Running out of Space

I like to bring home a little memento from the places I visit and this is usually in the form of a magnet as they are easy to pack. The family also send me magnets . I display them on the boiler in my breakfast room as it's the only metal surface I have. However, I'm rapidly running out of space as you can see from the photo and I think that I will have to buy a magnet board to continue my collection!

Has anyone been having trouble with blogger I've been trying to upload this photo all day?

Archives:
September 30th 2006: Decorating is Dull

Michaelmas Day

Michaelmas Day is traditionally the last day of harvest and St Michael's Feast Day. By pure coincidence we enjoyed a meal last night that would tie in with this feast where goose is the traditional food.
We started with Foie Gras. We have been saving this since Beccy brought it back from her trip to France back in June. I don't recall ever trying it before but I have to say it was delicious. I do worry about the ethics of rearing geese but I guess it's the same for a lot of our food as Sam pointed out to me. So I might just be converted!!
This was roasted free range chicken I bought at another local market and Sam made a wonderful bread salad to go with it. She made up the recipe as she went along based on one she has used before. I can tell you it tasted pretty good. Now all I have to do is remember exactly what she did so that I can reproduce it!!
Of course we had a bottle of champagne to help the chef in the preparations and then a bottle of Gewursztraminer.
I'm really not turning into a food blog but with Sam staying I'm making the most of her culinary skills.

Archives:
September 29th 2006: what-is-today

Casamia, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol

EmBee and I don't really eat out very often. Well when I say that, what I really mean is we do have the odd pub lunch and snack if we are shopping, but booking and going out in the evening is reserved for special occasions only. So having Sam and Fred here is quite special and we decided to try Casamia a local restaurant that Sam found on the internet. I do remember reading a review on it in the local paper and thinking I'd like to have a meal there sometime and then I promptly forgot all about it. So while Sam and Fred enjoyed a couple of days in Cornwall, I was left with instructions to book a reservation. They arrived back here around 5pm yesterday and we had to be at the restaurant by 6:45pm as that was the only booking available. Casamia is situated off the High Street in Westbury Village which is only a couple of my miles from where we live. The restaurant is cleverly concealed down a small alley and once inside you are made to feel very welcome by the proprietor. These are not good photos as they were taken in the dark but it will give you an idea.
You can just see the entrance to the restaurant in the distance.

This is very much a family business, serving classic Italian food, the proprietor told us his two sons were the chefs and most of their food comes from local sources around Bristol and the fish from Cornwall.

It was very difficult to make our choices as so much on the menu sounded really good. In the end we all chose something different. Again not all the photos turned out as good as I had hoped so I will only share a few of them.
This was my pear and walnut salad, pecorino and white truffle. It looked amazing and was delicious (the pear made it a little on the sweet side).
I chose Guinea fowl, langoustine, tortellini, pears and salsify. Beautifully presented and cooked to perfection.
EmBee was very pleased with his homemade Tagliatelle pasta with wild mushrooms.
Sam said that her roasted pork (fillet-cheek-belly) with parsnip,coffee,and caramelized almonds was the best pork she had ever tasted. Sam and I shared some roasted new potatoes and cream leeks with truffle oil.
Sam was the only one to try a pudding. She chose "Banoffee Pie' but this was with a difference as you can see from the photo. It's a caramel soup, banana ice cream and sable biscuit.

I don't have Sam on hand to remind me of the different wines we had to accompany the meal so I'll just say everything was perfect. We all agreed that this is somewhere we want to return to in the near future (please note embee if you read this!)

Archives:
September 28th 2006: Party Time

When in Bath do as the Romans did!

I haven't told you about our trip to the Thermae Bath Spa which we did last week when Beccy was over to see Sam and Fred. I have been longing to visit the spa that is Britain's only natural thermal waters. The original Roman baths, served by three hot springs, have not been open for public use since 1978 when someone died of menigitis thought to have been contracted from natural bacteria in the water.
The new Spa is situated very close to the original Roman Baths and uses the same hot water springs. Here you can bathe in the warm, natural mineral-rich waters and choose from a range of spa treatments designed to ease the body and soothe the mind (well that's what the advertising blurb says!).

This is the entrance and shows you the lovely architecture of Bath's old buildings.
This is the old hot baths entrance.
In this picture you can just see the roof pool. It's brilliant to be out in the open in very warm water when the atmosphere is quite cool. There is a lovely view from the roof pool and I imagine it would look spectacular after dark seeing all the buildings lit up. We couldn't take photos but have a look at the link and there is a little video which shows you the the two baths and the aromatic steam rooms.
We just took the basic two hour session which costs £20 ($40) but it was really enjoyable and I would recommend it. You can hire robes and towels but we took our own as this would have increased the cost quite a lot. We were all surprised at how soft and smooth our skin felt afterwards and even my psoriasis felt much better (normally when I go swimming the high chlorine content of the pool leaves my skin itching and uncomfortable).

So all these years after the Romans were regularly bathing in Bath we have the opportunity to use the same water source how cool is that!!

Archives:
September 27th 2006: no link

Witty Wednesday # 21 Wise Words

In April (98?), Maya Angelou was interviewed by Oprah on her 70+ birthday.

Oprah asked her what she thought of growing older.

And, there on television, she said it was 'exciting.' Regarding body changes, she said there were many, occurring every day...like her breasts.

They seem to be in a race to see which will reach her waist, first.

The audience laughed so hard they cried. She is such a simple and honest woman, with so much wisdom in her words!

Maya Angelou said this:

'I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.'

'I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.'

'I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life.'

'I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life.'

'I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.'

'I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back.'

'I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.'

'I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one.'

'I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone.

People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.'

'I've learned that I still have a lot to learn.'

'I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.'

After being sent this I did some research and realise that she is a great lady I now want to read her book 'I Know Why the Caged Birds Sing'
*******************************************************************************

Now moving in a totally different direction this next item was sent from the pub by john and before you look I am an animal lover....

OVERDOSE VICTIMS

I'm sending these graphic pictures of overdose victims not for shock value, but rather in the hope that you will have a frank discussion with friends and family about respecting moderation, understanding limits, and knowing when to just walk away.

Remember...
This did NOT have to happen ...

(parental discretion advised)








And the BEST for last - - -
Actually my dog ocassionally tried to drink the loo water and she stole choc from a bedroom cupboard, if I'd had a dishwasher when we had her I'm sure she would have licked plates clean (there was the time she ate embee's dinner- I think I wrote about that) and there was a time when she got a lot bit overweight and I had to slim her down so maybe it's worth thinking about healthy diets for the pets we love.

It's mid-week again so not long until the weekend whatever you are doing I hope it's fun.... me I've got laundry and boring chores to do but I'm going for swim this afternoon.

Archives:
September 26th 2006: Aching Legs

Catching up

A year ago I wrote a post titled 'Manic Monday's' I can't exactly remember what I wrote about but I felt yesterday was bit manic as I had quite a lot to do including picking up Sam's partner, Fred, from the airport at 5:15pm. His flight from Paris was a bit delayed so it was closer to 6pm by the time we left the airport. On the way home we discovered a new deli Taste, I wouldn't drive across town to shop there but I would use it whenever I happen to pass that way. Once we got home it was straight into the kitchen for Sam, who cooked us another lovely dinner (I did help quite a lot~ I don't want you to think I just sit back and let her do everything!) Unfortunately I didn't take any photos but it was belly of pork seasoned with lemon, herbs and garlic and served with apple sauce.

Today Sam and Fred hired a car and they have gone off to Cornwall for a couple of nights. They are going to have dinner here and I'm just a teensy-weensy bit jealous. I just hope the weather stays reasonable because a couple of hours after they left we had a horrendous storm and Sam hasn't driven in England for quite a few years, let alone in heavy rain, but I know she'll be OK.

Another reason I'm very late posting today is that I've been catching up on reading and saving all the recipes I want to try from yesterday's Fun Monday posts. I now have plenty of new ideas to keep me going for a while.

Just in case you are interested to see what we ate for dinner on Sunday here is our menu:
Most of the ingredients were sourced locally. I'm leaving all the detail to Sam when she gets her post up.

*Green fried Tomatoes with a red pepper dressing
*Venison cooked with port and redcurrents
*Vegetables savoy cabbage cooked with bacon and spices and a little stock.
*Potatoes were a version of lyonnaise with cream and garlic.
*Cheese course - two different types of cheese and home made chutney.
*Apple fool made with home made custard.

I should first explain that although it looks a lot of food, it was a very leisurely meal that took all afternoon and we were not left feeling too stuffed. We enjoyed this English wine produced at Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard where the first organic wine was produced as far back as 1982. We also had several bottles of red wine.
I forgot to take any photos until we got to the cheese course. The only downside was clearing up the kitchen afterwards!!

Archives:
September 25th 2006: Manic Mondays

Fun Monday# 34 Family Favourite

Lisa the The Food Snob is hosting the fun today. I somehow thought that our task might just be related to food!!

Lisa wants to see our favorite recipe, be it either because our grandmother wrote it, it's the easiest thing we can slap together that everyone likes, it makes us feel healthy, it's cheap, etc. We don't have to make it (although we could if we want) She says to let us see the index card, cookbook, printed paper from the web, and why it's a favorite in our house. If you have a lot, just pick one, I know I'll have to!

This is going to be really difficult because I'm not sure that I really have a favourite recipe. I'm a phase person. I cook something we like and then I do it several times in fairly quick succession and then move on. I actuallly like trying out new recipes that I find on my favourite food blogs. Also I think I have already posted lots of family favourite recipes so I'm going to leave links to previous posts (cheating a bit-I know). Some of you will have seen my Lemon Cake, Somerset Apple Cake and Apple Crumble. Fruit bread which is a good standby as it freezes well. I love a good Cottage Pie (or Shepherds Pie if I have lamb).
Rather than a particular recipe it's a full meal that is a family favourite in this house hold- the traditional Roast Beef with all the trimmings.

Having opted out of following the rules I'm going to show you some photos of the family lunch that we had yesterday. Sam will be doing a full post on this later in the week so this is a taster! Following photos are copyright sam breach.



How about having a guess at what we ate!!
Lisa sorry I didn't keep to your rules; I will get around to visting everyone and I'm hoping to find some more recipes to try out!

Archives:
September 24th 2006: Bramleys are Best

A busy Sunday

It's the end of a very long day so this will be a very quick post.

This date last year was very sunny and in fact yesterday was also a really hot day, but today it has been overcast and by the afternoon it was raining. This did not bother us too much as we were preparing for a family lunch. Sam did most of the cooking and anyone who read her post yesterday will know she was trying to create a meal from food that was sourced locally. I bet you are wondering if she succeeded well I'm not going to tell you today! What I will leave you with is a vision of my kitchen as it was this morning with Sam hard at work. The table set ready to go!! I am just about to go back to the kitchen to clear up. Now I'm not so sure it isn't better being the cook!!!!!

Archives:
September 23th 2006: Sunny Saturday

Ladies who Lunched!

Retail Therapy is just what mother ordered yesterday, the day after Fred flew to Paris to see his family and friend's. I think I've said before, that I've always thought I could get used to being a lady who lunches, or maybe it's the novelty because it's always a treat when one of the girls visits. Sam was last in England in 2005 so being able to go shopping together is not something we get to do very often. Sam came home with quite a few new items for her wardrobe and I had a great time helping her choose everything.
We had lunch in Marks and Spencer's newish Deli bar at The Mall which is only a couple of miles from where I live. There are only a few bar seats and it's very popular so getting a seat is not easy but on our second attempt we only had to queue for a few minutes.
I was driving so I had to stick to cranberry juice but I did take a sip of Sam's Prosecco. We decided to each order different dishes and share, which worked well. The Welsh Rarebit was made with melted Taw Valley cheddar cheese and English mustard. The Oakham chicken was served with roast vegetables and fresh pesto in a toasted olive oil flat bread. As you can see from the photos we probably should have shared just one meal as this was only meant to be a light lunch, but we did manage to leave our plates clean!! We arrived home around 6pm all shopped out but Embee revived us with some more champagne!!

Postscript: If you have time please pop over to Sam's (link above) to see what else we are doing!

Archives:
September 22th 2006: Relax and Enjoy

Who cooked dinner?

How do you get someone else to cook dinner? It's quite easy really........

I have it on very good authority (I won't divulge a name!) that I do not have an ideal kitchen for cooking. So when you start making dinner and you are chopping with the wrong knives on the wrong type of chopping board (despite having been told years earlier by same person that wooden boards harbour germs), you are trying to cook pasta in too small a pan, and you ask for advise on ingredients it's so much easier for the expert to take over and give you a cooking lesson. I know my place, I'm much better at keeping down the washing up and clearing the kitchen afterwards. As I explained, as far as Embee is concerned a meal should be thrown together in about half an hour!!! Oh I nearly forgot, you need to make sure the cook has a kir royale at her side, but watch your own glass as it might disappear before your eyes when the chef's own supply has run dry!! The end result was a very tasty pasta dish adapted from a Cookiecrumb idea over at I'm Mad and I Eat.

photograph copyright sam breach

Method:
3 finely chopped leeks
5 rashers of English bacon
2 gloves garlic (minced /fine chop)
1 tbsp butter
~ saute together slowly over medium heat with lid on, until leeks are soft
~ turn heat to high for last 2 mins cooking time to crisp the bacon.

~ meanwhile cook pasta in salted water, drain, keeping some of the pasta cooking water.

~ toast a handful of crushed walnuts in a dry pan until golden

~ mix together: 1 cup or so white breadcrumbs, finely chopped parsley, grated parmesan, black pepper. Add a slug of olive oil and stir with crumb mixture until just moist.

~ Stir a glug of double cream into the leek mixture & grate in a little nutmeg. Add the pasta, with liberal glugs of reserved pasta water to keep moist and stir well to mix up all the ingredients evenly.

~ If your pan is not ovenproof, transfer it to one that is and then top with the breadcrumb mixture and put under grill (broiler) until the top is golden

Serve with a glass of champagne.

photograph copyright sam breach

There was a little over and Embee has his lunch ready for tomorrow!!

Lessons Learned: (I have to show the cook I've un-learned what she previously taught and remember all this new stuff- not sure if this old brain box will retain too much -it's a bit like a sieve collects every thing but then lets some things drain away!!)

* use chef's knife, not pairing knife
* glass chopping board will blunt knives- use wood or plastic
* no oil in pasta water~ oil will stop sauce sticking to pasta.
* toast walnuts to bring out the flavour
* keep pasta water to thin out pasta sauce
* breadcrumbs ~ add a great easy crunchy topping to all sorts of dishes ~ a great way to use stale bread. Other ways to use up breadcrumbs include soaking in egg and mixing with sausagemeat for farcis stuffing or for Ajo Blanco.

I think I will be making this again and trying it with a different pasta.

No archive 2006

A year ago today and 365 posts later!

(copyright Sam breach)

It's hard to believe that I have been blogging for a year. When I looked back to my first post I had a good laugh, I was so naive. I had to get my daughter Sam to talk me through setting things up and then I took some very slow steps. This is my very first post Life Begins. I think Sam must have told me how to link to her post and then I had to learn how to upload a photo, I remember being so nervous but then thrilled when it worked a couple of posts down the line. It was really only Sam and Beccy who were reading what I had written and a few of Sam's readers who were kind enough to welcome me with nice comments.

The very first comment I received from outside the family was from Stephanie Dispensing Happines she said:
(Welcome to the world of blogging, Sam's Mum! Your daughter and her writing are a source of (pleasant) distraction for me, daily; I'm sure you'll get the hang of this quickly, and we'll all be here to cheer you on!)

Some of Sam's food blog friends, still visit Beccyand me regularly and they encourage me to expand my limited cooking skills (there's been plenty of debate about English food so we won't go there!!). Anyway I love trying the recipes I find on their blogs so thank you Barbara, Cookiecrumb's (with the gorgeous Bean Sprout) and Asha (who first commented after my halloween post, and has introduced me to a lot of Asian food and culture).

I never imagined that I would so quickly become addicted to my new hobby. Nor that it would also cause me such a lot of frustration when I didn't know how to do things like adding to my side bar, changing the colour of text and much more but I have fumbled my way through and I know a lot more now than I did then. Finding Sally and Enidd via Beccy broadened my horizons as they both write such clever, amusing posts.

By January of this year I was lurking on a lot of blogs sometimes commenting but mainly just enjoying. Wrongly, I assumed that if I made a comment and didn't get a reply, the person was trying to tell me they had no interest in what I had to say! In fact I now realise that is probably not the case, and if it is then I am less sensitive. I'm happy to leave comments without worrying as I find that recently I have not been able to respond to everyone who has taken the time and trouble to visit me and comment.

I think the event that really had a significant impact on my blogging was the introduction of Fun Monday- I tentatively joined in by showing the view from my front door and gradually a few Monday's later I found a host of new blogging buddies. I have experimented through the fun monday posts and learnt how to put together slide shows, albeit very amateurishly and joined in several swaps and quizes, currently Willowtree is providing lots of fun with his daily trivia(l) quiz. Many of you I feel I now know quite well and reading little snippets about your life and family is like dropping in on old friends to catch up and share in each others joys and the sorrows. I now have a very long list of buddies on bloglines and I can't read every post I want to in one day (that's why I sometimes leave comments in little batches). There are too many of you to mention individually but you know who you are and I ♥♥♥ you all.

PS. Earlier today I was so disappointed that I had to pass on the opportunity to meet up with Sally and so was Sam. Sally if you read this, I got back from the airport at 13:15 so I sincerely hope there will be a next time and this hasn't put you off calling me if you are this way (Beccy would have been green with envy if we had met up and Sam said I should have suggested you come and have coffeee with her, then I would have been green and I actually didn't think of that!)
I wonder if we will all be blogging a year from now!!

Archives:
September 20th 2006: Life Begins

Witty Wednesday # 20

Only one joke today as I'm in a bit of a hurry, sorry I haven't been able to do much visiting the last couple of days. I do have a post I want to run but Sam says she has to approve it and I'm waiting for for her to do this!!!!! In the mean time I'll leave you with....

The Seamstress

One day, when a seamstress was sewing while sitting close to a river, her thimble fell into the river. When she cried out, the Lord appeared and asked, "My dear child, why are you crying?"

The seamstress replied that her thimble had fallen into the water and that she needed it to help her husband in making a living for their family. The Lord dipped His hand into the water and pulled up a
golden thimble set with pearls. "Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked.
The seamstress replied, "No."

The Lord again dipped into the river. He held out a silver
thimble ringed with sapphires. "Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked.

Again, the seamstress replied, "No."

The Lord reached down again and came up with a leather thimble.
"Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked.

The seamstress replied, "Yes." The Lord was pleased with the
woman's honesty and gave her all three thimbles to keep, and the seamstress went home happy.

Some years later, the seamstress was walking with her husband along the riverbank, and her husband fell into the river and disappeared under the water. When she cried out, the Lord again appeared and asked
her, "Why are you crying?"

"Oh Lord, my husband has fallen into the river!"

The Lord went down into the water and came up with George Clooney. "Is this your husband?" the Lord asked.

"Yes," cried the seamstress.

The Lord was furious. "You lied! That is an untruth!"

The seamstress replied, "Oh, forgive me, my Lord. It is a misunderstanding. You see, if I had said 'no' to George Clooney, you would have come up with Brad Pitt. Then if I said 'no' to him, you would
have come up with my husband. Had I then said 'yes,' you would have given me all three.

Lord, I'm not in the best of health and would not be able to take care of all three husbands, so THAT'S why I said 'yes' to George Clooney."

And so the Lord let her keep him.

The moral of this story is:
Whenever a woman lies, it's for a good and honourable reason, and in the best interest of others.
That's the story, and I'm sticking to it. What do you think ladies, gents and sea dogs?!?!

By the way this came via John !

Book Swap

Emma very kindly hosted a book swap a few weeks ago and today I was delighted when a parcel arrived with not one but three books. How lucky is that, one of the books is actually for my daughter Sam who lives in San Francisco. The books came all the way from, Natalie, in Florida and you can find her over at BarknKnit. I find Natalie also writes at The world according to Gnat so she is one busy lady as far as blogging is concerned, and she knits and quilts, oh and I do believe she might like dogs!
Natalie says she lived in SF for 4 and a half years and found 'The Golden gate Trailblazer' a useful book and it's full of ideas for walks, bikes etc in SF and Marin. I have not read the two novels 'The Secret Life of Bees' by Sue Monk Kidd and 'Flowers for Algernon' by Daniel Keys so I'm really looking forward to some great reading now the evenings are drawing in. You will see in the photo Natalie also sent me one of her knitted bookmarks- so a BIG THANK YOU Natalie I consider myself to be very fortunate. Sam is also delighted you thought of her-however, I'm not so sure I can say the same of, Fred, (Sam's partner) that might be just a little too much excercise!!

Also a big thank you to Emma for organising this book swap I'm sure everyone will agree it's been great fun and lovely to be introduced to new authors.

I'm not joining in Fun Monday this week but the Red Arrows are fun!!

I'm not joining in the fun this week but you can find out who is over at Sayre I hope to get time to come visiting later today.

Over the weekend The Red Arrows who are Royal Airforce Aerobatic Team were performing at the Welsh Air Show and they passed over our house on both days so we got a little impromtu display. I tried to take photos but I was not quick enough to get anything worth publishing so I found this little video on you tube.

I may not get too much time to share my news over the next few days so if I don't get any posts up you will know I'm having fun with the family.

PS the link is the same as the video I was having trouble uploading.

How to relax!!!!

I don't have much time today, so this is a very short post. After completing the cross word in the sunday paper Embee has been pottering in the garden. He has been pruning and tidying up the plants, the tomatoes are refusing to ripen unless I bring them indoors despite a lovely warm sunny spell, so it could be more green tomato chutney this year, although I still have some from last year so maybe that's not a good idea!! We have put in a couple more sedum plants as the tortoises will eat these and I wanted to provide them with more variety. I am also attempting to grow more herbs in troughs as we have very little growing space. So I hope this is successful.

But the best bit of this Sunday is that my daughter Sam and Fred have arrived safely in London, after their long flight from San Francisco. They are staying in a hotel overnight, I have spoken to her via Skype and they are feeling rather tired so are hoping to get a nap before meeting up with a friend. They will be coming here, tomorrow, after Sam has sorted out her visa at the American Embassy so as you can imagine we are quite excited as it is over a year since I last saw them when we met up in New York. It's even longer since Embee and my mother last saw them. So I'd best get on with all my preparations! Hope you've had a relaxing weekend :)

Random Act of Kindness 2

Having done my post this morning I was browsing through my bloglines and read the post written by Blue Momma- Life in the Fish Bowl about her 90 year old grandmother. I would ask that you drop in on her and read her grandmother's story. She is in hospital at the moment and is taking time to recover from complications of a broken ankle. She sounds a wonderful lady so if you were to send her a card it's such a small thing to do but it would show her we are thinking about her and it might help to cheer her up. I will be posting my card on Monday.... you will find the address over at Blue Momma's. Thank you.

Random Act of Kindness

Those who read my blog regularly may remember me talking about the holidays I have had with my friend, Tina. I also go swimming with Tina and yesterday when we met up she was so excited to tell me that she had just won a laptop worth £600 from a text draw run by Morrison's supermarket. I was so pleased for her and her eldest son is delighted because I think he will end up the recipient. She was going off for tea with another friend but insisted on giving me a lift home (I live quite close to the pool so can easily walk) when we arrived at my house I realised why- she had bought a lovely bunch of Gladioli for both me and her other friend. I was puzzled because it's not my birthday or anything and you know what she said- "well I won the computer and I wanted you and Marion to share my luck". Now how's that for a 'random act of kindness' that came my way this week. So Tina if you happen to read this, thank you, the blooms have come out over night and they look lovely.

Just about the worst drawing.....

of a pig you've ever seen. Purpleworms is an artist and she found a site that shows your personality by drawing a pig; she drew an excellent picture of a pig. So of course muggins here couldn't resist having a go. The first one I tried I thought I could do better but this one is even worse and I think my first attempt was more 'oinkable'. I found it difficult to contol the drawing tool and this was frustrating. According to this I am:
.....direct, enjoy playing devil's advocate and neither fear nor avoid discussions
..... analytical, cautious, and distrustful
...... secure, stubborn, and stick to my ideals and
...... I am great listener! Well what do think, is this true?- I did say I was a good listener in my last Fun Monday post!

Now.......sex life well I'm sure you don't want to know what the little piggy says about this as it's the bit that furthest from the truth!!

You will find a link here to draw a pig Why don't you have a go I'm sure everyone can produce a better pig than this one!

Scattergories

I saw this on BS ( First of Six) ages ago and decided to borrow it for when I had run out of things to post like today.

Scattergories

Choose an answer to each category. It must begin with the first letter of your name.

1. Your name: Chris
2. Famous singer/band: Eva Cassidy had such a lovely voice it's so sad she died young.
3. Street name: Castle Street Thornbury- leads to a lovely old castle now a hotel where Beccy was married.
4. Color: Cerise, crimson actually I would never or rarely choose reds so Colbert blue is my choice of colour.
5. Gifts/presents: Car ohh how I wish!!
6. Vehicle: Cadillac XLR-V looks good
7. in a souvenir shop: Cards
8.Boy Name: Charlie
9. Girl Name: Charlotte I always thought that if I ever had another girl that would be the name I would choose (it was my granny's middle name)
10. Movie Title: Charlotte's Webb I haven't seen it but would like to sometime.
11. Drink: easy one Champagne
12. Occupation: Chatelaine- I quite fancy being mistress of a castle or large country house!
13. Flower: Carnation it reminds me of my stepfather who grew them.
14. Celebrity: Cindy Crawford well it's a double C!!
15. Magazine: Country Living (sometimes) Cosmopoliton when my girls buy it or I'm in a waiting room!
16. U.S. City: Concord Calafornia just plucked from the internet seems like it might be a nice place to visit.
17. Pro Sports: Chicargo Bears (only name I could remember!)
18.Fruit/Vegetable Cherry / Carrot
19.Reason late for work: Couldn't find my car keys !!! very lame excuse and it never happened when I working now I'm retired I often loose them !!!
20. you throw away: Cartons wish we could recycle these!
21. Things you shout: Curses
22. Cartoon character: Andy Capp cartoon character from the Daily Mirror

So if you need to fill agap you could give this a try.

Witty Wednesday # 19

From Embee:

Hospital Stay

A woman called a local hospital. "Hello. Could you connect me to the person who gives information about patients? I'd like to find out if a family member is doing better."

The voice on the other end said, "What is the patient's name and room number?"

"Sarah Finkel, room 302."

"I'll connect you with the nursing station."

"3-A Nursing Station. How can I help You?"

"I'd like to know the condition of Sarah Finkel in room 302."

"Are you a family member?"

"Yes, Yes I am.."

"Hold on.. let me look at her records... Mrs. Finkel is doing very well. In fact, she's had two full meals, her blood pressure is fine, she is to be taken off the heart monitor in a couple of hours and, if she continues this improvement, looks like Dr. Cohen is going to se nd her home very soon!"

The woman said, "What a relief! Oh, that's fantastic... that's wonderful news!"

The nurse said, "From your enthusiasm, I take it you are a sister or perhaps an aunt..?"

"Neither! I'm Sarah Finkel in 302... and NOBODY ever tells me shit!"
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Man walks past a pet shop - sees an advert for a talking centipede £5000.00. So he buys it and takes it home in a little box. After about half an hour he says to the centipede "fancy a pint". No answer. Do you fancy a pint he shouts. No answer. He takes the lid off the box and hollers "do you fancy a pint". The centipede raised his head and replied "I heard you the first time I'm putting my shoes on.
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If you do not pay your excorcist - you can be repossessed
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From John

Frozen Cows

A farmer goes out to his field one morning only to find all of his cows frozen solid. As far as the eye can see are cows, motionless like statues. It had been a cold night, but he'd never thought anything like this would happen. The gravity of the situation then dawned on him. With his entire livestock gone, how would he make ends meet? How would he feed his wife and kids? How would he pay the mortgage? He sat with his head in his hands, trying to come to terms with his impending poverty. Just then, an elderly woman walked by. "What's the matter?" asked the old lady. The farmer gestured toward the frozen cows and explained his predicament to the woman. Without hesitation the old woman smiled and began to rub one of the cow's noses. After a few seconds the cow began to twitch and was soon back to normal and chewing the cud. One by one
the old woman defrosted the cows until the whole field was full of healthy animals. The farmer was delighted and asked the woman what she wanted as a repayment for her deed. She declined his offer and walked off across the field. A passer-by who had witnessed the whole thing approached the farmer. "You know who that was don't you?" asked the passer-by. "No" said the farmer, "who?" "That was Thora Hird."

(Thora Hird was a comedy actress who died a few years ago, following a stroke)

As it's Wednesday it's now all downhill to the weekend.