Ichabod's Day

 I am not known for my cultured ways - in fact my plebian tendencies have been well documented (believing that there is "too much dancing" in Swan Lake and looking aghast at any food which does not have the look of either comfort or nursery food!). However, this weekend I found myself at the MEN arena (as high up as you can get without having a nosebleed!) listening to the Halle Orchestra and the Leeds Festival Chorus in a Classical Spectacular. What a treat. The programme, the acoustics and the space gave rise to a thoroughly great evening, rounded off with some magnificent pyrotechnic displays, gun salutes and cannon fire - which, by the way made us jump so much we could almost hang from the lighting rigs! All this was of course enhanced by good company and the fact that we treated ourselves to a taxi door to door (£50!!!!) well - it was snowy! All this reminded me of the last time I was at the MEN and I realised that I hadn't shared this experience with you - so befo

A number of you have been asking where my diary has gone and whether the boy ever wrote back - apologies I have been rather tied up of late but I have dug out my diaries again for the next installment. Just a quick note to those of you coming into these as a new reader - these are diary extracts from a 17 year old A'level student. Names have been changed to preserve a semblance of anonymity - but you know who you are!!!! Tuesday December 11th 1979 Well I'm back again. The boy I wrote to hasn't written back yet (sob!) but there's still hope yet. Well. I have another exciting instalment of my life ready to tell. As usual I'll start off from the previous date. Tuesday I had a play reading for St Peter's Hill Players. They want me to play Emma in The Edge of Darkness but I decided I couldn't do it coz it required too much involvement and I wouldn't have been able to give my best so I said no. Thursday it was belinda's birthday and a whole group of

Monday December 3rd 1979 I've got loads to catch up on as I've been so busy with my spanish o'level and going out places etc....... The play finished ( that I was doing coffee for ) and then the party after. We had great fun and a good old knees up. Then we decided that midnight was too early to go home so after loads of suggestions me and SJ ended up at CB's house for coffee. We weren't allowed to make any noise as his parents were in bed but he put on a Monty Python LP and it was really hard trying hard not to laugh loud. Sunday we had a rehearsal for our group - it was absolutely rubbish, me and SJ were tired so we left early and had an argument on the way home mostly about boys. The next friday (23rd Nov) we had our 6th form disco. We raised £264 from 80p a ticket so you can imagine how packed it was. It was quite good really except that the police came about half way through to check on licensing etc which upset S coz she organised the disco and they took

Through most of my life I have considered myself to be a rather private person. I overcame a level of shyness as a young teenager which still occasionally surfaces today in certain circumstances. I wonder why then that I have recently taken to exposing more and more of my life to the world? My diary extracts and recently my professional portfolio are all in arenas that invite public scrutiny and comment. A month or so ago my Dad gave me a suitcase that belonged to my Mum in which she had ferreted away momentoes and souvenirs that were important to her during her lifetime. I knew of its existance but was never allowed to look through the things - Mum always saying "you can look when I've gone". Inside were a treasure trove of letters, cards and a couple of dairies covering the year she met my Dad and the year they got engaged. I hadn't realised she had kept diairies, and it is this discovery that sent me to dig out my own (which I have begun to share here). On readin

The latest Diary excerpt - again names have been changed to protect the innocent: Friday November 2nd 1979 Back again, have been too busy to write before. Saturday night me and SJ went down the Beehive. Terry phoned up and I told him I couldn't go out coz SJ was here but said we might go down to the Beehive. When we got there him and Matt were there. At first they didn't speak. Then Terry came over and Matt joined us a bit later. They didn't have anything to say so me and SJ went down the chinese and Jimmy asked SJ out - but she said no, ahhh! Sunday morning SJ went home coz she felt ill. But before she went Brian and Steve came up to see if she'd sing in their new group she said she'd think about it. Me and Robin ( brother ) went to Auntie's for dinner and we had to walk there and back coz the buses didn't come! Mum and Dad were quite late home. They brought me a sweatshirt, a keyring and some slides. Was off school again Tuesday and Wednesday then T

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Well, you've asked for it, I shall look towards publishing a few entries from my diaries of 1979-80 when I was in sixth form at school and working at Boots as a Saturday Girl. Jackie commented on my previous post and has really got me thinking, "This is the process that has made me really think about how I presented to the world then, how I present now, similarities and differences between me and my younger self, and how we consciously and unconsciously distort 'truths' when they are uncomfortable. There is something about putting them in the public arena which gives the process more impact than just re-reading old diaries. Keep on showing your diaries, for our pleasure, and for your own enlightenment!"   I agree that just reading them has begun to change my "truths" and I have begun to think about how me now and me then communicate. By the way - I have changed names to protect the innocent - but you know who you are!!!! I have selected a 3 day perio

OK, so those of you who know me on Facebook will know that I have recently found some of my old diaries and have taken great delight in reading them! OMG!!! I am now  being encouraged to publish some of them in the interests of posterity. Hmmm, I think a bit more editing is necessary before I expose the innocent. Here is an extract to be going on with... "Memo on 1978 I think I like this year best of all. I've been out to a lot of places and met no end of nice boys. I shall miss 1978 really and I hope that 1979 will be as much or even more fun." I was 16 in 1978, this is the first diary of the series that covers my 16/17th years. I realise now that I was obsessed with boys, I was very fickle with my affections, I spent much too much time in pubs and ate an inordinate amount of chinese takeways!!! The following is a very tame entry - just to ease you into it gradually (reading this I realise very little hs changed - given every opportunity to lounge about and I tak

Ok, have been back to Lincolnshire again this weekend after a 2 day stop off in Derbyshire to carry out my external examiner role at the University of Derby. It has been well documented on facebook - but suffice to say that my plebian tendencies were very much to the fore as I sat alone in the v. posh hotel dining room. Had hoped to be inconspicuous - but ended up being the ONLY person in a huge white, pristine dining room. Waiter couldn't have been any more "waiting" and was there to second guess my every whim. Apparently I now qualify for the term "madam" - hmm not sure too happy about that! Sitting alone with my book (wish now that I had taken some classic or mighty tome - instead was the latest Maeve Binchy!) I was presented with a goat's cheese bonbon served on a china spoon and a bed of crushed tomato, "compliments of the house, madam" (hate goat's cheese but waiter was so pleased with himself and waited for my reaction so had to feign d

I seem to have spent the majority of my weekend in a variety of tin boxes, in some cases an enjoyable experience and in others - definitely NOT enjoyable. It all started when I decided to visit Grantham again for Dad's birthday and Father's Day. Now, remembering my last experience of visiting resulted in my "breaking" my ankle - maybe I should have been more wary! Anyway, did what I needed to do at work, chaired an examboard and then left at lunchtime to beat the traffic. Ha! Tin Box #1: My car. Pootling along, M62 busy but not too bad - ipod on shuffle playing bizarre combinations of Mario Lanza, Sweet, Carpenters and Thin Lizzy - to name a few (is my taste eclectic or just plain mad?), sun shining, stomach anticipating a stop at a Little Chef, all was well with the world. Then, as I joined the A1 - they closed it!! Spent the next 3 hours sandwiched between lorries, white van men (out of their vehicles and constantly bemoaning the fact that they might miss the En

I am a hospital - which hospital am I ?........................ I position myself at the furthest point of the borough away from you making you use the busiest thoroughfare  ensuring you are late to your appointment. On your arrival I insist that you live at an address you vacated 20 years ago. When you implore me to check again I will be amazed to  find a second set of notes for you - with the correct address - but with a date of birth that ages you 10 years. I will giggle when that is pointed out. For your entertainment, whilst you wait 45 minutes beyond your appointment time, I will enthrall you with intimate excerpts from the lives of my staff. You will find out what they are doing at the weekend, how their relationships are fareing and what they will be shopping for for tea. I will adorn my walls with all manner of wall coverings - including striped, dotted and patterened wallpaper, together with the ubiquitous border strip, to trick you into thinking that you are not in a cl

Ok. So. I may not be a fully paid up, card carrying member of the great outdoors brigade, but I like to think I am close to nature. I feed the birds everyday, I donate on a monthly basis to a number of local and worldwide nature charities. I spent most of my chlidhood in caravans or boats. However, none of this prepared me for a great british bank holiday camping trip to the wilds of Lincolnshire (well, Woodhall Spa is actually quite civilised but doesn't have the same ring to it!). Followers of the blog may remember that I bought husband (at his request) a tent for his birthday last September and ever since he has been dying to use it. So, off we go, me, husband, dog Disney forgot to draw (dDftd), brother, sister-in-law, 3 kids and 2 teenagers (Kevin and Perry wannabees) and their dog. We packed car at 5.30am on the friday morning - beds, bedding, stove, table, chairs, food, water carrier, blankets, dog stuff, cooking and eating utensils,  "all eventuality" clothing

I have managed over time to carefully construct a self-image of a silver-haired, voluptuous woman of a certain age. Whilst fragile, unless I spend too much time with reflective surfaces, it is an image that serves me well most of the time! This weekend I had a lesson in how others may see me - not the most flattering I can assure you. I had resigned myself, a number of years ago, that I am invisible to anyone under 30 years of age - even though inside I belong to that demographic! I have outwardly started to wear my badges of maturity - feeling I have earned the right not to have to colour my hair for the rest of my life, and I try hard to believe the hype that wrinkles demonstrate how much laughter there has been in my life. With these thoughts in mind I go about my daily business. On saturday, walking into a boutique that I kinda knew wasn't for me - but I liked a top in the window - I was told in no uncertain terms that there was only one thing in the shop that was for me - &qu

Is it Murphy's Law that states "anything that can go wrong will go wrong"? I think there should also be a Law that states that misfortune will fall at the most inconvenient of moments - if there isn't one already then I claim this as Ichabod's Law! This particular time seems to be one of my busiest in the year so far, heavily involved in a research project interviewing participants and analysis of transcripts ready for a first report at the end of the month, developing a resource in Second Life for further research in its educative and practice value within occupational therapy, an invitation to co-author a book chapter, a workshop presentation to plan for the World Federation of OT Congress in Chile (my goodness my best wishes go out to all over there at the moment) and a trip to MEN to see my hero Cesar Millan the Dog Whisperer (not to mention the day job of teaching, marking and planning for the next round of intake for our online MSc). So.....with all this g

Ok, I've tried, I've really, really tried.....and I know it's only been 3 days!!! I can't listen to Chris Evans in the morning - it's not the same, I can't do it and I have tried. How strange that it can have such an impact on my morning routine. Terry was the best: "They say what is his secret, and it is just that he puts his audience at ease. That's why they want to listen, because they feel better about themselves after they have listened to him. He has made the nation feel at ease with itself and that's a great gift and we owe him a lot for that."Today presenter John Humphrys I miss hearing what Chuffer Dandridge has been up to, Janet and John stories that made me laugh out loud like an idiot stuck in traffic on the way to work. What shall I listen to now to help me wake up gently, ease me into the day gradually and allow me to smile whilst facing the day ahead? I MISS TERRY. P.S Just found a great blog detailing Terry's last show.

Can it really be three months since my last posting? I guess the trauma of the kitchen was just too much to take and I have had to lie down in a darkened room with a sponge cake eversince! The kitchen was finished not long after the last post - and with not too much left to report - apart from the fact that since we have had a functioning kitchen we seem to have lost all electricity to the garage! We'll deal with that one in the summer I guess. Halloween saw the biggest family gathering since Devon 1996!(thereby hangs another tale). We organised a weekend away at Brackenborough Hall near Louth - the only place that was brave enough to let us take 5 dogs (plus 12 adults and 4 kids). What a fantastic place - a farm where we were allowed to take the dogs anywhere in the 50 acres of land. We had a wonderful weekend, walking the dogs, eating, carving pumpkins (I was impressed with mine - above - until my brother pointed out that it looked like a character from the pink panther movies -