A year of change for family Watt

...and it's only August!

to start with there was the wedding of sister Ruth to Adam in April.

Then came the news that Dad will be retiring in September after being offered a great deal and a well earned reast after 40 odd years of working for the same company.

Mum will be facing a slight change to the classes she works with in September but looks to carry on working with the school for a little while longer.

Brother James was a little disappointed with his A-levels, only getting 5 A's and 1 B rather than 6 A's (well that's what you get for taking extra A-levels in your lunch break - swot!) and so will be leaving us to go to Newcastle in September to study Economics (he got 100% on that exam so i guess it was the right option!)

and early next year, February to be exact, i will become an Auntie for the first time as sister sarah is expecting a baby.

Roll on a quiet year next huh?

Bank holiday weekend

Started the bank holiday nice and chilled with dvd's and cinema before being picked on to do the church 'getting to know you' slot where i had to sit on the sofa and answer questions in front of the congregation. No tricky quick fire questions to be worried about though. Then for the monday we headed down to Reading for a BBQ and to watch some over sized apes run around in the trees at Bracknell's version of GO APE! Rounded off the evening with a drink and bowl of chips in the pub before driving home to face the tuesday morning post bank holiday wake up call!

Hopefully pics to come

Colchester Zoo

A couple of weekends ago i was treated to a surprise trip to the zoo. As i haven't been in years it was really nice to have a wander round and see all the changes they have made since i was last there. It was also really nice to get the camera out (another thing i haven't done for a while!) so i thought i'd share a couple of pics with you. Not as many as i would like however as the computer is having an off day and taking it's time!

Ooops - been a long time...

...and done a fair bit since last post - not sure anyone reads these anymore either but hey ho...

general info: job going well, got new car, been seeing sights/people etc

in general - life is good!

and after that

after the big day on saturday we trapsed up to Wembley Stadium on the Sunday to see Metallica live. Twas a good day, not too loud and was an experience. Best bit? Just as it was starting to get dark (the roof was open so this was getting late) they played 'nothing else matters' and the stage lit up with blue lights and all around the stadium people just started holding up lighters (SHOULD point out no one was smoking though) which was amazing view and with the added sparkle of camera flashes going off all over the place. it was very cool. Then the rest of the show included in door fireworks so v. spectacular

:)

ok, ok so i was never going to be that accurate!

...but this is what we got up to at the weekend. For J's birthday (last year) i booked an archery day in Kent with Robin Hood events so we travelled down on saturday (after a very early start) to shoot some things. The day included a bacon butty for starters and then tuition in how to fire the bows. It was a long hot day but we both enjoyed it thoroughly. it's well worth a visit.

Guess which one was MY arrow :)

Please Note: Images at this site, courtesy of www.robinhoodevents.co.uk You may use them at your site by simply including THIS same statement at your site.

Aliens are amoung us!

Patient bleeds dark green blood.

A team of Canadian surgeons got a shock when the patient they were operating on began shedding dark greenish-black blood, the Lancet reports.
The man emulated Star Trek's Mr Spock - the Enterprise's science officer who supposedly had green Vulcan blood.
In this case, the unusual colour of the 42-year-old's blood was down to the migraine medication he was taking.
The man's leg surgery went ahead successfully and his blood returned to normal once he had eased off the drug.

The patient had been taking large doses of sumatriptan - 200 milligrams a day.
This had caused a rare condition called sulfhaemoglobinaemia, where sulphur is incorporated into the oxygen-carrying compound haemoglobin in red blood cells.
Describing the case in the Lancet, the doctors, led by Dr Alana Flexman from St Paul's Hospital, Vancouver, wrote: "The patient recovered uneventfully, and stopped taking sumatriptan after discharge.
"When seen five weeks after his last dose, he was found to have no sulfhaemoglobin in his blood."
The man had needed urgent surgery because he had developed a dangerous condition in his legs after falling asleep in a sitting position.
The surgeons performed urgent fasciotomies - limb-saving procedures which involve making surgical incisions to relieve pressure and swelling caused by the man's condition, known as compartment syndrome.
In compartment syndrome, the swelling and pressure in a restricted space limits blood flow and causes localised tissue and nerve damage.
It is commonly caused by trauma, internal bleeding or a wound dressing or cast being too tight.
According to the science fantasy television series Star Trek, Mr Spock had green blood because the oxygen-carrying agent in Vulcan blood includes copper, rather than iron, as is the case in humans.
Mr Spock had a human mother, and Vulcan father, from whom he inherited his inability to make sense of human emotion, as well as his green blood.

Something for the weekend?

"and the cat came back..."

Cat returns home after 10 years

Patricia Charnet only had a few snapshots to remember Lynx by

Lynx disappeared from her home in Hook, Hampshire, in 1997, and her owner, Patricia Charnet, thought she would never see her pet again.
Earlier this week a stray was found in Carterton, Oxfordshire, and handed in to the Blue Cross centre in Burford.
A scan showed that the 12-year-old tabby was microchipped and the centre tracked down her owner, who lived 60 miles away.
Ms Charnet said that when the animal sanctuary phoned her, she thought they had made a mistake.

Lynx turned up 60 miles away 10 years after disappearing
"You still have it in the back of your mind," she said.
"And it happened this time, for real. That was unbelievable, it is a wonderful feeling.
"If only she could talk she would have a story to tell."
Mandy Jones, from the Blue Cross said staff at the centre were amazed to discover that Lynx had been missing for 10 years.
"I still can't believe we were able to reunite her with her owner after such a long time - it goes to show how important microchipping is," said Ms Jones.

www.news.bbc.co.uk

Someone just booked a holiday!

Bet you can't guess where....

Soggy Burgers!

This weekend we trundled off to Reading to see Hal's new place and partake in a Bri (thats a BBQ for the non South-Africans amoungst you) and in true UK Style it bucketted it down!

We arrived around 3pm and were almost immediately dispatched to a the local Argos to pick up a gasebo to shelter the smouldering coals. The menfolk worked hard to keep it going and fed us ladyfolk well whilst we slaved away in-doors in the warm and dry at preparing salad and bread and other highly important accompaniments.

After a soggy afternoon we headed home to sleep well with overly full stomachs!

:)

oh and Hal's place is really nice too!

Summer Bank Holidays :(

(www.news.bbc.co.uk)

New Job

Just to say that i finally have a new job starting in june. It is working locally (and a bit of travelling) and i'm happy to finally be sorted out. It's much better than the temping job i did yesterday but at least now i can say i've been paid to count bras - maybe not one for the cv ?!?