Portrait of an old bogger on a beach in Winter time.Without hat.

The World Cup is over for the All Whites, and instead of lambasting the team for not getting in to the final 16 we are still happy, undefeated in all games and going home with Italy, not to shabby.

Bugger this site is terrible when you want a photo to go somewhere else.

Seagulls are there but going back to base.

I am not happy about my foraging this week, visited 2 CS and the prices they are charging is stupid and by the lacking of customers I would say I'm not the only one who thinks so. I think the recession plus the fact people are looking for "vintage" stuff has made the "sometimes very strange old ladies "who seem to inhabit these shops, ideas of grandeur.  So I didn't buy much, which the photo will prove. The saturday market was concelled due to it was TBC," to bloody cold", as one of my clients would say, clients as in a guy I support in employment as a gardener one morning a week. Angus played his first game of rugby this week for the social team, he wasn't going to play this year and with a bruised spine, broken toe and poisoned knee he couldn't have anyway, but the coach, a teacher at the school and a number of boys asking him  to play, he said yes.It was an internal game one SBC team against another, so at school.  We had to pick him up from work and take him to the game, hope no one was offend by  him changing in the car. I loved standing on the sidelines watching him play, but I had forgot how cold it could be and I was frozen, he will help out the team when he can for the rest of the season, so I got my wish but I'm reconsidering the wisdom of it. Yes, me on the beach, thought it was time to but a face to the name,  I took the hat off my head, which now looking at the photo I should have been kept on, but suffice to say it was freezing down there yesterday and not surprisingly there was only another hardy woman and me. Oh, not to forget the dive bombing seagulls, took a photo of them after the attack, enlarge the photo if you can't see them, I was to busy throwing shells at them to get them to leave me alone, to get a close up of the horrible things. I have never been fond of them and since this second attack I am thinking of putting a bounty on them, it's not as if they are defending a nest like Magpies in Spring, no these rats of the sky are taking the p***. Nothing funnier to a seagull than giving  a middle-aged woman fright on a lonely cold beach, who said they don't have a sense of humour. Love Aunt Bee.

Why we were dancing at work this morning.

Italy  1                        New Zealand  1
5th in the world     78th in the world
       Need I say more, No I don't think so.

I hate it when I have money to spend and nothing to show for it.

The Enid Blyton has lovely illustrations, printed 1968 and dear old Noddy and  a lovely wee dish of a winter's scene. That's all from the weekend.

Things are so desperate I have to show my breakfast, but I'm obsessed with New World's cheese bread, a bargain at $1.99 a loaf, with Vegebite, I love this stuff, took ages before I bought any and now I guard it with my life, Baz has developed a liking for it, which wont do at all. Sad sack that I am I have the same breakfast every morning, note breakfast at computer table, Lord I'm letting you see some of my bad habits.

I've not mentioned the World Cup, Baz wakes me up every morning when he comes to bed, and tells me the scores, I'm not staying up to 2am to watch the matches as some of my colleagues are doing. We keep track of the results at work, and we have been happy "kiwis" with the first ever New Zealand pt. at a World Cup. But tomorrow will be the big game Italy, I shall be praying for a miracle, and hoping for a draw or a not too humilating defeat. I shall go to bed now as I have had a busy weekend with my taxi service booked up by the "men". Love Aunt Bee.

Gee what an impressive pier.

The very impressive New Brighton pier. Really? No just joking, it's the out-fall pipe, but it looks good with the tide out.No this isn't the right photo will try again.No, it's not in this one either.O.K. I give up, if you squint at the two above photos you might just make out the pier, it's a huge concrete thing, but as I never walk that way you may never see it. I never walk that way, because there is to many people down that way and charming, friendly person that I am, I prefer the less crowded part of the beach.Chris and husband TH, bought around 2 bookcases, one for the lounge which I quickly took ownship of and filled with some of my books and mags. Not my cookbooks or my craft mags or most of my "house' mags, though they are still in the big old bookcase I heard a sigh of relief when I gave them more room to relax. I wondered aloud whether I should paint it white, Aj screamed in horror "NO", what fabric is to me, wood is to Aj. As he is making me a coffee table with glass top, which I will be able to open up as a display space, I gave in and said I wouldn't paint it. Have managed to get him to paint the coffee table though. Although  it is a small victory it is a victory none the less. The other bookcase is in Tom's room containing his growing number of books, no photos  he said, he needs some privacy, in other words his room was to messy to photo.These are the crochet circles I started in Summer, they had an unfortunate experience at my hands and as I couldn't bear to undo them, I'm making something like cushions or maybe a small rug, I don't like to plan these things, I'm more the free-wheeling creative type or I could be the oops that's a mistake I'll have to fix somehow and pretend it was what I intended all along type.That's it for now, it's freezing and I'm going to cook a curry for dinner, something to warm up our insides, because our outsides are very cold. Love Aunt Bee.

A bit like a jumble sale a bit of everything.

It must have been a very cold miserable Sunday for you to reorganise the kitchen Bee? Yes it was, of course it doesn't look as tidy down.I have a growing obsession with "talking books", I have" Miss Read's retirement", book in the car at the moment, no jabbering DJ's blathering on in the morning for me, no I have the beautiful voice of Sian Phillips accompanying me to work in the morning.New bag a WIP , thinking I'll plait the handles or just use it for the button loop. Still thinking about it.Lovely jug as mentioned in previous post.Aj said I should stop showing beach scenes and show a photo of me and my winter woolies including very embarrassing  hat (fat chance).Came in from work at 3.45pm, made this lovely smelling date loaf, as it's Thursday and a very sports training orientated night, this should tide people over till dinner time, which will be at 9.20pm or thereabouts. It's very cold here and the frost this morning was a "goody ",with me very gingerly walking down the deck steps hanging on for dear life. At least it's stopped raining, we haven't had the flooding that the south has had, and with the cold weather comes the beautiful sight of the Southern Alps covered with snow.I shall try to get a few photos on the weekend. Love Aunt Bee.

****** computer

No photos although I have heaps, because the computer is playing up, God I hate it. So nothing to show you,  have had a very busy 2 weeks and I'm enjoying my long weekend. It's not my long weekend, it's the Queen's, her Birthday Weekend. Went to the market yesterday and saw a lovely Beswick jug, which I bought for $5.00 and as the lady hunted for a bag for me to put it in, a woman standing beside me said, " My sister had a set of those jugs, she had all three, and the lady on the stall said "Beswick dear, she had a set?  "Oh yes " said the lady, "Not just that pattern but lots of others". I said how lovely and the lady said "She had lots of lovely china but she never married you know".  I got the giggles and the lady manning the stall lifted her eyebrow, obviously she didn't need nice china if she was single or perhaps she collected china and at the expense of collecting a husband. I think it's time for computer to go to the Doctor so I don't know when I do another post, have tried using Tom's laptop but it's so confusing without a mouse, and weird settings or weird to me sometimes I think the Luddites were right and we should take notes from them, of course I wouldn't be writing this would I. Love Aunt Bee.