My Brother is having a midlife crisis!!

My older brother Russell has just mailed me a picture of his new car. It's a navy blue Lotus Elise. He's 48...enough said!!!

He's bringing it down to Surrey next week - and he'd better let me have a go. I am green with envy.

Barbie clothes

Next door (in the big house) there is a new cleaner. She's quite foreign and doesn't speak much English. Despite the fact that I have asked her about six times now NOT to put my laundry in the tumble dryer (because a lot of my stuff is wool and cotton and I don't want it to fit a Barbie doll....NO, I want it to fit me!) she keeps on doing so anyway. I do my own washing - but when she arrives often my washing is in the machine - so to be helpful she just sticks it in the dryer - turns the heat up to max and blasts it better than a smelting furnace. 

I have just discovered my favourite white trousers (apparently my bum looks really good in them) and my white silk blouse shrunk to within an inch of their life. I am really seeing red :(

Who ate all the Pies?

I looooooooooove my food - there's no secret there... and if it wasn't for my horse and the exercise I get riding her and mucking her out, and also walking the dog,  I would be about eighteen stone. As it is I manage to stay between a nice size ten and a slightly larger size twelve - but as the national average is a 16 - I feel quite okay about that. Today I went to Sainsbury's to do a 'bit of a shop' and discovered these  pies. I bought the British Beef, Stilton and Ale Pie, and I have to tell you it was delicious.  I had it for my lunch with some HP brown sauce (you can take the girl out of the north...)

Reasons to be cheerful - part 1

Only 104 calories per slice (let's not mention the butter) and 0.7g of fat. Hardly any salt and quite a lot of fibre. But never mind all that (like we count calories and stuff round here? do we ? - NO!...should we ? NO! Will we ? NO!)) because Malt loaf with butter is a most delicious treat!!! Heaven in a yellow wrapper!!

Brown Eyed Girl '08 - Van Morrison

I love Van the Man, and I love this song because I have brown eyes!!!

Great friends

I was thinking this morning about all my friends. This weekend I have been surrounded by them in one way or another. Which has been lovely. I hear from Christian and Victoria most days via blog comments or e mail (their comments always makes me laugh out loud)... Jo is here most days - or I'm there - and I see Su loads - and when I'm not seeing her we talk for ages on the 'phone. I have a very special friend who lives overseas who stays in touch regularly - and I love that communication. Then there's lovely Clare in Australia who e mails regularly, and also Cornelia who is in Dubai, Cousin Stephen in Canada, and my own brother Russell who I hear from a couple of times each week - he's visiting soon (yippee)....and of course - loads and loads more. I have friends in every far flung corner of the world...perhaps I need to travel and visit some of them more. 

People can be very far away - but still held very closely inside your heart, and kept there by the memories that you share and the communication that you enjoy. With the wonders of modern technology ( email, texting, the www) you can communicate with someone at the other side of the world as if they were in the next room. Mind you I still like to write letters and use postage stamps - because there's nothing better than Postman Pat (and his black and white cat) calling and dropping you something 'real' and not virtual through your letter box. 

So - let's hear it for friends - and the colour they bring...hip hip hooray!!!

Happy September!!

September's here - yaay!!! This morning's weather here in Surrey has a kind of golden quality to it...the light is different and some of the leaves have started to turn red and yellow already. Yesterday morning we had the lovely autumn mist to start the day - and then loads and loads of rain. It's sunny this morning - but the quality of the light has changed somewhat and all the colours outside look richer and deeper. I love it when the leaves start to change colour. Autumn really is a beautiful time of the year in nature.

Birthdays this month include mine (yippee), Victoria's, Cousin Jeremy's..and of course this month is Amelia's Christening which I'm really looking forward to - as it means seeing Victoria and Christian again -(and there'll be loads of delicious food to be eaten at Christian's Mum's house...she's a VERY good cook and excels at catering on a massive scale!!!)  and hopefully I'll get a chance to see Jacqui and Garry, and Moya  during my trip back up to t'north. I may also be able to fit in a trip to my favourite shoe shop (a girl can NEVER have too many shoes...shoes I need right now include new black ones, new brown ones and maybe some funky new boots for the winter), and I'll get to see my Mum of course. I love my Mum. 

So all in all September should be a great month. I'm really looking forward to it :)