I love Kate Atkinson's novels, and I am mesmerised by her new one Life after Life. It starts slowly, but boy does it get going. The main character, born in 1910, dies at birth, and keeps dying through decades, but then she's not dead. Sounds weird, but it's just spellbinding. So many ways to die, but so many ways to survive. And it's all for a purpose, that isn't revealed until the end.

3.5 hours! I would have gone insane. Good for you, surviving and conquering.

That was a lovely post. I feel quite nostalgic - worse because most of our team is in Wellington this week for a conference at Te Papa. I do miss cold climate gardens! Spring here is lovely, but it isn't the same without irises and granny's bonnets. I've tried to grow the latter but it's too hot. Pansies are just about the only sprong flower you see here - and they flower half the winter! Love to you both.

Tell me, why Helsinki? Having just been there, I'm curious. And congrats on your new digs. Confessing to a bit of envy here... :)

I'm so glad you have an answer. And hot flashes (we call them flushes) may be uncomfortable but are definitely survivable - ask me how I know! :) and you may not have them -not eveyone does.

It looks like a lovely neat job. We all need a Kenny - ours was called Angelo. Careful meticulous tradesman who look on problems as puzzles to be solved, not as dramaz or things to be avoided. I think that getting all the old renos sorted out and cleaned up as the job progressed was one of the best things about getting our kitchen done. It all just feels so much more cosy and homely and, well, integrated, somehow.

How wonderful! Bet you didn't think anyone would see this. :)

Thanks for this information. If you scroll down on the page you've linked to for the Research Education Report you'll find another: the Full Cost of Research Training Report. There you'll find the reason that Unis don't provide these resources that the CAPA report says that students want/need: they aren't funded enough. The Full Cost report has been out for nearly 12 months and no action has been taken on it. We live in hope...

91 comments?!? Still, I'm in with a chance. That book looks lovely.

I always make vegie soup when I'm sick, even when I can hardly stand at the bench to chop. Weird, huh? And I also like cabbage stir-fried with a sprinkling of caraway seeds.

Heppy New Year Celia. I'm glad you're well and happy and keeping busy. Sorry to read about your sister's family. We've been having dramaz here with Sandra's mother who fell and gashed her leg - it's very bad juju to be admitted to hospital over the holidays here; for over a week there's no-one round who can make decisions. She's hoping for progress tomorrow in getting her mother moved out of the hospital and into another form of care, but in the meantime she's stuck in another city and we're both missing each other pathetically.