Atishoo!

First him…

…then me

But we are recovering slowly.

And a huge thankyou – to all the people who kept the wheels turning  -

• working on Friday and Saturday at Get In The Picture,
• at church yesterday, when Bob was too ill to be there,
• who sorted out the youth group,
• who sent encouraging messages,
• who provided a meal,
• who offered to pick up any food we needed,
• who led a Carol Service today when I had no voice,
• and loads of other gestures 

I am so very grateful to God that we are part of such a caring fellowship

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another

Bad Hair Days

Now I have been seen on the back of the motorbike thus…

…but recently I have rediscovered a product I was very fond of in my teens

I frequently used to have a can of Batiste Dry Shampoo in my bedroom through my A level and student years. It was so useful on those days when I didn’t have time to wash my hair.

I haven’t used it for years although Steph had mentioned it a few months back. I saw this can for £1.50 in the summer and bought it ‘in case’. In the past couple of weeks I have used it twice – and I have to say it seems even better now than it did back in the 70s.  I applied it in the morning, and my hair felt [and looked] good all day, until I had time to shampoo in the evening.

Have you ever rediscovered a product and found it just as good [if not better] than it used to be?

Don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars*

RIP Sir Patrick Moore – a great astronomer and xylophonist 1923-2012

* Bette Davis, in ‘Now Voyager’ 1942

Pause in Advent 2012 – #2

In his unceasing quest to find meaningful video clips which will enhance our Sunday worship, Bob came across The Nativity Factor. It is a competition for ‘shorts’ relating to the Christmas story. Loads of groups enter, adults and children, and there are some amazing entries. This is the one we watched in church last week.

stunning young actors!

Mary must have been so frustrated as she tried to explain to Joseph

Joseph must have been quite baffled by the whole business

And the angelic messenger was delivering the Greatest Message ever

How would I have reacted if I’d been one of the characters?

..I watched it a week ago and I am still thinking about it!

Spectacular Giveaway

Thank you Janys at Arty Crafty Stuff for the amazing giveaway which has just arrived from Venice

A lovely handmade card, and some Venetian tags

And all these…who needs Specsavers?

I will not make any jokes about how to make a Venetian Blind!

Oh – just realised there was also a felt gingerbread man, who went straight onto the Christmas Tree. I will photograph him later.

Top Tips For Christmas 2012 – # 3

This week’s biggest tip is …

don’t be afraid or ashamed to borrow

[but acknowledge gratefully it when you do!]

We are all prone to feeling over-busy, and under-resourced at this time of year. But here in blogland, we are blessed with friends and information, and sharing is a huge part of this virtual world.

• borrow good ideas  - the simple decoration or table centre you saw on somebody’s blog [or Martha Stewart’s website] – if the tutorial is easy to follow and the materials are inexpensive and to hand, then have a go. Hands up all those people who made teardrops and snowflakes a couple of years ago? And look carefully in the shops, that felt stocking looks so easy to make…could you recreate it yourself?
• borrow great recipes – those emergency HobNobs I made last week were fabulous. They cost pennies, tasted great and were exactly what I needed for my guests. There are lots of super ideas for festive canapés, turkey leftovers etc. out there. Not just on the web, check out the TV cooking programmes, and the free magazines the supermarkets give away.
• borrow furniture – seriously – don’t be fooled by the TV ads, you do not need to buy a new dining set just because Gran is coming for 3 days over the holidays. Your best friend is going to her Mum in Yorkshire for a week, and she will happily lend you a spare dining chair to use while she is away. Ditto beds – mates who like camping will lend spare airbeds. Though I suggest you put the kids on the camp bed and let Gran have their decent mattress!
• borrow party clothes – I really shocked someone last week when we were talking about weddings. I said how grateful I was to my SIL for the loan of her lovely dress for the wedding in August. “I could never wear someone else’s clothes!” she said in horror**. But why not? Swap and change and you all get a variety of outfits [and Egyptian robes!] **she probably won’t buy in Charity Shops either!
• borrow hiding places – the year our children got bicycles [2nd hand, beautifully refurbished by Bob] we hid them up the road in our mate Syd’s garage until late on Christmas Eve. Safer than a woman I knew who put her gifts in a tied black bin sack and left in in her own garage without telling her helpful husband. Yes – he did – he put them out with the rubbish. The bin men took away £300 worth of presents!! I still feel bad whenever I remember her – and that was 20 years ago.
• borrow a Granny – if you are feeling few in number, or missing loved ones [too far away, whether on earth or in Heaven] then invite someone else to share a meal with you.

But please don’t, unless it is totally unavoidable, borrow money – and if you must, then think carefully about how you do it.

And the other side of the coin is …

don’t be too wrapped up in yourself to share

• share all the things listed above which you might want to borrow on another occasion
• share a smile – with the harassed girl on the checkout, the frazzled Mum at the school gate, that grumpy assistant in the IKEA restaurant, Nottingham [the one who always has the shortest queue]
• share your blessings – even on the tightest budget, you are looking at a PC now, and probably have already eaten today. An odd coin or two from the bottom of your handbag, chucked into the Sally Army bucket won’t result in you being thrown in Debtors’ Prison- but will help someone in extreme poverty.
• share some time – offer someone a lift to the shops, help with a charity Christmas Fair, make or serve mince pies at a community event, babysit so your friend can go to a party with her husband, help decorate someone else’s tree, deliver cards round the street for your housebound neighbour.
• share your faith – if you are a Christian then this truly is a God-given opportunity. Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

Alpha Mail

Long, tiring day at the church for Get In The Picture. We did it inside this year – out of the wind and rain. More photos later – but here is Scout [the dog in by the manger]

Hayley. our youth worker missed GITP [due for an op today] and Bob’s been unwell, and he missed all the fun too. I got home to a mountain of post – including this appeal from the Alpha Organisation.

Two questions

1. Should Hayley and I sue Nicky Gumbel for defamation of character?? and
2. Who is Darrell??

Le Rouge Et Le Noir*

My friend’s son has to go to school today dressed as a Victorian child. She needed a waistcoat, so I made one from some Stash fabric

I cut it out in both red and black fabric, and sewed it up so it is reversible. He can choose which colour he wants on the outside.

*I tried to read Stendhal’s classic in French when I was a student, in order to impress a boyfriend. My O level language skills were not up to it. Wrong choice of book [and bloke, for that matter!]

Take Five

We had still more clergy meeting here yesterday [for lunch this time] and in the evening it was the Sewing Club End Of Term Tree Trimming Party. So late [very late] on Tuesday night I made some cup cakes. I used my new book – it was to hand and used easy ‘cup’ measures. Here’s a pic of some of the remaining cakes.

EDMONDS COOKERY BOOK CUP CAKES

• 125g butter
• 1 cup Edmonds plain flour
• 2 tsp Edmonds baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• ½ cup caster sugar
• ¼ cup milk
• 2 eggs

Cream butter, sugar, vanilla till light and fluffy. Add eggs beating well. Sift flour and bp together, Fold in. Stir in milk. Place 12 paper cases in patty tins, spoon mixture evenly into cases. Bake 190ºC for 15 minutes or until cakes spring back when lightly touched. When cold, decorate as desired.

I doubled the quantities, replaced 3 tbsp of measured flour with same of cocoa. I replaced vanilla essence with almond essence. I topped them with simple buttercream also flavoured with almond essence [having gone out at 10pm to buy some icing sugar!]

The cakes were very well received by both groups. The recipe is a basic one, but as I usually measure ingredients by weight, it was good to try it with cup measures. Thanks again, Carole, for the book!

RIP Dave Brubeck 1920-2012 [read one obituary here]

An Antipodean Airmail

For a while now, I’ve been reading Carole’s Chatter – a blog written by a New Zealander who shares my love of crosswords, and wordplay. She recently mentioned The Edmonds Cookery book – it has sold over 3 million copies- in a nation that has only 4 million people. How popular is that? Amazon UK are currently charging £19 for used copies.

Carole kindly sent me a copy of the book [along with a pretty card]

As is right and proper, my copy is from a charity shop, having previously belonged to Liz H. It is spiral bound [how sensible, it opens flat for ease of use in the kitchen]

The story began in 1879 when young grocer Thomas J Edmonds [aged just 20] developed his own baking powder in response to dissatisfied customers who complained about the unreliability of most brands on the market. His was ‘sure to rise’ – and soon all NZ was buying the powder and in 1907 the first cookery book was produced. It has become the biggest selling book in NZ That's all books, not just cookbooks.

My copy is clearly well used, judging by stains on certain pages!

With 224 pages, and 29 chapters, and over 1000 [yes 1000] recipes, I am going to have such fun with this book. It covers basic recipes, nutrition, preserving, party food, confectionery…the lot. And there are few colour plates to whet your appetite further. This one was printed in 1992, the 33rd edition.

I am intrigued by some titles – Neenish Tarts, Tosca Cake and Munchkin Bars sound fascinating. I am not so sure about Uncooked condensed milk salad dressing though.

In the meat section is one of those glorious charts showing the cuts of meat from a cow and a pig, and another chapter is full of helpful conversion tables.

There are recipes for kiwifruit jam and chutney – and next to them in the index, Kumara salad and kumara soup. I had to look that up – it is sweet potato.

I shall try out some of these recipes when I can, and blog about them. Thank you Carole for this lovely gift – I feel very privileged.

Window Dressing

Mark and Marie let me put a nativity scene in their shop window again. I decided to go for a topical banner!

Anon [And On And On…]

Is it just me, or have other bloggers been suffering from an excess of anonymous commenters lately?

They seem to fall into three groups

anonymous 1 – who isn’t, but is a friend [like Lynne] who doesn’t blog, and posts [signed]comments.

fine, publish, thank you friend!

anonymous 2 – the trolls who take delight in negative remarks

delete, forget, move on

anonymous 3 – the apparently pleasant comment, but really it is a spammy link to some other spurious website

delete immediately, move on

And just lately anon 3 really seems to have gone into overdrive. I really do not want to send links to rattan furniture, plastic jewellery, or bizarre political groups.

As far as I am concerned, Spam is best consigned to the bin. Unless you are using it to make fritters that is.

But in my opinion, at £1.59 a can, it is no longer a cheap meal option [and it needs too much ‘tarting up’ to make it palateable]

Here’s a Spam song for you…

Dear Lord Elgin…

…you may recall that a few months back, I was convinced I had lost my marbles. Well, Mags just sent me a little bag from Belfast, look…

In her pre-Christmas tidy-up***, she found these!

So maybe I will be slightly less bonkers in the next few weeks.

[***I was going to refer to Mags’ ‘annual Christmas tidy-up’, but realised that implied she only tidied up once a year. This is NOT true. She does tidy up more than that. Honest]

Practical Mathematics

Tonight at the Alpha Group, pizza is on the menu. I am indebted to my friend Peter Sykes for sharing this fabulous piece of practical maths with me on Sunday at church.

If you have a round pizza, how do you calculate its volume?

Clearly, from basic mathematics, it is

π multiplied by the radius squared multiplied by height.

If the height of your food is ‘A’ and radius is ‘Z’ then the volume can be expressed as 

P I Z Z A 

Isn’t that fun? [Well it is if you are a maths geek like me. Even though I never eat pizza]

Good News!

In a week of depressing stories, it’s great to hear some good news. I am really pleased for Kate and William – but sorry to hear she is suffering from really bad morning sickness [been there, done that, through two pregnancies, sick for nine months!]

Parenting, like marriage, should be full of joy, but needs hard work and commitment. God bless this couple as they enter this new stage of life together.

Anyone Who Had A Heart…

I love Scotch Pancakes [also known as Drop Scones] and on Saturday afternoon, when it was cold and wintry outside I made a batch of batter to cook some. Delicious spread with butter, Nutella or jam!

But there are only two of us- so I just used half the quantity and put the remainder in the fridge. I decided to serve the rest for dessert on Sunday. I planned to put some sultanas in the mix, and pour over warmed Golden Syrup.

Then inspiration struck!

I got out my yellow squeezy bottle**, thinned the mixture with a little milk and filled it up. Then I carefully piped heart shapes into the melted butter in the pan, and filled them in with batter. I sprinkled half a dozen sultanas onto each shape, and let them cook for a minute or two. When the underside was done, I flipped them over to finish cooking.

I made the hearts in various sizes, and they made a luvverly pudding!

**I got these [I think] in a poundshop, ages ago, one red, one yellow.

Pause In Advent 2012 - #1

I’ve been thinking about “Jenny’s Principle” recently. When I began supply teaching, back in 1989, I was on ‘the Borough List’ – and two days a week, I was up bright and early, ready to go, the moment a school telephoned me. Most weeks I got at least one day’s work. Some days it was two – more often it was none.

One Friday at our Young Mums’ Bible Study Group [I was a YM back then]  I complained that I was fed up with having my packed lunch all ready, my bag all sorted…and then no work [and no pay] and that by 9am, I would be feeling really despondent [and hard up]

My very wise friend Jenny said I was approaching it in the wrong way. Instead I should be saying “OK, I was ready to spend this day teaching – but now God has set me free to do what I want. What’s the best use of the next six hours?”

And I realised she was right. God had given me that time to use in the best way I could – and He would show me what I should be doing, and ensure that my family was provided for [even if it was not through my pay cheque]

I am now on an ‘Agency List’ and having being cleared by the Criminal Records Bureau [after quite a delay] I am back to the early morning readiness, waiting for the phone to ring.

And so I am applying '”Jenny’s Principle” on the mornings when there is no call. I have spent a day finishing an important household task which had been repeatedly put off. I used one day to complete a sewing task for a friend – and in the middle of it, was able to offer lunch to Bob’s visitor, and the three of us had a great time together, eating and chatting.

So often Bob asks “Have you done so-and-so” and I reply “I just haven’t had time yet”. I seem to swing between feeling I have too much to do – and feeling I have nothing to do!

I must learn to see these days, time I have set aside to be working as a Supply Teacher, as gifts from God – and if no school needs me, then there is clearly some other task He has for me. Michel Quoist, the French Priest, ended one of his ‘Prayers of Life’ like this..

Lord, I have time
All the time that You give me,
The years of my life,
The days of my years,
They are all mine. Mine to fill up calmly, peacefully,
But to fill up completely, right to the brim -
To offer to You, that of their stale water
You may make a rich wine, as you made once at Cana
I don't ask today Lord,
for time to do this or that.
I ask for Your grace to do conscientiously,
in the time that You give me,
the thing that You want me to do.

At The Top Of The Helter Skelter

As a child, I adored helter-skelter rides at the sea-side.

So I was really pleased to see Guy Martin restoring one at Llandudno on his programme the other week.

There was something thrilling about climbing up all those steps inside the dim wooden tower, carrying a tatty bit of coconut matting – and then getting right to the top and looking out from such a height – seeing the prom, and the beach and the pier.

And after a moment’s pause, I would sit on the mat, and slide down the spiral channel, screaming with glee, all the way down to the bottom where the family were waiting to pick me up and hug me. I loved the accelerating speed, the colours whizzing past my eyes. I thought it was the best bit of the funfair – but over far too fast!

Some cities have Christmas Fairs, and install these Victorian marvels, brightly lit, and children and adults [well wrapped against winter chills] can still enjoy the fun.

Today feels just like that – in a moment I will climb up into the loft to fetch all the Christmas stuff down – and then start decorating the house, sorting out the Get In The Picture Costumes, wrapping the last few gifts, beginning to write the Christmas cards.

And as the days of December go on, the pace will accelerate, the lights will seem brighter, the colours more intense…and I hope to enjoy every moment. But this afternoon feels like the last part of the hard slog to the top, taking a breath before I climb on my little mat and whizz down to Christmas Day and precious time to relax with my family.

I hope your Christmas season is a joyful one – don’t forget to take a breath now and again though. The Advent Pauses arranged by Floss will be starting this weekend. There are around a dozen of us taking part [including some new contributors] – check them out!

• I must find a h-s somewhere, it’s ages since I rode one
• Why were the mats so very scratchy ?
• My Mum always said “keep your elbows in, Ang!” so I did – even though I desperately wanted to wave my arms about

Top Tips For Christmas 2012 - #2

This weeks tips are all about gifts

Think about gifts in advance!

That may seem obvious, but if you go out to the shops without an idea in your head, you will end up buying crazily unsuitable things in moments of fatigue and desperation.

If money is no object and your beloved has already specified that he really wants a “Honda ST1100 Pan European Nitron Sport Shock Absorber (91-03), for £386.99” then fine, go ahead and buy him one [and could you buy my man one too, please?] although that somehow takes away the magic and mystery when the gift is unwrapped.

But try and find things you hope the recipient will enjoy.

I’m not sure about the idea that “You should give a gift you would love to receive yourself” – would I be utterly ecstatic if Bob gave me a replacement part for the motorbike? and would he be over the moon to receive a set of Falcon enamel pie dishes from me?

Don’t be afraid to repeat a gift!

If it is something you can give to a lot of people, it makes sense to buy/make lots of the same thing. Sometimes it is even cheaper that way. One year when Bob was a student, we purchased lots of ‘Tear Fund’ mugs, and a huge box of Tear Fund Fairtrade teabags – and absolutely everybody on our gift list got a mug with a cellophane pack of teabags inside it. It also makes it easier if your recipients are competitive [oh, I do hope they aren’t!] because that way nobody feels that someone else got a bigger, better present.

Our hardworking deacons, and the people who contribute each Sunday to our worship group, all get a small token of our appreciation each Christmas. And they all get the same thing!

Wrapping should not be expensive!

The gifts above did not cost a lot to wrap – the two outer pictures show gifts wrapped in cheap paper [really cheap – from the January sales] and the centre bags were made from an old roll of wallpaper- which cost 99p and made 30 bags. This year I have been using up all the bits and pieces – and have even wrapped some gifts in a pages from a colourful calendar. I don’t have a carefully colour co-ordinated stack of gifts to put under the tree. But I am not Martha Stewart, and furthermore, there will only be three of us here on Christmas Day. The majority of these gifts will be distributed all over the place, so I do not really need them to match!

Save, and iron, your tissue paper

I don’t know why, but an extra layer of tissue paper, round a gift, inside the outer paper somehow adds an air of luxury. It is amazing how much comes into the house during the year – odd sheets in parcels, or bits inside other gift bags, or between two bits of cellophane round a bunch of flowers. I iron mine carefully. If it is less than A3 size, I fold it neatly, and keep it flat in a rectangular biscuit tin, if it is a full size sheet, I roll it and keep it in a cardboard tube. And use it up at Christmas, then start all over again!

Remember to say Thank You

People complain that “young people don’t writer Thank You letters any more” – and it is a dying art. Buck the trend, show your gratitude – and that will inspire others to do the same. Especially if you follow it up months later with an extra comment [I’m still enjoying the recipes in that book you gave me last Christmas…I get so many comments about that pretty necklace you gave me…we’d eaten all the biscuits by New Year’s Day, but the lovely tin is still being used and admired]

Inappropriate Gifts

These should still be accepted with good grace [and a thank you] I do not think it is wrong to ‘re-gift’ them to someone who could benefit [better than letting things fade on a shelf, or just be put in the dustbin] and I would hope anyone who really didn’t like a gift that I gave would do that. But do wait a little while, before you offload to your cousin or the Charity Shop. Put a post it note on the box so you do not commit a dreadful faux pas, and give a relation on her birthday the gift she gave you the previous Christmas! It has happened.

I am astounded by people’s generosity, and hope I am truly grateful for the gifts I receive. In terms of inappropriate ones, there have been very few in my life.

Apart from the cheeseboards. At our wedding, we received fourteen cheeseboards as wedding gifts. I can’t eat cheese, it makes me ill! 

After 33½ years of marriage,we have just two left. We kept our favourite – a glass one - and one which makes a good teapot stand [now at Cornerstones] During the early years of our marriage Bob was an impoverished student. We were invited to the weddings of many of our friends of a similar age.

I trust they found a use for the cheeseboards we gave each of them!

Finally

Only give what you can afford

I once found myself chatting to a bloke whose daughter was the same age as one of my girls.

“Is she married?” he asked “No” I said “is yours?”

He told me sadly that he’d given her an extremely lavish wedding, she was divorced within the year, and then it took him a further two years to pay off the costs of the wedding day!

If you are still paying off the costs of your Christmas in January [or even February] on your credit card bill then you are spending too much!!!  Be honest with the family now, so they won’t expect everything in the Argos catalogue to be waiting under the tree – and will not be disappointed with a home made pudding in place of Bloomin Hestonthal’s Finest [£13.99! I ask you!]

The greatest gifts are

love, joy, hope and peace