Chocolate rubber ducks

Thank you Abbie and Jim, but they are just too lovely to eat! However Harry has become a bit of a stalker... This is a tricky time of year for choccaholics.

He has made yet more Brownies, he has become the expert and now we are all very fat. He went to a party over the weekend and all the other guests had to bring anything illegal, like booze or cigarettes but H was asked to bring brownies. And no, not those, just plain Brownies.

Yesterday we ate a roast leg of Sussex lamb, it was delicious, sorry to my vegetarian friends but it was great.



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Clocks go FORWARD tonight

Happy Easter! Everything in the garden is anything but roses.
























































































































We may not have had a Spring but the garden is still colourful. The chickens might not be real but as long as they lay a few chocolate eggs, who cares?!










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Elvis but not that one

The first marital row? Polly is trying to work out the first song to dance to at her wedding with Alex. She wants Elvis... ...he doesn't.





It got me thinking, over the years, the old man and I have seen some wonderful performers and heard
some great music.















Jim saw the Stones for free in Hyde Park.












And he took his parents to see Ella at Ronnie Scott's (Chickadees take note.)
















Both of us saw Dylan at Earls Court but we didn't know each other.

and there in 'alf been some clever bastards

Polly heard the Boss at Wembley, but she didn't see him. (I was pregnant).

OK, so I was a teenager once and I thought Elton was alright. I remember the lyrics Benny, Benny and the jets lasting twenty five minutes. So even then we knew how to waste time.

A trip to New York improved my musical tastes when I saw Sam and Dave.

...all this started with some of the Bonzo Dog Doodah Band who were my tutors at Chelsea School of Art. 

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One wonders when one is going to feel wonderful

I've got used to the four different drugs I have to take daily (Anastrozole, Adcal D3, various amounts of Warfarin, and Sertraline) so imagine my bloomin' annoyance when after taking them on Tuesday they all decided they wanted out so projectile vomitting was the quickest way.

I blame the Queen, if she hadn't shaken all those hands, she wouldn't have got the lurgy and then passed it on, all the way down, diagram follows;


And since the old man and I are now officially according to the MP's, 'Poverty Class', the least she could do is send me a Get Well card. I'm trying to get better and accentuating the positive but it's not easy when people like Osborne are doing their worst and it's going to snow tomorrow. The Queen had to cancel all her appointments? Well so did I. Now I have three hospital appointments to re-schedule and the dentist. It's a busy life being ill. Don't tell me it's hard for you Mrs Windsor, at least you get to jump out of helicopters.

I did receive a lovely get well email, or maybe it was for Mrs Windsor?

Hello your Majesty

So sorry to hear of your botty and tum tum problem. I have just woken up! Having returned from Las Vegas today (there is a 7 hour time difference) one can imagine one is Knackered !

Hoping you will be able very soon to return to your planned engagements?

One of which is to see moi!

I remain your faithful subject

Big hugs

The Lady Alexa of Hamilton Towers


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Location:One wonders when one will feel wonderful?

Old and in the way

Campaigners have ended their tree-top protest after council officials agreed to meet to discuss alternatives to felling the historic elm at Seven Dials.

The two activists, who had been camped out in the 150-year-old tree since Wednesday night, came down on Friday evening.

Brighton and Hove City Council officers agreed to take a look at alternative proposals and set a meeting for this Friday.

Council leader Jason Kitcat (only in Brighton) also called on residents to come forward with ideas to keep the tree while at the same time carry out the agreed works.

The elm tree, which sits on the side of the junction, was due to be chopped down as part of the Seven Dials roundabout improvements.

The council’s transport committee unanimously voted through the proposal in January after it was argued the tree obstructed views and was damaging the pavement.

However, significant public pressure, which included the support of Green MP Caroline Lucas, has persuaded officers to re-visit plans.

Tom Druitt, one of those camped in the tree’s branches, said: “We’re really pleased. If it wasn’t for the dedication of a number of people that tree would now be nothing more than logs.

"However, we can’t celebrate yet – there is still a danger.”

The city has one of the largest collections of mature elms after escaping the worst of Dutch elm disease in the 1970s and has the National Collection of Elms.
Weird but true, the Brighton breast clinic is opposite Preston Park and the day I was told I had a lump which would have to be chopped off, at the same time an infected elm tree was being felled in the park.

So for that reason alone, I hope the healthy elm tree at Seven Dials is saved.





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International Women's Day tomorrow!

I'm baking Paul Hollywood. I can't stand Nigella, why does she insist on calling everyone 'daahlinnng'?

I have started swimming again and it's great. I've been twice this week, probably just as well since Clare has organised a fundraiser for Oxfam which just involves eating lots of cakes.
I have spent the afternoon trying to produce some edible wonders and I'm not a domestic goddess but I'm not stuck with Charles Saatchi either.

But I think the scrambled egg muffins may not raise much money, this is when you need a dog... They can hide the evidence. In fact the word has already spread, Alexa has to walk the dog so she can't come, Sarah is at boot camp in Scotland? Why? There's nothing of her and Joy has got the Noro virus, so she can't leave her loo, poor thing, at least it wasn't my Orange Burst Easter muffin that made her ill. Yet.
hrscreative are holding a coffee morning to raise awareness and money, to transform the lives of women living in poverty around the world.

Why not Celebrate International Women's Day with Oxfam?
It would be great if you could join us.
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/get-together
Friday 8th March 2013
10am - 2pm
Star Brewery, Castle Ditch Lane,
Lewes, East Sussex BN7 1YJ
You might think Oxfam’s work to empower women living in poverty solely occurs abroad in developing countries. But there’s amazing work being carried out on our doorstep.
Check out Oxfam's website for more details on their work.
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/get-together
If you want to make a difference, please support our event, drink coffee (or tea) and eat homemade cakes.
Thanks.

And Mary Berry, you don't have to give up the day job.

Paris je t'adore

Ever the optimist, I wanted to see if sofagirl could get away for a few days. Since the Warfarin levels are all over the place and I still can't fly, the best option was to find three strapping lads to accompany me on the Eurostar to Paris.

I found two.














and the old man.

The Matisse blue sky was inspirational and although I left climbing the Eiffel Tower to Henri et Artuur, I enjoyed swimming around in Monet's water lilies in the Orangerie which has comfortable seats. Never before have chairs, benches, ledges etc been such an important part of my day.
We discovered an artist there who in his short life, had a wonderful way of looking at the world. Chaim Soutine (1893-1943)

Hasn't he got a lovely Stephen Fry nose?

I spent quite a while people-watching in the Tuileries Gardens where there are a huge amount of very stylish chairs to collapse into.

If you walk along the Seine over the padlock bridge, Pont des Artes, then beware the Gold Ring scam. You may notice a gleaming ring on the ground which will be picked up by a 'helpful' person who will ask if it is yours? Depending on how greedy you are, you are given the option to have it, for 'good luck' and they then proceed to walk away. They will then come back to you and say that they are hungry and need 5 Euros to buy a sandwich. Your train of thought will be "Hey, this person just handed over a gold ring they found, what's a few Euros?" The result is that you end up 5 Euros lighter and only a piece of brass to show for it. Save yourself the bother and simply do not entertain these con artists. This practice is rife in Paris. The areas concerned are between the bridge near to the Eiffel Tower down to the Pont Neufchâtel and all along the upper riversides and bridges along the way. And no, we didn't fall for it although we were approached four times with the same trick, in half an hour.
Another outrageous scam is children and adults pretending to be deaf. They approach you quite forcefully with a clipboard, indicating that you should sign it and give them some money. If you try to give them a few euros, they will turn over their clipboards which on the back say: '10 Euros Minimum.' If you give in to it and you remove your purse or wallet, they see where you keep it and when several children hug you to say thank you, they steal your purse or wallet from where they know you keep it. Just say "non" and keep walking.

At least Artuur et 'Arry's scam was a bit more entertaining.
The "Friendship" Bracelet: A vendor approaches you and asks if you'll help him with a "demonstration." He proceeds to make a friendship bracelet right on your arm. When finished, he asks you to pay a premium for the bracelet he created just for you. And, since you can't easily take it off on the spot, you feel obliged to pay up. 'Arry said it was a bargain as his was "only €15". Good thing we were only there for three days.

And thankfully, I couldn't fit into these, let alone afford them.
Isn't it odd how people who enjoy their work can end up morphing into it? We discovered this gardener (just) in the Jardin des Tuileries.

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Flying down to Rio, Gibraltar and Eurostarring to Paris

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2013/02/carnival_2013.html


All my chickadees have flown the nest, Polly to Gibraltar, Bill to Brazil, at the carnival in Rio and Harry's going to Paris.







I just hope Harry doesn't think that he's going to bump into Lautrec or Matisse.





Polly just skyped us from Gibraltar and she is up to her wooden spoons creating fantastic cookies for all those romantics today.











www.pollymixtures.com/

She's doing all of this whilst planning her wedding this summer. She's multi tasking really well, firstly squashing 150 people into a church which only holds 120 people max!



Just about everything is done except finding Cinderella's shoes, what's wrong with these?
www.irregularchoice.co.uk/












And we have the responsibility of the wedding cake, I'll feed you crumbs of info about that later...















Happy Valentines Day and Happy Birthday Ned and don't forget the promise  X

oooh  I say, the old man's gone all soppy.

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Spring is sprung?

My old mum would be 94 now, and that's really old. She didn't look like Norma Shearer but I reckon, she would have liked to think she did. It would have been pointless to tell her that her arm would ache an awful lot if she insisted on striking a pose at every opportunity and also, people might think she was a teapot.

And those flowers would have been awful tickly.

Thank goodness she fell in love with a jolly Glaswegian,  Bill, my dad. He would have been 94 as well and I still miss them. I'm very glad the bad hospitals are now in the news, lazy 'care' of old people has been going on for too long and my father deserved much, much better.

Harry is very happy that the GCSE's he's about to take this summer will now be valid. Michael Gove, MP (Military Police?) what a plonker. I wonder if he knows this is now the year of the snake?

Anyway, the flowers don't know about the news, they think it's Spring. My old mum always said if its snowing in New York now then we will get the same weather a week later. Sorry daffs, you'd better wrap up warm.

My boy Bill, who's as big and as strong as a tree

Although this sounds like an adventure story, Bill went to Brazil he didn't say anything about a desire to become Batman. Without a rope or hard hat in sight, his text read: 'all's well.' So that means I don't worry?

This is an earlier email from him:

"I have had a very crazy week. On Monday I met up with farmer Fred in Ponta du Tulha. Just between Itacare and Ilheus. He turned out to be a mad Parisian rasta who had lived in Brasil for the last 30 years. He had dreadlocks down to his waist and huge purple sunglasses. When he first met us he had a smile from ear to ear and hugged us all. We knew instantly he was completely bonkers but I bloody loved it. He drove us up a huge mountain in an old 1970's Chevrolet. It felt after every turn the car would breakdown, but it kept on going.

After an hour of driving on rocky roads we arrived at the top of the mountain to see one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. We looked down onto a huge jungle of vegetation and trees and then past the jungle was endless sand and sea everywhere we looked. The colours were so vivid and alive. You could even call it paradise!

It was tough work on the farm, I say farm... it was a jungle! I have never sweated so much. We chopped down many banana trees, plucked coconuts and harvested cacau. Fred worked us hard but was a good man and fed us well. Sadly the stay did not last long though. On the second night a HUGE thunderstorm brewed. The eye of the storm went right over our mountain. Me, George and Jonny were sleeping in tents on the land. Lightning struck 10 metres from our tent! We felt ground move around us. We all turned into kittens. Completely terrifying. So we ran back to Fred´s hut through all the lightning and took shelter from the storm. All the power had been cut off and it was completely pitch black. I could not even see my hand in front of me. That night we all stayed up while Fred made homemade pizzas on a fire stove and we drank and told stories by candle light. It was a special night.

Sadly in the morning we found out the lightning had hit Fred´s generator. He had many problems and there was nothing we could do to really help. So we collect 60 coconuts in the morning for him to sell at the market and we hitchhiked back to Itacare. I have really fallen in love with Itacare this week. Life has been very easy, almost too easy. I sit on my hammock and drink fresh coffee in the mornings and read Hemmingway, then in the afternoon I have a siesta on the beach and sip on acai. bliss.

I will leave this Sunday for Lencois. I have friend driving from Salvador. A new adventure awaits, I hope..."

In the meantime, back in Blighty, 2013 is turning out to be the unluckiest year for some of us. My poor sister Emma has broken her pelvis, lovely Dorothy is in hospital and Clare's eyes are having difficulty focussing. And she is sure it's not because of too much Harvey's ale. Get well soon, all of you.



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