Growing old is inevitable...Growing up is optional!

Thursday 31 May 2007

So good they named it twice......part one!


I knew I should have taken a notepad to New York, I'll never remember it all, but here goes. I had a brilliant time, I have returned completely knackered but it was worth it

The flight was good, the train connection from Newark to New York easy, well it would have been easy had I not had a very large purple suitcase, we took a taxi from Penn Station to our Hotel. The Casablanca Hotel had the best reviews on Tripadvisor I always use that site before I go anywhere. The reviews were right, we couldn't have wished for a better location, it was a stones throw from Times Square, the staff were exceptional, it provided complimentary snacks, coffee, tea throughout the day and between 5pm and 8pm every night complimentary wine and cheese. Of course when you're in New York you don't really spend that much time in your hotel!

We arrived tuesday evening, dumped our bags and headed out to Times Square, had a look around and then headed up to the Russian Vodka Room, I had been there previously and actually remembered where it was, I also remembered that they made the best Cosmoplitans in New York, so we had a couple and felt very "Sex in the City" then we had a couple more, and then the lovely Svetlana said in a beautiful Russian accent "Only five minutes of happy hour left - one more?" Oh go on then ...now Svetlana's Cosmopolitans are VERY strong, so we left feeling more "Sick in the City" but did sleep like logs.

The guys at the front desk in the Hotel suggested we do the open top bus tour, and get a 2 day pass as it was only $10 extra, we got on the bus an firstly did the Downtown Loop, it was a hop on/off thing so we got off a Ground Zero there were a lot of people taking pictures and video which made me a little uneasy, but what made me feel even more uneasy were the people making money out of all this sufferering with "souvenior brouchures" containing pictures of that terrible, terrible day. I couldn't stay long, we did go to the church next to the sight, they had removed all the tributes and had stored them for people to see, it also showed how the many volunteers has worked, how they set up kitchens to feed people, cot beds for them to rest in, each bed had a stuffed animal placed on it, it was touching, and heartbreaking and I left feeling humble and emotional. I wasn't ready to get back on the bus so we walked over the Brooklyn Bridge it was an amazing feet of engineering, and the views of Manhatten were breathtaking.

We got on the next bus and carried on with the tour, we stopped for lunch at an amazing if touristy place called Ellen's Stardust Diner where all the waiters and waitresses sing while serving, they were amazing none of them would have been out of place in the West End. We then did the Uptown loop which went through Harlem, and past the famous Apollo Theatre where many stars started out at their talent nights, including Ella Fitzgerald who according to our tour guide actually went to enter as a tap dancer, but four excellent dancers had gone on before and she didn't think she could follow them so sang instead....and history was made. We finished the tour, walked back up to Times Square went for dinner and ended our first full day in NYC. We sat in the lounge in the Hotel and planned our next day....it was time for Lady Liberty.

Thursday we used our bus ticket to go to Battery Park where you can get the ferry for Ellis Island, we arrived and got greeted by an enormous queue or line (if I am to use the local lingo). However it did move very quickly, we got on the ferry and went first to Liberty Island, the thing that struck me was how small she was - I don't mean small in that way but small to how I imagined her. Nevertheless she is a beautiful thing. We left Liberty Island after a hotdog and went on to Ellis Island, it was so intersesting they really have done a great job in trying to put across what it must have been like for the people who arrived there, some as young as nine had travelled alone from their original countries looking for a better life. Some stayed, some were sent straight back, children were separated from families, some of the stories heartbreaking. It was another day that had touched us.

We returned to Battery Park and walked, looking at the Memorials to the fallen, then walked up to Southside Seaport for a well deserved beer and a look at the tall ships. We got back on the bus got off at The Rockefeller Centre and went to the "Top of the Rock", the views were spectacular, you had beautiful views of Central park, the Empire State, and the whole of Manhatten, seperated not by railings but thick sheet glass, they had kindly left small gaps between each sheet so you could stick your camera through. We used our bus ticket for the final time to go on the night tour, what was great was the time we picked, it was about seven so on the drive out of Manhatten we saw the sunset over the skyline, we drove into Brooklyn and when we drove back it was dark so we saw the skyline lit up. They had lit the Empire State in red, white and blue in honour of Memorial day......did I mention it was fleet week when we arrived so there were thousands of Marines and Sailors walking around the city in those gorgeous Richard Gere uniforms .....I had been very excited by this until our tour guide said they were all between 18 and 24!!!!! Our tour guide also told us the best place to get Pizza in NY was John's he was right, we went on the way back to the hotel Sarah and I agreed it was the best pizza we had EVER had.

And so to Friday ....what a day, we started off at the Empire State Builiding, now a little tip is buy your tickets on-line for a start, if you don't want to wait in "line" for a long time, pay a little extra for the skyride as well, it's an awful "flight simulator" type ride thing as if you're in a Helicopter flying over NY driven badly by Kevin Bacon, but on the plus side you do miss all the "lines" Now while the view was exceptional and the building outstanding, I think I had been spoiled by the views from "Top of the Rock" it was less crowded, the views were better, but I suppose you can't not go it would be like going to Egypt and not seeing the pyramids! After Empire state we went to the TKTS booth to get tickets for the evening, the booth is great you can up to 50% of the tickets for some of the plays/shows on/off Broadway the only thing is of course you have to wait in line! The line for the "shows" was enormous (my fault I thought you had to line up at 3pm, but it was 2pm) so we chose a play instead..... and what a play, we saw Vanessa Redgrave in The Year of Magical Thinking. It was based on the book of the same name, the memoir of Joan Didion. I can't tell you how good it was, I know one thing I will never complain about learning lines again!!!! Vanessa was on stage alone for 90 minutes, no interval, and for 90 minutes she talked, I was spellbound. I have heard various directors over the years saying you can't just sit still, you can't have your hands by your side, but she did, it was the stillness that grabbed you, brought you in to her world, believe in it. What a performance, what an actress, what an evening. We crossed the road to Juniors, we sat in the window where I could see the stage door, I was secretly hoping to catch a glimse of her leaving but didn't. Several people did wait outside the stage door for almost an hour (I watched them while we ate every time the stage door opened their faces lit and then fell when they realised it wasn't her) eventually a stage hand popped out her head and said she had left already......I guess if you don't want to be bothered by fans the stage door is the last door you would leave by. We ate dinner it was not particulary good I think the size of the portion put us off it could have fed at least four people, walked back to the Hotel and so ended another day.................to be continued (or you'll never read it all!!!!)

Sunday 20 May 2007

TTFN......

Went shopping on Friday to get some new stuff for hols, and the usual thing happens....you know if you haven't got any cash you see a ton of things you like, if you have got a bit of cash you never see anything!!! And am I the ONLY person who can't wait for these Grandmas old curtain patterns to be out of fashion???

Had a wonderful weekend with my gorgeous Niece Cara, she is such a character, when she was touching the TV screen(which she is not allowed to do), she actually told herself off, which made me giggle so I couldn't tell her off! She terrorised poor Ruby by stealing her toys and shouting "MINE" but Ruby takes it in her stride and lets her do anything.

I am off to New York shortly, for a bit of R & R after my hospital visit and before I go back to work. Also it's my American Mom's 60th Birthday ( I hope she won't mind me printing that) so I get to meet up with everyone in the family and I can't wait. It was meant to be a surprise, but she was planning a trip to Minnesota so I had to confess. Anyway I decided to start packing this evening ready to go, and don't ask me how but I managed to get my left nipple caught in the handle of the suitcase.......smarts a bit I can tell you! As much as I love travelling all the ironing, packing, hanging around in airports for 3 hours, long flights, then all the unpacking, washing more ironing....you wonder if it is worth it, I really wish someone would invent Star Trek Travel, where you could just beam places.

Well I can't stay here all evening blogging I have stuff to do, sorry it's a short one, but with all this rain I haven't been up to much, so I'll say TTFN and will fill you in on my trip to NYC as soon as I get back.

Oh and Jeni if you are back before me my lawn needs doing again!

Keep Smiling
Marmite Girl xx

Thursday 17 May 2007

Barbra, BAFTA and a Brilliant day!

Yikes......you know I said I was lucky enough to be going to see Barbra, I asked my mate who is very good at getting tickets to get me a couple, I said I can only afford the £100 ones, well he sent me a text saying got your tickets, so I went into excitement overdrive. Tuesday I sent him a mail saying "how much do I owe you with the booking fee" he sent a mail back saying " well the £100 tickets were all gone so I got you the £250 ones" I haven't had the guts to tell my friend Sarah yet, she wasn't that happy about paying £100......well I reckon she'll be worth it, upshot is I was going to M&S to get new underwear for my upcoming visit to New York, but now I think I will have to go to Poundland!!!

Spent Tuesday evening rehearsing the play, it wasn't good, we all forgot lines and got told off by the director for being complacent! Of course the Welsh Final is on June 1st, and one of the cast is going to Ireland today until Tuesday so there's no point rehearsing, and then I'm going to New York, next week so really we will only now have one more rehearsal together before the final....it's only a 3 hander.

Had a BRILLIANT day yesterday, my friend Teresa organised it, we went to London on the train, to see The Glass Menagerie with Jessica Lange. Teresa is a member of BAFTA so we went to the BAFTA place in Piccadilly for lunch, me being an amateur actress and extremely star struck felt like a child in a candy store, we ordered a drink and a sandwich and sat down, and Gina McKee was on the table next to us.......I did tell Teresa to kick me under the table if I was staring too much. I daydreamed of some director coming up to me saying "you are exactly what we need for my next picture" but no luck, and every time I went to the bathroom I couldn't stop myself walking like a model on a catwalk, in my head I was saying "work it, work it", I think this is the reason you have to be a member to get in, they take it all in their stride.

After our lunch we walked over to the Apollo to see the play, brilliant seats, the set, the lighting, the production, the acting, all outstanding, but Tennessee Williams left me a little cold, I kept thinking it needed another thread in the story, and couldn't help wondering if it came across a publishers desk today and didn't have Tennessee Williams on it would it have been published? It didn't spoil my enjoyment of the play though, the acting really was excellent.

After the play we went back to BAFTA and got a bottle of champagne, (I was hoping Stephen Fry would drop in, but alas he must have been busy) the staff are so nice there, so we stayed right up until our train was due to go, now there's a story there but it comes under "what happens on tour stays on tour" but the upshot was we missed our train, and had to wait almost 2 hours for another.....you guessed it, we went to the bar. Had an absolutely fantastic day, evening, night.

Got a list of things to do today......OK I never did get around to the ironing Monday, so that's first. Having Cara at the weekend, so childproofing the house is second, and then picking up Ruby from my Dad's, he was dog sitting as I was out yesterday.

Keep Smiling
Marmite Girl xx

Tuesday 15 May 2007

That's it...Never Again!!!

See I usually write nice light, frothy rubbish in my blog but today is a bit of a rant day!

I'm not reading the newspapers anymore, they just wind me up, I don't usually buy a paper (I look at BBC news website) but I do read my Dad's on a Sunday morning, after this Sunday I think he is going to start hiding them!

It started off with Paul Burrell, now even the newspaper called him a snake, and yet they STILL published all the rubbish he had written (and probably paid him), don't publish it, it won't be worth him writing it then!

Then there was a bit about Andrew Lloyd Webber, who wanted to find a new Jesus next for the musical Jesus Christ Superstar - now I admit I am getting a bit Greased, Josephed out, but the program makers said they were nervous of looking for a "Jesus" in these troubled times......wasn't Joseph in the Bible??? and who exactly is making them nervous? I can't imagine for a minute anyone from any race or religion would say anything, it's a musical for goodness sake, it's just this unfortunate fear everyone seems to have in case they would. Where does it end?

There were numerous other things as well, but due to this unfortunate fear I am "nervous" about mentioning them.

Anyway rant over, needless to say no more newspaper reading for me!!!

Not much else going on, spent yesterday afternoon helping my friends daughter, she is doing a "stars in your eyes" type competition on Saturday with Young Farmers, so I was helping her be Dolly Parton, it was funny, she has had singing lessons where you are taught DICTION, DICTION, DICTION, and how to pronounce every T and D and G, so I had to say forget all that, Americans don't use T's and we undid all those singing lessons from before. My final piece of advice? just remember Eyes, Tits and Teeth - it goes a long way!

Decided to get rid of the grey yesterday evening and dye my hair, of course no sooner had I put the dye on and a shower cap (acquired from some hotel or other) but the doorbell went! luckily it was only my mate Sarah having returned from her golf game wanting to tell me she had a blinder was something under par??? (it's like a whole other language) but had lost it on the 18th. So we had a glass of chilled Sauvignon Blanc and chatted and I left the dye on too long and now look like Morticia Adams .........

Oooo and how excited am I, I am one of the lucky ones who managed to get tickets to see Barbra Streisand at the Dome, and I don't care how much they get up to on Ebay I aint selling, I've waited years for this!!!

Well back to more mundane things now, have a pile of ironing to do!

Keep Smiling
Marmite Girl xx

Sunday 13 May 2007

PANIC.....

So this morning I woke up and had a mild panic OK so it wasn't mild, I couldn't move my head, for a fleeting moment I thought Oh my God I've had a stroke, then I realised Ruby (who has become extremely cuddly since her pockets have been stitched up) out of the whole four foot six bed had decided to sleep ON my head!!! - now this is not the most flattering picture but please bear in mind:

a) I had just woken up
b) I thought I'd had a stroke, and
c) I had to be a contortionist to reach my mobile from the side of the bed to take the picture!!!

Actually I'm quite brave to publish it I think!



Well what's been happening?, not a lot really I did finally take the bull by the horns and cleaned out the cupboard of death, embarrassing it was, I think there was food in there from before the war, I found packets of jelly (2000) teabags (2002) breadcrumbs (1999) I could go on...... anyway it is now all sparkly and in order (AND EMPTY).

My Sister-in-Law wanted to go to Ikea to buy a mini table & chairs for Cara, I didn't need anything, but never pass up the chance to have those Swedish meatballs and jam! so we all went on Friday. Cara was a darling in the trolley, and we wandered around looking for the table & chairs. We stopped then for lunch, now the thing about Ikea is that they really do cater for families and children, so we found the little play area where Cara could play and we could sit and watch, we got the meatballs, of course then Cara didn't want to eat because she wanted to play! but we did anyway. Cara was trying to get on this little rocking thingy but was having a bit of trouble, I was on my way in to give her a hand, but this gorgeous little boy decided to help, so put his hand on the rocking thingy to steady it for her, the thing was Cara thought he was trying to take it from her, so she lamped him one!!!! I jumped in and told her she was naughty and the boy was only trying to help her and to say sorry to the little boy...."excuse me" said the little boy " but I am FIVE" I think this was his way of pointing out he wasn't a "little" boy. I took Cara out of the play area and confined her to the highchair, the "big" boy then came round the corner and said to us " you know she is a very naughty girl" I tried not to laugh but sprayed diet coke everywhere! We left the cafe shamed and being stared at by the parents of the other children, and carried on to the bit downstairs which has loads of cool kitchen stuff you will never use, but buy anyway!

I did my bit for the environment by getting those energy saving light bulbs, of course when I got them home they were the wrong ones! but I figured my carbon footprint would be more if I took them all the way back and swapped them, and they were only £3.

Went out for a curry with the girls last night, it was a kind of joint birthday do for Sarah and CJ, and we couldn't bear to watch Eurovision, although we did get back in time to watch a bit, it's not the singing it's the voting, it's all gone so political, I reckon the entries should just have numbers and no-one should know where they are from!!! Terry was a charm though as usual.

I am resisting the urge to mention Tony Blair......but did he have to give so much notice, I'm fed up already and now we have to wait until the end of June for all this hoo-hah to end. Enough I say ENOUGH!!

See this is what happens when you start typing, you think there's nothing to say but you keep going, upshot of this I've just made myself a bowl of porridge thinking it was 9.45am, but I've been at this so long I just realised it's 10.45am!!! I'll never eat my Sunday roast now! Oh well better scoff the porridge and get up to my folks to make the dinner, I can't believe it's Sunday again....time flies eh??

So there we are not much going on at all........mmm maybe I should take that photo off?????

Keep smiling

Marmite Girl xx

Thursday 10 May 2007

One of those days....

Not much happened yesterday, I ran a few errands mostly for my Dad and watched TV, has to be Loose Women now GFL is gone, but it makes me laugh. One of the errands was to go to the framers and pick up my Dad's newly framed pictures, which I did, they were beautifully done as usual, the only thing was, as it was raining heavily in my rush to get the pictures out of the car and into the house ready for Dad to pick up I caught one of the shiny new frames on the door and took a big chunk out of it!!! That was the start of "one of those days"

The second errand (again for my Dad) was to pick up a voucher as it was my friend Sarah's birthday, we are going to New York together in a couple of weeks, so I suggested a Boots voucher as she would probably want to get new "smelly" stuff. Well I went to Boots and picked up a card, and then when I got home noticed it said, "the new male design - keep yourself looking sharp" on it. Oh well perhaps she wouldn't notice.

I broke 2 mugs, by whacking them on the tap as I was washing them.....and that bottle of tarragon from the cupboard of death (I know it's my fault I haven't sorted it yet) fell out and broke my lovely spoon rest that I had brought back from some foreign holiday. It as at this point I decided to do nothing else but watch TV.

I did send Sarah a text to say Happy Birthday and what was she doing later, and got a pathetic text back saying, I'll be in the house I have ironing to do......I figured she needed rescuing from that, so told her I would be over at six to cook dinner! Sarah only lives 4 doors away so I trundled down in the rain, with her gifts and 2 bags of shopping and announced we were having a Mexican night - Sol and lime in the fridge, and enough fajitas for 8 people (I'm not good with portion control). Apart from one instance where I got her salt and pepper pots mixed up (they look the same apart from one hole difference!) which made the fajitas a little spicier than normal, the evening went well, we ate, watched Grand Designs where some poor couple took seven years and more money than I have ever heard of to renovate an old Tuscan Castle, and drank the Sol and lime. We then spent half an hour trying to get the lime wedges out of the Sol bottles so we could recycle them!!!

I came home, watched Desperate Housewives and toddled off to bed, so despite a rocky start, it didn't turn out too bad after all.

Keep Smiling
Marmite Girl xx

p.s. Good news Ruby has stopped hiding upstairs.....phew!

Tuesday 8 May 2007

Bruges Part Deux.......




So where was I ?...on the Eurostar sipping champagne, they gave us a wonderful menu with two choices hot or cold, we all chose hot, of course they only had one hot left and the cold was basically veal, ham & egg pie, but Moyna won paper, rock, scissors and got the hot one, as it happened the cold pie was very nice, and the hot pie wasn't, but we had more champagne so no-one really cared. It was a lovely journey and we arrived in Brussels on time, and finding the train to Bruges was really easy, we got a taxi to our hotel (Martin's great hotel right next to the Belfry) and it was happy hour when we arrived bliss.

I had watched Great Food Live (oh the good old days) when the Hairy Bikers mentioned a restaurant called Den Dyvers, so I had booked a table for us on the Saturday night, we dumped our stuff had a quick freshen up and met downstairs (where else but the bar) we sampled our first taste of Belgian Beer, the lovely man behind the bar gave us three to try one of which was a cherry beer which was lovely. We walked to Den Dyvers and if ever I see the Hairy Bikers I am going to kiss them, it was amazing, it wasn't a meal it was an eating experience. We were given a taster plate with a tiny bowl of asparagus soup, a little bit of sushi, some lovely feta salad, and some olive tapenade, and we were also given a beer to "match". Then we were given the menu's there was a "special" on to celebrate the asparagus season. The food was outstanding, each course arrived with a different beer to match the food and we were told which part of Belgium it was from, nothing was rushed, although as much as I love asparagus, when dessert came and it was asparagus panacotta with rhubarb puree it was a little strange for me. We were there for almost three hours and had a wonderful time.

We only had one full day in Bruges so had to make the most of it, we got up early, had a lovely breakfast at the hotel, and set off. Moyna is our international traveller, she is always in some European City or another with her job, however Moyna didn't have any Euros.....us normal travellers of course had been excited and queued at the post office for our "foreign money" so we looked for a cashpoint for her and found one, of course it had a queue longer than anything I had seen at Disney!!! CJ even had enough time to go back to the hotel and get her jacket! Eventually we started with a canal trip, "lets sit at the back of the boat" came the cry, which took me back to school trips on a coach! While the sights were lovely the smell of diesel wasn't, that coupled with the boat wobbling made for some queasy passengers! The narration by the Captain was in three languages but we couldn't understand a word of the English bits as the noise of the engine drowned it out, although as Moyna pointed out his voice did rise to an extremely audible level when he mentioned us all leaving him a tip at the end! I left him a tip alright....never eat yellow snow!!!

We got off the boat and had a wander through all the shops, mostly lace, chocolate and beer glasses, which was expected, although my Sister-in-Law did take me into a sex shop (now I usually wait outside if any of my friends go into Anne Summers!!) and that was an eye opener especially as the shop was joined on (separated by a small net curtain thing) to a children's toy shop which is where I was originally buying something for my Niece!
Now and again we had a text from my Brother (he was left holding the baby) saying things like "I've dyed all the washing pink" or Cara tripped in the park and now looks like Joe Bugner, all taken in my Sister-in-Law's stride, she reckoned he was doing it on purpose so she would never go away without him again.......he has just returned from a 5 day golf trip with the lads so it was only fair she come with us.

Next we had a nice lunch, I tested the frites and mayonnaise, while the other three had waffles, cream and strawberries, and of course more beer (there's a pattern emerging here methinks!).

Then we decided to go on one of the horse drawn carriage rides around the town, well there was a bit of a queue but we joined. We had waited about 20 minutes and were almost at the front when a horse pulled up and 2 people who had not been in the queue walked over and tried to get in the carriage, bit of a mistake as my Sister-in-Law marched over and told them in typical English man abroad .......shouting and arm waving....that there was a queue thank you very much which they eventually joined. The carriage ride was fun, and we went back to the Hotel to the bar and the beer.

Several raspberry,cherry, and wheat beers later a very nice courier told us where to go for dinner (both of which were full) so we used our judgement, now after all that beer our judgement probably wasn't very good, sort of like the place we chose. The food was average, the service terrible, and my Sister-in-Law spent the entire night expelling the meatballs she ate.

We had a very early start, but the thing about European trains is that they are on time, so our train from Bruges was on time, the Eurostar was on time, and then we got to Paddington and to wait two hours for a train back to Hanborough.........ah good old Blighty.

All in all we had a brilliant time, it was a lot of travelling for one full day in Bruges, but it was nice to spend time with friends, although honestly any bar/restaurant with good drink and a nice menu would do for us.

Of course I can't mention everything, there are certain things that come under the "what happens on tour, stays on tour " category, but at least I have given you a taste of the trip.
Got home and NONE of the self assembly was done, he didn't have time!!!

Oh well back to reality and the washing and unpacking.......

Oooo by the way we did get through to the One Act Drama Welsh Finals ........

and Ruby's stitches came out without a problem, the hiding thing is normal apparently......

Keep Smiling
Marmite Girl xx

p.s. to my Friends and Sister-in-Law thanks for a brilliant weekend......and Eurostar called they want their champagne glasses back!!!!

Bruges.....not quite

OK, so where should I start....lets start on the Friday when the three of us, my friend Moyna, my Sister-in-Law and myself , drove from Wales to the lovely village of Whitney Oxfordshire to meet my other friend CJ who was joining us in Bruges, the plan was to arrive in time for a little light luncheon, stay over at her flat, so we were half way to London by Saturday to get the Eurostar to Brussels........well that was the plan!

This is what happend, we arrived at CJ's flat at 1pm, with a birthday cake and a nice bottle of Veuve Cliquot as it was her birthday, so the Veuve went in the fridge, the cake (after we had sung Happy Birthday) went back in the box, and we went up the road to The New Inn for the "light luncheon" - well by 7pm we asked for the bill, £182......of which £49.50 was food, and Moyna wasn't drinking as she was the driver. CJ then mentioned that she had booked a table for us at 8pm in the new Thai in the village and it would be rude to cancel, I seem to remember eating something with coconut rice, then we went back to the flat, drank the now cold Veuve, watched a bit of American Idol, and went to bed, well three of us went to bed, poor Moyna got to freeze on the Sofa all night.

Saturday I woke up surprisingly without a hangover, and we all got ready to get on the first of many trains, we started in Hanborough (this was CJ's idea as she said if we went to Oxford we wouldn't get a seat and would have to stand all the way to London, plus the car park was free!). About an hour later we arrive in Paddington and then have to get to Waterloo, now I am a fan of the tube, but not when you are carrying a large bag and a suitcase, but anyway we get on the tube. There we are, 4 of us with 4 bags and 4 cases, but we are blocking the door, so I decided to sit........this was a mistake, the person sitting next to me had an enormous body odour issue (of course by now there were people standing in front of me, so there was no way I could move) , I was amused to note the person in question had an Ipod and not one but two mobile phones, and was busy putting make up on, but NO deodorant, I thought of suggesting she trade in one of her phones for some Soft & Gentle but she was bigger than me!, I did ponder the merits of actually getting my Soft & Gentle out and spraying it in the carriage, but like I said, bigger than me! The final straw was when she decided to change her necklace, so I had the full force of an armpit which almost made me sick, the other three girls looking at my face found this hysterical! I was just hoping the girl sitting the other side didn't think it was me!!!

We get to Waterloo and pick up our tickets, and eventually get on the Eurostar, look forward to our first glass of champagne, which arrives and all is well.

Now why did I say Bruges not quite, well I don't want to put you off by writing a huge blog so I'm doing it in two parts, that and I have to take Ruby to the vet to have her stitches out.......so we are on the train sipping champagne..........to be contd.

Thursday 3 May 2007

Lists....

I've decided writing a "today's list of things to do" is useless, I inevitably end up moving most of today's list onto tomorrows list, so I don't know why I bother. Yesterdays list comprised of, take pictures to the framers, which I did, post my friends birthday present, which I did, pack ready for my weekend in Bruges, which I didn't, do the ironing, OK you guessed it I didn't, and clean the house, nope! Nowhere on my list was go on a wild goose chase to find replacement bulbs for the garden lights, which I did, buy 12 geraniums, which I did, and spend the rest of the day planting my patio tubs, I also decided after several attempts of finding something to cover it, to fill in my pond with pebbles so my Niece can't drown, it is a small pond, and I had considered (naughty I know) going to the beach and "acquiring" the pebbles from there, but while I was at the garden centre AGAIN! a wave of honesty made me buy 5 bags of pebbles and the pond is now filled, it still has a little fountain so I can have the sound of water.

So then I thought I would do the ironing in the evening instead, but no something cropped up, a very nice something, but still I haven't done the ironing. The very nice something was this......I was putting the remnants of last years patio tubs in the bin, when I saw my friend who lives 4 doors away cutting her lawn, now I'm not keen on lawn cutting and as the lovely Jeni Barnett (http://www.jenibarnett.com) is out of the Country for three weeks ( I was saving my lawn for her she likes to meditate while cutting) I jokingly called over, "you can do mine next" anyway I went back to my tubs, and a while later I heard the mower on my front garden, my friend had come over and cut my grass, so as a reward we sat on my lovely decking with lots of Magners and ice, some nice music playing and a pepperoni pizza. I figured after 3 Magners it would not be a good idea to iron. So there we are now today's list is huge and all has to be completed as I am going to Bruges tomorrow for the weekend.

My lovely Brother is moving in to my house with Cara so he can look after Ruby (who is still hiding upstairs all day) and my Sister-in-Law is coming to Bruges with us. How great is this, on the Eurostar if you upgrade which costs an extra £27 you get a three course meal and all the wine/champagne you can drink, I would try and go this weekend if I were you, because once they find out how much champagne me and my friends can drink I fear the prices may go up considerably.

Of course if my Brother wasn't moving in here, I wouldn't have had clean the house and change the beds on my list, but hey, I have left him a pile of self assembly stuff to be getting along with while he is here, so it evens out.

This evening I have a rehearsal, we are still keeping the One Act going just in case we get through to the Welsh Finals, and also we are reviving our Canterbury Tales for a charity do in July.

So the upshot is I can't stay here blogging all day, I have a list to complete, will blog some more when I get back from Bruges.

Keep smiling
Marmite Girl xx