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August 09 Sunday - a day of rest?Supposedly, but not this one. It started well with a bit of a lie in even, but from putting me feet over the edge of the bed to writing this it feels as though I have been working my way through a tornado. What started as me looking in the garage for a stored away handbag tuned into a full scale clear out. Yes, regular readers of this blog, another clear out. Where does it all come from? And how do people live minimalist lives? I'm thinking that I might take a vow of poverty like the nuns so I can't accumulate rubbish. Although knowing me, I would possibly end up with a build up of used habits, not that I don't have a bundle of the other sort anyway.
Well it's all away for now, I could have continued but frankly I was pretty much to the point of dislacing the stuff I didn't know what to do with, when I should have been removing it totally. There's always next time!
July 30 On the desperate edge of some impulse!Some impulse, but I'm not yet sure what. - But, by the time I get around to actually being on the edge of it, it will no longer be an impulse, it will be a much thought out idea. The thing is I'm really not that much good at being impulsive, I get the urge to be, but then the realisation kicks in that I will have to live wiith the reality of the impulse, and so I carefully think through all of the impulsive options instead. Boring aren't I? One of these days I will go mad and do something extraordinarily whacky and suprise myself....or maybe I would do well to have a think about that.
July 26 A sad dayThis afternoon our dear little Betsy dog died, up until a few weeks ago she had no idea that she was an ancient of 17, she still had a spring in her step and a great appetite for life. She was a feisty liitle dog who gave us years of pleasure and amusement. We got her in 1996 from a rescue centre, she was already an adult dog and a very serious little mutt to boot. Poor Betsy had no idea what it was to be a family dog, she just did her own thing and was almost aloof, then she found tummy tickles and regular meals and oodles of love and over time she came to see her loving family as being her absolute right, and into it she gave her own love and trust in equal measure. We will miss you so much little doggie. XXX July 25 I WILL go to the ball!The 'bairn' and her dad are having a pumpkin race. They are now the size of electric light bulbs and seem to be expanding daily. It is really nice to have something planted in the garden that you can nearly watch growing, to my mind the thing against gardening is the slow progression of anything planted, the tedious wait, then when the jolly thing does grow, so do a million weeds around it. I could never see the theraputic value of the garden. It's just a frustrating hotch potch of tedium which turns into a raging torrent of weeds. And we all know what weeds mean, weeds mean WORK!
Had the best email ever from my novice emailing sister the other evening. I had sent her a link to something I thought might interest her and she replied with a thank you and a comment on her day:- 'G came for lunch and I did three dogs feet'. It's important to say that my sister is a trained dog groomer, not a Korean chef. She will soon learn where everything is on the keyboard. ie punctuation marks. May 20 9 months!9 months and time for a human baby to have been conceived and born, 9 months since I wrote a single thing on here. I am contrite! I have looked in on the blog scene now and again during this time but never could get my thoughts together to write anything. How I used to manage to write almost every day I really don't know.
I was prompted to write this after feebly trying to explain to a friend this afternoon what blogging is. It sounds trite to just say that it is all things to all men, but I think that best sums it up.
Maybe I will be back soon, maybe not!
August 16 Saturday shoppingASDA have just cheated me out of my 3 for £10 wines! I'm hopping. I order online because otherwise we seem to be humping huge amounts of dog and cat food not to mention cat litter around the store, also, I get (usually) exactly what I want and am less tempted, as wandering around virtual aisles doesn't have the same draw somehow as being in the shop. I usually order 3 bottles of wine on the 3 for 10 each week and this week there was a very nice South African Shiraz usually £6.12 a bottle on the special...so I ordered 3. It was out of stock wasn't it so they sent a substitute, charging as per their price promise on substitutions, no more than the price of the one ordered. Unfortunatly, on this occasion, the the Shiraz they have sent is not on offer and so I have been charged the £18.36....Fume!!! Really I should call them in the hope that they will be generous and discount me next time, though I doubt it.
'The bairn' and the bo are in Tokyo and getting wet then getting sunstroke in equal measure. 39c suddenly turns to rain that actually hurts so I'm told in a text. Ah! what a shame (not). I'm sure they are fitting in as much as they can and hopefully there will be lots of pics, not to mention video as she has taken hers dad's camcorder.
Take care, 'the dad's' doing his Ken Hom pork with cashew nuts this evening and no doubt we will wash it down with a bottle of the not 3 for 10 wine.
Toodle oo. August 08 Aren't PC's dead good when they work?I'm really beginning to think that this PC is coming to the end of it's days. It really went to bits a few months ago and I had it overhauled for £80, really I should have taken it back because there was very little difference when I got it home. So I put up with it's bad behaviour for a while longer, having to reboot it in safe mode every time it crashed until I found Tony, who came to the house, took it to bits and spent 2 hours messing on until it worked like new. Now it's up to it's tricks again. I do all my sweeps and scans every day but it is crashing again. My biggest fear is losing all the photo's, so I have spent the past 3 days making CD roms to ensure nothing gets lost.
Well it's been a mad dash around for nice things for 'the bairn' to take away on holiday. She finishes her job as a civil servant today, then next Wednesday she and Joe fly off to Tokyo for a week then on to Hong Kong for another week. Needless to say she had nothing to wear! When she returns she starts her new job as a Learning mentor (think that's the title) at a local Comprehensive school with the intention of getting a years experience under her belt to go on to do her PGCE. She swore she would never be a teacher, and I think she was absolutly right no to go straight into it after she finished her masters degree, only because she was 'not sure' and teaching now is such a stressful job, you really do HAVE to be SURE to do it well, and she now seems dead keen. Anyway I wish them a lovely holiday, she deserves it, she has had a tough few years which she has come through well. July 31 The flight of the KiteA few years ago they reintroduced Red Kites back into the North East of England and for the first couple of years it was a real treat to catch sight of them. Now their numbers are increasing really well and it is not such an uncommon sight to see them flying overhead in search of carrion. Nevertheless, I was staggered yesterday driving along with John to see a Kite flying literally alongside of the car, it was so close you could have reached out and touched it's wings, it must have been in search of road kill I guess, but it really took my breath away. the daft part was that as it was Wednesday we were on our way to meet the Wednesday Wobbly Walker group and as part of the walk we were to go to a Kite Watching spot!
A couple of weeks ago I was contacted through Friends Reunited by one of the young people I used to work with at Lingfield, needless to say I imagined this bonny 15 year old so why was I suprised to discover that she has 2 grown up children and is a Granny! I am still 23 in my head. It really is lovely though to hear from her and to catch up after 35 years. July 28 Trains and boats and no planesI'm back into reading, I left off for a long time and now can't understand why. My sister gave me a random book she had picked up at a book fair, 'Miss Smilla's feeling for Snow' by Peter Hoeg, a Danish author. I picked it up one sleepless night and hardly put it down until it was finished, now I'm working my way through his books, strange and haunting though they be. When reading his work, it's sometimes hard to make head nor tail of it, you blame the translation, his writing, your own lack of intellect, yet there is a huge force to read on, it's going to be worth it, and it is. I have just ordered the the movie of 'Smilla' from Amazon, though I cant see how they can do justice to the book in less than 2 hours.
My all time (never been dissapointed yet) author is Bryce Courtney. (The Power of One), and I have 3 of his books to read next, I have read 5 of his and these 3 were a Christmas present 2 years ago so it's high time to get them off the shelf. And just for those pick up times I'm reading Susanna Clarke's, 'the Ladies of Grace Adieu', a slim book of amazing short stories. I loved 'Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell' even though it took me almost a year to get into it, once I did, it was another page turner.
So retirement is sweet! There's always a bundle of stuff like housework to do I know, but I think it's only right to acknowledge the hard work of these clever people who can tell a story well.
Poor old Sunderland had their Air Show in the fog this weekend. Xine was there with Joe and she said it was the surealist experience of her life, all these people sitting on a fog bound beach waiting for the sea fret to lift so there could be flying. The strangest thing was that 500metres inland from the beach, the sun was splitting the trees. People turned up because it was so amazingly sunny and warm everywhere else. A million people came over the weekend by train bus and sea and saw no planes other than the ones on the ground.
Take care out there.
July 25 I am a 'Walker Texas Ranger' widow!I don't know when it started, it just sort of crept up, but, it is fast becoming obvious that my own sweet loved one is now more in love with Chuck Norris than he is with me. Everything stops for 'Walker Texas Ranger'. I thought it was a one off thing, that he was - could only be - Chuck's one and only fan but it seems I am mistaken, there are millions of them out there all tuning in, absorbing the daft story lines whilst at the same time mocking Walker's adversaries shouting at the screen to them, 'that they'll be sorry' while they openly throw encouragement at little Timmy held hostage, knowing as Little Timmy doesn't, that Walker will be right there to get them sorted. I mean, the man is actually really scary, he acts like he's on something, and has about as much charm as my cat eating a rat. But there you are, there's no accounting for taste, and as yet the sweet loved one is still happy that it's me he's in bed with and not Chuck Norris. He'll probably grow out of it.
Actually peoples taste in their devotion to celebrity never really ceases to amaze me. I have a very dear friend of over 40 years who in the 70s was absolutly stunning to look at and very clever to boot, her all time favorite person on the TV was the character Arthur from 'On the Buses'. So there you are, and I'm probably no better myself who around the same time drooled over Edward Woodward as the detective' Callan'. He actually was booked to open the Fete at the special school I worked at in Surrey. I was so excited at the prospect of meeting him. He was sitting down at a table signing autographs as I approached him and I had the audacity to ask him for a kiss. Shock horror, when he stood up to do so he came to about my belly button! Ah, the sadness!
No real excuses about where I have been for the past few months.
toodle oo February 04 Just a quick catch upAnd that folks seems to be the story of my life....catch up!
I promise to visit all of you soon, in the meanwhile I am literally dipping in here to let you know that in our fairly small, 2 bedroom bungelow, we currently have the whole contents - comprising of 30years worth of accumulated loft fodder generously scattered throughout the house. Really really....'Like a Jumble Sale'! The people are coming tomorrow to reinsulate the loft.
What a load of old tat! Not a lost peice of collectable and expensive dresden amongst it. Endless boxes of soft toys which have been washed and are currently in the tumble drier to go to a charity shop, and loads of curtains, faded and outdated. Books books and more books, and millions of 'the bairns' comics. We have already had 5 trips car full to brimming to the tip, and probably there will be five more as I am determined nothing more than the Christmas stuff will be returned once the new flooring is down. I won't go into J's apparent obsession with bits of glass of all shapes and sizes, it appears that every time anyone has thrown an old china cabinet or anything with glass doors shelves or panes, he has knobbled them and shoved them up there! He stood firm this morning as I attempted to get them to the tip, asking me, did I know the price of glass these days! I feel a nasty accident involving a large brick coming on!
On the plus side, we must have burned off a million zillion calories over the past few days, and we have almost been too tired to eat by evening. So there's always something good comes out of everything.
Take care out there. I'll be back soon.
Barbara x January 28 supersize me!I have been into Newcastle, and in the Grainger Market there is a 'weigh house'. The dad and I had 10p worth each and the results were nothing short of shocking! Both he and me are now supersizers. So, it was straight to the fruit and veg stalls and 4 carrier bags later we are home. Gone are the mince and dumplings, the roast beef and yorkshire puds, the cheese and the biscuits and replacing them are salads, and salads, and salads! Can I do 2 stone in 8 weeks? Doubt it, but I will have a damned good try. The 8 weeks is until 25th March when he and me fly off to Rome for 6 days, I really don't want to have to buy a load of new fat clothes because the fact is, that everything I have has suddenly become tight everywhere.
So it's more walking for the dogs and no nibbles while I am doing stuff like this!
I will keep you posted.
January 22 Soggy tale. All this rain we have ben having is awful, and it put me in mind of John's muddy adventure last November when we took our usual cottage in the Highlands, and managed to pick the one week in November that it rained every single day almost without stopping. We were only a spit away from The Crinan Canal which is very beautiful, dead flat and has a canal path all 9 miles. Not that we walked the 9 miles at one go! Both dogs loved it as there were plenty of smells and the occasional other dog. We have noticed poor old Betsy getting a bit forgetful of late, she is 14, so it was good to be able to let her off the leash on the tow path and know she was safe. Ha! So much for what we thought. It was tipping it down on the Tuesday, and we drove to the canal, parked and as it was so bad, John volunteered to take the dogs himself, so off he went leaving me in the car, I got my book out and turned on the radio. It was ages, and I was just starting to get a bit concerned especially as his last words were 10 minutes there and 10 back, when eventually they turned up, all 3 soaked to the skin, and after getting the dogs into the back, he shed his waterproofs - which were thick with mud - straight into a black bin bag in the back of the car.
This was the tale: Betsy was happily trotting along when suddenly for absolutely no reason she took off and leaving the canal on her left she headed down the other side of the tow path, a slippy and mud covered embankment, into a boggy field. John called her, but she had other ideas and headed straight for the road across which were a few cottages in a horse shoe formation. The road she was headed for is very quiet, the main road being on the far side of the canal, this one probably only leads to the cottages, BUT…..that day, the only van which happened to be on the b****y road was that of SPCA (Scotland’s answer to the RSPCA). Needless to say, he stopped and as John (after scrambling down the mud complete with other dog) approached he proceeded to give him a lecture about dogs being on leads etc. While he was doing this, Betsy had taken a fancy to the open door of one of the cottages and disappeared inside. The SPCA feller obviously thought that was where they lived and drove off. John approached the cottage and called to Betsy…nothing. He knocked at the door…nothing. He called again…nothing. So in desperation he peered round the door to see Betsy curled up on the rug in front of a lovely fire! No sign of an occupier, he quickly leashed her up and legged it back over the road, the boggy field and with considerable difficulty, up the muddy embankment! I needn’t tell you after a few expletives from John, we both saw the funny side of it and could hardly drive for laughing. I just hope he didn’t leave too much mud on the poor soul’s carpet. January 17 If you are called John you may not want to know thisSince Christmas I have been updating and and putting onto the PC the 'Anniversaries' list since 1950 at my parish church. First of all the handwriting of some of the preists is akin to some doctors, and some poor dead souls are recorded with my best possible guesses on the spelling of their names. Then there is the Ann and Anne guess and the Mc and Mac, not to mentionthe Rourke's Rouke and O'Rourke. I could go on with Wear, Wears & Weir and many others but I think you now have the picture.
The one thing that has stood out more than anything is the number of Johns who have died in the month of May, similarly, Margarets seem to have a preference for November as their month to shuffle off. We have 58 deceased for May, 31 of these are women and of the 27 men remaining 18 are named John which compared to other months is huge. Watch this space for the pie charts!!!! Only kidding, I mean about the pie charts!
I crossed the Penines this morning to visit Phil's latest update and chuckled at his quiet pleasure in finding that he had not been picked out as the butt of the day, instead some other poor suckers had fallen prey. He mentioned an ATM machine and strangely yesterday I also had an encounter with same.
To pay the central heating engineer for the systems yearly service I nipped to our hole in the wall, an elderly gent was busy with a transaction and as I waited a woman neighbour came by and we had a bit of a chin wag, I was aware that the chappie had finished and moved away and shortly the chat with the neighbour came to an end and I moved in to use the machine. On the machine was the startling words,'YOUR BALANCE IS £2,750', and beneath that, 'WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO NOW'? I stood there my card in hand, thinking WOW! What would I like to do now? 'Course I quickly shut down the system grabbed the card it spat out and hared off after the auld fella. I noted the name on the card and fortunatly because it was a foul sort of day there weren't many ancients to choose from and caught up with him. I asked would he mind telling me his name which he did and thankfully it was the one on the card which I returned to it's rightful owner. He said that it wasn't the first time he had done something similar and thanked me very much. I persuaded him that in future he should go into the bank and do any transaction over the counter with his card, he said he didn't know you could still do that and he as very relieved to know that that option was still possible. Poor old b****r could have been robbed blind.
So toodle oo for now, it's still pouring so keep your wellies to hand....probably to foot would be more appropriate.
January 14 Just another manic MondaySo, here’s a thing. I’m all geared up to start blogging again, so pleased to be back because I really missed you all, and what happens? Sunday the PC grinds to a shuddering halt, and I really mean Grrrrrinds! With a horrible noise it froze. So today I took me tower to Dr techi and I would like to say it’s good as new, however, it is in fact still making strange juddering noises and limping along. So I think a new Dr techi is called for. These things are so great ….when they work!
Christmas Nuts This is the true story of me and my recent experience with Christmas Nuts. We have yet another very elderly relative who we don’t see too often as she stays a lot with her family in the South of England. Knowing she was home again from one of her travels, we called round there just after New Year to give her our good wishes for 2008. She wandered off to the kitchen to put the kettle on and as she went she told us to help ourselves to some sweeties which were in a dish on the coffee table, alongside of the dish was a small dish of shelled brazil nuts, which I am very partial to. J helped himself to a couple of Roses chocolates but I opted for the brazils and ate 3 or 4. They were lovely and I was just about to help myself to another when there was a horse screech from the aged one…. ”No” she cried, “Not the nuts” I assured her they were fine, I’d already eaten some and they were good. “Oh dear” she said, “They were from a box of chocolate brazils, and I cant do the nuts anymore, so I sucked off all of the chocolate and thought I’d give the nuts to the birds”. We all ended up absolutely in stitches, but to be honest, I really wish she hadn’t told me! January 10 Hello!A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE, Hope 10th January isn’t too late to send my best wishes for 2008. Don’t quite know what happened at the end of Summer last year, but my life just sort of went onto hold for a while as I entered a bit of a black hole. Thankfully I am crawling my way out now, a bit bashed and bruised and clinging to the wreckage, but quite determined to be a little more careful of my mental health in future by recognising my limitations as a human being. As a Christian, I always thought that God would give me the strength to match all the need I saw about me that required ‘fixing’. Clearly, God is telling me to keep me nose out of some things that I aint up to fixing, and that’s been a very hard pill to swallow. So, I’m drifting now, taking a happy day at a time, and when I feel the urge to man the ‘people’s kitchen’ single handed, or dash off to volunteer for all the things I did before, I have to physically take a step back, pick up a book or worse, try again to get the last ‘hard’ game in ‘Bricks of the Atlantic’, Oh Big Fish games what have you done to me! Thank you for all the comments left I will call around and have a look at you all, and let you know I am alive. I can’t promise to update every day, but I’ll do me best. Meanwhile, here's a picture of me and the dad taken on New Year's Eve which happened to be our 30th wedding anniversary.
Toodle oo the noo. X August 03 God Bless Harvy NicholsI am sure that my email to Harvey Nichols will not amount to a hill of beans, but when I read in the news that they had decided on moral grounds to stop stocking Foie Gras, I just had to contact them to say thank you. No matter what the top chefs say about the taste, it is inexcusable to force feed these poor geese until their eyes almost pop out of their heads just to ensure that they have grossly oversized livers with which foie gras is made. So here’s hoping Harvey Nichol’s example will be a beacon to all those other posh food retailers out there.
So folks here we are already 3 days into August. Where did the last 7 months go? Can’t believe it is 3 months since we were in Poland, no plans for a summer jolly this year but we are off to Scotland again in October. The bairn had her 27th birthday last Sunday, and to celebrate she had a bit of a do on Saturday evening. Her friends arrived nearly all in fancy dress and looked great, though I think Nellie the elephant was sweating a bit before half the evening was over. The dad and me stayed for a couple of hours and lost for a fancy dress, I just made us a label each which said; ‘Ooh! We love ceilings we do’. We were of course a pair of ceiling fans! Well I thought it was very clever.
I’m a bit hit and miss at the blogging at the mo because I’m staying a few nights a week with my friend who is recovering well after her triple by-pass. She is on her own and until she feels a lot better there are 3 of us making sure she isn’t alone at nights. She is doing good, but it’s all a bit scary for her at the moment.
Take care out there all you travellers in cyber space. x August 02 Brenda - Barbara? A rose as they say....
This is a re-run from a blog last year sometime, and it is specifically for Brenda who I wasn't in contact with then. Hope you are all good and happy out there. x
I am the youngest of 6, (so that will tell you how ancient the rest of them are). My father really wanted a boy and each of us in turn was to be called Peter, however, along came Sheila, Moira, Patricia, then Flora (who was obviously supposed to be the last as she was named after my mother) then 3 years later Ailsa made an appearance. My poor old mam was not in the greatest of health by this time and it must have been a terrible shock to her to discover she was again pregnant 5 years after Ailsa was born. I arrived on October 3rd 1945 exactly one day before Ail’s birthday; course no-one had bought her a thing poor child, so I was presented to her as a gift! She was even allowed to name me, and she did – Brenda – and this is the name on my birth certificate. Once at school I had a teacher who insisted on calling me Barbara, this was rectified then it was forgotten, and Barbara would be used again, I just got used to it I suppose and so did my friends, so I have a name for friends and a family name. This is strange because the same thing happened to my father who everyone outside of his family knew as Peter, he was actually John Grant.
So, when I was a nipper and my mam wanted me for some errand or whatever, there was always a liturgy of all my sister’s names spouted before she eventually reached one of mine, by which time I was off, usually out of the little bedroom window onto the flat porch roof below, a quick step onto the trellis fence then away, out of earshot so that I could genuinely say I hadn’t heard when she called. What a bad child! July 23 A sticky sort of a dayMaking jam really makes me happy, there's something really good about getting a load of fruit for free and with the addition of a bit of sugar and a bit of time Bob's yer uncle! I got piles of cherries just off the trees around and about, the raspberries from the garden and the plums from trees on one of the dog walks. Once made, I always think well that'll see us through the winter, then I start giving it away and before I know whats what, there's one jar left. Never mind, I can always make some more - as long as they give me the jars back!
Free fruit reminds me of a holiday I invited myself on. My sister and brother in law were going camping to Avimore in Scotland with the idea of some good walks and I tagged along. It was freezing, and we walked if only to keep warm. On the first afternoon we found a ruin of a croft which obviously had a much loved garden and in it to our delight we found a plum tree. It was September and being that much more Northerly the plums were at their peak so we of course carried as many as we could back to the camp site with us. By the end of the week we had eaten plums every way possible and were heartily sick of them and on the final evening after probably more plums than was sensible we went up to the Avimore Centre for a drink. Half way through the evening Flora said she felt really sick and made a hasty exit to the loo. Trevor and I sat there for a bit then I decided to go and see was she ok. I went into the ladies and asked her was she ok, she said she was but I insisted that she open the cubicle so I could see for myself, she did and in I went, and that was the last thing I remember because I fainted dead away and ended with my legs sticking out the bottom of the door and my head in the sanitary bin! Needless to say it was a bemused Trevor who saw flora leading me out to the fresh air!
Haven't really been too keen on plums since then. July 22 Some sort of an explainationAfter the last blog entry here,and the comments which ensued, I really think 'the demise of the canary' should be expanded upon.
What happened was that my mam died in October '83, and her adored canary required a new home. Although we had 3 cats at the time, I took bird and cage and placed it in such a way that the door was away from prying paws. The fact was, the cats after an initial show of interest, seemed to just accept it, even ignored it. And that was that.
One December afternoon, while I was busy in the kitchen and 'the bairn' was playing happily -as I thought- in the living room, Thomas the cat came wandering past me and mewed to be let out into the garage, from where there was a cat flap into the garden. I opened the kitchen door and out he toddled with what looked like a banana hanging from his mouth. Now you can say I'm thick, or even say I'm blind, but in my preoccupied mind there seemed to me to be nothing wrong in a cat carrying a banana, just a bit odd that's all. Then the penny dropped, and I legged after him out of the door, only to see him on the lawn having a tasty snack of 'Chubby' the canary.
The 3 year old, with blond curls and the face of an angel, eventually told - after the shock of what had happened wore off- and said that Chubby had looked sad and wanted out.
There is a bit of an add on to this story, and it's this, that after almost 3 months of not even being able to shed a tear for my mam who I loved dearly, this event was the catalyst enabling some good hearty bawling. Er, pardon the catalyst pun.
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