A week in Derbyshire

So, I missed the floods in Sheffield as I was in Derbyshire. Jill, Buzz and I were staying in a cottage in Middleton by Youlgreave so that we could easily get to Hillhead 2007; a massive international quarry trade show.

Hillhead Show
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

We had, at the last minute, got a stand for the fund so that we could let the industry know what is happening with part of the tax they are paying.

Stand
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

Given the weather it could have been a complete wash out; but other than Monday which was very wet, it was good weather the whole week.

Set up was on Monday but since I’d managed to rope Jon into delivering a lot of the stuff the Friday before there wasn’t that much for us to do. We did have to rush into Sheffield to pick up a table and bench/table to put the literature on – only just escaping before the weather got really bad.

The show started on Tuesday and was busy from the beginning; with some of the ‘big wigs’ from the industry coming to our stand! Actually the whole show was been a fantastic PR exercise, we have spoken to more influential people in three days than we had (or could) in the preceding five years.

Proud stand owners!
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

At the end of the day we made our way back to the car park to find that the Chrysler hire car had a flat (very flat) – and could we find the spare? Could we hell! I phoned the AA but after a couple of hours of waiting, and being the last people in the car park, I HAD to find the spare and change the wheel – hell, I’m not pathetic, I can change a wheel. In fact Jill and I spent some time trying.

bloody flat
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

The wheel was actually directly underneath the middle of the car, at the front! Like the damn Krypton Factor getting it down – but we finally managed it – only to finally find that the nuts on the wheel had an anti-theft device!

The AA man arrived only to find the gate to the site locked (even though he was a good 25 minutes before it was supposed to close) – we finally got away from Hillhead at about 9.45!! By the time we got in we were exhausted, it was all we could do to eat and go to bed (thanks to Jill for the excellent dinner).

Wednesday was different for me as I had to go and sort out the tyre – the spare was only a temporary one. I have to add how impressed I was, yet again, with National Tyres – this is the second time I’ve taken a flat in only for them to remove a nail and mend it instead of insist that I need a new tyre – on this occasion they went even further, they didn’t charge me!

Catching some zzzzzz
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

Again, Hillhead was busy and the weather was good. Afterwards we sent Buzz back to the cottage as he was snoozing on the stand! Mind you, that was nothing in comparison to the two guys on the stand opposite us, I don’t think the smiled for the whole three days – they can’t have sold a single thing!

happy solutions
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

Jill and I went off to Cheshire for a site meeting that I’d arranged (I really didn’t want to go but I’d canceled once already and it was really the only opportunity). I’m glad we went, what an incredible place – built by a local preacher in the 19th century, it is an allegorical garden illustrating the Pilgrim’s Progress. Totally mad!! But totally lovely too.

Mellor’s Garden
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

We didn’t get back to Middleton until after 9pm – another late night.

Thursday was great, and we did a bit of ‘promotional item’ bartering with Corus and a number of other stands, got some bags, pens, pencils and bouncy balls! We also ran out of sticks of rock – I’d got 3000 sticks and we had taken about 2000 with us to Hillhead – green, lime flavoured – limestone! It was a great give away for pulling people into the stand and getting the talking to us about the fund.

Although we could have packed up on Friday Buzz was keen to get back down south so we managed, with help from Julian from Worcestershire County Council, to pack everything up and get it up to the car.

All in all it’s been a great week and I’ve really enjoyed spending some time with Buzz and Jill. Although I have to say it was very hard work and there was little time to relax. I had hoped to show them some of the monuments around Middleton, Arbor Low and Nine Ladies; we didn’t even manage to visit Bateman’s Tomb behind the cottage as the weather was so bad. The only time the weather was nice, we were at the show!

JCB
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

Let’s go shopping!?

WOW! Let’s go shopping – I’ve suddenly found myself with $312,000 to spend. What an odd amount, and why would anyone be so stupid to respond to this email -

Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 18:49:59

Subject: Confirmation link

Thank you for your loan request, which we recieved yesterday, your refinance application has been accepted Good Credit or Not, We are ready to give you a $312,000 loan, after further review, our lenders have established the lowest monthly payments.

Approval process will take only 1 minute.

Please visit the confirmation link below and fill-out our short 30 second Secure Web-Form.

Yeh right! And I’ve just been voted President of the Universe!

Trading in my car for a boat

Sunk
Originally uploaded by Gigglejuice.

No doubt you will have seen the news from Sheffield – it appears to be partially underwater. I’m currently in Youlgreave (Derbyshire) staying in a cottage with some work colleagues (we are here for a big quarry show near Buxton – more on that later in the week).

It’s been raining a lot over the last few days, and I guess the rivers of Sheffield (and surrounding areas) have not been able to cope. We popped into Sheffield this morning to pick up some bits for the show, and a number of roads were very waterlogged.

As we came back over Owler Bar and the water continued to come down, the roads were beginning to become rivers. Baslow is quickly becoming a lake, we were lucky to get through.

In fact we were very luck to get out of Sheffield, a couple of hours later and we would have been stuck – completely. Not much is moving across the city.

Sheffield station was evacuated, a boy has been swept away in Millhouses Park, 3 Seaking helicopters have been flown in, there was an explosion out near Meadowhall and people are stranded in industrial buildings in Brightside. I’ve just spoken to Colin and he says that it’s complete chaos. The Sheaf, the Don and the Rivelin have all broken their banks in a number of places, I expect others have too.

Kath wasn’t able to come up today (she was coming by train from London), and I’m very glad that Jill came last night, and Buzz this morning otherwise I’d be here alone. I just hope that Colin is able to get to Manchester Airport in the morning for his flight to Frankfurt (he’s going to Siberia).

I’m glad I’m not in Sheffield – although the photos look great, it’s doesn’t look fun. I feel so sorry for those people whose homes and businesses have been flooded, and those whose cars are completely submerged.

If it doesn’t stop raining soon we will need boats, not cars, to get around.

The good and bad life of my feet

Those who know me will know that I’m rather partial to shoes – but I do love my MBTs, and I thought that they wouldn’t give me blisters, how wrong I was -

My poor foot
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.
This was caused by an evening walk in Hyde Park with my Uncle, in a rain storm – and it’s very very painful. I’m trying to get it to heal (ha!) by not wearing shoes (since I have to wear steel toe capped boots all next week), but it’s been raining a lot so I gave in and bought a pair of these -

I gave in…..
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

I had said that I would not buy a pair as they are so fashionable at the moment – but these are actually fake crocs, they were cheap and I LOVE the colour!

In a room full of fog

Antony Gormley is one of my favourite sculptors (along with Andy Goldsworthy), and so the chance to see a number of his new works at The Hayward Gallery in London was too good to miss.

Charlie in the office booked for a small group of us to visit (thanks Charlie), mainly to go inside the installation called ‘blind light’ – basically a glass room filled with fog. As you walk into the doorway within a couple of seconds the doorway is completely lost in the fog, and you can barely see your hand in front of you.

Gormley 2
Originally uploaded by TabascoKid.

I understand that a lot of people feel really disorientated, lost and don’t like it at all; but I really liked it and didn’t feel lost at all as I seemed to always know which direction the door was. But the feeling was really interesting, and people seemed to loom out of the fog at you!

The other works are great too, Event Horizon has over 30 casts of his body on the tops of buildings across the nearby area of London; and then there was the Allotment II which I saw at Baltic in Gateshead a couple of years ago.

Antony Gormley -Allotment (1997)
Originally uploaded by puffin11uk.

If you visit make sure you go in Blind Light, but upstairs there is another room that you can go in – but only 2 at a time so you’ll need to queue for it. My favourite piece has to be ‘Mother’s Pride III’, made from pieces of bread.

Bitten bread.JPG
Originally uploaded by Millieh.

Life laundry!

Christina has helped me with a complete clear out of my wardrobe(s).

Over the years I think most people accumulate clothes, I’ve never been a ‘follower of fashion’ – I tend to buy what I like, or when it’s necessary. Many of my clothes come from charity shops, but I’d also inherited quite a lot off Mum.

The result of this slow collecting over the last few years was that I’d managed to fill a large wardrobe in our bedroom, a chest of draws, two bags of ironing (if I iron it all it doesn’t fit in the cupboard!) and then bits in two other wardrobes.

Having spent the day in town (via the Heeley Festival – not that interesting this year), Christina and I attacked my wardrobe. A few hours, a box of Cadbury Snaps and two bottles of wine later; we had 4 bin bags full of clothes and shoes for the charity shop!!

Christina was very strict, anything that didn’t suit me, or didn’t fit was out. Maybe now when (haha!) I do my ironing most of it will fit in the wardrobe and it won’t be such a nightmare when I move out.

We didn’t go out for dinner until about 10pm and then we ended up in Wasabisabi on London Road for Sushi – yum yum!

It’s lovely that Christina makes the effort to visit us (she comes to see Colin as much as me), I wish people would visit more, but I guess that our house is not that ‘visitor friendly’ – I can’t wait for when I move so that I can have friends to stay more.

Blogging

There are now over 300 entries on my blog, and i’ve been writing it since March 2006. I’m told that most people lose interest after about three months – certainly those friends and family I’ve introduced to the blogsphere have given up after a few months.

I used to write a diary, when I was a teenager (don’t most young girls?), then again when I was a university student, and then when Mum was diagnosed. I stopped writing my paper diary at about the time I began this blog.

I’ve aways been able to type faster than I can write, so blogging came more easily to me – especially with spell checker and the ability of blogs to act as virtual scrap books – I love the fact that I can add pictures to entries.

Most people blog for others to read – I blog for me. My memory is terrible, I find chronology very difficult (strange for an archaeologist, I know) and often forget the details.

So my blog is my way of remembering – if others want to read it, and they enjoy doing so, well that’s fine.

Since losing Mum (actually, that’s a stupid turn of phase, I haven’t lost her, I know exactly where she is), since Mum died this blog has sort of filled a gap – it’s someone (anyone, everyone, no-one) to talk to and tell things to. And like Mum, it’s non-conditional (and also like Mum, it has it’s opinions through comments from readers!).

A scary thought came to me recently, what if blogger suddenly closes down? I’d lose a lot. I think it’s more scary that the thought worries me, rather than the idea of losing the blog. Perhaps I’ll have to make an effort to print out some of my entries?!

9 months on

It’s nine months since Mum died and thanks to the executors of Mum’s will I really don’t feel able to move forward emotionally in the way I feel I should.

Although I have had the main inheritance from the sale of North Home Road, I have absolutely no idea what is going on with Mum’s estate. It might sound trivial, but like Mum I like to be kept informed and involved – it’s my way of coping.

When the cheque arrived, together with a very cold impersonal letter, it mentioned that a sum of money had been retained in case of any eventualities – very sensible I thought.

However, I was surprised that they had not included a copy of the accounts, especially since I had repeatedly asked for one – since December last year.

I wrote a card back confirming receipt of the cheque and again requesting a full copy of the accounts.

In between Mum’s death and selling the house we rented it out and various repairs were done, bills were paid and money also came in – I have no knowledge of any of this (Richard has never really wanted to know, which is fine, but I have).

It’s not really about the money, although I am at a complete loss to understand why the executors are keeping the information from me, it’s more that this is exactly what Mum would have hated.

Mum chose two friends as executors as she felt that this would be easier for Richard and I (in fact she asked my opinion about it, and I said I was happy – how I regret that). She believed that friends would involve us (if we wanted to – which I did), that they would keep us informed, and that it was easier and less stressful than having a member of the family take on the role. How wrong she was.

I’ve had little, or no communication from them, and at a time when a little understanding and compassion would have been helpful I feel I’ve had nothing but hostility.

My requests for information about the sale of the house always seemed to be asking too much – and I was made to feel that Mum had ‘put upon’ them both by asking them to act as executors. My last card to them asking for sight of the accounts has been completely ignored – not even acknowledged.

The whole process was never going to be easy, but it didn’t have to be added to in such a way. I feel that the grieving process has been compounded by two people who Mum had hoped would be best placed to help and support us.

The bottom line is that Mum would have been devastated had she had any idea that her ‘friends’ would treat me in such a discourteous and cold manner.

An Other Cup of Cat

Yusuf Islam
Originally uploaded by Tiago Pinhal.

I first ‘discovered’ the music of Cat Stevens when I was 21 – I’m not even sure how. I’d just landed my first proper job (eg. not in a pub!) as a sales executive for a small telephone directory.

Every morning I’d drive Barnaby (a very old gold Renault 5 – my first car) from Cirencester to Marlborough, about 45 minutes away. Barnaby had no heaters and in the dead of winter this was not good! I took to wrapping my legs in a blanket and wearing gloves whilst driving.

For some reason the only cassettes I had in the car were ‘Tea for the Tillerman’ and ‘Teaser and the Firecat’ – both of which I completely wore out.

On reflection I realise that I had come across Cat Stevens songs before, at school. It must have been something to do with the age of my teachers at primary school that we were taught the Beatles song ‘Lucy in the sky with diamonds’ as a poem, and ‘Morning has broken’ from listening to Cat Stevens.

So when, after 27 years of not releasing an album or touring, Yusuf Islam was coming to Sheffield to talk, play and show a DVD I certainly wanted tickets. Colin liked Cat Stevens too and although he hadn’t heard Yusuf’s new album we both went along to the Showroom.

The whole evening was very interesting and enjoyable, but as we left there were lots of people complaining – Yusuf didn’t bring his guitar – so no live music (as had been advertised).

Although this was obviously disappointing it is in a way understandable, he did say that it’s not really something he enjoys doing (live performance). For Colin and I the biggest disappointment was the person they got to interview him – Roly Smith from BBC Sheffield.

Amazingly for a so called DJ he admitted to not having heard Yusuf’s new album, An Other Cup – and to be honest he didn’t seem to know much about the singer at all.

We were ‘treated’ to inane questions about ‘Cat Stevens’ and his life, but very little about Yusuf Islam and next to nothing about the new music. Roly seemed only mildly interested in Yusuf’s conversion to Islam – more about the name change from Cat to Yusuf. The whole thing was painful to watch, Roly spent the entire hour with his arms crossed in a very defensive manner. At one point he clearly showed his disregard in Yusuf’s belief in god (I might not believe in god, but I’m not rude to others about what they believe).

The DVD shown was basically a music video of Yusuf playing his songs (new and old). One of my favourites, Wild World, he changed the words into Zulu; it actually brought a tear to my eye.

After many years of playing his music (I replaced the cassettes with CDs) I can honestly say that he is one of the few artists that I will never tire of listening to. Most of the money he now makes goes to the charity he has set up – Small Kindness, which helps children round the world.

His songs often tell a story, and always have a deeper meaning – his religion, his conversion to Islam is interesting to me but it’s the music that matters.

Race for Life

Race for Life
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

I haven’t done the Race for Life this year (although I did for the last 2 years).

So many people do it now that it’s difficult to get sponsorship – the person you ask is either doing it themselves or they know someone who is and so have sponsored them.

It’s a shame in a way that it’s got too popular.

I am also not too happy with the precedence that breast cancer gets above others within Cancer Research UK. It’s not that it’s not important, but that there are so many different types of cancer that don’t get the funding and awareness that they should.