New wheels... nostalgia!

Hello Everyone,

I hope my reposting of Positivity last week helped some of you if you were having difficulties find a solution to problems. I've had fun going through the archives and have decided during June and July to be nostalgic and repost some of the older ones. You may argue that I'm too lazy to do new ones! Moi!! Ha ha! The oldest one I have goes back to May 2010 when I was forced to buy a new vehicle after a thief helped himself to my beautiful 20 year old Micra. He was caught and had stolen other vehicles; he received a custodial sentence. So, he went to prison and I got a new car. Sounds fair to me. 'Baby' and I have had a lot of fun together and been to many places like Burley and Blackpool on holidays, numerous trips to New Writers UK events and that would not have happened without Sat Nav (acquired by accident!). I'm a believer that everything happens for a reason. I obviously needed to buy a new car although I still miss my 1990 Micra. I can't believe it's been 8 years but please join me in my little visit down memory lane.

Until next week, have fun and be careful driving.

Love Lady M xxxxx

                                                      *********************

Hello Everyone,

On Thursday afternoon I brought my new and expensive baby home. Our first gentle drive together was a difficult one as I have only driven one vehicle in the last twenty years. In 1990 the salesperson took ten minutes to show me all the controls; this time it was forty-five minutes which included setting up my mobile with the installed Bluetooth so that should my phone ring while I'm driving I just press the button with the phone symbol on it on the steering wheel and I can hear and talk to the person at the other end. Alexander Graham Bell we've come along way since that first historic call.

Unfortunately, the wipers and indicators have changed sides which means that should I choose to turn left the windscreen wipers suddenly charge across the screen. Old habits die hard but I'm learning. Fortunately, the number plate is a clear indication that my baby is new or it could just be the way I'm driving that cause drivers behind to drop back and treat me with caution. This is most unusual as a Nissan Micra, a small and slow car, usually means driver speed up and overtake. You will see from the photographs that I am like a proud parent with another new offspring. She is named Baby May Ten or Bee Gee after her registration letters. When we arrived home with only sixteen miles on her digital odometer and a clear flashing warning me that I only have enough juice to do another thirty-six miles I park her, talk to her and of course take the photos and immediately post them on Facebook. Then we have to practice reverse and put her in her new apartment for the night.

I then go down Memory Lane. Have I really been driving for forty years? Those driving behind me would probably doubt it. Bee Gee is only my sixth car and had my fifth one not been stolen there would never have been a sixth. In the seventies I had two second-hand minis and recall the problems of the choke and flooding the engine. My uncle was in the trade and was one of the first to bring the Japanese Honda cars into Britain. In 1977 I bought my first new car, a beautiful silver Civic; she was the 'S Plate special' and a silver streak bombing around Birmingham with heads turning to admire her. In 1981 we parted company and I bought an automatic red Civic with a radio installed - what luxury! A radio in a car.

In 1990 I switched to Micras and was relieved to find that the choke was no longer necessary. One just turned on the ignition and pressed the accelerator pedal. This car had both a radio and a clock. It was a far cry from the days of the fifties when my father would allow a good ten minutes to start the car as he put the crank (starting handle) in the front of the engine and turned it while secretly praying that it would actually start.

So, what does your car say about you?

People tend to have their own favourite makes and models. Some people like small cars others large or sporty models. What car do you have? Why do you like it? Does your vehicle have a name? What colour is it? Is it diesel or petrol engine? What does a red flame Nissan Micra say about me?

It is a small, slow car and an automatic. It's easy to park as I confess to being a typical woman. I recall the conversations with my father who would say that there was enough room to park a double-decker bus as I looked for a larger parking space. I'd reply that I needed room for a double-decker bus and an aeroplane.

I've been given one piece of good advice which I share with you; always keep an atlas in the car even if you've got Sat Nav! I would suggest that you always keep a good novel in the car as well but not for reading while driving.

Thought for the week: Happiness and health are the greatest good fortunes, worth more than any amount of cash.

Remember that 'Time and Tide' wait for no man, so have 'No Regrets', 'Stay in Touch' and always 'Look After Each Other'.

London!

                             

The red double decker and Big Ben

Hello Everyone,

My final capital city is my home one... lovely London! Enjoy!


1. London is the capital of the United Kingdom.

2. It is situated on the River Thames.

3. In this city you will find Westminster Palace and Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and Hyde Park.

4. It is home to the Chelsea Flower Show; the world's most prestigious flower show.

5. It is where one may experience a civilised ritual steeped in tradition and take tea at the Ritz.

6. Samuel Johnson said,
"The man who tires of London tires of life. For there is in London all that life can afford."

7. London suffered a terrorist attack on July 7th, 2005.

8. It  hosted the 2012 Olympic Games.

9. In 1665, there was an outbreak of Bubonic plague killing more than 70,000 people in London

10. In 1666, four-fifths of the city was destroyed in the Great Fire which began in Pudding Lane. Samuel Pepys gave a vivid accountof the fire in his diary

11. It is the city which has 'Cockneys' in its East End. To be a true Cockney you must have been born within the sound of the church bells of St Mary-Le-Bow in Cheapside.

12. Charles Dickens lived at 48 Doughty Street, Holborn from 1837-1839; during that time he completed Pickwick Papers, wrote Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby and Barnaby Rudge and his house has been preserved as a museum.

13. A musical highlight from this city is the annual Promenade Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall which take place between July and September.

14.There are more than 50 theatres largely in the West End of London and this area has become known as theatreland.

15. Wimbledon is the home of tennis.

16. Lord's Cricket Ground is the hallowed capital of cricket.

17. Wembley Stadium is the football home.

18. London Bridge was sold to an American in 1968 for more than £1,000,000. It is now a tourist attraction in Arizona!

19. Crystal Palace was the world's first major prefabricated building of iron and glass, built for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park. After the exhibiton, the palace was moved and re-erected in Sydenham, South London but was destroyed by fire in 1936.

And finally, number 20:

A famous feature of this city is its red double-decker buses!

So, as this is the holiday season whether you be visiting a city, beach or staying at home remember to have a good book at your side!

"Time & Tide" wait for no man, so have "No Regrets"; always "Stay in Touch" and "Look After Each Other"!

Thought for the week: Both great love and great achievements involve great risks!

Yours, Lady M

Cairo!

                                                                                                

Hello Everyone,

Was last weeks information on Washington of interest to you?

1. Cairo is the capital of Egypt.

2. It is situated on the River Nile.

3. Egypt is in Africa.

4.Go north and you walk into the Mediterranean Sea, go south and you find Sudan, go west and look at Libya, go east and see the Red Sea and Israel.

5.Arabic is the official language; although English and French are widely spoken.

6.Islam is the predominant religion.

7.It is the city where one can discover the Al-Azhar Mosque which contains the oldest Islamic university in the world (AD 970).

8.It is also the city where you will find the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities.

9. In this museum is the Mummy Room and the Tutunkhamun exhibition. (Both are well worth a visit.)

10.In the heart of Cairo is the Khan El-Khalili, one of the world's great bazaars and Africa's largest souk or market.

11. The Citadel, an imposing medieval fortress, was the home of Egypt's rulers for 700 years. Today it offers sweeping views of the city.

12.From the centre of the city it is possible to see the Pyramids at Giza; this is the modern name given to the gigantic burial grounds of Letopolis, now Cairo

13. These three Pyramids are at least 4,500 years old and the only one of the Seven Wonders of the World to survive today.

14. They cover an area of 2,000 square metres on a plateau.

15. They are the funeral complexes of Pharaoh Khufe (the second king of the Fourth Dynasty), Khafre (his son and the fourth king of the Fourth Dynasty and Menkaure (Khafre's son and the fifth king of the Dynasty).

16. Each one has a burial chamber excavated in the rock; they also have a Mortuary Temple, a Causeway, and several other chambers in them.

17.The Great Sphinx is a colossal stone statue with the face of a man and the body of a lion.

18. It was built in about 2500BC by Pharaoh Khafre, the occupant of the second Pyramid and the face is a portrait of this king.

19. The Sphinx is thought to be a guardian figure protecting the tomb and warding off evil spirits.

20. A final point - I visited Cairo and Giza in February 2002; they are only supposed to have about six days of rain at the Pyramids each year. Guess what? Yes! It rained! Wasn't I lucky to have one of those days!

Next week I will be giving you twenty facts about Tokyo!

But tomorrow, I shall be at the Gedling Art Festival in Nottingham. If you are in the area pop along to the Arnold Methodist Church where I will be, unless I've popped over the road to Costa, and say 'hello'. It's at 54, Front Street, NG5 7EL

Thought for the week: Negativity breeds negativity. Positivity breeds positivity. Stay positive.


Love to you all, Lady M  😁😋😔😉

Canberra

Parliament House

Australian War memorial

National Gallery

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are all enjoying the summer holiday season if you are in the northern hemisphere. If you are in the southern part then hopefully you will be experiencing a reasonable winter.
This week I'm looking at CANBERRA.

1. It is the capital of Australia.

2. The city was planned in 1908.

3. It was designed as the political heartland and capital to stop rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne.

4. It is located in the ACT (Australian Capital Territory).

5. It was once just a small sheep station on the edge of the Molonglo River.

6. Its name is based on the Aboriginal word for 'meeting place'.

7. The foundation column of the new capital was laid in 1913.

8. The city was designed by Walter Burley Griffin, a Chicago architect.

9. It is laid out like a cobweb with government buildings in the centre and moving outward to the residential areas.

10.The first session of Parliament was opened on May 9th, 1927, by the Duke of York, who later became King George VI.

11.Unlike other capital cities, Canberra does not have either large skyscraper buildings or a large population.

12.Central Canberra lies around Lake Burley Griffin, framed by four hills: Black Mountain, Mount Ainslie, Capital Hill and Red Hill.

13.Its star sights are the Australian War memorial, the National Gallery of Australia and Parliament House.

14. St John the Baptist Church and Schoolhouse Museum, built of local bluestone in 1844 are Canberra's oldest surviving buildings.

15. 70% of the ACT is bushland.

16. In the ACT, the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve can be found. It has forests, grassland, streams and mountains. Kangaroos, emus, platypus and koalas can all be seen in their natural environment.

17. Lanyon Homestead, a restored 1850's home attached to a sheep station is situated on the Murrumbidgee river bank, south of Canberra.

18. The Namadgi National Park covers almost half of the ACT.

19. Canberra, even has a little bit of Britain! Cockington Green! A crafted miniature British village set in landscaped gardens.

20. There are two special events: the annual spring flower festival and the hot-air ballooning festival in April.

So, if you are visiting Australia this year enjoy the Sydney Opera House and all that the country has to offer but don't forget a visit to this small, enchanting capital city so different from other capitals around the world.

Always, take a good book with you as well as the guide book.

Thought for the week, particularly if you are travelling: It is better to arrive 5 minutes late than 20 years too soon!

Have fun, Lady M xxxx


                                                         

Time does not exist! So there!

 Hello everyone,

Well, it is the first week of May 2016. Yes, really. One third of this year has already gone, never to return. It is four months since last Christmas and New Year. There is a competition on the television for Christmas card designs. In the business world next Christmas is the topic of conversation. Can you believe it? Have you achieved all you intended doing in these first months of the year? Are you proud of achieving a 'first' in something? Have you reached the age where you are beginning to wonder where all the time has gone? As children an hour was a day and a month for ever. Now last year seems like only yesterday.

 

Do you have a favourite decade?

The FORTIES when it was war time, perhaps. A time of austerity and extremely uncertain future but also one of great comradeship...

The FIFTIES, there was still rationing in Britain and things were bleak but change was on the horizon. This was the time when the Russian and American space race began and the sputnik went into space. Do you remember the jubilation when the first animal, a dog was sent into space and it came back alive meaning that there was a possibility of man going up there?

The SIXTIES, the era of great change and freedom; the beginning of the permissive era and Woodstock. I can remember it so I guess I was not there! Neil Armstrong walked on the moon...

The SEVENTIES, platform heels, revolution in education, package holidays abroad and the beginning of Mrs. Thatcher's reign...

The EIGHTIES, The Falklands Conflict, George Bush became the American President, the Berlin Wall came down, 'The Satanic Verses' was published and Salman Rushdie became a household name...

The NINETIES, Nelson Mandela was freed after twenty-seven years in prison, and we all looked forward to the new Millennium.

My favourite decade has to be the sixties when mini-skirts came into fashion and Liverpool made its mark on the music scene with artists like Cilla and the Beatles. Maybe it's because those were my teenage years. Perhaps those years are truly the best years of our lives.

 

This week I am in philosophical mood and have decided that there is no such thing as 'time'. We created it for our convenience. Day, night and the seasons are fact not fiction and forces of nature to be accepted. Just look at my beautiful pic of sunset in Paphos above signalling the sun's departure before the moon and darkness appear. However, WE created hours, minutes and seconds. WE created a calendar to count the years, weeks and days. We invented clocks and watches to replace sundials. We created time! This thing we call 'time' does not change.  We do with age. Our opinions and thoughts change as a result of our experiences as we move on with our lives; hence the phrase which we created, "the wisdom of the years" Time does not speed up... we do as we try to accomplish more or slow down with age.

What if...

What if...

There is no such thing as time. Instead, we are all like computers programmed to run our course through the seasons, night and day until the end.

Or... what if this thing we name 'time' is really static? The Universe has been created and everything already planned. All the events of the decades I've mentioned were already in place and we just move through them!

 

Next week is Friday 13th May, a day when superstitious people like to stay in bed fearing disaster. Why? Why should that day be any different from any other?

So, this week I am leaving you with food for thought.

Have a great week. If things are not going well just think of the phrase, "Que sera, sera!" What will be, will be. You cannot change it, so try to accept it.

 

Lady M (Sofia & Donald xxxx)

 

 

Sofia's Quiz

Howde Folks!

I hope you are enjoying your time with me. You may remember that Lady M gave Donald and I a new game to play in Love You Forever: Alphabet Sex!

We really enjoyed it. We took it in turns to decide on a place to visit, and have sex in full view of any audience. The more people around the more we enjoyed it knowing that they could not see us until we were in Rio at The Statue of Christ the Redeemer. We were the ones in for a surprise! We saw an elderly gentleman by the wall staring at us and then we realised that he could see us. This had never happened before. We soon understood. It was his time; we saw his late wife come for him and helped him cross over toward her.

Anyway, you can read all about it in Love You Forever but I was discussing this blog with Donald and asking him what I should do. He reminded me that Lady M does quizzes. That gave me an idea. We went to many places but what countries were they in? I'll give you the place... you name the country and as Lady M would say, "Answers next week".

Amsterdam? Holland/Netherlands
Jerusalem/Jericho?Israel
Kingston?Jamaica
Las Vegas?U.S.A.
Memphis? U.S.A.
Naples?Italy
Oslo? Norway
Paris? France
Quebec?Canada
Rio de Janeiro?Brazil, South America
Stanley?Falkland Islands (U.K.)
Taj Mahal?India
Union City, Utah?U.S.A.
Vancouver?Canada
Wicklow?Ireland
Xenia?Ohio, U.S.A.
York?England (U.K.)
Zell-am-See?Austria

Yes, I know there are only 18, 8 are missing. Apparently, we did do them. Brenda, my mother recalls Amsterdam because we brought her some tulips but Lady M started us at J indicating that we had already completed A-H. It is a complete mystery to us. We've asked her but she refuses us to tell us. Is it a secret or is it that she does not know? Writers!

So folks, have a great week full of magical moments.

Love Sofia xxxxx