The Wait is Over

Yes I was glued to the TV on Saturday afternoon and yes I was thrilled that my beloved team finally won the FA Cup in my lifetime!!! It's been a long wait!! Saturday was not one of those disappointing games or results thankfully, even though it may have been a bit of a dull first half for the neutral, I can assure you I was transfixed!!

The whole day and atmosphere for both sets of fans was terrific. It was great to see all the Stoke fans staying to see City receive the cup and celebrate their own teams achievements as well. It felt like a real cup final. Non of the 'Usual Suspects' taking part and a true day for the fans of both teams.

May 14th 2011 belonged to the fans, and a fab day for me. It was made special by the many texts and phone calls from friends and family sharing in my happiness, and understanding that I would not be available to talk during the game!! It means a lot when you feel like you've been understood and accepted for who you are, and that people care about what you enjoy. I know most of my friends don't quite get it, but it's nice to know they respect it, and are happy to share in my happiness and mad passion.

Let's hope this isn't the last silverware we win, and who knows we might pip Arsenal to third place in the League as well...!!!

Girls on Tour - Bruges

I don't know about you but when I've been away, I try to spend some time reflecting about the 'best bits'. Those of you who have children of your own, or nephews and nieces, will I'm sure have quizzed them about what the best bit of their day was or what was the best bit about that holiday etc etc.
Well I've just got back from a wonderful trip away with friends I've known since my move south. We regularly meet for meals throughout the year but Jan had a special birthday to celebrate, so we decided to go away. The beautiful City of Bruges was the final decision and to top it all Ann managed to get time off work and join us from Wales too.....so six 'girls on tour'!!

It was a memorable trip for many reasons:

Easy travelling on the Eurostar.

Fun tours of the Chocolate and Chip museums.....of course you all know that French Fries should really be known as Belgian Fries. It was the Americans that didn't realise they were in Belgium when they discovered the 'fries'!!

The clip clop of the horses on the very 'uncomfortable for walking' cobbles!!

A lovely boat trip round the canals that circle the city, a bit more relaxing than the M25!!!

Moules and chips eaten 'al fresco' and the wonderful local Belgian Beers of course!!

The quaint shops full of intricate lace and chocolate delights.

Time to ponder and reflect in the beautiful Church of our Lady, and seeing the amazing wooden carving of the Nativity from a whole tree trunk. It included scenes and characters from the bible and a comma (!). This depicted the belief that when we die it is not a full stop but the end of a phrase. I was particularly interested in this after I'd previously blogged about Punctuation!!

A bizarre meal in a restaurant where I expected to see the Adams family dining at the next table!!

The wonderful architecture including the amazing Bell Tower.

The visit to the Beer Wall, displaying the numerous Belgian Beers on offer, and a chance to buy the ones I'd sampled!!

Champagne and smoked salmon for breakfast at our lovely hotel St Martins Relais, and chilling in the beautiful garden with good friends and a book.

Topped off by the Fine Dining at the Goulden Harynck. A truly memorable meal, especially when we had a chat with the chef, Mr Serruys, who mentioned he was coming over to England soon to see his friend Jules Holland!!!

All in all a wonderful few days away, time to relax, not think about cooking and cleaning, or being a mummy taxi (although I did check home occassionally to make sure Wayne had collected and delivered Gemma to the right places at the right time!!), and time spent with friends enjoying one another's company and sharing good times and laughs together.

Happy Birthday Jan and thankyou for sharing your birthday celebrations with me.

Recycling and Restoration

Well I drove up to the M6 Toll services yesterday with Auntie, where my nephew David met us, and took her the rest of the journey home. It's becoming a lovely routine. It gives Auntie and I chance to chat about her visit, I get to catch up on how the rest of the family are doing over lunch, and then on the journey home I get to play my music very loud or listen to a teaching cd. All positive ways of using the four hours of travelling. Thanks again David.

It's been a very productive two weeks. As well as sharing a lovely Easter, celebrating the Royal Wedding and watching the World Snooker Championships together, we've been very busy in the garden and made numerous visits to the tip!! We've been so blessed with the weather and enjoyed some lovely barbecues with friends and trips to garden centres. We've celebrated a couple of special birthdays as well and enjoyed some lovely fellowship with friends. All in all a lovely visit and one I'll remember for a while.

You may remember in a previous blog I talked about Community and how we'd transformed our front lawn (!) into a Brighton beach look alike (we're thinking of renaming the house 'The Beach House' by the way!!!!). Well after living with it for a couple of weeks I thought it needed a few modifications, no not putting all the stones back!!!!!! But breaking the pebble look up a bit with some pots and planters.

While Auntie's been with me we've tackled the jungle in the back garden as well, and uncovered a few lost cities and an archaeological dig, oh and some pots I'd bought years ago which had been engulfed by the rambling honeysuckle and ivy....!!! So I decided to relocate the pots to the front garden and plant some pretty flowers!!

As well as the pots we've recycled our broken water feature!!! Genius!!!
It was a rather large pot which stood encased by a 3foot by 3foot wooden planter type thing. Unfortunately the pot cracked due to the severe weather we had in the winter. Fortunately though it cracked round the middle about halfway down.....so we decided to use the top half to plant some flowers in and fill the wooden case with compost and plant some plants in there too.....I think it looks rather nice and has certainly lost some of it's Brighton beach look!!!

So lots of recycling and restoration. This Easter has been a definite time of renewal for me and a time of restoring not only my garden to some sort of beauty, but restoring friendships too. I'm very grateful for God's provision in helping me get to this place of peace and joy again, and each time I look at my garden it reminds me how God provides, we just need to be patient in the waiting.