Category Archives: Fun

Today I am walking on air

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No the ear is not sorted yet.

This morning I was back once more for another episode of ‘hoovering’!

Mind you, it felt more like drilling a new coal seam as Elly’s granddad did many a time, over one hundred years ago. Or maybe it was the beginning of a tunnel to the centre of the earth and out the other side to Australia.

So what has me dancing like a whirling dervish?

Today I had an email that would ensure a wealthy retirement for me and half a dozen generations after me. Wonderful. I might start by hiring my own jet, a team of pilots and stewards to cater for my every whim. Visiting every country all the way round the globe.

You do not believe me?

Here is the proof:

Dear Sole Beneficiary,

I am Charles J. Colocino Jr., a senior officer at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (USA)

I have contacted you regarding an abandoned diplomatic consignment box and the x-ray scan report box revealed some US dollar bill in it which could be approximately 12.5 Million dollars and the official paper of the box indicates your contact details. To confirm you as the authentic beneficiary and also for security Purpose, do send me your full information for crossed checking of your details with the information stated in the office.

YOUR FULL NAME, YOUR HOME ADDRESS, OCCUPATION, GENDER, YOUR HOME/MOBILE TEL NUMBER AND NEAREST AIRPORT CLOSE TO YOU,

Kindly click reply and get your correct and valid details to me as soon as you get this email. I will give you a call after my confirmation.

For your information, the box was abandoned by the diplomat who was on transit to your city because he was not able to pay the Airport clearance fee of 3,800 dollars.

I have taken it upon myself to contact you personally about this abandoned box so that we can transact this as a deal and share the total money 70% for you and 30% for me. As soon as I get the requested detail from you for verification.

I will pay the clearance fee and make arrangement for the box to be delivered to you which can be concluded within 4-6 hours after confirmation is made and upon your acceptance and willingness to co-operate. All communication must be held extremely confidential to ensure a successful delivery.

Sincerely 

Wait now… let me think this through…

  1. My name is not Sole Beneficiary.
  2. I had only one relation who went to Chicago but his name was not O’Hare nor was he part of any Diplomatic corps.
  3. Mammy always said “There was no such thing as a free lunch.

Oh well, time to pick up the knitting and stop the dreaming.

An alphabet of my likes

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  • Apples, apricots, artists & abandoned buildings.
  • Babbling brooks, bacon, beads, bubbles, blogging & Buffy.
  • Chocolate, coffee, cake, crochet, cross stitch & cooking.
  • Denmark, dates, denim jeans & drawn thread work.
  • Elegance, exploration, exhibitions & Elly.
  • Freshly squeezed juice, friends, fabric & fun.
  • Grapes, green, gates, good people & gin.
  • Hellos, hugs, honey, hummus & humour.
  • Icicles, Ikea, illusions, Indian saris & Ireland.
  • Jade, jumpers, jackets & jelly.
  • Knots, knitting, kindness, keys & kites.
  • Laughter, listening, love stories & lemon meringue pie.
  • Memories, motherhood, my family, moo cards & music.
  • New places, neat clothes, needles & now.
  • Old people for their wisdom & stories, oranges & olives.
  • People, photography, playing on words, & patchwork.
  • Quotes, quietude and a quiz.
  • Raspberry red, reflections, rock-scrambling & rambling.
  • Sculpture, sorbet, shadows, sketches, smiles, surprises & sunsets.
  • Talented people, texture, touch, travel & truth.
  • Ulster Museum, uncles, unity & ?
  • Virginia creeper, volunteering, velvet, vegetables & viennetta.
  • Wise words, wine, wool & wood grain.
  • Xylophones. As you can see there are not many X’s in my life.
  • Yarn, yarning, yellow, & yellow man,*
  • Zithers, zippers, ziplock bags & zip lines.

*Yellow man is a locally made honeycomb.

Planning & dreaming

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The last few days I have been “grass-hoppering” – I ricochet from job to job, starting everything, finishing nothing. You can blame excitement.

I am planning a few days in London. At the moment my destination is a secret. I’ll be meeting a fella. A kinda date. I never met him before… only on the internet. I think he is real and not like Mr Moss!

This here mystery man even organised my accommodation before telling me.

Do not worry. I’ll have a chaperone. Not like in the old days… an elderly aunt or fussing mother in a little bonnet, high necked blouse with mutton leg sleeves over her whale bone stays and skirts that polish the floor never mind her button boots. All finished off with a tiny lacy hanky to wipe away her tears or hide her blushes!

No. my chaperone will be young at heart, young in body and with a sense of humour just like mine. He chose well. All will be grand.

I know I still have a few weeks to wait, but I am already planning my packing… only one small cabin bag with wheels. No trunks with mountains of outfits that will never see the light of day.

It will be a case of one to wear, one to wash and one for spare with the undies.* I am praying the weather will be kind and not saturatingly soggy.

Outer layers will all be mix & match – the best idea the fashion industry ever came up with.

No skirts. It will be trousers all the way, I have no intention of advertising my pallid flesh, knock-knees, corns, bunions and more blue veins that a Stilton cheese!

And when the clothing is sorted I’ll need to deal with technology:

My cell phone

.

My phone

My Tablets

My Tablets

Tablets, yes more than one.

Then there in my latest acquisition…

I have joined the world of the pad. NO. Not TENA Lady, stop smirking toyboy techies, I mean something totally different and it works. Bigtime.

My Eye Pad.

My eye pad

My eye pad

Thirty seconds in the microwave and my eyes sparkle!

*  The mention of travel and undies made me giggle. A sudden memory of disposable pants that were all the go when I was a young twenty year old. You wore one for a day and then dumped them, Great for holiday packing but oh so uncomfortable. They were made of the same paper type fabric as the disposable hospital gowns that are in use today.

Can you see me?

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When did I shrink? When did I shrink

I found these Toyboys last Friday at Garden Show Ireland in the grounds of Antrim Castle, on a bright sun filled day. When I came home my cheeks were glowing.

Glowing from the sunshine… what else were you thinking? At my age even thinking about ‘it’ would wear me out!

I did have some fun with this guy I found in the Flower arranging tent.

My outdoor man

My outdoor man

An answer for Celi

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Celi at The Kitchens Garden, has issued a challenge to her huge following who read, comment or become part of the Farmy Fellowship: The deal is to post an image of where we write their posts, our comments and responses.

In my case it varies like Irish weather, I no longer have a fixed desk. In winter it is normally in my living room where I can see and warm my tootsies by the open fire.

At the other end of the L shaped room is my dining table and if I need to use my printer, that is where I work.

In the preparation for hip replacement back in 2009, I purchased a bed table on castors. It has become the most used piece of furniture in my house. I can move it from room to room as I wish, the castors on the base frame slide in under my bed and allows me to type away to my hearts content without the weight on my legs.

When cooking or baking, I can access my recipe folder on the laptop by wheeling the laptop through to join me. It sits neatly under the counter top until I need to check something.

My corner for several weeks now has been in a comfortable armchair near the window for the light and surrounded by my latest crochet project – More on that another day.

Thoughtful friends

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I have some very thoughtful friends.

Clair is one of them.

Even when she goes shopping she has my best interest at heart. She saw a bargain that was right up my street and she let me know.

Not alone the perfect bargain, but at two for the price of one…

AND

With 33% off the price, how could I refuse?

Perfect Man

I might have the answer to my warm cold toes… 😉 😉

The answer to all my dreams!

16 Replies

Yesterday, I got a text message.

Nothing new about that I hear you say. Well in this case it is rather special…

Great News, we have 3886.21 in your name for the accident you had, for us to put in your bank. Now just fill out http:// rapidclaim.services/?n=497367697. The text arrived at 4.46pm.

What will I do with it? I sat up thinking about it all night until it dawned on me:

  • Go on a holiday of a lifetime.
  • Have a wild party for all my friends.
  • Put a down payment on a nursing home.
  • Leave it to Elly for…. AFTERWARDS ❗

Oh wait now a minute… it is only 3886.21 and it does not say whether it was £££, $$$ or €€€.

I suppose I could phone the number it came from to check:

+44 7546 3908

I was having a glass of Bucks Fizz, as you do on such occasions and trying to calm the dancing butterflies, when my inner Mrs Sensible began to nag: “You were never really a dreamer, stop and think about  this for a moment. It might prove to be

shells,

stones or worse still…

 GRAINS OF SAND

Five Firsts

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The idea comes from a post by Nick at nickhereandnow 

First day at school aged four. I remember standing on a chair as mammy dressed me and put a large bow in my hair. She was taking my older brother to school and decided to bring me with her and register me for the following year. The headmistress said she would take me that day, so I went to class and mammy went home alone.

My first boyfriend. He had a makeshift stage in the garage, the family had no car and we put on shows. My party piece was singing ‘How much is that doggy in the window’? We spent evenings collecting mushrooms and at the weekend he took me to the pictures/movies on the crossbar of his bike. He had a summer job in a grocery shop and bought me 4ozs of Kimberly biscuits every week when he was paid. I was all of SIX!

Meeting my sister for the first time. She was twenty days old, I had spent the summer in Sligo on the west coast of Ireland with an aunt and uncle. They brought me home in time for the new school term in September. I had not known the baby was expected (I later learned that like the rest of us, she arrived two months early!) and figured she belonged to one of the many visitors to our house that day. It was only when the last visitor was leaving without ‘his baby’ that I was told she was my sister and would be staying! I was Eight.

First time I was bridesmaid. It was February 1963 in Worcester, England and the worst winter in nearly 20 years. Low temperatures meant snow was thick and solid on the ground.  It was difficult to smile for photos in my long dress with teeth chattering. I was to become bridesmaid three times despite the old wives tale ‘Three times a bridesmaid, never a bride’. Thankfully they were warmer occasions with plenty of sunshine and I eventually met and married my true love, fourteen years later.

First weeks wages. I had to stand in line, sign a register and then I was paid in cash counted into my hand! A total of £6.14, as my mother said, it kept me in nylons for a week! It was the height of the Swinging Sixties; hems were shorter, music was louder and even back then I preferred to hear the words than the loud noise.

♥♥♥♥

Since I have only reached the age of eighteen, I might well return to this topic with a few more ‘firsts’… there are bound to be a few more.

No Trains

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But plenty of boats and planes!

I was up early, traffic divertions made my outward car journey three miles longer than the final lap home.

I parked my car and headed for my first bus of the day.

On way to catch the bus_10.40

On way to catch the bus_10.40

The sky was the colour of my jumper and that plane was heading for Belfast International Airport. There were plenty of people waiting for the bus and another joined our throng within a few minutes. We knew each other since Elly started school ‘cough’ number of years ago. He followed me onto the bus and sat together talking our way to Belfast.

Royal Avenue Sky

Royal Avenue Sky

The sun was still high above when I got to Royal Avenue, Belfast.

A cup of coffee later and I was ready to head round the corner to catch the FREE Event Bus at Wellington Place  for the short journey to Pollock Dock. This service ran every five minutes, in my case to Pollock Dock. There were three other Park & Ride points: Boucher Road, Airport Road West and the New, (yet unfinished but open for the four days) Ballymartin at junction 5 of the M2. I could have walked from town but decided to save my energy for the event itself. The ships were spread between Pollock &York Docks, Donegall, Albert and Queen’s Quays and Albert Basin. Another Event bus too people from dock to dock. That was more than enough walking for me on a hot day. A good comfortable crowd, but I expect the numbers to increase this evening and on Friday & Saturday when the last night finishes with a fireworks display.

On Sunday between 11.00hrs and 15.00hrs the ships will form a parade leaving the port of Belfast, hoisting their sails heading for the start line of Race 1 to Norway.

Queueing for bus No 2

Queueing for bus No 2

A flavour of my day Part one

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Part two

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Then I had the head staggers and flew like a bird: Twists, turns and total flip overs, we had smoke everywhere ….  I was hanging on so tight, I could no longer take photos.

Somebody hold my Elly down ….

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I was in a Red Arrows Flight Simulator!

Then it was time for home and a little thank you for my feet!

Aah! A long soak

Aah! A long soak