WRITESPIRATION #95 KALEIDOSCOPES

02 Oct 2016 16 Comments

by Ritu in Challenges, Fiction, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: #Writespiration, Blog, Blog Posts, Blogger, Blogging, Challenge, Fiction, kaleidoscope, Sacha Black

Sacha’s back, after a little #Writespiration hiatus, with another cool prompt!

kaleidoscope

Write about a Kaleidoscope – maybe its a kaleidoscopic fantasy world, or a memory, a maze or perhaps a toy. Let your mind wander and see where it takes you. Entries short this week – under 100 words, deadline 9th October. Post entries in the comments or use a pingback.

So, here is my entry!

“Quick Cap’n! They be gaining on us!”

Captain John Bird hurriedly fished his spyglass out of his pocket to see what this vessel was that chasing them.

“It looks like they’re preparing the cannon, and, that be a pirate flag on their mast!”

Focussing the glass, Captain Bird looked out, but all he could see was a rainbow of colours, no ship.

“Damn this thing!” he thought, pulling his handkerchief out to clean the lens.

It was only then that he realised, in the hurry to board his ship, he’d picked up his son’s kaleidoscope instead of his spyglass…

Thank you and Good night!

Our Feline Furbaby Got a Canine Brother (Just For The Weekend!)

02 Oct 2016 39 Comments

by Ritu in Spidey's Serene Sundays, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: alfie, Blog, Blog Posts, Blogger, Blogging, cats and dogs, furbabies, Sonu Singh

We had a busy weekend with the kids and their various clubs, and a meet up at the ice cream parlour with Lil Man’s old classmates. This was topped off by Hubby Dearest’s cousins coming to stay for the night last night, with their darling Dog Alfie, a Blue Staff.

We have met Alfie several times, he comes with them at Christmas, but he’s only stayed over once before, and that was at my in-laws house.

Then, the in-laws were away, but my mother in law hates dogs, so the staying the night, or even having the dog over for a few hours was never going to happen.

At ours, we have Sonu Singh to think of too, as we cannot allow them to meet… there is a danger of unfortunate incidents happening, so we haven’t risked that.

Instead, we play an interesting game of musical rooms, where Sonu ends up in our room, while Alfie gets the run of downstairs, then he goes in the Kitchen, and Sonu comes out for a saunter around his pad… this happened all day!

And at night, he slept in our room with us, alongside his food and litter tray (Pee-eew!)

20161001_222004

But let me introduce you to Alfie, who is going to be 9 on Tuesday so a grand old 63 in Dog years!

20161001_212302

He’s an affectionate canine, with lots of affection for the kids, and a playful nature, he gave both the kids a good tongue bath!

And boy does his tail whack hard when he’s wagging it around!

He loves a ball, or tearing one apart. In fact, he tore through 3 of Lil Mans old, flat balls!

It was lovely to have him here, but so hard with having to keep our own furbaby away from him! I believe we may have another visit from them in a couple of weeks!

Bless their little furry hearts, our furbabies!

Disastrous Cupcakes, But Gorgeous Nails!

02 Oct 2016 70 Comments

by Ritu in Foodie Pics, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Baking, Blog, Blog Posts, Blogger, Blogging, Chrome nails, Cupcakes, Gel nails, Macmillan Coffee Morning, Nails

On Thursday, I left school with a few ideas. My ideas are not always good, but still…

The first was to get my nails done. I opted for some chrome talons, to brighten my day…

20160929_170444

Fingers and tootsies done, I headed off to pick the children up from my in-laws. We had the Macmillan Coffee Morning the next day, and a cake sale, for charity, so I thought why not bake a batch or two of cupcakes for school!

Off we trotted to the supermarket to get the right ingredients, me tapping my new, shiny nails everywhere! (Love them!)

And the baking started in earnest. Lil Princess was eager to help so she took hold of the electric whisk and we got beating…

The rise was amazing… during the first 5 minutes, then they started to dip…

I ended up with two trays of sweet Yorkshire puddings!

20160929_201207

In all my time baking, never have I had that happen to me! I was devastated! And i had even got the buttercream icing ready to pipe too!

So frustrated was I that I anger-iced the cakes… and after that, there was no way I could take them anywhere to sell!

20160929_203416

Though Hubby Dearest and the kids assured me they were beautifully edible, if a tad crisp around the edges!

What was the point of rushing around the supermarket, for them!?

Sigh! Possible overbeating, I was informed by a friend who is a baker!

Still, at least my nails look good….

Ritu’s Healthy Living – Week 8 #icandothis

02 Oct 2016 28 Comments

by Ritu in Health, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blogger, Blogging, Health, Healthy Eating, Slimming World, spiralizer, Weight Loss

healthy-living

Another week gone, another load of experimenting with food!

It was butternut squash being spiralised this time!

I discovered Quark too, a 0% fat cheese!

Quark pancake with savoury topping

I even made 1 Syn Slimming World cupcakes! They were a little eggy but still, hit the sweet craving!

And the other foods that I like to eat and throw together!

No active ‘exercise’ as such but I was walking lots and hit over 17,000 steps two or three times too!

So, the big question… did I lose?

2lbs loss!

And that means that I got my first 1/2stone loss certificate too!

A total of 8.5lb on Slimming World, and a total, since I started this healthy eating malarkey, of

13.5lb!

0.5lb off a stone!

I am so impressed with myself! I have eaten a little stodgy this weekend, but I think I am learning to cope and correct myself during the week!

Go Me!

Black Cat Blue Sea Award

27 Sep 2016 37 Comments

by Ritu in Awards, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Awards, Black cat blue sea award, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Gratitude

It’s been a while since I posted an awards acceptance, but I had to take part in this one, as it was a new one for me from my dear blog sis, Erika!

Have you happened upon her blog? If you haven’t, please do go and visit her, and follow, for some wonderful positivity filled posts, and pearls of wisdom, via her Daily quotes!

She’s a fantastic poet, and singer too, and full of romance!

You haven’t popped over yet? Seriously? Go now, and come back to my post!!!

Ok, I am going off the point here! Where was I?

Oh yes, the Award!

“This award is for bloggers who strive to write for everybody, and no matter how many viewers they get, make an impact on a reader. This award is an expression of gratitude to the nominee. It should be awarded to anybody that you choose deserves it and it doesn’t mean that they must have hundreds of followers and likes.” – Ella

The rules….

Anybody nominated can nominate eight other bloggers.
The nominee answers three questions posed by the nominator.
The questions you ask while nominating can be any three questions.
If any of the questions asked are offensive or the nominee simply does not want to answer, the nominee does not have to answer them to earn the award.
[And I would add: notify your nominees about their nominations at their blogs].

I am sorry, I am a bit rubbish at nominating others, but those of you that I follow, I follow for a reason, because you are amazing with your writing, and you should all consider yourselves nominated!

And the Questions that Erika asked…

What do you love most about yourself?

I find that very hard to answer… but I guess my positivity is one of the biggest plusses in my nature!
What do you love most about someone who challenged you the most? (No irony, I mean it!)

I love the fact that ‘he’ is still here, by my side, through a hell of a lot of ups and downs.
What do you love most about your current life?

I love so many things about life right now, My Hubby, my children, my family, my cat, my job, my blogily….

🙂

And if you wish to take part, the 3 questions I will ask, which you can answer in the comments, are as follows…

Which blog post of yours has been the most personally touching? The post you feel has hit a nerve with many?
Have you ever done anything that you have regretted, but learned a huge lesson from?
What is the number one thing on you life bucket list to do?

Thank you again Sis! 🙂