What A Wonderful Day

I had a wonderful Birthday yesterday. It was the kind of day that I love to have. Not because of the cards and the presents but the fact that I saw so many family and friends and my great day stretched into a lovely evening when my niece and my almost adopted niece Louise took me San Rocco the Italian restaurant in Cheetham Hill. Happiness is a day when I don't have to cook!

The day started with the delivery of the beautiful bouquet of flowers from Sylvia, Jan and the foster babies. Getting flowers is always a lovely surprise as it's very rare that I do get any flowers delivered. The florists make them look so attractive that I always leave them as they arrive with the bow until later in the day. Beautiful autumn colours with a dash of purple as Sylvia had requested. She knows my favourite colour is purple.

My ex husband was the first to call and he and Sue had bought me some toiletries and a scented candle from Molton Brown. I feel very pampered as their stuff is very expensive ( well it is to me) and I am looking forward to using it and burning the candle.

Rachael (Artyarn) called as well and we barely got time to chat before my sister in law turned up. She wanted to measure me for something that she is buying me for Christmas so I had the trauma of having a tape measure stretched across my widest parts. Not something that i wanted to be reminded of on my Birthday.

Whilst Rachael was here I saw the Royal Mail van and as I am expecting 3 parcels from Internet orders I felt sure that one of them would be on the van. I was disappointed when he tried to deliver it to a house across the road. What was more annoying was that early evening the same neighbour came with the parcel addressed to me. As they weren't in her husband has walked all the way to the collection office to get the parcel and then discovered it wasn't for them but only after they had opened it. I have mentioned to E Kemp that the address was so blurred it was no wonder that it went to the wrong address but in fairness the invoice was in a see through envelope and the address was very clear on that so there is no excuse for the delivery person to get it wrong. The wool is one of the presents from myself to myself. Well who can resist sale wool at 89p a ball instead of over £2.50? Stash. Stash and more stash to come. At least after Christmas I will be able to start a no buy policy, for as long as I can, as I did last year. I have enough stash to keep me going for quite a while.

My son is calling today to drop off Buster and to pick up a single divan. He wanted to know if I knew of anyone with a spare mattress as they are expecting guests to stay overnight after the Birthday bash on Saturday. I never use the divan. I was the one that my step grand daughter used when everyone lived with me for a time.It was propped up against the wall in my wool room (AKA 3rd small bedroom). I have had to remove boxes and bags so that he can get to the bed. This will make sure that I do tidy up the stash room as I have been threatening to do for so me time. Then all the new stuff that is in the dining room will have a home until I get around to using it. No bed = more room for stash. Buster doesn't deal to well with a house full of guests so I said that he would be better with me for the weekend. I won't stay out long at the party. I do have a hospital appointment this afternoon but he will be OK for an hour or so. I just hope that Oscar the lodger cat has come downstairs and gone home by the time he arrives otherwise fur will be flying!

My niece and Louise arrived in the evening to take me out for a meal. They brought the family present of a new printer. My old donated printer gave up the ghost some time ago and it has been very awkward not being able to print out patterns that I find on the net. That is basically all that I use my printer for. I do prefer a hard copy of patterns as my PC is in another room to the TV and so I can't read the pattern, knit or crochet and watch TV in my comfy recliner all at the same time. Louise bought me some lovely toiletries from Marks and Spencer so I will be smelling sweet for some time.

We went to the San Rocco for a meal. It has always been one of my favourite Italian Restaurants. I used to go there with my ex. That's how good it is. Still in existence all these years later and one of the waiters/owners is the same person who used to serve us back then. I had a Calzone which is a folded pizza but the peppers in it must have been Scotch Bonnet as my mouth was on fire afterwards. I needed an ice cream to cool my mouth down. Well that was my excuse! It was so nice not to have to cook on my Birthday.

I managed to finish off the huge scarf for Louise's birthday and also made a matching hat. Her birthday is on the 8th December but I won't see her before then so I gave it to my niece to smuggle it into her boot and then give it to Louise on the right day. Louise is only tiny so it will wrap around her a few times. She does feel the cold though so I hope she likes her big scarf.

Today I have to get my CPAP machine checked out at the hospital but after that it will relax, relax and hope that the parcel containing the wool for my niece's black cardigan turns up today and then I can start it. I just hope that it doesn't arrive whilst I am out. Luckily yesterday I didn't start crocheting my sister in law's sweater. I had a feeling that she would call and didn't want her to see me making it.

I had better get showered and dressed. I bet that either my son or Royal Mail will ring the bell the minute that I get under the water. It never fails.

Will You Still Need me, Will You Still Feed Me

Will you still need me, will you still feed me when I am 64? Well I hope so because today is my birthday and I have reached the young age of 64. When I look at the photos I wonder where did all the years go. I can remember vividly having my hair cut that short and my Mother's horrified face. I had long hair down my back and went from that to the urchin cut on the photo. She almost cried and said I looked like a boy. I grew it out again very soon afterwards. Where did I get those eyebrows? Is it any wonder that they are now almost bald through over plucking?

Inside I still feel like a giddy young thing but I had to chuckle this morning when I was trying to pick up my blood pressure tablet and flirted it onto the floor. My mind may be young but my fingers certainly aren't. Why is it though that a tablet meant mostly for the older generation has to be the size of a Hermeseta? My son was crawling under my PC desk the other day whilst he was plugging in the Freeview box that he bought me for my birthday when he gave me a couple of pills that he found round the back of the desk. Ah so that is where they went to.

I am so in love with my Mary Jane shoes that my nieces bought for my birthday. The look so normal from the top but have that cheeky bright pink sole. A bit like me really - normal on the outside but kind of kooky on the inside. I needed a pair of shoes to wear with skirts and dresses as since my spine and knee ops I seem to live in a pair of trainers and I wanted to be a bit more feminine on dress up days.

Charlie's jacket is finished bar the buttons and is drying on the blocking board. Sirdar's idea of 1-2 yrs is a bit on the large side but be will grow into it. In contrast I have started the smaller jacket 0-6 months and that seems spot on for size. I have finished the back of that so hope to have it completed before the weekend when my wool for my Christmas knitting should arrive.

I got my patterns from Kay's crochet yesterday. I know that you can't seen them very well from my photos so I have put the link to the site in my blog title. I like Kay's patterns as they use UK terms so there is none of the wondering what worsted thickness is that I have when I use US patterns. She is very prompt with her deliveries and the bonus factor is her patterns are a bargain at £2 each. I have bought a new Tunisian crochet hook and pattern from her as I saw the baby jacket that Bev (Nothinmuffin on Ravelry) had made and liked it so much that I decided to give it a try. Doris Chan's new book will have Tunisian and Broomstick crochet in it when it arrives in June so I need to brush up on my skills for that.

Thanks to everyone for their e mails, e cards, cards, comments and messages on Facebook. I love Birthdays even though it does mean I am more decrepit that I was yesterday.

My brother and sister in law will probably arrive soon but until then I am going to put my feet up, have a coffee and carry on knitting. First though I had better tidy up and wash the dishes as my family are very houseproud unlike me!