Vocal Voices

Good morning.

Forecast nice again.

Going for an early run to get it out the way!

Back for coffee and some quick exam mark writing.

Picking the parentals up 11ish and we're off to Paloma park market. Books!!

Being treated to lunch at the Tudor Rose...thanks folks.

Work 6- 9 then home for GBBO and DCI Banks. Perfect.

Safe flight to Kaz & M and wishing everyone a good day.

Good morning, it's a beautiful bright Autumn morning here.

I need to do some shopping first thing and then it'll be back to walk Bill. I should really do some holiday stuff too, I need to buy Universal and Warner Bros tickets but more importantly I need to apply for ESTAs for Joe, John and myself (Tom's is still valid from NY) but I'd rather have someone here with me when I do those so that they can double check that all dates and numbers are correct. I get paranoid about putting a wrong number in and being refused entry.

Shall we have a sweepstake on how many books you buy Ally? My money is on 13!

Safe flight Kaz and M!

Have a good day all!

Morning all,

Today it's restarting my French class which I haven't been to since 2013 when I went back to work. I'm looking forward to it as the class is almost all verbal with small amounts of written work and it's all geared around talking. I'd never thought about it before but most language classes are geared around the syllabus that language uses to teach their children. Consider if all the kids coming to school didn't speak English before they came to school and how relevant that English education would be for them... I've always hated language classes but I really like this one.

Later today I have to get my suit out and ironed ready for flying back to the UK tomorrow. I have an interview with a Uni in London to project manage part of their system upgrade, this time in Access Management. It was looking like I was going to have to stay 2 nights in hotels in order to make the flight windows. Second option was to ride my Bike to Cherbourg and take the overnight ferry then ride up to London, then take the late ferry back over to Le Harve and ride back in time to pick up the Stihl saw on Friday (booked) and use it before handing it back.

Final option works best for me. I'm fling into East Midlands and my parents will pick me up and take me home where I'll pick my other bike up. Then I'll ride close to London, park the bike up and take a train in for the interview. I'll then pick the bike up, ride to the tunnel, cross and head straight home. My interview is now at 5pm so I have the time to do it.

Have a safe flight Kaz & M, Ally we have a Hope Association shop just round the corner, all books €1 and they have thousands of them. Mrs S is expanding the Library pretty quickly now and we'll probably hit 3,000 books some time early next year

Jo, that documentation is a pain. My preference is to have a document (word, whatever), in which all the numbers and dates are stored. Verify them in the document then copy and paste them into the relevant slots in the forms. As the dates don't change and passport numbers only change on a decadal cadence, it means you only have to copy/paste and verify the numbers/dates match the document. You can also set the document read only so that it can't easily be changed unless you want to.,

Enjoy the day all.

I'm now going to phone my dad and try and fix his computer remote with Teamviewer before heading out to French. Then if I have a few seconds I'll rack my very small language brain for a few things to say about what's going on in my life in French.

Morning all

Looks like we're in for another bright and sunny day.

Safe flight Kaz x

Carpet man is already here and has started on our bedroom. We're surrounded by bedroom furniture and I'm boxed into a corner right now. We had a bit of drama yesterday, poor Steve managed to cut his leg on a broken tile, it was really quite deep and wouldn't stop bleeding so he ended up having to go to casualty to get it stitched. Apparently he's allowed to continue working, it's just above his knee though and as he needs to kneel while tiling it's bound to be very sore. Will see how he is when he gets here today.

Things are going to be really hectic, as soon as the second bedroom is done Steve will put the new wardrobe up and I'll be running around finally unpacking 6 wardrobe boxes. Fingers crossed it all fits.

Hope you all have a good day

jen x

Morning everyone

A glorious sunny morning here, would love to be home but hey ho....

Ally, enjoy the time with the parentals and the lunch
Suff, that language lesson does sound like fun. I struggle with grammar so for me learning a language by speaking it is so much easier. Best of luck with the interview as well; safe travels to get here
Jo, I do a few ESTA's every year for people here at work and as Suff says, they're a pain but actually quite quick to do; takes about 5 mins per person, if that...
Jen, poor Steve, that does sound painful. Hopefully he is OK to work Good luck with Project Wardrobe when the time comes - hope it does all fit

Normal work day for me - meeting my niece Leonie for lunch at some rather dubious looking Indian restaurant in Covent Garden and then she'll come back to the office for a coffee, loo break and then head off to Victoria to catch the coach to Stansted; she flies home to Germany today. She's been with me for 10 days and for the most it's been lovely but she can be quite hard work due to her odd "quirks" for want of a better word

Have a lovely day everyone x

Not sure I'd have an Indian meal before catching a flight Ria...especially a dubious one.

Ally, quite agree....

but in fairness, the restaurant is part of the Quandoo booking system and has been around for quite a number of years; so it must be good to survive this location for so long.

Thanks for the tip Suff, I'll be doing that for future reference! Good luck with the interview!

Ria, I've done them several times before but knowing what US homeland security is like I always get a bit anxious about making a mistake. I was reading a travel forum a few weeks ago and a woman was having problems because, when filling out an ESTA form for her 8 year old son, she mistakenly clicked yes for the question about terrorist activity and if you plan to engage or have ever engaged in it! Access denied!

Afternoon
Very bright and sunny here but a gale force wind, the washing's drying lovely but the bin's been across the garden 3 times!

Well I have clothes all over the place, just found a white vest that should have been in with the batch I washed this morning, and a dress that should have been in yesterday's
Still, we have the cases down, I've filled some of my wonderful packing cubes, and have earmarked a whole carry-bag for just shoes
Best go, few errands to get out for
Hope you're all having a good day
x

JoM wrote: when filling out an ESTA form for her 8 year old son, she mistakenly clicked yes for the question about terrorist activity and if you plan to engage or have ever engaged in it! Access denied!

oops!