I am glad you liked them 

I am glad you are safe home and that you and your family had a good time. What you told us about the beach sounds so fun in a relaxing, cool way. I am sure there was a very pretty landscape too. Thanks for sharing that, I had not heard about the Dinosaur Coast.

I didn't know before, too. I found it on Google Maps , when I was looking for a place to visit on our way back from the Needles at the west coast. We had one day on the island. To be honest, I just knew that the island was supposed to be beautiful and that there were those cool rocks that look like needles in the west. I didn't know before that apparently there are a lot of fossils to be found. It seemed like every second village has some sort of dinosaur themed something. I guess it is because of the rock formations and what kind of rocks there are. One can see all the different layers. I really like places like that. It is similar at the Atlantic coast of France, though the rocks were a bit different there. Less chalky.
There would have been so much to visit, one can't put everything in one day. One can put a lot in one day, but this wouldn't be fun any more then. So, for both Cornwall and the Isle of Wight I just planned for one location to visit. And then let's see what else is on the way and if we still have energy for something new. I left out a lot of things I wanted to see. But there were some must see locations and we did all of those.
And as we did not manage to get tickets in time for the Harry Potter studios, we will do that maybe this year in autumn or next year in spring.
But we managed to get into Madame Tussaud's. I've been there at the age of 15 with a friend and a group of fellow teenagers. And I knew, it would be fun for my kids, too. Also there is a bunch of new stuff I wanted to see. And LOL, I think the Terminator is still the same as it was 30 years ago.

Hi, weird!

Fcrate, I love your hedgehog story and of course one would name a hedgehog Sonic, lol.
And I am sure you are a great teacher. In my opinion neither just memorisation nor understanding works on its own. The best method of teaching lies in the middle. A mixture of memorisation and understanding.This is so that all the children can learn it. Those who don't understand yet still get the knowledge through memorisation and those who understand get the knowledge programmed into their brains for later use.
There is a difference in how the kids learn these days in Germany than how my generation learned. Nowadays they are more about understanding. But they don't do memorisation any more. So you have the result that some kids memorise for themselves and some don't, because they were not told to do this. Then you have those who understand but can't remember what it was they understood. And you have those who still don't understand and don't memorise either. Those are left behind.
Neither is best on its own, but do it both and there will be less children left behind.
For example, in elementary school, they never learned their multiplication tables. The teachers told them that they should learn it but it was never tested. The teachers just assumed that's just knowledge now.
It is great that they understand how the numbers work, but Mini still doesn't know what 6 multiplied with 7 is if I asked her. Or Micro doesn't understand that if she can't remember what 7 multiplied with 9 is, she can just multiply with 10 and go from there. And that the same rules apply to higher numbers. Even though they were told why it works. I am glad that at least Micro has a good memory, so she did the memorisation technique. So she can at least multiply using the table in her brain.


Yesterday we visited the ruins of Tintagel Castle and Merlin's Cave. Very beautiful, great day. I drove the rented car. I have driven on the wrong side before , but this was almost two decades ago. So far, the car is still alive and undamaged. We only got honked at in London, but who in their right mind would drive in a city like London? Or Paris. Or any big city. We just had to because the rental agency was there.

We will return home the day after tomorrow.

LOL the beetles! Sorry for the confusion. 

There was never as much snow as in The Eternauta in the city. In July 9, 2007, we had a little snow, most of it melted as soon as it touched the grown.

fascinating. Then this was even more disturbing.
During the heat wave the cats sometimes liked food directly from the refrigerador. And they were often lying in the cool basement.
Now it has 16-18°C and we are cold, lol. Also it is raining a lot. This is also normal for summer. The sudden drastic change in temperature from one day to another. I think in a week or two the heat will return. And then at the end of August, you'll look outside and suddenly it is autumn.

My mother has cardiac insufficiency and is better now,  but not well. She says she is well, but she still has problems with her blood pressure. It changes a lot from high to low. I hope her GP will be able to get her an earlier appointment with the cardiologist. Her medication needs to be adjusted by a specialist. I think her dose of beta blockers is too high.

And now I am transforming Micro's childrens' room into a teenager's room. To say I am almost done would be exaggerated, but one can definitely see progress. Maybe the little neighbour girl would like some toys and books, too. I plan to keep the special stuff for future grandchildren, lol. Like the best books, all the Lego, and some dolls. And of course the matchbox cars. I loved my matchbox cars and my husband loved his. Now we get them back.

I also have some beetles of different colours (two of them blue), but they have always been in the living room, lol. The kids were allowed to play with them under the condition that they are returned to their place on the shelf when they are done.
There is also a scull on this shelf.

@Dina: Happy birthday to your hubby!
I hope the cake will be delicious.

We finished our leftovers yesterday.
The whole weekend felt like an orgy. I can't remember when I stuffed myself like that the last time. It was also our wedding day yesterday and my husband and I went to a sushi restaurant. After that we just rolled ourselves to the sofa and stayed there until bedtime, lol. So, today I need to do something for my body. It will be some gymnastics, maybe some biking of the weather holds and then I promised Micro to help her with her room. Almost all toys out so that she will have the space for a new bed. The old bed will go to our new neighbours.
 

Hi, weird!

Just dropping by. It is hot outside. Finally the rains have stopped. The kids have school holidays and are being lazy.😉

We have started watching Andor season 2 and like it a lot.

My mother's birthday is tomorrow and she wants a cake, so I'll bake one today. Just sent Micro out for eggs to overcome the laziness.

I'm still not done with the dinosaur, but I hope it will be finished by next week. I am proud of the coloured stripes, looks almost like the back of an European Garden Spider (Kreuzspinne).

Mini wants to visit an art museum in Munich next week. She's an artist. Doesn't need much to be happy: just food, drink and art supply, lol.

Quote fromTalby16:

She knew she was pregnant when she set up the amulet linkage. She might have even had Harry at that point. In the amulet message to Thomas she told him to look out for his brother. Thomas had memories of his mother and already knew that he had a brother.

Oh, you might be correct. I just looked up the timeline. I always thought that she met Malcolm after her escape. Now it makes sense: she needed to escape and leave Thomas, because she was pregnant with a non vampire child in a vampire household.

~26-27 BSF: Thomas is given a pentacle necklace on his fifth birthday. His mother escapes Lord Raith.

26 BSF: Maggie LeFay meets Malcolm Dresden.

~25 BSF: Collin Murphy saves rookie CPD officer Rawlins from an unspecified supernatural creature in a dark alley, killing it with a shotgun full of rock salt. (~30 years before Dead Beat)

26 BSF, some time between August and October – Malcolm Dresden and his heavily-pregnant wife Margaret visit the Lincoln Memorial.

26 BSF, October 31: Harry is born. Harry’s mother, now Margaret Gwendolyn Dresden, dies in childbirth. She is murdered by a ritual entropy curse, courtesy of Lord Raith.

My thoughts on Harry being planned are from IIRC two comments somewhere in the books: I can't remember who said it, but it went like "what they bred you for" (was it Nicodemus or Dracul?) and "what he was meant to be" by Martha Liberty or Listens-to-Wind in Summer Knight. This implies that Harry's existence didn't seem to be random.
@Talby16: so, Thomas wasn't planned. What a relief.

Sorry for the double post. It wouldn't let me edit the original post.

Just wanted to add: I also wasn't happy with the ending of the last Dr Who episode. Like what: