Kenny visited Ghana recently, and this is one of the children he tried to help.
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| Ella looks lovely in her tiger suit. Sarah adores her of course, as does Uncle Kenny. Ella calls Neil, Grandad. |
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| Charlie tucks in to his meal, with Dana next to him. |
Friday 28 December 2012
Sarah, Neil and Family
Wednesday 26 December 2012
CHRISTMAS DAY
CHRISTMAS DAY 2012
We enjoyed a lovely Christmas Day with half of the family. I prepared the vegetables and Mum, as always, cooked a delicious dinner with roast turkey and stuffing, chipolatas, pigs in blankets, cranberry sauce with roast potatoes, Brussel sprouts, parsnips, and carrots, and gravy of course, All the plates were cleared, a great tribute to Mum's cooking and the family's appetite.
For dessert, we enjoyed a beautiful home cooked Christmas pudding with brandy sauce, brandy butter and cream. There was also a lovely chocolate pudding which some of the children preferred.
After dinner, the children helped Tilly to give out the presents from the tree.
Here follow a few photos taken on the day.
We enjoyed a lovely Christmas Day with half of the family. I prepared the vegetables and Mum, as always, cooked a delicious dinner with roast turkey and stuffing, chipolatas, pigs in blankets, cranberry sauce with roast potatoes, Brussel sprouts, parsnips, and carrots, and gravy of course, All the plates were cleared, a great tribute to Mum's cooking and the family's appetite.
For dessert, we enjoyed a beautiful home cooked Christmas pudding with brandy sauce, brandy butter and cream. There was also a lovely chocolate pudding which some of the children preferred.
After dinner, the children helped Tilly to give out the presents from the tree.
Here follow a few photos taken on the day.
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| Most of them managed a happy smile for the camera. |
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| Sensibly, we put out place names beforehand and had no squabbles at all. It was a very happy time. |
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| The table awaits the hungry horde. |
Monday 17 December 2012
Wednesday 12 December 2012
CHRISTMAS IS COMING
Soft Play
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| One of her favourite fooods is beans, which she eats by hand, and then rubs her face-lovely!! |
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| Here she wanders amongst the equipment, seeing what she fancies. |
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| She is always smiling. |
Thursday 6 December 2012
A Day Out Shopping In Bath
Unusually, I really enjoyed a day's shopping with Gill in Bath. We used the Park And Ride service and started at Hotter's where Gill chose a pair of new shoes. Then it was off to M&S, where else, to buy a new coat. This was accomplished surprisingly quickly, and we had lunch then in the cafe` there. It was time for home after this.
Monday 3 December 2012
Films Seen
HITCHCOCK
Director Sacha Gervasi adapts Stephen Rebello's book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho to explore the relationship between the legendary British director (Anthony Hopkins) and his wife Alma Reville (Helen Mirren), who played a crucial behind-the-scenes role in the making of her husband's terrifying 1960 classic Psycho. Scarlett Johansson co-stars as Janet Leigh and James D'Arcy portrays Anthony Perkins in a film also featuring Jessica Biel, Danny Huston, Toni Collette, and Ralph Macchio. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
LES MISERABLES
Bille August directed this Rafael Yglesias adaptation of the 1862 classic by Victor Hugo (1802-1885) about the quest of Inspector Javert to capture escaped convict Jean Valjean, originally an honest man who was jailed for stealing a single loaf of bread to feed the family of his starving sister. This new interpretation of Hugo's epic begins with Valjean (Liam Neeson), released after 20 years of cruelties and hard labor, reporting for parole in Dijon. Stopping at a bishop's house, he's treated with respect, but even so, he steals silverware, flees, and is captured. However, the bishop says the silverware was a gift, proving Valjean's innocence by giving him two silver candlesticks. Valjean is free, but the bishop asks him to treat others with equal kindness. By 1822, Valjean has risen to mayor of the village of Vigau, where he also maintains a successful factory. Joining the local police, Inspector Javert (Geoffrey Rush) is suspicious of Valjean's identity and eventually recognizes him as a former convict, but Javert has no proof when he carries his accusations to Paris. Valjean develops a relationship with Fantine (Uma Thurman), who lost her factory job because of local attitudes about her illegitimate daughter. The starving Fantine turns to prostitution, is arrested and tortured by Javert, and becomes ill. As she dies, Valjean promises to raise her daughter Cosette. Focusing on Valjean's life with Cosette (Claire Danes), the story is set amid the action of the July 1832 Revolution, a time when Cosette falls in love with a militant student, Marius (Hans Matheson). On the banks of the Seine, Valjean and Javert have their final confrontation. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
LIFE OF PI
Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age. He survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a boat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
The novel was rejected by at least five London publishing houses[1] before being accepted by Knopf Canada, which published it in September 2001. The UK edition won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction the following year.[2][3][4] It was also chosen for CBC Radio's Canada Reads 2003, where it was championed by author Nancy Lee.[5] The French translation, L'histoire de Pi, was chosen in the French version of the contest, Le combat des livres, where it was championed by Louise Forestier.[6] The novel won the 2003 Boeke Prize, a South African novel award. In 2004, it won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature in Best Adult Fiction for years 2001–2003.[7] In 2012 it was adapted into a theatrical feature film directed by Ang Lee with a screenplay by David Magee.
HUGO
His natural aptitude for engineering leads him to steal gears, tools, and other items from a toy-shop owner who maintains a storefront in the station. Hugo needs these purloined pieces in order to rebuild a mechanical man that was left in the father's care at the museum -- the restoration was a project father and son did together.
When Georges (Ben Kingsley), the old man who runs the toy stand, catches on to the thievery, he threatens to turn Hugo over to the station's lone police officer (Sacha Baron Cohen, who makes every effort to send any parentless child in the station to the orphanage. But Hugo's run-in with Georges leads to a friendship with the elderly gentleman's goddaughter, Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz), who unknowingly possesses the last item Hugo needs to make the mechanical man work again.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
We took Jess, Laura and Ben to see the film Great Expectations at Westway Cinema in Frome. They had a bag of sweets each to munch, and enjoyed an icecream in the interval. They followed the story line very well, rather better than I did.
Director Sacha Gervasi adapts Stephen Rebello's book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho to explore the relationship between the legendary British director (Anthony Hopkins) and his wife Alma Reville (Helen Mirren), who played a crucial behind-the-scenes role in the making of her husband's terrifying 1960 classic Psycho. Scarlett Johansson co-stars as Janet Leigh and James D'Arcy portrays Anthony Perkins in a film also featuring Jessica Biel, Danny Huston, Toni Collette, and Ralph Macchio. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
LES MISERABLES
Bille August directed this Rafael Yglesias adaptation of the 1862 classic by Victor Hugo (1802-1885) about the quest of Inspector Javert to capture escaped convict Jean Valjean, originally an honest man who was jailed for stealing a single loaf of bread to feed the family of his starving sister. This new interpretation of Hugo's epic begins with Valjean (Liam Neeson), released after 20 years of cruelties and hard labor, reporting for parole in Dijon. Stopping at a bishop's house, he's treated with respect, but even so, he steals silverware, flees, and is captured. However, the bishop says the silverware was a gift, proving Valjean's innocence by giving him two silver candlesticks. Valjean is free, but the bishop asks him to treat others with equal kindness. By 1822, Valjean has risen to mayor of the village of Vigau, where he also maintains a successful factory. Joining the local police, Inspector Javert (Geoffrey Rush) is suspicious of Valjean's identity and eventually recognizes him as a former convict, but Javert has no proof when he carries his accusations to Paris. Valjean develops a relationship with Fantine (Uma Thurman), who lost her factory job because of local attitudes about her illegitimate daughter. The starving Fantine turns to prostitution, is arrested and tortured by Javert, and becomes ill. As she dies, Valjean promises to raise her daughter Cosette. Focusing on Valjean's life with Cosette (Claire Danes), the story is set amid the action of the July 1832 Revolution, a time when Cosette falls in love with a militant student, Marius (Hans Matheson). On the banks of the Seine, Valjean and Javert have their final confrontation. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
LIFE OF PI
Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age. He survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a boat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
The novel was rejected by at least five London publishing houses[1] before being accepted by Knopf Canada, which published it in September 2001. The UK edition won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction the following year.[2][3][4] It was also chosen for CBC Radio's Canada Reads 2003, where it was championed by author Nancy Lee.[5] The French translation, L'histoire de Pi, was chosen in the French version of the contest, Le combat des livres, where it was championed by Louise Forestier.[6] The novel won the 2003 Boeke Prize, a South African novel award. In 2004, it won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature in Best Adult Fiction for years 2001–2003.[7] In 2012 it was adapted into a theatrical feature film directed by Ang Lee with a screenplay by David Magee.
HUGO
Martin Scorsese's adaptation of Brian
Selznick's award-winning novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret stars Asa
Butterfield, as an orphan boy who lives in a Parisian train station.
Sent to live with his drunken uncle after his father's death in a fire,
Hugo learned how to wind the massive clocks that run throughout the
station. When the uncle disappears one day, Hugo decides to maintain the
clocks on his own, hoping nobody will catch on to him squatting in the
station.
His natural aptitude for engineering leads him to steal gears, tools, and other items from a toy-shop owner who maintains a storefront in the station. Hugo needs these purloined pieces in order to rebuild a mechanical man that was left in the father's care at the museum -- the restoration was a project father and son did together.
When Georges (Ben Kingsley), the old man who runs the toy stand, catches on to the thievery, he threatens to turn Hugo over to the station's lone police officer (Sacha Baron Cohen, who makes every effort to send any parentless child in the station to the orphanage. But Hugo's run-in with Georges leads to a friendship with the elderly gentleman's goddaughter, Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz), who unknowingly possesses the last item Hugo needs to make the mechanical man work again.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
We took Jess, Laura and Ben to see the film Great Expectations at Westway Cinema in Frome. They had a bag of sweets each to munch, and enjoyed an icecream in the interval. They followed the story line very well, rather better than I did.
The film centres on Pip (Jeremy Irvine), an orphan who eventually finds himself the recipient of some property, courtesy of a mysterious benefactor. The gift grants him the opportunity to make a life for himself as a gentleman in the class system of London. The chance also opens the door for him to pursue the lovely, yet hard-hearted Estella (Holliday Grainger), though fate or something darker seems to be keeping them apart.
All the familiar faces are here with Ralph Fiennes as Magwitch and Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham. Robbie Coltrane plays Jaggers, Jason Flemyng as Joe and Ben Lloyd-Hughes is perfectly sinister as Bentley Drummle.
TAKEN 2
Liam Neeson returns as Bryan Mills, the retired CIA agent with a ‘particular set of skills‘ who stopped at nothing to save his daughter Kim from kidnappers in TAKEN. When the father of one of the villains Bryan killed swears revenge, and takes his wife hostage in Istanbul, Bryan uses the same advanced level of special forces tactics to get his family to safety and systematically take out the kidnappers one by one
TAKEN 2
Liam Neeson returns as Bryan Mills, the retired CIA agent with a ‘particular set of skills‘ who stopped at nothing to save his daughter Kim from kidnappers in TAKEN. When the father of one of the villains Bryan killed swears revenge, and takes his wife hostage in Istanbul, Bryan uses the same advanced level of special forces tactics to get his family to safety and systematically take out the kidnappers one by one
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