HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME.. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME. I'M ELEVEN TODAY.. HIPHIP HURRAY!

Yes folks and those of you who prefer to be known as Dear Reader.. these are usually those people who are of a higher level of maturity. NOT age.. maturity than is to be found around here!

For we.. otherwise her and I.. are renowned throughout many places in this world for not being mentally the same age as our tongues. Wake up and gettit.. or maybe you should go back to snooze for a while and then come back and read this post.. for you've got to be alert and 'with it' to gettit.

Yes.. how about that.. I am eleven years old today and I am reallyreally pleased to be able to tell you.. fanfare please.. Nelly, please trump your trumpet.. I have more feathers appearing on my tumtum.. WHAT a relief!

However, we won't be celebrating this auspicious day until much later in the day for she has much to'ing and fro'ing to do.

Sadly, I have to report that her new GI team have requested that she has both an endoscopy and a colonoscopy.. sigh. So this morning she has to collect the preparation from the hospital pharmacy.. if you don't know what I am talking about, then you are extremely fortunate. But we know a lot of you do, so you'll be thinking "OH DEAR, not again".

Then she has to collect something for Tereza from one of her daughter's school, then go to work, then take the preparation at midday, then work for the rest of the day, then come home, then we get to celebrate my hatchday, then she has to go to bed with NOTHING in her tumtum for the allotted amount of hours and then she has to go to hospital at the crack of dawn to have a colonoscopy.

WHAT a lot of thens! But you get the drift.. a busy day for her.. I get to cogitate my tumtum and doze on pole, it ain't the way I would choose to spend my hatchday but she and I spent all of yesterday together so one must take the rough with the smooth and always walk on the sunny side of the street.

She has to go now but I will be back later to give the the news about the Silent Auction and some reallyreally strange news about a theatre group.. I'll leave you with this intriguing thought / question.

Has the world of theatre goers finally had enough of Les Miserables, Miss Saigon and Phantom of the Opera?

PipPip..

GeeGee Parrot.
July 29th, 2015.

NO GOOD WAS BEING HAD.. WELL.. NOT ON MY BEHALF!

She left the house after breakfast with old WW, he carrying four huge white tubs, and they went forth in driving rain. Oh course, you would not have to be Einstein to figure out, Dear Readers, that either she was 'up to no good' or she was going somewhere where good yumyum was to be had!

It was the later, her reputation is still, despite her current escapades, faultless! No, I am not about to spill the beans on the man who thinks she's the cat's miaow, I haven't met him yet and she is being decidedly 'coy' about him.

So off they went.. splish splash she was cutting a dash.. wrapped up in foul weather gear from head to toe.. and fighting with the decidedly dodgy transport system which was behaving in a very silly fashion. So she mostly hoofed it up to Marylebone Farmer's Market to meet her Dumpling Eating friend aka Goaty mum Debbie.

For it was indeed Malaysian Dumpling Day. Oh slurpicious is not the right word, sinusblasting-germkilling-eyewatering-scummydumptiousdiddleyyumyum might just about cover how good they are!

They had the equivalent of FOUR helpings! And then Debbie gilded the Lily by giving her a HUGE scone with thick double cream and strawberry jam, just in case she felt peckish on the way home. Gluttons or gluttony is the word, I think you're looking for.

She gave the tall buckets to Debbie together with the air locks and received in exchange a WHOLE Shaggys' Cheese and other fabulous cheeses but it's Shaggy that she is crazydaisy about, would you be too if you tasted it!

Well, from next month, all you have to do is find your way to Borough Market and seek out Joe at Ellie's Dairy stand, for every week on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday he'll be there.

Tomorrow she is getting into smart clothing, yes, she does have smart rain gear!

She'll doubtless be in her jaw dropping black western boots (you very seldom, if ever, see this quality of 'Cowboy' boot outside of the USA or Texas where these beautiful boots were made).

She'll have an Hermes scarf wrapped around her head a la Grace Kelly with her Herbert Johnson hat on top, then she'll be covered up from neck to mid calf in the chicest raincoat you've ever seen, courtesy of Bergdorf Goodman from long ago. With lipstick on.. red lipstick!

For she's going into smart places to physically collect the donated vouchers that people have given her and she would not dream of going to see the Manager of Browns' Hotel in her beaten up Barbour! Despite the fact they are friends.. she just wouldn't.

And then she's going into the Royal Academy and to other lovely places and people whom have been so generous.

Later she going to meet the President earlier than usual at the Club, for the Director General of RIBI is attending their meeting, she will be formally introduced as the new Fundraiser and P R Officer of the Club and what better way to meet the DG as the new Fundraiser with a big stash of fabulous donations in your 'pocket'!

The President knows she has a couple of nice things but no one as yet, no one actually knows what people have given to the club and you can be sure that they will be emailing the other Rotary clubs very quickly to let them know what is going up for the auction on August 29th, at the Barbecue.

Well.. back to mundane things.. like the allotment.. where the ground will be singing with joy at this amount of rain we are having! Very dismal for children on the summer holidays but she doesn't remember rain ever seriously impacting on her fun when she was a kid.

They're coming to put scaffolding up onto our house tomorrow, so she's brought the three biggest Calamondin trees in, they're going to be residing in the bath with a special light on for twelve hours a day. The others are small enough not really to be damageable but the three old ones.. well, it is better to be safe than sorry and she would be very sorry if any one of these trees was damaged.

We are due to have this gruesome metal cage over us for six weeks. Boring to say the least and dirty too. She'll shut the back window and drop the blind, this does stop most of the brick dust and grime coming into the flat but outside on the steps will be filthy and they never clean up properly, unless they're read the riot act, which she'll have to do.

Unless it is the same crew who did it last time, in which case they will certainly remember the tongue lashing she gave the site boss when they disconnected the main incoming telephone cable.. uh hum.

I am pleased to be able to tell you that there are some downy-type feathers showing on my stomach.. hurray! I might be snug and warm by the Autumn at this rate! Gee, I do hope so.

We've had supper, she has got an early start as she's due to be in the West End and has to be back down in Fulham for a meeting at 1pm. Her clothes are ready and hanging in the hall so she'll be right on the ball after we break our nights' fast with a rolypoly boiled egg and a mug of coffee.

Stay dry.. happy and healthy.

GeeGee Parrot.
July 26th, 2015.

SPLISH SPLOSH! THE TOWN'S AWASH!

Only last night, Ossie, Leigh and my mum were talking about how dry the earth is and mum was saying all of the fruit needs lots of rain.

Well, it arrived today! From early morning it has been a'pouring out of the sky and the ground is going glug glug glug! Or running fast over the street drains which are not able to cope with this onslaught of water.

We don't mind, old yellow figgy at the allotment will be veryvery happy and maybe, just maybe it might stop plum tree from dying. Poor plum tree, it looked really awful when she saw it on Sunday and there was nothing she could do, the ground was so dry that the roots would have not received a drop. The ground needed what we are getting, solid rain for several hours.

Going back to last night.. oooh slurp. We had fish in a white sauce, potatoes which she won't eat BUT I do, brocolli, Mackie's Scottish ice cream and cream and strawberries. Sigh.. why can't we eat like this every night? I am crazydaisy about icecream and cream together and I find a spoon is just the thing to slurp it off.

I was due to go today to Streatham to Sing With Dementia but looked at the weather and said "please send my regrets" and stayed at home in our snug burrow. I thought it looked dodgy when she went into a cupboard and fished out a pair of leather knee-high boots which I haven't seen since February!

Tomorrow she's busy all morning so I'll doze and think about a full pot of Mackie's Ice Cream, there is only the one flavour, we don't care 'cos it is SO scrummydumptious.. slurpydurpy.

Now it is eight of the past midday clock.. hence pm.. gettit? And as her alarm is due to shatter our beauty sleep at 06.00 tomorrow morning, we are retiring early this evening, she's got her clothes ready, galloshes, waxed rain coat, trousers, keys, bus pass, mobile is charged. Rock & Roll, she has to be there before or by 07.30.. rather her than me, that's for sure!

So pippip Dear Readers. We hope your garden is getting a good soaking if you're here in the UK, we all need it badly.

GeeGee Parrot.
July 24th, 2015.

WILL YOU DONATE? WELL.. LOOKIE LOOKIE & SEE WHAT PEOPLE HAVE GIVEN SO FAR..

Now you all know I cannot tap iPad.. so there's no point in blaming me for the lack of posts on my Blog. She.. aka my mother.. the tapper of iPads. has been putting leather on concrete running here and there meeting old colleagues and making new friends all over town!

This gallavanting about is in aid of the Streatham Dementia Support Group which is the project being run by the Rotary Club of Streatham. She told them at her Induction that she was tenacious.. well.. they now know exactly how tenacious!

For she has these most wonderful goodies (amongst others) in her 'sack of prizes' which will be in the Silent Auction at the Barbecue on August 29th at :

Woodlawns,
16. Leigham Court Road,
Streatham Hill, London SW16.
2pm - 6.pm.
Entrance charge £12.00 for adults & £5.00 for children. Price includes meal & a drink.

Here is what she's got so far!

Champagne Tea for Two at Brown's Hotel.
BIG thank you to Stuart Johnson for this.

Dinner for two with wine at Soho Joe in Dean Street. London W1.
Thanks to Lovely Anna.

Dinner for Two at Pizza Express in Greek Street, London W1.
Thanks to Kind Max.

Two LIFETIME Memberships to Prince Charles Cinema, Leicester Place, London W1.
BIG thank you to Gorgeous Gregory you this!

£30.00 Voucher from Algerian Coffee Stores, Old Compton Street, London W1.
Thanks to her favourite Italian aka Paul.

Morrisons Streatham have donated ALL the food for the Barbecue.
HUGE thanks to Adam French and his incredible team.

There are others coming through in the gift-line but I am not able to speak about them yet BUT hang onto your hats folks and watch this space.

Now then.. what have I been doing? Not a great deal, I'm afraid. My tumtum is bald, I have a few feathers coming through, however, it does look slightly weird as the rest of me has feathers.. sigh.. silly me!

Never mind, we are happy and healthy and all is well with us, as I hope it is with all of you? Our weather is decidedly iffy.. there is sad news from the allotment where one of her favourite plum trees is dying.. nothing she can do.

She is visibly shrinking! None of those naughty Nightshade (potato, tomato, peppers or aibergine) Family are being eaten and she now never eats fruit after protein! These two simple changes in her eating habits are having a dramatic effect! Her dodgy knees are no longer painful and she has been seen to run up a flight of steps!

And she can bend all the fingers on her right hand! She cannot yet get her rings onto those fingers but they're muchmuch better!

Now we are off to,rattle a pan in YumYum Hq and hopefully.. I will be back with more news sooner rather than later. We are going to have supper soon with Leigh, Ossie and their two moggies.. haha.. I'll report back!

Best wishes to you all.

GeeGee Parrot.
July 22nd, 2015.

'UNBROKEN' the true survival story of Louie Zamperini, an American POW held by the Japanese in WW2 and what £4.60 buys for the pot!

The total cost of this amaazing dish, minus seasoning and vegetables was £4.60! But that folks is one of the benefits of having a proper fishmonger!

The huge salmon head had its' spine still attached with lots of flesh, the heads have LOTS of flesh and this had a big chunk of the body as well, the tilapia was cut into three, head and two pieces, two huge prawns were in their skins and she cleaned the two baby squid.

Putting the salmon into cold water with spices and celery, she brought that up to the boil and then slipped in the tilapia for a couple of minutes.

Transfering some of the boiling fish stock to another pan, she added a couple of home made vegetable stock cubes, finely chopped carrots and a big handful of whole french beans, then for the last few minutes she added salmon pieces from the spine, a chunk of tilapia, the squid (don't over cook it otherwise you end up with rubbery rings!), then prawns went in with more spices and herbs.

OH SLURP-THE-DURP! She ladled some into a high sided bowl, added a bit of soya and ate it with chopsticks and then slurped the soup.. as you do in the privacy of your own kitchen.

I am crazy-daisy about beans cooked this way and also ate carrots and fish.

The prawn shells went back into the mother pot and this has hubbled and bubbled for three hours on a low heat. It will be spectacular tomorrow and she will freeze the remaining soup and goodies.

All this, with not one fattening element in sight, for £4.60! Go immediately, if not sooner, and find a proper fishmonger, our's is in the North End Road Market and is called Fulham Fish. They mind not at all if you only want two prawns! Nice men. Good fish.

She spent time today speaking to other PR people, she got some wonderful stuff coming as prizes for the summer barbecue on August 29th. Not one company said "no" and today's tally is two theatre tickets for a west end very popular show, tea for two at a great west hotel, some book tokens, gift vouchers from a famous perfume company, store vouchers from three BIG high street shops and a couple of vouchers for lunch or dinner at two restaurants.

Plus Morrisons have agreed to donate all the food and drink for the fundraising barbecue! They are an incredibly generous and highly philanthropic store.

One thing she has to remember to do is to organise the alcohol license for the barbecue from Lambeth Council. And who knows what amazing things she will ask companies to donate tomorrow? There will be more goodies that's for sure! Last year they raised over £800.00 in three hours, this year they'll beat that with all of these spectacular gifts being offered as raffle prizes!

We are off to read a book and spend a quiet evening. She read a book last night that made her weep. A much beloved friend of Constance and Hugo was a man called Denys Yates, he was captured by the Japanese, contracted TB, treated appallingly and never spoke about it except to Hugo, her father.. you never served Denys white rice..

This book is the true story of Louie Zamperini, a very famous American runner, whose B24 plane was shot down by a Japanese fighter plane, he and his pilot and another crew member survived for over forty days on a raft, which was strafed by a Japanese Zero fighter.. grrr.. ugh.

They lost Mac.. but Phil, the pilot, and Louie survived only to captured by the Japanese and were held without the Red Cross being alerted. They were treated brutally. The story tells in great detail of what level of inhumanity and cruelty was levelled towards the prisoners and the sadistic torture they experienced. No wonder Denys never talked about it..

The War Crimes board in the Hague stll search for old Nazis and, of course, for the people on both sides who were responsible for atrocities committed during the Serb / Croat war in the early 1990's.

But Japan.. whose treatment of all prisoners of war was of the vilest sort.. ah well.. big business after the war was vital to the economy and so it was decided to pardon their war criminals in the early 1950's.

Her parents were very active throughout WW2 and the Malay Emergency and they both said "that whereas they 'might' forgive, they would never forget what both Germany and Japan had did to the world".

Oi vey..

GeeGee Parrot.
July 16th, 2015.

I HAVE BEEN AWAY.. IN GAOL NO LESS! AND ELLIE'S DAIRY ARE GOING TO BE AT BOROUGH MARKET FOUR DAYS A WEEK..

HUH.. yes, I was incarcerated for SIX days at the aviary whilst she was veryvery busy doing those other things.. so I plucked my tumtum bald, that'll larn her, I thought but now the temperature has plummeted like a stone in water, so I regret doing that.. sigh.

This is just a wee post to let you know that we are still alive, albeit slightly chilly in the stomach regions - mine, not hers! She smug 'cos she's lost a kilo without trying too hard but she has endless clothes with which to cover her stomach, I wish I had.. I want pathos and sympathy please..

Wretched man neighbour upstairs, he 'disposed' of four of her birthday cards.. grrr.

Not very much to report, except that the Fundraising Breakfast was a great success.. and lots of lovely dosh.. aka money.. was raised and the Priest has invited them back any time.

Next up is the Summer BBQ on August 29th. She's after some lovely prizes for the Raffle / Tombola, so more than a few of her old colleagues will be receiving a call this next week, they don't have to give much.. a voucher or two go a long way to get folks to pay £1.00 for a strip of 4 tickets!

Especially when the prizes are as follows.. Afternoon tea at a lovely west end hotel anyone? A couple of tickets to see a west end show. A garden centre voucher. A book voucher or perhaps some delicious smoked salmon or trout? Who would say no to any of these?

They have to be arranged but at the moment she's busy getting our financial books up to date, she didn't finish June's figures, so that's what we've got to do now.

Meanwhile, we send every Dear Reader our greetings and hope that you are all happy and healthy?

OH... HEADS UP! Ellie's Dairy have been accepted by Borough Market! Haha.. as if they weren't already working hard enough.. they'll be there Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday every week with their cheeses and milk.

On that happy note.. I'm off to supervise the double-entry books.. heehee.. flapflap.

GeeGee Parrot.
July 15th, 2015.

YOU'RE TOO LATE WITH GETTING HER BIRTHDAY CARD INTO THE POST.. 'COS IT'S TODAY!

I know.. very 'childlike' to still like getting birthday cards at her advanced age but that's what she likes, so suck it up and remember the date for NEXT year!

Of, course, she's not the only girl to be born on this day.. she has a 'twin' called Marlowe. She is Sienna Miller's daughter and Marlowe is three today! So you can sing, yes you can as you ALL know the words..

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday ... & Marlowe, happy birthday to the two of you.. heehee. No not a lot of sanity around here today folks! Her brain is a'buzzin and she's after BIG loads of dosh aka money honey!

A lot of Rotarians join Rotary for various reasons: Friendship / Contacts / etc, etc. She joined Rotary and her club for two VERY specific reasons.

The first is because of their outstanding project, with the Gates Foundation, to eradicate this crippling disease. The second reason was because of Mary Madden's dream to create, build and maintain the Streatham Dementia Support Group. This determined that she wanted to join the Rotary Club of Streatham

Now you may not know much about what the Gates Foundation and Rotary do with regard to readicating Polio, so I suggest you get your fingers to tap Gates Foundation and Rotary into a search engine and see what comes up. What will come up are the STAGGERING facts of how much money and work that has gone towards this project and the amazing results that have been achieved.

So going forward.. as I said, each Rotarian joins for different reasons and some of them have a dream. Mary's was the Dementia Group, about which she has written. This is up and running as is the Polio project.

But yesterday, like a flash of lightening, HER dream came to her. She was talking to Vinnay, they were talking about fundraising and other stuff. She asked him where he came from in India, he said Mumbai (Bombay), she replied that her mother's family had lived in Madras.

Then someone interrupted them and said to her, I need you to join us at the Greenwich Club, she roared with laughter and replied.. "NO CHANCE! It takes me an hour to get here to Streatham, I'm not going to Greenwich. Go away or I'll tell Janice - the President - that you are trying to poach me!" Vinnay and she laughed and then Vinnay said "But we ARE going to take you to India.."

Well, you can just imagine her face.. she said "WHAT?" and he explained why.. she said "Sadly Vinnay, I'm 'grounded', I cannot fly and NO medical insurance company will insure me because of my well documented medical condition but tell me what you're talking about" and so he did..

And the lightening flashed! Her DREAM! The project already exists, albeit in a tinytiny format.

Forty years ago when she lived on the lovely Costa del Sol, she ran around with a mad bunch of tennis players.. SERIOUS tennis players like Lew and Jenny Hoad, Abe Segal, Ray Moore and Mike Davis etc, etc. Their favourite expression to try something new was "give it a whack!"

It is much too soon to tell you about it as she has a humungous amount of data to obtain about this project, she didn't cut her teeth on The Savoy Hotel and Bovis Construction Group for nothing folks. She LOVES a good project! Grrr.. Something reallyreally 'meaty' to get your teeth into!

There is money to be raised, material of all manner of descriptions to be sourced and donated.

It is now her dream, she and Vinnay are meeting an hour earlier at the Rotary Club HQ on Monday and will discuss what has been done so far. She worked until late last night, pulling facts and figures together, of ideas, of sponsors whom she knows to be of a philanthropic disposition ~ most important, in fact, vital!

And so there you have it folks.. and now I am going to say to you all.. and I don't care if you're as old as she is.. find yourselves a dream and GIVE IT A WHACK!

GeeGee Parrot.
July 7th, 2015.
PostScript: Her birthday! 

ONE HELL OF A WEEK WITH A LOVELY SURPRISE & THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF MARINA ORPIN'S DEATH.. SIGH.. WHAT A WEEK OF MIXED FEELINGS.

OK.. where was I? Oh yes, July 1st was my last post, I'm sorry about the lack of them but read on and you'll know all about our peculiar week which includes me being put into JAIL!

First of July.. yippee, she had an appointment with Valerie Worwood out in Romford. She'd woken up with an extremely painful lower colon and took a pill (very rare as she doesn't like taking pills) and thought no more about it. (This was the point at which my last post finished.. read on, Dear Readers, read on).

Then at 08.30am she went to the bathroom and haemorrhaged! Don't panic folks.. we have this down to a fine art.. she washed, dressed, put her always ready packed emergency over-night case in the hall,  put iPad, mobile etc, etc into her Rotary case, called her Gastro team at 09.00 and told them she was heading for A&E. I got into my travelling cage and zoom, we were out of the door! She called Valerie's salon and left a message telling them what was happening and that she wasn't able to come.

Off to 'jail' I went, I know them very well as I always go there if she has to go away, dear Sandy was surprised to see her as she had been there the day before buying my YumYum. Having checked me in, she went to A&E. No fuss, the team were great but oh lordy, she was told almost immediately that she was going to be admitted.. fiddle-the-diddle.. thank goodness she was way ahead of schedule for our first Rotary Fundraiser!

NIL BY MOUTH.. she hates those words! It was a blistering hot day, every fan in the place was going but she was allowed to wash her mouth out with icy water as long as she promised to spit it out!

This, Dear Readers, is real life! If you want to read about who wore what and how much they paid for it.. read another Blog elsewhere.

Fast forward.. xrays, blood tests, 'examinations'.. admitted into a surgical ward.. SIGH. But she had that bag of 'tricks' with her, a good book, Rotary stuff, iPad, mobile, chargers for everything. So she set up her office, logged on and started working.

"Hello, we need to know who are your next of kin?" a nurse came and asked her. Haha.. you're having a giraffe! They don't care a monkey's toss, except about what she'll leave when she dies, there is absolutely point in letting either of her brothers know she's in hospital. Cousin Bruce and Rotary friends were the people she let know.

Next morning. No more blood.. The Registrar visited with the doctor who had admitted her and they talked at length about her colon. She is now under their care. OI VEY. The Surgical team!

"When were your last colonoscopy and endoscopys' done? Over a year, ok, then we want another done soon, we'll organise it and in the meantime, we'll pull your notes from the other team, you're being released with these antibiotics and this ('industrial strength') pain killer just in case that pain comes back, you have a very high pain threshold which is not a good thing as you should have come in yesterday and there is this other medication you MUST take three times a day, is this all clear?".

Zoom.. she bolted out of Alcatraz, via their pharmacy to pick up the medications, called the aviary to let them know and then I, too, was released from jail and off we shot back home! What a ......, a whole day wasted in jail! She did have the sense to stay quietly at home that day.. but both telephone lines were burning!

Friday.. no pain.. what bliss.. NO blood.. even more blissful!

So hey-ho off we go.. to Sing With Dementia in Streatham Hill.. Yeah.. FULL HOUSE! Such fun was had.. oh, so many kisses were kissed and hugs were hugged! I flew and whistled and bobbed up and down.. lordy such a good time was had by all!

Then we ran down the road.. gross fib! She ran, I jobbled about a bit, down to Streatham High Road to meet the team she's working with at Morrisons. Lubbly-jubbly folk. Then home again, home again, jiggedy-jig!

Saturday morning, up early, we ate a truly scrummydumptious fast breaking meal and I stayed at home whilst she sent off to work at the shop. It was a blisteringly hot day so she volunteered to go and get a couple of ice lollies. Down Bute Street she went and just as she was about to turn into the Old Brompton Road, when whom should she see sitting on a chiller box?

Why. It was Goaty Mum herself! Yes folks, Ellie's Dairy is now at the Farmer's Market - 10.00 ~ 2pm - in Bute Street, South Kensington, London SW7, on the first Saturday of every month.She stood still and said quietly "And what do you think you're doing here?".. that gave Debbie a bit of a shock!

Despite the fact it was American Independance Day, Wimbledon and very hot, it was a busy day in the shop with lots of people buying and bringing donations in, including one annoying young customer whom she eventually told that he was talking 'rubbish' and that you made a lamp by doing so and so.

He tried to be cute and said "qualifications?" - some mothers do 'ave 'em - so she replied "twenty years experience and a Royal Warrant to supply HM The Queen with lamps and lampshades" and whilst she was say this, in walked one of her oldest clients!

God is sometimes very cute with his humour! For the client grabbed her and cried "It's true! Bobby said you were here and here you are.." and the rest of the conversation left the annoying man in NO doubt that she 'knew a bit' about lamps!

So there you have 'That was our the week that was'.. today is the first day of Streatham Festival which she has to get to in order to help 'man' the Rotarians stall. I'm staying here and I am mighty glad too for it poured with rain earlier, the sky is still VERY iffy and it is doesn't look as if it is going to cheer up anytime soon.

It's also the first anniversary of the death of our most beloved and treasured friend Marina Orpin, she died sometime in the night of July 4th. We miss her enormously.. veryvery BIG sigh.

GeeGee Parrot.
July 5th, 2015.

DRAT & BLAST BUT FINDING A NEW SHOP FULL OF EDIBLE TREASURES!

Grrrrr.. something is amiss! She's in pain.. it started with a twinge and being 'incomfortable' after eating that bread two weeks ago. Now it is 'not so good' ~ which is a typically British understatement of it's sore, really sore.

Walking yesterday seemed to alieve it somewhat and she did a lot of that! She met her new President, Janice, in Balham and they went to the banner printers, the art work was approved and the banner was made yesterday afternoon, ready for pick-up today.

Then she went to see both Anya and Sandra at Morrisons at Streatham. Anya is their Community Champion and Sandra was the wonderful woman at Customer Service who started the ball rolling.

Anya approved the invoice format and said "Come and pick up the cheque on Friday! YIPPEE.. then she went off to find Sandra to give her a veryvery BIG hug! What a lovelylovely sweet woman she is, you know how sometimes, if you're lucky, you meet someone whom you like immediately? Well, Sandra is one of those people. And, oh lordy, how the two of them laughed and giggled about and at something they found mutually amusing!

Then grrr.. she realised she had left her file book on Rotary at the banner makers, so instead of being able to hop on the bus and come home, she had to get back to the Balham Boulevard.. grrrr.. but there it was, luckily, safe and in her hand within a second of Steven seeing her.

But.. what was this? Almost next door was a Polish food shop.. my dears. And what a food shop. It is a tiny shop compared to Bartek but it is stuffed full of the most glorious things with the most delightful staff. Address.. 4. The Boulevard, Balham High Road.

Marta and she became instant friends as they've a common ground, lazy and very naughty digestive systems! Marta showed her this extraordinary bread that she and her brother make on the premises. NO flour, NO yeast.. it is made of grains and pulses and is fab! And they stock her most beloved pure Beetroot juice which Bartek have discontinued but this shop sell it at 70p cheaper!

Their bunches of herbs and root vegetable are kept in a huge bucket of water, everything she tasted was beyond scrummydumptious and much cheaper than her beloved Bartek. So by leaving her filebook behind, she found this great shop which, from the outside, looks like a coffee shop.

She was beginning to wish (desperately) that she had old WW with her, the four kilos of almonds and cashews from Morrisons plus the Polish swag meant her arms were full and it was all heavy stuff.

Never mind, Clapham Junction was two hops away by fast train and then she jumped onto a 49 bus to South Ken. Whilst on the bus she called various shops asking "do you have a toy parrot?", no toy parrots to be found, then she called Animal Fair Pet Shop and they had a wooden boredom breaker, they hang and are for a baby or a bird cage! And the 49 took her all the way there!

Splendid, for it is just the thing she needed and with Cousin Bruce's marvellous posters for the 'GUESS MY NAME & WIN A TOY PARROT' competition on June 12th at St.Bartholemew's Catholic Church, Streatham Common after the three morning Masses, this fundraiser for the Streatham Dementia Supprt Group is off to a flying start! No pun intended.. You can tell the one tablet of Cocodomel has kicked in, can't you!

She woke up in such pain and thinks it is her Diverterticulitis being tricky but has a busy day and cannot go to A&E in the middle of the night for what would happen to me? She'll call her Gastro specialist this morning, do the stuff today, collect the banner and give the toy to someone and leave me at Animal Fair, then go to see him tomorrow.

I know.. I know.. but she hates letting people down and she just needs this one day to get it all together. And now the pain is not so bad, she'll go back to bed and be able to sleep, she has to be in Romford for a treatment with Valerie Ann Worwood at 1.45, this means leaving the house at 11.45 in order to be sure to catch connecting trains etc from Liverpool Street.

But we are a bit sad that we didn't post every day in the month of June, the days have been a bit manic and she's had this grumbling tummy.. but never mind, here we are in her birthday month - it's on the seventh in case you've forgotten, this gives you a bit if time to get your card in the post - and the weather is jurst glorious!

Hot.. veryvery hot and sunny. Lubbly-jubbly weather, we are lucky that our home stays very cool. Can you just imagine how hot it must be playing tennis at Wimbledon! Oi vey.. as I say!

And talking of other things.. the shootings in Tunisia. Words fail us, they don't fail us about what she thinks about this whole mess of immigrants and border control but this is NOT the place for her to put her thought and opinions on these subjects.

However, our condolences and sympathy are with all of the families whose lifes have been dreadfully shattered.

GeeGee Parrot.
July 1st, 2015.