Sunday 28th October

Well it's been a long time coming - this blog, but as anyone who has been reading "me and mine" will know it's panto season. Well it was until last night when our last show finished. It has been great although we do have to find a way of selling more tickets. The show itself has been lovely with everyone pulling to make it great. If you would like to see a few photos go to my flikr site and log onto my friend Angela Melia. she has only put a few on but hopefully when she has more time she will put on the rest. We shall be having a dvd and photos of the show soon and maybe Giles (our TOADS website manager) will put some more pictures on the official web. This morning we were again at the school to clear away the chairs and costumes and tidy up the rooms that we had used for changing in. Charlotte, Lucy, Val and Mary came to see the show on friday and I think they all liked it. Charlotte and Lucy stayed at my house friday night as it was rather late for Lucy and it was nice having breakfast with them although they had to rush off as Lucy was due to go to yet another birthday party, she seems to have one to go to nearly every other week. It will be Lucy's birthday on the 6th of November so I suppose that will be yet another party. Stuart and I are taking her to see Slavas Snow Show at the Hippodrome Birmingham for her birthday treat. Stu and I went to see it last year and it was absolutely amazing, so when I said I was taking Lucy, Stuart asked to come along as well. I think Lucy will like it. She has seen the dvd teaser and was very excited and she showed it to her mother on Saturday morning and I think she liked to idea of it also. If anyone can get to see this show, I'm not sure how many tickets are still available as it's so popular, they won't be disappointed as the only word to describe it is "wonderful" Its back to normal again now for a while, we are having next tuesday off from TOADS as a rest but I'm sure they will have something else planned for when we go back. We still have to do another performance of Snow White for some club or other and an evening of singing for another group. So one with the motley again soon.

Monday 15th October.

Well another week ! Friday, as I said in my last blog, I met Lucy from school club and she came home with me for the night. We didn't get much time together as it was quite late and after teatime we had to think about bath time and bed, but we did spend it having fun and reading a story. Well we started one a Roald Dahl called George's marvellous medicine, but Lucy didn't like George's grandmother character and so we read another called Back-to-front Benjy which was very funny and we both had a lot of laughs. I'm sure she will love the Roald Dahl one another time but I think my interpretation of the grandmother's voice was a bit too scary. Perhaps her dad will read it to her sometime. Any how Saturday morning we had to make our way back into Birmingham to meet Charlotte and for Lucy to go to her dance class at the Hippodrome. It was lovely to see all the children getting ready for their classes and others getting dressed to go home as there were shoes, socks, coats and bags everywhere, and what with all the parents sitting around this very small space very crowded - but so nice. Charlotte and I and Lucy's "very best" friend's mother, whose name I can't remember had a really interesting talk about religion, Doesn't it sound interesting? but it really was. Later we met up with Laura and her latest, the most darling baby Nancy (gorgeous name) for coffee. Then someone said how hungry they were and so we all went off to Cafe Soya for lunch. I had the nicest meal of Lemon grass chicken salad I can't tell you what the others had because I was too busy eating mine, except that they bought Lucy a very large chocolate milkshake. They love her to death in there, as her mom and dad have been taking her to Cafe Soya since she was a few weeks old, she is quite a seasoned Chinese foodie what with Chun cooking delicious meals as well. I enjoyed myself so much that I quite forgot that I had been invited to another party Saturday afternoon, but I'm sure they won't have missed me as it was an open invite and there were lots going. I must go and give my apologies in the next day or so. I went to the gym today where there is a week of various goings on. Today the were doing foot spa detox. You should have seen what ended up in mine. Well maybe not, it was horrendous, thick brown mud. So I think it must have done me some good getting all those toxins out of me and to tell the truth I went round the circuit afterwards like a 23 year old ( if only )

Thursday 11th October 2007

It doesn't seem nearly a week since my last blog, but it must have been since last Saturday was my last one. The week has been mainly mundane things, such as going to the gym and Toads on Tuesday. We were supposed to go Wednesday as well, but at the last minute Yvonne phoned to say she couldn't go and Val was other wise engaged so of course that ruled out my going. I think I must get a bike as I am totally dependent on people giving me lifts to places such as Toads and swimming. That brings me to the fact that I won't be going there on Saturday either, as Joy of Joys, Charlotte has asked me to have Lucy tomorrow afternoon until Saturday morning when I shall be taking her back into Birmingham to meet Char so that Lucy can go to her dance class. Anyone reading this will now know that having my granddaughter, if only for a little while, means more to me than a thousand swimming sessions. Rob has had to go to Sweden this week, from his texts, it appears that he had quite a journey to get to his destination, but I'm sure he made it safely. He's a big boy and a seasoned traveller. It looks as if Stuart will be looking for a new flat shortly, as his landlord has decided to sell the flat that Stu rents from him. He did think about buying it, but unfortunately his funds are like many others, not big enough. I hope he doesn't have too much trouble finding the right place as he really wants to stay near where he lives now, I keep praying that a miracle would occur and the premium bond that I bought Eric way back at Christmas 1961 would come up. All these years and not a sniff of a prize, not even a tenner. I suppose the winners are all people who have the funds to buy blocks of thousands of pounds. In fact I think I have only ever heard of a few people winning anything, perhaps it's all a con !

Saturday 6th October

October is here again. I doesn't seem that long since the last one. When we were getting ready for Cinderella, and today we have been getting all the costumes ready for Snow White, which is only a couple of weeks away. Some of us went to the school to get things down out of the loft area and sorted out props and costumes, while Yvonne, who works so hard fitting everyone up with their outfits, was putting the costumes and other items for each player into order and I helped hang them up and generally made myself useful clearing and carrying rubbish out to the bins. Not a clean job !. I have just got home, and after a very large drink of squash, whipped off my clothes to wash them. They were black, they are now spinning around in the washer as I couldn't rinse them enough in the sink. So here I am, another week over, when I have done all the usual things, gym, cleaning (not a lot of that) and swimming again this morning. Please note I have said swimming - well my teacher tells me I am, so who am I to argue. I am doing quite well, now all I need is larger lungs, so that I can reach the other side of the pool without running out of breath. I haven't yet got the strength to lift my head out of the water to take another one half way across, but I'm hoping that that will come. I am only too pleased with what I have achieved in such a little while.
Tomorrow Stuart and Denise are coming over for lunch and so it will be nice to have someone to chat to, Val came thursday as I had got her a Bette Midler cd that she has been after for some time, but she didn't stay late as she has not been too well. I treated myself to one of those new style dresses, which look a bit like an overgrown jumper, on friday. I'm sure Lucy will like it as it's her favourite colour, purple. I just hope I don't look like mutton dressed as lamb in it, if so I shall have to give it to someone, but I'm hoping I don't as I really like this new fashion. We shall have to see.