Tuesday 26 July 2016

Memorandum Monday - sooo busy

We took a few days for ourselves last week. We had a day or two going out and seeing stuff and then we went to Amroth Castle for three days in a caravan. What a lovely site. The caravan had three bedrooms and a view out across the sea. There was a swimming pool but we didn't get that far.
I don't cook when we go away. I am on holiday and what I want is for someone to cook for us. Mr M can cook but his reasoning is that when he is home he does the clearing up and the dishwasher so he doesn't want to do that on holiday.
We have bread and butter and tea and coffee so we break our fast with a cuppa and a piece of toast then we find somewhere for a late breakfast/brunch. we can then eat a dinner around 4/5pm and then spend the rest of the time in the caravan sleazing and watching TV or reading.

We found a super farm shop on our way home so we stocked up on cheeses and home cured ham.

The caravan did not have wi-fi and there was no signal for our phones so ever time we reached the top of the hill out of the village our phones would ping away like mad as the messages came in.

I love the immediacy of modern communications but it is nice to be relieved of the decision-making about whether to answer or not.

This set me thinking about why we have this need to be constantly connected Some of my Grandmother's siblings left this country over 100 years ago to make a life in the New World. They had only letters to keep them connected and it took sometimes more than two months for a letter to travel from Ohio to The midlands of this country. Then came widespread use of the telephone but that wasn't until the 1960s when the post WW2 baby boomers began to set up their own homes and there was more money to spend.
These days everyone expects a cell phone as though it is their right to have one and internet access is the same as a daily newspaper (and with just as much rubbish in its confines). My children are in daily contact with me and make no mistake I love it, being a part of their lives is just fabulous but ...

And there it is. BUT. Do they really need me to be there all the time? will it be harder for them when I am gone? Are they doing it out of duty? ( don't believe so) Do I need them to be constantly in contact? (um, yes?)

Is this technology a blessing and a curse?


My thanks to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this meme and keeping me writing

Monday 18 July 2016

Me on Monday - What a weekend

The only thing better than live theatre is Live Youth Theatre and on Friday evening Mr M and I experienced the full, unadulterated, enthusiasm of a talented buch of teens and pre-teens as they performed that most difficult of musicals Bugsey Malone.

They have rehearsed on a Sunday afternoon for the last 12 weeks and Miss Boo did do extra evenings with Haydn (a marvellous Bugsey) to ensure that the word-heavy part didn't defeat him.

If you have seen the movie then try to hum or whistle any one of the tunes and you can see how unforgiving this musical can be. The players of the main parts, and I am sorry to say I lost my copy of the programme somewhere in the 100 yards between the theatre and my front door, so I don't know their names were all confident of the words and as soon as they started to sing they lost the shakiness in their voices and sang their hearts out.
The chorus players were also darned good and word perfect. Miss Boo began as an undertaker, picking up the bodies of the splurged gang members then she was a flapper dancer ( not a slapper dancer as her mother kept saying) after that she did a quick change into an English Reporter, then to a down and out and then back to the undertaker - or was it the flapper dancer? by that time I was so caught up in the events of the show I was no longer trying to see her but carried along by Fat Sam and Dandy Dan and the splurge guns.

The finale when we all got splurged was amazing and as it was the last night they got to use up all the silly string cans - that was a lot of splurge.

We came home marvelling that in this increasingly electronic age we could still have a fantastic evening out, see young people really enjoying themselves and be made aware of just how much talent there is in these kids today.

Did I learn anything today? yes. Never give up hope about the youngest generation, they are still human and still have talents even though they accept this modern electronic technology as part of day to day living.

My Thanks to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this meme and keeping me writing

Sunday 3 July 2016

Mr M scored Un point


We went out for a little ride around on Saturday. As we drove along Mr M nodded at a side road and said
"we went up that road once to a craft place, it was tights"
"Tights"
"Yes, pants, I knew it was some sort of underwear"

He scored the point because I chuckles for two miles