Tuesday 10 August 2010

Thank you

There are times when I want to shout thank you, thank you thank you. My daughter and I set out today in the pouring rain to the Coronet Cinema in Notting hill. We wanted to see Toy Story and today seemed good as it was raining and Tuesdays are half price. I walked, she scootered, and finally we took a 94 bus. We queued at the ticket office, got to the front and with a sickening sense of horror, I realized I had left both my cards at home.  And I had no cash. I feared the worst. A disappointing journey home, no Toy Story, a rainy disastrous day, nothing day. Except.... the lovely lady behind the counter said I could just go in and "if I was honest" and I could pay later. Bless her.  I just spoke to her paid and she said thank you! I told her she had made my day. 

Sunday 1 August 2010

Stuart the Gardening Angel

After sticking the gardening widget in my last post and moaning and complaining about my overgrown jungle,(patio)  I went to the ice cream cafe where all the St Stephens parents go after school for endless ice cream treats(in my day you had an ice cream twice a summer). We were sitting having tea  when I met a man called Stuart, nanny and gardener and hired him on the spot. Not to nanny my children, I'm well past those kind of days.  I know I could have done it myself, but it had got to the point where it would have taken me several days and just looking at it overwhelmed me.

He actually turned up, hours before guests were arriving for a barbeque and sat down for a half an hour to tell us about his career as a nursery nurse. It was turning into a tea date and the guests were arriving soon, so I showed him the jungle, and he didn't bat an eyelid, even though there were no gardening gloves and the barest of tools.  I didn't have to pay him £10,000 (the price quoted as a minimum by a garden designer I read about) actually a tiny tiny miniscule fraction of that for two hours of weeding and plucking and clamping and cutting. The garden is transformed - well manicured, hemmed in, edited.  He's coming back for more. Funny isn't it, when you set you heart on doing something or changing something it all seems to fall into place. 

Is It Just Me Or Are Fad Diets a Waste of Time and Money?

I had lunch with a friend the other day. While I tucked into a substantial salad she sipped a sad black tea and boasted that she had lost 9...