As ever time seems to be galloping away from me and I have been meaning to
do a blog post for about 6 weeks now, in fact I’m only doing it now because I
have work to do and I’m procrastinating!
Christmas was lovely though I didn’t do any of the things I thought I would
with my time off because come the 27th December I was struck with the lurgy that
everyone seemed to have, and so spent most of the time feeling sorry for
myself whilst drinking tea and either reading or sewing.
We took my Dad out to a local Indian restaurant on Christmas Eve for a
family meal, there were 12 of us in all and I managed to impress with what I
ate, clearly travelling to India for work is paying off and I actually can bear
to eat something vaguely spicy these days! It was certainly too hot for others
in our party.
Christmas day we had a blissful lazy morning Himself struck gold buying me
a Snoopy mirror for my collection and the 1st five seasons of Quantum Leap on
DVD. I used to absolutely love it when it was on tv and have been eyeing up the
DVDs for years but they never seemed to go down in price.
We met Mum at Dad’s
care home in the afternoon but didn’t stay long as Dad was worn out from the
previous night out, he was still getting over a chest infection so I think it
was all a bit much.
We went back to Mum’s for a couple of days and got to meet the gorgeous
Bobby.
He is such a beautiful boy and so cuddly. Even though he had only had his
leg amputated 5 days before he was charging around the house in his cone of
shame and jumping up on your lap for cuddles. He doesn’t like closed doors so
barged our bedroom door open each morning and jumped on me in bed for snuggles before
breakfast.
He is also an extremely vocal cat and Mum says he does like to sing
the song of his people at all hours of the day and night which drives her nuts when she’s trying to
sleep!
It’s not meowing or yowling but actual sort of chattering talking, think
Charlie The Cat from those old infomercials of the late 70’s early 80’s! (Youtube Charlie Says https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDu7yYHxZr0 )
January the 2nd I was back at work and we headed into silly season with over 200
more applications from potential students than we were expecting.
So Himself and I
decided to have a day out in London, Hampstead to be precise. Now the reason for
this trip was down to an old music hall song! We were channel hoping and caught
the end of an episode of The Good Old Days which was a TV show in the 1970’s
where celebrity acts of the day, among other things, sang old Victorian music
hall songs to an audience dressed in garish 1970’s versions of Victorian
outfits.
It always ended with everyone belting out a music hall classic called
‘Down At The Old Bull And Bush’.
This lead Himself to google the song where he
found a crazy version by The Muppets as well as the original by music hall
artiste Florrie Forde. Whilst listening to both, we debated what the song was
about which lead me to google it and find to my utter delight it was a REAL
pub!! Not only that it was still open, no question we had to go!
It turns out the pub is on the edge of Hampstead Heath and back in the day those
from the East End of London used to go out for ‘a day in the countryside’ to
Hampstead Heath and once they had filled their lungs with fresh air would retire
to The Old Bull and Bush for a proper cockney knees up which is how the song
evolved.
Himself and I decided to do the same and on a damp, windy and very grey
day tramped a huge circuit round Hampstead Heath with what felt like most of the
population of London before retiring to the pub.
It was gorgeous, oh how I wish
it could be my local! It had a lovely atmosphere with a roaring log fire and a
very decent bar. The food looked great too, though we didn’t eat. The only
downside was it was very busy, we eventually got two seats at the bar where we
drank beer and met Jeff the dog.
I loved that the pub had kept it’s over the top
etched glass bar even though it didn’t really fit with the more modern decor the
pub now sports.
It also had a huge range of ports which made me chuckle as a
line from the song goes “come, come, come drink port wine with me.”
I also caught up with Soo and Jenny in January to exchange a mixture of
birthday and Christmas presents, gossip and eat cake. Soo trawled various
charity shops first where I bought this fabulous Chinese style jacket for £7, a little blue cardigan with white swallows on it, a pair of brown jeans and a
straw bag.
Jenny bought me this awesome book light which looks like a book when
closed and them lights up when you open it.
The first weekend in February I did Lou Lou’s Vintage January Sale fair at
Oxford Town hall with my friend Alex. I had bought us early bird tickets but
there turned out to be much confusion when we arrived as the website had the
wrong time on it and the fair wasn’t even set up let alone open. The poor lady
on the desk at the town hall was very harassed and as she couldn’t leave her
desk so I offered to nip upstairs and find out what was going on. It turned out
there was no early start and the early bird ticket just meant you could go in
first from 12 noon, the girl upstairs at the cash desk for Lou Lou’s was very
annoyed at the mix-up but did they bother to stick something on their Facebook page or
Twitter to correct the error? er No!
I came back down and explained to the lady
there and Alex and I headed to the covered market for a delicious hot chocolate drunk sitting outside in the freezing cold, hence my rather strained smiling but freezing face!
I usually hate the stuff you buy in cafes as it’s way too sickly sweet for me
but this place had an option for 90% dark chocolate one that was fab, (would you
say that’s a lion on the top or a baboon?)
By the time we got back to the town hall they had ended up having to call in their
security guards to turn back all the pissed off punters expecting an early entry and try and get them to
queue in an orderly fashion outside until it got to 12.
Anyway we finally got in and Alex found this gorgeous green coat literally
on the first rail she looked at for the princely sum of £10.
It got very very
busy very quickly which I guess was great for the sellers but not so great for
browsing especially as you inevitably get those people who barge in. I did
manage to buy 3 bags, 2 dresses and a brooch before we decamped to get tea and
cake.
From the town hall we went down to Christchurch College and walked a
circuit of Christchurch meadows. I fancied a cup of tea so asked if we should go
and get a drink somewhere which somehow ended up with us ensconced by the open
fire at The Lighthouse pub drinking large glasses of wine. I am going to miss
Alex so much when she moves away from Oxford as is her plan for this year.
I have been to the cinema a few times, last post I mentioned going to see
the new Star Wars film which I ended up doing 3 times before it closed. I loved
it and it definitely benefited from second viewing there was so much in it. We
also went to see David Copperfield and enjoyed that too.
I haven’t really done the sales, I’m being more thoughtful about my
spending habits and especially on clothes. I bought a lovely polka dot dress
from Collectif for work and also nipped into Debenhams to get a birthday present
and ended up buying a dress and a dark purple biker style pvc jacket in the tail end of their sale. I had to throw out my black (non leather) biker jacket last
year as I had literally worn it until it fell to bits, I hope to get similar
wear out of my new one.
Otherwise February has been about keeping out of the mad weather as much as
possible. We did venture into Oxford last Saturday as one of the students I had
helped Grace had invited me to a piano recital at Christchurch
Cathedral where she was playing a piece by Liszt. By good chance the rain had
stopped enough for us to get to the train station without being completely
drenched and the trains were actually running. We had Dinner at Gino’s where I
rather overdosed on cheese by having a cheese based starter and main! before
battling through the elements to Christchurch college. It was a wonderful and
intimate recital, mostly due to the weather putting people off I should imagine,
in a beautiful setting. It also turned out another of our students was playing
too so I stayed to chat to them both at the end. This meant by the time we left
the storm was properly raging again outside and we got absolutely drowned going
home. I guess at least when you are heading home the plus point is you can cast
off your wet clothes and jump in a hot shower, we were both in bed with a book
and a glass of wine within half an hour of stepping in the door!
I am so done with this endless rain and my heart breaks for all the poor
people who have been flooded, having one soaked wall and a leaking window pales
in comparison.
I shall end with my frock and bag purchases.
These two are from the Lou Lou's fair, a navy with white and yellow polka dots and a rather loud apple print!
Until Anon, hopefully I won't leave it so long next time...
