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Tuesday 28 August 2012

Para-Olympic's start tomorrow and I feel more excited for it than I did when the Olympic Ceremony a few weeks ago. There is hardly any noticeable chaos on transport links at the moment and hopefully, it will stay that way. I am intending to watch the young girl with 'dwarfism' who got Gold in the Beijing Olympics and who is now 17 years old. I will be keeping an eye on her definetely. Today I got a second Christmas Present. Wanna see....
We had our Summer Fete at the care home on Saturday and in between the downpour's of rain, I managed to get to a China stall. This cup, saucer and tea plate was only a £5 and it's a discontinued design of Minton ware. I love it. I checked the actual price on ebay and other specialist websites and it turns out the teacup alone sells for £14.99 so I got a good bargain. I didn't do much the weekend, I have slowly progressed on the Lily Blanket and have only 8 'willow' squares to complete and then I can crack on finishing it. On Sunday I went to an outlet shop of Thornton's and bought these for a bargain. Just £3 instead of £6 and they are sitting at my bed side table with only a few missing..I swear..only a few.
I am off now to do a bit more crocheting and to watch a bit of gems.tv. Don't you think that tv at the moment is a bit boring. Nothing decent on, not even a good documentary and I would absolutely love to get a crafting channel like they do in USA, I think its called PBS cause they broadcast Knitting Daily TV. Oh well...dream on.

Monday 27 August 2012

Oops! Can't believe its been over a week since I posted last. I haven't been doing much other than going to work and doing the usual chores of household duties. I have been jogging but no weight loss this past week (that's cause I keep eating crap) and have only really been doing my crochet. Wanna see....
The blocks are called 'willow' and 'briar rose' and there is a block that I designed myself. There is also one block on its own called 'lily' with blue background because that's the name of the 3 year old girl who is going to receive the blanket for christmas. She has got the most gorgeous big blue eyes you have ever seen. Has anyone noticed that its dark by 8pm now, looks like winter is on its way again. Once August is finished, it seems that the rest of the year rushes past. Only 4 months till Christmas (Yikes). Oh well, I am off now to get ready for work but just wanted to make sure you knew I was still around. The para-olympics start tomorrow and I might watch some of that because lets face it, people with disabilities have to work double hard to achieve their goals. Catch ya later.

Wednesday 15 August 2012

Do you remember these two tree's I posted about around earlier in the year,
and obviously, this was taken when we had some serious fog. I love walking through the park at various times of the day and when you first walk in, these two tree's greet you. Especially when its springtime and they blossom together and join like holding hands. Anyway, the tree to the right has GONE. Yes, GONE. It didn't get any blossom on it this year and sadly, it had died. I noticed a few weeks ago some graffiti marks on it but alas, F said that they are probably going to cut it down. THEY DID! There is nothing left, and that poor tree is standing all lonely. Now I know if my friend Jo is reading this, she will think 'you sad cow, just go and hug the damn tree', but I can't do that. Not when there are people around. I am hoping to catch the Park Keeper to see if they have any plans to put a new one there! Watch this space.
Do you like our corner. We picked up some Bamboo Screening from Wilkinsons at the Heathway a few weeks ago and then planted up some geraniums. We got a bargain at Homebase too, a Palm Tree that was £3.99 instead of £20. It needed looking after a bit but after around 4 weeks, its thriving. We also got some Canna Lilly's and they are thriving, my first Canna Lilly will be flowering soon and we can't wait...here's a pic of it
The garden is coming on a treat now and all I really have to do is do the wood treatment on the decking. It won't last another winter so had better get my finger out soon and get it protected. I went back to work this week and so far, so good. Missed my mates Jo and Paul but everything is back to normal now. I have been jogging of an evening and managed 2.3 miles yesterday evening. (couldn't breath much or walk much afterwards) I spent an hour doing another square for Lilly's blanket....
and am now cooking some chicken for dinner. That's about it folks...will post again in a few days when something exciting happens....

Sunday 12 August 2012

Day 13...Olympic Closure & Annual Leave Over. Yep, where has the two weeks gone? Back to work tomorrow and the Olympic Closing Ceremony starts at 9pm tonight. (That's in 40 minutes). I spent the day catching up with housework and preparing for work tomorrow, plus I finished the 16 green square's called 'willow' for Lilly's Christmas Blanket. Wanna See....
I shall be starting the next 16 squares in a mo and I intend to do 'Briar Rose' out of Jan's book. I forgot how much I enjoy my crocheting and how addictive it can be. We went over my brother D's for dinner and Michelle cooked us a lovely meal and we were totally stuffed. We got back around 7pm and now intend to relax cause we are both knackered. F has got his head in a book again and I am writing this, but alas, not for much longer. I hope that those who have been reading my blog for the past two weeks have enjoyed it and I will keep it updated regular now that I know I am getting read from time to time.

Saturday 11 August 2012

Day 12. Not much happening today. Had a lay in, after an uncomfortable warm night, went jogging and feet and legs have been aching a lot today. We went out to look for some plants and then walked into Romford. Oh yeah, funny thing happened today. Before we went to Romford, I went into Boot's at Heathway and bought a Max Factor Mascara. Anyway, went to Romford, walked into WH Smiths and the alarm went off and thought nothing of it. When we came out, it went off again so we went to security who rummaged through my shopping bag and said it was the Mascara. Apparently, the security tag on the mascara had not been deactivated at Boot's. Weird really, considering we had gone in and out of a few other shops before we went into Smith's and the alarm wasn't set off then. Oh well, that was about the highlight of the day! We got home around 4pm and ended up having a nap, whilst F read his book. Then had dinner, walked dog and tonight, decided to watch 'knitabulls' podcast. Hopefully, will have a bit more news to post on here tomorrow...night night cause I am tuckered out.

Friday 10 August 2012

Day 11..Olympic Wrist Bands & More
Why did I put these two pictures on here? Well, after my recent trips to London and experiencing the travelling, the few crowds, seeing the sites and feeling the atmosphere I was going to purchase a 'souvenier' for my blog but when I saw the prices of Olympic Mugs, Bags and T-Shirts I thought again. I don't have a tight purse but refuse to pay 'tourist' prices for something that should be available to all. Anyway, that's Moan 1 over with.
When we were in London, we got our lunch at McDonald's, I love McDonald's as a treat, and you get a free Coca Cola Glass with Olympic 2012 embossed on and an Olympic 2012 Wrist Band. (In the photo you can see there is a red one and white one). I obviously can't send glass in the post abroad but thought, 'some people can't afford McDonald's or even have a outlet near them' so as a 'GIVEAWAY' I wanted to send out the two Olympic 2012 Wrist bands to the first person who comments on my post. I know its not much but just think, they were purchased in Central London during the Olympic Games. Day 11 was a quite stay in day. I am glad I did stay in cause it was absolutely baking outside. I ended up getting a heat rash on my shin bone on both legs by mid day. I watched loads of podcasts yesterday, Knitabulls, Around The Twist, The Knit Girlls and even tried a couple of new ones and I made quite a lot of progress on my next crochet project...wanna see.
I ended up doing 12 green 'willow' squares and saved the last few rounds for when I go up to Kent tomorrow. I will be dog sitting 3 gorgeous little Jack Russell Terrier's so I will have something to do whilst watching a bit of tv and sitting in the garden. The weather forecast is suppose to be 'heatwave' so I won't be doing much jogging either. I might wait till late evening to see if I can get in an hour's worth. By about 3pm I had an urge to bake so I ended up baking a homemade Syrup Sponge Pudding. I got the book from the Charity Shop in Romford and I intend to make more from it because just look how it came out..
It came out of the dish quite easily and was expecting the syrup to run down the side of the pudding but it didnt, pooh. It seemed to have got soaked up in the sponge. Never mind, it was very tasty and I even made another one to take over with me tomorrow. That's all for today folks, have a good day.

Thursday 9 August 2012

Day Ten....Went jogging and did 4 miles all round, that was a big achievement for me. I ended up meeting F at his Mum's and decided to take Tammie with me on the two trains and a bus. She was really good, well, apart from when she shuvved her nose into the ladies shopping bag when we were on the bus. The woman was only stroking her and her nose went straight in to sniff what she has. She did laugh. We ended up going to Danson Park in Welling, Kent for an hour and it was relaxing. Then on the way out Tammie decided to roll around in duck pooh and had to put up with her smell on the bus and trains coming home. It wasn't nice, cause the Jubilee Train from North Greenwich Station was packed and I had to hold Tammie in my arms and kept getting a whiff of her (she didn't care). She had a bloody good shower when we got in and she still stinks of it now.. That's about it really. Did some housework when I got home, my brother D and his daughter came over for a while and then we went to bed to watch a film. Sorry folks, I know its sounds boring but trust me, it wasn't for me. Tomorrow, I am going to have a lay in, watch some podcasts and chill cause F is out working tomorrow with his family. By the way, thank you, I have had 32 page views today.

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Day Nine..Shopping & Leadenhall, London Before I start this post, I forgot to put this picture on here from the Olympic walk around London.
This is a back turning on the way to Bishopsgate called Leadenhall Market. I thought it looked very 'british'. Can you see the 'hotel chocolat' shop on the right, very nice but very pricey. Cobble street, victorian like building's that have such a lot of character. I would love to sit there and watch the world go by. I would suggest to anyone to look Leadenhall Market up on google.
This next picture you see is of some building work's going on in London. It's right near Liverpool Street and if you look hard enough, to the left of the photo, you can see the 'gherkin' as we call it here in London. The reason I took this picture is because how on earth can they build such high, big buildings in such a small space with such restrictions all around. Yep, didn't do much today other than went to Romford to return an item at Marks & Spencers and then we got the bus to Upminster to have a look in Roome's at their China Sale. I stupidly broke a new mug that I absolutely love and we wanted to replace it but the store had sold the last 3 mugs so I ended up buying two salad bowls that match. I will keep an eye out for the mug in case it turns up in a charity shop...you never know.
What did we do next....we went home and then had a late dinner. I sat up and watched tv for a bit while crocheting a new project. I just love starting new projects, its exciting plus its the start of my christmas craft list I want to get going on. I purchased the yarn at Roome's too and it was quite reasonable. It's acrylic of course, because lets face it, a child's blanket is going to get a good bashing.
It's a square called 'willow' out of Jan Eaton's 200 crochet blocks book. I have 16 to make of these in this colour combination. I also finished off a birthday present. Its a crocheted blanket, pillow and bag for a child's toy pram. It didn't take as long as I thought and I enjoyed making it. Oh well, am off to sort some dinner out. Bye for now.

Monday 6 August 2012

Day Eight..London not Dovercourt. We intended to go to Dovercourt for the day today and checked online how much the train fares would be. It said £12 from Liverpool Street so we made our way this morning and it was quite a busy train. Got to Liverpool Street, went to the Ticket Office and was told, wait for it, £33 each return. I won't write on here what we said, and walked out. Then we had the dilema of what to do for the day so we decided to have a wander around London again. Here is a load of photo's I took, can you recognise any of the buildings.
The first picture is a close up of St Paul's Cathedral and the other two photo's are of a beautiful little square garden that is at the side of the Cathedral. It's so pretty with loads of pink flowers and the fountain is gorgeous. I decided as soon as I saw it that I would call it 'Ladies Garden'.
The next photo is obviously, of an old fashioned London telephone box. You don't see many of them now and if you do they are probably vandalised with the phone broken. This telephone box was opposite the 'Ladies Garden' and I just had to take a photo of it for my blog.
If you look close enough at this next picture, you will see 'The Shard' to the right which is the tallest building, London Bridge in the background to the left and a train going across the middle. You can just see the Olympic Rings hanging down from London Bridge but here is a closer picture for you.
We walked across the Millenium Bridge which is suppose to 'wobble' a bit during windy weather and there was soft classical type music playing as you walked across it. The tide was out on the Thames and you could see the green water marks up the sides and black sooted rocks. There were boats along the edge that are nightclubs and the Police were patrolling the river too. We then walked across Waterloo Bridge and I turned to take this photo of 'The London Eye'.
We then walked along Albert Embankment to Waterloo Bridge and then went to the Strand to McDonalds and saw a lovely old fashioned shop that sold Cashmere Jumpers etc. I wanted to take a photo of the shop window but wasnt sure if I was allowed. It was decorated in such a way that was so old fashioned but makes you want to stand there for ages to take it all in visually. We bought McDonald's McFlurry ice cream and ate it in St Martin's in the Fields Church Yard, (this church opens every morning with a 'food kitchen' for the homeless) and then went to Charing Cross Road and into Leicester Square. We went to Carnaby Street and popped into Liberty's but wasn't in there very long. It is so expensive it's unreal. We went up to the third floor to the Yarn Dept and saw some gorgeous yarns but also at 'expensive' prices. We came out of there very quickly and walked up to Oxford Street because I wanted to find the John Lewis Store which has a great craft section but gave up to look for it and by then we were ready to head home so we got the tube from Tottenham Court Road back to Mile End and home. I would like to say that it was so nice to see Oxford Street again, (its only the second time I walked down there) but I don't know how people can, or would want to walk and go shopping there of a weekend. It was quite busy and your constantly playing 'dodgems' to walk around. I noticed quite a lot of the clothing shops like Next, Gap, Hugo Boss etc were all empty so I wonder how can they even stay open. If it was my business I would worry that there was no customer's walking in. Anyway, that's enough to bore you all with. I had 41 page views yesterday, WOW. Thank You.

Sunday 5 August 2012

Day Seven..Sunday. I just finished updating yesterday's activities and now here is what I have been doing today (Sunday). I wanted to spend the day home catching up on chores around the house and spending time with Tammie. F went out for a short while to local shops and was lucky, cause when he got into Wilkinsons, the heaven's opened and we had a short storm but a very big downpour of rain. I went jogging this morning, that's 3 times this week, and then got as many of the chores done as I could. I wanted to get an early dinner done and have a second go at making a coffee & walnut cake so that's what I did. I even cooked home made rice pudding and dinner was done and eaten by 3pm. The cake came out a bit better but take a look at the photo and see what you think.
The cake pans I used were from Robert Dyas store and were a bargain at £5 each. Luckily they were buy one, get one free in a sale and it makes a big different when you have got proper cooking tools. The cake itself so far looks ok but it is a little burnt around some of the edges. I decorated the middle of the cake with some 'preserve' from Lidl Food Stores and coffee butter cream. Then just finished it off with coffee butter cream and walnuts. Can't wait to have some later with a cuppa for my supper. I intend to spend the rest of the day chilling and hopefully, watching 'knitabulls' podcast which is my favourite. By the way, my page views are going up 20 at a time and its exciting that so many are reading my blog..thanks girls and guys.
Day Six..Shopping & Crafts
I can't believe I am almost to the end of my first week off, I don't want the two weeks to end, I love being with F and going out places and coming home knackered. It's so enjoyable to have someone who is interested in the same things. We went to our local shopping area and had a good look around the charity shops and then we had dinner in a cafe. It was a warm day and sun was shining. We got home around 5pm so I did some salad and then finished blocking the scarf I am knitting. I always fret when I hand wash something that's NOT made of acrylic and am so glad I didn't use the Blue Faced Leicester for socks cause they would have stretched something chronic. I am very pleased with it though and proud that its my own design.
I blocked it at first, on the ironing board with pins but when it took all of 6 hours to dry and was still curling up I decided to steam it with a tea towel over the top. I turned the scarf back to front so the iron would not damage the seed beads and it worked even better. You can wrap it twice around the neck and have a nice amount hanging for the autumn weather and you can easily wrap it 3 times around the neck for winter warm.....
I have just got to think up another idea to use the other skein of Blue Faced Leicester Sock Yarn..anyone got any ideas.

Saturday 4 August 2012

Day Five..Annual Leave. Olympic Crowds. Had a lay in for a while and then went and did a 1.5 mile jog. F went out to his family and I followed him later in the morning. F said that the trains were really quiet but that's because we were travelling on the edge of the olympic commuters. I left home about 8.10am and it was getting quite busy. At West Ham station where I have to go from the District Line to the Jubilee Line, people were queueing up to walk down the stairs to get to the other rail lines which was a bit weird. F told me to walk up the platform to the first carriage of the Jubilee train and I am glad that I did. It wasn't empty but was comfortable to ride those few stops to North Greenwich Station. I am not one for sports, never have been and the olympic's does not interest me. On my previous posts when we went to Convent Garden Market and The Strand, we were expecting a load of visitors to London and the country had planned for it but we were quite shocked as to how few people were around. Today, Friday, we were suppose to be getting a huge influx of people into West Ham Station and obviously Stratford Station because they have links direct to Olympic Park however, we were quite surprised that there was not such big crowds. We didn't leave till about 4pm and it still only took around an hour to get home which was a comfortable ride. We only live about 15 miles away from Central London and on a clear day you can see Canary Wharf, The Shard and the HSBC & Citi Bank Buildings. When we got home we just relaxed after walking Tammie. I finished knitting the scarf I am designing and it is still blocking as I write this so I will post a picture tomorrow. Oh well, am off to chill and enjoy the rest of the day. Ta ra for now...

Thursday 2 August 2012

Day Four..Annual Leave I have a new shower and this one actually works. I have lived in my house for 18 years now and there has always been a mixer tap in the bathroom and a shower attachment but it has only worked once. My brother David came over, after riding his bike for an hour an half and he fixed a new one for me. I christened it and was the first to have the shower plus I dont have to use a bucket to wash my hair anymore. I use to have to fill the bucket with warm water and use a cup to pour the water over my head but no more of that nonsense now. It took David a while to change it over because obviously he had to empty the water pipes after turning off the water supply and then it took him ages to get the old mixer taps off. Anyway, I wont bore you anymore with this nonsense cause it took the best part of the day to do. F came home about 3pm and shortly after David left we went to Upminster for a wander around. Its a posher area for charity shops and we had a stroll around, went into a few shops and got a non slip bath mat to put inside the bath so we don't slip over and break a bone. We then came home, I got fish and chips for us for dinner, walked Tammie and then I did some more of my knitting. I hope to finish it Friday night and I am very pleased with it. Got no photo's today cause I thought it would be boring of a shower head. My plans for Friday are all sorted so will update soon. Happy knitting folks.....by the way, my page views are increasing a lot at the moment and although no one is leaving any comments I just want to say THANK YOU for taking the time to read about my daily life.
Day Three, London. We went to Highbury & Islington to see a park called 'New River Walk' and when you walk through it, you don't realise your in London. Its so quiet, so beautifully green with trees and plants as old as the area and the wildlife is amazing. The river itself looks so peaceful and you wouldn't know there was a river there when you first walk in. It look's like a green tarmac because the water is so still and has got that green duck weed. Walking around you see some gorgeous houses that are 3 floors high and some have a basement and most have the high steps to the big front doors. It is a very pricey area and we looked in some estate agent windows and you dont get any change out of £1 million. We carried on walking around and F suggested we go up to The Strand. I thought it would be really busy but it wasn't at all. We went to Convent Garden Market too and the cute little shops with all knick knacks in was good to see. We also came across the yarn shop 'loop' but did not want to go in and then F suggested we go to Waterloo where my favourite yarn shop is. Thank god for google.com. We got out of Waterloo station and trust me, there are loads of exists from this station and we had to google Lower Marsh Street. We found the store called 'I Knit' in minutes and inside there were two cute little dogs alseep on the leather sofa. I had a quick look around at the yarn and its gorgeous but I decided to get myself some Addi Circular Knitting Needles size 2.25 for my sock knit a long in September with and all I need to get now is some sock yarn. They had some Zauberball Yarn for socks but it was quite expensive so I will have a look around for something a bit cheaper.
By the time we got the train back again, it was around 5pm and we were both knackered but it was a splendid day and thoroughly enjoyed it. I did have a delivery on Tuesday from Amazon.co.uk and got 3 balls of King Cole Riot Double Knit to make 3 christmas presents. I got a bargain cause I saved almost £2 on each ball of yarn compared to my local hobby centre.
Oh well, not much else to say other than Happy Knitting. I am spending Day Four indoors cause F is off to help his brother and I have my brother coming over to fit a shower and mixer taps. So I will be pottering around the house, possibly might even clean the bedroom windows.....so exciting!