We are all going on a summer holiday

Holidays they are fun aren't they ?

Those unless hours in airport restaurants .. * restaurants being the operative word *

The people that you  see ....

And when you are stuck in a small foreign provincial airport with weird tea and Arabian style coffee ...

Life becomes a junxtposiiton ...

You look at the airport destinations board you know where you can envelop your self in a secret life, imagining that you are off to even more exotic and  sunnier climates. You look and then take a second look .. no you can not imagine a holiday in Baghdad.

You play snap with the sugar sachets...

Other peoples children start playing football with the salt and pepper pots.

You cue up to get a hot drink  and you spy two cakes .. all sugary and tempting you.

BUT two lively children jump in front of you and shout " DAD , DAD"

You don't make a fuss as the airport guards are carrying guns.

A gentleman slips in front of you making apologetic eyes  and that international arm gesture that means "kids don't you just love them"

And purchases the two cakes and hot Arabian coffee and Cola ..

Oh yay perfect for lively kids in a small airport.

The gentleman retreats back to his encampment ..


Oh the gentleman that will be Jeremy Paxman.

The airport that will be Luxor in Egypt.

Parents would you go back in time ?

Parents would you go back in time?

Writers block it had to happen its a post-apocalyptic nightmare  when only a jar of curry sauce is tempting you to review...

So I happened upon one of those sites that gives you a daily blog prompt hurrah, I thought until I saw the tittle and much mulling over ensued but then again that's the point sometimes. Yes sometimes some of the best blog posts can be written in five minutes and secretly all us bloggers are wannabe journalists whats the saying "That blog is just graffiti with bad punctuation" but please , please don't quote me on this.


The site I stumbled across while googling was "one minute writer" I twiddled my lady moustache with only my coffee and bits left over from me rebuilding my Dyson to keep me company and settled down to read todays prompt which was "Parents" but with a different slant on matters and it was

 "If you could somehow go back in time and meet your parents when they were the same age as you today , do you think you and your parents would be friends? Would you choose to 'hang out' and spent time together? What would you have in common? 

What's the catch you only have a minute to craft your responses:


So would I be friends with my parents at that age ... errrm probably not as to me at that time they were quite self obsessesed with their own needs.

Would I hang out with my parents my mother maybe as she has the ability like most parents to drag your places you never thought you would go hence I never ever got to go to a pop concert... ever.

What do we have in common with my dad I have no idea ..

My mother ... I suppose its the ability to just get up and go and drag my son places he thought he would never go like to real Egypt and not that sharmelsheik

Rollie the Mafia cat

 Evil cat Rollie and its dislike of my husband sheepskin slippers has struck again. So what have sheepkin slippers going for them.


1. They are warm and snuggly buggy warm like slipping your feet onto warm pillows of soft soft marshmellow.

2. They are manly ... they are cavemen, like they are for hairy hairy men.

3. Rollie the cat likes them .... they are snuggly warm for a cats chin.

4. It gives sheep a purpose in knowing they are doing something useful.

5. It keeps the shoe shop in business as I am always buying a new pair.


But you upset the Rollie Mafia Cat in anyway and he will leave a calling card in your husbands slippers......

The husbands previous slippers

Dishlicious heart warming shepherds pie

lb s /900g potatoes , peeled and quarted

6 tbsp milk

110g butter but keep a small knob back for the sauce

Salt and Pepper

tin of ox tail soup

115g chopped onion

115g finely diced carrot

115g peas/sweetcorn

450g minced lamb/beef

1tbsp all-purpose flour

115g grated cheese

2tlb of olive oil

splash of lea and perils

The real twist I think is the inclusion of oxtail soup my friend told me about that one ! It turns a hum drum Shepherds pie into pure heaven.

Serves 4-6

• Heat oven to 375/190c/ Gas 5
• Boil the potatoes until soft then drain. Place the milk and butter in the pan used to boil the potatoes, return to the heat and warm gently until butter has melted.Add the potatoes and mash. Season to taste and keep to one side.
• Put the olive oil in a deep pan. Add the onion and carrot and fry for 5 minutes.
• Add the minced lamb and one- third of the ox tail soup the onion and carrot mixture, adding also at this point the sweetcorn. Sir constantly until all the meat is browned. Add the ox tail soup and season with salt and pepper. Cover with a lid and cook for 15 minutes.
• mix the flour into the remaining knob of butter then add small pieces of this to the miced lamb sauce, stirring all the time until all the flour has dissolved and the sauce has thicken in around 5 mins.
• Place the minced lamb sauce into a square dish around 8" 3 " / 20cm x 7 cm either glass or ceramic. Sprinkle the grated cheese on top of the potato and bake in the oven for 30- 35 minutes unil the surface is crisp and brown. Serve immediately. 

 I was sent this beautiful heart shaped Le Crueset dish from Wayfair what an amzing dish to serve your valentine meal in!

Its only a Winters Tale 365

This week it's been back to the grindstone as the saying goes but my job as a teaching assistant is anything but boring its wonderful and I have the pleasure of working with some very special people. I am blessed that my commute to work on my bicycle is not boring and I see so many beautiful things.
This is the misty lane where I cycle down to my place of work at a school.

I feel happiest when I am in the fresh air either with family, friends or on my own I use a camera in a daily basis I like to think I see the world in a unique way .. My way but I do take time to step from behind the lens for if you don't you'll miss the magic! And this is the surrounding countryside of the village of Osmaston where my son was playing football.

A Winters sky so beautiful ...

So that was my week a true Winters tale..