Home from home

This is our new RV - new to us that is and a real bargain. We know that as Keith has spent hours, days, nay weeks, trawling the internet looking at every motorhome that has ever been advertised for sale from the beginning of time. But this one is good, BIG but good and very comfortable. Just fits my idea of camping. There's even a little table specially for my laptop.

Home gardening

These are my first potatoes from my gardening-in-pots project. Pretty good taste too!

Christian the Lion

It must be a very interesting locksmithing website that Keith subscribes to. Here is another intriguing video,courtesy of You Tube

Now you see them...

...Now you don't.
Six potential clients today, five at my voluntary place of work and one private.
One client arrived for appointment.
Two clients cancelled - an hour before their appointments.
Three clients did not appear, including the private one.
Sometimes, I wonder why I bother!

Blogging meme

I've just been over to Flighty's blog and discovered that he has rather a good meme on his last post, so I thought I would pinch it for myself. I remember starting my blog but can't for the life of me remember how I found out about blogging, but I do know it has been immense fun and sometimes quite therapeutic. Anyway, here goes:
1. Can you remember without looking what your first post was about?
My first post was back in May 2004, I think and it was about the forthcoming prospect of leaving my job as deputy head of a primary school and 'downgrading' to classroom teacher, which I was looking forward to immensely, hence my blog title of Demob Happy Teacher.
2. Where did you write it?
I wrote it on the laptop that I had at the time.
3. Which was the first blog that you read?
I remember that - it was Gemmak's blog. I left a comment and we've been readers of each other's blogs ever since.
4. Who did /do you tell about your blogs, if anyone?
Some family, friends and work colleagues but I still find that lots of people that I mention the word 'blog' to look at me blankly. 'A what?' they ask.
5. Have your blogs ever caused a scandal?
Not exactly, but the head teacher of the school I was working in at the time took exception to some of my posts on my views of the current state of education and sent me to Coventry. As she didn't share her reasons with me, it was some considerable time before I found out why I was being ignored. (Yes, I know - teachers - men among boys, boys among men. It is relevant to women too!)
6. Tell us something random which happened as a result of blogging.
Our holiday in France this year was the result of a comment left on my blog by Yorkshire Pudding's brother, Robin, who runs the gite that we stayed at. A very happy random event, as we had a great time there.
7. Snog, marry or avoid - pick another blogger for each.
Hmm, well, as Keith will be reading this, maybe I'd better not answer. Seriously though, I have 'met' lots of fellow bloggers through comments and my bloglist and all have been friendly and charming. I have only met one in real life, Yorkshire Pudding but would love to meet more. The only one I would avoid is the character who started leaving rather childish and spiteful comments at one time but who fortunately now seems to have disappeared.
8. What’s your most amusing blog memory?
Not sure really. I have often smiled and laughed out loud at fellow bloggers' posts and comments but I can't think of one particular incident.
Now, anyone who would like to take up this particular baton and run with it is most welcome.

One smoking cigar

There have been many times when I have listened to news items on TV or radio and had difficulty in believing what I was hearing. There have been times when I've sneaked a look at the calendar to ensure that the date was not April 1st, but this evening, I was rooted to the sofa in disbelief as I heard this item about the Welsh Culture Minister, Rhodri Glyn Thomas. This is a man who has made one or two gaffes in past weeks, admittedly and is reputed to be a bit of a character, so he must have done something REALLY serious this time because he is telling everyone he doesn't expect to be still in his job by the end of today.
What he actually did was to light a cigar outside in the designated smoking area at a local pub and then absent-mindedly wander back inside with it still in his hand, although he immediately went back outside when his mistake was pointed out to him.
Naturally such an action must surely rank alongside robbery, violence, fraud, you name it and obviously the dastardly villain should not only lose his job but be hung, drawn and quartered.
You know, just when you think things in our world can't get any more ridiculous, hey presto - they do.

Let the children play

One of the features on TV this morning was a recent report which proclaims - wait for it - that it is a 'Good Idea' to let children play freely; as opposed to carting them around from one structured activity or another for the whole of their spare time. One has to wonder how many man hours, brain cells and milions of pounds were needed in order to come up with this world-shattering conclusion and what planet these 'experts' currently inhabit.
When I were a lass... yes, I know that is more than a few months ago, school holidays stretched before us as an endless source of pleasure and delight. OK, maybe there was the odd time when I complained of being bored, but it didn't happen often; of that I am sure.
Keith and I were talking this morning about the sort of things we used to get up to in our holidays and spare time. I recalled my sister and myself giving impromptu concerts to longsuffering parents and neighbours. (I taught myself to play the piano - badly and basically, it's true, but I enjoyed it.)
As we didn't have a car, the garage provided space for our museum, pride of place in which was taken by the stuffed red squirrel donated by a neighbour and I even used to produce a museum magazine. Heaven knows what I found to put in it, but it used to cover three sides of foolscap paper. (No A4 paper size then.) Then there was the allotment. Now I was never a keen gardener but I used to enjoy collecting minibeasts, especially the yellow striped snails, which then ended up in the museum as live exhibits.
When I was about eight, I had a much disapproved of friend, ( always in trouble) who came round to play in the summer holidays. On the first day, we took the hood off my sister's doll's pram and made a swing of it. The problem arose when we fixed it to the clothes line, which then completely collapsed when we tried to sit in it. The following day, my friend, Veronica went up to the bathroom and somehow dropped a glass jar into the wash basin. I did try to pretend that the resulting crack was really an indelible stain but the game was up when water started leaking the next time someone went to use it. After that, Veronica was banned.
Keith, of course, being a boy, went for bolder pursuits, like walking along the top of a hedge (how?) and making an underground den with his friends, in which they lit a fire and attempted to fry bacon and eggs, narrowly missing asphixiation, I'm sure.
These days, he'd probably be taken into care.