Another year on planet earth

I'm delighted that this year the clock's have fallen back on my birthday, so I have an extra hour to spend celebrating. Mr Thorley is cooking me homemade pizza and lemon drizzle cake, and this evening we are going to the Royal Theatre in Northampton for a ghost walk. Spooky!

Every birthday is an opportunity to reflect, as well as look forward. Here are five things I thought I'd be able to do by now:

• Slice bread without creating a triangular loaf
• Choose wine by its label, not its price
• Check my car's tyre pressure
• Walk down stairs in high heels
• Peel an orange using just my fingernails without getting juice all the way up to armpits.

I am still a work in progress.

Celebrate the Small Things, 4 November

I didn't have time to post my celebrations last week because I was out and about all day celebrating my birthday, albeit a day early. This means I have taken delivery of another stack of books - thanks, everyone!

A selection of my birthday goodies

On the home front, I'm celebrating that we've finally had our living room carpet installed. Of course, the doors no longer fit and the carpenter will have to be called, but it's a small price to pay. On the plus side, because we had to shift all the furniture out of the room, including the bookcases, I have a pleasant weekend in prospect putting all my books back in the right place. Bliss!

It's Bonfire Night tomorrow here in the UK. Strange that an event that started as a way to warn us not to stand against the government - Guy Fawkes was not a hero at the time - has turned into just the opposite. Three cheers for the man who tried to destroy parliament! Funny thing, perspective.

Have a good weekend, folks - and careful with those fireworks!

Celebrate the Small Things  is a blog hop hosted by  Lexa's Blog. Join us. 

Celebrating autumn

Sometimes all you want to do is stand on top of a hill in the autumn sunshine with a good friend and let the wind blow away your cares. Well, I'm celebrating that I had the chance to do just that with my pal Steph, whom I've known since we were 11 and who has had the good sense to move to Skipton. There's nothing like a weekend in Yorkshire for lifting spirits.

We walked up Sharp Haw, where if you look one way you can see the Lake District; turn around and you can see the Yorkshire Dales. Perfect.

We've had birthday celebrations, too: my sister-in-law Melanie, my 'baby' Joe, who is now 23, and, tomorrow, my godson Chris. Good times all round.

Have a great weekend, folks.

Celebrate the Small Things  is a blog hop hosted by  Lexa's Blog. Join us.

Plenty to celebrate today

We are celebrating a 'special' birthday today, as my husband Clive moves into a new decade. There will cake and fine dining.

We had a pre-birthday trip out on Wednesday to Bletchley Park. Have you been? It's fascinating. I thought I knew the story, but there is so much more to it than I'd realised. I didn't know, for instance, that Enigma machines were widely available for commercial use before the war. We were lucky enough to be at Bletchley when they were demonstrating the enormous Bombe machine that clicked and whirred to check the decoders' theories. When we got home we watched The Imitation Game.

Three things struck me: the sheer genius of everyone who worked on this project; how boring it must have been; but mostly what a sad story it is. Poor Alan Turing doing his best for king and country, saving millions of lives and taking years off the war, but charged with indecency and driven to suicide just because he was gay. He was only 41; what a waste.

Sorry - went all gloomy. Back to the celebrating.

Clive: what a cherub.

Yesterday's pre-birthday outing took us to Melton Mowbray to pick up a ridiculous quantity of home brewing kit purchased via eBay. (Purchased, note, not won. It annoys me that you 'win' an auction when actually you could say that because you are the highest bidder you have technically lost, because you are paying more than anyone else thinks the lot is worth.) Naturally, on the way home we had to stop at Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe to pick up one of Dickinson & Morris's finest.

It's my baby brother's birthday on Easter Sunday, too, so there's plenty to feel pleased about this weekend, despite the weather. Sorry, nearly went gloomy again!

Have a good weekend, folks. 

To be part of the Celebrate the Small Things blog hop, all you have to do is put your name on the linky list on Lexa's Blog, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week. 

This week's celebrations

I've missed a couple CTST Fridays, because I've been so busy, but I couldn't let this week's go by unmarked, because we have a proper celebration this weekend as number two son turns 21. Happy birthday, Joe. There will be beer and pizza tonight; never let it be said that we don't know how to party in the Thorley household.

Have a lovely weekend, folks.

'Celebrate the small things' is a bloghop instigated by VikLit on her blog Scribblings of an Aspiring Author and co-hosted by Diana Wilder, LG Keltner @ Writing Off the Edge, Cyborg Mom (Katie) and CaffeMaggieato @ mscoffeehouse. Details are here. 
 

Road rage

We had a lovely time at the weekend marking my brother's special birthday. Inevitably, given our family background and that of my brother's inlaws, the do was at the golf club. My dad and brothers literally (and I'm using the word correctly) built the course and there is even a cup in Dad's name. We have had some good times there.

After lunch the 'boys' in the party, ranging in age from 6 to 58, had a 'nearest the pin', competition. I won't name the winner, but let's just say there's a lot of skill in the up-and-coming generation. Mind you, my older son demonstrated a rather unexpected ability to hold a golf club in both hands, horizontal to the floor, and jump over it. Then there was tea and cake, the latter baked by Mum and decorated by my hubby. The lawnmower was constructed out of sweets and licorice.

The journey home down the motorway was fine except for a minor disagreement with a couple of wazzocks in a Stanair van who took great delight in tailgating me down the A14. I'm not easily intimidated, however. Quite what physical inadequacy the driver was compensating for that he had to bully my 1.2-litre Fiesta I'll leave you to guess.