Having my say

Shocked!

2009-08-07T11:27:00.002+01:00

Finally remembered my Blogger signing in details and got access to my blog! I couldn't believe how long it is since I last posted. So now it's got me thinking about life and what's happened since then. I'll mull it over and come back!

Pub Crawl!

2006-08-02T20:01:00.000+01:00

Hubby and I had been planning our pub crawl for about a year and we finally decided to do it in July. We caught the bus from Liverpool Street to London Bridge and got off to have a look at the Monument first. From London Bridge we watched Tower Brige opening up to let a tall-masted Thames barge through. London Bridge is the only place in England that you can see two cathedrals at once - St Paul's and Southwark (apparently).

The George Inn in Borough High Street is the only galleried pub left in England and in the courtyard they used to put on Shakespeare's plays. It's owned by the National Trust now. http://www.pubs.com/pub_details.cfm?ID=187 Nearby Borough Market was open with its fanastic food and drink stalls. From there we walked along past the Clink, onto the South Bank and over the Millenium Bridge to St Paul's and along to our second pub, The Blackfriar. It's amazing in there! It's an Arts and Crafts/Art Nouveau pub and awesome to look at. We got a really good look around it as almost everyone was drinking outside.
http://www.thejoyofshards.co.uk/london/blackfriar/index.shtml

Fleet Street was next on our walk to our third pub but first we peered into the entrance of the old Daily Express building. It's a fabulous example of an Art Deco structure with a beautifully decorated lobby. http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2003/10/daily_express_b.html
The Cheshire Cheese was our next destination for refreshment, a poky little rabbit-warren of a place rebuilt in the 1600's. It was Samuel Johnson's local. It was a little too dark and pokey for me but worth a look. http://www.pubs.com/pub_details.cfm?ID=216

Next a stroll through Lincoln's Inn Fields, where we saw people queuing to get into Sir John Soanes house, and on to the Princess Louise in High Holborn. It's a fine example of the Victorian era with ceramic ties and etched glass panels (and smelly Victorian drainage in the vicinity of the men's toilets!). http://www.pubs.com/pub_details.cfm?ID=226

Our last stop was the fish and chip shop, The Fryers Delight, http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/features/28.html which seemed very dull and dowdy, with its formica tables and bench seats, after all those lovely places but the fish and chips are always fresh and delicious, just like Yorkshire ones (no mushy peas though!). We walked back to Liverpool Street after that with a brief foray into Thornton's as it was choccy day for me! Sigh, the perfect end to a perfect day.

Hey Ho

2006-01-05T23:26:00.000Z

What a strange time of year this is. It's supposed to be a sparkling, pristine, clean slate of a time when we can start anew. In reality though, we're in transition between the old and the new even though the new started last Saturday night at midnight. There is no clear defining time and we're left with the remnants of the festivities to deal with.

Tonight I took down the cards, tree and decorations because I never know whether they should be gone by the 6th January or on the 6th January. There is still a heap of edible goodies to munch through and some presents to find storage space for. I suppose I should dispose of the cracker novelties that are still littering the table including a perfectly good whoopee cushion, a tiny pack of playing cards on a keyring and a triangular nine-piece butterfly jigsaw. I think I'll keep the miniature screwdriver set as it will come in handy when I need to tinker with connecting leads round the back of my computer processor. I won't miss the infuriating metal puzzle that I've never managed to do yet.

The shops seem to be in the same state. Many of them are still selling Christmas cards and wrapping whilst slowly replacing the old stock with the new. We'll know where we are soon though when the Easter eggs go on sale.

Luxuriating in lather

2005-12-29T00:08:00.000Z

On Christmas Day I decided to have a bath, nothing unusual about that but I can't remember the last time I had one. This is not because of a preference for ponginess, more a fondness for the speediness of the shower. I could have had my bath at any time during the day given my solitary state but I wanted to plan my perfect soak as I didn't know when the next one would occur.

First of all I whacked the heating up in the bathroom, no point in turning blue as I emerged from my watery indulgence. Next I phoned various rellies, I wanted no chance of any interruption and to doubly make sure of this I timed my bath to coincide with most folk's Christmas dinner. I turned the taps on - this was going to be no ordinary bath, this was going to be an M & S luxury bath, enhanced with a generous dollop or two of Peach Bloom Foam Bath. Ensuring I had towels at the ready, I then lit candles, brought in my cuppa, switched on a tape of carols sung by the Huddersfield Choral Society and stepped into the inviting warm wateriness.

That bath was the best thing that happened to me on Christmas Day. Half an hour up to my chin in warm frothy water was absolute bliss. I had totally forgotten the benefits of prolonged soaking and the lovely relaxed feeling it leaves you with. I might just have to have another one soon.

Snowflakes

2005-12-28T23:26:00.000Z

I love this no mess, no bits, method of being virtually creative :] Found this site via bluefluff's blog (she got it from Nogbad). Click on: snowflake to make your own.

Festive Greetings

2005-12-25T10:52:00.000Z

Merry Christmas to all! For the first time ever in my life I'm spending most of Christmas alone. My spouse works for a homeless charity, CRISIS, over the holiday, ferrying their 'guests' and volunteers around London for most of each day. Our daughters are all safe and well and celebrating in Leeds and Broadstairs. My choice of festive bases was going to be Leeds - nice breakfast, pub at lunchtime, daughter cooking dinner, lots of laughs and Quality Street - but life got in the way.

Surprisingly, it's not as deadly as I'd feared. The day has started leisurely, it's bright and almost sunny outside and I've opened a couple of lovely presents. Other than getting dressed, I've no plans or schedules for the day. I can have control of the telly buttons all day and scoff chololate or I can go for a healthy walk proudly showing off my new scarf and gloves. Later on I'll be phoning the rellies to see how their days are going.

A week today, when the daughters descend on us, I'm sure I'll be looking back to the peace and tranquility of today as a contrast to our usual Christmasses, realising that although it wasn't the Christmas I chose, it was pretty good nonetheless.

Patience is a virtue

2005-12-15T00:01:00.000Z

Like many a thousand OU students I'm awaiting my exam results from my last course. It is sheer torture going to my Student Home Page for the umpteenth time every day only to find a smug message waiting saying 'Your course result should be available by Friday 16 December 2005.'

Why can't it vary as the days go by? Why can't it be a little more sympathetic to the agonies we're going through? Something like 'We know how tough it is waiting around like this but it's not going to make those results appear any quicker. We suggest getting on with Christmas preparations.' Or today it could have read 'For weeks now we've been telling you the result date so why are you wasting time coming in here every two minutes - we're not going to change our minds.' The one message I would not want to read is 'Here is your result: 100%' which was replaced two seconds later by 'Only joking'! That would give a good few of us a heart attack.

My life has come to a standstill, almost, at one of the busiest times of the year. I can't bear to be away from my computer for too long or on the phone 'just in case'. The daft thing is that, after these last few intense days of hoping and praying for a result, when it does appear it will be such a let down. Maybe then I'll be able to write my Christmas cards.

2005-12-07T01:34:00.000Z

Friends

2005-12-05T15:31:00.000Z

Over the last two weeks or so I've met up with quite a few friends and had a lovely time catching up with and swapping news. Meeting up with some OU pals (ex-A103ers) has been a highlight as we hadn't done that for quite a while. Sadly two of the bunch were ill and couldn't make it but we bravely carried on without them. We've called two of our get togethers 'Sleepovers' but not much sleeping gets done. 'Talkovers' would be a much more appropriate name.

A very old schoolfriend phoned up to check if I was still around and we ended reminiscing about our schooldays and what has happened since. Last Thursday I met with a couple of friends who haven't been able to get out and about as much as they used to and one of them presented me with her book. She managed to write it despite battling with breast cancer and having an operation on her shoulder. She's one pretty amazing woman.

Yesterday we had lunch with friends that we'd lost contact with. They are parents of my eldest daughter's friend and had moved back to Ireland the last time we heard. A chance meeting in Sainsbury's put us back in touch again. I discovered that one of the friends had done her degree through the OU about ten years ago and she was delighted to hear I was doing one now. On leaving, I was duly dispatched home with a bagfull of books to 'help me through my next course'.

It suddenly occurred to me this morning that I've always taken my friends for granted and assumed they'll always be around even when I'm ignoring them to do my courses. I think I can feel a New Year Resolution coming on - I must appreciate my friends and keep in contact from now on.

Friends are brilliant!

Painting!

2005-11-18T10:33:00.000Z

Alas, not the lovely cultured arty type. What I mean is the splodging, dripping, wavy-edged kind that involves ceilings, walls and woodwork. Three years ago we had an extension built to house our bigger and better downstairs bathroom. We also had improvements made to our kitchen and dining-room. Once the builders left the decoration was forgotten until the following Christmas when there was a sudden scurry to get the dining-room looking presentable - it still needs gloss on the woodwork and another coat of paint on the walls. No further work has been done until now.

Post-exam and post visit by rellies, I got it into my head that at last it was time to knuckle down and get on with it. I started in the bathroom, thinking it was a good place to build up some skills. Two weeks later I have learned that:

it takes much, much longer than I allowed
to stop blisters appearing on the painted ceiling, I should have cleaned it first
I am completely rubbish at getting a nice crisp edge between the walls and the ceiling
buying a tester pot of paint would have saved me putting the wrong colour on the wall
it helps to take the light fitting down before enthusiastically rollering the ceiling with emulsion

Ah well, only the ceiling to put right and the glossing to do now before the next phase of my learning curve. What has sustained me throughout my experience is that even the great Leonardo got it wrong when he painted his Last Supper so I'm not doing too badly for a beginner. Roll on Feb. when I can get back to my nice safe studying.

Thought I'd never see my Blog again

2005-11-15T00:55:00.000Z

Well what a palaver I've had trying to get back in here again! It's the signing in process that gets me each time as I keep forgetting my passwords. With a bit of luck I'll remember it now.

Surprise, surprise!

2005-11-06T22:56:00.000Z

So I've got my own Blogspot now. This should be fun as I've never had the luxury of writing whatever comes into my head, knowing that some poor person might actually read it. That is apart from my tutors who have to mark my OU assignments.

It was a fairly painless procedure setting up my Blog except for thinking up a title as all the best ones had been snapped up. Now I've got my very own Blog I'm not exactly sure about what I want to do with it.

I'll go away and have a think.

Daydreamer