Very surprized to find a karaoke version of this today!!!

so here goes..............

WHY!!! WHY!!! WHY!!???????

A group calling themselves the Deccan Mujahedeen have massacered tourists and locals alike in gun and granade attacks on two of the top hotels in Mumbai (formally Bombay)...Horror shocked me to the core when I heard this terrible news from this vibrant and very beautiful city, which has a close place in my heart! The Deccan Mujahedeen were said to be spacifically targeting UK and US passport holders at the Oberoi and Taj Mahal hotels (both 5 star internationl class hotels) and one UK person has been reported dead.......As far as I know this group of worthless terrorists are from southern India, so why Mumbai which is on the west coast of Northen India!
Mumbai is normally a magical place filled with colour, chaos, contradictions and charm, like I could not find anywhere else in the world!! (and thats saying somthing!!) and from the moment I first visited this vibrant city back in 95', I fell in love! It was like stepping back in time to 1972 as everything was so very retro! The locals are very friendly, food is excellent and the beer cold!! Markets are a hussle and bussle, and you can't help but notice the huge gap of poverty and wealth! which is somtimes upsetting to an unacustomed westen tourist! In fact the whole of India can be challenging to say the least, unless the first time tourist recieves expert advice, and reads a "Lonely Planet India" from front to back!!! But I do adore the place because of its beautiful diversity, and ever-changing Kaliedascope of culture! ...and I will always love it, and hope to return one day!
So why have these evil people picked on this gorgeous city????
It appears to me (from what I have heard on the news) that they are mainly targeting tourists, now is this to undermine the local economy, because if it is, it just might work as the tourist and buisness $ boosts the economy in Mumbai and indeed most of India! These attacks will hit the locals who are involved in tourism, very hard! and in India there is often a very fine line between living in reletive comfort and poverty...so although the terrorists are mostly attacking UK and US nationals all they are realy doing is hurting the local people's jobs and families!...Much like the bomb attacks on Bali! After the Bali attacks I was invited as a member of P.A.T.A (Pacific Asia Travle Association) by Garuda Indoniesia to travel to Bali as part of a delegation of UK travel professionals, to promote tourism back to the island...But that trip broke my heart!!! I was invited to 5 star hotels that were totally empty and told to ignore the povety caused by lack of tourism...so much so I spent the whole trip either in tears in my hotel room or totaly drunk out of my brain!! simply because I was heartbroken by what I was seeing and hearing! On the flight home I drank a litre of Vodka to try to forget, but I was due to be interviewed at Gatwick on my arrival back by the Travel Trade Gazette...needless to say I was too plastered to be interviewed, embarracingly!.......This is totaly my fault as I get far too attached to the places I have had the privledge to visit, and very attached to the local people, and hearing news like this just hurts so much!
My thoughts and prayres are with the people of Mumbai, thier families, and the travellers who have been caught up in this senseless massacre! My heart goes out to them all.......
and lets just hope the terrorists are caught and delt with swiftly and severly by the Indian authorities!

Absolutly awful news this evening, in that after 99 years of retail Woolworths is to finally go out of buisness!!!
Such an awfull shame that we have to loose this iconic, British chainstore!!
In Warrington, where I was born, Woolworths was very much a part of my childhood, and Mum took me there shopping at least once a week! In the early 70's the Warrington shop had a whole floor just devoted to toys, and it was like a kiddies paradise! and has graced me with some superb memories of the toys and the pick and mix (which my Dad used to love!) so I shall be so sorry to see it go...Our store hear in Northampton though has not been up to scratch for a long time though and their sellection of WHO merchandise has been absolutly dreadfull! (another reason I stopped collecting) I got one or two bargins only in there in the last 5 years, and I certainly found better deals in Woolworths in Southport, Manchester, Liverpool and Ormskirk!...I feel so very sorry for those Woolworths employees who have to loose their jobs at this time of year!! Its heartbreaking!! This recession realy is biting much more badly than we think...In Northampton retail outlets are closing by the dozen, and its now commen place to walk down Abington street past lots of empty and closed shops!...a little selfish I know, but I am glad I no longer work as a retial manager as I used too, because in the current climet I may well have had another nervous breakdown!!
Anyway, to take the sting of this terribly sad news, I have dug up this old Wollies Christmas ad from 1981, to see if anyone remembers it!!! This amazingly catchy tune "Have a cracking Christmas" realy got stuck in my head when I was 14, and even found myself humming it at School!! LOL!!! Also it was ablaze of stars of the time such as the Goodies, Anita Harris, and Windsor Davies, among others!! Looking at the prices and the old games is fun too!!
Hope it cheers you up this evening!!

YES................its me singing............

Ahem..........

*hides*

Piccies are fun though!!
They include the handsome men (AND dog) in my life!!
Colin in his white "Pertwee" shirt at home in Surrey!
Derek, hubby with beard and long hair....
...and some hunky chaps who I have no idea who they are, but I woulden't mind finding them in my stocking! LOL!!!

Oh and some piccies of 70's toys that I actually got for Christmas as a kid at some point...Ingre the Troika...I am loopy!!!!!!!!

.........and I have one!!!
A real nasty one too!!!
Methinks last night I must have dropped off too sleep doing a head stand or somthing as this morning I have this horrible pain in my right shoulder!...maybe I have over done the cleaning up a bit and pulled a muscle or somthing!
You see I have been blitzing my home making it ready for Christmas and this has even involved getting out the drill and putting up some shelves which I did yesterday! Its silly realy but I am sensitive to very loud noise so when I am using a drill I have to stuff my ears with cotton wool...still, I made a neat job of it, and its another place to store my vases!! My best friend with the cleaning though this week has to be Cillit Bang! I have absolutly Cillet Banged the houe to death!! Its the "floor" version but watered down it will clean almost anything even my hated white leather 3 piece suit....Let me explain why its hated....For 4 years after we moved here we were stuck with Dereks Mums old suit and it was horrible. Now while I was away on a travel agents educational to Turkey I cam home to find this brand new, white leather 3 piece suit! a: leather is a pain in the arse to clean. b: its animal skin which I dont like, and c: its not even that comfy!!
"I thought we were going to choose a suit together!" I had moaned to Derek, and he had replied that he saw this suit and fell in love and so just bought it....a year or so down the line and we got Sirius who has promptly covered it in claw marks, and being white it gets absolutly filthy if left! (I could have almsot coped with a black or brown suit) Well untill now I have been experimenting with cheeper ways to clean it, other than using expensive leather cleaner, and one of my methods was waterdown weak bleach, but it made the suit smell awfull!!!....Enter Vicky's friend good old Cillet Bang!!! About half a capfull in two litres of boiling water, some yellow rubber gloves, and good old fashioned elbow grease and my suite is sparkling like new again!!!
Any way I wont go waffling on about my cleaning routine....and I am having a day off today!
Mum called this morning and I think she was going to ask me to come to town with her, but NO!!!!! I refuse point blank to go into town on any Saturday between now and New Year as its soooooooooo MANIC!!! Only the brave dare Northampton town centre on a weekend where Christmas shopping is involved, and gangs of teenagers mill about in groups, getting in the way, not to mention massive "four wheel drive" prams being pushed two at a breast by chav mums no older than 18!!! What is it with this fashion for huge prams???? Does it mean the bigger and more bulky your pram is the better a parent are you???...and if you dont get knocked over by legions of super prams, your bound to get knocked over by an electric wheel-chair zoooming along like its rocket powered!!!! Northampton town centre realy is an assult course this time of year, and certianly not for the faint hearted........than goodness I have already done all my Christmas shopping!!

*grins*

My Fantails are at it again this morning and I am even considering separating them to give poor Hermionie a break...the only thing is she seems to like the attention and keeps flashing her tail at the boys!!! What a tart!!! I think the brief warm spell here may have triggered these passions, but I am not going to save any eggs this time as brining up baby fry has been a lot of hard work and indeed heartbreaking when they die! I currently have 7 fast growing babies and I am happy with that...I have to go and meet mum later on today but I may well do a small water change on the tank to lower the temp and calm their romantic hearts...Well what do you do with anything randy??? Poor a lot of cold water over it!!!! LOL!!! methinks the same applies to my fish!
Well I grabbed a little gem of a bargin on ebay yesterday!!...and no, for once it wasen't Troika!
When I was a child I had a thing for paperweights and had a collection of about 20, which have all been lost in various moves at some point...Now the Prince of paperweights has to be the "Caithness" paperweight and in normal times these can sell for anything up to £200!!! I saw this delightful piece yesterday and it is a Caithness intitled "Saracen" so yesterday evening a placed a small bid, only to find this morning I had acctually got the paperweight!!!! My bid had only been a miserly £14 so I expected to be outbid very easily on this. Now I dident wait up for the gorgeous weight to finish as it was some un-Godly hour in the middle of the night...but this morning I had a "pay now" next to the item in my-ebay!
Yay!!!!!!!!!! I am well please with this delightful bargin, and here it is!!



3 more parcels to post today, and I am meeting Mum!
The only thing is I am not realy making much on my ebay sales realy!! I have noticed though that ladies boots from Primark are selling realy well on ebay so I might buy some today to sell on there if they are cheep enough in the shop! Mum loves Primark...and she loves Wilkinsons too, but in Northampton the two shops are about a mile apart which realy takes it tole on her old legs, bless her! So we will perhaps have a break at Gregs for a tasty and warming pasty, between both shops!
Oh and I am waiting for my latest Troika vase to be delivered today...as well as a little somthing for Dereks Christmas stocking!!

back soon x

Someone (goodness knows who) has put a collection of Denys Fisher toys on ebay (removed today) which had a whopping 50 bids!!! with a top bid of £11,600!!!!!!!!!!! I nearly fell off my chair in amazement and poped over to a merchanside website to see if anyone had noticed, and there was a whole thread devoted to this auction! Now the DF toys from the 70's are much sort after and indeed rare and intact with their original boxes can fetch around £300 per piece, so this bidding was well over the top...I read though the thread with interest and it appears that the seller had used someone else's pictures in his auction, and then this someone else (who was justifiably very angry) decided to put on a whole load of false bids on these items!!! Not sure how this would have worked if this bidder had won, but if I am reading it right, it was a pretty silly thing to do!...Well I have stopped collecting myself now and am gradually selling off my whole collection as my readers will know. December will be my next listing binge for "Who" stuff but I just hope no idiot decides to put millions of bids on my auctions, as I have noticed several other sellers have jumped on the Denys Fisher bandwagon with this one and selling their toys too!
On the Troika front, there is a vase listed at the moment that is soooooooo obviously fake, but amazingly has bids on it!!! The art on the vase which isent even a Troika shape, appears to have been decorated by a two year old at nursery class...Surely if people decide to collect Troika I do wish they would at least learn somthing about the designes and decorations!! The person selling this vase has worded it carefully with "not sure this is genuine so you decided" but it dose have Troika written on the bottom so its a total rip off!! I am hoping ebay will spot this soon before someone get dissapointed...the vase is already on a "how to spot a fake guide" on ebay so I am hoping it will be removed shortly....Selling and buying is so slow becuase of this credit crisis...Today a Troika coffin vase sold for a miserly £50!!! about a quater of its value, and there isent much else nice that is listed! Another vase at a starting price of £135 finished unsold, with no bids...so time to find another bargin soon methinks!! A rectangular vase listed today caught my eye, which dates from the mid to late 70's and at a start price that is sufficently high so as not to attract too many bidders and, just about what I can afford! We shall see....
Mum came for lunch today and Derek took her home again just before it got dark. Also I have been sorting through some of our old Christmas decorations as last year most of them got ruined becuase of a leaky tank in our loft...thats a very long story...But basically Christmas week we had water pouring through the dining room cieling, and the central heating boiler packed up!!! I remember sitting here by the fire will all my candals blazing waiting for the engineer to come and fix things. It turned out that the boiler and the tank in the loft wern't connected so we had to get another plumber to fix the leak in the loft!! When Derek went up to retrive the decorations about 70% were totally ruined!! Including some vintage paper decorations from the 60's which were worth a small fortune!...anyway with Christmas fast approching I thought I would give them a final sort out and bin the ruined stuff, which I have!
Right then, I am hopping off, but with no plans for tonight I might just watch "the other Boleyn girl" again, and get a weeny bit plastered!!

Took this last night and was realy pleased with the result!!



Anyway I wont go waffleing on about Troika apart from its getting very difficult to find good examples on ebay, which the resession biting....sellers are setting unrealistic "reserve" prices on items or selling "buy it now" for silly sums of £1,500!!! Now in a normal world this is what some Troika is actually worth! but in a resession world you would be lucky to get £300! for a good piece...this is why I have decided to collect it now realy as its a buyers market!
In other news, my Dyson broke (hardley news worthy but I was so annoyed) well the drive belt broke, so it had to be fitted with a new one...I am on a cleaning spree at the moment to get the house absolutly spotless for Christmas! Which includes tackling the kitchen too, not that its much of a mess as I tend to clean up as I go cooking wise!....Derek is off today as he promised he would take around Mum's old rocking chair to her, which has just been sitting a little forlorn in my guest bedroom! She also wants an old cupboard that is sitting in my garage but we have no way of getting that in the car so will have to hire a van...and I hae to get up to the pet shop for some more fish food.
Exciting stuff eh?????
NOT!!!

The Great Troika "Chimney vase" dilemma for you!!!

Should I or shouldent I???? I realy dont know what to do about this one!

Its this vase I am chasing on ebay. Now its Troika and I have dated it to the late 60's by its style and design, and its by the artist Marilyn Pasco. At auction in the UK this would probabally fetch about £500!! But this one is for sale in the USA at a current bidding cost of £222 and it finishes at about 8pm tonight. Here is the vase!!



I have told myself not to go for it if it goes above £250 because there is the shipping fee from the US to be considered in this, which is not cheep. Mum thinks this vase is "Pig ugly" In her own elequent words, but I think its absolutly gorgeous, and the fact its a genuine 60's piece makes this vase highly collectable, and a good investment....but I dont know what to do!!

Please help lovely folks! x its decision time!!

The recent cold snap has effected my largest fantail, Hemionie (Mum to my fry) in that every morning recently, when the tank has cooled down over night, she is sitting at the bottom in a sulky mood...Now the advice I have recieved from the fish forum has been varied and even suggested I put a heater in the tank, but I am not going to do anything as drastic as that! Its only effecting one fish and not the rest of them. Anyway I have set the heating to come on an hour earlier to warm the tank, gently, and I just hope this will help!!
Troika collecting news!
2 pieces I recently set a "snipe" on went for a price over what I had sniped so I dident get them. It was a bit of a bad idea though bidding for more Troika as I still have this refund looming over my head like the heads-mans axe!! So perhaps it just wasen't meant to be! Anyway an absolutly gorgeous "Chimney vase" finishes on Saturday evening. Its has a weird face design on the front and I have dated it to be circa 1969 as the artist, Marilyn Pascoe only worked for Troika untill about 1973 and this is definatly some of her earlier work. Now at the moment the vase in in the USA (apparently coming from an old Florida estate) and at the moment the bidding is standing at $227 USd (about £148) which is ok, for the moment and I have already emailed the seller for post charges to the UK which is going to be a very fair £18!! The seller even says in his listing that he would like this vase to be returned to England, so I thought "Come home to Mummy!!! you lovely Troika vase" and set a snipe on it for a goodly value!
At about tea-time yesterday the phone rang and it was Mum!
"Are you bringing me around this sausage cassarole or what?" She asked.
The night before I had made this cassarole and phoned Mum to ask if she wanted any, to which she had said yes, but I had totally forgotten about! So after dinner we took the short drive to her flat where I off loaded a large cassarole dish filled with my cassarole! But Mum had been baking and she had made us two loaves of Bread! (she is an expert bread maker) fresh and still warm from the oven! The bread she bagged up and placed in a carrier bag along with some onions for me as I am making a stew on Sunday, and a fresh cream scone for Derek! (its had been part of a pack of two) which I thought was a superb exchange for my cassarole! LOL!!! On Sunday, mum has invited us to lunch too!! But I will be making my stew in the evening in my slow cooker, and leave it to "mature" for a couple of days before serving....for those of you that dont cook, stew of any kind must be left to mature after cooking to bring out the full flavour! So between Mum and me for next week we have homemade stew and crusty home made bread with real butter! Heck my mouth is watering!! My stew will keep for up to too weeks if I dont freeze it, and my slow cooker holds enough for about 25 portions!
Ok I am peckish now.........whats for lunch!??

America has a new President elect!!! *yay!!! dances*

Now I am not a very political person but I am so pleased about this news this morning!! But its been a long time coming in that America needs to get rid of the old fuddie duddies, and clear away the dead wood, and make way for this new, young and fresh, very intelligent man! It was indeed exciting to watch the news this morning and see so much joy instead of the usual doom and gloom the morning news often brings....It would be nice if we could have Barak as the Prime Minister too!!!.......I can't stand Gordon Bown or James Cameron, and dont trust any politician, although my roots are in Labour, but there is no one decent in this country to vote for anymore!!....but hey!!! I am not going to get into politics here!!! I dont know enough about it for a start!! LOL!!!
Ok...off the politcis now!

In other news!!
I had a terrible day yesterday with Mum in town for a start, who was still taking painkillers like they are sweets! Neither of us wanted lunch so I offered to buy us some pasties at the local bakery...Mum declined and bought a custard cake instead!! Diabeties my ARSE!!!!!!!!!!! And then when I get home I find I have a message from one of my ebay buyers stating that my Louis Vittion briefacse is a FAKE!!!!!!! well this was news to me, as when I bought the case it came with a dust bag and keys and a certificate which have all subsequently been lost, and to all intents and purposes was authentic! Anyway, I wont go into detail here, but I have offered her a full refund on return of the case! There is nothing else I can do....
In my phone call to Mum at 9 last night she sounded human again (almost) but I think I may have put her off a bit because yesterday in town I told her she sounded "drunk and out of it" the night before on the phone...well I hope the message has got through, but I do wish the Doctor would take her off these tablets. She registers with a new Doctor today!! so fingers crossed!
Hopping off now to watch some more of this exciting news!
x x

Crikey she has been a worry all my life with her pill popping and wild antics on her motorbike when she was in her 60's!! I spent many a time rushing to hospital after I had heard she had been in an accident. Fortunatly she no longer has the motorbike....but I think she may be popping a wee too many pills.....as I found out when I phoned her last night at the usual 9pm!
I shall explain!
When she first moved in and I still had my nasty cold, she gave me some whacky painkillers with a warning of "Only take one!!! they are VERY strong!!" Well silly cow here (me) decided to actually take 2 one evening, and I was totally off my head, and it was indeed scarey, and needless to say I haven't taken them since (I shall stick to Asrpin! LOL).......BUT!...my Mum has also been on the highly addictive Temezapam sleeping tablets for over 30 years...Now back to my 9pm phone call last night! For a start it took her ages to answer the phone and when she did, I actually began to wonder if it was my Mum who I was speeking too!! She was slurring her words and not making any sence and when I asked her about it she laughed and just said "Ha!!! and your p***ed!!" Anyway, because I could hardly understand a word she was saying I cut the call short, had supper and went to bed only to be awake by 4am worrying about her, and I have concluded she may be over-medicating! If she is taking these very strong pain killers as well as the sleeping tablets, they will send her into fairy land!!! and at her age, is highly dangerous!! Now the thing is with my Mum, she will just go on a freaky if I suggest this too her (as usual) and either blame me, or the Doctor or whoever else she has in mind...so I have to come up with another plan, with the decision NOT to ring her at 9pm to see if she is ok! (I couldent understand a word she was saying last night anyway so a phone call is a bit pointless) I fully understand the stress she is under with the move and all the things wrong with the flat like taps not working and murkey water ect, but she wanted this, just not all the hassles that go with moving! Now this morning she phoned me at 9am and sounded as bright as a button!! "Oh you sound better!" I had exclaimed to her, where she hastily passed the whole thing off, blaming it on having a bad stomach!! Sorry Mum...but a bad stomach dosent make you slurr your words and talk nonsense!!
Today I have some more parcels to post so I have to go into town again soon and Mum says she wants to meet me for some more shopping, as she put it "I have a list as long as my arm!" but she still has to wait in for the chap coming to fix her taps! So I explained I could only wait untill a certain time and then I would have to go with or without meeting her, so I suggested if the repair man comes she should ring me and let me know if she is ready or not.
OMG parents can be such a worry!!
I just dont want a 75 year old drug addict on my hands...the decision to stop phoning her is a difficult one.......But what can I do?

Just a few I am afraid as I have had quite a quiet weekend!!

Mum came on Saturday for a shower!
She is having huge problams with the water at her new flat, and so she can't have a bath, and has already broken one kettle trying to boil heaps of water for one! She got a new kettel last week at Wilkinsons! She dident stay long but Sirius had a hissy fit when she left and barked for about an hour while looking out of the window, wondering where his "Nanny" had gone...later on in the evening though he was not well and had a bit of a runny bottom and did not eat his dinner. Derek gave him a shower because he had messed himself and then I covered him up with a blanket on the couch to stop him getting a chill. He wasent that bad though as he still managed his milk and biccies for supper! He seems ok now, but he will be sulking later on today when I have to go and post some more parcels!
My Troika fund has built up again, so I am now chasing a rather nice large wheel vase due to finish on Wednesday. I have already set it in auction sniper, I just hope the price dosen't go to high....there are a couple of other little pieces I have my beedy eye on though... *grinns*
Dident go anywhere yesterday because it was Dereks ironing day, and later he was watching the Grand Prix! Let me explain about Dereks ironing! I can't iron!!! I am absolutly hopeless!!!!!!! I cook, I clean and do the washing and all the other household chores, but I simply can't iron! In fact my ironing is so bad, Derek wont let me near it so thats the one household chore that is solely his!! Apparently in his youth Derek had expert tuition from his Mum in the art of ironing, and doing razor sharp creaces on shirts (I just do creases all over the place!! LOL!) so this is why thats his job! Anyway he had let it build up for over a week so yesterdays ironing session was well over an hour.
Ok, back to today!
I have 3 parcels to truss up today and go out to post them!
But I have a sneaky feeling that before I go out I will get a call from Mum with a shopping list! hehehe!!

back soon x x