Although I have loads to catch up on, I have to comment on the X Factor.  It’s an escape from my reality to someone elses!

• Niki at last was left to sing on her own without any ‘extras’.  She started off the ‘Power of Love’ so well without music accompanying her and it was a good performance. However, I still don’t think she can reach those high notes properly.    Am I the only one to think that?
• Leon did well, although as it wasn’t a popular song, I wasn’t that keen.
• Same Difference.  Another bubbly performance from them and it gave us a chance to hear their individual voices.
• Hope.  Not a good song for them.  One of the judges made a comment about only Phoebe really singing with the others just contributing in the background.  I had to agree and Phoebe was a bit flat in places.  They were so nearly out of the competition this week which is a shame as they have the potential to be a really superb girl band.
• Beverley.  Another good performance although still the high notes were a problem. She looked great though and it was a real shame to see her leave. 
• Rhydian.  Love the song he sang, wish it had been longer though.

The final is open to anyone at the moment and will remain a battle to the end.

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted on my blog for the past week.  Not for want of trying I might add.  I’ve had a blip with it that meant I couldn’t write any posts.  And boy did I have lots to say.

I will slowly catch up over the next couple of days, but I did want to share this:-

My Christmas Tree is Up!!!!!

Yes I was glued to the show again last night, it’s my one bit of relaxation.

• Niki should be left to sing without all the dance routines.  I know it was disco week this week and her performance was powerful, but what had they done to her hair. 

She didn’t look comfortable with the ’sexy’ moves around the dancers.  For goodness sake Louis, leave her to sing her heart out, like she does so well. 

But take care of the really high notes, they (like Beverley below) can sound a bit ’shouty’.

• Leon’s best week this week. I didn’t get to see the whole performance, although I heard it from the kitchen. One of the comments was about his dancing.  I would agree with this.  Like I said last time his ‘dancing’ is not natural, very wooden and pulls his performance down.  But well done Leon anyway.

• Same Difference.  This wasn’t their best week, but as we found out at the end of the song, they had had to change the song and routine really close to the live show.  They only had a few hours to rehearse.  It wasn’t the right song for them, but they still pulled off an entertaining performance.

• Hope.  They are getting so much stronger and I loved their routine last night.  I like that Abba song anyway, but I think it was the best choice of song out of all the acts last night.  They are beginning to gel so well and what a voice Phoebe has.  They did not deserve to be in the bottom two last night, but thank goodness they are still in the competition.

• Alisha.  It’s such a shame for Alisha.  Her singing was flat, but I think nerves had kicked in.  Perhaps she knew she may be in the bottom two and I think rightfully last night.  She has a great look and I think with the right songs she can still be good, a bit like Gabriel.

• Beverley.  This was a great choice of song for her, although once again, I did think it was a bit ’shouty’ on the high notes.  I really like Beverley and I disagreed with Simon’s comments about her outfit.  I thought she looked fab. 

• Rhydian.  Not the best song for him, although I love Go West.  Mind you I am a big Pet Shop Boys fan.I hope Dannii doesn’t do anything stupid with his next song, he needs another ‘Phantom’ performance to put him back on top again.  Still think he’s great though and out of all the acts I look forward to him the most, followed by Hope. 

Actually, I would loved to have heard Rhydian singing this in his style.

It’s a shame Sharon has no one left in the competition now, but I’m still not sure she picked the best three to begin with. 

I also think that with the competition hotting up, the judges comments are going to start getting silly again.  Considering it was disco week, Simon kept commenting on how people looked, yet look at how Hope were dressed.

It’s also going to be time for them to ‘dis’ each others acts so their’s will be in the final.  Currently the top three I think should be in the final are Rhydian, Hope and either Niki or Beverley.

The judges should concentrate on their singing and overall performance and give them some better songs not only for their voices but for the ‘watchability’ factor.

Things were getting cosy with the emails and although the carer with the complicated life was not a prospect a new one had arrived.

As always the emails started off cautiously until  one of us cracked a joke and broke the ice. This is great when it happens as it becomes less formal and polite straightaway.  Not that it gets down and dirty but you can be more     yourself and feel more relaxed.

This guy was ex army and was looking to try again and said he was very shy. He was now working for a mining company since leaving the army and was looking for love.

Now I am not looking for love but our emails were getting friendlier and funnier and we were able to communicate like we were becoming best friends. I was getting hooked on checking for emails and was image building in my head of what he looked like.

Unfortunately this particular guy had never posted a photo on his profile and I did not know what he looked like. He said he had some old ones and he would forward them to me via email but it didn’t happen and I didn’t push it. I did not want to come across as being superficial when we were getting along so well with the written word.

We deicided to bite the bullet and set a time and date to meet in a watering hole in the town and then we swapped phone numbers so we could text if there was a problem on the day.

Thank god I had his number because there was a problem and yes it was me!

You may remember that in a recent post I was moaning about the reading book my son has been chased about at school.

Well I found out that his teacher had given him a little bit of grief about not bringing it in, saying that his mom (that is me!) had said I’d seen it at home.

Well yes I had seen it, one day, for a moment and now I don’t know where.

I thought I’d better send in a note on behalf of my son to stop him being told off and as it was Children in Need day I decided to do it in poem form. 

So here it is.

The Case of The Missing Reading Book

Wow, what a morning.  Mom had her appointment at the gym so I took the dog off to one of our local parks for a good walk.

They have an area adjacent to the park which has been left to nature and on a day like today, it was magnificent.

Where we live it had been a frosty morning, cold but with bright sunshine.  One of my PERFECT days.  All I could think about walking around was Nina Simones song - Feeling Good. 

It was one of those days when I really wish I’d had my camera with me. 

The grass was covered in frost that crunched beneath my wellies.  The dog thought it was great, all those new smells.  She had one of her ‘funnies’, when she races up to you, quick turns and races away again.

We walked over the little bridge that guides you over a boggy area and overnight it had become a mini skating rink.  I admit I laughed out loud when mom’s dog jumped onto the bridge, skidded and fell off again.  It was only a few inches above the ground, but she just kept racing round and around as though she too got the joke.

The only noise around us was the distant sound of industry and the hum of the cars on the motorway.  In the field we were surrounded by bird song as they dived in and out of the bushes.

There was one particular tree that stood out against the azure blue sky.  It had no leaves or life left in it, I think it’s usually referred to as a petrified tree.  But against the backdrop of the sky, a flock of seagulls had landed within it’s branches, looking like white buds about to open in the Spring.

It was gorgeous and I was hard pushed to leave the area. 

It set me up for the whole day, until I later realised that while I was walking around this oasis of calm feeling good about llife, I had failed to take one of my children to the dentist!  Oh well, I’ll get it right one day.

I’ve backdated this post as I haven’t had time to get to the blog this week and I had all the posts ready to put on.

Tonight I saw the Spice Girls Video although I can’t remember which site it was on.  This link is to You Tube.  I have to say I was really hoping the girls would shine with their new single, but sadly I was disappointed.

After they rocked on to the scene all those years ago, and not knowing what to make of them, I did actually like some of their records namely Viva Forever and Spice Up Your Life.

I hoped they would bring out something as lively or as pretty as either of these two songs, but quite frankly the new song is boring.  I even think the video is poor too.  Don’t get me wrong, they all look fab on the video especially as all but one of them is a mummy.  But I got fed up of the sexy poses and all the hands across the face poses. 

I’m really not sure who their target audience is. It wasn’t a case of Spice Girls, it was more a case of Snooze Girls.  Come on ladies where has the girl power gone?

As a mummy of a certain age, I need you to show us how to rock this world!!

When looking around other blogs, I’ve often seen that some follow similar formats ie Tackle it Tuesday, Wordless Wednesday etc. This is a really good way of keeping the blog updated and makes for interesting reading.

I would like to propose a ‘Mad Monday’.  This is where you reveal something from your life that has been, well quite frankly, mad! Let me give you an example. 

When I used to work in the city I had a bit of a miserable drive to and from work.  So to make it more interesting I used to give myself a running commentary about all the people around me, in an American accent!

Well, it kept me amused.  Hello . . . . . anyone still out there?

Speaking of Mad, I went for my annual tinnitus appointment today, which was the same as ever.  My hearing is actually good, it’s just certain tones I can’t hear, rather akin to not being able to hear a dog whistle. 

Okay, do dogs whistle?  You know what I mean - the very high tone that humans can’t hear.  So all in all I have good hearing.  I just have this constant hissing noise all the time but it doesn’t drown out other sounds.  (Sometimes I think that could actually be a godsend).

I went to the front desk at the hospital to check in and was asked my date of birth.  Would you believe I got the year wrong!   I am now officially one of those women who lies about her age.  I can’t believe I did it.  Okay it was only out by three years, but what was I thinking?

And I actually saw a doctor who didn’t want to feel my boobs today, so result.  I say that because on Friday two of my children had their 6 monthly check up and one of the new consultants was a chap I had seen a few years ago who thought I may have had leukaemia (at that time). 

He had asked me if I regularly self examined, to which I replied I did.  Okay he said, but when he went out of the room to confer with one of his senior colleagues, he came back in and (blushing) said that he had been advised to check too.

I swear, I don’t know who was more embarassed. 

I kept my fingers crossed that we didn’t get him on Friday and thankfully we got a new lady doctor instead.

And while I’m still talking about hospitals mom is doing really well. The physio said she is walking much better than a lot of people he had seen so soon after a hip replacement.  So well done mom!

Despite the forecast being showery today, we decided to take the children out for a picnic.  It’s the first time I’ve been able to leave mom all day without fretting (me fretting that is) for the last couple of weeks. (Update tomorrow.)

We took them to Witley Court as the boys had never been there.  Although there is nothing for children to do in terms of playgrounds etc, we crossed our fingers hoping they would enjoy the ‘exploration’ and ‘investigation’, which they happily did by the bucket load.

It started to rain when we got there, so we sat in the car devouring our sandwiches waiting for it to slow down, which it did.  The beauty of children is that they don’t care about rain and will quite happily run around getting soaked.

Even in the partly miserable gloom of the day the remains of the house were still beautiful and still made me well up.  There is something about this house that really gets to me.

A fire in 1937 in the servants quarters was the cause of the building being in the state it is today.  We were informed today that although the house was insured, the insurance company would not pay up anywhere near the amount needed to put it right.  It seems (apparently) that this was all that was needed for the owner to abandon it as it was.

Looters got in and stole the lead of the roof and once water started to get in, that was that.  Then in the 1950’s antique dealers were sent in to salvage what they could.

The English Heritage have started work on it, but it will be a slow and costly process.

However, a lovely event that happened today was a young couple getting engaged by the fountain.  He’d phoned up a couple of days before to ask if the fountain could be put on for him to propose by as it was his girlfriends favourite place.  The fountain is not usually put on for visitors after the end of the season, but they obliged for him.

There was champagne and roses and smiles all round.  I did try to catch a sneak look at the ring (as you do) as she walked past, but congratulations to the both of them.

A much stronger show this week, better than the big band last week.  It opened well with Niki and finished on a high with Rydian.

Even Dermot was entertaining this week (goodness did I really just say that!).

• Niki was back where she belonged this week with a Kelly Clarkson song.  No silly dance routines, just belting out a good performance.
• Leon’s confidence is improving, but I think Dannii should get Leon to just stand still to sing a song.  His ‘dancing’ is not natural, very wooden and pulls his performance down.
• Same Difference.  Another effervescent routine.  You just can’t help grinning when they’re on.  I could see them in a ‘Grease’ type show.
• Hope.  This was so much better than last week, a really good performance.  When Simon said it was going to be an Amy Whinehouse song I was whittering, let it be ‘Back to Black’.  And yes, it was.  I can’t believe Phoebe who sings the lead is only 15.
• Alisha.  I still don’t think Sharon is getting it right with her songs, but the one last night did suit her voice.  I think she has much more to give and a power song would be great to hear from her.
• Andy.  Again a weak performance from Andy.  I think it was right he was voted off this week.  Despite wearing a rock t-shirt, he still didn’t look strong enough.  He has no emotion in his singing and no personality is coming through.  Yet, I think given the right song he too has power in his voice that we’ve only seen glimpses of.  Dannii again, although giving him a really popular song, still didn’t give him something to get his teeth into.
• Beverley.  This was a good song, although I did think it was a bit ’shouty’ this week.  I really like Beverley and want her to do well.  I think she is a great stage personality.
• Rhydian.  Again, I thought he was the best act this week.  They definitely saved the best til last.  I really can’t wait for them to bring out an album for him!

I think the judges were in bitch mode this week.  Louis made himself look like a spoiled child and for the first time during this show I disagreed with some of Dannii’s comments early on in the show.