busy!!

no blogging for almost a week - been so busy!

tuesday - women's group at monica's. mainly chatting and looking at photos: liz brought the ones of michael's passing out parade and ball and monica had ones of her visit to margaret and jim in washington - lovely jolly evening

wednesday - reading group at karen's. we had read 'atomised' by michel houellebecque. i had read this on hols in devon and almost gave up several times - it was DIRE!!! - but in the end (at the 'epilogue') realised why it had needed to be so dreadful - it was all a sort of propaganda. i was the only one who thought so, however, so maybe i got the wrong end of the stick after all!! I gave it 1 out of 10, Tassa gave it 2 and everyone else gave it 0!! not a popular choice then!!

catherine - went into school to do some govs work. saw cat who is v large now - looking very well and eager for the start of her maternity leave so she can have a rest for a few weeks

saturday - svp quiz night at church - jackie invited me on thursday to be part of their team and then liz phoned on friday also trying to get a team together. svp quizes are always great fun and this was no exception - and liz's team won!! - drat!!

gardening - apart from cutting the grass a few times, i had done nothing in the garden so far this year. inspired by a trip to homebase on saturday (only went to get some sturdy bags for the grass clippings) have been weeding, edging, digging and planting for a couple of hours every day - and have not only enjoyed myself but the garden really does looks a lot better. perhaps it isn't as difficult as i always thought it was!!

nothing better to do?

last week at work, tracey asked us all if we knew the answer to a puzzle she had found in the paper:

if a farmer has 11 sheep, 10 cows and 20 chickens, how many goats does he have?

the answer was 11

based on: 3 animals for every consonant and 1 animal for every vowel

as the granddaughter of a very successful farmer, i would ask what agriculturalist worth his salt would employ a method of animal husbandry like that?

and what would happen if you had a platypus and wanted some more?

or a hippopotamus??

the mind boggles!!

boring and uneventful!

strange week, really: because it was so boring and uneventful!

work was truly tedious, despite the fact that there were only 3 days of it!

no evening outings - though that did mean i could spend time on the computer and managed to add a number of people to our family tree

frankie has not been well - though i think it is only due to extreme tiredness - but it meant she didn't pop over at all and i missed her! shall be glad when she and alex find a flat together as it will be much easier to visit with them then!

yesterday (week-end! - yay!!) i went up to o and g's arriving early and staying until almost dark. they were both very well - g sporting a slight tan from having sat out in the garden for much of the previous afternoon. we spent ages looking at the print-out of our family tree - he was so delighted to learn of his grt- and grt-grt grandfather and families - it's very exciting putting all the pieces of the jig-saw together - and interesting to note that the family have lived in watford for generations (i always thought we were gypsies!!)

we went to evening mass, picking up a friend on the way (and another one on the way back), got back and had tea and a chat. and then dad got his 'box' out and we looked at old photos and documents of family for a while and then i came home.

today - have a fair bit to do housework-wise and bits of paperwork that needs sorting - and then this evening eric is coming and we're going out for a meal at the southern cross - hoorah!!!

not boring or uneventful at all!!

sausages but NO pies!

Stella Rich and the pies were going to come down for the holiday week-end but then they all caught a flu-type bug and were unable to make it - happily they are all on the mend now and are planning to visit for James's confirmation later this month

Prior to this, though, I had invited Jackie and Ruth for a family barbecue on Sunday afternoon. We missed S and co but had a good time anyway. It was rather too chilly to cook and eat outside, so we weedily stayed inside and had our sausos, beans and burgers in the warm. Tsk! Can just imagine what Boogs would have said to that!!!

Haven't done an awful lot today - couldn't seem to get started on anything - what a waste of a bank holiday - drrrr!!