Oops have got a little behind again all due to not enough hours in the day for me right now lol. It has been a manic week with running here there and everywhere but hopefully things will start to slow down now, the last of the presents are wrapped, all the decorations are up now (well those that are going up), the bulk of the shopping is done and cake has just come out of the oven!! So I have that almost there feeling creepy over me.
Bernadette got home early Friday morning 2am to be precise and yes I had to pick her up from St Austell and then be up again at 6am!!! I think I functioned yesterday lol. Great to have a house full again :)
Advent Day 19
Taken by Bernadette a few years back on a ski-ing trip with the school, I think the penguin was her groups mascot!
Advent Day 20 and Lucky Snapping
Last night saw the second of one of our few family traditions not sure how it started or how long we have been doing it, but we always start Christmas off with a viewing of The Muppets Christmas Carol!!! I am not a Muppet fan but I have to say this movie is so funny with the comments made throughout, well worth a watch if you have not seen it and of course Michael Caine is very good as Scrooge.
Over on Lucky Snapping Kathi has asked us to blog about Christmas traditions and routines that we have.
We don't actually have that many that I can think of right now anyway lol - sure I will think of more as the week goes on.
Wreath making is the newest tradition which has grown over the last three years, this being the third year. As a child we never had a wreath, it was a Christmas item that part of me longed to have - why I have no idea but I just did. I would watch all the old Christmas films - with their beautiful wreaths on doors and all the wonderful lights and snow all around and actually believe that is what it was like in America!!! Part of me still believes it was back then!! (that will be the romantic daydreamer in me coming out lol). Anyway back in the real world - three years ago I was invited to go along with the local WI ladies to a wreath making evening at the local garden centre, it was a lovely evening and I love each wreath I have done. Here is the first, it would appear I had a blip last year and took a break from blogging over Christmas and didn't blog my second one :( can't even find a photo of it at the moment! Either way here is the third one, I just fell in love with the ribbon so bright and cheerful.
I have umm and arrr about posting this one or not but have decided to go with it although it isn't the best memory, but it is a great song with very meaningful lyrics (well I think so anyway). Some of you already know that I am pretty sad and just happen to be a Backstreet Boys fan!! Yeah a real boy band saddo - hey but I don't care. So back in 2005/2006 I spend a lot of time between Cornwall and Market Deeping (just north of Peterborough) visiting my mum as she fought her battle with cancer. Eventually she had to go into a nursing home and I use to play this album all the time as I drove back and forth. This particular song and the words 'Never Gone' fitted in so well to the situation I was in and it always makes me think of mum, (she died in Aug 2006) so although a sad memory a good one.
I can fully understand if you don't like them but it really is worth a listen :) if you have lost someone dear. It's not too long.
Oh I have been thinking of this one all week and as it plays it has me bopping around the room, taking me right back to my 'Street Duty' days when I first joined the Met Police in London. After training school we were dispatched to our stations and there we started 6wks street duties, basically being puppy walked before being let loose on the unsuspecting public!!! This song was the rage at the time and on our end of course night we danced away to this in some night club - can't remember what it was called. Glad to say I am still in touch with one of the girls from then, she is an Inspector now!!! and I still see two of the others when we go back for reunions. Hope you enjoy - have a bop on me this morning. :)
This takes me back to my college days at Stamford College for FE as it was known then. My time was happier then, but I still felt like I didn't fit in especially when I decided on the career I wanted and the careers officer (who remembers them???) laughed at me and said stick with your job at Boots - that is what girls like you do!!! As you are aware.....I didn't take his advice. Unusual for me back then as I just went with the flow and did as I was told, but thanks to my mum that was the first step in following a dream.
This is the extended version but oh soooo good to hear it again. I still have my clear vinyl 45 single of this tucked away in the loft. Hope you like it. Right I now need to come back to 2013 and get the hoover out..................boring!!
Oh before I get too far behind as usual, POTD
104/365
After work on Monday I met up with Yvonne for lunch over at Griggs, which is a local farm supplier and they have just opened up a restaurant which is very nice.
Well seems a lot of you remember Val Doonican! That post almost had Yvonne singing 'Walk Tall' to me over lunch yesterday lol.
So the next song that can take me back would have to be Cliff Richard and Miss you Nights This one transports me back to my secondary school days, where I was not a happy teddy to say the least. So a lot of my time was spent on my own, sat in the lounge listening to Cliff whilst mum at work and Ian (brother) was out playing sport of one description or another.
And yes I have seen Cliff in conncert, a few times as his brother in law worked with Mick at Finchley Traffic Garage and he use to get us cheap tickets :)
CAR UPDATE - after work today Mick and I are off to Bristol to look at and hopefully bring home my new car. The other one didn't have my name on it see here, fingers crossed for second time around :)
At Lucky Snapping HQ's Kathie has challenged us to write about music that transport you back in time. Well anyone who knows, knows I am a big music fan so this prompt is perfect for me and I could/might be able to keep it going all week!!
With that in mind I have decided to take you back to my childhood and my first musical influence in my life and that would be my MUM :) Jim Reeves, Al Martino - Spanish Eyes and Val Doonican. I shall confess to watching his show every week and mum even took me to see him in concert and go back stage to meet him. On hindsight he probably was feeling the gap left in my life when dad died. The first song that sprang to mind was The Special Years - mum use to sing it to me and I have often thought of it as my girls have grown up. So who remembers the rocking chair and Saturday nights and this song
Ok encouraged by the naughty Lynne I thought I would share a bit more about me that I know I haven't mentioned on here before because I don't talk about this one much - in fact I don't think I have even mentioned it to Yvonne or Kathi!!! I can hear their ears pricking up big time now.
Well when I left school I went off to college in Stamford and from there I went off to college in Broadstairs, Kent (known as the Isle of Thanet then, don't know if it still is) I spent two years there training to be a beauty therapist (not a common career back then). Anyway, when I left there I went back home to live whilst I found employment. Whilst looking my old flat mate rang to say there was a temporary vacancy at the place she worked and would I be interested, even though it was not what I had trained to do. Well under the circumstances I said yes, even though it meant a move to london but I could live in, so accommodation wasn't a problem. That was on the Friday, Monday I got a train to London to be interviewed, came home that day and packed my bag and on the Wednesday I started work. The work was only meant to be for two wks to cover sickness, 18 months later I was still there.
Well four as I have given one away already and I will try and find a more up to date photo of Finningley Station House and post it.
Although I am chatty and open on here in reality I am fairly shy (not as bad as I use to be) and don't open up to anyone face to face.
I always have done and do still lack self confidence in myself and anything I do.
I would love and I mean love to learn to do the waltz and the jive. Or any dance for that matter.
I love eggs but can't eat a fried egg and definitely can't have baked beans and egg yolk on the same plate or eat at the same time!!!! Why ............... no idea.
Kathi also asked about our oldest piece of clothing in our wardrobe, well I guess that must be a red jacket I bought in 2002, I have started clearing out clothes on a regular basis over the last few years so can't go further back than that :)
As for someone who has influenced my life - right now I really can't think of anyone so shall have to put some thought to that one over the weekend.
Last night when I went out to camera club the rain was awful, to the point that I couldn't get out of the village my usual route due to two cars floating in the middle of the road!!!!! Stupidly I didn't take a photo!! I think I was more concerned with the car zooming up behind me even though I had my hazard lights going. Anyway by the time I got home rather late I realised that I hadn't taken a photo so quickly took this - Amanda's not so straight parking of the car!!
78/365 - Went for a walk across the dunes towards Perranport beach. Lovely.
79/365 - Tea break yesterday at work, Truro
So back to Kathi's nostalgia questions,
What can't I leave home without - well probably not a difficult one there - my camera, my bag is always in the boot, my compact in my hand bag and then there is my phone in my pocket. So one or other of them is with me at all times and all are used :) oh and lipsalve. In every coat pocket, each of the cars and every bag!!
This week over on Lucky Snapping Kathi has asked us to share five things with you that you didn't know about ourselves - I am actually finding this rather difficult, mainly because I can't remember what I have told you about me and what I haven't, so I think I shall go with Kathi's prompts for now. (Plus I am slightly out of my comfort zone here!!!)
So where was I born? I was born in Doncaster Royal Infirmary, South Yorkshire and we lived in Finningley, here to be precise. Yes a railway platform!!
And yes before anyone asks, I do love trains especially the old steam trains. It is in the blood, my cousin is a train driver in Yorkshire, my uncles worked on the railways, my eldest brother is mad about them as is my nephew and my other brother can't deny it but would like to lol. As for me there is something about the rumble of the engine going by that sends shivers down my spine - why goodness knows!!
Don't feel I have contributed much this week to the theme of Affairs of the heart - sorry Kathi, have had different thoughts but not seem to have actually put them down on blog paper.
So here are just a couple following on from my original post re my unromantic hubby. After we got engaged in the May we then looked to getting a house together, can't remember exactly when we moved in but we were in before Christmas. So this was to be our first Christmas together and I was really looking forward to it, then comes the "er I've been put down to work an early turn Christmas Day"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OK I could accept this as he would be home by 3.30pm and it was double time pay wise and an extra day off (the good old days!!) so I put in to work as well, well might as well be at work than at home on my own, plus I had the same perks, double time etc. I finsihed at 2pm so was home before Mick and he had promised not to get tied up in overtime!!! Which he stuck to and arrived home around 3.30pm so now we could have our first Christmas together. He had travelled to work on his motorbike as often the case. Once home we were chatting about our morning's work etc and then he comes out with this sentence, " when we finished most of the others guys popped into the services and bought flowers to take home" (me thinking ah bless him - he is lovely) he continues "I thought of it then thought no point as I am on the bike they would get squashed, so I didn't bother" (me thinks - you really are the original black rat and I hope you choke on your turkey!!) This romantic gesture lasted all of say ten seconds!!!
Admittedly he was right, they would have been squashed as he would have had to put them inside his jacket, and at least the thought was there which is the main thing. And over the years - all 23 nearly 24 of them he has bought me flowers on many an occasion for no reason.
As for Kathi's Blog Friends Forever - when I look back on my childhood I had friends but none that I could say were really close, (I was very shy and quiet then) plus we moved about abit with my dad's work until he passed away when I was 11, so I feel I don't really have any roots so to speak of. I can honestly say I have more friends now than I have ever had before both in blog land and real life. I feel the friends I have now are going to be around for a long time (well I certainly hope so) and were well worth waiting for them to enter my life.
As for our song. I am a big music fan - Mick isn't. I have lots of favourite tracks that I apply to different times, events in my life, but if you were to ask both of us for one song it would be "I love you because" by Jim Reeves.
I have never attached a video before so hope this works. As they say 'you learn something new every day'
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