A new life; same as the old life?

I don’t suppose it has been any longer or harder of a winter than normal, but for some reason this one has really taken its toll on me. Funny thing is, I am not really sure how or why. I have not been fed up with the snow, in fact at times, I have been disappointed there wasn’t more snow, despite February being the snowiest on record and having the third biggest blizzard of all time. It has been a cold winter, but again not for extended periods or to the point where it got old. We did do the rebuild of the kitchen and whilst there were times it was tedious not having any facilities and dust being everywhere (now it’s only half the house that’s dusty), it still never really annoyed me. My BIL died from the pig flu this winter and my great friend Marcus also died around this time of year a couple of years ago. I got very sick for a week, probably as sick as I have ever been; I think probably the flu, although I am always reticent to say that I had the flu. I turned 43 a few weeks ago and...

Many of my American friends have never heard of, far less pulled a Christmas cracker, and those who have, have usually experienced the non snap version sold in the US, because although guns are OK, heaven forbid we put a little gun powder in a cracker! For those who are interested, and for the UK folks who may or may not know this (I just learned it today from a Christmas cracker!!), here is the history of the cracker. If you would like to see a few pictures from Christmas Day, click here . Tom Smith, a baker of wedding from Clerkenwell, London, invented the Christmas cracker in 1847. The events that led to these wonderful creations were quite a story. In 1940, Smith went to Paris and came across 'Bon bon', an almond sweet wrapped in paper that was twisted. He liked the taste so much that he began selling the 'new' sweets in London and they became very popular. Tom, who was always on a lookout for new promotion opportuniti...

In this ever increasing world of convenience, things in my mind have gone too far. I guess it started out in the service industry all these years ago, when instead of fixing you own car, doing your own plumbing, etc, you hired someone. Now that same mind set is applied to pretty much everything across the board, especially here in the US. A friend of mine who shall remain nameless, for fear he might feel I am picking on him, grated cheese by hand for the FIRST TIME EVER at the ripe old age of 36. His response was that "why wouldn't you just buy pre-grated cheese?" It set me thinking. I would never even have thought to buy pre-grated cheese, the price not withstanding at 3-4 times the price of a brick, it just seems alien; but like I mentioned earlier, it is everywhere, pre-sliced burger buns, gogurt , ready meals, although I have purchased those. I guess as we go through life, this trend will continue, but I will certainly try my best to remain as inconvenient as I can.

We just got back from good old blighty. Lorraine had been there for 3 weeks before I got there, and I joined her for the last 10 days; but let me go back a little, because I can't believe it is March already. Jan (Lorraine's mum) came over in December, with the plan of arriving a couple of days before the new arrival. She was to stay two months, then travel to the UK with Lorraine, and then five weeks later I would bring them back. As it turned out, Lorraine went into labour the day of Jan's arrival and so the wonderful and talented Amy stepped up, picked her up from the airport and whisked her directly to the hospital, do not pass go, do not collect $200! The two months flew by, and Jan was very helpful around the house, baby wrangling, etc In fact Lorraine had to tell her off several times for making Cooper too comfortable and not being able to wake him for feeding time. From my perspective, I discovered clothing that I had forgotten, and my wardrobes and drawers became s...

Similarly to my recent post about city trips, we haven't taken advantage recently of the host of local free events. Most of the local towns and cities have a lot going on in the summer, I guess because the weather is not condusive (read frickin' cold) in the winter! From concerts, to "Taste Of" events, to Arts & Crafts festivals. A couple of weeks ago, we went back to the old village where we lived for two years to enjoy their free Friday lunchtime concerts, although the term concert is rather loose, as often it is really more of a DJ spinning some tunes. Nevertheless it is an opportunity to get outside on a beautiful sunny day and enjoy the weather; and whaddayaknow, this time actually was a band, and a pretty decent one at that! They also had the obligitary fire engine for the kids to climb on. As usual more pictures are available here . We ate some sandwiches, hung out with the other friends and their families for a brief time until it was time to go back to n...