Sunday, April 29, 2007

Wedding anniversary

Today is our 12th wedding anniversary. We’re not doing anything special for the occasion. Been there, done that and bought the t-shirt… However we will be having a nice bottle of wine tonight in celebration.

Several years ago when we were still in the ‘let’s buy each other presents for our anniversary’, a package arrived for me from Harrods – yes thee Harrods ! ! !

As we hadn’t exchanged gifts I was really excited as to what John had bought me.

On opening it I found two eye wateringly expensive – think three figure sums each – anti-wrinkle creams ! ! !

Ok, I know I have more grey hairs and wrinkles than John but as I hadn’t yet reached 30, I was not amused…

Thankfully, for John’s sake, it had been sent to me in error. It certainly gave the ladies in Harrods a good laugh when I rang to explain what had happened.

Marie

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Slip sliding away

That’s exactly what I did in Morrisons tonight.

One minute I was walking next to John and the next I was hanging onto the shopping trolley for dear life trying to keep my balance – and failing – so ended up a heap on the floor…

Nothing unusual in me falling over, but this time it wasn’t my fault. Sticky had slipped on something slippy on the floor.

As soon as it happened one of the floor managers came over and asked if I was ok. There didn’t seem to be any broken bones so I said I was, but pointed out that it had happened because of the slippy floor so he promised to get it cleaned up.

I think I’ll suffer for it tomorrow though as my knee and in particularly my hand, are a bit sore.

Marie

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

It’s Bloggers fault

I said on Sunday I’d let you know on Monday how the patients are in the Harper hospital. I did try – honestly but blogger has been so slow for the past couple of days that it keeps timing itself out.

Anyway here’s what I wrote on Monday and Tuesday.

Monday:
Today John was over the worse. He was still feeling a little under the weather but was much better than Sunday. I on the other hand feel terrible.

I started off the day ok then gradually went down hill. To make things worse my pains have decided to come out in sympathy too…

Tuesday:
Well, I’m feeling how John was yesterday though my throat is still a little sore and I’ve now got a cold.

I do however wish someone though will tell my pains I’m feeling better ! ! !

Now for today:
We’re both keeping each other wake at night coughing and sneezing and going through a nation of hankies.

I’m starting to look like Rudolph as my nose is constantly smothered in Vaseline to try and stop cold sores from appearing.

So there you have it. Bang up-to-date. Was it worth waiting for – I doubt it ! ! !

Marie

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Wot no blog

Sorry for the lack of blogs but last week wasn’t that exciting, hence nothing to report.

However I can report that today John isn’t feeling so good (man flu..) so is in bed at the moment.

He’s passed his lergy on to me so my throat is pretty sore. If that wasn’t enough I’ve set my neck off* so it’s rather painful whenever I move.

More updates from the Harper Hospital tomorrow.

Marie

* 10 years ago I sprained my neck (yes it is possible…) and ever since then I get flair ups.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Sea View

We’re having a party in a few weeks time, and several of our friends are staying at a guest house close to the sea front. It’s actually next door to the house where I lived when I was five.



As we were in the area yesterday we took a picture so folks can see what it looks like. I would have included Marie in the picture but seeing as she has a lovely black eye we decided it wouldn’t be a good idea. Don't worry - I haven't been hitting her. It's just a cold sore in an unfortunate position ...



We also took a picture of the sea view, but as you can see it was really rather disappointing. Yesterday was a bit foggy. Good job they don’t call it the “Sea View Guesthouse”.


Here’s a picture of the view when it’s not foggy.

Not much else to report from the Bogof household. Just looking forward to seeing everyone next month.

John

Thursday, April 12, 2007

New car

I mentioned on last week that I had ordered a new Nissan Note.

With the exception of my two mini’s, all the cars I’ve had have been unexpected choices.

The first was the Fiat Punto. I was looking for a car to replace my second mini. I loved my mini but wanted something a little bit bigger. I needed some inspiration so we went down to the Motor show at the NEC. We visited the various stands and there were a couple I liked – can’t remember which ones they were though…

On our way out we had to pass the Fiat stand and as I’d dismissed them completely, hadn’t bothered looking at them first time round. I’m not sure if I wanted a rest for a few minutes* so we ended up sitting inside a Punto. Everything felt right about it – and it was an automatic. I just knew I had to have it.

Three years later and we were back at the NEC looking for a replacement for the Punto. Fiat had brought out a new version of the Punto and as I’d liked the old one was expecting that one to be my next car. It was awful ! ! ! I did take a fancy to the Daihatsu Terios but it wouldn’t fit in my garage…. However I did like the Peugeot 206 so that became car number four.

When I went looking for car number five I needed something bigger than the 206. We were now organising conferences so needed a car with a large boot. Plus because of my dad’s illness I needed a car big enough to fit a wheelchair in. The three on the short list were the Ford Escort and Fusion and the Vauxhall Astra. So what did I get – a Nissan Almera…

So now we come to car number six. The short list for that was the Citroen C4, the Mazda 3 and at a push the Nissan Note. I knew the Mazda and the Note had the boot space we needed but the Mazda was a bit expensive and the Note, well it’s not the most exciting car to look at…

So that just left the Citroen and if I’m honest that was the car I wanted. It had all the necessary boot space and looked very stylish inside. I really wanted to like the car, even if it did take me 10 minutes to find a comfortable seating position, but there was something not right about it. Reluctantly it was crossed off the list.

As the Citroen dealer is just opposite Nissan we thought we may as well have a quick look at the Note to discount it completely. The boot space was huge, much bigger than all the others. It had more toys than the Citroen and it only took me a couple of clicks and I got the seating position perfect. I had found my next car.

Ok there was one small thing that could have been a deal breaker – they don’t do the colour green… I alternate between blue and green cars and this one should have been green.

Cars seven and eight will have to be green ! ! ! !

Marie

* anyone who have been to the NEC will know there aren’t a lot of seats

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

The best laid plans

About two weeks ago ‘Barbi’ from Silversea rang to say that next years cruise details had been published.

Saturday was the first chance we had to do some serious looking and one in particular stood out. ‘Barcelona to Rome’ on 29th May 2008 and one of the places it was calling off at was Malta.

They also have a page of special deals for this year and one of them ‘Rome to Monaco’ on 8th June was just too tempting not to do anything about.

On the cruise last year one of the passengers mentioned a couple of cruise companies which specialise in late bookings so I checked out their websites.

Literally less than 10 seconds after I’d pressed submit on the email enquiry form, ‘Helen’ rang me. She needed to contact Silversea so would get back to me on Tuesday.

On Tuesday after several phone calls from Helen and to BA, our cruise was looking very unlikely. To cut a very long story short, BA have stopped flying from Newcastle to Gatwick so this has caused us no end of problems.

Helen, bless her, tried every way possible to get us flights using other airlines or from flying from Heathrow but unfortunately she couldn’t find anything that fitted in with the ships timetable. So rather disappointingly we shall not be going cruising on 8th June.

However I can tell you that after several phone calls and email again from Helen, she has got us a great deal for the cruise on 29th May 2008.

Malta here we come…

Marie

Monday, April 09, 2007

Defeated

At Christmas we got loads of chocolate and like last year we couldn’t eat it all so decided to stash it away until Easter.

Easter has come (and nearly gone…) and it’s still uneaten.

Yes I know we have failed in our duty and feel very ashamed.

In our defence it was the banned weekend* and we had been given an Easter egg from my mam and it would be so ungracious if we didn’t eat it straight way.

So sadly the chocolate (and the Easter fruit cake I baked) have defeated us. However all is not lost as the cake will do for John’s birthday in July and the chocolate may get an outing at the next bank holiday.

Marie


* all the yummy food which isn’t allowed on our diet so we have them every bank holiday.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

The forgotten city

On Friday night when we went to get our Chinese takeaway we found part of Sea Road was closed due to a fire in one of the buildings.

We couldn’t see which building was on fire but as there were nine fire engines we guessed it must be the chip shop.

Yesterday morning we decided to be nosy so took the long way round to the post office. Sure enough it was the chip shop. The whole building, including the flat above were completely destroyed and the other premises in the block were closed due to smoke damage. There was a ‘lovely’ smell of burnt timber and fat hanging round the street.

It turns out that the fire was started by the hot fat and customers and staff had to flee the building. It was the front page and pages two and three of the Sunderland Echo.

However it never made it onto the local news or teletex. You see Sunderland, even though it’s the biggest city in the North East which does surprise a lot of people, always gets forgotten about. Had the fire started in Newcastle, that would have been a different matter.

It really does annoy us. There’s more to life in the North East then just the Tyne….

Marie

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

The Brethren and their Event

Now finally it came about that Marie and John didst pack up their belongings and travel to the land of Rezidor wherein resides the Park Inn. And the people of the Park Inn didst receive them with honour and they didst show Marie and John and the friends of Marie and John and the friends of the friends of Marie and John great kindness, even the fourteen of the Brethren who had been cast out unto the Ibis which is nearby.

And on the Thursday night some of the friends of Marie and John, including he that is named Phil didst make up the conference packs and they were amazed for they appeared to take up much more space than last year, for the bags were much bigger and there was much consternation for they feared that they would not fit in the office.

Now on Friday Marie and John didst set up their conference reception from whence Marie should greet the Brethren as they completed their great journeys to the land of Rezidor. And when the Brethren saw the hotel they were glad, for it was much better than the comments on the Ebookers website had told them.

Also on Friday the emissary of the tribe of Cosmic didst arrive and was taken to the place where the awards would be distributed and he was glad also. But when the rest of the tribe of Cosmic came they were troubled, for the room looked much smaller than they had first thought. And so it came to pass that they didst toil mightily all night to build their set.

Now while the tribe of Cosmic were striving to build their set, Chris, and Jenny, and Paul who is also called Gottle didst arrange for a quiz to question and confound the brethren, and the Brethren heard the quiz of Chris and Jenny and Paul who is also called Gottle and they were amazed, for it seemed to them to be a great and fitting entertainment, especially to those of the Brethren who didst win prizes of wine and chocolate.

And after many hours of discussions and imbibing, the Brethren went to bed and so ended the first night of the Event.

On the second day of the Event the Brethren didst learn much from the wise of their number who didst present certain seminars. And after this the Brethren didst eat lunch and then some of them didst attend a meeting. But some of the Brethren, being uninterested didst arrange for Paul who is also called Gottle to take them in the minibus to witness the football which is played nearby, and Paul who is also called Gottle and certain of the other of the Brethren didst take themselves to search for certain geocaches which were concealed nearby.

Finally near the end of the day, the elders of the Town of Northampton in which is the land of Rezidor didst come to visit the Brethren, and break bread (and four cheese tart with sweet pepper salsa, roast lamb with rosemary and sticky toffee pudding) with them and afterwards didst witness the result of the toil of the tribe of Cosmic and the distribution of awards the those of the Brethren who had won. And afterwards there was much rejoicing and so ended the second night of the Event.

Now the last day of the Event didst start later then the first or the second for all the brethren were afflicted with hangovers, but eventually some of the brethren didst go and visit Radio Nene Valley, and some didst ramble with Geoff and Amelia, and yet more didst attend a seminar with Nigel, one of the elders of the EC.

After this finally didst come the lunch of farewell where other elders of the EC, Paul and June gave thanks to Marie and John and their friends for arranging a most wondrous Event, and all were glad, even the fourteen of the Brethren who had been cast out to the Ibis which is next door. And after the brethren had left for their own lands, Marie and John were greatly tired and didst rest for the remainder of the third day.

Finally on the fourth day, Marie and John didst talk with the Elders of the Land of Rezidor, and they were glad, for the bill was less than they had feared, and agreement was reached. So Marie and John didst depart in peace for their own lands with great rejoicing.

The End

We’re back

Yes as you can see we’re back from Northampton conference. We had a wonderful weekend. The food was superb, the company fantastic, what more could you ask for…

I’m pleased to say that there were no problems with the ‘Brethren’. More details to follow.

The journey home was slightly longer than we expected. We left the hotel just after 2pm and didn’t arrive home until after 8.30pm. Junctions 26 – 28 of the M1 were closed so we had to find an alternative route and as everyone else had to do the same, the roads were rather busy.

Normal post conference tradition is to go to the Chinese for lunch on the Tuesday. However when we got there they were closed ! ! ! ! ! ! ! For some reason they have decided to close from 2nd – 14th April.

To say we were stunned would be an understatement. We had a look at the other eateries along the seafront but they either didn’t do lunch time openings or we didn’t fancy them. So we went to the Wessington pub instead.

Oh and while we were out I became the proud owner of a blue Nissan Note, taking delivery of it on 1st September…..

Marie