Current affairs

The Man and Boy spent quite a lot of Sunday building an excellent electricity project mostly using stuff from the train room in the basement.  It has a moving engine, buildings with lights - the works.  Unfortunately, having enjoyed putting it together, the Boy had a change of heart about taking it into school to share with his class.  Oh dear.  This happens sometimes.

But seeing a few of his classmates' projects on Monday inspired him to a different endeavour: Morse.  He and the Man have assembled a machine this evening, and I'm impressed.  The best thing about it is that even though one of their shop-bought switches broke, they managed to make a functional replacement out of cardboard and aluminium foil. 

The machine features two sets of everything, to enable back-and-forth conversation.  Now if a couple of us come down with sore throats we'll have an alternative means of communication - how handy.

Recordered delivery

I've been pining for Linton today.  Back when we last visited in the summer there were plans afoot to form a recorder ensemble.  Well, today Insanely Livid sent me a link to this video of the "Jingle Belles" in concert!  I post it here for the benefit of those of you who don't live in the village and may therefore have missed out on Linton Music Society's "X-mas Factor" event in St Mary's church.  Livid didn't tell me how they/you ranked (as far as I can see, most of my regular Linton readers are in the group).

Oh oh oh!  I want to be a Jingle Belle!

I still miss Linton - "my" community more than any other.  But it's true to say that lately I have a growing sense of community out here, too.  I remember being very excited once when I met someone I knew in the supermarket - a rare event back when we'd only been here a few months and knew hardly anyone.  Well, now it seems like I seldom go into town without seeing a familiar face.  It's taken three years and some legwork on my part, but I can't really complain of being a stranger round here any more, and really people couldn't have been more welcoming.  But will "here" ever be entirely "home"?  Well, that's another question.

Pottering on

We've had horrible weather all day.  Freezing rain first thing, making the roads slick.  And just ordinary cold miserable rain after that.  So, a day for staying in and hunkering down, pretty much.   It's still chucking it down even as I write.

Man and Boy have been working on an electrical project together, which at one point involved a brief trip to Lowes for supplies.  I was surprised when the Man also brought home a set of outdoor Christmas lights - looks like we're embracing an element of the local culture this year!  Now we've just got to decide how to hang them.  Have we got enough to spell out "Bah, Humbug!" I wonder?

Meanwhile the Girl had a sleepover last night, with a family who are off to the Bahamas tomorrow for a vacation (why didn't we think of that?).  Home again, she spent the afternoon hidden in her room continuing her Harrython - she has borrowed her own height in J.K.Rowling CD sets from the library.

Five impossible things before lunch

I spent the morning at the farmers' market, not promoting fair trade but with my Five Rivers hat on, trying to flog gift membership cards.  I wouldn't say they sold like hot cakes, but still my friend and I enjoyed ourselves and spoke to lots of people and it didn't feel like time wasted.

Straight from there to the ice-rink for a skating lesson.  The instructor had me doing all sorts of new things - backwards edges, inside-edge 3-turns, "bunny hops" (more like skipping in skates, really) and, most unlikely of all, mohawks, which is when you have to glide on one foot, turn, and end up skating backwards on the other foot.  Impossible, surely?

I was pretty hopeless at everything, but not downhearted as I know by now that in skating most things that seem impossible at first can be achieved with enough practice.  But I've really got my work cut out for me for the next few weeks.

Made up

Yesterday I had a haircut.  I sat and stared at myself in a mirror, which is not something I often do.  Even with my glasses off, I was aware (blurrily) of looking rather pale and wintery. 

So on a whim I decided to book in for a make-up session.  I don't normally wear make-up and have no idea how to apply it properly - it couldn't hurt to ask an expert.  Also I'm being interviewed for TV next week and would prefer not to look completely pasty. 

I felt apprehensive.  Those make-up people in department stores, the ones in the clincal white uniforms, always wear so much make-up themselves you have no idea what they really look like, which I find a bit disturbing.  But the young woman assigned to me at the salon today looked reassuringly natural.  I asked her to please make me up to look as if I wasn't wearing any make-up.

It took her about half an hour, and involved a bewildering number of lotions and brushes and powders and what-not.  I sat there mentally totting up the potential price list for all this kit, and felt quite alarmed.  Anyway, the end result was....

...okaaaay. To me I looked like Coco-the-clown, with eyes like Cleopatra's.  And yet when the kids, and then my husband, came home they didn't even notice anything different about me.  (Until I took my glasses off, and then everyone agreed that the eyes were just a little scary.)  I guess she had done a good job.

I'm not sure I'm going to add make-up to my daily routine, though I'm glad I now have some know-how.  As I was finishing up at the salon I remarked to the woman how lovely and natural her make-up was, and asked her how she achieved that look.  "Oh, I'm not wearing make-up today," she shrugged, "I didn't have time to put any on this morning."

I see.  Just young and naturally beautiful, then. 

Ah well.

Keeping us regular

Well, it turns out a second car and a TV aren't the topmost requirements, after bacon, to make us a "normal" family.  According to the Boy there's something else that every household needs "in order to be regular."

Fortunately we are the happy owners of the very object, thanks to the Boy's success on the arcade games in the lobby of Zero Gravity, where he attended a laser tag party this evening.  What larks we are all sure to have with his new whoopee cushion!

Speaking of Zero, we are forecast to hit just that tonight: 0 Fahrenheit, that is, which is nearly -18 Celsius.  All day, too, we've had below freezing temperatures.  So no wonder that in the film footage I took outdoors today the buildings appear to be shivering.

Reality TV

I'd been putting off getting started, but today I decided I could delay my movie-making career no longer.  I set out into town with a borrowed camcorder in hand...

I decided to film the fair trade places I know best first, and it was all quite jolly, joking around with store and cafe staff.  It's going to be a terribly arty piece - lots of wobbling, dodgy angles and erratic zooming.  Seriously though, the professional editors will need to use all their skill to make anything at all worth watching out of it:  the true reality of TV, I've discovered, is that it's really difficult to do.  This afternoon I was able to film a few of my Middle School friends pretending to study some of the posters they've made for me over the past months (TV is all fake, you knew that didn't you?).  It'd be fun for the kids to get on telly, so I hope those scenes at least come out ok.

I've realised I haven't yet reported on our takings at the recent Fair Trade Market.  Overall the combined vendors took close to $20,000.  Just imagining the difference that money will make to artisans and their communities in some of the poorest countries of the world makes me and my fellow organisers feel incredibly happy.