Enjoying 5 minutes on Friday

Five Minute Friday 

I came across this party from my friend Paula's blog so thanks to her for the invite.

You can find the prompt at 

 Heading Home. 

 

Here’s how it works:

Every Thursday, a one-word prompt will be announced on Kate's blog at 10pm EST.

 

 

The link-up is open for a full week, until the following Thursday evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 To participate in Five Minute Friday, all you have to do is write for five minutes on the word of the week, post your words on your own blog, and link up the post on Kate's blog (via the InLinkz button at the bottom of the post). Be sure to add the actual permalink to your specific post, and not your blog’s homepage (e.g. http://katemotaung.com/five-minute-friday/ and not just katemotaung.com).

Just write.

Also, the most important rule is that you visit the blog of the person who linked up before you and leave some encouragement.  That’s the most fun of all, and the heart of this community.

The word this week is Enjoy!

Go

This morning I'm enjoying the fact that I can do as I please, which is currently sitting in bed with my laptop and browsing blogs and now taking part in this challenge.  Being home definitely has its perks although I do have to be more careful with spending.  Hubby, who now only works 3 days a week is clearly a bit jealous on the days he has to get up and go to work, like today.  Bless him though, he always brings me a cup of tea before he leaves which I enjoy.

I also enjoy having a forest right on my doorstep.  Originally the whole area to the north of us was Epping Forest.  The name of our town, Forest Gate, denotes that there was once a gate here into London.  Of course the area has been developed since then and although there is still a large part of the forest remaining, some of it has been built on.  We are lucky enough to have a large common facing us and a woodland park within a mile of the house.  I enjoy taking walks there.

Phew! That five minutes seemed to go really fast!

Wednesday Hodgepodge 16/11/16

Wednesday's Hodgepodge is brought to us courtesy of Joyce at 

 From this side of the pond

Pop over there to see other posts and if you want to join in add the link to your Hodgepodge blog post to the Linky List at the end of Joyce's post and don’t forget to visit at least your neighbours on the list.

Have fun!

1. Let's all think happy thoughts...share one of yours here. 

I must be happy – I’m singing in my head.

2. There's a Chinese proverb that says, "If you want happiness for an hour take a nap, if you want happiness for a day-go fishing...." What say you?

If you want happiness for a day spend it with family.

3. Where do you go to decompress from the world around you?

I head off for a walk.  Either through the local forest park or through the cemetery.

4. What song never fails to make you happy? 

This one:

5. Wednesday is National Fast Food Day. Should that be a thing? Apparently it is, so tell us what's the last 'fast food' you consumed? If you were putting together your own version of a 'happy meal' what would you include? 

Fast food for us usually involves throwing some pasta together with a shop bought sauce and whatever’s to hand e.g. bacon, mushrooms.  We don’t tend to eat typical fast food.

A happy meal would probably be a steak with all the trimmings and a glass of wine, followed by a decadent chocolate dessert of some sort.

6. In a few sentences tell us why you blog. 

I like the interaction with fellow bloggers and it also serves as a diary for me. It’s also interesting and informative and a way of challenging myself.

7. List seven things you're feeling especially grateful for today. 

Crisp autumn weather.

Peace and quiet at home.

Quick and easy dinner.

A secret I’m sharing

Books

Feeling more motivated

And lastly but most importantly, my family

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Is it really only 38 days to Christmas? Another happy thought – I’m not panicking.  Yet!

Friday's Fave Five - 11/11/16

It's Friday so it's time to join in with Suzanne's Friday's Fave Five.  I missed last week at it was quite busy here with visitors.
 
It's a place to come on Fridays and think back over your week and just post about 5 favourite things from your week. It can be anything that tickled your fancy over the week. Favourite quotes, posts, happenings, scriptures, recipes, pictures, great internet finds, etc., etc.

If you want to take part or visit other Fave Five posts, click on the picture above to go to host Suzanne's site and check out the linky list.

Five things I'm grateful for this week:

1.  Catching up with old friends on Saturday - it was a surprise 50th birthday party for one of them.  

2.  Cheats recipes - we were asked to take a dish to the party so I made a couple of quiches using recipes that make them quick and easy to prepare but they still tasted great and homemade.

3.  Being free to visit my daughter and help out with preparations for her move.

4.  Catching up with my best friend.  Now we're both home full time that's going to be easier to do.

5.  Peace and quiet.  The house is my own this afternoon.  After a week of guests that's a lovely feeling.  It was great having guests but it's also good to have some quiet time in between.  My eldest son and his wife will be here tonight before an early flight tomorrow to Italy so I'm making the most of these few hours! (And the sun is shining!)

Have a good weekend all.

Wednesday Waffle

Well usually Wednesday means Hodgepodge but Joyce is still in the throes of moving so I'll just give you a bit of waffle instead.

Thanks to all the compliments on our (almost) finished guest room.  Our guests seem to have enjoyed staying with us.  They leave for Newcastle and then Edinburgh tomorrow morning.  They've been finding the wet and windy weather in London hard to cope with after travelling through Portugal, Spain and southern France.  Little do they know it will be even colder up north!  The first major snow of the year was forecast for Scotland yesterday.

I might need to fit in a nap this afternoon.  I was woken at 5.30 am today as hubby had an early start for a business trip to Leeds.  I was going to just turn over and try and get back to sleep but decided to peek at the US election results.  Big mistake.  I never did get back to sleep and spent time commiserating with our American guest.  His own state voted for Clinton, as he would have done had he been able to organise a postal vote, but unfortunately that was not the decision of the country.

It was a bit like when we woke up after the Brexit vote earlier this year.  As in "How did that happen?!"

However, the fact is it has and I hope, for everyone's sake, that some of Trump's crazier announcements during the campaign (that wall springs to mind) won't actually happen.  Unfortunately, with the Senate and Congress also controlled by Republicans he'll find it easier to get things done than Obama.  He seemed quite rational when making his acceptance speech.  We'll be watching closely to see how things move forward.

It would be nice to think we are moving forward with Brexit but it seems to be 2 steps forward 1 step back most of the time (if not 3 steps back!).  Only this week Theresa May had to backtrack and make concessions while on a visit to India and now the Courts are getting involved I dread to think how long it will take to totally remove ourselves from Europe.  Of course part of me would like Brexit not to happen but it was voted for and the sooner it happens and we can begin to move on, the better.

I think the main problem is that the policitians didn't believe the vote would be to leave and therefore weren't actually prepared with a plan on the the exit process.

This is starting to sound a bit like a political blog.  Not my intention at all.  Although I have been in touch with our local councillor a couple of times recently about the parking scheme that is being introduced.  The latest communication was over a disabled parking bay that has been marked in the street two houses down from us.  It looks to me as if it has been put in the wrong place.  Fortunately my councillor is on the case.  I will be watching that space!