It's been a while .......

...... but life's been fairly quiet here for the past few weeks and I've done no crafting or journalling to speak of either.  Going through one of those uninspired phases that we all suffer from, from time to time.  However, things became a little more exciting last Friday when I was round at Lindsay's for a get-together and we ended up being evacuated due to a suspicious package on the nearby industrial estate!  Lindsay has written all about it on her blog so if you want to find out more, click here and check out her post "Best Laid Plans" of 5th October.  

As if that wasn't exciting enough, I discovered that Alfie Boe is due to play a concert at the Opera House next April (he's actually a local lad who many years ago before he became well-known worked in the TVR factory with a good friend of ours).  As Lindsay is a huge fan, and I rather like him too, I decided we deserved a treat to look forward to after all the unhappy times we've had recently.  Luckily, I was able to obtain a couple of good seats for us in the dress circle - most of the remaining seats were way up in the gallery (not the best place to be if you suffer from vertigo or don't like heights)!!!!  We have another beautiful Victorian theatre (The Grand), a listed building, here in Blackpool and they also put on a variety of concerts, plays, ballets and operas throughout the year.  We both enjoy the theatre and it seems such a shame not to take advantage when we have such lovely venues.  So we are now also booked in for two more concerts before Christmas ("A Christmas Carol" ballet production and a Christmas Carol brass band concert), just to get us in the mood for the seasonal festivities.  It's good to have nice things to look forward to.

Mia is as mischievous and lively as ever and has become an object of desire for some of the local "toms" - she may flirt and tease them a little, but that's as far as it goes - she wants nothing more to do with them.  Our Italian neighbours across the road have two or three young cats who were born to a stray they took in and they tend to spend most of their time outdoors.  One in particular is a real cutie, a little female tabby around the same size as Mia, and comes over to play in our garden with her most days.  Mia's quite happy chasing her about, playing hide-and-seek and stalking each other, but she gets very cross if "cutie" appears at the window and soon chases her away - the garden is fine but she's not having her in her house, thank you very much!  

I took these photos the other day when I spotted them by the pond through the bedroom window......

Well, this is the first time I've posted with the new-look Blogger and so far, fingers crossed, it's working okay.  I know Lindsay had some problems initially, but I think they're all sorted out now.  Why these sites always feel the need to constantly keep changing things, I just don't know ....... when most of us are quite happy with the way things are.  Ah well, I suppose they have to justify themselves by coming up with new ideas and designs (sigh)!