Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
Catherine Mary Jane Sweitzer (1932-2024)
Today should have been Aunt Janie’s 92nd birthday, so I thought I would share some words I wrote after her death a few weeks ago when I saw that the obituary provided by the funeral home wasn’t quite up to standards.
I was unable to attend any services for Aunt Janie since I only found out a few days before the burial, with no time to try to organize flights, accommodation, etc., but I’ve tried to make peace with it.
Catherine Mary Jane Sweitzer (Janie) passed peacefully on February 18th. She was 91. Janie was born and raised in York County and attended William Penn Senior High. She was a lifelong member of the First Presbyterian Church, where she also worked as a secretary until her retirement in the 1990s. Janie enjoyed reading, puzzle books, and sewing. Her favourite books were historical Christian romances and her favourite colour was pink. She liked tigers, but wasn’t a fan of domestic cats. Roses were her favourite flower, and she always used rose scented soap. She enjoyed making clothing for both herself and her family, including prom dresses and wedding dresses. She enjoyed travelling with her brother, including once to the Rose Bowl where she sat and talked with people instead of watching the game. Janie also enjoyed baking, and a Christmas staple was her Red Velvet Cake!
Janie was predeceased by her parents, Emory Sr and Rozadie, sisters Marcella, Beatrice, Barbara, Patricia, and Jesselean, and brothers Emory Jr and William. She is survived by her sister, Linda, and many nieces and nephews spanning several generations.
Janie enjoyed hosting the annual Thanksgiving dinner for our extended family and organizing the post-meal bingo game. Her favourite flavour of ice cream was coffee, which she especially enjoyed with a slice of mince pie.
Janie was an avid walker, and would go on daily walks either to one of the local parks, or if it was raining, she would walk around the mall. She loved Doris Day and Sandi Patti. She also loved watching Oprah, and particularly enjoyed the giveaway shows.
Aunt Janie introduced me to some of my favourite books – Anne of Green Gables, CS Lewis, and Harry Potter. She made my senior prom dress over a weekend, and helped mom and I make my wedding dress in six weeks. Every Summer growing up, I always looked forward to my week long stay with Aunt Janie. She would take the week off from work and we would spend the week playing board games, visiting the ducks at Kiwanis Lake, or the miniature ponies.
On mowing day, she would make a container of lemonade to quench her thirst and every evening she could be seen snacking on pretzels and cheese and drinking a Dr Pepper. Aunt Janie made the best grilled cheese sandwich I have ever had.
Aunt Janie encouraged me in all of my endeavours. I don’t think she missed a single recital, concert, or theatrical production I was in unless it was mid-week. She always came to visit on the weekends I was singing in church and would ask for recordings of my singing.
She will be forever missed, and always loved.
I love you. So very much.
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Test Post
This is just a test post to check a few things. My blog recently was hacked and malware installed, and my awesome friend Thad (I’ll get links to his sites, but you can check him out on Twitter as Tyranicus) managed to not only REMOVE AND FIX the malware/spam, but he did it without losing my 10 years of posts. YAY!
The only bad thing is I noticed some issues with the text.
£ signs were messed up, as were ‘ and : so, I’m just running down the series of symbols to check and make sure they function properly, or if I need to hunt for fixes.
Bear with me. The errors are all over my posts that were restored, and I honestly don’t have time right now to go through and fix them all. But hopefully, it won’t be a problem with new posts, so….testing!
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Travel Products Part 2
You can read part one here: Travel Techish Stuff Review
[Official Shop] BXT Travel Essential Bags-in-Bag,Travel Storage Underwear Pouch With Handle – Rose
– I first bought this when I was going on The Rock Boat XV in January 2015. I wanted to give packing cubes a try, and thought an underwear organiser/holder would be great since I was sharing a cabin with three other girls (ok, they were all friends of mine, but still) and then after I would be staying with my cousins in their guest room/office and I didn’t want my bras and knickers on display for my cousin’s husband and son. Unfortunately, I still haven’t actually taken this with me on a trip. I’ve attempted to pack into it THREE TIMES and all three times I changed my mind because the end result is too bulky. I’m not saying all packing cubes are bulky (my BFF has a nice set that worked well for her on the cruise), but this one just didn’t work for me. I think this could work if you were taking flimsier bras like sports bras or non-wired bras, but my wired bras just didn’t fit well in it. Either that, or my boobs are too big. But I really like the concept! Shame it didn’t work for me. I would love to get myself a set of eBags packing cubes, and I’ll probably get a set before the next trip to the US and see if it helps cut down on space. But honestly? Ziplock gallon and two gallon sized bags or travel space bags from the pound shop work pretty well for me.
My last item I’ll talk about in this post, is the neck wallet Tim wanted me t get before I took an overnight train from Florida to Pennsylvania on my own in January 2015:
This particular one is no longer available, but it was VERY useful and it held my passport, cash, ID, credit cards, house key, phone, tickets, and even my 8″ Samsung tablet fit in it (although that made it very bulky). I tucked this under my fleece when I was sleeping on the train and took it with me whenever I used the loo to keep all my important documents on me. If you are making long-distance/overnight trips on public transportation on your own, I recommend getting something like this. Or a money belt. They even make clothing now that have secret pockets, but I’m really not sure I want to keep my passport in my underwear!
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Many of the Amazon UK links are affiliate links, so if you click on them and buy something, I do get a tiny percent.
This post has not been endorsed by Amazon or any of the products and websites mentioned in this post and I have not received compensation for writing this post or making any videos.
The contents of this post, including personal images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.
[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]
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What Fast Forward Has Taught Me
My two weeks on Fast Forward are done! This week, I lost 2 pounds on it, bringing my Fast Forward two week total to 7 pounds. I now have to go off Fast Forward and forget about it for a few weeks before I am allowed to go on it again (if I need/want). I’m also incredibly closer to a personal goal I had set and am now only 3 1/2 pounds away from it, 4 pounds away from my three stone award, and 8 and a half pounds away from the first target I set for Slimming World! I am prepared that this week I might have a little gain as my body comes off the restricted diet and back onto regular eating, but that’s okay. I really think that doing Fast Forward has given me the kick in the pants I needed!
I’ve learned a few things while doing Fast Forward, and I thought I would share those things with you:
- I learned that measuring is KEY. Looking back on my eating habits for the past 8 weeks, I can see where I might not have actually measured out my HEA. I would use milk in my tea/coffee and then at the end of the day say that the milk was my HEA even though I didn’t measure it out at the beginning to find out if I used all of it or more than it.
- I learned how important Super Free food really is. Fast Forward has you eating one salad every day, and I really started looking forward to my salads. And now that I’m off Fast Forward, I can start to put other veggies like radishes and peppers into my salad that weren’t on my list. I think one of my goals coming off of Fast Forward is going to be to still have at least one salad each day.
- I learned drinking plenty of water is really important! 1.5L each day (or 500ml morning, afternoon, and evening) should be the bare minimum. And if you don’t like plain water, you can add a drop of squash or add a slice of lemon. I find a slice of lemon, a slice of cucumber, and a few springs of mint is quite refreshing.
- I learned to listen to my body. I actually felt better and fuller longer when I was eating 5-6 small meals each day instead of three “big” meals. Having a light breakfast when I woke up, and then a breakfast-y type snack a few hours later, followed by a sandwich or salad for Lunch and then a few hours later I’d have the other half (salad or sandwich)…I’d have a filling dinner, but then have a snack about an hour or two before bed. This might be hard to keep up with depending on my schedule, but it seemed to work better for me.
- I learned how to get creative. No, really. Plain cottage cheese with a cut up apple and a sprinkle of cinnamon and a pinch of splenda. YUM. Plain yogurt topped with sliced strawberries and plums. Adding strawberries to a salad. Making a herby mayonnaise to go on a chicken sandwich. So many creative things that I never really would have thought about before if I hadn’t been on such a restricted diet.
- I really like Greek salad!
- Never give up
I’m sure there are more, but that’s all I can remember since WordPress ate my post!
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[DISCLAIMER: I do not work for Slimming World, I am not affiliated with Slimming World beyond being a paying customer/member, I get no personal benefit from writing this post other than the joy of sharing.]
The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.
[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]
For full Copyright and Disclaimer, please read http://www.blog.beccajanestclair.com/copyright/
Slimming World: A Week in the Life
Last night I got my 2 Stone Award!!
A few of my friends have asked me what I eat since I tend to have consistent weight loss, and when I do have a wobble, I usually know what the cause was. I lose on average 1 1/2 – 2 1/2 pounds per week, which for me isn’t bad! So since I decided to start tracking my food again this week, I thought I would post a typical week. I’ll add recipes at the bottom.
For those of you not on Slimming World, Slimming World has 5 categories for food. Free and Super Free (mostly fruit, vegetables, and other food that fill you up – things like pasta, rice, lean meats, etc.), Syns, Healthy Extra As (something with calcium), and Healthy Extra Bs (something with Fiber). Additional As and Bs can be had, but you count them as Syns. The booklet you get when you join has hundreds of Syn values, and you can find the values for everything else online (or with the ap). If the Syns aren’t listed, you can use the Syn calculator. If an item has Syns, the number is indicated in parenthesis. Slimming World has three eating plans, Original, Green, and Extra Easy. I tend to follow Extra Easy. Unless otherwise stated, the coffee I drink is fresh brewed, sweetened with saccharine tablets and my tea is Tetley “best of both” blend. Mayonnaise used is Hellman’s Lightest, Ketchup is always Heinz Reduced Sugar and Salt, Bread is usually from a 400g loaf of Warburton’s, Squash is no added sugar Robinsons.
Day 1
HEA: 250ml semi-skimmed milk measured out and used in tea/coffee
Breakfast – BLTEP(*) wrap in a Weight Watcher’s Tortilla (5 Syns) with Mayonnaise (.5 Syns), banana, coffee with milk.
Morning Snack – grapes, a pear, 500ml squash, and a cup of tea with milk
Lunch – Leftover Stew(**), 60g sliced wholemeal bread (HEB) with Flora spread (.5 Syns), 500ml no added sugar lemon squash, cup of tea with milk
Afternoon Snack – WW mini cake (3 Syns), apple, cup of tea with milk
Dinner/Tea – Vegetarian Chilli(***), 500ml diet iced tea
Evening Snack – RitterSport chocolate (6 Syns), cup of tea with milk
Total Syns: 15
Day 2
HEA: 250ml semi-skimmed milk measured out and used in tea/coffee
Breakfast – 3 egg omelette with 10g Reduced Fat Cheddar cheese (1.5 Syns), tomatoes, mushrooms, and 1 TBS Reduced Sugar and Salt Heinz Ketchup (.5 Syn), banana, coffee with milk, tea with milk
Morning Snack – Grapes and a plum, tea with milk, 500ml squash
Lunch – 3 Chicken Fingers(^) (3 Syns), seasoned potato wedges, cucumber salad(^^), Ranch dressing dip (made with powder and Greek yogurt) (.5 Syn), 1 TBS Reduced Sugar and Salt Heinz Ketchup (.5 Syn), 500ml diet iced tea
Afternoon Snack – apple and a pear with a cup of tea with milk
Dinner/Tea – I tried making mushy pea curry, but I didn’t like it, so I wound up with beans on toast (HEB), salad, and 500ml squash
Evening Snack – WW cake (3 Syns), tea with milk
Total Syns: 9
Day 3
Breakfast – BLTEP sandwich on wholegrain bread (HEB) with 1 TBS Lightest Mayo (.5 Syn), banana, Coffee with milk (.5 Syn)
Morning Snack – 500ml squash, tea with milk (.5 Syn), beans on toast (5 Syn)
Lunch – Pasta with Lightest Philadelphia Cream Cheese (HEA) stirred in and one Chicken finger(^) cut up (1 Syn), Cucumber salad(^^), apple, 500ml squash, tea with milk (.5)
Afternoon Snack – Pink N White (2.5 Syns), pear, tea with milk (.5)
Dinner/Tea – Pork steaks with mustard and agave(^^^) (1 Syn), sauteed potatoes, sprouts, salad, muller light yogurt, 500ml diet iced tea
Evening Snack – Options hot chocolate (2.5 Syns)
Total Syns: 14.5
Day 4
Breakfast – BLTEP* on wholegrain toast (HEB) with mayo (.5 Syn), coffee with milk (.5 syn), tea with milk (.5 syn), plum
Morning Snack – ASDA Vitality cereal bar (3.5 Syns), apple, coffee with milk (.5 Syn)
Lunch – Jacket Potato with reduced fat Cheddar cheese (HEA), Tuna mayo (1 Syn), and ketchup (.5 Syn), salad, pear, green tea, 500ml squash
Afternoon Snack – Pink N White (2.5 Syns), tea with milk (.5 syn), 500ml squash
Dinner/Tea – Fish and Chips(+) (2.5 Syns), mushy peas, salad, ketchup (.5 Syn), 500ml squash
Evening Snack – green tea
Total Syns: 13
Day 5
HEA: 250ml semi-skimmed milk used in coffee and tea
Breakfast – BLETP on toast (HEB) with mayo (.5 Syn), coffee with milk, tea with milk
Morning Snack – 500ml diet iced tea (++) (.5 Syn), plum
Lunch – (I wasn’t feeling well) Scrambled eggs, 10g cheddar (1.5 Syns), wholegrain toast (rest of HEB), green tea
Afternoon Snack – Atkins Endulge Chocolate Coconut bar (6.5 Syns), 500ml diet iced tea (.5 Syn)
Dinner/Tea – Roast chicken, roast potatoes, mushy peas, sprouts, ketchup (.5 Syn), tea with milk
Evening Snack – Options Hot Chocolate (2.5 Syn) made up with water and the rest of my HEA milk
Total Syns: 12.5
Day 6
HEA: 250ml semi-skimmed milk used in coffee and tea
Breakfast – Eggs over easy, Toast (HEB), lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise (.5 Syn), Apple, coffee with milk
Morning Snack – ASDA Vitality cereal bar (3.5 Syn), Pear, coffee with milk, 500ml squash
Lunch – Salad – lettuce, tomato, cucumber, chicken, corn, pasta, and dressing(^^), mullerlight yogurt, banana, 500ml squash
Afternoon Snack – 2 cups of tea with milk, no food as we were going out to dinner….
Dinner/Tea – Dinner out at the Fox and Hounds pub — baked sea bass with parsley, boiled new potatoes, salad, and cole slaw (counting 1 Syn for the mayo in the slaw), and then because I had some Syns left and I looked up on the Slimming World App that a basic Lemon Meringue was 8.5, I had that for desert, and 500ml sparkling water
Evening Snack – cup of green tea
Total Syns: I counted today at 15 since we went out to dinner. If the desert was 8.5, I had 14 Syns, but I am counting it as 15 to be safe, though I might have gone over 15 for the day, depending on how “naughty” the desert was!
Day 7 – Weigh In Day!
HEA: 250ml semi-skimmed milk used in coffee and tea+++
Breakfast – Scrambled eggs, baked beans, grilled tomato, apple, coffee with milk
Morning Snack – pear, mullerlight, coffee with milk
Lunch – We went to Morrison’s Cafe since we had a meeting in town. I had a Jacket potato with beans and a salad (no dressing), a mullerlight, and 2 cups of peppermint tea (all free!)
Afternoon Snack – apple, 500ml squash and a cup of peppermint green tea
Dinner/Tea – Eggs over easy, Toast (HEB), lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise (.5 Syn), RitterSport (5 Syn), tea with milk
Evening Snack – 2 Pink N Whites (5 Syn), tea with milk
Total Syns: 10.5
And this week I lost 2.5lbs to finally get my 2 stone award!
Some days I ate lots of food, some days I didn’t eat as much, but the idea is to eat if you are hungry — ie, don’t starve yourself and always eat until you are full. Some days all I really needed to feel full was some eggs and toast. Some days I needed more. Most days I ate salad at least once, maybe twice. I know it’s not the season for it, but a small pile of leaves and tomato with cucumber on the side is manageable.
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* – BLTEP wrap or sandwich is a lean bacon, lettuce, tomato, egg, and pickle (gherkin) wrap/sandwich. I usually use 1TBS of Lightest mayonaise for 1/2 Syn, and either my HEB bread choice or I Syn a wrap. This became my go-to breakfast all week!
** – I made this in the crock pot on Wednesday and had the leftovers for lunch the following day. Combine diced chicken breasts, mushrooms, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, peas, and tinned tomato in your crock pot with 2 Knorr stock pots, mixed herbs, and 3 bay leaves. If you are using frozen chicken and vegetables, you don’t need to add any water. If using fresh, add a mugful of water. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. To thicken the stew, take a ladleful of the vegetables and blitz with a stick blender, then stir back in.
*** – See Slimming World Friendly Chilli
^ – I used a bag of 10 frozen chicken fillets from iceland and coated them with a beaten egg and then crumbs made from 2 slices of Hovis bread (10 syns for the bread), so I calculated these at 1 Syn per strip)
^^ – Super easy and free dressing made from 2TBS greek yogurt, 1TBS apple cider vinegar, and 1tsp dill, added to diced cucumbers and tomatoes on a bed of lettuce
^^^ – I coated pork steaks with 1TBS Tesco Whole Grain Mustard (1/2 Syn) and 1TBS Agave syrup (1/2 Syn) in a hot oven for 10 minutes on each side.
+ – I coated the fish with an egg wash and crumbs made from 1 slice of wholegrain bread
++ – Some of the iced tea I was drinking has 0 calories, so it is free, but another brand has 5 calories per serving, so 1L is 20 calories or 1 Syn.
+++ – I always measure out 250ml of milk in the morning and then keep track of my cups of tea/coffee. If I decide to have cheese later in the day, I change the tea/coffee to 1/2 Syn per splash of milk. If I have any milk leftover at the end of the day, I will either drink it straight or have an Options hot chocolate made up with water and topped up with the last bit of milk.
The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.
[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]
For full Copyright and Disclaimer, please read http://www.blog.beccajanestclair.com/copyright/
19 Trains in 39 Hours
Last Sunday, Tim and I were lounging in bed having a lie-in and reading. I was in the middle of the first Hunger Games book, and without giving too much away I’ll say that the protagonist was on a train. This prompted me to say to Tim that I “wanted to ride on some trains”. Since we were in the middle of Tim’s long weekend and he didn’t have to be back at work until Wednesday AND since when we write a date on our priv passes it’s good as a 48-hour pass, AND since we had a few passes to burn before the end of June….we decided to do it.
Loads of ideas were flowing – what direction did we want to go in? Did we want to do something new or visit an old favourite? Did we want to ride steam trains, too? Did we want to pre-book accommodations? What about a sleeper train* or an International destination**? We finally pulled out an RPG 4-sider and tossed it giving each number a compass position (North-South-East-West). Our roll turned up South, but we had already agreed London was out (yes, I know there’s a lot of South that’s not London, but for a lot of it we’d have had to travel through London) and so Tim rolled it again and I think we wound up with “East” that time, but we kept tossing the ideas back and forth and finally Tim had a list of 8 different places for us to consider so we pulled out an 8-sider and it spit out the number we assigned Norfolk (which also happens to be South and East of here).
As it turned out, in order to make the most of our days, we needed to be on the 0520 train out of Lincoln on Monday morning. Ouch. Considering that I didn’t get to bed until past 2AM and Tim had to shake me awake at 4:30 with “We have to leave in 10 minutes”, I was not a happy camper. But the night before I had packed us both Breakfast and Lunch, so all I had to do was organize the cold stuff into a cooler bag and add an ice pack. I also had showered around midnight, so I didn’t need a morning shower. By the time we reached Norfolk, I was exhausted, but the weather was glorious and we were enjoying our time hopping around on various trains and riding up and down the same lines multiple times to get in multiple routes.
Tim booked us a B&B at in Sheringham. He found the place on a website called Direct Rooms. We’ve had great results every time we’ve used that site, so I highly recommend it! Our B&B host texted Tim to ask what time we were arriving, and when Tim wrote back that we were travelling by rail, he offered to come get us at the station! The room was gorgeous — all decked out in purple and mauve (they knew I was coming!) and they really went the extra mile for being just a spare room in someone’s home (seriously!). There was a carafe of water on the bedside table, all manner of hot drink options next to the kettle, packets of biscuits and chocolates, and even shampoo, conditioner, bodywash, and soap — things that I don’t usually expect from a Bed and Breakfast place! The following morning, our host cooked us made-to-order breakfasts, and then offered to drive us back into town for the train! This place gets 5 stars in my book, and we WILL be booking in again next time we go!
After we settled in on Monday evening, we walked back down into town and had dinner at a pub called the Robin Hood Inn. The food was good, and the décor wasn’t bad. We decided to walk around the town and I window shopped in some of the small shops. We made it down to the sea and stood less than a foot away from the water, trying to skip stones until I could no longer feel my fingers. We got back to our B&B at around 10PM and I had every intentions on having a cup of tea, relaxing, and then showering but I wound up dropping my Kindle and was fast asleep by 11.
for Tuesday, we decided to take in a little bit of steam railing and after a quick trip around the gift shops of Sheringham, we boarded the North Norfolk Railway. The trip up and down was lovely with lots of sea views and we even had our own compartment. When we got back to Sheringham, we headed on the regular train down a few stops to ride on the Bure Valley Railway, a 10-inch gauge line. 10-inches is about as small as I am willing to go on (even though you can ride 7-inch and 5-inch, I just don’t like them and find those a bit too small for my taste). And really, get your minds out of the gutter as I was talking about RAIL GAUGES!
After Bure Valley it was back on the train to Norwich, Norwich to Peterborough, Peterborough to Newark, and Newark to Lincoln. We arrived back at 2000.
What a lovely way to spend a few days!
Photos coming later!
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*If we had wanted to, we could have ridden a sleeper train to Cornwall, provided we were ready to leave the house about 2 hours after this discovery (on Sunday night)…which we couldn’t do. It also would have cost us £70 extra to take a sleeper in addition to staying Monday night in a B&B.
**We also discovered it was quite possible to travel all the way to Köln and back in the two days time, but it wouldn’t have given us much time in Köln and we would have been paying full-price for European travel since we hadn’t pre-applied for European travel coupons (yes, I love my husband’s job and it’s perks!).
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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.
[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]
Testing Facebook Album Plug-in
If this works, you should see the Facebook Album “Profile Pictures”. If this doesn’t work, I have no idea what you’ll see!
From Profile Pictures, posted by Rebecca Jane Lockley on 9/02/2010 (40 items)
Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher
Another Filler
So sorry to do this to you guys two days in a row, but I had skin tags frozen off my armpits today and it’s too painful to do much of anything.
If I’m feeling better later, I will do a different entry for NaBloPoMo!
My 5 minutes of “Fame” on BBC Lincolnshire
I was on the radio today. For about five minutes, but it was a fun five minutes. William Wright and I follow each other on Twitter and each day he usually tweets about what he will be talking about on-air and asks people for responses. He’ll read most of the replies out on-air, and will talk with a few of the people who tweet him. A few weeks back, he was discussing impulse buys, and wanted to have me on-air to talk about an impulse buy I tweeted him about (my mom when she was in her 20s went out to get her hair done and came home with a new car), but we couldn’t coordinate it because I was out in Haxey and mobile reception isn’t the greatest.
This morning, William tweeted about height. Apparently, there is a convention of tall people taking place in Paris right now, so he was curious about people’s height. I wrote back and told him I was 4’10.5″, and it was the half inch that really mattered. I also mentioned that my Brother-in-law was 6’8, so it made family functions fun. William wrote back and asked if I could come on the air and talk about being short, I said no problem and direct messaged him my phone number.
I received a call from Helen at BBC Lincolnshire who needed to take down some personal details and told me to expect a call back between 10 and 11. The phone rang a few minutes past 11 and William asked me to repeat what I had told him via Twitter. He asked me if I ever hated being short, so I mentioned being away at Summer camp and having two older boys use me as an elbow rest, and told him about being the shortest member of the family I married into.
It was fun and enjoyable, and I wouldn’t mind doing it again.
Of course, this isn’t my first time being interviewed with BBC Lincolnshire. You might remember a few months back, I auditioned for Priscilla Biggadyke. They interviewed me pre- and post-audition, as well as recorded my audition. I haven’t seen or heard my audition though. I almost wish I had asked for a copy of it! I also was interviewed by Fox 11 when I went down to London for the Royal Wedding, so what an interesting few months it’s been for me! I’m (almost) famous. Okay, not really. But it was still loads of fun!
Apparently, the show will be available on the iPlayer. It’s Melvyn in the Morning with William Wright sitting in for Melvyn from Today, 3 June. The show airs from 9AM til 12 Noon, so if you want to skip to my segment, forward it for about 2 hours. I don’t know how fast the shows go up, so I’d imagine you can check later in the day. I’ll try to download and record my segment as well, but I’m not very good at that!
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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.
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How to Upgrade WordPress
I had a few questions about how to upgrade to the newest (secure) version, so here’s easy directions with screenshots:
1. Log into your dashboard with your admin account
2. Look to the left. If it’s not dropped down, click on the word “dashboard”
3. Click “updates”
4. WordPress will tell you what needs updating (WordPress, plug-ins, etc) and all you have to do is click on the upgrade button and WordPress will do everything automatically.
BTW, if you don’t have a dedicated comment spam blocker, I recommend going into the plugins and searching through the available blockers. I added Askimet last night, and it’s already blocked 75 spam comments. My previous spam blocker, WP-SpamFree, blocked some spam, but would have emailed me those 75 spam comments for me to manually mark as spam.
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Off to Austria!
We’re off to Austria for two weeks. The remaining Wales updates will be posted when we return along with Austria posts…I just didn’t have time this week to make any scheduled posts for while we are away.
Llanberis Lake Railway & Caernarfon
Monday took us to Llanberis Lake Railway and the adjoining National Slate Museum. We arrived early enough in the morning to watch the two engines get steamed up, and got to ride on the first train of the day.
I was lucky enough to be able to show my Network Rail Spouse ID card and received a 75% discount on my ticket. A regular return ticket costs £7.20 for this five mile journey. The return trip takes an hour, and it is well worth it. The scenery is beautiful, and if you’re lucky, you can even catch Snowdon as it peeks out from the clouds!
The Llanberis Lake Railway is a narrow gauge railway. Mark was told the official size is 1 foot 11 5/8 inches, and our friend Dave told us on Wednesday that this is close enough to be considered two-foot gauge. We all enjoy narrow gauge railways very much, as that’s what Helen and Mark, Tim and I, and Dave and his family all have running through our gardens in a much smaller scale (we use 16mm to the foot, so our tracks are 32mm). One of the engines at Llanberis is blue and named “Little Thomas”, but they will claim it has nothing to do with a certain children’s story….
There’s not much else to say about Llanberis, as everything is better said in photos.
After our trip on the train, we took a quick look around the slate museum before heading off to Caernarfon, where we had lunch at the Floating Restaurant and then had a look around Caernarfon Castle.
The Floating Restaurant was fantastic. If you are trying to find it, you will need to walk the entire way around the outside of the castle and you will find the Floating Restaurant tied up close to the swing bridge. While we were eating we got to watch the bridge open several times. The food was reasonably priced and very good…and you got quite a lot for your money! During low tide, the restaurant doesn’t float, but once the tide comes in you can feel the boat sway slightly.
Admission to the castle is £4.95 for an adult, but if you have an English Heritage membership, you can get in for free. The earliest date with a reference to the castle is 1289, and it’s quite impressive how much of i is still standing. While visiting you can climb up the steps of all of the towers to see impressive views over the sea and town, walk around the castle walls, or look at the small exhibits scattered around the castle. In 1969 the castle grounds were used for the investiture of Charles, Prince of Wales and you can still see the dais where it took place in the centre of the courtyard.
The castle lawn is immaculate, largely due to the many “keep of the grass” signs, no doubt. It struck me as a little odd that people could not use the castle lawn area for picnics, games, or lounging when I am used to seeing people scattered about on the castle grounds at Lincoln, but I’m sure there is a reason behind it.
From Queens Gate (which is the gate Queen Elizabeth II entered from during Prince Charles’ investiture), you can look out over Caernarfon and see the Welsh Highland Railway. I visited the Welsh Highland Railway in September 2009 with my mom and Tim, but sadly, I never blogged about it. Something about getting engaged while visiting the UK in September and then planning a November 2009 wedding got in the way of blogging that trip.
Admission is money well spent, provided you have enough time to explore the entire grounds!
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Technorati Claim Code
Everyone else can ignore this. I’m adding my blog to Technorati, and they need me to post a code to verify that I own the blog I’m claiming. Here’s the code:
FRCDJAYCCRAR
Volunteering
One of the new requirements under the BCI bill is volunteering. Volunteering will cut 2 years off your citizenship wait, reducing it from 5 years to 3. Since I enjoy volunteering, I decided to look for a place to volunteer starting now. This way, when the requirements finally get posted I’ll hopefully be on my way to fulfilling them.
I started my volunteer stint (will be 4 hours each week) at the Cancer Research UK charity shop yesterday. The day was on the slow side, but still enjoyable and I picked things up pretty quickly.
My basic responsibilities are all on the sales floor. When items come in they go upstairs for pricing. Someone will bring the priced items downstairs and people like me will go around placing the items on the correct racks (and in size order). I also am responsible for keeping the racks neat (make sure hangers are all going the same direction, nothing is falling off, sizes are in order, etc) and for operating the till (register). The people I worked with seemed somehow surprised that I picked up working the till so quickly, but once you’ve seen one till, you’ve seen them all. The money is different, though. I found myself looking for a £1 paper note (which doesn’t exist) a few times, and I forgot all about the £2 coin so when someone needed £4 in change I handed them 4 £1 coins! The other big difference is the size and types of coins – a 10p coin is the size of a US quarter, and a 5p is the size of a US dime. the UK doesn’t have a 25p coin, but has a 20p and also extensively uses a 50p coin as well as the £1 and £2 coins.
…But I’m learning.
I’m looking forward to this a lot. Not just because it’s a requirement to obtain citizenship, but because I honestly like helping people and volunteering.
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Hiatus
Travel blog is going on a short hiatus other than video logs until I am back in the states the first week of April. There’s so much I need to catch up on, I figured it’d be best if I wait until I’m home and not rushed!
The Last Week
I’m here for just one more week. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been here for seven weeks already! There’s so much to do in so little time, including the dreaded re-pack. I have a feeling I’m going to need to use my second bag I brought along…not because I have a ton of more stuff to bring home, but Tim sent me 4 books for my birthday, and I bought a shirt and my suitcase was pushing the weight limit on the way up. So I think I’ll just pack into three bags for the way home.
I’m still not sure what time I’m leaving or what the plan is other than flying out of the Dauphin airport, but I’m sure I’ll find out soon enough. I’m sort of glad I’m flying instead of taking the train or bus down to Winnipeg…mostly because I’d rather just get it all done in one day.
My flight doesn’t leave Winnipeg until 1, but since I’ll probably get there early I’m going to see about getting on an earlier flight just in case there are open seats. As it currently stands, I won’t actually get back to Lancaster until midnight because of taking the train from Philly (my flight gets in at 8, but I have to wait for the R1 and then get to 30th street so I miss the earlier train). I can always sleep on the planes and trains.
I also need to figure out food for traveling that will make it through airport security. I should be okay as long as I’m not packing any raw fruits or vegetables…I don’t know if cooked/canned are okay or not but I probably won’t pack them just to be safe. Cream cheese bagels seemed to be okay on the way up, so I’ll probably go the same route.
I keep thinking I should start to pack, but then I realize if I start packing now, I’ll have to live out of the suitcase for the rest of the week! So I have a feeling Monday night is going to be a rush of packing, especially since I probably have to be up pretty early on Tuesday.
But I do have lots to do. I figure I can start to get all my non-clothing stuff into one location and I can pack up the toiletries I’m not going to be using. I want to vacuum their basement to get up all the cat litter that’s been kicked outside of the box, and sweep or mop the floor up here…the cat’s scratching post (a table leg) really leaves splinters on the floor! Monday evening I want to wash the towels and bedding and I also need to plan meals to use the food I have left (which I went grocery shopping yesterday to get some things to compliment what’s left…but I think I bought too much!)
I’m not sure if I’ll be doing anything this week or not. I might take one more walk into town because who knows when I’ll be back? I’m hoping I get the chance to see the people I’ve met while I’ve been here one more time.
