Rambling around the shops (and elsewhere)

Partner-who-loves-tea and I found a new cafe in Birkenhead this week. It is called BeOffee and whilst the cakes were not spectacular the coffee was very good. I had my traditional latté and Jo had what is becoming her regular Cappuchino. This is about the third time recently she has not had tea in a café. It’s a good job she is still downing tea by the gallon at home or I would have to change her name.

Shopping in the Co-op I came across one of GB’s favourite substances – Marmite. I’m amazed that they get away with their ‘love it or hate it’ type advertising campaigns but this is the latest version.

Apart from a couple of very brief spells it has been a very wet few weeks. In between the showers it has rained. Grey, grey, grey.

I seem to be getting into the habit of recommending a post a week as I ramble around my fellow bloglings and this week I can only bow down in utter admiration to Saz for her post on Mad Manic Mamas. Anyone with children at home (I advisedly don’t say teenage because children at home never seem to grow beyond teenage years until they leave...) should read her Charter (and the comments of other MMM readers who have torn their hair out by the roots on frequent occasions).

On Saturday I spent the morning shopping in Heswall. On the whole the shops there are fairly unexciting but the local key maker, shoe repairer and engraver has this little mechanical cobbler in his window - hammering away all day long.

Finally, I would just like to say a big thank you to all those wonderful young people who stand on motorway slip roads (in any weather) holding up boards telling us motorists where the motorway leads.

May your road lead somewhere pleasant today.

A lot of nothing

Gosh, life is busy. and yet I’m not sure that I’ve achieved much today. Jo and I sorted some more jewellery out first thing this morning. It’s a job we started in March and it got interrupted. Once a big job gets interrupted you end up having to start all over again to catch up where you left off. So this time I’m determined to finish it. We’ve been photographing all the jewellery – much of it dress jewellery of no intrinsic value but of some family significance.

Then we went shopping in Tesco. That ranks somewhere between Ugh and Ugh-Ugh in my vocabulary. There are some shops – including some supermarkets – that I enjoy shopping around. But Tesco is not one.

After that we did a bit more jewellery sorting and then I had a lie down and watched TV. We’ve got Sky TV working again after a week of being lied to by their various operatives. Each time Jo rang they said they’d fixed the fault but it would take up to 24 hours to take effect. Needless to say that was just a way of getting her off the phone. I do hate it when people lie like that. Fortunately she got an operative who cared and listened on Saturday and within ten minutes he had got the Sky reception working properly.

Unfortunately the first programme I watched on our newly restored TV was the first Premiership match of the season for Liverpool. We played Tottenham Hotspurs and we lost!! Not a good start to the season. I think Liverpool need to think seriously about getting a new manager. We have two of the best players in the world – Gerrard and Torres and a few that rank highly in the Premiership but we don’t have a strong enough squad to cope with injuries or rotate players.

Then I did a few odd jobs and watched a bit of the World Athletics Championship while working on the computer.

Now I want to read up some of my friend’s blogs and head for bed....

 

A Rambling Salute (without Photos!)

Despite the sunshine I had a morning 'at home' i.e. at GB's today. This enabled me to read up on the activities of my fellow bloglings. I think that as much as I enjoy getting out and about I could be a lot happier nowadays if I were confined to my home than I would have been a few years ago. Thanks to blogs I've been all over the world, met lots of people's friends and families, had various adventures (big and little), and read a few book blurbs - and it's not even lunch-time yet.

When I visit fellow bloglings with young children who do so much, photograph it and then manage to post their blogs as well as read other people's and a book or two I realise I must have slowed down in my old age. Well yes, I know I have - it takes me three times as long to walk anywhere apart from anything else. But I used to manage to work a fifty to sixty hour week (the price of never ever bringing work home), whilst helping bring up youngsters and still fitted everything in. Nowadays if I get the washing done, cook a meal or two and still have time for a coffee I reckon my day has been full. I mean, if I make some bread I count it an achievement and all that involves is sticking the mixture and water in the bread machine and pressing a switch. So this post is. amongst other things, a salute to all you blog readers who somehow have managed to pay me a visit without locking the children in the cupboard under the stairs.

I've decided Blogging is a bit like being married. You half start a conversation with your partner and then you move on and the conversation changes and some questions never get answered or, if they were, you totally missed them because you were in the process of surreptitiously hunting for the missing remote control while partner was talking at (oops, I mean to) you. For example, I left a comment on someone's blog the other day and it was only by pure chance that I happened to go back and find the answer. Similarly, when I moderate comments I think "Oh, I'll respond to that one" and get sidetracked before I can do it. So this posting is also a salute to folk who leave comments on my blogs (always appreciated - except the one below!) and my apologies if I don't thank you at the time. (But if I did would you ever return to see???)

One of my blogs, 'Memories are made of this' , has family history and some of my early memories on it . A while ago I had to switch off comment facility because someone had spammed into it and kept leaving the same four line comment in Chinese. Not reading Chinese I haven't a clue what I said but leaving the same comment on half a dozen postings didn't seem sensible to me. I switched it back on and the same thing happened. Now I only accept comments from Google account holders on it. That should do the trick because either it will stop them or, if they have a Google account, I'll be able to report them. I wonder why some people feel the need to be a pain in the bum and screw up life for the rest of us?

Sorry GB - didn't mean to mention pains in the bum. The side effects of his radiotherapy have been kicking in the last couple of weeks and are not only unpleasant but make life difficult to cope with if you are far from a loo for any length of time. He's also feeling nauseous. I know there are worse things but it's no fun seeing him suffer. Somehow big brothers are meant to be invulnerable. There comes a stage in growing up when one realises that one's parents are not the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, totally healthy creatures one has taken for granted. But I'm only just reaching the stage where big brother is coming into that category (even though he's had plenty of operations and medical problems before). Fortunately he's still omniscient! So this is also a salute to GB!

My number of followers has sneaked over the 50 mark while my back was turned. (Note to Blogger - how about a notification every time someone new follows one's blog). So this posting is also a salute to my new followers - why not click on their little icons some time and check them out. Which reminds me I haven't managed to keep my resolution of visiting a new blog every day. It's on one of my lists but I'm not sure that particular list is on my list of lists...

Have a good week-end.