Auntie Carol's Christmas Present!

I havent blogged as there's been no time!
As i'm sure you all know the run up to Christmas leaves little spare time, especially when you are the hosts which we are this year.
However we have still found time for a little fun, some of which was sorting out Auntie Carol's christmas present.
Auntie Carol is not really my auntie but a close long standing friend of my mums who has always been Auntie.
She is in her 70's but is still pretty fit and healthy, in fact its only recently she has started getting decorators in, its not too long ago you would phone to find she was up a ladder painting!
She was a seamstress by trade and is the person we go to for anything sewing related, she makes all my curtains and does all alterations required and she does all this and makes you a coffee and has a chat too.
Chris and Auntie Carol get on like a house on fire, last christmas my mum bought her a freeview box on the understanding we would go and set it up for her which we did.
Over the year we have had maybe 7 or 8 phone calls asking us to go and correct something as she has lost a channel or something has gone wrong.
She is always really apologetic for disturbing us and never seems to understand that we really dont mind!
Anyway as i was saying they get along really well, they flirt with each other shamelessly and i have even been in the room when she has flashed her knickers at him!
So we decided as a stocking filler we would make her a calender....
We bought a "Perfect Guy" calender and then stuck Chris's face on all the pics lol
Here are a couple, how funny is this!

Sydney came to visit!

So I mentioned we were having toddler niece Sydney overnight a few weeks ago and promised photos which have blatantly failed to materialise.

This is mainly down to the disappointment that is Windows Vista, NOTHING appears to be compatible with it, including the lead supplied to connect my phone to my laptop.

Unfortunately I hadn’t realised it was down to Vista until last night, I thought it was the lead itself.

The thought it might be Vista popped into my head last night so I tried it on the PC and hey presto it worked!

So I can tell you that we took Sydney to the Christmas Market in Manchester to see the big Snowman/Santa on the Town Hall. Apart from the fact that it was so busy it was bedlam it was lovely.

They have lots of stalls selling different things, they sell mulled wine and bratwurst. We were asking Sydney all the way there if she was going to have a hotdog and we were puzzled that she kept saying no and giving us that look meaning “are you crazy why would I” and looking a little bit scared when we realised she probably didn’t know what a hotdog was! Her mum and dad don’t really do junk food so why would she!
We changed tack and asked her if she wanted a sausage and it was all smiles!

We had been told (I’m adding this sentence to cover my arse lol) that we could feed her “anything we wanted” so we did!

She loves pancakes anyway but give her pancakes with chocolate and cream and she can’t get enough!

However I think the biggest hit of the day were the chocolate covered strawberries, we all had some and I have to say they were absolutely delicious.


She really really wanted to go on the big wheel and even though he is pretty scared of heights Chris was prepared to take her on but it was so windy!
I’m not really bothered by heights but I didn’t fancy being on it, especially with a 2yr old who may decide half way through she doesn’t like it anymore!

And she loved Chris wearing her hat!

She is fascinated by water, we walked through the market looking at all the pretty stalls and we bought presents for mum and dad but walked past a couple of “water features” on the streets of Manchester and we couldn’t get her away lol, all she wanted to do was look at and play in the water!

She’s at the “why” stage so drove us mad the whole time, she did however prove how intelligent she was when I tried doing the “why” thing back to her for a while and she stopped, looked up at me and said “had enough now”

Ha! Doesn’t work when we say that lol

She was a darling the whole time, we had her overnight after the market so took her home, gave her tea and then played for a short while before bed.

She was VERY excited to be sleeping in HER bed in our house as she calls it, Chris read her a story and she went off to sleep and we didn’t hear a peep out of her until almost eight the next morning, fab.

The next day we took her to a christening in Liverpool so it was bath and party clothes all the way, she loved dancing to the disco.


By the time we took her home we were exhausted! I can’t imagine what it’s like having a toddler full time but I suppose we’ll find out at some point…


We bought mum and dad a small snow globe with a teddy bear inside, a few days later my sister phoned to say Sydney had dropped it on the driveway and it had smashed.
She was inconsolable, kept telling daddy to “fix it” in between sobs.
It was obviously irreparable and although daddy’s friend was going to the market that evening and could have got another it was decided that Sydney should learn that some things can’t be fixed…
It was so sweet that she loved it so much to be upset and so sad but right that it couldn’t be fixed.

Ice Cream anyone?

The D.I.Y.King!

I think i've mentioned we are having a party New Years Eve.

This has naturally brought to light lots and lots of jobs big and small that we need to do beforehand.

We have done the garden as you saw on the photo's which was probably the biggest job and we are really pleased with it.

Last weekend it was time for a few smaller jobs which fell to Chris.

Chris hasnt done much diy in the past from what he says, he rented his house so the owners were responsible, now he owns a house and its down to him.

He says he's not the handiest guy in the world and wont tackle anything he thinks is beyond him in case he makes it worse and in turn more expensive to resolve.

So i was double proud and chuffed last weekend when he did the following..

Put a light up in the garden.
Put up my 2 retractable washing lines.
Fixed the drainpipe in the garden back to the wall.
Put up some more coat hooks inside
Put up the new light fitting in the lounge
Put together the new unit for the lounge
Put up the house numbers outside the house

The house looks great and apart from a small amount of cleaning by me its down to Chris, my DIY King!

Letter to me!

I’ve been tagged by Spice-the-Cat!

The rules…

1. Link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Imagine you could send a letter back in time to yourself when you were 13yrs old. What would you write?
3. Tag 5 people to do this blog.

Ok so I’m gonna tag…..

Baby Steps
Dem Bones Dem Bones
Nick’s Bytes
So the fish said
Rude Cactus

Ok here goes…

Dear Pol,

I am writing to you from the future, I know this is hard to believe but I also know you will WANT to believe it. See weird unexplainable things CAN happen!
Unfortunately there is probably some reason why you can’t prove it so I wouldn’t get too excited.

You are 13 so in your 3rd year at secondary school, probably taking your options.

I would predictably advise that you work harder, your family will move to another town towards the end of your 4th year and you will be distracted by new places and people, not all good. You did not do great in your exams!

Your mum and dad aren’t as bad as you think they are and they will never change. Learn to love them as they love you and accept that people are different.

Try not to lose the amazement and wonderment you feel when you discover something new and exciting, your future husband keeps hold of this and it is wonderful to be around but disappointing that you cant always share in the excitement.

You don’t however lose the way you trust people until you have a reason to do otherwise, you still see the best in people and while some say this is an admirable quality you could do with wising up a bit!

The friends you have now are the best you will ever have and they will be your friends for years and years to come, A couple will drop from the group in different ways but the core 4 will stay the same and always be there for each other. When you move to another town it IS worth the effort you make to keep in touch!

Don’t smoke! You are a chain smoker, it will be incredibly difficult for you to stop and you WILL want to. It doesn’t matter if you think it makes you look cool in front of Fran & Lou, Fran will not be in your life when you are older and Lou will be someone you hear news of because your mum’s are friends.

In fact stay away from Fran! He is a wanker! He will get what he wants and make you look like a naïve idiot which I’m sorry to say is pretty much what you are around him!

Don’t ignore your sister!

Your brother may be your best friend but he won’t always be there!

I know that’s very sad but you will handle it and he leaves a daughter!

Your sister will BECOME your best friend, Hard to believe I know, it will take years and lots of patience from her but you will get there and you have another niece over there too!

Don’t worry about boys, I am a firm believer that if you change something in the past it will probably change the future so do everything EXACTLY the same.

You DO meet and marry the man of your dreams and while you moan about him, argue with him, you love him more than you thought you could and he loves you back!

Shameless Plug!!

As the title says this is nothing but a shameless plug for my very good friend Angela.

Please feel free to follow the link to her shop where she sells her own original artwork.

If you fancy something in particular she is very approachable and happy to oblige where she can.

http://www.artangel.etsy.com/

I can't recommend her enough!

How to make pancakes like a crack head

1.Gather your junkiesque supplies

2.Cut up your pancake mix (Junk).

3.Continue….

4.Pile up your pancake mix.

5.DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!

6.Add 1 bump salt and 1 bump baking powder to crack head mirror.

7.Next add your water.
8.After the water put a shot of milk.
9.The last liquid added is oil. This is optional but if you truly want to make crack head pan cakes, put a double shot.
10.Now cut everything together. Mix until liquid.
11.Now for the egg. Take you syringe and poke THROUGH the egg shell. Extract your Egg.

12.Add the raw egg (crack head style).
13.After mixed add your pancake mix to your crack spoon. Hold spoon open flame
14.Cook both sides! This is raw egg, you don’t want to risk your health.
15.Done! Breakfast is served and your crack head pancake is now complete. Enjoy the CrackJack





This is not my work, it was mailed to me by a friend but i thought i would share.
This is the original link:
http://links.zigzo.com/2007/05/09/how-to-make-pancakes-like-a-crack-head/