this is what is says about a canna!!
"You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."

i am this flower!

I am a Canna What Flower Are You?

Burns Night

had the most fantastic evening at the rose and crown, rickmansworth, with a group from work.

this was the first Burns Night i have been too and, lord!!! what fun it was!!

this was the programme of events:

piper outside to pipe us in

first course of salmon/or scotch broth (i had salmon)

piping in of the haggis - with poem!!

toast to the haggis (with whisky)

main course: haggis (yumm!! - this was totally delicious!!)

toast to the lassies

toast to the laddies

pudding - not sure what this was but it was marvellous

then a space was cleared and we had a tutored ceilidh - which was HUGE fun

at some point people from different tables got up and read a burns poem each but i forget when, exactly, this happened - david was the brave soul from our table!!

we all had such a terrific time that we resolved to come again next year - hoorah for matt who organised it all with such enthusiasm!!

if i were clever enough to know how to put links, i would do one for the pub as it is well worth a visit: fantastic atmosphere, welcoming staff, lovely old building and wonderful food! - please go if ever you find yourself in the area - i'm sure you wouldn't be disappointed!!

grrr!!! car parking!!!

i have just written a very moany entry about car parking in watford

but then i read it through and it really was so very boring that i felt it just didn't deserve to be published

so i deleted it

and all i can say is:

don't attempt the shrubbery car park by the town hall

today it took my money, let me through the barrier and then: there were no spaces!!

it's rubbish!!!

wheeeeeee!

phew! well what a week that was for weather!!

stella phoned on thursday to say that a tree in the park over the road from their home had fallen towards the houses, just missing the windows of next-door-but-one and blocking the road. fortunately no one was hurt though it did cause disruption for some hours and missed s and r's car by inches!!

fran and alex's area lost most of their fences and numerous twigs and branches came off my trees though everything else survived intact. there used to be 3 large pine trees in our garden but 2 of them were damaged in the hurricane of 1987 so the previous owner had those 2 chopped down to stumps. i was a little worried about the remaining one - it is too far from the house to do any damage but didn't fancy all the clearing up!! but it's a sturdy old thing and is obviously good for a few years yet.

other than that it has been a quiet week:

went to janine's on wednesday - and then as soon as i came home, started to make myself a cheese roll - and sliced through the top of my left thumb!! (it is only a little cut - that was a bit over-dramatic!! - lol!!)

eleanor phoned on thursday to say tutorial was cancelled because of the storms and disruptions on the roads - so spent a cosy evening in front of the fire with a mug of hot chocolate, a blanket and a book - mmm - bliss!!

a temporary (january-related) low

well it's been an absolutely dire week at work - totally totally dreadful!

thank heavens for lovely friends:

book group on wednesday: which was here and we discussed 'the abortionist's daughter' by elisabeth hyde

women's group on thursday: which was at cathy's and we decided on the programme for the year

evening with the neighbours on friday: which was at tess and richard's - and lara and ricky came too and so did tess from no 10 (whom i had not so far met)

and thank heavens for lovely relatives too:

stella, frankie, janey and eric who all (wittingly or unwittingly) managed to cheer me up when i was more than a little despairing

oh yes we did!!

no prizes for guessing where i went yesterday evening!!

janey, eric and lizzie came to stay and we went to the aladdin pantomime at the palace. kezia, jago, rich and most of rich's family (almost the whole of the front 2 rows!!) were there too - and a jolly time was had by all!!

it's years since i last went to a panto - since the girls were small in fact - and i really enjoyed it!! - it was a lot of fun!!

both thomas and daniel (k and j's cousins) were invited on stage to sing, mime and (in daniel's case) tell a joke!! and it was lovely to see kezia shouting and doing the actions in audience participation

we were supposed to be going to 'much ado about nothing' at the novello but, because i stupidly left it too late to get tickets, decided to say nothing and just turn up 'behind you!!' at the panto. i think james and imy were suitably aghast at the sight of us there!!

and then we all went back to jackie's and had a cup of tea and saw stella and clara, who can now walk (!!) - at least she does when she feels like it!

janey, eric and lizzie left around 10 this morning as they had to get back to ashby, load lizzie's stuff and take her back to sheffield

ricky came round and made short work of digging up the stumps of hedge along the front of my garden

and i've been doing my latest assignment most of the day

. . . and now that 2007 is here . . .

. . . this is it so far:

new year:

the meal at jude and john's was super - the whole evening was great fun - and we watched the 'fireworks on the green' from the back garden to the accompaniment of yowling foxes in the undergrowth

i dobbed out on the new's day walk and lunch at the clarendon as i really had too much to do at home - but called briefly on fran/alex on the way back and met alex's younger brother patrick who had stayed the night with them

wednesday evening:

met pauline in the essex - and saw the photos of sophie - she is lo-o-o-ovely!! babies eh?? they're just so-o-o exciting!!

yesterday (thursday):

to london after work to see the 'alice in wonderland' ballet at the coliseum. as a small child i had a book with the 'tenniel' drawings and at that time i found both the drawings and the story itself rather frightening. the plot was difficult to convey in dance and i think that if one had not read the book it might well have been confusing. that said, it was very enjoyable with some superb balletic sequences and i was impressed by the way the costumes and the make-up were so true to the original drawings - very clever!!

today:

stella, rich and the pies arrived this afternoon at jackie's - hoorah!! but i haven't been round to see them because

a) i woke very early this morning after a late night and have double vision from tiredness and

b) i have to get all the decorations and christmas tree down tonight . . .

altogether now . . . . aaahhh!!