Happy New Year of the Dragon

新年明けましておめでとうございます
Happy New Year to one and all.
This year we say goodbye to the Rabbit and hello to the Dragon:

Here is our little pair on the mantlepiece. Bunny will be put away now, for another 12 years!!

So how was it for all of you? I am very glad we are here in 2012. There are many plans afoot, including some travel. Big J heads off next week for up to four months and with Ads only here one or two nights a week, it will be a much smaller household.

I am thinking that it is time to look after me a bit better. Health wise, work wise, creatively and emotionally. Last year was very tough.
I am going to work on my dream of buying a flat somewhere.....on being more economic with car use and food wastage. Drink less, yes folks, here in black and white. Party time is all well and good but I have had a LOT of party time of late. Let us see what lies in store and what we make of our time.

Hope you all have a great year.

GRANNY RIPPLE

I have been fondling yarn today and dreaming of the next blankie. This one for Han-chan who says I NEVER finish anything I make her....I beg to differ...but that is another tale. A ripple yes, but this popped up when trawling through other people's blogs

First I found this - folk from Brissie too - must be nice

who led me to this delightful idea


A plan is forming in my head.....

I want to be

in my pjs, on the sofa, cup of tea at my elbow, crocheting. But I am in the cold dining room while girls and friend sprawl over all the furniture and the floor with piles of socks that they have paired up and heaps of ironing that they have done, my girls, not the friend...bless them....Lap top cables everywhere and our horrid new TV (that means way too big to be considered practical) with its dodgy sound blasting a Ghibli film out over their laughing and chatting.

It is the holidays I suppose.....

Tis the season

The last few weeks have not been easy - for any of us. But as we head towards the end of 2011, things are looking up.

My brother and his little family left us last week. It was a stressful time for them, emptying their flat, finishing with work, coping with 'flu and saying goodbye to a city they love and all their friends after a decade. They asked me to come and help in the end, and I could not have been more pleased to scrub out their oven and fridge and clean the kitchen floor. We had one night here with them and it was lovely. Ava has the most fantastic gelling effect and we passed her round like a parcel to her smiling and chuckling. They all visited me in my office the next day and we had lunch together before saying our goodbyes in the hospital carpark. It was a teary afternoon for me. I will miss them so much.
Big J got the thumbs up to go to Hong Kong himself for four months, so it looks as though we might get to see him and my bro out there sooner than we thought.
School has ended and it is nice to have the girls around. Ads is around too, but not as much.

This has been a social week too with the secretaries Chritmas party, well attended, rather liquid and with excellent food. We then had Big J's old mob's Christmas do in London, very liquid with much singing of carols and old, old songs....a real hoot and fab for J to catch up with people he has known for more than half his life. We stayed overnight in London as the thought of schlepping home after a boozy night was just too much. Good call. He had to trot off early in the morning in time for the Rugby Club Christmas lunch, and I got to have a day in town shopping with my girls.

We are home now, exhausted after trailing along Oxford Street, but we did well. Most of my shopping is done on line and early, but not theirs. Still, we had fun and with luck, this week will not be about rushing around like a mad thing!

getting there

It has been a while and I have enjoyed reading all the blogs I follow, but have not wanted to post anything myself.

Today was a good day in many ways.

Han got a small scholarship for a great school for her 6th form. It has long been my hope that she would. No decisions are being made yet.

In a hard lesson, I had to accept that my dreams for her are not hers for her and she has also decided to apply for a much bigger county college. I will support her completely and will do all I can not to let my ideas cloud hers.

She also started work today at a plant nursery. Paid in cash at the end of the day and looking worn out, she is proud as are all of us.

I made the AMAZING Cherry and Amaretti fridge cake that Serendipity Patch had on her blog this morning. It is superb. As one of the secs does not like glace cherries I used a mixed berry selection and almonds instead of pistachios...and it is still amazing. I also baked a dozen gluten free lemon and poppy seed cupcakes and a dozen regular ones. It is barely enough to get our girls started at work!! A bit more baking tomorrow then!

On the not so bright side, youngest is unhappy to her bones and cannot (or will not) speak to me. For days it has been monosyllables and staring at the floor. As I write, she is watching TV and roaring with laughter. It was so hard today I cried and went for a long drive. Whatever it is she is going through, we are all getting a taste of it.

I have done a little crochet and will do some more tonight. Oh for happy children. She is so young to feel so bad.

Hope you and yours are safe and happy.

Is is worth it? Soul searching on a Sunday morning

Over the last few days I have had my sister and her partner (sadly him for only one night) to stay. After B left, Jani and I had a day in Lewes and then an afternoon in London. We walked miles we talked non stop and we looked at art, antiques, charity shops, parrots (my girls have a favourite West African Grey in a pet shop in Lewes that we always visit)

books, polish pottery, exhibitions and were both dazzled and drained by the visual overload. We spent time in the V&A so that she could do some research and happily for me we were pointed in the direction of the British Galleries, and to The Arts and Crafts Movement displays. My sister is an artist. At one point I would have said a landscape painter, but her work has evolved and she draws and knits paper and canvas strips. She is on a pathway. I admire her strength and perserverence because it is not easy and she has said that at times she wonders if it is really worth it. I say yes! But then I am a huge admirer of her passion and drive while at the same time feeling so void of any of my own. My small bursts of creativity feel limited to me. I constantly feel as if there is more potentail only that I cannot see it or how to tap into it.
The fact is that I love to crochet, but I do not talk to people about it, except here in blogland, and let's face it, have not produced much!! I am frustrated by the desire to be making something all the time, while not knowing what to do.
Now that Ava has her blanket and her blue dog

I am in limbo. More than just hook and yarn limbo. Blog limbo too. I think I need to sit down and figure out what is next.

Glow of pride

and a tiny bit of intrepidation as who am I to really 'get' all of this....

BUT

www.facebook.com/risingtideuk

and

www.reverbnation.com/risingtide

are where the NEW SINGLE can be heard.

Watch this space. Cold Play should be feeling a bit shakey!