Having been distinctly unimpressed by Voadafone’s customer service last year (new handset, had problems, replaced with reconditioned handset, had different probelms, repeat several times until they refused to replace a non-functioning handset…) I’d vowed to wait out my contract with them and then treat myself to an iPhone!
And here it is.
Now, I wouldn’t normally class myself as an early adopter, but I’m the first person in my office to have one! OK, 2 of the guys have Blackberries so it’s not like we’re completely last millennium.
I’m a bit old skool at times – you can see an ancient dictaphone in the background, which I carry in the car with me. I use it to make a note of any songs on the radio I like, so I can download them later. I use it to record directions to somewhere I don’t know (I did have a SatNav but it got stolen out of the car).
And of course I used my old phone to take a photo of the new one!
Started the year with walkies on the beach, and enjoyed Scottish Dancing at Burns Night. Jem auditioned for High School Musical and MT4UTH.
In February Max had to go to the vet’s for his shoulder to be X-rayed, and Jem went skiing on a school trip. In March we went to see Flashdance, and Jem sang I’m Still Hurting at her school concert. During April we went on a bike weekend to Kesh, and saw Evita. At Easter Jem went to a course at Bird College, and was awarded the hardest working student cerfickatick. I went to a weekend Scottish dancing course in my alma mater, Coleraine High.
In May, my nephew did well with his goats at Balmoral Show, and I received my favourite text of the year from my sister: “Cld u get some cabbages, and if so cld u bring 6?” We went to the North West 200, which was badly disrupted by accidents and weather. We went to see Fame and Cabaret, and I ran a 10k run for action cancer. At the end of the month my son turned 18; we celebrated with a family party in the Hilden brewery, and I made a montage of photos from throughout his life.
In June, Jem got to meet the President of Ireland, and appeared as Martha in High School Musical. In July, we went to see Never Forget, and Evelyn Glennie, before heading to China for an amazing trip. The high point for me was seeing that glorious diamond ring of the eclipse, although dancing on the Great Wall was rather fabulous, and the whole trip was truly magnificent.
In August, Jem appeared on the stage of the Grand Opera House in Godspell, and my sister described her when she dances as looking as though it’s the most wonderful thing she’s ever been asked to do. She got her photo on the front of the local paper. Mum and Dad celebrated their Golden wedding anniversary, and we had a wonderful party with cake and a song wot I wrote: I’d converted some old camcorder tapes onto DVDs for them, and had fun making covers and and labels. At the end of August I rode my new bike, Zucchero, to Skye, and only dropped it once! And was able to pick it up myself. In Skye we visited Calum’s Road, where R and a group of about a dozen bikers will be setting off next year to ride to The Gambia.
In September Harry started university, and Jem auditioned for Guys and Dolls. She also did a photo shoot for the pantomime, and her picture was used many times for publicity. We looked after my sister-in-law’s dog, Mack, when she had to have breast surgery.
During October, Jem played the Narrator in her school production of Blood Brothers, and had her Just Dance audition. I visited old friends in Luxembourg and Frankfurt. November brought parents evening, where for the first time I got nothing but glowing reports! She then totally wowed the audiences with her charming portrayal of Miss Adelaide . In December we went to London and saw Legally Blonde, and I decided to do something about the 2 stone I’ve put on since I stopped smoking 2 years ago, and re-joined the gym. I also decided that the deteriorating atmosphere at home, which had included many flouncing outs, 3 day sulks, and a laptop flung across the room, was untenable, and I found a little apartment for Jem and I to move into in the New Year.
I’m approaching the new decade with a positive attitude – I will lose some weight, I’ll be visiting The Gambia in February, and help Jem get through her GCSEs. Come September who knows where we’ll all be!
Managed to take a good action shot of Max today! This is rather an amazing achievement, as usually by the time I have lined up the framing background, called Max to me, and pressed the button, he’s way past me. Honestly, I have a gazilion pics of the tip of his tail.
But today, in gloriously snowy magical Hillsborough forest, I captured this moment.
Run Max, Run!
I do so love the forest at all times of the year, but the current cold snap renders it a truly magical kingdom, where showers of crystal tumble upon you as you pass, and your shadow is as tall as the trees.
I know we’re all waiting for the thaw, so that traveling arrangements can get back to normal, but I’m carpe diem-ing, and making the most of the wonderful scenes that we currently have.
Just spent the most wonderful weekend in London and am so proud of my little darlings – well, not so little these days! Harry’s just finished his first term at Central, where he’s one of only 4 students doing theatre sound. He’s absolutely loving being in London (and what 18 year old boy wouldn’t!), but I was caught unawares by one of his comments about what was so great about life in the capital city: he said, no-one had once made a remark about his appearance. OK, I know Norn Irn is a bit conservative when it comes to its inhabitants, and sure, people with blue dreadlocks don’t merit a second glance in London. I just never realised my tough gothy heavy metal loving son was so sensitive about jibes at his long hair and baggy shorts.
I’m so proud of this young man, who’d previously dropped out of school. But, inspired partly by our lunch with an astronaut at KSC last year (thank you Storey Musgrave), he decided to follow his dream, and secured himself this rare opportunity by portfolio and references. He was working with Pink last week.
Jemima had a ball. Which was just as well, as it was her treat for getting such great feedback from her teachers this year! I’d asked her “Would you like a puppy? A pony? No? OK how about a weekend in London…” and was bowled over by her exuberant acceptance – literally!
We gave a standing ovation to Legally Blonde, we shopped at Harrods and bought her Christmas pressie of a lovely new red coat, we ate Chinese food in Chinatown, joined in the carol singing at the tree in Trafalgar Square, ice-skated at the Tower of london, and drank mulled wine watching the street theatre at Covent Garden.
It’s looking likely that the pair of them will be here next year (Jem’s sent off her audition applications to Laine and Bird today), and I just wonder – should I join them?
I had the real pleasure last week of collecting a piece of jewelery that I had designed and commissioned myself. While in China I’d acquired a couple of small pieces of jade, and a few freshwater pearls. Intrinsically they had very little value, but I was keen to have them incorporated into a piece of jewelery that I could wear. Here’s the end result:
unique piece
I’m thrilled to bits with it, and am looking forward to wearing it over Christmas. I tend to buy necklaces and the like when I’m abroad, simply to be able to answer “Oh I got it in Venice/ Luxembourg/ Skye” or something when it gets admired. So I shall look forward to telling people about the jade carving factory just outside Beijing, and the freshwater oyster place in Huangzhou where I picked up these little gems, and of course they are a beautiful reminder for me of a beautiful country.
And a big thank you to Margaret Forbes the jeweler for creating such a stunning piece.
We’re in the eerie calm after the storm now that the week-long run of Guys and Dolls is over. Jemima was playing Miss Adelaide, her first time in a principal role, and boy what a great role it was for her! It completely suited her effervescent personality, and the songs were in a good range for her to sing. The few weeks leading up to the show were hectic, mind, with me taxi-ing her back and forth. But I remember the mantra I taught myself when the babes were young – make the most of every phase, and don’t dwell on the less pleasant aspects. Because they grow up all too soon, and those happy moments will soon only be memories.
A letter from Adelaide's mother
So we’re making the most of our car time together. We listen to a bit of Classic FM, to improve her listening skills which she needs to do for her Music GCSE, and we talk about the future.
She did her Grade 6 ballet in the same week as the show, and I was talking to her ballet teacher while she was in the exam room. Previously she had encouraged me to persuade Jem not to go to London next year to dance college, but to stay and go to Belfast Met instead. But when we were discussing her knock-em dead performance, we both agreed that we might reconsider. I know like any mother, I will support her to the hilt in whatever is the best option for her future, but boy I’ll miss her when she’s gone.
take back your mink
Sadly, we’ve just discovered that she’s too young to go for Lloyd Webber’s next search, which is for Dorothy. Basically they can’t interrupt compulsory education. Shame, cos she’d be the right type for that role, but there’ll be other chances. She was quite sanguine about this, and is being very industrious about preparing for her GCSEs next year. She’s also busy filling in application forms for the main dance schools that she’s keen on – Laine, Arts Ed, and Bird. So no doubt we’ll be over to London a few times in the New Year!
Behold my new computer! My previous one, although only 4 years old, constantly gave problems with interenet access> We’d gone to PC World origionally to get a new wireless card, but the prices of computers fall so rapidly, with a corresponding increase in power, that it made more sense just to buy a new machine. This little HP baby came complete with a printer/ copier and scanner all in one. It’s got Windows 7, which I’m still finding my way around, and I also get Word and Excel 2007.
So far so fab! The updated software is very intuitive – for instance when I stick the SD card from the camcorder into it, it instantly recognises the clips and imports them into Windows Live Movie Maker. From there, editing is a doddle, and it’s a push button choice of “Upload to Youtube” or “Make a DVD”.
Same with photos on my phone, which in the past have given me great problems. Now, the computer recognises the pictures and imports them itself, without any need for software from the phone.
Jem has inherited my old one, minus the internet access, but with Word, Excel, Powerpoint and iTunes it’s got lots of features that she needs for homeworks and music.
Jemima was lucky enough recently to get through the first stage of auditions for Just Dance, a reality show to be shown on Sky 1 next year. We flew to Edinburgh for the next round, unsure of what the format was going to be. Turned out she had to perform in front of a live audience, complete with bright lights and scurrying camera crew, and be interviewed back stage. The panel certainly had gravitas in the dancing world – Adam Garcia, Kimberly Pussycat Doll, and Ashley “Diversity” Banjo. And they were being extremely strict – in the 5 or 6 hours we were there I saw them approve one dancer. And no, it wasn’t our J. She’d danced her little heart out – all winsome smiles and graceful limbs. Her face lit up when Ashley asked her about the music, written for her by her boyfriend. And all the judges’ comments were constructive and believable. I was bursting with pride (yes again!) at her ability to cope unprepared with this tough ordeal, and to keep her chin up and keep smiling during the feedback.
Apologies for teh watermark on the video – having just upgraded my ‘puter to one using Windows 7, I’m rather disappointed that Movie Maker still doesn’t import mp4 or wav files, and so in order to capture Matty’s stunning music I had to use a free trial download.
I was privileged today to see a semi-costumed run through of Blood Brothers, my daughter’s school play, in which she plays the narrator. I’ll miss the actual show dates next week as I’m in Frankfurt and Luxembourg, but more of that anon.
Jem singing the Madman song from Blood Brothers
Boy does she make a great narrator! We’d had some discussion about the difficulty of bringing to life this role, who’s almost a Machiavellian devil character, so no background history or life story to use in playing the part. But I felt she got the right controlling stance and supercilious look.
It’s very heartening to see this great group of young women giving up their Saturdays for something like this – I do honestly feel our teenagers are much maligned in the Press. Well done to everyone who’d been involved in this production, and break a leg – I know there won’t be a dry eye in the house!
The city which is used as “base camp” for the trip to see the Terracotta Warriors is Xi’an, which means Peace in the West. It was a former Imperial capital, between 1,000 BC and 1,000 AD, including the prolific and culturally rich Tang dynasty. Much of its historical buildings are well preserved, from the impressive 9 mile city walls, to the great goose pagoda and the bell and drum towers.
Although it’s now a manufacturing centre, prone to some heavy pollution and with frightening traffic jams, this city of 5 million people is very pleasant. Being in the north means that it is drier and less humid than the Eastern seaboard cities, and there is more of a contrast in temperatures between day and night than in the southern sub-tropical zone.
It is too dry to grow rice here, and so wheat based dishes are the local specialty, particularly the Big Noodles. An astonishingly exotic range of foods is on display at the street markets, including roasted goats feet. I wasn’t tempted.
Now, I wouldn’t normally class myself as an early adopter, but I’m the first person in my office to have one! OK, 2 of the guys have Blackberries so it’s not like we’re completely last millennium.
Dancing At Lunacy 