Much Ado About Nothing at Osborne House on the Isle of WIght

My birthday treat. We were hesitant to book this when it was first advertised in April as an outdoor anything in England in June can be bikinis or so ‘esters, but we braved it and were duly rewarded.

The venue was fairly spectacularly unbeatable in a pleasantly low key way. The lawn to the side of Osborne house, Queen Victoria’s summer location of choice, was bathed in summer sunshine but still green from the endless rains of winter.  Looking back towards to mainland the landscaping framed a view across the Solent towards Portsmouth.  Much as I, mostly,  like Portsmouth I  have to admit she looks her best from this vantage point.

We arrived about an hour before the performance commenced and picnic’d in baking sunshine for an hour.  Sadly I don’t have any photos of the company in action but I am certain that it wouldn’t do them justice anyway. Pre performance announcements banned photos and mobile, forcing everyone to just have the opportunity to focus on the performance. It worked, we did!

Non performance related highlights involved hitting someone in the head with our champagne cork, but thankfully causing no injuries, although it did look like it could turn into cork wars for a heated moment. No low lights other than having to carry chairs and picnics from the car park but it allowed us to feel virtuous about eating our picnics to keep up our strengths. Also, having the luggage put us off strolling around the grounds in the later afternoon sun.

Happy Birthday to me!

I am having a moment!

I am bored. You know how it is.

I am pretty much frugal on auto these days so I don't have to documents everything to keep an eye on myself. Plus there is nothing much which is new to write and I get bored when nothing is new. Also I have re-discovered fun! Oh, and obviously I have re-discovered the enjoyment of having little fluffy quadrupeds about the place.

So I am having a change and branching off a bit.

This is a blog about a fairly frugal and fairly simple life. And travel (almost certainly frugal) and visiting places (so travel, but less far), and animals. And anything else I can think of. Maybe my home, my creations, my renovations, my stuff.

That's it. Lizzie's World is all about Lizzie's stuff.

I will go do some stuff now and write about it :)

The days and weeks flash past

& tomorrow is Saturday yet again.

So many plans that I try to get to

Laundry
Cleaning (eugh!)
Painting
Charity drop a box

I guess I had better cook some food

Oh, and mustn't forget 'play with kitten'

I have a 'to do' list which makes two pages of A4. I think I dont ever get to the bottom,

My parents will be home from looking after my brothers house and dogs. I miss them a lot when they are away.

Shopping this week was £28 plus £15 for bits I forgot. Plus I had £20 voucher form ASDA because last week I planned to colelct my shopping between 8am and 9am from the local store but they forget to book any staff so we had to wait a while. Five minutes for us but some people were there an hour. We didnt complain (of course) but they did give us £20 so I didnt really moan about it to anyone.

Birthday time again - House of cats

Oh gosh, can it really be another year.

This year I was finally ready for the present my family have been planning for a while. Bagheera the new kitty has arrived.

He is so tiny and so lovable and gorgeous. Apparently his parents are both half Blue Russian  (Russian Blue??) which is why he is so adorable and cuddle and super shy. We were definitely ready for cats again.

In other news I am not over paying the mortgage for a while. We are saving to make our house(s) in Crete suitable and legal to be let out for holidays. The post tax income will all go tot he mortgage but it will feel like taking our eye off the ball for a while.

I found some old photos

Oh gosh, the years do pass

Fahed 1987 - in his defence hair styled like this was probably in fhasion :)

 1990- The chubby bambino is my long, tall, skinny eldest son, cuddled up with his Baba

 1989 - Me - Fahed loves the original of this photo but my face looks a funny shape here so I hope it was how I photographed the photo. I remember this dress which came from Next, was velvet and crossed over at the front. I wore it once with a winter coat and when i took the coat off the dress had come up and was wrapped around my waist, Very easy to remember that!

This is about 1993/1994. Jamal on the left (today he is in Shanghai) and Ahdel on the right (he is snoozing still)

Happy days, just like now. I am truly blessed.