Candlemas.

Otherwise known as "The presentation of Christ in the temple", celebrated on 2 Feb or preceding Sunday.
Epiphany is over, Cribs are put away until next Christmas.
We had a united service this morning, at Lea Marston, with a good turn out & an inspiring sermon.
I left G & Aj in front of the lounge fire, reading the papers & watching the men's final of the Australian Open.
I returned an hour & a half later, match still going strong.
I cooked lunch, we ate & then returned to watch the last hour of the match - the most amazing tennis, the match lasting nearly 6 hours, Djokovic beating Nadal, eventually.
We ate some chocolates to celebrate, then Aj went home & we went for a walk - up to the church, around the reservoirs & home - good, though a little muddy underfoot, very muddy, actually.

We went to B'ham yesterday, I went to the annual licensing of the newly trained readers in the Cathedral -  about 60 Readers in total, all robed, marching from the offices of Wragges, Solicitors, opposite the cathedral, for the service.
G & Aj to the Jewellery Quarter, then we went to "Henry's" for a scrummy lunch.
We came home & chilled by a big fire, until we were ready for more food.
The diet has not gone well this week!

Lots of plans for next week, depending on the weather!

Weedon Bec.

we had a day out - well half a day really, as we weren't ready to leave till nearly noon.
We went to Weedon to the antiques village & adjacent shop - some nice things, but nothing very, very exciting.
We went on to Towcester, had a snack in Costa (big treat), then Buckingham, then MG to see J, G & co, then on to Bicester to see B & co.
We paid a quick visit to B village to Must, in freezing sleet, then home.
The temp fell to 0 degrees & we travelled through a blizzard until we reached Warks - cold here, but dry.
We picked up a take-away from the Polash & enjoyed it in front of a nice fire, watching the second part of "Putin, Russia & the West" - best programme of the week.
Who is the pillock of a shadow education minister on QT? 

Rabbie Burns, born 25 Jan. 1759.

We've had our traditional Burn's night supper with a traditional M&S haggis.
It was different than previously, but quite delicious.
I only regret that we didn't invite some friends to share it.

We slept late & wasted much of the morning, so I went to the gym this afternoon to get some exercise - the gym manager phoned on Monday to tell me that I could have two months free membership, starting immediately - an agreement made last year as G was going to be away for 4 months of his membership.
I had intended to go on to MG & Bicester, bearing haggis & swede, but couldn't make contact with  anyone, so gave up & came home & cooked our haggis, instead.
G is busy with paperwork, looking for it, mainly & burning the excess.

I stopped in Knowle & bought a nightie from the posh swimsuit & nightie shop, ready for my hols (W says it will not be warm)
It's really nice - pink & white stripes, with long sleeves.
I found that Tesco do not sell haggis.
Charlatans!
I did hear the assistant relate to someone senior that he'd been asked for haggis about ten times today.
It probably wouldn't have been very nice anyway.

I'm ready for my wee dram now - I'm trying to enjoy "The Crusades", but it's heavy going.
A Drambuie may help.

What should I do to prepare for the quiz on Friday?
AJ will know the answers, but I'd like to know something really obscure.

snooze day. 99

Haven't snoozed at all, but I have been very lazy.
It was raining hard this morning, with a big puddle on the yard, when we woke up at 8.00am - not an incentive to rush to get up.
By the time we were up & had enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, it was nearly 11.00am.
G spent the rest of the morning sorting through tons of paperwork to clear the filing cabinets, ready for a bonfire. I did the National Trust magazine crossword - most of it anyway. I've just used google to complete it - a long article about Octavia Hill, one of the founders of the NT, lots of clues relating to her, but none of the answers in the article.

Di came in for a nice cup of tea at about one, after which I prepared lunch - pasta -then walked to the Almshouses to take some cake to Tony, who missed last night's meeting, hence his cake.
I picked some litter in Moathouse Lane en route - far too much - bags full before I reached the farm.
G picked me up & we went to collect the car from tamworth - always go in pairs!
It looks good, inside & out.
On to JS for a little shopping, a refusal to go to M&S, then home.
A Keralan curry for dinner - sweating over a hot microwave for a few minutes!
What would we do without....... 

Happy Mondays.

G has gone out so I have the house to myself & can do what I always do in such circumstances.
Vacuum. Upstairs this time.
It's a good day, despite being cold.
The cloud even cleared for an hour or so - we played tennis all morning, home for lunch & I have just visited the Almshouses to have a chat & offer transport as we have a meeting with the residents this evening.

I have been on my diet for a week & have lost over 4 lb & am feeling a little lighter & pleased with myself.
G had lost 3lb by Saturday, I haven't heard today's judgement - I think he forgot.
Anyway, there must be half a stone of vapourised fat somewhere in the vicinity.

We had a quiet day yesterday, I took the services at Sh & OW, after a light lunch we walked around the reservoir, with Milly, the winds having dropped a little by then.
We had dinner & watched "Birdsong", which G has read & enjoyed.
It seems to be the meanderings of a selfish young man who lacks compassion & social skills. Perhaps part 2 will put it into context.
I still have w/e papers to read - The Sat Telegraph has an article "Forget London, Brum has it all"
I'm not convinced, but will save it for guests to read.
Dyson, here I come!

Warhorse ***

Apparently, your sleep cycles are shorter as you get older, which explains why we always wake up at around 4.00am.
We seem to have overcome this problem, we now have a second sleep cycle until around 8.30am.
By the time we've got up & had breakfast most of the morning has gone.

Yesterday we managed to leave the house shortly before mid-day, to go to Solihull, G to visit the bank, & me to shop, then on to pick up J & Th from school.
We didn't have time for lunch, so we went back to Solihull for a meal at La Tasca then on to see "Warhorse" - a very long film about a horse.
G slept for the first 20 minutes or so, despite nudges, but reckoned the rest was not too bad.
It was very twee & predictable, certainly not the great experience we had expected.
Only 3 star!
As it was a late night, we had another late morning.
G's done lots of odd jobs whilst I wrote tomorrow's sermon, on the wedding at Cana - a village within sight of Nazareth - where they ran out of wine & JC turned 150 gallons of water into fine wine, according to St John.

Nothing worth watching on TV, so we have watched "Dark Waters", one of G's cheap Thai DVDs.
It was the worst film I have ever seen, laughably awful, even worse than "La Passionale".
A diving/submarine/killer shark film where the underwater shots were obviously shot on dry land.
Not a good weekend for films so far then.
Perhaps tomorrow will be better.

Fine Arts.

Like W, we don't drive a Jag, either - a Seat saloon (based on an Audi something or another)
at the moment, whilst the volvo is repaired.
I don't know why attention is drawn to the seats as they are horrible - I had a stiff back by the time we reached Coleshill!

Whilst G exchanged cars I vacuumed downstairs, like a whirling dervish, as G hates the noise & usually switches it off when he comes in.
After a shower & brush up, we went to The Antiques & Fine arts fair at the NEC - ticket courtesy of J & C & free car park - brill!

There were some beautiful things - very expensive, but we weren't there to buy.
G did get one art dealer excited by calling me over to discuss the trees in a painting - didn't like the rest of it, even with the discount offered.
Home mid-afternoon for a bowl of minestrone - Waitrose soups are scrummy!
G got on with paperwork & then cooked dinner whilst I ironed, napped & prepared paperwork for the church fundraising meeting at Jan's this evening.
Meeting was very productive, a number of events planned for the year, including the Jubilee event, proposed by the Bishop.

We've watched BBC2 as the broadband signal was  too weak - great programme on Putin.
He seemed to be a good guy in the early days - a bit like Blair, too powerful, eventually & too greedy.
I hope the KGB don't hack this & send me to Siberia - too cold!   

Another fine day.

This new laptop is a dream -
-it has a right & left click button (?), so I don't have to click the mouse instead, fifty times.
-it is quick.
-it has a big screen.
-s & w both work.
Thanks G.

The frost had disappeared by 4.00am & temperatures soared to 7 degrees today.
I played tennis this morning, which was great - even took my jacket off after the first set.
Home for lunch - pea & ham soup (Waitrose) - G's favourite.
Pottered for a bit & then litter-picked around the block - two bin liners full. Met CF en route  - chair of Parish Council - & were thanked on behalf of the village!
Back for a nice cup of tea & some chores followed by a soak in the bath.
Small steak, jacket potato & masses of stir fried vegetables for dinner - hope I'd used that many calories!
G asleep. I'm watching "Crusade" - good, but difficult to follow - perhaps my brain is shrinking.
I hope not as we are in a quiz next week.

Good article on Waddesdon Manor in Tues Telegraph - the second most visited NT property (what is first, I wonder), two miles from the HS2.

Car in for repairs tomorrow, with rental car & hopefully, a visit to the NEC, to  "Antiques for Everyone" - thanks to Jan & Chris for the ticket.
Sounds like a plan...... 

Warwick 2.30

It was 10.30am, but it was G's visit to the dentist for a filling - 2.30 a little since!
I had a potter whilst G suffered, then we had a very nice cup of coffee at a new coffee shop in the market square before setting off for Kenilworth, en route home.
We had a potter around kenilworth, finishing at waitrose, where the food looked scrummy & there were lots of discounts.
We did the week's shopping, including a Thai meal for tonight & crusty wholemeal bread.
We checked Coleshill out & the car repair/hire is sorted out through Andrew walker.

It's been a lovely bright day, despite very low temperatures, -3 when we left home this morning & freezing for most of the day - a scarf & my big fur hat needed!
I doubt that we will be playing tennis tomorrow as the carpet courts are slippery when frozen - plenty of other things to do.

News is dominated by the Costa Concordia accident - another 5 bodies found on board & 24 still missing.
You tell yourself that the ship is perfectly safe, however rough the sea - on the two cruises we have been on , many of the passengers were elderly & had poor mobility.
When the ship rolled, they would take to their cabins, for fear of falling - I think a lot of people may be put off cruising for a while.
G is put off by the elderly & infirm as well as the short time spent in port in many places.

Apparently, temperatures dropped to -5 last night - I thought it was chilly.

Jack Frost. 68

Today is day 1 of the diet.
I weighed in this morning & will post my loss on Saturday.
I've been quite good - porridge for breakfast, soup & fruit & a hot cross bun for lunch & salmon to cook for dinner.
This morning we had a lie in - becoming a habit, of late.
After breakfast we went for a walk around the reservoir, stopping to collect Margaret & Phil's dog, Milly, en route & finding a debit card on the bench on the Lower Green.
Back for lunch, since when I've cleaned all of the downstairs windows, outside, cleaned the car & done the ironing, to warm up, so now I'm sitting by a roaring fire, watching "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is" (antiques show).
Beat that!
G has spent the afternoon doing battle with the insurance industry.

Only dinner to cook - the first meal I shall have cooked since last Tuesday, having been out for dinner every day since then - probably all of the invitations for the year.

Bargain Hunt.

Inspired by a lazy day, watching daytime TV on Friday, we decided to go to an Antiques Fair on Saturday.
Internet search found a weekend event at Uttoxeter racecourse.
We made the effort to be up & out by 2.00pm (I had done cleaning & ironing - guilty conscience!)
Nice drive over in the frost.
Fair was sizable - nothing to compare with, actually, only impression from TV.
We both wore red fleeces & dashed around madly, comparing prices of unattractive, overpriced goods, eventually settling on a Bristol blue glass frog/eye bath, haggling to get a 25% discount.
No bonus buy, but we were amazed at the price of some Wade Whimsies (v small animal figures)
Must check on e-bay.

We went on to Ashbourne for a cup of tea, & carrot cake (no lunch) & a walk around the town - no danger of overspend as the shops had closed.
We went on to Edingale to have dinner with Peter & Judith, then home by 11.00pm

Still freezing.
Church this morning.
Now planning a "Bring your Mum to Church" for Mothering Sunday on 18 March. Family service with simnel cake & hoping that Shustoke school will make hearts(?) with Mum's name & attend to hang them on a "tree" of some sort.
Church open all day, serving cream teas & simnel cake.
Any ideas???

PS bit about red fleeces & rushing was poetic licence.
We did use the toilets.

Lost my ssss

G has fixed it - a bit of grit under the key.
Things seem to be against me blogging - a half hour power cut, then no S, without hammering it.
Having a really degenerate morning - finished my book, then a cup of coffee & toast whilst watching TV.
The excuse is that we had a really late night - home at 2.00am after a day in London.
We had B&B with M&N on Wednesday & had  a lovely evening eating & catching up.
We parked at Richmond (£14!) & caught the train to Victoria, visited The Cathedral & Westminster Abbey (£13 each/senior rate, but I did use the carefully concealed loo).
G visited Harley Street for a body scan of blemishes in the afternoon whilst I pottered, then e had a really nice meal before the homeward journey.

Seem to have lost W now - I'll  investigate later, perhaps.

Gove to make it possible to get rid of duff teachers in a term, instead of a year.
NUT disagree. They would, wouldn't they.
The school must have an ethos that is supportive of all staff, teachers in particular, but  I'm sure that there's a small percentage that will never make the grade & will damage pupils' enthusiasm & education whilst practising.

Sun's shining despite a hard frost.
G has gone to sort the car out - waiting at traffic lights in Guildford on Wednesday, the little car about 6ft in front suddenly went into reverse & accelerated into us, at high speed - broken number plate & bumper squidged to one side & buckled - didn't look too bad, but expensive, I imagine.
Elderly gent with leg splint, taking grandson to a class, in his wife's car.
Bother.

Hectic social life  - no cooking to do until Monday, at the earliest - we'll start the diet then!

The shopping that wasn't shopping.

We woke up late this morning - I read an article about sleep in G's "Christmas pressie from aj book on ageing".
Apparently, sleep patterns change as you get older - shorter cycles of sleep, so you wake up during the night & then start again.
It's a treat to sleep in, as long as there's nothing important to get up for (unlikely).

After breakfast & a few odd jobs whilst G loaded tip stuff in the boot, we went to........the tip, then on to Solihull, where I was dropped off for a shopping experience whilst G & Peter went on to more exciting things, & lunch.
Time flies when you're shopping - I only had time to do J Lewis, East, Lakeland & M&S, dumping the food in M&S as the queues were ridiculous.
I bought ......an ironing board cover.

G&P dropped me off at J's school to do the usual pick up (dash to pick up Th, then home)
We had a "Bruce tea" (I'm having fish tonight), followed by blackcurrant & cassis mousse - the lengths I go to with my Aga hand whisk!

I can't do a single clue in the Telegraph crossword - one fewer than yesterday.
Either the setter or I live in a parallel universe.

Culture - Dickens & British musicals on BBC 4 all night - presently Matt Lucas in Les Mis.
Better than WW1 & 11 / battleships / Top Gear / Have I got very old repeated News for You......
Time for bed, said Zebedee

The Tour that didn't tour.

We're watching Peter Kay, G's Christmas present DVD.
Very funny.
Peter's here for a few days, he & G having a laugh.

Played tennis this morning - play enhanced by running up to the chemist's to get some "Otravine" for G, before playing.
Had a lazy day after that - cooking, ironing, cleaning & watching TV.
I suppose it wasn't that lazy, just not very noteworthy.

No more leaves...

in theory anyway.
We spent this morning clearing up the rest of the leaves in the field, to the sound of chain saws, as two local families sawed all of the branches off the tree that was blown down yesterday, & carted loads of timber away.
I hope that Dugdale isn't too upset to have lost most of his tree.
I only hope that all remaining leaves blow themselves away.
The garden looks really tidy & G has replaced/sorted the outside lights so we have the security sorted.
Shower & lunch & the papers did the rest of daylight hours.

We've watched "Bergen", the new Danish political intrigue, tonight.
Good, but the subtitles are hard work. Even spending time in DK  doesn't help with making any sense of the language.

Margaret & Phil are coming to lunch tomorrow, then Peter on Monday for a few days.

Coleshill 54 mph gales.

I'm sure that it was more than that outside the church - nearly blew me & the doormats away!
We spent the morning there with Maurice & three friends, removing the Christmas trees & clearing up the mess.
Thanks to the ambient temperature of something a little above freezing, apart from an hour or so on Sundays, the trees hung on to their needles very well.
The giant tree didn't manage so well, having been sawn into pieces for removal.
When we came home, Hollylands was blocked by a large tree blown down by the cottage - men from the Council & the Estate removed it later.
There have been lots of trees down & electricity cables in the Midlands & Coleshill one of the windiest places.
G swept up leaves, using the wind to help, whilst I took the few decorations down & tidied away all of the stuff brought back from Church.
Jan popped in for a chat later.
Shall I teach some chemistry &, perhaps, biology at Solihull college?
They are desperate for a chemist, apparently, & I am expecting a call.
Other staff have walked out/failed to take up appointments, which sounds ominous.

I understand that Diane Abbott loves to "divide & rule"!

We have just watched "Eternal Law" set in York.
I don't think I understood it - angels/fallen angels turned barristers?
I think that they rearranged the geography somewhat & filmed early in the day as the shop shutters were still up.

Day off - Daze out.

Yesterday J & Th came to entertain us as the weather was too bad to go out.
We played Lego Champion, my Christmas present from W & MK, made a road system, built a shoebox garage & made biscuits and cakes, for tea.
They did a good job & we slept well last night!

Today we had no commitments, so decided on a day out, following G's visit to the dentist, in Warwick.
I had a potter whilst G was numbed & drilled, then we drove to the Cotswolds, eventually having a light lunch at  a country pub, then on to Banbury.
It's been a clear day, but cold & grey. The countryside looks very neat & tidy as we have had so little frost to make the plants get bedraggled.

We have even eaten healthily - soup for lunch & fish with vegetables for dinner - I really didn't like the bathroom scales this morning!
We need to get  some more exercise - G has been clearing leaves & gutters - the green gym.
You don't get a lot of exercise cooking & washing up, really, vacuuming's the best bet, but not allowed when G is in residence, due to the noise.

Tomorrow we are clearing the church of Christmas trees, a little early, but convenient.
G's taking his chain saw to devastate the large tree before removal!  

I am cancelling the KS reunion on Friday due to half of those invited being unable to attend & the other half not having replied.
Why should I have to contact them again to cancel, when they haven't contacted me.
Can I just leave it & go to the pictures -  "The Iron Lady" comes out on Friday?  

Happy (almost) New Year.

So where did 2011 go to?
Having been away we seem to have missed the usual pattern of shopping, cooking, overeating, watching  TV & going for the odd walk, with family & friends.
Actually, we've just missed the cooking, which was a treat as The Danish Christmas dinner is delicious & I think that W & MK cook a better British Christmas dinner than me.

Yesterday we celebrated the New Year with our usual lunch for as many friends & family as we can get together.
We ate & drank our way through a good deal of food & Proseco & had a really good time catching up with old friends. AJ is visiting did her usual sterling work, helping in the kitchen & cutting the clearing up time in half.
We settled for a sandwich & falling asleep in front of a good fire afterwards.

Today we have caught up with the rest of the family, having a lovely day with B, E T & KP.
We played "Lego Champions" after lunch & then T helped to make Scotch pancakes for tea.
I have since read the rules & note that we weren't playing it quite correctly, which probably accounts for the game lasting for over an hour.
It's very good - B is a bit of a whizz, especially at "toppling towers"!

I shall start the diet tomorrow, or perhaps on Wednesday, depending on the contents of the fridge.