Can you all hear me at the back?

Just testing

Wed, 14 May 2008 20:59:24 GMT

Just testing - please delete

http://canyouallhearmeattheback.blogspot.com

Mad woman again

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:59:55 GMT

Got to be quick here cos they'll cut me off in a minute. I feel that I got in by the back door! I am going to be offline for a little while - not too long I hope - and then I will get back to business if I possibly can.

A bientot

love, Angie, xx

from the mad woman in the attic!

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:49:26 GMT

One more go. ONE MORE GO, I say! That person - I am reliably informed it's Joanna Lumley - has just "Goodbye-ed" me yet again. I'm writing this from notes I've been keeping during this week when I couldn't use the computer. They're a bit disjointed, which brings them into line with their owner. Anyhow, bear with me as you wade your way through this lot:

Monday 7 April I think I have lost the will to live. I thought about chucking myself out the window but Keith says it's not very effective in a bungalow and anyway, he's just jetted all the paths. He says I'd be better to have my teeth pulled and eat salted crisps. NICE! He'll cut himself one day. If he doesn't I will (joke - I think).

Wednesday 9 April - I'm writing this at the kitchen table in the forlorn hope that I might one day get back among you. I know now how Robinson Crusoe must have felt. Not a friend in the world and AOL HATES me. They also hate any sort of anti virus software as well it seems.

Our Kate came on Saturday and after she'd had to mess about a bit she got it loaded on and it seemed all was hunky dory. Until I tried to get in on Sunday and couldn't, not even through internet explorer. Everything had gone haywire. My password was persona non grata everywhere. Thank God I had already paid my Visa Bill.

OH BOO-HOO.

Thursday 10 April -

I've just had a thought. Isn't it just typical eh? I've only just cancelled all possible paper bills thinking I could get them online. Hmm? Can't even see if there's any money in the bank. I've written a poem (with apologies to our Motherhen)

If only I was a boffin,

I could stop all this sighin' and soughin',

I could say "What? A hi-at-us?

Good-oh then, send it on at us

And I'll jolly soon send it packin'

If I was only a boffin.

Sadly, a boffin I'm not;

In fact, I know not a lot;

But one thing I know

(You'll agree that it's so)

Most ISP's ought to be shot.

(See wat I did there? Stopped short of mentioning AOL .....oooer....woops!)

Well, one problems not solved is Joanna Flaming Lumley. I've had to do this in lots of little emails as She even got rid of one of them for me.

Later on Thursday (Post-Boffin) -There have been one or two highlights this week. Today the postman popped a lovely cookbook devoted to cakes and desserts through my letterbox. MarieAliceJoan (formerly of Marie's Muses) sent it after I won it in one of her giveaway draws over on the the site she does just now. Thanks Marie, it's lovely. If you only knew how you'd cheered me up...........! If you used to eagerly await Marie's Muses every day then you really ought to visit her at http://ayearatoakcottage.blogspot.com/ . It's very similar in content with scrumtious recipes and photos. But there are other odd little bits and pieces. Go and have a look. The site itself takes a couple of days getting used to but it's lovely.

Er, I'm sure there was something else good about this week but it escapes me for the time being. I'llwrite it down if I remember tomorrow and I'll be back over the weekend (I hope)

Angie, xx

Got to let my daft out

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:43:33 GMT

Well I never! When my new Bus Pass arrived today (got on grounds of disability I hasten to add, not age, not yet!), I made a mental note never to buy a Webcam. That’s what they were using to take the photos with when I queued up to apply: you sit by this person with a computer, answer their questions, gaze into their webcam and ZAP you’re done, next please. Mark my words, that photo is even worse than any passport photo you can imagine. I only actually applied because I can. Can’t see me getting on a bus though because I could never cock my leg up high enough. Some of them are the low entry type but you can’t tell if YOURS will be. Tell you what though, if I could get on a bus, I certainly wouldn’t mess about driving into town, not with a free pass! Wouldn't that be good for my carbon footprint?

I think what our garden needs is a Bird Table. Everyone’s journals seem to be mentioning the plethora of bird life and all we ever get is little sparrers tweeting in the bushes and pigeons making merry on the chimney pot. Oh, the pigeons do sometimes sortie down and have a chomp at Keith’s would-be winter cabbages. It’s like a sort of post-coital fag to them. If we had a bird table maybe some really interesting birds would pay a visit. I mentioned it to Keith and his eyes lit up. Huh!

We used to have an automatic bird feeder a few years ago. It was made by Morphy Richards and how it worked was you stood it on the window-sill at Breakfast time, opened the window, put 2 slices of bread in and pressed the handle and a few minutes later out would fly 2 perfectly done bits of toast, through the window and land on the yard. Our dog used to have a Pavlovian reaction to it. As soon as she heard the handle pressed down she would go haring out the back door to sit under the dining room window with her mouth open!

I wonder if I can put any photos on yet?

Bleak Saturday

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:33:23 GMT

What I do really hope is …… oh, bother, it took me so long messing about to find this font I’ve forgotten what it is I really do hope!

I’ve been having a messing about day with this computer. I made the terrible mistake of ditching Norton Anti-virus in favour of McAfee. I didn’t really expect to be able to load it all by myself, duffer that I am, but I did think I might get past the first screen! It wouldn’t let me go any further but dint say why. My friend Linda reckons that any stray vestige of Norton will keep Anything else out so I should get rid. “It’s not easy,” she said, “I had to get A Man in to do mine.” Oh No!

Well I hadn’t a clue how to do all this ‘getting rid’ anyway, though I nodded sagely at the telephone. I thought I’d better have a bit of a look round, see if anything sprang out at me.

I found a bit where I could alter the size of what’s on the screen. Ahhh, that’s better. I can read it now. I found where I could choose Radio 4 as one of ‘mine’ but then couldn’t hear it, though the volume appeared to be at max.

Then, nitty gritty time, a Wizard told me there was no Norton 2005 on the computer. Well, I know that - it’s 2007. Before that it was 2006 and before that the computer was a twinkle in the boffin’s eye. Well! I found a couple of little icons in a long list of what’s installed that referred to Norton and to Symantec and, screwing up my courage, hit delete on one of them. A box popped up telling me I can’t delete that one as it’s needed to run all the others. What others? It doesn’t exist, it told me so. Well, I never did! And I simply dare not go to the other one and try to delete that instead in case it let me do it and it turned out I shouldn’t have!

I don’t know what to do now. I bought it online and of course it’s paid for so I’ll have to do it somehow. Everybody else seems to sail through these things but not moi. I just feel very very silly. I’ll have to see if our Kate can come and bail me out again.

Well, that’s my day. I think I’ll go have a good cry now

ANGIE, xxxx

not me, yer honour!

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:18:24 GMT

Awwwww I've done it wrong AGAIN!!! It's not MY birthday. It's actually Sandra at Sandra's Scribbles. I hadn't realised it read that way until I read your comments! I already had my birthday in January, and as only the Queen is allowed to have 2 birthdays.......... <<s,o,r,r,y>>

Night-night,

Angie, xx

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:25:38 GMT

This, about other women in our lives, came to me in an email from a close friend today and suggested I pass it on to others. 'Others' is you!

Someone will always be prettier. Someone will always be smarter. Some of their houses will be bigger. Some will drive a better car. Their children will do better in school. And their husband will fix more things around the house.

So let it go, and love you and your circumstances. Think about it! The prettiest woman in the world can have hell in her heart. And the most highly favored woman on your job may be unable to have children. And the richest woman you know, she's got the car, the house, the clothes~~~~ might be lonely. And the Word says, 'If I have not Love, I am nothing.'

So, again, love you. Love who you are. Look in the mirror in the morning and smile and say, 'I am too Blessed to be Stressed and too Anointed, to be Disappointed!' 'Winners make things happen~~ Losers let things happen.' Be 'Blessed' Ladies~~~~~ and pass this on to encourage another woman. 'To the world you might be one person,but to the one person you just sent this to, it could mean so much.

Have a lovely day everyone, specially if it's your birthday and specially if you're 56 today (heh-heh)

Love,

Angie, xx

tHE WOULD-BE PICTURES

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:19:20 GMT

Just LOOK at this!

(SORRY, YOU CAN'T LOOK AT KEITH'S EASTER CAKE BECAUSE AOL WON'T ALLOW IT!) If anyone wants a peep, leave a comment and we'll see if I can send you a photo via an email reply.

Keith did it. Well, he found the cake, a madeira I made ages ago, in the freezer, but the decoration is his own. Easter Sunday morning I was ordered not to go in the kitchen when I finally scraped myself out of bed at 7.15. He whipped up fresh cream, bought a bag of maltesers (used some and ate the rest), squeezed some leftover chocolate sugarpaste through the potato ricer and grated some yellow sugarpaste to make a bird's nest, set maltesers in it for 'eggs' and rolled out and embossed some more yellow sugarpaste like a broken egg yolk, which it all sat on. Then he gave it a light sprinkling of icing sugar (because it snowed yesterday, he said). I was so touched by the whole thing, even his inadvertant Easter symbolism of the eggs in a nest (a promise of new life and good things to come), sitting on the broken yolk (Jesus' poor broken body). I might send this to Cake magazine, see if they'll publish it. Their readers are used to things that are a bit posher than this but, for the love and effort that went into it, they ought to be glad to see it.

Being quite serious for a moment: I'm beginning to think the Olympic Games ought to be abandoned this year. I'm not a political sort of crittur but I do read the paper and in view of what's been happening in Tibet and China's attitude to it, I don't think China is worthy of the honour of hosting the Games. What does anyone else think?

All of a sudden my computer requires me to spend MONEY on it. Money for goodness' sake. I've had to buy a new set of print cartridges today. The whole lot, it won't let you print with less thanthe full complement. And up came the dreaded box telling me my anti-virus will expire in 3 days and advising me to get my finger out quick. I should have taken notice of it before I suppose, I mean it's been coming up every day for a month! Now, it won't let me download it until my money is safely in their bank, which could be a few days.

Just for a change we got a bit more than just a sprinkling of snow but, as ever, it was almost gone by teatime and we're just left with the stubborn bits where there's no sun or people have cleared their drives.

AT THIS POINT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO SEE PHOTOS OF SAID SNOW BUT AOL LET ME DOWN - AGAIN!

Hey, here's a thought, give it six weeks and we could be having a heatwave! Well you never know. Maybe even less than that.

love,

ANGIE, XXXXX

She tried........but could have done better

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:09:35 GMT

I've just been having an email natter with Sandra (Scribbles) about our early schooling. Like me, she was advanced with her reading but, also like me, not good with 'sums', as we used to call them. For me, the sheer persistence of junior school teachers ensured that certain things just suddenly 'clicked'.

Mr. Coom threatened to throw me out of the recorder band if I didn't pay more attention to learning my times tables. Actually, he also threatened to throw me out the window but the only person who believed him was me! That was probably the clincher! Believe it or not, the instant the five times table took root in my mind, telling the time was the glorious blossom which rewarded me. There were only clocks with hands then so you had to learn it. And to this day I know my tables and I can add up and take away quite successfully. Once Mr. Skinner explained that division was only 'sharing' things, that mystery was cleared up too. I do have a bit of pity for those kids today who are not taught these things in case they get bored. Not much though.

When I was having the Great Filing Cabinet Clear Out last weekend (was it?) I came across all my school reports from age 7 to 17 when I left. I haven't looked at them for years. I always thought science subjects were my Achilles Heel but I was surprised to see several comments in Chemistry throughout Grammar School that "Angela tries very hard even though she finds the subject difficult". Fancy that now! The chemistry teacher was an Irishman and I could barely understand what he was saying, never mind "try hard"! It becomes very clear that when they say "She does her best", what they really mean is "I'm afraid she's doing her best". But Maths and Physics were by far the worst. It was in the physics lab where my lifelong hatred of the smell of Bakelite began. I can't even remember why that was but there was something on each bench made of bakelite and I hated it. When I first worked at British Steel in the late 60's my office phone was bakelite and I used to squirt it with all sorts to mask that smell.

I went to my sis's yesterday and she put a colour on my hair. I was supposed to have had it done at the hairdresser's on Tuesday but they wanted £52 for the job. It was £42 last time I had it done just before Christmas so I thought a £10 increase was a bit much. I just had it trimmed. They charged me £17 just for that! I dont know what other places charge, maybe £17 is quite reasonable, but when you think how many of those they could do in an hour...........

We were supposed to be going to Lincoln today but when he saw what a pig the weather was Keith decided to do a Great Scrub of the cooker instead. That put paid to the Easter biscuits I was going to make. Can't do them tomorrow either because that is the Great Scrub of the kitchen walls. Oh, we shall be so clean and sparkling by Monday I'll be able to take tonsils out on the kitchen table!!

See you soon,

Second time today

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:17:00 GMT

Here I am again, second time today. I was going to wait until tomorrow but every time I think that something always comes up that prevents me so strike while the iron's hot:

I had a bit of paper right here on the desk with memos of things I wanted to write about, and where is it? Gone. That's where. The thing has been knocking around for a week or more, gawping at me so I feel guilty about not doing an entry. I should think it'll be in the shredder along with half the contents of the filing cabinet! I did a massive spring cleaning job on the filing cabinet over the weekend because I couldn't get into it any new stuff. I realise now that I didn't sort it out last year, and this is where bone idleness gets you. Paper all over the place and missing blog notes.

It's not just me who has been having a turn-out though. Keith has a week off work this week and is going round the house like a whirling Dervish (I wonder what one of them is?). Windows are all cleaned, carpets hoovered, furniture polished, even silk flowers painstakingly dusted. Honestly, it's like living with Aggie and Kim! In fact I might just get him a pressie of some yellow marigolds with faux fur stuck on. (for our friends across the Atlantic, Aggie and Kim are a pair of cleaning gurus on TV. You either love 'em or hate 'em!).

I am grateful though, really I am. I can't do a lot of the things without his help and you never hear him complaining about any of it. Now, here I am, resident on the computer, and he has just popped out to fetch a couple of hundred bricks and some sand and cement. He has noticed that little baby frogs - or toads, I don't know which - are hopping back through the hedge from next door to live on the concrete hardstanding which used to house a small shed and now is a little fenced compound for the dustbins. They used to live there before but 'hopped it' (ho ho) next door when we took the shed down. Now they're back so he is going to take out that bit of hedge and build a bit of wall...........I wonder how high frogs can jump? Anyhow, that's while I go swanning off to my sis to get my hair coloured. Anyway, the point is that I go swanning off while he does all this slaving. He reckons it saves me the bother of having to mooch around being horrid to him!

The daughter of the late Sid-next-door called in the other day and gave me some lovely flowers but neither of us knows what they're called. I don't think I've ever seen any before. Here's a picture - any ideas?

This is what the inside looks like inside:

It's 'Have a Dig at Delia' week again! I'm pleased to see Delia back on our telly screens but, as always when she does something - ANYTHING - the know-alls start crawling out of the woodwork. This series, she's showing how to make perfectly presentable meals in double quick time. How to make a cottage pie, for instance, using tinned mince (groud beef) and Aunt Bessie's frozen mash and ready grated cheddar cheese. She calls it Cheating and so do I and why not eh? It IS cheating and we all do it. I don't care who's cooking, we all cheat at times. Who goes to the trouble of using dried red kidney beans for their chilli? They have to be soaked, boiled, simmered.......no thanks, tinned are fine. Who, these days, even if they have all the time in the world, messes about making their own flaky pastry? Not many, I wager, when you would have to be Mr. Super-Chef to tell it from frozen. No. Delia-digging is in vogue, but not by me. She is still the best 'celebrity chef' we have, bar none, but while most of the others are good entertainment, she is sheer practical common sense.

Just while I think on, here's the completed 30th birthday cake you had a sneak preview of

Just in case I don't get another chance before weekend, I hope everyone has a blessed and peaceful Easter, full of the joy and hope our Saviour brings.

Love, Angie xx