tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29720737482928669662012-01-19T10:21:12.913Z... where a neat rivulet of text shall meanderSarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.comBlogger571100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-53592690182290641202011-12-27T10:58:00.001Z2011-12-27T10:59:01.804Z

Oranges are in season. I am reunited with certain favourite winter clothes. Underwear won’t show, so it doesn’t need to be chosen with any care. Cats choose to spend more time indoors. I wake with Andrew (not hours earlier). If the garden is tidied, it stays tidy—weeds don’t grow back. There must be more.

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-71244342905152209612011-11-07T18:10:00.004Z2011-11-09T09:26:37.249Z

Andrew: ... the weird thing, when you go to visit and actually look at what they are saying, is how moderate and reasonable the Occupy people seem to be. Most of them are only saying the same sort of things as most of the other people you hear. [As he talks he is approaching the wall with a new photo off the big printer, this one cropped to a tall portrait format.]I: [looking critically at the

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-14866109172393906232010-05-12T15:29:00.003+01:002010-05-12T15:55:59.363+01:00

... so said the weather report on the radio. And it was.But it could have been worse. And at least now there is something definite to do: we have a referendum to win. I know it’s only for AV, but still it must be won.AV does at least solve some of the problems with the current system: it removes the need for tactical voting—you give your first preference to the one you really want, and your

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-69707091200846516562010-05-10T22:51:00.003+01:002010-05-11T08:10:19.821+01:00

I find that taking part in a demonstration is not compatible with photography. This is the only usable still photo I got. I made a little video, too, where you can hear the shouting.

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-22112294532539556692010-05-10T09:13:00.003+01:002010-05-11T08:10:37.375+01:00

I’m off to London this afternoon to join in the shouting outside the Lib Dem meeting. Meanwhile I have set up a Facebook group in an attempt to get a critical mass of supporters for a protest event here in Cambridge. There are events being organized for this coming Saturday (the 15th) in several other places, so I hope we might manage one here, too.

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-784808725038084312010-05-09T09:52:00.004+01:002010-05-11T08:16:27.509+01:00

This is the moment electoral reformers have been waiting for—a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I feel inclined to do something active. I’d have been in London yesterday outside the Lib Dem meeting, shouting, if I hadn’t had a work commitment. I know that a lot of people here in Cambridge feel as I do on the electoral reform question. Can we get ourselves together and do something locally, in the

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-41475325463704476182010-04-17T23:14:00.007+01:002010-04-18T11:55:31.019+01:00

In Hull on Friday for the funeral of my lovable though sometimes difficult aunt, who was keen on poetry, and particularly on the local product. Which set a recurring theme for the day, starting with one cousin’s reading at the crematorium,The trees are coming into leafLike something almost being said …and ending, after many hours of revisiting family history and several bottles of good red wine,

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-89747666066512687252010-03-31T14:44:00.002+01:002010-03-31T14:54:40.608+01:00

The chapter I mentioned before concludes thus:… Achterberg, on the road, ‘delivered a whole disquisition about the Ford’s rear-view mirror as an object in which you could see what was past. Things were past yet still visible—that was the spirit in which he spoke.’And earlier the same day I found this:(My subject line here is not, of course, original.)

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-39362930660843432292010-03-29T17:28:00.011+01:002010-04-18T09:07:26.469+01:00

These are notes for what might become an essay one day. It’s a big theme and I’m not sure I will ever write it up properly. The elements are:Chapter 12 of Why Life Speeds Up As You Get Older: ‘In oval mirrors we drive around’: on experiencing a sense of déjà vu;My own experiences of revisiting, after an interval of three(?) years, the half-remembered city of Lecce (‘I went in there—I’m sure I

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-6529171114294132482010-02-22T12:00:00.067Z2010-02-25T18:12:20.858Z

The morning fanfare is the first thing that comes to mind. As I descended the stairs she would swirl around the corner from the sitting-room in a flurry of huge fluffy tail, calling out at the top of her voice, in unmistakeably cheerful tones, a very distinctive greeting: two syllables, rising in both volume and inflection. It sounded a lot like “Hel-LO?!”, and she used it only to mean that (she

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-89575811015450923822010-02-20T00:02:00.003Z2010-02-20T00:42:51.744Z

Muppet was at the vet’s today (well, yesterday, I mean, since it’s now after midnight) for a very minor procedure—flushing out a blocked tear-duct, under sedation. I picked her up in the afternoon and she seemed just like her usual self all evening, only rather cross because she wanted to go out and we had been instructed to keep her in. Then, at about 11pm, Andrew went to get her (she was

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-22779480585354373072010-01-29T22:20:00.004Z2010-01-29T22:40:42.380Z

A couple of years ago I was walking past the CUP bookshop in town and I saw a title in the window: Why Life Speeds Up as You Get Older. And I thought,‘Yes!’ And I bought it. But sadly I haven’t had time to read it yet.I’d been meaning to say that for ages—it was one of the numerous things on my blogging backlog—but it only appears here today because I wanted to play with twitterfeed, and posting

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-48780900418367766712010-01-01T09:42:00.037Z2010-01-01T23:21:10.385Z

After dinner yesterday evening, in the final hours of the decade, the conversation turned to fiction that is based on counterfactual history (Fatherland and so on). Someone pointed out that this has an inherent limitation: it mustn’t surprise you too thoroughly, because of the need to keep the story plausible. Reality, on the other hand, is not constrained in the same way. And over the last ten

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-81056498976709844732009-11-22T11:20:00.003Z2009-11-22T11:33:27.101Z

Just been enjoying the new Norah Jones album. When young I would have dismissed quite a bit of it (I think) as sentimental and therefore insincere. Same with those fantastic late works by Johnny Cash. It takes time before you realize that someone really could feel like that, and, if they did, that they would want to make art out of it.This would have been a tweet, but it was too long.I am

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-15354951896469381582009-10-27T11:28:00.005Z2009-10-27T11:45:36.362Z

I have mixed feelings about celebrating the achievements of my small and destructive feline friend (as my Dad is fond of pointing out, it cannot logically be reconciled with my opposition to fox-hunting—especially when, as on this occasion, she hasn’t even attempted to get a meal out of it), but I couldn’t resist making a record of this morning’s specimen. That’s a 12-inch ruler.How on earth did

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-24621045516955939742009-10-19T17:57:00.024+01:002009-10-20T21:16:44.644+01:00

[Some jottings from my notebook]Lots of site-specific work (it’s a meme! —first saw it with that American guy a few shows ago—v powerful piece about slavery etc with the weird black Murano glass chandeliers). Examples this year: Giardini; the Venetian blinds in the Korean pavilion; giveaway postcards of Marghera in the Corderia.Stuffed cats so far: German, Russian.Stuffed dogs: Nordic; USA (

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-37724073096635873872009-10-18T21:57:00.026+01:002009-12-14T10:47:51.547Z

I knew it in theory before; but there’s knowing and then there’s knowing.I started walking, alone, from my own front door, at about 2pm on the last Saturday of September. I didn’t have time really but it was the last good chance of the year, with the weather set fair and dry and no work deadlines that couldn’t be made to wait. I’d spent the morning on my most pressing errands and chores, and then

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-33753708060036926812009-10-09T08:23:00.002+01:002009-10-09T08:41:41.758+01:00

This is just a “me too”, but it’s a heartfelt one.Charlie Brooker in Monday’s Guardian: “Every day we humans gleefully churn out yet more books and films and TV shows and videogames and websites and magazine articles and blog posts and emails and text messages, all of it hanging around, competing for attention. Without leaving my seat I can access virtually any piece of music ever recorded,

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-36656766820300555752009-07-31T12:47:00.002+01:002009-07-31T12:54:53.811+01:00

This is pointless really, but I enjoyed doing it, so I suppose somebody might enjoy looking at it:Venice, ItalyParis, FranceAntwerp, BelgiumVienna, AustriaBolzano, ItalyDubrovnik, CroatiaPrague, Czech RepublicMenton, FranceBerlin, GermanyMunich, GermanyCambridge, UKAmsterdam, The NetherlandsCologne, GermanyLondon, UKBoston, MA, USABrussels, BelgiumNew Orleans, LA, USAEly, UKWells-next-the-Sea,

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-425073362187850772009-07-14T15:04:00.007+01:002009-07-17T10:35:18.558+01:00

I've discovered something that might be important.If you write a few words on a Post-it note and stick it to the windowsill next to your desk, the ink will eventually fade and it will become totally illegible. At this point the only sensible course of action will be to throw it away. But you will be unable to bring yourself to do so. Just in case its mute presence might still assist you in

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-89436363565144347302009-02-26T23:24:00.004Z2009-02-26T23:59:02.672Z

Contemplating, as one must at my age, the menopause (I shall be fifty this year, so it is something of a hot topic—pun intended), I happened upon a new angle from which to consider this transition: as the end of a temporary state, during which one’s true personality has been submerged. An article on the Guardian women’s page (where else?) quotes one Jane Polden, a psychotherapist: “She’s felt

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-42571476747660026442009-02-15T10:59:00.003Z2009-02-15T11:16:43.702Z

Now I have set things up so that posting to this blog generates a tweet automatically. And, whenever I twitter, my Facebook status updates. Is this a good idea? Or will it just result in a lot of things getting mixed up that ought to have been kept separate?I’m not sure what I think about all this web 2.0 stuff. It makes life harder in some ways. It is certainly harder to say “Sorry, I was too

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-63762821914461310222009-02-12T07:52:00.006Z2009-02-12T09:04:50.894Z

The river’s up again this morning. Higher than it’s ever been since we’ve had the boat, though nowhere near what it was in 2001.More photos on flickr.

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-70406669902413988902009-02-08T10:19:00.012Z2009-02-11T13:48:48.248Z

I finally got round to posting my 2007 FOSDEM photos (actually Andrew took some of them). And I’ve put up some from this year, too, and a few drawings I did last year.The whole lot are on flickr now. If anyone who is in them doesn’t want to be seen, please let me know ASAP.If there is a photo of you that you like, do ask me for a higher-resolution version of it.PS (11 Feb): I have now finished

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-88853942767476752692009-01-27T18:02:00.005Z2009-01-27T20:39:35.364Z

Just discovered www.wordle.net. Such fun!I made this one using my own Delicious tags, which I suppose tells you something about what I'm interested in:

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-3245992700883397702008-12-18T10:16:00.010Z2009-10-19T09:59:00.989+01:00

Yesterday the sun shone, so a perambulation was called for. Out the front door; pause on the pavement to toss a coin. Down the river on the Chesterton side. Boats, reflections, beautiful effects of low winter sunlight. So far, so routine (which isn’t a complaint – I never forget how lucky we are to live here).On the way home Andrew proposed a variation: up the footpath and then home along Fen

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-5370241122740101402008-12-14T10:15:00.005Z2008-12-14T11:03:58.509Z

Silence here has gone on longer than I expected. Curiously, a long silence is harder to break than a short one (I find this in personal correspondence, too). It seems as though you have to write something important, not just the usual trivia.So, a few days ago when out for a walk in the sun at midday (trying hard not to be SAD this year) I was very pleased when a really good idea for a profound

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-78154280354497250102008-09-04T08:20:00.017+01:002008-10-18T20:46:05.451+01:00

The Office of the Brand of Abu Dhabi explains (in yesterday’s Guardian) whom it is trying to attract:They are people who use travel to enrich themselves, always seeking new experiences in new countries … They want unique experiences that feed their sense of discovery. They reject the sameness that increasingly dominates their lives … they crave authenticity, exclusivity, quality.I feel …

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-27193665409219940452008-09-03T18:24:00.005+01:002008-09-04T08:00:32.124+01:00

I’ve discovered why there seem to be no famous Belgians. It’s because you think they are French (Magritte, Simenon), Dutch (Dries van Noten, Kim Clijsters), British (Audrey Hepburn) or American … or something (Django Reinhardt).I have also discovered that this, like so many of my other ideas, has already occurred to somebody else.Perhaps the reason it happens is that very few of them stay in

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-76220809291151318402008-08-22T19:18:00.003+01:002008-08-22T19:40:46.892+01:00

Editing is not rewriting. The edited text is not (should not be) the text the editor would have written, if the editor had been commissioned to write the copy instead of the author. It is the text the author would have written, if the author had been perfectly well informed and perfectly skilled. In some ways, therefore, editing is harder than writing.If you don’t mind bad language, you will be

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-7640217990670735242008-08-17T10:09:00.008+01:002008-09-20T10:16:11.901+01:00

Now that I can usually keep my balance without having to grab hold of the horse’s mane, we are getting on to the finer points in these riding lessons. For example, when cantering on a circle, I am instructed to raise my inside hand a bit. Why? Because its presence near the horse’s shoulder is discouraging him from bending.This puts me in mind of Alexander lessons (which I had, several years ago).

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-22312253682341631622008-07-31T18:14:00.005+01:002008-08-17T09:32:44.360+01:00

One of our neighbours is Michael Gillespie, the sculptor. We went to his open studio recently, and Andrew asked him to what extent he plans in advance the way his abstract sculptures will develop. He replied that it’s like speech: do you plan exactly what you’re going to say before you start talking?A while ago I was talking with Alan about what it’s like to do your job in a foreign language (he

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-90572371505825705872008-07-29T09:42:00.006+01:002008-08-17T09:08:10.100+01:00

Two days’ trail-riding at the Cwmfforest centre (“Trans-Wales Trails”) earlier this month. This is my delayed trip report. Executive summary: it was great, I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and I recommend this place for all levels of rider (you choose which ride to join depending on your competence, and they provide what sound like really exciting challenges for the very experienced – of whom I am

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-32273336273364469362008-07-18T12:36:00.007+01:002008-07-31T18:39:33.649+01:00

Just been experimenting with flickr. Here’s a set of photos of a recent riding lesson at Sawston. (My Mum and Dad were over to visit and they took the pictures.)

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-18295495739447138252008-05-27T08:47:00.005+01:002008-07-31T18:41:01.675+01:00

I was looking for this posting this morning in order to show it to a friend, when I discovered that it didn’t exist. I thought I’d posted it ages ago. The material here comes from a notebook entry that I wrote in August 2007, to record some observations before their novelty wore off.I can submerge myself in the bath. No longer must I decide which bits to leave sticking out of the water.My

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-34187641138143690652008-04-08T08:17:00.016+01:002008-07-31T18:41:27.483+01:00

Last summer, after having been fat for my entire adult life, I went on a radical weight-loss programme and reduced my body mass by 30 kg (66 lb, or about 4.5 stone). I reached a new equilibrium at that point, and have since maintained a constant weight. I’ve now been about 53 kg (117 lb, or a little under 8.5 stone—BMI just over 20) for more than six months, with very minor fluctuations. (Yes, I

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-33319526904676877582008-02-08T21:05:00.003Z2008-07-31T18:42:43.442+01:00

Something that strikes me as odd in Amsterdam is the existence, side by side, of two radically different ways of being (or looking) female. Two styles. The Red Light District style—the naked body, make-up, red fabric, black leather etc—and the scrubbed face, denim, bike-riding, no-nonsense types. We speculate that there is even a cross-over between the two. Are there young women who arrive by

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-25227100138864123982008-01-19T12:01:00.001Z2008-07-31T18:43:01.225+01:00

This happened 12 years ago but it’s still vivid in my mind. I hope it always will be.It was the year Andrew and I got engaged (we were married in 1997). We got tickets for the great Vermeer show in the Mauritshuis at The Hague. We were not the only ones looking forward to it as the best art show of the decade.When we got there, clutching our timed tickets (for 6pm, if memory serves—purchased from

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-32816151972261532612008-01-19T11:45:00.001Z2008-08-17T09:31:10.273+01:00

[OK, so now I’d better actually write some stuff.]Recently we’ve established social contact with the son of one of my cousins, and his girlfriend. Nice young people. It’s been a curiously disturbing experience, though. Here are people who are a whole generation younger than us, but nevertheless adults. Weird. When you reach middle age you think (well, I thought) that life would run out of novel

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-22052316336235242182008-01-16T15:28:00.000Z2008-01-16T15:30:17.597Z

Well, I haven’t been.Or reading, either, in fact.I’ve been in a state of transition, and I don’t find such states conducive to processing much in the way of input, or to producing much in the way of output. I now have the impression (though only time will tell whether I’m right about it) that smoother water lies ahead. This might be a good time to start the blog again. Let’s see.

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-31706828430121005222007-08-01T14:56:00.001+01:002008-08-17T09:10:59.362+01:00

I’ve been reading, with great pleasure, French women don’t get fat. It’s a supremely elegant book, both in content and in presentation – and inspiring, too.Actually I bought my copy several months ago but couldn’t get through it then. It seemed to be promoting an ideal that was so far out of my reach as to be depressing even to think about. Not in the least inspiring.Now it is different: I’m most

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-24037602416877694342007-06-27T08:23:00.000+01:002007-06-27T09:18:46.029+01:00

Alan Little tagged me in a recent posting. This is what I’m supposed to do:Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.People who are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog. If

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-15159493800049905342007-06-26T16:51:00.000+01:002007-06-26T17:11:15.826+01:00

While dramatic floods are causing mayhem in the rest of the country, all there is to report from our stretch of riverbank is ... a cow in the water. There is much very localised excitement. I called out the Pindar, who turned up half an hour ago with a rope but is waiting for his team. Meanwhile the cow has got itself out of the river and is grazing on our neighbour’s back garden – which would

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-91852493584715514302007-06-14T08:59:00.003+01:002010-04-18T08:57:12.080+01:00

[ I haven’t posted much lately. Lots going on but it’s not really blog material. Meanwhile the following might be of interest. I wrote it a few months ago for one of my nieces, who was doing a school project on family history. I’ve checked with my immediate relatives and nobody can think of any reason not to post it here. ]I heard you’re doing a project on family history and I’ve been thinking

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-9314083252503230712007-05-31T17:55:00.000+01:002007-05-31T17:57:54.061+01:00

I’m disappointed to see that the new RSS feed on my website doesn’t seem to update very quickly. This post is really just to see whether I can provoke it into doing something...

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-55213899303390477922007-05-31T14:38:00.000+01:002007-05-31T14:44:06.553+01:00

Now it’s the turn of my own website. I’ve done the redesign and finished the work-releated pages. Some of the other stuff – local politics and so on – is not done yet but I’ve decided to go ahead and upload the new site because the old version was horribly out of date, and even in its unfinished state I think the new one is better.Comments on the doodle that decorates the page headings would be

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-76290996649794256442007-05-24T22:19:00.001+01:002009-10-19T10:00:39.877+01:00

Finally got round to redesigning the website for our boat. About time too.

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-67631701616581158092007-05-15T13:48:00.001+01:002008-08-17T09:12:13.162+01:00

Monet is better! Really Renoir should have done figures all along. (They show two early works of theirs side by side and it's obvious.) But some of Renoir's work is very good -- especially later ones with less distracting stuff in them, just lots of vegetation.Sometimes it looks as though he has turned up the Shadows/Highlights filter in Photoshop too high -- shadow areas aren't deep enough and

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-87036084907336856912007-05-13T11:57:00.001+01:002008-08-17T09:29:13.435+01:00

Ten years ago we brought down the Government, and then we got married. It was a very happy time, all in all. Lots of things are conspiring just now to bring it all back, and to remind us how long it's been.There's Tony Blair's resignation, of course (I could write a long essay on all the emotions that produces. Maybe another time. I guess there are enough of those essays about at the moment --

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-73070349790064421822007-04-26T14:06:00.001+01:002008-08-17T09:13:40.903+01:00

I've just read the true story of the van on the Senate House roof -- funniest thing I've read for ages. Read it! It's several pages, but worth the time.

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-6393333161066905442007-04-12T10:14:00.000+01:002007-04-19T17:29:46.665+01:00

Everyone I know who has a blog seems to have written a new entry in it over the past few days; even those who hadn't written anything for months. Perhaps they had time because of the Easter holiday.I've started something new too, though in my case it's displacement activity (I'm writing text for a book and I have to deliver it in a couple of weeks' time): I've finally got tired of being an

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-86979869786358035372007-04-11T11:51:00.000+01:002007-04-12T09:48:47.157+01:00

I've always ignored del.icio.us because of its silly name (though perhaps as the Managing Director of Little Pink Cloud Ltd I should be less snobbish about such things). Anyway, today I found out that it's useful. So I've started to use it.

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-72964301493677086272007-03-29T08:59:00.002+01:002008-08-17T09:26:45.021+01:00

I lost one of the small sapphires from my engagement ring a few days ago. On closer examination it appears that the ring is quite worn, which is probably why the stone fell out. I wear it all the time alongside my wedding ring so the gold must gradually have abraded.It must be repaired, of course, but we don't want the incident to leave no trace. Time should leave scars. The posh assistant at

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-59136888017511964042007-03-18T11:57:00.002Z2008-08-17T09:27:57.459+01:00

This is what happens to urban areas when there is a grand plan -- something that might involve demolishing existing buildings -- under discussion but not decided upon (perhaps there's a dispute over planning permission or there are problems finding the money). The motivation to maintain the existing buildings and streetscape is lost. What's the point, when it's all going to be pulled down soon?

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-54817492546864392902007-03-15T11:42:00.000Z2007-03-15T17:49:09.775Z

Consulting a hairdresser for advice can be daunting, but this time it was a refreshingly straightforward experience.I like my hair the way it is, mostly: long and usually fastened up. It's no bother like that, and trimming the ends is a trivial task easily executed by an untrained husband with a ruler and a spirit-level. The only problem is the bits that won't grow long -- little wisps that

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-3355628303175189402007-03-05T10:42:00.000Z2007-03-15T17:46:35.933Z

Over the past couple of weeks we've been socialising with some lovely people from far away, first at FOSDEM and then at home afterwards. It's been great but (for me anyway) slightly two-edged because it all contributes to what George Monbiot calls "love miles", and I had accumulated too many of those already. A melancholy thought.

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2972073748292866966.post-17151455869029255392007-03-04T23:53:00.000Z2007-03-15T17:47:01.408Z

Introducing some friends to one another a few days ago I realised they all had blogs. I think I want to play too. Maybe. Odd thing for an introvert to be doing but we'll see how it goes.The title has taken nearly a day's pondering. I wanted it to be a watery kind of thing because I'm sitting here beside a river, and all these ideas and experiences come whooshing by like flood-water. I was

Sarah Woodallhttps://profiles.google.com/105980770278071420663noreply@blogger.com1