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Back blogging again!

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 | Author: Julia

Well, I cant believe it’s two months since I last blogged. I guess it’s a combination of being ultra busy at home and ditto at Company X.  So, after such a long time away dear readers, I guess it’s time for a long catch-up post.

Life has been very kind to me the last couple of months. While the days have been long, I’ve been experiencing a new sense of contentment. Not that I was unhappy before – more that I’ve gained a better purchase on what is important in life. Now that all sounds rather spiritual and self-effacing I know but I’ve developed a new and intense curiosity in the world around me – almost like being a child again! The world, which before seemed like just some place where I lived and enjoyed life, now feels like something really special. By the way I’m excluding the chav who put a note on my car two weeks ago telling me to ‘ f**k off and park somewhere else’ likewise the woman in Sainsburys tonight who produced a sovereign-ringed paw full of 5p off vouchers and held up the queue for quarter of an hour – you two are excluded. No, the things I’m thinking of are the way the world is so ordered.

For example, at Company X to-day, I was lucky enough to be taken out at lunch by Mr.M to visit his apiary. Now that for you non-bee types is where a bee-type person keeps his bee hives. It was absolutely fascinating seeing the way in which these creatures order themselves and create a whole community with roles and responsibilities. Mr M showed me how you smoke ‘em out and get into the hive to look over the individual panels which sit in the house. The Queen bees are amazing – just one per hive and they seem to rule the roost. It was totally wierd standing in the bee keeper’s garb with little buzzers buzzing round your head and body. They are curious creatures and not as scary as I had at first thought. Thank you Mr M for a memorable lunch-time. In fact I am so interested I’m thinking of getting a hive in the garden prior to Mr.P’s arrival back home at the week end. He would be thrilled. He loves winged beasts.

So what else has been occurring? Well we’ve had some great times with the lovely Junior. He has brought so much love and happiness into our lives and continues to thrill with his wonderful smiles and chubbly legs. It’s clear he doesn’t suffer fools and knows his rights – I’ve never seen a babe so determined and happy to dish out dirty looks when you cough or sneeze. Well Junior – you are a tribute to your own Auntie’s intolerances!

In terms of reading, I’ve had my nose in books for most of the past two months. The most recent read was Hilary Mantel’s ‘Beyond Black’. A satirical look at the world of mediumship, this book could have been so good but after the first 100 pages I lost the will and continued to the end only because I have a policy in life never to give up on a book. I found it over-written, over-long and lacking a real plot I could get a handle on. By the time I got to the last fifty pages I was counting down the paragraphs to the end. Not a patch on Wolf Hall, one of the most amazing books I’ve ever read.

One of the real triumphs of the last few weeks has been getting out and doing some walking along the South Coast path. The weather has been perfect for hiking and the sea and cliffs looks wonderful in the sun. Sitting over-looking Lulworth Cove, eating a crab sandwich and listening to the gulls whooping and screaming, I felt totally peaceful. Except ten minutes later I found there was no bus service on Sundays back to Wool station and had to get ‘Jean’ in the gift shop to call me a cab.

So, dear readers, I apologise for my blogging absence and promise to do better in the future! It’s time now to check my e-bay bids, get grouted up and go out. So long for now  – and will be back blogging later. Promise.

Category: Baby Hughes, Books, Family, Friends, My Life  | One Comment

Curry, Karaoke and Chaos!

Friday, April 09th, 2010 | Author: Julia

Last night thirty keen curry and karaoke types from Company X descended on that top Indian establishment The Jewel in the Crown. And having heard the dulcet tones of many of the vocalists and experienced top hospitality from Kash’s boys, I can speak with confidence when I say that the staff were the jewels and we merry-making music types – the crown.  And as for Howling Karaoke - they were the best !! The most comprehensive range of songs I’ve ever seen in a karaoke set-up. So, if you like a bit of a howl and a great night out – book ‘em Danno – they’re excellent!

Starting at 6pm and not finishing until after eleven thirty, this was a night to be remembered with appearances made by Elton John, Lionel Ritchie, Neil Diamond, Abba, Tammy Wynette, The Black Eyed Peas and of course Elvis – a star-studded night indeed. And everyone joined in which was fantastic – and as we all said: the combination of curry and karaoke is always a winner!

So, as we let our voices recover, hangovers to subside and dignity to be regained, we look forward to the next opportunity to howl with the Howling Karaoke team! And as for Kazim and the Jewel boys? They were absolutely fantastic and made our evening so special. An enormous thank you to them for all of their efforts and hospitality! They are the best in town!!!

Category: Friends, My Life  | Leave a Comment

Sun at last!

Thursday, April 08th, 2010 | Author: Julia

Hurray for a sunny day! After all this cloud, rain and wind it’s wonderful to look out of the office and see sun and blue skies. Just a shame I’m on the wrong side of the glass! What this does mean is that with the prospect of a sunny week end, Saturday will be a day out and not a day in doing cleaning and DIY. My hot suggie is a train to Weymouth with a walk on the coastal path to Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove. Lunch at aforementioned DD and then a walk back along the cliffs.  

Life just now is very domesticated. Ian has finished decorating the front spare bedroom and now cleared the landing of all DIY accroutrements. So now it’s time for the interesting part – choosing curtains and carpet and furniture. The plan is also to lay a wooden floor in the hallway as polishing the existing boards will not be possibe due to warping and damage so we’ll buy a nice oak flooring to lay. We’re thinking a dark red carpet to go up the stairs and across the landing with the addition of brass stair rods if funds permit…

So what of the writing? Well, in effect I’ve had a three month break having been back at work for three months but now feel ready to start the editing process of the book. The break in writing has been refreshing after 12 months slog where I got to a point where my creative brain would just seize up and I felt exhausted. But 12 weeks of using the other half of my brain has left me hungry to get started again so that I have a fully edited novel ready to take to the Winchester conference in July ( thanks to Kerry and Kay for nagging me on this! )

But there is no room for culture tonight – for this evening we have a curry and karaoke night at the Jewel in the Crown - the very best Indian restuarant on the South Coast. Yes! Thirty people from Company X will be descending on the Jewel for a night of spice and song. So, watch out Shirley – here we come!

Category: Friends, House and Garden, My Life, Writing  | 2 Comments

The last couple of weeks…

Friday, September 25th, 2009 | Author: Julia

I realised this morning that I hadn’t blogged for nearly two weeks which is quite unheard of in Blog Land so now feel the need to get writing to my cyber readers. Please therefore forgive this rather long and random post!

Well I see that my last post concerned reading so I shall continue in the same vein having just finished Dan Brown’s latest epic ‘The Lost Symbol.’ As ever, this was a heady mix of short, tightly written chapters packed with cliff hangers, unanswered questions and his trademark twists and turns. I thoroughly enjoyed it despite the bad grammar, spelling mistakes and obviously rushed proof reading. However, without giving too much away, I felt he could have ended the book sooner, ditching the last fifty pages which became far-fetched and pedestrian. Having said that – well worth the read and no doubt we will be seeing another appalling adaptation at the cinema in the near future.

Last week end saw us visiting Laura and her family in Twickenham and in the words of Mr P – ‘ that was one of the best week-ends I’ve had this year!’ On the Saturday Laura, Julia and I drove into Kensington to have coffee and cake and visit Linley Sanbourne House which was wonderful. A beautifully preserved late-Victorian town house which reminded me of an old fashioned doll’s house in life size scale. While we walked around this intriguing time capsule, the boys played golf re-joining us for Laura’s roast pork! On the Sunday I watched Julia having a horse riding lesson in Richmond Park with the afternoon set aside for a walk along the river and a trip to York House in Richmond which had been opened to the public as part of the annual London ‘Open House Week-End.’ This week-end in September allows the public to access buildings in London which are usually closed to the public. A couple of years ago I dragged Ian up to Woolwich to visit Crossness Pumping Station which had been opened as part of said event. Absolutely amazing. I still long to visit one of the disused Tube Stations for which there is an inordinate waiting list!

Wednesday saw me joining a Company Y team event which I won’t write about as my policy is never to write about work on this blog. However I will say it was a good day and I was able to catch up with all the news in readiness for my return in the New Year.

And what of Baby Hughes you ask ? Well, had a good day with Mrs Q and Baby Hughes on Hayling Island. Both are doing well and it was nice to see that Mrs Q had shed some baby pounds and also some of those elasticated waist monstrosities. A lovely lunch – her speciality – two slices of dry bread with some ham and cheese slapped in the middle. No relish. No chutney. No taste. But let’s get real – Mrs Q’s priorities are understandably in a much more important place these days. Like texting me pictures of c-list celebs on reality shows with the caption ‘ Fat Slag.’ Well done Mrs Q – you are a credit to yourself as always.

The voluntary work continues and I still get a great deal of satisfaction out of this – I’m really hoping I can continue in some form after I return to work.

So what of the week end? Well, Mr P left this morning for a long week end in Leeds with his friends. And what a wife I was. Brought him breakfast in bed – ironed him a number of outfits to take with him – helped him pack – and then drove him and his friend to the station with a promise to pick them up on Sunday evening. Why was this you ask? Am I just a model wife ? Why no ! I intend to use this as ammunition in a future argument to demonstrate just how wonderful I am and how terrible Mr P is. Why else would I go to such lengths ? We women plan ahead…

Category: Baby Hughes, Books, Family, Friends, My Life, Volunteering  | Leave a Comment

A landmark day

Saturday, July 18th, 2009 | Author: Julia

Yes – to-day has been a landmark day. In the space of just ten minutes I a) reverse parked and b) drove at over 40 mph. For those of you that know me well you will understand just how special these achievements are.

Driving out to the New Forest this morning for an early morning walk I realised that part of the road to Lyndhurst was one of those nasty dual carriage ways and therefore required a faster speed than my normal maximum of 30mph. Yes dear readers at 7.15am with the road to myself I drove at 50mph! And it was as I approached this speed that I wondered if there was a special gear I should change up to. Was there such a thing as a fifth gear ? I was sure there was but where might it be located ? After some gear stick shuffling I managed to wedge the gear into a new, and hitherto unused, slot. Fifth gear had been found. And if that wasn’t enough for one day – arriving at the car park I decided to challenge both myself and the huddle of rancid looking horses around me, by attempting a reverse park. After some odd forward – reverse – forward – reverse type stuff, I managed to avoid the horses’ critical eyes and dangerous looking hooves and park up. Admittedly the car park was completely empty but I felt that I had achieved something rather special. Unlike my string of expletives aimed at the woman in the car behind me on the way back home who felt it necessary to take both hands off the wheel and hold them in the air as I tried to find out which lane to use for a roundabout. Come on lady – ease up – and get your hands back on the wheel. Anyway – I had a lovely walk and met several dog walkers, other lone ramblers and a man using a camera with a huge lens which he said was for bird watching. I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

In terms of writing, I’m expanding and perfecting a story for the Havant Literary Festival based on the piece I wrote at Rob Richardson’s OutWrite day now entitled Coming of Age. I’ve also polished up two other stories which I’ve sent to Fiction Feast magazine and completed some commercial work. No further work on the novel which is increasingly bugging me. The more I stress about it the worse it gets so I am going to put it on the back burner for a bit.

And on the social front – had a great night out with my colleagues from Company Y last night – grand curry at The Jewel in the Crown and a good catch up gossip-wise. Tomorrow brings the Larmer Tree Festival which we bought tickets for this afternoon. Fun times ahead. And as as for Mrs Q? No sign of baby Hughes yet but we are watching and waiting…

Category: Family, Friends, My Life, Short Stories, Writing  | Leave a Comment

Dithering

Friday, June 26th, 2009 | Author: Julia

I’m frankly dithering now. I have a piece of work which I need to complete this week-end but have found a million other things to do instead. Like writing on my blog. I have to say that despite my desire for distraction, the iron, hoover and floor mop have not been calling although with Mr.P’s arrival home tomorrow night I do have an element of industrial deep cleaning to undertake.

All in all it’s been quite a busy week in all sorts of ways. I’m continuing with New Evergreens and Communicare and finding that this is broadening my horizons and helping me look at the world in a different way. For example, just by chance, I met one of ‘my ladies’ in the High Street yesterday. Despite having had nine significant operations, had her cataracts operated on last week and due to celebrate her 88th birthday next month, she was cheerful, spirited and great fun. ‘I’m happy with what I have,’ she said, ‘I don’t need any more. No need to be greedy.’ She is wonderful and altogether gutsy. Good on her. Drove another lovely gentleman to his medical appointment Monday afternoon – full of talk, genuininely funny and called me ‘girl.’

In conjunction with my ‘co-ed’ the Taunton’s writers’ anthology was completed on Wednesday and will be printed and distributed for sale next week. Hope I haven’t spelt any names incorrectly. It’s a great collection with a really good breadth of work from poetry to prose to short stories, extracts from novels and non-fiction articles: thoroughly professional and a credit to the group. I’ve paid up for next term but I’m also considering another course. Ideally I’d like to find somewhere that teaches Arabic or Farsi but I’ve hunted for ages now and there doesn’t seem to be anywhere in the local area. My fall-back is Tai Chi in a bid to minimise my negative energies and open my Chakras.

In terms of writing I have to come clean and say that I’ve done little creative work but I know that the week-long Winchester Conference next week will kick start me again – I’ve certainly got the desire to write – just struggling to find the time. I’ve come to a standstill on the book at 50 000 words unable to move a particular scene on. Advice from other writers has been to stop – move on to a later point in the story and then come back and fill in the gap or maybe cut the scene altogether – perhaps it isn’t needed. So my chav novel continues to breathe life – just needs a bit of a gentle shove. It’s advice like this which is so valuable and comes from getting together with other literary like-minded souls aka Penny Legg’s wonderful Writing Buddies. Being a ‘newbie’ I have the perfect opportunity to soak up advice from others and learn.

This week-end I have the Saturday morning Blue Room ( ooh er missus ) group and then out for dinner in the evening, dropping by the station at the end of the night to pick up Mr.P. I haven’t completed all tasks set such as planting the vegetable seeds ( soul destroying ), weeding ( boring ) or dead-heading ( if it’s flowers and not people I’m just not interested ). But I will make a lovely lentil and butterbean sambal for Sunday lunch. Lucky ol’ Mr.P.

Category: Friends, My Life, Volunteering, Writing  | 2 Comments

Go Kart Go

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 | Author: Julia

A brilliant night Go-Karting last night to mark the departure of Mr F from Company X. I was unsure how I would hold up karting-wise but was pleasantly surprised to find that I took to it like a duck to water. I was very aware that there would be a fair degree of apprehension from my fellow karters when they realised I would be in the line up of 18 participants what with my road and vehicle-related history. However, once suited up and sitting in my kart with helmut and gloves, it felt totally natural to be in the driving seat – somewhere I have always felt very comfortable. We started with a practise drive and followed this with heats of five laps a piece. Although the karts were allocated randomly, very unfortunately I seemed to be alloted faulty karts for each set of laps and suffered from poor track logistics each time resulting in me:

1. Slamming into another competitor ( Sorry Mrs L ) who had already crashed. This I feel was due to faulty brakes.

2. Spinning the car out of control and facing the wrong way. Undoubtedly a wheel lock problem.

3. Crashing into the barriers and getting stuck resulting in the track attendants needing to extricate me from the crash scene. Tyre barriers incorrectly positioned round the chicane – they moved from where I remembered seeing them last time.

4. Bumping other cars and generally irritating other drivers. A combination of insufficient track width and a poorly designed kart wheel-wise

5. Having the biggest crash of the night, driving full pelt into the side of the tyre barriers resulting in track damage which will now need to be repaired by Team Sport. Badly designed track resulting in me not being able to turn when I wanted to.

I was positioned 17th out of 18.

The night however must go to the winners – in first place Mr G ( a Go-Karting Vet I understand ), Mr H in second followed by Mr W in third.  And Mrs W? You were robbed !!!

Category: Friends, My Life  | Leave a Comment

The week that was

Saturday, May 02nd, 2009 | Author: Julia

Haven’t done much writing this week ( well haven’t done any ) preferring instead a more sociable, relaxing time.

After Monday’s anniversary culinary fiasco, spent Tuesday evening at The Jewel In The Crown for a curry with Mr SP for curry and a catch up regarding life at Company X. Lots of news and interesting annecdotes. We’ll leave it there…:)

Thursday I went to Kingston for the day to meet up with Laura for lunch at Jamie’s Italian – well after Monday’s Jamie Oliver fish disaster I decided I needed to eat the real thing.  And real thing it was…fantastic food and very affordable, the latter being particularly important to me this year. We had a lovely long lunch and a chat and then went back to her house in Twickenham to see Julia and catch up on her news. I really enjoyed the day especially the chat with ‘the girls’  back at Laura’s.  I wish Robert well with his forthcoming half marathon and welcome Tom home from his Cornwall trip. Julia – keep growing your hair – it really suits you and looks beautiful.

Friday it was lunch with two ex-colleaugues from Company X followed by a curry with Ian in the evening at the Jewel. Last night was especially interesting as Kash invited us back out into the kitchen where we could watch the cooking and see how the clay tandoori oven worked. They cooked us a naan bread in the oven to take away with us.

Today is gardening day which I have agreed to participate in and then out with Mel tonight for a folk session at Cellars in Eastney. Tomorrow is an agricultural show in Romsey with Mr and Mrs Q which I am not sure Ian is too excited about always having been wary around bovine and porcine-type beasts.

So maybe – just maybe – I’ll actually get some writing done next week!!!

Category: Family, Friends, House and Garden, My Life  | Leave a Comment

Flora London Marathon 2009

Monday, April 27th, 2009 | Author: Julia

What is it about the marathon that ties a knot in the stomach, puts a lump in the throat and brings a tear to the eye? Possibly my home-made coconut and cherry cake which I packed up as part of our picnic for the day.

Yes – it was London Marathon day again and we duly made the early morning train journey up to London to watch circa 35 000 runners – and most especially – Sheila.

It was another hot marathon day – pretty warm for the spectators but definitely far too hot for the runners. However as usual the atmosphere was wonderful. There were over a million spectators – and not all had gone up to see Katie Price and Peter Andre.

Mrs Q was unfortunately unable to participate or watch due to a nagging sports injury and instead viewed the coverage from the comfort of her sofa with a deep-fried bacon sandwich. We very much hope that the injury clears and she is able to continue with her athletic training programme in the near future.

We had a great day, securing excellent vantage points at Miles 9, 15 and 24. We were lucky enough to see Sheila at Mile 9 where she looked to be very strong. Favourite fancy dress runners included the Elvis’s, Chewbacca, a man dressed as Katie Price, man in a wedding dress and several dubious looking nuns.

After congratulating Sheila at the repatriation point we went to watch the rest of the runners finishing, looking to cheer on the tired and exhausted and secretly to get a glimpse of Katie and Peter. The commentator kept providing useful updates as to their location but they all seemed to be the same ‘last spotted at Mile 20 – no further movement.’ After an hour we abandonned our position and had a post-race dinner in Wagamamas on Embankment.

So in summary we congratulate Sheila on a brilliant race in pretty awful conditions and send our regards to Katie and Peter who finally completed in 7 hours 11 minutes.


Category: Friends, My Life, Running  | Leave a Comment

Ed’s Birthday

Monday, April 27th, 2009 | Author: Julia

We all went out to celebrate Ed’s birthday on Saturday night – table for 12 at La Cantina, a mexican restaurant in Southampton. A great evening which we really enjoyed. However, forgive me if I don’t say too much about the restaurant – the news of the day was Ed’s hair cut! Gone is the long pony-tail which has not been near a barbour’s scissors in nigh on 20 years and new in is the fresh-faced boyish Ed with his new haircut! We love it!  So, instead of posting pictures of the restaurant and assemblied party in the usual fashion, I have posted the most important pictures from the night – the new-look Ed!

Category: Friends, My Life  | One Comment
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