I have my induction at M&S tomorrow and Wednesday-all day, then I start working properly on Saturday.
Today I went to meet a new family about 6 miles away from where I live. I met the child, a little girl just older than 1 who is adorable! I'm usually fairly nonplussed by babies/toddlers, I mean they're great but I prefer kids who you're able to talk to. This little girl is incredible though! She's so interested in everything and delightfully chirpy and quirky, working worth her is looking like it's going to be great fun. And they've already booked me in for a day!
I've done a fair bit of work on my bike which has resulted in me becoming fiercely attached to it. When I say I've done some work on it, it's nothing challenging or extreme but more than I would usually do. I changed the stem for a slightly shorter one (which meant re-taping one side of the handlebars) then I put on new tires and inner tubes (one of which split so I've had to redo it twice) and today-after dad had to pick me up from Chorlton cause I had a flat and didn't have a repair kit on me-I got new lights and a D-lock so I've fitted those on, all ready for tomorrow! I worked out I'll be cycling around 200km every 2 weeks YAYYYY! I really missed cycling when I was in SA, can you tell?
Monday, 30 September 2013
Friday, 27 September 2013
Hamamelis Mollis
My parents keep around 20 chickens, and so we sell the eggs to neighbours. One of our neighbours has a big Chinese Witch Hazel bush in their front garden that smells amazing and when we were kids, on the way to school, mum would always say: "Oooh, smell that hamamelis mollis!".
Earlier, mum asked me to take some eggs round to one of the houses and when neither of us could find an identifying feature (or remember the number), I asked "Hamamelis mollis?" and when she confirmed, I knew exactly which house!
I just asked my little brother to take the eggs round to the family, he asks which house, I reply hamamelis mollis, he goes OK, see you later!
Ook, ek het 'n nuwe fiets! Dit is baie blou en lekker.
Earlier, mum asked me to take some eggs round to one of the houses and when neither of us could find an identifying feature (or remember the number), I asked "Hamamelis mollis?" and when she confirmed, I knew exactly which house!
I just asked my little brother to take the eggs round to the family, he asks which house, I reply hamamelis mollis, he goes OK, see you later!
Ook, ek het 'n nuwe fiets! Dit is baie blou en lekker.
Friday, 20 September 2013
Kernow
I've had a wonderful little holiday in Cornwall with my maternal grandparents. I didn't actually do much while I was there-just relaxed-sort of! I went to choir with my Nana and discovered that a choir who's members are of the slightly older generation like to sing: "I want gin and tonic now" down the scale as a warm up!
I was also reminded, yet again, how short I am-but in a good way! My ancestors were all Cornish miners and would have been quite short from working down the mines all their lives. We went to Wheal Martyn, a clay museum where you can walk around the old site, see the quarry and observe all the waterwheels (and what a lot there were!) but there was also a lovely little tunnel with "MIND YOUR HEAD" signs all round it...so me and Nana walked through it, stretched as tall as we could (albeit tentatively!), and we did not hit the roof once!
Talking of ancestors: My grandad took me on a very interesting trip to St Clements. But first, a bit of background. I have my mother's surname - Tregaskis, not my father's. My grandad has done a fair amount of name-tracing/family-tree-gathering to the extent that I reckon knows most of the Tregaskis' in England and most if not all of them going back at least 600 years! So one day when we'd dropped Nana off at her embroidery workshop, Grandad took me to a church in St Clements. In the entrance arch of said church, there where 3 headstones that had fallen over or cracked so were now pinned to the wall to help preserve them. One of them had the year 1795 and the name Betsy Tregaskis. She was 19 years old, same age as I am now. And when we went into the church, on the list of vicars we found one John Tregascour-1489! My Grandad thinks Tregaskis is a misspelling of Tregascour as one generation is listed as Tregascour and his son is listed as Tregaskis. If you say Tregascour's it does sound remarkably like Tregaskis!
We also popped into the Eden Project as they have lots of butterflies in the tropical biome - lots of BIG butterflies, that gently glide along because when you're that big, who needs to flap!? And while we were there we wandered into the Mediterranean biome where there is always a story teller . Now when I was at choir with Nana, one of the alto's in the front row had an amazing pair of patchwork trousers, so after the rehearsal, we wandered into Truro to see if we could find the shop she'd bought them from. Alas, it had shut down. But there was new hope with the story teller. He did not have patchwork trousers but a wonderful knee length patchwork waistcoat. Trousers are (according to my Nana) fiendishly difficult to make-what with all the measurements and what-not, but a waistcoat it simple. So I am in the process of making myself a patchwork waistcoat. So far I've sewn the main patches on and I'm filling it out a little. It already looks incredible!
In other news, I got myself a nice Cornish flag to take back to South Africa with me!
I was also reminded, yet again, how short I am-but in a good way! My ancestors were all Cornish miners and would have been quite short from working down the mines all their lives. We went to Wheal Martyn, a clay museum where you can walk around the old site, see the quarry and observe all the waterwheels (and what a lot there were!) but there was also a lovely little tunnel with "MIND YOUR HEAD" signs all round it...so me and Nana walked through it, stretched as tall as we could (albeit tentatively!), and we did not hit the roof once!
Talking of ancestors: My grandad took me on a very interesting trip to St Clements. But first, a bit of background. I have my mother's surname - Tregaskis, not my father's. My grandad has done a fair amount of name-tracing/family-tree-gathering to the extent that I reckon knows most of the Tregaskis' in England and most if not all of them going back at least 600 years! So one day when we'd dropped Nana off at her embroidery workshop, Grandad took me to a church in St Clements. In the entrance arch of said church, there where 3 headstones that had fallen over or cracked so were now pinned to the wall to help preserve them. One of them had the year 1795 and the name Betsy Tregaskis. She was 19 years old, same age as I am now. And when we went into the church, on the list of vicars we found one John Tregascour-1489! My Grandad thinks Tregaskis is a misspelling of Tregascour as one generation is listed as Tregascour and his son is listed as Tregaskis. If you say Tregascour's it does sound remarkably like Tregaskis!
We also popped into the Eden Project as they have lots of butterflies in the tropical biome - lots of BIG butterflies, that gently glide along because when you're that big, who needs to flap!? And while we were there we wandered into the Mediterranean biome where there is always a story teller . Now when I was at choir with Nana, one of the alto's in the front row had an amazing pair of patchwork trousers, so after the rehearsal, we wandered into Truro to see if we could find the shop she'd bought them from. Alas, it had shut down. But there was new hope with the story teller. He did not have patchwork trousers but a wonderful knee length patchwork waistcoat. Trousers are (according to my Nana) fiendishly difficult to make-what with all the measurements and what-not, but a waistcoat it simple. So I am in the process of making myself a patchwork waistcoat. So far I've sewn the main patches on and I'm filling it out a little. It already looks incredible!
In other news, I got myself a nice Cornish flag to take back to South Africa with me!
Wednesday, 11 September 2013
Dankie Driver!
I've been in Nottingham with Sarah for the last few days-it's the first time we've spoken without the aid of electronics. I'm so glad I have Sarah in England, She's the perfect person to compare notes with: for example, is she struggling to adjust back to having parents that nag? Yes, yes she is! Or making sure I'm not the only one who doesn't seem to connect to my friends any more. It's also great fun to chat about the differences and first-since-getting-backs i.e first time we went outside alone in the dark (we both felt a ridiculous concoction of terrified and paranoia!), or what children/volunteers we have seen since we got back, followed quickly with how long it took us to realise that it wasn't said child/volunteer!
We had a great time on the double-decker bus. Especially when the bus driver got lost! We could hear him downstairs shouting for directions-and so followed many jokes about having used his '50/50' (wrongly at the junction), he'd used his 'ask the audience' to get back on track so he'd have to save his 'phone a friend' for taking the bus back to the station!
We had a great time on the double-decker bus. Especially when the bus driver got lost! We could hear him downstairs shouting for directions-and so followed many jokes about having used his '50/50' (wrongly at the junction), he'd used his 'ask the audience' to get back on track so he'd have to save his 'phone a friend' for taking the bus back to the station!
Friday, 6 September 2013
All things exciting!
R.E the moving my blog to wix: I couldn't move the blog there so I made the website and embedded the blog into it. so you can see the website here.
And Marks and Sparks phoned me today to say I got the job-I was very surprised! They left a message for me but didn't say I got it, just to ring them back so I presumed they hadn't left bad new on my answer phone.
And for your daily dose of demented: I'm helping my mum make a poster for the school where she teaches music sometimes. We have around 20 chickens and we sell their eggs, so mum wants to make a poster to explain what people should do if they want to buy eggs and how it all works. One of the steps is to write the child's name on the egg box so we were thinking of the eggiest names we could. this is what we came up with. We are maybe a little bit too proud of ourselves!
And Marks and Sparks phoned me today to say I got the job-I was very surprised! They left a message for me but didn't say I got it, just to ring them back so I presumed they hadn't left bad new on my answer phone.
And for your daily dose of demented: I'm helping my mum make a poster for the school where she teaches music sometimes. We have around 20 chickens and we sell their eggs, so mum wants to make a poster to explain what people should do if they want to buy eggs and how it all works. One of the steps is to write the child's name on the egg box so we were thinking of the eggiest names we could. this is what we came up with. We are maybe a little bit too proud of ourselves!
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Monday, 2 September 2013
Moving.
I know, I'm hopeless! But I'm currently in the process of moving my blog to a wix based domain-I can edit and change more things and make it more my own. As soon as it's up and running I'll put a link on here. I will leave this as it is though so anyone that checks irregularly will be left a nice trail to follow to make it to my new one :)
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