Stepping out

Thankyou to Sugar for this graphic ,as you see Kizzie is reading her journal ....

Last Saturday Evening, Maurice and I went over to Peterborough, His brother Mike is sixty five, so invited his family out for a meal .We met up at Mike and Jackie’s, left our car at theirs and all went in a Taxi, along with their son, also called Mike. We started at out at the Bull Hotel ,for drinks in the lounge bar there ,to wait for Francis ,Mike and Jackie’s daughter ,and her husband Craig. When they arrived Mike proceeded to embarrass every one with lots of family photographs. Our table was booked for eight o clock ,so we took a short walk just around the corner to a very nice Indian restaurant ,Where we were greeted like royalty as we were shown to our table ,The food was absolutely delicious ,and we all ate our fill ,The company was excellent as you would expect at a family gathering such as this ,jokes anecdotes and reminiscences all served to make a very enjoyable evening ,We went back to Mike and Jackie’s afterwards ,Jackie and I still nattering nine to the dozen in the kitchen whist the men watched some football ,I think ! Sadly at half past twelve it was time to come home, Mike and Jackie Fran and Craig flew out to New York yesterday, Fran and Craig’s birthday treat, to their Dad, Craig’s Grandparents have a home there, so they plan to see the sights .I need to digress here, as most who live in Britain know, and I am reluctant to share this with our friends across the pond, thus letting them know there are some dicks running our country! H.M.R.C. (that’s short for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) has lost? Two discs with the details of two and a half million peoples information on them, people who are on child benefit, their tax and insurance details bank sort codes etc, and whilst they are assuring the people they don’t have any indication that the discs have fallen into the wrong hands, the relevant departments are in big trouble and the government are somewhat ,erm ,shall I say embarrassed !!! With great big dollops of egg on their faces.

So back to the story ,Michael is always teasing people .So….in with his Birthday card ,We put two empty CDs on which I had written ,H.M.R.C….” highly confidential “,see his face he roared  with laughter ,

There is however a sting in this tale, my daughter received a letter, informing her that they were profoundly sorry, but she is amongst the people whose details are on the misplaced discs, and although there is no reason for alarm, as any moneys she might lose!! Would be re reimbursed, it went on at great length to reassure and justify, but that is the jist of it, Huh!!!

And now to finish ….I wentup to the town this morning, only to find Lavender Blue have changed the window again, so I took more piccys,      So on that happy note, With Love from

 

Thankyou Donna for my siggy today ,Donna called this one stepping out !Stepping out !

Lavender Blue and things

I thought it was time to do another entry, time slips away so fast though goodness knows what I do with it? I did remember to get my batteries charged and take the latest pictures of The Lavender Blue shop window, twice before I tried only to find the batteries were flat, ah well third time lucky.

Last Tuesday, In my capacity as The Residents Forum Secretary, I went to a meeting organised by the Peterborough City Council, entitled ‘’Building Cohesive Neighbourhoods ‘’, it was extremely interesting, and there were some very good speakers, We have in this region 17500 new immigrants, putting a strain on all our resources, Housing, Police, health care, Schools etc, of course many are helpful to our economy and many are doing jobs we wouldn’t want to! In the Fens where a lot of fruit and vegetables are grown ,there are lots of packing companies employing these people and many work hard ,long hours ,They all need to live somewhere and there are I am afraid many unscrupulous landlords ,And of course there are culture differences ,The chairman ,and chief executive of the city council Ms Gill Beasley  was to take our findings , (we had workshops and discussions in the afternoon)to London where she was to be in discussion with MP Heather Blears the next day ,as was the Chief of Police for the Cambridge area ,(also a Woman  who’s name escapes me ! )to appeal for an additional two million pounds to help with policing.

A lighter note, it is very cold and sunny here today, I have just had notification that my heating allowance, is now in my account, so I can turn up the heat lol ,Here in this country everyone over sixty are awarded an annual £200,towards heating costs ,I pay my heating ,gas and leccy ,on a direct debit so two hundred pounds is very nice thank you ,

I told you Ihad finished my cardi ,its made in chunky wool so is nice and warm and looks better on than in the picture ,Well I am now going to brave the elements and go and get Maurice’s Euro lottery tickets for the draw this evening ,So every one as usual ,keep warm and lots of Love From

Remembering

My friend Debbie ,you know Debs Dabs (shes in my side bar )made this graphic for me ,Thanks Debs you are so clever ...

Like many of you I have been watching the service of Rememberance ,at the Cenetaph,on the TV  ,watching members of the royal family, led by the Queen (what an amazing lady ,I watched her lay her wreath, pause ..then walk backwards down those steps ,shes over eighty ! )lay wreaths of poppys to our fallen in the wars ,this ceremony has been taking place since 1918 ,but is even more important now as we still have young men ,going of to war ,and not all of them are coming back .........

Two years ago ,when I had been writing my journal for about six weeks,  I posted the following entry ,with apologies to those of you that read it then ,I am posting it again .

Sixty seven years ago ,on another November day a young man couldnt cope any more ......

 At the going down of the sun and in the morning.....

As I begin this entry ,the time is ~~10.57,on the eleventh of the eleventh ,it feels appropriate to tell you about an uncle ,I never met ,My Uncle Jack ,he was my Dads younger brother ,I never met him but he was often spoken of with lots of love, sometimes with lots of laughter because I gather he was quite mischievous, as a young boy, And quite a "leg puller”, when in his youth .One story I remember (little pitchers have big ears ) my Granny telling ~~she was storing some apples for Christmas ,under her bed!! on a large tray and would check them from time to time for bad ones ! She realised though that the apples were disappearing so she ,became vigilant ,when Jack thought no one was watching ,he crept up the stairs ,unknown to him watched by his Mother from the stairs where she could see into her bedroom, he was lying on his belly ,half under the bed  with crunching noises coming from, under the bed Granny crept up and to use her words,” Slapped his arse ,and said caught you ,you little bugger !"She always told this story with a proud chuckle and wiped away a tear, Uncle Jack was popular with every one, had lots of girl friends until he became engaged to "Aunty" Dorothy, a lovely girl from the next village.

And then came the war ,my Uncle was called up along with thousands of other men to fight for his country .I don’t recall any more of the story prior to this ,but he was badly shot at Dunkirk,dont know how he got home .but this happened in the May of 1940,he was hospitalized ,patched up ,and sent home to recover ,but in the November ,was due to go back to the hospital for more surgery .Uncle Jack had, had all his private parts shot away, and according to an older cousin who sadly ,recently passed away, she could remember putting her fingers into the holes in his legs ! My Mother, who was pregnant with me , then (I was born the following February ) asked Uncle Jack ,would he be home for Christmas ,his reply Oh yes Phyllis,yes Ive got some thing planned ,A couple of days before he was due to return to the hospital ,he went over to the wash house across the yard at the back of the house and shot himself through the head ,my Granny heard the shot ,................after finding her son ,she ran the seventy yards or so to our house for my Dad ,who was home for his lunch .I wont do any more …….

Aunty Dorothy I can remember ,I can clearly see some brown gloves she knitted for me ,so she must have been around for some time after ,and I can also remember every one getting excited at wedding photos of her ,She married an American air man and went back to America, with him after the war ,I do hope she had a happy life .

When the war was over, I can also remember standing by my Dads side at a service in our Church when the plaque was unveiled, with the names of the men from our village including J Giddings, who had lost their lives that we might be free, I wouldn’t have been very old but I can,still hear the last post being sounded, and singing the hymn Oh,Valiant Hearts.

                     Have  Blessed Sunday ....love Jan xx

The State Opening of Parliament

The above are pictures I took from the television as I watched the ceremony ,sorry about the quality ,but I wanted you to see an example of what I was watching .

The State Opening of Parliament.

The nice part of being retired is that I can watch on TV the wonderful coverage, of these events.

I am sure no one is going to disagree with me when I say no one does this sort of thing better than we do in the British Isles, The colour, pageantry and tradition in these spectacular events ,are some thing we in this country are extremely proud of.

A great deal of preparation is done for this ceremony, some practical obviously and some traditional, for instance before the new session of Parliament ceremony The Yeomen of the guard do a ceremonial sweep of the cellars ,following Guy  Fawkes attempt to blow up Parliament ,some four hundred years ago

Her Majesty the Queen , enters by  the Norman Porch ,the opposite end to the bell tower which houses Big Ben , and through to the robeing room ,where she puts on the ceremonial robes and the crown with which she was crowned ,this crown is very heavy ,due to amongst other valuable stones are three thousand diamonds ,it is said the Queen wears the crown at home the day before a state occasion, when she is to wear it ,to get used to the weight, it is normally kept in the tower of London .

The Queen delivers her, speech, (which is written by the prime minister and the government, out lining forth coming proposals) from the throne, which has been used for the last one hundred and sixty years, and seated beside her is her husband and consort Phillip Duke of Edinburgh.

Another part of the ceremony, is when Black Rod knocks on the door three times with his rod to gain entry and to announce to the members that the Queen requests their presence, once all her ministers are assembled, the Queen then delivers the speech .......This is the fifty sixth time her Majesty has opened parliament ,she has only missed two during her reign,in 1959 and in 1963,when she was having her children ,and she has seen eleven Prime Ministers in office during that time .

I hope you enjoy a little bit of our  tradition ,and to see how I spent my morning ,

Lots of love Jan xxx

 

 

Here I am again !

Thankyou Chris ,CABS  creations for todays lovely graphics .

I cant believe where the time has gone since I last posted ,I have been quite busy ,in spite of still having some bad days ,I seem to be coping better, I went back to a news letter meeting two weeks ago ,and an article I wrote has been accepted for the next edition ,then I went to a meeting of the residents forum ,I am the secretary ,well since my illness I was the secretary that wasnt ,so at the last meeting I took the minutes so looks as thouigh Im on track again ,and because we are on the forum representing the residents we were invited to the Sheltered housing conferance ,another day I thoroughly enjoyed ,I know so many people since I did holiday/sickness cover when I first retired, as some of you might remember ,so yes it was great to see so many old friends ,and to be greeted by them was lovely .What other news have I ? oh yes Maurice now works permanent days ,making my life so much easier ,I am injured too ,as you will see ,in the pictures, Kizzie likes to be attached to me.... a week ago I tripped over her in the kitchen ,and banged my side on the work surface ,think I probably cracked a rib or something , gosh it hurt ,but nearly better now ,though at first it did hurt if I sat at the computer too long ,and at one point I had 157 emails for your journals ,but I have now caught up ,hence this entry ,I ended up just reading ,I cant bring my self to delete ,too nosy ! I might be missing something ! I dont feel right doing an entry ,when I have alerts still to read ,strange woman !!Oh the other exciting ? thing is ...I finished the cardigan I have been knitting ,so when I sew it up I will put a picture of it on here so you can see what Ive been up to ....Well I really think that is it for this time ,so as ever Love Janxx