Below are the 17 most recent journal entries recorded in kai_kay's LiveJournal:

Friday, October 2nd, 2009
12:31 pm	Can't Sing Choir Well, not up there in lights like little_cinnamon's opera class, but still a big step for me, and pretty scary turning up for the first session last night. Actually quite fun, though I haven't concentrated like that for an hour and a half in I don't know how long. Particularly interesting in view of callylevy's conducting exploits, were the comments from the teacher about what he was doing by conducting to help us sing how he wanted. And when I got home, the first question was "Have you got homework?" Me: Yes Them: groans Lordofthewheel: So now you can sing, right? Me: No, I still can't sing, but I DO IT WITH MUCH MORE CONFIDENCE. That caps lock was an accident, but I think my fingers knew what I wanted to say better than my brain did. And can somebody please remind me again how to put people's LJ names in properly? (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
6:49 pm	Sat-Nav Some of you will know that tattercoats and vaurien have a sat-nav called Bob-Bob. It was the best P could remember - a three-letter boy's name, repeated. Well, K2 and I have one now, the best M could remember - it's Garfield. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, August 16th, 2009
8:52 am	Holiday in Germany Just back, last night, from a lovely week staying with lordofthewheel and nayela in Mainz. It's a really nice city, not nearly as crowded and frantic as most, with strange and interesting fountains dotted about all over the place. And loads of interesting shops - I went shopping three times, which is pretty well unheard of for me. We somehow managed to go out every single day and still have a really relaxed and laid-back time of it - Gutenburg museum, cathedral, cruise on the Rhine, meeting K's parents, walks in the woods and a picnic in the Botanic Gardens. Also, P and I had fun on a ropes course (K sensibly stayed on the ground, having tried it last May). I had to be rescued twice. The first time I was dangling more-or-less horizontal, between trees, with my legs caught in rope loops - K may just have taken photos, on K2's camera, but none of us could figure out how to look at them! Eventually, though, I did make it all the way round the shortest version of the easiest course, including the zip wire at the end. That really wrenched my sore arm - everbody else was doing Tarzan calls as they went down, mine was more a cry of pain - but weirdly, I now have more mobility in that shoulder than I have had for months! That'll be one to tell the physio this week. But now I think it's a soak in a hot bath and finish unpacking. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
9:18 am	Ancienct Greek artefact I went to an absolutely excellent lecture last night at the Royal Institution - Decoding the Heavens by Jo Marchant. It's about an amazing geared mechanism showing sun and moon calendars, eclipses, motions of the planets, from probably the first century BC, so about a thousand years before anything else of similar mechanical complexity was known, and has been described as the "world's first computer". I don't know how to put link-thingies into LJ, but if you Google for "decoding the heavens" or "antikythera device" (named from the place where it was found) you can find a video clip of a working model made by Michael Wright from the Science Museum. Jo Marchant also showed us a fabulous computer model animation, but I haven't found the link to that one yet. (Comment on this)
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
6:17 pm	Identity Crisis? The name of a restaurant where I was waiting for an unfamiliar bus last week .... Bombay Chinese. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 17th, 2008
10:11 pm	Busy Weekend Friday night Back later than planned from work; as I was about to get into the car, I noticed the front wing had been scratched, probably by someone turning in too much when parking or unparking beside us. So delayed while we took photos and looked at the visitor sign-in sheet to try and work out who it was. Then home and consult with M & K about where to go for Christmas - we've decided to try a hotel break for a change. But the one we thought we liked turned out not to have vacancies, tho' I'd got it from a site by searching on those dates. That left no time to eat before heading to Croydon for Far Isles sword practice, but the tubes were OK so I could meet P at London Bridge, buy tickets and a sandwich and still get a seat on the train. Sword-fighting was good, especially with Christopher of Launceston who reminded me why my character would be more aggressive than I am. We left fairly early though as P had a rotten cough. Saturday A full day out at the Re-enactors' Market near Coventry, meeting more folk from the Far Isles, and spending a moderate amount of money: linen, hose, silk braids and cooking and eating knives for me; P got lots of stuff too, for both his medieval and LARP characters. The whole trip made so much easier by a lift from our former King and newest knight - thankyou both. Sunday P and I decided to go along to the first of the Frostbite shoots at our local Archery Club (once a month through the winter). Last year I didn't try any of them because I hadn't developed enough strength to shoot 30m. I probably got the lowest ever score even now, but never mind, it was a pleasant occasion, with lunch included afterwards. And I decided to drive there which was very scary. Then back home and another go at Christmas, successful this time I think, and I sent off the deposit this morning. So I didn't actually start to sort out my work stuff till 7am Monday, and now I'm heading for bed. Sorry for the long post. I'll get P to show me how to do those cut things. (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
11:50 pm	Had an interesting time Tuesday evening. Went to Townswomen's Guild ( a bit like WI, but urban)- it was the AGM, so no visiting speaker, but various members took craft-ish things along, so I took my lucet weaving (medieval braid making) and several people had a go. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, August 5th, 2007
7:48 am	A quiet weekend at home? K2 and I are home together this weekend, lordofthewheel having gone up to visit his grandma with his dad ... so I was out Friday night (Far Isles sword practice) and she was out all day yesterday (Wolf Trust) and I'm going out today (Archery). So nice to have some time together! (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 24th, 2007
11:31 pm	Looking forward to a silly weekend It's ConFounding Tales!, an SF con in Glasgow with a pulp fiction theme. So at 5pm tonight lordofthewheel and I started talking through our costumes, and by 6:30 we were ready to pack about 90% of the clothes and props - a total of 10 characters between us. He's sewing snakes to fix on a headband for me; my list of stuff to get from work tomorrow is: feathers, goggles, old camera and bubble wrap (but that's just to protect the goat's head mask); so that (mostly) only leaves his trousers and the tunic I've borrowed to repair on the train tomorrow. Current Mood: busy (Comment on this)
Sunday, March 18th, 2007
12:40 pm	Archery Archery is great. Forgive me if you've heard me say this before ... but archery is great. lordofthewheel and I had a pretty full day of it yesterday, thanks to Far Isles Christopher of Kent. Another of his friends was there, and several others from the club were practising for a match, and one was giving a lesson to a young lad who'd been bought it as a birthday present, I think. All very friendly and relaxed. It was an absolutely beautiful day too, warm, sunny and practically no wind. Good stuff. And I don't ache ... yet! Current Mood: happy (Comment on this)
Friday, March 9th, 2007
10:54 pm	Hmmfff I thought I was beginning to get the hang of LJ, but I tried to post something last night and it didn't appear. I wonder if this will? If not, you'll never know. Current Mood: annoyed (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, February 2nd, 2007
10:47 am	Hospital news budlite is still in hospital, and they are still not sure if the gallstones are the real cause of the problem, so they are still taking pictures with just about every technology known to medical science - MRI was the latest I believe. His parents have come down from Lancashire for a few days, and will keep us informed of what is going on. Update, second attempt, 1:30pm Friday They are giving him something to eat now, probably his first solid food since he left our house on Sunday, and if it's OK they may let him home this afternoon or tomorrow. That's the good news. Not so good is that they want him back again after 6 weeks on a very restricted diet, to do more stuff. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, January 29th, 2007
8:19 am	Good weekend Friday evening: little_cinnamon and budlite arrived for a Chimes rehearsal with lordofthewheel; after chatting for a bit they decided to meander through the set. M & I had some doubts about this, at 11.15pm in a semi whose neighbours had not been warned ... but "we'll only use the quiet drum" ... it sounded good. Saturday: FarIsles, a workshop day led by callylevy and tattercoats. We developed our characters as villagers of Muchmead and I got help on the dress I'm making. It was a lovely day; I now have much more idea of who I am, and of the setting of Muchmead. Thanks to everybody. And it was fun preparing and cooking the pottage on the fire in the livingroom, so no-one had to be in the kitchen and miss out on the talking. Arrived home to a chorus of "nice food you left us" and "just in time to make it a six-player game" (R, whose lj-name I do not know, was there as well). So we played PowerGrid until 2am. Fun, though I lost by miles. Sunday: Chimes carried on rehearsing, and I wandererd in and sat on the bed every time my computer threw me out. I just love listening to them. Popped down to the station to meet A (another lj I imagine)and did a mid-afternoon lunch, including "never-the-same-twice soup" and a slighly experimental lentil-and-nut loaf of which not a crumb was left. Everybody went home, and P and I wound down watching Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, with added sarky commentary while I did a bit more sewing on my dress. An excellent weekend. Current Mood: cheerful (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007
9:33 am	New Year Weekend This year I am going to try and get to grips with some of the technological devices that the_magician says I am scared of - such as LJ and mobile phones. Last weekend was really excellent. On Saturday I went to the Far Isles archery muster, with callylevy and little_cinnamon. Christopher of Kent and others of Howard Bowmen were really helpful in getting us started - to begin with I counldn't even sort out which hand to hold things in - but they were patient and I got so I could hit the target ... at 10m! We then moved it to 20m, and I didn't quite get to grips with that one before the heavy rain forced us to move inside where the smaller targets at 15m are equivalent to larger outside ones at 30m. I managed to hit the wall, the floor, the ceiling ... but only occasionally the target. But never mind, I really, really enjoyed it; to the extent that I think I may take it up regularly; which I mentioned to lordofthewheel and he might also be interested. The others, BTW, did much better, and were getting close to achieving scoring rounds. Then on Sunday kay2 and I went over to callylevy and little_cinnamon for a quiet evening playing games with budlite and two others who are probably also on lj though I don't know their user-names. Word and board games, of which the weirdest concept was undoubtably the one about planting fields of beans, and the most hilarious trying to get a purple, furry Bendy Bob toy to charade actions for your team to guess. Combined with good company and fabulous food, altogether an excellent way to welcome 2007. And a Happy New Year to everyone. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 21st, 2006
6:11 pm	Computers Again Hmmm. Only partial success. It still seems to log me out every time I change pages, and sometimes it won't let me in again, so at the moment I can't add anybody to my friends list. (Comment on this)
Monday, February 20th, 2006
8:17 pm	Try again Try again to post... It's the end of the half=term holiday, and I've done masses of family history research. My Mum & I went to Eltham to look at their parish records, hoping to get our Blackstones back a bit before 1800. No luck on that, but some useful bits and pieces that help to sort out several of the side-branches. Also, the house that they lived in for more than 50 years is still standing, so we went to see that too. Plus some success in tracking people down via census and birth/marriage/death indices on the web; so quite a sense of achievement. But I didn't do any of the work work I brought home. Still, it didn't matter today because it was a training day at the high school, with a variety of sessions, some quite educational, but most of the ones I chose were for fun - Tai Chi, archery, a climbing wall, logic puzzles and team challenges. But now I suppose I'd better go and see what I need to sort out for tomorrow. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 30th, 2005
11:12 pm	This is another try at getting the system to listen to me. After several years of "suggestion" from friends, I've decided to get a livejournal account, and now I can't seem to get it to accept anything from me. Every time I log in, it immediately logs me out again. (1 Comment |Comment on this)