The BOGOF Blog

Recipe of the week – Captain Slow’s* chicken parcels

2012-02-12T11:02:00.001Z

The cooking in the slow cooker makes the chicken really moist. At the bottom of the recipe are what to do if you don't have a slow cooker.

Serves 2

2 chicken breasts, skinless and at a room temperature
¼ packet of stuffing mix
2 sheets of oiled kitchen foil

Add a little water to the dry stuffing mix. If it's too watery just add a bit more of the dry mix.

Open out the centre of the chicken breasts slightly with a knife, being careful not to cut right through the chicken.

Put the stuffing mix in the cavity you've just made in the chicken breast.

Close up the chicken so the stuffing is hidden. Don’t worry if some of the stuffing pop's out or the chicken won't close together

Put the breasts onto the middle of the greased foil, then bring together the two long ends of the foil till they meet and are level with each other. Fold down the long edges and keep doing this until the chicken is tightly wrapped.

Bring together the short edges of the foil to the middle of the chicken. This give you a handle to lift the hot chicken out of the cooker.

Cook in a slow cooker on Low for 8 hours.

Once the chicken is cooked lift it out of the slow cooker using the foil handles you made, then carefully, as the steam will come shooting out, open up the chicken parcel and put on a warmed plate.

Serve with vegetables and potatoes of your choice (I don't think chips will go very well with this though.....).

If you're baking potatoes in an conventional oven why not pop a couple of frozen mini Yorkshire puddings into the oven five minutes before the end of cooking.

As there's no gravy for this recipe, instant gravy granules are ideal for this. Just make up a ¼ pint and that should be more than enough for the two of you.

If you don’t have a slow cooker you can cook this in a conventional oven for 30 minutes at 180º c/Gas Mk 4/ Fan oven 160ºc.

Make sure that the chicken is completely cooked through. The chicken won’t be as tender done this way but it’ll still be nice dish.

* Captain Slow is what we call our slow cooker – yes I know we're sad.....

Recipe of the week – Lemon crunch cake

2012-02-05T10:50:00.001Z

A delicious syrupy cake with a crunchy lemon topping. You could also make this using oranges. Simply replace the lemon with the orange.

3oz self-raising flour
3oz caster sugar
3oz margarine
2 eggs (medium)
1 lemon grated

Topping:

3oz granulated sugar
Juice from one lemon

Line a 7 inch/18cm round cake tin with baking parchment or a non-stick liner (Lakeland sell them and they’re brilliant).

Pre-heat oven to 180º c/Gas Mk 4. Fan oven 160ºc

Sift the flour into a bowl then add the sugar, margarine and lemon rind.

Beat well until everything is combined and the mixture is smooth.

Pour the mixture into the cake tin then make a slight well in the centre of the cake. This will stop the centre from rising too much.

Bake for 40 – 45 minutes until golden brown. To check to see if it’s cooked gently press the surface of the cake with a finger. If it springs back it’s cooked.

Sprinkle the sugar all over the top of the hot cake then carefully spoon the lemon juice over the sugar making sure ever bit of sugar is covered.

Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin to allow the lemon topping to harden.

All the weights are in ‘old money’. If you want them in Metric, you’ll have to convert it yourself….

Recipe of the week – Burgers

2012-01-29T10:30:00.000Z

These are so quick and easy to make. They'll be great done the BBQ.

Serves 2

6oz mince
2 slices of bread
1 teaspoon of dried mixed herbs
Black pepper (to taste)
2 cheese slices
2 burger buns
Tomato ketchup and mustard (optional)

Put the bread into a food mixer and blitz until it’s turned into fine breadcrumbs.

Add the herbs and black pepper. Blitz again for a couple of seconds.

Add the mince and blitz again until everything is combined.

Divide the burger mince into two and form a burger shape. Put on a plate and place in the fridge for ½ hour.

Pre-heat the grill to high then once it's really hot, turn the heat down to medium and cook the burgers, turning them a couple of times, until they are thoroughly cooked or cooked to your liking.

Add the cheese slices to the burgers and return to the grill for a couple of minutes until the cheese has slightly melted.

After cutting the buns in half put a dollop of ketchup and mustard, if using, on each half. Add the burgers and enjoy.

You can also make the burgers using turkey mince. They taste great and are low in fat so you won't feel guilty about eating a burger......

All the weights are in ‘old money’. If you want them in Metric, you’ll have to convert it yourself….

Recipe of the week – Chicken wraps

2012-01-22T17:06:00.002Z

Extremely quick and so easy to make.

Serves 2

Cooked chicken (as much or as little as you like)
1 green pepper, de-seeded and cut into thin strips
1 red pepper, de-seeded and cut into thin strips
1 onion (white or red), cut into thin strips
Schwartz Fajita Powder
Teaspoon of oil
4 wraps

Heat the oil in a large frying over a medium heat. Put the chicken, peppers and onions into the pan and turn the heat up to medium high.

Cook for seven/10 minutes minutes, stirring occasionally. One minutes before the end of cooking shake over the Fajita powder. You’ll need about a dessert spoonful.

Heat the wraps in a microwave according to the instructions on the packet.

Spoon the mix into a warmed bowl and serve.

NHS time

2012-01-12T13:16:00.000Z

I had an appointment yesterday at 6.30pm to see my GP. It was just a review of some new painkillers I’d been taken.

The phone rang at five past six. It was the doctors surgery.

“Hi Marie. You have an appointment with Dr Blake today at 6.30pm”.

“That’s correct”, I replied.

“Unfortunately Dr Blake is running an hour and a half late”.

The surgery closes at 7.30pm.

“I can give you an appointment for Friday morning at 10.10am”.

“I’m sorry but that’s no good”, I said.

“Ok, how about ten to seven this evening….”

Try working that one out !!!!!!!!!

Recipe of the week – Tangy lemon sponge cake

2012-01-08T17:23:00.001Z

This cake is made in the same way as the ‘jam sponge, with a twist’.

The eggs, still in their shells, are weighed and whatever it says on the scales, you weigh out that amount of flour, butter and sugar.

So for a two egg cake mix if the two eggs weigh 4 and ¾ oz’s measure out 4 and ¾ oz’s of self-raising flour, caster sugar and butter/margarine. No matter what the eggs weigh always use the same weight for the flour, sugar and butter/margarine.

Two eggs
Self-raising flour
Caster sugar
Butter/margarine
1 level tea-spoon of baking powder
1 lemon, grated
Lemon curd
4 table-spoons of icing sugar
Juice of one lemon or Jiff lemon juice

Line two 7 inch/18cm round cake tin with baking parchment or non-stick liners (Lakeland sell them and they’re brilliant).

Pre-heat oven to 180º c/Gas Mk 4. Fan oven 160ºc

Weigh the eggs, still in their shells remember and whatever the eggs weigh, that’s the amount you’ll need for the flour, sugar and butter/margarine.

Put the sugar, butter/margarine and grated lemon into a bowl. Sift the flour along with the baking power into the bowl then add the two eggs.

Beat well until everything is combined and the mixture is smooth – to the point that it will drop off the spoon when you tap it against the side of the bowl.

Pour the mixture into the cake tins, trying to get the same amount in each tin (I weigh them to make sure). Make a slight well in the centre of each cake. This will stop the centre from rising too much.

Bake for 20 – 25 minutes. Try not to open the oven door during the cooking as this can stop the cakes from rising. If you think that they may be browning too much only open the door when you are past half way into the cooking time.

To check to see if the cakes are cook gently press the surface of the cake you’re your finger. If it springs back it’s cooked. You can also test it by using a skewer (or knitting needle or a piece of spaghetti). Pierce the centre of the cake and if it come out clean then it’s done.

Once the cakes are cool spread the lemon curd over one of the cakes. Try not to get the lemon curd too close to the edge as it will spread naturally to the edge when the other one is put on top of it.

Take the other cake and carefully put it on top off the lemon curd layer.

Sift the icing sugar into a bowl to get rid of any lumps. Add a little of the lemon juice or Jiff lemon juice and mix together carefully until the icing is slightly runny but is still quite thick in consistency.

Pour the icing into the centre of the cake and spread it out to the edges. Don’t worry if the icing runs over the sides. Wait until the icing has set before cutting into it.

All the weights are in ‘old money’. If you want them in Metric, you’ll have to convert it yourself….

David and Goliath

2012-01-07T17:59:00.000Z

One of the exercises I do at the gym is boxing. Normally it’s with Paul or Scott my personal trainers. However this morning Scott wasn’t in and Paul had to see to an induction, so John was asked if he would like to be my partner.

As I do boxing at home John is used to being my sparing partner so he was quite happy to help.

We were half way through our boxing session in the Kinesis room when a guy came into the room to do some weight training. We got chatting to him and he explained that he was a body builder.

I told him I was impressed with the amount of weights that he was lifting and he replied that he was impressed with my boxing.

“Come and be my sparing partner”, I asked him.
“Ok”, he said, so John handed him the sparing gloves.

After fifteen seconds of me punching the gloves I could see he was finding it uncomfortable.

“Are you ok”, I asked.
“Fine”, he lied.

Another fifteen seconds of me punching the gloves and his face was showing signs of distress.

“Are you sure you’re ok”, I asked, “if it’s hurting I can stop”.
“No, carry on”, he said, through gritted teeth.

A couple more seconds later.
“How long do you normally do this for”, he winced.
“Two minutes”, I said.
The pain on his face said it all….
“I can stop after one minute if you like”, I said.
“Yes pleased”, he pleaded.

“Ten seconds to go”, said John, who was watching the clock.
I always save the best till last so was really hitting the gloves hard.

“Stop”, said John.

“I can’t move my shoulders”, cried the bodybuilder, “my muscles have seized up”.

John had to help take off his gloves as he was in so much pain.

“For being such a small person you really have got some power in those arms of yours”, he said.

It just goes to show that whilst he may have huge muscles and can lift really heavy weights, I can out punch him any day !!!!

A grovelling apology

2012-01-05T09:59:00.000Z

Back in May when we went on our cruise we experienced Heathrow Airport’s ‘special assistance’ service.

John briefly mentioned some of the problems we’d had in May 20th blog ‘A tale of three airports’. However that wasn’t the end of it. You can read a full account of the farce in ‘Our cruise – part 1’ and ‘Our cruise – part 3’ over on my Joint Journal blog (just click on the link at the side of the page).

I sent a Customer from Hell letter to Heathrow’s customer service manager and received a holding ‘we are looking into your complaint and will get back to you within seven day’s’ letter.

Seven days came and no reply. 14 days came and no reply. 21 days came and no reply. I think you can see where this is going…..

What with one thing and another I’d forgotten about it. It was only when I was sorting through some old correspondences in December that I saw the letter.

I must have been in a bad mood because otherwise I would have just shredded the letter and marked it down as ‘good Heathrow’s customer service’. Instead I did a bit of digging on the internet and found out that the ‘special assistance’ service was operated by a private company.

A letter, enclosing a copy of my original letter and the one I’d received from Heathrow, was sent to the chairman – in Atlanta, America.

As I’d sent the letter on 7th December I wasn’t expecting a reply, if any, until the new year. At 4.45pm on Friday 23rd December I received a phone call from the general manager of Heathrow’s ‘special assistance’ service regarding the letter I’d sent to their chairman.

Boy was he grovelling !!!!!

He assured me that when we next travel our experience of their ‘special assistance’ will be better than last time, and as a way of an apology he would be sending me some flowers.

The flowers duly arrived and they were lovely.

A good job well done by the Customer from Hell…..

Marie

Boxing day

2011-12-27T12:24:00.003Z

One of the very first things Christina, my physio, got me to do when I recently attend the neuro-physiotherapy department was to do some boxing.

Not only does it tone up muscles but it’s great for the cardiovascular system as it gets your heart pumping which helps towards loosing weight.

I took to boxing like a duck takes to water. I love it !!!!!!!

Scott my personal trainer at the gym has incorporated boxing into my exercise programme so he’s been teaching me different boxing techniques.

I’m the first to admit I hate exercising. However boxing doesn’t feel like exercising. Two of my favourite games on the wii are the boxing and the sword fighting. I must learn to do some warm up games first though as my muscles ache for days after having a good fighting session...

Santa brought the wii boxing to life as one of my presents was a boxing set comprising of jab pads, a pair of boxing gloves and a three foot punch bag.

Yesterday John set up ‘Mr Punch’ (my punch bag) so I can start punching the living day lights out of our ‘boxing list’. Whenever I’ve been boxing at either the physio or the gym I was told to think about someone I hate and imagine I’m hitting them.

To be included in the ‘boxing list’ hall of fame the person has had to actually done something to cause us grief. For example top of the list is Gordon Brown MP. If it hadn’t been for him making private pensions completely worthless John would have been able to retire from work two years ago.

So instead of imagining hitting someone, I’ve printed off photo’s of those in the ‘boxing list’ so they will be put on Mr Punch and I can hit them for real.

Time to give Gordon Brown a good thrashing !!!!!!!

Recipe of the week – Pasta bake

2011-12-26T15:32:00.002Z

This is quick and easy supper dish. The crisps give it a lovely crunchy topping. You can of course make it without the crisps if you are counting the calories.

Serves 2

4oz Penne pasta

3 rashers of bacon (any kind will do), de-rined

½ pint of cheese sauce

2 packets of salted crisps, squashed into bits

Half a teaspoon of dried or fresh herbs (any kind will do as long as it’s not overpowering)

Black pepper (to taste)

Cook the pasta in boiling water for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile grill the bacon then cut into small pieces. Don’t switch the grill off.

Add the bacon, herbs and black pepper into the cheese sauce.

Drain the cooked pasta and add it to the cheese sauce.

Pour the pasta mix into warmed individual ovenproof dishes then top with the crisps.

Grill under a medium heat until the crisps are golden brown.

Alternative toppings

Sliced tomatoes: arrange over the top of the pasta and grill until tomatoes are hot.

Breadcrumbs: take 1oz of breadcrumbs and sprinkle over the top of the pasta. Grill until golden brown.

All the weights are in ‘old money’. If you want them in Metric, you’ll have to convert it yourself….

Seeing double

2011-12-24T15:58:00.000Z

Further to my last blog guess what turned up on Wednesday – my cards from the former US Presidents….

Then what should arrive in the post on Thursday but yet another set of cards !!!!

As this is our last blog before the big day John and myself wish you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Marie

PS the ‘recipe of the week’ will return on Boxing day (or December 26^th for those reading this who are not from the UK).

No show cards

2011-12-20T15:10:00.000Z

Whenever Morrison’s haven’t had any greeting cards which I like (which is most of the time) I’ve had them specially printed by one of the on-line card companies – you’ll have seen them advertised on TV.

Given the cost of cards in places like Morrisons or WHSmiths, the cost of ordering a card from one of these companies is about the same. Plus you can make them personal, which is what I like.

Having checked Morrison’s for Christmas cards – as usual nothing – both John and myself ordered cards on Sunday 4^th December. John from one company and mine from a company who’s name is a former US President.

John’s arrived on Tuesday 6^th, but mine didn’t. No worries I thought as it’s the time of year when the post is going to be delayed.

After the post had come on Wednesday 7^th I gave them a ring. They were sent out yesterday, said the little woman. The good old ‘it was sent out yesterday’... Which really meant ‘we’ve done nothing so better get it sorted today’. I was assured they would be here Thursday or Friday at the latest.

Friday’s post came and went and no cards. Time for the Customer from Hell. I always give then one chance to put things right then out she comes.

“They were sent out yesterday”, said the little woman.

“If it was sent out ‘yesterday’ how come I was told that on Wednesday”, I replied.

She thought for a while. “It looks like there’s been a computer problem”.

Another saying from the book of excuses….

“I’ll get they re-printed today and you should get them on Monday”.

“Are you sure”, I quizzed.

“Yes. You will have them on Monday”.

Monday’s post came and went and still no cards.

The Customer from Hell was beginning to get more than a little annoyed.

“They have been dispatched”, snapped the little woman, “however you rang after our next day cut-off time so they will be here tomorrow”.

“They better”, I said, “otherwise I will not be happy if I have to ring you again”.

Just to make sure I actually had some cards to give I went on to another card site and ordered some more cards. If the former US President’s came then I’d put one lot away for next year.

Tuesday’s post came and you guessed it, no cards. I decided to give them one more day just on the very slim chance that they had been delayed by the Christmas post.

Wednesday’s post came and went. Yep, no cards.

“‘Former US President. Can I help”, said the little woman.

“Can I speak to your manager please as I have a lot of shouting to do and you’re not paid enough to be shouted at”.

“Can I help”, said the ‘manager’ (I’ve no evidence it was one as she never said who she was. It could have been the cleaner for all I know…..)

I explained what had happened and told her in no uncertain terms that I was not a happy bunny.

“I can understand why you are not happy Madam”, she said, “however the cards were sent out ‘yesterday’”.

“Yesterday”, I repeated, “I’ve had enough. I want a refund”.

“Certainly Madam. I will arrange that now for you”, she said quickly, which makes me suspect that I wasn’t the first to complain, “on Thursday you’ll also receive your cards, which you can have free of charge from us”.

Thursday came and went, so did Friday, Saturday, Monday and today. Still no cards….

Whilst all this is both amusing and annoying, what would have happened if I had asked for cards to be sent straight to the recipients. I would have had no way of knowing they had not being delivered.

Naughty !!!!!

Marie

Recipe of the week – Jam sponge, with a twist

2011-12-18T10:40:00.003Z

A wonderful, light, yet simple cake that is so delicious.

Here’s where the twist is. Instead of the usual two egg, 4oz mix of flour, butter and sugar that is traditional for a sandwich cake, this recipe is slightly different. The eggs, still in their shells, are weighed and whatever it says on the scales, you weigh out that amount of flour, butter and sugar.

For example, the two eggs – still in their shells – weigh 4 and ¾ oz’s. Measure out 4 and ¾ oz’s of self-raising flour, caster sugar and butter/margarine. No matter what the eggs weigh, always use the same weight for the flour, sugar and butter.

Two eggs
Self-raising flour
Caster sugar
Butter/margarine
1 level tea-spoon of baking powder
Jam (strawberry, raspberry, any kind you like)
Icing sugar

Line two 7 inch/18cm round cake tin with baking parchment or non-stick liners (Lakeland sell them and they’re brilliant).

Pre-heat oven to 180º c/Gas Mk 4. Fan oven 160ºc

Weigh the eggs, still in their shells. Whatever the eggs weigh, that’s the amount you’ll need for the flour, sugar and butter/margarine.

Put the sugar and butter/margarine into a bowl. Sift the flour along with the baking power into a bowl, then add the two eggs.

Beat well until everything is combined and mixture is smooth, to the point that it will drop off your spoon.

Bake for 20 – 25 minutes. Try not to open the oven door during the cooking as this can stop the cakes from rising. If you think that they make be browning too much, only open the door when you are past half way in the cooking time.

To check to see if the cakes are cook, gently press the surface of the cake with a finger. If it springs back it’s cooked. You can also test it by using a skewer (or knitting needle or a piece of spaghetti). Piece the centre of the cake. If it come out clean then it’s done.

Once the cakes are cool, spread the jam over one of the cakes. You can use as much or as little as you like. Try not to get the jam too close to the edge as it will spread naturally to the edge when the other one is put on top of it.

Take the other cake and carefully put it on top off the jam layer. Finally sift the icing sugar over the top of the cake.

This cake can easily be made bigger. If you wish to use three eggs then simply weigh them as before.

All the weights are in ‘old money’. If you want them in Metric, you’ll have to convert it yourself….

Recipe of the week – Common spice cake

2011-12-12T14:09:00.002Z

Apologies for being a bit late putting up the recipe of the week, only we spent the weekend putting up the Christmas decorations.

Anyway, here’s a lovely crumbly cake which is delicious eaten when warm. It makes a great alternative the traditional Christmas cake.

8oz self-raising flour
½ teaspoon of ground mix spice
3oz margarine or butter
4oz soft brown sugar
4oz raisins
4oz sultanas
2oz mixed peel, chopped
2oz glace cherries, chopped
1 large egg, beaten
¼ pint of milk

Pre-heat oven to 180º c/Gas Mk 4. Fan oven 160ºc

Line a 7 inch/18cm round cake tin with baking parchment.

Sift the flour and mix spice together into a bowl. Rub in the margarine or butter.

Add the sugar, raisins, sultanas, mix peel and cherries to the bowl.

Next add the beaten egg and enough of the milk so that the mixture drops from a wooden spoon when shaken.

Pour into the tin and bake in the oven for 1 hour, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Leave it in the tin for five minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

All the weights are in ‘old money’. If you want them in Metric, you’ll have to convert it yourself….

Recipe of the week – One cup malt loaf

2011-12-04T10:22:00.001Z

No complicated measuring required to make this. All you need is a cup or a mug. Just make sure you use the same one throughout.

A cup or mug of the following:

All Bran (or supermarket’s equivalent. Please don’t use bran flakes as the texture isn’t the same.)
Milk
Caster sugar (use slightly less than a cupful if you want to make it less sweet)
Sultanas or raisins
Self-raising flour – sifted

Oven: 180º c/Gas Mk 4. Fan oven 160ºc

Line a 1lb loaf tin with baking parchment or non-stick liner (Lakeland sell them and they’re brilliant).

Start the day before you intend to make the loaf.

Put all the ingredients except the flour into a bowl and mix well. Cover with a tea-towel and leave overnight.

Stir in the flour, making sure you scrape the sides of the bowls thoroughly, and pour the batter into the loaf tin.

Bake for 1 ½ hours.

Please soak the bowl as soon as you’ve finished with it as the mix sets like concrete if left !!!!

Recipe of the week – Honey and lemon chicken drumsticks

2011-11-27T10:31:00.002Z

These drumsticks are lovely and lemony and so easy to do. They are great for party food as the quantities can easily be doubled, tripled or to however many you need.

Serves 4

8 chicken drumsticks, skin on
Seasoned plain flour
2 tablespoons of honey
Grated rind and juice of 3 large lemons
Oil for frying

Pre-heat oven to 180º c/Gas Mk 4. Fan oven 160ºc.

Toss the chicken onto a plate of seasoned flour then shake off any excess flour. Fry the pieces until well browned on all sides. This should take about 10 minutes.

Lay the chicken singularly into a roasting tin, drizzle with the honey and sprinkle with the lemon rind. Pour the lemon juice into the tin and bake for 35 – 40 minutes until chicken is thoroughly cooked.

Recipe of the week – Sticky chicken drumsticks

2011-11-21T10:48:00.000Z

Wonderfully sticky, yummy and great party food as the servings can be easily doubled, tripled. Plus they’re so easy to make…

Serves 4

8 chicken drumsticks, skin on
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of honey
1 teaspoon of tomato puree

Heat oven to 200º c/Gas Mk 6. Fan oven 180ºc.

Make three slashes in each of the drumsticks. Put the soy sauce, honey and puree into a large sealable freezer bag and squish the freezer bag to mix everything together.

Put the drumsticks inside the bag and thoroughly squish them around the mix.

Leave to marinate for 30 minutes at room temperature or overnight in the fridge.

If the chicken has been in the fridge marinating, remove it from the fridge half an hour before you intend to cook it, to allow it to get to room temperature.

Put the chicken into a roasting tin and cook for 35 minutes, turning occasionally, until the chicken is wonderfully sticky and cooked through.

Recipe of the week – Chilled lemon tart

2011-11-13T17:29:00.002Z

A beautifully creamy tart that is so easy to make.

3oz margarine or butter
8oz crushed digestive or ginger biscuits
½ pint of double cream
Large tin of condensed milk (218g)
Grated rind and juice of 3 large lemons

Serves 6 – 8

Melt the margarine/butter in a pan or microwave then stir in the crushed biscuits.

Press the biscuit mix into the base of a 8inch/20cm loose-bottomed tin. Chill for ½ hour.

If you don’t have a loose-bottomed tin, line the tin with baking parchment, allowing an overlap over the side of the tin so you can pull the tart out when it’s set.

Whisk the condensed milk and cream with the juice and rind of the lemons until thick. If you have an electric whisk it will only take a couple of minutes.

Spoon over the biscuit base. Chill until required.

This tart recipe is so versatile:

Instead of one big tart simply spoon the biscuit mix into six or eight individual glass dishes then top with the lemon mix.

You can also make a chilled lime tart by replacing the lemons with four limes.

How about a chocolate lime tart. Mix 1 oz of coco powder to the crushed digestive biscuits then decorate the top of the tart with grated chocolate.

All the weights are in ‘old money’. If you want them in Metric, you’ll have to convert it yourself….

At This Time Of Year

2011-11-10T21:17:00.005Z

We're not so old in the Army List,
But we're not so young at our trade.
For we had the honour at Fontenoy
Of meeting the Guards' Brigade.
'Twas Lally, Dillon, Bulkeley, Clare,
And Lee that led us then,
And after a hundred and seventy years
We're fighting for France again!

From The Irish Guards by Rudyard Kipling

Coalition is the way of things in modern conflicts. It’s been 29 years since Britain fought a war alone, and more than a century to the one before that.

But fighting a war as part of a coalition can throw up some strange alliances. People traditionally thought of as “the enemy” can suddenly become allies and vice versa. Britain’s traditional enemy was always France, and yet in the two great wars of the 20^th Century France was our ally. Similarly we generally regarded Germany as an ally and yet …

For example :

The author JRR Tolkien (Lord of the Rings etc.) served as an officer in the Lancashire Fusiliers in 1916 and with his language skills he was often called on to question prisoners. He told of a conversation with a German soldier from the Hanoverian Regiment. The soldier pointed out the irony of how at the battle of Minden on 1759 his Hanoverians fought shoulder to shoulder with Tolkien’s Lancashires against the French.

And lets not forget that while British losses between 1914 and 1918 were 704,803 some of our allies (and enemies) losses were beyond comprehension.

Russia 1,811,000

France 1,397,800

Italy 651,000

Serbia 275,000

British Empire 251,900

Romania 250,000

USA 126,000

Belgium 58,637

Greece 26,000

Portugal 7,222

Japan 415

And from the Central Powers

Germany 2,050,697

Austria 1,100,000

Turkey 771,844

Bulgaria 87,500

I was reminded of this many years ago when I came across this war memorial in Venice. It commemorates the Italian soldiers who lost their lives fighting against the Austrians and Germans between 1915 and 1918. Note that Italy (and Japan too) fought with us in that conflict.

Recipe of the week - Sticky sausages

2011-11-08T14:23:00.002Z

These are incredibly sticky and moreish. One is simply not enough….

Serves 10 – 12 people

2lb cocktail sausages – frozen ones are ideal
3 tablespoons of runny honey
5 tablespoons of hoisin sauce

Pre-heat oven to 200º c/Gas Mk 6. Fan oven 180ºc.

Combine everything into a bowl or large sealable freezer bag and leave to marinate for a couple of hours or overnight in the fridge.

Remove the marinated sausages from the fridge half an hour before you intend to cook it to allow it to get to room temperature.

Put the sausages onto a roasting tin which has been lined with foil (or use a disposable foil roasting tin) and cook for 35 – 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Allow to cool slightly before you try to eat them as they will be very hot !!!!

All the weights are in ‘old money’. If you want them in Metric, you’ll have to convert it yourself….

Recipe of the week – cheese sauce and garlic bread

2011-10-30T17:28:00.006Z

I mentioned in last week ‘recipe of the week – lasagne’ that I had a short cut for cheese sauce. Here it is…

There’s a wonderful product on the market called ‘sauce flour’ which makes perfect cheese sauce every time. It’s made by a company called ‘Carr’s’ or Sainsbury’s do their own brand.

To make cheese sauce all you do is add one heaped tablespoon of the sauce flour and 1oz of cheese, chopped into small pieces or grated, to a pan with ½ pint of milk.

Whisk until the sauce comes to a boil. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for three minutes.

You can also make the sauce in the microwave. Measure out the milk into a microwavable jug then add the flour and cheese.

Cook on High, whisking every 30 seconds, until you get the consistency you require. It should take about 2 ½ - 3 minutes.

Garlic Bread

A really quick and easy way to make garlic bread

Serves 2

1 part baked baguette
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or grated or pressed through a garlic press
1 dessertspoon of low fat spread
½ teaspoon of dried herbs (mix herbs are ideal)

Cook the baguettes as per their instructions. Allow to cool.

Pre-heat the grill to high.

Half the baguette then cut each piece horizontally.

In a small bowl add the low fat spread, garlic and the dried herbs. Mix well.

Spread the garlic ‘butter’ over the four baguette pieces.

Place under the grill until the garlic ‘butter’ has melted and the baguette is golden brown.

All the weights are in ‘old money’. If you want them in Metric, you’ll have to convert it yourself….

It’s gym Jim but not as we know it

2011-10-29T16:29:00.002+01:00

This morning I did something which I never thought I’d ever do – I joined a gym !!!!!

A couple of months ago when I went to see my GP I explained that I was having problems with my weight. Because I’m not moving around as much I’m not burning off calories, so the excess weight was giving me a rather large spare tyre…..

“I know just the thing”, said Dr Blake, “I’ll arrange some neuo-physio for you and I’ll refer you onto the Sunderland Exercise Referral Programme”.

Twice a week I attend a hourly neuo-physio session with Christina at the Royal Hospital (full details will appear in the Joint Journal in the coming weeks) where she gives my abs, my cardio-vascular system and everything from the waist up a good workout.

The Referral Programme consists of fifteen weeks – with a personal trainer at a gym….

This morning ‘Scott’ my personal trainer handed me my gym membership card (again full details will appear in the Joint Journal in the coming weeks).

I can’t believe it – me a member of a gym !!!!!!

Marie

Daylight robbery

2011-10-27T14:00:00.006+01:00

I got an email from our energy supplier E-off (name changed to protect the guilty !!) to say our latest bill was ready to view online.

I did and we were £176 in credit.

A couple of days later I received a letter from E-off to say that they had reviewed our monthly direct debit payments and were going to put our payment up from £76 a month to £106 a month.

I appreciate that energy companies have put up their prices recently, however wanting an extra £30 a month is not on. So I gave them a ring.

“I’m sorry Mrs Harper but the payment increase is not negotiable”, said the snotty little man.

“That’s never been the case in the past”, I replied.

He typed away on his computer, “I can reduce it down a little by £2 extra a month so you would be paying £104 instead”.

“There’s no way I’m paying that”, I said defiantly.

“You could do try and do something to reduce your energy consumption”, he said, patronisingly, “get a new boiler”.

“Got one”.

“Loft insulation”.

“Got it”.

“Turn down your boiler thermostat”.

“We have”.

“Get cavity walls fitted”.

“We can’t. There’s rubble between the bricks”.

“I’m afraid you’ve just lost yourself a customer”, I said, “if you insist that I have to pay an extra £30 a month then you leave me no choice but to change energy suppliers”.

No doubt he’ll have heard this all before, however I’m a person who does not do idle threats. I actually carry them out.

Half an hour later and we have saved £170 a year by switching to Scottish Power….

Later that day I got a telephone call. It was E-off.

“I understand Mrs Harper that you are switching energy suppliers to Scottish Power. Is that correct”.

“It is”.

“Could you tell me why you are doing so”.

I told him. He then started blabbering on about how competitive E-off were compared to Scottish Power.

"If that's the case how come I can save £170 by switching to them. I'm sorry but you have lost a customer. Please excuse me as I'm in the middle of eating my dinner. Good bye...."

Recipe of the week - Lasagne

2011-10-23T15:48:00.005+01:00

An extremely quick and simple way to make great lasagne. I love it served in individual dishes but you can make it in one big one then divide it out.

Serves 2

6oz of mince, preferably lean
½ pint of cheese sauce
Dolmio Bolognaise sauce (320g jar)
6 sheets of lasagne
Black pepper

Pre-heat oven: 180º c/Gas Mk 4. Fan oven 160ºc

Dry fry the mince in a frying pan until brown.

Put the bolognaise sauce into a bowl. Add a little water to the jar, give it a good shake, then pour the juice into the bowl.

Remove the mince from the pan using a slotted spoon to drain away any excess fat then mix it into the bolognaise sauce.

Make the cheese sauce and add black pepper to taste.

Spread a little of the bolognaise sauce in the base of either two ovenproof dishes or one large ovenproof dish. Top with one sheet of lasagne if using individual dishes or two sheets if using one dish. Do this twice more.

Pour the cheese sauce over the lasagne, making sure that it’s all covered with the sauce.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

It's delicious served with garlic bread.

All the weights are in ‘old money’. If you want them in Metric, you’ll have to convert it yourself….

Recipe of the week – Chicken curry

2011-10-16T16:57:00.005+01:00

This is a lovely thick curry which isn’t too spicy. If you prefer it hotter simply add more paste. If you’re not a garlic lover, please don’t leave it out as the curry is very bland without it. Just add one clove instead. Trust me you won’t be disappointed.

Chicken Curry

Serves 2

6oz of chicken cut into bit sized pieces (you can use more chicken if you like)
1 green pepper, de-seeded and chopped
1 onion, chopped
4 button mushrooms, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped, grated or pressed through a garlic press
Two teaspoons of oil
1 pint of hot chicken stock (from a stock cube is fine)
1 tablespoon of plain flour
1 teaspoon of curry paste (Pataks Balti is perfect)

Add the oil to a frying pan and cook the chicken pieces on a medium/high heat for about 15 - 20 minutes until they’re browned and thoroughly cooked inside. Remove the chicken from the pan and put to one side.

Add the chopped pepper, onion, mushrooms and garlic and cook on a medium high heat for approx five minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the plain flour and the curry paste and mix well. Add the hot stock and again mix well. Finally add the chicken back to the pan and give it a good mix.

Cook on a medium high heat for approx 20 - 25 minutes until the curry is thick.

Serve with rice.

The curry can also be made in a slow cooker

Add the chicken pieces, pepper, onion, mushrooms and garlic into a frying pan with the oil and cook on high for five minutes. Stirring occasionally.

Add the plain flour and curry paste and mix well. Finally add the chicken stock. As a slow cooker will not boil away the liquid, you will only need ¼ pint of stock.

Transfer to the slow cooker and cook on Low for 8 hours. The curry will not be as thick as one done on the top of the oven so don’t panic if it’s slightly runny….

All the weights are in ‘old money’. If you want them in Metric, you’ll have to convert it yourself….

Starting tomorrow…

2011-10-13T12:04:00.002+01:00

…will be further adventures from the ‘Joint Journals’.

Simply click on the link at the right of the page.

Don’t miss it…..

Marie

Recipe of the week - Boozy Christmas cake

2011-10-08T17:39:00.004+01:00

I’ve been meaning to put up on the blog my various recipes, however, I just never seemed to got round to doing it.

So I thought I’d give them to you as a ‘recipe of the week’ slot on the blog. All the recipes featured are mine, and haven’t simply been lifted from a cookery book.

Seeing as it’s getting close to the time when you should start to be making your Christmas cake, here’s my recipe for a really moist, boozy fruit cake.

All the weights are in ‘old money’. If you want them in Metric, you’ll have to convert it yourself….

7inch/ 18cm round tin or 6inch/ 16cm square tin

7oz Currants
4oz Sultanas
2oz Raisins
2oz Glace Cherries – chopped
2oz Mixed Peel
2oz Mixed Chopped Nuts
2 tablespoon Brandy/ Rum or any spirit
5oz Plain Flour – sieved
1 teaspoon Mixed Spice
1oz Ground Almonds
4oz Soft Brown Sugar
4oz Butter (softened)
1 tablespoon Black Treacle
3 Eggs

9inch/ 22cm round tin or 8inch/ 20cm square tin

13oz Currants
7oz Sultanas
3 ½oz Raisins
3 ½oz Glace Cherries – chopped
3 ½oz Mixed Peel
3 ½oz Mixed Chopped Nuts
3 tablespoon Brandy/ Rum or any spirit
9oz Plain Flour – sieved
1 ¾ teaspoon Mixed Spice
2oz Ground Almonds
8oz Soft Brown Sugar
8oz Butter (softened)
1 ½ tablespoon Black Treacle
5 Eggs

Put all fruit in a bowl, coat with the alcohol and leave overnight.

Preheat oven to 140º c/ Gas Mk 1. Fan oven 130º c.

Line the tin with two sheets of baking parchment. You could use greaseproof paper, however you must grease it with butter.

Add all the ingredients except for the fruit into a bowl. Mix well. Add half of the fruit to the bowl, mix, then add the rest of the fruit and mix again.

Scrape the mixture into the tin, making a slight well in the centre of the cake - this will stop the centre from rising. Take hold of the tin and tap it a couple of times onto a hard surface. This gets rid of any air bubbles.

Cover the top and sides of the tin with a double layer of greaseproof paper or brown paper. Bake in the centre of the oven for two ½ hours for cake tin sizes 6 and 7 inch and three hours for cake tin sizes 8 and 9 inch.

To check whether the cake is done place a skewer (a knitting needle or piece of spaghetti are ideal) in the centre of the cake. If the skewer comes out clean the cake is cooked. If it’s not, return to the oven for another 30 minutes and check again.

Leave to cool completely in the tin. When cool pierce the top of the cake all over with a skewer (a cocktail stick is perfect). Drizzle two or three tablespoons of the alcohol you used in the mixture over the cake. Wrap the cake well in a double layer of greaseproof paper then a double layer of tinfoil.

Leave the cake for one week. Unwrap it, turn the cake over, then skewer and ‘feed’ the cake again. Repeat the ‘feeding’ process until one week before Christmas.

If decorating the cake cover with marzipan (brush warm apricot jam over the cake before applying the marzipan). Leave the marzipan to dry for a day or two. Ice the cake either with ready-to-roll icing or royal icing.

Enjoy !!!

Ten things beginning with...

2011-10-04T13:51:00.000+01:00

Paul posted a ‘ten things I like’ on his Gottle blog and those who commented on his post would be given a letter to use in our own ‘ten things…’. He gave me the letter ‘L’.

So here’s my ‘ten things beginning with “L” that I like’.

Livorno: A city on the western edge of Tuscany. We visited it when we were on our cruise.

Oscar Levant: an American pianist, composer, actor and friend of the Gershwins.

Lemons: Some of my best baking uses lemons – lemon drizzle cake; lemon sponge; ‘Chilled Lemon’ tart.

Lollys: The ‘FAB’ ones or any that have hundreds and thousands on. They take me right back to childhood.

Ivan Lendl: He is my favourite tennis player of all time

Left handed: Strange as it may seem but I like being left handed. It’s a very exclusive club – Alexander the Great, Michelangelo, Hans Christian Andersen, Queen Victoria, Steve McQueen, Douglas Adams all were left handed.

Lottery: A couple of years ago we got five numbers on the lottery and won £2461. One more number and we would have had a half share of £8m.

Land before Time film: It’s my favourite cartoon film. However I can’t watch it without a box of tissues handy – I’m a big softie !!!!

Licking the mixing bowl: It has to be one of life’s little pleasures, licking the mixing bowl after making a cake.

Lilt zero: The pineapple and grapefruit drink. Straight from the fridge, it’s lovely and refreshing.

A challenge for myself, the ten things beginning With “A to Z (minus L”) that I like’…

Marie

Holidays – week two

2011-09-19T11:28:00.001+01:00

Week two started pretty much like the previous week so Saturday and Sunday were relatively quite days.

Monday and Tuesday John tackled the loft. It needed more insulation on the walls and ceiling so several polystyrene sheets were bought from Wicks (that was the order they messed up last week).

It was also a good time to go through all the stuff that had accumulated in the loft. There must have been more boxes than Pickford’s up there!!!!!!!!

Wednesday we had a day out in Weardale. We had a lovely car picnic lunch overlooking the hills near Stanhope. Then on the way home we stopped off at the Wessington pub for dinner.

Thursday we decided we’d try a new ice-cream parlour that had recently opened in Sea Road. The recent promotional flyer that had come through our door looked really enticing: a huge selection of food and ice-cream, good Wizzy access and a warm, friendly welcome - I think you can see where this is going…….

The thin tatty table menu didn’t live up to the ‘huge selection of food and ice-cream’; the no step at the entrance doesn’t count as ‘good Wizzy access’ when you have to encounter a slalom to get into the building and the ‘warm friendly welcome’ didn’t exist – we were the only customers, yet were completely ignored by the three members of staff. We walked out…..

Instead we went to ‘Subway’ for our lunch, where the staff couldn’t have more friendly and helpful. Given that Sea Road is now awash with eating establishments, I don’t think the parlour will be around for very long.

Friday we went to the Chinese again for lunch and as usual the service and food were superb.

Saturday we got Big Bertha down from the loft (she’s a huge carpet cleaner) and gave the carpets a good clean. The water that came out into the reservoir was filthy !!!!!!

We spent Sunday just chilling out and not doing a great deal – not a bad way to spend the holidays.

Marie

Holidays – week one

2011-09-11T17:19:00.003+01:00

John’s on holiday from work for two weeks, and for once, it’s not been spent doing major DIY projects.

Saturday and Sunday were quiet days not doing very much.

Monday saw John trying to fix a persistence leak in the bathroom. So far, no water….

Tuesday I had an appointment to see the Hand (Wo)Man at the hospital. She has advised me to have surgery on my hand as it’ll only get worse. Full details will appear in the Joint Journal, when I eventually get round to typing it up…..

We then went to the Wessington Pub for lunch – two x three sausages, two fried eggs, chips and peas, followed by apple pie (no custard for me).

After that it was some retail therapy – five huge balls of wool, five pieces of fabric, two cardigans, one top, two irons and some headphones.

Wednesday we went to Alnwick to visit one of the biggest second-hand bookshops in the UK. John had been wanting to visit it for ages but we never had the time – until now. What a place it was !!!!

No sooner had John left me at ‘Cookery’ I had my eye on a 1954 four volume set on catering and a 1953 edition on ‘Good Housekeeping Complete Cookery’. John found a 1938 army manual on driving and maintaining motor vehicles – it smells like the inside of a classic car…..

After spending a fortune on those we then headed to the Metro Centre to do yet more retail therapy.

Thursday was meant to be a DIY day in the loft for John, however Wicks forgot to order his bits and pieces…. The Customer from Hell also made an appearance. Yet another problem with my prescription from Lloyds the chemist. Again full details will appear in the Joint Journal.

Friday was my birthday. The Birthday Bunny was extremely generous so I got loads of presents from him – mainly books and a two CD set of Showadywaddy, which I’m playing constantly (sorry John….).

I’m afraid there isn’t much left of my birthday cake.

Blowing my own trumpet time here as I made it – it’s yummy !!!!!

Saturday and today are more quite days.

So here’s to week two….

Marie

Keeping busy – part 1

2011-08-26T10:49:00.018+01:00

As I’m stuck at home pretty much all of the time, stopping myself from being bored can be a little difficult. There are always things on the go.

Currently there’s:

Two large cross stitch patterns of a tigers eye and a tiger cub
A crochet blanket
A knitted cable blanket
Two needlepoint cushions
Three small needlepoint scissors bags (which I picked up at the needlework class on our cruise)
One shirt to finish off sewing, another one to to make
Writing my second novel
Several books to finish off reading
Learning to play the piano and the clarinet

I’ve also been trying my hand at making bags and making models (photos of which will appear in ‘Keeping busy – part 2’).

This was my first attempt at bag making. It’s mainly scraps of material from John’s old work shirts.

I made this make-up bag from an old camisole top.

This one was my first attempt a making a patchwork bag. Again it’s made up of scraps of material. It has two flaps so you can wear it different ways.

After making three bags, and with help from my mam who’s very much into patchwork/quilting, I felt confident enough to make a proper one, using bought fabric.

It was a birthday present for Jenny (I hope she liked it !!!!!). Just for a bit of fun I quilted paw prints going up and down the bag and attached a keyring coin purse to one of the straps.

As I’ve got a huge box full of scrap bits of fabric it’s my plan to make as many bags as I can, just by using up the scraps. Thankfully a woman can never have too many bags…..

Marie

Medically speaking

2011-08-14T16:41:00.000+01:00

Things have been very quiet in the BOGOF household – as usual – so I thought I’d briefly keep you up-to-date with all things medical (a full various of events will appear in the Joint Journal – when I eventually get them written up !!!!)

Not content with being on Kermit’s, the Man Himself and the Back Man’s consulting books, I’ve now on another two - with one more to be added later….

The first one is a pain consultant – other wise known as the Pain Man. My GP referred me to see him as my painkillers weren’t working and she’d ran out of idea’s as to what to give me. He upped the doze of one lot of the painkillers and changed the one’s I take on a night time. I go back to see him sometime in October.

The second consultant is a neurologist – other wise known as the Hand Man (even though she’s a woman. I named her that before I knew she was a female ….). Back in October I began experiencing problems with my left wrist. My GP thought it might be Carpal Tunnel Syndrome so referred me to see the Hand Man.

After performing various tests on my wrist she confirmed it was CTS. I was then sent for a further test to determine how bad it was. The test showed that I had ‘moderately severe’ CTS and the only cure is surgery.

I am now waiting on a mobile physiotherapist to come and fit me with a wrist splint to wear in bed, with an appointment to see a Hand Surgeon to be made once the splint is in place.

I finally got to see the Back Man, having waited a year to see him since my last appointment. When I saw the Pain Man he kindly explained what had happened to my back so I was pre-warned as to what the Back Man was going to tell me. He showed me my MRI scan and no wonder I am in so much pain - the vertebra had moved a huge distance away from my spine….

The only surgery that can be done is to have rods put in my spine and to try and fuse the vertebra together. However it’s a very risky operation (paralysis, loss of wee and poo functions, etc) so I’ve got to think about it and see him at the end of this month. The answer will still be the same as the one I gave him in June – no way !!!!

My ‘count to ten and smile’ attitude to life is getting harder to do. My GP isn’t sure if it’s the cocktail of 31 tablets I take each day that’s causing it or it’s everything just catching up with me. Counselling is out so I’ve got two months to see if things settle down, then I have to go on the happy pills…..

Marie

A chip off the old block

2011-07-28T11:24:00.001+01:00

My good friend Janice comes over every week to see me. She broke her leg in January and is still in a bit of pain from it.

“I must nip to the loo”, she said.

As she was climbing the stairs I shouted up to her, “if you can’t manage, I’ll send Gordon up to you…”.

“Marie !!!!!!”, she shouted, “just wait until I tell my husband what you said”.

What I should have said was “if you need any help getting up or down the stairs, I’ll send the stairlift up to you”.

Good bye motherisms, hello marieisms….

Marie

PS more entries from the Joint Journal will be up soon. Watch this space for more details.

The end of an era

2011-07-23T15:36:00.001+01:00

I’m afraid I won’t be publishing anymore of my mam’s motherisms on the blog from now on.

She has become a silver surfer and is now reading the blog….

At first she was a bit hesitant about using the internet, but using our spare dongle for a few months, she became so hooked on it, that she decided to get broadband installed.

The annoying thing is she’s got fast broadband speed than us !!!!!

Marie

Bootifull

2011-06-20T13:22:00.003+01:00

On Saturday we had to go into the Metro Centre, primarily to visit Boots. John’s eye test was due and I need to speak to the manager about a complaint.

Normally every two years when John has his eyes tested, he has to have new glasses.

He has ‘seven to 10 day eyes’ so a fortnight, all inclusive, holiday to Spain is cheaper than his spectacles….

I nearly fell out of Wizzy when John came out of his examination to say his eyes were fine and no new glasses were required. Yippee !!!!

We then went to find a manager as I needed to become ‘the customer from Hell’.

Before we went on our cruise we bought, as always, their own brand factor 50 sunscreen. I have an allergy to the sun (by the wonderful name of Polymorphic Light Eruptions), plus I burn really easy, so need to have a high sun factor.

After washing our holiday clothes we found that the sunscreen had badly stained several garments – one of John’s shirt and six of mine.

I rang Boots Head Office and explained what had happened. No problem, said customer service, just go into any Boots store with the receipts for the garments and we’ll give you a refund.

“I don’t have the receipt for John’s shirt”, I explained, “as it’s a couple of years old, and I’m a dressmaker, so made all my shirts”.

“Oh”, she said, rather slowly, then several seconds later said, “they’ll sort something….”.

We spoke to a manager who too went ‘Oh’, when we explained about my shirts. She went off for a few minutes then came back to say she’d had a chat with the General Manager and they were prepared to offer me cash for the garments.

“So”, she said, “it’s bartering time. How much do you think it’ll cost to replace your garments”.

That really was a tough one because it’s not that simple to put a price on a handmade garment.

“I’ve been told I can go up £50. Will that do….”, she asked.

So before our next cruise I’ve got to go fabric hunting to make six shirts. It’s a hard life !!!!!!!

Marie

Rant

2011-06-18T19:55:00.003+01:00

Some of you may know that cycling is a sport that is perceived to have a drugs problem. I choose my words carefully here, not because there is no drugs problem – there is a drugs problem – but because there is a perception problem. If you believe all you read, cycling is awash with illegal drug taking, but other sports are not. Anyone over the age of 50 will probably bring up the tale of Tommy Simpson, who asphyxiated on Mt Ventoux during the 1967 Tour de France. It turns out that the amphetamines he took were standard issue to United States Air Force pilots to keep them awake on long flights. It’s all a matter of perception.

The winner of last years Tour de France, Alberto Condador was banned recently for testing positive to a minute amount of clenbuterol, an anabolic steroid. That the amount was too small to have affected performance, and that he was tested on a rest day would add some credence to his assertion that it came from infected meat. This is possible, and has been documented in medical publications. I’m not making any comment on the rights and wrongs here. If the man used banned substances then he needs to be punished.

The Spanish authorities (who have a quite lax interpretation of drug offences) banned him for one year, then reduced the ban still further. At this point, WADA (the World Anti Drug Agency) who oversee drug policies and who maintain the list of banned substances and practices took exception and appealed against the decision. They were determined that Alberto would not get away with it.

Then, a few weeks ago, their stance softened, and they decided to wait until August to hold a hearing, thereby allowing Alberto to compete in this years Tour de France, which is held in July. Many other cyclists were either angry that they were going to have to compete against a cheat, or unhappy that the matter could not be decided quickly.

This week, WADA announced that maybe the rules regarding clenbuterol need revising because of the (rather remote) possibility of ingesting the substance from contaminated meat.

Of course this has nothing to do with the fact that currently there are five football players who have tested positive and are claiming the same defence.

As I said at the beginning it’s all a matter of perception.

Lounging Around

2011-05-30T21:22:00.002+01:00

OK, by now you’ve probably guessed that we are home. The last day of the cruise was a bit odd. We got to Portofino and the ship anchored a mile or two off shore. As you can see, we had company.

We were going to get the tender ashore, but the sea had other ideas. It was a bit rough, in fact so rough that the ships crew were confined to the ship, in case it got worse and they couldn’t get back. In truth it was probably a bit to rough for Marie to get on and off the tender but I was going to give it a try. That is until we saw people coming back from the tender embarkation deck. Soaked to the skin. It was that bad.

So we stayed aboard and minded out own business. The ship left at about 7 pm and ran into a storm with winds of 45-50 mph. Quite an interesting day.

So we headed home the next morning. Now as has already been said, we had business class tickets, so at Rome airport we got to use the business lounge. Very nice. Comfortable seats, tea, coffee, wine and spirits plus snacks free of charge. But nothing compared to the business lounge at Heathrow Terminal Five. First of all it’s massive, and has every kind of seating arrangement, plus free wi-fi. Then there’s the food. You want a salad. No problem, or would you prefer pasta, or maybe soup and a roll, or breakfast cereal, or biscuits, or crisps. All there, and all free. Then there’s an entire wall laid out with bottles of wine, and fridges full of beer and soft drinks. Neither of us had ever seen anything like it.

But now we’re home. Our luggage made it without losing anything, three suitcases and a wheelchair on four flights, which is something of a miracle. That’s all for now, but there will be more to come, plus maybe a few more pictures.

Catching Up

2011-05-26T09:39:00.003+01:00

We're in Livorno, and I'm sitting in the Panorama Lounge, up on deck eight. This is at the rear of the ship and has large windows giving views on three sides.

I won't burden you with the outside views as Livorno is an industrial port, with containers, ferries and ship repair facilities. It's not what you would call pretty, but it's the nearest port to Florence, Pisa and Tuscany in general. We're staying on board, because although Florence is a lovely city, it's also a two hour bus ride away.

But we're getting a little ahead of ourselves. We spent the first half of yesterday at sea, en route to Ajaccio, the principal city of Corsica. The morning was misty, so the Veranda view shows less than usual.

The mist cleared as we reached port, then caught up with us as we docked. We were between two enormous ferries, the one on the left, being in Corsica, had the only name possible.

The other, with a refreshing originality, was called the “Mega Express”.

This is the Captain, on the left, as we docked.

We found Ajaccio to be the usual tourist trap, with the usual gift shops (no, we didn't buy anything this time). It was also a bit scruffy, in that southern French way. I suppose you could call it local colour. Sometimes I'm glad we take these cruises for the experience and not the destinations. Still, tomorrow is Portofino which promises to be much better. Last night for example was about as good as it gets. We were in the restaurant and the sun was setting. There was a slight mist on the horizon, which gave the sky a sort of pinkish hue, which in turn made the sea a very very light blue with splashes of gold, punctuated by dolphins leaping out of the water right beside the windows.

As you might expect, the food has been as good as ever. We've dined on venison, wild boar and sea bass, but we gave the frogs legs and the eels a miss last night. For the rally adventurous (and rich) there is a premium dining experience which provides seven or eight courses, which a vintage wine matched to each. Yours for $200. The venison and wild board etc. is good enough for us.

So today we are in Livorno, and on getting up and looking out of the veranda we found a water tender alongside. Not sure if we are taking on fresh water, or unloading waste, or both. Just as long as they don't get the hoses mixed up ..
.

So So Busy

2011-05-24T15:58:00.003+01:00

Sorry there was no blog yesterday, but there was just SO much to do. What with wandering round Palma, sitting out by the pool, and all that eating and drinking, the time just flew by.

We didn't arrive until 9 am so the veranda view was taken as we were still entering the port.

Today we are in Mahon, and sadly we're on the wrong side of the ship so the view isn't the best on the Island, but it's not so bad. It shows the old governors residence from the days when Mahon was British.

We spent the morning along the waterfront, looking at adverts in yacht dealer windows, for yachts from £80K to £3M. The we made our way into town for a little light shopping before returning to the ship for lunch. It's getting quite hot now. This afternoon it was 85 farenheit (which is about 28 or 29 celsius),

Tomorrow we're in Ajaccio, somewhere we've never been before. And finally, we've booked another cruise for next year. End of June from Barcelona to Venice, taking in Lipari and Dubrovnik on the way.

All At Sea

2011-05-22T16:12:00.004+01:00

Today is a “day at sea” day. We left Cadiz at 11pm last night and we are due to arrive at Palma de Mallorca around 8 am tomorrow morning, We passed through the Straits of Gibraltar at 4:20 this morning so today's veranda view is somewhere south of Malaga.

It's a pleasant 20-22 degrees (70 Fahrenheit in old money) so most people are sitting by the pool at the moment. We're there at present, blogging and drinking Pimms.

The cruise is as good as it has ever been, and the staff just get better and better. On the first night when we arrived at the restaurant the Maitre 'D stepped out from behind his lectern, held out his hand and said “Hello Mr & Mrs Harper. Lovely to see you again”. It's been three years since our last cruise. What kind of memory do these people have. We've seventy two hours in and just about every member of staff is calling us by our names. That's service.

Really the only difficulty we're having to trying to decide which cruise to book for next year.

And finally, if you want to see where we've been …

Y Viva Espana

2011-05-21T16:33:00.003+01:00

Today we are in Cadiz.

We're moored in a cruise and container terminal so today's veranda view isn't very inspiring, but the view from the stern is much better, showing the gold dome of the cathedral.

This morning we took a stroll round the town, which is mainly narrow streets, little more than alleyways, connecting small squares. Very nice to look at but hard to photograph as all you can see are walls.

Since you asked, last nights meal with the shore program manager was excellent. There was us, a dentist from Australia and his wife, and a dealer in commodities and his wife from Stow on the Wold. It must have been a good night because we spent three hours at the table and missed the show in the theatre.

It's a day at sea tomorrow so we'll need to get down to the pool deck early if we want a seat.

A tale of three airports

2011-05-20T15:17:00.003+01:00

In which Marie and John leave home at an unearthly hour, experience the best and the worst of air travel and START THEIR HOLIDAY CRUISE.

We set off yesterday morning at 4:30 am (don't ask what time we got up) and headed for Newcastle airport. As this is the first time we have traveled with a wheelchair it was always going to be an interesting experience. The staff at Newcastle were very good. We were allowed to use the fast track security lane and the security staff were helpful. We were given assistance from the gate to the flight but sadly Whizzy, Marie's wheelchair had to go in the hold. This meant we were unable to make our own way through Heathrow. The flight was uneventful, except we shared it with one of the Milliband brothers. I can never remember which, but it was the uglier of the two.

Then we got to Heathrow. We were taken off the aeroplane on one of Heathrow's wheelchairs, and left. Now we had no more then ninety minutes to go from terminal five to terminal three to board a flight to Lisbon. We waited. And waited. Eventually I went to look for help and found a BA customer service desk. They were apologetic and promised help. It finally arrived and we were on out way to terminal three. This took more then half an hour. Worse was to come. The person assigned to escort us to the gate was late. Then he stood doing something with his computer while his colleague screamed at him that we were running out of time. Eventually I had to take the boarding passes from him head for security myself, pushing Marie and dragging the hand baggage. This got our man motivated and we reached the gate with less than ten minutes to spare.

Now we get to see the best of air travel. As part of the cruise deal we got business class seats. What an experience. Instead of three by three seats it was two by two, with lots of legroom. Then they brought round the drinks, and we got a glass of wine, in a real glass, made of actual glass. Lunch was amazing. Real china plates and a china teacup. Proper metal knives and forks, and excellent food too. Marie's coffee was a bit too strong for her (if you know Marie you will understand this) so they actually made her another, exactly the way she wanted.

And so we reached Lisbon. Here the assistance staff were very good (and spoke better English than the Heathrow staff). All three bags arrived which we regarded as something of a miracle, and we were reunited with Whizzy, Some minor damage but easily fixed.

The the holiday could begin. We are on the Silver Cloud, sister ship the the Silver Wind, venue for out 2006 holiday (See “Holiday Pictures” in the sidebar). This is the view from our veranda in Lisbon.

And this is our suite, looking in from the Veranda.

Today we are in Portimao in the Algarve. The Veranda view isn't exactly inspiring, but the view on the other side, overlooking the port and lots of timeshare villas is better.

Tomorrow we are in Cadiz but tonight we are dining with one of the officers. This came totally out of the blue as those in “normal” suites don't normally get this. And finally, I packed to pair of decent black shoes to wear with my dinner suit on formal nights, such as tonight. When we returned after our suite had been serviced, we found that my shoes had been taken away, polished within an inch of their life, and returned wrapped in tissue. Amazing.

Sew busy

2011-04-21T13:13:00.002+01:00

So what’s been happening in the BOGOF household since we last blogged.

At the end of March, we, along with my mam, went away for a few days. We set off on the Thursday to our hotel in Hockley Heath.

Thanks to the glorious weather on the Friday, we had a change of plan. Instead of going to the NEC, we went to the Black Country Living Museum.

We’ve been there several times before but it was a first for my mam and a first for me in Wizzy. I’m pleased to report that their Wizzy faculties are really good.

On the Saturday we went to the Hobby Craft exhibition at the NEC. Other than possibly buying some fabric, I wasn’t expecting to purchase anything. However the lure of the sewing machine stands were too much, so after a couple of demonstrations, I bought myself a new overlocker and John very kindly bought me a computerised sewing machine.

Before we went into the craft exhibition, my mam wanted to buy a bottle of water, so whilst we were waiting for her, someone came over to say ‘hello’.

There was a memorabilia exhibition also taking place that day and several characters (Darth Vader, Spiderman, Storm Troupers etc) were wandering around the NEC saying hello to people.

My new sewing machine and overlocker really came in handy as my sewing for our cruise is well underway. So far I’ve altered nine summer tops, made four skirts, two shirts and one dress. Another dress is nearly finished and there’s still three more to make. With only four weeks to go before our cruise I’m hoping to have them made in time.

Marie

A stitch in time

2011-03-09T13:14:00.001Z

My hands are going to be pretty busy for the next few weeks making clothes for our cruise – 10 weeks and counting !!!!!

I’ve got two formal and three cocktail dresses to make, along with three skirts and a couple of shirts.

I’ve also got to alter several of my sun tops. They need a bit more fabric adding to the sides as the style of them isn’t Wizzy friendly.

One your marks, get set, sew….

Marie

Pluming the depths

2011-03-05T13:21:00.001Z

Yesterday morning, shortly after John had left for work, I went into the bathroom and noticed that the water in the loo was higher than it should normally be.

I gave the loo a long flush to see if that would clear what ever blockage there was. That only made the water level rise even more.

Taking the loo brush I gave the loo a couple of good pokes. The water instantly turned chocolate brown and bits of poo started to float to the surface. Yuck !!!!!!!!

I gave the loo another couple more pokes. More poo appeared. Double Yuck !!!!!!

I rang my mam to see if she knew how to unblock a loo. Her suggestion, other than what I had already done, was to try and get some wire to see if that would unblock it.

As wire was John’s department I said I’d have to phone him at work to see where it was kept.

“Until I can get the blockage clear, when you come through this morning you’re going to have to use a bucket when you need a wee”, I told her.
“I’m not using any bucket”, she exclaimed, “I’ll just use the loo as normal”.
“What!! Pee in that gunge”, I replied.
“Yes. What’s wrong with that”.
“Mam, you’re disgusting!!!!”, I said, shuddering at that the thought.

John was still on his way into work so I rang his office and left a message for him to give me a ring when he arrived.

He rang back about 10 minutes later.
“The wire’s in the shed”, he said, “but I don’t think that will work. Why don’t you try putting a freezer bag round the loo brush, as that will give it a good seal, then give it some really vigorous plunges”.
“How vigorous”, I asked.
“As hard as you can, and then some”.

For a person with a bad back and only one good leg, that wasn’t going to be easy….

Donning my rubber gloves again, and praying that they didn’t have any holes in it, I wrapped two freezer bags around the no longer white loo brush, then immersed my hand into the brown water and plunged, plunged, plunged.

Success !!!!!!

Alive and kicking

2011-02-22T13:07:00.003Z

Just a quick blog to say we're still here....

Things have been very quiet in the BOGOF household so there hasn't been anything exciting to report.

Normal service will be back shortly - especially as we're getting close to our cruise !!!!!

Marie

Burns Night

2011-01-25T19:50:00.003Z

An Englishman is being shown around a Scottish hospital. At the end of his visit, he is shown into a ward with a number of patients who show no obvious signs of injury. He goes to examine the first man he sees, and the man proclaims: "Fair fa' yer honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain e' the puddin' race! Aboon them a' ye tak your place, painch tripe or thairm: Weel are ye wordy o' a grace as lang's my arm." The Englishman, somewhat taken aback, goes to the next patient, and immediately the patient launches into: "Some hae meat, and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat and we can eat, And sae the Lord be thankit." This continues with the next patient: "Wee sleekit cow'rin tim'rous beastie, O what a panic's in thy breastie! Thou need na start awa sae hasty, Wi bickering brattle. I wad be laith to run and chase thee, Wi murdering prattle!" "Well," the Englishman mutters to his Scottish colleague, "I see you saved the psychiatric ward for the last." "Nay, nay," the Scottish doctor corrected him, "this is the Serious Burns unit."

Belated Happy New Year

2011-01-19T11:09:00.000Z

So what’s been happening in the BOGOF household. Not a great deal I’m afraid.

We had a wonderful Christmas. Santa was extremely good to us so we got lots of lovely presents. As we had my Mam on Boxing day (she went to my sisters for Christmas day) we had to give her the full turkey and all the trimmings. My sister doesn’t ‘do’ a tradition festive lunch so it’s a hard life having to have two Christmas feeds in two days !!!

New Year was celebrated with some good friends who were able to make the journey ‘up north’ to Sunderland. The sticky sausages, cornbeef pie and New Years day chocolate (forget about the calories…) fondant went down really well.

Thanks to Jan, I bought myself a Kindle with some of my Christmas money. I’d been interested in the e-book readers for a while but hadn’t been able to have a good look at them. Jan had just bought herself a Kindle and had it with her so gave me a full guided tour of what it can do. 24 hours later I bought one…

I’ve managed to put my entire classic book collection on the Kindle (as they are out of copyright, most, if not all, of the books are free to download either from Amazon or other ebook sites). This is brilliant as I can now put the classic books in the loft, get three book shelves back, and fill with books that I don’t want to go on the Kindle. Marvellous !!!

Marie

Days Of Thunder

2010-12-28T12:20:00.001Z

We were just finishing breakfast this morning when the ground shook and there was an almighty bang. There's been a lot of noise lately with melting snow falling off rooftops but nothing quite like this. A quick check round the house revealed that all the ceilings were intact but looking out of the bedroom window it was clear where the noise came from.

Across the back lane a wall had collapsed. We had noticed first thing that it looked to be bowing a little and I think that water had got between the inner and outer wall and frozen causing catastrophic wall-tie failure. At present we're waiting to see if the council send round the highways people to seal off the road as it's impassible, and the inner wall looks like it could go at any moment.

On a less exciting note, Christmas was good, and Santa was very generous. It's back to work tomorrow then looking forward to seeing friends from afar on Friday night.

Pies galore

2010-12-16T16:00:00.002Z

Following the mincemeat we made a couple of weeks ago, here are seven dozen mince pies we recently made.

We’ve still got six jars of mincemeat left. So it’ll be mincemeat sandwiches, mincemeat curry, mincemeat casserole….

Marie

Winter

2010-12-04T17:40:00.003Z

When icicles hang by the wall
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail
And Tom bears logs into the hall
And milk comes frozen home in pail.

From From Love's Labours Lost, Act V. Sc. II by William Shakespeare

Well, I don't know about Dick the shepherd, or Tom bearing logs, but we've certainly go icicles by the dozen at the moment. These ones are about 20 feet above ground, precariously hanging over our back door. We try not to slam the door too hard.

They're there because on Friday morning on my way to work I saw a temperature of minus eight degrees. A colleague saw minus eleven on his way to work. Brrr.

Snow Joke

2010-11-28T21:56:00.008Z

This global warming is getting beyond a joke. The snow began on Wednesday, and began falling really hard on Friday. This is the view from the front of our house

And this is the view from the back.

And the shed roof shows how deep the snow is.

Meanwhile one of out neighbours wins the prize for the biggest icicle.

All minced out

2010-11-22T10:49:00.004Z

I’ve been wanting to do make some homemade mincemeat for years but, for one reason or another, never got round to it.

This year I (with the help of John) decided to give it a go. It was a toss up between Delia’s or the Hairy’s mincemeat recipe. Delia’s took too long to do, so the Hairy’s won.

I slightly adapted the recipe as we don’t like ginger and didn’t have any brandy or sherry, so just used rum instead.

Anyone for a mince pie….

Marie

The Unknown Warrier

2010-11-10T20:00:00.006Z

The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart;
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget.

From "Recessional" by Rudyard Kipling

You have probably never heard of David Railton, but his idea touched the hearts of many.

In 1920 he was a vicar in Margate and when the Cenotaph in Whitehall was unveiled he was reminded of a time, back in 1916 when he was an army chaplain. He had been conducting a burial service somewhere near Armentieres and in the back garden of his billet, very close to the house, was a grave marked by a rough, white cross. On the cross was inscribed in black pencilled letters: 'An Unknown British Soldier'.

The scene at the Cenotaph spurred him to put his thoughts into action. He wrote to the Dean of Westminster, Bishop Ryle, asking whether he would permit the body of an unknown soldier to be buried in Westminster Abbey. The Dean responded warmly to the suggestion and wrote to the King. Initially the King was not responsive to the idea, perhaps thinking that two years after the end of the war it may reopen the war wound which time is gradually healing.

But the Dean was undismayed. He now wrote to the Prime Minister, Lloyd George, and to the C.I.G.S. (Chief of Imperial General Staff, Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson). They took up the idea with enthusiasm and reluctantly the King gave his assent. An announcement was made in the House of Commons and Lord Curzon, the Foreign Secretary, was appointed chairman of the cabinet committee responsible for the ceremony.

In October 1920, the G.O.C. in France & Flanders was Brigadier-General L.J. Wyatt. As such, it was he who issued the necessary instructions and it was he who selected the body.

According to the Brigadier he gave orders for four unidentified bodies of British soldiers to be brought in, one from each of the main battle areas: Ypres. the Somme, Arras and the Aisne (some reports say six bodies). They were brought in on the night of 7th November and placed in the hut which served as the chapel for the garrison. The parties that brought the remains in. returned immediately to their respective areas so they had no way of knowing which body had been chosen.

At midnight, accompanied by a senior member of his staff, he entered the chapel and selected one of the bodies which lay on stretchers covered by Union Jacks. The other bodies were taken out and buried in the nearby British military cemetery of St. Pol-sur-Ternoise.

The remains were placed in the casket brought over from Britain, bearing the inscription:

'A British Warrior who fell in the Great War 1914-1918'

The next day the Unknown Warrior began the last stage of his journey home, beginning with speeches from prominent French politicians before travelling with an escort of British and French cavalry to the quayside to board HMS Verdun At 3.30 pm H.M.S. Verdun came alongside at the Admiralty Pier, Dover and as she did so a nineteen gun salute was fired from Dover Castle and the band played 'Land of Hope and Glory'. Six warrant officers representing the various services carried the coffin off the ship and handed it over to six senior officers who acted as pall bearers.

Three hours later the train drew into Victoria station where a guard of honour from the 1st Grenadier Guards waited. The body remained in the station in the funeral coach that night, watched over by a guard from the Grenadiers.

Just before 10 o'clock on November 11th the procession started from Victoria led by massed bands, the drums muffled and encased in black. On either side of the coffin marched four Admirals, four Field marshals, three Generals and an Air Marshal.

At 10.40 am the King came out from the Home Office accompanied by the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, Prince Henry (later to become Duke of Gloucester) and the Duke of Connaught. He took up his place with his back to the Cenotaph, still shrouded with Union Jacks. Queen Mary, Queen Alexandra the Queen Mother and Queen Ena of Spain watched from the Home Office balcony. As Big Ben sounded quarter to the hour the head of the procession passed the Cenotaph and gun carriage swung round across the road and stopped immediately in front of the King with the pall bearers drawn up in line behind it. The King stepped forward and laid a wreath on the coffin, bearing a card with the following inscription in the King's handwriting:

'In proud memory of those Warriors who died unknown in the Great War. Unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and beheld they live.'
George. R.I.

The last note of eleven o'clock died away and everything was still. Throughout the capital, throughout the land, across the Empire and on the seas all stood in silence. The Cornish Riviera express halted near Taplow; the Irish Mail came to a stop near Crewe. The stillness was total, the silence complete.

Then came the clear, haunting sound of the Last Post and as the notes died away the King stepped forward and laid his wreath against the Cenotaph, followed by the Prince of Wales, the Prime Minister (Lloyd George) and representatives of the Empire.
The procession now began to move towards the Abbey with the King and the Princes marching behind the gun carriage. As the bearer party entered the Abbey with the coffin they passed between two ranks of a guard of honour made up of ninety-six men decorated for gallantry, seventy four of them holders of the Victoria Cross.

The King stood at the head of the grave facing the Archbishop of Canterbury. the Dean and the Bishop of London; the pall bearers stood on either side while Lloyd George with Asquith and the members of the Cabinet were grouped in rows behind the King. During the singing the bearer party came forward, removed the wreath, side arms and helmet and the Union flag and lowered the coffin into the grave. The service continued, and at the words "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes . . ." the King sprinkled French earth onto the coffin. The grave was later filled in with earth brought over from France.

Still Off

2010-11-08T20:45:00.003Z

As of yesterday we have been without our broadband for Seven weeks.

Last weekend we thought it was fixed. It came on at 4:30 on Friday and lasted until Sunday evening.

It came back on Monday morning and went away on Monday evening and hasn't been seen since. As you can imagine we're not happy.

We fully intend to ditch our less than helpful ISP but as the fault is not in the hands of BT Openreach there's not a lot we can do until it's fixed.

I was shocked to read a survey in a magazine that ranked MinusNet as fifth best for customer service and support. Some mistake there. Presumably it was an internet survey and those without broadband couldn't take part.

John

Boredband

2010-10-27T11:24:00.000+01:00

It’s been over six weeks now and we’re still no further forward in getting our broadband back. Lets just say that Minusnet and BT have both been worse than useless !!!!

After several weeks of getting nowhere with Minusnet, it was finally established that there is a problem at the telephone exchange, which is hardly surprising as the exchange was build before Moses was born…..

BT are trying to repair the fault, however things are being hampered by Minusnet not arranging for a BT engineer to go out, BT forgetting to attend and BT only allowing their engineers two hours per day to fix the fault.

Minusnet’s fault department have been pants so the Customer from Hell had a great time speaking to them.

Things have now escalated so their complaints team have now taken over dealing with the problem, as John completed a customer service fault repair survey and gave them 1 out of 10 for everything !!!!

We were fed up with using the antiquated dial-up connection that we bought a dongle. It’s not ideal as only one person can use it at a time, however it’s a thousand times better than the dial-up.

Minusnet have assured us that our broadband will be fixed today. Look out for flying pigs !!!!!

Marie

We’re back – part 3

2010-10-13T11:34:00.001+01:00

What a nightmare we’ve had with our broadband !!!!

It’s been down for four weeks and it’s still not quite right. Our broadband provider (they’re from Yorkshire and are currently advertising their services on TV and radio at the moment…..) have been worse than useless. The Customer from Hell has been on the case and will be making another appearance soon…

BT have also been out at least twice to fix various faults on our phone line.

The Yorkshire broadband have provided us with a free phone number so we can use good old dial-up until the problem is rectified. I thought our broadband speed was slow until we went back to dial-up !!!! I sat and read while I’m waiting for a page to appear….

The lack of broadband was proving to be a right pain. You don’t realise how you rely on the internet and email until it’s taken away from you. I felt like a teenager who had their mobile phone taken away from them !!!!!

So what’s been happening in the BOGOF household.

John finished the bathroom and he’s done a fabulous job. Pictures will appear very shortly.

We’ve gone from having a vanity unit and a small mirrored wall unit to three wall units (one of them double doored), a huge mirror with lights and a huge sink unit with two cupboards and four drawers.

The bath, although is slightly smaller than standard baths, is really deep. When I first got into it I thought I was going to sink into the kitchen !!!

Things didn’t run smoothly though with the company we bought the sink, loo and wall units from. We renamed them ‘bathroom for you if you don’t mind waiting’... I lost count on the number of times the ‘customer from Hell’ had to make an appearance. It got to the stage were the little man started trembling whenever he heard my voice.

Got my new car and it’s fabulous. Leather seats, satnav, rear parking sensors. It’s got so many toys it’ll take me three years to find them all !!!!

Saw Kermit about my hip. You can read the full story in the joint journals blog. However it’s not good news. I won’t be getting a new hip any time soon. As you might expect I’m not happy about that. However life must go on…

Marie

Here today, gone tomorrow

2010-10-04T20:34:00.001+01:00

Sadly the joy of having our broadband back up and running has been short lived. It went down again on Sunday afternoon so we're back to using the good old dial-up....

I'm afraid you're going to have to wait a little longer for photos of our bathroom.

Marie

Yippee !!!! We're back

2010-10-01T19:22:00.002+01:00

We're finally back in the wonderful world of broadband.

A round up of news about the bathroom, my new car, my visit to the hospital and everything else will appear very soon.

Marie

Still Here

2010-09-22T13:36:00.003+01:00

Just a quick word about the lack of bloggery. Our broadband has been down for a week now, and being off work we've had no internet access. We'll be back just as soon as it's fixed.

John

New bathroom – part 8

2010-09-12T20:53:00.003+01:00

Today John did tiling, tiling, some more tiling and finally a bit more tiling....

It’s only a small bathroom but there’s a lot of tiling to do!!!

Marie

New bathroom – part 7

2010-09-11T20:20:00.000+01:00

John made really good progress with the bathroom today.

Out went the old vanity unit and the last lot of tiles and in came three new wall units and another row of tiles.

Marie

New bathroom – part 6

2010-09-10T17:30:00.000+01:00

Today has been one of those days where little bitty jobs seem to take forever so I’m afraid there hasn’t been a lot of progress with the bathroom.

I’m pleased to report that John’s got the bath fully plumbed in and working.

His arms though looks like he’s been self harming himself as they are covered in lots of cuts.

Marie

Rest day

2010-09-09T19:05:00.004+01:00

Because today is my birthday, we thought it would be an ideal time for John to have a day’s rest from working on the bathroom.

As usual the Birthday Bunny was extremely generous so I got lots of lovely presents. We went out for our usual birthday lunch at the Chinese restaurant which was yummy as always….

We’ve been getting requests for pictures of the new bathroom so here’s where we're up to at the moment.

The old radiator is out and tiles in for the new towel radiator

Pipework in

And so is the new radiator

This is where the bath used to be

And here is the new one being manhandled into the bathroom

And here it is, all ready to connect

Marie

PS To the person who sent me the tall birthday card, many thanks. You sent me a blank card so I don’t know who it’s from….

New bathroom – parts 4 & 5

2010-09-08T09:44:00.002+01:00

Our internet connection was down last night so I wasn’t able to put up ‘part 4’.

Yesterday John finished the shower pluming and nearly all the tiling around where the shower/new bath are going.

Today the final bit of tiling and grouting around the shower/bath were completed and the new bath put into place.

Marie

New bathroom – part 3

2010-09-06T20:38:00.000+01:00

John got some more tiling and the grouting done.

The electrical cabling and pipe work for the new shower is also sorted.

It’s coming along nicely…

Marie

New bathroom – part 2

2010-09-05T21:57:00.000+01:00

John made quite a bit of progress on the bathroom today.

Because the shower is now going to be fitted on the wall which used to have the towel rail on, John had to remove ¾ of the wall for the pipes and the electrics to hidden by the new tiles.

Instead of using a mallet and a chisel, which is the normal way to remove a wall, he used a pair of scissors !!!! The wall wasn’t made of brick, it was plasterboard…

Once the wall was removed, John then set to work on some of the tiling. As that is my speciality, whilst I couldn’t physically help, I gave him my expert advice and words of wisdom…

And yes, we are still speaking to each other !!!!

Marie

New bathroom – part 1

2010-09-04T20:55:00.000+01:00

Because our bathroom was getting a little past its best, and not really ‘Marie’ friendly, we decided it was time for out with the old and in with the new.

So today John started by removing the old bath and the tiles.

Sadly due to all things medical I’m having to watch from the sidelines. However I did have my uses – my stairlift came in very handy for getting the broken tiles down stairs….

Marie

Crash, bang, wallop

2010-08-20T17:52:00.000+01:00

That’s what I did at 4am this morning…..

I got up out of bed to go to the loo and somehow lost my footing.

I stumbled into my bedside table and both me, the contents of the table and it ended up in a heap on the floor.

I sustained a bruised and sore hip from landing on stickies and a throbbing headache from hitting my face on the floor. My table sadly suffered a broken leg.

That’s the second time I’ve ‘kissed’ the bedroom carpet while going to the loo during the night. If I make it a hat trick I might be asking for a bedpan !!!!!

Marie

Every 'phone you'll ever need

2010-08-07T20:34:00.003+01:00

We've bought a new telephone. The man in the shop said it was "every 'phone you'll ever need".

How do you solve a problem like Marie

2010-08-06T10:40:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we had the builders in. Our friendly builder and his son were doing some repairs to our roof, ready for the winter, and also building two steps by the back door to make it easier for me to get out. They’re coming back in a couple of weeks to make the front of the house more ‘Marie’ friendly.

Earlier this morning the friendly builder called off for his ‘envelope’* and happened to ask if we knew anything about fruit. He’d got some fruit (not sure where from) but didn’t know what it was.

He had a couple in his pocket to show us and said they tasted a bit like a plum. Neither John or myself were sure what it was so I said I’d have a look through my cookery books to see what it was and give him a ring.

I went to one of my trusty cookery books and found the pages on fruit. Sure enough there was a picture of the friendly builders mystery fruit. It was a green gage and is a member of the plum family – hence why it tasted like one.

I rang the friendly builders wife and told her the good news as his wife had been concerned that they might have been inedible.

Problem solved…..

Marie

* his payment.

Newsround

2010-07-30T10:38:00.003+01:00

Here’s a quick roundup of what’s been happening in the BOGOF household since the last blog. Not a huge amount – hence the lack of blogs…

Went for my MRI scan and x-rays on my back (you can read all about it in the Joint Journal blog). Was told to contact the consultant’s secretary if I hadn’t received a follow up appointment two weeks after I’d had the scans.

As expected no appointment came so I rang the hospital. The scan still hadn’t been sent across to the consultant so until he’s looked at it an appointment can’t be made. Given that scans and x-rays are now on computer it’s inexcusable that it should take this long. All it needs is for the radiographer to press ‘send’….

For a while my mam has been saying it was a shame I wasn’t able to get out when she came to see me on a Friday as she could take me out for a walk in Wizzy. What she really meant was she was fed up of staying indoors and wanted to get out.

Last weekend was the airshow, (which meant that we would be prisoners in our own home due to over 1 million people descending on the area), plus it was John’s birthday on the Saturday. I asked my mam if she would take me to Sea Road on Friday to pay the newspapers and also to get a couple of items, which I couldn’t get from Morrisons the previous night, as I needed them for John’s birthday. You can read all about what happened shortly in the Joint Journal blog. All I will say is ‘never again’ !!!!!!!

In September John is spending some of his summer holidays putting in a new bathroom to make it more ‘Marie’ friendly. The new tiles have already arrived (the beauty of on-line shopping…..) and he’s already made a start on removing some of the old tiles.

So that’s about it.

Marie

Shake it all about

2010-07-09T11:59:00.000+01:00

Last night when we went shopping at Morrisons John drove into one of the disabled car parking bays. He then got out of the car and opened the boot to get Wizzy out.

The driver of a van, which was parked next to us in the disabled bay, took his blue badge off the dashboard and shook it at John, indicating that only blue badge holders were allowed to park there.

The little van man was too busy telling off John that he didn’t notice me putting my blue badge on the dashboard.

John ignored the little van man, who was still shaking his badge, and unloaded Wizzy from the boot. He then turned Wizzy to face the van and shook it a couple of times.

As we walked/wheeled passed the van, I turned my head and gave him a big sarcastic grin.

Something to look forward to

2010-07-06T10:19:00.000+01:00

Having not had a holiday last year (we thought I would be going into hospital because of my knee – we were partly right….) and are not having one this year (because things were up in the air about my hip and back), we decided it was time we had something to look forward to that wasn’t medical related.

Following my visit to see a back consultant last Thursday (the full story will appear in the Joint Journal shortly), surgery, (if it does happen) will be well into the future and there’s a strong possibility that I won’t be able to have a new hip put in.

This means that next year we’ll be hospital free. So yesterday I booked a cruise for next May.

We pick up the cruise at Lisbon, then it’s off to Portimao, Cadiz, Palma, Mahon, Corsica, Livorno, Portofino and finally Rome.

I won’t say we’re looking forward to it but we’ve already started the count down !!!!

Marie

Reporting in

2010-06-30T10:44:00.000+01:00

So what’s been happening in the BOGOF household these past couple of weeks. Not a great deal I’m afraid.

We went to the Goodfood Summer Show in Birmingham, which was a really good. As expected there were loads of things freebees to taste and drink. We also saw the Hairy Bikers giving a cookery demonstration. They were so funny.

It was a little busier than I would have liked, and as usual, Wizzy was invisible which was a bit annoying. Still, we did get our own back by running over peoples toes when they wouldn’t move out of the way….

Took delivery of a new bath aid (you can read all about it in the Joint Journal), so getting in and out of the bath is a little easier.

The Customer from Hell made a couple of appearances over none receipt of some vitamins.

Had a bit of a run in with my dentist (full details will be appearing in the Joint Journal in the next couple of days).

So other than that there’s nothing else to report.

Marie

Opps

2010-06-13T17:12:00.002+01:00

Last night John was making a batch of Pimms.

"One part Pimms", he said as he poured the Pimms into a measuring jug, "and three parts lemonade".
"Three parts lemonade", I replied, "don't you mean two parts lemonade".
"No", he said, "two parts would make it too strong".

So to those who read my comment on 'Summertime' and made some Pimms following my directions - sorry !!!!!

Marie

It’s French Jim but not as we know it

2010-06-09T10:16:00.000+01:00

Last night an advert for Peugeot cars came on the TV and it announced that any new cars bought in June would received a free mobile phone with SatNav.

“Will I get one of those”, I asked John.
“One of what”, he replied, looking up from the book he had been reading.
“The free mobile phone from Peugeot for every new car bought in June”.
“No”, he said, getting back to his book.
“Why not”, I replied, getting a little annoyed, “even though I don’t take delivery of my new car until September, the paperwork will show that I bought it in June”.
John sighed, “because you’re buying a Renault….”.

Summertime

2010-06-06T20:08:00.003+01:00

Today is overcast and it’s been raining, but yesterday was one of the first days this year that could reasonably be described as summery. So yesterday in the BOGOF household we saw the arrival of the First Pimms Of Summer.

It would be nice to say that we drank it on the terrace overlooking the formal gardens, but sadly we have neither. It was however a welcome reminder that winter is past.

Power to the people

2010-05-27T12:18:00.002+01:00

Yesterday I had a phone call from the hospital complaints department.

I had been given a new appointment of 1st July.

Nothing was mentioned about why I had been put back on the waiting list or even an apology for been given the wrong information.

However I was happy with the result.

The Patient from Hell 2 – the NHS 0

Marie

The Patient from Hell

2010-05-25T15:07:00.003+01:00

Yesterday I received a letter from the hospital to say that my appointment to see a consultant about my back on the 15th July had been cancelled, but they had given me an alternative date and time of 22nd June at 2.20pm.

As I would have preferred a morning appointment I rang the clinic earlier today and asked if there were any available.

Before the little reception woman looked for another time she cancelled June’s appointment, then said the next appointment she could give me was 27th July at 2.20pm.

I said that wasn’t any good so could I have the June’s appointment back.

No was the answer...

Because I was a new patient for that consultant and had ‘refused’ their appointment of 22nd June, I had to go back on to his waiting list. An appointment will be sent out when I got to the front of the queue.

To say I was not happy was an understatement !!!!

I was straight on to the hospitals complaints department and the Patient from Hell made an appearance.

I told them I thought it was extremely unfair to be put back on the waiting list when it was them who cancelled my appointment in the first place. I also pointed out that it was a bit rich to put in the letter that if the new appointment time wasn’t convenient, I had to let them know and they would arrange a new one.

The complaints officer agreed and said she would look into it and get back to me in the next couple of days.

The Patient from Hell 1 - The NHS 0

Marie

Four months today….

2010-05-15T20:16:00.001+01:00

…. And I’ll be the owner of a brand new Renault Clio.

Having started with a short list of four cars – Vauxhall Corsa, Peugeot 207, Ford Fiesta and Renault Clio, - it was whittled down to the 207 and the Clio.

This afternoon the Clio became the winner.

Roll on September 15th !!!!

Marie

Challenges update

2010-05-01T17:11:00.007+01:00

Back in January I set myself some challenges - to read two books a month, finish off the blankets that I was crocheting and knitting and complete the two projects I was cross stitching.

So far this year I’ve managed to read:

Home in time for breakfast – a WW1 diary
MASH an army surgeon in Korea
Rescue me – my life with the Battersea dogs
Voices from the Home Front
Remember, Remember, the 5th November (history of Britain in bite size chunks)

Not quite the two a month I was hoping for, but considering I’m a slow reader, I don’t think that’s too bad.

As you can see I’ve finished my crochet blanket.

I also finished chart number three (out of nine) on one of my cross stitch projects.

Here’s to the next few months…

Marie

OT

2010-04-24T17:16:00.000+01:00

Yesterday morning we had a visit from an Occupational Therapist.

When I was in hospital a referral was sent to Social Services for an OT to come and assess me at home. They had only just got round to dealing with it now…

He’s going to arrange for a bath lift so I’ll be able to get in/out of the bath easier than what I currently do - which is slid in, then on the count of three John helps to heave me out.

One of the biggest problems is getting in and out of the house, so he’s going to arrange for a surveyor to and see if a ramp can be built at the front and back.

It’s taken a while but it looks like things are finally moving so I can have a bit of my independency back. Yippee !!!!

Marie

The return of the Joint Journal

2010-04-23T10:53:00.000+01:00

Just to let you know that the Joint Journal is back….

Marie

Goodfood leaves a nasty taste

2010-04-20T13:48:00.000+01:00

Due to the problems with my back, and that I might have surgery on it later this year, we’ve decided to put our holidays on hold until we know what’s happening.

With nothing to look forward to (we were to be going on a cruise this year…) John suggested we go away for a few days sometime in early summer.

The Summer Goodfood Show is taking place at the NEC in June, and one of the chef’s theatre sessions will be the Hairy Bikers. I think the Hairy’s are brilliant so John suggested we incorporate the NEC in with our couple of days away.

I rang the NEC goodfood show ticket hotline to arrange the tickets. I gave ‘Barry’ (he sounded just like Barry from the Iceland adverts….) my Goodfood magazine’s subscribers code which entitled me to reduced costs. I then advised him that I would be in Wizzy*, which according to their website, gave wheelchair users ‘carer’s complementary free admission.

‘Barry’ explained I wasn’t entitled to any magazines subscribers reductions because I had already received a reduction due to the ‘wheelchair complementary free admission’.

I haven’t written a ‘customer from Hell’ letter for ages !!!!

Marie

* the name I’ve given to my wheelchair

Normal service has resumed

2010-04-06T11:04:00.000+01:00

Now that conference is over for another year we can now get back to blogging again.

Having been constantly nagged at, we’ve finally brought ourselves into the 21st century and joined facebook. As one of our friends said, ‘about bloody time’… I’m still not that convinced about it so we’ll see what happens.

There’s been a few changes on the medical front since I last blogged. My back is still causing me problems. The strong painkillers my orthopaedic consultant prescribed for me weren’t doing anything, so my GP upped the dosage and gave me some slow releasing ones as well. They’re a Class B drug so there’s a mountain of paperwork to sign when I get them delivered*. The side-effects aren’t that good. They make me quite tired (I could sleep for England…) and quite spaced out, which is really weird. Still at least they seem to be dulling the pain a little.

I saw my orthopaedic consultant recently and he’s going to refer me to a spine specialist in the hope he can do something for my back.

The news on getting a replacement hip is still up in the air. The plastic surgeon, who I saw a few weeks ago, sent a long rambling letter to my consultant saying he wasn’t prepared to do a skin graft, yet in the final paragraph said if he (my consultant) wanted to go ahead with the hip replacement, he would do it.

Without the skin graft I can’t have a replacement hip, so my consultant is going to have a chat with the plastic man to see exactly what the score is.

I’m afraid my aim to read two books a month have fallen by the wayside a little. During February and March I only managed to read ‘Rescue me – my life at Battersea Dogs home’ and ‘The voices from the Home Front’. I did though manage to finish my crochet blanket.

Marie

*my local chemist arranges all my repeat and extra prescriptions with my GP surgery

Still here

2010-03-24T10:50:00.000Z

Just a quick blog to say we're still here.

Normal blog service will resume shortly.

Marie

Spooky

2010-02-25T13:20:00.000Z

For the past few days I’ve been watching the first couple of episodes from series one of Torchwood on the DVD player.

Yesterday afternoon I settled down to watch episode six. It started off ok - the voice of Jack saying ‘Torchwood. Outside the Government, beyond the Police…’

The ‘scary’ music was playing and a woman’s mobile phone rang. She answered it but no words could be heard. The music continued and I could hear her car coming to a stop on the road. Again she opened her mouth but no words came out.

I skipped through various scenes and the same thing happened. I tried the next episode but it was still the same.

I even tried the episodes I had watch the day before. The same thing happened.

Thinking there might be a problem with the DVD player I loaded one of my ‘Family Guy’ DVD’s in to the player. That worked perfectly….

Last night after we had watched a film on the DVD player John tried to see if he could get Torchwood to work. The same thing to him.

This morning I decided to try Torchwood on my new TV/DVD player which is in my work room. I’ve played a DVD on the new TV before, but this time I couldn’t find the DVD slot.

It was ridiculous. Of course it was there. I spent ages pressing buttons on the remote trying to get the slot to open, then running my hands over the TV to try and find where it was. It was not there ….

Spooky !!!!!!!!!!!!

Snow

2010-02-16T20:43:00.006Z

You think we've had it bad do you ?

Well here are a few pictures from Canada and Russia to show you what REAL snow looks like. But first, here is how they clear snow from their roof in Italy, the land where health and safety is unknown.

Now to Canada and a look at the Labrador Highway

And here's why the 'phones in Russia don't always work as well as they should.

And finally a few pictures showing why you should never leave your car out in the snow ...

It’s back

2010-02-15T20:32:00.002Z

Remember the problem I had with my back when I was in hospital, well it’s returned…

Not the weekend just gone, but the one before that, we were in Scotland finalising things for Renfrew conference. We think it was either the long car journey or the hotel bed that set my back off again.

Last Monday I started to get pains in my lower back and both of my legs, and as the week progressed, they gradually got worse.

Now I can hardly move first thing on a morning as the pain is excruciating. It is not nice….

This afternoon I was back at the hospital to see my orthopaedic consultant. As usual his opening lines were “How are you doing”.
My reply was “I was fine until Monday…”.

He explained as I now had a weakness in my back, the disks would continue to displace and that the only cure would be surgery on my spine. Wonderful !!!!

Thankfully that’s not a route he nor I want to take right now. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about.

He’s prescribed me some stronger painkillers in the hope that will ease it a little and fingers crossed it will settle down like it did when I was in hospital.

He then asked how I got on when I saw the Plastic Man last week. I explained that I wasn’t impressed with him and that he didn’t think it was possible for him to do the plastic surgery what my consultant wanted.

“Did he now!”, replied my consultant.

I don’t think I’d like to be in the Plastic Man’s shoes when he next has a chat with my consultant...

Marie

NHS – otherwise known as useless

2010-02-09T20:50:00.000Z

Yesterday I had an appointment at the hospital to see a plastic surgeon. The infection in my hip had eaten everything in it’s path – skin, bone, muscle, even metal !!!

Consequently once my metal hip (or what was left of it….) had been removed, all that was left was a huge cavity.

In order to try and put another hip in, my orthopaedic consultant arranged for me to see the plastic man as I was going to need a skin graft on my hip and a muscle transplant to replace what had been eaten.

To cut a long story short, I wasn’t impressed with the plastic man. According to my consultant they had had several long chats about what various procedures would be done. You could have fooled me…

If it wasn’t for my name being on the file that was in his hand, I would have said he had the wrong patient. I also know it was the right plastic man as he introduced himself when he first came into the room.

To be honest it was pretty much a waste of time. It’ll be interesting to see what he actually wrote in his notes.

I’ll find out when I next go to see my consultant. It’s supposed to be on Monday. However I’ve been trying for several weeks to get the appointment time moved back half an hour as I can’t make it at the time they’ve given me.

Whenever I’ve rang the reception to get the time changed they said that there were no later appointments, so I’d have to keep ringing back every few days to see if any later ones have become available. This has been going on for over eight weeks…

I rang them this morning and was told the latest appointment they could give me was 2.15pm. I explained that was still no good as the earliest I could get there was 2.30pm.

They couldn’t give me anything later as that would mean the consultant would be hanging around until I got there.

I was to ring them on Friday and if the latest time they could give me was still 2.15pm, they would change my appointment time of 1.50pm to 2.15pm then make a note on my file that I would be fifteen minutes late.

You couldn't make it up !!!!!!!

Challengers done so far

2010-02-01T09:43:00.001Z

In January I set myself some challengers for 2010. They were to read two books a month, complete my two cross stitch projects and finish my crochet and knitting blankets.

I read the two books: ‘Home in time for breakfast – a WW1 diary’ and ‘MASH an army surgeon in Korea’.

I’ve done a little bit of one of the cross stitch projects. The other one is on black fabric, and as my eyes aren’t as good as they used to be, I need good sunlight when I’m working on it.

I’ve now got only 39 ½ knitted squares and seven more ‘rounds’ to do on the blankets.

Here’s to February’s challengers.

Marie

A whim away

2010-01-29T10:12:00.000Z

16 years ago today John and myself got ‘officially’ engaged.

Although John has asked me to marry him a few days earlier, we chose 29th as that was the day we were going to the Metro centre to buy my engagement ring.

We had told the two sets of parents a couple of days earlier. John’s mam and dad were all congratulations and lots of hugs and kisses.

Mine were slightly restraint… My dad didn’t say anything, but that was just normal as he wasn’t a man of many words. My mam’s first words were not ‘congratulations’ or anything like that. Oh no. We’re talking about my mam here. Her words were ‘ Well, bang goes my new kitchen”.

I can’t remember exactly what I said in reply to that but it was something on the lines of ‘thanks for your congratulations. Much appreciated’.

She continued her show of congratulations the following day by saying that my wanting to get married was just a whim.

I’m pleased to say that after nearly 15 years of marriage my ‘whim’ hasn’t worn off. John however has asked that I give him 50 years notice when I wish to end my whim.

I think that’s fair enough….

Marie

Challenges

2010-01-24T22:57:00.001Z

I decided that this year I’ll set myself a couple of challenges.

I’ve got loads of unread books so I’m going to try and read two books a month. Ok that may not seem like much of a challenge, however I’m a really slow reader so it takes me ages to get through a book. I’ve already finished one this month and have 100 pages to go on the second one.

The next set of challenges is to complete all my unfinished needlework:

I’ve got 10 ‘rounds’ to do on my crotchet blanket.

I’ve got another 44 eight inch squares to knit then stitch them together to form a blanket.

I’ve got two cross stitch projects to complete. Both have nine pages of charts and I’ve done four and half out of 18….

Looks like it’s going to be a busy year !!!!

Marie

Joint Journal

2010-01-19T21:08:00.000Z

Just a quick message to say don't forget to have a look at my Joint Journals which officially began today (www.joint-journals.blogspot.com or click on the link at the side of the page).

Sorry about keep plugging it but I'm hoping you'll find it an interesting read.

Marie

All can be revealed

2010-01-12T20:00:00.000Z

Beginning Tuesday 19th January 2010

The Joint Journals

Being the full and on-going story of a joint and it’s owner.

For more details visit http://www.joint-journals.blogspot.com

Reporting in

2010-01-08T09:24:00.000Z

Just a quick blog to say we’re still here.

Things have been pretty quite in the BOGOF household, hence no blogs.

Off to cuddle under a blanket to keep warm.

Brrrrrr, don’t like this global warming !!!!

Marie

Seasons greetings

2009-12-24T17:09:00.001Z

Just a quick blog to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Marie

Why, why, why Delilah

2009-12-16T16:58:00.000Z

Last night Gillian my hairdresser came.

She hadn’t been since August so as you can imagine my hair was a bit on the long side.

I decided to get it cut really short. I would have liked it longer but at the moment it’s too much for me to manage.

All last night I was freezing. I had two blankets wrapped round me, two pairs of long socks on, a hot water bottle to cuddle in to and the large collar of my dressing gown pulled over my head, all to keep me warm.

I think it must have been my Samson moment…

Marie

Wot no blogs

2009-12-13T15:55:00.001Z

Sorry folks for the lack of blogs but there hasn’t been anything to report.

Hopefully we’ll have something to blog about in the next couple of days.

Gosh we really do lead such exciting lives…

Marie