Don’t mentioned the kitchen doors

Just looked at the date when we last blogged. I’m going to blame John for the lack of blogs as he was supposed to do one. Sorry dear….

So the saga of the kitchen doors continues. On Saturday John removed the damaged doors then we took them back to B&Q.

They’re not the most helpful of staff on the returns desk. The little man said he couldn’t help us so we’d have to find any member of staff on the shop floor and ask them to retrieve our doors from the warehouse.

They must have know we were coming as every time we saw someone they ‘vanished’. However we did manage to find one who wasn’t quick enough to disappear. We explained what she had to do and waited and waited and waited.

She couldn’t find them. We all went back to the desk where the little man said they were in the warehouse as he’s put them there last Sunday. Off she goes again.

She still can’t find them. The little man, her and another member of staff then have a debate about where they could be. She then goes off with the other member of staff to have another look.

Finally after waiting for nearly thirty minutes they find them.

The saga isn’t finished yet. While John was fitting them he noticed that they’ve given us two of the wrong doors….

So Sunday afternoon we were back at B&Q. Thankfully they had two of our kind in stock as I really would have pitied the person at the returns desk when the customer from Hell made an appearance. It wouldn’t have been pretty ! ! !

We’ve been plagued with problems since day one. Not all the doors were in stock so they had to be ordered and delivered to us along with the worktops. The earliest they could deliver was eight weeks. Delivery date arrived and no doors. It turns out they had forgotten to order them and it would take another three weeks to get them to us. We said stuff that and picked them up ourselves two days later.

I’m beginning to think changing the kitchen doors wasn’t such a good idea ! ! !

Marie

Blistering heck

Late Friday night we noticed that one of our new kitchen doors looked a little odd . On closer inspection it turned out that it had started to blister at the bottom.

On Saturday we checked the rest of them and found that eight out of the ten doors and all five drawers were also starting to blister at the bottom.

I rang B&Q and was told to bring in a couple for them to have a look at.

So Sunday afternoon John removed two doors and a drawer and we headed to B&Q.

I decided to let John be the customer from hell for a change.

Having explained the problem the customer service person couldn’t help so called for a supervisor.

“Have they been in a room where there’s moisture ”.
“They’re kitchen doors ! ! !”.
“Oh I see. Could it have been caused by the steam from a kettle”.

I was itching to give a good customer from Hell reply but it was John turn so I had to remain quiet.

“It can’t be the steam as the door next to the kettle hasn’t blistered. Also how can you explain the drawers blistering”.

The supervisor thought for a while, “You’ll have to bring them all in before we can replace them”.

Red rag to a bull. Customer from Hell appears.

“What happens if we remove all the doors and drawers only to find that you don’t have any replacements in stock. I’m sorry but I’m not doing without any doors or drawers”.

“Why don’t you go and check to see if we have any. I’ll do a swap with the three you’ve brought in, then you can buy the remainder and bring the rest in at your leisure for a refund”.

John’s turn to be customer from Hell.

“No way… Why should we have to go and look for them. It’s your problem, you look for them”.

Thankfully they did have them in stock so they have put them to one side for us.

Guess what we’ll be doing on Saturday…

What joy ! ! !

Marie

Miles and miles of deserted beaches ...

Today dawned bright and sunny so Marie and I went for a little walk along the sea front and even to the end of the pier. This may sound like nothing out of the ordinary, except that it’s a place we’ve never been before. Mainly because in our younger days the pier was locked and closed because the council wouldn’t cough up the money to repair damage done by the Luftwaffe. All through my youth it was strictly out of bounds, something to do with the lack of railings and the 50 foot waves that crash over it in the winter (come to think of it, railings aren’t going to help much anyway).



The other surprise of the day was just how quiet it was. Miles of beautiful unspoiled sandy beaches, on a warm sunny day, one without any mist for a change, and hardly a soul about. Their loss.

John

No blogs

Because there hasn’t been anything to report…

There’s been nothing for the customer from Hell to make an appearance.

No culinary disasters in the kitchen.

No Motherisms at Sainsburys yesterday.

And our new neighbours have been relatively quiet for once.

Lets hope next week is a little more exciting ! ! !

Marie

Cabin fever

On Saturday we had to go to London for September’s HBA chimp tea party – sorry I meant executive committee meeting. Thankfully it was our last one. Hurray ! ! ! !

We had to fly down as the trains have been a non-starter for a while. GNER’s usual January/February maintenance work is still ongoing….

Although it did mean being up at 4am and not arriving back home until 10.45pm, it’s a much better journey than the train.

Bearing in mind the current security joke at airports, I decided to leave behind my deodorant and lip balm and buy some at Boots in the departure lounge.

However I was not prepared to leave behind my cold sore cream. The BAA website stated that as long as lotions, gels or creams are prescription medicine and can be either tasted or verified as such from a pharmacist on site, then it would be allowed.

As my cream is a prescription medicine and clearly states POM and says to be administered as directed by a physician, then it’s the genuine article.

I declared it to a member of staff outside the entrance of security and having duly tasted it was let through. As if not being allowed any liquids etc and only the tiniest bag as hand luggage was bad enough, we had to remove our shoes. I’m so glad I didn’t wear the pair of shoes with the holes in….

Depending on how high they set the sensitivity of the metal detector, my hip sometimes sets it off. However this time it didn’t (it did coming back at Heathrow…).

Both our shoes, coats and John bag, containing our sandwiches which surprisingly were allowed through, bizarre ! ! , got the all clear. My bag didn’t.

The security staff at Newcastle airport aren’t the friendliest or nicest of people. Those who are nice are newcomers and haven’t got their degrees in nastiness yet.

I was told in no uncertain terms that I couldn’t take my cold sore cream on board so I pointed out that it was prescription medicine and had POM on it. It then become two against one (John either decided to let me fight it out myself or was clearly embarrassed – I’m not sure which ! ! !) as another member of staff, who if smiled would crack her over made up face, joined in the argument.

I was standing my ground so it was taken to Boots for further advice. They wouldn’t let me take it as it wasn’t prescription medicine. The minimum wage staff in Boots clearly didn’t understand what POM meant.

It now became a battle. I was not having it confiscated so again stood my ground. It then became three against one as they asked advice from a supervisor. I put my case forward and was allowed to keep it. Result ! ! ! Customer from Hell 1 – Airport Security Staff 0.

I reluctantly decided not to make it a score draw as I’d be too knackered to put up a fight so asked June if she would look after my deodorant, lip balm and cold sore cream until Norwich conference and phone the doctors tomorrow for a repeat prescription. Lucky I still have a couple of weeks left on my pre-prescription payment so it won’t cost me anything.

I read today that Chelsea Clinton also had a bit of trouble at security at Heathrow airport. She refused to hand over her Chanel makeup using the ‘do you know who I am’ phrase. She was allowed to keep them, then personally escorted to the VIP lounge.

Sadly we had to make do with mixing with the plebs in the departure lounge …

Marie

It’s soup Jim but not as we know it

Seeing as we’ve started our diet (yet again…) I decided to make some ‘no points’ soup.

I got the necessary vegetables last week in Morrisons and as they didn’t have any green cabbage I bought red cabbage instead. Bad move ! ! !

The soup looked fine in the pan until I came to ladle it into the bowl. The red cabbage had turned the onion, leek and spring onions a lovely shade of blue and the liquid resembled purple ink.

It tasted ok but the colour really put me off so sadly it went down the sink, having been strained though a colander first – which has now been stained purple….

I dread to think what it would have done to my teeth ! ! ! !

Marie

We're still here

Saturday was Marie's birthday so we went out for lunch to the world's best Chinese restaurant which, as some of you know, in on the sea front.

We were scheduled to have some pretty extreme tides, the highest for 20 years. Now, as you may expect, on either side of an exceptionally high tide you will get an exceptionally low tide. I can honestly say that the last time I saw the tide so far out I was still at school (and you all know how long ago that was).

Add to the mix a very strong on-shore wind and we had a recipe for disaster.

However, I'm please to say that high tide was about half an hour after mid-night, and we lived to tell the tale.

John

Finished

I’m ecstatic to report that we’ve finally finished painting and decorating the hall and landing. It’s been a long hard (and at times painful) slog but it’s done.

I’m also pleased to report that Vardy’s, came and collect my car yesterday. They couldn’t find any thing wrong with the brakes but at least they’ve been looked at. Woe betide if I get stopped by the police ! ! !

I mentioned on Wednesday that we were going to visit a chocolate factory in Leyburn on Thursday. It was a tiny place, so Cadburys certainly don’t have anything to fear, but it was well worth a visit. Seeing as it was free to look around we felt it only right to sample their products…

Right next door to the chocolate factory was another little gem of a place, the teapot shop. It’s a factory workshop making novelty teapots. I’ve been there twice before and have never left empty handed. This time the birthday bunny bought me a AGA teapot.

We also stumbled on a wonderful little fabric shop. Again I couldn’t leave empty handed. We then drive to Ripon (to find a cash machine as the fabric shop didn’t take credit cards) and had a lovely walk along the canal.

Today I came one step closer to the big 40 (only 731 days to go…..). I got lots of lovely presents from the birthday bunny – even if my mam thought I was very sad for getting series one of both Quantum Leap and The Muppet Show on DVD.

Off to have a huge piece of chocolate birthday cake (full of zillions of calories..), washed down with a bottle of fizzy whilst watching the Last Night of the Proms. Makes you proud to be British ! ! !

Marie

The customer from Hell strikes again

At precisely 8.30am this morning I rang Vardy’s about my brake lights. Jenny’s email must have worked as both service receptionists were ‘busy with other customers’… I was told someone would ring me back – eventually. “No”, I replied, “this is a matter of urgency so they will call me back within five minutes”.

Five minutes later (most impressed….) ‘Donna’ from service department rang and asked what the problem was so I explained.
“Can you drop it off sometime today”.
“Er no. It doesn’t have any brake lights.

Donna starts to get stoppy. “Well how do you expect us to fix your car if you won’t bring it in”.

“Excuse me, but it’s illegal to use a vehicle without any brake lights. What happen if someone runs into the back of me or I get stopped by the police. I’m not getting three points and a fine because of something that isn’t my fault”.

“Well, our technicians don’t do house call so you’ll have to bring it in’
“Sorry but this car isn’t moving. You’ll have to bring a trailer to collect it”.
“We don’t have one..”.

She then realises that she isn’t going to win this round so puts me on to her manager.
They will be collecting the car on Friday morning.

In other news. Had a lovely day at Eden Camp. For those of your who don’t know, it’s an old POW camp in Yorkshire which has been turned into a WWII museum. We didn’t however recon that it would be besieged by OAP’s who decided to take a trip down memory lane. I’ve never seen so many walking sticks, wheelchairs and motorised scooters in my life…. It was like going shopping on a Thursday afternoon in Morrisons ! ! !

Change of plan for tomorrow. Instead of going to Alnwick Castle, we’re now heading back into Yorkshire to a place called Leyburn. Rumour has it that there is a chocolate factory there ! ! !

Marie

We’re back

I’m pleased to report that we had a lovely holiday last week in Stratford upon Avon.

Had a pleasant drive down and considering it was bank holiday Monday, there wasn’t much traffic on the road which made a change.

Tuesday we went to Warwick Castle and we were most surprised to find that they had Trebuchet which they shot twice a day. Rather impressive sight.

Wednesday was spent wandering the town and shopping. Could have been seriously poor as we visited my two favourite shops – Lakeland Limited and Fred Winter which stocks some wonderful dressmaking fabric.

Thursday we visited Lapworth. Not only does it have one of the most loveliest places to have a picnic lunch but it’s also the village where I’ve based my novel.

On our way home on Friday we did a detour to Northampton to have a meeting with the hotel.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday and today were spent – yes you’ve guessed it - painting…. However the end is nigh as there’s only the top wardrobe doors to fit and a quick touch up on the walls.

That’ll have to wait until Friday as tomorrow and Thursday we’re off to Eden Camp and Alnwick Castle with my mam. Never been to both places so it should be interesting.

And finally my car went in for it’s yearly service today. Everything was fine until I arrived home.
“I think you’ll be seeing a bit more of Vardy’s”, said John who had followed me home.
“Why”.
“You drove home with no brake lights working…”

They will be getting the call from you know who tomorrow ! ! !

Marie

Stratford here we come

Sadly there may not be any bloggs for a few days as we’re off to Stratford tomorrow morning. The local library does allow non-residents the use of the internet but only 15 minutes per day. Will do our best though.

In other news, the painting is coming along nicely. Most of the glossing is done and what’s left won’t take more than half an hour to finish off.

Tested the new colour on the walls and it looks good. It covered the yellow really well that we may get away with only one coat. Here’s hoping ! ! !

So that’s about it for now. Off to start packing…

Marie

Where has the time gone

Just realised that it’s nearly a week since last blogged. So what’s to report.

Got my Uncle Frank’s cake safely delivered to my mam’s. It’s his birthday party today so hopefully everyone liked my icing efforts….

Did yet more painting – surprise, surprise. I’ve looked at the calendar and I’ve spent all of August painting. Thankfully the gloss painting is nearly finished. Yipee ! ! ! Then it’s the turn of the walls. Boo ! ! !

Had a great time at Jenny’s party at the weekend. Good food, good company – what more can you want…

Checked my nectar points and we have enough for two five pounds off meal vouchers at any Brewers Fare pub. These will come in very handy at the Red Lion in Stratford.

Only six days and counting ! ! !

Marie

De-icer

It’s my uncle Frank’s 80th birthday next Tuesday and my mam ‘volunteered’ me to make the cake for his party.

“Nothing fancy”, she said, “a large fruit cake and they wanted it decorated as well”.

My decorating skills are appalling. I have trouble rolling out marzipan so John always gets that task. Making royal icing is very much a ‘hit or miss’ affair. Sometimes it’s filling removal hard or so soft it spreads like butter.

I did suggest they might like a plain cake but no, it had to be decorated. I did get my own way with the icing. Instead of badly done royal icing snow peaks they have settled for sugar paste.

The marzipaning, although having been patched in several places, went ok. Sadly the same can’t be said for the sugar paste.

I’ve never used the stuff before so had no idea what size cake the packet will cover. I assumed, like marzipan, it would cover an eight inch cake.

Er no… At 7.30pm this evening we were hot footing it to Morrisons before they closed at 8pm to buy another packet as the cake has to be delivered tomorrow morning.

So after re-rolling it, I managed, well sort of anyway, to get the cake covered. As long as you look at it from above it looks ok….

Cake decorating is one hobby I will not be taking up ! ! !

Marie

Day at work = day off

John had to go into work today so I had a day off from painting. Yipeee ! ! ! !

The great hall painting project is going to plan. All the skirting boards, doors, door frames and staircase are painted.

I’m not going to tell you what colour it is, but when we have our party in November please remember – it’s not white. We don’t ‘do’ white….

Sorry for not blogging for a while but day time is spent painting and evenings are spent in the bath ! ! !

Tomorrow John’s up the ladder to attack the coving. It’s red at the moment so it’ll take a few coats to lighten it up a bit. I’ll be varnishing the handrail and other jobs a bit closer to the ground. I don’t ‘do’ ladders…

Marie

The kitchen and other projects

I’m pleased to report that the kitchen is practically finished. All there is to do is clean and re-grout the tiles and paint a couple of end wall cabinet pieces.

The long overdue tidy up of the garage began on Sunday.

Another project for later this year is my workroom. It’s bursting at the seams due to my ever growing craft work and also hospital radio stuff. So we’ve decided to put in more shelving and another work unit.

Regular visitors to our blog will note that we hate painting. I can’t for the life of me understand why anyone would want to be a painter and decorator…

However, like ironing (which I also hate…), it must be done so that’s what I’ve been doing today. It was the turn of the spindles and the handrail to be undercoated and like last Monday I ache all over. I put some Deep Heat rub on my back this afternoon. It eased it a little but made the house stink.

The first thing John noticed when he came home from work wasn’t the smell of the paint but the pong of the Deep Heat ! ! !

Marie

Aches and pains

It’s my own fault. I push myself too far so I’ve got aching muscles and my pains are bad from having spent Monday and today painting.

I had yesterday off as I had a dentist and hospital appointments. Never got to the dentist though as my electric garage door is playing up so wouldn’t open. It does have a manual override but I’m not tall enough to put the string…

I rang the dentist to say I couldn’t make it but was too embarrassed to say I couldn’t get my garage door open so said I had a flat battery.

Thankfully the garage door did decide to open a couple of hours later so I was able to attend my hospital appointment. Lesley, my specialist nurse, noticed that my knee was swollen (from painting) so I got wrong for doing too much… Will I take any notice – no ! ! !

Got a day off from painting tomorrow as I’m going to be busy finishing off making two blouses for my mam.

However it’ll be back to work decorating this weekend. Oh goodie…

Marie

PS John says that last month we had 235 hits on our blog. However he thinks most of them were him trying to get our holiday gallery working…

Revenge is so sweet

Yesterday on our way back from the paper shop we met up with our neighbours Sandra and Alan. They too live next door to the noisy neighbours.

Sandra commented on how quiet ‘Bob the Builder’ had been this week. It turns out that Alan had had a quiet word with him - ‘if you don’t stop this bloody noise, I’ll wrap your power tools around your bloody neck’. You do not want to get on the wrong side of Sandra and Alan ! ! !

Sandra also happened to mention that our new neighbours were having a BBQ this weekend. As it rained last night (shame it wasn’t during the day so the air show could have been cancelled…) it was postponed until today.

This weekend John was installing the new doors in the kitchen while I was busy putting white undercoat on the red bits in our hall. Yes, we’re finally getting rid of our red, gold and yellow hallway.

One of the new doors needed to be made smaller so John popped into the garage to saw a bit off. Seeing as the new neighbours were busy with their BBQ, he decided to make as much noise as possible with his power tools.

Nothing like a taste of their own medicine….

Marie

A round up of the news

We spent the weekend doing phase two of the kitchen - putting in new worktops and sink. Next weekend (airshow weekend) will be phase three – the new doors.

It’s taking some getting used to the new worktops as they are black. I always said I’d never had dark worktops as I thought they would be unhygienic because you can’t see any dirt. However having seen how well it went with the new doors in B&Q’s showroom I changed my mind. I have a feeling though that I might become obsessive with cleaning them for a while – until the novelty wears off ! ! !

Sadly we had a little blip in our diet on Saturday. As the kitchen was a mess, there was no water and we were both knackered (well John actually. All I did was supervise…), I decided it would be quicker and easier if we had a takeaway. Macdonalds large BigMac meals have never tasted so good…

We also had another blip in the diet today but it was for a very good reason. It’s John’s birthday today. After he finished work this morning - he normally takes the whole day off but had to go in for a couple of hours - we went to the best Chinese restaurant in the entire universe for lunch.

I mentioned a couple of days that even though we live by the seaside we don’t get good weather, well today was one of those rare occasions when the sun does actually shine. The Chinese restaurant is right opposite the seafront and probably for the first time this year, there were people on the beach.

There were even a couple of very brave souls who ventured into the sea...

Marie

Living by the seaside….

Isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Today was supposed to be the hottest day on record. There were fears about people getting badly sun burnt (though what do you expect if the latest scaremongers claim sunscreens don’t work); schools closing because of the heat; roads melting; the national grid might go into overload so there could be power cuts etc, etc.

We live less than 800 yards from the sea and in seaside places such as Scarborough, Blackpool, Brighton our street would filled with guest houses. It isn’t.

Whilst the rest of the country enjoyed beautiful sunshine, here in Fulwell we had sea fret*. The fog horns have been sounding all day and it was rather depressing looking out of the window to see grey sky and fret blowing past the window.

The sun did eventually come out but not until late afternoon. Now it’s back to dull grey.

This happens quite regularly but still catches quite a lot of people out. Go five miles inland and it’s a glorious day. People suddenly decide to flock to the beach only to be extremely disappointed.

About one or twice a year we do have lovely weather so it can make for a pleasant stroll along the sea front. However everyone else has the same idea so it can get quite busy…

I will however, be praying that the fret comes again not this weekend but next (29th/30th) as it’s the Sunderland International Airshow. It’s the largest free airshow in Europe so one million people descend on us every day. It’s hell on Earth ! ! !

For two days we’re virtual prisoners in our own home as we can’t get in or out because of the traffic. The aircraft noise is horrendous and the vibrations are so bad that it sets off car and house alarms. Normally we go away but this year we’re doing some DIY in the kitchen.

I just hope we don’t need any thing urgent at B&Q. One year it took John two hours to drive two miles to do an errand for his mam. I think it might be quicker if he’d walked ! ! !

Marie


* Local term for fog/mist

No more swaying

I’m pleased to report that I’ve got my dry land legs back so the swaying and feeling sick have gone. It was a rather strange experience suffering from seasickness while on dry land.

In other news. We’ve started our diet again so our nine o’clock glass(s..) of wine have stopped.

So has the large hunk of cheese and crackers on Wednesday night washed down with a bottle of wine; the packet of crisps on a Thursday night; the free packet of prawn crackers with our Chinese on Friday night.

If you can think of anything else we’ve missed please let us know.

Marie

Holiday Pics !!!

Yes - they're finally here.

Take a look at the links in the sidebar on the right and click on Holiday Pictures.

John

ps for those of you who were wondering why it took so long, I had mixed case in the filenames and the B***** unix server that hosts the site couldn't cope. Give me VMS any day ...

I see no ships

We’re back on dry land but Marie is suffering from seasickness !!!

At least that’s what the doctor said. Thinking it was an ear infection Marie went to see the doctor and was told that there’s no infection but she’s got a sort of “dry land” seasickness. No problems at all on the ship but now she’s swaying whenever she stands up, and suffers nausea then she tries to read, type, look at a computer screen etc.

Personally I think she’s sea sick in the same sense as home sick. Missing the sea and wants to go back.

Sorry no gallery yet. It’s coming, but as I’ve said before, I hate HTML …

John

Home Sweet Home

Yes – we’re back, safe and sound. Well safe anyway.

If you have ever been on a ship before you will know that for a few hours after you leave you continue to sway a little as you sit, stand and walk. Well, Marie is still swaying. Looks like a bit of vertigo brought on by two flights on Saturday and the after affects of her cold.

You’ll be pleased to know that our luggage made it home safe and sound. You don’t know how pleased we were to see it at Newcastle Airport.

We’re currently putting a link to some pictures in the sidebar on the right, and a full “back home” blog will follow soon.

John

Stormy Weather

Today is Friday - this must be Bonifacio, right. WRONG - this is Portevecchia !

You'll be pleased to know that the Captain calmed down after his swimming pool rant yesterday. However, as we were about to leave Genoa he came on the PA to say that the weather in Bonifacio was bad. Force 6 winds and rough seas. As we were to anchor and get the tender ashore this was bad news. So we diverted. Not that it bothered us. Corsica is Corsica.

We went to dinner last night expecting a quite table for two but were turned away !!

They told us to come back in fifteen minutes as we were to eat with the officers. The Hotel Director who is in charge of accommodation, food and drink on the ship invited us and two other couple to dine with him at the Captains table. OK, the Captain wasn't actually there, but hey, it's still pretty good.

No blog tomorrow as we vacate the ship at 9:30 for the flights home. Roundup to follow on Sunday, plus a link to some pictures.

Marie and John

The Italian Job

... or - I want my MTV

Today we docked at Genoa. A lot of people thought we ought to have docked in PortoFino next door as it's much prettier. It turns out that Genoa has ship repair facilities and the docking was to replace the satellite television dish.

This is in a sort of "golfball" about ten feet across. Anyway, the workmen started to remove the old one with an angle grinder, sending clouds of dust across the pool deck and all five people sitting around it.

Enter the Captain, incandescent with rage. He points to the pool, then points to the workmen, then lays in to their boss. Boss then points to the pool and lays in to the workmen. Hoses are produced to damp down the dust and the pool is drained. An uneasy truce was declared, but being Italians this was done with much hand waving and shouting.

Other than this it's been a lazy day, sitting by the pool and watching our next door neighbour in port. It's called the Costa Concordia and it's reputed to be the biggest cruise ship operating in Europe (4000 passengers against our ship's 295). Today is it's maiden voyage so the quayside has been a bit busy.

We're off to Corsica tonight at 6 pm and even though we don't leave the ship until Saturday morning, tonight is the Captains farewell party. Let's hope he's calmed down ...

Marie and John

Monte Carlo Or Bust !!!

We're blogging a bit later today as there are no needlework classes so Marie has an afternoon off.

We spent this morning walking the Grand Prix circuit.

Wow - what a difference. It's great to see Monte Carlo when the streets aren't lined with stalls selling tat and the bars aren't full of Italians celebrating the purchase of yet another Ferrari badged piece of tat.

It's also interesting to look over the waterfront and not have to look through a grey-blue haze that smells of burnt rubber and Castrol-R. The Castrol reference was especially for those who remember a bygone age of motor racing.

They say that where there's muck there's money so how can somewhere so clean be so wealthy. The place is dripping in ostentatious wealth, but there's no obvious sign of wealth creation.

It's a remarkable place. We spent the morning looking around the city centre and then after a fortifying lunch back on board, we took a trip round the Grand Prix circuit.

Beginning at the start line it was off to Ste Devote and then up the hill. Past the location of Rosies Bar (where in the good old days mechanics used to drink all night) and the Tip-Top bar, then a brief rest at the top of the hill, by the Hotel De Paris. Magnificent. Next was casino square. What can you say about such a place. The history, the architecture.

But no time to waste if we're to get back to the ship in time for afternoon tea. So it’s down to the Mirabeau, round the hairpins and into the tunnel under the Grand Hotel. Out of the tunnel, and a quick left-right flick round the “new” chicane, hard left at tabac and past the swimming pool. Never seen it with water in before.

Now for the final sector, round the back of the pits, the scene of the original pitlane, then round Rascasse, which used to be the town gasworks but is now a fine restaurant, and on to the last corner, and the most difficult on the circuit, the virage Anthony Noghes, with it’s adverse camber before heading back to the start line.

Off for afternoon tea now, then tonight we set sail for Genoa

Marie and John

ps spent yesterday afternoon watching dolphins from our veranda !!!

That Riviera Touch

... or ... Feeling Hot Hot Hot

Today we anchored off St Tropez and took the tender ashore. Boy, was it hot. The place is fine if you like (expensive) shops but it does have a lot of tat on sale along the waterfront. We bought a picture. It cost 15 euros. Guess where we bought it ...

Other than that it's been a lazy day. Back to the ship, several cold drinks by the pool then a nice lunch (with wine !!).

Nothing to do now except laze around until we get to Monte Carlo tonight.

John and Marie

ps Marie has been conscripted to help teach needlework classes !!

We Are Sailing !!!

Great News !!!

When we got back to our suite the luggage fairy had made a delivery. Our suitcases had arrived.

We were going to title this blog “all at sea”, which is true. We’re en route from Barcelona to St Tropez, leaving Barcelona 11pm Sunday and arriving St Tropez 8 am Tuesday.

The ship doesn’t really go that slowly, all Silversea cruises spend an entire day at sea.. Normally during the day people are either out exploring, shopping or on organised trips (a bit like HBA conferences) so the ship can be a bit empty. Not that this bothers us, but during the day at sea, it’s a great way to get to know people, after all, everyone has to be there.

You’ll be pleased to know that the food is of it’s usual standard, as is the wine. Service is six star and the staff are very friendly. I think it’s because tipping is not allowed. They’re not in competition with one another and have the time to talk to you. One think that comes over is that all the staff genuinely seem to enjoy being there.

Off to visit the on-board shops next ...

Marie and John

Important blog information

The ships computer system thinks it's Thursday 29th June so please ignore the dates and times on blog entries. It's really Sunday 2nd July right now.

John & Marie

Holiday Checklist

Holiday checklist item no :

215 Charge camera battery Done
216 Install holiday blog header Done
217 Retrieve sunglasses from car Done
218 ...

John

100 and counting.

No, it hasn’t any thing to do with our holiday (t-20 hours and counting…) but the number of blogs we’ve done.

It doesn’t seem that long ago since we did our maiden blog on 25th October. Since then here’s some of the things we’ve shared with you:

Our new neighbours (who still by the way are constantly banging and hammering…).

The quirkiness of my mam (she did two great motherisms yesterday while at Sainsburys which I’ll save for later).

Our various ailments (including two trips to the A&E department).

My various culinary disasters (I am quite a good cook – honest ! ! ).

Our wine cellar (which will be restocked shortly…).

Me being the customer from hell and having tantrums in Morrisons.

Our various DIY projects (and our hatred of the paint company with an X in their name).

And the arrival of Gertie.

Here’s to the next 100 blogs…

Marie

Feeling excited

We’ve stopped counting down to our holiday in days and are now down to hours. Lift off from Newcastle is t-34 hours and counting…

We’ve done the first sift through the clothes, having decided what’s not coming. Tomorrow afternoon will be the final sift.

Update on the cold. One minute my nose is running like a tap and the next I’m bunged up. Been putting plenty of vaseline * on it so I’m looking a bit like Rudolph.

Marie

* it’s supposed to stop me getting cold sores – never works though…

BARCELONA !!!

... but only just

Thanks to faulty air-con the flight from Newcastle to Gatwick was delayed. We caught the flight to Barcelona with seconds to spare. Our luggage wasn't so lucky ...

As of 9:30 am Sunday we're still waiting for it.

Now onto the good bits.

It’s a bit of a strange thing, saying that the cruise runs from Barcelona to Rome when all you see of the two cities is the road from the airport to the docks. But hey, we’ve still got St Tropez, Monte Carlo, Genoa and Bonifacio to go. It’s going to be great seeing Monte Carlo when there isn’t a Grand Prix and the streets aren’t full of stalls selling Ferrari branded tat.

The shipping company collected us from the airport and whisked us across to the port and our ship. As soon as you see the port you start straining your eyes and asking “Which one is ours”. In fact ours is probably the smallest cruise ship in the port. Maximum capacity is only 265 people. But then we find small groups much better. Silversea ships have just one restaurant, no matter who you are, and you can eat at any time you wish, and sit with anyone you wish. On the really big ships, you can only eat in the restaurant that matches the level of your ticket, and sometimes you can only sit on a certain table and eat at a certain time. No thanks, we prefer the Silversea method.

Speaking of food, the company claim that you can put on as much as four pounds a day if you really try. Think about it, you can have an early breakfast in your suite (definitely NOT a “cabin”) , then a second breakfast from the buffet in the terrace café, plus a third breakfast in the restaurant. Come eleven o’clock and the poolside grill will be open. You can have two lunches, one in the terrace café and a second in the restaurant. Then it’s back to the poolside grill (and bar!!) before afternoon tea (with the most delicate sandwiches you have ever seen). Finally there is dinner in the restaurant, usually quite formal. There is an informal buffet style dinner in the café, and of course if you’re still peckish room service is free. Add in unlimited wine, beer or cocktails and you can see where they get their four pounds a day. I presume that on the three week cruises passengers explode before the end. I should point out that we only have one breakfast, one lunch and one dinner each.

Off to our suite now to see if the luggage fairy has left us anything.

John & Marie

Feeling better

After my bath last night I felt so rotten that I didn’t even have a glass of medicinal ! ! ! Instead I curled up on the settee with a mug of hot chocolate and a hot water bottle.

I’m pleased to report that I’m feeling much better today. My sore throat has gone but I’ve still got the sniffles.

3 days to go. Yippee ! ! ! ! !

Marie

Feeling rotten

I’ve got the lergy ! ! !

My throat is sore. I’ve got the sniffles and the sneezes and I’m aching all over.

The timing for this is perfect. Not…

Off to have a long hot bath then a drop of medicinal - to help me sleep you understand.

I could be drinking vinegar for all I know as I can’t taste a thing ! ! !

Marie

I don’t believe it

There’s only five days to go before our cruise and guess what I’ve got – a sore throat…

I’m hoping that it’s just a sore throat and not the start of a cold. I’m taking paracetamols as they are supposed to help fight sore throats and colds. Plus I’m drinking lots of fluids and sucking extra strong throat lozenges.

Typical ! ! !

Marie

Christmas is coming

Today is June 25th which means that Christmas is only 6 months away.

Today is also Paddington Bear’s birthday.

Marie

PS only 6 days to our holidays…

One week to go

This time next week we’ll have arrived in Barcelona and already drinking the glass of chilled champagne that had been thrusted into our hands (it would be bad mannered to refuse…) when we first boarded the ship.

It doesn’t seem that long ago since I set outlook on my computer to reminder me when it was eight months, seven months etc to go. Now it’s only seven days away.

Yippee ! ! ! !

Marie

Opps I did it again

No I haven’t had another disaster with John’s trousers…I’ve overfilled the bath again. Thankfully I caught it just in time but did have to let some out again.

I’m so glad we don’t have a water shortage in the North East otherwise I’d be fined every time I take a bath. In my defence the bath fills up much quicker since we had the boiler replaced in December.

Only 10 days to our holidays. Yippee ! ! ! !

Marie

PS called in at B&Q and PC World tonight and boy were they empty. Wish England would play every Thursday so it’s quiet when we go shopping at Morrisions…

Fathers day

Seeing as I did a blog for Mothers day it's only right to do one for Fathers day.

Sadly my dad is no longer with us as he died of cancer aged 65 on 17th May 2004. I was going to do a blog on his anniversary but thought Fathers day was more appropriate.

So what was my dad like. He was a life long labour supporter so must have wondered where he went wrong when his two daughters became yellow and blue supporters.

He used to be a butcher but couldn’t bring himself to slaughter the animals so wasn’t able to become a master butcher. I think I was a bit of an embarrassment to him as I can’t bear to touch meat. If I have to then I’ll only do it with rubber gloves on.

His favourite football teams were Liverpool and Sunderland. I was only four when Sunderland won the FA Cup in 1973 but can vividly remember my dad screaming when they scored a goal. He woke me up so got told off by my mam.

He liked most sports, especially cricket. In his younger days he used to play for the local team. I can always remember we used to fight over the television as he wanted to watch cricket while I wanted Wimbledon.

He was a quiet, placid man who listened a lot. I can honestly say that I never saw him loose his temper. Apparently when he did, which was extremely rare, he made his feelings known…

He liked plain and simple food with Sunday dinner being his favourite. He wouldn’t, no matter how you tried, eat anything foreign.

He was a creature of habit to which you could almost set your watch by him. When he went off to church (the working men’s club but he liked to call it church) he would meet up with his drinking chum. He would leave the house at precisely 8.23pm. Not a minute before or a minute after. He was like that for most things.

Whereas my sister was (and still is…) my mam’s favourite, I was always daddy girl.

He was a lovely dad and I think about and miss him everyday.

Marie

Opps

I made a slight boo-boo whilst sewing this afternoon.

I bought John some new trousers for our cruise a couple of weeks ago and have only just today got round to turning up the hems.

There were four trousers in all, each with a different amount to be hemmed so I doubled checked each trouser to make sure I took the right amount off. I should say I did until pair number four.

It was only after I had cut a piece off the bottom of the leg did I realise that I had in fact mixed up inches and centimetres. Instead of four centimetres, I had removed four inches ! ! !

Oh dear…

So it was off to Matalan for a replacement pair. Thankfully they were only £14. I would have cried if they had been expensive.

I’m now beginning to wonder if I did the same thing for the other three…

Marie

Overdue

Just checked and the last time I blogged was Tuesday so one is overdue. Sadly though there isn’t a great deal to report.

John went back to work today having been off all last week with the flu.

My parcel from Amazon finally arrived on Thursday.

Had a good moan with Sandra, our neighbour two doors down, about our new neighbours and the constant banging. Sandra lives on the other side of them so knows all too well about it. She’s not very happy about them either. Upset Sandra at your peril. If you thought I was bad, Sandra is worse ! ! !

Managed to finish off the two cocktail dresses I was making for our cruise (two weeks and five days…). Gertie really came in useful, so much so that I wonder how I ever coped without her.

Went out in the sun on Saturday without my factor 60 so although I’m not sunburnt, my arms and neck have come out in a rash * Lovely ! ! !

That’s about it for now. Told you there wasn’t much to report…

Marie

* I have an allergy to the sun. It has a fancy name called polymorphic light eruption.

Bet she wished she hadn’t turned in today

Today is Tuesday and guess that didn’t arrive - my parcel from Amazon which the little man from the Royal Mail said would come today.

Time to ruin someone’s morning ! ! ! They must have got wind that I would be calling as the phone was engaged. However I’m not put off that easily.

I redialled again and one of the options on offer was to make a complaint. Perfect.

The poor girl didn’t stand a chance. I appreciate it wasn’t her fault, but hey if you work in the complaints department what do you expect. After much shouting:

“I will send an email to them asking for your parcel to be re-delivered on Thursday”.
“I was told previously by yourselves that they don’t look at their emails very often”.
“Well they are supposed to”.
“So will my parcel definitely be here on Thursday”.
“No, I can’t guarantee that”.
“Why not”.
“They might not have looked at their emails. Ring back on Thursday morning to see if they have. If not I’ll send them another email to arrange another day”.

I give up ! ! !

Marie

PS John’s still got the lergy. It must be bad as he’s gone off alcohol ! ! !

Six months down the line

Something lighter today following yesterdays blog.

First things first. John’s got the lergy. It started late on Saturday (must be a reaction to all the credit card usage in the Metro Centre…). Yesterday he spent the entire day in bed. I’ve had to keep him off school today as he still not very well.

So back to the main event.

On the second of January I wrote in a blog about my ‘want’ list for the coming year. As we’re half way through the year I thought I’d check to see how I’ve got one.

1: I want to win the lottery. It doesn’t matter if it’s the normal lottery, the extra or the Euro. As long as it’s the jackpot and is over £1m I’m not bothered.

Still paupers I’m afraid.

2: I want to lose a stone and a half in weight.

I did loose four pound but put it back on over our mammoth chocolate eating spree at Easter.

3: I want to finish my novel.

Never touched it.

4: I want to continue my piano lessons.

Other than dusting the piano, never been near it.


Pathetic ! ! !

In my defence.

Number 1: It’s not my fault they’re choosing the wrong numbers.

Number 2: Because of my IBS, my weight is always up and down so I could have lost the weight but didn’t know about it (ok clutching at straws a bit ! ! ! ). Once our holidays are over I’m going to make a serious commitment to loose the weight.

Number 3 and 4: It’s been a very hectic six months so my free time has been extremely limited. However after October I’ll have a lot more time on my hands so will be able to put pen to paper and tickle the ivorys….

Marie

Ding dong the witch is dead

I make no apologies for this blog.

Yesterday when we were shopping at the Metro Centre for things for our cruise (27 days and counting…) I happened to bump into an old work colleague who I hadn’t seen since I had hip done in 1998.

We got chatting with the usual how are you, etc and she mentioned that our old boss had died of cancer last December. She was quite upset about it so I tried to appear sympathetic. However inside I was jumping for joy singing ‘ding, dong the witch is dead’. This woman was one of three of the most vilest, nastiest, bigoted people you could ever have the misfortune to meet *.

With the exception of the above mentioned colleague, the office crawler and the office snitch, she was hated by every single member of her staff.

On occasions when departments were short handed, staff would work there for a couple of days to help them out. There was always grumbles from staff as they didn’t like being moved. We loved it as it gave us a couple of days away from her. I wouldn’t say our boss was disliked but other departments eventually refused to help us out because of the way she treat her staff.

I had a couple of run-ins with her, including one which resulted in me having to make an official complaint for harassment and discrimination. I first took my complaint to her boss but she refused to do anything about it (bad move, but then they were as thick as thieves), so I took it to the harassment officer.

I was about to have my hip done so would be on sick leave for several months but was assured that it would be dealt with. I never did find out exactly what happened as I was off work for 18 months. However I did find out that my boss was eventually moved to a department with no staff under her and ‘advised’ to withdraw her application for promotion, and that her boss having been summoned to work on her day off, was told she was to be moved to another department, again with no staff under her, with immediate affect.

I’m glad she is dead and pleased that she was in pain for much of her illness. She used to enjoy holidays in the sun, well where she has gone it’ll be lovely and warm for her ! ! !

Marie

* The other two: One is already in the warm place and the other unfortunately is still with us…

It’s amazing what you can do when you shout

Yesterday the postman tried to deliver a parcel but as it was childminder day I was out when he called.

Even though Amazon said it wouldn’t be here until the 6th at the earliest I knew it would come on Friday. Everything comes on a Friday, no matter when we order things. Order on a Monday with next day delivery and more often enough there’s a problem so guess when it comes. We’ve even tried ordering our wine on Wednesday as they say it can take 14 day delivery. Guess when it comes, yep two days later…

Sorry, I’m digressing. So this morning I ran the Royal Mail depot to arrange a re-delivery. As usual you never get to speak to a human being so I was in the middle of leaving a message on their answer machine when a human voice butted in.

Having explained that I wanted a re-delivery I was told I’d have to ring back on Monday after 3pm as my parcel hadn’t arrived at depot and they can’t arrange re-delivery without the parcel being there.

Customer from hell mode took over. “Sorry but that’s not good enough. Every time I have to arrange a re-delivery, it takes two, sometime three phone calls because you can’t be bothered to pick up the phone; don’t even bother to call me back when promised, or simply don’t re-deliver when asked to do so”.

My parcel will be with me on Tuesday. Woe betide if it isn’t ! ! !

Margo Ledbetter eat your heart out…

Marie

Under warranty

I had to go back to the dentist this afternoon as I was still having toothache.

The intense pain when drinking anything hot or cold had gone but it was extremely painful when touched.

When I rang the dentist this morning I had the choice of either seeing Kim, my usual dentist, tomorrow at 1.30pm or being seen this afternoon by another dentist. As much as I like Kim I couldn’t wait until tomorrow so settled for the latter.

Seems simple enough – err not quite. We are talking about the NHS and their new dental charges…The receptionist explained that there were two queries.

Query 1: They would have to charge me £15.50 because I’m not been seen by my usual dentist. If I was prepared to suffer in agony another day there would be no charge.

Query 2: Even though my toothache came on while I was in the middle of on-going treatment, because they had signed me off on Tuesday I would have to pay another £42.40. It didn’t matter that Kim said to come back if I had any more problems with my tooth.

These were my options. Suffer until my next 6 monthly check-up. Pull out the offending tooth myself or pay up. I decided to go for option three.

So back to the tooth. Having told the dentist (who was really nice) my symptoms, it turns out that I have an infection in the nerve.

The only treatment is to remove the nerve completely, leave the 'wound' open then fill it up later. As the infection is quite bad I've got to take antibiotics for seven days. Thankfully I can still drink ! ! !

While I was thanking her for seeing me at such short notice she said she was going to waver the £15.50 and put the work done today and the two necessary follow up appointments as on-going work from Tuesday – thus saving me another £42.40.

Guess when I have to go back – 25th July at 11.00am which was when my appointment was to have been originally…

Marie

Numb, numb

I’m pleased to report that I was able to get an emergency appointment at my dentist this afternoon so didn’t need to add the dental hospital to my list of A&E’s visited this year.

Having been poked, prodded and x-rayed, nothing untoward was found so she decided to remove the existing filling just in case it was leaking.

While she was busy drilling it occurred to her that she could do the small filling and polish which were still outstanding *.

I came away from the dentist £42.40 poorer and with an extremely numb mouth having had both side of my mouth frozen…

Fingers crossed my tooth will be ok as I don’t have much luck when it comes to toothache. The last two occasions resulted in paying a fortune for the pleasure (or should that be torture ! ! ! ) in having them removed.

Marie

* My original appointment was 13th February but couldn’t make it because of my ankle. It was re-scheduled to 8th May but my dentist slipped a disk in her neck so the next available appointment was 25th July.

Roving toothache

On Saturday I developed toothache after eating ice-cream. I have sensitive teeth so have to be careful eating or drinking anything cold otherwise it’s oww, oww, oww…

The toothache started in one of my lower back ones, then worked its way up to the upper teeth and ending at my upper front ones. I took some painkillers and it settled down for a while.

When I woke up on Sunday the pain had gone. My yippee turned into oww the second I took a mouthful of orange juice. The pain has now decided to put all its energy into one of my upper front teeth.

So tomorrow morning I’m going to have to either ask my dentist for an emergency appointment or it’s a trip to the Dental A&E.

If it is the latter then that’ll be three different A&E departments visited in the past 4 months…

Marie

Gripping

The tickets for our holiday arrived today. Now that may not sound much, but when you book with Silversea they come in a nice box covered in silver foil, and the tickets themselves are in a leather wallet, together with much more information about the cruise itinery. So far so good.

But then we checked the flights on the BA website to make sure the company had booked the right ones. Only Marie's bath was running ....

No, we didn't get a wet floor, but we had a very full bath. Full of VERY hot water. So all Marie had to do was let some out so she could put some cold in. Except how do you put the plug back in if the water is scalding hot.

Then I had this idea. Many years ago Marie was immobile after an operation. The hospital gave her one of those "grasper" tools with a handle on one end and a pair of grips on the other. Just the thing to plunge into the water, remove the plug, and replace it after letting out the right amount of water.

OK, so it's not exciting, but it's not as bad as yesterdays joke.

John

Groan

John found this joke on KGB’s website *

A couple go for a meal at a Chinese restaurant and order the "Chicken Surprise." The waiter brings the meal, served in a lidded, cast iron pot.

Just as the wife is about to serve herself, the lid of the pot rises slightly and she briefly sees two beady little eyes looking around before the lid slams back down.

"Good grief, did you see that?" she asks her husband.

He hasn't, so she asks him to look in the pot. He reaches for it and again the lid rises, and he sees two little eyes looking around before it slams down.

Rather perturbed, he calls the waiter over, explains what is happening, and demands an explanation.

"Please sir," says the waiter, "what you order?"

The husband replies, "Chicken Surprise."

"Ah... so sorry," says the waiter, "I bring you Peking Duck."

Marie


* Not THE KGB but the blog of one Kevin G Barkes

How did that get in there

Yesterday we had to go to down to London for a meeting. We had to be in London for 11am and as GNER were yet again doing engineering work, the rail network was a shambles. So we had no option but to fly.

Bleary eyed, well wouldn’t you having got up at 4am… we arrived at Newcastle airport and because of the wonders of the internet didn’t need to check in having already reserved our seated and printed off the boarding cards the night before.

For once we both got straight through the metal detector at the security gates. I usually set them off but that’s what you get when you have a metal hip ! ! !

We weren’t so lucky with John’s bag as there was something inside they didn’t like.

‘Oh it’s probably the stapler. It always looks suspicious’.
‘Not this time, it’s a pair of scissors’.

‘Scissors’, we both cried then tried wracking our brains as to how they could end up in John’s bag.

It turns out that they were a very old pair of kitchen scissors that John kept in his tool bag. They must have fallen out when the bag was last used at Blackpool conference.

The little security man said we couldn’t take them with us, but we could either get a jiffy bag and post them home or check-in John’s bag. Considering the cost of posting them home or the hassle of checking in the bag we decided to leave them at the airport.

Another lethal weapon to add to their collection…

Marie

A tweak here and a tweak there

Last night was the first time since Gertie came to live in the Bogof household that I’ve have time to ‘programme her in’, so to speak.

For those of you who don’t know what a tailors dummy is, it’s an adjustable mannequin which is used to aid dressmaking.

John very kindly helped measure my vital statistics and these were then put into Gertie.

She still wasn’t quite my body double as I don’t have a small bust or a washboard stomach so this morning she became the proud owner of a padded bra and a spare tyre around her middle.

If this is not an incentive to diet I don’t know what is ! ! !

Marie

Motherisms

Regular visitors to our blog will know my mam is a little quirky. Yesterday was a good day.

It started with the milk. As you know she is obsessed about milk and best-before dates. Well, I noticed the coffee was a little creamy (you would just think it had been made with full cream instead of semi-skimmed) and I made the mistake of telling her this.

‘I noticed it started to go off on Monday’, she replied. She only bought it on Saturday and the BBD wasn’t up until 14th May. She was convinced she could taste the deterioration in the milk as each day went by…

As she put the milk back in the fridge I noticed the thermostat was lower than normal so mentioned this as it could have been the cause of the creamy milk.

Bad move. I tried to convince her that the food would be fine as the dial was only down two notches. No doubt her wheelie bin had a good feed that night.

On Monday she asked if she could try on one of the pairs of trousers I was sending back to my catalogue. She was already keeping a black pair in the same style so wondered what the stone one would look like.

Having tried them on, they were too big. She then decided that she might not keep the black pair as she had gone off the idea of wearing them seeing as the stone ones didn’t fit. Don’t ask ! ! !

Then she took both pairs and laid them on top of one another. Even though the black pair fitted perfectly, she was adamant that if they were the same size then the black pair was going back. Again don’t ask ! ! !

Thankfully the black pair was smaller…

Marie

See for yourself

In case you were wondering why there was no picture of Gertie on the blog, all can now be revealed. I re-installed windows not so long ago and forgot to re-install Explorer Version 6. And with a low-5 version you don't get the Blogger post editor toolbar, and without that you can't add pictures. It's now done, so here's a picture of Gertie for you.

I'm sure everyone will be pleased to know that Gertie has settled into the Bogof household very quickly and has already proved to be a great asset. Every home should have one !!!

John

Just for you Jan

As Jan quite rightly said on Saturday night we are ‘boring old farts’ for not blogging so thought I’d put one together. Well it was either this or do some hospital radio work. The former wins hands down ! ! !

We never did get our early night last night as we stumbled across a programme on Channel 4 about one hit wonders so stayed up to watch that.

John had to take his car in for a service and MOT this morning and as I had to pick him up from the garage and take him to work it meant an earlier than usual alarm call.

After dropping John off at work I had planned to go straight to my mams but a call of nature meant I had to dash home instead. Too much information I hear you cry…

Once back from my mams (it was only a flying visit to drop off some bottled water and a couple of pairs of trousers) I then had to catch up on some three letter word * stuff.

This afternoon was spent in a more pleasurable way – watching more of my new Buffy DVD’s.

Normally at this time I would be looking forward to a glass (or two) of wine but we’re back on our diet so no wine tonight. Grump, grump.

Marie


* HBA

Exhausted

Having got told off this weekend by our friend Jan * for not blogging for ages I thought I better do one.

So why am I exhausted, well we’ve just come back from a wonderful weekend away in Derby/Nottingham for the wedding of our friends Chris and Jenny.

Two very long nights spent in the hotel bar have finally caught up with me. Sorry to Jan, Andy and John for keeping you up so late on Saturday…

An early night is called for ! ! !

Marie

* It was more on the lines of ‘you haven’t blogged for ages you boring old farts’.

A new arrival

We have a new member to the Bogof household. Her name is Gertrude (or Gertie for short) and she’s my new tailors dummy.

When she arrived she was lovely and slim. However now, having put my measurements into her, she’s rather tubby ! ! !

I was going to show you a picture of her ‘naked’ but this is a respectable blog…

Marie

Spend, spend, spend

John came home from work on Thursday with a lovely surprise. Every member of staff had been given a bonus and his was a four figure sum ! ! !

Seeing as John worked hard for his bonus it was only fair to let him decide how it should be spent. So it’s being split three ways. John, me and the house.

John has bought himself a new digital camera.

I’ve bought myself a tailors dummy, the entire series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD (yes I know I’m sad…) and series eight, nine and ten of M*A*S*H on DVD. I’ve also done something which my gender doesn’t do – I haven’t spent it all ! ! ! !

The house has decided it would like its share to go towards DIY projects.

Marie

Easter weekend

I’m pleased to report that both banned weekends went splendidly.

Hospital radio wasn’t mentioned all weekend which was wonderful – could get used to this - and our banned food were yummy ! ! !

We spent Good Friday, Saturday and Easter Monday painting. Well isn’t that what Bank Holidays are for…

There’s still a little bit more work to do next weekend so once it’s completed some before and after pictures will be posted.

We had a good try at eating all the Christmas chocolate over the weekend but I’m afraid to report that we failed miserably. There’s still two half bars of Toblerone left plus a hardly touched box of Flake chocolates from my mam (she decided to give us them instead of an Easter egg).

All this chocolate isn’t helping our diet. There’s only 10 weeks to our holiday and we promised ourselves to try and lose a bit of weight before then.

Once the chocolate is all gone we will get back to our diet – honest ! ! !

Marie

Banned weekend

No I don’t mean the thing we banned in yesterday’s blog, but something else.

Every bank holiday we have a banned weekend. This is a weekend where food that is normally forbidden because they’re too fattening is allowed.

So this weekend we’re having bacon sandwiches, sandwiches from our local deli, pate, hot dogs, garlic bread, nan bread and chicken Kiev. Plus lots of chocolate, cake, and hot cross buns.

Can’t wait for the next bank holiday ! ! !

Marie

Normal service has resumed

Yes folks, we’re back. Blackpool conference and hospital radio work I’m afraid took up rather a lot of our time, hence no blogs.

To protect our sanity and give us a bit of a break we’re made an executive decision that from now until the end of Easter the subject of HR will be banned.

So what else has happened while we’ve been away. I’m pleased to report that the cold sores in my eye has cleared up and no damage has been done.

I’m in the wars again. Last Saturday I was a bit over zealous chopping an onion and chopped my finger nail instead. I couldn’t bear another trip to A&E so we managed to patched it up ourselves. Whilst I was at the doctors on Wednesday collecting a prescription, I asked the nurse to have a look at it. It’s still looks a bit yucky but is ok. However until the nail has grown back I have to keep it covered with a plaster. Thankfully the chemist had a 3 for 2 offer on plasters…

We now know why there was a lot of banging, hammering etc coming from next door. We don’t think they are very quick at DIY. They are having a brick wall build at the front and it’s taken them two weeks to remove the old small wall and two days to lay a wall nine bricks high. When we had the same thing done it only took a day to do.

We had loads of chocolate left from Christmas so decided to hide them and eat at Easter instead of an Easter egg. As there was too much chocolate to physically eat in a couple of days we decided to start early. Monday and Tuesday saw us polish off a dark and a milk Terry’s Chocolate Orange. Yesterday was half a box of chocolate truffles. Tonight will be the other half… Still to eat is a box of Celebrations and two large Toblerones – and not a ‘Steve’ in sight ! ! !

Marie

Eye eye

Typical. No blog for days then two comes along…

All day Friday and Saturday my right eye was really itchey and sore. I had a bit of a poke around but couldn’t find anything wrong.

This morning I found out why my eye was so itchy and sore. A nice clump of cold sores had appeared both near and in my eye.

Normally I would have gone straight to the doctors as cold sores in the eye can cause you to go blind if the infection spreads. However this is a weekend and our doctor surgery only work weekdays, it meant a trip to the A&E department of the local Eye Hospital.

Thankfully we only had to wait 1 1/2 hours as the notice board said the waiting time is between 2 to 3 hours, and longer at weekends.

As the cold sores have affected only the white part of my eye, I don’t have to take oral antibiotics. I have them in eye drop form instead. Excellent news as I wouldn’t have been able to drink at Blackpool if I were on the tablets. Yippee ! ! !

At the moment my eye is painful, swollen and blurred, and doing nothing for the bags under my eyes…. Hopefully it won’t get to the purple stage as that’s when it resembles a black eye.

You can image the comments I’ll get next week. I think I’ll have a ‘it’s not a black eye’ badge printed just in case….

Marie

Mothers Day

As it’s Mothers day I thought I’d tell you a little bit about my mam.

I’ve already mentioned previously that she thinks everyone is telepathic. What I haven’t told you is that she has a finely tuned sense of smell, taste and hearing.

She can smell Carbon Monoxide. Gloria, her next door neighbour, had a leak of Carbon Monoxide and my mam claims she could smell it seeping though the walls.

She knows when the food is nearing its ‘best before date’ as she can gradually taste it going off. This happens especially with milk .When the ‘bbd’ is up everything suddenly tastes awful. Whenever I’m shopping for her, I must make sure that the date stamp is well in advance otherwise she won’t have it.

Confession time – I once bought her some milk and forgot to look at the date stamp. It only had two days to go and knowing her obsession, tore the label off so she wouldn’t know. I half expected a phone call two days later complaining about the milk. No phone call. A week later and she was still using the milk…

She came to ours for Christmas day and was convinced she could hear the roast potatoes burning. The sound would have had had to pass through the Aga door, through the closed kitchen door, along the hall way, through the closed dining room door then into the living room.

Whenever we go shopping at Dainty Supplies (a haberdashery shop where I get my dressmaking fabric), we always bicker over fabric and patterns. The assistances know us very well so act as referees.

She is a red head so had a temper to match. I used to have quite a bit of red in my hair when I was younger so the arguments we used to have were beauties.

For all her ‘quaintness’ she’s still a wonderful mother.

Marie

No more lady Vicar

First of all, apologies for not blogging for ages but we’ve been rather busy with Blackpool conference. I’ve stored up what I was going to blog so will tell all later.

Now about this lady vicar. For the past couple of months my hairdresser Gillian has been encouraging me to grow my hair. I fancied a changed so decide to give it a go.

Three weeks ago and I was (excuse the pun) tearing my hair out. It took ages for it to dry, kept sticking up and worst of all showed up all my grey hairs ! ! !

I decided to perceiver as Gillian was coming in a couple of days time. Then I got a phone call. ‘Sorry Marie, but James (her son) has to go into hospital to have his tonsils out. I have to cancel your appointment and can’t fit you in until another three weeks time’.

Aaaaahhhhhhhh

As each day went by my hair got worse and worse. Then the most frightening thing happened. I started to look like a lady vicar….. I’ve got nothing against these lovely ladies but they do seem to have disastrous hairstyles – think Christine from a Seaside Parish. It got to the stage were I was embarrassed to go out, it was that bad.

Gillian came this morning and I’m really pleased to report that I’m no longer a lady vicar as I’m back to my normal short hair.

Wonderful ! ! !

Marie

What no Blog

Apologies for not Blogging for a while.

At the start of the week we were both feeling pretty rotten – and no it wasn’t alcohol related ! ! ! John was in the middle of a cold and I was just starting one. We were so rough on Sunday that we didn’t get up until 2pm…

I’ve made a start making my dress for Blackpool conference. As I couldn’t find any patterns suitable (see a Stitch in Time), I decided to reuse one of my previous patterns. However the last time I made that particular dress I was at least a stone lighter so consequently I’ve had to alter the pattern.

The last time I wore that dress I was also smaller in the bust region so seeing as it’s backless I was able to wear one of those multi-way bras. Not this time.

Yesterday I went to the Metro Centre with my mam – the first time out shopping since tearing the ligaments in my ankle – and I went to M&S to get measured for a bigger size multi-way bra. Having taken my measurements the assistant then went looking for the bra in my size but came back empty handed. They don’t make them in my size.

The only thing she could recommend was a strapless bra, in a size bigger than I would normally have, then pull the back bit down and secure it in place with some toupee tape. I bet Jordan doesn’t have this problem ! ! !

Sorry Jenny but more references to Blackpool. We went shopping this morning at Makro and came back with nice things for conference packs. Having taken a large delivery last Wednesday from Viking Direct, our dining room is now rapidly looking like a stationary warehouse. What’s worse is that the nice things from Makro are also in there too ! !

Marie

PS if you like dogs and have satellite television, have a listen to GlobCast Radio as they are presenting Crufts FM. If you hear a man with a North East accent, that’s John Hindhaugh - he was best man at our wedding….

Right Of Reply

If anyone feels that we're being unfair by denying you the right of reply when we post these ramblings, our only defence is that it's not our fault. I changed some settings and the "leave comment" option has vanished. I can't get it back and I can't even ask you to leave a comment telling me how to put it back.

John

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

When we opened the bedroom curtains this morning everywhere was covered in snow. There must have been at least 3 inches.

My late father in law always took great delight in saying that it never snows by the coast.

My very first Christmas living ‘by the coast’ and we had a 6 inch white Christmas.

Whenever it snowed I used to remind my father in law about what he said only to receive the reply – ‘It’s your fault. We never had snow until you moved to Fulwell’.

So if anyone wants snow in their area, let me know…

Marie

P***** Off

As you can see I’m a little cheesed off. Three guesses as to why…

Yes that’s right, it’s our new neighbours.

I had hoped that seeing as they spent their first night in their new home, they would have finally ceased with all the banging, drilling, hammering and their obsession with power tools.

How wrong I was ! ! !

It would seem that they are now starting to replace the floor boards in the remaining two bedrooms. As one of the rooms is adjacent to my work room, the noise in here is deafening.

I’m starting to wish ‘John’s theory’ would come true. He thinks they have bought the house to modernise it then sell it for profit.

To say I hate our new neighbours is an understatement…

Marie

Moving in time

It would seem that there is moving activity next door as today the new neighbours started bringing in some furniture. You would expect this to be a quiet affair. Our new neighbours quiet – you must be joking. Every time they unloaded the car, it set off our phantom door bell.

Of course no day would be complete without a bit of banging. They had their television Arial replaced…

It look like we’ll be getting more new neighbours as Greg and Kay who live opposite have today put their house up for sale and the house at the end of our street has also just gone up for sale.

Was it something I said ! ! !

Marie

You know when it's getting close ...

You know when it’s getting close to an HBA Spring Conference when :

Marie is looking at dress patterns.

Our dining room is full of boxes.

Viking Direct raise our credit limit.

We start thinking in terms of days to go instead of weeks to go.

Paul starts to blog about minibus hire.

Our alcohol consumption rises (the stress, the stress !!)

Large quantities of cash are stolen.

Not long now ...

John

Marie’s Theory

Apologies for not blogging for awhile but there hasn’t really been anything exciting to report.

My ankle is still swollen and rather painful so haven’t ventured into the outside world by myself. Weather permitting I’m doing that tomorrow – wish me luck ! ! !

We went to Blackpool on Friday night for a meeting with the hotel on Saturday morning to finalise things for conference. Driving there was fine (moving the accelerator pedal was good exercise for my ankle), however walking wasn’t…

Still the pain was worth when we checked into our room. The hotel had given us a suite and to say it was huge is an understatement. We counted eight different rooms ! ! ! Shame we were only there for less than 13 hours.

Anyway about my theory. It concerns the new neighbours. Having ‘moved in’ 17 weeks ago, they’re still hammering, banging, drilling and demolishing from 8.30am – 6pm, seven days a week.

Because of the current state of the housing market, the new neighbours wanted a new modern built property but couldn’t afford one.

They bought Dennis’s house due to it being in need of a little TLC. As modern properties are open plan, bland and soulless, they decided to rip out all the glorious features of a 1910’s terrace house.

That’s the only plausible theory I can come up as Dennis’s house was a little tired but really only required cosmetic work doing to it.

Marie

Upset me at your peril

Remember my encounter on Friday with the nasty nurse in A&E. Well I made a complaint against her this morning.

I didn’t like doing it but she gave me no choice as her behaviour and attitude was not what I expected from a member of the medical profession.

The Matron in charge of A&E rang me this afternoon and was most apologetic. She has assured me that the matter will be dealt with.

My ankle has been throbbing this afternoon. I wonder if the nurse has been putting pins in a ‘Marie’ doll…

Whilst I’m on the subject of the NHS, I had to cancel my dentist appointment. I was meant to be there this afternoon but because of my ankle I couldn’t make it. The earliest rescheduled appointment they could give me is 4th May. By then it’ll be six months since my initial appointment.

I’m glad I’m not suffering from toothache ! ! !

Marie

Snap

You know I hate shopping, and in particularly grocery shopping. Well it took it’s revenge out on me last night.

As we were walking out of Morrisons I heard and felt a snap in my right ankle. To say it was painful is an understatement.

Thankfully the car was parked quite close to the entrance so I didn’t have far to hobble.

During the night my ankle decided to swell and as the pain was unbearable, I decided this morning to call NHS direct to see what I should do.

As the little man said ‘anything that snaps isn’t good’, so I was told to go to A&E as he thought I’d snapped my Achilles tendon.

John had just arrived at work only to receive a phone call asking him to take me to A&E.

Having been seen by two lovely triage nurses and waiting over two hours we finally got seen by a nurse practitioner who must have been suffering from Friday blues as she wasn’t a nice person at all.

She was extremely blunt, had no bed side manner and could have done with a couple of lessons at the local charm school. Her diagnosis – I hadn’t snapped my Achilles tendon but failed to say what the problem was and would get the physio to come in to see me. Then she left the room. No good bye, sod off, nothing…

It was the physio who told me that I had torn the ligaments in my ankle. So I’ve got to rest it for a few day, take loads of painkillers, put an ice pack on it twice a day and it should take about three weeks to heal.

All I can see is thank goodness I did it now and not a week before Blackpool conference! ! !

Marie

A stitch in time

It’s that time of year again were I start planning the dress I’m going to make for the HBA Spring conference.

Having looked through all the various pattern books I’ve come to the conclusion that:

A) I’m too fat
B) I’m too short
C) I’m too big busted

All the patterns I like are no good because they fall into one or more of the above.

I can do something about A but not in the timescale. There’s only seven weeks to Blackpool so not much chance of loosing that much weight.

Unless I get leg extensions there isn’t much I can do about B.

And sadly dieting does nothing to reduce my bust so my only option would be surgery. Not something I quite fancy.

So it’s back to the drawing board – now there’s an idea….

Marie

A to Z

Thought I’d copy Gottle so here are my A to Z’s.

[A is for age:]
37
[B is for booze of choice:]
Wine, wine and more wine and Pimms in the summer
[C is for career:]
Housewife
[D is for your dog’s name:]
Don’t have one
[E is for essential items you use everyday:]
Computer
[F is for favourite song(s) at the moment:]
‘Penny to my name’ sung by Eva Cassidy and ‘I’ll build a stairway to Paradise’ sung by Issy van Randwyck
[G is for favourite games:]
Backgammon
[H is for hometown:]
Sunderland
[I is for instruments you play:]
Piano (badly), recorder and used to play the clarinet
[J is for jam or jelly you like:]
Blackcurrant
[K is for kids:]
No way ! ! !
[L is for last kiss:]
1 minute ago
[M is for most admired trait:]
Loves animals
[N is for name of your crush:]
The football player Bryan Robson when I was at school
[O is for overnight hospital stays:]
Lots
[P is for phobias:]
Thunder and lightning, loud noises and creepy crawlies
[Q is for quotes you like:]
‘We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard’ President John F Kennedy
[R is for biggest regret:]
Giving up teacher training to join the civil service
[S is for sweets of your choice:]
Chocolate and fizzy cola bottles
[T is for time you wake up:]
Several times during the night
[U is for underwear:]
Non-wired bras and anything from M&S
[V is for vegetables you love:]
What’s them…
[W is for worst habit:]
Having to the loo three times before going to sleep
[X is for x-rays you’ve had:]
Loads
[Y is for yummy food you make:]
Fruit cake
[Z is for zodiac sign:]
Virgo

Marie

Friday part 1 (again)

It may not be word for word perfect but here goes…

On Friday I took my mam shopping at Sainsburys. Food shopping with my mam is always an experience but as she had a cold it was like shopping with someone on speed ! ! !

The fruit and veg section. “Do you know were er is”.
I should explain. My mam thinks that everyone is telepathic so doesn’t need to say anything else other than ‘er’.

After a process of elimination I finally guessed what she wanted only to have to repeat the process over and over again.

Still in fruit and veg. “Do you want some tomatoes”.
“Mam, I don’t like tomatoes and you know I don’t, yet you ask me this every time”. “Well I only asked in case you changed your mind”.

The uncooked meat aisle. She spends quite a while looking at the variety of sausages then says “I don’t like sausages”.

The ready made meals aisle. “What can ‘you’ have for a change”, she asks.
“Mam I don’t have RMM”.
It transpires that ‘you’ means ‘I’ (I’ll have to remember that one…). She spends ages looking at the different meals then said she doesn’t like RRM either.

The dairy aisle and she’s standing facing the yoghurts. “Can you see any er”.
“A clue would be helpful”.
“Yoghurts”.
I resist the temptation to be sarcastic so ask “what kind”.
“Sainsburys own”.
“Narrowing it down, any particular one”.
“The Winter Collection”.

After spending ages searching I couldn’t find them.
“Found them”, she says picking up Autumn Fruits…

This is the edited version. Imagine the whole thing ! ! !

Marie

Friday part 3

For some strange reason Friday part 1 has disappeared from my blog….

I did publish it – honest ! ! ! John will be my witness as he remembers reading it.

I’ll type it up again tomorrow.

Marie

Friday part 2

While at Sainsburys on Friday I decided to hand in my prescriptions. I needed more tablets for my IBS, more cold sore cream and a sachet of penicillin for when I have my teeth scaled and polished at the dentist next Monday.

These three items cost me £19.50 ! ! ! The woman in the chemist commented that it’s expensive to be ill. Too right…

One thing drove me to drink on Friday and it wasn’t the cost of the prescriptions. It was the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I’ve mentioned before that the programme is a lot funnier when accompanied by alcohol. Don’t ask me how I would have coped watching it sober.

Boy was it awful ! ! !

Marie

PS John says I should have called my blog ‘Friday the Third, part 2’. Now I do need a drink…

Too good to be true

Yesterday for the first time since the new neighbours started demolishing (sorry – renovating…) their house they did so in relative silence.

I know what you’re thinking they were having the day off. No I could still hear them going up and down the stairs (no carpet + heavy shoes = slight noise) but no banging, hammering, drilling, sawing. Nothing.

Having had one of the worst weeks of noise last week, this was a welcome relief. Last week they decided to remove the chimney breast from the kitchen. You can imagine the noise. It was so bad that I couldn’t hear anyone on the phone, no matter what room I was in…

Sadly peace and tranquillity has ceased as they were back working today on the chimney breast again. If that wasn’t enough the council are digging up the road in the back lane just outside our house.

Where did I put my ear plugs ! ! !

Marie

I hate plumbing.

We’ve got a leaky pipe, and it’s got previous form.

Let me explain. When our heating system was installed, years before we bought the house, some of the pipes were laid across other pipes. They began to rub, and eventually, after about a dozen years or so one of them (the main hot water feed from the tank) wore through. The leak was under the floor in my office, and the water appeared in our living room at about 10pm on New Years Eve, three years ago. Temporary repairs were made and the next day a proper repair was effected.

All was fine except for a slight drip and even this stopped once the joint settled in.

That is until we had the boiler replaced, and now one of the joints in the repair is leaking again. I suspect it’s because the hot water is now pumped instead of being gravity fed (more pressure). It’s an awkward spot and I can’t get any more leverage to tighten it without doing serious damage to the rest of the pipework. It loses one drop every 45 seconds or so. This one showed itself on December 29th. Just as well it didn’t start two days later or we would have returned home from Jan’s party to a rather damp carpet. I put a tray under the leak to see how quickly it filled and a day or so later there was only a wet stain to be seen.

And guess what. We were sitting minding our own business after lunch today when Marie thought she heard a sound coming from one of the radiators. The sort of “ping ping” sound you get as they heat up or cool down. Only the heating was off and it wasn’t “ping ping”. It was “drip drip”. So up came the carpet and floorboards in the office, and yes, the tray was full. It’s a funny thing but I was only saying to Marie yesterday that next weekend we’ll fix the paper on the ceiling where it was affected by the damp, and check the tray. So now we know we’ll need to check it about once every three or four weeks until it gets bored and seals itself.

I hate plumbing.

John

Room 101

Sunday’s blog was the challenge set by Jenny to blog 5 things that define my own particular brand of quirkiness.

Well today I’m going to give you a list of the things I’d like to be put in ‘Room 101’.

Wasps: Unlike the bee which has a purpose in life and dies when it stings you, wasps don’t. They should be issued with ASBO’s…

Cold sores: It starts with a tingle on the lip, or an itchy nose or eye, then seconds later a huge blister appears and for the next five days it’s sheer hell. Not only are they painful, but you can’t eat or drink properly and no kisses ! ! !

Trifle: Three of my worst foods rolled into one: custard, soggy sponge cake and cream. What more can I say.

Arran jumpers: Apologies to the lovely residents of Arran but their jumpers are awful. John had a very out-of-shape one which he liked because it kept him warm when working on rallies. As soon as we got married I threw it out when he was at work. I don’t think he’s ever forgiven me…

White cars: They always seem to be driven by people who don’t give a damn about other road users, and don’t get me started if the car happens to be a BMW.

Gregorian chant:*: John loves them. I hate them. They are supposed to be very calming. I must be missing something as they drive me up the wall ! ! !

And finally for people who really know me ‘Saturday arrivals’…

Marie

* For those of you who don’t know what a Gregorian chant is, it’s acapella church music from the middle ages.

Thanks Jenny

This blog is brought to you in association with Jenny who got the idea from Stu.

I have to blog about 5 things that define my own particular brand of quirkiness. So here goes but in no order:

Toilet rolls must be white. I can’t stand coloured loo rolls. I’d rather use newspaper (as long as it’s white…).

Books in bookcases must be arranged in height order by author, with the tallest on the left – this drives John mad as he does his by subject.

I take my coffee very very weak. About three granules per cup. I’ve been known to ask for a jug of hot water at conference gala dinners to dilute the coffee.

I grind my teeth in bed. Apparently, so I’m told as I’m asleep at the time, it sounds like a bag of marbles been shaken.

I can go all day without going to the loo but once I get into bed I have to go at least three times before I can get to sleep.

Marie

Foiled !!

Regular readers will know that Marie is pretty fed up with the new neighbours and their power tool fetish (even on Christmas day !!).

So imagine how pleased she was when I said that I needed to drill a hole not in, but right through a wall. At last, a chance to give the neighbours a taste of their own medicine.

Sadly it was not to be. Last Christmas Santa brought me a super duper SDS-Plus hammer drill, which, with a brand new 16mm bit ate it's way through the wall in less than 30 seconds. My old drill would have taken nmore like 30 minutes.

On the plus side I can say I'm very pleased with the drill. I can honestly say that the performance was awesome, and at less then £30 from Screwfix the manchine is a bargain.

John

Things never go to plan

Tonight’s meal was going to be oven baked lemon chicken and vegetables.

However it didn’t quite work out like that. It normally only takes the chicken half an hour to cook so the vegetables were drained and put on the plates waiting for the chicken to come out of the oven.

On opening the foil parcels the chicken was a lovely shade of pink ! ! !

Not to worry, I’ll put them back in the oven for another ten minutes and reheat the vegetables in the microwave.

10 minutes later and the chicken still wasn’t cooked.

Another 10 minutes and it was still pink so we decided to have pie and chips instead.

An hour and a half after the chicken was put in the oven it was finally cooked.

Any one want some lemon chicken…

Marie

It’s all Paul’s fault

After reading Gottle’s Blog about grabbing the nearest book, opening it at page 123 then writing down the text of the fifth sentence, we decided to do this with the books we currently have on the go at the moment.

Here’s Marie’s:

‘I was supposed to pick up this girl and take her home, but when I looked for her she had disappeared.’ A talent for Genius – The Life and Times of Oscar Levant

‘A Tora roller is sometimes called an aytz chayyim (plural, atzay chayyum,), meaning “tree of life”, the name by which the Tora itself is sometimes called.’ The Jewish Book of Why

‘One of the greatest pleasures of this passage for me is its varieties of language.’ The Joy of Writing Sex

‘As one teacher remembers: Those who had lived on bread and cakes with jam, cheese and chips, as many of the poor did, no longer had them and were much healthier for it.’ Bombers & Mash

‘One very good contrast is afforded by a pound of rumpsteak at fourteenpence, and a pound of beans or lentils at twopence.’ The 1915 edition of Mrs Beetons’ Book of Household Management


Here’s John’s:

‘The confusion arose largely because of one man, John Wallis, who wrote a self-serving account of the early days of the Royal in 1678.’ The Fellowship – The Story of a Revolution

‘Throughout history, most armies (there are some exceptions) have been composed of a triad of three arms: infantry, whether Roman legionaries carrying short swords and javelins or modern troops carrying assault rifles; artillery, which has ranged from stone-throwing ballistae to the Multi-Launched Rocket Systems of the Gulf War; and a mobile arm.’ Forgotten Victory – The First World War: Myths and Realities

‘His wife and teenage daughters were waiting back home, hoping Daddy got Europe and cycling out if his system before his ankles melted.’ French Revolutions – Cycling the Tour De France

‘We always leave and take a chance, said Monica, and we always break down.’ Narrow Dog to Carcassonne

And finally:

‘He noticed Kate was standing watching, but chose to ignore her.’ The Flower of Ludwell by Marie Harper (unfinished…)

Marie & John

Ouch, ouch, ouch

I have quite a high pain threshold. Well with my pains I have to otherwise I’d never get out of bed.

That is however until I start plucking my eyebrows. Then I become a whimpering wreak begging myself to stop as the pain is unbearable.

The only way I can get the job done with a moderate amount of pain is by doing it while lying in a hot bath, which is what I did last night.

Women, why do we do it ! ! !

Marie

Bits and bobs

Late on Thursday night I remembered I’d forgotten to get my mam some wheelie bin liners. It’s Morrisons’ fault again. If they hadn’t caused me to have two tantrums I would have remembered.

Feeling guilty that I’d forgotten them I decided to be brave* and call in yesterday morning on my way to my mams.

I’m pleased to report that they had restocked the shelves so I got the peppers and the milk. No such look with the leeks though. Can’t expect miracles can I.

Last night while eating our Chinese** John let me watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I normally watch it when he’s at work as it’s not quite his thing. However as I’d been at my mams all day I had to video it as she doesn’t have Sky.

The plan was to watch something else once we’d finished eating. 1 ½ hours and a couple of glasses of wine later it was still on and although it’s funny normally, under the influence of alcohol it’s hilarious. Even John thought so ! ! !

John mentioned in his Blog that we went to Makro this morning. What he didn’t tell you was while he was unloading the car at the front of the house, the lady new neighbour was seeing off visitors and completely ignored him. No ‘hello I’m your new neighbour’, no smile, no acknowledgment. Nothing.

Looks like they won’t be getting a welcome to your new home card…

Marie


* Every weekday between the hours of 9am and 5pm it’s crammed with senior citizens who treat grocery shopping as a day out.

** We’ve abandoned having pizza on Friday night. It took ages for it to arrive by which time it was cold and re-heated pizza isn’t that appetising…

Restored !!

Yes - my faith in all things good has been restored. We went to Makro (the cash & carry) today and we didn't see a single easter egg on the shelves. Bet there's plenty in the stockroom though ...

John

Calm down dear it’s only a supermarket

We’ve just come back from Morrisons and while we were there I had two temper tantrums.

I hate shopping at Morrisons but as it’s less than a mile away it’s very convenient, especially as we can be there and back within the hour.

My first tantrum was caused by them having no peppers or leeks. Well actually they did have peppers but only if you wanted a mixed bag of four microscopic ones for 99p. I wanted four green ones and a red one.

The second tantrum happened because they had ran out of milk. Now is it me or am I asking too much of them to at least have some milk.

There’s a lot to be said for online shopping…

Marie

They’re back

Yes I’m afraid the new neighbours have returned to work today and they still have a power tool fetish. What ever happened to using a screw driver ! !

Remember the December Blogg ‘Scrooge of the week’. Well I was watching Richard (he’s so cute) Hammond’s programme on ITV this afternoon and they did a feature about complaining.

They advised people never to write to the customer service department or the complaints department but to complain directly to a named person, preferably someone at the top. Good point. I’ll remember that next time.

They also advised a woman who was having ongoing problems with a department store to take her complaint higher up the chain.

Well that’s exactly what I’m going to do with a certain paint company with an X in it’s name.

I’ll keep you posted.

Marie

All quiet on the Western Front

I’m getting worried. The new neighbours haven’t been seen since Thursday afternoon.

They were exceptionally loud on Thursday as they were sanding the newly replaced floor boards – imagine air raid sirens only a thousand times louder.

John was at work * so I was able to drown out the noise by playing my music a little louder than normal. Think house vibrating.

Could it be they’ve got the message that us neighbours are sick of the noise and need a break. Nahh ! ! !

As it’s the start of a new year it’s customary to make resolutions. I’m not a resolutions person however I do have a ‘want’ list.

1: I want to win the lottery. It doesn’t matter if it’s the normal lottery, the extra or the Euro. As long as it’s the jackpot and is over £1m I’m not bothered.

2: I want to lose a stone and a half in weight.

3: I want to finish my novel.

4: I want to continue my piano lessons.

Marie




* he thinks I’m being childish when I turn my music up. He’s probably right but

a) he’s at work all day so doesn’t have to put up with it.
b) there’s something therapeutic in doing so especially when I inflict my singing on them as well…