Matt's Birthday

Today was Matt's 19th birthday. We like to have a bit of a family celebration at least but Matt's not one for partying anymore. We had to surprise him last year and this year he said he didn't want 'a fuss'. But we liased with Alex and decided we had to mark the day. It must have been meant to be because everyone had the day off. We booked for 8 of us to go and see the new film Twilight and then on to Pizza Hut. Of course this meant having to invent some ruse to get Matt into Nottingham in the first place. At first he said he didn't want to go out because Joe was coming round. Joe was in on the secret but came round with Matt's pressie to keep up the pretence. It took all of us to persuade Matt into town after that. He should have been suspicious but he wasn't.

The film was a very well made vampire/human love story. Peter and Hannah have read all the books and were determined to see the film as soon as it was out. So this was 2nd time around for them. Anne was disappointed there wasn't more gore but seemed to enjoy herself. By the end of the evening the youngsters had made quite a lot of pizza disappear. Matt said he felt guilty about being so reluctant to come out but had a nice day.

When Matt was born back in 1989 we were discharged from hospital on Christmas Eve. With a new baby in the house, Christmas almost passed us by. Hard to believe just how many Christmases have passed since then.

Pete and Hannah

Matt and Alex

Joe and Anne

School etc

I've never been one for publishing my thoughts for the entertainment of others. Having never kept a diary, I was quite adverse to the idea of "blogging", but under pain of death, I have finally surrendered my deepest, darkest thoughts to the internet.

I am now 17, my birthday a few weeks ago now, and have just come to the end of my first term at The Joseph Wright Centre, part of Derby College, no more than a 10 minute walk from the city centre.

I left my secondary school, Saint John Houghton in Kirk Hallam, Ilkeston, with an A* in Additional Science, a B in RE, and straight A's in all my other subjects. To the surprise of both parents, I have developed a strong creative and artistic side over the last couple of years, resulting in a grade A Art and Design GCSE after only being predicted a grade B by my teacher.

As requested by mother, the ring leader of the blog, here is a photo of my final Art piece that I made during my 10 hour exam. My entire project was based on music, and this piece is inspired by Roy Lichtenstein, famous for his Pop-Art comic book strips. You can see more of my work here.

This has now led me on to study A Levels in Graphics, Photography, IT and Environmental Studies. For those who don't know (and there seem to be a fair few), Environmental Studies is, surprisingly enough, the study of the environment. It's basically a cross between Geography and Science, but to give you a better idea, so far I have learnt about conditions for life on earth, wildlife conservation, life processes and land resources. I am pretty confident in the subject and my GCSE grade A in Geography has been a big help, getting me a grade A in my Environmental Studies mid-term assessment.

I also achieved a grade A in my IT mid-term, dropping only 8 marks out of a possible 60, a result I am most pleased with, having only done a short course IT GCSE, but again achieving a grade A.

Graphics is a very fast paced subject and I have just completed my second project. As yet I have no actual grade, but have had some positive feedback and am on target for my ALPS grade of A/B, a traget grade for all of my A Levels.

I chose Photography as it combines creative and technical elements which i thought I would be much suited. As it turns out, it is the subject I am struggling in most, but that's not to say I'm doing badly. Having recently taken over Matt's part time job at Yeoman's Outdoors in Long eaton, I'm left with little free time to go out taking photos which has reflected slightly in my first project, entitled "Habitat". I am currently workink at a high C/low B grade, which I am pleased with, but I know with a little more effort and better time management, I'll be able to improve on this throughtout the year.

My "other job"

I'm continuing to enjoy my time with the choir. I started singing with them 16 years ago last month! and I've been their Musical Director for 11 years! How time truly flies. They're a good bunch of blokes to be with ..... and the singing's not bad either. No, seriously, they sing really well and it's a pleasure to be standing in front of them at concerts. It's a very rewarding experience, particularly when the audience genuinely appreciates the end result and takes the trouble to tell you so.

Last year we had a fantastic and truly memorable trip to Rotenburg an der Fulda in Germany on a local council twinning visit. The trip was perfect in every way: weather,hospitality and friendship, good food and drink (well, beer!) and some great concerts too. We are really looking forward to hosting our German friends over here next August.

Mirek's first ever blog

Yes, I know, what a boring title for this momentous leap into the depths of modern technology, but there you have it -- hello, world! Unlike my wife's (hereafter known as Jo) busy life of card-making (or rather constant experimenting) and blogging, my existence is much less artistic.


My work in the registration service continues (at the same office for the last 12 years) but things are constantly changing and there is rarely a dull moment. Apart from the daily stuff of legal preliminaries to marriages and civil partnerships, conducting of such ceremonies, issue of certificates, generally dealing with the public at large, attending meetings (oh yes!), vetting premises for ceremonies, solving people's computer problems (sorry, typo, trying to solve), conducting staff appraisals (yuk!), not being able to balance the monthly imprest account (I have acquired many new grey hairs), I also get to mess about a bit on the council's public website by writing text and supplying images about the registration service. Oh, and occasionally I also vacuum, sweep the main entrance, change the fluorescent tubes and, just this month, help hang the new 10 feet long curtains in the ceremony room. If' I'm lucky, I have an hour for lunch on a Friday. Well, it's varied!

Venice

It's taken us years to get round to it but we finally made it to Venice. Believe it or not, this was the first time Mirek and I had flown together and the first time we'd been abroad together in 16 years.

We flew out on Monday 27th. Twice to be precise. On the first occasion we were about 30 mins into the flight when the captain announced there was a problem with depressurisation and that the plane would have to return to Gatwick. Luckily, they found us another plane quite quickly and we only lost about 3 hours of our 3 day trip.

We took a local bus to Venice-Mestre which is the modern mainland town associated with Venice. We'd read enough beforehand not to expect Mestre to be picturesque. But we'd also read enough to have high hopes of our hotel, the Golden Tulip Tritone. We weren't disappointed. Although the hotel was immediately opposite the railway station it was very quiet. The three of us shared one room which wasn't huge but very nicely decorated and very comfortable. We missed breakfast on the last day because we had to leave too early. Shame because the breakfasts were superb. Buses and trains left from just outside the hotel and took just a few minutes to get to the island of Venice. We had a travel pass for the buses but found the trains much more comfortable.

It was dark before we arrived on the island on Monday but Venice is just as enchanting in the dark. Sadly, we didn't quite get the hang of night time photography. I'd heard it was easy, recommended - compulsory, in fact, to get lost in Venice. To this end, I believe maps are deliberately misleading. We meandered through Venice looking for somewhere to eat and finally settled for Pizza in San Stefano. We then walked on until we got to Piazza San Marco where we took the vaporetto back to the train station.

On the Tuesday we couldn't believe we were met by sunshine. The weather forecast had been bad. We jumped on a vaporetto straight away and did the photo trip down the Grand Canal, getting off at Rialto to explore the shops and market.

We then toted all our souvenirs round San Marco, taking more photos before going back to the waterfront for coffee and cake. To save our legs we jumped on a vaporetto then and visited the church of Il Redentore on the island of Giudecca before going back to the hotel to rest before dinner. Mirek had memorised the address of a restaurant we'd spotted earlier and we retraced our steps there in the evening. The plan after that was to make our way back to Rialto but we walked round in circles for ages and just when I thought we should be round the corner from Rialto bridge (according to that map!)we found ourselves on the edge of the Piazza San Marco again! We thought we'd make the best of it and jump on the vaporetto there but sadly, we couldn't get into the square itself because it was flooded and there was quite a gap between the raised walkways and the path we were on. Several people stripped down to bare feet and walked through but not us! We did an about turn and walked back across San Marco to get the vaporetto. It was probably the last one that night. But it didn't get us back in time for the last train and we had to wait half an hour for a late bus.

When we went back to San Marco in the morning to visit the basilica and the Doge's Palace the square was still flooded. It's a regular occurrence at high tide, apparently and they are well prepared for it. We used the walkways to get to the Campanile and went up to the top. The views were superb and well worth the ticket price. We followed it with a visit to the basilica where we went out onto the balcony and also saw the museum with the original bronze horses. Fantastic.

The Doge's palace was impressive too but I'd opted for the audio tour which was informative but hard work and I gave up about #31! I think there may have been parts we missed but I was losing the will to live. All in all the square was the most incredible place for photos. Having done all the sightseeing on our list we went back to the Rialto bridge for more souvenir/pressie shopping. We also found a lovely shop/workshop selling books and other items decorated with Italian marbled paper. After dinner we returned to the hotel for some creative luggage packing. Most of our presents (and 4 masks I'd bought for myself) were delicate and had to go in hand luggage. Luckily, I'm married to the most efficient packer in the world. If anyone can get a large square peg in a small round hole it is Mirek!

We hadn't wanted to come home on a 6.20am flight but by the time we booked, the alternatives were not affordable. So we set off at some ungodly hour for Marco Polo. I think everyone had been told, as we were, that the airport didn't open until 5.30am. So we had to queue so long to check in that we only just got through security in time to board.

This time the flight was uneventful and we arrived back in London in time for breakfast. One of the first jobs I did when I got home was to check prices for a return visit in the not-to-distant future. I think that says everything about how much we enjoyed the trip. Mirek and I took about 700 photos between us. You can see a small sample of mine here.

Since we came back everyone has asked us if we had a gondola ride. No, we didn't. We weren't too bothered and they were expensive. But next time we will.

Blogs is only me

Well, I thought blogs were us but apparently blogs is only me. Thought I'd set up a Rus family blog to show our faces to people we normally only catch up with once in a blue moon or in our Christmas newsletter. I thought my menfolk might be pleased to avoid the Christmas panic with all their news. I'd hoped to get it up and running before our mini break but have only just made a start. But what a start!