Once Upon a Time........

Once upon a time there was a wee Scottish girl, 

with long skinny legs and a great big smile.

A twin brother she adored, as part of herself, 

a bond not shared, by anyone else.

A mum and dad who loved her, of that there was no doubt, 

and two younger sisters, who made her laugh and shout. 

Her dolls neatly dressed, she took care of her toys, 

she treasured these moments like nobody else.

                                                                                             

                     

Once upon a time there was a young city girl, 

conscientious in study, achieved what she sought.

Friends, there were many she loved and adored, 

she’d dress to the nines and dance until dawn.

Fluent in French, the best cook by far, 

she never forgot those from afar.

She left us for France to follow her dreams; 

we wrote many letters to keep us in tune.

She worked hard and played hard till one day we heard, 

she’s moving to Yorkshire with Roger her friend. 

Married and happy with a man she adores, 

this beautiful lady now wears country clothes.

Once upon a time there was a strong woman, 

she tended her garden, the blooms grew with love.

The ducks they would quack as she talked to them much, 

overcoming her fear of the closeness they sought. 

She was quirky and funny, and read lots of books 

and would crochet a jumper as fast as she could.

A tower of strength, she turned out to be, 

protecting her family from news they couldn’t hear. 

Her worry and struggle from pain we couldn’t see, 

was masked with her fun to save us from fear.

Her spirit is free now, she dances on clouds, 

No worry or pain, she laughs out loud

Her light shines through, like the crystals she used, 

sending love through the ether to comfort our pain. 

So celebrate her beauty, and forget her not, 

her light remains shining in all of our thoughts.

Her light has not left us, her spirit shines through, 

in the twinkling stars, right above you. 

In the cool summer breeze she hugs you with love 

while her beauty appears in the warm autumn leaves. 

We love her and miss her but still feel her strength, 

so remember her always with love, her dear friends.

In loving memory of Carol Harrison (Molly Printemps) who lost her three year battle with cancer on the 16th July 2015.

May she do cartwheels on rainbows 

and dance on the clouds.

Her wonderful husband Roger, (Roberto Printemp), who cared for Carol (Molly Printemp) with love, affection and humour during many tough days sends his love to all as he tries to find a way through the darkness. 

Fly high my beautiful sister and don’t forget to visit

Namaste

Katy xx

Camelia

I'm showing off our beautiful Camelia.  It's been a bit windswept lately but this year it's just laden with blooms.  We took it from my late mother-in-law's (Beatrice Printemps) garden before her house was sold and it took a few years to get going, being traumatised by frost during two bad winters.  For the last two or three years it's been absolutely beautiful.  Our secret ingredient is wood chippings which help to keep the moisture in and the weeds out.  We have a free supply from our log man, Steve, who rents one of our old sheds for his logs.

DUCK UPDATE

Those funny little ducks are still a bit scared of the water.  They stay very close to the edge and only go in if we throw food in for them.  We put them on Duck Island a couple of months ago, and there they stayed.  I thought it was a natural thing for ducks to gravitate towards water but I suppose with us keeping them in the big shed since they were babies didn't help (but at least Mr Fox didn't get them).  They go to the edge of the water but if they get too far away from the island they get into a right flap and a panic and race back to dry land.  Hopefully they will get used to the deep water eventually and go for a good swim.  It would be so much fun for duckies! Oh, we also have a swan.

 

British Telecom

I don't usually pay attention to my British Telecom phone bill but I happened to glance at the itemised list and realised, to my horror, that I am being charged 27p each time I dial an engaged number.  Each call was only for a few seconds and I know from the number that the person does not have an answering machine.  The same number was listed four times, each all for a few seconds and each call with a charge of 27p attached.  We remembered phoning this number and that it was engaged for a long time.  I told a friend and he checked his own bill and was sure he was charged the same for unanswered calls.

 

I contacted BT.  God those Indian call centres!!  Anyway, I was told that these charges were normal and that somehow they did get connected.  I told him I'd never heard so much rubbish in my life and promptly hung up.  I have since written a letter of complaint to the CEO and I have sent a message to Watchdog as well.  If I don't get a satisfactory answer from BT, I will be contacting Ofcom because this should not be happening. Maybe it's their way of making up the money for our "free" evening and weekend calls. I don't think BT will be the only guilty parties doing this so check your bills mes amis. They are breaking the law.

Happy Easter!

Found this and thought it was worth sharing.  Have a lovely Easter weekend.

Cheap Supermarkets

Like fellow blogger, John Gray of Going Gently, I too am not a fan of the cheap supermarkets like Aldi and Lidl that are currently rocking the UK supermarket world.  I have tried it several times (Roberto loves it!) but it just leaves me cold.  I have tasted the food.  Roberto promised me the tinned soup "tasted just like Heinz"....It didn't.  It's not nice at all.  I have tried the baked beans - yuk! The cheap mayonnaise tastes like vinegar and the vegetables don't last much longer than a day.  I have given Aldi products a good go and I simply don't like them.  Okay, you get a trolley load of food for £30 but it's cheap food and you get what you pay for.

 

Don't get me wrong, we are on a budget as well and I do love a bargain as much as the next person but I just don't like to compromise on good quality food, and I now refuse to go anywhere near Aldi, much to Roberto's indignation.

 

As for the checkout, be prepared to have your many purchases slung at you at very high speed.  The checkout staff are timed for each customer, so the faster they get them checked through, the better (maybe they get a bonus for serving the most customers?).  As soon as you tell them whether it's "cash or card", the timer is stopped and you can try and catch your breath and endeavour to finish packing your shopping in a timely fashion so that the next customers can be flung through.

 

I seem to feel the energy in places and when I go into an Aldi shop, I just have this urge to run like hell as soon as I get into the shop.  I'm sorry if I am upsetting any avid Aldi shoppers but to me the shop feels dirty and scuzzy, and I won't go back.  Stamps foot!

Roberto's Trip to Halfords

Roberto had a little pootle to Halfords the other day to get some man stuff for the car.  This is how it went.

He puts his tin of stuff on the counter, ready to pay.

YOUNG CHECKOUT GIRL: "That'll be £9.99 please.  You can get another one, it's buy one and get one free".

ROBERTO: "No thanks. That's okay".

YOUNG CHECKOUT GIRL: "Think about it".

ROBERTO: "I'll just go and get another one".


It's a man thing, girls.

Going off Radar

Dear Bloggy amis, if I disappear from the Bloggy radar for a while, it's because I'm having some hospital treatment within the next few weeks and months and will need some time to recover. I will still come and visit your lovely blogs, though, so I won't totally disappear, and if any amusing stories crop up, of course I will relay them to you with pleasure.

 

See you on the other side amigos!

 

Love from Mollykins

Happy Ending

 

 

Every now and again in amongst the darkness of wars that have nothing to do with us and  general doom and gloom that is fed to us 24 hours a day by our Mainstream Media, a little chink of light appears and a miraculous thing happens.  A good news story makes it onto the News.

 

I'm not saying that what happened to the elderly gentleman pictured above is good news but what came of his ordeal was just wonderful. Alan Barnes, a disabled pensioner was mugged right outside his house in Gateshead.  He was thrown to the ground and broke his collar bone. After his ordeal, he was terrified to stay in his own house and went to his sister's house to recover.  In the meantime, a young woman called Katy Cutler heard what happened to Alan and decided to set up an online donation page to raise money to help him move to another house.  She initially intended to raise £500 to help him buy carpets and curtains for a new home but the donation page went viral (as they say in social network circles) and as of today's date, the amount of money raised for Alan is now standing at £300,000.  That is more than enough money for Alan to buy his own house.  What a fantastic happy ending!

 





 

The Not-so-Fabulous Mr Fox



Sad news to report, mes amis.  Mr Fox had Donald, one of our white ducks, for Christmas dinner.  He had Daisy the week before...and poor old Fatty, my black and white duck has disappeared as well.  I am so sorry about Fatty because we had him the longest and I did think he had his wits about him with regard to the fox. We still have six young white ducks but we are keeping them in the big shed until the weather gets better as the pond does freeze up and Mr Fox can walk over it.

 

 

 



Donald and Daisy Duck - no longer with us

Award

I am very pleased and proud to announce that my blog has made it onto the prestigious award list compiled by Lord Pudding of Yorkshire.  The Laughing Horse Blog Award is extremely coveted by the blogging community so it is indeed an honour to have made it onto the list for 2014, under the "Top East Yorkshire Blogger" category.