Bonus

My very first Christmas at my job, I got a bonus, we all did. I got the impression it was done every year as a ‘thank you’. The following year the company moved premises and money has been short ever since. So I have not received any more bonuses. However, all employees and their partners are taken out to dinner on the last working day of the year. The three course dinner and wine on the table is all paid for. I now organise this dinner every year and everybody goes unless they have already left to go on holiday. This year; Gilberto and his family are returning home to Brazil for 6 weeks, Salvatore and his girlfriend will be returning to their home island of Sardinia for the festive season and Courtney, who is Jamaican but whose family mostly live in Canada, is going to see them.

Not sure Jon will be there either, as any day now his other half will be giving birth to their first child and I know they will be going to his partners, home town of Manchester, at Christmas time to show everybody the baby.

I love the cosmopolitan feel at work; language is never a problem when you have lots of skilled men working with their tools on wood. Woodwork /carpentry / joinery / cabinet making are the same where you come from / go to. My father and his father were both boat builders, so I have grown up with the smell of fresh timber or wood in the boat shed and surrounded by the most beautiful tools.

In those days, you would buy the metal part of the tool and hand work the handles, so everybody’s tools were unique to them. As part of your apprenticeship you would make your tool box. Here at work, everybody who is my age or older has a proper tool box but like everything about apprenticeships, it all changed in my generation (late 1970’s early 80’s) because parents wanted all their children to go to college. It didn’t work and now 30 years on there is a shortage of tradesmen. However, the guys who put up with the ridicule of doing a apprenticeship back then, are now doing well and tend to earn a more than decent wage.

I wanted to follow my Grandfather’s foot steps and become a boat builder ... but I was before my time and was not taken seriously, not by my family but by the boat building manufacturers. A GIRL wanting to be a boat builder, don’t be silly, we don’t take on girls!

However, I have practically always worked in the Marine Industry one way or another, I don’t now, Wiltshire being some way from the sea ... but I do work in a building, with lots of timber and just sometimes, when I leave my desk and go on the workshop floor, I help out with small jobs, which I love. To touch the rough or smoothness of timber and see it being worked into a beautiful 3-D object is still breathe taking for me.

Probably why I do the same thing with fabric, my bosses use to be at a loss with my skills at understanding, cutting lists, how to know all the requirements before setting a job. Until I explained that the only difference between woodwork and dressmaking, is the material i.e. wood or fabric and the tools to make ‘said item’.

– But I digress.

When I arrived at work this morning, this was waiting for me on the front door.

Not every secretary comes to work, and waiting for her are a brace of pheasants hanging on the door handle.

One of my bosses went to Scotland last week, shooting and as he had done very well, with enough birds to spare, he brought me two in, to take home for the family.

They are now wrapped up and in the boot of my car, ready to take home pluck, clean and freeze; I think they will be kept for Christmas time, what a treat.

And finally;

Please may I ask the person that has inadvertently borrowed my husband’s very special, extra large NASA mug. Which he has owned for 13 years, and left on the kitchen draining board at work, while he nipped to the ‘Gents’, that they put it back, where they found it because he is extremely upset and hacked off. I know; he rang me, to ‘moan’ at me, (we know this is not personal but just sometimes needs to be done in a safe environment) as soon as I got to my desk at work. I suggested that he wrote a group email, saying that who ever has taken it, must be a very brave person because this mug has never been washed properly in the 13 years of ownership and the wife now bands the mug from home!

3 July 2009

Ridgeway School 2009 Prom, held at the DeVere Hotel.

I just needed to share these photographs of Poppy and Kaan.

They had always promised each other that what ever happened at school, they would go to the Prom together. They were not actually going out with each other and hadn't been for quite some time however they both kept their promise to each other.

Kaan arrived with a beautiful red rose for Poppy.

Kaan's mum bought him a fantastic suit for the occasion and Poppy and Kaan went shopping at Swindon's Designer Outlet for the red shirt.

Our beautiful daughter : Poppy

Above, the back of the size 4 dress!

The front of the dress, and just peeping out the bottom a pair of saturn red shoes, that matched exactly.

Poppy, has a love for Ford Mustang’s, (just like her Daddy, who has owned two), so for her, there was no other car to go to the Prom in (and included in the price, was a drive around for Kaan on his own, picking Poppy up and a photo session, they were also picked up from the hotel after the prom and delivered home, and an added bonus; Daddy got a ride home to!)

Arriving at the hotel and the driver talking to the official photographer

Now do not get me wrong, there was lots of beautiful girls all dressed in stunning outfits, but I am proud as punch to say as Poppy stepped out of the car, the response was amazing. It was while we were all watching and listening to the recording, Noel had made, did we really hear all that was being said. Noel had said it was a great response but to hear all the ooh's and argh’s – well what can I say (picture a beaming smile).

The official photographer:

And the picture in the newspaper

And finally a bit of knitting ...

Last year a friend was selling some of her red lace yarn stash, I bought it all up, on the gamble that Poppy’s prom dress was going to be red. When the dress got bought just before last Christmas, Poppy and I matched up the ‘pillar box’ red lace weight cashmere yarn as the best match. Poppy picked the Forest Canopy Shawl, partially because she knew that I had knitted this particular pattern several times before and the betting was ... I would probably finish it in time!! However to make this shawl unique to Poppy, I used the crochet method and attached nearly 1000 beads, defiantly a labour of love and yes it was finished in plenty of time. However the UK was having its own little heat wave and evening temperatures were Mediterranean like and the shawl was not needed.

Not the most flattering of shawl photo's, however it shows the pattern off to a treat.

The Happy Ending : Kaan and Poppy have been going back out with each other for a couple of months now and are extremely happy with each other. As a family we are very comfortable with Kaan at home, he is a nice lad, with a good sense of humour and now at nearly 17, holds a very decent conversation, which is so important when your girlfriend's mum is a complete chatter box!!

A Duck Story

What do I say ...

I have written hundred of blogs, all with amazing photographs, keeping you up to date with my life. However these fantastic brain blogs, never ever make it to the real blog. I get frustrated, cross and even very upset with myself and then sulk and don’t bother – what am I like.

But I thought I would have a go today ...

I have so much to share, lots to share, but please do not hold you breathe, you all now know what I am like, a pretty crappy blog poster –opps.

My duck story,

Once upon a time, in Hamble-le-Rice, the village, where I was born and I have returned to several times in the past, for the first 40 years of my life. The last time of living there, I got some ducks, Poppy was just 2, she loved those ducks and would sit with them and cuddle them and they would sit between her chubby legs and be stroked and chatted too by this little girl who was struggling with severe epilepsy.

However one summer night, a fox, came and killed our ducks. They all had puncture marks in their necks, oh those poor ducks. Now these ducks did not go to waste, I tied and boxed them up and promptly took them to our local butcher, who plucked, prepared and sold them. I later heard that they were extremely succulent and had been enjoyed by other villagers. All I asked was for the feathers. I still have those feathers in my loft; they may just come in useful for something, sometime.

This was all 14 years ago, now bringing the story up to date ...

Approximately a month ago, I went on my first Gardeners Club coach trip, to the Malvern Autumn Show. The weather was superb, the right sort of warm, the ground was dry and this all helped to make everybody relaxed.

I spent a lovely day, looking round the large livestock, which included two Bearded Collies (same breed as my Hannah, but from a different part of the country). There was the biggest vegetable show/competition marquee I have ever seen. A big shed with beautiful flower arrangements and more vegetables. Craft tents by the dozen, flower sellers, clothes sellers, you name it for a country fair it was all there.

Including ducks, beautiful ducks and especially two Indian Runner ducks (1 x drake and 1x female), I bought them, £50.00 for the pair. I bought them at the end of the day, and then slowly walked back to my coach.

The coach driver, looked at me, looked at my box and at first said “they will have to go in the hold”, “ok, I said as long as they are boxed in and breathe, this is not a problem”, but he then changed his mind and said “do you have a spare seat next to you? “I said I can move and then I will”. So that is what I did, I sat the box on my jumper (you know just in case, didn’t want the seat to get damp!)

The ducks were beautifully behaved and sat quiet for the whole journey home. My friends and other members of the club thought I was barmy and laughed but all agreed they were lovely ducks.

Now the next bit, Noel and I had talked about getting ducks this decision took a few years (Noel takes his time over this sort of thing, I did not bring the subject up again. He would do, every now and again and then out of the blue, he said "do you want to get some ducks then"?

Noel did not know I was going for ducks, to be honest, it never occurred to me to buy ducks; I just saw them, fell in love with them and bought them. Now picture this, I am stood at the front door, knocking, my hands laden with ducks and other goodies. Noel opens the door, proceeds to ask all about my day, as I am walking through the house, to the garden. I am now stood by the conservatory door, as Noel then asks “what is in the box?” and by magic a ‘bill’ pops out of the hole. Noel, “that will be a duck then”, me “two actually”.

As it was chicken bed time, we took the ducks out to the chicken house and put them to bed, stood around for quite a while, but everything was very quiet and stayed quiet.

Noel, “I have always wanted a pond, so I had better dig one, now.”

With Noel being away every other weekend, it has taken a little while to finish. In the mean time, while visiting Libby (a friend who I was brave enough to meet from one of the forums I visit.); we have a really good relationship. An added bonus is, she lives in the country, surrounded by farms. The nearest farm to her house just happen to be selling ducks, I felt I needed two more; a young lad called ‘Charlie Brown’ (honest), was selling the ducks (1 x drake and 1 x duck) but I explained that I already have a drake so please may I have 2 x ducks, he agreed. I said I would come back the next day as I didn’t expect to be buying ducks and had not got any money with me. So Noel and I returned the next afternoon (this time no surprises for Noel) and I bought two Cross (X) Call Ducks, they are so pretty, nosier than the Indian Runners but great personalities.

All four ducks get on really well, and 8/9 chickens do too, we just have one chicken, hatched on St. Valentine’s Day, who we call the sister, she will not let one of the little ducks to bed until she is ready. However the drake is very good and just waits with this little duck until the ‘sister’ settles down and then he escorts her in to the house, how sweet is that.

This weekend saw the completion of the duck pond; we bought a plastic mould for the shape. Noel dug the hole, layered it with 5cm of fine sand, trapping a layer of woven webbing round the outside of the pond, so that we could place large pebbles around the pond, without the pebbles disappearing into mud over time.

More than half of the pebbles were reclaimed from our neighbour’s garden, when they had their whole garden turned over to a play area for their (then) 18 month old twins. This saved us so much money, not that I know what I was going to use the stones for when I did reclaim them. We also bought a small bag of Cotswold chips at less than £3.00 a bag, to fill in the gaps.

Above : My husband in the pond! Below : The start of the water!

On Sunday afternoon, which was dry and very sunny, I dragged my very embarrassed husband and daughter to a posh, tree lined street in Old Town, where we gathered, Poppy sweeping and Noel and I picking up, a large estate car’s. Now imagine trying to shut the boot and car doors with huge bags of leaves popping out all over the place, we had fits of giggles while trying to do this. The whole process took just 7 minutes of sweeping/collecting leaves; I have never seen my family work so fast, I must remember ‘embarrassment’ works a treat. We then managed to lift the bags above our heads to wobble through the over packed garage, to get the leaves into the back garden, we then used the dry leaves to spread all over the chicken/duck area of the garden as it was becoming very thick with sloppy mud. It has worked a treat and we were all really pleased with the effort.

After a week the leaves have now bedded down, so I really need to go and collect another layer, which will then last for most of the winter.

We filled the pond from the water butt, we didn’t have quite enough to fill it to the top, but this has also given the chickens, including the younger ones time to get use to having the pond in their area. It took the ducks 48 hours before they used it and when they were brave enough to get in, the racket of excitement was just thrilling to listen to, worth all the hard work, especially Noel’s. This week it has rained some more, so hopefully, even with Noel away, we can find the time to attach the hose and fill the pond to the top.

Happy ducks, swimming and drinking from their new pond.

Wishing them a very happy ending!

Birthday Blessings

Yes it's my birthday; in fact it is my 46th birthday...

- My hair is defiantly getting greyer
+ My hair is still soft and shinny

- My toes nails are getting misshapen
+ I can still cut my own toe nails

- My face has slightly more wrinkles
+ I still can choose not to wear make-up

- I am no longer a size 10
+ I can still buy clothes in M&S, if I want to!

I look at photographs of times gone pass, where being 46 was a million miles away, I have nearly always had to live my life in the here and now but the now is actually very loving and peaceful and I can sit down and either choose to look back on what I have accomplished or look forward to what I would like to achieve.

The forward list is very small. My past life I worked hard and played hard, doing as much as I could possibly cope with, never thinking that life could go on for quite a while. Therefore there is not much more I would like to do, a few more countries to travel to, a goat or two in my back garden, to work from home.

You see I have achieved far more by having an amazing husband and two loving children, which if I am brutally honest I never ever thought I would have. Not to say I couldn't have children, getting pregnant was not a problem but being a good mother - whatever-that-means was the hard target, not having any skills passed on to me but you know what, I think I have done it.

Even when my son, calls, at 10:00 am, asking "why does it hurt to have teeth out?"

Yesterday he had a wisdom tooth out and it had 4 roots, 3 came out with the tooth but the 4th had to be dug out, so now he has stitches and is feeling sorry for himself.

Answering in my most sympathetic and appropriate mummy’s voice, I then asked "are you calling to say anything else?" Slight silence, while this bit of what I had asked was sinking in and all the time trying to think of an answer.. you can hear the clogs going round, this must be a trick question, why is Mum asking this? His tablet induced thick groggy brain trying to work it all out in a nanosecond; the answer "no" was what I got.

Oh, so you are not ringing me to say "Happy Birthday Mum" ...


"Bollocks"


This reply has made me chuckle all day, the first time he has forgotten in his 24 years of being my son.

I will forgive him having wisdom teeth out at the dentist, is painful very painful and I forgot to telephone him yesterday and ask how he was ....

...What a dreadful mother!

Clean Sweep

Hello everybody, I am having a good clean sweep, so bare with me while I do this and then I have so much to say about what we have been up to over the summer. Partly to keep track of my life for my own slightly degenerating memory and more importantly because Toby asked, "Mum why haven't you updated your thingy lately?" No proper answer son, apart from I know how important this site is going to be over the next year for you.

Life’s a Gamble

Remember all the excitement about broody eggs and me whizzing off and purchasing 6 Bantam eggs. Well they took a little bit longer to reach me than I was expecting!! But in the mean time curiosity got the better of Buddy and he just had to poke is nose in and have a look to what was going on – a big no, to a broody chicken and within half an hour of that little incident, she was off the eggs never to return.

Still it was a gamble ... some you win, some you lose.

But Paul came up trumps with this ...


A very dusty Brinsea Octagon 10 Incubator, so after a good clean...





Paul told me the eggs should last up to 14 days if kept in a cool’ish’ place and I turn the eggs, (I have kept them in the box, so I am turning the box) periodically throughout the day, every day.



There were six lovely little bantam eggs in the box.


But on closer inspection, I found this ...



I am sure it didn’t get broken in the post, as the crack was on the in side but I have now had the eggs for a week, so I can’t go back to the supplier and say anything.

So down to 5 eggs, which I have placed in the incubator, it seems I should have sterilised everything first, opps, sorry eggs .... didn’t get any instructions until I did a search on line ... after having set everything up!

Oh well, as I said “life’s a gamble ...”

But I did find this very informative site about chickens and all you need to know, so thought I would share with you, if you are interested of course.

But if you can see I am doing something wrong or you can give me any more advice, I would greatly appreciate it.

The upside is all three chickens are now laying; we have been giving the most recently laid eggs away. Giving away! Well my thought process is, I will get my friends and family hooked on scummy fresh eggs, having already said that I will charge a little, to off set the chicken food costs!

Pay it Forward

I cut my neighbours grass as they suffer from hay fever. That is a return for me being sent an Interview Knits from Natalie at the Yarn Yard as she had two copies. Unfortunately I never did receive the magazine as it got lost in the post, such a shame. But I still wanted to repay the very kind gesture.

Knitting

I have completed my first monkey’s sock apart from the kitchener stitching, which will be saved until I have a quiet half an hour. Just now need to find the repeat of pattern, if that is possible with such a colourful yarn so that I can hopefully make the finished socks look similar.

I have never knitted a sock in a week, not even a month, six months being my average, I have knitted 3 pairs, and a couple of singles – having not got round to doing the second one ‘yet’, so not really a sock guru.

Therefore your guess is as good as mine to whether I get ‘second sock syndrome’ or the time to finish the second sock anytime this year.

But you must of guessed I am so chuffed with myself ... I finished a sock in a week - yay!

Year End

Last week was very much a hard week at work, however this was off set by lots of playing, it seemed that all the things I do, had come together in just one week, why does that happen; for weeks you have no social live and then it all comes together in one exhausting week?

I was getting up extra early in the mornings to do any chores and to arrive at work for 7:30am; this gave me a little bit of quiet time before the all the woodworking machines got turned on.

I needed to accomplish 4 major tasks, that had to be finished by the Friday, however to be able to do these tasks, several other jobs had to be completed first, like having every account reconciled from the bank accounts, credit cards and loans, you name it, it had to be reconciled.

If you do wages as part of or all of your job, then you will have had to submit all the P.A.Y.E., submissions for ‘year end ‘ 2007/08 by Saturday May 31st. (Note for me : NEXT YEAR IS THE 19 MAY - REMEMBER 19th!!) For me this means writing out 40 P60’s by hand, with no mistakes, or if I do make a mistake, I have to start a fresh one.

I was able to complete the on-line submission with no issues what-so-ever, unlike previous years by Tuesday afternoon, then on to finalising all of May’s worked hours and calculate everybody’s pay and submit to the bank for paying. The next big task was to make sure that all suppliers invoices, tallied with the appropriate suppliers statements. May is also work’s end of VAT quarter. Normally as soon as the invoices are sorted, it is just a short job. However QuickBooks has completely upgraded their VAT software and I could not get it to calculate properly – groan, however after much shouting at the computer, I managed to find before and end figures, did some math’s and have submitted a hand written form.

Every quarter, Gary and I have a small competition to who can get the nearest to the amount that has to be paid to HM Customs. This quarter I won, which means Gary meant a pound in the Prospect Hospice Box.

My final job was to submit all the bill payments for the bank to make the BACS payments.

I did it all and I am sure that the fact that I had such a lovely week helped me through.

Monday night, I finished Noel's socks off, I had completed the first sock including a terrible example of kitchener stitch, however sitting very quietly by myself, in the small gap between me getting home and everybody else on a Monday evening, I sewed up the second sock - quiet is the answer, I did a much better job.

Noel's socks - taken at this angle, so that I could use the wall as a back drop!

Tuesday I decided to join a Monkey Sock KAL on the CTnY Forum and that evening, I cast-on and knitted about 7 rows of the rib and then realised that it should have been twisted rib, so I frogged it all, again.

Wednesday evening, Poppy was sleeping over Kaan’s, so Noel suggested we go out to dinner, we decided to go to the local pub, the Iron Horse, because at 8 pm at this pub is where I have a fortnightly village knit/craft get together. It also happens to serve nice home-made food. We had a lovely meal together and then Noel, disappeared (he didn’t want to bump into any of the group) at 7:50 pm, I carried on knitting. I re-cast-on the monkeys and this time remembered to do the twisted rib and managed to do; 2 pattern repeats.

Thursday, started with me following Noel to the garage to get his car MOT’ed, then Noel dropped me off at work, and he went back and collect Kaan and Poppy; as they were all going to spend the day together, starting with the cinema and watching the new Indian Jones film, which they all really enjoyed, then on to Pizza Hut for lunch before going climbing together.

After work, we collected the car, it had passed, such a relief, with just the cost of a bulb (and the four new tyres we had bought the week before!!)

Thursday evening, I met up with Kate and Louise at the pub, (none of us had heard from Sprite64, which is a shame as we were then not sure what to do – hope you are reading this Sprite and you can let us know if you still want to join in), a lovely meal was had by all and a great time while we did ‘show and tell’. As we are all members of the forum, out came 3 monkey’s, which made us giggle, Kate’s were a plum with a splash of pink colour, Louise’s were a white, black and beige colour and then mine.

Friday afternoon, a bit later than planned as it had taken me longer to sort the VAT out, I went round to Ruth’s and caught up with all the family and showed her this blog!! Noel and Poppy went off to climbing the wall at West Swindon’s Leisure Centre and came back and picked me up at 5 pm. We had a relaxing evening at home together as a family and I carried on knitting.

And then Saturday, which broke with glorious sunshine, I travelled down to Hillier’s Arboretum, Braishfield, Hampshire to meet Linda. We had a lovely day together chatting, we are members of Hilliers, it gives us some where to go, when we just want to chat, away from husbands, children, ironing etc etc ... you know the sort of place. In between eating, drinking and walking I took 160 photographs of the plants; this is just a selection of what I took ...

More knitting ...

Yesterday was spent relaxing and knitting (progress photo below), while we watched the DVD; The Golden Compass. Poppy explained to me that her daemon was a Monkey, so I thought I would see what mine was; you can agree or disagree by following this link:


It was also the first day that all three chickens had laid eggs on the same day! One egg was so fresh that it was sticky and very warm.

My monkey sock as of going to bed Sunday evening!