Malta

A late blog today because we’ve been busy exploring Malta.

More of that in a moment, but first, yesterday we did something neither of us has ever done before. We saw Africa. OK, it was only the coast of Tunisia on the horizon, but Africa is Africa.
Today we docked in the Grand Harbour in Valetta. This is another place where the town is at the top of a hill. Here is the view from our veranda this morning

And this is our next door neighbour, from the Portuguese navy.

We walked up to the top of the town and took this picture of the ship on the way down …

… plus some of the harbour …

… together with one of the locals.

And finally, here’s Marie enjoying the view of Valetta from the Veranda.

Must dash as we’re about to leave port and we want to watch.

Marie and John

All At Sea

Hello, we’re back with more adventures of the BOGOF household on holiday.

We left Mahon at 6pm yesterday and should arrive in Valetta at 8 am tomorrow.

For those of you with GPS our current position is 37:50:28 N, 8:51:51 E. For those without, we’re midway between the south coast of Sardinia and the coast of Tunisia.

This is the view from our Veranda this morning.

I think the view of Mahon from the ship has to be one of the best on the island. This is the view from the pool deck.

Just to prove that we did walk all the way up, here is Marie at the top.

And here is a view of the ship, the Silver Whisper, also from the top.

And this is me, as taken by Marie, before we left Mahon.

After breakfast yesterday we spent time blogging, then we went into town. We returned to have lunch, then lazed around by the pool until afternoon tea. After that we got ready for the Captains cocktail reception, followed by dinner then on to the theatre for a show.

If you are thinking that life revolves around food you would be right. You can have coffee and Danish pastries from 6:30 in the observation lounge (this is above the bridge and has large glass windows and a GPS display) then breakfast is 7:30 to 10:00. At 11:00 they serve boullion and crackers in the panorama (this is at the rear of the ship. In the evenings it becomes a cocktail lounge where Henry plays the piano). At 11:30 they open the poolside grill. Then lunch is at 12:00. Today it’s a galley lunch so we get to go right inside and meet the chefs. Afternoon tea isn’t until 4:00 pm, but you can always go back to the poolside grill (and bar) until dinner which is served between 7:30 and 9:30. It’s great that you can just turn up without a reservation, and either eat alone, or take a chance and sit with someone you’ve never met.

Well, it’s 10 O’clock so we’re off for a wander round the ship. More tomorrow

Marie and John

We've Arrived

Yes, we’re here, and so is our luggage – Result.


So what’s happened since we set off. The flight to Heathrow was quiet. We sat behind Alan Shearer who was on his way to do his football pundit bit for the BBC at Wembley. We didn’t eat chicken at the hotel. But we found some familiar faces in the bathroom.

Heathrow security was a revelation. At Newcastle we had to take off our shoes and belts, and the computer out of its case. At Heathrow there were none of these. Either they’re very lax, or their scanners are much much more sophisticated than those at Newcastle. Hopefully the latter.

The journey to Barcelona was uneventful and we boarded the ship at 3 pm. This was the view looking back from our veranda.

Dinner was it’s usual best, and before that we attended the welcome party on the pool deck where we drank way too much Pimms. As we left our berth the ships band (well, a quartet actually) struck up “Anchors Aweigh”. Then they played “Y Viva Espana”. All the British laughed at the irony, and the Americans couldn’t understand why.

We’re currently in Mahon and about to go ashore. This is the view from our Veranda.

More tomorrow.

Marie and John

A life on the ocean wave

By the time you read this, we'll hopefully be on our way. Tonight will be spent at Heathrow staying at the same hotel as the famous "chicken conference".

Tomorrow we'll fly out to Barcelona, where we'll hopefully be reunited with our luggage which we will entrust to the tender mercy of British Airways at Newcastle airport this morning. We're flying in to terminal five so there's some cause for concern. The Barcelona flight leaves from terminal one so who knows where the luggage might end up.

From there on it's a life on the ocean wave for the Bogof household.

The ship has wi-fi so we've decided to be geeky and take the laptop. This way we can blog with pictures during the cruise.

Will the luggage turn up. Will we have stuff confiscated at security. Will the flight be delayed. Will we get chicken to eat at the hotel tonight.

More news tomorrow.

Typical

It’s two days to our cruise and what have I got – a stinking cold ! ! ! It started late on Friday with a sore throat which turned into the dreaded cold. Perfect timing…

We spent this afternoon packing and given what happened last time* we’re taking no chances so have packed extra clothes into our hand luggage.

John weighed the cases and I’m getting a little concerned as they’re not that heavy. What have we forgotten ! ! !

Marie


*we arrived in Barcelona but our suitcases didn’t. Thankfully they arrived the next day.

Double take

As you know we’re off on our cruise shortly – one week and five days ! ! !

With the exception of our cruise to Monaco, this is the first time we have booked our cruises through a travel company. Previously we have booked direct with Silversea. We won’t be doing it again…

The travel company were cheaper than Silversea but we have had nothing but hassle with them. So much so that the Customer from Hell had to make an appearance and told them that if the problem wasn’t resolved, I would be taking the matter up with ABTA. It was sorted within 24 hours.

As we had completely lost all faith and trust in the travel company we requested that all correspondence, including our tickets, be sent direct to us from Silversea and not the company. They assured us this would happen.

On Wednesday our tickets arrived and guess where they had come from, - the travel company. We were not amused….

Yesterday a special delivery parcel arrived direct from Silversea - with our tickets ! ! !

We now have two lots of airline tickets, cruise tickets, even Silversea leather luggage labels. Sadly though they’re identical and not for another cruise.

Given the incompetence of the travel company that wouldn’t have come as no surprise….

Marie

Conference venues

Yes – we’re back from our wandering.

Since Saturday we’ve covered over 800 miles to look at three venues, two of which are possibles for spring conference.

Saturday saw us heading off to Swindon to look at the Hilton. This has the “wow” when you walk in, and is in a great location, about 200 yards from the M4. It has overspill hotels nearby, and also some shopping. The price is excellent and there are no single room supplements.

On the down side, you have to pay £22.50 for a bottle of wine (though we may find a way to ease the pain) and some of the conference rooms are a bit of a tight squeeze.

Sunday was The Ramada in Maidstone. A totally different kind of hotel, set in 20 acres of parkland with a lake and tennis courts. Inside it doesn’t have the wow of the Hilton, and looks a little tired in places though the bedrooms are new and of a very high standard. The conference facilities are great but will cost more than Swindon A bottle of wine only costs £14, but the location isn’t as good. It’s close to the M20 but there’s nothing around. No shops and no overspill hotels.

So now we have a dilemma. Swindon or Maidstone. And next week we’re off to Glasgow to see two more.

Any preferences ...

John

Dieting in reverse

On Friday my mam and I when shopping to the Metro Centre. I needed a couple of things for our cruise (four weeks and three days…) and also some new bras.

I know M&S sometimes gets a bad press when it comes to measuring for bras but I’ve always found them to ok.

While I was waiting my turn to be measured (they were busy) we had a look at the various non wired bras (can’t stand wired…) and I found some styles that I liked and that came in the size that I was expecting to be, given that I had lost 12 lbs in weight.

‘Pauline’ shouted out my name and the first thing she said was ‘I’ve had you before and if I remember, I had problems finding you a bra….’ She was right. See ‘What no blog - March 11 2006’.

She took the first measurement.
Pauline: What were you previously.
Me: 34DD.
Pauline: You’re still a 34.

She took the second measurement.
Pauline: You’re in-between a cup size.
Me: Excellent so I’m back to a 34D.
Pauline: No, you’re in-between a 34E and a 34F.
Me: But I’ve lost 12 lbs ! ! ! I was 34DD before I went on a diet.

As the bra’s I’d been looking at earlier didn’t come in industrial strength sizes, I had to go to the bullet proof, passion killer range.

I think Pauline must have felt sorry for me as she came back with the least offensive ones they had, which to be fair, were rather nice.

Given that I’d like to lose some more weight, I wonder what size I’ll be then – 34G…

Marie

We’ve bin robbed again

I don’t know what it is with our neighbours but for some reason they seem to like both our wheelie bin and our recycle black box.

Our brand new recycle box got swiped two weeks after we got a replacement for the one that was stolen. We didn’t dare phone the council to ask for another replacement in case they thought we were stock piling them.

So for several weeks we just used an old wine box then gave a new home to an abandoned battered box that had been left unused and unwanted in the back lane for several weeks.

This morning when I went to go to my mams I found that our bin had been swiped.

I can understand people taking in the wrong bin by mistake as they all look alike, but ours had our address on the front and back painted in large letters and numbers.

Come bin out night next Thursday we’ll be kidnapping it back ! ! !

Marie

No your eyes don’t deceive you

Yes, I have put fingers to keyboard…

The problem with the BOGOF household is we’re really rubbish at keeping a diary. Plus there hasn’t been anything exciting to report.

I’ve been spending most of my time making shirts for our cruise – 5 weeks and counting ! ! !

Last Friday while I was at my mam’s I had to borrow her new sewing machine (the one we bought her for Christmas) to sew the button holes as my machine is having a temper tantrum and won’t let me stitch them.

My mam then decided she liked one of shirts and asked if I could make her one as I had some spare fabric. Four shirts done, only two more to make.

Last weekend we were in Scunthorpe for a conference team meeting. In the next couple of weeks we’re off on our travels again (and I don’t mean on our cruise. Did I tell you it was 5 weeks and counting…) This coming bank holiday weekend we’re off to Swindon and then Maidstone to have a look at two hotels for spring 2010 conference. Then the weekend after that we’re up in Glasgow to look at two hotels for spring 2011.

While I was on the BA website this morning filling in the required passenger information report for our cruise, I checked our flight details and we’ll be using the dreaded terminal 5 ! ! ! Thankfully it’s only to and from Newcastle and from Rome. Our Barcelona flight is from terminal 1.

Five weeks and counting :-)

Marie

Sorry part 3

My third ‘sorry’ was to the two bus spotters* in the Cliff Pub.

As I mentioned Thursday I like my coke really cold so get a separate glass of ice to pour the coke over the ice.

One Saturday night when we were in the Cliff, my glass of ice had quite a bit of water in it. As I didn’t want to dilute my coke I needed somewhere to get rid of the excess water.

One of the bus spotters finished his pint then said to the other one, who had about a third of a pint left, “are you ready”. The other one nodded and they both left the lounge.

So I went over to the table were the bus spotters had been sitting and poured the excess ice water into the glass which had the lager in it.

About five minutes later they returned ! ! !

The one who’s lager I had watered down picked up his glass and stared at it. He then said to his friend that his glass was fuller than he had remembered, to which his friend told him not to be so stupid…

Marie

* they were two men who talked of nothing but buses all night. Ask Chris as he’s been in the Cliff when they were there - and experienced them in bus spotting mode ! ! !

Sorry part 2

My second ‘sorry’ was to two members of Radio Sunderland for leaving an empty bottle of Champagne outside of their room at the Plymouth hospital radio conference.

John had been given a bottle of fizzy for his 40th birthday and up until that time hadn’t had a chance to drink it.

Plymouth is quite a distance away from Sunderland so we decided to break the journey by staying a couple of nights each side of the conference in Stratford upon Avon.

As it was our first ‘dirty weekend’ away together we thought it would be an ideal time to drink the fizzy so took the bottle with us to Stratford.

We couldn’t find anywhere to dispose of the empty bottle so had no option but to take it with us to Plymouth.

I like to drink my coke extremely cold so whenever we were out anywhere I would always ask for a separate glass of ice so I could pour the coke onto the ice.

The hotel in Plymouth had an ice making machine so it was perfect for the cans of coke we brought with us. However there was one small problem, we didn’t have anything to up the ice into. That was until we spied the barman put a wine bucket on the bar. As soon as his back was turned we swiped it…

Not only did we have a fizzy bottle to get rid of but a wine bucket as well. No problem. We decided to put it outside the room of the two females members from Radio Sunderland who luck would have it had the room opposite us.

We had arranged to all meet up for breakfast so they were coming out of their room at the same time as us, so too was another member from Radio Sunderland who had his room just along the corridor.

He took one look at the fizzy bottle and bucket and demanded to know what they had been up to that night.

They pleaded their innocence several times over but he was having none of it and kept going on, and on and on about it all weekend…

Marie

Sorry

A couple of years ago Ken Bruce on his Radio 2 programme had a slot called ‘sorry’ where people wrote in and ask for forgiveness for something they had done. I had three ‘sorry’s’ read out. Here’s the first one.

It was to say sorry to the owner of Castle Howard as I had vomited all over his marble floor. Before anyone says anything I wasn’t suffering from a hangover ! ! !

I’d just had bought my first car so my mam, dad and me decided to go away for a couple of days to Scarborough. On our last night there mam thought it would be a good idea if we got some fish and chips and ate them over looking the beach.

Unfortunately both me and my dad ended up with food poisoning from the take-away so we were not feeling in the best of health the next morning.

My mam decided that a visit to Castle Howard on our way home would take our minds off feeling ill. We must have only been in the building ten minutes when I really didn’t feel well at all. I explained this to my mam and her reply was ‘of course you’re not feeling sick…’.

I pleaded with her that I really wasn’t feeling very well so reluctantly she found a guide and said to her, ‘my daughter is feeling… no make that, my daughter has been sick’.

Yep, I was re-enacting the scene from the Exorcist all over the marble floor and became a tourist attraction as visitors stopped and watched ! ! !

We were quickly taken to a private loo where I could continued my throwing up.

Thankfully I think my ‘sorry’ worked as we’ve been back since it was read out and weren’t banned from entering…

Marie

Pinkies

21:02 From : Emma To : Don
R u having fun?

21:05 From : Don To : Emma
Hot food. Where are you

21:13 From : Emma To : Don
A nice quiet gay bar, good food. mikes a bit worried about some of the crumpet, eyeing him up! lucky him! hows June and Diane doing? em x

21:18 From : Don To : Emma
Really - fancy that :-) Diane really enjoying it - food v good. And June ok too ! Cu soon. Dx.

21:20 From : Marie To : Don
Need to talk with Emma or Mike. Are they with you

21:27 From : Don To : Marie
No – they together elsewhere have you E’s phone number

21:29 From : Marie To : Don
Yes but she’s not answering. Do you know where they are

21:32 From : Don To : Marie
Sorry – no. we’re all going to Yates at 10. I’ll tell her

21:36 From : Emma To : Don
Having great fun here at pinkys bar, might not make yates's, soz. em x

21:40 From : Don To : Emma
Mrs H is looking you or Mike. I said nothing ! We'll maybe catch up with you there :-)

Busy, busy, busy

Sadly there hasn’t been any blogs for several days as we’ve been pretty busy with Leeds conference.

As expected we were working most of Easter. We did manage to get a couple of hours break from conference on the Saturday. My car had to go into the garage to get its brakes checked out as they’ve been feeling really heavy. They could find nothing wrong with them. I’m not convinced.

Then it was off to my mams so John could replace her kitchen tap.

I’m afraid the diet has gone out of the window. We ate all the chocolate that had been stashed away from Christmas, plus with it being a bank holiday, we always have food that is normally banned (bacon sandwiches, curry with nan bread, spag bol with garlic bread, sausages and chips).

Hopefully we won’t have put on too many pounds as John was only three away from his first treat and me, I was only ½ pound ! ! !

Looks like I’ll have to wait a little longer before I can watch my new Camberwick Green DVD…

Marie

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible

Apologies for the lack if blogging (bloggage ? bloggery ?) this past week. I’m afraid that it’s all the fault of conference and the calendar.

If we’re to have any time to ourselves over Easter we must get stuff sorted now.

As I write this the printer by my side is turning out conference brochures and Marie is grappling with the table plan for the Gala Dinner. On the bench are menus, place cards, badges, general meeting minutes and goodness knows what. And we’ve had to answer a sudden rush of e-mails too.

The good news is that it’s looking like we’ll get done and still have time for chocolate at Easter.

Must away now to put some badges in their holders.

See (most) of you in Leeds

John

Only Three Weeks To Leeds

First of all the important bit. Marie’s mouth is much better and she’s back on solid food.

Other than that it’s been a week of getting conference sorted. We had our final meeting with the Queens (Hotel) two weeks ago and had out meeting with the rest of the team last week-end.

Bookings have gone as well as you might expect, and we’ve had to turn people away because we’ve run out of rooms.

Seminars have been finalised and trips & visits are almost there.

Menu’s are sorted and ready to be printed. So too are place cards and badges. The brochure is almost complete, as is the booking form for Solihull. I think the latter may surprise a few people.

There’s lots of nice things for conference packs hidden in the bottom of the wardrobe. The Dining room is full of folders and notepads.

And next weekend is the famous “printing party”. We’re holding it a week early so nothing gets in the way of Easter and all that chocolate …

John

Toothache update

What a couple of days I’ve had with my tooth ! ! !

I knew abscesses could be painful but I never expected anything like what I’ve just had.
Thursday night sleep was about three hours.

Friday nights Chinese consisted of rice, four bits of lemon chicken and three prawns, all cut up into tiny bits. Again only about two hours sleep that night.

On Saturday we had to be up at 5.30am to be in Leicester for a conference team meeting. The original plan was to stay the night at the hotel, however having paced the floor that night because of the pain, I thought it best if we just came home.

The painkillers I were taking took half an hour to work, then only lasted 90 minutes. That’s fine if you can take some more straight away but when you’re only allowed four lots in a 24 hour period, it’s not so good…

By now my mouth and gums had swollen quite nicely so I resembled Quasimodo’s sister.
Saturday night was the worst. Having worked out when I could next take some painkillers, I took some at 12.30am. Half an hour later and I was still in agony. An hour later, still nothing. At 2.30am I was crying on the shoulder of John as the pain was unbearable. I now know why people accidentally overdose on painkillers as I would have willingly swallowed the whole packet if it mean getting some pain relief.

I decamped downstairs as I didn't want to disturb John by tossing and turning the rest of the night.

Sunday was pretty much the same as Saturday in that I was counting down the minutes to when I could take some painkillers. I went to bed expecting it to be another bad night but other than having to take some tablets at 2am, I slept right through until 6.30am.

I was to have phoned the dentist this morning to see if I could get an emergency appointment to see Kim, but as the swelling in my face had gone down and the pain was now a dull throbbing, which was manageable without painkillers, I didn't bother. I did have to take some painkillers this afternoon as it flared up again but so far that's been it.

Here's hoping the worst is over....

Marie

Couldn’t wait

This morning I went to the dentist. Last night the toothache was really bad. Even medicinal didn’t help ! ! !

It turns out that I have an abscess on my tooth. Unlike John’s last year (same tooth as it happens…) Kim, my dentist, didn’t want to remove it so she opened it up and cleaned out the infection.

I’m on antibiotics for seven days. Thankfully not the kind where you can’t have alcohol. It’s bad enough being in pain without having prohibition enforced…

My tooth and the surrounding area are still pretty painful and I’m told will be for a couple of days so I’m on a soft food diet.

Looks like it’ll be yogurt for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Still it’ll do wonders for my diet. Only one more pound till my first treat.

Marie

Throbbing

That’s what my mouth is doing at the moment.

I suspect the cause is a mouth ulcer rather than actual toothache. However the symptoms are much the same so if it’s still hurting on Monday I’ll have to go to the dentist.

I was awake this morning, thanks to the throbbing, around the time of the earthquake but didn’t notice or hear anything. Hopefully tonight’s doze of medicinal will help me sleep a bit better.

Busy making my dress for Leeds. Gertie is currently modeling it at the moment and say the pins don’t hurt a bit…

Marie

To Leeds and back

Yesterday we had to get up early. 5.46 to be exact. It was meant to be 5.45 but I went past it while I was setting the alarm… I only recognise one 5.46 and that’s not it ! ! !

We had to be in Leeds for an early morning meeting with the Queens hotel to go through the final bits and pieces for conference. Normally we would have taken the car and had the pleasure of an extra hour in bed. However Trainline were doing really good deals to Leeds so we just had to take them up on their offer.

We had half an hour before our meeting so decided to see how far it was to the Met hotel. We’re having to use it as overspill for our delegates as the Queens can’t give us any more rooms. It took us less than four minutes to walk there and given that it was my slow walk, I think we can call that pretty close to the Queens.

The meeting with the hotel went well. It was really making sure we’re all ‘singing from the same hymn sheet’, sorting out menus, timings etc. Seems like nothing but it still took over an hour and a half.

There was just time for John to take a couple of photographs of the front of the Queens hotel for the conference brochure, then it was off to have an early lunch before we caught our train home. It was after all a long time since we had breakfast…

It was a toss up between a sandwich at Subway’s or a Big Mac and fries from McDonalds. The burger won.

Just checked the calendar and it’s four weeks this Friday – scary ! ! !

Marie

North East divide

We got a letter from the council to say that they were changing the day when our bins would be emptied, from a Thursday to a Friday. They were also changing the day and week when our recycling box would be emptied also.

On the Wednesday night we noticed that some people had put out their bins in the back lane and just thought that they had forgotten about the change of day as it often happens. There are some who put their bins out on Christmas eve expecting them to be emptied on Christmas day when it happens to fall on a Thursday…

The next day I happened to be in the main bedroom and saw that the bin men had in fact been. I rang the council to see if there had been a mistake and our bins should have been out that day but no, we were now a Friday collection. Sure enough the next day our bin was emptied.

We’re not sure why the council has decided to use our back lane as the new dividing line. Maybe they thought it was more economical to empty the houses facing north and South on a Thursday and East and West a Friday.

Marie

Getting to know your friends

Gottle emailed me the 2008 edition of Getting To Know Your Friends and instead of emailing it to friends, I thought I’d put it into a blog. Well, the friends I’d be emailing it to will be reading the blog so I’m killing two birds with one stone…

1. What time did you get up this morning? 8.14am

2. Diamonds or pearls? If someone is buying then I’ll have either

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Chicken Run and before that Jurassic Park – can’t you tell I don’t go to the cinema that often…

4. What is your favourite TV show? M*A*S*H

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Frosties, muesli or toast if I’m suffering from a hangover

6. What is your middle name? Don’t have one

7. What food do you dislike? Trifle

8. What is your favourite CD at the moment? I don’t really have a favourite. The one I’m playing whilst cooking is ‘Chess’

9. What kind of car do you drive? A Nissan Note

10. Favourite sandwich? A tuna stottie from the local Deli

11. What characteristic do you despise? Anyone who is arrogant

12. Favourite item of clothing? T-shirts

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on holiday, where would you go? The Mediterranean on board a Silversea cruise ship

14. What colour is your bathroom? Rice pudding and platinum - in English that’s cream and pale blue.

15. Favourite brand of clothing? Marks and Spencer’s

16. Where would you retire to? North Yorkshire

17. What was your most memorable birthday? My 21st as I celebrated it in four different countries

18. Favourite sport to watch? Tennis

19. Favourite saying? I don’t have one but I’m saying ‘no bother’ quite a bit at the moment

20. When is your birthday? September 9th

21. Are you a morning person or a night person? Morning unless I’ve had alcohol the night before…

22. What is your shoe size? 3

23. Pets? None – I’m not allowed

24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? I’m pregnant – only joking ! ! ! !

25. What did you want to be when you were little? Don’t think I had anything in mind

26. What are you now? A retired civil servant

27. What is your favourite candy? Chocolate and lots of it

28. What is your favourite flower? Poppy

29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? 28th May

30. What church do you attend? I’m afraid I don’t go to church

31 . What is your full name? Marie Harper

32. What are you listening to right now? ‘007 Audio for the 80’s’ on my internet radio

33. What was the last thing you ate? Bendick’s honeycomb mint

34. Do you wish on stars? No

35. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be? Blue

36. How is the weather right now? I don’t know because it’s dark….

37. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My mam

38. Favourite soft drink? Ribena

39. Favourite restaurant? The Paradise Garden

40. Hair colour? Dark brown with grey bits

41. Favourite day of the year? Christmas day

42. What was your favourite toy as a child? Sindy doll

43. Summer or winter? Summer

44. Hugs or Kisses? Why choose when you can have both...

45. Chocolate or Vanilla? If it’s ice cream then either. However if the chocolate ice cream contains mint then that wins hands downs

46. When was the last time you cried? When the Alien died in last weeks episode of Torchwood – yes I know I’m sad ! ! !

47. What is under your bed? Dust and my dressmaking board

48. What did you do last night? Had a bath

49. Favourite smell? A fruit cake baking in the oven

50. What are you afraid of? Thunder and lightning and loud noises

51. Plain, buttered, or salted Popcorn? Plain or salted. However my favourite is caramel coated popcorn – yum, yum

52. How many keys on your key ring? Six. One of which I have no idea what it’s for

53. How many years at your current job? Been a retired civil servant since July 2002

54. Favourite day of the week? Friday

55. How many towns have you lived in? None. Houghton-le-Spring is a village and Sunderland is a city – sorry for being pedantic…

56. Do you make friends easily? Sometimes. I’m more at ease with my close friends as I’m quite shy – yes I know it’s hard to believe ! ! !

Marie

I’ve just checked…

…when we last blogged and I can’t believe it was over a week ago ! !

So what’s to report. We finished decorating the bathroom and have worked out a date when we’re going to give it a major revamp – Easter next year.

Been busy sewing for the past few days. I ordered some sewing patterns from America (they’re much cheaper than in the UK) so have been making toiles (test garments) of them. Gertie has been looking very fetching modeling the toiles made out of old bits of fabric.

I’m hoping to have made six tops and four dresses before we go on our cruise in May. One of the dresses is needed for Leeds conference so I’ll be starting that one soon.

The diet seems to be going fine. We got on the scales on Saturday and have both lost another couple of pounds. Only four more pounds to go before I’ve earned my first treat.

Sadly the treat can’t be anything food or alcohol related so I think I’ll settle for a DVD. However I can’t decide which one – the complete collection of Mary, Mungo and Midge, Trumpton, Chigley or Camberwick Green…

Marie

Mid life crisis

In this morning’s Daily Mail there was an article by one of their columnists regarding woman and their mid life crisis.

Apparently people are now hitting their so called mid life crisis at the age of 44 and one of the things that women do during their crisis is get a new kitchen.

I wish to reassure everyone that although we’re getting a new kitchen (and yes it was me who suggested the idea) I’m not 44, nor am I going through a crisis.

Our new kitchen is through necessity (more cupboard space, more worktop space and more importantly, a dishwasher….) than a mid life kitchen.

I wonder if wanting a new bathroom counts as a mid life bathroom as I want one of them too ! ! !

Marie

A letter to myself

In anticipation of Jenny tagging me, here is a letter to my younger self.

Dear Marie,

You’re probably wondering why your older self is writing to you. I would tell you but you wouldn’t believe me anyway. You are after all a teenager and you’re not supposed to understand adults…

In my time it’s 27th January 2008 and I’m 39 years old. Yes I hit 40 in September. To your eyes that will be old. In my eyes it is too ! ! !

You’re probably curious to know how your life has turned out so far. I’m pleased to say it’s been ok. However I’d like to give you a couple of bits of advice.

You’ll develop a crush on the Manchester United and England footballer Bryan Robson. Get over it ! ! !

When you have to decide your options don’t drop physics. Even though you don’t particularly like it, following your exams in the third year, you will get the highest marks – yes you even beat Alison ! ! ! Be warned. If you ignore this advice you will feel the wroth of Mr Simpson…

Don’t worry that you’re not much good at Home Economics. You turn out be a pretty good cook.

Don’t believe a word of what any of the teachers say. School is not the best years of your life and that you’ll only get one chance to gain qualifications. One thing I will say though is try and learn how to spell ! ! !

Shortly after your sixteenth birthday you’ll find your first grey hair. It’ll freak you out but it’s not the end of the world. As I write to you aged 39 you won’t be completely grey – unlike Denise….

Don’t lean on the curling tongs, the oven, rest a coffee cup on your leg or sleep on a hot water bottle. If you do you’ll burn yourself.

No matter how much pressure is put on you from family or the careers advice at school, do not join the civil service. You’ll be offered a job there in 1989. Do not under any circumstances take it. Take the teaching course you applied for instead.

When you attend your first training session at Radio Sunderland, don’t take a dislike to one of the people taking it. He’s not a bad as he seems and you do come to like him…

Put your foot down when you are organising your wedding. When it comes to the length of your train, the size of the bow on the back of the dress, who you want invited to the wedding, not having a veil and your wedding flowers, remind mam that it’s your wedding and not hers, so you’ll do what you want. I know that’s unthinkable when you’re aged 13 as she has one of the greatest tempers known to man. However you will be a force to be reckoned with too…

Have a quite word with dad about why he’s going to the loo more than normal and ask him to go to the doctors. That’s all I’ll say.

And finally. I know you’ve tried reading the Hobbit and hated it, however for Christmas ask for every single book written by Tolkien and read them. In the mean time keep up with your creative writing by writing a story about a young boy called Harry Potter who attends a school of witchcraft and wizardry. Once you’ve read all the Tolkien books go back to your story then turn it into a novel…

Lots of love,

Marie
xxx

Decorating again

Sorry for the lack of blogs but things have been pretty quiet in the BOGOF household.

As the title of the blog suggests, we’ve donned our work clothes and got out the paint brushes again. Will all the painting we keep doing you’d think it was one of our hobbies. I can assure you it isn’t ! ! !

This weekend it’s the turn of the bathroom. I want to completely revamp it (new suite, tiles etc) but we don’t have the time to do this year - I want a new kitchen more... So it’s having to make do with a lick of paint, new carpet, wall unit etc, until next year.

Back to the painting before my brush hardens…

Marie

The hot chocolate diet

Like most people we put on a pound (or kilogram so I don’t offend the EU….) or two during Christmas and now need to remove them and a few more of their friends.

I decided that we’d start our diet officially on 26th January giving us time to finish off all the Christmas yummys. Unofficially we started it on 5th January to give ourselves a couple of weeks before the official weigh in date so there wouldn’t be any nasty ‘how much’ when we stepped on the scales.

That was the idea anyway. However curiosity got the better of me just after the 5th and I weighed myself. I nearly burst into tears ! ! !

I got on the scales this morning and to my sheer delight found that I’d lost half a stone.

Regular readers will know that the BOGOF household is fond of wine. However it is not the dieters friend so a glass or two a night does over time amount to a lot of calories.

The thought of complete prohibition is a definite no-no so I cut the number of my wine nights down to three a week and have a hot steaming mug of Options hot chocolate on the other four nights.

Ok, a mug of hot chocolate isn’t the same as a glass of wine but it is something to look forward to on the evenings when I can’t have any alcohol.

So here’s to the loss of another half a stone with the help of hot chocolate.

Marie

The case of the missing spaghetti

Early last October Mrs Hudson, Sherlock Harpers landlady, was busy in her kitchen making several Christmas cakes for Sherlock Harper, his friends and family. Dr Watson wasn’t keen on fruitcake so she made him a chocolate log instead.

“Oh dear”, cried Mrs Hudson.
“Whatever is the matter”, asked Sherlock Harper having dashed into the kitchen to see what was the cause of her anguish.
“I plunged a stick of spaghetti in the fruitcake to test if it’s cooked”, she said, “If it comes out clean it’s done”.
“So why the distress”, replied Sherlock Harper.
“Because it’s snapped inside the cake”, she said.
Sherlock Harper removed a stick of spaghetti from the packet Mrs Hudson had just bought from Morrison’s and measured it against the pieces she alleged snapped.
“My dear Mrs Hudson”, he said, “You are indeed correct. Without accurately measuring it I would guess it’s shorter by one inch”.

Mrs Hudson tried as best she could to locate the missing piece of spaghetti from the cake but could not find it.
“There seems to be only two options available”, said Sherlock Harper, “Cut the cake in half and retrieve it now or wait until Christmas”.
Although the thought of eating a fruitcake in October delighted her, Mrs Hudson decided to wait until Christmas.
“I think it would be safer to keep this cake away from all the rest – and label it as ours”, said Sherlock Harper, “We don’t want it to be given to someone by mistake”.

Mrs Hudson and Sherlock Harper had just finished eating the very last two slices of Christmas cake when Mrs Hudson gasped in horror, “Neither of us found the spaghetti”.
“A piece of spaghetti can’t just go missing from inside a cake”, replied Sherlock Harper, “It must have been the work of Professor Moriarty”.

Sherlock Harper got to his feet, “He must have sneaked in and switched the cakes when we were out”.
Mrs Hudson cupped her cheeks with her hands in terror, “That means either Jan or Dennis, our ex neighbour, must have had it”.

Sherlock Harper rubbed his chin. He was in deep thinking mode.
“Mrs Hudson”, he asked, “Was the kitchen foil on our cake damaged when you came to marzipan it”.
“No”, she replied.
Sherlock Harper rubbed his chin again.
“Do you think he switched labels”, suggested Mrs Hudson.
“Not without removing particles of kitchen foil in the process which you would have noticed immediately”.
Sherlock Harper rubbed his chin even harder.
“Mrs Hudson”, he asked, “When you came to marzipan the cake, were there any signs of damage to the cake”.
“Yes”, she replied.
Sherlock Harper shouted with joy.
“Mr Harper”, she said, “Whatever is the matter with you”.
“My arch enemy Professor Moriarty is innocent”, he replied, “Well on this occasion anyway. You said the cake was damaged but Jan and Dennis’s weren’t. If you remember the damage was the result of you trying to locate the missing piece of spaghetti.”
A mightily relieved Mrs Hudson said “Then I haven’t caused the death, by choking on a piece of spaghetti, of either Jan or Dennis”.

Late that evening Sherlock Harper, Dr Watson and Mrs Hudson were having a large glass of wine and a piece of Dr Watson’s chocolate log.
“So what do you think happened to the piece of spaghetti”, asked Mrs Hudson.

Sherlock Harper put down his glass, took a large bite of chocolate log, clutched at his throat and cried, “Urrrrrrgh”.

Family tree update

Other than my leg still giving me a bit grief, there’s nothing else in the bogof household to report so I thought I’d fill you in how I’m progressing with my family tree.

I’ve made contact with a couple of people via the Ancestry website who are part of the Thompson clang (my grandmother Dinah’s side) so have been passing and receiving information from them.

I’ve also made contact with Terry who lives in Marbella, Spain. He’s researching a family tree for a friend and part of that tree contains Arthur Notley who was Dinah’s step father.

Terry is a retired teacher who’s two hobbies are golf and genealogy so spent all of last Wednesday researching my tree for me. He’s uncovered that Arthur and Elizabeth (Dinah’s mother) had seven children together but only four survived past childhood.

Elizabeth then died in 1919 and Arthur married for a fourth time to an Isabella Seymour. Terry or myself haven’t been able as yet to find out if Arthur and Isabella had any children together but as Terry put it in an email ‘the old man is at it again’. Terry has also suggested I obtain the death certificates to his three previous wives just to see how they died ! ! !

If that wasn’t enough Terry then started on tracing a bit more on the Thompson side and found my great, great, great, great grandparents going back to 1745.

I’ve also found out (all by myself…) that there’s a possibility that my great, great grandfather, along with his younger brother and sister, spent some of their childhood in Cockermouth Union Workhouse, which I think is rather sad.

Marie

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to one and all.

I was going to do a round up of various things yesterday but sadly got waylaid by a rather painful leg. Don’t know what I’ve done with it but it’s extremely oww, oww, oww whenever I walk or make even the slightest bit of movement. Consequently I haven’t had much sleep these past couple of nights. The house and me stink of deep heat ! ! !

Anyway here is the ‘old’ news. The little men from the insurance company fitted my new garage door. Had a letter from the police to say that they are still pursuing their line of enquiries and will contact me next month with an update.

Basil hasn’t been seen again. The rat catcher from the council came out and had a good look at my mam’s and other neighbouring gardens but found no trace of Basil or his friends. He did put some poison under the rabbit hut where my mam and Gloria her neighbour think Basil may be living.

John caught the cold bug the week before Christmas so wasn’t feeling at his best. Being the lovely husband that he is shared it with me so I had that and two coldsores on Christmas day….

Santa was really good to both of us this year. One of my presents was an internet radio. Who would have thought that the Vatican City would have it’s own radio station ! ! ! I can recommend Riviera Radio in Monaco…

We had my mam for Christmas day and she thoroughly enjoyed being waited on hand and foot. We even introduced her to the sin of alcohol…

Our new, new neighbours moved in shortly before Christmas and they are really nice. Deb, Mark and their two children Chloe and Sean. I heard Chloe and Sean dashing downstairs just after six on Christmas morning which brought back so many memories of me and my sister doing exactly the same thing.

Sunday we were at my mams for lunch. My sister and her family were also there. Had to leave early as my leg was killing me.

Sadly we weren’t able to get down to Chris and Jenny’s New Years Eve party yesterday. To be honest given how my leg is I doubt whether I would have made it anyway so it must be bad for me to say that…

So there you have it, a round up of the recent happenings in the bogof household.

Hope you have the rest of a good New Years Day.

Marie

Merry Christmas

A very merry Christmas from all at the BOGOF household

Marie & John

Basil

“What’s that”, screeched my mam as we were sitting at the kitchen table having a cup of coffee yesterday morning.
“What’s what”, I replied.
“That there”.
“Where”.
“By the bush”.
“Which bush” – there’s about two dozen in the garden.
“By the ??? (some Latin name)”.
“In English please”.
“See where blackbird is. Behind him”.
“Oh you mean a rat”.

Mam then freaks out ! ! !

When she eventually calmed down (not a good time for her to be giving up smoking…), she phoned the pest control at the local council. They are sending someone out on Monday to deal with Basil – that’s what I’ve called it after ‘Basil the Siberian hamster’ in Fawlty Towers.

She rings Gloria, her next door neighbour, to tell them about Basil as it kept running into one of their bushes. Between them they decide Basil belongs to the neighbour two doors away as they keep rabbits.

Gloria then rings mam back to say she’s phoned the council and they too are coming out on Monday. They then set up a campaign to tell everyone in the street about Basil and for them to each ring the council.

Basil – your days are numbered ! ! !

Marie

I’ve been tagged

Jenny tagged me.

Rules: Link to the tagger and post these rules on your blog. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1: I have a phobia of thunder and lighting and loud noises.

2: I celebrated my 21st birthday in four different countries – Austria, Italy, Germany and the UK, and no I didn’t just fly over them.

3: I used to have a crush on the Manchester United and England footballer Bryan Robson (yes I know I was sad ! ! !).

4: I’ve been sworn at in every major language.

5: I used to work at the government office that lost all the child benefit data….

If you read this and haven’t yet been tagged, then consider yourself tagged ! ! !

Marie

Strewth

That’s what the man at the newsagents said when we handed him our lottery ticket and he scanned it. He hasn’t had the shop very long, and it was probably the biggest payout he’s made. Actually he didn’t because he had to take us across the shop to the Post Office where we filled out a claim form and were given a cheque. Then it was off to the Bank, £2641 richer.

In case you’re wondering, we’re spending it on a new kitchen.

On the domestic front we removed the damaged garage door and extricated Marie’s car, then we fastened the door back in so the garage is secure. They’re coming on Monday 17th to fit the new door. Allegedly.

Other than that, the main distraction at the Bogof household has been preparations for Christmas which continue apace. Is it me, or are people putting their decorations up earlier this year. We counted 61 on the way to and from the supermarket tonight.

Only two more working weeks to Christmas !!!!

John

Garage door

As promised more news on the garage. The scientific aids came and had a good luck but sadly couldn’t get any decent finger prints. They’re still hoping to pin the garage on the two they arrested yesterday though.

Rang the insurance company and everything is fine with our claim. Because I can’t get my car out of the garage they have put the repair down as a priority.

We were told that should it be found out that the two people were responsible, then the insurance company will reclaim all costs incurred from them and we’ll most likely get our excess back.

The little assessment man from the repair company came this afternoon – he was supposed to come on Wednesday morning… He knew nothing about the Wednesday appointment, all he was told was to get there as soon as possible.

As expected the garage door is beyond repair so a new one will have to be fitted and that wouldn’t take place for at least two weeks. Not best pleased but there’s nothing we can do about it.

Unfortunately I can’t be car-less for that length of time so John is going to take the door off to let me get my car out and I’ll have to leave it at the front until it’s fixed.

Because of our lottery win, John now has to buy his work colleagues some doughnuts…

Marie

Attempted break in at a lottery winners home

This morning we were woken up by Alan, our neighbour upwards, to say that someone had tried to break into my garage during the night.

As you can see they did a good job of bending the garage door. Thankfully no damage was done to either of the cars or anything stolen.


I rang the police straight away and as no damage was done or anything taken it would only be classed as willful damage. They would send someone out at 2.30pm this afternoon.

I also rang our insurance company to see if emergency repairs could be carried out to either secure the door or have the hole boarded up until a replacement door could be installed. Apparently garage doors come under building contents and as the buildings claim line isn’t open on Sunday’s I’d have to call back in the morning. Not best pleased ...

John managed to put a large piece of wood between the gaping hole and my car and also put up a large sheet of plastic over garage opening to try and cover it a little.

While we were waiting for the police to come I decided to have a bit play on my computer. Having checked my various emails, I checked our lottery tickets and found that we had five numbers on last nights lottery. So we’ve won £2641.

I know you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth but I think we’re more gutted in only being one number short of winning a share of £8m than the damage to the garage door…

Anyway 2.30pm, 2.45pm, 3pm came and went and still no sign of the police. At 3.15pm I got a phone call from PC Hall apologising for not coming out as they had been called to an incident. She took a couple of details then said they had arrested two people in the area last night for car crimes and were wondering if the two were related.

She called back about half an hour later to say that the scientific aids would like to have a look at the garage door today so would we mind not touching it or securing it until they had been. They were also now classing it not as willful damage but as an attempted break in so there will be no problem in getting our insurance company to pay up.

I’ll give you an update tomorrow.

Marie

All the fours

It’s been a quite week so as there isn’t anything exciting to report I thought I’d pinch Paul and Jenny’s ‘four things’ blog.

Four jobs I’ve done
Clerk typist
Civil servant (child benefit)
Civil servant (compensation recovery unit)
Writer…

Four films I’ve watched more than once
White Christmas
Singin’ in the rain
High society
The sound of music

Four places I’ve lived
New Herrington
Houghton-le-Spring
Sunderland (twice)

Four DVD’s I watch
M*A*S*H
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (yes I’m still sad….)
Angel
Quantum Leap

Four places I’ve travelled to
Austria
America (East and West coast)
Canada
Monaco

Four of my favourite foods
Chocolate
Chips
Crisps
Cheese, especially Wenslydale and Cheshire

Four places I’d rather be right now
On a Silversea cruise
On a Silversea cruise
On a….
You get the picture ! ! !

Four things I’m looking forward to
Christmas
Our cruise in May
A brand new kitchen next summer
Winning the lottery….

Four books I’m reading at the moment
The diary of a provincial lady by E. F. Delafield
Life below stairs in the twentieth century by Pamela Horn
How We Lived Then: A History of Everyday Life During the Second World War by Norman Longmate
Tara Road by Maeve Binchy

Four Shakespeare plays that I’ve seen at the theatre
Richard II
Richard III
Coriolanus
A midsummer night’s dream

Four occupations I wanted to be or wish I could have been
Needlework teacher
Fashion/knitwear designer
Prosecuting lawyer (my motto – they’re guilty until proven innocent….)
Journalist

Marie

They don’t make things like they used to

When we got engaged my godfather, who was clearing out his mam’s house as she had just died, asked if I would like her old ironing board.

It was a little rusty and rather heavy to lift but other than needing a new cover it would do fine until I got round to getting a replacement.

Nearly 11 years later and I finally bought a new one.

This morning the ironing board collapsed whilst I was ironing. One second it’s up and the next the board, the t-shirt I was busy ironing and the iron are flat on the floor. Thankfully I managed to pick up the iron before it did any damage to the carpet.

It would seem that two welds on one set of legs had come away.

Having a pile of ironing still to do and no board I improvised – the piano stool and a dining room chair ! ! !

Marie

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month

Benouville Cemetery, Normandy

Why do you still march old man, With medals on your chest ?
Why do you still grieve old man, For those friends you laid to rest ?
Why do your eyes gleam old man, When you hear the bugles blow ?
Tell me why you cry old man, About those days so long ago ?

Wine follow up

Following last Wednesday’s wine disaster I’m pleased to report that the carpet is no worse for wear having had a bottle of white wine spilled on it.

‘Sophie’ from Laithwaites rang on Monday to see if we needed the carpet cleaning and was most relived when I said it was fine.

She said she’d arrange for a bottle of wine to be sent to us as an apology for any inconvenience caused.

This morning we took delivery of not one, but four bottles of wine.

Now that’s what I call an apology….

Marie

We've got piles ...

… of soggy kitchen towel following tonight’s wine disaster. We took delivery of two cases of wine today (stocking up for Christmas and all that) and unknown to us both cases has suffered damage in transit.

As I carried one to the cellar or “cupboard under the stairs” as we call it, the bottom fell out and one bottle shattered. All over the new hall carpet. Thankfully it was a bottle of WHITE wine.





As you can see, Marie set to work with kitchen towel and two rolls later the stain has just about gone.



I called Laithwaites, the wine merchant and they were most apologetic. We got a credit for the broken bottle and they have offered to pay for any cleaning that may be necessary.

So much for a certain blogger who says nothing exciting ever happens in the North.

Having A Smurfing Time

We had some problems at work today with a file server product called Pathworks.

Anyone who knows VMS will tell you that when you get a problem with Pathworks it can be a swine to fix. But not of you know Father Abraham – he of The Smurfs fame.

HP (formally Compaq formally Digital) have their Pathworks support in Holland and my contact there, Hans Hosang sounds exactly like Father Abraham. He even has the speech mannerisms. Thankfully he didn’t sing any Smurf songs. He fixed my problem though.

On a slightly geeky note, here’s a little something for those of you who want to test their mechanical aptitude. I scored 86.

http://www.forddoctorsdts.com/quizzes/MechanicalAptitude.php

John

Frustrating

When we arrived back from Newport conference I found an envelope waiting for me from the General Records Office. It was a copy of my Nana Dinah’s birth certificate.

She was born on 8th May 1899 and her mothers name was Elizabeth Thompson. Her fathers details were left blank. Which means she was probably illegitimate.

I tried tracing her on the 1901 census but couldn’t find her so did a trace on her mother. It turns out that who ever had transcribed the details of the census had made a typological error and had them both down as the surname of Robson. The Robson comes from a William Robson who was a border in the household.

So this now leads me down a different route, as I had originally thought that one of the two Dinah Thompson’s I found who were both born in 1899 and living in Northumberland or Yorkshire, was my grandmother.

I’ve traced the Thompson family back to the 1861 census but that’s as far I’ve got.

I don’t have a problem with Dinah being illegitimate but I am frustrated that I have now lost one branch of the family tree as I will never know who her father was.

What’s more, at aged 28, my great grandmother should have known better ! ! ! ! !

Marie

Alive and kicking

We’re both still here only we are, and have been, pretty busy what with one thing and another – manly to do with conference…

I’m pleased to report that John has managed to fix my computer so it’s even better than it was before.

Regarding the Thistle hotel booking business. One week on and no payment has come out of my account so fingers crossed everything is fine.

I’m pleased to report that there hasn’t been another time of the month hormone episode. The chocolate and wine must have done the trick.

I’m still on the ‘totm’ (mine of late have been lasting over two weeks. They are hopefully about to change thanks to a trip to the family planning last Tuesday – that in itself is a blog but I think that might be ‘too much information’…), so lets hope I don’t need lots of chocolate and wine this weekend at Newport ! ! !

Finally received my Nana Dinah’s death certificate. She died at home on 14th July 1941 from ‘auricular fibrillation’ (in other words a heart attack) brought on by ‘mitral stemosis’. I did a bit of research on the internet and it seems that it’s a heart disease and the primary cause of it is rheumatic fever in childhood.

Must dash as I’ve still got a bit of printing to do for the conference packs…

Marie

A s***ty day

Apologies for the lack of blogs over the past week or so. There hasn’t been much to tell really.

Still waiting on the death certificate for my Nana Dinah (sorry for being a bit morbid but I need it to confirm her date of birth. Once I have that I can then obtain her full birth certificate …). Also no word from Beamish about the Pit Cottages as the curator is currently on holiday.

Without any actuate information I’ve only been able to do a rough trace of my family tree. If everything is correct then my ancestors on the Thompson side originated from Northumberland and from Yorkshire on the Archer side. I’ve yet to tackle things on my mam’s side.

Anyway about my s***ty day. Newport conference is coming up shortly so things are getting a little busy in the BOGOF household. Last night while the printer was busy churning away, I decided to look on the internet for some hotels in Heathrow as we have to have an overnight halt there when we go on our cruise next year.

I found the hotel we used the last time ‘The Thistle’ but following reviews from previous guests they only gave it 6/10. I did searches on other hotels near the airport but the other hotels were either too far out of Heathrow or were ridiculously expensive.

This morning while I was doing more printing I decided to have another look at the reviews of the Thistle. It turned out that the guests either loved the hotel or really slated it for piffling little things – the hotel didn’t provide toothbrushes or the hospitality tray in the room didn’t have their favourite kind of coffee, etc. So I decided to book it via one of the discount hotel websites.

By then the printer decided it needed a new toner cartridge so I move it forward a couple of inches to open the front and take out the old one. For no apparent reason my computer shut down, then rebooted saying their was an error with the computer. I tried switching it off but nothing happened. I eventually pulled the plug out and restarted it again. Yep, the error message came on again.

Now bearing in mind Newport conference is less than 10 days away having a dead computer isn’t really something I wanted…. Thankfully we have more than one computer in the BOGOF household so I fired up John’s computer to send him a mail asking for help or suggestions on how to bring back to life my computer.

Only one problem, I didn’t know his work email address as he’s only down in my address book as ‘John (work). B**** ! ! !

I know. I’ll fire up my laptop, connect it to the network and send him a mail from that. The network wouldn’t connect….. Double B**** ! ! !

All wasn’t lost as I now had John’s work email address on my laptop so could sent him a mail via his computer using my Yahoo email address.

I finished my email and started typing in ‘John’ in the sender box when it asked me if I wanted to send it to John at work… Triple B**** ! ! !

John came back to say sorry but he couldn’t help at the moment but would have a look at it tonight.

Back to the Thistle booking and I realised that I hadn’t been given a reference number or received an email confirmation to my Yahoo email address. Still on John’s computer I found the website again and rang the number on their website. It was a different discount hotel company…. Quadruple B**** ! ! !

I rechecked the website again and it still only had one number so I rang it again. They still had not record of my booking and suggested I contacted my bank to see if payment had been taken out of my account – I used my switch card as I refused to pay the 2.5% surcharge for using credit cards.

I rang the bank but they said it could take a couple of days for any payment to go through and there was no way it could be stopped. Quintuple B**** ! ! !

The website did have an email address so I sent them a mail asking if they would ring me. As yet no reply or phone call. Sextuple B**** ! ! !

As far as I know the booking could have been made and everything is hunky dory, however I simply don’t know. I’ll wait and see if payment has been taken then ring the hotel to see if we appear on their system. If it was a fraudulent company at least we haven’t lost that much money. Septuple B**** ! ! !

When John arrived home he was greeted with a hormonal woman (time of the month imminent) so ended up with a rather damp shoulder.

So what of my computer. John’s managed to get it up and running in safe mode to enable him to back up all my documents. He’ll then start rebuilding my machine.

After the day I’ve had alcohol and chocolate is a big must ! ! ! ! ! !

Marie

ps As I tried to log in to blogger, the laptop crashed ... Arrrgh

Family tree

Last year I mentioned that I’d like to trace my family tree, in particular my Nana Dinah, my paternal grandmother. Well I’ve made a start.

As no one knew the correct spelling of ‘Dinah Thompson’ I thought it best to get a copy of my dad’s full birth certificate. I printed off the form from Sunderland Council’s website, sorted out the cheque etc and put the envelope to one side ready for posting.

I noticed on the council’s website that you could search for marriage details so as a long shot I thought I’d do a search for Nana Dinah. I couldn’t believe it when they had a record of a ‘Dinah Thompson who married a John Archer in 1926’. What’s more she was also known as ‘Nutley’. So instead of asking for my dad’s birth cert, I asked for their marriage certificate instead.

The form was posted second class last Thursday, with a second class SAE enclosed. It arrived last Saturday. Well done the Royal Mail ! ! !

From the information on the certificate I’ve found out that her ‘father’ was in fact her step-father – an Arthur Nutley – hence her other name. She was a bit older than my grandfather (he 22, she 27) which means that she’ll be included in the 1901 census.

Her address was given as ‘27 Francis Street, Eppleton’. These houses have long since been demolished. However my mam did a bit of research and it turns out that some of the houses in Francis Street were dismantled and rebuilt at Beamish Open Air Museum as part of their Pit Cottage Village. How spooky is this. At the beginning of September John, my mam and me spent a day at Beamish as we hadn’t been for years, and we actually were in the very same cottages ! ! ! !

I contacted Beamish and asked if they knew which numbers were dismantled. Unfortunately they rebuilt the six cottages using bits and pieces from twelve cottages However they have details on all twelve residents of the cottages so are going to see if anyone of them belonged to my great grandparents.

Having trailed through the records on the Ancestry website I’ve managed to find out the approximate date when Dinah died so have ordered a copy of her death certificate.

I’m a bit sad though that my dad spent his life not knowing anything about his mother and sadly is no longer with us to share the news.

Marie

M42 Overload

Not much blogging (or is it Bloggery) lately as we’ve been on the road a lot. We’ve just got back home from the National Venue Show at the NEC and I can tell you we are sick and tired of the M42.

Back at the end of August we had a few days away and our hotel was just off the M42 junction 4. Then last weekend we attended a meeting of the HBA Events team, in Solihull, just off the M42 junction 5. And yesterday we were at the NEC, which is just off the M42, junction 6.

To make matters worse, in three weeks time it will be the HBA autumn conference in Newport, and guess which route we will be taking. You guessed it - via the bloody M42 …

But back to the plot. The Venue Show was very interesting, and it was great to attend an event at the NEC where you don’t have to fight your way through crowds. We came away with some interesting ideas for conference venues, though I don’t think we’ll be using the five star hotel in St Petersburg. At least not until Easyjet do cheap flights.

Amazingly, and this will probably only interest hospital radio folks, but we met one exhibitor who knew Trevor Walters, and another who has friends at Radio Link.

In the next hall was the National Incentive Show where we picked up loads of ideas for “interesting” things to put in conference packs. We were weighed down with brochures and give-aways when we left.

And finally, Marie has had her new car for less than two weeks now, and it’s already got 1000 miles on it. And the horn has stopped working !!!

John

Windy in Fulwell

As you know we always seem to be on a diet. To be fair the Weightwatchers diet we tried a couple of years ago resulted in both of us successfully losing two stone each. We’ve both however put it back on but that’s another matter…

Like all diets you soon become bored with it so I decided to look for another one which would fit in with our lifestyle (able to each chocolate, crisps, cheese, alcohol etc).

It seemed like a tall order but I’ve found one. It’s the ‘So you want to loose weight… for good’ by the British Heart Foundation. It not only allows you to have a small chocolate bar and a glass of wine a night, it also allows you to have two (or three if you’re a man) portions of dairy so we can nibble on 40g’s worth of cheese a day without worrying about our waistline.

Plus we have to eat seven (or eight if you’re a man) portions of carbohydrate a day so if we fancy our cheese with three crackers, we can.

The down side to being able to eat yummy food on this diet is we have to eat seven (or eight portions if you’re a man) of fruit and/or vegetables a day. Even by a person who loves fruit (but not really vegetables…) that’s a lot to eat in one day. However we’re trying our best.

Consequently our gut is working overtime so the wind we are producing is spectacular ! ! ! ! It’s now got to the point where we can’t go up the stairs together in case the one in front break wind on route….

Hopefully it will settle down shortly. Otherwise there could be some embarrassing moments in Newport ! ! ! !

Marie

Splat Splat

We had a drive-by saucing outside work on Thursday.

Yes, really. A group of people were standing outside the gates having a smoke when a car drew up. Down came the window and the passenger produced an industrial sized squeezy ketchup bottle with which he proceeded to spray everyone.

Fortunately the majority of people were machinists who would be wearing overalls, but one poor soul had to go home and change.

Yesterday someone expressed the opinion that it’s just as well the factory is in a poor area. They can’t afford guns …

John

So what have we been up to

Saturday: had a nice leisurely stroll up to Sea Road for some yummy sausages and peas pudding* from the best butchers in the world, then it was off to the Deli for the best stottie** sandwiches in the world.
The afternoon was spent having a good clearout of rubbish ready for the little bin men coming tomorrow to take away the old sofa and armchair and other various bits of things.
Watched the last night of the proms and as usually felt extremely proud to be British…

Sunday: It was my 39th birthday… One year until I reach the big 40 ! ! ! The birthday bunny was exceptionally generous so I got loads and loads of books, a couple of DVD’s (Season four of Quantum Leap and Mrs Miniver), and some dressmaking fabric.
Decorated my birthday cake with lots of chocolate buttons and crushed up flakes. Take it from me it was yummy….
As we couldn’t get to the Chinese restaurant (they don’t open on Sunday’s) I decided instead of going elsewhere to have dinner at home. We feasted on chips, the yummy sausages, bacon, eggs, baked beans and peas pudding. To say we were stuffed would be an understatement. To round off the night we have a bottle of Fizzy.
Couldn’t think of a better way to spend my birthday.

Monday: Called off to my mams with some birthday cake. She couldn’t wait until Friday.

Yesterday: Took delivery of my new 19 inch flat screen computer monitor and a Windows upgrade. I decided to spend some of the Christmas money I got from my mam last year. I’m afraid I’m a sad specimen of a woman as up until now I couldn’t think of anything to spend it on ! ! !

Today: John (with me supervising/getting in the way …) dragged the old sofa and armchair and the rest of the rubbish out into my side of the garage for the little bin men coming tomorrow. I parked my car at the front early this morning to make sure of getting a space in front of the house.

So there you have it. Another exciting couple of days in the BOGOF household…

Marie

*A local delicacy made from ham or bacon and split peas
** Another local delicacy

New sofa

We got our new sofa and armchair delivered on Wednesday and it’s huge… Granted I’m not a tall person, but I can lie down without my head and feet touching the armrests.

Like previous events, however (my new car and living/dining room carpet) things didn’t go smoothly. As soon as the little man removed the packaging from the chair, I noticed three dents in one of the side panels and one of the seams was twisted. The sofa, having had a good examination, was declared fit and well…
A little man came out this afternoon to inspect the chair and having lifted the side panel found three stray staples. So with the help of my iron, the three dents and the twisted seam were ironed out.

As we’re now all encourage to ‘recycle or reuse’ I rang the local house clearance people to see if they wanted the old sofa and chair. They said no as they already had plenty. I then rang another place which was recommended by the council. They too said no as it didn’t have a fire certificate…. So much for recycling ! ! !

In other news. Our ‘new neighbours’ have sold their house ! ! ! We had our first conversations with them and they are moving because they want a garden. Subject to everything going through ok, our ‘new, new neighbours’ will be a family with two children.

I went to the doctors this morning and while she was examining me (women’s problems….) I felt a bit embarrassed about the size of my stomach. It’s expanded seeing as we’re on holiday at the moment and have been eating out a fair bit.
I was told not to worry about it as she believes people worry too much about their weight (this coming from an extremely thin doctor…). She said it was expected at holiday and Christmas time to put on weight so I was given permission to put on half a stone each time.

Who am I to go against medical advice ! ! ! !

Marie

Carpet wrong

We had a telephone call from Allied Carpet yesterday. There’s now another delay with our new carpet. Apparently we’ve order an ‘unusual colour’ so it’s going to take even longer than anticipated so it can’t be fitted on the 4th.

To say we’re not amused would be an understatement. If they had been a little more honest with us in the first place and said there was a problem, we’d have chosen another carpet. However they chose to fob us off with one excuse after another.

So the little man was told in no uncertain terms that I was cancelling the order. We’ve decided to wait a few months and let the new sofa settle into it’s new home before getting a new carpet.

As we bought the carpet using a credit card, Allied would only give us a refund back onto that card. This meant that we would be in credit by rather a lot of money. No worries…. I’m a woman so spending money is not a problem.

So among other things, we are now the proud owner of a brand new 32 inch television ! ! !

Marie

A little later than planned

I’m getting a new car. A blue Nissan Note. It really should have been green this time as I alternate between blue and green but they don’t do green Notes…

It was due in the showroom on 22nd August and to me on 3rd September. Unfortunately there has been a slight delay so I won’t now get it until 15th September at the earlier. A little disappointing but it can’t be helped.

Back in July we ordered a new living and dining room carpet. The little man from Allied said it would only take three weeks. This was ideal as we’re getting a new sofa and it’s due to arrive anytime after 4th September.

Three weeks came and went but no sign of the carpet. The little man I spoke to said it would be here the following week. Nearly six weeks later and still no carpet.

I rang them again (with the customer from hell on standby….), explaining that the carpet must be down by 4th September otherwise I’m cancelling the order. There is no way the carpet fitters are putting their grubby little hands on my new sofa ! ! !

Allied rang back. There has been a problem with the cutting machine in the warehouse so our carpet is due to be cut next week. The little man has arranged for it to be delivered to the store on 3rd September and fitted on 4th.

I do hope for their sake there isn’t a problem getting it delivered from the warehouse to the store…..

Marie

PS Don’t worry if you don’t hear from us for a while as we started our holiday on Friday night. Yippee ! ! ! ! ! ! !

For sale – one house hardly been used

This afternoon a ‘for sale’ board went up outside our new neighbours house. After giving us a year of hell demolishing the house from within, they are now selling up.

To be honest it doesn’t surprise me as they seemed a couple who had no intention of staying in one place for very long.

In their short period in Neale Street they haven’t gone out of their way to be friendly. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve had a smile or a hello from either of them. We didn’t even get a Christmas card from them ! ! !

So here are some of the things I won’t be missing when they leave.

The herd of elephants running up and down the stairs.

Him coughing his guts up when he has a shower first thing in a morning.

Bob and Mrs Builder (her mam and dad) always arguing when they come on a Thursday to do the housework.

Bob and Mrs Builder arguing when they come to drop off the ironing.

Bob and Mrs Builder arguing anytime they come.

Their every meal from the microwave. No matter what they have it always takes eight minutes to cook.

Her car remote setting off our phantom door bell.

Their horrendous car parking.

Their slamming of doors.

Bob the Builders fetish with power tools and making a lot of noise.


Wonder how long it’ll take for them to move out….

Marie

Competent my ****

All this week Davina McCall is standing in for Ken Bruce on Radio 2 and boy is she terrible ! ! ! !

I had the misfortune to hear her previous attempt at broadcasting when she presented ‘Steve Wright Sunday Love Songs’ a while ago and she was just as dreadful then.

After only ten minutes on Monday morning I couldn’t stand it any longer so switched off. Imagine if you will a very excitable sixteen year old who has just started hospital radio and wants to be a ‘DJ’, yet she’s so horrendous that no amount of training will make her even barely acceptable.

She was so awful that I actually complained to the BBC about her. Today I received a reply from them. As expected they said whilst they valued my opinion, they stand by their decision to appointed her as Ken’s replacement as it was based on her experience and talent, and that they considered her competent and had the necessary ability to do the programme.

If this is the standard of presenters Radio 2 are employing, I will definitely be taking my custom else where…

Marie

We should have stayed for lunch after all

We’ve arrived home from a great weekend away. It was Jenny’s birthday almost-barbecue. I say almost because the weather tried, but failed miserably to ruin the weekend. OK, no barbecue, but still a great night with great friends.

We were also invited to join everyone for Sunday lunch but had to decline as I had to refit the interior doors in Marie’s mothers house after the carpet fitters had done their work.

Only it didn’t work out like that. As the hotel were wanting an extortionate amount of money for breakfast we decided on an Olympic Breakfast at the Little Chef at Trowel Services. It’s not there anymore. So we decided to head on up the M1 until we found a service area that did have a Little Chef. We had passed junctions 26, 27 and 28 when we found the motorway closed and we were diverted off via Chesterfield. The route into town was a decent dual carriageway so it looked like it was going to be just a minor diversion but the road out of Chesterfield to junction 30 was single carriageway with traffic lights and roadworks. It took us 90 minutes to cover seven miles. Then when we got back on the M1 we found three lanes of traffic almost at a standstill. This continued all the way up to the junction with the M18.

We finally got home at 5:15, having set off at 10:00 giving us an average speed of about 25 miles per hour. Obviously I didn’t get to fit the doors. Tomorrow night will have to do. Now had we gone for lunch we would probably have missed the delays and got home at about the same time, but with the bonus of a good lunch with our friends.

And if you’re wondering, Yes – we did get our Olympic Breakfast, at a Travellodge on the A61 on the outskirts of Chesterfield.

John

For Sale - One Careful Owner

Over the years many of our blog readers have stayed at the Pullman Hotel on the sea front. It’s now undergoing a radical make-over (not before time I hear some of you say).

The Pullman carriages that formed the restaurant and reception are up for sale on Ebay. If you’re interested you can find them here.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3-x-Pullman-Railway-Carriages-Restaurant-Carriage_W0QQitemZ220139815662QQihZ012QQcategoryZ9883QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

John

For sale – one hairdryer…

…hardly used.

I tried. I really tried, but I couldn’t put up with my ‘long hair’ any longer so got it cut short yesterday morning.

The back isn’t as short as when Gillian, my usual hairdresser cuts it. However I’m happy with the result.

I think this hairdresser was wary of cutting it too short seeing as I was a new customer. She kept apologising for the amount she cut off and I kept replying ‘you can go shorter if you like….’.

Marie

It's why I work in IT

Have you ever had your computer go wrong at work and have to call IT to fix it ?

Did they cycle the power – I mean switch it off and back on again. And did that work ?

Cycling the power is no trivial thing. It requires the ability of a trained and skilled operative.

Many many years ago I was sent to London to attend a computer operators course and most of the first day was spent learning just that, the right way to cycle the power. How to hold the breaker, how to move it, what to do if it resists when resetting, and what to do if it jumps back out again. The answer to the last part is that during the day you summon an engineer and if it’s night shift you go home.

Armed with this highly specialised knowledge I knew exactly what to do on Monday night when the television in the BOGOF household misbehaved.

It was, though a strange problem. We were watching a documentary about space flight and the loss of the shuttle Columbia. At the point where the Flight Director realised something terrible had happened the picture changed to black and white – for dramatic effect we thought. Not so. Come the ad break and it was still in black and white. So were all the other channels. The teletext was still in colour as were all the on screen displays. Most odd. Loss of chrominance or something similar.

But I’m a computer specialist, not a television repair man so I set to work. Power off, count to ten, power on. No change. Time for a switch to a mode two methodology. Power off, disconnect from mains, count twenty, reconnect to mains, power on. Success. Colour was restored.

I wouldn’t like to guess how long it will last though. The set is twelve years old so we may need to replace it soon. Looks like we’ll have to move into the 21st century with a silver grey flat screen model or something.

More BOGOF news later.

John

Where has the time gone

You must be really sick of me saying ‘sorry for the lack of blogs’ so I won’t say it…

So what’s to report.

Thursday 26th July: Mustn’t have done anything exciting as I can’t remember! ! !

Friday 27th July: Went to my mams and her new fire had just arrived. It looks really nice next to the black speckled granite (see July 4th blog).

I had meant to blog about this but never got round to it. She put the fear of God into the company about her slate having no veins so they asked her to come and personally choose the bit she wanted. Apparently they all had veins in (or just enough to annoy my mam anyway) so she went back to her original choice of black granite.

Saturday 28th July: Went to Leeds to meet with Sean and Iain about next years hospital radio awards. On the way home from Durham railway station called off at the Wessington pub for something to eat. We had to as it was too early to go home... It’s the air show weekend and as the police close off a lot of the roads, it’s practically impossible to get in or out of the area between 10am and 7.30pm.

Sunday 29th July: Day 2 of the air show so we’re prisoners for the day. John did a bit of DIY to the drawers in the dining room for when we get the new carpet. I went for a bath to easy my back. I set it off on Friday and it was still playing up.

Had a lovely carpet picnic on the dining room floor listening to some music. Alan and Alison (next door upwards) are away until August 13th so thought this would be a great time to see how loud we can stand the music before our eardrums start to bleed. We weren’t bothered about disturbing next door downwards. It’s called pay back time ! ! !

Monday 30th July: As John wasn’t able to get his actual birthday off work, today is his ‘official birthday’. So after a long lie in we went to the Chinese for lovely meal – a always. For a late tea I made pancakes, yum, yum…

Tuesday 31st July: My car’s first MOT and it passed with flying colours. Rang the little man about my new car and it’s due to arrive at the garage on 22nd August.

Yesterday: Made some tomato soup. The rest of the day was spent designing a narrow boat, Ludwell village and a barrel roof cottage... They’re for my novel.

Today: Still designing the cottage, though having problems on where to put the windows and the AGA… Did the biography of one of the characters and felt a bit guilty ‘getting to know him’ when he’s going to be killed off half way through the book.

As usual went shopping tonight at Morrisons and met Kevin and Maria who live over the road. Stood ages having a good gossip about Greg and Kay who live next door to Kevin and Maria. He left her a couple of weeks ago and we were just asking each other if we knew any more details…

So that was the week that was.

Marie