Katie Butcher

This morning I acquainted myself with the Clinique counter at Boots. The lady there was really nice (as these people tend to be). I told her that I’d been really impressed with Clinique since I’d started using it and she asked if I’d be interested in being added to their customer file. If I was on their file they could let me know about special events and offers and they’d be able to record what products I use. I said I was on my way to work so couldn’t stop too long, but I intend to call in soon and register.

So Nigel keeps asking me what I want for Christmas, and I’ve given him several ideas, mostly cooking related things. I’d also be perfectly content with Boots vouchers.

True to form, the media are yet again making a fuss over something which, at the moment, isn’t very much to fuss about. Currently, 118 people in the whole world since 1997 have contracted bird flu and there have 61 deaths. The countries where humans have caught it are Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. I’m no expert on the quality of health care and hygiene in these countries, but I suspect that the death rates from any illnesses in those countries are a lot higher than in ‘western’ countries. There has only been a handful of incidences of avian flu that passed from human-to-human, all others were people who have had close contact with live infected birds. The fear about it is that the virus might mutate so it can be passed more easily between humans. At the moment that hasn’t happened, so I’m certain we don’t really need to panic.

Having said that, I think I might put catching bird flu it on my list of worries anyway, perhaps one above being hit by a meteor.

On Saturday morning, Nigel dropped me off at Bradford Interchange to catch the 8:14am train to Blackpool North. The journey was quite pleasant, there are some good views as you go across the Pennines and I even spotted a deer at one point. I got off at Preston and had 15 minutes before my next train would be going. The 2nd train was a Virgin train which was going to London. It wasthe nicest train by far that I have ever been on, but sadly that was the shortest leg of the journey for me as I was only on it for 40 minutes and got off 2 stops later at Crewe. I had a 40 minute wait at Crewe before getting on an Arriva Trains Wales train. In stark contrast to the Vigin train, the Arriva trains Wales train had to be the skankiest train ever and was full of ‘chavs’. Not sure why, perhaps there’s a lot of them in the north west? So after not the best train ride, I got into Cardiff just before 2pm.

The Holiday Inn Express in Cardiff Bay was only a 5 minute taxi ride away. I checked in (although the others weren’t due to arrive for another hour and a half), and I got showered and started getting ready. The others arrived at about 4pm – there was Eve and her mum and aunt. Also, her mother-in-law to-be, the other bridesmaid Rhian, Eve’s university friend Rachel, and her friend from St. John’s Ambulance in Aylesbury, Karen.

At 5pm we arrived at La Tasca Spanish restaurant. There we met two more of Eve’s friends, sister’s who she had met on a recent holiday in Greece and were from near Cardiff. We had the party menu where we paid ’14.95 each and the waiter brought our lots of plates of different tapas dishes that you helped yourself to. It was very nice.

At 7:00pm we took a taxi back to Cardiff Bay and to the Millenium Centre. There we saw the Mark Morris Dance Group who were on their 25th Anniversaray tour. Hmmm. Interesting. We all said ‘It was good, but not my thing.’ I think Eve was a bit disappointed because she said she’d been expecting a Lord of the Dance type show, I had looked at the website so I knew what to expect but had assumed that Eve had an interest in dance that had passed me by somehow. So anyway, it was perhaps somewhat ‘highbrow’ for a hen night, but different I guess.

The show was over by 9:30pm so we headed over to nearby Mermaid Quay leisure area. We first went in a stylish cocktail and ‘dim sum’ bar call Ba Orient. Eve, Karen, Rachel and I decided we would splash out and go for the champagne cocktails. We spent a while in there and then went to another more traditional style pub called Terra Nova. I really fancied a Guiness but went along with buying a bottle of champagne between the 4 of us again.

I think it was around 1am that we got back to the hotel. We then sat in the lounge area and chatted for about another 2 hours. Before heading to our rooms. I was sharing a room with Rhian.

It was quite an early start on Sunday. We met for breakfast at 9:30am and then I ordered a taxi for 10 to take me to the bus station as my coach was leaving at 10:30. I got back to Leeds at 5:00pm.

Pictures here

Last night at 3 am a neighbours burglar alarm went off. When Nigel looked out the window to see whose house it was, all the street lamps flashed on and off, so we realised it must have been a power cut that had set off someone’s alarm. After 10 minutes it was still going off but we didn’t worry too much, as in theory an alarm should stop sounding after 20 minutes. But it was still going after 20 minutes… and after 30 minutes… and an hour… and after two hours… it was still going off when I left for work at 7:40am. So we had virtually no sleep last night. I can hardly keep my eyes open today, and worst of all I’ve no chance of an early night because I’ve a concert Wetherby tonight, and then an early start tomorrow for my trip to Cardiff! At least I don’t have to drive now.

I’ve finally managed to sort out my journey to Cardiff and I feel so much better. I’ve been worrying about driving there, but it turns out I’ve managed to sort out getting to and from Cardiff on public transport.

The initial main problem with going by train is the return journey the Sunday; there are virtually no trains because of engineering work. So I decided to look at getting a train there but a coach back. I also investigated to see if there were any better train routes from Bradford rather than Leeds. Anyway, I managed to find a route on National Rail Enquiries that went from Bradford to Cardiff via Preston and Crewe. I’m almost certain this isn’t a ‘normal’ route but believe it came up because, again, a lot of services are being affected by engineering. So I looked up a price for a single ticket and it came up at £15.50! Bargain, I thought. But when I called in at Leeds Station Travel Centre on my way home from work tonight, the lady at the desk refused to sell a ticket to me because she thought it was wrong because that route wasn’t valid; she didn’t want to get into trouble. So when I got home I bought the ticket on the internet for £15.50 and I’ve selected to pick it up from the ‘Quick Ticket’ machine at Leeds Station tomorrow morning. I should even have reserved seats.

At the same time as I booked my train ticket I also booked a return jouney with National Express coach. It’s going to be 6.5 hours back to Leeds by coach, but the ticket was such a bargain at £9, I can’t really ignore it. At least I can read on a coach or train, whereas you can’t really do that if you drive. I’ll still probably be tired from the long journey, but hopefully not as tired as if I drive.

Year of Wonders is a fictional novel based around the true story of the Derbyshire village of Eyam that was hit by bubonic plague in 1665-1666. The plague was brought to the village in a delivery of cloth from London to the village tailor in 1665. Within a week of the package arriving, the tailor was dead. The Plague spread through the village and the Rector persuaded the villagers to stay in the village and seal themselves off to avoid spreading the infection to the surrounding area. Though a few villagers left, most stayed, and around 2 of every 3 people in the village succumbed to the Plague before it died out in Autumn 1666. During the period of isolation, food was left for the villagers at the ‘boundary stone’ on the parish boundary high up on the hill above the village, and paid for by coins which were dipped in vinegar to disinfect them. It is widely regarded that it is likely that the sacrifice that the villagers made helped prevent the north of England from being too badly affected by the Plague.

As you can probably imagine, this wasn’t a particularly light-hearted novel. The story is told from the point of view of the Rector’s 18 year-old maid who has lost her husband and 2 babies by chapter 3. I enjoyed this story in the most part, a few bits were a bit too gory for my liking (yesterday I started feeling faint on the train after reading a particularly unpleasant section – not good). But it was also fascinating and did take you right into the lives of what those in the village, or indeed anyone who lived amongst Plague, experienced. Very thought-provoking. I really liked the style it was written and the dialogue was old-fashioned in style (whether it was authentic language for 1666 I don’t know), but the speech reminded me of Jane Austen; elegant but easily understandable. I would recommend this book, particularly to fans of historical novels, but don’t read it if you want cheering up.

I have always tended to be extremely dubious about designer skincare products. I couldn’t believe that the more expensive products like Clarins, Lanc�me and so on could really be any better than Simple, Clearasil, Garnier etc. You’re paying for the name surely? Just like with designer clothes and that rubbish about them being better quality.

However, in the two and half weeks since I started using Clinique, I’ve been quite literally amazed how much better my skin has been. I’ve had virtually no spots (I can’t remember the last time that happened) and it feels really smooth and hydrated. I’ve actually thrown away all the other skin care products I have; I’ve accumulated many over time and none of them have worked for me and I certainly won’t be using them now.

I used to feel I was constantly fighting a battle with my skin; I could never get anything that would balance it. I’d get spots, use an anti-spot product, that would cause dry patches, I’d use a moisturiser, then my skin would be oily, I’d get spots……….on and on. But you don’t dare not use anything in case your skin might be even worse.

I’m using Clinique 3-step. The lady at the Clinique counter did a skin typing analysis and determined I’m skin type II so that I’d know what ’strength’ products to buy. The three steps are a cleansing facial soap, a clarifying lotion, and then a moisturiser. I wasn’t convinced about paying �10 for a bar of soap (can it really be that much better than a bar of ‘Pears’?) , but I’m really glad I did, and I expect it to last about a year, which makes the value not so bad. I also use an ‘Anti-Blemish Solutions Cleansing foam’ and anti-bacterial face soap if I appear to be starting with a break-out and it does seem to stop the spots in their tracks. I’ve been stunned with the result.

Anyway, now I’ve written this (and particularly since I’ve been stressing about Cardiff) I shall have a really bad spot break-out tomorrow – this will be a real test for Clinique.

Oh yes, and Clinique Skin Smoothing Pore Minimizing foundation is brilliant too (although I don’t feel I need it so much now my skin has been clearer). It’s £17 a bottle, but again, I’m amazed to find myself saying that to me it’s worth the money.

This weekend is Eve’s hen-night. She’s decided to have it in Cardiff, which I suppose is fair enough considering she now lives there. That unfortunately means that I have to get to Cardiff, and Cardiff seemingly turns out not to be the easiest place to get to from Bradford.

I’m reluctant to drive as (for me) it’s a long way to drive for a night out (I’m not that used to driving long distances nor on motorways), but it seems like it’s going to be the only viable option. So now I’m fretting about it.

The Alternatives:

1. The train takes about 6 hours (at the quickest). Plus, to make things worse there is extensive engineering work on the lines this weekend which meant that the lady on the travel desk at Leeds Station this morning couldn’t guarantee any of the trains that I would need to catch on the return journey. How helpful! Oh, and the fare is £78.
2. National Express coach takes a minumum of 7 hours and the quickest coach leaves Bradford at 6:30am. No thankyou!
3. The nearest airport with flights to Cardiff is Liverpool Airport, and flights are Monday-Friday only and cost £75 each way. No good for me.

So it looks like I’m going to be doing a lot of driving this weekend with a hen-night in the middle. I considered taking a day holiday from work on Monday for recovery, but then realised that there is a Linux Fundamentals course starting at the Leeds office that day, and now being the only member of GBdirect based at that office, really I have to be there in case of emergencies.

All this is sandwiched between a orchestra rehearsal in Wetherby on Thursday evening , a concert in Wetherby on Friday evening and then normal orchestra rehearsal on Monday. Then the boss is visiting me on Wednesday and Thursday next week as well.

Well it’s not taken me long to read ‘The Lady and the Unicorn� by Tracy Chevalier; I only started it at the weekend. I very much enjoyed this book. It was easy to read and went at a good pace as well as being absorbing and thought-provoking. It is set in the late 15th century and inspired by the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries which were woven around 1500, probably in Flanders. They now hang in the Musée National du Moyen Age in Paris. The story is a fictional one set around the people who create the tapestries, beginning with the wealthy Parisien Jean Le Viste commissioning the womanising artist Nicolas Des Innocents to design him some tapestries to hang on the wall in his ‘Grande Salle’. The story then follows on to the weavers in Brussels and the characters (and their families) who work to create the tapestries.

I didn’t actually see what the tapestries looked like until I looked on the Internet after completing the book. In some ways I wished I’d seen them earlier because I wasn’t sure if the image I had of them when I was reading the book was realistic. Also, since looking at Tracy Chevalier’s website I’ve found explanations for the weaving terms that were used in the book, but I wasn’t sure of what they were at the time of reading.

An enjoyable book. I shall be keeping an eye out for more books by Tracy Chevalier.

I recently finished reading ‘Portrait in Sepia’ by Isabel Allende (translated from Spanish by Margaret Sayers Peden). I enjoyed this book, a reasonably challenging read but not so much so that it was hard work. Some translated books that I’ve read in the past have had some oddly constructed sentences but this was beautifully written, you could not tell it was a translation. There was quite a lot of vocabulary that I’ve not come across before; examples are: antediluvian, conflagration, lugubrious, stevedore, and scabrous. If I was reading in bed I would take out my Minidictionary from the bedside drawer, but most words weren’t in it.

I didn’t feel there wasn’t really a clearly defined plot to this novel, it sometimes seemed a bit vague as to where it was heading…. it’s diffcult to describe. I think the style of it takes a little bit of getting used to. Sometimes things would happen which I didn’t take in thoroughly as they didn’t seem important, yet later in the book there would be a reference to that event and then I would want to go back and find the earlier bit again to remind me what exactly happened. I shall probably keep this book and perhaps read it again some time, as I think I might grasp it better a second time.