Hi guys, sorry it’s been so long. All the weekends are blurring in to one at the moment, and counting merrily down to our next trip to France. You’ll be pleased to know that all our other ordered goodies were delivered to the Freight Forwarding peeps, and all should be delivered in to France (we think) towards the end of April/Early May. I still need to find curtains and a curtain pole between now and then, but that’s entry level sourcing for a lady of my shopping prowess…. I also feel quite strongly that I may NEED a hammock. Mainly to recline while watching my husband spend a full week cutting the grass, I suspect we will have gone full jungle by the time the improving weather has worked it’s magic.

So what have we been up to. Well, since my last post I had a very stressful build up and subsequent very stressful weekend stock-take. Thanks goodness that’s now sorted and I can look forward to the next one in 6 months time.

Last weekend we had the Pumpkin (my little niece for those not in the know) and we did ALL the fun stuff. Afternoon tea, followed by a matinee of Joseph at the Alhambra Theatre in Bradford. I’m ordinarily not a massive fan of Bradford if I’m honest, but the redevelopment in the city centre, with the shallow play fountains and lots of outside café seating and let’s face it – the frankly amazing weather of last weekend, made it a really lovely afternoon. Strolling about we had quite the holiday vibe, generally was rather pleasant. The little miss had her first afternoon tea and loved it, the speed with which she can take down a scone once again proves that we absolutely are related, and instinctively got the jam and cream the right way around like a professional. #proudauntie.

My husband bless him was less enamoured with Joseph. Firstly I booked the tickets “plus tard” and we were practically on the roof. Legroom was as usual an issue so he had to wedge his flamingo legs in as best he could. Now, perhaps I oversold it to him, “you’ll like this” I said. “it’s good fun”. Then it started and I started to question my memory of ever having seen this before. I should point  out that it’s been some years since I’ve seen it, and I did see it in the West End starring Lee Mead. His entrance was from the skies on a golden chariot as I recall, X Factor winner Joe Mcelderry’s Bradford entrance was on a spray painted tricycle…. I had also overlooked the fact that Tim Rice & Andrew Lloyd Weber were clearly under the influence of something when they wrote this. “Let’s do a musical about a bible story”. “Great idea!” “We’ll need a Pharoah played by Elvis, some Calypso music, plenty of Country and Western hoedown, they’ll love that, oooh, and Jacob’s sons can then put on berets and onions and sing a French lament with the back-gound of the Eiffel tower.”

I could practically hear his eyes rolling next to me. Then add in some inflatable sheep that clearly had punctures so looked like they had some sort of narcolepsy and winner!

The little miss loved it though, (it seems she also has my love of pyrotechnics too – easily pleased by a loud bang and some sparks – as am I). I think I might owe the husband one though….. Still, he gets to see Funny Girl with me in a few weeks so I’m sure he’s already looking forward to that :-).