From Lawrence and Barbara

Congratulations Karen - 50 today!

A special Birthday wish this day for Karen who is fifty,

Not everyone can look so good, nor be so very nifty,

You work hard I am sure to stay so trim and pretty,

But the best that I can do is make a little ditty.

You are part of our family, we all love you very much.

You always answer emails, and try to keep in touch,

We wish you could be with us now to celebrate together,

But many things get in the way, so we’ll blame the English weather.

Dear Karen have a super day, with family and friends,

Because the rest of us aren’t there, our congratulations wends

To America by air express, or else it may be late,

Will I ever get things right? I hope it’s the right date,

Do come home whenever you can, and visit the old folk,

We will put the welcome mat out, but it’s getting a good soak

But rain or shine, the welcomes here for Karen anytime,

I’d sing you “ Happy Birthday”, but it’s better if I mime.

Wow, technology is so great! Now I don’t have to buy you a nice birthday card from Hallmark but can post my birthday greeting online. I am sure you will miss the pictures of kittens in a heart-shaped card and the gooey message inside.

Main problem is, I have to go public in declaring my feelings for you – not easy for an uptight Brit. I also have to compete with all these witty and wise postings on this blog site. Anyway, here goes.

Karen, you are absolutely terrific and I am the luckiest guy to have you as my wife. I always warned you that I would trade you in for a younger model as you get older, but I would be crazy to do so. You are still the best looking and sexiest woman out there. If I am concerned, it is that you continue to get smarter and wiser – and with your undiminished curiosity and zest for life, you are bounding ahead. Maybe now that you have reached a mature age you could slow down a bit to give me a chance to keep up...

Do you realize we have each now spent over half of our lives together? Only regret is that it has sailed by so quickly. Thank you for being the best wife and best mother. I am really looking forward to being part of the next 50 years of your life. Bob

Happy Birthday Karen!

Your tributes have said almost all. there is to say. You are indeed a delightful, fun, and generous person...but, I think there are few things left unsaid.

for instance, you are quite thrifty...(i.e., do recall foraging for unexploded paintballs in the dirt , cleaning them and trying to make the boys reshoot?

you have an exceptional tolerance for high decibel sounds (unlike your spouse) (i.e., you obviously tolerated any number of parties at 9403)

you have a wicked sense of humor (i.e., you referred to my husband as Noel Coward after I complained that he walked around in his bathrobe all day)

you are a great organizer (i.e., you created the bookclub that periodically gives each of us heartburn but has opened up the world of literature to all of us)

you entertain with style and are a gracious hostess (already said..but, no one mentioned how you allowed them to return after they had insulted one or more of the other guests...my bad!)

of course you are a terrific mother...to Dan, Georgia, and that other boy from next door

I could go on and on....but in summary, you are a terrific neighbor, we have loved knowing you and your incredible family and friends.

Best wishes for the happiest of birthdays and a truly great year...as you enter your 6th decade...

Maggie Mc.

Greeting from Cath Sutton

Happy 50th Birthday, Karen. You will always be that young girl running on the beach. The one who gets the jewelry. The one who laughs about your peeing accident and finds a way to use that as a teaching tool. You are the one who does a Herculean task so beautifully then worries if you may have perhaps spoken one word that wasn't right. Or, heaven forbid, said something inappropriate. You set a delightful table, make a fabulous orange salmon dish for lunch, but you make the visiting time even better than the meal. You laugh about fart machines, have been known to delight in a bit of trickery, but only in the most appropriate way. You have a way of putting things together that is so charming and warm, so welcoming, so INTERESTING, so lovely. You shine light and help those around you see things to delight in as you do. My Mom said she loved life. I see that in you, and I want to be at that same place. What more can I tell you about yourself, that you deserve to hear on such a day as birthday #50? Karen, thank you for your kind, compassionate, open and generous spirit and for being an incredible listening friend. You are always aware of the other person. You might be too generous, yes, I think today you should let it be about you and go on and be selfishly lavish with yourself, could you, for once? It is wonderful to watch the depth of your passion about everything from philosophical issues to the bad manners of boorish people. And it is delightful to delve into their badness, all the intricacies and depths of those flaws, in hysterically funny and colorful conversations. And oh by the way, your passion is so big that pieces of it end up clinging to those around you, some got on me and stayed, so thank you, Karen.

You have perpetual youth, it comes out of you. What a quality. If only we could all have this then we'd all stop time. But who wants to, really? Oops, am I saying something inappropriate? Oh, did I talk too much here? Could I have said it better? Yikes.

Karen Bedell, Club-Class Karen with the pink cut-offs, you are beautiful and ageless, you have the wisdom beyond your years, but the spirit of that young girl. Happy 50th Birthday!

Love, Cath

Karen's Hour

Yes..it is true..Karen is the star of a special tribute edition of BBC Radio 4's "Woman's Hour" and you can hear and download the podcast of the show by clicking on the links below. Featuring contributons from family, friends, colleagues and miscellaneous "special guests", the programme will delight all who know and love Karen.

Quite what SHE will make of it is another matter, of course...

Geek Note: These high-fidelity recordings are encoded in AAC compressed MPEG audio. They are done like that because they are enhanced podcasts with photos to go with each chapter (choruses of "oooh! get YOU!). They will play nicely in the QuickTime application purveyed by those nice people at Apple. If you don't have it on your computer currently you can download for free. They probably won't play in Real Player or the Windows Media player, however.

Karen's Hour part 1

Karen's Hour part 2

50 Books for 50 Years...

Happy Birthday Aunty Karen!!!

For discussion...

In no particular order, 25 of the best books of all time (or, more accurately, 25 of the best books I’ve read so far):

1. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen - what girl doesn’t want a Mr Darcy?!
2. Captain Correlli’s Mandolin by Louis de Berniers - fabulous book, awful film
3. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy – wonderful (though woeful) characters
4. Swallows & Amazons by Arthur Ransom – I never had this much fun in the Lake District!
5.Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenberger – about a time traveller, sounds odd but really loved this book
6. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - I know you’ll agree with me on this one
7, 8 and 9. His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman – ok, so this is 3 books...
10. Wild Swans by Jung Chan – autobiographical account of life in China as the Communists came to power, this really made an impression on me
11. Atonement by Ian McEwan – Saturday’s a close second
12. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulkes – I’m a fan of Sebastian Faulkes in general
13. Testament of Youth by Vera Britain – very moving WW1 autobiography
14. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Time by Mark Haddon
15. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro – another one I know you’ll agree with
16. Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies – this is the one I got with you, loved it!
17. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner – really enjoyed this, especially the chapter on the impact your name can have on your likely “success” in life
18. Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson – always good for a laugh
19. The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella – complete trash in terms of “literature” but great fun (especially if you’re a sad lawyer)
20. Dracula by Bram Stoker –scary...
21. Last King of Scotland by Giles Fodden - flim good, book better
22. Natasha’s Dance by Orlando Figes – a cultural history of Russia, heavy going in places but fascinating nonetheless
23. Life on Air by David Attenborough – I love this man and his autobiography is great
24. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
25. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins – really thought-provoking

And now for the 25 worst/ most disappointing/overrated books so far encountered by me:

1. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown – rubbish
2. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh – just didn’t really like the people in it
3. Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
4. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky – not actually managed to finish this...
5. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy – peace bits are good, war bits are very, very ,very long-winded (the SECOND epilogue was the final nail in the coffin for me)
6. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen – about a ridiculous silly girl
7. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – ditto comment re Northanger Abbey!!!
8. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte – may have to reconsider the categorisation of this as am going to be re-reading this for book club but didn’t like it when I first read it
9. Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernier – not nearly as good as Captain Correli
10. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan – I know you disagree..
11. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins – another drippy woman
12. God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy –just didn’t enjoy it (though admit, not read it for years)
13. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne –probably a controversial one but I couldn’t believe that Bruno was meant to be 9 and not have a clue as to what was happening
14. Watership Down by Richard Adams – about some really mean bunny rabbits, scared me to death when I was liitle!
15. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens – don’t know why, just don’t like this book
16. Animal Farm by George Orwell – had to read this at school very, very slowly and then analysed it to death
17. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
18. The Return by Victoria Hislop – enjoyed her other book (The Island) so was disappointed by this
20. 100 Years of Solitude by Marquez – even read this whilst in South America in the rainforest and was uninspired
21. Most of William Shakespeare’s plays – ok, another controversial one and a bit of a sweeping statement! But the stories are all the same; bit of cross-dressing and confusion and then it all turns out OK in the end (if it’s a comedy, or not if it’s a tragedy)
22. The End of Faith by Sam Harris – I know you’ll disagree with this one!! I got on much better with Dawkins though
23. Bleak House by Charles Dickens – like War and Peace, it’s just too long for me...
24. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseni - this is only in this list as I loved The Kite Runner and was therefore disappointed by this in comparison
25. The Sea by John Banville – had to keep looking words up in the dictionary

Have a lovely day, lots of love Katiexxxxxxxxxxxxx

Karen:

As I explained to Bob, after 50 you start counting backwards so by my reckoning I am now 46 and therefore much younger than you. However, I don’t think you will have a problem staying young, given your outlook on life.

Thanks for your kindness and generosity, especially towards assorted Nixon offspring who seem to keep landing on your doorstep! I am very lucky to have such an amazing sister-in-law.

With much love and a huge birthday hug from all the Nixon family

Chris