Josh's Wish to Walk

Last night the hubby and I attended a charity auction at Bishopswood House (a stately home and garden used for weddings and other big functions, up near mum's house at the Dam Barn).

The event was held in honour of Joshua Freeman, a little boy who is friends with Tony (my 8 year old brother in law). Josh has been in a wheelchair all his life, and until now had no chance of being able to walk again.

Whenever Josh and his brother Johnny(who has no physical impairments and for all intents and purposes is a very healthy active 7 year old boy) come over to play with Tony it's always the same old story.....The boys start off in the livingroom, Josh's mother Luda sits Josh on the couch to play with the other boys, playing on video games or watching TV. But then Tony and Johnny soon get bored ad decide to go run off and play outside, leaving Johnny to play or watch Tv by himself.

But now an opportunity arose for Josh. There is an operation he can get in America which will enable him to walk. Albiet, he'll start on crutches after the operation(after not walking for 8 year of his life, walking will obviously not come natural after regaining feeling in his legs...he'll have to learn how to walk, and build up strength in his legs), but eventually he will be able to walk.

The only thing is that he has to raise upwards of 40,000 pounds to get it. So, his family and friends have been putting out charity boxes at local establishments, and last night they held an auction. There was about 70-80 items donated to be auctioned off(everything from a service--ironing, to handmade wooden candlesticks, to signed shirts and photos of famous people, to meals out at local pubs and restaraunts, to hired rental car for a weekend, to tickets to see shows in London.....lots of things were donated, and a few more (20 odd) were donated to be raffled off as well.

The auction was not done very well, but Rob and I bid(with our friends Lyndsy and Greg) and managed to get 4 tickets to this Ice Age LIVE show in Cardiff. We(just Rob and I) won in the raffle a meal for two at The Mill Race(where we took my mum and dad, and alice for dinner one night while mum and dad were visiting).

There was also food, champagne, a lot of chit chat, a disco(dance party) at the end (of which only the children ages 12 and under atteded.....seriously, even the DJ was 12). The best part of the whole evening though, was Josh's Dad standing up and saying a few words about how much this means to them and thanks for all the time and effort people give just to help out Josh....and then Josh wanted to say something...and all he said was a simple "thank you for coming".

I don't think I've ever seen that little boy smile so much in one day....and when his dad said in his speech "this will change Josh's life forever", it was the biggest smile I have ever seen on Josh's face.

Pictures, as Promised

As promised, some pictures and video of Robert and my walks around Herefordshire.

Most of the time we've been walking around the feilds up by the dam barn and there are ALOT of sheep and baby lambs up there, so we often go for walks just so I can have an excuse to see the lambies. :)

Little lambies jumping around. They're so cute when they jump!

One of the lambs in the feild decided it liked to be around people more than it's fellow lambies. It was so sad, after we left and carried on our walk it was bleeting for us...it was cute but oh so sad. Poor little Ramy-Lamby was lonely!

 One walk we went on was over an old railway bridge that you could look down through the cracks. The pictures above and below is of Rob, on the railway bridge, and me down below on the ground. But this bridge goes across a pretty wide part of the Wye River

 On one of the walks near the Dam Barn, one of the sheep in the feild kind of looked like a cow.

 Near the Dam Barn, our neighbor, the horse.

Another walk that we went on was to this old pub in Wales. To get to it you have to park your car on the otherside of the river and walk across a bridge to get to it. The pub was recommended to us by James(dad) and so we decided to walk around there since it was on the River Wye. The pub was a quite local one, but the area it was in was so cool.
Nevermind the fact that the pub is RIGHT on the river bank, but it's up against a cliff face, so there were waterfalls coming down the side of the cliff, running under bridges in the beer garden out back, and then traveling into the river Wye. Pretty freakin cool.

 At that pub, we met a cat. Me, obsessed with cats, was thrilled that I had another kitty to adopt. So far I think I've adopted 6 cats in and around Ross and we've nicknamed them all(if we didn't know their real names).
1. Misty: neighbor cat who just had kittens.
2. Pumpkin: lives across the way, never leaves the roof that edges up against our garden wall

3. "Mysterious Black Cat": only comes out in the dead of night, has been seen in our flat complex, but lives up the road in the old jail house(which is now just a house).
4. "Sebastian": a kitty that frequents the carpark up the road from our house.

5. "Robert Kitty": a recent kitty I met when walking down to the river in Ross. It's a ginger kitty, so I named him after my hubby.
6. "Rivendell Kitty": aka, this cat, because the pub we found it at and surrounding area with all the waterfalls reminded us of Rivendell from Lord of the Rings.

The view of the bridge and a very muddy(from the rain) River Wye, from the beer garden of the pub.

Another walk around the Dam Barn.....

The fields are getting alot brighter and more colourful.

 Me, feeding Ramy Lamby from the 2nd video(above).

 More sheep.

 More Lambies!

and of course our friendly neighborhood peacock. Yep. There's a peacock up near the Damn Barn too. We just have ALL sorts of animals in the countryside.

 After the May Fayre we went to the pub with Mum and tony to "celebrate", but afterwards we walked from the pub up to Symonds Yat Rock. It's quite steep, but the view from the top was amazing.

Here we took a two hour walk along the River Wye. All the way from Goodrich Castle, down along the river almost into the Forest of Dean District. There was a little lollygaging with me taking pictures and ROb trying to find the old train line, but it was a great walk and awesome to take advantage of the bright sunny day.

 Rob, posing in the sunlight. "HERCULES!"(apparently).

This is what a 2 hour walk does to you! Happy Happy Happy!

We've been taking alot of walks lately...mostly because we don't have enough time or effort to make it to the gym...or we've taken advantage of the rain stopping and there being sunshine for a while. (I'd post you guys some pictures and videos....but this new Blogspot layout is a loser and is making it way too complicated and it's late....so....next blog...all pictures of lambies and countryside and such. )


Other than walking our feet off we've still been working and living life normal. Life is back to normal with me after the May fayre. Since I'm not planing for the May Fayre, I have nothing to do when I don't have work. Store 21 has been cutting hours, so I'm back to 4 hours a week. So I've been applying for other part time jobs, but in the meantime my father in law has been paying me to do jobs around the hotel.

James got a new carpet cleaner for the hotel and he's asked me to test it out and clean all the rooms and other places around the hotel. This past week I cleaned the carpet in the hallways(on all three stories), the dining room, and 8 of the rooms that were unoccupied. This next work I'm supposed to come in when the other 8-9 ish rooms are free to do them, as well as a few other odd jobs(like cleaning the curtains in the restaraunt, and cleaning the windows in the rooms of the hotel) and one of the chambermaids wanted a day off so they asked me if I could fill in for her with housekeeping for a day. So....for now, even though my hours have been cut...I am still working about 15-20 hours a week.

What else.....yesterday was my manager's last day at Store Twenty One. Alice is leaving to basically open up her own retail shop, so all the girls got together last night at the pub had a meal and a few drinks to say goodbye to her. She was a really great manager, at least I thought so, she hired me after all, so it'll be weird without her.


That's about all the news for now concerning The Vidlers. The only other exciting things are:

1) Chelsea, the football team Robert supports has now snagged 2 League Cups. They won the FA cup(which is one of the football leagues in England). And they won the Champion's League(a european football league, which basically means their the best international team in Europe). So, my hubby is VERY pleased.

2) The Olympic Torch has offically landed in England and is making it's tour all over England. Next week, it stops in little old Ross on Wye, going right past the Kings Head Hotel. So that's exciting.

That's it for now. I promise pictures will come once I figure out this new layout and get it to work faster than it does now.

May Fayre

May Fayre

The past month has been leading up to today: The Ross May Fayre. I volunteered to run a booth at the fayre, and decided that I was going to sell Cupcakes. The stall was provided by the people running the may fayre and it only cost 25pounds for the whole day.

I decided to make a few batches of chocolate chip cookies, and 2 batches of three different types of Cupcakes: Vanilla, chocolate and Chocolate Chip Cupcakes(Tastes like a chocolate chip cookie, but in cupcake form!). In the end of all my baking, I ended up making 100 cupcakes and around 150 cookies.

Two days before the fayre I ended up making all the cookies, then the day before the fayre I made all the cupcakes and frosted them.

 Mixing the cupcakes up.

 Cookies in the oven.

Cookies...the first of many.

Cartoon Kitchen.

Cupcakes in the oven.

 Cupcakes done and cooling.

The baking was doable, I just ran into a few small bumps along the way. For instance, I baked all the cupcakes, but even when I turned off the over and let things cool, because our flat is so small, all the heat rose and stayed in our living room…so when it came time to frost, even though it seemed like the room was cooled off…the frosting still melted being in open air. So…I broke down, cried a bit, proclaimed that I couldn’t do it all in time, but then my wonderful hubby came to the rescue, calmed me down and we figured out how to fix the problem—stick the bowls of frosting in the freezer to set, opened the windows and waiting for our flat to cool down a bit more, then frosted the cupcakes, and kept them downstairs in the coolest part of our flat.

The cupcakes weren’t perfect(to my standards), but we got them done and after a whole day of baking(starting at 9am) we finally finished them at ten past midnight.
Now I have 3 POVs/opinions from the May Fayre:
#1 THE “I could’ve planned it better” GRUMP OPINION
The May Fayre was ALL over the town, spread out between 3 major high streets, and a few side streets in between. I understand that the people planning the may fayre wanted a big huge town-wide event, however, it wasn’t executed well enough. The stalls were basically bunches of three stalls together on one side of the street….nothing for about 3 car lengths, then on the opposite side of the street, another lump of 3 stalls. It was WAY too spread out.
The other thing was that they didn’t call me to let me know where to set up/where my booth is and what set up times were until the day before and even then it was a stall number and a street, not an approximate location.
The third thing was that apparently the stalls were allocated on first come first serve basis, but it seems like the earlier you signed up for a stall, the worst position you got because all the “first” stalls were at the bottom end of town, away from everything else, on a street most people don’t go down.

#2 THE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
The May fayre was a great experience and the people I was put next to were really nice and friendly…to my left, the lady there commented on how beautiful my decorations were. And to my right, one of the ladies there saw how cold I was and lent me her fleece jacket…and then when I wanted to run home to change, she watched my booth and even did a sale for me! SO NICE!


#3 THE BUSINESS SIDE OF THINGS
Prices: I started off selling cupcakes for 1pound each and cookies 50pence each or 3 for 1 pound. In the last hour, that dropped down to cookies 30pence each or 3 for 50pence and the cupcakes 60pence each or 3 for 1pound. But, by the time I dropped prices, most everyone had gone home(because everything ALWAYS shuts around 4-5pm so people never see a reason to stay out longer than that…sad….they really need to adopt the concept of later hours during the summer means potential late business hours and more sales).
In the end, I didn’t sell nearly as much as I would’ve hoped and there are a few contributing factors to this. First of which was timing. Most people don’t like to eat sweets or let their kids have sweets before a meal and most people don’t eat sweets in the AM…..and seeing as how the may fayre was from 10am til 5pm, there was a small window between probably noon and 3 where business was okay.
But, secondly, my position was horrible. I was at the bottom of the street, in a place least visited by all the may fayre roads, next to an ice cream truck, and to add insult to injury at the TOP of the street there was a ‘cakes’ stall(selling cakes, breads, etc, and yes…some cupcakes). I heard a lot of “more cakes” comments and saw a lot of people choosing ice cream over me….when there WAS people on the street that is.
However, when people DID buy my cakes, the reaction was great. It was like people never knew cakes could taste so good….except for a few grumpy puss old ladies who said it was ‘too sweet’. LOLZ, upcakes are SUPPOSED TO BE SWEET! DUH!
I had put out a sample tray and used cut up cupcakes of the ones that didn’t rise as high as the cupcake liner…of course, with a dab of frosting. But, until about 3:30, I didn’t have anyone to help me hand out samples to bring them over to the booth. Hubby was at work until midday, and then he came and helped me at the booth, when he did, he stood at the stall taking orders and I stood in the middle of the walk way with the sample tray telling people about our product, handing out my business cards, and directing them to the booth if they seemed interested.
I have a rule about selling things to people, because I know when I go to a market, I don’t like people pestering me while I’m walking about whatever they have. If I’m interested, I’ll come to you, smile and look at you. So, my goal today was engage when people make eye contact. That means, if they look at ME, I say hi and ask them if they’d like a sample. If they smile, or taste a sample, I tell them about the product. If they linger at the booth, or seem unsure about bying them, I offer more…such as asking them to take a card, or offering my opinion of which I thought was my favorite.


Anyway….that’s the most of it. Now for the figures. Today I took home 60pounds. After supplies….that’s 13pounds. After all the business cards, decorations and other little things that helped enhance getting CaliCatCupcakes off the ground….minus’….not great, but hopefully by handing out business cards, I’ll be making that back someday.

In the end, I looked at today in this way: yes, I didn’t sell all of my stock. Yes, I didn’t make the money I should have. BUT I handed out my business cards and let people know I exist! I’m hopeful that new business will come in. One lady, an ex-baker, liked my cakes and even took loads of business cards to spread around.
Now…for the good part…pictures:

THE FINISHED PRODUCTS:

 The cute way of disposing trash...use a cupcake decorated box!

 My signage...once again, all done by me..including the logo, hand drawn and colored( btw people told me to ham up the fact I'm American....so I did):

MY BOOTH: Inbetween a crafts stall and a charity stall.

 THE END....but hopefully not the end of the business. :P



They Came, They Saw, They Left

This past weekend was the long await visit from my parents; short sweet and to the point, exactly how their trip was. On Thursday, Mum and Dad flew into Birmingham (about an hour and a half away from Ross Vegas), and took a train from there to Ledbury (20 min away from Ross vegas), where Rob and I picked them up from the train station.

It’s was great to see and actually HUG them for once in 8 months! From there we drove back to Ross at around 2:30, picked up some lunch in the Kings Head Hotel and checked them in.

Their room was one especially picked my Rob and myself. Room 3, the one they stayed in, was recently done up and it’s got a very nice four-poster bed with a fluffy duvet and completely new bathroom, with a shower that my mom just fell in love with (My parents have been thinking about re-dooing their bathroom at home and mom figured out she wanted a shower like the one in their hotel room).

After lunch we took them on a tour of our flat, and dad quickly checked his work e-mail to see why his phone hadn’t gone international yet.

It was weird having my parents at our flat. It’s nice…but it’s one of those things I couldn’t picture before they were here. It’s Rob and my flat, and it just was WEIRD having my parents in it. I always pictured being with my parents either in public(going on excursions, going to castles, etc) or in THEIR house cause that’s what I’m used to but I could never picture them in a house that I own or rent. There’s nothing wrong with it…but it was a strange experience….me having to HOST my parents instead of the other way around.

Anyway….then we went round town for a bit and I got to show them where I work—Store Twenty One.

We took them to a pub near the River Wye, called the Saracen’s Head where we had a quick drink (non-alcoholic for the parents), just to give them an idea of a pub-like atmosphere.

After that we took a trip to The Dam Barn and showed my parents all of the bunnies, puppies, etc and chilled out for a bit with Alice, but….the parents were waning fast.  Sitting around chatting was not an ideal thing for parents who had come straight off the flight and needed to stay active until bedtime….when they could finally crash.

Every time we jumped in the car, one or both of my parents were caught dosing off. Unluckily for them…I have pictures. :P

That night we went out to dinner with Alice at a place called The Mill Race.

The evening was pretty mellow….until the check came and there was a fight over the check.

Dad enjoyed winding Alice up, but eventually let her win and pay for our meal…with the promise that he’ll get to pay for the meal at the hotel the next night…but more on that later.  

DAY 2—Friday

Well rested, we headed out to 3 places on Friday: Symonds Yat Rock, Puzzlewood and Clearwell Caves.

Symonds Yat Rock is a lovely viewpoint where the 3 nearest counties(Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, and Mommothshire) can be seen. It was absolutely beautiful, since the rain hadn’t come down yet, and we could take some nice pictures.

Next was Puzzlewood, a place in the Forest of Dean where you can roam around the forest paths, climb up and down stair pathways and enjoy the nice mossy green atmosphere of the forest. Unfortunately, half way through the rain started to make some head way. And since it was raining, that means that there were puddles everywhere….so we had to be very careful where we stepped for fear of slipping on a muddy surface. We ended up finding our way out of the woods and heading on to our next venture.

Clearwell Caves: A series of caves that were used for mining long ago, now turned into an underground museum of sorts.

The caves themselves were wet, dimly lit and kind of creepy, but there were some lights on some exhibits that made the trip interesting.

More interesting than that, there was filming going on in the caves. Often times places around Ross are used to film things, especially TV show, such as Doctor Who, or in this case a show called Merlin. While we were in the caves NO one was around, but all of their equipments was, so we took a sneak peak at everything.

That night we ate dinner at the Kings Head , which was delicious. My parents even said that it set the bar pretty high for wherever else we ate this weekend. I’ve always been a fan of the Kings Head Hotel….not only because my in-law own it, but because it is FANTASTIC, especially the food….but to hear that my parents were impressed was a proud moment. James even sat down and chatted to us while we were having our starters, then…in true hotelier fashion, left  one of the waitresses to tell my dad, “the bills’s been paid for”. Vidlesr-2, McClellans-0

Day 3—Saturday

The main thing planned for today was our local Castle at Goodrich.



Mom, pointing to all the warnings....the same things that she would especially have to look out for because of her damaged foot.





Listening to their audioguides.





Me trying to be sneaky, climing over the tower wall.




The view of the countryside from the top of the castle keep.



I think my parents enjoyed it, and even though Rob and I had been there before it was still fun for us too.

After Goodrich Castle, we went to Hereford to go shopping (or as my dad calls it, buying). Part of the perks of mom and dad coming was that we got presents! We got 2 big presents to overcompensation for Christmas, and upcoming anniversary: a nice wooden chest(that I put all of our extra sheets/blankets/pillows/etc. in) and a new, big, HD TV. The HD TV came today, but we haven’t set it up yet….but here’s a picture of the chest:

We also got little presents to account for our birthdays. Rob got an electric shaver and I got a bunch of baking supplies(worth the amount of the shaver) to start up my cupcake business.

[SIDE NOTE: Cali Cat Cupcakes is a GO! I’m officially getting things together to get my cupcake business off the ground. I’ve been collecting supplies, thinking about decorations for my booth for the upcoming may Fayre where I’ll be selling my cupcakes, testing from scratch cake recipes, making business cards, working on a business plan, and creating a logo:

…So….that’s going to happen. J ]

We went to Hereford to see if we could find our gifts there….but we also had lunch at Zane’s Bistro, and wandered around the market, as well as getting lost in our own activities.

For some reason….even on vacation, my mom and dad gravitate towards the things they could be doing at home. Dad found a camera store and started talking lenses with the sale clerk, whereas mom wandered over to the Mommy and Me store across from the camera shop and began looking at cute things for the grandbabies. Oh parents….

Dinner Saturday night was at a little pub out in the country called The Cottage of Content. The food was alright, but nothing like the King’s Head. What I liked about it was the atmosphere and design. They had hops bushes hanging from the beams and their placemats were stone slates. Very west Country Pub.

Day 4—Dooms Day Sunday.

The day mum and dad left. Rob and I got up at 7am, met up with mum and dad at the Hotel at 7:30 and started on the hour and a half drive back to Birmingham international. One last picture at the airport and they were gone.

Rob and I quickly drove back to Ross Vegas only to be called into work…me at 11, him at 12…which we were JUST in time for me to get into work. Long long day, but we sent mum and dad safely off to Italy, with the promise that next time they’ll be here for a couple of weeks instead of a couple of days. Until next time……