Subscribe to the feedAs a family, we tried out Orienteering this weekend, just doing a short and easy course as a family sharing the map reading and dibbing. Luckily it was set up in Withdean Park, a place we often take the dog, so we had a bit of an idea of the geography of the place.
And the results were:
We came 16th on the Orange course, which feels good when we were very much feeling our way.
I really enjoyed it and want to do more.
Posted via email from grasuth
Gordon Brown today warned that the world is on the brink of a “catastrophic” future of killer heatwaves, floods and droughts unless governments speed up negotiations on climate change before vital talks in Copenhagen in December.
This applies to the US as much as anyone, he said, adding that “there is no plan B”, and that agreement cannot be deferred beyond the UN-sponsored Copenhagen conference.
Posted via web from grasuth
from London Lite (freebie commuter paper) 1/10/09
A nightclub owner and self-proclaimed “tantric master” called Dr Earth has been selected by the Tories to contest Edmonton seat.
Andrew Charalambous, 42, who claims “all you have to do is dance to save the world”, runs club nights using a hi-tech floor that generates electricity from the movement of dancers.
A fruitarian, he is also a barrister and volunteer police officer, and has a PhD.
Not saying I would vote for him, like. But can’t help savouring his mere fruity existence, knowotImean yeah?
I’ve gone a bit posterous mad so now have a couple of extra blogs for
specific things. A little summary here for the interested:
Posted via email from grasuth
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.
Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.
Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.
For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world’s leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama’s appeal that “Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.”
It makes perfect sense. Read this press release.
Posted via web from grasuth
This Saturday 12th of September we are having a belated UK 40th for Lib (me). Yay! Taken a lot to get back on the social organising horse. Don’t know how people find the time and energy to do it often… but really looking forward to playing with folk.
for an evening of sleuthing and merriment.
Saturday 12 September
A belated 40th birthday party for Libby.
Our journey starts at
London Road train station (eastbound platform)
at 19:30 hours.
(We will be wearing dark glasses in case you don’t recognise us.)
Bring your puzzler, notebook and pencil.
Briefing begins here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espionage.
First clue and codeword to follow after RSVP.
Binoculars or spy cameras welcome.
All martial arts accepted.
Dress code: sexy spies & spooks, circa any era
- eclectic and eccentric as you fancy
Check out the splendid cryptic crossword created by Julia Dunlop (a nodestone blog-school graduate). Commission your own via www.juliadunlop.co.uk. Great for engagement & participation, education, special events, fun… Many thanks to a very clever lady.
Let’s see if anyone can get an answer or two (leave them in comments section) or crack the whole thing. Hint: most answers relate to the party (ie. spies, me etc). Bit of an ego trip or what!
If you aren’t coming and like the sound of this kind of thing, get in touch and let me know. There is a fun day out in London on 4 October for another of the fab Vanessae Green Producations – Treasure Hunt. We are putting a team together if you want to be in it.
Plus other fun stuff coming up. Time to start enjoying life a bit more me thinks!
I’ve started to add my writings to an old blogger blog that I started in 2002. That’s happening over at grasuth.blogspot.com.
Wanted to share a piece of writing in honour of Tweehive.
“When one stands before a hive of bees, one should say quite solemnly to oneself: ‘By way of the hive, the whole cosmos enters man and makes him strong and able’. Rudolf Steiner
Nothing so genteel from this piece, inspired largely by the rough diamond Donny Davy (my dear Dad) and the questioning nature / wisdom of children, as conveyed by The Little Prince.
Thought it was up on my old old writing page, but alas. We surely need to do some maintenance work on all our sites. Been publishing creative, personal and biz stuff since mid-90s, so you get that… sigh. Anyone know a good social media consultant who can sort me out?
Never forget dear Pete Morris calling his website “a hungry elephant in the backroom demanding to be fed.”
A new game we’ve been playing – a variation on the old Davy / Juniper family “Padnag”
Polka
A type of sport, a bitlike poker but more aggressive (Bea)
When you tickle a lady in the armpit with your fork (Libby)
Dessert made from chocolate frogs, jelly and ice cream (Gra)
Subpoena
I type of posh sub (Bea)
A type of submarine shaped like a willy (Bea)
The state of mind a man gets into when he buys a sportscar (Gra)
When you wee in the bath and hope no-one sees (Libby)
Muzzy
A type of old fashioned TV program starring Muzzy the fury yellow bear (Bea)
Smell of old socks dipped in chilli sauce (Gra)
Lubber
A way to walk when you are drunk (Bea)
A salad made from lettuce and whale fat (Gra)
A big, fat loving kind of chap (old English) (Libby)
Tendril
The tentacle from an alien, what they use to suck out your brain (Bea)
Octopus legs which sucker onto the eyeballs and poke holes in them (Libby)
Rabbi
The one-eyed rabbit God. (Gra)
A type of serious disease when you turn into a rabbit (Bea)
A small furry rabbit without any teeth (yet) (Libby)
Bea was asked to do a timeline for school – about her own life. These are the images she selected (with a bit of help from her folks). The song Bea chose was great (Mica – My Interpretation…” You talk about life, you talk about death, and everything in between…” but Youtube disabled it due to copyright :-( Wouldn’t happen in China!. You can find it on Spotify for free. )
So sit back and enjoy. Brings a tear and a chuckle to mine eye every time. Some shared memories here perhaps?
Looks best on HQ (high quality).
Brighton Naked Bike Ride 2009 from Rosie Sherry on Vimeo.
No point trying to spot our wobbly bits – always something else on that day, so missed it again! Maybe next year. Find out what it’s all about here
A peaceful, imaginative and fun protest against oil dependency and car culture. A celebration of the bicycle and also a celebration of the power and individuality of the human body. A symbol of the vulnerability of the cyclist in traffic. The world’s biggest naked protest: 50+ cities and thousands of riders participate worldwide, including around 2,000 in the UK in 2008.
Hi everybody, has been a while since we updated here, so I’ll do a Christmas Special post with a bit of what we’ve been up to.
Lots more to say, but that’ll do for now. Bea and I are off to the Booth museum to sketch skulls and bones.
Seems like a reasonable goal. I’m going to have a go over six weeks or so.
I did the initial test and managed to do 12 pushups, which is ok for a beginning I guess. And boy can I feel it in my upper arms. That pleasant warmness that comes after exertion.
Here we are back from some summer holidays. We did a lot.
Here’s the quick summary to keep you all up to date:
And after doing all that, it is really nice to be back to normal life. Bea has just started at Junior School, something she’s been excited about all summer.
We’ve just launched our new business, Nodestone. We’re bringing Lib’s and my businesses together to cover Social Web Education, Integration and Development under one roof. Exciting.
Please come over and have a look at nodestone.com.
We headed down to the beach in Hove after work today and had a swim and bbq with Simon from the works with his kids and Jay popped down as well. It was a still, warm, beautiful evening,
We’ve headed west, and over the water to the Isle of Wight for a week of seaside fresh air and blustery winter walks and no doubt too many cream teas :-)
We’re staying around the St Helens Duver in a little NT cottage. Been hacking around on foot and by bike this morning and it really is quite remote and beachy. Brilliant.
We’ve cleared the bit above the rabbit-proof fence and have made room for ten rows of potatos there, and after a lot of digging, mostly not by me, planting starts. That leaves the really steep bit far up the back of the allotment for grass and maybe a cubby-house for the kids one day?
I planted two rows of spuds today, 1 ft deep, 18 inches or so apart, can’t remember the variety though. Alister or Colin must have planted the first three rows. It is getting steeper up there, each row is a little harder to get in place and there are a lot of upside-down turfy bits that make it a bit tricky.
The garlic is looking ok. Bottom of stems are going purple-ish.
To Do up there:
Was Christmas really a month ago today? Yup.
As I said earlier, we had a nice one. Full of friends and family. We had ten adults and five kids staying over from Christmas eve to the day after boxing day, as well. That includes us. We fully filled up the house and then some.
It was great. Everybody took a turn in the kitchen cooking, and everybody jumped in to help clean up and somehow it all fell together beautifully.
Christmas day worked really well. After a fantastic pancake brekky, we assaulted the tree and opened presents. That went on for hours. Then after a long morning at it and a lot of milling around, we finally sat down the Christmas dinner about 4pm I think it was. And you know, all the toddlers and babies chose that time to be asleep, so it was a lovely sit down meal around the big table in the conservatory.
There are some photos about somewhere. We keep trying to get them up on flickr. One day soon.
It stopped raining on Boxing day and the clouds cleared, so we all set out for Cuckmere Haven for a walk. The sun shined a lot and we all got a lot of sky and air, which was a good thing after the insideness of Christmas day.
What else to say? It was a lot of fun, and pretty exhausting all around. Whose house are we going to next year? :-)
