Sunday, May 22, 2011

I've got a luverly bunch of coconuts!

Stall holder's Accounts for Glamp It Up, Festival wear.

Event:  It's a Knockout! Hosted by Rotary Club


Venue: Playing fields behind my house (no transport costs - excellent start)


Gross Takings for Day   (not bad for 3 hours trading)                       £76.50

Cost of Stall  (bit steep, complaint registered. Especially since pitch half promised size )                            
                               
                                                                                                        £25

Cost of stock   (excellent return)                                                       £16.37

Liability insurance in order to be allowed to have stall at It's a Knockout   
                                     
                                              (breath quite shallow now)                  £90

Entertaining 3 kids and 3 kids to keep them company  

                                                                                                      £247

Dud Prototype tutu ingredients                                                          £42

Dud Prototype tutus in man hour equivalent wages                           £436

Net Profit                                                                                       779.87      


Can't help but think that something's gone awry!                                                           
     

     

Friday, May 20, 2011

Serendipity

There has been a lot of serendipity in my life recently. I like it.
Someone recently asked me what I understood by the word and I said I saw it as 'The Happy Coincidence of What Was Meant To Be'.  I think I'll make that the title of my biopic. Anyway, we both agreed that it was a lovely word - Serendipity. Yum!

There are of course, bits that cause me some confusion. For instance, I didn't want to be a Buddhist this Wednesday, but didn't want to wimp out without good cause; everything worth doing needs discipline. But then my youngest daughter forgot that her room had been changed around recently. She misjudged a corner and tripped,falling straight into a wall and allowing her tiny, romanesque nose take the full force of the hit. The screams were no doubt heard on your street too. The nose bled and became swollen and there are the dark, tell tale thunder clouds of bruising threatening her from under the skin. No chanting for me that night, oh no!

Now, was that serendipity; happening as it did, 5 minutes before I was due to leave for somewhere I didn't want to go? I doubt it, because it wasn't a 'happy coincidence', rather it was an unhappy one. But, the result was the same: Will I? Won't I? Will I? OooooooooOOOOoooo!!! I definitely won't!.

Thankfully, an hour later, my daughter had trotted happily off to guides with a budgie cage strapped to her face for protection whilst her brother, sister and I, sat traumatised on the sofa; the memory of her face so swollen and red, that we thought she'd definitely done permanent damage, rerunning itself amongst the spots before our eyes. It turned out to be the puffiness of an elfin face unused to crying. Those tears rarely fell and we had no blueprint to go on.
Since I have two teenagers and The Elf, who is 10 -there is a lot of arguing in our house at the moment. It never used to be that way but someone swapped first one and then the other in the middle of the night and since we have an elf as the third, there are no prizes for guessing who did it. I hope my real kids are OK, wherever they are. They should be half way through teaching their adoptive parents table manners, the concept of chores and the importance of respecting your mother by now. These two are clueless! However, they must have formed a bond with the elf-child because all arguing stopped for an hour and her nose was in more danger of being damaged by being dragged off one knee and onto another whilst they cooed and kissed-better,  offered up sweets and snuggles and drinks and flannels. For the first time in a long time, I saw my family work together, and I was proud! I couldn't get anywhere near her to soothe my own battered soul, but I sensed it was time to step back in those minutes.
The black-sheep of serendipity, also gave me time to achieve a writing deadline that I had. It took another 15 hours, but I needed them all.

So, serendipity or not, a bruised nose is not always a bad thing.

PS. In order to level-out the karma, I have been asked to tell you that on the 11th June, from 1.30 to 4pm, Drolma Buddhist Centre is hosting an open day in Dogsthorpe, Peterborough. 

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

turning buddhistic

fulfilled by doing things for others but I did.....

Monday, May 16, 2011

Who Loves You, Charlie Brown?


Plants
I have been away for the weekend. It took a while to get out the door.
2 nights turned into 1 night as childcare was a problem. Then  I missed the early train that I had planned to take as Joogies (child 3) had a wobbly about my going at all, and an hour later, train 2 went without me too. Finally, I managed train 3 and felt good about going because at last, everyone was reassured and fine about it- including me - and their very part time dad had arrived to spend 24 hrs with them. 


European train crossing traffic signThe train journey was wonderful -3 hours to myself to read and write and think and listen. A young couple opposite me were so in love that you could see them trying to fuse their limbs, to climb inside each other; to lose themselves and to own the other. 

They were both tall. He was black, beautiful and confident, asking people to move so that they could sit together and she was an English rose in a denim mini skirt and footless tights, constantly and softly blushing  like a peach , her heavy eyelids givng shade to eyes that gazed upon him constantly.
 Drinking was a problem for them because, being so entwined, their disposable cups always got in the way and rarely remained upright. 

The young man especially, all wide-eyed and cockney twanged , was magnetised by her. "When you eyes sparkol like that, I know yoo ar going to drink all of ma coffeee," he boomed. I thought that drinking station coffee could never have been so romantic since 'Brief Encounter'.

I envied that feeling. It seems like a very long time since the consuming passion of reciprocated love was mine, in fact it has been a very long time - 20 years and it was brief at the time. I really hope that no bah humbug tells them that that phase doesn't last, it would be cruel and pointless. Something so rare and fleeting is to be treasured and enjoyed without the spectre of the end of it. They have made my world a better place, just by allowing me to see it. And who knows, I may have witnessed, in those moments, the start of a lifelong loving journey. I'd like to think so. They deserved it. I am pinning my hopes for the future of this world, on them.
It made me happy.    Close couple portrait


Submitted after the event on the subject of 'Opinion' on  Multiple Mum's  Weekend Rewind

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Who Loves You, Charlie Brown?

Guess where I've been?
I will give you a clue- striped deck chairs, one and a half piers, large gay population, near the South Downs, subject of literary works of fiction. Has a pavilion. 3 hours door to door from sunny Stamford. Post your guess in the comments box.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

turning buddhistic

fulfilled by doing things for others but I did.....

turning buddhistic

fulfilled by doing things for others but I did.....

Monday, May 9, 2011

A blog by any other name

Right then, I need your help.

 But first off the bat, I need to say that I am not a one-blog-a-fortnight type of  a gal. It may seem that way, but it isn't the case. I am about a 3 times a week type of gal.

Please do not ask my ex-husband for confirmation of this.Businessman with hammer to head


I must warn you that I have let my mind childishly snicker at innuendo today. It's beneath me, it really is (I'm snickering!) I need to monitor whether these off-colour days come regularly(!) It may turn out that it's every monday say, or after I've had a saucy dream , or when I eat peanuts or they may be completely random. I'd appreciate your vigilance in monitoring the situation.

Unfortunately the start of the blog coincided with the start of something else and although I had written several entries (..!)  they were substandard Pammy and I can't bear to do anything substandard, except the decorating and that's obvious the moment you walk into my downstairs toilet.
Plumber with tools standing beside an open toiletOh I say....

Anyhoo....

I need your input (!) with a conundrum. Let me first, set the scene......

In the last fortnight, I have started a new business. Well, actually, it's been longer than a fortnight - much longer ( I think I can write a whole porn novelette in this innuendo style. It would spice up the script for corporate training videos too. I can be contacted through the blog if your company is interested)  but finally it's on track. However, I did have an issue with the name. I originally had an imaginative working title for it and had hand-painted signs made to display it..
Well, I say that. I actually wrote on my table-runner with fabric paint, but it does the job brilliantly.

view details

It says what we do on the tin.

 The above link was an old advert that aired around the same time that another bloke was being wallpaper-pasted to a light aircraft by his overalls before being taken for a breezy spin.  I think I heard that Easy Jet will be offering that soon to make your holiday more economical. It's worth considering for the kids. 

Anyway, once I knew the business was going to work, I took the plunge into the world of websites only to discover that some bastard had registered the domain name a couple of years ago and only that week, had bought up the .co.uk and similar domains. Git!  Good table runners don't grow on trees! Thankfully, I had not as yet ordered the free Vistaprint merchandising which invariably ends up with me spending rather more than the anticipated nothing at all. I forget to factor in postage and that I will be encouraged to add a lawn sign and matching mug, a T-shirt for the dog and a scouser who has my company logo tattooed on his nether regions and displays it aerially whilst pasted to a blimp by his vest. view details


Anyway, once the website is up and running, I will let you know where to find it. But I warn you, I have had a website for my consultancy for 3 years and it still isn't live. It always seems too grown up for me.

This one will have colours and sparkles though, so it stands a better chance.Goldfish


On to the bit where you need to help me.
My name is not Pam, it's Lesley. I tell you this because Postcard Pam arrived in my head out of the blue and sounded a bit like me. I like having an alias. I like it that you readers are sPAMalot(hope Eric Idle doesn't sue me for copyright, you never know where you are with Eric)

BUT yesterday I discovered, that 'PostcardsfromPam' already exists as a Blog.
http://postcardsfrompam.blogspot.com/   This , I'm sure you'll agree is rather close to 'PostcardPam' with or without the 'Goes Large'.
Poor Pam! I feel like a total usurper. What are the odds? What should we do?  I'm coming down with an attack of the vapours. I never saw myself as a doppelganger!.

 I always find this freaky. They are surely the same woman?


Shall we change the name of the blog? If so, what to?

Would my hoards of fanatical followers still find me if we did? I know that at least one person has bookmarked me - what do we do in that instance?
Would you consider being Lessalots? It's a mathematical oxymoron after all.
Do we write to Pam and ask her permission to leave it as it is?
Shall we say nothing and hope to infiltrate her readership?
Shall I steal her identity and thence her life?
Is thence appropriate in that sentence?

All thoughts into the comments box below please. x
















Sunday, May 1, 2011

Sorry for the Delay

Am busy selling socks and head garlands for another day, but will be back with you shortly. BTW for those of you who left comments 'Hello Woogers!' but I am afraid my 'Reply to Comments' section won't let me recognise my own URL. It did before but not sure what's happening now.
But welcome to Sarah and to MummyB. Put your slippers on and stay awhile. I have visited both your blogs and will be revisiting shortly.
Until tomorrow, here's a photo of some eggs with clothes on.