wagwaan?

Bit o' this, bit o' that

I haven't been out much lately, so forgive me for the indoor (iPhone) photos, but that's all there is on offer.

First, my nephew who was telling me all about the algorithms necessary to complete the Rubik's cube... and completing the final step of this one with his eyes closed (he's not a show-off, honest, we were just trying to amuse ourselves and find something to do). Please note this is not your average Rubik's cube with 3 in a row, oh no, it has 4 in a row. Oh, and if my eyes appear glazed over they're not, I promise, I'm all eyes and ears. 

Oh he's a bright spark, that one, and no mistake :) 

In other news, I had to go out to the bank today and we stopped off at the gift shop next door, where I pounced on this - very C Kidston-esque at a fraction of the price.

Pretty, right?

Last, but by no means least, here are a couple of pics of my daughter whose blog is sorely neglected. She's obviously far too busy having fun.

 

That bottom one there was taken, she tells me, moments after being expelled from the mall for failing to produce ID to prove she was over 18 or being with someone who was over 21. My, those NY kids must give the store owners hell if that's the rule in force there, don't you think?!  My kid, the fruit of my loins, the quiet one who has never given me a moment's bother, expelled from the mall. Ha. Ha. Ha.  If you're wondering why she's not brown it's because she has to slather on the high-protection sunscreen to avoid sun allergy. It still doesn't work, but it does stop her tanning too much. 

So, I'm off to bed now. A few little surprises up my sleeve for that young lady, but sshhh.......!

Total happiness and unbridled joy

Oh my goodness - I might very well be slow on the uptake and maybe you've seen this already, but I found this on someone's blog and after watching it I feel totally uplifted and happy.... and a tad jealous. This amazing wedding entrance that has gone viral on Youtube and no wonder. Enjoy.

Or click here to view (embedded video not working)

Exotic food

The other day we were in one of the local shops (we live in a very culturally diverse neighbourhood), and we saw this delightful package which I just had to buy:

 

What do you notice first about it?  The boyf said "Halal? Why on earth did you buy halal jelly?".  Me, I just saw the flavour. And the colour. Smile!
I duly made it up last night. First I opened the package and was slightly taken aback by the rather violent green of the granules. Then I saw the word Laziza which had me humming this French song from the 80s. Then I noticed this jelly is "sweet and spicy, pure for sure!". Hmmm.

 

 

Left it to set in the fridge.... and we had it for dessert after dinner
 

(gosh I wish I had Claire's camera...)   It actually tasted like those foam banana sweets, really it did!  A rather strange experience because here in the UK, green jelly is lime flavour. And it's not such a deep green either.

In other news, yesterday I went out to the chemists in town with nephew in tow, and felt really rather woozy and light-headed. It was the first time I'd been out all week, and I felt it would be best to finish off my convalescence this week and go to work fresh as a daisy on Monday.  I need the rest.  Luckily, though, the actual virus wasn't as bad as I feared. Nowhere near as bad as the flu I had in Venice - remind me to tell you THAT story sometime!

Meanwhile: Bon appétit !! 

Mad... but in a good way!

OK, so don't shoot me, but I'd never even heard of Mad Men. However, I loved the thing I saw on Elsie's blog so I went and "mad menned' me and the boyf... Do you think this looks like we could have looked had this been the 60s? LOL!!  I hasten to add the boyf doesn't smoke, but the cigar is quite chic. And I should look slimmer but so far, well I don't!

 

 

Don't we make a darling couple?  ha ha ha ha (cough cough)

Go do it yourself and link back to your pictures pretty please!

Quiet time

I'm making the most of being at home to S L E E P !   My nephew arrived yesterday and promptly went out to go to the post office for me, which is very sweet. We are speaking English too, and that is weird as we've always spoken French together, but that's what he's here for, and he's very good :) 
Of course being at home during the day and not having much to do means I notice every little bit of dust and grime in my house. There's something to be said for being out of the house for so many hours each day - you don't notice it, ha ha!  I wonder if F will feel energetic enough to want to help me do some painting next week?? That's if he doesn't go and visit more cousins in Bristol and Manchester.
The boyf is supposed to be going off to Jamaica on business this week, leaving me to be a surrogate single mum to the boys. He was supposed to leave Thursday, but the guy at the travel agents made a boo-boo and didn't realise there was a deadline for issuing tickets, so hopefully he can find him another slot soon. I looked recently and as it's high season there were return flights for £1500-2000, whereas he was hoping for more round the £700 mark. Gosh, I had no idea it was so expensive! I bet you could get a package deal for less.... Of course, out of season you can get a ticket for something like £400.
Well, obviously there's not much to report when you are house-bound, so I'll leave you for the moment. Hopefully you are all off sunning yourself on holiday! Have fun!

I guess it had to happen...

 (iPhone picture)

So what happened is this: The week was rushing by. I wasn't too happy because my favourite colleague had resigned and was having her leaving do Wednesday night. Thursday, there was a very pleasant temp in her place and I was trying to get my boss sorted out before he was due to leave on another week's holiday. I started feeling really weird in the middle of the afternoon and at 5pm I just said "I've got to go!' and asked the temp to tell my boss. I just really, really wanted to get out of there before I was violently ill. In the end, I sat on the Tube nursing an ice cold bottle of water to my forehead, and got home and went to bed. The next day I still felt like I had a temperature (where's the thermometer when you need it?) so I stayed at home. I fell asleep after R had left for school, and got woken up by the phone at 1pm.  I just thought I must have a bug or something, but again in the evening I was feeling so rotten I thought I'd better tell the Exchange programme leader in case they felt R would be better off going elsewhere. Turns out, they have a policy in place for swine flu and he has to stay at mine so as not to spread it! She asked if I could call the hotline to see what they thought. 

Well, the hotline is manned by non-medical staff so I called NHS Direct and they said to call the hotline :(   So I called, was taken through the questionnaire and told "we believe you have complications of swine flu. Here is the code so your flu buddy can pick up your Tamiflu and please call your doctor".  Well, I still didn't trust them, so I put in a call to my GP's after hours service, really to see what the procedure was with regards my young visitor and the forthcoming visit of my nephew. Turns out, the GP on call was my own GP who I know very well, and he said it sounded very like swine flu, especially with the very rapid onset, and that due to my immunosuppressant therapy for my arthritis, it was best I took the tablets, which the boyf dutifully went out to get yesterday.

So there you are. I may or may not have swine flu, but I'm on tablets now.  I have spent a lot of time in bed, asleep, and when I have got up and done stuff because I felt better, I've collapsed again afterwards. Apparently I have to keep off work for a week or so, which is ok because I am admittedly very tired.... Apart from that I have a slight sniffle, the odd cough and odd sneezing fit.  No real aches and pains like "real" flu.  All in all, a bit of a damp squib LOL.

Sorry this is a bit disjointed but I'm off to have a lie-down. Hope you are all avoiding germs where you are......

Saturday

The week has flown by.  I was rather under the weather yesterday - very tired, banging headache, chills.... but by the evening I felt myself again. Swine flu it wasn't!

i went up to London on Thursday to run an errand, which filled up the week nicely. Today, the boyf is staying with his mum who is off to the Caribbean shortly, and R has gone off to Cambridge with the school, so I'm going to go to the gym in a minute, before doing yet more food shopping (teenagers need a lot in their packed lunch!!) and then tidying up the house. Boring stuff. 

Hope you all have a lovely weekend and that the storms don't hit where you are. See you later :) 

Catching up

I'm sitting here in the dark, at nearly 4am, to do this.  It's too muggy in the bedroom - I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep, so I came down to sit by the open window... As I'd left the PC on (it takes SO long to get started!) I thought I'd better use the time wisely and upload some iPhone pictures I took.  

First of all, we had a lovely time in St Albans. We parked up and went looking for the Cathedral, going by some really cute houses. I love this one, with the bike:

 

I tried to take a picture of the garden up on the left of the above picture. Note the seashells embedded in the wall:

 

A bit further on, workmen were renovating a house that was for sale. I loved the initials (?) in the wall either side of the door:

 

Truly a lovely place to live, right in the town centre by the Cathedral. I can imagine the price tag!!

At the end of the alleyway you come to a grassy esplanade in front of the Cathedral, from where you can see St Albans School:

 

The Cathedral:

 

The weather was funny - cold and blustery one minute, warm and sunny the next.  It was market day, so we went and did a spot of shopping and had a Starbucks. I really enjoyed just hanging out with my friend with no deadlines, just chatting, laughing and window shopping.  I bought a new oilcloth for the dining table. I used to have this in blue in our kitchen in France, and the stall holder had some amazing polka dot ones, but I plumped for the gingham after all:

 

I'm glad to say the creases have nearly all come out now! I love it, and think the polka dot one would have been rather too much. It's not as thick as the Cath K oilcloth, but it was a bargain at £4/metre. And it covers up the nasty mess that is my poor table. I was going to paint it, but this is easier.

Last but not least, here are the contents of the wonderful swap I received yesterday. I signed up for the "a little fabric, a little chocolate" swap on flickr, and was paired up with a girl called sazziej for the July swap. I love everything she sent me! Also, not on the picture, enclosed was a very cool sewing magazine. Can't wait to get sewing (S said I could borrow her machine!)

I forgot to take pictures of what I sent her, but you can see here and here. I did struggle with the chocolate, because her info said allergic to nuts... and every single packet you find says "may contain traces of nuts" :(

Anyway, I'd better go back to bed now.  Can't believe it's Friday already tomorrw. I'm SO not ready to go back to work.... especially as my favourite colleague has just resigned :(   So I'll just leave you with this picture of Claire at Camp:

My week off

I am really enjoying my week off. Monday morning was brilliant - when both the boyf and R the young Russian had gone to work and school respectively, I sat and savoured the quiet of the morning. I could have cried, honestly! It's so nice not to have to be anywhere at any particular time. Well, nearly, as I still had a doctor's appointment to go to but still, it's not like commuting to work, is it?  I have a rebellious streak that's been bubbling away beneath the surface recently. Kind of "I wonder what would happen if i just went home now?" when I'm in the office. "What's stopping me?"... well, the fact I might lose my job is the obvious reason why I haven't followed through on that, lol, but it's been there in my mind.  A definite sign I needed a holiday, I reckon!

So, backtracking a little, R the Russian boy arrived early Sunday morning. After lunch he wanted to meet up with his friend N who is staying with another family in town, so we arranged with his host family to meet in the town centre. The boys went off to do whatever it is teenage boys do around town, and I went off to run a few errands. He's settling in well, but it's a big change from Claire, because so far he's gone out "for walk" every day after school whereas Claire was like me at the same age, a big homebody who would rather stay in. So THIS is what it's like to have a teenager!!  (joke!).  Also different is the fact that I have to make his packed lunch, whereas Claire would most often do that herself. Ah, I did a good job there - she's the best daughter one could wish for!

Talking of Claire, she says she wants to spend some time in NY with a new Dutch friend after camp, which is nice. She is also looking really well, as she sent me a lovely picture someone took of her. I'll ask her if I can post it....

Well, must rush. I'm off to St Albans with my French friend S in a bit, so I'd better sign off. Byeeeee!

Say WHAAAAT? An ode to the sherbet fountain.

Earlier today, I was out doing a spot of shopping for various things for the house, and I thought I'd pick up some sweets to pop into two parcels I'll be sending out on Monday. When I came upon THIS aberrance

 

I don't know if you can see clearly on this iPhone picture, but that's a PLASTIC tube you see before you, complete with plastic shrink wrap packaging around it! What the??? But it doesn't stop there, oh no! On top of that, they've only gone and Messed. With. The. Recipe! (it tastes nasty and faintly lemony now) It's treason, I tell you!

  

For those of you who live on the Moon (or just somewhere like America, you know...), the Sherbet Fountain is an old English sweet that has been around for like 90 years. You just don't mess with icons, you know?  THIS is what a Sherbet Fountain is supposed to look like (and even then, the newer packaging was kind of triangular instead of the more proper round shape)

 

Now what's wrong with that, I ask you?  A round tube of card surrounded by paper with a bit of liquorice sticking out. Apparently, it's been changed "for reasons ofhygiene". Hygiene, schmygiene! Whoever died from a Sherbet Fountain? And they've changed to recipe to make it more "natural" and "halal". Whatever next? And don't they KNOW about the evils of plastic packaging vs. eco friendly paper and cardboard? ! I should report them to the Authorities.

Oh dear, I've turned into one of those Grumpy Old Women. LOL!

And on another nostalgic note, Mat Horne twittered today that he wanted to watch Swallows & Amazons (which really surprised me, actually). And hey presto, someone gave him the link to it on Youtube. Oh it's so sweet and innocent and retro. I love it.  My favourite Arthur Ransome book is actually Winter Holiday. I tried to get Claire to read it when she was a bit younger; then I tried to read it to her... with little success. The vocabulary is rather old-fashioned for today's adolescent (I mean, one of the little girls is called Titty, which is obviously hiLARious to the teens of the Noughties). When I mentioned it to her during today's Google-chat, she commented "what a snob I was". LOL!

Anyway, here is the first part of Swallows & Amazons. The links to the other parts are on the same page. Enjoy!