Me on Monday - and breathe

It's been a gift knitting, parcel posting, tetrapack recycling, sneaky lunch taking, shirt washing, parcel packing TV watching kind of a weekend.

One of my grandsons has a birthday next month. I bought his present before Christmas and had the idea of knitting some hats for his Mum, Dad and younger brother. I was doing well and then someone asked me if I would knit a baby blanket and I was momentarily distracted. This meant I had to knit like mad on Saturday but I had things to do first. In this neck of the woods the recycling people won't accept tetrapacks - those juice and milk containers that use waxed or plasticised cardboard - so we have to save them and take them to the tip ... only it's not called the tip officially any more ... anyway we also had a bag of dead batteries so we took those too.

This was thirsty work so I was thinking that we would go straight home and have a cuppa when Mr M turned into the car park by The Range.

Now I don't know about you but The Range is one of those stores that always has something I desperately need, and Saturday was no exception. They had a Christmas goodie bag for less than £10 that contained loads of things I loved as well as a few things I will never use but my granddaughter who is a scrapbooker will love. Mr M pointed to a bag of very colourful buttons and said "They're cheap" - well they look lovely in one of the jars on the shelf I bought card blanks for Christmas cards and two D-ring albums. We did look at their coffee shop but it was full so we nipped across to Morrisons and as it was lunch time we had a sandwich as well as a drink.

Then we went home the pretty way. The direct route is about three miles from one side of the city to the other. We went out onto the "Gwent Levels" and toured through the villages Redwick, Goldcliff, Whitson etc, noted the changes that have occurred since we last travelled that way, discussed the state of the reens* and wondered if global warning will cover this area in water before or after we are gone.

Then we came home. I finished the hat, packed everything into a box ready for posting this week. Then I put a load of washing in and started the baby blanket.

*Reens are what we call the drainage ditches that run through the levels. because the land is actually only a couple of feet above sea level it is just the sea wall that prevents it being flooded the whole time. The reens take the excess water and drain it into a couple of main ditches - Monk's Ditch being the biggest and that gives you some idea of when the reens were dug - There is a system of sluices and pumps that open and shut when the tide comes in because we have the second highest tidal rise and fall in the world here in the Bristol Channel.

All fascinating if you like that sort of thing.

The idea of Me on Monday was given to us by Sian over at FromHighinTheSky

Me on Monday - partied out

Mr M and B-i-L

 It was an out for a birthday meal, party going, daytime sleazing and then eating with the Bluefunnels kind of weekend.
My lovely father-in-law had his 82 birthday on Friday so his three children and their spouses took him out for a meal. We had Miss Boo with us and she was really thrilled to be seeing her honorary great grandfather. She kept the conversation flowing. My Sister-in-law demonstrated the Welsh War Cry - apparently when in Cwmbran and one receives the bill for a meal one has to raise both eyebrows and say, in a VERY loud voice " 'Ow MUCH?"

Cousins catching up

It was cold out on Saturday, so we didn't go. We stayed in and while Mr M played on his computer I sat and knitted and half watched TV. then we slept a little in preparation for the evening. You see Aunty Dora is 90 and we were all invited to celebrate. She told us she didn't want any gifts but we should donate the money to Help for Heroes. We were only too happy to put some money into the bucket.

Darren "Graceland" Jones

For some reason there was very loud music, which made it hard to talk to one another and after the food we were entertained by Darren "Graceland" Jones. It seems that Aunty Dora is his grandmother - who knew? we didn't. He was good, he would have been even better at half the volume.

Mr M looked at me and I looked at him and we nodded. When we came home I asked if he had thought the same as me and he replied "What about there not being any music at the family reunion so we can actually here one another without shouting?" I nodded.

Sunday we had a dinner date with the Bluefunnels. We took our Tower of London Poppy up to show them and we went over the plans for the reunion. I have posted the invitations today even though I still don't have all the addresses that I wanted. I am going to rely on email for the rest.
This was brought to you because of an idea by Sian at FromHighinTheSky nip over there and take a look now that you've read mine

Me on Monday - with a bit of Friday too

It's been a Dentist visiting, feeling ancient, weather watching, cardboard rescuing, shopping in Aldi, FH Society Journal editing ostrich eating kind of a weekend and it hasn't stopped yet.

We went to the dentist. Just the six monthly checkup but this time it was different. We saw - or were seen by the son of the dentist that has served us so well for nearly 40 years. He is just like his Dad! he made me chuckle with my mouth wide open, listened intently to what I had to say and discussed the future for my teeth. The last time I saw him he was about four so it was a "where-did-the-time-go" ancient making feeling.

Most of us have been at the mercy of the wind the whole weekend. We have stupid plastic sack things to recycle cardboard. They let in water and blow away of the breeze gets strong enough to ruffle the leaves on the trees. Mine was flattened against the front door desperate to get in out of the wind so it spent the weekend in the hall getting in the way.

I also began the task of editing the March Journal. I have warned everyone that I am standing down in October, I don't think they believe me so it will be a shock. All the fun has gone out of it. Time to stop.

We went to Aldi for bread and stuff and they had Ostrich steaks so we bought some and had them with Rosti and vegetables - delicious. We will definitely have that again. Now I am continuing to edit and swear a little but will be in my chair and knitting just as soon as I have collected Miss Boo from school.

Me on Monday - back to work

Today has been a bed changing, loading the washing machine, mattress turning, box filling, lost present finding,  trifle making, scrapbooking, dragon's ears knitting kind of a day.

Mr M went to work at 5.30am and I sleazed until 7.30 before stripping the bed and staring briefly at the sadly mis-shapen thing we call the mattress. We usually turn it every week but Christmas got in the way.

I potched about downstairs for a while, washing some baking trays that had hidden themselves from Mr M and managed not to get washed. I sorted out the cardboard recycling bag and discovered the missing pot of Cranberry sauce still cwtched into the corner of the box that had contained the turkey. Just as well that we had three other pots in the cupboard to not eat eh?

I folded the cloth that covered the table where the Christmas tree stood and discovered a present for my youngest son that had been mislaid. I will post that tomorrow. Then I realised that I still had some trifle sponges and they would be stale if I didn't use them so I made a sugar free trifle as a surprise for Mr M. To avoid eating I then carried some of the decorations and stuff upstairs and went to the craft room for a happy couple of hours preparing the pages for the Christmas pictures - I still have to order them from snapfish after I have done this.

I also sorted out two bags of papers and stuff for my eldest granddaughter who is also a scrapbooker and covered the box I saved from the clementines in Disney paper for the youngest granddaughter to keep her crafting things in at her table.

Then I knitted the ears for a dragon balaclava hat and sewed them on together with the spikes and it was time to cook tea.

Responding to an idea by Sian at FromHighInTheSky Me on Monday. Now you've read mine why not take a look at hers

A Review

Great grandbabies need lots of cuddles

Our Christmas and New Year were just fabulous. Such a contrast to the previous one where I was doped to the eyeballs with painkillers and antibiotics.
We experienced a Polish Christmas Eve with our new Daughter and Granddaughters - and of course, this cuddly great grandbaby, isn't he just peachey?
Then we had a British Christmas day and showed them a traditional dinner, which they loved. We pulled crackers and wore silly hats and stuffed our faces with so much food we could hardly walk to the sofa to sleaze for the afternoon.

Then we had a friend come to stay for New year. He set up the Mac so that I can now happily write and do the Society Journal. We pulled more crackers on New Years Eve and played Racing Elves until my sides ached from laughing. Wind 'em up and let them go and they go everywhere except down the track.

To put the icing on this metaphorical cake we had a Saturday night Christmas Dinner with two people who just have to be our most favourites. They are in that select group of humans that we can happily spent eight to ten hours with in confined quarters and still be arranging the next time we will get together. That's pretty special. The Bluefunnels are fabulous.

 Now I am wondering what the year ahead will hold. I have seen a couple of blogs where people are doing a year of books or something. They promise to read at least one book every month and to blog a little about it. I remembered that I started this blog to record all the books I read in a year but I kept forgetting to document them and then got distracted by stuff like Christmas Club and such.

I'll just note here that so far this year I have read
Valley of the Shadow by Carola Dunn and Where the Wind Blows by Sara Alexi
I have now discovered some murder mystery stories but I can't remember the titles and my Kindle is in the other room so you'll have to wait for that. I think I will simply write down the titles each week on my notebook and then put them on here It will be interesting to see how much my reading has slowed down

In the mean time I will continue to try and record the family stories and other stuff and take part in the scavenger hunts and do the scrapbooking pages for the new year and to try and put all the family stuff I have inherited onto pages for the reunion we intend having some time this year