benefits of blogging

As you know I was out socialising with fellow bloggers last saturday evening. Bloggers who hadn't just nipped down the road for a drink. I think most of you now know that it was Fat Controller and his lovely wife (and subject of his HNT pictures as well as his very well written tales of love within a marriage) Heather. Fat controller and Heather live in her native country but visit the UK from time to time. So last week they were over here having a well earned break in the depths of North Wales before visiting his family via a stop over with Trixie.



Before leaving Trixie they were entrusted with a parcel for me. So you see even if they hadn't really wanted to meet me they had no choice. Trixie had decided that they would make a very good substitute as a carrier firm. As I live en route from Trixie to FC's family it made sense. However I hadn't been apraised of this. It wasn't until we were about to part company that I was told they were holding a package for me. This package (ok so it wasn't wrapped but who cares) turned out to be a book that Trixie had promised to send to me 2 months ago. Trixie herself had come by this book as a gift from Fire Byrd who inturn had received it as a gift from Queen Vixen. I am now half way through this book (started reading sunday morning and couldn't put it down until I was forced to). When Fire Byrd sent this book to Trixie it was with the instructions that she should pass it on to another blogger when she had finished it. So now it is in my possession and I have instructions to pass it on to another blogger when I am done with it. Now let me see who should I send it too next? Let me know if you want it.



Isn't it funny the way blogging connects us in so many ways. I was rather amused when FC mentioned (when we were talking about English food he might miss ........... he can get most things) that he and their son have become addicted to this and its all my fault. I had done a post about them ages ago (I can't even begin to remember where on here). My first thought was that they would be disgusting but DC persuaded me to try a bite and I am now hooked. I try to avoid them but sometimes needs must ............I am sure FC agrees. Have you ever read a post about something you had never seen or thought about ...........tried it and become hooked?

If you didn't know what book I was talking about it was this one.

Recipe for a lovely evening

For the first time I turned on the air conditioning in my car as I made my way in the sunshine. I was as usual later leaving home than I had planned, driving along the familiar motorway then turning north on the A road that I have driven many times before but this time watching out for the side road that I had never taken before. The winding country lane I found myself going up and down hill, I noticed the Ancient Farm off to my right. I had always wondered where that was although I had believed it to be a mile or two further north on the west side of the A road. Well now I know exactly where it is, perhaps I will visit it one day.

Cautiously racing on up and down turning left and right as the lane meandered between farms. I soon found my destination, parking in the one obvious space left, I checked the time…..only a couple of minutes late……..not bad seeing how I had left it so late to leave. Scanning the tables set out in the garden I could see them through my rear view mirror.

As I walked across the car park they both looked around, I waved to indicate that it was me. They both stood up to greet me, I had remembered as I was driving that he no longer sports the facial hair he has worn for most of his adult life. One of the first things I noticed was that like me, she was wearing red and black. We sat talking about our children and the problems of bringing up our teenagers while he went inside to buy my glass of cider. Where I don’t feel the cold so much these days my companion was feeling cold especially when the sun was hidden by the building cloud. Such a shame as until now it had been a lovely sunny warm day.

Conversation with both my companions was easy and relaxed. So much to talk about, so little time. We made a move inside to get out of the chilly breeze, another round of drinks more chat about the differences between life here compared to where my companions live. We talked about blogging, of course we did after all it was blogging which had brought us together. Time was passing hunger pangs were making themselves known so we decided to have a meal, although there were some interesting dishes on offer none of us were in the mood for these, I plumped for a jacket potato with fresh beef chilli topped with cheese. Both my companions plumped for hoisin duck wraps but ended up with baguettes.

Eating did prompt us to discuss the diet plan we had been on last year and agreed that while we have continued to try keeping to the diet plan in the year since we had started we had slipped in our resolve but do try to avoid bread where possible. My female companion told me about her experiences of trying to cook dishes from her native country whilst here and how difficult it is using the ingredients available.

I did enjoy our time together but all too soon it was time to part company as my new friends had another hour to drive before reaching their destination for the night. Driving home I was enjoying the space on the roads with such little traffic, very different to my normal drive home among the rush hour traffic. As I was passing the city a car came speeding past me, its occupants waving, together we raced up the hill and down the otherside until I reached my junction and waved goodbye for the final time.

I wonder if any of you can work out who my companions were. Trixie is banned from answering.

A grand night out

On Sunday I did a practice run in the daylight to find the venue for tonight's celebrations. It was only because I had to stop at the traffic lights that I found it as I was stopped right by the door.



Tonight I left home only a few minutes later than I had intended (I had to read all 7 of the emails from The Man). When I tried to turn out of our road I was confronted by a disturbing sight, a drunken young man stood in the road. The cars in all directions stopped, lights shining on this swaying statue for a few seconds that feel more like minutes. He raises his hand then staggers across the road in my direction. He walks in front of my car towards my passenger door, for a heart stopping moment I fear that he is going to try to open my door, I consider pressing the button that locks the doors, but instead I lurch my car forward and drive away as quickly as I can.



By the time I arrive at my mum's place to drag her out for the evening I have calmed down. It doesn't take long to arrive at our destination but after driving up and down several side roads without finding a place to park. I find myself at the traffic lights again so mother gets out whilst I continue my search for a space. Now I am on my own it doesn't matter if i have further to walk. But I found a space outside a pizza parlour not too far from the Bistro which was lucky. So off I go clip clopping along the uneven pavement. Pushing open the green door expecting to find the group of excited bloggers and a bemused mother, I am suprised to see just a few groups of people chatting quietly, no sign of the hosts or more worryingly my mother!



At the far end of the room I notice a girl in black heading down a short flight of stairs with a sign pointing the way to the wine bar. Quickly I make my way down the stairs. Is this some kind of joke, am I perhaps the guest at a suprise party, it is like The Marie Celeste down here in the room scattered with tables and chairs but no people. Even the girl in black has vanished. I did what I assume most people would do and returned to the bar above to ask if I was at the right place. It is the right place and I am shown the way back downstairs through the door at the end to the stairs leading to the conservatory outside.



Here I find a room buzzing with excitement. Mother waves to me from the far end of the room. Making my way towards her I met a very excited and lovely DJ Kirkby. Eat your hearts out people, I was priviledged to have met the reclusive DJ and even though she had warned us all that she is not tactile and doesn't like to be touched. DJ hugged me!.

DJ is as lovely as I knew she would be with a gorgeous smile. Chopper is just as I remember from those windswept days of another life except he now has his goatee. For two shy people both did a grand job of reading for us. DJ's talk about Autism was very interesting and not in a text book kind of way but real.

I also got to meet the lovely Casdoc who wrote the Shrek Rap which was performed for us by the talented Daren Callow. If you don't know what the Shrek Rap is you need to visit either DJ or Casdoc' blogs or even both. Casdoc and DJ have sons who are Autistic. Tonight's event apart from launching the books that DJ and Chopper have just had published, was to raise money for Portsmouth Autism Support Network.

Anyway I now have my signed copy of Chopper's book and my mum has a signed copy of DJ's book, we will swap once we have read them. Oh and I nearly forgot to mention that I also met Troy who has recently begun to read my blog, I know Trixie wil be jealous.

But then it was back to reality, wandering around a shop in my finery looking for the ingredients that are needed for tomorrow's food tech lesson. On arriving home I discovered the bathroom floor was flooded and the toilet blocked. Armed with an 18" rubber gauntlet it took me just a few seconds to dislodge the offending blockage before mopping up the floor with old towels.

Writing up tonight's events was interrupted by a trip across town at 12.20am yeee gods the temperature had dropped in the hour or so since I had got home. What was I doing going out at that time you are thinking. I had booked DC's car for its MOT early Tuesday, his car needed to be dropped off so I was giving him a lift home. BTW he has had a letter offering him 'An unconditional place' on the University course he had applied for.

Honestly

The lovely DJ Kirkby has awarded me this honesty award. Perhaps she is under the illuion that I am honest.

Below are the guidelines when winning the Honest Scrap award:

1. List 10 honest things about yourself (try to make it interesting, even if you have to dig deep!)

2. Pass the award on to 10 bloggers

1. I had said that I would go to a football match this morning but when I got the text saying 'stay under your duvet the match is off' I have done just that.....stayed under my duvet. (it is -5 this morning!!)

2. When my boys were young I was treasurer of their playgroup, I am not very good with money but I enjoyed the challenge. I also enjoyed the power of calculating what the staff pay rises should be as well as the fees we charged the parents even if this power also scared the heck out of me.

3. When I was 19 I worked for an Insurance Company in London. We underwrote a policy for something called an 'Intelligent Pig' I believe it was a heavy Machinery but it was the inspiration for my first attempt at writing a children's story of the same name.

4. Sometimes I am to honest, my honesty can get me into trouble, I can be tactless at times in my honesty.

5. I have always been extremely shy. As a teenager I was always the shyest in my group of friends but strangely I was often the bravest too. If the rest of them were too scared to do something or go somewhere I would do it. Perhaps I have always been unbalanced.

6. I am even now very sceptical about the psychic world including tarot and horoscopes yet I find myself turning to these things in times of stress. I do though believe in fate and find myself noticing 'signs' more and more as I get older. Particularly in the medium of songs, especially songs that I have always liked but never really noticed the meaning behind the words until I hear it out of the blue at a time when those words mean something to me.

7. I love to write but I am often too lazy. I tend to write short stories because I need to write the whole piece in one sitting. If I have to go back to something the next day I rarely do. I have a folder full of projects I have started but don't have the drive to complete. Perhaps there will come a time when I have no distractions when I can sit down and complete some of them.

8. I love my boys to bits but I am not a very good mother. I have never had any control over my boys even when they were little they could run rings around me, but I do think I have managed to instil good values in them so that they are turning out to be good young men.

9. I intend to go to the gym today because although I have not weighed myself for months I know I have put on weight even though I have tried to eat properly. It is getting harder and harder to find clothes in my wardrobe that fit comfortably and I refuse to buy bigger sizes. I am still a couple of stone and 2 sizes smaller than I was before my divorce but even so 3 years ago I was a couple of stone and 2 sizes smaller than I am now.

10. All my life I have been a avid reader of books but since I began blogging I hardly ever pick up a book, I have 3 on the go at the moment, I have been reading them for months, in the past I would have read them in a couple of days.

Now I have to choose 10 bloggers to bestow this award on. Mei Del, Andrea Whatever, Rae, Cheekydani, Ronjazz, Having my Cake, Fat controller, Elaine, Nitebyrd and finally Wild Cat

From Jeans to Macaronni

On friday I nipped into Asda on my way home from work as I needed to get some food in for my tribe of gannets whilst I was away. Whilst there I decided to buy myself a pair of new jeans for travelling in. Now for me buying jeans is not all that easy. For a start I am not your average size 12/14 or even 16. Thankfully I am no longer the size I was a few years ago, but neither am I the svelte 14/16 I was 2 years ago sob sob. So I am very limited to what I can find that is in my waist size. But to make matters worse I am only 5'0" so I can't wear the standard length jeans so I certainly can't wear the long ones. So many times I have looked through the racks and come across standard and or long but not short. But on Friday night I bought two pairs labelled 'short'.

Saturday I wore pair one (dark blue) short!! they were still dragging on the ground as I walked (even in my trainers) Today I wore the light blue bootleg cut pair........still too long, still dragging on the ground......what height do they think "short" is? Oh and to make it even worse my new jeans are so loose they keep slipping down................oooops perhaps that means I am loosing some weight big big smiles.

We had a lovely evening, lovely people, most of who I have met before, obviously as hostess there was the Fabulous Firebyrd, Quintessential Queen Vixen, Talented Trousers, Marvelous Mei Del and a new face for me Wonderful Wake up and smell the Coffee. Some of us took part in a joint experiment. The bubbles flowed (from bottle to glass to lips) very easily. The home made curry was delicious and I even ate some of the rice (I have not eaten rice for many many years so I am proud of myself for that).

On the way home I had a brief stop in London where I was treated to a kiss from a handsome Frenchman...............no don't get excited it was only a polite greeting from Mei's handsome partner.

On arriving home I was pleased to discover it is still in one piece (still untidy but at least I know I am in the right house). But I did start to wonder when my little boy you know the one that turned 13 less than a week ago, decided to cook macaronni cheese (from scratch for himself OJ and ET for dinner). Can you believe it he turns 13 and starts cooking.

meeting up with such lovely people is well worth 10 hours of travelling in two days.

which path

Completely shattered after a very poor night, full off cold I didn't get to sleep before 2am and was awake again by 4.40am just about ready to go back to sleep when it was time to get up for work. I sneezed and coughed my way through the day, feeling really out of sorts, just about managing to last until it was time to leave on time for a change (just goes to show how poorly I was feeling). Driving home was a nightmare, heavy rain and spray meant poor visibility, very slow stop start traffic with me having to concentrate 500% just to focus on the road. I just about managed to get through the door before collapsing on my bed. Having rung home earlier to let OJ know that he would be cooking dinner tonight as I would be going straight to bed.

So I have been dozing on and off all evening, feeling more awake now but with no intention of writing a blog post................yeah right so what do you call this then I hear you say. Now are you sitting comfortably, there are cushions scattered around my side bar if you need one (sorry they all seem to be RED or PINK) and I will begin.

Not wanting to go to the bother of writing a post I decide to satisfy my blog addiction by visiting a few of my blog pals. One of these is Trousers, he isn't a frequent visitor here, just as I visit him from time to time but not religiously. We have met a couple of times and he is not only a lovely man but interesting too. Anyway I am reading his post about having a panic attack which by the way rings a couple of bells for me. I move onto his comment box and find several references to people arriving from the Black Boxes Widget. Now just like a cat or is that a pussy I am always curious so I have scrolled up and down his blog a few times looking for this Black Box thingy but there is nothing there so I move on amd forget about it.

After I have had my fix of blogs I went over to face book which I do infrequently, there was a link on there from dj Kirkby for the Black Boxes widget. So now my curiousity really has been piqued. Following the link I find myself on Caroline Smailes blog. Now I have seen Caroline comment on blogs and dj mentions her frequently but I have never checked her out myself. It now appears that Caroline has a new book titled Black Boxes, another blogger has designed this rather smart widget along the theme of Caroline's book. You click on a set of choices and depending on your answers it takes you to a mystery blog. The more people take part the more blogs you will visit. (If you are a slave to blog hits this could be right up your street).

So I had a go at it and wouldn't you just know it, first blog it takes me to is Trousers. I have had several other goes and gone to other blogs I wouldn't have visited otherwise.

Here is the widget so you can all join in with the fun. I have already installed it in my side bar so you can continue to play anytime. I figured after the last week I needed to have a little frivolity on my blog.

My weekend with friends

Organised I am not
I checked on map quest the directions to get to Mei’s place, my printer is not connected so I wrote out the directions from M3. I bought a new map book, in the end I took a different route as in the route Mei takes when she drives home from Winchester. That was fine until I got to London and the North Circular. I rang Mei for directions from there. The funniest bit was when I was stuck behind a bus that had not quite pulled into a bus stop. Mei was telling me to turn right at the next junction.......impossible with 3 lanes of busy traffic between me and the right turn. Eventually pulling out from behind the bus with an oncoming coach blasting his horn at me, I’m telling him to go away and shut up then remember Mei and tell her I didn’t mean her. Finally she manages to direct me the right way and as I turn down the last hill there she is waving at me from the side of the road.

So that is how I managed to drive into London for the first time ever. The driving was fine it was not knowing where I was going when I got there that was my only problem. Mei made me very welcome with a refreshing cup of tea before loading up her car and setting off towards the Peak District. Mei and I managed to chat constantly for almost the whole of the drive (3 hrs). We were chatting so much that when we set off I tried to text Fire that we were on our way only I managed to send my text to Romeo by mistake. We landed at Fire’s home at about 6pm so once we had handed over the bottles we had brought with us, I changed into one of my new red skirts and the red heels. A glass of champagne thrust into our hands and we began to catch up with QV and Trousers who I had met when I visited Fire last December.

The atmosphere among the 5 of us was relaxed and cheerful. When I had arrived at Mei’s she was very nervous about meeting fellow bloggers for the first time. I hope she enjoyed meeting us, I certainly enjoyed her company, the two of us giggling like school girls quite a bit over the 26 hours we were together.

It was a lovely evening in the company of lovely people, the food, drink, chat and the tarot cards all flowed well. We all either wrote or commented on short blog posts. Having read back mine yesterday I realised how pissed I must have been when I wrote it. The weather was horrendous with the heavy rain drumming on the conservatory roof much to the delight of trousers who was looking forward to falling asleep to the sound, he had volunteered to sleep on the chaise lounge in there

Considering we went to bed after 1.30 we were all up fairly early for a gathering in the kitchen for our hot drinks followed by cooked breakfast. (something I only ever have when I am with fellow bloggers). We sat around chatting for another couple of hours before leaving at about 11ish. Mei and I dropped Trousers off at the station in Stoke and were just heading towards the M6 when we got the call from Fire.......Mei had left her trademark blue shoes behind, they could have been posted on but we turned around and went back for them. I couldn’t help noticing how many Jaguar cars there were on the motorway. At times I couldn’t help looking to see who was driving. I miss him.

The journey flew past and it wasn’t long before we were back in London. More tea and more chat then I was on my way again. The final leg of my journey went by very quickly, but as I neared home I found I was beginning to struggle with keeping my eyes open but I managed. I was tired when I got home but today I have been absolutely exhausted. It’s a good thing I had booked an extra day off, I would not have managed to work. I found myself falling asleep on and off all day and even now I am still tired. I have enjoyed the last few days surrounded by friends but I have still missed Romeo.

I hadn’t heard from him in over a week, yesterday was his birthday and I had hoped to at least hear from him. This afternoon I sent him a chatty email telling him about my week. I even told him about having Dinner with Lotto and going out with Harvey. At the end I jokingly told him that I was cross that I was having a one sided conversation with him as he had forgotten to tell me where he was and how long for. Blow me down with a feather less than an hour later he text me saying where he is and he will be there for a few days. I laughed assuming he had just read my email but he says he has no internet connection where he is.

Right I need an early night as its back to work tomorrow.

It was a pity that trixie and her sisters had to miss the party

Men are such strange creatures

Tonight as I was deleting my unwanted and unopened emails I found one telling me that I had a new wink from ***** ( I don't remember the name now, and I deleted it), unusually I thought I would just have a look to see if it was anyone I had come across before. But when I opened the email the thing that caught my eye was not the long haired beared young man in the picture but that it said distance from me was -1 ............ now if it had been 1 I could understand that But I was thinking how the hell could anyone be minus one mile away .......lol I am laughing at myself now because I just realised it isn't minus 1 but less than.............stupid woman that I am going blonder by the day except that when I look in the mirror its silver that I see creeping in not blonde.



Another email was from facebook telling me that I ahd been challenged to a game of scramble. I hadn't been on there much recently so I signed in and found a message in my inbox.



hi im Jim and love to be sub i am moveing to city soon,are you dominant and seeking a slave x



wtf was that about ? don't answer that I know exactly what that was about but why pick on me?

there is nothing at all on my profile that would make anyone think I want to dominate a slave.



You may have noticed that I have started getting a few comments from a blogger calling himself aka k, it seems that he likes cars, more particularly red cars, specifically red audi cars.



I am used to being woken up at 3am by JA, often it is because he has had a bad dream, last week he had to check that I was still here, (he never did tell me what the dream was). Other times he tells me he feels sick or has tummy ache. but this morning it was to tell me that OJ was not in his bed and he was not downstairs either. I was only a little surprised at this, I had known he had gone out at bedtime but had expected him back before this. Having questioned him this evening it seems he came in at 4am. His friend H and his dad were moving with Mr H's g/f, H has bought himself a widescreen tv that he wanted OJ to see (at 12.30am !!!). It seems the boy is growing up, in a few months he will be 18. In the next year I expect he will spend less and less time at home like DC. DC has, again, started talking about moving out, he makes me laugh (when he isn't making me cry). How does he think he will be able to pay rent if he cant pay me for his keep.

bloggers are friends

Last night when I was going through my documents on this computer just seeing what is on here I found this tribute that I had forgotten about. I was written by one of my blog friends, he had written a piece about four special blog women not saying who they were but we knew. At some point later I had gone back to it and saved it in a word document. I am glad that I did as some months later he closed that blog. He has had other blogs since but is currently in his words 'having a sabbatical.' Any way this is how he described me .

You're one of the sweetest people I know. You go through so much adversity, still smiling. You're ever so discrete - annoyingly so, sometimes. You attract men, lots of them, no surprise there, but you're choosy enough to reject the ones that don't measure up. You're a true friend, always ready to talk, no hidden agenda. You're forgiving and tolerant. You write from the heart, holding nothing back. You revel in discovering your long-suppressed sexuality. You showed me something I always thought was a myth. You like me, probably more than I deserve.

then later last night as I was going through my email accounts I checked the junk box of the emails account that my blog comments go to and I found this email.

hey how r u?

i think you're one of the few people who sounds truly genuine

everyone puts on a front, i know i do it myself, but you come across so very real and kind too.

wasn't this such a lovely thing to say and this is from a new blogger friend.

I feel quite sad tonight, I have been in a strange mood all evening but as I visited a few of my blog friends I found yet another blogger saying goodbye. As I work my way down the list of blogs that I read more and more of the links are skipped as they are either closed or just not posting for a while. I know that all of the bloggers who have closed their blogs in recent weeks are people who I have become friends with outside of blogs, we exchange emails, IM or are Face book friends so we do have the means to continue our contact.

On a slightly more cheerful note I have been chatting to Thomas aka my Knight in Tarnished Armour. As always he makes me feel sexy and adored but there was a different feeling for me today. I felt very sad, chatting to Thomas just made me feel unhappy, I did the usual laughing and sending kisses along with the chat some of which was general chit chat but also the usual mutual admiration and sexual worship mostly from him. Chatting to Thomas made me miss Romeo even more than I did already. I adore Thomas (he was fantasizing about what it would be like if he and I were married), but I feel so much more for Romeo and it hurts that I have not heard from him since last week. I know I will hear from him but I just don't know when. I am getting worried now though, when he text me that he was ill he thought it was flu. But I can't help thinking he must be very ill if he can't manage to to text or call me again. ............Yes I know what you are thinking. Sometimes I wonder if you are right and I am wrong but there is something that tells me otherwise. I have to trust him I have to believe but it isn't always easy. I have given my self a promise that if there is no progress soon I shall call it a day, as much as I don't want to.

I know why I blog

Tonight has reminded me why I blog.
Blogging brings out so many emotions in me.
Just a brief recap of a few blogs I have read tonight.
Vi and her tales of another drunken blog meet reminds me of my visit to Blah almost a year ago at the start of May 2007, I got very drunk and was very ill, but that was not the end of it, I was really ill for weeks after and my GP thought my Cancer had come back. I had round after round of blood tests and scans, but gradually after weeks I began to recover enough that in June I began working again part time. So reading Vi's blog has brought back the merry time we all had in blah but also the memory of being ill.

Then I visited Bunny in her Rabbit hole. I don't think many of you read her. She is very funny but she has been having a very tough time in her marriage. Reading her experiences brings it home to me how lucky I am that I no longer suffer the way she is. I try to be supportive and hope that some of my comments are of some use to her. Bunny also descibes some of her extra marital exploits which reminds me of the days when I was doing similar except it was my lovers not me who were married. But what really hit me on her blog tonight was the opening words...... 'Today, April 27th.' she goes on to explain how today is her blog anniversary. But the impact those three words had on me was enormous. I hadn't given it much thought until the date was there staring me in the face. Today it is two years since my Decree Absolute. I had planned to celebrate that day but it didn't happen. SF had continued to live in the house until forced out by the court on April 24th (my mum's birthday). The next week I received the Decree Absolute in the post dated 27th April 2006. I was free in the eyes of the law but I was still not free of my ex, as he continued to make my life a living hell. I was issued with a panic button by the police, as I was subjected to almost daily death threats. I still had so much to go through. Now two years later I am still reluctant to open my curtains. I still have that feeling of being watched in my own home. Maybe next year I shall have something to celebrate.

Then a quick visit to May contain Nuts by the delightful Ro who I have only recently started to read. Yesterday I was discussing with my mother about the children's songs and the children's request shows on the radio when I was a child. How I loved singing along to all those funny songs about runaway trains, pink toothbrushes and ugly ducklings. So imagine my shock to read his latest post only published minutes earlier about that very same subject....Ed Stewpot's request shows and songs such as My Brother which I have just played for my boys as they had never heard it before. So that was another trip down memory lane for me and happy thoughts of being a carefree child in the 60s.

After this I visited Emma who I nominated yesterday to be blessed and blow me down she had me in tears.

I am not going to nominate anymore of you but I am going to send it back at LiR.

I don't know what to say to that other than this lovely lady has been through so much, with family, work, love and illness, but through it all I can still feel this fantastic light shine through.
I truly hope she has found the love she so much deserves with Romeo, because after all the support she has been to me in particular over the last year and also everyone who comes across her.
She just opens her arms and her heart and welcomes you in. Thanks lady, I love you to bits..xx

how could I not be moved by such a lovely tribute. I have been feeling rather down today. But it just goes to show that bloggers are there for us when we most need them.

To all my blogger friends old and new I thank you for everything you have given me over the last 18 months.

Birthday season

I am staring at 46 in under a week and as so many of my blogging friends are also Aries I thought I would wish all my friends a very happy birthday. It has amazed me how many of my blog friends were born under the star sign of Aries. So many strong women, I guess its true that like attracts like. some of these bloggers have already had their birthdays and others are just around the corner. but off the top of my head I can think of a fair few, all strong people in their own way.

Chopper who is just setting out on his battle to over come his recurring back problems he has a most warped and enduring sense of humour.

Evening has been battling breast cancer and come through the other side, but always has the time and energy to be supportive to her many friends worldwide.

Laney has been though a tough time in recent years, I have only begun to read her blog in recent months but it is evident that she is a very kind and supportive friend to all around her. What she did for Rhonda was amazing. I am sorry I didn't get to see the video she made for Evening's birthday.

Cake is an amazing writer, she too has been through heartache and I know from reading her blog this morning that this birthday will be a very emotional one for her. Cake I don't have word to offer you but lots of hugs. my only words are that I feel your pain I went through a similar thing 21 years ago and it was that one time that it was so painful after that it has been a case of not forgotten but the pain has subsided.

Pixie is an amazin woman with whom I ahve become close, I ahve nominated her my honarary sister which she was pleased to accept. Like cake, Pixie writes a lot that I can associate with but never think of writing until I see that she has put my thoughts in writing.

Trousers I am afraid that I only dip into his blog occasionally but he is a dear and has also been struggling with what life brings him. It was so lovely to see the positive energy coming from his recent posts. Oh I am sorry if I let the cat out the bag that its your birthday in a few days.

there are other bloggers who I could include like La fille who unfortunately closed her blog last year. If I have missed anyone please let me know and be sure that I wish you a great birthday too.

For those of my friends who have birthdays at other times of the year, you are all lovely but we can't all be blessed with the good fortune to be Aries. Oh and if you didn't know those of us who are Aries just remember that we are the babies of the zodiac so cannot be expected to grow up.

Defragmenting Rewards

VBF has given me an award

this is her reason - Because she is very inspirational and refreshing to read! xx

Thank you VBF that was very kind of you. I have never set out to be 'inspirational' I just tell it as it is. Sometimes life is hard, sometimes it is a little easier, sometimes it is great but the best way to get through anything is with a smile and a cheery word. I always try to see the lighter side of anything as I wasted too many years being miserable in my younger days. There are many people in blogland who are a far greater inspiration than I am. However it would be ungracious of me to ignore this accolade from VBF so I say a great big thank you dear girl.

Now VBF says we have to nominate 10 other bloggers for excellence. Umm now I believe that many of the bloggers I would nominate have already been nominated. so I am going to buck the trend and nominate all my readers both new and old (I refer to the time we have been aquainted not age). In my view all the blogs I read are excellent which goes without saying otherwise I wouldn't read them ....... oh there is one exception. There is a new blogger on the block who I have felt it nescessary to aquiant with the normal way blogging is done as he was becoming slack in his posting and commenting. Some of you may have noticed the reference nitebyrd made to mulder having a kicked arse.

Sorry Mulder you know I love you really ;-) but don't tell Romeo ok this our little secret.

Oh talking of Romeo I have told him that he will have to think of a way to make it up to me for missing my birthday........but I am not going to give him any suggestions as to how he can do this. I want to see just how romantic he can be if left to his own devices.

I had a phone call today to let me know that my skirt has been found, it was in the shop the whole time (among the suits naturally). Now when I was there yesterday I really wanted to tell the woman there how to find my skirt. Instead of checking methodically through every thing hanging up she was darting around looking here there and everywhere.........watching her progress was rather like watching a computer memory defragmenting.

A tribute to a fine dust bunny

I ahve just been over to check my emails on the address linked to my blog, I don't check it everyday as it is mostly the comments I get. Unless I don;t have access to my blog I can read them all here. You may remember a few months ago I didn't have internet accs but could read the comments via email on my phone....I loved the comments I got due to Vi's suggestions.

Anyway why am I telling you this now?

as I as going through deleting all the messages I had already read I found a new message that wasn't a comment on my blog.

It was from a new blogger who has commented on my blog in the last few days Dazzed and confused. He hs asked me to let you all know that another blogger 'VENT' has written a verynice testimonial on his blog here for the lovely NITEBYRD. I have read this on DAC's blog and made my comments too. Nitebyrd is being very bashful about all this so I want you all to go over and see not only this testimonial but also if you have never read nitebyrd you will have seen her comments on my blog so go visit this lovely sexy and funny lady now.

Thank you DAC for prompting me to do this for such a well deserving lady.

This is a part of the message I received........

A blogger VENT has posted a blog about nitebyrd that I want the whole blogging world to read. Considering I’m new and not a lot of people go to my blog I thought you might inform everyone of vent’s tribute. Nitebyrd won’t post this info because she told me it would be to embarrassing. "vent" is the first name on nites people list.

so do me a favour and go see his blog here too ;-)

ps Dazzed and confused I hope you don't mind that I have shortened your name to DAC