A life time ago!

I am sorry to say that our holiday now feels like a lifetime ago. We have been back for a little over a month and the whole experience is like a dream. We have had our usual mix of issues over the past weeks, with both Laura and Dad being unwell. Both are now on the mend. 

I can hardly believe that Mum passed away two years ago tomorrow, where has that time gone. On the one hand it seems like an age ago and on the other two minutes ago. One of the good things about having an IPhone is that it allows you to save your text and Whats app messages. I was looking through the other night and found the last few from Mum which was a big bit of a tear jerker. We are lucky to have such great friends and relatives who all have helped everyone over these past few years. We will never forget her  and think about her every day .

It was nice to be able to hang one of my Remember Me Angels to keep Mum close at hand all over Christmas. This morning we went to Mass, which was said for her. I was very impressed with Father Norbert who did most of the mass in speech and sign language. I am in awe of anyone who can do that, its like rubbing your tummy and patting your head as far as I am concerned!!

So what else has been happening? I have been sorting out Christmas presents, I had a marathon wrapping spree yesterday and we put the decs up so I was able to store the presents under the tree. I am trying to get the spare room sorted out so that it is all set for the return of the Hong Kong wanderer. We mainly use the spare room to store clothes so I need to get the bed in to position where it can be slept in. I am just about there. We are all looking forward to him coming home for a few weeks. I am looking froward to the school Christmas dinner and the Christingle service, I really feel that Christmas has arrived once I have been to those two things!!

I would like to wish two of my friends Happy Birthday, Karen and Fran, I hope you both had a lovely day.  Sorry that this was a quick update, I will have more time now that I'm a celebrity is over for another year!!! Have a great week.

The next steps!!

We stayed for three nights in Hong Kong before flying out to Taiwan. I was looking forward to this part of our trip, we took a taxi to the airport with Carl for our early morning flight with China Airlines. I was really impressed with the airline, the journey was only a short hop on a par with an Easy Jet trip in Europe. The huge difference was that it was a fully serviced flight with tiny pillows and a meal and free drinks and everything!! It was great!!

As we touched down Taiwan experienced an earthquake. A fairly strong on 5.6 on the scale. The country seems to be fairly used to them and they weren't phased about it. We continued to feel the aftershocks later in the afternoon. 

We were so lucky to be able to meet up with our dear friend Raymonde who was spending the month in Taipei with her husband Colin. It felt really weird to go half way around the world to meet up with someone who lives two miles away!!!

Our hotel was in the Zhongxiao Xinsheng area of Taipei, which was dominated by the University of Taipei. It seemed that just about everyone had a motorbike/scooter of some sort. The hotel was in brilliant position right next door to one of the underground stations.

Raymonde took us on the underground and showed us around lots of the wonderful places. The buildings were fantastic. The city was spotlessly clean and really puts the UK to shame. 

It was  really good to have a 'local' guide. Raymonde had been to Taipei quite a few times and was able to show us all the dodges!

We went to a lovely little eatery where we ate like the locals, Bowls of Ramen Noodles with tempura prawns and vegetables. I was really impressed with the tempura sweet potatoes. It was a very nice meal, tested our novice chop stick capabilities though!!!

After dinner we took a look around the local shops and markets. There seemed to be loads to look at, I loved all the figures and cartoons which seem to be very big in Taiwan. 

For some reason EVERYONE out there insists on having their photos taken with this finger sign. It looks stupid but is clearly very big in Taiwan!! Well when in Taiwan, best do as the locals do!!

We really enjoyed our introduction to Taipei. Thank you Raymonde for getting us off to a fantastic start and for spending time with us!!

The next day we went up Taipei 101, the building you can see in the photo above. 

My little business venture is going well, I have landed a couple more commissions this week, its really exciting. I hope that it continues to gradually grow and then one day I will be able to give up work and become a millionaire!! (OK just to reduce my working hours would be a win!)

          Please check out my website - Here

          Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday !!

      xxxx

Hello October and Hello Indian Summer!!!

Well its been a bit of a shock we have had a week of quite nice weather!! lovely autumn days, bit chilly in the mornings and evenings but beautiful during the day!

Today we went for a walk in Ayot, I love the conker trees. I don't really have any children that need to collect conkers anymore, but there is something about the beautiful colour and smoothness of the conkers that makes me smile.

Conkers also remind me of the Panshanger School fair, when my friend Marilyn made some fantastic baskets full of conkers all glued together! they were very big that particular year, she must have had all the kids collecting them for months!! (I am sure she got an award for outstanding use of  school PVA!!) Nothing says Autumn like a basket of conkers!!

There were a lot of acorns as well!!

I found that some of them had been taken by a hungry squirrel.....

On our walk we found a tree laden with what looked like tiny apples, I am not really sure if they were tiny apples!!

Its also a good time of year for fungi, but I was disappointed that there wasn't that many to see. When we were on the way home Tom said there were toadstools outside our house!! A month ago a tree was chopped down and there are hundreds of them, I hadn't noticed them!

I should have just looked outside!!

This weekend I have decided to 'go public' with my glass angels. I have been fiddling around with them for some while. I have made lots for friends and I think that the time is right to try and spread my wings a bit. So please check out my website - 'Remember Me' Angels . Its been quite an interesting weekend trying to get the website sorted!! Its been a steep learning curve and I am not totally sure I have ironed out all the glitches but I'll keep at it. I have also launched on face book as well, I think that might be even tougher than the website!! 

So have a look and let me know what you think, all support and spreading news  of my venture will be greatly appreciated!!!

Have a lovely week, I'm off to Brighton for a few days I hope the weather holds 

xxx