So what happens at Brackenbury?!!!

You wouldn't believe it!

So, we spend lots of time together...but what do we do?


Well, amongst a trillion other things, we...



(1) Eat together - surprise surprise!!!

now that we got the most interesting stuff out of the way (see (1) above), let's talk about the boring ones...



(2) Do regular movie nights. We discovered Alena's hidden talent on one such night : remembering all movie dialogues.... We reckon she saw Matrix like 20 times! We even did a Lord of the Rings movie-marathon. We started at 3pm on an afternoon with 4/5 people, but alas, only ONE survived - Olaf! He had to be the one! How annoying! Then, there was the czech movie night that Alena & Eva did. It was wonderful - the czech strudels! Strudels and films - a perfect match. YUM!



(3) An important activity which always accompanies movie nights is the all-important PILLOW FIGHT! I don't know how it all started or why we do it at all (to mess up Olaf's room, maybe) but it's our prelude to film-watching. In my humble opinion, it's a totally unfair and unjust game that favours TALL people.



(4) Operate a hair salon. Georgia's our in-house hairstylist. I must say her skills are pretty awesome, erm..except for a tiny little spot on Matt's head that she sort of/kind of messed up a wee little bit. Don't worry Matt, it didn't look that obvious!



(5) Table-tennis. Watch out, guys, I'm improving, and will soon be kicking your .......... !

(6) Give each other massages. Come on, we all need to relax and unknot those stiff muscles. It's always entertaining to watch Alida being massaged...with all the uh-uh-uh-ah-ah-ah sounds she makes and funny facial expressions you would think we are torturing her.

Dinnertime @ Brackenbury

Food, glorious food!



I can't remember how it all started but we almost always eat dinner together, so much so it feels strange when we don't. And dinnertime is an exciting time - the daily gossips, the funny (and not-so-funny) jokes, the silly questions, the stupid answers, the rude remarks, the teasing comments - dinnertime is playtime!


Of course, dinnertime is also about food. Here's what I think each of us is best at making:


Alida: Crepes. According to her, crepes "must have holes in them". She's a real sweetie.
Matt: Gingerbread. He never makes enough for all of us. (Matt's good at making roast beef too but I've never tasted it. It must be real good cos' Matt, Georgia & Alida devoured the huge slab of roast beef before the rest of us got to the kitchen. Shucks!)
Alena: Beef goulash. Her dumplings are just as wonderful although she said it didn't look right (but since the rest of us didn't know how czech dumplings should look, it didn't matter).
Eva: Roast chicken. She does it in style - how can anyone look so cool and calm when she has to cook for 7 hungry souls?!!!
Olaf: Spaghetti bolognaise. He pretends he can't cook and then he dishes out perfectly made spaghetti bolognaise and cheesecake. Cheeky.
Jean-Pierre: Sri Lankan curry. A master of spices, he brings your chilli-tolerance to ever-higher levels.
Georgia: Salmon pasta. The only time she cooks properly is when she cooks for us. Other times, she survives on cereal and shortbread fingers.
Lynn: Bread pudding. For some strange reason, everyone seems to like it. I must however say that I prefer cleaning (extremely therapeutic) to cooking.

Lynn. 20 November 2005.

A Walk in the Countryside

Cauldron Snout - waterfall, reservoir and rocks

Langdon Beck. 18 November 2005. Frosty.




We've been waiting for a sunny day to go walking for 3 weeks now and it's finally arrived. English countryside is one of the best things the country has to offer. Fresh air. Nature. It's like entering dreamland.


We started at Langdon Beck hotel and followed the icy footpath past Widdy Bank Farm (cows...YAY!!!). Then turning onto the river path, we walked along the beautiful riverside track, distracted only by the crushing sounds of ice (Jean-Pierre couldn't resist stepping on the ice puddles...sigh!).

We were a wee bit disappointed when we got to the waterfall. There was only a tiny trickle of water down the hill. Not quite what we had expected. But alas, silly cows, that was not THE waterfall we were looking for. Half a mile later, we found it - Cauldron Snout! What a sight!

It was a fairly easy walk with a rocky scramble. Never mind I suffered a bad fall (short legs...grrrr!), the environs of Langdon Beck and Cauldron Snout made it all worthwhile. (The sandwiches were great too!) I'll let the pictures do the talking ....