‘Tis The Day Before Easter …….

Darrell and I have never been too sure about Easter protocol, so this year after several robust late night debates over cups of tea and a couple of packets of Hob Nobs we decided that this year we should start our own seasonal traditions, especially with Nigel in mind.

So Darrell got Nigel to help him decorate a small Easter Egg tree on the bedside table in their bedroom……… along with the lovely Easter Bunny card sent to us by Jan the Fan …. xxxx THANK YOU xxxx Jan the Fan.

It didn’t take long for Nigel was be filled with awe and wonder and though Darrell could sense that he was obviously very excited, he managed to reign in Nigel’s natural effervescence by maintaining a calm aura himself during the proceedings.

Now …… Darrell and I have heard about the Easter Bunny (we know that he leaves Easter eggs in peoples gardens in the US, but we are not so sure if he in fact travels to UK flying in a magic hutch or something like that)  so the next part of our plan is a mahoooosive leap of faith ….. we have decided to adopt the principles of Christmas and leave out a bowl of especially purchased posh chantenay carrots and a Cadbury Twisted bar for the Bunny, just in case he happens hop, skip and jump past our house on Easter morn' ……. but I also have a contingency plan … if he doesn't, but I have kept that secret from Darrell too ....

My Easter Contingency Plan ……. A Pre Easter Afternoon Of Robust Craft Activity

With Darrell’s and my plans for Easter “sort of sorted” in a fingers crossed type nature,  I still felt it best to have a contingency plan (as aforementioned above), just in case things go egg shaped and the Easter Bunny doesn't call. Nigel has been looking at the seasonal cuddly toys in the window of the village gift shop expectantly, but (tongue in cheek), I have told him that, due financial constraints the Easter Bunny may have to be a little parsimonious with his pennies……!!!!

…… and perhaps a small 10p chick would be a more realistic expectation, and bless him, typical of Nigel’s “life’s cup is always overflowing” nature,  he was still as excited ….. However, I have hatched an Easter plan to cover all eventualities …. having popped into Poundland to purchase a little something in the week ………

…. and taking advantage of Darrell and Nigel going to the swimming baths yesterday, I sprang into Eastertide action for an afternoon of secretive craft activity!

The packet contained enough materials to make two puppets, a chick and a rabbit (Darrell and Nigel will have to decide between themselves who has what).

I tackled the chick first, and considering that sewing isn’t exactly my forte I was quite pleased with the results.

….. Then mindful that time was getting tight, and Darrell and Nigel would soon be home, I tackled the rabbit with some haste …..

…… but again, I surprised myself (modestly) with what was a half way decent job……..

…… even though there seemed to be quite a few bits left over!

To celebrate my surprising success dabbling in the arts of the needlecrafter I made a cup of coffee (in my Mick McCarthy mug, God bless him) and admired my handiwork ….. before hiding everything away ……

Whoever Would Have Thought That Hot Cross Buns Could Be The Cause Of So Much Domestic Disruption?

It’s Good Friday, and as we like to embrace all seasonal activity, Darrell was duly sent out at 6.30 this morning to the village Tesco Express……

……to purchase our Good Friday hot cross buns …….

…..which should traditionally be eaten at breakfast time, hot from the oven …..…… following a robust and rousing chorus of “Hot Cross Buns” by ourselves

Unfortunately, during our nomtastic Easter repast I decided to educate Darrell and Nigel in some of the superstitions associated with Good Friday, but as often is the case with those two, too much information, in the wrong hands can be a dangerous, or in their case a messy affair!

“Hot cross buns baked on Good Friday are supposed to have magical powers. It is said that if you keep one that has been made on Good Friday for at least a year it won’t go mouldy”  ……. so guess who has put a “spare” hot cross bun under his bed to see if it’s true?

“A hot cross bun baked on Good Friday and left to go hard can be grated up and put in some warm milk to stop an upset tummy” Unfortunately for me, Darrell is not overly keen on taking Milk of Magnesia when his tummy goes awry…… and so another “spare” Hot Cross Bun has now found its way into our First Aid drawer!

And finally ….“Having your hair cut on Good Friday will prevent toothache for the rest of the year” …… well that’s a no brainer and straight after breakfast Nigel and Darrell were both round at Image Hair Studio, towels swathed round their necks, having a cheeky short back and sides ………

…….. with Darrell requesting that Mandy cut carefully round his bunny ears!!!

Me and my big mouth, you’d have thought I’d have learnt by now!

Note for Pragmatic Traditionalists: The rousing chorus of “Hot Cross Buns” before the consumption of said comestibles is our own “made up” tradition and thus cannot be regarded as “traditional” in the full sense of the word, by anyone other than ourselves.

Oh Good Grief–The Easter Bunny Has Landed!

Darrell has been to Poundland and bought himself some Easter Bunny Hair Clips (available in yellow or pink) ……. he says that they are his MUST HAVE Seasonal Festive Apparel of Choice this Easter ……… and that he will be wearing them throughout the holiday ……

What is he like, and what does he think he looks like???

A Very Auto-Susceptible Mind!

When Nigel adopts a purposeful manner and a glazed look in his eyes, from past experience, I know it is time to worry …. robustly!

I could hear him humming “We’re going on a bear hunt...... ” as he scurried out of the back door and into the garden, and as soon as I noticed that he was carrying one of the  BEAR Yo Yo packets left over from our review a couple of days ago ….. I knew immediatley what he was up to ……. and had to take a very large mahoooosive sharp intake of breath …. fearing what was about to unfold …..

I saw him carefully lay the packet down on the grass and stare at it intently and then look equally intently around the garden ….

Then, he let out an excited squeak, ran over to an abundant bush and picked of its leaves …… before running back to the Yo Yo packet to, what looked like, compare and contrast the leaf on the bears nether regions to his aforementioned plucked foliage …..

I knew it ……… heaven help me ……suddenly it was pants akimbo …..

BEAR and their “natural”  product packaging have a lot to answer for ……… !!

Cadbury Dairy Milk - Come On Team GB

Auntie Jan found us this special ‘Cadbury Dairy Milk Come on Team GB’ pack saying it was a gift that would just keep giving, especially in our little mits …….

Not only did the pack contain a mahoooosive block of Dairy Milk chocolate,  there was also  a postcard on which to send a message of support to Team GB ….. which naturally we embraced …..

……. not only by adding our own pictures, so that Team GB can “see”  just three of the faces of the millions of people who will be cheering them on, for every step of their Olympic "’journey” (and thus making it much more personal)  but by also adding a few of our sage pieces of advice …..

……. such as “….. remembering their 5 a day, getting to bed early, thanking their mum and dad for their support  and to embrace every single moment!”

If our card is good enough we might win a clap banner (whatever that is), which would be very exciting and an honour to receive.

After all our robust activity and intensive thought provoking thought, we felt very pleased with ourselves, ….. and Auntie Jan’s gift indeed kept on giving ……

……… in the solid form of several wholesome chunks of chocolaty loveliness as a toast to all of Team GB, especially the synchronised swimmers, who are our Olympic team/sport of choice.

For more information check out http://www.cadburypostcards2012.co.uk/ but you will need a promo code from your chocolate to enter.

Cruelly Duped!!!!

To quote the song, (somewhat badly, to suit the purpose of our melancholia ……. )  “What kind of fools are we?”

We are totes, totes deflated, robustly embarrassed and soooooo cross with ourselves for not having the nounce to realise that our invitation to serve on the UK Eurovision Song Contest Voting Panel was just a seasonal April Fools jape …….. we were so wrapped up and blinkered by all the excitement,  that we failed to see the significance in the name of e-mails sender……. April Fool …………. DOH!

What are we like? Could we thank everyone who tactfully tried to point out  that perhaps we had been duped, you all did it so kindly!  Darrell was a little overcome for a while and took himself off to his room for quiet reflection …..

But after ten minutes he was back in buoyant mood, demolishing half a packet of penguins and a couple of Jaffa Cakes  ….. saying that as April Fools went “…… that was a doooooozey!” There is no way this will spoil our enjoyment of the real event …… it’s just too brilliant!!  …… And as Darrell mused, it saves him having to learn “Hello Baku, this is the UK calling ….. can we first congratulate you on a wonderful evening ….and  now here are the results of the UK voting panel …… for Moldova …. 8 points……………..” etc. in lots of foreign languages!!

And As For …..

…… that would be telling …… lets just say ….. we found that it has a robust and unique flavour and………….  and we’re sorry Auntie Jan that you’ve got no erm …… petrol left, but as soon as the present crisis is over we will try and reimburse you!

Mangoes And Marmite Innocent Smoothie–Does Life Get Any better Than This?

Today, just gets betterer and betterer ….. our Eurovision news was just about enough to cope with, but now we have heard that innocent have produced a mangoes and marmite smoothie and we are in Seventh Heaven, as Marmite is our savoury spread of choice!

At first we thought that it might be an April Fool, but as our friends Hugh and Marc (who live the showbiz life in Notting Hill) told us and we trust them implicitly, we knew it wasn’t a cruel hoax, and when we checked the innocent website it’s all there …… Mangoes and Marmite Smoothie!

http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/things-we-make/smoothies/mangoes-and-marmite

Our next step was to telephone Auntie Jan urgently demanding telling asking her politely to scour the shops robustly and to purchase the entire stock of the aforementioned smoothie in the first shop she came to that had it , even if it meant dipping into our Sun £9.50 holiday fund!

Darrell went straight on line again to leave his comments on the innocent site to express our joy at the news ….. http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/blog

This has to be best day of our lives (so far ……) and they say good things always come in threes ….. so perhaps tomorrow we will get a letter from the Queen to say we have secured tickets in the ballot for the Jubilee Concert!! Who knows??!!

Serving Our Queen & Country At Eurovision 2012

OMG, OMG, OMG ……we are soooo totes overwhelmed, we received this e-mail from a lovely lady called April and just can’t help reading it over and over again and still cannot believe it’s true, it’s like the most wonderful dream we have ever had and we don’t want to wake up………

…… and we have to admit that we are so overcome that several tears have been shed!!!

 Everyone knows how much we adore the Eurovision Song Contest, it is one of our televisual highlights of the year …… but never did we imagine that one day we would become personally involved in such an important way and called upon to represent serve our Queen and country ………

We don’t have any idea who may have nominated us but the honour and very great responsibility that we have had bestowed upon us is palpable,  and we vouchsafe that we will not let them down, whoever they are. 

Naturally we e-mailed April back immediately to accept our place on the  Voting Panel and await her reply and further instructions, it’s all toooooooooo exciting! ….. We can’t imagine the wonders of what is about to unfurl before us, but we will robustly embrace and squeeze dry each and every new experience for all we are worth,….. we shall stand proud and not let our country down ……..

Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free,
How shall we extol thee, who are born of thee?
Wider still, and wider, shall thy bounds be set;
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet!

We have been truly, truly blessed in a Hello magazine type way

We are not sure if we will actually have to travel to Baku, to perform our duties but our passports and EHIC cards are on top of the microwave just in case. ……. and Darrell has been musing as to whether we will get to meet Graham Norton in person …….. !!!!