This is the last you’ll hear from me until Tuesday afternoon at the earliest. I’m just about to depart for Tunbridge Wells, and in the morning Hels and I will go to Gatwick for the 0940 Maersk flight to Copenhagen. For the first time in ages, I’ll be travelling sans laptop in spite of the hotel being equipped with broadband in every room.
We both need this break desperately – I’ve been looking forward to it since the moment I booked it. It’s going to be brilliant.
See you all next week!
Nepal parcel
I’ve just sent the parcel off to Nepal. The lady who works behind the counter in the local post office says that she doesn’t see many parcels for Kathmandu!
It was full of toys and games donated by Hels, my parents, Julie (works for my parents) and Dave, plus a couple of things I put in too. I paid the carriage with some help from my parents – it wasn’t cheap!
If this parcel makes it ok, then I’ll consider sending a second one – but I’ll wait to hear from Penn before I do.
Rambling
Typical, isn’t it? Just as I’m about to go away for a much needed weekend break with my gorgeous girlfriend Hels, I catch a cold. Still, there is only one thing to do when you have a cold – yes, that’s right, try to infect as many people as possible, with bonus points for infecting people of other nationalities. Fortunately Hels is unlikely to catch it as she has already had it.
I’m really looking forward to this weekend. Any tips from people who know the city would be welcome. We’re planning to nip over to Malmo on Sunday too, as Copenhagen seems to shut down on the sabbath. If you’re very lucky, there may be photos. If you’re really lucky, you may even get a photo of Hels. If you’re unlucky, I’ll be in it too.
Nepal update
From Penn….
Hi all,
Just a quick one as i thought you might like to see how i am getting on with my first wall in the kids study! you will see on the right there is an outline of a tree trunk – what i intend to do with that is bring the kids in (one by one – or else it would be shear bedlum) and roller their hands with green paint and make their individual hands print the leaves of the tree! I think this is quite a nice idea and makes it a tree of life! I have to say i am pleased with the way that it has come out so far as i am having to mix all the colours from little pots of resin into white paint lets just hope that it continues to go as well!!
Apart from that all is well and i am off today for a massage as i am still aching some what from the white water rafting!!
Love to you all
Penelope the Painty girl xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Carbon dioxide guitar
What images does this headline create in your mind?
Nothing to see here, move along..
Apologies for the lack of content here – I’m incredibly busy, and also being distracted by this. Plus I’m getting ready for this weekend’s Danish excursion.
Normal service will be resumed. Somewhen.
Woo! Yay!
…and, indeed, hoopla. For Plants For Europe now benefits from broadband in the office. Thanks to BT for finally dragging our exchange into the present day.
Now all I need is that wi-fi card for the laptop.
Suggestion
It would be really useful if the National Rail timetable lookup service included a feature that allowed you to find the station nearest to a village or town (or, perhaps, postcode). For example, I need to get to Tenterden in Kent which has no railway station other than one served by the Kent and East Sussex Railway, a steam heritage railway with no connection to mainline services. Entering Tenterden into the search function on the National Rail site produces no result, which leads to a guessing game in trying to work out what station is nearest. As it turns out, the closest station is Headcorn, a fact that I only worked out by scouring the history pages of the KESR site and discovering where the old line used to connect to the main network.
Old train
Last night, as I travelled between work and Hels’ home, for part of the journey I was on possibly the oldest train in regular service on the entire UK railway network. It was a diesel unit with three carriages in old green and cream Southern Railways colours. Inside was all wood panelling, curtains and 1950s formica. I reckon it was built in the 50s, perhaps even earlier, and it certainly possessed the charm of the heyday of railway travel. And it had the deepest and most comfortable seats I’ve ever sat on on a train.
UN report talks bollocks – shock!
The BBC tells us of a UN report into the impact of technology on the third world (or rather, the lack of technology). Apparently:
[the report] said that poverty, poor health, illiteracy and slow net links deprived many nations of the advantages enjoyed by more advanced economies.
Now, feel free to accuse me of over-simplifying here, but surely most people would rather have good health, nutrition and literacy before worrying about the difference between 56k dial-up and 64k ISDN?
There is so much in the news that I want to comment on today: George Dubya’s visit to London, the protests that go with the visit, the bomb attacks in Istanbul and, dare I say it, Michael Jackson’s arest in connection with child abuse allegations. Lamentably, I’m much too tired, having driven 300 miles today, much of it in heavy traffic and through driving rain. I need sleep. Fortunately, I have my own warm and safe home to do that in.