Oh Come, all ye Faithful.

Now where was I? Ah yes, about to follow instructions from the lovely Donna on how to put a slide show on my Blog. Huh. That was nearly two weeks ago. I just turned on my computer, and it just turned itself off! So I have been absent again, and it took a while to get back on-line. My lovely Computer Man, Dan, came and shook his head, examined the patient, and took the bloody thing away. However, it wasn't terminal :-) (thankfully, because I haven't got everything backed up - of course); he managed to replace the power unit (?), and he also stopped the groaning it used to do whenever I turned my computer on! What a little genius he is. So here I am with a practically silent computer that is working again - and I now have to get my head around doing those pictures again. That's next, after I have caught up a bit. And we have to back everything up now too. Dan and I have promised to do that sometime soon - let's hope my dear old computer doesn't decide to die on me between now and then.

Son has been both helpful and thoughtful. He thinks my old computer is a "piece of sh**e" but nevertheless he put a message out on Facebook, asking if anyone has a PC they don't want. He admitted it was "for me mam", and said he didn't want any Mac questions from his mates, because we have had that conversation already. All his friends (and probably most of mine too) have now got Macs rather than PCs, and I don't know why I'm still resisting it really. It's just that I'm used to my PC and not sure I want to learn a whole new set of computer "rules". Anyway, we'll see what turns up. I'm pretty sure I'll have to replace this one soon, whatever..

Grandson has been having a jolly time, and has been making us all laugh, as usual. His teacher told Daughter about his latest joke last week, at her Parents' Evening: apparently they were doing a little exercise in class about shortening names, and she asked the children if anyone could think of how their name might be shortened. Grandson's hand shot up, so she said "OK William (that's his name!) how do you think we could shorten your name?" His immediate response was "Mario" - which made her laugh so much she was practically crying. Of course, he loves Super Mario on his DS game, so that was probably where it came from. Priceless! So from now on, he'll probably be Mario for short! His lovely teacher is leaving the school at the end of this term to be a head teacher at another Primary School. She will be sorely missed, and she said that she will miss William because he makes her laugh every day! What a wonderful gift that is.

I have been up to London this week, to the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy, which was great. I hadn't been for a couple of years, and I only did it this year because I wanted to go and see Son, and he couldn't make a space in his busy day until later in the afternoon. It was a blessing in disguise, because I had a lovely lunch in the Royal Academy restaurant, and then had a couple of hours walking round the Exhibition. I particularly love the smaller pictures - these are often quite inexpensive (though not as cheap as they used to be - I can remember when you could buy a small print for £10 or £20), and so feel very accessible. They are hung in the Large Weston Room and the Small Weston Room and are mostly small pictures and prints, some of them available in quite large print runs. Though the minimum price is now around £100. I guess that's still not bad for a piece of original art, and it is wonderful to see how many people of all ages, from students to grandparents, come to look at the pictures and sculptures on display. I particularly loved some large collages which were to my mind the most original works in the whole exhibition; there were four examples of these enormous postcard collages by an artist called David Mach R.A. At £25,000 each, they're also among the more expensive items on show. But they are truly wonderful - if you have a chance, do go and see them, and if you're too far away try looking on the Royal Academy website www.royalacademy.org.uk

That's about it for now - thanks to all you Bloggers who have remained faithful and kept on wondering where I was - lost in computer never-land, that's what. I'll be back tomorrow and have another go at those blooming photos - not that I want to tempt providence...

Picture Perfect? Huh..

You know what, I give up. I've been trying to load pictures, but stopped when it became apparent how long it would take! Then I had a genius thought - why not put on a slideshow of my pictures. How? Please can someone help me - technodummy that I am, all Blogger would give me was a slideshow of someone else's photos. All I can say is, Oh Blogger!!

Good Times..

What a humbling experience it is to sign in to create a new post. As I typed in my details, the names of updated Blogs were flashing up one after the other in very quick succession - and in many languages. It's a huge community we belong to, and I really love it.

As I write this I'm listening to the new Fleet Foxes album - which I have borrowed from my lovely downstairs neighbour. Son was here last weekend, with his girlfriend, and he noticed it among my cd's. "Did you buy this?" he asked "'Cos if you did, I'm impressed." That's so funny, because I wouldn't have known about them unless I'd heard the music at Roz's barbeque. I did love it, but that's not really the same as knowing who they are. I don't know much about new music, but I do know what I like when I hear it! Anyway, I've added it to my iTunes, so I can play it whenever I want. And I must remember to return it.

This week has been fairly quiet and peaceful after a lot of partying. I did my collecting Grandson duty on Monday, and as it was a lovely day, I took a picnic which we had on the field near his school. This was infinitely preferable to going back to Daughter's house, which is still stuffed with kittens. We played with the Frisbee and ate sausages, sausage rolls, Dalek cake (left over from his Birthday Tea), and cakes brought back from my ABF's Birthday Party. It's been all Birthdays lately, with ABF's Tea Party on Sunday being an absolute winner. We all dressed up in 1930s clothes (all the ladies wore hats, and some of them even wore gloves), and drank tea, ate tiny sandwiches and also tiny cakes which were perched on pretty cake stands. Instead of a Birthday cake, she had two Chocolate Fountains, one milk and one dark chocolate, into which we dipped strawberries, marshmallows and tiny ring doughnuts. Yummy. There was a four piece band playing on the terrace, and the garden looked perfect. The weather was perfect too. And then 12 of us stayed for supper which we ate by candlelight in the marquee. Lovely. I left at about 9.30 and arrived home at 11-ish. Tired but happy.

I'm planning to add some photos to show you, from Grandson's Birthday etc. I'm not going to start now, though, because I know how long it takes me to do it. I'll come back tomorrow. Promise...