Another busy couple of weeks

This weeks pencil lines sketch, Junkitz Pastel paperz and lots of cricut shapes.

Sometimes after big events that take lots of planning such as weddings and holidays, things can fall a bit flat. I thought that with the kids on honeymoon, and Martin back at work I would feel a bit low, but to be honest I really haven't had time.

This week, has flown by, on Monday Wayne and Laura came over, fresh from their fortnight away, to regale us with their adventures. They had a great time but were rather jet lagged.

As Martin had worked on Sunday, he got to have two full days off in the week. Wednesday was predicted to be the 'hottest day of the year' so we decided to give housework a miss, forget about visiting castles, and mossy on down to the beach for the day. Broadstairs were having their annual water gala so that was where we headed out to.

Of course everyone else and his wife had had the same idea, so when we found ourselves in an unusual traffic jam, working our way into Thanet we knew a parking place in town was going to be out of the question.

No problem, we were locals and knew where to find out of the way off street parking.... except so had all the other locals too. We finally found ourselves way out of town on the top of the cliffs above Bleak house. Nearly all the way back to North Forelands.

Ok it was too far to walk all the way back to Broadstairs bay, but right next to where we had ended up parking was a sign saying Stoney Bay and a set of steps down to a lovely sandy beach, complete with life guards, beach huts and a cafe. Even though we have both lived in the local area for most of our lives, neither of us knew this beach was here. We had a lovely time swimming and chilling out. At the time we didn't realise how lucky we had been, forced to use this unknown beach. Not having had any bread for packing a picnic, we strolled along the prom into town (way easier now we didn't have to carry all our beach gear and cooler from our dip in the sea) for some lunch. As we turned the corner and saw this we realised our good fortune!!



We ate salad rolls fresh from the bakery, sitting on the cliff top prom overlooking the bay, walked round the fair, bought an ice-cream and strolled back to the car in time for Martin to shoot off to the golf club for his match.

I hadnt been in the craft room long before I got an invite via facebook from the lovely Jane Dean inviting me to join her and her neighbour on my local nearby bit of beach where they were having a BBQ. I was really pleased to join them as it really was as predicted, the hottest day of the year so far, and there was a cooling breeze on the seashore, as we sat and chatted and laughing into the evening, and took photos of the famous Turner sunset over Whitstable flats.





It was a good job Martin had had such a good Wednesday as Thursday opened with a telly with no sound. As could only be predicted it was 2 months out of warrenty so it was a morning spent going round trying to get hold of a reasonably priced replacement. Mind the picture is way better quality on the new one and whats more we can use one remote handset for both sky and tv control. Bonus since the last telly was not recognised by sky and needed 2 handsets just to turn the sound up and down.

We finished the week off at Kelly and Ollie's house by watching Tottenham Hotspur beat Westham United to top the league and home again to watch England beating Australia for the Ashes. A great week to stop us going flat after the wedding.

Another sketch

This week's Pickleberry Craft sketch.

sketch Layouts

The wonderful Debbie is running a sketch challenge on the pad. So far this month, as well as the 4 pages I put in Laura's mini book, I have done 3 from sketches across the net. A pretty good total for me!
It includes this LO at I did at the crop on Saturday. Kelly and I used the same sketch, the same papers from My Minds Eye Grow and Bloom, and the same photos to come up with our own totally different LO's.

Photography course

I have just signed up for this free 10 week photography course.

I have no idea if I will be able to stick with it, but since I am having so much difficulty getting to grips with my new TZ6 point and shoot, I thought it might get me using my poor old S5500 and get me a bit more enthused about taking photos again.

They need 1000 people signed up for it to be viable so if you fancy having a go please nip over to the site and take a look. I know lots of the folk on UKScrappers did the last 4 week course and found it really really good.

Its for free so what have you got to loose?

Cropping

I had a wonderful two days and a rather spoilt day this weekend

On Friday Kelly and Ollie had said they would stay on the train home from London and come join us at the Harvester for dinner. So we collected them from the station and had a very pleasant time, munching from the all-you-can-eat salad bar since our table was right next to it, and chatting and laughing with them.

On Saturday I started the day by meeting up with Kelly again to go to the crop at Pickleberry Crafts. The place for doing our crafting is fabulous, everything is all new and sparkly, there is a very well stocked shop on site and we get to borrow a huge amount of tools and stamps from the workroom. The three ladies who run the crops and classes are really lovey, talented and knowledgeable, so we cant quite understand why we were the only two there. I guess most people must be on holiday or out shopping, but I hope that the place does take off a bit more for Kate's sake. We had a fantastic morning since it was just the two of us and Jan the lady in charge, and got to spread out and use all the goodies without having to share, but it would be nice to see a few more people joining in.

Once home again it was a quick tidy up as my cousin was coming down from Dartford for a visit. I don't get to see him very often so this was a bit of a treat, and we had a very pleasant afternoon sitting in the garden in glorious sunshine, putting the world to rights, and reminiscing. Then once they had departed, as it was still such summery weather, I took myself off to the beach and had a swim.

With Martin at work on Sunday I did get to do another LO so with 2 under my belt in one weekend I am feeling a little smug with myself!

LO's to follow once I have photographed them.

Scrapping

With the wedding well and truly over I can finally get back to doing some scrapping. I have been making a mini book of photos of Laura's hen night. The Pad have been running a sketch challenge and I used sketches from Page Maps, altering their half-maps to fit the 7x4 mini-book size. Its an old freebie book off a mag (I've had it so long I cant remember which) but I used SU! Tea Garden papers to recover it and make the LO's

Sorry the photos are pretty naff!.

Wedding Day

Sorry this entry has taken so long, seems I used up all my photo storage and as I am pretty sure its the wedding photos everyone wants to see, I needed to get that sorted out!!

I have been collecting photos taken by some of the guests as obviously until Wayne and Laura come back from honeymoon I dont have any of the official photos to share. I, of course was far too busy to take many of my own photos.

We had been listening to various weather reports all week, the predictions wavering between torrential downpours, through howling gales to sunny and hot. So we were overjoyed to wake up to a morning that wasnt too bad, and no rain in sight.

Laura had stayed over the night before and was leaving from our house but she and Hayley nipped off for hair and make-up appointments really early, at 8.30. Martin was despatched to Sainsbury for some coisants to go with our bucks fizz and not long after Katherine turned up to play hairdressers and makeup with me.

Back with the coisants we once more despatched Martin off with a long list of jobs to do at the reception and settled in for a lovely peaceful morning getting ready.

Everything went to plan, although I had to sew Katherine into her dress and despite all our efforts she was still very uncomfortable in the ill fitting dress. The girls returned from their make-overs, the bucks fizz was sipped, make up was finished, nails were done, jewellry was adorned.

The photographer turned up, followed by the car and chauffer.

Then things turned nasty!

We started to get Laura into her dress, and then I realised I probably didnt have as much time as I should since it was 11.20 am and the car was supposed to leave with the bridesmaids and myself at 11.30. I pulled my dress over my head and asked Laura to zip it up.............

and .....

the zip stuck half way.

Paniced I got her to pull it up harder ... I couldnt take the dress off again, the zip was too high up, but there was no way I could wear it with the zip half undone. We tugged harder .... and the zip came apart altogether!!!

Well at least now I could take the thing off, but what was I to do now? Laura and the girls were still getting themselves ready,


then Laura had to go for a photo call in the garden. There was no time for repairs or even to sew the bloody thing on me.

Very close to tears, but knowing I couldnt spoil my makeup as well, I stood bemused. Well I did have the gold skirt I had originally bought for the wedding, but the top didnt quite match, and it was too big anyway. The hat, shoes and bag really didnt match. But I really had no alternative. I ripped off all the labels, found the lacey bolero that was really for the evening and rushed down for my photo to be done.




Then just as I wanted to give my baby her last hug and motherly words of wisdom, Martin shut me in the porch and left me stood there while they took the photos of Laura pretending to get in the car!!! I was devastated. Men really have no idea do they.


Finally frNo time to even glance in the mirror, we were whisked away in the car and dropped at the church. I had to get Kelly to give me the once over to check I had no labels left on.

This was not how I had wanted to arrive at the church.

Everyone was already sat down and I had to do a solo walk up the aisle (embarrassingly falling off my shoe on the way).

The wedding ceremony - well infact the whole day, flew past in a whirlwind. Laura looked amazing, the service was so special, and despite feeling really conspicuous in my dredged together outfit, I really enjoyed the day.

All Laura's ideas that she had worked so long and hard on came together perfectly and as far as I am aware everyone had a brilliant day.

After the photos (which we got through really quickly as Laura had worked out a list with the photographer, which the ushers all had a copy of,


and which we stuck to, (getting each person ready and in the shot at speed),



we headed off to Howfield Manor in Canterbury for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

I can not praise or recommend Howfield and its staff enough. They had told us from the start that 'nothing' was impossible and had gone along with every single idea we had come up with. We had hired the whole hotel and grounds, giving us lots of freedom.

We started round the back in the new extention, with canopees and a wonderful 'red' drink which turned everyone's tongue a lovely shade. A very talented harpist played modern songs to us as we all chatted and got to know each other's new family members and friends. Well at least those in flat shoes did, those of us in high stillettos had to stand still in fear of our heels catching on the wide gaps in the decking planks.

I am told the canapees were really tasty but I was far too excited to taste them.

The red welcoming drink did have an unusual ice-breaking effect!




Despite having been up all night driving down for the event, Chas, Laura's childhood friend did a fantastic job of being toast master, and in his red jacket, got all the wedding party lined up for the formal walk through into the marquee.




All the work of the previous day had paid off, and with the florists additions, the tables looked stunning. And the fish were a fantastic talking point!



Everyone settled down happily ready for the meal.

Tough luck though because in a bit of a buck towards the usual tradition, Laura and Wayne had decided to do the speeches first in order to allow everyone to relax after and enjoy the meal. There was a sweepstake on each table but I am not too sure anyone worked out how it worked.

Anyway all three guys made funny and amusing speeches, with some serious messages being put across at the same time. Well done guys. The meal could not be faulted and the final course, the apple pie was to die for!!


So coffee, some more chatting, the cutting of the cake, and Laura went off to change into her evening (more dance friendly) second wedding dress. I also took the opportunity to slip out of my outfit because there were quite a few bones that had decided to leave their placement in the seams and stick into me. I only had my summer skirt and a tee-shirt but it was soooo much more comfy and Laura said it was ok. I just wish I had waited until after the first dance, as Wayne's dad is so much taller than me. In my flats conversation was impossible.

The evening was fab. The band, Gin and Tonic were outstanding, playing a selection of 80's music that got everyone up on the dance floor. Note Laura's second 'wedding dress' for the evenings fun.

Although the heavens opened later in the evening, people still made it down to the BBQ tent for the evening grub or continued down a little further into the grounds for some fun on the bucking bronco machine!!!




A fantastic brilliant day, congratulations to Laura and Wayne!!

Preparations

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were hectic but still calm, the payoff for being so organised.

We took Zoe with us to pick up the wedding dress, and to buy a few last minute bits on Wednesday, Martin started work on the Father of the Bride speech and Laura went to play hair dress ups at the hairdressers with her veil. We even found time to take Zoe to the beach at Long Rock for another paddle in the mud (tide still out).

Wayne and Laura wanted us to do lunch around our house on the sunday after the wedding, so Thursday was the day for all the food shopping, followed by the house cleaning to be done, while Martin worked on his speech some more. Laura even found time to chill out with a few friends!

Friday was a really busy day though. Kathy, one of the bridesmaids with the worst fitting dress, had arranged to take the thing back to the dressmaker, but wanted Laura's moral support. Laura wanted my moral support so 9 o'clock found us winding our way through the countryside once more to get this dress refitted. A bit of a wasted hour followed because it was obvious when I saw the dress on that there was little that could be done short of a complete remake, there was hardly any match between Kathy's body shape and size to the dress at all. Still we were given a few pin guides and I was told to sew her in on the day!

Next we loaded up the car with all the bits and bobs that had been stored in my room for months and took them over to the wedding reception venue.

Thats when the hard work started. The marquee had been closed up, and by now the sun was up in earnest. It must have been 50 degrees, and in the heat we had to lay up all the tables with favours, matchbooks, theme labels, bubbles and a host of other exciting goodies.




We had to check the seating, make the layout guides, and then put 86 covers and tie-backs on the chairs! Wayne and Martin joined us in time to put the seat covers on, but it seemed despite my bestest teaching methods, no one but me (and a bit towards the end, one really helpful waitress) had any idea of how to tie the bows on the tie-backs. 50 odd bows in that heat, just about keeled me over. Blowing up a 7 ft champagne bottle balloon just about did the same to Wayne!


We finished just in time to get to the church for the wedding rehersal by the skin of our teeth!! The vicar (a lady) was a really lovely funny lady and had us all at our ease. Kath was doing a reading, (Corinthians) but really wasnt pleased to be upstaged by 8 year old Robbie who followed her with his rendition of I married my best friend today'.

Finally though everything was ready.... well apart from the 1..or maybe 2 ... or actually a whole list of things Laura started to remember needed doing, including a rush change of name label as we had called Uncle Stan's wife Jean instead of Doreen .... not a huge mistake until you realise that was his first wife's name!! Looked like Martin was taking a trip out to shops and venue early in the morning, but right then, it was a steak supper, some chocolate and fizzy for the girlies while the men had a bit of a gathering in the pub - one last quiet sherbert for the groom, then an early bath and bed ready for the big day!!!

BANG!!!!!!

One of the 'Bridemaid dresses' solutions was to buy silk flower corsages to hide Kelly's tat, so I had gone into town in search of something suitable. I finally found something in Debenhams but they only had two in stock. The sales girl was brilliant, searching through new stock, old stock and eventually getting one put by for me at their Westward Cross store. Too late to get there before closing though I went yesterday morning, taking my american niece Zoe and my mum.

Having had a good morning wandering around the shops, I stopped at the sea front in Herne Bay so she could buy some postcards to send home. The sea was a novelty to someone who lives in the Arizona desert so inevitabley we ended up having a bit of a paddle.




Martin had managed to dig out the tree stumps (finally and not without a fight) but none of his saw's were up to cutting the large trunk up. He had arranged for our friend Trev to come round after he had been at work, with his better quality saws. Apparently their daughter Joey, the one who fell off her horse and suffered head injuries, is not making as good a progress as first suggested, and it was very sad talking to him, and to hear how hard they are all finding the adjustment to their life as carers.

Already low from this chat, at that point we had a phone call from mum and dad to say they had been in a car accident. All three of them, mum dad and Zoe were unhurt (if a not shook up) but the car - my dad's pride and joy Merc, was a mess. The front wing and side passenger door were crumpled to within an inch of its life and although the car is perfectly drivable I suspect the insurance co. will write it off.

Worse still though was the attitude of the passenger of the car that caused the accident. A young girl driver had pulled into a parking place between parked cars in front of dad, but as he then overtook her, she changed her mind and pulled out the space again straight into the side of dad. Her brother, riding shot gun, apparently when ape, ripping off the number plates and tax disc of her car in order to prevent my dad getting any details, and continually shouting at both my mum and dad aggresively. A passing motorist stopped to tell him to stop shouting at 'that little old lady' (my mum) and soon ambulances and police had arrived to try sort out the situation.

What a fab end (not) to Zoe's first day in England!!

menus

Counting down

With only a few days left until W day, its all a bit rushed around here. We had been hoping to avoid any last minute panics but even with the amount of organising Laura and I have been doing, things have still managed to go wrong in the last few days and have left us scratching our heads for solutions or wishing we had more time.

On Wednesday of last week we collected the bridesmaids dresses. These were being hand made by a teacher friend of Laura's so we had to rely on when she was available to when they would be finished. Leaving the bulk of the making and fitting until the summer holidays meant that there was no final fitting and it was only yesterday, having given the 3 bridesmaids out their dresses that we discovered none of them fit correctly and all needed altering in some way. Unfortunately the dressmaker is fully booked with other things apart from a short hour on Friday - too late for us to use her, and also impossible for the one dress now residing in London to be corrected.

After a few tantrums, we hope the solutions have been found and that it will all be ok on the day. Aside from the man in the fish shop refusing to sell any fish if they are being used for a wedding, the bouncy castle letting us down, and a cancelled hotel room booking from one of the guests all seems to be on track (fingers crossed).

Friday and Sunday, Martin Kelly and Ollie had tickets to see tottenham play at Wembly. Martin went straight from his early shift at work, up to town but it took them so long to get out of the stadium after the match that they missed the train and Mart rolled home at 1.45 am!

On Saturday it was Laura's hen night and we had a very pleasant (if not a tad quiet for a hen) meal in a local restaurant. The younger girls carried on to a night club but us oldies headed back home. It was a 'Fame' theme event and we all had to go dressed up in probably the worst era possible fashion wise.

Laura and Kelly in fluorescent colours

Mum in her original '80s trouser suit and me wearing thick blue and pink eye shadow. Those are genuine '80's plastic beads too!

Zoe, my 17 year old niece arrived from America yesterday. She is staying for two weeks with Mum and Dad. They went up to meet her but there was abit of trouble at immigration because no one had thought to give her the address and telephone number of where she was staying, so they refused to let her through until Mum had answered heaps of questions. She seems none the worst for her ordeal though and today we took her shopping, stopping at Herne Bay sea front on the way home. She was fascinated by the lug worm casts in the sand, since she lives in the middle of the desert in Arizona and there is nothing like it 'at home'

Just a few photos.

A photo of my mum and dad's dog whistkie with his rosette for coming first in class (Best Crossbreed) at his very first dog show last weekend





A photo of Martin as he starts his attack on the trees in readiness for our hot tub. This is the best site but needs one tree and 4 stumps to be removed first. All he has is a blunt saw and an even blunter small logging axe. Methinks it may take a while. The tree itself is in a sorry state, since it was already split lenthwise down the trunk from the heavy winds last winter, and it would seem there was also some illness in the roots since the bark just fell away, so hot tub or no it needs to come out - but not a fun game by any lookout.





A photo of the second page to go with the one I did at Kate's class the other week using the left over bits.

Thought wrong!

I somehow thought I would be rushing round doing jobs for the wedding, but it seems not yet, so having cleared the decks ready, I now am at a loss of what to do. I tried a spot of gardening but there is a plague of black flies (like sand flies but bigger) which I was soon covered with, in my hair, down my bra, all over my arms and neck. So I had to come in and strip to get them all off. So that left little option other than to come in the scrap room and play. This is another of Pickleberry Crafts sketches. I pasted the sketch into photoshop and then used my new skills to make a clipping mask template of it, before using a Shabby Princess kit to fill it all up.

Celebrations!

We have had a few achievements this weekend worthy of celebrations. Trouble is everyone is so busy with weddings and holidays and other stuff, its hard to fit family together time in at the moment.

On Saturday Laura and I went to have the alterations on her wedding dress sorted out. Seeing the dress with the underskirt and pinned in where the alterations are to go made it look so much better and it already looked fab. She is going to be such a beautiful bride, and that is not all mummy bias, as she has a super figure!

Martin was on an early for a change so it was great when Ollie and Kelly popped in to see us on their way home from having lunch at Ollie's sister's. Kelly approved the stuff I was doing for the hen night, and they sorted out all the arrangements for the two football matches at Wembley their father is going to with them to see next friday and sunday.

After that the evening was pretty dire, we were dog sitting for Laura (Bailey was exceptionally well behaved) but the people down the road decided they would celebrate a birthday with a very loud and very boisterous outdoor disco and karaoke. This started at 4 and fianally stopped at 10. 6 hours of very very bad drunken reditions of stuff such as Welcome home, Dont go breaking my Heart, Country Roads and other 70's drivel!! Even with the windows shut and the telly up high we couldnt drown it out.

On Sunday Kelly was running in the Hyde Park Race for Life. She did it in 38 mins and 50 seconds (she said she could have done faster but people kept getting in her way and slowed her down.) She raised nearly £1000 for Cancer research, so well done my babe. Very proud mum here.

Laura was also raising money for charity, playing in a rounders match at the Cricket match. I dont know how she did, they were very hung over when I took the dog back and she had hurt her wrist on the dancing pole at the club, so she wasnt too enthusiastic about the chances of playing for very long.

Then I got a surprise call from my mum. As part of the Oyster week celebrations, there was a dog show running on the sea front. They had taken Whiskie along and he had won Best Crossbreed! I went along to see, as it was only a stones throw walk away, and watched him come no where in the Most Handsome Dog class. While dad and I were stood watching though a very friendly Huskie doggie decided he fancied the shape of dad as a lamp post and did what dogs do against lamp posts - all down dad's clean trousers. Of course I am such a loving daughter and did the best I could for him - collapse into laughter!!

I left them to it, and later mum phoned to say Whiskie had come 6th in another class (Best Long Hair Dog) winning another prize. Not bad for his very first show and just one more thing to celebrate.

NB Photos on camera to follow

Class and sketch

I have been sort of following the free Frames and Brushes class that Jessica Sprague has been running for the last 2 weeks and thought I would use some of what I had learnt (how to make clipping maskes) to do a digi LO. I used this weeks (week 3) sketch challenge on Kate's blog for Pickleberry Papercrafts and this is the result. I'm quite pleased for a first attempt. Paper and elements mainly from Shabby Princess and photos of our trip to see Charles Darwin's house soon after they opened the new exhibition.

Hot tub!!

A few years ago now, my scrapping buddy Joy bought a hot tub because her doctor recommended it for her health. I was so jealous and eversince then have wanted one in my own garden. When I gave up full time teaching I promised Martin that any wage I earned above and beyond his salary I was going to save towards my own hot tub. I dont think he believed me and I dont think he was that keen.

This month, finally, our sharesave scheme has been released and so on a whim I dragged him along to look at the tubs. He was still dubious even after I had explained all the health benefits, but when we got there, the saleslady mentioned how fantastic it was to sit out in one, under the stars late at night with a beer in hand. I think he remembered how great it had been doing something similar floating down the outside part of the lazy river at Centre Parks years ago, and suddenly his enthusism took off.

Today we went to the Kent County Show, because one of the dealers in Margate had said they did good deals at shows. He wasnt wrong. We thought we would only be getting LED lights free on the one we liked, but we got lights, the cover lift, the fitting and commission and free steps, and a little something else which is a surprise for the kids - round about £800 of extra goodies for nort!

We have to clear out a few trees, lay a base, get an electrician to put in a junction box and then in about 8 weeks time we will finally be lazing in our very own hot tub!!!

Dates and memories

Last weekend Martin started pressure hosing the patio. It is block paving and tends to get quite a lot of moss (it falls from the roof) growing between the cracks. This in turn gives the weeds a roothold so every 9 months or so we pressure hose it all down and refil with silver sand. Of course this makes a real mess, and pebbledashes the house, walls, gate, bins and anything else in his path with sand and mud. While I was washing down the conservatory windows it became apparent that the woodwork was way past the need of a quick spruce and needed lots of TLC plus a coat of white gloss.

Of course this got us trying to remember when we had last painted it, I reckoned 2004, and since this it the only year I completed a whole scrapbook album for, I hauled it out to look through. Gee it must have been before 2004 as it was already sparkly white in the photos. Oh well. Still it did remind me that for that particular album I made calendar pages for each month and filled in what we had been up to all year. I must start a few more year albums and wayhay I can use my blog to fill in any blank days ... well thats if I start updating a little more often! So stay tuned, I may get round to blogging a little more often!!

Finally! Some scrapping.

Today Kelly and I went to a class at
Pickleberry Papercrafts
in Faversham. Kate G who used to run the Bobbing crop we used to go to together has returned from Ireland and has set up a little shop and a crop/workshop/class place, so to get back our mojo, Kelly booked a class for us. Kate unfortunately had to go back to Ireland for a visit but she left us in the capable hands of Jane Dean, and we had a fab time. There is a well stocked shop, several crop rooms and tea was made for us to order!!



I loved this class, I have always wanted to be able to do a Carol Janson/3D effect LO properly and these beautiful Minds Eye papers really lend themselves to it. Ok I really need to improve on my cutting out technique but there was lots in this that I intend using again ..and again..and again.
Anyway while putting up the class I finished (at home because I am so slow at cutting out lol) I thought I would also finally get round to putting up the LO's I had still laying on the table. Please excuse photos taken in very poor lighting.

This one I started last week when I got my new SU! paper pack from my
mate Jo Friend


And this one inspired by the same holiday is a Pencil line sketch made wih some very old paper found in my scraps.


Suzanne got me into making my own journalling spots so I went the whole hog and made loads. Arrow is cut on my cricut, as are letters for the title.



New SU! stamps inspired this one, lots of cutting and 3d layering.



And one I thought I had finished ages ago only to find that the yellow cs base had already had a chunk cut off the side, so I finally after staring at it for months, got round to backing it further on to a true 12x12 bit of red and adding the journalling.

End of an era

This morning we got the news that at the age of 50 Micheal Jackson had passed away.

Today I have listened to lots of comments from ordinary people I work with, from friends online, from folks making one liners on facebook, from the media, from on the radio. Some comments were tributes, some thought of the man's family who are left behind, some were jokes, you knowm those tasteless ones which are typical of the stuff we say to comprehend and make sense of things that seem senseless.

I was never a particular MJ fan, although some of his tracks and stuff he did when with his brothers in the Jackson 5 I love, Rockin' robin starts me singing Thriller just makes me want to start dancing, Billy Joe makes me cringe, and Ben makes me cry.

For me, it marks the end of an era (aside from the fact he was only a year younger than me and makes mortality stare me in the face). Love him or hate him he was a huge part of my growing up years. In my day music and the charts were so different to what they are today. We had very few one-hit-wonders, only one or two manufactured bands (The Monkeys and the Partridge family spring to mind but its hard to think of any others), musicians actually had to be able to perform on stage without resorting to electronic enhancement of their live voices (and they had to be pretty good at miming too LOL) and their chart position of any released single was oh so important. As teenagers we knew from only a few bars of a song the title, the artist, the chart position that week, the record label and who wrote the song alongside every member of the band's name. Whoa betide anyone that hadnt sat up on Sunday listing to Caroline's chart show, when they got into school on Monday!!

And a big part of all that were The Jacksons, or Michael on his own. There were very few weeks when one or the other were not in the charts. So love him or hate him, he was part of all that, his songs were being played everywhere, he was strutting his stuff on TOTP's nearly every week.

Today, in much the same way the death of Maurice Gibb a few years back marked the end of part of the disco era of the 70's so today's news marks another era passing. And despite any media hype, I for one feel a little sad that another part of my youth can never be experienced by myself or others again. To me its a huge huge chunk of my life (in terms of music, mood, era) that has gone. Yeah it was gone anyway but Michael's death makes its real somehow. Alot of us 'wrinklies' who can recall his first ever time on TOTP's will feel the same.

As for him as a person and his lifestyle - well remember we only ever got the media show's version of all events and how much of that was hype, publicity stunts, exagerated, madness, following ill advisers? or the truth? I dont think we will ever know the truth but I suspect that over the next few weeks/months/years a lot more is going to hit the fan which is a real shame for his family. Sad as it is, the media being what it is, we will all soon get really tired of hearing obout him.

I hope he is finally at peace where ever he may be now. RIP.

Another day another dollar

Which is something one of my bosses at Telecommunications used to start every morning saying, and which really got up everfyone's nose, plus today I am not earning another dollar as for the first time in ages I have no work booked. Its nice to have a few days at home though as the garden is completely over-run, and yesterday I started the huge job of weeding, deadheading and pruning back. One bed down .... tons more to do!

I am also doing a bit of crafting, despite lots of evening time being taken up with playing My Farm over on Facebook. I started out of curiousity because some of the teachers at the school I was working in were talking about it in the staff room, I am now hooked and refuse to give in until I have got at least one greenhouse LOL

Still on my craft table I have 2 nearly complete LO's awaiting journaling, and the photos printed out and cropped ready for a third. I also have nearly 100 glasses that need name tags made, printed and tied onto them, wedding menus to even get started on and 80 order of service cards awaiting their insides!

Most things are in hand as THE WEDDING edges ever closer. On Sunday (Father's day) we were invited by the happy couple to go over to the venue for lunch where we would be sampling their chosen menu. The setting is stunning and the new owners have been in for nearly a year making lots of improvements and alterations. I know the hotel well as it used to be a top favourite for teachers who had to go on courses or conferences. The place was so good then that it used to be a bit of a bun fight to get signed up for any teacher develepment days behing held there. The ownership then passed on and the new landlord was not a patch on the old, within only a short space of time their bookings dropped off, and when we initially went to check the place out as a proposed wedding venue we were shocked to find the place in the hands of the liquidisers. However the present new owners seem determined to make a go of it and so far so good.

Mind you even the best make mistakes and the landlady, although confirming that it would be fine to come sample the kids chosen grub, had forgotten to tell the chef, leaving us rather stunned to discover only the main course on our menu to be available, and even then not with the veggies we wanted. Wayne, not surprisingly made his feelings known, since this was not a freebie and we would be paying. We would still have to come back a second time to ensure the menu tasted right as a whole, meaning they would be getting a lot more money out of us. Di, Wayne's mum didnt really catch on to what Wayne was up to, but I could see the twinkle in his eye and it was clear from my seat that he was simply aiming for a free lunch. Di kept telling him to let it go, and not to worry, but he told her to be quiet and continued with his pitch. It partly worked as we all ended up with free deserts.

Anyway without giving any surprises away, sufficient to say what we did get to eat was superb (well the chef needs to learn how to cook potatoes but other than that..!)

We then spent quite a while wandering around the building a grounds, helping on decisions of table placement, band set up etc before heading off home again. We have now been invited to do the whole exersice over again next weekend but hopefully sampling the weddings full breakfast!

York and Yorkminster

I know its been a while now since we were in Yorkshire, but I still want to document the rest of the holiday, so please bear with me. Thursday we set off for York. Now this really was doing a bit of distance as we had to get back onto the A1M and even getting to that, before the drop down the country to York, was a good 16 miles across country. We decided to use the park and ride, the bus dropping us virtually at the door of York Minster so that was our first port of call. The cathedral itself is really imposing and even to us hardened to the common daily sight of Canterbury Cathedral were impressed.


We were not as equally impressed with the charge to actually go in the place so we did a quick gander through the entrance, nabbed a photo and hotfooted it back outside. Dissappointed we wandered around the city. There is an excellent selection of shops, both modern highstreet chains and little independants. We particularly loved The Shambles, where tiny victorian shops nugded together with the street market in the narrow lanes.



Now remember back to my post about the jacket for the wedding. I decided that while we were standing outside I would abandon Martin to the street entertainment (some Indian dancing, pan pipes and a couple of singers) nip into M&S and chance my arm. It was a way bigger Marks than any of our local stores (I can get to three or four in a 30 mile radius from our house) and it was packed. There was a good selection of suitable jackets too which came as a surprise. As well as a white one that had Navy stitching which would meet the bill, there was an Olive green one with geogeous beaded stitching that I fell in love with. Ok it wouldnt go with the dress I already had, so a brilliant excuse to get another dress. A nearby manikin sported just the one that would work. Now this M&S had a very strange set up for trying clothes on. Armed with my dress and jacket, I had to join a (long) queue of other ladies who, once at the head of the line, handed their prospective purchases to a salesperson behind a large desk. She counted the number of items and gave back the appropriate numbered tag. She then handed your chosen clothes to another M&S employee who hung them on a rack. When a changing booth became available that same woman took the items off the rack and handed them back to you. Another Mark's worker showed you to the changing room and you finally got to try the items on. On the way out, you handed your numered tag and any unwanted or badly fitting bits and bobs to a fourth lady behind a different large desk on the other side. As you can imagine all this, as well as being heavy in manpower, took a very long time. I had to phone Martin who had now been watching the entertainment on the road for over half an hour just to tell him I was still alive and well.

Of course the dress didnt fit properly so the jacket was of little use, but I still got Martin in to confirm his opinion and finally I got a jacket for the wedding. Outfit now only needing a hat, shoes and a bag!

Having finally got that out the way we could continue our sight seeing, and having our English Heritage cards with us we climbed the steps to get a freebie view of the city from the CLiffard Tower.

And what a stunning view it was, and if only I had known we were so near to not one but two chocolate factories!!



Although there were lots of other places we could have visited we were now getting tired, and the weather was getting cooler and a bit windy, it was still a long way back to our little cottage, and it took as over an hour to find somewhere to have a scone and a coffee (we bought them in two seperate take away places and ate them in the square in the end, York has a good opening for some tea rooms) we decided to grab the park and ride back to our car and head back into the hills.

S'eye' of relief

Those few of you who follow my blog may recall back in March I rattled on about the poor eye test I had recieved care of Specsavers, and the fact that they were refering me to the GP. Well I never got to see my GP but was refered straight on to the hospital.

Today I went for that appointment. I spent an awful hour having various drops in and several people look into my eyes with a battery of instruments. At least the doc there had the decency to tell me why I was there. The pressure reading on my eyes was slightly above the top tolerance, and I had also failed the field of vision test. Turns out that yes the reading was above the tolerance levels ... but only because specsave had not allowed for the thickness of my cornea and when that adjustment was made, it put the reading to within safe limits. Three months of worrying and suffering poor vision for no reason.

There was nothing wrong with my field of vision either, I passed that with flying colours! Yeah, that was the one I did at specsavers after she had shone the light in my eyes for 10 mins.

Totally loosing all confidence in specsave I went to a 'proper' optician where he retested my eyes and told me that the specsave perscription was 'nearly' the same as his (which is a professional way of saying it was wrong). He explained that wih my pressure readings he would not have refered me but put me on a monitor with yearly instead of bi-yearly recalls. He also told me that all the specsave staff excepting maybe one on duty optician had only 3 day trained on how to use the equipment and were not opticians.

He did laugh like a drain when he questioned if I usually walked around with my nose in the air and I had to tell him it was simply because my glasses were bent and it was the only way to keep them on - again down to the lack of quality in my cheapo specsave glasses.

In the long run going to the cut price option has resulted in paying for two eye tests, 3 months of angst, an unneccesary hospital appointment and the frustration of having to wear the wrong perscription for weeks on end.

Guess who is NOT going to specsave again??