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Write about something you saw at the shopping mall. 05/07/10 - No winner on this due to lack of response. I'm tired of lisening to my mom's sister rant! "When are you going to buy me a skateboard?" he whined. "Not until after you learn to ride your bike without training wheels and without fear of falling," I said to my five year old son for what felt like the thousandth time that week. I put the last box of cereal in the pantry and closed the door. "Are you ready to go now?" He stubbed his shoe into the kitchen floor, twisting his toe as if he was putting out a cigarette. With his eyes downcast, he pleaded. "Can we at least stop at the skateboard store and look at them?" "Yes, but here is the deal. You walk to the mall on your own. You don't make me drag you, okay?" I hated how he rebelled by walking so slow I'd have time to open a lemonade stand before he would walk a block. "AND," I emphasized, "you positively can't whine about me buying you a skateboard anymore today." I stared at him, trying to make him understand how serious I was. He stared back. I could see he was trying to think of a persuasive argument. "Do we have a deal or do I need to sum it up for you again?" I asked, hoping to interrupt his thought process. He sighed dramatically, "Fine!" Throwing his hands in the air, he turned and walked out the door. We walked to the mall in silence. He stepped on every ant hill we passed. We spent 45 minutes shopping for a Father's Day gift before finding just the right tie. He was true to his word and we went to the skateboard store.

I’ve been thirty-nine for several years now, plus a few—okay, maybe more than a few. I love people of every flavor and all their diversities. I believe that if we all came from the same cookie cutter; the world would be too vanilla. Butterflies, food and family, and gorgeous billowing clouds, that bring the refreshing sound of rain, top the list of my favorite things. I am absolutely fascinated by the arts. Although it is difficult to choose one medium over another, sculpture seems to have captured my heart above all the rest. I was born and raised in New Jersey and moved to Southern California in 1994. I studied business in college for two years until I skipped out for a great job opportunity in Manhattan (and, maybe more, for the excitement that went with it). Fortunately for me it paid off. I have enjoyed a successful sales career in information technology services. I am now a partner of a small boutique IT company located in Irvine, California, that services corporate America on both the east and west coasts. As a working mom, my life is non-stop. I love running my thirteen-year-old son from school to the baseball fields, and teaching him the wisdom I’ve learned about life, as well as learning from him as I go. In some ways, I find my time with my son to be more rewarding than anything else. I love the bright side of everything because I believe you can always find one, if you choose to.

Times Academy is an English School and a Training College with a difference, the focus at Times Academy is not only on excellence in teaching, learning and training, but on development of the whole student. At Times Academy you will not only develop your language and employability skills, but you will flourish in your Australian experiences and personal growth. Times Academy has a superior modern campus right by Town Hall in the center of the city. Easily reached by public transport with state-of-the-art computer facilities, wireless connections and bright naturally lit classrooms, students get to experience all that Sydney has to offer at their doorstep. Our innovative and engaging courses are delivered by a team of passionate, dedicated teachers who are genuinely interested in their students and willing to spend the time needed to help them to achieve their best. The teachers at Times Academy are one of our most important resources; our teachers teach and our students learn. The teachers at Times Academy are committed to our students’ success. They are motivated and enthusiastic, and work tirelessly to produce excellent learning outcomes for their students. By creating fun, positive relationships with their students, our teachers inspire our students and play an essential role in inspiring our students to use English. I think the school is very good, because, when I first came I couldn’t have day-to-day conversations such as ordering meals and solving problems at the bank. Now my English is much better than before and I don’t feel afraid anymore to talk to native speakers. It’s now easier to communicate and understand everyone. People in my class are friendly and always want to help each other. I made friends with people from different countries and it helped me to practice English. Australia has good Universities and I think everything in this school is helping me to improve my language skills, so I can start a Higher Degree later. When I arrived in Australia I didn’t have any English, but in 6 months I can communicate. My class is very good, because my colleagues are from different places of the world and it helps me to practice. My teacher is very nice, because she teaches and speaks very slow, so we can understand. The staff helps us a lot too. Times is so much different from my previous school. The English that I speak here in one week is much more compared to what I had to speak in one month there. My classmates here are so friendly and energetic and want to talk and communicate with each other. All the teachers are so gentle and always ready to help us the best as they can. After doing General English I changed to EAP to improve my academic English skills. My progress here is faster and my English is improving on a daily basis. Here I feel more confident to be myself. The facilities are awesome and we have everything we need. I love spending time in this school! The nice thing about studying here is that I have the opportunity to practice speaking English in class, so it’s not just about boring lessons and grammar. Since I started to study at Times I feel like my English is getting better every day. Here we have a big mix of nationalities, which makes me push myself to speak the whole time. The facilities are great, especially because of the location. It’s easy to access the school from everywhere and also to go from here to any place. The teachers and the other staff are also super friendly, helpful and receptive. Now I’m getting closer to my classmates and getting more comfortable to hang out with them, which helps me to enhance my language skills. The school is very good, because my teacher is funny and help me all the time. The classes are helping me to learn English. When I arrived here I couldn’t speak English at all, I started from the Beginner level and did the whole process, from Elementary to Upper Intermediate. After I finish my current course I intend to start English for Academic Purposes and also a certificate, because I believe it’s really important to have more knowledge before starting University in Australia. All my teachers have always been really nice, kind and happy to help and I think I made a good choice to study at Times.

The kiddo qualified for foil and epee Junior Olympics, and what a tremendous coincidence that they were held locally here in Portland, Oregon this year. This is one of my favorite pics from the weekend. She had broken her arm snowboarding a few weeks earlier, and we were SO happy her doctor cleared her to participate.

Good morning to you, did you enjoy the rain last night….and the thunder? Mother is good isn’t She? Thank God. Mother is good because She calls us here, even to wash us! Did you realise that after all the walking you have been doing, going up the mountain and the hill, some of us have been a little bit sweaty, so Mother decided, now is the time for a bath! So last night She decided, I want to bring my child, my sons, my daughters close and I want to wash them! My first time here to Medjugorje was when I was only 17 years old-I’m 102 now!! [Joke]. And I first came to Medjugorje because it was it was a free holiday. Yeah! I came looking for sun, sea and sand. Mother has a great sense of humour, what does Medjugorje mean? – between the hills, so there is no sea and no sand. I remember we stayed in one of the old houses in the old village. Are you enjoying where you are staying at the moment? Have you got air-conditioning, toilets in each room, lovely showers, food-brilliant? Well when I came when I was 17 years old in August 1989, we stayed in a house that had been converted from an old shack-an old barn and I was one of the youth that came. There was one sink in the room and on the first day there my friend Marcus, who was from Scarborough, not far from where I live, he began to fill the sink up with water and the sink fell off the wall. Air-conditioning? This is true, he opened the window and the pane of glass fell out! We had one toilet for the whole of the house. When our group leaders, because we were youth, the two ladies -Elsie and Ann gathered us for the Rosary, Elsie was nowhere to be seen. And we sat in this cramped little hall and Ann wanted to show us and teach us the Rosary and being 17, like many of the lads there, we didn’t want to pray, many of us didn’t want to be here. I didn’t want to be here, I was looking for the sea and the sand, yes we got the sunshine, it was very hot, it was August. The trouble was, when we started praying the Rosary, and, our group leader said “Our Lady says here, ‘pray with the heart’”. Pray with the heart? what does She mean? One of the lads, half way through the Rosary got so annoyed that he got up and threw the Rosary on the floor, went back to his room and slammed the door so hard that the toilet door opened up and poor Elsie was sat there! Like a good mother, she smiled at all of us sat [sitting] in the corridor and closed the door. I thought to myself, if this is praying with the heart, then I’m not going to that loo! Three days in, I honestly thought to myself what on earth am I doing here. Everywhere I looked people had Rosaries in their hands, people were wanting to come to Church, there were queues outside the confessional and I thought to myself at 17, I’m in the wrong place, honestly. So I began to go up one of the Hills. Fr. Slavko was saying ‘look, you have all been called here to be in the school of Mary, the school of prayer’. Fr Slavko would say, go on to the hills and find your place. So I went onto the Hill, looking for a little bit of quiet and trying to make sense of everything that was going on. As I started to go up the Hill, there was a woman, a young lady with a child- a little boy, he was maybe two years old and full of life and full of zest and he was wanting, not to climb the rocks but to run up the rocks. In the Croatian, she kept telling him “Samo malo, samo malo” – just a little. The mother was trying to tell the child just little steps. I began to realise then, my life needed those little steps. See, little steps, when we put one foot in front of the other, we have to know where we are going in life. Many of us here have been called for conversion. It’s a call each day of continual conversion. To make sure with Mother, we are careful with our little steps. Our Mother reminds us, and She has to put it in ‘ladybird’ language for me to understand. Today the Gospel reminds me of the seed, the wheat having to die. Our Mother, she comes and She says; Look, Simon, your way of living at 17 is going to lead you away from God. I had the grace of conversion and I changed, so much so that when I went back, Mam and Dad looked at me and said “you are glowing”. It wasn’t the suntan! And they said to me what’s happened? And I said I can’t put into words what has happened; you will have to come and experience it for yourself. So within two months in October, we were blessed that my whole family came out and they then began to live the messages of Our Lady. I’ve been back to Medjugorje many times now in fact I’d rather come here than look for the sun, the sea and the sand. In fact if I ever went on a beach I would sit there with my trousers on, it was just no longer comfortable for me anymore. Now rather than anything else in the pocket, what do we have in our pockets now? – Rosaries, because we all want to live the call our Mother gives us. And She gives to you and She gives to me and my Brothers here, the call of Prayer, Conversion, Fasting, Penance, Eucharist – those little ways, Samo Malo, just a little. And with those steps, She is changing not only hearts and minds, but changing the direction of your life and mine. She is changing direction of the world. But Her Immaculate Heart can only triumph if you say yes to those little ways, little steps. Who is here for the first time? Good Luck!! They should put a warning on your flight ticket….first of many! Because you will feel, when you get back home, that there will be no other place where you feel so much at home and you’ll want to come back time and time again. Every time you do come back we are a little bit like an onion, Mother brings us here, she peels back another layer of our life, and just like when you are doing the onions, we cry and we let go. Mind you, I’ll finish with this, one year when I had become a Priest, this is because of Medjugorje, I remember coming into the airport and there was one suitcase laid open and you could see boxer shorts, t-shirts, trousers, you could see the whole person’s life open, for everyone to see in that suit case. I had a very big smile on my face and I said thank God I have already got my suitcase. The trouble was this woman came up to me and she said Father, you have my suitcase! Everybody knew what colour boxer shorts I was wearing that week. But, perhaps our Mother was saying to me on that particular journey, don’t just open your life, open everything to me, because when we give over to Mother, being a Mother, She knows what is best. If you are striving in difficulties, worries, if you have no peace, you are in the right place. This is that moment for you. Mary is wanting to say to you Samo Malo… Just a little, and in that littleness, She will show you and me, each day that new way of living.

John Carter, Founder & Executive Director, The Turner 12, Inc. In 1999, I asked a question of a fellow teacher that ultimately changed my life. As we sat in an empty classroom talking about our day, I turned to her and asked why she became a teacher. Her response? She became a teacher to get 3 months off in the summer. For a few days after this conversation, I thought about my own life. I thought about growing up in the Roseland Homes Housing Development in Dallas. I thought about two teachers who greatly impacted me and exposed me to what life could offer outside of my surroundings. I remembered their applause as I graduated from Hillcrest High School. I can still feel their excitement as I walked across the stage at East Texas State University as a first generation college graduate. I wondered where I would be without their influence, without their voice. I knew what could happen when adults took the time to nurture and expose kids to what life could offer outside of their present conditions. I knew the impact that could result in a child's life when they realize that someone genuinely cares, that someone is invested and interested in their future and that someone expects them to excel. I knew what it felt like to have encouragement in the face of challenges and failures and to have support in the wake of opportunities and successes. And I knew I wanted to provide those same experiences to a new generation. I wanted to create a support system that could guide the paths of our youth. I wanted that system to encourage and empower them to succeed in education and in life. I began seeking support and designing what that system would look and feel like. And in the spring of 2000, The Turner 12 was formed. In the years since, I have had the pleasure of seeing our students excel in every area of their lives. They are succeeding academically. They are becoming leaders. They are giving back to their communities. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve in the development of these students and thrilled to have a front row seat to watch them as they grow to greatness.

During a recent Twitter chat about children's fiction, I was surprised to see someone ask the question, 'Do the rules of children's writing create books that are too uniform?' Now, one of the reasons I love writing children's books is that there are no rules. All facets of human life and relationships, in all their variety and complexity, can be found in the pages of children's fiction. If there were rules for writing children's fiction, one of the first ones might be to get rid of the parents. Think about all the children's books that quickly dispense with mum and dad in order to let the young hero or heroine set off on some death-defying adventure. But sadly for many children the most difficult journey they will ever have to face is the one heralded by the loss of a parent. Writers have a duty not to try to avoid the difficult issues readers might be facing, but to help them to realise that they're not alone. This difficult subject has been tackled in many great children's books, from The Lost Boys' Appreciation Society by Alan Gibbons to Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls, a novel based on an original idea from the much-missed author Siobhan Dowd, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer when she conceived of the story and died before she could write it. In my forthcoming novel, The Many Worlds of Albie Bright, I tell the story of Albie, a boy who has lost his mother to cancer and his journey to come to terms with this loss. Death, obviously, isn't the only difficult situation young readers may face. But with books about bullying (The Knife That Killed Me by Anthony McGowan), divorce (The Suitcase Kid by Jacqueline Wilson), dementia (Back to Blackbrick by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald), child carers (Dog Ears by Anne Booth), facial disfigurement (Wonder by R. J. Palacio), OCD (Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne) and PTSD (Heroic by Phil Earle), to name just a few, I can't think of an issue that young readers may encounter in their lives that they won't be able to see reflected in the fiction that they read. Real life doesn't come with an age rating. Awful and tragic events can appear out of a clear blue sky to blight the lives of the very youngest amongst us. Children's writers have a duty not to try to avoid the difficult issues that our readers might be facing, but to help them to realise that they're not alone. These books aren't manuals designed to show readers how to cope with the tragic situations that they're facing. They're stories and, like all the best stories, they show how people are changed by the events that befall them. They acknowledge the shock, anger and pain, but they also show that it's possible to go on. Stories help us to make sense of the world, even at its most random and cruel. I think authors of children's fiction are the writers who are allowed to take the most risks in their writing, because we have a fearless audience. There's a quote from the writer Neil Gaiman which says, 'Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.' When we write about difficult topics, we go into the dark places with our readers and acknowledge that their pain is real, but also give them hope for the future. All children deserve to be listened to; to have the chance to talk about their worst fears, their hopes and their dreams. Reading a book can be the start of an invaluable conversation. Christopher Edge is the author of the Twelve Minutes to Midnight series. His forthcoming novel, The Many Worlds of Albie Bright, is a funny and moving story about how one boy faces up to the loss of his mum.

I never know what to say or do when someone I care about is seriously ill or has lost someone they love. I bake, I take dinner, sometimes I write letters to let them know how I feel, and sometimes I sew. All things that feel inadequate when someone is facing death, or has lost a loved one, but they are the only things I know to do. I was learning to quilt, and I decided to make a special quilt for his birthday, a tribute to his life. I made a list of the things that I knew about him. He was the father of three sons and had three grandsons. He loved anything to do with the ocean. He was a whale watch docent for many years, and served as President of the Pacific Shell Club. He loved to fish, and Frank had a green thumb that I envy to this day. Over the summer of 2008 I embroidered quilt blocks with things that I felt represented his life. I finished the quilt just in time for his 79th birthday in October. It was my first quilt, and had a number of flaws, but I packed it up and shipped it to him with my love. Frank was in hospice when he received the quilt, and I’m told that he loved it, flaws and all. The quilt was my way of wrapping our love around him when we couldn’t be with him, and I can only hope that he felt that. We lost him just weeks later. On February 7th of this year we lost our dear friend, Bill Majik, again to cancer. Bill was only 56 years old. I wanted to be there for Bill and his wife Tammy, and over the length of his illness there were long conversations between Tammy and I, hugs, tears, and more words….and no matter what I said, I felt it was wrong, trite, inadequate. I made a few meals, my favorite way of showing my love, but of course, nothing I could do could ease their suffering. When Bill lost his battle with cancer in February, my heart broke for both Tammy and Bill. They had been madly in love even after twenty years together, and now Bill was gone, and Tammy had lost the love of her life. Of course I wanted to do something, and I didn’t even know if it was the right thing to do, but I offered to make a quilt for Tammy out of Bill’s shirts, something she could wrap herself in to feel his love. Tammy liked the idea, but a few days later she asked if we could make Teddy Bears out of Bill’s shirts for each of his daughters and his granddaughter……and could I teach her to sew. We began making the bears while she was still on leave from her job. We used some scrap fabric to make the first bear…basically I just supervised and Tammy did the sewing. It came out perfect. Since we started we’ve completed two bears from Bill’s shirts, have two more partially done, and at least two additional bears to make. I’d have to ask Tammy, but I think learning to sew the bears together has been much more healing than if I’d sewn them for her. Selfishly, I have to admit that working on these bears with Tammy has been cathartic for me. Each bear has a heart appliqued on it’s chest with the name of the daughter who will receive it, and a ribbon around it’s neck that reads, “ In Loving Memory of Bill Majik”, and it’s hard to imagine that anything could have been made with more love than these bears. We all have different ways to cope with loss, and to show our love. I’d love to hear your stories, you never know whose heart they’ll touch or inspire.

New fellow to the KOF scene! Topic: New fellow to the KOF scene! Howdy, friends! I'm Osiris, and I'm new to the whole KOF scene. I just got KOF14, and I'm in love with it! I don't have a set team yet, but I'm working on learning new characters. I've spent a lot of my time in Training Mode, compiling a bunch of data and info on specific characters. I have all this stuff in a Pastebin, please check it out! If anyone wants to help a beginner learn how to put a team together and learn to feel comfortable with the game, hit me up! My PS4 ID is OsyrisKun. Re: New fellow to the KOF scene! Welcome to the community Osiris. Glad you're having fun with 14, and hope you get to play with a lot of the members here.

I'm a full figured US Navy disabled vet looking for friendship/dating/LTR with a nice, genuine guy between 40 and 50 with a good personality and easy to talk to. Must like movies, music, books and animals. I'm not perfect so I don't expect you to be either. God bless. Serious inquiries only please. No games. Let's get one thing straight: I am NOT some chubby little white girl desperate for a man to where I'll just take anyone. Living in the US.

The following is a former employee’s account of strange happenings at the former Journey's End Hotel in Etobicoke, ON. Please keep in mind that this happened years ago (specifically 1993 - 1994). ”I was employed at the Obies Restaurant that used to be in the Journey's End Hotel (Quality now, I believe) at 2180 Islington Ave in Toronto. The restaurant was located on the main level (ground) in the south end of the building. I don't recall hearing about any events happening during the day, but all the experiences I had were all during the evening shifts and occurred to many of the staff. Here is an account of the different events that I can remember. Please keep in mind that most of the events that happened there were centered around the west end of the restaurant. On this occasion, there were 3 of us involved; myself, (name removed by PRO) the cook, and (name removed by PRO) the dishwasher. We were all in different sections of the restaurant and the restaurant was pretty empty (actually I don't recall anyone being in the restaurant at all). The cook was in the kitchen (north west corner of the restaurant, behind a swing door), the dishwasher was in the staff area (small alcove area by the emergency exit on the south end of the restaurant) and I was at the cash register area (north east end of the restaurant). At the same moment, we each heard one of the other's voice call us by name (I heard the cook call me, the dishwasher heard me and the cook heard the dishwasher - I think that is the right order). We all met in the middle of the restaurant wondering what each other wanted. It was then realized that none of us had called for each other. On many occasions, different staff would see a man who sat in the corner table at the north west end of the restaurant. Mostly it would be when someone (including myself) would walk by and see someone sitting there out of the corner of their eye. When we would look back to serve the table or whatever, there would be no one sitting there. The only way for someone to leave that seat and exit the restaurant would be to cross the restaurant. And no one saw anyone leave. The one thing we all did agree on was that this person was a man, in his mid 30s, with a red baseball cap. There were different occurrences of objects flying through the air. The first that was noticed was witnessed by a restaurant full of customers and staff. The coffee machine by the staff area of the restaurant had the metal filter "fly" across the room. It wasn't that it just fell out or anything like that. It actually flew straight out and landed in the middle of the restaurant (twice in the matter of a few minutes). Also, in the kitchen, pots stored on a high shelf above the dishwasher’s pit would literally fly off the shelf (sideways...like sliding across the shelf until it flew off the end). These were not small pots, but larger and heavier stock pots. This experience was a bit more frightening, as it seemed like an attack on a person. A waiter (name deleted by PRO) was doing his normal cleaning duties (the restaurant was pretty empty and it was close to closing time, around 9pm). He went to the coffee station by the staff area to start refilling and restocking items. In the coffee stand was a small cupboard where we kept a garbage pail. When the waiter opened the door to the garbage, bolts of electricity started flying at him and literally threw him back. He was very distraught by this and screamed as it happened. Seconds after it happened, I received a phone call from my friend (name deleted by PRO) inquiring as to what had just occurred. You see, my friend is a mystic clairvoyant and is very good at what she does. She has worked with many law enforcement agencies in Canada and the USA, such as the RCMP, US Secret Service, CIA, FBI and more. She was the psychic who helped solve the Son of Sam case in the US. I told her on the phone what had just occurred and she told me that there was a poltergeist in the restaurant. One evening, my friend and her daughter (name deleted by PRO) visited me in the restaurant. She sat in the section that was in the west end of the restaurant, right in the middle of that section. Shortly after she sat down the lights around her table (and only her table) went out. Now, please realize that the lights in the restaurant are on different switches. It was impossible to turn out only the lights around her table as they were on 2 or 3 different switch sections and none of the other lights in these switch sections turned off. She told me that "they" knew she was here and that the lights would come back on shortly after she left. After some talk about what had been happening in the restaurant, her and her daughter got up and left. No sooner did she walk out the door to her car, when the lights around the table that she had sat at came on again. There was a small room raised above the restaurant (a couple of steps) on the north side of the restaurant that was used as a small meeting/banquet room. One night, I placed a tape recorder in the room on the floor by the west wall. I made sure that no one entered the room and left the tape to record. I brought the tape back to my psychic friend and we listened to it. On the tape you could hear footsteps approach the tape recorder, stop, and then walk away. Unfortunately, I don't know what happened to that tape as it is not in my possession anymore. Well, that is about all that I can remember from that place. I hope this information is useful to you.

yay. now when people say to me, "why don't you get a job doin graphic arts?" i can send them to this site you really have a lot of talent. i know this may make me sound poor, but would you mind if i used one of your designs on a shirt? not to sell of course, but i really liked "once upon a war" and wanted to make it in my graphic communications classroom, but i wanted to ask you first.

The Best of Adam Sharp contains some important messages about the folly of pining after a "lost love" and also the importance of recognizing and appreciating what you have now. Unfortunately, it takes a long time to deliver the message. Adam Sharp works in IT in England and is an amateur musician. In the late 1980s, he's sent to Australia for a temporary work project. While there, he is playing piano and singing in a bar one night when a young woman comes up and begins singing with him. It seems she is an actress who is currently appearing on a soap opera, so she's well-known to everyone in the room -- except Adam. He eventually begins an affair with the woman, Angelina, even though she is currently married (although unhappily). When Adam's job assignment is up, he moves on to the next assignment in Singapore, and feels like he is in no position to ask Angelina to leave her job and marriage to follow him. Nor is he willing to give up his job and move across the world to be with her. Eventually he begins a long-term relationship with a woman in England, Claire, and they settle down into domesticity. But of course, he never forgets Angelina and always wonders "what could have been." Fast forward 20 years. He and Claire have become rather bored with each other. He works now and then on temporary IT contracts, but it's really Claire who brings in the money. They tried to have children, but were unsuccessful and didn't want to to the IFV route. Now Claire's company is possibly going to be purchased by a larger company, and if that happens, she will have to move to the USA, at least for a few years, to complete the transition. Once again, Adam is unwilling to uproot himself (although there doesn't seem much to give up) and so he pretty much decides that if Claire goes to the USA, that will be the end of their relationship. At the same time, out of the blue, he begins receiving messages online from Angelina. In the years since their relationship she has divorced, remarried, had 3 children, and become a lawyer. With his own relationship in something of a decline, Adam again begins to fantasize about having a relationship with Angelina. It just so happens that she and her husband are coming to France for a vacation, and she proposes that Adam might like to join them -- for old time's sake. The second half of the book, when Adam and Angelina reconnect, is quite long and drawn out, and veers into very unlikely territory. Both Adam and Angelina's husband, Charlie, fall all over themselves to wait on her hand and foot. What is really going on in Angelina's marriage is also a question that takes a long, long time to resolve. All in all, I found the book to be quite annoying. Not only the complicated relationships, but the fact that Adam, wherever he goes, finds a piano and immediately sits down and starts to play and sing is quite far-fetched. Not only that, but whoever happens to be around (friends, significant others, general strangers) beg him to continue playing and shout out requests. Also, he knows just the right song and just the right lyrics to sing (while giving significant and meaningful glances) for any situation. If I knew this person I would be MORTIFIED and refuse to go anywhere with him. And why are there pianos at every bar, house and airport he visits??? While the book may contain some important messages, it takes so long to get there, with so many musical asides, that at the end I was just grateful it was over, rather than enlightened!

I was sitting in my studio with the TV on. I was editing some sound tracks for a guy in Nashville that he wanted to use in the upcoming music awards show. I had my earphones about half on and the phone in one ear doing some digipoint editing (we were using an early, and very primitive version of Pro-tools) while listening to the instructions being given me over the phone as he was listening to what I was doing on my end. All of a sudden I heard him say "What the hell?" I thought I had made a bad edit and I asked what I did. He said "Turn on CNN now!" I clicked on the remote just in time to see smoke coming from a tall building and the announcer saying a plane hit one of the twin towers. It was a very short time later we both saw the second plane hit. He said "Wrap it up, I'll take it as is" and I suppose he did as I and lots of other people did, stayed glued to the TV for a week.

Bookings are now being taken for our National Science and Engineering Week events for schools. Activities run on the 17th and 18th March. There are various themes to choose from. The mathematics session is Chaos on Earth. Visit www.qmul.ac.uk/nsew(link is external) to find out more.