I was able to attend 2 days of sports. First it was Lyndhurst's (Pocklington's Junior School) turn on Friday, which is where Anna goes. Thankfully for the kids it wasn't exactly a scorcher of a day ... it was infact a little drizzly ... like I said, nice for the kids, not so nice for the older folks sitting on the sidelines! But it wasn't raining and we had come prepared, so it was fun :) Anna did really well in her races. She came 3rd in the potatoe race and did really well in the 4x 100m relay! Go Anna-Millana ;p And off she goes, in the green! Waiting for the next one.... Janet & Ian enjoying an afternoon at the races! And on Saturday it was Pock's turn! This time, the drizzle decided to stay away...wonderful :) Will had his legs all tired out at the end of the day. He did the long jump - in which he broke 2 records but unfortunately some other kid with increadibly long legs (and a fowl jump as far as we're conserned) landed a little further - as well as...

Because of the tennis last night my nails are a little shorter and holding-my-breath practise a little better... Centre Court finally got to use their roof and test their flood lights (the game finished after 22:30) and we got to watch some awesome tennis. After the match I was tempted to watch a little Big Brother, but luckily on my way, flicking through, I came across the movie Wimbledon - a great feel good about dinosaurs! Just kidding, obviously it's about tennis. How ideal, I can satiate myself with all sorts of tennis from my 3rd floor room! I have a feeling that this movie is joining my Love Actually and Pride & Prejudice list. Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst are the stars here: For the girls he's quite nice to look at, for the boys, well I can't tell how you feel about K.D., but I did discover in this movie (even though I do love it, still) that she has very tiny teeth! Anyway, if you want to get involved in the whole tennis fever, but don't really like wa...

Sunday afternoons (well actually the whole day) are usually dedicated to relaxing. Getting the Sunday papers, enjoying a breakfast / brunch / lunch and not doing much else. Sometimes recovering from the night before, sometimes planning a cheeky afternoon drink or two, hopefully not doing laundry. This Sunday afternoon - unlike last Sunday which was spent, for the large part, travelling - has been true to Sunday form: relaxing. Woke up for the first time this morning at around 5:00ish, looked out the window and the 'pond' on the common was covered with a mist blanket. I hadn't realised that it was +_5:00, but the time made sense when I saw the homeless looking man having a chin-wag with a man in a crisp-white-just-been-out-for-the-night shirt. After admiring the view I snuggled down for a few more hours of sleep - try 4! 9:00 came around sooner than I had expected, but I managed to peel myself out from under the covers to get downstairs by 9:45ish. That's probably been t...

So just a quickie - If someone's going to stub their toe, it'll be me. But seriously, I was lying on the common, reading my book with a pair of sunglasses on and the book shielding the sun from my eyes and STILL a birds left-over dinner managed to navigate around the book, osmosisize (new word) through the lens and get onto my eye! Thanks Murphy, (un)Lucky

This morning I had to be up early - well, half an hour earlier: 9:30. I'm actually awake before this time, but despite my repetitions that I can be up earlier, I'm not generally needed before 10:00. So to fill the time before I'm 'allowed' downstairs & to the bathroom I've developed a habit for morning TV and my gmail inbox - last night I got some cracker news, so will be eagerly checking said inbox ridiculously often! The whole of yesterday (slight exaggeration) I was researching info for my Castle Howard blog. I'd previously loaded the pics, so all that remained were a few inspirational words. I completed this at about 1 this morning and gleefully pressed 'publish post'. Well much to my annoyance, the post was published, but not at the top of the page!!! So if anyone is a bit interested in a little info on how the Howards & Henry VIII were related scroll down the page - it's all there! Today is one of those days - its humid and muggy. I...

Wimbledonia - area of Wimbledon, home of the Wombles & includes tennis courts. With Wimbledon kicking off yesterday Wimbledonia is all a buzz at the moment. The bookies are placing bets on the weather, the restaurants are hoping the celebrities visiting the tennis will stop in for a bite and I'm still in bed (touch wood this continues!) However, as with everything, there is always a down side... I don't have a bathroom. Now before you all fall off the back of your chairs - I'm not using a bucket (yet)! The bathroom I can use is two flights downstairs, and from Thursday, past an alarm! While I do own black tights, having to spray deodorant to pick up the beam every time I want to go to the bog is not ideal. Of course I could always just disable the alarm, but who wants to do anything as practical as that! Anyway, back to the tennis. For those wishing to visit the official website, to check out who's doing what, visit www.wimbledon.org A quick update: yesterday the...

Okay, so this is the first time that I am putting up a post and unfortunately my writing skills aren't nearly on the same level as Lucky's ... for this I apologise! Well, I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. I am staying with my cousin Nick (previously known to Lucky and I as Nicky-Nocky Noo ... when we were very little and Nick stayed with us for a while) and his sister-in-law has had a beautiful little daughter, and it was time to Christen the little beauty :) So, on Sunday, Nick, his two kids, Anna and Will, and I piled into the car and headed into the countryside to a beautiful little church. So here are some pics that were taken by myself and the budding photographers, Will and Anna. Oh, and did I mention that it was the Christening on Lucinda Kate ..... Lucky was super happy to know another Lucinda :) Anna looking pretty in pink! Will ... the shirt that never stays tucked in! Like father, like son ... Me! Cousin Nick The countryside! Th...

So, I'm here, in Wimbledon - not for the tennis! Got to the house and the carer I'm subbing for offered her Internet dongle (so long as I didn't, amongst other things, download bad porn - not sure about good porn though???) Anyway, I will have contact with the outside world for the next 11 days - yay. Wimbledon Village (although as of yet unexplored) seems to be awesome. The house is literally just over the road from the common, and everywhere is abuzz with tennis fever at the moment. And for those wanting to know - no I can't: see the courts / met any famous people yet / have my family from Yorkshire over to stay while they're watching the games. Anyway I have the feeling that I'm going to be spending the next few days indoors, so while that means I might loose a bit of tan (hmmm - just thinking that could always nip over to the common to catch up on that!) I should be able to finish putting up the posts from Corfe Castle and the rest of Dorset! I'm going t...

This morning (fathers day morning) sees me travelling back to London to do my next caring stint. After not much sleep last night – for no particular reason – and a fairly early start of 7:30 (I like to have loads of time to faff!) I would have thought that nodding off on the train would have been relatively easy. No. Although I booked a seat with a table, and near to the luggage rack (so I can comfort my sense of bag theft paranoia) the train is really full – not so surprising for a Sunday. On my left, across the isle is a girl constantly on either her iphone or ipod? And next to her is a young guy chugging back the beers. Opposite them is a little boy, complete with froggy bag and doting dad. Sharing my table are a quiet family, happily reading the papers, books and doing homework. So far the trip has been fairly uneventful! Oh, the view is still pretty, and the weather ok, for those wanting to know! I still (not really surprisingly) seem to have the same problem with the tunnels tho...

The Howards of Castle Howard ‘originate’ from Lord William Howard (1563 – 1640) the youngest son of Thomas Howard, 4 th Duke of Norfolk (who was beheaded in 1572). Designed in 1699 by Sir John Vanbrumgh the house took 100 years to complete. Howard Castle was built after the reign of old King Henry VIII, but the Howards of today are still relatives of the sometimes devious and always interesting Howards of the Tudor era. And this is how: basically the royal skeletons in the Howard closet stem back to Thomas Howard, the 3 rd Duke of Norfolk – who was a major instigator behind the Howard marriages of Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard. The 3 rd Duke of Norfolk was a distinguished soldier and inherited his title in 1524 on the death of his father. Norfolks power increased when his niece, Anne Boleyn became Henry’s mistress (and later, his wife and mother to Princess and later Queen Elizabeth I). Once Henry had had Anne beheaded (and his third wife Jane Seymour had died – a natural dea...