Marks out of ten?

I'm having a day off (cashing in my overtime, as it were). Because the weather is not, I feel, conducive to outdoor activities (ie it is Baltic out there), I have been piddling away my time on the interweb. Found one of those school teacher rating sites and looked up my illustrious (ahem) former place of learning. Was quite pleased to see a fair few names I recognised in the teacher list, which means I can't possibly be even a little bit old doesn't it?

I have to say I was incredibly lucky at both primary and secondary school. The luck of the draw dealt me mostly decent teachers who had enough enthusiasm for their subjects to catch my interest. If only everyone could be so lucky.

I carried a watermelon

Anyone with any semblance of cinema culture will instantly know what I'm talking about here... What, you don't know? Dirty Dancing of course, which is cult viewing as far as I'm concerned. The other night I decided it had been quite long enough since I'd indulged my sad habit so I stuck it in the DVD player and wallowed in girly nostalgia.

In fact, this film holds a special place in my heart. When I was sixteen I visited Wisconsin, USA on a youth exchange trip. Students from Wisconsin University have the possibility to study one semester in my home town, and from there came the idea that a youth exchange between our town and UW towns could be a good idea. So off we went. I stayed with Jim & Marcy along with my friend Jane. (I'm getting there, hang on.)

One evening Jim & Marcy were invited to their GP's retirement party so Jane and I were home alone. In a big house with a big garden mostly surrounded by corn fields. In the middle of a tornado weather warning. And we, for some unfathomable reason, decided to watch America's Most Wanted on TV. Naturally we worked ourselves into near hysteria, and had to watch Dirty Dancing to calm ourselves down. Later that same week, we bought watermelons at the supermarket. And carried them. :)

It has since become a truly cult film for Jane and me. Brings back many happy memories.

Wedded at last

Time to do some catching up here, but where to begin? We are now back at base camp after two weeks away, first in Scotland then in the Sologne region of France (where hubby's dad lives).

So, Edinburgh... We had a great time but it was a bit of a big rush as usual. The main reason for the trip was Anne and Garry's wedding. Anne and I have been friends since playgroup. Anyone around my age will know what playgroup is and will thus know that means we've known each other since we were about 3½! So I couldn't possibly miss her wedding. Especially as it has been such a long time coming and was postponed from March to allow for the arrival of baby #3! See some pics here. It was a lovely day, warm and sunny and very enjoyable. I was really pleased to see two school friends there too, we'd somewhat lost touch but I am determined not to let their email addresses disappear from my contacts list this time! Hubby and I had such a good time. I had a bit too good of a time and was one of the living dead the next day, but that's another story not to be told here.

Maui skies

Found this photo blog just with photos of Maui skies. It's quite lovely and of course brings a little escapism to the day. Maui is a truly wonderful place where we enjoyed a pretty unique holiday (photos), maybe we'll get back there someday. I'll be forever grateful to Jeni & Andreas for deciding to marry there (more photos), otherwise we would never have gone!