Angel Jem's City Cottage

Today is my second payday as an Office Ninja, so time for a Payday Treat. This month's was easy; for 99p at Amazon you can have this little beauty. Listen, cry and love what must surely be a totally hyggelig song. This is my house. It isn't much, but it is enough for me.

I was on The Chase last Thursday (7th January) in the first big win of the year This was filmed last June, so I could watch myself on TV and read the live Twitter feed for #thechase. I wasn't in the habit of reading this, but it being my only probable appearance on TV (except for a 10 second shot of me in Songs of Praise) I was indulging in a deep case of curiosity. On the Chase I introduced myself as "Jo, a learning mentor, aged 47 from Liverpool!" (you have to sound excited on the introduction, the production team insist you are, and make you film again if you aren't) And Twitter started. C W North West, England Jo advising Andy goes high what's the betting she goes for a minus offer - she looks the type #thechase R Steph is leading me to believe she's gonna be a LOW f******d #thechase R Cancel that last tweet, I meant Jo! #thechase S T Jo is already talking about going low #TheChase R I'm predicting a thief up next! #thechase JF Jo looks a BIG lass.....

From the first of November (yes, you read that right!) my car becomes a centre of everything kitsch if only musically; that's the day I get out my Christmas CD collection and begin to hum along to the old and new favourites I have found. I wrote about my favourite Christmas music as part of Blogmas last year, and the records I listed there are still very much on my playlist. But this year was a classic year for albums. Kylie had a new album out!! Kylie Christmas [CD+DVD] Now usually Pop Princesses don't get much listening to in my car, but I LOVE this album; it is kitsch, old fashioned, modern pop, pure Kylie, duets with the weirdest people and all wrapped up with a picture of a lady old enough to be me (she's 5 days younger, I think) but a LOT smaller! I love the opening song, 'It's the most wonderful time of the Year', and the song written by Chris Martin, 'Every Day's Like Christmas', but I really love her duet of 'Only You' with James ...

And breathe. I say that to myself a lot at the moment. A lot over this weekend, especially, when a bug wiped me out for Friday and Saturday meaning any plans I had for a quiet Christmas putter in my house were wiped out. No slow amble around a supermarket looking for red candles for my Advent wreath, no pootling through the advent chest to find and choose which calendars made the cut this year and filling them with gold-wrapped chocolate gingers, no slow sipping of a Costa mulled wine. Oh, no! My Saturday was passed on the sofa, plain builders in hand, snuggling 'neath a quilt and checking that everybody else was cold as well, or was it just me? (it was; everybody else was toasty warm) And of course that means I am a weekend behind in any house preparations I wanted to make. My settee will not now be pulled out and carefully cleaned behind before the tree takes centre stage and makes housework redundant. My kitchen cupboards will be dirty and unlined as I cram the December goodi...

Oh, quotes, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways! I love how a good quote sometimes just catches the thing you need to articulate, in a way you would never articulate it. I love how the right quote at the right time is like meeting your mother or your best friend (whoever your best advice giver is) just at the right time when you need a light shining on what to do/think/say next. I love how a good quote and a good picture work together to inspire and reach you in a way that either alone would not do. I love how a good quote is a link to a past we have never known and a link to a future we may never meet. I love how a quote may be an excellent quote even if it comes from a comic book, a film or the back of a toilet roll packet. And I love that a quote may come from the eldest or the youngest and be equally valid. And, yes, I know I'm cheating; that I haven't picked just one quote, but so many mean something, and so many a...

The Story of Holly and Ivy; it's our tradition. Sarah and I disappear for an hour upstairs, we sit together on her bed and we read the book together. And it is a lovely story, about a doll and a girl who both need love who find each other and a home. It's a story about wishing and what happens when you wish hard enough. I wish somebody else would remember how good Rumer Godden is and make an animation of this. It would go so beautifully on Christmas Eve with the Snowman and the Gruffalo.

Is there a more perfect start to the celebration of Christmas itself than this? A lot of people I know swear that their Christmas doesn't start until they sit down to watch or listen to this song. I'm a lot like that, but Christmas music goes on my playlist from the start of November and I love to listen to it as I drive to and fro in my busy life. Tucked away either digitally or as proper CD's this year I have; Christmas in the Heart by Bob Dylan . It so should not work and in a strange way it so does. I love his version of O Come All Ye Faithful. He gravels his way through it with all the style of a slightly drinken bum who has stumbled into the Midnight service after the pub has closed. I like it! It reminds me of my youthful Christmas Eve's spent in a church just across from said pub. Joy To The World by Pink Martini . Very chic and totally cosmopolitan, with covers of carols and songs from Hawaii to the Ukraine. The group sing a capella or accompanied, I th...

Half term creeps up like a recalcitrant child; not too keen to give you a break from the drudgery of daily life, slowly slowly approaching until... at last..... don't speak too loudly..... it -is-here. And like a hurricane on the heels comes the sudden stopping that is the first cold of winter. I said it before, I'm saying it again; Winter is Coming. And I am involuntarily on a sudden stop here. It started as a sore throat and has turned to sniffles. Everybody else has been packed off to church, and I am luxuriating in an hour of illness in a quiet house, with computer, TV and window to provide entertainment. A good audio book ( Thomas Cromwell on Audible ) and a good project (by Alan Dart ; a knitting project for the first time in years) and I am feeling relaxed. It's a stressed illness, I usually catch whatever at the end of a term and this year I am more stressed than ever, so perhaps this sniffle has hit me quicker than ever. I hope that the freedom I have pla...

This weekend I took my three angelic children to Shrewsbury Flower Show. We've been before and it is really good, with a cracking range of entertainment and no need ever to go near the flowers. If you're a gardener you will  be so disappointed with my write up of the show. We passed through the flower tents, but the flowers are really not why we go.  We go for the showjumping; this year the younger Whittakers were out in force, so we saw George, James, Louise and Ellen Whittaker (she doesn't half get cross with her horses!) as well as Geoff Billington and Tim Stockdale.  We go for the atmosphere. This year's theme was 'The Show that Never Was', because the 1914 show got cancelled, naturally, and the organisers had gone to some trouble to make sure everything had a tinge of nostalgia. There was a fancy dress costume which this young girl and  her Nanny won. Seeing the people dressed up and wandering around was very interesting.  We go for the aren...

I have always been blessed since having children with a set of grandparents who will have the children on a sleepover. My Mum and Dad are old hands, with 10 grandchildren in total and very kindly, at least twice a year, take our three for a night, or two, or three. This week it was only two nights, long enough for a three day trip with my beloved. Here is the handsome man. I love him so much, but don't tell him that or he'll get big headed. We visited Royal Leamington Spa, a town barely detached from Warwick that we have never actually been to before. What a revelation! A really good shopping experience, with Travelodge and Premier Inn both conveniently taking up two old Spa hotels on the high street. It still bears signs of its past as a Spa centre. The water tap on the bridge pumps out salinated water from the spring, and the Pump Rooms nearby have colonnaded walks and space that now is used for functions but, in Regency times would have thrummed with the gossi...

"Hygge is as Danish as pork roast and cold beer and it goes far in illuminating the Danish soul. In essence, hygge means creating a nice, warm atmosphere and enjoying the good things in life with good people around you. The warm glow of candlelight is hygge. Friends and family – that’s hygge too. And let’s not forget the eating and drinking – preferably sitting around the table for hours on end discussing the big and small things in life. Perhaps the Danish idea of hygge explains why the Danes are often considered the happiest people in the world?" (From The Art Of Danish Hygge on visitdenmark.com ) "One of the fundamental aspects of Danish culture is "hygge", a concept closely related to "coziness": relaxing with good friends or loved ones, often while enjoying good food and something to drink or creating a more friendly atmosphere by lighting a few candles.  Christmas time , when loved ones sit close together on a cold rainy night, is ...

I know, I know, I owe you pictures of my Autumn sunset backpack. I didn't get to the computer the next day. Apologies. Instead, here are some action shots of my Princess with her backpack, wearing a flower garland for Midsummer at Tatton Park last weekend.  Doesn't she just look like a hippy worthy of Glastonbury? I think I really love her choice of colours, especially when she chose blue flowers for her hair. Next stop, San Francisco.

The door is open, the birds are singing rampantly, I have already been up 4 hours and working in the garden. I'm ready for breakfast (well, it is 10 o'clock) and then more gardening. No pictures, no long ramble today. I'm taking the pictures as I go along and planning a post for later this week. For now, have a good weekend, y'all, and enjoy the sunshine.

I am learning Danish. This is not a sensible thing to do. I have no plans to visit Denmark this year or next (but at some future time) and I know nobody Danish at all. AT ALL. Except, I feel I know... Those jumpers!! The eternal life-work-fancy bit on the side triangle!! (my fancy bit is a bar of chocolate!) The mind palace; and that eternal regret that I can't act in my mother tongue let alone another one! Then I read this book; Fluent in Three Months. OK, I'm half way through it really, but I get the total immersion idea. The live the culture to learn the language and spend hours a day doing flashcards and learning the sentences. Hej! Hvordan g å r det? Hyggeligt at se dig! But I have a mission. I am getting a box set for my birthday. No, not Breaking Bad, although I want to watch that too; but Birgitte, her of the sharp suits and the power play in consensus politics. Yep, Borgen is mine in 2 short months. And I want to be able to truthfully say, ...

Sometimes noise can make or break a holiday. Staying in a busy city where the noise never stops is hell to some people, heaven to others. It's a subjective viewpoint. Family holidays rely on noise to entertain or excite children. At Buckler's Hard there was a button to press which played 'Hearts of Oak' over and over and over again.... Children can't resist a button. And rope to make a bowline with. The bowline held his weight. He was happy.  Nature can be noisy too. Nothing more so than a gang of ducks (gaggle? No that's geese. Not herd? Group? Pancake? Or orangery?) The ducks at The Vyne run free outside the house.  But for real noise it has to be man made. And this was the loudest noise I heard all holiday. They didn't ask me to drive, though. Shame. Don't ask me what car it is. It was loud L-O-U-D LOUD  I did drive the go karts at Beaulieu, though. Only once, before deciding that I needed to have photos to capture the day. And they ...