Three Holes In The Ground...

Well, well, well...

Thank you for your lovely New Year's wishes and my best to you, as ever!

2011, and what is different about me?

Nothing, zero, zilch.

I have some good intentions. Not resolutions, no. Intentions.

1. To exercise a bit more. Diane - (Please click on her name to get to her fabulous and wonderful bloglette) - inspired me last year by having set some goals, which served to spur her on to do more and to accomplish a number of runs for very worthwhile charitable causes. I'm very proud of what she has achieved.

I am going to let you in on a secret. I have pledged to run a 5k Race for Life later this year for a cancer charity. Oh yes! The button will appear and the begging bowl will be out, and I am committed (or will be!) to do it. Come hell or high water, fire or flood. -- And if you catch me out there with a box of matches, or pulling that boy's finger out of the dam, you will know I am trying to avoid having to do it!

2. I must lose weight. I talk about it, but then I don't change my lifestyle. Go figure. I wish I had a figure - Ho, ho! I am hoping that the drive towards the run and more exercising to get me into that state where I can at least jog a little, will also get me to lose some of this post-baby weight. (Note: Grizz will be 19 in February!)

3. We're off to Italy this year. 26th July sees our 25th Wedding Anniversary. How we got here (and we're not there yet) I'll never know, but in a mad moment on our wedding day, (I think it was then - Long veils of white shroud my memory), I got GJ to say that he would take me to Venice and Florence, (I've since added Rome for good measure and I like things that come in threes), for our 25th Wedding Anniversary if not before...

For our 25th it is then! And no, GJ, I don't think a day trip to Ventimiglia counts when we holdayed in Nice in 2006 - No, not at all! So, I'll have to mug up on some Italian before then. I shall blog about things I so desire to see later, like the Keats museum by the Spanish Steps, of course, but if any of you have any hints and tips for a less than millionaire-cost trip to Italy, I should be most grateful for them.

4. To have more fun and enjoy life a bit more. Seriously, I bore even myself to death with my low-rent, Olympic-range, whinging; I don't think I have a lot of fun, at least I can't remember loads of it. I laugh quite a bit. Mainly manically, but I worry loads. -- I'm hoping my Group Therapy might help me get to the bottom of that torment. I usually worry about money, and not having very much of it. And so, losing my job later this year will not be good for that, I know, sooooo...

5. Part of my plan to have more fun is to do more things with music, so I have a weekend in Shoreditch, London planned (but nothing booked!) for April, so that we can see our neighbour John Steel with his Animal friends performing at the East by East Festival - The Blockheads are also going to be on stage, so there's something else to look forward to.

We've Richard Thompson at the end of this month at the Sage with his Dream Attic tour, and I want to see the local comedian Sarah Millican, whom I adore, at her gig in Newcastle in April, I hope, but her tickets are selling out fast across the country, and well, I'm worrying about money again, so shoot me!

Above all, I hope to be a better friend and a fair, good enough mother and a decent partner. That is all. And Angels? If you can swing it my way to do even better in the Leek Competition in late summer, that'll be muchly appreciated!

Ciao, mes beaux... Mwah! Have a great year!

Happy Holidays

This little musical interlude moved me to tears at the weekend. I love Flash Mobs. I love this. I hope you do too.

May I take this opportunity to wish you, mes amis, the happiness you long for this festive season and the peace of mind to enjoy it.

Love and light.

(p.s. Tomorrow I grow into 47 years. Be gentle with me. I might have a pink silk eye-shade on and my hair in curlers, dressing-goonie on, waiting to be whisked off to a secret location for a fabulous birthday tryst, peut-etre diner a deux...

Then again, I might just be at work as usual!)

Ciao bellas -- Je vous aime... Tant! Mwah! x

Destiny and The Fates...

It's Sunday and the house is silent.

Silent apart from the sub-human rumbling drone of the tumble dryer...

GJ is off taking his CBT. Nooo, not Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, although he might well benefit from that, particularly in terms of Anger Management I might add -- Compulsory Basic (i.e. Motor Bike) Training --- Silly-billies, mon Dieu! Keep up, why can't you??

He's wearing days' old shabby trousers and a cigar coloured retro Americana leather jacket that I gave him one Christmas when we lived in Inverness. Twenty years ago. ...It's rather a tight fit now to say the least.

I say retro Americana, but I bought it from one of those Gents' Outfitters that you last saw in the Fifties, so it might well have been tres authentique, as opposed to tres retro, I dunno!

I'm sure he'll be safe.

I'm checking his insurance policy as I type just in case.

His mate has now acquired a retro styled bike from a local showroom that I'd rather had my eye on meself, so I'm not jealous, no... ...But, unlike GJ, he's also splashed out on a full set of leathers...

The poser!

Given that I believe most of the CBT takes place in a class-room, I'm hoping he'll be sweating like a Pig in Heat!

I jest, I jest...

The house is also quiet because since Grizz got back relatively safely, although totally skint and blinking in the daylight, from Zakynthos (Xante), he's been practically nocturnal and we've hardly seen him...

He tootled out last night, having spent a some valuable time (allegedly) infecting his girlfriend with a strain of Greek 'Flu, to see his mates in the nearby market town...

I'm back to having very little folding cash in my purse again.

Quelle surprise!

Still, I wanted to just say a few things:

Thanks for all of your kind words, purporting to the fact that I am strong, creative, intelligent and bound to make the best for myself of the woes that lie ahead of me... This is as we face several months of uncertainty while the politicians fight over how to get rid of us in the Public Sector on the cheap, to save the Fatcat Bankers paying back what they owe the tax-payer...

Anyhoo, your dependable kindness is much appreciated.

Sentiments and fond words fully taken on board.

Albeit all too quickly discarded, as I don't have a very strong sense of self-esteem at the mo'...

But treasured quand meme! You are very lovely, decent, intelligent, clever, witty, amazing, brave, beautiful and strong people yourselves... Really.

Je vous aime.

So much - Tant.

Merci mille...

This morning, I'm supposed to be getting dressed to go out to see my friend for a coffee and a chat...

That'll be why I'm still sitting here, on my first coffee, in GJ's T-Shirt, (v. glam, feat. the bulldog from Tom and Jerry), with hair like a 'borst cooch'***, looking like the Wreck of the Hesperus then!

Off to see Sazzy later. Splendiferous... But not Greeny, no.

He's ill, had to cancel, hospitalised, sadly.

Hope he gets well soon.

You see we're fated like that, GJ and I.

First John Martyn. Kippered it later in the year after we'd been to see him...

Next Davey Graham. A couple of months after meeting us he was gone to see his Maker...

I'm only glad that we're next up to see some really young, fit, folk...

Perhaps they'll be strong enough to withstand our very probable curse?

Maybe I'm some kind of modern day Medusa?

I've got the hair for it!

*** A 'borst cooch', hair like the springs peaking out of a burst couch, or rather sofa... (Pitmatic Dialogue).