Gingerbread Haus - April 2020

I ordered a paint by numbers kit for Papichen for Christmas but it didn’t arrive until January and then when it did it was the wrong photo.  As we went into lockdown I had so many plans, one was to complete some crafty activities.  I began Wednesday 25th March and finished today.  I am pretty impressed with how it has turned out and now I’m thinking of buying another one. 

Gingerbread Liebe - April 2020

Happy anniversary to this guy, my partner in crime, my world, my everything. 

I can’t put into words how much you mean to me so I’ll let someone much better qualified say it.  Keep smiling my love 😊🧡❤️

“If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love.” — Maya Angelou.

It’s not how we would like to celebrate, due to lockdown........   wait, hang on......   staying in, having a lovely meal together, playing boards games and going for a walk, we had a perfect day.  

Gingerbread Life - April 2020

January brought fires raging through Australia luckily none of our family was too badly affected.  February gave us flooding throughout the. UK and the desolation of towns and villages on my commute. March introduced us to COVID19 and the world on Lockdown.  Let’s see what we will experience in April. 

Gingerbread Life - März 2020

As the year began the rumblings from China about a virus that was causing respiratory problems and death were getting louder.  We carried with life, made plans, visited friends and family, we even attended a wedding (ahem).  Then the stories of it reaching mainland Europe began, Italy became over run followed by Spain, France and Germany.  A tourist on a skiing holiday brought it to the UK and within weeks the country was placed into lockdown.  We were confined to our houses, only able to leave for exercise and food but the shops were virtually empty as everyone had panic bought and stockpiled in the days beforehand.  People began downloading Zoom and Houseparty to stay in touch, working in pyjamas became the norm.  We all “met up” on a Thursday to clap for the NHS and other Essential Workers.  Lockdown 2020 had begun.  Our Lockdown Adventures can be found here.  As it is such a strange time, I decided to give Lockdown 2020 it’s very own page, which can be found at the link below.

http://gingerbreadmurray.blogspot.com/p/lockdown-life-2020.html?m=1

Gingerbread Familia - März 2020

Whoops!

So we have a confession to make, as we stood looking at the seating plan an uneasy feeling washed over me.  Your name was there but mine wasn’t.  It was then we realised that we had gate crashed the wedding.  On closer inspection of the online invitation, it became apparent that we hadn’t been invited to the whole day, only the evening.  Rather than make a fuss you graciously made room for us, GO found it amusing.  I was mortified, so took it upon myself to make sure you wouldn’t regret letting us stay.  It was a lovely day and the hotel was amazing.  Your family and friends were extremely welcoming and my enduring memory of your day will be GO and your mum dressing up at the photo booth.

Gingerbread Haus - März 2020

We had been invited to a wedding, a whole day invite not just the evening, which meant one thing we needed to buy GO a new outfit.  In the past we’ve purchased his suits from specialised tailors and had them altered.  He is a weird shape that means he has short arms and broad shoulders.  We have always left it to the professionals, they know what they’re doing surely?  It’s never really worked out.

The black one was smart enough but it pinched his arms and was a bit tight around his middle.

He looked very smart in his morning suit but it appeared to drown him slightly.

The grey suit was way too big and loose.  No one seemed to be able to fit him with a suit.  Then we realised he was like me; I can’t really but a whole outfit in one go, I’m much better when I buy separates and mix and match.

So we headed for Blackpool (with a pit stop at Guy’s Hamlet) to buy him a jacket and a pair of trousers with a fitted style in mind.  It was like Goldilocks  some were too big, some were too tight, some we too long or short.  Eventually we found a jacket and trousers that were just right.  

I think that after all of these years looking for a suit, we finally found one that is perfect.  I think we can all agree that he looks gorgeous.

Gingerbread Travel - März 2020

On the way to the garden centre, we found by chance last year, GO took a road too soon.  Before turning around he pulled into a car park and we found the weirdest place.  It’s called Guy’s Thatched Hamlet and it’s a complex of shops, restaurants, cafes and a hotel by the canal. We couldn’t stay as we had other plans but we took a quick look around.  It was a little bit like a film set and while it looked tired and dated (that may have been what it looked like the day it opened) it was packed. As we left there were still cars streaming in.  

Gingerbread Travels - Februar 2020

Shortly after arriving back in Burnley for New Year we received an email from Papichen.  He was taking advantage of the New Year sales and had booked the ferry to come and visit for a few days.  They had booked the 14th Feb, Valentines Ferry (my last day of term) and would leave the following Thursday.  The main mission was to, as always, shop.  Little did we know that it would rain everyday, so we kept things local and undercover.  I’ve learned my lesson they are not a young and mobile as they once were so trips were short and sweet.  We still managed to clock up the miles.

Tim Horton’s was somewhere I wanted to take them as Papichen is obsessed with Maple donuts I’m not sure why🍁 🍩.  So we went to Bury branch stopping in on all of the charity shops on the way.  On a side note we started to watch Netflix’s “The Stranger” and it was filmed in Bury, in fact we sat outside the coffee shop the husband visited.

We went to Ewood Park as Mamilein wanted to buy Lilbigbro something, seemed to be the theme of the week.  We made a trip to Costco where Mamilein devoured the Crabstick Samplers.  If you’ve seen the meme of the guy in different costumes trying the samples he has nothing on her. It was a lovely week and it was a shame went they went home, we had gotten into a nice little routine, stills there is always Easter.

Gingerbread Familia - Februar 2020

Happy Valentines Day

We’re not big into Valentines.  Each year we say we’re not taking part, it’s just commercial rubbish, then one of us caves.  This year we bought cards, we’ll start with the romantic, then the funny and then the down right rude.

Gingerbread Life - Februar 2020

When we moved to the Northernshire we took Asterix to the Burnley Vauxhall Dealers Mechanic and the service was appalling.  They kept the car for three days, it was an MOT, overcharged us on everything and the staff were sullen and for lack of a better word, dumb.  The next time he was due for a service we looked further afield and found an approved dealer in Oldham.  It wasn’t too far from Tod and they really took care of us.  They even gave us a free photo session as a welcome gift.  We/I never got round to using the voucher though.

This time, after we took Gordon in for his first check up and received  the voucher, I made the appointment.  We headed to Altrincham, found a Tim Horton’s and has some photos taken.  We have selected a photo as our free print and are going to save up to buy them all at some point, we are saving up for so many things at the moment.  I like the photo we have chosen because unlike all of the the other photos of us we aren’t smiling.