George Mansions

Monday, 1 September 2008

That Was The Summer?

Yes, it has been a long time!

I missed my 3 year anniversary of George Mansions, that was on the 20th August. I’m not going to make excuses for the dearth of entries. It has been for various reasons but the chief one is I’ve been ill for almost the whole of the six week summer holiday. I’ve been suffering from a virus, at least, I think that’s what it was and I’ve been in a very dark place for weeks.

The school holidays started so well, the first week the weather was good and I spent hours at a time working on the allotment and was feeling really good, there were so many things I planned to do. On the Wednesday Catherine and I took Isabella to a Teddy Bear's Picnic in aid of the local Hospice. Isabella had a lovely time and went in the paddling pool.

The weather at the end of that first week was wonderful and on the Saturday night I went with my friend Lucy to the open air Bretforton Silver Band Concert. We took a picnic and watched the fireworks that went on until after 11pm. I don’t think I got a chill but somehow I didn’t feel right after then.

On the Monday Catherine phoned me from Pembrokeshire and said how wonderful the weather was and to get down there with my tent. So off I went, with the top down on my car. Got as far as Raglan and the heavens opened and that was it. Three soggy days in a tent and on the second night a gale blowing. Several tents blew down and I was woken at 1am by the inner part of my tent buffeting me and then I realised there were flashing lights , grown ups shouting and kids screaming. I’m thankfull that my tent withstood it all perfectly and Catherine’s had some small leaks but nothing too serious.

This is my tent

The next weekend was the Hen Day & Night of an old friend. I went to her first wedding 20 years ago. By day we had a minibus out to the Cotswolds for a country wine tasting experience. I have to say Carolyn, it was certainly that!! What a laugh!! Carolyn had booked it through the Internet. There was no charge, they just hope you’ll buy some of their products.

We arrived and the minibus driver thought he’d taken us to the wrong place and got out to check but no, it was the right place. How would I describe it? Overgrown, disused, derelict? Yep that would be about right.

The owner looked like he was prematurely old, or, was quite youthful for someone who was old. Can’t be sure on that one. Ageing hippy would describe him well and his socks and sandals were the topic of conversation for hours to come.

In the evening we went to a Ball at the Worcester County Cricket Ground , a beautiful setting, where Catherine and I got dressed up in posh frocks and then got quite drunk. I danced for hours, something I haven’t done for years.

Above, my usual, frozen, hurry up and take it pose!

I found at the end of the evening I was being chatted up by a chap with no front teeth. We’d been looking at him earlier when he was ’Dirty Dancing’ with someone that looked old enough to be his Dad in drag!!! Don’t know what happened to him/her. But we’d been told the chap with no teeth was Hungarian. When I found he’d joined my table I asked him where he came from, he replied Dudley, which nearly caused me to choke with laughter. He didn’t help matters when he apologised for the way he looked and explained ‘I’m in between teeth’. Actually, I know someone else from Dudley who has no front teeth, I wonder if it’s the latest thing back in my home land?

On the Monday it was obvious this slight unwellness was getting a grip and I’ve suffered from a sort of gastric flu, which turned into a sinus and chest infection ever since. It really turned bad when I went down to Plymouth the following Saturday, I was only a bit sniffley then but of course it was the second weekend of Factory Fortnight and it took SIX bloody hours to get to Plymouth. I normally do it in under three! But I had a lovely dinner out with Simon and Tori, even although I couldn’t taste much of it.

Then, coming back on the Sunday, I think it was while I was parked in the fast lane of the M5, somewhere near Weston, I decided to get out and get a magazine from the boot and my bottle of Conovia Cough Medicine and much to the amusement of the vehicles parked around, I started swigging cough medicine from the bottle. It was at that moment that I realised I was really not very well and was wondering about the possibility of getting the Air Ambulance to come and get me out of that five mile car park. So that was another six hour journey back home.

The following weekend was Caroline’s wedding, that was a blur, couldn’t taste a thing. I hardly knew where I was. The wedding was at 4 and we went home at 8.30. But she looked lovely, as always. I would show you a photo but for some reason AOHell won't upload any photos from the day!!!!!!

Since then I got worse and now I am slowly getting better.

So that was my miserable summer. I could mention the weather but that’s a topic best avoided.

Actually, it wasn’t all doom and gloom, I did manage a day out last Sunday with Lucy. It was our annual girlie day out and I was determined to go, dead or not!

We had planned to go to West Wales but I knew I couldn’t cope with the distance, so we went to Tyntesfield, only an hour away (well it is with my driving <LOL>) . I think it was a bit mind over matter because I felt fine mostly, only half way round the house I had a little sit down and fell asleep!! I don’t think anyone noticed though. <LOL>

Then we went a couple of miles down the road to Clevedon, a great favourite of Sir John Betjeman . It was a little windy but some rare sunshine too. We walked along the restored Pier. What a treat, it doesn’t have the usual amusement arcades. Every plank has 3 brass plaques of names of people who donated to the restoration. Not to mention larger plaques over the benches. You could spend the day reading the stuff that’s there and some are famous people, like John Craven, from his Newsround and Mike Read. Some of the comments are really amusing. Marriage proposals and all sorts

There's a two story building at the end of the Pier and as we approached it, we were delighted to find it was the Pagoda Tea Room, with a balcony that ran all the way around it.

They offered Cream Teas. Well, it would have been rude to decline, wouldn’t it?

Tomorrow I go back to school. I don’t feel at all rejuvenated but I shan’t worry about that because I shall be handing in my notice. At last I have the job of my dreams, I shall be working from home doing music research and at last, without it being in the slightest bit scandalous,….I get to sleep with the Boss!!!!!

Saturday, 19 July 2008

Much Marcle Steam Rally

Today we went to the Much Marcle Steam Rally. Much Marcle means three things to me. It’s where Weston’s Cider is made, it’s adjacent to where my father in law was born and lived his young life and it’s where Fred West lived and buried his first wife and child. (in the Finger Post field)

It’s sort of in the back of beyond but near to the M50 and if ever a place was rural, then this is it.

We arrived for Mike to open the Rally and he was invited to enter the ring on Lord Lascelles, considered the finest Traction Engine in the world.

Here are some of the other exhibits

Good to see that it's not just old men that have a love for these machines.

Not everything is exclusively steam, there is room for petrol,

diesel

and even paraffin,

oh, and not forgetting pedal power.

But my favourites were the farm machinery.

I loved the way two Traction Engines pulled this plough up the field, with two extra people for ballast.

I remember a combine harvester like this on the farm where I used to spend my school holidays, this one is from 1963!! It makes me feel a bit of an antique!

It was one of the best days out we have had in a long time.

It continues tomorrow, 20th July, if you are near enough to visit.

And next weekend is the Welland Steam Rally (next to the Malvern 3 Counties Showground) which is even bigger. 25th, 26th & 27th

http://www.wellandsteamrally.co.uk/index.htm

Sunday, 13 July 2008

I am still here!

It’s been more than a month since The Race for Life and I have been told off for not getting an entry in about it. Where has that time gone? For those who were wondering, no, I wasn’t hospitalised after the event, just madly busy. A big thank you to all those who sponsored me, I raised a total of just over £200, an amount matched by the other members of The Black Country Gob team.

It was a beautiful day

and everything went well for us. We didn’t do a wonderful time, due to the vast number of us cramming into paths, that were only wide enough for two at times.

The Black Country Gob team did it in an hour. My sister and niece went off with the runners at the front (very ambitious) and they got round in 35 minutes. Not bad but I don’t see the 2012 Olympics beckoning.

I would definitely like to do it again next year.

The Race coincided with the arrival of Catherine’s In Laws, Vera and Biff, so the next few days were taken up in entertaining them. We did Cream Tea in the Cotswolds (Chipping Camden),

a real Indian food night out and then I had them all round for dinner here at George Mansions. So it was a busy few days and then at the end of the week, we had Isabella’s second birthday party.

The following week there was the annual Year trip to The Butterfly Farm at Stratford upon Avon. We also went on a boat trip on the River Avon, this is how the Royal Shakespeare Theatre is looking at the moment.

It rained almost all the time we were outside but it didn’t spoil the day. It was just a little annoying though to find ,when we returned to Worcester, only about 20 miles away, that it had been dry there all day! So I still had to go and water the allotment!

Then I went on a Year 2 trip, all day to Worcester Cathedral. I must say that I think a morning would have been enough, we were all flagging by half past two.

Two Friday’s ago it was the School Summer Fayre.

One of the teachers I work with got the chance to put into practice the 'Positive Handling' Course we went on recently, whilst restraining a truculent, oversized bear.

What hard work that day was was. Humping tables and putting up Gazebos and later dismantling them.

We had the annual Family Picnic on the last Sunday in June. It rained but were we deterred, no, of course not, we’re British!

I would show you some pictures but AOL has decided to not let me. I'll try to put those in later.

Catherine and I have bought tickets for a sort of festival weekend in September, We shall be camping. The first time I have ever been to a camping event. I did have a tent on a farm in Mid Wales when I was eighteen but to be honest, the only thing I remember from that was the sex!! LOL!!! And being woken at 6 am by a sheep that had climbed onto the roof and was licking the canvas. I was with S H who was the first love of my life and we were together for nearly three years.

Anyway, Catherine and I are going to a sort of mystical, healing weekend, which also celebrates the Old Gods and therefore the seasons. I was talking about this in the Staff Room at school. We have a couple of ‘Happy Clappy’ Christians. They like to go on Christian camping weekends, yet you would have thought I had said I was going on a boil a baby weekend. I am totally tolerant of other people’s beliefs and religions but it strikes me that the more zealous you are of your own beliefs, the less tolerant you are of other people’s. This opinion was reinforced by watching Louis Theroux (sp?) recently who spent some months with a truly horrid religious group in America. They were billed as the most hated family in America. I can understand, after seeing the programme, why people would think that.

So when I return from the weekend, I shall take pleasure in showing off my photos of the Wicker Man ceremony because I believe I have as much right to my beliefs as anyone else and as we won‘t actually be hurting, or killing anyone, (unlike the film) and only trying to heal people and this ravaged land of ours, why would anyone have a problem with it? Who is to say who is right?

Saturday, 7 June 2008

Race for life Day!!

I’m up really early, as today is Race for life day. As Mum used to say, what’s the matter? Wet the bed?

I need to leave here before 8.30 and when the dawn chorus of Bird Scarers, on neighbouring farmland, woke me at 4.40, I just couldn’t get back to sleep.

If anyone wants to sponsor me, it’s not too late, or just follow the link and see my sponsorship page. Race for Life Thank you for those who have already sponsored me.

I did think a couple of weeks ago that I might not be able to take part today. That was because we went to Bath to see Chloe, Mike’s grandaughter was in a play in the theatre there. Blackbird and whilst there I did something very silly.

The play was very, powerful and the acting excellent. The two characters are exhausted and sweating by the end of it, as it involves fighting and sex. But it’s not without moments of humour. Chloe had a short role at the end of the play and comes on to gasps from the audience because her appearance is so unexpected. I won’t say any more in case it spoils it for anyone who may be going to see it.

We were very proud of Chloe. I know Mike was a bit uncomfortable about the content of the play, his baby is only 13 after all. I asked her if she had heard the whole play and she said yes. I said, well I expect there was nothing that you haven’t heard before. She said, No, I hear it all the time at school. As she goes to a private all girls school in Bath, I found that rather amusing. Kids! They’re the same everywhere, regardless of wealth, background and social position.

We went for an early dinner afterwards, on the way back to the car, Chloe and her sister Abigail were in front and doing that thing where you bring your foot up behind you, while you’re walking, to kick the person you are walking alongside, on the bottom. I used to do that to Mike years ago, when we were first married and I was still young and supple. I thought I’d have a go again. So I did. Now the fact I was wearing high heels should have deterredme. But it didn’t. Mike, who should have known better said, that wasn’t very good, you used to be better. So of course I did it again, harder. As I put my foot back down, Mike side stepped, so I stepped on his foot and fell over! I really thought I’d broken my ankle but thankfully it seems I only sprained it! Dear me, will I ever grow up.? Hopefully not. LOL!

I’ve had a lovely day out during half term, with a ‘girl’ I used to work with, we met again through my Black Country Gob website. We spent the day walking round Halesowen photographing places of interest for The Gallery on the website.

Simon was put on standby to be transferred to another submarine and could have gone to sea last weekend, so they gave him a few days off. He asked me to go down and stay with them for a couple of days. The weather was atrocious but it was good to see them and we had some lovely fish meals out while I was there. Platters in The Barbican is excellent. In the end he wasn’t transferred but he will be going to sea soon. I hate that. My step son-in law is away on his boat at present (That’s what they call submarines) and we don’t expect to see him until late summer. It’s hard having family in the forces.

Must go and get showered now and have some breakfast. I know we won’t be making a fast time but at least we are going to do our best and hopefully will be home before dark!!

Wednesday, 4 June 2008

Black Country Gob

This isn’t my normal entry. I’ve been so busy lately I’ve not had time to write about what’s been happening at George Mansions.

Apart from the allotment and a dozen other things, I have also been working on a website I am a Moderator of. It’s called Black Country Gob, it’s new and expanding, covering all aspects of life in The Black Country now and historically.

My particular interests are The Gallery, Local History, Recipes and Genealogy. My project this weekend was to trace the River Stour from its source to the point where it joins the River Severn at Stourport.

The photos of the Stour can be found here

http://blackcountrygob.com/Photogallery/thumbnails.php?album=80

I also want to help people searching the Internet for family, or historic photos by putting the links in here, as I believe the names should then come up in the Search Engines, at present the photos in the Gallery don’t. So for my regular readers, please excuse this post, I shall be back with a proper entry soon.

Linda x.

Saturday, 24 May 2008

The Last Cuckoo (as opposed to the first)

I don’t know why the gaps between entries are so long, I keep meaning to write an entry but there is always so much to do.

Since last entry, I have had another practice walk with my friends for The Race For Life, we picked a hot Sunday afternoon and climbed up, over and around Wychbury Hill . For someone that would struggle to walk more than a mile, I did very well and some of it was very steep, so steep it even managed to shut the four of us up for a while! LOL.

If you want to hear talk, just put three middle aged Black Country women together for a while. It must be genetic.

The Bluebell Woods were beautiful

and the views

The old Obelisk is looking perilous these days and the graffiti refers to the remains of a woman found in a tree in the woods. Rumours abound as to who she was but she is known as Bella and may have been a German Spy in the war, or, more sinister, a victim of witchcraft, which was very widespread in the Clent Hills, of which Wychbury is one. "Who put Bella in the Wych Elm has been scrawled on walls for decades."

When I got home we had a barbeque and my sort of adopted daughter, Lucy came round. Mike is as bad as the children at school for rocking on his chair and it serves him right that I took this photo before I helped him up!

The allotment is coming on well, although slower than I would like. It was just a mass of weeds and clearing it has been hard work. There is Mare’s Tail everywhere, which is the devil itself to get rid of.

I will get some photos this week and of the garden too, which is starting to look good again after it’s drowning last summer.

Catherine, Flo and Isabella have been to seeFlo’s family in Germany for a week, which left me looking after their cats. That wouldn’t have been such a problem but Milly (the one that went missing for a month) got bitten by a neighbourhood Tom and developed an abscess on her hind quarters. So , twice a day I had to drive over there, give her anti-biotics and bathe her wound, remove the ‘lightshade ‘ she had round her head to let her eat and clean herself up a bit and generally clear up the mess that two, bored, housebound cats can make.

I mentioned in the last entry I went on a trip with year One at school. I said how I enjoyed being with the younger children. Guess what, in September I’m being moved to Year Two! I’m a bit disappointed, as I was looking forward to next year in Year 4 but no doubt I shall enjoy myself with the little uns. The teacher I will be with, I have worked with before and we got on very well, so it will be a challenge learning a new curriculum but I think also that it will be a little less exhausting.

Last week we finally heard a Cuckoo, here at George Mansions. This is the latest we have ever heard one and we kept saying how we wish one would arrive. Last year we didn’t have one at all and in previous years, we normally only hear them fleetingly. By careful what you wish for!!! This one has moved in and hardly stops, it’s going from 5am until dusk and yesterday for good measure it flew right past the open office window and cuckooed right in my ear!

From what I know of their habits, they are not a very nice bird, using other, poor unsuspecting birds to raise their offspring, at the expense of their own little ones. I imagine the call is basically, to attract any passing Cuckoos, in effect it’s shouting, here I am, come and get me. Which makes you wonder why we so look forward to hearing the blessed things.

We went to dinner at the new house of some very old friends last night. The bought the land and had the house built, it's beautiful with the most lovely view across Ledbury. Wehad a lovely evening, old friends are always so comfortable.

Catherine returned last night, they had a good time but Isabella was spoiled rotten. She isn't normally allowed too much sugar but she was fed ice cream and cake all the time. Catherine and Flo went out on their own and left Isabella with her german Grandma Vera (Oma) under strict instructions, NO CAKE!!

When they returned and got Isabella into the car, she straightaway volunteered the information

"I did it, cake"

Catherine asked what she meant. She said "Idid it, cake, at Oma's house"

What sort of cake did you have Isabella?

" Stwawbewy Cake" LOL!

I think you got caught out there Vera!!

Were off to see Mike’s eldest grandaughter in a play in the Theatre in Bath this afternoon, so I’d better get myself ready now. I’ll tell you about it next time.

Tags: blogplugs, aoljournals

Thursday, 8 May 2008

Grumpy Old Woman!

It looks as if Summer is finally on it’s way!! We’ve had two barbeques this week and at last we are getting the garden sorted. It’s been almost 10 months since we did any real work out there. We both lost heart after the terrible flood last July and for much of that time it has been too muddy to spend much time down there anyway.

We did some heavy pruning a couple of weeks ago and then the weather went off again but today we managed to have a bonfire to get rid of all the prunings (so much for our Carbon Footprint!),

Mike mowed what is left of the lawn

and I set about the flowerbeds.

There was still rubbish left from the floods last July.

Lots more to do but the improvement is considerable.

******

I still haven’t quite made it to a loss of a stone at Fat Fighters but mine and Mike’s birthdays have scuppered that. I’m hoping that this week I will get there and with that in mind we’re eating fish. That’s what I cooked on the BBQ tonight. Basa, which is a lovely white fish and is apparently a Vietnamese Catfish. (oops, buggered up the Carbon Footprint again!!!). Salmon steaks and Cod Loin wrapped in Parma Ham. All of these are classed as ‘Free Food’ in Slimmer’s World, so, bring it on! I’ll eat as much as I like.

There’s a tale behind the Cod Loins. Wednesday evening, I had literally just parked my bum on the toilet seat, in the hope of wringing out the very last drops of anything, before going to be weighed at Fat Fighters, when there was a knock at the door.

It was Gustov. This is a man, who says he is South African but has the weirdest accent I’ve ever come across and he sells frozen food from a van. I have bought from him in the past but for thelast eighteen months I have made excuses. Now whether it was the urgent need to return to the loo, or what, I don’t know but somehow I ended up trotting, barefoot, up the drive to have a look at his frozen delights. I ended up parting with £38 for a large bag of HUGE Cod Loins. Having seen the price in Sainsbury’s lately, they seemed a pretty good buy and tonight, wrapped in Parma Ham and cooked in one of those vented, foil dishes on the BBQ, well, Mike and I had to keep telling ourselves, it was one of the best meals we have ever eaten.

I just love Sainsbury’s the salad was fresh cut from lettuce they now sell growing in a little pack and as I can’t have oil based dressing, salads could have been a bit dull but not now. I forked out £11 for a bottle of their finest Balsamic Vinegar. What!! you exclaim!! But it isn’t as mad as it sounds. A little splash onto salad, or new potatoes and there is no need for an oil based dressing and it lasts for ages. I bought this bottle last summer in a fit of indulgence, not knowing then it would turn into such a valuable resource now I am dieting.

The allotment is coming along well, I earthed up the potatoes on Tuesday and Sue planted her Broad Beans yesterday, I hope to go and plant mine tomorrow. My only concern now is, with the good weather, I am going to have to try and sort out watering things, not a consideration until this week.

******

A couple of nights ago I turned into 'angry Worcester Woman'. I think this was something from a Tony Blair campaign. They felt they had to target, middle class, middle England voters and hit on the idea of Worcester Woman. Well I am one very pissed off Worcester Woman, thanks to Gordon and his cronies. My job, which gets more arduous by the day, has just been awarded a derisory pay award, which doesn’t anywhere near touch inflation. Then, at the same time I lost the 10p tax band, which means (Thanks Gordon!) now, after my annual increase, I am £1.06 a month better off.

Gordon, realising he has made one almighty cock-up, has tried to pour oil on troubled waters by saying he will make amends by doing some jiggery pokery with the Family Credits and the Pension Credits. Well, whoopee doo!! I don’t qualify for either. So Gordon, mate, @@@@ off!

I wrote to David Cameron, telling him of my thoughts and situation and had a very nice e-mail back from some flunky.

Dear Linda,

I am replying on behalf of David Cameron to thank you for your e-mail, regarding the Government’s abolition of the 10p tax band.

We are grateful to you for your comments, and for taking the trouble to get in touch. The Conservative Party has been campaigning very hard against this tax rise which has been targeted at some of the least well-off in our country. Despite Gordon Brown’s claim that no-one would lose out, the Treasury has now confirmed that 5.3 million families are paying more tax and will be worse off.

Only when faced with political defeat in the House of Commons vote, did Gordon Brown perform a humiliating U-turn and agreed to re-open the Budget, despite previously saying that this was not possible.

Of course, we welcome the Government’s climb down. However, even since this announcement, questions remain over exactly how many of the 5.3 million families will be compensated. As ever with this Prime Minister, it is important to look at the small print.

As you may know, the Finance Bill was passed by 304 votes to 262. A Conservative amendment to the legislation, which would have forced the Government to submit any compensation package to a vote in Parliament, was defeated. However, I assure you that the Conservatives will keep the pressure on Gordon Brown to be straight about who will lose out. We will also continue to fight against this tax hike, which George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, has described as "immoral" because it is targeted at those on the lowest incomes. The lesson from this whole episode is clear – sadly, the only time Gordon Brown listens is when he faces personal defeat.

Thank you for taking the time and trouble to write about this issue.

Yours sincerely,

Edward Young
Office of the Leader of the Opposition
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

All very nice but basically, Blah, Blah Blah!!

******

Went on a day trip out with Year One, that was a surprise, I was told I was going with Year 2. It was a lovely day out and we went to an Environmental Centre which was a touch odd as it was in the grounds of an electricity sub station. Having a picnic area under an electricity pylon seemed bizarre to say the least.

But, the bluebell woods were lovely and the ankle biters don’t back chat in the way their older siblings do, so it was a very pleasant day out.

Won a tenner on the Lottery. Didn’t win the Premium Bonds, so I guess I’ll keep on working but I’ve been to school the last two mornings with the roof down on my car, which has been wonderful, I can smell new mown grass and flowers as I crawl along in the traffic choked roads that are Worcester in the rush hour! So it’s not all bad.