Skywatch Friday - 15 May 2009

Now this is a picture I look at a lot when I need a fine weather fix. Clear blue skies and a beautiful calm blue sea. You might have already seen it, I have it on the side of my Blog. Yes, it's definitely one of my favourites.

It's a view of Kalithea Bay in Rhodes from a hotel we've stayed at about four times now. They have great gardens with lovely sweet smelling flowers. The beach is nothing to shout about but there's lots of lovely swimming pools.

Oh I'm dying to go back and yippee, not long to go now!

Want to join in Skywatch Friday? Just go to the Skywatch website.

Sykywatch Friday - 12 December 2008

Gateshead - Newcastle Millennium Bridge

I've eventually walked over the Gateshead - Newcastle Millennium Bridge! I think I was the only person in the North East who hadn't! Everyone I speak to has been over it many times but I hardly ever go to Newcastle. If I do, I just go to the main shopping area and never down to the Quayside.

My husband was 65 a couple of weeks ago and we decided to go out for a late lunch in Newcastle on the Quayside. Not only was it a late lunch, we were late too. I was walking as I took these photographs, the light wasn't too good and it was absolutely freezing, so they aren't exactly wonderful. I just had to record the occasion!

Tyne Bridge

This is a view of the Tyne Bridge taken from the Millennium Bridge. The struts (not sure if that's the correct terminolgy) of the Millennium Bridge are at the top edges of the picture.

If it looks familiar, the Tyne Bridge is a smaller version of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was built four years before the Sydney one by the same company Dorman Long, Middlesbrough. It's not as dramatic as the Sydney Harbour Bridge let's face it, that one stands alone over a really beautiful harbour.

This one was built in what was a highly industrialised area and has other bridges very close to it, carrying the traffic into and out of Newcastle upon Tyne. Nevertheless, it's well loved here in the North East.

I think a summer visit is in the offing to get some better pictures!

If you'd like to join Skywatch Friday just go to the Skywatch website and post your pictures.

Joyce The Librarian

I’ve always thought that librarians are stereotyped and get a raw deal. It’s the same whether it’s a TV sketch, film, limerick and in this case a song, Joyce the Librarian.

I heard it for the first time on the Alan Titchmarch radio programme on the way back from church. It was performed by Peter Skellern and Richard Stillgoe and I laughed all the way home. As I listened to it, I was reminded of how I enjoy your poems Brenda at Rinkly Rimes

Unfortunately I can't find that version on You Tube which is a pity because it's a very good recording. There are a couple of others but they're not very good. Anyway, with apologies to librarians out there, here's the lyrics:

Joyce The Librarian

Joyce the librarian
Strict vegetarian
Forty and living with mum.
Wears sandals and glasses
Attends evening classes
And wonders if romance will come.
Though she'd never been kissed
It's not something she'd missed
Until some weeks before;
When George, a rotarian,
Handsome lotharian,
Walked through the library door.

George was unmarried
And the torch that Joyce carried
Was burning a hole in her heart
She wanted to show him
But didn't yet know him
She didn't know where to start
So with growing abhorrance
She read D.H. Lawrence
To glean a few ideas . . .
Which she turned down flat
She couldn't do that
Not in a million years!!

Joyce the librarian
Strict vegetarian
Was burning with animal lust
Alarming sensations
Strange palpatations
A mix of delight and disgust
So she busied herself
Rearranging the shelf
To try to control her dreams.
Joyce the librarian
The disciplinarian
Was falling apart at the seams.

The very next day
She kept out of the way
When George returned his books
But with growing conviction

She wandered through "Fiction"

And threw him some longing looks.

And when George joined the queue

She knew just what to do,

She smiled and removed her specs . .

Then looked in horror

'Cause he'd come to borrow "

The Further Joy of Sex".

Perhaps because latterly

She'd read "Lady Chatterley"

Something just snapped in her head;

She gave herself gladly,

Wildly, madly,

To George that night in his bed.

But then just as she'd feared

George disappeared

Some other librarian to woo.

Now there's a sob in her voice

As both book and Joyce

Are a fortnight over due.

Richard Stilgoe & Peter Skellern

I've Lost It!

Yes, I think I've finally lost it.

All the running about collecting my grandchildren from school and nursery, taking and collecting from discos and parties, Christmas shopping and generally trying to get cleared up for Christmas has finally got to me.

I collected Lauren from nursery and had a few cards I need to get weighed to send abroad. On the way to the Post Office Lauren had a"boulder" in her shoe and I had to stop, put my things down on the ground and sort out the shoe problem. When I got into the Post Office I discovered I had no purse, realised I must have put it down and not picked it up again when I sorted the shoe issue out. Went straight back, literally about 30 yards from the Post Office but no sign of it. Just a man walking his dogs ahead of me. Checked the car and around it then went back home to start the horrendous task of contacting all and sundry to report stuff missing.

The thought of contacting everyone to cancel cards and then being without them for the next couple of weeks was horrendous. Then there was the bus pass, library cards, the list seemed endless. Just as I picked up the phone my mobile rang and there was a strange message from a man to ring him. It turned out he had been walking his dog and picked up my purse. Yes the same one I had seen! He gave me his address and I went to pick it up and thank him.

He lived in the same street as we did when we were first married but had just moved there 4 years ago so I didn't know him. We had a lovely chat talking about what it was like when the houses were first built, we were amongst the first people to move into the street. He loved it there but his wife had never settled and sadly he told me she had died three weeks ago. His daughter was there visiting him and it turned out she lives in the same street as my daughter.

He was a lovely man, so honest and I was really grateful to him. He wouldn't take any money from me as he said well it's not mine it's yours. I told him that it wasn't the money, there was very little in the purse, I never carry much. He had just saved me an awful lot of time and inconvenience and I was really grateful. He wouldn't have any of it though.

Isn't it nice to have your faith in people renewed. There are some really nice and honest people around despite what we see in the papers and on TV.