinion is one I value very highly because he's the least likely to say it was good when it wasn't. So the fact he said 'It was the best of the three I'd seen, and you did very well... that Mike was excellent' was high praise indeed! We broke down the set at 10am the next morning and quite frankly I was a little tired... but we chilled that evening and fortunately it was a bank holiday so I had an extra day to get myself together again for work that week. All that week I was so tired that the soles of my feet hurt - as though I'd gone on a hike - I think I need some time off!

The limelight

Our dressing room's really did have those bulbs around the mirrors

Where I spent the majority of the play - centre stage

Mike coming out from hiding - at the last minute

The view from the stage at dress rehearsal

bloody relief

Baby Shower

2010-06-06T07:42:00.001-01:00

Ok so that was how the play was received, but I thought I should give you a performer's eye view of the production. First though, the week before the play, I had one last little surprise to throw.
I had been organising Laura's baby shower since February, more or less, and the Saturday before the play Laura was intended to arrive at 2pm and get a surprise 'shower'. For the uninitiated a baby shower is a party where the mum to be gets showered with presents and traditionally get a hamper of baby goodies. Here is how it went down...
On Friday night I cooked sultana squares, a semi-healthy cake for people to nibble... Laura was diagnosed as diabetic during pregnancy so I tried to find a sweet recipe that wasn't loaded with sugar. This used a purée of dried apricots as a sweetener and was very nice. I also made guacamole. Me and Al hung out and I cooked intermittently; it was a really hot summer night, one where normally I'd have done anything possible to avoid the cooker and stay in the garden. I reorganised the layout of the kitchen dining room and tidied up the downstairs. I started to realise how much work, cooking in particular, I'd given myself to do - I'd been off work in the week with some kind of bug and was just getting my energy levels back (i'd felt really wiped out), but there was enough time I thought. I did take a short cut and chose not to make my own ginger beer, opting instead for shop bought... booo.
The saturday morning kicked off at 8am when cooking began in earnest. I made bacon koftas, patatas bravas, soda bread, little mini pizzas and sorted out the treasure hunt for Emma to play. Everything I cooked later went down very well and I got asked for the recipes. In fact they got munched so quickly that I didn't get photos of the blighters, but never mind! Emma, Laura's friend, arrived at 11am ish, although now I think there was some heavy traffic and she was late but as so was everyone else that morning it all worked out. Emma had brought a baby shower and streamers and balloons and began decorating and helping out. I was still cooking furiously when Cath and Teresa arrived (and brought their own chairs, bless them - good move, too). Between them and Emma they got the Baby Photo Gallery up on the wall, mounting each photo on some blue card on the wall in the extension. They also helped wrap presents. Claire arrived with her beautiful cake. All that was left was for me to sort out Emma's Treasure Hunt - I got in a pickle with the order of things. Bernadette (Nath's mum) arrived, and god love her had been the Mum in the situation bringing salad which she duly set about preparing and napkins and she'd brought coleslaw and all kinds of dip. If ever there is an emergency I reckon Bernadette is a good woman to have around, she strikes me as very capable!!!
At the last minute Vanessa (Lau's sister) and all of the rest of Nath's family; LC, Leah, Pippa, and Anne got held up by a combination of buses and bad traffic and husbands so when Nathan phoned he interpreted my squeaky voice correctly and calmly said "OK so we'll see you at half past 2 then, yeah?" - with Laura standing next to him on the phone we'd managed to delay proceedings without causing any suspicion. It even allowed Bernadette time to collect the family and park the car off our rd so that Laura wouldn't see her personalised number plate! Everything was set and we waited.
Alex, who'd been roped into blowing up balloons and who hadn't allowed in/near his own kitchen for the last 12 hours was getting hot and narky. Everyone was waiting. And it was boiling. Brad from next door was going from a drink with Al and Nath as he's on the same football team shouted down from the window - 'are you ready yet?'. It was 2.45. It was 3 o'clock. Are they coming? Perhaps something's come up... can anyone see their car?
Finally Al shouted that he could see them, they were walking down the road and Emma was on her scooter, so they were walking slowly... Finally Al let them in, there was a delay then Laura's 'Oh my God!' and we all shouted 'SURPRISE!!!!!' as loudly as possible from the garden. Laura, bless her cottons, promptly burst into tears. After greeting everyone and cuddling Emma they boys made themselves scarse.
The afternoon followed in a swirl of heat and food and games and chatter. The food went down well, as I said. The games were fun too. We had to guess the number of Smarties in the baby's bottle (no one came close) and predictably Emma got to eat all the Smarties. We all played Guess the Baby's Name, as a kind of reverse sweepstake - my favourite was Kermit. And we played Smell the Nappy. Yes, you read that correctly. I had four nappies and filled them with monstrous looking fillings that people had to guess at by smelling and licking if necessary! The fillings were guacamole, marmite, mustard and peanut butter and excited plenty of yuks and euurghs and the like as you can imagine. Much fun!
We moved into the extension where it took the combined forces of Laura and Emma a good ten minutes to open the 3 hampers and bags of goodies! Then some more chilling and the photo gallery where we all got to giggle at our baby selves. Then LC and Leah went home and suddenly, like an idiot, I realised I'd not taken any photos... So here we all are, minus LC and Leah unfortunately. Next post is the play, I promise...

Baby Shower

Recipes

Rosemary and olive soda bread

Mix sifted flour (200g, self raising) with bicarbonate of soda (1/2 tsp) and stir in chopped olives (30g) and chopped rosemary. Stir in 100g natural plain yoghurt with a knife to make a clean ball - add a little water if necessary. Mark into wedges with a knife and press some olive spigs into these score lines. Bake in a preheated oven at gas mark 7 for 20-25 minutes or until it sounds hollow when you tap it from underneath. Yum.

Bacon Koftas

Place 225g rindless back bacon into the food processor (if it isn't large you might need to do this in batches) with 75g breadcrumbs, 2 chopped spring onions, some parsley,, lemon rind of 1 lemon, an egg white and black pepper. Process until it is finely chooped but not pureed, it just needs to bind together. Divide the mixture into 8 evenly sized portions then shape around bamboo/wooden skewers. Sprinkle with paprika. Cook under the grill or on the bbq for 8-10 mins, turning occasionally.

Patatas bravas

Not a family recipe this is from a book so this might not be everyone's way of cooking them...

Heat 2tbs olive oil and add a finely chopped onion. Cook on a medium heat, stirring, until softened. Add 2 garlic cloves, crushed then after 30 seconds add 50ml sherry or white wine (I used sherry) and bring to the boil. Add 400g chopped tomatoes, 2 tsp red wine vinegar 2tsp crushed chillies, and paprika and simmer until it forms a thick sauce. Blend with a hand held blender once cool. Then fry your potatoes and voilà!

We survived!

2010-06-05T10:38:00.000-01:00

Lord above, there was a split second there when I doubted but for all the drama of the week before the performance we survived, the show went on and it was a good one! It's not printable, most of it, so ask me in person and I'll give you all the gossip. Only know this; we were magnificent! Here is the review and some of my photos - they're not very good but as soon as I get my hands on some official ones I'll post them. Read it carefully - I did get a mention!

Potential for laughs realised ***

Comic Potential - Billesley Players - Old Rep. Birmingham

UNLESS you can’t manage it in the half-light, read the programme note before curtain-up. I omitted to do so, with the result that for the first few minutes of my first sighting of this Alan Ayckbourn comedy I was thinking that the acting around the hospital bed was a bit on the slow side.

I did work it out for myself before too long, but a few words here may help anyone planning to see the show on Saturday, its second – and last – night.

The point is, the action is in the future and actors are androids – or, indeed actoids, as became apparent from the terminology surrounding them. They are creatures of wire circuits, nano-serbas – or something like that – and bits, and those involved in a daytime soap now being shot are worth £1.7 million.

These nuggets of understanding, plus the fact that the nephew of the owner of the television station falls in love with an actoid, are sufficient to provide a basis for enjoying the action.

Apart from one unplanned extended first-night hiatus, Iain Neville’s production coped well with the three scenes before the interval and the ten that followed it. When furniture and props had to be shifted, they were shifted swiftly. Efficiency was in the air.

INNOCENT AND IRRESISTIBLE

Efficiency was treading the boards, too. Michael Nile came lugubriously but alertly to his duties as Chandler Tate, director of the epic that was unfolding before our eyes, and Leigh McCarroll scored as Adam, nephew of the owner of the TV station and would-be author of his own drama.

This was centred around Jacie Triplethree, the innocent and irresistible actoid with an unpredictable tendency to shriek without warning, to speak intermittently at a rate of knots and to switch accents between Brummie, Yorkshire and the Deep South without pausing for breath.

Jacie is delightful. In her bleaker moments, she manages to tug the heartstrings. She is played by Anna Downes, who has fashioned for her a piping voice, a walk of tiny steps and a wide-eyed matter-of-factness in the face of life’s little problems. One of these inconveniences is that she needs to be emptied every so often.

She is very amusing when she performs Here Comes the Hot-Stepper, and hilarity peaks again in the restaurant scene which finds her anxiety about being emptied being met by Mr McCarroll by dint of diving under the table and following her instructions to turn something one way or the other, while fellow-diners look on with ill-concealed interest, compounded when he eventually emerges with a half-filled plastic container.

CUSTARD PIE MOMENT

Interestingly, the actoid innocence is set in a play in which Ayckbourn abandons his customary high standards of language a couple of times. This is another surprise in an evening that is not exactly short of them. There is even a good old-fashioned custard pie moment, superbly executed by everybody’s favourite actoid and received nobly and with the requisite consternation by Patricia Hands in the guise of Carla Pepperbloom, regional TV director.

Gemma Harris and Samantha Broome are a good pairing as the television show’s backroom girls, Leon Salter is Marmion, who acts as the larynx of Lester Trainsmith (Tony Nock), the station owner who eventually finds his voice to deliver a substantial speech from his wheelchair.

There are vigorous cameos from Tracey Bolt, as a prostitute, and Iain Neville, as the man who discovers an actoid in the seedy hotel which he regards as his own for his girls’ purposes. There are lively lines: “What do you know about anything at all? You’re an accountant.” There is laughter galore, particularly in the second act. There is an abundance of honest endeavour. It’s fun. To 29.5.10.

John Slim

BOX OFFICE: officeboxoffice@birmingham.gov.uk 0121 303 2323

The Theatre

Trudi & Prim (aka Sam and Gemma)

Breaking down the set - the old troopers - hung over

In 2 weeks time it'll all almost be over

2010-05-16T13:53:00.000-01:00

The preparation for the play continues apace. With less than 2 weeks left it kinda has to... In 2 weeks time I'll be hours away from the 2nd and last performance and nearing the complettion of over 5 months' work. We did our last day of set building today and all the pieces look great. Doug the set designer has done himself proud once more. Today we painted and last coats and fitted shelves. I helped to build the hotel reception desk and painted, sanded and helped clear up. My birthday present from auntie Shelagh, a flask, came in very handy again during the tea break and it was good fun. After a couple of rum cocktails A La Nathan last night I wasn't feeling all that motivated this morning but actually it was fun. My parents came to see the rehearsal on Friday and it was a bit awful, mainly thanks to a couple of people being missing from the cast and the background noise created by a particularly loud group eating just outside of our practice area in the Billesley Pub. Could have been worse, I suppose, but the noise was a real distraction. Getting really excited about the performances; just a last reminder, if anyone wants to come and see the play it's at the Old Rep next to the station on 28/9 May:

Friday 28th and Saturday 29th May 2010, 7.30pm
The Old Rep Theatre.
Tickets £8.
Pre book from 0121 303 2323
Or download the booking form

A Surprising Few Weeks

2010-04-18T07:30:00.001-01:00

I meant to write this up weeks ago but we've been making the most of some sun here in Britain, and anyone who knows Britain knows to make the most of good weather while it happens and not sit in front of a computer...

On March 20th Alex dropped me off at Mum and Dad's and we waited for her 'chauffeur', my lovely best friend Danielle, to arrive and drive us to an 'un-named location'. She discovered upon arrival that it was Ardencote Manor Hotel and Spa, in Claverdon, Warwickshire. Hilarious journey as mum tried directing Danielle - fortunately Senor Tom Tom knew the way!

When we got there a lovely lady called Nicky set about making us feel welcome. All the staff had been brieed and the spa was good as gold in not letting on to mum subtle details like prices or itinery. We were shown to a posh room to complete our health questionnaires then given a tour of the facilities. Mum didn't stop smiling and I couldn't help but feel it was going rather well!

We swam in the pool, used the sauna then I walked mum to the next bit of her surprise, a massage. It was all very luxurious and even me, constantly planning and thinking ahead, couldn't help but feel relatively relaxed. When mum came out of the massage in her bathrobe she looked like she'd been to heaven, bless her! I led her back downstairs from the elegant manicure room towards the pool but instead we went to the outdoor hot tub. Divine is the word. As Nicky walked past the window giving another client a tour she signalled 'five minutes' to me so I knew we were on schedule. A few minutes later she arrived with a chilled champagne bucket. And because she approached from behind mum she really didn't suspect a thing until she was literally handed a glass! Sat there in the fresh air, the clouds slowly parted and we enjoyed a glass of champagne sat in the warm water and got a taste of how the other half live!

It was a really nice morning, full of surprises but also quite relaxing and a chance to catch up properly which was nice. After the hot tub we got changed and walked across the site to the lunch room where we enjoyed a tasty lunch of chicken and pasta and even indulged in pudding. I say even because I knew what was coming!

I explained that that was the end of the surprises and we'd be heading back to the bar to be collected by Danielle. Then when we walked in 15 friends and family members were awaiting and she got another big shock! Lots of coffee and cake ensued and I left mum to be in the thick of it for the most part. Life and soul of the party, bless her.

The next week it was Alex's birthday. That man never makes a fuss so I thought he deserved a bit of a surprise for his big 30th birthday. Nathan Laura and I took him to the Hare and Hounds and told him he we'd have a curry just the 4 of us. He seemed perfectly happy with the plan... :)

Me and Laura said we were going to the toilet and capitalised on the fact that girls always take ages in the loo to pop over the road and check that everything was going ok at Sylhet Spice, the curry house we'd asked everyone to meet us at. It was all going to plan. Alex walked like a lamb into the curry house without the slightest suspicion! There were 18 of us in the end. Milly and Rob made it over from Bristol, bless them. Alex was blown away and we all had a lovely night. After the curry we went to the pub and back to ours for a chin wag, a drink and finally a bit of Guitar Hero for the last people standing; Nath Al, me and Phil.

Much fun was had!

Travel troubles

2010-03-10T18:32:00.000-01:00

Ever year of my life practically I've flown to Barcelona from Birmingham, that beautiful coastal town; you know? The one that Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe sung about? A few million other people visit it every year but apparently none from Birmingham because the heathens at BMI Baby; those imbeciles, those drones, those wimps, those morons... have decided to cancel ALL flights. I'm not having trouble getting flights to Gemma's wedding because it's high season and more flights would soon be released like an oompaloompa at Expedia told me. No! It's because in their wisdom the only airline operating a service to one of Europe's preeminent capitals of culture decides to cancel the route in its entirety and not to update their website. Apparently the only Brummies who travel to Northern Spain are visiting Reus and the delights of Salou. Oh Joy. The northern Benidorm of the Iberian peninsula.... So now we're going to have to travel with Ryan air then journey a couple of hours.
Not happy
No f-ing happy..

Comic Potential @ the Old Rep

2010-03-07T17:17:00.000-01:00

We (the Billesley Players) are rehearsing our new play Comic Potential by Alan Ayckbourn. Iain is directing this one again (his debut was our last play, the Small Hours) and the added confidence means the whole process is a few notches up the fun scales. Everyone's very much more chilled out in fact - we still take it seriously because it's a very complex play in some ways but I'm having a ball. I'm really looking forward to the curtain going up already. Our friend Leon who came to see two plays has joined the group to have a go himself and it's so cool to hang out with him everyweek. Plus Sam who joined for the last play but didn't get a part is acting opposite me and that's really cool cause she is lovely. We've also had at least 4 new members join, 2 of whom have parts, Lee and Roshan and 2/3 girls who joined too late for parts but who are enjoying watching, chilling and getting involved. In the year since I joined the Billesley Players has changed loads and it's attracting new members and growing; it's a really nice way to spend a Thursday.
So, the play - here's the synopsis:
Billesley Players bring to life ‘Comic Potential’ by Alan Ayckbourn. A lively, comic masterpiece, a satire on human folly with a touch of Pygmalion and androids... Set in the forseeable future, everything has changed except human nature. Ayckbourn’s hilarious and heartbreaking play charts what happens when a relationship begins to form between a young scriptwriter and Jacie Triplethree; an android with a sense of humour.

It's a really funny script and I'm looking forward to being on stage again. We're putting the play on at the Old Rep, which is just beautiful, on May 28 and 29 2010. We got the leaflets on Thursday - I was so nervous to give them out at work but there were a few people who had been so genuinely supportive of it from the start that I think they might actually buy tickets!
I have such fond memories of running around backstage. It's a real proper backstage area. There's a whole floor above and below the stage as well as the space directly behind the stage so everyone's creeping around all over the place to make sure they walk on from the right side. It's a mini version of the hippodrome and it's spellbinding. Last year was when I took hundreds of photos of it all then we lost the camera - this year I'm sorting out a new camera and keeping hold of it come what may!!! Learning lines seems to get easier as well, which is a good job too cause I've got tonnes of them this time.
Still, ahead of the play I'm looking forward to lots of things; Al's 30th birthday and my own; mum's birthday, and a few other thing that I have up my sleeve. And in July we've got Gemma and Hannah's weddings- what an amazing year!

Something a bit sporty

2010-03-03T19:07:00.000-01:00

A few weeks ago Leon and Teresa, Danielle and I went to watch Coventry Blaze Ice Hockey. I hadn't been for years but all I could remember was that I loved it and wanted to go and finally we sorted it out. It was amazing! It was great to be in Coventry to be surrounded by passionate, enthusiastic, crazy people because more often than not Coventry folk are more known for being a bit apathetic quite frankly. Secondly it was pretty great as stadiums go; it's obviously benefiting the people and the city of Coventry loads and it's nice and central (fab cheap parking) and perfect for an evening out. Thirdly Coventry are actually good! The team has a growing number of British players which is great for British sport generally and gives the kids of Coventry something extra to aspire to. And we're at the top of the league. Not only that but as far as I could tell the quality of the game was pretty high. We won but it was a tight game against Edinburgh; they game us a real fight. It was really thrilling! There were plenty of times we went down to 10 men 'cause a Canadian chap on our team had a tendency of getting a little overheated - bless him. It was thrilling, it went to extra time, it was fast, and aggressive... I'm hooked and definitely hooked - 'Come On You Blaze'... might even ask for the shirt for my birthday!

Last weekend we gathered for a quite different sporting event. Alex is a Villa fan, as is my dad and as was granddad. Brummies got very excited that Vila had made it to the league cup final last week at Wembley against Man U. Leon and Nathan, Milly and Rob gathered in our upstairs room to watch it on the Radiation King. It all started off rather well. Villa went ahead quite early and looked intent on doing some damage, then they just sort of sat back and tried to hold on to their lead. Then the ref had a mild case of being blind and stupid every time Man U fouled a Villa Player (but not the other way round) - and no I'm not being biased! Then, predictably Man U brought on Roony, Villa ran out of ideas and Man U started to make it look easy. I could barely watch the telly (which bearing in mind that monster takes over half the room meant I had to get a book out just to ignore it). Finally we ran out of time and Villa got the runner's up prize. Bless them... But, as Milly consoled herself before their drive home to Bristol, they don't have the experience of big events that Man U does - and at least we didn't lose to Man City. The boys did the only thing left to do, the only thing a self-respecting Villa fan has left on these occasions - we printed a photo of Alex Fergusson's face, put it on the dartboard, and played a game.

The weigh in

2010-02-20T11:42:00.000-01:00

At Christmas I had a bit of a shock when I weighed myself but since then I have made a real efort and lost 12 pounds (5.5kilos) which is rather good... The last 2 weeks I seem to have plateaued but I saw LC last night and she inspired me! She' always been very attractive but the last few years she had back problems and it stopped her looking the way she liked. I'd seen her at Emma's 4th birthday in the summer and she'd started a diet then not seen her since. My god, I couldn't stop looking at her at Nathan's birthday party last night! We talked and she's inspired me. I'm going to try and re-motivate myself to lose another half a stone and get back under 11 stone. It's hard but worth it.
Nathan's night last night was for his 30th which is on Tuesday. It was a great laugh. Laura, his wife made demon salsa, Nathan made rocket fuel punch and I seem to remember dancing the Twist! Alex is in bed still, sleeping it off. I only woke up because the cat got in my face miaowing for food..! We got back at 4am, Al and me Claire and Dave being the last up (Laura had gone to bed already and the other guests had made their various ways home). When we walked home Dave and Claire were talking about going somewhere for a dance... such a fun night!
Very excited because it looks as though I'm going to see my cousin Gemma get married in Barcelona to her fiancee in July. This is very exciting. She sent me a picture of her trying on her dress - isn't it beautiful?
I had really resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't make it over but it looks like I'll be going with my parents as Alex is working. That's the thing with him working for an exam board, anything in July is usually out. Still, I'll take lots of photos for him to see.
Felicidades Gemma y Fran; que aproveches de los meses entre ahora y tu gran dia. Aunque sean locos y llenos de pasan rapidamente son especiales. Si necesitas qualquier cosa llamame por Skype, vale?
Finalmente ayer fue el 60 aniversario de mi tieta Teresa. Ella acaba de pasar unos dias en Madrid con su primer nieto Eric; me gustaria haber estado alli por verles... debe estar orgullosisima! Bueno tieta, muchisimos besos desde Inglaterra; siempre estas en mi corazon x

Valentine's day

2010-02-16T16:05:00.000-01:00

On Friday I was on an early shift and Alex went to the pub with his mates from football so I didn't hurry home. I went round a few shops intending to try and spend a Christmas voucher or two and failing. I headed into the bullring where I heard thousands of screams. Intrigued I walked onto the set of 'How to look good naked'

There was Gok Wang strutting his stuff and thousands of Brummies on three floors of the bullring getting carried away by it all! And I mean thousands... Or maybe hundreds making the noise of thousands; you judge!

So anyway I found myself quite in a motivated and chirpy mood on Friday night. The swim that lunchtime meant I felt perky and Al had been at home on his day off while I'd been at work so I didn't have to feel guilty about leaving the cat alone and in the dark... aw!

A few phone calls later I found myself on the train heading to Coventry and minutes later I was sat with Lisa and Danielle munching fajitas in Old Orleans. We were off to see ultimate chick flick Valentine's Day.

It was scrummy. Soo romantic and soppy and indulgent; like a big fat wedge of chocolate fudge cake for the senses (other than taste, and smell obviously)
When rage compels one character to bludgeon the big Valentine's heart into a pulp - I think most women have experienced a moment in the single life that they can relate to that moment - what fun!
And Julia Roberts... I'll say this: class, but not what you'd expect

So ok it might be drivel, but it was good nonetheless :)

But Valentine's day for real is not like in the films, is it? With both our 30th birthdays, the wedding anniversary and my mum's significant birthday looming (not to mention pancake day, woo hoo) we could have been forgiven for forgetting all about St Valentine's day. Well, ok, as I expected we sort of did... While my parents hunted high and low for the cards they had hidden for each other and then took a stroll in the park together me and my beloved went to church and football separately.

That said, on the Saturday night we spent a lovely evening in together. Alex cooked us a steak, we had a couple of glasses of pretty decent red wine, stuck on some classical music and lit a candle. We even indulged in pudding. For a few hours life slowed down.

In the morning life was pretty hectic as a normal Sunday is for us... but when he came back from football (covered in mud and with a new sporting injury) he presented me with a bunch of flowers in exchange for the card I'd given him. He was particularly with the goal he'd scored and I'd enjoyed church and seeing Pauline as it was Parade service. And at the end of the day, life isn't just about the romance of one day; it's about the cuddles every day and the fact that even when we irritate each other there's always a laugh to be had. I'm not Ms Roberts and he's not Ashton Kutcher, but in our way we celebrated Valentine's day and it was lovely!

Heating or cooling debate

2010-02-16T07:37:00.000-01:00

I am a believer but don't fully understand the science behind it... I thought this was an interesting article in the Times Online, so here it is:

If global warming real why is it cold?

Guest post by Colin Summerhayes

A recent BBC poll suggested that the public's belief in global warming has declined steeply since November. The apparent erosion of in climate science was put down to the University of East Anglia email row and various gaffes by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I strongly suspect, from talking to people in the street, that the poll result may have much more to do with the weather than with what people may or may not have been doing at the UEA.

In the public mind, climate and weather remain inextricably linked. In the first week of my job in Cambridge, I was asked by BBC radio to come in and talk about climate; it was April 2004 and it was cold. The reporter asked me how I could justify global warming when it was so cold outside. Given such ignorance on the part of the media, it is not surprising that the man in the street thinks as he does.

Data from satellites and surface measurements show that January 2010 was globally the warmest in the 32-year satellite record, but the overwhelming focus on "white-out Britain" meant that this record went virtually unremarked.

There is a very good reason why our local temperatures have been cold in contrast with the global picture. This winter has seen a 'blocking high' over Greenland and Baffin Island that has brought temperatures 7C above normal in these areas, and cold weather to the surrounding regions - Northern Europe, the UK and the north east coast of America.

To make matters worse, El Niño is near its peak of its seven year cycle. Upward fluctuations over the short term on the global temperature curve occur during years when warm El Nino events develop in the Pacific, and downward departures occur when there are cool La Nina events there. We have now moved in to an El Nino year, suggesting that global temperatures will be warmer than average. During El Nino years, like this one, northern cities can be hit with record amounts of snow due to the extra moisture in the air.

Regardless of such local variations, there is overwhelming evidence that the Earth is getting hotter.

Taking unlikely inspiration from a sceptic blog, I would like to see a link from the homepage of the Met Office: "Press here to find out why global warming is real even though it is cold in the UK."
Here are a few observations that might be included:

1. that ocean temperatures are increasing and ocean heat content has increased considerably over the upper 700 metres since 1965, as shown by a wide variety of ocean thermometers including those from the Argo float programme.

2. that as a result of that warming, the ocean has expanded, and sea-level has risen, as shown by tide gauge data on the one hand and satellite altimeters on the other hand.

3. that the warmer ocean waters are penetrating beneath the outlet glaciers in Greenland and in the Amundsen Sea Embayment of West Antarctica, where they are contributing to the melting and thinning of those glaciers, which, as a consequence have speeded up and are now discharging significantly more ice from the land into the sea, thus adding to the rate at which sea level is rising.

4. that warm air is contributing to the melting of Arctic sea ice and the latest records show that this downward trend continued through 2009 and into 2010. We do not see this around Antarctica, where the sea ice is growing in area by 1% per year, but we now know that this is because of the shielding effect on the continent and its surrounding surface waters by the vortex of circumpolar winds, which have been strengthened by 15% since the mid 1970s because of the effects of the ozone hole. The effect of the ozone hole on the winds is protecting Antarctica from global warming. The wall of winds keeps warm air out, except locally, over the Antarctic peninsula.

5. that glaciers are in retreat in most mountain areas, including Patagonia and the Antarctic Peninsula. The rate at which these glaciers are retreating has increased significantly since about 1970.

6. that plants, animals, birds, and insects, especially in north temperate regions, are advancing their ranges northwards at significant rates, and that seasonal migrations are starting earlier, in response to warming.

7. UEA data aside, there are other records of air temperature from around the world that confirm that the air temperatures on balance are warming. All of these analyses attempt to remove from the data set measuring sites that are suspect in some way. Not surprisingly this means that to some extent they will be using the same data sets. But some, like the NASA GISS set cover additional areas (the Arctic) to that covered by the UEA set.

8. that there is an observed trend for the stratosphere to cool and the troposphere to warm. This is strongly evident over Antarctica, for example.

9. that the sun's energy has not increased significantly since around 1970, during which time global temperatures in both atmosphere and ocean have continued to increase.

10. that permafrost is melting in many parts of the Arctic, causing damage to housing and infrastructure.

Faced with these observable facts, and knowing that carbon dioxide and methane have increased significantly in abundance since the industrial revolution, my conclusion is that the Earth is warming due to absorption of reflected radiation by greenhouses gases in the atmosphere. A single cold January in the UK does nothing to alter this view. If scientists and media did a better job at making the distinction between climate and weather, the BBC poll may have come up with a quite different result.

Dr Colin Summerhayes is an oceanographer and geologist at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge

PUPPIES!!!

2010-02-06T15:12:00.000-01:00

The absolutely most gorgeous morning ever today; and here's why: puppies!!!!

Libby's mum's retriever Willow has had 12 babies and this morning me and Claire paid them a visit. In this case pictures speak for themselves so here are the stars of the show below: they are coming up to 4 weeks old, they waddle and sleep and eat and make funny noises and they are very messy when they eat. In short: adorable!

Sunday Addendum

2010-01-24T12:24:00.000-01:00

Been to church this morning.
I should explain that when I left Leukaemia CARE Alex bought my car by paying off the remaining finance, relieving me of the monthly expenditure and in exchange he also gave me his knackered old fiat Punto. On Christmas eve the fiat gave its last gasp and came to a shuddering halt as I drove home from visiting Hannah in Wolverhampton. The Fiat (an acronym for Fix It Again Tomorrow according to Dave, the mechanic on our road who has already made a pretty penny out of it fixing it several times) was got shot of last weekend for a grand sum of £160; the Mighty Dave taking it off our hands for whatever market value we could get from the scrap dealers. So, ever since Xmas I've done a great deal more walking, tying neatly into the grand-lose-weight-master-plan.

So today as I walked to church I called mum for a short, a mere 20 minute, conversation. We talked about her friend Gisela in Wuppertal who is recovering from a hip operation and about Nan who actually outlived the batteries in her pace-maker and had to have new ones fitted a coouple of weeks ago. I hope she had duracell fitted because she's still firing on all cylinders, god love her. Then the service was one of those where everything seemed to tie into the same theme. At the start Rob welcomed a family who had brought their sickly baby with them. Only a few months old and waiting for a big operation but cheerful and bright-eyed as you like. During communion Rob left the front to give her a special blessing, cradled in her mum's arms at the back of the church and displayed the courageous and simple generosity I think all the church members love him for. Then the reading. It was 1 Corinthians 12:

12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 22On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Then at the end of the service Rob announced that half way through a lady called Sheila had been taken ill, looked after by the sidespeople and sent off to hospital without any fuss. So just out of instinct he changed the end of the service to say a little prayer of support and thanks for the lovely Sheila which I'm sure she'd appreciate.

26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

As I walked home I walked past 12 people including two police officers and a cyclist. I didn't look at my feet cause usually I try to look people in the eye and give them recognition instead of walking towards and past them as strangers. Today, unusually old and young looked back. No one avoided looking over, and I even got four smiles from complete strangers who for that fraction of a second were not strangers any more.

Last night We watched a Kevin McCloud programme called Slumming It about the slums of Mumbai and about how those people have a community spirit that most westerners would kill for. Today, for an hour and twenty minutes the world seemed very friendly; all one body as it were.

I love Sundays.

Starving penniless and straight-jacketed

2010-01-24T08:36:00.001-01:00

Just when we'd all got thoroughly bored of the snow (and in my case I didn't even get a day off work - Travel West Midlands ensured that the buses kept going regardless of the weather which was quite amazing) it magically disappeared and even though other parts of the country have suffered with it since we've been free of the stuff. Hurrah! You know you're getting old when you're relived to see the back of the snow.
This year we are celebrating some pretty awesome anniversaries; mine and Al's 30th birthdays, his mum's 60th, my mum's unmentionable and the birth and first birthdays of some pretty special new additions later this year. So far we are just enjoying getting a spring in our step and getting used to writing down 2010. 2010: do we say two thousand and ten or twenty ten? I'm going with the latter.
Meanwhile I have been getting friendly with the gym staff, having seen them four times last week. And the security guard at work keeps challenging me to go more and more every time I step through the door so something tells me even if I wanted to get away with it I couldn't stop going now! Quite impressed actually. When I started swimming it was a struggle to do 10 lengths but it's been getting easier and I've had to set myself new challenges. On Friday I did 20 without stopping then a further 10 lengths, or I'll do 10 using a float and just kicking my legs (using the thought of my cellulite as motivation..!) I was 12 stone three pounds after Christmas I am now 4 pounds under 12 stone. Not eating helps. Well not much.
Also I am, as the title would suggest, penniless. The overdraft is the only thing I'm living off. That January pay packet is not going to last long - another reason not to bother eating! But there is light at the end of the tunnel. Alex has set me a challenge that if I succeed he'll take me on holiday all expenses paid and give me spending money. If I fail I'll have to pay for myself which isn't an option right now. The good thing is it is entirely within my power to succeed, the bad thing is it is something I have failed at every year of my life to date but then Alex hasn't tried the carrot and stick approach yet. Don't ask me what it is because I won't say, just wish me luck.
Theatre has finally got going again after a few missed weeks due to the snow. Our director Iain has chosen an Alan Aykebourne play that he says "offered parts to established and new actors; was a challenge and worthy of putting on at the Old Rep; and was "modern".
A simple requirement! but I have come up with a play that hits all the buttons and is very funny. The play is Comic Potential by Alan Ayckbourn. Written in 1998, it is based on the idea that in the near future, actoids will have replaced actors in the run of the mill soaps that are the staple diet of TV schedules. The story follows one of those actoids - JCF 31333 (who is given the name Jacie Triplethree by the humans) who seems to have a semblance of human characteristics - a sense of humour and a capacity to love. It is a Pygmalion style story, as she is taught human actions and feelings by Adam, the nephew of the studio owner.. She is also supported by Chance, the embittered ex Hollywood Director who has sunk to directing the androids. Opposing them is Clara, the tough Regional Director."

The play has typical Ayckbourn moments of superb farce followed by poignant scenes, There are many characters, with quite a lot of doubling up - There will be 14 actors involved and I found out on thursday rather excitingly that my friend Leon who just joined and me have both been given parts! My character is Prim. That's all I'm saying for now... except to say yey!

So starving, penniless and straight-jacketed I may be but definitely optimistic. Just as long as there's no more snow.

Post Christmas news

2010-01-09T10:05:00.000-01:00

There's been so much going on to tell you all about. Biggest news is the rate at which my best friends are multiplying... Firstly my cousin Laura had her first baby, a boy named Eric on December 23rd and everyone's thrilled for her and Luis; well done guys Dan and Rach had their second, also a boy, called Samuel on the 5th Jan. Emily's due sometime this month too and our best mates Nathan and Laura are now expecting their number two too! It's amazing... Best of luck to everyone and lots of love and best wishes!
Then there's the snow... I work on the 8th floor of the Colmore Square building in the centre and normallly the view is spectacular: but this last week it's been like this:

Waiting for the bus has been fun... but not too bad if I'm honest. Unlike the road network for cars (which has been a nightmare) the journey into town on the bus has been relatively stress free; which is a good job since the snow is set to continue!

Just before Christmas me and my parents took a trip to the German Christmas Market in the town centre which comes every year from Frankfurt. It was really nice and much bigger than I remembered. We had mulled wine and some schnitzel, then mooched around the stalls for a couple of hours before parting. I took photos of us having mulled wine in the traditional cups...

But after the indulgences of Christmas - and there were many - I have decided to lose a stone. I joined a gym just prior to Xmas but put all the weight I'd lost back on... so this week I went three times before work, in the snow. I appear to have lost a few pounds so I'm on my way, wish me luck!

Copenhagen

2009-12-20T18:44:00.000-01:00

Marcus Brigstock on the Now Show - sums up the Copenhagen mess quite nicely.
People, I think we need to lead from the front as obviously those idot politicians never will

The review of the play

2009-11-16T17:46:00.003-01:00

Here's what John Slim (until recently the Amateur Drama reporter for the Birmingham Mail) had to say about our play on his website, Behind the Arras

Fast moving thriller does not disappoint

The Small Hours

Billesley Players

Dovehouse Theatre, Solihull

***

A NEW-LOOK company has no fewer than four players in the cast making their first appearance - and the result is undeniably satisfying.

This is a Francis Durbridge story that was written as a radio play, which is probably why its ten scenes give it an episodic flavour, but Iain Neville's production moves slickly between them and never gives its audience time to become restless.

At its heart is a toy koala bear - and the fact that Carl Houston just happened to mention koalas on his flight home from Australia is enough to put his life in danger and cause his wife nearly to lose hers.

It seems a tenuous link between koalas and crises, as he was speaking only to his passenger neighbour. It leaves us to suppose that his neighbour must have decided to relay the conversation later to somebody who turns out to be a Mr Big in the world of fencing stolen valuables.

WELL ENGINEERED

Not that it matters. The tension builds. There are some well-engineered confrontations between anxious people. And we go on guessing at the secret of the unseen koala.

Graham Mason is Houston, a clean-cut British hero type, delivered in a performance of confidence opposite Anna Downes, in fine form as his feisty wife Vanessa.

There is confidence, too, in the quick, high-heeled strut of Claire Davies as his PA, and in the probing questioning of Sheila Parkes, as the representative of the law.

Michael Nile gives us a pleasingly unusual character in Bernard Decker, the chef with quiet little expressions, an amusing snigger and an optimistic line in blackmail. Gemma Harris pleases as his wife and Edward Fellows is another strong performer as the shady Oliver Radford.

BLOWN THE GAFF

Nick Storr is the aeroplane passenger we suspect of having inadvertently blown the gaff on a stranger's casual mention of koala bears. He and Graham Mason set the production rolling on their borrowed aircraft seats - thank you, Flybe - with a conversation that rolls with satisfying unstoppability.

It's an excellent all-round effort. What a shame it was all for the sake of a production lasting only two nights. The only cavvil is that several players could do with a bit more push and projecion on a stage that is apparently without microphones.

To 14.11.09.

John Slim

http://www.billesleyplayers.co.uk/

The last week

2009-11-15T15:56:00.000-01:00

Or alternatively this post could have been entitled "Hectic".
I started at Ernst & Young on Monday and it's been a bit of a baptism of fire. Usually I start a job and the last 5 times at least I've been surrounded by apologies. 'Sorry it's so busy, you've joined at a really bad time.' 'Sorry there isn't much time to train you, but you look as if you're ok' etc. Temp or perm that's always how it's been. I can't recall having training that's lasted more than a morning and all this week has been nothing but! There are 20 of us and we are all joiners, mostly new, and all of us have been trained on the procedures and equipment all week, with another week scheduled in to go before we go live. It's pretty heavy but reassuring and it's just a very different work environment to get used to. However plus points so far are:
Easy journey in to work, nice people starting alongside me, nice managers (so far), nice toilets, city centre location (therefore good for shops and yummy lunches)
However every night after work I got the bus home then jumped in the car and drove to Solihull for the final rehearsals of The Small Hours. On Friday and Saturday we performed in front of approx 290 people which was a real thrill. It has left me officially pooped however. Too tired to write much more but below are the photos I took on my camera of the set build, rehearsals and break down. In a few weeks I should get the official photos and be able to see what I looked like! In summary though it was great fun!

Este semana he empezado mi trabajo nuevo y ademas presentamos el obra de teatro este fin de semana y cada noche he estado ensayando. Esta manana desmantelamos el escenario y al finar puedo descansar. Bueno, descansar - es decir planchar mientras viendo Doctor Who...

A summary in Spanish

2009-11-03T14:57:00.000-01:00

Vale, que poco he escrito en Español asi que aqui está mi sumario. A ver, en mi vida, dejé el trabajo que me jodía tanto para encontrar cosas nuevas. He pasado los últimos dos meses trabajando temporalmente, en contratos de 2 o 3 semanas y he ido a montones de entrevistas. Finalmente encontré una posición permanente y empiezo allí la semana que viene. Ha sido totalmente genial dejar Leukaemia Care, la mejor decisión que he tenido en anos... lo he gustado un montón, he conocido a mucha gente y después de tantos meses de un ambiente muy negativo todos que he conocido me han apreciado. No podía escribir en ingles como sentía, ni cuando trabajé alli ni despues porque no quería ser indiscreto pero al fin y al cabo no tengo ni el menor cantidad de fe en las decisiones de aquella organizacion.

Que mas? He estado practicando mi segunda obra de teatro y nos la realizaremos el viernes y sabado que viene. Mi papel es mas grande esta vez y mas interesante así que ha sido mas durillo pero ya que falta tan poco para hacerlo todo parece estar casi listo. Crúzate los dedos!

Pads, nuestra gatita, es muy contenta - mas que nunca me parece, pero le gusta mordear nosotros y nuestros amigos un poco mas de lo que yo considero natural. Hay que mantener la paciencia con ella porque es una gata rescatada pero aun diciendo esto la tengo que castigar. Por lo monos asi puedo practicar hablando como una mamá frustrada con su hijo travieso...

Mañana nos llevaran las alfomras nuevas y esto me hace muy contente. Es el final del proyecto que empezo casi hace un año cuando renovaron la instalacion electrica. Ya era tiempo!

Continuamos viendo amigos de los fines de semana como siempre. Ahora mas que nunca siempre parece haber un cumpleanos o fiesta o plan en el calendario. Es la temporada supongo pero me parece que ha sido asi desde anos! Hay los amigos de la universidad, mis amigos de Coventry, los amigos de Al que son un poco mas esparcidos por Inglaterra, amigos del trabajo... en fin demasiados para ver lo suficiente y no me gusta no mantener amistades. Los que nos vemos más son Nathan y Laura y su hija Emma porque son los amigos mejores en birmingham y porque viven muy cerca. Emma ya tiene 3 y es una monada. Ella pasó la noche en nuestra casa por primera vez hace un mes y fué genial. La leímos cuentos de hadas, nos vimos dvds y me acompané a la iglesia el domingo.

Y pues poco mas. Alex trabaja mucho, yo poco, la gata muerde, los tareas domesticas y amigos nos distraen y... pues ya esta. Estamos felices!

Y si mi español es tan pobre que ya no puedes leer ni entender lo que he escrito aqui pues perdoname por favor, pero creo que las cosas no van tan malos asi que no voy a preocuparme... claro!

What you learn when...

2009-10-29T09:59:00.004-01:00

What happens when you google your name or someone you know?

My best friend Danielle, thanks to her distinctive name, appears pretty high up from her time at the wolf sanctuary. The Gap year website has chosen her quote to use online: "The people were amazing - both the permanent staff and fellow volunteers. I made loads of new friends and have kept in touch with a lot of people. The work was great, I enjoyed the building and maintenance projects and learned a lot! The wolves were also fantasic, I fell in love with all of them and developed real bonds with some. I miss the wolves and the people loads!" Ah, bless

I googled Martyn Richards and discovered a snippet of dad's writing on a strangely named website about the Umbrella Club called Musical English Lessons. Weirdly it's not available if you search pages by UK. I discovered that:
"Once a thousand strong, Coventry Umbrella Club had become a shadow of its former glories. It had slimmed down to fewer than fifty members. My wife and I are still members of the club. Its various activities now operate through the home of its Secretary.The Umbrella Club was opened in November 1955 by Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan. The trio were then presenting their "Goon Show" at the Coventry "Hippodrome" Theatre, now demolished.Early magazines of the club contained entries from Coventry poet Philip Larkin and city novellist Susan Hill. This early heritage, however, has only recently re-emerged due to the reminiscing leading to the celebration of the club's Golden Jubilee in November 2005."
Wow. I mean seriously wow. Philip Larkin? Harry Secombe. Spike Milligan. All giants. This split second research actually managed to catch my interest in te same way that tuning into radio 4/radio 2 does on my way back from drama rehearsal at night. I also discovered there is a Martyn Richards who is a Visiting Teaching Fellow at the Centre for Peace Studies, Coventry University. I wonder how many times he and dad have submitted articles to that toilet paper substitue of a local newspaper? I wonder how many local journalists have been confused?

Antonia Richards, Antonia Tomas and Antonia Tomas Mascaro are very numerous but nothing enlightening.

My cousin Laura's face pops up on image results when you google her name!

Despite what my nan thought of her parents choice for her first name there are, it seems, quite a few other Winifred Richards out there, including a peer. Not that that's an accolade. This particular Winifred can't be particularly well heeled however, being on page 40182 (Prince Charles is on page 1).

Rather wonderfully, my quiet, unassuming, hard working auntie Shelagh gets a mention and is at position number 1, 2, and 3 of the Google search for her name. Bless! Companies would kill for that kind of listing... Here's what's said online:
"Last but not least we have to say we are also very grateful to Shelagh Monks for being our ever hard working tea lady who looks after us all with a little help from Dave by making sure we all have our welcoming cups of tea at all our meetings, from the bottom of our hearts Leigh, Richard & Jean thank you all so much, we could not do it without you all. "
And
"We have almost reached another milestone in the history of the Coventry & District RP Branch as we will be celebrating 30 years of giving support information and above all friendship to so many who have walked through our doors suffering from Retinitis Pigmentosa... It was great to take a trip down memory lane and there are so many we would love to mention, perhaps one or two more such as Betty Hall who always kept our refreshment trays in order just as Shelagh Monks does today," both from http://www.the-eyesite.org/
And
"Shelagh Monks went to the Locarno in 1967 with a friend (after having found the Lanchester College too noisy) and met her future husband (who was dressed as a page boy)" http://www.vornster.co.uk/AIW/pages/library/lib2.html

As for my other half, Al, there is apparently a singer, song writer and performer from Royston, Camridgeshire, a mountain climber, an American political photographer, and a recently deceased paralympian. In fact there are so many websites with names like alex.harris.com that I'm starting to think there must be some implicit arrongance that comes with having the name and start to forgive my very own Alexander for his occasional big-headed moments. God love him, he does it with charm!

Finally there is a Gemma Richards who is a research technician in Veterinary Science at Bristol Uni, a model and a hollywood actress. There are LOADS of Gemma Harris', we're dead common! On Linked In there are 16 at least including my own profile from when I was at Leukaemia CARE. There is also a web designer in Nottingham, a lawyer in Cambridge. and apparently a keen slalom skiier. Lots of my press releases and networking profiles from the last few years are online too.

Googlegangers. It's a fascinating business. Sometimes you learn things that someone has tried to tell you but you've been too busy to hear. Sometimes it's just a giggle.

The Play's progress

2009-10-28T09:06:00.004-01:00

Well we're now on 2 rehearsals a week and it's stepping up from dull and repetitive to having some soul and spirit. I was getting a bit bored but now I'm really getting into it again.

I've got a new phone that's a bit swankier than before so I'm taking photos and filming snippets of films during rehearsal. Tracey's back in rehearsals as she's props mistress and she's a real hoot, makes everything fun and a real motivator. As a result we're all having the odd giggle which makes rehearsing a serious play a lot more fun and manageable. We're rehearsing 8-10.30pm twice a week so it needs to be fun or we'd go starck staring bonkers.

There are so few weeks left and so few rehearsals left and it's getting very real now. I still have to finally decide what I'm wearing and how to do my hair... But my lines are starting to feel like my own at last. My character, Millie, is making sense to me and we're getting into a flow, me and Graham. Graham's great. One of the nicest chaps around. He's also got one of the most expressive faces I've ever known so I used to get so drawn into his lines that I'd forget to say my own! I've never known anything like it... listen to me going on!

If you want to see an excerpt of one of our rehearsals a few weeks ago then watch the clips below. I think we all breathed in giggle gas just prior to this rehearsal...

Clip #1 and Clip #2

Finally a photo of Ed who normally doesn't look anything like this... and it wasn't even Halloween!

Super-temp at Work

2009-10-22T12:14:00.006-01:00

Super-temp at Work

I'm temping at Future Home Care which is a charitable agency caring for learning disabled adults, it helps them to gain a certain amount of independence and it's a bit of an insight into another industry I'd never worked in. Even though it has charitable roots the work is totally different to Leukaemia CARE; much more hands on, and it's a much bigger organisation.
From my perspective I sit at reception and do the switchboard, paperwork, write up incidence reports, meet and greet visitors, order stationary and generally try to keep the place shipshape. It's my 2nd day - yesterday was pretty busy but I'm into the swing of it now.
I wanted to show you my dead cool Janet Jackson headset which allows me to answer the phone without actually picking up the handset! I can even go and make a cup of tea in the kitchen and still answer the phone - not that I've dared do that much. Everyone is really nice here... I'm glad to be a receptionist for a week and a half and looking forward to starting at Ernst and Young in November. I may yet fit in another short term contract somewhere so who knows what I'll do next!!!
I don't miss Marketing at all and have really been having fun the last few weeks. Even the diy has picked up. I disassembled the wardrobe that was delivered at the weekend because it was too big to go through the door and reassembled it. What a palarva. I've just got to finish sanding and painting the staircase before the carpet is delivered and finish painting the dadorail (is that how you spell it?) in the living room. That plus job hunting and the rehearsals for the play have kept me very busy.

News

2009-10-20T16:46:00.003-01:00

Well... After many interviews and perseverance I have been given a job offer at Ernst & Young. I'm going to be an administrator and I start on November the 9th. Yey! Smiley face, clap hands ra ra ra!

Ahem, I have composed myself. It's a departure from Marketing, a new challenge and I'm really looking forward to it. Yey!

Three weeks in

2009-10-10T18:20:00.004-01:00

I have just finished a three week contract at BIAD; Birmingham Institute of Art and Design at Birmingham City University. I left with a box of chocolates, a thank you card, a warm glow and a boost of confidence. In that time I've had 2 interviews and I'm waiting for the result of the last one. It's weird how much you can love being a happy little administrator with no money and no responsibility. It was a lovely crowd in the faculty office and I'll miss them lots. We had a busy enrolment period and an open day and I met loads of people, made friends and generally felt at home but all good things must come to an end.

The interview was for a marketing role for a company that is actually part of the Home Office, and I'm due to hear the result of that this wee. Tomorrow I find myself going to an Assessment Centre for a potential job in a huge financial services company and Thursday I have an interview for a PA job at a large Union. I've also been long-listed for a marketing job in a university and have to put together a project for submission by Tuesday. Meanwhile I'm being put forward for about 6 other jobs, to be honest I'm just keeping an open mind and trying not to lose track! The list I made two weeks ago is now hopelessly out of date! They weren't kidding when they said looking for a job is a full time job in itself. In between taking calls today I have finally painted our bedroom meaning at last at the weekend we're hoping to choose some carpet and put the blasted rewiring we had done behind us; it's nearly a year ago so it's about time. I have also painted the fireplace, cleaned the windows, cooked loads and made homemade rice pudding, yum. I've not wanted to keep still really, and not having to be at work has been ace in terms of allowing me to crack on with a few chores. Still it's only been 2 working days since I finished work and I'm a-hankering for a new challenge (not to mention some money) so hopefully the next one isn't far away.

Yesterday was fun... I went to the butchers 2 Saturdays ago and was waiting to order some meat when I overheard the butcher chatting to a girl of about my age. I heard her saying she'd studied Hispanic Studies. Well it had been forever since I'd heard someone say that, so I introduced myself. We met yesterday and it was so cool. I've not had anyone to practice with and we met for coffee in Kings Heath, at this really cool little cafe, the Kitchen Garden Cafe. It's such a gorgeous spot, you feel like you're in the countryside, not in the middle of Kings Heath and there's a really funky feel to it, kind of hippy, bohemian but cute at the same time. Food's nice too. Elena's half Spanish like me and half Greek too, and doing a Phd and learning japanese. We had tea, I scoffed a bagel, and talked for 2 hours until I realised that if I didn't hurry I'd get a parking fine. As I ran back to the car the fluorescent parking demons were hovering around my car but I think I got there in the nick of time. Phew. Then I can home (painted the fireplace), and headed off to Jean and Mike's. They live down the road from me and I see them in church most weeks. They have two little boys Samuel and Daniel (good old testament names). Samuel is 2ish and Daniel is about 6 months. They are both cute as buttons. Samuel reminds me of Jack from 2 years ago. Jean fed me tea and cake and then Samuel climbed all over me and measured me, giggled and generally messed around in that adorable, trusting, boyish way of his.

I walked home feeling very spoilt!

The job search and more news

2009-09-26T06:39:00.005-01:00

I had 2 weeks being a housewife after we got back from holiday in the end. I couldn't sit still. Even though I managed to ignore any inbuilt panic buttons I still had to keep busy so I ended up doing a lot of diy. Much sanding was done. The bedroom walls are now ready to be painted and the fireplace in the living room is on its way. Yes I know I should finish one job before I start the next but... well there is no but, I just got stuck in!

I applied for jobs too, don't want you thinking I just divved about with diy. I had an interview at Birmingham University Business School. The interview panel were really nice, we got on well, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that I could do the job, I had a lot of experience that meant I was a good fit etc so I went home feeling cautiously optimistic. A couple of days later I got a very nice email saying they would like me to apply for similar jobs there but on this occasion I was unsuccessful. Gutted! Still though it gave me the opportunity to poke around the campus for the first time since 2002, when I graduated. I really loved being back. I would love to work there... Leon took out his lunch break to show me around, which was cool. There have been lots of changes like the new buildings by the train station, a new enormous and cheap fruit and veg stall on campus (v encouraging) but by far the most amazing change was Muirhead Tower. That tower, that blot on the landscape, was famously know to students as being the building the university allowed students to design to reduce wind velocity then it was erected inside out, exacerbating the wind velocity problem for generations. I don't know if that is an urban myth but it is a protected building that the uni wasn't allowed to just pull down and certainly during my time the 'temporary' scaffolding and "Caution in High Winds" signs were a permanent fixture. picture below. Well, do you know, they've gone and redeveloped it! The exterior is less ugly, more space age with fancy panels, v cool (see the link). Inside they've opened it up and built an extension so there are 4 lifts instead of 2, allowing students I imagine at least a cat in hell's chance of getting to their lectures in time without walking to the 12th floor! There is, wait for it, a lobby and a Starbucks!!! Yes a Starbucks people. I wasn't sure how I felt about that but there is now a fancy looking cafe thing in most of the buildings it seems, an attempt I imagine to keep students out of the Guild until at least after their lectures, and if that's their plan it would seem to be working. All the students I saw looked, well, studious!

Anyway, I joined the Unitemps online agency and last week I got a 2 week contract covering the enrolment at Birmingham City University (the old UCE) at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design. You should see the students, so cute! They're all fashion students, graphic design, creative, jewellery students and the like so they all have mad hair and dress to match. Bless em. Nothing like my lot who mainly rolled out of bed, pulled on flairs, and pretty much made as little effort with dressing for lectures as possible. Mind, during my week off I went to my old stomping ground, the University of Birmingham, and all the little students seemed quite trendy there too so there's obviously been a change. I mean they were wear make up and jeans that haven't been bought from a charity shop... weird.

I've enjoyed being at work again and the people at BCU BIAD are nice. I've mainly covered the office but for one day I sat in the tent helping to enrol the students, issuing ID cards, giving out free gifts etc. It was fun!

Yesterday I had an interview at the Shakespeare trust, the charity that looks after the various Stratford properties associated with Shakespeare and the archive, museum and educational events. I again felt confident, I'd obviously had experience of marketing the Restoration project at Kings Norton, now known as St Nicolas Place. Again we got on well, but I could feel I wasn't what they necessarily wanted. The lady kept on smiling sympathetically at me, and when the interview ended she hadn't even wanted to see my portfolio. It would have been a dream to not only market something I am so passionate about but work with people who are undoubtedly so professional. You could see she really knew her onions. More upsetting still I got the impression that if I hadn't spent the majority of the last 3 years in working environments where basically I was the most senior marketing person I might have learned more and have the kind of skills and confidence she thought I should have. She said she could see I had the nouse to learn quickly and the makings of a really good person for that role but they needed someone to start and be pretty much self sufficient and she felt I would be a risk. Fair enough. Back to the drawing board.

The job search

2009-09-09T16:57:00.002-01:00

Yesterday was the 11th, that's officially 1 month since I walked out of the Leukaemia CARe offices for the last time. In the 2 weeks since returning from holiday I've signed up with agencies, fielded incoming calls about prospective jobs, put my cv on Monster, been to a jobs fair, been to an interview at Birmingham university, gone to the jobcentre, and searched online for a job for hundreds of hours. The interview went well and the panel advised me to apply for other similar roles but crucially I didn't get it. On the plus side I'm well on top of the housework... I've re-potted the mint and the rosemary, last thursday was washday and I did a handwash too, and I'm about to start a marathon ironing fest. I miss human contact by the friday but theatre on thursday night and the gym with Nathan on tuesday keeps me sane. Or sane-ish. But I hate not earning. And I hate knowing that means I'm not contributing. It'll come come good in the end I'm sure...

Tango in the Aisles

2009-09-01T08:04:00.003-01:00

Caught up with my friend Emily from University and had a good old chat last night. Turns out the motivated ms bridges has made a film to submit into the Sadlers Wells Global Dance Contest, the idea of which is to turn the winning film I believe into a dance on stage. Firstly, bloody marvellous Em for coming up with the idea and actually doing it. Conceiving of a plan is something I'm great at, carrying it out... not always so hot. Secondly, a big thumbs up for motivating all those people and being the generally creative, fun marvellous person you are. Ladies and gentleman, ahem (dramatic pause), I leave you with... 'Tango in the Aisles'

Pues claro

2009-08-30T14:24:00.006-01:00

I've been a bit quiet the last few weeks (nothing unnusual) because I didn't want to broadcast the fact that we were out of the country. But anyway we are back from holiday now and I can tell you all about it...

We flew on bmi baby from Birmingham to Barcelona, I must have done that flight 100's of times now, and it was a perferct flight and landing so no probs there. We had a nice full day before flying, I went to church and Al cooked lunch before going as it was a late flight. Arrived on sunday 16th at 8ish and got the train to Barna Sants and the usual train to Cubelles. My darling tiets had waited for us at the flat, and it was about midnight bless them, to welcome us and get things ready. Tieta had even prepared truita de patates or potato omellete so we could have a nibble once we were settled. The night was hot and they both said the weather had been boiling this summer so we were excited. Now I'm back we are both enjoying the cool again but when we arrived there we were desperate for HEAT!

We were able to catch up with els tiets before they set off again in the car for Igualada, and we knew we would see them in a few days for the big family gathering too. Then once we'd unpacked we sat on the balcony to enjoy the cool (in inverted commas), enjoy the beer and supper together. Loving the holiday!

That first week was blissful, honest to god getting in the mediterranean for the first time in 2 years was bloody beautiful. I honestly don't think I'd be at all bearable without my top up of the med every so often! Lol... Pictures below are of us on the beach in Cubelles, one of the few we haven't deemed as either of us being too fat, double chin or white to be published! And of one night in Vilanove. The one of me is at our favourite bar their called del mar, very creative I know, but there's a really relaxed feel and a nice view.

It was so weird in Cubelles. Not that it's turned into Benidorm over night but I heard french german, italian possibly dutch and english as well as spanish and the obligatory catalan. In fact catalan was in the minority. I get a bit scared and bored alex rigid going on about it... Ayuntamiento de Cubelles, si leas este blog, por el amor de dios, cuida de tu pueblo que lo quiero mucho y no lo dejes que los ingleses vienen demasiado! El encanto de Cubelles, the delight of a holiday in a place like Cubelles is that the menu's aren't translated, the food is caught and made fresh, the bar owners are friendly, everything is in walking distance, the things you leave on the beach are not going to get robbed, your children are safe, the beach is clean... in summary people travel 1000's of miles nowadays for that kind of experience to, I don't know, Alaska... I always hoped Cubelles would remain a secret. Boring it may be but for me and Alex it's our kind of holiday!

On the friday my cousing Edu and his girlfriend Neus came in the car to pick us up - Neus drove actually. At the same time the tiets were off to Lleida to collect Laura and Luis. So after a tour of Edu and Neus' apartment and a mini beer moment we were all back at the tiet's, all of us, Edu and Neus, me and Al, Laura and Luis; the three cousins and partners together in Igualada for the first time. For that whole weekend tieta was mother hen and happy as larry. The pictures below are snippets of our very happy family gathering. The festa major allowed Al to see Igualada at its best. We took a walk down the Rambla for a drink with Laura and Luis; down C/ San Agustin some games had been organised for the children and the Rambla had been pedestrianised so we weren't drowned out by the scooters. Later on after L and L (sorry it's quicker than writing Laura and Luis each time) had gone to meet an old friend of Laura's we had a look around the shops and the Rambla filled up with a street party. A long line of tressle tables were arranged down the mmiddle of the road and hundreds of families broaght food; impromtu bbq's and grills were set up, hot plates and even open spit roasts were going on. The smells of cooking snails, pork, paella and everything else you can imagine filled the air as well as a sense of excitement. We were loving it, just walking through it... Then we went back to the flat where the first of 2 family meals were to take place. Neus' parents, Edy and Neus, L and L, me and Alex and the tiets all gathered in the flat downstairs to eat in iaia's old living room (something I can't remember happening since I was about 7 and the golden wedding). The big old table was laid out in the midst of an otherwise almost bare room (the flat is undergoing extensive redevelopment) and the lunch was delicious. It had been 6 years since I'd been in Igualada (pretty shocking, what with visiting Cubelles other years it hadn't felt that long) and I'd worried about Al but he really seemed to enjoy it. Food is never a problem, he can eat pretty much anything, but it's pretty scary not knowing what anyone is saying to you, even so Al has picked up quite a few words and even managed to complement tieta on the food and say hello, goodbye, encantado, please, thankyou, yes, no and those sorts of things. I was dead proud of him.

Below are the photos of our gathering at tieta Natalia's house, that's tieta's sister, where we caught up for the first time in ages with David and his little boys Oriol and Arnau. Arnau isn't pictured cause he was in his baby bouncer-sleep-thingy. The next picture is of me and Rosa Munconill. That was a surprise! I had been planning to call Rosa on the sunday as I'd heard she had wanted to catch up but it was the saturday night when me and Al were out for the festa waiting to meet Edu and the gang. We were looking for something to eat (again - that's basically all we did that holiday!) when I did a double take at this blonde lady. "That's Rosa!" one of mum's best friends. We had a lovely chat, far better than by phone and Toni even managed to get us a table and we eat like kings listening to the live bands in Cal Font (they were pretty good, too). I was so happy! Al had seen how genuinely kind and lovely everyone we met in Igualada was and felt part of the family, there was a fresh evening air, everything was perfect! Then we found out that Rosa and Toni had already paid for our food. The waiter was such a dude! He said he'd been sworn to secrecy and as they'd already left to walk home we couldn't even thank them. Loved up doesn't describe it! I'll always treasure the memory of that night...

Later on at 2am I called Edu to find out if there was any danger of them making it away from their house party to the street party and though Edu promised they'd leave any minute we decided to call it a night. Apparently the boys didn't get away til 3am so even though wwe missed them it was probably the right decision. Still, it feels weird to have been at a festa major and not danced...

My job, The Small Hours and a surprise

2009-08-12T08:35:00.003-01:00

A month ago I took the momentous decision to throw myself onto the winds of fate and hand in my resignation at Leukaemia CARE. My problem was that I couldn't be anything but 100% committed to keep up with the work that was needed in my role and that didn't allow me the energy to look for another job... it was catch 22 for quite a few reasons. Anyway, I made my decision and the last month was hard because I don't like feeling as though I'm letting people down and there were quite a few disappointed people when I made my decision. But it was the right thing to do for me and I'm sure they'll get someone to replace me who does a bang up job.

When I think of what I've achieved there it's a marvel, actually, some things I'm really proud of...

Anyway, it's my first official day without a job or a plan and when I look at the list of things I have to do before we go on holiday on sunday I'm actually quite glad to have the next few days off.

One thing I'm looking for is the opportunity to be an extra and I have signed up to an extra's site where hopefully I'll hear of something useful. Fingers crossed!

Then out of the blue a girl from Billesley Players informed the director that she will be unable to see the play through because of all her other commitments and he offered me the part!!! So on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th November 2009, I will be performing as Millie in The Small Hours by Francis Durbridge at the Dovehouse Theatre, Solihull. Tickets are a mere £8. You can pre book from 0121 743 4402 Or download the booking form from the website which is www.billesleyplayers.co.uk/

Yey!

So, on holiday I will be reading the play to learn my part in and amongst my summer reading...

Summer, lakes and babies

2009-08-01T14:49:00.009-01:00

I started writing this post on the first of august; I can't believe it!

We had the readings for the next Billesley Players play and over a few weeks we all had a go. I thought I stood a good chance but the group had a huge influx of new members (I say huge, actually it was more like 4 or 5 but that is huge for BP) Anyway I didn't get a part in the end but my friend Claire joined and got a part so I was dead chuffed for her. Now I'm getting involved in different ways so it's ok. I was sad at first, but even though I'm missing rehearsing there's plenty to do. Meantime we're preparing The Small Hours by Francis Durbridge. Fingers crossed for the next one!

I did miss a week last thursday's rehearsal because it was little Emma's 4th birthday, then it was her official party last weekend which was, as ever, fab! She's like the queen, she celebrates her big day across a couple of occasions! All our friends from brum were there, well everyone from Al's school/college days, and for once it didn't rain! Emma has some really good luck; even the year of the floods it didn't get rained out and her birthdays are always bbq's and garden parties.

Wet weather didn't get in the way either of my trip to Lake Windermere to visit my school friend Dan his wife rachel and their baby Finley. The lake district was gorgeous! I'd never been that far north west but it was exactly like all the Romantic novels and poetry had in my head; I felt that I should be reading Wuthering Heights, not a Poirot novel..! The Agatha Christie I had received when I joined a book club a few months ago whereby friends sent each other books in a chain mail system. I now want to read more AC books as she has been on my ever expanding 'list of authors to read'...

Anyway we all stayed in a cottage and it was a lovely break from the madness of work. The cottage was nearish to Kendal. We saw plenty of sight in my 2 days, I could have stayed much longer and I'd recommend it as a destination to anyone...

The view over lake Windermere from Fin's pushchair

Happy gang

Fin gets top marks on the boat for top cutie

Boa t trip fu n

Wow otters!

On my way back down south I stopped off at a Tudor house called Rufford Old Hall, near Ormskirk in Lancashire. It was a beautiful day and it was a fab way to make the most of a few hours and have a rest and a trillion times nicer than stopping at a service station. I had a guided tour of the house which dates back to the 1490's and apparently a very young as yet not famous Shakespeare performed in its great hall. I had a quick walk around the gardens and a lancashire tea... it was great!

Finding Rufford I drove past a natural look out point that made me think for some reason of my favourite book that I read at school, Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. In it the main character, the butler, stops during his drive at a phenomenally beautiful look out point. I can still remember the notes I made in the margins of the book and the feelings it engendered so on my way back towards the motorway for just one last bit of indulgence I stopped to look at the panorama.

Busy times

2009-06-27T09:39:00.007-01:00

Since the specials we've been as busy as ever, both of us. The next week I went to see Hannah's new house and me and the boys got to play, especially with Jack cause he's growing up so fast, then we went to see the Star Trek film. Lots of fun and it was good to go for a drink afterwards and catch up. That sunday I had the final set build before the play so I was in my paint spattered gear getting more paint spattered.

The next week on the sunday the family all got together for a rare family celebration. I'd been ages since I'd seen Shelagh David Graham Paul Cath and my folks all in one room - not since the wedding most likely. We went for a curry in Leamington; good choice as it turned out. Although historically my parents don't tend to choose indian food everyone seemed to enjoy what they had chosen and we all got to catch up. It was to say happy birthday, happy anniversary, happy engagement; happy everything and it was fun!

In those weeks in May and June we actually saw some great summery weather, so among other things we did a fair bit of gardening and pottering. In and amongst working and engagements there is nothing me and al like so much as a potter. The garden's loads tidyer and with the sun things have actually grown. We've finally acquired some strawberry plants from Laura's mum; I've dreamed of growing berries for years and I'm pretty happy to finally have some. Hopefully they'll get nice and tall and we'll have plenty of strawberries to pick in a year's time. This year they're only small but we've still got a few berries reddening. yey!

The week after we all met for a curry the theatre group I joined in January, the Billesley Players, was getting ready for its production of Nude with Violine. The 2 performances were less than a week away so every night that week I went straight from work to the Old Rep to build the set and rehearse. It all went really quite well and I was dead excited and slightly nervous... The dress rehearsal was on the thursday with the performances on the following 2 days. Here's a photo I took with my mobile during an early rehearsal from the audience.

I really loved being in the theatre. Looking up and around at the lighting rigs, the scenery, sorting out the props with Sheila, watching rehearsals, practicing my lines, watching as things developed over a couple of days to doing our lines and moves in our civies to a full blown performance with lighting and sound effects and music; then finally feeling the reactions of the audience, different each night. Loved it! I took tons of photos, needless to say, backstage, in the green room, putting on make up and of the night out on the saturday, but the camera was stolen in Island bar so the only ones we have left were taken on Al's mobile phone

On the up side it's probably the nicest photo we have of Leon and Teresa though..!

The Specials

2009-05-25T18:40:00.003-01:00

Back in December I bought Alex and I tickets for the last night of the Specials' homecoming tour At Coventry Richoh

Arena. Last friday was the night of the concert. It was amazing! Me and Al grabbed a meal at the Elms first then drove

through Foleshill in the worst driving rain I've seen for ages.

I've always liked bits of Ska and it's Al who introduced me to most of the music I like now, especially 80's stuff, so it

seemed appropriate to go go and we'd both been looking forward to it for ages. We were amongst 8000 people, loads

from Cov, and there was an amazing atmosphere. There are no seats, just tons of bodies and bars dotted around the

sides of the stadium. We got bumped around a fair bit by the meat heads, but the audience was pretty mixed with families

and couples everywhere and once we moved out of the real tussle we still had a great view and it was still a fab atmosphere.

I think a lot of us were desperately happy to have them back in Coventry; and when the lead singer apologised

for their absense all these years it seemed so sincere and emotional... It was the first time in a long time that I felt that

proud to be from Coventry. So it was more than just music.

But fortunately the music was, on it's own, pretty great. I hadn't ever listened to more than the basic tourist's guide to

Ska; Ghost Town, Too Much Too Young etc. Basically on friday, I was a daytripper! Al's always known more about

ska, especially Madness - he has their whole back catalogue...I'd better say thank you to my cousin Paul Monks

right now, seeing as before Alex he was trying to guide me towards good music (and Dr Who too, thanks again), and

even though I was a brat something must have gone in during those years!

Here are some videos taken by fellow sudience members. The first clip I have added mainly because it captures the o

pening of the concert; their intro was fab and you can hear how excited everyone is, singing 'Enjoy yourself,it's later than

you think...' and that's how they ended too. Anyway watch, and judge for yourselves :)