Wave Goodbye to This Year's Holiday

Well the holiday is nearly over for another year. I've had a lazy time, a time for thinking, a time for dieting and a time where I haven't done what I intended to do. I didn't cut the hedge; I didn't clear the garage out; I didn't read as much as I wanted to. But I've also had an unexpected trip to Scarborough, a trip to York and met up with some old friends, the garden is in good trim and the weather is warm and balmy. I've even done three Reiki treatments. What more could a man from 'up north' want?

By the way, I washed the car too. Well strictly speaking I didn't actually wash the car, I paid someone else to do it for me but it looks good and he did it better than I would have done. A worthy £8 in Sainsbury's car park while I did the family shopping on my own this morning. I was exhausted at the thought of him doing it while I was rummaging through the melons - does that count?

A tribute of thanks to a fellow blogger today MorningAJ - her very entertaining blog is here. She gave me an award. MorningAJ lives in the Midlands and describes herself as an ordinary person with a story to tell. Let me tell you she is not an ordinary person, none of us are and blimey does she tell a good story of her day to day life. Congratulations on your award and and many thanks for passing it on!

She is also very naughty because she is a temptress with a superbly mouth-watering blog entitled Auntie Anne's Extremely Useful Stuff with tons of recipes, experiments with food and hot tips!

So what am I doing on my last day tomorrow? Well I normally always get fed up with myself at the thought of going back to work, but I ain't bothered. Hair cut with a number 3 attachment on the end of a home hairdressing kit; watch England's third one day cricket international against Sri Lanka at Lords on the television; unless the day is hot, then I'll be fairly lazy sitting in the garden - again; and no matter what the temperature, roast pork and vegetables with crackling of course! We are making up with a salad for tea today.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and as always:

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

The Sun has got it's Hat on...

There are so many blogs popping up on my favourite reading list, I do read them all and promise I'll pay a visit and hopefully make some comments. Everyone's creative juices must be on the move.

What a lovely spring day with wall to wall sunshine after a foggy start. Finningley in Lincolnshire, just a few miles south is 23 degrees Celsius this afternoon.

I've taken an extra day off today and got some quality gardening done. Some of my little plug plants that came from the seed catalogue arrived over the last couple of days and I've potted over 180 plants up this morning. It doesn't do the back any good but wow, now that they are potted, I can look forward to nurturing, watering, protecting, ready for planting out in about 3 to 4 weeks time toward the middle to end of May.

We still get late frosts here in the north of the UK until the end of May but if they do come along, they are unlikely to be severe and plants can be easily protected with newspaper.

Talking of days off, here in the UK as in many parts of the world, it's Easter but we also have some extra national events coming up such as a royal wedding etc. So this means that workers can take three days holiday entitlement but actually get eleven days off in a row! My colleague has done just that and I think she heads up to Edinburgh for a three day break very shortly; a beautiful city.

How does this work? Here we go:

Friday 22 - Good Friday (Bank Holiday)
Saturday 23 - Weekend
Sunday 24 - Weekend
Monday 25 - Easter Monday (Bank Holiday)
Tuesday 26 - Take a day's annual leave
Wednesday 27 - Take a day's annual leave
Thursday 28 - Take a day's annual leave
Friday 29 - Royal Wedding (Bank Holiday)
Saturday 30 - Weekend
Sunday 1 May - Weekend
Monday 2 May - (Early May Bank Holiday)

So there you have it. I'm off the week beginning the 2 May for a week, so it costs me four days leave entitlement for 9 days off, not quite a bargain, but I'm not complaining.
 

Last night along the east coast of the UK in parts was a sea fret, a sort of creeping fog from the North Sea over the warm and still land. The sea is still cold this time of year despite the warmth in the sun. The UK Meteorological Office describe the sea at 8 degrees Celsius. Chilly if you were to spend a lot of time in it considering the core body temperature is around 37 degrees Celsius depending on where you take the temperature.

Despite the heat - roast pork for tea, the smell wafting through the house is sensational!

Chat soon

Ta-ra