Sometimes I could kill him......

I'm sure you remember my "40 hours in 40 days" where I made extra time and effort to clearing and working in my craft room. It wasn't that long ago so even I remember hahaha. I didn't achieve great tidiness or wonderful organisation but I'd improved the chaos and made enough workable space to inspire more crafting (and get some of the ironing done).

Well.....Hubby said the outside cameras needed replacing!
AND they all feed into the receiver in the craft room! (Because it used to be his office).

So now I can barely get in the door.

One camera already comes into our bedroom and cabled through my wardrobe into the far side of the craft room and you'd think that was easy as the wiring is all in place, but you thought wrong! He also installed an extra camera even further down the outside wall meaning new holes to be drilled in our bedroom and more cables running under carpets and more holes in my wardrobe. Then this corner of the craft room was emptied and the sofa pulled forward so the cable could run behind. This is how he's put it back!

This used to be boxes all stacked underneath the clear desk, but it all had to move for cable laying.

 Then of course all those new cables plug into a new receiver box, a box so improved that the tv in there isn't hi-tec enough for it.......so in comes the spare tv from another room and now lots of talk about moving the tv from his office downstairs up to here and the lounge tv into his office which is just an excuse for buying the latest smartest tv for the lounge. I want my sewing machine space back please!

He said he'd put my boxes back but now my most used is tucked right under the corner and there's still all this cable where two boxes should be grrrrrr!

I'll not complain just yet as he's had three days sorting his charity SERV at the Suffolk Show and today he's gone for his first observation bike ride towards his advanced rider qualification, however, he will definitely be dragged back up there to sort it all out with me.
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Theatre: Little Miss Sunshine.........

The road to happiness is a bumpy ride.

Based on the Oscar-winning film, Little Miss Sunshine is a new musical comedy from Tony Award winners James Lapine and William Finn.

The Hoover family has more than a few troubles, but young Olive has her heart set on winning the Little Miss Sunshine beauty contest. When an invitation to compete comes out of the blue, the Hoovers must pile in to their rickety yellow camper van. Can it survive the 800-mile trip from New Mexico to California – and more importantly, can they?

This uplifting, modern classic celebrates the quirks of every family, the potholes in every road, and the power of overcoming our differences.

Lapine and Finn’s inventive musical version opens in London in a brand new production directed by Arcola Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen, then takes to the road for a national tour.

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Lucky for us the tour brought it to Ipswich.

Firstly, this was a fun production, great acting, fantastic singing voices, very clever very minimum set and most of the cast have tv credits.

Secondly a very special mention has to be given to Sophie Hartley Booth who played Olive. Not sure how old she is,  possibly about 10, a real pocket rocket taking on a huge part of dialogue, song and dance, but not coming across as anything other than cute. There are two other child actresses taking turns to play Olive.

But finally I have to have a moan yet again about calling them musicals, when words are put into such strange untuneful arrangements that you'd never hear it again elsewhere or if you did you wouldn't be singing along saying "oh I know this it comes from......".
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Another Sad Goodbye.....

My bilA had been unwell for some time and from the start of this year he had been in and out of hospital and when home living downstairs only with carers coming in each day. Sadly last week he suffered a second heart attack and never recovered. His funeral was yesterday.

He loved his football and since his wife/my sister died often watched nothing else for days. The joys of sky tv and multiple sports channels ☺ His loyalty to Spurs was famous with all that knew him. He had been moaning recently about how badly they had been playing which is why on Wednesday night we knew he'd be looking down and cheering as his team won their semi-final game against Ajax in the Champions League, and amazingly the final will be played on bilA's birthday!

So it was no surprise when his three children and his sister all wore Tottenham Hotspur kit tops to his funeral.

Jewish funeral services, for me, are tedious with lots of prayer readings straight from the book, some in Hebrew and some in English, some spoken and some sung. bilA was far more than a regular at the synagogue, he attended everything, Sabbaths, holy days, social events, taught children at the Hebrew classes and did guided tours and talks to local children on school's visits as well as holding the post of warden for many years. So the Rabbi and congregation members were all good friends and this helped make it a lot more personal especially when the Rabbi did her own personal reading.

His son did a reading too, which was a perfect balance of emotional and humorous and although he was visibly heartbroken he'd written and delivered his final tribute beautifully.

We left the cemetry and drove to his house, odd being there without him, still feels odd after nearly seven years my sisterM not beginning there. M&A had bought that house when they got married 51 years ago, and we have had so many shared memories there, so it's really sad to think that it will be cleared and sold and we may never set foot inside it again.

They had provided so much food, determined not to run short like they'd done once before. There were family and friends and ex spouses and previously estranged family members who were all getting on together and supporting each other. Great to see and proof how loved bilA had been.

Evening prayers when the Rabbi returned at 8pm and the lounge filled again with synagogue members. Most of them left soon after the service ended. We left soon after too and was loaded up with trays of food to take home along with some paperwork that I need to deal with and my paintings of York I'd done as a gift for M&A as York was one of their favourite places. These had been on their wall at the top of the stairs since 1993.

Theatre: Grandma Saves The Day......

It’s Ipswich in the late 1980’s and the Giles family are thrown into confusion when the upwardly mobile Stinkletons move in next door. It takes Grandma Giles to sort it all out with a few swift blows from her brolly and her familiar battle cry – ‘Gertcha!’.

Combining the much loved Giles cartoon characters with classic hit songs from the eighties including Our House, Simply the Best, Wake Me Up Before You Go- Go and many more, all played live by our multi-talented company of actor-musicians, this is a fast-moving, funny and pop filled comic strip for all the family.

Directed by Pete Rowe, and in true New Wolsey style, this show is not to be missed!

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Someone should have proof-read the entry above which came directly from the Wolsey website and I'm assuming is the same as the season brochure, because actually we saw the Giles family move in and the Stinkletons who live next door come round with a quiche to welcome them! Not the other way round.

I'm not sure if the Giles cartoons are nationally famous but I first heard of Giles when we moved to Ipswich as there's a large statue of Grandma in the town center.

The cast were all so talented and hilariously funny. I wasn't too amused by some of the insulting personal remarks about the queen or politicians of the time. The script was almost solely there for the purpose of introducing the next song but they were great tap-your-feet sing-along songs and there were so many laugh out loud gags, corny but still very funny. We both enjoyed it immensely. 

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