Tea for Two

I'm loving the cute new tray cover Nana has made. I'm also loving my candelabra, which I have probably already told you about, but I am going to tell you again. I'm amazed with transformation from the nasty £3 silver electric tat Nana bought at a car boot sale.

Whilst on the subject of things I'm loving right now, I'm loving the fact that when it suits we can opt into formal learning experiences. Hermione is at her third science lecture this week, specially adapted for younger audiences, at a nearby university. She's loving them - lots of bangs, flashes and smells apparently. Must make my science experiments look incredibly dull!

Escomb Saxon Church

We have been revisiting the Norman Conquest in our history lessons. We're lucky to have Durham Cathedral, a great example of Norman architecture nearby. But what could we compare it to? Durham was a place of pilgrimage before the Normans built a huge Cathedral there. What may the place of worship looked like prior to the Normans?

We visited Escomb Saxon Church yesterday to give us some inclinations. It was beautiful and a stark contrast to the Cathedral. Even Miles was amazed by the size, the roof timbers and the 'devil door'. Apparently suspicion surrounded the north door because the north wall was usually in shade. Consequently it was generally blocked off and termed the 'devil door'.

The cemetery was very interesting too, with some of the most unusual grave stones I have ever seen.

As promised...

....pictures of the handmade 'old man slippers' card and a couple of gifts he received from friends the other day.

Please help me to choose

Thanks to everyone who wished me well for last night. Thankfully there were no culinary disasters - just lots of fun and laughter. Craig is coming up to the big four zero and one of the couples who came brought lots of amazing home made gifts for him. I'll have to take some pictures and show you. There was a huge cookie with a message on (which disappeared this morning with a cup of coffee), a birthday card made out of a pair of slippers (!!), a specially designed and painted t shirt, an executive sock organiser, personal chill pills which involved squares of bubble warp, designer jewellery to keep his screws and nails safe and more...

Conversation focused very much upon syphilitic llamas and whether such things can be bought on Ebay. We also discussed, amongst other things, what to do for the best when you notice a naked man doing star jumps in your front garden during a dinner party - thankfully this didn't occur last night! I've not laughed so much in ages and my sides are still aching.

Anyway, nursing aching ribs and a rather sore head, I decided that I would take it easy today and try to choose a fabric to recover an old stool which I have found and would like to put in my bathroom. My bathroom is a pale blue colour with a grey floor. I like the idea of a black and white print (preferably newspaper print but I can't find this) but the white background may soon look grubby with littlies in the house. I also quite like the whole retro brown/blue/pink thing that's sometimes going on these days too. The dark background may look smart a bit longer too. What do you think? Opinions please?

Worth the wait

What a nightmare! The man at Tescos had trouble with his pricing gun tonight. He couldn't get the reduction stickers to print. Much to Craig and Hermione's irritation, I was patient and managed to snap up organic veg at a fraction of the price, two pots of hyacinths for 30p each and £31 worth of flowers for £2.60! So, perhaps there are other things I could have done with that half hour, but what the heck!

I love flowers but won't usually splash out. I'm feeling very blessed to have a home full of blooming colour right now - at a sensible price too. It's certainly worth finding out when your supermarket marks everything down.

So, my house is looking lovely, all I have to do now is make sure the food is equally good when friends come to dinner tomorrow night. I'm making a few things I've not made before, Loaded Nachos to start, Texan Beef (a la Nigella) and Cashew Roast for veggies, followed by Key Lime Pie. Wish me luck!

Networking not working.

As regular readers will know, when it comes to Facebook I'm a hypocrite. I hate the ethos. I hate the commercial exploitation. I hate the way it accentuates some users vulnerabilities. I hate the impact it can have on 'real life' friendships. I hate lots of things about it, but I use it - not a lot, but I do. It's a social disease and I've got it.

I would like not to be on Facebook but there are groups there which I feel I need to be part of - things to do with home education and such like - things I need to find out for the benefit of my children, but otherwise would not be able to find out.

I felt physically sick upon reading about this lady. Sadly I doubt she will be the only one too. Really it's made me wonder why the hell it's called Facebook. Surely to call it Faceless would be more appropriate - a place where people can go, without a face and therefore without responsibility for their social interactions. I know of course that there are millions of users who despite being faceless are perfectly good and decent. I'm just saddened that some use it in a way so as to take social interaction to such a base level, totally lacking in humanity.

Yeah, so it's great for many, but what of those who use it as a way to debase societal decency and degrade humanity? What of those who make mega million bucks out of it - be it used as intended or not? Sheeesh, I wish I could kick it....and in the meantime I apologise profusely to all my Facebook friends for my gross hypocrisy, I'm working on it.

Keeping me up all night

I love it when Freecycle works - as opposed to being a pain in the backside when people start seeking designer clothing. Our three best gerbil boys acquired a fabulous new three storey gerbilarium courtesy of one kind Freecycler at the weekend. They appear to be loving it and are extremely active at night. They're noisy little devils and I've not slept well since they went into their new home. I'll need to adjust to their new sounds.