Monthly Archives: June 2011

British Rail? Why are the fares in $US?

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Sorry been a bit AWOL again, cat sagas, long, labour intensive, cat sagas, will post on that.
Meanwhile I am trying to advance book a train from London to Yorkshire.
First it tell me my dates are too far in advance, so to get an idea of the fare I put in an earlier date.
89 days in advance rather than 90.
I got this message.

Please note that there may be additional fares available for some British trains; if you cannot find what you need here, please call us in the US at 1-800-622-8600, in Canada at 1-800-361-7245, and in Mexico at 001-800-726-1936.

I know I’ve been gone a while, but really? Why would folk have to call the US/Canada or Mexico to book a train on British Rail?
What have I missed??
And the fare, 89 days in advance $US 461. Isn’t that a tad steep?

Get Thee To A Monastery!

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So we’ve decided this year Jim will have his 3 day novice monk experience.
He isn’t that keen to be honest as his brother hasn’t exactly given it a glowing review.
” Boring, boring, boring, so boring, so boring I thought I was going to die of boredom, boring and hot, really hot and boring, not enough food and boring”
Still, in this day and age of distraction and instant gratification, boring is not a bad thing.
So I’m going to call and ask them to send me an application form and we’ll see if Jim can’t have this hot, food-less, boring experience to carry him through his life.

You can refresh you memory on how Kev found peace in his heart in a beautiful temple up the mountain.

This Week’s Comedy Parade.

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So I’m dusting down my ticker tape and assembling the marching bands.
I’m throwing a parade for my fabulous friends Feet and Sleuth for telling me about ‘Outnumbered’
It’s a British comedy series that won a BAFTA, or was nominated for a BAFTA, or someone in it went to the BAFTAs once, I forget, my ability to retain information is seriously impaired right now.
On Feet and Sleuth’s recommendation I ordered it from Amazon UK, I would have watched it immediately but it took me 3 days to get the damn cellophane off.
I managed to squeeze 3 seasons and a Xmas special into my busy schedule and it was well worth the efforts I made.
Different from the usual family sit-com in that the kids are largely unscripted. From reading the info about how it’s made it appears the writers and director give the kids an outline of where they want the scene to go and then send them in to make it up, and the result is great, very natural especially where the kids are always doing something else while they’re talking ( usually destroying something) which is exactly what kids do, they don’t stand still and look you in the eye when they talk to you.( In my case, these days I can barely get them to stay in the same room when they’re talking to ( at) me.
One of my favourite lines, and I think this moreorless sums up what the show is about,

Mother: Do you think we over-parent? ( pause) Or do we under-parent?
Father: Both I think, at the same time.

In my capacity as a non professional reviewer I have to say, it’s really bloody funny.

So Feet and Sleuth, thank you, AGAIN for bringing laughter, lots of, tears of laughter in fact, to my life.
Come on down and get your parade, the majorettes are just warming up. xxx

Sunday Spin

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Here I am, bolting out the gate as it were, first thing Sunday morning.
Young Kev had to get up at 5.30 to go to a handball match, and his beloved mother had to make a packed lunch.
Surprisingly the lad got up in a great mood, thanks me for waking him, if you can believe that, went on to thank me for making his lunch, cue, ‘Twilight Zone’ music, and as reward for all the thanks he bestowed upon me I gave him a lift to the station.

You’d think, storming in with a brand new blog post after weeks, possibly months of on again/off again inertia, I’d have something fabulous to say, but again you’d be wrong.

There is bugger all happening here. There are a number of, let’s call them ‘issues’ in the happy home, but I feel most of my kids have now passed the point where I feel it’s okay to blog about their exploits.
They are growing up, I’m going to have to re-draw the line in the sand that decides what is okay for public consumption and what breaches their right to privacy. So have been thinking long and hard about that recently and wondering if it’s time for Miss Behaving to be about something else, then I remember, there is nothing else, which leaves me rather post-less.
I’ll continue to ponder this dilemma.

In a non breach of privacy way, Sunshine has purchased a motor scooter. A chug along 50 cc bike with a hair dryer engine.
I have enough problems letting her cross the road unaided, don’t know how this is going to work on my last few remaining nerves.
She went with the Father last week to buy it. She’s old enough, it’s her money. There was some disagreement about crash helmets.
there were those in the party who see crash helmets as a safety device, and others who believe them to be fashion accessories.
You have to ask yourself, is a brain that thinks a crash helmet is a fashion accessory really worth protecting?
I personally believe whatever the cost a helmet designed by NASA, and preferably attached to a steel full-body garment would be the way to go.
Supposed to pick it up today but the girl is in bed with a fever and has been there two days now, so The Man and I will go get it.
She won’t get her licence until Tuesday anyway, so a couple more days of (relative) peace.

Also, somehow on wordpress here, my font has gone tiny, I can barely see it and it isn’t responding to change.