did you catch those banner ads!

If you've visited our weblog lately (at the old address at Brinkster), you might have been surprised to see banners. So was I! How dare they mess up my stylesheet like that. I was in the process of changing around my web hosting, so thus the cause of any glitches you might have experienced in recent days. I apologize.

The good news is most of our sites are now centralized here at jeannehaskett.com (or will be in the near future). I've updated the design of my site as well, so if you've the time, please check it out and let me know what you think. To get back, use your Browser Back button or click here.

One more thing, don't forget to update your bookmarks...although this address should be pretty easy to remember. ;)

that was quick

Summer is officially over. It lasted one week. Venture to England at your peril, for the rains have returned, this time accompanied by bone-chilling winds. Brrr!

a warm welcome to Matthew!

Congratulations to Theodore Homa and Anna Romano on the birth of their son, Matthew Romano Homa, on August 31, 2004.

summer is here!

Finally, the rains have stopped, allowing us to enjoy an unprecedented (for this year) spell of warm, sunny weather; as luck would have it, just as the children returned to school. Tomorrow the weather is expected to turn autumnal but in the meantime we have been taking full advantage by dining alfresco, stoking up the barbecue, and spending time outside. Our first visitor of the season has just left us. In two weeks' time we will have a full house again, when Kassie's grandparents arrive from Montreal and John returns from various European locales.

agony and ecstasy

The Canadian born in Hungary who resides with us here in England had no trouble deciding who to root for during the recent Olympic Games. Kassie performed a victory dance when Canada won the Gold in male canoeing and burst into tears when Montrealer Despatie fell to fourth in the 10m platform diving event. She rallied when the men's rowing team won Silver, by deciding that at least it was the British team and not another country that pulled ahead to take the Gold. Hungary did very well during the games, taking home 17 medals; sadly, accusations of doping have marred the victory.

For John's blurb on television coverage of the Olympic Games, past, present and future, click here.

etymology of a town

Continuing the theme of British pronuniciation, I did a little investigating and discovered that the name of our town, Nantwich, was originally "Wich", followed by "Namptwich", which may explain why the medial letter "w" has not, over the years, become silent (unlike places such as Warwick, Keswick and Greenwich, for example). Apparently the first part of the name is derived from "nant", an old British word for brook or valley and the second part is considered either an Anglo-Saxon interpretation of the Roman word "vicus", signifying a group of habitations, or denotes a community based on salt production. In the Domesday book Nantwich, then named "Wich", was mentioned as possessing salt-works; however, other places containing the termination "wich" have no known historical connection to the production of salt.

For more on Nantwich including images, visit our UK travel website at http://www.jeannehaskett.com/travels/nantwich.htm. We've just added an update, so check out the What's New link while you're there.