Friday Frolics

Roman this afternoon in a very cheeky mood!

 

 Hello everyone,

Welcome to another weekend.  My goodness, the weeks get shorter and shorter!  I`ve had a really nice day today.  This morning Jim and I met up with Kerry and Roman in Marks and Sparks for coffee, though for some reason the coffee wasn`t very nice, not like them at all.  Anyway, afterwards Jim went home to get ready for work and Kerry and I were left to shop unhindered...lol!  I bought a nice white top from Next with some of my birthday money and I also bought some nice clothes for Roman from Primark.  I bought a set of two t-shirts for £2, another t-shirt for £2 and a pair of shorts for £2.  I don`t think they can be beaten for value at the speed little ones grow out of their clothes and they are very fashionable too.  Kerry bought Roman a pair of bumper boots, a pair of jogging trousers and a shirt from Woolworths, they have a `special` on at the moment, buy 2 get the third free so in effect she got the joggers for nothing. I bought Slava`s sister and her husband-to-be`s wedding present,  and I then went and had my eyebrows threaded, Jim`s treat and the girl there asked where I`d been lately and had I been doing my own.  Erm...yes, are they as bad as yet I asked?  She didn`t answer so I took it as a `Yes`!  ( being unemployed is very hard for a high maintenance girl like me...lol!)

I think this photo of Roman and Kerry is lovely.  He is wearing his new shorts.

Thanks for all your comments about B joining a church group, also for the link to the carer`s group too.  I`ll have a chat to him when I see him next, I did say to him I`ll spend more time chatting when I`m not unloading the car.  The only problem I can see is that he doesn`t expect too much from Jim and I, we can befriend him to a point but we are not what he needs.  He needs like-minded people who have more time on their hands and are in similar positions.  I really hope that he will act on these suggestions and that he will find the confidence he needs, I have a good feeling about this so watch this space.

               

This afternoon Kerry and I went for another long walk, it was really warm and sunny when we set out and we really were enjoying the fresh air.  On the way back however a strong wind came out of nowhere, and just as we were rounding the corner for home down came the rain.  Roman was fine because Kerry just pulled over his rain cover but although we ran for it we were soaked.  Just as we got indoors the sun came out and the rain stopped, we just looked at each other and laughed....typical!  I decided to get the camera out as some new photos were needed to send to a relative.  Roman is a very easy subject to photograph because he has such an expressive face and he is so used to the camera now.  He will grow up thinking he`s famous with all the photos that are taken of him!

        

      

Kerry has found out why there was a problem with her visa application.  It seems that they didn`t explain very well but after Slava spoke to the embassy it turns out that because Kerry`s passport is still in her maiden name that she isn`t Roman`s mother!  Now she has to fill in new forms, send off some other documents, get new photos and submit it all over again and hope that this time they issue the visa.  Right, I`m off now.  I hope you all have a really nice, restful weekend.  Bye Bye for now. :o)

                                    

 

                                          

Concerned

 

 

Hello everyone,

Welcome to a rather strange kind of day.  It all started in the normal way, you know, got up, had breakfast etc. I went to Tescos as usual for my shopping, got home and was unloading the car when a man who lives nearby walked onto our drive and started talking.

I`ll rewind a bit and tell you a little about him, and I can tell you safe in the knowledge that he knows nothing of computers, nor do the rest of his family and will refer to him  as B.   B is in his late forties and lives at home with his older brother and elderly and reclusive mother.  His brother is the only one who works and still does even though he must be of retirement age by now.  B hasn`t worked in years and cares for his Mother despite nobody having seen her for many years.  Sadly the family have always been a little strange and I do know that they have no entended family.  People have tried to befriend them over the years, my mother being one of them but they didn`t want to know.  B and his brother were not allowed to mix with other children and grew up playing alone in their garden, which must have been a very lonely existence for a young child.  The elder brother has been involved in youth work for many years but B has nothing to fill his time and is incredibly lonely.  Jim and I have always talked with him but B doesn`t have any social skills as such and doesn`t really know how to relate to other people even though he would love to have friends and a girlfriend.

                 

So this was the gist of the conversation this morning, he was very upset that and was asking me for advice.  It`s really difficult and I don`t know what to tell him sometimes, I`ve had a thought that might help him and I wonder what you might think. We have some very good church groups nearby and I thought that might be worth a mention to him.  He badly needs friends and where better a place to find some good people that won`t hurt or rebuff him.  Anyway, later on he put a thank you note through our door , it made me feel very humble because I didn`t do anything, in fact I was as I said, busy unloading the shopping from the car at the time.  I will suggest the church when I see him next and hope it might help him.

Kerry isn`t very happy at the moment.  A couple of days ago she submitted her visa application for her forthcoming visit to Russia and it`s been sent back to her because they`ve changed the criteria and need further documents.  She had already submitted the personnal invitation from MIL but now they are saying they want a copy of her and her hubby`s passports AND a written letter giving her permission to stay at her MIL`s home between the stated dates.  Slava leaves for Russia himself in two weeks time to complete his choreography studies.  Kerry is due to follow on sometime in May for a couple of weeks.  The point is that Slava`s sister is getting married and she hasn`t seen Roman yet, his Mum Nadia and Dad Ivan are really looking forward to seeing their grandson again.  It takes weeks to get mail over here from Russia as everything goes through Moscow so now Kerry is worried that they won`t get their visas in time if at all.

                  

This afternoon Kerry and I went for a long walk through the country lanes with Jake.  Although it`s quite mild today the wind was surprisingly chilly and there was the odd spot of rain in the air, despite that we had a very pleasant afternoon and Jake was suitably exercised even though he was accosted by a menacing looking Dobermann on the way home.  Jim sees this man all the time and apparently the dog is terrified of all black dogs, hmm....could have fooled me, it looked more like he wanted to eat Jake rather than run away from him...lol!  That`s enough from me today, I hope you`ve all been having a really nice day.  Take care and Bye Bye for now. :o)

 

 

 

Wednesday`s Warblings

 

Hello everyone,

It`s been a nice Spring-like day here.  I think the warmer weather is probably here to stay now.  I`ve noticed several buds on the Magnolia tree are opening and a solitary daffodil has pushed it`s way to the suface, I don`t know what`s happened to the others though, maybe they`re still asleep down there...lol!  The flowering currant is well. flowering though the camellia is not in flower as yet, but maybe it`s not been happy with the colder than normal winter and won`t flower at all this year.

Jim has finished varnishing all the woodwork now.  I did ask him about taking a photo of the doors but he said to wait until all the work is done. We`re going to look at wallpaper at the weekend, I hope we find something we both like, if not it`ll be up to me to convince Jim that he will like it!  Also when we have chosen the wallpaper it`ll be the carpet, laminate flooring and the curtains and viola!  And that, as they say, will be that!

This afternoon I gave Jake an earlier walk as I was looking after Roman while Kerry went to the dentist.  Her wisdom tooth is still bothering her and the dentist now says that it`s causing so much trouble that it has to come out.  The thing is he didn`t say if he`ll do it or it`ll be the hospital again.  As I`ve mentioned before she has a complicated condition where he wisdom and back teeth are badly impacted.  Unusually this tooth has partly come through but has no room to grow any further.  I suppose she`ll have to wait till her next appointment to find out what the next move will be.  While she was gone I played with Roman on the floor surrounded by his toys.  We had great fun with him pulling my hair and holding on tight, well that bit was more fun for him than me! Then of course he tried to pinch my nose and then head butt me...what has happened to the gentle little baby of a couple of months ago...lol!  He is now trying to shuffle forward from his sitting position, he seems to be getting fed-up sitting there and wants to explore further afield.  I told Kerry that would be when the real fun begins when she is chasing him around the room and having to move everything out of the way!  One of our favourite games, but NOT anyone else`s, is the screaming game.  Roman makes a loud screeching noise and I join in, then it get`s louder and louder until we can`t scream anymore, it sounds silly but we like it...lol!

I don`t know if I mentioned it but Jake is off his food at the moment, he is eating but not very enthusiastically.  In the mornings he just picks at it but seems a little more eager in the evening.  The problem being because he suffers from colitis he isn`t allowed any other type of food, he is very intolerant of the majority of foods and we have to be so careful that he doesn`t have another attack.  For a labrador, Jake has always been a picky eater, not at all driven by food the way most of them are.  I suppose I`ll just have to keep a close eye on him, and see how it goes. 

I must go now, I only have 30 emails today so it won`t take long to deal with those.  I hope you all enjoy the rest of your Tuesday, take care and Bye Bye for now. :o)

 

The Ostrich Inn, Colnbrook, Buckinghamshire.  About 5 miles from my home.

Colnbrook, Berkshire.

This atmospheric old inn stands in the ancient village of Colnbrook and was once an important stopover, on the main stagecoach route that ran from London to Bath. Not wishing to enter the fracas of the endless battle to proclaim itself the oldest pub in England, The Ostrich plays it safe and claims to be the “fourth oldest” and records of the inn certainly date as far back as 1165. One thing it can certainly claim, however, is that it was the first pub in England to ever be featured in a novel, Thomas of Reading, written in the late 16th century by Thomas Deloney.

It was Deloney’s reporting of the nefarious exploits of a former landlord called Jarman that secured the Ostrich’s place in Berkshire legend. His infamous crimes are generally thought to have taken place at some time around the 1300’s. In those days, wealthy travellers would pause at the inn to change from their mud-spattered clothes, into the finery expected for their appearances before the monarch at nearby Windsor Castle. Many of these wayfarers would often carry vast sums of money with them, a fact that didn’t go unnoticed by Jarman who had soon devised a profitable and intricate method of relieving them of both their riches and their lives.

Whenever a seemingly affluent patron arrived at his inn, Jarman would waste no time in plying the stranger with strong drink. Having arranged for these special guests to sleep in his “best room”, he would give them time to collapse into bed and, once he was sure that they were fast asleep, he would undo two bolts on the ceiling in the room beneath. This would cause their bed to tilt downwards at a 45 angle, sending the insensible sleeper tumbling into a vat of boiling fat, that Jarman always kept ready in the room below. He would then steal the person’s belongings; sell his horse and clothes to the unquestioning gypsies, and dispose of the body into the nearby river.

He seems to have profited immensely from his activities and to have escaped any suspicion for many years. But then one night a suitably drunk stranger had crawled into the bed, when the amount of alcohol he had consumed, forced him to climb straight back out and make use of the rooms chamber pot. As he answered the call, he was astonished to see the head of his bed, suddenly tilt and disappear into the floor. His terrified shouts roused the other guests, and Jarman’s murderous career was over. On the gallows, he boasted of having killed more than sixty people, although the actual believed total is closer to fifteen.

Staff at the inn, where a decidedly old world charm still holds sway, are often troubled by the “sinister atmosphere’s” that seem to hang over certain sections, and several landlords have complained of their night-times repose being rudely disturbed by the eerie sound of creaking boards, ghostly sighs and spectral bumps, that are simply attributed to one of Jarman’s long ago victims.

 

A Grey Hair Day....NOT!!!

Hello everyone,

I hope you`re all having a lovely day. The weather has been really nice today, though the wind is rather chilly, but the heavens have opened and the rain is pouring down.  I was so lucky because I`d just got home from Kerry`s and I thought the sky looked a bit threatening so I brought in the washing from the line, every bit of it completely dry.  Just as I got indoors the rain made its first appearence of the day, and from the look of it it wasn`t going to be its last.

                   

I had been out walking Jake this afternoon  and thought I`d pop over to Kerry`s for a cuppa and to see my favourite Little Man.  Roman is always on top form at this time of day so I knew he`d be pleased to see me.  As I`d guessed he was sitting on the floor playing with his many toys ( I don`t know how Kerry manages in their little flat!) and his little face lit up when he saw me, bless him.  He`s learning at an early age to be nice to the older generation and to humour his poor old Nana....lol!  It`s so amazing just to spend an hour with him and to see his little face when he smiles or to hear him chatter away in his baby language he always makes me feel happy. He was also the perfect antedote to my illness, even though I didn`t dare go near him then his smile made me feel loads better.  I can`t be the only one to feel like this about their darling grandchildren. I just feel so privileged to be blessed like this.  This morning he went to Teddies Music Club where he can play with other babies.  Tomorrow it`s Little Steps Baby Club, he has a very full social life!

                

This morning I went to the hairdresser`s to have my roots done and a  much needed cut.  My appointment was last week but I obviously had to postpone and I especially couldn`t wait to get rid of my increasingly grey roots!  I mean there`s nothing wrong with grey hair, it happens to us all but it`s just not for me.  I don`t mind growing older, but I don`t want some of the things that go with it and grey hair is one of them, so I shall stay dark blonde as long as I can afford to have it dyed, so there...lol!  While I was sitting there waiting for the tint to take, I was chatting to the lady in the chair next to me.  She was telling me that she had that virus too and apparently there have been quite a few cases of it developing into pneumonia and being admitted to hospital, she told me I probably didn`t get that bad because I`m so young, and she`s probably right there.  It`s quite worrying that this virus should come along so late in the flu season and still be so severe though.

               

I`d like to thank you all for your Happy Birthday wishes that you left for me yesterday, I really did have a lovely day and got lots of really nice cards and pressies though no door handles...lol!  (Yes, you know what I mean eh Jan?!!! ...lol )   Danny and Salina bought me perfume, I got money, Swiss chocolates  (yummy!) and a pretty vase, also and you may think this a bit odd but some bathroom scales that I requested!  I haven`t got anything from Jim because I`m not sure what I want yet, I`m going to have another look on Friday.

                  

Well I`ll say goodbye for today.  I have 236 emails waiting for me so I`d better go and see what they are all about.  Enjoy the rest of your day and take care.

 

 

 

The Birthday Girl`s Back!!!

 

Hello everyone,

I`m back..... and on my birthday too.  I`m at last feeling much better after a bad dose of flu.  I  thought I was never going to feel better again it was that bad, now all I hope is that my appetite will return soon,  I just can`t eat more than a few bites of anything...Oh well, I suppose it will come back eventually, along with my sense of taste and smell.

Thanks to you all for your best wishes while I was ill, it was really nice to read them all.  Also a big thanks for all your birthday cards and wishes, I`m really grateful. When I woke up this morning I`d forgotten it was my birthday, such as it seems to be when you get older.  When I was a child I usually couldn`t sleep the night before and couldn`t wait to be another year older.  Somehow I can`t imagine myself losing sleep over turning 54...lol!

One of the best presents I got today was from Roman, his first tooth appeared this morning...at last!  Despite him having a few off days and feeling a bit miserable he hasn`t really had too bad a time of it with his teeth.  In fact, yesterday he was here with Kerry and Slava for dinner and he was on top form, laughing and playing all afternoon.  He`s becoming such a big boy now he`s 8 mths old.  I must get another photo of him, I haven`t taken one for at least a week now...lol!

With me being ill not that much has happened, Danny and Salina came round Friday and cheered me up, I had spent the afternoon watching DVD`s....( make that the entire week!) and I needed some human company.  Jim has been on earlies and has been rushed of his feet, what with coming home from work, walking Jake, looking after Roman and cooking the dinner.....AND varnishing all the new doors, which I have to say look really nice and I can`t wait for the hallway to be finished now.  Anyway, I digress,  Obviously when you`re not well you don`t do much but I was so bored.  I can`t stand daytime TV and my head hurt so reading was out of the question, as was the PC.  So I watched film after film, something I wouldn`t normally do but I found it passed the time.  I was thinking of starting a career as a film critic...lol!

 

                                 

Saturday and yesterday I read some of your journals.  I had a great time catching up with Jeannette`s (MyTravels) holiday photos and travel stories from her trip to South America, they really cheered me up.  Also I popped in to Jeannette (Jottings) and saw some of her latest photos of puppy Jack who seems to have doubled his size.  It seems all of you had something interesting to tell and I`m so glad to be back again, almost fighting fit .  Well, thanks again for all your good wishes.  I hope you`re all having a lovely day.  Take care and Bye Bye for now. :o)

 

Not Well Today

Hello everyone,

 

Just a brief entry to say that I`m feeling really unwell today.  I started coughing last night and despite feeling fine this morning I now ache all over and am admitting defeat as far as my journal is concerned, at least for today.  I`ll probably read journals though while I sit here feeling sorry for myself!  Right I`m off to put yet another layer of clothing on, I`m freezing here despite the cental heating being turned up.  Bye for now.

 

Vandals, Steamers and Farmyards

Hello everyone,

I hope you`ve all had a really nice weekend.  I have lots to tell you today.  I didn`t do an entry yesterday because I was out for most of the day.  We had our lunch at the garden centre and then went and visited a friend who has just been admitted to hospital.  We spent several hours there and had a good laugh with him and his wife and even though hospital isn`t meant to a be a fun place we had a great time!  When we went back to the car however, it was all change.  Some miserable individual had sprayed black paint over my front number plate...I was livid and drove home in a dark mood.  It took me over and hour it get it off completely, using white spirit and loads of elbow grease that resulted in a very painful shoulder. I am still not at all happy!

On Saturday morning Jim and I spent the morning varnishing the doors in the hall.  Thankfully the varnish is odour-free so wasn`t at all unpleasant to use. We only have three more doors to do and some varnishing of the skirting boards and then we are on to the wallpapering. Now we will have to decide on a design.  So far we are agreed that it will have a white background and will be washable, apart from that we are undecided.  Then of course it will be the carpet, that will probably be what I think is best, the same for the laminate flooring in the downstairs hall.  I know one thing, it`s going to look smashing when it`s finished!  The one other thing is that our central heating boiler is leaking, it`s only a small leak but it still needs a plumber to fix it.  We haven`t been able to contact our nephew who does all our plumbing work for us so we are looking round for a heating engineer that won`t try to rip us off.  We found one in the local paper that meets all the official criteria and guarantee their work, plus they don`t have a call-out charge..very important that.

Yesterday evening I used the new steamer for the first time.  Jim bought it just after Christmas and up till now I`ve not been bothered with it.  I am so impressed with it too.  The vegetables I cooked, baby carrots and cauliflower were delicious and I`ll use it all the time in future.  We had rib-eye steak for our dinner last night, accompianied by the above veggies and roast potatoes.  I`ll say it again, the steamer made all the difference.

Now to the trip to Odds Farm Park.  We went this afternoon and had a really good time there.  Despite being a lovely sunny day it was accompanied by a chilly wind and only me and Roman were really dressed for it.  I had a really thick scarf and gloves, and I even popped a woolly hat in my handbag just in case.  Odds Farm has a rare breeds programme and we saw all sorts of sheep, goats, pigs and cows.  A few of them from endangered species.  It was a nice afternoon out though a bit overpriced for the couple of hours that we were there.  I would think it would be worth the £6 entrance fee in Summer when there are more activities for children and you can sit outside and have a picnic while the kiddies are in the play park.  Also there are `maternity` pens where ewes and their new-born lambs stay for a while.  In one of the pens was a mother and her baby who was born this morning.  The baby lamb was fast asleep and no bigger than a small cat, it was so cute though.

On the way home Roman fell asleep in the car, with him being so young he wasn`t too interested in the Farm but all the country air had made him very sleepy, bless him.  Jim thought it was a good idea to go for a drive before going home.  We drove through to Marlow and it`s surrounding villages before reaching Henley-on-Thames where the regatta is held every summer.  I had forgotten just how pretty the Buckinghamshire countryside is with it`s hills and valleys.  Jim and I have decided to go out at least once a week on his days off once the weather is warmer.  We can take Jake with us and just leave the car somewhere and walk along the Thames.

On the way home I was delighted to see a couple of Red Kites, one of which was flying directly overhead and I got a great view of it. If only I`d have been able to get a photo, they are beautiful birds.  I forgot to say, Jim is helping out our friend who is in hospital by walking there dog Marshall with Jake.  They are great mates so they run around playing until they are exhausted.  When Jim came home poor Jake was shattered, he`s a couple of years older than Marshall and even though he`s only 3 Marshall is still not much more than an overgrown puppy at 16 mths.  He`s also a much lighter built dog being a German Shepherd.  Jim took them both out early this morning and we`ll both be taking them tomorrow afternoon. I could do with the exercise myself, but I don`t think I`ll be rolling in the muddy puddles like they do...lol!

I`ve been having major problems with my email since Friday night.  I opened my `read email` and all I got were a line of envelopes with nothing at all in the subject line, so I`ve been reading them all `blind` which doesn`t give me any protection in case of a dodgy email.  Also I can`t reply to any `forwards` that I get sent either.  Oddly, Jim settings are fine, it`s just mine that are affected.  I think I might dis-install AOL and start all over again, it`s worth a try.  Until I get it right it`s taking me forever to find my alerts etc.  The sooner it`s sorted out the better.  Anyway, I`m off to try to find any alerts that I`ve received today.  Have a lovely evening and I hope AOL is treating you better than me...lol!

 

Happy St. Patrick`s Day!

 

 

Hello everyone,

Happy St. Patrick`s Day!  I wasn`t going to do a celebration entry as my Irish bloodline is extremely watered down over the generations, but then I thought, why not?  Many years ago some of my ancestor`s crossed the water from County Cork to settle in Wales where they stayed for years before moving to Maidstone, Kent where my Dad was born.  Funnily enough, it wasn`t him who told me the story of the emigration but my late Uncle Len, Dad`s brother.  Dad was always very proud of his Welsh heritage and gave my brother the Welsh Christian name Clifford.  Poor Dad either never knew about the Irish connection or he prefered to be Welsh rather than Irish, I`ll never know because he took that knowledge with him when he passed on nearly 22yrs ago.  Uncle Len told me that his mother related many tales of her grandparents journey from their homeland in Cork.  But that`s all I know about them,  I don`t know any of their names or details of any births or deaths apart from my Grandmother`s maiden name which was Scott, it`s a pity that there are no living relatives who could tell me anything, so a mystery it will remain. 

                        

Jim and I have had another busy day.  We were up early and went into town before 9am and bought a few bits and pieces he needs for the decorating.  As for me, being a memer of the ranks of the unemployed I only bought a few bits and pieces and allowed Jim to buy me a coffee in Marks and Sparks. I MUST get a job soon as I`m fed up being almost broke.  On Monday I`m going along to an employment agency that is advertising for temporary part-time receptionists.  It says in the ad that the applicants must be smart in appearance, intelligent and articulate.  I think I just about fit in that bracket...only just, mind...lol!

            

It`s been another freezing cold day here with that bitter easterly wind still blowing.  This afternoon I wrapped really well to walk Jake and only intended being out for half an hour.  As it happened I bumped into a friend, G with her little shih-tzu, Abbie so we walked around together for over an hour, it wasn`t until I said goodbye to G outside her house that I realised just how cold I was feeling and hurried home via a short-cut...brrr!  It`s forecast for the weather to warm up over the weekend, I do hope so because me, Jim, Kerry and Slava hope to vist the Farm on Sunday.  If you remember we almost went several weeks back but it poured with rain and it`s been far too cold since then.

                                    

I thought I`d mention my that the burns on my fingers are healing really well.  They don`t hurt at all and the blisters are drying up too.  Only the one on my index finger looks as if it may burst if I`m not careful, so I cover it up with a special dressing when I`m doing housework etc. I must admit to having learned a very painful lesson when taking something from the oven.  I will be much more careful in future!  Well,all that`s left to say is that I hope you all  have a lovely, relaxing weekend.  Take care and Bye Bye for now.

 

 

 

The White Lake

When holy Patrick full of grace
Suffered on Cruach, that blest place,
In grief and gloom enduring then
For Eire's women, Eire's men,

God for his comfort sent a flight
Of birds angelically bright
That sang above the darkling lake
A song of unceasing for his sake.

'Twas thus they chanted, all and some,
'Come hither, Patrick! hither come!
Shield of the Gael, thou light of story,
Appointed star of the golden glory!'

Thus singing all those fair birds smite
The waters with soft wings in flight
Till the dark lake its gloom surrenders
And rolls a tide of silvery splendours.

anonymous.