Give me strength!

Izzy is away at my parents' for a few days.

Husband is off work today so he asked what we should do.

"Well, I'm going shopping for school shoes" I replied.

(That's school shoes for me, not Izzy.)

"I'll come with you" he said, "I'll just nip to the barber's first. I'll go on my bike."

Off he disappears into the garage to get his bike out.

Five minutes later:

"My bike's got a flat tyre. I'll have to drive."

Then:

"I'll nip to the dry cleaners while I'm in the car and pick up my suits"

Half an hour later he returns:

"I'll just phone the bike shop"

Then:

"They've got an inner tube, I can drop the bike off on our way"

Will I ever get to the Trafford Centre?

Cease and Desist

It appears that a blogger has been copying and using content from several blogs and passing it off as her own, including content from this blog.

"Thinking" has now been found out and this evening she has made her blog invitation only. She should do the decent thing, shut her blog down and learn from her mistakes.

Having made her blog 'invitation only' I cannot contact her to tell her to cease and desist, thus I am publishing the following letter for "Thnking":

Dear Sir or Madam,

You are using a work that I own the copyright of. The name of the work involved is “Conversations with a four year old - the one about being late” and "Anything you can do............." from "Workingmumonverge.blogspot.com". It appears on a site operated by you at http://thinking-lifeandyou.blogspot.com. I have reserved all rights to this work, which was first published on http://workingmumonverge.blogspot.com/2009/03/conversations-with-four-year-old-one_14.html and http://workingmumonverge.blogspot.com/2009/03/anything-you-can-do.html in 2009.

Your copying and or use of my work, which appear at the link above, is unauthorized. You neither asked for nor received permission to use the piece nor to make or distribute copies of them in the manner you have. Furthermore, you have taken credit for my work and caused confusion as to whom the original author of the work is. Therefore, I believe you have willfully infringed my rights under 17 USC §101, et seq. and could be liable for statutory damages as high as $100,000. Further, such copyright infringement is a direct violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and International Copyright Law.

I demand that you immediately cease the use and distribution of the work and all copies of it, that you remove any further works you may have stolen and that you desist from this or any other infringement of my rights in the future. Furthermore, I demand that you post an apology on the site clarifying who the real author is and that you inform others that might have been misled by your misuse of the works’ origins.

If I have not received proof of compliance from you within 72 hours, I shall consider taking the full legal remedies available to rectify this situation including contacting my lawyer and/or your site’s administrators.

Sincerely

Carol Foster

aka Working Mum on the Verge


Update, 29 Aug 2011: Both of "Thinking"'s blogs have now been removed. I would like to thank Yellow Gal for alerting me to the plagiarism and to Fi from Four Paws and Whiskers and Crystal Jigsaw for their invaluable help.

Fun in the Yorkshire Dales

Having spent a week in the Yorkshire Dales last summer, we decided to go back and sample more of the delights of this Area of Oustanding Natural Beauty and we weren't disappointed. Not only that, a week in a cottage in Masham, food, petrol and all the following days out cost, in total, around a quarter of that of our week at Center Parcs. (Hmmmmmm ........... food for thought)

So here's what we did.

We had a lovely day walking at Aysgarth Falls, after buying up half of the stock of the Wensleydale Creamery ("Abbot's Bronze" is the best cheese ever!):

After a morning at Middleham admiring the racehorses and watching them train on the Gallops:

there was an amazing trip to The Forbidden Corner (even after two hours we hadn't managed to find all the items on the list in this weird and wonderful garden!):

We had a free day at Lightwater Valley Theme Park (TGFTesco Clubcard points):

We enjoyed climbing all over the rocks at Brimham Rocks:

Whilst walking the Masham Leaf Trail (a walk punctuated with sculptures of leaves symbolising things about the area) daughter was delighted to be joined on our walk by a few ponies who wandered across the stream to see her:

We had a super day at Fountain's Abbey......


.............. and Studley Royal:

There was dressing up both at the Ripon Museums and at Fountain's Hall:

and of course, a trip to the Black Sheep Brewery, fudge from Joneva and ice cream from the Brymor Ice Cream Farm.

Guess I'll be going back on the diet now........

Back and Baking!

I'm back from the Yorkshire Dales.

I've done the washing and ironing.

I've done the weekly food shop.

And I've been baking.

Presenting..........

......... ever so sophisticated Earl Grey Cupcakes:



Just the thing for a summer's afternoon tea!

These Boots are Made for Walking

We're off on holiday again soon to the lovely Yorkshire Dales to eat lots of Wensleydale and do lots of walking.

Unfortunately, daughter had grown out of her old walking boots:

So we had a day trip to the Lake District and bought her some new ones:

Spot the difference!?

Landmark Post

Can you believe it?

This is my sexcentennial post.

Yes, 600 posts and I'm still no nearer to "having it all".

But I am having fun!

Here's to the next 600:

Cheese Anniversary

Today is our 18th Wedding Anniversary and according to Working Mum's (not-too-traditional) Anniversary List that's the "Cheese Anniversary".

Why?

Well, hubby asked me if I'd like to go out for a meal for our anniversary, but we went out last week for his birthday so I fancied doing something different.

After thinking for a while I decided that he could go to the Cheese Hamlet in Didsbury and buy some lovely cheeses (he has to have permission to go there because he always goes mad and buys the entire shop!).

So we're having baked Camembert, Grana Padano, Sage Derby, Hereford Red and Duckett's Caerphilly with a baguette from the French bakery and Scottish oatcakes, a few grapes and a nice bottle of red.

Hence, it's our Cheese Anniversary!

Sing us a song, you're the piano man

I'm so excited.

I've bought a piano!

Daughter will be starting piano lessons in September but we don't actually have a piano. Small problem. So I've been looking and researching for over a year now - upright, digital, ebay, loot, music shops, etc, etc. I've been offered a second hand upright and a clavinova, but they were too expensive. I was beginning to despair of ever finding a decent one in our budget when my lovely parents surprised us with a cheque from my dad's retirement money. They didn't even know we were trying to buy a piano - how timely was that?!

After much research and umming and ahing I decided on a digital piano. The big plusses being no need to tune it and the ability to plug in headphones so she can practise without disturbing anyone else!

So today we took a trip to Harker and Howarth's in Bolton, drooled over the Steinways (at £23,000 I decided we didn't have the room for one!) and bought this one:

(click on the picture to find out more)

She'd better stick at the lessons now!