The babies

I cannot find the words that will adequately express my feelings about the babies.
No stretch of the imagination will ever make me believe that what happened was for a reason.
Other than...pure evil taking its course.
I can say , with absolute certainty, that I could take the lives of those who murdered the babies , in cold blood.
Does that make me like them?
I suppose, in a way, but I wouldnt f*****g care!
I can find the words to rant and rage at a system so shoddily built on the premise that "the best place for children is with their parents"
B******s!

I would go so far as to say that people should be screened for their suitability and competence to be parents in the first place and, if found wanting, never allowed to have or keep any babies.
And, no woman has a god given right to have a child just because she can.
And, spend some f*****g money on child protection, safe families and homes for these poor little innocents.
And, opposed as I am to capital punishment, I would hang the bastards after torturing them first!!!
Sieg Heil!

I pray that the souls of those dear little ones are happier now than they ever were on this earth and out of harms way.

Of Barrack, Brand and backpacks.

BARRACK...I love this man! He is so charismatic and everyone thinks he will work magic.Thats just the trouble, hes only human as he said himself...he wasnt born in a manger! Lets give him a chance and not keep thinking that hes everyones homeboy and will solve all the black problems with a wave of his sensitive, cultured hand.Still, big kisses from me...mwah.

And I love these two men also, but in totally different ways of course.

I have written so many letters about the Russell /Jonathan fiasco that I am almost speechless on the subject.Almost, but not quite. We seem to be moving on but its taken the silent majority out there a long time to support these two and see the absolute injustice of Russells resignation and Jonathans suspension. It was a bad joke, schoolboy humour, distasteful but THATS ALL IT WAS!! They didnt murder, rape or abuse anyone and Andrew Sachs was contacted before the program went out to see if he approved.He obviously didnt but it was broadcast anyway so...who do you sack? The performers who are employed to do that which they did or the producer who ignored Andrew Sachs concerns? Or. indeed , NO ONE!

Apologies were accepted , should have been enough. Oh boy , I HATE being part of a generation who still cant move on!! BACKPACKS ...is this a sad sign of the times or just me? I went to the bank today to sort out a mistake they had made (I never make any, as you know, Im always right) .

Whilst I was standing at the counter, a girl behind me put her backpack on the floor next to me and sort of indicated that she would like me to watch it while she went and withdrew money. I said , yeah, sure, like you do but as she walked away I started having serious second thoughts.

Why couldnt she take it with her? It was a backpack for Gods sake! She could put it on her back, thus leaving her hands free for the transaction.What if it contained a bomb? What should I do? She looked harmless enough but you could never tell. I watched her carefully, thinking if she showed any signs of leaving wthout it I would race after her, carrying it, thus saving all except myself and her from the ensuing blast.What if she was a suicide bomber and had no intention of leaving?!.......All this took less than 5minutes.Clearly I am here to tell the tale, feeling more than a little ashamed of myself..I guess Im only human after all...bit of a shock really.

More about Salsa..

I feel I should update my thousands of readers on the Salsa experience as it continues.

I have been diligently attending and seem to be improving but I went one step(or several twirls) too far last week. I took part in the advanced class.

Now, whilst I managed the steps, the twirls were of great concern, leaving me feeling as tho I had just ridden Oblivion at Alton Towers! Everyone was very encouraging, even Aussie Keith who had been a bit negative up till now(having convinced himself that I was trying to "lead" him! God alone knows how...hes at least a foot taller than me!!) I need a bit of practice at the twirls before I go back to that. Its a great class with lots of individual characters. Us women get to know the men because we move on every thirty seconds. We have....nice Andrew who is a great dancer and leads you beautifully, little Paul with the neck scarf who is not so good but tries hard, Funny Peter who livens up the proceedings greatly, Irish Paul (of whom I have gossip that I cant share here in case a salsite should come upon this blog! E mail me if you want details).Quiet Jason who , up until now I liked but he seems to have caught the " youre leading "bug from Aussie Keith! Hang on.......thats two of them...could it be that I am leading?...nah.....impossible! And, last but not least, naughty Michael the leader, he of the "youre cuddling me darling and I like it!" Oh yes, and Wendys favourite Alvaro on the door.

Good fun.I have posted another pic of me in the class, (see above) .True, its not that flattering and my hair is shorter now but...you get the idea?

Andalay Andalay!!

Of Buddy and Bader-Meinhof

The 4th annual London trip saw us meeting in Yo sushi at Paddington Station. (Never knowingly underfed are we?!) BJ had been a clever girl and got us bed and breakfast for only 5quid more than the travel lodge and cheap tickets to see Buddy. Our first port of call was the Wellington Pub on the Strand.The very same one that Wendy and I had partaken of a few years earlier.

We managed a fair amount of tucker and two bottles, yes two, of wine between the two of us. Yaki , the Spanish waiter, was very attentive until he realised that he was utterly alone and having to serve food to the 5000 at which point he threw a hissy fit. We managed to calm him and make him laugh...is there no end to our talent?.......and he carried on with the puddings.

Rolling back to the hotel for a quick rest (well. somethings got to give!) and back to the Wellington for pre theatre drinkies. BJ disappointed me here.I had lined up two double g and ts and ended up drinking both.Its a hard job but someones gotta do it! She maintains that she had trouble with her tummy, I think shes just so much of a light weight on the drinks front

that she couldnt handle it.(I know she'll read this!)

The Bader -Meinhofs had been giving her some trouble , so she did very well.

Buddy was sublime and we sang ourselves hoarse as well as all the way back to the hotel to flake out till brekkie.

Another massive feed in luxurious surroundings , a walk over Waterloo bridge and along the South Bank and we found ourselves at the cafe in the South Bank Centre, stuffing our faces again. Ahhh, another year over. Roll on next year!

Good company, good food and loadsa laughs, what more do you need?

Turkey

More to follow.......

Time I added some some Turkey pics I think.

We went there in August, stayed just outside Hisaronu, near Oludeniz. It was a lovely country and the people were amazingly friendly. The resort, Montana Pine was brilliant.Up in the mountains , lovely views , only trouble was a damn long hike up about 50 steps just to get back to the rooms.Obviously, all built on the mountainside.Look at the pics.Ill stop talking.

Reception at Montana Pine

went to the pics

Just got back from the new James Bond...Quantum of Solace.

Excellent action and the story was OK.

So much for Cosmo in the Sunday times!

I was quite worn out with all the shooting and stuff!

Well worth seeing.

More on Evil Bob

So the saga continues......Evil Bob has now achieved one of his goals, he has planning permission for the detached two bed bungalow to be built within a whisper of our side fence.



Now, Im in favour of moving on but the males of my family (and I live within an all male household except for guinea pig and hamster) are steaming.You could cut the testosterone with a knife. This is compounded by the fact that we now seem to have a "dance of the vehicles" situation in the road.
My alpha two( the third of them is away at university but he would have a much more measured approach anyway) park their cars just the otherside of Bobs dropped kerb and he is, as you know , a white van man so he cant quite squeeze his van into the space.Then he has to( heaven forbid) park a couple of feet further down the road.

As soon as one of our cars moves, he zooms in like a cheetah and parks his van there.Sometimes his bumper appears to be attempting to perform an act on our car which is illegal in some countries! Look at the pic.

Bobs van is where you can see, right near my house

His house is at the other end of the fence. Why why why???

Needless to say, during all of this macho posturing, sweet little dixy is either in the drive or safe in the garage.
Oh in the words of Charlie Sheen " Men, men, men , men manly men, do do do do do do doooo!"

A walk on the downs...and a wee bit of fun!

Wow, the weather was brilliant today. Mucky, Legs and I went for a stunning walk along the Dunstable downs. Just a short 4 miler today but great fun and a good meal in a pub.Nice scrumpy Jack cider.
We laughed almost all the time but none longer than when Mucky related her escapade with her sister. They were both desperate for a wee and , as it was a misty morning, so the story goes, they sneaked into the woods to do the deed.
They had both settled when Mucky noticed something shiny on the ground beneath her .
What the...?! was her retort just before the torrent began , only to find her weeing on her pedometer which did of course cease to function immediately, well who wouldnt?!
Laugh, Legs and I creased up at this.How on earth could she not have noticed it and various other rude remarks.I told her I would blog it and here it is.
The irony of this story is that within 5 minutes, I promise you not a moment longer had passed,I needed to wee and took myself off to a suitably private spot where I proceeded to do exactly the same thing!
Although I did actually notice the poor machine just before the flood hit it, wild elephants could not have stopped that mid stream urine and, like Muckys, mine gave up the ghost.
That will teach you I can hear you say!

Quiz night at the oasis

Third time lucky is perhaps how we four trusty warriors (cerebral you understand) viewed the forthcoming quiz.It was the same one that Heather and Dick (he of the" lets choose get your leg over as the joker" thinking it was about sex when in fact it was about cricket) came to last year.Then, we finished about 8th , which was a big improvement on bottom.
Anyway
when we arrived it was all a little surreal, perhaps not quite Dali, more Bertold Brecht with a hint of Kafka. We noshed and drank, making merry as we went.Actually, we thought we werent too bad but others seemed to be taking it much more seriously.
All of us contibuted, I did the Stef Penny question, Chiv did the crash of Rhinos, Moishe leapt in with the crusaders cross and BJ, well ,she had more than one or two significant answers.
Crunch time, they started reading the winners in reverse order and we didnt even hear ours , thinking we must have missed it but no!
We came a stunning....first!!
This is what we won. Well, it was spots not flowers and we won 1 each so roll on next year!

even more of the dish

Yummy or what?!

Eye candy, plain and simple

SERGE PIZZORNO from KASABIAN. Shoot the runner or what?!

Here is the dish of the day/week/month.

Totally sexist, eye candy.

No apologies here.

Ill be adding somthin soon!

Piggy Wellies

Check out this sooo cool pig.

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-GB&brand=&vid=8b6cc151-fea0-48c9-a98e-0258f4320bc3

A natury bit

Many birds have taken a liking to the fat and seed chunks that have been put out on the washing line.I have to suffer their dirty, greasy little feet sitting on the washing but nevertheless.....one regular visitor to the garden is a Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker and I managed to get some snaps through the kitchen window .Not too clear but you can see it.

Take a look.

The honey sandwich...epilogue

Alpha male apologised and the apology was accepted but it didnt prevent another pointless argument from occuring the next day!!!!
Enough of family trivia for now.

The honey sandwich

I will try to leave out the expletives but I cant promise.
What is it about men?
Single minded attention to detail is one thing but stupid nit picking pathetic comments are quite another.
The story goes......
(Scene:- The kitchen where alpha male has just cleared up ready to prepare the tea.Alpha female is making a honey sandwich just prior to Pilates because if she eats a meal she almost throws up when doing the down ward facing dog.)
Alpha male: " Are you going to clear up?"
Alpha female: "What do you mean?"
Alpha male:" Are you going to clear up? I have to prepare tea."
(At this point there is precisely one tub of margarine, one knife , two slices of bread and one jar of honey out AND, alpha female is only halfway through making the sandwich.)
Alpha female:" I havent finished yet and anyway Ive only got a tub of marg out"
Alpha male: "What about the honey? Are you going to put it away?"
Alpha female :(Getting a little riled)"I havent finished yet! What ARE you on about?!"
Alpha male;" Dont argue with me!"
Alpha female :(Who at this point is rapidly evolving into that woman out of Species who kills all the men) "Dont be ridiculous!" (Yelling now)
Alpha male :(Also yelling now and neither of them has noticed the open skylight through which evil Bob can be heard gently mowing his lawn.Not that it would have mattered as far as Alpha female is concerned)
"Dont argue with me!!"
Alpha female: " OH SHUT UP YOU STUPID MAN!!!"
(at which point Alpha male leaves the room, perhaps sensing that the knife Alpha female is wielding may soon be put to a more inventive use.)

Post script
Neither Alpha female or Alpha male have won this totally pointless and fatuous argument because Alpha female " clears up" as she always intended to and is then so rattled by the whole sorry saga that she loses her appetite and the inclination to go to Pilates (Helen isnt going either).
The scene now is thus...Alpha female is not speaking to Alpha male, certainly will not eat the tea he has cooked out of principle and intends to polish off a bottle of wine before making herself a fried egg sandwich.
Happy f*****g families!!!

Salsa

Well after the excesses of the pudding club I had to do something more than Pilates on Wednesday. (Scottish Bobby is going on Tuesday now.....I think I must have upset him.)

So, I was persuaded to attend Salsa classes, Ealing Broadway on Tuesdays.

I was very apprehensive but need not have been. Everyone was really friendly and there were actually more men than women! The women moved on every minute to a different partner and I managed to move completely round the room 4 times in one hour.

No one complained and everyone was smiley smiley but Im sure I stepped on more than a few toes.

I sweated buckets.

Yes, I know ladies are not supposed to sweat .

I never said I was a lady and anyway, it was BUCKETS!

The only slight embarrassment for me was that I go the colour of Tomato Salsa within minutes of moving around.

I even tried wearing green makeup the second week but I just looked like Mortitia Addams.

Third time lucky this week.

Oh all right, its not really me in the picture but its close!

The Pudding club

My ever so generous cousin bought me the birthday present of a visit to the famous Pudding Club.She had already decided that neither of us would be in a fit state to drive home and so we stayed the night.Three ways House Hotel in Mickleton in the Cotswolds is the home of the club and we arrived for the munch along with at least 70 other fat and unashamed personages.

We were warned not to eat too much of the meal as ...no less than....7 puddings were to follow.All of the steamed variety.Well, one was a rhubarb crumble but you get the picture.
They were accompanied by custard, toffee sauce or chocolate sauce.
We were on a table with complete strangers but not for long.We all had to pull together you see , or we would receive collective punishments if puddings went uneaten.Suffice to say, we all rose, or nearly threw up in some cases, to the occasion and yours truly managed 8 puddings!

Pretend the image is pudding not pizza!

We met some really friendly people , one of whom told us his complete medical history which featured the removal of his colon.
God alone knows how he managed to eat what he did.
Where theres a will.....
It was a superb couple of days and Sticky Toffee and Date pudding won the contest. Yehhhh!
Roll on next year.

It has to be....SCOTLAND!

My first update has just got to be Bonnie Scotland.

An amazing time was had with wonderful scenery, weather,and a midge free environment.

Glasgow was our first night stop where we were amply fed at a local travel lodge.

Much to my companions howls of sarcastic glee, I shall say that the waitress, Magda, a lovely student from Poland, gave me her one and only personal plastic spoon to enable me to partake of a yoghourt whilst on the road. It was particularly poignant as the aforesaid spoon had been aquired by Magda whilst at the pictures with her boyfriend, thus being of great sentimental value to her.

I was touched.

Glencoe on the way up. Glenfinnan monument on Loch Shiel.

Rock cottage far surpassed all our expectations.On a private estate (none of your hoi polloi)

with the most incredible views day after day.Each morning showed the view in a different light.

Rock cottage and views The Loch Moidart at the end of our driveway.

Stunning.

All of it.

The cottage had some little quirks like the Aga in the kitchen permanently switched on and churning out heat to such an extent that an air conditioning unit was necessary in the kitchen! Nevertheless, some good tucker was produced and consumed in that kitchen.

And the wildlife.......right outside the conservatory...everyday birds and animals with the highlight being a pinemartin. Pics and more ramblings to follow.

Take a break from Scottieland for now.

Back again after way too long.....

Back from the wilds, photos to follow, just popping in to say...watch this space more updates later.
See you all soon, och.

Och Aye, the noo , itsa braw bricht moonlit nicht the nicht so it is.

Rock Cottage (can you see it?)

Loch Moidart , Acharacle

No , its not about Scottish Bobby.

We, the intrepid four who go fossil hunting together, are off to the wilds of Bonnie Scotland in a few days time.

Ardnamurchan actually. Rock Cottage to be precise.

And here are a couple of pics to drool over.

The noo.

Rock Cottage

The view from one of t'hills above Sunart

How not to open ones mouth too much

Im still going to pilates on a Wednesday , although I dont think it has helped me to lose any flab, just keeps me a bit flexible. However, I chat a lot as those who know me well will testify(remember" motormouth" Ken?) . This led me to chatting with a fellow pilatean(?), Bob, the copper. Nice man , but I believe him to be on the Autistic Spectrum.

The Battle field band

Why else would anyone loan a person not ONE but TEN cds of his favourite folk band simply because she has expressed an interest in Folk music? The person then felt obliged to listen to EVERY cd of the aforementioned band (see pic) , make notes and report back the following week whereupon scottish Bobby presented her with another SEVEN f*****g CDs of the same band!!

There followed another tortuous bout of CD listening, making notes and returning , only to find he was off sick.

Probably out buying more CDs.

signed

ungrateful wretch

Has it been that long?!

Well, what can I say? I have been too busy playing scrabble on facebook to log in but now Im back.For a quick looksee.Stimulated by the blog and acompanying pod cast of a relative and funny man plus his friend.Check it out...www.franandfronkinshow.blogspot.com
I will add a link on the right.
See yas soon