Hey Benny,

Right now you're somewhere in the sky. That reminds me of that song....Lucy in the skies with diamonds....

Except you're Ben and not with diamonds. I'm thinking maybe that song had something to do with drugs too. Don't do drugs, they're bad. Now I say that I've realised why the kids at youth call one of our helpers Frank. His name isn't Frank, it's Andrew. But they like to 'talk to Frank'. I've just realised that's off the drugs adverts. Maybe they do work?

So Dusband (aka Mr H) asked if you were home soon. I wonder if he's fed up of having to listen to my chatter during the day instead of my channelling it towards you on msn every day...

Dusband, Kirsty & you last month (nothing to do with this letter)

I told him you were home today and so he asked if you were bringing him back a crocodile. I'm not sure he was serious but with Dusband, who can ever know. He's an enigma! That's also just reminded me that when you two used to play together as kids and you still remember that and he totally doesn't remember it at all. Sad times.

Yes, I stole your Thaiglish photo :)

So the last couple of days since the craft fair then, well Sunday night I was pooped from being polite to people and trying to flog my wares so just laid on the settee like a Queen while Dusband got the tea together. Then Monday was work as usual, (the first day of my second week of my notice....you'll know about that if you start at the beginning of these letters) and then when I finished work, urm, I have no idea what we did. I'll ask Dusband, hang on.

We did nothing. Neither of us can really remember so it probably means we did nothing or watched some Olympics. Wait, am I allowed to say Olympics without being sued? Probably not....

Then yesterday was work as usual AGAIN....but every day is a day nearer the end of my notice period and I can get stuck into helping Dusband grow his business. Then after work (I finished at 4pm) I started turning a curtain into a cape for a friend of mine who needs a medieval cape but only had a curtain.

I hope you went swimming....

Then at 7pm it was church as usual on a Chooseday evening. We watched a dvd about Barry Woodward and his testimony. It was a good testimony, as indeed all testimonies are. Even the ones we call ordinary are so much more than ordinary because the God who created the earth was personally involved in that ordinary person's life. Then we tried out the new sofas at church (very squishy and nice) and then we came home where I ate half a block of chocolate. All in all a fairly good day I'd say!

Wait, there's no pictures in this letter....are you bored yet? I'll go back and add some in, pretend they've been there all along will you? (I had to steal some from your facebook as I was due to start work 1m ago!)

Anyhoo, see you soon Benny, hope your journey is going well,
Dus sends his love too,

I can't remember whether this one should be 6 or six.

Anyway, hello!!!! How are you? I hope that by now you're luxuriating in luxury settings and trying to resist jumping in the swimming pool. I bet you can't :)

One of my lovely pattern testers (Oh Benny, I have the best!) made me laugh this week, she very kindly said that she hopes my husband is home soon. I honestly couldn't for the life of me work out what she was talking about.....Dus only goes out for an hour a day without me for his run at 5am and trust me, this was well after 5am. (Why would I be out of bed that early anyway?!)

I suddenly realised she was talking about my letters to you. Urm, oops! It wasn't that she thought you were my husband that made me laugh, it was the memory of my two best friends, you and Peter both discussing how you could NEVER be married to me back in January. I presume it was related to my rejection of leftovers, my immaculately kept home (ha!) and my desire for things to be just perfect.

How are those not covetous qualities?! Fortunately God did give me a man who could cope with my quirks and foibles and instead burdened you with being my friend.

So you've missed some excitement then by way of 'summer of sport'. (I'm too scared to write anything to do with it incase I get sued by the super strict trade marking that has occurred during this set of games that happens once every 4 years. I'm afraid I've missed much of it too...I find it hard to get excited by it. I did watch Victoria Pendleton win the cycling though, I clutched Dusband's hand so hard he almost lost use in it! (Who am I kidding, that boy is the strongerest in the world).

You've also missed some much better excitement by way of spray painting of a bunting stand.


Apparently putting specs over a dust mask means it's gonna get steamy all up in there. Oh well, the stand looked good.


Sales were ok at today's craft fair but not great. We're going to give fairs a miss for a little while now til nearer Christmas.

There's been some baking going on round here.


Cinnamon buns from the children's book of baking. I have nicknamed them cinnamon poos.

I have also started preparing for Christmas as many of my fellow crafters have been urging me to think about doing for a little while now.


I'm fairly certain that these last 3 days til your return will fly by but just in case they don't I'm going to start thinking about painting my set of drawers. That'll be something nice to tell you when you get back :)

Hope you're well and you have bought me the best present you could ever bring me back!

Lots of love,

Hey Benno!

I've never called you Benno before...it's definitely different! So yesterday was your birthday.....woooooohhhhhoooooo!!!!!! 37 now....and still with the maturity of a 5 year old.



I hope you don't mind, I had to edit your photo and give you a moustache in case you were flooded with requests from lovely single Christian ladies who would like to get to know you better....what with you being a handsome single chap and all!

We had a fairly busy Monday and Tuesday and....wait, today is Wednesday 1st of AUGUST!!!! Someone stole July and replaced it with March it feels like, I bet you're glad to be somewhere so warm.

Talking of warm, I saw this on Pinterest and thought of you.

Via

Anyway, Tuesday night church was amazeballs (As Guiliana Rancic would say) and lives were changed Praise God!

Today is/was Wednesday and I started the day knowing that my pattern pieces were wrong for the Rosie Patchwork bag due to be released Friday and knowing that my pattern piece editor/draw-er was in Thailand for another week (that's you....). Fortunately I twisted Dusband's arm to edit them for me. Don't worry, he wasn't anywhere near as good at customer service as you so you're not replaced.

Now it's just a 24 hour race to get the instructions edited following the super feedback from my pattern testers.

On top of a phone call today from Dusband's biggest client checking we'd be ok for lunch tomorrow (he's based in Leeds....) it shaped up to be a busy day!


You know how crazy I get when people are coming over, let alone someone who pays us to work for him! Well....I had been spray painting in the kitchen so now I have apple green lines on the floor where the spray over shot the newspaper. I had to do it inside with dust mask and windows open etc because once again it was R.A.I.N.I.N.G. I have a photo of me looking all attractive in the dust mask etc but don't want to overexcite you in your old age now so I'll save that for part 6.

Hope you're having a great time and really feel the worth of what you're doing over there,

Missing you,

Hey Benners,

how are you doing? I hope you've settled into your daily routine there in Thailand, I know you're like me and love your routine that you've settled into. Pipe and slippers etc.....:)

So the weekend was busy, we did go to Luton on Saturday to see my nan. She was asleep mostly but she opened her eyes and squeezed our hands long enough for us to know that she realised who we were and that we were there. We gave her a kiss goodbye each and whispered in her ear. I told her that I thought she was just as beautiful as she always was and that God is with her inside even if she hasn't got the energy to speak.

It was sad to see her so withdrawn but I came away with a peace that she knows we love her and that God is looking after her whether we can see it tangibly or not.

We drove 4.5 hours in the morning, got to the hospital around 3pm ish, stayed an hour with my nan in the hospital then went to my mother's house to surprise her for an hour. We didn't tell her we were on our way or in Luton, just knocked on the door. She was super shocked! Unfortunately she thought we were there cos nan had passed away....oops! The fact that all three of us girls were doubled over giggling should have given it away that all was ok. After an hour with mum we drove home another 4.5 hours, stopped for a pizza to stick in the oven and then made it home just after 10pm.

We slept in late Sunday morning and didn't get up til 8.30am just in time to get ready and get to church.

After church we had a community BBQ up at the playing fields. This is the second year in a row that we've had one and I hope we continue the tradition, this is one that really was worth doing!

We took our trusty gazebo (I almost took off with it at one point!), we had three barbecues, four big tables, a bouncy castle and as many camping chairs as you could imagine!

 Check out that blue sky!!!

It was dry and sunny mostly but the playing fields are like a wind tunnel with the mountains on either side so it was pretty chilly! Wind chill factor million.


Doreen was so cold I got the blanket from the car and wrapped her up tight in it!

Today I took the morning off from work (pre-arranged, I didn't just not work!) and did some laundry, cleaning and tried to 'de-stash' a bit from my craft cupboard. Blatantly that didn't work, the doors still won't close!!

Yesterday at the BBQ I spent a little while talking with a new friend and explained about my lightbulb moment about life being full of choices and once again I came home and reflected on your comment about my being so busy being my choice. So I decided to resign.

So this morning I handed in my notice so that I can get back to what I should be doing, namely doing God's work. It almost seems as though there's this bitter resentment type competition of who's the busiest and who is the worst off. I declare myself out of that. As long as we have enough money to live on, Dus' customers are happy and I'm doing what I can to further the kingdom, who cares what other people think?

Four weeks from now, I'll be young (ha!), free (or pricey however you look at it) and single (minded lol).

It was such a relief when I handed in my notice, I can't wait to stop having to fit in everything else around working, doing a load of laundry and hanging it out on the line then quickly running to the post office AND having something to eat in a half hour lunch.

I'm looking forwards to you coming home, almost halfway there!

See you soon,
Love,

(Written Friday)

Hey Benners,

What a shock that was to wake up to an email saying 'Benjamin James has uploaded a photo of you'. Me?! A photo of me?! You're in Thailand and I'm in Wales....how on earth can you have taken a photo of me to post on facebook.

Oh yes, that's right, you found a market stall with handbags for sale. I have to say, it doesn't get any more accurate.

Today I'm grumpysaurus. Usually Fridays are good days. Usually I sleep in late and get up around 8am, do a bit of housework then begin work at 10.30am. Work is as it usually is except on Fridays you turn up around 12pm to keep me company!

My task today was to 'courtesy' call 50 customers to check they're happy with their tables without arousing suspicion for the real reason I was calling.....to check whether their tables smell of fish...it's been a pleasant week.

Today though my work day was lonely, annoying and punctuated by the screams of the children on the road who should have been indoors doing housework for their mothers. Oh, and I think they must have sung 'you're the one that I want' in their end of term play last week....I've lost count of how many times I heard it today through the window.

Yesterday we had a meeting with an accountant about taking Dusband's company limited and we were there for T...W....O... HOURS! Yes Benny, two hours. He talked really sloooooowly and rambled on and on and on....I almost lost the will to live. That didn't help my Friday mood.

Anyway, the only one good thing was that I got my pattern finished and emailed out to the pattern testers. I had to make one small edit to a diagram you did but I don't think it will ruin the integrity of the pattern.

At 2pm I finished work and by the time I had some lunch, did the laundry (yes, I do feel like I'm turning into an overworked and underpaid mother without actually having kids!) and then around 3.30pm settled down to sew a new purse for myself.

Talk about craft fail...I chose a really sturdy fabric to use cos I thought it'd be nice and hardwearing. Turns out it was too thick and I couldn't even turn it through. What a waste of 3 hours!

I ate some potato zoo animals for dinner with leftovers from yesterday and then two bars of galaxy. I feel fairly justified though and considering a third. I don't feel that would be too extravagant. Just don't tell my nutritional therapist!!

We're off to Luton and back in a day tomorrow to see my nan. She had a stroke on May 25th and is still in hospital. We saw her the day after her stroke but we've not seen her since so we're going up for the day tomorrow. It's around an 8 hour round trip which I'm really not looking forwards to. If I was still a child my parents would describe me as a 'bad traveller'. As it is I'm an adult and Dus would just ask at every single services if I need to stop :)

It's so long since we've seen her I hope that she enjoys our visit and we don't tire her out too much.

Just to show my bitter side, going back to the photograph you shared of bags in Thailand I was a bit annoyed at the two women who I don't know commenting on your photo that they wanted you to bring them back a bag. Really....is that how we women are these days? We see a bag and we expect a man to buy it and bring it halfway round the world back for us?

I feel awful myself that Dus earns the lion's share of our money and yet I don't even have time to do the housework. This guilt is starting to get to me and in your absence I'm finding myself pondering on a comment you made a couple of weeks back. I'm sure it wasn't a deep and meaningful comment at the time, but I'm still thinking about it.

I think I was complaining about being crazy busy and you made a comment about my choosing to be so busy. I find myself envious of people who sit playing games in their spare time because I don't feel like I have any spare time at all. Dus is a workaholic because he feels the obligation towards clients who need work doing but I seem to be turning into a busyaholic because I feel the obligation of other people's expectations.

I need to re-assess my priorities and choose which things I keep and which I reject.

Anyway, enough rambling, hope you're having a good trip and haven't bought too many handbags!!

Lots of love,

Hey Benners,

how are you getting on in Thailand? I saw your check in this morning on facebook that you'd arrived in Bangkok airport...boy, that was a long flight!!

Today's been a pretty usual Wednesday. It started as it always does with me frantically trying to do as much housework as possible before I began work at 10.30am. Work was as work usually is and then at 2pm when I finished I hot-footed it to the post office and then back to pattern writing.

It's been fairly humid here today...nothing to what you're feeling at the moment I'm sure but humid for us anyway.

You know how you are always telling me that you should leave the bathroom as you wish to enter it? You know, change the loo roll when one runs out so it's all nice and neat? Well.....nailed it!



It appears that the swimming pool in the next village up has been refilled if the youth group wandering round half naked with towels round their necks is anything to go by. Wait, change that, swimming pool is maybe a slightly too generous description....

We've got an appointment with an accountant tomorrow to talk about going limited with the company. Every time I receive an invoice payment and have to transfer so very much into the tax savings fund it's almost painful. Hopefully they'll help us to manage what God gives us a bit more sensibly!

Sitting here trying to write all my news ready for when you come back to read it I realise how much rubbish I probably talk with you because we somehow manage to fill hours with 'chitter chatter' when you're here but trying to find interesting worthy things to write to you in a letter is impossible!!

I'll keep a notebook tomorrow so that you won't be disappointed again!

Hope your mission trip is going well,

Love

I know you only got on the plane less than two hours ago but I thought this would be a fun way to not have to tell you all the things when you get back and it would keep Her happy. I like to keep Her happy, who knows what Her would be like if she were not?!
(Please note that Her would rather I called her Her than her real name on here as she likes to not be plastered all over the internet, so if you read this and get offended on Her's behalf, please don't, Her is a very good friend of mine and has enough to gripe at me about lol)

Anyway, so you've gone....you were talking about it for long enough that I still couldn't believe it even when you went yesterday to get your travel wash and face wipes. By the way, you're welcome for the tip about those, I suspect you'll bring me back the besterest gift from Thailand ever in the world because you had a squeaky clean face for two weeks unlike the other members of your group. No, actually, I suspect you'll share, you're a sharing kinda guy.

Do you like how I 'shared' your photo you put on facebook of your view waiting to take off?

So being the one left behind (I have no desire to accompany you fyi) I had a pretty fun filled afternoon without you. It was a pleasure to keep you company online this morning as you prepared to fly and I hope I took your mind off any nerves or anxieties you were feeling. It's a shame I had to keep ignoring you to answer the phone and 'help' customers but as you told me yesterday, it's good to work.  Hey, I've had a brain wave, you could pay me to work as your online company keeper when you're not working....genius hey?

So this afternoon then, by the time I get to it the suspense will be so incredible you'll be disappointed. What's that? You already are? Never mind, by the time you read this countless others will have so hopefully your disappointment will build to such a crescendo that it levels out at around normal. During my lunchbreak I decided that it was time to pull the garlic and onions from their comfy warm home nestled in the slug infested soil that is our back garden. It was hot and sunny see?

Probably not as hot and sunny as where you're going to be for the next two weeks but for us here in Wales 24degrees is HOT! I know it was 24 degrees cos we have a thermometer in the garden so that I can look at it and say to Dusband, "guess how hot it is" and then he does....accurately....EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Have no idea how he does it...amazing.

Those feet and those slippers don't belong together...one pair are mine, the other's dus'.....can you guess which?

Apparently when you pull your onions and garlics you have to leave them to dry out on the bed for the day (not the bed bed, the vegetable bed bed) and then take them into your shed or garage to dry out some more for a few weeks. So we left them to dry out on the bed (veg bed) for the day. Then we went to church. Then we got home around half past nine and prepared some tea. (Fried cheese sandwich for me, fruit salad for Dusband....) Then we watched some telly and eventually around half past ten we decided it was time for bed so went to brush our teeth.

And then.....we remembered the onions and garlic sat out 'drying out' in the dewey moist world of night time in Wales. On went our 'garden shoes', torches went on and we picked up a basket. (Told you baskets have a place in any and every situation!) We collected them all in and now they're sitting stinking the kitchen up 'drying out'. One day we might own a shed or a garage for them to sit in but for now, the kitchen it is. I suspect Dus has left the door to the bathroom open so our bathroom will also smell rather pungent.

Our basket of 'garden delights'

I've written about 2/3 of the newest pattern and managed to find a diagram that I forgot to ask you to draw for this one in the folder for the last one so that was a bit phew....thought I'd have to recall you to do me one more diagram! I really do appreciate you spending so much of your free time in the last week or so before you go drawing diagrams for me, I'd love for them to actually start selling sometime soon so that I could give you something for your effort. Something other than bother. 

In Wales here though (locally rather than nationally I guess) it's nice to bother someone. For example I could say "I have a big sister called Lizzie" and someone would say "Do you bother much with her?" and they would mean are you close, do you see each other, do you talk often? So my very good friend Benny, I'm proud to bother with you, you're such a kind hearted soul who thinks only of how to keep others happy.

I wish you well on this trip and will be praying for 'travelling mercies' (as my church would say) and some kindly soul to share a mint with you at take off and landing.

See you soon Benners,

Lots of bother,