Blogging from A to Z April Challenge: 2018 Pre-Challenge Blogging from A to Z Survey

2018 Pre-Challenge Blogging from A to Z Survey #AtoZchallenge

Jayden, our new co-host, has crafted this poll to help our 2018 challenge be a huge success. It can't happen without you.

Please take a minute to fill this out. (It doesn't matter if you've been with us since 2010 or if 2018 will be your first time-- we want YOUR ANSWERS!)

As a bonus, there's a special prize pack for one lucky random winner!
Any A to Z participant who completes the survey and publically shares this post is eligible to win.
Closes March 3, 2018.

Disney's "Frozen" executive trio stationery set (leather journal, writing utensils, light keychain), Thor: Ragnarok coin, keychain (nail clipper, bottle opener, logo of 2018 Superbowl champions-- the Philadelphia Eagles), Minion Dave sticker, "Party Rd" Pennsylvania Amish country novelty road sign, 5 postcards (Pennsylvania state images, Pennsylvania Dutch direction sign, Pennsylvania Amish horse and buggy Intercourse picture, Whoopie Pie recipe, Shoofly Pie recipe), and "Be Insta Famous" social media journal.

(Estimated value= $50 US)

Important Upcoming Dates:

• Pre-Challenge Survey Closes   ---  March 3, 2018
• A to Z Challenge Sign Up   ---  March 5, 2018 
• Theme Reveal   ---  March 19, 2018
• "A" post   ---  April 1, 2018 (No fooling! 😁 )
•  After Challenge Survey  ---  May 3, 2018
• Reflections  ---  May 7, 2018

Mark your calendars. 📅 

Survey link: https://goo.gl/forms/jXMnJKkwrdUt3y0o1

Don't forget to SHARE THIS POST!

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 14/2/18

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 join in - the Linky List is at the end of Joyce's post and don’t forget to visit at least your neighbours on the list.

1. When's the last time you had a heart to heart talk with someone? A change of heart? Experienced figurative 'heart failure?'

I love it when Joyce gives us easy questions lol.  Not sure when I had a heart to heart.  Probably with hubby at some point.  A change of heart.  I guess I must have done but I don’t make decisions quickly so once I do make my mind up I’m not likely to change it.  Heart failure.  A couple of times – the phone call telling me hubby was in hospital after a serious accident, my daughter telling me the baby was coming 11 weeks too soon.  But thankfully both of those had good outcomes.
2. Champagne, chocolates, flowers...what's your Valentine pleasure? Any special plans for the day?
Hubby in particular hates the way days like this have become so commercialised and feels we don’t need a specific day to show we love one another.  So no special plans but he did actually surprise me with my favourite chocolates this morning.

3. Are you a hopeless romantic or do you fall more in the category of practical and pragmatic? What's a gesture you find romantic?
Definitely practical and pragmatic but I prefer small gestures rather than grandiose ones.
4. Do you ask a lot of questions in life or are you pretty content with what you already know?
I’m fairly content but I like to sort things out for myself whenever I can or at least know what a repair man needs to be doing so I’ll often check things out on the net.
5. Your favourite power ballad?
That’s another hard question - which one to choose? But currently I’ve enjoyed listening to this:

6. Insert your own random thought here.

This blanket is almost finished – just needs an edging.  Then I need to get cracking on the second one.  Two grandbabies due to arrive so close together is keeping me busy!

Memory Lane

Well I had a trip down memory lane yesterday.  I was brought up in East Ham an area in London that is next to where we are now in Forest Gate.  It's like many areas in London, it has a High Street with some chain stores and many small shops plus an underground station.  I visited and wrote about it here during the 2016 A-Z challenge.  I probably haven't been back since.

However yesterday I needed to go back to sort out some parking permits.  We live (as do nearly all residents in our borough) in a residential parking zone.  We have to get a permit for our own car and then when visitors come we can give them a time limited permit to park in our street.

This has eased the parking congestion in our area and usually obtaining the permits for visitors is easy.  You go online and select which ones you want, pay your money and then they arrive in the post.  Or not as the case was recently.

I had ordered a couple of packs and according to my online account the status of my enquiry was "problem  solved"  Well no it wasn't, it was just starting.

A phone call to the council established that yes I could get replacements but that these would need to be collected in person.  From the council's Customer Services Office in East Ham, "next to the Library".

Hmm a bit of a chore but it would be worth it.

I parked in the shoppers car park across from the Town Hall.  A lovely old building.  

I got this photo from the web and the site states it was taken 37 years ago.  I didn't take my own pic as I didn't anticipate writing this post and also currently the building is swathed in scaffolding and sheeting and doesn't look good at all.  Research shows it is being renovated - it's a listed building so has to be preserved.

The library used to be to the right of the building and that was where I headed as I knew there was a further council building next to that which I assumed housed Customer Services.

That would be a NO!  

I discovered the Library is now further to the left of the Town Hall and is a very new building.  Customer Services is on the first floor.  It was quite organised.  A very pleasant man welcomes you at a central desk and takes details of your reason for being there which are logged into a computer.  You then wait for one of the staff, seated at numbered desks around the room to call you up via a screen on the wall.  They have very comfy chairs to wait on - just as well as wait times are not short!

But the whole process was quite smooth and I eventually left clutching my replacement permits and headed home.

I took a different route home to see what other changes might have happened.  One of the biggest things I noticed is how many pubs have disappeared over the years.  3 large pubs are now a betting shop, a large Hindu temple and the third has been converted into flats and it looks like the ground floor of that will be commercial units.

There are also less well known shops in the High Street but MacDonalds still remain and have obviously done a deal with the council.  The public toilets by the car park are currently closed.  (I'm an expert on the location of public toilets!)  The notice on them states that the nearest community toilets are - yes you've guessed it, at MacDonalds.  One way of bringing in business!

It was interesting revisiting an area that was such a big part of my life but I'm unlikely to go back without a specific reason.  Hopefully the postman won't lose any more of my permits.

SoCS - 10/2/18 Tails!

SoCS is hosted by Linda.  Check out her site here for all the rules and other participants.

Your prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “tail/tale.” Use one, used them both, you decide. Enjoy!


Well this will be a tale of a tail or hopefully not.  We have a mouse in the house.  I noticed it last week.  Well not the mouse itself but evidence that it was around.  You know what I mean.  Droppings!  In the kitchen.  Not a happy bunny.  

Of course I want to get rid of the mouse but unfortunately we no longer have cats.  And we now have a son who has become allergic to them and another son with 2 greyhounds who would have great fun chasing a cat if we had one.  That would not have a happy ending.  So no cats.

But no mice either!  Hubby was despatched to the hardware store to invest in traps.  He bought several of the standard ones.  
 
Plus a humane one.   
I'm reluctant to use the tried and tested kind - I have nightmares about finding and having to dispose of the dead bodies.  Or worse, dealing with the trapped mice that are in agony and having to put them out of their misery.  Or maybe finding a tail or a chewed off foot might be even worse.  I could probably cope with a dead mouse but the alternatives are a bit worrying so the humane trap has been set and baited.



Interestingly the packaging stated that the trap should be checked every couple of hours so that a caught mice would not get distressed!  Distressed? Umm I think I would rather deal with a mouse dead from a heart attack brought on by stress than having to take a live one at least a quarter of a mile away to ensure it doesn't return.  I kid you not, those were the instructions on the box!  But transporting it would still be preferably to dealing with the maimed version.

However the mouse (and its family) have thus far avoided the humane trap.  I managed to corner it one night.  Under the toaster.  I was sure it would end up in the trap.  So I waited.  And waited.  Eventually I decided to check in case it had escaped.  It hadn't but in checking I gave it a way out and it escaped to fight another day.

But...I then read that mice do not like mint so I have placed peppermint tea bags around and the kitchen and.....whether it was almost catching it or the smell of mint, there have been no sightings of a mouse for the last few days.   I hope that's the end of the tale.