ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 51ST OF 2023

 Good morning can you believe we are on our 51st Rocking post of 2023, tempus fugit 

Thursday night last week we went to the local college restaurant for a Christmas meal with my Mum and sister and had a lovely evening catching up, the food was beautiful and we were mighty full when we left, despite the portion sizes being tiny.

Friday and we headed to Sheffield for the panto with my Mum, it was Beauty and the Beast and Damian Williams the dame was fantastic as always.

Saturday morning and we headed up to National Trust property - Nostell Priory to wander their pretty Christmas rooms, the queue for Santa were extensive, last year he just wandered around saying hello and waited for people to show an interest, this year he had an extensive queue of young people to chat to, but that will happen when he happens to be 'free'.  Anyway I'm sure the young people will have enjoyed their chat and we enjoyed walking the house, the gingerbread room was wonderful, the aromas spectacular. 

If you look closely you can see the man himself. 

The rest of the day was spent getting on with jobs that we needed to do, similarly on Sunday morning, getting things done. 

Sunday evening we headed to Wentworth Woodhouse for 'The tale as old as time itself' a story set in a deserted mansion, very apt for the building, but with a group of 4 of us it was difficult to keep up with the story if truth be told, we probably needed a written leaflet to aid us. 

We headed outside for a wonderful lights trail in the garden and enjoyed a very festive hot chocolate together and to be honest it was definitely time that we needed together. 

Monday and we had a meeting in work to try and get things resolved, Tuesday whilst things had techncially resolved this wasn't tested, so another sleepless nights.  On Wednesday the world realigned, we had a chat and things are back on an even keel again and so we set too as a team and packed 50 Christmas hampers and got them distributed to families in need, whilst tiring it was just what we needed to remind ourselves of the season and what it really means. 

Thursday and the hampers were finished, the last of the reports was written and at two minutes past four I said goodbye to the work place for the last time this year, we've got a single day in over Christmas to cover foodbank but that is technically in the new year, so I'm going to down tools and enjoy family and friends and all things festive. 

I hope everyone else is fairing OK in this run up to Christmas, I hope you have a beautiful and blessed Christmas.

Much love 

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 50TH OF 2023

 Good morning lovely people tis Friday time for 

Well it has been the weirdest of weeks but I'm going to focus on the positives, so last Friday we took my car in for some repair, we found the problem but not the repair method which is a bit of a bugger if I'm honest, so that is still to be resolved.  We also had a dental appointment, but it was good to realign all of our appointments as they'd ended up out of synch.  In the evening we went to Sheffield Cathedral for their illuminations in the church, it really was wonderful and we went with my sister which was good too as we had time to have a good catch up. 

These are a few of the photos that we took

there was also a Christmas tree festival in the church and I found my favourite decorations

Saturday and we were in work for Santa boat trips, it was a good day and in between trips we had time to sort out the activity cupboards which was great.  I found out later that one of the children who couldn't make it for the trip due to coming down with chicken pox got a special video message from Santa as well as his Christmas gift, our volunteers are genuinely fantastic. 

Sunday and I had a Christmas wreath class, my niece came down from Leeds and we went to my Mums to have a good catch up which was brilliant, we all enjoyed doing the wreaths as well, we'd also chosen red as our key colour.

Monday and it was back to work and to be honest it has been another difficult week, I can't tell if my gut is telling me to persevere or move to pastures new if truth be told, but at the moment I'm just going to enjoy my weekend and let me see how the land lies next week. 

I hope you've had a positive week. 

Hugs

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 49TH OF 2023

 Morning lovely people tis Friday time for

Well last Friday we were due to go to see a Christmas Carol inside Sheffield Cathedral with my sister, but being a nurse she often picks up bugs at this time of year, so alas she couldn't make it.  Me and hubby went anyway and enjoyed a wander around the Sheffield Christmas market albeit that most of it was stalls to either eat or drink, we also wandered a couple of shops on our way around.  We had a naughty tea in McDonalds and then headed to the Cathedral.  The show was done by the Chapterhouse theatre group and was fantastic, the only down side were church pews for two and a half hours, my back isn't what it was. 

We had woken to a bright blue skies day, but Jack Frost had been painting on the windows

We had a wander around to the Church in the afternoon for the Christmas tree festival and enjoyed taking photos of the frost 

The festival was brilliant as always, I love the handmade items for the trees, they do make me smile from one-eyed donkeys

to knitted polar bears

and tiny mangers

The trees really did look beautiful 

and I enjoyed a moment of pre-Christmas solace alone in God's house

Sunday was a different story we woke to a good couple of inches of snow. 

and whilst it might look festive it really isn't very convenient these days.  Thankfully we'd already planned a stay at home and chill day if I'm honest.  

I've also started my Lego advent calendar, which really is now a bit of a tradition, although there are some days when I still have to google what the items are, thankfully Harry on the 1st was easy. 

The rest of the week has been manic busy at work, including today when my primary role was peeling potatoes for chips for our volunteer get together, I've had to come home and have a shower and all my clothes are going in the wash due to the smell of chip fat.  Hey ho the things you do, lol.

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 48TH OF 2023

 Morning all tis Friday time for

Well we've had a busy busy week because we've been off from work last Friday we had tickets to go to Chatsworth to enjoy the Christmas market, the house and garden and then the light trail around the garden.  I have to say it was a brilliant day albeit long, we set off at 9.30am and didn't arrive back until 7.30pm with 17,000 steps on our Fitbits to prove the busy day we'd had. 

The inside of the house was beautiful as always

we particularly admired the handiwork of these hand cut paper pieces

my favourite display were the snowmen along one of the corridors

The evil face of the glitterball snowman whose stolen the carrot really is quite intense!

Outside the blue skies meant only one thing, it was absolutely freezing!

The maze all prepared for the light trail with the globe lights

and the theme this year 24 days of advent and they turned the south face into an advent calendar with 24 doors that opened in sequence to music, it really was spectacular!

With different scenes played out. 

Saturday arrived and we had a busy day tootling around the house before heading to Barnsley in the evening for their second Bright Nights evening, said 23 year old and his wife came as well. 

First up the town hall that had a Middle Earth exhibition showing 

then on to the civic for unfurled clouds, an interactive light installations, affected by movement underneath it created a thunder storm with sound effects included and had written word from the Tempest play

Then another exhibition in the Civic which was spectacular, a really powerful piece of work it has to be said, daughter in law, me and said 23 year posed underneath, daughter in law commented that it looked like we were posing for our 'next album cover' which had us in hysterics

hence the next picture 

and a light installation in the main museum at the Cooper gallery

it was overall a wonderful evening. 

Sunday and we had a busy day and then in the evening we went to see the Luke Jerram piece Museum of the Moon at the Minster in town, it was lovely to see it in the church setting but it was definitely a tight squeeze

Monday was a dismal day so we tootled around the house but on Tuesday we ventured to Hardwick Hall to see their Christmas display.  It was somewhat sparse when compared to previous years, but they did put it on in an Elizabethan theme, I loved this staircase piece, we've done something similar at home but on the edges so we can still walk up and down. 

We got given a lantern to mooch around the house which made it very atmospheric. 

There were a few writing stations based around the house encouraged by posts by the Lord of Misrule and I must admit to taking the time to sit and write and enjoy the prompt. 

Outside and we found a kissing bough in one of the garden rooms, the room smelt beautiful with orange pomanders dotted with cloves and cinnamon hanging from the garland. 

Wednesday was a busy day getting jobs done, I don't know whether I'm more behind this year or whether I'm going to end up very in front if that makes sense.  But we did venture out at night to watch a one man show of A Christmas Carol which was excellent. 

Thursday and I encouraged hubby to have a day doing things that he wanted to do, rather than following my lead, he blitzed several episodes of 'The Continental' which he really enjoyed whilst I wrapped gifts, sorted out Christmas cookie jars and generally did crafty type bits with Harry Potter playing in the background, a lovely day doing what I fancied which is nice but I'm feeling very tired tonight. 

I hope you've had a good week.

Hugs