But I thought I told you

Two years ago my mam suddenly decided that she didn’t want to go shopping for Christmas presents that year, as it was would be the first Christmas without my dad and it was too upsetting for her.

So she asked everyone if we could ‘donate’ some presents from the ones we had already bought so she would at least have something to wrap up.

She didn’t decide this until the middle of December so there was some panic buying from Amazon to replace the ‘donated’ presents.

My mam decided a couple of weeks ago that she had had enough of shopping so asked if we could ‘donate’ presents again.

Whilst I was at my mams today (Christmas food shopping at Sainsburys – she asked a shop assistant where she would find the bread she got before, but could remember which kind it was – I kid you not ! ! ! Thankfully she was a very patient assistant so after twenty questions she found it…) she asked when I come on Friday, could I bring ‘her presents’.

I mentioned this to John tonight and got a stunned silence. I had forgotten to tell him ! ! !

Guess what he’s doing right now…

Marie

At last…

… we’ve found a joiner who:

Does return calls.

Gives a precise time when he can come out to have a look - and arrives on the dot.

Rings up the very next day with a sensible quote.

And can fit the doors two days before Christmas.

As it’s the Season of Goodwill and all that, I’m going to be kind to B&Q. Instead of asking them for the money before the work is done, I’ve decide to pay the little man then get them to reimburse me.

See, I do have a nice streak in me after all ! ! !

Marie

All festive

Yesterday we spent the afternoon putting the Christmas decorations up and it was also a welcome return to Rudy.



He’s been many colours throughout the years – beige; mahogany; red and now ivory.

As John was off work today we have a lovely long lie in, then it was off to the Chinese Restaurant for lunch.

As we’re usually too stuffed to have much for tea, we’ve just finished eating pancakes with lashings of maple syrup. Yum, yum…

Marie

Non stick

After my disaster with making mince pies last year, I had a change of heart and decided that I would still continue making them (instead of just buying them from Sainsburys as I had threatened to do) but only do them small batches.

That was the theory any way. In reality it was a little different as my mam had such a good time two weeks ago when we made the cornbeef pies and the lemon and orange cakes for our Winter party, that she would like to help me make the mince pies.

So yesterday, my car boot was full of the various things I had to take with me to my mams in order to make the mince pies – mincemeat, flour, margarine, tins, cutters etc.

I’m delighted, nay ecstatic, to report that we made seven dozen and not one of them stuck ! ! !

Two weeks time she wants us to bake the lemon and orange cakes again.

I have a feeling that baking on a Friday may be come a regular occurrence…

Marie

The saga of the kitchen continues

We’re trying to find a joiner to come and fit the kitchen doors.

I rang a couple of them and sure enough they came out and give us quotes. However getting hold of them to arrange a date is like pulling teeth.

I left a message on the little man’s answer machine saying I’d very much like him to fit the doors and could he give me a ring back to arrange a date. Having received no reply I tried again. Success I got to speak to him.

He blamed his wife for not getting back (a likely story). As he was on a job, he didn’t have his diary with him but he’d ring me back that evening. That was six days ago. If he can’t be bothered to contact me then he doesn’t deserve my business.

So I tried another couple today. The first one just kept ringing - rant time. What's the point of putting your phone number in yellow pages when there's no one to answer it. Surely they could afford an answer machine – rant over. The other one did have an answer machine. No surprises what they haven’t done. Not amused…

I decided to try the little man who couldn’t afford an answer machine again and actually got to speak to him. I nearly dropped the phone in shock as to how much he wanted to charge for fitting. £20 per door. We have 10 doors and five drawers. That’s a whopping £300 ! ! ! !

Ok, I know B&Q are paying for the fitting but that’s still an extortionate amount of money, especially when B&Q are expecting us to pay the joiner first, then to get them to reimburse us. Think again B&Q ! ! !

We do however have a standby joiner. His quote is a little higher than the first little man but definitely not £300. Plus we’ve got it in writing.

So B&Q will be getting a letter very shortly asking for money…

Marie

PS an update on the overlocker. It’s still acting very stroppy (well it is a teenager….) so I’ve abandoned sewing for a couple of days until John can cheer it up.

Anyone got a screwdriver

My overlocker is being temperamental - for those of you who don’t know what one is, it’s a machine which neatens edges of fabric.

I’m busy making a top with the fabric I bought at Leeds market (£1 for a metre. Now there’s a bargain) and whilst I was overlocking the neck edge of the back piece, it decided to throw a wobbler.

It does this occasionally, mainly when there’s just a bit too much fabric for it to stitch. I had thought there wouldn’t be a problem as the neck edge didn’t appear to be that bulky.

I spent the next twenty minutes trying to fix it and another twenty minutes getting the tensions right – the slightest problem and the tensions go haywire. I was really proud of myself for not uttering a single swear word...

It’s still not 100% but at least it should be ok to finish off my top, provided I’m extremely gentle and talk nicely to it.

Once Christmas is out of the way I’ll get John to have a good look at it and maybe even give it a service.

I certainly can’t be without it when I come to make my dress for Northampton ! ! !

Marie

Christmas - Bah Humbug

We went to a garden centre today.

At first I thought we were in the wrong place. First of all the traffic was queuing up to get in. Then when we finally made it through the door, aisle after aisle of Christmas decorations. Now there's nothing wrong with decorations, but when they take over almost all of a perfectly good garden centre ...

The garden bits were cowering in the far corner, forgotten and neglected.

Thankfully we found what we wanted, and joined the queue to get out, finally being served by the worlds most miserable shop assistant.

So that was our Sunday excitement. Saturday was spent getting my hair cut and making a storage unit for Marie’s work room. We live such an exciting life.

Actually ten years ago at this time of year we would be plenty busy. This weekend it was the “Wales Rally GB”. And awful name for an awful event. This used to be the good old RAC rally. We used to run the service area at Kielder, and I once ran an overnight halt at Gateshead stadium.

How times have changed. The event used to last five days and there were something like 650 miles of stages, covering most of the country. North & South Wales, Forest of Dean, Yorkshire, Kielder, Hamsterley, Tweed Valley, Dumfries and the Lake District.

Now all we get is a measly 200 or so miles, all of it in South Wales. And if you want to watch, you have to pay lots of money to enter the forests. The changes are all down to the desire to make the event (and all the other rounds of the World Rally Championship) more attractive to television. I’m pleased to say that audiences are waning and television is losing interest.

Hopefully we may yet get our rally back.

John

So what is there to report...

... in the BOGOF household

Hmmmm, I’m thinking…

Thinking harder….

Thinking even harder….

Brain is now starting to hurt…..

Nothing ! ! !

Marie

Square eyed

John’s cousin June sent an email link to a genealogy website which is offering three days worth of searching free (you usually have to pay a fee to look at the best stuff).

So having found time to make use of the three free days, I register this afternoon and spent several hours trying to find details about my Nana Dinah.

As I said in last Tuesday’s blog, I don’t have a lot to go on and even though I do have an ‘all areas pass’, I’m not making much headway.

First of all I tried searching the marriage records. No luck. Then I tried the deaths. Again nothing so far.

So that only left the births and I’ve had to do a lot of guessing as I have no idea when she was born or where she lived. However I’ve still got two and a half free days left so fingers crossed I’ll find something.

I mentioned in the blog last Tuesday that my Granddad married Widow Nelson when my dad was ten. I’ve since found out from my mam that they didn’t marry until the early sixties. They had in fact been ‘living in sin’ and only got married because the Council were going to charge her extra rent as they weren’t married. Shocking ! ! !

Marie

Eat, Drink & be Merry

Well, we've just about finished clearing up from our party last night (and part of this morning !!). We certainly ate, and we certainly drank and we were most certainly merry.

For those who are concerned about such things, here's evidence that Paul ate at least some of the salad. For a picture of the salad before he ate it, see the Gottle link in the sidebar. Visitors on the night included Jan & Andy, Paul, Jenny & Chris, two of my work colleagues, both called Neil, another of my work colleagues, John and his wife Gillian, and a brief visit from Peter. Here's the sordid details of itchy backs, exploding popcorn and much much more.

John (and Marie)

Who are you

My dad never knew his mam as she died when he was about two and it’s always been bugging me that we know nothing about her.

My granddad married Widow Nelson (the lady I called nana) when my dad was about 10 years old and as it was rumoured that he was having an affair with Mrs Nelson long before my dad was born, his mam was never allowed to be mentioned.

So I’ve decided to try and find more about her. However it’s proving to be quite difficult as I’ve nothing to go on. I know her name was Dinah and that her maiden name was Thompson/Thomson and I’m presuming she lived in the Houghton area. After that I draw a blank. I don’t know when she was born, when she married my granddad or when she died.

Santa has very kindly said he’ll get me a beginners guide to tracing family trees and John’s cousin who is very keen on genealogy has given me some websites to try.

It’s going to be quite a task but I’m determined to find out who she was. I think, though, I’ll give my mam’s side of the family a miss for now. Apparently my great granddad was married five times ! ! !

Marie

Winter Draws On

It’s all right, I don’t work for the BBC so I can say that.

Over the past few days we in the Bogof household have seen three clear signs that Winter is coming. First of all we got our first Christmas card through the post. A real card, not one advertising something. Then this afternoon, Marie saw a house with the decorations up. And finally, on the way home tonight, at 5:30 I passed a gritter. Brrr.

On the conference front, since Bognor was buggered, we took ourselves off to Leeds to see what £10 million had done to spruce up the old Queens Hotel, scene of the 2004 Spring conference – where the builders moved in as we moved out.

I can say that the money was well spent. Contrary to the then owners intentions, the original Art Deco features have not been removed. In fact they have been added to in a most sympathetic manner. And all the rooms are of a standard that most hotels call “Executive” – bigger bed, minibar, room safe etc.

So it’s looking like Leeds again in 2008, then Blackpool again in 2009. I just hope that we can get Prague for 2010. If not it’s likely to be Ashford or Scotland …

John

The return of B&Q – the manager strikes back

On Saturday after doing a bit of Christmas shopping in the Metro Centre (extremely busy and I dread to think what it will be like in a couple of weeks time), we went to B&Q to choose our replacement kitchen doors.

Having looked at the entire range we decided to go stick with maple. We finally chose one which didn’t have any laminated strips on them.

Eventually when we did find someone to help us (the size of the envelope containing our paperwork must have sent them into hiding ! ! !) we were told that Maureen, the person I’d been dealing with, would ring me back on Monday to arrange delivery of the doors etc and to arrange a date for fitting.

Monday came and went, no phone call. What a surprise… So once again, yesterday I had to ring them. Normally getting things delivered from B&Q takes several days, if not weeks. Not when you are the customer from Hell. They arrived late yesterday afternoon.

Remember the manager said at first he wouldn’t give us replacement plinths but we said no way. Well we needn’t have bothered because the ones they delivered are identical to what we’ve got. Apparently that style goes with a couple of maple ranges. So we’ve now got two very long plinths which we don’t need. Why couldn’t they have simply said so in the first place. We would have been fine with that.

Now the fitting… We were lead to believe that B&Q would fit them. Oh no. We have get a quote from a little kitchen fitter man, get him to fit them, pay him, send the quote to B&Q and they will reimburse us.

Currently the doors and plinths are in the dining room as we need to find somewhere to store them until we can sort out getting them fitted.

Then we’ve got the old doors to get rid of. Any one want 10 doors, five drawers and two unused plinths…

Marie

Rememberance

Remembering today those British servicemen who fell in two world wars and later conflicts.

744,330 from World War I
397,762 from World War II
16,000+ from Later conflicts



With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables at home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

— Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

Bottoms up

You may (or may not) have heard about a prank with a firework that went wrong.

For those of you who know what happened please go onto the next paragraph. On Bonfire night a man decided to launch a firework from his backside – I kid you not ! ! ! Not surprisingly he suffered internal injuries.

It made the 11am news on Radio 2. The newsreader was doing so well then he lost it completely. He tried to compose himself for the next item but couldn’t. It was wonderful.

As the idiot belongs in Sunderland it also made the local television news. I’ve never seen an item read so quickly before.

Neil, one of John’s work colleagues said he should ring Radio Sunderland and request Elton John’s Rocket Man for him…

Marie

Result

I’m pleased to report that the Showroom manager has come to his senses and agreed to pay for the kitchen plinths.

I wasn’t too amused at them not calling me back yesterday but the little woman was very apologetic when I rang her this morning.

So all we have to do now is choose replacement doors and drawers then wait for them to be fitted.

In other news. Finished off baking my Christmas cakes. I’m so glad I was able to give Jan hers at Norwich as there is no more space on top of the dresser ! ! !

Message for Jan: Will it survive until Christmas or will you want me to bake you another one…

Now that the Christmas cakes are out of the way I can now make a start on planning the food for our winter party.

Then once that’s over it will be time to make the mince pies ! ! ! Hopefully there won’t be a repeat of last December 18th blog – ‘Mention mince pies at your peril ! ! !’

Marie

The kitchen saga continues

I had to ring B&Q today seeing as they still haven’t got back to us about the kitchen doors.

The little man who we saw on Tuesday fobbed me off with the ‘I did pass the message on to the Showroom manager’ spiel. However he did say he’d have a word with him again and get him to ring me this afternoon.

One of his minions phoned instead, apologising on his behalf for not getting back to me. They are to contact the manufactures and will arrange a site visit of our kitchen so will ring back tomorrow with an inspection date.

She then rang back two hours later to say that the Showroom manager has decided to offer us replacement doors and drawers from their range, the same ones if we so wish (I think not…), and they will fit them. They will not however pay for new plinths.

She was politely told* to inform the Showroom manager that his offer was not acceptable. Why should it cost us extra for something which wasn’t our fault. As the manager had gone home she would have a word with him in the morning.

If she comes back and say ‘no’ then the customer from hell will be speaking to the man himself…

Go on Punk, make my day ! ! !

Marie

*she’s not paid enough to be shouted at…

I must have been a cat in a previous life

I hate this time of year. Why, because I’m terrified of loud noises - I have a phobia of thunder and lighting and the sight of balloons makes me come out in a cold sweat*

All last night and today people have been setting off fireworks. I don’t want to be a killjoy but I really do wish that the government would ban the sale of fireworks and only allow them to be set off at proper organised displays.

Not only are they dangerous but stray sparks do have a habit of setting fire to things. Like a wooden box at the end of our back lane…

Now in other news, I’m pleased to report that my shopping exhibition to Sainsburys with mam on Friday went ok. Sadly no motherisms from our adventure but I do have a good one from a couple of weeks ago.

She was complaining about the local Co-op in Houghton putting up their prices once the only other supermarket in the village had closed. So I suggested she make a list of the every day items (coffee, biscuits etc) she needed each week and I’ll get them from Morrison’s when we do our shopping on a Thursday night, and bring them with me when I visit on Fridays.

“Does Morrison’s keep the biscuits I like”, she asked.
“Which ones are those”.
“You know, the ones I get from Sainsburys”.
“Do you mean Sainsburys own make”.
“Yes”…

Marie


* I did not enjoy Sunday lunch at Norwich. Thanks June…

Joined Up Government - PAH

I've just been reading that when (if ?) the Government go live with their ID cards, they're not going to test the software.

That's right. The most complex Government computer project ever, and it's not going to be tested.

They say that because each individual part of the scheme has been used somewhere else, by someone else, in some other context before, it's bound to work. So there's no need to test it.

We can all feel safe knowing that Government I.T is in the hands of experts.

John

One year on…

And the new neighbours are still hammering, banging and drilling. There’s not a week goes by without them making some kind of noise. Surely there can’t be any thing left for them to do as they’ve already gutted the house. Unless that is they are starting from scratch again. Heaven forbid ! ! ! !

I think it was Chris who asked on Saturday night if the new neighbours read our blog. I’m not aware that they do but it’s very tempting to put a note inside their Christmas card saying ‘please read our blog’…

The little man from B&Q is now overdue with his phone call about the kitchen doors by two days. Does he really have a death wish…

Off shopping with mam to Sainsburys tomorrow. Should be fun ! ! !

Marie