Birthdays that last!

Posted on March 17, 2014 by jfb57

Those of you who are regular visitors here will know my birthday was in January. So, what am I doing writing another post about my birthday?

Well, one of my dear twitter friends lives down by the seaside. We love to visit the coast especially as hubby went to college there. So, around my birthday, I got in touch and we were all ready for ‘birthday drinks’.

Well, as most of the world will know, the heavens opened on the UK and took weeks to close. The Dorset area was badly hit with many roads being impassable so we took a ‘rain cheque’ on that meet-up.

Thankfully, the weather is now calmer and although many fields still bear the signs of rain, we were able to have ‘birthday drinks’ at the week-end.

Look what this spoilt girl got! A lovely quote from a famous Dorset author Thomas Hardy.

Thank you Jo!

100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week#119

Posted on January 27, 2014 by jfb57

Here in the UK this past week-end has seen some celebrations. Firstly Burns Night which celebrates the life and works of Rabbie Burns, Scottish poet and writer. This is followed by my birthday!

With this in mind the prompt this week is:

… whenever I hear it, I think of you ….

The link will be open until midnight on Sunday 2nd February

Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list. As always, I will move entries to this page as soon as possible.

100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week#55

Posted on August 20, 2012 by jfb57

*evil cackling heard from behind*

Remember I did warn you that I was plotting something a little different? Well it’s my son’s 36th birthday this week. We have a tradition in our family that my husband chooses his card so it is always from the humorous section.

For the challenge this week, I want you to write the words to go with this picture. You don’t have to use 100 words

Now some of the cards in the humorous section can be a bit cheeky so make sure your words can have a PG certificate! The link will be open until Monday 27th August. If you are a new visitor here, do pop into ‘What is 100WCGU?’ for some answers or leave a comment below or tweet me @jfb57.

Enjoy! *evil cackle slowly disappears into the distance*

Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list and I’ll transfer the post to this page as soon as possible!

Holding On

Posted on August 15, 2012 by jfb57

Tara wanted 'Emotions' for this week's Gallery and goodness me, she picked a good week to choose from! The Olympic Games took me through so many emotions from screaming at the television to get Chris Hoy over that line to crying as the flame died with the sounds of Take That and brave Gary Barlow singing in the background.

Emotions are strange things and for some people quite frightening. I'm OK with them. My body learnt a long time ago that a good cry was one way to release tension. I'm one of those with a laugh that can also bring tears when I get going so I've always got tissues to hand.

However, the picture I've chosen is one that shows me trying to 'hold it all together'. It is from my 60th birthday party back in January and is when my cake was brought to the table to the tune of Happy Birthday. I knew nothing about a cake and so the first emotion was a mixture of surprise and embarrassment that everyone in the restaurant was singing to me.

When it was put in front of me the emotion was absolute amazement and wonder. It was a Twitter cake. Now those of you who know me will know that Twitter is quite a part of my retirement so for my cake to by the design it was, it showed great love. Finally, the purchasers of said cake were my son and daughter-in-law, which brought the emotion of gratitude that two busy folks could take the time and thought to make the occasion so special.

So, I give you Me and the Twitter cake!

Please click the lens cap at the top and you will see the other entries for 'Emotion'.

Tea – Ritz Style!

Posted on February 21, 2012 by jfb57

Well here it is! The post you have all been asking for! The one where I go to the Ritz for tea.

Well, it was very nice, very posh. Lots of solid silver and gilt and lots of MEN serving! They had different uniforms signalling a hierachy I think. The top chaps had beautiful roses in their lapels whilst the ‘those who serve’ have fine red waistcoats and gold buttons down the back of their tailed jackets.

You know as soon as you arrive at the front door that it is going to be grand. The footman has a smile but it is not cheesy and gives clear directions of where ‘the party’ (that’s us) had to go. The entrance is not on the main road but up a side street which surprised me but then it is all about sophistication not flashy. Unfortuantely the building across the road was full of scaffolding and building works so it took the shine off it somehow.

Once inside, I was surprised to be left to our own devices. We walked nervously down this very grand corridor and were only stopped when we reached the end. We were told that this was the dining room and tea is served in the Palm Court so we had to find our way back. I think the man who was supposed to stop us wandering was busy somewhere else.

Anyway, we were seated and the fun began. Really heavy Egyptian cotton serviettes were placed on our laps and off we went. I have explained about the ‘liquid’ tea HERE but I know you are keen to know about the food. Well…the sandwiches did have the crusts cut off and were very dainty. The descriptions of them made your mouth water and their taste did not disappoint. For me the sad thing was those in the picture were all you got (you’ll see there were 6 for each of us). The rest was all cake and how glorious it was. For some reason I don’t have any pics of it which indicates that I’m a savoury person at heart.

The picture shows an empty plate above. That was for the scones, which were warm when they were brought out later and the small plate on the top had four very small dainties on it. They were the richest tasting cakes I’ve ever had and although only a couple of small mouthfuls in size, you could not have eaten any more.

In between these ‘courses’ came a button-hole man with a trolley with a wonderful bakewell tart and lemon drizzle cake which he sliced to your required size. The dining room (opps sorry – Palm Court) was full, with many tables celebrating birthdays. In true tradition on these occasions, the pianist, who was seated away from the area, played a very gentle version of ‘Happy Birthday’ for those who had ordered a Ritz birthday cake. I noticed that most of these were taken away uncut to be returned to the table in very nice boxes for the journey home.

Don’t get me wrong – I had a lovely time and it was very special to be in such wonderful surroundings with the family and my men looking so elegant in their jackets. It was really interesting though to see the normal ‘melee’ when it came to getting coats and the same desire to take photos of the occasion (you could take snaps but were asked to do it discretely). We have the same behaviours whatever the venue it seems.

Do take a stroll through the slideshow where you’ll see an amazingly heavy tea strainer and rest ( we each had our own of course) and get some idea of the opulence!

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Last Week I Learnt That…#26

Posted on February 20, 2012 by jfb57

Mobile phones have replaced child minders. Well, when I say replaced, I mean they are part of a family’s repertoire of keeping the children occupied. We were in a restaurant and both children were given iphones with different apps on to sit and watch. It worked for a few minutes but I did wonder what it was doing for their eye sight and doesn’t it negate going out together?

Adding a few candles, turning down the lights and playing some soft music means restaurants and pubs can dress up ‘supper’ as a Valentine Experience’ and charge the earth!

‘Bimbleing’ is a wonderful description of not doing very much!

Sitting eating cake in a jacket is tricky. As you will know if you have visited here recently, I had a birthday and one of the presents was to have tea at the Ritz. Now it is posh so men have to wear a jacket and tie. Hubby looked very smart in his new jacket. but he is not used to sitting and eating in ‘outdoor clothes’. I suppose we would have needed to ask permission to be told ‘gentleman may take their jackets off’ but it was not a million degrees so that was never going to happen!

There are more types of tea than all the tea in China! Linking with the afore mentioned tea party, we were given the menu to select our beverage from. When I say beverage, I mean TEA. There were 17 different types to choose from with many different flavours and perfumes. I choose Lapsong Souchong because it always sounds so grand but is quite expensive. My son (who was paying the bill) had Russian Caravan. As he said, he can get Earl Grey in the supermarket but has never heard of this black tea. In these situations, you’ve just got to do it, haven’t you?!

Olympic tickets are still available. I am really puzzled that quite a few product companies seem to have Olympic tickets to give away for the purchase of particular items. Apparently there are ‘thousands to be won’. How come?!

One sound that you do not want to hear the day before you are due to go to London is ‘Ouch!’ Hubby has a dickey back. He has been working hard over the last few years to strengthen it so that it does not ‘go out’ and disable him for days. Thankfully, although it had ‘gone’, it didn’t take too long with the chiropractor’s help to get him comfortable and able to travel.

So, a busy eventful week for me. what was yours like?