Could this be you…?

A woman was in town on a shopping trip.  She began her day finding the most perfect shoes in the first shop and a beautiful dress on sale in the second.  In the third, everything had just been reduced by 50 percent when her mobile phone rang. 

It was a female doctor notifying her that her husband had just been in a terrible car accident and was in critical condition and in the ICU.

The woman told the doctor to inform her husband where she was and that she'd be there as soon as possible.  As she hung up she realized she was leaving what was shaping up to be her best day ever in the boutiques.  She decided to get in a couple of more shops before heading to the hospital.
She ended up shopping the rest of the morning, finishing her trip with a cup of coffee and a beautiful chocolate cake slice, compliments of the last shop.  She was jubilant.
Then she remembered her husband. 

Feeling guilty, she dashed to the hospital.

She saw the doctor in the corridor and asked about her husband's condition.  The lady doctor glared at her and shouted, 'You went ahead and finished your shopping trip didn't you! I hope you're proud of yourself! While you were out for the past four hours enjoying yourself in town, your husband has been languishing in the Intensive Care Unit!

It's just as well you went ahead and finished, because it will more than likely be the last shopping trip you ever take! For the rest of his life he will require round-the-clock care.  And he will now be your career!'

The woman was feeling so guilty she broke down and sobbed.  The lady doctor then chuckled and said, 'I'm just pulling your leg.  He's dead. Show me what you bought……….

This came courtesy of the friend that I call Julie….

The Reveal

Yes finally I am able to reveal to you all the results of the first crochet project!

View Full Album

This little photo option was from Windows Live Writer – I think I like it!

I found the original pattern for the squares here and I stayed true to the basic pattern all the way through, Posy recommended joining the squares as you went along but I chose not to – I think it made it easier to spread the colours by laying all the squares out at the end. I think next time I use this pattern, I wont put the chain space in the final round between the four double crochets – that made the squares a little bumpy around the edge. Oh – better just say that the pattern is in the American style so any UK hookers out there need to remember that and substitute accordingly! I joined the squares together with a double crochet so have ridges on the front of the blanket – I think next time I’ll try just a slip stitch with the hook or even a ladder stitch with a sewing needle.

Just one more thing – the next person who ask me what I’m going to do with my finished articles may end up wearing one!!

Note to the friend that I call Julie: – almost a crafty blog, eh!!

Weekend Reflections

I’m not sure that I can keep this up every week but I’ve joined in Weekend Reflections again. I’m indoors this week using the mirror in the hallway mostly and a sneaky subdued reflection off of the fire place!

Take a look at the other participants from all over the world via the link above – there are some great photos.

You can just see my twiggy lights in the corner!

Just spotted the reflection from the window in the picture as well

And this one links very nicely to Alphabe-Thursday for this week – football is on the TV!

And if you look very carefully at this one you can see the current crochet project! 

This and that

It’s that time again when I update you all with the exciting-ness (or not) of my week!

Where to begin – I know, Sunday. Well Sunday was not a good start to the week. John disappeared off to visit Son1 and I thought I’d catch up with some of the TV that I had recorded and iron at the same time. The one programme that I really wanted to watch, he had deleted after he had watched it – I mean come on, what was he thinking? In a tense strop I decided to find the programme on i-Player and watch it on the laptop – clearly I couldn’t iron at the same time, could I (that’s a rhetorical question – please don’t trouble yourself to find an answer!)? So, there I am on the sofa, lappy beside me, crochet in hand (couldn’t do absolutely nothing now, could I?) for an hour watching the programme. When it finished I tried to stand up. I say try, because I had the most excruciating back pain ever. In the history of back pain. The worst. It took me some time to realise that I had inflicted this pain upon myself due to the poor posture I had adopted. But, then I rationalised, it was actually John’s fault for deleting the programme in the first place – wasn’t it?

Anyhow, being the martyr that I am, I carried on for the week at work, trying to convince myself that I should keep as mobile as possible, while ending up walking like a little old lady, leaning to one side and unable to straighten up. I only had to work for four days anyway – what harm would it do?

On Friday I took the brave step, after tweeting with, and speaking to, Janet, of booking an appointment with a chiropractor for Monday  - she assures me that I will feel better – eventually. I am such a lightweight when it comes to pain – I am dreading what will happen but have to be realistic that I have to do something about my back.

Watch this space – I’ll let you know how it goes (if I can manage to sit up afterwards!)

Of course this isn’t me because I never got as far as the ironing board!

F is for …

…Football!! And for you lovely people who will read this across the Atlantic, I mean the game played with a round ball that you call soccer!

When I was growing up (way back in the 60s) I didn’t know much about football – there were a few clubs that I heard of but to no great effect. In my teenage years I started to ‘support’ Arsenal Football Club  - probably because they had some pin-up players. I had absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of the game. Arsenal are a North London team – not too far away from where I grew up and they are still, apart from Ipswich, my favourite club.

I went through a few years of not really caring much about football until number 2 son started showing an interest in playing. He was only about four years old when he started to play – he would go across to the local playing field with the bigger boys and really get stuck in. Then he joined Cub Scouts and started playing every Saturday morning. Of course he needed to be taken to the games and after a while he started to complain that I didn’t stay with him to watch. So I started to stay – come rain (lots of it) and shine (not much of it) I stood on the touchline every Saturday through out the season.

As he got older he joined a ‘proper’ team and showed real promise. That was until all of the other boys grew to twice his size but he stated the same size. The bigger the others got, the less chance he got to play and the more disillusioned he became. He finally gave up about age 15 when his spirit was broken after a particularly awful match.

Even though he no longer played, he still wanted to watch matches when Ipswich played at home and, because he couldn’t find anybody to go with him, I volunteered. I think we have been going along to almost every home game now for about eight seasons – generally it has been very enjoyable. Except for this season which has been diabolical. Freezing cold, not scoring many goals and drawing far too many games. The question currently hanging in the air is ‘do we renew our season tickets next year’. We’re undecided. But I know I’ll miss it. I wish it was an easy decision to make. Bother. What’ll I do if I don’t go to watch? Oh questions, questions….

Check out the other Alphabe-Thursday offerings over at Jenny's blog!

Something Different

I just thought I’d see what a post created in Windows Live Writer looks like – I normally use the Word 2007 Blog template but I’ve just seen this recommended so thought I’d try it.

Here’s my squares (looking a bit circle-ish before I joined them together) I settled on 90 in the end – couldn’t quite face up to the 720 permutations that we came up with – plus it would have been huge! I’ll show you the finished article soon – I haven’t taken a photo yet ‘cos I wasn’t planning on posting this today!

It came about from a comment on Janet's post ‘Mosaic Monday’

Sunday Stealing – The Clown’s Meme - 2

Could have guessed this would happen (actually I snuck over and found these last week ....and there's more to come!) Sunday Stealing here we go!

34. What do you like about the summer? Long, light days and blue sky.

35. What do you like about spring? Tree blossom and buds

36. How many states provinces counties have you lived in? Four

37. What cities/towns have you lived in? Are you trying to steal my identity or something – not telling which but five towns

38. Do you prefer shoes, socks, or bare feet? Bare feet in flip-flops

39. Are you a social person? Not really – can't be bothered, prefer virtual socialising these days!

40. What was the last thing you ate? Toad in the hole!

41. What is your favorite restaurant? Don't really have one!

42. What is your favorite ice cream? Ben & Jerry's Baked Alaska (mmm white chocolate polar bears)

43. What is your favorite dessert? Bread & Butter pudding – but don't often eat desert/pudding

44. What is your favorite kind of soup? Plain old Cream of Tomato

45. What kind of jelly do you like on your PB & J sandwich? Strawberry

46. Do you like Chinese food? Love it

47. Do you like coffee? Yes – but prefer tea

48. How many glasses of water, a day, do you drink on average? Nowhere near enough

49. What do you drink in the morning? Earl Grey tea

50. What non-banking related card in your wallet is the most valuable to you? My store loyalty cards

51. Do you sleep on a certain side of the bed? Yes – always the right

52. Do you know how to play poker? No

53. Do you like to cuddle? Sometimes

54. Have you ever been to Canada? No

55. Do you have an addictive personality? Possibly – when it comes to stupid things like this!

56. Do you eat out or at home more often? Home

57. What do you miss about high school, if anything? Nothing

58. Do you know anyone with the same birthday as you? Yes – my friend's Mum

59. Do you want kids? Too late – already have two!

60. Do you speak any other languages? A little French

61. Have you ever gotten stitches? Yes

62. Have you ever ridden in an ambulance? Only as a passenger with somebody else

63. Do you prefer an ocean or a pool? Ocean – can't fit a cruise ship in a pool!

64. Do you prefer a window seat or an aisle seat? Aisle

65. Do you know how to drive stick? Yes – most prevalent type here in the UK

66. What is your favorite thing to spend money on? Me!

Weekend Reflections

For some time now I've admired the photography that Kathy posts as part of the Weekend Reflections collections and this week I've decided to post my own. I know that I posted this photo of the Tide Mill at Woodbridge last weekend but I am quite pleased with the reflections that it offers so have decided to use it again.

Click on the link for information about the Tide Mill and it's history.

There is a link here to other participant's reflections.

All done

My period of acting up is all over. You might remember if you're a long term sufferer of my ramblings that I wrote here about my boss leaving and stepping in to her shoes for a while.

Well, that while is up now. The time has passed very quickly and, whisper it, I've enjoyed it! I was very worried about what to expect and had a bit of a wobbly start but all in all it's gone well. I've survived, not gained any extra grey hairs and my normal sleep pattern may have actually improved – not greatly but a little.

So now the questions. Will I regret not applying? I don't think so. If I'm honest the time wasn't right back in November – if it were now after gaining the experience then possible I would have applied. No regrets though, the new boss starts on Monday and I know her well as she is internal to the organisation. Just in case she reads this I better say some nice things....ummm, where shall I start? Tell you what, I'll give her a week and let you know!!

I will confess though, to feeling a little flat yesterday as I returned to my usual desk, having the space of my own office for a few weeks has been very nice – a little lonely at times but my usual office is only next door so I didn't have to go far for company.

Anyway, onwards and upwards. If a job comes up in the future I think I'll apply for it – trouble is I really love the subject matter that I work in currently. That's Women & Children's health. I have a great relationship with the rest of the team – we are an achieving team, all of us working to the same goals which really helps. I'm also reluctant to move to a different hospital. Where I work now is a short walk to work and as I'm getting older I can't face the thought of a drive to work – it would be at least 45 minutes each way to the nearest hospitals.

I should also mention that none of this would be possible without the support that I received form my colleagues - thanks guys, you've been great!

Here's to the next challenge!

E is for ...

...ELLEN!!! Last week when I pontificated at the end of my D post, I found a message on my Facebook page which read 'refering to your random ramblings page - well, I'm not gonna lie and say I'm not insulted that you can't think of anything for the letter E ;) xx

The message was from my gorgeous goddaughter, Ellen. I half had it in mind for this post to be about her but wasn't really sure how she would feel about it. Then I figured with all the social networking that's out there now, she probably wouldn't mind – especially after her comment above!

So Ellen, where shall I begin? I first met her nearly 17 years ago when she was just a few hours old. A tiny bundle of new born joy and, of course in my eyes absolutely gorgeous. I wasn't biased then because I didn't know she would be my goddaughter at that time. She was the new born daughter of the friend that I call Julie and at that time we lived opposite one another.

Within a few weeks Julie asked me to be Ellen's godmother – I was so pleased and happy to say yes. Over the coming months and years Ellen and I became close forming that bond that meant that I would be cooler than her Mum and get away with saying things to her and persuading her to do things that her Mum wanted her to do. I remember when all of the children had chickenpox within few weeks of each other, Ellen was still tiny but had probably the worst spots of all of the children – she has a 'special' mark on her face to remind us all.

Fast forward a few years to this world of e-living and social networking, when I find myself having conversations with both Ellen and Julie but rarely together. Both are my Facebook friends but are not Facebook friends with each other. I use my godmotherly diplomacy to its full advantage and Ellen is smart enough to realise that – she can tell the hand of her mother working through another!

Ellen is a very talented young lady, she sings and acts, is a great cook (according to her mother – I'm still waiting to try her cooking) and I am very proud to be her godmother. I look forward to watching as she goes through that next phases of her life into adulthood. Oh dear – I'm starting to feel a little emotional as I write this, best pull myself together before I spoil the keyboard!

I have some lovely pictures of Ellen as a cute blonde haired little girl but typically can't find one to scan in to embarrass her with – instead I've stolen a more recent photo from Facebook – hope she doesn't mind!

Love you loads Ellen – keep on being you and you'll go far mwah mwah!!

St Valentine's Day Strolling

This morning John & I went for a walk along the river at Woodbridge. I took my camera because the sun was peeking through the clouds as we left home - I'm glad I did.

We had a lovely stroll, birds were singing and wading, the sun was shining but boy, was that wind cold! As we crossed the mini level crossing we saw a rather diffident young lady in a canoe-type boat with a man, possibly her father, trying to instil some confidence in her. She wobbled from side to side as she started to paddle into the river. 'Keep your hands level' he yelled. As John rightly pointed out, she should have been wearing a lifejacket!

Anyway - here are the pictures that I took - not too many, just a few!

Looking across to the Tide Mill

A couple of more confident canoists!

The buoys and the gulls (sorry!!)


Boats

The sky was gorgeous here, sadly it hasn't come out so well

The Tide Mill again

We rounded off our walk with coffee in the Whistle Stop Cafe at the railway station - oh, should probably confess to a sausage roll (him) and a flapjack (me).

We both really enjoyed the walk - really must do it more often!

Spring Clean Saturday - sort of anyway!

Saturday morning Chez Arkle. Lovely bright sunny day but really cold outside. Shall we go to town? Err - what for? No - I'm going to tidy my kitchen cupboards, at least, tidy those that needed tidying.

I started with the 'Medicines' cupboard - I'm sure you've all got one. Full of out of date medication, dressings for that 'just-in-case' acccident that somebody may or may not ever have and meanwhile have a need for more space.

Before - just look at those top two shelves!

And after - repositioned the shelves to allow me to add the washing liquid as well - result!

Then there's this gem - the bottom shelf was the villian of this piece, too easy to just open the door and throw stuff in...

From this


To this - not a huge difference but managed to clear a load of old receipts

Then there's the drawer - we've all got one kitchen drawer for 'things that might come in handy one day' haven't we? How often do we remember that we put that 'thing that might come in handy' in the drawer?

Now for me this probably was the most satisfying...

Ta - dah!!

Then there's this one that actually started the process - it didn't occur to me to take photos until I had tidied this one but I thought I'd share the end result anyway!

My gorgeously clean and tidy cutlery drawer!

All in all a productive Saturday! What shall I tackle next???

Sunday Stealing – The Clown’s Meme 1

Sunday comes around so soon – off we go with this week's Sunday Stealing I've just noticed it says '1' after the title, which suggests there's more to come – there's 33 questions in this one – my answers may be brief!!
As it's Valentine's day I've chosen an image to suit the occasion!

1. How old will you be in five years? Old enough not to want to share it with the world!

2. Who did will you spend at least two hours with today? John – it's Valentine's day – it would be wrong not too!

3. How tall are you? 5 foot 7 inches

4. What do you look forward to most in the next six weeks? My next holiday!

5. What's the last movie you saw? Nine

6. Who was the last person you called? John – to ask for a lift home on Friday

7. Who was the last person to call you? John – to see if I was ready to come home on Friday!

8. What was the last text message you received? 'I'm sorry L but thank you x' – don't worry – just a friend who is continually losing/breaking her phone and needs to be reminded of our numbers!

9. Who was the last person to leave you a voicemail? John!

10. Do you prefer to call or text? Depends on who to!

11. What were you doing at 12am last night? Sleeping!

12. Are your parents married/separated/divorced? Both no longer with us

13. When is the last time you saw your mom? About nineteen years ago

14. What color are your eyes? Brownie/greeny combination

15. What time did you wake up today? 5.27 am

16. What are you wearing right now? My PJs!

17. What is your favorite christmas song? Sure I answered this before but can't remember what I said and can't be bothered to go back to check!

18. Where is your favorite place to be? Home

19. Where is your least favorite place to be? Nowhere in particular

20. Where would you go if you could go anywhere? Can't think of anywhere specific – but if it was somewhere warm on a big ship, that would be great

21. Where do you think you'll be in 10 years? Probably still here – but hopefully retired!

22. Do you tan or burn? Burn if I'm not careful but tan if I'm sensible

23. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child? Whatever it was that was making the strange noises I could hear!

24. What was the last thing that really made you laugh? Mmmm – really laugh? There was a quiz show on TV last week and the contestants were so dense they could hardly answer any questions – that was hilarious!

25. How many TVs do you have in your house? Four!

26. How big is your bed? UK King size – just big enough for two!

27. Do you have a laptop or desktop computer? I use a laptop mostly but we also have a desktop.

29. What color are your sheets? White – boring!

30. How many pillows do you sleep with? Two

31. What is your favorite season? Spring

32. What do you like about Autumn? The smells as the leaves start to fall

33. What do you like about winter? Shutting the door and keeping warm indoors!

D is for ...

...dancing! When I was about ten years old, my Mum thought it would 'do me good' to learn to dance. Quite what she had in mind I'm not sure. I was a shy child (yep – I know, hard to believe) and I think she thought it would bring me out of myself.

I can remember going along to the exotically named Maple Leaf Dance Studio in my hometown with a friend called Jackie. There we would stand awkwardly and watch all these older girls (and, shock horror, boys!) gliding around the dance floor to a waltz and bouncing around with a cha, cha cha. Slowly we found the confidence to join in and attempt to acquire the skills displayed by the others. My abiding memory to this day is standing in front of a huge mirror, arms out at right angles trying to keep my head up and not look at the floor. I also remember vividly the teacher, whose name was Linda. She was orange. Well, not literally orange but she wore so much tan coloured make-up you could have scraped it off with your finger nails!

Ahhh those were the days. I eventually managed to reach the standard to take exams to achieve bronze and silver medals. These days the closest I come to dancing is the TV. I love Strictly Come Dancing (Dancing With The Stars across the pond) and find myself transported back to the 1970s really wishing I could pluck up the courage to try it again – who knows, maybe one day...

After dancing on a Saturday morning I used to meet up with my Granddad. He used to take me to a cafe which, even back then, was very old fashioned. He would treat me to an ice cream soda – I can still taste it today!

You know this Alhabe-Thursday is really making me think – I'm already thinking about next week, what the hell can I come with for E??? Ahhh – an idea is forming as I look back over this one!

Thanks for reading – I'll do my best to visit all of the others by the weekend!

The Pretentious Blogging Meme – Part 2

I'm quite glad that Judd found he'd missed of some questions from last week – I thought it was a bit short! Here's my response to this week's Sunday Stealing.

If you're reading this and I haven't visited you or left a comment, please excuse my laziness! I'm struggling to keep up with it all at the moment – hopefully normal service will be resumed shortly.

12. How many drafts of potential blog posts do you have right now? Just one! I started a rant a few months ago but decided not to post it!

13. In what medium do you draft your posts? I use the templates in Word 2007 – only trouble is I can't work out how to add photos, so if anybody can help please let me know!!

14. How often do you completely scratch or delete drafts or blog post ideas? Not very – most of my posting is as it comes into my head. The only time I really delete anything is if it won't publish properly – for instance when I end up with a huge hyperlink like last week – that was the fourth attempt and I gave up!

15. If you had to leave your blog in your will to another blogger, who would you choose? I don't think I would. I think it would be best just to let it be.

16. Are there other blogs that you feel are similar to yours in content, style, or voice? Mmmm good question. I'm not really sure. There are some similar blogs that I follow but it would be hard to be specific I think.

17. Has anything surprised you since you started blogging? Oh yes! Friendships made all over the place, especially from memes like this, we tend to 'speak' to other participants on a weekly basis.

18. What are your goals or plans for your blog going forward? Just more of the same really, I have no grand ambitions.

19. Do you make any money from your blog? (optional) about how much a month? LOL – I had an adsense bar and the last time I looked I think I'd made about 20cents – I'm obviously not in it for the money!

20. What blogging system do you use? Blogger – it was the first one I tried. Sometimes I look at the systems on other blogs and think I might prefer the layout but I'm quite happy with what I've got – just like to do a bit of decorating and tidying occasionally.

21. How did you come up your blog name? I thought I was really original. I knew the content would be totally random and that I'd just ramble on about anything and everything and Random Ramblings was born – along with loads of other blogs with the same name!

22. How many blogs do you have? What was your peak? Just the one – I don't have time for any more!

23. Are you having as much fun as when you started? More fun! I know more now and it's more adventurous!!

24. Where do you find other bloggers like you? I started just by using the 'Next Blog' function as the top of the Blogger page, found a few I liked and then picked a few others up to follow from those blogs.

25. What's your one wish when it comes to blogging? Oh difficult one to finish. Dare I say I'd be chuffed to be the Blog of Note one day?

I feel honoured...

...but should I? This arrived in my inbox yesterday (as spam, needless to say!) and at first I have to say I was flattered. Little old me, over here in the UK being held up as the 'Featured Blog' – wow, what an honour. I thought. Until I looked at some of the other blogs they listed. Most looked OK. However some looked very dubious – needless to say I have replied thanking for the 'honour' but advising that I really don't want to be linked with some of the things that they display on their front page. Just have to hope they remove me! And so far they haven't sent any visitors – I know these things because of my obsession with the tracking thingy over on the right!

'Hello,
 This is Shiela from homefurnituredepot.net.
  We stumbled on your blog page and found it interesting! We operate the largest Home Furniture & Office Furniture website featuring more than 30,000+ blogs. Our site averages 200,000+ unique visitors per month. As a kind note We have featured your blog at http://homefurnituredepot.net/blog_awards/index.php?id=8504 We would be grateful if you could add the following details to your blogs main page.
<a href='http://homefurnituredepot.net'>Home Office Furniture </a>
Looking forward for your confirmation.
 Thanks
 Shiela
 homefurnituredepot.net.'

I know I want to be featured, but please – come on – not like that!!!!

C is for....

...so many things, I couldn't pick just one so here's a few! Hasn't Thursday come around quickly!

Chocolate – mmm delicious, my one temptation. I just can't resist it. Milk. Plain. White. In a bar. In a box. I'm not fussy. Oh - except that I don't like gooey chocolate cakes and puddings.

Candles – lovely smelling scented candles. The only thing is that I don't find them particularly scented once I've lit them – is it me?

Cruising – newly discovered but an absolute passion now. The first one was only last February and I've had two more since then! Oh – and another one booked for six weeks time. If somebody had said to me two years ago that this would be my preferred holiday I would have said they were mad – especially as I'm frightened of water and can't swim! Watch this space (well not this one in particular but you know what I mean)for more details to come!

Crochet – as a child my aunt to taught me to crochet. Trouble was she crocheted as if she were knitting – you know – all with the right hand instead of holding the yarn in the left and hooking it through. I started again in the autumn having been inspired by some lovely crafty blogs that I'd happened upon. I thought I'd make a granny blanket and embarked on my mission here, I've probably completed enough squares now to make a small blanket. Just need to do the boring stuff now of sewing/stitching them all together – I'll let you know the outcome! Meanwhile, I just had to start the next project – going for waves this time oooh – back to cruising!

Thanks for taking the time to read – I do try to read all of the posts that are linked here, sorry if I don't get around to leaving a comment on them all!