Spice Girls reunite for 11-city tour

Spice Girls reunite for 11-city tour

The Spice Girls are back. Well for the time being anyway.


So with inspiration buzzing round my head I did this.

Spice Girls - Girl Power

Spice

Awards and Presentations

Tonight was the awards ceremony for the Aim Higher Program in Derby City. The event was taking place at a big place on Pride Park near the Rams stadium.

DS was also due to be playing in the Steel band at the event so we had to get there a little early at 6.30. It was a bit of a rush since I was out all day but we got there in good time and I found a seat right at the front while DS & DD hooked up with the rest of the band.

The presentation was for the Aim Higher program DS has only been part of the program for the past year and hasn't really had much chance to take part in many courses so I was really proud of him for getting an award. DD was part of the program for 3 years but unfortunately they only started giving out awards this year so she seems to have missed out again.
There were lots of children from schools all over Derby and there were up to 10 children from each school getting awards as well as other specialised awards and presentations.

At just after 7pm the band started to play. There was also a choir from the Children's university.
Instead of the band playing it's set and then the choir doing their set, to keep people interested they took it in turn to do a song each which was really good.




When the presentations finally started the co ordinator announced that they would do them in school order and that to save time we should only clap each school and not each child.

DS was the very first name to be read out and it was all a bit speedy for me to co ordinate clapping for him and taking pictures at the same time.


In hindsight I wish we could have sneaked out after that as we then had to sit through all the other hundreds of awards. I kept looking over at DS sat on his own and he was loosing the will to live.

We were shown a slideshow about the work of the program and introduces to lots of project leaders and there was a presentation by some pupils about what they have learned from the program.

I had been lead to believe that DS would be getting 2 awards but as we finally came to the last presentation of the evening it was clear there wasn't a second award for him.

It was about 8.45 when we came out so I called a taxi and waited as other people got in their taxis. Unfotunately we were waiting for almost an hour and by the time we got home it was nearly 10pm and I was absolutely freezing. A disappointing end to a good rewarding evening for DS (He also received a £10 gift voucher)

Reunions

Lisa and I first met about 10 years ago when our children were in Nursery together. She has twin boys who are in the year between my 2 so they were all friends and spent a lot of time together through infant school.

Unfortunately Lisa and her family moved away to another part of the city in 2000 and although we both did our best, after a few more years, we lost touch with each other.

On Tuesday as I was sat waiting for the bus, I randomly texted people in my phonebook who live in Derby to tell them that DS is in this week's local paper. I didn't expect any replies, just passing the time. Then out of the blue I got a reply from Lisa. It was so lovely to hear from her and then she said what I was thinking, Lets meet up for a drink.

So today at 12 we met up at a Wetherspoons in town. The idea was to have lunch and a few drinks but we never did get round to the food. You wouldn't believe how quick 5 hours went by. We hardly scratched the surface of catching up yet there were never a second of silence between us. The one thing about my relationship with Lisa was always that we could talk about anything. and after all this time that hasn't changed. I always found it so easy to talk to her and we have a lot of the same opinions.

I wish that we hadn't had to get back to our respective families as I could have sat there talking and laughing till chucking out time. However I had a previous engagement and she had to get back to cook for her boys.

Hopefully now we will endeavour to keep in touch and meet up at least once a month. I really do need that release and a bit of adult company to keep me from going insane.

Make my day!

On Monday my 6 year old Dear Nephew had to go into hospital to have some teeth out (8 to be exact)
DD told me a few weeks ago but she wasn't sure of the date and it wasn't until Sunday that my Nan told me it was June 25th. So I sent a text in the morning to my sister and I posted off a parcel for him too.

DD had the same procedure when she was around the same age. She only had 5 teeth out, mind, but is was quite distressing for her so I sent him a get well card and a furry little sheep to cuddle up to and an activity pack to keep his mind off the pain/discomfort. I couldn't remember what happened with DD - whether she went back to school the next day or if she was unwell. I also wanted DN to know that I was thinking about him.

I got a text back from my sister when he was home and then I got an email today to say he got the parcel.

The thing that really made my day though was when the phone rang this afternoon and it was DN on the other end thanking me for the parcel. It was so lovely to speak to him although he didn't stay on the phone long at least I got to hear he is OK and that he got my gifts.

Rain Rain Rain

Well I feel like it has been raining non-stop forever. The kids have had to sit through school wet and cold most days because it has been tipping it down every morning. I won't be surprised if they turn up to have the flu in the next 5 or 6 days.
Yesterday DD had exams all day in a freezing cold sports hall with broken down heating and no way of drying out or warming up.

DS has gone on an outward bound trip today and fingers crossed it is dry and bright. Hopefully it will stay that way all day for them otherwise he will come back like a muddy drowned rat as he did Sunday after the Derbyshire show. Lots of baths and washing of hair, they have never had so many washes in their entire Teenage lives LOL

Here come the drums, Here come the drums

Well what is there to say of this weeks episode of Dr Who but WOW?
I just watched it again to make clear a few things in ma head.

I just want to share with you my favourite Makro from this weeks episode.


You can find more delights HERE

MIA = LOST

For the whole of Friday I was MIA and incommunicado.
The reason was I finally received my DVD recordings of Lost from my friend Jill In the States.


I used to be an avid watcher of the Show when it was on E4, I would watch the show and then watch the repeat and then the Channel 4 showing too.
Of course when Sky took it over and then took themselves off Virgin, I could no longer watch it. Luckily we struck a deal and my only mission was to avoid all the talk and spoilers before I got to see it.

I almost managed it. Occasionally on UM the Lost talk would spill out of it's own thread into another but I would stop myself reading just in time.
The worst spoiler came though last Monday when Georgina Bowman on Radio 1 did a Lost feature and gave the game away about the finale. When people complained she said that as it finished weeks ago she couldn't see the problem of course until they had another onslaught by my fellow Virgin customer... A tongue in cheek apology followed.

So Friday morning I was dancing round the room when Postie delivered my DVDs. I cleared all the plans I had made and decided to get comfy with some snacks to catch up.

It was so easy to be sat there all day. 1 episode just merged into the next and before I knew it, the kids were home from school.

I was able to watch again from 6pm onwards as DD had gone to babysit for Ange and DS had gone off to Youth. I knew there wasn't much chance of DS coming home as he usually ends up sleeping over the road on a Friday. So I sat up and watched the whole season including the 2-episode season finale.
It was 4am by the time I got to bed but my head was buzzing with the whole 16 episodes.

So many questions now to ask. At last I can go and seek out the Lost communities and join in the theories and find out what others are summising.

I was sad to see Charlie go. Although all through the series it was kind of telegraphed in the storyline but Dominic Monaghan is such a great actor and charlie such a great character that I was hoping it wouldn't be true - Of course, what no one else has said is that we don't actually see Charlie die, the last time we see him is in this frame

So maybe, just maybe if we keep our fingers crossed...

Oooh Big screen tv

A while back it was announced they were going to have a big screen TV in the centre of Derby.
I didn't know when or anything. Usually these announcements are in the paper that it will be coming next year but it is there now.

Of course they had a disastrous unveiling when it refused to work and they had to bus in a replacement for an opera or something.

Anyhow I actually went to have a look today and I was well disappointed. It is actually like a replica of my TV only about 100 times bigger.
Is it playing public service announcements? Is it playing music videos? Maybe it is playing celebratory videos of Derby County's rise to The Premisership?


Nope - It is just a computer screen that's it. Thousands of tax payers money for that!

I would like someone to explain to me the whole point of it really.

Utopia

So the series finale begins with the first of a 3-parter. There was a lot of excitement and anticipation in this house, most of all of the return of Captain Jack.



We weren't disappointed. RTD's writing was absolutely sublime. I was a little disappointed with the lack of surprise when Jack first saw the new face of The Doctor but then later this was explained when Jack told 10 where he had been since the last time they were together. Who would have known Jack had been transported back to 1862?

I absolutely loved the way DT played his relationship with Jack. So much comedy in a serious episode and the chemistry between Jack and The Doctor was spot on.

"Oh don't start"

"I was only saying Hello"

"...and who are you?"

"Stop it!"

"Can't I say Hello to anybody?"

It was obviously wonderful to see all the flashbacks of Rose again as Jack and 10 reminisced but I couldn't help feeling bad for Martha as just when she was started to feel special, she was the outsider again.

"Oh she was blonde, Oh what a surprise!"

The scene in the radiation room through the door was genius. We got to learn about Jack and about The Doctor himself too. I shed a tear or 2 - all 3 times I watched it.

I have tried not to read any conspiracy theories or previews of the ending as that just spoils the whole thing so It was a massive shock to learn the identity of the old Professor who I have to say was played perfectly by Derek Jacobi.


I am not going to blog about John Simm as it is really his show next week so I can go mad about him next time.

Only sad thing is ...2 more episodes left of this series :-(

Happy Birthday Dear Daughter

Today is DD's 15th birthday.
I can't quite believe it that 15 years have gone by already. Of course normally on her birthday the skys are blue and the sun is shining and it is boiling hot (And the England football team are usually playing). Today is miserable, dark and pouring with rain - it is quite muggy though. (And England aren't playing although the U21s played last night.)

I had absolutely no doubts this year what I would be buying for DDs birthday. She has been trying for a while to save for a laptop. She has a computer in her room but it is quite old and slow so she really needs something better for doing her coursework on and keeping in touch with all her myspace/MSN buddies as well as the Photoshopping that she does. Multi-tasking is the name of the game these days.

I am very happy with the machine I got her. It wasn't new and I came across it quite by accident almost as if it were fated. The seller even threw in a carrying bag for it so when she goes to Ange's she can take it with her.

This evening DD and her friend are going bowling with the free tickets we got back in March and her friend is staying over for the evening.

Blink

There seems to be a new trend with Doctor Who that somewhere during the series they have an episode that barely features the Doctor at all. Last series it was Love and Monsters which featured Peter Kaye as the Absorbalof (a creature made up by a lucky Blue Peter viewer). It was a fun episode but lacking in the Doctor/Rose department.

So this year we were served up Blink, the story of Sally Sparrow.




It was excellently written by Steven Moffatt and only featured the Doctor appearing (with Martha) on a TV screen as a DVD Easter Egg. Oh he did appear briefly in 1969 and as a Robin Hood wannabe right at the end.




The monsters in this episode must be one of the scariest we have seen, even though they are just a bunch of statues. The Weeping agels are called so because they are covering their eyes whenever you look at them.


Only it isn't because they are delicate weeping angels, it is because they are a race that only move when they can't be seen. They cover their eyes so as not to look at each other as when they are seen they turn to stone. They could be incredibly scary though.




Of course in the end, even though he was stuck in 1969, it was The Doctor that foiled the scary beasts evil plan by tricking them into looking at each o9ther and forcing them to be statues forever.


Of course its the episode we have all been looking forward to this week...JACK IS BACK!!

On a roll

Well yesterday afternoon after successfully finishing Gary's book I went in search of The Gospel (according to Chris Moyles) to see If I could finish that too. I had read the bulk of it on holiday anyway so I didn't think I had that much left.



Guess what? I finished that too. So 2 excellent autobiographies completed in one night.

It is very surprising how much in common the 2 stars actually have. They are both Northern lads brought up in good Northern working class families. They both mentioned in their stories how hard their father's worked and how little they saw of them because of this and they are also both the youngest of 2 boys.

Even more still they both knew from a very early age what they wanted to do and started on their careers by the age of 12 - 13 years old. Of course they are also very successful in their chosen fields now but both have had difficulties along the way.

What I loved most about Moyles' book is that from the very first sentence, it is written as he talks so you can hear him in your head telling you the story and you can imagine the facial expressions and everything. He also didn't tell the story of his life in a conventional chronological order, he splits it up to talk about other things which makes it a lot easier to read and takes the tedium out of it.

Well I have several other autobiographies laying around that I have never fully read so VB and RW are lined up next ;-)

Gary Barlow - My Take

Today I got up about 12ish. I came downstairs and made some toast then I decided to pick up Gary's book and read a few pages instead of being sat at the computer all day.

In fact once I had picked it up that was it. I stopped at about 3pm to go shopping and then I sat and had a snack but otherwise the book has been my main focus today.

I have been reading a few pages each day and had got as far as Take That just being signed to BMG. Today I have spanned the whole of Take That's career and just noticed it is 6.45 and I have to get the tea before Doctor who so I have had to put it down after Gary is returning to the UK from trying to break his solo career in the States.

GREAT BIG EDIT

Well it's Sunday afternoon and I can report that I have finished reading My Take by Gary Barlow. What an amazing story - OK so we knew the story - I lived a lot of it myself!
But did you know that Gary was on the tube when 7/7 happened? I didn't and I was shocked!
It was a rollercoaster ride of a book as Gary was brutally honest about everything including his feelings towards the other guys in the band Robbie and Nigel Martin-Smith.

There were so many stories bandied about back in the day of how the band got together and their back-stories and their lives that it was great to read the actual truth at last.

The thing I loved most was how the book described the love story between Gary and Dawn. Their romance has been beautiful and as they were obviously meant to be together it is wonderful how Gary is so open about his feelings for Dawn and how he is besotted with her and his 2 children Daniel and Emily.

Throughout the whole book I did Laugh out loud as well as bawling my head of and now I am going to go out and buy the paperback version to read the extra chapter.

The Family of Blood

An excellent Doctor Who 2-parter ended this week with fantastic acting, explosions, emotions and a much darker side to the doctor than we have seen in recent series.

Anyone wonder like me where they knew the actor from who played (And so excellently I may add) Jeremy Baines /Brother?

Here this may help


He is the excellent actor Harry Lloyd who also played Will Scarlett in Robin Hood.

I didn't watch the episode until Sunday as obviously I was out Saturday night so it was difficult watching it with the kids as they had already seen it but I absolutely cried my eyes out. For so many reasons.

1) Martha - I so felt for her many times during the whole 2 episodes. First she has to deal with being the Doctor's only lifeline then the images of Rose in the journal and then seeing him fall in love with someone else with no regard for how she feels.
Then at the end of the second episode, the doctor asks Joan to come with him, as if Martha didn't even exist.




2) Tim - He stole the watch but it connected with him, in a way that The Tardis connected with Rose back in The parting of the ways. He saw his future and knew that he would go into battle for his country but when the moment came he knew what to do to save his life. The ending where The Doctor and Martha visited him at the remembrance ceremony was one of the most emotional scenes I think I have seen although not a word was said.




3) John Smith - He knew he had to give his life to save everyone else. He saw the future he could have but he knew that it had to end.



I can't believe that now I am a fully fledged Martha fan, it has been in the news that she may only do this 1 season. I do think though that within the psyche of the Doctor that would make sense. After Rose had such an affect on him, he wouldn't want to get so close to anyone again.

This series is finally getting good.

The morning after...

It was about 2am and I was lying there on Tim's lounge floor wanting to go to sleep but my head was spinning so much I knew that the bathroom would be a good option.
I Told you the Kebab wasn't such a good idea...as I flushed it all away, I felt a lot better and headed back to my duvet and attempted to get some sleep.

It was about 7.30am when I woke again. Talk about feeling rough! I did want to curl up and die.

Tim came in about 8am to wake us both up (Brian was sleeping on the sofa) and then in the following few hours I tried my best to perk up. I admit I did puke again before Tim served up a huge cooked breakfast but I felt better then and I was ready to face the world.

I think it was about 1.30pm when we set off back in the car to my house. It was a lovely journey back home and although it was a great night I was so glad to be home and plonked myself on the sofa for the rest of the day. I did doze off a couple of times but I had only had a couple of hours sleep anyway.

It is Tuesday night and I feel like I am still recovering...

Little reunion video

Its not the best but here is a little video I took of everyone mingling at the tables in the Beer garden.
I set it to Johnny Cash's Ring of fire only because it is one song that always reminds me of the Park and me standing on the bridge trying to sell cowboy hats, dancing and twirling me guns.

Saturday slide show

I love it when a plan comes together

After months of planning and endless calls and texts and meetings and Newspaper interviews, Finally the big night arrived.

The American Adventure 20 year reunion.
Boy was I nervous. I didn't hardly sleep Friday night, I kept waking every half an hour expecting it to be after 11am only to find it was 4.45am. I thought the day would never start and finally I could get up at 10 am.

Finally after the most stress-full day ever Tim and Brian pulled up in the car and I was away with me duvet and me overnight bag.
I had brought along a little bottle of Voddie for us to have to calm our nerves a little but the boys also bought a large bottle which we practically necked the whole of before we left for the pub. In hindsight this was a very bad idea..Come on, if you have been reading this blog long enough you will know about my past experiences of just a little too much Vodka.

Now I should have known not to trust Bri when he said that the pub was only round the corner from Tim's house so for the entire 10 mile trek to the pub I admit was moaning a lot but I was in those bloody high heels and I was more than a little tipsy.
The main reason I was moaning was that I didn't want to get to the pub and just be miserable because my feet hurt me, I didn't want that to spoil the night.

When we got to the pub my stomach was doing somersaults. I was a little disappointed because I saw a crowd of people carrying photos that I guessed must be ex-AA staff but they didn't approach us at all (Even though me and Bri were wearing our exclusive reunion shirts that I designed)

We went in the pub and ordered drinks. I spotted Dean and Evelyn Hogan sat at the table near the bar but as they must be 2 people that I never spoke to in my entire time at the park, I wasn't about to approach them. We sat at a table near a window and then everything seemed to happen at once. Before I could catch my breath we were stood outside in a huge crowd, swapping photos and stories and catching up on everyone's lives.

As we were quite a crowd, someone suggested we go round the far side of the pub and sit in the beer garden. So we pulled a load of tables together and all sat and chatted.

The weird thing about the whole evening was I didn't get to chat to anybody that I really wanted to. I really wanted to chat to Jill about her Son James and find out what he is up to these days and I wanted to chat to Adrian about what he is up to but I ended up sat chatting the Dean and Evelyn all night.

Dean Hogan was the manager of the Janitorial department. He was quite a looker (and still is) and everyone on the park fancied him. Evelyn came along with her husband as managers and was soon setting up home together. They still live in the area now 20 years later with their 2 kids.
They both told me all about what happened for them after they left the park and how they loved it so much that they bought a house in the area. Evelyn even told me the story of how Dean proposed to her Awwww!

Somehow you know that it wouldn't all be plain sailing. I had a full glass of red wine spilt down me, a bottle of beer and a glass of white wine not to mention the several times I spilled my own beer I also tripped down the steps down to the kiddies play area and nearly broke me bloody leg. Luckily no injury was sustained and I just ended up in a giggly heap on the concrete. Oh and the power went off in the actual pub so for most the night it was bottled drinks only.

The night passed by so quickly and I got quite sad as people started drifting off. And there was a bit of a dampener on things when Dean lost it with a bloke who asked if he was still in the cleaning business.

So the boys and I accepted a lift back into town from Alison and then we went for food.
Believe me, the Kebab was totally the wrong choice. as I will tell later.

So 20 years on and if I had to describe the evening in 1 word it really would have to be perfect.
Not complete though, for it to be perfectly complete would have meant that Debbie Duro, Sharon Fisher and Paul Hill were there but maybe next time...

Friends

So with only a couple of days to go to the big night, Brian came over on Wednesday to go over the final arrangements and even more so to pick up his Exclusive T-shirt for the night.

I met him off the train at 10am and as it was tipping it down with rain we hopped in a cab back to my house.

There were a couple of things internet and computer related that Brian wanted me to help him out with, 1 of those was to be able to put a youtube video on his blog.
So we made a little video clip and as I have no sound on my camera I downloaded a little audio clip to mix the video to.

I hope you like this as much as I do as it makes me chuckle every time I watch it.



I made Vodka Smoothies for us. It was nice to have someone to share them with as it always feels a little sad making Vodka Smoothies just for myself. We had Jacket potato with Tuna and Sweetcorn Mayo and Ainslie Harriot chocolate for afters.

The day passed really quickly and I couldn't believe it when it was 6pm and Brian had to leave to get his train back. I walked with him to the train station as it is a bit of a way to remember if you haven't done it many times.
Brian got on the train and I left to walk back home, I got a text not long after saying that it was the wrong train and everyone had been turfed off - LOL!