August

So here we are at the end of August. 
Just another couple of days left before that first day of school feeling hits and S stands by our front door for the traditional photo shoot and heads off on the start of a new academic year.

The weather has been good during the summer break. S has been out and about meeting up with friends at local parks, she's been to the cinema a couple of times, mooched around town, been trampolining, met my mum for lunch, had friends to stay and gone on a sleepover.
Plus in the middle of the holidays we had our own holiday when we took the Eurostar to Belgium.

I have well and truly fallen out of the blogging habit this month which is a shame as it meant I have missed the 10th anniversary of when I started recording our lives here at Jumble and Jelly. Although I don't post as regularly now as I did when the children were younger I can't imagine stopping because it's so lovely having a record of us and the things we do.

I am borrowing an idea I have seen on Pinterest and decided to write a round up of August using a series of prompts. An idea I can see me taking forward into the next decade of blogging.

This month I have been

Reading 

A French Affair by Katie Fforde. I took this away with me and read most of it on the train journey to and from Brussels. I wanted something which would be light and easy to read and I thought the title was very apt seeing as we had to travel through France.

How did it take me until I was 50 to read this book. I loved it. L-O-V-E-D it.

Watching


Serendipity, a fluffy rom com with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale as 18th August was Serendipity Day.

and Forgetting Sarah Marshall as it was Mila Kunis' birthday on 14th August.

Trying

To make a jelly in a seaside sandcastle bucket for Sandcastle Day. 
But the darn thing didn't fully set and ended up a quivering heap on the plate!

Cooking

I made lemon rice pudding meringue as a nod to Lemon Juice Day.
I made S some macaroni cheese and bacon sandwiches.
I also made honeycomb lasagne and ham and mustard hash. The lasagne will be making another appearance but the hash won't as although G liked this S didn't.

Eating

We made sure we included raspberries in our picnic lunch in Antwerp as this was the closest we could get for Raspberries and Cream Day.

Belgian fries. G liked them, S and I weren't that fussed. But the waffles. Well what can I say, we all loved those.

Drinking

Watermelon Day was on 3rd August and so I made sure to have some in to make a smoothie with it. I know this should probably be obvious because of it's name but I didn't enjoy it in a smoothie as it made it too, well, watery!

Doing

Silly things with my lovely daughter. It may not look it in this photo but she was laughing as much as me and G whilst we were posing for this!

Going

To Belgium. We stayed in Brussels and had day trips to Antwerp, Ghent and Bruges. We had a great time and I would thoroughly recommend a trip to Belgium to anyone considering it. 

One evening a couple of weeks ago we met up with some with friends and we took ourselves off to a local green where we enjoyed fish and chips for our tea. Their younger children played with S and we sat around chatting about this and that. A perfect way to unwind after a day at work and spend a relaxing summers evening.

On a great clue solving day out to Lymington. The treasure trail took us around the town as we worked our way through the puzzles. We got the answer wrong, but we didn't care as we had great fun trying to solve the mystery.

Loving

Rocky.

Let me introduce you to the latest member of our family.
He's 18 months old and needed a new home. How could we resist?
He was already named Rocky and of course we had to keep it but within a day or so we were calling him Rocky Road. Due to the fact he is always around your feet, especially when you are trying to walk down the stairs he is now being called Rocky Road Trip Hazard.

Feeling

Annoyed is how I was feeling a week or so ago after I discovered that now S's school will only allow girls to wear on of two 'official' style skirts I am expected to pay out £22.50 to purchase one.
The reason this new school uniform rule is being introduced is because other girls were wearing skirts which were too short and didn't comply with the rules. So now the school have decided that all girls have to wear one of the skirts they deem as acceptable. Never mind that many girls did wear skirts which were within the uniform guidelines. It makes me so cross.

Wearing

A dress which matched S's drink

and a bottle green scarf in homage of Word Scout Scarf Day.

Thankful.

This month marked the 10th anniversary of when we lost our dearest Dad. It feels utterly impossible that so long has passed since then. I still miss his dreadfully but will ever be thankful that he was my Dad.


Wondering

If I would find a lion suitable to photograph on World Lion Day and then finding this smiling face on a door not far from the apartment we were staying in.

Listening

I bought this Shaky album for 1 Euro whilst we were in Ghent. Bargain I'd say.
We used the cover for this year's take on Vinyl Record Day.
And in case you are wondering, yes that's me knelt against the washing line support in our back garden.

Although it hasn't happened as yet, in actual fact we're off to it tomorrow evening, G and I will be listening and warbling away when we go to Sing Along with Grease. Can't wait, what a way to end the month.

0-16

Seeing as my 50th birthday was nearly one month ago now, it's about time I took the time to tell you all about the incredible presents which G gave me.

This post has taken quite a bit of time to assemble, but no where near the amount of time it took G to assemble the gifts.

It all started with a large box.

It's all just a bit of fun G said to me.

Nestled inside amongst a lot of shredded paper were the presents.

They were all tagged and had to be opened in a specific order as G had bought gifts representing (mostly each 21st July) from 1968 when I was born until my 16th birthday in 1984.

1968- the song which was No 1 in charts on the day I was born. Des O'Connor and I Pretend.

The Sunday Times Magazine, printed with my birth date. I love the photo on the front and hope to get this framed.

1969- when the world was glued to the TV and radio listening for updates on the moon landing I was having my first birthday. I now have a copy of the Daily Telegraph from when I was one. As you may know we like a good jigsaw here and this one we will save and be doing on the 50th anniversary of the moon landing next year.

1970- Number one on my 2nd birthday was In the Summertime

and where better to spend it than the beach so we have a night away to look forward to!

1971- A bit of glam rock with T-Rex at number 1 on my 3rd birthday

and just look at the main article highlight in this paper printed on my birthday!!

1972- He was bound to show up sooner or later, number one on my 4th birthday was Donny Osmond.

1973- G chose to go with number 1 in the album chart for this year because of the David Essex link and so I now have a copy of That'll Be The Day along with the Look In magazine also showing the date of my 5th birthday.

1974- I cried so much when I opened this Simplicity dressmaking pattern book. Although it isn't from 1974 it's what this represents which is so important to me.
When we were little my 2 sisters and I would spend hours upon hours cutting up old editions of these catalogues. We would use these 'cut outs' to play beauty contests with. So many memories. G said this took such a long time to track down as they are quite hard to find. I'm so glad he was able to find this one. A very special gift indeed and I cried an awful lot.

1975- Oh how I loved the Bay City Rollers. G bought this satin scarf off of a lady who stitched it together the night before she went to see them play live back in the 70s. Along with the scarf I also now have the single which was number one on my 7th birthday and the July edition of the Rollers magazine.
I should also mention here that later on in the day I found out that my sister's are taking me to see the band play live! The only original member of the Rollers in the band these days is Les but I don't mind about that, I'm just so excited!

1976- More David Essex, let's face it, you can never have too much! 

1977- When I was little and given money to spend on holiday I would always buy as many of these magazines as I could.

Debbie, Bunty, Mandy and Judy. I would read them over and over again and try and copy the illustrations.

I can even remember the smell of the paper.

Again there was more tears as they evoked so many happy times from my childhood.

 1978- I loved Grease from the very first second I saw it on the screen at the cinema. As well as You're The One That I Want, number one on my 10th birthday, G bought me this picture of Sandy and Danny singing that song surrounded by original film cells from the movie.
Plus very soon we are both off to a Sing Along A Grease Movie night. G said he wouldn't mind if I wanted to take a friend, but he's the one that I want so he's coming with me!

1979- a copy of the Radio Times for 21st July 1979 would have cost you 14p. What a bargain.

1980- the gift for1980 is so unusual. This badge was bought by someone who went to the 1980 Moscow Olympics as a souvenir. This was the year the USA boycotted the games.

1981- My love for Shaky had taken a hold by this time. He was Number 1 with Green Door on my 13th birthday.

G bought the badge from a chap whose job it was to promote Shaky's album.

1982- The newspaper headline from my birthday this year is one we would much rather forget.

The Number 1 album is one which I heard played many, many times as it was a firm favourite of T's, my best friend at school.

1983- Wham and Smash Hits. Staples of this time in my teenage years. Wham takes me right back in an instant to Monday nights dancing at the Top Rank. I couldn't ask for a better Number 1 album.

1984- Here we finish off with a Jackie Magazine published on my 16th birthday

and these two items of clothing which actually belonged to me and I used to wear!
Apparently G consulted my sisters and T, my best friend from school, to help him in his gift quest. During a conversation with T she told him that during the early 90s I had lent her this pink jacket and trousers as she and a friend were going to a 1980s fancy dress party. Her friend was a similiar size to me but had nothing suitable to wear. T has kept them since then, always meaning to give them back but just never getting round to it. The jacket is from Etam and the trousers from Chelsea Girl. The jacket still fits but the trousers go nowhere near me!
When I unwrapped these clothes I remembered them instantly although I hadn't seen them for near on 30 years. Again they bought memories, and the tears, flooding back.

As if these gifts weren't enough there was still one more. The final item in the box was a sheet of paper which had a crossword printed on it.
Solving the clues revealed that G had arranged for me to go and visit my lovely friend S in Virginia after first spending time in Washington.
Cue more tears.
I didn't want to appear ungrateful but how could I go on a trip alone to such a beautiful part of the USA, steeped in so much history, when I knew G would love it all too. I couldn't envisage returning and saying 'I've seen this and that' and 'we went here and there' and therefore not having shared memories of all these places.
S has been incredibly generous and said the invitation is open to me, G and S should that work better for us and for a time which suits us all.
At the moment I'm not sure of the who, how and when as we have had so many things going on and we have only been back a week from a really fabulous holiday in Belgium, but plans will be made you can be sure of that. 

French Fry

Thank you all so much for the lovely messages you left about our beloved Malcolmcat.

Blogland is full of such supportive friends and each comment was so very much appreciated.

It really is about time I did this post about the week leading up to my birthday and the final daily round of daily activities.

Friday 13th July was French Fry Day and I went for (slightly) healthier option and had a bag of these with my lunch rather than skipping along to the nearest takeaway and snaffling my way through a portion of deep fried fries!

Sunday 15th was another weird and wonderful day. Who would have ever thought there'd be a Gummi Worm Day.
From Pinterest I found instructions for making 'dirt cups', which is just Angel Delight and crushed Oreos layered in a glass dish. Jelly worms were added to look like they were slithering out of the earth.

For Ginger Rogers' birthday on 16th July G and I watched Shall We Dance. The story line was ridiculously flimsy but the dancing was sublime, especially this roller skating scene.

Next up are three food based days. Tuesday 17th was Peach Ice Cream day. I made some ice cream and up until now I had completely forgotten it's the in freezer what with everything that's been going on. I guess we should try some soon!
Wednesday 18th was Hot Dog Day so this meant there was only one choice for our evening meal. 
Thursday 19th was Ice Cream Day. I knew what I wanted to do for this day and because I didn't want to run the risk of it being a cloud free day I made sure I got some photos a little ahead of time.
G and I were very pleased with our efforts.

The day before my birthday I had intended to mark by jumping.
I knew there had been a photographer called Phillippe Halsman who at the end of photography sessions would ask his subjects to jump and he would snap them as they did so.
He believed this act would reveal more of the genuine character of a person than the polished and styled one they may want to project to the public.
I think this is such an interesting idea.
I may not have found the time to physically jump but I spent all day metaphorically jumping for joy at all the surprises my work colleagues laid on for me.
I arrived at work to be greeted by colleagues singing Happy Birthday and my desk covered in banners and primary coloured paper decorations, cards and presents.
As the time ticked round to lunchtime they surprised me further when a table full of food suddenly appeared and we all enjoyed a buffet of party food. 
One of my colleagues is an extremely talented cake maker and she made me this vanilla sponge cake. I told her it was the prettiest cake anyone has ever made me ever.
What a lovely lot of colleagues I have.

Malcolm

Last week we had to say goodbye to our beloved Malcolm.
He wasn't at all well during Sunday night and G took him to the vets first thing Monday morning.
He had blood tests. They thought it may be his thyroid but that came back all clear.
Could be the start of an infection they said.
They also mentioned a possible issue with his heart.
He had a injection.
He was not himself Monday or Tuesday.
Wednesday he seemed a little better and ate breakfast which something more like his usual enthusiasm for food.
But Thursday he took a turn for the worse and we needed an emergency appointment at the vets.
S decided she wanted to come with me and I prepared her as best I could for what was likely to happen. She was incredibly brave.
I held Malcolm close and talked to him as he went to asleep and we were given a few minutes alone with him afterwards.
Loving them as much as we do we make that decision because we can't let them suffer and that's the thing you have to keep reminding yourself when you are missing them so very much.