Thursday - A Bit of a Catch Up

Time for a bit of a catch up as lots of things have been going on, too much happening but not too much time to blog about them. I've been pretty busy with college stuff, as expected. So not too much chat just some pictures to reflect bits and pieces that have been happening.

A picture of Jamie with his gold award from school, he has been working very hard in Maths and this was his reward, well done Jamie, if he continues to work hard and stays on the top table for Maths up to half term he is in line for another award too, an xbox game he is very keen to get!

Some floristry pictures too - some arrangements and practices I have done with flowers from our wedding anniversary and ones I have brought home from college.

This was a go at a spiral posy, which Janet had shown us at college, rather than the flowers being placed around the posy in a traditional style (see below where each flower has a very particular place to be in the design) they are spiralled around, a more flowing design, a more contemporary style of all round posy, I like this style very much, a potential Christmas design here I think.

Akito roses in a very simple line arrangement in one of my fave dishes for this arrangement, they are a beautiful and elegant variety of rose, but do bruise very easily.

Mine own design here a mass arrangement of roses, lovely for a simple supper arrangement, easy to do and effective.

Some of the flowers I brought home from college, we get to take home everything we have left on a Wednesday to use and practice with over the weekend. Can you see the pittosporum tenufolium, this is a big big favourite amongst all of us floristry girls now, it is so versatile and pretty and works so so well with Akito roses as the white in the variegated variety matches the roses and it just seems to make all the other foliage 'pop' with an added vibrancy.

Above is a single flower in cello wrap with a not too bad bow, they are not easy to make from scratch, you have to develop your own technique.

A flat backed bouquet with a nice bow, this is missing it's tissue paper but I was practicing sealing this one and am pleased with the result. I now want to have a go at a really really really big one!

A single flower in kraft paper (yes that is the proper spelling - it's a special type of paper!) with a pretty bow, the bow always has to be in proportion to the flowers!! This one is really pleasing.

The spiralling stems on my hand tied (not trimmed down yet) but really pleased with these. If I can get it to stand I usually dance around the kitchen, as that is the test for a hand-tied - does it stand!!!!

Quite tight at the top end, but I like this look, more like a bridal bouquet I suppose than the hand-tied you would buy as a gift, this is just a practice one and had all the flowers I had to hand in so the colours are not important - but you can see the pittosporum in the centre, are you loving it yet? I managed to hold quite a few stems in my hand and was pleased with that - hand tieds make you use different muscles in your hands I may end up with an arm wrestlers grip - ha ha!!

Not sure if I have mentioned but I got my PTLLS certificate through and I passed at the higher level - Level 4 - hooray!! So I am pleased to bits with that, I now need to start thinking about getting a couple of hours teaching which is really really exciting. I need to have a chat with someone soon about that and see what I need to do and where I need to go and who I need to speak to I guess.

I have also been watching a little bit of cricket the 20:20 championships in India and I am cheering on New South Wales, well Brett Lee plays for them, so why not.

Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 9/16 - currently reading Lovers and Players by Jackie Collins
Jamie's Reading challenge 10/12 - currently reading Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by James Luceno
SLYMI - 1/52

This Green (Bin) And Pleasant Land!

OK, our front garden is not looking at its best at the moment, as I need to get rid of the summer debris and re-plant with some nice autumn into winter plants but I am wondering if it is worth the bother. Why I hear you ask?


Well first, let me say that I am very much in favour of recycling and reusing and was very much brought up on that ethos. I came from northern mining background, what other type of life did we have the option of. I have always (often to Mike's annoyance) been seen trying to use the last bit, and trying to get the most out of everything. And I am happy to recycle as much as I can and have a compost bin on the go at the moment.


But, and here is where I have my problem, Milton Keynes Council in it's wisdom has decided to implement a radical recycling scheme and all houses in MK have been issued with a big green wheelie bin (of my title). Now I am not against wheelie bins, I had one when I lived in the North and it worked perfectly well there. But this green bin is not for our rubbish - we have a bin and bin bags for that, it is not for our glass, we have a blue box for that, it is not for our paper and plastics we have pink sacks for that. No the new bin is for our green waste, garden rubbish and household food slops!

Again I don't have a problem recycling these where possible but lets keep it under control. Milton Keynes now looks dreadful. There are green bins everywhere, outside front doors, at the side of houses, here, there and everywhere you look are green bins. Some people like our next door neighbour have realised that the bin itself is way to big for her needs and she has swapped it for one of the smaller variety which is about 18 inches tall, instead of the 4 foot things you can see everywhere else.


Now I am not having a go at anyone in particular, just at the person and the council who thought this a good idea - green they may be, pleasant they are not. Milton Keynes was not designed for this type of bin. There are so many houses in MK which have been built in modern style terraces and sadly people today do not seem to care so these bins are not kept in gardens but just left creating an eye-sore for everyone. The problem is people just do not have the space to store the bins, and in so many cases the bins themselves are too big for the needs of the people who now have them - even for us it is bigger than we need.


MK was designed rather than let evolve and one of the 'rules' was no aerials as they were an eyesore, so MK was on cable from a very early stage. Clearly design is an issue that no longer matters. Milton Keynes has always looked green, lots of trees, lots of grass and it is a pleasant enough place to live, but now, when you step outside your front door and drive around doing your daily stuff all you are faced with is green bins. It is a shame that a system which could accommodate this old ethos was not considered when setting up this new system.

Yes lets have recycling, as much of it as is possible, but let's have a system which doesn't create rubbish hanging around outside people's front doors and a system which doesn't spoil the look of the whole area. It's clearly too late for MK at the moment, or at least until the contract for waste recycling is renewed and and another company come in with yet another 'brilliant idea'.

I do hope to have some pictures to follow and let me just reiterate this is against the system and not anyone in particular.

Roll on the change of contract!!

Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 9/16 - currently reading Lovers and Players by Jackie Collins
Jamie's Reading challenge 10/12 - currently reading Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by James Luceno
SLYMI - 1/52

Week 4 At College Already!

Not much chat this week, but here is a pictorial run down of what happened at college.

Monday

Bouquets - a flat backed or flat packed bouquet .....

and our first hand tied .....

Tuesday

A front facing symmetrical arrangement ......

The colours are working for me this week! Here is the class effort, a big well done to all of us I think ......

No 'to-do-list' this week, hopefully can manage one next week!

Wednesday

A single ended spray ...

and it's side profile, this is important too!

A loose wreath, much better than my first attempt, in fact signed off on this one now, I am pleased with this it!





And finally, one of my class-mates having some fun!!!!





Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 9/16 - currently reading Lovers and Players by Jackie Collins
Jamie's Reading challenge 5/12 - currently reading Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by James Luceno
SLYMI - 1/52

Our 6th Wedding Anniversery

Oh my goodness - I can't believe it, we've been married for 6 years! Where has the time gone? We didn't do much, just exchanged cards, doesn't really need anything else does it. Well Mike did get me some flowers, but that's like taking coals to Newcastle (ha ha). No the flowers are lovely and I will be doing some bit and pieces with them over the next day or so, if I'm not flowered out by the time I get home from college.

It was an incredibly lazy day today. I finally finished 'The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman' which I have tried at least 3 times to read, but now it's finished I really enjoyed it a lot and the review is below.

Mike and I headed out this evening to The Rose of India, which is in the less than salubrious surroundings of Duncombe Street in Bletchley BUT and it is a big BUT, The Rose of India is a superb little Indian restaurant and for a simple but delicious Indian meal it is a safe bet. We hadn't been there for some time and so decided to try it again and were not at all disappointed. The service is excellent, attentive, but not in your face and the food is good - everything we wanted from an Indian meal.

We started with the usual poppadoms and the bits, their mango chutney is utterly lovely. I had onion bhaji (when do I have anything else) for my starter and Mike had a kebab with an omelette on top, both were really tasty and lovely and hot. For mains we shared chicken dopiaza, chicken tikka masala, mateer paneer (?), mushroom rice and naan bread - all lovely. The rice and the tikka masala were really good, our hot plate looked like traffic lights, with the green of the dopiaza, amber of the mateer and red of the masala, very colourful and very very tasty. Mike had ice-cream but I stuck to a coffee, but very enjoyable. And nice to go out just the two of us on a rare occasion. A very pleasant evening indeed.

Book Review

Bruce Robinson - The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman'

** Beware Spoilers**

I have to confess that I have a bit of a thing for Bruce Robinson, his performance in Still Crazy for me is one of my favourite bits in one of my favourite films. His talent as a Director I really admire and his writing I admire above all of those. When I read 'Smoking in Bed', it had me howling out loud with laughter, so I was really looking forward to reading this book too. It has taken me a while to finish it after at least 3 starts and struggling to get beyond page 50. I am now so glad that I have, as this book is a wonderful read.

It tells the story of Thomas Penman at a crucial and critical time in his life, his parents marriage is breaking down, his grandfather is dying and Thomas is experiencing his first real love. It is a complex book, doesn't have a plot as such but has wonderful characters, and an interesting series of episodes in which the characters stories slowly develop. Thomas has several unusual habits and a deep love of Charles Dickens (the latter reflecting Robinson's own passion for Dickens) and is at the start of his own search for who he is, beginning to see how his parents and grandparents are affecting him.

The book, most of all is beautifully written, perhaps not surprising, when the author penned the script for The Killing Fields, it is both heartbreaking and heartwarming, and laugh out loud funny in places. So much so that when I was reading it waiting for Jamie in his Drama class I had to put my hand over my mouth to stop myself laughing - there are not many books who can make me do that!

I do hope that Bruce writes more, both books and scripts and I am very much looking forward to The Rum Diary, his latest film which is currently in production and due for release in 2010.


Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 9/16 - currently reading Lovers and Players by Jackie Collins
Jamie's Reading challenge 10/12 - currently reading Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by James Luceno
SLYMI - 1/52

A Relaxing Saturday And Friends for Supper

We had a fairly relaxing Saturday, got a few jobs done around the house, and the place is looking nice and tidy. I really ought to have got down to some serious college work, but I was struggling, I really must starting getting stuck in though!!

Jamie was at his Drama Club this morning and then went with Mike to his guitar lesson. We have decided to send him separately to his school lesson, just to get him really going again. And when Mike got back it looks like it was the right decision. His teacher asked him to play something, just so he could gauge where he is at and Jamie, being Jamie decided to treat him to 'Nothing Else Matters' and then 'One' by Metallic. His teacher asked him to play something from his book too, but seems he was suitably impressed, in fact said Jamie appears to have a bit of a talent and needs to get his act together and not mess around when he should be practicing (well Mike's paraphrasing of it!) By the end of his first lesson with his new tutor it was decided that he will be going for his Grade 1 in December and possibly his Grade 2 in March - if he practices. We have promised him he can have an electric guitar if he gets his Grade 1 - that to me sounds like a real incentive.

After lunch Jamie spent time with Kian and then we went to the supermarket as we were having our friends Anne and Martin around for Saturday night supper. It was well overdue for us to return the invite, and it is always difficult getting a date as Mike and Martin work opposite shifts. But a suitable night was found and it was tonight.


I had planned to do something relatively simple but hopefully tasty! We started with a tasting platter (the 'in' name for it!), but lots of yummy things on a platter with lots of bread - so salami, ham, chorizo, hummus, olives, cornichons, garlic bread, veg sticks, yummy bread and butter and Parmesan cheese. For mains I did spaghetti and meatballs (can't really go wrong with that) with added mozzarella and desert was citrus tart and fresh fruit salad. Sorry, even though I prepared it, I have to say it was totally scrumptious and the company was wonderful so it was a totally enjoyable evening. Jamie kept popping in and topping up his supply of food and I think he was finally in bed by about midnight (how bad is that!)


It was a totally lovely evening and I look forward to repeating it again much sooner than last time!

We ended up having a long discussion about friendship and some 'friends' we had had who enjoyed our hospitality for years and years and years and had never once invited us to their house, even for a coffee let alone to reciprocate the many meals they had shared with us, we once had a 'you're welcome anytime' but as we all know that is not the same as organising something. Even when we pointed out to them that it was causing problems, Mike's view was that they were socially retarded but ultimately we had to give them the heave ho, how do you deal with people like that. We decided in the end the positives in the friendship we far far outweighed by the negatives they brought into our lives and it was far far better for us not to have them in our lives in any way at all.

Earlier in the day, Jamie and I had been to Tesco and I had bought some flowers to practice with and was thrilled to find in Tesco some Germini, which they are now selling on cardboard racquet's, and they were selling 10 for £3.00 which works out as amazing value as they are working out at 30p a stem. I didn't have time to use them today so will hope to get some work done with them and the other flowers I have tomorrow.

Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 9/16 - currently reading Lovers and Players by Jackie Collins
Jamie's Reading challenge 10/12 - currently reading Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by James Luceno - he keeps reading all sorts but hasn't finished this one yet!!
SLYMI - 1/52 - I will get scrapbooking again - I'm aiming for half term now!!

Thursday and Friday Fill-In

Thursday was my day for getting some of my jobs out of the way. I haven't got into a homework routine properly yet, and I really need to do that, but fingers crossed over the next week or so that will all fall into place.

Friday - well here goes for another Friday Fill-In

1. Sweet dreams have to stay as dreams, which is a shame really.

2. Writing my blog is especially for me.

3. Silliness is something I don't do often enough and it keeps you young.

4. I am really looking forward to this Halloween as we will be in London visiting Westminster Abbey and then going to see John Barrowman in La Cage Aux Folles, how wonderful - but I am going to miss seeing all the trick or treaters and taking Jamie out doing his!

5. Outstanding or not it's who I am.

6. My bed and 18 hours sleep is what I want right now!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to chillin' with my baby, tomorrow my plans include having our friends Martin and Ann over for a lazy supper and Sunday, I want to sleep, go to the Harvest Festival service and enjoy our 6th Wedding Anniversery with a lovely meal out with Mikey boy!

Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 8/16 - currently reading Lovers and Players by Jackie Collins
Jamie's Reading challenge 5/12 - currently reading Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by James Luceno
SLYMI - 1/52

Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday and we are back to our flower arrangement unit, it was time to practice the all round loose posy, first with and then without a candle, which you can see below. I am fairly happy with both of those, one or two minor bits, but largely ok. I can't say the flowers this week are my own personal taste, I am not even convinced they work well together but I won't be able to choose what customers want in their orders from me, so I guess I have to live with that.

As for parking, Mike dropped me in today, which worked out well so no hassle for me today!

Lots of flowers on Tuesday, as in the evening it was Flower Club and this month it was members evening, which is where members of the club demonstrate rather than us having an outside demonstrator. It was a lovely evening, sadly after remembering my camera this month, it died on me and I was only able to get one decent shot. Sylvia, my flower arranging mentor did the final demo excellently and she did her 'party piece' which was lovely. But don't tell her my favourite of the night was the one from Martin, one of the very very few men in the group which was stunning and the only decent photo I managed to get. June won one of the arrangements in the raffle and choose Sylvia's! Note for me, next year I do a demonstration!




Martin did his arrangement in a cauldron which looked super and a fantastic idea for a Halloween or Bonfire Party or event. He even managed to have a fire under it too! Brilliant!

Wednesday I was late in again, as I had to take Jamie to school and by the time I got to where I now park there was only one space left, so I was very very lucky! Although by the time I got in, I hadn't really missed much as it is Tutorial on a Wednesday morning, or from my perspective, a waste of time. This week we had to watch a totally pointless DVD, totally aimed at the younger student, but of course that is where the funding is. God forbid they actually acknowledge that they have an older student too, and in my group the majority are mature students, and me at 44 is not the oldest person on the course - 3 of us are 40+!! In the end 3 of us 'olderies' (is it a word, it is now!) were in tears at the naffness and pointlessness of the whole thing!

Then it was onto our funeral work, and another go at a double ended spray and hooray, I have been signed off on mine, so I don't have to do that one again, that is it, a big tick in that box! Here is mine below and I am pleased with it, as it has a good strong line, throughout, with carnations, backed up by gerbera and limonium (which I totally totally hate and would never ever use if given the choice - it is nicely coloured but just looks naff!) I tried very hard to tone down the foliage, and it has worked, although the cupressus was just about past its sell by date so it was easy not to use too much.

After that it was my first go at a loose wreath and I do not like mine at all. Why, well it looks far too compact and cramped together, you don't seem to be able to view the beauty of each flower and surely that is the whole point of a floral tribute. The foliage seemed too big, it may have been better with smaller pieces of foliage, but the leaves on them seemed too big too. I personally think it looks awful awful awful. I had to leave early to let Mike get back to work after he had collected Jamie from school and got soaked to the skin walking back to the car, so wasn't a happy bunny by the time I got home. And I was tired again too! Must get more sleep! So that was week three at college!

Jamie had Jake over for tea and play tonight, so that was great fun for them. Mike and I enjoyed a quiet dinner together later watching Spooks and chilling out.

Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 8/16 - currently reading Lovers and Players by Jackie Collins
Jamie's Reading challenge 5/12 - currently reading Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by James Luceno
SLYMI - 1/52