Happy Christmas everyone!


Jenny <><

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wouldn't i just like to be like them. Life has been hectic with the lead up to Christmas and i have been too tired to read many blogs let alone comment. Sorry.


Hubby's virus turned into a chest infection and more antibiotics and it seems this virus also likes to pop back for another visit every now and again. At the moment he is asleep in the armchair beside me.


I had a good time at g'daughters sleep over. There were 7 all told and they all seemed to talk at once???? I had borrowed a chocolate fountain, but everyone said that they made a big mess up the walls and carpet, so i bottled out and just melted some chocolate in the microwave. We had strawberries and marshmallows to dip in the chocolate mmmmmmmm! I got to bed at 3am and went straight off to sleep. I had originally gone to bed at 12 midnight but g'daughter called me out to tell them a story, so up i got. But it didn't matter cos i enjoyed it.



I still haven't got all my Christmas presents or written any cards... Am i bovvered? Er... sometimes. But i expect it will all get done by the day.



We have had a big problem trying to find a turkey over 9 kilo, so much so that we have had to settle for an 8.4 one. It seems there are not many around this year due to the trouble with turkey's last year. People have suggested having a crown cos there are no bones so you get more meat, but a lot of us like the legs the best and a 4 legged turkey would be alright for us :-)



Another suggestion was to get a fresh one from the butchers, but that would be far too expensive. No we got a frozen one from Tesco's like always and now i have to cook it in my new fan oven. Eek!! I have never used a fan oven and i haven't used my big bottom oven yet. As there is only the two of us at home the small top oven does us for most things.


I usually cook the oven on low all night, but how low is low in an electric fan oven???? We shall see.


Oh well i really should be tackling the Christmas cards about now....


Jenny <><

Happy Birthday Granddaughter

Granddaughter is 13 today. She was born by C section 13 years ago, my daughters first child. This last year she must have grown about twelve inches in a year, she is now much taller than me. Saturday we went shopping and i bought her some clothes. That girl has always known how to shop :-). Today we go out for a meal and next Saturday i have the privilege of supervising a sleep over of 7 girls. I have already been given my orders, mainly not to embarrass her. As if i would...

Last night my next-door-neighbour had his car stolen from outside the house. It was inches away from ours. All this happened at teatime, not in the middle of the night as you would expect.

Just a short one today to say 'Happy Birthday' g'daughter have a great day as you enter your teen years.

Jenny <><

Pain and more pain

Well i give up. I have tried and tried to put pictures in and it is having none of it. so i cannot be bothered any more tonight.

Remember hubby's toothache.... well it was an abscess so he has now had the nerve taken out. Now he is saying the one next to it hurts, but i am wondering if the abscess hasn't quite gone and he needs more antibiotic.

He has also had for the last two weeks that nasty chest virus that is going the rounds. It sounds like the same one that they have on Strictly Come Dancing. G'daughter has it too and has been very ill. Last Wednesday night she ended up in A&E because she couldn't breathe. Luckily they saw her straight away and gave her some steroid tablets to take and a prescription for sprays. She is better but her chest still sounds terrible and i doubt if she will be back to school at the start of this week. She is very rarely ill but when she is she often ends up at A&E and has what ever she gets worse than normal.

Next week g'daughter will be 13, how did that happen. It seems she is having a sleep over of 6 friends. Now daughter has come up with clever the idea - she thinks - of her and g'son sleeping over my house and that i go over and supervise the sleep over. One reason being that my daughter has a very short fuse when woken from sleep at night, although she reckons she cannot remember what she says the next day. Hmm!! Anyway to save her nerves and g'daughter's this was the suggestion. G'daughter is all for it as long as i don't embarrass her. I haven't given an answer yet, but oh what fun i could have. Embarrass, Ha! Ha!

My glasses broke half hour ago and i am wearing some very old ones from years back. I dread to think what i look like... No comments please :-)

Today i wrapped up...well hubby wraps...my first presents. Thank goodness, i thought i was never going to get started. Sons family is nearly all done, so is Church friends, but i still do not know what to get for some members of the family. And i am not telling on here what i have bought already as i know family reads this blog, so there.

Tom Jones is on TV at the moment, his voice hasn't altered a bit with age. Boyzone was good as well and i have always loved Seal.

Well I'm off to watch I'm a Celebrity and i am recording Strictly results to watch later... Oh what a busy life i lead.

Jenny <><

Holiday

We have just got back from my last holiday this year.

We set off Wednesday morning, picked up my friend who was coming with us and set off. We were going to 'Mission Worship', a weekend conference where christian singer/songwriters teach us their new songs they have written. Give us good teaching and raise a lot of money for a kids charity that provides schools in the Amazon jungle. It is run by Kingsway Publishers who gives a large percentage of the money raised from the sales of goods at the conference.

Back to the plot. To make a bit of a holiday of it we thought we would go a couple of days early. My friend wanted a lift to the conference so had to come with us early.... So it was a lovely day and on the way there i suddenly saw the sign for the Bluebell Steam Train Railway Line. My husband is rather a steam train lover and we had been there before so i said lets go and visit.

We saw one train and had a lovely lamb dinner. I sat and sunned myself on a seat in the station while my hubby and friend went and looked at the engine sheds. I am not quite so much a train lover. If you have seen one you have seen them all is my motto.

A couple of hours later we set off again and reached the hotel about 4pm. We had a lovely room with a big bay window overlooking the sea. There was a full moon and we sat and watched it shining silver on the water as the sun went down. ( i am now singing the song 'by the light of the silvery moon').

This isn't exactly the same as our room but it is one of their bedrooms.

There was a 'Tinsel and Turkey' group at the hotel so my friend and i went down to the hotel lounge and joined them on Thursday night as they had a singer playing 60's songs. They were all from Doncaster and very friendly and didn't mind us gatecrashing one bit.

For those that don't know, 'Tinsel and Turkey' is what the over 60's go to usually with their clubs. It is a coach trip to a hotel usually in November when you pretend it is Christmas and have a Christmas dinner, presents and do all the things of Christmas day. When we joined them they reckoned it was New Years day, LOL! :-) It is especially good for people who have lost their partners and would never get away from home as it makes a nice 5 day break for them.

Friday morning the coach departed and our lot for the conference started turning up. There was 10 of us from our church. Now if i am doing these pictures correct there might even be a photo of the hotel we stayed at.

The first floor big bay window 3rd from the end of the hotel was our room. The weather was very warm i never wore my coat at all. It was lovely to spend time away with some of the church family. We sang, we danced, we worshipped together. We had breakfast together and spent time till late at night chatting in the hotel lounge.

Actual hotel dining room.

My husband had raging toothache all during the holiday. One of us usually has something. He likes to go for walks on holiday, not my thing. So i think he walked at least twice up to Beachy Head with some of our church mates. This was uphill a lot of the way.

Picture coming....

That is Beachy Head, quite a famous landmark in the UK and famous for people throwing themselves off of it. Thankfully hubby's tooth never got so bad he saw that as a solution.

So after a good week we came back Sunday afternoon and now looking forward to getting back to work :-(

I wonder if this post is going to look the same as it does now when i publish????

Jenny <><

Empty head

Explain this phenomena to me. In bed, at the bus stop, anywhere away from my computer i write the most interesting posts. In my head. But the minute i sit here to write something all thought deserts me. Nothing, nowt, zilch. One empty head. And to make it worse it's raining and I'm not at work.

About three weeks ago the handle of my handbag came unstitched and broke. Now i could have mended it but i have a bit of a handbag fetish... after about six months i get fed up with it and buy another. Which is the reason i only ever buy cheap bags. So what was i going to do today?? I was off to buy my new bag and do some Christmas shopping. But it is pouring down and has been all day. It is dark, dull, windy... Horrible in fact.

Time for a random picture ~

This was where the random picture was supposed to be, but as you can see they came up at the top???????????

On holiday this year we went on a deer safari, i think i have mentioned it before. Well this was it and the face g'daugher pulled after feeding the deer. She had very dirty hands.

I would love to show some pictures of my other g'kids but do not have as many photos of them. One reason is that they are much older and whenever we go round there they are in and out like yoyo's with their friends. Also i am very bad at taking photos and most of the ones i have of my daughter's children, she has taken and emails me them. Unfortunately at Son's house computers only last a few months with 5 kids on it. The deadly virus is just waiting to get it. So i don't have as many pics of them at all. Hopefully i will get some when i go Christmas.

I have just had my tea, sausage and mash. I used my new frying pan to do the sausages and what do you know... i still nearly burnt them. LOL!!! I will get used to the new cooker, and yes i have myself a new set of pans but it hasn't improved the cooking

Daughter just told me what she had for tea and it sounded very tasty:

Cook some chicken and bacon and put on top of leeks and mushrooms in a casserole dish.. Pour a tin of condensed chicken soup over the top and then mashed potato on top of that. She then put it in the oven for 2 hours. Sounds like something i might try.

Well i think i will stop now.

Enjoy tomorrow...

Jenny <><

Another Birthday

Yes today is my birthday, 21 again, and again, and more! Thanks to the above 'Happy Birthday'. I have had it a long while and must admit i cannot read who made it as my eyes sight is not good enough.

Well today i am going over my daughters for Sunday Roast and looking forward to it. It is always good when you haven't had to cook it yourself.

Right now i am giving myself a birthday present by being on the 'pooter so early in the day, hubby's in bed (although the door bell just rang and might have woken him) having a lay in like he does every Sunday catching up on his sleep. He works unsociable hours and has a long day Saturday. He also knows i like a bit of time on my own. No, he is now up the doorbell did wake him!!

It is a shame b'days are not quite so exciting when you can see your bus pass getting nearer and nearer. For those in the US when you get to be 60 in some parts of the UK you get a bus pass to use the buses for free. I still have 3 years to go BUT I DO NOT FEEL OLD ENOUGH YET!!!!

That's why i have called this blog and my old AOL one 'Stop The Clock' The rest of it used to say 'times moving too fast'. Or something like that, i cannot quite remember now. See the brain's going as well.

Ah well, i am off to get ready to enjoy my day and to give thanks to God that he has seen me through another year.

Jenny <><