Brilliant!

We have had a great day.
I went to the show at 9.00am - having got up early to make scones - to put my baking in the show.
Keith collected the bric-a-brac & tables with a trailer to take to the show field at Blyth  & G followed on, on his bike.
The weather has been superb all day long.
We set up the stall & gazebo on our allocated plot, sold all day long, selling loads of stuff & taking £245.
I won a prize in the Alzheimer's Society "stallholders only" raffle (no, not an elderly.......) &, to cap it all, I won 2nd prize with my Victoria sandwich & 3rd prize with my chocolate cake.The other entries were only the odd half mark off a prize.
The show was brilliant, a proper rural event, with lots of stalls, animals, tractors, steam engines, dogs & horses. It was a sell out.
You should all come next year.

We've had an omelet & I've done my "bit" for Malcolm's memorial tomorrow.
I've watered the garden, despite the hose pulling out of the fitment every 3 minutes & then soaking me as I put it back together.
I hate hoses!

Well.

G has spent the day building the shed, with Nigel.

Blogger has just erased my entire blog.
Bugger!

Briefly, I've finished the church display for the Whitacres & Shustoke Show, on Sat, & washed the bric-a-brac & put it all in the garage, ready for transporting on Sat morning, by Keith.
I have to find time to do my baking - shortbread, scones, sponge, choc sponge & fruit cake.
I can take the surplus to church on Sunday, as long as they haven't been destroyed by the judge, testing texture.

Thomas & Jessie tomorrow, so we shall relax a little.
It's M&S day for "valued customers", like me. Those who eat  M&S food, whilst wearing M&S clothes & sleep between M&S sheets.........
We had a spatchcock chicken tonight. Delicious.

Must see how much bottles sell for & price aj's gramophone player, with horn!

A good send off.

Chris's retirement do was enjoyable with a very good turnout.
The Abbot Beyne staff did her proud, with singing, a DVD & speeches from a variety of sources. (only one with no stop button)
Kingsbury, her first headship was represented by Mick, Barrie & me, with some humour.
She was very successful at both schools & we loved "The Chris years"

Played tennis this morning, perfect weather. Please let it last until Sunday so that it is fine for the show on Saturday.
I went to Staples for poster making materials & JS for ginger oatcakes, after tennis.
I ended up buying stuff that I haven't used....
We put up the magic magnetic framework, the A3 card was too small so I used posh ceiling paper.
I'll finish it tomorrow......

Jessie has some Little Miss specs from today, she can pair up with T's Mr Bump ones.

G has been building the shed with Nigel, the telegraph pole uprights are in place, so it looks like the Norfolk tree circle. I like it in this state as there is a good view through it. I have suggested that we leave it as it is, but I don't think that this will happen.
Shame.
We have tomorrow to finish the display & sort out the goods to sell.

So the Olympic sites are finished a year ahead of schedule. Amazing. Perhaps we have turned the corner. 

24999

That is the counter reading on my blog at this very moment.
If you are the first person to read this you are hit no 25000!
Congratulations!

I have just woken up, in the conservatory, having sat down with a cup of teas about half an hour ago.
The evils of drink at lunchtime!
We had our lunch party, both P & M & M & M bought identical bunches of lilies from the florists in Coleshill.
We enjoyed salmon followed by bread & butter pudding.

We have to change to go to Chris's retirement do.
My "Jenny Joseph bag" is almost complete, now having a tin with odds & ends.
Still no summer gloves, despite an exhaustive search of the house this morning.

I shall wear my brown Country Casuals dress, which fades to cream & yellow, bought to go on the cruise in Dec 2009 & found to be too bulky to pack. Or perhaps it was found to be too tight.
Either way, it remains unworn & awaiting an event on a warm evening, so, here we go......

Another scorcher.

I was up early to put out the dustbin, dead-head the flowers & water the plants as a warm day was promised.
We played tennis in beautiful weather this morning, then home for a shower, lunch, then off to Cannock High School. for a meeting with Barrie & Mick.
Tomorrow night is Chris's retirement do & we are to do the "Kingsbury years".
We realised that we had no anecdotes as we had actually just enjoyed all working together & making the school such a success - the most improved school in the country in Chris's second year, headlined in "The Daily Mail".
I had a few from the holiday in Bude; some work to be done on that before tomorrow night!

The satnav was determined to get onto the Toll road.
I was determined to stay on the A5.
Needless to say, the satnav won, but only for the last 8 miles or so.
Those of you who use the toll road will know that this counts as a complete victory.
I managed to avoid it on the way home, or , rather, on the way back to Ventura Park, to buy food, so could afford the odd crust!
G has removed this half of the shed in the field, ready for Nigel to start erecting telegraph poles tomorrow. He has excavated bin loads of copper scrap, so we now need a tatter as well as a skip.
I just want it to look like a gingerbread house & have a mezzanine.
I think that I may be disappointed.
We have a lunch party tomorrow - Phil & Marg, Maurice & Mary.
Salmon & asparagus, any ideas for pudding?

Torchwood has just started. Looks scary so I'm off to bed. 

Another scorcher.

Phew, a busy weekend.
Thomas & Jessie on Friday - a lovely day, so we put the tent up on the lawn & played "camping" & had lunch outside.
P & A came to dinner, by which time the rains had come.Jessie helped make dinner & laid the table, whilst T rested up, watching a DVD with G.

On Sat morning we had a meeting here about the planned church fundraisers.
I completed my sermon, then went to Solihull, to shop.
It is Chris Thompson's retirement do on Tuesday; I have bought her the Jenny Joseph poem, "Warning" & attempted to buy all of the articles mentioned. I have the red hat, purple skirt & satin sandals, slippers, summer gloves & brandy to find.

We have a stall at The Whitacres & Shustoke Show, next Sat. We have to make a display board, that is, we have to find a board & then make a scintillating display to put on it.
No problem there then.
We have done 45 invitations to order tickets to the Blyth Hall Soiree & delivered most of them.
We drove around the lanes of Botts Green this evening, looking for a couple of farms, without success.
Some of those we did find had no letter boxes! The guilt felt in having to open a back door to throw a letter into the house.
I took services at LM & NW this morning, then home to get lunch, with Judith & Peter.
G gave the invitation late last night, so the meal was a little unusual (what we had available) - jacket potatoes with chili followed by rice pudding made with palm sugar, strawberries & cream, coffee & coffee cake.
Since I started cooking cakes in the non-fan oven  my cakes have tripled in height. I have even ventured to enter some in the show on Sat, since we shall be there early anyway, setting up our stall.

Time for bed said Zebedee.

Thomas & Jessie tomorrow, so there'll be no staying up half the night.
I got out of bed at 9.45am this morning, G was lying in bed, flat on his back, not snoring; I had to put a hand on his chest to check that he was breathing.
Actually it was only 8.50am, I'd mis-read my watch hands in the dark - problems of sleeping in the spare bedroom, leaving all cons behind.
G should be healed in a week or two.
The beard will have to go, it's like a small, aged pet that constantly needs stroking.

I cleaned the church, with Maurice this morning - dysoned the cobwebs off the lights, barrow-loads of them, G took photos then went to the bank.
If their experts are so b..... good, why are they working there & not retired if the South of France?
After lunch we had coffee, G slept, then we delivered Blyth Soiree letters around the district.
Most of the letters are now ready to go out,apart from a few that need saws, Jan doing the labels.
J & T may like to put through doors tomorrow.
Still have a sermon to write.
Perhaps we won the lottery last night, then again....
A useful day but no real highlights. I still have my hair.

G has just shown me the Thailand photos from 2003.
God, I was fat (G was pretty meaty as well)
Must lose another stone.

Nocturnal?

What on Earth am I doing, blogging at this hour?
If I keep on at this rate I will be sleeping all day & up all night by next Christmas.
No fear of that at the moment as I really tired & have brought my laptop to bed, determined to blog.
God knows why as nobody reads it or comments.
Is W alright or has he succumbed to the Danish bee?
Does B ever answer his phone?
How long is a piece of string & how many legs has a centipede??

Satisfying day - G to hospital to have the wound drained & dressed.
He has sent me a photo of it, undressed.
Yuk!
Shopping at Ventura Park - the food in M&S is fantastic, on a different planet to JS & T.....
Big raw prawns to cook, with different dressings/sauces, scallops, calamari....
Do have a look- we have three days worth in the fridge.
Nothing of note in the sale.
Home for lunch, e-mails then gardening until nearly 8.00pm.
Front garden all done, now in need of plants - there's always a drawback.

G found an alternative to "The Apprentice", he slept for most of the evening.
I trust that this is part of the healing process & not the ageing one. I ironed whilst he slept - not a crease in the whole house!

Lots to do tomorrow, including cleaning the church, delivering/sending the Blyth Hall letters & writing the "Heaven" sermon.

Harry Potter..

& the Deathly Hallows 11.
We've been to Coventry to see this this evening.
It was great, never even shut my eyes.
Do go & see it.
Had a lie in this morning, following that ridiculously late night.
Spent too long making porridge for breakfast & a cake for Marg & Phil, before visiting them for advice/info, so had to forgo a shower & dash out.
Jan came to lunch & to move forward on Blyth Hall Soiree with wine & cheese, on 26 Aug.
If any readers would like tickets (£20 each) please get in touch.

Spent the afternoon making list of those who would / may like tickets, to be finalised & delivered/posted tomorrow, then off to Coventry, still as one of the great unwashed.
Hospital tomorrow morning, fingers crossed that all is well. 

Planing a new, short hair  style on Saturday.
Is this a good idea? (not as short as no 1 son!)

Do any grandchildren want to make a scarecrow for the Shustoke show on30 July?

Benjamin Millepied

I thought I knew him, but apparently, he's the fiance of Natalie Portman, who is a dancer.
I would have thought that multiple legs would have decreased his chances of dancing competently, but what do I know.
I have just entered every competition on the telegraph promotions page, which involved me tweeting on my twitter account, which I had not done since March '09.
That is
1 because I couldn't remember how to tweet
2 I think it's pretty daft.
I shall be away on holidays/cruises & riding my mountain bike, once the competitions have closed & prizes awarded.

Thanks for the "Heaven is" replies, more would be very welcome, though I imagine that they wee in response because nobody reads this blog.anyway.
If I don't get a comment tomorrow, I shall have my hair cut off & eat bananas all day!

Heaven is.......

I've been pondering about this for a while & would value other people's thoughts - no guidance given.
I'll e-mail later.
If I manage to do that successfully, I may add "being able to contact......., to my list.

I cannot imagine why we prioritised a visit to the opening of the refurbished HSBC.
In my defence, I only knew that it was a social function at the bank, for selected customers - those daft enough to attend, I guess.

Moving on   torrential rain on Saturday, interspersed with mere rain.
Nevertheless, we had a good morning, ate all of the cakes & raised £170.
Yesterday I went to Shustoke church, communion, taken by the Diocesan education guru, who is about 7ft tall, with a booming voice.
Good for the visually & orally impaired!
I went on to NW to take the service, home for coffee & then out for a spin to find lunch.
We decided that red meat may be in order after10 weeks of fish, & went to The George at Balsall Common, because we were passing.
The steak was good, the watercress tired & the vanilla cheesecake, to be avoided.

I'm sure that you all watched "The Apprentice" final last night.
The best show so far.
I guessed that Tom would win (of course, you're all saying that now!)
How could Sir Alan let him go when he may just be "bigger than Dyson" as well as being so nice.
What a delightful young man, & an engineer. I would give him a home any day.

G has designed his shed & done the business plan.
This may be just what his life was lacking. he has two garages, stables a "factory", but no shed.
The shed is B's, never opened & considered to be temporary, awaiting B's removal of it.
I don't understand this stance.
It has mystified me for 16 years.

I find that it helps to ignore things that you don't understand, so I'm going to play tennis for a couple of hours, despite the weather looking far from promising.

Baking Day.

Eventually.
I decided that it would be a good idea to write my sermon whilst I was alert, having done some research last night - parable of the weeds in the wheat field.
This took until mid-day, then I visited Arthur, who is quite frail, to ask him to  the "Coffee & Cakes" here tomorrow.
G had mown the lawns(cut the grass, as he describes it) so needed lunch before we could continue.
I then baked - victoria sponge
                    -lemon sponge
                    -coffee cake
                    -malteser cake
                    -passion cake
                    -fruit cake.
   I am delighted to say that they all turned out very well.They just need filling & decorating, best done in the morning.
The house is ready, tables clothed, Bring & Buy table erected & stocked, in the kitchen, as rain is forecast for tomorrow.
An early night & morning are called for now, to ensure that all is ready on time - we just need a good turnout, in order to make  money, now.

The Co-op has Berio olive oil, half price & Aero mousse, BOGOF, neither of which is of use in cake making.

HaitchSBC

We have been to the opening of the refurbished branch of the above, in Solihull, this evening.
G was invited, with guest.
I was not.
This was rather chafing as we are both "Premier customers".
There was a little food - dishes of canapes, offered around, plenty of drink & little else.
A speech from the Branch Manager & someone from Head Office, who gave the bank the above title.
I think that the first interview question should always be to pronounce HSBC.
If unable to do it, you should not get the job, whatever else you can do.
The Premier manager spoke to us at some length, shook G's hand & left.
I expressed my displeasure on both counts & we came home to eat.

This was G's first outing & he had a painful leg & was grumpy.
Great evening all in all, compares favourably with sitting in a bath of cold baked beans, I suspect.

Busy week, I brought Thomas & Jessie back here on Tuesday, after school, to see G & decorate a b'day cake for P, when she came to collect them.

I took G to hospital on Wed, all is well, apart from a sizeable crater on his right calf, still under wraps.
The donor site is healing well. We had a Church fundraising meeting here in the evening - all is going well - "Coffee & Cakes" here on Saturday, hence a baking day tomorrow.
I gardened for most of today, the yard & surrounds, in the hope of fine weather for Saturday's event.
We have some good Bring & Buy stuff, which won't sell well, but we are having a Church Stand at the Shustoke show, where it might.
Holiday due at some point! 

Try G&B's arabacia (coffee) dark chocolate.
Brilliant!
JS have two bars of G&B for £3.

Happy Birthday P.

What a brilliant summer!
Every morning, almost, I seem to open the curtains & say "Another lovely day".
We played tennis this morning, in perfect tennis weather, then on to P & A's, stopping to pick up some big potted geraniums en route, for P.
Thomas & I had boiled eggs for lunch, despite it not being a Friday, then made a Lego Lightning Mcqueen car & a racing car, nearly melting in the heat in the process, as the conservatory was so warm.
I was pretty pleased with myself, directing Thomas, who did the construction.
Only one error, which Jessie put right!.

Cold pork, saute potatoes & stir fry vegetables for dinner. I've watered the garden with the hose & water from the well - T took great delight in using the pump yesterday.
B must teach him the theory.

I hope that The Telegraph doesn't end up in the mire, with so much corruption in the press.
I shall have to cancel my subscription if it does.

Apparently, "Stanley effortlessly combines the epic with the everyday" - I believe that he's an artist.
Perhaps that's what I should be aiming at.
I wonder what counts as "epic" around here.

Where have I been since Tuesday?

This is Saturday's blog, out of sequence as it wouldn't publish last night & I had forgotten when I did a blog on Sunday.
Read this, then "Feet up......", if you've the stamina!

I don't know.
Perhaps I was abducted by aliens, more likely that I fell asleep before turning on the computer every evening.
I've done a lot of running up & down stairs catering for G's every whim.
I've remembered , Wednesday evening g came down for the first time, had dinner in the lounge & watched "the apprentice" & "You're Fired", then back to bed.
On Wed. evening I went to Merevale Hall, a fundraising do for the Conservatives.
This included a tour of the house, with Matthew Dugdale, who is very entertaining, then wonderful refreshments.
Home by 9.45pm, in trouble for being late, as G hadn't been fed.
A couple of poached eggs did the trick.
Friday was Thomas day.
We delivered the bouncy castle to Barbara & Adrian, ready for a party on Sunday, then went to Mcd for lunch & did the shopping in M&S & JS.
Thomas is a great shopper - a ride in the trolley in JS to get a good view of the goods, then out at the checkout to help unload.

Internet connection lost, before publication!!!!!!

Feet up & a glass of wine.

Another lovely day - B, E, T & KP for lunch & the afternoon. The kids praised my lunch effort (well brought up), ate a lot & helped to make scotch pancakes & decorate a malteser cake for tea.
They had a scamp around the garden, looked for my wedding ring with the (rather pathetic) metal detector & did some "nature" with Steve, who then joined us for tea, with Di & Chloe. KP loves Chloe, who gets very excited.
I popped to church this morning, just to give out notices about Malcolm's memorial service on 31 July & the "Coffee & Cakes" here next Saturday. I then came home to put the joint in, as it purported to require 3 hours cooking.

We had a lovely evening yesterday with Carolyn, Graham, Chris & Jan. G was on good form & J found him hilarious, honestly.
I cooked a fillet of salmon, recipe from t'internet.
I highly recommend it:
Put the fillet in a dish, I put root ginger soy sauce on it, then cook, uncovered, at 95 degrees C for 45 minutes.
Dead easy, served in the cooking dish & really moist.

I reckon that The News of the World" have been hacking my phone, hence the ever flat batteries.
I anticipate a great improvement now that it has disappeared.
No doubt it was a sell out today as people bought copies as an investment - 15 million copies tucked away for the next 20 years, yellowing, gathering dust but little else due to the other 14999999 copies in existence!

Coast is on.
Fantastic scenery & not a Formula 1 car in sight!

Happy Birthday DK.

DK is three today!
He is the youngest of our grandchildren, now aged 7x2, 5x1, 4x3, 3x3.
He will be having a lovely day with J & all of DK's class mates at home - not many mums brave enough for that!
Schools are already on holiday in Denmark!
G & I would have been on the way there had he not had the leg/mole problem.
The trip is postponed; we have the Eye-Witness guides, so the experience will be finely tuned by the time G is up to sitting in the car for several days.

I have had a church fundraising meeting this morning with Di & Jan.
G is still in/on the bed, day 4.
It is another beautiful day.
I am only on t'internet because I have to take the car to "Ring of Bells" later so that they can investigate it tomorrow morning, when cold.
Getting it there is no problem.
Getting home is another matter.
I thought that I would use the bus.
After a lot of research, I find that I can get a train to B'ham International (3 min, £1.60), then a bus to Coleshill, then ????
Some buses come to Shustoke, the &!&, which runs hourly.
This will have to do.
I am awaiting a call from the RoB to see if they have a courtesy car available.
I've been waiting for nearly an hour.
I think I'll go out after lunch & allow plenty of time for the return.
Bacon sandwiches to build G up again!

Enjoy the summer weather, especially if it's your birthday!

Managing.

 I came home on Friday - train from Richmond to Euston, on to Coventry, then Nuneaton, then to George Eliot Hospital, by cab, to meet G.
All was great until Coventry, where a group of young men, with little girl, were drinking & smoking spliffs, until ejected by a burly security man.The ejection didn't happen until after they had approached me, in the "Ladies Waiting Room", for painkillers.
This was relaxed compared with the train journey to Nuneaton; a guy with turrets, with carer,two rows behind, two travellers with a rottweiler, two rows in front.
One shouted, the other barked for the entire 20 minutes.

G was awaiting physio when I arrived, they taught/ tried to teach him how to stand up & sit down from a chair, with walking sticks, without putting weight on his right leg. He knew a better way.
He had had a piece of tissue the size of the palm of a hand, removed from around where the mole had been removed, on his R leg, skin to graft into it, from his L thigh & a second mole from his L calf.
His R leg is plastered to prevent him flexing his foot.
He must keep his R leg raised & not put any weight on it for 10/11 days, when he goes back to see the surgeon.
He has spent today on the bed,as it's  easier to conform to all of the rules & prevents pain.
I think that the next ten days may drag a bit.

I've been to Church & run up & down stairs a bit, between tennis finals on TV.
The men's final was brilliant, the mixed was rather tame.
All over for another year.
I'm playing tomorrow, to make up for it.