back from hols . . .

. . . and had a wonderful time . . .

i went to northumberland and stayed on a farm

i did things i have wanted to do for ages . . .

i went to housteads roman fort and to the national park and to the roman army museum

and i went to barter books in alnwick and walked by the sea from craster to dunstanburgh castle and back again breathing in the good sea air

and i went to corbridge and did some christmas shopping

and i did lots of walking and reading and relaxing

and then i went and stayed for one night with stella rich and the pies (which was a holiday in itself!!) and we went out for a lovely meal at the meadows

and then i stayed for 2 nights with janey and eric. lizzie and matt were there too . . . on friday night we all went to see romeo and juliet at calke performed by the lord chamberlain's men and then on the saturday janey eric and i went to packwood house and in the evening janey cooked coq au vin and we all sat around for ages talking and laughing (and drinking wine)

and then i came home . . . and tully was very pleased to see me!

and now i am mainly back at work but . . . tomorrow i will be looking after lucia as a 'practice run' for when frankie goes back to school in 2 weeks time . . . and that will be nice

Last Saturday: I collected O and G and whizzed up to Yorkshire to visit Stella, Rich and the pies in their lovely new home. As soon as we arrived on their driveway, Kezia, Jago and Clara popped out to welcome us and show us around - they were very excited. The house is really beautiful - especially Kezia's bedroom which has: a new pink appliqued quilt cover, spangly new pink lampshade and which she assured us will be painted pink and have pink curtains!! Jago's new quilt was midnight blue with appliqued rocket, moon and stars. The rest of the house is just as lovely - I like the kitchen best!! Lizzie and Matt came over too and we had a great day.

Jago, G and Rich in the Sitting Room:

Lizzie and Matt:

Clara and O:

Two Pies (in what I suspect will become 'The Stage!!):

Stella in her lovely Kitchen:

Sunday: I spent working on my assignment.

Monday: I met Pauline in the Essex.

Thursday: Frankie and Lucia came round in the evening (Alex had rugby practice) and we looked at more weddingy-type things and F more or less decided what music she will have - it still seems ages away but I suspect it will be here before we know it - and I have quite a bit of weight to lose if I'm going to fit into my suit!! (ARRRRRGGGGHHH!!)

I'm off on my hols tomorrow - Frankie is on Tully Duty - back soon!!

2 nice things

1) result

yay!!

i passed my course!!

well done me!!

i have worked really hard and it has not come easily so i am very happy

i am currently doing another course - but only a little one (10 points) and have still not decided whether i shall carry on to degree level - oh well - only another 300 points to go!!!!!

2) dishwasher

frankie alex and lucia were here when i arrrived home from work. alex didn't tell me but he had put the front on my dishwasher so it matches the rest of the kitchen. it took me almost 2 hours to notice after they left - despite standing right next to it while i made a cup of tea!!

it is a great improvement - hoorah!!

a secret that can now be told!

my exciting event was a trip to ireland (sligo and county mayo to be exact) for my friend odilon's surprise (!!!) 50th birthday party

jackie, celia and i flew out from luton on friday morning during a torrential rainstorm, landing in knock to blue skies and brilliant sunshine. we stayed in westport in a wonderful hotel (the party was also held there). jackie had hired a car and we drove out to sligo and 'did' yeats country! we went to drumcliffe - here i am by yeats' grave :

we also went to lissadell and walked on the beach - it is sooo beautiful!! - there's celia in the distance paddling:

and celia and jackie sunning themselves on a bench overlooking the sea:

the party was tremendous!! odi was totally surprised!! - she said she 'knew something was going on' but had no idea what it was. brian had done an amazing job getting everyone together in such a short space of time (i only knew about it 10 days beforehand) and the atmosphere at the party was fantastic!! lots of people had managed to get there including some, like me, who had never visited ireland before. i didn't manage to get any photos of the party - well i did keep snapping but only seemed to get a lot of backs and arms!! - but here is odi just as she came into the dining room - she was saying 'What!! is going on??':

the party went on into the small hours - and odi and brian still got up to have breakfast with us before we left on our morning flight

. . . and ireland is wonderful - i will be back!!

back in blighty by early afternoon and just missed eric and janey who had come to collect o and g and take them home. i have spoken to them most days and saw them last weekend and they are both very much better though we still have our thinking caps very much in position in order to come to a sensible arrangement for them for their future

last week was mainly rather ordinary - i had offered to go up and help stella and rich to move house (which was partly why i had thought i would be extra busy) - but they managed fine just the 2 of them and both they and the pies are settling in and enjoying their new home

friday was my birthday - i took the day off work and had a lovely time. odi phoned in the morning and we had a long chat (this was her birthday too) - she was still overwhelmed by the party and all the guests!! and then frankie arrived with this beautiful bunch of flowers:

jackie had invited me round in the evening (i thought it was just a cup of tea - but it was a lovely meal with lots of nice people - yay!!) we were: jackie, pete, christine, jimmy, doireann, liam, barry, elizabeth, mary, kevin, ruth, brian, janet and moi - what a brilliant way to round off my birthday!!

sunday was lucia's baptism

lucia was a little angel and she looked beautiful in the gown - it has been worn so far by stella, (for whom o made it) frankie, clara and now lucia. o, malcom and collette were godparents and after the service we all came back here and had 'afternoon tea' in the garden. it was a lovely sunny day - after weeks of rain - and a good time was had by all

. . . and my ps: amidst all the excitement, harry potter no. 7 came out - stella, rich and the pies kindly included it in my birthday presents!! hoorah!! - and my flight to ireland was a kind present from jackie!! i think i should be 57 every year!!

speedy posting

i should really be trying to sleep but here's a quick update
a good couple of days:

o and g going from strength to strength and we have been discussing their future to good effect (i think) - we visited with frankie and lucia yesterday afternoon which was lovely

today very busy:

text from stella just as i was driving to work to say she and rich had arrived back in watford (they had gone up to yorkshire to move house) so called in very briefly at jackie's and saw them and pies (who had been staying with j during the move)

o and g had lots of visitors today: frankie and lucia and then alex came to collect them both after work, stella rich and the pies, and then cat david and freddie popped round this evening. it has been good having them to stay and they have really enjoyed being here. i was going to say that they had enjoyed the rest but actually g painted my back fence today! despite that he looks 10 years younger than he did when he arrived!

this post is very quickly typed and probably doesnt make a lot of sense - and i shall probably re-write it some day soon . . . but in the meanwhile i will just say (for those of you who are 'in-the-know'):

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

good day for o and g

o and g have had a reet good day:

i came home during my lunch break to wait for dr glover to visit. she gave o the once over, gave some jolly good advice and prescribed some new meds. o now seems very much better, heaps and heaps more cheerful and is certainly moving more easily

g spent the morning quietly but then had the urge to do 'summat' - despite my plea for him to do no more than one hour's work, after lunch, he: unblocked my drain, superglued my drainpipe, cut the hedge, weeded the path and 'scrubbed up'. he assures me it took 'only just over an hour'! i have to admit, however, that he seems very happy and looks a darned sight more cheerful and well than he did when he arrived here yesterday!!

pleasant and relaxing evening and so to bed!

an eventful week-end

it has been so busy i have hardly looked at the puta all week-end and now it really time for bed - so just a quick up-date:

friday:

managed to get out fairly early to complete the abandonned shopping trip of thurs night/frid morning. stella rich and the pies arrived around 12.30 and we had lunch, sat around a bit and then stella and kezia went to aalia's for the henna hand painting and rich jago and clara went to jackie's. not much else happened

saturday: jago's third birthday

the pies always get to choose their birthday breakfast so we had what our family call 'hot cree bees' which was great fun and very nice and tasty.

in the afternoon, jago had his party here in the garden with his 2 sisters and all his cousins (james, imy, freddie and lucia). various other of the family came as well and stella organised songs and games in the 'circle', a treasure hunt, pass the parcel and a miffy story.

when the guests had left stella, rich and pies changed into their smart togs and drove up to london to aalia's wedding. so i had a quiet evening tidying up mainly

today:

stella and company called in on o and g unexpectedly on their way down on friday. to cut a (very) long story short it was felt by all of us that it would be best if they came to stay with me for a week. i drove up to get them this afternoon and now they are safely installed - and have already had visitors: eric and janey called for a cup of tea before driving back up to ashby and frankie, alex and lucia came by after mass for another cup of tea. hopefully o and g will finish the week rested and refreshed!!

and finally:

this has been a busy week-end - but my exciting event has not happened yet!!

"to be continued in our next"

a day for laughing . . . or not!!

laughing at work:

everyone seemed very humourous at work today - so fortunately the time passed quite quickly

laughing at frankie's:

frankie phoned in the evening and asked me to go round and write out the invitations for lucia's baptism - saying my writing is 'neater'!! - it isn't but i had a pleasant couple of hours - lucia was just laughing and laughing and laughing!! - she is a happy little soul

not laughing at tesco's:

decided to do the shopping at half past eleven as it is very quiet then - but hadn't been there long and i managed to convince myself that i had left a saucepan on the hob with 2 eggs in it - and hadn't turned the gas off - dashed home with hardly any shopping done - only to find that i had turned the gas off after all - oh dear!! - another supermarket dash tomorrow to purchase all the stuff i didn't get - grr!!

conferring, convalescent, conservatories and conversation

conferring:

7.10 a.m.: stella called and we talked for almost an hour (!!) - mainly organising for events in the next 20 or so days - who is doing what when etc

convalescent:

9.00 a.m.: frankie and lucia arrived and we drove up to visit o and g - poor o is having such a hard time with her hip - she cracked it almost 5 weeks ago now and is very cross indeed that it hasn't healed yet (!!) - she cheered up when she saw lucia and we had a lovely time with them. took g to the hospital for his appointment and then we drove home

conservatories:

6.00 p.m.: alex took me to see a conservatory that he and justin had built - am hoping they will build something similar for me fairly soon - would like it in place before the wedding

converstation:

8.00 p.m.: book club at alison's - this month it was 'house of orphans' by helen dunmore - still have about 20% to go on this one - little time lately - pleasant evening though sadly only jan, tassa, anne and i managed to get there

hectic!!

the next few weeks will be:
exciting!
manic!!
busy!!!
and
decidedly lacking in peace and quiet
and i can hardly wait!!
and having (hopefully!) whetted your appetite . . . i shall leave you guessing
. . . but i'll keep you posted!!

i say! look at this!!

well i pinched this off patti's lovely blog (hope that's ok, patti?) and it's very easy to do
if you would like to try it . . . you go to www.metaatem.net/words . . . and even I could do it!!

the counting

(we call it 'the counting' after 'cold comfort farm'!! - needless to say it is VERY different - haha)

we had a lovely day with ALL the immediate family present - plus Lizzie's Matt who came for the first time. so there were 21 of us (there! i did do SOME counting!!)

o had wanted her party to carry on despite her cracked hip - which i thought jolly sporting of her - although tbh it was better that way as she was virtually forced to sit down and let the rest of us do the work - which she doesn't usually allow!!

it was a lovely family day - mainly sitting around chatting and eating - and chuckling at the antics of the littles!

lots of toasts (of course) including one by frankie to peter for agreeing to be the one to give her away at her's and alex's wedding in december!! of course she still misses boogs very much (as do we all) and it has been hard for her to choose someone to stand in his place at such an emotional time. as eric said 'what a result'!!

i never did get around to organising all of us together for a photo shoot - so here we are in bits and pieces:

Frankie and Clara:

o and g no longer have a car so we used the garage as an extra room - here are Eric Janey and Imy having a chat - and there's G just peeping round the doorway:

















Frankie, Lucia, Stella and Oma in the Kitchen:



















Peter, Cat, Freddie and Kezia:


















Cat, Freddie, Kezia, Matt, Janey, David and Jago:

















Freddie, David, Jago, Rich and Clara:


















G snatching a quiet moment in the kitchen:

i misssed Lizzie, Alex and James somehow - but they were there somewhere . . . .

wine, women and song!!

thursday:
went with the women's group on a day trip to france. it was a great day out. met at jackie's at 5.30 a.m. and reached boulogne around mid-day. this is boulogne from high on the bridge. not a terribly good photo - it is much much prettier than this really - and so delightfully french!!


strolled through the town and then had a wonderful lunch in the courtyard of the hotel de ville. there were 11 of us and here we are waiting for our meal:

from left to right: siobhan, dorota, sue s, dottie, jackie, cathy, hilary, liz, sue j and katrina. after visiting the basilica, we headed for cite europe for the inevitable wine/cheese etc shopping and then home on the ferry.
and the song, i hear you ask? well we all sang 'white cliffs of dover' as we landed (to stares of bemusement from several other travellers) haha! arrived home at 1.30 a.m. friday. it was a blast!!
friday:
bit of an anti-climax after thursday . . . at work we moved offices . . . to a much nicer office, i think, though naturally many of the other staff spent much of the time grumbling. our little team have a good spot tucked away in a corner - and i am in the furthest corner of all - just how i like it tee hee!!
saturday:
visited o and g. poor o had cracked a hip bone whilst on hols. it was very fortunate that the bone did not break completely - at 87 years it would have been no joke. the hospital have given her a zimmer frame and she manages to hop around the house very nicely. apparently it will take about 8 weeks to knit back - 8 very impatient weeks for her and 8 very trying weeks for my poor father. took g shopping into daventry for groceries as he gave up his car last autumn so not as mobile as previously. janey, eric and lizzie popped in on their way home from hols (j and e) and staying with cat (lizzie). we are all looking forward to the 'counting' next saturday. here are o and g when i visited them a couple of weeks ago - and before their hols:

saturday night and sunday morning:
went on the starlight walk in aid of the peace hospice. this was a sponsored walk of 13.1 miles starting at watford colosseum at mid-night and ending back there at (for me and margaret) 4.20 a.m. i understand that 1,200 women took part (it was a women-only event) and was a fun way to raise money for the hospice. my feet jolly well ache now and i am fairly tired but i am so glad i did it. i first met boogs on a sponsored walk way back in october 1967 (a 20-miler and we were both 17 so took it well in our stride - if you will excuse the pun!) and the peace hospice was where he was for the last 3 days of his life. the care and kindness with which he was treated were outstanding - this was a cause well worth walking for!

it often pays to be obliging . . .

work asked me to go in on wednesday and have friday off instead.


i didn't really want to but as i had nothing planned i agreed to do it . . .

this morning just after nine stella phoned my mobile (thinking i was at work)

she had a job in london and was taking jago and wanted to know if there was anywhere nice they could go in her 2 hour 'break'

so i met them at kings cross - yay!

we went to the british library, looked at the 'sacred' exhibition' - comparing Judaism, Christianity and Islam through their holy books. we couldn't stay too long but we did see the display of ancient texts which was beautiful and fascinating.

here are jago and stella at the library
we had a quick coffee in the cafe and then it was time to say goodbye
a great afternoon - and i wouldn't have been able to do it if i hadn't gone in on wednesday!!

i should be blogging the good things in my life . . .

. . . but they have been so good i have been too busy to blog!

wednesday: visited o and g and had a lovely day with them

thursday: stella rich and the pies came for dinner. it was horrible!! i was supposed to do some fishy dish but used far far too much lemon. no-one liked it. stella and i ate it but i think that is only because we have been 'trained up' to eat everything on out plates hahaha!

friday: collected kezia and jago after work and had them here over night. we had a lot of fun - they really make me laugh!! after the catastrophe the evening before i gave them sausos and beans - didn't think i could go wrong there!!

saturday: the pies and i had a fairly lazy morning and then just as we were finishing lunch (weather was nice enough to have it in the garden) frankie, alex and lucia came to call. we needed a couple more chairs out for f and a so got the fold-up chairs that live in their own liitle bags out of the shed. as soon as they were up, kezia got inside one of the bags - it came up to her armpits - and started jumping around the garden. i was laughing too much to run inside and get the camera!!

then we all went over to jackie's for a barbecue and sat out until quite late nattering

sunday: frankie and alex went to the baptism course at church so i had lucia for a few hours. we went for a walk and then sat in the shade of the trees in the garden for a while. she was very good - i am looking forward to having her one day a week when frankie goes back to work in september.

tuesday: frankie alex and lucia came round after i arrived home from work and frankie cooked something nice for us

i have done very well in the grandchildren department recently!!

and while i'm on the subject . . .

. . . of not hearing things correctly . . .

someone whom i know (who will remain nameless to protect the innocent) was explaining Judaism - and specifically Hasidic Judaism - to his son

i expect he explained at some length and at the end his son asked 'is it their skins?'

'is what their skins?'

'is it their skins that are acidic?'

a poisoner's licence!

i sometimes think i might be going a little deaf - but there is a funny side to it:

yesterday stella and i were talking about car insurance and i thought she said that rich has:

'a poisoner's licence'!!

but what she actually said was that he has:

'points on his licence'!!!!

a week in the life . . .

this has been my week:

sunday: i) a little much-needed gardening: cutting the grass

ii) reading art history stuff

iii) went to cat and david's for dinner (which was delish!!) frankie, alex and lucia came too. here are lucia, freddie and james:

and imy and freddie:

monday:
frankie and lucia nipped round in the evening for a cup of tea. nicola knitted this lovely little teddy bear suit for lucia - doesn't she look cute?

tuesday: governors' meeting in the evening

wednesday: day off and more reading

i did a little knitting too: finally sewed the ends in my grey scarf and did some more on 'mr pink'

here is 'big mr grand-dad teddy' modelling my grey scarf:

thursday: ??? it is getting pretty bad when one can't remember what one did 2 days ago!!!

friday: i) stella rich and the pies have come for the week and are staying at jackie's. met stella and the pies and had lunch at barracuda. i was very disappointed!! stella and i often had lunch there when she was working at the town hall during her uni hols and it was a great little cafe: good variety of tasty snacks, efficient service and very clean and bright. i was sorry i had suggested it - it is sadly changed!

ii) called in on frankie in the evening for a cup of tea and we looked at some of her wedding magazines for ideas. lucia was still up and i got to hold her for ages. she is lovely - and very alert!!

today: this was a nice day!! did a little ou work in the morning and then collected stella at 1.30 to go up to crowland. stella had bought 4 dining chairs on e-bay and needed to collect them so i went for the ride. crowland is only about 10 miles from where we used to live and is a lovely little town with an interesting old church (croyland abbey) and an unusual triangular bridge in the centre of the town. after we had collected the chairs we went to look round the abbey. we were really lucky because there was a 'wedding dress' exhibition inside. about a couple of dozen women had lent their dresses which were beautifully displayed on mannequins down the nave. the oldest dress was dated 1927 and there were photos and dresses through most decades up to 2006. many of them had veils, jewellery etc set up too and with the beautiful flowers throughout the church made a wonderful display. some of the ladies had also lent their wedding albums and it was fascinating to realise that many of the families were related. one lady turned up as bride in 1963 and as m.o.b. in 1987 and 1991!! we then had a quick stroll up to the bridge and then drove home. the only annoying thing was that i forgot to take my camera so sadly i don't have any pics of the day

the parish centre

i have just returned from mass with edna

after mass we went into the newly refurbished parish centre to 'inspect' and have some refreshments

it has taken over a year to do but well worth the time because it looks great!!

frankie and alex have booked their wedding reception there and it was a bit of a concern that it wouldn't look that good - it used to be really grotty!! - but i needn't have worried - it looks fabulous!!

i haven't done too much else today - bit of ou work and i cut the hedge - grrr!!! i hate that job!!! i keep cutting it back a bit more each time and hope to get it completely taken out and ask alex to build a nice wall for me

struggling . . .

i am struggling to think what i have been doing the past week or so . . .

• finished tma8 and handed it in - only one more tma and that's the end of this course
• signed up for another course - but only a 10-pointer this time - wasn't going to plunge straight in again but i have enjoyed myself so much i don't want to stop!!
• frankie, lucia and jess came over for lunch last saturday - which was very pleasant!
• met pauline for a drink in the essex
• ??
• well there must be other things i have done but i can't remember them right now

back later!