On Pompeii's Houses and Gardens

Another late entry - this is talking about Monday morning... We had another charity event on in our church hall, profits towards The Children's Society, and I was responsible for the card stall (also gift wrap and advent calendars...), while the main event was a talk about The Houses and Gardens of Pompeii, followed by a light lunch of soup and cheese board. The talk was quite interesting - at least for me because I've always been interested in things Roman and Pompeii/Herculaneum is one place I've never been but would love to see... Italy as a whole is big on my list of "wannados"! Shame that the person who did the talk was a bit to scholarly about it and at times it was rather lame and filled with probably too much detail, but still a good topic and a good turnout of about 50 people, which of course made a good donation to the charity...

Today's LO then is something Roman, and since I haven't been to Pompeii, here is a contribution from Aquae Sulis (Roman Bath in good old England where I visited with my mother a couple of years ago).

This is the introduction page: it's done on Club Scrap "Wings" paper with HOTP alphas and a 7Gs index tab (the "P" is for "pull" because there is a sheet about the history of the baths hidden behind the photo board). The bit on the right is the official brochure of the Roman Baths which are an absolutely fascinating place to explore!

The double page is about the museum adjacent to the Baths. The hot spring feeding the baths, as well as the overflow outlet, can be seen within the museum, which I thought was rather unique. There are also models and drawings of Aquae Sulis and all kinds of things found during the excavations... This is Club Scrap "Wings" paper again together with a Design Classic of the "Music and Fine Arts" kit which had the perfect Roman pillars...

Eleanor's Confirmation

A couple of days ago we had another special event in the family: Eleanor, the older one of our nieces, was being confirmed. I thought it was a strange idea to do that in the evening in the middle of the week (our confirmation was at the Cathedral on a Sunday afternoon) but apparently, that's how they do it now: having confirmations more often so people don't have to wait for them so long, and choosing another local church each time. So this one was in New Haw (a very cute old tiny little church). Sean came along as he is Eleanor's Godfather, and I sang in the choir which was mixed from the churches who sent Confirmation Candidates. The service was very moving and joyful, and afterwards we all met in the Hall where the New Haw church people had put up a splendid buffet. Everybody was joining in there (the Hall is twice as big as the church!), chatting and enjoying the food, even our Bishop! Hopefully it will stay a memorable event for Eleanor.

This is a LO I made a couple of years ago of our own comfirmation - both Sean and I, as well as his sister Fiona (Eleanor's mother) and a cousin, Kim, were confirmed then. The papers used are all from the Club Scrap kit "Extra Extra" which was a news headline type kit and seemed to suit the event well as it was a big confirmation with over 80 candidates.

Journal reads:"Guildford Cathedral Confirmation; Sunday,16 May 2004 at 3pm
We believe! 80+ Confirmed at Guildford Cathedral, 13 from St Peters Shared Church, Chertsey
Sunday, the 16^th of May 2004, was a busy day at Guildford Cathedral as 80+ candidates lined up to receive their confirmation from the Bishop of Dorking. Although slightly unwell, the Bishop performed this service at Guildford in place of the local recently retired patriarch. Spirits were high on Cathedral Hill as the instigator of the occasion had blessed the day with beautiful unseasonably hot weather. Sunlight flooded the tall arches of the cathedral which, holding some 2000, was full almost to the last seat. The event was spiritually charged, despite the impressive array of clergymen in formal attire, holding a personal note for each participant before the candidates processed out behind their parish clergy to assemble on the Cathedral lawns for photos and gift exchange…"

Another LO I made of this occasion (2-page LO; top page is left): this one is done with a Scrapgoods kit and the left page holds all the names of the Chertsey candidates (i.e. from our church) while on the right is a pocket with all the memorabilia of the day.

Home Comforts

Oh, some really good news for a change. After months of nagging my DH we finally went out for some "mattress testing" a few weeks ago, and even managed to agree on one and order it (we had to order bespoke because our bed is the one I brought all the way from Germany and the size is different from UK specs!). Anyway, the mattress is one of these new memory foam jobs (that's why I had to take hubby for "testing" in case he wouldn't like it...). And it's simply blissful!!! It came during the week, so we've already spent a few nights on it and tried it out every which way, and I must say I haven't slept that well in a long time! If you need a new mattress, go for memory foam - I can really recommend it!!!

That leaves the question of which LO to show - I haven't got anything to do with beds or sleeping of course, so maybe this LO of my first house here in England will do. It seems ages ago that I lived there - in fact, 10 years it is!!! Seems a much more respectable neighbourhood than where I've lived since...oops...

Sweet 70s

Do you love dress up parties? Well I do - but I don't often get the chance... Today I had the time of my life visiting the Fairy Godmother shop here in Chertsey to choose a dress for Winnie's birthday party. Now, Winnie is one of the old ladies at church who, due to family circumstances, has had a rather sad life until she finally became "independent" at the age of 82. Since then she's been indulging herself a bit in nice dresses, hairdressing, fake nails etc and being very prominent at all the parties in church. She's been thriving on it and it's great to see. Now she decided to have a great party for her 85th birthday this December and she's invited lots of people, including Sean and myself. She also asked me to wear the dress I had for our Blessing of Marriage last year - only I don't have that anymore, nor would I really think it proper for the occasion. But she was sooo disappointed when I told her that I decided to go and get something a bit similar but less wedding-orientated from the hire shop - I settled for an 18th century gown in dark blue with flower bouquets. It comes with hoops and a pretty choker, so that should hopefully please Winnie and give her something to look at and have her photo taken with me. And it should make for some nice photos for my scrapbooking, too, hehe... I've always liked fancy dress parties - but the last one we went to was years ago:

This was the Christmas party at the canoe club in 2000 - the theme was 70s and there were a lot of afro wigs, flared trousers and pointed lapels, and of course some hippies... Sean and I are top left; his cousin Kevin and Tracy (who got married this year - remember?) at the bottom, and some friends...

Fireworks - Wow!

Wow, I say!!! It is Bonfire Night weekend again in the UK, and for the first time since we moved to Chertsey we did not go out for a party. Well, I had no idea what splendid fireworks they do this end of town. Although I should have guessed: just over the road and up the hill is one of the more fashionable and expensive areas - all half-a-million-Pound houses... And guess what, just as we were sitting over dinner just the right one of our "neighbours" was putting on his fireworks display - it showed beautifully in our dining room window - we didn't even have to move! And not only that: it went on and on and on - and it was for sure the most fantastic private fireworks I've ever seen. Each display seemed to fill the whole sky, and all of our window, and they were just beautiful. And all that, sitting nicely: warm and with triple glazing to keep out the horrid noise and smell... What better way to enjoy bonfire night??? Okay, no photos of it this year, but below is a photo of our own bonfire party at Woodlands some years ago, and if you go to the archives of November 2006 (down the links on the right side of this page) you'll see photos of 2005 and an explanation of Bonfire Night and its history for those who are interested in such things (see Nov 20th) and further down several pages of last year's Bonfire Party at the Vicarage (see Nov 6th).

Journal reads: "The observation of Guy Fawke’s Night on the 5^th of November was compulsory in all England for a long period in history, to commemorate the fortunate outcome of the Houses of Parliament NOT being blown up by his treasonous attack. Nowadays, of course, it is just another occasion to get the firecrackers out, or even light a big bonfire like the one we had in the field at Woodlands this year. For me, despite seven years in England, this was my first Bonfire Night celebration! Sean added to the atmosphere with some way overdue fireworks that caused us to keep good distance (Eleanor and Jean didn’t show up at all outside!) but only the Catherine Wheel was really memorable…"
That was in 2003.