Don't Panic

Apologies

Yup sorry to everyone who's been waiting avidly for the latest in the life of Imo.  Put it down to working in a school, stupidly telling that school that a.  you can play the piano and b. no you don't mind at all playing for the Nativity Play, The School Christmas Concert and the School Carol Service, and then spending every spare minute practising endless Christmas music.   The piano always breathes a sigh of relief when we finally hit the end of term.

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

Sent Mr Imo out for the Tree last weekend to the Christmas Tree Farm in Stansted where the trees have a happy factory free life growing in fields with lots of fresh air, wind and rain.   They'd sold out!   How the heck can you say you've sold out of trees whilst standing in a hut on the edge of the field still full of trees.  Surely chopping down just one more is neither here or there.  He came back via Home Base who were also treeless.

Mr Imo was sent out again on what was now being called the 'Great Hunt for the Last Available Tree' with orders not to come home without one!  The tree he brought back (it was the last but one from the man who sells logs in Takeley) was slightly bald in places, but now it's tastely covered in a few decorations, it hasn't dropped one needle.

Look what I made

Plus the others that didn't make it to the podium

And finally.........

After all my panic over getting ready for Christmas I did make it - although putting up holly this afternoon nearly had me flinging the whole lot out into the melting snow - that stuff hurts!

Have a very Happy Christmas.


Imo

Is it a sign of getting old - forgetting how old you are?

BIRTHDAY GIRL

Have spent the day being the birthday girl.  This meant spending the two days prior to the day baking and icing not one but two (large) cakes for the Staff Room.  Actually this is worth the effort once a year, as:-

1. you get lots of people at work smiling at you and generally being nice, and

2.  you can sit back and make the most of other cakes/biscuits/sweets, etc. in the staff room for the rest of the year and not feel at all guilty.

Then I got lunch at Michelle's house, along with a couple of other friends.  Actually I get lunch most weeks at Michelle's but today's included getting to blow out a candle and eating  yet more cake.

Had some good presents and have only got to change 3 things - 2 because of sizing and 1 coat from Jo Browns as when I was carefully undoing the stud popper thingies one of them broke off leaving jaggy metal bits! Not good.

Tomorrow is Mr Imo's birthday, we are the same age for one day before he jumps ahead of me again and lands in the second half of being in his 40's. haha.

We are off to the O2 tomorrow to watch some men play tennis in the APT top 8, and there's also a Christmas market and some sort of make your own music/rock through the ages exhibition as well, so we're going up early after depositing boys at the In-Laws, so we can buy I can buy Christmas decorations, we can re-live the 80's music scene and get something to eat before watching tennis balls being bounced launched around a tennis court.

Getting Ready for Christmas Part 3........

Um.  Oh no actually I have managed to buy, wrap and deposit family presents at the parents last Sunday. 


Some Pictures.  Please note the detail to composition, lighting, contrasts, etc....

Let Your Child join Cubs Today

The year I turned No.1 Boy actually into a book for World Book Day

Effects of the Credit Crunch

The French prove they can have a sense of humour

Friday the 13th

Dentists


On Friday I popped into the dentist for what I thought would be a quick 10 minute appointment to have a crown fitted.


I won't go into the details of what it's like to have a crown fitted. Those of you who have not had the experience (yet) can live in blissful ignorance. Those who have gone through the process will know that having the temp. crown taken out and the new crown stuck in, is the quick and easy bit, basically it's just a bit of gluing, sanding down and most importantly the bit with no pain!


Do you ever get those moments when you are suddenly in a situation that makes you feel you are stuck in a very bad comedy sketch?


First of all my dentist is Spanish, I'm sure he's a lovely person but I really struggle to understand his English.


Dentist: "First of all I remove the temporary crown".


Me: "OK"


Dentist: Takes first attempt at removing crown. Then lowers me down a bit more and has another go. He is now putting some real effect into it.* Changes the angle and has a third go, resulting in a good cracking noise.


Me: "Have you got it".


Dentist: "Not quite". Fourth go (more cracking noises) and the crown flies out and lands on my leg.


Me: "Yuch"


Dentist: "Ah". We all play a game called 'hunt the crown'.


Lucky me, the crown is out along with half of the prep work which I'd gone through hell to get done a couple of weeks ago.


Dentist: "I will have to do some prep work on your tooth. This is going to cost you eighty pounds but as it was my mistake I will not charge. These things happen".


Me: "Ah". (I don't converse much at the dentist).


To cut a long story short:- He drilled. It hurt. It shouldn't have hurt. It did hurt. The drilling is not hurting you, it is just the cold air. It hurt!!!!


However the new tooth is in, and I have moved my 6 month checkup from December to February - reprieve!


Getting Ready for Christmas Part 2


I have brought an advent candle.


Finally.........


Am looking forward to watching the new Doctor Who tonight, and am hoping the boys won't get nightmares about people melting in water! Or me for that matter.



* Don't read this bit out of context, and get the wrong idea.

The First Blog

Advertsdverts

The most annoying adverts on at the moment have to be 'We want your gold', 'No we want your gold more', 'We really, really, really want all your gold' 'Gold Now', 'Give Us All Your Gold', etc. etc.. But the prize for most annoying goes to 'the man who does not blink when asking for your gold'. Not once, it's almost as if he's trying to hypnotise you. He is known in our house as "the man with the scary eyes".

Trick or Treat

This is a stupid idea from across the pond (as American actors call it). British children should be brought up to know that this is not acceptable behaviour in England. As a vicar's daughter Halloween is pagan, very dangerous and evil. Not........... It's harmless fun.

Ghost stories, eating marshmallows suspended from string and running round a large vicarage garden screaming at all your friends, was a yearly event in my childhood. My mother even made all three of us dress up as devils one year - Christian readers with children please note.

Theatre

Talking of ghost stories we have tickets to see the play Darker Shores in December, with Mark Gatiss and 'I've got a voice to die for Julian Rhind-Tutt'. I am very excited. I've also got a hankering to see A Women in Black again, it must be at least 15 years since we last saw this, certainly long enough to have forgotten the storyline.

Getting Ready for Christmas

In order not to panic, this year I have consulted a fail-safe guide to running a smooth and stress free Christmas which allows the hostess time to herself in order to drink a small sweet sherry at 6.00 pm each evening during the Yule tide preparations. Looks at her Smirnoff Ice and thinks is this a good start?

OK aghhhhhhhhhh am already behind, I should already have a home made pudding reclining a dark cupboard and all the ingredients brought and readily stored in a cupboard for Stir Up Sunday. When the heck is Stir Up Sunday? do you know churches are full of people who visually blanch and get panicking looks in their eyes when some obscure reading from the Bible suddenly mentions something along the lines about "getting stirred up" i.e. cue for cake baking! Honestly last year I made the cake a week before Christmas, iced it on Christmas Eve and it still got eaten - it was OK and no one died.

This week write a friendly note, address and stamp all cards, which you will have purchased in the January Sales. If you have failed to buy cards in January, please ensure you do purchase charity cards where the shop donates more then just 1p per card to said charity, this is not enough donation to give you that warm and fuzzy feeling of having done good.

Getting Ready for Birthdays

Forgets all the above, I have one child, one husband and one brother all with birthdays before I can even think about 'Good Yule' and harvesting fresh holly.

And finally

This is my first attempt at blogging thanks to a fellow blogger who has dragged me out of the comments section.

All comments gratefully received.

Imo