Work- I submitted all the history research materials to the web developers back in August. Then there was a funding issue. Now that has been sorted, the developers are working on the educational web package and something should be online by the end of the month. The full prototype should be ready for January and will hopefully be showcased at BETT, in London-the largest educational technology fair in the world!
There isn't much else happening on the history research front at the moment, although I'm looking in to the possibility of writing a book on individual Victorian children, which would mine the same sort of research materials as I used for the project.
In the absence of any history research work, I've applied to the Civil Service Fast Stream (Graduate Scheme). If I got the job, I'd be working in the Houses of Parliament. I have to take a written exam on 6th January!
I haven't been anywhere or done very much in the last few weeks, but it has actually been quite nice to just spend time in the flat and the local area. Walks on the beach are really nice at this time of year. Bearing in mind the gale force winds, I didn't go out today though! I was very grateful for our lovely warm flat! Had we still been living in the house that was falling down in Teddington, it would have been very draughty!!
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josephine_64 Hope you're having a great day!
I apologise foe the fact that I've been really bad at remembering people's birthdays, this year. I will try to be a better friend in 2010!
We're still really loving it here. The flat and the area are great and we really can't imagine living anywhere else now! I still go up to London to work occasionally, but feel quite claustrophobic up there now. How did I live up there for 18 years?
Anyway, our cottage was a very pretty,. It was 19th century and bearing in mind the number of original features, probably listed. The area is also lovely. Here are the views, a five minute walk away (up a very steep hill):
It was also great to catch up with no less than 9 members of my family, 8 of which I hadn't seen since April 2007.
:( Read more... )( Read more... )( Read more... )
I got one of these yesterday free with my new Virgin Mobile contract. So far I'm finding the phone really easy and straightforward to use, so I thought I'd set up my e-mail on it. After a fair bit of trial and error and several web searches, I managed to get it to receive my e-mail.
So far, so good. However, whatever I do, I can't seem to send e-mail on it. It keeps telling me to check my e-mail settings, which I've done on numerous occasions now. It isn't the end of the world if I can't get that part to work, as it's still really useful to be able to check my e-mail when I'm out and about. John also got the same phone yesterday, though, and he's going to want me to set it up on his...
Any help would be very much appreciated! Thank you for reading!
ETA-it seems to be working now!
On the Friday, my parents next door neighbours popped round with their sweet 10 month old baby, Alexa, who is in to everything! She saeems like a very happy baby. In the evening, Dad and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which we treally enjoyed, but felt was a little bit slow in places. To be fair, so is the book!
Mum had asked me to visit that particular weekend, because on the Saturday, Katie came round with her partner, Andy and his two children, Ryan, who's 4 and 2 year old Shannon. It was the first time that the children had visited Mum and Dad's and I'd never met them. Before they arrived, Mum told me that Ryan is really into Ben 10: Alien Force and Shannon likes Disney Fairies. Mum suggested that it might be a good idea if I knew something about them and as Mum is a teacher she made it sound like I should be revising for an exam!! To be fair to Mum, Ryan did actually test me! Kids TV and toys are very different from my day. When I was a child it was all My Little Pony and Cabbage Patch Kids....
Anyway, Ryan and Shannon are really great kids and they've got a good relationship with Katie, which is nice. By the time they went home we were all exhausted
I came home by train on the Sunday. It had been a fantastic weekend!
We gave each other watches as anniversary presents. Here is the watch that John gave me (it's the pink one)
www.gift-time-products.co.uk/unitrader/s
I gave John a white face/black strap version of this one:
www.gift-time-products.co.uk/unitrader/s
John can't usually wear watches, because they either irritate his skin or some electrical reaction in his body makes them not work properly. The strap on this one is infinitely adjustable., so he can wear it as loose as he likes. The strap also covers the back of the watch, so no metal comes into direct contact with John. This means that it keeps perfect time too.
jafacakes Leave me a comment and I will give you a letter (if you want). Then, write 10 things that you love starting with that letter. Post the list in your journal and expand on them. Give out letters to your commenters in return.
jafacakes gave me the letter A.........which was more difficult than I thought it'd be....And I'm using the word 'love' in its widest context
( Here you go... )
Feel free to comment...:D
Whilst there, I met Keeley Hawes (Alex Drake in Ashes to Ashes/Zoe Reyniolds in Spooks). She was really friendly and very chatty (so much so that I think she was told off by the organisers for taking too much time with each person). She admired my t-shirt and signed my Ashes to Ashes series 2 DVDs (Philip Glenister signed my series 1 set last year). I also had my photo taken with her.:
(lovely photo of Keeley. Not so sure about me!)
I think that I was one of the few women there who's as tall as Keeley (we were both wearing flat shoes). Anyway, I am so glad that I was able to meet Keeley. Not only is she a fantastic actress, she's a really nice person as well.
It's a bit of an achievement for me, because it shows I've more or less recovered from my knee injury. Finally!!
Work has been busy, but good. I'm making headway with the history elearning project, but am rapidly running out of time...I've also started the data entry/transcribing for the University of London (Drapers Company digitisation project), which is fine.
John's ok and the Scimitar is going really well. We took it to a car show a couple of weeks ago and put it on the Scimitar Owner's Club Stand. I don't think it let the side down.
On 12th July, I'm doing a sponsored walk for Kidney Research UK-the London Bridges Walk 2009. It's a minimum of 6.75 miles, but I intend to do the long route-9.5 miles! It's a great cause and if a walk of that length doesn't prove that I'm back from my knee injury, nothing will!!
Here are the details of the walk:
www.kidneyresearchuk.org/events/detail/w
Here's my sponsorship page:
www.kidneyresearchukevents.org/heiditopm
(not that that's a hint at all, but if you could spare anything I'd be eternally grateful!)
- Mood:
productive
Just a quick catch up post.
3 weeks, or so, ago, we spent a lovely weekend at Mum and Dad's. It was a good opportunity to catch up with one of my aunts who I hadn't seen for a couple of years. We also met Katie's new partner, Andy, for the first time.
On the Monday we went to Ely Cathedral, which is a very impressive building. I took some pictures, which I'll post when I've downloaded them!
Last Sunday, Jafacakes, Mr JC and minijc3 came to visit us. It was lovely to see them and they brought us some very tasty apples. It's great that they could come and see us. It really wasn't practical where we used to live. Anyway, we chatted a lot, John showed off the Scimitar and we went for a walk on the beach-where minjc3 and John collected a lot of stones and shells. John cooked masses of bangers and mash for everyone!
On Tuesday night, the Scimitar won a councours (car club competition). It was basically the best car (taking age in to account) on the night and it won a bottle of turtle wax polish and a cleaning cloth. It also passed its MOT with flying colours today, which John's really pleased about. After all, when you buy a 32 year old car, you can't be completely sure it's all ok until the first MOT after you get it.
My history project is going ok. There's still a lot to do, but I submitted the first section to the education advisors last week and they're really pleased with it. Which is a huge relief as I'd never written for the 7-11 year age group before!
Anyway, through a classic car website, John found a 1977 Scimitar which had had a lot of work done on it (the one we had last year had just been left standing for 8 years by the previous owner) and we decided to take the plunge again! On Thursday 26th, John took the train up to Doncaster to have a look at the car and buy it if all was as described.
John was happy with it so brought it home (I was delighted that it made it more than 8 miles without breaking down!:)) It went really, really well and took the 260 miles from Doncaster in its stride. And I'm pleased to report it's still going well. All John has had to do so far is get the oil changed and the windscreen wipers/washers sorted out (they were only working intermittently). He's using the car for work so he must be happy with it!
Anyway, here are some pictures:
This is what the car looked like when John first brought it home:
Side and back views taken a day or so later (after John had cleaned and polished it!)
Front view after John had painted the headlight surround black and added the Reliant Owners' Club badge
