Goodwill at Christmas

Posted on January 2, 2013 by jfb57

The words Goodwill and Christmas go together. There are lots of carols, songs, poems and greeting card messages that link them. Hubby and I are creatures of habit. We live in an area which has lots of tea shops and restaurants as well as sole traders in a large range of goods. We like to support local traders and over time have got to know them by name. We even give a Christmas card to some!

This Christmas, it was brought home to us how this loyalty is regarded:

Number 1: the petrol station we go to regularly gave us a card and bottle of Prosecco. We have been customers for many years and have got to know the family.

Number 2: an indian restaurant that we visit took the price of the bottle of wine we had off the bill. We don’t eat there every week mind!

Number 3: a turkish cafe that we have coffee in gave a little paper bag. Inside were a couple of loyalty cards and two cereal bars. No doubt they had recently been visited by the rep but when we said goodbye, he gave a small bow and touched his heart.

Number 4: now this is not about a sole trader. It is about Tesco. Before doing our weekly shop, we always have a coffee and a sandwich. We have got to know the ladies that work behind the counter but it was really lovely to be given our regular second cup of coffee ‘on the house’

Perhaps loyalty does pay!

This post is for Alphabe-Thursday over at Jenny Matlock’s blog.

Eggs- quisite!

Posted on December 17, 2012 by jfb57

Guess what the letter is for today’s ‘Alphabe-Thursday’? Yes – it’s ‘E’ and I’m being cheeky again. These baubles come from New York and were bought in May! I always get a buzz from things being ‘out of season’ and Christmas shops have always held a fascination for me especially if it is the summer-time and the weather is hot.

They were an ideal purchase because we love collecting our Christmas decorations (See Delicate) and they were packed tightly in a relatively small box which made transporting them back to the UK easy.

Do pop over to Jenny Matlock’s to see some more ‘E’s’!

All the Queen’s Dogs!

Posted on December 6, 2012 by jfb57

Alphabe-Thursday over at Jenny Matlock's brilliant blog has reached the letter 'C'. Being the time of the year it is, I was very tempted to use Christmas but then thought better of it.

Instead I have chosen Corgi. This may be a surprise to many of you. Where on earth did she get the from? Well, as is often the case, it was prompted by a picture.

This was taken over Jubilee Bank holiday in Winchester. We were visiting my son and pregnant daughter-in-law so we were just bimbling about ( as my son would say!) Each of these is a figarine of a corgi. For those of you who do not know about our royal family, you will be completely confused I'm sure!

The Pembroke Welsh Corgi is the favourite breed of our present queen and has been the chosen breed of the Royals since 1933.

They can always been seen by Her Majesty's side when she is not on 'official' business and so had to have a staring part in the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games alongside James Bond! Do have a look. It will make you smile!

Opening Ceremony

Young, VERY Young!

Posted on November 8, 2012 by jfb57

Alphabe-Thursday has reached the letter ‘Y’ so what an opportunity to share my NEW grand daughter with you. I went to visit for the first yesterday and she was 6 days old.

As you can imagine in that short time there are already lots and lots of photos of her but this is the one I’m sharing. She is looking at me (honestly) and that bond has been formed!

Do pop over to Jenny Matlock’s blog to see what other ‘Ys’ have been posted!

The Seine

Posted on September 27, 2012 by jfb57

I’m sure if I asked you to close your eyes and imagine the river Seine, most of you would be imagining Paris where it creates the Ile de La Citie and has it’s famous ‘left bank’.

During our short stay in Normanday recently we crossed the Seine a number of times but this was the river in it’s tributary state, winding around inlets, snuggled in the countryside. We decided that we would have the adventure of taking the ferry across when we wanted to visit the beautiful ruin of Jumieges Abbey. It wasn’t a wide stretch of the river but it saved quite a few miles going the long way round.

We had driven the car onto this small car ferry which took 8 cars and as it pulled away from the shore it stopped for this:

I couldn’t believe my eyes. A fully grown oil tanker! It was HUGE! My admiration for the captain being able to manoeuvre the twists and turns of the Seine that he had and would face before reaching his journey’s end. As I have said in another post – the Seine is definitely a WORKING river!

This post is for the letter ‘S’ over at Jenny Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday. Do pop over and see the others!

New Ring, Old Love

Posted on August 23, 2012 by jfb57

Alphabe -Thursday the great weekly meme over at Jenny Matlock’s blog has reached the letter ‘N’. Where do the weeks go?!

For this post I need you to find your romantic side Dear Reader. Come on, you know you have one somewhere, just dig about & find it. The reason I need you to be romantic is because this is an ‘Ahhh’ post.

This week saw hubby and I celebrating the 25th anniversary of the first time we went on a date. We both knew that the other one was special and we soon became an ‘item’. To mark this Nick bought me a dress ring as a token of his feelings. Neither of us knew that within a few weeks we would be talking of getting married. The reason it all came so soon was partly that we were not spring chickens but also my son was just moving into secondary school and the teacher in me would not moved him half way through his high school career so it was either sooner or much later.

We chose sooner and told our friends that we were getting married. As I had already got a ring, I didn’t feel I should push for an engagement ring because the one I had would be fine. However, 25 years later I have felt it’s loss and we have finally bought an engagement ring!