Its been a while.....

Well New Year has been and gone, Carl is back in Hong Kong and life is back to 'normal' in fact it seems like ages until we have another holiday, which is depressing. I suppose the dark days of winter have that effect on people.  We are still doing our fair share of hospital visits for just about all of us, but I hope that they sort Laura out first, it has been uncomfortable for her for a few months now, she just wants things sorted out and back to normal. Fingers crossed that she gets sorted soon.

We took a trip into London one Friday evening to see the London Lumiere. We drove to Potters Bar station and that  was the start of the problem!! They had changed to automatic number plate recognition, so we drove in and attempted to pay, sadly it couldn't find my car, we were given a huge list of cars, not one of them was ours!! So we had to call the 'number' on the machine and register my car, credit card and full details all to pay £2 !! Worse than that I registered my car but couldn't get it to accept my card, so now whenever I park at Potters Bar, Rick will get the bill!!! Jolly decent of him I say!!

We got off at Kings Cross and walked around the first area, despite the wintry evening it was absolutely rammed with people!! We stopped to watch as much as we could but some of the places were ten people deep and we couldn't get anywhere near them. This projection on a building was very clever.

It was good to watch, lasted around ten minutes and was also rammed!!!

We moved on and found some other installations!!

We look as if we are doing a bit of a Halloween type of shot here! It was just the 'flower installation'!!!! casting an green glow. 

We enjoyed the bits that we did manage to see, but we really wanted to have a bite to eat and for some reason we couldn't find anywhere with any space, it was starting to be a bit of a nuisance , in the end we had to settle for a posh fish and chip place that was fairly expensive, but we were out of options by then!!! We had a really good night, its was chilly and really felt like a winters night better than that it didn't rain!!!

For the past couple of weeks my friends Jane and Karen and I have been preparing for a bit of  craft sale  in aid of cancer research, it was a low key event on a school night, but we were really pleased with all the support we got from friends and family. We didn't publicise it too far and wide, kept it to a select from people close at hand, we seem to have raised a fair bit of money (we are yet to add it up) So thank you to everyone who came and made it such a good evening!!

I have still been doing some pottery, this term I decided to have a plan of action. Half the lesson I spend thinking about what to do which results in a huge waste of time, so this time I started with a plan. I have decided to make a bird feeder totem pole. I have a picture in my mind that includes lots of different elements. I have bought a metal pole which I will use to support my 'Creation' I have spent a few weeks now making, boxes, houses, a giant acorn, spacer tubes, plates, curly flowers etc. I plan to stack them all over the post and set it up with bird feeder 'stuff' hanging from the various bits I have built into it.

As I say in my head its a work of art which will rival Banksy for its message, I suspect in reality it will Blue Peter a bit of a run for its money!! 

So watch this space for an update !!

I am going to try and keep my blog updated but I  have been so tucked up with my Angels that I haven't had much spare time!!!

This week I am off to Brighton for a conference, can't think that Brighton in February is going to be very welcoming, the weather forecast is dodgy, so I better pack my thermals!

So see you soon, sorry Eunice I have been so remiss in my updating!!

I wasn't expecting to be doing THAT this morning!!!

Last night after a lovely day out in London (more about that later) I came home to a suspicious looking puddle of water, we don't really have any luck with watery problems, so I expected the worse and I wasn't disappointed!! The puddle was near to our fish tank :( I am still not sure exactly where abouts on the fish tank it was coming from, but it was clear that's where the problem was. So last night we had to re-home the fish in a bucket and empty the tank. 

Bright and early this morning we headed off down to the local aquarium supplier and bought a new tank, gravel and a few plants. It then took us around two hours to set the whole thing up! Once we had finished we were able to put the fish into their new home. The new tank is a bit bigger and looks very spacious, The fish however were clearly cross with the enforced stay in their temporary bucket residence, they skulked around the bottom on the tank sticking very close together, we tried to tempt them out with food but they were having none of it :( so we decided to ignore them and see how they got on. Eventually several hours later they chilled out a bit and set off exploring.

This is the original tank with the fish buzzing around!

This is the new set up, still slightly murky with the fish all huddled together bottom left under the pump!

Anyway I am sure they will soon get over their collective 'hump' and get back to their regular ways!!

Yesterday I went to Camden Market, I had never been there before, one of those places that people go to but its always passed me by. It was one of those days where the weather was a bit of a nuisance. It was threatening to be wet and cold so we had to dress in case of rain. I really wasn't ready to abandon my summer sandals but decided to wear my trainers with sandals as a back up. After around three hours of walking in trainers, socks and trousers I was melting so had to make a pit stop to get back into my sandals!! I was surprised at the area it was cram packed with market stalls, quirky shops and millions of people!!

Here I am before the great footwear swap!!!

I really enjoyed looking around, I have never seen so many T shirts in such a small space, thousands of them! The regular shops were pretty impressive as well!

The shops are adorned with these huge representations of their wares. They are brilliant!

We even came across Alice in Wonderland !!

Look at Accessorize!! They have pushed the boat out on this shop front!! Lovely!

We adopted the time honoured method of market shopping, this being the end of summer we went for bar stops rather than look for mulled wine. Its a simple process, walk, look at the wares on offer until you have had enough, then find an establishment that serves refreshing uplifting drinks such as Bulmers Cider!! sit for a while, enjoy and recharge batteries. The all you have to do is repeat until you have seen all you want to see!! I can confirm that this method has worked very well for lots of trips, Amsterdam, Hamburg and now Camden Lock!!!

Yesterday was a good time to try out my new camera. I received an email from Mr Tesco advising me that I had £70 in club card vouchers, some were about to expire, so he suggested that I spent them in their double up bonus promotion. Well it would have been rude not to, so I chose a new camera, a Sony Cybershot, which is a lighter version of my current Fuji bridge camera. Its a different make so all the controls are in different places, so yesterday was a day of experimentation. I am starting to get to grips with it! I think I am going to like it!

Had a chat with Carl today and he is settled in his new place, the view from the 15th floor is fantastic!! I hope he will be able to share some photos with us soon!!

Back to the grind, I hope you all have a good week

xxx

Day out in London.

This week winter has put in an appearance, I woke up yesterday to a sprinkling of snow, very cold and chilly, sadly this lot did not last very long, but it was just as well because I was off to London for the day. My friend was celebrating her birthday and very kindly treated the both of us to fabulous tickets to see Cirque Du Soleil at the Royal Albert Hall. 

We set off in the morning and had a nice lunch at a pub in Kinds Cross, we then had a wander around and called in at the Mac shop at St Pancras Station, I treated myself to a nice nail varnish!! We completed the last part of our journey on the Piccadilly line to South Kensington, we took a wander up to the venue in glorious sunshine.

The afternoon was not without its hiccoughs, we managed to go in the right door, we found what we thought were our seats and sat down, we were a little early but that was fine there was a little pre show entertainment so we sat back and enjoyed it! about 10 minutes before the show we were approached by a couple who claimed to have the same seats as us, so we checked our tickets and we were still convinced we were in the right place. We spoke to the 'host' who had shown us to our seat and realised we were one row too far back! so we moved forward and took our correct seats !! (still think it was the 'hosts' fault!!)

The show was fantastic, a lot like the Lion King show at Disney's Animal Kingdom, just on a larger and grander scale. The time flew and the first half was over in no time. We popped out for a cider and went back for the second half. By the time we headed back to the station it was dark. When we arrived at Kings Cross we were undecided if we should take the slow train which was leaving soon or the fast train leaving in half an hour. So we had a drink and decided to go for the slow train, only to find once on board it wasn't actually going to where we wanted, luckily we got off in time and had to hot foot it to the other side of the station to get the correct train!!!

We did find five minutes to pop into the Happy Potter Shop on Platform 9 3/4, even Green monki had a quick look around!!

It was a great day out and we walked miles, which isn't a bad thing!!!

The doodle hearts seem to have taken off!! I have been asked to do some for friends and family, its always a bit of a shock when people like something that you make, I really enjoy making them. So this week some friends want to have a go at learning so my friend Jane has set up a 'session' at her house to teach them. If you would be interested in having a go, give me a shout and we'll organise a class of interested folk.

I have also started to receive some commissions so we now have a Folksy page with our wares. We will continue to sell the small painted furniture bits and pieces via our face book page. I really can't believe how quickly this is growing!! 

Please have a look at our Folksy Site HERE.

Time Flies.

Well here we are half way through May, April is a dim and distant memory. I have decided to try and take a photo a day and found an app to help me. Its called project 365 and as a bonus it reminds me everyday and it saves the whole month as a print sized photo. Its been good to look back at. Its amazing how fast the time goes it seems a long time ago that we were on our cruise.

Its not easy getting a photo a day particularly when you are only doing the normal mundane everyday things, so having a camera on the phone really helps. I also found another app that records where you are so a couple of the photos have the location recorded as well. It will be good to look back and see what I had been up to. 

Dad is now out of hospital and feeling a lot better, he has spent a few days getting himself back up to speed and settling back at home. Mum is still in the care home but the plan is to bring her back on Friday and hopefully she will settle back and start to improve. The good thing is that the care home seems really quite nice, although she is getting fed up with the place and the noisy TVs and people who 'interfere' as she says. I think she gets fed up with all the coming and going of the people around her.  She has played a few games of scrabble this week and has finally got up and walked around a bit. She spent a week not walking because 'the staff didn't ask her to walk' Turns out they didn't know she could walk as she had not told them and they assumed she was in a wheelchair for a reason!!! Its a case of use it or lose it, so she really must make the effort to keep going. 

Beth and I went for a photo shoot at the weekend. Groupon had a voucher for hair, makeup and a series of photos. So we went up to Shoreditch in London for the day. We decided to have a brunch at a local restaurant and then headed for the studio. 

We were met by a lady who was if I am generous very theatrical and over the top, she made us welcome and served us drinks. We sat and looked through magazines to decide how we wanted to achieve our 'look' . Then Beth had her hair done and I had my make up done. For the first time in my life I had false eyelashes!!!! Surprisingly they didn't look too bad!

Once we were prepared we went into the studio and got our clothes out. We had to take five changes of clothes so we ended up lugging around a suitcase full of 'stuff' . The photographer decided what we would wear at what point and 90 minutes and loads of shots later we were done. We were very pleased with the results and ended up with some lovely photos and we had a great day out in London.

If you get the chance to have a go, its a great chance to get in touch with your inner super model!!!

Olympic Fever.

This year has been dominated by The Olympics. For a long while I have been involved with various aspects of the games in a planning capacity. I really wanted to go and see something, but was not lucky enough to be allocated any tickets. I went to the local flame relay and that made me feel even more like going to see something, but the reality is that the tickets are still very hard to come by even though Lord Coe assured us all that there were thousands of tickets released for sale every evening.

Finally I hit upon a great idea that I was sure no one else would have thought of, the men's Triathlon. This race was to take place in a largely public arena, Hyde Park in London. The web site said that 90% of the course was not ticketed so all I had to do was turn up and grab a piece of the action. I was certain that there wouldn't be too many people there, so I talked Tom into attending with me!!

Tom drove to Cockfosters underground station and he parked, while I went into the station to buy the tickets. There was a good ten minutes before the train was due to leave. I was pleased to be on the way. As I reached the stairs down into the station I had to join a queue, already my plan of being one of only a few people turning out was looking dodgy. By the time I got to the ticket office the train had long gone, the automatic ticket machine had given up the ghost and the poor bloke in the kiosk was frazzled.

We eventually bought our tickets and headed for the train. We were right at the start of the line and had 20 stations until we got to Hyde park. We had a seat, but by the next station the train was heaving with people carrying flags and deck chairs, all it seems, heading for Hyde Park.

The train got busier and busier and by the time we got to Hyde park there were thousands of people, so many that they closed the station to people trying to get on so that they could use the entrance as an exit! We joined the crowds and shuffled along up the escalator and stairs and out onto the street. On the street we were greeted by 'games makers' who directed us into the park. We managed to find ourselves a spot right on the barrier and waited. 

The crowds got thicker and thicker, we chatted with people on either side of us, a family from Kent, two mums with small children who had no idea what was happening (the children not the mums!!) A family from the Netherlands. Everyone was chatting and cheering the Police Officers cycling up and down. One of the 'Games Makers' got a Mexican wave going, it was a fantastic atmosphere!!

Someone nearby told us that the swimming part of the Triathlon was finishing and that they would be on the way soon. Within minutes the first cyclists appeared.....

We were pleased to see that one of the Brownlee brothers was up there with the pacemaker.

It wasn't easy to take photos, they were so fast and gone in a flash, that combined with the wriggling children  in front of us made it very hit and miss!!! I took loads of photos and got a few I was happy with.

The camera car was from Belgium, why?? don't we have any of our own???

After the cycling we left as the crowds were just too much to go to the running part of the race, Hyde Park station was still closed so we were directed to Knightsbridge, on the way we passed the Korean base hotel, they were putting on a show and inviting people in to view their team and stars!

Once we got down to the platform the first train back to Cockfosters was too packed to get on, so we got the second one which was supposed to go to Cockfosters but during the journey decided to terminate at Arsenal, so we all had to get off and wait for the next train. That was packed we got on, and that terminated at Oakwood, one stop from Cockfosters, so we had to change again. 

I am glad that I went, it was tiring but well worth the experience. Best of all it only cost us the price of the train ticket, I am just disappointed that so many other people had the same good idea as me!!!!