Is this a test, do you think?

25 Comments

posted by Babs on Sunday, 26 October 2008

Please read this to the end, if you don’t want to see a sad beetle doodle.

I received an award last week and decided not to pass it on.  I had passed a few on previously and felt it might be overkill to do it again.  A certain person, who shall NOT be nameless **IT WAS IVANHOE** politely pointed out my error.  “Oh no, we don’t mind. Keep it all to yourself” was what she actually said.  I was cut to the quick, I tell you.  Mortified!

I just received this ‘Butterfly Award’, and who do you think passed it on to me?  Ivanhoe!  Now I don’t think I’d be wrong in thinking that she may be testing me, to see if I take note of what my readers say.

Please notice that I do take your comments on board, even when mortified.

The rules:  Link back to the person that gave it to you **IVANHOE** and pass it on (a link is good) to ten, I said TEN other blogs.

Here goes…….

I..VAN….HOOOOE! - she now has to find another ten blogs.  I am now feeling un-mortified. Yes, I made that word up ;O)

Kathy @ The Junk Drawer

JD @ I Do Things

Jay @ The Depp Effect

Maureen @ I’d Rather Be Blogging

Natural @ Thinking Out Loud

Drowsey @ Drowsey Pics

Sandee @ Comedy Plus

Ruth @ sinch-ro-ni-zing

The Teach @ Work of the Poet

You may thank me and leave the award where it is, or you can put it on your blog.  Whichever you want to do is fine by me, but please thank me or I may become mortified again!


Babs

Diamonds. A girls best friend? - Part 2

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posted by Babs on Thursday, 23 October 2008

If you haven’t already, you might want to read part 1 before reading this post.

Before continuing, I think I’d better clarify that all the diamonds in question were totally legal and above board.  Only my aunt would have known why she chose to sell them this way. It would very likely have been because, let’s face it, your average person knows nothing about the diamond trade!  How do you explain how you, a working class lady, came to own a large quantity of loose diamonds?  Where would you go to sell them?  I don’t think the diamond merchant gave too much thought as to how my aunt would exchange them for cash, when the time came.  She chose to sell them privately.  Makes sense, I suppose, given her lack of knowledge.

Part 2

With my dad’s words “Don’t get involved” imprinted on my mind, I arrived at work the next day.  I mentioned the fact that my aunt had some diamonds that she wanted to sell.  Most of the girls were not interested.  They probably assumed they would be far too expensive, but one girl said she would ask her husband if she could have one.

This particular girl (Shirley) had invited me to her home and fixed me up with a chap called Pete.  We had dated for several weeks and although he was a very kind, sensitive man, who lavished me with attention and gifts, he was a lot older than me, and more worldly wise.  We ended it because we were worlds apart.  I was cute enough to realize that the little stops he made on our journeys out were a bit ‘cloak and dagger’.  I had realized that the very plush car and expensive clothes were very likely not bought from the wage of a ‘nine to five’ job.  He was a classy man though, not a cheap thug, or a ‘hands on’ criminal, but I was never cut out to be a moll :O)   Shirley’s husband, on the other hand was not classy, and I wasn’t keen on him.  I soon discovered that they were not friends of Pete, and I was much later to realize that they used me to gain favour with him, in the hopes of moving up the criminal ladder.  It didn’t work and I was well out of it all.

Shirley arrived at work the next day and said that her husband was going to buy her a diamond. The girls were in awe of this.  At this point, I had no idea that her husband was a criminal.  At just nineteen, I was naive enough not to have worked that one out.  I did as my dad had advised, and gave her my aunts phone number.  No more was said on the subject.

The next day, Shirley didn’t arrive at work, but she was often late, or took days off.  Nothing unusual there.  However, later that day, one of the ‘big’ bosses came in and said that there was a phone call for me in his office.  This was unusual!  The ‘big’ bosses never entered the lowly offices.

I picked up the phone and what I heard stunned me.  It was the C.I.D (Criminal Investigations Department). I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  A gang? Masked men? Guns? This doesn’t happen in real life.  Only in the movies.

It seemed like I had no sooner hung up the telephone than the C.I.D had arrived and been allocated my boss’s office to interview me, and get my statement.  I must say, they moved very quickly.

It transpired that my aunt had arranged for Shirley and her husband to come and choose a diamond.  He had told her that he had a large amount of cash to spend and requested that she get several of her best and more valuable diamonds out of the bank.  My aunt, being gullible and, lets face it very silly, agreed.  They were to come that evening.

Around lunchtime, there was a knock on the door.  Some workmen asked if they could come through her house to get to the back in order to work on something.  My aunt said “Of course you can dear” and let them through.  What followed must have been unbelievably frightening for her.

The men burst in, grabbed my aunt and forced her on to her bed at gunpoint.  She had two tiny dogs, who were barking.  I don’t know what they did to the dogs but I know, from the court transcript, that my aunt kept crying out “Don’t hurt my dogs, please”  They were not happy at the amount of diamonds, and kept shouting for my aunt to tell them where the rest were.  Finally, after a lot of shouting and waving the gun about, they accepted that there were no more diamonds and left with their haul.

Thankfully, my aunt hadn’t been totally stupid.  She hadn’t got all of her diamonds out of the bank. Even more thankfully, she hadn’t been physically hurt either.

The C.I.D. left with my statement, along with Shirley’s address details from the company files, and said they would be in touch.  I returned to work, although not a lot more work was done by any of the girls that day.

Now I waited.


Babs

An award & Memory Foam update

19 Comments

posted by Babs on Monday, 20 October 2008

I have another award that came from Christelle of karooart.  She makes beautiful, and very artistic jewelry from Polymer Clay.  Thank you Christelle, for this ‘Brilliante Weblog’ award.

I hope you forgive me if I don’t pass it on.  I have passed so many on lately.

____________________________________________

Update on the memory foam.

I have used my memory foam mattress for long enough now to judge how good it is.  I haven’t had such comfortable nights sleep before.  I also haven’t had as much back trouble!

My verdict?  If you have any problems with an uncomfortable bed or waking up with backaches in the morning, then try one out.  Both Mo and I love ours.  Just a note about the memory foam pillows.  We both threw them off the bed.  We found them to be a bit like resting your head on a slab of concrete.  Not that I’ve ever used a slab of concrete as a pillow.


Babs

Diamonds. A girls best friend? - Part 1

28 Comments

posted by Babs on Friday, 17 October 2008

This will be another serialized post.  I hope you enjoy it.

Part 1

“I swear, by almighty God, that the evidence I shall give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God”

It was the mid sixties and I stood nervously in a London ‘High Court’.

Now, I suppose it would be a good idea to start at the beginning, and give you a little background information.

I had an aunt who had a ’sugar daddy’.  He was a married man, but my aunt had had a relationship with him for many, many years.  It was one of those ‘understandings’ between he and his wife.  The relationship eventually became platonic and continued until his eventual death.  He took care of my aunt in his will and it was dignified and respectful of his wife and family.  He was a diamond merchant, and had given my aunt many diamonds over the years.  Some more rare in colour than others, but all very valuable.  Aside from the diamonds that she wore, they were kept in a vault at the bank.

I was about 19 years old and worked in a publishing company in London.  I had made friends with all the girls in the office.  We went out together lunch times and socially in the evenings. Many of us had even been to each others homes.  We all got along really well.  This was to be my first lesson in life, regarding friendships.

One day, on one of her visits, my aunt asked my sisters and I if we were interested in buying a diamond very cheap.  We, of course said yes.  They were £25 a piece.  She pulled out a little package and poured the diamonds into her palm.  They were varying in size but in my aunts typical style you got whichever she picked up, kind of pot luck.  We were all thrilled with our purchase and put them away carefully, planning to get them set into rings at a later date.

Some weeks later I got a telephone call from my aunt (who I will call ‘Betty’ for the purposes of this post).  This was strange, because she never telephoned and asked to speak to us girls, it was always mum or dad.  She wanted me to ask my work mates if they were interested in buying diamonds cheaply.  I would, obviously, be the intermediary.  Now this was a scary request, and as soon as I had put the phone down I told my mum and dad what I had been asked.

They were not at all happy about me getting involved, my dad made his feelings clear.  “For goodness sake Babs, just give them Betty’s telephone number.  Whatever you do, don’t get involved!”  I decided to listen to the wise words of my dad.

I would soon realise just how wise those words were.


Babs

Ducks, ducks, everywhere ducks!

38 Comments

posted by Babs on Monday, 13 October 2008

Mo and I went for a walk today.  It was such a lovely, sunny and warm day.  We started out at our favourite reservoir, then decided to drive to another lovely spot and have a cup of tea, while watching the ducks that trotted around waiting for scraps of food.  We noticed a lonely little duck standing on a pedestal.  We soon realized that he had a bad leg.  Poor little ducky!  Mo went to buy some duck food, and I managed to get up close enough to take some macro shots of it.

Just before we were leaving, Mo suggested that we go and look at a couple of white ducks, which were on the grass area.  She threw a handful of duck food and before it had even hit the ground she was surrounded by dozens of ducks, all pecking around her feet. Look at that one gazing up at her!

While I was trying to catch this, feverishly moving, bunch of ducks with my camera, Mo threw some food over at my feet.  There we were, standing in the middle of a sea of ducks, all feverishly pecking at our feet.  As soon as the food ran out, they would peck at our legs, asking for more.  It was hilarious.

Finally, we moved back to our car to leave.  Mo threw the last of the food down for those ducks and the same thing happened.  As soon as they realized there was no more food, they left without so much as a thank you, as you can see from this photo.

This was a whole new slant on feeding the ducks!


Babs

Another double boost award!

17 Comments

posted by Babs on Friday, 10 October 2008

This is the third award I’ve received from a blogger that I didn’t know read my blog.  I got this lovely ‘Butterfly Award’ from Liza at moms check nyo.   I am thrilled again.  Thank you Liza, it’s much appreciated, and a great surprise.

Rules are simple.
• Put the logo on your blog.
• Add a link to the person who awarded you.
• Nominate 10 other blogs.
• Add links to those blogs on yours.
• Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

I hope I’m forgiven if I only pass it on to a few of the cool blogs I read regularly. I have passed on a lot of awards lately.   These are three cool cat blogs that I read daily, and I always have a chuckle.  They are written with such humour.

Daisy the Curly Cat - “….. You can wear some headgear at a rakish angle. But it is not correct to wear a crown askew on your head…”

Angus Mhor - “…..Oh, hey! Did I tell you I yakked TWICE…yeah, baby…TWICE on the carpet?…”

meezerboy - “…..One of my sparkle balls got stuck in sum wires.  When I wuz trying to git it out a lamp jumpt off the tabil at me and broke…”


Babs

Mushroom Army - Mystery solved!

38 Comments

posted by Babs on Wednesday, 8 October 2008

This is what they look like on the third day. Definite mushrooms today, and slightly lighter in colour now.

Having searched and searched on Google, I think I’ve solved the mystery.  I found this photo with these details:

Hypholoma fasciculare Sulphur Tuft


Orange-brown with sulphur-yellow.

May - on stumps of deciduous trees.

I know it’s October but the weather has been weird this year.  A passing neighbour said she also has some in her garden, so we’re not alone!


Babs

We’ve been invaded by mushrooms!

42 Comments

posted by Babs on Tuesday, 7 October 2008

It happened overnight.  One day nothing and the next day we had been invaded by a army of tiny, bright orange mushrooms!  There was a small platoon a few feet away, hiding in the rose bush . They were nestled down in the roots, but Mo’s keen eye found them.

What are they after?  Will they use germ warfare?  Maybe they’ve just set up camp for a rest before continuing on their journey elsewhere.  I certainly hope so.  I would hate to wake up and find them moving into the house!

I have performed a search on Google, to find out who, (or what) they are, but they must be a top secret bunch.  I can find no trace of this particular soldier.

If anybody has seen these before, or know anything about them, we would appreciate knowing if the are friend or foe.


Babs

Only Mo would do it!

30 Comments

posted by Babs on Saturday, 4 October 2008

I recently changed my bed but the mattress was a bit hard, so to make it more comfortable I decided to get a piece of memory foam to go on top.  Mo managed to get me a 2″ deep memory foam mattress.  That was great but it was too wide and needed to be trimmed.  Easy enough to do - well for most of us anyway.

We laid it out on the bed ready and I left the room for some reason that I’ve forgotten. When I came back, Mo was stooped over the foam, cursing and moaning away to herself.  I couldn’t believe what I saw.  I fell about laughing.

I imagine you know that memory foam is pretty dense foam, and Mo was attempting to cut the 2″ sheet with the tiniest of nail scissors!  Just look at this! I was laughing so much I could hardly take the photo!

Needless to say, more suitable scissors was eventually found and used for the job.

Believe me when I say - “Only Mo would do this!”

Come on, let me know, would any of you try this?


Babs

A double boost award!

25 Comments

posted by Babs on Thursday, 2 October 2008

Kathy of My Gipsygoods gave me this award.  I love it when I get an award from somebody that I don’t know reads my blog.  It’s a double boost.  Thank you Kathy.

Here are the rules:

Award this to seven of your favorite blogs with the following instructions:
1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog;
2. Link the person you received your award from;
http://mygypsygoods.blogspot.com

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs;
4. Put links of those blogs on yours;

The following people have been chosen because I really do love their blogs!

The Junk Drawer - I love that her blog is like a chat room! It’s funny and there’s always lots going on there.
I Do Things - I love her hilarious posts. Sometimes she is quite crazy. Her blog is always good for a laugh!
The Depp Effect - I love her mixture of fun, rantings and Johnny Depp!
I’d Rather be Blogging - I love the style of her humour, and her blog design!
Mimi Writes - I love her fun, photo packed posts - and that she lives in a castle ;O)
Flying - I love her photography.  There is something quite special in her photos.
Drowsey Monkey I love her fun filled blog - even her widgets!


Babs