I've had a lovely day adding to my Locking Family One Name Study, by spying on people electronically. By googling the surname with a selection of given names, it is actually fairly easy to find out quite a lot about numerous people.
Now I am doing this innocently, just to add to my family tree information, and to be fair I haven't found anything from any private source, or sensitive stuff like bank details, only things from advertising of businesses, school alumni newsletters, news reports in the press, online club information and some data divulged by family websites and bloggers! But it all goes to show you have to be careful what you put out there, as people like me, and those far less scrupulous, can find it!

I am passing this on to you because it definitely worked for me, and we could all use a little more calmness in our lives! By following the simple advice I heard on the radio yesterday, I have finally found inner peace.

The phone-in show was talking about the potential damage to our health of the stress we have in our lives. Dr. Phil proclaimed, "We are all over-stressed because of the unfinished business in our lives. Look around you at all those things you've started and not finished and see if you can work your way through them one by one. When you have completed all that unfinished business, you can achieve inner peace."

So, this morning, I looked around my house to see all the things I had started and hadn't finished, and before leaving the house, I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of White Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream, a bottle of Bombay Sapphire Gin, a packet of Jaffa Cakes, the remainder of an old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos and a Box of chocolates. You have no idea how bloody good I feel!!!! The man is a Genius!

Please pass this on to those you feel might be in need of inner peace...

A woman was at the funeral of her own mother.
She met a guy there whom she did not know. She thought this guy was amazing. She believed him to be her dream guy so much, that she fell in love with him right there.
Unfortunately, she never asked for his number and could not find him.
A few days later she killed her sister.

Question: What is her motive for killing her sister?

If you know the answer, you ARE a psychopath!

OK. The Answer.

She killed her sister hoping the unknown adonis would be at the funeral, on the grounds that although unknown to her, he was a friend of the family...

Apparently psychopathic prison inmates often give this answer!

I have frequently heard from Australian friends that Melbourne can experience all four seasons in one day.
Well, we've had some weird weather here today, too. I woke up to blazing sunshine and looked out of the window to see a light covering of snow in the garden.
The sun soon had that melted, but on venturing out, I realised the wind was both strong and biting, so wrapped up warm for my trip to the library (Katie Fforde; Peter Ackroyd and Lindsey Davis - nothing too taxing on the brain). Good thing I did; there was another, horizontally delivered, fall of sleety snow, so quickly followed by rain and further sun that there was a rainbow.
On the way home from town, another very heavy shower turned thundery. But then the sun re-appeared until dusk. So we've had every weather we usually experience, all in the one day. It must be Melbourne.

Mothers' Day today, so started the morning with a call to Mum, who was feeling much chirpier, having had some good news after a couple of weeks of bad and was excited about opening the Spring Exhibition of their art association later in the morning.
Did I hear from my child? Well no - but now I have an American daughter-in-law to keep him in line, I fully expect to receive loving greetings in May!!

We had a super Hash run - a circular route from Otford via Shoreham, on a lovely sunny early Sring day. We were late setting off, so did the whole thing by ourselves, but not alone as we kept coming across groups of boy scouts obviously doing their map-reader's badge! On the out run, the first thing we came across was Otford Palace, one of the medieval palaces of the archbishops of Canterbury - Tudor remains seen here, attached behind to Victorian cottages!

We set off along the North Downs along parts of the Pilgrims' Way, with lovely views from the escarpment.With azure skies, bare trees and the fields still with their muted winter shades, the colours were my favourite palette - think Sisley.

Both Otford and Shoreham have some lovely old buildings - here's the King's Head at Shoreham.

We ran across the golf course at Shoreham. I have mixed feelings about golf courses - being there prevents the land being built on and totally ruined, but having the golf course itself ruins the scenery to some extent - taming and manicuring.

Back towards Otford - getting tired now and the oast houses are welcome signs that we are not too far away.

Back at last! Ed liked the ducks' house in the pond on the village green.

We went to see Lizzie Hopley in her one woman drama "Pramface" at the Croydon Warehouse Theatre, originally put on at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival.

There are two characters - the main one is Pramface herself (a derogatory term applied to girls who look best suited to be pushing a pram round a council estate) who lives reclusively, surrounded by piles of celebrity magazines, from which she cuts sorts and pastes the faces into numerous sub-categories under the main headings of "chic" and "freak". She appears to buy into and personify the uneducated chav mores, until her neighbour Danny appears on an "X Factor" type TV show and gets rejected for lacking "it", when he is dubbed "Arcade face" by celebrity "Ooh!" magazine editor Holly Lord and slashes his own face.
The second character, Holly Lord, now appears, hounding Danny and his mother for a personal interview, under a pseudo caring guise of "wanting to put the record straight". Holly's character is equally well delineated - ruthless and ambitious, but careful to use pc language and appear considerate and caring.
It's all about class racism, the celebrity culture which puts people on pedestals only to knock them down and judges people primarily on appearance.
It all ends in tears...

The performance was excellent and the ideas thought provoking - it was a good night out.

I know it was last week, but in our school we celebrated it today, to coincide with a Book Fair next week. The children were all invited to come as their favourite story book character, and we were ordered to do the same!
As usual, I can't show you the children's efforts - but if you imagine 27 Snow Whites, 14 Sleeping Beauties, a handful of Cinderellas, a couple of Belles and a wide variety of Super Heroes, you get the idea!

So guess what we came as!

We had the last lot of 4 sessions of parent consultations after school, but wiped off our noses in the interests of being taken seriously!
All went well; we had only a couple fail to make an appointment, a couple who made appointments but failed to show; one who didn't much like what we had to tell her, and a dad who heroically turned up and politely asked if we minded if he kept his mobile phone switched on, as his wife had just begun labour!

By a sad coincidence, we discovered that both the Berts in our circle died last week.

One was a lovely and lively little dog, who ran regularly with the Westerham & North Kent Hash as Grand Master, as well as gracing other Hashes with his cheerful waggy presence.

The other was an old and very dear family friend, Bert Wilkinson. My parents met him over half a century ago, when he started dating Mum's best friend Joyce, and he has been part of our family life ever since. Bringing up their children together, our two families shared many happy childhood hours at Humberstone Fitties chalet village playing rounders, cricket and badminton; not to mention the countless weekend outings, sharing picnics and adventures at numerous places around Lincolnshire and beyond.
Bert was a BFG - a tall, quiet and soft hearted man who enhanced the lives of those who knew him. His life revolved around his ever growing family - he could never do enough for his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. He will be sadly missed by all his friends.

Lissa kindly sent me this very apposite poem of Walt Whitman's, concerning life's pleasures.

Miracles.

WHY! who makes much of a miracle?
As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach, just in the edge of the water,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with any one I love—or sleep in the bed at night with any one I love,
Or sit at table at dinner with my mother,
Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,
Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive, of a summer forenoon,
Or animals feeding in the fields,
Or birds—or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
Or the wonderfulness of the sun-down—or of stars shining so quiet and bright,
Or the exquisite, delicate, thin curve of the new moon in spring;
Or whether I go among those I like best, and that like me best—mechanics, boatmen, farmers,
Or among the savants—or to the soiree—or to the opera,
Or stand a long while looking at the movements of machinery,
Or behold children at their sports,
Or the admirable sight of the perfect old man, or the perfect old woman,
Or the sick in hospitals, or the dead carried to burial,
Or my own eyes and figure in the glass;
These, with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,
The whole referring—yet each distinct, and in its place.

To me, every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,
Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same,
Every foot of the interior swarms with the same;
Every spear of grass—the frames, limbs, organs, of men and women, and all that concerns them,
All these to me are unspeakably perfect miracles.

To me the sea is a continual miracle;
The fishes that swim—the rocks—the motion of the waves—the ships, with men in them,
What stranger miracles are there?

Says it all, doesn't it? I might add last night's lunar eclipse, which provided me with another moment or several of wonderment. We had clear skies, and excellent views as the moon "went out" and turned red. We were intrigued by how different it looked when not primarily viewed as a source of light, but as a solid sphere not far from us.

Today we enjoyed a mixed pleasure. We went for our usual Hash run and for the first time in ages, it rained. It persisted down the whole morning! In some ways this is refreshing - once you've resigned yourself to getting wet from head to toe and filthy shoes, it's quite liberating to splosh through the middle of muddy puddles and ooze, instead of pussy-footing round the edges like the wimp I usually am. The scenery was lovely and the route, around Kingswood in Surrey, fine. It palled after an hour or so, once I started to get cold, however. But then we had the opportunity of really appreciating a warm house and dry clothes to come home to, so it was swings and roundabouts all the way. Remimded me of why I don't do camping in Britain!!

I am in the process of changing my extra day off from Fridays to Mondays. By request, not my idea; but I couldn't think of a good reason why not really, so I've agreed. Which means this wekend is 4 days long!

We couldn't go away, as it happens that I'm in the midst of writing up my notes in preparation for parent consultations next week - but it means I can get them done without too much stress or working all weekend.
Having started them in the week, I got the majority done yesterday, and now just have the last dozen to finish at leisure - some don't have to be ready till Friday...
Mind you, I didn't exactly bust a gut yesterday - I managed to read a book in between working! I've always been a fan of Anne McCaffrey's Pern books, so this week when I saw a full set of her Crystal Singers trilogy, I thought I'd give it a whirl. Not quite up to her Pern saga, but an interesting read and not too taxing on the brain! Read the final one yesterday. Nice happy ending, that's what I like!

We are looking forward to seeing the lunar eclipse later tonight - the moon is full in a clear sky, so we have high hopes!

I had to leap out of the car just before we got home today, to take this shot of the daffodils in bloom at the bottom of our road. Aren't they lovely?

I'll see them again tomorow when they will enhance what is already one of Life's Small Pleasures for me - the short walk to collect the Sunday paper. It sounds like a rural walk, as I have to go down the hill, cross the river then half way up the other side of the valley to reach the paper shop, but it is of course, wholely suburban.

It's still a pleasure to see across the valley to the Roman route on Riddlesdown (hidden behind trees to make a picturesque skyline) as I stride downhill, feeling fit and lithe with the helpful gradient. Across the railway bridge, beside which lurk two medieval oak trees, to the sound of birdsong. Then across the River Bourne (which means the River River, utilising two of our integrated languages) which never involves wetting of feet - this is another auditory pleasure to go with the birdsong, as the river has long since been culverted and now rushes by underfoot, clearly heard at one particular drain cover!

Up the steep drag to the paper shop, exchanging pleasantries with Mrs Patel, before the return journey, eagerly anticipating a quiet hour reading the paper and completing the Griddler puzzle over breakfast. Can't be beaten as a way to start Sundays!

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