Wednesday, 26 October 2011

My way (#4)......

Over the years I seem to have developed some very definite ways of doing things and usually it's for a very good reason, so I thought I'd share. 


One of my pure indulgences are my nails, I've worn acrylic coated painted nails for years and although I've always used experienced and talented nail technicians at times I've had to do DIY repairs to see me through to my next real manicure. However, I'm never going to do time consuming (and smelly) repairs on holiday so now in my 'first aid' kit I carry super glue in case an acrylic starts to lift or threatens to pop off it is quickly fixed.

What's your way?
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Monday, 24 October 2011

Strolling the Southbank...

Had a lovely day in London yesterday with daughter and the children. I was ready for 8:30am but got a text to say the girls had only just got out of bed so would be a bit later than expected   :o)

Our drive to Newbury Park station was easy with the girls playing a 'watch out for things' game while munching breakfast and O happy listening to their Horrible Histories cd and not letting anyone sing along with him! Unfortunately the station car park was closed but we found a roadside spot just round the corner so no problem. Walking round to the station I started playing the stop-go-forward-back game with O so he wouldn't keep running ahead without us, very funny when all 5 of us were doing it in the street.

We took the underground to Embankment station (Central line to Mile End then District), which O loved and because the girls were standing he wanted to stand some of the time to see if the movement of the train would make him fall over.

We had a bit of a walk to where the "October Plenty" procession was starting from but unfortunately when we got there we had actually missed it, which nobody minded as it had been such a lovely walk on a really sunny day licking ice-creams, so we carried on walking to Borough Market where the procession was ending for the "Apple Day Festival". We had a good look at lots of food and drink stalls then headed to the other end of the market, past people in costume, one of which was a very tall 'Green man' covered in fruit and vegetation and his face painted green too. This area of the market was packed with people gathered round a stage where we saw minstrels playing and dancers, including a 'bear' performer too! According to the programme they also did some plays but I think we missed them too.

Hunger was the only thing on R's mind so we walked around a bit and debated lots then finally found a lovely place to stop for a yummy lunch. O got restless once he had eaten enough so he dragged daughter out and left the girls and me to finish then we met them back at the market.

When we were ready to head home we left the market with a huge meringue that E wanted, a tart that daughter wanted and O asleep on daughters back. R and I made a quick detour to get her some sushi that she wanted and I was amazed that they could all eat more immediately after having lunch hahahaha.

As we were now at London Bridge station we tried the Jubilee line back to Stratford then the Central to Newbury Park and in fact that did seem so much quicker! O was getting more and more daring and wanting to change seats every five minutes but we did insist he only changed when the train had stopped. Made us laugh that his running about seemed to put all the other passengers on alert to catch him if need be!

Getting back to Newbury Park at such a good time I text my sisterM to see if they were in and wanted to make us a cuppa.....she could have lied and said they were out (I would never have known) but they didn't and so we called round for a welcome cup of tea and natter about their recent holiday.

Finally dropped home before daughter got her lot home for dinner and bed. I'd left them knowing they were coming over the next day (that's today) and with a promise that the girls could sleep over tonight.
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Thursday, 20 October 2011

True gem....

Hubby and I have been married 38 years today :o)
When I looked on the internet it seems there is no traditional gift, however, the modern gift for 38 is anything to do with Beryl............oooooo that's me !!!
Always told him I was more than a semi-precious gem and today perhaps I'll even wear a ribbon as his gift.
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Monday, 17 October 2011

Food for thought...

Seems the past week has been all about food....last Wednesday hubby and I went to stay with friendsL&K arrived for lunch and we went out for dinner in the evening then stayed over and had breakfast with them then left. We got home late afternoon Thursday (after buying my new lovely bright yellow mac) and out as three couples for a meal in a pub in Woodbridge that had a special deal on, FriendM insisted on paying for hubby and I as we had done some gardening for her daughter a little while ago.

On Friday our daughter was here with the children and we were treated to a three course meal cooked by the children. They need to have a main meal at a late lunch sort of time as they have a mixture of dancing, swimming, orchestra and trampolining to fit in between 5pm and bed so need a good meal to see them through! R made a crudites starter to go with the challah bread they had all made. E made a great lasagne and garlic bread served with salad and O made the apple crumble. All really lovely!

Saturday hubby and I took our friendsP&A out to dinner, to a pub they had never been to before. It was our treat as they had looked after our house and garden while we were away and as it had been so warm and dry they had done lots and lots of watering so well deserved a thankyou!

Sunday was just hubby and I so I spent a while chopping all sorts of veg to make a beef casserole, putting all the discarded peelings etc into a pot for soup. Actually daughter did call in with O and E and O thought that dinner was smelling so good that he kept saying how he was hungry until I put some of the casserole into a bowl for him.

Today my first job was to clean the cooker and while I was doing that I felt like baking something. As a total carb free experiment I tried Banana muffins using coconut flour.....it was an absolute failure hahaha
Then daughter arrived with O and E and I made lunch, and then O wanted a bath, then I helped E with painting a canvas while daughter and O went to collect R from her sleep over, then played with O while daughter took E to her oboe lesson, then they were all back here wanting to go home for dinner but O was taking a nap and he is evil if you wake him, so there I was making dinner for 6, thankfully I make extras most dinners and freeze them so all home cooked except for R who wanted the chinese takeaway leftovers, E wanted the lasagne, hubby had the chilli and rice and some was taken from each of them for O while daughter and I had the soup......not posh but enjoyed by all for a change :o)
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Tuesday, 11 October 2011

My way (#3)....

Over the years I seem to have developed some very definite ways of doing things and usually it's for a very good reason, so I thought I'd share. 


I seem to be finding it harder and harder to thread a needle even with my expensive verifocals on, all that sucking the end of the thread then poking the needle and moving it around so the colour of what is behind it changes hoping that will help and then more sucking! So now I often pinch the very end of the thread between my thumb and first finger of my left hand and with my right hand lower the eye of the needle over the thread and that usually works well......or if there's someone else in the room I get them to do it   ;o)

What's your way?
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Monday, 10 October 2011

Hello out there...

I've been poking round the back room of this blog and on the stats 
page it shows that people have been popping by from United States, 
United Kingdom, Russia, Greece, India, Germany, Latvia and Poland 
so I wanted to say hello to you all...
Hi, hello, Zdravstvuj, Yassou, Namasté, Vanakkam, Namo namah, 
Grüß dich, Sveiki, Dzien dobry.

Forgive me if I've got these wrong as I've just relied on google and forgive me if I've used the wrong gender or formality but I'm guessing that anyway your English must be really good if you are making sense of my cockney that has the occasional Suffolk accent slipping in.

Sunday, 9 October 2011

Nothing so special as kith and kin...

Had a really lovely family day for our son's birthday. Our son and his fianceD came and so did our daughter, her partnerM and the three grandchildren and we all went out to our favourite Italian restaurant for a late lunch. Then when totally fed and watered we came home for tea and cake, yummy birthday cake specially made by fianceD's sister, a rich chocolate cake with double chocolate fondant icing and she'd also made some yummy cup cakes with a sort of pineapple cheesecake type icing on the top.

After all that sugar the children got a bit carried away with a throwing toys around the room and at people type game which then progressed into a chasing each other game including uncle who did most of the chasing and children who did most of the screaming and giggling. Eventually they calmed enough to actually play a good game of Kubb in the garden but from my safe sofa I did see them all being chased again by uncle who was holding the water squirting bottle!

And now...son and fianceD have just left, the grandaughters are on the computers upstairs, O is quietly playing and eating a sandwich and us four adults are sitting about looking exhausted!
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Friday, 7 October 2011

Sitting on the see-saw...

With the good weather it has been easy to keep up with the laundry.....but you wouldn't believe the huge pile of ironing that's waiting!

Looks like all 1,000 of the chamomile seeds I'd planted have germinated.....but don't really have the time/energy/compost for all the pricking out!

The "shall we have solar panels" debate is on again - a see-saw ride all of its own!
If you have solar panels and have any advice please let me know.


Booked an appointment with a new nail technician now my previous one has given up. Always a struggle to find a good one so fingers crossed.

Caught up with some recorded TV on Tuesday but only because my usual night out with friends got cancelled.

I got two new members to join our art group a month ago, but they didn't come back again last night.
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Tuesday, 4 October 2011

Now th-air's a good name....

Just as a quick follow up to our holiday, today we had our Daughter, M and the children here for lunch and we gave the children the air-plants each in a little pot and some sweets and Daughter and M had some Belgian chocolates. The children loved the plants and after customising each round pot with felt tip faces they named them Airdward, Lucair and Airdwina, very clever and so cute :o)

I did notice that the chocolates didn't last long either as they all dived into the small bag.
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The coach trip adventure....

Friday 30th September - Monday 4th October

OK before you get smart and point out that this is my fourth holiday this year, in my defense I will say that two of them have only been three nights away from home and the other two were only a week each so put those together and it's a total of a mere 20 nights.....so now you actually feel sorry for me don't you!

Hubby and I were away with two other couples, M&P and T&F. We were taking a coach trip for three nights in Lille and included a full day trip into Bruges.

We had the usual early morning pick up and a couple of changes of feeder coaches then onto our final coach at Dover then onto the ferry and off at Calais and to our hotel, which was on the outskirts of Lille but thankfully near the Metro. Our driver reminded us of a local performer we often see called 'Hat-Man' so that became his nick-name even though he never wore a hat. Our tour guide was a lady who was possibly a bit older than us and obviously very experienced in French ways and the ways of Lille in particular and she had  lots of information to give us over the coach speaker....although she used 'ermmmm' as very frequent punctuation so I kept listening for that and not taking in the info!

We decided not to sign up for the additional trip into Ghent, not only because it was quite expensive but also because Hubby and F especially were hating all the hours on the coach. That turned out to be a lucky decision for M as she was really unwell on that morning so wouldn't have done well on the coach, at least her and P could spend the morning in the hotel and meet the four of us in Lille later when she was feeling better. We did a lot of walking around seeing the buildings from outside and inside if they were shops or restaurants. The weather for this time of year was amazing, 25/27 degrees C, unbelievable! I bought three air-plants for my children as it's so hard to find small gifts for them, especially as this is our fourth holiday (oops promised myself I wouldn't mention that again).

Unfortunately our hotel didn't serve any food all weekend, although they advertised a full menu, so we had to train into Lille each night, but we made good use of the hotel bar and stayed until 1am on the first night and not much earlier the two following nights! In Lille we went looking for the famous military citidel/castle but that was closed too so T and I had to take photos through a gap in the huge wooden doors! Our last morning, Monday, was free time in Lille and it also transpired that most of the shops don't open till late on Mondays! Our day in Bruges was good, with lots of Belgian chocolate to buy and waffles to eat!

I know we laughed a lot but right now I can't remember anything specific we were laughing about. Over all P made a good job of taking care of the euros-kitty and I was ticket monitor on the Metro. The down side was Hubby ended up in pain when his sciatica flared up and P has hip pain and the rest of us stiffened up each time we spent a while on the coach, so M said to me today that even though people think that coach trips are for old people perhaps they really need fit people....I said that I thought coach trips MADE their customers into old people!
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