The Photo Comp

I haven't entered for ages but felt inspired by the Christmas subject. Having nothing new I shoved in an old one thinking that it wouldn't rate anything. Fifth place! I'm really pleased and will gather some new material for the next one.

The subject is Light. I'll have a go.

How Awful

There has been a Woolies in my home town of Accrington for 83 years. My Nana used to tell me about spending sixpences in there when she was a youngster and I remember buying my make-up there when I was in my teens.

My son, Mark, managed to get himself 'lost' in there once when he was around two years old and was given ten pence by some nice lady who 'found' him. Little tinker managed to lose himself every time we went in from then on!

Alison and I went in last October to buy some hair thingies for me and I'm so glad we did. My last memories of an institution.

Poor Woolies...............RIP

Have a Good One

It's just us this year as most of our mates are off doing other things. Maz and Bernard are staying in a hotel in Las Americas with Joan and Kevin whilst Pam and John have gone to England to stay with their daughter.

We have a plan though. Smoked salmon and poached eggs for breakfast and then a walk around the village. Roast duck with all the trimmings for dinner followed by hot mince pies with ice-cream for pudding. Lots of good telly for the evening including Corrie!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Flippin' Freezing

I know that it isn't half as cold as England but it feels well chilly here at the moment. I even resorted to wearing my fleece this afternoon. It's lovely in the sun but turn a corner and the breeze gets you.

Having craved for a gas fire all evening it struck me to turn the oven on. Nice and snug now!

Wow!

I haven't been receiving my Christmas cards for the last two or three years but they are flocking in at the moment. People have sworn blind that they have sent them but they never turned up.

Special thanks to Mark and Katie, Sam and Baz and Simon and Karen.

I know that it's a pain to write them out but it's so nice to know that you are thought about when you get them. I promise not to moan next year!

Thanks also to our Shona who was kind enough to post mine in Scotland xx

What a Performance

We borrowed a Digibox from our mate Mick last summer and as it suited us and he didn't really need it we bought it from him about three months ago. We get BBC 1 and 2, ITV1, Channels 4 and 5 as well as a couple of Sports Channels. As long as I can watch Corrie, I'm happy.

Rumours were flying around at the end of last week that it had to be re-configured at some point. Not a problem or so we thought. I was sure that it would be after Christmas and a couple of folk said that it wouldn't be before February. As we don't normally watch television during the day, it was six o'clock when I turned on last night to catch up on Eggheads (I know I'm sad)........NO TV!

Off we set at lunchtime to sort it out and as we had to go by bus it was quite a mission. On arriving at Guaza we turned the corner to find a queue of around twenty people all clutching their boxes. It was really funny. It took us over an hour to sort ours out and by the time we left the shop the queue was well down the street.

A five-hour trip and a ninety Euro charge, what a day but at least I got my Corrie back!

Boys and Toys

It's a Bank Holiday here in Tenerife and Brian was well impressed with a car rally held just a couple of streets away from us. He went out early with Clio just for a nose around but came back to ditch her and collect the camera. He did quite well with this pic!



Curiosity got the better of me and I went to find him later. It was pretty exciting watching the sports cars zooming past even though they were risking life and limb on a two lane road. Parked cars down each side too.



I managed to catch this chappy on his way mainly to capture the conditions but we really put our foot in it on the way home. Having decided to wander into the throng we blundered into a televised news report!

How the poor chap managed to keep on talking with these two dimwits hogging the limelight I know not. No Spanish TV for me for the next few days!

Sleep

I'm going through one of those phases when no matter how I try, I can't sleep. It's really awful and I feel well wrecked. I went off to bed at around midnight on Tuesday and tossed and turned for hours. I was still awake when the kiddies went off to school on Wednesday morning and ended up without sleep until two o'clock or so on Thursday morning.

I sort of put it down to my poor brain having nothing to think about. When I worked it was easy enough to lie and plan my schedule for the following day which soon sent me off. Now I tend to start worrying about the most stupid things. I won't go there as it really is ridiculous.

Almost half one on Friday morning and I've had around twenty hours sleep since Monday. I'm dreading going to bed but I'd best give it a go. Find a book and be positive. I WILL SLEEP!