Breaking Through, Travelling On

Karmacat

gallygirl wrote: »

Close, but not euros KC

You've got me even more interested now, Gally, but I appreciate that maybe that isn't for a public thread. Don't dangle off an apartment building any longer than you need to, okay? :cool:

Goldiegirl wrote: »

Glad you're feeling better this morning - a good nights sleep is very restorative

Definitely, the world feels very different!

The languages I did at school were French and German. I didn't really take to German, as the grammar was a bit too much. Not only do they have masculine and feminine nouns, they also have neuter nouns as well. What with nominative and dative cases and so on, it blew my mind a bit, to be honest.

But I did enjoy French - I was quite good at one time, but I've lost a lot of vocabulary now, unfortunately. But I can still read French and make general sense of it, so that's a help.

It makes such a difference, it really does.

I've enjoyed visiting the Mediterranean countries like Spain and Italy. I've also enjoyed my time in Greece as well. I've never been to Canada. I've visited the US and loved it, but I couldn't live there. I imagine Canada to be the best things about the US, but slightly more British! My cousin lives over there in Nova Scotia, so I hope to visit him one day.

I think learning any Romance language helps with the others - when I was interrailing for 3 - 4 weeks at a time, I became socially fluent in Spanish and Italian quite quickly - chatting to bus drivers, ticket sellers and whatnot, and explaining to old ladies why I wasn't going to marry a Sicilian

About Canada, that sounds right. I didn't realise how different from the US it is, I was really bowled over, it has the best of the US and the best of us, and even the best of France :j Nova Scotia sounds amazing, I never got there, I'd have to visit it next time I went.

As for history, I am very interested in this subject. My main area of interest is English history, from the Conquest up until the Tudors. I did this era of history at school, and the interest has stayed with me ever since.

Although I do delve into other periods of history too. I prefer social history, rather than accounts of battles. People are much more interesting than wars.

Thats a fascinating period of English history, it really is (though the Scots aren't terribly partial to Edward I, to put it mildly ...). Social history for me too, along with economic history, and even good biographies - the Barbara Tuchman book, A Distant Mirror, about the 14th century, is really remarkable, and even historical novels like Anya Seton's pageturner, Katherine, which is hugely well researched, are wonderful. We've got so many sites to explore as well ...

Not adverse to a bit of Egyptology either. We've seen the pyramids at Giza, but Cairo is so close, and it was so, so busy. I'd like to do an Upper Nile cruise, that'd be interesting

Ooh yes. I've never been, not at all not even close.

The talk today wasn't by a nutter as I thought it might be, not at all - he was part of the UK Defence Academy, at Cranfield University, the same bods that identify British soldiers from WWI who're discovered in Belgium where they fell basically saying the chronology is more or less right, starts about 100 years earlier than thought (but that was recently suspected anyway, apparently) but the interesting bit was the predynastic - its squashed into 600 years, not 900, so it was all go during those years.

Karmacat

I came online to check the matched bet - it worked! Cost of the qualifier was £1.68, and I now have a free bet for £20 waiting for me. Got to work out how to do this weekly skaye thing too.

Christmas shopping done - picked up my mum's, and bought scarves for lots of others, from M&S - at least they can take them back if they don't like them

Karmacat

You know our chat about travel? This is what its based on, I think. Carl Sagan, much loved, much missed: http://vimeo.com/108650530 its 3 minutes 50 seconds long.

My American cousin sent it to me, and just as I managed to find the direct link to put on here, I had somebody phone up to arrange a session with me on behalf of somebody else ... !!!!!!? People work hard on here, I know, and extra phone enquiries on a Sunday probably don't sound like much, but there are so many issues in a phone call like that as a counsellor/ psychotherapist, and its the weekend, I don't have my brain in a space to talk properly about that stuff! Fortunately, I was coherent enough to say that ... good heavens _pale_

Bit disoriented now! Gardening. Gardening, thats it.

Goldiegirl

I remember reading the Anya Seton books in my teens, I'd love to read them again, particularly Katherine. I haven't heard of Barbara Tuchman before, so I had a quick look in Amazon - The Distant Mirror looks fascinating. I'm currently reading Lionheart by Sharon Penman.


I read her book The Sunne in Splendour, about the Wars of the Roses a few years ago. Richard III is my favourite monarch - I was very excited when they found him in that Leicester car park!


I think in the 24/7 world, people forget that not everybody is working at the weekend. I wouldn't dream of phoning an individual about work on a Sunday!


I had a look at the video. Very beautiful for one thing, and it confirmed that it's part of being human to wish to explore

gallygirl

Goldiegirl wrote: »

Richard III is my favourite monarch - I was very excited when they found him in that Leicester car park!

Mine too . Shed a few tears watching programmes about it and dragged Mr GG along to the exhibition and went into the Cathedral to see where he'll be buried :T.

greent

gallygirl wrote: »

Mine too . Shed a few tears watching programmes about it and dragged Mr GG along to the exhibition and went into the Cathedral to see where he'll be buried :T.

And mine! We spent a whole term on him/ his story in history at school and it was one of my favourite pieces.

Karmacat

Goldiegirl wrote: »

I remember reading the Anya Seton books in my teens, I'd love to read them again, particularly Katherine. I haven't heard of Barbara Tuchman before, so I had a quick look in Amazon - The Distant Mirror looks fascinating. I'm currently reading Lionheart by Sharon Penman.

I just had a look at her website - fascinating! She's really focussed in, from the look of it, looks really interesting. Thats an author I've marked, thanks Goldie.

I think in the 24/7 world, people forget that not everybody is working at the weekend. I wouldn't dream of phoning an individual about work on a Sunday!

I think thats it. And if you're so 24/7 that even then you don't have time to phone your own psychotherapist :rotfl: well, thats a bit tricky :rotfl:

I had a look at the video. Very beautiful for one thing, and it confirmed that it's part of being human to wish to explore

Its lovely, isn't it, and it really puts things into perspective.

gallygirl wrote: »

Mine too . Shed a few tears watching programmes about it and dragged Mr GG along to the exhibition and went into the Cathedral to see where he'll be buried :T.

greent wrote: »

And mine! We spent a whole term on him/ his story in history at school and it was one of my favourite pieces.

Never studied him at school or at college I suspect he's got a very raw deal till recently, since the Tudors were the ones who shaped the telling of his story, poor man. I see Benedict Cumberbatch is playing him for the Beeb - that means redress, I'm sure

Karmacat

I'm really late starting this morning - I put my back out doing the gardening yesterday, had to abandon everything - took a Sleepeaze pill to cope with the pain overnight, and I can get around, but its trouble ... what I *have* to accept is that if I'm going to do stuff like digging at my age, I have to look after things, which means starting doing back exercises **and** doing them regularly, not just for a couple of days after I've done it in.

So, the list for today:

[STRIKE]- phone call[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]- phone call[/STRIKE]
- post Amazon book sale, one of the big hardback ones :j
- paperwork admin, I let a crowd of stuff build up at the end of last week.
- book restaurant
- call friend to come to restaurant
- use free skaye bet
- little bit of online shopping for an extra pressie
- send my betfair withdrawal to savings account, or if the paperwork admin works, buy premium bonds.
- Asda online order.
- BACK EXERCISES :j though not starjumps

Watty1

Hope the week ahead looks free of hassel family stuff

Karmacat

Oh, it is, thanks Watty, how kind of you to remember! I had one of my normal twice-weekly phone calls with my mum, and she doesn't want any action taken on it, she'd rather let things lie, so I feel we (my brother and sister and me) have no choice but to respect her wishes. She comes off worst from it, but she's the one that has to live there, not any of us, so that's that.

While supporting her decision, the three of us are drawing a line at actually going into the houses of any of the relatives involved. That would mostly be me actually, at Christmas, and I'll use my viral illness as an excuse - can't even be open about it because that would upset my mum too much. I can't do that to her at her age.