Well i have just moved to 'Blogger'. It's going to take some getting used to. I hope i can find you all over there. It will still be called 'Stop The Clock' and i will just call the old one 'Stop The Clock Archive', if i lose it so be it.
Here is my new address...
Life has been hectic around here lately hence i have had to delete all my alerts and start again, there just has not been enough hours in the day.
What's been happening....
Well as soon as we got home from Norfolk i was back on the net and found a sheep farm B&B down near Rye and by Tuesday we were there. We went to Rye, Hastings and Battle. Half a mile down the lane from the farm was a lovely little Pub doing great meals with a real cosy atmosphere too. The landlord was the spit of Clint Eastwood in his younger days and there was a picture of Clint on the wall.
After a relaxing 3 days it was home and time to start emptying the kitchen. I must have thrown half the kitchen away. Stuff came out from the backs of cupboards that hadn't seen the light of day for **** years. But now i have a nice new kitchen with new cooker, fridge and washing machine. And all curtesy of Mum who died last christmas.
Nearly everything has been put back and a home found for and last Sunday i cooked my first roast dinner in my new oven. I also cooked butternut squash for the first time, which everyone liked, so i will probably do it again.
Also i have just started going to the Gym. Sent by the doctor i hasten to add. They send you for 12 weeks and then you either stop or start paying full price. Unfortunately my doctor caught me and got me on the scales and got out her tape measure.
But the upside is i have a nice young personal trainer called Tony.... Can't be bad. Due to sore joints he has me started very slow on the bike and treadmill with a bit of resistance work in between.
The sorest bit was my bum on the saddle. I reminded him that i needed to sit down later and wanted to use it again, and could i get blisters on it. He laughed and said no but i am not so sure. So twice aweek will find me peddling away. The silly thing is that if this works to get me fitter and i am sure it will, there is no way you can stop after 12 weeks. You will just go back to how you were before, so you will have to fork out to join the Gym and pay the full price each week, and i bet that will be an arm and leg!!
Jenny <><
Well we have just got back from a week’s holiday in Norfolk. We stayed in a small cottage a few miles from Kings Lynn. The cottage was a grade 2 listed building very pretty, clean and tidy. You used the back door only and the front door had a huge lock on it with a key that must have been about 10 inches long. One thing was strange about it though, it had no feel to it, no vibes. It felt like a new build. For an old building it felt like it had never been lived in, or maybe even worse it had a slightly dead feel to it. I found it very hard to pray in any room, very soon my thoughts were swept away and I found myself thinking about something entirely different and completely forgetting what my first intentions had been which was to have a chat with God. Most odd.
The first night under the door to the living room came the first black beetle, then another and another, very soon we had a full set of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Two got put out of the back door by me and two found the bottom of hubby’s shoe. The next night came the beetle’s tribute band and thereafter every tribute band that existed on a nightly basis. They especially enjoyed hiding in my g’daughters shoe, LOL!!
Why is it though we find a cottage out in the middle of nowhere but it always seems to end up beingon a busy or noisy road? The road we were on was a very long one and at one end (although we never went that way) was a quarry. It seems that the lorries for the quarry started out on the move at 4.15am or that was the earliest they were heard. Now this never bothered me or woke me up but it did some of the family as there was not only the noise of them rumbling by but the cottage sometimes shook as well. We was also in the area for the RAF training jets which one morning screamed low overhead making daughter jump out of bed come flying down the stairs yelling ‘what on earth was that’, thinking maybe world war 3 had started. Everyday we would see them flying somewhere we went but never as low as that morning.
West Norfolk itself was nice and there was plenty to do for adults but not so much for kids especially if the weather was wet. We managed to dodge the rain though and the weather was warm even when it wasn’t sunny and the kids enjoyed themselves.
Sex and violence – those of a more sensitive nature look away.
One day we went to a deer and animal farm. There was not a lot there, one llama, sheep, goats, that sort of thing. They did a 45 minuet deer safari though which we went on with two old farmers, one giving a talk, one driving, with lovely Norfolk accents which you don’t hear much nowadays. It reminded me of my childhood on holiday at my Nan and G’dad’s in EastNorfolk. Anyway back to the story.
At the end of the safari as we were stopping there was this big old rat running around the yard. Now this rat had learned a few lessons and slunk around the outskirts of the bushes and mostly kept well hidden. But as we sat in the orchard next to the yard having a drink at the picnic benches just outside the gift shop and tearoom we could see it skulking around. But not so the baby rat. There he was meandering backwards and forwards across the orchard without a care in the world. Once he nearly got caught by a dog that thankfully for him was on a lead. Then a lad working there picking up apples in a sack took a few swings at him with the sack but missed every time. I rather think that if we, the visitors, hadn’t been there he wouldn’t have missed! But also in this orchard were some Jackdaws pecking away at the crumbs etc.
Now Ratty being young and not streetwise walked within 6 inches of Jackie’s nose, or in this case beak. Jackie lunged at Ratty pecking him on the back and tossing him a few inches in the air. Did Ratty run away? No! He turned and stood back on his hind legs and went for Jackie. As he strolled away Jackie went for him again, and again Ratty reared and attacked back. Back and forth this went, with us and others laughing and cheering them both on as only a baying crowd at a prize fight can. Who won? Jackie backed off first and went back slightly shamefaced to pecking the ground once again and Ratty with a last backward glare strolled through the fence into the Shetland pony’s paddock.
Now for the sex!!
In the orchard were a few brown hens, again pecking away at the crumbs left by us humans. One was particularly friendly and kept coming under our bench and walking around our feet. Well there she was just but a few feet way with her back to us pecking happily when suddenly we heard in the distance ‘cookadoodledoo’ (or something similar). Then head down and neckstraight out in front, running at full pelt came a small white with black spots cockerel. He stopped just by Henny and with barely a cursory howdydoody jumped on her back. Henny raised her tail feathers. It was all over in seconds. Ever the lady she just shook herself and carried on eating. He stood and preened himself and after another, this time, ‘congratulatory’ cookadoodledoo went on to eye up the other hens before having a rest.
We learned later that this wasn’t a farm cockerel but he had turned up a fewdays earlier. Nuff said. This wasn’t the only ‘farm antics’ that had been observed either. I’ll refrain from mentioning the pigeons and the goats!!
Ah, the things that amuses one on holiday.
Jenny <><
Well i have been out spending today in readiness for my new kitchen. One cooker, washing machine and fridge. I also bought hubby a new Tom Tom (sat nav) ... He will give the old one to our daughter. I just hope they all fit and come with nothing wrong, We are getting them the day before they start on the kitchen on the 15th September.
So that's it now, no more spending till birthdays and christmas come, but nothing more for me. We still have to have our summer holiday yet and that is coming up very soon. And guess what the long range weather forcast is!!!!!
Daughter-in-law has had a bad week, the place where she works was hit by lightening and has burnt to the ground. It was a visitors centre at a country park and has only been built a few years. They are hoping to get it re-built very quickly and she will keep her job thankfully. There is an old barn next door which was saved and they can serve tea and coffee in that on a smaller scale until the centre is re-built.
G'son had a scrape on his elbow today, i asked him how he got it... his reply was that he was about to dive to catch a ball and remembered he was wearing his man-bag which cost him £15 bought when he went to the car show. So he rolled over to protect it... Hence his hurt elbow. Now remember he is only 8 years old, but he loves his man-bag. :-)
Hubby's finger has healed up. They left a stitch in which he found later and took out himself and that took away a lot of pain he was having in one spot. It has put him off of letterboxes for life though i think.
It has been very quiet this year as far as Maggie (magpies) has been concerned. There hasn't been many squirrels around yet to annoy but hubby saw something funny the other day. A wood pigeon came down on nextdoors bird bath. He took a couple of beak fulls of water to drink and then looked both ways twice to see if he was being watched and then put out his wings and belly dived into the bath. He splashed about a bit and then got out. Looked around againand then with wings wide jumped in and did it all over again. Not having been caught out enjoying himself he lumbered waterlogged into the sunshine to preen and dry out.
Well i expect when the acorns fall off the tree the squirrels will be back and the real fun will begin.
Jenny <><
The price of Petrol versus Printer Ink
>
> All these examples do NOT imply that petrol is cheap; it just illustrates how outrageous some prices are....
> You will be really shocked by the last one!
> (At least, I was...)
>
> Compared with Petrol......
>
> Think a gallon of petrol is expensive?
>
>
> This makes one think, and also puts things in perspective.
>
> Diet Snapple 16 oz £1.29 .. £10.32 per gallon
>
> Lipton Ice Tea 16 oz £1.19 .£9.52 per gallon
>
> Ocean Spray 16 oz £1.25 ...... £10.00 per gallon
>
> Brake Fluid 12 oz £3.15 ...... £33.60 per gallon
>
> Vick's Nyquil 6 oz E8.35 ... £178.13 per gallon
>
> Pepto Bismol 4 oz £3.85 . £123.20 per gallon
>
> Tippex 7 oz £1.39 ....... . £5.42 per gallon
> And this is the REAL KICKER...
> Evian water 9 oz £1.49..£21.19 per gallon! £21.19 for WATER and the buyers don't even know the source
> (Evian spelled backwards is Naive.)
> You don't even want to compare it with perfume or after shave.
> Ever wonder why printers are so cheap?
> So they have you hooked for the ink.
> Someone calculated the cost of the ink at................
> (you won't believe it....but it is true........)
> £5,200 a gal.. (five thousand two hundred pounds)
>
> So, the next time you're at the pump,be glad your car doesn't run on water, or Tippex, Pepto Bismol, Nyquil or God forbid, Printer Ink!
>
> Just a little humour to help ease the pain of your next trip to the petrol pump...
> And - If you don't pass this along to at least one person,
> your exhaust will fall off!!
> Okay, your exhaust won't really fall off....but you might run out of toilet paper
A friend cheered me up with this!!!
Jenny <><
>
