What a fab way to end the year.

What a great way to end the year. LSP whisked me off to Oxford to see........

South Pacific. 

It was amazing. The cast was fantastic. Samantha Womak made a wonderful Nellie, but I was blown away by, Emile played by Paulo Szot. We were very lucky to see him as he was part of the original Broadway (2008) cast and won a Tony award for his performance. he had only done the past couple of weeks in Oxford and although South Pacific is continuing to tour, this is his last performance. His voice was amazing and his rendition of "some enchanted evening" will stay with me forever. 

The other songs were good as well, I am going to wash that man right out of my hair, there is nothing like a dame and Happy Talk.   

Being new years eve before the curtain come down the cast and audience all sang Auld lang Syne. It was great and brought a tear to my eye. 

Before we went to the theatre there was time for a shop and some lunch. 

Yes it had to be Cath... My Bag of lovely purchases....including, christmas candle holder, paperchains for next year, enamel jug, square oilskin bag and a new shoulder bag. along with a new diary I bought yesterday thats all my Christmas money gone now. (but am very lucky and love all my things.) 

Oxford is very special to LSP and I as we both studied there. However, it still does not stop me snapping away like a tourist every time we go. 

for Lunch we went to the Grapes. 

A lovely pub opposite the Theatre with good priced pub grub. 

It was a fantastic way to spend the last day of the year. 

So a Happy New Year to all of you and all the best for 2012. 

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

photo scavenger hunt December

ok, for those of you who have followed my blog for a while you will know that I occasionally do the photo scavenger hunt challenges. By Kathy at postcards from the PP

December was to do a Christmas Alphabet. 26 photo's A=Z all about Christmas.

This is not about style or wonderful photography. I just wanted to complete it...(yes there is some artistic license)

Angel

Bauble

Chocolate Santa

Decorations

Elf

Fairy (ish)

Gold

Horse

Icing

Jingle bell

kitten

lantern

Merry

Noel

Orange

Penguins

Quality Street

Reindeer 

Santa

Tree

Under the tree

Villiage

Wreath

x (Christmas X)

Yule 

Zip (on the most outrageous bubble bath)

there we go. my A-Z enjoy.x 

3 deadly sins...

Lust, 

Gluttony, 

Greed,

 Sloth,

 Wrath,

 Envy,

 Pride.....

These are the 7 deadly sins.....and This Christmas, Gluttony, Greed and Sloth have all been in attendance with me, what about you?

I have indulged myself with lots of lovely food, its been a comfort, rightly or wrongly. I also have not been very active. the dark nights have not helped my cycling as I do not like road cycling in the dark, wet and cold. I have very much let the diet and exercise slacken off. 

so as my brownies warm in the oven (gluttony) and I put my feet up on the sofa (sloth) and think about my shopping trip this weekend (greed) I am thinking about how to turn this around in the new year. 

As for each of the 7 sins there are also 7 virtues. 

for Lust there is Chastity, 

For Gluttony, Temperance

For Greed, Charity

For Sloth, Diligence

For Wrath, Patience

For Envy, kindness

and for Pride there is humility. 

So instead of saying I am going to make a host of new years resolutions about going to the gym every week and losing 2 stone in weight, it is much better to look at being more Temperate, Diligent and Charitable. 

I think it is a good idea to be more virtuous all round......so as well as being more Temperate, Diligent & Charitable I would like to be more Patient, Kind and Humble.....I think this will be good for me for the coming year. 

(oh yes you may have seen, I am giving chastity a rest lol.) 

Christmas photo's!

Well I felt like my bed was made of Velcro this morning as I had to prise myself out of it.

Today I was back at work and what a busy day it was. The phone rang as soon as we got into the building (we had to wait to get into work) and from then I hardly stopped. a quick gobble of some homemade turkey soup for lunch and that was it till I was collected by LSP at the end of the day  (only 40 minutes overtime today). 

After work we had a quick sprint round John Lewis and I picked up a few bits in the sale for Christmas pressie's for next year. We are now home for the evening and I have an evening of TV with my feet up ahead of me. I may even find myself eating some more Christmas presents...

Here are some of our Christmas Highlights...

Saphy's Progress: New name for 2012

Ok, so as we head for 2012, I am having a blog revamp.

1st change of title. Saphy's progress was when I was getting ready for my cycle, doing more crafting etc. However although life is a journey it is not always about improvement it can also be about being.

At my grandmother's funeral he described her as an unremarkable woman, at first I felt he was wrong. she was very remarkable as she was my grandmother. However, My Grandmother was unremarkable, she did not climb Everest, she did not go on x factor, she did not discover a cure for Cancer.

My Grandmother was a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a great grandmother, a friend, a carer, a daughter.
she looked after the old and the young and loved her family. she had adventures in her youth and at times was incredibly brave, she faced the challenges of social stigma and was a loyal wife. I would like to be like her.

So that is the inspiration for the change of name.

I like my grandmother, would like to be unremarkable. I do not wish to be famous or infamous. I do not want to be a filmstar or a popstar. I am not looking for 15 minutes of fame.

 That does not mean that I lack ambition. I still want to try new things, to get better at crafting, to enjoy cooking and making. To get out with my camera at every opportunity and take photographs of everything that catches my eye. 

This year my blog has been very up and down as has life this year. In the past 12 months I have lost 2 more  of my significant relatives and had a rolercoaster of a time. some of which I have shared, a lot of which I have kept to myself.

So what does 2012 have in store??? who knows.

I aim to make more time for my friends.

I want to go to church for more than just funeral's.

I am going to try my hand at making soap.

I intend to keep on blogging.......

oh and to lead an unremarkable life!

Merry Christmas.

all is quiet. I have a tired and happy spaniel laying on the sofa with me. I am sat with Dr Who on the TV. both OD and YD are reading their Kindles and SE has gone to see his Girlfriend. The dogs are curled up on the bed...

The last 24 hours have been eventfull (in a good way for a change) My low mood of late lead to me not being able to face putting up the decorations. however it is important that they are up for Christmas. So the plan was yesterday we would put up the decorations....

The day started with the car being MOT'd. (yes on Christmas eve, dont ask, long story) I was a bit grumbly at the prospect of it however, we just had to get on with it. What it did mean was that we had 3 hours to spare near an out of town shopping area. LSP and I divided this time between 3 places. Mcdonalds for a 30 minute breakfast. Then 45 minutes in Curry's and 45 minutes in Laura Ashley. After Curry's where I mentally planned my entire new kitchen (which will not happen but its nice to dream) we then checked out the pre-Christmas sale at laura Ashley. lots of mooching and then, trying on of clothes and after much searching  I found a lovely new skirt to wear to church that evening. It was bliss, having the time to shop unhurried as we had more time than we needed rather than less. for the first time in ages I felt relaxed. After the car passed it MOT (yay) we went to collect some fresh croissants and Stilton Cheese, grabbed a bite to eat for lunch then went to collect our Christmas Cake that our good friend had made for us. We sat and had tea and chatted then before i knew it it was 4pm. we headed home and I decorated the house in double quick time. 2 tree's... 3 garlands, lots of tinsel... oh and 300 baubles.....(pictures to follow) it was all done in time for us to go to church! Not without incident. Usually I take a long time to decorate the house I did not have the luxury of time. After throwing the baubles on the tree, the tree started to lean... I added balast in the form of tins of beans wrapped up in a bag to weight the back down. Again it started to list....It is now straight. how? it has a ribbon, tied to the trunk that is nailed to the wall. I will deal with the whole in the wall later!

Ok, so LSP had to drop me and SE and my older sister at church for the midnight Eucharist. (older daughter chose to spend the night with her boyfriend. when we were dropped off LSP had to go and collect YD from her Job and get to Church by 11.30. there was plenty of time....

at 11.29 I txt to ask if they were going to make it. only to receive a txt back saying on our way, you could not   make it up, we have pictures. Halfway through O' little Town of Bethlehem. LSP and YD arrived. So what was the holdup??? a flock of sheep!!! yes a flock of sheep on the road they were able to persuade them to the side of the road and call the police to assist. So they arrived and fell into church. (yes) as you walk in the church there is a steep step and LSP forgot (we were only in the church the week before). The reason why the rest of us were dropped of first was to save a pew for us all to sit in. I miscounted and got us a pew for 4 when there were 5 of us. (3 of us are not small) so was a bit of a squash and I spent more time kneeling than sitting to fit in. My older sister knelt as well, however, this was not just to save room, but as she had drank half a bottle of red and a large sherry it was a bit of self preservation. my older sister vary rarely drinks so its a bit of a shock to see her merry especially as we were going to church. The rest of the service passed without major incident. A drunken group arrived during prayer's (they thought the midnight service started at midnight) The Vicar said he was going to light the Easter Candle instead of the Christmas one and a random ex colleague  in the adjacent pew.

We went home via the sheep to check if they had gone home (they had). for some late cheese and crackers and waited ... for the children to go to bed so we could put the pressie's under the tree.

Today has been perfect.

yes really.

we rose this morning when OD arrived. an hour of opening presents before breakfast of fresh fruit and croissants, pancakes and brioche. The I disappear into the kitchen at 10 to start the cooking whilst listening to the Archer's then a very special desert island disks which was great. the family were examining their presents whilst watching finding nemo and Aladdin.

lunch was lovely. with no disaster's. (last year the christmas pudding boiled dry and we had a plastic molten mess in the bottom of a pan) roasties were great and we had plenty of lovely veggies.

After lunch...we had pudding, more cartoons and then games round the table. now sat with the soaps.  and my books, feeling great, I am relaxed and contented for the first time in ages.

I am blessed to have the family I have . my partner is amazing and our daughter's are so wonderful.

Christmas is such a special time, a chance to celebrate, both the birth of Jesus and to celebrate what we have.
This past year has been pretty poor. However we need to keep going. I am still sad that we did not have another Christmas with my Grandmother. It was not meant to be. to be here on Christmas evening with my partner and daughters is wonderful.

hope you all have had a good Christmas as well.

(this was last year, this year it is far to warm to light the fire)