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Hi Chris: I am so looking forward to reading this year's stories. I am still gobsmacked at the stories from last year - some of them were truly incredible.
Hope you have a lovely Monday too!

C xx

Morning (again!)

I love the idea of the 500 words competition - too many kids these days (how old does that make me sound?) are far too absorbed into electronic gaming worlds and less than brilliant children's TV programmes. There's too much branding and corporate brain-washing - basically, if it's not on a sandwich box, school bag or you can't get a sticker album for it, children just don't seem to want to know.

The imagination is at its peak during childhood, and creative writing should be encouraged.

That's all.

Deevs
x

Me again - hi everyone - hope you all had a good weekend.

Spent yesterday listening to Sir David on DID, and then listened to Chris's Friday show with Kirsty - both brilliant shows. I know this is a sweeping statement, but surely we have the best radio in the world - there is so much to listen to, and just not enough time to catch it all!

Cheryl: hope you feel better as the day moves on - not nice for you at the moment. I totally understand you don't want to reveal too much about your proposed wee puppy - I always worry about tempting fate too! And very well said about the writing!

From the previous blog:

Crumpy: nice to hear all your news - it's always nice to see you here.

Debs: great news about your GD - it will take some getting used to when she moves out. I am still finding it surreal that MsS doesn't live with us anymore. Thanks for keeping us updated with your Sunday lunch!

Bids: you are very welcome regarding Chris's DID. Hope you managed to listen to it - it's a terrific interview and Sue Lawley is superb.

Maddy: I know a couple of people who will want to know about the shoe site you mentioned - it's great when you get good tips by reading the blog!

Last, but not least, happy birthday Jo! Hope you have a great day.

C xx

Morning All,

Just have a quick catch up with a cuppa.

Chris, I don't know that many kids, but I will certainly encourage those that I do know and I'll even put it on the church newsletter this week!

Deev, Hope you feel better soon, I hope it wasn't your risotto!!

Chrissie, It's always nice to read you xx

When I left for work this morning, it was sleeting!!!! Fortunately it only lasted about three minutes and has left the skies rather grey and dull.

I'm just having a bit of chocolate birthday cake with my tea, my colleagues little girl was 1 over the weekend and he brought in some cake to share...yum yum.

Happy Monday everyone

AliB
xx

Hello CE & Everyone.

The 5oo words is a wonderful idea. I remember in the 'good old days' when newspapers used to do writing and drawing competitions for children.

Deevs-Talking about training your little puppy to use a patch in the garden makes me think of Hugh Grant in Notting Hill trying to train his dog to use the tree outside instead of using his armchair. After failing he finally took the chair and put it next to the tree. Good luck!

I think this could be a happy Monday as the sun is shining but it all depends on what each individual is doing.

Not a lot going on here!

MM xxx

Good day everyone,

A hard frost this morning, but a beautiful cold sunny day now here in Ayrshire.

Good luck to all the kids taking part in the 500 Words Competition, I'm looking forward to reading some of the stories.

Deevs - lovely to hear about your pup, I'm going to nickname him Zebedee until we find out his real name, he sounds adorable.

I'm going to the vets tonight with the dogs/cats for their annual boosters, only 2 cats this time as Crunchie went to the Rainbow Bridge on Christmas Eve and Minstrel has gone walkabout again, we haven't seen him now for over 2 weeks, I am trying really hard not to panic, he was away for 3 weeks once so I am really hoping he will re-appear soon. The SSPCA warned me that Denny wasn't good with the vets at all and they had to muzzle him so that could be interesting!

We went 10 pin bowling last night, was really good fun and I was in the lead for ages but got pipped at the post by David.

Have a good day everyone.

X

Gail.

Hiya,

AliB: awww, thank you so much - what a lovely thing to say! xx Hope that chocolate cake was good!

Gail: sounds like fun and games for you this evening ... not! When we had our wee cat, Toots, and we had to take him to the vet, he would look at us with the saddest eyes you ever did see - made us feel like criminals! Re: Minstrel - perhaps the power of the blog could work its magic again - worked the last time!

Minstrel: psss psss psss - come on home!

C xx

Thanks Chrissie - finger's and toes crossed X

Afternoon each!
Hope all are well - and enjoying some of this gogeous sunshine, cold though it may be but certainly good to get a blast of the sunlight albeit only for a few hours!
Of course today is a very Happy Monday as some of us are a year older!
Had a great weekend celebrating, mostly family stuff, got to get my head around my new age - but i just have to remember the company that make beans, soup etc ending in Z and I'm done!
Early dart from the workplace, may pop in later on!

Jo x

PS ccchhh ccchhh cccchhh Minstrel - you can come home tomorrow, vets will be done and dusted!! x

Minstrel - Here kitty, kitty, kitty - come on home.....dinner xx

Maddy, I think you mean Bruce Almighty with the arm chair and the dog...lol :) xx

Nearly home time!

AliB
xx

Afternoon each

I'll definitely tell my lot about the 500 words Chris, although they're more into building their websites and in the case of the 9yr old, giving far too much information on poo. They do read a lot though and the 12yr old used to think Alexander McCall Smith's childrens books were the best.

Dozy, good luck at the vets and fingers crossed the wee cat comes home.

xxxxx

***HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORAN***

psssss psssss psssss here Minstral

Ali-thank you, of course it was Jim Carrey. I wonder where I got Hugh Grant from. I think he'd be too smooth and sophisticated to do that.

MM xxx

My apologies Joran - forgot to say Happy Burpday to you, hope you have had a lovely day.

Thanks for reminding me Maddy. xxxxx

You're welcome Annie. I forgot too in my earlier post.

MM xxx

Anyone named Gordon? Watching Scotland's Clans and the Gordon's are infamous.

xxxx

Annie Mr loli's tartan is gordon, I have a gordon sash that i wore on our wedding day and it now hangs on the end of our bed along with our tartan hand fastenings, which I have to remember to put away when the central heating engineer checks the radiator in the bedroom ha ha!

loli x

Oh Loli, you were a bad Clan!!! And related to the Earls of Huntley.

My tartan is Mackay - thieves and robbers from Galloway.

xxxx

oh really ...love it ha ha!

Evening all, glad to see that the 500 Words competition is back for another year. Also enjoyed hearing Kirsty Young on Friday, DID is a gem of a programme, I caught up with Sir David Attenborough last night, a great listen.

My tartan would be the Fraser, apparently I am somehow distantly related to the founder of the department store that carries that particular surname.

Only just home, and I left the house at 8am this morning, so am collapsed in a heap!

Rx

'Lo everybody

My tarten is the Farqueson (rather nice one too!) My sister in law's wedding dress had the bodice in tarten and my brother in law wore the kilt!

I'm working on boy1 to wear it to his prom next year but so far, I'm not having much luck!

Been to Jazzercise but I'm not sure that was a good idea as my shoulder is really stiff!

Night all

Sezza xxx

Good morning all,

Minstral, come on where are you ,your breakfast is waitingfor you ..
Gail good luck with Denny.

Annie Don't know what my tartan is but Kens is Mcdonalds.

Well the sun is shining and we have wall to wall blue,but it's -4 ,but we are probably lucky here to what some have ,so take care all and stay safe.

Bids.xxx.

Morning everyone, sky grey and heavy this morning here in Ayrshire.

Well, my visit to the vet was a great success, Denny was brill, the vet just took her time with him and let him come to her, she checked him all over and took his heart rate, then we just put the muzzle on him for the actual vaccination, just in case, but I don't think he needed it, I think he would have been fine with me just holding him. Jensen (cat) has to go in next week for some teeth extractions!, and still no sign of Minstrel.

I really had to laugh this morning when someone called in to say they wanted to be in Chris' Good Morning Club as they were going to UP Helly Aa tonight, Chris said "I hope it's indoors", obviously, he doesn't know what Up Helly Aa is.

David's Mum has been battling ovarian cancer for about a year now and she has just been steadily getting worse, she was getting chemo every week at one point. Yesterday she had an appointment at The Beatson Institute and when he phoned her last night to see how she got on she just said, it's not good news but I'm not telling you over the phone, so he is going to see her this evening, a very difficult time for him and his family.

Belated Birthday wishes to Joran. XX

Hope everyone has a good day.

X

Gail.

Hi everyone:

Chances of snow today in Glasgow - almost 100% I would think! What a horrible colour of sky we have at the moment!

Rosie: nice to see you, to see you nice!

Gail: sorry to hear about David's Mum. It is an utter nightmare having to watch someone you love being so ill. xx But, I am glad to hear everything went o.k. at the Vet.

C xx

I'm back, On the subject of 500 words, it turns out that I have a 2nd cousin who is an author, his name is Ross MacKenzie and he wrote a children's book called Zac and The Dream Pirates, which was nominated for the Scottish Children's Book Awards 2011, well I never!

X

Gail

Morning everyone

Gail, sending much love to you and David, and of course, to David's mum. What a horrible, horrible time for you all xxx

Belated Birthday wishes to Joran xxx

I don't know if I have a tartan or not. I'm not aware of any Scottish roots but then I wasn't aware of 5 generations of Black Country coal miners until Nic started looking into my family tree! Yam yam bab, eye!

Tum feeling much bettererer this morning - just akin to having done several thousand stomach crunches in the last 24 hours. Ouch.

Weather: grey, cold, bit murky.

Right, washing machine needs attention and then I have a couple of blogs to write, amongst other stuff.

Back later when I need a water cooler moment!

Love, and indeed, stuff

The Virtual One
x x x

Greetings Mr Mayo & ALL Bloggies...

Bingo Star 'ere... Aged 13 and 11/12ths.... Do a qualify ter enter the 500 word gig?????

CLP - Am too busy ter write two blogs.... Soz that's just the way me crazy life is a tpresent.... But rather than not blog.... Let me drop this copy of me Mayo blog inter the CLP blog terdee:

Mayo Mate - (mate is mean't in a VERY warm and nice friendly tone... not at all mean't ter be patronising or inpolite or unproffessional!!!!! A 'eard Wrightie boy and The Smith talking about is it godd or bad practice if yer running a business and yer call yer clients 'mate'!!!!!!!!!!!! My MIND is in termoil blog friends and DJ dudes..... NEVER in a million years could a for a second of the million years imagine that calling 'someone 'mate' would cause offence!!!!!!
A do it all the time mean't in a friendly way!!!! a could imagine if yer called somebody 'BLEEP... BLEEP' or 'BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP BLEEP YOU DAMN IT BLEEP'.... Or 'YOU BLEEPIN BLEEPER!!!!!!!!@!!@!!!' (lucky the bbc bleep system kicks in ter stop me getting moderated).... Know, sorry now any of the above am sure they would cause offence!!!!!!!
But not mate..... Know what am sayin mate!!!!!!!

Broken Britain..... Is slowly gettign more broken if mate offends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Forgotten whatta cam eon 'ere ter blog know, sorry now!!!!!!!

Niceness ter each ;-)))))

Talkin' of mate... mate: >>>




Oh I yeah blogging.... DEADLINES..... A can't think of any tunes... But for sure Dr Beeching certainly knew all about dead lines!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tatty bye... mate!!!!

Eh?

Bingo, we have just had a delivery at work which I signed for and the guy said "thanks pal", now I can see why a guy would call another guy "pal" but to say it to a woman is just beyond me!!

That's nuffin Gail - I've just been stung for £8 by the window cleaner (a pitfall of working at home!) and was addressed as "me duck".

quack!

x

Quack indeed!

Afternoon All,

The skies over North Kent look laden with snow, but it's not snowing and it's not forecast to either! Although it was a bit sleety this morning.

So how's everyone?

Gail, Sorry to hear about David's Mum. Glad the vet trip went OK and here's hoping that Minstrel returns home soon xx

Chrissie, I hope you don't get snow, I know how much you hate it :( Thanks for passing on my message, had a text chat with csn last night xx

Deev, £8 doesn't sound too bad for cleaning a whole house of windows, or is it just me? I have to clean my own, which isn't always easy living three floors up!!

Bingo, I don't think calling anyone "mate" is offensive, but in some cases probably quite disrespectful. Although I'm not sure I'd call anyone mate or pal. I notice Chris calls people "pal" a lot.

By the way, do we know if he came to work today in his PJ's he promised that little boy he would!

Cheese and Peanut butter sandwich consumed, also a slice of banana loaf (homemade), and an apple, just a kiwi to go.

AliB
xx

Afternoon everyone,

Gail, just read your news, and would like to say how sorry I am . Please let David know I am thinking of him and his mum.

Sezza, many thanks for the "next book" , I have just ordered it off the t'internet, so that's my February reading taken care of. Only another 10 months to go, hope you can keep up the good work please :-)

It is terribly grey here today, and very cold. When I left work last night , it was so light, i almost thought I'd left an hour early. It was just so unexpected , but very welcome.
I do so hope we don't get snow, I'm really not in the frame of mind to be faffed with my shovel and scraper at some ungodly hour of the morning .

Ali, Cheese and Peanut butter , wow , what a combo .
I am having one of those days, where I think I could just eat my way through until bedtime !

Right, the hour of freedom has expired, back on my perch.

Take care everyone,

MC xxx

Good afternoon each

Gail: Sorry to hear about David's Mum. Hope David knows we are all thinking about him at this difficult time.

It's freezing here on the Welsh borders. I too don't want to be clearing my car tomorrow morning. I already have to leave @ silly o'clock as it is.

Manchester calling: Know what you mean - I really have 'the munchies' today. Not fussed whether it's sweet or savoury.

Regards PJ

New blog BTW