Strange Comes With Age?

I just had one of those moments where you clearly see yourself and realise that you may be slightly strange.

Mike just called upstairs to me that he had been surprised to find himself enthralled by the Curling on the Winter Olympics. Now if that isn't a barmy sport, I don't know what is. Sliding about on the ice following a polished rock, while your mates jiggle about with brushes in front of you. And we won a medal for it last time!

His comment made me think about what I was doing at that moment. I was gazing, enviously at the photo above, which is of some blue paving bricks found in Hamburg. The photo had just been emailed to me by a man I have been talking to in Germany. He found them twenty years ago, when they were digging up the pavement.

He put them in his daughter's pram, took them home and they have now gone through four house moves with him. He didn't say if his wife is still with him.

I have had a passion for blue bricks since I was a child, many of the pavements in The Black Country were paved with them. Proper blue bricks, as made by The Cakemore Brick Company, are tougher than granite and impervious to water. St Pancras Goods Station was buit with their bricks.

My interest in this particular Company is because Cakemore is where my Harper family farmed throughout the 19th Century, at the time these bricks were made.

I know it's odd but I would love to get my hands on one. But then, even odder surely to put half a dozen in your daughter's pram!

So it not just us Brits who have strange, quirky interests, obviously the Germans do too.

I have further proof of the strangeness of my daughter's chosen homeland.She and Flo were at a party at the weekend. Someone decided to take the shelves out of the fridge and attempt to fit themselves into it. They failed.

Flo, in his delightful German/American/English accent said " I cun du that." And in doing so he had to remove one shoe to enable the door to be shut. That produced great hilarity, bordering on hysteria, as his revealed sock was one of the pairs I bought him as a tree present at Christmas, black with florescent pink toes and heel. Obviously Germans don't understand Marks and Spencer style! 

Catherine said it would have been funnier if he had taken both shoes off, as his other sock was grey.

I'm very pleased to hear that Flo has a stong streak of the peculiar running through him, he should fit well into my family. With a Punk Rock Star father and my daughter as it's mother I am expecting new heights of quirkiness from their offspring. After all my daughter at the age of three took to wearing a Welsh ladies hat and rarely took it off for the next two years and then went into black and became a Goth at twelve.

Mike thought Flo wanted to get in the fridge to test the theory that the light really does go off when you shut the door, which apparently, it does.

We think we have everything sorted to get my mother and her zimmer frame to Germany for the wedding. Flo's stepfather decided to take us all one step nearer the wedding from Hell, by rupturing himself at the gym. He had an operation today. He thought, that as they said he would be in and out in one day, that meant he would be walking around tonight. Ha! Niave Bif. It's obviously the same in Germany as it is here, they have you out of the ward the moment you're concious. He's lying down feeling sorry for himself tonight.

We went to the gym today and I weighed myself. I've lost another six pounds!!!! And their scales have just been checked. I haven't been this weight for years! In fact I'm feeling so good about myself, I shall be on the lookout for a nice German toyboy next week and if he's wheeling a pram with some blue bricks in....so much the better.

I still haven't got over my mother in the hospital on Sunday, she had a couple of visitors I didn't know, as well as Wilf and the four bed room had several other visitors at the time. For a start she was on top of the bed in a fairly short nightie and kept crossing and uncrossing her legs, a la Sharon Stone. With half a leg in plaster and aged 77 this was not a good image. Then she was discussing what clothes she needed for travelling home and said she could dress herself, apart from putting her knickers on. She said, so Wilf will have to help me do that, which will make a change from him taking them off!

Well! ....I didn't know he wore her knickers anyway.

I'm hoping she behaves herself in Germany. I just know we won't get through it without one of them mentioning the war.

 

I'm Back!

I've had a bit of time off from Journal writing, as I felt it my entries were getting depressing, which was how I was feeling and as the last entry received no comments, I was obviously depressing everyone who read it. I made it Private, while I considered it's fate.

I feel a lot better now, which is just as well considering the week I've just had! More of that later.

Things that have happened since I last wrote.

My daughter had her second scan and was hoping to find out the sex of her baby. This child is obviously going to take after it's mother. Contrary. It turned it's back and refused to turn round again to reveal whether it was a boy of a girl. So we have to wait another two weeks to see if all is to be revealed.

My son went and had a little trip on his submarine, they were doing some tests. How considerate of The Royal Navy to arrange for him a short taster before they sent him away on his big trip.

 God, was that a worry. I was dreading the phone call when he got back, in case he was a mental wreck and couldn't bear the thought he was going back under for several weeks. Thankfully he said it was fine and although he knew the time would drag until he was home again, he was quite happy about it. Phew!!!

The wedding plans are going well and everyone that is going has booked their flight and a coach has been laid on at the German end. The Hotel is booked and flowers sorted. The Reception is to be in an old pub, which has a room upstairs that we are using, it has bits of old brewing equipment in it, so sounds interesting. The town they live in is Bad Laasphe, which is very rural according to my daughter.

My niece Emma has now left  sunny Wolverhampton and is on her 11 month tour of the world. She has started in Thailand and is writing a Blog, so if she can access mine, we can both keep up with what's happening.

My son's Ex girlfriend, no, not the nutter, another one, is also on her travels and is in Thailand at the moment but moves to Cambodia next week. She sent me the photos, shown here, yesterday. The wonders of the Internet! I think the first picture above is so beautiful, it looks like a photo from a travel magazine......Lucy, I never realised you were so artistic! 

My friend Catherine, who moved to Lyon just before Christmas tells me she has found herself a home now and I hope to visit her later in the year. I was a little concerned to hear they have found Bird Flu there. I read it is carried by migrating swans, so no snogging a swan Catherine!

This week has been half term and I really needed the break, as we had an OFSTED inspection just two weeks ago and that was stressful to say the least.

The week started with a visit to Mike's family. His Mum, who is 86 was looking well.

Wednesday we were being taken out to lunch by my Mum and stepfather Wilf. I'd only just got up when the phone rang. It was Wilf, to say Mum had fallen the night before, on her way out of a pub, for heavens sake, she's 77!. He insists she was sober and had only had a tomato juice. Hmmmmm!

Anyway, unlike the fall she had a couple of weeks earlier, when she JUST needed a couple of stitches in her forehead. This time she'd made a good job of it and broke her leg in 3 places. One of the fractures needed pinning, so she was having an operation the next day.

Can you imagine the distress this caused? Apart from the worry of her injuries, what about the wedding? Someone at the hospital told her she couldn't fly while she was in plaster.

I went to see her that afternoon and was relieved to see she was cheerful and only plastered  up to just below her knee. I came home with thoughts of driving her there. I checked the Eurotunnel and then the distance from Calais to Bad Laasphe its 350 miles, no more than when I drove up to see my son in Faslane last summer. And I did that with just two hours notice. I could surely do this drive when so much was at stake.

The next morning, panic mode had settled to reasoned thought. Why couldn't she fly. What happened to skiers when they broke their leg/legs. Did they all get left in The Alps for several months? I think not!

So I turned to my friend, the Internet, looked up the airlines website and found there was actually no difficulty with a lower leg plaster. As long as she was certified fit to fly. I have long thought my mother should be certified but that's another matter!

Last night came the good news. The doctor will sign her fit to fly to Germany, as it is a short flight. She was moving around well on a Zimmer frame yesterday and today she will get plastered again. They have even said that if she goes in the Tuesday before she flies, they will put a split cast on , which is bandaged together. Then if she has any problem with her leg swelling on the plane, we can remove it and put it back on later. No, not her leg, the plaster!!  

So, hopefully, all is sorted. 

I had a look at future son in laws website for his group this week and found they have now put a video on there of the tour they did in  England in November and there is a link here to the site. Go to Media and the link to the video is on that page.

http://www.acaseofgrenada.com/NEW/frameset.htm

If  anyone reading this is interested in Punk, of a German type (ie screamed, not sung) have a look. If you don't like the sound you can mute it and still have a look. Flo is the Lead Screamer, the one with black hair and a lovely smile and my daughter is the pretty blonde girl. They do look a little unkempt on some of the shots as they were living in the TourBus most of the time.

I think that brings my life up to date and will start doing my weekly Blog from now on.

If you visit, please leave a comment, as I have just taken that stupid counter off, it has just reset itself to zero again and I really can't be bothered to go through all the crap of resetting it again.So it would be nice to know if anyone stopped by.

It's a pity AOL can't be more bothered about sorting out these problems than they are with putting adverts onto the My Picture pages!!!