Grannymar

BarCamp Belfast is almost upon us

Saturday 21st June, 9am - 5pm

Peter Froggatt Centre, Queen’s University Belfast.

These days don’t just happen, we have to thank the lads for beavering away in the background to bring everything together for the duration :

Andy McMillan (t) (goodonpaper.org)
David R. Newman (Queen’s University Belfast)

The programme sounds interesting and I am looking forward to meeting some old faces and new. I will have to behave because the fella Darragh Doyle will report back to Elly if I don’t! I think he is planning to ask me some questions…

The list of attendees has hit 60 but it looks like we women will be well outnumbered. Come on girls, join in the fun, you know you want to!

Anyone know what a Blog is?

Don’t distract the driver….

A passenger in a taxi leaned over to ask the driver a question and tapped him on the shoulder. The driver screamed, lost control of the cab, nearly hit a bus, drove up over the curb, and stopped just inches from a large plate glass window.

For a few moments everything was silent in the cab, and then the still shaking driver said, ‘I’m sorry, but you scared the daylights out of me.’

The frightened passenger apologized to the driver and said he didn’t realize a mere tap on the shoulder could frighten him so much.

The driver replied, ‘No, no, I’m sorry, it’s entirely my fault. Today is my first day driving a cab……………….

I’ve been driving a hearse for the last 25 years.’

Coming home after a week chasing Toyboys visiting blogging friends, staying with Elly and seeing relations, leaves me with plenty of chores to do. I did a bit of this

Then I had to do a bit of that

Then I took a run down here…

And finally I have started to make a list…

You see the post arrived while I was out and I found a little package lying in the hall. Do you want to know what was in it?

Thanks to Will for the idea, for organising them and these last two images.

What do you think?

The car is packed and I am ready to go… The busy week in Dublin has come to an end. Yesterday I rested in preperation for my journey. With the fine weather I had all the windows open.

At one point I heard children’s voices outside as they played in the street. Most of what they said was not close enough for me to understand. Things went quiet for a few minutes and then I heard a voice say quite clearly: ”I’m not a gurl, I don’t know these tings!”

I wonder what he didn’t know? Any ideas?

These cookies are a combination of sweet and savoury flavours. I like to nibble them with coffee. They are equally nice served with pate with an aperitif.

Roasted Pepper Cookies (savoury)

Makes 34 approx Preheat oven to180ºC

125g Unsalted Butter

100g Icing Sugar sifted

200g Plain Flour

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Pinch of salt

100g Roasted Peppers chopped*

Line two baking sheets with baking parchment paper. Cream butter until soft & mix in the sugar until blended then drizzle in the olive oil & mix until combined. Add the flour & salt and mix gently but thoroughly until smooth, then add the peppers & mix until thoroughly incorporated into the mixture. Cut 2 sheets of parchment paper and spread a sheet out on the work table, place the dough in the centre and cover with the other sheet. Roll out the dough until it is about ¼inch thick (the dough is very sticky thus the parchment). Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes or overnight. Cut into 2” rounds and place them ½” apart on prepared baking sheets. Form trimmings into a log, cut into rounds. Bake until golden, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.

* Variation: use pitted olives instead of Roasted Peppers

Sorry Ian and Paddy my collections are not much good to you.

We all have items in groups so I decided to have a look at mine.

I had a few buttons in my sewing box when I moved into this house. Over the years I have added to it with spare buttons supplied with new garments and others removed from clothing before sending it for scrap. If I was to sit with the button box it would bring to mind several outfits from the past.

Clothes Pegs of different designs and colours, each well used to keep my washing of different thicknesses on the line.

These Caran D’Ache pencils have been about for years. I used them while taking a design element of a City & Guilds Course in Creative Embroidery many years ago.

A few more items from the pencil case!

Some of the books I collected and used for inspiration in the three years I worked for the C&G course.

A page of needles in my needle case. The old faithful has gone on for many years and is looking the worse for wear. If you look carefully you will notice that several are bent from wear. I wonder if I am related to Yuri Geller?

This Carousel works hard for a living, it sits close to my cooker and contains all the gadgets I use on a regular basis.

This collection I spotted over a wall while out walking the other day and it gave me the inspiration for the post. The owner must shop at Tesco because she has pegs like mine! I hope she didn’t see me take the photo of her undies.

With favourable weather and school holidays upon us, Travel Agents through the land are beginning to smile. We all need a holiday for rest and refreshment. Having my few days in Dublin, staying with Elly & George, visiting friends and family, can be tiring at times but I still return home refreshed with the promise to visit once more in the very near future.

Dublin has changed greatly in the years since I lived there. Sometimes I feel like a tourist visiting for the first time. This thought brought to mind a Prayer for Tourists:

Prayer for Tourists

Heavenly father, look down on us your humble servants who are doomed to travel this earth taking pictures, mailing cards, buying souvenirs and walking around in drip-dry underwear. We beseech you to see that our plane is not hijacked, our baggage not lost. Protect us from surly and mean taxi drivers, stingy porters and unlicensed English speaking guides.

Give us divine grace in selection of our hotels. Lead us dear Lord to good inexpensive restaurants where food is super and waiters friendly and wine included in the price of the meal.

Dear God, keep our wives from shopping sprees and protect them from bargains they didn’t need and can’t afford. Lead them not into temptation for they know not what they do. Keep our husbands from looking at foreign women and above all do not forgive them their trespasses for they know exactly what they do. When our trip is over grant us the favour of finding friends who will look at our photos and listen to our stories so that our lives as tourists will not have been in vain.

This we ask in the name of us all. Amen.

Laughter Joy

Laughter.

Unexpected

Tonic, joy, reviver.

We may disagree on what is

Humorous, but we must not give up our

Sense of wonder, never lose our

Natural urge to search for

Funny things, for

Laughter.

Copyright 2008 by Marlys Marshall Styne

Marlys seems to have a Rictameter for every day.

The other day I went up to a local Christian bookstore and saw a honk if you love Jesus bumper sticker.

I was feeling particularly sassy that day because I had just come from a thrilling choir performance, followed by a thunderous prayer meeting, so I bought the sticker and put in on my bumper.

I was stopped at a red light at a busy junction, just lost in thought about the Lord and how good He is and I didn’t notice that the light had changed.

It is a good thing someone else loves Jesus because if he hadn’t honked, I’d never have noticed.

I found that LOTS of people love Jesus. Why, while I was sitting there, the guy behind started honking like crazy, and when he leaned out of his window and screamed, “for the love of God, GO! GO!” What an exuberant cheerleader he was for Jesus.

Everyone started honking! I just leaned out of my window and started waving and smiling at all these loving people. I even honked my horn a few times to share in the love. There must have been a man from the Gold Coast back there because I heard him yelling something about a sunny beach…

I saw another guy waving in a funny way with only his middle finger stuck up in the air. When I asked my teenage grandson in the back seat what that meant, he said that it was probably a Fijian’s good luck sign

or something. Well, I’ve never met anyone from Fiji , so I leaned out the window and gave him the good luck sign back.

My grandson burst out laughing, why even he was enjoying this religious experience. A couple of the people were so caught up in the joy of the moment that they got out of their cars and started walking towards me.

I bet they wanted to pray or ask what church I attended, but this is when I noticed the light had changed. So, I waved to all my sisters and brothers grinning, and drove on through the intersection.

I noticed I was the only car that got through the intersection before the light changed again and I felt kind of sad that I had to leave them after all the love we had shared, so I slowed the car down, leaned out of the window and gave them all the Fijian good luck sign one last time as I drove away.

Praise the Lord for such wonderful folks!

Do you think that Grandma was Nancy?

Meme from Baino

What was I doing 10 years ago?

I was living in a great black hole, hanging on by my fingernails following the death of my soul-mate Jack. Dealing with this grief was not easy, while also coming to terms with the loss of my mother and Elly’s leaving the nest for University, both just 20 months earlier. Somehow I found the strength to keep going and made a new life for myself and formed fresh new friendships. There is always light at the end of the dark tunnel if we persevere. Thankfully I found my way to daylight and learned to smell the roses and hear the birds singing once more.

Five snacks I enjoy in a perfect, non weight-gaining world

Since I am, and always was a light weight I’ll change that to being free of health issues!

Dark Chocolate

Ice cream

Pistachio nuts

Fudge

Raspberries

Five snacks I enjoy in the real world

Olives,

Dried fruit – cranberries, apricots, dates, figs

Sweet Pepper biscuits ~ recipe next Monday

Raspberries, in season

Dark Chocolate (small helpings)

Five things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Give Elly & George half!

Move house to a small apartment or bungalow with 2 bedrooms both en-suites, a small lounge, with a bigger kitchen/dining/living room where friends can sit and enjoy a drink while I prepare lunch or dinner. I must have easy access to my beloved internet!

Sponsor a child.

Build a Hospice

Travel a little.

Five jobs that I have had:

Not in any particular order:

‘999’ Emergency Service

Court Clerk

Hot food outlet assistant

Medical Secretary

Substitute teacher

Three of my habits:

I like to be tidy in myself and surroundings

Pay attention to detail

Reading Blogs is now part of the daily diet

Five places I have lived:

I have only lived in three places so far:

Dublin

Wiesbaden, Germany

Co. Antrim

Five people I want to get to know better:

George, my son-in-law

At least four of my blogging friends (more if it is allowed)

Feel free to have a go if you wish.

Comment away I may be slow to get back to you, but promise I will.