Exactly what it says on the tin!!!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/profile.php?ref=profile&id=717306617

you will have to copy and paste the above link and "friend" me to view! Pictures from: India, China, Nepal, Indoniesia and Malaysia!

enjoy folks!! x

My wedding photos!!!!

My gown was a full, medieval, dark blue, heavy velvet "Vampirerss" gown by DARK ANGEL!!





























..........and finally we set off for our honeymoon tour of west Africa!!!!!!!!!

As Santa makes ready his sleigh and all is quietening down in the Harrison houshold!
Everything is done!!
This morning was a very early one, and we were up for 4:30am to make ready for our big food shop at 7am! It was cold first thing and I coulden't wake myself up, but two cups of coffee and toast and I was human again! I finished off my arm's length shopping list with some added extras from Derek in case I had forgotton anything, and so armed with list, several re-useable supermarket shopping bags and a healthy does of "surely it can't be busy this time in the morning?" we took off in the car a little after half 6am. Lo and behold it was busy though! I should have expected it realy...what I dident expect was the tannoy announcement....."Due to lisencing laws, we are unable to serve alcohol untill 8am!" What rubbish I thought. The shop could have applied for an early liscence, or told us on the board which advertised the early 7am opening! No, it was just a crafty sales tac tic to get you to spend more money as in: "Oh well we will just have to hang around for 50 minuites while filling our trolly's with unnessary and useless or wastefull items!" Well, Derek and I had a quick conference and he said he would come back later for the booze. To which I debated to hang about and wait for 8am, so we sould not have to make a return journey. I won! So we just hung about glowering at the checkout staff...hehehe We diden't get much booze anyway, just port for me, beer for Derek and Cherry B for mum, as well as wine and Schloer white grape, pop, juice and cordial.



On coming back I began to make the house clean and tidy and make some preparations for tomorrows lunch. I tend to make nearly all my Christmas dinner preparations the night before as I hate messing about peeling veg on Christmas morning. I like to plan everyhting carefully so that everything runs smoothly and we have a tasty lunch. This year though we have a change...in stead of Christmas pudding we are having homemade Gooseberry pie!! Mum is baking it as we speak, and I must say my mums pastry just melts in your mouth!! Much nicer than having a gritty, Christmas pud! I am not too keen on fruit cake anyway! Away from the food subject at the moment, Derek has me totally baffled with Christmas presents this year and I not sure what its all about? At the moment there are enough presents under the tree you would belive a family of 7 lives with us!!!! So yesterday me and mum decided to go back to town and buy Derek somthing extra...When I asked him about the mountain of gifts, he simply said he felt like it and some were only very small anyway! Not from where I am looking!!! Yesterday I inadvertently (honest!) picked up one small one adressed to me as it looked to be in the shape of a pork pie!! What the heck is he doing wrapping pork pies for Christmas?? But its not as it was solid, and before I could read the lable, he snatched it out of my hand and put it back under the tree!! I say I wanted to read the lable properly as Derek always writes a small, cryptic clue on iit, as to what the present is, and I have to guess before opening it!!! It sounds dull but its realy rather fun!!....Anyway, for the time being we are just putting our feet up and resting on our laurels knowing that everything is done! Currently Derek is watching "Banquet" one of his favorite Chinese films, which he loves. He has a large collection of Chinese cinema films! Personally I think its the pretty ladies that he loves!! LOL!!...as for me, well I am just about to have an early bath (as Sirius is getting his bath later) and smother myslef in jasmine bubbles! Then and only then will I truley relax!
Have a wonderful Christmas where ever you are!! and lots of love and Christmas wishes from Vicky, Derek and Sirius! x x x x x



p.s
I am going offline now untill the 3rd of Jan 10 so have a brilliant new year too!! ((((((((hugz))))))) x

Sorry, but this is a moaning one folks......
TV adverts are totally p***ing me off at the moment, simply because of the time of the year...and yes..I know some of my facebook friends will be compleatly horrified by the fact I have joined a group called "I hate charity adverts!" but I have quite simply ad enough of 'em (if you pardon the pun!!)

I would never consider myself heartless, although it may seem heartless to say I hate charity ads, but I actively support animal charities including PETA and IFAW, and indeed always donate to local causes at my Masonic Lodge, and indeed all Masonic activity is based in charity as its part of the Masonic code to "help those in need" and incase anyone missed it I AM A FREEMASON!...and even my dog, Sirius with whom I could not live without, came from the "Dog's Trust" charity!!! But I am heartily fed up with adverts depicting truley shocking images of sick and abused children, abused animals, and homeless people at the moment, simply being bombarded with them because its Christmas!!! My point is:
Should we only care about these poor creatures at Christmastime?????
Surely poor children, animals, and indeed adults need our care and charity all year round! Or at least thats how it should be!!
.........and its not just the charity ad's that are getting to me but its the "ordinary" ones too! Like constant perfect hero/heroine, designer perfume/aftershave ads...and then when you have stuffed your face silly on Christmas day, you have the "Gaviscon: what a feeling" adverts reminding you just how bad your indegstions is, but all the shops are shut anyway so you can't buy the stuff, unless you have previously stocked some in. I heartily wish "Go Compare" would go F**K OFF!!!! And even Coronation Street sponsered by "Harveys" is making me jittery too. I even bought all my dining room furnature at Harveys back in 2000, which included a full mohogany dinding suite and Jali (Indian) sideboard, 4 foot mirror and massive candlesticks, with absolutly no change from a £Grand!! Another bug-bare is the "had a personal injury" ads!!! Chap drilling and falling off his ladder. Lady walking through reception, slipping and damaging her knee, and the Irish lady who trips on plastic strapping!! Arggghhhhhhhh!! where does it end??

My top 20 annoying adverts!!! (sorry but I like making lists!!)

1: Go compare!!!....never before have I wanted to smash an opera singer in the chops!!

2: DFS!! when will that bleedin' sale end?

3: Foxy Bingo (or any Bingo advert)

4: Asda is cheaper on pricechecker

5: Save the children! (sorry folks but this actually makes me cry and anymore of it and I may commit suicide!)

6: Boots "here comes the girls" .......Im singing this in my sleep!!

7: Cash4Gold!!! .........nuff said

8: personal injury claims!

9: Perfect hero/ heroin perfum adverts...the guy one look very camp to me...??

10: Red driving school

11: Direct car insurance!

12: Scared- stops smoking with NHS using kids begging their parent to stop smoking or they will die...not since 1945 has there been such propaganda!!

13: Who is that whining singer who sounds drunk singing Gun'S and Roses on the M&S ADVERT??

14: iPhone

15: XBox 360!!! Arrrggghhhhhh!!!

16: I want to do a poo at Pauls (sounds a wee bit creepy/pervie.)

17: Iceland..........even more annoyng without Kerry!

18: Gaviscon..........cartoon firemen with large hoses *coughs*

19: Weird Guiness ad's.......whats the point??

20: Grouse Whisky....that dripping noise is soooooo annoying!!

.........maybe more to come later!

Awwwwwww!!!

Sirius has just dumped his soggy wet, snow covered bead in my lap following his evening walk with Derek!! Oh my goodness he looks sooo cute covered in snow (Sirius not Derek! LOL) ...I was going to get Sirius a doggie coat but Derek objected because of his breed which is a bearded collie/Briard mix, but I think he is more Briard becuase of his size (big). Briards come from France and are herding dogs, but like beardies they have a double layered thick coat specialy designed to keep them warm herding cattle in cold conditions! Derek recons a doggie coat would make him too hot!!! However, Sirius adores the snow and when he first saw it last week, he rolled around in it and ended up absolutly covered in snow!! His paws were a mass of snowballs!!

This is Sirius after his walk...aka "Pud, Pud!"



a little fuzzy but he was having a jolly good shake!!...and this is a snowcovered Derek!



The snow is coming down in bucketfulls here at the moment and its set to continue, but it does make it feel so Christmassy!!! Well everything is done....cards sent, presents wrapped, decorations and tree up, the only thing that is left to do is sorting the Christmas dinner! for which preparations wont start untill Christmas eve. But its so cosey snugged up in front ot the TV, all warm and fuzzy feeling while its blowing a veritable blizzard outside! I realy apprieciate my hot nightly bubble baths when its like this...But I wouldent be caught stuggling to the pub in that blizzard for all the tea in China! Absolutly nothing beats a lovely, homely Christmas! Even if this home is just for the next month or so...
I am realy looking forward to an early night, cuddled warm beneth my super tog duvet with a warming bowl of stew for supper, some Port and feeding Sirius, my "Pud, pud" his nightly special treats! :)

Neil Diamonds first and IMHO his finest hit "Crackling Rosie" is actually written about a bottol of WINE!!!!!!!!!!



I loved to sing along to this as a child, but I always thought he was singing about a lady who was perhaps "ordinary" as in the lyric "store-bought woman".......as I grew older I then became convinced he was singing about a blow up doll!! But the truth is he was singing about a cheep bottle of "Ros'e" wine!!

Was and always will be one of my favorie songs of all time!

Perhaps my version would be called "Crackling Croft Triple Crown port!"

LOL!!!!!!!!

In contrast to yeaterday's miserable, moaning post!!
100 THINGS I LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!

1: Derek, my mum and my dog, Sirius!

2: my friends!

3: Animals (all mostly!)

4: Music (anything from the Sex Pistols to Handel)

5: Dr Who classic series

6: Jon Pertwee, God bless him!

7: Marc Bolan, God bless him too!

8: walking and hiking!

9: world travel of any kind

10: Troika pottery

11: Tudor History

12: realy decent sci-fi horror fiction or film

13: anything colourful, I adore bright colours and hate wishy washy pastals!

14: Calem white Port or a good vintage red

15: my nightly bubble-baths!!

16: ELO! I will always love this brilliant band!

17: India!!

18 Bali........my favorite island in the world!

19: the change of the seasons!

20: smelling morning due on the grass after a night in the tent!

21: traveling overland!

22: tea candles

23: Beautiful smells like jasmine and orange blossom

24: writing

25: playing Mah Jhong with Derek as he is a sore looser!!

26: Good debate!

27: cute sniffer dogs at customs!!

28: cuddling up warm and cosey on cold winter nights!

29: Prada perfume!!!!!!!!

30: Gary Oldman the actor!

31: Firetrap shoes!

32: watching Derek put up the Christmas decorations! (he is 6 foot 1 inch hehehe)

33: sharing a good meal!

34: Freemasonry!

35: Astronomy......I have a 14 inch reflector telescope!

36: singing!

37: amature dramatics!

38: Coronation street!

39: The Telegraph!

40: fresh warm sheets on the bed!!

41: Richard Hammond (for obvious reasons *coughs*)

42: thunderstorms!!

42: packing for a trip away!

43: reading the Tarot!

44: my portabel DVD player!

45: smartly dressed people!

46: pole dancing (yes I still do this!)

47: the writer, Phillipa Gregory!

48: my black Prada boots!

49: blue skies!

50: 747-400 aircraft!

51: dandelion and burdock! my favorite soft drink!

52: Welsh leek pie! (my grandmothers recipie! she was from Cardiff as was my dad)

53: hand written letters from friends!

54: learning new and unusual things!

55: reading National Geographic mag!

56: a lovely cup of tea!

57: spending time on my appearence and make up!

58: Clinique make up and skin care! (I use nothing else!)

59: knitting!

60: craft shops!

61: fake fur throw on my bed!

62: Bailiey's Irish cream cheesecake!!!!!!!!

63: swimming! (preferabally somwhere tropical)

64: applying Prada body cream after a hot bath!

65: my snuggly, soft dressing gown!

66: paper-weights!

67: Lindt chocolate!

68: my swimming pool! (though obviously not at this time of year, even though it is heated!)

69: cute guys in glasses!!

70: having a manicure!

71: Bergamott oil

72: white tartan!

73: my 1973 Gabrialle designes Paddington bear!

74: Balinese Gamelan orchestra!!

75: making my own travel documentaries!

76: playing Darts

77: Snooker both playing and watching!

78: memories of my Dad!

79: long warm summer evenings in the garden!

80: feeding the birds at Billing Mill

81: bathing Sirius!

82: following breaking news on Twitter

83: Playing Tetris!

84: chatting to Mum on the phone of an evening!

85: Sunday lunches!

86: cooking!

87: warming supper in winter!

88: New Dr Who (yes fairly low down on my list!)

89: Father Ted!

90: Carry on films!

91: Moby!

92: lava lamps!

93: Hats!

94: drinking mango lassie!

95: Mushroom lasagne!

96: loving the supernatural!

97: smoking!! (yes I go actually enjoy smoking!)

98: appriecaiting the finer things in life!

99: planning and organising!

100: making pointless lists!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!

This top 100 things I hate milarkey seems to be quite trendy at the moment!!

So I am slightly out of my usual "not trendy self here!! LOL!!...........BUT HERE IS MY TOP 100 HATES!!! grrrr


1: Chav's or anything connected with chav culture!

2: rude, arrogant, ignorant, stupid people!

3: Smelly people

4: teenagers who wear jeans/ skirts round their ankles!

5: Strickly come dancing (should have been number one realy)

6: Simon Cowell smug t**t

7: Teenage mums with massive prams

8: huge prams in shops!

9: The nations obsession this z list celebrities!

10: Katie Price (Jordan)

11: Foreign call centres

12: Door-to-door salesman

13: X factor

14: Bullying (all forms of)

15: People who talk loudly on their mobile phones

16: snotty chav kids

17: People that park in disabled bays when they're not disabled!!

18: Sweating

19: Political people who project a "falsly, Im perfect" persona to gain more votes!

20: MP's expenses

21: Automated phone systems!

22: fascist ANTI smokers!!

23: PDA (public displays of affection) Get a room please.....or go to bed!!!

24: People shopping with their children who have assumed that having children give them special priveledges, like no manners and right of way.

25: People whose voice rises in pitch at the end of every sentence? Making everything they say sound like a question?

26: Grodon Brown! (this should have been nearer to the top too)

27: Kids who play rap music on ipods loudly on the bus!

28: Political correctness

29: Christmas starting in August!

30: men over 35 wearing shorts!! Ewwwuuuuee!!

31: Stupid people, especially the ones who are so stupid, they don't even know they're stupid

32: Fat women dressing like they are a size 8 and letting it all hang out - yuk

33: Football and anything to do with football!

34: Badly done C.G.I.

35: Saturday night telly.........I have an EXTRA long bath on Saturday evenings!

35: Botox! ...just looks plasicky!

36: men who wear wigs!! ....baldness can be hansome!...wearing a toupee is soooooooo obvious!! LOL!

37: Massive ego's!

38: cold weather!

39: Obvious designer lables!

40: Lady Ga ga (who is she anyway?)

41: loosing my keys!

42: feeling ill!!

43: Hermes handbags!! (how can a handbag take 2 years to make and cost £10,000?)

44: False eyelashes (try applying mascara correctly!)

45: Turkey neck!

46: Led Zeppelin!!! (Both Derek and the first Mr Vix drive me bonkers with this!!)

47: Big Top (the new BBC series that is supposed to be funny!)

48: Old people dressing like teenagers.........teenager dress badly anyway!

49: Bruce Foresyth....he should be put out to pasture!

50: smell of stale or cheap perfume!

51: running out of bubble bath!

52: last glass of port of an evening!!! Booo hooo!!

53: dirty fingernails

54: poor food hygiene

55: That bleeding DFS advert!!!!!!!!

56: Anchovies!! *gags*

57: anything "tacky"

58: the smoking ban

59: nosey neighbours!

60: fireworks!

61: the Tudors ending at season 4!!!!

62: slippery old leaves on the pavement

63: Techno speak!

64: news reporters wearing "Berghaus" jackets...

65: Barbeques...they smell and are a health hazard!

66: pineapple on pizza!! yerk!!!!!!!!!!

67: chewing gum...looks common and is messy!

68: tee-totalers!!! .get a life!!!!!!!!!!

69: things that shrink in the wash!

70: remote running out of power!

71: forgetting to re-charge my phone!

72: annoying spam!

73: trashy novels and art!

74: snobbishness!

75: soggy socks

76: car alarms that go off for no reason!

77: Blakes 7

78: scruffy men!

79: slow internet connection!

80: Big brother

81: reality tv in genral

82: Singers who mime!

83: talentless folks on tv

84: Cashiers giving you your change on top of a receipt

85: iPhone obsessives

86: Burning my toast!

87: Boy bands!

88: tabloid headlines (usually)

89: Pervo's and weirdo's

90: sky-scraper heels that should be reserved for pole-dancing!

91: 80's fashion come backs!

92: too much wrapping/packaging on things!

93: pricey organic food!

94: fake designer bags!

95: blingy fake jewellery!

96: mini skirts!! (unless you have a size 8 figure an are 20-ish)

97: Muffin top (flab hanging over jeans looks discusting)

98: camel toe (say no more)

99: too much information!!!!!!!!!

100: MOANING!!!!!!!! LOL!!!!!!

What a crankey, miserable moaning old cow I am!! Think I need to have a glass of port!!!! ;)

Presently I am watching the Paul O'gradey Christmas pantomine, and for a moment I though I saw my dear old (and deceased in 1995) Nanna Ball playing a fairy godmother on TV!!!!!!!!
Let me explain........

For years now my potty old Mum has sworne that comiedian Johnny Vegas (real name Michael Joseph Pennington) is a close relative!!!!

Any family resemblance here??




The reason she thinks this, is the surname "Pennington" was my maternal grandmothers, maiden name!!! My nanna Ball. Born in Merseyside at the turn of the century, was married twice, and by all accounts had a sting of lovers during the war, and had 3 daughters of which my mother is the eldest, Joyce Greenall born in 1933...my auntie Anne Greenall in 1936 and my Auntie June Ball in 1942. My Nanna's maiden name was, however, Adaline (Ada) Pennington!...and like Johnny Vegas, hails from the St Helens area of Merseyside...All too sadly though its difficult to trace as the Pennington name is very common in St Helens and even has Heraldic or royal connections!
Now on Paul O'gradey Johnny is playing a flamboyant pantomime dame, and he is the "sptiiting image" of my old nanna Ball, echoing her mannerisms too!!! I nearly fell of my chair!!!!!!!!!!
I guess that will be a huge topic of conversation with my mum on our usual, nightly 9pm phone call!!! is Johnny Vegas my cousin???????
My nanna Ball was one of 15 children....does anyone know where I can trace this info, that is not ancestry.com??

Derek and Sirius think I am potty........have they only just noticed?? LOL!!!!!!!!

Just finished decorating our tempoary home ready for Christmas, and its looking delightfully homely and festive at the moment!! Which is pleasing on these dark dull evenings!
Derek and I went over to our "proper home" today to pick up the Christmas tree and other deccies from our loft, but we had to buy some new step-ladders as our old ones have oddly gone missing during the re-fit, which was a bit of a pain. The house is dreadfully cold and un-lived in, but the proper work does not begin untill next week...we have decided on our new, designer, fitted bedroom from top company, Hammonds. We had a 3 hour design meeting with our personal designer last week and have come up with some lovely designes which even includes glass display shelving for my Troika pottery, and Brenda Price dolls, and 21 Swartzki solid crystal handles!! the suite its self is in brilliant white solid wood with built in bed and bedside cabinates, and even inculdes a 40 inch flat screen wall mounted TV!!! Crikey I will never get out of bed!!!!!! All the decorating will be a pale sky blue with white ceiling and stylish ceiling fan. Hammonds only do the bedroom, however so we have decided to get our own people in for the two bathrooms, one of which (upstairs) will have a jucczi style corner bath with 21 jets in pure white!! I shall never get out of the bath either!!! and Greecian style tyles and wall fittings! Also we are having the bathroom extended slightly!! Derek has suggested we decorate ourselves down stairs, but I have not had a paintbrush in my hands for 20 years!! so goodness knows what that will look like!! But I am not sure what to do about my fish as I dont want them to suffer from paint fumes!! Anyway we dont expect to be back in our proper home untill mid January.
Ok...so now for our tempary home! Well I have strings of blue crystal ball lights in the window, with Dereks fiber-optic "Christmas village" on the sill. I have 4 foot fairy-lighted twigs in a £300 Toika pot next to the TV, my red "stockings!" which are very styalised, black fibre optic tree, some vintage decorations, and our old small nativity scene on the coffee table, lit by tea lights....and I have even wrapped mum's present (first of many!!!) Goodness knows what I am going to get Derek, he seems to have everything, and never gives me any hint of what he would like making it doubley hard!! He enjoys games and puzzels, so useually they form part of his present. Fortunatly after 16 years together, he knows my tastes well!!! so I may recieve anything from Dr Who to anything to do with Tudor history....maybe some delicate and classy night things!! (if I hint hard enough) LOL!!!!

............OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have just turned around to see Derek watching weakest link.......and he is wearing felt Reindeer antlers with bells on, ON HIS HEAD!!!!!!! I bought them for Sirius!!! (piccies coming soon)

Good grief....and I think I am bonkers!! LOL!!

X

And its about time too!!!
My old friend Ian Peake of "Peakes Holidays" (37) has finally tied the knot with his beautiful bride, Pauline!!



Good luck, and my hearty congratulations to you both!! ((((((((hugs))))))))

*raises glass*

*toasts*

Hope there are many, many happy years ahead, together!

Much love,
Vix x

WOW!!!

Superb collection of Dr Who T shirts here, for all you fan friends this Christmas!!!

Please copy and paste: http://www.zazzle.com/dr+who+tshirts

I just may have to order "The Hoodie of Rassilon"!!!

*grins*

Certainly NOT doing any Christmas shopping today!

Today is probabally going to be the biggest Christmas shopping day of the year, or so they said on the news this morning, so I am avoiding town like the plauge today (will be doing most of it in London midweek anyway!) Northampton can be a total nightmare when its busy as I have blogged before....you have to be on your guard for huge prams (baby buggies) shoving you at supersonic speed!!! Scowling chavvie teenage mums with billions of skwarking chavletts ( if you dont get out of the way fast enough!!!!) The elderly on scooters zipping around like Michael Schumacher!!! (I have nearly been knocked flying by a lot of these) The self important, barging about like there is no-one else in the world and people walking straight into you for absolutly no reason at all....Morrisons, yesterday gave me a taste of all this, as it was absolutly packed when I went shopping. In fact at one point I was stood for agers waiting to get past a couple of elderly women blocking my way!! I firmly belive you should have to pass a test to push a supermarket trolly!!! Its a sad fact that at this time of year people seem to go onto automatic "I am the only person in the world" mode and any form of politness and "excuse me's" appear to fly out of the window!!!
So much for the season of good will!!
Anyway, Mum is coming for a quiet lunch, and Derek is busy taking his computer apart piece by peice as its stopped working yet again...should be a peacfull day!!
But at least I wont be in town getting injured by an insane number of chav prams!!

Phew!!!

x

In these early, dark evenings I find it nice to play daft games and connect with old pals on Facebook! Only last week I had a jolly good chin wag with an old friend from the now defunct, Outpost Gallifrey (which is now called somthing else) and play Happy Aquarium, of which I am on level 19 currently and do silly "top 5" lists....things when I was younger, fav bands, movies ect...all good clean fun!! Last week was very sad though as a friend messaged me on MySpace only to tell me of the sad tale of a break-up with his girl friend! Apparently she had buggered off to live with some chap in Birmingham and yet, my friend, Andrew still wanted to give her a chance! Good grief!! I told him not too and get out and meet some new friends!! He is 38 and lives near Hereford, and has a hobby of bell ringing, to which I said is there no available laddy bell ringers? We shall see...he is a nice chap and is also a radio broadcaster and pianist, though I felt awfully sorry for him for his loss...
Twitter is fun too, though I do more reading on there that twittering (only 20 tweets so far) Stephen Fry does the best Tweets on there!!! He is such a funny, well read, intelligent chap and I love reading his stuff! I advise any of my friends if they are on Twitter to follow Stephen as he is as entertaining as he is on TV!! There are some very good Doctor Who Tweets too, and lots of them!! Alos I can catch up with news from the world of travel as I get news from various airlines. But the best of all is the breaking news channels where you can get news instantly, even before its reached TV or other interesting news from around the world that might not make it to the UK!!
In other news we are off to Oxford street Chistmas shopping soon, and we are deciding how to decorate the house as we are living in a smaller detached property at the moment while our proper home is refurbished! We have a 6 foot black fibre optic tree but I can't see where we are going to put it in the living room....still, we should sort somthing out. And I also have my first Christmas Lodge (Masonic) very soon which I am greatly looking forward too!!
see you soon!! x

A little game for you!!! (I got 3 wrong!!)

Watch (listen) to the clip below and see if you can name the theme tunes to those much loved shows from our past!!!

Answers below.........but dont look untill you have finished!! ;)





..................




.................










no cheating now...............




I can tell you looking.............................. *covers self up*


..................






1. Superstars
2. Citizen Smith
3. John Craven's Newsround
4. Cheggers Plays Pop
5. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
6. Just Good Friends
7. Call My Bluff
8. Bod
9. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole
10. Tales Of The Unexpected.
11. Mr Benn
12. Only When I Laugh
13. World In Action
14. The Good Life
15. Trumpton
16. Crossroads
17. Brushstrokes
18. The Mister Men
19. Bullseye
20. Magpie
21. Terry and June
22. The Wombles
23. Rising Damp
24. Auf Wiedersehn, Pet!
25. Blockbusters
26. Open All Hours
27. Picture Box
28. Play Your Cards Right
29. Allo Allo
30. It Ain't Half Hot Mum


Well??..............how many did you score??

Vix x

Just found this haunting piano version of ELO's "Twilight" and it sent shivvers down my back!

Quite simply one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard!

enjoy! x

Yours truely, outside the cottage.......nice piccy of the bins! LOL!



Derek first thing in the morning...he is none too happy about this!



Our delightful little cottage that was once part of an old tin mine....set deep in the dark, foreboding wood!



Sirius and Derek pose at the door!!! You can just make out Sirius paws!!



Sirius on the rug with his toys!!



Sirius guards the front door!!



Very quaint cast iron stove in our living room!



Our cottage kitchen!!



....and the bedroom!!



Huge quartz crystal I bought in Looe!



Beach at sunset in Looe!



......Derek signs the guest book, before we have to leave! booo hooo!!



Hop you enjoyed!! I certianly did, as did Derek and Sirius! x

LATEST NEWS!!!!!!!!! Dr Vix defeates deadly Daleks in Cornwall!!...aided by large shaggy dog!!



LOL!!
Just untill I get the proper piccies!



Before I begin, please keep an eye on this entry for piccies, as at the present time I can't find my phone cable to upload pictures from my phone!!


So watch this space!!

Derek and I always find it most benifical to take a pre-Christmas, short break some where and this year we chose an isloted 1 bedroom cottage that had once been an engine house for a nearby tin mine. Beautifully restored by the National Trust as you will see in the photos I shall upload soon. But kept mostly in a very cosy, traditional style!
Decending, rather steeply and bumpily in our car, and about a mile from the tiny local village, we followed a tiny track, almost hidden by dense woods, only to drive slowly and steadily for another mile, still decending into the heart of the wood. There is a warning sign saying this is your last chance to turn around, about half a mile from the cottage. It was quite forboding realy, spooky and silent apart from startled birds flapping out of our way, and the rush of a bubbling stream. As we continued on I started to wonder if the cottage actually existed at all, as we seemed to be decending so very deep into this steep sided valley. Sure enough we came to a small clearing and our home for the next 3 nights at "Engine Cottage"...a tiny and yet delightful, squat building painted white with a lovely old "stable door" split style front door. I adored it at first sight, and totaly forgot about just how isloated and deep within the woods we were.
Sirius took an immiedate delight to the stable doors!
He has an odd habbit of stading on his hind legs to look over things, and the stable doors, he found were a wonderful oulet for doing this!!
Now because of the position of this cottage there is absolutly no TV or mobile phone reception, which makes you feel a bit cut off...but what a wonderful way to get away from it all!!!! Although I did think this was not a good place to be for someone suffering from heart problams or who might have a stroke, because the chances of getting any help, quickly, were miniscule! Also walking in the area was quite hazardus as many disused mine shafts still lay dangerously open, so walking with care was the order of the day. At night it was absolutly pitch black, and when I looked out of the bedrrom window one evening, I could see nothing but blackness, and hear nothing apart from the russtling trees and the distant hooting of a lonely owl...hastily I scambled back into our 6 foot wide bed and snuggled up with Sirius and a warming glass of Port!
Our days out included, Tintagel, St Austel, Looe, Jamacia Inn, Bodmin moor, Lands End, and other various quaint villages with brightly painted houses often in gaudy colours! I somehow managed to get ripped off on our visit to Tintagel as in a posh looking gift shop my eye caught sight of a "lord of the rings" ring with elvish writing on it. How delightful? I thought and asked about the cost....I nearly has a hissy fit when the shop manager said £240 for the gold ring!!! "we have silver rings that are only £26!" he offered, which was a bit more in my price range so I began to try them on..."they are real silver arn't they?" I had asked as I could not make out the inside mark on the ring. "Oh yes!" he promised...the reason I asked was because I can not wear anything that is not silver or pure gold, otherwise I turn green!!!!!!!!! Anyway I compleatly belived him and bought the ring only to discover the next morning it had turned my finger so green Percy Thrower would have been envious!!!!!! I was simply furious!!! and Tintagel was too far a drive to go back and complain, so I have had to keep the bloomin thing, and may well sell it on ebay as being a "fake" silver ring!..........it wasn't all bad though as I had a mooch around the shops in Poole only to come upon a "rock shop!" For those of you that don't know I have had a life long love affair with collecting rocks, minerals and semi precious stones, and at this shop I found a glittering lump of pure quartz with perfectly formed transparent crystals!!! It was a snip at £45!! and came home with me!! Also at the amazing Jamacia inn Derek and I had a tasty lunch and later a look around this wonderful place that had once featured on "most haunted". At the back was a huge gift shop and Derek bought me a stunning Austrian crystal blue drop necklace, which more than made up for the ring fiasco....and it dident make my neck go green!!
Sadly and all too quickly, our short break came to an end, and yesterday morning we packed in relative silence as both of us dident want to leave! The drive back seemed to last a million years (255 miles to be exact) but we stopped several times so Sirius could have a wee and water and we could have tea and sandwiches. We finally got back at 9pm, and were in bed, exhausted by 10pm!
On a sad note, this morning, Derek has been very ill and stayed in bed...I just hope he has not got this flu thing thats going about...?
At the moment, Sirius is keeping him company, but Mum is due to arrive for lunch shortly which will result in barks-ville from Sirius and will wake Derek up! Goodness I hope not.......we have a meeting with our builders next week and I need Derek to be well!

*puts on Nurses uniform*

I can now be followed on Twitter: twitter.com/VictoriaHS




see you soon good people! x

...And we have just this very second booked the finest seats for next year!!!!!!

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am sooooooo excited!!!

Only a few weeks ago, and after hearing good reports about the show, I decided to get the WOTW on ebay on DVD and it absolutly blew my socks off!!! It was wonderfull, and if you have not seen it yet, please get the dvd as you will certainly not be dissapointed!! Almost all the original cast and musicians were performing, and it was wonderfull to see the now in his 70's Herbie Flowers (of Sky fame) doing his stuff brilliantly on the bass!! In fact all in all there are nearly 70 musicians on stage at any given time, and even though its live, the music is amazingly close to the original album version. There is even a 30 foot fighting machine, firing its heat ray at the audience (its a red laser!!) and ultimatly the man himself, Jeff Wayne is conducting!!
For the show next year there are some actor changes: for the Artillary man which will now be taken by Jason Donovan and a young lady from Atomic Kitten is to play Beth, the parsons wife! I dont know what happened to Julie Covington, but I do know the brilliant Phill Lynott sadly died in the 80's.
The tickets (probabally the best in the house!!) were very pricey at £70 each, but if you think how much it costs to stage this show, it does seem well worth the money!!!
Crikey........... I am already planning what to wear!!!!!!!!!!

We are off to Cornwall shortly for a short break before Christmas, and I am realy excited about it as, despite the fact I have done a huge ammount of traveling I have NEVER visited Cornwall before!!!
A thumnail of my cottage here....sorry its so small but I will take lots of piccies while I am there and post them here when we return!

Quite often we will have a winter break but this is a total departure form our usual lighthouse holiday in Sunderland...But its my love of Troika pottery (this is where it came from) that has lead us to decided on Cornwall this year. I am not sure if there is still a troika museum at Newylen, as there is not much info online. But I hope to find some info while we are there! Also we are having our home totally refurbished so all our furniture is in storage at the moment (starts monday) so its a great time to get away!! Well its about time as we have not had new carpets or even decroated since we moved in almost 10 years ago, so we are having it done all at once!
...and I get to visit the medieval home of KING ARTHUR at Tintagel!!!!

Frodo Baggins by ~mrssiriusblack on deviantART

....need I say more????

*warning: audio on this does contain strong language!*

On the 25th of June this year, the world lost a genius....

Although I was never an obsessive Michael Jackson fan, I did adore his music, and apprieciate his gentle, sensitive soul, so often put down by the press simply because of his eccentric ways. However, it dosen't surprize me in the slightest that he died in the way he did, because I can remember reading about his addiction to painkillers back as early as 1982. In fact when his untimely death was announced shivvers went down my spine as I read one of the drugs that killed him was Lorezepam, which I myself was prescribed back in 2003 when I had my nervous breakdown! Its an extreamly powerful sedative, and literally knocks your legs from under you, and lets just say I coulden't wait to get out of hospital and off them horrid things, and feel myself again! Oddly enough I am the same star sign as him...Virgo!
But lets just remember his genius.
....and like all genius in arts and sciences, somtimes bordered on madness!
Michael never had a childhood so he made up for this in his "adult" life by staying a child, even though he was a man...I feel as if I grew up with him in a weird way (there is only 8 years difference in age!!!) and my childhood Saturday mornings would be filled with the wonderful Jackson 5 cartoon, through to my teenage years of constantly playing his Off the Wall and Thriller albums, and posters of him on my wall, which I would look at and think what a beautiful man he was. Even when his face changed he was still beautiful, and continued to make wonderfull music, and fill his destiny as the King of Pop and the greatest showman who ever lived!!! and his music will live on forever as will his memory! He leaves us all his special legacy...

Michaels last perfomance in rehearsal just two days before he died.
May his gentle sweet soul rest with the angels! x God bless x

Yes!!!....just like it says on the tin!
We had our "one day holiday" of the year, yesterday!!

Earlier on in the year we had decided to go camping too save money, but the weather put the dampeners on that, if you pardon the pun!! Derek had the last two weeks of July booked off for it but it just rained and rained and rained....Now dont get me wrong, I love camping. But camping in the wet is absolutly horrible as no matter how hard you try, everything seems to get damp, and if this happens 9 times out of 10 I will have a nasty cold, which is what happened last year. Plus the fact the credit crsis has put a stop to our more exotic globe trotting, so camping seems now to be our only option. I wanted to go to South Africa, and do a tour on the "blue train", but lack of funds has made this impossible, but I still live in hope. Plus, Derek is being made redundent in November from his finantial job, so we will have to tighten our belts further. So as the weather was "supposed" to be nice on bank holiday monday (yesterday) we took our chances and packed our medium sized tent, and drove up to the Cotswolds to camp for the night! It was a campsite that Derek had found on the net, and it was "tents only" which was lovely!!!! There is some degree of rivalry between campers and caravaners, and its not nice, so we tend to stick to tent only sites!
A short story for you about that rivalry.
Way back in '94 Derek and I were on a grouling trek in Derbyshire, training for the Everest trek early in '95! One night we came upon a a lovely pub in a village called Roseley with a camp site where there was a couple of tents and two caravans. We found a suitable spot and I began to set up our small tent while Derek went into the pub to ask about pitching and a price for one night. To cut a long story short I was setting up the tent when I noticed an elderly lady glowering at me from a near by caravan. Next she appeared at her door and shouted "You can't pitch that thing there! its not allowed!!"
How rude!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was thinking....and simply ignored her....the next thing I knew she came striding across the site, waving her fists and yelling. "I am going to tell the Landlord about this violation!"
Violation???
Its a small, bloody tent, not the Brixton riots!!!!!!!
I sat, befuddled, on my backpack, as I watched, the fat, bright red faced elderly woman vanish into the pub. I lit a ciggie and sure enough a few moments later a man appeared with her across the site, and he came striding twards me, and my heap of un-pitched tent.
"This part of the field is caravans only!" and "your can camp over there!" and he pointed to a spot near a noisy road side. I shrugged and expalined that I wanted to wait for my husband to come back and then we would move. But down inside I was furious!!!!!!!!!!!! What made it worse was the woman was back in her scummy van, grinning from her window. Eventually Derek came back and we moved but he was furious too and said if we had not hiked for 12 miles and been exhausted, we would have took our custom to another camp altogether! There is rather alot of snobbish, elitism in camping, and there realy is no need for it!
Ok, Back to yesterday, well Sunday night to be exact...we arrived at the camp at avout 5pm and it took us about 15 mins to set up the tent, and then another hours drive to a local town where Derek bought some beers, we came back and played ball with an inexhustable Sirius, and eveantually had an early night at about 9pm. This was where the fun started!!! And NO not that kind of fun. Sirius started to be a pain in the bum, whinning for no reason, untill he woke both me and Derek and Derek took him out to do his buisness. then at 5am he started again only this time Derek dident have him on his lead, and when they got back to the tent some time later with Derek puffing and panting, saying that Sirius had ran off down a dirt track and tried to get into someones garden before he got him back!!. Derek even carried Sirius back to the tent!!! Sirius weights about 30kg!!!
So a fun time was had by all, and I was glad I was back in my own bed last night!!
Very glad!! LOL!!

I'm truly disappinted in the way Caster has been subjected to such abuse by the media. Questioning her gender on the grounds of good sportsmanship is one thing, but to nationalise the embarrassment and humiliation is totally unacceptable. Once it has been proven that she is a indeed a female, i think she deserves a public apololy and the IAAF should compensate her for the unnecessary slander and defarmation that she has been subjected to. Please let us not forget that She has just won a gold medal at international level, at the age of 18!
Ok so she looks a bit "butch" but most women athletes are! But its discracefull that the press and world media have treated her this way! This whole "gender testing" thing should have been kept very private, and certainly, should not have been made public. Forgoodness sake has no-one in the world thought of this young lady's feelings? She may indeed , have a hormone problam. And goodness knows I have had my fair share of hormone problams, like during my monthly I get a beard!!!!! unless I keep it in check. Also I get terrible PMT which manifest's its ugly head in the form of binge drinking! I dont get angry and throw things around, I just get pissed and fall asleep. Usually it stops when my pierod stops, but I am hopeless to control it, and this is all down to my having Polycystic overies! Probabaly the same reason I can't have kids. One bad one early on this year I went to the Doctor to see if she could suggest something to help me, and she advised "Agnus Castus" which is a herb that can help with hormonal mood swings, and it seems to be working a treat, and its not even expensive! But this is all due to my hormones being all over the place so I can well sympathises with Caster if she has a hormone problam.
We should not forget that Miss Semenya has just won gold in a major international event, and she is an athlete of supreem standard!!

*drowns self in own swimming pool*

OMG!! this is such a shame!!!!!! What the heck are ShowTime up too ending at season 4!

The Tudors has been fantastic!!!!
But I feel ShowTime are cutting their own heads off by ending at season 4! Its such a shame! Edward, Jane, Elizabeth, and Mary painted such a rich tapestry between them, and they were all TUDORS TOO!! What about Edwards untimely death? and him leaving his throne to 16 years old Jane Grey because he wanted to keep His Kingdom protestant? What about Mary who had poor Jane beheaded? Mary’s persecution of all prodestants and even throwing her own sister Elizabeth in the Tower? Mary’s phantom pregnancy which turned out to be cancer that killed her? What about Cathrine Parr and Thomas Seymore? Seymore tried to seduce the young Elizabeth, even at one point cutting her gown to shredds, and Cathrine Parr’s own death on the child bed? Elizabeth finally on the throne, and her heartbreaking romance with Robert Dudley, and her refusal to marry anyone because of the horrors she had seen as a child! Please give us our Virgin Queen, Showtime!!!!!!!!!!

The Tudors simply dose not end with the death of Henry, its so silly!! I am heartbroken!!

The first part was written by a fellow blogger and is NOT my work*******

a lassi is a tradtional indian yoghurt based drink, the main constituent of which is indian ‘curd’, which the rest of the world knows as ‘runny yoghurt’.

variants include-

plain lassi (runny yoghurt plaus nothing)
sweet lassi (runny yoghurt plus sugar)
salt lassi (runny yoghurt plus salt)
banana lassi (predictable)
mango lassi (i think you’ve already guessed).

‘bhang’ means grass. in hindustani culture they’ve been smoking dope since they invented it. in the himalayan vallies of kashmir and himachel pradesh especially, enormous swathes of closely packed annabiis plants grow as god intended, up to 7 or 8 feet in height. obviously just picking the leaves and smoking them is shite, so they invented charas. the traditonal method for collecting charas was to send a clean, naked boy running through the fields for an afternoon, and then rub the sticky resin off his smooth skin. nowadays, now that they have the internet for entertainment, people just rub the leaves with their hands. colllecting in this manner will harvest around six grammes a day.

however, smoking this charas is illegal to all except the holy men (or sadhus) under hindu religious law. your average indian local would think nothing of making a bit for the travelling ascete, who after all needs to be on a level with shiva, but would never dream of smoking it himself- alcohol and drugs carry the same sort of social stiugma in a small traditional indian community as knocking back anti-freeze or sniffing glue does in a pleasant surrey suburb. to bridge this social paradox, the govt. of india runs its own chains of shops in hoply cities to supply holy men with their wares, (opium and grass), to save the locals from the moral problem of supplying it themselves- sort of like ‘halfords’ does for teenagers.

however, when it comes to the fresh, wet, mushy, absolutely unsmokable, totally impotent leaves of a cannabis plant- well they’re fair game as far as the locals are concerned. anyone who’s ever tried smoking the regular leaves off an outdoor naturally grown unselected plant will attest to the fact that all you’ll get off them is a nasty cough. but what the cunning indian has learnt to do is stick a heroic dose, 10- 20 grams wet weight of the otherwise useless vegetable matter, in a blender with half a pint of yoghurt and a few spoons of sugar. and then drink it.

that, my dear, is a bhang lassi.

first time i ever had a bhang lassi i was in the (then) holy coastal town of gokarna in the state of karnataka- mother to three of the most beautiful unspoilt beaches on the konkan coast (not any more i’m afraid), surrounded by luscious and beautiful examples of nature’s work. the advice of my friends of the time was simple- if you’re going to take psychedelics, you’re better to do it in the morning and make a day of it in the beautufl environment.

keepng this in mind i headed down to the beach at 8am and had a bhang lassi for breakfast. 40 rupees, or about a dollar (twice the price of a regualr lassi). i thought it a clever strategic move to drop it down on an empty stomach, and had banana added to try and disguise the green taste of the thing. and then i sort of sat and waited.

when i suddenly noticed i had no idea how long i’d been there, i thought it best to pay the bill. when i found myself trying to pay the bill for the third time, i though it best to leave. when i found myself leaving, i also suddenly found myself unalbe to see properly. feeling myself quite out of my depth before lunch, i opted to try and get back to the safety and obscurity of the hotel, though in hindsight i’d have probably done better just to sit where i was.

there was only one respectable hotel in gokarna, the imaginatinvely named ‘hotel gokarna’ (500 rupess or so for a double with hot water and attached bathroom and balcony. very clean. claimed a few stars, but i think that might have been pushing it.). and there is only one street in gokarna, which was not very long, though in my defence it did turn left at the end. taking this information into account it should have probably taken less than an hour to find the place.

once located ‘hotel gokarna’ was not the easiest hotel to navigate, with a series of mezzanines, half floors and intermediarry staircases interlocking on two sides to form a sort of open courtyard around the main foyer. after the bhang lassi however, naviagation became nothing short of absolutely impossible. indeed, i couldn’t for the life of me find the room, and kept seeming to arrive back at reception. in the end i thought it best to ask the now interested management if they knew where my room was. my question was a simple one, and predicatalby drew an even simpler one from them. ‘which number is your room sir.’ it was now that is discovered that somewhere between the ‘bhang’ and the ‘lassi’, i had misplaced my room number.

‘318? no, 238? no, 183…?’ and so it went on. i explained that i was staying with a group of six acquaintences, a small group of drug dealers calling themselves ‘dj s’ and we had checked into two or three rooms on different floors late the night before. this didn’t seem to help the clueless management, who in turn, obviously not having tried a bhang lassi themselves before, demanded what my friend’s names might be, and found it ridiculous that i found the disclosure of this information outside of my powers.

disgusted by the inefficiency of the management to assist me in the simple task i had requested of them, i once more took matters into my own hands, relieving myself of their inadequate company i simply went round the hotel knocking on likely candidate doors, saying ‘sorry’ when the occupier answered- after a few rounds the occupier was without exception a mildly confused middle aged pot-bellied indian wrapped in a towel,

they say all roads lead to rome, but again i arrived back at reception, where the manager and his assistant, having consulted themselves, and having no recollection that i’d even signed in, also decided to take matters into their own hands and eject me from the premises. thankfully at that moment my friends, whom i was also starting to doubt ever existed, happened to be stepping through the door returning from breakfast. they knew their own names and everything, and had the keys in their pockets which was a great relief. without even a sniff of a fuss they informed the management of the terrible mistake, took me into their safe custody and escorted me to the room that i had been alloted to.

back in the room i was shown to a makeshift bed on the balcony and possibly undressed by the lovely lucy. for the next couple of hours she kindly gave me a number of reasons to help me remember her name into the future. when i came to take a shower to cool off, i discovered god had dealt me yet another heinous blow- no electricity- and the bathroom had no windows. being a resourceful chap, i found a candle and set it on the sink. my shower finished, i returned to the lucy on the mattrass on the balcony, and collapsed in a psychic whirl of dream-like not-sleep.

when i came to my senses in the late afternoon i was aware of a strange odour eminating from the bathroom. ‘not the usual nag champa’ i thought. the electricity was back on, but i soon wished it wasn’t. the candle had set fire to the plastic framed mirror, which in turn had charred the wall black to the ceiling. the floor was decorated with the smashed mirror, silvered shards of broken glass scattered hither and thither. the frame itself had part melted into the sink, whilst the candle had fallen onto the toilet seat, still lit, and made a brown ugly mess of it.

i think the seven years is up in about three weeks, or at least i hope it is.

(above work copied from an unknown blogger**)

**********************************************************************************************************************

...and this realy took me back to the time when Derek and I were in India's holy city, Varanasi, backpacking.

One evening, just before a glowing sunset, we were both sat on the roof top restraunt of our hotel for a "Lassi" before dinner out at a smart restraunt across town. Now normal Lassi is just a cooling, gorgeous yogurt drink, fruit or salt flavored (Mango lassi is my favortie!) and needless to say totally harmless. What Derek ordered off the waiter was somthing totally alien to me, and called a Bhang or special lassi...this is the drink most favored by the Hindu God Shiva, and so is mostly drank at festivals.
"whats that then?" i asked him now more than a little bemused.
"Its a special Lassi that the locals drink so I thought I would try it!" Derek replied simply.
I shrugged my shoulders and ordered my Mango lassi, and got my nose stuck back in my Lonley Planet travel guide.
About 10 minuites later the waiter arrived back with our drinks, and Dereks lassi was GREEN!!!
It look absolutly ghastly, and was slightly frothy on top. It looked like it was somthing Dr Jekle would drink!! I eyed the thing with suspicion, half expecting a hidieous alien to leep out....and Derek was even grinning when he began to drink it. I felt my nose wrinkle up, in discust.
What followed was just as disturbing....
Slightly later we ordered a rickshaw form out side our hotel, to take us to the restraunt for our evening meal...and Derek mentioned quietly to me that he felt a "little woozy!" Derek had tried to pronounce the name of the restraunt and found that he couldent, so realy our driver had no idea where he was going. I tried to help in my awfull Hindi, but this only confused the driver more, so I showed him a map from my travel guide, he nodded and off we set.
Not long into our tinkling bell journey, my mild mannered, alcohol avoiding, University educated, Derek had turned into some one I dident recognise!! Derek suddenly started acting like he had, had 20 vodka's!
" ITS THAT WAY!!!!.....NO!! THE OTHER WAY...DOWN THIS STREET HERE!!" He began yelling at our poor, totally confused rickshaw driver.
"ok? ok?!" the driver asked and I just simply said. "He's had a bhang lassi, whatever they are" Presently the driver's shoulders began to shake almost uncontrolably and I soon realised he was in fits of hysterical laughter. Indignently, I sat back into my seat, telling Derek to shut up in the process!
What had been in that drink?? I questioned myself.
It was only by the powers of God that we eventually arrived at the restraunt!
We took a table for two and I ordered a Scotch and coke, and eyed the menu hungrily. The tradational Tandori Chicken sounded like a jolly good option when suddenly I heard Derek say quietly that he felt dreadfull. I looked up from the menu and eyed him, closley. His face was GREEN!!! and his eyes looked all boggly, and bulging!! I knew I had to get him back to our hotel as soon as possible, but I was sooooo hungry! Needless to say I got him back in a regular taxi, for swiftness, and my moaning and growning, partner in travel to bed and waited untill he slept. He nodded of just after 10:30pm. Leaving our room, I made my way back to the roof top restraunt, ordered a fanta (alcoholic drinks are not always available in Varanasi as it is a very holy city) to wash down a simple cheese omlette. After I had eaten and while paying I asked the waiter what a Bhang lassi was. The waiter grinned and tapped his nose "local secret ingrediant...is hashi"
I was totally horrified!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Derek was ill because he drank a glass of cannabis!!!!!!!! Silly sod!!!

Sorry folks for the long break on my blog but I thought I would have a break for the internet for a while...and I have had lots of computer problams over the summer months, so much so I could have not got onto the internet if I had tried. One of my worst hassles was my DC adaptor whent to Electronics heaven (it died, with a loud pop!!!) and I had to get a new one to the tune of £75!!...so apart from the horrid wet weather, I have not been a happy bunny over the summer.
Ok, on we go....
I have just joined Twitter, the social networking site, mainly out of cuirosity realy, just to see what all the fuss was all about! Its fairly easy to navigate and seems much simpler than facebook and myspace. Acctually myspace just seems to be full of bands at the moment, and I never get a "genuine" friend request anymore, so I have not used it recently. Hence I thought I would try somthing new!

So if your on there, give me a knock! I am on under my married name of Victoria Harrison.

See you soon x

My lovely 8 foot pool ended up on the patio afterall!!!

I was mulling it over for a day or so and got out the tape mesure to see if the pool would acctualy fit on the patio...and low and behold my patio measures exactly 9 foot from my patio doors to the start of my garden!! So one morning before it got too hot I lifted my empty pool (even empty it weighs a ton) and got it on the patio where I had placed two old picnic blankets for it too sit on. Its actually under the kitchen window so I could even top it up with warm water if it gets too cold, via my short hose which I use for my fishtank. The pool takes about 3 hours to fill though (about 650 gallons) and its still a bit wonky because I hadent straightened it out properly but now at least I have a swimming pool that is absolutly gorgeous and a wonderfull way of cooling down when its megga hot. At night I cover it with a large tarp and double cover the filtre unit as its electricle, and I have no desire to get electricuted by my own pool filtre...Anyway Derek is so impressed with it, he is coming home from work, usually about 4pm, stripping down to his shorts and getting straight in the pool. Yesterday evening he was in there for about an hour and I had to call him 3 times to say his dinner was ready!!! Even more surprizing was he mentioned having a "proper" dug in pool in the garden!! I nearly fell off my chair when he said this last night!!! Now although my garden is big enough for a good sized swimming pool, it would cost about £15,000 to build, and proper swimming pools need a lot of looking after, and maintainence which = hard work!!! So Last night we chatted about it over an icey cold bottle of wine and came to the conclusion a good sized "hot tub" would be a more practicle idea and we could use it all year round!! So on Sunday we are off to the Waeyvale garden centre where they sell, and install them, to price them up and genrally see whats on offer. ok we wont be able to swim in a hot tub but we can enjoy it in the evening with a cold or indeed a hot drink!!! Anyway, I will let you know what happens.
Now for my busness propersition, which came out of the blue, from a lovely chap called Brian who has a small shop which sells novalties, as well as Masonic supplies...a while back on ebay I sold him one of my Masonic tea light holders, stained glass variaty. He was so impressed he emailed me explaining his shop and he has comissioned a set of these holders I make for sale in his shop, we just need to agree a price. I had to explain the cost of the paints as well as the fact each holder takes about 4 days just to make one, and also I have to make one for my own lodge for my Fellow Craft. So we have agreed Christmas time as he thinks they will sell better then. Well at least this gives me 5 months!!!...which reminds me. I have to email him as I have not been on the internet during the heatwave, because my laptop gets hot, making me even hotter, and I have been messing with my pool...weel slobbing about in it realy!! LOL!!

Stay cool people!! x

...if its not one thing its another....

Since Sirius put a rather sharp claw through my old one, and I was unable to repair it, I decided to get a new "inTex" one, that a bit posh and huge!! But I have discovered a BIG problam....my back garden, although perfect and private for a pool, slopes, and it slopes badly. On reading the instructions for the new pool I found out the ground had to be perfectly flat in order for it to fill properly....
Argggggggggggg!!!!!!!!!
The design of the new pool is a rather new trendy one, where you just inflate a ring at the top and the rest of the pool just fills like a bag, underneath, which is why the ground has to be perfectly flat, other wise I will propabally end up very wet, with an upside down pool!!! My garden dosen't slope too badly but there is about a 2 foot difference from my patio (lowest point) to the back of the garden, which is more than enough difference to make hassles for my new pool. I thought about putting it on the patio but its not wide enough, and a woulden't fancy the prospect of putting it on flagging anyway, even with a tarp underneath.
What a moaning old cow I am!!! LOL!!

In other news...as I have not heard from paypal or my lovely little scammer in NY, I am writing to the Ombudsman tomorrow to complain, as well as BBC's Watchdog as its about time someone spoke up about paypal and its buyer preffered policies, as some people have lost thousands in scams like mine, its just that folks are scared to speak up, and I think its about time too. I have already warned ebay I am complaining to the Ombudsman but have recieved no reply, so I am going ahead with it...might seem extream for just £100, but this is a scam and needs to be reported, whatever the ammount. I have also got a complaint form from the Post Office today too...I am not going to let this go, unless the buyer can somehow PROVE he did not recieve the dolls...crikey....and its only Monday!!

Looking forward to iced pink port tonight! ;-))

This morning my ear was more blocked than ever and its driving me bonkers!!!
Apart from the pain in my cheek and neck, my ballance is all over the place, and I am walking like I have been guzzling vodka!!! (not for a long time now) so I took the plunge and phoned my Doctor only to be told I could not get an appointment next week!!!...The receptionist put me on hold for a moment and then came back to say "would you like a call from the duty Doctor?" to which I answered "yes!!!" just get rid of this bloomin' ear thingy!! about half an hour later I get a call..."if you can get hear in 15 mins I will see you now!!"
What do they think I have got?? a bloomin' Tardis??
So "Battlestations" ensued. I called a Taxi and then went into a mad panic when I coulden't find my house keys!! (left in the car at the weekend) so I had to quickly call mum to see if she could pop down and let me back in on my return, which bless her, she did. As it was I managed to get to the Doctors in time but still had to wait 45 mins to be seen. When I eventually went in she was lovely and gave my ears a jolly good look at. Firstly she checked my "good ear" and announced I had a temprecher, then checked my dodgey ear, with much pain on my part. At first she said she was going to syringe my ear, but following a further exanination she said it was very likley I have an infection as I am in pain too, and lots of it. So she has given me Amoxillin (antibiotic) and asked me to come back on friday morning. I thanked the Doctor for seeing me so soon, collected my prescription and wobbled over to Morrisons for a bottle of water to take my first tablet, at the bus stop. I am just so desperate for it to clear up!!
So I have a nasty ear Goblin...goodness knows how I picked it up, but I just wish it would go away.

Hope no-one else out there gets one....its horrible, and I feel dreadfully ill.....