He does charismatic

and  also fabulously smiley

Where have the last three weeks gone?  Admittedly last week was chaos with me spending two days in the West Country (visiting lovely little sister and her gorgeous baby) and then two days in hospital with the boy – asthma this time, not nuts you’ll be glad to hear.  I’ve got no excuses for the two weeks prior to that where I have completely failed to blog though.

Can I wriggle out of this by posting some lovely baby pics?

No?  How about a blue pig then?

I’m guessing you’ve rumbled me.  This is a post to get me posting again.  Have you ever been supposed to phone someone and not got round to it?  You get that horrible “the longer you leave it, the harder it is” feeling.  That’s how I’ve been feeling about posting but hopefully I’ve broken that now.

And if you’re still with me, thank you.

We had a bit of a momentous day today.

Up until now I have picked the girl’s friends.  Not because I’ve been particularly controlling – more that she’s only 3 and her playmates until now have been the children of my friends, mostly met on ante or pre natal courses.

Today we had the first of the girl’s friends over who wasn’t a friend of the girl purely because I am a friend of the mummy (A).  They are friends at nursery and the girl specifically asked to have her over to play.  I know A from swimming lessons we took when the girls were tiny but that’s really all the contact we’ve had.

A lovely afternoon was had by all.  The girls played fantastically and even let the boy join in at times, I got on well with A (to be honest, I wasn’t taking that much of a risk, having chatted with her over swimming(ish) babies many a time, I figured we probably would get on well) and they brought with them the funniest thing I’ve seen in a very long time.

I give you (drumroll please)…………. Pregnant Barbie

No, really, she is pregnant, she doesn’t just have a Barbie pillow stuck up her top (I feel a bit wrong showing you this picture)

She is the gift that just keeps on giving, when A said that her bump was stuck on with magnets and came off to make her not pregnant Barbie I have to say that I just didn’t believe her.  So, of course, I checked.  I was delighted to see this

No, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you.  That is a real Barbie baby inside a Barbie bump that detaches for speedy return to pre-bump figure.

What will they come up with next?

I give this post over to my fabulous little sister who gave birth to a 7.5lb baby boy at 6.15 this morning.

Congratulations love, he’s gorgeous.

Yes, I know it’s only October but I do feel cheered.  I made our christmas cake today.  I made a fruit cake for the first time ever this time last year and was astounded at how easy it was.  It took for ever and a day but it wasn’t technically challenging at all.  The benefit of making it this early in the year is that you can feed it lots of brandy which means, um, it keeps longer.

Unfortunately, while I remembered how easy it was, I forgot how blooming long it takes.  I started at 2pm, this afternoon, and it’s due to come out of the oven in just over an hours time (it’s quarter past six in the evening as I type this).

The length of time it took to make was extended somewhat by the fact that my food processor refused to actually mix anything.  I suspect that this means it is about to pack up, which is slightly more ho hum than ho ho ho, but I’m being brave about it.

If karma exists, then right now I should be in a good place.

Yesterday I gave blood. I’ve given blood regularly for quite a few years now (I’ve just made my 15th donation) partly because it’s a small thing that I can do that will help someone else and partly, selfishly, because it makes me feel good about myself. I’ve never really thought about who I am helping in the past, there has never been a face. The last few times I’ve donated, however, I have had a face to think about. Ivy is a very adorable little girl who I’ve never met and, unfortunately, am not likely to meet. I read Ivy’s mummy’s blog, Three Ring Circus, and feel that I know Ivy a bit through that. Ivy has an immune-deficiency disorder that mean she needs an Intragam P transfusion on a regular basis. As I understand it, Intragam P is made up of other people’s anti-bodies which is taken from donated blood but Tiff, Ivy’s mum, explains it much better here. Ivy is the most amazing ambassador for giving blood, and if you don’t believe me then check this out.

I also had a clear out the day before yesterday and got rid of a load of the childrens’ toys. They were baby toys that weren’t really played with (ok I got rid of Lion, who is still played with, but I’ve been looking for an excuse to get rid of him for some time, he has the most annoying tune ever and I’ve suffered it for 3 years) and with one birthday just done and another birthday and christmas coming up I figured we could use the space. Rather than take the toys to the charity shop as I would normally, I thought that we’d give them to the children’s ward of the local hospital. After all, me and the boy have spent a fair bit of time playing with their toys this year, it seemed only fair to give a bit back.

So why then, after the year we’ve had so far and the nice things I’ve just done, has the boiler decided to pack up? We’ve had no heating for a few days which isn’t an issue yet but last night it started making some weird noises and dripping. I’m fairly sure boilers aren’t supposed to drip. Today we lost the hot water so our boiler is officially kerput. We’re having a new one fitted on Monday but it’s a bit of a pain in the arse neck.

My picture is totally unrelated to the above babble but I was mightily amused when LNFATR came over yesterday with her telephone. She was expecting a call. I was very impressed when her phone rang and she was able to have a conversation on it in my house. I should add at this point that this was her landline, not a mobile phone.

So, next step is to see if the baby monitors work across the road as well!

The husband always gives me a beautiful bouquet on our wedding anniversary.  This year was no different.

When I started this blog it was a photo 365 blog and I had a few ideas for photo’s I could take that weren’t of my children (failed there, it has been mostly my children featuring in the pics).

One of my plans was to take a picture of the geese that fly over our house every day. Unfortunately, they don’t fly over at the same time every day and although they honk as they’re going over, you don’t get very much warning.  I’ve got my camera out seconds too late so many times in the last 21 months.

Yesterday I decided to walk to nursery to drop the boy off and we walked through what is essentially a field behind our local school.  There were plenty of magpies and blackbirds pecking away at the grass and on the far side some birds that looked much, much bigger.  As I looked at them they stood up, started walking towards us and then took off and flew right over us.

I had time to get the camera out and aim this time and still didn’t get a decent shot.  Guess those geese are still on my list!

I miss my blog.  More to the point, I miss the discipline of blogging every day.  As you can see, from the ever lengthening gaps between posts, left to my own devices I’m a very lazy blogger.

I’m also finding that I’m not picking the camera up as much (it might actually be dusty at the moment, it’s been so long).  Part of that is to do with the fact that it’s got a different lens on it that I’m not used to.  I know, I know.  Start using it and I’ll soon get the hang of it.  Oh, and we didn’t go out and get a swishy new one – the other one broke.

So, I’ve come up with a compromise.  I’m going to go back to posting a photograph a day but there won’t necessarily be any words wrapped around the picture – unless I’ve actually got something interesting to say.

How does that sound?

I took this on my trusty old point and shoot.  It’s macro setting is amazing.

Two of my friends are hosting Open Gardens this Sunday in aid of the NSPCC.  If you happen to be in the Sydenham area on Sunday I would highly recommend that you go – I can vouch for two of the three gardens and they’re both beautiful.  You will also get a very warm welcome and a lovely cup of tea from both ladies.

I made and decorated a cake for Number 27.  I spent a lot of time over it.  It turned into a bit of a nightmare.  The weather has been warm so working with sugarpaste has been difficult as it’s been very sticky and hard to manipulate without it tearing.  I messed up the colours as well and what was, in my head, a beautiful, stylish and elegant cake actually turned out looking like a 6 year old had decorated it.

I’ve been told before that I’m too critical of my work but I don’t know how I can not be.  If you spend a reasonable amount of time working on something then surely it’s only natural that you see and know every flaw, no matter how big or small.

Three people have seen this cake.  Two of them said it looked fine and the other one (E, the recipient of the cake) said it was wonderful (although I happen to know that she was out last night so her critical faculties might not be fully functioning!).  I still see the bumps and the colours that went over the lines and didn’t match very well, but after talking to E I’m starting to see that perhaps it’s not the disaster I first thought it was.