How Long………..???

Well I can't believe that its been so long since I blogged ( i lost the link and couldn't remember where it was - came across it by accident through Facebook)   A lot has happened since last time.
Stacey - she has been married to Lee for almost a year (since June 2014) they live in Elland with a daft Boxer called Rolo. Stacey will be 30 in Jan next year and we are all off to Centre Parks to celebrate. 

The wedding was  the most fabulous day!  I don't think i have ever smiled and laughed  as much, I was so proud of her.  So John and I now have a son-in-law!  and we couldn't wish for a better one. It took 2 years to plan the wedding then 8 weeks before the day we had to change the venue from the Cassa (which was a building site) to the Ceder Court who accommodated us really well …  It was a very drizzly day but nothing spoiled it at all. 

Stephen is still living with Kaylie but not in a flat they now have a house in Lime Street in Elland and live with Woody. Kaylie is 36 weeks pregnant with my first grandchild. He's a little boy and will be named Seth John Andrew Gibson.

Mark is still in Tidworth (dahn saath) although he may have been somewhere else last time I wrote.  He spent 7 months in Afghanistan in 2013/14 which was a horrible time but he came through it ok.  At the moment he is home but will be going back today (May Day Bank Holiday).  Mark's partner Heidi will be graduating in July from Portsmouth Uni as a radiographer. John and I will be attending the graduation. Heidi has a job at t hospital in Kent (which I'm sure I'm supposed to know the name of but can't remember) 

John and I started cycling about 5 weeks ago and its going well. We cycle between 8 and 12 miles 3 or 4 times a week. We have become fitness guru's (oh how i laughed typing that).

So - I think the time is right to resurrect the blog, especially since our little grand baby is imminent (not as imminent as Woody though because we are dog sitting today whilst Kaylie and Stephen go to see Kaylies mum in Hornsey)

PS…………. we got the chickens, unfortunately the original 6 have all gone to the chicken farm in the sky, mostly due to old age however the Fox on Christmas Day night this year put paid to three of them (we still had four, Bluebell survived for 4 more weeks after the attack bless her). So we have three new ones now, one of them lays blue eggs, the other two are commercial brown.  I have to say that now that we are experienced chicken farmers we have decided to stick with 3 till they stop laying, then get another three so we still have eggs.  By the time the second set of three get a bit past it the original three will be gone to the great chicken god (are you following this) and we will still have a regular supply of eggs.

Ok thats all the updates…….. bring on the blogging 

Chickens????

Chicken Blog

We have decided to get chickens!!! Our allotment has produced nothing this year (or as we say in Yorkshire – bugger all) the weather has been shocking and the slugs and snails are rife. It’s a big allotment in our garden and the soil is good quality in parts and not at all in others so we tend to plant things near the front and leave the back. Last year I decided to fill the back with fruit bushes but the soil quality is so poor that they died (the raspberry canes struggled and produced a leaf at first but then gave up). John and I would not really consider ourselves high up on the ‘Tichmarsh’ scale of gardening and so probably have not dedicated ourselves enough to soil improvement, weeding and hoe’ing.

So were filling it full of Chickens!! Well we think we are. There is huge debate in the household.

Actually I’m going off on a bit of a tangent because I’ve not ‘blogged’ for two years so perhaps it would be pertinent to say that all children have left the home!!! Stacey is living in Elland with Lee. They are engaged and the wedding is June 2014. Stephen is living in Elland with Kaylie but there not engaged and being engaged is a Mute point as far as Stephen is concerned. They do have a dog though – Woody the Springer Spaniel who is 5 months at the moment (Aug 2012) – they also have two cats. But that’s ok because they live in a flat where your not allowed pets!! Mark is home at the moment he is on Army leave for three weeks and has one and a half to go. So Mark currently lives in Tidworth in the south of England

I digress – back to the chickens. After mass debate (you have to be careful how you put that) I have, this morning, had a cunning plan. We can but an inner fence about three foot wide round the allotment, this would be about three foot high, covered in chicken wire and would act as a run for the wee birdies. I think this is a brilliant idea and will update on the progress as and when it becomes more real

Tis Done

Well we went three six weeks without a cooker, sink or running water in the kitchen................... but its done!! well almost, a bit of painting and some tiles and then thats it. I never ever want to do anything like it again so im glad we went for the best quality because it will last.

its been very exciting having a sink, and being able to cook things, it makes you realise just how easy we have things in the Western World.



thats about all I have to say really.

House Renovating

you know that time when someone says - "we need a new kitchen" (me in this instance) and then everyone gets involved and adds on their bits of knowledge and ideas..?? well because of my 'suggestion' and other peoples 'add ons' we are now £32,000 poorer and 10000% dirtier. and the next person who says 'wont it be nice when its finished' will end up in the pond with a brick tied to their genitals.

However on the plus side, the new roof is looking very good, the extension is almost up, most of the scaffolding has been removed and the outside toilet provided for the builders, by the builders is not directly outside my front door anymore. (its now at the bottom of the drive for any passing person to use).

On the Down side we don't have a drive, we had a bog for one day as it poured down, (we now have sand and hard core) we no longer have kitchen units and today the cooker is being removed............... we haven't actually been able to order the new kitchen yet because we don't know the size of it until the wall (pictured above) gets knocked down tomorrow and its raining.... again.

Wuthering Heights Ballet – Northern Ballet Theatre – Sheffield Lyceum

If someone had asked me 10 years ago ‘would you like to attend the Ballet’ (little finger in the air) I would have scoffed at the idea, well maybe not scoffed but I wouldn’t have thought that it would be ‘my thing’.
However In December 2008 I went to see The Nutcracker, firstly because I had decided to be more cultured (ha ha) and secondly because I love Tchaikovsky’s music. When the Ballet started I thought ‘ey up this is going to be rubbish’. By the end of Act one I think I had stopped breathing! I had no idea really what was going on but I loved the colour and the excitement and the characters… So, armed with that I decided to see if it had been a flook, maybe it wasn’t as good as I remembered, maybe it was the boring crap that I thought it would be.

Last month I booked to see Wuthering Heights. After discussions with my mum we thought that we knew the story better than we knew the story of Romeo and Juliette which had been the other choice.

Once again I was mesmerised from the first bar of music! I loved the rollercoaster of emotions from Heathcliffes’ anger and love for Cathy to how horrible he was to Isabella who loved him dearly. I once again held my breath and forgot to breath and cried at the end when he died….. So now having been to two Ballet’s I’m a convert, I love the Ballet!! I will be attending more …………. Not sure its good for my health but if I can get back the ability to breath I'm sure ill be fine.

Oh and John is joining Stainland Lions Beginners this year. I'm a bit jealous because I would love to be still running however i've got over myself now and in the great scheme of things its not so dire that I cant run………. Its not fair………. But ill just have to get on with it, smile and hope he does well

ooohhh Break a Leg Lovey

Well Today (16th December 2009) and tomorrow Stephen is an extra in a film. The film (The Kings Speech) stars Colin Firth and Hellena Bonam Carter (probably not how you spell it but she Beatrix Lastrange in Harry Potter) and Timothy Spall. Stephen gets £70 per day and an extra £10 for having his hair cut in the style of 1920' .... Short Back and Sides. then.

Today he was a 'crowd member' in a scene recreating a speech given by King George VI to the masses at Wembly Stadium.......... well except this was given to 600 extras and 600 inflatable people!! yes really!! at Odsal Top Stadium in Bradford. Tomorrow he rises to the dizzy heights of Irish Guard in full red tunic and Bearskin hat. The silly thing is that when the film comes out he could well be both in the crowd and marching past himself................ ill keep you posted :o)

The Big Smoke

Blog

A trip to the Smoke

Friday 4th December John and I embarked from Wakefield Train Station on a jaunt to London. The purpose of this trip was Culture and Knowledge. (oh and it was a cheep deal)

We arrived at 11.30 am and took the Picadilly Line to our hotel in Russell Square, very large and very basic but clean and accommodating. (oh and cheep) on arrival the computers were down so we couldn’t check in, however we left our bags with the every so friendly (ahem) Concierge and toddled off back to the tube – Destination Camden Market.

Well its big is Camden Market, and its busy and very nice to look at in places. However once you have seen a Goth stall, food stall and t-shirt stall you have done most of it. So we went for lunch in a Chinese Buffet restaurant. (which was cheep) then we wondered back into London Stuffed and went to the pub!! I indulged in a G&T.

The evenings entertainment was the Musical Jersey Boys. Excellent show, absolutely brilliant and loved every minute.

Saturday
We were going to the Natural History Museum which is near Knightsbridge so we ‘popped’ into Harrods for a Christmas Bauble. The good news is that I didn’t get thrown out as happened on a previous visit (and a fact I’m quite proud of). The bad news was that the baubles were all the size of footballs and not appropriate for our tiny (I hope) Christmas Tree.
The museum was……………… well…………… hmm……… BORING!! And John and I took this as a sign…….. (and that is the knowledgeable part of the trip. something we learned about ourselves) were really not museum people and ‘looking at stuff’ is really not for us however I appreciate that stuffed animals Pickled snakes and dead insects on a stick have a certain appeal for some people. So after about 3 hours, a time that included having lunch ( Which was not in any way Cheep) we got the tube to Regent Street in order to browse round Hamley’s and other outlets. So there was John, Me and …..25 thousand protesters!! who had a bit of a beef about climate change! however we marched with them for a bit (about 200 yards I think). Along with those 25 thousand was the other four million who had come out Christmas shopping! So we quickly took our leave and went back to the Hotel.

This was when I decided to read the Gidions Bible left in the room……….. what a shocker that book is. Porn filth smut and every kind of sin. Don’t get me going about Lot and his daughters! What a pair of sexual deviants they were.

Went out for Dinner at an Indian Buffet (they do like their buffets do them there southerners) back to the pub then watched X-Factor in the hotel room (hey we know how to live the high life)

Sunday had a brief trip round Covent Garden then back to the station and home

The most memorable part of the trip ……………… the text reply from Stephen after, in religious mode, I asked him to take the dog out

MY TEXT
And God said. Take thine animals out to relieve themselves or thy will be punished as a sinner by thy mother and thy father. And Stephen did relieve thine dogs and all was well with the world

HIS REPLY
And thas said get Fu*ked

what can you do eh???