Un hérison dans le jardin!

Quelles emotions! Je viens de recevoir les DVDs des nouvels de Mrs Gaskell. J'ai 56 ans et je ne savais pas qu'il y avait des histoires comme celles que je viens de regarder. Il faut que j'achète les livres. Donc il y a 'Cranford' qui vient de terminer, et bien sûr de se terminer assez bien malgré les décès de plusieurs personnes. Ca a dû être la vie avant mi 20 siècle: une vie de naissance de mort et de vie sans épouse ou époux. Bon, et pourquoi y a-t-il le sujet 'un hérison' car en allant fermer les volets qu'est-ce que j'ai vu? Un hérison en train de traverser le jardin. Oui, je sais, c'est quoi un hérison? Mais je ne vis pas à la compagne, je vis en ville!!!! Que c'est beau la vie!

Life is good

There are times when everything just seems so black and hopeless, then there are others when life seems just so good. I have been looking at some of my photos just from holidays I have taken this year and I must admit that my life is really very good.

Have a look at this link:

Peniche

Jobs and covering letters

My boss' job has just come up and although I am not sure that I really want it, I feel that I must apply for it, for my own self-esteem and who knows, perhaps something might come from it! But it is just such a pain having to write this Covering letter. As a Tefl teacher, this is one of the things I ask my students to do, but it is not until you have to do it yourself, that you realise that it is not so easy. I suppose it does give you a moment to sit back and to think: what would I do in this position? Well, it has done for me.

Stations and things

Stations seem to be my thing at the moment. It must just be the idea of travel, travel overland, travel by train. I suppose it is the way you see the landscapes, get up and straighten your legs and get from place to place reasonably quickly, well, at least in Europe! At the moment I am in Budapest and yesterday I was around and in the station Nyugati Pályaudva. Not quite St Pancreas in London, but interesting nevertheless. The stations itself is the traditional 19th century thing which has not been really refurbished, which is a pity although some of it has been renewed and there is a new area just to the side of it. Anyway here are some pictures of it.

The Weather!

Isn't it always the case? You experience good weather for a week or so and you think 'Ah, the summer is here!' So the next time you go away you don't bother packing waterproofs and what happens, the weather turns and you don't have what you need.

Last week I was in London and I had taken long sleeved shirts, long trousers, sweaters and rainware and the weather was hot and sunny. This week I am in Budapest and it has been great for the last 3 days, but today it is not just rainy but stormy and I have no rainware! Typical.

Too many pictures...

Well, in fact, I don't think so.

This is a criticism that is often levied at me.

"You don't set up your shots"
"Your pictures don't bring the onlooker any information"
"You don't get rid of bad photos" (this is true)

But I don't care. This digital world has given me the opportunity to make photos, look at them and use the ones I really like. The rest keep. If others don't want to look at my photos, well DONT!

St Pancreas Station, London

In my last blog I said something about St Pancreas and a sculpture so here and some pictures I took recently.

or perhaps they are saying 'goodbye'

Poetry

During my visit to London last week, Wills took me to the new St Pancreas station just to see this fantastic place. Housed in the 19th century station, it has been refurbished and for those international travellers among you, you will know that it is the departure and arrival point of the Eurostar train. Anyway, what has that got to do with poetry, I hear myself saying. Hang on just a little!

In the station there are a couple of superb sculptures one of John Betjeman and another of a couple probably meeting at the station and kissing. Anyway, all this has lead me to have a little look on the net to see some of Betjeman's poetry and other and I came upon a couple of poems. One of them is by Davi Harking about a girl her loved. You can find the story here:

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/sep/16/artsfeatures.poetry

and this is the poem: Remember Me


Do not shed tears when I have gone
but smile instead because I have lived.

Do not shut your eyes and pray to God that I’ll come back
but open your eyes and see all that I have left behind.

I know your heart will be empty because you cannot see me
but still I want you to be full of the love we shared.

You can turn your back on tomorrow and live only for yesterday
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of what happened
between us yesterday.

You can remember me and grieve that I have gone
or you can cherish my memory and let it live on.

You can cry and lose yourself become distraught
and turn your back on the world
or you can do what I want - smile, wipe away the tears,
learn to love again and go on.




But what has all of that got to do with John Betjeman? Well, nothing really except that this great thing called the web is really, a web and one thing leads to another and...