Les Miserables............film

I eventually went  ...... tried to keep an open mind ............. but where do I begin?

The sets and locations blew me away - I was expecting large, big, bigger but ....wow!  they were magnificent.  In my opinion it was worth going just to see them.









Bits had been added and bits left out but in my opinion this made the story more coherent.  The actors were magnificent, I have to say, as I did not expect much in the way of singing.  I knew that Hugh Jackman and Ann Hathaway could sing as I had heard them on the radio.

So shall we start with  the cast list  - remembering this is only my opinion -

Hugh Jackman - Jean Valjean

 Excellent - could not fault his acting or singing

Russell Crowe - Javert

Disappointing start, what I expected but......... but........ when it came to his main songs - WOW! - that man can sing!

 Anne Hathaway - Fantine

Excellent again

Isabelle Allen - Young Cosett

one of the best performance, singing wise, I have seen




Eddie Redmayne - Marius
Amanda Seyfried - Cosette

Lovely performances, excellent voices

Baron Cohen - Thenardier
Helena Bonham Carter - Madame Thenardier

good performances but not as 'up front' as in the stage shows so I was a little disappointed.

Aaron Tveit - Enjolras

Great voice, made it easier to understand why the students supported him although the few Irish accents in some of the students came as a shock!!!



and then there was this man..............

To you who are not fanatical Les Mis fans..........

This is the man who brought the role of Valjean to the stage in 1985.


I am so very pleased that Colm Wilkinson has been included in this film, he is soooo much a part of this show.  He has played various roles, when I saw him he was playing Javert!  His voice is ...............

Wikipedia tells it like this - 
The London production of Les Misérables opened in October 1985, and transferred to Broadway in March 1987.  Originally, the American Actors' Equity Association refused to allow Wilkinson to play the part of Valjean in New York, due to their policy of hiring only American actors.  At this, producer Cameron Mackintosh refused to open the show unless Wilkinson played Valjean, and Actors' Equity relented. 

Altogether an enjoyable time.  I would certainly go and see it again ........... hint ....hint

It rained and now we have sunshine!

What a joy!

I had forgotten what my poor tired garden looked like!

It rained all the snow away overnight on Saturday and my poor garden .............

I have managed to get round most of it this morning  - in the sunshine - and it looks as though the majority of my plants survived their blanket of snow.

I  hope to be back later but at the moment I am sitting stitching..........

Snow, snow ...........

At first snow is good, we all stop what we are doing to watch the magic of snow.  Then we go out in it and it is wonderful - unless you are not prepared and still wearing high heeled sandals and flimsy clothes!!  


When the sun comes out, or under the street lights at night,  everything sparkles as though there is a layer of sequins or diamonds splashed about on top.  Still magical even with the black line that is a road cutting through it all.




But when the snow becomes a blizzard ................





and starts to cover everything with inches of the white stuff ...........



then it is no longer nice.....pretty.........soft............lovely.  
It becomes too deep.  


Now I know there are others in the world who go up down to -49C but they are USED to it, we are not........ every one in the UK will agree with that one!!

We have poor animals ....... 



stupid yes! but it's still a shame.........

They feel the need to go.........



Then there are (in my opinion) the very stupid who should know better!! 


 I ask you!  

look at that!!      (in the red circle)

 it's a shame that at 75years old ish he should feel the need to do this........
in a blizzarding snow!




So here we are  - left with this.......... bearing in mind I am viewing it from the house, I don't go out in it ....... I might fall and I can do without that thank you very much!!  

So I view the snow and the animals and the STUPID people............... 



and my poor garden whose bordering fence has almost disappeared,







 whose plant pots have hats while everything else gets buried.




whose tree is decorated with snow yet in a few months will bear racemes of yellow blossoms


whose bird bath stands frozen............
 because although we traipse up the garden to fill the food hangers(tucked in the bushes at the very bottom of the garden),  we cannot unfreeze the bath.............. we place small containers of water hanging from the bushes alongside the food, in the hope it won't freeze.




I only take these photos so that I can look at them in the summer heat and remember............

GG and the sixties

GG used to  meet his friends up the pub on a Friday night, they had a few bevvies and then moved on to another pub, nothing unusual back then.  

One night they noticed a couple of girls sitting at one of the tables playing cards, they were there most Fridays afterwards, maybe there before but never noticed.
GG was egged on by his friends to go over and chat them up, TB defo wanted to meet them.  He was tall, blonde, not particularly good looking but laughed a lot.  AH was shorter and quieter while GG was tall, slim and dark haired.  Sometimes CP met up with them, he was shorter with dark curly hair.
GG went over to the girls and asked what cardgame they were playing and the boys were in!!  For the next month or so, they met up and played cards, the girls playing Gin until the boys arrived when Brag was the game of the moment.
One night GG asked the girls if they would like a lift home as he had his car and before one of them left he had asked to see her the next week.  They went to another pub and chatted most of the night but as she had to be in by  22.00hrs the night finished early.  GG and the girl continued to see each other, making up a foursome with TB and his girlfriend on occasion.  They travelled out to places during the summer months, visiting Cheddar Gorge, Banbury, Stratford etc.  Life was good.  
Some time before all this GG had a motorcycle accident which left him with metal plates in his head and in his left arm but now worked for a sweet company in the wages office.  The tendons on the right side of his neck had also been damaged (the pressstud of his jacket embedded there) which left him unable to lift and bend his arm.  He had managed to learn to write left handed, drive a car; his hair had grown back and the large scar on his arm was slowly fading.  He introduced the girl to his parents, she took him home to meet hers and they continued to go out together.

Snow, snow and more snow

I know that we don't have it as bad as some - checking out Ice Pilots - but it sure does cause some chaos.

We had to go out this a.m.  in the car, just a lickle jaunt to the Drs and ....... honestly...... do people not know the highway code?   Note 231   We could not get home quick enough but the Good Lord brought us through.

I have found my comments page today and have been sorting through and ......... wow!.......... 195 spams.     what!            when!          Oh! my goodness!  
Not the way I was going to spend a few hours today but it had to be done ............. hit that delete button, and again, and again...........

sorry folks, I am still learning this blogger thingy

but now I know they are there ...............

Cottage pie for tea, slightly curryfied - the gravy is spiced up a bit!  Not hot but close and for pudding ......... ginger cake and custard - hey!  it's cold here ..................... and ginger is good for you.

Painful, Personal Post.......... tissues needed to be handy

I am really sorry if this post is upsetting but I really need to write this down.  
I do. 
Those who know me personally may find this very distressing. 
 I really am sorry but I have to.


I have had a very stressful couple of days.
Although I have had counselling I still find January 15th hard to deal with.
On this day thirty seven years ago I gave birth to a beautiful daughter who we named Leanne Denise.  I invented the name with my friend Joan, it was made up from Leander of Hero and Leander fame (we mistakenly though Leander was the heroine - were our faces red when we found out years later it wasn't).
She was a beautiful baby and I did manage to breast feed her, more successfully than my first two girls.  I used to take her to the Welfare Clinic once a week to be weighed and checked but when she was about two weeks old, I was told that she was not gaining any weight and maybe I needed to give her a bottle.  I already had the equipment so the Clinic gave me a tin of milk and  as soon as I came home I made up a bottle and fed her.  When it came time for her next feed I could not wake her.  I tried and tried but she stayed asleep so I phoned the doctors and managed to get through to Dr Humphries, the lady Doctor, who asked the pertinent questions and then before she could say anything the line went dead.  By now I was hysterical and crying and shaking and still Leanne slept on ...........
Not long after the doorbell rang and there was the Dr on the doorstep.  "I had a sleeping baby and a hysterical mother on the phone and I have come to sort it out" she replied when I asked why she was there!!
She immediately picked up the baby who gave a loud gulp of air and started to cry.

The Doctor thought that Leanne had her first proper meal since she was born and, like any animal, was so full up she had to sleep it off.  She only woke when the Doctors COLD hands picked her up and shocked her awake!!!  We did so laugh as we were both so relieved to know she was ok, I was very embarrassed but the Doctor said she was just doing her job - as all good Doctors and Nurses do.

A week later, N was very poorly with whooping cough but we were told that Leanne would be OK because the breast milk passed on antibodies to protect her.  One night while I held her she stopped breathing and started to go blue.  I managed to get her breathing again and she seemed OK.   After her nightime feed she stopped breathing again and I could not get her to start again so her dad (ON) said we should take her to the hospital, we piled into the car and I put her across my lap and rubbed her back all the way to the hospital where she had been born.  They could not do anything for her as she had been discharged a month earlier and suggested we took her to the Children's Hospital, and not knowing where it was they gave us directions and off we went.  Right across the city we drove, red lights, speed limits - nothing of any importance when you have an ill child.  
When we arrived the receiving Nurse tried to clear her airways and did all the usual checks while we waited for the Doctor.  Eventually a young girl came down the corridor putting on a white coat, obviously annoyed at having been woken up.  She checked Leanne, who by this time was a healthy pink colour and said she had a blocked nose and gave us some nose drops.  
Leanne remained poorly for a few days more but then seemed to start picking up.  We went to visit her grandmother out in the country and I dressed the three girls in matching outfits - crocheted dresses made during anti-natal classes.  Photos of the three generations were taken, one of parents and girls and one of Auntie Molly, Father and Grandmother with the girls.  It was a bright, sunny day and we were all so happy.
On Mother's Day, with my sister and children at home, we all tucked into our lunch and then started the washing up afterwards.  V wanted to feed the baby so I told her to leave Leanne until after we finished the washing up and then fetch her in from her pram, which was outside on the patio.  I warmed her bottle and went into the lounge to find her bib and then sat at the table with my sister.  
There was a shout from outside and V was standing there holding Leanne up in her arms.

I knew there and then she was dead.

I don't know how

I don't know why

but she was

I went out and took her off V and brought them both into the house.  I told ON to go phone for an ambulance and my sister took hold of V.  I remember thinking later that ON had gone round to next door but one's to phone and the lady there was six months pregnant - not the best news to receive.
I went into the front room and looked at my beautiful daughter as she lay in my arms, I prayed that she would open her eyes, would breathe, I held her close - she had been so well wrapped up she was still warm.  
Nothing
I cuddled her as close as I could, praying..........

The ambulance came and they gave her the kiss of life but then a trickle of blood appeared at her left nostril and they apologised and said there was nothing more they could do.  

Two months almost to the date.............. 16th March

They contacted my GP as they needed a Dr to declare her dead.  After about an hour of waiting they had to leave, so they wrapped her up in a blanket, told me I didn't really need to come as they would take her straight to hospital and have her declared dead.  
She left my arms wrapped as though she was still asleep and went into the back of the ambulance in the arms of a man whose young daughter was at home celebrating her birthday.  Who was suffering the most - him or me - I have never known.

Joan had come home by now, we were all sitting stunned, drinking tea and talking.  After a while we decided to go tell the grandmothers, it had to be done and was not something to do over the phone.  
As we opened the front door a jolly lady Dr (Singh or Kaur - can't remember now) was standing on the doorstep.  We wondered what she was doing there and she said "I was having a tea party when I received a phonecall to say that there was a problem with the D Baby.  After we finished tea I thought I had better come and see what was happening here"  I told her not to worry as the baby was dead so she wasn't needed.  Never been one to mince my words when I am upset!!!
Joan came into the hall as the Dr turned to go and asked if maybe it would be a good idea to give me a couple of sleeping tablets as I had had a big shock.  The Dr thought for a moment and then asked if Joan really thought so!!!  Joan said yes she did and so I was given a couple of tablets and off the Dr went, back to her teaparty.

We called in at my mother's house first as I knew my cousins were visiting and she would not be alone.

We then went to his mother's house where she received the news stoically while his younger sister went hysterical and we had to deal with her while ON went to his older sister who lived next door to tell her the news.  

When I arrived home all trace of a baby ever having been in the house had been removed.  No clothes, no cot, no pram, nothing, she'd gone.  My sister and friend Joan had been very busy while I had been gone, taking most of it all round to her ex husband's house, explaining to him what had happened and why they needed to move everything.  They thought it would be better for me if there were no reminders when I came home.

Much of what happened after wards is a bit of a blur.
We arranged the funeral, the Mass, the wake and it was ok.  I remember breaking down completely in the Church as they carried the small white coffin out to the hearse.  I remember that P (the older sister) had made a beautiful white satin blanket edged with lace to sit on top of the coffin.  I went to the Cemetery a few days later and retrieved the blanket, all  that satin and lace, stitched by hand with so much love, I couldn't let it go to waste.

All I had were two certificates, birth and death cards and a pink kitten given by my sister.  All I had to show that Leanne had ever been there.

Some days later I received a brown paper parcel addressed to me containing all Leanne's clothes, all that she was wearing at the time.  The nappy had been washed and dried but everything else was as it was, even to the small trickle of blood on the side of her bonnet where the ambulance man had given her the kiss of life.

I put it away under my bed.

Some months later I took out the parcel, took it into the bathroom, unwrapped the clothes and washed them.  Every one.    I cried as I washed.  How I cried.  Loud, long, sobbingly.  It all came out, the pain, the grief, the emptiness.

And that was it - when I came downstairs Joan said that she had been waiting, held me and told me I should have done it long before.

How could I? 

I had two little girls - 3 and 7 years old to look after, my mother, my sister and her two children at the weekends, Joan, and ON.  
There was no time for weeping, gnashing of teeth, woe is me and all that.  I had to stay strong to be there for the others.  
And I was.
Strong

Joan left eventually to move to foreign climes, my sister found a place of her own and life continued apace.

Well, not really.  There was that Friday afternoon a year or so later............... 
I was 200 yards from home and started to bleed............
I managed to settle the girls and took myself to lay down on the bed. 
So much plain and blood. 
Agony and mess.
Eventually I got control and went downstairs and carried on.

I went to the Doctor's some time afterwards and mentioned it to him whilst we were talking, he asked for all the gory details and became very angry with me.  
I had lost another baby.
I could've lost my life - did that matter?
I needed to take things easy - huh!
Be careful - oh! yeah! 

I do not deal very well with these few months.  I eventually went for Counselling five years ago.  I am much better now.  

But there is still pain.

Brrrrrrrr! and marmalade

I have discovered that if I make cards in my craft room and keep the little fan heater on, then it gets very warm and comfortable.  
I have made several cards on Monday and Tuesday, specials for birthdays - one is posted on my other blog - Cardius Bloggus.

Today I have been making Marmalade, Ginger Marmalade.  (warm kitchen!).  For some reason I only managed to get 10 jars whereas I usually get 12 ... what went wrong?  I dunno, same jars, same ingredients...... dunno.  BUT I did mention to PJ that we could be having a slice of marmalade on our toast!!!

Watch this space!!

Hellooooo..........

Missed me have you???  yeah! yeah! yeah!

I am much recovered now and up and about ...... not much as it is too cold.



This is how my phone told it last night ........... and then it tipped it down and by 06.00hrs there was a nice thick layer of the white stuff.

By the time I was up and about properly, the 'outside my window world' looked like this .............

We tend to hibernate a bit in the winter...... cold 'gets' to us.  For those who don't know ................ we do not have Central Heating................ it can get mighty cold in this house.  We have always enjoyed paid employment so by the time we came home, had something to eat it was time for bed anyhow so we never bothered getting the CH put in.  I quite enjoyed using other people's CH!!!  Now we are retired we cannot afford to have it done and ........ I don't really want the mess, there is not enough room in my kitchen for the boiler (we did try to get it put it once .....) so we remain well wrapped up and enjoy hot stews and curries.  
The cold usually lasts for about three months and so we concentrate on March.  
March ...... that's it!  
It will start getting warmer by then!  
3 months that's all.  
So we indulge in late mornings and early nights.
It is a pity that my PC is in the back room, I am trying to get my laptop to be internet friendly but so far no luck, we just have to settle into the bedroom, leaving the PC to freeze in the backroom without any guilt feelings at all, until I realise I haven't updated my blog and people may feel deserted!!!

On another note:-  I have found a beautiful old book about Birmingham............

I started clearing out my craftroom, keeping physically active keeps you warm .......... at one point I had to remove a layer of clothing I was so hot!!!  Only one layer you notice .....anyhow back to the book....

If my memory serves me well, it was given to 
me by an old friend called Doreen who left her home of many years to live with her daughter.  When downsizing it's good to find a home for precious (to her) things and although I accepted the book I refused Carl Chinn's  Magazines as I can read those on line.  The book was printed in 1880 with a forward written in 1879.
It is beautifully bound although falling apart in places, pages that have browned with age but a treasure. 




 There is a dedication to a Sam: Timmins and to Joseph Chamberlain, a very famous resident of Birmingham.

 I hope to be able to scan this book and then show it to members of the BHF, maybe I can pay back some for all their photos and articles I have so enjoyed.  
There are lots of pen and ink drawings of places around Birmingham and a well defined history ............ I may include some of them on here. 







At the moment I am writing out some more of my memories for future posting, typing on, sorry - rephrase that - hitting digital keys on, my phone takes for ever but it is the only way I can get these memories down - remember we are like Charley's grandparents    (Charley and the Chocolate Factory)   :-) 

I leave you with this thought:- 

Happy cough New cough Year croak

So yes ...... been pretty sick round here ............
PJ was ill first and then me
Ugh!
Feel like going back to the Drs and telling him "well, it's been 10 weeks and I'm still just as bad" but he would probably look at my records and say "it's only 9 weeks and three days so I can't do anything for you, go away and go back to bed" - pity party going on here I think.


I have been pottering around, managed to get so incensed and insulted at Currys/PC World again............  I go there because I haven't found anywhere else to buy my printing inks.  
This time I was accused of "pinching" a member of staff, who then proceeded to stand in the doorway of the lift wanting to know why I had "pinched" her!!  I have enough grandchildren of my own I don't need to pinch sales staff .............  Joking aside,  I was astounded ........ lost for words........ incredulous........... then ANGRY!! GRRRRR! ANGRY.  I told her not to be so childish,  came out of the lift (carefully not touching her), put the inks back and left the shop.
Inkless I am, inkless I remain ................




I have found a little shop which sells printing inks with civilised people - read "Grownup" - as staff.

I have inks for my printer!!!!  *singing*
But still feel ill :-(