Monday, March 30, 2015

It's been a long time

Ooops, just noticed it has been 20 days since I last updated the blog. I'd like to say that it's because we've been busy doing exciting things, but while we've been busy, it's not been with anything particularly exciting.

Not much to report on modme. More tiny steps forward. I am not doing classes now for two weeks, so hopefully we'll be able to spend some time getting things like videos done, and some tutorials. We've now got a load of patterns on the site and I've made some knitting patterns too. Next thing to do is to try macrame and beads.

We went to Pepes yesterday lunch time which is the first time in absolutely ages. I'm thinking of stopping my Saturday afternoon classes as it means we only have Sunday to do something spontaneous (like go to Pepes) without having to worry about being back and prepared for a class at a certain time.  Although the temperature is well into the high 20s now, Pepe still had the winter blankets on the table with the fires underneath.

It's now Semana Santa and unusually, it's not raining. I think we'll go to a parade this year. We briefly discussed going to Seville, but the parades there are huge. I think we'll be better off locally. Quite honestly, when you've seen one anonymously sinister caped and hooded Nazarino, you've seen them all.

I was quite pleased this week - and a little surprised - to receive an email from my editor at About.com who said that they've reversed the terms of the contract that I signed at the end of last year which reduced the amount they paid, in effect meaning that I'll get the same or a tad more than I got last year. I have no idea why they did this - but it was welcome news!

It has been a very poor year for asparagus. Although we did have some rain, it has been very dry and Ian has been out hunting asparagus, returning only with a small handful enough for a small meal, whereas a good haul in previous years would be enough for a couple of really big meals.

I've been researching pronunciation, because I notice that a lot of my students have problems differentiating T and D - and G and W (traditionally G has been used for the W sound and W didn't exist - hence Gillium for William). So I've been reading about mouth shapes, and reading about lip reading as people who lip read need to associate mouth shapes with certain sounds. One funny thing I read was that to a lip reader, I love you looks the same as elephant.


Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Asparagus

We went out gathering asparagus on Sunday, and admittedly, it was a tad disappointing. It's been very warm and dry, so I don't know if that has had something to do with it, however we did manage to get enough for tea, but certainly it won't be remembered as the asparagus haul of the year. If things follow true to other years, it will remain hot and sunny until Semana Santa, when we will have unprecedented storms on the lead up to Easter.

Nothing really new on the modme front - I was suffering from the dreaded lurgy again last week, so that has put things back again, however Ian has written a press release which he's going to send out today, and I need to pull my finger out again and get some more modmes listed on our site. Ian's been thinking about how to wind the bobbins with crochet cotton. He's been trying his pendant motor and my small drill. He has designed a 'thing' that holds the bobbin as it spins and winds the cotton. The main challenge now is controlling the speed.

I have a new student who is studying a masters degree in psychology. She speaks French as her second language and has the opportunity to go and study for a PhD in Canada, but needs also to have a working knowledge of English - by June, so the pressure's on!

It's interesting, I've noticed a few students have gone or aspire to go to Canada, I guess it's because French is wide spoken here and French speaking Canada is probably a more exciting option than France. One of my original students is applying for an educational program which takes French speaking Spanish students to Quebec to study for their baccalaureate (A Levels).


Sunday, March 08, 2015

Tinkerbell and Rosie

Is Tinkerbell snuggled up with Rosie on the beanbag.