Sherlock and Jude and me.

I have just come home from Sherlock, loved it, LOVED IT AND LOVED JUDE LAW. Yes  really enjoyed this movie, and Holmes fan that I am, it didn't bother me at all, I like the direction that Guy Richie took, Robert Downey is brilliant and so is the rest of the cast. I think that the casting of the smaller roles is more important than the stars because they can make a movie great even if the stars are useless, and the actors are all wonderful, I wasn't around in 19th C London of course but the movie looked just right as if you could even smell the place. So big thumbs up, only grumble is it is a bit long, I personally needed to go to the loo, but it was so exciting I had to stay in my seat, no mean feat considering the medication I take , hopefully that wasn't to much information for you. Good day to you all.   Aunt Bee.

Pjamas are not mall wear.

This is terrible, I've downloaded some photos, tried numerous times to find them, can't, tried to then tidy up my photo folders, I then found I've duplicated some stuff, totally lost other stuff and can't seem to fix it...........call Tom, no good at work...........call AJ no good at home and has given up on me. So no photos today, and I'm going to have a moan, right I'm mature over 50 year old, like a ripe cheese or a fine wine and whine I shall, went to the local mall with "the men " yesterday, fine had a great time, went early as Tom had work, and while waiting for  the" beastie brothers" to get food in the food court I saw a young woman I thinking 19 to 23, with a baby not a baby, baby, a 8 month old thereabouts waiting a the Indian food place in her pjama bottoms. Now this is the most bloody stupid dress trend I have seen, I know it's been done for awhile but it is so tacky to say the least,  there are implications if you wear your PJ's out of the house,1.your lazy,   2. your slovenly, they don't look good, they look like well worn jamas. 3. it's a question of knowing what is appropriate dress, this isn't hard, it's a learning at your mothers knee thing, 4.   you are sending a message to everyone who sees you and I don't think we are all getting the same message.   So that's my rant, I asked AJ what he thought of girls who wear their PJ's out and he said something very rude, I myself years ago when we had only one car and Basil was on early shift would at 4 or 5 in the morning drop him at work in my nightie and dressing gown, hoping and praying nobody saw me and taking money for petrol if I should be so unlucky to run out, when out.  We lived in a rural area then and taking him to work wasn't such a long drive but each time I had to do it, it was not a look at me thing it was a please don't look at me, and pray to God I get home un-noticed thing. Well I feel better, it is nice to get that off my chest, I shall now go and trace (God help me) a pattern from a Burda book I got from the library, the librarian said "Yoy do know you can only have magazines for 2 weeks now don't you." Yeah right trying to decipher these patterns is like deciphering a WW1 code, it will take more than 2 weeks to get it done. Then Basil is muttering about the movies as we have free tickets, so we want to see "Sherlock Holmes" which I'm really excited about seeing, not to see Jude Law, what do people(women) see in him, he's so pasty looking and weak, give be Robert Downey Jr anyday. So I'm off, have a nice day and enjoy the holiday. Aunty Bee

AJ relaxing after eating Christmas dinner (we always have it at night), this year it was so warm we had it on the deck, see AJ is seating in the chair he made for DST, which only the men of the house can sit in as it is made for tall people, a minor design flaw. And to think we haven't had desserts yet.Tom relaxes on the deck and Basil goes and fetches the desserts.  AJ and Tom worked right up to the 25th and both worked Boxing Day, AJ having to get out of bed at 5am to be at work at 6am. He said don't you think it's ironic that we boys are working and you are on holiday, meaning Basil and I, this is a first in our family. I replied that it wasn't ironic it was funny, I'm sure you might have heard our laughter from your place. Basil reminded them he starts back to work on Monday,  and I fell about the floor laughing,  as I will be on my own, what a wonderful christmas present, they all think I'm cruel and the words" terrible mother" were used.I shall get over it quickly and if the weather isn't to hot I shall have a walk on the beach and come home to sew. BLISS. The decorations will stay another couple of days and then they will come down, not a job I enjoy, as usual when I put the ones I had up away, I'm sure to find others I didn't find which I should have and which I will probably not find again next year, so they stay hidden for most of their lifetime, that reminds me must be more organised in 2010. Which to be honest is a perennial New Year's wish for the last 40 years at least. Love to all Aunt Bee.

Merry Christmas to all.

The pretzel things, salty and chocolately, very yum.The truffles, why do truffles never look as nice as they really are.

The lovely cake, the next shot will show you that Duff Goldman has nothing to fear from AJ and I. My sister the Contessa said "Who ? Duff beer." "NO I said Duff from Ace of Cakes."Aj and I had a play but it's harder than it looks or harder than the guys at Ace of Cakes make it look.

I thought I better explain the last post, no I'm not overly fond of drinking as that photo might have you believe, and although I said we finish our working year playing a game, eating chocolates and drinking, the drinking is of the fizzy, no not wine but the pop kind. I should also say that the night out at The Chateau was great up until the waitress told us at 10pm. we couldn't order any more too drink because they were being responsible hosts and we were getting noisy. Well, we were in a private room, no one was drunk and we are always noisy, we protested that we were always loud and we were being quiet compared to our work lunch times, (we for the last 12 years we have played Trivial Pursuit in all it's editions and any other word game that ten people can play, every lunch time except for Mondays when Mare, Shiraz and I do crosswords.) Can you imagine how loud we are, as we play boys vs girls, I want to say here and now the boys say they won this year but we know they put more marks up on the board than they won, I know we are so bloody competetive. But we had to leave and go to the bar where they were happy to serve us, yes well if you want to clean up the room you only have to say. I feel better I have that off my chest. Just a few photos, of my delicious truffles and a new thing that is a pretzel, with a rolo on top (heated 4 minutes in oven) and a M&M or pecan on top. I have to go , to take the beef and chicken out of the fridge to defrost, everything is done, or can only be done  tomorrow. I wish everyone a lovely Christmas, it's just us 4 for Christmas and it's always a good day although Basil usually likes to get us on a route march in the afternoon in preparation for the Christmas dinner, as it meant to be 25c tomorrow I know 3 people who will be avoiding it at all costs. Best Wishes from Aunt Bee, Basil, Tom and AJ, not forgetting Dave.

I have been busy, well that's my excuse.

Me and Basil enjoying my work dinner, he's not drinking so I can , what a man. But to be honest there's a story here which I will tell tomorrow.

I have been remiss in the exteme, not bloggin for awhile, but I have been busy. At my work we feel we must  celebrate Christmas at least 3 times, a big lunch out, at the local working man's club, very nice, a dinner last friday night at The Chateau, and then breakkie this morning, followed by a clean-up and our tradition of a friendly game girls vs boys of Trivial Pursuit or something similar, while eating chocolates and having a drink. It's then officially all over for the year and holidays begin for nearly 3 weeks. Yeah run around room naked yelling and shouting yeah...............well not really but that's what I'm doing inside, will do a better blog entry tomorrow as I have found an interesting shop. Love Aunt Bee.

I like to bake on a Sunday

Made some cookies, note, not biscuits as the recipe is American,  I have to hide the chocolate chips so I hide them in plain sight and so far they haven't been found in the hot chocolate tin with the delicious name Heaven. The cookies are from the recipezaar.com site recipe #358411 and it is the best recipe for CC cookies.These are yummy you can play around with the chocolate chips, dark, milk or white or a combination.Homemade garlic mayo, haven't got a recipe I just throw it together and it comes out great and it is very garlicky.Free range eggs we get from a colleague of Basil's 18 for $6.50, their is no doubt in my mind that there is a huge difference between free range and battery hen eggs and these eggs are delicious. I like to bake on a Sunday it is very relaxing before the working week begins. AJ it would appear has a job, it will be confirmed tomorrow, he would work almost full-time for the holidays, thats till the 2nd Febuary, and then work part-time around his school hours. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed and if it helps my eyes. Aunt Bee.

When 4 cans of beetroot are 4 to many.

Baz is very good when it comes to housework and other chores around the house and I really appreciate his work but when it comes to food shopping although I trust him with the staples, toilet paper, soap etc when it comes to food he's a bit useless. Last week he bought some supplies as he calls them (army training) and said "I got loo paper, and cat's food and a real bargain". "What was that dear", I said." 5 cans for $6.00". "Oh",said I,"What would they be, fruit or beans"."No beetroot". " Beetroot you got 5 cans of beetroot for $6.00 how can that be a bargain your the only one who eats it and that's at least a years supply". I was amazed, I really hate beetroot and  he was hurt I didn't admire his shopping skills, but to be honest it will be up to me to include this tinned treat into his meals in the future because with all his abilities cooking isn't one of them.When we were first going out he invited me back to his place for a meal, and I kid you not, in huge quantities in front of me was, boiled white fish, boiled white potatoes, boiled cauliflower and white sauce the consistency of wallpaper paste. It was so horrible it is burned in my memory for these last 28 years. So under pressure, if he must in dire emergencies he will cook or to be fair he does takeaways. He is always appreciative of the meals I cook, and doesn't mind eating  the experiments which have been a constant part of my cooking over the years, it's because if I like the look of a recipe but find I don't have all the ingredients I throw in what I think will work, the up side is I have created some awesome meals, but the down side is I never can remember what I put in the dish in the first place. I also have had some brilliant and disastrous meals because I now find it very difficult to see close up wearing my glasses, so I take them off (and can't remember where I left them), I have made a Pav with salt, and shortcrust savoury pastry with cornstarch, but I have made an awesome Pav by bunging everything in together  and beating it to death and made genius fudge by omitting an ingredient altogether. Actually I always have had trouble with my eyesight, Baz loves to tell the story of my mistaking his socks for the cat and talking to them for 5 minutes before he told I was cooing to his work socks.( Wasn' wearing my glasses at the time, in my defence). A little cruel I feel.Thats it for now, Tom wants the computer, and because I will undoubtable need his help in the future with this blog I shall let him have it. Am doing a few secret sewing things at the moment, so off to watch The Last Samurai, for the 100th time (not really true but feels like it) and a little bit of crochet. Aunt Bee.

Bag finished, not a good picture I know but no-one (boys) wouldn't model it, funnily enough. I have wool for crocheting in it, tried to do a ripple scarf but although the first 2 rows were good, it went pear shaped on the next 2,  I didn't end up with enough stitches. So I'm contemplating doing a more basic stitch style scarf.After seeing so many UJ flag bags, cushions, I decide I can do that with the NZ flag, and here is my bag. It is the first and hopefully not the last, it took ages as there was no pattern of course, and it is a little on the big side because I had to put the stars on, note the stars should be more spaced out. I felt a little spaced out after finishing it, but it's good for work. It doesn't matter where you are in the world, the cat will always finds what ever your working on, to sleep . We are cat people, as my sister Tess is a dog person, their dog died  while they were on holiday in Oz, 2 weeks ago. He was a lovely dog and it was a shock, but as she told the house minders at least they didn't come home to be told one of our ancient parents, who live in her back garden, had died. She has a good sense of humour, but I know they  will miss Toby and I can't see Tess's husband dragging her around the park each morning for exercise.The Christmas tree is up and with help from the Beastie brothers, who had maintained they were to old to help with the tree this year. I just told them to do it or live with my anger, threats still work, but I don't know for how long. It has been a very warm day, well stinking hot actually and because I'm still on my get fit and lose some weight before I see the Dr. again before Christmas. I am doing another class that makes 3 aweek. It's ZUMBA yes! I am going to look 30 years younger, have abs, have a navel ring, wear skimpy clothes and (dance the night away in hot, noisy nightclubs), but all before I have to be in bed by 10 pm. Well, not really, it is really fun and the instructor is Cuban, and quite a few people from the  gym next door looked through the window to see all the beautiful people doing ZUMBA, boy, were they disappointed, mostly middle-aged people trying to follow Maria and still breathe. Goodbye for now I need to rest for the oldies class on Friday. Aunt Bee.