Chatiryworld

Catching up

So last weekend was spent down at my mum's in Yorkshire.  I took the opportunity to have a little hen lunch with two of my sisters, two of my cousins and two of my friends at Browns in Leeds.  I was able to join in the cocktail fun with a mocktail, which pleased me, and we all ate delicious and filling food.  I had a vegetable tart and shared some chips with my sister Ellen.  We couldn't resist pudding and I went for chocolate ice cream that was served with a cookie.  I didn't finish it.  It was really lovely to sit back, relax, chat and eat some good food, so thank you for coming ladies.

On Sunday afternoon my mum drove Ellen, Martha and I to one of my favourite places, Saltaire.  I haven't been since I moved up here so it was great to get reacquainted with Salts Mill and see how much the shops in the main street had changed.  No more second hand bookshop, but plenty of vintage places.  We went to a craft and vintage fair at Victoria Hall, complete with cafe serving from pretty teasets (despite not drinking tea I do like a nice teaset).  The fair had some good stalls, and some not so good, and I was pleased to see that Hannah Nunn (whose lamp I blogged about a while back) had a stall, also selling tealight holders and vases by Karin Eriksson.  We had a little mooch in the shops in the mill before heading home.  If it hadn't been so cold I would have taken more photos of the village.  It's a planned industrial village in the same ilk as New Lanark, only less touristy (which is not to say that it isn't touristy, it just doesn't have the big attractions that New Lanark does). 

I had a great weekend but it was wonderful to see Jon again back in Edinburgh.  He'd spent the weekend in Brighton.

Bletchley Park funding

Enigma wheel, Bletchley Park, Bletchley, UK.JPG, originally uploaded by gruntzooki.

I heard on the radio today, and read at BoingBoing that Bletchley Park has a serious funding crisis, and, to put it crudely, is falling to bits.  The government have been asked to improve their funding of it, given its historical importance.  There is also a petition to Parliament.

I hope that Bletchley keeps going, I have not been but would love to go one day.  My Granny Pip worked there during the war, presumably down to her excellent crossword skills that remained with her throughout her life.  I'd love to get some sort of idea into what she, and others, did there.  By coincidence, many years later in Sheffield, I ended up doing some work for Bletchley Park Trust because they used the solicitors I was temping at.  Nothing more than typing up letters and colouring in plans, but I liked the connection with my granny.

Cory Doctorow (who took the photo above) of BoingBoing visited Bletchley recently and wrote a great post about it. 

Tissues

Oh look, my mum and Hugh are here and I've got another cold.  Yay.  I'll probably have rabies for the wedding.  We've had a nice time though, saw a Ben Nicholson exhibition at the Dean Gallery, lunch at the Patisserie Florentin, showing them wedding venues, finally getting them to the farmers market.  We're going to have Sunday lunch at the Caley before they go.

This week has been parents week for me as I also went over to the pretty village of Lower Largo where my dad lives, right by the beach I took the above photo from.  We had a quick trip to St Andrews where I cleared out Di Gilpin's stock of half price Rowan 4ply soft. 

On Wednesday I blew bubbles with Emily, my contribution to helping her mum and dad move house (Jon did more physical stuff, oh and I unplugged the tv and carried some bits of cot downstairs), everyone should sit down and blow bubbles with a one year old when moving house.

Little Katherine

I had some visitors from Wakefield on Tuesday.  First of all, Little Katherine, made for me in a PIF by Katy (based in Wakefield) arrived safe and sound at the office.  Isn't she sweet?  (Kal and Emma, as soon as I've finished making overdue birthday presents I'll get started on your PIFs.)

Then I saw my brothers, also from Wakefield, for the first time in over a year.  They were up visiting our dad in Fife for half term and we all went out for dinner at the Caley Sample Room.  They had loads of questions about the wedding and couldn't get their heads round it not being in a church and us not wanting a Jaguar car (read Jon's latest post for more on this).  I think they're pretty excited and even asked to be page boys.  The only reason I hadn't asked them was because they will be 12 and 13 by the time the wedding comes round and I thought they might think being a page boy was a bit beneath them.  We'll certainly find a suitable role for them.

We've had some lovely comments about Jon's proposal post, thank you so much.  I'll admit to reading it every so often just to relive it a bit, although obviously I had it easy as I had no idea it was coming.

I really am going to do my Japanese book shop in Paris post soon, honest.  Right now I'm trying to get rid of the taste of lukewarm milk and cereal, our fridge door is a bit contrary...  Doesn't help that it has a big wooden door stuck on the front of it though.

Stuff

I keep forgetting to mention Jon's great post about The Proposal, it's very entertaining reading and sweet without making you want to puke.

After spending time fretting and doing sums, we have set a date and a venue (well, venues, one for the ceremony and reception and one for the evening party) and are very happy.  We'll be getting married on 23rd May next year in a venue on the Royal Mile here in Edinburgh.  Parents, siblings, my grandpa and a couple of friends will be at the ceremony; aunts, uncles, cousins and more friends will be at the reception and then even more friends at the evening do (which is near the reception venue and just off the Royal Mile). 

I'm not a fan of Valentine's Day, but I suppose I do like all the crafty ideas that go with it.  I think this card, seen on Boing Boing is quite sweet.

We went for a wander round Glasgow yesterday, bit of shopping, bit of eating and a little look around Kibble Palace.  Took photos that will appear on Flickr in the next week or so.  We had been considering getting married in Glasgow but the venues we found in Edinburgh fit our budget and style.

We're off to Orkney 3 months today!  Our Skye trip will be in September this year. 

Interesting article in the Guardian Family section about half siblings.  I have three sisters and two brothers and they are all in fact 'half's.   Like the article's headline I never use the word half to describe them (which half would I get?  Can I choose?).  I felt odd reading about people who didn't feel they were close to their half siblings, but then I realised that I don't know what it's like to have a sibling who has the same mum and dad as you.  But I don't feel that I've lost out or anything because of this and have 5 amazing people in my life.  I'm looking forward to them all being able to meet each other at the wedding and I want to get a photo of us all together.  My brothers (who I have the same dad as) have never met my sisters Ellen and Martha (who I have the same mum as) although my sister Louise (who I have the same dad as but she has a different mum to the boys, keeping up?) has met Ellen and Martha as she and Ellen are the same age and her mum used to bring her over to play sometimes.

That's all.

Two things

Happy birthday to my brother D, the little baby with the big blue eyes is now 12 (he'd love me for that, if he read this).  We got him a telescope, not a particularly powerful one, but we hope he has fun with it anyway. 

If you've ever suffered with a noisy neighbour read Charlie Brooker's column this week, it's fantastic.  Read it also if you are a noisy neighbour, especially if your name is Gavin.

Halp me internets!

The great thing about having brothers so much younger than you is that you get to go into toy shops and buy cool things that you're really too old for.  For them, mind.  But the time has come when toys aren't really going to cut it anymore.  My brother D is 12 in a couple of weeks and I haven't a clue what to get him, so I'm looking to you for help.  He's a bright kid, academic and musical and likes football.  He takes a good interest in the world around him.  At least I think he does, I haven't seen him since his 11th birthday so he might think everything's rubbish.  What he could probably do with is a pile of books on how to survive puberty and being a teenager but that's not what you want to be getting from your 29 year old sister, or telling your parents that's what said 29 year old sister gave you.

I want to spend around £15 and I may need to post it, but I'd rather get something tangible rather than vouchers.  Hopefully now that our dad's moving up to Fife soon I'll see more of my brothers and have a better idea of what they want at birthdays.  Sisters are so much easier...

Modern times

Here's a question, what do you do when you are sorting through old photos and you come across some of your dad's second marriage, which has recently ended?  (Not to mention ones of the relationship preceding that marriage...)

I opted for keeping one of me and my granny for posterity.  It shows me wearing some amazing blue clip-on earrings, I think the only reason I was allowed out the house wearing them was because it was 1989.

Congratulations!

Two of my sisters have got their degrees.  Ellen got a 2.1 in graphic design and Martha got a 2.2 in music.  Yay!  Everyone have a raspberry and pine nut muffin to celebrate.  We had them at Tigh an Dochais the other week and I found a Nigella Lawson recipe for raspberry and lemon muffins which I tweaked a bit to come up with these.  Not as good as the Skye ones, but still yummy.

Happy Mother's Day

Click on the photo to find out more about them, my laptop battery is about to die.