Something for everyone - Wine, Fanny and charity shop bargains

Ooh it's my 100th post!

Today has been a weird mixture of gubbins. Ups and downs. More rollercoasters than a mash-up of Alton Towers and Michael Jackson's back yard.

The morning kicked off quite beautifully with a planned visit from some Aussie friends. The husband and I travelled around Oz for a year and lived in Sydney with our dear friend James. His brother Dave came over to ours today with his wife and kids as they are on a 4 week holiday. We troughed custard-filled brioche and watched the kids play in the sun. It's made me really miss Australia, I loved living and working there so much. I am literally begging the husband to sort it so we can live over there,  if only for a year or two.

The husband HATES this photo as he is leaning like a giant...ha!

Then the afternoon involved a very pleasant lunch with my work colleagues as two of the dentists are leaving for pastures new.

Me with the dentist and hygienist and some TOMFOOLERY from Taryn behind
Spot a bit of my Cherry Tree bag!

Look at the white dazzling teeth. Natch!

We drank wine and scoffed in the local Italian (the husband was able to look after the Prince for me as he was on a late shift) and I went home in the sun feeling full and skippy - a glass of wine always makes me skippy.

The restaurant has very "interesting" masks on the wall. Made me think of Eyes Wide Shut. Yikes.

Now I keep thinking of Nicole Kidman naked and I don't want to

So that was all good but then after school I was in the park when my friend came over and introduced her new au pair (yes dahlings, but my friend does work full time and is a single mum. It's the mums who don't work but have au pairs, I can't fathom).

"Hi Gemma, this is Vannee," sang my friend in her usual cheery voice. I shook Vannee's hand and repeated her name to check I had it right.

I was wrong.

"No Gemma, her name is FANNY. F.A.N.N.Y" my friend corrected me in a very loud voice. Now my friend is Russian and the au pair is French so they wouldn't have seen the funny side of the fanny side of things, but something very immature washed over me and I knew I was going to snort. So I tried to gloss over it by simply saying: "Oh Fanny! That's a LOVELY name."

Think I was a bit too gushing.

The au pair looked at me suspiciously (do they know the word Fanny over there?!!) The other mums in the park sniggered at my nervous blathering...oh well.

But this conjured up more silliness in my head and it made me think of my dear friend who has pseudonyms for herself and her family. She is Rudolf Hucker (think about it), her hubby is Dan Gleebitz, then there is a Min Geeta, Norma Snockers and Drew Peacock. They use these names in family games, pub quizzes etc.

The husband and I decided to help them out with more names. I am now Ivor Flange (Flange is one of my favourite words!), the husband is Phil McCrevice, and there are also: Tess Tickles, Stu Pidprik - I think we need to get out more...

Anyway, when we left Fanny et al, the Princess came home with a huge mud streak on her school blouse. After two hours something made me sniff it. It was dog's mess. Now, for those of you who don't know me, I cannot cope with doggo (as we called it at school) at all. I am rather OCD about it and have a strict Shoes Off policy in the house as a result. I was so cross. How she got it there, god only knows.


So it's all been a bit mad. Good times (wine), bad times (Fanny and poo).

Changing the subject check out my latest bargains from the Cherry Tree shop. A lush scarf from Oxfam for £1.99:

Lovely colours, like the sky when the sun sets

I also bought Percy/Henry (no idea) from Oxfam for £1.49 for the Prince. He is exceptionally happy with this.