Silverstone is back!

The F1 British Grand Prix has rolled around..........and you guessed it, its raining again!  We hoped this would be a good thing for the likes of Jenson Button as he likes the different weather that gets thrown at him, but he just couldn't seem to control the car through the qualifying and he ended up in 16th place on the grid for Sundays race.
But Jenson wasn't the only one struggling on a very wet track on Saturdays qualifying. Lewis Hamilton couldn't get any more out of the tyres he had and could only manage 8th place on the grid.
This doesn't mean that the weekend will be a complete washout though....just think, wouldn't it be nice to see Jenson, Lewis and Paul Di Resta on the podium with Murray winning in the Wimbledon Final. Now that would make a decent weekend of sport. Or is that just too much of a dream.

Murray and Marray do us proud

What a weekend for British tennis! On Friday afternoon a 70 plus year drought was broken when doubles pair  Jonothan Marray and his Danish partner Frederik Nielsen won their semi final clash to win a spot in the final on Saturday. And then there was Andrew Murray! Not since Bunny Austin in 1938 have we had a British man in the finals of wimbledon. Murray has had a difficult ride to the finals and the ultimate challenge will meet him on Sunday when he plays 6 time Wimbledon Champion Roger Federer. We all have everything crossed for him!

As for the mens doubles........yes, we have our first British winner of the weekend! Well done Jonothan and Frederik. Lets hope this is a good omen for Andy this afternoon.

New Drama on Sky 1

I wasn't particularly a fan of Sky 1 before. We would watch the obligatory new episodes of the Simpson's now and again, and maybe they would do a decent documentary on occasion. But nothing that we would avidly watch.
I dont know who has changed the programming over the past year or so, but bloody well done! We now watch more of that channel than ever, and its not just the programs they have bought that I am enjoying. They are also starting to make some really good shows aswell.
There are some excellent shows coming from the U.S. such as Modern Family, and The Middle (which I swear is based on my family!), but the best by far for me has to be the shows that Sky are making themselves.
Trollied and The Cafe are definite favourites. The Cafe more so because I was brought up close to where they film in Weston-Super-Mare, but the writer also comes from the west country, and I just seem to relate to the whole thing! I just love it!
They also have some new shows coming out, and the latest one, which is due to air in July, is called Parents. It looks like its going to be very funny.
Take a look on Sky 1's website for new and returning shows. They look like they have some corkers coming!

Supermarket Heaven

We are lucky enough to live in a semi rural area, where we are on the doorstep to every thing, but it is still nice and quiet. 

The bonus to this as a family, is that we have just about every conceivable supermarket known in the UK in a 2 mile radius of our house! I know this seems hard to believe when I said we live rurally, but its true! We have Asda, Morrisons, Tesco, M&S, Waitrose, Sainsburys, Iceland, Aldi, Lidl and Farmfoods. Then there are the smaller chains like Spar, Co-op and Cost cutter.

As a result of this, we can shop around for our weekly groceries without the petrol cost of getting from one to another (which eventually defeats the object of shopping for a bargain). We have worked out, that by living where we do, we can save around £40 ($63us, 50 Euro) a month on our shopping!

If we sell our house, we can say 'close to all amenities', and mean it!!!!

Preview Bar - Cribbs Causeway - Bristol

This week, we decided to meet up with family members. So we all met up at the Mall at Cribbs Causeway as it is easily accessible for everyone. The other reason for meeting up there, is a little place called The Preview Bar.
It is an absolute must if you have to visit the South West at all. It is situated in an entertainment park called the Venue where there is a cinema, and bowling complex aswell as restaurants like TGI Fridays. We however LOVE the Preview Bar. It is an all you can eat buffet bar, and the prices are really reasonable. Mid week, before 5.30pm It is only £6.95 per adult for all you can eat, starter, main course and dessert! And if you want drinks, there are unlimited soft drinks for £2.25. Children under 10 pay £4.95.
It is a little more expensive at the weekend, but Saturdays, kids eat free with every full paying adult! So it can work out cheaper than going during the week  (after 5.30). Give it a go if your in the area  :))

Euro 2012

Well England have got off to a fighting start in their Euro 2012 campaign. After their first two matches, they stand second in the table to France on goal difference. They only need 1 point from Tuesdays match against the Ukraine to go through to the next stage of the tournament.
Their first match against France, was a little slow. But seeing as they were pitched as the underdogs of that particular match, they did fantastically well to come out of it with a draw. What they did take from that match however was bags of confidence which shone through in their next match against Sweden.
I dont think one particular player shone through in the game (although I have to say, Theo Walcott came on,only touched the ball 3 times and managed 1 goal and 1 assist! Not bad for a late sub!) But I think they all played brilliantly together as a team, where they so often fail, they so obviously pulled together.
This has been put down to the manager by FA vice chairman Sir Dave Richards. According to Richards, Hodgson  has brought "a midas touch" to Englands fortunes. Bringing the team together is down to Hodgson, no doubt. I really do think they believe in him, but more importantly they now believe in each other.
Roy also had plenty to say about Danny Welbecks progress. Despite the strikers positive impact on the team, Hodgson has urged    "I would do well to encourage you not to put too much pressure on the lad," said Hodgson as England prepared to face Ukraine on Tuesday.

"Before we build him up to the skies to knock him down, we should remember he has a lot of time ahead of him.

Hodgson added: "I am happy with the progress he is making. The fact is he has broken into a team like Manchester United, then got games in the national team when he could still play for the Under-21s.

"He had a wonderful season with Manchester United and Sir Alex [Ferguson, United boss] has high hopes for him."

Lets hope they carry on their decent form.......next up, Ukraine, Tuesday 19.45.

Come on lads !!!!!

Get Money Off as a Loyal Virgin Media Customer.

For the past 4 years, we have been with Virgin Media for all our media services. We receive, phone line, TV and broadband with them and are very happy with their products.
One day last week, I was looking around the MoneySavingExpert.com website and there was a list of ways you could decrease your monthly out goings. One of them was to phone your service provider, and see whether they could give you some money off for being a loyal customer. So I did, and the result was £20 off my monthly bill. Not bad for 10min phone call, and I am exceptionally happy!
I did not threaten to leave at any time as this could easily backfire. I just explained that I needed to reduce my monthly outgoings and was there any way they could help.
Give it a go, but I must stress, do not say anything if you are not prepared to follow through. Many years ago, before the times of the yearly upgrade, I tried to do the same with my mobile phone contract. I threatened to leave if they didnt give me what I wanted............guess what?  I had to leave !!! Not my brightest moment as I was quite reliant on the phone and contract.

Alcatraz TV Show Review.

This week saw the season finale in the UK for the Fox TV show Alcatraz, which, to my families distaste, I have grown quite fond of watching.
Briefly, in 1963, all the prisoners and guards on Alcatraz disappeared, now in present day San Francisco,  they are coming back and it is up to three people to find them, and find out what happened all those years ago.
So, after 13 weeks of having to record and then find a suitable time to watch the show when no one else is around, I watch the season finale and then decide to look and see when the second season will be shown..........only to find that on the 10th May this year, Fox decided to cancel the show!! NOOOOOOO.
I cannot believe they are happy to leave us all hanging! I am also gutted that I have, in effect, wasted 13 hours of which I now know I could have been doing something a little more productive!!

Euro 2012 Begins.......

The first few of matches of the tournament were absolute belters. Lets hope it carries on that way.
There was a shock win for Denmark against the Netherlands on Saturday night, aswell as an awesome game between Russia and the Czech Rep on Friday in which there were 5 goals in total, with Russia winning 4-1.
There was an incident after the match however that UEFA are now investigating against the Russian fans where four stewards were seen put in hospital. Hopefully, this was an isolated incident.
The other two match results were Germany 1-0 Portugal and Poland 1-1 Greece.
Todays matches will be Rep of Ire v Croatia and Spain v Italy. But the one we are all waiting for is Englands first match against France on Monday evening. It will be a 5 o'clock kick off, so lets see if I can run home from work quick enough to catch it!!

F1 Canadian 2012 Grand Prix

This weekend see's the Canadian Grand Prix back. Remember last year? What a memorable, if not a little long, race that was. I wonder if Jenson Button cant do a repeat performance?!  For those who don't remember, Button came from dead last to win the race. Lasting 4 hours with five safety cars, I think Button was in his element, and was later to say it was his best win ever. I can understand why. It really was spectacular.
But that was last year and here we are again with Sebastian Vettel in pole position and Lewis Hamilton in second.

1 S Vettel - Red Bull

2 L Hamilton - McLaren

3 F Alonso - Ferrari

4 M Webber - Red Bull

5 N Rosberg - Mercedes

6 F Massa - Ferrari

7 R Grosjean - Lotus

8 P Di Resta Force - India

9 M Schumacher - Mercedes

10 J Button - McLaren

Vettel has dominated the weekends practice and qualifying, lets see if he can follow it through to the race, but lets face it, on past form, he probably will! It seems the little set back that Red Bull had with the legality of their cars has not effected their performance at all.

English steak and ale pie

INGREDIANTS

• 500g (1lb) mushrooms
• 20ml (1 tbsp) vegetable oil
• 60g (2oz) butter
• 6 Silverskin onions
• 900g (2lb) chuck [stewing] beef, cubed
• 15ml (1 tbsp) flour, plus extra for dusting
• 35ml (2 tbsp) Worcestershire sauce
• 30ml (2 tbsp) fresh thyme leaves, or 5ml (1 tsp) dried thyme
• 15ml (1 tbsp) English mustard or add to taste
• 250ml (1 cup) ale
• 250ml (1 cup) beef stock
• 225g (½lb) puff pastry
• 1 egg, beaten

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/356°F/gas 4.
2. For the filling, in a heavy-bottomed saucepan fry the mushrooms in the oil until softened then drain on kitchen towel. Add the butter to the pan and gently sweat the chopped onion and carrots until cooked but not coloured.
3. Add the beef and flour to the pan and brown. Add the softened mushrooms, then the Worcestershire sauce, thyme, mustard and ale.
4. Place the lid on the pan and place in the oven. 
5. After 30 minutes, turn the temperature down to 140°C/fan 120°C/275°F/gas 1 and simmer for another hour.
6. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
7. Turn the oven to temp 220°C/fan 200°C/425°F/gas 7.
8. On a floured surface, roll out the pastry to 5mm (¼ inch) thick. Add the filling into a pie dish. Brush the beaten egg around the rim of the dish. Top with the pastry. Make a hole in the pie lid and then brush with egg. Bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
9. Remove the pie from the oven and allow to cool slightly before serving.

THEN AND NOW

THEN

AND NOW

Money Saving Expert.......you certainly are!!!

It was announced yesterday that Martin Lewis has sold his Money Saving Expert website to web comparison site MoneySuperMarket.com. The deal will need to be approved by the office of fair trading (OFT), but Lewis is set to gain an initial payment of £35m plus £25m of shares in the company. After 3 years he may also receive an additional £27m in cash and shares.
Lewis will remain editor in chief of MoneySavingExpert.com which will also retain its editorial independence
When asked Lewis said "This is great news for MoneySavingExpert.com and its users, ensuring, with or without me, the site will be around for many years to come, maintaining our ethos of 'cutting your costs and fighting your corner'.
"MoneySavingExpert.com has become part of people's daily lives, far bigger than the man who founded it, and now is the right time for it to stand on its own two feet."
In the past 12 months, Moneysavingexpert.com has generated revenues of nearly £16m, of this, 59% was earned from referral fees paid by Moneysupermarket.com!!
Now we know why they wanted to by it!!  To save themselves some money!
Its nice to see that not all nice guys finish last.......well done Martin :))

Canadian Scientist Cures Cancer?

Around 4 years ago  Evangelos Michelakis, a cancer researcher at the University of Alberta in Canada, discovered that a non toxic chemical called dichloroacetate, DCA for short, seems to hinder the growth of cancerous tumours in mice.
After the testing of mice, Michelakis and his team tested human cancer cells in a Petri dish, followed by trials on humans with cancer with the help of private funding. Encouragingly, four out of the five test subjects they used had their lives extended.
Their findings were published in 2010 in Science Translational Medicine. So this is all a couple of years ago now, so why haven't we heard of this amazing new break through in the hunt for a cure to one of the most feared diseases known to man?
Money. Pure and simple. 
Because DCA is inexpensive, the pharmaceutical companies don't want to go near it, as it wont make them a profit!
I don't believe that in this day and age, every thing really does revolve around money and power.......but perhaps that's just me and my naivety! 

Jaguar Jealousy

I work with a lady who is a little above herself most of the time. You now the sort.....she earns more than you, her husband earns more than EVERYONE! Her house is better than yours, and she drives....... a Jag!
Well the car thing does really wind me up. I love Jags, and she has just upgraded her old S Type for a brand spanking, sparkly, new XKR ..................I was absolutely gutted. It has to be the most stunning piece of machinery I have seen in my entire life. All I could do was look in awe as I muttered obscenities under my breath as she drove into the car-park.
But then........someone was looking down on me and heard my pain...........as she reversed her pride and joy into  the infamous concrete post that jumps out at you when you are not looking!
It took all I had not to wet myself laughing there on the spot.
Karma is a wonderful thing, that might teach her to be a little more humble.....but I doubt it!

Long Weekend...........Yayyyyyy

I am one of the most Patriotic people I know, I am really looking forward to all the festivities to celebrate our wonderful monarchs 60th year on the throne. What I am looking forward to even more though is having 4 days off work! Now if I had thought this out properly, I would have booked the rest of the week off aswell, but I didnt, so its just the four days for me.
I wasnt the only one to make the most of the long weekend though, most of the motorways were clogged in our area by 7.30 this morning with holiday traffic, as the kids also have half term this week.
But there is a down side to all this merry making. Each bank holiday is said to cost the economy £2.3 billion, and scrapping them all would boost economic output by £19 billion!! And only 15% of the economy, such as shops and attractions do well over a bank holiday. We all need to tighten our belts at the moment, but please dont take away our bank holidays.......they are one of the only things we have to look forward to now!

Summer is officially here !!!!!!!

Summer is officially here as the summer sport and leisure season starts. 

It kicked off last week with the Chelsea Flower show and what a fantastic week of weather they have had....long may it continue. We have International Football friendlies this week with England playing Norway and Belgium. 

And of course the tennis really gets going with the French open starting today, then Queens, a nice warm up before the big one.... Wimbledon. The weather is definitely heading in the right direction, and lets hope it stays that way as we have a lovely long weekend next week for the Queens Jubilee. That, I really am looking forward to!

Eurovision........oh how predictable

What an unbelievably predictable outcome once again for our Eurovision hopes.
Engelbert Humperdinck did us proud though, I thought, coming out first, it was always going to be an uphill struggle........and thats even before the political and tactical voting started! At the tender age of 76, he said that he had done his best for his country, and that the rest was out of his hands. And so it was. I still dont think we are particularly popular in Europe, but on the bright side, at least we dont have to fork out millions of pounds staging next years final! That privilege has been given to Sweden, won by the former Swedish Idol contestant Loreen with her club track Euphoria. Well done Sweden.......I think !!!

England Footballs Solid Start

With only a few weeks until England's Euro 2012 campaign starts, it was a much anticipated match against Norway last night as Roy Hodgson took the reigns.
It was to be expected that it was a taster to see how the team worked together. Not the most spectacular of football matches, but they got the job done.
I was a little disappointed with Steven Gerrard though I have to say. He made a mistake, but had already committed himself to the tackle. It was not malicious by any means, but the Norwegian fans punished him for it, and he let them get to him. As a result he made several silly mistakes which coming from someone with his experience, should never have happened. I was quite relieved to see him come off, as I think he really was shaken by the response from the fans.
Other than that it was business as usual for England, predictably, I am afraid. Lets hope we see a little more spark from our lads on Saturday against Belgium, before Hodgson has to hand his final squad into FIFA on midday Tuesday.

Loan Warnings

Just a quick word of warning. A friend of mine was in need of a quick loan, so trawled the internet. He put his details onto a form and within literally minutes had a phone call from a loan company. They promised he could have the money in his bank account before the day was out. He just assumed it was the company he had given his details to. It wasnt. They had picked the details up from the internet and got in there quick before any one else could. They turned out to be a loan broker, but didnt tell him this. They asked for some more details to clarify for the credit search and asked for his card details. This is the bit that gets me. They asked for the security number on the back of the card and when he queried  it, they said it was for the bank details to go in. My friend wasnt aware that you only use this to take money OUT of your account. And with that, they took his last £60 out of his account only to tell him after they had done it, and it was for their fees as they were just the brokers and passed him onto someone else.
 Needless to say, he didnt get a loan with them and fought long and hard to get his money back. In short, always look at someone before you take out a loan with them. After he had the phone call, my friend then looked up the said company on a search engine and found nothing but complaints of a similar nature about them.
Whether it be a payday loan, or secure loan, ALWAYS do your homework........it pays!

Who has the Premiership title......

When I went to check the current scores at 4.45pm on Sunday afternoon, I thought the race would be all over bar the shouting.......how wrong was I? When I got onto the internet, Man Utd were winning their game 1-0 away to Sunderland.
Man City on the other hand were losing, at home, to a 10 man QPR ! But wait......1 minute into extra time and City score to level the game. This doesnt give them the title however as Man Utd won their game. But again, just to keep every one on their toes, City score again, and take the title!!
Sir Alex Ferguson must be absolutely mortified. Just a few weeks ago, they were just about the only contenders for the title, with even City's manager conceding that they were probably too far behind to make any real challange.
This is what Mancici had to say after the match.
 "The football was incredible. This is for our supporters, they deserve this. To win like this is incredible. I've never seen a climax like this. We didn't deserve to lose this game. We had a lot of chances. We deserve to win this Championship. After 44 years I dedicate this to all our supporters. This is incredible. It's been a crazy season and a crazy last few minutes."

Britain's Got Talent.........has it really ?

Last night 17 year old Ashleigh Butler, and her dog Pudsey won £500,000 and a coveted spot on the Royal Variety Performance after coming first on Britains got talent...........how????? It should be re-named Britains got No Taste (as they were voted by the public).
The duo were a good act, but lets face it, there was some REALLY good talent on there this year. I think there will be more stars to come out of this show, than any previous years. The singers alone were phenomenal.
It was also nice to see the lighter side of Simon Cowell, although I dont really think he had a choice with David Walliams sat a few feet from him.

Spanish Grand Prix

The weekend started off promising for our British hopefuls in Spain this weekend, with Button setting the fastest time in Fridays practice sessions, and Hamilton tipping him (Button) to take pole. Oh well, it started off well!
 By the end of qualifying on Saturday, Jenson button had been squeezed out of Q3, going very quickly in the dying seconds of the session from a comfortable 6th place to a very UN-comfortable 11th  when several drivers came in faster.
As for Hamilton, he was doing fabulously all day and managed to get himself on pole position with Williams' Pastor Maldonado close behind in P2. But as the McLaren car of Lewis Hamilton was doing his in lap he received an urgent radio message to stop the car. F1 rules state that you must have enough fuel in the car to get the car back to the pits with 1 litre for testing by the stewards. As it turned out, he didnt have enough (there was found to be 1.3 litres of fuel in the tank) and so was stripped of his qualifying times, and started the race last in Q24.
So the race started with Williams' Maldanado in P1, and Ferrari's Alonso in P2.......and that is how the race finished! The first Venezuelan to EVER take a Grand Prix. What pride he and his team must be feeling as it is also the first win in 8 years for the Williams team. They made some brilliant strategic choices in the pit stop timings during the race, and Maldonado did some fantastic driving! The Lotus of former World Champion Kimi Raikkonen came in 3rd.
McLaren managed to drag some points out of this one with Hamilton managing to crawl back up the pack from last, to 8th place, and Button gaining a few spots to come in 9th. Lets see if McLaren can sort themselves out for one of my favourite races...........next stop, Monaco : )

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Roy Hodgson.....New England ?

Last week the FA finally put pay to months of speculation from the press as to who would lead our proud England team to the European Cup finals. Against huge odds that Harry Redknapp would be getting the call, Roy Hodgson was revealed as the England camps new boss, as of close of season on 14th May 2012.
The FA also said that Roy had been the one and only contender for the job and that they didn't speak to any one else. This I find a little hard to believe. Had you heard of Roy Hodgson before last week? It does feel a little last resort doesn't it?
So with this I looked up Roy on the internet, and his CV is rather impressive. He has managed sixteen teams in eight different countries including the Swiss and Finish national teams. He currently manages West Bromwich Albion, who under his reign have spent a third consecutive season in the premiership for the first time in three decades. He has also led out the likes of Liverpool, Blackburn and Fulham.
I have to say that after reading his credentials, he is probably a very good man for the job.............lets watch this space. Lets face it, he cant do much worse than the last guy !!

Cough Warning

Sixteen years ago this summer, my husband lost his Grandfather at the age of 65. He had been a smoker but had given up more than fifteen years previously.
He had had a persistent cough for more than a few weeks and went to the G.P as he was starting to get worried. He was booked in quickly and had an endoscopy to look down his throat at what was going on. At this point he was told that it was lung cancer, but dont worry, because it can be dealt with quite effectively. Unfortunately before he got to receive any treatment, the cancer ate its way through one of his arteries around the lungs and he died of massive internal bleeding.
There has now been released, a government advertising drive, advising people with a persistent cough of more than three weeks, to visit their G.P, as it could be a sign of lung cancer.
Its a horrible disease, that effects most people at some point in their lives, whether it be directly or indirectly.
If this campaign can help prevent the pain that my husband and his family had to go through, then that would be brilliant. Some things are worth spending government money on.

Rip Off Box Office

We went to go to the cinema this weekend as a family of four and it wasn't a cheap affair ! As my children are now teenagers, we had to pay adult prices (dont get me started on this because its a whole other thing to rant about !). Then there was the obligatory popcorn (£5 x 2) and over sized drinks (£3.95 x4) which has put our 2 hour night out at a wallet busting £52 !! It is safe to say we wont be doing this on a weekly basis !
I do however suggest using Orange 2 for 1 Wednesdays, which gives you a free ticket with 1 full paying adult ticket. If you dont have an Orange contract, see if one your friends or families do as it costs the price of a text message to get the code. No hassle, well worth it if you dont mind going out mid week.

Biggest Box Office Weekend

This weekend saw the release in the United States of the new Disney film 'Avengers Assemble'. The film is a whose who of super heroes from the Marvel comics including Iron Man, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk and Thor. They are brought together in this film to save humanity from the evil Loki and his sidekicks.
What a huge sigh of relief this must be for the film makers at Disney, who last month saw the resignation of their film boss, Rich Ross, after the huge flop of the film 'John Carter'. The film is thought to have lost the company around $200m.
In contrast, 'Avengers Assemble' seems to have blown all competition out of the water with the biggest ever opening weekend. Early figures show it has already made $200m in that weekend alone!
Other big opening weekend films include the last Harry Potter film at number 2 and The Dark Knight at number 3. I was absolutely amazed to find that Avatar was only at number 40 !! Now that shocked me. Cant wait for Avatar 2, that might get nearer the top, lets hope. And still waiting for the next Terminator to come out. Lots to look forward to I think. :)

How to make a rainbow cake

Ingredients:

4 eggs, separated

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp vanilla essence

1 cup flour

1 cup white sugar

food colouring

Method:

Preheat oven to 175°C. Grease a round cake tin or what ever you have

Using a mixer, beat egg whites until firm, then add baking powder and vanilla.

Put the mixer on low speed and slowly add the egg yolks.

Sift the sugar, then add it one tablespoon at a time until all combined.

Sift the flour, and add it in the same manner as the sugar.

Remove bowl from the mixer and give a final gentle mix with a spoon to ensure all is combined.

Divide the mixture into as many bowls as you would like colours.

Add about 1 tsp of liquid colouring into each bowl of cake mix.

Pour each bowl into baking tin, dropping each into the centre of the tin - they will spread outwards to fill the tin.

Bake for about 20-25 mins. Cool and then slice.

You could also bake each colour in a separate tin and then once cool, stack them using a filling like jam to keep the layers together.

GOOD LUCK

I'm sorry Netflix.......

Last month I wrote what appears to have been a bit of a harsh write up about the site Netflix. Maybe I should have waited a little longer than 2 hours before casting judgement, which is approximately how long we had been joined up for before I had my little rant !! They still do not have amazingly new films to watch, but they do change the films around every few days though, so its not as bad as first thought............although my husband still says there is still no Star Trek !!!  (sigh)

Scream if you want to pay Millions $$$$

On Wednesday, the last version of Evard Munch's 'The Scream' to be held in a private collection was sold at auction, The other three versions in the series are all owned by Norwegian museums, this one was bought by an anonymous buyer for £74m ($119.9) with the proceeds of the sale founding a new museum, hotel and art centre in Norway.
 This version was also the only one to have a poem by Munch on the frame. It explains the inspiration  behind the series of paintings.
The previous owner was Mr Olsen, whose father was friendly with the Norwegian expressionist. Mr Olsen explained that he wanted to sell the painting because he wanted to offer the rest of the world a chance to own and appreciate this remarkable work.
Sothebys auctioneer Tobias Meyer said that the painting was "worth every penny"
"It is one of the great icons of art in the world and whoever bought it should be congratulated"
"This evenings sale was a dream for an auctioneer and to be able to sell The Scream for over $100 million was a moment that I cherish as an auctioneer"
I am not surprised, I hate to imagine the commission they picked up on that sale!      
Seven bidders were vying for the piece with a starting bid at $40m, and lasted a mere 12 minutes!!

Films Online

This week week we took advantage of Netflix free for a month trial. Put it this way.....I am glad it was a free trial because I am seriously disappointed!!! I thought we could have the trial, and as it was only a few £'s a month after, we would keep going after that. As we started browsing it was painfully obvious that we were not going to be carrying on with the service! My husband is a bit of a trekkie, and when he found there was absolutely no Star Trek films or T.V episodes (for some this may make it an attractive site!) he was mortified. The choice of films were poor to say the least.
The other option, as I do think films on-line are a good idea, would be Love Film. We did have this service a few years ago when you gave them a list of your film preferences and they would send the films off to you. You take out as many films as you liked for a monthly fee, but only two at a time. This was a bit of a sticking point for us as we were completely useless at sending the DVD's back after we had watched them!! It turned out quite expensive then as we were averaging to watch around 12 films a year!! Not good at £12 a month. However, Lovefilm have now started to use the same format and you can watch their films on-line aswell now. As this eradicates the need for me to actually remember to post something, I think this one might be a bit more beneficial to us!!

£1 Million Raised for Claire Squires Charity

On Sunday 22nd April 2012, Claire Squires expected to raise around £500 for her chosen charity, the Samaritans, when she ran the Virgin London Marathon. Tragically she never made it to the end and collapsed around the 25 mile mark. Although quickly treated by paramedics, she died on Sunday, with no apparent reason why. She was a tremendously fit lady, going to the gym every day. Friends say that her love for life, and want to help others were beyond measure, which I am sure makes this tragedy even harder to bear for her loved ones. Claire s family had already suffered lose when her brother died aged 25 in 2001. Her mother was a volunteer with the Samaritans for over 20 years, and these two reasons are why Claire chose them as her charity to run for. Since the news of her death came out, Claire s Just Giving web page has been inundated with well wishers and donations topping £881,000, with the gift aid given, this figure has now past £1 million pounds. The website Just Giving have also agreed to give their fee, which would now be around the £26000 mark. It really does put a lump in my throat at the generosity of these strangers, coming together to acknowledge the wonderful life a lady they didn't even know, It shows there are still some very decent hearted people out there. If you would like to be one of these people follow this link and give as little or as much as you can. Over 76,500 from all over the world already have. http://www.justgiving.com/Claire-Squires2

Wettest Drought Ever !!!!!

Isn't it funny how things can change so quickly ? On one day a couple of weeks ago, the BBC had a reporter on the morning breakfast show, reporting from a dry river bed about how bad the drought was, and even a steady flow of rain will not bring this river back to life quick enough. Then, as if Mother Nature herself was listening in, the reporter was back at the same river to report that, you guessed it,  it had burst its banks!! One very sheepish reporter! It is also just as ironic that counties that have a hose pipe ban in force, were yesterday issued with flash flood warnings! Some people might like to call it global warming or climate change, but these things have been happening since the dawn of time. I am not saying that these things do not have a direct effect on our weather systems, just that our weather has always been erratic i.e the several ice ages we have had. Whose to know what is to come, but this is Great Britain, so I expect alot more rain.........especially as summer is almost upon us!!!

Confessions of a window cleaner !

My husband is a window cleaner of quite a few years now. He sort of fell into the job when we moved into our new house at the time. We asked a local window cleaner for a quote to clean our windows, fascias and guttering. He nearly fell over when he was told it would be £50 per side. That means it would be £150 for just a few hours work!! And then another £10 to clean the windows on top of that! Well, there was no way my husband was going to pay that. 'I will get up there and do it myself' I remember him saying. Ha, that will be the day I said seeing as he has a severe fear of heights!! I remember him crawling along some scaffolding he hired once to fix the roof with, because yet again he didn't want to pay someone else to do it. Once up there he completely froze and couldn't get himself down! I had to open one of the bedroom windows (through fits of laughter) for him to climb through as he couldn't climb back down the ladder! Even then I had to drag him through as he was too scared to get up and do it himself! So, I hear you asking how on earth is he a window cleaner now then. Well its simple.....he only cleans bungalows lmao. No I am only joking, he has managed to curb his extreme fear of heights and he does get up a ladder now, but only due to the fact he is the tightest git you will ever meet, and he refused to pay someone else for a job he knew he could do himself.

Happy Birthday Ma'am

Today (21st April) is our Queen, Elizabeth II s 86th birthday. Born in 1926 at 17 Bruton St, London, Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary. The Queen will celebrate today, her birthday proper, in private with her family. But on the second Saturday in June she will celebrate her official birthday by Trooping the Colour in London. The Sovereign has an official birthday simply to be able to celebrate the birthday during the summer in what would hopefully be better weather. This has been a tradition since around the time of George III when he became King in 1760. It is now a day of pomp and circumstance and Great Britain at its best!
Princess Elizabeth as she was, was never intended to sit on the throne though. Her father acceded the throne in 1936 after his brother abdicated after his love affair with divorcee Mrs Wallis Simpson.
Her reign as Queen is the second longest in British history, second only to Queen Victoria. However she is the oldest reigning monarch of 86 years.
This year is set to be a very big year for her though as this is the Queens Diamond Jubilee year. Many celebrations are set to be going ahead around the country, lets hope its a good year for her.

Little Princess Trust / Hair Donation

Now, I have been growing my hair for around 2 years. This was not an intentional thing....I just haven't had either the time or the inclination to get my backside down to the hairdressers and get it loped off! As a result I now have a ponytail that is around 13" long!! Now enter my saviour......a work colleague of mine that is also a qualified hairdresser, and does it in her spare time, has said she will take on the now mammoth task of getting my hair into some semblance of order. Good luck to her!
Now I can put my laziness of not getting my hair cut, to some very good use. I had been aware that you can donate your hair to make wigs for cancer patients, so I started trawling the internet and came across a fantastic organisation called 'Little Princess Trust'. Here is a small extract  from their website ;-
 The Little Princess Trust provides real hair wigs to children suffering hair loss due to cancer treatment.

We supply and fully fund the best wigs available from all over the world, especially designed for children.  We also provide personal fitting and styling to ensure the wig is as close as possible to the original hair.

For any parent, discovering your child has a serious illness like cancer or leukaemia is devastating. The trauma for both parent and child can be increased by worrying about the side effects of the treatment, particularly hair loss.

To me, this was just the most perfect place to send my hair. What a magnificent charity this is. 

100 Days till the London Olympics!

So the London Olympics is only 100 days away, and I can't believe how fast time has gone since the games were awarded to us, now, 100 days before the big event, the official London 2012 Olympic motto has been revealed!

"Inspire a Generation"

 The torch relay around the UK has also started, and will be coming very near where I live, so I definitely will be going to see it! The whole thing is a once in a lifetime event, so I want to get involved as much as possible!
The stadium and all the buildings, and the Olympic Village is all on track to completion. The country is getting excited, and the world will be watching, I can't wait to witness the events and get into the atmosphere!

I a will be watching the cycling team, as Team GB is, in my honest opinion, one of the best velodrome teams in the world. I hope the whole event goes well, without any hitch, and I hope we can show the world what England can do! I'd like to wish good luck to all the athletes, and hope it all goes well!

Will you guys be watching? Maybe you're even coming to London for it!

Legoland holiday package

Legoland holiday package

My family and I booked a night at a hotel with two day tickets to the Legoland park. Booked Sunday and arrived at Legoland 9.45 Monday morning! Nothing like doing things last minute!!!
We took my 13 year old and 15 year sons  and we all had a great time. Because we had printed the tickets at home we were able to go straight to the gates rather than have to stand in line and buy the tickets when we got there.....much quicker!!! The longest we queued was 20 minutes, and we walked onto most of the rides. The dragon rollercoaster at The knights Castle was fun but I think that anyone over the age of 10 looking for a white knuckle ride would be dissappointed. This is probably a theme park for the younger families, not quite the white knuckle parks like Thorpe or Alton Towers.
The staff were all friendly and the park was clean with plenty of bins for rubbish. 
We took our own food but I could see that if you were to buy food for a family of four it could add up but having said that there was plenty of advertising advising that kids eat for free after 5pm.
We had a fabulous two days at Legoland. We will  visit again

Pooh Potty Jokes

Q. Where does Pooh like to swim? A. In the toilet.

Q. Why did Tigger look in the toilet? A. He was looking for Pooh. Q. What did Piglet flush down the toilet? A. Pooh! Q. What do you get if you cross Winnie the Pooh with   a donkey?  A. Dhiarr-Eeyore! Q. Why is Tigger always dirty? A. Because he plays with Pooh. Q. What do you get when you cross Rabbit with Pooh? A. A well fertilized garden Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear, is a fictional anthropomorphic bear created by A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), and this was followed by  The House at Pooh Corner (1928). Milne also included a poem about the bear in the children’s verse book When We Were Very Young (1924)  and many more in Now We Are Six (1927). All four volumes were illustrated by E. H. Shepard. The Winnie-the-Pooh stories are set in Ashdown Forest, Sussex, England.

Chinese and Bahrain Grand Prix

What a fabulous qualifying session in Shanghai. An amazing final qualifying lap for Nico Rosberg put him half a second faster than his nearest rival, Lewis Hamilton, who, due to a gear box change will now start seventh. He incurred a five place penalty when the team were worried that the previous gear box would not be able to finish the race. He now starts in seventh place, with his team mate Jenson Button in fifth. This is the first ever pole position for the Mercedes driver, with his team mate Michael Schumacher 0.57 seconds slower and now second on the grid. Its also the first pole that Mercedes have had since 1955. The team pulled out of formula one after that season, not returning to formula one until 2010 when they bought the Brawn team.
The surprise of the morning was current champion Sebastian Vettal's early exit, going out in Q2 in 11th place. He was using a different car to his team mate Mark Webber who qualified in sixth place.
Moving onto next weeks Grand Prix in Bahrain, although some drivers and teams have expressed concerns about the race, the FIA (the governing body) have decided to let the race go ahead even though there has been civil unrest in the region since February 2011. A statesman has said it was "satisfied that all the proper security measures are in place for the running of a Formula One world championship event".
I cant wait to see what happens in the race tomorrow, fingers crossed for the Brits....especially Jenson, who is a local boy for us coming from Frome in Somerset which is just down the road, Good Luck !

Britains got talent Vs The Voice

There are two big show running at the moment, one being The Voice, the Other is Britain's got talent, and they overlap by 20 minutes, but this week, Britains got talent have decided to move ahead by 30 minutes, and the season has already started, and this annoys me, let me tell you why. In this country, the BBC is funded by the viewers, who have to pay TV licence, they don't have to rely on ratings to get advertisement. where ITV HAVE to rely on ratings to get advertisers interested, and although health competition is great, we almost lost ITV to the recession, which would be a bad thing for everybody. I hope the bosses at BBC learn from this mistake, but I don't think they will, because they haven't from previous mistakes.

Easter - The ressurection

Easter has now become synonymous with chocolate eggs, and about 95% of the kids have no idea about why we celebrate Easter. There was a TV show on, where the presenter asked many children what they think easter is about, and a majority thought it was for the easter bunny's birthday. The closest answer was "for the death of Jesus" and even that is wrong, It's really about the ressurection and new life, the reason we give eggs is to show new life.

The walking dead - Review

The Walking Dead

One night two weeks ago I found myself up at 2 in the morning, so I started flicking through the channels, and I saw a program, called the walking dead, I've seen it around times before, but never payed attention, but this time they were restarting the series, so I decided to watch it as there was nothing else on. The show is absolutely fantastic. The next two days I found myself watching the whole of series one and two, and didn't leave my chair once, and now I'm sitting here waiting for series 3, if you haven't seen the series, I strongly suggest watching it, as it is a fantastic show, and don't let the fact it's all about zombies put you off.

The interaction between characters is fantastic, this is a great cast, and they seem to work very well together, and the storyline between between husband and wife, and friends has been very well written, and is believable.

Feel free to comment what you think about the show!

Alton Towers - Review

Hello!

Today, I'm going to be reviewing the Alton Towers theme park!

Myself and my family went to Alton Towers for Easter Sunday, we like to go to a theme park at least once a year, and this year, we decided to go to Alton towers.

First impressions of the park are very good, it has a large welcoming entrance, with friendly staff to usher you in, and direct you to a car parking spot. from the car parks, you can get a train/shuttle to the park's main entrance, because the walk is quite long, depending on what car park you are in.

The shuttles are brightly coloured and great for children, to get them pumped for the exciting day ahead!

When in the Park, there must have been at least 700 travellers, and a very large police presence,  My partner was stopped at the gate, but there was no trouble for the entire day, and everything ran smoothly.

We went on most of the large rides, my favourite being Rita, A ride which goes from 0 to 100KM/h in two and a half seconds, a truly invigorating experience! The ride queue was very fast for a ride of that size, but the staff could have been loading the rides a lot faster, but they were being quite slow if I was honest.

A great attraction for the whole family is the Ice Age 4D cinema, I was a little disappointed with the one in Drayton Manor, it was okay, but it was not amazing, but this one really was, there was snow coming down, bubbles, air on the back of your legs,  and the film was good too! It was a great all round experience!

In a majority of the stores they sell an unlimited drinks bottle, where you can refill it at a any of the numerous facilities around the park.    I recommend bringing a packed lunch as it is very expensive in the food stalls there.

Its a great all round day, and I recommend it to anyone.

Titanic

Just how much can James Cameron screw out of people with the film Titanic/Titanic 3D. Don't get me wrong I love the film and James Cameron is a great director, but come on, in the current climate people shouldn't be paying money for Hollywood to keep regurgitating the same movies over and over again. I just hope no one wastes their money on this, it'd be nice to see something different from Hollywood. I don't know what, or I'd be doing it myself, but it'd be good.

Sunburn and snow!!!

Can you believe this weather? Talk about global warming in reverse !! I have a friend in Scotland who is still nursing her sunburn from last week and yet her back garden is covered in 4 inches of snow. How mad is that? I have told her thou if her burns are that bad at least she can go out and roll around in the back garden!

 I hope the weather picks up for the weekend thou as we are off to Alton towers on Sunday and I dont like the thought of having to stand in queues in the freezing cold and pouring rain! I will however, report back on the new rides (and some of the old ones!) I am such a child, love this place so much the review might be a little one sided lol !!!