The Olympic Torch Came to Town! and A Giveaway Winner!

Most of the locations on the route of the Olympic Torch Relay were well-known towns and cities.  How it came to be going through our little village last Friday I don't know, but I'm very glad it did!

 It was a gorgous day without a cloud in the sky; the bunting and flags were up in plenty of time and council workers were around early to line the main street with barriers.  Crowds built up over the morning and school children from nearby towns were bused in as a treat.

 In the build-up to the main event the local handbell ringers entertained the gathering people, a drumming band from another town paraded along the route and Rocky the Bear (the local Music Festival mascot) amused the children.

 As the first few police out-riders drove by and a police helicopter circled overhead we all craned our necks for a better view.  The atmosphere was buzzing with anticipation.

The torch-bearer is behind the boy with the blue T-shirt.  I think you can just about see the flame above his head (I'm not very good at action shots!)

We heard the procession before we saw it. The torch-bearer was preceded by more out-riders, a few advertising floats for large multi-national companies and further support vehicles.  It was a noisy, happy procession with a carnival atmosphere and certainly got everyone waving, clapping and cheering.  Then the procession disappeared onto the next town and within minutes it was like it had never happened - apart from being left with the feeling that we'd been a part of something special; a part of history!!

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Right - now to my SMS Giveaway result.  First, I must say thank you to all 61 people who left comments.  I was stunned that so many people liked my little purse enough to enter.  As soon as I get the chance I'm going to checkout all your blogs! And a special thank you and welcome to the 3 who became new followers.  I hope you stick around.  Things can be a bit slow around here but it's definitely varied.  I chose the winner using the standard random number generator and up popped number 47 who was The Hippy Housewife.   So, many congratulations to Cynthia.  I've emailed her directly and now have an address to send the purse to.   

 

I might have mentioned before that I've been looking in charity shops for Charles Dickens books. I've only seen one and, although I can't remember which one it was, I knew I didn't want it to be my first experience of CD.  Call it luck or divine intervention but in an email from Freecycle last week someone was offering the Complete Works of Charles Dickens!!  I emailed to register my interest, crossed my fingers and, to my surprise, was contacted the next day to pick them up despite there being a lot of other interest.  This is just half of them!!!  I thought "Great! Now I can read whichever one I want to first." And THAT is my problem!! (Or rather one of them - the other being where to put them!)  So, which one do I read first?  Should it be one I've not heard of, one I know well or one I've heard of but don't much about? I was leaning towards the latter option until someone suggested that maybe I should read them in the order they were published, and that put a real spanner in the works.  Now I don't know what to do!  Help!!!

Progress since last time:

Bag for colleague's wife - nearly finished

Mouse cat-toys - still to be stuffed

Planned projects - more bag and cushion ideas

3 quilts to keep plodding away at (Quilt-as-you-go, Tag Square Bee and Hexagon Quilts)

Bye for now

Teresa x