Another snow day in New England

View from the back. 7:19am



View from the side. 7:22am



View of front window. 7:25am


It's now 8:45 am on Monday morning and a time at which I would normally be getting ready for work but today is another "snow day" so the whole family is home and another day is added to the end of the school year. There isn't the same excitement in March as there is when the first snowfall of winter comes and even that doesn't compare to people's reaction in my homeland to a few flakes of snow. At this point we are all thinking about Spring, especially after the milder weather we've had recently.

The Reader

I've just been to see "The Reader" which was a trly excellent film. There was as much not in the film as was in it, which made it both entertaining and thought-provoking. I feared seeing it, having recently seen "Defiance" and not wanting to come home depressed or disturbed, but this film was neither of those things. It moved along gently and quietly - it could have evoked a great deal more emotion than it did - but I don't know that we always want to experience intense emotion at every film. Sometimes it's enough to remain on the sidelines as an observer, rather than become one with the characters.

I think the direction and the acting were spot on and Kate Winslet absolutely deserved her Oscar. I was also impressed by the actor David Kross who played the part of the young Michael Berg and I am surprised not to have heard even his name mentioned anywhere - ot that I read much about films - I just get a glimpse of this and that on tv. Did Kate Winslet mention him in her Oscar speech I wonder?

I highly recommend this film.

When did I go out of fashion?

Somewhere between getting married at thirty-five and my eventual emergence out of nappy-changing and pre-school runs I lost my sense of style. When I started rediscovering myself after the children were all at school and I was looking to move out of the sweats and jeans, I found myself drawn back to the fashions that I had been wearing in the early 90s - except that by that time the rest of the world was in the mid- 2000's. Even then I didn't recognise that there was a problem because I naturally steered clear of the obvious teenager clothes, but being by that time a 'plus-size' lady I was definitely looking at more matronly styles, although I didn't realise it.

I've been in America for sixteen years now and I can tell you that there is a big difference between American and British fashions. At first, when I thought I was doing all right with my clothing choices I favoured Alfred Dunner. The styles fit me, the colours suited me. But why could I only find a few places to sell them? Then a couple of years ago it hit me - those fashions are made for the more 'mature' woman and of course, I wasn't ready to be relegated to those ranks. But wait - is the 'mature' woman old enough to be my mother or young enough to be my friend? Or either? Or both?

My dilemma continues. I am not, nor ever have been a fashionista - fashionable styles have usually been too 'skinny' for me, but without having to try too hard on the occasions when I've wanted to dress up I've usually been able to find something to wear that hasn't made me look frumpy. If I'm honest, the only places I look for clothes are Target and Walmart because both stores are within a couple of miles of home, and because my budget and fluctuating weight will not allow me to buy anything more expensive or of better quality. That, coupled with the 'plus size' limitations means that the clothes I wear have become very boring. What's a fifty-something to do in this situation? I have two sets of contemporaries to look to for fashion guidance: those who have children the same ages as mine, and my friends who range between ten years younger and ten years older than me. But do I like their clothes? Would their styles suit me? Do they even wear fashionable clothes? What's in fashion anyway?

Yesterday I did a big clean-out of my closet and removed all clothes which were:
* too big (yea!)
* too old
* too shabby
* too ugly
It didn't leave me with too many clothes, actually, but it did prove a point. I had one sweater that I've worn faithfully for seventeen years which I didn't notice had become faded and a little frayed. It must have been of superior quality to what I've been buying in recent years though. However, now I need to shop again and I am uninspired.

I've spent the past few years wearing nothing but trousers, and the past two or three years wearing mostly black. A typical outfit for me consists of black trousers, a Black T shirt or turtle-neck sweater with something of colour over the top, or a coloured T shirt or sweater with something black over the top. Never more than one colour and always two items in black, or occasionally another neutral. All this with sensible shoes, of course. I admit I'm now getting tired of this look and I am looking for a change, which is where I came in at the top of this page. I've lost my sense of fashion.

I can't and won't compete with my teenage daughter (heck I don't even understand the names of the garments she wears and I certainly wouldn't be seen attempting to wear them), I can't afford to buy anything but sale items from J. Jill, Coldwater Creek, Talbot or Chico (which doesn't even do plus sizes, no no idea why I even mention it). Even when I look there, I can't seem to find much to excite me to make me wish to add it to my wardrobe.

I am getting older, no doubt, but I'm not dead or retired yet. I have a young family and I want to be active and up to date for as long as I can. Reducing my size from Plus to Normal will certainly help - perhaps that alone will open up some fashion possibilities for me, but until then, it's flappy trousers and tops until I can find something new and refreshing to invest in.

Living it

The best way to write an interesting blog is to live outside cyberspace for a while and write about your experiences. This is called "Living in the Real World". I know many people who do this all the time; remarkably, some do it all the time and for those people, cyberspace is still unexplored territory. Other people are relatively inexperienced in the Real World lifestyle, so they and those who have yet to try it at all, may take today's blog entry as a primer as to What to Do and How to Cope.

This morning, my first excursion into the Real World required me to put on a coat over my pyjamas and take out all the rubbish and recycling. I soon realised that I was a little under-dressed because my fingers began to feel like icicles, and about as flexible. So the first lesson of the day was: Before venturing out into the Real World, always remember to wear appropriate clothing because those little flakes of snow can feel pretty cold. It took another hour online to recover and so I decided to take things a little easier for the next task. This required the use of Special Equipment, but could safely be accomplished in pyjamas. I left the comfort of my kitchen to Clean the Bathroom. Usually I spend only a few minutes at a time in that room, away from the Internet, but this visit required me to spend the better part of half an hour in there. Admittedly this can bring on panic in the inexperienced adventurer but I have done this many times before, so apart from needing a little routine recovery time afterwards, I completed the task unscathed.

In the early afternoon I was required to "chat" with three-dimensional humanoids half my size and one-fifth my age. They are a remarkable invention, requiring no batteries or chargers. They walk and talk, interact with each other and occasionally with other, bigger models. Often their communications make little sense, but from time to time a word or two can be distinguished by which they express their need for recharging, or "feeding". The creatures are called Boys and this afternoon they wished to be entertained by being conveyed to a Movie Theatre and thence placed in seats for two hours whilst watching the activities of other humanoids whose likenesses have been captured on film. This does not require interaction so if you decide to participate in such an activity yourself you might be well-advised to take some kind of communication device with you to avoid "Idleness of the Fingers". Portable keyboards can be purchased for those who must blog everything they do as they do it. The movie today was "Paul Blart Mall Cop" which tells the unlikely tale of the existence of human life forms visiting a giant "Real Life" Amazon store with little sub-stores within it. Rather than pictures of items to be purchased and placed in virtual shopping carts, people may actually handle the merchandise before buying and with no shipping costs incurred! Purchased items are then placed in bags to be taken home by the customer in her own vehicle. This proves that all goods do not have to arrive in a UPS truck. Anyway, the movie was OK - lived up to the critics' reviews but fell below the expectations I had, based on reports from people I know.

My return to virtual reality didn't occur until after dinner at Friendly's, but I was able to remain calm throughout the meal by playing video games on my iPod. Now at last I'm back in my cyberhome, having had some small adventures in the Real World, and hopefully will be prepared to meet the challenges of Laundry and Grocery Shopping tomorrow.

Logging off ;-)

In a bit of a tiz

I began this morning in a horizontal position, reading email on my iPod. I thought of the nice long vacation day and the rest of the week stretching out before me as a huge open expanse of Nothing-Planned but reality hit me and within the hour I remembered that I have Responsibilities. Why was I in such a hurry to grow up?

The first thing to hit me was the church newsletter. I'm not sure why I do this to myself, but I have painted myself into a corner for the love of technology and the desire not to go to the office and freeze my fingers off. For the duration of my tenure as the church secretary, the monthly newsletter has been prepared in the form of a Word document and due to its having a mind of its own it has become a difficult and time-consuming chore to keep the document formatted the way it needs to be, while changing the content. I've tried many times to start a new document in the hope of obliterating the gremlins but I only have to copy and paste a single element from the old document to cause all the gremlins to abandon ship and settle into a new home.

Since we work exclusively on Macs, the question arose as to whether it would be a worthwhile investment to purchase iWork 09, for $79. Before asking the church to make this investment, we played around with a thirty-day trial version of '08' to produce last month's newsletter, which, I must say, came out rather well. I used a set template and filled in and replaced the elements with our own information. This month, however, the thirty-day trial period on '08' had expired so another one - this time '09' - had to be opened on a different computer. To cut a long story short, I did manage to do much of the newsletter in under an hour and then sent it off to church for approval. I hope that we'll soon be able to have it on the church computer!

I'm sorting out a movie outing for sunny-boy's birthday this Friday, monitoring the activities of dd1 and bf, cleaning the house, doing the laundry and dealing with the upsets of dd2. I'm not too chuffed at having to listen to Nintendo games in the other room while I'm writing but I have at least had my morning coffee now, so the bear with a sore head has quietened down somewhat.

Next major task on the agenda, aside from house and church work, is continuing the plans for the trip to England in April and apart from that, I'd like a little time to paint.

Planning the next trip

Having developed a new love and respect for New York over the weekend, I must plan my visit to London for April and make sure I can find enough to excite and interest the offspring whilst we are there. Hopefully we wont have too much rain to spoil our walks out and about.

What might be a good idea is to approach my planning more as a teacher than a tourist. Randomly moving about London to see different things without focus and attention might be distracting, so I'm thinking of teaching them about the Tudors. (I don't think either of them have encountered the Tudors in their Soical Studies classes yet, so this will be a good start for them).

Before we leave for England, I'll find some stories for them, so they can learn about the Tudors. Then, once in London, we'll go to the places that make them come alive. First we will visit Hampton Court Palace, haunt of King Henry VIII. If it's a nice day, the gardens are nice to walk around, and, of course, there is the maze which ought to be usable in April. The palace itself is a masterpiece of Tudor architecture and one of my favourite "stately homes". We will see for ourselves how royalty lived back then.

Next we'll visit the Tower of London where we'll see Traitor's Gate, Tower Green (where two of Henry's wives were executed, as well as Mary Queen of Scots and others), and the tiny cells in which some famous prisoners were kept for many miserable years.

Later we'll visit the Museum of London to learn about the development and growth of London through the ages, and perhaps we'll also visit Shakespeare's Globe but that will depend on how tired we are!

Finally I want to take them to Madame Tussauds to see the waxworks. I haven't been there in donkey's years and it's another of my favorite places. Last time I was there, I tried to pay a waxwork figure in the gift shop, thinking it was a real person!

I might well take them to the Science Museum or the Victoria and Albert Museum which are two of my favourites and which are also free and we'll definitely do the London Eye. Oh what fun! I can't wait!

New York! New York!

I've just returned from my first visit to the Big Apple in 25 years and found it a very different place. Back then it was a hot, dirty, noisy and slightly scary place (not least because it was August, I was only 23 and addicted to American police dramas). This time it was chilly, clean, less noisy and felt as safe as I'd feel anywhere. Of course it was February but sightseeing in Times Square after midnight was magic!

Here is a selection of my favourite photos from the weekend.

1. The Apple store from inside the entrance.


2. Me and Him on 5th Avenue.


3. Chrysler Building and Grand Central Station


4. Same again, only closer. Love this one.


5. Love this one too - about 12:30am on Sunday Feb 15th, Times Square. People were posing by the heart for their Valentine's Day pictures.


6. 30 Rock. I love all the Art Deco design in Rockefeller Plaza


7. Last time I was in NY I went up the Empire State Building. This time I was able to photograph it. Ironically, last time, I was irritated by the World Trade Center because it was so big it spoiled the views. This time there was a clear view across and I was sad that I have no photos of the Twin Towers.


8. Zoomed in on Central Park and beyond.


9. What were once tall buildings... I like looking for the old amongst the new.


10. Reflections - a great design trick giving the illusion that the building isn't really there.


There wasn't time to see or do much more than this. We spent a lot of time sitting at tables in restaurants, talking and catching up. In between we probably walked about four miles Saturday evening and another mile or two on Sunday before we had to leave the city and head back north. I can't wait to go again - and I can't believe that I haven't been before.