Parlez vous Anglais?

well, last night

... in the Wild, Wild West...

a.k.a our living room

There was a man who primped and preened in front of the mirror like a great big girl before he posed for this piccy

Warning anyone in the Geneva area - there are many, many people dressed like this at a big party tonight

It's been a crap day, one of the worst in a while

The highlights have been:

* reading this

and

* finding these on t'internet

Now I'm going to bed

Introducing the Macbook Wheel

From here

After a lot of research online and in local shops, I think I'm going to get one of these

Along with one of these

It's not the cheapest combo but it'll do everything I want for now...

... then, of course, I'll need a bag, remote, better flash gun, etc, etc, etc

Damn, it's snowing AGAIN We were supposed to go snow-shoeing yesterday but it was raining heavily on the mountain so we had to cancel it - much stress involved - and now it's feckin' snowing Don't think the weather likes me

Anyhoo, we had some kind-of, sort-of good news yesterday. The bank have said "Yes" to our mortgage application *woohoo* but they've given us another hurdle to get over before it's all definite. All of our original quotes for the work involved in building the house are around 18 months old and they want more recent ones in case the prices have gone up enough to cause problems.

This is kind of annoying as:
a) in the 'current financial climate', the prices are more likely to have gone down, rather than up, as all of the labourers are desperate for work
b) the original quotes wouldn't be so out of date if the bank themselves hadn't been messing us around for so long

So, Mike will phone eveyone up again, get new quotes and send them off to the bank. We wait some more - but with more of a smile on our faces than we've had in quite a while

And I have pancakes for breakfast

As ever, from here

1. What was your favourite childhood TV or radio programme?
I always loved 'Blue Peter', especially in the Peter Duncan, Simon Groom, Janet Ellis era

2. Did you have a favourite book as a child?
I loved 'The Little Princess' by Frances Hodgson Burnett, mostly because the little girl was called Sarah... spooky that I'm now Mrs Minchin as the really mean teacher in the book was Miss Minchin

3. When playing which superhero were you?
I don't remember ever pretending to be a superhero but, if I didn, it probably would have been the almighty She-Ra

4. Who was your best friend as a child?
I remember having a good friend called Joseph when I was about 5... there was a girl called Rebekah when I was a bit older but she turned out to be a complete bitch... then it was Pippa for most of my teenage years

5. Complete this sentence as though you were a child again. "When I grow up I want to be..."
... a princess

So, I'm watching the inauguration ceremony... arguably a defining moment in modern history...

... and I'm eyeing up the lenses that the photographers are using!

On a more serious note, here's to you Mr President

The eyes of the world are on you, I'm hoping that you manage to come even close to living up the huge weight of expectations on your shoulders

The amazing Tony Hart has died, aged 83

Such a legend on kids' TV, I used to love watching his shows

I've been window-shopping for a better camera. I love my little Canon Powershot A540 but I'm getting increasingly frustrated by what it can't do so now I'm looking at digital SLRs.

Looking around the shops and on various websites, I think I've got it narrowed down to the Canon EOS 450D or one from the Sony Alpha range (the 300 or the 350).

However, the truth is I know precious little about this stuff and I'm hoping that some of you will have some advice or recommendations for me. I'm looking at no more than £500.

Any ideas? Please?

From here

1. Margarine or butter?
Yup, I had to correct the spelling mistake
Butter on the rare occasion that I have either

2. Tesco or Asda?
Intermarche, t'others aren't exactly local for me

3. Night in or night out?
In

4. Cinema or DVD?
Cinema, it's a real treat these days

5. Relaxing holiday or adventure holiday?
Relaxing... please? Chance would be a fine thing

Blimey, haven't blogged in days, have I? Most not like me...

So damn busy. Feeling quite run down by it all, got the whole head-down-and-get-on-with-it mentality going on which doesn't put me in the most communicative mood. Sorry.

Did have a bit of fun playing with a certain pink wig the other evening, got a couple of good shots but a bit out of focus. It's tough taking piccies of yourself! Have promised myself that I'm going to have another go tomorrow evening. Hubby's going to Frankfurt for the day and won't be home 'til late so I'll have some time alone after the kids are in bed. It's kind of weird that I'm happy putting pictures of myself on websites like Flickr but I still don't like to take them when someone else is around

Mucho tired, time to flop on the sofa.

Toodles

Joining in with Abi's idea from here

I blog from here:

Note how this is the seat of power around here - computer, phone, remote controls and ever present glass of coke

Feel like I've done precious little but work this weekend

It's a horrible time of year, all of the assessments from last week to mark with reports looming just over the horizon... and my class assembly before too long as well!

After working for more than 6 hours, I've decided to stop and give myself the evening off. Time to play on my DS in front of 'Dancing on Ice' and then 'Lark Rise to Candleford' - lovely.

Think I might help myself to some of the freshly baked raspberry and white chocolate muffins in the kitchen too, my hubby's great, ain't he?

Today's been pretty hectic, probably not helped by the fact that we didn't get up until after 10am (thanks kids!)

Made it to the local shopping centre this afternoon and promptly wished we hadn't, it was soooooo busy! It appears sales fever has hit around these parts After queueing to park, getting sworn at by another driver, pushing through crowds and getting a fraction of the stuff we needed, we gave up and came home again.

Mike's been working, I've been working, the kids have been doing their stuff. The house is a tip and that pretty much guaranteed a visit from the in-laws... argh. Tough, they take us as they find us in term-time.

I've only just put the work away for the night, the kids have been doing assessments all week so I've got loads of marking to do this weekend *blah*

More of the same tomorrow

Wi-fi's down

Anyone else watched the series this week on BBC1? Thought it was very well done, hope they do some kind of educational package for it.

Now we're watching a documentary about it all on BBC4 - horrible, horrible stuff

Not in a very Friday mood right now

From here - hurrah!

1. Is it time to change the name of the "mobile phone" as they are now more than just a phone?
What would we change it to? At least calling it a mobile helps to differentiate it from the land-line type of phone...

2. Do you take your mobile phone on holiday with you?
Well, we used to both have Swiss pay-as-you-go mobiles, then there was the UK pay-as-you-go mobile which we took whenever we went to the UK with us. Now we both have French mobiles on contract which we'll probably take on holiday next time, wherever we go. Blimey, that was a long answer! Life is complicated, eh?

3. If you phone runs out of battery life is it a mishap or the most worst thing that can happen... ever?!
It's bloody annoying but it's not the end of the world, although I tend to make sure it's always charged because I don't like travelling without my phone working. I never know when I'll need Mike to help me with some random French needs!

4. If they're not playing the latest chart topper then it's some other electronic rubbish so is it wrong to say "I'll give you a ring!" when phones don't actually ring these days?
Nah, it makes sense, why change it? My ring-tone is currently 'Shine' by Take That BTW

5. Complete this sentence "My mobile phone is..."
My mobile phone is trés shiny... and lovely... and piteously under-used as an actual phone

I'm in my jammies albeit with a polo neck on underneath 'cos it's so damn cold

I have stopped work for the day despite the hideous amount I'm putting off until tomorrow

It's Friday tomorrow *yay*

I am one happy bunny...

... although somewhat politer than this happy bunny

Myspace Graphics

Let's re-christen Monday as Meh-day

Hello everyone, I'm back

We had a lovely time and I've taken a gazillion photos

If you wanna see more, nutters, then clicky on my Flickr gizmo up there *points*

Now I'm off to collapse in a heap... and work out who on earth Tom, Dick, Harry Matt Smith is