At the end of the day...

"The sun goes down" is one of my Mum's favourite sayings. Basically, it just means 'Que sera, sera' or 'What will be, will be' - she is right you know!!

I have been travelling in to work on the bus, since my car broke down last Saturday week. To get to work for 8am, I must leave my house at around 7.15am to arrive at the Bus stop around 7.30pm. It's quite a long walk from my house to the bus stop and with my little legs and excess weight, it's quite a trial!! Every morning and evening I trudge up hill and down dale - even though I really do need the exercise - I wish I could sprout wings and fly myself everywhere.

I hate arriving late for work and on Monday I waited 25 minutes for a bus, in the rain and feeling miserable. I got to work at 8.20am. Even though I am the boss, I still don’t like getting in late, so I was already stressing.

Then some school kids got on the bus playing some Ragga Reggae on their tinny mobile phones, which was more than mildly annoying.

Then a man and woman, who I presume were a couple decided to have an argument – they stank of drink – at 8 am!! He spat at her, she slapped him across the face, he slapped her back – while this was going on I was trying to read my book and most people on the bus were trying to pretend that everything was hunky dory (fine). The bus driver, who was already having a bad day, decided he’d had enough and told them that if they didn’t get off he would call the Law. They got off still shouting and the whole bus heaved a sigh of relief and CRASSSHHH!!! Another bus hit our bus and tore off the side mirror – luckily it was quite near my stop so I got off and walked the rest of the way, leaving the bus drivers arguing about who was to blame.

Then as I was walking through Roe Green Park I got a phone call from one of my work colleagues to say that her Grandmother had just died and she would not be coming in to work.

Then all the people I had asked(and confirmed) to come to a Demo Visit for a new library system, didn’t turn up – so I had to ring everyone to remind them that the Rep was waiting patiently to speak to all of us. At least the Rep was really nice about it and was quite happy to wait with a hot cup of tea and a peanut cookie.

Then during the day I tried to ring my son to ask him something and a voice on my mobile told me that I was unable to make outgoing calls?? When I phoned T-Mobile to ask what was the problem, they told me I hadn’t paid my bill. I told them that my bank pays by direct debit and they told me that the direct debit agreement didn’t seem to be in place – so I had to set it up again and pay a bill for £85 before they would re-connect me.

Then on my way home I got on the bus and discovered that my pass had expired and I had no cash on me. So I got off the bus, went into a newsagent and bought a new Oyster Card with my debit card.

Then as I walked through the door of my house, I received a phone call from my garage telling me that my car was ready to collect, which meant I had to leave again, take another bus into Willesden and then 10 minutes walk from the bus stop to the garage.

My car is now working fine and I have paid £480 for a re-conditioned gear box and new clutch.

I drove up the road had a little cry and then felt so much better.

An hour or so after arriving home from what seemed the longest day – the sun went down.

Hasta Mañana.

Jo xx

Books, life and 'The Game'

It is now half-time in the England versus Ecuador World Cup match and what a boring match it is turning out to be. I am not an expert, but my eldest son tells me that the lack of thrills comes from the 4, 5, 1 formation, which Sven Goran Ericsson has chosen for this game – what do I know – all I know is that England just seem to spend most of the time in the middle of the pitch, kicking the ball from one to another to another – boring, boring!!

I have finished reading ‘A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian’ and I must say I did really enjoy this book.

It was not as funny as some of the reviews said it was. It did have some funny moments, but the humour was at the expense of peoples habits, which although amusing at times, can also be quite sad, especially when it is poking fun at old people and their eccentricities. All of us do this at times, but when you read it in black and white it does make you feel uncomfortable

“He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone”

(New Testament Gospel of John)

This book deals with issues surrounding why economic migrants come into this country ….

We interrupt this review to say ENGLAND HAS SCORED A GOAL!!! Well done Beckham about time you scored one of your specials.

Back to the book …

Immigrants/Economic migrants coming from all over Eastern Europe come here for all types of reasons, to escape oppressive regimes, to escape victimisation , to escape a poor standard of living, to suck this country’s social services dry and to abuse a very lax legal system. The last two things should not be applied to those immigrants who come here to work, but unfortunately there are always those who abuse the system.

One of the main characters in the book ‘Valentina’ the big busty blonde, is a confusing character, I felt dislike, admiration and pity for her, but really she is a victim of global change. Read the book I think you will enjoy it.

My Dad (bless him) reads ‘The Times’ newspaper and everyweek he saves some of the supplements for me namely ‘The Knowledge’ and ‘Books’. I enjoy reading these every week as they keep me up-to-date on all new publications. In this week’s issue of books I noticed a new publication by, Will Self (Grumpy old man), it’s called ‘The Book of Dave’ and deals with a London Cabby and his life and loves. He writes his 'Cabbies Credo' on some metal tablets and buries them in his love rival’s garden. They are discovered 500 years later and become the basis for a new religion!! It sounds really interesting and I am sure all the London Cabbies out there, might find it fascinating reading – maybe even my brother London Cabby might have a little go.

Anyhow, I am going to get hold of a copy and will let you know what I think.

I did mention the other day that I really enjoyed reading Robert Heinlein and Anne McCaffrey books. These two below were particulary enjoyable you should give them a go, if you have time.

ENGLAND ARE NOW THROUGH TO THE QUARTER FINALS - BECKHAM IS A LEGEND!!

Well happy reading folks.

Jo xx

Life, aliens and loadsa food

Last Sunday was the family bbq. This time it was for the youngest member of the family Sarah, who is now two years old!!

My Mum for some reason always gets a little stressed at these occasions, even though most of the time it’s only family. This time my brother’s in- laws came round to celebrate the day with us – her cue to stress just a little more than usual.

MY SOLUTION – GET HER PISSED!! (TIPSY)

She likes Martini with Lemonade, so we gave her a large Martini, which always goes straight to her head and makes her a bit giggly. I have recently introduced her to Advokaat (egg nog) with lemonade (Snowball) – she loves it and has a tipple now and then. On Sunday I introduced her to Pimms. I made a jugful in the correct English manner, served with cucumber and fresh garden mint and plenty of ice. She loved it, as do I.

My sister (Palmers Green) made her usual contribution of trifle and Birthday cake – there was very little left of this as it is a family favourite – the little that was left was kept for my Dad, who shouldn’t really eat sweet stuff, as he is a diabetic, but he can’t resist my sister’s cakes.

My brother London Cabby, made two massive potato omelettes, which the kids devoured with gusto – most of the kids in our family have good appetites and when we have parties, it’s a bit like a swarm of locusts descending!! You have to be fast to get a look in.

My mum made a large paella, enough to feed an army – all of us except my youngest son love this dish and even though there were loads of other things to eat, this was definitely the most popular.

For some reason I seem to make good salads, so my contribution was a large Seafood Cocktail (Prawns and Ocean Sticks) with Mayonnaise, tomato puree, tomato ketchup, paprika, lemon juice and freshly ground black pepper. My Dad loves this – since he has a few teeth left it is easy for him to eat and he thoroughly enjoys it. I also made a large fresh salad, which included: Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, avocado pear and olives stuffed with anchovies.

As per usual, there was far too much food and ‘tuppelware’ as my mum calls it, was freely distributed to those who wished to take home doggy bags, full of leftover, burgers, sausages, chops, ribs, chicken wings and anything else edible.

By the way, you may be wondering how my low cholesterol diet is going?? Well it was fine up until Sunday and then I ate everything that you see marked in red in this post. The alien in my stomach, which I have not referred to for quite a while, was screaming to be released – I think I overdid it a bit – I have been paying for the overindulgence ever since. Oh woe is me!!

I am as we speak back on the wagon - no honestly I am!!

By the way, well done England - poor Owen looks like he will be out for the rest of the tournament, bad luck.

I have had enough of fiddling with blogger, html, posting for the time being, so I am off to watch some TV - I have Spyra Gyra 'Morning Dance' playing on itunes and keeping me company.

Until the morrow - parting is such sweet sorrow!!

Jo xx

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away ...

"But now it looks as though they're here to stay.

Oh yesterday came suddenly"

The morning started OK.

I took my son to work at 'Tesco,where he works on the cash till every Saturday - I was just on the A406 North Circular, coming up to the turn-off for 'Tesco' and 'IKEA', when as I slowed down and changed gear, I heard a metallic clunking noise, which did not sound good. I thought to myself, just get into the Car park and at least you will be able to sort things out safely. How I got there I don't know, because everytime I tried to change gear that awful noise seemed to be getting louder. I got into the car park and parked at the quiet end where not many people park - my son went into work and I called the 'AA' - my knights in shining armour. They said they would be about an hour and 10 mins and would text me when they were getting nearer. I thought - I'll go and get a newspaper and a coffee and sit in the cafeteria - NO CHANCE - bought the paper, got in the queue for a latte, sat down and my phone chimed with a text message 'the patrolman will be with you in 2 minutes' - well that was good, but I was really looking forward to my latte(skinny, by the way) - so I went and got a paper cup from the counter and ran back to my car, the guy was already there waiting. Now that's what I call service!!

He had a look at the car, there was a sharp intake of breath and then it was 'Sorry love, it looks like it's your gearbox'. GRRREEAATT!! I am so unlucky with cars, it probably doesn't help that they are always at least 10 years old by the time I get them, but it's not like I don't look after them.

BUGGER
BUGGER
BUGGER

I then had to wait an hour and 40 minutes for an 'AA' car transporter to come and take me to my garage, where as you know I am on first name terms with most of the mechanics, the owners, the office staff and probably even the guys that deliver spare parts. I was thinking of getting a camp bed put in for me somewhere as I spend so much time there!

By the time I got to the garage it was 12 noon, three and a quarter hours since I had left my house that morning - with no weekly shopping also no shopping from Portobello Road, where I normally buy really nice halal lamb chops, for the family bbq, which was today. Oh, yes and no car.

I had arranged to go to help my Mum with some more house cleaning - it was a really hot day and I was starting to feel a bit fretful, I had the wrong shoes for walking in, so I went and got a mini cab up to my Mum's. I was there for a couple of hours, when my boyfriend phoned an said that he had finished work early and he offered to take me to get my shopping. Lovely I thought.

I got to 'Tesco' again - and got myself a trolley and proceeded to work my way through my shopping list - the boyfriend kept disappearing and coming back with random items for himself - he kept phoning me to ask where I was and kept asking me 'Have you finished yet?'. Good Lord!! If you offer to take someone shopping don't start bloody hassling them all the way through their shopping, as a result of his hassling, I came away without, pasta, olive oil, vinegar, sanitary towels, toothpaste and prawns.

Took all the shopping home, whilst unpacking stuff to put it away - the boyfriend - kept giving me helpful tips such as, don't forget to put your frozen stuff in the freezer, did you know that you have 4 tins of chopped tomatoes and my personal favourite 'I don't think you will get all that in there' %@&*, if I needed advice I would have married him!!!

Had to go to Wing Yip's to get the prawns, as they had been forgotten! Then went to Kingsbury HighRoad, for the halal chops. Shopping All Done, hurray!!

Back to boyfriend's for the night - to chill-out. He's not all bad and definitely has many good points.

In the grand scheme of things I don't have a bad life really - but a good moan always helps!!

Today I bought myself a copy of 'a Short History of Tractors in Ukranian' by Marina Lewycka, don't know if I will enjoy it, but it has had some good reviews and is on the bestseller list, so I'll give it a go.

No pictures today, I can't get anything to upload??

You say goodbye and I say hello. Jo xx

Is there life on Mars??

I am not really in the mood for posting today, so I thought I would just show you some of my favourite sci fi/fantasy pictures from the web - also a couple of websites, which I think are really OK!!

I can't remember where I got this one from, but I like the effects and textures around the face, it is called 'Ice Mother'





The following three are by an artist called Doug Kovacs, he seems to have several different styles. The following are called 'tree lady', 'bronze dragon' (this could be one of my Anne McCaffrey dragons??) and 'black hell'. Have a look at his website.






The following are by an artist called Selina Fenech, I like her work, but her graphite work is, I think, more powerful than her colour work. The pictures below are 'love me not', 'bw fairy', 'motherhood', 'merwater' and 'strange kind of blue'.

The final piece is by an artist called Slawek Wojtowicz it is called 'Baby boomers' it is not as traditional as the other pieces, but- what the hell!! I like what I like!! OK!!

My favourite all-time artist/illustrator is Arthur Rackham, who illustrated so many fairy tales and bring back many happy memories of my childhood in Victoria on Lillington Gardens Estate, reading by the light of the streetlamp, which was right outside my window.

Always a dreamer, always yours. Jo xx

Got to get it into my life

Just lately my life has been loads of ups and downs, highs and lows, fasts and slows - don't worry I am not going to start spouting poetry!! Although I have dabbled in the past, but when I read it back now it is so mawkish and soppy that I would think a teenager had written it, not a frustrated housewife - which I was - well kind of.

Anyhow, work has been just that, some days when I am doing what I enjoy and can finish what I have started I am really happy. I know it sounds strange, but even clearing out a cupboard full of old paperwork is quite cathartic!! It's my version of a life laundry.

Today, apart from having a meeting with all my staff about how we are going to cope with one less person (cutbacks at work) - I took some photos of some of the board displays, which we have all worked on, in the Library.


This one and the one below are the Staff as Children boards - We have a Competition up and running for the students to guess which staff are pictured.


Our World Cup 2006 board - we couldn't get cloth flags for all the countries.


We obviously had to have one board just for England (COME ON ENGLAND!!!) Please note the little book rack in front of the board, this has all sorts of books, which are football related.




The picture above is our new parasol from IKEA, which I bought out of petty cash - I got fed-up with the kids complaining about the sun beating down on their heads and the PCs overheating. It's not very central as the computer desks are all wired-up, but it does the job. Not bad eh??

I am just finishing this as I want to watch tonights recap programme of Big Brother, so I am cutting this short.

Have a good evening and don't take any wooden nickels!!

Jo xx

BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!!

I have had a really stressful day today, maybe I am just really anal about work, but I really do think that if you are paid to do a job you should work. Call me old fashioned, but that’s just the way I think. I always give 100% and feel that I am letting myself down if I do any less. Shame not everyone thinks the same way!!

THAT’S MY LITTLE RANT OUT OF THE WAY

No wait there’s more – if people know what they should be doing at work, why don’t they just do it – why do they have to wait to be told, and when you have a go, why do they then say ‘Well you didn’t ask me to do that’!!

Lets face it; you just can’t get the workers these days!!

RANT OVER

Actually after I had finished my ranting, crying, blaming, stressing, I felt so much better. It’s true what they say ‘It’s not good to bottle things up, let them out’.

NICER BITS NOW

I took delivery of a load of new books, including two called ‘ One thousand Welsh words’ and ‘First Thousand Japanese words’. We don’t actually teach these languages at my school, but we do occasionally get requests for books on different languages, so I thought it would be fun to get something other than, French, German and Spanish. I think I will take them out and have a practice.



The World Cup is in full force in my house, we seem to have every televised match on – my younger son suddenly having developed a pure passion for football . I know he enjoys Spurs and England playing, but the last few days we have had the Italy/Ghana match, Australia/Japan, USA/Czech Republic and possibly every other match – I don’t share his love of the game and even my elder son is getting fed-up with all the football.

ENGLAND WILL WIN ANYWAY (POSITIVE THINKING)

I haven’t had a lot of time to read lately, I have just been so tired that when 10pm swings by my eyelids start to droop and I have to drag myself to bed. I just manage to stay awake for BIG BROTHER at 9pm every night – I am a little obsessed with all the characters and they certainly have had some characters this year.



PETE TO WIN!!

My boyfriend has offered to cook for me this evening, he has also had a stressful day and I have probably been not as sympathetic with him as I could be, but frankly sometimes –

I DON’T GIVE A FUCK!!!

Well I do really, but I am still de-stressing myself and swearing sometimes helps to relieve the pressure.

Anyway, I'm off now to eat my fat free, low cholesterol dinner - delightful!!

Jo xx

My low cholesterol life

It has now been 5 days since my doctor told me that my cholesterol is a tad high! My blood pressure is also a tad high - and lets face it my age is getting a bit high! The only thing that's not high at the moment, is my mental state. Don't get me wrong it's not low, but it could do with a bit of a boost.

I have been exceedingly good with my low cholesterol diet and have managed to lose 6lbs this week. The reason why I have lost so much, so quickly is that I have been very active.

Helping my mum get the house ready for a party next Sunday.

Gardening

Running up and down the stairs

Seeing my boyfriend!! (Don't ask)

Helping out with School 'Picnic in the Park' event

The other main reason is that it has been hot, hot, HOT!!!

I always seem to eat less when it is hot, and mainly fruit and salad and gallons of water, which is definitely healthy, so let's hope the hot weather continues just enough to help me lose about a stone in weight - wishful thinking I know, but one can dream???

I have been discussing fantasies with people at work and we nearly all agreed that there is something about men with wings that seems quite appealing. So I thought you might like to see a few of my favourite pictures from the web.

I don't remember where I got this one from, but I love his wings.

I think I got this one from an art web site, sorry don't remember which one!

I LOVE JOHN PHILIP LAW, HE WAS THE ANGEL IN BARBARELLA IN THE 60's

Hope you enjoy these as much as I do.

Until another day. Jo xx

Football, food and life

COME ON ENGLAND!!

I just had to get that one out of way first.

Today England are playing Paraguay in Frankfurt, Germany, it will be their first game of World Cup 2006. I am not a great football fan, but I do feel drawn in when our National Team is playing and get quite emotional if they lose.

It has been so lovely seeing everyone flying their flags from their houses and cars, not just England flags but other nations flags too. Yesterday I saw 3 different flags hanging from a house, Angola, England and Portugal, which I thought was really great. This morning I saw a car with both a flag of England and Ghana attached to it. It just goes to show what a multicultural place London is!!

Here is a picture of my younger son and some of his friends outside the new Wembley Stadium - he took this one as part of his A level Art project.

They are obviously England Supporters!!

If England should get knocked out and Spain is still in, I will probably switch my allegiance to them - being of Spanish descent it kind of makes sense??

I don't know how hot it is today, but it is bloody hot. By half past eleven this morning I was already cursing having offered my elder son a lift to several shops - apart from the fact it was hot, for some reason all the boy racers were out in force. Two little red japanese sporty looking cars, overtook me and nearly killed the oncoming drivers in their rush to get who-knows-where?? One guy nearly drove into a barrier (twice) in his haste to get one car ahead - at one point I drew level with him and when I looked over at him he was drinking a cup of coffee and looked stoned out of his head - why are there so many dickheads on the road?

I did some food shopping, mainly to kick-off my healthy eating campaign, I bought:

Salmon fillets in an orange and ginger marinade

Chicken fillets, which I will marinade with olive oil and garlic (then grill)

Rump Steak (to grill)

Salad Stuff, including: cherry tomatoes, cucumber, mixed leaf salad, wild rocket, advocados

Vegetables, including: courgettes, green beans, beansprouts, carrots, asparagus

Fruit, including: bananas, cherries, apples, pears, peaches

I have six months before I go back to the doctor to re-check my cholesterol, which is a tad high, so hence the healthy eating.

There is something seriously wrong with Blogger - I can't seem to get more than one photo downloaded, before it starts playing-up. Also, it only seems to let me change one line to a large font and won't change anthing else. Does anyone else have this problem, or is it just me?? HELP ANYONE!!

Life is beautiful

Today has been a very pleasant day - I have been working in the Lower School Library - this is my favourite place to work.

I have spent nearly £800 on books - which is my favourite pastime, apart from eating, reading and sex.

I have had to do some creative accounting and ask the reps to bill me at different times (months) as we (the school) are having cash flow problems and £800 is an awful lot of money, but then I was buying for both libraries and the books were sooooo lovely - I just couldn't help myself!!

My boyfriend has a rosebush, which grows in his front garden next to a wall, by the pavement. People (nasty people) regularly come and help themselves to his roses, which are the real old fashioned type and have a wonderful smell. I asked him if I could take one before it too was stolen - I took this picture of it. I have messed around with photoshop, darkening the surrounding area, to highlight the beautiful rose - I hope you like it - I really wish you could smell it.

I just have to tell you about something, which I ate yesterday. I had some leftover,

boiled new royal jersey potatoes. I sliced them up and fried them in extra virgin olive oil, with red and green peppers, red onions, loads of garlic, I dolloped some sticky rib bbq sauce and finally added some crispy bacon.

OH MY GOD!!!

Definitely Heart Attack food, but I always say 'a little bit of what you fancy does you good' and that certainly hit the spot.

It really doesn't take much to make me happy - although you certainly don't want to be around me when I am miserable - but you don't want to know about that.

Off tomorrow to help my Mum with some more cleaning, painting and decorating, I can do with the exercise.

A short blog today as I want to look at the blue sky before it disappears again.

Other lives other worlds

I have always felt that life was too real, I prefer to live in my own little world, where there really are fairies at the bottom of the garden, where parallel worlds can exist and if the time continuum is disturbed, paradoxes can occur. I know that I have already lost you - I told you - I like my own little world.

I love this picture, I scanned it from a Dorling Kindersley X-Men book, erased all the text around it and then gave it a photo negative effect. The icy blue flames around phoenix give it a cold, beautiful, ethereal feel.

The first book I remember reading as a child, which turned me on to fantasy was the 'Blue Fairy Book' by Andrew Lang. I always enjoyed reading fairy stories, when I was young this was my main escape from my brothers and sisters, once the book was open, I disappeared inside it's pages,only to reappear when called for a meal (another important love in my life).

Last year I was amazed to see that the 'Folio Society' one of many book clubs I subscribe to from time to time, was offering it as part of an introductory offer to hook in past members - I couldn't resist and am now the proud owner of this beautifully bound and illustrated edition.




From fairy stories I moved on to the Narnia Series by C.S.Lewis . My headmaster used to read several passages a day to us in the school hall and you could hear a pin drop - we couldn't wait for the next day's installment.

Still reading mainly fantasy, I moved onto Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings', heavy going for a 12/13 year old.!

Then I discovered Science Fiction - I started reading Robert Heinlein books, Waldo & Magic inc, Space Cadet, Farnham's freehold,Stranger in a Strange Land, The moon is a harsh mistress and possibly all the rest of Heinlein's stuff. I started reading, Asimov, Arthur C.Clarke, Aldiss, Simak, Le Guin - I'm stopping now because I could go on forever (boring) - but at least you have some idea of how keen I am.

I have always told my boys that there is a Santa Claus, tooth fairy, elves, fairies and any other mythical creatures (we don't really do Easter bunnies here in England). Unfortunately or fortunately, some might say, they are completed grounded and don't share my enthusiasm for all other worldly things, which is just as well, they think that I am a bit OTT with my books and DVDs and Star Wars collectibles.

There are so many horrors in the world, which I do also read about, but sometimes you just need somewhere to escape to 'Pern' has been one of my recent escape routes, Anne McCaffrey has created a whole world full of teleporting Dragons, which travel in time and space - my kind of life!!

"I propose to hang onto this life as long as I can and learn as much as I can. Maybe wisdom and understanding are reserved for a later existence and maybe they aren‚t for us at all, ever. Either way, I'm satisfied to be living and enjoying it. Mary my sweet, carpe that old diem! -- it's the only game in town."

Lazarus Long in Methuselah's Children (Robert A.Heinlein)

Live long and prosper, Nanu nanu. Jo xx

Life and Death

The first of June was a very sad day for all fans of Rocio Jurado. Beloved by millions of Spanish speakers around the world “la mas grande de Espana” (Spain’s greatest) died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 61.



My mother is absolutely devastated – and I am baffled – I never knew how much she felt for this woman, whose name I have heard for years, but who meant nothing to me. All I can relate it to, is how I felt when I heard of Diana Princess of Wales’ death – it’s not so much the death of the person, but everything that person represents in your life, your children, your parents, events in your life. To me Diana’s death, was about her two boys (I have two boys) left motherless - about her failed marriage (mine too) - about her relationship with her family and friends and about her coping with just living, just sorting out her life and suddenly just dying. Women around the world felt a special kinship with her, regardless of whether or not they had ever met her.

My mum’s feelings about Rocio Jurado relate to her own feelings towards her mother (we called her big Yaya), who sadly died just over two years ago.


My grandmother was quite a demanding character and lived with my parents for at least 10 years at the end of her life, she was 92 years old when she died and had a reasonably good life, although to hear her talk, her life was one of unbearable suffering. My mum still finds it hard to come to terms with her death.

I don't think I was really as sympathetic as I could have been, I just fobbed her off by saying 'well who the hell is she?' and my brother London Cabby sort of gave a little chuckle as if to say 'well I don't know who the hell she is either!!' My Mum got really upset and started to cry, which prompted my brother to give her a big hug, which made her cry more, which meant I had to join in the group hug - which eventually made her feel better.

Rocio Jurado’s mother also died of pancreatic cancer in her early fifties and Rocio regularly dedicated songs to the memory of her mother, passionate and sad songs, which moved her listeners to tears and reminded people of their loved ones. Her life has been an open book to readers of ‘Hola’ and similar publications and her fans have suffered and rejoiced with her - during bad times, such as the death of her mother, her divorces – during good times, the birth of her children and grandchildren. She is greatly mourned by the whole of Spain.



I thought I would add this picture of a gate, just to finish off this blog.

God Bless you. Jo xx

Ain't nature grand!!

Today, since it was a lovely morning, I felt the urge to take pictures of stuff. Here are a few of my efforts.

I don't know what the plant above is called, but it grows in all the nooks and crannies in my garden. I love the colour of the leaves and the little yellow flowers.

This is a close-up of a broken flowerpot, I just thought it looked interesting

We get a lot of blue tits visiting the garden, they are so cute!

This Ladybird was trying to hide in a Pine Cone - I collect pine cones wherever I go - most of them are from Kew Gardens, here in London, but I have a few big ones from Yosemite Park in California, some from Mexico and some from Spain, France and Germany - it's one of my things - don't ask.

A close-up of a bit of brick work, I liked the texture of it.

Magpies are as common as pidgeons in this area, sometimes when you come out of your house, it's like a scene from 'The Birds', they sit on every available roof and aerial - it can be a bit scary and very noisy!!

I'm off out tonight, going to Grim's Dyke Hotel somewhere between Hatch End and Bushey. It's supposed to be a Murder Mystery Evening and I am going with a group of women, so it should be a laugh - i'll let you know - it looks really lovely on the website. I know food is included in the price, but i'm not sure what that will be?? Another mystery??

You may have noticed that my food reporting has tapered off lately, this is because I am trying to lose some weight - if I don't talk/write about it I won't think about it so much - well that's what I am trying to convince myself of.

Laters. Jo xx