manicure

For only the second time in my life, I have had a manicure!

I can hardly believe I have done such a 'girly' thing!

It was at Brenda's house last evening - pauline had told me about it whilst having a quiet drink in the Essex on Monday night - so i went along

It was a sort of get-together too - I knew almost everyone there which was good as the chat was very relaxed and entertaining - all the others seemed to be 'old hands' (haha) at the game as they had been to the 'indulgence evenings' which seem to be spreading like wildfire through all the schools in the area.

Well I must admit that my hands do look heaps better - yes even my stubby little paws!! - and if they don't look exactly elegant they are at least much smoother and the nails are painted a lovely browny type colour called 'vixen' - all the polishes had funny names like 'sin' and 'fickle' and 'precious' - I am mainly at home today so I just hope they don't get too chipped doing the housework - would rather like them to still look good when we go for the Mothering Sunday meal!!

the week so far . . .

. . . has been good . . .

Monday - 'new' sort of follow-up aywl group at liz and david's - this time we are looking at the previous sunday's gospel and pulling it apart to discuss it - very interesting - and the people in my group are really lovely

Tuesday - women's group - it was a 'music evening' at sue s's - i had imagined it would be rather high brow so, although i enjoy listening to music, i don't know all that much about it and thought i might be out of my depth - it wasn't like that at all - there were 10 of us - 2 teams and . . . this is difficult to describe . . . we had to 'play' a tune on a sort of plastic bag thing and then our team had to guess the tune. it was a fun evening - lots of jokes/laughs and the group is very friendly

Wednesday - day off - didn't do much really other than have a bonfire in the garden

Thursday - called in at Jackie's after work with photos of clara and to talk about camp reunion in april. eric phoned and spent aeons trying to sort our mothering sunday meal with o and g (help!!) - will update re that later

visiting . . .

arrived in sheffield soon after 8 saturday morning to spend the day with the 'reconstituted pies' - a lovely day!!

kezia and jago are very kind and patient with their new baby sister - and clara is adorable!!

stella seems very well and neither she nor rich appear anywhere near as exhausted as they were the first time we saw them after kezia's birth - strange that!! it's odd how the first baby takes over the whole house - usually both parents are run ragged trying to keep on top of things, life changes completely and it feels like things will never be calm and ordered again - i remember it well!! anyway the whole family is coping admirably and i can only repeat: clara is adorable!! - i held her virtually all the time i was there - just popped her in the moses basket whilst i had breakfast and lunch - and stella fed her a couple of times too - the rest of the time she just slept on my lap!! - marvellous!!! she is very cuddly!! she looks more like kezia - not at all like jago - but they change rapidly at this age so time will tell how she 'turns out'

jago is talking more and more - very easy to communicate with him now . . . . and kezia is a riot!!

there was a match on so i left sheffield mid afternoon to avoid traffic as much as poss and stayed overnight with janey and eric. had a lovely meal (pete/lorna were there too - but then they went into town for the night) and lots of laughs (as usual!!) but i was so tired i was practically falling asleep at the table

had a 'hearty' this morning and more laughs with all of them and then home

it was snowing in ashby - lots of lovely swirling 'white stuff' - but unfortunately it didn't settle and had stopped by the time i reached the m1 - wish we could have a decent snow fall at least once every winter!!

a new baby!!!

stella and rich's third baby was born at half past midnight this morning!

a little girl - clara

kezia is delighted to have a baby sister and jago has tried to give her his much loved penguin, bupp

the labour (at home but too fast for the midwife to arrive!!) was a triumph . . . but it's stella's and rich's story and i shall leave the telling to them

i am very proud of all of them!!!

johnny the razor

it's difficult to know who, if anyone, ever reads these ramblings. so when i wrote about my friend mick recently i didn't feel happy about revealing too much detail about his 'illness'. i wrote about his website and his bravery in setting it up but didn't give any more facts than that.

it was ridiculous to say so little! this is the very brave stance of a man who has been confronted with the news that he has cancer, has undergone chemo and is cheerfully and humourously continuing with his life. my admiration of him knows no bounds and the fact that he has set up a website at all testifies to his sincerity in wishing to help and encourage others in the same situation.

mick is likeable, intelligent and kind. he is immensely talented, good company and a thoroughly good friend. and his advice is just what anyone (and their friends and family) need if they suddenly find themselves battling with this horrible illness

mick's website is: www.johnnytherazor.co.uk

the 'well done' posting

liz came along to the end of the 6.30 mass so there could be 2 of us to 'man' the book swap table. quite a number of children's books had arrived at the 11.00 family mass which was just as well as we had very few children's or non-fiction. we think we have made almost £250 - and for very liitle effort too. there were 3 boxes of books left over at the end - but even those will be useful as they will be donated to the scouts for sale at their forthcoming jumble sale. plans are afoot to make this a regular event.

well done juliette !! - whose idea it was in the first place!!

had mail from stella this morning - no baby yet!! stella has been saying all along that the scan date was too early.

well done stella !! - for knowing what's what!!

busiest weekend in aeons!

and it isn't even over yet!

friday night was 'sainsbury's shop night' - so bought most of the ingredients for my 'dinner'

saturday morning - did 'remainder' shop and then buzzed along to church to help set up the book swap table - that hardly took any time at all so liz, katrina, cathy, juliette and i had a quick coffee and chat in the pc, then went home

saturday afternoon - did all my prep with lots of time to spare - just in case i had news of the baby and then spent yonks on the phone telling everyone else - (no news even yet!!) - which was just as well because as i was finishing the phone rang - stella???!!! - no it was kathy to say that she and tony were at asda and could they call in for an hour or so before they met up with friends at the harvester? it was lovely to see them and hear their news and soon after they left, lynn and mick arrived (mick sporting the most stylish of hats) and pauline and chas arrived not long after

saturday evening was great! it was lovely to get together - mick looks really well - better than he has for a long while - and is dealing with his illness most positively. he has set up an excellent website for people in the same situation which is a very brave thing to do i think. we all seemed to laugh a lot and to reminisce on times gone by

liz popped round briefly with the 'float' for me for tonight's mass and fran and alex came round when we were at the cheese and biscuits stage

fran and cooking

fran had phoned while kathy and tony were here and had asked me how i had cooked the lasagne - after i explained my method she had then said it was the 'wrong' way - although kathy assured me it was the 'right' way after i got off the phone - everyone else kindly said it was good - i thought it was jolly tasty! - but then she and alex polished off all the left-overs (so it couldn't have been that bad!!) and she still had the nerve to say she would have done it better!! - it was all very humourous however so no hard feelings!!

i had decided on toffee topped peaches as one of the puds - imagine my surprize on pulling it out from under the grill to find it positively on fire - blue flames leaping up - and all blackened on top!! pauline sprang to the rescue and together we scraped off the burnt bits and served it as a 'flambee' - we didn't tell fran needless to say!!

i would like to point out at this juncture that it's not that i can't cook it's just that i don't particularly want to - is that clear??

today - haven't done much so far - just read the papers and check for mails etc (did all the tidying last night before bed - phew!!)

i am on the last book swap at the 6.30 mass tonight - it will be interesting to assess how it has gone - we have had a good response so far it seems

first wednesday off!! (hoorah!!)

ash wednesday yesterday.

my 'lent attempt' is to get out of bed as soon as the alarm goes off - which was jolly hard when i had a day off!

went to mass at school - which was lovely but very l-o-n-g - so i didn't get up to daventry until almost 12.30 and o and g were somewhat worried. i would have phoned but thought that since mum was having her eye op and dad would be there alone it would be pointless - he wouldn't be able to understand what i was saying due to his deafness. mum's op had been cancelled after all - postponed really - but no clue yet as to when it will be

i had a great time with them - lovely lunch and then i went to visit someone they regularly take to mass and whom i had met before. we had got along really well that time and she had expressed a hope to meet up with me again. jean has a wonderful collection of old girls' story books - many of them the authentic article from the 1930s and looking at them and talking made the time pass all too quickly. we could have chatted much longer but i felt i should get back to o and g really.

i had another couple of hours with o and g - i have rarely laughed with them so much!! - we were all in high spirits - home about 8.30

stella and the pies

had a couple of emails from stella today so obviously no new baby yet!

peggy is moving out tomorrow to a bungalow in berkhamsted - i popped round with a bottle of wine and a wish for happiness in her new home - she is sad to leave - and i am sad to see her go - but it will be much better for her to nearer to more of her relatives - hope the 'new' people are as nice!!