Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2025

I did Latin at school and was taught by a sadistic horror of a man. His name was Vincent Kelly and I used to pray every night that he would die - not very Christian or kind of me but that is how much I hated him. I struggled for three years and then joy of joys Dad's posting there finished and we moved on to another camp. I was able to drop Latin. Ironically, had he been a bit more patient and kind I might have found it interesting and all that I retained from Latin I find so helpful now in word derivations and origins.
I never learned to type as such but my Mum and I did a course in how to type in Braille and I wish I had gone further with that - at the time. Another redundant skill I guess.

 

I had to give in and put my heating on today for the first time in ages. The house was very chilly and my feet were cold. I am going to wish you all pleasant evenings now and I'll catch up with you all tomorrow.

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Good morning everyone from a wild and windy North West. I am hoping to replant my wall troughs today with some bargain violas I got from Aldi the other day and I want to save all the regal pelargoniums that are in the troughs at the moment before they get battered beyond salvation. Meant to say last night that I enjoyed both big rugby matches yesterday. Felt very sorry for Ireland as they put up a sterling effort against France

 

Morning @Ladybird4, it was wild and wet here earlier (I've been up since 6 am) but has now dried up and we have patches of blue sky. It feels quite chilly though so I've a fleece jacket on over my fleece dressing gown over my PJ's! Heating's not kicked in.

It's awful how we remember the worst teachers isn't it. It was maths I hated (I think I'm discalculic) and had one sadistic male teacher in particular who threw the chalk at me, told me I was useless and sat me in the corner, bottom of the class. I later ended up as a qualified Independent Financial Adviser so I must have picked some skills from somewhere.

Not sure what we'll do today, still got things to do in the garden hopefully.

Hope everyone's survived the gales.

 

I enjoyed Latin at my Grammar school and, briefly, fancied myself as a Latin teacher. Grew out of that though

 

@lizzie27, I think that nature gave you that fantastic job just to spite your dreadful teacher. Phew @Bluejayway a narrow escape there. To balance out the teacher stories, I did have some lovely ones. I was truly hopeless at Maths @lizzie27 but I had the kindest teacher ever. He always explained things over and over to me and never ever showed any impatience. His name was Mr Rose. His wife also taught. She was a historian but in those days I had to opt between either history or geography and I chose the latter so was never taught by her.

 

Good morning all.

I was hopeless at maths at school, hated it. The teacher was totally humourless. My father had a degree in maths from Cambridge but he couldn't explain it to me. He just put down the answer in my homework book then in class Mrs Stove would ask me to explain how I got it and I hadn't a clue.

My favourite subjects were Biology and English literature.

It's wet but not very windy here.

 

I was also put into a class that did Latin, however I was so bad at it I was demoted the following year. Despite being convinced I had learned nothing I have been amazed at how much the little I did learn has helped me with horticultural names. I come from the era when women were not admitted to many universities and you had to have Latin and Maths to get anyway.

Yes Ladybird, I feel really sorry for Star, the unhappy cat next door whose home is next door but one to me. I am convinced it would have taken very little effort on my part to persuade her to move in with me but I would never do that to Poppy. Her owner left her with her brother during her move to live with my neighbour. The cat was perfectly happy so why bring her here with 2 dogs she is scared of.
I feel strongly about people who encourage so called stray cats into their homes. I almost lost Poppy to a woman who lives not far away, she had her for four days before she was able to come home, after I spoke to my neigbour, who immediately knew who the woman was.
My daughter almost lost her cat to another woman who thought she was an ill treated stray because she limped because of being kicked or hit. No, she limped because she had been hit by a car and had had a fractured pelvis. The RSPCA nursed her back to health which is where my daughter found her. I was cat sitting at the time, I asked the neighbour if she had seen the cat who told me where she was being looked after! I spoke to the police about the situation and was advised that in their eyes it is considered theft and suggested I spoke to the woman concerned as a first step to retrieving the cat. Which I did. The woman tried to argue with me, telling me how much better she looked after the cat but when I warned her I would take it up with the police she gave in.
My grandmother was a terrible "cat thief". As far as she was concerned, any cat she saw in her garden was a stray and needed a home with her! Some cats run two or three "homes", being fed and provided with warm sleeping quarters for as long as they feel like it. They are very resourceful animals.
I am deliberately leaving my greenhouse door open so Star can get in, but I am not feeding her. My next-door neighbour has put some wooden crates down in quiet, dry corners so she has somewhere to shelter. She also has a small barn with hay bales to sleep in. Sadly, it is the human love and home comforts she is missing out on.

I made a couple of Apple Crumbles, adding lemon juice and ground ginger to improve the flavour as my apples are eaters and they do not have a lot of flavour when cooked.
Watched a brilliant cricket match. Very exciting. Britain has lost two athletes in the World Championships field events today. The extreme heat is taking its toll. Several competitors were forced to drop out of the marathon.
Did anyone watch the new M&S sewing competition? I watched it last year, a different format to the Sewing Bee. The prize is a sponsorship from M&S. Very useful to an up and coming designer.

I hope no one suffered damage etc. from storm Amy. It is very windy today and regular downpours. I ought to go shopping but really do not feel like facing the elements.

 

It's very windy, but not wet here!
The pears are still on the tree, though.
@Goldenlily26 what channel is the M & S sewing on please?
My shopping is coming to me today; I have rather a long list of jobs to complete this week.

 

Good morning!

I liked most subjects at school but wasn't brilliant at maths. My older sister & my dad were natural mathematicians, and my sister in particular was really good at explaining things to me so that I understood them... I was very lucky. Managed "O" level maths and just scraped "further maths", then happily gave it up in favour of languages, English and geography. Ours was a state girls' grammar which taught us Latin and Greek. I agree with @Goldenlily26 that a smattering of Latin is really useful in understanding botanical plant names - and sometimes also in working out meanings of unfamiliar English words, and seeing connections between languages.

There's a little cat called Mikey here who lives somewhere in the town, but can always be found outside the little supermarket. On a cold day he'll find a warm car bonnet to sit on, and if it's really wet he'll be curled up on the bags of kindling in the shop "porch". He gets a lot of strokes - and the odd tray of cat food from people who feel sorry for him, though he's perfectly well looked after!

Hope storm Amy has been kind to you. It's been very gusty here, with diagonal rain at times, but no damage, fortunately.

 

Good morning. Dry here and sunny so far but cloudy bits too. 19C so comfy. Patch AGM for me so staying clean and not gardening but I did go and water the sweet potatoes and last toms in the polytunnel and discovered we finally have some chillies forming.

Maths was OK when I could see a use for it. I've never used double fractions or calculus or sine and cosine to workout problems in sewing, baking, DIY but basic geometry does help me calculate quantities when upgrading from an 8" diameter tin to a 10" square one.

 

Here it is @Penny_Forthem

Everything You Need to Know about M&S: Dress the Nation

ITVX is not availableon our SKY but you can see it on your PC, apparently:
https://www.itv.com/watch/mands-dress-the-nation/10a5591

 

Good afternoon, very mixed weather today. Went and bougt some new support posts for the summer Raspberry row. These new raspberries are becoming a bit of an expensive luxury at this rate. Worth it though my favourite soft fruit.

I so agree about godd and bad teachers, the head of Maths at my senior school decided to take us from year 1 instead of the usual year 3. He pushed us into taking the exam early, I failed miserably, never did get the O Level in spite of repeated attempts. I agree with Obelix it was ok if I could see a point to it, and I managed to do the maths required for degree equivalent biochemistry, haematology etc. Having a book thrown at you and being told to do the whole first exercise and walking out of the classroom was not good teaching.

 

@Obelix-Vendée thanks for the link.
I have to say I am not impressed with M & S. I want a pair of straight, fairly skinny, black cords. None in stock in my size.
And the photography puts me off. Some items are so difficult to see on the models.
Yours,
Mrs Grumpy of N Wales.

 

I was really bad at sums in junior school, but luckily had an excellent teacher in senior school. After a couple of terms with her, I’d got the hang of it, and ended up doing additional pure and applied maths in lower 6th. Actually the best learning experience I had was having a Saturday job in a bakery shop! Had to add up the bill in my head, or on the bag of a paper bag, and enter the amount on one of those old tills with big keys. Got very good at working out the correct change, and, back when we used to use real money, I could check my change just by glancing at it!
Totally agree on the difficulties of shopping in M and S, @Penny_Forthem. Last branch I went into had nothing in between size 10 and size 20. Ordering on line is fraught with difficulties. I wish they would put the actual inside leg measurement on the website. I’d have guessed that I would be a regular trouser length, but I’m evidently supposed to guess at what length constitutes an ankle grazer or some such weird description. It’s so annoying to wait for a delivery of something that will either trail on the ground or barely cover my knees! Actually it’s no better in store, as I’ve had to head to the changing room with an armful of trousers of the same stated size and length, but no two the same!
Took our visitor into the city this morning, and somehow managed to avoid the frequent and heavy showers. My evil plan for the afternoon was to prune a pittosporum and hopefully partly fill at least one green bin. It took me three goes to get the recycling out. The rain gods saw me opening the door to go out and promptly turned the tap on! I finally got an hour outside and have generated a pile of greenery. Just after I headed back inside, it started to pour down again. At least I managed to stay dry.