So..last night the end of "The Tennant Years" became complete with the first in the new series of our fave programme Dr Who.
I have to admit (even though it pains me to do so..) that I enjoyed it v much. So much so that I think Matt Smith may turn out to be a very good doctor.. even if he's not Tennant.
I'm still not happy.. I still want Tennant to return but I understand he will not and so I will settle for this new bloke.. for the moment at least.. I'm not so sure about Angelina though.. turns out she's quite attached to the Tennant also...lol
and she may not be quite ready to let him go just yet...
So whilst we've decided to give our Royal seal of approval to the Dr Who team for a successful changeover to the new Doc but we're still going to have to keep Tennant in the conservatory for a wee bit longer too... just to ease the pain of course!!
I love a good fun fair.. unfortunately here in sunny Bradford we don't have much of one... but in true Yorkshire man style we make the most of what we've got and on went the shoes and off we went - in the Bradford sunshine which generally looks a little like this..
BUT.. not today. Today we just had a little cloud.. bit cold but not enough to stop us and so off we went.
Didn't take the camera cos I'm useless so no photos of the fair and really we were having so much fun bashing the hell out of each other on the dodgems to be taking photos but the kids all won a prize on the "hook a duck" game.
Jake got an inflatable hammer.. I know what you're thinking... "WHY?" but he had much fun beating the crap out of us all for hours after..look...
and the girls got girlie stuff like plastic tiaras and rings that make yer fingers go green!!! YAY!
Here they are looking gorgeous as usual..starting with - and I'll use their new princess names - "Princess Heather of Butterfly Kingdom Castle, more commonly known as...Our House"
and "Princess Angelina of Angel Ballerina Land.. also known as "Bradford"
after the fair we bought some of this..
(and no.. your eyes do not deceive you.. that's blue candy floss, yes.. I said BLUE and yes thats about as much as the children would allow Nana Sue and me to have... greedy lil gits.) and we all went home for very much needed one of these!!!
and now.. for your viewing pleasure..and just to annoy my mother, for she is my mother and it is my life's work..nay my DUTY to do so.. I give you this..
yes that is my mother hiding behind a piece of candy floss...
and this
is my mother hiding her chin.. OH How she LOVES me now!!!!!!!!!!!!! hehehe..
I haven't felt like smiling in a long while now.. I do, because well.. you just do don't you? You see a friend across the street and flash them a smile and a wave or a child says something funny and you laugh and with it comes a smile.. everyone does that... what I mean is a real smile, a spontaneous smile that comes from deep within and warms you from the inside out.
They're few and far between, moments that make a girl smile like there is nothing can dampen her day that is.. infact you could probably tag them to the defining moments of your life.
One day in class..ooooh..I don't know, a whole lot of years ago lol... Our teacher (Mr Parkes) gave us all a big poster-sized piece of paper and a pen and told us to write our names on them. He then went round and wrote a comment at the top of everyone's paper and folded it over so the next person couldn't read it and then the rest of us kids hads to go and write comments for each class member and fold it over etc etc. They were supposed to be nice things that you liked about the person and all of mine were about me smiling... Mr P's comment was "Keep smiling Jennie, it lights up your face.", someone else wrote "always a smile for everyone", "Smiley Jen" etc etc etc and the list went on.. I think I still have it somewhere in my box of school stuff.. I hope I do.
All these things I'd forgotten about until the other day when I finally decided to go through that box of Dad's personal papers thats been sitting patiently waiting for me to look at when I feel ready and strong enough to cope.
At first I laughed as I realised what silly things people hold onto as keepsakes.. birthday cards with funny messages in them, newspaper clippings.. baby announcements etc.. Then came the sadness as a life's work became clear, school reports, engineering certificates, and the photos.. baby photos, wedding photos, grandchildren.. all kinds of things in this big box.. all things that are nice to have but why do we keep them? What does it do for us?
Its almost 2 years since my Dad died and still he hasn't left... I'm still finding pieces of his life, discovering new things in the bottom of boxes and I am constantly surprised at how much stuff came out of that little house... I worry it might fall down now without all this stuff in it for the walls to lean on..lol. It seems that my Dad, like his own mother.. kept EVERYTHING.
So there I am pulling stuff out of the box.. laughing at some, crying at others and affectionately cursing my father 'the horder' for me having to sit and go through it all..and then, right at the bottom of the box is a piece of paper covered in that familiar Dad-like scrawl... I think I only noticed because of the handwriting.. because this was a box of cards and photo's and certificates not letters... but there I can see just a corner and 2 words and those words were "Jennie" and "smile".
As I pulled it out and started reading the tears came.. not just a few but hundreds, running down my face as I realised what I'd found were the notes Dad made for his speech for my wedding.
My Dad was a great public speaker. He wrote fantastic speeches (not only for himself but for politicians in his time too.. he'd helped me write more than my share of school project speeches too) and one of the things that people remember from that great piss-up that was the Savage Wedding of June 2000 was my Dad's speech and how he made me cry with his opening line... and so I'd like to share, I know some of you will have heard it before from the man himself and some not.. so here goes..
"Father of the Bride, I have been called many things in my time but this is a first and a pleasurable admission...
In the interests of my health this will be brief. However, despite being such a shy and retiring lad, I still want to say something about these two here today.
Jennie - the enigma which is thee... Jennie - the child who smiles with her eyes Jennie - the one who exudes so much love and breathes happiness into anyone who falls within her gaze...
and Richard, hereafter to be known as "Braveheart", what a man - courage indeed...
It isnt for me to offer either or both of you any kind of advice. In fact, in common with the rest of the world's population I'm totally unqualified in such matters.
However, minor technicalities like that have never stopped any of us before and they aren't going to stop me now!
I spoke of Jennie and mentioned her smile... Well she does, she's certainly made me laugh a time or two anyway.
I think of a smile from anyone big or small, young or old as a ray of sunshine and in its own right it is to be cherished and indeed nurtured for what it is and what it means and what it brings.
Keep her smiling Richard and you'll be doing alright. If she stops - duck. But then with the grace and speed that you move I can see that you have clearly experienced what I'm talking about!!
Enough then, except to go full circle and say..
"Father of the Bride" - yes.. the feeling of pride is quite indescribable.. So before it drifts to an end, with my blessing Richard love her and you will feel the full force of her love - and that is something you will never want to be without.
I wish you both all the happiness that life can bring, enjoy it!!"
- Peter Smith, June 24th 2000.
My Dad was a very affectionate man, especially towards me. There is no doubt in my mind that he adored me and this piece of paper reaffirmed that in my mind the other day and so today, I am smiling, just for him...
Ok!!! sooooooooooo 2010 is an official 'washout' of a year already and it's only March.. I would like to propose an end to this, the second worst year of my life (second to 2008 which was THE worst year of my life) and feel we should make a speedy jump into 2011 now please.. yes I realise we have done this before and all of you poor people that lost a birthday last time will lose another including me (due to hit the big 35 this time) and my hubby Ricardo who is due to hit 40.. I sincerely doubt he'll be bothered about missing that one though..lol.
Why? I hear you asking.. why would we like to obliterate 2010 from memory?
Well.. this morning's tale starts with the evening of the 9th February.. the kids are in bed (yes I'm including Rich in that one..lol) and I am turning off lights and feeding the cat and heading that way myself.. up the stairs I go, checking the door is locked and the windows closed on the way of course..
I sink into my nice warm bed next to my snoring husband and close my eyes... Two minutes later (well it feels like 2 minutes its actually 6 hours later) I'm woken with the words..
"Jen get up, we've been burgled.."
WHAT?!?!?!?!
You know that sinking feeling you get sometimes when something has gone wrong? You go all hot and cold at the same time and then that clammy feeling as you go to visually confront the thing that you don't want to see because as you're sitting there on the edge of the bed in your pj's not looking at it you can almost pretend you dreamt the words and if you just slide back into bed when you wake up in another hour it will have gone away and wont really have happened at all?? Yeah... I got that.
But... being the woman I am I got out of bed.. primarily to shout at my husband for running up and down the stairs - I didn't want the children awake!! LOL
Downstairs I go to find an unusual sight. There are towels and laundry all over the floor... hmm.
Rich is pacing and the cat is shaking (my poor cat had been downstairs the whole time), the place is freezing (back door open) and my car (amongst other things) is missing.
It seems that some tw*t (my descriptive skills can think of no other more suitable, less sweary word although they can think of much better swear words to describe them.. if u would like a list of these please email at the usual place..lol) has decided that they are entitled to the things in my house and also that they would like to take them away... in my car!!!
They came in through the conservatory door at the back - which I will just add it takes them approximately 9 (yes NINE) seconds to bust the lock and open so please... invest in new locks on your upvc doors and windows - and have helped themselves to my hard earned things.
In the winter our conservatory is quite chilly and is basically used as a utility/storage place and I had been on a washing spree, the clean laundry was in a pile on the sofa ready to go upstairs and be put away.. they'd spread it across the wooden floor to minimise sound and prevent leaving foot prints as it was wet outside. clever little shits. Of course they were gloved too and so there were no finger prints.
Thankfully a very kind lady found a bag they had stolen with a diary in it and had called me to say she found it later that day and the police found the car in the evening but everything else taken was lost.
They took the kids nintendo wii and DS lite, Rich's coat which had Heather's purse in it (she was gutted) 2 handbags, 2 laptops, some jewellry and my designer perfume and No..before you ask, I am NOT happy that some burgling scroat's girlfriend is walking round the local estate smelling like my Valentino perfume.. They left the big tv but i think that was because I'm such a scruffy bitch and the wires at the back of my tv resemble spaghetti junction - a fact I will not be changing because they'd obviously tried to unplug it and failed miserably HAHA.
The most upsetting thing was that in the sideboard I had a little box.. and in this little box was a lock of my Dad's hair, his 2 watches and Jake's baby teeth and they took that too. Bastards.
So that was February... and the reason for my absence as obviously, we've had no computers to connect to the internet. Thankfully we were insured and we're now just about back to where we were (with the exception of the insurance excesses and cost of new locks etc.. all in all this burglary has cost me a fortune that I can't claim back) although we're still waiting for the car back because the little buggers ragged it to buggery and knackered the axle .. yeah I have NO idea what that means either... I just drive it. lol
But in all of this there was some good news.. yes.. the day of the burglary was on Parents evening. My daughter is a genius (Heather) and her sister is a chatterbox (Lina) and their brother has his head in a literacy fog somewhere... BUT I won the raffle!!!!!!!!! LOL So yes.. thanks to the lovely ladies at school I got a bottle of wine and some chocolates..
Since then the thieving little buggers have been caught but will probably only get a slap on the wrist. I have to say though that the police at the station in my little village were absolutely brilliant, from PC Buckley that was first on the scene and made my kids feel safe again with her brilliant idea of "Buckley's Bedtime Basket" (see below**) to the community policeman Paul who came to see us a few days later to check we were ok and to give us one of those special postcode pen things and everyone in between, the finger print lady.. the guys that found the car.. they were all brilliant so big kudos to the West Yorks Police Dept and thanks for your help!!
So.. moving on to 2011 now, who's with me?? lol
** Buckley's Bedtime Basket. - Everyone should have one, get a basket and get the kids to put their special things in it before they go to bed, the DS.. their purses, mum and dad's phones n stuff, handbag etc and the last person to go up to bed takes the basket up. according to the police a burglar that enters your home at night rarely goes upstairs so take your things with you... dont ever leave your keys in your bag (like I did.. lol).
So.. the Savage's get a basket and jake puts his new DS in it, Heather puts her new purse in and Angelina puts in the head from her Simon Cowell Bobble head doll... just the head "Cos that is the most precious-est bit int'it Mummy??" Serious. no lie. f*ckin nearly pissed myself. Love my kids..lol
Had my annual bath (it being January) heheh.. I'm kidding of course but something strange happened whilst I was in there..
Happily bathing am I, it's peaceful.. all the children have already pee'd and there's no danger of my peacefulness being disturbed...or is there??
Well of course there is otherwise I wouldn't be writing this..lol.
But seriously, why do they do that? When I run a bath I ALWAYS ask everyone in the house if they require the use of the bathroom before I get in.. I MAKE the children go pee.. I warn my darling husband (on pain of death) that if he does not go now he may not change his mind in 10 minutes when I am relaxing under all the lovely bubbles, even if his bowels are threatening to explode..
So why is it then when Mum gently lowers herself into the lovely warm water some little sod (for want of a better word to describe my angelic children) taps on the door and says....
"Mummy... I need a wee..."
and then in traipses the first child desperate for a wee, now I'm not daft.. I know that once this child has been allowed to enter that the others will quickly follow and the last one always needs to go one further and do a big poo and the smell lingers long after they've gone again...lol.
So knowing my fate is sealed and my peaceful moment is over I do the necessary and wash and then do my hair and decide I should quickly shave whilst I'm here cos that leg looks a bit hairy and.... wtf?
I have one hairy leg and one bald one. o_O
Feeling a little confused I check under my arms and sure enough I have one hairy and one bald..
"ok srsly now.. wtf is going on?" I say as I double check and sure enough one bald and one hairy...all kids of things start to run through my head..
"How is that possible?"
"I'm a freak.. I have lost the ability to grow hairs down the left side of my body...left side of my body.. oh God that can't be good..."
"Whats going on??"
"OMG Is my hair gonna start falling out?!?!?!?!"
"Have I still got my left eyebrow??"
I'm stood up in the bath now trying to lean out to look in the mirror over the sink and trying not to break my back or something as I check I still have both my eyebrows and at that moment my smallest child (Heather, not youngest but definitely shortest..as Angelina likes to remind everyone lol) enters the room, gives me a cheeky grin and a "Hi Mum..", whips down her pants and starts to do the stinkest poo in the history of bowel movements..ever.
She sits there smiling and swinging her legs and I remember that during the previous bath a mere couple of days earlier she'd done the same.. infact I remember the smell was so bad that I had to get out of the bath and leave the room..
in the middle of shaving my legs......!!!!
Relieved, I start laughing and Heather starts laughing (she has no idea why though..) and then the smell hits me... and I fly out of the bath and leave the room..with one bald leg and armpit and one hairy... still.. I should go fix that actually, whilst she's still at school!!!
What has made you sad? I hear you asking... ok well I don't but dammit you should be!!!
well to be honest.. its this..
(****DOCTOR WHO SPOILER ALERT!!!! Do NOT read if you weren't one of the 10 million watching last night or if you don't want to know...lol****)
now if it'd just been that then I maybe could have coped but it wasn't just that was it? No... cos first we had this
and if that wasn't bad enough I was blubbing too.. because he gave us the line..
"I don't want to go!!"
followed by this..
WTF?!?!?!?!
Look at his face...He's crying!!!!
he's crying.. I'm crying... it was a regular little blub-fest going on over here (ok ok I was blubbing way before the regeneration business but still..).
So Mr Russell T Davies... what the hell are you trying to do to me?
I'm distraught. My son is gutted and it's just not on!!! I wouldn't mind but I don't really see the need to regenerate him into a new Doctor. He managed perfectly well sending the Time Lords packing and the Master with them.. all on his lil own and I think it was just mean of you to turn him into much less tastier bloke for the next series.
Bring back David.. Look..see how pretty he is.. *le sigh* and look! He even likes kitties... he's perfect!!
What will we do without him? Well we'll watch the new one wont we?? yep.. but we're only watching so we can moan and complain about how rubbish he is and how much he is not Mr Tennant.. yeah and we will be MOST vocal about it too.. or I will anyway..lol
Who decided Tennant could make his own decisions anyway? How rude...
So goodbye for now Mr Tennant, you'll be missed.. but in the meantime..
can I have your shirt please?? You wont be needing it anymore... lol
