Once In a Lifetime

How great was the music in the 70’s? I was a teenager in the 70’s, and still love to sing along to those old tunes – great songs, fun songs, great lyrics, songs you could really sing along to (and dance along to).

Teenage girls in the 70’s either loved David Cassidy or Donny and the Osmond brothers. I was the David Cassidy fan, whilst my sister, Toni, preferred Donny.

Well, you can imagine our excitement when we heard that the ‘Once In A Lifetime’ show was touring the UK and coming to Sheffield Arena on Saturday 22nd April 2007! David Cassidy, the Osmonds (sadly minus Donny), David Essex and Showaddywaddy. Toni and I booked our tickets in January and have been looking forward to it ever since.

So yesterday, we drove the 1½ hours to Sheffield in plenty of time to be able to watch the other 10,000 people pour into the huge venue ready for what promised to be a fun evening. Before we had even found our seat, we had great fun watching the amazing shapes, outfits and characters of all the other women (yes, you guessed it, the audience was mostly women of a certain age). If only I’d taken my camera, but just imagine a wild hen night for 8,000 women and 2,000 onlookers.

We managed to find our seats in the top row(!) of the side block and despite our initial disappointment thinking we would not be able to see much, we realised that we could see just fine and also we would be able to dance and stand and sing and do anything we wanted without disturbing anyone behind us!! We quickly got chatting to the ‘girls’ next to us who were just as excited (unlike the reluctant husbands they had dragged along – why??). We were taking bets on the order of the line up. Toni and I reckoned that David Cassidy was the main man, so it would be: Showaddywaddy, David Essex, the Osmonds and David Cassidy for the finale. The other girls agreed. The reluctant husband thought that David Essex would be the most popular and therefore last! Ha!!


The opening band was Showaddywaddy who were great for getting everyone singing, dancing and clapping. You forget quite how many hits they had, and how easily the words come back into your head, and it was a great start to the evening! Next was, surprisingly, David Cassidy. Aaah, lovely David Cassidy. He is a great singer. I have his ‘Then and Now’ CD, so was able to sing along loudly to his songs. It was the last night of the tour and he was back to USA the next day and so he was a little emotional about how great us Brits are and how it’s like his second home here (very gushy, like only an American can!). It was great.

Then a bit of a break for a quick half a shandy and a queue for the loos - the queue was as long as a seriously long queue in Q town.

David Essex was next (so, we were all wrong on the order of the line-up!). He was also really great and REALLY popular. Lots more songs to sing and clap along to. By this time we were starting to feel a little horse and our hands were stinging from all the clapping! Last, but by no means least, was the Osmonds. True professionals, great singing. They also did a great medly of 70s songs by others which was fun. By 11pm it was all over and time to go home. We’d had a fantastic evening. Well worth £40. The bands have threatened to be back next year – can we book our tickets now...? (will that be the ‘Twice In A Lifetime Tour’??)

How the other half live

At work on Friday, my boss mentioned that he was expecting a visitor to come and look at his horses. Let me explain - although the company business is to breed and sells pigs, my boss's 'hobby' and real love is his race horses! It's an expensive hobby, which can occasionally pay dividends. He half-owns a horse called 'Gentleman's Deal' which he bought for a bargain price (although still not in most people's price range!) due to having some leg problem, which then got nursed back to health and re-trained for racing, and this year has been winning just about anything it can. (My boss gets very excited about his horses and often calls me into his office to watch a horse race on the wide-screen TV in his room!) And of course, each time he wins the stud fees go up.....!

Anyway, the visitor arrived by helicopter - HOW COOL IS THAT? - and landed in the field outside my office window, much to the surprise of the sheep and new lambs in the next field (another of my boss's diversions!). We all gathered at the window watching the pilot expertly land the helicopter and all agreeing that we would love to have a go. When all the passengers had got out and gone to the stables, we did debate on the probability of them having left the keys in the ignition...?

Gardening or DIY ?

A 4-day weekend – fantastic! Traditionally time to devote to DIY or gardening. I’ve already reached Monday and haven’t managed to achieve anything significant (yet), so today I got up bright and early (9am is definitely bright and early for a bank holiday!!), had the perfect breakfast after an Easter Sunday family lunch get together - cheesecake (cue the Peter Kay impersonation….). Then I watched a bit of TV. Now, watching TV during the daytime is usually against my religion, but being a bank holiday, the rules are allowed to change, so long as I still intend to use my day wisely. I watched ‘Homes under the Hammer’ with the very lovely Martin Roberts who used to be my next-door neighbour and still looks fabulous. I am currently thinking about how best to launch a new career as a property investor, so this was not simply a ‘still-in-my-pyjamas-slovenly-watching-daytime-tv-like-a-loser’ situation. This was RESEARCH! It was indeed very inspiring, and I’m only sorry that my current day job precludes me from conducting further similar research due to me having to be in my office 9-5, Mon-Fri.

So, suitably inspired, I decided to tackle some gardening today. I carefully and painstakingly prepared a garden design. Is it too late to be a garden designer?? I have a small garden and don’t have any lawn. Last summer I got a little shed and painted it to look like a beach hut. I plan to grow mostly vegetables, which is what I did last year, although perhaps a few less courgettes this year !! Then I set off to the garden center, bringing my plan and plant list so as not to get too distracted by all the lovely stuff they have to tempt impulsive Easter browsers. Ha ha - I’m not that susceptible (well, ok I am!!). The trick is to go to a garden centre which is not too huge and does not have lots of lovely, tempting stuff. Those of you in Surrey will be thinking of Garsons. A dream place if you have lots of money to spend! Luckily, my local garden centre is not like Garsons. So, I bought the seeds (guess which seeds??*) I had planned, and was only tempted to one extra packet – chard. Isn’t chard just the most beautiful, colourful veg ever?? I do hope this grows well.

I also treated myself to a clematis to grow up the fence at the end of my garden. I picked one with large,showy flowers. Keen gardeners will want to know what type of clematis it was. It was a blue one. Hope that helps! I hope to also buy a climbing honeysuckle for cover, colour and smell, but the limited range at my garden centre did not include such a plant.

I came home, fired up with enthusiasm and proceeded to dig my garden, removing all weeds, and turning over all the soil ready for the next stage of my vegetable plot plan. After several hours, digging, weeding, clearing, sweeping, I was feeling knackered and had backache. I did plant my clematis, but nothing else. Yet. Is it too soon, or does the earth need to be warmer (I read that in my gardening book). How can I tell when it’s warm enough? I also need to sort out my compost bin. It’s falling over with the weight of compost inside. I’ve been adding to it since last summer, so there must be some usable compost by now. I took a look inside and it looks pretty nasty. I watered my tubs and rhubarb with water from my water butt. Stood back and looked at all my hard work. How satisfying is that?


*obviously, Mr Fothergill’s seeds!!

When in Yorkshire....

It’s Easter, so time to decorate with eggs and chicks. We started the Easter tree idea several years ago. I have made or decorated eggs in past years, but not this year.


For Easter Sunday, my family over to me for lunch. Toni came with Benji and Barney and mum came with Mia who was visiting for the weekend. I do like to cook and love it when all the family come to eat as they always enjoy my food and say lots of complimentary things! I made a very tasty roast lunch with apple crumble for desert. This year I decided to make proper Yorkshire puds. Not that Aunt Bessie doesn’t make tasty puds (and with a factory in nearby Hull, is technically a real Yorkshire pud!). The problem has always been not having enough room in the oven for meat, potatoes and Yorkshires. Then, I remembered back to my waitressing days, when the chefs would make Yorkshire puds in the morning, store them on cooling racks and then just heat for a couple of minutes before serving with roast. So I tried that. I decided that if they turned out too flat, then I would say they were mini-pancakes that I had cooked for desert. Luckily, I must say that I was pretty pleased with my first attempt.

I was considering whether we should have the traditional roast lamb for Easter. As Mia was visiting for the weekend, she suggested fatted calf would be appropriate, but instead I decided on fatted pig. Or rather, not very fatted pig. I had got a very large piece of pork for Christmas from my work, and had divided it into smaller joints, a couple of which I still had in the freezer. How about that for not many food miles? Talking of which, I made a point of going to my local greengrocer to buy the accompanying veg, etc. Shelves display prices each or per kilo and also country of origin. It amused me to see that several products stated “Country of Origin: Yorkshire”. Being a farming community, we are very proud of our local produce. Naturally, I selected as many Yorkshire products as possible – potatoes, cabbage, peas, apples. (ok, maybe not the pineapple!). This is my attempt at ‘off-setting’ carbon, and allows me to feel better about jetting of to Malta for my holiday this year.

Rhubarb update

Since I first discovered a miniature rhubarb plant peeping through in my otherwise fairly bare garden, and posted a photo on my blog, I’ve had several people ask me how is it doing now? Well, I’m pleased to say that it seems to be doing very well, and is producing more shoots. Not quite enough for a rhubarb crumble yet, but it’s looking good!