Royal Wedding Day

We had a wonderful day watching every minute of the Royal wedding and eating and drinking far too much during our celebrations.  I won the 'what is the dress going to be like?' contest saying 'it will be in lace and silk with not a bare shoulder in sight'.  Miss Hickett lost out with an over the top creation similar to the one worn by Lady Diana when she married The Prince of Wales.  My dear one just said 'white and sticky out' and number 1 son just said 'white and very nice' can't remember any others but it was fun and now I have to think of what to do with my £1 winnings!   We all loved the ceremony at the Abbey and seeing one of our friends in the line up of clergy made it even more special.   We began today with a swim and appear to have settled back into a normal quiet life.

Royal wedding

I am looking forward to tomorrow and a whole morning watching TV - it is a very long time since I did anything so decadent.  It would be really lovely if we did not have to listen to the sycophantic reporters on all chanels
saying stupid things like - 'Oh what a lovely wave from the Prince' - it is all so much better with the sound turned down.  Our children are off to a street party for the rest of the day so hope the weather is kind.  It is our
wedding anniversary today the 28th and we have clocked up more than 40 years - we all have to begin somewhere and I hope they have such a long marriage as we have had and Prince William's granny, the Queen and Prince Philip too.   Once you get past the first few years it's easy and suddenly 40+ years is not long enough.

today (Thursday)

Went for a swim this morning which was good.   My dear one at last got around to changing the fitting on the Bathroom ceiling so we can use the bathroom now without a torch.  It has been a long time in darkness or flashing light whilst every day he told us how it was such a simple job for someone who had studied electrics on board ship for three years whilst in the navy.   This morning I told him I was intending to ask the local electrician to call round as I couldn't rely on ex sailors and by lunch time and the help of a visit to B and Q he'd done it.....bless!
Miss Hickett is going to school dressed in red, white and blue tomorrow and they are having a picnic on the school field - hope the weather is good for the little dears.
I am in the midst of making a giant lemon cheesecake for our Royal Wedding Feast - I don't really know who will eat it all but I have always made a special cake on every Royal wedding day and old habits die hard!

Tuesday

Jamax goes back to school tomorrow after three weeks at home - firstly with tonsillitis which then ran into the EASTER holiday of two weeks:  he is only back for two days and then the Royal Wedding Day holiday, a w/e and a Spring Bank Holiday day.  Then we are into May: where do the months go?
I am going for a much needed swim in the morning, then I need to look for our Union Flag to hang out of the
window on Friday, and start to make a giant lemon cheesecake for our wedding feast - sadly we did not appear on the list of guests so we are doing our own party.

      'The safest place to be is in someone's prayers'

A Special Day

We had a lovely day today when our grandaughter was confirmed in Bristol Cathedral.  The weather was perfect, she looked lovely and was surrounded by her adoring family... added to that the Cathedral was dressed up in white roses and lilies standing in massive arrangements, the 50 strong choir were in good voice and the additional music was amazing.   Afterwards we all went for a meal in the sunshine and she opened lots of cards and gifts.   It was an almost perfect day marred only by the absence of her favourite uncle who is at the other side of the world just now.   But hey, you can't have everything, and she's gone to bed with a huge smile of her face.  Bless!

A good day.....

Amazing weather - a whole week with termperatures in the early 20s - long may it continue.   At last Miss Hickett has her dress or I should say dresses as she now has two new ones -  like the buses - we have looked for days for a dress and today we found 2 that she loved and which fitted her like a glove.....one day to find some matching sandals!   Perhaps I let her down about the shopping as both Jamax and I were feeling unwell
with tonsillitis and though he could take to his bed anytime my patience to trail around the shops was at an all time low.  He's been better for days and finished a course of penicillin a week ago but he's young and I am old and without the help of penicillin it has take me longer to throw off the virus.   I feel much better today so watch it tomorrow everyone I feel some energy coming on!

Tonsillitis

Young Jamax was off school with a serious bout of tonsillitis just before the enf of term and it took him some time to get over it despite a whole course of penicillin - I now know what he suffered as he has kindly passed it to me and it is horrid.  I have rarely visited the doctor in my life and have only just discovered the reason why - I  always want to see the doc just before a major holiday when it is impossible so I have soldiered on being a martyr as I have just to much to do to be ill.  I can hear violins in the background.    Jamax is packing bags at Sainsburys tomorrow along with the rest of his rugby team;  hope nobody comes to him with, say eggs and a bag of potatoes because despite being highly trained by his grandmother this week I am sure the spuds will end up on top of the eggs!   Miss Hickett is still searching for a dress to wear for her Confirmation on Easter Day so we're off to comb the shops again tomorrow until I collapse for want of caffine and a chair.  I read once that
'a wish is a desire without energy' - I'll settle for that tomorrow then.

Biggin Hill RAF memorial chapel

Visited this small chapel at Biggin Hill RAF station dedicated to all the young men of the Commonwealth
who flew off from there and never returned.  This writing was engraved on one of the windows:

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laughter silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, joining the tumbling mirth of sun split clouds - and done a hundred things you have
not dreamed of.
Wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence.
Hovering there, I've chased the shouting wind along and, flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious burning blue I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never a lark, or even eagle flew and, while with silent mind I've trod the high untresspassed
sanctity of space,
put out my hand and touched the face of God.

John Magee (Royal Canadian Air Force) 1940

more about the holiday

The thoughts make me laugh now but at the time it was quite alarming.   On our first breakfast day a fellow (not my fellow surprisingly) set the toaster on fire and the alarms throughout the hotel screamed out so we all piled out
into the carpark some still clutching their toast and me (handbag).  We did not return to the dining room as it was smoky and smelly.   Second morning we woke up to find our bathroom flooded as water trickled out of the cystern so we eventually went off for the day half ready as we had to move pronto to allow the plumber to get in.
That's that -  we were saying to each other the following evening as we all returned from a day out but as we put our foot in the entrance hall the alarms went off again and the kitchen staff ran outside  (not before us though!)
this time it was an over heated hotplate in the kitchen but it took the next hour of on/off sirens before they set the alarms again.   'They must get it right so they can go off again about 2.00am' says my dear one!   They didn't.

Holidays

Just back from a short holiday in Kent - weather was good - hotel excellent - friends on good form - lovely places to visit - but now we're back and the house is full, and I do mean FULL of dirty washing.  The oldies did not creat too much but the younguns brought enough back from their holiday in Cornwall to fill six washing machines and it is all piled high in my kitchen waiting to be dealt with.   Do we need any of it just at this moment? noooooo of course not - it will wait for my pleasure.  There are downsides to everything and unpacking, washing and replacing everything in the drawer is the darker side of a holiday.   It won't stop us doing it all again as soon as we get some more money together.

Funny and true!

John Bishop is a Liverpool comedian who makes me laugh a lot and the other night I watched him on TV and he said::-
       'It does help if you look at old photographs of your teenagers from time to time just to remind
        yourself that you once loved them!'              Yes............

A difficult day today!!!

Today has been a day needing a lot of patience - dear one away for the day - packing for four people's holidays - a teenager feeling unwell with tonsillitis - and simply stacks of washing/ironing.   However! days like this come to try us and next week I won't be able to remember it.

I like this:

The world is out there
the sun in your eyes
the wind in your hair
a flutter of snow
a shower of rain
love - hurt - misery........whatever!
it's yours
this day will never come around again.
Treasure your life.

Busy Day

Our day started early with an 8.30am appointment in the centre of the city at the orthodontic clinic.  Setting off at 7.30 to fight our way through the early rush hour we found every traffic light at GO so we went  -   and managed to get there early.  Poor Miss Hickett has a real mixed up set of teeth so the visit was for her but Jamax had to come along too as he is home from school with tonsillitis.   All sorts of things happened as the orthodontist who said his name was Peter tried to sort out the best way to make a good brace for her before she goes to High School in September.
All my TV viewing for this evening had to be set aside as we planned an outfit to wear for school tomorrow.
It has to be a well known book character and though we thought of plenty of them we did not have the materials (or time)
to make an outfit.  Eventually we settled for Mary Poppins as we do have a long black skirt, a top and a long cardigan, so these topped with a hat and umbrella looked quite good.  If she doesn't get house points for the outfit there'll be trouble.

I like this remark by a lady called Babs??
'Stop worrying about the potholes in the road,
just enjoy the journey.

Oh! if only we could.

Wednesday

Haven't blogged for ages as I have not been able access my account - don't know why but after trying for a while I would lose interest and drift away but this morning I tried every version in my head and diary and eventually I succeeded - I guess this is just a temperamental blog space as it happens all the time with my
friend in Oz  
.Woken up at 6.45am by Jamax in my room with a glowing red face and a soaring temperature
after a bit of TLC and a cold cloth he resurfaced and has been fine since he woke up again at 9.30am.
Must have been a bug - hope he's alright for school tomorrow as I have lots to do.
I have to pack 4 cases with all weather holiday clothes - rain,heat,cold,hot and any other type of weather the
climate can throw at us.....only in the UK.