@ 2008-07-31 – 17:52:55
As the heavens opened once again this afternoon my thoughts travelled back to last weekend and how the folk in Warwick town centre managed to stay cool, i.e lots of drinks, umbrellas, hats and fans 
Here are some of the pics I took in the street last weekend
As usual Click on pic to enlarge
@ 2008-07-28 – 17:16:39
I awoke this morning and popped my head out of the tent and what did I see?
Yes, another lovely day
Time to go home..the party (folk festival) is over..and I have had the best time but more of that later, it was 8am and my train was due to leave Leamington Spa at 10:11.
A quick wash and cleaning of teeth(no time for showering this morning as the camp-site has to be vacated as summer school camp is due to start in the Warwick school grounds today, but first a stroll past my remaining week-end neighbours, most of whom were busy packing up their tents ready for the journey home.
to the food tent area where the last couple of food outlets had remained to serve breakfast to the beleagured festival goers
The 'ground force' stewards who did an excellent job of keeping the toilets, showers and festival areas clean all weekend had been busy working since the early hours so just the odd occasional reminder that there had been a few thousand merry makers inhabiting the area the night before
I breakfasted on two fried eggs in a bap and a strong cup of coffee then packed my tent and made my way to the station.
I had a while to wait so I found myself a seat in the sun in a pretty little corner of the station.
and admired the flowers that were in full bloom(unlike the flowers in my poor garden this year)
The train was only eight minutes late so can't really complain there as it was absolutely full and the staff were exceptionally helpful and carried my luggage on board for me (didn't think I looked as if I needed help but who knows 
)
T'old man met me at the station and surprise surprise, I didn't have to eat beans on toast for lunch as is usually the way when I arrive home from a trip for we both tucked into fish and chips with mushy peas from the chip shop ...back to healthy eating tomorrow
Guess what??... the sunshine this weekend has prompted the Yukka plant to flower at last
A nice radox bath awaits so see you later 
you can click all pics to enlarge.
Flamin' Nora, i've just realised that the date imprint on my camera is still one day behind as all these pics were taken this morning the 28th!
@ 2008-07-23 – 22:05:53
Here's a few signs I spotted along the Spen Valley Greenway in Cleckheaton the other week
This is my favourite
Which reminds me that I hope to be hearing some wild birds of a different variety this weekend at Warwick Folk festival
In the line up there is Mercury prize nominee 'Rachel Unthank and the Winterset'
The fabulous Bella Hardy and one of my recent favourite female folk acts
Flossie Malavialle to name but three. There are many more female acts due to perform as well as many good bands.
Full line-up here
http://www.warwickfolkfestival.co.uk/artists.shtml
I'll be catching the train at midday so probably will only pop in briefly tomorrow..Have a great weekend everybody and may the sun shine on you..wherever you are
@ 2008-07-22 – 20:54:35
The lack of colour in the garden is still a little disappointing this year!
The Yukka plant has grown another shoot but has yet to flower
There is a little colour here and there
and the most brightly coloured flower (the marigold) in the whole garden had a visitor today 
Still summer isn't over yet.
@ 2008-07-19 – 22:34:42
I fear he could be right..t'old man says I am heading for the loony bin (that's how he talks) but what else can I do..i've always liked dressing up
Today I joined a group of eight other Yorkshire belly dancing housewives and went along to an open day for a support group for adults with various mental health problems. It was an informal event and everyone enjoyed it when we donned our costumes and performed our lively if not a little amateurish dances. Then I came home had my tea with t'old man, got bored so decided to rummage through a wardrobe in the spare room (no not the one in the garage!)
I hung my afternoon's attire up and discovered some relics from the past, just right for the launch party of The Good Ship Lollipop
Get yourselves over there now
http://goodshiplollipop.blog.co.uk/
@ 2008-07-17 – 15:47:37
Four official looking letters in the post this morning:
The first was a gas statement...it's costing more...no surprises there
The second was a letter from the bank with regards to the ATM error I blogged about a few weeks ago. They have confirmed that an error occurred and that they have refunded the queried amount...makes a change for a follow-up to go without a hitch
The third was a letter from the Pension Service confirming that my claim for the State pension has been received and they will process my claim as soon as possible ...can't wait to see how much pension i'll get
Finally the fourth letter was from Warwick folk festival with the details of my stewarding rota 
...Yay..i'll be on duty at the pedestrian entrance on the Friday, checking tickets and passes to the site I presume and on Saturday I will be in the folk festival office fielding enquiries...I'd better brush up on what's going on then.
In exchange for stewarding one receives free concert and camping tickets so I calculate that I will be working for the equivelant of around £10 an hour for the 9 hours work i'll do....can't complain at that.
@ 2008-07-16 – 20:14:01
Eventually my son-in-law came around and gave the computer an overhaul, the problem apparently was to do with firewalls, bugs and trojans or summatt, so hopefully things should be alright for now
In the meantime I have had so much time on my hands that I having been scouting around looking for things to do
For instance.. yesterday morning would have normally been spent playing on my computer doing nothing in particular but seeing as that wasn't an option and I was feeling relatively fit and active I decided to tidy up the garage.
There was a single wardrobe in there, redundant and forlorn...it was only being used to house winter coats and boots and the odd box of vinyl records yet it took up a large amount of space. I decided that it wasn't serving any use being there so I set about relocating its contents and instructed t'old man to dismantle it ready to be disposed of.
T'old man was busy..."it will have to wait a day or two" he said "then i'll do it"
As I was feeling hale and hearty..I went back to further inspect the empty wardrobe to weigh up how difficult a job it would be 
I opened a door and put pressure on it and lo and behold the door fell off
I wondered if the other door would fall off so easily so I wiggled the hinges and pushed it and pressed it. There was movement around the hinges so i thought one almighty heave would bring it away.
I gave an almighty heave but in my eagerness I heaved the door towards me and the whole flaming wardrobe came crashing on my head 
resulting in the door end jabbing above my eye and the rest on my head
So now i'm the walking wounded!...did t'old man sympathise?...did he heck 
"Just like a woman" he said "why didn't you just use a screw driver or wait a few days for me to do it?"
I have to admit he does have a point, but I didn't intend to dismantle it myself, it was a series of events which led up to it 
The top of one side of my head was numb and my eye hurt so that was the end of my voluntary resourcefulness yesterday and although I did feel a bit better this morning how was I going to face my dance class looking like a battered wife 
Thank goodnesss for purple eyeshadow and pan-stick is all I have to say
Before
after
Needless to say the ladies at my dance class were much more sympathetic .. even if they did laugh first
---------
Update 15.25 Thursday 17th
The bruise is really coming out now..how can I hasten its departure..i've to meet my public at the supermarket on Sunday
@ 2008-07-12 – 11:04:55
Hello 
from a library in the wilds of West Yorkshire 
.
Yes, I woke up on Tuesday morning and as usual, being one of my first tasks, I switched on the computer.....it was working fine the night before but now I can't access the internet
a similar thing happened a few months ago and eventually my SIL came and fixed it.
I t is probably something that is quite easily remedied but apart from a few basic things I am absolutely hopeless with the internal workings of the computer 
..it is so frustrating having to rely on other people.
I had received an invite from a group "Black pearl" but it seems that as my computer went down so did this group!..I had captured a pic last weekend at Cleckheaton of this jolly pirate so thought it was a good omen....
...........ah well
I don't know when i'll be back on-line so I will catch up with you all as and when 
Yours frustratedly
Isadora Xx
@ 2008-07-07 – 15:48:12
A "meme" as seen on Meno's and other blogs.
Use seven words to describe your weekend:
BUSES
CAMPING
RAIN
MUSIC
FUN
DIRTY
BATH
In five words or less, describe how this weekend differed from any other weekend?
"SLEPT IN A SODDENED FIELD".
-----------
Ok, Ok so it rained....well I did expect it to and I made sure my little tent was watertight so at least I stayed dry in my sleeping bag.
I had two stewarding duties, the first in the town hall selling programmes and raffle tickets and the second duty was at the camp-site entrance, fielding enquires.
Yes, it was very wet but we were provided with kagools and I wore layers of clothes and my "winter" woolly hat 
Nevertheless I had a good time and caught up with some people I had not seen since last year, I watched some talented people perform (more of that later)whose performances weren't affected by the weather as the concerts were held indoors in the Town Hall and other venues.
The wet weather did affect the outdoor events somewhat which is a shame as these were geared mainly towards the children although the annual procession did go ahead..it takes more than a spot or two of rain to dampen the spirits of the Cleckie folkies...
No Zulu warriors this year which is just as well as I don't think they would have appreciated parading around in their skimpy garb this year
How many umbrellas can you spot?
@ 2008-07-03 – 10:32:13
This blog is in danger of repeating itself...seeing as I generally blog about what i've been getting up to and how I seem to be going to the same events this year as I did last....but what the heck!!
Cleckie here I come, the tent has been aired and the sleeping bag washed and what do I care if it rains 
I'll be on the bus tomorrow with my pan clanging and hanging from my bag (no easy way of camping for me) then i'll collect my stewarding duties in the afternoon and after that it's music music all the way...
Let it Rain if it dare! and if it does see if I care 
@ 2008-07-02 – 19:54:24
In the beautiful city of Seville, Jane and I had the pleasure of visiting the Moorish palace 'Real Alcazar de Sevilla'.
In the 1360s King Pedro the Cruel of Castile with his mistress Maria de Padilla, lived and ruled from the Alcazar. He employed workmen from Granada and by using fragments of earlier Moorish buildings in Seville, Cordoba, and Valencia some of the rooms and courtyards seem to come straight from the Alhambra and it offers some of the best surviving examples of Mudejar architecture.
In more recent history General Franco stayed in the royal apartments whenever he visited Seville.
Within the Moorish palace there are many salons. Some floors are tiled forming ziz zag patterns. There are large windows adorned with tiles and gorgeous wooden shutters. here are a couple of pics from the interior
![ALfie_goes_to_Andalucia_006[1]](http://data5.blog.de/media/582/2633582_fca4835c36_s.jpg)
The gardens were stunning. There are rows and rows of lush flowers and towering hedges. The ornate tiled benches were a welcome resting place (as you can see in my previous post) as we spent the afternoon enjoying the midday heat. At the front of the palace was this fabulous walled and fountained area set within a pond abundant with fish and ducks.
Skimming the water and darting amongst the ducks were these huge fish.
I took a little 55 second video of them..I thought you may like to see it..refreshing to see after a hot day.
@ 2008-07-01 – 11:13:21
So there I was back in the bakery on Sunday, impressing the girls with my tales of strolling down a dusty andalucian street just the day before, to pick up my fresh 'barra de pan' from the village shop along with the local mujeres.. .a little bit different from the production line we have in the supermarket bakery 
.
Then yesterday I felt my street cred disappearing rapidly as I opened the official looking brown envelope..informing and inviting me to apply for my Old Age Pension as I would soon be officially eligible to receive it as I was now within four months of the official retirement age for women I had been eagerly anticipating this letter but now it had arrived i'm not too sure...there'll be no turning back!..i'll never be fifty something again 
and then there was the comment I received on another forum which said "don't wish your life away for a bus pass" 
Ah well what will be will be and I have been boring everyone silly about my forthcoming "big birthday" but first I have to find a way of marking another milestone next week..that being the 25th (silver) anniversary of mine and t'old man's wedding 
...now this might be difficult as t'old man definitely doesn't do celebrations, perhaps I might create a banner and stick it infront of the tv screen or stick it on the wall above his favourite chair ((or even hang it up above the bar in his local, he'd shrivel up and die )...or maybe I could request a tune on a radio show like I did once when we were newly wed and he had just returned home from working in the Middle East.
Then again the wedding itself was pretty much a non-event 
I must write about that sometime on my 'Snippets' blog!!
To finish this post on a different note...here's a couple of "posers"
...no...not trick questions...except maybe which one is me?
Sun worshippers both
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