A POSTCARD FROM FEURTEVENTURA

TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWING.....


ROCKS!


BEAUTY BEING BEAUTY


COSTA CALETA


ROCKY WAVES


ALVIN



ROCKY WAVES


THEODORE


FROM THE HOTEL


BEAUTY'S FAVOURITE RIDE


NOT COLD ENOUGH FOR A HOODIE OR A SCARF BUT BEAUTY INSISTED ON WEARING THEM!

AGAIN.....BEAUTY BEING BEAUTY!

A SHRINE ON THE BEACH

HOME SWEET HOME

Whilst I very much enjoyed the holiday I am so glad to be home!
Way too exhausting.However,Beauty enjoyed every exhausting moment.
I am so glad to be at home and able to sit quietly in my living room and read my books, write my letters and do my art work.....oh what an exciting life that I lead. At the moment I am attempting to read Mansfield Park by Jane Austen but I am really finding it hard going, it just seems to drag and I have totally lost all interest in Edmund and Fanny .....actually I think a good slap for them both would make me feel a lot better!
This reading of Mansfield Park reminds me of when I read Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, I had been very interested in reading the book for a while as it sounded really good but I apologise here and now to Mr Rushdie and all of his fans because when I started to read it I felt it to be the most boring,long winded book that I had ever encountered. I admit to being a Philistine!
I persisted in finishing it but it left little in my memory.
Alongside of Mansfield Park I am now reading for a little light relief(!) The Lost Life of Eva Braun by Angela Lambert.When I was in school the teaching of World War II was not something that happened in too much detail and in my degree I studied mostly Medieval Welsh history so I felt for a while that I should read a little more on 20th century history.I had always wondered about Eva Braun and so far the book seems very good.

I apologise for not have blogged earlier but access to the internet is severely limited to one computer being temporarily out of action.
Yesterday evening Fiona wanted to work on the computer so Beauty was relegated to watching videos in the middle room.....BIG MISTAKE!!
She watched videos and trashed the room at the same time.
Beauty's speech has increased amazingly in the last few weeks and she is so much better with actual communication. Whilst on holiday we were at the restaurant table and I asked Beauty something and she replied by saying I HAVE FINISHED MY DINNER.Well I was absolutely floored, I was so taken back. That is such a huge improvement.

Yesterday I returned to my art class and was thrilled by a 16 year old student sitting next to me who seemed genuinely surprised that in a few days I will be 47.Actually whether she was genuinely surprised or not I don't care as the sentiment made my day.
My next finished piece of work has to be in by Monday, it is a self portrait!
I have chosen to paint myself in a landscape and the reason is? Less of me to see!

I´M SO TIRED

Beauty is wearing me out with her constant need to go for walks!

She is very upset that I can only manage a few yards at a time but she goes for a daily ride on the land train which seems to pacify her a little.

This afternoon we went looking for chipmunks along the sea front, we managed to find a few but there turned their noses up at Beauty´s
Wotsits.Oh Well!

THE WORD ON THE STREET IS.....

GIGANTIC.......well according to Beauty anyway!
The weather is beautiful here in the Canary Islands and Beauty is enjoying every minute.
She is especially enjoying the breakfast pastries, fish fingers and ice cream, whilst I am eating lots of salad and fruit. We have a room that overlooks the pool and it is lovely sitting out and relaxing.
Today we went on a mini train ride around the resort and Beauty was so excited that she stimmed all the way. She loves to see all the cats and dogs and the birds and we even saw a chipmunk on the beach! I definitely would like to spend more of the winter in the Canary Islands, even the winds are warm. Last night we saw a police man huddled up in a big jacket looking very cold......he so would not like the British winters!

Off to lunch.....

A CRYSTAL TIPS DAY!

Yesterday evening I watched the new dramatisation of Sense and Sensibility. Whilst I have always been an avid reader, I have never had the inclination to watch the dramatisation of literary works but last night I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed watching it. Contrary to popular belief, I do not watch a lot of TV and I think it was the watching of the film Patriot Games AFTER reading the novel that put me off watching further dramatisations. The film Patriot Games was good but it just wasn't the book and About A Boy (although no great literary work!) really disappointed me. To me the book About A Boy centred a lot around the death of Kurt Coban and where was that in the film?
However,there are exceptions - Northanger Abbey and Tess.
But I must confess that the real attraction in these dramatisations lies in the actor Peter Firth.
YEP! I admit to being shallow.

I am definitely having a bad hair day!
I had to dry my hair with a hair dryer as I couldn't go out with it soaking and I ended up looking like Crystal Tips.

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE...

I now have a VERY clean kitchen floor!
Beauty submerged it with water yesterday morning and I am so glad that my kitchen has large flag stones!
I was awoken at 2:30am by lads playing rugby in the street and I so I didn't really get back to sleep and so whilst Beauty was playing with the computer I must have dozed off in the chair. I awoke to the sound of cascading water!
She was quite thrilled with the situation but less thrilled when I shouted STOP IT as she ran away with her hands on her ears.

My increase in OJ, oranges and Immunace seems to be working as my upper respiratory tract seems to be clearing AND I have lost 6 pounds in weight! I am equally pleased with the clearing of the infection and the weight loss. Due to not feeling well I have been having a lot of vegetable soup so that might have helped with the weight loss. I felt so much better that last night I made a French Onion Soup from scratch and it was really good and as far as Weight Watchers is concerned it was Zero points. It was definitely a lot better than the tinned soup so I shall be making some more.
I am going to check out the internet for some other Zero Point soup recipes.

THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR WALKING

So what do you think of Beauty's new boots?
Beauty wasn't able to walk until she was over 2 years old due to a hyper-mobility problem and even when she did learn to walk she didn't walk very far. Beauty's little legs are like saplings in the wind and when she stands you can see her ankles wobbling but they are getting better and she is a very determined young lady. Due to the fact that she cannot communicate properly , as yet we still do not know if she suffers pain in her joints. Beauty saw the physiotherapist this week, the same therapist who saw her when she was 2 and she can see the huge improvements that Beauty has made.The therapist is concerned that Beauty may have the same problems with her joints that I have , so if Beauty starts to limp again then I am to take her straight back to them to check her out.It is good to know that they are keeping an eye on the situation.
They also suggested buying Beauty some boots with more support in the ankle, hence the new Dr Martens. Beauty loves them ( and so does Fiona!) and she is very happy to wear them which is good news.
However, Beauty has never been very well co-ordinated and to get your toes stamped on by her size 2 Docs is not a joke!

I am counting down the days until we go on holiday, no cooking and no housework. We are going on an all inclusive holiday so I looking forward to Beauty being able to try out lots of different foods.The day before yesterday in school she had some curry sauce and bread and butter! Well who would have thought it. Her teachers thought my reaction to this news was very funny-I just cannot imagine her eating curry sauce!



Did anyone read this report?

School reports going electronic

There will a drive for more school information to be put online

The traditional school report is to be replaced by an electronic version delivered by e-mail, Schools Minister Jim Knight is set to announce.

And my first reaction was
BRILLIANT,MORE DATA THAT CAN BE LOST






And then I read this article

Teachers 'put pupil data at risk'

The data include potentially sensitive information about pupils

Sensitive information on school pupils is being put at risk by staff who take it home with them, an IT firm says.

Teachers in nearly half of England's primary schools back up pupil data on CDs and memory sticks, which they then take out of school, research suggests.

A survey of 933 schools for school computing firm RM found only 1% of respondents were encrypting the data.

RM blamed a lack of clear guidance, but the government said it published advice for schools on the issue.



Obviously the government are making the point NOT TO THINK!

WHEN IS ENOUGH ENOUGH?

Last night I watched the documentary WHAT BRITAIN EARNS
and I was seriously shocked that whilst in a combat situation, a British soldier can earn less than £2.50 an hour! However,during the program the presenter said that he doubted whether a soldier thought about his hourly rate when he went into a battle situation! My reaction was BULLSHIT, that was probably the first thing they thought of, along with I DO NOT GET PAID ENOUGH TO TAKE THIS KIND OF CRAP.
The same as everyone else, I do not agree with war but I certainly believe that we need to support the army when they are doing their job and less than £2.50 an hour is certainly not supporting them. A family cannot live on that when it costs over £1 for a litre of petrol and a loaf of bread costs approximately £1.

Yesterday I went out to Porthkerry to take some photographs to use in my current art project.I am creating the picture in a surrealist format and so I want to include elements in the picture of things and places that mean a lot to me.


PORTHKERRY CHURCH

PORTHKERRY CHURCH

BENCH ON THE GREEN

ROCKS AT THE KNAP

BARRY ISLAND

BARRY ISLAND

VIEW FROM MY WINDOW

YES I AM STILL HERE!

BEAUTY


I am taking my vitamins, drinking my OJ and eating my oranges but as yet there has been no impact on this bloody cold or whatever it is that I have.Due to Beauty being back at school ,I am getting a lot more rest but the effects as yet have not kicked in.It is embarrassing more than anything and I just hate coughing and spluttering in public.However,I do feel a lot more awake than I have in the past few weeks so perhaps things are getting better.
The weather is still wet and miserable but as I don't seem to be getting out much recently it is not too much of a problem.It gets dark too quickly after school for Beauty to go to the park just yet but her child minder comes and takes her out on a Sunday morning and if it is not raining then they walk around the lake and go for and ice cream which is good.
I started back to my art class on Monday and I spent the morning huddled in my coat and scarf shivering, the town where I go to my art class is in the Rhymney Valley and whilst not very far from where I live it is definitely colder as you go up the valley.My subject at the moment in art is portraiture and I am going to do a self portrait in the style of the Welsh Artist Evan Charlton who was associated with the British Surrealist Movement. I know that artists such as Dali and Kahlo were surrealists but some of their work is a bit too OTT for me and Evan Charlton , whilst of the Surrealistic movement , is less in your face(excuse the pun). The majority of Frida Kahlo's work was definitely not intended to be on display in private homes.

My finished piece for my last project

TREE OF LIGHT
Acrylics on canvas

HAIL BUT NO SNOW!

It is still raining.....unfortunately not men!
However, we also had hail today and at one point the front garden, which is covered in a black rubbery child's safety surface, was completely white.
I am so looking forward to my holiday in the Canaries,I will be leaving for a week on the 16th of January.Of course to my favourite island Fuerteventura but this time we will be going to a different resort, before we have been to Corralejo but this time we will be going to Costa Caleta. My goal this time is to hire a car and try driving on the other side of the road so that by the time we next visit the US I will have had some practice.

Ariel left for University this evening, already the quiet is heavenly.Plus she has collected up all of her Christmas presents which seemed to be everywhere.However, I am sure she will be back for the weekend very soon to see her young man. And Fiona goes back to college on Monday.....counting down the minutes!

WHY WE BRITS DISCUSS THE WEATHER SO MUCH.....

It has been pouring with rain all day, a typically miserable January day and the weather forecast says there is more to come!
A fine day is a day when there is no rain, whether it is sunny or dark and cloudy, no rain means a good day. No wonder so many Brits emigrate when they retire.I would like to spend the winters in the Canaries and the summer in the UK, sounds good to me.

Beauty will be going back to school on Monday and she really needs it, she really is getting bored with her video collection(me too!).It has been really difficult to do anything outside the house with her as the minute she gets into the car she falls asleep and refuses to get out until we get home.She LOVES going out in the car but she always falls asleep and she would rather sit outside a shop , in the car, than go inside.She particularly hates Peacocks(which I like) and she grabs at the clothes rails as we pass and it is difficult to stop her throwing the clothes on the floor.Whilst Fiona wants to work within the fashion industry I cannot see Beauty going that route.
Maybe something to do with computers or a film critic!

HERE WE ARE AGAIN!

It is the New Year and as ever my thoughts turn to resolutions. I have decided that I will make none that are carved in stones but more general achievements that I would like to make.
LESS CARBS
MORE FRUIT
TAKE VITAMINS
EXERCISE A LITTLE EVERY DAY
Now that doesn't sound too bad does it?
After having a cough, cold or sniffles in one form or other since September I have decided to try and increase my immune system by eating more fruit and taking IMMUNACE tablets which are meant to health maintain healthy immune system resistance, allegedly!
I am sure there will be days when I will eat too many carbs and not enough fruit but by having general goals there will be no resolutions to break, just the next day to try harder.

I think that Beauty's New Year Resolution is to see how many times she can watch the Cinderella video she had for Christmas before it shreds!

Whilst Fiona is trying desperately not to sort out her bedroom HOWEVER if she does not get it sorted then pocket money and lifts to college WILL BE STOPPED!

SnoWhite's resolution will be to clean her flat................................!OK

LOVE FROM ALL OF US TO ALL OF YOU