ive just been to the gym, and theres a new machine, only used it for an hour as i started to feel sick! its good though... it does everything.... kitkats, mars bars, snickers and crisps.

i know it daft, but made me chuckle

AN ELDERLY COUPLE WERE ATTENDING CHURCH, WHEN HALFWAY THRU SHE LEANS OVER AND SAYS " I JUST DID A SILENT FART, ....WHAT DO YOU THINK I SHOULD DO"

HUSBAND REPLIES " PUT A NEW BATTERY IN YOUR HEARING AID"

im going on my hols on monday, so if any of my grab friends send me challenges, i wont be able to do them for 2 weeks.

see ya all soon

AN ELDERLY CHINESE WOMAN HAD TWO LARGE POTS, EACH HUNG ON THE END OF A POLE, WHICH SHE CARRIED ACROSS HER NECK.

ONE OF THE POTS HAD A CRACK IN IT WHILE THE OTHER POT WAS PERFECT AND ALWAYS DELIVERED A FULL PORTION OF WATER.

AT THE END OF THE LONG WALK FROM THE STREAM TO THE HOUSE, THE CRACKED POT ALWAYS ARRIVED ONLY HALF FULL.

FOR A FULL TWO YEARS THIS WENT ON DAILY, WITH THE WOMAN BRINGING HOME ONLY ONE AND A HALF POTS OF WATER.

OF COURSE THE PERFECT POT WAS PROUD OF ITS ACCOMPLISHMENTS.

BUT THE POOR CRACKED POT WAS ASHAMED OF ITS OWN IMPERFECTIONS, AND MISERABLE THAT IT COULD ONLY DO HALF OF WHAT IT HAD BEEN MADE TO DO.

AFTER TWO YEARS OF WHAT IT PERCIEVED TO BE BITTER FAILURE, IT SPOKE TO THE WOMAN ONE DAY BY THE STREAM. "I AM ASHAMED OF MYSELF, BECAUSE THIS CRACK IN MY SIDE CAUSES WATER  TO LEAK OUT ALL THE WAY BACK TO YOUR HOUSE"

THE OLD WOMAN SMILED "DID YOU NOTICE THERE ARE FLOWERS ON YOUR SIDE OF THE PATH, BUT NOT ON THE OTHER SIDE"

"THATS BECAUSE I HAVE ALWAYS KNOWN ABOUT YOUR FLAW, SO I PLANTED FLOWER SEEDS ON YOUR SIDE OF THE PATH, AND EVERY DAY WHILE WE WALK BACK, YOU WATER THEM"

"FOR TWO YEARS I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO PICK THESE BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS TO DECORATE THE TABLE, WITHOUT YOU BEEN JUST THE WAY YOU ARE, THERE WOULD NOT BE THIS BEAUTY TO GRACE THE HOUSE"

EACH OF US HAS OUR OWN UNIQUE CRACKS AND FLAWS BUT ITS THESE THAT MAKE OUR LIVES TOGETHER SO VERY INTERESTING  AND REWARDING, YOUVE GOT TO TAKE EACH PERSON FOR WHAT THEY ARE AND LOOK FOR THE GOOD IN THEM.

SO! ALL OF MY CRACKPOT FRIENDS, HAVE A GREAT DAY AND REMEMBER TO SMELL THE FLOWERS ON YOUR  SIDE OF THE PATH, SEND THIS TO ALL OR ANY OF YOUR CRACKED POT FRIENDS AND DONT FORGET THE CRACKED POT WHO SENT IT TO YOU

i really wish that the sun would come out. had enough of all the damp wet weather.

we've been lucky though and we havent flooded like some areas of the uk. just down the road did and that makes you realise just how lucky we are.

so to any grabsters who have been affected by the terrible floods, best wishes and i hope it drys up soon

well ive managed to stop smoking for 4 week now, which is some record for me.

i had one small slip up but apart from that ive been quite good. 

so i'll keep you updated with my progress and fingers crossed i can keep it up, cos ive got used to the extra pennies.

at last, ive finally managed to stop smoking, yippeee.

well its early days, 2 weeks and 4 days, but still its better than ive done before. and im saving so much money its great.

so just thought id share my news with you all, although the easy bit is stopping, staying sopped is the hard bit

first we survived been born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

they took aspirin, ate blue cheese rind, tuna from a tin.

then after that trauma , our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.

we had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets.

as children we would ride in carss with no seat belts or air bags

riding in the back of an estate car -loose- was great fun.

we drank water from the hose pipe in the garden, not from a bottle.

we shared one soft drink with 4 friends, from 1 bottle and nobody actually died off this.

we ate cakes, white bread and real butter, and drank pop with sugar in it, but we werent overweight because.... WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING,

we would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were home when the streetlights came on.

we would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find we forgot the brakes. after running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

we didnt have playstations, nintendos, x-boxes, no video games, 99 cable channels, no surround sound, no mobile phones, text messaging,, no personal computers, no internet. WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them.

we fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

we played with worms and made mud pies. we played with sticks and tennis balls.

local teams had tryouts and not everbody made the team. those who didnt had to learn to live with disappointment,  imagine that !!

the idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of, they actually sided with the law.

this generation has produced some of the best risk takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.. the past 50 years have been an explosion of new ideas and ne ideas.

we had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned... TO DEAL WITH IT.

YOU ARE ONE OF THEM,

WE ARE A GENERATION OF PEOPLE WHO HAD THE LUCK TO GROW UP AS KIDS. before the lawyers and the government regulated  our lives for our own good.

passthis on to people also lucky enough to have grown up in this era, and also to your kids, so they know how brave there parents were

we have had a fun packed couple of days with the kids this week, one spent at the seaside at scarborough and one at a farm not too far from home.

we had toyed with the idea of a theme park, but having 3 kids meant the price would be too much. besides after spending a relatively inexpensive day at the farm and then having all 3 of my kids say it is the best place ever, it made me wonder why the cost of theme parks is so much. it would have cost £100 just in admission costs compared to the £15 entrance to the farm that included a bag of animal feed each.

so i suppose the lesson ive learned this easter is that it doesnt have to cost the earth to be fun, and maybe my kids do understand the value of money after all.