Blog Archives

Wedding of the Year!

12/9/2022

Crumplebury is a state of the art, modern events venue with eleven bedrooms and fifteen hundred acres of rolling countryside. Set on the borders of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, Crumplebury is surrounded by splendid woodland and the luscious green fields of the organic home farm.

“Food to dine for…

Our intimate, family run, fine-dining restaurant in a pigsty. Since 2012, Green Cow Kitchens has been showcasing the very best produce from our home farm. As you drive down our country lanes, you will pass lovingly nurtured cows, sheep and pigs. In winter, our monthly tasting menus feature estate pheasant, partridge and duck. Throughout the seasons, our chefs forage for wild garlic, hedgerow berries, damsons, plums, apples, pears, puff balls, elderflower and more. At Green Cow, we pair the warmth and intimacy of a family run service with a deep care for culinary excellence. We passionately curate memorable eating experiences, and we grow the cows ourselves”.

Crumplebury Farm, Whitbourne, Worcester WR6 5SG
www. crumplebury.co.uk

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Be Careful...

8/9/2022

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Be careful what you wish for!

Believe it or not, I managed three hours of the INSET [training] day and have been ILL ever since. Truly!! What a disastrous week. I have been (am) feeling really ropey as well as guilty because (despite my initial protestations about the beginning of term) I haven't been into school when the kids have been in situ and all the madness ensues.

I am very anxious that tomorrow is a real turning point in my pathetic and weak-and-watery stakes because we are [meant to be] attending a wedding on Saturday. We have been looking forward to this event for a l-o-n-g time. To be honest, I am sure we will go, come hell or high-water and if I hit a downward slide then I can secrete myself away somewhere quiet at the very plush venue. Keep your fingers crossed that this isn't necessary please!

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But I don't want to go to school!!

4/9/2022

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Personal Admin and Update

4/9/2022

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I am doing some personal administration (again, and so boring) and am looking at car insurance quotes as we are looking at buying a ‘new’ second-hand car off a friend. It is a “VAUXHALL CORSA SXI 16V TWINPORT” – whatever that means. I don’t particularly care as long as it drives OK!

If it is of interest – it’s a black car!!

What else? I have been shortlisted for a part-time position at a local independent school and have an interview for this later in the week. Details to be confirmed but, amazingly, it does not clash with any of my other scheduled ‘in situ’ work hours. This makes life a little less stressful at least.

The role is 3 days per week which means, should I be successful, and should I want the job, I could give up one or two other commitments. I am also going to be doing some copywriting for a friend’s business (and her clients), and this is something I did whilst in Australia (part-time / remotely) and I enjoyed it.

However, having said all of this, I have been thinking of trying to move away from employment within education as – basically – I think it has been bringing me down. The kids are fine… it’s the parents [sense of entitlement and general ignorance] and politics [Gloucestershire Education Department needs a good shake-up, as does the national set-up] and ridiculous paperwork [bureaucracy, lack of funding]. I mentioned that I needed to get out and “do something mindless” to my best-friend but she said that would drive me mad too! So, the solution must be to…. win the lottery!?*

Talking of employment and bureaucracy – you will be pleased to know that after approximately 3 months of dipping in and out of the Government’s HMRC Gateway and filling in numerous forms, contacting various on-line helpdesks, receiving both digital and paper copies of instructions, this week I eventually managed to get access to be able to submit my self-employed income ‘self-assessment’. Good grief… I am trying to be honest and do the right thing and give them money, but what a palaver. I have until October 31st to submit this information on-line. I will obviously start that process soon because no doubt it will take weeks…

On the more fun side of life, it has been a mixture of events both done and dusted and on the horizon:

I have booked and fully paid for flights to Kefalonia for a holiday next summer;
I have booked and half paid for the accommodation in Kefalonia next summer;
We have a weekend treat (dinner, bed and breakfast) booked at Marco Pierre White’s hotel coming up next month;
I met up with some Australian friends in Bath in August; they were doing a big European trip and it was fortunate that the dates managed to gel;
I spent a weekend seeing friends (from university) in Brighton. We hadn’t been able to get together for nearly twelve months so that was a lot of chit-chat, gossip and exclamations.
Like the majority of the UK's population, I lounged around a great deal in the extreme heat of July and August reading books and seeking out some shade…
Whilst also disconcertingly padding about the scorched grass and dehydrated garden and hopelessly watering as many plants as possible. It was hopeless as a future Blog will demonstrate!
Oh – and last weekend we were in Bonn again! (see other Blog).

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Remagen & Linz (near Bonn)

3/9/2022

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We enjoyed visiting a couple of tourist spots within striking distance of Bonn over the weekend too.

Remagen is approximately 45 minutes’ drive from Bonn and is situated on the left (western) bank of the river Rhine. The town has many notable and well-maintained buildings, churches, castles and monuments. It also has pleasant pedestrian areas with plenty of shops and cafes.

From Remagen we took the ferry across the Rhine to Linz am Rhein. Linz was first mentioned in an official document in 874 and called "Lincesce", so lots of very old and beautiful buildings!

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Oh – last weekend in Bonn!

2/9/2022

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Oh – and last weekend we were in Bonn again! After four cancellations (since April 2020) we eventually managed to get to the Kraftwerk concert. We were fortunate enough to stay with our friends in the centre of the city and it only took 15 minutes to walk to Hofgartenwiese - the venue for 25,000 fans.

“Electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk have been on their "3D Tour" since May 2022. .. [and] played their only concert in Germany — in the city of Bonn”. The two-hour concert comprised “a bombastic sound and visual spectacle as the images are projected in 3D onto the video wall behind the musicians — accordingly, the audience wears 3D glasses”

Kraftwerk influenced electronic bands like Depeche Mode and Ultravox, and 1990s “techno” would probably never have existed without their influence. The playlist included "Autobahn", "Das Model", Trans-Europa-Express," "Radioaktivität," "Tour de France" and of course, "Wir sind die Roboter."

Kraftwerk presented a highly technical musical sound slickly integrating an all-encompassing visual show “dominated by numbers, symbols, lines, shapes and colours”.

Paul was very happy!

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