vendredi 29 février 2008

jeudi 28 février 2008

Just testing BlogThis! bookmark

lundi 25 février 2008

Hello :) sorry i could not see you on the weekend! Me and Joanna send our best regards and all our love.

This next section you could use on the blog for remy and clara.

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I hope your all okay. :) I am at university at the moment studying Music Technology. It is going very well, I am in my second year. My girlfriend Joanna has just had laser eye surgery and it went very well. Hope to hear from you soon :)

Sounds like? How many syllables? Guess and win prizes with Search Charades!

samedi 23 février 2008

Just a test from e-mail

testing

fkdsfkdskflds;

Accessing blogs, adding messages ...

Hi all,

I'm putting here instructions on how to use the various blogs I've created.
So you can refer to this page whenever you might need.

Test blog:
I created this one so you can practise in case you feel uncomfortable adding things directly to the other blogs.
But anything you add can be corrected so don't worry (and if needed I can copy things from this blog to the kids blogs).

you can read it here and add comments to existing messages
(look for the "0 Comments" link at the end of each post)
you can add new posts either by
reading the blog and selecting "New Post" link at the top of the page
OR
just send an e-mail to mjbrightfr1.test@blogger.com
Note that you can include photos, videos and links to web pages in your post.

Clara's blog:
you can read it here and add comments to existing messages
(look for the "0 Comments" link at the end of each post)
you can add new posts either by
reading the blog and selecting "New Post" link at the top of the page
OR
just send an e-mail to mjbrightfr1.clara@blogger.com
Note that you can include photos, videos and links to web pages in your post.

Remy's blog:
you can read it here and add comments to existing messages
(look for the "0 Comments" link at the end of each post)
you can add new posts either by
reading the blog and selecting "New Post" link at the top of the page
OR
just send an e-mail to mjbrightfr1.remy@blogger.com
Note that you can include photos, videos and links to web pages in your post.

News blog: This is my yearly news as a blog
you can read it here and add comments to existing messages
(look for the "0 Comments" link at the end of each post)

Kids' News blog: This is my yearly news *specifically for the kids* as a blog
you can read it here and add comments to existing messages
(look for the "0 Comments" link at the end of each post)

I've also a couple of other blogs which you can visit here (Technology blog) and here (Social blog)

vendredi 22 février 2008

2006

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The Bright Family in 2006

Version Française (Franglaise) ici: Scottie:"it's French Jim, but not as we know it"
	2005	2004	2003	2002	1997/Remy

Remy	Clara
Chantal - Taxi Animalier	Chantal - Horses
Mike - Dance	Mike - Concerts	Mike - 2007 - 2008 !!

Clara

Clara's year started with her broken arm (Dec '05) and then her having her tonsils out.
Thankfully her life has been much less traumatic since.

Clara with tonsils and broken arm
(New Years Eve 2005)

Clara without tonsils
much better

In September she moved up into CP (Cours Preparatoires) and despite her worries about being ready for CP was moved after a few weeks into the following year CE1 (Cours Elementaires 1). She's been doing fine, in fact all those tres bien are costing us money ...

Remy

Remy's also been doing well at school, and his tres bien are costing us money too ... I'm getting a little worried that he's doing well in history, or at least I will when they start talking about Joan of Arc, Agincourt, ...

He's still had problems with his sprained ankle but with the exercises he's been doing this is becoming manageable. Despite 3 sprains this year he's been able to take up judo classes again in September. He's also taking fencing lessons.

This summer at 8 years old Remy caught up with Marainne, Remy now measures 1metre 45. So far I can still carry him up stairs but prefer him on my back ...

We celebrated Remy's 9th birthday (25th October) 10 days early this year to avoid the cold weather. Then on Remy's birthday we celebrated Clara's birthday (17th July) for the second time as she hadn't had a party with her friends in July.
In February we took the kids to see Giselle at the Summum

The Cats

Mike had been resisting the pressure that we get cats for the children for some time, but finally changed his mind as we seem to have a mouse - or several - in the garage, and sometimes in the house. Are those strange noises I hear in the night mice or bats in the belfry?

The cats, Mina and Minette are still in training for the moment, though Mina was seen chasing something small and very quick out of my office one day ...

Holidays

The family holidays were in the South West of France again, close to the in-laws allowing the kids to see Jo, their grandmother and her sister Marainne (Marie), Aunt Francoise, Uncle Jean-Yves and cousin Mien.


Remy and Clara meet up with cousin Mien. Mien's cheekily imitating donkeys ears on Remy		Java and Sam wait patiently for their tent to be put up!

UK holiday

At the end of August we took the kids to Bury to see my mum and Keith, Julie, John and Andrew. This was their first trip to the UK which they really enjoyed, despite unusually bad weather, even for Manchester, for August !

Christmas

Remy and Clara get horses for Christmas .. what else ...
HP did us proud with another Christmas Party, Arbre de Noel , this year

Chantal

Equitaxi

A tough year for Chantal's work with many quiet periods with no work and sudden spurts. There were some occasional long journeys to all corners of France, even to Italy (Turin) one time with one student, her dogs and horse!

To make ends meet Chantal tried a new job of distributing parcels in December, but this has been very tough work, especially in some villages where houses are unmarked, unnumbered, neighbours don't know each other.
We're desparately waiting for her 15 days notice to expire as we're inundated with packages.
Mike helped a bit during the Christmas holidays and enjoyed it as an activity - because for me I was just driving around in the mountains in the sunshine meeting people ... fine for a few days ...

Horse riding

Chantal has made good progress with her jumping competitions this year, doing a new discipline "Hunter style" and "Hunter equitation" - a sort of cross between horse jumping and dressage. Even Mike has appreciated the "Hunter" finding it much nicer to watch than "CSO" horse jumping or dressage.

Douvaine(close to Geneva): Hunter competition
	Dijon: Sam watches patiently as Chantal completes her tour

By June Chantal had enough points to compete in the Championnat de France at Fontainebleau and will surely return with a vengeance in June 2007.

Mike

Dance

For several years I've missed the dance classes which I did in Bristol and in Grenoble when I arrived here ... this September I finally plunged again. I decided to follow rock and ballroom dancing and in a local school I found a partner for each class.

Ballroom dancing

Cecile is my partner for ballroom dancing, whose daughter goes to the same school as Remy and Clara. Cecile's been great but I'm finding it tough going as a course. Every class I'm totally lost and generally just about get it when we move onto a 2nd or 3rd dance! We've done Waltz, Tango, Paso Doble, Cha Cha, Rumba and I still can't do any of them!

Rock

The teacher's method is quite rigorous which means that after 8 classes we're still only just able to start really dancing ...

Here's Serge, the teacher.

[TA] Argentine Tango

Just after signing up for these dance classes a friend recommended to me a weekend course of Argentine Tango in Grenoble given by Carlos Rivarola visiting from Argentina. I was hooked straight away.

That weekend a couple recommended to me a weekend course at Chedde, near to Chamonix, 2 weeks later given by Flabio Aguilera . Flabio is a great teacher with a real passion for the danse and desire to transmit his passion and knowledge. I was even more hooked ...

During the first course I met Noelle, who was my partner for that weekend. Noelle a native of Chedde, also took me around the area, into the mountains, to Lac Vert which I really appreciated and onto Chamonix.


Lac Vert	The view of Mont Blanc which I've appreciated the couple of times I've been out running early morning

Noelle has a very busy life, doing voluntary work, learning to do stained glass windows, learning to dance TA, looking after her family ...
This is Noelle showing us her first stained glass. You can make out the form of a mountain towards the top, which is the Mont Joly one of the mountains which she sees across the valley when looking out of the living room.

Last visit to Chedde was for their regular wednesday evening soiree.
Here's a photo of Flabio dancing with Francoise, one of the locals at Chedde. Flabio particularly likes this room as it's character evokes the spirit of Tango he knows from his native Uraguay.

Argentine cowgirls?
No, Michele and Noelle at Noelle's chalet in the mountains above Chedde

Work

The HP France layoffs were completed this summer. In the end there were more volunteers than necessary.
I've appreciated having a full year now without travelling - except a few days in Barcelona in February. I adore travelling of course but it's nice to be available for the family and also for myself for concerts, dance classes ...

2007

And what's planned for 2007?
Who knows ...

Certain are the TA weekends planned for Paris, Chedde, and Frejus.
Then there are a few concerts planned already such as Souad Massi and those old crooners reformed ... Genesis.
I'd really like to learn some Spanish ... but so far it's not too hopeful.
When Remy asked me last week "Come se llama" What's your name I replied "Muy bien" very well ) .... ;-)
I've got some work to do!

mardi 12 février 2008

Just testing a single entry in my spiffing new blog using the portable app ... w.bloggar

Hopefully we'll see an image here:

Didn't work as drag and drop so let's try "manually" using ctrl-G:

OK!