So far I have had a wonderful time re-visiting a much loved pastime of horse riding. I decided that this was the year that I was going to learn to ride technically correctly and master the technicalities and SHhhh.... Don't tell any-one! I am hoping to work up to some jumps, something I have never done!
All has been going well, I had been riding Molly for 3 weeks, then my tutor swapped me to Hector, an adorable slightly smaller pony of mature years. He has a brilliant smooth canter and I was able to easily find the correct position on him. I looked forward to this weeks lesson and riding Hector again.
I duly arrived for my lesson and found that Hector had already been booked out by some-one else and I was to ride Poppy, now Poppy is a real beauty, jet black with a wavy mane and tail, younger and more sparky than Hector but never the less a great ride. She was very responsive and moved gracefully from trot to canter and was a dream to ride. I was almost finished my lesson and about to transition from trot to canter for the last time when a chicken suddenly flew out of a nearby bush squawking loudly.
Poppy went from trot to full pelt gallop around the school, swerving as she went, Amy was shouting instructions to sit tight, hold her mane, but I was already out of the saddle. I grabbed for her mane and neck but she then put her head down and started bucking wildly. I remember that I seemed to be firstly falling towards the sky, which was odd, then gravity took over and I fell fast and hard onto the ground.
My first fear was that I was about to be trampled on, but Amy had run over and stood over me and assured me some-one had caught Poppy. To say I was winded is an understatement I could not physically move for a while. My first thought was that I must get back on the horse or I would never do so again. Jane the Manager and Amy established that nothing seemed broken on me, just my pride or so I thought! They decided that they would let me get on board again and praised my bravery for wanting to do so.
Amy rode Poppy around for a few minutes to get the demons out of her, then gingerly I got back on, it was a very painful experience as I was very sore, but determined not to be beaten. I was not brave enough to ride without Amy beside me as I was very shaken and I feared Poppy would sense my trepidation and give me another audition for rodeo rider of the year!
The upshot is that I am now on sick leave as I took such a battering that I bruised my right kidney and have had some blood in my urine, which is not so good. I return to the Doctors tonight for a re-examine. My ribs are so sore I cannot let any-one touch them and I have a bruise on my head where the hat has dug into my forehead.
I have just bid on eBay for a riders body protector, I remember that when I rode Teddy, a mad horse that I once owned I never rode without wearing one, as I often ended up on the deck with him. However never at such speed as Poppy threw me!
I will be booking again as soon as I am healed but will request solid dependable Hector! He and I are both middle aged with an eye to mature activities such as trotting along nicely and not getting upset about the odd mad chicken.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Good news and Bad news week
Bj has landed a super new job! Well done that man. He went for the interview one day and was offered it the next, no messing around with second interviews, just offered it straight away. It is mainly office based with maybe a small amount of travel so we are all happy. We have had a year of constant separation and neither of us like it.
Simon has had a bit of a nightmare! He was doggy sitting at our house last week and while watching TV suddenly lost total vision in his left eye. After about 40 minutes it returned but very blurred and with a blind spot in the middle of vision.
He DROVE to the Doctors (daft or what!) who sent him hot foot to the eye hospital where he had a very thorough examination. It seems he may have some retina damage but due to the amount of blood in his eye it is difficult to tell. It seems it is something that can happen spontaneously,or is caused by coughing or sneezing, a bit scary to say the least. He has to go back this week once the bllod has hopefully drained so they can check the retina, he may have to have a little operation to fix it. Hope to God all is well, its all very worrying!
Simon has had a bit of a nightmare! He was doggy sitting at our house last week and while watching TV suddenly lost total vision in his left eye. After about 40 minutes it returned but very blurred and with a blind spot in the middle of vision.
He DROVE to the Doctors (daft or what!) who sent him hot foot to the eye hospital where he had a very thorough examination. It seems he may have some retina damage but due to the amount of blood in his eye it is difficult to tell. It seems it is something that can happen spontaneously,or is caused by coughing or sneezing, a bit scary to say the least. He has to go back this week once the bllod has hopefully drained so they can check the retina, he may have to have a little operation to fix it. Hope to God all is well, its all very worrying!
Monday, March 27, 2006
Giving Out the Wrong Signals
I spent a few days in Herne Bay last week, ostentatiously it was a business trip but I was able to combine it with visiting my family.
I got to meet Sarah's (my niece, yep another, I have many very wonderful versions of nieces each one beautiful and unique!)new boyfriend Steve. He is a wonderful guy who loves Sarah to little pieces but he is profoundly deaf and has been since birth. To those of you who know our Miss chatterbox Sarah you might say 'well that's handy!'
Sarah is the kind of girl that you wind up and let go, she can talk for England, bless her cotton socks! Well, back to Steve, he is a very handsome lad with an elastic face due to having to use exagarated facial expressions while communicating, which he does by BSL signing. He would be great to have on your team in 'Give us a clue!' In fact when he gets very excited about getting a point across he stands up to sign so it is very much like a game of charades, he has a great sense of humour but he obviously does not understand irony or pick up on sarcasm.
Over the course of the evening I communicated well with him, apparently he could lip read me well and I had a crash course in signing over the course of the evening! All was well until the end of the evening when I had been discussing Sarah's forthcoming visit to Birmingham and the fact that she and Steve would stay with us in Coventry. I then decided to extend my invitation by signing to Steve and kindly offered for him to sleep with me!!!!....
Oh ... How quickly I then learned the sign for embarrassed!
Every-one had a good laugh and Sarah told us a story of another friend who when asked if she would stay for another glass of wine at their flat signed that she could not as she had to up early the next morning for sex! She meant work but the signs are similar.
Steve can occasionally hear certain sounds and often imitates them with embarrassing consequences as he does not realize he is being loud. He could easily hear Annette and I laugh and mimicked us relentlessly!
I think I must get a book re-BSL signing before they visit in April otherwise I may be offering services I don't intend.
I got to meet Sarah's (my niece, yep another, I have many very wonderful versions of nieces each one beautiful and unique!)new boyfriend Steve. He is a wonderful guy who loves Sarah to little pieces but he is profoundly deaf and has been since birth. To those of you who know our Miss chatterbox Sarah you might say 'well that's handy!'
Sarah is the kind of girl that you wind up and let go, she can talk for England, bless her cotton socks! Well, back to Steve, he is a very handsome lad with an elastic face due to having to use exagarated facial expressions while communicating, which he does by BSL signing. He would be great to have on your team in 'Give us a clue!' In fact when he gets very excited about getting a point across he stands up to sign so it is very much like a game of charades, he has a great sense of humour but he obviously does not understand irony or pick up on sarcasm.
Over the course of the evening I communicated well with him, apparently he could lip read me well and I had a crash course in signing over the course of the evening! All was well until the end of the evening when I had been discussing Sarah's forthcoming visit to Birmingham and the fact that she and Steve would stay with us in Coventry. I then decided to extend my invitation by signing to Steve and kindly offered for him to sleep with me!!!!....
Oh ... How quickly I then learned the sign for embarrassed!
Every-one had a good laugh and Sarah told us a story of another friend who when asked if she would stay for another glass of wine at their flat signed that she could not as she had to up early the next morning for sex! She meant work but the signs are similar.
Steve can occasionally hear certain sounds and often imitates them with embarrassing consequences as he does not realize he is being loud. He could easily hear Annette and I laugh and mimicked us relentlessly!
I think I must get a book re-BSL signing before they visit in April otherwise I may be offering services I don't intend.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Blondie goes to Penny Lane!
As BJ is working away almost continuously, I thought it would be good to go and visit the fair city of Liverpool and spend an evening with him! I planned it meticulously sorting out a kennel to take Ta-shi too that was conveniently located to the motorway, sorting out the cats and arranging a fun time for us in Beatle land!
I found a nice looking restaurant on the internet, I have to admit I chose it for it's location than any other reason, it was on Penny Lane and to my great excitement was indeed next to a Barber Shop, and across the road from a bank and near a florist! Ok the barber shop did not have pictures of every head ever shaved, I saw no banker in the pouring rain and the girl in the florists did not look like a nurse, and as for fish and finger pie, no... I was like a big kid and felt I was walking through a song, marvelous, marvelous. I can totally recommend 'The Ark' to eat in,see www.arkrestaurant.co.uk
It was totally superb. The food was all homemade, right down to the icecream desserts. The service was impeccable and the atmosphere all candlelit and intimate, It was so good I expected Gordon F**@#! Ramsay to step out of the kitchen any minute.
The weekend started with a Blonde disaster that has so far exceeded anything else stupid I have done in my life , and believe me they have been many and varied! I had spent Saturday morning dashing about getting ready to leave at about lunchtime, I popped down to the shops to buy a new outfit for my dinner date, rushed back, packed my bag, packed Ta-shi's bag sorted out the cats and left. I dropped Ta-shi off at the kennels and hacked up the motorway for a bit, then stopped for a toilet break. As I washed my hands I looked in the mirror and thought , Oh I did not put my dainty earrings in the bag. I was wearing ethnic dangly ones that would not really go with my outfit for the evening. I then had an "Oh my God" moment as it dawned on me that my suitcase was neatly packed and still standing by the front door!!! (on the inside folks)
I was totally panicked, I did not have time to go back for it as I was nearer to Liverpool than Coventry, but I literally had with me just what I was standing up in.
I decided to continue on my journey not sure whether to laugh or cry (so I did both, seemed fair in the circumstances).
Well, every cloud has a silver lining, as I joined the M62 I noticed a big shopping outlet just off Junction 9, so I left the Motorway at the junction and I swear I found the biggest Marks and Spencer in the World and possibly the Universe. The plastic had a bit of a bashing as I purchased a new outfit to 'Wow' my husband with, emergency underwear and then discovered a Boots to deal with all the other things a woman needs for a weekend away. So... I ended up with two new outfits, Ok one is unworn as yet, and yes it has cost me a fortune , but boy did I have a great weekend!
I had another 'Blonde' moment on Sunday morning at breakfast, the waiter asked me how I would like my eggs? I just stared at him in bewilderment, all I could think of was 'medium' like a steak! Barry helped me out by saying he would like his fried! Of course fried or scrambled. Doh! Barry has been calling me Debbie Aka Debbie Harry of Blondie fame. Richly deserved I am afraid.
As I had a couple of hours to spare Sunday morning I took a drive into the city centre. I found 'The Beatles Story' and thought it would round of my trip nicely. No wonder it is an award winning attraction, it is a MUST for Beatle fans.
A total recreation of the Cavern club was one of the attractions, as I walked into the Cavern 'Twist and Shout' started, it was all I could do not to dance! I was blown away, the atmosphere was awesome. I walked through a 'Yellow Submarine' and a 'Magical Mystery Tour', all with the aid of a headphone commentary that could be started and stopped at will. I had to keep stopping mine to listen to the music. A recreation of Abbey road studio's as it would of been in the Sixties.
The tour culminated with the 'John Lennon' room, centre stage was his iconic real Gold Glasses, a movie of lot's of dreadful war shots, including that poor little girl that was hit by nepalm in the Vietnam conflict in the background Johns voice quietly singing 'Love Is' So has anything changed? No we still think it's Ok to maim and kill...
The last and most moving room was a perfect recreation of 'The White Room' where John wrote 'Imagine' Felt really strange coming out into 2006 I was gone man, solid gone!.....
I found a nice looking restaurant on the internet, I have to admit I chose it for it's location than any other reason, it was on Penny Lane and to my great excitement was indeed next to a Barber Shop, and across the road from a bank and near a florist! Ok the barber shop did not have pictures of every head ever shaved, I saw no banker in the pouring rain and the girl in the florists did not look like a nurse, and as for fish and finger pie, no... I was like a big kid and felt I was walking through a song, marvelous, marvelous. I can totally recommend 'The Ark' to eat in,see www.arkrestaurant.co.uk
It was totally superb. The food was all homemade, right down to the icecream desserts. The service was impeccable and the atmosphere all candlelit and intimate, It was so good I expected Gordon F**@#! Ramsay to step out of the kitchen any minute.
The weekend started with a Blonde disaster that has so far exceeded anything else stupid I have done in my life , and believe me they have been many and varied! I had spent Saturday morning dashing about getting ready to leave at about lunchtime, I popped down to the shops to buy a new outfit for my dinner date, rushed back, packed my bag, packed Ta-shi's bag sorted out the cats and left. I dropped Ta-shi off at the kennels and hacked up the motorway for a bit, then stopped for a toilet break. As I washed my hands I looked in the mirror and thought , Oh I did not put my dainty earrings in the bag. I was wearing ethnic dangly ones that would not really go with my outfit for the evening. I then had an "Oh my God" moment as it dawned on me that my suitcase was neatly packed and still standing by the front door!!! (on the inside folks)
I was totally panicked, I did not have time to go back for it as I was nearer to Liverpool than Coventry, but I literally had with me just what I was standing up in.
I decided to continue on my journey not sure whether to laugh or cry (so I did both, seemed fair in the circumstances).
Well, every cloud has a silver lining, as I joined the M62 I noticed a big shopping outlet just off Junction 9, so I left the Motorway at the junction and I swear I found the biggest Marks and Spencer in the World and possibly the Universe. The plastic had a bit of a bashing as I purchased a new outfit to 'Wow' my husband with, emergency underwear and then discovered a Boots to deal with all the other things a woman needs for a weekend away. So... I ended up with two new outfits, Ok one is unworn as yet, and yes it has cost me a fortune , but boy did I have a great weekend!
I had another 'Blonde' moment on Sunday morning at breakfast, the waiter asked me how I would like my eggs? I just stared at him in bewilderment, all I could think of was 'medium' like a steak! Barry helped me out by saying he would like his fried! Of course fried or scrambled. Doh! Barry has been calling me Debbie Aka Debbie Harry of Blondie fame. Richly deserved I am afraid.
As I had a couple of hours to spare Sunday morning I took a drive into the city centre. I found 'The Beatles Story' and thought it would round of my trip nicely. No wonder it is an award winning attraction, it is a MUST for Beatle fans.
A total recreation of the Cavern club was one of the attractions, as I walked into the Cavern 'Twist and Shout' started, it was all I could do not to dance! I was blown away, the atmosphere was awesome. I walked through a 'Yellow Submarine' and a 'Magical Mystery Tour', all with the aid of a headphone commentary that could be started and stopped at will. I had to keep stopping mine to listen to the music. A recreation of Abbey road studio's as it would of been in the Sixties.
The tour culminated with the 'John Lennon' room, centre stage was his iconic real Gold Glasses, a movie of lot's of dreadful war shots, including that poor little girl that was hit by nepalm in the Vietnam conflict in the background Johns voice quietly singing 'Love Is' So has anything changed? No we still think it's Ok to maim and kill...
The last and most moving room was a perfect recreation of 'The White Room' where John wrote 'Imagine' Felt really strange coming out into 2006 I was gone man, solid gone!.....
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Henry The Mechanical Horse!
It was a very wet Tuesday morning and there I was in a big open fronted barn riding a mechanical horse at top speed canter like a jockey in the Gold Cup!
My second lesson with Molly, it was decided to start the lesson with improving my cruise control... Or at least the various gears involved in trot. The exercise was to drive her forward to a fast trot, slow her down to a slow trot with me giving the right message with my body movements then drive her forward to fast again. All this while steering her in a series of three circles of varying direction around the school. Now this sounds quite complicated but I just got it! I was on a roll and feeling very smug as we trotted fast, slow fast. Not a Foxtrot, but a Molly trot!
So... It was decided to work on canter, a little morsel of fear entered my mind, what if I fall, it's a long way down, what if I start her into canter and I can't stop her, you get the idea. Still a challenge is a challenge! Amy re-assured me that I had proved to Molly that I was in control, she was listening to all my body commands I naturally talked to her a lot, which she likes and at the end if the day if Amy thought I was in trouble she could slow her down with her voice if need be.
Soo... We went for it! It was great, but... I felt like a sack of potatoes, you are supposed to sit down to the saddle, move from the hips with the animal and enjoy the ride. Molly canters like no other horse I have ridden (actually I have never ridden a horse, only ponies) and I could not get with the motion.
It was not just me it transpired. Amy explained that Molly drives from the front in canter, most horses drive from the back end, so you get a slightly different gait which takes a bit of getting used to.
Sooo... I am riding a front wheel drive, with several more gears than I am used to, it's like driving my little Nissan Micra then driving a Jaguar!
Amy decided I needed a short session on Henry! I wondered what kind of Horse Henry was. We returned Molly to her stall and I followed Amy to the barn. Here stood a magnificent shiny black beast complete with mane and tail and a key to get him going.
Up I jumped again with the aid of a handy step ladder, and Amy turned the key. Henry has but three gears, slow canter, medium canter, and fast wind in the hair canter. It was a great way to find your seat as although the movement is totally authentic you don't have to worry about steering, cornering or braking! Just sit tight and get that hip movement going!
It was a really good exercise and I am sure I will be more confident in cantering Big Moll around the school next week.
My second lesson with Molly, it was decided to start the lesson with improving my cruise control... Or at least the various gears involved in trot. The exercise was to drive her forward to a fast trot, slow her down to a slow trot with me giving the right message with my body movements then drive her forward to fast again. All this while steering her in a series of three circles of varying direction around the school. Now this sounds quite complicated but I just got it! I was on a roll and feeling very smug as we trotted fast, slow fast. Not a Foxtrot, but a Molly trot!
So... It was decided to work on canter, a little morsel of fear entered my mind, what if I fall, it's a long way down, what if I start her into canter and I can't stop her, you get the idea. Still a challenge is a challenge! Amy re-assured me that I had proved to Molly that I was in control, she was listening to all my body commands I naturally talked to her a lot, which she likes and at the end if the day if Amy thought I was in trouble she could slow her down with her voice if need be.
Soo... We went for it! It was great, but... I felt like a sack of potatoes, you are supposed to sit down to the saddle, move from the hips with the animal and enjoy the ride. Molly canters like no other horse I have ridden (actually I have never ridden a horse, only ponies) and I could not get with the motion.
It was not just me it transpired. Amy explained that Molly drives from the front in canter, most horses drive from the back end, so you get a slightly different gait which takes a bit of getting used to.
Sooo... I am riding a front wheel drive, with several more gears than I am used to, it's like driving my little Nissan Micra then driving a Jaguar!
Amy decided I needed a short session on Henry! I wondered what kind of Horse Henry was. We returned Molly to her stall and I followed Amy to the barn. Here stood a magnificent shiny black beast complete with mane and tail and a key to get him going.
Up I jumped again with the aid of a handy step ladder, and Amy turned the key. Henry has but three gears, slow canter, medium canter, and fast wind in the hair canter. It was a great way to find your seat as although the movement is totally authentic you don't have to worry about steering, cornering or braking! Just sit tight and get that hip movement going!
It was a really good exercise and I am sure I will be more confident in cantering Big Moll around the school next week.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Horsing Around!
The big day arrived, the day I was going to put my bum back in the saddle after four long years. I was as excited as a kid on Christmas eve.
I got to the posh equestrian centre far to early and had to sit in the car for ten minutes until I was only a respectable ten minutes early. It gave me time to look around the yard from the comfort of my car and take in the surroundings.
I had chosen an equestrian centre in preference to a bog standard riding school as I really want to learn to ride as a skill as well as a hobby, I also want to ride proper responsive well schooled horses rather than the tired 'Duff donkey's' that you get at riding schools. It looked very promising, a very neat tidy well kept yard, a well fenced and marked outdoor school and I could also see an indoor school as well. What I could not see was any horses! There were a few chickens (all healthy and not sneezing) a cute black cat stalking the chickens and being told off by a large speckled hen and a few stable girls pushing wheelbarrows of steaming manure to a hidden heap somewhere.
Once in the office I had to fill in an impressive form with all my personal details, next of kin, doctors name etc. It was also pointed out that riding is a risk sport and I should consider personal insurance. I was becoming a little worried at this point, What WAS I going to be riding!
I was introduced to Amy my tutor and we went to get my mount.
My first thought was I saw Molly was "oh my God she's enormous!" She was however very pretty but I detected a little glint of mischief in her eye. We led her out and her first act was to balk at the sight of the overnight snow, it was a case of "I am NOT walking on That" and she stopped dead and dug her hooves in. A little encouragement got her into the indoor school where she then bit my arm as I adjusted her reins. It was a definite case of her trying it on as she sensed I was a little nervous. It was then decided I needed a step ladder to mount her (I am not joking!)but once ensconced in the saddle I suddenly felt at home!
We pootled around the school for a few minutes so I could get the feel for her, then tried some rising trot, then sitting trot and going from one to the other. She was a bit of a Madam to start with and tried to shortcut circuits or not respond to my commands. However as my confidence grew she pricked her ears and did my bidding. We were flying around the circuit doing 20 metre circles, 40 metre circle, figure of eights. Trotting over poles, trotting up to poles and making her halt with the pole between her front and back legs. All was going tremendously well until a workman banged a wheelbarrow on the wall of the corrugated iron wall of the school, Molly leapt six foot in the air and took of across the school at a fair rate of knots. I was startled but kept control, sat into the saddle and persuaded her stopping would be good at this point! Amy was dead impressed and complemented me on my control and that I had relaxed into the saddle rather than panicking and tensing up. Believe me I have had plenty of practice with bolting horses, I just had not expected it to happen on my first lesson.
Anyway, Molly seemed to gain confidence in me after that as I had reassured her straight away when we had stopped, and she was an absolute star it was truly as if horse and rider were completely in tune.
Amy was impressed with my position and line of body in the saddle and I learnt more about schooling in that half an hour than I ever knew. I have not had a proper riding lesson since I was about ten years old. It is like riding a bike a skill once learned never leaves you. The only thing being bikes usually have brakes!
My tutor, Amy was an excellent teacher the right amount of praise and encouragement, with the skill of pushing you just far enough to stretch you without making you think "I can't do this." I can't wait for next Friday when me and Molly meet again.
My new hobby has cost me dear as I had to go buy a new riding hat as My old one no longer meets British Standards, then I felt compelled to buy a riding jacket, where will it end? (probably with buying a horse again) No, Barry don't worry not really!
I got to the posh equestrian centre far to early and had to sit in the car for ten minutes until I was only a respectable ten minutes early. It gave me time to look around the yard from the comfort of my car and take in the surroundings.
I had chosen an equestrian centre in preference to a bog standard riding school as I really want to learn to ride as a skill as well as a hobby, I also want to ride proper responsive well schooled horses rather than the tired 'Duff donkey's' that you get at riding schools. It looked very promising, a very neat tidy well kept yard, a well fenced and marked outdoor school and I could also see an indoor school as well. What I could not see was any horses! There were a few chickens (all healthy and not sneezing) a cute black cat stalking the chickens and being told off by a large speckled hen and a few stable girls pushing wheelbarrows of steaming manure to a hidden heap somewhere.
Once in the office I had to fill in an impressive form with all my personal details, next of kin, doctors name etc. It was also pointed out that riding is a risk sport and I should consider personal insurance. I was becoming a little worried at this point, What WAS I going to be riding!
I was introduced to Amy my tutor and we went to get my mount.
My first thought was I saw Molly was "oh my God she's enormous!" She was however very pretty but I detected a little glint of mischief in her eye. We led her out and her first act was to balk at the sight of the overnight snow, it was a case of "I am NOT walking on That" and she stopped dead and dug her hooves in. A little encouragement got her into the indoor school where she then bit my arm as I adjusted her reins. It was a definite case of her trying it on as she sensed I was a little nervous. It was then decided I needed a step ladder to mount her (I am not joking!)but once ensconced in the saddle I suddenly felt at home!
We pootled around the school for a few minutes so I could get the feel for her, then tried some rising trot, then sitting trot and going from one to the other. She was a bit of a Madam to start with and tried to shortcut circuits or not respond to my commands. However as my confidence grew she pricked her ears and did my bidding. We were flying around the circuit doing 20 metre circles, 40 metre circle, figure of eights. Trotting over poles, trotting up to poles and making her halt with the pole between her front and back legs. All was going tremendously well until a workman banged a wheelbarrow on the wall of the corrugated iron wall of the school, Molly leapt six foot in the air and took of across the school at a fair rate of knots. I was startled but kept control, sat into the saddle and persuaded her stopping would be good at this point! Amy was dead impressed and complemented me on my control and that I had relaxed into the saddle rather than panicking and tensing up. Believe me I have had plenty of practice with bolting horses, I just had not expected it to happen on my first lesson.
Anyway, Molly seemed to gain confidence in me after that as I had reassured her straight away when we had stopped, and she was an absolute star it was truly as if horse and rider were completely in tune.
Amy was impressed with my position and line of body in the saddle and I learnt more about schooling in that half an hour than I ever knew. I have not had a proper riding lesson since I was about ten years old. It is like riding a bike a skill once learned never leaves you. The only thing being bikes usually have brakes!
My tutor, Amy was an excellent teacher the right amount of praise and encouragement, with the skill of pushing you just far enough to stretch you without making you think "I can't do this." I can't wait for next Friday when me and Molly meet again.
My new hobby has cost me dear as I had to go buy a new riding hat as My old one no longer meets British Standards, then I felt compelled to buy a riding jacket, where will it end? (probably with buying a horse again) No, Barry don't worry not really!
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Have You Ever Seen an Elephant Fly?... No, but I've Seen a Horse Skip!
What fun we have had this weekend! It started Friday evening we met the boys to celebrate Simons birthday at a Greek restaurant in Bearwood where they live. The restaurant's a small and friendly privately owned establishment called 'Antonio's' the owner being of course, Antonio! He was a small round middle aged Greek chap who made a big fuss of Simons (as he called him), it was a small place and our party of ten rather overwhelmed a few customers who had come for a quiet and intimate romantic meal with their partners. No problem for Antonio who deftly and unobtrusively moved people to quieter tables and cheerfully dealt with the the lively party that was us! I have to say Simon and Rob's friends were delightful, a good mix of personalities and they did not seem to mind a couple of oldies tagging on to the celebrations. Kalps, a Sri Lankan girl who reads the news on Asian network radio was a lovely girl a real smiler she put me in mind of my adorable niece Jamie who is another smiley miley.
We had a musical accompaniment to our meal, a chap very expertly played I think it was called a bazouki (or is that a machine gun) anyway it was a small fat stringed instrument a cross between a guitar and a banjo. Boy, could he play, it was real good fun. He decided to get all the restaurant to sing the 'appy birthday to Simons and after much shouting of "yamos" Simon was invited to do a Greek dance! Well... a few red wines had been consumed by the Simons so he was happy to oblige! It was hilarious is all I can say, I think the Simons could have a new career ahead of him if he chooses. A real good fun evening oh, and the food was not bad either.
Saturday dawned and at last it was the day I had been looking forward to as I had tickets for 'Apassionata'at the NEC. No, it was not some high brow opera or ballet, well maybe it had some ballet elements in it. It was a festival or celebration of the Horse. It was totally fabulous and as good as any ballet you could see as it had you crying with the emotion of the spetacular beauty of the beasts and laughing at the antics of the comical Miko the donkey! In fact he could have a catch phrase of his own 'Its Miko time' No sorry its been done already!
I have never seen so many breeds of horse in one place and all superbly trained and tuned out.
We saw rampaging Cossacks hurtling at break neck speed around the arena, the riders doing spectacular acrobatic feats on the move including riding in handstand on the saddle while at full pelt, jumping from one side of the pony to the other again at gallop. Then one rider stood one foot on the saddle of one pony and the other foot on the saddle of another pony and cantered around. All was well until one pony changed stride making the rise and fall mismatched and the rider fell. Gasps... But all was well but one pony gave the rider such a look of disgust as if to say "what did you go and do that for?"
I had never seen a Friesian Pearl in the flesh before, my goodness are they the most gorgeous creature you have ever seen! They are a breed that goes back to medieval times and are often depicted in paintings from that era. Big solid barrel chested steed with manes so long they almost reach the ground in a mature horse, spectacular does not even begin to describe them.
The Portuguese Lusitano's were grace personified, they performed dressage to music' and that is how I saw a horse skip!
It was intriguing how they get a horse to perform such an unnatural movement, both front and back leg move forward on one side then the same action on the other side and in time with the music. A bit spotty dog! I could see how the rider was signaling the maneuver but what a totally acclomplished thing to do.
We saw American quarterbacks, stunning Carmagues, Arabs, and Andalusians all wonderful creatures.
My favorite of all were the Carthusians, stunning greys who were loose schooled in the arena as if they were running free on the plains in Spain. They looked totally noble and serene and although free running no tack of any kind, they were watching the master of the horse on his mount for signals as to which way to move. He deftly moved his horse (also a Carthusian) one way or another and the horses went in the direction he signaled, if he turned his horse into the ring they all stood stock still, ears pricked waiting for the signal to move again.
I have to say the horse is the most magical and beautiful creature put on this earth! I was emotionally drained by the end of it all.
Oh! And I have made a move on one of my New Year resolutions, I am starting riding again next Friday. I have decided to have a couple of private one to one lessons to get me going again as it's easily 4-5 years since I have been in the saddle. Maybe walking like John Wayne next weekend!
I also have a great idea for the next celebrity reality show.
'Celebrity Cossack Riding' Please, please lets put that awful simpering Bonnie Langford on as first rider.
We had a musical accompaniment to our meal, a chap very expertly played I think it was called a bazouki (or is that a machine gun) anyway it was a small fat stringed instrument a cross between a guitar and a banjo. Boy, could he play, it was real good fun. He decided to get all the restaurant to sing the 'appy birthday to Simons and after much shouting of "yamos" Simon was invited to do a Greek dance! Well... a few red wines had been consumed by the Simons so he was happy to oblige! It was hilarious is all I can say, I think the Simons could have a new career ahead of him if he chooses. A real good fun evening oh, and the food was not bad either.
Saturday dawned and at last it was the day I had been looking forward to as I had tickets for 'Apassionata'at the NEC. No, it was not some high brow opera or ballet, well maybe it had some ballet elements in it. It was a festival or celebration of the Horse. It was totally fabulous and as good as any ballet you could see as it had you crying with the emotion of the spetacular beauty of the beasts and laughing at the antics of the comical Miko the donkey! In fact he could have a catch phrase of his own 'Its Miko time' No sorry its been done already!
I have never seen so many breeds of horse in one place and all superbly trained and tuned out.
We saw rampaging Cossacks hurtling at break neck speed around the arena, the riders doing spectacular acrobatic feats on the move including riding in handstand on the saddle while at full pelt, jumping from one side of the pony to the other again at gallop. Then one rider stood one foot on the saddle of one pony and the other foot on the saddle of another pony and cantered around. All was well until one pony changed stride making the rise and fall mismatched and the rider fell. Gasps... But all was well but one pony gave the rider such a look of disgust as if to say "what did you go and do that for?"
I had never seen a Friesian Pearl in the flesh before, my goodness are they the most gorgeous creature you have ever seen! They are a breed that goes back to medieval times and are often depicted in paintings from that era. Big solid barrel chested steed with manes so long they almost reach the ground in a mature horse, spectacular does not even begin to describe them.
The Portuguese Lusitano's were grace personified, they performed dressage to music' and that is how I saw a horse skip!
It was intriguing how they get a horse to perform such an unnatural movement, both front and back leg move forward on one side then the same action on the other side and in time with the music. A bit spotty dog! I could see how the rider was signaling the maneuver but what a totally acclomplished thing to do.
We saw American quarterbacks, stunning Carmagues, Arabs, and Andalusians all wonderful creatures.
My favorite of all were the Carthusians, stunning greys who were loose schooled in the arena as if they were running free on the plains in Spain. They looked totally noble and serene and although free running no tack of any kind, they were watching the master of the horse on his mount for signals as to which way to move. He deftly moved his horse (also a Carthusian) one way or another and the horses went in the direction he signaled, if he turned his horse into the ring they all stood stock still, ears pricked waiting for the signal to move again.
I have to say the horse is the most magical and beautiful creature put on this earth! I was emotionally drained by the end of it all.
Oh! And I have made a move on one of my New Year resolutions, I am starting riding again next Friday. I have decided to have a couple of private one to one lessons to get me going again as it's easily 4-5 years since I have been in the saddle. Maybe walking like John Wayne next weekend!
I also have a great idea for the next celebrity reality show.
'Celebrity Cossack Riding' Please, please lets put that awful simpering Bonnie Langford on as first rider.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Its Been A Bad Week For.........
Danish Journalists....
So....! Did these jouro's imagine a scenario in a little cafe in the back streets of Baghdad that went a bit like this:
"Hey Abdul come look at this hilariously funny cartoon of our most esteemed and revered Holy man in this newspaper"
"My Goodness Abu, my sides are splitting with the laughing. How very amusing".
Of course not, they were being deliberately provocative in exercising their right to 'free' speech.
Because we have the right to speak freely and openly about our views does not mean we have the right to disrespect and provoke people that have very set ideas of how their faith should be followed.
What a Pandora's box! How will we close the lid?
Now the government can't make it's mind up as to what constitutes free speech and what is incitement to terrorism, as we saw at the weekend people holding the most inciting and hate filled placards imaginable, by religious fanatics. It would never happen, but what if.... A Christian group retaliated and held their own demo with equally hate filled banner's. I am betting a few arrests would happen pretty sharp.
I suggest the World's journalists put a lid on this area of 'free speech for all our sakes and let the dust settle. For Gods sake! (Actually as a Mother I would ground them for a month and take away their lap tops and only feed them fish fingers for a week and absolutely no beer.)
Now one good thing to start to come out of this is a lot of peace loving British Muslims are standing up and speaking out against these militants, they will have no truck with extremism, hate or terror and wish to live in peace and harmony and quietly practice their Faith without fear and reprisal.
One funny thing that happened as I listened to my radio in the car, I was listening to Radio 4 news and a spokesman for the Danish government was appealing for calm and also said the 'way forward was', at that moment the traffic news cut in and added 'the M42'! So now we know folks the way forward is the M42! (But not usually when I am trying to get to work in the mornings)
I do think we are lucky as a nation that we DO have the most marvelous sense of humour and laugh at ourselves first! My Sister is convinced that both God and Jesus see's the funny side of life. She is right, watch God laugh if you make a plan!
Its Been A Bad week for Abu Hamza...
Thank Goodness we are rid of this poisonous evil excuse of a man, please lets deport him to the USA, they want him, let them have him.
I picked up a copy of the Koran in my local bookshop, I thought it would be a good idea to read some of it's theology, however the text although in English is almost indecipherable and I could not understand any of it. Maybe those little yellow and black books could oblige us with a 'For Dummies' book, they have one for Buddhism! I am being serious here folks. If we are to understand and not fear this religion we must find out the facts about it and come to our own decisions.
Its Been A Bad week for One Estate Agent.....
They have been terminated (just the contract, not the people) for being absolutely useless and downright liars! They told a neighbor of ours that they had sent four lots of people to view our property in a fortnight, when in reality not one prospective buyer has crossed our threshold since November 5th! So it's goodbye to them and....
HelloTo...
Your Move, lets see if they can sell out most desirable little residence!
Good Movie
Walk The Line, the story loosely based on Johnny Cash life story. It is a BRILLIANT film I wanted it to go on forever. Joaquin phoenix was just so good in the part of Johnny Cash he did all the vocals and had the guitar action absolutely perfect. I haven't stopped singing 'Jackson' and 'Fulsom Prison Blues' since Saturday, sorry everyboby who has had to listen to it.
Barry can do a pretty mean impression of Mr Cash, I suggested he should do Stars in their eyes but he would have to be 'Toy Boy Johnny Cash' as he is about half the size of the man in black.
Work
Not such a bad week, lots of moral support from my colleagues which is great. Down moment last Friday when I had to with my boss and actually sack some-one! Not a pleasant thing to do but it was the only thing we could do!
My boss has been away from the office this week soI have been able to get a lot of stuff done (my way) and coped really well with all the queries and problems the franchisees have thrown my way.
High points
Saw a Kingfisher this week, I adore it when I see these mystical little halcyon birds. A flash of quicksilver and the most iridescence blue flashing in the gloom and mist of an early morning walk by the canal. Priceless. It made my day.
Did some gardening, I love to garden, get mud under the finger nails, get up close and personal to sweet smelling earth (not where the cats have been). I planted 48 little plants in the front garden and gave the back a good tidy up. Saffy (cat) was very excited and dashed from fence to fence doing her clucking mewing noises, a characteristic of the Maine Coone is that they almost chatter to you when happy. Ta-shi did some ungardening later and knocked over a newly planted pot of pansies as he decided it was the very place to hide a chewy bone! A few sharp words has persuaded him this is not the case!
Down Point
Barry is back in Liverpool!
High point
Tidy House!
So....! Did these jouro's imagine a scenario in a little cafe in the back streets of Baghdad that went a bit like this:
"Hey Abdul come look at this hilariously funny cartoon of our most esteemed and revered Holy man in this newspaper"
"My Goodness Abu, my sides are splitting with the laughing. How very amusing".
Of course not, they were being deliberately provocative in exercising their right to 'free' speech.
Because we have the right to speak freely and openly about our views does not mean we have the right to disrespect and provoke people that have very set ideas of how their faith should be followed.
What a Pandora's box! How will we close the lid?
Now the government can't make it's mind up as to what constitutes free speech and what is incitement to terrorism, as we saw at the weekend people holding the most inciting and hate filled placards imaginable, by religious fanatics. It would never happen, but what if.... A Christian group retaliated and held their own demo with equally hate filled banner's. I am betting a few arrests would happen pretty sharp.
I suggest the World's journalists put a lid on this area of 'free speech for all our sakes and let the dust settle. For Gods sake! (Actually as a Mother I would ground them for a month and take away their lap tops and only feed them fish fingers for a week and absolutely no beer.)
Now one good thing to start to come out of this is a lot of peace loving British Muslims are standing up and speaking out against these militants, they will have no truck with extremism, hate or terror and wish to live in peace and harmony and quietly practice their Faith without fear and reprisal.
One funny thing that happened as I listened to my radio in the car, I was listening to Radio 4 news and a spokesman for the Danish government was appealing for calm and also said the 'way forward was', at that moment the traffic news cut in and added 'the M42'! So now we know folks the way forward is the M42! (But not usually when I am trying to get to work in the mornings)
I do think we are lucky as a nation that we DO have the most marvelous sense of humour and laugh at ourselves first! My Sister is convinced that both God and Jesus see's the funny side of life. She is right, watch God laugh if you make a plan!
Its Been A Bad week for Abu Hamza...
Thank Goodness we are rid of this poisonous evil excuse of a man, please lets deport him to the USA, they want him, let them have him.
I picked up a copy of the Koran in my local bookshop, I thought it would be a good idea to read some of it's theology, however the text although in English is almost indecipherable and I could not understand any of it. Maybe those little yellow and black books could oblige us with a 'For Dummies' book, they have one for Buddhism! I am being serious here folks. If we are to understand and not fear this religion we must find out the facts about it and come to our own decisions.
Its Been A Bad week for One Estate Agent.....
They have been terminated (just the contract, not the people) for being absolutely useless and downright liars! They told a neighbor of ours that they had sent four lots of people to view our property in a fortnight, when in reality not one prospective buyer has crossed our threshold since November 5th! So it's goodbye to them and....
HelloTo...
Your Move, lets see if they can sell out most desirable little residence!
Good Movie
Walk The Line, the story loosely based on Johnny Cash life story. It is a BRILLIANT film I wanted it to go on forever. Joaquin phoenix was just so good in the part of Johnny Cash he did all the vocals and had the guitar action absolutely perfect. I haven't stopped singing 'Jackson' and 'Fulsom Prison Blues' since Saturday, sorry everyboby who has had to listen to it.
Barry can do a pretty mean impression of Mr Cash, I suggested he should do Stars in their eyes but he would have to be 'Toy Boy Johnny Cash' as he is about half the size of the man in black.
Work
Not such a bad week, lots of moral support from my colleagues which is great. Down moment last Friday when I had to with my boss and actually sack some-one! Not a pleasant thing to do but it was the only thing we could do!
My boss has been away from the office this week soI have been able to get a lot of stuff done (my way) and coped really well with all the queries and problems the franchisees have thrown my way.
High points
Saw a Kingfisher this week, I adore it when I see these mystical little halcyon birds. A flash of quicksilver and the most iridescence blue flashing in the gloom and mist of an early morning walk by the canal. Priceless. It made my day.
Did some gardening, I love to garden, get mud under the finger nails, get up close and personal to sweet smelling earth (not where the cats have been). I planted 48 little plants in the front garden and gave the back a good tidy up. Saffy (cat) was very excited and dashed from fence to fence doing her clucking mewing noises, a characteristic of the Maine Coone is that they almost chatter to you when happy. Ta-shi did some ungardening later and knocked over a newly planted pot of pansies as he decided it was the very place to hide a chewy bone! A few sharp words has persuaded him this is not the case!
Down Point
Barry is back in Liverpool!
High point
Tidy House!
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Acting your Knicker size!
Definition of loneliness:- That little empty space deep in the heart of you that you don't even realize you have, until the person you miss comes back and gives you a big hug. Suddenly you are whole and full with no empty bits.
I guess I felt like this as I am having a tough time at work at the moment. Its made worse when you get home to am empty house and no-one but the dog to share your bad day with.
However the good news is, Barry is now home for a few weeks as he has some nodding dogs to design software for (Robots to you and me). It will take about 3 weeks to complete with the odd few days up in scouse land now and again.
Work has not been all bad, just the manic boss who is hating the re structuring of the Company and because I will not agree with her is hardly speaking to me or any one else in the office who disagrees with her. I truly think we should all give the new ideas a fair trial and I think they are basically sound and sensible and will with a little tweaking work well.
It has been an amusing week on the children front. I was at my Leaps and Bounds class and trying to engage one little boy in conversation during the 'news' time. He had been away for 3 weeks on a visit to Australia, but it seemed the most exciting bit of the trip was getting off the aeroplane back here and catching a bus to go and find the car! Nothing would entice him to tell me anything else at all about the trip.
During the same day but with the younger class, I had the parachute out and we were all having a wonderful time lots of laughing and shrieks of delight (and that was just me!) . I was suddenly aware that water was dripping on me every time the parachute went up in the air. The excitement had become to much for one little girl and she had spectalularly wet herself and was sitting in a large puddle in which the edge of the parachute was dipping into! So dear neighbor's that is why I am drying a parachute on my washing line today!
One of my colleagues has her 7 year old Granddaughter living with her and she told Nanny she had a 'secret' to tell her! It transpired that they were going to have a wedding in the playground the next day. Matthew Perry was to 'marry' Gemma Bennett and Jake was going to be the Vicar and Jess (the granddaughter was to be a bridesmaid! My colleague made all the right comments on how lovely and exciting it all was and said she could not wait to hear all about it when Jess came home the next day.
After school the next day Jess was asked how the Wedding went, the reply came "Oh it was to cold so we played chase instead"
Now why did I not think of that one!
Barry and I went to Milton Keynes on Saturday as I had a need to visit John Lewis! While there we went to see a new activity set up in the snowdome called Airkix! It is truly amazing, you dress up in skydiving gear and go into an amazing wind funnel and 'fly'. It truly looks the BEST fun, there is a viewing area, we sat for ages watching it. We are going to give it a go ourselves, but I have decided to make it a family affair and get the boys involved (and any-one else who wants to join us) Go to www.airkix.co.uk to see what it is all about.
We have also decided to take ski lessons, and I am about to book the first one at Tamworth ski dome. OK just 'cos I am 50 plus one doesn't mean I have to behave like it! I am acting my knicker size and no I am not telling you what that is, suffice to say its not 10!
I guess I felt like this as I am having a tough time at work at the moment. Its made worse when you get home to am empty house and no-one but the dog to share your bad day with.
However the good news is, Barry is now home for a few weeks as he has some nodding dogs to design software for (Robots to you and me). It will take about 3 weeks to complete with the odd few days up in scouse land now and again.
Work has not been all bad, just the manic boss who is hating the re structuring of the Company and because I will not agree with her is hardly speaking to me or any one else in the office who disagrees with her. I truly think we should all give the new ideas a fair trial and I think they are basically sound and sensible and will with a little tweaking work well.
It has been an amusing week on the children front. I was at my Leaps and Bounds class and trying to engage one little boy in conversation during the 'news' time. He had been away for 3 weeks on a visit to Australia, but it seemed the most exciting bit of the trip was getting off the aeroplane back here and catching a bus to go and find the car! Nothing would entice him to tell me anything else at all about the trip.
During the same day but with the younger class, I had the parachute out and we were all having a wonderful time lots of laughing and shrieks of delight (and that was just me!) . I was suddenly aware that water was dripping on me every time the parachute went up in the air. The excitement had become to much for one little girl and she had spectalularly wet herself and was sitting in a large puddle in which the edge of the parachute was dipping into! So dear neighbor's that is why I am drying a parachute on my washing line today!
One of my colleagues has her 7 year old Granddaughter living with her and she told Nanny she had a 'secret' to tell her! It transpired that they were going to have a wedding in the playground the next day. Matthew Perry was to 'marry' Gemma Bennett and Jake was going to be the Vicar and Jess (the granddaughter was to be a bridesmaid! My colleague made all the right comments on how lovely and exciting it all was and said she could not wait to hear all about it when Jess came home the next day.
After school the next day Jess was asked how the Wedding went, the reply came "Oh it was to cold so we played chase instead"
Now why did I not think of that one!
Barry and I went to Milton Keynes on Saturday as I had a need to visit John Lewis! While there we went to see a new activity set up in the snowdome called Airkix! It is truly amazing, you dress up in skydiving gear and go into an amazing wind funnel and 'fly'. It truly looks the BEST fun, there is a viewing area, we sat for ages watching it. We are going to give it a go ourselves, but I have decided to make it a family affair and get the boys involved (and any-one else who wants to join us) Go to www.airkix.co.uk to see what it is all about.
We have also decided to take ski lessons, and I am about to book the first one at Tamworth ski dome. OK just 'cos I am 50 plus one doesn't mean I have to behave like it! I am acting my knicker size and no I am not telling you what that is, suffice to say its not 10!
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Whale Meet again!
What a strange week we had! A whale in the centre of London! Never before has that happened. It was fascinating to see one of these truly majestic and mysterious creatures of the deep in the midst of our modern fast moving Capital City. But very sad! The creature was doomed from the start, I rightly guessed this chap was going to die, one way or another no happy outcome was about to happen. How I would of loved to be proved wrong, but these creatures seek shallow waters if they are sick or dying, and my guess is this is what happened to this guy. Sadly real life ain't the movies and despite truly heroic efforts of rescue this Willy was not to be free. But maybe he is! Irony won the day when he demised at 'Gravesend'. A little tear was shed in this household as I am the worlds biggest softie where animals and children are concerned.
I visited Lancaster TT this week, to see how they are doing. It was great fun to see they were running so very well and what nice folks they are up there. I had a great game of 'snap' with a little boy who was watching his younger brother participate in a class. He was great fun and told me at least a dozen times it was his daddies birthday today! I asked if he had given Daddy a present, and he had. 'It is a special book' he told me ' but I don't think it is very special 'cos its only got words in it, no pictures'.
The only fly on the ointment is that my boss seems permanently in a bad mood at the moment. She gets very stressed and takes it out on the nearest person which was me last week! Its like working for a truculent teenager at times, however I cannot 'ground' this one.
It also appears that part of my new role (starting 1st March) is looking after the East of England Franchises, now this puts a different perspective on whether we move nearer the office! I am nicely situated for easy access to the A14 and M11 where we are, the main routes to the East. So now we don't know what to do. Maybe get a better car!
The weekend was good! got over my crossness at Barry being away all the time. I decided to arrange an outing for this weekend which was a trip to Stratford on Avon and actually visit the Shakespeare Birthplace Museum. I can recommend it as an interesting way to spend a couple of hours along with lunch in our favorite Italian restaurant a very convivial way to spend a Sunday! BJ thought he was back in Italy and spent the lunch speaking Italian to the Waiters. This was Ok except I suspected our waiter was probably Rumanian but after a glass of red wine it did not seem to matter a jot!
I visited Lancaster TT this week, to see how they are doing. It was great fun to see they were running so very well and what nice folks they are up there. I had a great game of 'snap' with a little boy who was watching his younger brother participate in a class. He was great fun and told me at least a dozen times it was his daddies birthday today! I asked if he had given Daddy a present, and he had. 'It is a special book' he told me ' but I don't think it is very special 'cos its only got words in it, no pictures'.
The only fly on the ointment is that my boss seems permanently in a bad mood at the moment. She gets very stressed and takes it out on the nearest person which was me last week! Its like working for a truculent teenager at times, however I cannot 'ground' this one.
It also appears that part of my new role (starting 1st March) is looking after the East of England Franchises, now this puts a different perspective on whether we move nearer the office! I am nicely situated for easy access to the A14 and M11 where we are, the main routes to the East. So now we don't know what to do. Maybe get a better car!
The weekend was good! got over my crossness at Barry being away all the time. I decided to arrange an outing for this weekend which was a trip to Stratford on Avon and actually visit the Shakespeare Birthplace Museum. I can recommend it as an interesting way to spend a couple of hours along with lunch in our favorite Italian restaurant a very convivial way to spend a Sunday! BJ thought he was back in Italy and spent the lunch speaking Italian to the Waiters. This was Ok except I suspected our waiter was probably Rumanian but after a glass of red wine it did not seem to matter a jot!
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Highs and Lows
Ok enough is enough, I have had quite enough of BJ being away working and only getting home every other weekend. To top it all a whole load of redundancies have been announced again, and we have to play the will it be him, or will it not be him game again. To be honest we don't really care if it is him as we have a plan! As my old Mum will say 'Time will tell'.
I thought I had got the hang of the big ball exercise thingy ma jig, I practiced every evening until I could stay on board and not roll off the darn thing. All was well until Thursday evening and I tried to do the sit ups on it. The problem being I did not realize just how sore my tummy muscles (yes! I do actually have some) were until I tried the sit up. Well I rolled sideways at the shock of the pain, straight onto the brass fender of our 'living flame' gas fire, which thankfully was not 'living' at that particular time. I truly thought I had broken my arm, drama queen that I am and sat nursing the poor bruised limb wondering how I was going to explain THAT at casualty! All was well after a minute ot two just a small bruise on the arm and an enormous one on my leg where it hit the fireplace kirb, and one bruised ego!
I struck gold one day this week when some-one truly thought I was in my late thirties or early forties, after I had put her down after kissing and hugging her!. She could not believe I had a Son who would turn Thirty-one in a few weeks, I love her! Mind you I was having one of those rare good hair and make up days!
BJ came home for the once a fortnight visit, we were not really cooking on gas as I was feeling a little fed up with him for being away so much, although I know he has to do it. I do not have to like it though do I. He says he will try and get home every weekend now the worst of the job is over.
We did have a very convivial evening out with the two boys, we went to The Boot at Lapworth and can highly recommend the food at this traditional English Country pub. The restaurant is in a reclaimed old barn and has a marvelous atmosphere, good food and friendly attentive staff.
The food is the best we have had out in a restaurant since moving to Coventry. This City maybe famous for many things but cuisine is certainly not one of them.
It was great to spend some time with the boys,as we had not seen the Rob since Christmas as he is such a busy boy at work. He gave me the cutest wine coloured suede handbag as a belated birthday pressie. He has such good taste for a man! Thanks Son!
I think the boys enjoyed the food, although they had waitress problems, in so much as they could not peel the eyes of one of them. Ok, she was very slim, very blonde, very tall and very Swedish, yep, drop dead gorgeous in fact. I had to pick there chins up off the floor several times.
Not sure if I should let BJ go back there to work if that's the caliber of the female folk.
One really exciting thing we did was to book our holiday. Surprise, surprise we are not going to our beloved Italy! In fact totally different as we are renting a log cabin on the shores of Loch Ness! We were going to hire a boat for the week and float on the Loch but I decided I would not mind seeing Nessie from a distance but did not really want to look him in the eye if he was to pop up in front of the boat. Actually we felt as inexperienced boaters Loch Ness is a bit vast to learn on. I am very excited as the area looks phenomenal, lots of walks, bike rides and slobbing out as well.
Definitely need to replace my beloved old walking boots before we go though. I have been putting off the evil day as I love those boots. They must be 18 to 20 years old as I had them when Ben was a young dog. Me, the boots and Ben trudged many a happy mile together. They have walked me up Snowden Three times, over dales and streams in Derbyshire, tramped heaths. Moors and woodland in The New Forest, they fit like a soft suede glove but sadly leak like a rusty bucket now, despite re-proofing them every year. The seams have given up the ghost sadly.
I thought I had got the hang of the big ball exercise thingy ma jig, I practiced every evening until I could stay on board and not roll off the darn thing. All was well until Thursday evening and I tried to do the sit ups on it. The problem being I did not realize just how sore my tummy muscles (yes! I do actually have some) were until I tried the sit up. Well I rolled sideways at the shock of the pain, straight onto the brass fender of our 'living flame' gas fire, which thankfully was not 'living' at that particular time. I truly thought I had broken my arm, drama queen that I am and sat nursing the poor bruised limb wondering how I was going to explain THAT at casualty! All was well after a minute ot two just a small bruise on the arm and an enormous one on my leg where it hit the fireplace kirb, and one bruised ego!
I struck gold one day this week when some-one truly thought I was in my late thirties or early forties, after I had put her down after kissing and hugging her!. She could not believe I had a Son who would turn Thirty-one in a few weeks, I love her! Mind you I was having one of those rare good hair and make up days!
BJ came home for the once a fortnight visit, we were not really cooking on gas as I was feeling a little fed up with him for being away so much, although I know he has to do it. I do not have to like it though do I. He says he will try and get home every weekend now the worst of the job is over.
We did have a very convivial evening out with the two boys, we went to The Boot at Lapworth and can highly recommend the food at this traditional English Country pub. The restaurant is in a reclaimed old barn and has a marvelous atmosphere, good food and friendly attentive staff.
The food is the best we have had out in a restaurant since moving to Coventry. This City maybe famous for many things but cuisine is certainly not one of them.
It was great to spend some time with the boys,as we had not seen the Rob since Christmas as he is such a busy boy at work. He gave me the cutest wine coloured suede handbag as a belated birthday pressie. He has such good taste for a man! Thanks Son!
I think the boys enjoyed the food, although they had waitress problems, in so much as they could not peel the eyes of one of them. Ok, she was very slim, very blonde, very tall and very Swedish, yep, drop dead gorgeous in fact. I had to pick there chins up off the floor several times.
Not sure if I should let BJ go back there to work if that's the caliber of the female folk.
One really exciting thing we did was to book our holiday. Surprise, surprise we are not going to our beloved Italy! In fact totally different as we are renting a log cabin on the shores of Loch Ness! We were going to hire a boat for the week and float on the Loch but I decided I would not mind seeing Nessie from a distance but did not really want to look him in the eye if he was to pop up in front of the boat. Actually we felt as inexperienced boaters Loch Ness is a bit vast to learn on. I am very excited as the area looks phenomenal, lots of walks, bike rides and slobbing out as well.
Definitely need to replace my beloved old walking boots before we go though. I have been putting off the evil day as I love those boots. They must be 18 to 20 years old as I had them when Ben was a young dog. Me, the boots and Ben trudged many a happy mile together. They have walked me up Snowden Three times, over dales and streams in Derbyshire, tramped heaths. Moors and woodland in The New Forest, they fit like a soft suede glove but sadly leak like a rusty bucket now, despite re-proofing them every year. The seams have given up the ghost sadly.
Monday, January 09, 2006
Where have my blogs gone?
A glitch seems to have lost all my blogs. This is a test post to see if they come back!
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Dog Day
After a really mad few days at work (meeting an important deadline, to submit our L&B for programme to Kite Marking ) why is it human nature to leave so much to the last minute. At one time I had three documents open on the computer and was trying to work on them all in between being called to help out my boss sort out the appendix' (23 of them) and make sure they were all full of the correct info.
Anyway a planned meet up with Rob that evening was called off as he was feeling poorly, lots of nasty bugs doing the rounds at the moment. So I called into Tesco's to get some cooked chicken and salad fro tea. While in there I saw one of those big exercise Gym balls in the sale for £3.47 including pump! Wow bargain! , I will have one of those, I thought , my core stability could do with some work!
I arrived home to find a snowstorm had happened in my lounge and kitchen! I had left the larder slightly ajar, this cupboard is known as 'The Dinner cupboard' by the dog and two cats as all the pet food is kept in it.
However also residing in the larder was a box of porridge oats! Ta-shi obviously decided it must be dog food and had pulled it out. He had chewed a hole in the box to get at the contents and cheerfully dragged it into the lounge leaving a trail of oats as he went. He then decided to eat part of the box depositing even more porridge around the room. I thought I had ventured into Narnia! I scolded him, and told him its was 'My breakfast, not his' he gave me a lookof disgustt as if to say 'your welcome, I truly think the box tastes better, I'll stick to my bonio's thank you.'
After eating my chicken and salad I decided to blow up my new acquisition. Ta-shi sat and watched quizzically, and then when he realized I had bought 'The Biggest Ball in the World' got very excited! I watched for five minutes as he had a mad game of football with it and then decided to do the exercises on the leaflet.
Have you ever seen a dog laugh?
He sat and watched as I rolled off one side, then the other, tried to balance and lift one leg up in the air, oops off again. Tried the sit ups, a bit better until my feet slipped on the carpet and I came off with a bump! OK the press ups might be easier, 'grasp the ball and push up from it' said the instructions, but the ball won't stay blooming still enough to push up from! One or twoexercisess were achievable and maybe the others will after practice.
Ta-shi loved the evenings entertainment and watched with upturned lips, his doggy version of a smile.
Anyway a planned meet up with Rob that evening was called off as he was feeling poorly, lots of nasty bugs doing the rounds at the moment. So I called into Tesco's to get some cooked chicken and salad fro tea. While in there I saw one of those big exercise Gym balls in the sale for £3.47 including pump! Wow bargain! , I will have one of those, I thought , my core stability could do with some work!
I arrived home to find a snowstorm had happened in my lounge and kitchen! I had left the larder slightly ajar, this cupboard is known as 'The Dinner cupboard' by the dog and two cats as all the pet food is kept in it.
However also residing in the larder was a box of porridge oats! Ta-shi obviously decided it must be dog food and had pulled it out. He had chewed a hole in the box to get at the contents and cheerfully dragged it into the lounge leaving a trail of oats as he went. He then decided to eat part of the box depositing even more porridge around the room. I thought I had ventured into Narnia! I scolded him, and told him its was 'My breakfast, not his' he gave me a lookof disgustt as if to say 'your welcome, I truly think the box tastes better, I'll stick to my bonio's thank you.'
After eating my chicken and salad I decided to blow up my new acquisition. Ta-shi sat and watched quizzically, and then when he realized I had bought 'The Biggest Ball in the World' got very excited! I watched for five minutes as he had a mad game of football with it and then decided to do the exercises on the leaflet.
Have you ever seen a dog laugh?
He sat and watched as I rolled off one side, then the other, tried to balance and lift one leg up in the air, oops off again. Tried the sit ups, a bit better until my feet slipped on the carpet and I came off with a bump! OK the press ups might be easier, 'grasp the ball and push up from it' said the instructions, but the ball won't stay blooming still enough to push up from! One or twoexercisess were achievable and maybe the others will after practice.
Ta-shi loved the evenings entertainment and watched with upturned lips, his doggy version of a smile.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Happy New Year!
Well lucky old me! I had an extra second of Birthday this year, due to the fact that they added a 'leap second' to the end of the old year. Lucky I was having a good time then, how maddening if you were just waiting for a boring day to end and they added a whole extra second to endure!
As it happens I was down in the lovely seaside town of Herne Bay spending time with my scatty sister Annette her lovely Husband Roger and my strangely sober Mother! Also at various times, various much loved nieces popped in and out to say hello on there way to various more exciting parties than ours.
I spent the afternoon of my birthday searching through Annies child development books for various quotes that can be used in our Leaps and Bounds submission. It was a very fruitful search and I got lots of info which is very relevant to our subject.
If only the relevant authorities realized how important physical activity is to a child's overall development. It aids not only the usual motor skills, but cognitive development, memory skills and even eventually aids reading and writing skills. I am a great advocate of getting children to crawl, especially if this is a skill they did not acquire as a baby, crawling is the one most important activity to be encouraged in the newborn to seven year old. It will aid co-ordination greatly and is relevant in the child being able to learn such activities as tieing shoelaces, riding a bike, catching balls and even copying from the white board. They are more likely to be clumsy and uncoordinated if they don't crawl, so get them babies crawling! Actually apparently I never did crawl as a baby. THAT'S why I can't play badmington, boys!
The evening had us playing a hilarious game of pictionary (we forgot to take cranium with us) Roger and Barry against me and Annie, to say the boys wiped the board with us is an understatement but hey! It's just a game and they cheated a lot. (me, a bad loser?) Mind you when Annie drew flames with a horse rising out of it I was somewhat confused, I thought maybe she had got phoenix muddled so that's what I guessed. She was very frustrated that I got it wrong and announced it was 'Pegasus rising from the ashes!' She was mortified when she realized her mistake. Greek mythology is not her thing obviously.
The best comment of the day came from my Mum who asked if I had been watching Coronation Street and what a shame it was that Mike Baldwin has got that dimension!
The most unsuitable present of the year went to Barry, who received some hair gel! The most used present so far, also given to Barry was a wind up torch!
My best present (birthday) was a super picture printer, you just plug your camera chip into it and hey presto out pops the pictures, I love it.
As it happens I was down in the lovely seaside town of Herne Bay spending time with my scatty sister Annette her lovely Husband Roger and my strangely sober Mother! Also at various times, various much loved nieces popped in and out to say hello on there way to various more exciting parties than ours.
I spent the afternoon of my birthday searching through Annies child development books for various quotes that can be used in our Leaps and Bounds submission. It was a very fruitful search and I got lots of info which is very relevant to our subject.
If only the relevant authorities realized how important physical activity is to a child's overall development. It aids not only the usual motor skills, but cognitive development, memory skills and even eventually aids reading and writing skills. I am a great advocate of getting children to crawl, especially if this is a skill they did not acquire as a baby, crawling is the one most important activity to be encouraged in the newborn to seven year old. It will aid co-ordination greatly and is relevant in the child being able to learn such activities as tieing shoelaces, riding a bike, catching balls and even copying from the white board. They are more likely to be clumsy and uncoordinated if they don't crawl, so get them babies crawling! Actually apparently I never did crawl as a baby. THAT'S why I can't play badmington, boys!
The evening had us playing a hilarious game of pictionary (we forgot to take cranium with us) Roger and Barry against me and Annie, to say the boys wiped the board with us is an understatement but hey! It's just a game and they cheated a lot. (me, a bad loser?) Mind you when Annie drew flames with a horse rising out of it I was somewhat confused, I thought maybe she had got phoenix muddled so that's what I guessed. She was very frustrated that I got it wrong and announced it was 'Pegasus rising from the ashes!' She was mortified when she realized her mistake. Greek mythology is not her thing obviously.
The best comment of the day came from my Mum who asked if I had been watching Coronation Street and what a shame it was that Mike Baldwin has got that dimension!
The most unsuitable present of the year went to Barry, who received some hair gel! The most used present so far, also given to Barry was a wind up torch!
My best present (birthday) was a super picture printer, you just plug your camera chip into it and hey presto out pops the pictures, I love it.
New year resolutions:
- Have more fun.
- Be a bit more assertive at work.
- Grow a new hairstyle (been short for years now)
- Start horseriding again, as I have not been riding since coming to Coventry.
Not going to say, lose weight, give up this or that as they are a hiding to nothing.
Lots of love and good wishes for the new year to all of you out there. A special good wish to my USA Mom, Pat who surprised me with a phone call today. Take good care of yourself my lovely friend!
Friday, December 30, 2005
Christmas Madness and Mayhem
Well, that's another Christmas done and dusted! One to go down in the good memory file to be sure.
We had an extra two guests this year in the shape of Grace, Simons friend who originates from Hong Kong and her little dog Tsi Tsi ( have not a clue if that's the right spelling!) who is a little Shih Tzu a similar breed to Ta-shi. I had been warned to expect a really bad, naughty little dog that would most likely wreak havoc and mayhem! What we got was a delightful and sweet little creature who is a little confused as to who is in charge in his life. Ta-shi decided to be boss dog for the time Tsi tsi was with us and steadfastly refused to share any toys and any cuddles if he could get away with it. He occasionally dropped his guard and had a good old romp with his new friend. If and when Grace decides to return to Hong Kong I think Tsi Tsi will find a home with us!
Grace was an absolute diamond of a girl, what IS my son doing letting a girl like that slip through his fingers, but I could really see that there probably was not a spark of romance between them and they really are just good friends but what a waste! They kinda look right together and Grace sure has the measure of Simon and gently teases him at times.
We had a few hilarious moments at times with her accent as typically she cannot pronounce the letters R or L as apparently they do not figure in the Chinese alphabet.
She asked us 'where Ta-shi Sweep' I said 'In the Kitchen'
She replied 'No, when he sweep'
'Well all night and sometimes in the day'
She getting a little excited now made a scissor movement with her fingers 'When he have snip snip'
It was a bit like 'give us a clue' Grace has a marvelous sense of humour so none of our misunderstandings mattered a jot. At one time she was looking at Barry and suddenly loudly proclaimed 'Aw Bawee I love your ears' Bawee looked a little surprised to say the least and clasped the said lugs, 'They are vewy long ears, vewy lucky, mean long life in China'.
So there you have it you guys whose ears appear to grow bigger with age, they are vewy lucky!
I had some marvelous gifts, I am getting to grips with technology with my MP3 player, what a nifty bit of kit. It was marvelous to see Barry's face when he opened my gift to him, a flight in a airforce jet simulator in which he has to bomb targets on the ground. Sorry folks I know it is a little 'rough boy' stuff but he has always wanted to fly in a fast jet and this was the nearest I could get. To say he was thrilled was an understatement!
We all had a marvelous game of cranium on Christmas day (Thanks Rach and Dan for introducing us to this) It was as usual absolutely hilarious! I avoided all humming activities though. I was nearly murdered by my own Husband as he tried to mime 'Buffy the vampire slayer' even though I had not volunteered to be the Vampire but I suppose it would of been quite rude to slay our guest Grace, who indeed thought we had all gone quite, quite mad as they don't seem to play games in Hong Kong.
After Christmas Barry and I headed of for two days away ay Alvaston Hall Hotel where we could relax, dance and eat yet more food. We were entertained on the last evening by The American Four Tops who where just fabulous, and they thought our dancing the 'Twist' was quite spectacular and they gave us a cheer! Both Barry and I can twist down to the floor and back up again, although on the last down twist Barry nearly did not make it back up a gain! My legs the next morning told a different story though!
All that remains to be said is thanks boys for such a lovely Christmas and gifts they were all great! And of course Happy New Year to you all, and happy birthday to me!
We had an extra two guests this year in the shape of Grace, Simons friend who originates from Hong Kong and her little dog Tsi Tsi ( have not a clue if that's the right spelling!) who is a little Shih Tzu a similar breed to Ta-shi. I had been warned to expect a really bad, naughty little dog that would most likely wreak havoc and mayhem! What we got was a delightful and sweet little creature who is a little confused as to who is in charge in his life. Ta-shi decided to be boss dog for the time Tsi tsi was with us and steadfastly refused to share any toys and any cuddles if he could get away with it. He occasionally dropped his guard and had a good old romp with his new friend. If and when Grace decides to return to Hong Kong I think Tsi Tsi will find a home with us!
Grace was an absolute diamond of a girl, what IS my son doing letting a girl like that slip through his fingers, but I could really see that there probably was not a spark of romance between them and they really are just good friends but what a waste! They kinda look right together and Grace sure has the measure of Simon and gently teases him at times.
We had a few hilarious moments at times with her accent as typically she cannot pronounce the letters R or L as apparently they do not figure in the Chinese alphabet.
She asked us 'where Ta-shi Sweep' I said 'In the Kitchen'
She replied 'No, when he sweep'
'Well all night and sometimes in the day'
She getting a little excited now made a scissor movement with her fingers 'When he have snip snip'
It was a bit like 'give us a clue' Grace has a marvelous sense of humour so none of our misunderstandings mattered a jot. At one time she was looking at Barry and suddenly loudly proclaimed 'Aw Bawee I love your ears' Bawee looked a little surprised to say the least and clasped the said lugs, 'They are vewy long ears, vewy lucky, mean long life in China'.
So there you have it you guys whose ears appear to grow bigger with age, they are vewy lucky!
I had some marvelous gifts, I am getting to grips with technology with my MP3 player, what a nifty bit of kit. It was marvelous to see Barry's face when he opened my gift to him, a flight in a airforce jet simulator in which he has to bomb targets on the ground. Sorry folks I know it is a little 'rough boy' stuff but he has always wanted to fly in a fast jet and this was the nearest I could get. To say he was thrilled was an understatement!
We all had a marvelous game of cranium on Christmas day (Thanks Rach and Dan for introducing us to this) It was as usual absolutely hilarious! I avoided all humming activities though. I was nearly murdered by my own Husband as he tried to mime 'Buffy the vampire slayer' even though I had not volunteered to be the Vampire but I suppose it would of been quite rude to slay our guest Grace, who indeed thought we had all gone quite, quite mad as they don't seem to play games in Hong Kong.
After Christmas Barry and I headed of for two days away ay Alvaston Hall Hotel where we could relax, dance and eat yet more food. We were entertained on the last evening by The American Four Tops who where just fabulous, and they thought our dancing the 'Twist' was quite spectacular and they gave us a cheer! Both Barry and I can twist down to the floor and back up again, although on the last down twist Barry nearly did not make it back up a gain! My legs the next morning told a different story though!
All that remains to be said is thanks boys for such a lovely Christmas and gifts they were all great! And of course Happy New Year to you all, and happy birthday to me!
Friday, December 16, 2005
The meaning of Christmas came home today!
Today I helped the staff at the Nursery School I visit with their Nativity play. It was the very best place to be! If some-one had come along and tried to whisk me away to Capri half way through I would of said 'No'.
True it was organized chaos, true some of the children were overcome and cried. On the whole the fifty, Two to school age children were wonderful. In the group were two year old triplets, one a sheep , one a cow and the only girl a Chinese lady. They just about caused mayhem between them, the cow kept trying to pull the sheeps tail, the cow then decided it would be a marvelous game to bash all comers with his horns. Once I persuaded him that it was not 'kind' to bash our friends he decided the only way to wear them was over his eyes so he could not see me or any-one else for that matter and immediately tripped over a Abbie who lost her hat with corks all around the perimeter (she was that famous Australian who visited Jesus in the stable) and threatened tears. In the meantime the girl triplet dressed in a floor length real silk Chinese dress pulled a whole washing up bowl of water of the shelf and completely soaked herself from head to toe. I decided to sit them all Down and read a story while the staff sorted out the very wet and distressed China doll, and try to dry her costume over a fan heater.
I truly felt like Joyce Grenfell, thank goodness there was not a 'George' in the class. It was a case of, 'It was Christmas eve and every-one was asleep, er don't do that Tom! Except the mice, can you tell me who is asleep look. No Cally give Rosie her teddy back, Rosie darling don't snatch, that's right say thank you'. So it went on, I think I got to the end but who knows!
We eventually had to walk the children down the road and, nightmare! Across the road to the village hall. We had them in pairs but some of them are so tiny they have a problem negotiating the deep kerbs while holding hands. The little boy dressed as and Indian prince tripped so many times, bless him that I thought I had better pick him up. The Angels halo got blown askew by a big gust of wind, it never stood up properly again, she looked rather cheeky with it crooked. We must of looked a motley crew crossing the road, a member of staff dressed as a King held up the traffic while Angels, Shepherds, Kings sheep, cows oh of course there was the donkey as well! And 'Children of the World' ranging from Cowboys to Frenchman resplendent with a beret and a string of onions round his neck (type cast or what) crossed the road!
Once on the stage they came into their own I was amazed at how well they spoke their lines. One usually very shy little girl came alive once on the stage singing louder than any-one else and edging all the time to the front centre stage. The songs were brilliant, and I had more than one little tear in my eye. Abbie threatened to cry first because she could not see Mummy, then because she could see Mummy so I sat her on my lap and told her how amazingly clever and beautiful she was and look how pleased Mummy is to see such a clever girl, she settled into her Australian girl part with great gusto after that.
The beauty of working with children of this age is that you get to see the World as they do, a beautiful new exciting adventure, you see the wonder in their eyes as they act out the oldest story in the world but new and wonderful to them. Life is not yet cynical and cruel but a blank sheet of paper to map out their lives on. Already you see who are the peacemakers among them, who are the organizers and as far as quiet little Cally, who will aspire to be actresses.
I felt very lucky to have been part of it! It was the best fun!
True it was organized chaos, true some of the children were overcome and cried. On the whole the fifty, Two to school age children were wonderful. In the group were two year old triplets, one a sheep , one a cow and the only girl a Chinese lady. They just about caused mayhem between them, the cow kept trying to pull the sheeps tail, the cow then decided it would be a marvelous game to bash all comers with his horns. Once I persuaded him that it was not 'kind' to bash our friends he decided the only way to wear them was over his eyes so he could not see me or any-one else for that matter and immediately tripped over a Abbie who lost her hat with corks all around the perimeter (she was that famous Australian who visited Jesus in the stable) and threatened tears. In the meantime the girl triplet dressed in a floor length real silk Chinese dress pulled a whole washing up bowl of water of the shelf and completely soaked herself from head to toe. I decided to sit them all Down and read a story while the staff sorted out the very wet and distressed China doll, and try to dry her costume over a fan heater.
I truly felt like Joyce Grenfell, thank goodness there was not a 'George' in the class. It was a case of, 'It was Christmas eve and every-one was asleep, er don't do that Tom! Except the mice, can you tell me who is asleep look. No Cally give Rosie her teddy back, Rosie darling don't snatch, that's right say thank you'. So it went on, I think I got to the end but who knows!
We eventually had to walk the children down the road and, nightmare! Across the road to the village hall. We had them in pairs but some of them are so tiny they have a problem negotiating the deep kerbs while holding hands. The little boy dressed as and Indian prince tripped so many times, bless him that I thought I had better pick him up. The Angels halo got blown askew by a big gust of wind, it never stood up properly again, she looked rather cheeky with it crooked. We must of looked a motley crew crossing the road, a member of staff dressed as a King held up the traffic while Angels, Shepherds, Kings sheep, cows oh of course there was the donkey as well! And 'Children of the World' ranging from Cowboys to Frenchman resplendent with a beret and a string of onions round his neck (type cast or what) crossed the road!
Once on the stage they came into their own I was amazed at how well they spoke their lines. One usually very shy little girl came alive once on the stage singing louder than any-one else and edging all the time to the front centre stage. The songs were brilliant, and I had more than one little tear in my eye. Abbie threatened to cry first because she could not see Mummy, then because she could see Mummy so I sat her on my lap and told her how amazingly clever and beautiful she was and look how pleased Mummy is to see such a clever girl, she settled into her Australian girl part with great gusto after that.
The beauty of working with children of this age is that you get to see the World as they do, a beautiful new exciting adventure, you see the wonder in their eyes as they act out the oldest story in the world but new and wonderful to them. Life is not yet cynical and cruel but a blank sheet of paper to map out their lives on. Already you see who are the peacemakers among them, who are the organizers and as far as quiet little Cally, who will aspire to be actresses.
I felt very lucky to have been part of it! It was the best fun!
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
A Brush with Narnia.
I had a fairly eventful end to my week of Friday. I was supposed to be running a course for just a few people on how to run a Gymbob class. No problem!
First one of the delegates was due to arrive at Birmingham airport at 8.30am and I was to pick her up as I pass by that way on my way to work. I get a call at 8 O'clock to say she is still waiting for her flight to be called in Edinburgh, delayed due to a real pea soup of a fog in Birmingham. I hung around for a bit until I got the call to say she would not be coming. OK no problem head to work. I use a laptop and projector to deliver my course and on arriving at work found I had neither. So a little thought and a fair bit of photo copying I delivered my course very successfully without the aid of modern technology. It was great fun, as I just sat down with the 3 remaining delegates and chatted very informally with them and got all the relevant points over really well (I think).
My poor boss was supposed to be heading out to our Company owned franchise later in the day to help out with a couple of classes that they were short staffed in. She was unfortunately laid very low with a very nasty bug. So I had to finish the course as quickly as I could and hot foot it over to Warwick to assist with 24 very lively 5 to 7 year olds. Well.... What fun, they were great fun and I had a very rewarding couple of hours with them.
The equipment theme was 'Winter' and I had opted to man the 'agility' station. I mesmerised them with a theme of Narnia and got them clambering over snowy mountains in search of Aslan, sliding over an ice bridge and into white witch mountain to rescue the treasure which was a key to slide down the shute and escape the mountain (it was a beanbag in reality.) Well, they loved it and really got into the story. One little boy said he could not get out of Aslans den as the lion was biting his feet, little Rachel who has been reading the book told him not to be silly as Aslan was a 'good Lion' who would not do anything as bad as eating your feet. She also decided to be called 'Lucy' and I had to call the two boys in my group Peter and Edmund!
Actually I am not sure who had most fun me or the kids!
I was pretty tired after tackling Narnia but had to dash home to greet guests for dinner. Dan, Rach and Simon headed our way to indulge in a little Curry therapy, it was a great evening. I love to have people to cook for, my wish is to have a really nice dining room in the near future. I have decided our new house must have three bedrooms, a garage, a dining room and a ballroom!
Rach is Ta-shi's new best friend! She and he spent ages playing together. Rach obviously has the same 'animal magnetism' that Simon and I have :-) . Ta-shi thought Rach had stayed overnight and first thing in the morning rushed upstairs to search the rooms for her.
BJ was home for the weekend which was just great! I really miss him during the week. No cuddles when I get home and no three kisses before he goes out in the morning (it has to be three) . My Mother seems to think that we are sure to argue when BJ comes home as that's what she and dad did when he worked away from home. Sorry Mum! We do many things but arguing is not one of them. Close the doors turn the phones off and shut the curtains maybe but no arguing! Not bad for a pair of oldies, after all these years we are still quite silly over each other. Even if he can be a grumpy old git at times!
I seem to be on the wind down now at work towards Christmas, I am finishing work this Friday and even that day is going to be a fun day. I am going to the Nursery School that I deliver 'Leaps and Bounds' to help with their Christmas production. Its going to be organized chaos I am sure as even the little 2-3 year olds are taking part. I can't wait it's going to be the hilight of my week I am sure. What a lucky girl I am to have such a wonderful job. It's hopefully going to get better next year although the downside will be not so much contact with the children as I will be much more involved with the business side of things.
Well I must go and have a chat with Bj we always phone each other at ten pm to have a little chat and say goodnight.
First one of the delegates was due to arrive at Birmingham airport at 8.30am and I was to pick her up as I pass by that way on my way to work. I get a call at 8 O'clock to say she is still waiting for her flight to be called in Edinburgh, delayed due to a real pea soup of a fog in Birmingham. I hung around for a bit until I got the call to say she would not be coming. OK no problem head to work. I use a laptop and projector to deliver my course and on arriving at work found I had neither. So a little thought and a fair bit of photo copying I delivered my course very successfully without the aid of modern technology. It was great fun, as I just sat down with the 3 remaining delegates and chatted very informally with them and got all the relevant points over really well (I think).
My poor boss was supposed to be heading out to our Company owned franchise later in the day to help out with a couple of classes that they were short staffed in. She was unfortunately laid very low with a very nasty bug. So I had to finish the course as quickly as I could and hot foot it over to Warwick to assist with 24 very lively 5 to 7 year olds. Well.... What fun, they were great fun and I had a very rewarding couple of hours with them.
The equipment theme was 'Winter' and I had opted to man the 'agility' station. I mesmerised them with a theme of Narnia and got them clambering over snowy mountains in search of Aslan, sliding over an ice bridge and into white witch mountain to rescue the treasure which was a key to slide down the shute and escape the mountain (it was a beanbag in reality.) Well, they loved it and really got into the story. One little boy said he could not get out of Aslans den as the lion was biting his feet, little Rachel who has been reading the book told him not to be silly as Aslan was a 'good Lion' who would not do anything as bad as eating your feet. She also decided to be called 'Lucy' and I had to call the two boys in my group Peter and Edmund!
Actually I am not sure who had most fun me or the kids!
I was pretty tired after tackling Narnia but had to dash home to greet guests for dinner. Dan, Rach and Simon headed our way to indulge in a little Curry therapy, it was a great evening. I love to have people to cook for, my wish is to have a really nice dining room in the near future. I have decided our new house must have three bedrooms, a garage, a dining room and a ballroom!
Rach is Ta-shi's new best friend! She and he spent ages playing together. Rach obviously has the same 'animal magnetism' that Simon and I have :-) . Ta-shi thought Rach had stayed overnight and first thing in the morning rushed upstairs to search the rooms for her.
BJ was home for the weekend which was just great! I really miss him during the week. No cuddles when I get home and no three kisses before he goes out in the morning (it has to be three) . My Mother seems to think that we are sure to argue when BJ comes home as that's what she and dad did when he worked away from home. Sorry Mum! We do many things but arguing is not one of them. Close the doors turn the phones off and shut the curtains maybe but no arguing! Not bad for a pair of oldies, after all these years we are still quite silly over each other. Even if he can be a grumpy old git at times!
I seem to be on the wind down now at work towards Christmas, I am finishing work this Friday and even that day is going to be a fun day. I am going to the Nursery School that I deliver 'Leaps and Bounds' to help with their Christmas production. Its going to be organized chaos I am sure as even the little 2-3 year olds are taking part. I can't wait it's going to be the hilight of my week I am sure. What a lucky girl I am to have such a wonderful job. It's hopefully going to get better next year although the downside will be not so much contact with the children as I will be much more involved with the business side of things.
Well I must go and have a chat with Bj we always phone each other at ten pm to have a little chat and say goodnight.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
It was 25 years ago today!
Well the song almost starts like that! I am talking Sgt. Pepper of course and the song really starts 'it was 20 years ago today.'
Today is the 25th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon one of the icon's of the last century. I grew up with Beatle mania, lived it, sang it, dreamed about them, cried tears of grief when I thought Paul was going to marry Jane Asher (well I was only about 12).
Pocket money was hoarded to save seven shillings and sixpence to buy a record, as they were called in those distant days. As I only got half a crown (two shillings and sixpence) a week pocket money this was no mean feat. (Thank goodness for Granddads)
The year Tracey was born we were staying in my grandparents flat for Christmas and I had a portable record player for Christmas. Well... I was made up, it was wonderful I also had the single 'She loves you' and I must of played it so many times I am sure I drove every-one completely mad with it. In later years Barry was to mend this treasured item many times for me, I even bought it to our first married home.
I tried to get Mum and Dad to name the new baby, Michelle like in the song, they almost did as Michelle was quite an unusual and exotic mane in those days. Tracey must be glad that she was not a 'shell' !
One of the first records I bought for myself was the EP 'Twist and shout' which also had 'A taste of Honey and 'There's a place' and 'Listen, do you want to know a secret'. I loved them all, and can still sing them all virtually word perfect, but probably not in tune :-) but my parents and Nana, who often stayed with us used to complain like mad about Twist and Shout as rock and roll was considered 'devil' music.
I was completely besotted with Paul as most girls were, those big brown puppy eyes and the gorgeous hair that he would shake maniacally during a song. As for the way he screamed and did those kind of 'woo's' with John during chorus' would drive us into a frenzy.
I was watching the Royal Variety when John told the Audience 'Ok those in the cheap seats clap your hands and those in the front rattle your jewelry'
I remember being uncomfortable when he announced The Beatles 'were bigger than Jesus'. But hey, that was John.
John Lennon was of course a total genius, a visionary, eloquent a man of deep contrasts, peace loving, yet sometimes aggressive. Kind but often very cruel, Thoughtful, but outspoken In fact a very human man with all the foilbles of most of us.
He had a very sad childhood really, bought up by his beloved auntie Mimi who led him to believe his Mother lived hundreds of miles away when really she lived close by. He found her again when he was twelve and it was she who taught him to play the guitar. Sadly by the time he was sixteen she was killed in a traffic accident. How tragic for him.
John lived life through his songs particularly in the later years. 'Watching the wheels go round' written while he was a bored house husband and had not written anything for about five years.
'How do you Sleep at Night' was a very vitriolic dig at Paul after the split. It must of been very hurtful for Paul. It is also claimed it is about his withdrawal from drugs at the time as well.
'Mind games' written during his short separation from Yoko, and so it goes on.
He had a comment for every world event in a song. Mind you we all hated Yoko Ono, we were convinced she split the Beatles. I think now it was Johns complete obsession with Yoko that split the Beatles! It was time, they all had to move on and grow, no boy band sticks together for many years. They certainly brought a bit of magic into our lives at the time.
favorite Beatle or Lennon tracks for me:
In My life.
This Boy.
Twist and shout
She's leaving home
Help
Lady Maddonna
The Long and Winding Road
The whole of Lennons 'Imagine' album. Particularly the title track and 'Woman.'
'WhenI'mSixty Four', because we would play it on the way home on long car journeys and Barry the boys and me would sing to it at the top of our voices, being Sixty four seemed a life time away back then, its slowly edging nearer now. I desperately want a couple of grandchildren on my knee in a rented house on the Isle of Wight, by then!
Oh, probably most of Sgt pepper.
'Maxwell's Hammer, because it has such a catchy cheerful tune, but the words are gruesome!
A new generation are learning to love Lennons music all over again, so really he lives on in his music and words.
As the song again almost say's "It was wonderful to have been there, It certainly was a thrill"
Today is the 25th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon one of the icon's of the last century. I grew up with Beatle mania, lived it, sang it, dreamed about them, cried tears of grief when I thought Paul was going to marry Jane Asher (well I was only about 12).
Pocket money was hoarded to save seven shillings and sixpence to buy a record, as they were called in those distant days. As I only got half a crown (two shillings and sixpence) a week pocket money this was no mean feat. (Thank goodness for Granddads)
The year Tracey was born we were staying in my grandparents flat for Christmas and I had a portable record player for Christmas. Well... I was made up, it was wonderful I also had the single 'She loves you' and I must of played it so many times I am sure I drove every-one completely mad with it. In later years Barry was to mend this treasured item many times for me, I even bought it to our first married home.
I tried to get Mum and Dad to name the new baby, Michelle like in the song, they almost did as Michelle was quite an unusual and exotic mane in those days. Tracey must be glad that she was not a 'shell' !
One of the first records I bought for myself was the EP 'Twist and shout' which also had 'A taste of Honey and 'There's a place' and 'Listen, do you want to know a secret'. I loved them all, and can still sing them all virtually word perfect, but probably not in tune :-) but my parents and Nana, who often stayed with us used to complain like mad about Twist and Shout as rock and roll was considered 'devil' music.
I was completely besotted with Paul as most girls were, those big brown puppy eyes and the gorgeous hair that he would shake maniacally during a song. As for the way he screamed and did those kind of 'woo's' with John during chorus' would drive us into a frenzy.
I was watching the Royal Variety when John told the Audience 'Ok those in the cheap seats clap your hands and those in the front rattle your jewelry'
I remember being uncomfortable when he announced The Beatles 'were bigger than Jesus'. But hey, that was John.
John Lennon was of course a total genius, a visionary, eloquent a man of deep contrasts, peace loving, yet sometimes aggressive. Kind but often very cruel, Thoughtful, but outspoken In fact a very human man with all the foilbles of most of us.
He had a very sad childhood really, bought up by his beloved auntie Mimi who led him to believe his Mother lived hundreds of miles away when really she lived close by. He found her again when he was twelve and it was she who taught him to play the guitar. Sadly by the time he was sixteen she was killed in a traffic accident. How tragic for him.
John lived life through his songs particularly in the later years. 'Watching the wheels go round' written while he was a bored house husband and had not written anything for about five years.
'How do you Sleep at Night' was a very vitriolic dig at Paul after the split. It must of been very hurtful for Paul. It is also claimed it is about his withdrawal from drugs at the time as well.
'Mind games' written during his short separation from Yoko, and so it goes on.
He had a comment for every world event in a song. Mind you we all hated Yoko Ono, we were convinced she split the Beatles. I think now it was Johns complete obsession with Yoko that split the Beatles! It was time, they all had to move on and grow, no boy band sticks together for many years. They certainly brought a bit of magic into our lives at the time.
favorite Beatle or Lennon tracks for me:
In My life.
This Boy.
Twist and shout
She's leaving home
Help
Lady Maddonna
The Long and Winding Road
The whole of Lennons 'Imagine' album. Particularly the title track and 'Woman.'
'WhenI'mSixty Four', because we would play it on the way home on long car journeys and Barry the boys and me would sing to it at the top of our voices, being Sixty four seemed a life time away back then, its slowly edging nearer now. I desperately want a couple of grandchildren on my knee in a rented house on the Isle of Wight, by then!
Oh, probably most of Sgt pepper.
'Maxwell's Hammer, because it has such a catchy cheerful tune, but the words are gruesome!
A new generation are learning to love Lennons music all over again, so really he lives on in his music and words.
As the song again almost say's "It was wonderful to have been there, It certainly was a thrill"
Training the Owner.
Ta-shi decided last night that I was in much need of play training! Lets set the scene. In Ta-shi's little doggy world certain people have certain commitments towards him. I for one am most definitely the pack leader, Alpha Female or she who must be obeyed! I am responsible for feeding and that means which order in the animal hierarchy they get fed as well as the actual food part. I require the cats to be in a higher status in the pack from the dog for reasons of peace and tranquility! So they are fed first Ta-shi see's this and is ordered not to touch their food, this he accepts unless he thinks I am not looking of course! Before the cats, we are fed so he realizes that at the end of the day I am top dog and BJ second in command.
Now because I am top dog I am not really considered a playmate! This is BJ's purpose in Ta-shi's life. He is happy for games of fetch with the ball when out for a walk with me but that is about it.
Bj plays exciting rough games with Ta-shi and he just LOVES it. The problem has arisen because BJ is working away from home for months and months and so Ta-shi is missing out on both games and peanuts again only BJ provides these.
Well Dogger decided that as his pack playmate is no longer available at 9pm every evening he had better train another.
So.... at nine o'clock precisely last night he brings 'Ha ha' to me and sits at my feet. I am required to throw it hard so it makes the mad ha ha noise as it lands. This I do, he looks at me pathetically as if to say 'is the the best you can do' and just strolls to fetch it back. OK, I think I will throw it up the stairs, this he likes better and breaks into a trot. I remember then that he likes to be tickled and gently bashed with his toy before it is launched at great speed towards the bookshelf, if it lands on a shelf he takes great delight in trying to jump high enough to get it, or to practice his 'door shutting' technique in order to get BJ to get it down for him.
I can see he is a little more impressed with me now, so we repeat the game over, and over ,and over again! He eventually gets very excited when I manage to launch Ha Ha onto the very top of the bookcase and have to get a chair to retrieve it.
Next minute Ha ha is abandoned and he arrives at my feet with 'Monkey' this toy has very long arms and legs and is a 'shaking the prey' sort of toy.
Ta-shi says 'Ok you have got the hang of that one, lets see if you can manage this' So I am lectured by my small dog how to play a decent game of tug, I think he was impressed as I was allowed onto the hallowed Telly Tubby toy which tummy squeaks, you MUST squeak before you throw otherwise you get the look of disdain.
All this went on for an hour, but I think I have passed the training, I have to wait and see If he allows me to play tonight at nine!
Now because I am top dog I am not really considered a playmate! This is BJ's purpose in Ta-shi's life. He is happy for games of fetch with the ball when out for a walk with me but that is about it.
Bj plays exciting rough games with Ta-shi and he just LOVES it. The problem has arisen because BJ is working away from home for months and months and so Ta-shi is missing out on both games and peanuts again only BJ provides these.
Well Dogger decided that as his pack playmate is no longer available at 9pm every evening he had better train another.
So.... at nine o'clock precisely last night he brings 'Ha ha' to me and sits at my feet. I am required to throw it hard so it makes the mad ha ha noise as it lands. This I do, he looks at me pathetically as if to say 'is the the best you can do' and just strolls to fetch it back. OK, I think I will throw it up the stairs, this he likes better and breaks into a trot. I remember then that he likes to be tickled and gently bashed with his toy before it is launched at great speed towards the bookshelf, if it lands on a shelf he takes great delight in trying to jump high enough to get it, or to practice his 'door shutting' technique in order to get BJ to get it down for him.
I can see he is a little more impressed with me now, so we repeat the game over, and over ,and over again! He eventually gets very excited when I manage to launch Ha Ha onto the very top of the bookcase and have to get a chair to retrieve it.
Next minute Ha ha is abandoned and he arrives at my feet with 'Monkey' this toy has very long arms and legs and is a 'shaking the prey' sort of toy.
Ta-shi says 'Ok you have got the hang of that one, lets see if you can manage this' So I am lectured by my small dog how to play a decent game of tug, I think he was impressed as I was allowed onto the hallowed Telly Tubby toy which tummy squeaks, you MUST squeak before you throw otherwise you get the look of disdain.
All this went on for an hour, but I think I have passed the training, I have to wait and see If he allows me to play tonight at nine!
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Things Self help Books Never tell You
I came across an article in a magazine today that rather tickled my fancy! It is called 'Things Self Help Books never tell You', here are a few I thought particularly amusing.
* When you go on a diet, you will lose all the weight from your boobs before a single ounce goes of your thighs. (Actually I would not mind that scenario as I have a veritable bouncy castle for a bust, I also have very small feet as nothing grows in the shade.)
*Drinking 8 to ten glasses of water a day means you can never watch a film all the way through or sleep through the entire night. (Yep, tell me about that one)
*Eating only when your hungry is a habit we abandoned thousands of years ago- along with cave paintings and dragging one another home by the hair. ( Tell that to Gillian McKieth, the "I am so smug" 'You are What you Eat' author)
*Ignoring your inner critic is not a good idea after an entire bottle of wine and the first three chords of 'I Will Survive'. ( not really likely to happen to me, unless I have to hum of course)
*It's not a good idea to attempt body brushing in front of a mirror while naked, it looks as if you are dragging a fork through blancmange.
*Building up you confidence by starting conversations with people you do not know, will guarantee you a seat alone on the bus or train.
* Having your hair style changed radically will make your children laugh and you cry for a week ( I have to say I can relate to this one, except my hair made ME laugh for a week)
* Finding your inner child is healing... Unless she turns out to be the spoilt brattish she devil who would send supernanny into retirement.
*If you have time to fold your knickers neatly into drawer dividers, you need to get out more. (My knicker drawer resembles a jumble sale after the hoards have rummaged through it)
* Some stress is actually good for you, it can be energising and creative. (Totally agree with this, I am at my best under a bit of pressure. )
These were taken from January's issue of Good Housekeeping.
* When you go on a diet, you will lose all the weight from your boobs before a single ounce goes of your thighs. (Actually I would not mind that scenario as I have a veritable bouncy castle for a bust, I also have very small feet as nothing grows in the shade.)
*Drinking 8 to ten glasses of water a day means you can never watch a film all the way through or sleep through the entire night. (Yep, tell me about that one)
*Eating only when your hungry is a habit we abandoned thousands of years ago- along with cave paintings and dragging one another home by the hair. ( Tell that to Gillian McKieth, the "I am so smug" 'You are What you Eat' author)
*Ignoring your inner critic is not a good idea after an entire bottle of wine and the first three chords of 'I Will Survive'. ( not really likely to happen to me, unless I have to hum of course)
*It's not a good idea to attempt body brushing in front of a mirror while naked, it looks as if you are dragging a fork through blancmange.
*Building up you confidence by starting conversations with people you do not know, will guarantee you a seat alone on the bus or train.
* Having your hair style changed radically will make your children laugh and you cry for a week ( I have to say I can relate to this one, except my hair made ME laugh for a week)
* Finding your inner child is healing... Unless she turns out to be the spoilt brattish she devil who would send supernanny into retirement.
*If you have time to fold your knickers neatly into drawer dividers, you need to get out more. (My knicker drawer resembles a jumble sale after the hoards have rummaged through it)
* Some stress is actually good for you, it can be energising and creative. (Totally agree with this, I am at my best under a bit of pressure. )
These were taken from January's issue of Good Housekeeping.
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