Dressed to Kill

Smart Casual was the dress code for the wedding. 

Mark and Rose here, at the venue in Juan Les Pins.

Early Valentine

I leave early tomorrow for see the wizard of Oz, so my baby invited me
out for supper at Prezzo, in Shoreham by Sea. Lovely.

Chalk painting

Photofunia is fun with photos

Celebrating our Anniversary

Took time to get this up on the blog! Best friends, Mike and Sandi Boyce, travelled down from near London to spend our anniversary with us. They lived round the corner from us in Northwood, Harare ... and then spent time living in Kloof, when we lived in Johannesburg, so we managed to see them a few times a year. They moved to the UK in March, and this was the first time we have managed to get together. We drove just out of Worthing, onto the Downs, for a great meal at Devils Dyke. The photo looks sort of towards Worthing in the far distance.

Cops on Horseback

I was in London twice this past week - once with Rose - seen here waiting for two London Met coppers to pass by on their horse patrol. There are a number of cops on geegees in London these days, and it is a very welcome sight - and I imagine a lot more effective policing than uniforms in panda cars getting caught up in city traffic.

Glamorous Assistant

Pictured working the crowd at Liss a couple of weekends ago, I should point out that Feba deputation is not just all about me up at the front, and Rose listening in the pews - she really gets stuck in with setting up the table, and speaking with people afterwards. She is great with spending time with people who ask questions about Feba's work, and does a great job.

Sign up for Rose's news

Rose's work with Link Romania is developing, and she is enjoying all the new challenges. One thing she is working on is to improve their mailing lists and making sure that their email newsletters comply with best practice and both English and EU legislation designed to protect people from unsolicited mail.

If you would like to hear ocassional news from Rose's work, please consider signing up to the Link Romania list. Traffic is very low, she promises! It would also help her get things right before she adds the current database of email addresses they have in the office. You can always opt-out easily, in the future. Thanks.

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A different kind of icing

Now we all know that Rose has iced a thousand cakes, and is ocassionally capable of giving an icy stare at her hubby, but here she is doing what she must do if she wants to drive to work instead of walk! No snow yet this winter in Worthing, but plenty of frosty mornings.

Christmas Day 2007

Ashleigh and Rose smile for the camera before tucking in to yet another one of Rose's fabulous Christmas meals - it was just the three of us this year, so it felt a little bit 'small' without having extra family around - but we had a great day.

Rose makes headlines

Our Link to Romania

Rose, in her deputation debut for Link Romania

Saturday, Rose was a bundle of nerves as she prepared to speak to an intimidating band of Durrington seniors, at a fund-raising event for Link Romania, where she works. The event was a quiz afternoon, which raised just more than £300 for helping the poor in Romania. Rose is also getting ready for a working trip to Romania next month.

Meerkat Manor Tightens Its Grip

Photo: BBC, from the television series Meerkat Manor

Whilst I am away on trips, Rose manages to get herself quite hooked on the fascinating antics of a few families of meerkats, who hang out somewhere in the Kalahari. It's the sort of reality television that we like - honest - real - ... right! Thoroughly entertaining, reading up on how the series is made has many interesting bits about the camera work but it does seem that the meerkats get pretty used to humans researching them and that not everything you see in the TV series is exactly how it really happened. Wikipedia has some good info. As an aside, in the UK and Canada version of the series, the narrator is actor Bill Nighy, whose roles amongst many has included that of Slartibartfast in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean.

So, I have spent the morning working from home today - trying to get uninterrupted time to finish a report from my last trip, before the next one rushes up from behind to bite me (as it will in two weeks time when I head off to Southern Africa gain). Our dining room table allows a view of the expansive back garden these Brits all have, and I saw them. The little thieving critters. Those foreign impostors on mud island soil. Flower haters. Nut munching.

Photo credit: http://news.uns.purdue.edu/html4ever/031125.Swihart.squirrels.html

Grey squirrels, of course. Not so special because there are loads of them, but I haven't seen any of them since Rose last fumed that those conniving little varmints had once again dug up her plant bulbs, just waiting now for next spring. Oh, and I did get the report completed - checking my blogs was my reward to myself.

More Birthday Celebrating

This massive celebrating of Rose's 50th hit day ten with (what Mark hopes, and what his bank insists is the last of) another fine meal out - this time with daughters Julie and Ashleigh, and their boyfriends - Ed and Liam. We ate Chinese, at a place called Opium Den ( I think) in Oxford, near the central bus station. Been there before, perhaps a year ago, when we were but tourists passing through. And so we finally got to meet Liam.

Night at the Circus

One Century Between Us - Mark & Rose enjoying Smart's Circus

Our house is perhaps 300 meters as the crow flies (actually it is as the seagull flies here in Worthing) from Holmfield Park, the venue of the visiting circus. All week we have been able to hear the circus band playing during the shows. Part of celebrating Rose's 50th birthday, was going to the circus - and so we walked there, got the candy floss and the popcorn, and had a really fun evening. Our ringside seats were the best, and we were as close as you could get to the action without being in the ring.

Photos taken with circus permission (we paid £1.00 for a camera ticket)

Rosie hits the big time

17 August 1957

Umtali, Rhodesia

Rosemary Jane Taylor

Cutie, Sweetheart...more on her special day later

King of the Heap

Erin the dog - bitch really - but for some reason I always think I am rude to use that word - watching Rose and her owner, Julie, exiting the circular walk around Cissbury Ring, near Worthing. This site is Iron Age, a fort set on the chalk hills and dating to around 300 B.C. We did this brisk walk yesterday afternoon, and spied out many lovely places for future picnics and walks.

Surreal haircut

I had a haircut by Rose today, and later in the evening found some amazing and highly creative photos by a photogapher named Chema Madoz. This Spanish artist, for his surrealistic photography is surely art, seems to find new meanings in the way he photographs everyday objects. You can see more of this interesting and thoroughly entertaining work here.

Two Gals and a Choc 99

Rose and Ashleigh let ice-cream come between them on Highdown, Easter 2007