Posy

The one where I find myself in the back of a taxi in central London at 1am with 3 strangers - wearing my husbands underpants..

And yes that's not me exaggerating, it's all true. (If you are reading this for the first time this post is about my trip to London to buy the green Cath Kidston blanket that I have yearned for for over a year. I had only seen it in magazines/catalogues and have taken a year to save for it, as well as trying to make my own.)

I have returned absolutely exhausted but have learned from my mistakes! My first mistake was made in the first 5 minutes of arriving at Salisbury railway station. I was merrily waiting for our train on the wrong platform, which is so unlike me as I'm a 'checking the tickets/details every 5 minutes' person. We caught the train and I thought I would take loads of photos to show you but only managed this photo of the wrong platform the entire time we were in London!

On arriving in London we hot footed it straight to Cath Kidston's shop in Marylebone High Street where my blanket was awaiting. The assistant unraveled it for me to see it in all it's glory and it almost took over the shop. It's huge. Second mistake - should have listened to my husband and given him the blanket to go back to our hotel to check in and leave the blanket on the bed. As our hotel was miles out (cheaper but yet another mistake) I begged him not to leave me and wanted to keep the blanket near me to have little peeks at it whenever we stopped. My peeks were mainly due to the terrible guilt I felt at buying something so expensive which really shouldn't be as it has not been made very well. When I say 'very well', I certainly don't blame the poor person in India who was probably paid a pittance - more the quality of yarn and the way it was put together. I am using my Nectar reward points to cover it but it still makes me feel bad spending so much on one item. I do love it though, the green is lovely.

So stupidly Anth stayed with me and that meant we lumped this huge, huge blanket all around London as well as our overnight bag and Anth's man bag - it was even squashed at our feet at the Prince Edward theatre when we watched Mary Poppins, which incidentally was wonderful. We walked miles and miles and it was hot. I was wearing a skirt (with a nylon lining) and after awhile I realised I had a problem...the very top of my thighs were rubbing together (diet already started) and were agony. I was so hot and this just made it worse. We left the theatre at 10.30pm and started the long, long journey out to our hotel. Me trying to walk with my legs apart and just so tired that I didn't really care that I was getting funny looks. The Underground was packed as people surged onto trains, our bags getting heavier by the second and all the time I worried about how I could stop my poor thighs from chaffing! I had only bought a change of underwear as I knew we would have to carry our bags all day, so didn't have any trousers to change into. Oh the predicament! By the time we got to our tube stop it was after 11.30 and my poor thighs were horrendous so as we had another half mile walk to the hotel I had a brain wave. I would put on Anth clean boxer shorts (they're the clinging leg sort!) which should cover the tops of my thighs so I could make that last final walk. So in the dark outside the station I put them on only to discover that they didn't help at all so I practically limped all the way to the hotel. We staggered in only to be told that they had overbooked and even though we had paid in advance and confirmed the previous day, they had given our room to someone else..

It took a little while to sink in as we couldn't believe it but the man behind the desk said he would find us another room in another hotel. "But I can't walk!" I wailed. The time was 12.30am and as we waited for our taxi 3 woman arrived. The same thing had happened to them and they had been taken to 3 other hotels which had apparently had a room for them but on arrival had nothing. This got me very angry as I thought that the same would happen to us so we joined forces and asked for the 2 available rooms in the Covent Garden branch.

So that's how I ended up at 1.15am going back into London, sitting in the pull down seat in the boot of a taxi with 3 strangers being driven by a man who must have been Borat's cousin. I sat with my blanket on my knee praying we would not have an accident as how on earth would I explain why I was wearing a pair of men's underpants over my own knickers! When we past the same road for the 5th time driving in an endless circle we asked if he knew where the hotel was. He did, just and at 1.45am we finally opened the door to a hotel bedroom. Tired and sore was an understatement!

Saturday was more of the same..trudging up and down escalators, battling with the crowds at Portobello Road market, visiting another CK shop, hoping to find some US magazines in Borders (alas nothing took my fancy they had sold out of Romantic Homes) and visiting Ian Mankin's shop (blimey what a walk with chaffed thighs I tell you!) and such a disappointment to find that it took so long to get there I only had 10 minutes before they closed and didn't find any fabric. We caught the 7pm train back to Salisbury where I slept like a log. That was after I smothered poor thighs in cream and vowed to learn from my mistakes;

• always check you're standing on the correct platform at the station.
• always check in to your hotel the moment you arrive or they will sell it on to someone else before you arrive in the early hours.
• always listen to your husband and either leave enormous blanket at shop 'till the next day, or take back to above hotel.
• lose weight seriously to prevent serious chaffing problem.
• wear cool cotton and remember one's deodorant.
• carry as few bags as possible.
• Visit London regularly so one doesn't try to cram too much into one day because you hadn't been to London in 2 years.

So there you have it. Our day and a half in London. No pictures to tell the story but despite it all I loved spending time with my best beloved whose patience knows no bounds and having learned from all those mistakes our next trip will be perfect..

And here it is... ta da..the blanket..it swamps our king size bed..

..and now, after I've settled back at home, I'm back in love with it and keep reminding the children that I'm now the proud owner of a Cath Kidson blanket!

I'm off!

Hello my friends! I had planned to post this last week but my painting had got the better of me and now it's time for our London trip. Yay! Your comments have been wonderful, and I'm now officially on the look out for a shopping trolley though I haven't told the children yet...umm might not go down so well! The girls' room has been tongue & grooved (!) and has one coat of primer on and yes it took an age to do with a small brush and only one person doing it!

What do you think of my new bag? It is actually black and white and only cost £6 from Primark. I had fully intended to make a new one for my trip, as it feels so good to have a new bag, but time didn't allow and this one looks more 'girl about London' plus it's big enough for all the necessary bits for a overnight stay and maybe a certain blanket! Talking blankets I can't quite believe I will be seeing it let alone buying it. That's if I like it. Hope so.

So, we are back on Sunday. The girls are staying with Granny and Poppa, Tom is home with the cats and that just leaves Anth and I alone in London...could I ask for anything more? I don't think so....speak soon!

Another corner

Looking at this photo it all looks so neat and tidy doesn't it? Would you believe me if I told you that I had to move umpteen dirty dishes and throw away 5 pieces of moldy fruit lurking in the fruit bowl before taking the photo? Well I did!

There is a certain amount of quiet rejoicing in the Goble household at the moment because the kitchen has been repainted - a job so urgently required that it has only taken us 3 years to do. It took our man only 3 hours from start to finish.  3 hours! The very same man is going to tongue & groove the girls' bedroom on Thursday so my summer holiday will mainly be spent with a paint brush in my hand - that and behind my sewing machine, which will be bliss! I am looking for some ticking for their curtains too which I hope to find in London in 9 days. 9 days and counting!

I have loved reading your comments about your whistling kettles. They seem to be thriving in all corners of the world and I'm definitely going to look out for one. My other 'thinking about' purchase is...and I am cringing slightly as I type this...one of those old lady shopping trolleys on wheels...there I admitted it.

Anyone brave enough to come clean and say they have one...?!

Not a good week..

Hi, I'm back. You know that most of the time I love my job but there are drawbacks to working with 4 & 5 year olds. Yes, the germs and bugs carried on 30 pairs of unwashed hands (and yes, I'm always reminding!) and permanent runny noses which get wiped with the afore mentioned unwashed hands. You build up quite an immunity after 7 years but every now and then a virus comes along and wipes you out for over a week! My laptop, crochet and garden remained totally untouched for days. My ripple blanket had been in the car, unbeknown to me, for 5 days before I wondered where it was! My bedside table was awash with echinacea tincture and vitamin C. I don't think they helped much as we were unable to go to a family wedding and now Lucy has it..

But this all seems insignificant when you get a phone call from a dear friend to say that her mother had lost her battle with cancer. So I added an aching heart to my ailments.

Yes, it's not been a good week but there is only one more week left of school and surely this rain will stop sometime. Won't it?

Little Star

It's nearly over, just 3 more shows. We all went to see Alice on Tuesday night. There was 13 of us to watch the understudy show of High School Musical where Alice was playing Sharpay.

I felt terribly nervous as our friends had paid to come and watch her, though I needn't have been because she was great. More than great. Anth and I shared that wonderful parental moment when you squeeze each other's hands and smile at each other with your heart bursting with pride.

Though we had to laugh at her trying to teeter across the stage in my only pair of high heels! I can't really do high heels but she did better than me! Anyway, we are going back on Saturday for the last show and then it's freedom! I'm so excited because this freedom means a one & a half day trip to London for Anth and I at the end of July and a certain green crochet blanket! Yes, I'm going to buy it. Yesss! I am going to use my supermarket reward points (i.e I've already got £85 already so at the end of the year when I use them for my Christmas shop I'll then say with the money I've saved using my points, that has 'bought' my CK blanket!) All rather complicated but it makes me feel so much better, as I shuffle up and down the aisles week after week, to know that the 'reward' for doing so is folded on our bed looking gorgeous!

I decided not to wait until we go to London to buy it incase they don't have any in stock and I would be devastated and a extremely rare and romantic trip would be in danger of being ruined. So I ordered one over the phone only to discover that they were out of stock until end of August. That's OK. Even better really because that gives me longer to work myself up in to more of a frenzy. Oh the excitement - might even have to paint the bed again if my green doesn't blend with the blanket's green. Crikey, I've never even seen this blanket in real life so I hope I will like it!!

So my dear blog readers if you know of shops in London that I might like please let me know: meantime I'll just keep working on my frenzy!

A little tired..

..phew..it's been a busy week and I feel exhausted. A week of torrential rain, mixed up days off, music exams, a visit to the nurse, Lucy's work experience week, a day course, 2 visits to Sainsburys, school meetings, rehearsals, unexpected trips to Ikea, covering for my teacher, and discovering a new passion..

yes I have become obsessed with the building of flat pack furniture. I have never experienced the delights of this phenomenon before and spent a wonderful 2 hours (inbetween driving Lucy to her music exam and back to her work experience placement) building a chest of drawers for the girls to use as a bedside table (until I find a better one). I then spent the next hour or 2 in another school meeting (for Alice's trip to London) with my mind periodically straying to the delicious thought that I had another Ikea flat pack (stool) to assemble waiting for me at home. A grocery trip later and at 8.30 pm I came home to discover that to 'help me out' Anth had already assembled the stool. Oh. Ummm.

Our summer has gone and in it's place has been heavy, heavy rain. My poor garden is looking bedragled but I took a photo of my stocks to show you before they went over. Thank you, as always, for your comments - especially about the kettle. I am going to try out a whistling one, just need to find the right one.

This week will finally see Alice perform in her TAF show High School Musical. Hooray. It's been a long commitment and I will be glad that we may have a full weekend back and can go to Ludlow for a visit etc. The rehearsals have been relentless but let's hope all their hard work has paid off and it will go well. I'll keep you posted...