i'm dreaming of a ................?

Last week after Sunny & I had been awarded Blog of the Day, I rang Sunny to tell her the news and also to encourage her to post .
As you can see it hasn’t worked yet …… but I will persist (I know you will be reading this later Sunny lol)

Inevitably our conversation drifted away from the accolade bestowed on us to other matters that had occurred since we last spoke…….. art exhibitions, slight indiscretions and hysterical happenings/observations which left us both speechless laughing on either end of the phone.

One thing that Sunny did mention was she had had this dream a couple of nights previous.
She told me she had dreamt about this really handsome man and although she awoke during the dream her mind went right back to it. ‘he was so lovely’
I asked was the man like a smart suited Pearce Bronsan type and you had a feeling of peace, calm and kindness?
She replied ‘yes, it was just like that how did you know?’
I replied’ because I had the same dream a few nights ago and the feeling has stayed with me!’

Now I am as skeptical as the next person but this occurrence has me baffled. We live 150 miles away from each other and speak about once a week on the phone, in fact it had been 10 days since we had last been in contact.
So how come we had the same dream and what does it mean??

The subject of dreams and their meanings have had folk ferreting around for almost back to the beginning of time it would seem.
I surfed about a bit but got lost in the interwoven interweave.
Then I remembered I have an old book called ‘Everybody’s Book of Fate and Fortune’ aka in our house the book of ‘Spells’. Published C1930s.

The book has a variety of weird and wonderful items listed phrenology, graphology, numerology, chirognomy, cartomancy, Oracle de Napoleon and so on.
Listed under ‘Magic and the sub-sciences’ is Oneiromancy… what dreams mean.

It states ‘ there are dreams caused by some excitation of body or mind, by some stomachic derangement, by brooding or bodily ailments.
But the only type of dream that can be counted for Oneiromancy is the one that has no root cause in any of the above, which is so vivid it stirs us up on waking and in the right mind, we find it impossible to shake it off.’

Right so the dreams we had fit the bill so a chance for analysis… off to the dictionary of dreams contained I the book of ‘Spells’

I quickly realized that the list contained subjects that shall I say state the obvious:-

CAKE- family gathering or a pleasant surprise
CEMETERY- you will hear of a death
HANGMAN – You will get bad news
BRIGAND – suffer financial loss
DOCTOR – possibility of slight illness
FRIEND ABROAD – you will be going on an unexpected journey
RAT –someone is working against you under the guise of friendship
A FULL BAG – prosperity and happiness
ASPHYXIA – possible respiratory problems
BLOOD – you maybe involved in an accident

Then the complete contradiction in terms:-
CRIME/ SHIPWRECK/MURDER –complete success for your plans (huh??)
GAIETY – you will soon have reason to grieve
TO FOLLOW ONE’S OWN FUNERAL – Great and lasting success
COFFIN – Great happiness is coming to you
CONDEMNED TO DEATH – rapid advance in fortunes

Then the ‘how on earth do they reckon that???’
HANGED PERSON – very pleasant surprise
DRUNKEN FRIEND- great success & material well-being
CATERPILLAR – some important secret will be revealed
DARNED STOCKING – your greatest pleasure will be in the family circle
CHILBLAINS – you will be your own worse enemy
JAUNDICE – unexpected wealth

& the school boy/ girl snigger factors ones
BREASTS- you are about to receive an abundance of good things.
DOLL- you are going to have a pleasant time
WEATHER COCK- failure to decide could prevent success
RIDING- success in an important undertaking

Needless to say I have not found the meaning of our ‘smart, handsome, kind, warm, man’ in this quest, so it alas remains unanswered.

I mentioned this to my ‘er and she told me that she dreamed about a family union and her long lost grandfather was a transvestite!!!!! That wasn’t in the book either!!!!

treat or what will you do???

Well it is getting to that time of year again. The clocks go back… yes an extra hour in bed tomorrow. It is lighter in the mornings but it goes dark earlier. Don't like the travelling home from work in the dark. Central heating is switched on at tea-time (must remember to set the clock for it to come on before I get up brrrr). Time to swap the summer wardrobe with winter woolies (it is nice to be reunited with old warm friends… but equally as nice to be reunited come Spring with old skimpy t-shirt friends)

But I am in despair, as Halloween is on the horizon. Yes I know it is an age old tradition of:-


All-hallow-even, as it is the eve of ‘All Hallows’ day’ also which is now known as All Saints’ day. It was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions, until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints' Day from May13 to November 1.. In the ninth century, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although All Saints' Day is now considered to occur one day after Halloween, the two holidays were, at that time, celebrated on the same day. Liturgically, the Church traditionally celebrated that day as the Vigil of All Saints, and, until 1970, a day of fasting as well. Like other vigils, it was celebrated on the previous day if it fell on a Sunday, although secular celebrations of the holiday remained on the 31st. The Vigil was suppressed in 1955, but was later restored in the post-Vatican II calendar.

Thank you Wikipedia

I figure they changed the date from May (light nights, Spring in the air, everything anew & fresh) to almost November (dark nights, damp & frosty) for ‘fear factor’ only.

What would be scarier for children and old folk than a knock on the door in spring or on the onset of winter nights? It is a USA import as I remember photos from my American cousins being sent over some 30 odd years ago. They were dressed as ‘goules’ knocking at doors, when we had no idea what that was all about.

I have never allowed my ‘er to take part in the ‘knocking on’ for ‘treats’
1. it is tantamount to begging
2. it may upset/disturb folk
3. who knows what weirdo’s door you may knock upon

Instead we have a really good laugh doing the British traditional stuff. We dunk apples in the washing up bowl (always a good weeze). Tie up apples from the doorframe and try to catch them with our teeth & make indescribable jellies with quite awful content which is akin to dunking apples, hands not required!!. I have relented to sculpturing pumpkins and displaying them in the window with tea lights (which does take a hell of a lot of effort particularly when the kids get bored and you have 4 to do)
This is far easier and a bit of fun

Anyway before any one calls me a 'kill joy' I found myself getting prepared last week.

I took advantage of the 2-4-1 (mmm? 2-4-1 a reminder I have another birthday coming up) offers on Halloween suggested treats for the cold callers. Unfortunately I hadn’t factored in my ‘ers half term and swarms of ‘ers frequenting our abode whilst I was out toiling. So they have all gone!

So it will have to be now plan B…………………………….
Call in the professional door openers

And if that fails Plan C ……………………….. Play Snog the Goule…. It usually deters others !!!

blog of the day

Oh I have just noticed that our blog has been given Blog of the Day status by those lovely people at Fuel My Blog .

Not only that but my random comment on the "win something random from my cupboard 5"
won out of all the great entries.

What a fabulous end to a busy day..... thank you so much you are wonderful.

If possible could you donate some money this time and not wait for No 6 ??

I wonder if this accolade will now encourage Sunny (my partner in crime on here) to post who has been very tardy since here & here & here
She has a good excuse though she is mid exhibition and others on the horizon ... in fact she has been so busy since the summer


Once again many thanks :-)

more spammy stuff

Well my junk mail filter has failed me tonight !
I received this lovely email from Fernande Ayers saying 'Here's that stuff, from Chelsea'

I have cast my mind back into the darkest depths of memory (oh there are things that turned up that should be kept in Pandoras Box! lol) and.... no .... can't recall for the life of me a Fernande in Chelsea. Hey I live about 200 miles away from there.

Anyway Fernande tells me

Hey, how are you? I wanted to advise you about something unbelievable, something that you truly need to know about. I'll get straight to the reason behind this email. It is unfortunate that recent research shows that on average less than twenty five percent of all women can obtain a climax from engaging in intercourse alone. Therefore a majority of female partners are left ultimately dissatisfied. You may think that you are rocking her bedroom world but if the truth needs to be told, you probably don't at all! Not to worry though, we have a toy you will love.Take a peek:

oooo a toy! Is it a fluffy one like on the Generation Game? or is it a new generation one like a Wii?

Either way I have told Ferndi in no uncertain words I will not be requiring his or her services/equipment as I am of that age where I can have a toy(boy) of my own .. & batteries are not included or indeed actually needed !! :-)

in-car entertainment

I normally don’t drive into work because basically the traffic is rubbish in Manchester. I figured today, however, as is half term the traffic would be better …. and so it was. 20 minutes door to door!
Alas though not the case tonight. My journey took 1 hour 15 minutes to travel just 10 miles!

So Charlie & I sat on the M602 car park and listened to Hero Enrique Ig 3 times (thinking wow this is ace but repetitive music playing of one track isn’t that healthy)

Turned on the radio, got blasted by some indescribable track on Radio One (ah yes ‘er was in the car on Sunday) flicked through a few more channels… Galaxy, Classic, Smooth (hovered there for a while .. bit of Barry White) and stumbled upon BBC Radio Manchester. I recognize that voice I thought?
It was Terry Christian. I wondered what had happened to him… ...well he is alive and well on tea-time local radio.

Thought I would hang around and see what he was chatting about.

Within minutes he had me smiling and then laughing out loud…. It was getting dark by now so I don’t think anyone noticed.
His topic was - songs that you were taught to sing as a little kid at junior school (in the 60s aged 5 –11 years).

There was the first introduction to the French Language with Alloutte. (which apparently put a lot of folk going to France… I always thought it was ‘jaunty Allouetta, Allouetta jaunty plume aray’…… )

Alouette, gentille Alouette Alouette je te plumerai Alouette, gentille Alouette Alouette je te plumerai Je te plumerai la tête Je te plumerai la tête Et la tête, et la tête Alouette, Alouette O-o-o-o-oh Alouette, gentille Alouette Alouette je te plumerai
Alouette, gentille Alouette Alouette je te plumerai Alouette, gentille Alouette Alouette je te plumerai Je te plumerai le nez Je te plumerai le nez Et le nez, et le nez

Roughly translated as

Lark, nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you Alouette, nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you I will pluck you the head I will pluck you the head And the head, and the head Alouette, Alouette O-o-o-o-oh Alouette, nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you Lark, nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you Alouette, nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you I will pluck you the nose I will pluck you the nose And the nose, and the nose

& Frere Jaques… where we would be split up and sing the lines out of sync from each other.

10 Green Bottles Hanging on the Wall – great for counting down but what a darned awful boring song. ‘Tom Tom the Pipers son’, who stole a pig and got a beating. Pussy in the Well … naughty boys trying drown a cat. Oh of course the favourite Ring, a Ring o’ Roses about the black plague.

Oh what about the Sea Shanties -What Shall we do with the Drunken Sailor - Some great lines as - Way hay and up she rises!! Put him in the scuppers with a hose pipe on him! Hoist him up to the topsail yardarm! Make him clean out all the spit-kids.

But what had me laughing was Soldier Soldier will you marry me?
A warning to all girlies in the 18th century not to be taken in by passing soldiers.

Soldier, soldier won't you marry me
With your musket, fife and drum
Oh no sweet girl I cannot marry you
For I have no coat to put on
So off she went to her grandfathers chest
And she brought him a coat of the very very best
And she brought him a coat of the very very best
And the soldier put it on

& as Terry so eloquently put it

‘When she got it out of her grandfather’s chest it probably smelled of wee and he put it on’

It was probably a ‘had to be there moment’ but it did amused me (hey I was going stir crazy!)

Thanks Terry you made the journey pass more pleasantly than I had first imagined.

Needless say it is back on the cattle truck to work tomorrow

english not so abroad

I have been rooting tonight through photos. It is a thing akin to my sorting books... I never get that far!

I have heaps of old photos that I know not where the places are and think 'why on earth have I kept this?'

Not so this one.

A couple of years ago me, my 'er and my Mum went to stay at my brother's in Kent and we went for a day out in Deal.

Mum being in her 70s had to have some home comforts.............. a seat, a brollie and something to read whilst Me & 'er messed about on the beach.

I looked back at my Mum whilst hunting for fossils and interesting stones and laughed, I so had to take this photo....

There is not a soul about and there she is happily reading her magazine in comfort .................

It is a classic for me

i'm going

You may remember this month I posted a piece about a Giant girl and an Elephant.

The link was sent to me by my cousin and he has come up trumps again (thank you CK)

As you may know or may not know, depending which part of this planet or indeed which part of the UK you live in, Liverpool was voted City of Culture for 2008.

Now being a Liverpool lass from birth and way back in one part of my family history to C1795 I am so very pleased about this.

I love my birthplace, it is heaped with history (some of it is not so sweet with the slave trade but as those higher up the pecking order have said 'we are sorry' but at the end of the day we can not carry the hair shirt of our ancestors, we can only do what we think is right at the time of our existence on this planet and we learn as we go along....... I often wonder how we will be judged when we are no more..............)

But I do love Liverpool with a passion as a city, it is my roots (I am trying to embrace the changes however!! some of which I will be so positive about but find a bit foreboding )

.

My cousin sent me link this weekend about 2008 and it's plans to celebrate the accolade it has been given :-

"Commissioned by Liverpool Culture Company for European Capital of Culture 2008. In May 2006 something incredible happened in London. For four days the city stopped in its tracks and marvelled at the sight of a gigantic wooden elephant, and a little-girl giant in a green dress. A million people jammed the streets, astonished at the scale and beauty of the spectacular Sultan’s Elephant . Now Artichoke, the company that brought that event to London, is planning a magical new show, created specially for Liverpool 2008. The precise details are a closely-guarded secret, but what’s certain is that it will be huge in scale and utterly unlike anything seen in Liverpool before: an unforgettable piece of live theatre, played out against the landmarks of a great city. Will you find it? Register now for updates and you just might...www.willyoufindit.co.uk ."

There is loads going on in 2008 and the the new magical event is scheduled for 26th - 28th September 2008

Just to say I will be going .. want to join me?

perfect eye

I may or may not have mentioned that in my life each day brings something new.

If I have or haven't it doesn't really matter.

Today as I walked to work on my route along the Irwell I met a colleague. We were chit chatting about the usual 'did you have a good weekend?' 'Oh how soon does Monday come?' 'What have you got on this week' etc etc

As we were chatting (along the tow path along the banks of the river) I stopped dead in my tracks.

The Irwell was still and the bridge was reflecting what I saw was a perfect eye shape into the water.

I said 'oh wow', my colleague said 'WHAT?'

I said 'there ... look... a perfect eye!'

'What? Where?'

So I pointed and said 'There!'

His eyes lit up and he said 'gosh you know I would have never ever have seen that'

Unfortunately I don't carry my camera to work (and I won't for a while as I dropped it and it is damaged .. sob) but here are a few internet images that visualise something similar. But when 'my precious' is repaired I hope I will be able take one of my 'perfect eye'

spammy stuff

Have just been looking at my Statcount searches.
Suddenly (and not for the first time) I have flurry of searches for BIDEX FINANCE.... it is a junk e-spam post I highlighted some time ago. The searches on Stat span from Canada through the US across various routes to Bulgaria and other former Eastern Block now accepted in the EU member States (worrying to say the least!). Now the Q is.... who is the genuine person who like me gets this crap, unsolicited mail and who is the scammer looking where it has gone ??
If it is the latter then my original message still applies ...... Go F yourself U Wker .. if it is the former I suggest you do the same as me and reply in a similar pattern.
I hate to rant/get on the soap box but sometimes it is OH SO necessary
btw Bidex et al my spam filter doesn't allow low life to enter anymore .. so there

an afternoon to remember

As I have mentioned before I was fortunate enough to see the premier of The Pianist at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry earlier this year as part of the Manchester International Festival.
I am now on the Festival e - mailing list and those lovely people have sent me the latest newsletter today. In it they have announced that The Pianist will be broadcast on Radio 4.
If you do nothing else this year I would recommend you tune in, lie back in your comfy chair, relax, close your eyes and throughly enjoy the experience of this masterpiece.

Quoted from the Festival e - mail
Radio 4 will be broadcasting The Pianist which premiered at this year's Festival, on Saturday 20 October at 2.30pm – 3.30pm. The Pianist, based on the memoirs of Wladyslaw Spzilman, received outstanding reviews and is narrated by actor Peter Guinness, with the music of Chopin played by concert pianist Mikhail Rudy. 'A potent tale of triumph over tragedy…recommended'˜˜˜˜ The Times

magically random

bowled over

Today I went on a specific shopping visit to the Lowry Outlet stores (it was a specific shopping list.. brother and niece's birthday presents, ever so focused). Got our timing right as Man U were playing Wigan at home (12.30 ish kick off) so avoided the traffic travelling in successfully albeit we had to park on the 7th floor!)

So £130 later (spent £25 on Bro and nothing on niece as nothing inspired us) ... yes I had the 'er with me hence the £100 excess... I managed to get a T-shirt, 2 new bras and a pair of knickers in this though..................to avoid the match out spilling we wandered into the Lowry Art bit to see the 'Up North' exhibition. Didn't bother with the permanent Lowry exhibition as it was pointed out to me by the 'er 'Mum I have seen that 100 times' .
What I hadn't realised was there was an exhibition by Harold Riley.
Riley is a Salford lad, a friend of L.S. Lowry as well as him being a distinguished portrait painter of famous folk, he also took some amazing images in the 60s/70s of inner city Salford with mostly a box brownie

There were some great images of the back to back terraced houses and kids doing what they do best .. ...making the most of their environment & above all making it fun. (a wigwam on the path out side the front door, a cart made out of pram wheels, girls dressing up in their Mums shoes and children playing in what was once a Jewish grave yard but was now their back yard)

One of the most moving images for me was a very old lady that sat at her front door waiting for the kids to finish school and she would offer a sweet to them as they passed by her door. This was obviously the only interaction that this kind old lady had in her day and it meant so much to her in her life. She also reminded me of my Nana in the way she was dressed in her round rimmed glasses, wrinkled thick tights, slippers and patterned pinny.

The images eloquently told of the poverty of Salford then .. the unmaintained houses but with much pride in 'cleaning/stoning the step', if you didn't do this then you were deemed to be scruffy. I always thought this was a Liverpool thing (from my up bringing) but have realised now it is much wider than just my family tales.

Also what struck me hard today was the amount of money I had just spent and how easy I have life in comparison ... I & especially my 'er are so lucky

making an exhibition of .....

Well Sunny has persuaded me and others into doing a roving exhibition capturing a specific, yet fluid theme, across the UK.
So far there are 10 people signed up (inc me & herself but apparently there is more interest in the wings).

The idea is that each artist secures a venue in their area to display the exhibition and her parting shot before she jetted off to Portugal was 'You realise that you will be responsible for the exhibition in your area which means you will have to house all the artwork whilst it is on the move when it is up by you !'

Oh my goodness what a responsibility I will have to find space to secure 10+ artists work (safely).
She has her end of the deal sorted and we have a brilliant venue at the Courtyard, Hereford booked in 2009. Enquiries have been made in London and up here at the Lowry (although nothing has been finalised)

I am in a bit of a panic (did I say a bit? I mean a HUGE panic) as the other folk involved in this venture are actually real artists, 3 x painters, 3 x illustrators, 1 x photographer, 1 x poet & 1 x writer (ok 70s isn't either) I am down as 'mixed media' which thankfully gives me a free reign

I have promised myself tomorrow a planning day for this exhibition. I have an idea which I have already drafted out but is a bit complicated to follow so I need to re think and simplify it but it is along the lines of some altered books I did a while ago in relation to the Spanish Civil War... it is a bit like cutting and sticking stuff but with a certain amount of thought and mind process/story involved

i'm the mom

t-shirts we love them

I have just spotted that on fuelmyblog there is a competition and Sunny & I are in the top 100. I am truely amazed as we only got this together to collaborate over life and thought stuff and I must say Sunny has been very tardy about posting todate (she said on the phone the other night she has forgotten her log in, thankfully I kept a record for her, as requested.. she is useless but I will let her off as she has the mind of an artist not a blogger ... as yet!)

So I (on behalf us both ...... although Sunny is currently sunning herself somewhere in Portugal at her sisters place!) am staking our claim in the competition

I have no illusion that we will win the $500 but if we did I would let Sunny have it to further her art projects... & if we got a T-shirt then it would have to be a fair fight with neutral judges :-)

the great british public

Now I am a great people watcher. I love nothing better than sitting in a café with a cappuchino and watching the world go by. Not much chance on many days due to a hectic work schedule and running a home/raising an ‘er & now a puppy!
But the great British public never fail to amaze me during my chaotic days.

Daily I am shoved and pushed on the commuter trains by people and I must say mostly males who obviously have not been taught any manners by their mothers (come on chaps we will all get on the train so lets not use brawn over brain everyday it is not attractive! you just appear to be a right Tw*t with your headphones on and free newspaper in hand!)

Today I had to shop for my ‘er in my lunch hour (which became a 2 hour lunch time due to meeting up with old colleagues for a chat en route and what is it with me I get stopped all the time to be asked directions… I must have ‘Ask me coz I have Manchester A – Z’ tattooed on my forehead??)

I had to go to Primark for gloves, tights, new school jumper etc. I stood for 40 minutes in a queue to be served. As I waited I observed the till operators (bearing in mind at one time I was a manager of a High Street retailer). To say they were slow would be an understatement (they would have been sacked in my day). There was no urgency in their trying to get the queue down, I have never seen a garment folded soooooooo slowly. They were glum and totally oblivious to the hoards of people waiting to get served.
When it was my turn I said something like ‘ oh you must have had such a busy day, I hope you got your lunchbreak? ' This was met with absolutely NOTHING..... not a smile, not a word just an automaton who carried on at a snail pace to deliver my purchase.
What is that about?? Lets just say I won't be in a hurry to shop there for a while!

But rest assured my faith was reinstated later. On my return home I need to go to the council tip with my old sofa (which I had disected with a saw on Sunday). I parked up and I asked a chap standing next to one of the skips which one I should put it in. He replied ‘this one’ and proceeded to unload my car of all the debris with me. I had bags of foam and bits in carrier bags. He said we have recycling bags that are better than that and off he went & came back with a pile of brilliant recycling bags which he placed in the boot of my car. He was happy and chatty and he made me smile.

So Thank You so much Recycling Man you were the star in my day :-)