My Life's Ingredients

After all that rain we had a wonderful day today! Just in time for us going to Kew Gardens !!! Sharon and I went there early-ish (well... think we took the bus at 11??? ;) ) - first time that I went by bus and it was quite interesting to see more of West London. They still had the Moore exhibition there and quite interesting statues. For "lunch" we went to the Orangery where we both had 2 small treats (actually ... 1.5, we shared one! ;) ). YUMM! Graeme joined us afterwards and we went to the Temperate House (Sharon's never been!!) and the Mediterranean Garden (how fitting's that!!!). And we tried to see the stag beetles but couldn't detect any - but impressive area for them. And then see those beautiful golden pheasants. Aren't they colourful? And they do whistle quite funnily! That's the male ones btw, the females are probably just a drab brown, as usual with most birds. I just LOVE Kew Gardens and I am soooo jealous that Sharon lives so close and c

Today was Ally Pally day! :) Had my list with things to buy and tried my best to keep the spending low .. but I did shop for the crop as well (not too much though) and for my Secret Santa. Shame we couldn't get any of the DCWV Pads at all... :( Will have to check online at some point. Got lots of other stuff though. Shame I have to leave it with Sharon until 27th October when we're coming back to London for the Dolphins v Giants game. Ah well... that's the problem with weight allowances! :( After we came back to Putney I've been stitching a baby card for my friend Heather while Sharon made a stamped card for her. We're a little bit late, but better than never. :) The chart is from The Cross Stitcher and it's easy to stitch - only takes 3 different colours as well.

Today we went to see the Terracotta Army at the British Museum ! FAB!! I'd seen the program about the exhibition on BBC two weeks ago. They showed how they had restored the warriors and how they built the exhibition area in the Reading Gallery. Shame there was no Photography allowed, but can understand that. I still took some photos outside the rotunda. The statues are fascinating, and there were lots of smaller items as well, as the exhibition was not called "Terracotta Warrios" but "The First Emperor". Amazing things, like how Qin changed the writing to just one standard, and the different types of payments (did you know they had KNIFE COINS?) to just one coin (round with a square hole in it). After the exhibition we went to Ponti's for a late lunch (4pm!!) - nice baked potato with cheese. YUM! Sharon and I had been there last year when we went to the British Museum to see "Tabu". A nice long search in Borders completed the evening, i.e. my

I'm on my train and enjoy writing back-dated blog entries. Shame that GNER does not offer FREE WIFI! Ach well, it just has to wait until I am at Sharon & Graeme's. :) Soooo looking forward to meet Sharon again! I'm missing her quite a bit, but at least it means I have a "base" in London for trips down there. Shame that I am not able to get in touch with Tigger, so a meet up with the old WXC crew is not going to happen this time. Maybe next year. 1 Have packed LOTS, bag is heavy and I still have the rucksack and laptop bag! I just hope I am still within the 25kgs for the big bag - I weighed it at 20kgs yesterday evening but added my flip flops, a jumper and my photo bag since then. And believe me, the bag feels heavier than 20kgs! ;) Ah well, I'm sure leaving my paper carrier bag with Sharon and giving her her birthday present will tip the scale a bit back. ;) Currently at Durham ... was supposed to arrive at King's Cross at 15:44hrs but due to a col

Yep, we got our award ... actually 2. :) One brown plaque, just stating that we're Best in Div 2, and then a certificate as well stating that we're Best in Div 2 and ALL BAFL!!! :) Was a bit of a funny story, Allan and I had to make our way down to the area beside the "tunnel" before end of half time ... left after the 2-minute-warning and tried to get down onto the tracks, but Doug told us to come outside to him - and then we all 3 dashed another set of stairs down onto the trackside on the other side of the "tunnel" (lead by Nathan) just to having quickly get across the "tunnel". :) I had been wearing my BAFL cap all day so I suspect my hair in the official photo will be a total mess!!! :( But couldn't say yet, as I haven't seen the photo yet. Photos of the awards to follow once I'm back home from holiday ... and Nigel should have provided me with a copy of the media pic as well by then. ;)

Well... Friday usually doesn't count for the FANS of BritBowl, but the helpers start much earlier. :) We left Edinburgh at 2pm, fully packed car with the BAFL Shop stuff we didn't sell at our home games and a poor Allan being slightly cramped on the single back seat. Weather to start with was ok - so no horrendous rain like last year!!! Had a fairly good drive down the A1 but when we arrived before Newcastle we had the annual problem with the bridge crossing!! Don't know why, but arriving at the bridge at 3:30pm just doesn't work. We were stuck for about 15 mins for no apparent reason!! :( And yes, we had the same problem last year. Once we got past the Angel of the North, the traffic was flowing again. There was a car with a nocked bonnet on the other side with a police car around, so I can only assume it's that "human curiosity/morbidity" that made the traffic slow down. The rest of the trip went ok, we stopped at the Service Station before (?) Scotch

Yesterday I suddenly got the idea to have a look at patterns for carving pumpkins ... not sure where this came from, just suddenly popped in my head. You'd think me planning my trip to Sheffield this weekend, down to London the week after and our cruise would be the first thing on my mind ... but no, it's not. :o That's going to happen soon, I hope. :) Had 6 beetroot in our veggie box this week ... so the rest of this week food will be BORSCHT!! :) Have to check it's cooking ok ... quite fancy eating that Russian soup again. OK, gotta dash ... check the soup, get an e-mail out to the Edinburgh Scrappers for the Secret Santa Swap ... aaaah! And DH and I may be going to Ratho tonight for some time at the spa.

Yes, after 2 months missing crops due to Wolves games I finally was able to join the girls for a nice day cropping, blethering, drinking tea and having nice food. :) And of course shopping. ;) I had photos on my CF card as I was CONVINCED that there is a photo printing machine at Woolies on Lothian Road now ... but of course there wasn't. :( The small photo shop where MIL and I printed the photos for FIL's 60th birthday album has vanished as well, and I couldn't find any other place - should have checked the upper part of Lothian Road as there's a Boots which may have had the photo printing machine... But I had been scrapping nonetheless ... checked size of the photo for matting and did the easier journalling for my first LO for Corinne Delis' online Workshop "Finding You" . There's going to be some hidden journalling on the right hand side behind the bullet points once I get my head around what I want to say. Wanted to start on my Xmas cards but wa

Been playing around with Photostudio today to get the award done ... can't post the photos until Saturday though, just in case someone is coming across the blog. ;) But yes, I think it can be classified as Digi Scrapping, even though it's minimalist style (now ... that's my normal style when scrapping Wolves pics anyway, isn't it??). Done 10 awards, and now I am totally shattered. Get the stuff packed but will take photos beforehand. Come back to this post on Saturday evening ... I'll have the pics up then. :) *** Here are some of the awards as printed off ... will add a Slide later but slide.com is down just now. :( ***

Geesh... it's nearly a week since the last post and I haven't updated the blog ... got already worried - lol - e-mails from friends checking whether all is ok (thanks, Heather! ;) ). Everything is fine, we're just in the last run to the awards night preps, house is busy busy busy and we're all a bit on the edge ... but tomorrow are the awards and then it's back to normal... or NOT. >>>>>> 14.9.2007 - Wolves Senior/Junior Awards Night 15.9.2007 - September Crop 21 - 24.9.2007 - BRITBOWL (Sheffield) - we're down as helpers 27.9.2007 - Train down to London to visit Sharon 29/30.9.2007 - ALLY PALLY 3.10.2007 - Doug's coming to join me in London 4.10.2007 - We fly out to Crete for our Cruise 4.10. - 11.10.2007 - Cruise 18.10.2007 - Quiz Night 20.10.2007 - BAFL End of Season Meeting (Sheffield again I guess) 20.10.2007 - October crop (think I skip the meeting for that! ;) ) 28.10.2007 - NFL Game London >>>>>> So, doesn't lo

Just to let you know that I am going to do some back dated entries this week ... so scroll down a bit or you will miss it. :) There shouldn't be any entries prior to August though. :) Right, have to sort out my outfit for tonight... speak later!

Number 6! Can you imagine? Married for so long? And we've been together for 2.5 years before that, so that makes it 8.5 years together? GEEESH!!! ;) Going out for dinner tonight ... and no, it's not going to be Jimmy Chungs or the Old Orleans ... this time we finally manage to go to the Khublai Khan . Have tried to get Doug to take me there for ages!! :) Got a red wooden rose this morning (turning into a tradition) and gave Doug the book " The Life and times of the Thunderbolt Kid " from Bill Bryson. Right, gotta dash ... still have to do some housework before we can go tonight. :)

Misunderstanding (or maybe not the best wording) between DH and myself there ... got an e-mail apologising, and all is well ... ;) Better be, tomorrow is our sixth anniversary!! :D

This was supposed to be a happy post, as I decided yesterday I would have a "ME" day. Six years ago today it was my so called "last day of freedom" before wee l got married on the 7th. Anyway, wanted to do nothing around the house but scrapbooking (which I haven't even started yet), cross stitching (done a little of that), being online (have had 1.5 hours of that) and watching TV. Then first I got a phone call from DH asking whether I was planning to put some washing out as it's sunny and warm outside. I just replied "no, I am not going to do anything today." When I checked my e-mail I got one from DH about food plan and my plans for re-sit of the exam etc. And as a PS that he is jealous of my "me" day, but then - he understands and that I am in pain (yep, I have the standard endo cramps starting today). SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT??? AM I ONLY ALLOWED TO HAVE ME DAYS WHEN I AM HURTING???? WTF!!!! My reply e-mail contained the reply to

Seen this on Sharon's blog and just had to go for it ... so here it goes .... Do you agree???