Thursday 15 September 2011

P trying to get home


His guiding is over so off to bed early and up at 6.14 for the bus to Rome

Then at 11 onto the plane down the runway and      stop

turn round back to the departures terminal 
all off

wait wait wait

you will be flying in 4 four hours
stuck in departures all the time

now 4.30
.....no.....
now
midnight
no.... we only have a smaller plane so some of you have to stay in Rome

yes at the moment he is on the midnight plane
of course by the time he gets to Manchester no trains will be running until 5am ( oh and they have replaced the train with a bus)

some one has offered him a ride to Leeds so all going well! he will be here about 5am

and so happy I bet.

I leave tomorrow for Chelmsford and Peterborough and wont be back for 4 days. I have my training to be a trainer.

ships that pass in the night...

Tuesday 13 September 2011

It's all negative

All around the world and what a negative experience:

  • No crashes
  • No breakdowns
  • No lost tickets
  • No muggings
  • No kidnappings
  • No murders
  • No bad weather (after snow in Chch on the first days)
  • No deadly earthquakes (only a 4.5 on the last day)
  • No All Black losses
  • No worries, mate

Thursday 23 June 2011

It's here!

The Battles for Monte Cassino: Then and Now by Jeff Plowman  and Perry Rowe. Published by After the Battle. Available though www.afterthebattle.com (check that site for your nearest distributors).


Spread the word.

Friday 10 June 2011

New new project

Another from Italy...


Sunday 10 April 2011

New project

The bridge is done so I've been working on this instead:



Here's my version so far:


Still a work in progress of course, but any of you with an interest in Cassino will recognise it...

Thursday 24 March 2011

Wot I done in the holidays...

Pre-orders being taken now, and I'll sign your copy for free. ;^)



The Battles for Monte Cassino Then and Now by Jeffrey PlowmanThe Battles for Monte Cassino Then and Now by Jeffrey Plowman/Perry Rowe

or

http://www.fishpond.co.nz/Books/Battles-for-Monte-Cassino-Then-and-Now-Jeffrey-Plowman-Perry-Rowe/9781870067737

But seriously, if you know any history buffs, please pass this on to them! That's the power of social networking.

Friday 11 March 2011

New news and old news

Well, more change. Where to start?

We went to the Isle of Wight with friends for a week. The weather wasn't great so as far as we know the Island is a 200m diameter circle, though with someone changing props every now and then. It was foggy for most of the time and since we were there to walk it was a tad spooky at times. While there Judi looked up her long lost relatives but without making huge progress. We did have the odd bit of sunshine and saw the island highlights - Carisbrook Castle, the Needles, and so on.

Tennyson's memorial
Our friends are also the other half of our quiz team. We've not been doing so well as none of us know any music, and there is a music round every week work 1/6th of the total. Mind you, we aren't so hot on any subject after 1980...

Putting a damper on the week was Q's call informing us of the earthquake, so we were worried for a while. It is a relief that no family or friends were badly affected. Still, I cried to see the wreckage of all those heritage buildings. I hope that whatever replaces them is more than just a cheap, quick rebuild. Will we be left with a Napier/Hastings or a Akl city centre?

Speaking of building memorials, with the bridge done I am making this:
Polish memorial, Monte Cassino
So far I have this, so there's a bit of work to go...
The recreation so far
This one can't take a year like the bridge, as we'll be moving in July/August. Yes folks, the decision has been made to chuck in J's well paid and secure job for another move into the great unknown, in the middle of a recession. Madness. 8^) 

We will be visiting NZ in August for C's graduation so hope to catch up with as many as possible. We'll take a month or so and do some touring of the North Island which I never saw much of before. Could be a little chilly though... Since we are away so long we'll stick our stuff into storage and move locations when we get back - much like last time, except we'll need a bigger van this time. J gave her notice - around 5 months so plenty of time to find a replacement - and there were a few tears from the boss.

Not my boss though as for the first time I am at a new school! Wearing yet another hat! This incarnation I am acting Exam Officer at Norton Hill School, a half hour drive south of Bath. It's a nice school but I am really in at the deep end this time - more so than any of the previous hats I've worn. Fortunately the incumbent was ultra organised so systems are in place and she did most of the hard work before she took her seriously sick leave. That is dedication! To add to the first week I got a bad chest cold so am pretty shattered, and the agency filled in my personal details as Gender: female. I should remember that operation shouldn't I? Put the knife down Mrs Bobbitt!

Tomorrow is hockey again. We've been struggling for a team since Christmas, through injury or absence, and it looks as though tomorrow will be a 9 aside game. Two weekends ago only 8 turned up. Perhaps understandably our results have been crap and we've been at the wrong end of some drubbings, so much so that we could be relegated. And all under my captaincy. 8^( 

On a happier note we get our hands on the book on April 20th apparently. Sadly, that is a few weeks too late for Jeff to pick one up in person while he visits the UK (including us) in March. We are both bemused by the apparent lack of marketing being planned, and a little worried that neither of us actually have a contract. Will this be just a labour of love?

Speaking of labours of love, I will guiding another group in May. The same organisation as two years ago - The Monte Cassino Association. This time J will be staying in the hotel so she can add her Kiwi charm to the proceedings. She and I'll take a few days beforehand to visit Termoli so I can get the pics for my next article. I finally got a contact there who might be able to give me a hand - a professor of History in the local uni - so hope to fill in some of the gaps in my picture coverage. I've been able to use Google Earth (TM) to map 80% of the pics already, but the ones I'm missing are likely to be the most useful for the publisher (tank losses, for the record). We also hope to catch up with some of our friends in Cassino - and sell them the book. I thought the Italian agent might be setting something up for the 'season' in Cassino but it appears that it is up to me: buy the books at 35% discount and flog them out of my car boot. Not really a possibility when flying RyanAir.

On Sunday we are off to a comedy act - Punt and Dennis. I've no idea if they've made NZ TV screens or radio yet, but they should be funny. Hugh Dennis was in a TV series called Outnumbered which I found very funny. It was partially improvised with three kids, one of whom was a young clone of Jonathan Davies, who you may also not know. We've been watching a few series off disk - Breaking Bad, which should be called the Law of Unintended Consequences; Dexter, though that got a bit annoying and stale after a while; and we've started on Huff but it is only filling in time.

As am I. See you next month. 8^)



Friday 28 January 2011

The bridge to nowhere


I have finished the bridge, for better or for worse. You can see pics of it by clicking here or here.


Or these may suffice:
A cold Korean morning


The bridge grows, panel by panel

A reconnaissance aircraft swings over low for a look-see.

PS. I just realised that the walk we went on in the last posting was on the hill that Peter Gabriel sang about: Solsbury Hill.

Sunday 16 January 2011

Unemployment

So the hockey season has started again. I can tell because everything hurts. Last weekend we lost 5-2 after going off at half-time at 0-0. Fifteen minutes of madness into the second half and it was 4-0. It took me until Wednesday to be able to move freely again. This weekend we had a 2-2 draw, the defence was tighter, and I should be able to move by Tuesday. Next weekend I'm aiming for Monday... Sadly we are second or third from bottom of the league so well in the relegation zone at this point. Some captaincy.

J made the pain worse last weekend by making me go for a walk on Sunday. I struggled up to Solsbury hill where there is an ancient ramparted fort site with a fantastic view over bath and the valleys. Then we wandered around RAF Charmy down which has quite a few relics of the war years and immediately after. One remaining runway is now used for microlights, and we saw a two-seater Thruster, the big-brother of Dad's joy.










I have made progress on the bridge now that the book has quietened down (more on that in a sec). I have actually finished the bridge side of things and now only (!) have to pose, paint and place the 22 figures.


The book is nearing completion. We proofed the acknowledgements last week, and most of it is with the indexer now. I thought it was to be printed in China but apparently it will be done in Poland. That's the nature of our global economy. I got to see the dustcover as well last week, and it's quite good. Conservative, but that's the AtB style through and through. April is still the projected release date, but I don't know what they do for a launch.

I did my invigilating and some supply teaching, and have one more day booked tomorrow, but otherwise it is time to hit the agents. One job was for an administrator of financial products but I haven't heard from them after I was asked answer "Why are you interested in financial products?" Basically I don't give a shit about financial products so tried to emphasise the technical appeal of the position, but can't have been convincing.

Thursday 6 January 2011

The end of the noughties

New Year's was unspectacular for us though the kids had a good enough time it would seem. (Please note that the following description in no way condones binge drinking.) O was home by 11:30 after pacing himself carefully, though clearly over the wrong distance. He remembered throwing up at the pub, but not at home, a fact that was unpleasantly brought to his (and all of our) attention the following morning. C had got detached from her other friends and spent the early morning wandering around Bath with a stranger, both looking for respective homes away from home. Dangerous, but she got away with it, the silly girl. Sunday mid-day looked like a scene from Dawn of the Dead as the four of them, all still in last night's clothes, eventually found their way through the shower and then back to bed to catch up on missed sleep. God I miss those days. NOT.

C and O are actually officially C nand O, a decision that had been decided a few weeks back but which was announced on Facebook by a change of status followed by a flurry of explanatory messages. That's the modern way I guess. It all seems quite amicable, but O is going to Wellington for Film School and C is staying in Dunedin to finish her Masters.

We put them on the plane this morning at Heathrow, so they should be halfway between Dubai and Brunei about now. J and C were stoic, but it is always hard to say goodbye. Between the two of them they seem to have left a whole heap of stuff behind, presumably because it was too heavy for their bags, but what a waste of money.

I've been wearing a new hat again at Hayesfield, this time exam invigilator for a week or two, but then my time may actually be up for good. It'll be weird as I have been working there a year now under various guises. I've updated my CV so so we'll see what happens.