Coffee at Joy's

Joy's house is like an Aladdin's cave. Apart from the treasures they brought back from their years abroad Joy is very artistic and decorates anything that doesn't move like these bottles  I've forgotten the name of this particular skill.  Can you remind me please?  I have just spoken to Joy and it slipped my mind to ask her.

She has great skill with orchids - has about a dozen - quite old  and there are always some blooming.  We call her the Orchid lady

Political Perceptions

 

The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.

Winston Churchill

 

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.

Winston Churchill

 

He looks like a female llama surprised while bathing.

Winston Churchill on Clement Atlee.

 

The House of Lords is like a glass of champagne that has stood for five days.

Clement Atlee

 

Political pun:

Clement Freud calling Mrs Thatcher : Attila the hen.

 

You realise you are no longer in Government when you get in the back of your car and it does not go anywhere. MalcolmRifkind

 

 My position on cake is pro- having it and pro-eating it.  Boris Johnson.

 

The trouble with socialism is you eventually run out of other people’s money.  Mrs Thatcher.

 

Liberals love America like OJ loved Nicole.  Republican commentator Ann Coulter.

 

Only two things are necessary to keep one’s wife happy.  First let her think she is having her own way.  And second, let her have it.  Lyndon B Johnson

  

If ignorance is bliss, then you must be one happy liberal.  American bumper sticker.  The last word may be interchangeable.

 

A Communist is one who has nothing and wishes to share it with the world.  Anon

 

Gordon Brown looking like a bad tempered wardrobe in a suit.

Michael Deacon from whom I purloined the above from an article he wrote on the newly published Dictionary of Humorous Political Quotations edited by Fred Metcalf

Political Perceptions

 Winston Churchill
 Clement Atlee
 Clement Freud
 Ann Coulter
 Lyndon and Ladybird Johnson

Yesterday was a sad, sad day.

Yesterday was a sad, sad day.

 

I drew the curtains in the bathroom and through the frosted glass could see a red glow.  Hurrying downstairs I went out of the back porch and through the hedge glimpsed an ambulance and a police car.  We wondered if it had something to do with the flooding but as time went on and the ambulance remained MTL said it didn’t look good.

Eventually a neighbour phoned and said that our opposite neighbour had been found by his garden letter box and it was too late to do anything.

 Roy was a most hospitable and generous man.  His great passion was railways and only recently we attended a party to celebrate the completion of a games room in the garden to house his railways.  He had already established a railway on the first floor of his home, with charming mountain scenery painted by his late mother.  We shared our home help and S told me he was full of plans for a big party to celebrate his 70^th next year.

 We shall miss you Roy – our enclave won’t be the same without you.

 

Roy Dunglisson 1943-2012 Requiem in Pace

 

 

Alice and Tom in New York

Alice and Tom in New York

Alice – a student at Florida University was to have met a friend in New York but when the friend was unable to make it her brother Tom – who works in London decided to keep her company.

 Last century when I was in Rhode Island I remembered the vituperation in a super market directed at a man with a pony tail and I asked Tom if he got any funny looks with his embryo moustache grown to support Movember, but he said there were much weirder sights to see.  They went up the Empire state building, went Black Friday shopping, walked the High Line, visited central Park and then walked the length of the High Line.

 
Central Park and The Empire State building I am familiar with but Google had to instruct me on Black Friday shopping and the High Line.  Traditionally Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving and the beginning of Christmas shopping and sales; so that’s their Christmas presents sorted.
 

The video below explains the High Line.  Tom was very impressed and thought something similar could be done to about a 1/3 of Birmingham UK; where he was at University.  I look forward to hearing from our man in New York – Unbearable Banishment.

http://theunbearablebanishment.blogspot.co.uk/

 

The High Line - New York

Alice and Tom in Birmingham.

The Queen and I are deeply moved.

 

It is a week of anniversaries:  on Thursday Joy would have been married to Mike for 60 years and she invited Jackie and me to lunch with her.  Then she got the delightful news that her son and his partner were going to visit her on the day and stay over.

 As a result Joy and I had lunch together yesterday which was the 62^nd anniversary of her meeting Mike.  It was also the 65^th anniversary of the Queen and Phillip’s marriage.  Well done both!
 Then on Friday MTL and I have our 33^rd anniversary – the roses came early.  Jackie didn’t make our lunch yesterday as she is about to have a minor op – fingers crossed all goes smoothly.

 

That’s my Tuesday nights sorted for the next five weeks.  Last Tango in Halifax had its first episode on BBC 1 at 9pm last night, and it is very watchable with faultless acting from Anne Reid, Derek Jacobi, Sara Lancashire and Nicola Walker who head a stalwart cast.

 I couldn’t help a feeling of déjà vu. It is set in and around Skipton – where we had a cottage for decades and the two main characters are in their late seventies and have just been reunited after 60 years with the help of their grandsons and the internet. It seems they were drawn to each other as children but then she was going to move away and arranged to meet him.  She never turned up, he waited two hours and he was as heart broken as one can be at that tender age.  In spite of a reasonably happy marriage he carried a torch for her the rest of his life.

 Hesitant at first , they really opened up to each other and discovered that her family had to ‘flit’ in a hurry and she just had time to write him a note explaining and making it clear she wanted to see him again.  Sadly he never got the note and guess what?  The recalcitrant postman turned out to be his late wife.  The first all day conversation they had really rang true to me:

‘Were you really in love with me?’

‘Did you really think I’d stood you up?’

 

They have an truly adventurous day- his car is stolen and she manages to crash her car into his- which ends when they are collected by their daughters both of whom have their own dramas unfolding and neither of whom are thrilled at this recent development in their respective parent’s love life.

 

It rings true – truth is stranger than fiction, there is plenty of humour and the ever present Yorkshire scenery – not just the pretty bits, makes this something to relish.  But don’t take my word for it – give it a whirl.  The writer is Sally Wainwright (Scott and Bailey)

Last Tango in Halifax

Anne Reid and Derek Jacobi

Update on Tom's moustache.

Way to go yet:)  I quite like his shabby chic work clothes.
http://mobro.co/tommanwaring

Different Views

The view from my bedroom.


The view from an attic window

A later view from attic window after tiles removed, procedures involving wood , nails and felt (shh darling - men talking - not all bad - he gets to to make all the tea and biscuits)

View from the garden - and while its there- new guttering and a face paint.

Flying for Victory

WW1 Gallery.  Animals at war.
I meant to use this last Sunday.

The Green Car

I couldn't think why  # 1 son sent me this photograph and he reminded me of the green Ford Prefect
I used to drive
Pat: "Yes I do remember but can't place the timing.  Obviously before the Spitfire.  Can you remember   how old you were?"
# 1 Son: "You ran us to Bidborough ( Village school) in it I think.
You certainly took a door off it reversing out of the garage."

I didn't remind him of how we found a new door from a reclamation yard and I bought paint to make it green like the car.  I was told not to paint it in the rain ( it rained a lot in those days) but I thought as long as I did it in the garage all would be well.  The garage was really an old stable - fairly open to the elements -  as a result the colour dripped like a waterfall and when it dried it looked so very sixties I left it.  Memories eh?

 

Remember, Remember the point of Movember

Movember started in Melbourne Australia and it involves the growing of a moustache during the month of November to raise awareness and funds for men’s health, particularly with regard to testicular cancer and prostate cancer.

 

My grandson Tom and his Dad have both become Mo Bros which means they started on the first of November with a clean shaven face having registered at movember.com. For the entire month each Mo Bro must grow and groom a moustache. There is to be no joining of the mo to the sideburns (that’s considered a beard), there’s to be no joining of the handlebars to the chin (that’s considered a goatee) and each Mo Bro must conduct himself like a true gentleman.

 

If- like me, you love a Mo Bro you can support them as a Mo Sista.  If you would like to support Tom click on:  http://mobro.co/tommanwaring.

 No photos of my boys yet as their early growth is a bit sparse  but Great, Great, Granddad Williams is below.  At the end of the month hopefully men’s health care will be more in line with women’s and there will be parties and great rejoicing far and wide.

 

Tom's Great, Great Grandfather

Remembrance Day

Acer November 2012

Three Puds and a Train…

 

A train of coincidences that is.

On Sunday night I watched the last episode of ‘Downton Abbey’ - Laura Carmichael was playing Lady Edith.  On Monday night – with nothing new to read, dipped into my old copy of Sir Peter Hall’s autobiography ‘Making an Exhibition of Myself.’

Last night I read in the Daily Telegraph that Sir Peter, as a member of the audience, had interrupted Laura Carmichael’s speech in ‘Uncle Vanya’ by calling out:

 

‘Stop, stop stop!  It doesn’t work and you don’t work.  It is not good enough.’

 

Yesterday – according to a report by Anita Singh:

‘The 81-year old issued an apology.

 “I am mortified that I unintentionally disrupted the final scene of ‘Uncle Vanya’ and I have sent a personal note to Laura Carmichael offering my apologies. I enjoyed the evening and her performance immensely and my remarks were in no way directed at her or the production.  Being rather aged, I dropped off for a moment and on being woken by my wife I was briefly disorientated’.

 Sir Peter Hall is six months younger than I am and I have followed his career for decades and seen many of his productions.  Some time ago we went with the Art’s Club to Bath to see his ‘Lady Windermere’s Fan. ’ To my shame I fell asleep during a scene with Vanessa Redgrave and her daughter Joely Richardson.

Post prandial is often a snooze time for me, but the killer was a glass of wine at lunch.  So from then on, matinees were prefaced by no alcohol and strong coffee.

 I’m just so thankful that my lapses were comparatively quiet - apart from the odd snort.  I wonder if Sir Peter had had a hearty dinner.

 
The girls and I had lunch at The Bistro yesterday and the puds – we each tasted all three - were worth mentioning.  Jackie had an apricot and chocolate roulade with cream, Joy had white peach shortcake with cream and I had apple and cinnamon crumble with ice cream.  One is always given the option of cream, clotted cream, ice-cream or custard.
 

With the first course, in addition to the normal vegetables there is a choice of rice, mash, roast potatoes, chips or new potatoes.  The girls had a special pensioner’ lunch of chicken and leek pie but I wanted to try a dish which the charming owner had been describing.  An African beef stew with lots of herbs and cocoanut milk.  It was very tasty but more meat than I could manage so the girls tried it also.  So useful to have such a good place at the bottom of the lane.

Three puds and a train

Laura Carmichael

Sir Peter Hall

Apple and Cinnamon Crumble

White Peach Shortcake

Chocolate and Apricot Roulade.

A bit of a letdown

A bit of a let down.

 

I have become accustomed to excellent mail order service – mainly through Amazon- over the last year or so – a boon to less active folk,  so that it is a double disappointment when it goes awry.

 At the end of September I noticed an extra deep pure Duck Feather and Down Mattress Topper – five inches thick, in the Telegraph and decided to get it as part of MTL’s birthday present.  The trick is to buy him something that he will actually get out of its box and use, and with this he wouldn’t have any choice because I would be right there beside him.  On it!

 

When I tried to order online they didn’t seem to have the same details, so reluctantly I ordered by phone - this was early October – and they said it was out of stock till Oct 29^th.  I ordered it any way.  In the middle of October I was surprised to see they had taken the money from my account.  Expecting delivery daily, it still hadn’t arrived this week-end.

 This morning I phoned again and discovered that it had been dispatched in the middle of October and returned.  The reason given:  insufficient address.  The person on the phone was apologetic – it wasn’t her fault - but when she gave me the option of a re- delivery or my money refunded I chose the latter.

 Was anybody ever going to let me know?  Now what?

 

Wish me luck – I‘ve just ordered another via Amazon.

Elizabeth through the ages

Have just had this video sent by http://www.rashbre2.blogspot.co.uk/Rashbre who remembered the video I had played earlier of the Queen.  It is amazing- thank you Rashbre.