Tuesday 24 June 2014

World cup exit, photo exhibition, Channel 4 news and Iraq

Ah well, the fat lady is singing and the boys are coming home on this sad day for England football fans.  Actually the sad / frustrating day was last week against Uruguay, but that's another story.  My better half spurred us on by saying not to worry because we've got the European Championships to look forward to in two years time ..... oh bliss, more venting of spleens and commiserations.
Life does go on despite the horrible thoughts that we are terrible at football - we are also terrible at cricket at the moment according to Aggers on Radio 5 this morning.

We're preparing to invade France - just the four of us into Southern Brittany. Clothes are washed, lists written and cases are out of the loft.  The travel sickness tabs have been purchased for the Plymouth - Roscoff sailing - non of us are good sailors.  Really looking forward to a week in the sun lying next to a pool and the sea.

More preparations have been made for the upcoming photo exhibition in October at the Alfred East Gallery.  I've had the first six of the proposed fourteen pictures printed and mounted and I'm really pleased with the big ones. They're sitting in the lounge at the moment - they look so lovely I'm tempted to buy them - the idea is that someone else buys them, here's hoping.

Looking back at the news this week makes uncomfortable viewing, listening and reading especially where the middle east is concerned.  I like watching Channel 4 news, and love Jon Snow (I met him once and have his autograph) and I felt immense pride last night watching journalists in the Channel 4 newsroom and Jon Snow protested in silence with black tape over their mouths about the jailing of Al Jazeera journalists in Egypt for reporting the news.

View image on Twitter


The other bad news for the middle east is Iraq - who is going / able to save this country?  Religion certainly won't.

I've failed in my quest to perfect another short story for Kindle - ran out of time, but the other two are still up there. Why do I imagine the internet to be in the sky when its in a big building in a field somewhere - does anyone else do that?  For those of you who don't know about them here are the links to the stories - Answers from Ghosts and Letter to Barbara.

Elaine x

Saturday 14 June 2014

Twitter, more gardening and a bit of sports news..

Well as promised the gardening took over during the last two weeks.  Most of the blank bits of border in the back garden are now planted up with a few shrubs and loads of annuals - they still look small but I've got every hope that by the end of the month the ground will be covered, I hope so because I hate weeding. My better half is the fruit and veg grower but this year I'm trying to make my mark by joining in with the growing of beetroot, lettuce and courgettes.  The beetroot and courgettes are doing really well, but the lettuce have stopped growing for some reason - I'll have to ask the head gardener what to do with them - he's bound to know the answer. I've noticed that once you've sown or planted something one becomes incredibly protective of it and interested in how its doing - checking on 'me offsprings' (and I don't mean the boys) several times a day is not unusual.

Talking of the real offspring -  they are together tonight with a few other mates down in the capital to watch a little game of footy planned for later, we are of course talking about the World Cup and England's first game. Readers of this blog will know that we are football fans and so have to go through this obligatory torture every 4 years, which has ended literally in tears for both us and players (remember Gazzer) every time since 1966.  So here we go again and it will be great!

I've joined Twitter ........ @damsoncake, yes damsoncake (which part of my brain that came from I'll never know)......and I'm following some of the people everyone does e.g. Stephen Fry and Jon Snow and I'm enjoying it so far, but as most people warn - boy could it take up your whole day, may need to ration myself.

Writing and photography has gone a little quiet at the moment because of the garden but I'm determined to have another short story on kindle before I go on holiday in two weeks time and I'm taking a big writing pad with me to France to hand-write some ideas to come back with - who knows, if it rains all week then there might be enough in it for the novel!!

George Bush Snr celebrated his 90th birthday with a tandem parachute jump - what plans have you got for your 90th?

Elaine x