This weeks listography at :

 is all about  Top 5 favourite ice-creams   or pops. 

     So here we go...

1. 

"Just one Cornetto!" or two or three, or four please.  Any flavour will do so long as it's a Walls original.

2.  Jubblys! They have to be orange flavour. A classic lolly on a hot day in the garden.

3. Feast.  I love the different layers in these, the nuts, the ice cream, the chocolate. Bliss.

4. Magnums.  They have to be the WORST ice cream ever in terms of calories but I can't get enough of these lollies.

5. Fab lollies. One from my childhood, a lolly that I rarely have any more... maybe I'll get one tomorrow!

Listography - 5 Things I Want To Do This Summer.

Kate Takes 5 is taking a break this week from doing Listography and so it has moved to Keith Takes 5 aka Chronicles of a Reluctant Housedad.


This weeks topic is Things I Want To Do This Summer, so here goes...


1. Get fit/fitter and/or lose weight.

pics taken on my iphone and altered with the fat booth app

the real me is the one on the right!

I am female, therefore it is my right to complain about my weight if I want to.  I have lost weight in the past through determination and hard work in the gym and I believe I can do it again.  So I will!

Given that I work in a school and I am shortly going to have six and a half weeks off school, I really don't have any excuse for not going to the gym.  My plan is to train 3-4 times a week in the gym, take the dog for walks of a decent length every day and I feel like I should throw in the odd swim into the mix as well.

I will blog on my weight loss/get fit campaign later in the summer...only if I am doing well of course.


2. Have a picnic on the beach/park.

My nan used to have a picnic basket very much like the one pictured.  It was in the 80's and had pale blue crockery and cutlery with cream handles.  It must have cost a fortune but I think it was used only once for it's correct purpose, the rest of the time it was infrequently played with by me in the kitchen.
Me and mine very rarely get together and picnic anywhere, let alone on a beach or in a park but maybe,  just maybe this summer I'll get my perfect afternoon:
Family and/or friends, sunshine, Pimms and lemonade, sandwiches, salad, nibbles, a checked blanket and if I find a reasonably priced one, a picnic hamper.  Bliss.




3. Go on holiday.

Pictured here is 'Joan' the van, and 'the accountant', 'baba' and her friend knocking up a washing line on the campsite.

Out of personal choice we send our 'baba' to a very good private school which costs us an arm and a leg.  As a result we haven't had a foreign holiday in six years.  Four years ago we bought our VDub camper (something I've wanted since being a little girl).  We christened her 'Joan' after my late nan and we've had many a happy time in her.  Dependant on point No. 5 we are hoping to revisit West Wales after last years lovely break.  Tenby, St Davids and Saundersfoot are absolutely gorgeous!

4. Make proper evening meals every night.

I love, love, love Jamie Oliver and it's because of him and his array of brilliant books that me and mine eat well...most nights.  I say most because as a working mum I sometimes find it almost impossible to muster up the strength to cook a full evening meal when I get home.  My 'baba' sometimes rustles up a curry, 'the accountant' manages to makes something about four times a year but the brunt of feeding everyone seems to fall on my shoulders.
As I said before, having six weeks or so off work doesn't give me much of an excuse not to cook and when I don't have the pressures of work and time I actually quite enjoy cooking. (Don't tell 'the accountant' that please).

5. Move house.

This is a tricky one because if this happens then all the other things on my list will probably suffer to some degree.  The house we currently live in is rented and the owners are wanting to sell it.  I love this house but living with the uncertainty of how long we can stay here is not great.  I would love to stay here but the idea of de-cluttering and having a fresh start is very appealing.  

Another future blog topic?  Watch this space... 

You Don't Know What You've Got Till It's Gone.

 Tragedy of tragedies happened last week, I had to endure a whole week with no internet at home!


My trusty old PC (aged 10) has been on it's last legs for a couple of years now and last month it failed to turn on at all.  
 Not even my talented  ICT student at college could do anything to bring it back.  No amount of replacing its various parts could bring it back and it is now in the computer graveyard we call 'the spare parts cupboard' next door to the ICT classroom.


 As if that wasn't tragic enough I went home that afternoon, sat at my lovely little laptop (aged 3 and a bit) and that too died! My battery has been fading fast for a while now and the power lead has been playing up.  A loose wire led to a blank screen and no reassuring hum.

 I'm not sure who was most upset.  Me, unable to look at my blogger dashboard and Facebook, or my 15 year old baba who loves Tumblr... and Facebook.
 We spent that Friday night anxious and irritable with each other, who could have known how busy the internet kept us both of an evening.

 The next morning, bright and early I set off for PC World, my god that place is noisy (or am I getting old?).  I located the universal power leads and to my horror found them priced at £60 -£70!!!
 I rang my husband, the accountant, who quickly googled power leads and found the right one at just £15, a much more reasonable price.  He ordered one online and so the wait began.

 Now, the accountant, often complains of being a Facebook or Farmville widow in the evenings.  (I can't complain during the football season however when I become a footy widow) I really didn't realise just how much time I spent surfing the net at night until it had gone.         

 And I found I had so much more time to spend doing other things.  My ironing pile has dramatically reduced in size, my house is pretty clean and tidy, I have read a whole novel I've been meaning to read for ages, I've watched some good tv (documentaries, not trash) and I have conversed more with 'the accountant'!


 I had begun to adjust quite well to no internet at home.  True, I did have my iphone but it's not quite the same.  And I could check blogger and Facebook at work during my lunch break so I wasn't completely cut off.
 However, life is all about balance, and after a week the blessed lead eventually arrived.  I couldn't wait to plug in my laptop and get going but I found that after quickly catching up with everything, I actually didn't want to spend hours on it. I had broken the cycle that I had fallen into.  I was freeeee!

To the accountants relief I have not spent as much time on the internet this week, my house is tidy and I have been to the gym more than usual. 

 Everyone's a winner...  Until I get my ipad for my birthday ;)

The Day After Whit Friday...The Beerwalk!

The weekend that has just been, is one of the most anticipated weekends of the year in Saddleworth.  The day after Whit Friday has, for the past 38 years, been 'The Beerwalk'.

Just thought I'd grab your attention at the start with these fine bodies.

Saddleworth Beerwalk is now one of the biggest events on the Saddleworth calendar. Some two thousand people in fancy dress walk the traditional eleven mile route through five villages and back, being rewarded with a beer at ten beer stations along the way while collecting money for various charities. 

The round table and local pubs work incredibly hard to provide drinks for 2000

It started 38 years ago with six Round Tablers doing a charitable pub crawl and has grown to such an annual event which now raises something in the region of £90,000 for various worthy causes.

                                                          

Many groups build their own props.

I realise I've included a lot of pictures in this blog but it really is a visual feast of creativity and fun.

The 'beer a mid' won first prize this year.

Come rain or shine thousands of people line the streets well-wishing the Beer Walkers on their journey. It takes approximately six hours to complete and the high spirits of the walkers never fails to make it a great and memorable day for everyone year in year out.

This group of traffic cones were 'protesting' against all the road closures in the area.

Every year the Beerwalk has a theme, this year it is Crawl Of Duty - Black Hops, a play on words of the popular video game.

All the money that is collected on the day is distributed out to various organisations and charities in the area.

This was taken at the top of 'Lark Hill' a killer of a hill two-thirds of the way round.

Gingers For Justice

Everyone pays a £20 entrance fee which goes to the Round Table.  Each group or individual can also carry collecting buckets and raise money for their own registered charity.

My beautiful sister (left) was a bridesmaid in a real 'hen do'. (The bride had walked off by the time I took this picture)

Have baby, will travel.  The ascent up Lark Hill.

My gorgeous niece was the cowardly lion

The beerwalk has a special place in my heart as in it's infancy, featuring about 500 walkers, it began and finished at my parents pub.  I was six years old when I witnessed my first beerwalk and I've walked about eleven of them over the years.  
Every year as a child, I would wake on the Sunday morning to a feast of abandoned costumes, props and even an enormous Viking ship on wheels one year!

Does anyone else have anything like this on their part of the world?