One week to go

As readers of this blog will know, I signed up to sing with SingLive earlier this year.

In many respects that all seems like very long time ago now, though in other respects, with only one week to go (!!) until the big performance in The Waterfront Hall it doesn't seem long enough ago. We are in the final week of rehearsals and it's pretty hectic.

The show is SingSwing and features old favourites like New York, New York; Chatanooga Choo Choo; Me and My Gal; Fly Me to the Moon; String of Pearls and loads more to get the old feet tapping. As well as choir pieces and a swing band there will also be a range of solos by some very talented, if somewhat mad, choir members!

The best laugh is that we all have to dress in 40's style, which has proved a little interesting. There are not too many choirs where the tenors wear bright red lipstick!

Do you know what, if you read this and you're in the area next Sunday evening and fancy a good night out with some familiar music, you could do a lot worse than buy a ticket.

And beware, because these things travel round the UK, and a tenor in bright red lipstick could just appear in a venue somewhere near you.

10,000

Hit no. 10,000 was at 7:45 on Saturday night by someone who read as being from the City of London (though that means nothing!). They browsed the blog for 2 minutes and 18 seconds.

And I have no idea who that is, so if it's you please own up and claim your prize!

Lets just enjoy it

After a stonking 7 try win over Connacht last night, Ulster (who were once bottom) are now 4th in the Magners League.

Of course, half the teams in the league are a game behind us, but hey ...

9942 and counting

At this rate I think I will have had my ten thousandth hit before the weekend. How exciting is that!

Roll up, sign in win! Not much time left

What the frock??

Ulster rugby players advertise new family tickets.

Where did Big Justin get that dress??

Who says the Irish are thick?

An Italian lawyer and an Irishman are sitting next to each other on a long flight. The lawyer is thinking that Irishmen are so dumb that he could put something over on them easily...So the lawyer asks if the Irishman would like to play a fun game.

The Irishman is tired and just wants to take a nap, so he politely declines and tries to catch a few winks. The Italian lawyer persists, and says that the game is a lot of fun. I ask you a question, and if you don't know the answer, you pay me only $5; you ask me one, and if I don't know the answer, I will pay you $500, he says. This catches the Irishman's attention and to keep the lawyer quiet, he agrees to play the game.

The lawyer asks the first question. 'What's the distance from The Earth to the Moon?' The Irishman doesn't say a word, reaches in his pocket pulls out a five-dollar bill, and hands it to the lawyer.

Now, it's the Irishman's turn. He asks the lawyer, 'What goes up a hill with three legs, and comes down with four?' The lawyer uses his laptop and searches all references he could find on the Net. He sends e-mails to all the smart friends he knows, all to no avail. After one hour of searching he finally gives up. He wakes up the Irishman and hands him $500. The Irishman pockets the $500 and goes right back to sleep.

The lawyer is going nuts not knowing the answer. He wakes the Irishman up and asks, 'Well, so what goes up a hill with three legs and comes down with four?'

The Irishman reaches in his pocket, hands the lawyer $5 and goes back to sleep.

Don't mess with the Irish.

Let's look at the evidence, Madam ...

I am sure those of you who live in the UK are familiar with the Marks & Spencer meal deal, were you get a main course, a side dish, a dessert for two and a bottle of wine for £10. Fantastic value and not bad food either!

What you may not know, (I have insider knowledge), is that if you go to a Simply Food M&S where they do not sell alcohol, you get a box of chocolates with your meal instead of a bottle of wine. In fact, because of this, if you feel so inclined, you can actually ask at any M&S store to have the chocolates instead of the wine.

On Thursday this week M&S gave 20% off everything. Absolutely everything. Also, if you bought 12 bottles of wine you got an extra 10% off the wine, and you could also use a coupon in their free wine brochure to get another £5 off your wine bill.

On Saturday this week, staff members got these deals, plus their staff 20% off too. I have a relative who is a staff member at M&S. She is also a Methodist lay-preacher; the significance of that will become clear later. She spends Christmas with us every year and said she would, using all the generous M&S discounts, procure the wine for this years festivities.

She then went on to say she was going to stock up on meal deals while she got her extra discount, but indeed she would ask for the chocolates instead of the wine as she doesn't drink.

Here I stand at the checkout with my 12 heavily discounted bottles of red and white wine in my trolley, but could I please have the chocolates with the meal deal, as I don't drink. Uh-huh ;-)

Forgery

I am currently working in a placement teaching lifeskills to young adults who have moderate learning difficulties. We have been doing things like filling in forms, budgeting and ordering goods from catalogues and online.

It's all good stuff, but we hit a brick wall everytime it comes to the stage were you have to pay as we don't have bank details, so I have spent the weekend making fake Visa cards for them!

Turns out I'm pretty good at it too, even though I do say so myself. I had the other half convinced they were real anyway!

I have a feeling this could be quite a lucrative pastime to tide me through the credit crunch.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Tomorrow, Thursday 20th November, is my Dad's 70th birthday!

Indulge me while I tell you a funny story about my Dad. A couple of years ago he had cancer of the colon and had to have major surgery and treatment. Obviously, that's not the funny part of the story, but I'm getting there! After all this, there were certain foods he was not allowed to eat, one of them being his absolute favourite in the entire world: nuts.

Imagine then my horror, to arrive up at the hospital to see him one evening and find that some well meaning visitor had left him a giant size bar of Cadburys Whole Nut chocolate, and only the wrapper was left intact!

I of course told him off very severely for going against his consultants instructions, at which point he sheepishly produced a bed pan from beside his bed, full of hazel nuts.

He had sucked all the chocolate off and spat the nuts into the bedpan ... bless! Mind you, you gotta feel sorry for the poor nurse who was going to come across that bedpan later that night.

Happy Birthday Dad, and many many more of them. (Mum, show him this, would you!!)

Getting closer

Remember my little give-away!

Not sure what the prize will be just yet, but it'll be a good one :-p

Fun Monday

It's been a while ....

M set the topic this week, to show a piece of jewellry that has special significance for you.

Mine is a ring I got when my son was born. He was the first baby, and because he was a boy I thought I might like something with a blue stone in it.

However, when we got to the jewellers and I saw this particular ring, I fell in love with it instantly! The stone is called tanzanite and is the most unusual shade of purple; not pink/purple like an amethyst would be, but a fabulous blue/violet purple - just the colour of my new baby's eyes.

A photograph of my ring does not do the stone justice, as you cannot see and fully appreciate the colour, so I have posted this picture of a tanzanite instead.

Mmmmm!

Ever nipped to the shops after a hard day at the office, feeling a bit cold, maybe even peckish, and spent an absolute fortune on confectionary?

Just half an hour ago!

Tonight I discovered, in the sweets and chocolate aisle (which was the only aisle I visited apart from the toilet roll aisle - which was my main reason for making the journey in the first place) that Green & Blacks organic chocolate manufacturers have two new flavours out for Christmas (which, thanks to Judy's countdown, I can tell you is only 41 days away).

So I sit here before you, munching on Green & Blacks dark and gingerbread chocolate and humming Christmas carols. Yes, it actually makes you do that!

Thankyou Tescos for making that 2 for £5 this week. I'll be back.

Tonight I am going to a McFly concert

Nuff said

Appearing naked on a fridge near you!

I was in my sister-in-laws kitchen last week when I just happened to glance at a photograph on her fridge. A photograph of me in the bath!

So I'm 8 or 9 in the photo, and OK, my brother, her husband is there too, but ... that ought to sour the milk!

I'd get the kettle on Lou, you're about to have a rush of visitors ;-)

Busy, busy, busy!

Boy, life is hectic at the minute! I'm busy at work, I'm busy in the evenings providing a taxi service round Girls Brigade, Boys Brigade, Irish Dancing, choir, French Club, Scripture Union and swimming.

And in between all of that I'm attending rehearsals and trying desperately hard to learn my part and the words for Sing Swing, which is happening (whether I like it or not!) in less than five weeks.

Doo - wah, doo - wah, doo - wah, doo - wah, doo - wah, doo - wah, doo - wah, doo - wah!

Tea for Two

or three hundred.

At least, that's what it seemed like at one point yesterday! The house was packed, the kitchen was steamy from boiling kettles and there were crumbs everywhere. And I mean everywhere!

However, it was well worth it with £1300 (that's $2100 if you speak American, or 1650 Euros if you are a true European) raised for TearFund.

It was a truly amazing morning even apart from the money raised. As well as support from friends, family and church, we had neighbours from the street who we had never spoken to and didn't even recognise calling in, rugby mums and even rugby coaches dropping by and a busload (or so it seemed) of people navigated in from the far side of town by my Aunt. And yes, they did eventually find us!

And of course Wils, who just spent her visit giggling (in the scale of C major) and starting sentences with 'Next year ...'

Big, Big, Big thankyou to everyone who baked, looked after children, came, bought and dropped money in our bucket.

Next year ...