I can not believe it has been so long ......

Life has been a little hectic of late ... loads of things have gone on since Christmas far to numerous to mention and not of a lot of interest to everyone else ...
But I have just spent a wonderful week with my good friends Maureen and Stewart from UK .. finally they made it all the way to New Zealand.  A promise she made herself years ago when we upped sticks and flew half way around the world to live.... well it took a while to get them here but was worth the wait. 

I did not know we could pack in so much to a week ... when they arrived it was just like yesterday that we left each other the conversation just continued where we left off the last time we met. They flew out today to head to USA for a few days then back to Southampton  UK.

Another  happy day was when my daughter Kathryn received her Nursing Degree ... now Kathryn has been nursing for almost 20 yrs and was a registered nurse working in theatres,  a couple of years ago  she decided to may be retrain and leave nursing ... so she has converted her nursing diploma into a degree.

This has been no mean feat for her while holding down a nursing job and running a home and taking care of  two lively boys and of course Steve her husband  ... Well done Kathryn I am proud of you ....

Sir Paul Holmes

Sir Paul Holmes, the controversial broadcaster with the cheeky grin and quick wit, has died at home early this morning, surrounded by family.  Only two weeks after receiving his knighthood. He was aged 62.
A statement from the Holmes family said he died at home in Hawkes Bay surrounded by his family according to his wishes.
"Sir Paul had been in poor health since having heart surgery earlier in the year. In recent months he had also been suffering from a resurgence of prostate cancer," .
"More than just a broadcaster, Paul was a loving husband and father, as well as a generous friend. He loved people and people loved him.

Paul Holmes was loved,  loathed and hated, you either did or you didn't like him.
He was not afraid to speak his mind to who ever was in front of him, he asked the questions others would not dare too.   he conducted his interviews with intelligence and insightfulness, and while he never suffered fools, his interviews were never without kindness and empathy.

Paul will be remembered hugely by the broadcasting community. He had an amazing ability to retain facts, and pull them out at times that often tricked politicians and other people and I think that's an extraordinary gift that he had.
He will be sadly missed from our televison screens


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10861073

Please follow the link to hear a lovely Maori rendition of  ..... "Now is the Hour"

Visitors.....

Some lovely news I am to have some visitors in February from UK ... here they are in the  not so best picture. I had to  swipe this from there daughters Facebook as I did not have an up to date one of them  myself.

Maureen and Stewart friends from way back ... I am getting so excited they will be with me a whole week.

You will all be pleased to know ... my daughter Kathryn put me on the right road .... to the picture problem on blog.
You have to have Goggle Chrome now ... so I down loaded it and there it is  the correct window for down or up loading pictures to your blog.

I have to admit I have steered clear of Chrome as I just did not want to change ... but now I have seen the speed etc it works at I can not believe I have not done it before ... another bit of a learning curve and will take a bit of getting  used to it ....  But a bit of patience a lot of cursing and I will get there.

Thanks for all your help on this matter and I hope this helps someone else along the way.

Pictures for blog ...help

Hi again so soon

For some reason  the link to upload pictures to my blog is not working ....
the screen that comes up is lacking the bit that gives you the chance to take pictures from your computer  !!!

Any one else had this ?? ... I have deleted Picasa  today that is the only thing that has changed

Oh my gosh where have you been ...

Well, I have actually been almost no where ... life has been busy but I really can not say with what !!

I guess I have just had a stand down time, lots have things have gone by the board over the last few weeks.   Including house work for some reason I developed an aversion to it,  also ironing, window cleaning plus gardening of sorts.

But I have kept up my swimming almost every day with may be a day a week out ... this keeps the Arthritis effected bits of me moving.
I have also played a lot of games on this infernal machine and enjoyed every minute of them.

We have had great weather so far this summer and I have listened to many talking books while doing something else ... sometimes just sitting and listening ... I see how children love to be read to ... if you have never tried talking books from your library  give it ago you will be amazed. They are great for travelling in the car with.


This coming week sees life get back to speed with tutoring of Arthritis  exercise classes in Hot water
May be a session Guiding at the museum ( for some reason I stopped this last year probably it was boredom after 4 yrs continuous) also  resuming Embroidery Guild and Patchwork and stitch groups.

I am making nothing of note at present ... although I do have a "Challenge to design " which has to be in by April at Embroidery Guild,  this year is our 30th anniversary and this is Jade or Coral on the colour chart, so everyone has an envelope of bits and pieces of one of the colours to incorporate into their design ... at present my mind is a great big blank!!!
This is also our exhibition year ... which takes place in May,  as President I guess I had better get with it although we have a great committee so not all my baby.

My Santa Sack swap

My Santa sack contained some lovely gifts from Jeantte in Petone NZ I have finally found the time to photograph them all together.

A lovely stocking and scissors
Some Charms and pincushion
A small angel bag  and tea towel
A wonderful project pouch on which the pot plant design had been hand painted then embroidered ... along with a glass case and zip purse and note book holder set in the lemon and green.
Some lovely labels and a pattern ( sorry not shown)
Thank you so much Jeanette  ....

I look forward to the next Christmas Santa Sack already.

I went to the cinema

Yesterday evening  five of us all on the "grey side" went to see Quartet...

 
Before I went I kind of had this idea it’d be .... The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 2: A pleasant but blandly conventional, mostly forgettable comedy starring Maggie Smith that you won’t really enjoy unless you’ve drawn up a will and started paying attention to funeral insurance commercials on afternoon TV.

My impression was wrong! It is not bland. It is lovely. Like Marigold was ho-hum maybe because it was a film about old people whose problems didn’t really extend beyond being old ... Quartet is a film about old people – cute, charming old people – whose problems are timeless.
It’s set in a retirement home (which, OK, not so timeless), but not one that’s all grim loneliness and dusty blankets and fogies staking themselves good spots at the staring window. Beecham House is the most awesome retirement home ever!

It’s a posh English  Mansion and the residents are jolly good former musician sorts and the staff are tasty young bits of crumpet. You want to be in this retirement home when you’re decrepit.
The residents include Reg, Wilf and Cissy (Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly and Pauline Collins), retired members of an operatic quartet renowned for their rendition of a Verdi classic. Maggie Smith is Jean, the fourth member of their quartet, who moves into Beecham House.
Hey, say Wilf and Cissy, how about the quartet reunites to perform that song everyone likes? Except Jean refuses to perform because she’s afraid of embarrassing herself because she’s old, and Reg refuses to perform with Jean because they used to be married and she cheated on him. Will they put aside their arguments and put on a show that will raise enough money to save the cash-strapped Beecham House?
Yes. Of course they do. Obviously.

It was a great film and I throughly enjoyed it ... may be I could relate to closely to it.