Dismal days but still trusting

Hospital appointment dismal. Yes I have got arthritis but doctor not sure which type. Hadn't got blood test results or x-ray which she should have had. Suggested I have ultrasound which sounded fine - except next appointment not until March. Had more blood tests and to have some physio. When got into car just sat and cried. 

 This morning in church gave testimony which I meant to sound positive - I'm trusting God and I know He loves me in spite of everything but ended up with everyone looking at me with tragical expressions, some actually gave shocked gasps and I really wish I'd kept my mouth shut. Only good thing is two women going through hard time themselves seem to feel they can talk to me.

P and I played Monopoly with J this afternoon, he slaughtered us. Wondering if he might have a career in finance. During game I reached for a chance card at same moment as J reached to get it for me and he touched my finger. Pain was so bad I screamed and felt so bad - it wasn't his fault. 

Have sore throat today, P getting over a cold.

Really not in anyway feeling good. Keep trusting God. 



 

Church

So much has happened since I blogged back in October. I've read the last few posts I wrote then and I can't believe what I was capable of doing then because I can't do all that stuff now. I really can't do much at all now. My hands have deteriorated so much I can hardly use them. I think it's obvious now that I've got some sort of arthritis, I've got an out-patient appointment very soon, hopefully they'll be able to do something. Anyway I'm trusting in God, He's going to get me through this.

We left our old church on November 4th. We both gave a goodbye speech. I'd planned what I was going to say, which was thank you and I'll miss you then I felt God was saying to tell them about my illness and how He's been leading me through it and how I still believe He's going to heal me. I think this was a bit difficult for our minister as he doesn't believe any more that I'm going to be healed but if I felt God was saying to say it then I had to say it. Afterwards two women who were visiting, as it was also Becky and her husband's 25th anniversary, came up to me and said how much what I'd said had impacted them. One who's not a Christian but doing an Alpha Course said she felt it helped her understand God better. Wow.

A lady from my housegroup had made us a lovely cake, the top looked just like a Bible, it was amazing and I was so touched. What was a bit embarrassing was that everyone expected me to cry and for some reason I didn't. I still see quite a lot of the people anyway as I still go to the coffee morning, went to their Christmas lunch, met up with the housegroup for breakfast, went back for the nativity at which J lit the Advent candle and like I said we were there Christmas Day.

Meanwhile the new church is going fine. The launch went really well although it was very hard for me as unbelievably while I was getting ready to go a family member phoned out of the blue and picked a fight with me. So I spent the launch trying not to cry. Then I wasn't able to attend the first service as I'd gone down with norovirus (which is the pits). Since then, apart fom the struggle with my hands, it's been going well. On Sunday there is going to be an opportunity for sharing and testimony and I'm wondering if I dare do mine. Do I? If I chicken out I'll have to confess it here.    

Fancy a walk?

P, just finishing lunch of left-over turkey and Christmas pud: 'Fancy walking down to the village with me J?'
J: 'No way, it's cold, it's going to rain, it's too far and I don't feel like a walk.'

Driiing.

P: 'It's Adam on the phone for you J.'

A couple of minutes later:

J: 'Adam and Tim want me to walk down the village and meet them, I'm off ok?'

Bye J.

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas!!!

My dear son bought me a stylus as a present so here I am tapping with it.

It's so nice to be back on the blog though not sure how long can go on tapping. Voice recognition was a bit hard work and frustrating.

Have had a nice Christmas, just us and Mavis yesterday.P cooked really nice dinner - turkey and trimmings. Becky had given me a beautiful table flower arrangement she had made so table looked lovely - all red and gold. Spoke to my brother, his partner and my older niece on skype. Younger niece busy watching Strictly which I had to record as flashing lights could cause Mavis to have a fit. Now I'm watching Downton on catch-up at same time as doing this and eating Celebrations (although I only really like Bounty ones).

Have had lots and lots of rain, roads quite flooded yesterday.

Went to our old church for Christmas service yesterday. Nice to see everyone. (New church didn't have Christmas Day service, there was a midnight service at the main church but I knew P and J would be like two bears with sore heads yesterday if they'd been). New associate minister, who is very nice, led service at old church, did very well. Only thing was they didn't have my favourite carol - Hark the Herald Angels. Never mind.

Hello, can you hear me?

Hello
This is me trying out a voice recognition system. It is taking a bit of time to train it to recognise what I say. A big problem is that it doesn't recognise when I say full stop except it did that time. Okay I am going to see if this works.

Not Liz for a while :(

Hello this is somebody typing for Liz.
She has a problem with her fingers.
Consequently she will not be able to update this blog as much.
She is currently waiting for a hospital appointment.
She misses her blog and will hopefully be able to use a voice recognition program to help her update.

Sore fingers

Fingers have got so painful going to have to drastically reduce time spent on computer. Waiting for appointment with doctor. As J would say: 'Sad face'.

Phew

Tonight was the night we had our 25 guests and it went really well, P had cooked some really nice Italian food and a fruit salad and strawberry flan and I'd made some cup cakes, a sponge cake and a pineapple upside down cake. We had done a lot of tidying and P had put some of our pictures up including baby J in his Peter Rabbit top and cute little blue tartan trousers - ahhh (he hates it). Anyway everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. Phew.

Sprained wrist

Something else that has happened is that J has sprained his wrist or rather his rather well-built friend sprained it for him when he fell on J causing him to fall over. Or should it be that the friend of the friend who pushed the friend so that he fell on J sprained it...

Anyway he had to miss PE today and was so upset (sarcasm).

Out of the comfort zone

Yesterday I did quite a lot of tidying and made and iced 36 cupcakes and today I made a pineapple upside down cake and a fatless sponge. (One of the women coming here can't eat dairy products). I also pressed the cushion covers I made and did a bit of hoovering (or should it be dysoning?), cleaned the bathroom a bit, made poached egg on toast, went round Waitrose with P and then went with him to get J from school. I'm tired.

What I should be doing now is typing the minutes of the Pastoral Care Meeting which will be the last time I do it. This is because in a few weeks time we are leaving our church. We are going to be part of a new church 'plant' from other church. We have been praying about this for a long time and really feel it is what God wants us to do and it is exciting being part of a new church but over the last two weeks we have been telling people that we are leaving and it is so hard. I can tell a couple of people (including Mavis) are really upset. I am still going to go to the coffee morning and we'll pop back and visit sometimes so we'll still see people. On Monday when we had the meeting here they made the date for the next meeting and it was for after we will have left and that's when it hit me that we are really going. The next morning I had to tell my housegroup which was hard as well. The leader said she's really going to miss me and with the group now going down to four will they be able to carry on? We are hoping that when the new associate minister starts his wife might join the group.

Apparently it was announced at the churchmeeting last night so now everyone knows.

Our minister has been really good about it and said we're always welcome back any time.

Sometimes God really take sus out of our comfort zone.

Breaking glass

We've just had a minor disaster here. We have this nice standard lamp the top of which is shaped like the branches of a tree being blown in the wind with crazed glass globes hanging from them. Tonight I was trying to get rid of some cobwebs when P said he'd help as he could reach further. He got a bit carried away and started dragging the Dyson up the stairs when ...crash!!! The cable had caught round the lamp and it fell over smashing two of the globes. Wonder if there's any chance of getting replacements??? 

Goat for lunch

Meant to mention that on Sunday we had goat for lunch. Yes goat. P got it from the farmer's market along with some hearts (which I'm not eating) and some hare pate. I let him out on his own and he comes back with loads of weird food. And at the Harvest Supper he had the vegetarian option.

Actually the goat wasn't too bad, P had slow-cooked it so it was quite tender, a bit like a cross between beef and lamb. Mavis came to lunch as she wanted to try it.

Brownie battles

And this is the cafe/shop in York where we had the most amazing brownies...which brings me to the subject of today's blog.

It is rare for P and I to have an argument but when we do I like to be the one in the right.

We've got all these people coming to our house on Saturday (25 at last count) ok. So P is busy doing various jobs in the house he's been putting off for years - sorting out loft, re-upholstering chairs, finishing off stairs etc while I've almost finished making the cushions I started 2 years ago and we finally got round to getting a new cover for the futon and we're doing a lot of general sorting & tidying etc etc., well I'm trying to do my best without getting exhausted and hurting my foot. As well as this we have to prepare some food and J suggested I make some brownies (last week I took a box of my brownies to the youth club and they literally disappeared in 30 seconds).

Anyway this morning P went shopping and came back with some brownies - they were on special offer - 29p each and I said what on earth was he doing buying brownies when I could make them so much cheaper and he said that he didn't think he could and I said of course I could etc etc. Then just to prove him wrong I sat down and worked out the cost of me making a brownie the same size and it was - 44p! 44p I can't believe it. When did ingredients get to be so expensive? And how humiliating to be so wrong. 

I bet they won't taste as nice.

And some more pictures

And some more pictures of York Minster

York

This is a picture from when we went to York, the minster being in the background.

Bit of an update

Some of what's happening with us at the moment:

J is getting on well at school, still playing steel pans, piano going well, still at scouts for this term, having ice-skating lessons once a week, also having a German tutor which is definitely making a difference and going to church youth club once a month. As well as which he's busy with work for GCSEs. Phew.

P is very busy at the moment clearing out our loft. He's finding all sorts of things up there that we'd forgotten we owned. Some of it I packed away before we moved 10 years ago and it's only just come into the light again. It's good that we've found our spare teacups ready for the horde of visitors.

I was busy trying to tidy up but on Monday one of P's tools fell  on my foot - ouch - and I think the bone is slightly cracked so I'm trying not to put weight on that foot which means the other ankle is now playing up so limited mobility even more limited. Sigh.

Coffee morning and a clear out

This morning we went to a 'World's Biggest Coffee Morning' in the Anglican church hall. Good but very squashed and a bit tricky with the wheelchair - someone clobbered me with her baby's car seat, assume she didn't realise.

Stocked up on Christmas cards and wrapping paper. Bought a couple of cup cakes which were very pretty but both J and I who are seasoned sugar eaters couldn't finish them tonight. There was a layer of thick fondant icing then buttercream underneath and in the middle of the cake a splodge of apricot jam - a bit on the sickly side.

I don't know if I've said before but occasionally we go to a church house group for families. We went a couple of weeks ago and it was great but 25 people packed into quite a small house was a bit of a squash. When we were deciding where to have the next one it turned out only two of us had a large enough house and the other family were hosting the one after that. So we felt we had to offer to have it here. 25 people in our house!

This has prompted us to have a major clear up and finally sort out our furniture so we can seat more than four people in our living room. When we were in the caravan we used our futon mattress to sleep on and it became so damp and mouldy it was no longer usable. Yesterday we finally got around to getting a new mattress. I'm also determined to finish the cushions I started making 2 years ago. We need to clear out the study in order to move the keyboard in there so we have room for the futon. No mean feat but P now having an incentive and a target is getting down to it and he collected a pile of stuff to take to the tip today. We seem to have so much stuff though.
 
Also had a nice chat with a school friend - nice to talk to you,will continue it another day.

J has now got a sixth former mentoring him for Maths, he had first session today and enjoyed it.  

 

Shylock, pizza and Open Evening

I am struggling to write this a bit as my fingers are hurting. Why they're hurting I don't know.

Anyway, J went back to school yesterday which is good. His English teacher phoned on Friday and said she was concerned that he'd been off for so long and she hoped he wasn't going to fall behind the rest of the class and what was wrong with him? I felt a bit like saying 'Oh well, as it's the start of his GCSE courses and he's got controlled assessments coming up I thought it would be a good time for him to have a few days lazing around at home watching Youtube videos.' He's ill that's what's wrong with him. Tonsillitis. Anyway I said we would look up the 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Merchant of Venice' passages he's meant to be studying and she told me that they're studying the father-daughter relationships including that between Shylock and his daughter and J would know who Shylock is. (Actually I know who Shylock is). Anyway she is going to go through it with him over a couple of lunch times which is really nice of her.

Year 10 isn't an easy year at the best of times but it's definitely got off to a shaky start for us. J has been quite unsettled by all the changes - dropped some subjects, new teachers, different pupils in his classes, Maths BORING, which we have sorted out with the teacher, hopefully. Misses doing History and Geography, hates English and RE but thankfully Art, Graphics, Science and German going ok. Then he got ill as well. Just praying that things get better.

Tonight he was helping at Open Evening, playing the steel pans in the Music Department while P and I hung out in Costa. Because of Open Evening he finished school at lunchtime and we went to Pizza Express, having got a special offer - starter, main (limited choice ie pizza) and drink for £10 each. Not bad. I had a Quatro Formaggio pizza which was a mixture of four cheeses but it was a bit too cheesy for me really. Tried a bit of P's 'La Reine Pizza' which was nicer. I hate it when that happens.

Then we took back J's new school trousers which were too short and went to Waterstones to look for  GCSE German book which we couldn't find, then went to WH Smith's and still couldn't find it and J got in a hump because he said we wouldn't get home any earlier than normal which we didn't and he had to spend the time until Open Evening doing piano practice and Chemistry when really he wanted to be playing computer games. (Have I mentioned that piano is going a lot lot better with new teacher? In fact his playing is transformed.)

There's lots more I could write about (and in fact there is something big happening in our lives but I can't blog about it yet) but my fingers are aching and I need to go to bed.

J not well

Today I should have been going to Norfolk on a business trip with P. But I am at home with a sick J. Poor thing has a very sore throat and swollen tonsils. I hate it when he misses school.

Stargazers versus slugs

The mixed annuals struggle into bloom.

I planted some Stargazer lilies this year but they suffered a major attack of the SLUGS. This was the only one to survive - beautiful!

A pretty pansy

 

It hasn't been an easy year in the garden.

I'm back

Ok bad bad blogger, haven't blogged for ages, couldn't even remember password.

Since P has stopped work we seem to be going out all the time and when he and J are at home they hog the computer which means that although I have been meaning to put some photos on my blog for ages I haven't.

So, what we did over the summer was go to York as I've mentioned, then soon after we went to Faith Camp which was awesome as usual, then at the end of August we went to Ireland where we shared a cottage with my brother and family plus his mother in law and my niece's friend. We flew with his mother in law and the rest of them went by ferry. We had a nice easy journey, the only problem being that we had two people using wheelchairs in our party and the airline hadn't put us in the right seats. This was ok, they just put us in different seats but forgot to mention it to the people who were originally in those seats. Several confused people milling around in the confined environment of an aeroplane was interesting.

Our cottage was nice and big and comfortable. The only downside was a dog who yapped at night. I was the only one who was excessively bothered by this so my suggestions that we should turn him into stew were not followed up.

I'm going to put my photos on facebook when P has finished perfecting them. Being married to a photographic perfectionist can have both advantages and frustrations.

On the Sunday we had a big family gathering, having lunch in a hotel which was nice. It was a carvery and as I sat in the queue in the wheelchair the man in front said 'Why don't you stay at the table and let your husband get your food?' 'Because I like to choose what I eat,' I replied. He looked at me like I was weird. 

On the Tuesday night we had a 'Murder Mystery Evening' organised by J which went very well.

On the Thursday some of our group went for a walk up a mountain organised by my cousin's partner which they all enjoyed. Then they came back to the cottage for a meal and some games of cards.

We were out and about a lot of the time as well, looking round castles etc

All in all very enjoyable but exhausting.   

Feeling sea sick

We decided at very short notice to go somewhere for a little break.
'Where shall we go?' said P.
'York,' I said because although P and I went there back in 1985 we've been saying we should take J.
P found a last minute deal in a bed and breakfast and off we went, having resigned ourselves to the fact that it would probably be pouring with rain the whole time but at least there were plenty of museums etc.


We had a good journey. The guest house was really nice and the owners friendly. There was just one thing: as soon as I got to our room I started feeling slightly as if I was sea-sick and I thought 'Oh no, I'm going down with something.' Next morning as we had (a delicious) breakfast the woman serving it said 'Have you noticed our sloping ceiling?' Then I realised: the floor of our room sloped. That's why I was feeling funny. How strange.


More about York later, it's dinner time.
 

No phone or internet for 11 days

11 days ago I was quite happily sending some emails when the internet stopped working. P checked the router and there was no signal at all and also our phone wasn't working. He also discovered that most of our neighbours had the same problem. After phoning BT on his mobile he eventually got through to an Indian call centre and was told that it was due to the wet weather we've been having in England and there were a lot of people in the same boat (pardon the pun) so it would take about 5 days to repair and please stop complaining. In our view this was a load of rubbish as although we've had rain we haven't had floods and presumably internet and phone cables are waterproof.

On Wednesday, the last day of term, we picked J up from school (where there were some very happy looking teachers) and went off for a short break in York. Internet still not back.


Had a great time in York, more about that later. Also had several text conversations with our neighbour about the fact that BT didn't seem to be doing anything. Both she and P made lots of fuss and asked for it to be 'escalated'. Obviously escalation does the trick as returning home today after having been out we were told by our other neighbour that 'there had been a man from BT around saying something about  mending a telegraph pole.' It turned out that the problem had been caused by a lorry hitting a pole and the repair man was astonished that we'd all been without phone orr internet for so long.


I think perhaps a bit of money off our bill would be in order here.

A sunny day

Today the sun has shone, well most of the time which is really unusual because for the last few days like most of the rest of the country we've had torrential rain. Really, really torrential rain. 

And they say it's going to last until September. The rain that is.

Went to watch P working on his maze today. If the summer's really as wet as they say he's not going to make much money out of it.

Feel really tired today, like all I want to do is sleep.

Sport for all?

Today J's school had a big sports day at a large stadium and he had to go and watch. For some reason he also had to wear PE kit even though he wasn't taking part. He says he has had an utterly miserable day.

If pupils are not good at Maths and they hate it they're not forced to watch people do sums all day are they?

(This is written by someone who loathed sport at school).

Sleepovers should be banned

On Wednesday J went on a school trip to Thorpe Park where he had a good time but refused to go on the rides where you get wet.

P and I meanwhile went into town so he could sign on but they said that though his pension is small it means he can't get Jobseekers Allowance. He went into an Employment Agency who were very helpful in advising him how to word his CV. 

He's had one request for some work so that's hopeful.

On Thursday we picked up our 'new' car which is an interim car but is ok. A Peugeot 407 Estate in quite good condition. The only thing is it's got this rattle. There seems to be something metal trapped under the dashboard somewhere and every time we go round a bend it rolls from one side to the other. Can we cope with this?

I must say it rolls around a lot more when P drives, my driving being of a more gentle nature.

Last night J was on a sleepover with the scouts. Sadly during the night someone must have kidnapped him and replaced him with a sore-headed bear.

He has been so grumpy and says he only got two hours sleep and didn't enjoy any of it at all.

I think I'm going to start a 'Parents against Sleepovers' group. 

Or else next time I'll just say 'You're not going'. 
 

Really sad news

The woman I mentioned on Tuesday with the brain tumour died unexpectedly that afternoon. Really sad.

Heard some sad news

This morning at our housegroup I heard about a woman in our village whom I know slightly (she used to be at the mums and toddler group). She's got two boys aged 12 and 16 and she's been diagnosed with an aggressive malignant inoperable brain tumour.

How do you cope with something like that?

Adjusting to our different circumstances

People are asking me how I'm coping with having P under my feet all day but it's not like that really. I'm happy to have him here. It is though a big adjustment for both of us. I'm having to get used to not having much time to myself any more when I'm used to having a lot of it, too much really. 

P is missing his colleagues and the camaraderie of work. I've got used to not having many people to chat to but for him it's a sudden loss.

He's got to write his cv and try and plan exactly what sort of work he wants to do and all that.

It's stupid really but P's doing the school run now and I was thinking last night that I might never do it again although I almost certainly will. I was just thinking that actually the school run is the main thing I do with my life and now I don't do it any more and started crying which is silly cos it's great not having to get up so early in the morning. Really I've done well managing to do it all these years in spite of so often feeling so ill.

It's just all sort of happened so quickly. P had been thinking about early retirement and then suddenly he was made redundant and it was taken out of his hands.

And there is the slight issue that there was a communication breakdown at P's work so his lump sum which we need to get the car has been held up. Meanwhile our current car is literally falling apart.

I'm just going to trust in God to work it all out and find P some suitable part time work and me something to do with my life that's stimulating and for our money to come through quickly.

After all He got my keys out of the shed.

Church picnic

On Sunday was the Church Picnic. A chance to relax in a beautiful garden with a private swimming pool and enjoy some nice food and pleasant conversation with your friends.

I've been dreading it.

This is because it somehow tends to happen that Mavis and I get left sitting on our own. When you can't walk around and talk to people and you rely on them to come and talk to you and they don't it's well, just a bit difficult to handle.

P had said from the start he didn't want to go but J really really wanted to go as he loves the pool and Tim was going. Anyway in the end P did come and the boys had a great time. And while P was roaming round with the camera doing a David Bailey act Mavis and I sat on our own. And while P pushed me around a bit so I could see J having fun in the pool and so I could chat to a few people Mavis sat on her own. 

I think people just don't realise what it's like.

Anyway, also at the picnic was our possible new assistant minister.

And he came over and sat with Mavis and me and talked to us. And Mavis who can do quite a good job of looking miserable actually cheered up and chatted to him.

Wow.

He's nice.

Thetford

On Saturday we went to Thetford as J had a Science workshop there. Thetford was really nice, we had some walks/wheels by the river, it was a sunny day, the people were really friendly and helpful with the wheelchair and J had a good day as well.

Who's reading this?

I've only just written the post before last and two people have read it. Who are you, I wonder.

Concert on a summer evening

After all the excitement of the retirement do there was an episode in which we were late picking up J, he'd forgotten his phone so didn't get my message, we waited for him at bus-stop not realising bus for some reason hadn't turned up at school, he contacted Louise and asked her to phone me but my phones' got such lousy reception she couldn't get through... Eventually we picked up J from school and his friend from the bus stop outside school, dropped friend off, got home, ate some leftovers, worried about where my brother was who was due to visit, he turned up just in time, stuffed some lefotvovers in his mouth, had a quick shower and we were off to school again. J was playing steel pans in the summer show and they did very well considering several of the others hadn't turned up.


Nice to see my brother again. He'd taken my niece to the airport as she's going to visit her aunt in America.


 

A nearly wrecked retirement do.

Ok this is what happened on Thursday. It was the day of P's retirement do at work. In our car were all the drinks for the reception, apart from some that were cooling in our fridge. We'd arranged that I would take them in about 11.30. Ok fine.

I decided it would be a good idea to clear some space in the fridge as we'd probably have some leftovers. At the bottom of the fridge there was some rhubarb that had definitely seen better days so I decided to take it over to the compost heap. So I went outside, locking the door behind me, got my scooter from its shed, scooted over to the compost heap, had a quick scoot round the garden, put my scooter back in the shed, padlocked the shed, went to open the back door...

No keys.

Keys still in scooter. Scooter key, shed key, house keys all on same key ring on my scooter. In the shed. In the locked shed.

So this was the situation: in two and a half hours there would be P's retirement reception at which people were expecting to have drinks as well as food. These drinks were currently either locked in our car or locked in our house and I couldn't get into either. I hadn't got my phone with me. I couldn't walk far enough to get help.


The horrible reality that I was about to wreck P's carefully planned reception was hitting me rather forcefully. I was imagining him just waiting for me and I didn't arrive and everyone else was arriving and there were no drinks.

As well as this I faced the possibility of spending the whole day sitting in our drive.


There were only two things I could do:


1) Pray
2) Shout


So I did both. I prayed, rather fervently. And I shouted as loud as I could in the direction of our neighbours.


Nothing happened. There was no sign of anyone. I kept praying and kept shouting.


Nothing. 


Time was going past. An hour. An hour and a half. Me sitting in our drive praying and shouting.


Finally I said to God 'I'm asking you to get me out of this and get someone to help me and I believe you will because you've got me out of so many messes before so I'm going to trust you and praise you.'


So I sat there alternately praising and thanking Him and shouting as loud as I could 'Help!!!'


Then... I saw a woman coming towards the fence. 'I thought it was a cat making that noise,' she said.

10 minutes or so later our neighbour was round with some bolt-cutters. The padlock was wrecked but I had the keys!


Thank you!!!!


A quick shower and I got to P's work just as the caterers arrived.


I must admit I was a bit stressed and my job as the drinks pourer was a bit hampered by the fact I couldn't get the tops off so had to keep asking people to do it for me but the reception went very well.


Lots of people came. The food was really good. P's boss who's really nice had literally come straight from the birth of his second grandson and made a really nice speech. P did a good speech as well. They presented him with a brass sundial. There were a lot of quite emotional goodbyes.


Then that was it.


He's left work.


And I've put my scooter key on a separate keyring.


 

Update

It's that time of year again - when I'm glued to the TV watching tennis and my family complain I'm neglecting them - it's only 2 weeks boys. Can you believe Nadal is out?!! I'm watching Federer at two sets down but he's fighting back in the third and who knows?

Life has been a bit hectic recently. On Friday I went for some personal prayer ministry at the healing centre I go to at Surrey. It was very helpful but I felt exhausted afterwards. On Saturday J had a Maths workshop in Suffolk. We spent the day going to a church flower festival, 'tea at the Rectory' and a village fete, accompanied by lots of tea and cake. In the evening my brother came to visit and was very pleased with our new shower. I haven't blogged about having it because I wanted it to be a surprise for him. I have to say I really like our shower. It's got a separate hand-held head and a large drench head that you stand under and feel like you're in a warm rain shower. Bliss.

 On Sunday we had church in the morning at which they announced they've got a potential assistant minister in the pipeline. In the afternoon we went to a 'churches together' in the park event then to the village flower festival where the scouts were helping with the coconut shy. P won a coconut and I got stuck in the mud in my scooter and had to be dragged out. (Embarrassing wheelchair incident number 2456).  We then went on to a worship evening at 'Other Church'.


On Monday we spent the whole day test driving cars as we are looking for a new one.


On Tuesday J was off school ill.
On Wednesday J said he felt ill but went in to do his end of year exams.

As for yesterday - that will have to wait for another post.







 

A cello concert and a school play

On Saturday evening we went to a cello concert. This was in a lovely old church out in the country. The cellist was a friend of ours who was training to be a cellist but had to give up due to health problems. It was a lovely performance and an amazing atmosphere in such a historic old church. J was a bit out of place, being at least 30 years younger than everyone else in the audience. He quite enjoyed it though. Had to stop him from eating too many tortilla chips in the interval.

Last night we went to the lower school play at J's school. He's been busy painting the scenery so he got a free ticket. It was a version of 'Honk', based on 'The Ugly Duckling' and was seriously good, in fact don't tell anyone but it brought tears to my eyes in places. J's friend John had the starring role and did very well.

 

Surrounded by sweets

Can you believe we actually won the football last night?

WE WON!!!

Have has a usual sort of week. Has been sometimes sunny and sometimes rainy. This morning we went to a fundraising fayre for the Old People's flats in the village. I was saying to Louise will we all end up there together one day? Bagsy I don't organise the Bingo. J in his role as a Scout was helping with the sweet stall while some of the other Scouts organised the car parking in totally manic fashion. P won the 'Guess How Many Sweets In The Jar' competition so we now have a jar of 409 sweets. He also won a large box of Liquorice Allsorts and J won a large bag and a jar of sweets. Before this we had bought two cakes and had had some cake there. What about my diet? Too much temptation. P also won a box ot teenage perfumes which we immediately gave away and a jigsaw in a pink box with kittens on it. Couldn't find anyone to take that, charity shop here I come.


Been out tidying the garden for quite a while but now it's very windy and beginning to rain. Somebody offered us some chickens today, as in ones to rear, but won't be ready for a while.

 

Sunshine

The sun is shining! Out to do a little bit in the garden.

Rain

Last night should have been a great big combined Jubilee party for the Scouts, Cubs, Beavers and Brownies with games outside. But it was cancelled. Due to the rain. Lots and lots of rain. So it was Scouts as normal with party food at the part-time break.

This rain seems to be going on and on for ever.

Jubilee,floods in Wales and the GCSE that isn't happening

What a wet week we have had! Really glad we didn't go up to London on Sunday to watch the Jubilee Pageant, people I know who went couldn't see anything and got wet. Thankfully we had better weather on Monday for our village celebration which went very well: a get-together on the common with various entertainments and stalls and games for the children culminating in lighting the beacon and fireworks in the evening. God Save the Queen.

We've had a really quiet and uneventful half term: it has been raining and P has been on a pre-retirement course. Basically J and I have been at home all week apart from going to coffee morning, I went round Waitrose with P (I know how to have a good time) and I went round our new friends from 'Other Church' as they had offered to pray with me. They have real faith that I'll still be healed. Yippee!!!

I switched on the computer this morning and there were pictures of the area where my brother lives being badly flooded. I phoned him and they're all ok. Really glad we didn't go there for half term. My niece is in the middle of GCSEs, seem to be going ok.

Talking of GCSEs we were told ages ago that J would be doing a Maths GCSE module on Monday and I'd entered it on my phone. When I saw it today I suddenly panicked and was asking J about it and he was looking blank and he texted his friends and they didn't know anything about it. Eventually I found, in the depths of the Maths section on the school website, where it said that it was different for this year's Year 9s and they had to do all the exams in Year 11. I think it might have been good if they'd sent an email to tell us this. I think the school works on the basis that parents forget everything they're told so we'd all have forgotten about it anyway.

What J says is 'Yay!'

Friday

How can it be Friday already?

Two highlights of this week have been going to the christening of Becky's granddaughters on Sundayand J's school concert on Tuesday. The christening went very well and it was a lovely sunny day. Both children looked lovely and neither cried at all except the older one because she didn't want the cake to be cut up. Understandable really, it did look very pretty.

The concert was really very good. There are some very talented pupils including a piano prodigy in Year7 who played his own composition and was amazing. J played in the steel pans group which went well. His friend John sang a solo which was very good. All in all a very enjoyable evening.

On Wednesday went to Becky's for lunch-smoked salmon, cream cheese and cucumber rolls. Really nice to just sit in the garden in the sun.


Have been busy clearing out our bedroom (one of my New Year resolutions). I've been watching that programme 'The Hoarder Next Door' which has really inspired me. Bit by bit it is getting better. The other day though I took a bag of stuff to the charity shop and ended up buying a jigsaw and some books and came out with almost as much stuff as I took in. Sigh.
 
Have also been planning P's retirement do at work, getting in caterers for about 50 people. Food looks yummy. I think I'm going to be sitting serving drinks.

 The baby blackbirds disappeared, probably ended up as a meal for a jay or magpie.
 

Poor baby blackbirds

We have now got two monitor screens on our desktop computer which means I can write my blog and scan at the same time with ease. Before in order to do this I was using both the desktop and laptop. Another lovely sunny day. Using opportunity to get lots of washing done and dry. Our neighbour called P over and said his cat had brought in two baby blackbirds which were still alive. P looked for nest but couldn't find it. He's tried putting them in an old nest in a tree and hoping the mother will find them but there isn't much hope really. They're too young for us to try and feed them. Poor little things.





 

How Great Thou Art

These are pictures of the flower arrangements that were on the windowsills for our church anniversary. Each one represented a verse from the hymn 'How Great Thou Art' which has a lot of significance for me as we had it at both our wedding and Mum's funeral. I especially love the last one which was made by a lady in my housegroup.

Pimms on a sunny Saturday

We are having such nice weather at the moment. This afternoon we went to the Summer Fayre at the junior school. It all went very well. For the first time in my life I tried a glass of Pimms and it is really nice. Why haven't I ever tried it before? Don't know really. J and Adam were bashing each other with inflatable hammers. A lot of the other kids were drenching each other with water - the sponge throwing had got a bit out of hand, more like bucket tipping. All good fun.

This evening we went swimming for the first time, as in J, Adam, Tim and their sisters did while Louise and I watched. I keep thinking there must come a time when we can safely take our eyes off them when they're swimming but it hasn't come yet, especially not today when they were practising 'life saving'.

I'm watching the Eurovision Song Contest for a few minutes. It is dire, it really is.

J wins a photo competition

Something exciting happened this week. There is a farm shop we go to sometimes and their farm was celebrating their centenary and had a photo competition. P and J both entered the wildlife category and I had a phone call on Tuesday to say J had won first prize! His photo was of a pheasant sitting on our fence flapping his wings. When we went along to the prize presentation they had laid on a free cream tea in a marquee with the photos on display round the side. J got two £20 vouchers to spend in the shop so he chose some of his favourite foods - strawberries,  chocolate ice cream, asparagus, baguettes and apple juice. He only spent one voucher and will spend the other another day. It was all quite exciting.

Thursday

Can't believe I haven't blogged for 10 days. So what's been happening? J had a cold, I have a cold. Mine's been one of those where you sneeze and sneeze and sneeze.It stopped raining and today has been positively summery. J went on a school trip to the Olympic Stadium. Yesterday J went on a trip to see one of his GCSE plays. Got home 11.45 pm as in I went and picked him up. We're both tired. I'm especially tired as I couldn't get to sleep then when I did I had a terrible, terrible nightmare and woke up screaming.
P grabbed hold of me and said: 'It's alright, it's alright.'
'Something's biting me!'
'No it isn't,' he said and went back to sleep.
But it was. A huge thing had my head in its jaws and was biting me and I could feel its teeth.

Despite feeling dopey this morning I went into town after dropping off J. Normally going to town is a rush which involves some combination of collecting J and meeting P and rushing round crowded shops but this morning it was nice and relaxed. Shopmobility car park was almost empty. Shops almost empty. Had a nice wander round. Bought some school shirts for J (now in maximum children's size), pyjamas for J and swimming trunks for J. Got some christening cards for Becky's grandchildren. Got some tomato plants for P. Then I bought a Union Jack flag and some red, white and blue balloons with which to decorate my scooter for the Jubilee.


There are lots of baby birds around at the moment, especially starlings. P put up a nesting box and there are blue tits nesting in it. There is also a jay that keeps being a bit too interested in it.


J's piano lesson went well this week. He's been given lots of work to do. (The words on the music are in Russian).
'If you want to practise for 2 hours a day that's fine,' said Natasha. J's face was a picture.







 

Model show, church anniversary, sunshine, rain and J not well

Anniversary service at church really good. Lovely to see people from the past. Really nice lunch afterwards. Poor J not all that well with a cold. I felt a bit dizzy but not too bad.

On Saturday we were at a model aeroplane show. For some reason my scooter went on a go-slow so I didn't get around much, just got to the cafe the shop then back to the car. P and J enjoyed it though.

Both Saturday and Sunday were really sunny! Today however it has rained and this evening we've had a torrential downpour.

J came in from scouts this evening and said the vision in his left eye had gone funny, like his peripheral vision was all shimmery. He's started getting a bit of a headache as well, wondering if he's got a migraine. Tried going on NHS Direct but they said I'd need to give them my phone number and there's probably several hours delay before they can phone back. Just hope he's alright.

Sleepy Friday evening

J is out with his Sunday School class eating pizza. We got an Indian from Waitrose just so we wouldn't fell left out. I had Butter Chicken, Carrot and Spinach Pilau Rice, Chennai Potatoes and Peshwari Naan. Yum.

P has spent the evening making a model aeroplane. I've spent it asleep. Still feeling a bit dizzy at times and tried taking half a travel sickness tablet. Don't know if that's what's made me sleepy.

Anticide and fun with a paperclip

"Can you just run past me why you're not ready for school?" I asked J as I came out of the bathroom this morning.
"I was distracted by watching the ants."
I followed his gaze and realised that what would previously have been described as our fruit bowl was now an ant fest. 
Ok. Stay calm.

This called for some drastic action.

Several times over the last few days I have suggested to the other members of my family that they fill in the hole through which the ants are entering but to no avail. I took things into my own hands and bunged it up with white-tack. I then set about killing every ant I could see either by pouring boiling water on them or squashing them with an eraser (sorry if you're a member of the ant protection society). I also, at P's suggestion, put some of the pears they've been eating outside the house in the hope this will lead them away.

My other  fun activity this morning was unblocking our kitchen sink which has been slow to empty recently. Last night I'd poured some foul-smelling enzyme stuff down it and this morning I had a good time fishing bits of brown gunge out of the plug-hole with a bent paperclip. Bliss.

Ill yet again

This is boring beyond words but I'm not well again - feeling dizzy and glands hurting. We've got a special church service on Sunday with lots of people coming who were part of the church in past times and I want to be there. Illness go away.

Ant invasion

This morning I went over to the kitchen sink and got a shock. There is a glass splashback running along the top of the sink and worktop and along it was marching a column of ants! Ants were also happily roaming over the worktop and windowsill. Eeeek!!!

After careful observation I realised they were coming in and out of a small hole in the wall by the windowsill. Hope they haven't tunnelled throught the insulation material.

Over to you P.

Natasha comes into our lives

Today was also the first lesson with J's new piano teacher. I'm going to call her Natasha as she's Russian. She is really nice. Her English isn't very good so it's quite interesting trying to work out what she's saying sometimes. She seems to be very well trained both in piano and singing. She said in Russia they had piano lessons 2 or 3 times a week and worked very hard doing lots of exercises to improve their technique. She paid a lot of attention to how J was moving his hands and fingers which wasn't quite right right she said. She also got him counting aloud as he played. Anyway she feels J has potential and can do well if he's prepared to work. He's going to do some exercises and play a range of different styles of music rather than just doing exam pieces all the time. The aim is to start Grade 3 after Christmas when hopefully he'll be ready.

Anyway it's looking quite hopeful.
 

All birthdayed out

Sorry not been blogging over last few days but I've been busy. On Sunday we met up with my Dad, my brother and his mother in law and we went on the London Eye. This was to celebrate Dad's 80th birthday. Our journey there went very well but there was a bit of an anxious wait for my brother who had got lost and arrived just in time. Out of the six of us three had mobility problems which was a bit of a challenge as there was quite a long slope to go up. It was quite hard for my Dad who walks with two sticks now and is looking very frail. It's quite hard to see him like this now.

Anyway once we were in the Eye we had a great time, just seemed to be over too quickly. If you haven't been I'd totally recommend it.

Afterwards we went to an Italian restaurant nearby and had a nice lunch. Then we said goodbye to the others and wandered along the river bank for a while and headed home.


Yesterday we celebrated J's birthday by taking him and 5 friends to the cinema then to a restaurant (Italian again). I fell asleep during the film but the others enjoyed it. I think quite a lot of sweet-eating went on during the film as they couldn't all manage their puddings.


I'd made J a birthday cake in a hurry and was pleased with how well it turned out really.  Just a victoria sponge with some ready-roll on top but it tasted nice.


Today is P's birthday and quite a significant one. We went out for a simple lunch and P cooked Moroccan chicken in his tagine tonight which was very nice.

 



 

Two of a kind

Soon it is P's birthday. Today J and I went into town to pick him up after work as he said he'd got a lot of shopping. J and I used the opportunity to nip to a shop and buy him a birthday present - a tagine. Picked him up, got home, J smuggled the box in and hid it in his bedroom while P was unloading his bags of fruit and veg.
'Oh no! I left it at work,' said P.
'You left what at work?'
 'It was meant to be a surprise, I saw they'd got a special offer on something we've wanted to get for ages...'
'Something to do with cooking?'
'Yes.'
'Something you cook things in?'
'Er yes.'

'Something with green and orange stripes on it that you cook Moroccan things in?'

Yes. He'd bought exactly the same one. 
I suppose at least it shows it was a good choice of present.

 

Ironbridge

Lots of rain

Last night had a thunderstorm which hasn't helped the flood situation. Roads quite wet this morning but only 2 places where it was a bit deep. Quite nervous going down hill because last year we had floods and the river at the bottom of the hill burst its bank and it was really scary going through it.

Get practising J

To update on piano teacher situation:

Still no reply from Mr Nearschool.
Got hold of Mr Noticeboard mobile number. He said he's never put anyone in for exams before but he's willing to give it a go. Er don't think so.
Mrs Name-sounds-like-she-wears-short-skirts etc phoned back and she sounded so nice I felt really bad for thinking that about her. She's coming round next week. Be interesting to see how J gets on with a woman teacher. English is obviously not her first language, hope that won't cause any problems. I totally failed to get her to understand directions to our house. She said to text her our address and she'd find it on Google.

Looking hopeful anyway.

I'm losing it

Realised that yesterday was the first time I'd been home on my own in ages which was probably why I felt bored and lonely.

Anyway what happened yesterday after I'd finished blogging was:

I was expecting some shoes I'd ordered to arrive but they hadn't sp I thought I'd scoot up and see if they'd been left with our neighbours or somewhere. Only problem was Fiat was parked in front of scooter shed so just needed to move it. Went to key box - keys not there. After a whole hour of searching and praying and retracing my steps from the morning I found them - in my handbag. They were in a side pocket where I never put them.

Just as I got in the car to move it a woman I'd never seen before came walking down the drive carrying a parcel - my shoes. I tried them on - they fitted. I put them in the bottom of my wardrobe and as I did so I had a quick sort through the boxes of shoes in there. At the bottom was a box containing a pair of brand new Clarks sandals and I can't remember buying them. I looked on the internet and they're not this year's style, I think they're from 2010 so I've probably had them for about 2 years. I wonder if I got them in the sales at the end of the summer and put them away for the next year then forgot about them. What a waste, I could have been wearing them. They're really nice as well. This is seriously making me feel like my mind's going.

Then yesterday evening I tried to log on to facebook and couldn't remember my password. Aaaagh! 

Hunt for piano teacher

I was about to upload a photo then I realised I'm using the laptop and the recent photos are on the desktop on which I'm doing the scanning. Duh. 

Still trying to find a piano teacher for J. This is a bit hampered by fact that what piano teachers round here don't seem to do is answer the phone, or reply to answerphone messages. Sigh.

There's been a lot of debate in our household about which teacher is suitable based on their names and looking them up on facebook. Several have been rejected for all sorts of reasons, mainly on my part and mainly irrational. P was given the number of one female teacher and I felt her name implied she wore high heels and short skirts and low-cut tops and P said that was totally unreasonable which of course was right so in the end I phoned her but she didn't answer anyway and meanwhile someone gave us the name of a man who's near J's school and seems ok but he hasn't answered either and meanwhile P's got a mobile number from his noticeboard at work so if Mr Nearby School doesn't call back I'll give him a go.

It is getting a bit of a long time without a teacher now. Perhaps I'll call the mobile number anyway.

Life

Ok another load of washing on. Another photo almost scanned.

Sun is shining. Loads of insects flying round outside. Starlings eating us out of house and home. 

Must be something interesting I can write about.

The thing about my blog is that it really is a sort of diary for myself and at the moment my life isn't hugely exciting and sometimes it's a bit on the dire side. I know sometimes I moan and say this aches and that aches and I can't sleep but in real life I hardly ever moan and complain. What I'm hoping is that some day I'll look back at my blog and think that's how bad it was then and this is how good it is now.


 

I'm so glad I've got a washing machine

Really I'm incredibly grateful I've got a washing machine. Really, really I am. After 5 years without one...

Monday

Went to church yesterday and the roads beginning to flood. Apparently got worse overnight and some seriously bad today but can't get to them to have a look. J went back to school today. Hooray! Seems quite a lot better. Left really early in case had problems due to floods but didn't and got to school half an hour early so just sat in car. It's a lovely sunny day now but might be more rain during the week.

Had another not able to get to sleep night. Got up and made a hot drink at about 2 am and got to sleep after that. 4 hours sleep just isn't enough though.

Sitting doing some scanning. I'm way, way behind with it and really it should be finished by the time P leaves work but I can't see how that's possible (something to do when I can't sleep perhaps?). I just went through this long phase when I just couldn't motivate myself to do it, partly because of endless health problems. P set it up yesterday so I can just do it without any mental effort which is nice as I can do other things at the same time.

Listening to new CD I got - 'Lifted High' by Worship Central which is seriously good.

When I picked up Mavis to take her to church yesterday she gave me a great big box of expensive chocolates. She belongs to a chocolate tasting club and gets extra boxes sometimes. Very yummy. Not too good for weight loss programme though.

Only 50 people at church yesterday which is really not very many. Perhaps bad weather put them off. Had good sermon yesterday - on not being afraid to step out in your calling. More and more convinced that my calling is not being a minute-taker. I don't mind doing it as a side-line but there must be more to life. Actually minute-taking went ok at church AGM, just one person who talks a bit fast who was a bit hard to keep up with. The strange thing at the church meeting though was that hardly anybody said anything. Apart from the leadership talking about finance, the building plans, the Church Anniversary and the search for an associate minister hardly anyone else said a thing.

Better go and check on washing machine. Life is so exciting.

 I'm realising that sitting writing my blog seems to make the scanning go faster. Good.

Ramblings on a rainy day

Last night went to church AGM which honestly was just plain boring (don't quote me). When got home and went to bed couldn't get to sleep and ended up taking sleeping tablet at 1.30 am which was bad move but then it was Hobson's choice - spend all day feeling awful due to no sleep or spend all day feeling awful due to taking sleeping tablet too late. Was woken up at 8 am by P phoning. 'What about J, shouldn't he be going to school?' I muttered. 'I still don't think he's well enough,' said P. So I phoned school and went back to sleep and woke up again at 9 am and have spent all day feeling out of sorts and staying indoors with J who is slowly getting better and looking out at the rain and not really achieving anything apart from one load of washing.

A really stressful situation has arisen involving a solicitor which involves me having to pay tax on some money I have not yet received, which honestly would anyone feel happy about? I'm just not going into the details right now. I don't even want to think about it.

Talking of phoning school P said tonight that if I'd told him that the office staff at J's primary school gave me a hard time over their attendance figures when I phoned and said he was sick then he'd have sorted them out. 

For some reason tonight P started reading out recipes from an Italian recipe book and I started miming as if I was preparing them which J found hysterically funny, especially my attempt at chopping artichokes. Hmm.

Today I've been thinking that all I'm ever going to be at church is a minute-taker and prayer bulletin writer. Is that all that God wants me to be? If it is then that's fine but is it really? Is that what my calling in life is? Is any of it really advancing the Kingdom of God?

Trees

Trees outside the Tate Gallery.

Pictures of London

Cake!

The seriously expensive and almost too beautiful to eat cake we had in a cafe in London.

It's raining it's pouring

The word 'wet' would not even begin to describe the weather we're having.

J has gone down with a sore throat again and so is off school again.

Last night went to a social event at 'other church' for which P made a yummy chocolate and cherry flan. As soon as I got there my legs started aching intensely but when I woke up this morning they were ok. Strange.

I'm going to see if I can find some photos. 

Getting a shower

Something else good is that P is putting in our shower. Yes!

Easter and norovirus

We went away for Easter, to my brother's in Wales via Ironbridge. Ironbridge was really good, had a nice hotel right by river and enjoyed museums. Weather pretty terrible as in wet and very cold. On last day there got call to say my younger niece had norovirus but wasn't too bad. Decided to stay another night in Ironbridge and see how she was. Next day she seemed to be better and the following day was her birthday. We convinced ourselves it would be ok and drove to Wales through snow (!) but when got to my brother's it was hot and sunny. Niece had nice birthday (with her boyfriend!) but her norovirus symptoms returned. A couple of days later her sister went down with it then her granny (who lives there half the year) then my brother. My sister in law meanwhile had vague symptoms of feeling generally ill not sure what it was. We managed to have a nice Easter though and went to some really good services at the Anglican church and most of us went out for a meal on Easter Sunday. We were undecided as to whether we should head back home early while we were still well but were concerned that we might get ill on the journey. Sudden onset of vomiting in traffic jam on M25 not fun. Finally we decided to go back on Thursday, a day earlier than we'd intended. However my sore throat which had got almost better had got a lot worse and J went down with a sore throat too and we felt he wasn't well enough for the journey. On Thursday J stayed at home with my brother and P and I went round a seaside town and a craft centre and had a light lunch. Lovely sunny day, had a really good time. Went home, gave J some lunch, sitting at the table having a cup of tea when P turned white, grabbed a bowl and rushed to the bathroom where he spent most of the next couple of hours.
P was a lot better on Friday, though drained so we travelled back on Saturday. I'm just so grateful it didn't hit him while we were out or on our journey home.
Since we've been home J's throat is better and he's been at school all week and hasn't had any hint of norovirus. Meanwhile I've had a wretched week. First of all my arm started really hurting (possibly the result of bouncing a baby in Wales)  then my throat got bad again, then I started getting pains in my tummy  then I started feeling sick and dizzy which is how I'm feeling right now. I don't know if you can get norovirus mildly which is what's happening to me but I feel terrible and fed up. Illness go away.
 Good thing is that P's been off most of the week so he's done most of the school runs.

Concert

Spent most of yesterday asleep but in evening went to concert at J's school in which he was playing the steel pans. Very good evening. Some excellent performances.

Today feeling quite a lot better though throat still sore. Did quite a lot of washing as has been getting out of hand. J finished school at 1.30 as end of term. Came out with an award certificate for graphics and art.

Went into town to pick up P. Got J a Subway and gave him some money towards a new wii game, wasn't prepared to pay for it all as so expensive. Town horrendously busy.

New phone and not well

Yesterday I got a new mobile phone. This is because we'd upgraded so I wouldn't keep going over my text limit and they said they would send a better phone. P spent all yesterday evening transferring data onto it but this didn't seem to include my contact list. Horrible feeling will have to do them by hand.

Last night started getting a sore throat. Then in bed just felt really cold, even with a pile of blankets on top of me. Woke up this morning feeling quite rough: sore throat, aching joints and still shivery. Hope it's soon gone. Apparently there's a lot of it about.

Mavis

I think I said it was Mavis's 70th birthday on Saturday. I did quite a lot of getting other people to make/organise cake etc for her - at coffee morning last week, at church on Sunday and there was still leftover cake at coffee morning yesterday. She gave me a lovely thank you card saying she knew I was behind it all and she really appreciates all we do for her and she's sorry she's a bit much sometimes. Almost felt like crying.

On Friday something awful happened to her. Three men came into her house (she hadn't locked her doors) and said they'd trimmed her trees, which she hadn't asked them to do and wasnted £300. They became quite threatening and she phoned police at which point they went, taking a £20 note with tehm. How horrible. She's remarkably calm considering.
 

Dog tired

I'm sorry if you've got a yappy little dog and you love it but in general I don't like yappy little dogs. In general J doesn't like dogs at all. This all proved to be a bit of a problem on Saturday when we went to  visit both a friend of P's and my Dad in Norfolk.

It was a lovely sunny day and we had a pleasant journey there. P's friend is a farmer who doesn't do much hands on stuff any more but contracts it out as he's getting on a bit. He's built a new house which downstairs just has a basic living room cum office and a utility room and toilet and shower. Upstairs is an open plan kitchen diner and living room with a bedroom and lovely bathroom leading off. It had glass all round and was absolutely beautiful with views across the fields and the sun streaming in.

He has this little Jack Russell which is getting old and has calmed down a lot but did the usual yapping thing when we got there. It jumped up on my lap and I patted it a bit which it liked and I managed to stop it licking my face (Yuk!). Then it took an interest in J and decided to lick his face. He resisted this and backed away and ended up lying on the sofa with the dog on top of him so I started pulling it away and it turned and tried to bite me. Nice. J transferred to a dining chair where he was safer. We had a nice cup of tea. Then I noticed what the dog had done on the floor. Seriously yuk!

Apart from the doggy business we had a very nice time then went on to my Dad's. He and his wife have 3 King Charles spaniels which are very cute but when we got there they all yapped at full volume. They were given some chewy bones which quietened them down but the filling in these bones was tripe and we ate our dinner with the delighful aroma of doggy tripe being chewed.

It was very nice to see my Dad who is getting quite frail which is a bit scary really. 

Quite a long day though so quite tired at the end of it all.

Nice walk

Pictures of us on our recent walk. This was just before P got distracted and I ended up in the mud.

Chatted up in the bird feed aisle

Picked up P from work today and went shopping briefly. Had to take some jeans back because they were a bit small, must be making them smaller these days. Bought a load of bird food which cost £14! Hopefully this will last some time but it was making me think - that could keep someone's starving child alive. The real issue here is that the bird food producers are absolutely ripping us off.

Anyway while I was loading my scooter basket with sunflower seeds and peanuts a fairly elderly man started chatting to me about how he likes feeding the birds but the pigeons come and eat it all and I was saying how the squirrels are a nuisance for us. Then he said 'I hope you don't mind me saying this but you've got a lovely face.'  Gosh.

Aint nothin but a hound dog

Yesterday afternoon I was doing a bit of tidying and went outside to put out some rubbish. There was this really strange noise, like a load of horses' hooves clattering. Then a muddy dog came padding past. Then another muddy dog came past. The next thing I knew a whole pack of hounds was in my garden!

They all marched past me then scattered in the wood.

I went inside and looked out of the living room window and the other side of the wood was a line of men in red jackets on horses. One of them blew his horn and the dogs came running back. Then our neighbour, who has about 6 cats came over: 'Get them out of here!' she screamed.

All a bit dramatic. I'm not sure I'm all that happy about a pack of hounds in my garden. Wonder how J or our neighbour;s little boy would have reacted if they'd encountered them. 

Coffee morning

Yesterday I went into the coffee morning with a demented grin on my face which made everyone look up at me like I'd totally lost it. Anyway the centre of attention was Mavis who celebrates her 70th birthday on Saturday. On Tuesday, sort of leaving it to the last minute, I'd phoned Becky and said 'Do you think we should do something at the coffee morning for Mavis's birthday?' Becky produced an amazing iced cake and a home made card for us all to sign. Mavis was really pleased I think.

I was going to take her out to lunch on Friday but someone else is taking her she says. Must be nice to  have such a busy social life. She is lonely though, I don't think she's got any real friends her own age.

Tactless remark

I am just feeling so upset right now. Basically someone at housegroup this morning criticised me for having been looking miserable at coffee morning last week. This had been a day when I was in a lot of pain and had hardly slept at all the night before but obviously she wasn't to know that. She said that she and the woman who runs it were saying that Mavis and I both looked so miserable it would put people off coming. 'Ok I'll try and have a cheerful grin in future' I said which was meant to be loaded with sarcasm but didn't really work. It actually felt like she'd physically hit me but I was saying to myself I could rise above it and handle it and somehow I managed to lead the discussion. Then I got home and P phoned and I burst into tears.

How should I handle this? Forgive them obviously but say anything? Just not go any more? Ignore it? 

I don't know.
 

Finches and a nice Mother's Day

Today I'm torn between the desire to rest, to read, to study or to tidy up the house. It's a lovely sunny day and after school I sat in the car for almost an hour just watching the birds on the feeder. We've now got goldfinches, chaffinches and greenfinches. They're all getting through the sunflower seeds at quite an alarming rate.

J managed to remember his options form this morning which should have been in on Friday. Oops.

Yesterday at church the ladies were given a mug for Mother's Day which was a really nice present. Last year I got pink tea lights which were nice but I've never actually unpacked them. A mug is nice and useful though. J chose me a design with cupcakes on it. Wonder why? He also made me a lovely card and we went to the pub next door for lunch. This was nice but not anywhere near as nice as last year. They've got a different chef and he doesn't seem to be as good. After that I lay down on the sofa and fell asleep. I woke up and thought it was a school day and I was at home alone so what was the noise coming from the study? As I started to shout I realised it was J doing his homework. Embarrassing. 
When we went to Other Church in the evening they gave out little chocolate eggs and a magazine to the ladies. Very nice.

I've managed to write 'nice' six times in that paragraph. That's what Mother's Day is though. Nice.

I think I need to go and tidy somewhere.