Luke and Amy

Amy is 5!!!!!!!!!
Wearing her new horsey necklace.


Luke came home from school as an Egyptian,looks good with his make-up on.


He soon got changed and played with Amy`s presents. She was outside on her new trampoline.

PET SHOP BOYS

Mon 13 July 2009, Echo Arena, Liverpool....

Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe are.....The PET SHOP BOYS.

It was a very wet,miserable night on Merseyside but the "Boys" dazzled us all with their bouncy,infectious foot-tapping music, accompanied by some amazing CUBE-HEADED dancers and a magnificent stage set. In fact it was Husb`s first comment on leaving the Arena..."Their stage set manager must have been on something!" The backdrop was an enormous wall of huge white cubes which were lit up in different patterns and which was knocked down and rebuilt several times during the evening. This being the PET SHOP BOYS "PANDEMONIUM TOUR", it was obviously based on the track "Building a Wall". What was so impressive was that they knew where every cube was going and what each one had in it. Fantastic.

The cube-headed dancers were very good and very gymnastic, doing flik-flaks and somersaults frequently, though not always in time(did we care???)

The set list was as follows, plenty of old favourites(the crowd-pleasers) interspersed with lots from their new album "YES" and a brilliant cover of Coldplay`s Viva la Vida. It was just totally BRILLIANT.


1. "Heart"

2. "Did you see me coming?"
3. "Pandemonium"
4. "Love etc"
........Click here for the video they released for "Love etc"
5. "Building a Wall"





6. "Go West"



7. "Two divided by zero"
8. "Why don`t we live together?"



9. "Always on my mind"
10. "Come closer"
11. "Left to my own Devices"
12. "Do I have to?"
13. "King`s Cross"
14. "The way it used to be" click here for Amsterdam version!
15. "Jealousy"
16. "Suburbia"
17. "All over the world"





18. "Se a Vide E/Viva la Vida" (Nice king`s crown and velvet cape)



...click here for the Amsterdam version(!) of the Coldplay cover...(from very near to the stage!!!!)

19. "It`s a Sin"





Encore....with feathers...(!!)
20. "Being Boring"
21. "West End Girls"



CONCLUSION.....THE PET SHOP BOYS ROCK!! Fabulous show.

The support group were also good. FRANKMUSIC had a brilliant voice, good full range of high and low. He sang a cover of THE STRANGLERS "Golden Brown", his new single "Confusion Girl" and a cover of THE POSTAL SERVICE "Such Great Heights" during their half hour slot.

Wrexham v Coventry City 11.7.09

It seemed strange to be watching a football match in July, but with the first of the City`s pre-season friendlies only 20 minutes away from where I live, I had to go, so I went! To be fair, it wasn`t a blisteringly hot summer`s day(in fact the black clouds were threatening all afternoon) but it DID feel odd to be making a cricket tea first! Wrexham are managed by Chris Coleman`s former Welsh colleague Dean Saunders so I expect they had a good "catch-up"





It was obvious from the start that this was very much a "warm up" game and both teams used about 20 players each to give everyone a run-out. Clinton Morrison ran a lot faster after he threw his heart monitor into touch.(He could breathe again!!) It was like he was telling new fitness coach Steve Harrison he couldn`t be doing with these fitness gadgets. The game finished up 1-1 (the City had a lot of opportunities to put it into the back of the net but seemed reluctant to shoot.)



It was nice to see Oggy at half time doing his goalie practise and taking corners. My Dad was chatting to him recently at Cov and North Warwick cricket ground where he is a useful bowler in the summer.



I was really impressed with the crowd. I honestly expected to see about 30 Coventry fans but I reckon about 300 fans came up from Coventry, loads were wearing the new kit and a few wore our fairly awful chocolate brown commemorative shirt(this year the club celebrates its 125th "birthday")

Look who I nearly walked into walking out of the ground! Dan Fox was on his way to the team bus and stopped to sign autographs. I suddenly felt very old and far too old to ask for an autograph but asked him to smile for a photo. Apparently Celtic, Reading and FOREST have joined the race to sign him. I should have said to him "I need some exclusive information for my blog Danny, are you staying or are you going?"






A great day, the rain held off till 7 and 2 lovely kind ladies had washed up after cricket for me. (I DID expect the Sky Blues to win about 6-0 tho.... )

Garden update!

Things are coming along nicely in the garden... we have...

apples...

pears...

rhubarb...

raspberries

the first of several trayfuls...



courgettes... (though I have no idea why Husb has decided to grow courgettes, they must have been a bargain because we don`t really like courgettes!)


plums... wow there are loads of plums...


look at my beetroot!!!




Things are growing!!!! We are even growing CHERRIES!!! Well.... I wasn`t happy with THIS photo so thought I`d take another one in the morning when it was light and so no need to use the flash.... but a Mr Squirrel got them first AND HAS EATEN THEM!!! BOTH!!!


...and then our neighbour called with some of HIS beetroot!!! Oh my word look at the size of it!!! Compared to mine and the watering can...(Utterly delicious)



(I`d better keep watering mine!)

busy week!!

Well that was a busy week, lack of blogging or twittering has probably indicated this... and it had nothing to do with Wimbledon. I only saw a bit of a Murray game and that was only because it went on till half ten, and I watched THAT while talking to Cub on the phone (which was basically a "How do I....?" type computer lesson!!)

Anyway the week started with the wonderful news that.... MY BIG DAUGHTER HAD GOT A JOB!!! Miss Nicolette Hollindale is going to be a real life teacher of Art in a school on Teeside!!! It was her first interview and she wowed the lot of them, especially the student council who loved her. Have a look at her paintings here
on her blog page. She has a slide show, top right.

That was Monday, on Tuesday I went to Coventry to see Dad where I managed to do a bit of weeding for him before he took the trowel off me(!!!) and then I persuaded him to have a barsnack up at the Mount. Liddy and John called too so that was a bonus.




As well as my normal classes this week I also went into school to leap around a bit with some GCSE girls, phew...hot hot hot (the weather!!!) Went to the vets with Sammie about her ears. Went to a wedding do. Went to Manchester Airport with little daughter who then flew to Cyprus...hot hot hot I imagine! And did 2 cricket teas.

No time to colour so it was just as well I had done these...it appears one is never too old for a picture, "Jean" is 80 and "Liam and Louise" are teenagers.




One of our cricketers married a lovely girl called Awie (pronounced Arr Wee) so I did them a teapot/pavilion bread board.