Mish-Mash Post

This is a bit of a mish-mash post.  All week I’ve been intending to write something but then my mind flits.  It flitted from   “I must keep up-to-date with my blog”  to “Is it worth keeping the blog?”  to “Yes I’ll blog – it’s a diary of sorts and good to look back on”.    Also it provides a reminder of events … you know big things like “I’ve actually washed my car at last”.  I’m sure it must be a year since I last washed it and so if it’s recorded here perhaps I’ll be a bit more diligent (and actually remember WHEN I washed it!).  It is usually parked not far from the birch tree in the front garden and so tends to be like a compost bin, with fallen leaves caught in the grille under the top of the bonnet, lichen growing in the seal around the sun-roof and a lovely big spider and web on the driver’s wing mirror.  But it’s a compost bin NO MORE – I cleaned it and now it shines (well almost).  I’ve been careful with my water usage as we’re on a meter – hence the watering can.

On Thursday I popped along to the Photography Group with 2 friends  (potential members).  The topic this month was Abstract views so, along with a couple of other photos, I took the above.  Well actually I took a similar one with me but realise now that I took the WRONG one – it should have been this one.  Oh well.  I wonder whether you can guess what it is?

On Friday evening, we went with friends to a ceilidh in a nearby village.  The ceilidh was in aid of Amnesty International and the  entertainment included singers, a band, clog dancers,  a caller and dancing.  There was a raffle and a Zaytoun stall selling Fair Trade olives, oil and soap produced by Palestinian farmers … my bar of lemon-scented olive soap smells delicious.

As part of my “What shall I blog about?” flitting, yesterday I did a quick flit around the kitchen:-

and what did I see?  Well a mish-mash (again) of magnetic thingies on the fridge, including “Make today the day that changes your life” beach hut card,  a Krokodillo’s advert in case we want to order a take-away from Queensland and the Latin first declension of femina in case I meet a bunch of Romans and want to talk to them about women.

The Krokodillo made me think of another reptile in the kitchen – this terracotta metal (now there’s a contradiction) lizard which I bought in Utah earlier this year and which reminds me of the vibrant red rock out there.

Not far from the lizard is this original water colour of chickens.  I picked up the framed picture from the charity shop for a mere £1.50.  I just love the expressions on their faces.  They are obviously enjoying a juicy bit of gossip.

On the shelf sits this white Wedgwood(?) jug and a card with a beautifully-painted comma butterfly – it’s a greetings card I bought with the intention of sending.

I am enjoying the beautiful colours in this photo.  The calendar is from Carol and is twelve-months’ worth of her beautiful photographs of western USA.

Of course we can’t be without this invaluable Nigel Slater book – well stained and splashed with all sorts of ingredients.

Ingredients?  Mr Dancing was assembling them yesterday for chutney making.  He is hoping that Nanny Dot’s Chutney recipe will produce results as good as hers.  Thank you P and L for sending it!

I think that Mr Dancing is an Olympian in the chutney-making department – hence my preserving jar ring award.  Each ring represents … well   …   er …  will have to think about that one.  Any ideas?

This flitting has now led me to Mr Dancing.  Thank you so much for putting up with me over the last seven years.  There we are in the photo above on 11 October 2002 …

and here we are again just a few weeks ago at D’s wedding with the lovely C.  Have you noticed how Mr Dancing doesn’t have a hair out of place in either of these photos?  So I have to compensate for this!

Well I shall flit no more …. if you’ve managed to stay with me so far …. well done.

Internet Friends

The last section of a post from Painting New Memories made me reflect on friendships I’ve made on-line and reminded me that I’ve been rather lax in correspondence lately.

In November 1994 I started using Compuserve, an Internet Provider with forums covering many interests.  Compared to the sophisticated Internet we have now, back then it was slow-running, but there was always excitement when the little yellow flag on the Compuserve mailbox icon went up.

I signed onto the Genealogy Forum and the Practice Forum.  This is where my e-mailing started and I was amazed at how I could send a recipe for a Christmas cake to someone in Wyoming and seemingly overnight they had baked it!  Friends here wondered why on earth I wanted to send electronic messages across the world and that makes me smile because they’re all doing it now.

So, I “bumped” into two Americans online on 22 November 1994 who told me all about Thanksgiving and on The Genealogy Forum I “bumped” into another American with my surname.

Since that dark dreary November evening 14+ years ago, I have met all three of these lovely people.  My children and I visited Wyoming for a month to stay with one friend and her family.   My friend drove 6 hours to Denver to collect us and was so kind and patient with us and when we met for the first time I felt I knew her so well. So, if you are reading this, thank you C, it was SO appreciated.

I visited South Dakota to stay at the house of another friend,who took us to Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore and a rodeo at Rapid City – thank you D.

A few years ago the third friend and his wife came from Texas to Britain for a holiday and stayed in Bath.   They popped over on the train to our home and we had a traditional Roast Beef dinner with Yorkshire puddings and Spotted Dick Pudding – a fact which he mentioned in his e-mail last week. Thank you D and D.

I’ve been to Wyoming 3 times now,  borrowed my friend’s tent to camp in, been to Montana with her family as well as the Crow Fair and the Wind River Indian Reservation Pow Wow where the above photo of my daughter was taken – the other is of me and my rental car at Moneta, Wyoming, population 10!

I’ve been so fortunate to come across these very generous friends in America and will never be able to thank them enough for their hospitality and patience.  I would never have had these opportunites were it not for them … and the Internet of course.

Oh, then there’s the lovely couple from Adelaide … but that’s another story for another time.

Thank you Lajoni for your post ….

1975 Revisited

After finding my old diary and posting details of my outgoings for September 1975, I wondered what I’d been doing that year.

We bought a dog – an English Setter called Max, visited Brittany and Amsterdam, went to Lincoln for a family christening and to Dorset, where we stayed at The Antelope Hotel, for a friend’s wedding, .

Clothes-wise: I was obviously keen on baggy trousers and checked material!

History-wise: American tennis player Arthur Ashe became the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles’ championship. On 5 September 2 people were killed and 63 injured as a suspected IRA bomb exploded in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel in central London.

The 1975 Top 10

1 Captain And Tennille Love Will Keep Us Together

2 Glen Campbell Rhinestone Cowboy

3 Elton John Philadelphia Freedom

4 Freddy Fender Before The Next Teardrop Falls

5 Frankie Valli My Eyes Adored You

6 Earth Wind And Fire Shining Star

7 David Bowie Fame

8 Neil Sedaka Laughter In The Rain

9 Eagles One of these Nights

10 John Denver Thank God I’m A Country Boy

 (The baby is now married with his own family). 

 

 

 

Watching the Pennies

With the current emphasis on the credit crunch, I decided to look into an old diary from 1975 to see what I spent money on then. 

I was married, aged 24 and in full-time employment. My husband had a company car and I had a mini. We had bought our own little property a couple of years previously at a time when house prices were rising rapidly. Nowadays, I keep a spreadsheet for savings only but, way back then, I had almost everything logged.  Today, it makes quite interesting reading! 

The following shows the entry for September 1975 when we had purchased guilders for a Dutch holiday, paid the mortgage, the dog’s kennel fees, petrol for a trip to Lincoln from Devon, two hotel stays. It’s all self-explanatory. There doesn’t seem to be a lot spent on food (probably due to being on holiday).  I’ve noticed also that in June we’d been on holiday to France.  

Look at the TV Licence at £18 – I just paid for ours today – £139.50!

I overspent by £19.08 that month, but all was okay again in October!