Marie's Web Log

Here I am again. Sorry I haven't been writing much lately. Amelia is having bad teething again (will it ever stop?) and waking up nights. Plus I have to have my final assignment done for my OU play writing course by Friday. Plus Amelia is finished day care until September. Plus, plus, plus...

The weekend before last we went to a lovely National Trust property called Arlington Court, about an hour's drive north of here. Kind of an odd, square looking house, but beautiful grounds where we picnicked, then walked to a small lake. They had a few very tame peacocks roaming the grounds, including a white one, which I'd never seen before. Unfortunately, when we went to the tearoom later, the peacocks decided they wanted some of our cake and Amelia started crying. Well, who can blame her - birds aren't usually that big!

Here's a photo of the inside of the house - it's all I could find on the web. We didn't get to go inside, as it was closed on Saturdays.

Weather has turned a bit rainy again - first real rain for a month, which is unusual for England. There's been a bit of a late summer feel in the air for a few weeks, even though it's only July. The poplar trees that line our road have begun dropping their leaves, and I saw a creeper with red leaves at the end of June.

My book proposal was rejected very promptly and politely by the first publisher I sent it too. I'm a bit annoyed by the promptness as I was counting on them keeping it for a few months and now I have to figure out where to send it next.

Very upset and disheartened about recent events in London. Why does the world have to be such and awful place?

M

(PS: See below for added photo of the beach we went to.)

Posted by marie at 05:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We went to the beach on Sunday - one we hadn't been to before, called Blackpool Sands. No, not that Blackpool. This one's about 45 minutes from here, south of Torquay. Funnily enough, the beach isn't sand, and it isn't rock either. It's sort of in between, like tiny rounded gravel. In transition between rock and sand. It's a lovely setting, approached down a steep road on both sides, a natural cover surrounded by cliffs and evergreens. Very deep and very clear water though unfortunately, as we soon discovered, also bloody cold. I mean, f*@£ing cold! Colder than Cape Cod. Yes, Jackie, you would have loved it.

Another impressive thing was the canteen/restaurant, which sold a lot of local, organic food. Usually it's just junk food, if anything. But this stuff looked really good. Even the ice cream was local and organic.

Amelia had a great time. She couldn't build sandcastles on the beach - though they did provide sand pits (sandboxes for those in North America) for that purpose (sand pits on a beach!). I was also impressed because you could rent a lot of equipment (surf boards, scuba stuff, kayaks) though what impressed me most were the folding deck chairs you could hire for £2 for the day. I promptly hired one and stuck it under our beach umbrella and sat there in my hat and long-sleeved shirt. I'll send a photo when I have one!

Weather continues lovely here. Temperature in the upper 20s and a nice breeze here close to the coast, though I know inland areas are suffereing more. This is hot to English people, but not to those of us who've experienced the summers in Mississauga. What a relief to be able to open the windows instead of being stuck inside in the air conditioning.

Amelia's last day of day care is looming. She's off for six weeks after next Wednesday. Help!

See note below about blog comments.

Posted by marie at 05:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Just a note about comments - you can only add a comment to the latest post. The previous ones are all closed to comments. I had to start doing this on the advice of Bob, my tech advisor, as otherwise those nasty blog spammers fill up the old comment files with all sorts of lovely advertising for cigarettes and bulk medication...

So, for example, you can add a comment below this entry, but not the previous one about Tom Cochrane.

Posted by marie at 09:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Thanks to those who wrote to tell me that the harmonica-playing guy at the Canadian Live 8 concert was Tom Cochrane. My sister Suzie even sent a link to a web site about him: http://www.tomcochrane.com/. And here's a link to a photo of the guy he was compared to: http://www.nigelround.co.uk/infopages/norman_collier.html. See what you think.

I hope some of you had the chance to check out the link to the personal piece about Africa in my last post. It's worth it.

If anyone knows how to put active links into blog posts, let me know.

By the way, please feel free to comment more. I really like getting the individual e-mails in response to posts, but comments are nice too. And another way, in addition to the web counter, of seeing that someone is reading this stuff.

Posted by marie at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, it's been quite a week over here in the UK. Last night at this time I was surfing the BBC site, reliving the euphoria of London's successful bid for the 2012 Olympics. Tonight, we've been watching TV reports about the bombings on the underground.

The emotional rollercoaster started last Saturday with Live 8 in Hyde Park. I know there were concerts around the world, but the original impetus came from Britain, and the heart seemed to be here. I understand those of you in Canada did get to see some of the UK concert (and probably the US one too). The lineup here was pretty good. There were bands I hadn't seen before, like the Scissor Sisters and the Killers, mixed in with the old favourites. Ian had been criticizing the Canadian lineup as being full of has-beens so I pointed out that there were plenty of those in London as well, and he said, "Yeah but they're bigger has-beens." Hhmm.

The Canadian concert, as you might expect, was barely mentioned over here, though one of the papers did take the opportunity to poke fun at Canadians in a review, which said something like, "Fans in Hyde Park were able to watch video scenes from around the world which reminded them how much luckier they were than disadvantaged people in far-off countries. They could, for example, have been in Canada, listening to a guy who looks like the 70s Northern comedian Norman Collier huffing into a harmonica and singing about life being a highway." I have no idea who Norman Collier was, but Ian says he was a skinny guy with blonde hair. So who would that have been, Gordon Lightfoot?

For a serious and personal reflection on our attitudes to Africa, check out this blog: http://fumblingforwords.blogspot.com/2005/07/this-is-for-paulina.html. (I took the link from my friend Dale's blog, I hope he doesn't mind.) I would have made it a proper link, but I don't know how to do that, so I'm afraid you'll have to cut and paste.

Also last weekend, the Wimbledon tennis finals. I don't usually enjoy watching sports on TV, but I do like watching Wimbledon. Some of the matches I saw were quite thrilling, though I don't understand why a few of the women have to grunt so much. It's distracting.

Then, yesterday, the news that the Olympics are to be held in London. I've often been disparaging about the Olympics, as they seem to be a big business enterprise and it's hard not to wonder whether all the money that goes into sucking up to the IOC would be better spent elsewhere (Africa, perhaps?) But it was very emotional when London got the games, as Paris had long been the favourite. And those of you with British origins will know that the only thing better than winning, is beating the French.

And now, today. The bombings in London. The latest figures are 37 dead, more than 700 injured. It's cruel, the turnaround, from the high of yesterday to something like this. And it fills me with despair, and anger, and heart-felt sympathy for the victims. London, of course, has seen bombings and terror attacks before, as have most European capitals. The IRA used to do it quite a lot, though they usually gave warnings and didn't aim to hurt a lot of civilians. The rules have changed now - there aren't any.

We are fine. Amelia is growing up. Only four months until her third birthday. She's almost talking in sentences now.

More soon...

Posted by marie at 06:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here I am, sitting at the computer, feeling a little sorry for myself. It's Canada Day and I have no one to celebrate with! I was thinking in the back of my mind about having a little impromptu pseudo-barbecue (pseudo because we don't eat meat and don't have a barbecue) but when we got back from vacation we were so tired and had so much to catch up on that I forgot. Not that there would have been many people to invite - certainly no other Canadians. I hope you are all enjoying it over there - a nice hot one, I assume.

Ian has driven down into the depths of Cornwall to interview a couple of people running bed and breakfasts for his dissertation. He's writing about whether this particular type of European Union funding called Objective One funding has created sustainable tourism businesses. Amelia is at day care.

I heard back from the publisher to whom I sent the book propsal. They said they are passing it on to an acquisitions editor to review, and they will get back to us in about a month. Nothing to get too excited about, but still a good sign.

See below for some funny photos...

Have fun!

Posted by marie at 07:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A few signs we encountered while in Cape Cod. Keep in mind that the first one was taken outside a bar in Provincetown, the "gay mecca." (It's fun to stay at the Y - M - C - A.)

There was another one that I didn't get a photo of, at the entrance to the street we were saying on. It said, "Thickly settled." Meaning, we assumed, heavily populated. It wouldn't be funny to Americans of course, as they don't use the word "thick" to mean "stupid."

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Posted by marie at 07:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)