We are alive!!! (Part 4)

Hello blog readers! Part 4 and probably final part of my flurry of updates.

A month or so ago my mum and I took my younger brothers three kids to Whirlow Hall Farm ( Click HERE for a link!) sheering day. We parked in the field, and walked down to the farm to watch the sheering. We also spent some time making some sheep - well Leo tried the eyes, and Martha managed to make a sheep. I made one too, but it was a bit crazy as you will see by the photos!! We had a lovely time :-)





Crazy Leo :-)

Can you tell which one I made?

Douglas modelling the disaster sheep when it got home :-D The sheep is now on his desk at work lol!!


A few weeks ago, Douglas and I decided to get our horrible patio sorted out. The concrete lintel holding it all in was coming adrift, and it was a mess of weeds and uneven slabs - it was unusable and a mess!!

My parents knew a couple of young men - Richard and Alistair - who had fairly recently set up a gardening business, so after they had come round and had a chat, we decided to let them tackle their very first patio ever! They set a price, and promised that if it took longer they wouldn't charge as it was a learning process for them!!

Sadly I can only find one before photo, but I have more during and after photos!

This shows part of the patio before the lean-to got Freegled. It shows what a mess it was!



During..............

The guys took all the weeds out, removed all the old slabs, and dug the soil into the middle away from the area where the wall had fallen down, and away from the concrete lintel running parallel to the lawn, which needed re setting back into place.



They used a load of old bricks that were hanging around in the garden to make a good solid wall at the side of the path. They cleaned them all, and then created the wall, keeping the interesting ones for the top, so we can see where they were made - many from local brick factories that no longer exist.

This is the finished article in the evening sunlight :-)





The last one is Billy, who has given it his Royal seal of approval. We are very happy with it too!


If you live in the Sheffield area, and you would like a quote from Richard and Alistair, put a note on here and I will email you Richards mobile number :-) They are very hard workers, and you can see what a lovely job they made of their very first patio!!!

We are alive!!! (Part 3)

A few weeks ago, my boss at work had some spare tickets to go see Billy Elliot in London, and very kindly gave them to me!!

I asked Douglas if he wanted to go, got a resounding NO, asked my mum who was going down to London that weekend to see a friend.. again got a no... so I thought again, and contacted my friend Eliese who was delighted!!

We decided to make a day of it, and set off quite early, courtesy of a Douglas taxi. Eliese had not been down to London for ages, so I decided we would go and explore Camden Lock. We had a great time looking at all the strange clothes and other items for sale, as well as some very strange people!! Here are some of the photos I took.






This is the actual Lock! We sat and had a drink in a lovely cafe.


We got the tube, and got to the Theatre with a bit of time to spare.. this is Eliese looking excited (we both were) before we went in.



The show was amazing, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. It was different from the film, but a jolly good stage show!!

After a curry at a nearby restaurant, we got the train home, ending up back at Sheffield Railway station at about 11pm! Douglas wasnt feeling well, so we got a taxi back to mine, then I drove Eliese the 5 mins up several hills back to her place. I went home, and collapsed into bed exhausted but very happy!

We are alive!!! (Part 2)

We took Loonie and Amy to Bristol zoo whilst in the area. We had a great day looking at all sorts of animals - I think this one was the most fierce!



After the zoo, and dropping off Loonie and Amy, we went to Clifton (quite a posh bit of Bristol) and had a really lovely curry! Here I am having a veggie Thali - little portions of a few different curries! It made a good end to the day.


We also spent a day in Bath, having treated ourselves to a day at Bath Spa which was glorious. We each had an hour long massage, followed by four hours of the two pools and four steam rooms, broken by a glorious lunch in the Spas restaurant! This view is the roof top pool. The water is naturally warm, so sitting in it whilst feeling the cold (ish) air flow by and looking out at Bath is wonderful!!




On the day of the Royal Wedding, I watched the pomp and ceremony on TV in our holiday cottage whilst Douglas did his best not to :-)

We decided to leave a day early, because we had been invited up to Lawn Road, Fishponds, where we used to live. There is a park opposite our old house, and some of our ex-neighbours had organised a party! It was very strange to be back, but lovely to catch up with some of our old friends :-)

This photo is taken from the back of the church, looking onto our old house, and those of our ex-neighbours.


Loads of people turned up, we all brought food which was shared between all :-)




We drove back to Sheffield, got home at about ten, much to the joy of our cats who had missed us. We had a lovely holiday, but oh boy it was great to get back to our own bed!!

We are alive!!! (Part 1)

Hello my lovely bloggers!

I think a big update is in order :-)

Lets start with some photos of our "summer" holiday at Easter in the west country. We stayed in a little cottage near Wells, so we were close to Bristol to visit friends and mooch round Glastonbury and Bath once again!

This is the Grand Hotel on Broad Street, Bristol. Its just up a bit from where we used to work, and also where my parents had their wedding reception many years! We were lucky to have such lovely weather for our weeks holiday :-)

Parts of Bristol have changed greatly since we lived there. There is a huge shiny new shopping mall there, which has very sadly sucked life out of the rest of of the center of town centre. The once busy Galleries mall looked like a ghostly shell.. such a shame.



One reason we went to Bristol was to meet up with our friend Leonie, who we have known for years.... Im her daughters Odd Mother (no, not God mother) We met up in the new posh mall, and had a very expensive lunch (Not fab food either!) The photo below shows Leonie looking like her nickname, Loonie, and Douglas with his "beetle wing" clip on sunglasses.




I think Amy enjoyed her lunch more than we did!!


The place we stayed was in a village just outside Wells. It was an old dairy, converted into a little flat with a bedroom, bathroom, galley kitchen and living/diner area. It was a lovely place in a quiet area, but the bed was very soft and we didnt sleep well - its one of the perils of having a holiday, you can't take your bed with you!!

This is Douglas chilling in the living area.

Auntie Sitting

Last week my step Uncle Eddie was burried. My Auntie Lizzie had spent very many years looking after him - particularly recently when she spent many many hours by his side in a nursing home.

My parents have brought her to their home for a couple of weeks rest and recouperation.

Yesterday, Saturday, Douglas and I took Lizzie out for the afternoon. We packed her into our car, wheelchair in the back and took her out to lunch at The Old Train Station, Hassop. We had a very nice lunch before heading down to Bakewell.




We had a lovely walk round the town, stopping at various shops, and having a look round a craft fair. The nicest bit was walking through a park with highly coloured tulips in!



Lizzie very kindly gave us some money for some plants, so we got some lobelia and a couple of other things.. and a jar of lemon curd, which Douglas will enjoy for breakfast!

Friday 8th April. Kid Sitting Day

Our Nephews and Neice have started their Easter holidays, and as their parents have still been working this week, Douglas and I booked a day off to "Kid sit" (They are too big to say "Babysitting" any more!)I went and collected them at about 8am, just before Thos and KT left for work.

To start the day off, all three kids came out into the garden and took turns mowing the lawn which they really enjoyed. We put the table and chairs back on the lawn and potted up some plants. Its great to be able to teach them how to fill soil in round a plant, bed it down with your finger tips and water it.

The weather was warm and sunny all day, and the kids had a great time in the garden, and although the lawn cutting wasnt perfect, the kids had fun, and it is good enough until next time it has to be cut.

My parents phoned to say they were popping round to visit, so we put our swimming and cinema plans on hold for a while. Martha helped me make a loaf - we have a breadmaker so its a case of throwing everything into the pan and pushing a button :-)

Leo requested to have a go at World of Warcraft - a computer game, and Martha watched "Alice" on Ds computer. Shes busy thinking about her startting role as the Red Queen in next terms school play. Leo is going to be the Mad Hatter but as yet, is not quite so excited as his sister.Carlo watched "Up" (A Film) so all was peaceful.

Having two kids aged 11, and one aged 6 to entertain can be a little difficult at times, as the little one has different likes and dislikes, but generally they all get on well.

The parents came round with their guests, then when they had gone, we had lunch.

After lunch we consumed nearly all of the amazingly tasty still warm loaf Martha and I made. Lamb/cheese and marmite sandwiches were consumed, then we went swimming. The pool was almost empty which was great! We played with an inflatable world I found ages ago, and Carlo ventured out into the swimmers only section, which was a first for us.

I took this after swimming - its a bit blurry but still a sweet photo!

For those of you wanting to know, Top left, Douglas, bottom left Carlo, Middle is Martha and far right Leo! Leo and Martha are twins aged 11, Carlo is 6 and Douglas.. well his mental age is normally about 5 lol!!

Carlo

As they are getting older, taking them swimming is getting easier.. I think we will be quite sad when they reach the point when they are old enough to go on their own, but thats a few years off yet :-)

We got back home at about 3pm, I had a sleep as I wasnt feeling very well, then at about 4 we took them home.

Once we dropped the kids off, we went into town and had an early tea at Wagamammas, which was delicious. They do Japanese noodle dishes, Im particularly fond of their Sweet chilli veg and tofu noodles (YUM) so I had that, and Douglas had some strange chicken dish. You can see my meal in the photo below.. and how much I enjoyed it by the other photo!

The plate of food magically seemed to vanish! not sure where :-D

Unusually for us, we were going to a concert that evening with Thos and KT, but we were quite early, so we went and sat in the Peace Gardens - a lovely public area with a fountain that kids (and bigger kids) can play in.

The kids enjoying getting wet, and the teenagers enjoying pulling their friends into the water, and coming out totally soaked. I hope they dried out before going home!!

At 7, we met up with my Thos and KT to go to see Karine Polwart, a Scottish folk singer with a really beautiful voice.

The venue was a not terribly pleasant nightclub called The Plug. As Karines brother (who was touring with her) said, if you stand still on the floor for too long you might get stuck there due to the sticky floor! (Far too many drink spills, and no cleaning had caused this)

Im glad to say that despite the lousy venue and the disgusting cider, Karines songs and the atmosphere were great. I met 7 members of my choir there, and one of them had somehow requested a song. Karine said that "she heard there was a choir in the house tonight" and welcomed them on stage!! About 4 of our group went up, and thoroughly enjoyed a little chance to share the glory! lol. (I was quite happy to watch from the floor)

We had a lovely evening,

Sucker Punch the Movie and Mouse problems!

Douglas and I went to the movies this evening to see Sucker Punch - the term means an unexpected punch, or blow, and (without giving the ending away) its truely delivered at the end of the film.

Sucker Punch was very exciting. Its based on the story of a girl who gets put into a lunatic asylum, who copes by imagining that its a bordello, and then copes with that by going into a fantasy world on a Quest (complete with Japanese style fighting, monsters, helicopters and a smattering of dragons!) as part of trying to escape the asylum/bordello

If you enjoyed the film Inception, and you like Manga Action films, you will enjoy this psychological thriller.

Our evening out was spoilt a little by a rude man behind us, whose mobile rang TWICE during the film, and both times he answered it and had a conversation! ARRGGHHH! Surely the amusing "Orange Mobile" adverts about annoying mobile phones are clear enough?

********

We got back at about 6.30pm, Lilly was providing ornamentation to our cat stand ( a sawn off tree my dad made into a glorified scratching post for them) and Billy was draped over the back of the armchair. Both were looking out the front window waiting for us to return and their dinner to be provided, which of course it duly was.

I came up to our office shortly after coming home, and got on with some "homework" I had to do.
I'm on a development course at work, and last session we looked at managing ourselves and our workloads, and how we could improve ourselves.

Part way through this, Douglas called and asked me to come down.. he was just watching his favouite movie, the Wicker Man (the 1973 version, not the travesty released a couple of years ago) when a mouse scuttled past in front of the fire place!!

Douglas is not best keen on mice, so we got Lilly (she probably brought it in to start with) to go downstairs, but she was more interested in eating some left overs from her dinner. The mouse was cowering behind the TV, so I got a pint glass and a box lid, and crawled behind the Telly and very gently captured the unwelcome visitor, put the lid over the top as mice are talented jumpers, showed Douglas (not Lilly) and took it outside.

This is about the third or fourth mouse we have been "gifted" by the cats recently. Yesterdays offering came in almost dead, and was deposited into one of my shoes!! We remove these "gifts" praise the cats and hope for no more :-D

Dear pussies!

******** Update the next morning *********

After the cats had enjoyed their breakfast, they showed great interest in our downstairs loo, so I moved a few things in there and Lo and behold! The mouse was hiding there. I got my trusty pint glass and plastic lid, went into the loo and shut the door, and moments later I had the unwelcome visitor safely trapped. The mouse has now been interrogated, cautioned (it wasnt his fault after all) and extradited to his own country once more.

How long now until the next one???