Turning Japanese

"When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning or in rain?"

Tomorrow we are off to Scotland, stopping off at Preston on the way, to see my sister K and her children, whom I have not seen for two and a half years! Then, in Argyll, we'll see my sister M, whom I saw a mere four months ago. We missed out on the chance of being all-together, because CleanSteve and I changed our plans to accommodate our brother's move from Botswana to Holland! Life is far too complicated.

I cannot remember the last time all four sisters were together: TMLhereandthere lives in New Zealand now, having moved there from Bahrain. She will know when we were all together last. Maybe 2003? TML seems to be the one I see most of, because of her daughter Christina being in London, and London not being that far from Stroud by train.

K is actually supposed to be at the job centre at the time we are supposed to be arriving, but things aren't exactly working to plan at the moment. That's what comes of leaving holidays to the last moment of summer. At least we will be able to give her son J his second birthday cake. His 15th birthday is actually today, but I made a spare one on Monday when I was making CleanSteve's cake! CS' birthday was yesterday.

One of the reasons for still being here, and not there, is that I had some Japanese students to teach in Cheltenham today. After the lesson, they gave me the film star treatment: endless shots of me and students, taken from twelve different cameras. Plus, someone came in halfway through the session and started filming me. Luckily, the church organ was being played (we were in the Church hall) so I was not too bothered by yet another distraction. I am absolutely fine about being drawn when I am sitting still, in fact I earn good money for being an artist's model, but filming me in action is only ok if I don't have to see the results! My natural clumsiness / dyspraxia is highlighted by the fact that I know I am being observed. Fortunately,
no folding tables were broken today; no cables tripped over. A little oil spilled in my bag, but it was nicely contained, and wasn't captured on film.

This blasted tree,which I have now removed as the blip image because I did not like the sky, is on the Fiddler's Elbow (a series of dramatic bends in the road which have been straightened out recently) between Cranham and Cheltenham. Several years ago it supported a Countryside Alliance billboard, "Fight prejudice, Fght the ban" [on fox hunting] but the ban was duly passed. I think hunting carries on much as before now, but under the name of "drag hunting", which conjures up images of Drag Queens on horseback! Gloucestershire is a very horse-and-houndsy sort of county, but huntin', shootin' and fishin' have always been minority sports.

Tomorrow we leave for the West Highlands. My mother's broadband service is via Satellite, which receives signals from across the loch. CleanSteve and I hope to be able to upload, but if there is a long silence, you'll know why.

I did not feel happy with the tree image, so I changed it for one of me and the students, with me looking the other way, for some reason...the adult with them wanted a very posed shot, with them all holding up the lotions they had made!