At school, there was a bonfire, fireworks, and a "steam up" last night. Stephanie stayed for tea after her lessons, and we took her some warm clothes. Then we walked along to near the railway shed, on a path lit on each side by jack-o-lanterns, where we could see the bonfire. Before it was lit, it was 10-12 feet high, and when it got going, the flames would have been at least 3 times that. Of course the photos don't do it justice. It's a bit of a bizarre tradition, and Joanna couldn't get over the contrast with the fact that it was Environmental Awareness Week. That very morning at assembly we'd had a talk about the importance of recycling, complete with students bringing bags and bags of waste paper ready to be collected. But after the talk, they carried all the bags out to put them on the bonfire! After the
bonfire had died down a little (it hadn't gone out - there was still smoke there this morning), there were fireworks. We were rather close, and had to be careful when looking almost straight up at the higher ones, not to get ash in our eyes. Then we had our turn on the train (which you can also see in front of the bonfire. Stephanie is sitting in front of her friend Kate from year 6.And did I mention the Halloween business at school? I understand from the excited reporting of both girls that the dining room was festooned with spider webs, jack-o-lanterns, and all sorts of ghoulish things. Instead of "roast chicken"(a la carte), they were served chicken pie, complete with bats wings on the pastry. And Helen's jelly had a "slug" in it (well a lolly really).
This morning (yes on a Saturday), Stephanie went to school for her hobbies. Having joined half way through a term, she didn't have a full range to choose from, but has ended up in Pottery and Railway. She seems to have enjoyed the railway one particularly, working the turntable being the best part of the day.
And now for something technical: Internet Connection Sharing and Adhoc Networking. As you know, I have two laptops here. One has the 3 Mobile Broadband modem plugged into a USB port, and it has dandy Internet access. I want the other laptop to have Internet connectivity too. No problem - I've done this kind of thing before. Since both were connected to my wireless router, connectivity shouldn't have been a problem. But it was. It seems that when I turn Internet Connection Sharing on, it makes the wireless network a DHCP server, rather than a client of the router. I fixed that, but couldn't get pings to work. I tried an Adhoc Network - ie. wireless networking without the access point. I couldn't get it to work with WPA, but it did with WEP. Although both laptops believed they were connected, neither could ping the other, and one didn't 'have Internet connectivity at all. Perhaps we'll be able to cope with only one Internet access point during the week. When we move to Moorlands Rd, we'll get ADSL broadband on our phone line - just like we had in Brisbane. And both computers will definitely be able to connect to that.
We've just taken a break to Skype with Nanna and Pop. It's the first time we've had almost everyone taking part in an intercontinental audio/video skype. Everyone seemed pleased with the result - and it doesn't seem to have consumed too much of my 3GB/month limit!
This afternoon's Requiem Eucharist (Duruflé) at Gloucester was good. I really enjoy singing church music in liturgical settings - much more than in a concert. Although I've sung bits of requiems during a couple of funerals, this was the first time I've seen a complete requiem performed in a service. Well, when I say complete, I have to admit a little disappointment at missing the last 8 bars or so of the In Paradisum. When I sing in pieces like that, I do occasionally think that I would like the piece to end with voices, rather than have the voices stop while the organ "finishes the piece off". It somehow makes me feel that the choir isn't really contributing at that critical time. The director on this occasion must have felt similarly. But I'm not sure that it makes sense just to cut at the end of the final word - the piece didn't really feel properly concluded.
A final photo taken during a Mums in the Malverns walk this last week showing the Malvern Link common. We're looking east, or maybe slightly north of east. On the right hand edge of the common is Moorlands Rd, and there's a train line cutting through the corner of the common. The house we move into next week is almost where Moorlands Rd crosses the railway line. In the distance on the left are the outskirts of Worcester. (Click on the image to see a larger version.)(PS. Do you like the acute I managed to put on Duruflé now, with my fancy international keyboard setting?)
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