Storytelling Sunday–Back to School

Now my kids are grown up we don’t have the ‘back to school’ thing in September.  But it still feels like we should start anew, as Summer comes to a close, and Autumn approaches.

Sian suggested a ‘back to school’ story for today.  Not quite ‘back to schhol’, but this about learning:

We did a motorcycle tour of Germany way back in the mid 1980s.  We had both done O-level German at school, so decided to enrol on a German evening class to brush-up.  We really enjoyed our classes, Renate, our teacher was really funny, and it was a lovely group.  We learned ‘holiday’ German, for example, how to book a room:

Haben Sie ein Zimmer frei bitte? (Do you have a room free?)

to which in our text book they would reply:

Mit Bad oder Dusche? (With bath or shower?)

Well imagine our delight when we stopped in Cologne for our first night, and asked in our best Deutsch:

Haben Sie ein Zimmer frei bitte?

to which they replied, straight out of the text book:

Mit Bad oder Dusche?

We had a hard time keeping a straight face!  And we still snigger about it today!

We did have a really lovely time exploring the Romatische Strasse, into the Alps for a bit, then back up through the Black Forest.  The weather wasn’t always that good, but it was a brilliant holiday!  Not sure we’d go abroad without any accommodation booked nowadays though.

I am afraid I haven’t scanned in any of our photos of the trip, but here’s one of a really lovely town called Rothenburg ob der TauberI found off the internet:

 

Linking up with Sian’s Storytelling Sunday.

Storytelling Sunday–Sporting Prowess

OOps! A day late, but never mind, here’s my story for this Olympic month of August 2012'.

I am inspired by the wonderful tally of gold medals (now 16!!) that it got me thinking about our sporting prowess.  The only really sporty one is Lucy.  Maurice does a little running, and once ran a marathon, but Lucy was an England Champion!

Lucy and her cousin Izzy started to play volleyball when they got to high school.  Thanks so much to Freda Bussey, the PE teacher who loved volleyball and got them playing to such a high standard.  They won the under-16 England championship in 2008.  We all trooped off to Bath University to support them.  They were the under-dogs having been well and truly beaten by the other side previously.  But they won!  Wow, we were so happy for them!

 

Here’s the moment they won:

Team photo with coach Freda Bussey:

Lucy and Izzy holding the cup.

Sadly, Lucy doesn’t play any more, but Izzy does.  In fact, Izzy’s friend Megan just missed getting into the England women’s team this year!  Watch this space, she will surely be a future star.

Freda was well and truly recognised for her great work for volleyball when she was picked to be an Olympic flame torchbearer.

Doll’s House

This one is for Sian!  Sian has asked after my doll’s house several times after seeing it in the corner of photos of my dining/hobbies room!

My Dad built 3 doll’s houses for his granddaughters when they were quite little.  It was originally just the left hand side up to the bricks.  Later he built a side extension, and a basement.  My daughter Lucy didn’t play with it much, so eventually I took it over as a ‘grown-up’ doll’s house, and for several years we used to visit doll’s house exhibitions and buy and make new furniture for it.  Dad used to love to have a go at making miniatures

A couple of highlights are the miniature painting that dad did of the ‘Laughing Cavalier’, and the gorgeous miniature chest of drawers that he made.  Can you see he even made dovetail joints in the drawers?

OK, here’s the Grand Tour!

 

I’m linking up with Sian’s Storytelling Sunday

ORP BLYSKAWICA

At the beginning of World War 2, 3 Polish navy ships came under the jurisdiction of the British Royal Navy (The Peking Pact).  One of these ships was the destroyer ORP Blyskawica.  In Jan 1942, a young Polish sailor called Wincenty Pieczonka joined the ship.  Here he is, the middle of these 3 sailors.

 

After the war, Wincenty stayed in the UK, and married Marjorie. They had 3 sons, Robin, John and Maurice (my husband). They anglicised their name and Wincenty became Vincent Pierce, although he was known as Wicek for all his life. Sadly he died 11 years ago, aged 82. He did make return visits to Poland but not until 40 years later.  We went with him in 1988, and met many of Maurice’s Polish aunts, uncles and cousins!

In May 1942, ORP Blyskawica was in Cowes on the Isle of Wight for a refit, back at the shipyard, Samuel White, where she was built.  During the night of the 4th May, the Luftwaffe launched an attack on the town and the shipyard.  The Blyskawica defended the town, laying down smokescreens and firing  anti-aircraft guns.  Although there was a lot of damage to the town, and 70 people lost their lives, it is evident that it would have been much worse without the brave acts of the sailors on board the Blyskawica.

 

Yesterday, the town of East Cowes commemorated the 70th anniversary of the air raid.  We had a family outing to the Island to join in! 

From L-R, Mark (John’s son), John, Janice (Robin’s wife), Maurice and Robin.

We started off at East Cowes cemetary for a wreath laying ceremony.  Here are some present day Polish sailors giving their salute.

The local heritage centre had put on a brilliant display in their shop window and in the town hall.

Then we went on a guided ‘air-raid’ walk, around places where the worst damage was inflicted.  There were people who had actually lived there during the raid and it was fascinating to hear their stories.  One sad story was that one of the bombs – destined for the Blyskawica – hit a communal air raid shelter killing 20 out of 23 people sheltering in it.  One lady on the walk was the daughter of one of those 3 survivors!  As you can see, the weather wasn’t great!  It was bitterly cold and drizzly rain.

After watching some traditional Polish dancing, and studying the original plans of the ship (did you know that the space was planned right down to where they were going to store different types of provisions, one area for mates potatoes, and a separate area for officers potatoes!)

We wandered around and went to West Cowes, where they have named a square after the Captain of the ship – Francki.  His daughter was present at this weekend’s commemorations.

The ship now resides in Gydnia in Poland and serves as a floating museum.  Wicek did visit the ship during the 1990s on one of his trips to Poland.

I’m linking up with Sian’s Storytelling Sunday

The Tale of the Lost Blanket

I had a go at scrapbooking some old holiday photos yesterday.  It was May 1996, the school was on half-term holiday so we decided to take Nicholas (7) and Lucy (4) to the Isle of Wight for the week on the train.  We stayed in a little old fashioned B&B with evening meal in Sandown, just a few streets away from the lovely sandy beach.  Despite a mixed bag of weather, we had a lovely time!

It’s a big project of mine to scrap all our holidays.  A few years ago I took all the photos out of the old ‘sticky’ albums and used these albums from Arrowfile, who also sell lots of different inserts or page protectors to go in them.  So it’s another take on Project Life!

The big story of the holiday that I want to tell you today is

‘The tale of the lost blanket’! 

Lucy had a little yellow blanket that went everywhere with her and she would clutch it in her fists while sucking her thumb, a proper comfort blanket.  You know the sort, it got dirty, torn, and gradually got smaller and smaller until there was just bit of the satin border left!    We weren’t quite at that stage at this point, the blanket was still whole and intact.  But, when we got home, we realised that she had left it in the bed at the B&B!  EEEK!! What to do?  We had to buy a new blanket quick, so she could have it for bedtime, and after a bit of telephoning round, luckily the big department store in our town had the exact same blanket in stock, PHEW!

The proprietor of the B&B, Mrs Jessop found the blanket and returned it to us in the post a few days later. So then we had a spare one just in case it happened again!   So a happy ending to my story

I am linking up with Sian for Storytelling Sunday. 

Storytelling Sunday–Venice 2008

I’ve been scrapping photos from a mini break in Venice we took to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary in 2008.  Such fun to re-live the holiday!

But, here’s the story:

We were due to fly out on the Sunday, our anniversary being on the Tuesday. On the Friday evening we were walking the dog and chatting about what we would do when we were in Venice, when I suddenly said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if my passport was out of date?”

Gulp!  Guess what?  Yes, as soon as we got home, we checked it and found it several months out of date! 

This set us off into major panic mode!  It soon became evident that we would have to go to London on Monday to get a passport quickly.  Maurice managed to change our flights and hotel reservations to the Tuesday.  So.. an unexpected trip to London!  It was incredibly nerve-wracking as I was sure we’d forget something necessary for identification.  But no need to worry, it all went very smoothly.

And our mini-break?  It was truly wonderful!  We absolutely loved Venice, no better place to spend our anniversary.

I’m linking up with Sian’s Storytelling Sunday.

 

Finally, here’s my page for yesterday’s crop.  Our theme was ‘soft’, and I couldn’t resist these photos of Nicholas way back in 1991 jumping on our bed!  I’m happy to say this LO was voted everyone’s favourite, woohoo!