My my Ullyses is a strange read.
I'm excited about getting a new Kindle at the end of the month, taking it on holiday, and reading the remaining three books on it. How things have changed since 2003, when the challenge started!
I have finally finished David Copperfield. I am just not a Dickens fan and it's been a struggle. But only 3 1/2 books left to go. Can't wait to finish and select random books to read!
Long time no blog. Now that I have a new phone which is, frankly, a damn sight quicker and more useful than the old one, I might blog a bit more often. What's on my mind tonight though is an update on the long on-going 100 books challenge. I am still going. I have five books left. I am bored and I don't really want to read them, but I can't give up now! It's actually three full books and two half books. I am over halfway through Ulysses, and David Copperfield. After that I just have The Magician, The Count of Monte Christo, and Bleak House to go. Not sure if I'll read them in that order, but it might be a good plan to have some distance between the two Dickens books. I've really struggled to get through them (there are five in the list) and haven't really enjoyed them. I have saved Bleak House for last as I'm hoping the Broadstairs connection will inspire me.
So, a challenge which began in 2003. Pete finished it so long ago that he's got married and had a baby since. I have resolved to be finished by the end of the year. Trouble is, there's so much lined up to read next!
... People are still reading! At least marty and verity are! Currently in beach bar in Thailand. And yes, I expect I will be drunk later. More soon x
So, it's been nearly a year since there has been a post on here. I had to turn to it to look for some posts to see what I recorded about some particular events about three years ago and that got me thinking about whether I should start blogging again. I doubt that my posts would be as drunkard nowadays! But, I'm yet to complete the Top 100 challenge, and I'm still going on nice holidays, so maybe there would be things to talk about!
I'll have a think...
It's been a long time, again. My blogging habits have changed... but I'm still here, occasionally!
Today I am thinking about books. Pete has completed our challenge - he's finished reading the tip 100 books list - yes, all 100 of them, finishing with Ullyses last week. Congratulations to him - and I am slightly in awe of the commitment involved in getting through all 100 - and without deviating off the list. We have been at it for about the same amount of time, and I am very far behind (I've read about 55 of the 100, but haven't finished the top 21 yet - Birdsong and War and Peace to go).
Pete completely committed his reading to it, and succeeded (elements of the determination needed to get through marathon running!) I have been wavering on to other things. It has taken me a long time to get through Great Expectations, which just didn't capture me, and when that happens I tend to look elsewhere... or fall asleep when I try to read!
Anyway, I have finally finished it, and have moved on to Birdsong. I thought it would be a hard read, but, in fact, I am really enjoying it. It's the kind of book which makes me look forward to the journey home so that I can find out what happens next. Then, back on to War and Peace...
Can't believe it's been so long. Still, it's been a rather busy few months, what with moving and all... so yes, John and I are now living in a rather lovely flat on the edge of Blackheath. And today I am missing him, because he's away on work and it's the first time we've been apart for a night since we moved in!
Anyway, he will be back on Wednesday.
And, I have had some early season Jersey Royals, flown back from the fair Isle this morning, for dinner to console myself with (thanks Dad). And, in fact, we had a lovely relaxing weekend in Jersey, complete with a fake Christmas and a rather yummy goose yesterday.
There is of course all sorts of things I could write about which have happened over the past few months, but I will limit myself to a few:
We moved in, had a fantastic housewarming party (although I doubt our hall radiator and our neighbours agree, but there we are), and I am very much enjoying living on the heath. John still makes me show my passport every now and then though!
We have decided not to do the ITEX walk this year, and I have therefore failed one of my new year's resolutions before the year has really even started. Although, actually, of course it has, I can't believe it's nearly April already.
Work is as manic as ever, and perhaps not quite as stimulating as it once was.
We're going to Egypt in ten days!
I am still working on the many photos I took in Cambodia - they will appear on Flickr soon, I promise. In the meantime, there are some prints of some of them in our lounge, should anyone like to come and visit!
And now, although I would love to write more, I need to go to bed. Our heating is not working, and that is the warmest place to be... albeit without John in it.
More soon. Probably.
In January last year, I made some resolutions (I later added number 8 and number 9)
I reviewed them in May, and now is the time, following a whole year, to review them again.
Here they are:
1. Learn to play the sax
2. Learn to speak Italian again
3. Watch more films
4. Try to get less injuries
5. Make a good attempt at the ITEX walk
6. Do as much travelling as possible
7. Get more sleep
8. Spend more time exploring London
9. Complete the BBC Big Read Top 100 book list (which I've already been attempting for the past two years, I'm 45 books in!)
So, the results:
1. Learn to play the sax
Utterly unsuccessful! A definite carry-over for this year though, as I have an IOU from my lovely brother for some lessons and a trial hire period. I suspect that once I live in a house (with John, yay!) practising will be more practical than being in a flat, so I'll wait until then - and then I'll need to make sure that I make time for it!
2. Learn to speak Italian again
Again, unsuccessful - although I have the beginnings of doing it with the Pimsleur language CD's provided by my bro. Another carry-over...!
3. Watch more films
This one has gone quite well. Although, as John has said, it perhaps would have been even more successful as 'fall asleep watching more films'! A carry-over for this year I think - especially as Stephen is currently building his collection of these films! (And I've watched five today!)
4. Try to get less injuries
Success! I've not had any really major injuries or accidents - although the ITEX walk did some ligament damage to my previously ok right knee, so now it matches the left one! Apart from that, all was well, thankfully!
5. Make a good attempt at the ITEX walk
Success! I did 26 miles (more here) and that was all I could have done - although physically and mentally I could have done a bit more, I was glad I stopped when I did when I realised how my knees felt afterwards!
6. Do as much travelling as possible
A definite success here! I've been to Edinburgh and Glasgow, Aberdeen, Jersey 7 times, Las Vegas, Paris, Edinburgh again, Singapore, Bali, Lombok, Toronto, Tallinn, Istanbul, New Zealand, Thailand and Cambodia. Phew. I've been on 26 short haul and 10 long haul flights... and yes, I've bought some trees in an attempt to compensate for my carbon footprint (probably not enough though, may need to get some more!).
With trips to Egypt and Chile, Easter Island, San Francisco and Las Vegas planned for next year, as well as the regular trips to Jersey, I suspect this one will carry-over by default!
7. Get more sleep
A success, pretty much! I managed to get a reasonable amount of rest over the summer, and my hours at work have evened out a bit too, so that helps!
8. Spend more time exploring London
Hmmm. Not quite so much of a success - I've been to more bars and restaurants, but as I said in May, that wasn't really the point of the resolution!
9. Complete the BBC Big Read Top 100 book list (which I've already been attempting for the past two years, I'm 45 books in!)
Also not a success - yet! I'm determined to carry on though. I'm three away from the top 21 (War and Peace, Birdsong and Great Expectations to go) and have read about 60 of the top 100 in total. So, getting there, slowly!
On balance, pretty successful. A number of carry-overs for this year though... and I think that means my list of resolutions for 2007 looks like this:
Carry-overs...
1. Learn to play the sax
2. Learn to speak Italian again
3. Watch more films
4. Travel lots
5. Complete the Top 100 Book list
And some new ones...
6. Complete the ITEX walk (upgrading from last year!)
7. Get rid of some weight, and exercise more
8. Take lots of photos and learn how to use my new camera properly
I may, as last year, think of some more, which I'll add if I do! But, those are they for now!
Christmas Day on the beach
One of New Zealand's national flowers, known as the Christmas Tree
Sheep!
So, that was more or less the end of a quick visit to Auckland. It was enough to give me a flavour of the country - and I definitely want to go back. All the stuff in the South Island which my parents were going off to see and are currently exploring sounds fantastic. Definitely worth going all that way, and it was great to catch up with my parents and hear about their travels so far, and their plans for the next part of their visit - but then, it was on to Bangkok...
Thailand (briefly)
I flew from Auckland to Bangkok with Thai Airways. Their service was as good as Air NZ - apart from the fact that there was absolutely no leg room under any of the seats... although I managed to get the only seat on the plane which had an empty seat next to it, so I was at least able to stretch out a bit! So, arrived in Bangkok after having had a reasonable amount of sleep, and was reunited with John, which was fab. We spent a very short time (about 7 hours!) in Bangkok before flying to Siem Reap - although though we did manage a quick wander round and a drink at Cheeky Charlie's Bar on a side street - a very surreal experience!
Cambodia
We flew straight in to Siem Reap... and then embroiled ourselves in some confusion. To cut a long story short, when John booked the hotel and told me the name of it, I Googled it, and it came up with a match for the Sofitel. So, I thought that's where we were staying... after a hotel arranged cab, a free drink and cold towel, and some confusion, it was revealled that we were actually at the wrong hotel. How embarrassing!
We then went to the right hotel, which was just as nice, and then straight out to see the temples.
I'm not quite sure what to say about them... they are just awesome. The first glimpse of Angkor Wat was striking, and the others just followed on from that. Over the course of three days we did nearly all of the temples in the immediate area, including some of the older and slightly further away ones. John was an excellent and knowledgable guide throughout, and we were ably assisted by a tuk tuk driver from the hotel - Pros. The whole place is just inspirational - the Cambodian people are lovely, and I spent most of my time just absorbing everything. The food is lovely and consistently good - and cheap. The sights speak for themselves - and there is something very special about being able to climb all over the temples and get to the top and experience the views. I can't help but think that that won't last very long though as the number of tourists there is massive, and increasing all the time, and it can only be a matter of time before it's thought that all the clambering is causing damage to the temples.
We went for sunrise at Angkor Wat on New Year's Eve, and although it was definitely worth doing (and very eerie) we both felt that it would have been so much better without the coachloads of tourists! We did manage to get to two of the more out of the way temples that day though, and because we were about so early, we had one of them to ourselves, and at the second, although there were one or two people there, we were rewarded with the tranquility and time to absorb the surroundings that they deserve.
One of the non-temple highlights was a trip on the river, through the floating village to the lake - which was topped and tailed by a very interesting and slightly hairy journey across a sand dune like path on the back of motorbikes! The floating village was just awesome - especially seeing pigs in floating pens!
Floating Pig!Unsurprisingly, I took a LOT of photos, and the story of the temples, the order in which we saw them, and my thoughts on them will follow on Flickr, because it seems to make sense to let the pictures do the talking!
A little taster though:
To finish off the trip, we spent New Year's Eve at a Gala Dinner at the hotel - which was certainly interesting! It was the first time the hotel had done the event, and they had tried very hard - there was about 250 people there for dinner around the pool, a lot of nice food, and plenty of booze (although that wasn't included in the price, which was slightly disappointing!). A lot of our fellow party goers were Japanese, Korean or Taiwanese - and I think they just didn't get it, because most of them went to bed well before midnight!
That meant that we at least had some peace to see in the New Year - and we spent some time chatting to an American couple and an Italian couple, seemingly the only Westerners in the hotel apart from us! Midnight came and went, although it was weird not hearing the bells of Big Ben, and we saw in 2007 in a very surreal and weird, but fantastic way!
Thailand
New Year's Day bought the inevitable hangover, and we were flying at 10am, back to Bangkok. I struggled for a few hours feeling very green, but recovered ok. We were due to spend that night in Bangkok, but we found out whilst waiting for the plane that there had been 6 bombs in tourist areas there on NYE, and the FCO were warning against all but essential travel there. We ummed and ahhed for a substantial amount of time about what to do - the chance of there being more bombs seemed slim, and when London was bombed we all showed resilience and got on with our lives, so we thought perhaps we should carry on with our plans... but, on the other side, there was the consideration that the bombers had targetted tourist areas, that it is a strange city to us, and that we had another option easily available to us - go straight to the island... so, on a finely drawn balance, that's what we decided to do.
An air conditioned limo and a strange boat journey (the slow boat to the island - rickety old boats, used for people, livestock, food and all manner of other things!) later and we hit Ko Samet, the island where Jago worked for 8 years. He was most surprised to see us as we bumped past him in a pick up truck taxi! We'd overlooked the fact that the Thai Bank Holiday was still running, and there wasn't any beds to spare on the island, but then Jago and Sue sorted us out a bed at a 'concept relax' hotel - it was rather more than we were looking to pay, but turned out to be by far the best thing to do - we had a very restful night's sleep after a BBQ meal on the beach and a few beers, and then spent a morning relaxing on the beach.
Then, it was off to Pattaya, which is quite frankly the most bizarre place I've ever been to! It's a holiday resort on the coast, full of ex-pats either looking for or securing Thai brides, revolving bars, ladyboys, Irish bars, groups of British lads, families, and all manner of other things and people. We had an odd but good night out - and then John and I sought out Greg's Kitchen, a traditional English breakfast (for him) and burger and chips (for me) beckoned! We also got pie... mmm, pie!
A return to the island that afternoon, and pie and mash for dinner - at a beach bar! Again, a surreal experience, but all part of the wonderful life of Ko Samet. The following day, and my last day, a trip on the speedboat to an island I now can't remember the name of, for some excellent snorkelling - and eating fresh-out-of-the-water fish for lunch. Fab. On the way home, we went to the fish farm... which reminds me to comment on the fact that I found myself doing things I never thought I would do on this holiday - like scrambling over one boat to get to another, and walking round on very thin and wobbly planks along the edge of pens of big fish and sharks!
And then, my last night party - a nice Thai meal, and a few beers and cocktails. Maybe a few beers and cocktails too many given my 8am departure time...! A great night though - and certainly a night to give me a flavour of why the island draws people in to stay there for a prolonged period of time. A number of Jago's mates from his time there, both those who live there and those who were visiting, were around, and it was great to be out in a group and great to get to know them.
When I left, with the inevitable hangover, I had the overwhelming feeling of wanting to stay - I so could have done with an extra week lying on the beach (not least because John and Jago had an extra day there!) but, my time had come to an end. It's a place I've a feeling I'll return to one day!
And now, home. Work is going to be a bit of a challenge over the next few weeks, so I'm trying to prepare myself for that with a relaxing weekend... but there are also plenty of things to look forward to - house hunting in Blackheath with John being top of the list... and planning more trips for Easter and the Summer!
I've also been thinking about the results of last year's New Year's resolutions, and pondering some for this year, so there will be a post on all of that soon.
In the meantime, some more sleep for me I think!
Welcome to 2007...
with a hangover, of course!
Currently at Siem Reap airport, waiting to fly back to Bangkok, and nursing a Grade 4 Hangover with Grade 6 moments, not nice on a plane! Too much red wine at an altogether surreal but very good New Year celebration last night!
More on that soon, as energy for internet activity is running out... also more soon on Cambodia - such an amazing place - and the temples, although I might struggle a bit with that as I'm not sure what to say - they are just awesome.
Also more soon reviewing my resolutions from last year, and (maybe) making some new ones for this year!
In the meantime, Happy New Year to you all... I hope you had a fab time celebrating, and all the very best for 2007.
Well, I made it to New Zealand - after 36 hours of travelling! My plane was delayed for two hours, sitting on the tarmac, and then the London - Los Angles - Auckland plane journey is the very longest that you can do! But, I seem to have escaped the jet lag so far, although I am getting tired at the end of each day. That's because my parents are wearing me out... but we had a lovely Christmas in Auckland, although it wasn't that sunny, but we did go to a few beaches and see lots of nice scenery!
And yesterday, Boxing Day, instead of pigging out on the remains of the turkey etc, we went to the Coromandel peninsula, saw lots of lovely beach, the Pacific Ocean, and had lots of lovely seafood.
Today is our last day in Auckland, and then it's on to Bangkok for me to be reunited with my lovely John, and on to Christchurch for the parents, to commence their tour of South Island and Lord of the Rings land - shame neither of them have seen the films. But then, neither have I - I tried to watch the first one again on the plane, and quit half way through, because it's just still boring!!
So, happy day-after-Boxing-Day to you all - I hope you've all had a fantastic Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year - and that work isn't too grim for those who are there tomorrow and Friday.
And, very many Congratulations to Steve and Sally, who got engaged just before Christmas... another wedding to add to the list! Just Fab.
More later, if there's a computer anywhere. Bye...!
I have it. But I'm holding it back... I lost my voice last week, and my passport this week. So, now, I'm typing this from my parent's house in Jersey (they're not here, they're in Sydney), where my brother should be (but isn't, he's in London), when I should be in London, and he should be in Jersey. Hmpf.
Reason for being in Jersey: the only way to get a new passport before I fly to New Zealand on Friday, all being well to pick it up at midday tomorrow that is.
Reason for missing passport: who knows. It's a most "un-Kate like" thing to do, as my Mum helpfully pointed out as I was winging my way to Gatwick on the train this morning - although she was most helpful in providing the exact location of my birth certificate for me, so that was rather handy! Thanks Mum.
Bonus good things of being in Jersey: dinner with Debbie and David, unplanned coffee (after surprising them rather well) with Jenny and her Mum, and buying a shony new camera, in time to take on travels, at a knock down price with lots of extras thrown in. With thanks to the nice man in Fotosound who took pity on me, and to my wonderful John, who is buying it for me for Christmas, and has remained admirably calm through the traumas, despite at the moment being at the tail end of a 20 hour train journey to Malaysia. Thanks babe.
In other news: I've finally finished reading Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy. The verdict? Rubbish! On to War and Peace now. Yes, really.
I still exist. It has, I admit, been an unprecedented gap between posts this time. Lots has been happening of course, not least that my parents have now set off on their three month adventure round the world, which is most exciting, and has made my trip to New Zealand etc at Christmas seem to come round much faster.
Also, very many congratulations to Pete and Helen, who got engaged on Friday night. Another wedding to look forward to, it's all just fab!
Anyway, probably can't promise an update soon, but there will certainly be some during travels over Christmas I think!
A strange phenomenon happens in my office every now and then... my team call it 'the Kate IT rage'. It happens rather more often than is good for my health - or theirs - or in particular the health of the IT team, and has happened rather a lot recently, especially on Friday, when I was attempting to work from home, and completely failed because I couldn't get the broadband to work properly.
But, now, thanks to some excellent assistance from a very diligent IT man who came to my flat this evening for three hours, everything is all in working order - I can even check my work emails sitting on my bed in my pj's if I want to!
So, if only I could get my I-Pod working again and figure out how to resurrect the copy of my old template which Blogger was allegedly saving indefinitely when I upgraded to Beta, but doesn't appear to have done so, and therefore get some useful bits of template back, I'd be in IT utopia I think.
As it is, such a thing clearly does not exist!
Meh. I hate colds.
More soon. Am playing with upgrading to Beta Blogger, so there will be some changes in appearance!
It's been a while. My travels were great, but they were also demanding, tiring, exhausting... and I've not quite recovered. As soon as I got back from Canada, it was straight to work - the holiday period is well and truly over.
Lots of wonderful things have happened since then:
- My parents spent some time in London, so I spent a lot of time catching up with them, which was brilliant, and we had an excellent meal at the Oxo Tower, and then an (even though I do say it myself) excellent Sunday dinner here... the key thing about this is that John met my parents, and my parents went John - and it all went pretty well, they seem to like each other! I discovered that John also makes excellent roast pork!
- I went to Jersey for Debbie's hen night - which was just brilliant - we had a lovely spa day and then an excellent meal in the evening. Not such a good plan to stay out at a party until 4am, but nevermind!
- And then, to top it all and end the month of September in style, Debbie and David's wedding. Words fail me a bit because it was such an amazing day and a fantastic weekend - the day was just perfect, the service touching, the food and drink spot on, and the company brilliant. John met all my 'local friends' and went down a storm, and it couldn't have been better. Mixing Bloody Mary's in the honesty bar of the hotel at 3am guaranteed another late night though... and then John had a whistle stop tour of Jersey, in the rain!
One thing I've been reflecting on as the weekend concludes is how great it was to have all of the 'girls' together - Debbie, Jenny, Jenna, Charlotte, Nikki and me. We all went out, as is traditional, on Christmas Eve last year, and calculated that it was the first time we'd all been together in about 5 years (memory failures meant we couldn't be quite sure, we must be getting old!). I said, rather drunkenly in a speech at the end of the meal, that we needed more weddings... and sure enough, within three weeks, we had two engagements!
The hen nights and weddings have meant that we've all been together four times this year, which has been totally fab (and with partners at the weddings, mostly, too!). A very happy Kate... apart from a three hour delay to get back to London last night.
And also, wedding news from this side of the channel - Tania and Rich got engaged on Wednesday, which is brilliant news - and it seems they don't fancy a long engagement, so roll on their wedding, the first amongst the Act2 people... can't wait!
That'll mean (if I get invited!) that I've been to 8 weddings in the past three years, and have four to come next year... good job I love them!
Photos will be in the usual place soon - although not as many as usual, it's more difficult to take loads when you're actually involved in the day!
A very brief one, just to say that I'm safe and sound in Toronto, work is going well so far, big event today so will see how that goes - and then going to Niagra Falls tomorrow, so that will be very good. What will not be very good though is going into work straight from the plane on Thursday morning, but nevermind!
More when my body has finally worked out which time zone it needs to be in ie London from Thursday please!
about caught up with the jet lag. Need to get back on track before going to Canada, and therefore going the other way around the time zones, on Saturday.
Our internet has been playing up, so pictures not quite yet ready, but hopefully before the end of this evening they will be in the usual place.
More on my return from Canada... or whilst I'm there if I get chance!
So. I'm in the amazingly (a frequently occurring word on here lately it seems) plush Business Class lounge at Bali Airport, politely refusing all the rather nice looking food they are trying to offer me, having in mind that I am going to be fed three three course meals (supper, dinner and then breakfast) over the course of my trek home - which from this point on will take 18 and a half hours - although it's 6.30 pm here and I'll land in London at 6am local time, so that's seriously going to mess with my body clock (and then I'm going straight to work... zzz). I'm a bit worried about what state I will be in by the time I've been in London for a few days and then been to Canada and back... but bridges crossing and all that.
I'm kind of ready to come home, but at the same time would also like to stay here infinitely. I've reached the point where I'm quite relaxed, have caught up on some sleep, and have confirmed that (although I've missed people, and one person in particular, a lot) I'm quite happy with my own company for 6 days. I can't help but feel that in order to relax completely, I need to be away from work for about three weeks, maybe more. I've not had a holiday that long since I was 17. But, hopefully this break has been enough to rejuvenate those slightly weary batteries to get me through the next stretch at work... and then my trip to New Zealand, Thailand and Cambodia at Christmas can do the same... and then ditto for a trip to Italy at Easter. Such bunny hops around the world are fantastic, but one day (perhaps at the culmination of this current job) I think they need to lead to a three to four week complete break.
I think I can confidently say now that I've fulfilled at least one of my New Year's resolutions - to travel more. Big tick.
I've also managed to read a lot on this trip too. I finished two books I'd already started: The Notebook Dress - excellent, I want to know what happens next, when is part two out Al?!; and The Return of the King - not so excellent. Sorry in advance to all LOTR devotees, but my verdict is boring: It takes three sentences in the middle of book 6 for the Ring, the whole point of the epic three volume novel, to be destroyed when Gollum falls into a firey hole, three paragraphs for the King to be restored, and then a hundred pages for them all to get home and live happily ever after!!! I am however glad that I read it. I can tick the book which is at the top of the BBC Big Read list I'm slowly ploughing my way through, and it is kind of a book that everyone should have read - but I can't help but agree with my Mum's theory that the films are a major factor as to why it is at the top, rather than because all those people who voted for it have actually read the book.
I've also finished Memoir of a Geisha, which I found fell into the unputdownable category - so an ideal holiday book. Very very good, although the ending was a bit predictable. I've nearly finished (and expect to do so on the plane) On Beauty, which I'm galloping through - also very very good. I'm impressed with the small observations in it, which is exactly what the critics said when she (Zadie Smith) was awarded the Orange Pize and shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Should that run out on the plane, I'll be on to Roald Dahl's Boy and Going Solo - because I've not read them for ages, they were on sale in Singapore Airport, and were a worthy purchase in exchange for some left over Singapore Dollars.
Anyway, back to the original point of this post - I'm shortly going to leave Bali. It is also an amazing place. All three of the places I've been to on my first visit to Asia are. The hotel I stayed in in Sanur, Bali, was right on the beach front, and I've done very little for the past few days other than wander round the beach and the pool, read, and soak up the sun (with the aid of a large quantity of sunscreen). My room, an individual bungalow with an outside shower, private sun terrace, and four poster bed, was extremely comfortable and deserved to be shared with someone.
As I'm leaving, I'm resolving that I will definitely come back to Bali sometime, hopefully in the not to distant future. Because I was focussing on not doing very much, I didn't do any trips to the volcanos, rice terraces, or Ubud, the artist's area. I've chalked them up to do on a return visit.
So, my thoughts turn to returning to work. So much to do, and so little time - but at least I can approach it all with a slightly clearer head now.
In other parts of the world - congratulations to Steve and Sally, who have just exchanged on their new house and will be moving tomorrow - looking forward to seeing it, and sorry I can't be there to help - although you're probably grateful for that because there would probably be more accidents!
