The Inclusive Academy of Sword Fighting Skills for the Vertically Challenged, Milton North Campus

[TheSmallPrint]

Selected master classes available in;

Beard Plaiting
Grimacing
Application of Prosthetics
Dragon Taming

Please make welcome our <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.ramascreen.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Hobbit-thorin-richardarmitage.jpg&imgrefurl=www.ramascreen.com/the-hobbit-first-look-at-thorin-oakenshield&usg=__O91GQN2kC1_7KRh88mB40XHMmYw=&h=1600&w=2400&sz=1063&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=KHapa_DPfVYNhM:&tbnh=137&tbnw=174&ei=2UkkTraJC4a38gPS2PGkAw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dthorin%2Bpictures%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26biw%3D1920%26bih%3D880%26tbm%3Disch%26prmd%3Divns&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=1270&vpy=422&dur=1623&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=143&ty=96&page=1&ndsp=54&ved=1t:429,r:41,s:0&biw=1920&bih=880" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">new lecturer.

Morning all, (and a special Academy hug for LadyD today).

There is another interview online The Scotsman. I don't at all like the picture they used! It kind of freaks me out, actually - he looks like a member of the Undead (but not in a good way :o)

Morning! Whose is that transcript up there ^ is that BCCMEE? That was veyr nice of him to come over like that.

Twigs I can't open your link.

Try this

I don't mind that pic. I think it's over-exposed, that is the problem.

Don't read the interview, Spiro. Not ever

I don't know who did the transcript but it wasn't bccmee who met him. By the way, I just got her name, after all this time :o

Thanks for correcting my link, Massive. I think you are right baout the over-exposire. It makes the skin around his eyes look greenish. Hi slook reminds me of a pic that I always dislike when I come across it on my ReseArch travels... just something about that look is unappealing. I thin it's the windswept hair and lack of fringe.

Ooooohhhh, I may have just either been very clever or way too obsessed :) I think the two photos are from the same shoot! In my 'pic I dislike] link, he's wearing a black jacket with a purple shirt and if you look closely at his neck* in the interview photo, I think it's the same
outfit! Dear Lord, did I just see one photo and mentally conjour up another one from the exact same shoot? ['needs to get a life' emoticon]

• something I spend rather too much time doing

Definately the same photo session Twigs and I agree, very unflattering.

This made me larf I didn't make that many friends on Robin Hood," he says. "I'm convinced it was because I walked about with a face like a slapped arse all the time that or the PLFW and the SG were upset that the focus was on him instead of them.

I haven't got her name yet, can you PM me or that will drive me nuts.

I was at the smacked arse comment. A very beautiful smacked arse, Mr A.

It's not about who coined the expression Mr Thornton with a beard, Massive, it's about its propensity to reduce me to a quivering mass!

As far as I can see, Twigs, Bccmee is just a random string of letters. But then, I'm still mulling over the thought that all his most satisfying roles have come from novels. They most certainly have.

It certainly looks better than mine Massive .

It such a beautiful day today that I am sitting in the garden refusing to do any work. I know this will get me behind but what the hell I'm going to live a little!

Twigs, how hard would it be to make a Finn McMissile cake? A nightmare?

Where do you buy coloured icing from? (can you tell I've never done Thai before??)

Well obviously I've done Thai before but I've not done this before damn you auto correct!

Ah, I forgot, I wanted to say I am thinking of you, LadyD.

Of course, thinking of you here too Lady D, hope today goes well.

Maud, I am having 2nd thoughts about her name - it was when I frisat said it out loud that I thought it was like "send me a blind copy on that email" ie. "BCC me". But on explaining it to Small earlier, I think I am probably wrong :)

Small, I'd never heard of Finn McThingy before but Googled him and that does look tricky as a 3D model. Though I suppose it's basically a rectangle with a wedge shape on top and you could build up the [what are they called? bumpers? fenders?] on the side with icing. What colour is he (hard to tell from the pics)? If he is silvery then you can buy a lustre dust that you brush onto white icing. If he is grey then that'd be dead easy - you just buy a block of white and then use a little bit of black food colouring. However, all that said, I would cheat and do a 2D version, like this. I did a 2D Mary Poppins a few years ago by getting a pic up on the PC and then holding up some thin paper to the screen and tracing it, then using that to make a template.

wings?

Thanks Twigs, I would like to do a 3D one but suspect it will be impossible so may have to do a flat one like that. It still looks good and I'm sure he would love it.

You can buy car cake pans but they won't be exactly his shape. You can get a Lightning McQueen pan...

Thinking of you too, Lady D.

Twigs that windswept pic is really grim but the one on the interview's not quite so bad. They're really old though - you'd have thought they'd have got something more recent.

I had a wander round town while the car was being fixed this morning & found a biography of Georgette Heyer in a charity shop for 99p!

I have also managed to buy all the bits to create the cheapest half decent party bags in history so am feeling a bit smug at the mo.

(don't get me started on birthday cakes though!)

I suppose I need to learn how to make a cake too then?

I have the best birthday cake receipe ever, if you want me to PM it, Small. Dead easy and absolutely perfect. I make it every time and it's never failed me. Keeps for about a week, too, so you can make the cake in advance. Your other option is to have a plain cake with small 3D figures on top, made entirely from icing. That's what I did for TwigBoy's Chuggington cake last year - though I actually found that really hard.

Spiro, yes, I thought it was odd not to use a recent photo. Especially when there is so much lovely choice. Hope the car is ok now at not too much a cost. And score on the Heyer biog! I finished reading Venetia last night and have started on Sylvester now. I know the audiobooks a little, ahem, too well, and it's really nice to read the extra bits that had been left out of the recordings. Deleted scenes, as it were :)

Day going veeeeeeeery slowly here. They both want to stay indoors all day and are refusing to do any of the errands I wanted to run and as it's Whatever You Want Day, I am letting them. But man alive it makes for a slow day :)

Yes please Twigster, I feel it's my duty to bake at least one cake in my role as mother!

Spiro are you being thrifty in order to pay the car bill?

No Small. Am just sick of doing 'at home' parties on the grounds that they're cheaper and ending up spending more than a couple of hours at soft play would cost.

I am a bit anal about themes... so always end up buying all the coordinated tableware, decorations etc, spending 4x as much on making cakes & biscuits etc rather than buying them and theming the bloody party bags!

They have still got really nice ones, I've just been a bit more sensible than usual.

I do that too Spiro, I spent a fortune on a cake last year which was rubbish and I could have got a lovely one from Marks or Waitrose for a fraction of the cost.

Smallio, Huge Ackman is on Twitter too....