Penny Legg - a busy life!

Crumbs, it has been some time since I last blogged. Shows I have been busy.

I heard recently that I had been successful in my proposal to write a fourth book. Southampton Past and Present will be published at the end of 2010 by The History Press. This will be an interesting project as it will involve taking archive photographs and recreating them in colour in a modern day Southampton. The contrasts will be interesting, I think.

I have been asked if I would like to tutor non-fiction writing for the Writers Bureau. As readers of this blog and my website will know, I launched a writing consultancy some weeks ago. Tutoring for a major distance learning college will be an interesting challenge, which I am looking forward to taking on.

I will be off to Cornwall soon to follow up stories in that part of the world. I grew up visiting the West Country and love it. Recently I have not been in a position to go there as often as I would have liked as I was abroad, and so to be working there for a short while will be a pleasure. I hope that Martin's dairy is still in Looe. They have, in my humble opinion, the best Cornish ice cream in the world and their clotted cream, well...... You know where I will be heading for part of the time I am in the county.

I also learnt that I had passed my latest Open University course. The Diploma in Literature and Creative Writing consists of two courses, both undergraduate level and very interesting. I took the first course in the current academic year and heard on Friday that I had a good pass, so I am pleased.

In the meantime, Writing Buddies is coming on leaps and bounds. We had a dozen writers last Friday and several new faces, which was great.

On the home front, have you ever played on a Nintendo Wii? I hadn't until yesterday when my husband and I were staying the weekend with my brother, who has just bought one. He has the Wii Fit too, which I have to say is brilliant! It told me, after I had fed in all the preliminary information, done some exercises and been scanned by the machine, that my body is that of a woman 13 years younger than my actual age! How great is that? Women everywhere, you must buy one of these machines. They are the best ego boost you will ever have!

Ok all for now. I am off to write some more folklore...

Looking to the Future....

As we are leaving Anguilla soon I am looking to the future. I have been debating whether to take a Masters degree and if so, which course to take and at which university.

Yesterday I was browsing the Open University website (http://www.open.ac.uk/), as I do periodically, to see if anything new has been added to the long list of under and post graduate courses my Alma Mater offers. I found all kinds of subjects!

A couple of years ago the university began a creative writing course at undergraduate level. I thought then that it would be a good idea to take it, as the more you learn, the more you realise there is to learn. Now I find that a second course has been added and the two can be linked to a Diploma in Literature and Creative Writing. The course looks interesting and so I have signed up. Hopefully by the time I get to finish it there will be a Masters course I like the look of and so will be able to take that.

I find studying with the Open University addictive and I think that I will be taking many more courses as the years progress.

In the meantime, I am to be one of three graduates featured in an article for Country Life magazine in the UK in the near future. Writer Sue Corbett contacted the Open University looking for adult learners who have taken degrees later in life. The university put her in touch with me and the rest, as they say, is history. I will let you know when the article is printed.

On graduation, American Airlines and websites!

Well I am back and am pleased to say that all went well with the graduation. I found my suit! Hurrah! I had, in my infinite wisdom, stored it in our lockup so I would have it safe for when I needed it! Great, except I have the world's worst memory so could not remember this little snippet of information!

Susan is well but a bit cheesed off. She needs occupation and is endeavouring to find some.

Our son will finally pick up his boat, which has been languishing in Shepperton Marina since he bought it in January, and sail it to his mooring this coming week. It needed some work done on it to make it Thames Water compatible and this has now been completed. He can soon start moving all his boxes out of the various hideholes he has them in and get his life together. He says he is not going to keep the psychedelic curtains. Shame.

We came home courtesy of American Airlines. It took thirty nine and a half hours to reach Anguilla from Heathrow. Technical problems with the plane in New York were followed by a medical emergency on the same flight. This led to our touching down in Bermuda to let the patient be taken to hospital. By the time we arrived in Puerto Rico to pick up our connection to Anguilla, it had long gone. We stayed overnight in the Intercontinental in Carolina, very nice. When we arrived for the flight home we had a further delay due to technical problems on board. The captain of the New York - San Juan flight had mentioned that the delays were longer because American Airlines have cut back on maintenance staff. Being on two flights by the same airline which both developed technical problems, and remembering back to November when Joe and I travelled (or tried to travel) to Miami with this airline and were left stranded for hours in Puerto Rico as there was not a serviceable plane for us, makes me think that there is something seriously wrong with this airline. If a spokeman for the company is reading this blog, it would be interesting to hear what the official line is.

This morning I have updated my website. This is a long overdue task which I had put off because there was a fault in my index page I did not know how to overcome. This morning I have spent hours sorting it out and the result is the new, more up to date website. I hope my tinkering with it will result in more hits. The address is: http://www.pennylegg.com/ if you would like to read the latest version. Let me know what you think.

Ok I think that is all for now. I have a million things to do, so had better go and do them!

Life Moves On...

Life on Anguilla moves on apace. The sea, which settled down a little last week has decided to play up again and we have large waves and a fair bit of breeze. It is nowhere near as bad as two weeks ago, when the ferry ports had to shut down and all fishing boats stayed at home, but it is building gradually, so watch this space.

In the meantime we are looking forward to popping home to see the folks in England. It was November when I was last in the UK and July when Joe was last there. We have things to do and people to see.

On April 12th I am graduating from the Open University, having finally finished my Humanities degree. I cannot find my best suit, which is a bit of a pain to say the least. There is not much call for suits here on Anguilla and I can honestly say that in the last three years I have used it a handful of times. Now I need it, I have no idea where I have put it. This means that I will have to go out and seek a new suit as a matter of urgency when I arrive in Blighty. I had not intended shopping so soon in the trip! Oh well, I have to look on the bright side, I will take my mother with me and that will be some quality time with her!

We are going to visit our friend Susan after this. She lives in the North of England and recently retired. She is coming to terms with life in a much slower lane than she has been used to. Personally I am dreading this, from full ahead to almost stop because of a birthday. Some people long to retire and others look forward to it as a necessary evil. It will be interesting to see how she is coping.

To get ready for this trip we have both had to adjust our schedules. It is the end of the UK financial year and the beginning of a new one which means that end of year accounts need to be balanced and reports sent to London. My poor husband has had to work like a Trojan to get things up to date at his office before we leave. He could have done without the OU graduation date so close to the end of the financial year.

I am just coming to the end of a very busy period of magazine commissions and the ACOCI Connection newsletter. Work is starting to tail off now as the trip is coming closer but will start again immediately afterwards, with interviews of several local persons of interest on Anguilla for two different publications. Life as a freelance writer is never static and new opportunities always need to be grabbed with both hands when they are presented. I will be using aspects of the UK trip as the basis for several articles for British magazines.

I just hope we do not freeze while we are there as the weather has been awful. At least here, when the weather is bad, it is still warm!

The Last Few Weeks

Well it has been a while since I last wrote on this blog! I had not realised it was so long. How time flies.

What have I been up to? You may well ask! Well, I will tell you. I hope you are sitting comfortably as this may take a while.

I went to Miami with Joe and, while he was busy with his course and conference, I was busy with my articles (see previous blog). You will be pleased to know that I got them all completed in time. It just goes to show that if you want to do something badly enough, you will no matter what there is in the way! Of course it helps if you have a wifi enabled laptop!

I took two days out to take my Underwater Digital Photography Course. I took it with South Beach Divers and had great fun. The course was not very intensive, which I was surprised about to tell the truth. I thought that there would be more theory than there was. I had to read the usual manual and then take photos.

My instructor, the irrepressible Anthony Djuren is a Master Scuba Diver Trainer and Professional Concert Photographer. His life seems to be a constant round of travelling, photoshoots and diving - fantastic! He has lived just about everywhere and dived on all the major sites of the world. He is currently planning a 'Road' movie with some of his old army buddies across the US. His life now is a far cry from his original calling as an advertising executive. He woke up one morning and explained to his wife that he was going to drop out and take up professional scuba diving. She was surprised!

Anthony took me to Key Largo. For me this was a real adventure as I have never been out of Miami when we have visited Florida.

The dive operation there is very commercial and I felt a little as if I was being processed in a factory. The boats are huge and there are a lot of people on each one. I had some things to adjust to. I had never left a boat using the 'Giant Stride' method of water entry. I usually roll backwards off the side of the boat. I was a bit concerned that I might end up landing face first in the water and knocking my nose into the back of my head! Anthony just laughed! 'Keep your head up and look ahead as you walk off the edge' he advised and, being a good student, I followed his advice and thus still have a nose in the right place.

Diving on Fire Coral Alley, so called because it is literally ablaze with the stinging coral you give much respect to, I met 600lb Cooper, the Grouper. As you can see from the photo above, he was a gentle giant and seemed quite used to divers. Just as well, as there were way too many of us. This is commercial diving on a scale I have not been used to before. I suppose I have been sheltered, diving here on little Anguilla. The dive sites here are lovely and unspoilt. The biggest group of divers a site gets is about 8 at once, not 80++ as in Key Largo. That the sites are being spoilt was evident at our second site, Hole in the Wall, which was nice enough but wherever you went you bumped into other divers. Too many people, some sea life. Shame.

On this trip I made the acquaintance of Frankie, the Bronx policeman. Frankie, if you are reading this, Hello! He and I chatted on the long drive to and from Miami and I learnt all about his life as a cop. I would love to do an in-depth interview with this gentleman as he was interesting to talk to. I hope that all goes well for him, as he is contemplating his future with the police force.

Back in Miami Anthony took me to the Princess Brittany wreck off Miami, which is at 87 feet. Here there were lots of really big Barracuda. Anthony got me to enter the wreck as there are a couple of places where divers can swim through. I am not good in enclosed spaces and for me this was a bit of an ordeal. I was taking pictures all the while and hoping that they would come out ok. Visibility was not wonderful so the resulting photos were not as good as I had hoped.

My final, qualifying dive was to The Pipes. These were sewer pipes which were surplus to requirements and so were dumped to be colonated by sea life. Again, way too many divers but we had some fun swimming about, and through, them. Anthony even found a resting shark for me which was excellent to see.

So, now I am a PADI Underwater Photographer. Great!

To all the staff at South Beach Divers, many thanks for your help and support and to Anthony, thanks for the fun too! I have never taken a qualification and had such fun doing it! Thanks for passing me too!!!! http://www.southbeachdivers.com/

Joe and I were going to dive together at the weekend but the weather changed and that was the end of that. Shame. Joe was really looking forward to some fun after his course and conference, which after all, were the reasons we were in Miami.

He flew home to Anguilla and I flew on to London to see my parents.

My father's health has been a bit of a worry for a while and I wanted to see for myself how he was. Not good is the short answer. I spent a week at home and I am glad I went. My mother was struggling too and I hope I managed to give them both a bit of help and support while I was home.

Back on Anguilla again and it was time to get the December edition of ACOCI Connection ready for publication. There is just so much going on in the Chamber of Commerce that it has taken a bit of effort to keep up with it all! The Chamber and Cable and Wireless hosted the first Business After Hours event which went very well and attendance was good. This was a chance for local businesses to meet over a glass of wine, swap business cards and learn a little about each other's products and services. Cable and Wireless made various presentations and the whole event was broadcast live on local radio. I covered the event for the magazine and took some photos for The Anguillian of the bizarrely named band, The Energetic Superfly String Band, who were very good and got everyone's feet tapping.

The Chamber held its Christmas Fayre on 8th December and I spent 10 hours on duty with my camera and dictaphone. Father Christmas opened the event and, in an exclusive interview, told me that the reindeer were suffering from the heat and so were not present and were resting in the cool shelter of a local stable. Many local children breathed a sigh of relief to hear that the reindeer were ok and they were universally happy to see Santa!

The Pepper Stepper Skipping Troup put on a display of agility with a skipping rope the like of which this writer has never witnessed before. As you can see from the photos, they were magic indeed.

A fashion show completed the days events, which had also included many local businesses showcasing their wares on a very blustery and intermittently wet day.

ACOCI Connection was put to bed at the end of last week after our layout lady, Valerie, did a sterling job in making it look good. Valerie has such expertise and it is a real pleasure to work with her. If you are reading this Valerie, I wish to say a public thank you for making the production look so professional. The Board of Directors of the Chamber are very happy with the production, which makes all the work worth while.

In the meantime, The Insider is nearly at the printers. This is HM Prison Anguilla's first publication and the team involved, all prison staff except for yours truly, have worked very hard to bring it together. Some last minute hitches have been encountered, which have delayed publication, but in January it will hit the streets and we can sit back and listen to the feedback. This will be useful for the next edition, due out in the summer.

I was stunned to find that I had passed my last Open University course (see previous angst-ridden entry on the OU!) and so picked up my degree at long last. My family have been congratulatory and Joe bought me the most gorgeous pair of earrings to celebrate. I will be travelling back to England to pick up the award in April. I am an eternal student and am already looking at other courses.

Ok I think that is as much as most readers will be able to stand to read in one sitting!

I will try not to leave it so long between postings next time.

The photos show Cooper, the Grouper, Anthony peering through a port hole on the wreck of the Princess Brittany, The Pepper Steppers in action and Father Christmas opening the Chamber of Commerce Christmas Fayre.

I Love Taking Photos!

I am taking a course in Photography with the Open University in the UK. It is something I have been promising myself I would do for years and now that I am finally studying the subject I am having great fun and learning a lot into the bargain.

I love taking photos! Ever since I was a small child with my first 110 mm camera (remember those?) that just needed the cartridge film inserted and the camera back closed to be able to start using it, I have been hooked. Over time, I have had 135mm cameras, a step up from the 110, ‘instant’ cameras which spewed forth an instant print which developed in my hand as I waited – magic I thought as a child – and then graduated to 35mm and now to digital Compact and DSLR cameras.

At present I have several compacts. They are all Panasonic apart from a first generation Canon. This was state of the art when I bought it as my first digital camera six years ago. 2 mega pixels and a range of different automatic shooting facilities, I thought I was the bee’s knees when I used it! Now I look at it and know it to be the dinosaur it is.

My current favourite compact is the Panasonic DMC-TZ1. Smallish and reasonably light weight, it offers excellent sensitivity, a reasonable zoom lens and good picture quality. I have taken it diving with me recently and have been very pleased with the results in both picture and video modes. I know that now this has become history as the new version of this model was launched this year, but for now at least, I am going to stick with this little gem.

I received a Canon 350D for my birthday in January. I love this camera. It is continually surprising me with its versatility. I am increasingly called upon to supply good quality images to go with articles and this gives excellent results. My husband has not made the leap into digital photography yet and so still uses his Canon EOS66 35mm camera, which gives excellent pictures I must say, and we share the lenses, which is useful.

The OU course centres on using Photoshop Elements to enhance the pictures taken with the digital cameras. What do readers think of Elements? It has much of the professional version but less of the jargon I am told. The digital darkroom is something I am very much a novice at using, so it is a challenge for me to learn and grow with my photography using Elements.

The course runs until just before Christmas, by which time my fellow students and I will have climbed a steep learning curve!

Tired Penny

I have just finished my final 2000 word paper for my last Open University (OU) course, AA318, Art in the Twentieth Century. I have sent it off to the university electronically and can now breathe a sigh of relief that it is over. I just need to study hard for my examination on October 18th and then I can put my books away. What a nice thought!

I have been studying in my spare time with the OU since 2002 and in that time have taken 9 different courses. On the way to my BA Honours Degree (Humanities with Classical Studies and Art History), I have picked up two Certificates (Humanities and Spanish) and a Diploma (Classical Studies). I have learnt all kinds of useful things, like how to search effectively on the web, and some not so useful things (although interesting to know!), such as Andy Warhol getting his major influence from a British Artist, the originator of Pop Art, Richard Hamilton.

I have been particularly busy these past few weeks as, in addition to the studying, we have had guests staying, I am working on some commissioned articles and towards some more dive qualifications. On Friday our son and friends arrive for a visit and I really want to be free for the time they are here.

For now, I am going to have a cup of coffee and put my feet up for a while. I might have a look at the paperwork for the Underwater Naturalist Qualifying Dive, which I am due to take on Sunday. No rest for the wicked!

Penny - The Eternal Student!

It is the first of August! I cannot believe that this year is going by so swiftly.

Soon it will be examination time.

You see, I am an eternal student. I left school when I was eighteen with adequate qualifications and got married instead of going to university. Whilst I have never regretted the decision to marry so young (we are still together and coming up to a BIG anniversary), I do regret not having gone on to university.

So, I have studied whenever and wherever I have been able to. This has led to some interesting courses and fun times!

When in England I went to night school and took as many word processing courses as I could. The result of that was that I could now use the new tool that was rapidly overtaking the old fashioned typewriter; the computer. I fell in love with it at once! No more having to worry about correcting fluid if you made a mistake and if you felt like sending a paragraph from the middle to the top of the page, just for the sheer fun of it, you could. Of course, as a writer, being able to use a computer has been invaluable.

To boost my confidence I signed up for an Assertive Class. This was great fun. The course coincided with the ‘Saga of the New Loo’. I was able to put into practise all the assertiveness techniques that I had learnt – not loosing my temper, learning to say ‘No’ etc. To tell the saga (abridged version), it went like this: Once upon a time, Penny and her husband Joe, decided that the time had come to have a new toilet installed in their apartment. Penny’s mother told her about a friend whose husband was a plumber and was looking for work. Feeling philanthropic, we asked this gentleman to come along and install the new loo. He came, he bodged and he left. The first inkling that something was wrong was when we opened the toilet door and fell over the new ‘step’ he had installed to raise the level of the toilet floor up, as he did not know how to attach the new chinaware to the old fittings as there was a gap. The step solved his problem. We knew for certain that something was wrong at about midnight when the water pressure on the ill-fitted pipe work gave way and we had a flood throughout our entire home. The water stop-cock was in the communal loft which we did not have access to. When we called the ‘plumber’ we reached an answer phone and it took every ounce of assertiveness training to politely request him to come to fix the mess. Needless to say when he finally appeared he fixed his bodge job and scuttled away.

After that came National Vocational Qualifications or NVQ’s for short. These qualifications are designed to fit people for employment and are available in a huge range of subjects at different levels from complete beginner to university graduate. My employer at the time was very concerned that employees should be as well educated as possible and I took full advantage. Administration, Customer Service and Computing courses gave me a taste of studying at a higher level and I was hooked.

Next the logical step was the Open University. To say that I love this fantastic educational institution is an understatement. I think it is the most wonderful invention of modern times. For those who do not know what I am talking about, let me explain. The Open University is Britain’s Leading Distance Learning University. Its campus is in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, just north of London and it offers a range of fully accredited University Certificate, Diploma, Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses to its students, who are spread out over the length and breadth of Britain, and the world. Students are from all walks of life and all ages. The beauty of the Open University is that you can study while you work, thus making it one of the most affordable ways of obtaining an education.

Over the years I have studied Spanish, Classics, Web Searching and Art History and will take my final examination for a Bachelors Degree in Humanities in October. On the way I have picked up one or two other qualifications which have proved useful. At times it has been hard work to keep up with working full time, running a home, moving house and country, and being a Mum, whilst studying at the same time. Nevertheless it has been a real adventure, opening up new horizons for me that I would not have thought possible.

I hold the distinction of being the first (and as far as I know, the only) student to take a Classics examination at the British Council in Dhaka, Bangladesh. My invigilator, a local employee of the Council, was very intrigued by my subject. I had to explain what I was studying, Ancient Greek life and history, and why. I think he understood my fascination with the past but could not fathom why I should want to take a degree in it!

So, now it is August. I have a paper due at the end of the week and then just one more before the examination. Wish me luck!