Ladies who……

Earlier today I had a really catchy title in my mind for this post, however the sieve that has replaced my memory in recent months has let it leak out and it’s lost!

I hope as I’m writing I can come up with something that tells you what a great day I’ve had today! A few weeks ago I had the brainwave of inviting some likeminded ladies to spend the day being crafty and today was the day we settled on. I suppose I expected maybe two or three friends would say yes please but we ended up with eight of us – and John!

John very kindly rearranged all the furniture a few days ago so that we could open up the space available and this morning we got ourselves ready. We opened up the dining table, laid out the cutting mat and sewing machine, pulled out a box of yarn and awaited our guests. I’d said 10 o’clock for a start time but slowly messages started coming in about people being delayed. The best one has to be the text that said ‘Please tell me it’s tonight we’re sewing’! Poor Trish had got 6 on her mind not thinking that was the date and not the start time! She and her daughter arrived just in time for lunch much to the amusement of those already gathered!

So here is the day in pictures – I think we all enjoyed ourselves, Isabel sort of learnt to crochet with Janet’s help, Sian made one of Nicky’s lovely boxy bags, Julie and Steph enjoyed a bit of show & tell, Trish wasn’t having a good day – instead of bringing her dress to finish she bought the remaining fabric, John got a few photography tips from Trish & Sian and me, well I did some crochet and marked out the half square triangles for my next project.

 

The sewing end

Elevenses!

The other end!

Yes – I left the ironing board out! The sewers amongst you will know that this is an important piece of equipment!

She need a bright colour!!

Don’t show my face!!

See – Nicky used that so important piece of equipment!

I’m not looking up!!

Always happy teaching!

The final result!

Thank you all for coming – shall we do it again?

Raspberries & Cream

A new take on an afghan for a baby girl, I couldn’t get baby pink so opted for this slightly deeper pink instead. It will shortly be off for a new life with a friend of the friend that I call Julie – hope she likes it!

I’ve set up a Flickr page as well – although a lot of the pics will appear on here, I’ll add some of John’s creations as well! It’s here if you want to take a look! Although I think that just takes you to the Flickr home page – anyway, I’m easternsparkle on there as well!!

The one where…

…I tell you about phones, glasses and my first big bag! I’ve stolen the title for this from that wonderful TV series Friends which seems to constantly on air on the satellite channels.

First up the phone. I got an early upgrade offer for my mobile phone. I was that excited. I-phone here I come, I thought, but it was not to be . Much as I coveted the I-phone  i was not prepared, nor could I afford, the £250 quoted by Vodafone for the initial purchase price. Instead, with support from the on line team via Twitter, I settled for a gorgeous purple HTC Wildfire S. It looks amazing, all the functionality really of an I-phone for zero outlay and the same monthly cost. I was happy. Forget that I couldn’t use the touch screen to type ‘cos I managed to hit the keys either side of the one I meant to. Forget that I sent messages and rung people who I didn't intend to. I loved it. Until that is, the screen started to freeze on me. I couldn’t open it. When I did manage to open it I ended up in all sorts of strange places and, the best of all, I couldn’t hang up on any calls!! The friend that I call Julie had a lovely silent voicemail message from on Saturday. Anyway, cut to the chase, I went into the Vodafone store in town today and, thank heavens, the guy there saw the problem for itself. You need an exchange he said. OK, said I. You’ll have to do it online – can’t do it in the shop, says he. Oh, OK said I and off I went to phone the magic number – which surprisingly I managed OK, until it came to entering my PIN!! Not a chance. Select an option 1-5. No chance. So I just held out in the hope that somebody would speak to me which they did. After me spelling it out that I needed an exchange, they agreed to just that, shame is I can’t get another purple one, had to settle for grey, not that that matters too much. Then, haha, they sent me a text about the exchange which, you guessed it, I couldn’t open. Facepalm is the word I think the kids would use!!

And then there’s the glasses. Way overdue for a check-up, I went a couple of weeks ago to that store that gives you an extra pair for nothing, the one who’s prices start at £85 – you know the one, right? Well, of course I don’t meet the criteria for the cheap option as I have varifocals, so £250 later and an order placed for a regular pair and a light-sensitive pair I awaited with baited breath their delivery. The light-sensitive pair are the very latest Gok Wan design, oooh, get me – I just loved the idea of them as sun glasses, not that I planned to wear them for everyday stuff. You know what’s coming, don’t you? Yep. Couldn’t see through either pair – the Goks meant that I couldn’t see distance and the other pair completely blurred my vision in the middle distance . Every time I buy glasses I have these problems. However a very nice young man (very young man) fiddled a little with both pairs and I left the store this morning promising to persevere for a couple of weeks.

And breathe. On to the bag. I bought the kit for this when I went to the Quilt Show at Chilford Hall. It’s from here and although it’s not in colours that I would normally choose I’m well chuffed with how it’s come out! Hyper critical me will tell you that I’m not happy with the place where the handle joins the bag because the sewing machine almost had heart failure when I tried to force coax the many layers of fabric through and I tried to tidy it up by hand, but that apart, I’m pleased with it!

You probably can’t see the lining very well but it’s a floral print from Moda on a brown background, yes I know, brown! As it’s such a spacious bag I’m going to make a small bag to go inside for my phone and stuff – I did think I’d do that today but have now changed my mind and am going to supervise John in the garden while he plants up the plants we bought this morning in anticipation of the torrential rain that’s promised!

Just before I hit the publish button, John has said we’ll plant after the football has finished if it’s not raining – fingers crossed, it’s still beautifully sunny here right now!!

Busy, busy, busy!!

What a busy few days, I hardly know where to begin!!

I’ll start with Friday, I think. I went off to Nicola’s for the day for more sewing practice – it seems that you can’t have too much practice!! I had prepared a couple of bits as I hinted at in my last post and I think I’m safe to reveal them now!

The pink one I made all by myself – it’s not quite the same as the purple one but I didn’t do too bad considering it was from memory and by almost deconstructing the one I made with her help a couple of months ago!

These have now been given as pressies to the friend that I call Julie and her lovely daughter, my goddaughter.

And then, after a quick trip to Quilters Haven (if it’s possible to have a quick trip, that is!) where we met up with a friend that Nicola had made through blogging (she can be found right here) and her friend (who can be found right here) and I bought just a little more fabric and a book – oh and we had a cup of tea – we returned to Nicola’s and I made this bag, which will probably go to my FDIL as she seemed quite attracted to it!

So after a long day sewing on Friday, I woke up on Saturday morning knowing that it would be another busy day. It was Julie’s birthday and a joint party was being held for her and her daughter in the evening. But I had nothing to wear , sure I’ve got dresses and shoes but absolutely nothing that I could wear on Saturday night. So, while I’m in the hairdressers, having had the magic worked on my head and during the next most important part the manicure, the idea was put in my head that I needed to buy a maxi dress and then I could wear flat shoes!

So suitably attired we all set off down to Colchester for a night out – the boys and FDIL came along as well! And what a party – great mix of music, the guests were of all ages and I have to say that I haven’t seen Julie looking so happy for ages!

Sadly no photos are suitable to publish exist of me from the evening but here are the birthday girls in full ‘row’ to ‘Ooops upside your head’ and no I didn’t join in as I would never have got up again!!

After a very late night for us we had a lazy morning yesterday, Son2 came for Sunday lunch and we settled into the garden for the afternoon – and then FDIL phoned and asked if we’d eaten. They had bought a turkey and when she went to put it in the oven it had gone off! Fortunately I had a lot of meat left over  so was able to feed them when Son1 finished work – they bought their own vegetables!!

And today, after a quick trip to Sainsbury’s I decided to have a lazy day, apart from making a cushion after Son2 asked yesterday if there were any cushions for the garden. I’ve been very lazy with this and just sewn some strips from a jelly roll together – my excuse is that I wanted to keep it simple!!

So that’s my weekend – just as well we only have to work three says this week – I’m exhausted!!

Forgive me for…

…it has been two weeks since my last post, but on the other hand I did do three in the space of two days – am I forgiven?

So what’s been happening? The trouble is when I go so long between posts I forget what I’ve been doing and what’s been going on. Work is still work – more of the same really so I won’t bore you with that, other than to say it’s been punctuated with cake wars! For the last three Monday’s I’ve taken cake in, I don’t know how long I can continue with it though! Here’s last week’s effort which I must say after 30 plus years of baking was probably my best ever Victoria sandwich cake – even though I may have over filled it somewhat!

In other news…I’ve carried on with the quilt, I quilted it last weekend but am not over happy with the result – I may ‘frog’ it (just the quilting) and start again, but then again I may not!

Today I’ve been to the Quilt Fair at Chilford Hall in Cambridgeshire, which is the next county to the west of Suffolk. Originally I was going with the friend that I call Julie (I know that’s getting a bit old hat now, but she really does like it when I refer to her as that!!) but unfortunately she had a lame excuse that her brother was fitting a new bathroom for her and she needed to be at home in case he needed her to hoist the bath into position for him . When John sensed my bitter disappointment, he gamely volunteered to come with me – ah bless him. At his instruction I now have to say what a wonderfully loving husband he is and thank him for giving up the opportunity to spend a day geo-caching. I half expected that he would have his stuff in the car and say ‘oh look, I’ve just remembered the GPS is in the boot’ but he didn’t – although he had looked up the area for caches and told me there were five nearby!!

So, now I whetted your appetite, do you want to know what I bought? Do you? Well that’s a shame because I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until tomorrow – I need to take photos and it’s too late now!

Watch this space!

Catch up!

Before I get started, if you read me in a reader and only see a few lines, I learnt this great tip the other day! In Google reader, go to ‘Settings’ (over in the top right had corner) and choose ‘Reader Settings’, then take the tab that says ‘Goodies’ and scroll down to ‘Put reader in bookmark’, drag the ‘Next’ button (right click and drag) up to the lower tool bar and you’ll see the Google logo with the word ‘Next’ – and you can read the posts from their original location and in their entirety without having to open a new window – simples!

Well, my last post certainly brought me a lot of visitors from worldwide locations! It seems I must have been the top Google response to ‘Paul Evolved Management’ searches – sadly it appears that ‘Paul’, whoever he may be, will not be buying any of our super duper blogs!

While on the subject of money, I was ‘lucky’ enough to receive an email from a poor man called ‘Blessing’ this week, begging me to help him get his late parents’ monies out of his country – sadly I did not feel charitable enough to help him out (please don’t judge me!)

In other news, errr… other news, ummm – let me think…Oh yes, last Saturday Janet & I finally had our day out in Framlingham. The weather was a bit grotty but we enjoyed a good natter and a mooch around the various shops, including the ‘Pretty Birdcage’ which I don’t believe has a web site – yet! It’s my kind of shop selling both yarn & fabric – heaven! I didn’t buy anything though – I’m feeling very virtuous – I must use some of my stash first as I’m spreading, sadly I don’t have a dedicated room for all of this stuff, poor John can’t raise his eyebrows any higher!

During the week we had dinner at Julie’s before going of to see my lovely goddaughter in her last ever school production – I can’t believe she’ll be 18 in a couple of months!

On the sewing front, I’m whizzing through my ‘simplified log cabin’ with just two more rows to piece, sadly I won’t get any done this weekend, what with football yesterday and Linda & John visiting today. I’m being a domestic goddess today, having already made blueberry muffins and having a bread & butter pudding soaking in the fridge – oh and I made a banana gingerbread loaf yesterday as well, get me – first time I’ve baked in an age!

Football wise things are looking up! We are now undefeated in seven games – haven’t won them all but we haven’t lost any, surprising what a change of manager brings!

I’d better go now  - can’t entertain my guests in my PJ’s however comfy they may be!!

Allsorts!

No not the liquorice type but a mish mash of stuff that’s gone on over the past couple of weeks!

Last time I posted I mentioned that the friend that I call Julie and her friend Steph were coming to visit and I was going to help them create a blog, right now I should give you a beautifully crafted hyper link to take you to it. But I can’t. When it came to getting started neither of them could remember the password they use to access their joint email account! No matter how many times they tried, they just couldn’t remember it so we abandoned the idea of creating a blog and instead spent the afternoon chatting about crafty things and them sharing hints and tips with me – they’ve been at this creative lark an awful lot longer than I have!

What else has happened? Probably not much worth sharing, I have to say I will not be sorry to see the back of January. It’s been a terrible month at work which, no matter how hard I try, plays a very large part in my life and in my thoughts. I’d like to think that February will be better – I’m not holding my breath though.

Oh yes, I started a new quilt project – it took me all last Sunday to cut the pieces, 210 of them. I’m using a pattern that I found on line and is called ‘Simplified Log Cabin’ with the skill level of beginner. Huh – let me tell you that he person who created this must be having a laugh! I laid out all of the pieces in order on the front room floor – unfortunately I don’t have a dedicated sewing room so I’m restricted in that I can’t leave things laid out. So anyway, there I was (OK there was John – my knees don’t do crawling around on the floor these days) laying out the pieces in a beautiful pattern, my mind knows that I need to take a photo to make sure I piece it together properly, and suddenly I find myself collecting the pieces for each square to pin them together – 42 blocks in all – after I’d pinned three rows together I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t taken the photo - doh! I nearly cried – I was so cross with myself but also very tired from all that concentrated effort! After a ‘light bulb’ moment on Monday I thought I know – I’ll lay the pieces out on the spare bed! So with John’s help, they were beautifully laid across the bed – where they will stay until the final square is pieced.

I’ve started piecing today – the first 5 pieces to make the first block were stitched and unpicked about 5 times but I persevered and after about 4 hours I had my first block completed – the next 3 took a lot less time! I have to wonder if the designer of this pattern actually asked anybody to test her instructions before she published, if this had ben my first project it would be in the bin by now!

What else? Oh yes – went to the cinema yesterday and saw ‘The King’s Speech’. I’m no film buff but strongly recommend that everybody should see it – no matter what nationality you are. *Warning* there is a little bit of strong language but not in a gratuitous way. The film tells of King George V’s endeavours to cure his stammer and also shows the love story of him and Elizabeth, Queen Mother and is worth a couple of hours of anybody’s time.

So that’s about it really – nothing much of any great excitement happening, Ipswich knocked out of the cup after putting up a valiant effort in both legs, the boys are both busy with their lives and John and I are settling into being just the two of us – not as bad as we thought it would be!

Thanks for stopping by!

Just another week gone by

Here we are again, Saturday morning time for a round up of my oh-so riveting week – not! To ring the changes this morning I am writing this post from the comfort of my bed! Outside I can hear the wind blowing around the house but I still have the curtains closed so can pretend it’s still night! Oh – and John has already been out for about an hour – something about a ‘first to find’ geo cache thingy! (Just heard him come back in ‘cos his batteries have gone – hehe)

I spent Sunday finishing the quilt that I’ve mentioned in the past couple of posts – I’m going to blow my own  trumpet here and say it’s very definitely my best effort yet! It’s the first time I’ve followed a pattern and I am so pleased with the results – even my mitred corners are good – not perfect just good! So here it is -

All of the coloured sections came from either a bag of scraps that I bought or from leftovers from previous efforts – the white has a tiny self patterned dotty print on it. The beautiful blue on the right hand side is lovely – it has a metallic sheen to it.

I found the pattern here as a freebie and have followed it (almost) faithfully, except for the binding – I used strips of most of the coloured fabrics instead – and the quilting – I ‘stitched in the ditch’ and kept it simple. My next goal is to practice free hand quilting on some scraps!

The rest of the week just sort of went really, Ipswich played Arsenal in the League Cup during the week. I didn’t feel brilliant when I got home from work and really couldn’t face a damp evening watching Ipswich lose again so I gave my ticket away. And of course the inevitable happened and we won 1-0 against the mighty Arsenal!! Having said that, we did lose 7-0 last Sunday to Chelsea! I wasn’t worried about the score against Arsenal because they were my first love anyway – a win-win there!

Today I’m expecting the friend that I call Julie and her friend that she calls Steph. Together they are JuSt Two here on Etsy and I’m going to help them create a blog – should be fun as it’s been an age since I did anything other than post on my own blog!

Ok – battery is almost gone so I’ll wish you farewell for another week – thanks for reading!

I think it’s fair to say…

… I’ve had better weeks! I won’t go into detail but work has been crazy this week. Some very harsh decisions being made, the impact of which will show over the coming months. Moods have been low, tempers frayed and tolerances tested to their very limits. Please keep your fingers crossed for us all for a better week!

Christmas is well and truly over now. We had a lovely day on Sunday with the Linda & John, the friend that I call Julie ( ) and Sue who we don’t see nearly enough of. Son 2 came with us and was proud to announce that he was having his first vegetables for a week! Repeat to my self ‘I will not worry about him’. Before we moved to Ipswich, Linda & John and Julie were our neighbours and people often commented that our road was like Ramsey Street in the Australian soap ‘Neighbours’. We were all very close, our children were close in age and we leant a lot from each other as we went through the phases of our children’s lives.

I decided on Monday that I was having a stay at home day. John and I took down the Christmas decorations – the house is always so bare afterwards – and had a general tidy up. I thought I would be artistic and arrange some of my Christmas presents in my newly acquired spare bedroom which we have now set up with new furniture ready for anybody who wants to spend a night or two. I’ve displayed my beautiful quilting and crochet books for my guests to browse, should they be interested! I also had a couple of wicker baskets which I’ve used to hold some of my fabric stash – I’m starting to become one of those women who have to buy it when they see it and am building up quite a collection (with more on the way!!)

Although Ipswich were playing at home on Monday, I decided to let father and son have some male bonding so gave Son 2 my ticket – I’m so glad I did as we lost yet again. Our manager was finally relieved of his duties on Friday this week – I hope its not too late for this season to turn around. Today we play the mighty Chelsea in the FA Cup – I don’t think anybody is expecting us to win but you never know in the cup!

Yesterday we drove to my cousin in Stevenage which is a round trip of about 180 miles – seems mad I know but it was to be the first time that I’ve met up with my extended family for almost a year. We decided to set off early enough to have a meal on the way, debating which route we would take and of course we opted for the wrong one. We went via the A120 across country and decided that, instead of taking that road for the whole journey, we’d take the M11 to the M25. As soon as we hit the M11 the warning signs started flashing that the M25 was closed at the junction we would be exiting from! Our only option was to head of at Harlow – with the rest of the traffic! The poor sat nav woman was almost in emotional meltdown ‘turn around where possible’ was all she could say until we managed to convince her that we had some sort of idea of where we needed to go! In desperation we pulled off of the road and had a lovely carvery lunch in a pub in Harlow – served by real Essex girls! (sorry Essex girls but they were stereo typical!)

We made it to my cousin’s in good time, even finding an opportunity for John to find a geo-cache in an ASDA car park!! The reason for our visit was to celebrate her daughter’s first birthday and it was lovely to catch up with the rest of the family, although it’s a little strange now because most of our offspring are otherwise engaged and don’t make it to the gatherings which just leaves us oldies to reminisce with one another.

Well – that’s a lot about nothing in particular! Today I’m going to bind the edge of the quilt I made last weekend – otherwise I’ll become one of those who have numerous WIPs (works in progress!) and feel bad for not finishing. John has already been out this morning (at 7am) to find a cache and, as the weather forecast is good for today, he’s planning to set off again soon. I expect Son 2 will arrive at some stage with his laundry but until then I will be home alone – bliss!!

Another week, another parcel!!

Well another week has just whizzed by! Busy at work resulting in tired at home !

No big crafty reveals this week, I haven’t even touched the crochet since last Sunday evening, when I unpicked my previous attempt and started a ripple instead – bizarrely that wouldn’t work for me either – perhaps that’s why I haven’t picked it up since!

I’ve actually had a busy few days at home as well, thinking back. Son 1 and FDIL came for dinner on Thursday evening – this is going to sound really awful – and I cooked a real dinner! Even Son 2 comments that when they come round we eat properly! By a real dinner I mean a chicken casserole which isn’t really difficult and I don’t know why I don’t do stuff like that more often. I think most nights when I get in I just want to sit and veg out and tend to throw a meal together which just goes into the oven!

On Friday, the friend that I call Julie sent me a text early in the morning  to say that she and her daughter, my lovely goddaughter were coming to Ipswich shopping and would we be around, so they popped into see us – originally just for a cup of tea but when I said we were going to get fish & chips, lovely goddaughter’s eyes lit up so they stayed for dinner as well, I know how to treat my guests (more of that to follow)! Son 2 arrived home and declined my choice of culinary delight and, as he had a very late night, promptly fell asleep on the sofa still wearing his suit! He woke up to have some toast – his choice – change his clothes and went back to sleep! I shooed him off of the sofa about 8 o’clock and he went to bed – in his clothes – where he stayed until Saturday morning!

Saturday morning saw us drinking tea at 4 o’clock! We were both wide awake but still tired and I do find that a cup of tea helps to go back to sleep – which it did, the next thing I knew was the doorbell ringing at 7.30! I scrambled out of bed to find the postman with a parcel, which I had arranged to be redelivered – just didn’t expect it quite so early! I’ll tell you about the parcel a little later – just to keep you reading!!

I needed to go to Quilter’s Haven to get the backing and binding for the current project and John decided he’d come too – I told him I’d only be about an hour but still he wanted to come! Back home and off to town for lunch before football and I know you’ll all be pleased to hear that we won 2-0 which always makes me feel better, I get so heavy hearted when it’s not going well!

And then in the evening, more guests for dinner! This time Linda & John to discuss our upcoming holiday arrangements and today’s meal of choice – a Chinese takeaway!! Followed by indigestion at 3 o’clock (which would have been 4 o’clock yesterday) more tea and back to sleep until about 7.30 which in reality isn’t too bad!

Best part of the day so far has to be Son 2 getting up for work without putting his clock back! We waited until he’d got in the shower to tell him, bad parents that we are!!

Anyway, back to the postman. He bought this month’s secret blog swap which this month was sent by Miss Cherry Red with many apologies as she had been let down in her original purchase and was consequently late in sending, without further ado here is the content of the parcel – I think you’ll agree well worth waiting for!

 

A lovely sewing box which, when opened, revealed

 

Not only all this lovely yarn but also…

 

A really cute little kit to make bags!

And that’s about it for now – we’re off on holiday on Friday, leaving Son 2 in charge of himself and the house, I don’t care what he gets up to while I’m away – as long as it’s clean and tidy when I get home!

Getting better!

After posting last week about my quilting attempts, I persuaded John to come with me to Quilters Haven with a promise that I would do a couple of geo caches with him (he’s easily bribed!). The shop is in a small village, Wickham Market, just a little way from home – in fact so much closer than I thought it was that I’m wondering why I’ve never been there before! Anyhow, it turns out that there was to be a ‘Quilt Walk’ yesterday which pleased me as it would give me a chance to see other people’s efforts. We pulled into the village and soon saw a derelict piece of land surrounded by ugly wire fencing which had some of the most gorgeous quilts pegged to it – I thought that was a really novel idea!There was an elderly lady looking after the quilts and I confessed to being a true novice and in turn she confessed to not being a quilter at all – had tried it a few years ago but couldn’t take to it!
We wandered around the different locations that housed the various quilts and stood looking in awe at the handiwork involved. However, I am pleased to say that nearly every quilt had something that wasn’t quite right about it – a wonky seam, a triangle that had lost a tip, fabric not quite cut on the square – that made me feel sooo much better about my early efforts!
As a fundraiser for village facilities there was a competition which led you to almost every shop in the village to look for the quilts that were inside and answer very simple questions about each one, this was a very good idea and everybody in the village seemed pleased to be taking part.
By the time we actually got into the shop, John was so fired up with the belief that he could quilt we ended up spending a flipping fortune! I needed a longer ruler as I found out to my cost last week, however I also ‘needed’ all the fabric pictured below! I am please to say that I now have a fabric stash to add to my yarn stash! As the friend that I call Julie said, a girl’s got to have a stash!

The fabric in the blue banding was ‘free’ because we spent so much! It matched some in a bag of scraps that I bought as well which is a bonus!

The owner of the shop has written several books and took the time to show John and I how to make her famous ‘pineapple’ and here is our first attempt! John and I have just spent the afternoon making this square – he cut and measured and I sewed, he can’t quite bring himself to use the machine yet! It got better as we went on – the middle looks very wonky but that’s what makes it unique – by the time we’ve made, I don’t know, another 20 they should all look pretty good!

This was actually a very easy square to make – as I have discovered all quilts have a name this one will of course be called ‘Come on you blues’!!

I’ll leave you with a few of the quilts on display (they were even in the church which was a great place to show them off) I didn’t take many photos in the end because I was too overwhelmed by the quilts!

 

Oh nearly forgot – John found two geo caches as well!!!

MALE V FEMALE AT THE CASH MACHINE

This post is bought to you courtesy of the friend that I call Julie…. 

A new sign in the Bank  reads:
'Please note that this Bank is installing new Drive-through cash machines enabling customers to withdraw cash without leaving their vehicles. 
Customers using this new facility are requested to use the procedures outlined below when accessing their accounts. 
After months of careful research, MALE & FEMALE Procedures have been developed. Please follow the Appropriate steps for your gender.'
*******************************
MALE PROCEDURE:
1. Drive up to the cash machine.
2. LOWER your car window.
3. Insert card into machine and enter PIN.
4. Enter amount of cash required and withdraw. 
5. Retrieve card, cash and receipt.
6. Raise window. 
7. Drive off. 
************************* ******
FEMALE PROCEDURE:
(Unfortunately, most of this  is the Truth!!)
1. Drive up to cash machine.
2. Reverse and back up the required amount to align car window with the machine. 
3. Put hand brake on, put the window down. 
4. Find handbag, remove all contents on to passenger seat to locate card. 
5. Tell person on mobile phone you will call them back and hang up. 
6. Attempt to insert card into machine.
7. Open car door to allow easier access to machine due to its excessive distance from the car.
8. Insert card.
9. Re-insert card the right way.
10. Dig through handbag to find diary with your PIN written on the inside back page.
11. Enter PIN .
12. Press cancel and re-enter correct PIN. 
13. Enter amount of cash required.
14. Check makeup in rear view mirror.
15. Retrieve cash and receipt. 
16. Empty handbag again to locate purse and place cash inside.
17. Write debit amount in cheque book and place receipt in back of it. 
18. Re-check makeup.
19. Drive forward 2 feet.
20. Reverse back to cash machine.
21. Retrieve card. 
22. Re-empty hand bag, locate card holder, and place card into the slot provided! 
23. Give dirty look to irate male driver waiting behind you. 
24. Restart stalled engine and pull off.
25. Redial person on mobile phone. 
26. Drive for 2 to 3 miles.
27. Release Hand Brake. 

W is for …

…Woodbridge, a small town not far from home which has a more villagey feel to it. This is short and sweet as I’m setting a series of posts to auto post while I’m away (I think I’ll be somewhere in South Dakota as you’re reading this).

A couple of weeks before we left for our holiday the friend that I call Julie joined us for a trip to Woodbridge and a stroll around the town and a mooch amongst the shops. We chose a weekend where quite a lot was happening and I snapped these people performing a Morris Dance, take a look at the link for a real explanation – I know there are several dances and that they all have meanings but I’m afraid I can’t explain it to you.

John took a photo of Julie and I because, as she rightly pointed out, we hadn’t had a photo together since the children were small which is a considerable time ago!

Check out the other W posts at Jenny’s blog!

:::::Thanks for reading, I’m sorry I can’t return the visit this week:::::