Number 14 - a grass sitting, sun shining tick

Today Teddy and I surprised Guy with a birthday picnic in St James' park.

The sun shone, the ducks quacked, the squirrels gathered nuts, Teddy frolicked through the Autumn leaves and an idyllic time was had by all.

Photographic evidence to follow.

37 and 15 Two for the price of One

Well time is running out, I need to be doing 2 at a time now and this one is spectacular, rather like my husband who has planned it. But I need to take you back a few weeks ripple...ripple....ripple

Saturday 5th September was my wedding anniversary, Guy and I have been married for 16 years. I had done the anniversary 'stuff'; a card, a gift (small but lovingly chosen) declarations of undying love etc Guy ...wished me a happy anniversary.

However, over a scrummy anniversary dinner in the village he casually mentioned that he wondered if I would like to have a day in a London Spa and a night in a hotel for an anniversary present! Well DURRRR

So, on Wednesday 7th October I am off for my number 37 and boy am I going to pack that full of treatments. Then, obviously exhausted by the exertion of moving from one couch to another, taking that heavy robe on and off and all that turning over I will retire to my hotel bedroom to sleep, alone until I wake.







'me' on that swing!

"O frabjous day Callooh! Callay!"

I have invited Guy to join me for breakfast on his way to work, and you never know he might even get invited back to my room ;-)

Number 23 - Vehicular tick!

I'm doing it!!! I'm really doing it!!!
Days I never thought I'd see number 23 :-)

With a big thank you to;
Annabelle for forcing the issue and hosting 'Learning to ride day' at her house.
The young bloke in the bike shop who didn't smirk at selling a bike to a 30something yr old woman who couldn't test 'drive' it.
Guy who didn't suggest running behind me holding onto the saddle.
Arden & Ben who shouted encouragingly 'Good Job Mummy' as they rode effortlessly around the park.
The visitors to South Park Gardens who leapt out of my way.
and
The nice man in the cravat who gave me the last piece of the jigsaw.

It's not elegant but if the hounds of hell were baying at my heels and there was a bike close to hand I could now save myself!

From Dusk to dawn - Numbers 2 and 35

If you have seen or spoken to me in the last few weeks you will know that I loved the 80s rewind festival in a mad, evangelical, born-again kind of way.
Shall I tell thee why I loved thee, let me count the ways;
The tent smelt like PGL and opened a floodgate to a million memories of a summer that ever seemed to end.
Arden and I fell in love with each other all over again.
It felt truly privileged to spend so much time having fun with one of my children.
The setting - on the banks of the Thames opposite Temple Island.
The weather - absolutely gorgeous days, freezing cold nights.
The wooden spoons from The Comfy Crappers
Toyah, Bananarama, Nik Kershaw,Rick Astley, Billy Ocean, Heaven 17 etc etc etc
'Nuff said?

My camera mysteriously 'disappeared' but the memories will last a lifetime. The freezing cold, cloudless night opened up te heavens and we truly slept under the stars.


We watched the sunrise over the river Thames, the mist hovering over the surface of the water (Oh the joys of camping with a 6 yr old who wakes in time for me to see the sunrise....YAY me!)

Number 17 - A literary tick!

I actually finished my 40 books in the Isle of Wight, but what with festivals, cramming 6 weeks of holiday work into 3 days and watching back-to-back Buffy well...

But here goes with the final 4;
I loved this, every bit of it; from the little girl who was taught to swim in order to appear in a local paper photo shoot, through the movies, wife, mother, woman. Lots of gossip from the golden years of Hollywood. Plan to watch some of her movies now.


Warm, witty read. In some ways all about being an Asian woman in Britain and in other ways nothing. It is a book about being a woman about love, loss, family and humanity. Warm, funny, sad. Glad I read it.



This is an extract from the blurb. Seeing any parallels?
"It's early 2008 and the credit crunch is starting to bite. Sam and Laura Diamond - and their friends - are circling forty and all feeling a lot less certain about life than when they first met in their twenties. Laura wants to work part-time and have a third child - an appalling prospect for her husband Sam, whose secret ambition is to give up his job as a struggling scriptwriter and have a vasectomy."

Oh happy days! I read Diceman many years ago and was intrigued and repulsed by it in equal measure. In this book the son of Diceman goes in search of his estranged father. Wicked!!!! Dice living is not without its attractions. Maybe in 50 before 50!

So, the dice makes 40. No Russian translations, no Dickens, nothing that was life changing. But 40 new books, no re-reads, no short cuts.

Tickety Tick Tick!

Number 9- Still grinning

The time of my life

Oh my goodness, I had a ball!
Reliving my youth with my beautiful daughter. dancing into the night, singing until I was hoarse, chanting the mantra 'don't look down' whilst on the camp toilets, drinking warm wine from plastic bottles, cleaning my teeth in public, not showering, oohing at fireworks, choosing a target whilst on the bumper cars, tripping over guy ropes in the dark, having my camera stolen, no fruit, no shower, no sleep.
HEAVEN!

More details of which numbers get a big fat festival tick coming when I am clean and have stopped grinning and singing bananarama songs.