Journey to the Centre of the Earth

On the tube, in the special seat reserved for the elderly.

G stood. What a hero!

Jessie "interacting" in the Natural History Museum.

Four & a half million years ago you could have ridden one of these - a rotund sort of tortoise.

A load of big birds (sorry P)

A shiny pate on the way in.

J pole-dancing on the tube (P was busy with T)

It was hard work.

A journey through the Earth.

A quick trip to BHX to check arrivals.

A birthday treat from the family - a trip to London to the Natural History Museum - the best museum in the world!

G bought me a rail pass then we travelled to South Kensington with P, J & T.

We were met by B, E, T & KP at Carluccio's, where we had a fantastic lunch, then on to the museum.

After a big adventure in a good number of halls we settled for a cup of tea at Pret a manger.

The grandchildren were all great & we had a lovely day. Thanks to everyone involved.

When we arrived back in Birmingham I went to the Airport to collect W, MK, J & DK, then home for fish & chips & an early night.

hippy birdy

J & T making use of the car seats in the hall.

J tucked in to chicken in tempura batter & a timbale of rice. She didn't rate the lemon sauce.

Happy 50th Birthday J - who's counting anyway!

I didn't feel a day over 30 by the time I'd had a shower & done my hair & make-up this morning.

Thanks for all of the phone calls & cards.
A great day out with G & Jessie in Stratford for a Thai lunch , a tootle around Solihull, collecting Thomas from nursery & tea & cake with P before coming home.

We have finished the jobs at home & had olives, guacamole & prawns with chili sauce & most of a bottle of rioja, followed by summer pudding, for an informal dinner.

G has painted the banister rail & then forgotten.

Most has washed off!

A big day tomorrow, so I'm off to bed, a bit sloshed.

Bugger Facebook.

Caterpillars dispatched.

Caterpillar in situ.

Buzz.

Thanks for the advice, which gave rise to the above conclusion.
I don't know what I did in the first place that gave rise to all of these e-mails of people wanting to "be my friend".
I have put a friendly comment & deleted all past pupils.
I must admit to being underwhelmed by the comments made by many of the friends & don't feel that I can add anything at that level.
Don't you all do Facebook?

Anyway, tennis this morning, a load of clothes to the new Coleshill charity shop & then getting the house back in order.
It's all shipshape & shiny, beds made up, ironing all done & only the "Noble photos" to be hung in the hall.
Great.
My "peace level" rises immeasurably when order prevails.
Just a little shopping to do, which we will combine with a day out with Jessie.
Apparently, we are celebrating my birthday in Stratford.

We watched a buzzard from the bedroom window the other day - G to post photo.
He also managed one of the caterpillars that ate my nasturtiums.
Dry tomorrow, wet on Wednesday, so they say - I got soaked to the skin today in the 45 seconds that it took to get the washing in - no one saw that coming!

Bugger caterpillars!

I was inordinately pleased with the nasturtiums that grew from the seeds the J helped me to plant in the garden.
I went to see JR for a couple of days this week & a wretched butterfly took the opportunity to lay several billion eggs on the plants, which then hatched & ate all of the leaves & flowers.
I shook them off into a bucket & have given them a holiday in the field across the road.
G & I have worked all day cleaning, polishing & painting, washing & ironing.
We have just eaten a rather nice stir - fry & shall go to bed very soon, knackered.
Please help me with "Facebook"
Lots of people want to be my friend.
I didn't know I was on it.
Even Amy Downton, an ex-student wants to be my friend (along with many others)
She never did during the 5 years at school!
How do I get on it, apart from picking up comments?

Home again.

Tuesday we went shopping to "dress" the study.
We bought blinds, cushions, lamps & underlay. Not bad ay?
We were still talking at the end of the shopping & very pleased with the results.

Yesterday I finished the church service rota & then set off to see JR in Cambridge, stopping in Coleshill en route to buy lunch & see Kaye Alexander open Coleshill's first charity shop - Mary Ann Evans Hospice (George Eliot, to the uninitiated).
We had pan fried salmon with new potatoes & sugar snaps followed by "Gu chocolate cheesecake".
Not at all bad. Then we enjoyed the hottest day of the year, walking around the garden, pestering the builders, who are refurbishing the window frames & rendering, & chatting.

Today we pestered the builders & the gardener, went to the dentist for JR to have his replacement front teeth checked for fit. This took about 45 seconds after a 15 min drive & 20 min walk.
Dr Quan does rather lack "chair side manner".
A "hello", "goodbye" & a brief explanation of what he was doing would not have gone amiss.
If we go back in 2 weeks we can have them to bring home.
We went on to Saffron Walden for lunch & a potter around, then visited the Nordens on the way home for tea.
I left for home at 5.00pm & did the journey home in record time - two & a half hours ( it usually takes one & three quarter hours).
This was due to the garage having an M&S food store, so I sat in the queue for 15 min whilst the connoisseur from the BMW in front did the weeks shopping & then doing 56mph down the A14 in the outside lane as the trucks played chase.
G has done a lot of clearing up; we have had pasta & a bottle of Slovakian Merlot (where on Earth did that one come from?apart from the obvious) & I'm ready for bed.
J & T tomorrow.

Home for a nice cup of tea,

Market in Guzelyurt (pop. 15000)

mosque...church

Climbing up to St Hellarions castle - 700 steps to go. Inspiration for Disney's fairy castle (supposedly)

Kyrenia castle ... outside

...inside

pic-nic lunch

Bummer of a birth mark (Larsen)

We have had a well deserved holiday, a reward for finishing the decorating.Actually this was a bit premature as the laundry isn't done yet.

Anyway, we have been to Northern Cyprus for a week.

This is the Turkish bit, not very large & not so commercialised as the South.

It was hot - mid to high thirties & sunny with the occasional light breeze.

We stayed at Green Village, a newish resort about 10km outside Kyrenia, the main town, famous for it's castle at the edge of the harbour.

We hired a Suzuki Vitara for a few days, which was great fun & enabled us to go to the Eastern end where there are long sandy deserted beaches where turtles hatch.

We went to the Eastern end, which is mountainous with a couple of historic sites & wonderful views.

G spent a day doing a couple of dives, to test out his shoulder, whilst I swam in the sea, read & sunbathed & we went on a boat trip along the coast for a day, swimming off a couple of beaches.

There was nothing of interest to buy, apart from some local food for lunch. We even dined on our balcony on local bread, salad, cheese & olives, washed down with a bottle of wine 3 times - too hot to want a great deal to eat.

There are a great many new developments partly completed all along the coast - villas & shops.

People have pulled out of sales because of the recession, no new houses, no new shops needed.

It actually took us 12 hours to get home this morning, from pick up at the resort to arriving home - all flights have to land in mainland Turkey en route, which adds another hour to the journey.

Only 2 hours in bed last night, so I have some catching up to do.

G will post some photos.

Decorating fini!

We finished papering the study at 9.00pm last night, knackered.
G has finished the hall ceiling, cleaned & put furniture back while I was at church (Shustoke & OW - "I am the bread of life").
It looks really good & the colours all work well - ready for aj, with flat screen TV!
I am still wondering why, when I went to buy more paint on Thursday, the man on the till in Homebase said "I suppose you've got a team of little men doing this for you".
I showed him the paint on my arm & assured him that I was doing it myself.
Is there a team of dwarfs touring the country doing cheap- rate decorating?
If so, don't they have trouble with ceilings?

Anyway, we went to Warwick Castle on Friday with Jessie & Thomas.
The sun shone & we had a great time, despite crowds & a long queue for "The Princess' Tower".
Yesterday, we decorated from morn till night, ate & went to bed. I broke a nail.

The summer weather has returned, it's a beautiful day again today.
No more blogs until I get some comments.

Severe weather warning.

Today the rain didn't start until after 2.00pm, by which time I had washed the cars, the builders dust off the window frames & cleaned the downstairs windows.
The plumber, Robin Mander spent the day here, replacing the pipes to the shower & replacing the thermostat in the immersion heater.
G repaired the kitchen window & put a new light over the washbasin in the spare room, I painted the study ceiling & gave the woodwork a second coat.
The ceiling needs a second coat, despite having used twice as much paint as it says on the can!
I've cleaned the bathrooms after the workmen, vacuumed through to the back door, prepared the dinner & collapsed in the bath.
G is working, so I am using the finger-tip top computer, which fights back every inch of the way.

The number of new cases of swine flu has fallen. I think that this is partly due to the school holidays - teachers no longer need to phone in claiming to have swine flu in order to get a few days off.

Tomorrow is a Jessie & Thomas day.
We are planning to go to either Warwick or Kenilworth castle, depending on the weather.
We may be travelling by boat, by the sound of it.

Rain, rain, bugger off.

It has rained all day.
Where on earth does it all come from? (I do know about the water cycle)
We were decorating all day, so the weather didn't stop us, but it would have been nice to walk around the garden in the sunshine at some point.

We have papered the study ceiling & the end of the hall & made a pretty good job of them.
We then showered - I was coated with paste, having been paster & balancing the paper on my head in the study whilst G did the clever stuff & papered the ceiling.
We went to Wing Wah in Coventry, for a meal - no catering here today - only coffee & a biscuit for lunch, then on with the job.
WW does buffet style food, masses of good food, eat as much as you like.
We were very moderate, both being health/weight conscious; there were a lot of people there who obviously got their moneys worth!
We taped "Coast" while we were out. This was a first as G thought that he didn't know how to record.
He did.

I bought a combination cooker from the Co-op, on the Internet this morning.
Beat that.
The light in the combi/ microwave stopped working about a year ago, then the turntable stopped going round, then, last week, the microwave function stopped working, then the clock.
We were left with just a little oven.
I read the reviews on Panasonic combi ovens, they scored one *, with all the faults ours had, plus a number of others.
In comparison, Sharp scored 5* from nearly all of the reviewers.
The Co-op was £15 cheaper than John Lewis, with free delivery tomorrow.
Brill.
I hope I like it.
I shall be able to warm up my hot drinks when they have gone cold, & cook Count on us meals again.
Tennis in the morning, if weather permits, then painting.
The postman staggers up the drive every morning laden down with parcels for WM.
We are holed up in a corner of the lounge, surrounded by this ever increasing pile of boxes.
Does MK know of his Internet habits?

Anybody want thre George Forman or a dozen pairs of trousers, 40 waist. 31 leg?

All quiet on the home front.

It was very quiet this morning, no little voices from the spare room.
Did I say "little"?
On Saturday morning T & KP chatted to each other for about 20 minutes after waking up before the "Granny" cry went up at 7.15am. We were up, dressed & breakfasted, ready for the day by 8.30am.
We did some baking, T weighing, cracking eggs & mixing; KP mixing & licking spoons.
After lunch we went to The Shustoke Show, despite the rain.
The show ring had a display of vintage tractors, the North Warks hunt & The Axe Men from Wales, wielding chain saws & axes. We did the Show tent, the pet & creepy crawlies tent, from Honily farm centre & an owl display, before a session in the Crooked House.
It rained a lot & was amazingly muddy. KP had sandals on, sat down in the mud twice.
The highlight was probably being pushed out of the muddy field/car park by six young farmers.
I still have to wash the mud off the car.
When we got home, T & KP went straight into the bath & put "jimmys" on whilst everything else, including shoes, was washed.

On Sunday P, T & J came to brunch, in the garden & the children all enjoyed playing in the sunshine. We took T & KP home - both fast asleep - where they were delighted to see their Mum, after a week away.
We went to Bicester village, where G bought some new casual clothes in an even smaller size, from Musto & Racing Green.
I bought a T-shirt from Fat Face (no comment needed there)
We arrived home exhausted, cooked beef stroganof & watched Top Gear.

Today G finished the filling & sanding down & opened up the windows in the study whilst I played tennis, did three loads of washing & ironing & spring cleaned the kitchen.
G has put in new lights over the work surface, which are brill, so the paintwork deserved a wash.
Does anyone want a George Forman grill thing? We never use it, so the space is more useful.

It's raining again!