Different weekend....

Out in the Snow

Do you like our Snow Cat?

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Well, we didn't have the weekend we'd planned.

We were meant to be off to Oxford to visit with Greg in his new flat. He wanted to take us to the Pitt Rivers Museum - which is meant to be full of weird and wonderful exhibits brought back by intrepid Victorian explorers. Things like shrunken heads and body art and other wonders. Nathan wanted to take me to Mission Burritos as he loves the Mexican fast food they do and I wanted to go to Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant which Greg says is pretty good.

However all those plans went awry with the arrival of the snow. We did hope for a while it might not be too bad but halfway through Friday we decided we'd be safer staying at home.

Poor Tracy had a hair-raising journey to the library. It usually takes just 8 minutes - it took her 45 minutes in the snow. Then when she'd been there for just half an hour the boss called to say the libraries were closing. So she had to drive back home again! Luckily she was okay :-) She'd had one customer in that time - who seemed shocked that the library was closing - she didn't think it was that bad!

So we spent all of Friday indoors looking at the white stuff through the windows.

Outside the French Windows

Through the kitchen window

By Saturday we were fed-up of staying indoors and wanted to enjoy the snow a bit and get some fresh air! So we went out for a walk - over the marshes to May Bank and The Victoria pub. This is a busy place - but when we got there the car park was empty. Reassuringly, the lights were on so we went in and the was the wonderful smell of carvery. Sat atop the gleaming stainless steel was a huge turkey - complete and as yet uncarved. There were a couple of other people in there and the bar and kitchen staff. So we took of out hats and gloves and scarves and outer coats and sat down. It was lovely. We had warming drinks - I had some of Stone's Ginger Wine and Nathan has Christmas flavoured beer - called Frosty Bells. Quite suited to the conditions I think you'll agree :-)

We did go for the Carvery and it was delicious. it was so nice and warm in thee we didn't want to go back out into the cold. We lingered by the Quiz Machine and tried to win some money out of it by playing Monopoly. Sadly we didn't make a profit - mainly due to not knowing who won the FA Cup in 2008 and which baseball player had the best average in 1998.

It was fun though! Then we steeled ourselves, wrapped up again and went back outdoors to make the trek home through deep snow. We were quite disappointed that no-one had built a snowman on the Marshes - there was so much of the stuff. So, when we got back home we went into the back and built our own Snow Cat.

Today (Sunday) we once again have stayed in. We haven't been to Cheadle or Stone to see parents. I Skyped my mum and dad - so we could see they were fine!

I am just a bit worried as it has begun to snow again and I have to return to work tomorrow. I find it very scary driving in snow and ice but Nathan has said that he'll take me if it looks bad.

Hope things are okay wherever you are!

xx

Snow - good or bad?

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Well snow is certainly pretty - but as we are meant to be driving down to Oxford this weekend I'm not so sure I love it that much. :-)

I do have Friday and Saturday off so if it gets too bad we'll just have to snuggle up in front of the fire and catch up with some Dexter. That is my current favourite TV show and I still have a long way to go to catch up to the current series. That's a GOOD thing - so many more episodes to look forward to. Nathan and I are just finishing watching both Dr Who and Torchwood from the beginning. Well - since Christopher Eccleston (my fave Doctor)  - not Patrick Troughton and all those....

We've had a few boiler problems recently - and had to call our the Glow-worm man in the end. He fixed the problem - then turned it off and got us to sign a form saying that we know it is not quite right and it's our responsibility if we switch it back on. Of course we did - and it is working so much better now!

It seems that the problem is that the gas pipe supplying the boiler is not the correct diameter - too narrow. So that could potentially mean that if we had the heating and hot water going - it could lessen the supply to the hob. If we'd left something cooking on there then the flame could go out only for the gas to come back through later when the heating was off. This could be dangerous - unless we keep an eye on things when we are cooking them. Which we do anyway - so I'm not too worried.

We will have to get the problem fixed though - otherwise we won't be able to have a new boiler fitted - or sell the house! A job for summer I think. We have no idea where the gas pipe goes between coming in at the front of the house and popping up by the boiler right at the back of the house - so it could be a very messy job (pulling up my tiled kitchen floor and/or my solid cherry wood floor in the lounge and hall) So it could be costly too - looks like this summer won't be the one where we go to Las Vegas either.

Still - something to work towards and look forward to for a little longer :-)

In Library news we had another famous poet at my library. This time it was John Lindley - the Cheshire Poet Laureate. He was so nice and friendly. Sadly I didn't get to go into the session with the Keele Poets - as it was a day when we were open. However he looked very happy when he came out and said that they were a great group. He asked where they could go and get a coffee - so I directed them up to The Bush pub. There are no coffee shops in Silverdale. I think there's a gap in the market here....

So, I think the session went really well. I think Nine Lives of the Cat is my favourite poem I've read of his.
I discovered also that Julia Donaldson had written a blog about when she came to Silverdale - have a look here.

Colin and Dilys on the occasion of his birthday.

I wonder who we should invite next??


We had a celebration this week - it was Nathan's dad's birthday on the 12th January. We went to The Crown in Stone and had a wonderful meal in their Holland's Restaurant. Very English fare - I had braised steak - which was so tender, N and his mum had lamb chops and the birthday boy had steak pie. All served with seasonal vegetables and delicious dauphinoise potatoes. Yummy.



On the health side of things - I am feeling great. I have a couple of appointments in the first week of February. one is with physio - so he can check whether I have been keeping up with my exercises! The other will be my check-up.

Hope all of you are keeping well - and warm!

xx

More festive photos

Playing games at Dom and Sharon's
 

New Year's Eve hats!

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Hi
I am writing this on my new (very small) laptop. Thanks to my parents :-)
It is a great Christmas present - much lighter, smaller and quicker to fire up than my previous one. That is twice the size, really heavy and takes so long to get going you have time to go and have a shower while waiting for something to happen. It must be over 7 years old - which is positively geriatric for a computer these days!

The new one is an Asus - with touch screen and Windows 8. The most impressive thing though is that  - it fits in my handbag!! I am very impressed :-)

My dad popped his tiny memory card from his camera into it - and it downloaded over 150 photos on less than 10 seconds - and put them into their own folder.

So I thought I'd share a few here....

Enthusiastic Party Popper Action!

Laura, Nathan and Me toast the New Year

Aftermath........

Happy New Year!

Christmas at The Wheatsheaf

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Happy New Year to you all. I can't believe that the Festive Season has been and gone. I have to take my Christmas tree down this weekend.

For now though I'm relaxing in bed with a big box of Dairy Box chocolates. I was just thinking - while I tried to choose one I actually like - what they used to be like. I loved them when you got Turkish Delight and that wafer one. All those flavoured creams ones too - they were yummy!  There is nothing like that at all! All praline and truffle. I don't think I'm sophisticated enough for these :-)

Mr C telling me about his Christmas :-)

Anyway - I am back at work properly now and we have been really busy today. Seems like everyone is getting back to normal. it was great!

Mr C was in telling me about how well his New Year has begun - with winners on the horses!

 Next week we get all the classes back too - and the Poets are starting off the New Year with a bang - by having another Poetry workshop - this time with John Lindley, Cheshire's Poet Laureate.

Parents at Christmas :-)

Dominic, Sharon and Sarah modelling their Christmas jumpers!

I had such a lovely Christmas Day - it was so stress-free going out for lunch. I have to say that The Wheatsheaf in Cheadle did a fantastic job. It was wonderful. They seated 13 of us in our own area with plenty of room and the Christmas Tree. They even took photos of us all and put them on their Facebook Page. The food was so nice - thee was a free Buck's Fizz on arrival and four courses, including a cheese platter for everyone. They even coped with a vegetarian and a vegan! Hopefully Nathan's parents didn't feel too outnumbered by the Ashtons! It was great to have everyone together. :-) I really enjoyed it.

Also had a wonderful birthday - on New Year's Eve. N took me to see a film that I've been dying to see - The Life of Pi. We saw it in 3D - and it was breath-taking. Especially the opening sequences from Pondicherry Zoo. I just wanted to reach out and pet the animals. It was amazing!

I was so happy to see that the film stuck very close to the book - which we read in the Silverdale Book Group some time ago.

It was quite a feat! Nathan loved it too - it was very thought-provoking. Great stuff! I would recommend it.

Had a nice birthday party at my parents on NYE too. We saw the New Year in - in style!

Cheeseboard

I am sure that 2013 is going to be a great year!

Now I just need to finish these chocolates - then I can get back to healthy eating!!


Happy Christmas Everyone!

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Hello!

It's Christmas Eve!!! It has been a busy day - as I'm sure it has been for all of you too.

I actually got up at 6am in order to be at Marks and Spencer's by 7am. We did make it for 7.20 and although it wasn't rammed there were quite a few people in the food section. That's what we'd gone for too!
We did see a huge queue stretching out into the street - it turns out they were waiting to pick up pre-ordered shopping. There were we breezing round and there was no queue at the till at all! It was pretty good - I might do that again next year :-)

We got back home before 9am and I had time to get ready to go to the hospital for my final appointment for the year. The waiting room was deserted and we didn't have to wait long to be seen. It was jolly Mr Uppal who was as happy as ever. I had brought him a tin of biscuits for the team to share at tea-break time. I thought lots of people would have brought them things - with it being Christmas - but he seemed very surprised and pleased :-)

He asked how I was doing - and whether I was eating and swallowing okay. I told him I was feeling great and could eat anything.  he felt my neck and then looked down my throat with the camera. He said that everything looking good. he also said that since I was doing so well then he could extend the time between check-ups to six weeks. Time off for good behaviour!

I was quite happy with that.

Things are getting pretty exciting for Nathan and his Windows8 app INTERFERENCE - he is featured on the front page of the Microsoft Windows 8 store! That means that we've had loads more players signing up for it. Also - if it stays on the front page tomorrow for Christmas day all the people with new laptops, tablets etc might download it too. He's having a mad rush tonight to move to a new server to cope with all the extra players. :-) Hopefully he'll be done before Santa arrives.......

I had a lovely week in the library with Tracy. It was pretty quiet - I guess most people were Christmas shopping but we found plenty to do. I completed my Quarterly Report and we had a lot of new books delivered that needed processing through the system. We did consider painting the library a seasonal RED colour - but we got some customers in then so we didn't get round to it. :-)

Bet they felt embarrassed when it didn't happen....

We were quite happy that the world didn't end on Friday 21st as we really didn't want to miss Christmas this year!

Some people cashed in on it though - as you can see in this poster from the Crown and Anchor in Stone.


 In the photos from last year I have a big plaster over my neck where I'd had a biopsy on 21st December. I didn't know at that point that it was cancer - they didn't confirm it until 9th January.



Christmas 2011

I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas - and more importantly a very Happy New Year!

This has been quite a year for me - and although I am glad it is all done with it has been a very interesting and uplifting experience.

I have received some wonderful medical care from Mr Hughes, Mr Rowlands, Mr Uppal, Julian of the Awesome hat and many others. Especially my Oncologist Mrs Gahir and Wendy - the special nurse.  - and amazing love and encouragement from friends, family and especially Nathan. I couldn't have got through it without him!

 It has been quite a year and I'm really looking forward to seeing what 2013 brings.

Week Off :-)

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I had a lovely week off - needed time to do some Christmas shopping and clean the house in time for seasonal visitors!


Singing at The King's Hall

The week started well last Saturday when we went to see my good friend Janet's choir in a sell-out concert at the King's Hall in Stoke. It was so popular that we couldn't park anywhere near the hall - we had to walk quite a way to get there.
We were worried that we might miss the beginning but it turns out that the choir had had a small problem of their own. They had travelled from  Stafford on two coaches and when they got as far as Trentham roundabout they were picked up by a police escort. The police on motorbikes signalled for the coach drivers to follow them and promptly took them to Port Vale Football Club! They thought that they were away fans going to the match. The police were totally embarrassed when they boarded the buses and were faced with only women in evening dresses! Luckily the choir thought it was hilairious!

It even made The Sun, The Telegraph - and The Sentinel.

 They did go ahead with the Christmas concert though - and it was great fun. The first half were songs about love and relationships. The second half was all Christmas songs - with two sections where the audience were invited to sing along. It was great! Went to Hanley on Wednesday to try to get some presents. Did quite well actually. Thursday night we decided to pop over to our local The Wulstan for a well-deserved drink as we had spent the last few days rearranging and sorting out the office at home.

We were sat at a cosy table for two by the window - looking out at the frosty night from the warmth of the pub when the barmaid came over and asked if we would mind moving. She said there was going to be some entertainment on - so they needed the space where we were.



Tonight with Pat and Chris

We moved further down the pub while a couple of guys set up their equipment. We weren't sure what to expect but we thought we'd just have a drink then walk back home.

However, when they started they were amazing! They had guitars, a keyboard and a saxophone - as well as a tambourine. Before each song they recorded a back beat - using the tea chest that Chris was sat on as a drum and the tambourine and a shaky thing that made a rattling noise. Then they sang - songs by Oasis, Dire Straits (Fantastic version of Sultans of Swing)  and even one song by The Smiths (which impressed me greatly!) They both had really good voices and swapped around on the instruments - so were equally good at playing anything.

We were enjoying it so much we stayed until they finished their set and everyone had to go.
It was an unexpected pleasure :-)

In medical news this week: I went back to physio at the local hospital early Friday morning. I could report some progress with lifting my arm straight up - and also that the tingling in my hands was still gone. He told me to keep up the exercises and come back in 6 weeks. Scarily - my next appointment is in February!

Then when I came back from there we jumped back into the car and drove off to Stockport. I had an appointment at the BioBank This is what they are about - according to their website:


"UK Biobank is a major national health resource, and a registered charity in its own right, with the aim of improving the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of serious and life-threatening illnesses – including cancer, heart diseases, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, eye disorders, depression and forms of dementia. UK Biobank recruited 500,000 people in 2006-2010 from across the country to take part in this project. They have undergone measures, provided blood, urine and saliva samples for future analysis, detailed information about themselves and agreed to have their health followed. Over many years this will build into a powerful resource to help scientists discover why some people develop particular diseases and others do not."


I went a few years ago - there was a testing place in Hanley - I don't know if you remember it. Now they are recalling 20,000 of those half a million people to come back and have the tests and checks all over again. When I got the letter I said yes right away. Obviously with what I have been through this year I feel that medical research is more important than ever!

I was there about an hour and a half. They start with an online questionnaire about your lifestyle - what you eat, what you do, how much exercise you do, whether you ever feel down or depressed.
After that I was whisked off to get my eyes tested - with all the machines you normally see in the opticians. That was funny because the optician doing the tests seemed obsessed with my shoes! He wanted to know what they were, where I'd bought them and how much they were. he said "Ive seen that technology before!" I told him they were Sketchers and call "Just Walk" and were very comfy indeed. The soles are like big bubbles and they really are like walking on air!

After that I had to get my blood pressure tested, my height and weight recorded and my bone density, heart rate and artery stiffness measured. Seems my arteries are still very bendy and my bones are still dense - so that it good! my pulse was good too - but my blood pressure is a bit high. I need to do something about that.

The next booth was the exercise! This was the most fun. I had to cycle for 6 minutes and keep the revs up to 60 the whole time. It made it harder and harder as she increased the resistance - but I did it okay.

After that it was the turn of the vampires to take my blood (7 vials of it!!!) then I was given a pot and a tube and asked to provide urine and saliva samples in the privacy of the loo. There was a fridge in there to put them in when you'd done.



Lego Harry Potter

Then I was free to go. Not until we had eaten some of the free sandwiches and mince pies and satsumas they had thoughtfully provided for us. Nathan had been sat in the waiting room which had free drinks, magazines to read and a huge TV to watch. So it wasn't too bad for him.

 

  So being close to Manchester we thought we'd pop into the Trafford Centre and try and finish off the Christmas shopping. it was a vile day with torrential rain and cold winds. The car parks at the TC were full - with people parking on grass verges and anywhere else they could find! We did eventually find a spot and battled through the wind and rain into John Lewis.





Harry Potter and the Lego Christmas Tree

The Trafford Centre was beautifully decorated for the season - but we were particularly impressed by the Harry Potter and tall Christmas Tree made entirely out of Lego!
Someone must have spent a LOT of hours doing that! We didn't stay too long but I did enjoy going round Selfridges food hall and the Harvey Nicholls pop-up shop where we sampled Rhubarb Vodka made in Hereford out of potatoes! Very nice it was too!

So my week off comes to an end. I am looking forward to being back at work for the week before Christmas with Tracy. In fact the day I go back in on Monday - it's her birthday!! We were both December babies it seems :-)

 

 





All Quiet on the Western Front

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It's been a pretty quiet day in The Library. I guess the weather didn't help - it didn't really get light until lunchtime and the rain was cascading down the roads on the way to work. I wouldn't have ventured out if I didn't have to. Also I suppose lots of people are off Christmas shopping and doing other things to prepare for the coming celebrations.

 

We did have the last French class before Christmas - there were around 20 of them - all in pretty good sprits. "We're in the Alps" on lady enigmatically told me when they emerged for coffee at half-time. One thing I will say about the French class - the coffee they make smells divine! I hate coffee - but theirs smells just gorgeous. Definitely not your run-of-the-mill instant.

 

No lace ladies today - as they finished last week so that this Tuesday they could go for their Christmas Meal. They kept it traditional and went to Buffet Island - the Chinese restaurant down the road from our house.

 

Talking of celebrations - one of our regular customers (in at least three time a day!!) Mr Coxon had a birthday yesterday - he was 79! He is the one that we taught how to use Facebook - so he could talk to his son abroad - and see what he was getting up to. He came in this morning and told me he had a hangover. His son (now home) and ex-wife had taken him out for the evening. It seems that they got through most of the bottle of Irish whiskey that Tracy and I got him for his birthday. No wonder he had a headache and couldn't think straight :-0

 

He did make me laugh when he told me that his son had decided to stay over with him - and when he went to close the curtains he pulled the whole lot down on top of him! He described it like something out of Fawlty Towers. I think they managed to get them back up by using the fittings from the bathroom curtains. Sounded like quite a palaver!

 He says he doesn't feel 79!

 

 

Forgot to say that we put our tree up at the weekend too.

here are a few pictures. Boodle cat was pretty excited - by the empty box that the tree had come out of. Then he got bored of sitting in that and fell asleep.

 

This is how excited Boodle was....

The Finished Tree

Black tree - Silver decorations :-)

 

I am quite excited though :-)