Songbird seeking sunshine!

And now no can send emails!!

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:43:46 GMT

For the last couple of days I get error messages when I try to send emails and they don't seem to get through (I send test ones to my work email and they haven't arrived either!). How irritating! STill I can receive them.

I expect it will all clear up in a few days.

Happy Birthday greetings to ...

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:51:57 GMT

Happy Birthday to little_cinnamon on Wednesday!

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you
Happy birthday little_cinnamon
A happy birthday to yooooooouuuuuuuuu!!!!!!

To hear that again live go to ...aaaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!!

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:10:51 GMT

- September 8 -
You are very clever and knowledgeable. You are very calm and cool in social situations. You are kind and sympathetic to people, although you like to choose your friends carefully.
Positive Traits:
pragmatic, optimistic, idealistic, stamina, good judgment REALLY????
Negative Traits:
greed, obsessive, careless, controlling, thoughtless - SURELY NOT!!!!

'What does your Birthdate mean?' at QuizGalaxy.com

I just did a select all and cut out the bits I don't want. All this is me procrastinating while I wait for the phone to ring! (NB this is not a metaphor - I really am waiting for it to ring)

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:06:35 GMT

Your Theme Song:

"Y.M.C.A.", The Village People

'What is your theme song?' at QuizGalaxy.com

I tried to copy the html code but only got a line and two little speech bubbles!

Have at thee, varlet!

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 19:02:37 GMT

Ah! Just back from sword fighting afternoon with tattercoats and kai_kay (and vaurienwas there too) - whew!!! So much fun and WITH my clothes on! Yeay! I want a sword, and gauntlets and a helmet. Really got caught up in it and several times found I was simply bashing swords 'cos that sounds *good* to me. Then tried actually trying to *hit* my opponent. Fabulous! THIS is definitely what Kathys like to do. :-)

Okay this is weird! Since when am I SO organised?

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:46:17 GMT

The Deep and Meaningful Winnie-The-Pooh Character Test
Your Score: RabbitYou scored 21 Ego, 14 Anxiety, and 18 Agency!

IT was going to be one of Rabbit's busy days. As soon as he woke up he felt important, as if everything depended upon him. It was just the day for Organizing Something, or for Writing a Notice Signed Rabbit, or for Seeing What Everybody Else Thought About It. It was a perfect morning for hurrying round to Pooh, and saying, "Very well, then, I'll tell Piglet," and then going to Piglet, and saying, "Pooh thinks--but perhaps I'd better see Owl first." It was a Captainish sort of day, when everybody said, "Yes, Rabbit " and "No, Rabbit," and waited until he had told them.

You scored as Rabbit!

ABOUT RABBIT: Rabbit is generally considered Clever by his many friends and relations. He is actually a much better reader and writer than Owl, but he doesn't consider it worth mentioning. Instead, Rabbit's real talent lies in Organizing Plans. He organizes rescue parties, makes schemes to reduce Tigger's bounciness, and goes on missions to find out what Christopher Robin does when he's not at the Hundred Acre Woods. Sometimes, however, his Plans do not always go as Planned.

WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT YOU: You are smart, practical and you plan ahead. People sometimes think that you don't stress or worry, but this is not the case. You are the kind of person who worries in a practical way. You think a) What are my anxieties about and b)what can be done about them? No useless fretting for you. You don't see the point in sitting around and waiting for things to work out, when you could actually work them out today and save yourself a lot of time and worry. Your friends tend to rely on you, because they know that they can trust you help them work things out.

You sometimes tend to be impatient with people who are less practical in their ways. You don't have much patience for idiots who moan about things but never actually DO anything about them. You have high expectations of everyone, including yourself. When you don't succeed at something, or when something goes wrong despite your best efforts to prevent it, you can get quite hard on yourself. You need to cut yourself some slack and accept that everyone has their faults, even you, and THAT IS OKAY. Let yourself be faulty, every now and then, for the sake of your own sanity.

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on Ego

You scored higher than 99% on Anxiety

You scored higher than 99% on Agency

oooooh, shiny!!!

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:13:00 GMT

WEnt to Outlet village for a coffee, had a hot chocolate then wandered around. Spotted the Paper Mill Shop with lots of paper and crafty paper things. And pens that write in shiny ink!!! HAD to buy 2 - of course! Also bought a set to make some cards with PVA glue. Seems they do workshops on Thursdaye evenings too. ten pounds, with goody box of stuff to use in the workshop and then take home with you. mmmmmm, thinking thoughts! BIG CHEESEY GRIN!

Okay, I deleted the entry, now I have to type it again!

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:36:09 GMT

typed this once already so I shall make the second attempt brief.

Someone has bashed my passenger side wing mirror. I only need to replace the plastic cover and get it painted. Probably happened yesterday maybe in pub car park at folk club.

Shall try to get to done without having the cover painted - cos plastic doesn't rust!

Now to change for work and to feed Veronique (should be an accent over the first e but that is how I deleted entry first time around so...) She is red light hungry!

Only the ICT class today so I shall come home after that.

Yeay! New song alert!!!!!

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:27:50 GMT

Just back from the folk club - and what terrific people they are! Some lovely songs, great guitar playing and fine performances. Sang Brown Eyes Blue - short intro with humourous (and smiley) comment on how the lyrics might come out strangely!! They came out very well -behaved. Very comfortable performance - not unconnected with being warm enough, with friendly folks and sitting down and behind the table!! Not enough room to stand up otherwise I generally try to stand. I like to do a little intro with a touch of humour in there - usually raises a chuckle or two. One of the groups that has coalesced into being (their words) among the members are supporting MARTIN SIMPSON in a concert end of March. "Oh!" I pipe up, "I thought he was supporting you" - laughter!

On the way home, I thought about a couple of ideas of themes for songs and blow me!!! Strewth! Cor strike a light! I started a song!!J! (enough with the exclamation marks, already!). I think it will be called CASTLE IN THE AIR. I have recorded it on the MP4 player - bit breathyy with a touch of growl but hey it's a song!! Oh by the way, I am smiling - big cheesey grin folks!

Oh tra-lee! Oh tra-lah!

Cinderella is going to the ball!

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:23:08 GMT

Well actually I am going to the con! My set is on the Sunday afternoon so I will have the challenge of staying calm and focussed until then. Don;t know whether I will dress up a bit as I like to as i will have had to relinguish my room by then and also prefer to travel in scruffier togs! Mmm will have to make an executive decision - and do it before I pack tomorrow. Won't have time on Friday as I will come home, dump work stuff, pick up weekend baggage and zip over to W. where V, T, P and C live! Must remember to be reasonably alert for most of journey - usually go into a trance when I am driven and don't hear when people speak to me! It is the other side of being a world-class daydreamer!

And perhaps not sing "Woodman Arthur says" or a medley of all the pantomime songs!!! (grin!) Or then again maybe......!

Now the panto is over....

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 18:58:18 GMT

Wow I had a fabulous time with the panto. Even prompting was fun. Answering the dame back, telling her to get a move on - oh yes I did, oh no I didn't! At one point she complained that the participation was too quiet and asked if anyone was out there! Silence except for the prompt shouting "No!". Short lively banter followed!

In a panto you can get away with the wrong backdrop in place, the dame complaining about it and pulling the correct one into place - the audience loved that! She also lured me into prompting her when she didn't need it so we could tell each other off! And Sammy the boot boy joined in too. I forgot to prompt him once because he shot down the stairs on his bum so enthusiastically and lay there so breathless I offered him a hand up as I was worried he had actually hurt himself this time. Meanwhile dame, prince, Snow White, the woodsfolk, king etc were all waiting for him to do his line. [NB remember the dame is played by a man although I am referring to him as she and her. Likewise her son Sammy is played by a girl. A case of type casting as both are accident prone]

Did I have a good time as Spirit of the Mirror in the matinee? Did I??????/ Wow!!! i had to cross my legs in the first half as the make-up took so long, and putting my mike on, that I had no time to go to the loo - can't go during the performance as the tank is above the stage and the noise would drown the action for about 15 minutes!

E the sound man gave me a really deep echoey voice - apparently I sounded really scarey! i requested it when we were playing with the mike during the tech rehearsal so I said to him "oooh please give ME a deep voice like that in the matinee" and he obliged. B the main Spirit of the Mirror was given a lighter voice - she is 15 so they thought that would be better. The fluorescent make-up looked fantastic under the special light - you could only see my face and my glowing white hands (in gloves). It did take M about 25 minutes to put it on me though! I intoned my speeches slowly and fairly deeply, and used flowing gestures to go with them - magic!!!

G the lovely caretaker of the hall provided a huge spread for us in every single performance interval - I ate way way too much. I still feel pretty full even now. Why did I do it? It is not as if I was reacting to many weeks deprivation or starvation diet! I don't do it that often but when I do - errrffffff!

And now I think it is time for a nice hot drink of green tea - flavoured with healthy herbs and such. Mmmm!

Sadly I haven't had time yet today to do any practice for my set next Sunday! Maybe I will find a spare five minutes or so on Wednesday? Who knows!

Come to the Cabaret Panto!

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 10:17:09 GMT

Yes last night was the second dress rehearsal with an invited audience. Sadly we only had one man and his dog (well, a relative of one of the small people, a member of WBLOS, 3 friends of Snow White and a man with a stick - no dog!)

So as prompt I felt it my bounden duty to *be* the audience. K the storyteller and I clapped, sang, swayed, booed, hissed, scream, yelled, pointed, aaahhed, cheered and played air guitar - all to help our brave cast!

The drummer was a little over zealous and the small people had some of their lines cut because he started his *bits* just a tad early! Still they carried on regardless.

I was interested in the fact that all but a couple of the cast reworded their lines, spoke someone else's, didn't say their line, had their line spoken by someone else and other assorted issues.

Snow White (very unusally for her) blanked in one scene with Hugo the woodcutter, who is about to cut her heart out, and jumped several key speeches. Then she dried completely and looked at me! I gave her the line she should have been doing (which she had already done much too early). "I can't do that line," she said, "I've said it already!". Aaaah (well the audience would have either not nocited or not cared)!! Fortunately Hugo steppedi in to mention the critical points about needing an animal heart and going to Crump's, the local butcher, to get a pig's heart. Phew!

Even the ever-reliable Hugo dried when faced by the implacable and fluorescent spirit of the mirror. He gazed at her instead of telling the Queeen that she was an evil monster! Easily done! I often forget to tell someone [s]he is an evil monster!!!!!!

I was aable to prompt people in the more normal manner and dialgoue continued. At one point Sammy, the boot boy, has to say "Blimey, it's a pantomime. How does she expect us to act?" He sat on the steps, blissfully unaware that [s]he had a line. "Blimey!" I prompted. Audience laughed out loud! Show continued.

Another prompt I particularly enjoyed was the Queen (Elektra). The 2 chinese servants had not uncovered the mirror as ordered and the Queen was unable to speak to the spirit as she was not available. She dried, and asked for a prompt. "Uncover the mirror" I hissed! Two chinese servants shuffled quickly to uncover the mirror.

The spirit of the mirror, face and hands gorgeously painted in fluorescent make-up, looked fabulous!!! WHEN they remembered to turn off the stage lights and put her special lights on!!!! Spirit was the only one to get ALL her lines, and gestures, perfect! Well she stands still, and only has to respond to the Queen. Still most of her speeches contain lines like "oh my Queen" OR "Your beauty dah-dee-dah-dit"

Oh and Snow White was admonished to not answer the prompt back!!! By the director. The prompt is ruler of the panto universe. You speak or dry at my wishes!! Mwwwaaahhhhh!

And now for more work admin!

Huddled around my PC for warmth!

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 17:15:41 GMT

It is a bit chilly in here and I don't feel like putting the heater on. I feel a little like the proverbal starving artist in their garret - except I don't look as thin as I suppose a *starving* artist looks. Not sure as I have never met one. My cousin is an artist - pause - a *commercial* artist and I don't think she is starving. Our families don't meet as there was a parting of the ways over a will a tidy few years ago now! Sigh. Her daugher is probably, well must be, all growed up and I could pass her in the streeet and not know it. Ain't that sad? I would quite like to meet her and see what she's doing with her life but there we go!

Came upstairs and as per usual instead of getting on with the composite lesson plan for
P-----x on Monday I felt it so important to check my emails. Oh, and then live journal, ooh and checks friends page and then comment a little here and there and .... So around about an hour has gone by and nothing *useful* done!

Well not quite, I have jotted down what I want each of the groups to do. Now that G won't be working with me at P-----x on Mondays I can plan things and know that their happening, or not, will be more or less under my control. This is good. However I now have about 4 subsets to plan lessons for. Two will do practice entry level assignments and then go through the *rusty* spots - just a bit of spot cleaning I call it. The E1 group will be talking about days of the week and what events normally happen on which days. I will print the days of the week in large font so they can colour them in - they love doing that.

A was not too keen to do stuff last Monday - for most of the session I had significant sniffs in response to requests but she cheered up vanquished by my unremitting good humour and charm (or something like that!) V enjoyed himself and is always in a good humour.

then most of the rest are officially doing entry level ICT - only 2 seem to be actually available when it comes to parking bum on the seat at the PC. J enjoys working at the PC although the nervous tremor in his hands makes accurate clicking and double-clicking very difficult indeed. S is somewhat cynical and serious but does appear to be relaxing more and more. I saw him in the local library one week and he actually waved once I had exited my trance and smiled at him. WE have a good moan about MS office 2007. I know how to do loads of stuff in MS word 2003 BUT now the dear folks at MS have moved everything around. I make a joke out of it but really even the HELP is economical with the assistance!! Still we did manage to set up a document to be a leaflet (folded booklet as Word calls it). Quite a triumph1 Why on earth did they find it necessary to move things so that anyone used to Word would be unable to find anything in its usual place? What is the point? Does it make it better in any way??? I cannot think of any benefits!! Still I am *only* the user and what do I know???

So next Monday I will continue with the leaflet creation. Hopefully I will remember which menus and buttons to click on to set things up!!

Just realised - now that I click on the HTML tab when posting I cannot see the icons for LJ cut and so on! I will switch to Rich Text and see what is what! That worked!

Eeeuuuuggghhhh!

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:48:12 GMT

Yuk! Something sneaky has been creeping up on me since Sunday. I only realised yesterday after my evening lesson had finished that my throat felt funny and swallowing was a little bit uncomfortable. I did not think anything of it as I have been coughing most evenings - just a post-cold throat clear.

Although last night I convinced myself that my throat did NOT look swollen this morning I have been quite unable to - it seems to be getting bigger by the hour!! I have scurried around this morning as I had things to do. If I have been able to do that then I cannot be that bad - a good sign.

I did decide to ring the surgery and try for an appointment today - feeling it was unlikely to be available. Since they offered me 3pm straight away I felt the universe was saying - go on you might as well check that you aren't infectious.

I really don't have the time to be off my form. the panto dress rehearsal is next Sunday evening and the show with invited audience is Wednesday 23 January. I know they can get another prompt in fairly easily but if I were to miss the matinee - stepping in for Spirit of the mirror as she becomes Snow White - things would be a little tricky!! So I WILL be well even if I have to crawl on my hands and knees.

Feeling a little shivery - oh bother!

I'm back!

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 19:40:27 GMT

Did you miss me? Well I just got back from pantoland. I had been thinking earlier this weekend that I haven't actually rehearsed Spirit of the Mirror and wondering how I would do if I did not have one. Decided to be calm about it as everything would work out!

Well we went through the whole thing twice and the second run through the understudies took over! I went over my lines with full sweeping gestures in the kitchen before each of my scenes. On stage it all went really well - all the words and all the fabulous gestures I had worked out - mostly my own *choreography*.

Wondering who was going to prompt while I was on stage - lady who plays Arthur said she would. Oh, who will play Arthur in the matinee I asked. Aren't you? she asked. Nope, I am playing the mirror I told her. She WAS surprissed! No wonder since I have been her unofficial understudy just in case her hand did not heal or she was otherwise ill again.

I keep my facial expression impassive as the spirit of the mirror. this works very well until Hugo the woodcutter - in danger of being turned to stone - makes faces at me (he has back to audience) and my cheek muscles quiver!!! He is very funny as Hugo. Both his 2 children are in the panto - playing two of the woodsmen - and doing very well!

Once home I phoned Mum to relate the happenings in PRIMEVAL. Dad doesn't like it so she set the video. Unfortunately something went wrong and she partly wiped out a recording of TO THE MANOR BORN as yet unseen. Play the fanfare - tan-tan-teran-tedah! Kathy comes riding to the rescue. I told her the whole tale of the derring-do and she enjoyed that and felt much better. Good to feel appreciated.

And now it is time for LARKS RISE TO CANDLEFORD and then SENSE AND SENSIBILITY. Eeek it has started!!

Well I never noticed that tab before!

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:47:09 GMT

This post is different to all my others. I have clicked the HTML tab.

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Drama Nerd You sure do love the spotlight and probably have a very out-going and loud personality. Or not. That's just a stereotype, of course. Participation in the theatre is something to be very proud of. Whether you have a great voice for musicals, or astounding skills for dramas/comedies; keep up the good work. We need more entertainment these days that isn't television and video games (not that these things are bad, necessarily.)
Literature Nerd
Musician
Artistic Nerd
Social Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Science/Math Nerd
Anime Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

This is not looking promising! If it does not work I shall delete it!

What age do I act? This is a test thingie posting!

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:47:32 GMT

Let's see if this worked or not. I ddi the quiz and selected all the fixed HTML for LJ code and whopped it into the post. Has it worked? (face, bothered?)

<table width=350 align=center border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2><tr><td bgcolor="#EEEEEE" align=center><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif" style='color:black; font-size: 14pt;'><b>You Act Like You Are 25 Years Old</b></font></td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><center><img src="http://www.blogthingsimages.com/whatagequiz/20s.gif" height="100" width="100"></center><font color="#000000">
You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel like an adult, and you're optimistic about life.
You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

You're still figuring out your place in the world and how you want your life to shape up.
The world is full of possibilities, and you can't wait to explore many of them.</font></td></tr></table><div align="center"><a href="http://www.blogthings.com/whatagequiz/">What Age Do You Act?</a></div>

Tum-tee-tum-de-dah - very casual hummming and not looking so it doesn't know I really want this work!! :-)

A chance for fame and glory? Yes, a set at 2t0nic!

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 13:04:24 GMT

Once again I am intending to have a set at the February con. The last 2 cons I never actually manged to do the set: 2006 I had to back out of the set as being in hospital had seriously derailed my practising as in I could not do any singing! and 2007 I caught a lively cough (as in cough stronger than me!) so did not make it to the con - grrrrrrr! And now I have an email telling me that I have been allocated a slot - yippee!!!

This year nothing will get in the way of my plans for world domination, starting with Grantham! [ ching-a-ching! Outlook reminds me that I need to make appointment to get hair trimmed] Well ctually my plan is more modest and yet much more significant - to me! I want to do the set more authentically Kathy - as in not quivering with nerves and squeaking/growling higher and lower notes!!! I am making progress with this at Folk Club especially the monthly sessions at the Trout in Lechlade. The Wednesdy night folk club is in the old forge and is rather cold. I don't do cold very well so singing suffers a bit.

In fact at Lechlade in December I was in grave danger of doing a stand-up routine on the perils of teaching!!!! That's how comfortable I was feeling. the bit of chat / patter at the beginning of each song seems to fool my unconscious into believing that I am very happy and comfortable and lets me sing with better tone and more controlled breathing. Now breathing as you have probably noticed is rather important to the tone and the overall performance of the song!!! Hence my interest in being less terrified (okay terrified is too strong a word though I do feel on edge before starting a set) - it helps all round.

Of course the real danger in Grantham is that I might start teaching the audience some basic numeracy! Did you know that putting the days of the week or the months of the year in their proper sequence is a mathematical skill?? Well one of my Monday night ladies, well all of them really, were very surprised to find this out. We were working on time and I got them to list the months and their abbreviated names. They did but then asked what it had to do with maths - so I told them. also that for some people this is very very difficult - generally for dyslexics though not always. One of the Monday night ladies is dyslexic and she had no problems listing the months in order so you never know, you know!

A very well known filker, and she is on LJ, gave me some very good advice a few years ago: 1) be confident or seem it and 2) have a theme for the set. [Do you remember?] Well I am working on the confidence thing - Harmuni folks may have an opinion on that and the theme is happening all by itself. Tattercoats was fortunate enough last week to take a peek at my song book and noticed a theme. As a result she asked me if I was the owner of a dragon brooch left behing at a gathering. No, I wasn't though maybe I should have been. There is also a sub-theme which brings me closer to having something in common with another well-known filker whose songs don't generally leave anyone alive! don't worry - no-one dies in my songs, not exactly anyway!

thinking of Monday evening's lesson on time I was very pleased that 2 ladies working on the MURDER AT THE GRANGE task thoroughly enjoyed themselves with it. They had a lively discussion and came up with a very effective strategy plus the correct solution. They enjoyed it more than the Fireworks night task. This was to work out when the start letting off the fireworks given a set amount of time per firework and wanting to finish by 8.30pm. Both are basically simple tasks IF you are confident with your time facts (60 minutes in an hour kind of thing) AND calculating with time - by adding on so many hours / minutes or taking them off a time. also using 12 and 24 hour clock is an added complication. If you think about how we use, describe and write time, dates, and so forth you will come to realise how illogical it can be and how inconsistent. I have a lovely article - a humourous one - about how *easy* it is in a way that highlights how very complex it is. Somewhere I read a dyslexic learner saying that people asked him why he id not just check his watch for the time so he would not be late fr appointments. he replied saying how did he know when to look at his watch? I found that very illuminating - I had not previously thought of that. I feel I am very time-aware (usually unless I am singing, reading, talking or posting on LJ) and I have hours, days, weeks, months mentally imaged in my head!

So who am I exactly now?

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 18:17:48 GMT

Another panto rehearsal and another part stepped into! Is it any wonder I am totally bemused in the opening and closing numbers as to where I am supposed to be?? This time I was standing in for CHING (a chinese servant to the wicked Queen) - great fun BUT.... On the bright side L who plays the chief woodsman seems to be much better now - her hand is out of plaster. Phew! Looks like I won't need to play that part after all! Good, because the musical numbers Arthur does seem to have mutated. I have been practising SIMPLE SIMON SAYS and FOLLOWING THE LEADER only to find that M the director seems to have adjusted words - eeuuuggghhh! Still that won't matter if I am not going to have to do Arthur.

the normal leads were on duty today so I didn't get to rehearse the Spirit of the Mirror. Sigh! Still the spirit stays put, no walking around and no solo musical and movement numbers. This is good! BUT spirit does join in the opening and closing numbers. Bearing in mind that these have to be full of energy and fast and a Kaathy with multiple identify crises and you have a recipe for a complete ******* up! Interesingly we have found that the stage in the hall is actually not as wide as we were expecting. Since we cannot actually use all the stage (the mirror takes up a sizeabale chunk) that is yet another challenge. But HEY!!!! This is panto - yippee!

M the director had stern words for us today about ticket sales. Everyone must sell at least 10 tickets - well each household must sell 10 tickets to family, frriends, neighbours etc. I

If anyone would like to enjoy themselves att he end of January - the dates are Thursday 24th, Friday 25th and Saturday 26th January. There is a matinee also on the Saturday (though tickets are actually getting sold for this).

If by some strange doings anyone DOES want a ticket please let me know and I will claim the credit so M the director won't scalp me! You can buy a ticket even if you don't come to see the performance!!! Now there is an offer.

Okay, that's the begging and pleading done for now! Tomorrow I will humble myself to people in the staff room and see who I can coax into coming. It is actually very very good, very funny and lots of lovely songs! Everyone will have a good time! :-)

Well I am obviously not an IT nerd.

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 11:41:59 GMT

I did the quiz and came out as drama nerd. so far, so good! Tried to copy the results, box and all, into a comment and my journal posting. The best I could do is shown below. the red lines are not supposed to fill the entire width! Duh!

Results: What Be Your Nerd Type?

Your results for this quiz have been calculated and are presented below:

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Drama Nerd You sure do love the spotlight and probably have a very out-going and loud personality. Or not. That's just a stereotype, of course. Participation in the theatre is something to be very proud of. Whether you have a great voice for musicals, or astounding skills for dramas/comedies; keep up the good work. We need more entertainment these days that isn't television and video games (not that these things are bad, necessarily.)
Musician
Social Nerd
Literature Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Science/Math Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Anime Nerd

Okay IT oracles - how on earth did you get the whole thing into your journal postings? Was it incredibly clever or did I miss the incredibly easy way?? :-) I would really love to know! Incidentally I note that I score very low on science/maths nerd - ummm I teach numeracy / maths!!!!

My recipe

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 13:50:35 GMT

The Recipe For Kathy_songbird

3 parts Uniqueness
2 parts Charm
1 part Craftiness

Splash of Flair

Finish off with a little umbrella and straw

Your Personality?

http://www.blogthings.com/whatstherecipeforyourpersonalityquiz/

Yep that's the recipe!

I'm foster mother to a giant violin!

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:27:53 GMT

Okay it is not really a giant violin - at least I don't think so. It is George a guitar on loan from V and T. I can get acquainted before I start the guitar class at the end of February. Course I still have the other itch to scratch - the bouzouki one. I plan to find someone - *anyone* - who will show me a few things on the bouzouki so I can decided whether:

a) I shall pair for life with the bouzouki

OR b) pair for life with the guitar

OR c) start one and then the other later on

OR d) neither

OR e) both because I am too impatient to wait!!!!!

Already I love George. Driving home with him in the car I kept going "wow a guitar! In my car! Golly! wow! You allright back there, George?" I drove very slowly and carefully so George did not get bumped. It is weird carrying a guitar as I simply am not used to negotiating hallways and doors with a long *thing* in my grip. I never realised how long they are. Well I never measured one and I never carried one before.

Popped over to see T and P after grappling with the Asda shopping. In the course of discussing various interesting subjects I finally succombed. I HAD to show T my (oooh I love that word! giggle!) song book - well book of songs but no music! T spotted a theme running through the songs. It is quite accidental, isn't surprising but the songs I have hijacked were crying out to be tweaked into a dragon shape. However one is filking related, another wedding related and another work/training related so it is not all large scaley firre-breathing creature related.!

Poor T - moving body without moving head too much as this provoked extreme dizziness! As I drove away she was leaving to see the doctor complete with retinue - P and V. I hope the doc comes up with useful information and advice - dizzziness is most inconvenient and unpleasant. It is not good wondering if the floor is going to come up and bite you!

Now I came upstairs just to check emails and then go back down stairs to do more panto line learning. time is passing and I do want to watch summat on telly at 9 so I better shift myself.

I'm gone already!

Euughh!

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 11:40:04 GMT

No I am not a cave woman - just a woman with a cold! All the things that aunty_marion was saying about hers are mostly true for me. I am a bit disgusting and perhaps it would be good for the community if I stayed home this afternoon / evening and did not expose people (possibly) to my germs! However I am hopeful that I have passed the infectious/contagious stage and in any case there probably won't be many who are not also sniffing, sneezing and coughing!

Also I have offered my services as provided of bread and lifts for the *London mob* so clearly my duty is - well - clear!!! :-) Just talking briefly to T on the phone half an hour ago brightened up my outlook. I hope, would like to do one of my mini-stories (5 to 8 minute jobs) and a song. Have to see how voice behaves! It was doing okay singing along to Gary Jules and MAD WORLD. Used to love hearing that when I watched MEDICAL INVESTIGATION. good to know where it came from, who originated it and whose version was the TV theme.

And now I must attempt to re-assemble the hem of my long warm skirt. I keep doing it and it keeps coming down again. Still so long as it lasts until I get home again tonight!

Panto time tonight! (well not tonight exactly!)

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 11:11:43 GMT

Well panto rehearsal on Sunday WAS fun! Confusing but fun! Standing in for Arthur, the chief woodsperson in SNOW WHITE was a learning experience. I managed to sing most of SIMPLE SIMON SAYS (although there is a gap in the middle where I don't remember the tune) and M the director confused me by singing different words but HEY I am not even Aruthur's official understudy - L just keeps being poorly and / or breaking bones in her hand. The 6 other woodspeople, all aged under 11, whispered instructions to me about where I should be and what I should be doing! Now that's team work! I had to learn the moves for FOLLOWING THE LEADER, and for our bit in GETTING MARRIED IN THE MORNING. also in the ensemble bits everyone was either pulling me into position, pushing me into position or making wild gestures pointing to where I was supposed to be. I ended up in positions but with no idea how I was officially supposed to move there!!!!! Oh well you don't expect normal behaviour in a panto, do you? Oh no you don't!!

I don't know the lines or gestures for the spirit of the mirror but there is no movement for that part (except in the ensemble bits at the start and end) and neither do I know Arthur's lines so I really hope L is fit and well, and fully functional otherwise I will have to get her lines and moves off pat in a very short space of time. All this and teaching, PGCE and the level 3 teaching qualification so I really have loads of time to learn lines! Yep life sho' is inneresting!

Was nearly late for the panto rehearsal because a new song popped up out of nowwhere and said it was ready for me! So I sang a few variations on it, got some words going and then taped it quickly before it got away. [note to self. Save up some pennies for the MP4 player with built-in microphone so I can tape songs in new technology).

got to type up lesson plan for iCT for tomorrow and also hoping to do some more resources / activities on TIME for the childcare group on the first Friday next term which I can recycle for the adult Monday evening group the following week. I feel more like playing - had fun yesterday doing a leaflet (or folded booklet as Word calls it) in Word and Publisher. Great fun! And something else to put in my ICT toolkit.

Yeay!

Fun! Fun! Fun!

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 14:15:58 GMT

got up very very late today - have excuse! WEnt to Acoustic Evening at the Trout Inn, Lechalde last night and got home around midnight!. It was a fantastic evening and I had a brilliant time!!!

Smaller crowd but still plenty of people singing very fine songs. discovered thatt he theme song to JOAN OF ARCADIA is a Lonnie Donnegan songs - had lovely time singing chorus very loudly!!! (what a show-off I am) Must get words and sheet music if I can. Might work on it but it will have to go on the list (along with the hunter by well-known singer/songwriter/teacher/conductor, and a couple of Linda Ronstadt numbers).

I was going to sing THE LADY but have decided to keep that ace up my sleever to wow them in the new year. Sang instead my WEdding song (written for L and D this summer) - shuffled the words a little but of course no-one would know!!! then sang newest song (which I have offered for CD project) which was inspired by my volunteering (yes the V word) to do yet aother teaching qualification. I pondered on how I might be reacting to going on training if I were being coerced into it and along came DON'T ASK ME!....[TO HONE MY SKILLS]. They loved it - there were a number of teachers in the audience and V (blonde V with gorgeous voice) told me they were all nodding away in aagreement!.

with plenty of space to stand up in and the audience not too tightly packed in, and probably the mulled wine as well, I was aable to give a *kathy* performance. I chatted away on the background (how I got lost looking for Silbury Hill and was so happy to find it that i started singing a little song) and was authentically me, more so than on some occasions. I find I don't do well if I, or my throat, am cold, too crowded or just overwhelmed by stuff! It's a good crowd in the TROUT and they remember your name! That is terrific - makes you feel special! I certainly did!

Fell passionately in love within a very short time of arriving. Don't be fooled into thinking that because I was chatting away to the gentleman on lefft at every opportunity means that it was him!!!! :-) [another big cheesey grin] I am torn in two and on the horns of a dilemma. should I do the sensible thing and go with *first love* or abscond with *second love* - the latter could lead to confusion, upset and tears before bedtime!! I will probably reveal all at the event next Saturday hosted by T and V - there will be a suitably fantastic bunch of people to confess to (giggle!) and to gain advice and information from!!!! Tell you all about soon!

And now I think I better do some work before I have a very late lunch. Feeling muy feliz hoy!