James 9th birthday

Well the famous cakemaker struck again - last year it was a Tiger tank this year a Mathilda tank! Which for the less well informed was the main battle tank for the 8th army in the desert campaign against Rommel.
James had a very happy time with 5 of his friends playing games in the garden making their own pizzas and watching the stardust dvd in the hut with popcorn and jelly snakes.
Altogether one of our easiest parties as for 90 mins of it we watched the French open tennis ladies final

purple haze

Angus and i had a little free time over the weekend due to unforeseen sickness in expected visitors. So we tackled the needs of our hut, it was dried out and unprotected, requiring a new coat of anti-fungal preservative/weather protector. We had decided a lovely Scandinavian pale blue, as seen in Sweden would be a lovely alternative to boring green and brown. The perfect stain was ordered from the Internet and arrived ready for applying with sprayer or paintbrush.
Here is the result after a serious attack of bad language, both of us covered in purple splatters, we gave up after doing 2 of the 4 walls.We stood back and said "Oh."


We think now we could make a really positive thing out of it and borrow some wheelie bins from Liverpool which happen to be a great colour match. Maybe even go for a bright yellow deck stain. What do you think???

April Fish in Normandy

So we went to Normandy for Easter - Anne got ill on the way down and coughed incessantly for the whole holiday and slept hardly at all. The weather was pants from the first week (tho it was worse in England) and the oil fired boiler decided to die on us and was condemned by a host of french plumbers who congregated in our cellar looking at it and muttering "c`est grave" then with a doleful expression "c`est morte"! It being the female boiler "la chaudiere".

After the installation of a new boiler, I noticed that there was a huge pool of oil under the flaming box that is an oil fired boiler - so we had to get the plombier in again to sort that out - after that all was well except it was dribbling water at the back - all that was needed was a tightening of a pipe at the back - I nearly said to the plumber that there was a problem and that I wanted him to "serrer la pipe" - I felt that maybe there was another meaning to the word "pipe" - if you look up the word at http://www.alternative-dictionaries.net/dictionary/French/ you will see how close I came to entente cordiale!

On top of all this the TV broke down and everything is closed until April 1st "Poisson d`Avril".

However we had a calvados tasting from the casks (70% alcohol), cider tasting (up to 7 years old), Poire tasting and we went to Camembert village and disovered la fosse d`Arthur, which

is a beauty spot

french delight

Its ok we are still alive, but have done more on facebook of late, however i thought you might like to see the final work in France. Here is the back yard! before and after. looking forward to lots of easter sunshine now.

The Devil may care

Nearly finished the Bond song and it is the best yet by a country mile. I have used my M-Audio Black Box for the first time, which has a fabulous array of distortion sounds. I am particularly pleased with the guitar solos - the lessons are definitely paying off.
Julie is coming round on wednesday to do the vocals then I will be mixing 2 versions - the official song entry to Penguin books for the prize of being on their new Audiobook for Sebastian Faulks novel "Devil may care" and the unrestricted megamix version with samples from Goldfinger and my tribute to the Bond theme.

Birthday fun

Its great having birthdays!! I may have more wrinkles and more grey hairs, but the presents, the food and the friends and family get better every year!
Admittedly we did go a bit overboard on the food, out to 2 amazing restaurants in 2 days, first seaham hall hotel with Rollo( also a birthday for him) and Barbara. The highlight was seeing their delight at nearly everything, the lowlight being the cepe chocolate which smelt like vomit and I could n`t even swallow!

Second meal out in Durham at the Gourmet spot, yes lots of fun with the G-spot and how to find it!!, we went with Siobhan (Recent birthday) and Gerry who are best mates with the chef Sean, so we got special treatment and lots of extras, like a glass of champagne, a taste of brown buttered toast, jam and tea ice cream!!! Yes altogether in one little creamy cold mouthful, quite incredible.
And for those of you who haven't known me very long this is what I looked like a very long time ago!! Lots of love and thanks Anne x x

Archbishop - wooly liberal or dangerous conservative

You say,” said Lord Napier (confronted as Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in India by locals protesting against the suppression of suttee) “that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”

Worrying pronouncements were uttered this week, about sharia law in the UK, by the leader of the Anglican church who has constituents in countries where they are being persecuted by Islamic government.

This is following the as yet unresolved debate on homosexuality in the church and beautifully timed comments on the Nativity story at Christmas makes one wonder whether knowledge without wisdom is a dangerous thing.

To be a shepherd of the Gospel is a beautiful calling - it is a shame we don`t seem to have one at present.

If you click on the title you will get an article from the Times which summarises nicely the concern.

Iron Maiden - Christian band????

From the band that brought you "Bring your daughters to the slaughter" and "The number of the beast" here is the song Pilgrim on the latest Iron Maiden album where you will find these lyrics!

"To courage find and gracious will

Deliver good from ill

Clean the water clean our guilt

With us do what you will

Then will my judge appear

Bear no false angel that I hear

For only then I will confess

To my eternal hell

Now give us our holy sign

Changing water into wine

So to you we bid farewell

Kingdom of heaven to hell

Spirit holy life eternal

Raise me up take me home

Pilgrim sunrise pagan sunset

Onward journey begun.

and from the song "The greater good of God" we find:"He gave his life for us he fell upon the cross

To die for all of those who never mourn his loss

It wasn't meant for us to fell the pain again

Tell me why, tell me why"

Hmmm more obvious than many christian bands and this is a band that have sold over 100 million albums worldwide.