Time does fly...

Time does fly..... when you are doing nothing, in my case.

I last wrote to you properly on Christmas Day, which speaks volumes about my festivities.  

The LEG (as it has now become) carried on being a pain - no pun intended.  The next lot of antibiotics gave me an incredible rash all over (literally!)  As someone said I looked as though I'd been pebble-dashed.  It did do me a favour though as this time I got to see someone who was appalled by all the antibiotics and said they needed to find out the underlying cause of the problem - so off for an MRI.  Unlike in the UK, even though this is a walk-in clinic it all gets done same day - admittedly we spent six hours there but I was done and dusted and an appointment booked with a surgeon before I left.

A week later we were off to see the surgeon.  He basically said surgery was an option but it might not speedup the healing process all that much.  He tactfully said I was old and healing takes time.  He left the choice to me- have it done which then gives you the residual initial problem plus a gash (his word not mine) in the leg which also needs to heal or I could leave well alone and let it takes the months (!) it needs to get better.  I put it back to him and said I'd go with his best judgement - quote:  if it was me I wouldn't have it done.

The plus side is we are not bankrupted by paying up front for any more medical stuff until the insurance coughs up.  $1,487.74 so far.  When you pay something like $125 for one lot of antibiotics it racks up pretty quickly.  The down side the LEG remains a LEG.

December bucked up immediately after Christmas with a visit from my daughter and her chap.   We all had a lovely time together and had fun showing Naples to a first-timer.  Whenever we have visitors we never seem to cover all we have planned.  They will insist that holidays are for R & R, whereas in my tender care there is a huge checklist to be got through.  They were kind enough to co-operate and let me tick off things like.......... 

Swift visit to the beach - they had some mixed weather - look at the breakers!

We did the concert in the park, some art on Fifth, a boat trip, a zillion eateries including a diner and a New Year's Eve dinner on 5th, endless ice cream, shopping and 

A trip to a 'neighborhood' where they do their Christmas lights in a big way.

They had a mini break in the middle of their stay and hired an open top to bomb down to a luxury resort on the Keys.  Back to the old folk and we finished with a lovely meal in one of our favourite spots - Bonefish restaurant and soaked up a Florida sunset. (before getting the 'last' ice cream from Regina's)

In a blink of an eye they were gone and we were back to ourselves for company.

On the weekend of 18th/19th January Ken and I were in Sarasota for what is fast becoming our regular Molly Cromwell doll's house show.  This is my third year of going to Sarasota and it is just as much fun.  As with all things mini related you need to chase up that weekend in my other blogs if you are interested.

Since then I have been trying to do writing and resting (the LEG) in an attempt to get ahead of the game before our next visitors arrive.  We have friends staying for February so much to do ..... can't sit here doing this ...............

Bit of Miniatures sneaking in

I make no apologies for letting a bit of my mini madness sneak into the Clavering Blog.  I defy you not to like these wonderful window displays at Tiffany's here in Naples this year.

Click on each photo to get a look at just how lovely they are.

There were several more, but you get the idea.  Simply beautiful.  They look to be 1/12th scale so even sweeter.  Imagine one of those in your own window at Christmas - how utterly gorgeous.

I thought I might get an article out of it so I tried to get to speak to someone about how they are made, what happens to them after Christmas etc etc but got the usual - write to head office - they suggested write to local store - write to local store - they suggested I write to head office - all of them VERY Tiffany nice (Remember how kind they were to Audrey Hepburn!) but not fussed enough to pursue it.

Meanwhile just enjoy.

Punished for being a Grinch

I was about to write a piece about what a miserable Christmas Day I had but before doing that I thought I'd remind myself where I was up to last time I wrote so I went back for a read.  Crikey Moses what a moaning Minny!  No way can I inflict more of the same on you.

Suffice it to say "Do not be a Grinch.  It will only rebound on you"

In our wisdom - yes 'we', not just me, decided not to do Christmas at all this year.  The decision was knee deep in reasons.  

No decorations: we took part of our Christmas decorations to the UK a couple of years ago as we would always be in the UK for Christmas (!) and the rest we had given away.  It seemed utterly doolally buying more.  

We are thousands of miles from any friend or relative, so would be entirely on our own and neither of us 'were bothered'.  So off we toddled into a normal Wednesday with a lunch of lemon chicken and rice.

All I can say is it is decidedly weird.  It is like quitting smoking or something.  You have this 68 year old habit of one day a year doing strange stuff because everyone else does it and then there you are doing nothing.

I already know that I don't especially like Christmas away from the UK because I can't fulfill the essential requirements of a Marilyn Christmas but, believe me, even a partial 'foreign' Christmas is better than none.

So take note anyone intending to visit us here next year.  The travel plans right now are:

October and November in Naples, December in Bury, January February March in Naples.  You will have to fit in that time frame I'm afraid because during Christmas 2014 I shall be doing the following:

Decorations up mid-month including a tree (used to always do that on Xmas Eve).  The decorations have to include stuff that goes back years;  a weary Santa in a car that was my daughter's when she was three and she insisted was wheeled out each year and a wooden Xmas tree candle holder that I bought with my kids from Ikea for example.

Christmas cards from everyone in all in one place and enjoyed at Christmas instead of March!
A tin of Roses or Quality Street

Christmas day begins with a boiled egg and soldier breakfast - why? - because it always does; followed by chocolates while I unwrap gifts with a background of Carols from Kings.

Lunch at 1 pm comprising delicious M & S comestibles - some terrific starter conjured up by M & S and/or Tesco Finest; a luxury bird of some sort so it is different to the rest of the year, King Edward spuds and goose fat to roast them in, chipolatas, oxo for my gravy - can't get any of these things here. (mind you I do like their corn bread stuffing!)



Several puddings which need to include a trifle, Christmas pudding with brandy sauce, mince pies with brandy butter, lovely cheeses and chocolates, Christmas crackers.  Again these are all things I can't get over here. 

The Queens speech after lunch with a port and lemon and nuts in shells so they make a mess with cold weather outside the window, so that being snugly is even nicer.

An evening of rubbish TV like a Downtosh special (aka Downton Abby) with masses of nice nibbles to go at all day and night so you're too full for tea.



A boxing day buffet - (no boxing day in America) with M & S to thank for buffet type eats plus pork pie, sausage rolls (for Ken) pickled onions and a zillion other condiments, an iced fruit cake, none of which exist on this side of the pond.  

Anyone who knows me wasn't surprised this was all about food!

I hope your Christmas was loaded with good stuff that fits your psyche and makes you feel comfortable in your skin.  Thanks for joining me for my virtual Christmas 2013.

Our resident frog

Just a quick note to share something with you.  We have tree frogs galore in Naples and one likes to live by our outside lamp.  Presume he stays warm through the night and gets to snack on all those night-time critters attracted by the light.  

Today I put the Christmas decorations up and I tie a red velvet ribbon round the lamp to support a wreath.  He moved about four inches up the wall to let me do that then returned to his 'perch' before I had even finished - talk about not bothered.  He now resides on a velvet bed.

He's not the prettiest of creatures and even if he is a prince I still think I'll give it a miss!

Start as you mean to go on

Day two in Naples and I have the glums!  Absolutely and utterly senseless.  I really wanted to come this year - there are all kinds of nice things waiting for me here - or will be when our post arrives on Monday.

It started well.  I did an eleventh hour trip to the docs on Wednesday (3.30pm) to check the latest batch of antibiotics for my gammy leg.  Yet another doctor looks at it - what ever happened to continuity of care? - and decides it is cellulitis  and bangs out a scrip for another lot of antibiotics.  Looked up cellulitis and it is worrying to say the least - basically I have a poisoned leg which can do all sorts, not least of which is kill me.  I am now on month two and course five of antibiotics - talk about lack of concern on the medics part.  I actually feel dreadful - not an ounce of oomph in me - typing this is like weight lifting.

So any way I was declared fit to do a long haul without the leg exploding and here I am.

The flight was as good as any flight can be.  We had to take Premium Upgrade seats as that's all they had; so no hardship there.  We got to Orlando about 3.15 pm their time (8.15 pm on the body clock).  Checked into a motel and went off to our usual buffet dinner at a great place P and S found a while back.  Stuffed myself silly and pretty much staggered back to bed.

Up bright and early as I was still running on UK time and off to the same buffet for a never ending breakfast.  I think I probably had four breakfasts.  This is especially easy to do when you sit near Americans having breakfast.  They are usually eating off two or three plates at the same time.  Seriously.  At least mine was consecutive and not concurrent.

We then stopped by my favourite clothes shop - look at what I got for $59! (£36)

Left to right:  
A no-button cardigan and matching short sleeve jumper in a lovely cotton mix fabric.  They aren't sold as a 'twin-set' but they match perfectly - same fabric, same dye. 
Three-quarter sleeve light weight cotton sweater in white.  Really useful.
Button through cardigan in a mix of two nice blues.  
Back to the lime green and a pretty floaty blouse for warm days and crops.


The outlet price for them was $166 total which is great, but then they had 50% off because the shop is closing (aaaarrrrggghh!) making them $83.  Then I had a $50 Groupon coupon for which I'd paid $25; so, as I said, I parted with $34 in the shop and the $25 already spent on the coupon making a total of $59.  My kind of shopping.  Incidentally Ken bought the Groupon coupon  on his phone while I was in the shop and they took the details from the phone.

We then pootled on back down to Naples after the compulsory stop at Smokin' Joe's for Ken's ice cream (water for me). Our GPS calls it Smocking Joes which gives it a whole other image.  Not much smocking going on when we were there.

So far, so good.  We did a bit of grocery shopping, had dinner in Cracker Barrel and so to bed.

Then it started to kick in.  Saturday wasn't a particularly fraught day - bits and bobs of things not going quite right as always when you are settling back in.  No internet connection and debate as to why not; TV up the swanny etc .  We did the grocery shopping, going out in the sunshine - a blue sky and 85 degrees should cheer anyone up but I was already feeling scritchy. I put it down to being tired - jet lag - being woken at midnight and six in the morning for flipping pills doesn't help, plus I know that either the poisoned leg or the pills are having some effect on me.  I have read that a lot of antibiotics stop thyroxine working so that could also be a factor.  Any way on Saturday put my long face down to general physical iffyness and looked forward to a better Sunday.  I got up this morning laden with gloom!!

I was cooking our Sunday dinner - a simple roast chicken dinner and begab thinking about how much it isn't our Sunday dinner. No goose fat, so no decent roast potatoes.  The chicken is different - fatty and super soft and falls into shreds.  Tesco Finest it aint!  I went on to ruin the usual corn bead stuffing by experimenting and making a spoon corn pudding thingy that's eaten here.  Imagine savoury bread pudding made with corn bead and sweet corn.  It serves - like a bread pudding does - slightly sweet and eggy and flopy doppy.  This is not at all yum yum with your roast.  Knorr stock cubes are probably a delight when you use them all the time but they are distinctly not Oxo.  When Oxo is what you've eaten for 68 years everything else tastes odd and Knorr is VERY salty.  So rubbish gravy.  My grumbles begin.  

Whilst in the realm of cooking - I wanted to make my daughter a (gluten fee) cherry cake - no such thing as ground almonds, I think their granulated fine ground is the equivalent of our castor sugar, but I'm not sure and when it came to glacé cherries I just got blank stares and was offered maraschino.  When I said I wanted the cherries cakes I was told - yup, that would be maraschino!!  See what I mean.  The simplest flipping thing and I know I am in a foreign country.  Nothing wrong with the country - Naples is lovely, the people are lovely etc etc etc BUT it is foreign.  Americans would feel just the same stuck in England.  I just stood in the kitchen and tried not to either (a) cry or (b) moan at Ken and (c) realised that this is how it will be until March 14th.

I apologise for whingeing to everyone who doesn't get this.  I know how petty and peevish and just downright contrary this seems.  I can't offer an explanation that makes sense, even to me - I just know I want to be home.  Ken reckons it is just a stage of getting old and maybe he is right.
Another cheering thought!

So what brought me to this point since I last wrote to you in November ......  there was a lot of hospital and care home and sorting out aunty J stuff which I could actually kill you with if I elaborated - people do die of boredom.

I did get to a dolls house show at Pudsey on 9th November which Id normally miss.  So that was a good day out and not much money spent.  

My birthday arrived on the 12th and I was spoiled rotten by all and sundry.  So nice to be home for my birthday - probably the first time in 13 years! We celebrated in grand pensioner style with lunch (not dinner!) at a local restaurant that we like and sloped off to the afternoon movies to see 'Philomena'.  A gem of a film - small but perfectly formed.  Ms Dench acts up a storm as usual and even the, for me loathsome, Steve Coogan  was excellent.

A few days later on the 16th and we were living the high life at Château Impney in Droitwich.  We did an overnighter to get in a DH show the next day.  I had an all round lovely couple of days, courtesy of my other half who said it was compensation for having to miss the Philadelphia show weekend.  What a star.

I don't blather on about the shows here because some folk read pretty much all my blogs and it would a be a pain for them and for me, to repeat everything ten times over.

Threaded through all this was lots of time with chums and meals out in favourite spots -all in all a life which suits me very well.

I am sure I will soon be distracted by the visit of my daughter and her chap and then the usual visit of our two friends P & S.  When other folk are around you have to get a grip of your knickers and just get on with it.  I just wish I could explain, or better still control, this need to go home.

Forgot what winter was like!

I know November 2nd, and a mild one at that, isn't exactly winter but we do find it it odd to be putting the lights on in the house at 3.30 in the afternoon.  Yup - you guessed it we aren't in Naples - or even Philadelphia!  

Right now I should be settled in a nice hotel and on my second day of trawling round one of the largest dolls house shows in America.  We had arranged our trip back to Naples for the winter via a three day break in Philly so I could 'do' a three day show. I can't tell you how miserable I am not to be there.

I left you in my last post in September with my aunt having a fall and dislocating her hip - the saga has ground on since then.  To condense it as much as possible she fell on 11 Sept - had two operations, got fixed, moved into a care home, three days there and was settling in nicely with a couple of days to go before we were due to fly out to Philly.  She fell and, guess what, dislocated the other hip and as of yesterday underwent surgery on that one and we are starting the rounds again, having already wasted a week just getting to the surgery stage.

We cancelled our flights and are just doing a 'wait and see' exercise right now before we try to make any other plans.  As it took nearly two months to sort out last time we are praying this one moves a good deal faster than that.  We have family visiting us immediately after Christmas in Naples so we really have to be back for that; not to mention Ken will have burst a blood vessel by then being trapped in Bury in the rain.

To add insult to injury (literally) on the 22nd October, shopping in Bury, a solid wood sandwich board blew over on the back of my leg and has either bruised the calf muscle or maybe bruised the bone (yes, you can bruise a bone).  It is INCREDIBLY painful and seemingly very, very slow to mend.  There is very little change since I did it nearly two weeks ago. In fact I am reluctant to fly with it in this state as it is as swollen as my overstretched skin will allow which doesn't bode well for someone who has ankles that puff up on long haul as it is!

Chez Ormson is more House of Usher right now.

I have trawled back through my diary to where I left you about mid September to see what fun and japes I could share with you and pretty much can't find any.  

I did do the 'meet the youth' for the garden project I am doing.  Unsurprisingly they turned out to be the usual mixed bunch of kids 8 - 14 from a fairly poor estate - good at heart but don't 'sit quietly' !!

I have worked out all the projects and delivered the necessary kits for when I am away so it should go on without me.  As if anything could.

We had a great two days in Birmingham - yes that IS possible!!! if you are going to Miniatura - a whacking big show at the NEC.  I had a complete brain explosion and spent a small fortune on a half scale (1/2 inch = 1 foot) house.  Absolutely no sensible reason other than it was lust at first sight.  It is based on a real house which turned out to be just across the water from my daughter in Scotland and was designed (in real life) by a lady with the same name as my poorly aunt.  Talk about Kismet.

The real one is also for sale around £200,000 - seriously if we had the money...........  I so love it.

On the 25th I sold my last project Bentleys to a lovely local lady who would have bought it complete but sadly I'd already sold some of the pieces from it.  She did buy a lot of what I have left though so it will remain Bentleys at heart.  She is even keeping its name.

We squeezed out the last four days of September in Ludlow (ish) with my daughter and her partner which was a delight.  We think we have wrung the last drop out of Shropshire for a while but spending time with my favourite daughter is always good.

We spent what should have been our last month here pretty much going demented running around trying to sort out the aunty problems knowing we had an absolute  deadline.  Alongside this I needed to get my writing filed and sorted to give me a breathing space to settle into Naples for a few days before picking up the quill again.  The last month always holds a few visits and meals hither and yon to say farewell to folk before we decamp and then there is the process of closing up the house and garden and fitting in any dentist, doctors, hairdressers etc; add to all this one gammy leg and you can see what fun October was.

In amongst all that though my dear friend took me to see the wonderful Ballet Rambert - sigh of relief - an evening off doing something I really love and, guess what - even that was not to be.  The evening began with something like a twenty minute fire alert which does wonders for Mrs Nervy-about-fires-in-crowds (must get a shorter nom de plume).  Finally we nestled into our seats only to be battered by 'modern' music and wonderful displays of athletics.  We left at the interval. Traditionalist - moi?  Certainly am.  I am quaint enough, when at a ballet performance, to want music which doesn't hurt the brain and some floaty dancers actually dancing in time to it!

My daughter and other half squeezed in another weekend trip to us which turned out to be another clutch of mishaps one way and another - the phrase it never rains but it pours comes to mind.  Seems like one thing after the next right now...... and here we are... where we began.... still in the UK and still hobbling round sorting the aunty.

Next time I write I hope I will be full of the joys of spring and in the sunshine, until then .... bye for now

Call it a breather

Well you didn't get much respite.  I gave up Clavering mid July and, guess what, here I am again.

My theory that I could keep up with folk without 'C' didn't take into account my rubbish memory and very spasmodic contacts with various people; so after just two months I no longer know who I told what to and spend more time tracking down old conversations before answering the new one than I did writing Clavering.  Hence my return.   I'll start with a quick diary catch up from my last proper posting.

I seem to have left you on a bit of a cliff-hanger which, being me, I can no longer recall what I was wittering about so - here are pretty much diary events to get us back on spot:

May

............began with our water butt (complete with hard struggled water) getting stolen from the lotty.  Some really cheesy folk around.

flying in over the Rockies

On the 3rd we flew out to Vancouver to visit my sister, her husband, her daughter and partner and their delightful toddler.  The bonus was that my son and grand-daughter (pretty much the same age as my great-nephew) had flown across from Calgary to see us all.  You can imagine our first meal together at my niece's house was just lovely - huge thanks to all of them - such a joy.

We stayed three days taking in the obligatory ice cream parlour for Ken - Huge???  this was something like ice cream heaven.

Ken and I then drove across to Calgary for the second

Rockies wherever you look

part of our visit with my son and family.  He and L flew home a couple of days after we left. There is a long drawn out saga of a broken down-rental car which I won't regale you with other than it took 17 hours to replace it!  Do not break down in the boon docks is the moral of that story.

We did a route from Vancouver to Calgary which we hadn't done before taking in Princeton, Grand Forks, Creston and Fernie, arriving in Calgary on the 9th.

We spent the next four days in a hotel with my son and his family.  They had sold up and had up- sticks and were on their way to live in Newfoundland.  We all left on the same day but we were able to take them to the airport in the morning as we didn't leave until the evening.  So, back to Manchester for us and a return to life for two.

On the 25th we spent a very nice evening helping my husband's daughter-in-law celebrate her milestone birthday (not saying which one!)  We joined her family for a meal and a Tasmin (yes, that is spelled correctly) Little concert at the Bridgewater.  It has been a few years since Ken and I had done that.  It is like remembering two other people - dressed up properly in shoes that cripple eating out and going to a whole concert series for the whole season as we did way back when ....

So with all the usual meals out, gardening and dollhousing we wander off into 

June...

Last ten minutes of the show

My DH show for the month was the one at York which is one of my absolute favourites so I had a lovely day there shopping and mooching and talking to all and sundry because I was covering it for the magazine.  We came home via The Fleece (Ripponden) - a favourite watering hole.

A few days later my daughter and her partner bobbed down for three days, which is just the best.  It is always lovely to spend time with her and S.  Meals out, ice creams - she is another fan of the frozen stuff - and a chance to catch up.

In wanders July.........

On the 6th we did a local open garden that we do each year - Davenport Farm - just a reminder here, if anything garden or dolls house peaks your interest (there are some odd people out there) you can always find out about it in the appropriate blog).

The next day was a show - also on our doorstep in Bolton - so I had a great first weekend in July.

The minster dominates every street

15th - 19th we stayed in Maggie's Mews, Horncastle - very, very highly recommended - lovely place and quite an interesting area to go at.  My little chum, D, joined us so we had loads of giggles and chatter especially following our visit to a theatre in a pub to see the Titfield Thunderbolt - bit of a contrast to our visit to Lincoln Cathedral earlier in the day.  Fun-filled five days...... and we did very well in the quiz!  That's another story.

..............off to another favourite garden on the 21st - Jefferson's - this time with our regular chums P and S.


We seem to have galloped on at a great rate into....

August 

My daughter and S. came for her usual birthday visit.  A nice five day stay which gave us tons of time to do what we do best - eat and natter.

The Crown, Hopton Wafers

The day after they left we were off to Shropshire for three nights with P and S.  It was fine and as always we packed in (even more) food and chatter.  

In retrospect we all decided we prefer to rent somewhere rather than 'do' hotels.  We are certainly becoming 'old-fogies'.  We like the idea of sitting around your own place, coming and going and doing your own thing. We like the comfort of a home away from home rather than a 'serviced' stay somewhere.

We did squeeze in Ken's 68th birthday while we were there which was lovely.  He always seems to be 'on holiday' somewhere for his birthday.  This may be because of a combination of an August birthday (rather than my November one) and the fact that he is our 'travel agent'.

The Hideaway

P & S went home and K and I travelled on to Woodhall Spa for a couple of days to 'cover' a DH show.  Woodhall Spa (and its environs) is a great place to visit, full of interesting things, starting with the venue of the show for example - the Petwood Hotel. This was where the dam busters were billeted.  We stayed in Woodhall last summer so we had done a lot of the area and our visit to Horncastle the previous month was also on its doorstep.  We still had a great couple of days thanks, in part, to the delightful little apartment we found.  


Finally, here we are in 

September

The first (!) DH show for the month was in Stafford so it was just a day trip there and back.  We are going to Miniatura at the NEC next weekend and staying over for a couple of days so I can do both days - for myself and to cover it for the magazine.  I will be picking up stuff from there to 'finish' Chocolat. 

A week ago my 81 year old aunty was hospitalised after a fall which, of course, is not turning out to be simple so that is taking up some of our time right now and I seem to be overwhelmed with stuff to do.  Along with the usual keeping on top of the garden and the lotty I am forever racing around and trying to keep the doll house plates spinning.  Right now I have three incomplete articles on my desk due out this month and the realisation that there is also one or more every month to come until May 2014: then there will be a major project I have in mind as well as any other 'commissions'.  I also have to work on a complete 'task' each month on Chocolat until we leave - working right up to the last week.  My involvement with the hobby brings with it a zillion blogs and major and minor commitments to other people and groups.

I decided this wasn't enough to send me crazy so I have just volunteered to do a garden 'thing' with the local Youth Group.  This consists of 15 'youth' aged 8 - 14.  That is a broad spread of age and gender to pitch things to.  With the added dimension that we can't go any actual gardening until next April it may prove a real challenge (aka worry).  I start next Tuesday - I may let you know how it went.

Meanwhile, I am back in Clavering so you can all keep up, BUT this time round I have no intention of beating myself up every time I don't do a Clavering at the end of a calender month. Posts will be even more hit and miss than they were before.  I'll try to come here only when I have something to say.  (!!!! I know, I know)

For any of you that suffer with anxiety - or worse, misdiagnosed depression - here's a link to terrific article my daughter sent me:

I saw this Observer article and thought you should see it: http://gu.com/p/3tk6c

Get the Guardian and Observer iPad edition by visiting http://www.guardian.co.uk/ipad