Christmas morn ...

The first thing we do when we get back from Midnight Mass is to place the infant Jesus carefully in our crib at home. Mark is generally the one to do this as he always remembers amidst all the chatter and excitement going on when we arrive home and goes straight to the place where the figure is kept until the 'big day'!

A Blessed and Happy Christmas to everyone!

Wow - super pictures!

I've just received these super photos forwarded by my sister-in-law and just had to share them with everyone.

Northern Lights over Yellow Knife Canada and a Fire Rainbow- A once in a lifetime experience

"This is a Fire Rainbow. The rarest of all naturally occurring atmospheric phenomena. The picture was captured this week on the Idaho/Washington border.

The event lasted about 1 hour. Clouds have to be cirrus, at least 20,000 feet in the air, with just the right amount of ice crystals and the sun has to hit the clouds at precisely 58 degrees."

God's handiwork. Beautiful sight!

Christmas Shopping ...

I've just got back from trying to finish off my Christmas shopping. Why do we put ourselves through this every year? I'm sure there are many people, especially women, who are feeling like this poor woman at the moment. I must say there's an uncanny resemblance between the woman in the cartoon and myself at this precise moment! :)

Even when we've managed to find all the items on our lists, we still have to go home and wrap them all up.

Every year we say, 'never again, next year we're going to keep it simple' and yet by the time Christmas Eve comes around and everything is organised we are so swept away by the Great Feast of Christmas and all that it implies that we really do enjoy it and somehow, all the stress of the preceding days is forgotten. Which reminds me, I still haven't bought the turkey!

Gaudete ...

'Rejoice, rejoice, and again I say, rejoice!'

I'm so pleased I got my rose candles in time for Gaudete Sunday. We all need a bit of light to relieve the gloom at this time of year.

Christmas time is always fraught with pressure - so many things to do; writing and sending cards, buying gifts, putting up decorations and getting the house ready, thinking about the meals, buying the food etc. etc. .... and that's not including what's going on at work. And through all this we're supposed to stay calm and prepare for the Lord's coming?? To quote a popular phrase, 'You're having a laugh, aren't you!'

It's great to take a few minutes to think about what is just around the corner and to use an old-fashioned but particularly appropriate word, 'rejoice'.

I definitely feel a lot more 'HO, HO, HO!' than 'Bah, Humbug!' today.

What a shock ....

What a shock to be told out of the blue that the local supermarket had been burnt to the ground overnight.

Apparently the fire started at about a quarter to nine last night and quickly took hold and, following a large explosion, it soon became obvious that the shop would be impossible to save and the fire crews concentrated on trying to prevent the fire spreading to the many nearby buildings, both residential and commercial. Some local residents had to leave their homes for safety.

Fire crews were still on site on Saturday morning.

We ourselves were in Banstead last night at the parish penitential service but as we don't have to pass through the High Street to get to church, we had no idea of what was happening 'just down the road' whilst we were in church.

It's very lucky indeed that nobody was injured in this serious fire. Nevertheless it will be a great blow to the local community, not just the staff who worked there but all the local shoppers too. There is no other comparable supermarket in the village.

Further details including a video can be see on on the BBC website here

The Company Christmas 'Do' ...

Friday was the Company Christmas 'Do'. They have several of varying sizes, depending whether or not it's just a department or several departments or a 'group' do. This was the one that 'wives/husbands/partners' were also invited to. Due to the 'Credit Crunch' the smaller group outing that I blogged about last year has been reduced to actual 'money-earning employees' this year! Fair enough.

I wasn't looking forward to it too much as I was still suffering with the dreaded 'lurgy' but it was very well done and the venue, an hotel in London, had arranged everything very well. The atmosphere was very good and despite there being over 300 people in the room, they managed to make each table of about 10 guests seem a fairly intimate group.

The entertainment was very original - a group of break-dancers and they were fantastic. I loved the way they just walked in (or should I say swaggered, I'm sure you can imagine) off the street, unannounced in their 'street' gear - hoodies and trackie bottoms. They just made their way through the tables, and started dancing on the small dance floor. Similarly once they'd finished they just picked up their tops and walked out without a comment! They got a good response from the guests, I must say.

Shame the lighting was so low, I couldn't get many good pictures but here's one taken by a professional just to give an idea of the 'ambience'.

Ta-Daaaa!!

See what the nice postman delivered yesterday! A lovely big box of 'rose' coloured candles. That should last me for a few years. Who knows, by the time I've got to the end of the box, the liturgists may have decided that all the candles should be 'rainbow' coloured to be 'inclusive'!

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel ...

Now I'm really getting into the Christmas spirit! - Get out the mulled wine and the mince pies, sit back and enjoy this beautiful Advent carol!

More on those pesky candles ...

Here is this year's Advent wreath. Note the four purple candles! But I haven't given up on getting a pink candle yet. Having tried all the local shops I could think of, I've ordered some pink candles online and I hope those nice people at Amazon will deliver the goods in time for Gaudete Sunday.

An evening out ...

We had another great evening out with friends on Friday. We went to a local Indian restaurant with a deservedly good reputation, The Indus. None of us had far to drive and we were even able to walk the house of our friends who lives very near. They kindly invited us to aperitifs there beforehand and coffee and liqueurs afterwards.

All the ingredients for an excellent evening - good food ... good company .... and a few laughs too!

By the way, no sign of the 'credit crunch' in this part of the world - the restaurant was packed and there were people waiting for tables!

What are friends for ...

Friends are marvellous aren't they? We all need at least one friend in life; someone to laugh and cry with; someone to go shopping and have coffee with!! and of course someone to share germs with!!

There are an awful lot of nasty 'bugs' around at the moment and I think one of my dear friends inadvertently took this 'sharing' idea a bit far and I succumbed yesterday. But ... I 'took to my bed' (I don't really need much excuse to do that!) in the afternoon yesterday and woke this morning feeling much better. As well as friends, I think sleep is also pretty fantastic too.

Besides, we're all going out for a meal to a very good Indian Restaurant tonight so I have to be better, don't I?

I know it's far too early, but it's fun!

I named 8 reindeer in 30 seconds

Thanks to Mulier Fortis for the link to this quiz. I know it's not even Advent yet but I'm trying to get in the mood for 'you know what'!

The 'C' word is of course preceded by the 'A' word!

I wonder does anybody else have the difficulty I have each year in finding pink and purple candles for our Advent wreath at home?

We've always had an Advent wreath in our home and I always remember one at home as a child - from the bent-coathanger contraption that dripped wax over us as we stood looking up at it and in which - despite her best efforts, my mother could never quite get the candles to stay upright - to the enviable de-luxe versions in shop windows!

When I first began making our own version, there were candles of every possible hue around at all times of year but I've noticed recently that from October onwards it's red, green, gold or silver, and that's your lot. If you look hard enough you may be lucky enough to come across a purple candle, but pink - no way! What's wrong with pink? You can find just about everything else (apart from candles) in pink - from Cadillacs to cummerbunds but nothing vaguely resembling a candle.

As it's not Advent until next Sunday I don't have a picture of this year's wreath but here's one of last year's - sorry about the red candles!!!

I'm easily distracted !

OK, so we're getting near the end of November and the 'C' word is fast approaching!

About this time of year, I try ... I really do try, to take more notice of what's in the shops that might be appreciated as a little gift by one of our family or friends.

Now, in our family, we all enjoy a good book. We all have different tastes but I think we more or less know what to look for. So I thought I'd have a browse in our local Waterstones.

Every time I moved from display to display trying to focus on gifts for others, I was distracted by titles that sounded 'right up my street'. End result? - I came out of the shop with a long list of books to suggest to others that I would be happy to find in my stocking on Christmas morning and only one or two for every body else!

I think I'll have to try a pair of blinkers next time to stop me going off course!

'Lame excuses' ... pardon the pun!!

I wouldn't claim to know very much about football but I do enjoy watching it sometimes, especially the national team. If you follow the game at all you will be aware that there is a 'friendly' international this evening against Germany (long time football rivals!!).

It would appear that Fabio Capello is struggling to field a team of 11 players looking at the long list of injured players. There is also the ongoing debate about 'club versus country'. You can understand that the clubs don't want their star players injured in a friendly match and be out of action for their club for weeks to come.

However, whichever side of the fence you come down on that particular argument, I was amused to read the following additional reasons for players' unavailability on Robbo Robson's blog on BBC's football page.

Theo Walcott (his dog's poorly); Joleon Lescott (certified hopeless); Gabby Agbonlahor (cheese allergy); Gareth Barry (needs to take a jumper back to M and S cos his Mum bought him the wrong size); Jermain Defoe (he's got a Pilates course Wednesday night) Ashley Young (eye test); David Bentley (brylcreem removal)....

I would say Robbo was getting a bit fed up with some of the probably genuine reasons why certain players were unavailable to play for the national team this evening.

As a footnote, I heard on the news this morning that Theo Walcott doesn't need to worry about his 'poorly dog' as he managed to dislocate his shoulder in training yesterday so is out of tonight's squad anyway!

Le Touquet

We had a very good weekend in Le Touquet. It really was a bit like I had imagined with definite signs of the influence of earlier British tourists to be seen in various things such as names of streets and styles of architecture. Our hotel was the Hotel Bristol for example.

We had a good journey down to Folkestone, under an hour and plenty of time for coffee beforehand. We had a slight hitch as you can see from the first photo as our shuttle was delayed over an hour and we spent that time in the car in the queue waiting to board and looking out at this sign!

Here's our hotel - and very comfortable it was too with excellent staff; friendly and professional.

This is the covered market not far from our hotel. Unfortunately the market was finished by the time we arrived but a pretty building, don't you think?

The picture taken in the evening makes it look like a bustling city but it was very quiet and in our walk around in the afternoon, the streets were almost empty.

Lots and lots - and even more - restaurants, bars, patisseries, chocolatiers etc. Heaven for anyone who enjoys good food. We managed to squeeze in a visit to a bar for lunch, a different bar for a quick coffee and a lovely restaurant for dinner. Not bad when you think we didn't get there until about 3pm! Also lots of other good shops.

This merry-go-round was at the seafront. We all decided we must go back and spend a bit more time there next time. Definitely worth a second visit

We're off for a little outing tomorrow ....

Yes, we're off for a little trip to France tomorrow with some very good friends. Just staying overnight but it'll be a lovely break, I'm sure. Something about the name of the place - Le Touquet - conjures up all sorts of delightful images.

It makes me think of the 'idle rich' sauntering around this little French sea-side town in the 1920's with nothing more to worry about than where their next cocktail was coming from!

We can but dream! It'll be nice to play the part for a few hours, anyway! Will let you know how we got on once we get back.

Another busy week ..

I don't know where this week has gone to! Everywhere seems to be busy; home, work, life, the world, the universe ....!!

I seem to have extended my birthday/our anniversary celebrations well into this week and I can tell that my waistline has also been extended somewhat but that's another story!

I suppose the news of the week must be the US election. In year's to come this will the subject of one of those quizes, where were you when ...? Where were you when the citizens of the USA elected their first black (well mixed-race at least) president?

Like most households in Britain (I would imagine) we were all gripped by the news coverage of the presidential election and were all late getting to sleep as we listened/watched the results coming in late into the night and well into the early hours of the morning. Adrian was on a business trip to Bulgaria and he watched the TV coverage there.

Things have calmed down a bit now and we are all waiting and watching. Praying too that nothing awful will happen before the inauguration of president-elect Barack Obama in January 2009.

When does life begin?

I don't usually refer to political topics on this blog as it's mainly a sort of online family newsletter but my attention was drawn to one of the headlines from the New Scientist on my iGoogle page today, Where does life begin? especially in the light of the recent Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.

People were asked this question in a survey and were given a list of possible answers to choose from:

A. At the point of fertilisation?

B. At detection of foetal heartbeat?

C. At implantation of the embryo in the lining of the womb?

The survey was undertaken by an IVF clinic in Atlanta and the results make very interesting reading.

Only 22.7% selected answer A, then came B with 23.5% and finally C with 15%.

There were 12 categories in all.

The article continues,

Not surprisingly, Roman Catholics had the highest proportion voting for "sperm-egg" fusion, around 31%. By contrast, a third of Jewish respondents, 29% of agnostics and 27% of Muslims opted for foetal heartbeat. So too did 38% of IVF patients.
Geographically, only 13% of UK respondents opted for "sperm-fusion", with 43% choosing "foetal heartbeat".

Snow in Autumn

What a surprise to wake up to snow on the ground this morning! It was very cold though when we walked back from the Grumpy Mole last night after a delicious celebratory dinner. The garden looked so pretty I just had to get out there with my camera and take a few photos.

These polyanthus are doing a grand job despite the snow.

And just look at this little cyclamen - the word indefatigable comes to mind!

And yet, despite the wintry covering, our large beech tree still looks magnificent with lots of beautiful Autumn leaves left.

Manchester . . . and back

Can you believe it - after thinking about it several times during the week, and reminding others not to forget - guess who forgot to put their watches back on Saturday night?? Luckily nothing was lost by this (apart from an extra hour's sleep!)

After a leisurely breakfast - one of the best things about staying in an hotel, I think - we set off to visit a local beauty spot, Lyme Park.

It was a glorious, bright but cold morning as we left Manchester and arrived at our destination but about 10 minutes after we'd begun climbing the up the hill to 'The Cage' to admire the view, the heavens opened and we were soaked.

The photo shows the really leaden sky - this sort of weather in these sort of places always make me think of a scene from Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre or similar novels where the heroine finds herself on some bleak, barren moor in the middle of terrible weather. You expect to bump into some romantic hero complete with riding breeches at any moment!

We 'repaired to a local hostelry' as they might have said in one of these novels; had a lovely warming lunch and also took the opportunity to change into dry clothes.

The weather on the journey home was also very mixed and we saw a splendid rainbow - the second one that day. The photo doesn't do it justice but it's not bad considering it was taken through a car window and travelling at speed.

Manchester

We had a lovely weekend in Manchester visiting Simon. Traffic was dreadful almost all the way so the journey took a lot longer that we planned and consequently it was a bit of a scramble to get to Mass on time - not helped by the fact that Manchester City Council (or whatever they are called) have decided to do a lot of re-surfacing work in the middle of town and several roads were closed - and being Manchester, of course it was raining too! Never mind.

We've taken to going to Mass at St Mary's, (the Hidden Gem) in the middle of city. If you are ever in Manchester it is well worth a visit for the magnificent interior. They don't like you taking photos but you'll find lots of lovely photos on the website here.

After Mass we had a lovely meal in a nearby restaurant serving meals from all over Asia (or so it seemed!)

Then to the theatre for a very good production of Antigone at the Royal Exchange Theatre - so much 'angst' and all that shouting! - I don't know how the cast manage 8 performances a week and still have any voices left!

The auditorium itself is a very modern 'capsule' within the lovely old building and the architecture works very well - the beauty of the original building remains intact and the modern structure within blends well and doesn't detract at all from the rest of the surroundings.

The pictures are just taken with my phone's camera so are not terribly clear but I think you can get the general idea.

Could be worse ....

It could be worse, I suppose - at least it only says 'There's probably no God'! Mind you, this is known as the Atheist's bus advert and I would have thought this is more of the Agnostic's bus advert.

The other thing is - why does not believing in God mean that you don't need to worry? I think that my belief in God means that I don't need to worry. After all, if we believe in God, we trust him to look after us and that whatever is put before us in life comes from Him, don't we?

Anyway, with one son an atheist and two brothers who are keen bus enthusiasts at least this post will appeal to almost all my readers!!

Patience for patients ....

I like to think I'm a fairly patient sort of person ... I'm usually quite happy sitting waiting for an appointment/bus/train (insert example of choice here!) Provided I am actually sitting - I'm not keen on standing around for too long.

Today I had a dental appointment and I left the surgery after an hour having run out of patience altogether. I obviously don't have an endless supply, after all!

I had arrived a few minutes early as I really dislike rushing into anything at the last moment. I sat patiently as people around me were called in to see different dentists/hygienists and subsequently leave the surgery.

Eventually after about half an hour, I politely asked by how long the appointments were running late. I knew there was a mistake straight away as the receptionist asked who I was waiting to see and then disappeared with my notes in her hand.

Computer 'glitch' apparently was the cause of the problem, it hadn't registered that I had checked in. Now don't you think that one of the receptionists who could see me at all times would have asked themselves (and me) what time my appointment was or if there was problem?

Anyway, still being patient and understanding I agreed to wait a few more minutes as the dentist would see me in 5 minutes.

I'm afraid that after having sat there for an hour, I actually ran out of patience and approached the reception desk and requested another appointment on another day as I could wait no longer.

Sorry about the rant. I look forward to a better experience next week - I hope!

'Noises Off ' and Noses on ....

We've had a lot of social events in the last week - a very enjoyable dinner at the local Golf Club in support of our Parish Golf Day to raise funds for our parish school's new building; a company dinner at a local hotel and a trip to the theatre. This last is the 'Noises Off' referred to in the title of this post.

This was an hilarious farce which we went to on a 'works' outing' organised by Atkins. We went with friends and arrived early enough to have a delicious Italian meal before the performance in a nearby restaurant. As I said, the play was side-splitting - I really felt as if my sides were splitting! We all said we hadn't laughed so much and for so long for a very long time. In fact I was reduced to tears, and I wasn't the only one.

As for 'Noses on' I got a clean bill of health from the 'chest man' at our local hospital. He told me I had a 'good pair of lungs'. I must say I had never doubted this for a minute! He suggested my persistent cough may well be caused by 'post-nasal drip' (they've got names for everything, haven't they??) which means that I'm probably allergic to something common like house dust - no chance of eliminating that then!!!

Not standing much chance of eliminating the cause, it just leaves treating the symptoms and I think I'd rather put up with a cough than start spraying things up my nose every day from now on!

I'm just glad my nose is not on the scale of the little fellow pictured above - just think of the 'post-nasal drip' he could suffer from - more like a 'post-nasal deluge'!

Autumn - no words necessary ... !

Shame about the wheelie bins but at least they're the right colours!

Another day off ...

Well I'm pleased to report that the new phone is living up to expectations. Mind you I very nearly messed it up big time! Having set it up and played around with it for a while, I decided to see if I could download Skype to really make it an amazing piece of useful equipment .... NOT a good idea! I managed to download Skype and that was fine but I also succeeded in losing all the BT pre-sets.

After a lot of experimentation (and quite a bit of anxiety) I finally managed to restore the original settings. I've now removed Skype and hopefully learned my lesson - leave well alone!

We had an enjoyable evening last night joining golfers from the parish for the dinner after the Parish Golf Day. I must say, I didn't envy those playing golf in awful conditions yesterday. Never mind, lots of smiles afterwards and hopefully a tidy sum of money raised for our parish school's building fund.

A glorious day today weather-wise and I spent a happy hour or so this afternoon planting about 100 tulip bulbs in the new raised beds - roll on Spring!

A new toy ...

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a bit of a 'gadget girl'. Well, I've got a new toy! I got home on Friday afternoon to find a note on the mat from the postman to say that there was a parcel to be collected from the sorting office.

I just about managed to contain myself over the weekend but 'hotfoot-ed' it to the sorting office almost as soon as they opened this morning.

The parcel lay on the back seat of the car while I was at work (burning a metaphorical hole in the seat!) but as soon as I got home, I plugged it in and it's charging now. I'm also a great reader of manuals. I know that is really strange but I like to know as much as possible about something before I try it out.

This new smart phone is linked to our Internet account and the beauty of it is that it has wi-fi so I'll be able to access the Internet when I'm at home and out and about at no extra charge. Funnily enough many of the big coffee shop chains now have wi-fi access as well as hotels, airports, railway stations etc. .... Not that I need much of an excuse to pop into a coffee shop!

I'll keep you posted as to whether or not this phone lives up to the hype.

A quiet weekend ...

It's been a quiet weekend this weekend as both Adrian and Mark have been away on a company trip to Lisbon. I've been alone. Note I said alone, not lonely! I've been used to spending various periods of time without my husband, thankfully usually only for a few days at a time, for most of our married life and you do get used to it after a while.

It's not so often that Mark goes away though, and to have them both away at the same time is a very rare occurrence. I must admit I quite liked being on my own, just for a couple of nights though it was lovely to have them both safely home again. (Even though they arrived home at about 1.30 in the morning!)

There's something very liberating about having nobody else to fit in with for a little while; eating what you like and when you like, going to bed and getting up as early or as late as you feel like.

Back to normal today and that's very comforting. I'm not sure how much I'd enjoy being on my own for much longer than a weekend. Knowing that it's only a temporary separation makes a big difference.

We don't see billboards like this around here!

My sister-in-law sent me this animated graphic along with some other super photos and I just had to share it with anyone who hasn't seen it yet. Enjoy!

'Indian Summer'

I think you could say that we've been experiencing a little bit of an 'Indian Summer' lately. Now although I know in general terms what people mean when they talk about an 'Indian Summer' I've never been quite sure whether they mean an 'Indian Summer' or an 'Indian Summer', if you see what I mean!

Well, what do you do when you want to find something out? As any 5 year old will tell you, 'you google it'! So that is what I did.

For any other 'sad' people like myself who are interested: First of all it refers to a period of warm weather lasting a few days and occurring at least a week after the vernal equinox (see my earlier post on the last day of summer, folks!)

Secondly it doesn't in fact refer to the weather of the sub continent pictured on the right above but to the North American Indians (sorry, Native Americans) and it was actually there that the saying originated in the late 18th century - so there!!

All right children, you may put away your books and go out to play now!!

The Devil's Punchbowl

We've just come back from a lovely walk around the Devil's Punch Bowl near Hindhead in Surrey. It's been another glorious day and a lovely dry, mild weekend again.

Everything looked so beautiful today I couldn't choose just one of the photos I took so I've chosen a few to hopefully give a flavour of the place.

It was very busy driving along the A3. It seemed as if the 'world and his wife' were out enjoying this spell of late sunshine - and why not!

Hindhead has always been a bit of a bottle-neck and there were signs of construction work going on for the major project of excavating a tunnel to by-pass this area. It will be a great achievement when it is finished (scheduled for August 2011!) but meanwhile of course means even more traffic jams at this point. I don't envy commuters who have to use this route daily.

The car park was chockablock as was the cafe with the young staff doing a grand job trying to cope with the endless queue for drinks and snack. Nevertheless it was a great day out. Lots of the chores were left undone but ironing and the like can be done any time, can't they?

Who's for ice cream?

Now, I'm sure you'll agree I just had to take a picture of this delicious-looking (and tasting, by the way) ice cream concoction! This is one of a selection of new treats on offer at our favourite stopping place on our usual little Sunday strolls. Now I expect you can understand how easy it is to persuade other members of the family to accompany me!

How anyone can walk anywhere after demolishing this single-handedly is beyond me but I can assure you for some people this presents absolutely no problem whatsoever.