Me on Monday - No photographs

A lovely Christmas with family in contact throughout the day. Lovely meal and then a peaceful evening knitting. Today we slice up the meat for the freezer and then sleaze.

I left the camera by the computer and didn't touch either all day

Merry Christmas everyone

Me on Monday - still emptying boxes

It's been a week of rediscovery here at Macey Towers. Finding spaces for the stuff that lived happily for 20 years in the backs of cupboards.
Dishes and bowls that had been dragged screaming into the harsh light of day and now were being judged as to their suitability for The New Kitchen.

What was new this weekend? a new curtain track in the breakfast room to replace the one I managed to break when I opened the curtains after three weeks of not being able to get to them. As the curtains were thick with sawdust and absolutely minging they went down to the washing machine and spent the afternoon on the radiator drying. Mr M was very brave and stood on two chairs (one for each foot, not on top of each other) and fixed the new track to the wall and then put the curtains onto the track.
The Charity Shop boxes are by the front door, I have found a new place for the china cabinet to live and Miss Boo spent an energetic hour carrying books upstairs ready for grandma to put them onto the bookshelf that had to move for the china cabinet to................. you get the picture, I was playing put and take with furniture all week.
Today my lovely daughter and my favourite son-in-law spent half an hour moving the last of the boxes down to the cellar and stowing the cookery books into a space until after Christmas. Tonight we get the tree up and decorated and then tomorrow Eldest Son and his family will arrive and the festive season will begin

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

Me on Monday - New Kitchen!

It's been a funny old week. They fixed the last of the doors, the gasman  gasgirl came and fixed the hob, the oven awas connected and the brackets to stop it falling on my toes were fixed. I threw the belly pork into the only roasting tin I could find and then rummaged in another box for the conversion chart so I could put the oven on the correct temperature.

Friday evening and the belly pork is in the oven!

 On Saturday we went to Costco. They always have lots that we desperately need and this time was no exception. We bought pork chops and belly pork and bacon and coffee and christmassy stuff and we grazed our way around what is known as the pensioners free lunch. In Costco they do samplea of food. At the end of most aisles you will find a small table thingy and a food demonstartor and you can try the stuff and then buy it. As I said, they always have something I desperately need.

Roast beef for our first Sunday meal from the new kitchen

We bought trays of soft drinks and bags of Lemons and Limes. I slice them and then freeze them on trays then put them into containers so that Mr M can drop a few into his glass of water. Costco lemons are always big and juicy and their limes beat any I have seen in any supermarket. Their mushrooms are also the best quality.

When we got home and I had vacuum packed the neat and put it into the chest freezer I began unpacking boxes. I have now rediscovered the saucepans and the roasting tins and most of the cake tins. I totally forgot to make yorkshire puddings to go with the beef simply because I didn't find those tins until after we had eaten.
What was new? what did I learn? Well, the oven is an ongoing experience. I will need to run through several things before I can safely say I know it. The hob seems to heat things more quickly that the old one but that could just be wishful thinking. Over all I am thrilled to bits with my new kitchen and can't wait for the flooring man to come and lay the new vinyl.

My thanks to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this meme and keeping me sane through the last 8 weeks

Memorandum Monday - is kitchen sink day

We have had a busy weekend. We bought a little heater for the cellar, just to take the edge off the cold down there. It works a treat. That's a new thing. We also bought a new light fitting for the breakfast room - I still call it that even though it is really the dining part of the kitchen-diner. We also bought a doormat to go by the door in the cellar. This means that after a hard day digging my enormous (18 feet by 15 feet and mostly paved except for a flower bed) garden I won't track mud through the house. I am teasing a bit here because the doormat is an excellent idea to keep those little gritty stones from reaching my wooden stairs.

The new sink will go over in that corner

 My kitchen is long and narrow and tailored to my needs - mostly. The wall units all have a top shelf that I cannot reach and I was grumbling in my head about this until I thought
"My carers can worry about that!"
End of problemo!

No, they are not dancing just discussing next moves

 The glimpse of "my" builders is something very rare. I just love the way they discuss each step of the way. They talk quietly, map out the next moves and then just get on with it. As a long time watcher of people it has been a really fascinating experience for me to see a father and son so in tune with each other. Each contributing and each listening to the other.

Friday night the guys have gone home leaving temporary worktops
Now we can see the shape of things to come

 There will be a new floor. It will co-ordinate with the worktops which are a sandy-brown swirly colour much lighter than the brown you can see. That is actually the back of the boards that will go on the walls.

Monday will bring the real worktop and a sink that works
No more washing up in a bowl balanced on the toilet seat

As I write I can hear the jigsaw cutting and there is also a drill. They are going to put the shelves into the one larder unit today so I can start to fill them with the contents of the old larder - there will be a sink with hot and cold water, the electrics will be done AND food can go into the larder.
See that teeny tiny light in the distance? that's the end of the tunnel! Hurrah

My  thanks to Sian over at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this meme and keeping me writing even in the darkest part of this tunnel of work.

Me on Monday - Dry and Dark

There are no pictures. I had no electricity or water for most of the morning. For some reason the stress has captured me today. I can't do anything I want to do because......... I have no idea why not I just cannot settle to anything.
It seems that the moment the water is turned off your bladder is suddenly FULL and needs emptying and that's when you realise that the "for now" place for the new dishwasher (still in its packaging) is the doorway to the downstairs loo. This means going upstairs - again - to the bathroom and I just don't want to!!

Having the front door, the cellar door and the kitchen window all open at the same time meant that any vestige of heat in the house was gone with the howling wind. I took off the thin bodywarmer and put on the thick one, then I took that off and put the thin one on and then the thick one over the top. Seriously considered going back to bed but I just knew that there would be constant knocks on the door as I was consulted over something.

Now I am in the study, can't close the door because the innards of the new larder unit are leaning on it, my feet under the desk just inches from the radiator and the bettermaker quilt taucked around me to stave off the draught

The joys of refurbishment

My thanks to Sian over at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this meme and keeping me writing even in the most odd circumstances

I declare our house officially FULL!

The empty space where my kitchen will go. Note in the bottom left corner a cool box that is run on electricity this replaced the fridge that is now in the cellar and will be full of water and pop very soon

The same space after the delivery man had nearly finished. I had to put a plaster on his finger because he couldn't rip the packaging off it. "Were you a nurse?" he asked. "No I'm a mother, we can do these things" I replied. 

Looking along the hall from the breakfast room: note the end panels against the wall and lots of unidentified long boxes. Also note that I am quickly becoming fluent in kitchen-fitter speak

Looking at the same stuff from the study door. 

The worktops waiting to continue their journey upstairs to the back landing

The front room before the new fridge-freezer went in there. I can still just get in there to sit and elevate my legs and watch TV if I want to. It is rather claustrophobic though

So that was Friday. The guys will be back on Monday to finish the electrics and water downstairs and then they move the washing machine and the sink and the building of my new kitchen will start. I will be sorting and moving stuff on Sunday but tomorrow we are going out.

Phase two begins - Emptying

This was the kitchen on Tuesday

This is the kitchen on Thursday

Units now in nice clean cellar work tops
will be added tomorrow

Those shelves still to be sorted and cleaned
The wall cabinets go up tomorrow

Final placing of those cupboards

Memorandum Monday - Dips, that's plural right?

We went out for lunch on Saturday because I can sit in the front of the hire car provided while our car is being fixed. We like the Hungry Horse chain and there is one in our twon now so we thought that while breakfast wasn't so good there a few weeks ago, they could be better at lunch.

NOPE, nope definitely not.

Make no mistake the food is good - except for the dips and I will get to those - but the service is just AWFUL.

We arrived at the place at 12.40pm it was Saturday so we expected to find the place full. it was just about half full and most tables had at least one child crying. OK so we can cope with screaming kids as long as they stay at their own table.
We chose from the menu and Mr M went to the bar to order and pay. The till receipt was timed at 12.58pm Mr M came back to the table with his cold drink and five minutes later the barman walked past and tried to give my coffee to another customer. Then we waited.

and waited

and waited.

at 1.40pm Mr M went back to the bar and asked how much longer we had to wait and they said "Your meals are being plated up now"

It took another ten minutes before the food arrived and then we had to wait for them to bring us the cutlery to be able to eat it.

Mr M had the Tikka Banquet which comes with poppadoms and dips. Usually, in other Hungry Horse pubs he gets a sourcream and mint dip and a mango chutney dip. This time he got two dishes of the same stuff. It tasted like a mixture of vinegar and mustard and was swimming in oil.

I have sent my thoughts to Green KIng, the brewery company that owns the chain and we will not be returning to that particular venue until they have done serious staff training.

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

Me on Monday - Coping

We are into week three of the great refurbishment and Mr M has learned that he can cope with strangers in his house and I have learned that I can cope with him coping.
The new kitchen window is now fitted and looks wonderful. The bonus is that this one can be opened, something we had forgotten could happen because the old one bent one of its metal bits. Opening it wasn't a problem but closing it, well, that took The Big Screwdriver, The Smaller Screwdriver and The Funny Metal Bar thingy (sorry about the technical terms) together with brute force and ignorance and a lot of swearing.
Now I have a window that I can open and close with one hand - luxury!

The cellar continues to improve and will be decidedly better when they fix the leaky drain on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The door has now been fitted and sealed with insulation and the floor is nearly completely dry after its jet-washing and scraping.

YS has started decorating the bathroom and the new bathroom door will be fitted tomorrow. Did I mention that I went into the bathroom at 5am one day last week and because it is a bi-fold door I did the customary flick of the wrist to shut it and it came off in my hand. I believe I said on Farcebook that I... "didn't cry, I just leaned it against the wall, had a wee and got on with my life"

I have found somewhere for all the tools that my Dad brought here that no one wants a charity called Tools for Self Reliance Cwmru. The take old and neglected tools and stuff and refurbish them for sale and also they make up kits and take them to Africa where they teach people how to use them so they can be self reliant - sewing machines and blacksmithing and mechanics tools. I have so much for them.

Dinner on Sunday evening with Lady B, It was a good evening. We understand each other so well and we trust each other with confidences so I could tell her the latest news without having to watch my word in case something upset her. When it got hard she said "Right, change of subject" and we moved on.I suppose its at times like these that you discover just how much you care about people. I knew I loved her, just didn't realise how much

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

Fank FFF it's Friday

we are coping , no honestly we are coping. Mr M is getting used to having builders in our house and we are at that point where everything is beginning to come together.

New window, waiting. You can see the barricade around the hole
where the handrail and spindles will go next week

Window fitter removing old window. Brave man, he is 15 feet above
the ground there

New window, fitted. beautiful

Meanwhile down in the cellar we have a new door. waiting for finishing

Me on Monday - Discovering the source

Stage one: removing floorboards

Stage two: removing the ends of the joists

Respite from the builders meant that Mr M and I did very little over the weekend. Saturday was a sleazy day when I sat in my chair with my legs elevated and knitted and dozed and tried to make my mind stop with the "where-shall-I-put-all-the-boxes" kind of circular thoughts.

Sunday Mr M decided he had to go shopping and I decided I didn't. He remembered that Delectable Daughter was without a car so he took her with him. She said he forced her to spend too much money. What he actually did was point things out to her, like he does to me.
"Oh, look" he says, "They have packs of little Mars Bars on special offer" I have learned over the course of 36 years together to say "Lovely" and move on. She was out of practice.

Monday morning The Builders were back and it was time to roll back the carpet and start lifting floorboards.

Stage Three: preparation for hand rails and spindles

They make it look so effortless. They soon had all the boards up and out and the ends of the joists were close behind. Then they did some neat fitting with the plywood to cover the ugly stone wall and make the stairway look just beautiful. They have put up a temporary rail to stop me falling into the hole and tomorrow they will do the floor in the cellar and then they can move the freezer down and then they can put the proper rail and spindles in place.

My new kitchen arrives on 25th November, by which time I will have emptied the cupboards and they will all be in the cellar.

The really annoying thng? well, a few weeks ago we sold our tent. We decided that we were never going to be able to go camping again as neither of us can get up off the floor without a crane. With the tent we sold the camping stove and the gas bottle. It would have come in handy when the new kitchen is being fitted - sigh -.
The builders called me into the cellar while Youngest Son was having a shower and showed me the water pouring into the cellar through the wall. He turned the shower off and the flow of water slowed down. So now the back yard has to be dug up to fix the pipes that the council inspector said were not damaged.
We have proved once again that we are right, and the council inspectors are ... well, the word sounds like Bankers

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

I had a dream

Stairs all closed in and the door from the understair cupboard
now fitted at the bottom of the new staircase

The new floor looking good. Youngest son will be
painting walls and skirting boards as soon as the paint arrives.

I had a dream on Thursday night. I was going to keep it and tell you on Monday but it made me laugh myself awake so I decided to share. After all it might brighten your day too.

I had a dream about the new staircase and how the floorboards and joists will be cut sometime this week to make the new entry to our cellar.
In my dream the floor was opened up and the rail and spindles put around the top to stop me falling down the hole. To mark the occasion a ribbon was placed across the entrance and a hand with a pair of scissors cut the ribbon at a Grand Opening Ceremony

When I told "my" builder he had a mouthful of hot tea and for some reason my tale caused him to snort with laughter and he said some tea went down his nose.
Now that was definitely a TMI moment.

As it woke me up laughing and the builder laughed I thought for most of the day and when I told Mr M and my Daughter it kind of gelled in my mind that this is a
Thing That Must Be Done.

Therefore there really will be a Grand Opening Ceremony for the new staircase. I am a quilter so I have ribbon and good sharp scissors. I also have a Granddaughter who has inherited the acting gene. Should I bake a cake? or should I make cupcakes?
I am not a good cake maker. Ask the girls I went to college with they'll tell you the tale of the rock cake and the kitchen window. Perhaps I should make a cup of tea or coffee and take lots of pictures.

The refurbished bathroom is just fabulous.

Me on Monday - towards a new kitchen

The top of the staircase just peeking through the small hole.
It will get bigger eventually

 It's been a long week this weekend. Mr M doesn't like changes in his home, he hates it if I move the furniture so he is pretty darned stressed. Add to this the fact that some really nasty foreign truck driver reversed his huge articulated truck into the side of our car last Monday and you can kind of imagine how Mr M feels about "change"

Anyhooooo, We progressed quite rapidly from cellar full of cra stuff to staircase fixed top and bottom and then I said something.
"Because of all the woodworm in the wood we are chucking out," I said, "could you check all the joists in the floor above you?"

The staircase fixed top and bottom

"Yes" said Mike, and produced the technical testing equipment ( a cross-head screwdriver. You poke the joists, if the point sinks into the wood you have a problem if it doesn't you don't)
He called me down to see what he had found. Three of the joists were affected so this meant stripping the ceiling off the rest of the cellar and checking right across then replacing those affected joists and treating everything with anti-woodworm venom chemicals.
The new ceiling will be plywood with insulation between the joists so the ply has to be treated too. All good stuff for stress right? We still need to get vinyl flooring into the bathroom so we went to a place recommended to us by a satisfied customer and arranged for the man to come and measure.
Then we popped up the hill to see Lady B. She seems to think that she should have stopped crying by now, after all it has been three weeks (her words not mine). I have told her that we would all worry if she wasn't still dissolving and that it is to be expected for the next several years. She doesn't agree. I wish there was some way to convince her that it is not weakness it is human. I mean you don't live with your soul-mate for fifty years and not dissolve into tears unexpectedly when someone says a particular word or a memory fills your mind - do you?
She will be very cross with me for writing this but it is simply my way of coping with the ache I feel for her.

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

PS two more rat bodies were found between the joists so it was A Good Thing we had to strip the ceiling

Me on Monday - no Tuesday, sorry

Birthday boy, anniversary couple and Miss Boo all listening
 to Grandpa (or WSD* as my daughter calls him)

Some of the contents of the cellar in the garden before it
 travels on to the tip

 This weekend has been like the curates egg, good and bad. We had a lovely birthday/anniversary lunch with my Daughter and her family. They celebrated 17 years of marriage and also the birthday of S-i-L. They figured that if he got married on his birthday he wouldn't forget, so far this has been right. Miss Boo made us all laugh .... need to give background here... Mr M is diabetic and I have just been upgraded with new dentures. He can't eat sugary stuff and I was still learning to chew without biting my own face, so.
Miss Boo made us all laugh when she refused to give Grandpa any of her raspberry ripple ice cream and said she would make sure that she always had dessert that was too sweet for Grandpa and too chewy for Grandma.
It was a lovely lunch.

Sunday I continued putting the contents of my larder into boxes ready for the builders to come and do the stairs into the cellar. Paused briefly when Lady B arrived with some stuff. She is not a great one for hugging but I so wanted to wrap her in my arms. I knew it would finish us both completely so I stiffened my upper lip and so did she.

one corner of the nearly empty cellar

Monday and Mr M went off to work at silly o'clock. I continued slowly moving stuff out of the way and when the builders arrived we went down into the cellar. O.M.Goodness! Some of the stuff has been quietly mouldering there for thirty years. After an hour and a half most of it was out in the rain in the garden. We had discovered the dead rat, taken precautions with gloves and stuff because of the rat sh*t and I had condemned most of the stuff to the tip.
The builders are really good. They treat me like a little old lady...... which I am, and they shifted everything.
Mr M came home and showed me the photograph of our little car after a nasty foreign truck driver had reversed into it in the works. Yes he signed a letter saying he was responsible, no Mr M wasn't in the car when it was hit, it was parked and yes I still feel really nauseous every time I think of it. We haven't had the darned thing very long, it is the newest car we have ever had and this is the second time it has been bumped. What a b*tch of a start to the week eh?

My Thanks to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this meme and keeping me writing (and sane)
*WSD... Wicked Step Dad

Birthday and Anniversary so the Birthday boy doesn't forget

The Birthday Boy and his lovely wife celebrate their anniversary
17 years. I think he's a keeper

Miss Boo, totally full after eating her own dessert and then some of Mummy's and some of Daddy's
Even Grandpa had dessert!

Mr M letting his Raspberry Trifle go down after a really good lunch

After the couple of weeks we have experienced it was lovely to sit and talk and eat really good food. We went to the Cripple Creek for lunch. It was totally full, the food was really good and we all made sure we had enough room for dessert. This was the first time back there for us since the middle of the 1990s. It has changed a wee bit and for the better. Fabulous meal, fabulous company and now we have time to make a cuppa and have a snooze.

Today was the funeral.

I am so proud of my cousins and my children. Not one of them was afraid to cry. This man has been a shining star in all our lives so it was hard to have to let go of him.

His brother wrote a poem about the two of them that softened everyone up and then the music while the curtains closed around his coffin made sure that everyone wept.

Even the UPS driver that collects the parcels they send out for their business was there.


I salute you Lord Admiral, you are locked in my memory forever.

Me on Monday - Kitchen designer

See all this kitchen? well it will soon be gone. We spent four hours on Saturday with the help of a marvellous designer-man called Babek putting together my nearly dream kitchen. Everyone who has listened to me knows that my dream kitchen is all stainless steel with catering range appliances and a floor that slopes slightly to a drain so it can be hosed down with a pressure hose.

Because I am 70 and not likely to need that standard of appliance unless I have a full time cook in my future I am having the other dream - an Edwardian style, arsenic green kitchen that has only two cupboards as all the rest of the units are drawers.

My knees are reluctant to bend too far now AND kneeling is out of the question so if I need something from the back of a cupboard I have to text Miss Boo to come up to our house and get it for me. She doesn't need that responsibility at age 11 and usually I need something after she has gone to school or bed. So all drawers. The larder will be two pull out shelf units. The colour is called sage these days but is the same as the victorian kitchens had and in those days the pigment used was arsenic - I know, it's a wonder the human race survived eh?

We are keeping our sink because we like it, we are keeping our microwave because we like it the dishwasher could have been kept right up to the moment its on/off button fell inside the door and the compartment that holds the tablet refused to shut. The fridge will be replaced by a fridge freezer and I will have an oven that I don't have to bend down to see in and it has what they call a slide and hide door! apparently this is what they use on on Bakeoff. As I don't watch it I can only pass on what Mr M says.

OH, oh talking of my best beloved, he is now saying that out of the whole kitchen he only chose the wine cooler - you remember that we don't drink, right? Yes he did choose the wine cooler. He also made a lot of other positive contributions to the layout, but a wine cooler for a non drinker?

"Well," he said, "I can keep my bottles of pop and water in there and that takes them out of the fridge"

And he's right. At least a quarter of the fridge is taken up with bottles of water and cans and bottles of pop and squash so I think he is brilliant!

Lady Bluefunnel is coping. I am hoping that when she pauses for breath I will be able to support her but I realise that she has to do things in her own time. I just want to help where I can. Funeral this week

My thanks to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this meme and drawing me back every week to keep writing

Me on Monday - still reeling

It's been a shocking week. The Lord Admiral Bluefunnel died on Thursday. A bloodclot took him from us and left us all with a huge hole in our lives.

He was my cousin and he was the closest I had to a brother, me being an only child. We went on holiday together, My Dad sold us castles for threepence - we jointly owned Cardiff Castle because it was big. We shared a tent and I was sick in his wellies and now he has gone.

We had dinner with them on the previous Sunday and we laughed so much. I will carry that image in my mind forever.

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

Memorandum Monday - back from the Northern hills

The Tyne Bridge in the heart of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Roman road, no! really! Roman road

 We went to Northumberland for my birthday treat.
"Where do you want to go" asked Mr M after saying no to Ireland because I wasn't definite about exactly where to go.
"OOH I said, what about Morcambe, I would love to see the sculpture of Eric Morcambe that's there."
"Hmmmm," he said, clicking the mouse and staring at maps and stuff.
Several hours later he turned and said "We are booked into a log cabin in the same place we went to before."
"In Morcambe? We've never been to Morcambe before" There was a momentary silence and then he said
"AH, I got a bit side tracked, we are going to Northumberland now."
Oh that's great," I said, "We can go to Alnwick Castle and back to Cragside." Suddenly I was excited and really eager to be there.
The Satnav lady got a bit stroppy with us because we kept ignoring her advice. She never once shouted at us but you could hear the frustration in her voice when she told us to "take the second exit in this roundabout" and we took the first one because we were stopping for a loo break.

Top o' the world, Ma - ooh hidden dips!

We had a lovely time. We went to Wallington on my actual birthday. Fabulous house and lovely people there.
because we were in that bit of country between Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall there were lots of very straight roads and lots of hidden dips where the road ahead looked totally flat and straight but suddenly a car pops out of the ground.
I discovered that even though the satnav lady is very nice I like my book of maps and I feel kind of lost without it. I like following the roads across the pages and telling Mr M what number road he has to look for and what the name of the town is likely to be. I am a good Nagavator (as my cousin once called me)

The obligatory hat picture - actually I took three because
there were three different hats

We went to Cragside again. The first private house to be lit with electricity in this country. Mr M posed for the now compulsory hat pictures. It is such a fabulous house and they have a minibus for those of us who can no longer walk far. The restaurant was lovely and we spent ages in the shop. I got my National Trust passport stamped so I have nearly completed my second one.  So that's me on Monday. Back to the routine, well not really because I still have plumbers needing to come back and ... plumb and then I shall nee to get someone to do the floor and then I shall prepare for disruption with my plans for the stairs to the cellar................. more of that anon

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

Me on Monday - Still aching

It has been a plubers on Friday, Dragondaze on Saturday and ache all day Sunday kind of a weekend. There are tiles on that wall now but I forgot the camera and my legs wouldn't do the stairs twice in ten minutes. The rest of the walls will be painted a lovely duck-egg blue/green and it will look lovely when it's finished - honest. Getting there is just so awful.

We have plumbers putting in a shower instead of a bath
*sigh* so stressful

 Saturday was the annual Games, War Games, Role Playing and board games , and comic convention known as Dragondaze. The first one was held 32 years ago and I was involved in writing the competition and organising the event. It was held through the 1980s and into the 1990s and then real life interfered and people who were involved had kids, got jobs that required lots of time and it kind of hibernated until 2014 when a friend came to me and asked if he could use the name for a charity event he was planning. We talk and it was so exciting I got involved. Here we are three years later raising thousands for Barnardo's and a local children's charity and already talking about next year.

Dragondaze, the annual games and wargames and comics convention

 It was a long day and the Murder Mystery game I hoped to run didn't happen because not enough people signed up. Disappointing but not that upsetting as Mr M didn't feel too good and I felt so tired and stressed from plumbers.
Sunday we went out for breakfast and to do the shopping. We had breakfast in the HUngry Horse and then decided to go for a little ride. Mr M likes to drive. It is his hobby. Not driving fast, not driving big cars. Just driving and stopping at small cafes or garden centres for a cuppa and a Loo break.
We ended up at Clive's Fruit Farm. Not saying much because we are taking the Bluefunnels there soon -ish and I want them to be excited about it.

Clive's Fruit Farm where this hadnsome chap was putting
on the style

Came home about 5pm after stopping for dinner at Labels, Ross on Wye and I settled into my chair to crochet another flower - photograph when I get them right.

My thanks once again to Sian for inventing this meme and keeping me writing.

Me on Monday - The icing on the cake

You all know that I have been researching my ancestors for nearly thirty years, yes? You know I have "actors" in the line-up and that those actors had children, travelled all over the world and could tell lies to gold medal standard.

WELL............

On Saturday Mr M and I went to the home of a fellow researcher as she was going to help me look through the British Library Archives for any newspaper reviews of my actors when they were in South Africa. We found several good things and duly saved them to a memory stick for me to transcribe later. She also found information about a totally different branch of my tree and I saved that too.
Mr M was with her husband and deeply engrossed in model railway stuff when we finally peeled ourselves away from the computer. We said our thank yous and goodbyes and headed off for a quick lunch.
My friend didn't stop looking. She kept putting the names I told her into various search engines and sending me the results! Now I have images of the application of my great-aunt to follow her husband to the USA in 1918. It even has a picture of her with their first-born son. Apart from being able to see what she looked like when she was 22 it has also confirmed that this is a picture of her in later life. This really is the icing on my family cake.
Also this weekend I have had an article accepted for an online magazine (genealogy based of course) and a request for more. That made me feel good.
We have sold the tent, finally admitting openly that we will never be able to go camping anymore. Not with his knees and my back. We could easily get into/onto the airbed at night but would need a crane to get us off the floor in the morning.
The last thing we arranged this weekend was for the plumber to come this week to fix a few small things and to remove the bath and put in a new shower upstairs. Now that will be new!

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