Enough already!

View from the house; we've hit a thaw..apparently!


Sun setting


G'bye sun; we only knew you for a brief moment...but you warmed our toes and noses..we'll miss you.

Please help me. I'm so cold. My nose is permanently pink. The tips of my ears can no longer be felt can you ever feel your ears though?. At a party at Sam's on Saturday night, the temperature was so much on our minds, we even discussed the weather; good for sledging, bad for walking, whether it was stalagmites or stalactites....really, we shouldn't be discussing such things, especially not on a Saturday night! We should be merrily drinking and singing Bohemian Rhapsody at the top of our voices ok, the first person to mention Boxing day gets hurt. Apparently, you remember stalactites as coming downwards because "tights come down". "Yeah" I mumbled "maybe in Fife....". All those over the age of 41 seemed to know this; all us under had no idea what they were on about.

Despite the brief weather talk, it was a lovely Saturday night and the house was toasty...very, very important when accepting invitations these days. We had lovely chilli, guacamole, sour cream, cheese, tortillas, wraps, antipasti, couscous, olives, dips and much, much more. Delicious. Sam even came up with two lovely wee birthday cakes Happy birthday Ann and Ian....*thrrrp* with fireworks on top...yup, actual burn-your-eyebrows-blind-you-for-life fireworks...but we Glaswegians like to live on the edge I know you're not Glaswegian Sam but you have to accept an honorary status after at least 10 years.

The spread; that empty space was filled with glorious couscous!


Ian and Ann's surprise cakes! The now no longer have eyebrows.

During the holiday period, the cold doesn't seem to be as much of a nuisance because the kids are here, we're all playing and snuggling up to watch old movies which is great fun...I forgot how funny My Fair Lady with Audrey Hepburn was:

Mrs. Eynsford-Hill: I do hope we wont have any unseasonable cold spells, they bring on so much influenza. And the whole of our family is susceptible to it.
Eliza Doolittle: My Aunt died of influenza, or so they said. But its my belief they done the old woman in.
Mrs. Higgins: Done her in?
Eliza Doolittle: Yes, lord love you. Why should she die of influenza, when she come through diphtheria right enough the year before. Fairly blue with it she was. They all thought she was dead. But my father, he kept ladling gin down her throat. Then she come to so sudden she bit the bowl right off the spoon.
Mrs. Eynsford-Hill: Dear Me!
Eliza Doolittle: Now what call would a woman with that strength in her have to die of influenza? And what become of her new straw hat that should have come to me?
[pause]
Eliza Doolittle: Somebody pinched it. And what I say is: them 'as pinched it, done her in.
Lord Boxington: Done her in? Done her in did you say?
Lady Boxington: Whatever does it mean?
Mrs. Higgins: Its the new slang meaning someone has killed her.
Mrs. Eynsford-Hill: Surely you don't think someone killed her?
Eliza Doolittle: Do I not? Them she lived with would have killed her for a hatpin, let alone a hat.
Mrs. Eynsford-Hill: But it can't have been right for your father to be pouring spirits down her throat like that, it could have killed her.
Eliza Doolittle: Not her, gin was mother's milk to her. Besides he poured so much down his own throat, he knew the good of it.
Lord Boxington: Do you mean he drank?
Eliza Doolittle: Drank? My word something chronic.
[responding to freddy's laughter]
Eliza Doolittle: Here! What are you sniggering at?
Freddy Eynsford-Hill: The new small talk, you do it so awfully well.
Eliza Doolittle: Well if I was doing it proper, what was you sniggering at? Have I said anything I oughtn't?
Mrs. Higgins: No my dear.
Eliza Doolittle: Well thats a mercy anyhow...

---

....but after the holidays have past, there is that week. That first week the kids are back to school, I'm barely organised and it's too damn cold anyway! But then we move on to this week. I always like this one as motivation goes up and the blues come down; it's week 3 of the new year already and the cold, despite it being a big blue pain in the pants, is not going to limit me anymore. The heating is on full blast, the thermals have been sent over by helicopter, courtesy of Marks and Sparks and I'm going out. Yes! Out I tell you. If you don't hear from me for a few days, send a mountain rescue team up The Whangie. Tell them to bring gin. Lots of it.

A Fairytale for a Flamer

Friday again?! Wow. Every Friday, a group of writers get together for the Loose Bloggers Consortium; we blog about a particular subject and the results are often widely varied and surprising....pleasantly so! Please check out their blogs, you won't be sorry.

• Conrad of www.levintel.com
• A Creative Writer in Progress
• Change of Heart Stress Solutions
• gaelikaa's Diary
• Grannymar
• I truly am dumber than Einstein
• Magpie 11
• Ramana's Musings
• The Silver Fox Whispers

On Wednesday I wrote a tale which, stupidly, I posted although it was meant for today. I have decided to repost it as it was written as it was the word of the week flamer that gave me the idea. It is a timely subject, due to some recent activity from a flamer this week and the past.

The following story is true.

A Fairytale for a Flamer

Once upon a time, in a magical kingdom not so very far away from here, there lived a wicked boy. The boy was not just wicked, he was nasty and sad-not a good combination! The wicked boy, for want of any cats to kick, decided one day that it would be fun to send disgusting and hateful scrolls to random princesses throughout the land. The princesses received the scrolls and promptly fainted. All except one.

Now, the boy thought himself a clever sort. He saw himself as a prince; a little king amongst mere mortals and with powers too! Not just any power but M&S powers but magical powers and believed that they would protect him for ever more.

How had such a boy come to believe such things? Surely his mother; she had told him he was the best boy in the world and clever too. She had instructed him on his power, his magnificence. The wee lad, believing this to be so, let it all go to his head. He believed that he was all powerful right enough and this led to a peculiar naivety, a belief that he would never be challenged. Oh, and he thought his cloak made him invisible...but it was, alas, not to be so.

The boy was indeed pretty clever but he did not realise that he could be matched and indeed conquered by one particular wee girl. His belief in his own powers led him to believe that no further knowledge need ever be sought, no book need ever be read and that he knew everything that ever needed to be known.

And lo, it was a sad affair but as a result, he did not know about the gifts that magical princesses held. He had never found out that princesses were born with a tenacious and uncanny ability to overcome all and every obstacle in the pursuit of knowledge, particularly knowledge of which they believed was required to defeat a foe.

As it turned out, this lack of knowledge would be the wicked boy's downfall and would lead to him revealing his true nature- that of a halfwit.

The boy in question you see, had tried to disguise himself as a girl; he tried to gain the confidence of the princesses and win their hands in friendship so that he could have some evil fun at the princesses expense.

One particular princess was not amused.

It would be fair to say, she was pretty annoyed. But the princess let it go, having knowledge that such creatures lived in all and every kingdom and ignoring them was usually the best defence. Alas, the wicked boy persisted and the princess, herself good and kind began to turn angry. The boy, with his empty brain, unfortunately had no idea what anger could do to a girl, even a good and kind princess.

The angry princess set about using her skills to find the wicked boy and find him she did; she found out that he was not a princess but a boy in disguise. She found out his true name, where he lived, where he worked and she even managed to find some other princesses to whom the lad was also tricking.

She told the boy so and he became struck by a magical spell of the gob; he was gobsmacked. He was given a warning by the princess and one warning only; he was to leave this kingdom forever and never to darken her doorstep again. He was to no longer harass the princess or any other princess from neighbouring kingdoms.

Words a princess should never used were thrown at him for final measure; something about an arse being kicked from this kingdom to kingdom come. He was never to be seen again.

And the princesses lived happy ever after.

The End.

Hampers and Halfwits; a fairytale.

Once upon a time, in a magical kingdom not so very far away from here, there lived a wicked boy. The boy was not just wicked, he was nasty and sad-not a good combination! The wicked boy, for want of any cats to kick, decided one day that it would be fun to send disgusting and hateful scrolls to random princesses throughout the land. The princesses received the scrolls and promptly fainted. All except one.

Now, the boy thought himself a clever sort. He saw himself as a prince; a little king amongst mere mortals and with powers too! Not just any power but M&S powers but magical powers and believed that they would protect him for ever more.

How had such a boy come to believe such things? Surely his mother; she had told him he was the best boy in the world and clever too. She had instructed him on his power, his magnificence. The wee lad, believing this to be so, let it all go to his head. He believed that he was all powerful right enough and this led to a peculiar naivety, a belief that he would never be challenged. Oh, and he thought his cloak made him invisible...but it was, alas, not to be so.

The boy was indeed pretty clever but he did not realise that he could be matched and indeed conquered by one particular wee girl. His belief in his own powers led him to believe that no further knowledge need ever be sought, no book need ever be read and that he knew everything that ever needed to be known.

And lo, it was a sad affair but as a result, he did not know about the gifts that magical princesses held. He had never found out that princesses were born with a tenacious and uncanny ability to overcome all and every obstacle in the pursuit of knowledge, particularly knowledge of which they believed were required to defeat a foe.

As it turned out, this lack of knowledge would be the wicked boy's downfall and would lead to him revealing his true nature- that of a halfwit.

The boy in question you see, had tried to disguise himself as a girl; he tried to gain the confidence of the princesses and win their hands in friendship so that he could have some evil fun at the princesses expense.

One particular princess was not amused.

It would be fair to say, she was pretty annoyed. But the princess let it go, having knowledge that such creatures lived in all and every kingdom and ignoring them was usually the best defence. Alas, the wicked boy persisted and the princess, herself good and kind began to turn angry. The boy, with his empty brain, unfortunately had no idea what anger could do to a girl, even a good and kind princess.

The angry princess set about using her skills to find the wicked boy and find him she did; she found out that he was not a princess but a boy in disguise. She found out his true name, where he lived, where he worked and she even managed to find some other princesses to whom the lad was also tricking.

She told the boy so and he became struck by a magical spell of the gob; he was gobsmacked. He was given a warning by the princess and one warning only; he was to leave this kingdom forever and never to darken her doorstep again. He was to no longer harass the princess or any other princess from neighbouring kingdoms.

Words a princess should never used were thrown at him for final measure; something about an arse being kicked from this kingdom to kingdom come. He was never to be seen again.

And the princesses lived happy ever after.

The End.

_______________________________

My friend Pauline is over from Canada and came for a visit on Sunday night. I made some hearthbreads for a snack and they do taste nice but they also look so pretty, especially when dotted with sun blushed tomatoes and thyme or Parmesan and garlic so it got me thinking; I think I'm going to make some lovely hampers for Christmas gifts this year. I was thinking wine or champagne, smoked salmon, a round of Brie or Camembert and the homemade items would be something like Parmesan crispbreads, hearthbreads, caramelised onions, pate, lemon cake, fruit cake, chutney dip and cookies, or a selection thereof.

I personally would love such a gift; would you? Any suggestions to add to the hamper?