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That sounds luxuriously indulgent, Toots, and I hope it felt like that. Has the lurgy finally left you, so that you could actually enjoy the day a bit?
We're going to venture out to Madurdam for our usual Boxing Day visit. This is a world-famous minature version of Holland that covers about an acre and has literally hundreds of famous buildings all built meticulously to scale, with a miniature airport, and motorways with cars that really go, and all that sort of thing. It is a great tourist attraction, but in fact the better you know the country the more you enjoy it because the more you recognise. It's the sort of place that you, with your eye for detail, would just love. Look here.
They actually do a sort of son-et-lumiere in the evenings, with the story of Hans Brinker and the silver skates, and we had thought of going, but it's turned very cold here (it's -2 C at the moment, which is 10 am) so I somehow don't see us sitting outside for 2 hours after dark!
Hope you have a happy day, Patootie, with some nice treats and that you are enjoying your first Christmas in your beautiful new home. xx
I don't know about luxuriously indulgent .. more like lazily not bothering to actually cook anything
I don't like a full meal at lunch time .. my stomach just doesn't want to face all that work of munching the food up ... so I generally stay with 'light' meals until later on in the day ..
.. but I did do some pancakes with vanilla ice cream for Christmas 'tea' ... they were really scrummy and definitely indulgent .. but not too heavy ... 
The Madurdam place looks brilliant ... probably something like the Legoland places that have loads of miniature buildings .. but I was really impressed that Madurdam actually has real trees and bushes that they have to constantly prune to keep them miniature.
I might go out for a ride on my scooter later on .. I feel the need for some fresh air ... been stuck inside for the best part of 10 days now .. other than my trip out to the docs waiting room of course .. I'll just pop out for a short while .. blow the cobwebs away ...
It was quite 'funny' watching the 'fleets' of cars turning up yesterday morning and this morning ... whisking away 'mums' and 'grannys' to eat a pile of Christmas dinner no doubt ... then all the cars came flooding back late yesterday afternoon ... it made me feel kids family duties done .. had mother/granny to dinner now they are ok until next Christmas. Shame really ... some of the residents do have family that come here often ... but sadly for some it's just high days and birthdays .. I am glad I don't get 'carted off' to have a meal with family I don't know much about .. it would be a very long and awkward day I would think ...
Pancakes with ice cream sounds like just the thing, Patootie! And best of all, it suits YOU
) Sounds like the worst of the lurgy has passed now, which is great. That was a rough go.
Madurodam sounds like Legoland, but is actually quite different. Legoland is staggering in the imagination shown in building with lego, but Madurodam is a lot more sophisticated. All the different structures are done in meticulous detail and precisely to scale, so the result is very realistic. And yes, there are real trees and things---and I noticed today that the 12 inch 'pine trees' were decorated with tinsel and glass balls and everything. Just lovely.
I hope you do get out for a bit of fresh air, especially if you have the brilliant sun that we do. BUT if it's anything there like it is here, it's COLD, so mind you wrap up well!!
It must be strange to see people coming to collect relatives and friends if they otherwise wouldn't see them. I find that hard to imagine. We had all our parents every Christmas for as long as we were blessed with their presence; now that they have all gone on, we have one or more old friends. It's a nice time of year for hospitality. And we are incredibly lucky that our kids all want to be home for Christmas together, but we have such a good time together. It must be terribly sad for a family to get together out of nothing but a sense of duty, particularly if everyone has a rotten time. Like you, I'd rather be on my own.
But I think you would be an asset to any Christmas party, Patootie, I really do. So I hope now and then you do have a bit of sociability! For today, though, enjoy the sunshine and do something else nice and relaxing for yourself---after the fantastic job you've done this year of changing your life, you deserve it!!!!
Patootie, just looking in to wish you a good weekend. We are off to France in a little while (gotta take the pussycats and the dawgie to the farm where they stay and pack the car with all the Christmas food!).
I hope to be in cyberspace most of the week, but we are in a very rural area and our connection is via the mobile phone network so it's not very fast or reliable.
In any case, I hope you see the back of the lurgy for sure, and that you do some more nice indulgent things over the next few days, and most of all that you look back over this year and marvel at all you've done and look forward to 2009 with enthusiasm. I'm certainly very curious to see what you decide to do next, and will be standing there on the sidelines cheering for you!!! xx
Just looking in on the rickety internet connection from France, and hoping your silence just means you're having a luxurious, relaxed time! I hope the fibro is behaving itself and the lurgy is staying away, you've surely earned a bit of time off from the both of them.
We went to Monpazier today, one of those hilltop bastides thatu Edward I built at the start of the Hundred Years War, you would have loved it. I'll try to find a good internet site about it when I get back but right now I'm on the world's most rickety internet connection so I don't dare try to say much.
Really hope you're well, and that you will see in the new year happily and with a sense that there are a lot more good things for you in the year to come!! xx
Waves at Chuggie Bells ...
I'm here .. just waiting for your holiday report ... Happy New Year to you
Oooh, THERE you are! I was getting afraid you''d chosen a really good hiding place this time
)
Don't think I dare try a real holiday report from here. We are in theory getting a satellite internet connection: we waited for 2 years on the rumour that the French government was going to put in an ISDN line here, but they haven't, and to be fair if I were them I wouldn't string a line 6 km just for the 7 households that are here. So we all clubbed together to get it, but the installer broke his arm the week before Christmas so it's not installed and I'm still working on a very feeble connection.
We are about to start new year's eve dinner, which may be a bit of a hoot. We split up 2 and 2, with 2 of us doing starter and sweet and the other two (including me, natch) salad and main. How this will work out in practice I dread to think, but we have wine on hand so we'll giggle our way through it one way or another!
Tomorrow we'll listen to the new year's concert from Vienna (like everyone else in Europe: I always think that starting the new year with music is such a hopeful approach to the future!) and then if the weather is good we might go to Beynac Castle (where Richard the Lionheart really slept etc etc). Will tell you more when I get back, but bear in mind that we also want to know what YOU'VE been up to! Hope it's good, Toots, and that you're feeling well again
In any case, I will raise a glass to you at midnight---hope this is a very good year for you!! xxx
What a fab year it's been for you Patootie!
OH is on duty overnight so I am staying in and firing up the juicer for some lovely, healthy fresh fruit juice virgin cocktails - although I will probably sneak in a bacon sandwich before midnight too!
Happy New Year all - here's to 2009
xx
I can't remember the last time I celebrated New Year .. my sis in Australia is already in 2009 ... whilst I am languishing in the last hours of 2008 ... she will probably ring me soon and then 'traditionally' I ask her how the New Year is sizing up ... ans she will comment about me being a 'slow coach' to get to the New Year
Took the Christmas tree down today ... took me a couple of minutes to dust it ... and a couple more minutes to fold it down into it's box ... now it's all ready for lifting out next December .. heheheh !!!
Changed my electricity supplier this morning to save £10 next year
.. and I have some items sorted out ready to go to auction 
.. other than that nothing much happened today ... it is just another day to me ... 
Have a great evening ... stay nice and warm and safe .. and I hope 2009 .. is a happy and prosperous year for us all
What did you do with the extra second of time that we had at the end of last year ??
"The world's official timekeepers have added a "leap second" to the last day of the year on Wednesday, to help match clocks to the Earth's slowing spin on its axis, which takes place at ever-changing rates affected by tides and other factors."
<!-- m -->http://uk.reuters.com/article/burningIssues/idUKTRE4BR1DC20081229
I thought long and hard about what to do with my extra second ... pondered whether to take an extra sip of a delicious single malt whisky .. or maybe a nibble of a pungent blue cheese .. perhaps even an extra second in bed ..
But then I had it .. I knew what I would do ... on the very last 'extra' second of 2008 I flung my lounge window open wide .. and drew in a huge lungful of fresh air .. can't go wrong with an extra breath of air I decided ...
It was only once I had gone to bed and was reflecting on the 'old' year that I wonder what my flinging open a window and drawing in some air in the brief 'Leap second' might do to the 'Chaos Theory' .. where might that litre or two of air gone had I not breathed it in ... had I stopped a hurricane starting, or maybe I started one .. will someone else have to go short of breath when that litre doesn't turn up for them .. will a sailing ship be bowed over in a sudden squall, or becalmed in slack air ... ohh dear the responsibility of having used that extra 'Leap Second' with a gulp of air .. so I shall be watching the news with extra interest all year ... and wondering if indeed my actions might have started a disaster or delight ..
Oh Patootie, only you could start the new year on such a wonderful note! I shall definitely watch the ne,ws to see what the results were of that extra lungful
))
(Actually, do you know if chaos theory is still good science? I had lunch last week with a very scientific friend who seemed to think it wasn't quite as reliable as I had thought. Any idea?)
Well, our new years eve went off well. As it was just Hans, the boys and me this year we had to work to make it an occasion, but we did. Hans and Arie did the starter and sweet, Johan and I did the main and cheese, and it all went splendidly. And I had done a 'treasure hunt' with clues all over the house. They were riddles, harder than in years past, and some of them stumped the boys for quite a while, but it was lots of fun. At midnight we called Marrie, who's in London as she has to work, and then we watched the fireworks in London on telly, which were amazing. Now we're thawing out gently with the new year's concert from Vienna. Later on a trip out, I think, as I need to do something to work off the nine zillion calories I've eaten in the last day.
2008 was quite a year for you, as Screamy said, but knowing you, it was just laying the foundations for an even better and more interesting 2009!
Here's wishing everyone a new year of health, safety, peace and happyiness! xxxx
Hi folks,
Glad you all enjoyed New Year. I like your fresh air idea Patootie!
I'm all for taking the tree down on NYD but OH didn't get to bed until 7 am and I didn't want to disturb him so it will come down tomorrow (am "working" today).
I went out an ran 7 miles yesterday so that was a good start to the New Year wasn't it? Needed it too - been eating FAR too much cheese recently
It is nearly all gone now, thank goodness!
Enjoy Friday
Scientists Puzzle Over Yellowstone Earthquake Swarm
Scientists are closely monitoring more than 250 small earthquakes that have occurred in Yellowstone National Park.
http://www.topix.com/forum/news/natural-disasters/TCGT2SFJS1MGQ3F38
Passes closed by snow, avalanche fears - Falling snow and a high threat of avalanches convinced officials to close three main east-west mountain passes in Washington state on New Year's Day and at least two of the highways were expected to remain shut down into Friday.
Another storm was expected to dump as much as 18 inches of new snow on the Cascade Mountains overnight, keeping avalanche danger high.
http://www.topix.com/news/natural-disasters/2009/01
Moderate earthquake shakes Indonesia's Maluku province
A 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck off the eastern province of Maluku today, Indonesia's geophysics agency said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
http://www.topix.com/news/natural-disasters/2009/01/moderate-earthquake-shakes-indonesias-maluku-province
Yes they were - you should be ashamed of yourself - I mean breathing, how dare you!
Well, Toots, we've been telling you for quite a while now that you have a lot more power than you give yourself credit for
)
But maybe you should look for some of the unexpectedly GOOD stories instead? I think they're more like you! (I would do it if I had a proper internet, but this is the 1957 version, so it's all I can do to post a few lines!)
Screamy, I do take my hat off to you for that 7 miles!! Especially in the weather there seems to be in England. I am NOT looking forward to cycling to work on Monday: the prediction is for - 1C...
We have to go home tomorrow, alas, stopping overnight in Chartres. It's always sad to leave since we love it down here, but life goes on, C2 has to go back to uni on Sunday and we have to earn an honest penny. AND it will be nice to have another real-world internet connection!!
Have a good weekend, all! And again, happy new year!
.. maybe .. I may have been responsible .. ?
'£6m' car found in garageRelatives of an 89-year-old eccentric were left a garage in his will - and found the world?s most valuable car inside. The nephew and niece could become overnight millionaires when the 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante, one of only 17 made in the world, is sold next month. Experts believe it could be worth up to £6 million, reports the Daily Mirror. Dr Harold Carr, who died without ever marrying or having children, left the run-of-the-mill garage to his relatives. It also contained a classic Aston Martin and a Jaguar E Type.
http://www.orange.co.uk/news/quirkies/default.htm?rm=storyitem&storyId=3142611
Andy Murray has beaten Roger Federer for the third time in a row.
http://www.orange.co.uk/news/topstories/20467.htm?linkfrom=news_topstories_default&link=link_7&article=newstopstoriesheadlines
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Oil from the seeds of a poisonous shrub helped power a New Zealand airliner in a test flight, at a time when airlines hit by high oil prices and pressured over the impact of planes on the environment seek greener fuels.
An Air New Zealand Boeing 747 flew for two hours on Dec. 30 with one of its four engines powered by a 50-50 mixture of jet fuel and jatropha oil, the airline said in a statement.
http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-37245920090101
Oh Patootie, you're brilliant to find these! And I am SURE that they are much more the sort of thing that your extra breath would generate!
How are you doing now? Have all the lurgies subsided, or are you still fighting? And is it cold up there? Most of the country seems to be in the grip of a real ice age, and if you are too, I hope at least that your new home is lovely and warm.
We got back late this afternoon from France, after 2 days on the road, just in time to get to the farm and pick up the animals. Stayed in Chartres last night and I nipped into the cathedral: when it's dark you can't see the windows, but the wonderful, spare lines of the building are so striking. I can really believe that if you lived and worked in and around that cathedral you could become passionately in love with it, even bordering on a kind of obsession.
Have just finished all the unpacking and already it's time to get to bed cos tomorrow morning is going to come early!
It's nice to be back to a working internet, so now I want to hear all your news! xx
Patootie, are you OK? The weather all over northern Europe is SO, SO, So cold, and I know from friends that Ebngland is icy nearly everywhere. I think you said that extremes of temperatures set the fibro off, so I'm just hoping that you're being quiet because you are cosily tucked up and enjoying watching the birds come to feed, and not cos you're feeling carp!
Well, just in case, have a big hug!
((((((((((((Patootie)))))))))
Toasty warm and snuggly cosy here thank you ..
.. one of the benefits of living in an upstairs flat is that you don't get any of the cold drafts from the main outer doorways ... but you do get all the benefits of warm air doing what it must and rising upwards .. my lounge radiators are turned off .. even in this very cold weather I just don't need them on ... my lounge is an extremely comfortable 22C .. and right now it is just -1C outside 
If I had still been in my old home I'd be struggling to keep the temp at 16C during the day and I could only afford enough heating to keep it about 7-8C at nighttimes .. and yes .. it was a drafty place too ..
So what a difference .. old place heating was running constantly (and costing a fortune) struggling just to keep it luke warm and always too cold at night .. to my new flat with the heating off but still toasty warm and comfy .. the biggest difference is that before in the old place I really struggled with my mobility through the winter .. stiff and painful right through the winter .. but to be honest I haven't really noticed any bad changes at all this winter .. no extra pain .. no stiffness ..
I feel really good ... wintertime was always my 'darker' times .. where depression lurked waiting to pounce .. (which is where I started in December 2007 right at the beginning of this saga, "desperate and depressed") .. but I haven't even thought about it once so far this winter ... no need to ... I feel better than I have done for 10 years or so
And these wonderful changes are all down to the super support I have had from you wonderful people here in Runners World ...
a simple thank you will never be enough ... you have changed my life ... I will probably live longer ... and I am certainly enjoying life far more ... huge hugs to you all 
Wooohooo, what a great post, Patootie!!! That's really given my day a happy start.
What a startling difference in the heating from your old place. I hadn't realised it would be anything like that dramatic. But cold is really uncomfortable, and if your mobility is at all limited it's that much harder to get warm and keep warm, so this is really good news. No wonder you got depressed, living in a place where you were cold and stiff all the time!
And it's quite right that your mood should be brighter too. 'I feel better than I have done for 10 years or so'---Hooray!! And more power to your elbow, ma'am, cos that's just exactly what you resolved a year ago when you first joined our merry band, remember? It's great to know that the forum has helped (it's helped all of us, I think, certainly me) but YOU are the one who has done everything, from the first little outing on your mobility scooter (remember?) to the little matter of moving house and changing your life, so you should award yourself a giant gold star!!
And by the way, please don't forget how much you help all the rest of us too. Your energy, determination and optimism have inspired me so often; your thoughtful and perceptive accounts of the people, animals, places and events around you have made me think; and your evil sense of humour has had me laughing out loud. I mean, what else could I want in a friend? So I think we're lucky that you came on here!
I now wait with GREAT interest to see what your projects for this year will be....!!!! xx
YES! That's just the right kind of star!
Did anything ever come of that idea that you would help advise the management of the building? You were thinking of doing some training provided it didn't get in the way of your disability benefits. You would just be so good at that kind of thing, I do hope they found a way to get you into that!
After a quiet start to the week a whole raft of urgent problems descended on me at work and I'm just closing the work programmes now so forgive me if I don't chat so much tonight, I'm just knackered! xxx
Next week I am on a 2 day training course for being a 'residents representative' to sit on new staff interview panels .. the likelihood is I would only sit in on maybe 3-4 interviews per year .. but you do have a real say in which person gets the job on offer .. and this is 'ad hoc' enough that it doesn't affect my benefit situation ..
And there are other things I might join in with ..
Toots, that's great news. You have really moved SUCH a long way this year (well, you said you were going to change your life, and by Jove, you have!) that you are really ready for another challenge, and something like this sounds perfect. You're such an encouraging person, you would be good at helping interviewees relax and be themselves; but at the same time you're a perceptive observer and a shrewd judge of character and you wouldn't miss much.
The choice of staff for any residential setting is genuinely critical, because the not only do the specified job, but they also contribute such a lot to the overall atmosphere, so your joining the interview panel is really a good idea. And of course it might also lead on to further involvement of other kinds, as you said.
Do let us know what the training courrse is like---would be interesting to know what kind of things they think you should know!
I shall be one of only 5 people in the entire country who is not going to spend the entire weekend on skates. It's been years since there was a sufficiently long, sufficiently cold period for the canals and lakes to really freeze properly, and the entirely opulation of the Netherlands intends to take advantage of it by skating on 'nature ice', as they call it, for as long as it lasts. And it must be a lovely way to see the countryside, just gliding along. I shall remain warm and dry and admire them on the evening news!!
But for now I'm off to bed--sleep tight! xx
When I was a little girl I remember seeing on the BBC local news the 'Hollanders' going out onto the canals and seeing them skating .. and the reason it was on the local news was because where I lived in the Cambridgeshire Fens in wintertime some of the fields just up the road to me would be flooded so they would freeze for skating .. they held tournaments and various competitions .. so we were being compared with each other
..
I'm not so sure your 'Hollander' friends will be seeing much of the countryside though .. won't the banks be too high for them to see over ..
.. and I've no idea why the BBC would have called them 'Hollanders' but I am pretty sure I have remembered that correctly 
Sadly I was never allowed onto the ice as my mother was too scared I'd fall over ...
and mainly because she didn't like it ... bizarrely as children we were rarely allowed to do 'fun' things ... 
Coincidentally .. they have flooded some fields not far from where I used to live (last time it was cold enough was in 2000) and they have been skating all week .. I'm not sure I would trust the ice on a canal .. it's deep and a long way to fall through .. but 'flooded field' skating is very safe as the water is no more than 6 inches or so deep.
That's an interesting recollection, Patootie. And not entirely surprising. During the late middle ages there was a massive trade in wool between England and what was then Flanders, and I think quite a lot of Dutch people moved into East Anglia. The landscapes are rather similar, too, being basically marshy land that has been slowly drained so it wouldn't be surprising if the affection for skating was shared.
As to seeing the landscape, there's no problem with banks here. The water table is so high that they have to lift the land up above the water, if you follow me, so if you are on land at all you are by definition at least a bit higher that whatever else is around! And calling people here 'Hollanders' is frowned on, you hear it quite often. Of the original seven provinces that make up the Netherlands (there are now 10, I think, due to new ones being added as more land has been reclaimed from the sea), two---North Holland and South Holland--are correctly called Holland (obviously!). But to the call the whole place Holland, or the people Hollanders, is as accurate as calling the whole of the British Isles 'England' and all the people there 'Englanders'.
What a shame your mum kept you quite so safely wrapped up as a kid! But am I right in thinking that you had some ill health even then? I think it'w quite a challenge for a mother with a more vulnerable child to know exactly where to draw the line between prudence and over-protectiveneess.
And they do have artificially flooded areas here too for people to skate on; but canal skating is the best cos you can get right out into the country. Of course you do have to be careful about the ice, and every now and then someone falls through, but the canals are not too deep here, maybe 3 feet. The bigger risk is on the larger bodies of water, lakes and larger canals, and skating on these is treated more carefully. There are people who are experts in telling whether the ice is thick enough: they drill holes, and make calculations, and so on, before they advise people to go out on it.
Ironically, of course, most of the injuries simply happen because of people falling over--and in fact there were so many of those today that the hospital nearest the big skating events had to call in help from the Army medical corps! But I saw lots of kids and families out skating here on the small local lakes and canals, and it looked wonderful. They were having such a great time, out in the fresh air, taking this cold weather and making a treat out of it. Beautiful!
How are your birds surviving the cold? We are putting out lots of seeds, and dried bread and so on. This cold weather has gone on for so long that the poor things really need some help now.
Did you know that in Lincolnshire, which is the county next to mine, one of the council districts is called 'South Holland'
.. it also has quite a lot of windmills .. 16 in all .. in fact my old village still has a working windmill .. and several more local places have working windmills that have open days for the public to go and see how it all works ..
http://microsites.lincolnshire.gov.uk/Windmills/section.asp?catId=3310
My parents were brought up with Baptist and Methodist religions (very dour and restrictive in 'fun' religions) .. both of which seem to frown on small children enjoying themselves ... children should not be seen or heard .. my older sister was also completely restricted from doing any 'exciting' pursuits .. neither of us were allowed to join the Brownies, Girl Guides, youth clubs or in fact do any activities away from home .. yet when we were at home we were supposed to sit quietly and be 'studious' . . all too often we were sent to seperate rooms to play on our own ..
We rarely had music in the house .. I didn't even know there were such wonderful things as classical music until I left home at 16 .. anything 'arty' was frowned on by my mother .. even going to the cinema was frowned on .. I think I only went 2-3 times from 12-16 years old .. and I dare say I had to sneaked out even then .. when I started work at 16 I had no idea what yoghurt was .. had never eaten any 'foreign' foods .. had never eaten out in a restaurant .. and didn't even know how to make coffee ... coffee not being allowed in our house. Everyine else at work seemed so 'sophisticated' and 'worldlywise' compared to me and I got teased terribly .. just as i had been badly bullied at school for being 'different'
It's no wonder my sister went half way round the world to Australia to get away from home ... I sometimes wish I had followed her .. I made my 'escape' by getting married far too young .. to a really lovely man .. but a man I probably wasn't really in love with ... so inevitably the marriage slowly shuddered to a messy end.
The birds are really struggling here .. but we do have a lot of bird feeders out which folks keep well stocked .. in fact I have at least two pigeons roosting on my bedroom windowsill every night .. I am leaving my small bedroom window open so the heat escapes and keeps them warm hehehe .. normally I'd shoo them off .. but with the temps being down to -5C over night I don't begrudge them being there .. I'm also getting a lot of little birds sitting on my lounge windowsill .. and they line up to sit in all the warm places .. they seem to take turns having a warm .. then off they go again to find more food ...