St Emilion wine

We're in the south-west of France, in Bordeaux and specifically in the region of St Emilion, the heart of the Bordeaux vine growing area, renowned for its red wines. We're on a long weekend, Thursday - Monday, wine tasting with a group of people from the York Chancellery of St Emilion, one of the two chancelleries of the Jurade in Great Britain.

St Emilion wine is made of a blend of merlot and cabernet franc grapes usually, sometimes with some cabernet sauvignon.

The first tasting on Friday morning was at the western most chateau Belregard-Figeac Grand Cru. It's tucked away in a suburban street and not easy to find. The brothers, Pueyo were fantastically welcoming and gave us many wines to taste, with nibbles to absorb the alcohol and clean the palette between tastings. There were of course also the spittoons, essential equipment for wine tasting (especially at ten o'clock in the morning). See photo

starting with a separate taste of the different assemblages of cepages: merlot and then cabinet franc. Then:

• 2007 mix
• 2005 Château LA FLEUR GARDEROSE AOC Saint Emilion
• 2005 Château BELREGARD-FIGEAC AOC Saint Emilion Grand Cru
• 2003 Château BELREGARD-FIGEAC AOC Saint Emilion Grand Cru yummy

Les messieurs Pueyo even sent us each away with a half bottle. How kind.

Concert at St Emilion

In the church at St Emilion, Eglise Collégial de Saint-Emilion, we heard a concert of opera sung by Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja, accompanied by Brian Schembi on the piano. Both musicians are to be honored at the Sunday Ban de Vendanges, i.e. the beginning of the grape harvest. On the Saturday evening, la Juarade de Saint-Emilion et le Conseil des Vins de Saint-Emilion presentent Calleja et Schembri at this récital lyrique.

The church is high, the benches in our zone sit six each side, rather too cosily,another eleven rows in the zone in front, more behind our zone, so it's a big church, and perhaps the acoustics are not the best.

Yet Calleja's voice is powerful. It fills the church. He's a powerful tenor. He's to sing nine pieces. I thought I'd record a piece on my digital recorder, then realised I'd set it to voice activate, which isn't a good idea for singing, because the silent parts that are so important to music, don't activate the recorder. The video (below) is better for sound, though you can't see much. There are official recordists present - perhaps people from Maltese television.

The pianist, Schembi has half a dozen Rachmaninoff preludes to play. How can he remember all these pieces by heart. Isn't Rachmaninoff tricky to play?

The programme includes:

G.F. Handel - Xerxes (HWW 40) Fronde tenere.. Ombra mai fu
C.W. Gluck - Orpheo ed Euridice - Che faro senza Euridice
Verdi - Macbeth - O Figli! Ah La Paterna Mano
S. Donaudy - Vaghissimma Sembianza
G. Puccini - Tosca - Recondita Armonia
G. Bizet - Les Pecheurs des Perles - Je crois entendre encore
G. Bizet - Carmen - La fleur que tu m'avis jetée
C. Gounod - Romeo et Juliette - L'Amour ...Ah lève toi soleil
J. Massenet - Le Cid - Ah! Tout est bien... Ô souverain

The audience demands several encores. It's been powerful, but not as lyrical as some.

Holiday dress

The weather in Bordeaux is still summery, so I should have brought

• a sarong for the hotel swimming pool and
  
• my 3/4 length jeans - it's warm enough for shorts.

Fortunately I've brought my new blue-green silk blouse, skirt and scarf. They were comfortable to travel in, didn't crease, are warm in the evening (we ate outside the first night in the village square - see photo), a cosy purple shawl, and for dressing down, my blue denim jacket.

Holiday - stressful start

The start of our trip was sufficiently stressful. You can imagine things going wrong; suppose a wheel/castor had come off my suitcase as I bounced it over the cobbles and me with a bad back at the moment. It didn't come off. But you don't remember what you must.

So as we left the house,

1. husband passes me my railcard, which I pop in my shoulder bag, not in its usual place in my purse.
   
2. We check I have the travel details in the front of the suitcase.
   
3. He had the train tickets.
   
4. We check our passports.
   

And we went. But it was half an hour later I realised I hadn't got my usual small handbag with my purse. So I had no English cash and no cards.

We used husband's mobile (mine's still hiding = lost) to call son and ask him to catch next train to Harrow on the Hill bringing my handbag. So he dashes out, and buys a ticket to Hemel Hempstead at three times the price! He'd just finished the wine we'd left and wasn't prepared for this complicated manoeuvre.

An hour later, big hugs to kind son, handbag and me reunited, son stands on platform to get train home again with an exciting book to read on statistical mechanics, while husband and I get the Metropolitan line straight into our London hotel and a bad night's sleep.

Singing neighbour

I wonder if you heard Handel's Messiah on the BBC Radio 3 prom last night, prom 68. Our neighbour's daughter was there, singing in the choir. We had all the radios in the house on. All three of us were listening to a splendid concert. The details are here but you have only a few days to listen.

Fire brigade visit

Three firemen have just visited our home with a fourth fireman sitting outside in a huge fire engine, waiting for them (or for an emergency call-out).

They gave our house a check, and advised us about:

• having working smoke alarms
• keeping doors closed at night and noted how well some of our old doors fit.
• discussing escape plans from the various rooms. I've thought about that - my mother always used to think about it as soon as we went away somewhere new or for a holiday. Now I worry about where my children are living: do they have an escape route from their college room, second floor flat, or rented house? I hope so.

Buckinghamshire Fire Service provided this check and an hour of advice free of charge, and
they gave us some super-duper smoke alarms, even fitted three of them and left the fourth for us to put up when we've fixed the plaster on the hall ceiling that fell down - see here. Although we already were well covered for smoke alarms, most have batteries that last only a year. The new ones are ten year alarms. Apparently you can get alarms that link together too, so if a fire started in the cellar when you're asleep in the attic, so you'd not hear the cellar alarm, it would link to the attic alarm, and set it off. Has anyone else heard of such alarms?

If you live in Buckinghamshire, get the check done. It's free and simple, they even come round on Sunday afternoons, not when you're out at work.

• By telephone – contact the Community Safety Team Administrator on 01296 744 477...
• By e-mail – cs@bucksfire.gov.uk

Details are at http://www.bucksfire.gov.uk/BucksFire/Community+Safety/Home+Fire+Risk+Checks/.

If you live somewhere else, ask the county fire services what they offer.

Emptying house

Daughter left this afternoon, back to university. We'll see her in November. The Austrian girls have gone. Son is still here another few days.

Remember, remember the third of September

Remember, remember the third of September
Umbrella, swastika and sickle
For that bit of daring
Old Hitler is swearing
He's got himself into a pickle.

This is what my mother wrote during the second world war. The third of September 1939 is the day that war was declared.

• The umbrella represents Chamberlain,who always had smartly rolled up umbrella
  
• The swastika represents the Nazis, and
• The sickle represents Russia.

Both my mother's big brothers, Jack and Bill, had to join the services and go to war, which saddened and worried their mother. In the first world war, her little brother, my mother's Uncle Willie on his last leave was admiring baby Jack in his pram. My grandmother, less patriotic perhaps than her brother, who'd come from Canada to join up, asked:

"If you were killed, would you think it were worth it?"

Uncle Willie looked at the baby and replied:

"If it means this little lad won't have to go to war, it'll be worth it."

Uncle Willie was killed in WW1, and Uncle Jack had to join up in WW2 - so Uncle Willie's sacrifice wasn't worth it.

Dull Sunday afternoon

We took the Austrian girls for a picnic in Wendover woods, where all the world and his friends were, so there weren't any barbecues left for us to use. We got out our picnic blankets and had a picnic on the salad and buns and crisps and apples and home made apple cake. We just didn't have a barbecue. It didn't rain.

Then we visited Tring museum, admired the stuffed bear, gorillas, foxes, dogs, ate icecreams and came back in the dull light of not-quite-raining.

Everyone must be back from their two week summer break, ready to get the children back to school on Thursday at the start of September (after the teachers have had their inset days), so the museum was heaving with children - I've never seen it so busy. The first time we went there in 1999 or 2000, it was so quiet you'd have thought any noise was a ghost.

Woods and museum full of people. But there were very few at tae kwon do.

Relatives

Son's off to see some relatives. He saw some nice ones a couple of weeks ago, so nice that he sent a bunch of flowers as a thank you, but forgot to say who they were from. Someone's got a mystery surprise.

Home again

We are safely home despite a flat tyre on the M40.

On the way we

1. went up the cliff railway at Bridgnorth, - see the video
   
   
2. visited the Severn Valley Railway


3. picnicked by a canal,
4. and visited the Boulton exhibition in Birmingham.

The children enjoyed 'minting' coins, taking coin rubbings, or stamping golden coloured paper. I hadn't realised Boulton had had a contract to make copper pennies, particularly cartwheels, called that because of the ridge round the outside.

I have a similar one - a huge copper penny, dated 1799 with George III's head. I bought it for half a crown from a girl in school whose grandfather had found it in a wall of his cottage.

Holidaying in Shropshire

At 9 o'clock in the evening, the children are at the top of the youth hostel, helping another child make a jigsaw. I sip a glass of rose and husband's had Severn Valley Railway Manor Ale. The dining room has just emptied of the last family to eat - another pair of grandparents and two of their grandchildren - so we're not the only potty people to revert to youth hostelling in old age.

Today husband drove us to the Long Mynd, then walked the children for an hour and a half over the hills while I drove on to a car park where we met up before visiting the Midlands Gilding Club just another mile over the moor. We enjoyed a filter coffee and I showed the children gliders - a Skylark 4 - I used to have one - and we watched people rigging a K6. Granddaughter got interested enough to start photographing gliders, inside and out, and their trailers too.

The weather wasn't yet good enough to launch anything, but you could see the clouds for miles, over to the sea. And the colours of the heather on the moor was beautiful. The vertiginous road up from Church Stretton provides wonderful views of the vale.

In the afternoon we visited Ludlow Castle where the children ran round merrily. Raf is being a pirate at the moment, so the castle gave him an opportunity to evade the navy, and to wave his (floppy orange) sword. Wearing a green bandanna, an orange plastic gun thrust into his trouser pocket and an orange tea sheet, he looks dressed the part.

Youth hostelling

We're off youth hostelling again with the two eldest grandchildren. We leave our Austrian visitors in the charge of daughter.

Wilderhope Manor is our destination, a National Trust property. But the trip to get there is itself interesting. We headed for Ironbridge and visited a couple of its museums: Engenuity and the Museum of Iron. Engenuity enticed the children with its many activities, water & potential or kinetic energy, damming fords and opening dams, splashing the water to encourage it to flow, electrical energy to power a radio, a light, a vacuum cleaner, a video camera and TV or a pair of flying pigs - they took little energy. In the Iron Museum we explored history of cast iron and had a cup of tea.

The hostel was somewhat difficult to find - we had the address and a map but not directions so by heading off in the wrong direction on the right road a couple of times, we had to triangulate in on it. But arrived too late to order supper. See similar situation in Ireland a couple of weeks ago. We toddled off down the road to the local pub again.

The hostel is this amazing Elizabethan building with stone fireplaces, fancy ceilings marked with 'S' for the Smallman family who lived here and two oak spiral staircases, one for the servants and one slightly wider one for the family. The children have great times haring up and down the different staircases, romping along the corridors, chasing each other, playing hide and seek.

We share a four bunk attic room with our own bathroom. Breakfast in the large stone flagged dining hall. The upper floors are boarded, which is why we can hear the children thumping along the corridors and through the dormitories. The entrance hall is embellished with swallows' nests - one still occupied in the evening by "teenage" swallows, well able to fly, but squawk loudly when their parents arrive.

La Motte du Caire

from http://cvvmc.free.fr/webcam.php

Oxford Gliding Club barbecue evening

We went to the Oxford Gliding Club barbecue evening yesterday - all of us, husband, son, daughter and our two Austrian visitors.

My first barbecue there was August, 1976. They really are a friendly club, welcoming us, though I haven't visited for some years. Several people came and chatted, some remembering me and some even recognising son & daughter as their father's children. They told son and daughter tales of their father, about the decca navigation system he made, and a speed gun avoidance device that confused the doppler effect of the police radar gun. It read 140mph when he was doing 40.

The food was delicious and heaps of it for mere pounds: salmon, pork crackling, salads galore followed by three varieties of pudding. I thought the Austrian girls were falling asleep, but they woke up enough to charge their way through the crowds for at least three helpings of strawberries, then went back to play on the swings.

There were bottles of bubbles on the tables for us to play with.

One of the pilots was a flame juggler - if I'd known there'd be such entertainment I'd have taken my Flip video. Then someone produced those noisy twirly balloons that fly into the sky and around with a screech, like they are live animals. We had fun with those.

I was having such a good time that my children had to drag me away so that they could get to bed.

Austrians

The girls' programme includes:

• Oxford
• Stratford-upon-Avon / Bicester Village
• London Tour
• Isle of Wight
• London: Hyde Park etc.

One day they will meet the mayor, visit the museum and the library. Another day they depart for Scotland: Gretna Green area and return from Scotland the next day, stopping overnight in a four star hotel.

On Saturday they visit London: Wimbledon/Oxford Street/with a Matinee of ‘Sister Act’ (Palladium). Daughter is going with them.

They have a day spent with Host Families with an optional afternoon gathering for all family members & students for a picnic/BBQ at Wendover Woods (weather permitting).

And finish with a visit to Thorpe Park.

Austrian visitors

Two Austrian girls are visiting us again. One is the same one who came last year. She's asked to come back with us and has brought a different friend. They start with lessons the first couple of days but otherwise have a hectic programme, led by their wonderfully enthusiastic, energetic and flamboyant teacher.

Links to Afro Jumbo Jeegs

The videos of Afro Jumbo Jeeg's performance at Vernasca is on youtube. Here they are doing acrobatics and limbo dancing with audience participation.

and here they play with fire

They skip here, again with audience participation.

Ireland photos

Here's the bloody nose husband made himself when he fell down the double decker bus stairs.

And here's the view from the honeymoon suite. It was lovely.

The third photo is what I could see when we got lost trying to find Powerscourt. I couldn't enjoy the views because I'm too short to see over high hedges. Husband pointed the hostel out on the hill in the distance and I scrambled up to get the photo. See how far we'd already walked, and there was another hour's walking yet to come. Notice too the rain clouds - it wasn't even a sunny walk.

Finally, I got one photo of the Powerscourt gardens, that I had no energy left to stroll round. Notice how the weather cleared up to make a glorious afternoon.

Sunday in Ireland

Still away celebrating the fortieth wedding anniversary of old university friends (OHFs). After a long late evening that included a Spanish buffet, a quiz on our hosts' friends' activities,

• (who has an o-gauge in his garden?
• who has a dog called Ceviz?
• who're vegetarians?)

and a sing song round the campfire, we repaired to our various dormitories and bunks. People worried about waking each other in the night.

"Do you snore?"
"I have to get up in the night - I'm sorry."
"I always have to get up in the night."

We allayed each others' fears and set to sleep. At 3.30 in the morning, my new friend in the top bunk quietly crept down her ladder, and..

kicked over the bedside stool of my friend sleeping in the next bunk. Over went her alarm clock, book and contact lenses. On went someone's torch. Muttered apologies all round, giggles from some of us. Since we were awake, four out of the six of us then got up and went to loo. One of the loos didn't lock very well - there was a man in it. Given that we're all old enough to be celebrating decades of marriage, you might not have expected this much activity in the wee small hours. Or perhaps it was the wee bit that was the problem.

Morning dawned. We anticipated a long or a short walk. Some stalwarts set off to trek to the top of Powercourt Waterfalls. Others (like me) just reconnoitred the river, leaving some including the children for a nice swim and a splash. It was a lovely spot so not surprising that it was rumoured that some of us women had been skinny dipping that that morning. I came back to the hostel and sat in the sun, listening to interesting chat, looking over the hills, idly watching a helicopter.

The swimmers returned with our hostess. Sadly, our hostess's mobile phone rang with bad news. Three of the stalwarts had gone even further ahead of the main party and one had collapsed with a suspect heart attack. The helicopter had picked the invalid and her husband up, and taken them to hospital. The third was walking back on her own.

Fortunately, an hour later we heard from the husband in the hospital that heart attack victim was alive and well, and having tests. We were able to take the bus back to the station in peace. It had been a lovely weekend.

What was lovely?

• The Saturday afternoon weather was sunny, not rainy like during the morning walk.
• The meal was delicious.
• OHFs' friends were as lovely, as interesting and as bright people as our OHFs, people you'd like to get to know better.
• The honeymoon suite was lovely - comfortable, and fun.
• The hostel was clean and functional.
• The green countryside was fascinating, smelt and looked beautiful.
• The Irish transport (DART, taxis, buses) worked and went on time.

Saturday in Ireland

Am I tired!

Husband suggested we take a stroll to Powerscourt, this ancient Irish house, with wonderful gardens. We'd need to walk back and catch the bus - not far. But he thought we should walk round the back way and be there quicker.

"By coffee time"

he promised me.

"That's eleven o'clock?"

I checked. Yes, fine.

At ten o'clock we leave, down narrow lanes with high hedges. I can't see a thing. We're not there by eleven, and then he starts to read his map. We're not there by twelve. We're not there by one o'clock. We arrive around 1.15, and I don't get to sit down until 1.30. We must have walked nine miles. And husband's in the doghouse again.

We lunched, then sat around a bit - my legs being too tired to explore the gardens, enjoyed a cup of tea on the terrace, then got a taxi back to the hostel, where all the other guests were beginning to congregate, ready for the party - our friends' fortieth wedding anniversary.

Now we are allocated bunk beds in dormitories. There are seventy guests, so I assume lots of us are in dormitories. I'm in the girls dormitory and our husbands are in the boys dormitory next door. I bag a bed and start to make it up when two jolly women arrive. I've already met them in the hall, greeting long friends. But now I see them together I realise they look very much the same.

"We're twins."

I spend the next few hours meeting friends of our friends, memorising names, comparing how we know know them. I videoing meeting and then the speeches, and the song that two of the granddaughters sing. I'll put them all on a CD as a memento for friends.

Champagne drunk and toasts made we repair for the meal - a Spanish buffet

Ireland - youth hostel

We're in Ireland, some miles from Bray in a youth hostel, here to celebrate the 40th wedding anniversary of some university friends. Tonight we're berthed in the "honeymoon" suite. May be it's called that for its splendidly large double bed - the sort that comes with two single mattresses that fit onto one slotted wooden frame, like you get in Germany. It promises to be very comfortable. But even more impressive is the view. (Wait for photo - not allowed uploading from hostel). Lying on the bed, I look out across rolling green hills, pine trees and deciduous, dells, dales a farm house and a pair of serious walkers with big back packs.

But I'm hungry! We left home before eleven, so well after breakfast, drove to the airport where we ate our packed sandwiches, tomatoes and apples while waiting to board. The airport was the usual unpleasant experience, bombarded with warnings about liquids having to be in plastic bags, and anecdotes from fellow travellers on being allowed only one bag and squashing a handbag into your on board bag. If they hadn't killed themselves in the tower, I could thump those terrorists that have caused all this hassle round the world. And I guess so would everyone else in that queue.

We ate nothing on the plane, landed and caught a city bus straight into Dublin.

On the city bus, husband took suitcase upstairs. So we're looking out from the top deck, when he suddenly decided it was our stop, hurled himself and suitcase at the stairs just as the bus jolted away. Husband and suitcase tumbled down stairs, he splitting his nose open as his head hit the wall at the bottom. The whole incident made a whopping big noise and upset everybody on both desks. The driver was most concerned - bless her - it wasn't her fault. But at least it meant the bus stopped again for us to get off at the station.

At the station, we don't break for tea, nor even for plasters, but jump onto the DART (rapid transit) to Bray. At Bray I drag behind him, pointing out the tea stall as we're leaving the station but he says we'll look outside. Then he looks for a bus, not for tea. Not for plasters - you should see his bloody nose - wait for the photo. We catch the bus. I put the suitcase on the luggage rack and we stay downstairs.

At the end of the bus line, we have to walk for 40 minutes along a peaceful and increasingly narrow country lane. It's a nice walk apart from the din that his suitcase wheels make on the tarmac. By six o'clock we arrive at the hostel. The hostel doesn't do food.

Bah! Husband's in the doghouse.

He's arranging a taxi now, to take us back the seven miles to the nearest pub for supper. Good.

European geography

I've found a new site to distract myself on. It lets you model directing planes to land in certain countries at certain cities. Try it http://www.lufthansa-vp.com/vp1/play.html.

Maths

If you like maths, then look at the site that gives a theorem for the day, here: http://www.theoremoftheday.org/. If you were a maths teacher, you could collect all the pdf files in a folder, ready for use.

Leprechauns, fairies and elves in the garden

One evening I hear a knock at the door. It's the second one of the evening my husband who'd answered the first one is now at the bottom of the garden collecting blackberries.

"My brother, he came here and, I don't know his name, he .."
"You don't know your brother's name?"
"No, the man, here, he told my brother he could collect apples and my brother didn't know we was collecting apples so he said 'no', and we are collecting apples, and we've come to collect apples".

They're local children. A few minutes earlier they'd lost a wooden 'sword' over our wall, and their brother had come to retrieve it.

So I let them down the garden, giving them bags for collecting apples and they were so happy that they went and called the brother back and another friend and they all went round saying the garden was wonderful, and look at the rubber horse, and swinging on the swing as high as possible till the birch tree rocked, and they'd filled their bags. Then they scuttled away, promising to come back for more, and they came back. They picked and played and climbed trees till dusk, then scampered off with their apples and plums, looking like mischievous and happy elves in the evening gloom.

England People Very Nice

England People Very Nice
Just been to see this play at the National Theatre - it's so rude! It says what you wouldn't dare say in every day life about each other. Like, someone going off with a pack of fags, and

"I hope it does what it says on the packet!"

shouts someone else. Lots of clever lines I wish I could remember said by working class immigrants, but written by an intelligent playwright, Richard Bean.

OU on BBC

Did you see this programme last night? You've got a week to watch it. Remember how in the sixties people didn't go to university. The Open University was controversially new.

In the sixties lots of people didn't expect to get a degree. People didn't expect and weren't expected to get a degree. Lenny Henry, who presents the programme, is an OU graduate and he tells you what it was like when you saw all these people around you with degrees and you hadn't.

The Open University was controversially new, an opportunity helped by the advent of television, and Michael Young realising that in the USSR they were using radio to educate people and telling Harold Wilson. Fancy that! The OU came out of soviet Russia.

There was hostility. But Jennie Lee argued for it. Thank goodness for these people. I suspect in today's climate we'd never get the OU going because there aren't politicians who would take it as seriously.

BBC Childrens prom

Husband and I took two grandchildren up to London to the children's prom, which was great. Big bangs and videos and music (of course).

The excitement was before we even arrived at the Albert Hall because grandson jumped into an overcrowded tube train just as the doors were closing and gran'pa didn't jump in fast enough but something was stuck in the doors, and grandson was all worried because the train would go with him and he'd be all on his own and gran'pa was trying to heave the doors open and every one was getting very excited. Fortunately the doors opened again, and grandson got out and waited with us for the next train, and I had a go at gran'pa for scaring us all.

Golf 1.4

I test drove a Golf 1.4, and like it, and its price.

Barbecue and gliding

Friends from a local gliding club (localish) have invited us to a barbecue in August. It will be nice to see them again as it's some years since we last went. They sent us a link to some of their pictures on another club's site, here, in Scotland. They have some wonderful videos of gliding flights. And they put up photos by other well remembered names, one of whom works with a neighbour. Small world.

Anyhow, I've asked for three tickets as husband and perhaps son will come too. I may need more tickets as we will have Austrian visitors in August again, and daughter is coming home to help look after them. Hurray!

OU fortieth

The Open Unlimited photos are on their flickr page here. If you look very carefully, you will see me in some of them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40682471@N05/

Lost in England; found in Italy

Eighteen months ago, I lost an earring, a large hoop amethyst earring. I'd tossed it a yard across the room, with its partner, aiming at the pile in or next to my suitcase when packing to go to India. It disappeared. I couldn't find it anywhere, and it was too big to just disappear, or to go up the vacuum cleaner without noticing it. I couldn't understand how I'd lost it.

I found it in Italy!

I was packing to come home from holiday, flicked one the internal straps over, walked away to pick something up, came back and there was the earring in the empty suitcase.

What is it with earrings? I did this once before when I dropped a small earring in an office, when working abroad in Denmark. Weeks later at home, I found it again, in the washing machine.

May be Mary Norton's borrowers travel between countries, borrowing from me in this country and letting me have my things back in another country.

Ceiling fell in

The roof fell in. We go away for a few days leaving a visitor in the house and our roof falls in. My mother always used to complain about my father, who wouldn't wake up when the children cried "He wouldn't wake up if the roof fell in", she used to complain. And then one night the roof did fall in. Well, it wasn't the roof; like our house it was the ceiling fell down, all over the set breakfast table. The plaster fell and my father heard and went to investigate while my mother slept.

Our hall ceiling fell down. We knew there was a crack in the plaster, but it would have to fall when we were away. I hadn't warned our visitor, who was naturally a bit upset. Our wonderful son-in-law came and cleared up and found a prop to keep the remaining plaster in place. The floor and my beautiful new expensive stair carpet are dusty. The glass shade on the Perseus lamp is broken, the banister a bit scratched, but not my grandmother's hall stand, because I'd left some spare carpet on it.

We've called in a plasterer.

Buskers

Bascherdeis means busker festival. In Vernasca, they have this festival with twenty or thirty street artists performing over two days. Like Afro Jungle Jeegs.

Watch some of my videos of the performers.
One man band
2. Ready for the acrobats

3. Afro jumbo jeegs
but this is the end of the show, which was 20 minutes, so too long to put on youtube until I've edited it.

4. Jugglers

Parma parking

We went to Parma - it was far too hot, but parking was impressive - yes sad, I know, I'm supposed to admire the cultural treasures. But at the car park entry barrier, the sign told us how many parking spaces were free on the floor we were entering. As we drove round, we realised that each bay had a red light above the car that occupied it. If we looked for a green light, hanging from the ceiling, we could see from twenty cars away where there was a free space. And there was calming music (Greensleeves) to soothe stressed drivers - not a bad experience considering it was only a boring functional place.

We did also go and see the cathedral and the baptistery.

The paintings in the cathedral were wonderful. See the videos too.


and this video

Italian holiday

We've spent a week on holiday in Italy at an agritourismo here called Cergallina with family. Lovely.

"We" is husband and his son and family, so I got the chance to know them better. Their two little girls are five and nearly three, so interested in everything and interesting, but needing a lot of time and attention. Their mother seems a tad tired, having two pre-school children, when nearly all her time is devoted to them. I think a mother needs the friends and family who share that time with her because for a couple of years there's hardly any time for an adult life.

Husband and I stayed for a week. Son and family stay two weeks.

"Here" is a hamlet, where it's quiet except for the buzzing of flies off the cows, chirping crickets the shouting workers watering the vegetable patch, and occasional braying donkey. But it's not an isolated place. From the bench under the fruit trees I can see a village in the valley. At night I can see lights in various different directions, like Vernasca to the north on the other side of the hill ridge. This page shows you where. But it's quiet enough for son and family to have visited her at least three times. His wife's sister-in-law comes from a village twenty minutes walk away. The quiet pleases them, and the animals and swimming pool please the children. The animals include at least two cats, a cow and her calf, two mules, a donkey, some horses, geese, hens and ducks. Granddaughter tells me that last year she rode on the horses, and I have a video of her riding them this year.

Italy - food

On holiday in Cergallina, we had some lovely meals, simple and delicious. And we didn't have to plan, shop, serve or wash up, let alone cook.

Yum - simple pasta with a tomato sauce one day. Another day we had a sort of ratatouille mainly of peppers fried up with garlic and onions, not bioled, with "zapped" potatoes. The potatios are not cooked; they're "zapped" in the mixer (whatever that means!). But the potatoes add a kind of thickness to the stew of vegetables. Findally Juidth adds aubergines, but they are peeled so you don't notice their purple skins, not salted, just added last. Yum.

Then there's the beef made from last year's cow, named Valeria. She made lovely meals.

See their ideas for food here.

Disappointment - no ice-cream

We went to Castell'Arquato, a village, a short drive from here in Cergallina. LIke many Italian villages it is on a hill with the church at the top. We parked in a low car park, promised the little girls gelati (ice-creams) and walked into the town, through the narrow streets, but past the first cafe. The next one too had a big sign "GELATI" but we walked past that too. Their parents revealed their intention to walk all the way to the top of the village to get the ciecreams from the cafe opposite the church, at the very top of the village. So we walked, marched and sang:

"One rainy day at the battle of Waterloo,
the brigade made a glorious charge to see what they could do."

You can find the words here. Granddaughter was pretty plucky, and kept going for at least three full renderings of this, but marching up a hill, encouraging a five-year old and singing too, I was flagging by the time we arrived at six flights of eight steps and needed her daddy to encourage.

We arrived, sat at a table, ordered coffees and ice-creams.
No ice-creams!

What a disappointment. The girls were great and settle for biscuits.

Italy - azienda agrituristica

An azienda agrituristica is an Italian holiday place to stay where it's agricultural. It's like a farm holiday. We're staying at Cergallina, which you won't find on your GPS because it's not been uploaded on the database. In fact, Judith, the proprietor tells us, Cergallina is a name that she made up. Then the authorities told her that she lived on Via Cergallina, which she didn't like, so she asked how to register Cergallina as a locality. the town hall said she could change it to a locality because Via Cergallina was the name that post office held, so she toodled along to the PO and told them that they'd got it, wrong, that it wasn't Via locality, but the locality locality. Then the people at the PO said sorry for getting it wrong, changed their records, and Judith could go back to the town hall, who now agreed, because the PO said so, that locality was a locality.

You couldn't do that in England!

Break for a week

Family calls. I must away.

Mystery garden

I just loved the light and shade as I went down the garden this morning.

Test drive Golf

I've tried a Volvo C30, a Skoda Fabia, a Toyota Yaris and this Golf TSE something, which is way beyond my price range, so in around 10 days I'm going to try a Golf 1.4 80bhp.

Lost lots

I've lost things this week:

• mobile phone - I switched it off when I came home, and put it down,... somewhere
• end of my in-car mp3 player so it can't connect. I'll have to get a new one like it if I want to listen to my radio podcasts when I'm driving to work
  
• grey cap - left it at my brother & sister in-law's house

It's been a week for losing things. Bother.

Long holiday

Son's gone to the USA for five weeks, with friends, to visit California, and Las Vegas and Yosemite amongst others. He should have a memorable time.

Tae kwon do grading

I got my next belt this evening after Sunday's grading. The easy bit was the Korean. You have to know some Korean terminology for this grade, like makgi (block), chagi (kick). It's easy to say you're a student (jeja) in the dojang (training hall), wearing a dobok(suit) and talking to the subum (teacher). The hard bit is accelerating in the moves, and getting the detail of the stances perfect. Despite freezing half way through a pattern and having start again, thus finishing ten moves after everyone else, and being extra noticeable, somehow I got through and caught up with my daughter. Hurray.

This kup (grade) is red tag, meaning blue with a red strip. The next belt is red, and red is for danger, so perhaps I'm now a little bit dangerous. However, red also indicates someone who is in control, and that means someone is dangerous enough to hit when they want, but in control enough to miss by a fraction of an inch when practising, and I'm not sure I'm that much in control, so perhaps I'm dangerous that way - I might hit someone accidently.

But it's fun. And this evening we did some padwork, some throws, and then practised breaking bricks with our elbows and feet.

Son's surprise birthday party

I like my son's friends. His friends from school turned up this week with a birthday cake for his 21st birthday, to celebrate as a surprise now in the holiday because they couldn't do it in April when they were all at university.

Visitors here

For the first time in ages, we've got some visitors for Saturday supper. Hurray!

Borat

Have you seen the new film? The trailers for it here are hilarious.

Test drive Toyota Yaris

Test drove one of these today. It's all right. The gears are a bit close together so I keep getting them mixed up, but the display is clear and readable, although not right in front of you like a dial is. I could get used it to it. You get used to any car if you drive it long enough, I guess.

The only thing I want extra is a place to plug in my mp3 player so I can listen to radio 4 podcasts. Now it's really easy: plug into cigarette lighter socket, my player is tuned to one of the radio frequencies, press the button and it goes. Apparently in the Yaris, and in the Skoda too, I have to have wire as well. That's an extra thing to plug in, not something you can do as you drive along, but fiddly, and there'd be a wire stretching several inches in the Yaris.

I don't think I really want a new car.

Test drive Skoda

Husband and I went out in a Skoda Fabia 2. I drove it around. It's all right. Salesman was pointing out the wonderful boot to put all your shopping in. I don't use my car for shopping though because I get the vegetables delivered, and buy meat from the farmers' market, and husband does the supermarket shop for heavy things like cat food because he likes the cat. So I don't need a boot like the Skoda's.

Test drive

I've driven a Volvo estate for decades, but I don't need an estate now. I used to have to trail a glider trailer, and then in the last few years for moving teenage children to university, and still have to do that another few years, but husband can do that. So I might take advantage of the government scrappage scheme and get a new car.

I test drove a Volvo C30 today. It feels comfortable, but then I suppose it would being as it's just another Volvo. I've booked a test drive in a Toyota.

Daughter moves

Daughter moved from university hall to shared flat today. She's got a lease on it for a year starting 1st July. Son and husband went to help her move. Apparently she now has so much stuff that they had to make two trips, and I had thought she was the less acquisitive of my children. But she was minding suitcases and boxes for her friends who'd left uni for the vacation and hadn't been able to move their stuff to the flat.

Open gardens

We're opening our garden today. Hope we have lots of visitors for our charities.

Whitecurrants

Usually our currant bushes are picked bare by now, but daughter hasn't come home from university and there are still many currants on the bushes, both black and white.

Home again

Son's back from uni for summer, or for some of it as he has plans to travel. Daughter's staying away in her new flat. Other daughter (step-daughter #3) is well ensconced in her university town. So it'll be a quiet summer. Perhaps I'll do my research work at home.

OU's 40th birthday

The OU celebrates its fortieth birthday this year. There's to be an open day on campus this Saturday. See http://www.open.ac.uk/platform/campus/events/open-unlimited-anniversary-open-day. And here.

Last time I came to an open day here was 15 years ago with my two small children and husband in tow, my first visit to my university although I'd finished my degree by then and started tutoring. Daughter got photographed in an OU magazine, playing maths with the maths clown. This time it looks full of interesting activities again, and what's unusual is that some of them seemed aimed at teenagers rather than small children. I'll be there. I might have husband with me, but I don't know about large son. Pity daughter won't be around.

Cinema

We went to look for Eric at the Oxford Phoenix. I hadn't paid much attention to Cantona before, but rather liked what I saw in this film. See an excerpt here.

What car?

Shall I take advantage of the government scrappage scheme and trade in my trusty not rusty Volvo, the only car I've ever owned? I wouldn't change it otherwise for another couple of years. If I change it now, I get a brand new one now for the cost of buying a second hand one in a couple of years, and get one that should be cheaper to run.

What shall I get? A red mini like my mother drove when I was ten years old, or the two-CV that delighted me in my teens, a yellow Beetle with character or the little green sports car someone once wanted to buy me. Years ago I was advised to get a Ford Fiesta or a Polo, but they were uninspiring cars that reflected the personality of the advisers. Now I might consider the insurance costs, particularly if I put my children on the insurance. Or how long will I need a big car to move students' stuff between university and home or flats? And do I care? Perhaps I'll get a Skoda. Perhaps I'll stick to the secure and reliable Volvo.

Not a birthday

Today he doesn't celebrate his birthday

Old age

My father skyped me. My octogenarian parents are computer savvy. They were using word processors in the nineteen eighties and have been using email for years. They like using Skype, and my mother bought me a video camera so she could see me when she skypes.

But Dad said that his eyesight has got very much worse, very quickly over the last few weeks, and now he can't read a newspaper. When he eventually got his camera working on Skype, I could see him peering over it with his magnifying glass. I hope there are lots of web sites with big print that says, 'press here for automatic text reading.'

And he's grown a beard! Last time he had a beard was in the 1970s, though he had a red moustache in the 1950s. He looks good with his grey beard.

Sunday summer flowers

The flowers are beautiful now, but when we have open gardens at the end of the month they'll all be past their best.


Squeals above me. I look up to see a crow harassing a red kite. They wheel around, attacking and protesting. I've no camera ready.

Smoky sunlounge

The garden is lovely. Husband is out there now, mowing the lawn, getting everything ready for the open gardens day. I look out on pink valerian, yellow Alchemilla (Lady's Mantle) and a beautiful blue Ceanothus bush. I love their blue flowers.

But the leaky windows of the sunlounge let me know that husband is burning a bonfire at the bottom of the garden. I hope the neighbours haven't got their washing out on this sunny Saturday morning, and that the local police community support officer (PCSO) isn't walking round on the other side of the park wall. I don't want husband done for anti-social behaviour.

Chocolate

I like dark chocolate, organic dark chocolate, 70% plus dark.

But I get cold sores, and I know they appear when I've eaten chocolate (or lots of nuts). So since I've had too, far too many cold sores for months now, I've stopped chocolate. Two weeks with no chocolate. And now I also have no coldsores. So I'm happy.

The funny thing is that I don't have itchy eyes either. I've had those on and off for three or four years and remember having them one Christmas, so it wasn't just hayfever. The doctor said they were dry and it was my age. But now I reckon, that getting itchy eyes at Christmas and Easter, times when I do eat a lot of chocolate, is more than co-incidence. Chocolate made my eyes hurt. So now I must eschew chocolate.

Why doesn't the doctor know that?

Facebook

I use Facebook. My teenagers were on it and weren't keen on me joining in too, but when a young colleague and fellow post grad encouraged me, I joined it. Then, I found several of my fellow associate lecturers, the techie ones, were on Facebook too and I quite like the companionship and the opportunity to get to know my distance tutoring colleagues a bit better through Facebook postings. It's not as good as FirstClass and you can't have long threads of conversations in real discussions, but it gets us by.

Now I read that people like us are leaving Facebook, it says here.

http://mashable.com/2009/05/27/facebook-baby-boomers/

Council polls

Today we vote for our county councillors. The parties all sent leaflets, but the Conservatives had a leaflet that said that at a council meeting, the Conservatives had voted for lower taxes, and the Lib Dems had walked out in protest. That sounded so weird that I tried to contact them to ask them to explain. But I haven't heard back yet. I also emailed the local Lib Dems, and again, I've not yet heard back, but I did meet a little lib Dem bird in the street who told me that the debate was whether to use the money on hospital services or whether to save the council tax money, that the Chair wouldn't let the Liberals speak so they walked out. That sounds likely, given that I witnessed the Chair not letting Liberals speak at the council meeting in November (recorded here) and blogged it then. The minutes of the meeting when the Lib Dems didn't vote is kept at the County Council site, and the incident reads much less contentiously than the way the Conservatives reported it.

So I went to the polling booth this morning, and asked the lone Conservative. But he didn't know anything about it! Didn't he even read his own party's leaflet? To me, it looks like the local Conservatives are acting underhand, immorally, don't brief each other of the line they are taking so some of them are ignorant of what is going on in their own party.

Voluntary work

I've got three days of voluntary work coming up, on one particular task. There's a lot of reading to do in advance as well. A lot of people are involved and it's quite a responsible job. Sometimes I wonder why I do it, but together with my colleagues we provide an independent view, so it's worthwhile.

Blessings

Amongst my blessings are my children - more than my fair share perhaps because I have my children, my husband's children and the grandchildren too.

One child gave me this rose bush some years ago. Look how it's blossomed, like the children blossom as they grow up.

Safe vehicles, safe riders

A cyclist was killed on Exchange Street, Aylesbury this morning. They say a lorry driver has been arrested and charged with dangerous driving. People tell me bikes are dangerous, but I reckon it's more the bigger faster vehicles that are dangerous.

But I have two men in my life who insist / insisted that they are /were safe and know /knew what they were doing. One is still alive and confident in his ability to control his vehicle, but like the other man, doesn't realise what prats other people can be, doesn't realise that someone else can make mistakes. People

• load their van with a loose ladder that will fall off in the street (as I witnessed this week),
• not tighten their car wheel nuts, so it could roll along the road and into your car,
• overload their glider, so spin onto you
• get distracted by barking dogs, so drive into you (as happened to this family in 2005)
  

You need three mistakes to have an accident. That was Ann Welch's assessment in her book, 'Accidents happen'. She's right.

Knightshayes

Having videoed cat, and recorded Shakespeare, was a full enough weekend, but also we fitted in a walk round the Knightshayes garden.

Visiting Devon

Mother-in-law has a little cat, an old little cat, a slightly potty, old little cat that walks round and round her arm chair. Old little cat is called Sooty, has only one eye (accident when a kitten) and may be has a neurological problem. Last time I saw her, she was shy and hid, but this time she didn't run away from me, just plodded round and round.

Dancing

I do a dancing class once a week lunchtimes at work. We're practising to do a performance in June. Scary!

New Greek restaurant in town

Husband and I have just eaten here, and enjoyed a good meal, with enthusiastic service.

The restaurant has been open only a few days, and the staff are nervously keen to please. They hover almost too much, asking if everything is all right. It is. The starter dolmades were delicious and my husband was happy with his pitta bread and taramasalata. My lamb kebab was fine, and the rice cooked just right. I thought the Greek salad might have included black olives, but it didn't. Husband was happy with his delicious sea bass, but the rice that was supposed to come with it never did - an oversight I'm sure from new staff, just beginning to get into their new job.

The retsina wine that accompanied the meal was just right in pine tree flavour and temperature. And it is rare that you can get a retsina.

The setting is clean and fresh, with pictures from films like 'Mama Mia' and 'Zorba the Greek' on the walls. I'd have liked the music a little more discrete.

The proprietor took a couple of us out the back to see the courtyard that is nearly ready. It is entirely enclosed with a huge tree in one corner. Paved and collecting the sun from morning to evening, surrounded by trellis and will have lemon trees, it could appeal to families who don't want their children to be able to run out of sight, but also to office workers, because this restaurant is right in the middle of town, over looked by the council offices. In fact it is so overlooked that you can guarantee the owner won't put a foot wrong. For example, he had someone fixing his roof, and within minutes he had a phone call from people in the neighbouring building, saying "Get him off that roof now or we're closing you down." And he hadn't even opened yet!

If you're in Aylesbury, go down Walton Street from Market Street and try this restaurant. It's worth it. It has been a nice end to the bank holiday weekend for us.

Facebook phishing

Son has fallen for a Facebook phishing scam, and he's sent 200 emails to people when he wasn't even at his computer. However, he's very sensibly not sent me one.

Good old son!

Son is now off Facebook until exams are over.

New gardener

Our garden looks something smashing now, with trimmed lawn, and bushes. Even the climbing rose that hasn't bloomed for years under the shade of the weeping birch, is now coming out with lovely blooms.

Why the change?

Husband has retired and is spending hours in the garden. While the garden improves, husband is getting covered with scratches, and grazes, as he catches his hands on sharp grasses, and bangs his head on dangling branches, or even on the garden table today when he was weeding underneath it.