With a little help from my friends

I had a lovely day meeting up with some old friends today.  It was so ...... To have a chance to catch up on what has been happening in everyone's lives.  

You see Facebook updates and send text messages, but nothing can ever beat, sitting around and having a good old gossip.

There was a time we would have met in a bar, had quite a few "cider and blacks" and then gone out boogieing until the wee hours of the morning.  

Age and life, however, have civilised us.  A lovely stroll along the Thames, a bite to eat and a cup tea, then a very long and much needed chat in a tucked away pub, were the order if the day.  And it was bliss, we must do it again soon. 

Thank you ladies, sometimes only old friends can put things into perspective.

What's under the bag?

It's G.O's birthday and I have outdone myself this year. 

Somebody has too much time on his hands

I got a what's app message from G.O the other night. Apparently he was ridiculously busy and couldn't stop to even get himself a drink. Although some how he managed to turn a potato into a patriotic gentleman with a top hat included.  As I said he was busy.

An apology

My gorgeous husband's idea of an apology for forgetting to defrost last nights tea.

Guy Fawkes

Only in Britain do people pay to stand in a cold, wet, rainy field and watch fireworks to remember/celebrate a failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament. 

That is exactly what G.O and I did this evening, usually we just watch out of the window but his year as we were home together, we decided to go to the local school and watch the display.

We wrapped our selves up so we would be nice and warm and at twenty past five we set off for the school, gates opened at 5.30pm.  

On the way it began to rain (typical) and some plank drove through a puddle and drenched us, although I didn't make much difference.  We arrived at the school and paid our entry fee and then found out that the display started at 7pm.

 We had to wait and hour and a half in a school field with only music students wailing to entertain us.  We some how managed to keep ourselves amused, even if it was only shining a torch on the kids who were playing hide and seek.  We did share a hog roast roll with crackling and yes it was salty and dry but it was delicious.

The display itself only lasted a quarter of an hour but it was awesome.  

As I said to G.O the local firework display was always going to be amazing when we had a firework company headquarters down the road.

After the show we toddled back home where we planned to have some mulled wine and baked Camembert and watched the X Factor, bliss.

Feel accomplished

Normally when I get home in the evening I can just about drag myself upstairs to the shower and watch the soaps.  Call it holiday refreshed, I smashed it tonight.  I made G.O's birthday gift, sensory rice and bonfire playdough as well as do a small supermarket shop, and make a puppet theatre (at school) all before half past seven.  Considering according to my body clock it's half past eight I am very impressed with myself.  As a treat I'm snuggled on the sofa with a truly decadent hot chocolate.

Word Cloud

I used Wordle to create a beautiful world cloud of our life

I want to make Gingerbread cupcakes

I have had an urge to make gingerbread cupcake for a while now, alright since I got some cute little gingerbread topper sin the supermarket the other day.  I have looked all over the internet for a nice easy recipe and I think I have finally found one. It is from one of my new favourite websites Sally's baking addiction. I am planning on giving this recipe a whirl tomorrow as a treat after I finish my planning.

Do little girls still want to be ballerinas?

I have a vague memory of my time at a school in Surrey, it was after we lived in Cyprus and before we moved to Belgium.  The school were putting on a production, it may have been at Christmas time but I remember it being really sunny,  who can tell with the British weather.

Me with my brother in the dress that got me the lead in Coppelia (1981)

The teachers were casting the roles, and as much as I would like to say that I got my role because of my unbelievable acting ability, obviously at the age of 4 I was an acting genius, I now realise that it was just because I had the most realistic costume.

For years I had this vague memory floating around in the back of my head.  I didn't know what the play was called and my parents can't really remember seeing me in any play!  I have had words about this fact.

Then about eight years ago while teaching in the London school the head teacher arranged for a theatre company to come to the school and put on a performance, in the past we had seen The Little Princess and Aladdin.  On this occasion they were showing Coppelia, I had never heard of it, most of the staff had never heard of it.  We were such philistines, so the head bought a selection of books so that we could read up on it before the performance. It was while reading these books that the vague memory came crashing back to me. The play I had performed in was Coppelia and I had played the title character, all because I had a dirndl dress.

I have since then had a soft spot for Coppelia and when I heard the English National Ballet were touring the country with it I knew I had to go.  I badgered G.O who purchased the ticket through Groupon, I wasn't expecting much ticketwise, but as long as I got to watch the performance I was more than happy.

I will be a mother one day