They Say Things Happen in Threes......

Just when I thought things were progressing well my printer decided to give up the ghost. For a little while when I had printed anything it had told me that mechanical parts inside the printer are coming to the end of their servicable life. Now, two weeks before Hannah's wedding (with my Bride's Father's Speech on the computer) the d----d printer decides to die on me! As the speech is 5 pages long I didn't fancy writing it all out by hand, so that meant having to buy a new printer.

One very useless Epson Stylus C64 Printer

Epson Stylus All-in-One Copier/Printer SX 415

Having done a bit of market research, and read independent reviews of various printers, I decided to purchase an Epson Stylus All-in-One Copier/Printer SX415. The original price for this wonder of modern technology was in the region of £75.00, but on visiting various web sites I found it on sale at just under £50.00. When I contacted one of the sites (Comet) I found that they could certainly sell me one, but there would be a delivery charge of £10.95 and it would take about a week to 10 days for delivery. (Sorry Sir, there are none available in the shop.) What a con!

I contacted Epson direct on their website, and was told I could have the printer/copier at the same price, with NO DELIVERY CHARGE, and if I ordered before 13.00 it would be delivered the next day. You don't need to be a genius to guess who got my business!!

I mentioned that I would not be in the next day, and could it be left at a neighbour's house. The response was that usually if the customer wasn't in they left a note and you rang back to arrange a suitable time for it to be re delivered (AGAIN AT NO COST!) However, the delivery man used his common sense and left a note through our letter box telling me that the goods had been left next door.

So far the results of the copying and printing have lived up to the advertised claims, and I have been delighted with it.

The damaged rear end of my car (Can you even see it?????)

You may be wondering why the above photograph has appeared, Well this is number two in the list of disasters! Yesterday we went up to Skipton, and I was parked on the setts. When it came time to move I checked that there was nothing behind me on the High Street and began to reverse out of the space. As the car on my right was quite close to me, as I reversed I looked to the right to check that I wasn't going to scratch it.

Unknown to me some silly driver, whilst I was checking that I wasn't going to catch the car next to me (I will resist the urge to tell you the sex of the driver!!!) had parked across the back of me and (of course) it got a slight tap from me, causing a dent in the front nearside wheel arch!

You can tell how fast I was going, by the amount of damage done to the plastic rear offside wing of my car. It's only in close up that you can see anything! Just a slight graze on the plastic, which can no doubt be made good by some firm like "Chips Away"

Oh, by the way, I didn't tell you why I had gone to Skipton, in the first place........

It was to have an eye test and get a new pair of spectacles - and before you think it - NO I AM NOT BLIND!!!!!

Katherine Jenkins Concert Ripley Castle 24.VII.10

Unknown to me, the good lady had been very devious this last week, and had arranged a night out with our good friends Gordon & Sue. This was an attendance at an open air concert at Ripley Castle with Katherine Jenkins as the main attraction.

The scene below shows the queue which had formed before the gates opened at 5.30 pm.



Tickets had been booked, and on Friday a rather strange looking envelope appeared through our letterbox addressd to Mrs. D. Bentley from an entertainments company. I thought it ws probably some junk or advertising mail and almost threw it away!!

Luckily I didn't, because the following day I was presented with a ticket to the VIP Car Park at Ripley Castle for the Katherine Jenkins Concert!

Here are Sue and Dot just after a short sharp downpour, which occurred just before we got our picnic set up, and seated!



Gordon seemed to be in a very happy frame of mind, and particularly appreciated the curvacious Miss Jenkins, and her glamourous outfits!

This was the outfit she wore for her first three songs.

Whilst this was the dress she wore for her next set of songs.

After the interval, when she had had time to make yet another change of dress, she appeared on stage in this dress!

Her final appearence was in this black number, when she led the audience in Rule Britannia, Jerusalem and Land of Hope and Glory!

It was an altogther thoroughly entertaining evening, with some superb singing from Miss Jenkins, and in the company of good friends!

PortAventura Here We Come!

I've heard a whisper that a certain family are heading to Salou in the not too distant future. To be more specific to a place called PortAventura. (Yes! that is the correct spelling so I am reliably informed).

I wondered if a certain little girl will be riding on Dragon Khan?

Dragon Khan

This is the Roller Coaster called Dragon Khan.

I hope the weather keeps sunny for you all - and don't forget to put on lots of factor 30 (or whatever) as Hannah will not want a sunburnt bridesmaid. Brown, yes, but suburnt No!

Have a lovely time!

Report on Walkies by Ruby

Hello there! It's Ruby here again.

I promised you I'd be back to report on my days holiday at "Walkies." I had a super time. When we arrived at the house I went up the path and two chocolate brown Labradors met me. One was called Jack, but I didn't catch the name of the other one. Well they made a great fuss of me and made me most welcome, so much so, that I didn't even sleep on my bed, but joined them and slept with them.

We all went for a walk in the woods in the morning, and had a great romp around, and then we went for another long walk on the moor in the afternoon. It was great fun to have two friends to show me all the lovely doggy places on our walks.

Mrs Fliss, who owns "Walkies"told my Dad that I was very well behaved and didn't fret a bit, and I was welcome to come back any time.

I think I heard him say that I'm going for two nights when Hannah gets married, which is nice in a way, but I really thought Hannah might have had me for her bridesmaid, but I expect Olivia, Mollie and Georgia will do a good job!

Lots of Love,

Ruby.

Graduation Day

The photo below is a general view of the Faculty of Education, which is the building situated at the right had side, and across to the centre, behind the tree. The grounds of Edge Hill are beautifully laid out, and there is a large ornamental lake outside the faculty buildings, populated with lots of ducks. Hannah used to feed these ducks each morning on her way to lectures.

Here is a photo of Hannah outside the Faculty of Education, complete with her gown, degree hood and mortar board.

The degree ceremony was held in the Faculty of Health Lecture Theatre, which is a building across the lake from the Faculty of Education. The next photo was taken at the ceremony, when Hannah received her degree from the Chancellor of the University.

Hannah receives her degree.

The observant amongst you may well notice that in the next photo her hood has changed colour. A few minutes before the ceremony was due to commence, Hannah, who was seated on the top tier of the lecture theatre, was approached by one of the ushers, and eventually she was divested of her hood! Moments later another usher arrived with a different hood. It appeared that Hannah had been given the wrong hood, as her degree was one of the last bestowed by Lancaster University which was the awarding body in her last year at Edge Hill. So she had a different hood for her degree!

In the shot below she is wearing the correct hood for her degree!

A final shot in the lift before returning her academic paraphinalia!

Well Done Hannah!

Hello there, Ruby here.

Hi There!

It's Ruby here doing the blog today!

I've heard a whisper that I'm going on a days holiday on Sunday - Monday, so I've included a photo of me on holiday last year. That is one of me in the back of the car after having a lovely walk on Bamburgh beach.




Rumour has it that Hannah is going to get her degree at Ormskirk (Edge Hill) on Monday, and as they have to make an early start and will be out of the car for a few hours, they thought it best if I spent the day with a kind lady at Walkies at Riddlesden.

So I'm going to sleep there on Sunday night, and go for a walk with her on Monday morning. I think she has two Labradors herself, so it will be nice to meet two of my kind. I'm looking forward to that. I'll let you know all about it later in the week.

PS I nearly forgot to remind you, what with all the excitement about weddings, graduation days and meeting new friends, but it's my third birthday on Saturday 31st August.

Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head......

I don't know if you realised, but it is St Swithun's Day today, and a poular belief is that if it rains today it will rain for forty more days:-

St Swithunn's Day if thou dost rain

For forty days it will remain

St Swithun's Day if thou be fair

For forty days will rain no more

St Swithun was an Anglo Saxon bishop of Winchester who gained a reputation for posthumous miracle working after his death in 862. His association with rainy weather probably originates with stories of heavy downpours on St Swithun's Day in medieval times.

However a little more prosaic is the fact that the Atlantic jet stream tends to settle into a meteorological pattern adound the middle of July that remains constant until the end of August subjecting the UK to six weeks (or roughly 40 days) of similar weather.

Does this mean that Hannah's Wedding Day (August 14th) will be wet????

Graduation Day Looming

We have been fairly busy over the last few days, finalising details for the wedding! The bride to be's mother and the bride to be have been to Clitheroe, for final fittings for the dress, I am assured that the bride to be's mother has started to gather the beginnings of her outfit - well a new bra, which cost the earth!

Just at the moment another serious contender has taken over from the wedding, and that is Hannah's Graduation Day, which is on Monday, at Edge Hill University commencing at 10.30. Graduands have been requested to be on the campus two hours before the ceremony commences, so that means an early start on Monday morning.

As the older sisters are still working in school, this has meant that Ruby hasn't had any obvious place to stay overnight Sunday - Monday, however, Hannah supplied me with the name of a lady she knows, in Riddlesden, who has been able to fit her in for the night.



So we now look forward to the ceremony on Monday, and seeing Hannah in her Hat, Hood and Gown - I wonder if this could double for her wedding outfit?

Forty Days and Counting.......

By the time you read this it will only be forty days (and forty nights) -sounds a bit like a hymn to me - to the Great Day. Put another way it is now less than six weeks.



All the replies have been collated, and guests from both families have been added up so that we could supply the Cavendish Pavilion with the finalised numbers.



So this afternoon the Bride to be, The Mother of the Bride to Be, and the Father of the Bride to Be made their way to the Cavendish Pavilion to sort out the finer details of the reception. The menu has been chosen, wine, champagne & Pimms have been selected, choice of canapes to be served with the Pimms has been made, vegetarians (who notified us) have been catered for, table arrangements have been decided on, decorations, flowers, colour schemes and a hundred and one things that we mere men have no real concept of have been discussed. Things have most certainly moved up a gear in the last twenty four hours!



Various artefacts and photos have been collected to accompany my speech (which reamins at one page in length at the moment!) and arrangements are in place to display the said artefacts.

The Cavendish Pavilion

I now have a "Don't Forget list" on my computer, and anything that springs to mind which needs following up is entered on to the list. Just to give you a little sample - one line reads bread crumbs for ducks. There are usually lots of ducks around outside the Cavendish Pavilion, and I'm sure the bridesmaids and Tom will enjoy feeding them!

Only another four more weddings to play for at church before I get a bit of respite from the organ!

Results So Far.....

We have all heard about Nana breaking her hip, and the fact that she's now back home and well on the mend. With the help of a physio she has managed to go down and back up her stairs already! So we have cancelled the ambulance which we had ordered to take her to Hannah's Wedding!

But just look what happens now! Olivia manages to break one of her toes, as well as chip a bone in her ankle, so it seems that the ambulance may yet be needed!

At this rate maybe we should play it safe and order a fleet of ambulances rather than taxis!