Once again..............

I got another award just before I went on holiday. Maybe I should be embarrassed about getting all these awards but I'm not - I love it!
Mike at Mike's Homefront has bestowed this award on me.


Originally the award was meant for guys but as you can see Mike has doctored it to enable him to pass it on to girlies.

Here's the original one for you guys.

I have to pay it forward so I am going to use both so I can include boys and girls.

First the boys:

My lovely boy Dan at Dan's Fi-ver has to have an award because he is definitely an Awesome Dude, if only for getting up at 5 a.m. to collect us from the airport! He has only just started blogging recently, so I hope you'll check him out.

Buffalodickdy at Opinions & Rectums who makes me salivate - with his recipes!

Dumdad at The Other Side of Paris has me in stitches with his tales of his cycling round Paris. Ask him about earwigs!

Then there's the girls

Linda (Are we there yet) and Catch (A penny for your thoughts) both Awesome bloggers who keep me entertained daily.

I have only recently found Confessions of a Rotten Correspondent , and I would like to keep her to myself really, but she's too good not to share, so go take a look.

Pick 'em up guys and gals and pay 'em forward.

El Gouna Part 1...

I'm going to do the holiday report in short bursts otherwise it will end up like War & Peace and you'll all be bored to tears, so here's part one and hopefully you'll look forward to the next instalment(s).

We had two weeks in El Gouna, near Hurghada on the Red Sea, staying at The Three Corners Ocean View Hotel right on the Abu Tig Marina.

El Gouna had its beginnings in one man's search to find the most beautiful spot on Egypt's Red Sea coast to build a house and small boat jetty. Around two decades ago Samih Sawiris, chairman of Orascom Hotels & Development, El Gouna's parent company, found that beautiful spot, conveniently located just north of Hurghada on the west coast of the Red Sea. It wasn't long before Sawiris' friends, struck by the splendor of the azure waters and dramatic backdrop of mountains, asked to join him. In this way the town slowly blossomed into the vibrant community it is today, fulfilling Sawiris' and OHD's vision of "carving paradise out of the desert."

I hope you're not expecting a sightseeing tour of Egypt - we did that already, so if it's historical photos you're after click here to see our Nile Cruise and temple visits. This holiday was always going to be a relaxing one with lots of sun, swimming and gentle walking to help my knee recover - and it did!

Our flight should have taken off from Manchester at 2 p.m. but was delayed 3 1/2 hours (what a surprise - not), this meant that we wouldn't arrive at our hotel until 2 a.m. but we did get a free drink on the plane to compensate, which we added to of course!

On arrival we were banded (wrist band to show you're all inclusive) and shown to our room. I had asked for a ground floor room but we were given one on the first floor, luckily right near the lift so no problem there. We inspected the room whilst waiting for the luggage to be brought up and were quite pleased apart from (you girls will understand this part) there was NO hairdryer! It stated quite clearly that there was a hairdryer in the room so I hadn't packed one. I had packed the kitchen sink but no hairdryer. After I threw a hissy fit and threatened to be on the next flight home, MWM calmed me down and said "We'll go out and buy one at first light". By now the luggage had arrived and I had decided we'd stay so we unpacked. I don't know about you but no matter how tired I am I can't think about sleep until I've unpacked the luggage.

We managed about 3 hours sleep, this was partly due to wanting to explore our surroundings and the fact that my bed was a hollowed out log filled with pebbles and sand, with a pillow that can only be described as a boulder! MWM said I was exaggerating and offered me his bed but I tried it and his was the same, though to be fair I am used to a king size waterbed at home so anything less is uncomfortable.

As the day dawned the first thing I did was to look out of the window to check the sun was shining (you never know) and marvelled at the view. We quickly showered and covered ourselves in P20 (Once a Day sun protection - wouldn't use anything else) and went down to reception to ask for a hairdryer and a new pillow, which appeared in our room after we got back from breakfast, so that was a relief. We found the breakfast terrace and the buffet, had a leisurely breakfast then claimed a spot in the shade round the pool, we like the sun but are not daft enough to bake ourselves all day like some.

There were plenty of sunbeds round the pool and also a man made beach at the back of the pool with a jetty where you could get into the sea to swim. We were told this swimming area was good for snorkeling and there were lots of fish which had become used to being fed, so on the second day we took some bread and I snorkeled whilst MWM fed the fish (MWM doesn't swim).

The first day is always the busiest I find as there are the inevitable 'meetings' to aquaint you with the hotel and 'trips' available. These were quite informative and we were taken on a little walking tour around the hotel and adjacent marina. As I've said before I have no sense of direction so I thought this was a really good idea, however on the second day, even though I'd been on the tour, I got lost in the hotel and had to ask a member of staff where my room was - luckily I could remember the room number!

First impressions of the hotel, surroundings, food, staff etc., were favourable and I've put together a little slide show so you can see what we saw/did the first couple of days.

A Special Birthday...

We missed a special birthday whilst we were away on holiday.

Our eldest granddaughter would have been 14 on the 20th July, so today I took her some flowers, as I always do on her birthday, and left her a little note saying we hadn't forgotten it's just that we were away on her birthday.

I spent some time talking to Sophie and Reece, telling them what's been happening since I was last there, then said my farewells and promised to be back on the 30th August with flowers for Reece's 17th birthday.

Our beautiful grandchildren are resting behind this country church, surrounded by views like this

I miss them.

Quick Giggles Part Two...

I'm still busy with holiday washing and ironing etc., etc., so I'll leave you with this........


Actual lines taken from Real CV's and Covering Letters.

1. I have lurnt Word Perfect 6.0 computor and spreasheet progroms.



2. Am a perfectionist and rarely if if ever forget details.



3. Received a plague for Salesperson of the Year.



4. Wholly respoinsible for two (2) failed financial institutions.



5. Reason for leaving last job: maturity leave.



6. Failed bar exam with relatively high grades.



7. It's best for employers that I not work with people



8. Let's meet, so you can 'ooh' and 'aah' over my experience.



9. I was working for my mom until she decided to move.



10. Marital status: single, unmarried, unengaged, uninvolved, no commitments.



11. I have an excellent track record, althouth I am not a horse.



12. I am loyal to my employer at all costs. Please feel free to respond to my resume on my office voice mail.



13. My goal is to be a meteorologist, but since I possess no training in meteorology, I suppose I should try stock brokerage.



14. I procrastinate, especially when the task is unpleasant.



15. Personal interests: donating blood. Fourteen gallons so far.



16. Instrumental in ruining entire operation for a Midwest chain store.



17. Note: Please don't misconstrue my 14 jobs as 'job-hopping'. I have never quit a job.



18. Marital status: often. Children: various.



19. The company made me a scapegoat, just like my three previous employers.



20. Finished eighth in my class of ten.



21. References: none. I've left a path of destruction behind me.

Read Quick Giggles Part 1 here.

You are a star.....

Denise is approaching her 500th post she wanted to do something special… in her words

“......please post this on your blog and more importantly send out to all of YOUR blogging community too, so we can all celebrate the global friendships which happen between us all… we are all stars shining!”

So please feel free to put it up on your blog and invite others to do the same.

You won't believe this.......

but I have been given another award! This happened just before I went on my recent holiday but I didn't have time to publish before I went.

Pauline at Cursuum Perfidio has given me a Rockin' Girl Blogger award - my second! Of course I'm absolutely thrilled, a girl can't have too many awards, 'cos you know what awards mean don't you - a new outfit for the ceremony! The great thing is I got to choose a different colour award too.

I now have to choose five people to pass it on to - whilst I love passing on awards it is the hardest thing to do because I'd love to give all the blogs I visit an award. Please don't be offended if I don't choose you, I will try to pass them on to people who haven't already got one.

Flowerpot Days is a recently discovered blog for me, but already a favourite. Flowerpot is, in her own words, "a writer/landlady who lives in Cornwall with a sailor/jazz musician who plays the trumpet to the delight of Buster, the cat, and the disgust of Mollie, the dog." and she used to live on a boat with her sailor. I bet that boat rocked!

Lettuce at Lettuce-Eating is a great writer. After seeing a fantastic Rebus post she had put together I just knew I had to have a go and Lettuce very kindly told me how to do it. Isn't that a 'rockin' thing to do.

Sally Writes is another recent discovery. I'm not sure Sally likes this sort of thing but I'm choosing her anyway! She is a mother to five children, has a husband, a cat, a dog, a theatre school business and a part time broadcasting job with a community radio station. As if that weren't enough Sally and her husband have just started the long process of becoming Foster Parents. You can't get much more 'rockin' than that can you?

Drunk Mummy says of herself "Delving into the Heart of Darkness that is raising small children, Drunk Mummy finds a few glimmers of light in the altered perspective that a couple of glasses of wine can bring..." Her writing is nothing short of brilliant as are her inevitable wine recommendations! She has some 'rockin' good times, mostly drinking wine!

Headless Chicken at Having A Word With Myself has only been blogging since May this year. I don't know how she finds the time, being a mother of 5 who's ages range from 17 to 8 months! After reading her powerful post Damage, an extremely frank post about her life, I came to the conclusion that she has true grit. A true rockin'girl blogger!

I hope you will all pop across and visit the five blogs I've mentioned (if you don't already) and agree as to why I've passed the award on to them.

The rules are if you receive the award you get to display the spiffy badge after you've done a post about it, and you have to pass it on to five other girlies who you think rock! The award originated with Roberta Ferguson.

You can choose any of the following colours........

Cooeeeee...................

I'm back!

Got back in the early hours of this morning and although I have tons of washing and other things to do I just couldn't resist taking a peak at what's been going on!

I have loads of holiday photos to upload and then a post to sort out, and obviously a lot of catching up to do with everyone so please bear with me whilst I get around to it all.


After all the stuff I've supped over the last two weeks whilst on holiday I thought maybe I should follow this example...........

Reformed drinker


I had twelve bottles of whisky in my cellar and my wife told me to empty the contents down the sink or else.... so I said I would and proceeded with the unpleasant task.


I withdrew the cork from the first bottle and poured the contents down the sink, with the exception of one glass which I drank. I extracted the cork from the second bottle and poured the contents down the sink with the exception of one glass, which I drank. I then withdrew the cork from the third bottle and poured the whisky down the sink with the exception of one glass which I drank.


I pulled the cork from the fourth sink and poured the bottle down the glass which I drank. I pulled the cork from the next bottle and drank all but the sink of it, throwing the rest of it down the glass. I pulled the sink from the next glass, then poured the cork from the bottle, then I corked the sink with the glass and bottled the drink and drank the cork. When I had everything empty, I steadied the house with one hand, counted the bottles, corks and glasses and sinks with the others which were 29. As the house came by I counted them again and finally had all the houses in one bottle, which I drank.


I am not under the affluence of incohol as some thinkle peep I am, nor are I half so think as they drunk I am, but I fool so feelish and I don't know how is me and the drunker I stand here the longer I get.

Hic, hic.

Quick Giggles Part One......

Before I let you loose on the quick giggles I just wanted to tell you I'm going away tomorrow, so this will be my last post for a couple of weeks.

We are going to El Gouna on the Red Sea (Egypt). It was a last minute, all inclusive, deal and I've checked the hotel out on the internet, including customer reviews, and it sounds fantastic! Obviously I will take loads of photographs and tell you all about it when I get back. Oh, and my knee is doing so well I won't be taking a crutch with me!

Please try not to blog too much whilst I'm away then I won't miss anything!

Enjoy a laugh now.............


EXTRACTS FROM ACTUAL LETTERS SENT TO VARIOUS COUNCILS AND HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS THROUGHOUT THE UK:

1. I want some repairs done to my cooker as it has backfired and burnt my knob off.
   


2. I wish to complain that my father hurt his ankle very badly when he put his foot in the hole in his back passage.



3. ........ and their 18 year old son is continually banging his balls against my fence.



4. I wish to report that tiles are missing from the outside toilet roof. I think it was bad wind the other night that blew them off. My lavatory seat is cracked, where do I stand?



5. I am writing on behalf of my sink, which is coming away from the wall.



6. Will you please send someone to mend the garden path. My wife tripped and fell on it yesterday and now she is pregnant. We are getting married in September and we would like it in the garden before we move into the house.



7. I request permission to remove my drawers in the kitchen.



8. 50% of the walls are damp, 50% have crumbling plaster and the rest are plain filthy.



9. I am still having problems with smoke in my new drawers.



10. The toilet is blocked and we cannot bath the children until it is cleared.



11. Will you please send a man to look at my water, it is a funny colour and not fit to drink.



12. Our lavatory seat is broken in half and is now in three pieces.



13. Would you please send a man to repair my spout. I am an old age pensioner and need it badly.



14. I want to complain about the farmer across the road; every morning at 6 a.m. his cock wakes me up and its now getting too much for me.



15. The man next door has a large erection in the back garden, which is unsightly and dangerous.



16. Our kitchen floor is damp. We have two children and would like a third so please send someone round to do something about it.



17. I am a single woman living in a downstairs flat and would you please do something about the noise made by the man I have on top of me every night.



18. Please send a man with the right tool to finish the job and satisfy my wife.



19. This is to let you know that our lavatory seat is broken and we can't get BBC2.



20. My bush is really overgrown round the front and my back passage has fungus growing on it.



21. .........and he's got this huge tool that vibrates the whole house and I just can't take it anymore.



22. .....that is his excuse for his dog's mess that I find hard to swallow.

Oh Happy Days.....

You may remember a post I did recently about how family holidays, from when you were a child, can remain in your memory forever. Well that post got me to thinking (it doesn't hurt much) about my only memory of a family holiday. I know Mum and Dad took us on more than one holiday but this is the only one I can remember. I would be about 6 years old when we went to the Howstrake Holiday Camp at Douglas in the Isle of Man and I loved it!

Our party consisted of four adults, Mum, Dad, Uncle Norbert and Aunty Delia, and three children, me, baby brother and Norbert my friend. Uncle Norbert and Aunty Delia weren't related to us, they lived across the street and were Mum and Dad's best friends. When I was little you couldn't call adults by their Christian names, you either had to call them Mr/Mrs whatever or if they were friends of the family they became honorary aunts and uncles.

I can remember the excitement I felt when Mum and Dad told me we would be going on a big boat to an island across the sea (the Irish Sea), I thought we were going to Timbuktu, somewhere I'd heard mention of in a story at school. I think the holiday had been booked a year in advance because the parents had to work hard and save up, so by the time we were ready to go I'd forgotton we were going! Anyway, needless to say once the packing got underway so did my excitement again.

Click on photos

Photos copyright 2007

Here we are waiting for the lift to the ferry. Mum's holding baby, I'm the one in the hat and Dad's missing off the photo because he's taking it, you can identify the others from the paragraph above.

I can't remember anything about the journey to the boat but I can remember being on the boat. I thought it was a cruise liner but it was just the ferry belonging to the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company.

Here we are on the boat posing for Dad again. I think he must have been the only one who could use the camera.

Here's me taking baby for a stroll round the deck. I think there must have been a bit of a swell as the picture looks like we are listing to port.

Another lapse of memory regarding how we actually got to the camp, but the chalets were very nice. Dad made it onto this photograph outside of the chalet, along with a friend Norbert and I had just met. Mum must have taken this photograph because (a) she's not on it and (b) she's chopped the baby's head off!

I loved my baby brother and got to play with him a lot. I think I was practicing my 'pout' as well as my see-saw skills here. There was lots to see and do on the camp and I remember going to see the Laxey Wheel but I can't find a photograph of it in our albums, but here's some information about it and if you click on the link you can see some professional photos of it.

The Laxey Wheel, known as "Lady Isabella" was built in 1854 to pump water from the mines.It uses water from the mountain streams to drive the water wheel which is connected to the pumps.The wheel is 72½ feet in diameter by 6 feet wide and was capable of pumping upto 250 gallons per hourfrom a depth of 1200 feet. The wheel still operates but does not pump water. Why the name Lady Isabella? that was the name of the wife of the Lieutenant Governor who opened the wheel in 1854.

We went to visit a castle but I can't remember where it was, anyway Dad said sit up there whilst I take your photo and don't fall off - I didn't!

There was a fantastic kids club at the camp, Norbert and I had a whale of a time, baby brother had to stay with Mum and Dad 'cos he was too young. Even if they'd had a creche baby brother wouldn't have gone in it because he screamed blue murder if Mum wasn't in spitting distance!

Here's a picture of Norbert and me with the kids club. You'll recognise me by now, I'm the one posing (again) with the beach ball.

As was the norm when we were kids, (in the year dot), the summers were always red hot, not like now! I don't think sun lotion had been invented then because I remember my back was horrendously burned, which resulted in my older cousin taking great delight in peeling the skin off it when I got home! Oh Happy Days!

If Women Controlled the World.....

Crikey O'Reilly...........

I've been honoured again, this time by Julia at A Piece of My Mind who has bestowed another Thinking Blogger Award on me! I take this as a true honour, particulary as Julia is a Writer and Film-maker. My head will be getting that big I won't get it through the blogging door.

Well, of course I graciously accept the award mainly because I love getting awards of any sort, and it gives me the chance to pass it on to another five bloggers!


Who to pass it on to is the most difficult of decisions! There are so many great blogs on my blogroll I'd like to give you all the award, but I can't, I can only choose another five, so please don't fall out with me if I don't choose you - I love you all!


Catch at A Penny For Your Thoughts is a Mother, Grandmother and also has her own Mother living with her. In her own words her house is like "Grand Central Station with my kids and grandkids in and out...plus a wide array of friends and relatives who drop in to..and I love it!" There's always something going on at Catch's place, you can be laughing one minute and crying the next but she certainly makes you think.

Judd Corizan at The Rising Blogger is busy giving out Rising Blogger Awards to others (I have one!) but I don't think he realises what a fabulous blog he is hosting! He searches through tons of blogs to find individual posts to award. His reports on the posts are fantastic and reading his blog gives you the opportunity to read blogs you may never know existed, and thereby making you think.

Gewels at Imagined Life has captured my attention with lots of her posts but two in particular really got my attention. Her post on Thursday this week entitled 'Lift Up Thy Head' is about the American Bald Eagle being removed from the endangered species list and how she saw one in her very own yard last summer. The second post which brought tears to my eyes was her post on Father's Day, paying tribute to her her husband, her father and FIL and her male friends - such a beautiful post.

Paul Champagne at The Blogway Boys writes mostly about politics, which usually goes right over my head because, not living in America, I have no idea who he's talking about, unless he mentions the President - I know him! (Who is he?). I do pop by every day though to read his posts, because they are so well written and sometimes he does little quizzes. Paul's posts always make me think, and occasionally I do comment if I know who he's talking about.

La Bellina Mammina at (the mad) Household of Indemini-Capri is a working mother of three gorgeous boys, who still finds time to blog about her life and what's going on in her part of the world. She has just done a frank online interview about herself which will tell you virtually all you need to know.

Gledwood Vol2, a blog I have only recently discovered. Gleds talks frankly about his drug addiction, but thankfully is in the process of trying to sort out rehab for himself. If you ever considered 'doing drugs' please read Gledwood's blog - I promise you it will scare the living shit out of you, and I make no apologies for my language! You may well be surprised at the obvious intellect of the person writing, for a drug addict, which makes what you will read all the more incredulous. How does an intelligent, articulate, and in his own words, 'straight' guy turn into a 'junkie' - read and find out - it will certainly make you think.

I hope you'll pop across to read them, if you don't already, they truly are Thinking Bloggers.

To the Nominees.....
Should you choose to participate, please make sure to pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging.

The participation rules are simple:

If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to five blogs that make you think.


Link to the original post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme

Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote.

First Line Supervisor's Course...........

1. Read everything before you do anything.


2. Put your name in the upper right hand corner of the paper.


3. Circle the word 'Name' in the second sentence.


4. Draw five small quares in the upper left hand corner of the paper.


5. Put and X in each square mentioned in No.4.


6. Put a circle around each square.


7. Sign your name under the heading.


8. After the title put two crosses.


9. Put a circle around numbers 7 and 8.


10. Put an X in the bottom left hand corner of this page.


11. Draw a triangle around the X you have just made.


12. On the back of this page multiply 60 x 70.


13. Draw a circle aroudn the word paper in sentence 4.


14. Loudly shout your first name when you get to this point of the test.


14. If you think you have followed the directions carefully, call out... "I have carefully followed the directions".


16. On the reverse side of this paper add 107 and 278.


17. Count out in your normal speaking voice from 1 to 10 backwards.


18. Punch small holes in your paper here 0 here 0 and here 0.


19. If you are the first person to get this far, call out loudly ... "I am the leader in following directions".


20. Now that you have finished reading carefully, do only sentences 1 and 2.