Fat Tuesday

It may be the lunches, the pork, the danish pastries, the wine, or a combination of all of them, but I feel distinctly fat today.
I am not looking forward to the evening ritual of Jeremy baring all of our stomachs in turn, to check that we are "full" at dinner tonight, especially since we plan to go out for a pizza.
This activity is accompanied by a great deal of laughter, which will only draw attention to us & may scare other diners.
It may be possible to avoid this if I don't do it to Jeremy first, I suppose.

We have played manic games for most of the morning, involving running around the house, hiding in corners & shouting "boo", pushing/ riding in a large plastic storage box on wheels, (brought out from under the bed & temporarilly emptied of baby toys, by Jeremy)
For intellectual stimulation we have jig-sawed, read, built houses/towers & watched "The Teletubbies", & "Big cook, Little cook".
J had lunch & slept. William & I had lunch & he is now exercising in the basement.
We have an excursion, on foot, planned for later, arriving at the Pizza restaurant at the same time as MK.
No photos for my critics today, although W did find two videos of the cafe in Roskilde, on my camera. One featured Jeremy, largely. The second featured a chair.
This second one was rather lacking in interest!

Real Danish pastries are low fat.

Not allowed to blog on Sunday - W says that no-one reads blogs at the weekend, only during the week, when, apparently the non-retired are paid for blogging.
Well!
I did make a surrupticious effort, but was detected when W wanted to continue with his work & only my blog was in evidence.
Yesterday we had a wonderful lunch & then went for a long bracing walk.
Danish pork is great, danish TV is not.

This morning J & I have fed the ducks (J ate all of the soft bits of bread, so the ducks didn't do that well), jumped the puddles, run up & down Tele-Tubby mountain, been on the swings, lorry spotted & done the town.
J fell asleep eventually so I went to the bakers (speak english, smile & point) & the supermarket.

We have had a scrummy lunch, done all of the jigsaws, read "Spot the dog" in danish (beat that) & "Fireman Sam" is now showing, causing a lot of giggling.
J has been a poppet & W not too bad.
He is going to post my photos, later.

Ringsted or bust!

I flew to Copenhagen yesterday.
Di kindly took me to BHX & had to pay the pound to get out again as that's the way it is at BHX since the Glasgow bombing.
It took almost the full hour to check in & get through security as the queue was so long - families extending the half term holiday (12 weeks of school holiday out of a 52 week year is not enough!), & rugby fans off to Italy, I surmise.
We took off 1/2 hour late but made up a little time. William met me at the airport & so to Ringsted.
MK is blooming & J is growing in stature & confidence.
We watched J's new "Fireman Sam" (the hero next door) DVD 204 times.
J really likes it!
We ate, drank & fell asleep.
This am T & B dropped in en route for the slopes of Norway. MK, J & I went to a theatrical presentation in the library (a cross between the Pied Piper & "Parsley & thyme"). J loves the library, which is brilliant & so child friendly.
Later we visited Roskilde for lunch & a browse.
We arrived home in time for tea, then relaxed, ate, drank & have now only to fall asleep!
I did take some photos which I will post tomorrow, if they exist.

To boldly go.....

My day has been quiet, gentle, but possibly a little lacking in highlights compared to yours.
My main success is that I have washed everything washable, ironed it & put it away.
My detergent of choice is.........Bold!
I spoke to most of the family
- Jessie collected her first school prize last night, for always having a smile.
- Tim had eaten "boring old shreddies" for breakfast & invited me there & himself here, before the usual long goodbye.
- Jeremy was with morfar for the day, both playing at being ill.
- some folk were at work. Shame.
I did odd jobs & a little light shopping to ensure that my suitcase is full tomorrow when I set off for Denmark.
G has a clean bill of health so all's well.

I expected some comment on the Radley bag. Obviously you all thought that" it suits me, sir".
Question Time is on, from Liverpool. The Labour MP, Andy Burnham, has really strange eyes. Mascara? David Bannatyne looks very bored, otherwise the panel is of little interest.

Did you all have pancakes on Tuesday?
Have you given up anything - treats, bad habits, etc for Lent?
Are you prepared for next Wed (14 Feb)?

Home again, & not even missed!

Aj's laptop wouldn't let me blog last night - a truculent, Yorkshire mouse, I suspect.
I drove to York to see aj on Tuesday am, we had a high-speed gossip & set off, walking, then the top deck of a bus, for the city centre.
A light lunch & some excellent sales shopping in M & S, followed by a market research interview on "Muller yoghurt", the payment for which paid for the shopping.
Did you know that the aforementioned dairy product is made in Shropshire with locally sourced ingredients?
We evaluated possible stands for a country fair, which included a game, throwing balls at a large map of GB, with Shropshire as the goal.
At least I learnt where Shropshire is.
We walked/bussed home for tea (top deck again) & then off to a squash match.
This was at/against the "Next generation" gym. I carried aj's spare racquet to gain access & did my workout whilst aj played (wiping the floor with all opponents)
We all ate in the bar then home by 10.30pm for a glass of wine & bed.

This am we walked to Acomb, did the charity shops then home for an early lunch, before taking aj to the station to go to work in Leeds.
I drove to Wetherby, parked by the river & tootled around the town for a couple of hours.
After long deliberations & a cup of coffee, I bought the Radley bag that Father Christmas had failed to source.
I recommend Wetherby; a lovely drive from York, interesting little shops, friendly locals & a mere hop back onto the A1.
I arrived home with wonderful healthy food to cook for dinner (salmon, Thai style).
G had not missed me.
He had been busy.
He did really, but I hadn't answered my mobile phone.

I shall just blog the pictures one day & you can make up the day!

Monday again!

Well, my Friday blog wasn't worth a single comment, even with photos.
Never mind, I will blog on, despite the seeming indifference to my efforts.

Saturday was cold, wet & windy; we stayed in all day, doing things.
G ventured out in the evening to fetch a takeaway (prawn puri, chicken biryani & peshwari naan), which we devoured in front of a roaring fire, with a nice bottle of wine.
Delicious.

Sunday was Candlemas,named because of all of the candles in the temple in Jerusalem where Jesus was presented when he was 40 days old.
If the sun shines on Candlemas tradition says that winter will continue for 6 weeks.
No problem there then!
Middle USA has Groundhog Day - they come out from hibernation, if the sun is shining they go back for 6 weeks.
Fancy.
Sunday was very cold, wet & windy.
We went for a bracing walk around Kingsbury Water Park, coming home to stew & dumplings to warm up.

Today I dysoned upstairs & down; this took 400 Kcals(I hope) & 3 hours.
I did errands in Coleshill & then took the G car to The Ring of Bells for them to listen to the squeak under the bonnet.
Luckily it was squeaking for England when I arrived & it only took an hour to identify the cause & book it in for next week.
Shopping was seriously curtailed by this, but I did get to the gym by 4.31pm & worked off a few grammes of fat (no doubt from a most inconspicuous bit)

A gale is blowing, Piers Brosnan is advertising L'oreal, "because he's worth it" & baked beans now come in one portion, microwaveable pots.
Whatever next?
A bite of a chocolate cookie for the best suggestion.

Sun, wind, rain, snow & Thomas.

Instruments of torture.

The best egg whisk / stress monitor (it vibrates!)

Not this much, really.

Would you leave this & go out in the cold?

I have had a lovely relaxing day.
I ironed seven shirts + lots of unskilled articles & now have no ironing whatsoever to do.
Beat that!
Thomas came to play; we played mainly with the egg whisk, rubber mobile phone & telegraph magazine. We read a fair bit, watched "The Antiques Roadshow"(circa 1990) & ate.
We wrapped up well & took a turnaround the block in the cold & wind, which did us both a great deal of good. T slept throughout & for the following half hour, I improved my circulation.
At teatime it suddenly snowed very hard, which Thomas found absolutely fascinating; he was still staring out of the window when P arrived in the snowstorm, which was apparently limited to Hollylands.
Strange.
I spoke to Tim (& E) on the phone. Tim finds the conversation very funny & giggles most of the time, attempts to extract information & concludes with at least 20 "byes".
He's right. It is really funny..
E is much more lucid!
G was planning a night out, but we settled for dinner in front of the fire, in the lounge & an early night.