A Romanian girl, called Anna, stopped me and asked me if I could help her.

She was a student starting her studies in September, going to Kings College ( I think )

Basically she had travelled to Cambridge from Ely to try and secure herself a place at the YMCA.

The guy, she did give me his name but I cannot remember it now, had taken £200 off her to secure her a room with 6 other girls.

This left her with no money and she needed to get back to Ely to collect her belongings.

So I took her to the train station and got her a return ticket rather than just give her money.

On the way she told me all about her family and how poor Romania is compared to England.

She told me how little they earn but also how cheap thing were in Romania compared to England.

Now a lot of you think this was a sham and that I was conned .

If I really wanted too I could look her up at the YMCA but I don’t feel the need too.

The ticket only cost me £3.50 and I would like to think if my boys ever needed help someone would be kind enough to help them.

Also it gave me a lot of pleasure to help this girl out  and the feel good factor was worth far more than £3.50.

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What would you have done…

Andrew now has a job at the National Construction College in Bircham Newton.

Its a residential college and Andrew is going to work in the catering department which is run by Sodexo 

Its 12 miles from my house to the college and to begin with he will bike to and from work, hopefully we shall sort something more suitable out before the cold dark winter months come.

The other unbelievable thing is he also has an interview at Morrisons tomorrow for a full time job.

Matthew was also offered a job today at Morrisons , 14 hours a week working on the grocery department. He was delighted and it will fit in well around college when he starts his brick laying course.

All that has to fall into place now is Andrews fitness instructors course…

I have been waiting for this day for many many months and I can tell you days like today are priceless…   JUST LIKE GEOFF 

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Priceless…

My favourite book is “Muffins fast and fantastic” by Susan Reimer

After sampling a Muffin at a friends house, which was delicious,I asked about the recipe.

She showed me the book and I just knew I had to get it.

To my surprise I found it in a bargain book shop, so now it sits on my book shelf.

Tonight I finally found time to bake some …  so many new recipes to choose from, but we decided on the Crunchy Peanut butter Muffins.

They are a bit dry for my liking although  I may have over cooked them, but the Boys love them

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A new book….

Imagine my surprise, when soon after athinkingman and cloudgazer started following me,I realized that not only were they from Norfolk but better still Kings Lynn.

Even more amazing is that cloudgazer is from the next village to mine.

So tomorrow Geoff and I are off for a twitter meet up with cloudgazer and her husband.

Hopefully we shall get to meet athinkingman too one day

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Not alone…

How it all began…

In 1932 Geoff’s father was a warden at Overton Hall Youth Hostel in Derbyshire.

Geoff has a set of photos on flickr named Overton hall.

Last week a lady called Maggie got in touch with Geoff after finding these photos on flickr.

She now lives in part of Overton hall and is keen to collect as much history about the place as possible.

Maggie told Geoff that this weekend they intended to open the Overton Lead mine once again,and he was more than welcome to attend.

So that’s how I found myself at Overton hall yesterday going down an old lead mine.

I was not quite sure what to expect and my first reactions were ones of shock.

To get into the mine you had to be winched down 80 foot on a small seat, through a man hole.

Thankfully I  was given a hard hat to wear and a head torch.

While being winched down you became very aware of the beautiful stone that sparkled with the light from the head torch.

Once at the bottom I realised how wet and muddy it was,also how small the corridors and caves were but also how wonderful to see all the fossils and orange iron deposits.

We spent 3 hours walking, crawling and sliding through tiny gaps,amazing to think these used to be working mines where men/boys spent hours chiseling away for the lead. 

A truly wonderful day and many thanks must go to Maggie, Liz, Nick and The Wirksworth Mines research group for making it all possible.

After we all got safely out the mine Maggie gave us much needed refreshments and treated us to a tour round Overton hall.

Going up on the roof was the highlight for me, the views were spectacular and we got to see the beautiful Greenhouse and gardens.

It was hard to pick just 3 photos to post here as 273   fantastic photos were taken  but they can all be seen  here .

Certainly a day I will never forget 

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A walk… with a difference

A few days earlier they had bought some disposable BBQ’s from Tesco.

when they opened one to use it they were very disappointed to find the meat missing.

The manager explained that they don’t come with meat but the couple was sure they did because the lid of the BBQ said so !

The manager had to explain that it was just a picture showing an example of what you could cook on a BBQ.

He offered a full refund and all was well.

As they went on there way the man was overheard saying to his wife…

"best we go get those other 2 out the freezer then"

Honest its true and I laughed about it all day

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True story…..

But all night long the bell goes ding dong, we are so used to it now, that we just ignore it.

So if anyone was to come to our house, we would never answer the door.

I have been told that its people locking and un-locking their cars that set my bell off, the bell must be on the same frequency.

Apparently you can change the frequency of these door bells but I have no idea how

I really should try and find the instructions, before it drives me insane 

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Ding Dong……

In May 2007 I spent some time bonding with my eldest son.

It started my great love affair with Prison Break and Wentworth Miller.

Since then we have tried on several occasions to catch season 2 on UK TV Gold but have always failed in our attempts.

Finally last weekend I found Prison Break season 2, the whole 22 episodes, at a price I could afford.

I am in heaven…   3 episode down 19 to go

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Rekindling an old love affair…

You only make this in a small quantity as it only keeps well for a month,although this will be lucky to last the week.

Its so easy to make,anyone could do it, you will need…

4 eggs

juice from 4 lemons

4oz butter

12oz caster sugar

Place all ingredients into a bowl, stand it over a pan of simmering water.

Stir until the sugar has dissolved and then continue heating and stirring until the curd thickens. (between 20 and 30 mins )

Strain the cooked curd through a fine sieve before putting into jars

A tip……  beat the eggs before adding to the bowl

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Practice run….

We have also put an advert on Gumtree.

Find me on Google maps too by typing massage kings lynn…..

now we wait and see……

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Sally up a Gumtree