Sunday's spotlight - Birthday party

By guest blogger Pete.

The "nearly" lady, I mentioned her in last week's blog, kindly invited Pam and me to Birthday tea to celebrated the fact that I'm now "nearly" 80. There were sandwiches and cakes, coffee and tea in plenty.

My mother always had the idea that sandwiches were good for you and that you ought to be forced fed them before you could begin to sample the real tea time goodies like tinned fruit or cake.  By the time I'd ploughed through all the sandwiches she's made and insisted that I eat I really didn't have any room left for the real food.  My elder brother  (15 years older than me) also had the same idea; perhaps passed on to him from our mother.  He married a Yorkshire lass and in that county the normal thing is to begin the Sunday roast dinner - traditionally roast beef - with a massive Yorkshire pudding EACH that absolutely filled a large dinner plate.  That Yorkshire pudding was then filled with thick gravy.  After you'd ploughed through that lot you had trouble facing the smaller helping or roast beef and the rice pudding to follow that.  Mind you, I've always had trouble facing a rice pudding even when I'd had nothing to fill my stomach beforehand!

Both our girls were very fortunate - even if they tell you otherwise.  On a Sunday afternoon we always STARTED with the really tasty bits and then had the sandwiches if they were wanted.  Oh, Pam and I were real saints!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh!  Something I forgot to mention.  Pam, nearly lady and I were the only ones at my birthday tea; lots of cake and a token sandwich!

For the last couple of blogs I've included some "outlined" photos of this and that (mainly that!) and Ruth has asked me how I achieved the effect,  It's very much "trail and error".  I came across web suite called "topazlabs.com".  Topaz specialise in filters for Photoshop, Elements and PaintShop Pro.  The set of filters I used for the effect of outlining with some colour is called "Topaz Adjust 3".  You open this program (obviously!!!!)  and then, bearing in mind what you goal is, you experiment with the various sliders until you achieve what you are looking for.

In the meantime you have the bonus of some very interesting looking photos as you manipulate the sliders,  I've included some more of these photos in this blog.  This time they are adaptations of photos I took at this year's Gosberton Flower Festival.

England cricketers won their FI|RST world championship this week - first world title ever despite the fact that we invented the game, as we did with football and numerous other things like the ball point pen and television.  Just thought I'd have a little plug there.  There were and still are great celebrations from all true Englishmen (and quite a few English women as well).  Can't understand why some folk don't enjoy this game.  Mind you, there are some who drink instant tea instead of the real thing.

Off to Tiverton next week-end for my nephew's ruby wedding anniversary - it's his wife's ruby wedding anniversary as well so that is a useful bonus!!  Doesn't seem like forty years since I married them -more like sixty!

Sunday's spotlight - 1.2.3

In no way could I ever be described as a regular visitor to the cinema. Perhaps I'm showing my age here but I can see no point in spending good money on films that show violence, sex, or magic in its many forms. I like films but most of my film watching is through the TV or via DVD. Our DVD player also shows videos so old tapes made years ago can still be viewed.


A couple of weeks ago, I went with my elder grandson, to the local cinema to see "The Taking of Pelham 123". The main reason for this visit is that I have a video of the original "Pelham 123" and it has remained one of my favourites. I enjoyed the new version, although I was left thinking that John Travolta didn't make a convincing "baddie". He lacked the real menace that was seen in the character of the original film.


Denzyl Washington, on the other hand, always seemed in control of his role. Of course the new version was more sensational than the old one and the changes in the story were well done and, on the whole, believable. However, I came away with the opinion that the original version was better and its ending more convincing. I'd recommend the film to anyone but, if possible, I would suggest that they then view the original as well. Any comments?


My wife celebrated another birthday on the 15th of this month and some friends gave her a floral display that included orchids. Our last orchid just faded away for no apparent reason so Pam asked the giver how to avoid that for these orchids. "The more stress you put them under the more they'll flower", was the reply. So before going to bed that night I had a good shout at the orchids and really told them off. For some reason it didn't have any effect on them!!!!!!! Any readers have ideas about raising orchids?


Kaleidoscope photos this week. For some reason they don't like you taking photos inside the cinema so all the kaleidoscopes are from a flower festival held this year in the Parish Church at Gosberton. With the exception of known readers from the Deepings, I wonder how many of you know where Gosberton is?