15-80-19

it's a birthday weekend round here. Jennifer was 15 on Friday and got lots of clothes and money (so she's very happy!), my FIL Jack was 80 yesterday and he got a balloon (and was very amused) and my son Jack is 19 tomorrow and is getting lots of stuff for his "best" bass guitar (strap, cables, a new hard case, and is pleased with that) and money (and is very pleased with that too!).
We all went for dinner at vin caffe yesterday- my inlaws like Italian food, and there's always a good choice for vegetarians too (Jen has been a veggie since Aug 2011) so everyone is happy. I tried queen scallops for the first time and enjoyed them , followed by roast vegetables and polenta. I've not had polenta before so that was fun trying something new.

I'm making good progress on the alien scarf too, 7 alien faces done so far. I just need to measure it against Jack to see whether I need to make 9 or 10 in total. My MIL Betty, who used to a fantastic knitter until arthritis in her shoulders meant she had to put the pointy sticks away, was very impressed with illusion knitting. I've been trying to persuade her take up crochet, as that's more of a wrist action and would not put any strain on her shoulders and she would have the fun of making things again.

50, not out

I hit a big number today, and my crazy bruv Mark sent me a huge card to mark the day. (It's 60cm tall). Yes he's younger than me, how can you tell?

I've been wonderfully spoilt with flowers, wine chocolate my first ever helium balloon and David made me a wonderful cake too.

This is a lemon cake, layered with freshly made lemon curd, topped with lemon icing and finely grated lemon rind. It's a Delia Smith recipe and it's my favourite cake ever. D makes fab cakes but this is his best, the lemon curd makes it totally wonderful. 

Well, if I've got to get older I might as well enjoy it!!

birthday week!

There are a lot of birthdays in February for my family- which means lots of fun and lots of cake.
Jen and I went to Durham on the 19th for my Mam's birthday. I took the back of Seraphina to check that it fits and to make sure that she likes the colour. It does and she does. Thankfully!
I've started on the front and I'm enjoying doing the lace panels. The original pattern instructions in Let's Knit are written out, but I find it easier to work from charts now, so I've copied the pattern onto knitting graph paper. I'm pleased that my knitting skills have come on so much in the last three years or so that a chart is easier than reading p3tbl. When I started knitting the abbreviations were just gobbledygook!

Then on Thursday Jen was 14, my father-in-law was 79 on Friday and Jack was 18 on Sunday.
Good grief! He's an adult!

Of course, he wasn't planning on celebrating at home, not when he could legally buy a drink or three in Glasgow, so he met up with us in Edinburgh on Friday and we had a three-way celebration for the birthday trio at Vin Caffe. This is one of my favourite bistros: the food is fab and the atmosphere is friendly. David sometimes takes me there for lunch and it was nice to share it with the others for their birthdays.

Saturday was a shopping trip for Jen. My Mother-in-law is a keen shopper and Jennifer had a lot of birthday money to spend. I was there to carry the bags and drive the car! Jennifer is doing her best to boost the British economy by splashing the cash.

I'll have to do a lot of walking and gardening in March to burn off all the calories consumed over the last few days. I wonder how many calories knitting burns?

a good time had by all

Jen, Dad and Mam

the family get-together on Saturday was great fun as it's not often that I can meet up with all three of my brothers at the same time.  Dad was in the dark about going out for a meal, he's quite a shy man in many was and if he'd got wind of it he would have done a runner (well, gone for a long walk with the dog, anyway!), so we had to present it as a fait accompli!

I thought he might have twigged when we arrived in our gladrags at 3pm (for heavens sake I was wearing a dress! that almost never happens!) but he didn't cotton on , and I'd warned my kids not to mention it at all.

To be fair, he was more engrossed in hearing about Jack's trip to Kenya. Jack is the first person on my side of the family to have done anything like this (and hopefully not the last), and the first in a long time (more than 60 years) to have travelled to Africa. My Mam and her sister Jean lived in South Africa for nearly two years when they were young children in the 1940's, and Jean is now in Australia, but no one else has been outside of Europe. (David's family are different, they've been all over the world, with only South America untouched).

So as Jack was telling everyone all about his trip I got to hear about it too. So far I haven't been told much, other than it was good and not to give him any beef stew. But this time I heard about him thinking he'd lost his passport 3 times, spiking his hand with a giant thorn, hearing the mozzies buzz past his ears during the night, helping the masaai to give tick injections to their sheep and goats . Apparently the sheep put up with it, while the goats screamed like they were being murdered, and carried on screaming for ages afterwards just to let everyone know how violated they felt!  And he fell asleep on the safari and missing most of the animals- except when everyone went really quiet as a cheetah padded past their truck and they could have almost stretched out and touched it, and the silence woke him up!

Then at 5pm Mam went to change and out out Dad's suit and tie and told him to get changed too, leaving him no chance of escape. The meal was booked for 6pm to allow the seniors ample time to digest their dinner, to prevent teenagers passing out from hunger and so that we would not be too late when we headed back to Scotland.

The local pub is in new hands and half of it has become an Italian bistro and it is building up a good reputation for posh-food-at-not-posh-prices. Italian cuisine is about the only foreign food Dad enjoys, he doesn't like spicy stuff, stirfries, too much sauce or food that looks at you from the plate, so Italian is generally a safe bet, and he loves minestrone soup and the various chicken dishes in the italian repertoire. And of course there's pizza/pasta for the kids and fancy stuff for us. I had sea bass steamed in a paper wrap with clams and shrimps and it was delicious! Mark had panfried lemon sole, David had tuna "meat balls" with tagliatelle and Jack chose lemon sole goujons.  At one point the waiter turned up with osso bucco for Jack (beef stew! hah!) and he was convinced that we had arranged that to wind him up! We hadn't, but the look on his face was priceless.

So it all went well, Dad did enjoy the meal out, Mam can relax now the secret is out, and all nine of us had a lot of fun.

It would have been nice if our team had won today, but we almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and had to settle in the end for a draw. Oh well, football is a funny old game!

Happy Birthday Dad!

it's the glorious twelfth and my Dad is 80 today,

Happy Birthday Dad!

I made him a card, me & my 3 brothers have bought him a new HDTV and the family is getting together on Saturday to celebrate-yay!

deciders

So, it's the final games in the group matches, and everyone seems to have a "must win" game in front of them. The football has become fast and furious and  very very exciting.

Sadly, despite beating France 2-1 South Africa did not qualify for the knockout stages. Bafana Bafana played so well, and played as a team whereas the French were mutinous and sulky. The British media are very good at bashing our players, but the French press is also good at lambasting overpaid underperforming egotists. Group A: Uruguay and Mexico go through.

Group B: Argentina continue to dazzle and qualify with the max of 9 points, with S Korea second. Sadly, despite their best efforts Nigeria did not qualify, they played some wonderful football in their last game drawing 2-2 with S Korea. Greece are also out, and deservedly so as they were poor.

England's dire performance on Friday had to be the worst we've ever endured, so we had to win today against Slovenia today to qualify. Thankfully the team played well (but not brilliantly), Defoe scored a fab goal and we qualified behind USA. Eng 1-0 Slov.

The USA team must have wondered what they had to do to win, they had a perfectly good goal disallowed, hit every part of the woodwork, but in the dying minutes scored (USA 1- 0 Algeria) and will play Ghana on Saturday. Until they scored it looked like Slovenia would qualify and England would top the group.

Group C was also close- Germany beat Ghana 1-0 but both qualify, and England play Germany on Sunday- Germany didn't look terrifying against Ghana, it was a close match, so it will be possible to beat them. Australia  beat Serbia 2-1. Had they scored 5 they would have gone through ahead of Ghana.

Ghana is the first African team in this tournament to go through to the last 16, and they are a formidable team combining W African flair with organisation and determination.

I've managed to finish one sock too. I was worried that I might not even get that done before England were sent home! I've made a slightly longer sock than I usually do, so it will keep me toasty and warm in the winter months and remind me of this brilliant world cup. Even if England do get knocked out on Sunday, the South African world cup has been wonderful- I hope I get to visit South Africa one day, it looks like such a beautiful country, with such friendly engaging people.

It's also D's birthday today and Jen made chocolate cakes for her Dad, with extra chocolate and a few strawberries for decoration. It was definitely a winner with us!

rolling back the years

J2 bought me this souvenir of Jackie for my birthday.

What a trip down memory lane for me : Donny Osmond, David Cassidy, the Bay City Rollers, Cathy & Claire's problem pages.... wonderful stuff!

It was the "must read" of the day!

I think Donny Osmond has aged better than me and has fewer grey hairs!

Oh well.........

I'm busy making cotton washcloths at the moment for Easter gifts and having fun trying out different stitch patterns from Erika Knight's Harmony Stitch guides (which I bought at the Creative Stitches show in Glasgow).

I love the way the patterns are printed onto individual cards, it makes them very easy to use.

Young man

My young man is 16 today. (11 in this photo)

His hair is much longer & wilder, he still plays violin (and euphonium & bass guitar), he's 6' tall (maybe taller if he stood up straight), he loves kayaking and fencing, is passionate about the Toon like his Dad, has the world's messiest bedroom, is bright & funny, warmhearted and easygoing.

He will try any food at least once, eats cheese like nobody's business, and loves being in big cities. He is fascinated by cellular biology & politics, audio engineering & people.

He's amazing and we love him to bits (although he does drive us nuts at times!)

my baby is 12

my beautiful, lovely, cuddly, gorgeous girl is 12 today.

Today the presents are perfume & pop music, earrings & electronic games, a far cry from the Playmobil princess palace of when she was a tot.

She's 2" taller than me, is confident bright & funny, she rides better than I ever will, swims better than me and has even tried surfing.

She plays trumpet & piano, is a fashionista, has enough bags to open her own shop, she loves animals and is passionate about justice and fairness.

She's wonderful and we love her to bits.

sock2 got finished at breakfast time while listening to my gorgeous girl chatter about her day