George Mansions

I am on the verge of a new life.

For the last twenty four years I have gone out to work. Until six years ago it was full time work. None of it was easy and much of it was working to tight deadlines.

While living in Cardiff I left home at 8 am , either travelling by car (nightmare) or train and bus (different kind of nightmare). I would return home at 6.15pm to a family that needed sorting with homework, scouts, difficult friends, dinner to be cooked, gardening and once a month returning home for a weekend with parents (Father who had had a stroke and was totally disabled) then there were other serious health issues in the family. Not to mention the logistics of two children that had to have a weekend with their Dad in Worcester and two other children that needed to come to spend time with their Dad in Wales.

When we moved back to Worcester life was not much easier. The children, who hadn’t wanted to move to Wales, now didn’t want to be back in Worcester.

Unfortunate choices in boyfriends and girlfriends led to court appearances for stalking/assaulting partners and ineffectual court orders left us, bemused, tired, frightened and fearful.

The stalking girlfriend ended up in prison, where oddly she was able to ring us, even though she was in prison for doing that same thing (270 time in one day alone) and all the time I was working for a large company that allowed workplace bullying. No, I will correct that, encouraged workplace bullying.

I was signed off with stress for five weeks at that time and I was one of many in the company to be signed off with the same cause. I’d never heard of such a thing before.

Moving to work at school was a great relief but even that has become a stressful environment now.

It will be wonderful to not have to spend forty minutes travelling just over four miles. WORCESTER NEEDS ANOTHER RIVER BRIDGE!!!! And I won’t be a punch bag for children under the age of ten any more.

So, from the 1st of October, I shall be working from home and for the first time in a very long time I shall feel in control of my life. (I hope)

Two weeks ago I went for a weekend at The Mercian Gathering. A Pagan Festival. It was as Satanic as Morris Dancing or dancing round The Maypole.

There was some ritual stuff, which was to celebrate the old Gods but it was just dressing up and , well, it’s hard to describe but it was just about loving the earth and the way the earth provides for us.

Nothing sinister and the whole weekend was about peace and harmony and love for the world we live in and the people around us.

There were talks and workshops, where you could learn how to make things like garlands,

(Hair care didn't feature much over the weekend and all over baby wipes was the best alternative to the muddy showers.)

or instruments and different types of healing. There was the Healing Tent, where you could go for free treatments in Reiki. Spiritual Healing, Reflexology, Indian Head Massage and probably other things that I have forgotten.

It rained most of the weekend apart from the time of the rituals.

Then it stopped raining half an hour before each event and started again soon after we finished. People said to us, "The Goddess won't let us down" and they were right, she didn't.

The rain and the mud didn’t spoil things at all. We just wore wellies and got on with it.

Saturday night was brilliant with two bands playing. Ehdless Knot were superb and I would definitely go to see them again. It was the first time I have ever spent the night dancing in my wellies. I had a fantastic time. Unfortunately Catherine was more tired than I was and she went to bed when the band had a short break at about 11.30. So when I went back to the tent at 12.30, she was fast asleep.

I then found I couldn’t remove my wellies!! Having worn them all day, they'd now become welded to my socks! No matter how I tried, they were stuck. I didn’t want to wake Catherine, as she was obviously tired and I seemed to be somewhat incapacitated by the wine I had drunk and the blackberry leaf cigarettes I’d smoked. Not quite sure why I did the latter, it just seemed a good idea at the time!!

So, at 1.15 am I was getting rather agitated about my still, tightly attached wellies and was getting a serious stich in my side from the contortions on the end of my camp bed. I had a pair of sharp scissors and was seriously thinking of cutting them off but as they were Hunter’s and cost £50, I was a bit loath to.

I then hit on the idea of kicking my heels viciously into the ground and thankfully they gradually they came free.

I had gone to the event with my sister, niece and daughter and we all agreed we had such a great time, we have to go again next year. Surely, if we could have a wonderful time in such appalling weather, it could only be better next year?

Last weekend was the annual Black Country Boating Festival and this year Mike was able to come with me. Again, like most things this summer, it was muddy underfoot but we still enjoyed it.

In the week we went toHergest Croft where they open their gardens daily to the public during the better months of the year (What are they please?) 

  Mike did an interview with the owner and we had a bit of a mooch around. They have a tearoom, where you can get a very nice cake…so we did.

I’m off to see my team, West Bromwich Albion, play Aston Villa tomorrow. There will be a huge crowd, as it’s a local Derby. Just hope it’s worth the petrol!!

PS Here's a wedding photo from my last entry.

Yes, it has been a long time!

I missed my 3 year anniversary of George Mansions, that was on the 20th August. I’m not going to make excuses for the dearth of entries. It has been for various reasons but the chief one is I’ve been ill for almost the whole of the six week summer holiday. I’ve been suffering from a virus, at least, I think that’s what it was and I’ve been in a very dark place for weeks.

The school holidays started so well, the first week the weather was good and I spent hours at a time working on the allotment and was feeling really good, there were so many things I planned to do. On the Wednesday Catherine and I took Isabella to a Teddy Bear's Picnic in aid of the local Hospice. Isabella had a lovely time and went in the paddling pool.

The weather at the end of that first week was wonderful and on the Saturday night I went with my friend Lucy to the open air Bretforton Silver Band Concert. We took a picnic and watched the fireworks that went on until after 11pm. I don’t think I got a chill but somehow I didn’t feel right after then.

On the Monday Catherine phoned me from Pembrokeshire and said how wonderful the weather was and to get down there with my tent. So off I went, with the top down on my car. Got as far as Raglan and the heavens opened and that was it. Three soggy days in a tent and on the second night a gale blowing. Several tents blew down and I was woken at 1am by the inner part of my tent buffeting me and then I realised there were flashing lights , grown ups shouting and kids screaming. I’m thankfull that my tent withstood it all perfectly and Catherine’s had some small leaks but nothing too serious.

This is my tent

The next weekend was the Hen Day & Night of an old friend. I went to her first wedding 20 years ago. By day we had a minibus out to the Cotswolds for a country wine tasting experience. I have to say Carolyn, it was certainly that!! What a laugh!! Carolyn had booked it through the Internet. There was no charge, they just hope you’ll buy some of their products.

We arrived and the minibus driver thought he’d taken us to the wrong place and got out to check but no, it was the right place. How would I describe it? Overgrown, disused, derelict? Yep that would be about right.

The owner looked like he was prematurely old, or, was quite youthful for someone who was old. Can’t be sure on that one. Ageing hippy would describe him well and his socks and sandals were the topic of conversation for hours to come.

In the evening we went to a Ball at the Worcester County Cricket Ground , a beautiful setting, where Catherine and I got dressed up in posh frocks and then got quite drunk. I danced for hours, something I haven’t done for years.

Above, my usual, frozen, hurry up and take it pose!

I found at the end of the evening I was being chatted up by a chap with no front teeth. We’d been looking at him earlier when he was ’Dirty Dancing’ with someone that looked old enough to be his Dad in drag!!! Don’t know what happened to him/her. But we’d been told the chap with no teeth was Hungarian. When I found he’d joined my table I asked him where he came from, he replied Dudley, which nearly caused me to choke with laughter. He didn’t help matters when he apologised for the way he looked and explained ‘I’m in between teeth’. Actually, I know someone else from Dudley who has no front teeth, I wonder if it’s the latest thing back in my home land?

On the Monday it was obvious this slight unwellness was getting a grip and I’ve suffered from a sort of gastric flu, which turned into a sinus and chest infection ever since. It really turned bad when I went down to Plymouth the following Saturday, I was only a bit sniffley then but of course it was the second weekend of Factory Fortnight and it took SIX bloody hours to get to Plymouth. I normally do it in under three! But I had a lovely dinner out with Simon and Tori, even although I couldn’t taste much of it.

Then, coming back on the Sunday, I think it was while I was parked in the fast lane of the M5, somewhere near Weston, I decided to get out and get a magazine from the boot and my bottle of Conovia Cough Medicine and much to the amusement of the vehicles parked around, I started swigging cough medicine from the bottle. It was at that moment that I realised I was really not very well and was wondering about the possibility of getting the Air Ambulance to come and get me out of that five mile car park. So that was another six hour journey back home.

The following weekend was Caroline’s wedding, that was a blur, couldn’t taste a thing. I hardly knew where I was. The wedding was at 4 and we went home at 8.30. But she looked lovely, as always. I would show you a photo but for some reason AOHell won't upload any  photos from the day!!!!!! 

Since then I got worse and now I am slowly getting better.

So that was my miserable summer. I could mention the weather but that’s a topic best avoided.

Actually, it wasn’t all doom and gloom, I did manage a day out last Sunday with Lucy. It was our annual girlie day out and I was determined to go, dead or not!

Then we went a couple of miles down the road to Clevedon, a great favourite of Sir John Betjeman . It was a little windy but some rare sunshine too. We walked along the restored Pier. What a treat, it doesn’t have the usual amusement arcades. Every plank has 3 brass plaques of names of people who donated to the restoration. Not to mention larger plaques over the benches. You could spend the day reading the stuff that’s there and some are famous people, like John Craven, from his Newsround and Mike Read. Some of the comments are really amusing. Marriage proposals and all sorts

There's a two story building at the end of the Pier and as we approached it, we were delighted to find it was the Pagoda Tea Room, with a balcony that ran all the way around it.

They offered Cream Teas. Well, it would have been rude to decline, wouldn’t it?

Tomorrow I go back to school. I don’t feel at all rejuvenated but I shan’t worry about that because I shall be handing in my notice. At last I have the job of my dreams, I shall be working from home doing music research and at last, without it being in the slightest bit scandalous,….I get to sleep with the Boss!!!!!

It’s been more than a month since The Race for Life and I have been told off for not getting an entry in about it. Where has that time gone? For those who were wondering, no, I wasn’t hospitalised after the event, just madly busy. A big thank you to all those who sponsored me, I raised a total of just over £200, an amount matched by the other members of The Black Country Gob team.

It was a beautiful day

and everything went well for us. We didn’t do a wonderful time, due to the vast number of us cramming into paths, that were only wide enough for two at times.

The Black Country Gob team did it in an hour. My sister and niece went off with the runners at the front (very ambitious) and they got round in 35 minutes. Not bad but I don’t see the 2012 Olympics beckoning.

I would definitely like to do it again next year.

The following week there was the annual Year trip to The Butterfly Farm at Stratford upon Avon.  We also went on a boat trip on the River Avon, this is how the Royal Shakespeare Theatre is looking at the moment.

It rained almost all the time we were outside but it didn’t spoil the day. It was just a little annoying though to find ,when we returned to Worcester, only about 20 miles away, that it had been dry there all day! So I still had to go and water the allotment!

Then I went on a Year 2 trip, all day to Worcester Cathedral. I must say that I think a morning would have been enough, we were all flagging by half past two.

Two Friday’s ago it was the School Summer Fayre.

One of the teachers I work with got the chance to put into practice the 'Positive Handling' Course we went on recently, whilst restraining a truculent, oversized bear.

What hard work that  day was was. Humping tables and putting up Gazebos and later dismantling them.

We had the annual Family Picnic on the last Sunday in June. It rained but were we deterred, no, of course not, we’re British!

I would show you some pictures but AOL has decided to not let me. I'll try to put those in later.

Catherine and I have bought tickets for a sort of festival weekend in September, We shall be camping. The first time I have ever been to a camping event. I did have a tent on a farm in Mid Wales when I was eighteen but to be honest, the only thing I remember from that was the sex!! LOL!!! And being woken at 6 am by a sheep that had climbed onto the roof and was licking the canvas. I was with S H who was the first love of my life and we were together for nearly three years.

Anyway, Catherine and I are going to a sort of mystical, healing weekend, which also celebrates the Old Gods and therefore the seasons. I was talking about this in the Staff Room at school. We have a couple of ‘Happy Clappy’ Christians. They like to go on Christian camping weekends, yet you would have thought I had said I was going on a boil a baby weekend. I am totally tolerant of other people’s beliefs and religions but it strikes me that the more zealous you are of your own beliefs, the less tolerant you are of other people’s. This opinion was reinforced by watching Louis Theroux (sp?) recently who spent some months with a truly horrid religious group in America. They were billed as the most hated family in America. I can understand, after seeing the programme, why people would think that.

So when I return from the weekend, I shall take pleasure in showing off my photos of the Wicker Man ceremony because I believe I have as much right to my beliefs as anyone else and as we won‘t actually be hurting, or killing anyone, (unlike the film) and only trying to heal people and this ravaged land of ours, why would anyone have a problem with it? Who is to say who is right?

I’m up really early, as today is Race for life day. As Mum used to say, what’s the matter? Wet the bed?

I need to leave here before 8.30 and when the dawn chorus of Bird Scarers, on neighbouring farmland, woke me at 4.40, I just couldn’t get back to sleep.

The play was very, powerful and the acting excellent. The two characters are exhausted and sweating by the end of it, as it involves fighting and sex. But it’s not without moments of humour. Chloe had a short role at the end of the play and comes on to gasps from the audience because her appearance is so unexpected. I won’t say any more in case it spoils it for anyone who may be going to see it.

We were very proud of Chloe. I know Mike was a bit uncomfortable about the content of the play, his baby is only 13 after all. I asked her if she had heard the whole play and she said yes. I said, well I expect there was nothing that you haven’t heard before. She said, No, I hear it all the time at school. As she goes to a private all girls school in Bath, I found that rather amusing. Kids! They’re the same everywhere, regardless of wealth, background and social position.

We went for an early dinner afterwards, on the way back to the car, Chloe and her sister Abigail were in front and doing that thing where you bring your foot up behind you, while you’re walking, to kick the person you are walking alongside, on the bottom. I used to do that to Mike years ago, when we were first married and I was still young and supple. I thought I’d have a go again. So I did. Now the fact I was wearing high heels should have deterredme. But it didn’t. Mike, who should have known better said, that wasn’t very good, you used to be better. So of course I did it again, harder. As I put my foot back down, Mike side stepped, so I stepped on his foot and fell over! I really thought I’d broken my ankle but thankfully it seems I only sprained it! Dear me, will I ever grow up.? Hopefully not. LOL!

Simon was put on standby to be transferred to another submarine and could have gone to sea last weekend, so they gave him a few days off. He asked me to go down and stay with them for a couple of days. The weather was atrocious but it was good to see them and we had some lovely fish meals out while I was there. Platters in The Barbican is excellent. In the end he wasn’t transferred but he will be going to sea soon. I hate that. My step son-in law is away on his boat at present (That’s what they call submarines) and we don’t expect to see him until late summer. It’s hard having family in the forces.

Must go and get showered now and have some breakfast. I know we won’t be making a fast time but at least we are going to do our best and hopefully will be home before dark!!

This isn’t my normal entry. I’ve been so busy lately I’ve not had time to write about what’s been happening at George Mansions.

Apart from the allotment and a dozen other things, I have also been working on a website I am a Moderator of. It’s called Black Country Gob, it’s new and expanding, covering all aspects of life in The Black Country now and historically.

My particular interests are The Gallery, Local History, Recipes and Genealogy. My project this weekend was to trace the River Stour from its source to the point where it joins the River Severn at Stourport.

The photos of the Stour can be found here

I also want to help people searching the Internet for family, or historic photos by putting the links in here, as I believe the names should then come up in the Search Engines, at present the photos in the Gallery don’t. So for my regular readers, please excuse this post, I shall be back with a proper entry soon.

Linda x.

It looks as if Summer is finally on it’s way!! We’ve had two barbeques this week and at last we are getting the garden sorted. It’s been almost 10 months since we did any real work out there. We both lost heart after the terrible flood last July and for much of that time it has been too muddy to spend much time down there anyway.

We did some heavy pruning a couple of weeks ago and then the weather went off again but today we managed to have a bonfire to get rid of all the prunings (so much for our Carbon Footprint!),

Mike mowed what is left of the lawn

and I set about the flowerbeds.

There was still rubbish left from the floods last July.

Lots more to do but the improvement is considerable.

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I still haven’t quite made it to a loss of a stone at Fat Fighters but mine and Mike’s birthdays have scuppered that. I’m hoping that this week I will get there and with that in mind we’re eating fish. That’s what I cooked on the BBQ tonight. Basa, which is a lovely white fish and is apparently a Vietnamese Catfish. (oops, buggered up the Carbon Footprint again!!!). Salmon steaks and Cod Loin wrapped in Parma Ham. All of these are classed as ‘Free Food’ in Slimmer’s World, so, bring it on! I’ll eat as much as I like.

There’s a tale behind the Cod Loins. Wednesday evening, I had literally just parked my bum on the toilet seat, in the hope of wringing out the very last drops of anything, before going to be weighed at Fat Fighters, when there was a knock at the door.

It was Gustov. This is a man, who says he is South African but has the weirdest accent I’ve ever come across and he sells frozen food from a van. I have bought from him in the past but for thelast eighteen months I have made excuses. Now whether it was the urgent need to return to the loo, or what, I don’t know but somehow I ended up trotting, barefoot, up the drive to have a look at his frozen delights. I ended up parting with £38 for a large bag of HUGE Cod Loins. Having seen the price in Sainsbury’s lately, they seemed a pretty good buy and tonight, wrapped in Parma Ham and cooked in one of those vented, foil dishes on the BBQ, well, Mike and I had to keep telling ourselves, it was one of the best meals we have ever eaten.

I just love Sainsbury’s the salad was fresh cut from lettuce they now sell growing in a little pack and as I can’t have oil based dressing, salads could have been a bit dull but not now. I forked out £11 for a bottle of their finest Balsamic Vinegar. What!! you exclaim!! But it isn’t as mad as it sounds. A little splash onto salad, or new potatoes and there is no need for an oil based dressing and it lasts for ages. I bought this bottle last summer in a fit of indulgence, not knowing then it would turn into such a valuable resource now I am dieting.

The allotment is coming along well, I earthed up the potatoes on Tuesday and Sue planted her Broad Beans yesterday, I hope to go and plant mine tomorrow. My only concern now is, with the good weather, I am going to have to try and sort  out watering things, not a consideration until this week.

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A couple of nights ago I turned into 'angry Worcester Woman'. I think this was something from a Tony Blair campaign. They felt they had to target, middle class, middle England voters and hit on the idea of Worcester Woman. Well I am one very pissed off Worcester Woman, thanks to Gordon and his cronies. My job, which gets more arduous by the day, has just been awarded a derisory pay award, which doesn’t anywhere near touch inflation. Then, at the same time I lost the 10p tax band, which means (Thanks Gordon!) now, after my annual increase, I am £1.06 a month better off.

Gordon, realising he has made one almighty cock-up, has tried to pour oil on troubled waters by saying he will make amends by doing some jiggery pokery with the Family Credits and the Pension Credits. Well, whoopee doo!! I don’t qualify for either. So Gordon, mate, @@@@ off!

I wrote to David Cameron, telling him of my thoughts and situation and had a very nice e-mail back from some flunky.

All very nice but basically, Blah, Blah Blah!!

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Went on a day trip out with Year One, that was a surprise, I was told I was going with Year 2. It was a lovely day out and we went to an Environmental Centre which was a touch odd as it was in the grounds of an electricity sub station. Having a picnic area under an electricity pylon seemed bizarre to say the least.

But, the bluebell woods were lovely and the ankle biters don’t back chat in the way their older siblings do, so it was a very pleasant day out.

Won a tenner on the Lottery. Didn’t win the Premium Bonds, so I guess I’ll keep on working but I’ve been to school the last two mornings with the roof down on my car, which has been wonderful, I can smell new mown grass and flowers as I crawl along in the traffic choked roads that are Worcester in the rush hour! So it’s not all bad.

I’ve been a bad, bad, Blogger!! I just don’t get around to writing as often as I should.

The weekend before last was my birthday and every moment was accounted for.

On the Saturday I went up to Rowley Regis, home of my fore-fathers and checked into a small hotel. There I met a lady I had never met before. We have been ’online friends’ for a couple of years now, maybe longer. We have both been researching our family from Rowley Regis and as she had come down from Scotland on a business trip, we decided to meet up and to extend the invitation to other members of the website that we use.

As soon as we met, face to face, we knew we would get on. We spent Saturday afternoon at the Black Country Museum and had a whale of a time, going down the mine, eating chips fried in dripping and as she said “ Helping out the ladies in the cake shop” by eating up their stock.

In the evening we rolled down the hill from the hotel to an old, traditional Black Country, real ale pub, where we met up with other Members of the website. One of them was a girl I worked with when we were 17 and 18 years old . We hadn’t seen each other for 37 years, yet I knew her as soon as she walked in the door. I’ve no idea when I ever spent from 6.30 until, being thrown out, after midnight, in a pub but we had the best time. Everyone got on so well, it was as if all our online banter had just developed into 3D.

I don’t know if it could ever be as good again but we certainly hope to try.

Sunday was my birthday and I went out for tea and cake with Catherine, Flo and Isabella.

This last weekend was the open garden at Little Larford, Astley Burf . I went two years ago and posted a photo of Catherine, looking largely pregnant. This time I went with her and Isabella. Flo stayed home to watch the Grand Prix.

Mike had done a feature on the opening in his gardening programme. This year there were 20,000 tulips and 3,000 Narcisii.

These were a variety being trialed for a bulb producer. They were my favourite, I think. There are over 140 varieties there, so it's hard to be sure!

And here's my little Isabella Rose, amongst the tulips.

Just a few of the many varities of tulips there.

He’d better not feature it next year! It was far too popular, we couldn’t manage to get any of their wonderful Raspberry fresh cream cake, which was very disappointing.

Isabella is so funny. We went to the farm shop after the garden and as soon as I pulled up outside, she said “Cake!!” She remembered we’d been there the week before for cake.

They had been to Stoke for a fancy dress party the day before. Isabella was dressed as Stephanie from Lazy Town. She looked so cute, I will get some photos of that soon. When the other people turned up in costume, she was a bit scared and started saying. “Mummy’s car, home” She may not say a lot but she knows how to get her point across.

She can count to fourteen in English and six in German. Not bad for twenty two months old. She loves to talk on the phone and will have pretend conversations with her toy phone. This little clip was made for her Grandma in Germany. In German that is Omah, only I don’t know if that is how you spell it.

On my birthday we also went to open a Dog Show at Eastnor Castle. It was for the charity that we got Rowley from.. We managed to get through that without a major incident but he really doesn’t like other dogs. We met up with his ’brother’ Ginger from the family he used to live with. That really freaked him out. They used to get on together but Rowley got very aggressive and then turned his back on Ginger and started backing himself up my leg. I’m convinced he thought that he was going to have to go back to that awful place. Poor boy.

School is a nightmare, never have I known such a badly behaved year group. I have my thoughts on the reasons, they are just not being shown enough discipline and the next year group teachers will be having a very tough time with them in September.

One boy, today, called me a big fat cow! This was upsetting for two reasons. One, I wasn’t having anything to do with him at the time. Two, I’ve lost nine and a half pounds since I joined Slimming World six weeks ago, so I feel that if I’m a big fat cow now, I don’t want to know what I was before.

NO!! This was upsetting for three reasons. The boy that called me that is nine years old and he weighs over fourteen stone! That’s heavier than me. He was obviously using words that have been used against him, which is sad. Then again…. Pot, kettle?????

My football team are going up!! Well, it’s almost certain, so we will be back in the Premier. That’s exciting. I shall have to try and get to a few more matches next season.

The rain is coming down in a way that makes one think of building an Ark, whatever is wrong with our weather? Fingers crossed I don’t have to go and do a chicken rescue in the middle of the night. I pray you all have dry feet.

Linda x.