Chrimbo - good thoughts to all

What to do when the shop ran out of sprouts - Chrimble is the time for friends sharing...
Our friend - having heard the Chaps awful situation of zero sprouts; posted us a wee care package...

Bless her.  (Personally I couldn't hate them more if they were basted in Marmite but there you go -that's just me!!)  At least the Chap was happy.  Hope you all had a lovely and good festive period with your family and/or friends and/or family that is made up of friends - they're there for a reason so treasure them.  Merry wotsit all. xxx

Path passable, christmas comes, girly shock!

Water levels have dropped a bit now...  if only I had a wood burner there's plenty of fuel just needing drying out left behind.
Weather's still grotty but I shall venture forth into it later for one small item of giftedness followed by a chrimble catch up with a good friend.  Starting to actully feel a bit more festive now - hard to when you have to concentrate on work rather than being able to wind down.  Might even get the tree decorated tomorrow!  (Bought it last weekend!!)  Looking forward to the lovely coloured lights and my pretty things to hang on it.  Yup - I'm a bit of a girly at heart.  :-D

Delightful weather!

In common with most of the rest of the UK we've been getting a bit clobbered by the weather this week.  Admittedly nothing like as bad as further north and Scotland have but we've had a wee bit of rain...

This morning we had a wee bit more...

Anyone want to take the riverside path?

No, I thought not!!

Cold beauty

The lovely sunrise this morning on my way to work.

Makes up for all the nightmare trying to get round shops at the moment!!  I must have spent a good 15-20 minutes queuing in a shop on Sunday for a couple of items.  It was only the thought of having to go through it again that stopped me dumping my basket and scarpering.  You'd think we were expecting a siege the way some people are going at it.  Ok-  if you're having to cater for ten extra family members then yes - you need a wee bit more in the way of food but otherwise - do we really need so much more stuff for a whole day when the shops are shut?  No - I really don't think we do!

Upcycling

Spotted these in a local shop a couple of weekends ago.  Love them but £49??!!!  Repurposed items can look great but I kind of think that as recycling is a frugal thing so the price should perhaps reflect that too.  Now I just need a strong workbench with vice and I too can bend spanners with my bare hands...

The familiar becomes unfamiliar

They're (finally) resurfacing our road.  Consisting of Victorian (I think) terraced housing parking is at a major premium round our way and normally the street is chocka both sides up the street with cars, vans, motorbikes and the odd camper van wedged in and overhanging the corners where the double yellows start.  Due to the resurfacing though everyone has to be cleared out by 8am and it looks so so very different.  It's actually quite a wide street without all the damn cars up it!  I like it but they'll all be back by tomorrow I think.  You can see why it needs re-surfacing though - looking a little bit patchy eh?!

It makes me wonder what it was like back in the day to see it looking so unfamiliar.  I'm quite interested in the random little bits of history you only pick up by (for example) perusing old photos on the walls in pubs or flipping through those self published old postcard collections.  I find it fascinating to see places I know so well looking so different - sometimes just a scant handful of decades before.

Movember

Last week at work we had various moustache themed goodies on sale in aid of Movember.  This is a charity event where men grow a moustache for the entirety of the month of November in aid of mens health charities but in particular testicular cancer.  A very worthy cause as I'm sure you'll agree.  We managed to raise a not too shoddy £116.36 with our munching!

My friend's husband has been growing his own 'tache for this and I'd like to shamelessly plug his page on their site.  If you'd like to make a donation he'd be very very appreciative - no matter the size.  Consider it - even just £1 makes a difference!  Will's Movember page.

If you fancy having a go yourself next year then check out their handy guide to moustache shapes below!