A Great Week

Gosh, what a week! Lovely week, I hasten to add!

Met up for lunch with fellow Blogger, Teresa, from Tcakes, (sorry, not able to do a link!), who very kindly travelled over to Greenwich to see me. Great chatting about clothes, shoes and her beautiful, new Kate Spade handbag! I had a great time and hopefully we'll get to do it again.

Spent Wednesday afternoon ensconced in the Company Office, having some great conversations with a variety of people from the ballet company. Having spent so long over at the 02 I ended up buying a ticket for the evening performance and it was fantastic! The dance, costumes, props (of course!), and oh, the orchestra...they sounded sublime. You know how some theatres seem to think that if you crank up the sound level to eardrum splitting level somehow makes it better and it doesn't, well, this was just perfect! Mind you, I have never heard them play badly! But they do have a new conductor; so maybe that helped! Joe McElderry was okay too. Not my cup of tea, but heck you have to admire someone so young standing up there on stage in front of five and half thousand people and singing solo. I did see him backstage and he seems a very sweet young man.

Yesterday was a bit weird...having had such a great day before I just plummeted to a real low and spent too long rolled up in a ball under the bed covers crying! Guess that's the beauty of clinical depression. Eventually kicked myself up the bum hard enough to go for a long walk in Greenwich Park. Beautiful and helped to lift my mood a bit. Mr B actually had the evening off and there was the Company party held in Gauchos. Do not believe that dancers only eat lettuce and tissues...we arrived about an hour after the start of the party and all the food had been scoffed! We missed mini Argentinian steaks - damn! I had a very nice chat with the Company CEO about the show as he knew I'd seen it the night before. It is very gratifying when someone like that is interested in your opinion!

Today Mr B has 2 shows and then everything is taken down and packed up into wagons to go back to Brum. So, a late night/early-ish morning for him. I eventually got myself out into Greenwich to have a look at the market and shops. It was pissing down with rain and dark too! I got a couple of beauty sale bits from Boots and Superdrug. I had wanted to get to Borough Market which is a celebrated foodie market and Teresa had also suggested that I go to Stratford as there are wonderful views of the Olympic Stadium and surrounding Olympic bits! There is also a recently opened Westfield shopping centre. There is a Beauty Base store there and a Jonny Loulous, (John Lewis), which would've been good to have a nosey around, but I really think I need a rest from all this gadding around, it is beginning to take its' toll I think!

Checking out and going home tomorrow. Had a brilliant time, but must say, I am really looking forward to getting home now! And then I can catch up with all your lovely blogs! A treat indeed! And I have so many photos to upload too!

Zxx

Mr B on the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/news/entertainment-arts-16294134

Chukkas for tonight, boys and girls!

A Most Peculiar Christmas!

I was going to upload a rather nice photo of the beautiful Hawksmoor church that I can see out of our window, but I'm using the 02 t'internet connection from Cafe Rouge, (which is sort of the Ibis restaurant here), and not only will it not let me open my blog page, (but I can open my dashboard), it seems to not want me to upload photos either!

So, about 20 minutes after I posted my last post Mr B started being really ill. All thru' the night. Then I started yesterday morning!

All that excitement of getting to eat our Chrimbo Dinner at the 02...yeah, that really happened, didn't it? Mr B managed to get into work today just as they were all finishing their meal and my Festive treat has been Rich Tea Biscuits. Bah humbug!!

If I'm not quite as together as I would like to be, in getting in touch, please accept my humble, vomit-ridden apologies!
Z xx

Bit of a weird technical hitch going on here in Greenwich, I'm afraid.

I can open my dashboard and type this but cannot open my blog.

So, just in case I can't get on at all over the next week, here's wishing you all a very healthy, happy and merry Christmas and all you could ever imagine in 2012!

Zoe
xxxxx

Wicker Wednesday 16

This one's for the birds!

Parcels

This was a special present from Christy's eldest boy. I was so chuffed, I used to love Peanuts, so this was a perfect picture for me!

I had sent a few little bits to her laddies in the States, and they sent me a wonderful box of goodies as a most wonderful thank you. I haven't photographed the items yet...tho' I have consumed most of the Iowa Cow Poo!! (Like our reindeer poop over here, but much, much nicer!)

Having managed to fling the remains of my mug of coffee over the bed(!), I changed the bed linen to our 'Christmas' set, a sort of red paisley number. I know a lot of you enjoy new bedclothes, and PJs, on Christmas Eve. But Mr B is working at the 02 over Christmas, so we'll be travelling up to Greenwich on Friday, and won't be in our own bed on Christmas Eve. I've also found the Christmas blankie...the cats are enjoying it as I type!

Having got myself into a real twizzle over getting the cards and parcels in the post on time, I can say with relief, that I wandered down to the Post Office this afternoon. Goodness, the weather is grim. Couldn't see thru' my glasses because (a) they were covered in raindrops and (b) they kept steaming up!! Bah humbug indeed!
Glad that is done!
Z xx

Fading and Purring

All I want for Christmas is a Go-Go Girl

Mr Blossoms' Christmas Wish List!

Oh, what a wonderful sight to see,
The fairy at the top of the Christmas tree.

Run, Run Rudolph!

Snapped on Mr Bs phone yesterday at Birmingham New Street station.

An interesting ensemble of penguin hoodie and reindeer antlers.

Noice!!
Z xx

Wicker Wednesday 15

High above the chimney tops

Where troubles melt like lemon drops

Cars

The above is a prop car from an old ballet, called "Sylvia".

Imagine my surprise, and joy, at seeing the real McCoy in the car park outside TK Maxx.

Oh yes, we have everyone come and visit here!

Isn't she a beaut?

And here is a very murky photo of me next to one of my favourite little cars. I so adore these Figaros! Mr B was all for taking a photo - in the B&Q car park, (ooo, yes, I hang out in the most salubrious of places!) - but I faffed around for so long that by the time the photo was being taken the owner was walking towards me! Probably thought we were eyeing it up to nick it! We had a chat and she seemed OK about it...phew!

I was going to download Gary Numan's "Cars" but having blown him out at the BIC, when our mate, Jon, who was driving for the tour of OMD and GN, (as support), rushed me and Mr B past Gary and his entourage to introduce us to Andy McCluskey. If I'd known I probably would have fallen prone on the floor in front of him! Bless his little cotton socks!

Useless information fact here: as much as I love cars, and I do, neither Mr B or I drive.

Another bit of useless info: if my life had depended on knowing how many sides a dodecahedron has, then I hope I was like a cat and have 9 lives! I may have known that it wasn't a dinosaur, but as a guess I would have said 10, but it is in fact 12! (Just in case you thought I was being a clever-clogs!)
Z xx

Yer Wot?

There's been a bit of a giggle going round at Mr B's workplace. One of the staff apparently thought that a dodecahedron was a dinosaur!

We had these noisette and chocolate croissants for breakfast this morning. Basically I think they're filled with Nutella! Nom nom!

Well, Mr B thought it'd be a lark to send this picture with the caption " Dodecahedron 4 breakfast" to a work colleague. It was a great success!

Hope it gives you a giggle too!
Z xx

Wicker-ish Wednesday 14

A wiggly-piggly.

With a wiggly tail.

A rather rustic raffia bow tie.

And an adorable pair of deep brown eyes.

The Alan Whicker film this week has him interviewing 'dancing hippies'!

India - Psychedelic Furs

Happy Birthday to Vix!

The Run-Up To Christmas

A post for Vix.

What's not to love?

(Guest Post from Mr B)

I Love Love

Love Bakery, that is!

I couldn't believe my luck finding that Whicker impersonation video on Wednesday. If you didn't watch, do! It goes on to do a little review of The Love Bakery on the Kings Road, London. It's a hoot!

The book is full of beautiful pictures like the one above, and of course, cakes such as the Christmas one below.

It is priced at £16.99, but I was very lucky and managed to pick one up at Homesense for £4.99! Bargain, or what?
Z xx

World AIDS Day

The 1st December is World Aids Day. As it draws to a close remember, you can buy , or make a Red Ribbon, any day of the year.

I don't wish to make this a rant, but I am aware that several of you who are Followers, are what I would call 'youngsters'. I love that you follow an 'oldie' like me, but, do, please take care of yourselves.

I was young and living in London, when AIDS became a word in peoples' regular vocabulary. We were told it was a 'gay', (meaning gay men), disease. I was working for a dance company and the powers that be actually brought in a specialist from St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, which was the UK's foremost HIV hospital, to give a lecture. I didn't go...it wasn't going to affect women, was it?

I cannot sit here and type and say that I personally know of any woman, who is HIV+. But I lost a few male acquaintances to the illnesses that come with it. No one really close, but work colleagues.

For me, one of the greatest things that Diana, (POW), did was the work for the Terence Higgins Trust. She showed you couldn't catch it from touching someone. It may seem hard to believe it now, but there was shock horror when the photos came out. I later worked for someone who, apparently, took their own crockery and cutlery when they went out to a restaurant for a meal! Such was the scare-mongering that abounded, through ignorance of the unknown.

So, lassies, we may not know it all, but we're a damn sight wiser than 30 odd years ago!

Take care of yourselves, do not leave it to chance.

Wear your Ribbon with pride.
Z xx

Wicker-ish Wednesday 13

Not quite wicker...but close enough to count, I think!

This cutie heffalump is on the sale shelf at Homesense and I fell in love. But my head ruled my heart and he was left on the shelf.

Altogether now...aaaah!

Duz yur derg bite?

BRB's Artistic Director, David Bintley, getting in swing of things for Movember!
But I would expect nothing less from a Yorkshire man.

Two Ladies And A Boozy Bear

I spent a delightful couple of hours chin-wagging, (and supping!) with Vix yesterday.

I had an appointment with Andrew the Osteopath, so a little 'Dutch courage' at the German Market seemed like an excellent idea!

How cute is that polar bear? Vix too! Wearing her beautiful fake fur and a hat that I passed onto her from my mum's collection. Have to admit...that hat looks a whole lot more fetching on Vix than it ever did on my mum!
And check out the cute little 'booties' that our Gluhwein came in! It was a hope in vain that they would be offered to us to take home!

The stall is part of a Frankfurt Christmas Market that visits Birmingham every year, I think, and is the largest outside Germany, Vix told me. It was very picturesque, particularly later on in the day, when it was dark and the lights twinkled in all their luminous glory.

So, having managed to not roll off the osteopathic table(!), I woke this morning bright eyed and bushy-tailed and actually baked my Christmas cake. It was 'Stir Up Sunday' last Sunday, but needing a good 4 hours to bake, I just haven't been able to get it done without it possibly encroaching on 'dinner-cooking' time. But now home smells Christmassy. No German sausage in sight - or smell, Vix!

Brilliant to see you again, Vix, do it again soon!
Z xx

Wicker Wednesday 12

Three wicker dollies prams. Snapped on Mr B's phone at Days.

There's also a corner of one of those old fashioned trunks...that takes me back to boarding school in an instant!

And here is a cute "appreciation" film clip.

Filmed on the Lavender Line, Isfield, East Sussex. Now, I knew of the Bluebell Line, but the Lavender is a new one to me. I have seen the Bluebell running, but have never been on it. But in the run up to Christmas, several years ago, I went with Mr B's family for a Santa Special on the Watercress Line, which was magical. I can definitely recommend a steam train special for any age. Loved it!

The King Of Snakeskin Boots

Guest Post from Mr B

They go up diddly up up, they go down diddly... you get the gist. Some magnificent men at work have been growing moustaches this month for Movember, to raise awareness and, in a lot of cases, money, for men's health issues.
Feargus is Team Leader, said Aonghus, just a few days in and already sporting a well-defined facial adornment. It all seemed a good idea back in Plymouth, when Feargus was telling Johnny about Movember. Yes, I'll do it I said, not to get involved but to support those who were. However, this did get 'ze little gray cells working' as a well-known ambassador for the perfectly groomed upper lip would say!

George Cole as Flash Harry in St Trinians I thought, which sent us on a Google search for 'the spiv moustache'. Another source of inspiration was Private Walker from Dad's Army. John Waters pencil moustache I always thought was a gem.

The best moustache I have ever seen was on a Chinaman, who I had the pleasure of working with in Hong Kong. His name was Eamon and he had a full Fu Man Chu.

A few of the magnificent men have gone for the down-diddly-down-down-style of facial grooming, but as yet no up-diddly-up, y'know like Jimmy Edwards. A month is probably not long enough to craft something as fabulous as that!Then I remembered a style icon from the distant past. Hold onto your hats all you fashion bloggers out there, and take a Googled trip to Peter Wyngarde as Jason King!

Jason King wore snakeskin boots. In my early teens I bought a snakeskin belt new from Oxfam in Elm Grove. I wore it with white jeans, like I say, it seemed a good idea at the time! This was when 'Sailor' were in the charts with 'Girls, Girls, Girls' and 'A Glass of Champagne'.

Possibilities of what I could achieve were coming thick and fast, unlike the trial run 'spiv moustache' that I attempted on the eve of Movember. (Rules stated that you had to start the month clean shaven.) Mrs B laughed and my hopes of becoming the new Mr Sheen man were dashed!

Day 14 and Johnny's wife issued an ultimatum and the fledgling moustache had to go!
So, a big salute to Team Feargus and all the magnificent men, (and women!), who are taking part.

I leave you with the ultimate king of facial of facial hair...
Mr Lon Chaney.

Party Dress

Having thought about Clare's 40th, it dawned on me that the photos that I had scanned of my Raleigh bicycle, inspired by Vix's post, were in fact taken 4o years ago!

This was taken on my 10th or 11th birthday...either 1970 or '71.

I do still have both the dress and the bike. They were both in the shed! I thought for ages that my only party dress had been left behind in a move; then a couple of summers ago, yay!, lo and behold, it was in a bag of clothes long since grown out of. To say I cried a few tears would be an understatement!!

I had managed to learn to ride my bike, but my best friend, Willy, (as in Wilhelmina), couldn't, so she stood next to it.
Willy had loads of party dresses, whereas I had just the one, but it was my pride and joy. None of that 'I can't wear that old thing again'; you wore your dress to every party with pride! I even have a picture of me dressed as Little Bo Peep, with a big hat and a crook that my dad made by bending a knitting needle in boiling hot water and then fixing it to a pole! Goodness, dressing up for a party was so much easier then!

It's the weekend, so party on down everyone and have a good one. We're off to Market Harborough tomorrow for this...

...can't wait!
Z xx

Happy Birthday to CamPo

I like a piece of nice cake! Not too often, altho' my figure belies this!

Danielle had a beautiful cake for her 22nd birthday earlier in the year, which was stunning - beautiful sugar craft flowers in strong colours, not your usual pale pinks and stuff. Cor, it was fab!

Then this week, Clare, (Cameron Poe 2409), of I Have Too Many Shoes posted a picture of her 40th birthday cake. It is cake made to look like a pair of amazing shoes. Wow!

You really should have a look at them both...they truly are works of art!

So, ages ago Mr B promised Clare a scanned picture of the one item not in her shoe collection! I had lost my scanners' lead, but having found it, here it is...

...a rather nifty pair of pink propeller boots!

Happy Birthday, Hun! Have a great time celebrating!
Z xx

Wicker Wednesday 11

Some of the wicker Christmassy decorations in Homesense the other day.
Now, you may remember me try on the Jan Constantine tea cosy here. Well, Mr B, not to be outdone, thought he'd get right into the Christmas spirit!

Ding! Dong! Avon calling!

It's a good job they know us there...I think any other store may get Security to escort us from the building!

Of course, no trip to Homesense is complete without a sit down visit to the drive-thru Starbucks. No comfy chairs left, but from where I was sitting I espied these wicker baskets sitting on rather nice wrought iron stands. Now, if I had one of those amazing inglenook fireplaces, (or even just a wood burning stove), I think this would be a rather nice look to recreate. What do you think?

Wicker Wednesday is in homage to Mr Alan Whicker, but I am finding it harder to find small, neat snippets of film now. I was tempted to put 'Whicker Island' on again, as it makes me laugh out loud. I Googled this piece, with Mr W talking about his tour of America, many moons ago. I wonder how he'd find it now? Or, in fact, any of the countries he has visited. I feel he captured a Golden Era, which, alas, for all the ease for the traveller nowadays, somehow it lacks something.

I am not a seasoned traveller by any means. I can count my trips abroad on one hand probably! I have in my mind my log book of trips that I will do; but at the moment, just getting myself to the hairdressers tomorrow is about as much as I can manage!

Where are your pipe dream visits to?
Z xx

The weather is totally yuck today! This is a photo of the Lift Tower taken during the Summer. Today the top of it was all shrouded in fog.

The blue sky seems a figment of my imagination. The leaves have all gone. But my little dog rose still has some blooms on and there are still a few marigolds nodding their golden heads at me!

I picked probably the last of the raspberries earlier this afternoon. Not many but enough to make a difference to Mr B's bowl of muesli tomorrow morning!

The pampas has lost its' pretty pink tinge and is now cream. I usually tend to miss the new fronds forming, as it always coincides with our trip to Plymouth. But this year they must've come through earlier and I managed to snap a few photos before we went away, which was nice.

I think, if it's dry enough, I need to do a quick catch-up in the garden. Lots of bulbs that I'm behind with planting. Ditto wallflowers. Got a couple of cheapo roses from Wilkinson's to plant too. Roll on Spring!

Have a great weekend, whatever you are doing!
Z xx

Wicker Wednesday 10

This is the Clarks store in Northampton. I don't think I even knew there was one; but Mr B spotted it as we walked past on Saturday afternoon! A photo opportunity not to be missed!
This is the poster picture from the last Wicker Wednesday brought to life, so to speak!

Here we have a whole gaggle of 'Whicker lookie-likies'! (Even one on crutches!).
It looked like a Whicker Convention as all these people swarmed off the coach at Totnes Railway Station as we were eating our lunch in the station cafe.

Be warned, the next bit you may find somewhat controversial. It is just my view.
Sadly, they proved a real disappointment! Apparently it was a group of students from Dartmouth College, on their first leave for 7 weeks. My God, supposedly the cream of forthcoming Naval personnel, none of whom seemed to know how to close a door behind them as they all trooped in, and out of the cafe. I don't know about the MOD/Government demolishing our Armed Forces, but if these are the best students that will be picked to run the Navy side of the Forces in a few years time, maybe it's a good job there won't be anything left for them to run! Maybe they all perform extraordinarily well under pressure, but some decent manners wouldn't go amiss!
And relax...

Here we have the very charming and suave Mr W doing what he's good at...this time talking about women and their clothes!

Z xx