May Day

May already! Where is the year going? It is very scary how fast time goes - one minute it is Christmas and next minute we are planning summer holidays. 2009 is quite a big year for A this year - SATs in a couple of weeks and then High School in September - she seems to be taking it all in her stride - not sure about her mum though LOL

We also have plenty planned for holidays and trips this year. I have decided we are having a family night at least once a month so cinema trips, pizza night out, bowling trips, DVDs at home are planned for the year - just once a month when we get off the computers, TV, action games etc and actually have an evening together and speak to each other. I don't want the year to fly by so quickly that we haven't actually had a full conversation between us and suddenly it is Christmas again.

So all I need to do now is find enough different things that we all enjoy doing - don't want the conversations to be arguments LOL!

Bloomin' Marvelous!

We moved in to our house 4 years to the day on the 16th April and I was delighted to see a gorgeous, huge rhododendron bush in full bloom in the front garden of the house opposite. 4 years on and I still relish the day the blooms come out on this beautiful bush. Every time I open my curtains during the long, drab, wet winters I look at the bush and think how it will soon be in bloom. I spy out the new buds with anticipation and then suddenly a burst of colour and there it is in all its full glory. Then I know it is the start of summer with early morning sunshine and long summer evenings in the back garden with a glass of wine and a BBQ. It says to me "here comes summer!" and I just love it. Sadly the blooms don't last long and I have taken photos every year to remind me during the rest of the year of the delight I get from this bush - the lady living in the house must think I am very strange LOL. It is a reminder that nature in its full glory is the biggest mood enhancer there is and I just adore it!

ETA - I've just realised one of the reasons I love this bush so much - it is PINK!!! LOL

Catching Up

I haven't posted entries recently but I have been typing them on my PC so today I have just posted 3 new entries that are now a little out of date but at least I have caught up!

Teddy's At Tatton

As a Bank Holiday day out I saw an advert for a Teddy Festival at Tatton Park so we packed our picnic and our teddy and off we went. £4.50 for car parking! There were loads of people there too so lots of £4.50s for the Council! We had a lovely wander round Home Farm and saw chicks, baby rabbits, piglets, lambs and ducklings. We even got up close to a couple – so sweet! Not many teddies though so we went back up to the Stableyard to see a huge queue for the Teddy Hospital which was a lady wrapping bandages round teddies so we decided not to bother. The Build a Bear workshop was just a few photos from the shop and girls giving out some promotional info so instead we had a wander round and A had a go on the merry go round while I took photos – until the batteries ran out on my camera! The weather this weekend has been glorious and at least we got in our first picnic of the year – without gloves!

Dr Who

1 down and only 3 more to go! I have never been a huge Dr Who fan until it returned with Christopher Eccleston but I do remember hiding behind the sofa when I was younger and also having a bit of a crush on Peter Davidson as the Dr. However, David Tennant has just “become” the Dr for me and I am going to miss him when he has finished his last 4 specials this year. The first of the four was shown on Saturday and it was a pretty standard Dr Who romp – not too much to think about, a few giggles and a couple of near miss moments. But.... the trailer for the next one already looks scary and the hint from Russell T Davies in the Dr Who Confidential is that the last 3 are going to be so much darker. The one thing I have realised over the past 4 seasons is how beautifully Russell T has written in a complete story arc over everything that has happened – I don't know how much he had decided to do when he began writing but you get the feeling he has always known the beginning, the middle and the end of the story for this Dr and has dropped in subtle hints all along. I also love the way he drops in references to past Dr's and their stories and it is only “there” if you know it so the super-fans love it (thanks to my very own super-fan Kathie explaining some of it to me on the way so I get it). David Tennant is no doubt destined for stardom (his Hamlet last summer was just awesome and I still can't believe I saw it!) but he will always be the 10th Dr Who and did a dam good job of it too!

Is this a dagger.....

I decided recently that it had been far too long since I've been to the theatre so when I saw the Royal Exchange in Manchester was producing Macbeth I decided to book tickets. I knew J wouldn't want to come so I asked my Chorley Crop friends and my Shakespeare fan friend, Kathie, came with me. We met in town and had a lovely meal beforehand in a restaurant called Croma (lovely Italian food at a good price!) and then went to “breath” in the theatre – it is so long since I've been to the Royal Exchange I had forgotten how small it seems when you go inside.

It was maybe not the best Shakespeare we've seen but it was a modern production with some clever ideas – the weird sisters were war distraught children and a very clever Obama reference at the end – but at the end of the day it was theatre and I just enjoyed the fact I could sit and watch something for a few hours and try and see how it all fits together, how did they do the stage changes, how they made words of Shakespeare fit into a modern world and just pretend for a short while that I was part of the theatre. Oh and we got to see bits of Macbeth himself I hadn't quite expected to see! He did have to wash the blood off but I didn't think it would have got quite that far LOL!

Forgot the camera!

For the Easter weekend we visited Blackpool. On our first evening we walked along the front and on to the South Pier full of all the fair rides, smells of candy floss and noise! As we came around one corner there were kids getting on to the ride that you sit on a long bench type and it then goes round and round sideways iykwim? Anyway, a group of kids from a football team in their bright orange and black tracksuits were just filling up nearly all the bench and I thought with all the other colours what a fantastic photo it would make but I forgot the camera! Our usual dash out of the house meant I had packed everything else but the camera! Could have kicked myself as I then realised there were loads of other opportunities to play with settings and times and buttons to create lots of different effects with all the colours, lights and movement on the rides!

The next two days just rubbed salt in the wound as we had glorious weather with loads more photo opportunities – blue sky, calm sea, close up view of herons on the boating pool at Stanley Park, my J and A walking on ahead (one of my favourite photo subjects!), J and his brother together and much more.

Still I suppose the good thing is I've written this down which will both serve as a reminder of a lovely Easter weekend in Blackpool and also one to remember the camera next time!

Tagged

My friend Helen has tagged me on her blog so here goes. The rules of the tag is to publish the 4th photo in the 4th folder on your PC so here it is! Not the greatest picture I've ever taken - this was after the snow on February 8th 2009 - A insisted on going outside despite it being cold and dark to build snowmen and I stood at the back door taking photos. This one is rubbish but you can just make her out with a snowflake or two and her shiny badge on her coat LOL!

So now I have to tag others - well not sure who, if anyone, is reading my blog but I tag Kathie, Rachael and Ruth!

Weeeee - we've got a Wii

After much umming and ahhing we have finally caught up with the rest of the world and bought a Wii. A and I are all keen to get going but J won't set it up this evening - there's football to watch first! However, he promises to set it up tomorrow so hopefully we'll be Wiing with the rest of the world.

Smile Please!

As a scrapbooker I need photos to put on my layouts but despite having a lovely camera for my birthday last year I seem to be suffering from a lack of photos!

My problem is I want to learn how to use the camera properly and not just point and shoot but most courses I come across are either for a much fancier camera than mine or seem to go on about Photoshop and not actually cover the photo taking techniques.

I decided to take my camera out and about with me more so that I have it on me to take photos but I'm then fighting with the automatic mode and just get bland, autoflash white pictures with the main item too far away, too close, out of focus or just not very interesting.

One piece of advice is to read the manual for the camera - has anyone ever really done this? How do you read a manual that is all in techno speak that has been translated from Japanese by a Swedish bloke anyway!?!

So I'm not quite sure where to go next with it all. I am hoping having a blog will help as I'll want to illustrate my posts - see yesterday with the handbag photo - yep I actually got the camera out and specifically took that picture for the blog. Humm, think more surfing of websites is required to find that sparkle of inspiration - even if it is just a website that translates Japanese into English from Swedish LOL

Passion for Pink

I don't remember ever being a girly girl for pink stuff when I was younger but for some reason since I hit 40 I seem to have a passion for pink!

It hit me when I was looking at how I set up this blog page - have you noticed how much pink I picked?! LOL

It started out as a minor addiction - pink purse, pick pink whenever I get a choice (like this blog background) etc but then it really became an addiction the day I saw the handbag that I WANTED! It is an All My Memories pink tote with cream trim and I saw it on a scrapbook website but couldn't source it in the UK. I tried e-bay, USA shops etc but kept missing out on auctions or the USA shop didn't ship to UK or it was too expensive for shipping etc.

In the end I found the blue version on a UK site called Crafts 4 Storage and nearly bought that but thought "no I WANT pink!". So I got in touch and bless them they bent over backwards to source me a pink one (I think they got it from France in the end). I got it last year (said it was for my birthday as it was a tad more than I would normally spend on a handbag) and I love it. It is amazing how many times a shop assistant comments on it (or at least the photos on the front of it) when I am getting my purse out and it holds tons of stuff (too heavy sometimes).

Of course now it means everything else has to be pink too! It may be a strange addiction as I've grown older but I truely have a passion for pink now I'm in my 40s!

A day for errands

It comes to something when you have to book a day off work just to do various errands such as family visit to the dentist, get your hair cut, pay some cheques into the bank etc but that is what I have done today. I find that working full time Monday to Friday, spending most of the weekend running around doing stuff with A and fitting in some housework and food shopping there isn't much time left for anything else.

Still it does mean I got to spend some quality time with J without him falling asleep on a sofa as he normally does the nights he isn't working. We even went and had grown up lunch in a Weatherspoons and "talked" to each other instead of communicating homework requirements and food instructions as we normally do in the week. I remember when it was like that before A and I'm happy to say we can still enjoy each other's company so I won't have to fear the empty nest syndrome in a few years time. I might be the golfers widow though!! LOL

Write something every day...

My friend told me I should write something every day but in this modern world of fast paced living, TV and Internet that is so hard to do. So I am going to have a go at typing something and probably not every day either!

I have only read a few blogs - mainly by friends as it gives me a little insight into their daily lives - so I have no idea if what I am going to use this for is the right format, the right place or even of any interest to anyone but at least it will get me thinking more and writing more.

This evening at A's parent's evening she was told she has to concentrate more in class as her mind is so "full"of stuff she is wandering off into other worlds. On the way home she told me she wants to start a daily journal to write down all the "stuff" to help empty her mind so she can concentrate at school more. I don't know if it will work but it means she'll write every day too so between us we are both starting out on our "blogging" experiences!