Well Dressed

With all the footie excitement, it's been easy to overlook the local annual well dressings. We were driving through Litton and happened upon this one - the Children's Well.

Well dressing is a custom of the Peak District dating back hundreds of years. The origins are largely unknown, but the dressing often have religious connotations. The wells are decorated with flower petals, berries, moss, and seeds pressed into clay in a wooden frame. Some villages have been using the same clay forever, cleaning it each year.

Maisie is off at White Hall outdoor activities centre this weekend, we are having an easy weekend with the tennis, and the big match on Sunday. I suspect there will be a shortage of BBQ charcoal throughout the country.

I have been enjoying my new job, and walking up a hill for 20 minutes to get to my car park is keeping me fit.

World Cup fever

The country is full of flags and expectation. England are cracking under pressure and haven't performed...yet. However, New Zealand have performed their socks off - yay All Whites. Maisie is not impressed with the football, she keeps asking "how much longer?" When I said "only three weeks", she wasn't too pleased. AND - Wimbledon started. Damn shame I got myself a job - it gets in the way on watch sport somewhat!

We had a trip to Chester and Colwyn Bay last weekend. Nana Gran is out of hospital and as fit as we have seen her. We took her for a stroll in the park which was fun (she's the one in the wheelchair). She would say "go that way, go on that side of the road" and ey ey ey after every bump in the road. Thankfully, we fixed Dad's TV which had been broken all week, mainly because the remote was lost down the side of a chair cushion. So it was a successful weekend all round.

Gaga ooo lala

LADY GAGA WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Waiting in line, us adults were teasing Alex & Maisie about watching 'your tube' and threatening to cut some shapes with our great dance moves.

The best quote we heard in the queue: "some of these people have turned up in their underwear!" (from women who were younger than us - very reassuring). I offered to get my togs (swimsuit) out of the car to wear, or get about in my M&S undies. Daughter and niece were mortified; other queuers giggled (maybe a little nervously!).

Security check consisted of asking Leanne if she had any pop in her bag!

The advantage of being middleaged - they didn't notice her Swiss army knife!

Warm up act "semi precious weapons" were rubbish, would have been better with me playing Mull of Kintyre (my only tune so far) on the guitar. There was an overuse of the f word, as if they thought they were original and cool. Their song "tell me something that I don't know" made me want to shout "you can't sing" but maybe they knew that already.

Then the obligatory long wait for the main event while the arena filled up. There was an air of anticipation, and the smell of revolting burgers filling the atmosphere (Leanne said "you poms will eat anything"). We queued up for some cokes, chilled to the dj playing Michael Jackson. Suddenly, the lights were off, and we were into countdown. There was a very cute story to the concert about the journey to the Monsters Ball. Not much dancing by the Sheffield crowd, good singing though, and we all dutifully held up our paws and showed our teeth.

Amazing stage show, so many costume changes. I was a little concerned when the piano was on fire but it turned out to be just forshadowing for when Gaga's bra was alight! Never realized she was such an acomplished musician. Then it was all over and into the scrum, aka carpark, running the gauntlet of cut price gaga gear, into the car... life went back to normal.