Landscape

I've got a little out of sync with Tara's photogallery which I always used to participate in....not sure why, but it just hasn't happened for a while.  I guess life in general is like that isn't it?  Everything going hunkydory, and then for no apparent reason it doesn't all hang together as it should.

I thought I would make a special effort this week, but then she set the challenge of 'landscape'.  Not a difficult thing in itself, but I have hundreds of landscape pictures, some of them OK, some of them good, but they all have a special meaning to me.  The obvious thing to do would be to post up a picture from the top of the mountain last week, but that seems just a little too obvious and easy.  So instead I chose the following:

This was actually Zermatt last year taken through the cafe window...the words seemed appropriate.  In truth it was a much better holiday than this year.  The Cat's Mother has declared she is hanging up her ski boots.

This was Iceland, the first holiday we took as a family...the poor girls got dragged around this (amazing) barren landscape which we were all somewhat dwarfed by.  Eventually they insisted we abandoned the natural landscape for one that included shops

This was a new year in Hereford with some very dear friends.  I'm heading off to the slopes with them in April, and very much looking forward to it

This is just along the coast from Grandma in Cyprus...in the north of the island.  The Cat's Mother and I are heading there in May to celebrate a very special birthday for her, unfortunately exams will mean neither The Boy nor The Cat can come with us.

Does this count?  A chalk pebble on the beach just down the road from the flat in Brighton

Anyway, do take a trip over to Tara's gallery to see what everyone else is doing

Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief

I am as anyone who knows me, a dedicated Brighton & Hove Albion (The Seagulls) supporter.  But like many a Manchester United fan based in Malaysia or Peru, not a regular attendee at matches.  This despite them having a shiny new stadium this season.  When I cycle to work...yes 17 miles in each direction...I am to be seen wearing the Away Strip - a luminous green and black vertical striped little number which generally terrifies oncoming motorists.  You can I hope appreciate my delight then to be able to say this weekend they scored four times when playing Liverpool in the FA Cup.  The northerners scored only three times, but strange as it may seem they won the match and have gone through to the next round.  6-1.  I'll let you work that one out.

Having got back from our holiday on Friday, we spent most of the weekend doing nothing much, apart from the washing and relaxing.  The Cat's Mother has an advantage over the rest of us, as she ENJOYS washing.  Whilst the rest of us, at any given moment, would gladly just collapse on a sofa, she busies herself loading an unloading the washing machine, loading and unloading the tumble drier.  You may think I make his comment in jest.  I do not.  First thing she does when she when she gets up in the morning is head to the utility room.  First thing she does when returning from a night out at the theatre is head for the utility room.  Even in the middle of a film on the TV she'll up and head for the utility room.  Don't think for one moment I'm not grateful.  I am.  But it does give me a guilty conscience.  Sort of.

We have managed to miss a few films recently that we really wanted to see, so it was good that we finally found somewhere to see George Clooney in The Descendants.  I'd been looking forward to seeing this for months, especially as I'm a great fan.  Have you seen Welcome to Collinwood?  Hilarious.  Have you seen Burn after reading?  Sublime.  So what a massive disappointment this was.  I can't really find anything in its favour.  I poo poo anyone who says that at least it's a great piece of acting from George.  It may be, but completely swamped by mediocrity in every other department.

We consoled ourselves by watching Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy on DVD.  Just as brilliant second time around.

IS this on?

Whilst I'm waiting for our own Steven Spielberg to finish off editing his masterpiece of our antics last week, this provides a useful summary of the conversation from our time in Zermatt last week




Don't forget tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday, so pancakes with sugar and lemon are compulsory for all children under the age of eigty-five