Varied Celebrations.......

 
Our usual group of Wednesday friends are only called that historically/hysterically although we do meet lots of other days too and holiday together and have had coach trips and day trips etc together and always try to mark each other's birthdays. Next month I have a big birthday and FriendM wanted to book us something to look forward to for as soon as she gets back from her holiday. Juggling everyone's commitments and preferences and following a suggestion I had from another friend we looked at our nearest Warner Hotel, they are adult only with meals and entertainment included. It then got really difficult for FriendM as her telephone enquiry during the week gave her a variety of details but it was Saturday evening when she'd heard back from the others and had the chance to go online and there were alternative details she hadn't been told about. We spent late in to the evening with her online and with each other on WhatsApp trying to sort each problem, the website wouldn't let her book three rooms at the same time then trying again it did, she was getting through to the payment bit and the site crashed, it didn't like form filling on her phone so she went off to find her ipad (pinched by her grandson) eventually and needing to use a different bank card it was a success. By this time it's about 11:40pm. She's very determined. I went straight on to my bank app to do a transfer to her but my bank were doing overnight maintenance! Things are rarely easy eh? 

Have you ever started explaining something then realised you shouldn't as it might spoil a surprise? I was going to tell you that I'd had an idea to make something as a gift, so I gathered the materials but ran out of space, so I brought it all downstairs from my craft room, got Hubby to carry down the heavy stuff and the sewing machine and rearranged furniture to set up a work station in the office. 

Half way through the second day I changed my mind and Hubby helped me put it all away again. So nothing much to tell really. 

Son and fiancé are finally nearing completion of their home rebuild and this week the ground floor floor is being leveled and made beautiful, it needs time to dry thoroughly so they moved in here with their dog of course. 

Another funeral this week for our dear friendTK of 40 years. His wife, one of my closest friends KK is often a Funeral Celebrant so bravely chose to conduct the service herself. As a very experienced public speaker she held it together really well and managed to squash his 76 varied, wild and interesting years into half an hour. Afterwards we were all treated to a true celebration of his life, with family and lots of us old friends swapping stories. FriendTK was an artist making it his full time occupation soon after I got to know him, so for my Art A level I asked him if I could do my personal study on him and he was honoured and gave me all the time and help I needed. This was a bit sneeky on my part as working on a famous dead artist (like the other students) would have meant the examiners would instantly know if I'd got things wrong or they already had strong preferences. 

This is the front cover, it's his name I did in signature art. 

And this was my portrait of him.

After my A Level pass I gave the study to him as a gift. When my friend said he'd died I cheekily asked if I could have it as it was full of memories of us working on it together. I was honoured his family had it on display at the celebration for all to look at and when Hubby, Son and I left it came with us. 

A catchup lunch with friendM was lovely and my bonus was she paid as part of my birthday present. I was supposed to receive the rest of my present at the same time but having been organised enough to get it all wrapped and ready in her rush to leave the house, as she was running late anyway, she left it in her hallway so she made an extra trip the next day and delivered it while she was frantically rushing somewhere else.  

I've already bought tickets for 15th August but was so pleased to be given a press night seat on 28th July and it was with Daughter, O, Son and Fiancé. Yes R is busy again all summer in this year's Red Rose Chain's Theatre in the Forest. 

A fantastic cast of eight, becoming about 18 characters plus a life size puppet operated so well that he makes you laugh when he plays and mourn at his death. 

Their first night they had very heavy rain but carried on anyway, thankfully for us it got a little chilly but stayed dry.

I'll give no more spoilers as it runs till 26th August so you've plenty of time to see it for yourself. 

Meanwhile if you want a challenge you can look for Daughter, Son, Fiancé, O and me in this audience. 

Memories.........

 
Hubby noticed his car making a noise, a tiny noise that with my dreadful ears I couldn't even hear, but it was really annoying him. As he noticed it soon after the windscreen had been replaced he assumed it was the cause and called them back. They checked it all and could find nothing wrong. Hubby then booked it in with Audi who did a full diagnostics check. The mechanic could also hear the noise but could find nothing wrong and suggested it may be tyre noise. Hubby wasn't convinced as the noise is there all the time and tyre noise changes with the changing road surfaces. They agreed to replace the windscreen again under insurance. The noise remained. 
He's now moving all the wheels around! It's still making the noise. I suggested he turned the radio up. 

Knowing I'd done a lot of family tree stuff one of my cousins in Canada asked for what details I had for mutual grandparents. None of my generation knew them as my dad lost both his parents and a sister when their East London house was bombed in WW2. My cousin suggested we have their details entered into "The Book of Names" at Yad Vashem Jewish Memorial Museum in Jerusalem, Israel. 

There's now forms to fill in and it had reminded me of visiting the original Yad Vashem Museum (it's been rebuilt since) on an Israel youth trip when I was 18 and it was very upsetting. 

What a coincidence! Hubby had just finished clearing our smelly drain then Daughter sent him a message to say could he go and look at her smelly drain. It took a lot longer to do hers and new parts needed but both fixed now. 

We held our first ex-work team lunch since the funeral of one of our team, her husband came in her place and our partners all came too. We knew it would be difficult but felt comforting all being together. Her husband really appreciated it too. 

We were talking about all the photos marking our team's history and afterwards I managed to find an internal office news paper that had done a full article on our department. The reporter had also been an excited/creative photographer who got us doing some unusual publicity shots. 

Had a lovely meet up with friendsL&K. It had been a long gap this time so plenty to talk about (not that L and I have ever run out of stuff to talk about). Went to the steak house that's half way between us and I had their bbq ribs as usual yummy yummy. They even brought me an early birthday present. We don't normally gift each other but this year we both have big birthdays next month. 

And when all of a sudden the bananas are far too soft for fresh eating.....

The best plan is banana bread (bit flat but still yummy). 

See you next week.

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Hot Then Finally Wet......

 
Saturday Hubby's old (school days) friendGC came over (he lives about 40 miles away). He often plays taxi for his elderly neighbours and this was bringing someone local to us and needing to take them back much later in the day so an ideal opportunity to visit us in between. 

I've also school day's friends I still keep in touch with and one of them has her next big birthday at the end of August (two weeks after mine as we were in the same class). Her husband rang to ask us to forward any good/funny/ very young photos we have to help him create a memory book. 

Hubby is enjoying looking through them but he won't get through them all,  we have millions of photos in drawers, albums, on line, up in the clouds, on hard drives and flash drives. We have found a few good ones. Her daughter has now started a WhatsApp group for us, and other friends, to send the photos to so my phone is constantly pinging. 

We went for a lovely walk with Daughter, O and the dog to Flatford Mill, a very pretty National Trust tourist spot, home of the artist John Constable.

Tea and ice creams in the coffee shop garden was needed as we'd got very hot walking, then home for a late lunch. 

Had fresh crusty bread here more than once this week and the ends seem to go hard so quickly. A quick Internet search found lots of recipes that use stale breadcrumbs, and with plenty of fruit in the freezer I tried this dessert. 

A sort of cross between a crumble/ pie/ bread and butter pudding 

And this was my result. Made a nice change. 

Friday I managed to get a blood test cancellation at my surgery so didn't have to wait till the end of the month, came home and cancelled the one I'd booked at the phlebotomy clinic. Won't see any results till next week though. 

Friday evening I met with friendLA for a long overdue meal out and catchup. We had lots to talk about but we were both mostly shocked at the ages of our grandchildren, I haven't had little ones for a very long time and she's now expecting her first great grandchild. We both felt very old. 

And that's another week done, hot and dry till Friday then constant drizzle all day.

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Bit of a Headache........

 
A less chaotic start to this week as R wasn't working all weekend and she'd learnt all her lines so she was just relaxing. Hubby wasn't put out by the light showers as there was England v Australia Ashes cricket, super bikes, 9 ball pool and plenty more sport on TV. The dog was happy curled up beside me and I had the last paid for day to use on our family tree stuff. 

The beautiful mallow had turned itself into a huge rug over the lawn, so before it killed off more of the grass than the dry weather had already I cut lots of it to enjoy inside. 

R had moved onto this larger back-pack bag for work as she is permanently carrying her script. She mentioned that lack of internal pockets or dividers was making it tricky to keep hunting in the bottom for the smaller things and she had a large very insulated water bottle which would be better standing up. 

So after getting all the measurements, a lot of thought, sketching ideas and hunting through my fabrics, I came up with black denim from jeans plus the sleeve and two pockets from an old jacket of mine

When machined up became a large pocket for her script and a place for her bottle with two small bits tidy pockets. 

It fitted into the big bag easily and R loved it. 

Daughter and O got back late Sunday and unloaded her tent and top box back into our garage. They both had some of my rhubarb crumble and custard then went home shortly followed by Hubby taking R and the dog home. Very quiet here again now. 

Daughter came over with O, and the dog of course. She came to open out and clean off her ground sheet and waterproof from under the tent. Her and Hubby got it all done and packed away before it started raining. I wasn't the best company unfortunately as I've had a mild migraine headache on and off for a few days. Hopefully it will disappear very soon. 

It didn't disappear and after four days I decided to get it checked out. 35 mins in the queue on the phone for the doctor's surgery and was put on the list for a clinician to call me back. Received a call but my landlines handset wouldn't let me answer. I rang back to tell them to call my mobile, that took another 25 mins in the phone queue. Got the call then got a face-to-face appointment with the Advance Nurse Practitioner. She asked me to have a blood test then I'll be referred to Neurology at the hospital. Hope it's nothing urgent as the first blood test appointment available is 18 days away. 

Theatre with FriendA and FriendV was brilliant. FriendA's two granddaughters are part of the Ipswich Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Theatre Company (that's why they shorten it to IODS) and I was really keen to join them for Fiddler on the Roof. I'd seen the original film about five times, I'm Jewish and the story is part of my heritage and all the songs make it truly meaningful as well as entertaining. 

The actors all did a great job as their characters and all their singing voices and dance routines were brilliant. I think I was most moved when right at the very end when Tevye pushed his cart as the last to be driven out of their Ukrainian village by the Russians at the turn of the 19th century, he was followed by a family with cases and having the yellow stars stitched to their clothes as they would have walked in WW2, and they were followed by a young family in modern clothes carrying bags walking, escaping as they have been now during this Ukrainian/Russian War. Powerful. 

Friday Son and Fiancé went to Greenwich for a concert and their little dog stayed with us. 

They had a great evening but a dreadful journey home due to road works and diversions and didn't get back here till 2:15am guess I'll sleep through most of Saturday.

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Revolving Doors.....

 
A week ago Daughter needed to research something and paid for two weeks on her Ancestry account, then she went off to be a Tudor and of course Tudors know nothing of such things. I have full access as we do our family stuff together so not wanting to waste what she'd paid for I've added, followed hints, searched and cross referenced...... it's so easy to get in a muddle and I did, so had to undo and redo a few!

Dog with us Friday, Saturday and Sunday with M dropping off and picking up as R had a friend staying for the weekend then R moved in here Sunday night and they'll both sleep over till 2nd July. 

Hubby is signed up to the British Gas energy saving scheme and they are now running "peak save summer Sundays" until September where we get half price electricity between 10am and 4pm. So we cleared all the laundry and at a very sunny breezy 28°C it all dried on the line very quickly. 

Monday coffee morning outside again, definitely chillier than the weekend but still lovely and the dog was very well behaved with everyone. Lunchtime a change to our grandparent hotel bookings as O wanted a break from being a Tudor and as Daughter had to be back just for her afternoon choir job she brought him here. He took up his usual space in the lounge, creating his techy work station, and his usual bedroom to sleep. We always get such lovely debates at the dinner table when R and O are both here, quite an argument about the definition of 'world' this time.

Wednesday was the day for our friendL and former colleague's funeral. Son and fiancé had offered to come here to dog sit so Hubby and I could both go (didn't know O would be here when that was arranged). They arrived early enough for Son to set himself up for his 9am meeting and he mostly worked all day. Hubby took R to work and we left home about 11:30am. The service was at Ipswich crematorium and the hall was more than full with most of our group having to stand, I managed to perch with others on a window sill. It was a true celebration of her life beautifully done. We all moved onto the quey at Woodbridge where we must have been a crowd of more than 100 people! Lots of food and lots of chat and we've now arranged our next lunch together for the x-work team including partners and friendL's husband D. At work FriendL had been an absolute stickler for correct punctuation when proof reading so as well as wearing a purple striped shirt friendBB, our team boss, carried a red pen in his shirt pocket, brilliant.  

Back home and Son and fiancé were out on a walk with both dogs. They stayed to have dinner with us and O (R was eating at work).  They left soon after Hubby got R from work at 8pm. Lovely how both dogs get on well together. A busy day all round. 

Thursday another change to the accommodation here as O wanted to be back at Kentwell before the evening and M (his dad) said he'd take him, picking him up lunchtime so they and D could have lunch together at Felixstowe first. Meanwhile R had told us that after work they were all going to the directors (husband and wife are both directors and I don't know where to put the apostrophe) house for a dinner party and it probably wouldn't finish till the early hours, so she had arranged a lift home (to her house not ours) so at the end of M's day he collected the dog to sleep at home too! 

Having had the funeral of a friend on Wednesday, Thursday a friend of 40 years phoned to say her husband had died. With this family we were more like family than friends with our children growing up together. Very sad. 

Friday and Hubby collected R and the dog from their house and took R to work picking up another work mate on the way. 

Apologies for a very wordy post this week. 

Just two pictures in memory of two friends, one who loved pinks, purples and roses

and the other an incredibly talented modeler sculptor (sadly I don't have any photos of his main art creations at the moment) but he molded my granddaughters hands as a gift, much to our one year old girls annoyance. 

Many years before that he made me this village gifting one each birthday and Christmas. Hopefully you can zoom in and see some of the detail. 

I actually based my whole art 'A level' project on my friend the artist. 

So June went out and July came in and half this year has whizzed by. Note to all and especially to myself to take some time to do absolutely nothing!

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