Comings and goings

There was much excitement in our household yesterday tinged with a little sadness though.

At the beginning of March my lovely hubby sourced a sewing desk for me. It is custom made to fit my sewing machine and folds away into a very tidy cupboard. I think the main reason for this was because when he had come home from sea he had found the dining table strewn with material and the sewing machine as I was right in the middle of quilt making for our grand daughter.
This has been a wonderful table to use but we both hate clutter and fearing this hobby may become more permanent hubby went ahead and ordered the desk.
When I got home yesterday the man had been to fit it in the upstairs spare room.I shall really enjoy filling all these little boxes and containers and of course making many lovely items.

When I got home yesterday my mum was also there. She had come across for lunch but had also come to collect our dog, Maisie. Maisie is off on her hols, staying with my parents, because both hubby and I are going away back to sea tomorrow. I said goodbye to my furry companion and went off back to work. It wasn't until when I got home last night that it hit me how quiet the house was without her. Both hubby and I sat around looking at each other and said, 'Its not the same without Maisie is it!'

It has felt really odd to day too without her but I am sure she is having a wondeful time, being thoroughly spoilt no doubt.

We have packed and are ready for our early start. I shall be poting while I'm away like I did before with lots of lovely photos too I hope.

5 things you didn't know about me

Sometimes I find it hard to write my posts. Once I have a subject or even a photo I'm usually ok but the past week or so have been so busy.
My brother is off to New Zealand to follow his dream of a better life this weekend so we have spent quite a few days with him and my parents.
Mum and I have done well with our Christening quilt, it's taking shape nicely.
Sadly for my mum she has been left with some more work to do on it, I'm off back to sea next week for 3 weeks.

Anyway I do like reading through people's blogs and got a great idea from one.
Check out Friko's World by clicking on the link to her blog in the right hand column. She had written about 7 things we didn't know about her. I thought it was a good idea although as you will notice I've only come up with 5 things!! Clearly I'm not as exciting as she is!

1) At the age of 16 I cycled 1000 miles from Lands End to John OGroats.

2) As part of my work experience I spent a week with the Royal Navy at their airbase at Portland. I flew in several helicopters but my ultimate dream would be to fly in a Chinook ( I love 'em)

3) I have 2 tattoos. One is a purple dolphin on my shoulder, the other is a cute little pig on my left thigh.

4) When I was at secondary school I played the bassoon for 5 years.

5) One of my secret ambitions ( not so secret now) would be to star in a film or TV programme.

Easter Hols

We've had a busy time since hubby arrived home from sea 10 days ago.
On Good Friday we set off down to see his son M and his wife L. They live down on the south coast so it takes about 3 hours to drive there. They are expecting their first child in the summer and it was our first visit to them since hearing their news. Although we speak often it was nice to see them both and see that L was well in her pregnancy.
In the evening we went out for a meal at one of Jamie Oliver's restaurants. Hubby and I shared a meat platter starter served on a wooden board atop two tins of chopped tomatoes. It did make us chuckle when the waiter came over and plonked two tins of tomatoes on the table. What on earth , said hubby, picking them up to examine them.


















My main course squid ink pasta served with scallops. I usually go for a chicken dish if we eat out but decided to go for something different. The pasta was very dark and the scallops were very tasty.
The next day we went down to Southsea seafront and walked along the beach with the dog. Then we went and had a go at the nine hole pitch and putt. What fun we had! A few years ago hubby had one golf lesson whilst we were on holiday. This meant that he tried to impart this knowledge to us as we tried to hit the ball from tee to hole. I was terrible, having difficulty even hitting the ball. But I did get better as we went round. Hubby started off quite well but did get worse and M and L were very good, their previous visits obviously helping them! In the end, L won and I was last, well someone has to be!!


















After we had played we went to the tearoom, aptly named The Tenth Hole where we had huge slices of naughty calorie ridden cake and a big mug of coffee.
We dropped M & L home and continued on our travels, heading north to visit my parents.
We spent Saturday evening and most of Easter Sunday with them before heading home.
On Easter Sunday morning, after dropping my mum at church, hubby and I dropped round to see my best friend and her family.I have known S since we were at secondary school together. Our parents live quite close to each other. We were bridesmaids for each other in the same year, 2004. S now lives near Cambridge and has just had her 2nd child. We hardly get to see each other apart from if we happen to be visiting our parents at the same time. She was staying with her father so we went round to see them. It was so lovely to catch up with news and see their new addition.

I love visiting family and friends but it is always nice to arrive home.

Grandma

A grandmother is a special woman, full of warmth, kindness, love and laughter

She overlooks our faults, encourages our dreams and praises our every success

A grandmother has the wisdom of a teacher, the sincerity of a true friend and the tenderness of a mother.

Grandma, you are someone we admire, respect and love very much and you are always in our hearts.

My Grandma passed away on 1st April 2011, she was 95. This past year has been really hard for me. I didn't think it would be but it has. My Grandma was such a huge part of my life and that chunk seems to have gone and I'm left with a void which I'm not sure how or if I should fill it.

Below is an extract from what I wrote and then read at Grandma's funeral.

"My Grandma was born in Dublin in 1915. When she was 9 she met my grandfather  and they became lifelong companions.

They married in 1936 and in 1937 they moved to England, settling in Birmingham.

In 1939 they started their family, having 2 sons and a daughter(my mum).Religion was always an important part of their lives but it must have been truly tested when they lost their first son when he was only 5 years old.

In 1963 she became a grandmother for the first time. She had 4 grandchildren and gained another 3 by marriage.

I arrived in 1974 and from the age of 6 weeks old Mum entrusted me into Grandma’s care every day whilst she and my Dad worked. Grandma did the same when mum went back to work after having my brother.  It was here that our strong bond with Grandma was formed. We learnt many things in those early days – doing up buttons, tying shoelaces and telling the time, to name a few. I remember having wonderful conversations with Grandma about my imaginary family – we would stand by the kitchen sink and talk about my fictional husband and 4 children for what seemed like hours!

We are all so lucky that we had her in our lives for such a long time,she shared our good and bad times, she enjoyed a party as well – she was alwaysa good party guest – a big smile on her face and enchanting our friends with her wonderful character and wicked sense of humour. We’ve inherited many fabulous party games from her too such as the magic writing.

In 1983 Grandma and Grandad moved to Cornwall where they lived for 17 years.

This was the beginning of many happy holidays with them, even our friends would sometimes come and stay with them too. We kept in touch mainly by telephone and it was during this time that my brother and I perfected our roles as ‘wind up merchants’.

Every now and again we would phone up and pretend to be someone different – a man wanting to come and buy Grandmas settee, a lady from BT doing a voice test which involved Grandma having to count to 5 from various points in her lounge. Being asked to see if she could see any cows in her garden as they had escaped from a local farm or speaking to a lady from Clarkes shoe shop who was doing a survey about footwear which involved Grandma counting how many pairs of shoes she had!

I know it sounds very cruel but I do know that Grandma loved these phonecalls and at the end of each phone call, when she found out it was us she would always laugh loudly and then threaten us with a 'laroping' which of course never materialised.

Grandma moved back to Birminghamin 2000 after my Grandad had passed away and she came to live with my parents.

Before mum retired Grandma always prepared the veg for dinner and did the ironing – she loved to be useful.

The partying didn’t stop either – she attended many of my brothers music gigs and most recently attended one of my fancy dress parties dressed as a pirate. She was also a bit of a jetsetter. She often flew out to Spain and Sweden to spend time with my uncle and his family. She also went away with Mum and Dad in their camper van, even venturing to Ireland with us 3 years ago.

She knitted squares to be made into blankets for charity. Her face was a picture on her 90^th birthday. Mum had suggested everyone bring her a ball of wool as a gift so she was sat on the settee surrounded by hundreds of balls of wool.

Grandma, you knew how to laugh and joke, you had  a warm smile and a lovely singing voice,  you loved watching the wrestling on a Saturday afternoon, - you once took my brother and I toa  live wrestling event at a local leisure centre and insisted we wait until the end so we could meet Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks.

You hated pickled onions but loved a drink of sherry, you have left us with many words and phrases which we’ll use forever – in an Irish accent of course.Your love for all of us was unremitting and unconditional.  We miss you but we all have wonderful happy memories which will stay with us forever."

       

Applestroodling

It must be almost a year now since I first heard about Applestroodle. I've been trying to remember where I heard about it but I can't, it must have been an advert somewhere local.
When I say Applestroodle I'm not talking about food here, I'm talking about an adult improvisation workshop which takes place near where I live every fortnight.

It is organised by a local theatre company Appletree and led by a young local actor - Mighty M.

I've always really enjoyed acting, I was involved in school productions and also was a member of a local amateur dramatics group outside of school. However life takes over and of course when I was at sea it was difficult to be a member of any group or club.
When Applestroodle first started, there was only about 5 or 6 of us but this term our group has doubled in size with the attendance of several youngsters from a local college. We have such fun together and laugh, we laugh a lot!

We meet during term time and although we are having a laugh, it is structured so we are learning stuff but without really realising.
At the moment one of my favourite activities that we do is 'party quirks'. One person acts as hosts and we are given a quirk to act out. Sometimes they are very easy  but sometimes they are very bizarre and hard to guess.

Last night at Applestroodle we did competitive party quirks. We were split into groups of 4 and had to write out 3 party quirks for another team. When it came to our turn my quirk was fairly easy, I was Austin Powers, so i just goofed my teeth and kept saying 'hey baby'' groovy baby'.

Another game on a similar theme is taxi driver. Once again we are all given a particular 'quirk' and one of us is a taxi driver. The taxi driver has a quirk of their own but when they pick up the first passenger they have to work out and then also take on the quirk of that passenger, Then another passenger gets in the car and they exisiting occupants have to take on that passengers quirk and so on until there are 4 passengers in the taxi. Then it happens all over again in reverse order as one by one each passenger gets out of the taxi! It is so funny and last night one of the funniest moments was one lady who was playing the taxi driver who's quirk was that she was slowly inflating!!
My quirk was that I was a Siamese Twin!!

At the end of the night we had some photos taken to be used on the website to help advertise Stroodle a bit more. We had some odd props to use as well which was funny and did little group shots finishing with a photos of us all piled on top of each other. I'm sorry to the person at the bottom of the pile - it must have been painful!


Take a look at the Appletree Theatre website!  and keep an eye out for the mad Applestroodle photos!