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.