yes, Dave, you will find any museum in Bath is well run with a lovely ambience. The Roman Baths, especially in holiday time, if you have children, are great.The Assembly rooms, as seen on Antiques Road Show are beautiful and were very well restored after the bombing. Under the Rooms is the Museum of Costume which is great, lovely historical costumes plus, an Outfit of the Year is chosen every year, and they are interesting to see - and remember. it is the way the city is run that is a mess. They are going to do things to the station which will make it impossible for me to travel by train any more, they tore down a lovely Art deco building - it was the power house for the trams, then was converted into shops - and replaced it with a thing that is known as the Busometer - a stupid round "thing".

Life is a little difficult at present. However, we will survive - I hope. I have mobility & balance problems, but my husband has been diagnosed with a tumour which has to be removed and he has to go to Bristol for it. Difficult travelling!  On the positive side, I do enjoy the pix in the Photo A Day on this site. They are brilliant, taken by good  photographic artists. it is the first thing I do when I access the site, see what the photo is.  I am saddened that there seem to be so many bulldings, like those on today's photo, which are not restored, they are a part of Wigan's heritage. There have been many attempts here in Bath to remove buildings that should not have been removed, there is a site near here - the old pilgrim's/Roman way most of which was torn down and houses built there. Some of them are left, but most were taken. The houses were supposed to be trendy, but are not so now.

I've been made quite angry these past few weeks with all this guff about cadburys selling to Kraft, there was even an item on the radio this morning about how the Quaker principle of looking after staff will be lost after the sale. Before the offer was announced, Cadbury had said that they were going to close the plant in Keynsham - East Bristol - formerly Frys - having been in Bristol for over 100 years - then transfer the production to Hungary. Kraft have said they will keep the plant open, but have not definitely repeated this after the acceptance, still it gives the people of Keynsham some hope for a while. There is nothing else there and it's a nice area except some Council Offices. it certainly shows how the media manipulate news as they wish.

I had to take my husband to hospital this morning for a scan, we went by taxi and the taxi driver comes from Burnley. On the way back we had a lovely chat about our childhood memories. Also, last night we saw the recording we had made of the Scrooge film - with Alistair  Sim as Scrooge. it was wonderful. My paternal Gran who actually came from Spitalfields in London was very keen on Dickens, and I read the story as quite a young child - all her  descendants were brought up on these books.It terrified me when I first read it, but I have grown to like it very much. In one of my classes when I was teaching, there was a young lad - I think they were in year 10, his grandfather had been in the SS during the war, and to the other lads, he was quite frightening. he did not behave badly in class. Anyway, I read the story to them just before we broke up for Christmas, and to my surprise, he became hooked on Dickens. he kept coming to see me to tell me of his latest read, and he was so keen. I left that school shortly afterwards so I never knew what became of him, but at least I did a little bit of good to someone.

We are not having it as bad as some, but it is still bad enough. I drove past the river on Tuesday and it was already over the footpath. The dog doesn't like the rain, she mooches about the park until i say the magic words - "Let's go back" and she is back at the car in double quick time. They are holding the funeral of Melanie Hall in the Abbey in a couple of weeks. it is so sad, I do wish they could catch the vile person/s who killed her. it is rumoured that the 2 men who were arrested and then released were former pupils of mine. What got to both of us was the fact she was more or less the same age as our daughter - whose best friend at school was blonde & pretty and who was called - Melanie Hill.  it is so unfair that she did not have the same life that they have had, and that her parents and sister should suffer like this. I have had the new Windows installed in my computer. There are several things I don't like and it is taking some getting used to, perhaps it is old age.

Thank you Dave for your kind words. What you said about your father in law reminded me of my Dad. he only spoke of a small part of experiences, to my knowledge, once,  and that was to my husband. He was in a forward trench, at the end of it there was a look out post which was in the sights of a sniper - everyone knew this, including those in charge. yet, they kept sending officers up to man the lookout, knowing they had a life of 20 minutes there before they were shot dead. He was so angry and sad about it. he was a lovely gentle man and I can never forgive the louts who caused his death.

Thank you for your kind words, I felt better after reading your comments. Life is not much improved, although I think that today my husband is a little better - still in pain  from his knee, but his blood sugar level has dropped - one of the lowest this week. We watched Andrew marr's documentary on the 20th. Century last nigh - the Great war. There was lots I hadn't heard of, which was interesting. he told the story of Seigfreid Sassoon, which was very moving. He is buried not far from here, in a village which was Jack Horner's Plum - that's another story. I like to go there, there is a great pub which serves good meals - and I always visit his grave, there's usually a poppy put there. We have just had the picture framer here with the two pictures they have framed for us. One is of my dog, painted by a friend of ours. The other is a charcoal drawing of Bickershaw which is lovely. I am looking forward to putting it on the wall near to my oil painting of the old Wigan market. I'm not sure when it will go up yet, need someone to put it up for me.

I have been quite distressed of late, and I am thinking of not going into the message boards again. On one thread it was suggested that I am a witch, and on another, there was a nasty trick played on me when I followed the link. it is sad when people have nothing else to do but tease others or be nasty. Brian works hard on the site and he does not deserve this kind of behaviour. There are some great photos, especially the Photo A Day - they are great and are also interesting, sometimes I recognise the places, and sometimes I don't. Life is quite tough at present, my husband is almost completely immobile, he is due to have a knee replaced in 3 weeks time, all this on top of my difficulties in walking. Still, I hope matters will improve some time.

So, Kraft are trying to take over Cadburys. Hopefully, that will succeed - at least, that is what a lot of people of Keynsham are saying. it is no longer a case of a plucky English company fighting a foreign takeover. The factory at Keynsham - once Frys - is due to close next year while they move production to Poland. Kraft have said that they will keep the factory open. it is a lovely building and has a huge sports ground attached - with a conference centre and club house as well. I have been to meetings there (conference centre) and it is a fascinating place, full of team photos dating back a long way. if you went to a meeting there and it went over lunch time, you got a voucher to go into the factory and buy what you liked - seconds etc, all at a cheap price. Keynsham is within our LEA, so there is great interest here in Bath. During the war, a spinster relative of ours used to spend her sweet ration on bars of Frys Little Boys, keep them in her hand bag, and if she met anyone fro the family, she used to give them a bar.

This morning, we had our 4th. Sky HD box fitted - the first was in january. Now we are waiting for the engineer to come and fit number 5. If only they would issue new boxes, it might be better, but they are all re-conditioned ones. We would have changed to another system, but, when it works, it is such a good one. I must admit, I am beginning to lose patience. To change the subject, today would have been my Dad's birthday - he was born in the same year as Harry Patch - the WW1 veteran who died a few weeks ago at the age of 111. My Dad was also a WW1 veteran, but he was a boy soldier and served longer than Harry did. he was a lovely Dad and I am so grateful to hm for who he was, and his care for me. There is so much I could say, but haven't the time.