Friday 31 December 2010

Happy New Year


I find it almost impossible to believe that another years as slipped by so quickly. For us it has been a year that as had highs and lows and we have dealt with them all in different ways. Some had us crying, others had us worrying with sleepless nights and thankfully many made us smile and laugh.

I do hope that your year was one that you can reflect with happy memories and without too much pain or sadness.

None of us knows what the future holds, thank goodness! But I wish  for you that 2011 will be a year of many smiles and much laughter, that the only tears that spill are those of joy, that good health walks at your side and holds you hand tenderly, that peace is not only in your heart, but all around you and good friends are a plenty.

Thank you for all your wonderful support, you have made me smile a lot, you've made me feel very humble, and at times, when I have tried to share your pain, very sad. But most importantly, thank you for taking time to share some of your time with me.

As always.....Hugs!
Pauline xx
The fantastic picture I have used above came from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images





Friday 17 December 2010

My Tasty Sausage Rolls!

We all love sausage rolls this time of the year, along with everything else and like most things, I make my own. There are so easy and tasty. When we lived in the UK, I use to make them every Christmas for our office....they were never any seconds!

Here is my little recipe.

I have to buy British sausages as we can not get sausage meat here, so I get the best I can.
Once thawed I skin them, then place them in a mixing bowl. I then add a chopped onion, chopped garlic gloves, mustard, salt & pepper (amount is to your taste!) Mix everything together and leave whilst you roll out your pastry - I tend to roll out one long oblong sheet - then with floured hands, roll the sausage mixture into a long sausage, place in the centre of you pasty, roll pastry round, then cut onto small rolls. Bake as normal......very tasty indeed hot or cold!

Wednesday 15 December 2010

No Stamps for Christmas!

Doesn't matter where you live, the Post Office at this time of the year is the last place you want to be, but you know you have to go. The queues snake round and round and round and you wonder if you will be out before Christmas, let alone that your cards will be delivered on time. So you can imagine my surprise when, at last it was my turn to be served, not only did I need to post cards, but also to buy a few stamps for later, and was told there was none! The only stamp available was their rubber stamp, which, in true Post Office style, was thumped on all of my envelopes.  The lovely man on the other side of the counter, smiled and said, there were no stamps, so I could not have any. It is the main Post Office in our town. But despite this, I smiled, nothing could be done, after all they had a rubber stamp! It could only happen on our little pebble in the middle of the ocean! 

Thursday 9 December 2010

Versatile Blogger Awards!

You can imagine my surprise yesterday when I was bestowed with the Versatile Blogger award from the lovely Suzy Turner. It is the first award I have had for Blogging and I am thrilled!


And according to the rules, I now must tell you seven things about me, so here goes!


1.I live on Lanzarote with my best friend -my hubby - and our two rescue dogs (we have no children). Before we came here, we lived in Holland for several years. I originate from Yorkshire, but have lived in Suffolk and Surrey.


2. My qualifications when I left school were not something to be proud off, so in the mid eighties I studied with Open University until I gained a BA (Hons) degree

3. I have loved writing since I was very young and once wrote a song whilst at junior school. It was sung by the entire class on parents day and the teacher proudly announced who had written the song...Pauline....and then she called out the wrong surname and gave the credit to the other Pauline...I cried!


4. For many years I worked in Communications writing for the oil industry such things as press releases, articles for the national and international press, corporate magazines etc.


5. In the last year I have had two books published and I am busy working on my third, due out early 2011

6. I love the colours black and red


7. I loved Abba, every single song!


Now this is the really exciting bit, because I can now bestow the Versatile Blogger Award to seven fantastic Bloggers!

http://rosalindadam.blogspot.com/2010/12/was-this-last-train-out-of-london.html
http://homethoughtsweekly.blogspot.com/2010/12/home-and-away.html
http://www.helenhollick.blogspot.com/
http://shirleywells.blogspot.com/
http://highheelsandbookdeals.blogspot.com/2010/12/first-draft-howlers.html
http://debcarrs-daydreams.blogspot.com/
http://preselimags.blogspot.com/2010/12/gallery-white.html

Sunday 5 December 2010

There will be no Snow this Christmas!



Living here in Lanzarote in the Canary's has many advantages, the weather being one of them. And whilst Christmas is a huge affair in the UK and northern Europe, it is still, by comparison, low key here. We most certainly will not be expecting snow, frost and cold temperatures. Though like most places, we are seeing a change in the weather pattern. But Christmas is still Christmas for us, we put our tree up and our outside lights out - wrapped around one of the palm trees, though none of the lights will be turned on before dark - around 6.15pm. The streets do have one or two decorations, though compared to the UK and other European cities, it seems very little at all. Shopping here, is a million miles away from UK shopping, for a start we do not have any large shopping Malls, we do well to have large shops! The local supermarkets, tend to stock lots of chocolates and cakes for Christmas, that's about as far as it goes here. A few years ago a new shopping centre (outdoors) was built and opened in Puerto del Carmen, the centre always makes a huge effort to decorate for Christmas and only when it is dark can you appreciate just how festive it looks.