The oldest medieval street in Europe in the beautiful city of Wells.
Jamax lost his PE tshirt and according to him it wasn't anywhere in
school! So grumbling at having to drive 10 miles to the school
uniform shop we set off one morning to replace said tshirt. It was
a beautiful morning and after we bought the item for school we had coffee
and a little wander around and suddenly realised how very lucky we are to
live in such a beautiful area. Sometimes it takes the most mundane things
to open your eyes to reality and realise that everything you want is right
on your doorstep.

Rugby

We as a family watched all the World Cup Rugby games this weekend which were
really tough but not a single person sang about people dying on the runway!

Our number 2 son lives in Wellington, NZ and after seeing the weather there on Saturday
I bet he's longing for summer just as we are dreading the winter.  The weather balances
all things out for us in the end -  even if we think we live in the most wonderful country in the world there comes a time when we will moan about the weather, yet cannot do a thing to change it.   What cannot be altered must be endured.

Football

I love watching the odd game of football but hate the malevolent attitude of some of the fans.
Note the word contains 'male' and almost 'violence'.  The disgusting fans at Leeds this week singing to MU - 'who's that lying on the runway?  who's that dying in the snow?' with reference to the Munich Air disaster which happened over 50 YEARS AGO sent me running for the off switch on my TV.  Yet! although many people might have been hurt and disgusted
at what they heard (despite the sound engineers desperately trying to fade it out) nothing is ever done about it because of the old enemy money.   It's good to read that some countrys take this thing rather more seriously than we do.   In Sicily - Cantania were ordered to play for 4 months in an empty stadium in a neutral venue because of the behaviour of their fans.
This week the Turkish Football Association banned all male fans from the stadium and instead invited women and children only.....41,000 turned up for the game.  'We have to thank the ladies for coming to support us' said one of their star players, whilst another said
'They kept on singing and instead of foul language, pure drunkeness and violence, they applauded and threw flowers.'   The women and children partied long into the night and cheered their team on to victory.   We surely can learn something from this as can their next door neighbour Iran, where women are known to have attacked by state police for attempting to watch football.    The Turkish Football Associated are watching this carefully and might use the idea again if the males don't come to heel - after all can you imagine an
all female crowd singing about people dying in the snow?  

Autumnal Monday

I went to the funeral of an old friend today - he died suddenly last week - HE WAS 90 years old!   How can you die at 90 and shock all your friends?  He was working in his garden just a couple of days ago tidying up for winter and picking the last of his vegetables.  He was still driving short distances and last weekend took his wife out for a drive to the garden centre,
he left her sitting in the cafe whilst he chose some new spring bulbs and after buying a few
sacks full, put them in the car and drove off home putting the bulbs in the garden shed;  he saw his grandson's car arriving so made tea and toast in the kitchen and settled down for a long chat.   Four hours later after a lot of panic they rushed back to the garden centre to find granny calmly sitting there waiting to be picked up  'he always forgets the time when he gets
amongst plants and flowers' was her only comment.   Another of his grandsons said at the funeral  'where will we find our happy five minutes now that grandad has gone?'
RIP Les.

Good advice

'Finish each day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in;
forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit
to be encumbered with any of your old nonsense.'

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1875 

New school

My lovely grandaughter has started at High School this week and went off with great excitement on Monday morning.
Day 1.   "I can't cope.  Every teaching block is so far away - I am tired, my feet ache,
I have been lost twice and late for two lessons....BUT... you should see the IT block,
it's amazing."

Day 2      "We had to run a mile in the pouring rain for PE.....BUT.....I got a house point."

It took her brother 2 months before he got his first HP so I was about to open the
champagne and get her name down for Oxford before I remembered to ask her what
the HP was awarded for.  It was for being the first in the class to cover her history book!
A house point for backing a book!     She remained elated for the whole evening whilst
I slipped into a depression.    Can't wait for tonight's episode.    Bless!

Television

We bought a new TV recently and I can't believe how bright everything is - our old one must have been older than we thought!   However despite the lovely picture I see the programmes haven't improved.   I hope the winter schedules bring some better stuff.   I watched the first episode of the new series of 'Outnumbered' on BBC - I have never watched it before but as I read an article singing it's praises I thought I might be missing something and also I like Hugh Dennis.  Sadly I hated it and won't be tuning in again; the children are unscripted apparently and appear to undermine their parents at every opportunity, at which the studio audience roars with laughter. Well! that's about it - lovely children, good acting from the parents but content of programme is rubbish that is unless you actually enjoy seeing adults being shown just who rules the roost in the family - and it aint them!

just saying.......

When I went for a swim this morning I met a very friendly couple of young ladies, obviously a lesbian couple who had a delightful baby boy.  They obviously worshipped the child; they passed him between them in the water, kissing and hugging him constantly, and were so proud when I said how brave he was - I was immediately their best friend!   Later in the changing room they told me he called one of them mummy and the other one mumda and though he could wave bye-bye to anyone (he's obviously ready for Oxford) when called to do so, he refused to wave to them but cried if either of them left his side.  At home much later I though what a lucky child he was to be living in such a loving spotlight but I had to question
how they would deal with any discipline he might need when older because it looked as though it was the last thing he would get.
I don't think they would ever agree that he had done anything wrong.
Do we need the imput of both sexes in our life?
I think so, in fact I know that our future happiness relies on relationships but more importantly, doesn't it also rely on a great deal of love.  Every Blessing on the two of them and their beautiful baby. 

This beautiful lake is just a few miles from my home and yet we don't seem to respect it's beauty
as much as we would do if it were a holiday destination. Why don't we appreciate what we have
locally as much as we would if we had had to travel many miles with traffic holdups and the 'satnav'
woman as our companion? Today it took us 15 minutes to drive to the Lake where we met up with
friends, ate a lovely lunch and then sat around in the sunshine watching the locals fish for trout.
Perfect.