Santa's nearly here!

Well this morning I've been dashing around like a mad woman - just trying to get ready for tomorrow as I'm working until 10pm tonight and won't have a huge amount of time by the time I finally get home.

Malc - is still wearing his " newly altered" trousers complete now with no crotch - just to prove a point and aggravate me... but as it's the season of goodwill to all men - and it includes Malc - he can wear them like that until they " jump" into the bin on Boxing day !

The kids are both in the Cinderella panto and loving it - the costumes are lovely this year - Georgie is a fairy and a ballroom dancer ( complete with beautiful gown and headress) - Sam is a servant, a footman ( again - great costume all red and gold braid - he is also the " pumpkin man" - he has to dress from head to toe in black and wave a pumpkin around around Ultra violet line along with a couple of dancing mice puppets - looks really effective !

I've been helping back stage getting the kids ready and trying to stop one delightful child from "turning his eye lids inside out" at every available opportunity as his party trick !

I think I'm just about ready for Christmas although am having to leave Malc a list of duties for tonight including sprout peeling !

We've been so lucky this year - we've had loads of cards and gifts already - some of the cards have been fantastic - my favourite one so far ( apart from the kids ones) is a hand made embroidered card depicting a family of mice all snuggled down for a Christmas story - it's beautiful and must have taken Gerry ( my friend) months to make - I'm going to frame it as it's so lovely - must try to take a photo of it and attach it to this post.

Well -still lots to do and the clock is ticking - " Have a wonderful Christmas Blog friends and a very peaceful New Year ! xxxx

Will he notice??

This is the quickest post ever and a confession....

Malc ( my long suffering husband) is not very fashion conscious.

He has a pair of jogging bottoms - blue and white stripey ones which are the most hideous things you have ever seen. He will wear them around the house , in bed if it is cold (!)and generally slob around in them.He does this thing with both hands in his pocket and pulls them up almost under his chin - looking just like humpty dumpty - just to annoy me.

I've hated them since he got them - despise them in fact.

Well tonight I'm now feeling a bit guilty . He's gone out to get the kids from a panto practice and the trousers were - well just sitting on the arm of a chair where he lovingly folded them.

The big shiny sharp scissors flew out of the kitchen drawer into my hand and I've just cut the crotch out of them.... and folded them back up again ....

He's just arrived back in the car - do I confess all or wait until he puts them on later !!!????

Or do I get the needle and thread out ???? Mmmm let me think for one moment - Not on your nelly !!!

What have I been doing for so long ???????

Well I've been shamed into coming back on my Blog - my last post was in September!! I can't believe how long it has been - you know how it goes- one day leads to another, then a week , then a month , then two or more!!

My 1st Year Blog - versary has passed also - I've been looking back on what I wrote when I first started up - but scary as to how quickly time goes by.

So what have I been doing for so long - well Sam starting secondary school has really thrown my daily life out of the window - what with masses of homework and new routines to cope with and also home and family commitments - three of my family have had major Ops or procedures this past few months and thankfully all are well now. Work has been pretty hectic too and really daily toils have taken priority over everything else.

But now I'm back !

Luckily I've kept a note of everything that has gone on via my trusty kitchen calendar so can report back on some things...

Following our fantastic summer holiday with Lyzzy dee and her folks and my long awaited 40th birthday - Malc took me away to Florence and Pisa for a belated birthday surprise weekend.

We had a great time but as all of our other holidays / trips away nothing is ever normal.

We did the normal touristy things - climbing the Leaning tower of Pisa ( not easy with a man who is terrified of heights and gets the urge to jump off anything higher than the bottom step of a ladder - still as I kept telling myself - he is well insured !!!)

The Tower was amazing to climb - I walked out around the edge with poor Malc stuck like Garfield up against the stair wall - I must admit though at one point it was so breezy that I thought that I would be blown off the top -it also felt very lop sided but not sure if this was psychological or not !


I forgot to mention that just before our epic climb we decided to go for something to eat in the square surrounding the tower. There did not seem to be a huge choice but we found a small place which was selling filled rolls and cooked food. We only had half an hour to fill before our time slot for the tower so we decided on a chicken pannini - this was the biggest mistake of the day !!!

When it arrived the chicken inside the pannini was half cooked - on the outside only and practically raw and very cold in the middle. I decided that if we ate it we would probably end up with salmonella or worse. So I did the wifely duty and told Malc to take it back and speak with the Chef. Malc came back and said that the Chef would put it back under the hot lamp and warm it up a bit !!! I had images of us both having the squits for the rest of the stay so politely went to speak with the Chef myself.

My knowledge of the Italian language is sadly very limited but in pidgin Italian and the use of Mime I reconstructed a rendition of " What will happen if you dare heat up that piece of chicken that you want to feed me scenario". This involved me holding my stomach and pretending to vomit whilst demanding that the Chef produce his meat thermometer so that I could check the temperature of the chicken !!

Looking back now the whole scene was completely bizarre - but fuelled by this man's attitude - he waved his hands in the air and refused to give a refund or offer anything else to eat instead of a raw chicken sandwich ( not that I would want to eat anything there- noticing his grubby apron and equally grubby nails).

Reluctantly we went outside rather miffed but still wanting retribution, whilst knowing that we only had 17 minutes until our tour started.

Outside the premises was parked a police car with a male and female both wearing sunglasses , regulation thick moustache ( him not her) , peaked cap and carrying a large side arm and guns.

I decided ( still being very annoyed) to report my displeasure to them ( I'm not sure why I did this but at the time I was so cross). Again I gave a starring performance - but this time with chicken impressions ( Malc joining in ) it was a bit like the game " Give us a clue" - you know - two words, five syllables with the Italian police participating. The male officer with the sunglasses hardly said a word but must have understood as he got on his radio, muttered a gruff noise and marched into the cafe.

He then ushered us over and said that we could have another meal instead of the raw chicken or something to the same value.

It was now about 5 minutes until the tour so we decided to have 20 euros worth of tubes of Pringles crisps and marched out of the cafe leaving the rude Chef to his nasty food with very smug looks on our faces - We had a really good laugh at the situation afterwards as looking back it was unbelievable - it was almost like an out of body experience!

The weirdest thing is that Lyzzy dee wants to go on holiday with us again next year !!!! What a great friend xx

Halloween was very cold this year - last year we spent at Disney in Florida and had the best time ever - again the kids came home with loads of sweets. I had bought a huge tub to give away but they seemed to bring back just as much as we had given out to the neighbours kids.

October also saw Sam's birthday - my baby is now 12 years old and growing very tall. We had a lovely time in an indoor snowdome sledging - great fun!

November saw an awards ceremony in London for my work which was really nice, dance exams for Georgina, Flu jabs for us all and a lovely day spent at Lyzzy dee's.

When we arrived Tom ( Lyzzy dees husband) was wearing a home made T shirt with various holiday phrases on which was hysterical and must have taken ages to make. As usual we had a lovely lunch and spent the time chatting and catching up on our holiday photos and reminiscing.

Today I ventured into the loft and got out the Christmas decorations. I'm not ready at all for Christmas but love all the preparations. I am working right up to Christmas eve on a late shift which will be busy but have Christmas day and also New Years eve off !! Both kids are in the pantomime again this year and I am helping out backstage.

Again looking back at my Blog - which Lyzzy dee inspired me to do has been fun - It's a shame that I have not blogged as regularly as I would have liked to do but hopefully now everything has settled down I should be able to post a bit more and catch up on every one's news - Nice to be back ...

Operation Blog catch up !

I just can't seem to get myself into action and I'm not really sure why.

Yes I have been busy with work, Sam's new school , homework (!) and life in general but just lately I do not have enough hours in the day to do everything.

My "My Town Monday" posts have been non existent - my lame excuse is that Lyzzy dee is doing such a fantastic job of writing about the places that we visited on our holiday - I've left it all to her !!

Yesterday I was 40 and one month old - how quickly time flies -it doesn't seem two minutes ago that I was celebrating my birthday in Holland.

When I woke up on the morning of my birthday I was greeted by a poster stuck on the window as I opened the curtains saying " Debbielou is 40 !". When I looked further I saw other posters attached to trees, lamp posts and other fixtures all displaying my face and age. We had been staying on a campsite and Lyzzydee and co had also decorated the caravan with balloons in the dead of night whilst we were asleep.

Malc and the kids had decorated the inside of the caravan with hand made posters and banners which was lovely. I received some amazing gifts too.As well as having 40 hand made birthday cards, Lyzzy dee had put together a very generous gift bag containing steradent ( false teeth wash), a Bob Nudd fishing video (!) , Tena lady pads, a feather boa , a back protector , a mug , thong pants , stripey socks , old age memory mints ,60's DVD, a lace doyley mat, a set of bingo dabber pens ,a wild thing cushion , a pair of spectacles ,fridge magnets and the most wonderful handmade bracelet and a lovely book containing poems and photos.My Mum and sister gave me two sets of beautiful earrings.

It certainly was a memorable birthday and one I won't forget in a hurry - Thank you ! x






Georgina has also had a birthday this past week and is now the grand old age of 9 years. She had a small group of friends for a party which was held in a new craft place that we have found and really nice. ( Lyzzy dee- we will have to visit here!)

Malc's birthday is later on in the month followed by Sam in October - so a busy time ahead.

On the medical front - Dad has had his 4th Op this year and has been very poorly indeed - He is still in hospital which is quite a worry but hopefully he will be ok.

As mentioned Sam has just started at secondary school which has been a change for us all - the strange thing is that the school he is at is the school that I used to go to and at least 3 of the teachers that taught me are now teaching him- really weird !

I am hoping that he will be as happy there as I was.

Our holiday - part one !

It seems such a long time ago now since our holiday that I really feel in need of another one!

We had been counting down the days ( number of sleeps in Georgina's case) until we left old Blightly for the shores of Holland for a holiday with our lovely friends Lyzzy Dee , Tom, Carl & Beth.

We (I) did all of the packing ( as all Malc packed was his own under pants !) got the car ready and left home very early on 7th August bound for Dover. It was a non eventful couple of hours in the car with several text messages shared between Lyzzy and I as to our progress on the good old M25 motorway.

When our co travellers arrived we were delighted to find out that Carl had entered into the holiday spirit and had dyed his hair a beautiful white blond colour to match Malc's quickly shrinking locks of tamarind monkey shade.

We drove onto the ferry and found some very comfortable seats in which to eat our home made breakfast/ brunch picnics.

The last time that I had been on a boat was to a tiny place called Lundy island just off the coast of Devon, I have never been so ill in all of my life and was still being ill when the boat had stopped. It was a really rough crossing and I would have possibly sold my family in order to take the option of paying for the helicopter flight back to the main land on the return trip!

Luckily for everyone crossing the channel was very smooth and with no helicopter in sight and only a short sail - we seemed to arrive very quickly.

As we entered France we relied on "Stella sat Nav" ( belonging to Lyzzy dee and Tom ) and Malc's hand written notes on how to get to Holland. He had laid a huge map out on the kitchen table and planned his route with a variety of road numbers scribbled down on a scrap of paper which I lovingly stuffed into the glove box of the car.

Stella had an interesting way of changing her mind at the last moment - our most memorable part of driving through France was a split second driving manoeuvre from Tom into a right hand lane off the carriageway which we had to follow or find ourselves in Belgium !!

Tom earned himself the nickname of " Right turn Clyde" from that moment on.

We stopped eventually for a break having tried to get Tom to stop for 50 miles by flashing our headlights !! ( Love you really Tom ! x) After this we remembered that we had in fact brought some walky talkies with us - somewhere in the boot of the car - they proved to be really handy as we had one in "Tracy" our car and Lyzzy and Tom had one in "Ruby", their car.


We finally arrived at the camp site and started to unpack our stuff into our caravan. Lyzzy and Tom unfortunately had a problem with their accomodation but luckily this rectified and they had the caravan next door to us.

Next door to the camp site was a theme park which the kids loved.Some of the rides scared the hell out of me. Georgie, Sam and Beth decided that they would go onto a chair ride- a nice gentle ride I thought. The next moment our children were being swung 40 feet in the air on a chair with only a chain holding them in ! They loved every moment of it and wanted to go on again !!




We've never really been camping before so staying in a caravan was a new experience for us as a family, but one that we actually enjoyed.

The vans were quite well equipped and very cosy. We had a large area of grass in front which became our badminton court and the kids play area.

There seemed to be a lot of different birds in the area from seagulls , crows and sparrow type creatures. There was also a tiny wild cat living in a hedge nearby which the children tried to entice out and every evening a group of ducks walked past our window.

The caravan opposite our one was inhabited by a rather strange family. Each of the caravans had a small bathroom area with toilet, shower and hand basin. There was one window in each room covered by a roller blind as the glass in the window was not opaque or made of readily obcurred glass and if you stood in front of the window you could be easily seen by all and sundry.

This did not seem to worry our neighbours in the slightest and became a source of our childish amusement but also of annoyance.

The neighbours would not put their blind down in their bathroom which meant that every time they went to the loo - we could see them, as their window was situated next to their toilet and opposite our decking area.

This usually happened when I was eating !!

It became a bit of a joke as one morning we had the whole family go to the loo whilst we were eating our breakfast on the veranda outside. The bald headed strange male member of the family, must have held the Guiness world record for the length of time he spent on the loo and in fact we held a sweep stake for the number of wipes - we think that Lyzzy dee won and so made her a suitable award as a prize out of loo roll of course.




We dropped loud hints but these people did not seem to care - so an evil plan was hatched one night ( Tom - I blame you!).

We decided to " bread the roof of their caravan ". Now for those of you who do not have a mean streak or evil sense of humour and retribution - this is how it works..

Find some old bread or even stale cake will do and in the dead of night , usually after having consumed a proportion of alcohol, break the bread into small to middling size pieces and throw them on the roof of a caravan especially one with a corrugated echoey roof.

You will then find at approximately 0300 hours in the morning, or possibly earlier, there will be the pitter patter of huge great stonking seagull feet and every visiting bird from nests from miles around will land on the roof and eat the bread attached thereon and therefore give the occupants a rather disturbed sleep.



I know that this is an extremely dreadful thing to do and I apologise for my unkind act to my fellow man.

As a good catholic girl I should know better - and to do it every single night of your holiday is a shameful thing - but brilliant fun and a great way of getting your own back !!!!!

One night Malc ran round to Lyzzy and Tom's , as we think that they "breaded our roof one night!" to return the favour.

He stood at the back of their caravan throwing up lumps of stale cake onto their roof - only to be caught doing so by the people in the caravan at the back of them - try explaining that one !!


Well, now that one confession is out in the open - will share a bit more later !

I am still Alive !

Thought I had better write something as I am aware that I haven't blogged since 22nd August.

I still haven't uploaded my holiday photos (!), I've still got a pile of un - ironed clothes needing attention and I've had one million and one things to do which has kept me away from the computer - also as I'm now 40 I'm not as fast as I once was !!!

Lame excuses I know !!!

Sam started secondary school yesterday so life has been particularly busy. It's Georgina's birthday next week so I have been trying to sort out her party, Malc has been away with work ( again !)- not that he is the greatest organiser or help around the place ( how many school labels has he sewn on? - oh yes I remember - "Bugger all" - that's how many !!

Any way - I promise that I will post tomorrow and tell all about our scandalous holiday in Holland - and the dreadful family that led us astray and made us " bread" innocent campers roofs !!!!!

Watch this space..................

We're Back !!! - for a short time.....

A very quick post to say that We're back home , having had a great holiday in Holland ( Thanks Lyzzy, alias "Scarlett" & Co xx )

I'm now officially 40 ! ( or 39 years and 360 days old !) and feeling good.

I still have to down load my photos so will detail further what we have all been up to whilst away (!!!) as currently getting the car repacked for a weekend trip to Wales for a party.

No rest for the wicked.