Anyway, the head was made from Papier Mache and painted with acrylic paint, suit was courtesy of the Weston Hospice Shop and the tights were mine!

We don’t live in Uphill Village, we live on the council estate round the corner ; ) so we smuggled Haile Selassie into the village on Saturday morning and placed him strategicaly under a tree by the nursing home. Then on Sunday we brought him home again.

Haile Selassie Scarecrow

We went on Saturday and it was really good. There were hula hooping girls, a wheel of death, funny clowns that balanced on stuff, Spiderman on a rope, this amazing woman who span objects around on her feet while lying on her back and a man balancing on a ladder then jumping off. It was really very good and the whole show lasted 2 hours. The sideview seats were perfect and the kids had a lovely time, and so did the adults! We were not allowed to take photographs but the link to their website is here http://www.pauloscircus.co.uk/ so take a look and see where you can see them in action next. I think their next venue is in Nailsea 11th - 15th March.

No new years resolutions as such but I am definitely going to make more of an effort to do more exercise, since I used to play netball every week until I was diagnosed with skin cancer on my back and had to have two operations, I couldn’t play and since then I have done nothing apart from sit on my ass and do computer related stuff (inbetween snacking from the fridge).

It is an exciting time for me as my web design business is getting off the ground, at last! And I have an induction with The Princes Trust on Thursday this week so thats promising.

And if this cold weather continues then at least I had a nice new leather jacket for Christmas, and some big pants!

I have had a really busy couple of weeks, first I was accepted as an ambassador for The Princes Trust, which I am so pleased about as I get to meet other people who are thinking of setting up their own business and tell them my story.

As someone who didn’t have a very productive background, after finishing school I kind of went off the rails it will be great to show people who have found themselves in a similar situation that they can be self sufficient and run their own business.

The reason I set up my own business was that after commuting to Bristol to go to college 3 times a week I decided that there was no way I was going to do that 5 times a week to get to work! My children would never see me as I would have to go out before they were even up, and may not get home until after they had gone to bed. And lets face it why work for someone else when you can keep all the money you earn and choose your own hours? I mean if I want to go to work in the middle of the night then I can!

Anyway, the Princes Trust, along with The North Somerset Enterprise agency really helped and encouraged me with my ideas. And I’d like to say I could have done it without them, but I don’t think I could have.

So tomorrow I am off to Sherwood Forest to a place called Go Ape, where you apparently get to swing from the trees and stuff like that. Great fun, especially on the coldest and windiest day of the year! I just hope the snow doesn’t reach there and I get stranded in the North! It doesn’t bear thinking about.

Well I am pleased to announce that I have uncovered the secret recipe. I made it and it turned out really good, very tasty!

What you need:

1 Lemon

Plain Yoghurt (about a mugfull)

Fresh Mint (or mint sauce if you haven’t got any fresh)

4 Tablespoons of Mango Chutney

1/4 teaspoon of Turmeric (mixed in a bit of water)

What you need to do:

Mix the turmeric in a little water.

Put the yoghurt, mint, lemon juice and mango chutney in the blender.

Add the turmeric water.

Whizz it all up then let it settle in a bowl.

Enjoy with freshly made poppadums!

“Yes please, I’ll have one of those new burgers, not the meal, just the burger, 2 happy meals with chicken nuggets and 2 hamburgers, no not with chips, just the burgers”

“I’m sorry but its going to be a few minutes for the burgers,” he said “I’ll bring them over. “Can I have some sauce please?” I said. “Sorry, but we are no longer giving away the sauce” he said “You will have to pay extra for it. “What do you mean?” I said crossly “I have bought nuggets though.” He reluctantly handed over one portion of ketchup.

So while the rest of the family tucked into their food, I sat there and waited for my hamburgers. And I waited and I waited. And in the end I was approached by a member of staff asking me if I was ok as I was obviously slightly agitated.

“Well actually I am not ok” I said, “I mean it comes to something when you cant even go into a fast food restuarant and get a hamburger”.

I am so cross with McDonalds. It’s not even as if I have never had a problem with them before, as I’m sure you have too at some point. But the straw that finally broke the camels back was the mention of the “Sauce Policy”. Come on who thought that one up.

I have complained to them via their website and I also have their telephone number which is 020 8700 7505. I tell you I am going down the library next time the Internet goes off. There’s probably a better chance of getting served a burger in there!

Luckily I had prepared most of my designs earlier in the week when I could, I am used to things going wrong like this so expect nothing less. Pessimistic, no. Well organised, well maybe.

The trade fair went well, saw the lady off the news, Lisa Aziz but managed to dodge the TV crew! All in all a good event, I met some lovely people from businesses all over the South West, thank you to all the other traders for some great tips and ideas on starting in business. 

I had not such a great time at the Charity Ball at the Winter Gardens on Saturday night as on the way home I fell over and banged my head, and my elbow which is now very purple and bruised. I would like to add that it was nothing to do with the wine I consumed, it was raining and the shoes I had on had no grips. That is my story and I am sticking to it!

Anyway the Internet is now back on and I will be having words with Talk Talk!

If you would like to take a look at the photos we took click on images in the menu, or if you cant be bothered to go all the way over there, click here instead!

We trodded around the village, meeting loads of familiar faces along the way and finally being invited in to St Nicholas Church for a Cream Tea, lovely! I would like to say thank you to all the staff at the church who made the day an exceptionally good one, providing hot tea and squash for the children and magnificent home made scones with clotted cream and jam, mmmm. And they put it all on for free making the day a truly great one. We will definitately be going back next Sunday at 10.30am as they are having a family harvest service, looking forward to that!

P.S. I would just like to point out that the kids didn’t have any babychams!

So I have agreed to do the trade fair, yes it will be fun. Whats the worst thing that could happen?……

I would also like to add that I have joined this really amazing site called Ecademy, its a networking site, you can join for free and theres loads of people who are members from all over the world, all walks of life and all kinds of diverse business types. If you, like me, need to “get out more” then its a much more worthwhile networking site than Facebook or Myspace. Well for business contacts anyway!