Things people say: number two

See the water spraying up? FLOOD!

Fearless photographer Horace in Lyme Regis

The pictures are from our birthday week holiday. Mr M celebrated a birthday and we spent the week in Beer in Devon. You are probably aware that the south west was battered by Storm Imogen and there wasa flooding. This particular flooded bit was at the top of the hill that leads eventually down to the village of Beer. But that's not why I am writing

Me taking a picture of Mr M - or Horace, to give him his holiday name - is not the reason I am writing either.

No, the reason I am writing is something we overheard while dining at The Dolphin Hotel in Beer on Friday evening. Let's make no bones about this, I was eavesdropping. Well if people that are half a room away talk loud enough for me to hear what am I supposed to do? Hmm, talk louder than them? I think not. We kept on eating because letting our food go cold was not an option and we listened. This is hard for Horace because as soon as he goes on holiday he goes deaf. We decided many years ago this is because his ears go on holiday too but they go to Porthcawl while he goes all over the country.
Anyhooo, there we were chomping politely and listening while one of the ladies described a bookshop in Seaton
"It's absolutely full of books from ceiling to floor"

Now is it just me or is that odd? We have added it to our collection of over heard things, the best one still being the voice overheard in Abergavenny market "No! you can't have a gas-mask!"

We think that "From ceiling to floor" is going to rank quite highly. There will be detailed posts about the holiday as I get the journal out and sort through some pictures. Now there's a thing. I had six weeks of not going far and not lifting the camera and I realised on this holiday that even though it is around my neck all the time I have broken the habit of automatically pointing the camera and taking a shot whenever something moves. It took three separate trips through the flood before I thought how good a picture would be - DUH!

The things people say - number one

I can ring my bell

True story here. My daughter occasionally takes time off work to volunteer for things at Miss Boo's school. Sometimes the children have to walk into the city centre to attend the local Catholic Church. They need parents to go with them because they have to cross several roads.The last time my daughter helped with supervision one of the teachers called out

"Mrs R, can you stop traffic?"
"It has been known Mrs D," replied my daughter "It has been known"

Collapse of red-faced teacher while the children patiently waited for my daughter to press the button on the pedestrian crossing lights

I was reminded of this and needed to write it down somewhere for posterity

Memorandum Monday - Still improving

It's been a quiet week......................... I have done that intro before, but you know what I mean.
We sold my late Father-in-law's car so that has gone into the probate pot. We went Costco shopping and my legs survived. I worried about my daughter who has a respiratory tract infection and won't stay home and get better. I worried about Youngest Son who drives articulated lorries and has to go across the Severn Crossing and it has been a bit windy!! Imagine my horror when I am scrolling through FB and there is a picture of a lorry on its side on the old Severn Bridge and it is the firm that he drives for - AND he was in work at the time. Shortness of breath was the order of the moment until I realised that YS had commented on the picture and said No it wasn't him.
Dinner at the Bluefunnels on Sunday. Lady B loves a roast dinner and would have one every day but the Lord Admiral likes other food too so she knows she can invite us to eat there and do a roast. She always makes enough for a small army and then piles the left overs onto a plate for Mr M to have the following day. To make the transportation of a plate loaded with food easier she gave Mr M a large cake carrier from Lakeland as his Christmas gift. He was able to test it on Sunday and we can report that with the addition of a circle of that weird non-slip stuff you are supposed to put under rugs the transporting was a huge success and he was able to eat his second dinner when he came home from work today.
What have I learned this weekend? That an hour is no time at all when you are doing the Great British Garden Watch. We don't get a great variety of birds in our tiny front garden, mostly sparrows that move so quickly they are difficult to see let alone count. One Bluetit, one Coal Tit, one Blackbird and fifteen sparrows - I forgot about the time but they all arrived stuffed their faces and left within 20 minutes. Not bad for a garden that is on a main road with people constantly walking past

My thanks to Sian at FromHighInTheSkyfor inventing this way of keeping me writing, next week I will try from the tablet because we are away from home - leaving YS to fend for himself.

Memorandum Monday - I learnt it today

It has been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon ... sorry in Our Street.

Mr M has been in work, Youngest Son is settling into his new job and Miss Boo is very glad to be in school and no longer having to play with us adults.
Did I learn something new this week? well, yes I did. I now know exactly what these TV cooks and chefs are talking about when they say "add a little Kosher salt"
To paraphrase Inego Montoya in The Princess Bride
"I do not think it means what you think it means"
I'll let you search T'internets yourselves, always good to do your own research.
My health is improving in leaps and bounds - I even managed a little leap or two of my own this week, and as long as I remember to moisturise every day I seem to be keeping the eczema well under control. I am totally off the topical steroids - and there's a subject for research if ever I saw one - and for the first time in several years I think I am free of their pernicious influence.
My advice to anyone with eczema is to step away from the steroids ( with medical supervision) and never go near them EVER again.

My thanks to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this way of keeping me blogging
See you all next week

Memorandum Monday - clearing up

The clearing up of my late Father-in-law's house kind of took a back seat to the cellulitis before Christmas so on Saturday we all agreed to meet there and do a bit more.
Big Bro took on the shed. He is very much of the opinion that anything we don't want should go straight to the tip and that would have been the fate of most of the contents of the house. "Nobody would want that" he kept saying, almost like a mantra to keep him going and that's when I learnt that this is just as painful for him as for Mr M and this is how he copes.
Mr M took up station outside the shed and let Big Bro pass things out to him where they were examined and then thrown in the box for the tip.
Mr M's sister is having the most difficulty with this. She is the youngest and until now had never had a Christmas without her Dad being there. She moved with the parents when they went to Hampshire and had them all to herself for nearly 20 years so everything in the house has meaning and she gets quite exhausted with the decisions she has to make. We worked hard sorting and packing stuff for the charity shops and for the night shelter and then we went to Paige's in Cwmbran for a meal to celebrate F-i-L's birthday - yes that was another anniversary they have managed to get through. We paid for the meal with the money made from selling F-i-L's boxed sets of DVDs on ebay. Everyone thought this was a good way of sharing the money.
There is still a lot to be done but until Probate is proved we can't do anything about the house except empty it.
I have learnt a lot about my in laws and found it more than interesting to observe how grief is dealt with by those closest and by those who, like me are one step away.
My people watching skill are still sharp and the curiosity that the old medication prevented has returned.
My thanks to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this Monday Meme to keep me writing perhaps I will pick up the camera again for next week.

Me on Monday - Still laughing

This is my man in his earthquake slippers

It's been a surprise outing with the Bluefunnels, shopping in an outlet, wholefood and rain, back out for trousis and a flat tyre kind of a weekend.

Did I learn something new? Yes, I think I did, but I'll get to that in due course.

The Lord Admiral and Lady Bluefunnel asked if we were doing anything on Saturday. We said no so they picked us up at 8.30am and we had breakfast at Jo's Place on the A48 at Whitchurch. The laughter had begun before we had left the end of the street because Mr M and I we still in bed at 8.15am. I failed to notice that the setting for the alarm was weekdays only so it didn't go off. We were woken my the text message from Lady B saying they were on the M4. We were only three minutes late.
After breakfast we drove the few miles to Ross-on-Wye and went into Labels. I have never been in there. They have a Bon Marche shop so I was delighted. The men went to the left where all the mens clothing stores were and we went into Bon Marche so that Lady B could buy some winter trousis.
We met up again and headed upstairs. Mr M said that he hadn't bought the trousis he tried because "You don't do sewing anymore" He can't get his head around it when I say that shortening trouser-legs is not real sewing. We then headed for Cheltenham - the pretty way - because they wanted to show us a fabulous store. It was nice. loads of stuff for people who are into cooking. We bought some Chinese five spice and a new pepper mill because I killed the old one, oh and some sourdough starter.
Then it started raining again. By this time we were heading back towards home so we stopped in Henley's Farm Shop for a little late lunch and the chance to buy meat and veg.
When we were back at home I told Mr M that if he wanted to go to Labels and get the trousis that fitted him except for the length then I was happy to go with him. He nodded.
On Sunday He asked if I felt like going so we did. When we got there he took me to the rack and said
"These are the ones I tried on yesterday, see my handkerchief is still in the pocket".
I promise I did not laugh out loud in the shop. I have done every time I have told my children about it.
We came home from there the pretty way and after a stop at Oakchurch Farm Shop we headed home.
We were within half a mile of our house when there were strange noises and the car felt like it was driving over bricks. We had a flat tyre. Now neither of us are the right shape for lying on the floor to seek out the jacking point on the car and so I called the AA. they seem to be busy on Sundays. There was an hour waiting time. Mr M walked home for a wee and came back just as the nice man in the yellow van arrived. He took over the conversation and I then walked home and had a wee and leaned against the radiator to warm... the cockles of my heart - shall we say.
A very eventful weekend. where everything turned out right in the end.
My thanks to Sian over at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this way of keeping me blogging

Memorandum Monday - Late but still walking

This is the first Monday of the year and Sian over at FromHighInTheSky has suggested that we should try to include one new thing that we have learned.
Having written that I realise that it has to be a new thing doesn't it, you can't learn an old thing that you already knew, so it must be new to you (make mental note to improve quality of written English this year instead of waffling on).

So it's been a strange weekend. Our visitor, Wicked Uncle Cliff, Arrived on 30th December and I stayed up WAY past my bedtime because we always have so much to talk about and never enough time.
How is he related? oh..... well he is an honorary Uncle to Miss Boo. We have known him since 1984 when I opened a games and figures shop with my cousin and Cliff worked for one of our suppliers. We talked on the phone once or twice a month for four years and then he came to a games convention that we ran.
We have been friends ever since.
He brought chocolates and laughter with him and he took Miss Boo out to buy her a present. She asked if they could go to Waterstones because there were books she liked. Cliff is a great reader so he said yes. She said "I have a long list of books Uncle Cliff how many can we choose?"
"You can have all of them as long as you read them."
Isn't is wonderful that a ten year old thinks a book shop is paradise and a library is heaven? She is on first name terms with the librarians in our local library and visits every saturday morning after her swimming session.
I don't think I did learn anything new this weekend. I am still consolidating the improvements in my health now that the cellulitis has been beaten back. Six weeks of antibiotics has played havoc with my immune system and my digestion. My children are the greatest thing that I have ever achieved and I cannot describe how proud I am of all of them. My grandchildren are shaping up to become amazing adults and my great grandchildren are beginning to develop into delighful and interesting little people.
I still prefer children and teenagers to babies and seeing them from the time they are around three years old, learning every moment of the day and increasing their language and skills makes me have hope for the future
The urge is upon me to write another Murder Mystery freeform game and the plot is thickening in my brain as I write.
So Happy New Year to everyone and let's hope it is a healthy one eh?