Positivity

Well, I seem to have made it through. Lost a couple of faves, although not all of them, which is heartening. Hopefully the minor glitches will be sorted out over the next few days and I'm looking forward to getting to know the new site and seeing all your pretty new blogs

Edit: erm - glitches seem to be rather more far-reaching than I thought. Anyone else having trouble with getting logged out then told that their password is incorrect? Also having trouble viewing my blog.

4.6.06 11:10


Sunshine

OK, we've had plenty of people airing their opinions about the new 20six, so I thought I'd join the bandwagon and state mine too.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: I LIKE IT.

There you have it. Go on - burn me at the stake, I dare you. The fact is that people haven't given it much of a chance yet. So it's different from the old platform? Well, bite my bum and call me Harold - who'da thunk it? A new platform being DIFFERENT from the old one? Goodness me - whatever next?

So the blogs look ugly when you first open them up? Again - fiddle around with them and make them your own. I'm a complete html dunce and yet I've managed to make mine look (if I do say so myself) very purdy. I'm also happy to help people out with html layout if they so want - I have some basic codes, written by the lovely and very talented PeterJ for the layout resources blog, which can very easily be tweaked to suit your own needs.

So you can only write posts in html? Well, go to 'your data' and check the little box beside 'use javascript editor'. Voila - WYSIWYG text editor, just like the old platform.

So you have to log in every 5 mins? Well, don't close the admin page then. The way this new system works is that you have the opening page with all your admin stuff on it, just like 'your weblogs' on the old system. When you click a link, it will open it up in a new window. If you close the admin page you will be logged out, if you keep it open in the background, you won't be. Simple.

So you think your main blog has disappeared? Have a look in 'your blogs'. G'wan. Dare ya. Is it there? Bet it is. So far as I know, the only blog that has actually been wiped is Pete's, because his blog ended up on the test server as he worked his lovely arse off testing until stupid hours of the morning.

I know it's difficult, I know it's wierd, I know we all feel out of place. However, if we pull together and help each other out rather than being automatically negative then this place will be great. I'm going to set a challenge - let's see who can manage to stay the most relentlessly cheery in the face of adversity. I'm trying my damnedest here and I could do with some backup. Go on - you know you can do it...

Love, kisses and unfailing optimism,

Katja xxx

5.6.06 13:23


Football, Schmootball

I subscribe to various email newsletters for the stuff that I covet and very rarely buy, such as expensive holidays, cheap meals out with Toptable (actually, I do use that one quite a lot), designer shoes (oh! Louboutin *sigh*) and gourmet picnic hampers. Usually I enjoy receiving these emails - they brighten a dull morning. However, at the moment, they are all causing me pain and anguish. 'Why is that?' I hear you cry. Well, I shall tell you: they are all running World Cup themes.

AAAAARGH!

If I hear another word about the football I think I might do something I regret. I come from a rugby-playing family, I've never been desperately sporty myself and I'm a girl. Three very good reasons why I can't stand football. Plus, if it weren't for the World Cup messing up the Pope's visit to Poland I might well have been doing a show in Warsaw this week. As it is, I'm here in London. Admittedly, it's lovely and sunny and I don't have to go to work, so it's not all bad, but neither am I drinking vodka infused with gold flakes in a country that I've never visited before. Would it be too much to just give the football talk a rest? The competition hasn't even started yet. It's even worse than the run up to Christmas - at least I sort of look forward to that. All I have to look forward to during the World Cup is lots of drunken idiots wearing ill-fitting football shirts and those ridiculous flags attached to every single Ford Mondeo and white van in the country. And don't try telling me it only happens once every four years because I won't believe you. It only seems like yesterday that the last one happened.

So - my plans for the summer? Well, I dream of a desert island somewhere where football has not been heard of. Preferably one that has a designer shoe shop on it, and gin is served by nubile young men. In the absence of this, however, could somebody please wake me up when it's all over?

And no, I don't want to know who won.
6.6.06 23:50


My favourite things

My mother owns a small cottage in Tregony, Cornwall, which she rents out to friends on an ad hoc basis, along with disappearing down there herself with the dog and a camera whenever she needs a break from living in a houseful of men. I've been going down there most summers since I was 13 or 14, when she first bought the cottage.

Tregony isn't the prettiest of villages - it's inland and is definitely somewhere that people live rather than take holidays - but it's become like a second home to me, with the added bonus that it is so much more peaceful than home. It's somewhere I go when I need space to breathe and I am more than happy to spend weeks on end there without speaking to a soul, save the local shopkeeper. September is always a good month - the children have gone back to school, the holidaymakers have gone home, the weather is beautiful and the sea has had all summer to warm up to a decent temperature.

St Just in Roseland

One place I always make sure to visit is St-Just-in-Roseland, where there is a beautiful little church, at the water's edge, surrounded by semi-tropical gardens. There is a local legend that Joseph of Arimathea brought Jesus to England and that they landed here in St Just creek. Who knows if this is true or not - but there's something about the feeling of the place that makes me think it could well be. It's something that I would like to believe, anyway. There is also much older, pagan magic at work here, I'm sure - this is a place that weaves a spell over every person that visits. I never fail to leave there feeling balanced and at peace.

Windsuring at Percuil

Another of my favourite places is Porthcurnick beach, near Portscatho. The town beach at Portscatho is rocky and dogs are banned, but if you take a walk along the cliffs you find a wide, sandy beach where dogs are welcome and there are plenty of rockpools to explore. Many is the evening I have spent there rockhopping with Tipsy, the now sadly deceased Jack Russell terrier. Yes, that's her on the front of the windsurfer in the above picture! It's wonderfully peaceful being on a beach at sunset, searching for shells and stones, or maybe just sitting on a rock and looking out to sea. It's at times like these that I am truly at my happiest.

 

Kate and Rob

 
11.6.06 18:29


Colour Blind

I could have sworn I put on a blue top this morning when I got dressed; however I've just looked in the mirror and it's brown.  I'm not sure whether I'm going blind or mad, or even which is worse.  Lalala - talk amongst yourselves *ahem*
13.6.06 13:23


On Life and Love

My grandfather died yesterday morning, after a long illness.  He and my granny were married for nearly 60 years - in fact, they would have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary later this year.  I've just spoken to my granny on the phone and in her terribly English way she brightly said that she was all right - sad, but all right.  Then her voice broke just slightly as she said, 'But there will be a big hole.  It's an awfully long time to spend with somebody.' 

Grandpa, you will be missed xxx

 
13.6.06 22:14


On the nature of being English

I went to see my hairdresser this morning. She's a crazy Australian who I love to bits and who has complete control over my hair - I don't really get a say any more. Not that this bothers me - it looks great so I'm happy to let her get on with it.

Anyway, she was telling me a story about the mother of a friend of hers - lets call her Jane - whose weekly treat it is to go to a local coffee shop and get herself a coffee and a kitkat, sit quietly in the cafe and let the world go by for half an hour.

One day Jane went in and the coffee shop was very crowded, so a man asked if she would mind if he sat at her table as there was no other space. Not a problem. Anyway, she opens up her 4-finger kitkat and eats the first finger. However, to her absolute outrage, the strange man sitting at the table with her proceeds to take a finger of the kitkat and eat it as well - then, to add insult to injury, he takes another one and eats that too!

Fuming silently - well, she is English after all, and we don't make scenes - she grabs the last finger and quickly eats it before he has a chance to snaffle it. At this point the man gets up, orders another coffee and a muffin and then goes to sit at another table. In utter fury, Jane marches over to the table and, without saying a word, takes a huge bite out of the top of his muffin before storming out of the shop.

On returning to her car, still silently seething at the behaviour of this unknown man, Jane starts to search her pockets for her car keys. Imagine her mortification when, as well as her car keys, she finds her kitkat stashed in her pocket...
16.6.06 15:24


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