Blog Catch Up !!

Happy New Year to you all !

I had very good intentions of keeping up with my Blog but have failed miserably ( again).

I've been trying to catch up reading everyone's Blogs to see what has been happening and was really very sorry to hear the news on Travis and his house fire. Just before Christmas the school at the back of my house caught fire and burned down to the ground. Most of my neighbours children go to the school which has devastated a whole community - everything was destroyed - childrens Christmas presents made for their parents, pictures, photos etc. The only good thing was that no one was hurt and several years of fire alarm practice was put into action.Most of the children have been re schooled temporarily in porta cabins until the building is rebuilt. My thoughts are with Travis and his family at this time and a package is enroute for his boys.

Sam and Georgina finished the panto last week - it was great fun with a brilliant party for all of the cast and crew at the end. They are already talking about auditions for Christmas 2009 which will be for Aladdin.

Christmas was a relaxed quiet affair, unfortunately I had a horrible cough/ cold bug but it didn't spoil the day. It was fairly memorable because of the presents that Malc gave me. For months now he has been laughing to himself and saying " You won't believe what I've got you for Christmas !". This has highly amused him - having a secret and annoyed the heck out of me!

Well the big day arrived and Malc gave me a pile of beautifully wrapped presents - I was really touched. On opening the gifts they were wonderful and nothing to laugh at - one of the best surprises was a beaded necklace that I had seen in a shop on holiday in Holland and unbeknown to me Malc had secretly bought it with Sam and had stashed it away.It really is lovely.

I must admit that I do like surprises but I am also the sort of person that will hunt for presents - but I didn't find any this year !

The last present to open was a strange one - a black and white photo of Cheetah and Johnny Weismuller - you know "Tarzan ".

I didn't know what to say and started to laugh. " Why have you bought me a picture of Cheetah ?", I asked. "Because I thought you would like it " came the reply.

"Oh, Thank you very much", I politely answered.

I was really confused. I like animals but have never really expressed a huge love for anything monkey like - very strange.

Later in the day my parents came over and we had a traditional Christmas lunch followed by more presents.

This is where Malc really excelled himself !!

He brought in a huge parcel 4ft x 2.5ft in size beautifully wrapped in gold paper.

"This is your real present", he lovingly said.

"Oh how lovely" my parents said in unison.

I was really touched. From the size of it and the excitement of the children I guessed that it was a framed picture of the family or one of the children.

"Go on open it Mummy !" the children said.

Very gently , not wishing to destroy the paper I made a small tear to the top corner - revealing part of the frame.

I was right.

I continued to pull the golden paper away from the frame to reveal a huge picture of - a monkey's face !!!!

Immediately we all started screaming with laughter.

My Mum and dad were in complete shock - my Mum saying " What on earth ....."

As I ripped the paper completely away, there it was an absolutely humungous massive picture of Cheetah -which was - wait for it " signed" with a Cheetah finger print and scribbled signature !!!!

My immediate thoughts were - "What the hell" , "He's finally gone Mad" , "Where on earth am I going to put it ?"

Things went down hill when Malc told Mum that he had taken her picture down to put Cheetah up instead !!!!

I don't know what his thought process was behind buying the picture but strangely he must know me well as I actually quite like it !

To add - as well as having Cheetah, there is a painting that Cheetah has painted with a certificate of authenticity in the frame , which turns out to be a Charity cause - probably keeping Cheetah in cigarettes and booze !

Malc always surprises and life is never boring !! xx

Why have diamonds, jewels, pearls when you too can have a framed picture of a chimp gracing the walls of your home - in place of that of your family !

New Year was a quiet homely affair - with just us -all of our friends kept away ( I wonder why ??) It wasn't really quiet - we had a great time with a Chinese meal , music , dancing and lots of laughter -some of the neighbours had fireworks which was nice to see from indoors as the weather was freezing!

I haven't made any resolutions this year - just going to see what comes my way. There are always things that I want to do or achieve -mainly around the house but we'll see.

Just hope that it's a happy and healthy one for us all !

Ps - For those of you that have been very interested - Malc's crotchless pants have finally made it to the bin - he wore them for two weeks as a protest - I think this may be why I received Cheetah.....