07/07/2011 by Aileen.

Busy day today getting ready for Ali, Eric and the boys who are arriving very late tonight. A & E staying until Sunday and we have Liam and Kieran until next Saturday. So - beds to get ready, shopping to do, and for some reason I feel impelled to get the house spick and span. Probably so at least I start from a good base!

Got my replacement iPad yesterday, this time straight from Apple. I got a full refund from the firm who sent me a used ‘new’ one.  Birding yesterday was good. Saw spoonbills, egrets, herons and various wader. (So guess what habitat we were at!) I forgot to send Micahel some photos for his blog.

http://www.eybirdwatching.blogspot.com/

I might put some on here, but might be a bit busy all week! Best photo, not technically, but amusing, was a heron being mobbed by gulls.

Bye, peeps. Shower calls and it’s gone 8.30am.

Oh, nearly forgot. John had his first assignment for OU course back. 85%! Well done that man.

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18/04/2011 by Aileen.

Not sure about that, but I’m having a change today. No Monday housework. I need to finish reading Mortal Engines and get on with my TMA. I’ve lots of notes under the headings of the three books I’ve chosen, but I need to cut and paste them into a beautifully crafted essay. By the way, here is the title of the TMA

 Rachel Falconer states that ‘it is important that the books and films [young people] read and watch should address the reality of their lives’ (Reader 1, p. 375). Is this view borne out by contemporary writing for children? Discuss with particular reference to three of the Set Books in Block 6.

So. No housework today. Finish the book this moring. Write this afternoon. (Might have to skip Viewfinders) Finish it tomorrow. That leaves Wednesday for putting in all the bl**dy referencing, which takes me a day, believe me. Then, into cyberspace on Thursday, which is the day it’s due in. I’ve never left it so late.

But then, the Easter Triduum from Thursday evening to Sunday morning and off to Scotland on Sunday for a few days for a family get-together.

Bye.

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16/04/2011 by Aileen.

And I just don’t get headaches. Never. ‘Wot, never? No, never.’ Well hardly ever. But it’s been a beautiful day and I’ve been stuck in studying. Up at 5.58 this morning, as I had been awake since before 5.30. John was awake too, so we had breakfast very early. Then I began studying. At about 9am I went down to the shops for the paper, milk, and meat for the weekend. Oh this is so boring. Think I’ll give up this blog. Do I really want to remember what I did today in twenty years’ time when I’m 86? Anyway, I have been getting to grips with a 2,000 word essay on whether children’s books should reflect the society of today. We need to refer to three books. I’ve chosen Junk (Melvyn Burgess) The Other Side of Truth (Beverley Naidoo) and Mortal Engines (Philip Reeve) It’s ages since I read Mortal Engines, so I am re-reading it when I’m tired of writing. Really miss the fresh air, but I finish studying in May, and then I’ll have a BA (Hons) Lit. I will continue to study with the OU, but just do short 10 pointer courses for interest.

John has just signed up for an OU course - Exploring Fear and Sadness. It starts in May, so I’ll try to learn alongside him, and choose a course for myself next October.

He’s talking about going to New York for a week this year. Not sure if I want to make the effort.  No place like home. Except I wish I had got out today. Not New York. More North Cave Wetlands.

M and F skyped us today. Alexander is growing so big. We’re meeting up at Ali’s next week for Easter. Can’t wait.

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01/04/2011 by Aileen.

The shock shock was that I got another 90% for my TMA. The question seemed straightforward, and I answered it without too much trouble, but I felt something was missing. It had no sparkle. I just seemed to be regurgitating the course material, and had put nothing of myself in it.(Can’t remember the question, but we had to talk about Peter Rabbit and Voices in the Park. Something about the best picture books have something intangible and invisible to them). This was my favourite part of the course so far. The bit we’re doing at the moment is about do books reflect or influence society as far as I can see. Tutor says it allows us to give an overview of the course (instruction/delight, intertextuality and stuff) The books are realist fiction. (Junk by Melvyn Burgess, The Other Side of Truth, by Beverley Naidoo, and Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve). The latter is a sort of science fiction, about London on wheels eating up the surrounding towns, but it related back to Colonialism. Yes, it does. Really it does. And there’s lots in it that relates to life today. I could have chosen Coram Boy - a historical book  - but I’m saving time and skipping it as we only need to refer to three books. We’ve done a fair amount of historical books, but no science fiction, and many people on the forum say it’s a bit boring.

The horror horror was when I idly looked at the church website on John’s Mac. I had designed it on my laptop, which has a large screen for a laptop, and tested it in various browsers, and it looked fine. But on John’s Mac the background image stopped half way down, and the colours looked completely different. A few other things wrong too. So I have spent ages putting the site right, and now it looks okay I hope.

www.sacredheartstjoseph.org.uk

Peace and quiet today. The grandkids (not Alexander!) are coming tomorrow for a week, so ‘let the rumpus begin.’ I’m about to whip off the ivory ironed bedlinen on their bed and replace it with unironed coloured sheets. Not wasting all that ironing on kids! We’re meeting up tomorrow at a pub near Penrith, and Ali is treating me to a Mother’s Day meal.Looking forward to i, but disappointed it clashes with an OU get-together in Manchester. I wish I had insisted we pick up the kids on Sunday, but Saturday suited Ali better. Can’t remember why. They’re probably doing something on Sunday.

Anyway, bye bye. Have a good weekedn.

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14/03/2011 by Aileen.

Woke up full of the joys of spring, overshadowed of course by the catastrophe in Japan. Now another explosion. Surely nuclear power is dangerous. And costly. I know I’m a bear of little brain, but why can’t we harness wave power? The sea is always there. Yes, I know we need to be careful about where we position things, but this seems to be a resource we just haven’t made the most of. And I think windfarms look beautiful, so there!

Anyway, I have a new way of getting organised. A way I used in the 70s come to think of it. It’s just writing a list on a sheet of paper, and highlighting the item when it’s done. I tried this last week, but made the mistake of writing things down that would happen anyway, like driving Fr Neville to hospital. But I found I did all the other things, except for one, and that’s because I am waiting for information on it. So this week - great plans. A lot of them are church based, but that’s just coincidence. Next week it could be other stuff, maybe gardening, or sorting out stuff in my office. Here’s this week’s list

• Link all Chrn’s Liturgy people by email group
• Design and print application forms for First Holy Communion
• Design and prepare instructions for correct way to iron altar linen
• Fine tune and print off Stations of the Cross
• Prepare chrn’s liturgy
• Prepare FHC session 3
• Do Creative Writing homework
• Sweep garden paths

Right, some of this I would do anyway in the course of the week, but seeing it written down will hopefully stop me from leaving it until the last minute.

Another thing to do. My TMA is due in on Thursday. I’ve done the work and made lots of notes, but have never left it so late. It looks a straightforward one, so hopefully it will just flow. Marks so far - 80%   90%   95%   90% Can’t believe it. I just love this course and my tutor.

Anyway, today. It’s sunny, and a female blackbird is outside finishing off the seed I put out for the ducks yesterday. Our three cats were looking longingly from behind the French windows. Housework this morning, Hopefully I’ll sweep the paths as it’s such a lovely day. TMA this afternoon, then Viewfinders this evening. We’re doing portraits by candlelight.

Family news - Fiona had her twenty week scan last Tuesday, on her birthday. The baby is in the top percentile for size, and they couldn’t see if it was a girl or a boy, but as nothing showed they are guessing a girl. So a buxom Irish lass then. Can’t wait. Fiona is still being sick, and all three of them have had horrible viral throat and chest infections.

All of us are descending (ascending) on Ali and family for Easter. Or Easter Sunday to Easter Wednesday as Liam and Kieran are otherwise engaged before this, and Ali and Eric are out on Holy Saturday. Should be a good break. I’m bringing up the boys’ Christmas presents from Kevin and Mag!

Our lovely Rachel (Niall’s daughter - see main website) is getting married in July. We met Ian at Alexander’s christening, and he’s super. It’s funny, at the christening Rachel wasn’t drinking, and some of us were wondering if she was pregnant. All sorts of questions about who’s driving etc. did not elicit any information from her, but the following week she had her first scan and told us all she was pregnant. She now has a little boy, brother for Kieya who is about 12. They sent us a most organised and thoughtful package with the wedding invitation in.

• Beautiful homemade invitation
• Details of two nearby hotels
• Card for us to fill in with dietary requirements
• An RSVP card for us to fill in
• Maps to the church and reception venue
• Stamped addressed envelope
• Little poem saying they had everything so pressie could be Thomas Cook vouchers for a family holiday

Rachel takes after her mother, Sue, who is really artistic.

Well I’ve spent far too long on the computer, but at least I haven’t been idly surfing.

Weyhay! There are three greylag geese on the pond. Hope they nest on our land.

Bye all. Be good.

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10/01/2011 by Aileen.

No, not me - Fiona. Alexander was born last February, and they’ve lost no timei in sorting out a new brother for him. I say brother, as the twelve week scan shows a big and active baby, so it had better not be a girl! (If you should read this in a few years time, little one, and you are a girl - I’m only joking! John and I have known for a few weeks, and it’s been so hard not letting it slip. But F and M both announced it on Facebook yesterday, and so far F has had over 50 comments. Martin hasn’t got so many, but there again he hasn’t got so many ‘friends’.  Lots in real life, but he doesn’t post so often on FB. He’s much more cautious. Even his face profile picture is in wet suit, snorkel and mask.

Well, failed miserably this year so far. I had this vague idea about always getting up before 7am so I had a long day in front of me. Slept in on New Years Day, and have most days since. It’s funny, cos a while ago I had to force myself to stay in bed until after 5am. No Newe Year Resolutions as such, but I filled my Outlook calendar with tasks and actions last week, and I’ve done the same this morning. Last week was really lazy, but everything starts up again this week, with WI, Birding and Creative Writing. I have a TMA on Peter Pan and a poem due on Thursday, but I submitted it yesterday. Not expecting as high a mark as the last two, (80% and 90%) as I think I put in too many points in not enough depth. And I’m still about 100 words under the limit. My tutor picked me up on my last TMA for writing paragraphs that were too short. He said they weakened my argument (or words to that effect). He said he had already mentioned it after the first TMA and I hadn’t corrected it. But I had. He should have seen the original short offerings!

I think the reason for my short paragraphs is because of the website design course, where lots of white space is encouraged. I know it’s very offputting to read a big long blog with no breaks. Anyway, very few paragraphs in the last TMA, so we shall see.

Church Cleaning this week, books due back at Brough Library, and as John has dentist in Hull tomorrow I might return my Hull library books. Reading Swallows and Amazons at the moment, alongside Tom’s Midnight Garden. (both for my OU course) I’m half way through Frankenstein on my iPod and have finished Varney the Vampyre and Alice Sit-by-the Fire on my Kindle. Started Michael Connelly’s The Closers the other night, but might leave it. I do find him a bit dark, and the book is due back at the library.

Bye all.

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16/11/2010 by Aileen.

Well, best bit was I walked briskly for an hour yesterday. Beautiful sunny day. And although breathless I didn’t feel I was going to black out at the end of it. As I did an hour in one go I didn’t ‘have to’ do any exercise in the evening. I intended to do a bit of yoga while watching the telly, but I didn’t! See why later.

Meditation - well, Sugar came to sit on my lap. I let her, as from past experience she settles down and purrs in rhythm to my breathing, but this time, after lots of pats to remind me she was there, she began coughing/choking a bit. Although I couldn’t really do anything for her I was stroking her, and lost my concentration. Then, the time seemed to be going on for ever, and when I sneaked a peak at it I found the alarm hadn’t gone off.

For my evening meditation Sugar jumped up again, and this time settled down quickly. But then Ellie noticed, and being jealous she jumped up too. Good job my lap is big enough. We all settled down, but once again the alarm didn’t sound at the end, so I did more than intended.

This morning I discovered that I had it set to put the iPhone to sleep after twenty minutes instead of ringing. Got it right this morning.

My essay! I can’t believe how well it went. Ideas just seemed to flow, and all in a coherent order. Probably rubbish, but at least I have  lots to work with. Much better than an empty page.

Viewfinders. Really interesting talk bu Peter. He showed us these ancient glass slides recording the social history of a Hull village. The vicar took most of them in the mid-19th Century.

Then I got swamped. ‘Everybody’ had brought along their usb sticks with photos on, to put onto my laptop so I could put them on to the website. It took forever.

And in the evening. Shock horror. I don’t know where they went to on my conmputer. I thought Lightroom would leave them in the order they were imported, but it didn’t. Now I have - maybe a hundred - photos all over the place. I don’t know who took them. I’ve tried searching by metadata, but it’s going to take me forever. Can’t find them on my hard drive, but I know they are there. Help.

Anyway, this moring. Slept in until gone 9am, checked website, and it’s back to normal. (Forgot to say that it was playing up something chronic, and nothing was being uploaded). Now all I have to do is locate those pesky photos, and work out who they belong to.

Happy days. (Yes, I’m loving it.)

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26/10/2010 by Aileen.

TMA has gone off to tutor. It was about the fairy tale, and whether it was ‘institutionalised;, with particular reference to Little Red Riding Hood. It was a fascinating toopic. There’s so much out there. Did you know that LRRH has been used to advertise drink, lipstick and perfume? And there are adult film versions such as Company of Wolves and Freeway?

I’m hoping to get a mark in the 70s, but it could well be mid to high sixties. Depends how lenient a marker the tutor is lol.I really don’t think it deserves much lower unless I’ve completely misunderstood the question, or spent too long on the history aspect. (Quite possible)

Ploughing on with the next block now, which is about 19th Century lit and gender differences. Think I’ll write about the role of courage in Little Women and Treasure Island. The other option is about the literature as a form of social control. Don’t think there’s that much difference in the two topics, just different slants.

Today - John has the dentist again this afternoon, and I’m going in to Hull with him. Will go to the library while he’s being drilled. Only thing I want to buy is a macro lens, and I’ll do that on t’Internet.

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02/10/2010 by Aileen.

Lovely day today. First tutorial in Sheffield, and it was good. Tutor is enthusiastic about children’s literature, and was very helpful. Lots of stuff about analysing the questions - what did each term mean. I intended to go to Meadowhall in the afternoon, but there were plenty of shops by the University, so I didn’t bother. I say I dislike cities, but I can take them in small doses, and Sheffield was quite buzzing. Going in to John Lewis’s made me nostalgic for Kingston on Thames, as part of the layout seemed identical. Bought another top and two woolly cardies,(that sounds old=fashioned, but they’re not) so that’s me set up for the winter. I ought to get rid of some old stuff, but I’m such a hoarder.

Oh and I bought a really good book on CSS (styling websites) The young lad in Waterstones asked if I was a student. I’m sure it must have been tongue in cheek. Anyway, I produced my NUS card and got 10% of £31. I’ve made great savings already, so it was £10 well spent.

I forgot to say that John bought me a Kindle for my birthday. I’ve downloaded several books to do with my OU course (just background reading) and they were all free. I’d never have bought them, partly because they would cost, partly cos they would take up room, and mostly cos I probably won’t read them anyway!

Anyway, watching Midsommer Murders with a glass of good red wine. Well happy.

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28/09/2010 by Aileen.

Recovering from a long weekend.

Thursday was my birthday. Went into Hull with John and bought grey jeans, grey stretchy trousers, black top, purple top and purple jacket. Lunch at Starbucks.

ALi and family arrived in the evening, and we chatted.

Friday. Chatted, did food shopping and cooked.Ali did a lovely lasagne. Played charades after.

Saturday. Martin and family arrived. Chatted. Ate. Drank. Ali did my birthday meal. Salmon en croute. More charades, which is great fun with the kids.

Sunday. Mass. Fiona came with Alexander, who is now sitting up quite well and has four teeth. He looks so like Martin. we were toying with the idea of going somewhere, but just chilled. The beef I bought didn’t look big enough for us all, so I got a frozen (well it was fresh last week) chicken from the freezer and we had a variation of surf’n'turf.

Monday. Visitors all left and I had four sets of double sheets to wash. Only did ours as I was knackered. Washing is easy, but with the visitors’ sheets I like to iron, which is a pain. AGM at Viewfinders in the evening. Quick and efficient.

Today. House is quite tidy. No plans. Maybe study as the course officially starts on Saturday. Tutorial in Sheffield which seems a bit crazy as other York people go to Leeds, but the tutor seems keen. Looking forward to it.

Bye all. Might put some photos of the weekend up soon, but we didn’t do the group one we planned as the weather was so poor.

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