The Pothole that Essex County Council said was only 18mm deep (3/4 of an inch)

Toyota Hilux Commercial

How to deactivate a cat

箱とねこ８。-A box and Maru 8.-

kitten vs a scary thing (котенок против страшной неведомой хрени)

At the moment I'm watching the dvd of Disney's Fantasia for the first time in years. The imagination of the animation is wonderful. At that time it wasn't easy to do the animation- each frame had to be done separately and making the film almost bankrupted Disney. Nowadays technological advances mean that it is much easier and cheaper to do animation. Why then is so much of the animation lacking in imagination and fresh ideas?

In that criticism I do not include Pixar, which seems incapable of making a bad film, especially the Toy Story trilogy. Toy Story 3 in particular always makes me want to shed a tear and wishing that I still had my dolls from my childhood.

Interestingly the only part of Fantasia that really looks dated are the faces of the females in the mythological island for the Beethoven 6th Symphony. Disney showed real courage in including the entire symphony. Stokowsky makes a wonderful fist of the music.

Oh, the ostriches, hippos and crocodiles!

Ce petit chat Minou met son bonnet de laine

I Believe She's Amazing Flash Mob - Toronto Eaton Centre

Soroban - All in the mind

Can a Thumbcat - Review an Excellent Book?

The Beatles In A Flow Chart - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

The Beatles In A Flow Chart - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

Cravendale - Cats with Thumbs

Chocolate Brownies

Yesterday the Crimson Crumblies Chapter of the Red hat Society all met at our Queen Mel's house for tea. The purpose of the meeting was actually to have a discussion of some of the things we would like to do in 2009 and a start was made at this. We also discussed the fact that two of our number have recently appeared on television. Queen Mel is currently appearing in adverts of a women's magazine called "Yours" and member Kay has appeared in a programme tracing back her family history to her ancester who was the daughter of The Prince of Wales, later to become King George IV and Mrs Fitzherbert.

For the tea Queen Mel asked us to bring some cake to have with it. I made some Brownies, which received some nice comments. I posted the recipe for them in 2005. Here it is again.

Chocolate Brownies
The recipe originally comes from Helge Rubinstein's book "The Chocolate Book"

4oz Chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids)
2oz unsalted butter
3oz plain flour
good pinch baking powder
good pinch salt
2 eggs
6oz sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2oz walnuts, roughly chopped

1. Set the oven at Gas Mark 4, 180 C. Grease an 8inch (20cm) square baking tin.
2. Melt the chocolate gently. When cooled a little add the butter cut into small pieces. Stir until the butter has melted and blend with the chocolate.
3. Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt.
4. Beat the eggs together with the salt and vanilla until fluffy and blend in the chocolate and butter mixture.
5. Fold in the flour and then the walnuts.
6. Pour into the baking tin and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted just comes out clean.
7. Allow to cool, then cut into squares - they will turn fudgy as they cool.

Book Meme

I came across this Book Meme the other day and just couldn't resist it.

Instructions
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Underline those you intend to read.
3) Italicise the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list


1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - J D Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan (No, but I’ve seen the film – that’s enough for me!)
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73.The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

40/100.

Happy New Year everyone.

For the Husband and I the actual New Year was quiet – just the two of us, in fact. Both the Stepdaughter and Stepson were spending the evening with their own friends – which was as it should be, given that they are 26 and 22 respectively and have their own lives.

Since then we’ve been waiting for the bitter cold weather to go as it has been too cold to leave the house for any length of time. The cold weather shows no sign of dissipating – we woke this morning to snow that has shown no sign of disappearing all day.

I’ve not mentioned though that we are having a quiet time. Because we are not. Before Christmas the Husband taught two evenings of his music classes on Hollywood musicals of the 30s and 40s, playing song and dance numbers to demonstrate the best of each period. Tomorrow evening he is doing Hollywood Musicals of the 50s and is busy going through all the DVDs of Musicals of the period that we own to work out what to include and what, reluctantly, to exclude. We have a lot of Musicals on DVD. So plugged into our television are currently two DVD players, one DVD recorder and two video players – so we now have cables all over the carpet we are trying not to fall over.

I love the film musicals of the period and have a passion for the music. So whenever he plays – over and over again – songs and dance numbers from the Bandwagon, Silk Stockings, GiGi, Annie Get Your Gun, Calamity Jane, 7 Brides for 7 Brothers and High Society I love listening and watching them. However, into every life a little rain must fall and some of the films from the period, especially Singing in the Rain and An American in Paris, I am less than enthusiastic about or perhaps it is just the one “Actor” in them. Gene Kelly has never been a favourite of mine. He is a good dancer, I fully admit, but I’ve never thought his voice the strongest and his acting, well let’s face it, his overacting, is terrible. I’ve always preferred Fred Astaire whose dancing, singing and sheer professionalism in every film he has appeared in to my mind far exceeds Gene Kelly’s.

Tomorrow evening the Husband undertakes his class. And then he returns all of the electronics back to their usual places. Tonight, of course, we pack up all the Christmas decorations away for another 11 months. And then the household returns to normal for the new year.

A good Christmas. There were just the five of us on Christmas Day – the Husband, Stepdaughter, Stepson, Father-in-Law and myself. It’s extraordinary how much shopping, cooking and general Christmas preparation there was in the days running up to The Day for such a small number of people.

I suspect that part of the thing is the expectations put on everyone by the media for THAT Meal. I lost count of the number of articles in magazines and newspapers on the run up to Christmas on how to cook That Dinner. In addition for the two weeks before Christmas the tv channels had lots of programmes by all the famous chefs on how to cook the meal – I wouldn’t mind but all of them had different ways of cooking it and on what accompaniments to include and how to make them: Nigella Lawson soaked the turkey in water overnight, Jamie Oliver forced flavoured butter between the skin and flesh of the turkey, etc, etc. Those who are not confident on how to cook the meal would find it easy to get confused over what to do. It is, of course, a basic roast meal, only with several additional dishes and shouldn’t worry anyone if you take it a step at a time. Certainly our Christmas dinner turned out very well indeed.

Anyway, the Father-in-Law has returned home in time to spend the afternoon and evening of Boxing Day with his daughter and her family. We are now having a good time relaxing and working through the Christmas leftovers. But what do we do with all that leftover cream? We always buy too much cream, both plain and flavoured, and never learn to buy less.

Christmas seems to have come very quickly this year, not helped by the fact that the media have been forcing it down our throats ever since Bonfire night.

For our family Christmas started yesterday when the Husband and Stepson went to their church for the annual carol ceremony. Today the Stepson comes to stay with us for a few days. Tomorrow the Husband and I drive over to Whitstable to pick up the Father-in-Law and drive him back here. The following day, Christmas Eve, we’ll have a family day with the Stepdaughter arriving after work presumably in the evening. Christmas Day we are all together until after lunch, when the Stepson goes back to his mother’s house. And Boxing Day we take the Father-in-Law back home to Whitstable where he will spend some time with his daughter and her family.

Listed like that it doesn’t seem a very pressured time. But I’m finding myself getting all tense at the thought of all that Christmas involves: including all the food shopping, cooking etc. Such pressures are put on ourselves this time of year, mainly by ourselves, to make everything perfect. And it doesn’t have to be perfect; it’s just the family enjoying ourselves by being together.

Don’t have a perfect, stressful Christmas. Instead have a relaxed and enjoyable Christmas, everyone.

Wonderful News

Shortly after 8.00 am this morning the Husband and I received a phone call from the Stepdaughter. She had heard that she had passed her last set of exams and is now entitled to have the letters CII (Chartered Insurance Institute) after her name. This is exceptionally good when you realise that she did all her studying and work for her exams in addition to holding down a full time job in the insurance industry.

Well done. We are proud of you.

Christmas shopping

Does anyone else have difficulty buying presents, whether Christmas or birthdays, especially for men? I know I do, especially as I refuse to go the boring route of socks. I think the thing with our family is that we are all strong minded individuals with our own personal interests and passions. So we decided some years ago that the only thing to do was to issue a “wishlist” of things you would like, so that other members of the family can decide what to buy you that they know you would like.

The one who is especially difficult to buy for is the Stepson. He has, like the rest of us, very individual likes and dislikes. He has, of course, a passion for history and is currently working for his Ph.D at Cambridge University. He has interests and loves outside this too. I well remember trekking the shops looking for a port decanter and cheeseboard for his 19th Christmas on this earth, for him to use at parties in his rooms at college. His wishlists then can be quite something. When they eventually arrive.

So last year he did not produce his list until it was too late to buy anything online (our family works on the principle that the only way to buy Christmas gifts is on the internet when you get the best prices and don’t have the stress of battling through crowds in shops). This year all three of us – his sister, the Husband and I – all have been making the point (i.e. nagging) to him for some time that we need his list before it is too late this year. So yesterday, he sent out a rather exasperated e-mail. It says:

Right here is my wishlist: Beauty and the Beast; Little Mermaid; I
Claudius; Drop the Dead Donkey 1-3; Frasier 1 & 2. Right, back to
bibliography.

Catching Up

Several things have happened since I last posted here and up to now I haven’t written about them. The first one that happened, because I just wanted to process it in my mind before I wrote about it. Subsequent things happened once I had thought about the first. Then, once everything had more or less settled down, the Husband took over the computer. He’s out tonight so I can use it – I strongly suspect that tomorrow he’ll be on it again.

The first thing happened on the Friday after I last posted here. I received a phone call from my brother to say that my mother had been taken into hospital after another heart attack, her heart already badly damaged from other attacks, and that I should get to the hospital as soon as possible as it could be the end. So the Husband and I threw a few things in an overnight bag and set off for Wales. The journey should take about 3.5 hours - it took us 5.5 hours, with several extensive traffic jams and torrential rain. When we finally got to Cardiff we went straight to the hospital where she was clearly very ill indeed, and also in massive pain. We stayed late into the evening and then onto my brother's, who put us up for the night. 08.10 the following morning we got a call to go straight in as her health was deteriorating. When we got there though she had rallied a bit. She continued to do so enough for the hospital to send her back to her nursing home (it employs trained nurses, experts in chronic care) as they needed her bed for another patient. She remains very, very weak and can hardly stay awake for more than a few minutes at a time. We came home eventually and tried to settle down. She is no better though and I doubt will ever be. I've been told that she could have another heart attack at any time and that the next one will probably kill her - this could be tomorrow or months ahead - and that I should keep my mobile phone on and with me at all times. Needless to say I've felt devastated about this and it has taken a while to feel human again. Every time I speak to her on the phone her voice is so weak and she can only stay awake for a couple of minutes. I now wince and worry every time either the main phone or my mobile rings.

Life continues though and with something really good. Saturday 29th November was the Stepson's graduation ceremony when in addition to having the Bachelor of Arts (BA) he now also is a Master of Philosophy (M.Phil. Cantab). The Husband and I went, of course, and met up with the Stepson’s mother. The ceremony was very similar to the one we went to the summer of 2007, although each college was presenting just a few graduands at the Senate House rather than masses of BA’s and beforehand lunch was in one of the rooms of Pembroke College, rather than a marquee. After the actual ceremony the Stepson was busy for an hour and so we went into the Fitzwilliam museum and saw and excellent exhibition. Then when he was able to join us we all went off and had lunch in a local restaurant. It was a wonderful day and going made you feel better just concentrating on life, youthful energy and the future. We expect two further graduation ceremonies: in two years time the Stepson's current B.A. will be converted to an M.A and then in three years time hyis Ph. D. We can hardly wait.

The day before we went to Cambridge I broke a tooth and have spent the time since trying to get it sorted out. I’ve had a great deal of pain, three appointments with the dentist and another one tomorrow. If I can get near the computer afterwards I’ll write more on the saga and the wonders of Cerec.

I haven’t been able to get near our p.c. much the last couple of days because, at this time of the year the Husband likes to take it over almost completely. He goes to two evening classes each week, one on music appreciation and the other to learn how to sing. He is doing great guns on both and is especially bucked at the complementary things his singing teacher has said about his voice. Anyway, each Christmas he likes to put together a playlist of Christmas music on iTunes. This can take a while because he’s rather slow at the computer and he always complains that Apple’s constant upgrades of the iTunes software make the system less easy to use. I have a very strong suspicion he plans to take over the computer tomorrow as well, to finish what he is doing.