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entries recently but I have been typing them on my PC so today I have just posted 3 new entries that are now a little out of date but at least I have caught up!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!