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Great Expectations-Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens masterpiece, Great Expectations is definitely one of my favourite books. It follows Pip from his childhood and onto his later life. The story is engaging and full of interesting characters; the aggrieved Miss Havisham, the loving and kind Joe, the haughty and distant Estella and the convict Magwitch. There are many plot twists and human emotions: despair, hope, love and hate. We can all relate to Pips character as a child with his family relationships, desires and failures. The character that really stood out to me was, Joe, his sister’s husband. Pip was often ridiculed and made fun of. Children, especially at that time were better ‘seen and…
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Food for Moods
I’ve been a bit of a naughty girl tonight and feeling totally down in the dumps. You know how it is sometimes; nobody loves me, I really am a fat doughnut, I try and try and get nothing back, blah blah blah. So last week I lose 8Ibs because I was going to a wedding and I was adamant the dress I bought was going to fit, and now tonight I’ve gone through a bit of a meltdown and consumed a whole bar of dairy milk chocolate, a bag of wotsits, a bottle of Dr Pepper, a pain au chocolat and 2 Weetabix. I’ve not eaten a proper dinner, I’ve just felt…
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Do Not Rely on Someone Else for your Happiness!
Do you think those words are harsh? I was in a discussion with a friend a while back who was quite adamant about this proposal and at the time I thought it seemed a very hard thing to achieve and a very abrupt thing to say. And then, after much thought, I came to the conclusion that in fact, the statement was correct; up to a point. I was reading a book a few weeks ago called ‘What would Freud do? How the greatest psychotherapists would solve your everyday problems’ by Sarah Tomley. I’m a bit wary of theories and suggestions by people that attempt to unravel the human mind.…
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Shell in Watercolour Tutorial
Once again art class was great today. Our tutor gave us a 20 minute presentation using the dry brush technique, which I’ve never attempted and I can definitely vouch for this way of painting for lots of subjects. It’s generally used for botanical work and intricate stuff, you know where lots of patience is needed. I loved this method because I felt for once in my painting experience I had more control. I do tend to use loose washes of watercolour and let these flow and merge, which I enjoy. There is a problem with this working method though, you have very little control. If you make a mistake, and…
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Just a Cheese Sandwich
I was at a wedding the other week and it was quite lovely, with beautiful table settings decorated prettily. There was good music and great company. We as guests were treated to a lovely venue, and the evening buffet was truly exquisite. Tiny scotch eggs, mini sausage rolls, a scraping of pate, a hunk of bread with an olive pushed in, 3 dishes of savoury marmalarde (pronounced this way apparently), and a cheese board, where there was a girl serving minute slivers of your cheese of choice to accompany the other hunk of bread that was chosen that contained twigs of rosemary and dates. The girl at the beginning of…
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Je peux parler francais, vraiment!
Work was great today, and I am so impressed with the children that I work with. They are all 7 to 8-year-olds and many come from different countries. The class stayed in during break-time because it was raining heavily outside. They usually get to choose a game to play or do some colouring for the 15 minutes before the next morning lesson begins. I can’t quite remember how the conversation started, but one of the children said something in French to his friend. I understood what he said. I said something back in French and he said to me in return, “Miss, do you speak French?” I answered with “Oui,…
