Deep Breath
Doctor Who Series 8 Episode 1: ( My Thoughts )

The Painted Garden never happened. But I'm happy to report that I've seen the original fresco in an exhibition about Pompeii in Munich a couple of weeks ago. It's not the same exhibition as the one in the British Museum, but it was stunning for several reasons. The beauty of the artwork is sublime, and some of the pieces clearly spoke of different ( Read more... )

Last night I thought it's a brilliant episode. On second viewing, I must correct myself ( Read more... )

I'm slow. I know.

I picked up a library book today about the plaster casts Fiorelli made of the dead in Pompeii in 1863. And then it occurred to me that it's been 150 years since he did that, and that it explains the fantastic BBC documentary on the eruption of AD 79, the exhibition at the British Musuem and an upcoming exhibition in Munich (which ( Read more... )

I'm currently editing and rewriting last November's novel. I'm nearly done and happy with how it's going to turn out ( Read more... )

I'm back! It was a great trip, possibly the best of the three trips to Vienna I've been on with pupils. They behaved very well, there were no incidents or accidents and I had the pleasure to travel in the great company of a colleague who's a lot like me in many regards: we shared and swapped meals when we weren't able to choose. Marillenknödel vs. ( Read more... )

So here are photos from last night. I took them with my mobile and was in sort of a rush so the quality is not the best.

( Put your wellies on... )

I'd been wondering, what with the decline of LJ and my recent silence, when best to make my next post, and what about. It's not that my life's been uneventful. So why not take last night's flood of a lifetime. Tweeps know about it in bits and pieces, when I've had time to leave a quick message, but maybe it's a good idea to give you the full ( Read more... )

As a tradition, I have my parents and my brother and his wife over for Good Friday fish dinner. We made it lunch this year because of my little niece's sleep pattern. It's all the same if we have lunch or dinner; Good Friday is a public holiday ( Read more... )

So Mum made the turkey last Sunday. It was sublime. We'd expected the meat itself to be stringy and dry, but boy were we wrong. I've never had such tender and juicy turkey before (and I think I've learned to cook it to the point, just like pasta), but xebgoc tells me that's the way American turkeys are. We've never had an imported bird before ( Read more... )