Well, so much for keeping a daily blog!!!
So, starting where I left off.
Friday night was dance night. Dance night means sequence dancing. I thought we were doing well. We won two raffle prizes - not unusual. At the end of the evening the oldest man their: 92 year old Ernest came across to us. And, as old people do, gave us some encouraging words. He said that Irene had made great progress. He said that when we first started she was not going to make it - there was no way that she was going to master the square steps. I kept quiet.
On Saturday Irene was unwell so I drove us both down to nan's. She was quite well and beat us both at a game of Scrabble. When we returned home I picked strawberries while Irene watered in the green house. We had a quick tea, played Up Words. I won. We watched a CSI and went to bed.
On Sunday we stayed in bed very late. I bought breakfast up. We just got out by 10:15 to go to Jan and Lawrence for our Sunday meeting. It was good to see Bob Dale there when we arrived. He always encourages us. In the afternoon I did more picking while Irene rested. We went to the Hope 2008 meeting - taking Francis with us. We returned had super and went to bed.
On Monday I went over to Jubilee House Christian School. It seems that the computers donated to them are already out of date as the work they have to do requires Office 2003. Irene went to the doctors. She could find nothing wrong and had taken a blood test with the reults due next week. I returned over the allotments to the coffee morning; had a cake and locked up. In the afternoon I produce the leaflets for our 'Jim'll Fix It' tea and talk at Leicester House. I went back to the allotment to water and do more picking (strawberries, black currants, lettuce and radish. After tea I opened the Centre for a meeting of the National Child Minders' Association. I returned to watch the news, then I completed my tax return. Irene is downstairs playing the piano.
Monday, 30 June 2008
Friday, 27 June 2008
Won and Lost
I started the day at the computer. First I used the ebay system to paypal to a seller to initiate a dispute concerning my purchase of a camera body. The camera body was to have been now superceded Nikon 40X. It came ot last August and was replace in January by the D60. It would have taken me up to 10 megapixels. I started the purchase exactly a month ago. I saw it on ebay. It was £90. I thought that I would try a bid. Each time I did I was automatically outbid by £2. Gradually the bidding changed to steps of £5. Twenty minutes before bidding ended and we were due to go to the dance I thought that I would have a final try of £160. I nipped out of the dance at the interval to find that I had won the bid. Then trouble began. My bank blocked the transfer of funds. This took three weeks to sort out. And last Friday I received the news that my seller had received the funds. On Monday I received an email to say that the camera was on the way. On Tuesday I excitedly opened the package. It took some time to realise that it was the the wrong camera. Three days later I received the news that my money would be refunded and the camera collected. Back to square one.
I also emailed my publication to Grapevine. And the afternoon I shot over to pay the bill.
After emailing I went the allotment to pick black currents and do quick weed. I then went Jubilee House Christian School to transfer data from flash drive. Most of the school were at Sutton-on-Sea. I returned through the allotments, completed emails and had lunch before working on blog related issues and printing some postcards for sale at the dance tonight.
I also emailed my publication to Grapevine. And the afternoon I shot over to pay the bill.
After emailing I went the allotment to pick black currents and do quick weed. I then went Jubilee House Christian School to transfer data from flash drive. Most of the school were at Sutton-on-Sea. I returned through the allotments, completed emails and had lunch before working on blog related issues and printing some postcards for sale at the dance tonight.
Thursday, 26 June 2008
Turn Again
I have been inspired to return to this blog after months of absence. My son Tim was the inspiration.
It occured to me that the 'We are Kiwis Now' blog is only on hold. One day we will be Kiwis again and the blog will restart. However, 'The Oaks' is our principle home and so I consider it appropriate to alternate as we travel to and fro.
We is wife/mother/grandmother/Irene and I am me.
For some reason today my thoughts were going back to the 50's (perhaps I will remember why as this post unfolds.) I was thinking about a set of three books that I had as a child. They were large format books with pages of colourful drawings. In amongst the colour was the real information printed in black and white with line drawings. (A fore-runner of today's Dorling-Kingesley) Ther was a general knowledge book (torquoise in colour), a science book (dark blue) and a history book (red). I particularly liked the last two and I terasured them all for many years. Now I remember why I am writing this. It is to explain, to satisfaction, the name 'Norwood'. On a double page spread was a picture of a Medieval village. The village was at a cross roads. There was the church, the priest's house, the water mill, the Lord of the manor's house the homes of the serfs, the field system and the woods in the distance. Everone was happily going about their respective businesses. I dreamed of making a model of this scene. This is how I surmised my name was created. We were a family living in the North wood. My father's name was James and so was the millers. To make it easier to give directions we were known as the family from the North wood. My father become known as James of the North Wood. This gradually became James NorthWood. And following laziness reduced it to James Norwood.
My father was infact named James Arthur Norwood, but he didn't work in the woods - he worked in a water mill. It is perhaps from the middle ages that there was a mill on the site of the one where he worked. The mill, known as King's Mill, was at the time water turbine powered, but the turbines produced electrical power to drive the noisy heavy machines.
My history teacher (Mr Owlett) told us a tale that the name 'King's Mill' came about because - One day the king was hunting in Sherwood forest. He fell off his horse and he became separated from his retinue. He then stumbled through the forest, becoming quite bedragled, when in the evening he came upon the cottage of a miller. The miller took him in for the night and fed him venison which he boasted he had poached from the king's forest. In the morning there was the noise of horsemen outside the cottage. They had tracked down the king. The miller was terrified, but the king was so grateful to the miller that the mill became known as 'King's Mill'
Sadly, the mill is no more. It was burned down in a fire while rebuilding work was going on. (Workmen smiked on site in those days and the HSE did not exist.) I was told that the 'King's Mill' brand name was to be sold, but could not be used for a number of years. Does it now live on in the name of a loaf of bread?
So to today. This was the first day of freedom after a long run of marking GCSE papers. This I celebrated by a session at the allotment; helping with redigging two failed seed beds, filling water butts and doing the watering. Next I was to open the New Stapleford Community Centre for use by the blood service. They were there from 11:45 am until 9:00 pm. Joni and I took 40 mins to clean up after them. There was no blood.
During the day I completed my advert to be published in the Grapevine Magazine in July. I also emailed the ebay sellar of a camera body to find out why I had received the wrong one and where my purchase was.
We watched 'Mr. Deeds' before going to bed.
It occured to me that the 'We are Kiwis Now' blog is only on hold. One day we will be Kiwis again and the blog will restart. However, 'The Oaks' is our principle home and so I consider it appropriate to alternate as we travel to and fro.
We is wife/mother/grandmother/Irene and I am me.
For some reason today my thoughts were going back to the 50's (perhaps I will remember why as this post unfolds.) I was thinking about a set of three books that I had as a child. They were large format books with pages of colourful drawings. In amongst the colour was the real information printed in black and white with line drawings. (A fore-runner of today's Dorling-Kingesley) Ther was a general knowledge book (torquoise in colour), a science book (dark blue) and a history book (red). I particularly liked the last two and I terasured them all for many years. Now I remember why I am writing this. It is to explain, to satisfaction, the name 'Norwood'. On a double page spread was a picture of a Medieval village. The village was at a cross roads. There was the church, the priest's house, the water mill, the Lord of the manor's house the homes of the serfs, the field system and the woods in the distance. Everone was happily going about their respective businesses. I dreamed of making a model of this scene. This is how I surmised my name was created. We were a family living in the North wood. My father's name was James and so was the millers. To make it easier to give directions we were known as the family from the North wood. My father become known as James of the North Wood. This gradually became James NorthWood. And following laziness reduced it to James Norwood.
My father was infact named James Arthur Norwood, but he didn't work in the woods - he worked in a water mill. It is perhaps from the middle ages that there was a mill on the site of the one where he worked. The mill, known as King's Mill, was at the time water turbine powered, but the turbines produced electrical power to drive the noisy heavy machines.
My history teacher (Mr Owlett) told us a tale that the name 'King's Mill' came about because - One day the king was hunting in Sherwood forest. He fell off his horse and he became separated from his retinue. He then stumbled through the forest, becoming quite bedragled, when in the evening he came upon the cottage of a miller. The miller took him in for the night and fed him venison which he boasted he had poached from the king's forest. In the morning there was the noise of horsemen outside the cottage. They had tracked down the king. The miller was terrified, but the king was so grateful to the miller that the mill became known as 'King's Mill'
Sadly, the mill is no more. It was burned down in a fire while rebuilding work was going on. (Workmen smiked on site in those days and the HSE did not exist.) I was told that the 'King's Mill' brand name was to be sold, but could not be used for a number of years. Does it now live on in the name of a loaf of bread?
So to today. This was the first day of freedom after a long run of marking GCSE papers. This I celebrated by a session at the allotment; helping with redigging two failed seed beds, filling water butts and doing the watering. Next I was to open the New Stapleford Community Centre for use by the blood service. They were there from 11:45 am until 9:00 pm. Joni and I took 40 mins to clean up after them. There was no blood.
During the day I completed my advert to be published in the Grapevine Magazine in July. I also emailed the ebay sellar of a camera body to find out why I had received the wrong one and where my purchase was.
We watched 'Mr. Deeds' before going to bed.
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