part III. nicked photos.

Some great pics taken by Phil from our trip that I have shamelessly stolen from his livejournal scrapbook.

Part II. Arcachon.

This is a view from the Dune de Pyla (spelling varies dependent on your map!) which is the largest dune in Europe. It is enormous! Phil, who joined us on our trip, said that it dwarfed his 4x4 sand dune exploits in Morocco! I visited Pyla 18 years ago with Karine and her family and it was a lot of fun going back with my own family.

The pictures of the Basin d'Arcachon remind me of pictures from 'The Earth from the Air' book that you look at and imagine you'll never get to see yourself. I felt very lucky on this trip away.

Perfection part I

Back from a week in the stunning La Bastide d'Armagnac A region in south west France in the departement of Landes.

Famous for it's pate de foie gras, Armagnac eau de vie, Floc aperatif, pine forests, atlantic coast, wine regions and bastide towns.

Our accommodation was stunning. Many hours were spent soaking up rays by the pool in the back garden.

We spent mornings swimming and sleeping off the alcohol from the day before.

We took a day trip out to the basin d'Arcachon that I visited 18 years ago. At Pyla, they have Europe's largest sand dune. which is a killer to get up but a lot of fun going back down. The view over to Cap Feret, the bay and sandbanks is breath taking.

quote of the day

"Do you know if Audrey Hepburn has done any other books apart from 'The Time Traveller's Wife'?"

Laugh if you will...

Laugh if you will but I have discovered the delights of Edith Piaf. Two cd's at 97p each from Tesco have given me 30+ of her tracks without resorting to the obvious 'Je ne regrette rien'.

'La vie en Rose' has a most wonderful tune and Edith's voice is stunning whether or not you understand the French.

She has a look that is indisputably French and of the 30's & 40's that I love. Closing my eyes I can imagine the music is coming out of a bakelite wireless in an inter-war Parisien kitchen...

48 hours and I'll be back in her pays de naissance avec mes reves d'habiter encore au pays qui me manque depuis des annees.

3 work days and counting.

1405308184. page 183.

things i wish i could say (join in!)

out of print means you'll only get it by tomorrow if i sit up all night copying it out by hand and my customer services don't stretch that far.

i think the word you are looking for is thank you.

so go to the competition, we'll probably buy them for christmas anyway.

you really are very stupid aren't you.

come back when you know what the hell you want.

ooh let me think, it's blue you say, well naturally our products are colour coded, primary colours upstairs.

don't look at me like i just work behind a till, you're the one buying dan brown.

new tattoo.

Hopefully clicking on the picture will show it off better.

trial by fire

4-10 init, 11+ init, 4-10 non-init, 11+ non-init taken care of.

Now working on 1-3 from 06 + 05 acad. rpts.

4 screens

ph*x 1: isbn search
ph*x 2: gp coding by acad sub dept
ph*x 3: running exp order
bkdata: checking new eds, OP, UC, RP etc

line by line. like rolling a stone to the top of a hill, watching it roll down the other side then going back down and pushing it back up again. did someone do that already?!

customer comment

Are all your books in here the same price?

cheddar part III

This photo needs no explanation.

cheddar part II

Rather chuffed with these 'thirds' pictures.
Amazing weather at Weston and a huge, empty beach to scamper round!

Managed to catch a bit of the sun on my pasty face making

me just a little frecklier!

cheddar part I

What a FAB three nights away. I could have stayed longer. The weather was mostly clement, the site was great, my pitch was perfect, the beach was enormous and I had a lot of fun. On the left you can see a quick snap of the gorge which is really stunning. It was the first place I thought of when I was deciding to go away for a bit. On the right you can see my pitch from the other side of the river. Next to all the bigg tents for grown ups my little two man tent was miniscule.

My pitch was right next to this pretty river. It was shallow enough for the hound to go in and drink and cool off and was teeming with little fish. On my first or second day there I saw a kingfisher zip down low across the water. There was a resident wren and a pair of collared dove creaking their wings late into the evening. Monty spent most of his time on the lookout for other dogs daring to be on holiday in the same location as him.

The best afternoons were spent on Weston-super-Mare beach. It was mostly overcast but warm. Monty turned loopy lurcher for hours leaping back from those very scary waves then running headlong into them to chase other dogs before he realised he was in up to his belly!

a few more santa pod beauties for ya

beasties

i have been munched by some evil parasitic low lifes and i now look like an illustration from a medical journal.

colours of summer

colours of summer
Originally uploaded by unkempt woman.

A photo from an e.friend's flickr site. thought this was worth sharing. i'm a sucker for great colours and pattern.

Strange light

This evening, just before the lightning started there was an eerie pink/yellow light and some stunning clouds that i just had to stand on my wall and snap.

releasing my inner mutant

Mutant, cannibal and narcissist.

Only some of the gems that didn't make it to my c.v.

Audi pardner

You've heard of road rage, now I bring you road flirt!! Does this exist already or did I just witness a first.

I'm driving home and this TT behind me gives a tiny flash. I wonder if he thinks I'm not going fast enough. Unlikely. A mile or so further on he flashes and I look in the mirror to see him waving at me. I only know one person with a TT and it really doesn't look like them, I assume they must have mistaken me. He flashes again. So I wave back and give an exaggerated shrug to indicate I don't know who he is. He then waves some more and playfully indicates leftrightleftrightleft. I turn my hazards on and off cos I figure I might as well have a bit of fun on the way home from work. He toots. I give the royal wave out the window. He flashes his lights. I slow right down and spray water from my screen all over his car then accelerate. I can tell he's having fun messing around and I'm laughing too but wondering who on earth this guy is. Anyway, this goes on for about 5 miles then when we get to Bedford, I turn left at the round about toward the retail park and he goes straight ahead down the bypass, giving me a wave...

I'm just laughing a lot at this point and wondering if he takes that route home regularly.

I'm just heading up past the retail park and beyond the railway bridge when who should come shooting past the other way but the guy in the TT! He's obviously bombed up the bypass, come off at the next exit and torn round to come past me the other way. He's flashing and waving and I'm just creasing up!

Of course I'm intrigued and hoping I might see this mystery man tomorrow!! He has a distinctive registration plate so I will keep an eye out when I park from now on.

If any of you know anything about this you have to tell me!!!

BUG JAM 20

Madeleine had a fun day out at Santa Pod but has been pestering me for her own jet engine since we got back.

No can do. People waiting behind us at the lights might complain.

I got very jealous of some beautiful new bugs,

some fabulous restored bugs

and some golden oldies...

There was no shortage of the quirky, groovy and plain show off!

I have so many more pics than these but I have to stop blogging at some point this evening. Anyway, in brief, it was a fantastic day and I never thought I could get so stoked on cars. To be fair, I didn't think it possible for a bug to shoot 20 foot of flames and be out of sight in 6 seconds.

another day in paradise

me: Hello, can I help you?

customer: Oh, I was going to ask him (points at colleague)

He looks like he'd know more than you.

more festival pics

French Market

Novel ways to cross the river.

The guys in the raft race were pelted with eggs by their 'friends' on the embankment!

Bedford River Festival

Every other year Bedford goes crazy and thousands of people crawl over the river area buying, selling, entertaining and having fun.

After a parade of lit up boats on the river there is a fireworks display.

This year, mini-me was old enough to go on his own and meet up with mates for the evening.

(i strongly recommend clicking on the first picture and hovering over it until the enlarge icon appears and viewing this picture at its largest.)

author cloud

http://www.librarything.com/authorcloud.php?view=kumquat

check out my author cloud! apparently a free account will only let you bash in 200 ISBN numbers so although my 'cloud' isn't entirely representative of my hundreds more books, it does give a pretty fair impression of who i most buy and read.

geek heaven

are you often regarded as slightly geeky? something of a nerd when it comes to detail? do you often find the thought of writing a list more rewarding than the actual task? do your friends think twice about inviting you out when they know you'd rather sit at home and alphabetise your filing cabinets? THEN LOOK NO FURTHER!!! this could be the link you have been waiting for...

http://www.librarything.com/

Sweet mother of pearl, I think I've died and gone to heaven.

van eyck

Discussed the Ghent altarpiece over dinner tonight as I'm sure everyone has done at one time or another. Quite a triptych.

HOW RUDE

it would have been funny if we hadn't all been so seething at this pompous customer.

i join the conversation as he's looking down his nose disparagingly at my colleage and saying "you don't know what it is do you?"

ebooks

he's come into a bookshop to buy an ebook. yes folks, you heard right. i stepped in - i couldn't help it, the man was a fool and he was trying to belittle my staff - and i told him what an ebook was and that he would have to find them online. "well," he replies, "i don't have internet access". i point out that internet access is required. he responds; "well that's no use to me is it?" no sir, i'm thinking, and that's because you're a laughable buffoon who thinks he can belittle girls behind a counter with insisting they bring him the impossible, oh excuse me while i just go and consult the tooth fairy about this one. in fact i say "then i don't think we can help you any further on that request". NEXT he moves onto maps. again he asks for something that doesn't exist and looks at me with disdain as i show him what is on offer. "well that's a street map, not exactly a map is it" On and on he goes with his rudeness until I decide to hack him down as politely as i can given that i want to blow my nose on his tie and say "That is the extent of our range I'm afraid".

what makes people like that?

i mean take this blog entry for example, not a hint of vitriol or invective about it!

to infinity and beyond

if i were lucky enough to have synaesthesia, i would describe today as having been mid to dark grey and set to some haunting strains of Mahler.

"Wouldn't you just die without Mahler?" (Trish in Educating Rita)

Anyway.

Today i bought a tent!!!!! I am excited to the point of becoming a complete nerd about this. I also bought a kettle, stove, bed and lamp. I'm going to take myself off for three nights next month while mini-me is doing other stuff and brave a holiday alone miles from home. I am alternately feeling empowered and terrified! Lurching between thinking this is a completely bad idea and i could sit at home in the warm and dry feeling sorry for myself and beaming at my own desire for self reliance and explorer spirit. at the moment i'm mostly feeling stoked but this may be the after effects of retail therapy. (giggles) I bought one of those uber cool pop out tents that you literally take out of the bag, hold at arms length and hey presto you have a fully working home. dead cheap it woz. they love me in milletts!