Category: this site

I’m Back!

Hello!

Did you miss me? No? I have been off-line due to Jetpack update sending the site haywire… I think several folks have had that problem, but were more tech savvy than me and could fix it. It’s taken me all morning, and several goes to fix, and now I will celebrate by having lunch on my terrace! It is thanks in part to a friend on FB and the site hosts that I managed to get through this.

It is scary to go in and “fiddle” with computer stuff when you are not used to it, even with YouTube videos etc, as they show pages that look nothing like mine, or the addresses aren’t the same…you know what I mean, right? I’m wondering if I should go on a computer  course for ‘almost oldies’…because, of course, I am not old yet!

Anyway, once I have sorted a particularly nasty looking bramble that is in my line of site, I will get back to entertaining you all.

Lx

Oh no…my fault!

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Have you ever had a day of panic when you find something isn’t working, you can’t remember passowrds ( or how to even spell the word itself!), and you can’t get to speak to a human being to talk you through what you think you need to do???

That was me yesterday when I logged onto this site and found it disabled! Arrrgh! Just as The Meuse, who rarely comes these days, had decided to pop in for coffee. I tried going in in different ways, then once I had got to a certain point I would be told of an error in large red and white banners. I stomped around the kitchen trying to wrack my menopause-addled brain for any passwords I had forgotten.

Late in the afternoon I realised I needed to contact my “server”…who??? Isn’t that WordPress?? Hold on, I’m sure I pay an annual sum to some company or other…begins with…A? Frantic calls late in the afternoon to a friend gave me a company…I emailed them, and then realised they are just my anti-spam guys; oh bugger! More help from Jo led me to discover a company under whose umbrella other companies get to host our sites. I had a lovely digital chat with Craig who said it wasn’t them, but try this company; discovery by Jo of yet another company, cries for a large gin to no-one ( Hubby in London during the week ), and then a rummage in the draws of the computer table (ok, so I am not organised and yes, I KNOW I should be! Give over!) triggered a memory of someone beginning with S….SI….SIG??? Ah ha! SGIS hosting! Got it…..

I managed to send them a cry for help, and poured myself that longed-for gin, cook supper, and fell asleep watching Sophie Rayworth finding out something about her ancestors (I’ll have to re-watch it later).

SO, here we are , and of course you can see all is resolved. What? You want to know what happened? oh well…confession is good for the soul…it turns out I had forgotten to pay my annual renewal…OK? Satisfied? Feeling smug? Or have you just checked when yours is due??

From today I promise not to procrastinate, and when the reminders pings into my electronic mail box, I will pay immediately! I am even now making a note of all the new passwords, sites, companies I need to know…I just want to check on April the Giraffe…

Lx

It’s Autumn!

imagesDon’t you love this season? Oh yes, we all love the sun and fun of Summer, but with Autumn comes the changing colours in the landscape, the chance to put on your favourite jumper ( hides my curves wonderfully cos its baggy) and my favourite pastime…Kicking up piles of leaves!!!

A friend is winging her way over to the US at this moment towards the Land of The Great Pumpkin (Peanuts ref) and has promised to send us wonderful pictures of Hallowe’en decorations. Living in the depths of the English countryside we have never really been into putting pumpkins etc outside, nor decorating the house inside…ok, that “we” is “me”…but not this year!!

At this precise moment we have 2 pumpkin outside, and several paper ones inside. Later I will go round the garden and see if I have any Autumn flowers left to bring inside ( this is where I realise what a bad gardener I am).

I’m doing it now as Son is coming home for the weekend with Hubby…now a rare occurrence as he is working at Iglu Ski and thoroughly enjoying it. Now that he visits rather than living here all the time I want to make each visit special. ( soft mother)

Of course, along with the wonderful colours comes the mists, dampness and the first of the “heating going on” discussions!! On the plus side I can light our fires, light candles and follow the Danish traditions of Hygge. SO guess where I went yesterday? Yup…Ikea! Well, it had to be done! As did eating the meatballs…stop it! I can hear you laughing…tell me you’ve never done it!

Right, I’m off to put a vest on, check the heating thermostats, and gather some leaves. Have a good one!

Lx

 

The Open 2015

IMG_4040I can’t believe that this has been and gone already! Did you see any of it on TV? Here is my Old Man doing his bit as a referee, and loving every minute, even in the rain. Well, he is a true golfer, so a bit of wet weather doesn’t really bother him…his groupie, on the other hand, ( me!) prefers to spend her time in the warmth and splendour of the R&A tent that we are allowed in. Of course, I did follow Him around, dodging through the crowds and trying to be in sight as much as possible without distracting him from his duties. This can be quite a challenge for those of us who are “upwardly challenged”…one drunk chap told me even dwarves are taller than me – oh the intellectual chat around the course!

I had, as usual, a fab week being entertained by the R&A, both before the competition started ( visiting Falkland Palace and Balgove Larder for lunch), and during, enjoying meeting up again with other wives from all over the world.

We were put up in the halls of residence by the R&A, in Agnes Blackadder Hall for us – she was the first female graduate of St.Andrews. It brought back some strange memories of uni life – tho we never had a double bed ( I’m sure they have got smaller!) nor an en suite! Such luxury…yes, I know, I’m so old! Breakfast in the refectory showed Hubby what he had missed by going to Oxford, both food-wise, and rubbing shoulders with your fellows first thing in the morning… Putting makeup on first thing is more difficult without my lenses in, I must remember that!

Each evening we were offered a three course meal with the guests of the R&A in the Old Course Hotel. This is a chance to meet the other referees, wives, and those involved behind the scenes in this amazing event. A couple of nights saw us skip off into St.Andrews for pizza and time together, which was lovely.

Lots of walking meant my impression of a pregnant woman started to recede, and wearing waterproofs allowed me to sweat off a few lbs put on the night before…I’m going to admit to at least one 99 ice cream too…well, it had to be done!

Sadly we had to miss the final day thanks to a holiday booked in Italy and the awful weather that delayed play. We left St.Andrews at 4am to fly back to Gatwick, swap suitcases and clothes, and then fly off to Pizza to help Hubby relax on the second week of his summer holidays. The final was very exciting as we caught up on our iPads, and we will have to plan next year’s holiday very carefully as the 2016 Open is at Troon in Scotland again…fingers crossed for a sunnier one.

New Week, New Technology

Morning. It is Monday, the start of the week for most people, and the sky is almost clear of clouds as I look out into my garden. It rained in the night, saving me from watering before breakfast, and allowing me to type this on my new laptop.

This new bit of technology has been long-coming for me, and produced very conflicting emotions. The main reason for buying it…well, one of the main reasons, was to be able to edit my photos not he fly, or at least wherever I am, and be able to send them off to the teacher even if I have no broadband here!!!

Last Sunday night saw me awake until well after midnight sending raw pics to our Photo club teacher over my mobile account as the phone line had died! usually I convert them into Jpegs with LightRoom, rename them, and put a little comment with each. None of this was possible due to ending to download LightRoom again onto my new hard drive on the main computer (which everyone uses). Oh the Frustrations!!! i’m surprised none of you heard me yelling!

Photo on 06-02-2012 at 16.00

SOOOO, I plucked up courage and looked at refurbished laptops on the Apple site…and looked, and cogitated, and argued with myself. I checked my bank balance…it could be done, but SHOULD it be done? It’s one of the most expensive etchings I have ever bought myself. (The last huge outlay was must first sound system with my first bonus in the ’80’s)

Being old-fashioned I wasted to talk to a human about it, and spoke to a lovely Irish lady who went through all the specs, the pros, the cons, and finally she said I deserved it!

Of course, she has no idea whether I do or not. I’m not too sure I do deserve it, but it is too late now!! I went ahead, despite having to phone my bank to assure them it was me trying to spend so much money with Apple, not a fraudster. In fact Apple called me back after that …the cynical amongst us will say they wanted my sale; the rest will do what I did, be thankful, and fork over the dosh!!

SO, this blog is brought to you care of my MacBook Pro, and a very dodgy broadband connection…which is a whole other blog!

Lx

Monday Morning…

I have just finished our Monday Morning “broadcast” with all the crazy gang! It is such a silly, wonderful,positive way to start the day!

I tried explaining it to a friend who doesn’t tweet, and it sounded awful! It sounded so America (sorry, American friends, but so Californian if you know what I mean!) with all the positivity and supporting others… but in reality it is just like a group of friends getting round the breakfast table for a laugh and chat about the coming week, before we all head off to our various tasks… a bit like a family!

This morning, given the time of year, we were having a laugh about witches, broomsticks etc. Actually this is a little too pretty a witch for me…I’m moreor even

I see myself as Nanny Ogg, as I love Terry Pratchett’s Disk novels… she has had several husbands, loves her sons but cant remember their wives names, oh and has a really filthy sense of humour! i say no more!

Anyway, it is great to have flights of fantasy every now and then, and if on the way, we cheer up a few folks, then its all worth while!

Pop in on The Breakfast Club on Twitter, and see what you think…Monday and Friday 6.45-8am. See you there!

L x

Tea On The Terrace

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I can’t believe that a whole week has gone by and I haven’t had time to tell you how my charity tea went!

I managed to get the tea towels printed through the help of a fab chap in Folkstone and dashed over there on Tuesday afternoon to collect them. Nobby had done us proud and produced fantastic big towels with the logo just as I’d wanted it!
I spent the whole of Wednesday getting the garden and furniture ready for the great day. I discovered where all the cushions had been hidden -by me, of course, but things get moved by others! That’s my excuse anyway! I finished off some cakes, making more as I panicked incase we didn’t have enough…my friend Sandra came with her cakes and told me not to make any more! ( I didn’t listen and she was right! She has more experience of these things!)
Some of the committee popped round at tea time with more cakes, and we sat on my swing and enjoyed the glorious sunshine, whilst I kept spotting things I wish I’d done!

Thursday dawned with fantastic weather!…well, let’s face it, with my Mother and Daughter nagging him God didn’t stand a chance on the weather front! My darling friends popped round to help and I had a ‘mild’ headless chicken moment when I couldn’t remember how to make icing for the cakes….yes, I know now how simple butter icing is, but I didn’t then cos of panic, OK?! Sandra came to the rescue with her vast experience of doing cricket teas and whipped up all we needed!
The farmer had very sweetly mowed the opposite verge under the trees for people to park, and all the signs were up with directions…

I was so grateful to the loads of friends and others who came to the tea party, spent money and enjoyed my terrace…I saw old friends I hadn’t seen for ages, met new ones visiting from overseas, heard stories of loss and recovery which made me want to hug everyone, and cry at the same time. My fantastic friends took over serving teas and cake so I could chat to people, and made the whole thing a huge success!

We raised just over £700 for Teenage Cancer Trust, and I am so proud, and happy that my first charity do here was a success. It taught me to have a go again, and what wonderful friends I have…though I know that already!

I think Ally had a great time too, watching us from wherever she is, knowing that through our fun we are helping to build special units so that other teenagers won’t have to go through the hell of hospital wards as she did, and will be surrounded by others in the same predicament.

So thank you those who came, those who donated, and those of you reading this who will go to the Teenage Cancer Website to learn more from this site, and perhaps will help us.
Thank you.

Video blog or written blog?

I have spent most of the day so far learning how to video myself and how to upload it to this blog…..not to mention keeping my little finger away from the ‘publish’ button on iPad before I am ready!

I have learned a huge amount, and not necessarily about the technology!

  • I don’t look like that!
  • I don’t sound like that!
  • I have scary eyes when opening them wide!
  • My hands are a law unto themselves
  • My eyes keep wandering!

OK, that’s enough! You get the picture, I am not a happy bunny about seeing myself on the screen. I am far more vain than I realised, or to put it another way...who is that middle-aged fat woman?????

As Dinah Liversidge reminded me on Twitter, we don’t see ourselves as others do…Gosh, I hope she’s right, otherwise after Friday Breakfast Club Live I will be down to the odd few followers who don’t come!!!

In my mind and in my heart I am still about 30, with a fairly good body and lovely hair. What I saw was a cross between my mother (of course!) and the old Dawn French with a very weak high voice, and a very very odd mouth!

What has worried me is whether I do this to others? Do I look at them and make a mental judgement? I REALLY hope not!!! I have always said the pages are far more interesting than the book cover…

So, have I been kidding myself? I am sure there are those out there who know the biological and psychological reasoning behind all of this; why we do not see what others see. I only know that my first viewing of myself knocked my confidence rather.

But I must remind myself that looks aren’t everything… I used to get on rather well on the telephone with clients when in telesales; people seem to like my tweets and follow; and I have not had to overcome any facial problems.

In fact, Lass, you have been very lucky, so stop feeling so sorry for yourself, and get on with it!

So, I will continue to practice the videos, and find the easiest way to put them on the blog. I will not spend too much time worrying about how I look…there’s not much I can do about the main bits, apart from tarting them up with make up and hair spray anyway! And I will give you lots more credit than I am doing! If you were the type of people who judged folks on their looks alone I don’t think you’d be following me, now would you?

so on with the typing practice!

L xx

Frustration!

GRRRRRR.…I am trying to do this new blog including photographs from iPhoto, and unfortunately the drag and drop system keeps telling me the pics are too big to be dropped in! Due to my lack of knowledge I can’t think how to make the pics smaller, or whatever I need to do to include them, hence the GGGGGGrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!

I have to say it was easier in Posterous.com!!..oh now that’s a thought! Can I copy something from a posterous site and then print it here? If so there are a couple of blog entries I would really like to include on this site!

Hold on…how did I include the other pics on my first blogs here? Ah, they were taken on my phone, not the camera!. Still I ought to be able to figure this one out…why should you be deprived of what might be a good thing?

This is not working, but I am finding other things out..still not good enough tho!!!!

OK, enough for now. I shall try again another day. Then I’ll have fun trying to upload a video blog! OMG,as they say, I have brain ache!!!!

If there is a techno whizz out there, please put me out of my misery! On the other hand I might just email our host!!

Bye for now, I’ll keep you posted.

Lxx