Saturday 12th June - Summer is back!

[adesmith]

Its a beautiful morning in South Wales and the weather forecast is promising good things. Then it looks like rainy weather tomorrow but good weather for the rest of the week. I have to go to the Examiners Marking Conference in Cardiff this afternoon and I am rapidly wishing that I didnt sign up for exam marking. It took me 3 hours to mark 10 last night and I have 330 to do in three weeks! I did take my time on them because you have to send a first sample of 10 marked scripts off and you cant submit any marks until you have had feedback from those. Apparently you do get faster (after the first 50) and I do hope so. I was planning on doing 20 a night!

Hopefully I will be home in time to spend an hour or two in the garden later. Hope that everyone has a sunny Saturday!

[jane jackson]

That sounds like a stretch of intensive work Adrian ~ keep thinking of the money!! One of the bonuses of being retired is that you don't have to do all those stessful things you had to do in your 20s, 30s and onwards. The downside of course is that there aren't so many opportunities of raising extra cash when needed and that you can't do quite as much as you did in your youth. I agree with Kath on her birthday thread when she said she wouldn't want to be 21 again nowadays although repeating all the good times would be wonderful as long as you could miss out all the bad or stressful times!

Hope you get to enjoy the late afternoon/evening sunshine in your garden Adrian and everybody.

[gloria townsin]

Good luck with your task Adrian......sounds horrendous to me!!

[Kath Mulligan]

Sounds as though you have taken on a big job there, Adrian ...... good luck with it.

It has been a lovely warm sunny day here today, perfect in fact for our local Carnival. The girls and I watched the procession while eating chips out of paper - you can't beat it, can you?! Then I have spent a couple of hours reading in the garden while the girls were glued to the football. Have to confess that I shall be watching the England match though.

Tomorrow our forecast is for light rain too, which will be a bit disappointing if true, but we shall enjoy our day out no matter what the weather. We are hoping to go to Chatsworth though after lunch, so am keeping my fingers crossed that the rain either stays away, or clears up by then.

Kath

[adesmith]

Seemed like a good idea at the time (a year ago) and you get 'invited' to do it rather than actually apply. Its a bit of extra money and good experience (apparently). Didnt mind the conference today and in the practice marking I didnt do too badly at all. As Rcahel says, I need to have a bit more confidence in myself. I am quite disciplined, so whilst it might be hard work, I wont do anything silly like leave it all until the last minute. The other examiners and the team leaders were all very nice and you can ring them for help at any time. Not sure that I exactly want to do it but its too late now and I just need to do the best I can!

It was glorious when I got home from Cardiff so we mowed the lawn and I did some tidying in the front garden. I am going to do some marking in the morning whilst Rachel and Rupert go to church and then in the afternoon I can do a bit of gardening out the back, even if I have to wear my waterproof coat. We are going to collect some elderflowers as well to make elderflower cordial.

Kath, please take some pictures of Chatsworth! I would love to visit there! It always makes me think of Mr Darcy and Pemberly! I think that Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire lived there as well, didnt she? Have a fantastic afternoon and enjoy your birthday.

[tricia2ws]

good luck with the marking, sounds a lot of hard work, good on you for doing it. we had a lovely day at RAF Northolt today, it was their family day, saw many great planes, including the fly past for the queens birthday, they flew right over head, fantastic, the spitfire and hurricane were up, but sadly the lancaster wasn't, still the red arrows made up for that, we looked inside many planes and helicopters, but my favourite has to be the chinook helicopter, so agile for something so big, and such tiny wheels, the wind from it taking off, fabulous, we got home hot, tired, but very happy. hope you all had a good day too. x tricia :coool!:

[Linda]

How delightful Tricia I adore flying exhibitions and displays but sadly we dont get to see any here.
We are lucky in that from time to time in that some manoeveres go on in the Clyde and then we get to see some great planes flying very low over us...occasionally when they are moving from location to location we see them ....I used to live at Shoreham by Sea in Sussex and although its a small airport it does have an annual flying show which I could go and pop down to see or watch it from my house in the back bedroom how handy was that eh? I do miss that! We would get the Red Arrows and others coming, not each every year but it made it just as interesting...luckily I married a man who has an equal passion for airplanes...although i cant get him to fly in one...he sits and uses Flight simulator though!

[adesmith]

Glad that you enjoyed the air display, Tricia. Last year Rachel, Rupert and I went for a walk to Ruperra Castle and climbed up to the top of the hill nearby. You get a really good view and we sat there having a mini picnic when I spotted some aeroplanes coming. I said to Rachel 'that looks like a Lancaster' but didnt really believe it. In fact it was actually quite spooky. Flew over and it was a Lancaster accompanied by either a Spitfire or Hurricane. I am afraid I wasnt able to tell, although I seem to remember it has something to do with the shape of the wings. It was a real treat and very unexpected.

[adesmith]

Forgot to say that the Red Arrows flew over soon after. They were all on their way to an air display in Swansea (I looked on the Internet when I got home).

[Gill Bilcliffe]

Oh dear Oh dear I hope John doesn't look on the site :angry: and see the post on the Northolt RAF family day as he is an avid aircraft enthusiast. Photographing drawing and writing about them. Never mind the hours he sits in front of the computer on aircraft message boards! Wish he enjoyed decorating as much!! :bad:

[jane jackson]

You seem to have had a very good day Tricia, I love helicopters! I've been in 3 sorts over the years, the first being a very short trip around the showground at Herts Show about 25 years ago. The third was coming home from the Scilly Isles in 2003 but the best was the 2nd time in June 1994 when I went with Bryan to Portsmouth for the 50th Anniversary of the D Day Landings. Bryan had been in the Navy as a civilian to do with being a journalist and was still invited to cover those sort of events until he was 55yrs. We went out on the aircraft carrier Illustrious (think that's right, might have been Invincible, I get confused) to watch the flottila of ships including the Royal Yacht Britannia. We weren't very far out to sea and were taken off by Sea King helicopter with all the other journalists. It was very basic inside as not designed for civilian use and the doors were kept wide open so the photographers could take their pictures easily. I absolutely loved it and just wish the distance could have been greater. I always fancied a submarine but I never got a trip on one of those.

Carnival and chips sounds good Kath and the reading. I pottered in the garden in between completing the tax self assessment for the 2 of us ~ lots of concentration required although the online site is very easy to use as long as you get all your information out and ready before you start. Since having a printer and therefore being able to photocopy everything at home does make life a lot simpler so you can just look up what you did the previous year.

[tricia2ws]

How lucky to have a ride in a helicopter, fantastic, I had a very small ride at last years air show, about 15 mins up in the air, but what a 15 mins, brilliant, would love to be able to fly one, but an expensive hobby I think, just for in my dreams. there is something special about seeing the lancaster with either the spitfire or hurricane, or even better, both, the noise, nothing like that deep rumble, the spitfire has rounded wing tips, the hurricane squared tip ends, oh my goodness, I sound like a swot, ha ha, am really not, but i just love the battle of britain memorial flight, am like a big kid when they fly over, run into the garden, waving like a loony. x tricia :girl_wacko:

[adesmith]

Well, I missed church to mark the ten sample papers that I have to send off and they took me hours! I was going to mark a few extra to get ahead but there was no chance! Think I spent too long worrying about them. The man will ring me in the next couple of days, hope that they are okay but I am a bit worried about them! I am allowed to carry on marking in pencil until then, which I think I will do. The sooner I get into it the better.

Anyway, Rachel came home and when I had finished she bundled me into the car with a packed lunch and took me for a drive. We went to Llanbadoc Island near Usk, where there is a small playground near the river and where we could pick some Elderflowers to make cordial. It was still sunny then. Decided to drive back via Wentwood Forest but whilst Rupert and I were messing around in the trees, it started raining. Home then to make the cordial.