Saturday, December 20, 2008

WE HAVE SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!

I have managed to install and load the printer and it is working properly after a very long time.
NEXT.....INSTALL THE ROUTER.

What is it with me and medication?
My doctor regularly offers me the really good stuff for my joints,back problems etc BUT anything over a medioum strength and I end up with a puking migraine.How is that possible? Painkillers are meant to stop headaches not cause them.
Last night I took something new for the shoulder spasm that I have and I awoke at 3:30am with the start of a puking headache.

Belle phoned last night(no it was early this morning), they are on the way to Missouri.
And the weather prediction is looking a little frosty for Branson.
I so would love a REAL white Christmas, even as a child when there was more really bad snow it didn't really snow until after Christmas Day.

Here comes Beauty.....I will be back later.

Friday, December 19, 2008

I SWEAR SHE IS MESSING WITH MY HEAD.....

PIANOMAN'S MOTHER IS DRIVING ME NUTTY!
As Pianoman is in hospital with pneumonia I am visiting his mother daily to check on her and give her lunch AND feed Simba.Well for days she has been wittering on about her prescription which I requested Monday but as it takes 2 days to be done I couldn't get it until yesterday.Well to cut a long story short(I promise you do not want to hear it!) after she had me running around everywhere, she ALREADY had it, she had got the neighbour to get it BUT couldn't remember.
She is driving me potty.
I personally think she is perfectly lucid and it is a master stroke at revenge, if this theory is true she makes Jane Fonda in Monster-in-Law look like a pussy cat!

Talking of pussy cats.
After trying but failing to pick up the prescription I drove back to Pianoman's mother's house around the back of Splott Road Library and came across a kitten that had been knocked over and killed still in the road.
Bastards.
They could have at least picked up the little thing and done something with it.
I went to the PDSA on Bute Street for advice on what to do with the kitten and they were prepared to take him and deal with it so I left it there.
I was as weepy as if the kitten had been one of Simbas.
Some people can be heartless bastards.
Imagine if the children had come home from school and seen it, the kitten was a bit of a mess and if I had seen that as a child I would have been devastated.

I am so exhausted from visiting Pianomand and his mother daily that I am knackered.....there is no other word for it,I haven't watched TV in 2 weeks and that is unusual for me.
However, last night the girls were watching a program about obese teenagers finding love at a 'Fat Camp' and I did catch a glimpse and all I could think was how low will these TV shows stoop to make a reality TV show and increase ratings? It made me think 'Am I really missing anything by not watching TV?'.
The lost property at THE WINTER WONDERLAND


ONE SCARY SNOWMAN


BEAUTY WATCHING THE SKATING

BEAUTY MEETING SANTA AT THE WEEKEND AT M&S LLANISHEN

WHAT A CUTE SANTA.


Saturday, December 13, 2008

I HAVE EVIDENCE THAT MY MIND IS GOING.....

I HAVE BEEN SAT HERE AT THE COMPUTER WONDERING WHY IT IS DIFFICULT TO SEE THE KEYBOARD
AND THE ANSWER IS
I DON'T HAVE MY GLASSES ON!
Old age definitely does not come alone!
I have a new pair of reading glasses that only cost £35 and are lilac and like the NHS glasses of my school days and I love them.I have many,many,many off the shelf glasses that I have bought from supermarkets but they all look the same and so I am glad that my REAL glasses look so retro as I will have no problem finding them.

I haven't done a Pollyanna-ism for ages so here is one.
It is raining outside even though the weather forecaster said cold and dry and I am glad because?
it is a brilliant reason not to go out and it means I can take things easy and rest my back and my neck.
And do the cleaning and do the washing so not much rest really!

Friday, December 12, 2008

I BELIEVE IN THE 'MAN FLU'

AND I AM GOING TO START A FACEBOOK GROUP TO PROMOTE THE ACCEPTANCE OF 'MANFLU' AS A RECOGNISED ILLNESS.

When a person has a light cold or heavy cold then they know what that is and then there is Flu.
With Flu you cannot lift your head off the bed without your brain seemingly bouncing around inside your skull and causing so much pain that lifting your head is something you avoid doing at all costs.
And then there is MANFLU..... so much worse than a heavy cold but different to Flu as the whole 'HEAD' thing doesn't happen(sorry I can't be more technical ).
I have 'MANFLU' and I feel very poorly.
I believe that using the word Flu in the description of the illness is what causes the problems.
There may not be a lot of you out there who read this blog but there is enough of you to think seriously about a new name for this illness which even I as a woman believes in.

Pianoman is slightly better but he remains in hospital with pneumonia and is still in bed which is very unusual for Pianoman, he must be very poorly for him not to be wandering.
Social Services have suggested that whilst Pianoman is in hospital then his mum should be in residential care and I totally agree as she thought I was Pianoman's cousin the day before yesterday and told me all about everything 'Allyson' had been doing for her.
SnoWhite made Pianoman's mums lunch yesterday as I stayed home with Beauty who is still ill with something viral, she is getting better but last night she had an episode of night terrors.
I am taking her to the school concert today but she might just end up watching.

Due to the whole Viral MANFLU infection that I have, my neck is screaming in pain.Belle would be encouraging me to go to the doctors for stronger pain killers if she were here, she is like a conscience sitting on your shoulder encouraging you to do the right thing.
And she is home in Florida and I miss her and I miss Beau and Woody even though they didn't visit. I am a silly moo!
The next visit is from Anastasia and Dimitri next week.
This Mama hen definitely needs her chickies close.


Thursday, December 11, 2008

I AM SO UPSET.....

IKEA CHRISTMAS TREE


NTL has a new format and it is just way too much detail on one page and my poor eyesight is having difficulty.I know.....I sound like a teenager bitchin moaning over the new Facebook!

2nd moan.....Beauty is so poorly bad that all HER & MY shore leave is cancelled.I think that I also have what she has.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST BUT MOST.....Belle has gone home to Florida and I miss her and I want her and Beau to come and live in Cardiff near The Mama Lady(the girls call me that).But Beau would definitely miss the sun and his family and I couldn't ask that of anyone.
I will phone on Sunday.

Last night I went to say GOODBYE to Belle who was staying at her Dads house.The house is in Cathays opposite The Student Pub in Cardiff The Woody and the crowds and noise were horrendous.
The houses are terraced and right onto the street with no front gardens and a crowd had congregated outside the house so I got out of the car and MOVED them on.One look at me and they must have thought OH MY GOODNESS.....IT'S MY MOTHER!
That was probably because they looked like solicitors rather than students, students would have taken a little bit more coaxing to move.Thankfully, even though they were drunk they were jovial like a group of rugby fans rather than football fans.
And the most popular outfit for a young man in Cardiff last night was, believe it or not.....an Elf costume!

Today's Christmas song.


This is one of my most favourite Christmas songs.
Still no Cliff!
Oh what the heck..... 2 songs for today.



Merry Cliff-mas


More scarves, I knitted this one.

I bought this hand knitted scarf at Bessemer Market for £1




She is NOT a Christmas Tree!!!!!
Every year they decorate her, poor kid.


Wednesday, December 10, 2008


I have spared you all today, no Cliff yet!











I love this song.
BIG NEWS.......I have learned to text!
Not much of an achievement for most people but for me that is amazing.
I am so not a Luddite but I do have problems with technology and this is the woman who passed the first year of computer degree!
I just cannot retain these things in my head but I am really good at the arts so that is something.
However, the girls are all better on the computer than me (even Beauty) but it is me that has to sort out any computer related problems.
Fiona was having a meltdown the other day because the computer wouldn't work so I suggested that I take a look and she sarcastically said WHY DO YOU HAVE MAGIC FINGERS?
To cut a long story short.....It seems that I do have magic fingers and was able to quickly get the computer working.....the plug had come out!
So it seems that I have other uses than JUST supplying money to the LITTLE DRAIN ON MY RESOURCES.
Whilst Belle was home I decided to take all the girls out for a meal, we had a brilliant meal at Pizza Hut in the Bay.
OUR PIZZA HUT PARTY

BELLE,MIKE&ARIEL

I also have pictures of SnoWhite and Fiona but they like to approve all photographs so maybe later.

I have to rush off now as I have to go feed Pianoman's mother as social services only do 2 visits a day.


Thursday, December 04, 2008

FOR STEVE.....

TODAY'S SONG FOR CHRISTMAS.


Tomorrow the suffering begins,I am a Cliff Richard fan!


Did anyone else read this today


Karen Matthews, the mother of nine-year-old Shannon, has been convicted of kidnapping her own daughter.

Matthews, 33, and her co-accused Michael Donovan, 40, were found guilty of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.


This story makes me feel sick to my stomach.

How could they do this?

I try to not to read missing children news reports as it upsets me too much. So many times it turns out to be the mother and I just can't deal with that.

I am now going out Christmas shopping but when I come back I will write some more, something more uplifting


HONEY I'M HOME.....

I have just returned from Christmas shopping and for Beauty I bought Hide and Seek Scooby and Aquadraw Barbie as I know for sure she wants them.Whenever I go shopping and she sees them it is hard to drag her away from them.And a surprise for SnoWhite.....yes SnoWhite it is a surprise!

I went to Smyths in Leckwith,I also went there yesterday but yesterday I had a run-in with a fellow driver.I parked my car and walked to the store but when I got there I realised that I had forgotten something I needed and went back to the car.On getting close a car screeched to a stop and parked badly next to my car, on opening his car door he gave mine a bad smack.He ignored my car and walked away and said nothing to me so I opened my car door and gave his car an almighty slap.The other driver was walking away but he jumped and knew what I had done and half turned to say something, he looked livid. However, he thought better of it and walked away.
Little sh*t deserved it and I feel no remorse.If he had said something I would have said AH DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT,but he didn't. I would have gone out of my way to be nice if he had said something.


Wednesday, December 03, 2008

TODAY'S FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS SONG



Definitely the best Christmas song ever......but I do love lots more.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

AGAIN.....COLD TOES.

'When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn't imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter. '
Groundhog Day


I feel that I am living my own Groundhog Day, I wake up every morning and all that I do is moan about my cold toes so I have invested in some bed socks AND yes I know that I could have knitted them myself but that would have meant cold toes still in March!

MY CHRISTMAS SONG FOR TODAY






CHRISTMAS PICTURES FOR ARIEL,BELLE AND ANASTASIA
BUT ESPECIALLY FOR ARIEL BECAUSE SHE ASKED FOR THEM





MERRY KITSCHMAS

I am off on the school run so TO BE CONTINUED.

Monday, December 01, 2008

'OKAY CAMPERS,RISE AND SHINE,AND DON'T FORGET YOUR BOOTIES 'CAUSE IT'S COOOOOOLD OUT THERE TODAY

IT'S COLD OUT THERE EVERYDAY!'

A philosophical question.....if a philosopher says IF YOU CAN NOT SEE IT THEN IT IS NOT THERE why is it that if I do not look at my feet they are still cold?
Why if I can not see a baby dying of malnutrition and disease does it still happen?
Why if I can not see our guinea pigs do they still squeak for endless supplies of food every time they hear me, surely they do not exist?
That premise would surely mean that all racists, bigots and all other nasty people do not exist because I can not see them!
Oh I so wish the last were true.

I am again awake pre-Beauty, I awoke feeling so hot that I couldn't stay in bed a second longer.So I got up and came downstairs and now I am freezing my arse of with the cold.
6am is definitely to early to be getting all philosophical!
My neck is again communicating with me, it is positively srceaming at me and is there a Pollyanna-ism that I can take from this?
I suppose there is the fact that I can still feel my neck whilst some poor people can't .....I know.....yeh pretty lame and poncy so how about if I punched my least favourite person in the head the pain couldn't get any worse! Hardly the spirit of Pollyanna-isms I hear you saying but there isn't anyone who I dislike enough to punch.....wow I am certainly mellowing with age.
I was wrong, there are many people on the Amnesty International website that I could cheerfully punch, there..... so not so mellow really.

Yet again I wish that Brownies lived in my house, I wish that I could wake up and find the house clean and all the washing washed, dried and folded. Yeh and man might land on the moon.........
I have to pick up my new glasses this morning so the housework will have to wait a little, they are lilac.

Beauty's child minder(I love this woman, I couldn't live without her) is going on holiday next week and so Beauty had 2 sessions this week instead of 1.They went out on Saturday and Sunday and it was bliss, with all my wonderful plans in the end I just fell asleep and it was fantastic but I did however find time to eat half a packet of chocolate Hobnobs.......mmmmmmm.
Yesterday afternoon as a treat I took Beauty to Smyth's the toy shop but when we got there she was napping and refused to wake up and go into the shop so I went to Hobby Craft which is just close by and bought some wool for my scarf knitting.


MY LATEST KNITTING CREATION

I went to Hobby Craft to buy black wool but I couldn't resist buying this wool, it is lovely to knit with and the colours are beautiful.

This is the latest baby basket, it was for SnoWhite's maths tutor, they just had another baby boy.Fiona was appalled that I should give away such a beautiful tin wash tub but they were on sale and cheaper than baskets.




the treats are obviously not for the baby(who has not been named yet) but the other children.
It must be something in the air or water locally but my list of baby baskets to make is increasing steadily.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

I AM AWAKE.....

THE LAST LEAF


CATHAYS CEMETERY IN WINTER


BUT BEAUTY IS STILL ASLEEP!
It is still her fault though that I am awake, my neck is really aching still from dragging her through ASDA. Beauty is getting to be quite a big girl.
Pain is such a strange thing, I have been bleating on for weeks about my neck hurting from over doing it from carrying bags that were too heavy but that pain has totally gone overnight to be replaced by a different type of neck pain. However, the Pollyanna in me says that I should be glad because it is a different type of pain and nowhere near as bad as the 'carrying bags' pain.
One of the sad realities of being a humanist is that I can no longer look forward to a 'next-life' where I will have a perfect body and be pain free, emotionally I can see how religion can be a comfort in many ways. Perhaps I am not really a humanist after all because if I could prove that GOD and JESUS were real I would be back there in a heartbeat. I think I am really stuck in the middle as an Agnostic rather than a Theist or an Atheist.
My comfort is that I live my life as best that I can and as I have said before,using Aslan talking to the Telmarine soldier in THE FINAL BATTLE as an example, (in my words of course) you lived a good life and lived it as if you were worshiping me, surely that should be enough.
Now that is definitely way too deep for a Sunday morning!
I am definitely not eating enough chocolate.



I slept through the match but awoke to watch the last 5 minutes and almost had a heart attack from stress as the gap from Wales' lead was narrowed and narrowed.
Beauty went out with the child minder yesterday and I enjoyed 3 Beauty free hours and it was wonderful



Roy wood said he wished it could be Christmas everyday but make it 'child minder day' every day and I would be a very happy bunny.That is why I love Beauty going to school and the wonderful thing is that she loves it too!

I love this little cutie to bits but she is so exhausting.




Don't you just love this story?
Imagine the conversation with Beauty and Pirate Patch?

One of the biggest frustrations facing journalists is being unable to get through to people on the phone. But as Mary Harper discovered, contacting the Somali pirates on the Sirius Star turned out to be child's play.

Sirius Star off the coast of Somalia (US Navy image via Getty Images)
The pirates on the Sirius Star put the phone down on the BBC

It was a cold, dark, wet and miserable Sunday afternoon. I was in my car, driving my 12-year-old daughter and her friend back from a birthday party. I was tired and fed up from being in the car.

"Mummy, mummy," trilled a voice from the back. "I want to phone the pirates."

My daughter had heard me repeatedly trying to get through to the Somali pirates on board the Sirius Star.

They usually picked up the phone but put it down again when I said I was from the BBC. My obsession with getting through to them had reached the point that I had even saved their number on my mobile phone.

"Mummy, mummy, please can I phone the pirates for you?"

"No."

"Pleeeeez."

By this time, with rain battering my windscreen and cars jamming the road, I was at the end of my tether.

"OK", I said, tossing the phone into the back of the car.

"They are under P for pirates."

Giggling with pirates

"Hello. Please can I talk to the pirates," said my daughter in her obviously childish voice.

I could hear someone replying and a bizarre conversation ensued which eventually ended when my daughter collapsed in giggles.

Our last resource is the sea, and foreign trawlers are plundering our fish
Daybad, Somali priate

This was a breakthrough. Dialogue had been established.

The next day, I went to the crowded office in Bush House in London where the BBC Somali Service is based. I told them the story.

"Let's try now," said producer Said Musa, who, dare I say it, looks a bit like a pirate himself. He has a wild look about him with flashing eyes and a swashbuckling saunter.

He dialled the number. A pirate answered. "I'm sorry," he barked in Somali, "the boss pirate is sleeping. He was very busy last night keeping watch for possible attackers, night time, you know, is the busiest time for us. Call back in two hours."

PICTURES FROM HOME

BEAUTY IN PIZZA HUT WEARING THE CHRISTMAS HAT THAT I KNITTED HER

HOLLY THE CLOWN


MY LATEST SCARVES

Saturday, November 29, 2008

MELTDOWN!

My little sweetheart!


Yesterday, Beauty had a meltdown of the most amazing kind.It took maybe 20 minutes plus to drag her from the tills in ASDA in The Bay to the car parked in the disability bay which would normally take 1 minute if we ran(if I could run!). And the problem?
Beauty and I had just taken my sister who was visiting from Sussex to Pizza hut and when the meal was over and we were leaving the waitress gave Beauty a balloon which I tied to her wrist.The string remained tied to her wrist but the balloon came loose and floated away(helium filled) to the ceiling of the shop and ASDA has very high ceilings. Well Beauty refused to leave her balloon and I had to drag her inch by inch to the car park, I now feel as if I have dislocated my shoulder AND my back. I was soaked with perspiration by the end of it and it was nothing to do with my age. I have also lost 2 pounds in weight since yesterday and that is not a joke.
My joints also went into their own personal meltdown and the only way I can describe it is the way that your mouth feels when you have a dentist injection BUT in all your joints.Even today my hands and neck and back are still asleep.
As a result I now have another duffel coat( the pink one) that has to go to the dry cleaners due to the fact that the car park floor was very wet!
Who would be a mother?
I need a holiday.

I feel a bit like the people in history who brought their animals in for the winter, the pigs and the rabbits are now happily ensconced in the front porch. I know they have their own fur coats but the front garden where they live is very exposed(even with a 6 feet high fence) .....OK ,I'm a sap I admit it.
For all you Guinea pig lovers out there,we visited IKEA yesterday and IKEA has a new toy .....a guinea pig, so Beauty insisted on buying one.
I also saw Simba last night and he was thrilled to see me, I haven' seen that cat in ages but he definitely remembered me and wanted lots of fuss. You will have to go and check him out when you come home for Christmas Anastasia.
Anastasia and I brought Simba home as a kitten, his mother was a wild cat who lived in Town behind the Park Hotel,we used to waitress there.He now lives with Pianoman.

Friday, November 28, 2008

MY TOES ARE COLD!

I know here in Cardiff it is no where near as cold as Vienna which is 2 degrees (today it is warmer in Voronzeh than Vienna Anastasia at 3 degrees)but it certainly feels like it(.I wish it was as warm as Panama City in Florida which is 21 degrees or Damascus in Syria which is 18 degrees today.My skin would burn in that kind of heat!
This morning I am dressed like Whoopie Goldberg in Jumpin Jack Flash when her central heating isn't working. I am wearing socks, leg warmers,tracksuit bottoms, t shirt, my huge beige jumper(which is now 13 years old and has been worn every winter and by everybody) and my mothers large polar bear dressing gown. I am keeping the heating on during the day at the moment because Beauty is not well with a really bad cold and so she is home from school, my bill will be sky high in January as usually when I am home on my own in the day it is only on for short bursts. It must be really awful for older people and people on very limited incomes ,especially with the financial situation.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

IT`S A BARBIE WORLD!

It happened!
Beauty went from being a doll HATER to a doll LOVER over night and now I am busy,busy,busy knitting Barbie a wardrobe of clothes.
And why do I knit them and not sew them?
A question asked by Fiona.....because Beauty is such a vandal and anything sewn would be destroyed within seconds.
I am presently knitting a pepto bismol coloured ball gown.
Next on my list is a sparkly midnight blue evening dress for an Anastasia doll.
Well all this knitting should keep me out of trouble!

This is what I want the dress to look like.




And as we are on the subject of toys.....Stretch Scooby has to be the strangest toy ever!
Beauty loves Scooby Doo but she calls him Scooby dog and when we were in ASDA last she INSISTED that I buy her a Stretch Scooby.The consistency of the material used to make a Stretch Scooby is like very warm old fashioned plasticine but how somebody invented that I do not know. Bizarre!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

A WALK IN THE PARK





PIRATE PARTY

PIRATE BOOKS FROM FIONA


PIZZA FROM ARIEL


FINGER PUPPETS FROM THE BOYS IN SCHOOL


BEAUTY PLAYING WITH HER PRESENTS


PIRATE PARTY....AAAAAARRRGGGHHH!


BIRTHDAY WISHES BEAUTY


PIRATE JACK FROM VIENNA

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

'GO TO THE STREET THAT IS CALLED STRAIGHT'

THE UMAYYAD GREAT MOSQUE,DAMASCUS


I feel like I have trekked to the foothills of the Himalayas and back.
Beauty and I went to Damascus to visit Ariel and we returned dusty and exhausted on Friday evening.
I would definitely recommend it as a place to visit but go prepared!
YOU WILL COME AWAY WITH A DOSE OF MONTEZUMA'S REVENGE
Beauty also drank from a carton of orange drink that was 6 months out of date and this delayed our return home by 3 days, even then she stank out the plane. I apologise to everyone on our flight.
Beauty looking poorly.
Beauty was so poorly the first night of the sickness that half the night she slept on the bathroom floor and the other half she slept in the bath! Whilst she slept in the bath I watched her but when she was on the floor(which was not very big) I slept on the floor with her. I slept mostly lying through the bathroom door on the bedroom carpet.
We paid for a doctor to visit and he was there within 10 minutes. He gave Beauty anti-sickness medication and a prescription for other drugs and we paid £40 for a 25 minute visit and I was very impressed.If only we could pay for that kind of service at home when a child is sick.

Rotana Suites
Poor sick baby.

However, do not worry about buying medications,everything is readily available. Each item that we required cost approximately 50p and I also managed to buy Ariel some multi-vits and iron for 50p which at home costs me approximately £6.00 for a months supply.

Beauty has just woken up so I shall continue later.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAUTY.....8 TODAY.

MISSY

MISSY
BEAUTY

MAMMA BLOGGING ABOUT BEAUTY AND HER SISTERS


An Irish Blessing

(A Blessing from St. Patrick)
May the road rise to meet you,

May the wind be always at your back,

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

May the rains fall soft upon your fields,

And, until we meet again,

May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.