My Father-in-law

 One of my most favourite men in the whole world, my Father-in-law.

He passed away from an Aortic Aneurism last night.

Me on Monday - still high on Dragondaze

the Dalek at the ticket desk

playing games - serious stuff

It was a convention running, Dalek watching, money counting, old friend hugging, event post mortem talking kind of a weekend.

Having roped in YS and two of his children and their partners to help it was also a chancce for Grandma to get to know her granddaughters a little better. Youngest son had volunteered to run the raffle and the tombola. He had help in the morning from my ex-DiL and then his daughters arrived and their partners were set to work with him, selling raffle tickets and Tombola tickets. The girls spent a couple of hours ensuring that photographs were taken of all the Cos players and the various activities in all the rooms. Yes we took over the whole of the Newport leisure centre except for the fitness suite and the swimming pool.
The cafeteria once again ran out of food - it seems that no matter how much you stress the numbers some caterers think they know better. That's one of the joys of organising something. The Dalek successfully scared the bejaybus out of lots of small children. It's always good to give them something real to have nightmares about. We had a Moslem youth group doing ticket duty on the doors into the main hall and helping the traders to set up and take down their stands and those young men were marvellous
This is the third incarnation of Dragondaze, the name was invented by me for a Dungeons and Dragons tournament way back in 1984 and I am thrilled to have been involed with all of them over the years. This means that I have seen a lot of youngsters begin their involvement with Role Playing games and war games and live role play so having a handsome 40something come up to the ticket desk and introduce you to their 20+ year old son is both wonderful and aging, but it did mean that I got an awful lot of hugs from some really gorgeous young men and that's always a bonus.
Sunday we got up slowly because a whole day of standing and walking about makes your bits ache and pretty soon the main organiser arrived so we could froth about the day over several cuppas. The faults and successes were noted but not discussed fully and ideas for next year were also put onto the list - yes next year we might have a murder mystery live roleplay game running if I can write it in time.

The initial count of the proceeds suggests that we have made around £2000 for Barnardo's Young Carers charity. So I had a great weekend and today I am sleazing in my chair and crocheting slippers for Christmas presents while my brain cogitates on the sort of murder mystery game to run and the plot is already forming
My thanks to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this here meme and keeping me blogging

Dragondaze - No I'll never be too old

Saturday was not only Talk Like A Pirate Day - Arrrrrrrrr it was also Dragondaze. This is a Games convention run to raise money for Barnardo's Young Carers. My personal thanks to all those family members who were able to be there and help. My grandchildren were so useful and this means that the next, next generation are getting involved - always a good thing.

this Dalek scared the bejaybus out of a noxious kid. I know I shouldn't have but I laughed.

just one corner of the hall. The lovely Allie in the foreground - her hair was amazing! she had it done in forties style with the victory rolls and her clothes were ........ well let's just say that she looked fantastic. Oh and yes that is a pirate with a violin

The Pirate is playing the theme from Star Wars to the Dalek. It soothed the Dalek and stopped him exterminating small noxious kids. The handsome guy in the purple staff shirt is my Youngest Son. We had a tombola and a raffle and there were prizes donated by nearly all the trade stands. 

I have said I will be deeply involved until I am 70 so they have me for one more year as an organiser and then after that I might just be there to do the raffle. I love it because I invented the name and I get to meet loads of people who came into my shop 30 years ago and now they bring their children to meet me! Several have adopted me as their parent of choice so I am blessed by friendships that have lasted AND the honour of being treated like a Mum - life doesn't get much better.

Me on Monday - visits

It's been a Day out with Mr M senior, defeated by a titan Naan, sleaze for a while and then dinner with the Bluefunnels kind of a weekend

Mr M needed trousis so we decided to go to Kevin's in Westbury because they cater for the wider man. We asked Mr M senior if he fancies a day out and he said yes! I do love my father-in-law, he is a very special man. Kevin's didn't have the sort of trousis my Mr M was wanting so we pootled through the countryside. Mr M senior used to love to drive and was always going somewhere. These days he likes other people to drive so my Mr M delights in taking his Dad out for the day.

We stopped for lunch at the Seven Springs, a Hungry Horse pub. I had the oceans a plenty which, much to my disgust, they insist on serving on a sheet of paper on the plate. I intend going to the hungry horse website and telling them to stop being precious. Mr M senior had the gammon and Mr M had the Chicken Tikka Titan Naan. Mr M senior was the only one who ate all of his food. I left the chips and a couple of prawns and Mr M was defeateds by a Naan. he ate the chicken tikka and the onion bahgees that were on the top of the naan but he had to leave a third of the naan and all his chips.Oh the horse shoe you can see in the middle of the table had onion rings on it but we wrapped those in serviettes and brought them home. Mr M ate them for tea

Sunday we sleazed most of the day until we went up the hill to the Bluefunnels a fabulous roast pork dinner together with lots of laughter and non-stop talking. We brought home a complete dinner that Mr M ate today and three portions of rhubarb and apple crumble.

So a pretty quiet weekend really, almost mundane one might say - except that on the way home from the hill we encountered two horse boxes thrww police cars and a woman walking along the road leading a horse with a bucket..................... the woman had the bucket in her hand not the horse, it didn't have hands......... it was nine o clock at night and nearly totally dark and there was a queue of traffic behind the horse and the vehicle in front was flashing its lights to slow us down. and then a little further along the road an ambulance flashing its lights went past us. I will tell more if I ever find out.

My thanks to Sian over at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this here aide memoire, why not take a look at her Monday now that you've seen mine

Great Grand-daughter's Birthday

Yup, Great Granddaughter had her birthday recently. I have to record this now so that it doesn't get forgotten, She has inherited the "one-liner" gene - and so it goes on from genreation to generation. Marvellous! Now here's the story.

When we arrived at the house she was waving to us through the window and was very pleased to see us. Then another car arrived.
"Oh," said I, "Lots of people are coming to see you on your birthday."
"Actually," she said as I raised the camera and focussed,"Actually it's because I am six and I am taller!"

She's not wrong.

Me on Monday - Super Grandma

It's been a buy a new phone for Mr M, let's do the blankety blank shopping to day and get it over with, roast pork dinner with home made trifle for supper, a thank you for my new cowl/hood grandma kind of a weekend.
We went to Carphone Warehouse and talked to a very nice young man who explained the pricing - I mean three different prices for a phone? He then looked at Mr M's choice and checked to see how much cheaper he could make it. So one upgrade and a bit of faffing later amd Mr M now has a touch screen pay-as-you-go phone for less than fifty quid - very nice. I nipped across to M&S cos I needed bras and they are my favourites and came out with two new sets of pyjamas as well - they had a £5 off lingerie voucher which was very nice and then they gave me a 20% off sleepwear voucher with my change... be rude not to I thought and as the backside was hanging out of my old PJs the timing was perfect.Mr M stayed in the car and played with his phone so he was happy and so was I

We decided that as we were already out that we would do the grocery essentials shopping. By the time we got home we were both fed up and grouchy so we made a cuppa and then sat in companionable silence playing Farm Heroes Saga and chatting on Facebook.

Sunday I cooked the roast pork early and left it to rest as this makes it easier to slice. Youngest son was starving when he arrived home from work so I piled their plates high with meat and green veggies and carrots and then remembered that I had only half made the trifle in the morning.
They were happy to eat it a little later I finished the experimental knitting of a hooded cowl for Miss Boo and when she came home from school today I gave it to her to try. She has gone to Brownies wearing it and I was called Super Grandma when I said yes she could keep it. I think it will work better in thicker yarn so I am off to Loveknitting now as they have a 10% off sale on chunky and superchunky - gotta go!

That's me on monday. My thanks to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this way of keeping me regular. You can take a look at her Monday now that you've read mine