A load of bull.

We are watching our Discovery Channel DVD on Cleopatra - the last in the Egyptian series, bought after our holiday to help us to understand the history of Egypt.
In Phylae a bull was worshipped & mummified after death - only one at a time - then buried in a tomb on the west bank of the Nile. (burials took place in the West, hence the saying "Gone West")
Anyway, today, we were at Coleshill Town Hall by 8.30am. Unfortunately the doors were not opened until 9.00am, so we may as well have had breakfast,or at least a cup of tea before we left home.
We set up our stall, did some networking (a lot of locals with whom we had contacts or who knew us!), & a fair bit of selling, until shortly after mid-day. We made £50 profit, spent £2 on bargains & came home for brunch.
It takes a lot to make £50 at these events - we did well.
We have a lot more money to raise - any ideas (or donations!)?
We have since done a couple of hours in the field, clearing leaves & brambles & litter picked the village.
We lit a fire in the lounge - a necessity most evenings this winter - had naps & then ate olives, pasta & chocolate with a few glasses of wine. The diet starts tomorrow!

The Telegraph has a supplement on holidaying in Denmark.
There is a competition at visitdenmark.com/uk to win a family holiday in Denmark.
All family members must go on this site & enter - no one else to enter, that will diminish the odds.
Even G has entered!
A lie in tomorrow as I have NW matins at 11.00am.
G to P&A to finish the shower.

MK & I had a great idea for an addition to standard satnav - directions ti the nearest M&S.
Any takers?

TGIF.

Only joking, of course, since life is just one long weekend.
I spent Wednesday in Manchester with MK & DK for a hospital check-up for DK & a little light shopping.
Great news on the DK foot front; he only has to wear the boots whilst in bed from the end of February. He has developed great tricks whilst wearing them & must have amazing tummy & leg muscles. His little legs never stop when he's not wearing them. He's such a cheerful,smiley little chap - just like his Dad!
I got home late, for me.
Yesterday I cleaned, shopped, went to the gym & cooked - Mary & Maurice to dinner.
I shopped at Morrisons, mainly - a lot cheaper than JS or M&S. We had a great piece of roast leg of pork with scrummy M&S stuffing, followed by ginger sponge pudding.

Today was Thomas day. After lunch we walked to the playground , then onto the shops, before collecting Jessie from school. Thomas walked all the way to the shops, a good mile & a half, with half an hour on the swings & running around the playground included.
I hope that he sleeps well. I will!
Jessie was full of beans, she has "Oscar the owl" for the week & must keep his diary.
G stayed at home to take delivery of a bed settee, which is stacked on the landing, awaiting the sorting out & decorating of the study. It looks very nice.
He was wearing two fleeces & a hat when I got home - that was IN the house. (heating off)

Tomorrow we have a table in Coleshill Town Hall's Table Sale, to raise money for G's charity.
We have loads of goods to sell so just need buyers.
Comments please (specially aj)

where are you, aj?

I trust that the family blog followers will have noticed the lack of aj's pithy comments of late.
Can we all make the effort to encourage her to take up her commenting fingers again & keep us all on our toes.

I spoke to W & J earlier.
W has a cold, but was holding up well. J is on antibiotics for the impetigo & has caught W's cold.
He does not like his medication & was putting up a pretty good case for not taking it.

I have had a domestic day, G has been at P's, finishing the shower. He is after the contract for decorating their spare bedroom so he has to meet his deadlines!
The ironing mountain has grown. Sod.
I tried the competition on "jet2.com" - 45 photos to identify, on 30 Jan, to win free flights to somewhere. I cannot let aj down. I have to admit to guessing a fair few though.
Off to bed.

Friday night is biryani night.

Both G & g to Solihull today, so Thomas had a great day.
G spent another day in P&A's shower, re grouting.
I played, read (In the Night Garden, mainly) & went to the park.
What weirdo dreamt up "Makka Pakka", "Upsy Daisy" & "The Timbliboos"?
The same weirdo who came up with "The Teletubbies"?
Why can't children be given some credible alternatives?
T's M&S colour book has four objects of each colour.
Blue has -blue shampoo
-blue whale
-blue toothbrush
-blue boat
It's set in the bathroom!
The first two are a bit off the wall, I suggest.
M&S books leave a lot to be desired, in a number of respects.

We are watching Jonathon Woss - Tom Cruise, Stephen Fry & some comedian I don't understand.
It's very good.
Shopping, writing a sermon & two weeks housework to catch up on tomorrow, so G will do solo gardening.
Burns night on Sunday (250 years), so don't forget your haggis & swede.

How about a comment?
I have no infectious diseases.
I try not to be offensive (unless from Swad)
I could blog a sermon.

Is there anyone out there?

Another great day at Granville, apart from 11 set 3 science - a thankfully small group of evil bitches & psychos. Being in the same lab all day & teaching science makes it all fun.
I went to the gym after school & have snoozed the evening away having eaten a nice piece if yellow fin sole & potato wedges.
G has just shown me W's blog, which has sweet photos of the boys.
Thomas day tomorrow.
I have a dirty washing mountain to scale & two weeks dirt to centralise, but the Epiphany 4 sermon is in hand , so all's well.
I am delighted to report that retirement suits G.
He remains in a good humour & is enjoying catching up on all sorts of jobs that he hasn't had time to do, including taking over some of the cooking.
Whoop de de!

Feeling at Home at last.

I'm at Granville on Mon, Wed & Thurs this week to cover for a science teacher who is on the school skiing trip.
I got away at 3.00pm on Monday & drove up to York to see aj. There are 15 miles of roadworks on the M1 not far from the M42 junction, it was cold & raining so it was a long hard journey taking over 2 hours.
I took bottles of milk, wine & a bowl of salad. aj cooked pizza.
We caught up on the news, put the world to rights & watched TV.
We left the milk.


On Tuesday morning we went to Wetherby for a potter around, home for lunch & then a walk into Acomb in the afternoon to stretch our legs, before returning home in time to see the installation of Barack Obama - a moving event.
If only we had an equivalent politician who could unite the nation & give some hope of a new approach for the future.
Perhaps the US would swap him for GB, we could throw in Darling Alistair & Peter Mandelson for good measure.
The poem was disappointing & poorly read by it's author.

We had an early night & aj brought me a bowl of porridge in bed sometime before six this morning. I left by 6.30am, arriving at Granville at 8.40am after a gruelling drive in the rain & frost.

I've had a good day, teaching science for 4 out of 5 lessons in the same lab (a real tip), & two year 11 classes .
I begin to feel at home & part of the school.
Great.
An early night needed.

Very windy here.

Another lovely day.

Margaret's Christmas hyacinths - they smell wonderful.

The Reesdale Arms in Moreton in the marsh - highly recommended.

The Market Hall in Moreton - note the blue sky.

A bit of P & A's garden.

The sun shone today, so after church we had breakfast & then headed off to the Cotswolds, in the lotus, to enjoy the day. We even had the roof down for most of the outward journey.

We went to Moreton in the Marsh, had coffee at the Reesdale Arms followed by a walk around the town, & then on to Stow in the Wold, another walk & then home via some pretty villages.

A busy week ahead, three days at Granville with a visit to aj planned, in between, unless anything crops up,such as a shortage of staff at school or snow.

T wanted to talk to granny after an exciting trip to "Snowwhite".

After a brief resume of the part played by the wicked witch, he told me that he was watching a very good programme on channel 3, & "could I talk to Daddy instead!"

Fortunately, I know how the story ends!

We have since eaten our "M&S dine in for £10" meal. The food was great, the wine rather less good, but not bad for a tenner.

Lovejoy watch out!

Yesterday was a Thomas day, with G coming along to do jobs.
T was his usual fun self, J joined in after school.
Later we went to Wagamama's for a light meal & then to see "Defiance" with Daniel Craig - a story of the Russian Jews hiding in the forests during WW2.
Unfortunately, we arrived in time to see the trailers, so we were both asleep before the film started. I woke up 10-15 minutes in & woke G up. The rest of the film was good, thought provoking stuff.

Today, G & I had an early start, loading the car with goods for the table sale in the village hall.
It started at 1.00pm, so we went round to the hall for 10.00am, G driving, me on foot, as the car was really full, no room for me.
There was no one around, so we came home - more exercise - & phoned to find out that the hall would be open from 11.30am. We had a nice cup of coffee & a Viennese biscuit for elevenses & then back to the hall - I drove, G cycled on that foldable, small wheeled contraption.
We eventually had two tables to fit everything on.
There were about twenty tables & just over twenty punters!
Against the odds, we made £45 profit, packed the remaining goods nice & tidily,leaving two boxes of lesser desirable stuff for a proposed jumble sale in a few weeks time.
We met some nice folk, many of whom also donated goods for the jumble sale. We bought a rather magnificent carved wooden table lamp, about 3ft tall & a glass preserve jar with a silver lid. Total outlay, £2.50.
The ladies running the next table were raising money for a Coleshill School venture.
They are doing a table at Coleshill Town Hall on 31 Jan & kindly helped us to book a table - the last one, so we are in business.
We came home, tidied up, lit a fire & prepared to settle down for a cosy evening with an Indian takeaway. At some point G decided that it would be a good idea to go to the new Indian restaurant at the old Post Office in Coleshill.
We had a very good meal, well worth the half-mile run to & from the car in driving, torrential rain.
We are now sitting by a roaring fire, listening to the rain pounding on the conservatory roof, watching a DVD about ancient Egypt.

There is more joy in Heaven.......

over the one blue stripey sock with a duck on it, found down the back of the radiator, when looking for a form that G lost between the kitchen & the lounge. MK, please tell me that you still have the other one.

A busy week so far, with a call at 7.15am on Wednesday from Granville School. We were still in bed(the joys of retirement) & it was a real effort to get there.
I went in again today - english. Both days were hard work.
Year 10, set 2 english were particularly unpleasant.
I am in for three days next week as there is a skiing trip - blood money!
Of course, I would still do supply at Granville, even if I won the lottery.

G has done stirling work in the garden & went to P's today & did his first stint of babysitting.
He has spent much of the evening describing T's every action.
Grandad!

One of the above statements is untrue.

Home again

I went to Bicester to lunch with E & KP yesterday & spent the afternoon helping out at T's school. I lastened to about half the class reading & did some admin. It was great, delightful little children reading & chatting away. I shall go again. T gave me some help & support when he realised that I was there. When all of the coats & shoes were on, T took my visitors badge & declared that we had to go to Reception to sign out, & negotiated various classrooms to get there.

I had an evening with B, after a nice dinner.
I am afraid that I was not very good company as I kept falling asleep.

This morning T, KP & I had breakfast then walked T to school.
KP & I went home, ate a banana, then walked into Bicester.
KP walked about half a mile before succumbing to a ride & a snack in the BBB.
She was great fun & talked non stop all day - must be in the genes!
We went to Bicester village, had lunch & a play at Pret a manger, then home. KP wanted very much to stay there & play but I had an opticians appointment in Solihull.
Good news is that my eyes have not changed in the last six years now.
I went on to the gym where I met an old friend Val in the spa bath at the end of my workout.
G & I arrived home at the same time, had dinner & watched TV - no change there then.

Readers.

The theme for the weekend.
Friday was "Thomas Day". G came with me to do some jobs whilst T & I amused each other.
Afterwards we went to the pictures in Solihull to see "The Reader".
It is an excellent film - the best that I have seen for a long time. Characterisation, acting, directing, all brilliant. Do see it if you have the opportunity.
We had a nice meal at Wagamamas before the film, using a "bogof main course voucher", so a good evening all round.

Yesterday we went to Birmingham.
G dropped me near to the cathedral for the Readers' service - celebrating 40 years of reader ministry, men& women.
There were about a hundred of us, robed. It was an enjoyable service with some nice folk to chat to.
Afterwards I had a quick look at M&S & Rackhams, then met G. We went to the Bullring shopping centre & the fish market - mackerel for dinner.
On the whole, Birmingham was pretty unpleasant - dirty, busy & full of shops selling lots of things that we didn't want.
I remembered why I shop in Solihull.

Today I went to church then caught up with the ironing & helped G to clear up another ten billion leaves.
It has been less cold, but windy today.

Tomorrow I'm going to Bicester to be a "Granny Reader" at T's school.

Have you noticed the theme here?

Today I got to the gym.

G spent the morning getting the new tyres on the car.
I polished all of the shoes in the house as I had to polish my holiday Radley bag before putting it away.
G now has almost as many shoes as I have. At least mine come in a wider range of colours.
I did some jobs in Coleshill while G was having the second tyre fitted then got off to the gym, via Knowle, to deliver a birthday card. I am ashamed to say that I shopped in Tesco, to save parking in Solihull.
I did 20/25 minutes on each machine, 150 "pulls" on the rowing machine & swam 12 lengths without so much as a twinge.
I must cut the calories down now; I read my on-line health report last night.
All is great apart from the "lose a stone" & cholesterol at 6 (should be <5)
We have just had a very large stir fry with 3 portions of vegetables each. We are watching Rick Stein on the TV & have finished the yummy Green & Black's biscuits to remove the temptation for tomorrow.
I can't believe that I didn't do anything else this morning.
Perhaps I'm slowing down or my memory's going - not a great choice either way.

Is there anyone out there?

Welcome to the Magi.

I have celebrated the Magi visiting Jesus in the traditional manner - taking down the Christmas decorations & cleaning the house.
I had intended to go to the gym after taking the decorations down, but succumbed to the housework as there was so much washing to get through.
G did some pruning & tidying in the garden - it has been bright & sunny despite the cold.
He set off for his spinning class in Coventry at tea-time, but got two punctures, including a burst tyre, in Maxstoke, so was home within three quarters of an hour, cold & oily.
The V50 taking the hump?
I shall do the gym & shopping tomorrow when the car is sorted - not the weather for the lotus.

Apparently, M&S has had a poor Christmas & will be losing 1000 staff.
I did my best.
Woolworths closed today, finally. The Solihull store is empty, fixtures & fittings sold as well.
New Look is doing well.
What is the world coming to?

The cold weather is set to continue so porridge for breakfast again tomorrow.

Don't detox!

We have a big freeze - cold air coming from the North pole, via Scandinavia - no sympathy from the Danes then.
Peter set off for home mid-morning, aj & I set off for the shops in Knowle & Solihull.
We didn't buy much but compensated with coffee in M&S.
aj is now safely home, I have collected G from the gym & we are warm & snug.

Yesterday P & aj helped with the lunch whilst I took the service at Nether Whitacre. P, Jessie & Thomas, B&E with T & KP came to lunch - roast beef followed by ginger & pear trifle. They kindly failed to mention that the chocolate fairy cakes were burnt black on the bottom, due to having been cooked on the bottom of the oven. I won't do that again, however full the oven.
They looked great from the top!
The children were all great fun, Thomas & KP practised naming people, T made good use of the CD & the DVD players, whilst Jessie joined in with everyone.
They chose to open the Green & Black's cookies that sarah & Matt gave us for Christmas. They are scrummy & we even have some left.
Bad news for the Epiphany diet!

We read our horoscopes for the year yesterday, in the Sunday Times,
2009 didn't sound that bad.

A very cold night predicted.

Happy birthday Marie.

A taste of the last week or so:
Joanna Lumley rading during the carol service at Shustoke!

JR, pleased to see us.

Apparently, I nodded off after an unaccustomed glass of "Blue Nun" on Christmas eve - not like me!

A cold new year's day - a fire in the dining room called for.

A walk around the village on Boxing day.

Peter - woolly jumpers needed this year, so far.

The field - note, no leaves - my wrist has almost healed from the chaffing of the mighty plastic hands.

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It is older sister, Marie's, 62nd birthday today.
Happy birthday.
Happy new year to J, who has phoned me every day this year so far to wish me a happy new year, & then listen, before an eventual "good-bye".

Yesterday G & P had a blokes day out, including a pub lunch, whilst I cleaned after Thursday's party & prepared Sunday's sermon.
I phoned aj, who had been vegging out since Christmas & persuaded her to get out of the armchair & into the car, since the cold was likely to continue for some days yet & we should like to see her.
aj gave G a mammoth marquetry set - plenty of cutting & sticking there, & me a Georg Jensen beautiful silver scarab charm for my bracelet - very topical, following the Egypt holiday.
Thanks aj, indeed, thank you for all of our lovely presents this Christmas.

My February magazines arrived yesterday - Good housekeeping (my treat) & Good Food (b,day pressie from B&E), which aj has already browsed.

Apparently, the best way to keep new year resolutions is to make them realistic & then tell people. Of course, I'm so damn near perfect that it is difficult to find any changes to make (only joking), so here goes:
* Only drink at weekends.
* exercise three times a week, even if it's only a walk around the block one day.
* contact someone different every week - letter or mail. I always enjoy a letter (very rare now) or phone call, but rarely do this in case people are too busy/ can't be bothered with me, etc.
* remove my make-up every night.

I know that these are very ordinary - everyone says diet/exercise.
What have you resolved to change?

Anyway Granny (as T said to me the other day, implying that he wished to move on), today I shall go shopping for food, taking aj & P, if he can cope We may just drop into the M&S sale, briefly.
We may go to see "Australia" as we stayed in last night to watch "Death on the Nile", mainly so that we could "temple spot", following the Egypt holiday.

The decorations stay up until Tuesday!

A Happy 2009.

I hope that 2009 will be a happy, healthy & fulfilling year for you all.
We saw the new year in with a wee dram, then G let off a couple of spectacular fireworks, to make our presence felt, then we went to bed.
I did make a couple of new year phone calls: aj was in bed asleep, where she had been for some hours, W & MK declined to answer. I left it at that!

Today we have had about twenty five friends for lunch - cottage pie with every green vegetable available followed by spotted dick, blackberry crumble, ginger pudding, rice pudding, coffee cake & Sainsburys panetone recipe from the cover of the Jan magazine.
The latter was very good, easy to make & an excellent way to use up panetone.
It has been very cold now for a few days. G lit fires in the lounge & dining rooms, which made the house warm & cosy.
We are now relaxing in front of a good fire, watching "Coast", with Peter, while the dishwasher ploughs through the mountain of dirty dishes.