Creating A Story

I haven't been out to take photos for a long time - not out, deliberately, with the big camera. I've either caught events on my iPhone, or reworked old, usually very old photos. But today, the sun was shining, the dogs needed a long walk - and I thought what better time to add to the over flowing library stock than now? I persuaded Flora to dress for modelling - and off we went, Flora and I - and the two dogs. But so many people were out walking, that Flora became uncomfortable and wouldn't relax - so I had to grab what I could. What do you think? I think they tell a story!

Keeping Busy

I have been keeping myself very busy over the last few days. I've added to my Etsy store, continued researching the possibilities of setting up as a photographer and tried to keep sane despite the fact that only a couple of weeks remain until redundancy looms. Reworking old photos to make them suitable for selling, is providing an element of respite from all the confusion around me and for a time, stops all the questions and fears from racing through my brain.

I did go to the optician yesterday, and have some new glasses on order! I have noticed over the past 6 months or so, a rapid deterioration in my reading ability - and so it will be some relief when I pick the new glasses up late next week to be able to see cooking instructions clearly again! The children have been getting a lot of strangely cooked food - usually due to me misreading temperatures or timings!

race for life - Norfolk Showground, Norwich, 15th May 2011

race for life - Norfolk Showground, Norwich, 15th May 2011, a photo by boo * on Flickr.

A happy post, tinged inevitably with sadness. Flora has been wanting to run the Race for Life for ages, so this year she trained and entered with her friends Izzy and Karen. Whilst Izzy and Karen remembered their grandma's, Flora ran for our friend Zoe, who sadly died from a brain tumour leaving her husband, a year old baby and an elder daughter who was a week shy of her 3rd birthday. We also remembered Lindsey, another mother, who's two sons were still at school when she died from breast cancer.

But the race was not a morbid affair: women from all over Norfolk dressed up in their pink finery. There was dancing and music and thousands of supportive well wishers. And this team of three far exceeded their target.



If anyone would like to donate to this worthwhile cause which has affected someone connected to all of us, the website is here.

Well done!

My New Etsy Shop!

I'm really pleased to announce the opening of my new shop on Etsy! You can see a selection of prints already available for sale, and more will be added over the next coming days. I am always happy to discuss the sale of other prints you may like on my Flickr site too. I've only been open for just over 12 hours and am terribly excited that I've already had some prints faved, as well as my shop! And only 2 hours after listing a print it was included in a beautiful 'treasury'. Do come and visit me by clicking on the above link - I'd love your opinions.

he followed the sun & she followed the stars & in dreams they listenedclosely for the beginning of all things, for that was where they knewthey'd find each other

he followed the sun & she followed the stars & in dreams they listened closely for the beginning of all things, for that was where they knew they'd find each other, a photo by boo * on Flickr.

I've been reworking up some old shots to try and get a folder of images organised to stock my empty Etsy shop! Its been a manic last few days; I decided to completely reinstall my operating system in order to try and get my aging Mac running a little faster. All was well and good - after I'd cleared space on my external hard drive, until I came to reinstall my applications. Needless to say, my chaotic life means lost discs, no record of serial numbers etc. So Flickr, blogging - all ground to a halt. But slowly I'm getting back up and running...

The Happy Royal Wedding Campers

It's been quite a while since I added to my blog and a lot has happened over the past week and a half. The first piece, of quite terrible (although not unexpected) news, was that my job - in fact the entire team I work with, has been put at risk. Effectively, this will mean redundancy as it appears we are being replaced by an unqualified and untrained team. As my team give efficient and successful teaching in literacy and numeracy to students on vocational subjects, who in the main do not have basic GCSE qualifications, despite the fact that the vocational equivalent they are studying is (in my case) A'level standard - I don't quite see how the new plan is going to work. Only yesterday I corrected a student's essay with her - to discover that the vocational tutor had corrected it already. The first example I came across was that the students had typed the word 'consists'. Absolutely correct, nothing wrong with it. The vocational tutor, untrained and unqualified in English, had crossed this out and written her correction; 'consite'. The essay proceeded with at least TWENTY FIVE similar examples!!!! The student, who is dyslexic, was in a terrible state, asking me why she had gone so wrong. And diplomatically I had to explain she hadn't - and all her careful work was correct. I am looking at redundancy. I cannot apply to join a team, to do the same work I am doing at present for half the money, over three quarters of the year and to see years of training, qualifications and experience be equated with others who have none of these things.

Despite the shock -and I felt, and still feel it deeply, we, (twenty five of us) embarked on our long awaited 'Royal Wedding Camp'.

We met at our chosen campsite in Cromer, to discover that our excitement was about to be severely dampened. My friend Maureen had been given a brand new Bell Tent for Christmas and was literally jumping for joy at the thought of its first outing. Can you imagine her distress when the tent was hauled from its bag, to discover that despite the assurances of the company, there were no poles, no tent pegs and no guy ropes. I thought the whole trip was going to fall apart. But no, M and her husband G were made of sterner stuff. They raced all the way back to Norwich, managed to make Go Outdoors by 7.45, grabbed the first tent that could squeeze 6 of them in, paid over £250 and returned to the camp site as darkness was settling in to put up the replacement.

 

The next calamity was when a 2nd group of friends, comprising the owner of the fab 1821 Art Gallery and her family, discovered they'd arrived without any bedding. Undeterred, they accepted gratefully my partner's dust sheets and plastering blankets that he'd left in the car. And a third group of friends, also arrived with a tent without tent poles. Luckily (as I'd sold them the tent!) they returned to Norwich to discover they'd left them behind in the under stairs cupboard. As for myself - I'd managed to forget toothbrush and mugs. But my Bell Tent looked wonderful, despite the additional pain it must have given poor Maureen, to see what she was so close to having had.

On Friday morning, we leapt from our various tents, cooked breakfast 

(isn't funny how when you're camping you feel so healthy and yet you put away more cooked breakfasts than you ever would at home?) and then raced down to The Welliington in the centre of Cromer where we had been promised they would be showing the Royal Wedding. What a fab morning! The pub was packed - they'd supplied loads of cakes for us to eat and the entire place was decorated with bunting! And what could be a better excuse than a pub venue to watch the wedding of the decade, than to drink double G&Ts all morning??!!

We meandered back to our camp site after the balcony appearance to set out our wedding tea. Friends arrived from Norwich for our alternative street party - and although the wind picked up quite sharply, we all enjoyed the food which covered every inch of our tables!

It was lovely to see all our teenagers, (14 in total), enjoying themselves in the fresh air.

Now, I've rambled on far too long - but the weekend was fab and I (and the two others of our party affected by losing jobs) were able to forget, for a while, the horrors of losing our jobs.