You may well ask where I’ve been lately.  The answer would be “Precisely nowhere”  I am still coughing for England, not sleeping at night because of the coughing – even though I am sleeping (or not) sitting up.  I’m going through tissues faster than I would like, because we are STILL snowed in, with no signs of any improvement soon!

Mo is going stir crazy!  She always goes out at least once a day and usually more often.  Her attempts at walking to the chemist for medication for me, ended when she couldn’t even walk up our drive to the road!  It really is like a skating rink out there.  Thank goodness for family and friends at a time like this!  It has thawed out a little, but that has made it worse because it then froze up. Now we have black ice on the roads and white ice everywhere else.  The last time I saw snow and ice like this was in the sixties.  It lasted about six weeks before it finally thawed – and that was in London! Somehow boots were a lot better for gripping the ice back then.

I took these few shots through my window again.  Sadly, it’s all I can do.

My blogging will get back to normal, and I will cheer up soon, I promise.  Until then, will you forgive me if I’m not too funny….please?

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We are knee deep in snow here.  At least when you are the height of Mo and I, it’s knee deep.  It looks beautiful, though I am aware it has brought with it absolute mayhem on the roads, railways and airports.  It looks beautiful here in Yorkshire.  I am so sad because I would have loved to go out with my camera, especially today.  Today the sky was blue and the sun was shining on the snow laden trees.

Unfortunately I am feeling very ill at the moment.  All together, say Ahhhh, or as you from over the pond say, Awe.  I have a bad case of flu and so will have to make do with these few shots.

That looks like fun.  Wadda ya mean it’s too deep?

Oh pleeease let me out mum

OK, I agree – It’s deep

Brrrr, my feet are cold. Let me in … quick!

I thought this post would give me a few days grace, until I feel a bit better, or at least until I could type more than one word without a coughing fit!

I might just add that it got a lot deeper than that before the day was out, and that none of the cats have asked to go out today!

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Boxing day Mo and I went for a trip out, so I could try my new lens.  On the way home we were chatting as usual.

Mo: “There’s a film on TV this afternoon you’ll like.”

Babs: “Oh, what?”

Mo: *“The Gromits film.”

Babs: “Oh they (the animators) are so clever, just like the ……”

Mo:  “The Pigeon film.”

Babs:  “Nooo!  The Pengeon film.  Ooh ha hah! I mean the PENGIUN film”

Mo:  “Happy Feet!”

silence….

Babs:  “Don’t they put gromits down kids ears?”

*Wallace & Gromit film.

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We hope you all have a happy and peaceful 2010.

Oops! Should I have used my header doodle?  Well this is the real me doodle – just this once.

We’re getting ready for a family gathering with lots of games tonight.  Hopefully we will have fun.  We will be remembering Sindie especially, as this was always her night.  She organized all the games, and laughed uncontrollably, all night long.  I expect we will raise a glass to her.

Happy New Year!

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Look what I got for Christmas!  I’ve wanted one for so long.

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Last year I posted about my nice new camera that I found under the Christmas Tree.  This years post is about the lens I found under the same tree.  Did I miss it last year?  Was it hiding so deep in the branches that I overlooked it?  No, Santa came again this year.  He knew that I’d wanted this lens for a long time, and he tries not to disappoint.

I can take photos like this really close up shot …..

to this panoramic view, and all with one lens …..

This is a photo of our local reservoir, taken on Boxing day, and I could never get this much in one shot before.  I’m thrilled with it.  Click the photo for an enlargement, you know you want to.

For those of you who are photographers, it’s a Canon EFS 17 – 85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM.  For those of you who aren’t, it’s heavy!

I hope you all got something special for Christmas.

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How could I not post one of these again this year?

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Have a very happy holiday, a great Christmas and a wonderful 2010!

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Mo and I always have a healthy supply of rocket balloons and fun things for kids.  They are the residue of our days running our puppet theatre.  We always used lots of rocket balloons at the end of our shows, the kids loved them.

Our niece came to visit today, with her children and we got a selection out for them (and us) to play with.  It was great fun watching the kids, and hearing their squeals of delight as the balloons whizzed around the room in all directions.  The place was a mess, but we loved it.

It was time to go home and Mo got a large, black dustbin (trash can) liner out to hold all their balloons and bits.  It was so full that it couldn’t be tied!  I’m sure their parents were happy at that – NOT! They were going to a hotel for the night!

Our niece, Leeta, was the last to say goodbye.  It was cold and there was a layer of ice on the ground.  Our driveway slopes down toward the house and you take your life in your hands trying to go up from, or down to, the house in the icy weather.

I want you to picture this.

Leeta, being young, and very glamourous, was not wearing ’sensible’ shoes.  She was wearing shoes with a heel.   She started up the drive to her car.  She was about half way up, turned to say goodbye and slipped on the ice. She took a step into the skid, in order to save herself……. then another, and another.  She picked up momentum as she went, laughing, slipping and running …… laughing, slipping and running ……. laughing, slipping …….. SMACK!  She finally stopped when she met the garage door!  Mo and I were doubled over with laughter.  This was a real ‘Lucille Ball’ moment if ever I saw one.  The three of us were laughing so hard that a Tenalady each would have been in order!  “Oh, I’m, going to wee myself”  I said.  “I already have!” said Leeta, making us laugh all the more.  She finally made it to her car and after fighting with a bin liner full of balloons, and motioning that all the neighbours were peering out of their windows, managed to get herself safely in the car.  She was still laughing as they drove off.

That moment will stay in our memories for a long time to come.  I’m laughing as I write this.  What a perfect ending to a fun day.  Sorry neighbours.

I apologize for the lack of a doodle in this post, but I lost my graphics programme with the demise of my computer.

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Do you want the good news, or the bad news first?  Well you’re getting the bad news first, ’cause that’s how I feel at the moment.  Actually I’ll tell it as it happened.

Saturday night I called Mo over to my computer for something.  She was only a couple of feet away.  “My back hurts” was her answer. “Well, why not use your feet?” I said.  “Oh…yes” said Mo, with a look that said “Did I just say that?”  We both collapsed laughing.

Laughter over, I turned back to my computer. It had gone to sleep a bit quick I thought, and clicked the mouse to wake it up.  It didn’t wake up.  I clicked the mouse some more and still nothing.  It was dead. I  tried turning it back on but nothing!  I checked the fuse in the mains plug and that was dead too.  I changed the fuse and turned it on.  Great!  It started up and I breathed a sigh of relief, but not for long.  It couldn’t find my hard drive.  My mood totally deflated, I turned it off and went to bed, hoping that the morning would bring with it one of those unexplainable miracles, and everything would be working again.  Wrong!

I am now three more fuses down, a first aid disc stuck in the computer and everything dismantled and packed away until after Christmas.   What makes it worse is that a month or so ago my external backup drive went down and I planned to get a new one after Christmas.  Wrong decision!

Now for the good news!

I had totally forgotten that when I first got my iMac I decided not to have my ‘My documents’ folder in the usual place and moved it to an old external drive (that still works) thus freeing up more space on my computer.  Not only that, I discovered that I also keep my iTunes folder there too, and a backup of my iPhotos!  At this rate, I won’t lose too much if the drive is dead.  Still it’s a pain losing my 24 inch monitor in exchange for a 13 inch, but great that I bought my Macbook Pro a few months ago!

So I guess there is always a silver lining, even if it is smaller than the cloud.

In the 22 years that I’ve had Mac computers, this is only the second time one of them has had to go to the Mac hospital, and this one is 5 years old.  Now THAT can’t be bad eh?

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While we were at the eye hospital the other week, I had a 45 minute wait for some eye drops to take properly.  We decided to go for a bite to eat and a cup of tea.  I couldn’t eat mine so I decided to wrap it for the car journey home.

Once in the car and on our way home, I unpacked it, along with the butter and the little plastic knife that came with it.  I carefully spread the butter and took a big bite.

Me: “Eww, this roll tastes a bit sweet!”
Mo: “That’s because it’s a fruit bun.”
Me: “Oh yes.”

Well I had just been traumatised at the eye hospital.

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I was nine or ten years old and my youngest sister was two years younger so I don’t know how, or why, we had baby’s milk formula in the house.  It was probably given to mum by a friend who had no more use for it.  As far as I remember it was given free, by the government, to new mothers.  They also supplied expectant mothers with a delicious orange juice.  It was all part of the ‘Welfare Food’ scheme that was introduced in 1940 in order to improve the health of babies during the war years.  Mum also had the orange juice given to her and we kids loved it.

Mum was out shopping and we youngest three were home alone.  Myself, my young sister Gill and Tina, who was two years older than me.   Tina had decided to see what goodies she could find in the food cupboards and came across a tin of baby formula.  We all adored eating it by the spoonful when mum wasn’t looking.  Tina tucked into a heaped spoonful.  “We want some too.  Let us have some!” Gill and I said indignantly.   But, as Tina was the eldest, she made the rules up.

“You can only have some if you let me feed it to you.  You can’t feed yourself”
“Oh let us have some” Gill and I said in unison.
“No!  I must feed it to you”
“Oh all right” I said, resigned to the fact that it was the only way I was going to get some of that delicious powder.
“Open your mouth and put your head back then” Tina bossed.
I did as she told me.
“Further back” Tina said, in a school ma’am sort of way.
I tipped my head back as far as I could and opened my mouth wide………….

Thwuppppp!  Tina dropped a spoonful of this fine powder straight down my throat!  It immediately set in a large ball that blocked my airway.  I couldn’t breath.  I REALLY couldn’t breath.

Tina, seeing me making fish-out-of-water faces, and realising that I wouldn’t last much longer if something wasn’t done immediately, promptly ran out of the house!!  “I’ll go and find mum” she said, as she disappeared, leaving me gasping – No, not gasping.  I couldn’t even do that!  I was just opening and closing my mouth in silent terror.   She had no idea where mum was, and would have needed to catch a bus to the nearest shopping centre to find her!

Thank goodness my little sister was there to save me.  I have no idea where she got the idea to do what she did, but she definitely saved my life that day!

She grabbed a wet dishcloth and stuffed it down my throat as far as she could, then pulled it out again.  I choked a bit but she had cleared the dollop of goo that had been blocking my throat.  Thanks to Gill, who was only seven or eight at the time, I lived to tell the tale.  Quick thinking on her part!

I have no idea when Tina decided to come back home with her tail between her legs, but I’d say the SHE was very lucky that Gill had saved the day too!

Any of you have a close call while home alone?  I bet most of you have.

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