Ta Dah...

...and welcome to post number 200! I couldn’t believe when I scrolled down the posts the posts this morning that I’d reached 199, when I looked further I found that I’d posted 50 of those in the first month which was only May of this year.

As the boys were both off doing their own thing today I thought I’d treat John to Sunday lunch. Wanting to go somewhere different I decided to ask my friends on Twitter for their suggestions and @farctum came up with The Brewery Tap which, as it is a mere 10 minutes from home in the car, seemed like a good idea.

A small-ish pub, with several nooks and crannies and not very busy when we first arrived, the menu was slightly different to that advertised on the website and we both ordered the roast lamb dinner – it was absolutely delicious. Plenty of meat served on a bed of mashed swede and cauliflower cheese. The other vegetables served were carrots, kale, broccoli, roast parsnips and roast potatoes along with freshly made gravy and a small pot of mint sauce. John followed his with hot chocolate pudding with clotted cream and I went for the poached pear with homemade ginger ice cream.

All of this in a very pleasant atmosphere, subtle music playing in the background, (almost) roaring open fires and, sadly, a fairly grotty view across the river with all the building work helped to brighten up a horrible day weather-wise here in the East. The two young ladies behind the bar were lovely very efficient and gave us first class service – as we left they told us to come back soon, we certainly will!

It was as delicious as it looks - yummmmm!

The Tell Me About Yourself Meme

(Just a reminder Advent starts today if memory serves me well)

...aren't they all? (Telling you about myself, that is) that rebel over at Just Jotting Along has decided to create her own meme this week, take a look and have a go. Not too many questions and more interesting than a lot of what we've had lately!

I've done both (scroll down to see my answers) so here goes this week's Sunday Stealing a lot of which I'm sure I've answered in some form or another already and some of which I've answered this week with tongue planted firmly in cheek!!J

1. When is your birthday? Very soon – a milestone one this year.

2. Where were you born? In a hospital bed.

3. Where do you live now? What is this – shall I just give you all my bank details as well?? LOL – I've told you that before haven't I? OK – Suffolk UK, check my profile ;)

4. What is your heritage? Very much British – probably a combination of all the home nations.

5. Tell us about a weakness. Memes

6. What's a goal that you'd like to achieve? Oh I hate these types of question – health and happiness for all of us and world peace!

7. What is the most overused internet phrase? LOL? OMG? Woop-Woop? I don't know – there's so many!

8. What was your first thought this morning? Ouch – my back still hurts!

9. When do you usually go to bed? At night!

10. Do you smoke? If not, did you ever? No and yes but stopped when I was about 18.

11. Do you like your current relationship status? Of course.

12. Do you (or did you) get along with your parents? Too complicated to answer, not a usual relationship with either of them.

13. How often do you drink alcohol? Not very but I can be a devil sometimes and have several drinks over the course of an evening!

14. Have you ever tried drugs (that weren't prescribed)? I've told you before – No!

15. Have you ever gone skinny dipping? If yes, do tell. Errr no – and I've told you that before as well!

16. If given the choice, how would you like to die? Without pain, as peacefully as possible (what a strange question!)

17. What did you want to be when you grew up? Lots of things but I think somewhere in the memories I wanted to be a hospital administrator...

18. Have you ever been dumped? Oh yes – and my heart was well and truly broken at the time, let me tell you but time heals and we're still friends now ;)

19. What's on your pizza? Ham & Pineapple preferably please!

20. Have you ever shoplifted? I thought you knew me better than to ask that question! I'll tell you a secret though, just between the two of us, when son 2 was about three years old he picked up a sweet in our local post office and put it straight into his mouth. I didn't know until we got outside, poor boy was mortified as he heard the police siren and I told him that it was for him for stealing the sweet! Was I a bad mother for that?????

Those Darn Loose Ends - Solved

Me and my simple brain - I don't know why I didn't remember before @jaydubblah reminded me that I could weave the ends in as I started the next colour :(

So thanks for the thousands (I jest) of offers for help but I have had to withdraw the above job offer!

Foster’s Folly

My dear friend over at Just Jotting Along took one look at this week's Sunday Stealing and decided that it wasn't for her so she's come up with her own meme, I must say I think she's done a good job – just the right number of questions, quality over quantity! Has she started something she might regret – what's coming next week??

1. Tell me about something you still own from your childhood, or something you remember and wish you still had.

I still have a wooden jewellery box which is decorated with sea shells collected on Clacton beach. I lived near London at the time so a trip to the seaside was an adventure.

2. Name one piece of music that means something to you and why.

Not so much a piece of music but I have to choose 'You are the sunshine of my life' by Stevie Wonder, it was the first dance at my wedding, ahhh.

3. Do you ever read a book a second time? What book/s

I'm thinking about this one, there was one I remember reading twice but I can't remember without Googling (just pops off to Google) oh yes – I remember now it was Harnessing Peacocks by Mary Wesley. I generally only read a book once because I know what happens at the end!!

4. If you could pass a law what would it be?

I'd like for normal individuals to be able to report and influence the outcome for idiots who drive while talking on their mobile phones – there's never a policeman around when you want one!

5. What did you have for dinner?

Lazy dinner tonight – Pizza and oven chips, I don't do much on a Saturday (those that know might say I don't do much any night!)

6. Do you have a recurring dream? What is it and what does it tell you about yourself?

Do you know, I really don't remember many of my dreams so I can't answer that one!

7. What's the first record you ever bought?

Sad Old Kind of Movie by Picketywitch!! And I didn't have to think to remember that one!

8. Town or Country?

I've lived in a town for most of my life apart from when I first married and I lived in a small village in the middle of nowhere. I think I like where I am now which is on the edge of a town, convenient for the coast and country – sorry, I know that's not a clear cut answer!

Those Darn Loose Ends

I have just spent I don't know how long sewing in the ends of yarn to some of my squares that I have been crocheting - when I say some I mean that I managed the grand total of ...FIVE. I'm bored with that game now...on with the making of more squares now, that's much more satisfying!

Had a good week I have

(Apologies this is quite a long post but a lot has happened – I should have written during the week but didn't feel up to it!)

OK, OK all you grammar experts out there I know the post title isn't grammatically correct but it came into my mind from somewhere (don't even bother asking from where because I haven't got a clue!)

Don't worry I'm not planning to bore you to death with a one sided conversation but I'd like to share bits of the week with you if you have time to read.

I started by being a domestic goddess on Sunday and making my Christmas cakes – I made two just in case son 1 and FDIL need one for themselves this year. I used a different recipe and thought I'd be very clever by doubling up the ingredients to make both cakes at the same time – good time management skills there I think you'd agree! I divided the mix between the two tins which looked OK before they were cooked but I was a little disappointed in that they were both quite shallow when they came out of the oven – never mind I'm sure they will taste delicious. I don't do the whole fancy, shmancy icing thing – thank heavens for ready tolled marzipan (almond paste) and fondant icing! Last year we found a lovely fine sprinkly sugar with a rainbow effect which makes a plain cake look a little different. I'll show you the end results!

Monday was my day off which I spent with son 1 and should perhaps be referred to as 'The day that I spent a lot of money'. I offered to buy them furniture so we trundled off to that famous UK store when you don't pay a deposit, pay nothing for a year and then pay the balance over four years. I couldn't believe it when the salesman asked if I wanted to pay a deposit and the balance on delivery – I gave him one of my looks, you know – over the top of my glasses (the fact that I can't see a thing when I do that is neither here nor there!) I resisted telling him not to be stupid and went for the best credit option – who wouldn't? We chose a lovely suite – 2 seater sofas, one as a sofa bed and one normal and a foot stool with a little storage box. All in a lovely shade of mink with a cream trim – close your eyes and imagine it! We then went on to buy towels –FDIL had decreed that she wanted a 'bluey green but not too green' so from the rainbow of colours available to us we opted for a lovely shade which was appropriately named 'Lagoon' ( I should say here, for those of you that don't know, FDIL is currently away from home Monday – Friday on her training placement for her degree, hence son 1 doing all the shopping).

Tuesday did not start well. I stupidly took my cereal out of the cupboard (at eye level, no stretching or bending) in a slightly different way than usual and 'ping' my back went – such a simple mis-movement has left me in agony all week and hobbling round like an old granny (apologies to those grannies out there who are quite sprightly), I am pleased though to have provided so much entertainment to my staff and colleagues over this last week!

I work in a very target and performance driven environment and as such this is used to measure our Unit's performance month on month. We had a system introduced earlier in the year which provides a monthly 'scorecard' with a score of 1-5. The overall score for each subsection is an aggregated score of further subsections and the final overall score is aggregated from each subsection – are you still with me? Until this month we had been bobbing along happily with a score of three, not quite reaching that elusive four (five is something we can only dream of) we were really optimistic of achieving four this month and were very disappointed to find that a freak lower score elsewhere left us on a three. We toodled along to the monthly performance meeting on Thursday, resigned but disappointed with our score and discussed it with the man who can make changes (oh to be so powerful) – and, you've probably guessed it, he changed the lower score which automatically changed the overall score to a four. I am so pleased for everybody who has worked so hard to get us there – we are the only Unit out of seven to have achieved this heady height and I think we have every right to hold our heads high. Obviously we need to keep up the good work – hey, no pressure!

The week was rounded off on Friday with a phone call from son 2 mid afternoon. I always worry when he calls on my mobile – usually means he needs money! However when I spoke to him I could feel the excitement in his voice. "I think I've just been promoted" he said "well anyway I've got a pay rise" He went on to say that the regional manager had called him in to his office for an impromptu meeting and told him how well he was doing (you may recall he started a new job in July training to be an Estate Agent which caused me a little worry) he said that his name was being mentioned in 'high places' and that the company was very impressed with his record so far. And as a result of that they want him to change his job slightly and instead of working out of the Ipswich office he is to work across three offices, Woodbridge, Kesgrave and Ipswich, spreading his time across all three – focusing on sales rather than just the junior work he has been doing. I.Am.One.Proud.Mum. He came home last night grinning from ear to ear – his face hurting from grinning so much, well done son!

Not much more to go, honestly, but I need to mention that I went out with the girls from work last night. We met in a wine bar and progressed to an Indian restaurant, now I'm not one for spicy Indian food but I love the creamy dishes. I can't remember what I had but it wasn't a Korma although it was similar and very tasty. We are quite an eclectic group when we go out – people seeing us out wouldn't expect us to be together but it works. We range in age from Karyn in her mid-thirties (there's your mention Scotty!!) to Judy who recently retired, we talk about a huge range of things and as none of us actually work together anymore there is inevitably the need to catch up on the gossip about work. Sitting in the middle of a long table meant that I was switching back and forth between conversations – and catching some interesting snippets from them all! Unusually for me I didn't get home until gone 11 o'clock (!) and I was dropped off by the lovely Sue hoping that somebody was still up because I'd changed bags and didn't have a key! Luckily Son 2 was up and eventually heard me knocking on the door.

That's it – I'm done. I've had a fab week this week apart from the stupid back problem which is still niggling – bring on the next one!

Thanks for reading if you got this far!

Heather xx

Just part of my obsession...

...with who's visiting! Whenever I have a comment left by a new visitor, I think it's only polite to track back and find out who the visitor is and where they've come from. On Monday I had a message left by Jess who I tracked back to this amazing site based here in Suffolk, I just had to have a good rummage around and find something to buy.

It's an easy site to navigate and full of many tempting delicious sounding toiletries. I chose bits and bobs to make up the girls Christmas presents plus a couple of bits for myself – well I have to try them don't I? When I had filled my basket, I headed off to choose a delivery day and, as it said allow 14 days for delivery, I opted for Saturday next week.

I was absolutely amazed when I got home yesterday to find an email saying that my order would be delivered today (Wednesday) – how's that for service? Number 1 son was home this morning when it was delivered (in person I believe) and I must say I am very impressed with what I have. A lovely slice of Satsuma Burst soap, Walnut & Honey Scrubber herbal soap, Tomato and Red Pepper foot mask, Candy Floss shower gel (complete with pink sparkly bits), Orange Flower Jelly & 10 Essential Oils hand cream – first impressions are very good. The smell is gorgeous and a little dab of the hand cream revealed a very rich mixture which smelt scrummy and went into my skin very easily.

I'm glad Jess dropped by on Monday – could be the beginnings of a beautiful friendship....Oh and you can follow them on Twitter - @TheSoapCauldron!