Remind me why I am complaining about the heat here in Maui….

I just saw this online….

Palmerston North weather for the next 3 days...

Local roads and thank god I wasn’t the driver!

Map of Maui

Last Friday I paid David (the housemate where I am staying) to take me on a tour of Maui as there is no way I can get back to civilisation (Kahului where the airport is) to join a commercial tour. Have a look on the two maps – The A on the zoomed map is where I am staying – 1 mile at least to walk to the main road… (there is a road) and then nothing, no public transport or anything! This map shows the route that we took.

The area we drove - A is the house

We left while it was still cool – 8.30 am – and we headed out onto the Hana Highway. Some of this I knew, as the day after I arrived, Shannon, my hostess, needed to be taken 45 minutes up this road to Keanae. She drove there, and I drove back – after 14 years of NOT driving on the wrong side of the road, my first driving experience was the Hana Highway! And in a strange car! I managed it ok because the 4 months of wrong side driving I did in 1996 came back to me, but the main reason I, and the car, survived was because there are no intersections and I drove very slowly – you can see on this map that the road has quite a few sharp corners!

The section of Hana Hwy I drove!

So this time I really enjoyed looking at the scenery – steep hills, heavy bush / almost jungle vegetation on one side and cliff face and sea on the other. However, David and I did discuss what constitutes jungle and we weren’t sure that this came into the classification of jungle. (There was one section further up that did.) There are lots of walks into the hills to see waterfalls but because this was at the beginning of quite a long day, we didn’t go to any of them.

Our first stop after 45 minutes was Aunty Sandy’s fruit stall at Keanae Landing where we bought freshly baked (still warm) banana bread (what I would call banana cake or loaf) and some fresh coconut.

The fruit stall at Heanae Landing where we got banana bread and fresh coconut.

Thus fortified we continued towards Hana – making the occasional detour to see a bit of the country off the road. One place just after Keanae was obviously a tourist spot as there were lots of tour vans there. The coastline is totally volcanic – you would not be able to swim there, and in fact, David said that people fall in, their friends try to help them, also fall in and the end result is that 2 or 3 people can die. As you can see from my photo, the waves still have a lot of power in them when they hit the shoreline.

Maui coastline

The power of the sea - waves breaking on the shoreline.

Another detour was along a road that had lots of houses and farmed areas. These are breadfruit trees – evidently this farm has the most different types of breadfruit anywhere. The leaves were different in some of the trees and the shape of the breadfruit differed as well.

Breadfruit trees

Breadfruit

This flower reminded me of clematis (but I am sure it isn’t) and was just growing on a fence alongside the road.

Mystery flower growing on clematis like vine

We stopped at Waianapanapa State Park just after Hana – and the beach was black sand – from the volcanic rock. There was a sea bridge along the coast – this Park was also a tourist stopping off point but people also used it as a campsite.

Waianapanapa State Park black beach

Waianapanapa State Park - sea bridge

At Koki Beach Park a bit further on, there was a lovely white sand beach where people were, but just around the corner (where we stopped) the beach was made of volcanic rock. The beaches are so varied. Just offshore is an island that has several coconut trees growing from the top – and they would have got there either from a tsunami, or they may have been planted as there is obvious terracing on the left side of the photo.

Island off coast with coconut trees on the top

Beach at Koki Beach Park showing volcanic rocks and white sand beach far left.

Having mentioned tsunamis – yes, there are a lot of areas on Maui, and generally on the Hawaian Islands that are vulnerable to tsunamis. Of course they are the nicest places to live – Koki Beach is just one example. Many people who live here don’t want to live in tsunami vulnerable areas – and the main tourist area on Maui is, yes, you guessed it, in the tsunami vulnerable area. Actually, if you look at the map that shows the shape of the island, the area between the two round bits (the volcanoes) is absolutely flat, is where all the commercial and tourist area is, and would be devastated if a tsunami hit. This photo shows the flat area and was taken at the end of the day from the hill overlooking the smaller volcano.

View onto the flat area of Maui

We stopped at a fruit stall somewhere along this road and bought some fruit, including a strawberry papaya that proved delicious when eaten the next morning.

Not my photo - Strawberry papaya

The road deteriorates – the Hana Hwy becomes the Pi’ilani Hwy – and these next photos aren’t mine but ‘borrowed’ off the internet. This road is not recommended for non-local drivers and in fact, the rental companies won’t insure the car for this area.

Pi'ilani road cliff-note, no guardrails - not my photo

Pi'ilani highway showing new netting - not my photo.

You can see why – this is from a local newspaper website 2 years ago: “The Pi’ilani Highway beyond Kipahulu has reopened allowing residents and visitors to travel the direct route from Hana to Upcountry. After almost two years of uncertainty, delays, frustration and waiting, the county’s barricade at Lelekea Bay on Pi’ilani Highway is gone. The isolated rural communities of Kaupo, Kipahulu and Hana are reconnected by road nearly two years after a pair of earthquakes jarred the islands on Oct. 15, 2006.

The Maui News reports, “The boulders are cleared. The unstable cliff faces are braced with steel netting. Road bases are repaired and reinforced with concrete. Rock slides and undermined roads were the main reasons for the closure. The final project, rock stabilization and road repair has now been completed.”

However, when the road was sealed, the alignment was left as it was…

Wiggly road - Pi'ilani Hwy - not my photo

Not all of the Hawaiian islands are lush and green and tropical.

This south western side of Maui used to be all of the above, especially when Captain Cook landed here, but unfortunately cattle were subsequently grazed in the area. This meant that the trees died, resulting in a climate change. The area now reminds me of the alpine area of the Southern Alps. The cloud in the photo is the cloud that comes every afternoon and precipitates at 4-5,000 ft so the area is greener under the cloud, and then when it gets higher still it goes to alpine vegetation. This whole area is really barren and hardly anyone lives here anymore – there are still a few cattle and goats busy eating anything that tries to grow. It is a bit sad really because it used to be quite heavily populated, especially when the only way between the islands was by boat. Now that roads and planes are the preferred form of transport, this part of the island is very isolated.

Dry and barren southwest side of Maui.

More dry and barren southwest side of Maui.

There are cinder cones along this coast – a reminder that the volcanoes in this area aren’t dormant. However, one good thing about Hawaiian volcanoes is that they usually ooze (as is happening on Big Island, rather than blow their tops!

The road eventually returns to civilisation – and by the time we got back at 3.30 pm we had circumnavigated the Haleakala volcanic area.

I had really enjoyed being driven – in fact I was very, very pleased I hadn’t borrowed a car and decided to do it on my own! I wouldn’t have been able to really look at the scenery and I think it would have been slightly nerve-wracking, being on the wrong side of the road and driving around those right-angle corners!

Pi'ilani hwy -tight curve - not my photo

Odds and ends of photos!

The green wellies at The Green Welly shop - I stopped here on the way to Oban. Of course, wellies are also called gumboots in NZ!

Graffiti cat - I saw this painted low down on a wall in Southsea - it is only about 6 inches tall but painted with such detai!

Tenby, Pembrokeshire - the multicoloured houses are a trademark of Tenby which is a walled city. There were quite a few sections of the wall left. It is also the tourist city of the area.

Upside down boats, Southsea, seen when I was with my friends Mary and Dave. I thought they looked very artistic!

View at Brodick, Isle of Arran, West Scotland, where I stayed for 3 nights after being on Holy Isle. I needed to recuperate after being sick.

The small details, Tewkesbury - there are lots of these little details around when you really look.

The origin of burning the candle at both ends - a taper is positioned horizontally in this holder and lit at one end. If you light it at both ends it will burn much faster.

Brougham door knocker - Four examples of this 12th C design exist: two in Durham and two from Brougham. This is the most perfect. The original Durham one was on the North door of Durham Cathedral from 1172 to 1977.

Mushrooms or toadstools, on the coast, by the Green Bridge, Pembrokeshire - they are very different from anything I have seen elsewhere - and these were part of a fairy ring.

Fish shaped seat, St Conans Kirk, Loch Awe, Scotland - I stopped here on my way back from staying with a friend near Oban.

Kilchurn Castle (not St Conan's Kirk), Lochawe, in the mist - the rain had started as I left St Conan's kirk and this was taken from the other side of the loch. It typifies Scotland's weather!

Detail of ceiling, Ely Cathedral - Ely is near Cambridge and is the most amazing cathedral - I was overwhelmed by all the details in the building.

2000 year old yew tree at Kingley Vale at West Stoke, not far from Chichester. Mary and Dave took me there - on a walk - and there were so many interesting shapes in the tree trunks.

'Elephant' hiding in a 2000 yr old yew tree trunk! There were so many 'animals' hiding in the trees!

French burr stone. This may be one reason for the name French Milled flour. These stones were highly valued for flour grinding and were imported for use in many mills throughout Britain. Quarried near Paris, the thin beds of quartz yield only small stones which are then carefully cemented together, with a backing of plaster of Paris and reinforced with iron hoops. Taken at the tidal mill at Carew Castle, South Wales.

Michele and I stopped at Laugharne in South Wales - where Dylan Thomas lived for a while -and this dog would not let us out the door - so the owner had to hold it so we could leave without buying! It was being quite ferocious!

A quick visit to Oxford

(I have been having trouble getting the text to fit with the photos so after zillions of drafts saved and edits done, I am hoping that this version will be ok – sometimes there will be a single word stuck somewhere between two photos… so I apologise in advance if there are odd text/photo alignment issues – 3 hours is enough!)

Oxford

I managed only a short visit to Oxford – it took all day, but there was so much I didn’t get to see.

Balliol College door hinge

I love taking photos of doors and door hinges which can be very ornate. There were lots in Oxford.

Another Balliol College door hinge

I was surprised with the wealth of architectural features in Oxford – of course I have seen similar buildings elsewhere but there were just so many here in a relatively small area. And it was very obvious that when these buildings were built, that a lot of money was spent.

Hertford Bridge

Oxford’s own version of The Bridge of Sighs in Venice, the Hertford Bridge, links the old and the new buildings of Hertford College. I wonder if the students compare themselves to the prisoners who went over the Venetian Bridge of Sighs!

Radcliffe Camera

The Radcliffe Camera houses the Radcliffe Science library. Camera comes from the French word camera meaning a room. This domed Baroque rotunda is now used as the main reading room of the Bodleian Library. There some 600,000 books in underground rooms beneath Radcliffe Square. Unfortunately I didn’t get to look inside it – can’t remember now if this was because it wasn’t open to the public.

Fan vaulting Divinity School Oxford

One of the rooms I was overwhelmed by was the Divinity School room. I took so many photos of this intricate ceiling with its amazing fan vaults and there was this amazing chest as well.

Fan vaulting Divinity School Oxford

More fan vaulting

Chest in Divinity School

Inside the lid of the chest

According to Wikipedia, the Divinity School is a medieval building and room in the Perpendicular style in Oxford, England, part of the University of Oxford.[1] Built 1427–83, it is the oldest surviving purpose-built building for university use, specifically for lectures and discussions on theology. It is no longer used for this purpose.

The ceiling consists of very elaborate lierne vaulting with bosses, designed by William Orchard in the 1480s. The building is physically attached to the Bodleian Library and is also next to the Sheldonian Theatre.

Sheldonian Theatre

View from the Sheldonian Rotunda

Ceiling of the Sheldonian Theatre

The Sheldonian Theatre was designed by Christopher Wren between 1664 and 1669. It was funded by Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of the University. Wren also designed St Paul’s Cathedral in London. I walked up to the rotunda at the top – the little white ‘top knot’. It seemed a very long way but the view was definitely worth the effort.

The theatre itself has this amazing painted ceiling – I couldn’t get it all into one photo but this shows a section of it.

I also visited the Science Museum and thought some of the very old instruments were amazing – these two photos are of a group of telescopes and a microscope.

Telescope

Microscope

Trinity College was next on the list but was unable to go into the chapel or the dining room as there were renovations going on. This chapel featured in the TV series Inspector Morse – he used to sing in the choir there! I went next door to Balliol College as well.

Trinity College

There were several examples of some really bad 1960s/70s architecture – buildings that had been built alongside really old glorious buildings, with absolutely no thought as to how they ‘sat’ together.

Building at Trinity College

Old and the new, Trinity College

And finally just one of the glorious doors I saw – I had to wait for ages to avoid having too many tourists (they are such a nuisance!!!) in the photo – in the end I had to accept this shot.

Amazing door, Oxford

Bletchley Park – National Codes Centre

Bletchley Park

I visited Bletchley Park which is in Milton Keynes, 50 miles northwest of London, mid August. I stayed the night in Milton Keynes. This meant I could spend the whole day there and I did need the time. It really isn’t somewhere you can go to for just a couple of hours. It only costs £8.50 if you prebuy through the online shop.

Bletchley Park House

The main house was owned by Herbert Leon and he used to travel widely. Every time he came back from a holiday, he would get an addition put on the house in the style of the buildings where he had been. Consequently, the house is an odd mixture of architectural styles.

It was the site of secret British code breaking activities during WW2 and it was also where the forerunner of the modern computer was used. But there is a lot more to it than that.

One of the most interesting exhibits was about the role of the racing/homing pigeon in WW2 – pigeons were taken with the troops and then released to fly back to England with information. The exhibit details some amazing stories – one tells how Allied troops were saved from shelling by Americans because the pigeon, which flew at 60 mph, covered the 20 miles in 20 minutes, arriving in time before the shelling started.

This is from the Bletchley Park website:

“During World War II, the United Kingdom used about 250,000 homing pigeons. The Dickin Medal, which is the highest possible animal’s decoration for valour, was awarded to 32 pigeons, including the United States Army Pigeon Service’s G.I. Joe and the Irish pigeon Paddy.”

If you ever visit Bletchley Park, do visit this section. I spent at least half an hour reading all the info and watching the video. I found it very interesting.

Another fascinating exhibit is the role that women played in the war as secret agents, and of course, the work that thousands of women performed in code breaking processes.

Enignma machine

Bletchley Park is most well known for breaking the codes for the Enigma machine. There is more information at the end of this posting about that.

A machine, called the Bombe, was used to do this. All the Bombe machines were destroyed after the war but a group rebuilt one and this is what is on display.

Rebuilt Bombe Machine

It is said that WW2 was shortened by 2 years because of a lucky breakthrough that happened. After a German submarine was forced to surface, a couple of British sailors went into the sub and brought out papers – and in those papers was enough information to help the code breakers. Unfortunately those sailors drowned when the sub sank.

And it all started because there were a group of Poles who were trying to break an earlier version of the Enigma and:

“Before the war started, the Poles passed all of their information over to Britain and France and two mathematicians working at Bletchley Park, Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman, were able to build on this research to develop the ‘Bombe’ machine.

Turing and Welchman exploited the fact that enciphered German messages often contained common words or phrases, such as general’s names or weather reports and so were able to guess short parts of the original message. These guesses were called ‘cribs’. The fact that on an Enigma machine no letter can be enciphered as itself made guessing a small part of the text even easier. It also meant that the potential number of settings that the Enigma could be in on that day was greatly reduced.”

Colossus, the world’s first semi-programmable computer, was used at Bletchley Park from 1943. A rebuilt machine is on display.

A rebuild of Colossus, the world’s first semi-programmable computer

“Colossus could read paper tape at 5,000 characters per second and the paper tape in its wheels travelled at 30 miles per hour. This meant that the huge amount of mathematical work that needed to be done could be carried out in hours, rather than weeks.”

This information below is taken from the Bletchley Park website.

“The Enigma cypher was the backbone of German military and intelligence communications. Invented in 1918, it was initially designed to secure banking communications, but achieved little success in that sphere. The German military, however, were quick to see its potential.

They thought it to be unbreakable, and not without good reason. Enigma’s complexity was bewildering. Typing in a letter of plain German into the machine sent electrical impulses through a series of rotating wheels, electrical contacts and wires to produce the encyphered letter, which lit up on a panel above the keyboard. By typing the resulting code into his own machine, the recipient saw the decyphered message light up letter by letter. The rotors and wires of the machine could be configured in many, many different ways. The odds against anyone who did not know the settings being able to break Enigma were a staggering 150 million million million to one.

The Poles had broken Enigma in 1932, when the encoding machine was undergoing trials with the German Army. They even managing to reconstruct a machine. At that time, the cypher altered only once every few months. With the advent of war, it changed at least once a day, effectively locking the Poles out. But in July 1939, they had passed on their knowledge to the British and the French. This enabled the code breakers to make critical progress in working out the order in which the keys were attached to the electrical circuits, a task that had been impossible without an Enigma machine in front of them.

Armed with this knowledge, the code breakers were then able to exploit a chink in Enigma’s armour. A fundamental design flaw meant that no letter could ever be encrypted as itself; an A in the original message, for example, could never appear as an A in the code. This gave the code breakers a toehold. Errors in messages sent by tired, stressed or lazy German operators also gave clues. The first break into Enigma in January 1940.

The raw material came from the ‘Y’ Stations: a web of wireless intercept stations dotted around Britain and in a number of countries overseas. These stations listened in to the enemy’s radio messages and sent them to Bletchley Park to be decoded and analysed.

To speed up the code breaking process, the brilliant mathematician Alan Turing developed an idea originally proposed by Polish cryptanalysts. The result was the Bombe: an electro-mechanical machine that greatly reduced the odds, and thereby the time required, to break the daily-changing Enigma keys.”

For those of you who are interested in reading further, go to: http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/content/museum1.rhtm

Where to start?

View from Shannon's

Suddenly almost 2 months has gone by since my last posting and I had to look at my calendar to see what I did and when I did it!

Some of what I did was not memorable but entailed spending quality time with my friends or back with Caroline and Guy. I will write separate entries for the special places I visited in the UK like Bletchley Park and South Wales.

Banana flower

But apart from that I am now melting on Maui, Hawaii (30°C during the day and 21°C at night with high humidity!) with time to spend catching up on my blog.

So I have no excuse especially as I am staying with Shannon, a friend of a friends, without transport and there is no public transport here…

Bird of paradise

Turmeric or Ginger

Heliconia

However, it is a tropical paradise – complete with mosquitoes who think I am wonderful! I got several new bites just getting these photos – plants in the garden here. Thank goodness I have my tea tree oil with me – it really helps the itch, but these mossies aren’t a patch on our NZ ones – if I don’t scratch them they go away after a day.

Pink Hibiscus

Coconuts on tree

We even have coconut trees and papaya growing outside the back door!

Green papaya on tree

Coconut trees

Time flies when you’re having fun!

I just said to Karen, my Cambridge cousin, that being a tourist is very time-consuming and quite tiring. I haven’t had the energy at night to write posts for the blog – but today I planned nothing except a morning coffee with a friend in the city. I had accommodation to sort out and emails to answer so decided to just stay here and catch up on life apart from driving and taking photos etc.

I still have several places I want to write about in more detail – such as the Busybus North Wales Tour and Lincoln Cathedral – but I thought a short catch-up posting would let you all know that I haven’t got lost.

I haven’t got lost because I don’t totally rely on my Google map instructions anymore. I do miss having my daughter to navigate – on the way to Chester at one large roundabout I didn’t recognise any town names so ended up at a petrol station having to ask! Ah well…

However, I find that without a navigator I have to be very focused at roundabouts and intersections and make sure I read the correct signs – the green ones are the long distance signs and the white ones the local signs. I wish Google would include landmarks – it would be much easier to know exactly where I was.

After leaving Chester I went to Windermere in the Lake District and stayed in a B&B for a couple of nights. I caught up with my cousin who runs an excellent Thai Restaurant – Doi Intanon – in Ambleside, had a delicious Thai meal and arranged to go back to stay.

My next stop was Scotland and I stayed in Edinburgh with yet another cousin. I love Edinburgh and visit whenever I have the chance. I didn’t really do tourist stuff but I did enjoy eating my lunch in the sun in the Princes Gardens with the locals and visitors.

One thing I noticed while driving in Scotland was the lovely purple wild flowers – I took a wrong turn at one point but found this healthy looking clump of them!

Wild flowers in Scotland

View from North Connel in Scotland

After three nights I headed off to Connel, near Oban, to stay with a ‘mature’ friend (Mum’s age) for the weekend. I managed to find the required bit of history by visiting Dunstaffnage Castle and Ardchattan Priory, both very close to where I was staying. There were interesting grave stones and crosses at the Priory.

10th century Celtic cross

I left Scotland on Monday 9th August and drove back to the Lake District to stay with Christopher and Busara, enjoy more Thai food, and to successfully track down a great great uncle’s grave in Grasmere. I had ‘fun’ driving up a very narrow, moss-covered-stone-wall-lined road to look at the old family home but the large four-wheel drive vehicles made passing at some of the corners rather tricky with one or other of us having to back up.

Going up and down the UK is relatively easy using the motorways but crossing it isn’t so good – as I found when I left Ambleside and headed over towards Lincoln. I was in a line of traffic for two hours averaging 40 mph – more than frustrating when the speed limit is 60 mph! There were no passing areas at all which did surprise me – nothing to do but relax and listen to my music. Luckily the rain from the Lake District didn’t follow me so apart from the slowness of the first section, the trip was ok.

A day spent in Lincoln at the cathedral kept me out of the rain – I even took a roof tour.

Lincoln Cathedral

Interior view Lincoln Cathedral

The giant candlesticks (Gilbert pots) are lovely – really big.

The Gilbert pots Lincoln Cathedral

However, the drive to Grantham was another slow one, this time because of the rain – over here the local roads don’t have shoulders so the rain collects on the side of the road in great big ponds or runs down the roads in mini-rivers. Makes for interesting driving – and braking.

The rain continued so I didn’t stay very long in the area the next morning – I did find time to visit the local church at Grantham. I decided that Cambridge might be sunnier – which is was, and which it has been for this weekend.

Yesterday I visited Ely (Elee) Cathedral – what an amazing place – even more amazing than Lincoln.

Detail of the octagon in the ceiling at Ely Cathedral

View of the interior Ely Cathedral

The organ at Ely Cathedral

Well, that is just a taste of what I have been doing – I will go into more detail in another posting on a few of the places I have visited.

Driving

I love driving in the UK.

Of course I also like driving at home but there I am always conscious of driving economically and within the speed limit – and don’t get me started on our roads!

But here… now that is a different matter.

On the motorways the speed limit is 70 mph (~115 kph) and if the weather is good, the traffic usually travels 10 mph more.

And I love it – especially on the northern section of the M6 which is the motorway that goes up to Scotland – cruising along a 3 lane motorway in a comfortable peppy new car listening to my cds.

Now that is happiness.

However, it isn’t always like that.

There are unmentionable things that sometimes happen on motorways but as I am just at the beginning of my journey I won’t mention them in case I jinx it!

There are other interesting and exciting aspects to driving on the B roads in the UK. Some of you will be going – oh, I know what she is going to say!

Yes, those wonderful country lanes that pretend to be roads – the best ones are in Cornwall and Devon where I went last year – every time you go off the main road you are taking your life, your car, and your insurance policy in your hands – and maybe in someone else’s hands as well. And you hope that other drivers are expecting you to come around a corner just as you are expecting them. The worst thing is when you are expecting a car to zoom around the blind corner you are approaching, and then one does! I always get a fright when that happens.

Today the road wasn’t as narrow as some I have been on, however, I was slightly disconcerted to see that the available space was limited not by hedging, but small stone walls! Every time there were two of us wanting to share that space I encouraged the car to suck in its sides. It seemed to work but of course I wasn’t able to look and see how close we were. And this was a fairly busy road in the Lake District.

I still love driving here.

I took a photo of a small road today – the one I was talking about above was slightly wider. This is actually only a single lane.

Narrow road

Happiness

Today while driving and glancing over Morecombe Bay I thought what a fabulous photo it would make – if I could find somewhere to stop. By the time I could find a place (these small roads don’t have shoulders – so it can be very dangerous to just stop – though people do!) the shot I had in mind was way back up the hill.

And I thought about how we see everything as 3-dimensional but that the minute we catch that moment in a photo, it becomes 2-dimensional and then it seems to lose something. If someone else happens to have seen the same scene, then for them, their memory kicks in and pads out the photo, but for others, it is just a photo – of what someone else has seen and wanted to remember.

Of course, there are great photographers who have magic in their cameras, and they manage to make beautiful photos – I have intentionally used the term ‘make’ rather than ‘take’. (Non-native English speakers always say ‘make photos’.)

And sometimes, just sometimes, everyday photographers manage to catch a great moment. My new heading photo isn’t necessarily a great moment, but it is one I took recently, and to me it captures the essence of happiness. It came from this photo.

Summer flowers

To me, happiness isn’t made up of just one thing – although just one thing can be the trigger that brings my awareness to how I am feeling – but happiness is like that wild mess of flowers – untamed, unordered, full of colour and light, unstructured – and sometimes there is no rhyme nor reason why, in that moment, I am happy.

And the last photo I took today was a memorial to two characters who brought a lot of happiness into other people’s lives – Laurel and Hardy.

Laurel and Hardy

More learning moments

Challenging, frustrating moments come from trying to learn WordPress (how I write the blog) without a WordPress for dummies book!

So you may find the site changes as I get to grips with it. And sometimes I go back into a blog and tweak it so if you think I have changed something, I probably have.

🙂