busy busy busy

this last week has been soooo busy that it has addled my brain!
some good things have happened - like trisha coming round for a chat last friday evening and staying till almost 12 - trish and i haven't done that for ages!
and aywl at liz and david's was interesting - lovely people!and certainly lots of thoughful insights!!
but having arrived home from l and d's at gone 10 i then had to help fran write her essay on maths (i think it was maths - like i say my brain addled now) and then last night it was help her write an assessment on science! - so some of my 'busyness' has not been a bundle of laughs!! - and anything else i can remember doing has been home or housework related - ah me!
it has been very cold too - snow every day but mostly not settling - i managed to cut the grass sunday afternoon though it was FREEZING - then just as i had finished and went back indoors it started to snow - what happened there? - not usually so fortunate!!!
i went to the bushey wool shop (having been inspired by some jolly good knitting blogs - though all in canada and the states - come on english women get yer needles out!!!) and was impressed by the really interesting new types of wool which is being produced nowadays - didn't buy anything as i had other business to conduct but i will be going back so watch this space
that's it for now - i'm sure other things have happened too but like i say my brain somewhat poorly at the moment!!!

well i'm cross!!

would you believe it!?

i went to look at those croci - and you know what? - they had done absolutley NOTHING!!

unco-operative little beggars!! - i had kindly placed them in a nice warm dark 'place' - filled their little vases up with water to the 'required amount' - wished them well and left them in peace

and when i go and look at them, what do i find?

the lazy ungrateful creatures were in EXACTLY the same state as that in which i had left them!!!

i suppose i shall have to go and 'talk' to them!

huh!! a stern lecture would be more to the point!!

the weather

given that i'm british (and proud of it!!) it's surprising that i have written so little about the weather - after all it is what british people are supposed to talk about all the time! - lol!!

british spring really does seen to have sprung this week - ie it has snowed, hailed and rained, we have had bitterly cold gale force winds, days of brilliant sunshine and days where it was simply 'grey'

Still - 'Better than nothing' !!

my garden is beginning to respond to the sunshine and the rain with numbers of daffodils starting to open and the crocus (or is it croci?) in the lawn are just about to open up - and the grass is growing far too rapidly for my liking!!

i gave pots of amaryllis to several people as presents last christmas and it has been lovely that some have reported back on how they were getting along - s and r's fought its way out of the wrapping before they even had a chance to get it out and put it on the window sill and apparently its now blooming beautifully, o and g's is not far behind and has started to open and now mine (a christmas indulgence to buy myself a present - umm!!) seems to grow an inch every time i turn my back

in the post-christmas sale at homebase i bought a set with 3 tiny vases and a crocus to grow in each one - i set them up in a box and shoved them at the back of the cupboard under the stairs and its only because i am writing this that i remembered about them - am going now to check them out and will report later

happiness is a warm cat

this has been another busy week - and exciting too what with ellen macarthur arriving back into falmouth after her record-breaking round the world trip - l managed to be there on a floating pontoon down by the docks with 'the best view in cornwall' and saw it all - and had her photo in the times the next day!!
its been a week of evening outings for me - aywl on monday at l and d's (i'm so pleased tk persuaded me to join!), a meeting at school on tuesday, reading group on wednesday and f visited last night
i always enjoy reading group but this one was particularly good - we had read 'haweswater' by sarah hall - we were all pretty much in agreement for a change and the voting ranged from 3 to 6 - and i for one won't bother to read anything else she has written!
but the main point of this post is in order that i can sing a hymn of praise for my lovely cat, catullus (tully for short)
when ever i arrive home he comes to greet me and runs up the first 6 steps of the stairs where he is in just the right position for me to stroke him as i hang up my coat and keys - when i went out on wednesday night i didnt bother to take my handbag and had left it on one of the bottom steps - as tully ran up to be stroked he poked his head through the handles of the bag and then, because he was hampered, couldnt get any further - he turned tail and tried to run back down but, poor thing, he just slipped and staggered about and was unable to free himself - he looked so funny - like a sort of substitute st bernard with a handbag instead of a barrel!! - i had to laugh - i just hope his dignity wasn't dented too badly
he is great company - he is very affectionate - is always there when i come home - and there's nothing like a warm cat on your lap when you're watching tv in the evenings - bless!!

first saturday in february

oops!

not sure what happened there!

anyway . . .

first sat in feb is always the day for the 'old girls' reunion at school - though we meet at the pub first (in character or what?) for lunch

this year 7 of us made it to lunch - ann(t)m, veronica(f), pauline(w)w, sue w, margaret w, myself and anne(r)s who had come all the way from vancouver! and whom we hadn't seen since feb 2000!! and frances(n)w and mary m came later to school only - it's always great to see people and catch up on the news - and some of us had news of other ogs who were unable to make this time

school celebrated its centenary last year but in typical fashion (!!!) has only managed to get itself organised for a decent 'bash' this coming summer - 101 years!!! - it will be in july when, hopefully, the weather will be kind to us and we can wander about in the grounds - it would be a goodly thing if as many of our year as poss could make it

met carlene d at school whose brother, n, had been in my class right through primary school - so was even able to catch up on a few hrs

popped round to anne and roland's after the reunion as they only live just round the corner and had cup of tea - they are both well and telling me it is likely that andrew will marry next year - at least that is what everyone else thinks is happening - but he hasn't actually asked benta yet!!!

tonight is the first session of 'at your word lord' at liz and david's house so sign off now and have some food before i go

good times

these last few days have been pretty good!

eric came to stay on tues night - sadly, i had an evening meeting i really couldn't get out of but frankie phoned before i went out to ask if she could come and visit - so she arrived soon after i had left and she and eric kept each other good company - very good company as it turned out! by the time i arrived home at 9.15 they had already polished off one bottle of vino (i had to struggle to keep up!!), had watched 'the cd rom' and eric had managed to persuade fran that here was the holiday she had always dreamed of - in fact eric and i are sponsoring her to the tune of £100 each!! spent what remained of the evening guzzling another bottle of wine, eating tasty morsels gleaned from the freezer and anticipating (or in eric's case reminising) on 'hols of a lifetime'

have paid for holiday and flight

have booked taxi to the airport

and yesterday our tickets arrived!!! yay!!! not long to go now!!!

old age is not an illness!

i visited o and g on saturday and found that they had been decorating the dining room - not bad for 85 and 84 respectively! avoiding, rather than refusing, help from a neighbour, g was determined to complete the job himself because 'other people always want to take over rather than help' - a truism if ever i heard one!

my parents have, without a doubt, been fortunate in their health but their continuing vigour owes much to the fact that they are determined not to let their age diminish their 'joie de vivre'

they are possessed of amazing vitality, their energy is a by-word amongst their family and friends and the word 'laziness' has never been a part of their vocabulary - they are indeed parents to be proud of!!

anti climax

since spotting the magic 999 last saturday, my car journeys have lacked a 'certain something' - i found i was still looking out for numbers on plates! - but oh! the disappointment when i realised i had actually seen them all - what goal could i possibly set myself now?
well worry not, readers!
today i remembered about my other great number game - the one where you see if the number on the plate can be divided by 3 - or, even better - by 9!
this game is really even better than the last one because you can include telephone numbers (as on commercial vehichles) too!
and if there is anyone out there who can help me 'get a life', please write in

i did it!!!

or perhaps i should say 'i did THEM'
yes!! 2 life-time achievements today!!
firstly, i bought my TILLEY HAT!! - in readiness for my 'BIG ADVENTURE' = coming to this life soon!
and secondly, i saw a number plate with 999 on it!! - it has taken me 5 years 6 months and 22 days to see every number from 1 to 999 on a car reg. plate in sequence - and if that isn't a sad comment on my life i don't know what is!!

wet wet wet

yesterday evening i noticed that the radiator in the bathroom was not getting hot - so decided to 'bleed' it
now i'm new to central heating - i only had it installed here last november and apart from college hall and one winter in 'rose cottage' in 1981/82, i have never lived with central heat before - and i can't really even count rose cottage because the previous owner (who had put it in) was such a bodger that the solid fuel fire, which was supposed to produce the heat, would only keep going for about 5 hours at a time and then had to be 'riddled' - something about the draughts so i believe - and you can imagine how we loved doing that in the middle of the night!!
anyway i did my best with this 'bleeding' business, although it never got to the point where water seeped out of the top - and then went to bed
imagine my surprize when, on waking this morning, i heard the heating system pumping away for all it was worth - 'strange' i thought and zoomed off to investigate - yes!! the bathroom radiator was leaking away like a good'un - the carpet was saturated and the floorboards underneath too!! - and it was so bad i had to deal with it immediately - no time to make coffee first - disaster!!!!!
and it's been raining nearly all day!!

traffic on the ring road

why is it that some people seem to lack logical thought processes as soon as they get behind the wheel of a car?
i mean, what do they think the hatched areas on the road are for?
why do they think its ok for them to enter them when there are HUNDREDS of signs telling them not to unless their exit is clear?
they rarely get any substantial distance forward and generally it just means that those who could have driven straight across and out the other side are merely at the head of an ever increasing tail-back?
ok! i'm getting vertigo now so it must be time to get off the soap box

pause for breath!

well that was a busy week!!! and its pointless trying to fit it all in so i'll just concentrate on last weekend - which was the best part of the week anyway

friday:managed to reach sheffield early enough to see the pies before they went to bed - then sat around talking until bedtime - stella had given me 'one to one' (by g lewis) to read but i was so tired i only read a little bit and that was making me cross so put light out and was asleep immediately!

saturday:slept until almost 9 when s and k woke me and we all had coffee and/or breakfast - it was an awful day weather-wise so we just stayed in and played with the pies and chatted - and s and r and i played mah jongg in the evening - hadn't played it since aug 2002 when b and i visited s and r in their cornish place flat - so it was good to 'pick up the pieces' so to speak

sunday:we all went to the 10 a.m. mass - i thought the pies were remarkably well behaved - but s didn't - which just goes to prove that parents obviously have higher expectations than grandparents - or maybe grandparents wear rose coloured specs! - anyway it was a lovely mass and i was pleased to be able to be part of it - we loaded the car with some stuff to take to j's as s and r have very little storage space and i made it home by 7 - good going!

home education:s and i spent a lot of time talking round this subject - and i skimmed the one to one book whilst i was there - found many of the views expressed quite objectionable - his descriptions of nursery/primary schools, teachers and pupils were grossly unfair - which is a shame as many of the activities in the book are inspirational and would be very helpful for any parents considering he for their children

more ballet

i was surprised (and a little disappointed) when s told me on saturday (and we were in the foyer of sadlers wells at the time!!) that she didn't want the pies to do ballet but they could do 'dance'.

today, however, i remembered her saying that she had read that all (or possibly most) girls who do ballet have eating disorders when they are older. at the time, i thought this was rather far-fetched but thinking about it since i have to concede that it does seem to be true.

i hope they do learn to dance though. dance is good discipline, promotes healthy growth, it exercises both the mind and the whole body (except irish dancing of course!!), teaches rhythm and musicality, is aesthetically pleasing (well . . . except for irish dancing) and is generally a sociable activity.

i'm off now for a relaxing bath and then to watch 'child of our time' - wonder what robert winston would have to say about dance?

p.s. oh . . . and s if you are reading this . . . i looked at the rudof steiner site and was impressed!! - go for it!!!!!

cygnets

couldn't get the tune for the cygnets dance out of my head all day!!- must have driven everyone mad with it - i was even doing the 'shoulder shrugging' bit when i was alone in the office - it seems there is a dvd out - think i will invest
pleasant evening at the essex with p catching up with the news - must remember to suggest monday next time - it was very quiet

swan lake

only just over 24 hours and e's back again! hoorah!! and accompanied by j!!! even more hurrahs!!!!
had a great friday evening - e and j made very good time on the journey down so we were sitting supping and sipping by soon after 8 - then to sleep in mellow mood and up with the larks in the morn (well if the larks get up at 9 that is!)
saturday was amazing - one of those wonderful days you enjoy in retrospect for aeons - lazy morning then met s r c and d at the junc to travel to london for the matinee of matthew bourne's swan lake at sadlers wells - we all enjoyed it tremendously - even d who has never been to the ballet before - i was a little worried about him! - i don't intend writing a crit of it here as it would take far too long and not sure who would actually be interested!! - the dancing, costumes and set were superb, it was very very funny and the acting/miming a delight - i can give no higher praise than to say i would happily sit through it all again tomorrow if the chance arose. after the performance s and r went home to k and j but the rest of us plus f and s who were also in the audience went for a quick coffee and chat then all headed home. had been intending to make spags bol for e j and me but invited c and d too and had great evening sitting round the table chez moi
today was quiet: e and j went soon after breakfast so i visited s k and j at j and p's house - hoping for a quiet evening now reading and watching midsommer murders

2 days in one posting

wednesday:
spotted s and r's car as i went past j's on way to work but also noticed front door ajar so nipped in pronto for quick peek at k - ahh!
and stopped again on way home and saw everyone - but only very briefly as e was coming and i had to get home
had a great evening with chinese take-away and watching 'oh brother where are you?' - very very funny and inspired me to really get down to it and read the odyssey - e and i have made pact to watch again in a year's time when i should, hopefully, get even more out of it
thursday:
s r k and j came to visit me at work - lord! how i love showing off the pies - i am so o o proud of them!!
called in on j after work for a 'quick cup of tea' and was having such a good chat i stayed ages! - and also for some of m's soup - mm!!
home and found letter from Helen and e-mail from fran - hoorah!! i love correspondence!

the tree goes forth

well it was back to work with a BANG today after a wonderful 10 days off for christmas - and we were SO busy!
hoping for a quiet(ish) evening taking down most of the decorations but leaving the tree until tomorrow (i hate having to take it all back down again so soon after it went up) when er rang asking if he could come and stay tomorrow evening. needless to say i was delighted even though it did mean extra stuff to do tonight. still must admit tis a good job sorted and all the decs are back up in the attic until next year.
fr came round and we watched 'child of our time' together - which i find fascinating - taped it too as i thought st and ri and the pies might be on their way down and would miss it - checked my mobile later and discovered that ri had left a message to 'witchy' (hahaha) letting me know they arrived at j and p's earlier this evening - hoorah!!! - though sadly, with er here tomorrow night, i shan't see them until thursday - maybe they will come into the t h so i can show off the pies!
. . . and so to bed.

me and my computer

My computer and I have what can only be called a 'love-hate relationship' - that's because one of us is stupid - AND IT'S NOT ME!!!

a busy sunday

i had imagined that this would be quite long blog as it has been a fairly busy day - have just arrived home from 6.30 mass, however, and find frankie ensconced in the kitchen making cookies - so since i would like to chat to her (and then sample cookies!!) this will have to briefer than anticipated:
spent a good couple of hours in boog's shed sorting and slinging - poor boogs would have hated the slinging bit as he could hardly bear to throw away even a rusty broken screw - but it has to be done and the sooner the better - i could use the space! - also found some things i am unable to identify so have kept them in the hope that eric or stella will know what they can be used for! - then zoomed down to the dump with a car load of 'rubbish' and then on to the car wash. I love the car wash - such an improvement for so little effort!
went to jackies for the cwl meeting this pm - nice to see everyone - had a lovely 'tea' and then a secret santa where i was lucky enough to receive a tea-light holder which is actually china but looks like ivory - just as well since i disapprove of ivory!!
then rushed home, collected edna and hurtled off to mass - appeals for the tidal wave disaster as expected - this is such a terrible tragedy and of course we all want to help - is it only me who is so cynical and suspicious of where all the money goes? - i'm not saying we shouldn't give - of course not! - but have you noticed that after every 'fund' we always hear how much of the money has been siphoned off for dubious 'other funds'? - i'm sorry if i offend anyone but honestly that is what seems to happen!!
well now i'm back home and want to catch up on the news from my family and eat the cookies!

po et familiares

well there we are - it worked after all so now i guess i had better start thinking what i should put on here
our christmas:
this was probably the worst Christmas i have experienced! - family get-togethers just don't seem right without Boogy - missing him was what made the time so hard - but apart from that it was ok - stella rich and the pies came after mass on Christmas day and we unwrapped the presents with o and g and frankie - had a break for smoked salmon and scrambled egg in brioche loaf (yumm!) - then stella rich and pies went back to jackie and pete's and we had late christ lunch at 4-ish just as it was getting dark. This is a big change for us as it is usually held at 1.30 on the dot but I had decided it was better all round to do it this way and it did seem to work well so think this may the pattern for Christmas from now on.
I took o and g home on Monday and have had a quiet time since - went over to jackie and pete's and saw stella rich and co on Wednesday and stayed for dinner - that was good as Frankie fetched up late afternoon so I was with both daughters, both grandchildren and some of my dearest friends too
last evening (new years eve) spent with friends celebrating the start of 2005 in jolly mood - i ate too much of denny's fabulous food and laughed greatly too so tum in fragile state today!
this pm visited danuta john and daughter nusia who is home on hols after first term at lancaster - we all had much news on which to catch up - and very pleasant it was too
this has not been easy - perhaps the next time i blog in will only have one day to report and may be more lucid - reading through this it does seem awfully boring!!