All at Sea - with a bucket and spade!

Last night was the last supper. Linda made gorgeous fish chowder. And I mean gorgeous. I have a tub of it in the freezer for a special treat in a few days time. There were flags on the wall. Canadian flags. Obviously. And matching wind chimes above the table. We started the meal with salad and bread. The salad had cranberries in it. And pine nuts. Which I absolutely love. Then the main course was a large bowl of fish chowder. It looked remarkably similar to this. This was swiftly followed by a second bowl. Finally, we had a beautiful dessert. It was similar to upside down cake. But nicer. It had apples and pears. And syrup. Linda served it with extra special Polish ice cream. Very nice. I made Linda a bunny rabbit while she was here. To make it more personal, I sewed the heart I bought at Hatton on to the skirt. And popped the teddy from Stratford into the pocket (after I blushed it’s cheeks with acrylic paints). I also blushed the cheeks of the bunny. I’ve never done that before. I quite like it. The waistband of the skirt is adorned with many bits and pieces including little sequin flowers which decorated the table at Enisa’s party. The Pooles and my mum took Linda to the airport today and as far as we know, she got off okay. We will miss her She’s lovely.

Emma took a very special picture of Ian. Through her big toe and the one next to it. How clever of her. And how very very wierd. And slightly gross. I wore my new purple trousers afterI finally mustered up the energy to cut 5 inches off and rehem them. They are very comfortable.

Bank holiday Monday was an interesting day. It started off not best for me. There was a distinct possibility of ending up in a very large open space with bad weather. Not my very favourite thing ever. To be honest. But thankfully, we went to a very beautiful and lovely garden centre instead. On the way in, we were met by a bunch of caged bunny rabbits. If you ask me, the conditions were just a little cramped. After shopping, we had a coffee and a good old Great British natter. Leah and Cousin Linda had ice-creams. I pretended to be a rabbit on account that I love them so much. Personally, I think I make a pretty good rabbit. It’s all in the teeth. Emma ‘won’ a car. In exchange for one English pound. But she did help the greyhounds. A rabbit followed us to the car and climbed (hopped?) in. It followed me into the house, up the stairs and into my room. It’s still there, standing in front of the fireplace. It is most welcome.

Jade and Josh are staying at my mum’s for the weekend. With a small person. Cousin Linda is staying with Jeanette and Ian. We all spent Saturday together. Except for Leah who was still away at Brownie camp having lots of badge-earning fun. First we went to Hatton. I bought a sweet little case/box/storage container for my room, two little wooden hearts (one to keep and one for a gift), and a very very very cool second-hand phone from the antique shop. It’s a funky white rabbit. It’s actually brilliant. Emma bought a camper van phone. Also brilliant! We all had coffee and some of us had burgers and spent a fair amount of time trying to decide if they were actually cooked. I also spent rather a lot of time in the sweet shop. I was very tempted by a tin with a lovely rabbity picture on the front. It contained four small bars of chocolate. It cost £5.99. I decided against it on this occasion.

From Hatton, we made our way to Shakespeare’s Country, the beautiful Stratford. People seemed to be very surprised that I am perfectly capable of giving Emma a piggy back despite the fact that she is approximately three and a half stone heavier than my good self. I can walk with her on my back. But I can’t run. I know this because I’ve tried. I found a sweet shop, equally as lovely as the one at Hatton. I bought for Emma a chocolate bunny rabbit. She said it was very good. It look very good. So I have decided to believe her. I also bought three small furry bears from the teddy bear shop. The turquoise one is for my room. The cream one is for a gift. The sunshine one will probably end up being a gift also. I got a large sheet of Rupert the Bear wrapping paper. Just because I liked it. Finally, I bought a strawberry print bag. It’s made of that plasticky paper that I would guess a ‘carrier bag for life’ is made of. It was very reasonably priced. There were also red polka dot ones. I’m now wishing I bought both.

All in all, a fairly successful shopping trip with some pretty bits and bobs to show for it. And a nice time with family

May 23rd was my birthday. I was 36 years old. Strange really because I still have a pile of prezzies to open somewhere. I don’t know where. Emma’s hidden them. I wasn’t really in the mood for a birthday, what with all the revision and essay-writing etc throughout the preceding weeks. So I didn’t. Maybe this Friday? Emma’s off work and we’re going to have a lovely day doing something or other. We don’t often do that so it’ll be all rather fun. I’m very much looking forward to it. She’s quite nice.

Enisa, on the other hand, did have a birthday. We’ve shared a birthday for the last few years (well since she was a year old I suppose; but I didn’t know her then). She was 18 this year. She’s looked forward to being 18 since she was 12. If not before. I remember our party that year. I was 30 and we had a big bouncy castle in Abbie’s garden. Enisa talked alot about being 16 and 18 and 21, all the ’special’ birthdays. Shewas veryexcited.

Two yearsago, when she was 16, I made her a big cake, well three cakes. A number ‘1′, a number ‘6′ and a butterfly. I laid them out on a pretty tray with 16 fairy cakes. Because I couldn’t cope with sticking candles in the cakes I’d just lovingly made, covered in thick brown chocolate and decorated with pink and white piped icing and silver sugar balls. We all went out for a meal in the evening. She was rather pleased when the cake was brought out. Later, me and Jeanette took her to TGI Friday’s for non-alcoholic cocktails.

This year, to celebrate her 18th, we had a party at our house. On account that Lorraine is working very very hard in her last year at Uni. Bless her (soon, it will all have been worth it xxxx). I had such a good time getting it all together. Leah came over in the morning and we made marshmallow crispy cakes and fairy cakes. And deorated everything with pink icing and chocolate. Well Leah did most of it while I oversaw. Marshmallow cakes don’t look so good half way through.

Jeanette and Cousin Linda came over and put up the banners and balloons, which Emma had inflated the previous evening. There were banners pretty much everywhere. Even on the front door and in the window. And there were rather a lot of balloons.

The table was very pink. I drafted in fake flowers and vases from my bedroom, which is far more girly than the lounge on account that it is all my very own and isn’t shared with Emma who is, to be honest, not all that girly whatsoever at all. I borrowed other bits and bobs from about the house too. Including my very pink paperchase bunny who guarded the presents. Which were mostly pink.

Enisa was very grown up and made a speech. She thanked us all for supporting her over the years and said we were like a big family. Which, to be honest, considering the people that were in the room, was quite quite true. I felt very proud of her.

After everyone had eaten rather a lot, Pete and Emma put the desserts out. I didn’t take a photograph. Then I redid it. Properly. Once the desserts were laid out, I decorated the table with the fairy cakes and crispy cakes that Leah and I had made earlier. And trays of pink biscuits and bowls of mostly-pink sweets. I was just playing really. It was fun. Megan was sweet - she didn’t eat any fairy cakes because of the “diamonds” which are, obviously, inedible. I did show her the tubs of sprinkles but she wasn’t convinced.

Enisa got two birthday cakes. One, pink and girly with flowers on. This was from her Grandma and Grandad. This was cut and kindly handed out on pink paper napkins. The other was not so pink and girly but had a lovely picture of a very small Enisa printed on the icing. This was from her Mum and Dad. This was not kindly cut up and shared. In fact, I would not be at all surprised if Enisa holds on to it, just as it is, until it moulds and the smell becomes unbearable. She loved it. Mr Burnett aka Enisa’s Dad has a twisted sense of humour. You may notice that the candles on one of the cakes read ‘81′ not ‘18′. Very amusing.

She got lots of prezzies. This is just a few of them. The purple rabbit was a little extra something I made her. I’m kind of into making people bunny rabbits at the moment. She called it Emma. Because it’s long and lanky I guess And the teddy bear was from miss Leah, who unfortunately had to send her apologies on account of Brownie camp. Enisa very much loved it. And called it Leah. She also got lots and lots of pennies which she is hoping to magically turn into a laptop of the pink variety. Apparently she has enough for a laptop, a laptop case and perhaps a game or two.

This is a far longer post than I usually write and with more lovely pictures. But there are lots lots more here. All in all, a very successful evening!

I have a lot of things from my favourite shop - paperchase. A very lot. I’ve uploaded photos to a flickr album. I’ve got a few pics to add. Well, somebody else on Flickr who goes by the name Laura and I’m guessing was born in 1977, saw my photographs and was interested in how come I have so much. Turns out she works for paperchase! She’s obviously a very nice lady because today she sent me the pile of stuff in the top photo. And a little monstarz magnet which refused to be photographed. There was a hand-written postcard too. Little does she know just how much I really could do with something so nice. In the midst of all the studying and such and so. I love the black and white cat card. It’s just like Moses. And the pink reindeer stickers are fab.

And some time ago, I decorated an index card box with stickers, mostly paperchase incidentally, but I didn’t know what to stick on the top. Well, I stuck one of lovely Laura’s stickers on. It says ’study time’. Perfectly apt for one with exams and an essay deadline next week. Anyway, thank you Laura 77. You are lovely. Like hearts <3 <3 <3

It’s my birthday in 7 days and I’m getting some paperchase vouchers. I was gonna go and spend some money there anyway but now I’ll have even more spends! Can’t wait. I’m also going to Hatton Countryworld. I love it there too. Especially Emily’s cottage. We’re also going to pizza Hut. I think I feel a chocolate cookie dough dessert coming on. For now, time for sleeps!

I have decided that University is going to be very stressful at certain points. I think this is one of them. We have an essay due in next Friday and two exams on Thursday. But, if this is as bad as it gets, it will be do-able.

Two nice things happened yesterday. I met Rebecca Habberley at Uni. I haven’t seen her for years. We were at Valley House together in the good old days. And (partly promted by having seen Rebecca who I later stalked on facebook ), I found my first ever schoolfriend. I was 5 and a 1/2 and the teacher asked me to look after the new girl. For some reason she’d gone to another school for the first year. I was very proud to be asked to look after her. And she was a really nice girl. She went to a different secondary school and we lost touch. But I always remembered her: Nita Nandha. She’s not Nandha any more on account that she’s all grown up and married. But she does have a facebook account. It was nice to see her picture and say hi. She remembered me too. Aaah.

But for today, I’ve just this minute set myself up in the garden with laptop and stuff. And I’m going to start revision. I’ll break off for little bits and work on the last bits of my essay. I think I might just about get it all done in time! But it ain’t really what you would call fun!

At least it’s sunny. I like sunny

Cousin Linda is over from Canada. On Friday we had a do. I did a buffet. We ate in the garden.

Jeanette and Emma played with the shock ball. Cousin Linda emailed home.

Me and Emma posed for next year’s christmas card photo.

Pete, Lorraine and Enisa drank red wine. Well, Enisa didn’t. She’s underage. For another 11 days. We share birthdays. On 23rd May, I will be exactly double her age. For the only year of our lives. Leah joined us after Brownies. Cousin Linda bought her flowers and goodies in a posh bag. We all got goodies in posh bags. It’s a ‘from my house to your house’ thing. Must look that up. Me and Emma got flowers, canadian maple syrup (beautiful) and a room vaporiser set. It doesn’t vapourise your room. That would be silly. And somewhat of a cruel joke. It vapourises the fragrant liquid so everything smells like vanilla. Instead of cats and rabbits.

Later we played nurses. On account Linda is a real live proper nurse. As opposed to a mental health nurse. Or a student nurse. We measured everyone’s blood pressures and came up with very different readings. To give them a choice. It was fun. I was swaying and giddy because it was so much fun.

Now, I am not having fun. I am essay-ing and revise-ing. But in ten days, it will all be finished and done. Then I will spend some proper quality time with cousin Linda. She’s gone away to Scotland for a week. Then she’s back round our way. She’ll be around for my first week off. She’ll be staying over the road at Jeanette’s. My mum will be spending some time at our house. We shall do things. And go places. And chat.

I’m looking forward to it.

Blogging my yesterday….

Fantastic start. Peanut nestled into me while I was doing a bit of revision in my bedroom. Peanut just makes the whole ugly study type affair that little bit brighter.

Then I created myself a lovely little study spot in the garden. I put the rabbits out in the run and watched their antics while I sorted my revision noted out and put the last bits of the essay plan together.

This is Oscar and Bess all cuddled up in their tunnel - which is actually a cat toy from Aunty Sue and Uncle Baz that Peanut grew out of! One pic from either end. Ha ha ha 

And this is funny. A half-and-half, extremely long rabbit. Sandy and the top and silver at the base

And I really did actually get some work done

Not so today though. But that’s another story. Perhaps for tomorrow. Tonight I’m partying with friends and relatives.  Cousin Linda is here from Canada so we’re having a do at our house. I’m excited. I’ve cleaned up and everything. I even bleached the sink. The usual crowd - the Burnetts, Enisa, Jeanette and Ian, Leah, My mum, Me and Emma. And obviously Cousin Linda!

Funny story really. Me and Emma got home from Hatton (bearing in mind I’d resisted the oh-so-lovely, obscenely-expensive chocolate) to find these in our kitchen. Posh chocolate and posh red wine. At first we thought Jeanette and Ian must’ve left them there. But we weren’t sure. And we weren’t sure, if they had, whether they were for us to consume and enjoy or whether they were picking them up later to take them somewhere. You never really know with Jeanette and Ian, well Jeanette. She’s always in and out of our house when we’re out. It’s just part of the whole arrangement. Emma sent her a text. Jeanette sent one back saying yes they left them for us. So I ripped open the box (carefully) and ate three. They were very very lovely. Emma ate some too. How nice of Jeanette and Ian

About an hour later, Jeanette and Ian came round Jeanette was smiling in a strange way. She does that sometimes. She said it wasn’t really them. But she ate one anyway. I ate one aswell. I actually wasn’t really sure whether I believed her. She’s kind of like that. You never really know if she’s serious. I asked Ian if they bought them. Ian said ‘No’. He also ate one. So did I. I believed him. They didn’t buy them.

So who came into our house and left chocolates by the back door? The most likely next option would be Pete and Lorraine. They have a key. They live round the corner. But there was no motive and it still didn’t seem right. Emma texted Lorraine. It wasn’t them either. But they’d be round in ten minutes. They each had a chocolate. I ate one too.

By this time, me and Emma, Jeanette and Ian and now Pete and Lorraine were all trying to guess who might’ve been in our house. We couldn’t remember who else had keys. At one time pretty much everyone we knew had a key to our house. Why? I have absolutely no idea! They just did. We were trying to figure out did Abbie still have a key? Again, even if she did, no motive to leave us lovely chocolates. Did Mu have a key? No car - and she lives the other side of the city (and no motive anyway). The plot was thickening. Did Ellie ever have a key? We didn’t think so. Although we could never be quite sure. The next door neighbours definately have a key. On account that every now and again I lock myself out. Did somone leave them with them? Maybe someone from the job Emma’s just finished? Nah, they’d just wait and hand them over the fence later. We really couldn’t figure it out. Anyway we opened the wine. And Lorraine suddenly cracked it. It went something like this:

So the mystery is solved. Thank you Mr Crickham. Red wine and chocolates are two of the very best things in the world. It was very very very much appreciated. And we actually had fun trying to figure out how on earth they got there.

I would’ve blogged sooner but I’ve had a migraine and had to stay away from the computer for a couple of days. It’s just started easing off this evening. I blame it on too much red wine and chocolate!

xxxxx

As you can see it was very busy! We had a bit of a picnic then browsed the shops and I took many photos of round things (my latest obsession is squircling - best not ask!). Emma made a new friend outside the toy shop. I bought some baby shoes. They’re very lovely. And very very fragile. I know this because a tiny piece broke off in my hand when I was placing them on a shelf in my room. It was just one of those things I had to have. They weren’t all that expensive!

Then Emma dragged me kicking and screaming into the garden bit. Actually, it is fun in there. There are boxes and boxes of stones with names on. I had a bit of a funny turn when I saw these two stones near the top of one of the boxes. I kept looking over my shoulder for the rest of the outing….

There’s a fab chocolate shop. Emma offered to buy me something but I didn’t let her. Everything in there is incredibly posh. And, much as I love all chocolate, expensive chocolate is wasted on me. Not because I don’t like it. I do. But I don’t savour it. It’s gone in ten seconds - the same as a cheap bar would be. Most of the chololate on offer at this particular chocolate shop is imported. Heidel, Lindt, Goldkenn, Valrhona, Heilemann. A bar of chocolate about the size of a mars bar or a snickers was about £2 - £3. A fairly small but rather ornate chocolate bunny was £8. There was a larger one for £17. Chewy sweets similar in size to a pack of chewitts were 95p. I did enjoy looking though. And smelling. These ducks (which are a LOT smaller than they look in the photo and £1.50 each) really caught my fancy….

I got Emma a chocolate ice cream with a flake. Well, she paid for it. But I queued for twenty minutes so it was kind of a gift. And I bought the dodgy looking cat for 50p from the garden shop. He’s ugly and sweet and now sat on a shelf in my bedroom (quite close to the white baby shoes).

We also got these two big feet from there. They’ve got loads and loads of stepping stones. I think Peanut likes these ones. The two rabbits came from the garden shop too. Not the furry fleshy ones. The sandy coloured one, carved from wood. And the ugly grey one with the bulging eyes , made from whatever the stuff is those things are usually made from. Heavy? Leaves powder on your clothes? Breaks if you drop it??? Anyway it was only after I got home that I realised they matched our real life bunnies. Incidentally, I picked Bess up for the first time today and put her out in the rabbit run. I was incredibly pleased with myself. She’s getting much more tame. I think I’m beginning to love her quite a lot. And Oscar’s just, well, wonderful.