As I was walking down the hill in a world of my own, I was mentally counting down the months since my operation....an elderly gentleman pedalled slowly past me on his pushbike, he smiled and said “November”
Wow...I thought, he’s telepathic ...that, or I was mouthing the words and he's an ace lip-reader!

As I look out of the back bedroom window where I usually get a free fireworks display on the fifth of November there is a distint lack of bangs going on and the air has the ambience of a damp squib....I guess everyone has put bonfire night on hold 'til Saturday this year!
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I ventured on a bus into Wakefield city centre today for change.
Like many northern cities it is struggling to modernise itself, what with the mega shopping centre works starting.. then stopping .. then been given the go ahead again .
At the other end of town a new Hepworth museum(in homage to Barbara Hepworth)is being built which looks to me as if it could be one huge 'white elephant' .... but as I strolled about I noticed another attempt at modernising the city centre which prompted me to write this brief post on 'The Bull Ring, Wakefield.

I am pleased to report though that today, on a pleasant autumn day, things have settled down somewhat in the Bull Ring, as these photos which I took today show.
Both children and elderly people alike seem to be enjoying the novelty of a modern water feature where once Queen Victoria's statue reigned

Last Sunday the girls drove me to Saltaire..not to Victoria Hall but this time to visit Salt's Mills which was built by Sir Titus Salt

When it was first built in 1853 the mill employed 3000 workers, and was one of the most advanced mills in the country. Since the decline of the mill trade, Salt's Mill has been preserved mainly thanks to the work of the Silver family.
Businessman Jonathan Silver bought Salt's Mill in 1986 and rents part of them to a telecommunications company and parts to shops, there is a bookshop (with some entertaining kids books!) a homeware shop (modern but fancy prices to go with it) and galleries devoted to local Bradford artist David Hockney. There are also restaurants and cafes inside
The steam-powered Salts Mill was one of the largest and most technically advanced textile mills of its time. The integrated mill housed almost the complete production process from sorting through to finishing. Known at the time as ‘The Palace of Industry’, Salts Mill it dominates the village of Saltaire and is distinguished by its detached, 68m chimney which is a local landmark.
David Hockney has a collection here and is the largest of his works in Europe ...this picture of the mill caught my eye, a colourful bird's eye view

Miramaze mentioned to me that she visited there herself around two years ago and asked me if i'd seen the crocodile ....well..."no"...I didn't see the crocodile but here are a few of the random objects that I did see whilst perusing Salt's Mill.

Hockney works

Shop displays

The Chimney

...and not forgetting the stray Baa lamb

It's a dismal overcast day here in the wild west of Yorkshire but still t'old man ventured into the garden earlier to "give the lawn one last mow for this year"..that's a sign of how bored he is as i'm sure he said the same thing last week
I'd prepared the ingredients to make a warming shepherd's pie but then retreated to the 'box room' to wait for a return phone call hoping to gain some useful advice. Meanwhile my computer is playing up..sometimes I can get online and sometimes it is slow loading up and navigating a site can be problematic. The computer is old now and probably needs a complete overhaul but that means calling in the son-in-law as i'm not savvy enough to do it myself.
Maybe now is the time to buy that long promised laptap but do I buy one with XP or Vista or maybe I should wait until the new windows 7 which is on sale from today has established itself
Questions, decisions .. decisions, questions ..one can get quite dizzy

Ah well... there's an enticing smell wafting up the stairs, it seems like the shepherd's pie is ready for eating so see you later ...if the computer behaves that is!

PAH! it is almost a year since I was so excited at receiving this!

Build your own Blingee

I whooped and I skipped and shouted out with glee.

I delighted in flashing it to the bus drivers throughout the winter months and I couldn't wait for summer to come when it would really prove its worth.
It's been redundant for a while

Just goes to show...one shouldn't get too blase as you never know what's around the corner ..and it usually isn't buses!

HAVE A

...and if you do happen to stay glued to the computer all day do what KINGKEV says and make it a Blog Happy Day.

As for me i'll probably be in and out of blog all day..i'll try to be Happy but I have been pre-occupied lately with a decision I have to make!...
it is a no win situation..."there are no right decisions ,there are no wrong decisions, whatever decision is made is the right one"
I've got 'til next Friday to decide (sorry for being so cryptic,I may blog about it soon)
so perhaps a 'blog happy day' is a good diversion for today

Have a good one y'all

Yesterday I went to my U3A spanish language class for the first time in months.
Afterwards we usually pop into the fruit and veg shop opposite the library where the class is held, the shopkeeper remarked that she had missed me calling in these last few months.
I deducted that the reason why she had missed me was that I always bought the 'almost past it' fruit and veg she displays in a box which are sold off at a dirt cheap price and judging by the amount of produce in the box no-one else in the village must be bothered to buy them.

I got all these peppers with a couple of bruised apples thrown in for less than 50p, so you see apart from her missing me. I have missed calling in on her too.

I used to make soup or ratatouille with the bargain produce previously, I'm wondering what else I could make with them.

I was also given a bag of pears collected from a neighbour's trees,

Pear crumble anyone?

Half an hour ago I waved off two of my blogging friends, La Spice and Murphymole.
They had stopped by to say "hello" to me en-route to Lancashire.

Thank goodness for friends.
It seems ages since I have been to my classes and mixed with all the 'ladies' who I have a bit of a repartee with most weeks, so I was very pleased when Kathy phoned yesterday morning and asked if I wanted to go along to the twice yearly JOY event in Saltaire (JOY abbreviates for JEWEL OF YORKSHIRE) which we have attended a few times before.
I explained that I couldn't possibly attend any workshops or even stay out for more than a few hours before I would be wanting the comfort of my old settee.
"That's Ok she said" we'll just go along to look at the 'souk' which is set up in the main hall and have some lunch in the makeshift cafe that is also set up for the event.
"Great" I said, "let's go"

It is a hive of activity in the main hall in the middle of the day,with lots of dancers and teachers sitting around, whiling away time between attending workshops, chatting and eating lunch.
I met quite a few people I knew so it was lovely to catch up with them.

I spotted two international male belly dancers( Yes, indeedy, there are one or two of this strange species around)
I have seen them both perform a couple of times and have chatted with them before so they were quite happy to allow me to take their pic whilst they were discussing one of Egyptian dancer Khaled Mahmoud's props 'The Candelabra'also known in the dance as 'Shamadam'.

I found a short video of khaled doing the dance with a female egyptian dancer Aida Noor but unfortunately embedding is disabled so if you want to see how they dance with this adornment on their heads then click the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUqHowxvTCI

Khaled offered Turkish dancer Ozgen a try of his candalabra helmet but his head must be smaller than Khaled's as he daren't let go of it

There were lots of lovely things to buy at the souk but my ability to dance nowadays doesn't warrant spending any more money on outfits ..but Kathy did manage to buy some brightly coloured sticks for her class to use when she teaches them a new 'stick dance'
There will be a lot of ducking and diving when she starts to teach them a stick dance traditionally Stick dances are performed by men, here's an example of this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsG7Y7C_uno
Shades of morris dancing..don't you think!

My hair has started sprouting again and I fear that if I leave it to grow 'au naturel' it will eventually resemble the mane of this splendid creature and not the vibrant brunette that everyone recognised me as before

Title...The horse with eight legs