Note: You have to read this page from the bottom up in order to get the story straight!!
23rd December
Ah I love dogs .... Mum and I went up to Blaenau Mawr today to see the gang before Christmas. When we got back to Cardiff, I dropped Mum off at her home and nipped into Tesco for a few odds and ends. I got back in my car to discover that Maddy had thrown up on my seat and of course in the dark I didn't see it until I felt it soak through my jeans, if you know what I mean! Bleeeeeee!
My car has a gremlin. The digital clock goes a bit barmy from time to time. It's been good for a while, then it started to get the hour wrong, although the minutes were still correct. Today for some reason it got to 2400 (at lunchtime, mind you) and then kept counting. See the photographs below:
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A random memory from the pond weed of my mind ....
In about 1989 I used to work for a bank in the centre of Cardiff (well someone had to). At lunchtimes we sometimes used to go to a little Chinese restaurant on St John's Square. It was a very small place and did a really cheap lunchtime menu. One day I was there with boyfriend at the time. A party of women came in and were seated. The Chinese proprietress came over to take a drinks order from them. One by one the women ordered their drinks. All was going well until one of them requested "Half a lager shandy - mainly lemonade." The waitress frowned at the women and said "No 'mainly'." I laughed all the way back to work!
Sometime prior to 23rd December ....
I have been thinking a lot about my dissertation. Thinking being the operative word here, not "doing". I have currently stalled on somewhat less than 2,000 words. Not even 10% yet!
A novel experience to report for this month. I was teaching Excel to a class this month. All the students were quietly working through an exercise when I heard a funny noise. It sounded like someone cutting their nails. I did a brief tour of the computer lab and discovered that one of the students was indeed cutting their nails (fingers not toes, thankfully). When I asked them if they would please NOT cut their nails during class, the look I received would not have been amiss if I had requested that they stood on their head!! Whatever happened to sleeping? Now sleeping is a time honoured and acceptable classroom pastime!!
During November, Alwyn and I decided to go on a "booze cruise". (Actually it was a coach trip through the Eurotunnel, but "booze cruise" scans better.) We met the coach at 6.00 AM in Pontypridd and started our journey down to Dover. The coach wasn't very full and we had had the foresight to take pillows with us so we slept most of the way there.
It was about lunchtime by the time the coach dropped us off at a shopping mall in Calais. The mall is mostly taken up with a massive Carrefour and also has two levels of shops and boutiques including, slightly bizarrely, Tesco and C&A. As it was lunchtime, we decided fairly quickly that we needed something to eat. We happened upon a lovely "pub" on the lower level of the mall which served food from the Alsace region of France and also just happened to have its own brewery. (Can you see where this story is headed?)
The food and the beer were so good that we ended up spending rather more time in this hostelry than we should have done. The alcoholic fog cleared sufficiently for us to recall that we had actually come to France to do some Christmas shopping. It was at that point that we realised that we had left ourselves about 40 minutes max to buy things, pay for them and get back to our coach ....
Can you imagine a "supermarket sweep" (trolley dash), except the supermarket is packed and the two contestants are rather more than half cut? Well that, dear readers, was myself and Alwyn. Despite our somewhat desperate circumstances we still managed to get an exceptional deal on several cases of beer and a couple of cases of wine. Mmmmmm, beer.
Ahhhh, we had fun, as we always do, but next time we're going to spend MORE time shopping and LESS time in the pub!
I had whooping cough and was off work for six weeks in total. I coughed so much I cracked a couple of ribs. I do not want to do that ever ever again!
Alwyn and I spent two weeks in America in August. We started off with his family in Winston Salem, North Carolina and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Then Alwyn and I had a couple of days in Las Vegas, where we managed to win $750 on roulette!!! Following this we spent a couple of days with my brother and his family in San Jose. Great holiday!!
We got back to the UK, spent a fortnight in work and then went to Majorca for a week. Majorca was hot and humid and full of icky British citizens. We had fun, but were glad to come home!!
I've been off work for nearly two weeks with a terrible chest infection. I've never suffered a chest infection before and I sincerely hope I do not ever have another!
Alwyn and I are planning our summer hols. We have flights booked to and from North Carolina, which is where Alwyn's sister and brother in law live. We are hoping to go to Las Vegas, New Orleans or perhaps New York and then on to San Jose as it is Mark's 40th birthday this August!
Since my last allotment report, we have managed to clear a second bed which now contains runner beans - which are doing quite well, mange tout - which don't seem to like it there, and brussels sprouts - which are coming along pretty well. We still have about a dozen courgette plants in pots in the garden and will need to dig ANOTHER bed for those!
Mark and Sian had another boy at the end of May. His name is Christopher and he is gorgeous! I have put the latest pic of the three boys onto "My Family" page.
I've been extremely remiss and haven't yet added anything to my diary for this year!
I'm waiting for a phone call from America, where Mark and Sian are awaiting the birth of their third child - any minute!!
Alwyn and I got a puppy in March, a Jack Russell Terrier. We called her Maddy and she is living up to her name by being completely MAD. Her antics alternately drive us crazy and keep us doubled up with laughter.
Last month we signed up for an allotment. We were very excited about it until we discovered it had ten years of grass, brambles and nettles growing on it! We have managed to strim/hack/slash down almost all of the grass and most of the brambles - thanks to Michael and Daniel for their help there. The actual digging and planting bit is taking somewhat longer as we have to cut all the "turf" off the top, pull out the couch grass roots, break up the clods and then manure and rake it all for planting. We managed to prepare a fair size bed and have planted about 150 onions in it. I'm hoping we can get on and prepare beds for the runner beans and mange tout before long, as these are languishing in pots in the garden!
