Beefy

I was very glad to be wearing this woolly-pully today as there was a definite November chill to the air.
Today is Ian Botham's birthday so my cricket sweater was a must.
Let's hope the England team channel of bit of Beefy spirit and come back home with the Ashes.

The First Ever...............

.................episode of Doctor Who was broadcast on 23rd November 1963.

Watching Dr Who with the children brings back some very happy memories of the four of us sat together anticipating what perils would befall the Doctor and his companion.

I bought this set of stencils from Lakeland a few years ago and in the past they have been used to dust icing sugar over fairy cakes. 
Tonight the TARDIS was used to top off G's coffee with a sprinkling of chocolate.

Hoagy

I'm very late with today's post as I went into town with S straight from work.
She wanted to buy a pair of black trousers for an upcoming dance competition and I wanted to take the opportunity to pick up a couple of Christmas presents.
A lovely time spent with my (not so) little girl.

But back to today and it's the birthday of Hoagy Carmichael.
I must admit that the only thing I knew about him is that he composed one of my all time favourite songs.

I know I have shared this version of the song before but Robin Sarstedt's cheekbones and cheeky smile definitely deserve another airing.

Peanut Butter Fudge

I think that this is quite probably the brownest photo ever to appear on my blog.

Peanut Butter Fudge Day has seen S busy in the kitchen after school today following this simple recipe and creating what can only be described as a brown splodge of fudge. 
I don't like peanut butter so shall be relying on G and S do the tasting.

A W O L

It's been a busy old week around here and if I have taken one thing from it then that is I need to be really tip top on the organisational front regarding my daily activity and subsequent blogging.

With that most hectic month of the year creeping ever closer (yay!) I shall need to step it up a bit, making sure I allow time for that all I want to do.

I left you on Tuesday when it was Pickle Day so we shall pick up with Wednesday and the fact it was Anni-Frid Lyngstad's birthday.

I ask you, who doesn't enjoy a bit of ABBA every now and again.

As long as it is not in the form of the movie Mamma Mia, oh my goodness I never want to have to see that again!

We have had some great fun here when warbling along to ABBA on the Sing Star game. 

One of my favourite ABBA songs is Ring Ring and so I went with wearing my dial phone brooch.

Thursday was Button Day. A month or so ago I selected some buttons for a little project with Button Day in mind. I made them into a bracelet for S.
Incredibly easy to make I shall be making one for myself for sure.

I had been looking forward to Friday and Homemade Bread Day.
My plan was to do some prep for it on Thursday as I had friend coming to visit Friday evening. We hadn't seen each other since my birthday in July so with so much catching up to do there wouldn't be a huge amount of time for bread making.
Instead Thursday evening was spent out catching up with another friend who I hadn't seen since May. If he isn't busy with work he's on holiday and when he was last free I couldn't make it due to G's shifts.
It has taken an age to find a date we were both free so when the chance presented itself on Thursday we grabbed it.

Yesterday was Mickey Mouse day. 
Again my plan for the day didn't materialise. I was going to download some sort of template for us to pose with, but for one reason and another it didn't happen.
S had a good day. She had her friend D for a sleepover on Friday and in the morning then took themselves off into town for window shopping, followed by lunch and then the cinema. G went to work.
I had a lovely day. First thing I took myself off to Homebase to buy a new Christmas tree and unexpectedly found a perfect present for my sisters from the children.
Once home there were household jobs to do then I went and picked up my mum and bought her back here for lunch. We then wandered round to the local church hall for their Christmas fete. We always manage to find a few bits and pieces and this year didn't disappoint either.

Today is the birthday of the wonderful Meg Ryan. 
I love When Harry Met Sally and this would be my first choice for watching but a while ago I found a movie called The Women for 50p in a charity shop and thought I would give that a go instead. 
It was ok but it could have been so much better.
It has gone inside the bag along with my latest batch of donations to the charity shop.

I'd like to think I will do better this week.

In a Pickle

Being the food fuss pot I am meant that for Pickle Day instead of a full on chunky traditional pickle it was just the tangy smooth pickle sauce in my lunchtime cheese rolls.

Nov 13

is World Kindness Day.

On two separate occasions during these past couple of weeks we have been lucky enough to benefit from acts of kindness by both sets of  adjoining neighbours.

G and I had bought a new bed and so the old one was broken up and, to get it out of the way, it was taken out to the front garden.
Our neighbour L saw G as he was piling up the rubbish and told him she would put it all in her works van and take it to the local tip for us as she was going to be doing a run there anyway.

Then last week we had problems with our car.
It needed a new battery.
Very kindly T went out to collect a new one for us and then our neighbour V helped G to install it and offered some advice when the darn car still wouldn't work!
The issue is still rumbling along.
I rang the garage where I took the car for it's MOT and was advised to call someone else who 'knows everything there is to know about electrics in cars.'
I spoke to C who was so incredibly helpful on Friday and he gave me some free advice on a possible 'easy quick fix'.
Alas this didn't work so we are now on to the next step.
I'm hoping this one will prove to be successful as although no cheap it's not the possible hundreds of pounds solution either.

To let them know we appreciated their kindness we bought chocolate and beer for our neighbours.

On a different subject
Having car issues to sort today meant G and I couldn't go out for the day as planned so we went to the cinema and saw Murder on the Orient Express. Oh My Word. What an absolute feast for the eyes that was. Watching the trailers I thought just how ridiculous that moustache was on Kenneth Brannagh and I honestly thought I wouldn't see past it, but I can say I completely forgot about it. It is such a beautifully shot movie and there is so much to drink in and enjoy. We both loved it.

Dorothy Dandridge

This post should have appeared on Thursday 9th November as that's when the actress and singer Dorothy Dandridge was born.

I bought this (made for TV) movieas although I knew her name I knew nothing about the person.
Dorothy Dandridge was the first African American actress to be nominated for an Oscar. 
This was for her performance in the starring role of Carmen Jones, a film I am now very interested to see. 

Saying I enjoyed this movie is a bit strange as it just made me feel intensely sad and so cross.

Ms Dandridge died when she was only 42 and there seems to have been controversy surrounding the circumstances of how she died.
The issues of racial discrimination she had endure are just appalling to watch and then there is how she was mis-treated by the big studios of Hollywood.
The movie is worth watching from a social history point of view alone.

Origami

Folding an old style £10 note so it looks like the queen is wearing a party hat may not be the first thing you think of doing on Origami Day but I love it and it's provided me with the ideal way of gifting money to the grown up children of friends of ours this Christmas.
All I need to do now is pop a Christmas message on the bottom of the card.
I was thinking 'One is wishing you a Merry Christmas'.
Any other suggestions?

A Wizzard of a Song

Today Mr Wood is 71 years old.

From the first bars of this song I am transported back to my 1970's childhood.

I was mesmerised by the sight of Roy Wood. 
All that hair with it's rainbow of colours.
The glam rock make-up.
He was larger than life.

Then along came I Wish It Could be Christmas Everyday and, love it or loathe it, no Christmas compilation CD is complete with out it.
Today I went with this song as the inspiration for my choice of outfit.
I felt a Christmas jumper was probably too much in early November and so went with the more subtle approach of wearing festive colours in red and green especially as I am wearing my poppy this week too.

I did go with these snowflake earrings though, because

when the snowman brings the snow................

I  

Nachos

This was our take on Nachos Day and what a success it was.
Definitely a meal I shall be cooking again.
Part cook chicken breasts, remove from the oven and top each one with a tablespoon of tomato salsa, then a tablespoon of soured cream followed by a good sprinkling of crushed tortilla chips then finally top all that off with a handful of grated cheese. Bake for a further 10-12 minutes. 
I served these with Mexican spiced rice, peas and sweetcorn.
The plates came back clean.

Remember, Remember

Thursday was All Soul's Day.

A day to remember those we have loved and lost.

A candle on the mantle was lit for both mine and G's dad.

.

Friday was Fountain Pen Day. 
Last year I bought one of these disposable fountain pens in Peacock Green for writing out my Christmas cards.
I like to make card writing into it's own little occasion.
There should be nibbles and a Bailey's to hand and Christmas music playing, all helping to create the right kind of atmosphere.
I have a set of alphabet stamps and some festive stamps for addressing and decorating the envelopes and for this year I have chosen a new pink ink pen. 

Saturday was the birthday of Marguerite Patten. My brother-in-law bought me this set of cookbooks for Christmas a few years ago and they really make for interesting reading. I have made a few things from them and they really came in useful when both the children needed to take in food for a WW2 tea party when at junior school.
My plan had been to do a spot of baking yesterday but I'm trying to do some decorating as well as everything else and, well, something had to give and in the end it was the baking.

Talking of decorating I was painting our bedroom floor today and in the background I had on the movie Leap Year, which I know I have mentioned on here before.
Today is Love Your Red Hair Day and as Amy Adams is a natural red head and I love this movie it seemed like a good choice to go with.

Empress of India

On 1st November 1858 Queen Victoria's government issued a proclamation citing that

Following the 1857 Rebellion, the East India Company's rule in India would come to an end, thereafter India would be governed by and in the name of the British Monarch through a Secretary of State.

It wasn't until July 1947 that India gained it's independence from Great Britain, nearly 90 years later.

I took India as my theme for today and decided it would be a good idea to try one of the recipes from my Pinterest board. I chose Indian Sticky Chicken for it's simplicity, an essential requirement for a midweek evening meal.
S gave this a thumbs up. G is yet to try it as he is still at work.