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Archive for the ‘Fun Stuff’ Category

5 steps to explode an egg….

Posted in Fun Stuff, idiot category, It's my life, tagged how to explode an egg, micro-waved poached edds on October 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

follow steps 1 - 4 and ignore #5

1. Crack eggs in the Poacher and pierce both yolk and white several times from directly above with a cocktail stick (preferably), sharp knife or fork. This is important as it helps prevent the eggs from ‘exploding’.

2. Add a teasoon of water per egg.

3. Close the lid and position Poacher at the edge of the turntable.

4. On medium power setting cook 1 egg for approximately 30 seconds, 2 eggs for 40 seconds.

5. Check eggs and cook for 10 second increments until you achieve the desired results. Remember eggs carry on cooking a little after removal from the microwave.

Follow instructions 1 – 4 and ignore 5 and you will have a lovely jubbly exploded egg smeared right around the microwave!

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what do social media and addiction have in common?

Posted in Fun Stuff, It's my life, tagged addiction. social media, Twitter on September 29, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Me! 🙂

As a child of the dark ages, the current ‘fad’; Social Media, as some folks call it, is a whole new ball-game to me, and boy am I having fun! Bearing in mind it took me till 2002 before I caved in and got a mobile phone and about 6 months to figure out how to send an email… (tut tut, no need to be rude 🙂 )

Over the years I have slowly tested the waters and joined facebook, watched youtube videos (even started my own channel!!), uploaded photos to kodak, turned into an email then blogging junkie, ventured onto flickr and finally after a kick in the butt (metaphorically) from my brother-in-law I learned to use google effectively. Now I am also a google addict 🙂

In 2008….mmm November I think it was, I volunteered to help a friend get her business off the ground. One of the suggestions from her accountant was that she get onto twitter. Since she was more of a novice than me about the mysteries of the internet, I volunteered to do it for her. She introduced me to a person who was the current ‘expert’ on twitter who would give me a few lessons!

After a few lessons on the ‘how to’…I got into the ‘what to’…..and as they say in the classics…I have never looked back. Sadly the relationship did not last (long story not to be repeated), but I was hooked and without further ado I set up my own twitter account and got tweeting….. @notjustagranny

I was born to ‘tweet’ 🙂

Twitter has been one of the most amazing learning curves in my life (and I have had plenty and have plenty of curves)…. it is also the best way to meet, greet and chat to people from around the world. I have met, had ‘tweet-ups’ and communicate with lovely people from Australia, America, in the UK, Canada, Alaska, New Zealand, India and Europe and Cape Town….even Russia! I have had the pleasure of reading fabulous blogs by very talented people, especially travel blogs…..my favourites! There are some truly fabulous places in this world of ours.

I know that facebook is meant to be ‘the’ place to be….I prefer twitter. The timeline moves fast, you can engage in conversations that have an immediate response, your mailbox doesn’t get cluttered, there are hundreds of interesting links to follow (my downfall), and you can connect with new folks on recommendation of those you are already following…. I have gotten to know some terrific people this way. You also get immediate news and sometimes not so immediate news and there is a never ending supply of interesting articles and snippets of information to read.

Falling into the category ‘social media’, twitter has evolved from sending an update to friends to a full-on business tool. An opportunity to share and learn information. What has been interesting too are the debates about whether it is a good thing or not, to be taken seriously or just a fad. As the ‘twitter angel’ for @newmediaangels it is my job to read links (to make sure they don’t lead to porn sites !!!) before I retweet them …..have I learned a lot.

I have read articles from the likes of @jeffbullas and @mashable and @chrisbrogan and @problogger. I have also read the debates from the CEO’s of large corporations who do not yet get it – Social Media. And they are not alone. There are a huge number of small businesses that want to get ‘onto’ twitter and expect to suddenly have 1million followers!! The buzz and hype has given folks the wrong perception and their expectations are way out of line. Many people think that you open a twitter account, post a few tweets and voila suddenly you have hundreds and thousands of followers!!! A misconception if ever there was one. Like going to a party and expecting to suddenly have hundreds of friends!

As for me….I can’t live without twitter. I get antsy in the mornings till I log on and get my ‘fix’. I find it incredibly diffficult to watch a link go by and not open it. I could quite literally spend the whole day just chatting to folks and reading links. I have ‘favourited’ hundreds of webpages (madness I know) with the faint hope that I will actually go back to them someday….hahaha.

I love nothing more than to open ‘hootsuite’ and see mentions from people who have thought of me and sent a message. It’s fun, it’s funky and it’s the best invention yet…besides the internet! It is very educational….how else would I have known about #earthday or any of the other causes that whizz through my timeline.

Long live twitter…… certainly my blue bird of happiness; long may it live to feed my addiction!

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bird feeders

Posted in Fun Stuff, It's my life, tagged cleaning poop on September 28, 2010| 7 Comments »

As I said before my sister sends me some brilliant emails…..this was no exception. I was going to write about the birds in our garden but decided to send this instead, coz it is so what I have to do with the verandah every day after pigeons have been!!

Maxine on bird feeders.....

“I bought a bird feeder. I hung It on my back porch and filled
It with seed. What a beauty of A bird feeder it was, as I filled it
Lovingly with seed. Within a Week we had hundreds of birds
Taking advantage of the Continuous flow of free and Easily accessible food.

But then the birds started Building nests in the boards
Of the patio, above the table, And next to the barbecue.

Then came the poop. It was Everywhere: on the patio tile,
The chairs, the table ..Everywhere!

Then some of the birds Turned mean. They would Dive bomb me and try to Peck me even though I had
Fed them out of my own Pocket.

And others birds were Boisterous and loud. They Sat on the feeder and Squawked and screamed at
All hours of the day and night And demanded that I fill it When it got low on food.

After a while, I couldn’t even Sit on my own back porch Anymore.
So I took down the Bird feeder and in three days
The birds were gone. I cleaned Up their mess and took down
The many nests they had built All over the patio.

Soon, the back yard was like It used to be . Quiet, serene….
And no one demanding their Rights to a free meal.
Now let’s see…..
Our government gives out Free food, subsidized housing,
Free medical care and free Education, and allows anyone Born here to be an automatic Citizen.

Then the illegals came by the Tens of thousands.
Suddenly Our taxes went up to pay for Free services; small apartments Are housing 5 families;
you Have to wait 6 hours to be seen By an emergency room doctor;
Your child’s second grade class is Behind other schools because Over half the class doesn’t speak English.

Corn Flakes now come in a Bilingual box; I have to ‘press one ‘ to hear my bank
Talk to me in English, and People waving flags other Than our flag are
Squawking and screaming In the streets, demanding More rights and free liberties.

Just my opinion, but maybe it’s time for the government To take down the bird feeder.

If you agree, pass it on; if not, Continue cleaning up the poop.” end of….

Unfortunately, I have yet to figure out how to get rid of the blessed pigeons (any ideas?)… and then there are the squirrels! As cute as they are, they pee all over the verandah which drives me nuts!! excuse the pun 🙂

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every boulder presents an opportunity……

Posted in Fun Stuff, Inspiration, It's my life, Personal Development, wealth and finance, tagged every obstacle presents as opportunity, move the boulder out the way on September 24, 2010| 2 Comments »

My sister is an absolute genius at sending thought provoking and interesting ‘thought for the day’ emails. I think she probably gets them via some site or other….but nevertheless I always enjoy reading them…..this was no exception:

“The obstacle in Our Path.
In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the King’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.
Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand!

Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.”

I really enjoyed this post and thought I would share it with you. What does it mean to me? It is a reflection of my current position (in my life…not the job)….in that over the last 5 years I have been presented with quite a lot of boulders….. actually make that my whole life!! But, nevertheless sticking with the here and now…. it reminded me of the many boulders I have come across and how I was like those merchants and courtiers….always complaining about the boulders and not looking at how I could overcome them…or move them out the way, although sometimes I did…..and found the gold purse.

What is different now of course is that I am more like the peasant than the merchants/courtiers…. instead of complaining about the boulders in my way, I now look at how I can move them out the way. This has come about due to all the Personal Development courses I attended in 2007/2008/2009, which although they cost me a tremedous amount of money and have put me into a bit of a financial pickle…. were worth every penny I invested. They have taught me how to look at boulders as opportunities and instead of b*tching about how unfair it all is….. I now look at what it is I am doing in my life that has brought me to that boulder…..and how I can move it out the way….. hence the new business I have started.

Personal Development has been a very interesting journey for me, I still have a lot to learn and sometimes I forget myself and complain about things, but on the whole the boulders are now more of an interest than a problem and it is fun to work out the what, why and wherefores of any boulders I come across.

and of course this ties in beautifully with my post of yesterday……I will keep my eyes peeled for any yellow 1955 VW Campervans 🙂 I am sure that with persistance, patience and perseverance….the boulder I am currently working on moving out the way will reveal not only a purse but also a campervan (hopefully not a flattened one) 🙂

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Hello!!! Universe…..

Posted in around the UK, family and relationships, Fun Stuff, Historical, Holidays, idiot category, It's my life, lifestyle, news from around the world, Travel, wealth and finance, tagged blogging, dream job, photography, travel around the world, tweeting, Universe, VW Campervan 1955 on September 23, 2010| 8 Comments »

a vintage model.....1955 VW Campervan

Ok, so a couple of days ago I posted a blog and therein made mention that currently I am working at my ‘day job’ not my ‘dream job’. So what is my dream job? This has been incredibly difficult to pin down….until I came to live in the UK…..

When I was just 17 years old (lordy but that does seem like such a long time ago)….I wanted to be a Nursery School Teacher (I loved little children and babies…still do)…. but my Mother said NO! you go get an office job, you will earn more money! (and what Mother said…you did). So I did, and she was right. But was I happy….NO! I hated working in an office, but as the years went by and I progressed from being a typist who could not type… (the guy gave me a job coz I burst into tears in his office and told him my Mother had said I should not come home till I had a job, and it was 4pm by then)…. to being a Credit Manager; managing a staff contingent of 10 for a group of 5 Companies…. this took the best part of 30 years by the way. In between there were many positions, not just a few companies, and a whole lot of crappy bosses 😦

However, along the way I learned to enjoy working in an office and to love what I did….phoning people and asking for money. Just a shame it wasn’t for myself 🙂

Anyways, when I arrived in the UK, which was by default; I came on holiday and never went back (well only briefly to get my Ancestral visa) and I have never looked back…..quite literally – no looking in the rear-view mirror. So when I first arrived in the UK, what was the job I applied for…..? Why of course…. I applied to be a Nanny :). However as fate would have it…. I did not have current experience DUH! and I did not have an NVQ in child management… double DUH!! So that idea was scotched and went out the window, and anyhow by all accounts being a Nanny in the UK is akin to being one up from a slave. Not to be deterred I continued to look for a ‘job’ and again by default managed to find a position as a Care Assistant for the Elderly….which I initially hated and then without warning I found that I actually enjoyed it and so I have and have been for the last 8.5 years (except for a 1 year stint in an offfice which nearly drove me to the brink of a nervous breakdown!).

So here I am….. working as a Carer…..but is this my dream job? Nope!

Since living in the UK I have developed a passion for travelling. This came as quite a surprise to me since I had never really thought about actually travelling around the world. Sure I had the odd dream about going to the Maldives (not got there yet) or visiting Venice (been there 🙂 ), going to Paris (been there 🙂 ) and New York (been there 🙂 ). But besides the odd daydream it was certainly never something I seriously considered I would actually get to do.

Till now! So UNIVERSE, here is what my DREAM JOB would be…… to travel first around the UK (coz it is so fantastically gorgeous) then round Europe and then the US of A, and then if I am still alive and able to….spread my wings further afield. (ooh that has a double meaning!) LOL. I would however like to spend at least 4 months a year in London!

So here is my message to the Universe….hello!!!! : My ‘DREAM JOB’ is to travel around the world in VW Campervan that has ‘NotJustaGranny’ with the funky logo emblazoned on the sides…. taking photos of everywhere I go, blogging about the places I am visiting and tweeting! and getting PAID to do it! I would quite enjoy writing a book too…if that’s ok with you.

So dear Universe, if perchance you are actually listening, as the Guru’s in the Personal Development world maintain that you do…. Hello!!!!

Oh, and just a little p.s. The Guru’s say that when you ‘state’ what it is you want, you have to be specific; so just that there is no confusion about this…..

the VW Campervan should be a 1955 model (nothing but vintage is good enough for me)… you know what I mean 😉

It should be yellow with white trimmings (yellow is my favourite colour)

It should have 2 beds at least….1 for me (of course, and one for my daughter to join me from time to time, or for a friend to come along occassionally…and also for when my grandchildren arrive…have to have enough space for them to travel with me)

It should be fully re-furbished and reliable; preferrably with modern accessories and equipment…like an up-to-date engine. 1955 is all very well but it is a bit long in the tooth!

It should be modified to be eco-friendly….no fumes please.

I would appreciate it if there is enough space for my laptop and camera equipment (oh and I would need sockets for the chargers).

Don’t worry too much about wardrobe space….I don’t have much clothing… LOL

and it would be awesome if it had a lift-up roof-top for air circulation

oh, and a tent attachment would be brilliant for when I am stopped alongside a lake somewhere in the UK or Europe or the US of A, so that I can sit outside and enjoy the scenery and the night stars while I sip a sherry (or two).

If you need any further specifications….contact me via this blog and I will be happy to give you more details.

and just a final p.s.s. (sorry to be so picky, but…) when I talk about being paid to do this…I am happy to earn the money….. but please note that I would require at least £5,000 per month. For travel expenses and so on. ta

by the way….this is a 1955 model (the one on the right) please be sure to send a yellow one 🙂

1955 VW Campervan

and just in case you are wondering….. I put the picture twice so that you are clear on what it is I am looking for!

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I want the black ones…..

Posted in Fun Stuff, It's my life, tagged fruit pastilles, Rowntree's, Rowntree's blackcurrent on September 22, 2010| 4 Comments »

blackcurrent!

I am one of those very unfortunate or fortunate people (depending on your point of view) who has a ‘sweet-tooth’. All my life I have enjoyed sweet stuff…..biscuits, cake, jellies, sweets, puddings…whatever. If it was sweet I was there 🙂 One of my favourite sweets was of course Rowntree’s Fruit Pastilles and if today I had a £ for every fruit pastille I ate in my life, I could buy a new house.

Up till now, sharing a packet of fruit pastilles was a real hardship…..mostly coz it would seem that everyone who likes fruit pastilles want the black ones. Finally Rowntree’s have solved that problem…….they have brought out a roll of just Blackcurrent! How sensible.

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nite, nite….don’t let the bed-bugs bite

Posted in family and relationships, Fun Stuff, Historical, It's my life, tagged bed bugs, history, mattresses, night night sleep tight on September 21, 2010| 6 Comments »

I was wondering what to blog about today…since I have not yet finished the one about my London walk-about on Saturday (not sure why I have to say so much…)

So anyways, a friend of mine recently set herself a challenge to write a post everyday….it did not have to deal with world-affairs or have to say anything of major importance….but just to write about what she felt about a particular issue, a reflection or about something that was happening in her life….and she has been very successful….her posts are great.

So last night I was lying in bed and thinking about how I always say ‘ohhhh, I am so going to blog about that….and then I get busy with other stuff and time goes by….see my previous post, and then I forget what it was I wanted to say….that’s called age!!! Senior moments and all that……. (no blasphemy please), keep it clean. 🙂

So today I decided that without fail I was going to blog about something, even if I just say “goodmorning world…it’s a gorgeous day”…which it is 🙂 and then without any effort on my part, the subject matter presented itself…so without further ado…..

I work as a Carer for the elderly (that’s my day job…not my dream job), and this morning after I had assisted my lady out of bed and settled her into her chair with a cup of tea…..I said to her “I am going to leave your bed to air for a bit”…..she replied that her mother always got mad at her when she was a lass, when she made her bed immediately and did not leave it to ‘air’. So I asked her if she remembered why that was….and she said she had no idea. And as she spoke, I suddenly had a memory jump out of the recesses of my mind (there is still a bit there)…..when we were kids (a long, long time ago….sorry dear sister but it’s true!)…we slept on horrible coir (or horse-hair) mattresses…. (thank g*d for progress) we are now past that….

So anyhow ….the memory I had was of these really horrible, horrible hard lumpy, prickly and sometimes smelly mattresses. I especially remember them from when we used to sleep over at my grandmother’s house, me, my sister, my brother and my two cousins….all bundled together in one room, top and tail with 3 beds between us (that was fun) and when we woke in the mornings we were told by my grandmother to leave the beds open to air. I recall asking her why we had to do that and she told me that it was coz of the ‘bed-bugs’….they did not like the light or the fresh air and leaving the mattresses exposed chased them away….or so she said. Looking back now…I sincerely doubt they did, but anyway, that was the theory.

So then I remembered how when we were wee kiddies, my mother used to tuck us up into bed, and before putting the lights out she used to say “night, night sleep tight, don’t let the bed-bugs bite”……and we used to reply…”and if they bite, bite them back” ewwww! hahaha! And I remembered that when my daughter was a wee lass growing up…. I used to say the same thing to her…..even though we had by then progressed to foam…halleluyah. (mind you I sometimes still do say it, only now it’s via text).

So there you have it….’Night, night, don’t let the bed-bugs bite’ came about coz we slept on beds that really did have bed-bugs!!! I wonder what today’s fanatical, cleanliness, anti-bacterial, germ-free brigade would have to say about that!!!!

p.s. I will leave it to your imagine to as to what my lady had to say about me telling her they probably had bed-bugs in their mattresses! LOL LOL LOL…… oh! and just in case you were wondering…. this is what a bed-bug looks like:

imagine sharing your bed with that!!! 🙂

I tried to find the most unbelievably yucky picture I could 🙂

p.s.s. this is my post for today………

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fun times on the river

Posted in family and relationships, Fun Stuff, It's my life, tagged birthdays, Richmond, rowing, Twickenham on August 21, 2010| 2 Comments »

last weekend was my daughter’s 30th birthday and together with some friends we gathered in Richmond to celebrate. One of the things she wanted to do for her birthday, was to hire a boat and go rowing on the Thames.

our very not so big boat

The plan was to row from Richmond to The White Swan in Twickenham, moor the boat, have lunch and then row back to Richmond.

I thought the idea was great and encouraged the idea with enthusiasm. Ha! and then we got there!! Different story. Everyone else was really excited and I was…..trepiditious! I was quaking at the knees! 🙂 LOL! and totally ridiculous….I have no fear of water, love boating, am a strong swimmer and have done this numerous times in the past. The closer we got to launch the more I quaked at the knees. I insisted on life-jackets all round (which made us look totally ridiculous), and questioned the sensibility of this venture.

Last in….I rocked the boat to much hilarity from the others and not so much from me. Then we settled in and to my horror we left the pier……h.e.l.p!!! Actually it was brilliant, we laughed uproariously as we went round in circles at the rowers attempts to leave the jetty.

Cemanthe having hysterics

Eventually we got underway and amidst much laughter and a stream of instructions from the back-seat non-rowers we made our way to the far bank (per the instructions of the boat man), and away we went.

I can highly recommend this as a great way to spend an hour or so. Sitting prettily in the stern, we (me and Demjules), gave a continuous stream of instructions….too far, turn left; no….. more to the right, mind theres a boat approaching…whoops mind the paddleboat, and so we made our way along the river to Twickenham.

arriving at The White Swan

Arriving safely we moored the boat, stepped gingerly through the slippery mud (I did not want to add a spill in the mud to my repertoire) and settled in at our table on the patio.

good food.....fine friends

Lunch was great, the company even better, the weather played fair and the food was yummy. Then it was time for birthday wishes and voila …..30 cupcakes appeared!

social media and cupcakes

We are beginning to look like cupcakes.

Sweetie Pies cupcakes

Then it was time to return the boat and off we went….row, row row your boat, gently down the stream…. merrily, merrily life is but a dream!

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Do you Tweet? twitter for the over 50’s

Posted in Fun Stuff, tagged fun stuff, tweeting, tweeting for the over 50's, Twitter on August 5, 2010| 2 Comments »

As mentioned before in one of my posts, my sister sends me loads of funny emails and some of them are so funny I have to share with yourselves! I received this one today and had a good giggle…….hope you enjoy it too. I have no idea who the author is, but if you happen to read it (and you know who you are) …..your words have been shared 🙂

This is for the over 50 generation.

I thought about the 30 year business I ran with 1800 employees, all without a Blackberry that played music, took videos, pictures and communicated with Facebook and Twitter.

I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook, so my seven kids, their spouses, 13 grandkids and 2 great grand kids could communicate with me in the modern way. I figured I could handle something as simple as Twitter with only 140 characters of space.

That was before one of my grandkids hooked me up for Tweeter, Tweetree, Twhirl, Twitterfon, Tweetie and Twittererific Tweetdeck, Twitpix and something that sends every message to my cell phone and every other program within the texting world.

My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag.

The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say I get lost every now and then going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Blue tooth [it’s red] phone I am supposed to use when I drive. I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Noble talking to my wife as everyone in the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. Seems I have to take my hearing aid out to use it and I got a little loud.

I mean the GPS looked pretty smart on my dash board, but the lady inside was the most annoying, rudest person I had run into in a long time. Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say, “Re-calc-ul-ating”. You would think that she could be nicer. It was like she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sigh and then tell me to make a U-turn at the next light. Then when I would make a right turn instead, it was not good.

When I get really lost now, I call my wife and tell her the name of the cross streets and while she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy, the GPS lady; at least she loves me.

To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 4 years, but I still haven’t figured out how I can lose three phones all at once and have run around digging under chair cushions and checking bathrooms and the dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings.

The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden “Paper or Plastic?” every time I check out just knocks me for a loop. I bought some of those cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused but I never remember to take them in with me.

Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, “Paper or Plastic?” I just say, “Doesn’t matter to me. I am bi-sacksual.” Then it’s their turn to stare at me with a blank look.

I was recently asked if I tweet. I answered, No, but I do toot a lot.”

pass this on to someone of the more senior generation if you think they will appreciate it 🙂

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Accumulating Wealth of a lifetime

Posted in family and relationships, Fun Stuff, tagged accumulating wealth, sisters on August 3, 2010| 3 Comments »

Gosh, I’m rich!
Silver in the Hair
Gold in the Teeth
Stones in the Kidneys
Sugar in the Blood
Lead in the Ass

Iron in the Arteries……
And an inexhaustible supply of Natural Gas.

I never thought I’d accumulate such wealth!!!