Friday 30 December 2011

Two things that made me smile...

Finally, before I end my mammoth blogging session - here are two things that made me smile this week - the first was a blog post by Jenny from HandMade Happiness about a poor solitary bird, and the second was a cheery Glee Christmas song - I am still in mourning about my current lack of Glee, but the enormous amount of Amazon vouchers I received from My Brother, Aunt and Godson this Christmas will keep me in back episodes of ER for quite a while! Luka has just arrived on the scene and Dr Greene (My favourite character) has just been diagnosed with a fatal brain tumour - it's tense to say the least!


"For the second time his mate has been sold and flown off to a new life without him!
Gayle Bicknell's handmade bird gazes forlornly out at the traffic hoping for a glimpse of either of his former partners! "

No need to panic -  I have a solitary lilac one left, and they will be paired together soon!






I hope your Christmas was a lovely one, I hope Santa left you wonderful surprises and most of all, I hope you were surrounded by everyone you hold dear. X

So who was at the door?

Iseabail, that's who! Ish is an ex-student of mine who popped over yesterday for a chat, an impromptu soggy dog walk, some tea and some of my mother in law's amazing polish Christmas cake. We had a lovely catch up and big discussion about her current course which is quickly appearing to be not quite what it was all cracked-up to be. I hope that things work out for her and that she does manage to find a more satisfying and challenging alternative pathway - she is a remarkable individual and deserves to be given the opportunity to flourish.

And after a windy, rainy and cold dog walk - a girl has to get all cosy in her lovely new Christmas socks, courtesy of Annie! I also threw on my great new Cardie from my Mum! 

Christmas.

So this year we did Christmas - it was madness I tell you, madness! This is only the second time in my 40 years of being that I have cooked a roast dinner - and I choose Christmas, what on earth is wrong with me? Needless to say I was a bit of a stress head for an hour or two, but I didn't poison anyone and the guinea fowl that I cooked was quite lovely - I may even cook it again in the not too distant future! Our day started early - 7.30am for stocking openings and tea in bed while Ivan's (Mr Bicknell's) sister and partner snoozed on across the hall, then off to my folks for pressies and happy Birthday celebrations for my Dad - I don't think he much likes having a birthday on Christmas day, but as a family we do make the effort to wrap his presents up in proper birthday paper so that the event doesn't get swallowed up into  Christmas revelry! He had a significant birthday a couple of years ago and we organised a rather spectacular party - we had a magician, a Frank Sinatra sound alike who was drop dead incredible, an amazing spread and a fantastic cake made by an ex-student of ours - it was a wonderful event. The setting up was like a military operation however, and the surprise element nearly killed us all - especially when the surprise magician rang my parents office and tried to discuss the arrangements with my father! He did recover himself well though by suggesting he had the wrong number and to this day Dad claims he hadn't smelt a rat! I am still thankful that I currently have no significant birthdays to deal with in the foreseeable future!

Next it was home to cook at noon and well, the rest was a blur of champagne and lovely presents, this year I was spoilt by everyone, I truly don't deserve it.
A bit of last minute sprinting around town allowed me to check out this weeks "grate" surprise - loved the donkey/moose/reindeer thing they had going on!

Festive home.





Sticky snowflakes and pastel wrapping this year.

Half way through the openings - helped along by lots of fizz...

New shoes.

Annie and Rainer drowning in parcels...

Ready to recycle - the first of 3 bags...

SPOILT.


There were two bodies who didn't much enjoy Christmas - Scratch and Sniff don't like a crowd - they like peace and quiet and lovely M&S cat food served at regular intervals and big furry sheepskins to snooze on - they do not like lots of noisy unwrapping or chatty hoards of humans - this is the face of disgust....



And this is the face of panic as there is another knock at the door..... damn you Christmas, damn you for bringing so many visitors to my quiet haven!

End of term Christmas fun and the beginning of the family stuff....

So the hard work was done and the fun started - I love the build up to Christmas - probably more than the day itself, I love the selecting and purchasing of special presents, seeking out unusual and lovely things for my nearest and dearest and then (tragically) spending hours wrapping them. I even enjoy the food shopping, which I normally loathe and genuinely revel in decorating the house. Ivan (Mr Bicknell) is not a great Christmas fan but I really do appreciate the effort that he makes for me, he always chooses lovely gifts and does his best to be sociable, which is a big deal when all you want to do is disappear and climb something big! This year he had to share his space with lots of people and even gave up his bed Christmas night so that his Mum could have a comfortable nights sleep whilst we slept on thermorests in the oven which is our top room! The build up of Christmas joy at work also warms my heart, the A2 students were all asked by Deborah and Liz to make a Christmas decoration, said items were placed on some tasteful seasonal branches suspended from the ceiling in the main studio - they were all lovely, but what I particularly liked was the shadow they cast on the whiteboard behind - pretty huh?



In a last minute bid of end of term Christmas cheer, Ivan (Mr Bicknell) decided it would be a fine idea to demand some blogging activity from his boys and girls - well, you know what they mean when they say that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink - students will be students won't they, and no matter how much you try to tell them that they will thank you later for building up and being a part of a great living history, they won't believe you until they are long gone! What they will do however, with an astonishing amount of energy is take every opportunity to ridicule and embarrass you if you are daft enough to give them the chance, and oh blimey - he was daft by insisting that I take this pic of him and then posting it on his blog in a kind of we want you bid to blog - you'd think he might have anticipated what was to come wouldn't you........!





The photocopies were everywhere and I mean everywhere!

Next up was our Christmas party which this year happened at the Trooper near Petersfield - we ate pigeon and steak and lashings of ice cream, there was a secret Santa and crackers and everything! http://www.trooperinn.com/


I don't think this is my bad photography, I think it's down to the drunken swaying of the subjects - Paul and Georgie certainly had a fine time! Who needs real Christmas presents when you have comedy eye patches put of your crackers?!


My secret Santa present -  mine was Paul who is well-known for being a miserable looking git! He is actually really quite fabulous and I love the fact that he has immortalised himself so wonderfully in a snow globe just for me! Happy holidays Paul. x


And so it was the end of term - HOOOORRRRAAAAYYYY! And straight off to Glastonbury we went. I LOVE Glastonbury Christmases - it is really lovely to spend it with little ones - both of Ivan's (Mr Bicknell's) step sisters have two children and they get so wonderfully excited about the whole occasion. It makes me even more hopeful that the adoption panel say yes to us in May, so that we can start all of our own brilliant family Christmas traditions, the trouble will be though, that Rench and Ness will need to get a bigger house in order to accommodate us all!

Getting stuck into all the unwrapping....

Renchi in disgrace - he got so over-excited (worse than the kids) that he managed to open a whole load of gifts that weren't even for him!
He did get a rather splendid hand painted mug from Lily and Raffy though!


My fab presents - get me - all ethical, cultured and spiritually balanced!

A big event this year was heading over to the Somerset Levels to see the thousands of starlings coming in to roost for the night - my pics don't really do the experience justice, but it was breathtaking seeing the skies fill with the birds and to hear the whoosh of their wings as they travelled over-head.







And so, after feast after feast, we headed back to Worldham, in excited anticipation of meeting our Social worker, Happiness for the first time, yes it was Happiness, but that really is actually her name!  The meeting itself seemed to go well and we covered a great deal of ground in the two hours that she was here, goodness it is going to be pretty full-on, but we are ready for the challenge! The biggest challenge so far has been having to get up for an 8 O'clock medical just after Christmas - so not fair - WHY after Christmas - Ivan (Mr Bicknell) got to have his before! Needless to say I didn't look at the scales!

A belated catch-up - how did Christmas get so busy?

So Christmas has been and gone, and with what is becoming a rather predictable characteristic of mine, I am well over-due in the blogging department, oh well! It has been a splendid, if not rather full-on Christmas for the Bicknell's and I have especially enjoyed having some quality time with friends and family, as well as the opportunity to relax for once and do lots of simple things like watch rubbish movies curled up on the sofa with endless mugs of tea and then endless glasses of red wine - something I can only do when Ivan (Mr Bicknell) is away climbing as he will currently only drink pink! I have been planning on sitting down and getting on with a bit of blogging for some days now, but what with one thing and another it just hasn't happened, so now I am going to shove it all down in one fell swoop before I drag my sorry arse back to college and have to return to my life of being a responsible grown-up and dealing with all those scardey cat university applicants and the beginnings of our fund raising for our trip to Nepal in the Autumn!

So in the next few posts I will catch y'all up to speed. First off I'm going to show you some of the fruits of the labours of my boy and girls who worked so hard last term. Look - the 14 year olds made their make-up bags! Can you believe it? It was touch and go for a bit, but they look alright don't they?! Nice bit of made-up styling too!










And my lovely BTEC's have produced some splendiforous portfolios, here are some particularly good pages - apologies for the wibbly photography, but I am not tall enough to get square on!!!

PIP


EVIE




FLO

GEORGIA


HANNAH


HOLLY




JAZZY




LAUREN



ELLIE

RACHEL





VIKI



I hope my bunch of hard-working lovelies all had a wonderful and restful Christmas and will be well-charged for the hard work to come! I also hope that one of their New Years resolutions is to keep their studio nice and tidy!