Are church mice quieter than your average domestic mouse? I’m betting someone, somewhere has the answer to this. But anyway.

Blue Witch coined a wonderful term over at purple pen’s comments - bloryngitis. None of that here - an inadvertent hiatus was on the horizon but certain people, wittingly or otherwise, have inspired the return. And besides, I can never resist a tagging once I’ve found about about it.

So what was the reason behind the silence this time? Oh we won’t go there. Lots of reasons but part of it was the shock at something that happened in the blogosphere last year. Well, not what happened, people’s reactions to the events. I’ve drafted/deleted about it numerous times but I’m still too angry about it soI’ll just offer up this quote*, author unknown:

A true friend overlooks your broken fence to admire your flowers.

(more…)

If I’d known I’d have to be away for so long I’d have said something, honestly.

Fingers crossed, I’m back to blogging but first there’s a blogroll to be visited. Put the kettle on, get the biscuits out of the cupboard, I’m on my way over.

p.s. I’ve just emailed a few people with a shamefaced apology but Thunderbird burped and belched its way through thousands* of emails on the rare occasions I was able to log in so if I’ve missed replying to an email from you, I am sorry.

* anyone want a Rolex?

I can’t believe how long this damn back has taken to fix but at last I was able to get out of bed without crawling to a hot bath this morning. Fingers crossed I’ll be able to join in with the dog walk today too.

While I remember

Last Saturday we got the granddaughters to bed, made supper, tidied up then collapsed in a heap on the sofa. I checked the Radio Times (listing magazine) and spotted Kill Bill about to start in 10 minutes.

21:50
Me: Ooh, Kill Bill starts at 10 o’clock, I’ve been wanting to see this since it was released.
Him: Right, I’ll make a pot of tea then.

22:40
[Awakening from a deep, deep sleep, trying to make sense of what was happening on screen, wondering what the tea would taste like reheated in the microwave]
Me: Why is Uma Thurman [mumble]?
Him: She’s been in a coma.
Me: Where’s Akoma?
Him: Idaho isn’t it?

Well it made me laugh.

p.s. Thank you for your lovely emails, am replying to everyone as the day goes along.

p.p.s. Spotted this link from Pam, Bob From Accounting’s amended children’s book covers. My favourite? Number 6.

p.p.p.s. Just in from non blogging Jane, a picture entitled “You are so on my side of the bed”.

…and the floor and the walls and the sides of the bath. How can one 2.5 year old create so much mess in one nappy? We have the invasion of the little people (granddaughters aged 5 and 2.5) at the moment but they’re off home in a few hours (yes!), after which normal service and blog visiting will be resumed. Once I’ve had a lie down in a darkened room.

p.s. If you missed Em’s Straplines Competition you’re in luck, he’s running a new contest, What’s On My Ipod. I daren’t enter this one until I have at least 3 hours to study the rules carefully. Wouldn’t want to cock this one up as well…

I may have discovered a motivational aid to get me decluttering. Sorting through some magazines yesterday, I was cutting out an article here, a recipe there, then a tutorial (how to clean your pc), making a nice little pile of paper ready to punch and file away when it occurred to me that if I really wanted a recipe for tomato risotto I could find one in 2 or 3 clicks and an internet connection. And that article on web standards? There’s better and more up to date stuff on the net. In fact, I rarely read what I squirrel away. So I took a big gulp and put them all in the bin, along with the remaining magazines. Yikes.

What really pushed me though was a mental image of chez Daisy 6 months in the future (or 12 months, or 18 months, whenever we actually get round to selling the house and moving) and being surrounded (again) by boxes and boxes and boxes of junk. Stacked paper is so heavy and –this only occured to me late last night– a fire risk. Given that I’m paranoid about fire anyway, it struck me as ridiculous that I’ve lived so long with piles of magazines in most cupboards and corners.

I am a changed woman.

Anyway, I watched tv as I sorted and stapled. Along came What Not To Wear (this epsiode) and the victim had been despatched to Rigby & Peller* to buy new underwear. She was mortified to discover that she needed a 34H, wondering aloud to camera if H stood for hideous or horrible. My beloved one came into the room at that point and without missing a beat chimed in “or Hooray”. Bless.

___________
* Lingerie makers to royalty. I won’t link to them because:

Before you enter this site, it is recommended that for a better viewing experience, you download a copy of Internet Explorer.

Has anyone told them it’s 2005 now and they’re alienating 20-30% of potential customers?

In the ongoing quest to declutter the house we gathered up boxes of books, videos, china and bric-a-brac early this morning and set off to do our first ever car boot sale.

And it was a bit of an eye opener for both of us. Martyn stood there astonished, confessing that he was seeing a side of me he’d not seen before as I cajoled, bartered and bargained with people over prices. He summed it up with “You have a knack for striking up a conversation with people I’d cross the street to avoid”. The years of holding stalls at church bazaars as a child finally came in useful. I would get very hot under the collar to see people try and bargain for homemade cakes though. My mother’s world famous* homemade cakes at that! She would spend an awful lot of money on ingredients then bake from dusk to dawn for a week each November. To stand there and see people try and bargain the price down from 30p to 20p for a slice of fruit cake would have me bouncing off the floor in anger.

We’d barely opened the car doors before the crowds swooped, prodding and inspecting the contents of our boxes. We had three paste tables and nice cloths to cover them - hah! It took us an hour to get everything on the table because we had to keep stopping to sell things. Which I suppose is living up to the name “car boot” sale since we were literally selling from the boot of the car.

But two hours in and I learned to smile with eyes that said “Feck off if you think you’re going to steal from me” and to recognise the children sent by their parents to weadle a better price for items by lisping “It’s for my mummy’s birthday…”. As far as I can tell we had two or three items stolen. The first was a brand new S0ny Walkman (they left the box the bastards) and I think a couple of books disappeared too.

So will we do it again? Absolutely! Despite a bad back, neck and feet (standing for 5 hours will do that to you) it reallly was huge amounts of fun. We met some lovely people, the sun was shining and we’ve recouped a bit of money for all stuff that we should have gotten rid of years ago.

But now I’m going to hobble off to a nice hot bath.

__________
* world famous might be a tad exagerrated but she is certainly known as a very good cook, particularly her pastry. And not to leave dad out in case he ever reads this, his pasta dishes are divine too.

We’ve just discovered that my mother went to the same grammar school where Em’s grandfather taught woodwork. Isn’t that amazing? I just rang her to check the facts:

Me: Did you know a Mr B___ at C____ school?
Mam: Oh yes, lovely man. One of nature’s true gentlemen. Um, why do you want to know?

Apparently they had a geography teacher who would put a large map of the world in front of the blackboard at the start of each lesson, instruct the class to start copying it while he sat there and shook. Mr B___ would come in and lead him gently to the staff room, popping his head round the door of the classroom every so often to check that order was being kept. Can’t imagine that happening nowadays.

Anyway, has anyone else discovered an offline link to another blogger?

Update: Chaotique’s mother also attended that school. Jaw. Desk. Connection.

Addendum: If WebDiva ever blogs again I’ll be asking her if she too attended. Big net, small world eh?

p.s. to the addendum: this is almost the view I woke up to every morning growing up.

No, I don’t quite know what happened either.
(more…)

Come to think of it, I’m not sure that many of you even in the UK will know K.eith A.rthur unless you’re an @ngler or listen to early morning radio at weekends. All went well, he came to buy this from Martyn and confirmed once again that he is a lovely chap (the dogs adored him). In my defence m’lud, the b0at was also of interest to this actor so a “bigger” celebrity might have been visiting. But didn’t.

Meanwhile I’ll also cough to the fact that even these cartoons are making me blubber at the moment so I’m going to bid you all goodnight while I log off and settle down with a bar of chunky brown medicine.

Martyn had an upgrade to his mobile (cell) phone today. He had a long and complicated list of requirements:

1. O2 network
2. Shock and water resistant
3. Loud ring tone

The sales assistant mobile communications specialist was happy to give him a free upgrade to a Siemens something or other, seeming a little flustered at not being pressed for all the new gidgets and widgets.

He got home at 15:00, had the battery charged by 17:00 then disappeared into the garage. He emerged trimphant 15 minutes later with a brand new ring tone. The sound of fishing line screaming out of a centre pin reel. Bless.

But like any boy with a new toy, he’s keen to explore all its features. If he takes one more secret bloody picture of me I’ll ram the sodding thing down his throat.

*And breathe*