The first 40 years for our first born......

I've so enjoyed finding all these ❤
Hope the page isn't too heavy and jams your computer/phone/reader.

1979

1980

A baby brother

Already a musician

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

Love my mum's expression at her 

granddaughter's unique hairstyles. 

1994

1995

And somedays you just don't 

want your photo taken! 

1996

1997

EuroDisney

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

And when she was a film extra

2016

                                             

2017

2018

A woman of many characters! 

2019

Actually this was taken just before midnight NYE so technically 2018, 

however we were celebrating her 2019 big birthday 😉

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Ends and beginnings......

Although there was the tricky (medical) start to December and I had to cancel some social events the rest of the month saw plenty of friends, family and celebrations.

Two lots of meeting friends for lunches. Our Wednesday group of friends celebrated twice, we had our posh hotel dinner as an annual usual but this year we ended the night back in the pub to see a friend who couldn't make it to the meal and of course so the men could play pool. Us ladies felt a little overdressed for the pub hahaha. The following Wednesday friendM cooked at home for us, we were told to dress in a suitable fashion hahaha, it was a delicious three course roast. Yummy!

I went with neighbours to our annual Eastern Angles Christmas performance, Fenland Screamers, and I've been with Daughter and O to see Alice in Wonderland. Both brilliant.

Hubby and I had a last minute trip into town as he had fundraising money to pay in, and the bank teller kept a cheery smile on her face as we held up the queue and she dealt with a mountain of coins. Then we had a mad dash throughout town looking for vegan jelly crystals and with so many shops telling us they sell it but we're sold out we eventually got what I believe were the last four packets in the whole of Ipswich!

Christmas day was at our house with Daughter, M, R, E and O. And if I say so myself dinner came out really well 😆 even the vegan trifle. It was of course a day of eating, unwrapping, board games, more eating, tv etc.

Boxing day was just as good with Daughter&co plus Son&fiancé here too! Yep lots more eating 😅

Sadly early in December one of our neighbours died. She was in her 80s and mostly stayed at home but she was always the first to arrive at coffee morning, sitting at the head of the table and enjoying all the conversations. I hadn't heard from her after I'd been in hospital and alerted another neighbour who holds a spare key and he went in and found her. 😔

New Year's Eve was also the morning when another good friend lost her battle. She had been in hospital for just a couple of weeks but had deteriorated quite rapidity. Sad times! 😔

The year ended on a very big high. Our house was open for....
Family day/NYE party/Daughter's 40th!
Starting about noon family arrived, think the total count was 25 including 3 teens, 3 children, 1 toddler, 1 baby and a dog! Have to say Daughter's dog Tilly was so well behaved considering how different it must have all been for her.
Most of the family had to leave early evening although Son&fiancé and sisterS&bilK stayed to soon be joined by 60+ of Daughter's friends to see in the new year and celebrate her big birthday. We were even joined by dinosaurs!

A fantastic party and lots of help with the clearing up which was fantastic. We played host to some sleeping over guests and Daughter did the same so breakfasts and brunch with extra company to start the year off.
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Theatre: Alice in Wonderland......

Red Rose Chain Christmas Show
The story is traditional Alice cleverly brought to a small stage by just three performers with so much energy. They kept the audience engaged and laughing from start to finish.

With very clever lighting, lots of costume changes, audience participation, song and dance and use of dolls and toys all the characters we expected were brought to the stage, Queen of Hearts, Cheshire Cat, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee not forgetting the White Rabbit or The Mad Hatter.

I'm not surprised almost all performances sold out so quickly.
I went with Daughter and O who had already seen it but were excited to be seeing it again which is recommendation indeed.
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Theatre: Fenland Screamers.....

A new masterpiece to celebrate this seasonal milestone... After 30 years they still feel as fresh as they did when they were first unveiled in 1988. They are a brilliant alternative to a pantomime and long may they continue. Hilariously life-affirming, but watch out for the Screamers!

EAST ANGLIAN DAILY TIMES

The Fenland Screamers is hilariously funny.... A refreshing change from the usual festive offering in theatres at this time of the year...well worth a watch. A brilliant piece of theatre – We loved it!

IPSWICH24 MAGAZINE

Extremely cleverly written and a laugh a minute. A brilliant evening’s entertainment - a must-see

BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE

They were invited to see out the Old Year – but would they ever see in the New?!

Pat Whymark and Julian Harries bring The Fenland Screamers & Other Boggy Tales to Ipswich, Woodbridge & Peterborough this year!

It is the 30th December, 1930. Young amateur sleuth siblings Sloppy & Sixpence arrive at a remote house in the middle of Clinker Fen, invited by a distant relative to celebrate the New Year. Tempted by the idea of a grand weekend party, they find the place deserted apart from the creepy butler, Tangent. He is expecting them and despite their misgivings, they decide to stay.

Other guests arrive, all strangers to one another, and as the fog descends, cutting them off from the outside world, they pass the time by telling stories. It becomes apparent that they all have a guilty secret, and are unnerved when Tangent tells them the local legend of the Fenland Screamers, avenging spirits who emerge from the bogs to drag the guilty back down into the mire.

When one of the guests mysteriously disappears, they all begin to fear for their lives. Can Sloppy & Sixpence solve the mystery before the Screamers come again and take them all, one by o

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Not much more I can add to this, yes it was over-the-top hilarious and the group I went with all enjoyed it. One of our Christmas traditions 😊🎅
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NHS Fast-tracking........

This is a medical update so you'll be relieved there's no photos 😉

15/11/17 Operation to remove cancer tumour from my lonely left kidney

18/5/18 Six month follow up CT Scan, all clear 😆

16/11/18 One year follow up CT Scan

21/11/18 Phone call from Specialist Urology Nurse Charlotte. Kidney is all fine however the scan showed an abnormal mass in my bladder and they need to have a much deeper look. She will take it to the Multidisciplinary Meeting on Monday and let me know what they decide.

26/11/18 Hospital meeting, Charlotte phoned as promised almost straight after. She explained all the details and options very clearly and is so sympathetically understanding. The decision they came to was surgery by general anesthetic to investigate and remove whatever they find. A full hystology report will be needed to decide if it's cancer and what grade and if any further treatment is needed.

27/11/18 Appointment with consultant Mr Brierly but he was busy so was seen by Patrick O a registrar I think. Nurse Charlotte was also there.

30/11/18 Hospital for pre-op assessment. First nurse took weight and height on a wall measure that was definitely falling off the wall. She spent a lot of time trying to decide if she was taller than me or not and had to ask another nurse to decide, she was a little taller.

3/12/18 Surgery! Was hoping to be a day patient but prepared for an overnight, however, that turned into staying Monday to Friday. I was told hystology report comes back within two weeks and surgery gets repeated all over again in six weeks!
So grateful this was found purely by accident only because of a follow up scan! Just like last time! I was obviously fast-tracked but told I took up a cancellation space but also heard the words aggressive so may have been deliberate. Whatever the reason it gave me less time to worry and now that bit is behind me.

For now I'm home with no after effects and enjoying the Christmas festivities (had to cancel all the fun arranged for last week) and we'll not think about what happens next until we need to.
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Christmas has started......

Yes I know it started about two months ago in shop windows and adverts etc but I try so hard to ignore it until I'm ready, well this weekend I bought all my Christmas cards and wrote them all (I send a lot) but of course I'll not do anything with them until it's December.

Saturday O and I went to our first Christmas Fair and end of term show at Red Rose Chain Theatre Company. We started with a look around the stalls, O had a hot chocolate and cake and he also paid a visit to Santa in his grotto.

If you follow that link you can read that Red Rose do amazing community work by making theatre inclusive for everyone and run groups for disabled and educationally challenged too. All the groups were represented in this show with 60 performers on stage. 

Daughter has been helping out with her Tudor music and teaching a group Tudor dances to add to their version of the Princess and the Pea story.

Another group did a very lively version of The Tinderbox story, but unfortunately I haven't got a photo of them. 

And the Youth Theatre did a great job of showing us what happened to the characters after we saw them in their Dread Zeppelin play, with a few of them doing all the research and writing the scripts. R was part of the script team and that's her playing the accordion, proud Grandma moment☺

There was a preview song by the cast of Alice which is the theatre's Christmas show and then all performers got us singing along to Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer. 

Brilliant!

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Daughter's Tudor Tavern.......

Emma Mordue and Melford Hys Companie present
A Night at The Red Rose Tavern

Join us for an immersive evening of music, plays, food and dancing from the alehouses of old. From bawdy songs to morality plays the event promises to bring hearty laughter and full bellies, and the true flavour of 16th Century Ipswiche.

Local early musician Emma Mordue performs at music and dance workshops and events up and down the country, and as part of The Kentwell Players, at the Great Tudor Re-creations at Kentwell Hall. Playing a range of historical instruments, she can often be seen at festivals and events portraying a variety of historical and mythical walkabout characters as well as hosting informal renaissance music evenings at both private parties and public events.

Melford Hys Companie have been performing together for 25 years, portraying  a company of travelling entertainers in the Tudor and Medieval periods. In historically accurate dress, with props, instruments and accessories of the time, they portray life on the road through well developed characters with authentic names, histories and speech. At a Melford Hys Companie event you will be entertained with music, dance and plays from the period. Some plays are funny, some more serious, but whilst there may be a moral to the tale you can be sure the actors will tell it with infectious enthusiasm and a good dose of healthy irreverence.

Both Emma and The Melfords have a common aim – to have fun and pass this on to audiences along with accurate historical insight. Participation is positively encouraged, though not obligatory.

We are pleased to have period caterer Gerry Rhodes providing dishes of the era.

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I'm so very proud of Daughter (= Emma Mordue) who undertook for the first time to organise a whole event in a theatre. It was a great success. Almost non-stop entertainment as they only allowed themselves a 15min interval in just over three hours. Musicianship was brilliant and the Mummers' plays were hilarious.

I'd taken friendKK as she's great for getting into the spirit of this sort of thing and it was just like old times when she would come with me when my very talented musician Daughter gave performances as a child/teen with school or consort or solo.

Both Granddaughters were also there, E as a Tudor came out to dance with Daughter and R as always was in her Red Rose Chain sweatshirt working front of house and waiting tables with the other Youth Theatre volunteers.

Yes I'm very proud indeed ☺
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Theatre: The Lovely Bones......

The stage premiere of the world-famous novel.

Susie Salmon is just like any other young girl. She wants to be beautiful, adores her charm bracelet and has a crush on a boy from school. There’s one big difference though – Susie is dead.
Now she can only observe while her family manage their grief in their different ways. Her father, Jack is obsessed with identifying the killer. Her mother, Abigail is desperate to create a brighter future. And her sister, Lindsay is discovering the opposite sex with experiences that Susie will never know. Susie is desperate to help them and there might be a way of reaching them…

Alice Sebold’s novel The Lovely Bones is a unique coming-of-age tale that captured the hearts of readers throughout the world. Award-winning playwright Bryony Lavery has adapted it for this uplifting play about life after loss.

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WOW this was amazing and had me laughing a little and crying too but mostly just wide eyed amazed!

I was totally drawn into the whole story powerfully told.

Some clever simple effects like the salt drawn boundaries, or climbing through a wooden frame to represent going down through the tap door. Not so simple was the set which was actually made up of a huge screen which together with the lighting was mirrors so some of the time we could see through them and some of the time the whole stage was reflected upside down, like heaven looking down on life.

They totally deserved our standing ovation!

Once again R used our spare ticket and she thoroughly enjoyed it too.
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Spain for an extra birthday........

What a lucky girl I am 😊

BFriendM has an apartment on the Riviera del Sol in Spain and for my August birthday present she bought my flights so we could go together for a five day trip this November.

We travelled out Friday with her picking me up at silly o'clock in the dark and we drove to Southend Airport. I've never used Southend before and so much smaller and calmer than all the other London airports it was a real pleasure.

Lovely and warm over there with very sunny almost hot Saturday and Sunday and cloudy and a bit chilly on Monday. Market in La Cala, local flee market in Mijas, all the shops in Torremolinos, drinks on the beach more than once, finding new bars in Cabo Pino lots of walking and lots and lots of good food.

But the highlight of this trip has to be the Elvis tribute act called Stelvis.
Saturday night at La Plaza and he was brilliant, fantastic effortless voice, all the dance moves but not over cheesy, including the whole audience by working the tables with handshakes and as soon as he saw M was taking photos he obliged while never missing a note. There were a couple of tables of celebrating women quite well hydrated and when the birthday girl was dancing very closely to him he let her have her moment without getting annoyed or discouraging, so very professional and a really nice guy.

We enjoyed the evening so much that when he announced he was playing one of the beach bars Sunday afternoon we followed him there. Hahaha does that make us groupies? 

He didn't disappoint. Again he made a young guy with Downs Syndrome feel special by dancing with him and giving him his silk scarf. Also an older man who had brought along his own little collection of percussion instruments, some of which looked like kids toys, was set up on the stage area and Stelvis happily performed with his extra rhythm section. Great entertainment and lots of laughing. 

Then all too soon it was Tuesday and time to head home.
Thank you so much BFriendM.
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Theatre: Trial by Laughter.........

Following critical acclaim for The Wipers Times, Ian Hislop and Nick Newman have once again taken inspiration from real life events for their new play Trial by Laughter. 

William Hone, the forgotten hero of free speech, was a bookseller, publisher and satirist. In 1817, he stood trial for ‘impious blasphemy and seditious libel’. The only crime he had committed was to be funny. Worse than that he was funny by parodying religious texts. And worst of all, he was funny about the despotic government and the libidinous monarchy.

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We had tickets for the matinee and one of our four couldn't come but a message to R got her out of bed and a quick shower and food and she came instead. Hubby drove me, R and T to the theatre as parking during the day is tricky and expensive.

First impression was I loved the set, solid and dark wood as I'd imagine a courtroom of the age. Later it revealed some of the panels cleverly pulled out to make various furniture formations, desks, dock etc.

Interesting that this is based on real life people and events. All the actors were great at quick changes into many larger than life characters. The script was fast and very wordy but our main criticism was it was all one level, no highs or lows which unfortunately made it so flat and boring that our other two friends left at the interval and never came back. R and I saw it through to the end. Not the best but plenty to talk about afterwards.

Then Hubby came to collect us and while we were waiting out in the cold and dark I met someone from our babysitting circle days of about 35 years ago! Then home dropping R at her drama group on the way, where they are having final rehearsals for the extra performances of their recent sell out run of Dread Zeppelin. Think this Youth Theatre could teach professionals a thing or two sometimes.
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