"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day".
We wish you a very happy and peaceful new year.
Marie & John xx
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Happy New Year
"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day".
We wish you a very happy and peaceful new year.
Marie & John xx
Friday, December 25, 2015
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Thankful Villages and Thankful Years
Starin' over the sandbags,
Sick of the 'ole damn thing;
Firin' to keep meself awake,
'Earing the bullets sing.
Dreamin' 'ere by the sandbags
Of a day then war will cease,
When 'Ans and Fritz and Bill and me
Will clink our mugs in fraternity,
And the Brotherhood of Labour will be
The Brotherhood of Peace.
from A Song Of The Sandbags by Robert Service
Sick of the 'ole damn thing;
Firin' to keep meself awake,
'Earing the bullets sing.
Dreamin' 'ere by the sandbags
Of a day then war will cease,
When 'Ans and Fritz and Bill and me
Will clink our mugs in fraternity,
And the Brotherhood of Labour will be
The Brotherhood of Peace.
from A Song Of The Sandbags by Robert Service
In the
1930's Arthur Mee wrote his series of guides, The
Kings England. The
introductory volume, Enchanted
Land introduced
the term Thankful
Village.
Arthur identified 32 villages that had no war memorial to the First
World War (or The Great War as it was then known) because every man
sent to war returned home.
More
recent research has led to the villages being reclassified as civil
parishes, and the number increased to 53. In my part of the world
only Hunstanworth in County Durham and Meldon in Northumbria are
listed. Some argue that Meldon is slightly doubtful as one resident
emigrated, and fought and died with the Australian army.
Of
the 53, 14 are doubly thankful, having no dead from the Second World
War. To put this in perspective, in France, Thierville is the only
such place, having lost no-one in either world war, and no-one in the
Franco Prussian war either.
So
now we've considered thankful villages, can we have thankful years.
Obviously
not during wars, but what of the years since. The latest figures
available from from November 2014, and at that time there had been
7,145 deaths on operational service in what are termed medal
earning theatres since the end of the Second World War.
Sadly
there has been just one year with no loss of life, 1968. There were
just two in 1961, and six in 2014.
Tuesday, July 07, 2015
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Six o’clock seagull
One of the disadvantages of living in a terrace house, especially one with no garden, is you don’t see much wildlife. Ok, that’s not strictly true. A few years ago on the way back from the pub we did rescue a hedgehog and a frog from becoming road kill, but that’s about it.
The only birds we get are pigeons, whose ancestors stayed instead of moving house with the guy who kept them, and seagulls.
A few weeks ago we were in the kitchen preparing dinner when I noticed out of the window a seagull sitting on the shed roof. It had a good peer through the window to see what we were doing then flew off.
The next day again whilst we were in the kitchen preparing dinner, Mr Seagull (we have no idea if it’s a male or female so we just called it a he) returned, had another good stare through the window then flew off.
Guess what happened the next day, and the one after that, and the one after that too. For about two weeks the same thing happened and at the same time of day too.
Come six o’clock Mr Seagull would arrive, have a good look though the kitchen window, then 15 minutes later fly off.
As it was around nest making time we think he might have wanted to get away from Mrs Seagull as sometimes he would settle down for a quick nap before flying off.
Marie
The only birds we get are pigeons, whose ancestors stayed instead of moving house with the guy who kept them, and seagulls.
A few weeks ago we were in the kitchen preparing dinner when I noticed out of the window a seagull sitting on the shed roof. It had a good peer through the window to see what we were doing then flew off.
The next day again whilst we were in the kitchen preparing dinner, Mr Seagull (we have no idea if it’s a male or female so we just called it a he) returned, had another good stare through the window then flew off.
Guess what happened the next day, and the one after that, and the one after that too. For about two weeks the same thing happened and at the same time of day too.
Come six o’clock Mr Seagull would arrive, have a good look though the kitchen window, then 15 minutes later fly off.
As it was around nest making time we think he might have wanted to get away from Mrs Seagull as sometimes he would settle down for a quick nap before flying off.
Marie
Friday, June 12, 2015
The wander returns
I am SO sorry for not blogging these past – coughs – months.
Regular readers – if we have any left !! – will be sick of us sounding like a broken record (for those too young to know what a ‘record’ was, it was something we geriatrics – well not strictly me as I used to listen to cassettes instead – used to listen to music. It was large, round, had groves and made of plastic) by keeping saying ‘we’re going to blog more often’ etc, etc.
In our defence, we’ve never really led exciting lives, and it would seem that since John took early retirement from work, we’re like little hermits.
Back in January (or two postings ago.....) I blogged my wish/want list (I don’t do new year resolutions) and as we’re nearly half way through the year I thought I’d give an update on how things have progressed.
Four out of 12 isn’t too bad. Plus one of those, the Euro lottery, is really out of my hands.
I have as well been quite busy this year with something else which I will tell you later. Watch this space....
Marie
Regular readers – if we have any left !! – will be sick of us sounding like a broken record (for those too young to know what a ‘record’ was, it was something we geriatrics – well not strictly me as I used to listen to cassettes instead – used to listen to music. It was large, round, had groves and made of plastic) by keeping saying ‘we’re going to blog more often’ etc, etc.
In our defence, we’ve never really led exciting lives, and it would seem that since John took early retirement from work, we’re like little hermits.
Back in January (or two postings ago.....) I blogged my wish/want list (I don’t do new year resolutions) and as we’re nearly half way through the year I thought I’d give an update on how things have progressed.
- Win the Euro lottery. £10m would be nice but anything over £50m would be preferable.... Still waiting.
- Make a start on reading through the massive collection of books I’ve accumulated both in hard copy and on my kindle. My kindle library is a couple of books lighter
- Loose some more weight. 10lb lost since July but probably put that back on over Christmas!!! Whilst I don’t know the exact figure in lbs & oz’s, I’ve lost a good couple of inches from my waist and gone down nearly two jeans sizes.
- Get back to playing the piano and the clarinet. Sadly not yet.
- Spend less time on my computer. I can easily loose an hour just flitting through blogs and pinterest. That mission accomplished.
- Get back to my writing. Novel two and the second draft of novel one needs finishing. Whilst I haven’t done any actual writing I’ve been familiarising myself with the plot and characters again in readiness to start writing again.
- Finish off the two cross stitch patterns as there’s another nine still to do. Still not finished but I have been doing some work on them. In my defence they are both large projects and one of them is on black fabric so I can only sew it in good day light....
- Stop neglecting my blogs. I think you can guess this one !!!!
- Finish off my knitted cable jumper before I start on yet more knitting projects. Although I haven’t finished it, I have nearly completed the back.
- Finish reading the gigantic stack of magazines that’s been piling up for months. Only two magazines to go !!!!!
- Spend less time in my sewing room – other rooms in the house are available... Done.
- Finish off building the four foot model of the Queen Mary II cruise ship. Sadly the ship is still in dry dock...
Four out of 12 isn’t too bad. Plus one of those, the Euro lottery, is really out of my hands.
I have as well been quite busy this year with something else which I will tell you later. Watch this space....
Marie
Friday, January 16, 2015
Good customer service
Now that John’s retired there's no need for us to do our weekly grocery shop at Morrisons on an evening.
So we've changed it to during the day. There is though one small problem. Morrisons is a no-go area during the day. It’s full of pensioners taking advantage of the store being on the sea front so they use it as a day out; parking is a nightmare and you’re forever having to fight your way around the little old dears slumped over their trolleys as they stop and look at every single item on the shelves.
Thankfully two new large Sainsburys and Tesco’s opened recently so we gave them both a try. Tesco had the edge on Sainsburys so we decided to start shop there.
Just before Christmas we had an encounter with a member of staff from the fruit and veg department who has the honour of being one of the rudest people I have ever met.
I take no prisoners when it comes to bad customer service so it was time to unleash the customer from hell.
A ‘its way out of the envelope’ letter was duly sent to Tesco's CEO – why go to the bottom when you can go to the top....
Early last week I received a reply. They were extremely apologetic; the member of staff in question had been reprimanded for their behaviour and enclosed was £30 gift card.
Yesterday when we were at the checkout the member of staff, along with the fruit and veg manager, came over and they both apologised in person.
Well done Tesco. I have nothing but praise for the way in which they handled my complaint. It’s a pity more business couldn’t follow their example.
Marie
PS they've got Easter eggs in all ready!!!!
So we've changed it to during the day. There is though one small problem. Morrisons is a no-go area during the day. It’s full of pensioners taking advantage of the store being on the sea front so they use it as a day out; parking is a nightmare and you’re forever having to fight your way around the little old dears slumped over their trolleys as they stop and look at every single item on the shelves.
Thankfully two new large Sainsburys and Tesco’s opened recently so we gave them both a try. Tesco had the edge on Sainsburys so we decided to start shop there.
Just before Christmas we had an encounter with a member of staff from the fruit and veg department who has the honour of being one of the rudest people I have ever met.
I take no prisoners when it comes to bad customer service so it was time to unleash the customer from hell.
A ‘its way out of the envelope’ letter was duly sent to Tesco's CEO – why go to the bottom when you can go to the top....
Early last week I received a reply. They were extremely apologetic; the member of staff in question had been reprimanded for their behaviour and enclosed was £30 gift card.
Yesterday when we were at the checkout the member of staff, along with the fruit and veg manager, came over and they both apologised in person.
Well done Tesco. I have nothing but praise for the way in which they handled my complaint. It’s a pity more business couldn’t follow their example.
Marie
PS they've got Easter eggs in all ready!!!!
Sunday, January 04, 2015
New Year resolutions – sort of
At this time of year it’s customary to produce a ‘New Year’s resolutions list’. I don’t ‘do’ resolutions so instead here is my wish/want list.
Looks like I’m in for a busy year !!!!
Marie
- Win the Euro lottery. £10m would be nice but anything over £50m would be preferable....
- Make a start on reading through the massive collection of books I’ve accumulated both in hard copy and on my kindle.
- Loose some more weight. 10lb lost since July but probably put that back on over Christmas!!!
- Get back to playing the piano and the clarinet.
- Spend less time on my computer. I can easily loose an hour just flitting through blogs and pinterest.
- Get back to my writing. Novel two and the second draft of novel one needs finishing.
- Finish off the two cross stitch patterns as there’s another nine still to do.
- Stop neglecting my blogs.
- Finish off my knitted cable jumper before I start on yet more knitting projects.
- Finish reading the gigantic stack of magazines that’s been piling up for months.
- Spend less time in my sewing room – other rooms in the house are available...
- Finish off building the four foot model of the Queen Mary II cruise ship.
Looks like I’m in for a busy year !!!!
Marie
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