Indigo then

I know, I know, it's not indigo but as I pondered a post title, I remembered a terrible, terrible joke that my friend Steve told me at university. It involved a long and protracted tale of the purple princess in the purple kingdom and the purple roads and the purple everything and the punchline of the joke was something about some characters being ushered into the palace by being told: "Indigo then". It was told at about 12am whilst walking back to my friend's Islington student halls! Hence why I remember it sort of, but not quite! Though I did drink a little bit of alcohol then, it was never too much (except at Steve's 2 parties embarrassingly!)



I spent most of December and half of January being happy at my lack of sales-shopping and then it all went wrong.  I found this purple skirt in the sale and worn it loads since.  I was debating whether to applique a telephone onto it (with a ricrac wire alla Tuppeny-Happeny vintage) or just leave it purple?! What do you think?

This outfit is one I want to wear again and again for school- not too hot, not too cold. Like Goldilocks, I seek the perfect equilibrium of heat and cold! (except for the white/cream items in the outfit, the whole thing is Primarni!)
Shame that the skirt was doing a weird 'I am pretending to be an elephant' thing in these pictures- it usually hangs very nicely!


I've had a really quite nice day!  It started well with CBC giving me a lift to the station, thus avoiding the rain! It meant I got the early, all stations train (means I don't have to change).  At school, I took the choir to a rehearsal for our borough's choral festival at a local school.  My Mum is one of my extra adults for this, so I got to see her (and get birthday present!).  We arrived nice and early at the school which meant I had the opportunity to catch up with the 3 ladies running the rehearsal- one was my recorder teacher whose recorder ensemble I played in for about 10 years of my life- I absolutely adore her and admire her skill (she's the AST for music for our borough) and it was funny as I realised it today, in some ways, she is my sort of style inspiration- she always wore funky earrings and what she wears, I love-we have similar taste.  Her comment on seeing me was, "Oh another lovely outfit K, I always love your style!".  It made me smile to hear this as I think the same of her!  The other one was the lady whose choir I sang in for about 8 years of my life.  She is SUCH an inspiring choir leader and it's her retirement this year.  The third was a University friend (fellow recorder player) who is actually the coordinator of the whole festival.  It was lovely to catch up with her. Also, the piano accompanist was the man who accompanied me for SO many of my music exams through my childhood.  I love the nostalgia of seeing so many beloved teachers from my childhood.  Several are retiring this year and I feel really sad, like it's the end of an era and things will never quite be the same again.  Still, there's still several who are remaining.

In this choral festival, the number of places offered to each school is limited, since the Royal Albert Hall has only a certain number of seats for performers and I was quite sad that I got to take all my choir except 3 of them.  Despite the fact that they weren't going to the main concert, I still got them to come along to this pre-rehearsal and learn everything.  Well, their hard work paid off because wonderfully, serendipitously, the school in the seats next to us in the Albert Hall didn't want 3 of their seats SO, my Uni friend/coordinator asked if we'd like them?  WOULD WE???!!! Yessssss, of course!! SO their hard work reaped a reward.

A full lunchtime- in which I had lunch and chatted to my Mum and teachers and then the afternoon spent with year 5 who I like very much.  The lesson was a listening lesson and thus, I got to listen to Vlatava from Ma Vlast by Smetana, which depicts the course of the river Vlatava in Czech.  It is such a beautiful piece of music and due to the activities I planned for them, I got to listen to all glorious 14 minutes of it- twice!!! The children were drawing their own maps of the river- including the places they felt the music suggested the river was passing and inclusion of any descriptive words or musical points they recognised or identified. It's a lovely activity and they were so enthusiastic over it!  Drumming club after school was a great success and we started learning Samba this week!

I went via the shops to see if I could seek some alternative ankle boots for the Clarks ones I featured on Monday. I've decided not to keep them.  They were just too tight so I am going to send them back sadly.  I went to T K Maxx and was really excited to find some Kurt Geiger black ankle boots reduced to £19 in my size but when I tried them on, they were far too tight!!! Tried some others but didn't really love them.  Sad.  Somehow, instead of buying ankle boots, I ended up with a pair of knee high black but almost petrol blue or grey leather boots by Ralph Lauren!  I can't quite fathom the colour! They're so comfy!!!

I came home and after eating left over Chinese, I sat and finished a DIY crafty project (to be shared soon!) whilst watching back-to-back episodes of The Good Life on YouTube.  The BBC has released all the episodes onto there!! It's been a lovely evening.  Now, as I sit drinking cocoa with squirt cream on top, I am just waiting for the final piece of this happy days jigsaw- CBC to come back from his teaching evening!

How's your day been?!xx

10 things to be thankful for: 26-2-14

1.  For a week of rest from school.  For the resources and opportunity to be able to get up and go away for a few days.  I am thankful that I don't have ties that prevent that spontaneity.

2.  For a cold that is finally going away.  Good riddance!!!

3.  For a warm home and being able to afford and actually HAVE heating!

4.  For my family.  For my Dad's wisdom and experience that I can go to him and ask his advice on things and he will conscientiously seek the best advice for me.

5.  For the little time I got to spend with my Grandad this week.  For being able to speak honestly to him about some of my feelings and concerns, if not all of them.  Now I just pray he will listen to advice and ask for help. I also pray for him to get well (please do pray if you do).

6.  For the happy reminder that I get afternoon playtime on Tuesday and Friday- so I won't be totally break-free, I'll have a slight break, as long as I let my kids out in time and don't let them hang around chatting to me and just usher them straight out into the playground!!

7.  For my new (temporary) music room.  Honestly, I cannot tell you the psychological effect of having space.  Having places to put things, having spaces to send the children out into, having lovely display board where I can put up interesting, colourful displays instead of having to use any tiny available wall space in my old room, using gaffer tape because nothing would stay up on the walls! I love the new space and so do the kids!  Now let's pray that something happens that my Headteacher decides to let me keep it!

8.  For the joy of post! One great thing about having penpals (and birthdays) is the mail you come home to!  Three items for me today!

9.  For the joy and beauty I gain from playing my flute. I love the people I play music with them.  I was talking to my Grandad the other day and was talking about my dear friend Ellie (flute) who is sending me a parcel of her old vintage shirts and who I was going to stay with when she moves and how I miss her.  He asked how old she was and was rather surprised when I said, 70! But music transcends all the differences in age and you find dear, dear friendship with all ages.  Playing music together, unites people and builds wonderful friendships.  The Mendohlssohn we are playing includes a beautiful nocturne (the part in Midsummer night's dream where the lovers sleep) and it is so beautiful, I could cry with the joy and delight in my heart as I sit amongst my fellow musicians, listen, appreciate, play and recline in the lyrical lines of it. (listen from 3 minutes for the flutes. But the horn solo at the beginning is lovely...)






10.  As I walked to school today, despite being a little late for my train, I was drawn to walk through the park, beside the lake, as opposed to the path I usually take that goes round the edge of the park (slightly quicker) and it struck me, taking these small pleasures can set your mood and feelings for the day.  Just being up the hill, bathed in sunshine- I raised my hands as if to reach towards it, to let the sunlight onto my skin.  The sound of ducks, clamouring, coots and moorhens ticking and the constant splash of the fountain all made for a soothing sound-track.  There is a certain part that the path takes, which is covered with a canopy of high, overhanging trees.  These were covered with small, serene white blossom-made me feel like I was in the forest with a benevolent Titiana or at a wedding.  My heart lifted with the thought that Spring is nearly here and all the beauty it holds for us!  I never fail to be awestruck by HOW wonderful new life in the Spring is.  Taking that small detour didn't make me miss my train but it did raise my spirits and filled me with a joyful serenity for the day.  It certainly held throughout the day- year 3 recorder lessons enjoyed by both teacher and pupils, engaged and enthusiastic and really learning well.  God sends the sun on all- we all enjoy it, and the beauty of creation is given to everyone and I am grateful for the lifted spirits it gave me and the children.  One child came up to me and beamed and said, "Isn't it a LOVELY day, Miss!" to which I agreed most readily.



What are you thankful for today?

Scrabblicious!

One of the first reasons I really started making cards in earnest, some 10 years ago now, was my wish to be creative with packaging and items that would otherwise end up in the bin.  This was before my local authority did cardboard recycling so I was always trying to think of ways to use old, clean packaging.   My first card-making session, I made about 12 cards, all of them reusing certain boxes and packets!  Whilst I have evolved over this last decade, to include bought items and pretty papers, this art of recycling packaging might be old, but never forgotten! I've got stacks of bits and pieces in my stash from packaging!!That summer, I cut around 3000 mosaic tiles from packaging to make mosaic cards with the kids at our church's summer mission!

This Saturday, I finally unpackaged my Scrabble tile fridge magnet set and attached to a pretty large metal heart which is now hanging in my kitchen- it's alterable art- and I will show you sometime!

A friend came round for a cup of tea and stayed for quite a long while.  Thus, while we were chatting to him, I sat with the packaging to the magnets and cut out all of the Scrabble-tiles or logos on the packaging.

Then, I decided what I could do with them and this is what I came up with.


All of the above, I quite like because they'd be suitable for men/boys (if they like Scrabble) too.  The top one is intended for my brother in law and the rest, well, you'll just have to wait and see!
The top right one shows you what the anagram of Fridge magnets is- that's what the large tiles originally read! Admittedly a little random as a card, but you know, it's just a bit of fun.
All I used is some 3d pads, scissors and some black card I have had in my card stash since the very early days of card-making.  I forget about it from time to time but it always comes out, every so often!!

Linking to
Creative Mondays with Claire Justine


Daring Cardmakers weekly challenge with my Old, but never forgotten art!  Hope this isn't too tenuous, but it did put me in mind of my early days when I read your post!

These boots were made for walking

It's Inspiration Monday  with the two birds and it's Ashley Tisdale in a very short dress and funky boots!  Obviously, I look nothing like her.  Firstly, that is a large amount of flesh on show and secondly, she's wearing a necklace like Jareth, King of the Goblins from Labyrinth! And thirdly, she has a funky embroidered jacket.   STILL, inspiration it is and I shall take from it what I can (I like it, but lack the items or temperature!)

So I just went with the boots then and the dark short thing (and a feature necklace of course!)
I am a little sad about these boots.  I've been admiring them on the Clarks website for an age and finally, since my black ankle boots that I wear often to school are really worn down at the heels, I thought I'd buy them.  They actually only arrived today.  BUT, they feel extraordinarily tight and really not Clarks' usual size 8!  I am wondering if they will stretch a bit, because other than that, they are great- pretty and the heel is low but not too low that it will wear down in an instant! And they're leather, so always good.  I don't know, what do you think?  Should I see if they stretch a bit?  They're not totally and utterly uncomfortable but I am aware of the sides being close on all sides to my foot, if you know what I mean?

Here, I decided to do the 'Blogger showing shoes pose'- one looks down at one's shoe and makes like you're trying to grab your heel! I almost fell over! It kind of reminds me of those Egyptian cave paintings where they would be painted with ALL their body parts showing, feet and all, because they thought that image would take them onto the afterlife with all their body parts!
FYI, the skirt was a recent magpie thrift find, the necklace is Wolf and Moon (via Sunday upmarket), cardie is Monsoon and the black top is an  Icelandic gift!


So I was back to reality today and though it sucked on a grand scale, it wasn't too bad (apart from a 25 minute queue at the ticket office this morning!!!).  Yes, yes, I know those of you that only get 4 weeks holiday a year, I get it, that's really not much holiday.  But it still was horrid going back especially after lots and lots and lots of prep at the weekend!

This week is a really busy week, lots happening!  Rehearsals galore at school and outside of school Friday is now officially my absolutely worst day all week.  I get absolutely no break now from 9 to 4.25 (having of course been travelling for an hour to get to school from 7.30ish and then having to run around getting stuff ready in school before 9) - I previously this term, managed to grab 5 mins at lunch just before orchestra but now KS1 lunchbreak times have been made to end 15minutes earlier, instead of running out of orchestra and getting down to the playground to fetch a class, I have to run and relieve an already annoyed teacher who is losing 15 minutes of their PPA time! (it's actually also now the same on Tuesday, except I can grab about 8 minutes break!) It's all to make things safer and better for the children in playground space but still, it's going to be hard!  To top that, it's my birthday on Friday!  Aghrgh, I am going to be over the halfway mark to 35!  We're going for a meal on a boat on the Thames on Saturday, thanks to an experience voucher I was given!  Not sure what else? I was hoping to go swing dancing on Saturday night but not sure if that will happen or not as it's in Watford which is a bit of a trek!  CBC asked what I wanted for my birthday and I had mentioned that I'd really like to go to Dolly Clackett's beginners dress-making class in Leamington spa in a couple of weeks but not sure- I've used a sewing machine but not regularly or for ages (or can I remember how, and nor do I own one) and I am a pretty useless person at doing things that are 3d- what do you think? Should I do it?

I've already bought the snacks for school on Friday as it's tradition to bring in treats on your own birthday.  I have two other colleagues with the same birthday plus one child in Year 6!! She always remembers we share a birthday!

Right, I have a stonking headache and am off to bed.  A more sensible person would have bypassed all this and done that straight away!

Hugs to y'all xx

Of lurid outfits, of manor houses, of charity shop bags and of crumble

Sometimes, I just want to bung everything into one blog post and be done with it!  I have a little to say about something, but it seems a little insubstantial to merit an entire blogpost!  Yes, I could keep it short and sweet and quick to read (and I'd probably have more readers!) but I quite like a patchwork of items in a post, or a miscellany!  So here, I shall include, Magpie Monday find, Style imitating art, Visible Monday, cooking, visits to Georgian manors and free perfume! (like any good newsreport, I have summed up the main features before the detailed report)


First up, is this week's Style imitating art challenge.   Jess chose a painting called The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer- the medium is oil on canvas, c.1658.  Johannes is a really nice name.  If I had a boy anything (cat, fish, gerbil), I'd call him Johannes! If you check back on Tuesday, there'll be a post showing what everyone wore for this challenge!  I was struck by all the different shades of this- the bright blue over-skirt, the red skirt proper, the mustard bodice and the greensleeves (and white hat!)

Therefore, I put together the following

to comprise those elements

The blue skirt is actually a dress, I last wore here,
dressed up as supergirl (the colour looks WEIRD inside)- I'm doing that remix-thingamijig, where you wear a dress as a skirt! And a vintage mustard blouse, greeny cardie (tucked in), white beret and claret tights (which look black/purple here!) . I have bright red tights but couldn't find them! Just as well, as I am very bright!  As a little touch, I added a doll's jug as a pendant to get in with her actions! I bought the doll's set ages ago to make teacup earrings and the jug has been biding it's time for an Alice outfit!

Linking up to:
the gorgeous Patti's Visible Monday



It's Magpie Monday with Liz Burton tomorrow.  I've found two nice charity shop items this week (one in Essex, one in Ely).  One is a dress (which is too cold to wear now!) and the other is this bag.  I found myself really taken with its yellow and white stripes. It's a good size- not too big, not too small (like Goldilocks, I prefer things on the middle ground) and it put me in mind of the beautiful beach-huts that I saw in Southwold. I do struggle with bags- straps always seem to dig into shoulders, or it is too small or big, or too boring (my current brown handbag!).. PLus it's a nice satchelly shape!

 Do go and find out what other people found this week!


Next, on the Kezzie news, we have Valentines Mansion. I went to meet a friend for lunch at Valentines Mansion, where I had my wedding reception.  They have an excellent gardener's cafe and we ate our lunch in the beautiful Kitchen garden since the sun shone (though it was very nippy!)


We had a lovely catchup and took a quick walk around the mansion and I felt all nostalgic as I looked at it all and remembered last summer...





I wore several of last Monday's Magpie items- the coat, beret, bow brooch and grey lacy top.

Linking with Renae's Fashion Item Friday. DO link up with this lovely lady!


As we walked to the edge of the park, we saw about 5 squirrels but I managed to capture a pic of this fellow. Isn't he stocky?!?!?! Someone clearly ate all the nuts!


We went back to the town centre and I had a look in Debenhams and TK Maxx and was browsing the sale
racks when an assistant pounced on me and said, "Would you not like to help Help the Heroes?", brandishing a bucket. I was a bit  startled to say the least and mortifyingly, what came out my mouth was, "Would I NOT want to help?" in an amused voice, somehow my mental correcting of her question came out my mouth.  She smiled and repeated it and I willingly put some money in the bucket.  At this point, she handed me a little bundle of perfume samples.  I said, no thanks, but she said to keep them anyway.  Quite nice really but I didn't actually want anything for putting the money in.


Finally,we have crumble.

CBC and I bought some rhubarb a couple of weeks ago and I said I'd make a crumble. He said I'd let it moulder in the fridge.  SO last night, I made it alongside a pastabake. I hadn't bothered to buy any ingredients, hoping I'd have it in the cupboard.  I searched online and found a BBC Food one which asked for Self-raising flour (why?), I hadn't got any, so I searched again and came up trumps with Waitrose whose simple recipe enabled me to use up some January 2012 dated organic flour, butter, caster sugar and rhubarb.  The only trouble was, it asked for 500g of rhubarb and I only had 340g so I ratio-ed all the quantities down to 68% and had fun weighing such odd quantities on my non-digital scales!
Sufficed to say it was a delicious success and better still, we have more left for tonight!



And that's all from the 6 o'clock news on KezzieAG.

Hope to hear from you soon!

xx

Suffolk day 2- Southwold and beyond

The next morning, breakfast at the Swan was epic!  Juice and tea/coffee to begin with homemade fruit slice buttered.  Then an enormous slate was brought over containing three types of cheese, chacuterie, brioche croissants (divine!), jams and ribbons of melon, pineapple and orange.

Then we were brought bacon and eggs on toast. The eggs were all mushy the way I like! By this point, I was fit to burst, so we went back to the room to pack and express more bemusement over curling!  Yay GB!


We decided to explore Beccles a little- the town has a few quirky shops which I purchased a metal heart in for a little Katie Hook line and sinkher- style evolving kitchen-art (aha Katie, can you guess which of your metal-backed crafts I am copying?!?!), an applique book (finally figured out how to spell that word- I've been typing appliche for ages!)  and a mustard polka dot headband.  The walk continued down to the river- start of the Norfolk Broads I believe. All sorts of sea-faring vessels sat moored, some of them looking very woebegone.


On the recommendation of the barmaid at The Swan and my Mum, we headed off to Southwold.  This is a beautiful, beautiful seaside town.

The beaches are sandy unlike Aldeburgh and I imagine gorgeous in the summer.  It boasts a lighthouse AND a pier.


Aside from the ugly front with the usual amusement arcade, the pier is still beautiful and you can walk along and imagine you are an Edwardian holiday-maker.

There is a beautiful water-clock and if you look back towards Southwold, you see the town from afar

and an impressively bright line of beach-huts.

In my head, I was picking them- "Char would like that one, Ang would like that one, Val would like that one etc..."



We walked along the beach for a long while, stepping over the groynes- they stretch for a while. Using my Cath Kidston umbrella, CBC traced a large line with a sand message saying Follow the line.  I wonder if anyone did?

Reaching the end, I had some tea and CBC had some haddock soup in a surprisingly busy seafood cafe (the breakfast was too much for me! Too much meat and general protein!).  We walked back along a marsh-flanked path to the town.

Southwold has an amazing array of independent shops.  We spent ages in the Serena Hall art gallery and I was seriously thinking of saving up for an amazing piece of art by Barry Marshall involving driftwood and treated copper- a shoal of fishes  (you can see it here or  here- scroll down to Barry Marshall)but luckily the £410 price tag put me off.
I skived off into a shoe-shop called Daddy Longlegs where I almost bought a pair of wedged-heeled teal leather ankle boots reduced to £30 but stopped myself last minute!
We ate amazing carrot-cake and chocolate eclairs respectively and stopped off at the Adnams brewery (this is where it is brewed) for a while to grab some Benjamin Britten beer!

Reluctantly, we had to leave beautiful Southwold but it was definitely the most special part of our trip! SUCH a place!


The drive to Mildenhall was horrid.  Nasty roads, dark and we got lost but eventually we arrived at our next B&B, The Walnuts Country House B&B which is in West Row, a little village outside of Mildenhall.

But it was worth it as our B&B was amazing.  It was a 17th century house and better still, we had been upgraded from our double room to the four-poster suite that costs over £40more per night.










The next day, we enjoyed a delicious English breakfast in our suite (they bring it to you- so lovely as we could eat as slowly as we wanted without the pressure of having to hurry) as well as juice, tea, coffee, cereals, fruit.  They had thought out the suite well.  The bathroom had an enormous bath, we had a kitchen with all the essentials you need, kettle, microwave, toaster, oven, sink, cupboards with crockery, glassware and cutlery. There was a fridge in the main room with a complimentary mini-bar- water, beer, juice, cokes, biscuits, fruit, cereals and a loaf of bread, red roses on the table, chocolate on the pillow, bathrobes and huge fluffy towels, DVD player and a pile of DVDs, our own 'woodburner-style' heater that packed a lot of heat, beautiful antique furniture and all the fittings were so romantic.  Mildenhall, the nearest town might be a bit of a boring place to visit but this place was an ideal location for getting to Ely (where we went on the last day), Newmarket or Cambridge.

Have you been to Suffolk? Where can you recommend?  I want to go to Framlington castle next time!xx

Rainbows in Suffolk

This half-term, with great forward planning and thinking time (er- half a day?), CBC and I decided to head to Suffolk and the borders of Norfolk for 2 days.  This was thought-up and executed on Monday.

Tuesday morning, we set off in the car, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (cue that BBC music) in the car and headed first for Aldeburgh.  Aldeburgh is most famed for being the home of celebrated British composer, Benjamin Britten and his partner, Peter Pears.  Britten, who was our first great composer for around 400 years (since Henry Purcell. I am quoting my lesson plan here from a year 4 lesson), fell in love with the Suffolk coast and moved there.  One of his most famous operas, Peter Grimes is set here- beautiful, beautiful music but a horrid story-line!  Snape Maltings, a couple of miles from Aldeburgh, is the home of the Aldeburgh festival, a great classical music festival every year.  CBC was a steward here once and the whole experience had a huge impression on him, so he was keen to visit.

Sometimes called the Hampstead of Suffolk, Aldeburgh is a picturesque seaside town with a selection of independent and high class shops and one of he best fish and chips in the country.  Fair enough- we decided not to rally against public opinion and bought some fish and chips to eat on the beach.

As we sat and ate our food, reclining on the shingle of Aldeburgh beach, listening to the lap of waves onto the stones and listened to a child excitedly talking to his dad, I reflected on the wonderful effect the sea seems to have on me.  It's like a reset button, or something like that- but I feel that all things are well when I hear that sound and smell that air.


Eyed up by ravenous and menacing-looking seagulls, we decided to take a jaunt along the beach in search of the famous and contraversial Aldeburgh sea-shell sculpture.  Apparently, it is considered contentious by different people because they say that using aluminium or whatever metal it is made out of is going against keeping the seaside natural at Aldeburgh.   Luckily, we found it a fair stretch along the beach.  Shingle is really hard to walk over!!! It makes you really slow!

Everyone wanted a piece of the seashell, so we could only grab a few shots.

The quote comes from the aforementioned Peter Grimes.  It started to rain a little, so some people tried to shelter under the sea-shell.  We walked back towards the town.  The rain was that most disgusting sort- the one that is really really cold, wet and horrible and leaves you really soggy and cold.  BUT, there was an unexpected boon of staying out in it.  As we reached the town, we saw the most amazing primary AND secondary rainbow stretched across the sky, ending as if like mist into the water.
  Again and again, I snapped photos in delight at this sight of beauty and peace. It was hard to leave it. According to the comments of someone local which I earwigged on, they've been getting double rainbows all week!




We then walked into the town and went into apparently, according to the Independent, one of the top 5 ice-cream parlours in the country!  Despite being cold, I enjoyed a double cone of chocolate orange and chocolate.  CBC had blackcurrant sorbet and maple-walnut.  They do many flavours including Christmas pudding flavour! We wondered if anyone ever orders the pink-grapefruit sorbet- not my idea of fun!
After a quick stroll along the high street and a nip into Joules, where I almost bought a fox-jumper (too expensive) and amazing fur-lined navy-blue snow boots  (tiny bit too small despite being  42!), we headed off in the car towards Beccles, the entrance to the Norfolk Broads apparently.  The drive was beautiful with sunsets and yet more amazing rainbows.  CBC forbade me to take photos whilst he was driving, but there was a HUGE patch of really vivid colour on the horizon.

Arriving at the Swan Inn B&B in Beccles, we were taken up to our room in the loft.  It was a deliciously cute and cosy room with a lovely chintzy chaise-longue,
and lovely-beams to bang your head on (if you are clumsy like CBC and I!).

A cute shower room and a cupboard that had Orla Keilly mugs, Tea-Pigs tea-selection and some chintzy tea cups and saucers
Since we don't have a TV, we were really excited to be able to watch the winter Olympics (which was unfortunately curling.  What a strange sport!) and see Netflix for the first time which we watched Dawson's Creek on after dinner!

Heading down to Dinner, the Swan has a great restaurant where everything is cooked from scratch and they offer a 2 courses for £14 option. I went for the Cauliflower and stilton soup (to be honest a little boring) and CBC had a pate (nice).  For my main, I enjoyed apple and pork sausages, mash, broccoli and onion-gravy (though looking at this picture makes me want to retch. I get like that when I've eaten meat too often!)
 The Swan in Beccles has a HUGE beer menu and they list all the different varieties and flavours in their guide, giving a little history of each one- heck, they made Budweiser sound posh!

After dinner, we headed back to our room to watch Modern Guy and the very first Dawson's Creek episode.  I love a bit of teenage angst.  All together now: "I don't wanna wait... for this life to be over..."

More tomorrow...