My day

My day yesterday ( Friday ) was full of work and cake! 

Things that made me laugh at work:-

Being innocently asked, by a child working on the computer, putting pictures on a word document of a little cartoon Robin

" Miss, howd'you flip the bird?" The child asked over and over and I was crying on the inside dying not to laugh!! 

The child who rushed to put their jumper on to qualify for a prize ticket that had ALREADY been drawn ...

The ticket gets drawn

The children stand up

Then they are eliminated eg it's a girl ( so the boys sit down), the winner has sandals on ( so all the shoe wearers sit down ) etc till the winner is left standing! The class love it. 

Yesterday the ticket was drawn, the class stood up.. 

The winner is wearing a jumper......

Cue the rush to put the jumper on..

The next thing that made me laugh was reading some of their stories. There was the one with the unfortunate handwriting who was writing about 'this guy' throughout. Except they'd used an 'a' instead of the 'u'! 

'suddenly a 'guy' appeared.... 

Then the 'guy' walked quickly down to the shops etc! My mirth was uncontrollable for a while. By the end of the story there were enough 'guys' to start a Mardi Gras parade! 

Another story spoke of bravery and adventure as the lead character went on a mission of climbing volcanoes, tunnelling down mountains, parachuting and going to a shopping centre! 

Here's a photo of the test paper that made the class staff howl. The story, the children were answering questions about, was a Canadian story of how a family escaped a bear attack by climbing up into their loft. The ladder saved them by being their escape to safety and then by falling,  it hit the bear and startled it making it leave the house.... 

 I love this class. I need to keep a record of the things they say because I do keep forgetting! Every. Single. Day. Is a joy to go to work! 

The cake. It was huge! I had to cut it into quarters to store it in two large cake tins!

Here's what it looked like on the inside! 

Trying to re home it! 

To round off this morning's post before I drag my weary carcass out of my bed I'll share what I think is the most gorgeous flower in my garden with you! It's another photo of those anemones I showed you yesterday. I bought the bulbs last year. I left them on the side in the kitchen to the point of mouldiness, I planted then about a month after they said I should! I hope they come back next year!  I am going to see if I can find them again to buy some more because I think they'd look magnificent in clumps rather than casually dotted around like I did. ie I just shoved them quickly into the soil wherever!! 

Not bad for an iPhone photo I don't think!

 

I wish you could smell these! They are in my front garden. You get the most heavenly sweet perfume, almost like Parma violets, wafting towards you as you approach my house! I think I said yesterday, passers by stop to admire and sniff!! 

Harry News now...

Last but not least here is the beautiful Harry. ( I think all this 'graduating' from Nursery is absolute bonkers RUBBISH! ) But look, without it we wouldn't have this impossibly adorable photo! He's very excited about starting school. All he wants is his jumper and his book bag! He will have his own 1-2-1 Teaching Assistant as well as a VI teacher to teach him Braille.  He's a very clever little chap already so I know he'll be completely flying at school in September! I would say that because I'm an adoring Aunty. 

Ok, enough ramblings! Time to get up. Saturday will feature visiting the Heart patient, weeding, shopping, cleaning, washing, knitting, sorting out etc etc 

Not christened tea yet, so that'll be a surprise! I think I'll start the day with stripping the bed, a shower and a brew. In that order! 

Play nice folks 

Lots of love from

Rachel *waffling on and on and on* Radiostar xxx

I hate these dark mornings.

I cannot seem to stay asleep much longer than 5am these days and I hate, hate, absolutely hate these dark mornings. In the Summer months ( technically I'm STILL in Summer till the 21st September! ) I get up, set to, put the wash on etc etc but I don't feel like it can do this when it's dark!

I started this post on Monday, I still stand by every word, though today ( Saturday ) I managed a lie in till 5.30am! 

I'm still loving my job two weeks in. Highlight of my week was helping a child with some column subtraction using the base ten equipment and seeing their 'lightbulb' moment. Yesterday I baked before work, making the use of my pre dawn insomnia. I had another go at the rhubarb and custard cakes. The little cardboard cupcake cases are so sweet. 

Today I will be trying out my new Dariole moulds on some fancy pants cheese muffins. I have sooooo much baking equipment/paraphanalia and soooooo little time. 

Oh no, I just realised it's technically the last day of Summer tomorrow. Harrumph! 

I wish it was certainly the last day of Sodding Spider Season. This year seems to be far worse than last. The ones in my house are MASSIVE and I'm not even exaggerating. The last one even HISSED at me*. The one in the hall is the fading star of Stephen King's IT. 

Look! Hideous Beasts. I'm not scared or owt, I simply just DO NOT LIKE THEM. I read a blog yesterday that they do not like mint, lavender and tomato leaves. Or conkers. I think this is a lie. I've witnessed Spider Activity in a green house before AND I once had a bowl of conkers on the table that my cherubs collected years ago that had a spider living in it. 

Another reason for my Shudderation at Spiders is that I can now SEE them more clearly. I may have been behaving like a brat about it but I've just had my first pair of glasses. I blame my right eye. It's rugby ball shaped and makes things fuzzy in the distance. This annoys me. So I went to be tested. The nice man put contact lenses in for me to try. I knew, as he was looming towards me with a little disc of jelly on his finger, that I wouldn't like them. He popped them in. Immediately my eyes tried to rid themselves of the foreign body in them. I was  then sent squinting, blinking, winking, eyes streaming into the shop front to try to find some frames to suit! I tried on EVERY pair in there. From the cheap WHY DO YOU NOT SUIT ME frames to the OMG ARE YOU MADE OUT OF SOLID GOLD LOOK AT THE PRICE frames. 

The shop lady was very helpful and patient - though I bet that was only on the outside, I bet she was more than willing to slap me! ), then a work chum popped in and helped too with the trying on process!  Finally I narrowed it down to the only two pairs in the shop that didn't make me look like  Dame Edna Everage and a couple of pairs of sunglasses. I had a voucher for a free eye test and £50 off my frames. Win. I also had a voucher I could have given to a friend, but the shop lady allowed me to use it against one of the pairs of sunglasses. THEN as I actually knew the shop lady, she gave me her staff 50% discount off my second pair of sunglasses.  Again, I am such a brat! They were ready a few days later. Ooooo I did not like it when I put them on. Everything went fuzzy for a millisecond and I felt swimmy. I felt like I was taking giant steps as I walked in them. As I looked around I felt like my eyes were to slow to catch up to get the image into focus. Now I'm used to them it is a bit like switching to a HD channel on the telly! 

Rare photo of me on my blog folks 

LOOK AT MY WRINKLY EYES. I can SEE these wrinkles now. I am displeased about this. 

HOWEVER, all of the above is NOTHING to what it must be like for Harry. Being held down to have stinging eye drops put in. To have a teeny bit of peripheral vision in one eye only. I would sell my soul to the devil for him to have my prescription. 

Well, the sun is finally up and I need a cup of tea. I love Saturdays :-) 

What are you doing today? 

Oh and thanks for reading and taking the time to comment. To 'Mum', just incase you miss my reply to your comment on FSG Curry, I'd add the curry powder in with the wet ingredients and it'll be fine! X 

Bye for now lovelies 

Rachel *Cheesy Muffin Face* Radiostar! And my houseguest. Xxx

Cute as a button!

Meet Indie Blossom, wearing her brand new cardigan - you saw it on my last blog post!
It fits her perfectly! Her mama wants me to knit the next sizes up too! In fact I've had a few folk ask me now if I take orders!! Eep! No orders for socks thank goodness, except for Onechunkymama off twitter who is prepared to wait till her autumn years! I've STILL not finished the pair I started some 35 months ago!! 

Yesterday, I made a HB meatloaf for tea which was succulent, juicy and delicious. Only 343 calories for a man sized portion. Good value!  The HG was out HG-ing, so I spent the afternoon with Lisa n our boys as Madeleine was off to a three hour party! (£14.50 a head for the full class - those parents are CRAZY ) 

Harry, (who had an ALL CLEAR VISIT ) was super cute and must have said 'Hanty Reechewl' as opposed to Hanty Raychull like the others do, about a zillion times- but I don't mind one bit, I could hear it all day! We went shopping to Mr Morrisons ( I'm collecting the Christmas voucher things ) and then after collecting a 'partied to the max Mads' we came home! A lovely afternoon. 

On Friday it was 'Come to school in your Onsie' day! I had to buy one - secretly have wanted once since I bought the daughter's Christmas present two years ago! So when I arrived home the night before to a 25% discount card from Matalan, I decided it was fate. I had to have one, it's the second one down. 

- it's pale pink and impossibly fluffy, with my wobbles, I came first in the 'who looks like a blancmange' competition. 

 I have photos. 

If I get 1000 comments on this post I might show you!! ( MUUHAHAHAAAAAA ) 

One colleague told me I looked so cute, like a teletubby, that she wanted to take me home and give me to her dog to play with. Someone else said I looked just like a carebare. I like the carebare colleague better than the teletubby colleague now. 

A fluffy comfy cushion is what a child said! I was stroked and mauled by little hands all day. Plus I was sweating like a pig all day as the heating in school is set to tropical!! I couldn't wait to take the bloody thing off! I had yellow hands from face painting the children and sore hands from decorating Pudsey biscuits! Every single child joined in with the day and every single member of staff. It was a great day and I think we raised a ton of money for Children in Need. 

So here I am on Sunday morning just lazing before the day gets going. There's a whoopsed chicken in the fridge bound for the slow cooker. I've the ingredients to make Millionaire's shortbread. I might knit some sock. I do need to de clutter the bedroom Mantlepiece which I might do first after chicken/slow cooker/washer on type activities. 

But just before I go, here is a photo of Harry, fast asleep in the car seat, on his way to Birmingham. I defy you to find a more gorgeous boy! 

A quick quickie!

It's 8am. I got back in bed to warm up after my shower! So this is a quick blog post before I finish getting ready for work! I can't fathom out how to get my photos off my phone into the 'from my phone' bit to add on here! The photos are on my iPad automatically, but not where I can access them onto here grrrr. But I simply pop across to my little phone app and add them here!!

I am 100% Northern. The internet told me. I am also 100% Welsh as I checked with the Wales Rugby page on FB. A disappointing result boys at the weekend against the boks, but I still love you. ( because I'm sure the WHOLE TEAM reads this!! )

Quote of the week came from a little Owlet. The grown up owls had been doing the banking, we were £4 up. We each counted and were trying to fathom out where it'd come from to no avail. So I quipped, we'll put it in the Leader's retirement fund.
"But I don't want you to retire!" Piped up this little voice from my now favourite owlet!!

I finally finished the sweet little cardigan and it's not in the safe hands of the Royal Mail on its way to Indie Blossom born a week early to my lovely friend Laura. You've seen her little boy Alfie, modelling his Aran jumper I knit when he was 1!

I entered an online giveaway thingy by email. I'd offered my opinion on what mixer people should invest in! So me and Beryl had a go!

That's me waving and Beryl is my Boysenberry Kitchen Aid Artisan mixer - my Christmas present last year from the HG :-)

We had a go at using the new cake pop moulds I had. 

An easy all in one vanilla sponge

They came out without sticking! 

TA daaah! 

Now then.

Mmmm!! ( new toy in the kitchen! )
*adopts posh voice! aka my mum's phone voice*

The HG and I are orf to the theatre this fine evening! How verry verry cultured of us!

It's a charity fundraiser for the Children's ward at our hospital, which has looked after both of my children and Harry. Paul Akister ( you know, the really good singer from the X Factor this year, who Louis didn't take through at judges houses, in preference to the pretty young can't sing for toffee boy ) is singing with the extremely fabulous local band 24seven who we've seen lots of times! In fact I see the guitarist every week now - he looks like Noddy Holder - and is teaching the kids at school how to play!  The theatre is ancient and therefore more adorable than a modern concert place!!
I know I had a self imposed 12 month gig ban which, quite frankly, has KILLED me, not going to Muse.... But this IS for chariddee mate!!

Speaking of Harry, after his longest gap between exams ever, spare a thought for him and Lisa off to Birmingham tomorrow  for his EUA on Friday. Please no new tumour growth xx

Oops, look at the time!!  ( 8:20am )Have a great Wednesday folks, for I intend to!

Rachel ( & Beryl ) xx 

Baked Bean!

Today I have mostly been nurturing a big panful of baked beans on the go.
My HG got a man's cook book. The fantastic Tom Kerridge's pub food cook book was bought from Asda for a bargain £8! 
I followed the recipe to the letter. The beans are beautiful! However, I do think there was a lot of fat in it so next time I make them, I will adapt it!
Basically, you fry good smoked streaky bacon till crispy. Add chopped onions and garlic til soft. Add tinned tomatoes, tomato purée , red wine vinegar, soft brown sugar and water, plus your pre soaked overnight then boiled til tender white haricot beans and simmer for about 2 hours.

 The link is here for the amounts etc found easily on google!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/10260001/Tom-Kerridges-proper-baked-beans-on-soda-bread-toast-recipe.html

The calorie count for the recipe above works out at around 2805 cals for the panful . The yield was a whopping 2100g! Tom says it serves 4-6!!!
I think he is even more generous than I am in dishing up!

I had a decent 150g portion for 200calories! Then went back for seconds! 

I will make these again but will not use extra oil, and maybe use a maple cure bacon instead of the streaky. I'll let you know how I get on!

This weekend I spent a fab few hours with my family. Harry was round at my mums with everyone else. When I came through the door the way he ran to me for a cuddle saying "Hullo Hanty Rachull" sounding genuinely thrilled to see me!
He is just utterly scrummy. When I asked if he wanted to go for a walk, he took my hand and wanted to go right there and then. Even though he had no shoes or socks on! His sister came along too. He held our hand and as we said 'Step' at the kerbs we managed to cross the roads with no trips or falls.  I wish you could hear his infectious laughter at the sheer joy of running up and over the speed bumps! Madeleine secured sweeties for herself and her brothers and Harry got breadsticks. (He loves them ) .
We'd been home about ten minutes, before he asked to go back to the shop!! Squirming his little hand into mine and saying 'Pweeze Hanty Rachull PWEEEEZE! I tell you what, if it hadn't have been tipping it down, I'd have taken him too!! I'm apparently Hanty Pushover where my nephews and nieces are concerned! 

Could you resist this face? 

He has THE most darling cute voice and his speech and vocabulary is amazing! He is back to Birmingham at the end of November. Lisa was hoping for a half term slot so I could go too, but not this time! Let's just hope it's another clear visit.

Right now I am laughing my socks off at The Middle. I love The Hecks. I can relate to Frankie a LOT!
That's yer lot for now! Enjoy the beans if you make em!!

Ps I tweeted Tom Kerridge, no reply as yet....but I'm ok as I'm still basking in the glow of being tweeted by Nigel Slater AND Nigella Lawson in the SAME WEEK!

Harry update

Ok this is the deal, Harry's patch hasn't changed from last time so maybe it's just a strange patch but it's not beyond the realms of possibility that it's an extremely low grade tumour that grows very slowly. We will take the first option thank you very much. They Will keep a close watch on it but I say no change is good news... We will see x

That was Lisa's FB status earlier. 

So as you can see, his eye remains unchanged for the time being. Long may it continue! 

Thank you for all your lovely supportive comments. It really does mean a lot x 

Come on Harry xxx

 Today Harry will go under General Anaesthetic for the nth time. This time, as I posted a while ago, the exam has been brought forward to just four weeks after the last one.  Those consultants ( which my phone wants to write as co sultanas !! ) saw something they were not sure about. Let's hope it turns out to be NOTHING. I know Lisa has the cold fingers of doubt gripping her shoulder. This morning is going to be long as I wait to hear. 

Cancer really really STINKS. 

Come on Harry, be brave little man

Love from Aunty Rachel xxx

Bilateral Retinoblastoma - please read x

This week I dedicate my blog post to a deadly Childhood Cancer that I have sadly first hand knowledge of.

Regular readers will know about Harry. 

My precious youngest nephew who was born with cancer already growing dangerously in his eyes. Diagnosed at just 13 weeks old after concerns raised at his 8week check has meant he has spent the first two years of his life in and out of hospital. 

This Facebook status by his mum, after his fifteenth/ sixteenth ?  EUA ( Examination Under Anaesthetic )my brave sister Lisa had me breaking down for him (again). 

Unfortunately, it was not the news we wanted to hear. 

So, please everyone cross your fingers for a positive outcome. 

Also this week is the National RB awareness week. I know lots of more 'usual' cancers have weeks such as these, but RB is so rare and unheard of, not just by Joe Bloggs and his wife; but by many medical professionals. 

The work done by CHECT and the fabulous Katy Bishop across all the media platforms is making a positive impact. Please click the link ( or copy n paste it into your URL ) and read and then share. 

It just might save a child's eyes and their life. 

Thank You xx 

http://www.chect.org.uk/cms/index.php/about-rb/information-for-professionals

Morning Folks :-)

Light mornings
Light nights
Makes me happy!

Now our part of the world seems like it's finally on about Gas Mark 4 we've taken to strolling of an evening. How verrry verrry civilised of us!

I'm lucky to live close to a canal, a River and the coast. I admit the night before last night's stroll was to get milk, but we extended the route. I've an app thingy on my phone that plots and measures the route. But the GPRS signal is so low that according to it it took us 33 minutes to walk 500m!!! Now I know I am not quite Linford Christie but I'm pretty sure I can do better than that! 5 of those minutes were spent in the queue at the shop mind!
So I'm going to find my pedometer thingy that I got when they were 'all the rage ' and try to figure it out. Measuring stride length I think was one instruction! Mine won't be very big as I've only got little legs!
Last night, we took child #2 to Karate ( he informed us he signed up to be part of the international Youth Games! ) we took the the coast. I took a few dodgy pics, but I'll share anyway! Note the grass one!!

In other news Harry has started Pre School. Lisa wrote a great FB status about it. Im pretty sure she'll blog it up soon. I did get all teary when I read it! He has the world's cutest voice. When I say
"Hello Harry!"
"Hello Aunty Raychull!" Is his delightful response! I must record it for you!

So what is the light bringing to your world?

Sweet 16 & Sweet success

Look away now Vivian!

My boy turned sweet sixteen today. He's smart, polite, sweet and yes I'm biased!! He is also spoilt! He asked for a toffee birthday cake; he got a toffee birthday cake, with matching bonus fairy buns! Filled with vanilla buttercream, the outside was smooched all over with home made toffee butter icing. It tasted like heaven! Just incase it was lacking calories I added some RCDM.
That's right, Real Cadbury's Dairy Milk flake round the edge and in the middle and buttons set at a jaunty angle! The HG declared it a tad sickly. Oh I shot him the side eyes and he quickly said it wasn't my cake it was him! The birthday boy approved as did Lisa and her tribe who called this afternoon.
Harry, who says my name so cutely, was just after my breadsticks! Alas I'd eaten them all. I am the worst Aunty in the world!

I may also be on the way to being the best cake pop maker in the world. Alright, there may be a tad exaggeration there!
Sadly, the cake pops I made yesterday were not spherical. So I taught them a lesson. I swore viciously at them as I bashed their brains out in a large bowl. I added a good dollop of the afore mentioned homemade toffee buttercream and a silky slither of melted RCDM. I squeezed the breath out of the mixture and rolled it into neat balls!
Popped them in the freezer for a bit. Then using melted RCDM glued a stick in each. They set in the fridge for a while.
Eagerly I 'ip dip sky blued' to choose which 'Candy Melts' I was going to use first. I chose the pretty white ones with the coloured bits in and the blue ones. I dipped, twirled and tapped - just as my lovely Twitter chum Holly off the Great British Bake Off showed me ( and millions of others in her YouTube video - find it on her blog ) the applied sprinkles!

I think you will agree they are a billion times better than the first attempt. The photos do not do them justice! Also as this is an iPhone post I'm not sure what order the photos will appear! I was quite pleased with my Yorkshires too today!

What did you make/bake today?

S P * M

Not the stuff England marches on. But lately I have been inundated with the stuff! A lot are very impressed with the layout of my design and are very much looking forward to seeing what I do next. Then I am kindly invited along to click their link to gambling sites. Never been on one in my life so you can only guess how very very tempting it is.

I love to comment on other people's blogs as some of you know but I cannot stand 'captcha' but I completely understand why it's there! But not on here! I love my kind supporters from the ahem 'man bits? make em bigger' sites. It is a great comfort to know there IS help out there should I need it!

Unfortunately I cannot copy and paste any of my comments in because I hit DELETE the minute they hit my email! I am grateful though because seeing '85 comments awaiting moderation' makes me feel uber popular.... for a millisecond! My most popular post for the s p a m is my Tarzan one! If you've not read it, go find it. It's a cracker! With photos!

Actually, I couldn't resist!! Look!

***ӏ delight in, leaԁ tο Ι found exactly ωhat I was looκing foг. Υοu've ended my 4 day lengthy hunt! God Bless you man. Have a nice day. Bye click here on Tuesday - Tinnitus & Tarzan
Publish | Delete | Spam
Anonymous
at 11:57***

Hilarious!!


Crisp update - not one crisp has passed my lips for two weeks and three days now. I still think of them often and with fondness.

Knitting update - finished the little cardigan for the man in the shop's ( where my HG spends all our offsprings inheritance ) newest grandson. They sent us a photograph of the baby wearing it and it fits perfectly. :-)
Next project is started, a very posh little summer cardigan for Madeleine ( Harry's big sister ) pic below ( blogging on my phone )

Harry update - after a difficult for Lisa, 8 week wait, Harry's latest EUA was clear! Hooray! Everything seems stable ( I touched wood then ), no new seedling tumours and another 8 weeks till he goes again! He is just a little darling. Chatting away and always on the go. He will be going to Nursery for one morning a week after Easter! I can't believe it!

Cheerio for now folks

Rachel x