new year's resolutions

here are ours, in order of priority:

• keep up with the blog again (thank you for those friends and family to complain about the sluggish maintenance - it's great to know it's not just me looking at it!)
• lose all that fluff around the hips that i seem to manage to put on every year
• get back on the bike again. since we picked up swimming last summer i have not had the energy to go straight from the pool onto the road. let's see...
• and god knows all those little bits and bobs that are too personal to state here, but they are a plenty
• but, as chilli the cat proves on the pic above, not to lose a taste for the good things in life, either. have your cake and eat it!

Happy 2013!

with several bottles of great champagne from mr. lawrence it was actually not difficult to see the old year out and a bright and bolshy 2013 in. although we had a lovely invitation to a party we were all too lazy and just watched the fireworks on bbc and made plans for the year to come. and of course on new years day our famous/infamous party, with 24 adults and 14 children this time. great, great cassoulet from deac, fish soup and a creme caramel to kill for from rike. 2013 - here we come!!!

(rike and friends during the party, hiding in the basement, i think...)

allright then: god save the queen

it was right down as predicted: rain in the morning, rain later in the afternoon, but just to prove she has the heavens on her side the ghastly weather cleared up a little bit and we remained mainly dry, and warm, because the crowds were so densely packed.

after a long breakfast we decided to try our luck and use the happy fact that my workplace is right on the river and that our nice security staff usually let us in - and they did. we tried several places, the waterfront bar, the viewing platform on the 7th floor, somerset house, but in the end decided that while we were here it would be best to mingle with the crowds and have that hands-on feeling.

and we were not to be disappointed. it was the most spectacular line of ships and boats that we will see on the thames in our lifetime, and the friendly cheers left, right and centre really did it and we cheered as loud as everybody else. and even when rike spoke of 'her queen' and the husband proclaimed that it was after all worthwhile living in a monarchy and even when we all joined in on 'god save the queen' i didn't mind. only when deac put two large union jacks onto my determinedly german car i started wondering where this all would end...

this is your captain speaking

clearly one of the most spectacular moments in life. do by all means look at the videos but believe me i flew this bumble bee significantly more steadily than rike's clips suggest. must have been down to the photographer having fun in the backseat. for more pics click on the picasa album top right. and a big kiss for rike, for bravery as well as taking pics!!!

hidden hitch

make it to guildford tonight if you can and if you want to know more about alfred hitchcock and where my dear husband deac rossell, together with kevin last and william godfree, will shed some light unto the cult director's lesser known works.

says the yvonne arnaud theatre, where the event takes place: "by revisiting his life, this educational presentation trawls the hitchcock canon for the missing and little seen items as well as uncompleted projects both on the big screen and television. ... using slides, film and live music, hidden hitchcock: the missing films provides a very different picture of the maestro, charting his life from turn of the century leytonstone until his death in 1980."

the all-in-one-weekend

unbelievable but true this last weekend proved to be an all-inclusive one with a list of things and events as long as you can see: not only was i able to spend two full days in the garden (after six weeks of rain and misery!) but - hold your breath - we got the computer back, unrepaired as predicted, but deac had lined up the next guy and he really took the computer and returned it fully fixed in less than 36 hours. but at a time when i was actually quite happy to live the computer-free outdoor live it turned out that my birthday present (in fact one of many) from deac and fred was ready and so to biggin hill on sunday morning. about twenty minutes of instructions (yes, on the red model) to give me the faintest clue on what to do in the air and off we went, rike in the back and husband left on the ground, just in case...

a ninety minutes flight to the sea along the river over ebbsfleet and gravesend, with gorgeous views right across to canary wharf and battersea power station, a nervous instructor (german! from a town near where i was born!), a wreck of a flying student, and a very happy camper in the back taking pics from every angle.

yoke and throttle were the most used words in what can only be called a proper language on its own, and while i desperately tried to remember what was what my dear teacher had already moved to the next set of expressions, like mcp and pfd, and the only sentence i really enjoyed was "i am in control", which i had to say everytime i wanted to touch something and of course because it was so utterly untrue.

what else did we do? after the flight we had lunch, then riding, then shopping, then swimming (rike), then a wonderful dinner and "over"!!!

soon more pics from the air!
   

a clean house is a sign of a broken computer

... i read this morning but i have to disappoint again: the (beep) computer (beep) has collapsed over three weeks ago now but the house is still the same old mess because we now have to travel longer to get things done electronically, and only the child is happy with her smart phone.

also collapsed obviously has our repair guy and most certainly the relationship with him because for the last twenty days he has not answered the phone or the door and seems to have left the country for good.

it is rare that I feel really angry towards people but in this case i can't help it.