Would you Adam and New Year's Eve it?

Hoar frost

C&O revisit their childhoods

C, the swinger

Counting down to the end of 2010. Most of you will already have celebrated and gone to bed, but here our guests - C&O and friends - are just getting ready to go out, and J is also deciding what to wear. There has been a disaster with Big Ben which is used to toll the New Year. Apparently the clock running it is 2 seconds slow! Cancel New Year.

We survived Christmas though I have eaten and drunk enough for three weeks, and now feel like Santa Claus looks. God help me next weekend when we restart the hockey season!

The Crescent under snow

Kennet and Avon Canal

C&O have been wandering about Bath and Bristol to fill in their time. Lots of shopping, though too much to actually fit in their bags so stuff is being thrown out again. We went to Cribb's Causeway - a huge cathedral to mammon - the other day and did some ice-skating which was rather enjoyable. Not much was bought except from Hobbycraft where I got some modelling stuff to help with my next project. J also got a paint-by-numbers to keep people amused. I have been teaching C&O all I know about being a poor loser at Risk. Stupid game.



The snow was washed away on Wednesday and it has been overcast since then. It has been the coldest December since, well, the last really cold one. The Avon and the canals were frozen over, though not enough to walk on.

Rental longboats iced in.

Happy New Year everyone!

Snowbody here

Encouraged by evidence there is life outside Bath and that a small subset checks the blog occasionally I shall continue...

So cold it's gone purple!

From our lounge

The only news of any import (setting aside wars, terrorist threats, and the Aussie Phoenix rising) is the British weather, but then it's always the first topic of conversation so does it count as news? We didn't have to go to Edinburgh for snow as once again it is snowing here in Bath. Some lovely scenes from the comfort of our own lounge, and in fact it is quite heavy as I write. It is once again causing havoc in the UK, with Heathrow and Gatwick, and other airports closed, trains running late, slow, or not at all, roads blocked or just very dangerous, etc. The usual. Damn, I won't be able to do the outside chores J has set me for today. It's probably no consolation for many that the same is true all over northern Europe. W and R may not get to Berlin!

Yes, I am once again unemployed, this state being quite a regular one, though always (to date) temporary. I therefore have a list of chores every morning: today I must clean floors, do laundry, remove a spider from the bathroom (though in this house that's definitely the woman's work, or at least anyone other than arachnophobic moi), vacuum, and deliver a duvet to the dry-cleaners (cancelled by snow). I have added my own list: finish RM's memoirs (only three years late - sorry R), finish the Bailey bridge (only one year late), finish proofing the book, finish reading a novel. Oh, and re-jig my CV, look for work (at Christmas? Who hires over the Christmas/New Year period?), go sledding.

The first bridge bay is added to the launching nose

The snow has caused havoc for my hockey, with so many games postponed we'll be playing through summer. I have been playing at Captain this year, and what a minefield that has been - I have already caused one player to find another team, and cost the team three points for cancelling a game without the proper authorisation! But I am famous (for the picture - ignore the text)... http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/hockey/Buccs-knocked-thrilling-clash/article-2932481-detail/article.html

Further on the book... we have proof-read to p311 (of 400 odd) and those have gone for indexing and layout. Publication will be in April. Price will be £49.95 so it will break the NZ$100 mark I think. But it's worth every penny, so buy it!

C & O are currently in that London having a look around. I hope they aren't too limited by the conditions. They are in a central hotel so don't have to rely on the Underground too much, so that should help. I haven't bought Claire's Christmas present yet - must add that to the list. (I just bought my own on-line - don't tell J.)

Is there anybody out there?

I stopped writing as I didn't think anyone was reading any more! Well, that and getting out of the habit.

So what's new? The Poms are getting excited in anticipation of winning the Ashes in Aussie. We won't shed too many tears for Ponting and co will we?

We had a visit from W, R and L - it was great to catch up with them after what's been a while now. Lunch with C, M and M on the weekend, followed the next day with a stroll through Bath and a few beers. Good times.

C and O have been with us for four weeks or so now. It's nice to see them, and they seem to be enjoying their stay. They've been to Belfast for 4 days, Edinburgh in the snow for  week, Cardiff, Salisbury, Stonehenge and Avebury. Next they're off to that London.

Dangerous move!

The family at Clifford's castle, York

York Minster

The Edinburgh trip coincided with the coldest weather in 21 years, with -15 deg in central Scotland and snow everywhere. We managed to drive up in OK weather, stopping for a look at York on a crisp, clear wintry day. The car was snowed in in Edinburgh but we didn't need it anyway, and we managed to drive back in a brief warmer spell at the end of he week! The city was lovely in a mantle of snow, and we managed to fill in the time OK. I got two days in the aerial photo archive so that was a bonus.

Leith monument to seamen

Calton Hill Acropolis

Arthur's Seat from Calton Hill

Edinburgh under snow

It's coming up Christmas - last day of school tomorrow, though their break is shorter. I am unemployed again after a spell as Data Manager (temp.) and a few days as supply teacher (I'm in a class writing this -the students are studying kidneys but apparently don't cut them up). Who knows what the new year will bring?

The book continues to fill some of the time with the big task now of proof-reading so it can go to the printers. It will be published in April all going well. It may not be the book that I thought it would be - photo archives have raised their prices to ludicrous levels so around half my pics have been dropped - but it is still looking very good. What will I do in May?

We popped up to Cambridge over the weekend - well actually we took Thursday and Friday off as well. It snowed on the way there, while we were there and on the way back, but that's OK. It's a lovely old town, much altered by the university over the years but still keeping its character. We stayed in a somewhat noisy B&B, surrounded on two sides by kitchen and dining room, the third by another room and above by an elephant enclosure. I got half a day in the archives looking at German documents for my next article, then the rest of the day in the Duxford Museum, which is mainly (but not entirely) devoted to aircraft, civilian and military. As an added bonus there was a working Bailey bridge...

Hockey has been busy with catch-up games and veterans competition games as well as our scheduled matches. I had a poor weekend last weekend for a loss and a draw (though I saved two on the line in the latter which evens things out.) I missed Saturday's game and they went down 4-2 to the comp leaders. Today's vets game was a strange one as we romped in 11-0 and even I got a shot at goal which was spectacularly wimpy and easily saved. The win puts us into the quarter finals though which could mean travel to anywhere in the UK. The guys are hoping for York or Jersey. On the way home I found out that my lift used to play for Harewood hockey and knows DFP well. Tubes, if you happen to read this get in touch.

It was mid-term break at school and most of my caretaking staff were off so not much was happening. My ladder finally arrived (long story), the pranged van was finally taken away and we've made some good progress on the PAT testing so that's one goal a little closer to achievement.

Here's some more pics, but check out J's as well.

Creating a scene

Some fun things to manage last week. First the van got smashed into on Friday. My caretaker wasn't hurt, but had only just taken the assessment to make him a legal driver two days before. Whew. Now we have to pay for taxis to move stuff between the two sites.

On Friday we had a burglary at the school. As we were entertaining the head-teacher and her husband we managed to have the Estate Manager, the Headteacher and the Project Manager on site within 5 minutes of the alarm going off. Not bad that. We didn't catch anyone as they made off over the roof where they had got in. A gutsy move given its height and the snow and ice that had fallen that evening. Stupid too as they left footprints all over which the CSI came and photographed. Also possibly some blood.


Sadly the snow meant hockey was cancelled. I was supposed to also play today but J and I watched the England A side playing Ireland A. Ireland couldn't finish a move and lost 17-13. Only themselves to blame as England weren't great.


On Tuesday I get one of my staff-members back so may be able to spend more time actually doing the management side of my job from next week.


Some more progress on the diorama...

Plus ça change plus c'est la même chose

I have a new job as temporary Estate Manager - the same as the old new job I had as temp Estate Manager last April. It's going to be a challenge and a half...


Meanwhile slow progress is made on the bridge...



As you'll see in J's blog, it has been a little white over here. It's lovely, though we've had some heating issues I have to deal with. It's all supposed to warm up a bit in the next few days, but that won't stop the snow freezing tonight.

Here's a picture of a bunch of frozes.

Happy New Year

Well, J has given an update of what we've been up to so I won't say too much about it. Here's what I've been doing though...




I can't have a bridge being built without men building the bridge, so I have to build the kitset men to build the kitset bridge.




Since I have two identical packets of kitset men and I don't want that to be obvious in the final diorama I have had to cut off heads, arms and legs and reattach them to strike different poses. It's like a miniature slaughter house!



I've managed to complete 5 of the 22 characters, with another three awaiting painting.