A looonngg interval between posts

caused mainly by chest infections (BH and me), cold weather - I think our energy bill will be through the roof this winter as BH really feeling the cold.  Bedroom is something like Hawaii without the surfers and the beach.  Four hot water bottles in bed every night since September, heating on 24 hours and the darling little wood stove doing it very best to pumps out heat on us.  Dog and cats revelling in it.  My eyes are like Sahara desert and have to keep using artifical tears to stay hydrated.

Life has been a bit dreary - hate those grey days but we have had a fair amount of freezing but sunny days which are such a joy.  And we have been so lucky in the north west not to have all the floods and snow that have been inflicted on other areas.

Thankfully had hair cut and coloured last week and feel like a newly shorn piece of old mutton.  Always good when the length of hair is shorter and new style and colour much more sympathetic to the great age which I shall achieve soon, God willing.  Appear to be going out quite a lot to dine in celebration which is always good.

Have been feeling a bit down with all the damned committee stuff thrown up by art group but have decided to go my own way - that wasn't really a decision though, was it?  I always go my own way and throw a tantrum when others don't accede to my wishes, spoilt old trout that I am!  But lots of exciting exhibitions and workshops arranged and it will be good to see it all come together.

Hattie the Smellie is being very naughty; not only does she hoover up any stray crumbs dropped from the table but she scoops up any stray cat food left lying around and scavenges the most horrible crap from the field where we take our daily walks.  So for the last couple of mornings I have been confronted by huge amounts of smelly disgusting poo - not pleasant and not fair to cats whom I was originally inclined to blame.  And the farting is appalling.  I can't resist her Dobby ears and sad eyes though.

Then big cat decided to steal a sausage from under grill where it was keeping warm and later in the day helped herself to some steak from the casserole dish!  Something she has never done before.  Is Hattie teaching her to become a cat burglar or did she always have the knowledge but not the balls, as it were? 

Beloved sister coming to stay for a few days so must clean up or will fail the inspection!

Herding cats

is easier than trying to organise committees particularly when one person tries to bulldoze everyone else into her scheme of things.  Always hard to jolly eeryone along into some semblance of agreement and harmony.  So the art group isn't running as smoothly as I would wish but mainly because of the one member so not much to grumble about.  Especially as we seem to have hit the mother lode for our exhibition later in the year - it's very exciting and I hope it all turns out to be as good as we think it may.   So committee meeting next week when it will be like herding cats to get anyone to vote properly or stick to the agenda.  But it's fun when it's over and we get down to the artistic bits and pieces.  and of course if I am truthful, I am just as one-track minded as the other party so should not complain - hahaha, that just sounded so insincere.

So what's new pussycat?  Trying to make more room in study/studio ready for visit from art tutor on Saturday.  Back to classes tomorrow and Thursday.  Mammogram Thursday too and must arrange eye test and hearing test - oh it's all go, innit?

pastels workshop on Friday which I really hope will be fun.  If it is boring, I shall be cross cross cross.  I should love to arrange a printing workshop but the tutor can only make early evening and it's hard to sort out suitable venue and drum up enthusiasm for that time of evening.

Am looking forward to being taken out for lunch on my birthday by old friend, her daughter and my daughter.  Jamie's, naturally.  Then we were to go there again on the Monday evening with a different group but that has all fallen through rather as not everyone could make the date.  Beside BS is coming down on the Monday to spend a day or two with me so it will be nice to go out with her, and perhaps one of her friends.  Also to see DD on the Wednesday.  She is batting around the country like some free range shuttlecock as she is covering two people's jobs again.  This recession is really hell for the few people who are actually working as they seem to be expected to cover every missing job without complaint and to expect no time of their own.  These MPs should be forced to actually do other people's work for an entire month with no help or extra pay and see how they like to travel a mile in someone else's shoes. 

DD says MBF and I should form a focus group for some of our concerns instead of ranting and raving about everything in sight but would it do any good?  Would anyone listen?  Who knows?  I shall go to sleep and hope that the answer is revealed to me in a dream.  If it was good enough for the prophets, it should be good enough for me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

What will this year bring to us, I wonder.  A little commonsense from the politicians, I hope, bringing back some much needed financial stability and less warlike mutterings.

A quietly pleasant New Year's Eve with BH - drinking cassis which is a first for both of us!  Wine and spirits all seemed a little too heavy and we were not in the mood for an alcofrolic gathering so we toasted our toes at an increasingly efficient wood stove, watched some television and the fireworks at the nearby care home and at Belle Vue Greyhound Stadium and Speedway Track - obviously not used at the same time but on different evenings of the week.  They always put on a spectacular demonstration on NYE and so on which we can see clearly from our living room.  Ahh, a cheap form of entertainment.

Must write some thank you cards for the delightful gifts I have received this christmas, many of them   featuring The Big Bang Theory, a television programme which I really enjoy, being funny and educational at the same time.  who knew about string theory, or Schroeder's cat?  And the definition of physics?

DD has lent me the Hairy Biker's dieting cookbook - like so many others I have tried over the years, it simply means cutting out the carbs and concentrating on healthy protein but I'll give it a whirl.  I received so many lovely items of clothing for Christmas that it would be churlish not to try and svelte myself into them...

Also watched John Bishop, the Liverpudlian comedian, last night.  he is funny and an acute observer of people, perhaps most comedians are and perhaps that's what we find funny - watching someone show us what we secretly know about ourselves - that we are all bonkers.

Must get my diary and calendar organised for 2013 now, starting with trip to dentist tomorrow!  Yet another visit to protect my dilapidated old peggies...