You can still leave messages on the voicethread (a post down) or on here and I’ll follow him around today (paparazzi styleee) and add pictures to the slide show below!

and here’s a message from Nini and Dunk all the way from Thailand… (2pm) It made him smile Yay! Good to see you both looking so well

Below is something called a “voicethread” it allows you to leave messages about something for others to read. I use it in teaching to get pupils to discuss… stuff. Now.. .I thought we could use it to say happy Birthday to an old man. The advantage of using sound and webcams being that he won’t have to find his binoculars to read the messages

All you have to do is:

1. Go to voicethread.com and create an account. ( or use User: selena clarke at gmail dot com (but as an actual email address if you catch my drift!)  Pass: party1980 amd skip to point 2!)
2. Come back here and click on the comment button at the bottom of the “voice thread”
4.Choose your weapon! How do you want to comment? Select your option
3. Put in your user name and password ( or the one i mentioned in point 1)

5. Record your message

So far… well done Ciaran! This may be too much and I might be being silly.. But I thought it was worth a try as we’re so far away! lol if all else fails there’s always Faceache or leave a comment here

I do spend a lot of time on facebook… It’s a great way for me to keep up to date with the goings on of my friends and family. I chat to my cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Pals.. all sorts. Mostly about nonsense but nonsense is the normal stuff that we sometimes take for granted This morning when I logged on I noticed that one of my most awesome of uncles has been offended by a status message his teenage daughter left about wanting to get out of this S**t hole. Now… When we were 16 we all wanted to get out of this S**t hole. We didn’t mean that we hated the people we lived with or the house we grew up in. What we meant was -”I’m a teenager – I’m working out who I am and I feel like I’d like to get out and see a bit more.” I guess the difference is. Even when I was 16 comments like that were private. I might have spoken like that to my friends (no mum… I’m sorry… i didn’t even bother to spell the word out loud… i just said it.. I was a rebel you see) or mentioned my adverse feelings towards Redditch in Mirc or ICQ. I NEVER would have mentioned it, in quite that manner infront of my parents… Mostly because I’d be in BIG trouble. We don’t swear in the Clarke household until an extreme situation happens and then (if you’re mum) you’d have to spell the word rather than say it – Which is really funny.

What really got me thinking though was this comment… “Here Here sign of the times..” I started imagining what it would have been like if I’d have had YOUtube, Facebook, Twitter, WordPress etc when I was a kid. OH MY GOD! SHAK FM would have been a Youtube channel sending it’s messages across the world. We’d have had to have hid the fact that we were only miming with Dad’s old battered guitar in the garage and N8girl and I would definitely been YOUTUBE singing sensations. In fact we’d have won “Britain’s Got Talent” by the time we were 14 and be filthy stinking rich! I mean I was always being followed with a video camera the size of a small house and was THE Biggest show off known to humanity so just imagine what horrors could have awaited!

However, when you think even further down the generations and consider what might have happened if our parents had had access to the same web 2.0 and file sharing services then it gets really scary. Uncle M would definitely have created himself a Youtube channel for his band and a My Space page to post his gis. My dad? The gadget king? Well goodness only knows what chaos he could have created with the power of the modern inter webs.

Mum? Well I imagine she would have her own Spotify DJ account in which she would showcase her own “edits” of the songs she steals from Youtube – They’re much better than the originals you know…

So… What if we allowed our folks just a taste of the stardom they could have achieved if they were generation y?

and here’s the band they were all singing about…

Sorry folks…

We can’t be that mean to the grownups and not embarrass ourselves can we??

I’ll upload something now….

I’m waiting for the train so thought I’d try this new wordpress app. It’s flipping hot outside again! I decided to meet matt for lunch after a pretty unproductive morning.

It was lovely. We sat by the river and had some nice cool drinks and sandwiches . Yom ! Train’s here!!

Us in Selly Oak / Weoley Castle 2000

2010 - Red Poles

The picture on the left was taken in the year 2000 when Matt and I started seeing each other. I can’t believe that this picture on the right was taken in 2010 (10 years later!) Time has flown and when you think back ten years an awful lot has happened.  Nice things of course There’s no way that in the year 2000 whilst sat in Weoley Castle in my ground floor bedroom I’d have thought that in 2010 I’d be living in Australia.  No way at all!

But, we are and so we can go to lovely places  We decided to go to Red Poles for lunch today.  It’s in one of my favourite locations.  Right in the middle of all those yummy vineyards My memories of the place had not done it justice.  It’s so beautiful and calm; perfect for a Sunday afternoon.

YOM! I NEED one of those tea cosies!!! AWESOME

There are moments in your life when you feel a bit overwhelmed by loveliness. Red Poles does that to me.  We were sat under the veranda which is draped in a beautiful grape vine and fairy lights, looking out across a vineyard, lawns and a pool full of long grass (no water i don’t think!).  There’s someone playing guitar and singing lovely, soothing soft live music about 100 yards behind you and food and drink is brought to you on request.  The food is amazing.  Fresh, tasty, homecooked.  YOM!  Being the Brit I am I even managed to finish my luncheon with  a cream tea   Perfection.

ooohh… and I nipped to Foggos to get some of last years Cincaut Rose   Double YOM!!

Now then, Who do we have here?

Hannah Davis, Matthew Rooker, Selena Woodward (then Clarke), Mr Allured, Mrs Mason, Kendrick ??, Luke Henderson (I’ll cop the flack… I don’t care!), Becky McIntyre, John Wood, Emily Williams, Was Chris in it??? I’m not sure!!! FUN FUN FUN!

1992…

last night was lovely. After spending all day organising myself, my emails and my new website I realised that it was time to head to the park to see the parade! It was sooo lovely. I can see exactly why a “British” day would be a brilliant idea.

When you think of Australia day you might be forgiven for assuming that everyone starts a BBQ, wears cork hats and sings Waltzing Matilda. Now, i’m not going to deny that probably did happen in a few households but the parade (as you can see from the pictures) was not made up purely of beer drinking Bruces and Sheila’s. Instead, it was a celebration of all things australian ( well south Australian) and that included over 100 different nationalities and communities showing off their traditional dances and cultures. It was brilliant. A true celebration of multi-culturalism. Fabulous and something that is probably needed in the UK. It wouldn’t hurt everyone to stand on the side of the street and celebrate each other, embrace each others querky ways just for an hour or so. It made me even prouder to be here!