My Spare Thoughts

Up North - November 2011

2012-01-24T08:00:00.000Z

9 members of the same family in the same house for 3 daysand it wasn’t even Christmas?! There was another big birthday last year butthis time it was on O’s side of the family. A long weekend away in abeautiful part of the country? Count us in.

We collected O’s brother and his girlfriend from the trainstation and then I swiftly dropped them at the shops so they could actuallypurchase the birthday girl’s gift. We were soon on our way and had a relatively easy drive upthe road stopping at Fort William for a sandwich and a toilet break. Then weturned off and headed towards Mallaig. We soon pulled up at the beautiful wooden lodge type esk building with afield of ponies and a stream outside.

We had an explore, went and petted the very friendly poniesand helped O’s mum prepare the dinner for that night. The house was really,really lovely but we soon realised that it was impossible to take a single stepwithout the floor boards creaking. There were wooden floorboards throughout,which meant you couldn’t get anywhere without someone hearing you. We even hada competition later that night and no one managed it without a squeak. We ate alovely meal and once baby nephew had been bathed and put to bed we settled infor a tense game of trivial pursuit (O’s family is hugely competitive). O wasteamed with his brother in law and they were very smug over their victory.

The next morning breakfast was eaten and the shops werepopped to. Once everyone was back it was time for the birthday girl to open herpresents and us to have a slice of cake (of which there were several). Then inorder to work off the morning cake we headed to beach leaving O’s dad who wasmaking another cake. We were very lucky with the weather the whole weekend andit was quite mild. The others played frisbee and football as we walked alongthe beach. Back to the housefor a bite to eat and a lazy afternoon playing with our nephew whilepreparations began for dinner.

That evening we had:

Cream of mushroom soup – made by O’s brother and hisgirlfriend

Beef stew and dumplings with roasted veg on the side – madeby O’s brother in law

Vanilla cheesecake and baked key lime pie – made by O and I

Birthday cake for those that weren’t bursting

The rule was that O’s mum didn’t have to lift a finger. Oncethe dishwasher was stacked and the pans were cleaned we put on plenty of layersand wrapped up as warm as possible. We made a torch lit procession down to thebeach and stood well back as the boys arranged the fireworks. We didn’t havemany and had purposefully chosen the ones which we thought would be quietest(yup we were after quiet fireworks). Baby nephew did very well to start withbut soon got a bit upset and started saying “all gone” “no more” to which weresponded “just one more” “oooh isn’t it pretty” “yay, you like fireworks” heremained unconvinced. Once the last one had gone off the boys with theirtorches scoured the beach to pick up the debris. Back in the warmthwe played a couple of rounds of a game similar to call my bluff, O was verysmug to be on the winning side again.

Unfortunately during the night I started to feel unwell and the next night O and his brother followed suit. After a day in bed the following day when we were due to leave I was still feeling pretty ropey but I wasthe best out of a bad lot and we needed to get home somehow. Throughout a veryslow packing process which included one sock on, sit rest, other sock on, sitrest, bend pick up jumper, sit up, rest, place jumper over head and armsthrough sleeve, realise you’ve moved too fast and your brain is hitting off thesides of your skull, sit and rest etc. etc. We eventually got all of ourbelongings and O’s brothers belongings into the car. I drove very slowly down the road, which was thankfully the road was very clear. There were a few stops for fresh air but we finallymade it home in one piece. We collapsed onto the sofa with the duvet andswitched between sleeping and watching TV.

A lovely, lovely weekend which was unfortunately spoilt by astomach virus, we had a great time up until then.

(photos mostly by O apart from the rubbish ones which are by me)

Pantone vs panettone

2012-01-20T07:30:00.000Z

(source)

I always get the pronunciation of these words mixed up. It makes me look like a moron.

If I'd got my act together I might have posted this before Christmas

2011

2012-01-19T07:30:00.000Z

I thought about doing a round up of the year like I did for 2010. Then I realised that I hadn't actually done enough or blogged enough for the same sort of round up. But I need something to kick start my blogging in 2012 so I'm making a half hearted attempt. I was reassured that Gaynor did her round up this week so I'm not too late.

Highlights of 2011
Zoe and Neil created a sunshiney wedding on a rainy day.
Adizzygirl married IB with a bouncy castle and a hog roast. It was also an opportunity for most of the long suffering other halves of blogging six to meet.
2011 was a year of travelling including trips to Italy, Iceland, the Lake District and Spain. I also increased the number of Scottish Islands I've visited.
We celebrated our first wedding anniversary.

I turned 30, nephew turned 2, neice turned 13!
I attended Blookclub

Maybe 2011 wasn't completely uneventful after all.

Happy Holidays

2011-12-23T22:03:00.001Z

(picture by O)*

Tomorrow we will drive South to spend time with my family.

Hope you have a wonderful time with your family and friends.

*our little tree which has now started shedding needles, especially because inevitably the cats have been systematically removing the baubles.

Keswick - Oct 2011

2011-12-19T14:00:00.000Z

20 members of the same family in the same house for 3 days and it wasn’t even Christmas?!

We approached the long weekend with some trepidation to say the least. We’d be spending time with aunts, uncles and cousins that we rarely see and some partners that we’d never even met. But my Dad was turning 65 and he wanted his entire family together to help celebrate.

There were:

Mum, Dad, #1, her husband and niece and nephew, #2 and her boyfriend, O and I. Dad’s brother and his wife. Dad’s sister, her husband, her eldest son, his partner and their 8 month old son, her youngest son, his partner and her 7 year old daughter

We arrived in dribs and drabs on Friday night to a huge house on the outskirts of Keswick that had once been used as a B and B. We chose our room, made ourselves some dinner and caught up with family members as they arrived. The rugby world cup was still on and England had a big game against France the next day. Some of the family decided to go for a rugby breakfast at the nearby pub. O decided as the only one likely to be supporting France he would stay away from the pub and watch the game in our room where he was relatively safe to shout “vive la France”.

By the time we got up the next day, had breakfast and the others were back from the pub plans had begun to emerge. The immediate family Mum, Dad #1, #2 and me with our respective attachments were going to go for a walk around Keswick. #1 had got a treasure trail guide which basically took us on a long walk through Keswick but we had some purpose in our random wanderings. Aunts and Uncles went their separate ways for different walks and trips to car boot sales. The weather was not ideal so we were wrapped up with scarves, gloves and waterproofs to keep off the rain. Back to the house for lunch and a lazy afternoon. Dad’s sister and her family being from Leeds are huge rugby league fans and it was the challenge cup final so that evening they found a pub showing the game and stayed there until dinner time. Plenty of rugby for one day!

The photo on the left is the right way up. Trust me

family stroll through the park

#2 had contacted a local chef who came to the house and made us a delicious meal and did the washing up, which meant that everyone could relax. (although given the size of the supermarket shop my parent’s had delivered we could have fed all of us for quite some time). Wine was consumed and we began to relax with each other, family stories were told, some more shocking than others. We realised just how much we still missed our grandparents. It was strange and a little sad in a way to see my father in his role as the patriarch of the family. My Dad opened his birthday cards and he blew out the candles on his cake (which I spent Friday making), unfortunately we were all far too full for cake after the huge pudding the chef had made so it didn’t get cut until the next day.

The chef made a huge batch of cinder toffee (the inside of a Crunchie)

On the Sunday morning some of the family had to leave to get back for work on Monday so we reduced the numbers by 6. After saying goodbye everyone again went their own ways and made their own plans. Although we were in a stunning part of the country O decided he wanted to visit the beach. I wouldn’t recommend the beaches in that part of England or certainly not the beach at Maryport. It was an extremely industrial and rather grey and bleak. Although it was fun to reminisce with my Mum who’s Dad used to frequently travel to Maryport from Newcastle sometimes taking her with him. Again the weather was poor so we hurried to warm up back at the house. I was starting to come down with a cold at this point so wanted to be warm and cosy. We spent the rest of the afternoon doing a really hard jigsaw, each taking turns at different bits. Remembering how big granddad (Dad’s dad) used to love doing jigsaws and how little granddad (Mum’s dad) used to always hide one piece so he could put the last bit in.

Maryport

That evening we took #2’s boyfriend to the train station so he could also get back for work on the Monday. We put some pies in the oven and made simple vegetables and again ate around the enormous table which was in the dining room. That evening we played card games, chatted about our grandparents/parents laughing at different memories, how when my cousins had been with my Nana she had always talked about my sisters and I and then vice versa, she would always chat about my cousins when with us. We also doggedly kept going at the damn jigsaw and it soon became clear that we were not going to bed until it was completed.

The next morning there was a bedlam of packing and trying to share out the huge amount of leftover food. My cold had well and truly hit. We went to rheged for a hot drink and chats with #2 and my parents before #2 had to go and get the train. On the way home we popped in and visited Rebecca, the second time we’ve gone to visit her lovely home and I’ve been full of cold so have coughed and sniffed on her sofa. Should perhaps visit at the start of a trip before I fall ill rather than at the end.

The weekend had been a huge success much more relaxed than anticipated because everyone made their own plans and came and went as they pleased. We came together for meals and spent a lot of time chatting through happy memories.

intense jigsaw action

Photos by O. Me or nephew

Drinking plenty fluids

2011-12-07T13:00:00.000Z

I suffer from headaches and no number or combination of drugs will cure them. I just have to ride out the three days it seems to take to shift them. I call them headaches as opposed to migraines as unless they are REALLY bad I don't feel nauseous and I don't have an aversion to light I've also never had any relief from migraine medicines.

Doctors have never established what causes the headaches although there have been several suggestions; posture, allergy to hormones or dehydration. I'm starting to keep a headache diary to try identify a pattern of behaviour that leads to a headache but the easiest diagnosis to challenge is dehydration surely.

I'm bad at drinking enough fluids. So what tips or hints do you have to help me keep up my fluid intake? Not helped by the fact that I don't like water ridiculous as it sounds it tastes funny both from the tap and mineral water. I always have dilute in my water. I also don't drink tea or coffee not sure if that helps or hinders.

I suppose the most obvious is to keep a bottle of juice on my desk and ensuring it is finished by the end of the day. But anything else I could try?

Snowy Monday Morning

2011-12-05T11:28:00.001Z

Journey to work was fine, pulledinto the car park spotted a space really close to the door, reversed in,handbrake on, picked up by bags, got out of the car and locked it. Took threesteps forward to the front of the car when I realise the car is moving. Yank atthe door handle, remember the car is locked, jab at the buttons on the key fob,wrench open the door, throw my bags in, enter car feet first towards the brakepedal. Stop the car from moving. Realise the car has realistically slid threefeet at most as people are still able to get past me and the expensive car Iwas heading for. Try and reduce heart rate to a reasonable level. Glare back atthe people wondering why I’m sat effectively in the middle of the car park.Park the car in a different space where all it can roll into is a hedge. Leave car in gear. Pullhandbrake extra hard. Get out of car, give car a really good shake to assess ifit is planning on going anywhere. Get back in car and try to reduce heart rateeven further. Walk to office and try not to think aboutwhere car might be when I leave tonight.

Hope your Monday started better thanmine!

Bloody snow.

Berneray - June 2011

2011-12-01T21:30:00.000Z

This year seemed to be the year that I caught ferries to Scottish islands I’d never been to before. We’ve got quite a running tally and this year added two more to the list.

It was June, a lovely couple had just been married and we unfortunately had to leave the party early to prepare for our early start in time to catch the ferry. The tent was packed along with wet weather gear, warm weather gear and winter gear. You never can be certain of the weather in Scotland. We hadn’t been camping for a really long time so I was worried it could be a shock to the system. We were also going wild camping i.e. sans toilet and shower block which I was a little worried about. Although we’d expected to be camping very close to the holiday home that O’s Mum had rented for the week. After a smoothish crossing (thankfully I don’t get travel sick) we arrived in North Uist and made the relatively short journey to the house. Once we arrived at the house it was clear that there weren’t any spots nearby on which we could pitch a tent. O’s sister and her family weren’t arriving until the next day so we decided to take a bed for the night and find a camping spot the next day.

We had a fantastic weekend, there were trips to the beach where we found our camping spot. There was a slap up restaurant meal which included me eating half a lobster. There were hand dived scallops which were the biggest things I’ve ever seen – thank you O, shame you don’t eat meat they were yummy. There were fiercely fought games of scrabble and arguments over the quality of certain brands of dictionary. There were books read, a small hill climbed and seals spotted. There were cuddles with nephew who we later discovered was suffering from a hideous cold that knocked me and his Mum sideways when we finally came down with it a few days later. (he handled it much better than either of us).

Unfortunately there were also arguments with the owner of the holiday home (they lived next door and had only been renting out the house for 6/7 weeks) who felt we were overcrowding the house – even though O and I were only there for the day. We decided not to ruin the holiday for O’s parents and we left the island a day early but we did have a fantastic few days. I survived “wild” camping thanks to having a house with hot running water a 10 minute drive away. I was staggered by the beauty of the beach. In my time I’ve seen some fairly impressive beaches but nothing that compares to that stretch of unadulterated white sand. There wasn’t a thing on the beach either, barely a shell, pebble of clump of seaweed to be found. We relaxed, spent time with family and blew the cobwebs away with all that “fresh” air.

photos by O

#bloggingsix Secret Santa

2011-11-28T23:00:00.000Z

Some of my favourite bloggers and I decided that we would do a Secret Santa. As well as a bought gift we made things for our secret Santa recipient.

I made something for Zoe, it is on her blog today. Go and have a look. I was a little nervous about it so was very relieved with how it turned out and that Zoe seemed to like it.

aDizzyGirl was my Secret Santa and as well as a lovely brooch I got three jars full of good stuff; salted caramel sauce, peppermint creams and honey roasted nuts. I didn't manage to take any photos before O and I stuck right into them so you'll just need to take my word for it they are scrumptious.

See another Secret Santa post here

New kitchen 2

2011-11-25T08:00:00.000Z

We scraped meals together for what felt like a long week. There was a little miscommunication with the plumber which resulted in me rushing home from work and then sitting waiting for 3 hours until the plumber who was allegedly “just round the corner” finally arrived. He then didn’t speak to me other than in grunts and complaints about the work he needed to do. Oh and he took away the sink which meant washing up in the bathroom.
The electrician had a small heart attack when he saw the amount of work that we needed done. This was a team of people our joiner had put together and although we’d fully briefed him that hadn’t translated into telling the other tradesmen.

The weekend of the Royal Wedding. We jumped into the car and headed north for a wedding with less hype but still an amazing day. We said a not too sad farewell to the sorry looking kitchen and wished the joiner well. Incredibly nervous about what might be waiting for us when we returned. We'd been seriously burned by bad tradesmen whilst getting our bathroom redone so we were over the moon relieved to come back to an almost complete and very soon finished kitchen.

It was then plastered and we painted, painted and painted some more.

I'd recommend getting your kitchen plastered before the brand new cupboards are put on the wall. We would have preferred to do it the correct way round but there wasn't a plasterer to be had for weeks and weeks. Thankfully our plasterers were uh-mazing. I think they left the kitchen tidier and cleaner after they'd finished than we did.

There has since been more paint applied to the walls, a floor laid and a splash back fitted. The boxes, crates and suitcase were all eventually unpacked.

We love our new kitchen

New kitchen 1

2011-11-22T19:31:00.001Z

When we got married all that time ago our guests were not only generous enough to give up their time, holidays and the expense of getting to our wedding and helping us celebrate they also gave us gifts. Our main request was a donation towards our new kitchen. It took us quite a while to finally get round to the kitchen, we still needed a little bit more savings. There were many, many weeks of angst over the design and how the layout was going to work.

Eventually Easter weekend arrived as did my ever suffering parents, the kitchen was designed, the joiner was chosen - it was destruction time. We emptied the kitchen into an alarming number of boxes, crates and even a suitcase. Then we started stripping wallpaper layers upon layers upon layers of wallpaper. The previous owner of our flat was a heavy smoker and the steam from two wallpaper strippers meant that the tobacco and nicotine came dripping off the ceiling and walls – really truly disgusting. Under wall paper we discovered still live electrical sockets and other such dangerous mysteries. Over the weekend my parents and O and I got more and more weary. We were left with a sink and a cooker to keep us going for another week.

The living room was also emptied to allow room for the kitchen to be delivered and to give the joiners somewhere to work.

October is here

2011-10-06T08:30:00.000+01:00

October is going to be a good month. The start of November won't be too bad either

I've been on holiday with my sisters.

My whole family is getting together to celebrate my Dad's 65th birthday.

Cass and I are celebrating our 30ths together.

I'm going to the 2nd blook club meeting - hopefully I'll have read the book by then.

O and I are going to Iceland - any recommendations gratefully received.

The O's family are getting together to celebrate his Mum's birthday.

Somehow all of this means I'm managing not to work a full week for the next six weeks. Woop!

Holiday break down

2011-10-03T14:22:00.000+01:00

Do you know what really sucks at the start of your holiday? Having the car breakdown on the way to the airport at 3:45am. Waiting on the breakdown truck to arrive and poor #1's husband having to come and collect us. Delivering us to the airport 10 minutes after check in closed. Sprinting with #1 through the airport to make that flight, because we'd checked in online and could make it. Leaving #2 in the airport to change flights and deal with the large suitcase which was the reason we didn't all get to sprint through the airport. Waiting in Malaga airport for #2 to get there. Suffering the car hire guy bitching about us not taking their extra insurance.

All of that sort of ruins the first day of your holiday. Do you know what makes it better?

Sunshine. Spending time with my sisters in almost complete silence because there was no need to make conversation. Reading our books, eating well and soaking up the sunshine.

We've all some how managed to attach ourselves to men that can't sit still. Who need to do things while on holiday. So we holiday together and don't have to do anything.

Vehicular rubbish

2011-09-15T10:00:00.000+01:00

There once was a time when I quite enjoyed watching Top Gear. I'm not an expert on cars or a petrol head by any stretch of the imagination. But I can identify cars by more than their colour and have an appreciation for the fast and sometimes stupid. Why else would we own a petrol guzzling sledge if not to appreciate its 0-60 speed (on a straight dry road do not appreciate the speed with which it goes sideyways on an icy/snow covered road).
However, either I, or Top Gear, have turned a corner. It makes me grumble and question in an old woman type way.
What on earth are they spending my licence fee on?
Why are they spending my licence fee on sending three presenters plus camera crews to countries, which are at war. Surely if the programme brief includes paying for a protection detail it isn't entertainment?
I don't really care how fast a car can go round your track when it costs well more than my home.
There are a lot more examples of programmes that have made me want to throw things at their smug little faces as they clutter up my tv. I do try to be out when O watches it and I could always leave the room.
Sometimes, just sometimes they have a story that reminds me they are human beings after all. At the end of the most recent series they ran a story about recovery amputee soldiers and their goal to take part in the Dakar rally. Soldiers who'd lost limbs in battle preparing to drive one of the world's hardest rallies. Where sand and sweat could damage their prostetics because the camaraderie is keeping their spirits up. A below the knee "scratch" being an affectionate nickname for a foot amputation.
So the point of this? I wish the soldiers well. I thank the BBC for bringing their goal to my attention. I ask that the BBC make more of these type stories and be more sensible with my licence fee from now on. Please and thank you.
Check out race2recovery for more information

.

2011-09-11T09:30:00.000+01:00

I was working in a government office as a holiday job, it was my last week in the job before the start of the next semester.
We only found out through an email letting us know our security levels had been raised.
We had to continue to serve customers asking to look through their belongings as a precaution.
I went home and watched the coverage in stunned silence.
Late, late that night I got a message from a good university friend. She'd been at the top of the towers the day before. Her flight had left JFK that morning before everything was grounded.

Remembering those who were touched and continue to be effected by the events of September 11th 2001.

Blook Club

2011-09-10T14:16:00.000+01:00

Did you notice my shiny new badge? Over there, there, down on the right hand side! I'm a member of blook club, organised by the clever and delightful Zoe from Conversation Pieces.

I say that I'm a member, however I'm unfortunately having to miss the first one. Cannot wait to hear how it went and what everyone thought of the book: How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran.

Enough of me wittering check out Zoe's post. She is much better at explaining.

Toothpaste

2011-09-08T13:03:00.002+01:00

My Dad came to stay on Tuesday night. I noticed on Wednesday night when I went to brush my teeth that our toothpaste tubes had been squeezed from the bottom to the top.

This makes me smile. A LOT

a short commute

2011-09-02T21:11:00.000+01:00

A long week at work ended unpleasantly with a minor emergency at the end of Friday. I tramped across the car park in the slight drizzle. Plonked myself into the driving seat and threw my hand bag and lunch bag onto the passenger seat. I started the engine and turned the cd up loud and sang along. I was halfway home when I spotted a little girl in the arms of her grandfather, she was laughing and clapping as he blew raspberries on her cheeks. I was almost home when I spotted some students running and laughing with carrier bags over the heads to protect from the rain which was now falling. I couldn't help but smile and the stress lifted. Weekends or days away from work are precious things.

Have a good weekend.

Anniversary day out

2011-08-22T12:00:00.002+01:00

We went to the zoo, zoo, zoo

How about you, you, you?

You should go too, too, too

We went to the zoo, zoo, zoo.

Ok so I changed the words slightly but you get the idea.

We spent our very sunny one year wedding anniversary at Edinburgh Zoo

photos by me or O

Birthday Girls

2011-08-20T07:45:00.007+01:00

(image via pinterest)

Cass, welcome to the birthday club. Seems to be ok so far.

It was only this morning that I put two and two together and realised it was Lisa Marie's birthday too. Somehow I'd managed to separate the two in my head.

Happy birthday to you both

Blog Birthday 2

2011-08-19T08:00:00.000+01:00

(from pinterest but etsy originally)

I've made it through another year!

My sisters and my "real life" friends have moaned about not having the opportunity to make new friends. How it is hard to meet like minded people and start conversations with them.

Inside I'm screaming at them, start a blog, start a blog. You meet the most amazing people and if you are lucky they become truly wonderful friends.

A day at the Festival

2011-08-15T08:30:00.007+01:00

It is August, which means that Edinburgh is a crazy town. The fringe festival is here for the month. There are pros and cons to festival time. The obvious pros being amazing shows in a small space in a short amount of time. The cons being the huge amount of people trying to get between venues, or get you into their venue and filling every restaurant and cafe.

Last Saturday we headed through to Edinburgh. We went to see some great shows and despite getting soaked to the skin we had a really good day.

Live at the Gilded Balloon Podcast
The podcast is an introduction to different comics/shows that are on at the festival. So this was a great way to see a lot. We got to see Hal Sparks, Tom Green, Dave Eastgate, Jason Cook, Kerry Godliman and Michael Winslow. It was interesting listening to the podcast once it was published. They cut out so much good stuff from the live show. Each day the acts are different so it can be a bit of a lottery.
It was here that I had my celebrity spot of the day. David Bradley otherwise known as Argus Filch from Harry Potter sat behind me for the recording. He has a really loud laugh. (I'm 99% sure it was him however if he was reported to be else where last Saturday I might concede that he has a doppelganger).

Eric's Tales of the Sea - A Submariner's Yarn
This was my least favourite show of the day. Not because it was bad simply because all the other shows were really good. Eric stands on the stage and tells you stories of life beneath the sea.

Lady Garden
This was a last minute decision. So last minute and given the queue at the box office they actually had to hold the start of the show for us. We went rushing into the venue and the lady at the door told me there were seats at the front or we could sit separately, so I headed for the front. Please note this is a bad idea when seeing any show at the Festival. The show was great, a series of sketches performed by 5 female comedians.

(SPOILER: the final sketch of the show required audience participation. O was pulled from his seat and forced to slow dance with one of the comedians. My husband is a very shy man, he was mortified! He wasn't the only one, 5 men were made to get on stage. I'm convinced he was targeted because he was the best looking man there. They had to go several rows back to find enough men so I'm not convinced he'd have been safe wherever we sat. I do feel bad though, I think he is still traumatised.)

David O'Doherty
This was my favourite show of the day. David O'Doherty is hilarious with his little piano, songs and educational highlights.

Jimeoin
Jimeoin inside the Spiegeltent was our last show of a long and wet day. We have seen Jimeoin on TV several times and thought he was great. His show was good but he had a lot to try and live up to after David O'Doherty. I also don't think he was on top form as he complained about being jet lagged.
The spiegeltent is a stunning venue - if a little cold.

All in all a brilliant day!

If you're in Edinburgh I'd love to hear what you'd recommend. We're thinking of seeing more.

Random Birthday Thoughts

2011-08-12T10:15:00.004+01:00

O spotted and removed 3 grey hairs from my head (that is a photo of them, which you could see much better before I compressed the file. Now it looks like a picture of my hand). Well to be honest he noticed more but I was fed up of having my hair pulled.

I removed the piercing bar from my belly button. It has been there since I was 18. It hasn't been on display for a long, long time. I didn't expect to miss it but I do strangely.

I fully expect that neither of these pieces of information will be of interest to you. Sorry.

Celebrations

2011-08-08T21:55:00.000+01:00

(images by me or O)

So as you are aware last Wednesday was the big 30 for me. To celebrate (or commiserate) we had planned a break away. We headed to the Lake District, to the same area where we'd spent our minimoon. However first we went for lunch in Kendal (of mint cake fame), it was a beautiful day so I tested out my new camera (present from O and my parents). O had chosen a place for lunch, I was very impressed by, he doesn't usually plan that far in advance. We walked into the restaurant and I turned towards the bar to ask for a table for two, however O just pointed me into the next room. When I looked up I was staring at my parents. It took me a moment to put two and two together. You know that feeling when you see someone you know but not in the situation you were expecting to see them - yes that. My lovely husband had managed to keep a secret from me and had set up the whole surprise. We had a lovely meal at New Moon, a wander about Kendal and then said goodbye to my parents and headed to our hotel.

We were spending the night at Langdale, after we checked in we headed to the pool for a swim, sauna and to slowly poach in the jacuzzi. We underestimated our time slightly so were a little rushed getting ready for dinner, we then got lost on our way to the restaurant, which was a little stressful. It was sooooooooooooooo worth it though. We went back to the Drunken Duck which is where we had spent our minimoon. The food was delicious as we remembered.

The next day I'd decided I wanted to tackle a fear of mine head on. On our minimoon we took a row boat out onto Coniston water and I had a panic attack, for absolutely no reason - I was not expecting it and it has irritated me ever since. I was determined that this time I would not have a freak out. So after another swim etc. we headed through the drizzle to Coniston. This time there was no freak out and no tears. There was rain and drizzle and a wet seat but some bursts of sunshine and warmth and a lovely time.

Our journey home was made all the more lovely with a brief stop at Rebecca's home - we had cake.

My Spare Rantings 2

2011-08-08T07:45:00.001+01:00

Dear Hoteliers,

Two beds pushed together does not make a king size bed. It does not make a romantic giant bed. It makes two beds pushed together. It means someone falls down the break or a young recently married couple sleep miles apart*.

Please sort it out.

Thank you

*p.s. and then when they get home to their standard double bed they both try to sleep star fish style and there isn't enough room.

I think I've ranted about this before - Sorry.

Italy: Luca & Pisa

2011-07-28T13:30:00.000+01:00

Our last day in Italy we went to Luca. We went to Luca mainly to get gelato. We wandered around the walls of this beautiful fortified town with friends. I'd really like to visit Luca again - mainly for the gelato.

Then we got the train to Pisa, we marched rather quickly from the train station to the leaning tower. Friends we were with climbed the tower, however we were worried we would run out of time. So we watched them climb as they stopped at different stages to wave at us. There isn't really anything else to see in Pisa so we trekked back to the station, on to the airport and waited for our flight to depart.

That was a very long and dull account of our few days in Italy. It feels like such a long time ago. I hope we will be visiting Italy again.

You forgot?!

2011-07-27T10:44:00.000+01:00

Our first anniversary fell on a Sunday and so I blamed there being no post delivery for the lack of cards. We opened the couple that had arrived the day before and received text messages from some friends and O's family.

There was no a whiff of a message or card from my family.

We went out for the day and I expected to come home to the answerphone full of messages from my family asking what we were doing to celebrate.........nothing.

I came home from work on Monday expecting cards thinking they'd just missed the Saturday post.........nothing (ok a bank statement).

MY FAMILY FORGOT OUR FIRST WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!

I sent a nudge, nudge email to my Mum and got a grovelling response. My nudge, nudge to #2 got a complete blank in response, she had no idea of the significance of the date. (#1 is in Spain on holiday, I'm letting her off)

What do you mean the date of the party of the decade is not etched into your brain forever? What do you mean you don't come over all emotional when that particular date is mentioned?

(Am I the only one that feels strange when people talk about events/meetings that happen to fall on my birthday? Yes, ok then.)

My Mum has asked how they will ever make it up to us. I floated the idea that they take us with them to the Caribbean later this year. Apparently forgetting your daughters first wedding anniversary does not mean you need to pay for her and her husband to tag along on your holiday. We're very disappointed.

Italy: Florence

2011-07-26T11:00:00.000+01:00

Our friends had been living outside Florence for months and they didn't fancy seeing the sights yet again. So we explored on our own meeting later in the day to go for dinner.

We went to the Boboli Gardens

We had lunch in the Bardini gardens overlooking Florence

Of course we went to the Duomo (although not inside)

Our photos could never do justice to how beautiful the Duomo is.

Just a few of the highlights of Florence.

Rawr

2011-07-24T14:00:00.002+01:00

Happy Anniversary my Dinosaur

If you want to relive it all check out my recaps

(image)

A day out in Glasgow

2011-07-20T09:00:00.000+01:00

Last weekend we had a friend come to visit. We decided to go the new Glasgow Transport Museum. Only we decided to go at the start of the Glasgow Fair...................never try to do anything in Glasgow during the Fair.

Given that we turned up an hour and a half before the museum closed we didn't really have enough time to properly explore. The bits we did get to see were very good with excellent interactive screens - not those annoying interactive screens but ones where you got to chose what you want to look at. We'll be visiting again, when it is quieter and we will get there earlier.

Italy: Day 3 Rome, Colosseum etc

2011-07-18T21:45:00.000+01:00

Our last day in Rome we checked out of our hotel and headed to the Forum and Colosseum for the day.

Then that was it, the end of our time in Rome. We had crammed in as much as possible.

We headed back to the train station and took the train to Florence where we met up with friends who we were staying with for the next two days.

Photos are by me or my husband

Italy: Day 2 Rome the rest of the day

2011-07-08T22:30:00.001+01:00

It was time to leave the Vatican, we'd had enough of the crowds, the hustle and bustle and needed some time to ourselves. Checking the map we decided that we would find the botanic gardens, sit ourselves on a bench and read our books for a little bit. Lets just say we got a little bit lost along a quite scary road which left me a little bit ratty and my feet rather sore. We made it to the botanic gardens an hour before they closed. So our lazy afternoon turned into a quick sit down to allow some of the pain in my feet to fade before we did a quick rush round the gardens. They are beautiful and if our afternoon plans had turned out right I'd have loved to spend more time there.

We went for dinner in the Trastevere and wandered back to our hotel in the moon light.

Photo 1 - Husband likes to play with the effects on the camera

Photo 2 - Getting lost can lead to some beautiful places

All photos by me or himself

Getting away

2011-06-26T07:00:00.001+01:00

(from here via here)

We're heading north, we're taking the tent. We're keeping our fingers crossed for the weather and that the midges stay away.

We'll be spending time with family.

See you soon

DG & IB

2011-06-25T08:00:00.001+01:00

Congratulations to aDizzyGirl who is marrying her Irish Boy today

(D from here via here, G from here, & from here, I from here via here and B from here via here)

The eyes have it (part 3)

2011-06-21T09:00:00.000+01:00

Surgery..................................

It is something that both O and I have considered. At the moment neither of us can afford it. There is also the niggling doubt about risking a surgery that isn't truly necessary. Both of us are reasonably well accommodated through glasses or contact lenses. However on the other hand those contact lenses and glasses are very expensive, it wouldn't take many years of replacement glasses and monthly contact lens payments to recoup the cost of the surgery.

I've never done any proper research however I don't think I would be a suitable candidate at the moment. My eyes continue to get worse and I believe that they need to be stable for a reasonable amount of time before they would perform the procedure.

I've heard varying reports about laser eye surgery. Gaynor's husband who bravely and very successfully had it done the week or so before their wedding. A colleague at work also recovered incredibly quickly and has never looked back since. However I've also heard some true horror stories which include absolute agony for weeks after the operation to a continued sensitivity to light months and months later.

So I wait and listen for peoples tales of success or failure and wonder whether I'd ever make that step.

part 1 and part 2

Italy: Day 2 Rome, Vatican

2011-06-20T22:15:00.001+01:00

We'd planned on going to Castel Sant'Angelo but discovered it was closed on Mondays. There was an exhibition of highlights from the different regions of Italy so we spent some time trying to understand what was going on - all the descriptions were in Italian. Then we headed towards the Vatican and into Piazza San Pietro following the crowds. The queue into St Peter's was already stretched through the herding pens and across the Piazza, but we'd decided before we travelled that we weren't going in there.
I cannot recommend enough pre-booking your tickets to the Vatican museums. We'd booked our slot at 2pm - expecting to have been busy for the morning. All we had was an email so a little nervous we decided to figure out what we needed to do when our timeslot came. As we walked around the walls of the Vatican we quickly came across the other huge queue. Worried that we might need to wait in that queue we kept walking to the front and finally spotted someone who looked like they were in charge. He waved us towards the doors where we noticed a separate entrance. We went through the second door, passed our belongings through security and quickly got our tickets validated. It wasn't long after 12, which had been the first available slot we could have booked. So we thought we would head straight to the Sistine chapel in the hope that it might be a little quiet. HA!
The flow through the Vatican museums on the way to the Sistine chapel seems to be one way. However there were some diversions on the way to see other collections. We went for a couple of these diversions however soon learned that they were big loops that took you almost back to the beginning so you had to go through the same bit again.
We learned as with lots of places that you have to time things just right. You need to get yourself between two tour groups. This doesn't give you a lot of time to stop, look and take pictures because you'll be caught and then have to wait for that group to pass you (and you'll end up with photos of their flags). We also learned to look instead of taking pictures - we still have a lot of photos. Several photos named Vatican floor 1, Vatican floor 2 etc. Vatican ceiling 1, Vatican ceiling 2 etc.
We finally crammed our way into the Sistine chapel, which has to be the least peaceful religious building I've ever been in. As many people as possible are crammed in and the guards shout at people to move on and stop taking photos. I appreciate that huge amounts of money and man hours have been spent to revitalise the ceiling and restore it to it's former glory. But personally (just my opinion) I think the ceiling to too bright and new look, it just didn't look historical.
By this time we were starving so found somewhere outside to sit and eat the snacks we had with us. After looking at the various versions of the Pope mobile and seeing some of the other exhibitions we decided we'd had our fill of the Vatican and the crowds.

Images all by me or O

CP & CPOH

2011-06-18T08:00:00.000+01:00

Today is a special day for a lovely lady who likes:

Wishing Zoe and CPOH a brilliant, fun and love filled day.

(1, 2, 3 via here, 4 via here)

Jiggling in all the wrong places

2011-06-10T11:10:00.001+01:00

I used to be a regular at a pilates class every Thursday evening. I still go but can no longer say I'm a regular or I'll get all sorts of abuse from my husband. I no longer go every week and it takes more and more moaning and nagging to get me off the sofa and into the car to class.

Last night I went along and for the second time my teacher had brought along new toys for us to try out - Flexi bars.

Apparently Coleen (link to the Sun newspaper so feel free not to click and just trust me on this) is all about the flexi bar!

A flexi bar is as it says a bar that is flexible but weighted at each end. You hold the bar in the middle and lift it whilst doing other pilates moves. The aim is to make the bar move and then to keep it moving. The vibrations through the movement of the bar tone up the muscles.

Vibrations = Jiggling

Jiggling in bits of me I'd rather be under the illusion are firm, pert and unjiggleable. Think I need to do some toning.

This is in no way a sponsored post unless someone wants to become my personal trainer - but I'm told they're not all they're cracked up to be either.

Why does it not surprise me that I've never done a post about exercise before - I'm too energy efficient.

Italy: Rome stereotypes

2011-06-03T12:00:00.000+01:00

We'd been in Rome a day and a half and all of my Roman/Italian stereotypical expectations had been met.

I'd seen nuns driving a van
A priest on a moped
A woman slap a man in the face in the middle of the street before they fell into a passionate embrace. (Ok, I might have made up the passionate embrace but the slap happened - they just continued to fight)
A woman parking a car by battering her car into the surrounding cars. Forward bump, backwards bump, forward bump-scrape, backwards bump-scrape.

(I've never seen so many designer shops)

(photos by me on camera phone - still embracing the "effects")

Italy: Day 1 Rome

2011-05-30T22:15:00.000+01:00

We got up at a ridiculous hour of the morning to board a flight with a cheap airline. Yup one of those I'd promised never to fly with again. In my defence there doesn't seem to be a way to get from Scotland to Italy without using a cheap and nasty airline.
We packed light - we only allowed ourselves hand luggage and knew that we would need to be carrying all of our belongings for at least a couple of days of the holiday. I don't really know how to pack light. I still managed to come home with one clean t-shirt, a pair of shorts and a jacket that more or less only got worn in Scotland to and from the airport and then carried around various places in Italy.
The bus from the airport deposited us at Roma Termini after which we were on our own. It was Sunday and there were no tourist information offices open. Luckily two lovely people had lent us guide books which came with maps. That and the fact that my husband is amazing. He basically navigated us out of the station and on to the right road by the position of the sun. He appears to have an inbuilt compass. This internal compass doesn't work so well at night apparently it is harder to navigate by the moon.
We wandered aimlessly slightly dazed by the early start and the dramatic increase in heat. Italy is warmer than Scotland – who’d have thought it. We came across a little park outside the Quirinal and studied the map. Then we wandered on through tiny meandering street coming across beautiful Piazza’s, screaming mopeds and fashionable people. Almost by accident we stumbled across the sound of running water and rounded a corner to find the Trevi fountain. How can the street leading to the fountain be so quiet and yet the Piazza itself hold so many people? We took photos and watched people throw their coins. There was a champagne cork floating in the water, I wondered if someone had recently gotten engaged.

(I seem to have become I little obsessed with the effect on my camera phone)

We kept going and found the Pantheon – most of this time I thought we were just wandering turns out that O was wandering in a deliberate manner. Outside the Pantheon we bought a sandwich and discovered just how expensive things are in Rome. We sat on a wall and ate reading what the guide book told us about the Pantheon before we headed inside to look. I tried and failed on several occasions to take a picture of the roof and the Oculus. The guide books say that the Pantheon is particularly spectacular in the rain or the snow where the elements come into this ancient building unashamedly. Conveniently for us it started to rain while we were inside to demonstrate this wonder! So we spent a little more time inside than we expected.
Deciding that it might be time to go somewhere else to avoid the rain we took advantage of a break in the showers to head towards our hotel. After a nap and the rain had stopped, we went out to enjoy the rest of the day. We headed towards the Spanish steps – another must see tourist attraction, via the Piazza Navona. It isn’t exactly a peaceful city Rome and it continued to amaze me that so many people were crammed into all of these places. Thinking of the films that have been shot in Rome how did they ever get rid of all the people? We took pictures from the bottom of the Spanish steps, we climbed the steps and took pictures from the top.
We went to see the Trevi Fountain by night and still there were the same huge crowds. I wondered if it was simply the same people and perhaps they never leave.

We ate, we gave our feet a rest for what was going to be another huge day and we slept.

(if you can't tell - all photos taken by me on my camera phone)

What happens when I lose my blogging mojo?

2011-05-24T22:20:00.000+01:00

Weeks, no months, go by without writing anything meaningful. Ideas drift through my consciousness but time passes before I can write them down and they lose their relevance. Weekends of inactivity pass leaving me with nothing to report. Weekends of absolute bedlam pass leaving me with so much to report it is too much to capture and translate. Weeks pass when I sit staring aimlessly at the computer reading your blogs but not being able to pull words together to comment let alone write a post myself. I post endless randomness including photos of toothpaste and towels hoping that my readers won’t completely abandon me. Even the cats have stopped providing a source of bizarre inspiration. I promise myself that this evening it will be different. This evening I will write something, I will schedule a post. I won’t share all of my news on Twitter leaving me nothing to blog about. I won’t post random drivel, I will spark a debate/conversation and capture the attention of my readers. I doubt that I will ever find anything interesting to write about, I doubt that I ever had anything to write about at all. Maybe planning my wedding was it, maybe there isn’t anything to continue with.

But no I can’t abandon my little community, my new friendships I must continue.

I will think of something interesting. I will share my innermost thoughts and fears. I will share the random spare thoughts that sparked all this off in the first place.

I will try harder, I will do better.

Come back mojo I want to continue.

Its not just me right? Everyone goes through patches like this right?

Ciao

2011-05-14T20:00:00.001+01:00

(source)

We're off to Italy to eat.

Possibly heart shaped pasta but I doubt it.

Toothpaste personality

2011-05-02T16:30:00.001+01:00

(source)

O and I are compatible in the sense that we both squeeze the tooth paste from wherever our hand grabs the tube. My father can't really cope with this and when he stays at our house you generally go into the bathroom to find all the toothpaste squeezed to the top of the tube.

In his own house he has a machine that slowly rolls the end of the tube for you. (Unfortunately I couldn't find a picture to illustrate).

We got an invite

2011-04-29T08:30:00.003+01:00

(source) *

Not to the royal wedding**!

But we are heading north this weekend to go to a wedding. To the top of the country where we'll catch a boat that will take us further north to a collection of islands I've never visited.

Where we will whirl and burl and get sore feet.

Hope you all have lovely plans for the weekend

(**As we're spending the day driving I won't be able to watch. I'm sure I'll be able to catch up though)

*Of the huge amount of wedding memorabilia that I've seen I thought I'd be able to get behind Lego. But this just freaks me out - they've not got faces!)

The eyes have it. (part 2)

2011-04-27T16:30:00.001+01:00

See part 1 here

My sister did me a huge favour in 1994 by getting married. Iwas 13 at the time and was still wearing fairly hideous glasses – they had bythis point at least become a tortoiseshell brown colour however they were stillbig and round. So when #1announced her engagement and asked #2 and I to be bridesmaids there was aserious discussion to be had about glasses. I’m not the only one in my familywho is short-sighted we all are. #1 at this point already had contact lenses. Ithink #2’s eyesight was still good enough to get her through the day. I on theother hand was going to be stuck with the huge glasses.

After some moaning andwhining on my part I was taken to the opticians to get a trial pair of contactlenses. Owwwwwwww. At first it feels like you are sticking great big stones/twigs/100eyelashes in your eyes. My advice to anyone who is thinking of getting contactlenses is to do it in winter and go outside a lot. The cold weather stimulatesyour tear ducts making the lenses a lot more comfortable. We persisted, myprescription was tweaked I guessed which was the darkest the red or the green (I hate this part of the eye examination - I don't know!) and eventually on #1’s big day I made it through without the glasses. Ihaven’t looked back since and have continued to wear contact lenses a lot.

I’ve had to move onto toric lenses which take into accountthe funny shape of my eye. I tend to wear my contacts while at work and thengive my eyes a break at the weekend. I get monthly disposable lenses. Still I’mno expert, I went three or four days ignoring the fact that my right eye wasgiving me a lot of discomfort before finally popping into my optician on theoff chance someone could have a look for me. The response – no wonder it hurtsyou’ve got a slit in the middle of the lens was not what I expected. The ohbugger don’t rip it fully, give it back I need to drive home was not theresponse they were expecting.

As I’ve been getting older (*sob*) I’ve noticed that my eyesare drying out and I can’t keep my lenses in for as long. The large chainoptician’s solution was to change my contact lenses to the most expensive pairthat they offered – this didn’t help. Then I overheard a colleaguetalking about a new optician she was trying out who had given her lenses thatshe could sleep in. I’ve no real requirement to sleep in my lenses (no longerbeing a party girl staying out until all hours of the morning at strange boys’houses – yup your right I was never that party girl) but I figured if peoplecan sleep in them then surely I can keep them in for longer than 8 hours.

After one failed attempt (bright red bloodshot rings on my eyes - attractive), we finally got the material and prescription of these new lenses correct. I also now take Omega oils to improve the comfort. I never sleep in the lenses but I don't immediately want to rip them from my eyes as soon as I get home.

Wedding bells

2011-04-16T08:00:00.001+01:00

(source)

Wishing the lovely littlewifelittlemama an amazing wedding day.

All the happiness in the world on your wonderful day.

If you don't already go and read littlewifelittlemama's blog and follow on twitter.

Give Blood

2011-04-15T09:00:00.015+01:00

Welcome to the blogger blood drive.

The excellent Emma and Fiona gathered some like minded bloggers together and asked us to spread the word.

I love giving blood, not in a vampire esk masochistic way but in a I'm doing my bit sort of way.

Just to reiterate

If you are ever feeling down, glum or think the world is a horrible place then go and give blood. In a blood donation centre people are there of their own free will. They make the conscious choice to go and help their fellow man with no hint of a reward other than a free cup of tea and a biscuit (a huge reward if ever there was one). They sit and queue with the utmost patience.

It warms the cockles.

I've donated blood less than 10 times. I was a late starter and I'm not really sure why but I've since seen the error of my ways. O got a badge for donating 10 times and I'm close to getting my own badge. My Dad used to donate platelets (he takes too much medication now) when we were young he used to take us to the donation centre with him, it was just across the road from his office. #1 and #2 both donate. Apart from when #2 travels to exotic places that involves immunisations. My Mum is the only member of the family who doesn't give blood. She is however the only member of the family who has received a blood transfusion. After my Mum gave birth to #2 she suffered a severe haemorrhage and had to be given several pints to pull through. She would not be here and hence I would not be here if it were not for the blood donations of other people.

So why do I give blood? A small part is of course is to give thanks for even being here. The main reason is of course that it makes me feel good to be a lifesaver! And every three months I get to eat Tunnock's teacakes without feeling any guilt.

I was shocked to learn that only 4% of the population donates. People who can not donate fall into two main categories; because donating might effect their health or if there is even the slimmest possibility that their blood might transmit disease to the very ill person that will receive their blood. But apart from the people that cannot donate there are still plenty who just don't. Why not?
It is painful? Well it isn't really, I find the most painful bit the prick of my thumb to test my iron levels. There is no denying it is a little uncomfortable but it isn't for very long. Giving blood is not like having a blood sample taken at the doctors - believe me I've had my arms scraped, stabbed and bruised plenty of times by a practice nurse. The men and women who work for the blood donation centre take blood hundreds and hundreds of times they are the experts.
You're squeamish? Let me make a suggestion - don't look. If you ask nicely the staff at the blood donation centre will put up a screen round your arm so you can't see. You won't know that you are too squeamish unless you try. If you faint too many times you'll be politely asked not to try to donate again.

Give giving blood a go.

For more information and to find your nearest donating centre:

In England visit Give Blood
In Scotland visit Scotblood

Go and visit the other lovely people taking in part in this campaign. Read their stories about why they donate or support those who donate:

TattybojanglesVintage Hen House

Plans & Presents Wedding & Event Planning

Anna and the Ring

All Wrapped Up Wedding & EventPlanners & Coordinators

EmilyJayne Image Consultancy

Fiona Kelly Photography

Mission 2 Wed

Boho Weddings & Events

Hannah Dornford-May Photography

Source Images Photography

The Honeymoon Project

Cake for Breakfast

The Wedding Reporter

moo coos

2011-04-12T22:26:00.000+01:00

(source)

SPRING!!

This weekend we headed north. There were baby highland coos, baby sheep and baby nephew.

Random Stuff: Size Matters

2011-04-04T10:00:00.000+01:00

(1, 2, 3)

Size matters when it comes to towels.

I have to have large towels. I’m an average sized person but I seem to have a requirement for towels which are a step up fromthose most people (e.g. #2) have and most hotels supply. The size of towel that mostpeople use for their body is the size of towel I use for my hair. I have a lot ofhair and the smaller towels always fall off too easily.

p.s. O can't make a towel turban on his head - is this all boys or just mine?

The eyes have it. (part 1)

2011-03-29T17:30:00.000+01:00

(from here)

Or in other words my eyes have had it.

Until recently I had the worst eyesight of anyone I’d ever known. I’m not sure why this seemed to be a sense of achievement but there was always an edge competitiveness when someone would say to me “Oh my eyesight is really bad” – oh you think so do you? Come on then tell me you stats – “-3.25” hahah I laugh at your good eyesight. I have won every single time I’ve played this game to the point where I’ve become a little cocky! Which is why I acted like a total tw*t with the one person who beat me. It isn't an achievement to have bad eyesight and I'm obviously not a nice person.

In my dim and distant past I can vaguely remember the day that changed my eyes and me forever. I was about 8, my family and I were sat in the kitchen having lunch when my Mum got up to get something from another room. As she returned to the kitchen she glanced sharply at me. “Look at me” she said, “I am looking at you” I replied, “look into my eyes”, “I’m looking into your eyes”, “look straight ahead” “ok”, “hmm, think we need to get that looked at”, “get what looked at?”, “its probably nothing”, “WHAT??”.

What my Mum had picked up was a very minor squint in my right eye, following a referral to the hospital I was put through my paces at regular appointments. The culmination of all these tests was an overnight stay in hospital, a general anaesthetic for an operation to tighten the muscle behind my eye. I then had to wear an eye patch (or a big sticking plaster) over my left eye to try to strengthen the right eye and make it work harder.

Some time after the operation I moved seats in the classroom, instead of being right beside the blackboard I was now much further away and things were getting a little fuzzy. In assembly I was responsible for putting the song words on the projector so sat right at the front of the hall. Following a disagreement with the friend who sat on the opposite side of the projector, I gave up my role and went to sit at the back of the class with my other classmates. As we were the oldest class, we were at the back (these were in the days when the whole school came together for assembly every single day). I couldn’t see the words. What with squinting at the blackboard, not being able to see the song words in assembly and the headaches that had started it was back to the optician where I was prescribed my first pair of glasses. Any child who wore glasses in the 80s will know that the choice was hideous, the glasses were huge and you honestly couldn’t get any more colour on to one pair of glasses if there had been an explosion in a paint factory – in fact it looked like there had been a paint explosion in the glasses factory.

I remember the first day in school wearing my new glasses, it happened to be my first day back at school after breaking my wrist. I was sat in the corridor while my Mum spoke to my teacher about how I couldn’t write with my right (broken) arm when a boy from my class came out into the corridor and saw me with new massive glasses and my arm in a sling – his response “what happened to you?!!”. Thankfully I wasn’t the only one in my class with paint explosion wacky glasses there were two other girls, who happened to be my best friends – I don’t think we’d have made it in a bigger school but back in the late 1980s we were there for each other with our hideous glasses.

As I got older and was given a bigger budget and more control over my choice of glasses I came firmly down on the side that my glasses should disappear - that is still my aim when I buy new glasses. Yes ok, they had to be on my face but they had to be as invisible as possible. So I got smaller frames, I got subtle tones that suited me, I eventually after some persuasion graduated onto rimless glasses – which I adored.

My problem is that my eyesight continues to get worse, I fail the test every single time and the number on my prescription keeps getting bigger. This means a lot of different pairs of glasses and a huge amount of money. In the last three years I’ve finally had to come to terms with the fact that I can’t have rimless glasses anymore, they just can’t thin the lenses any further to make them look good in a rimless frame – I cannot afford to pay for them to thin the lenses any further to put them in a rimless frame. I’ve therefore graduated onto a semi-rimless frame.

I HATE shopping for glasses, I have to try on every single frame in the shop at least twice. I’ve learnt that I have to have teenager glasses or petite frames because the adult frames are just too wide for my face to cope with – this is quite a revelation because I have a very large head and can often not find hats to fit. I’m not sure how I’ve got such a big head and such a small face (I don’t think I look like an alien?!). I can also not take advantage of all these wonderful offers that opticians like to shove down your throat (yes I’m bitter), “oh you’d get a pair free with that”. No I wouldn’t, “oh but you would, we’ve got this fantastic offer on at the moment” no I can’t, I have to pay a LOT of money to get thin enough lenses for one pair of glasses and you think throwing in a free frame is going to make me want to pay that twice? Erm no I’ll not bother with your “free” pair. I don’t wear my glasses as a fashion accessory I wear them to be able to see.

I’ve married a man who is only just behind me in the short-sightedness race – blind leading the blind is perfect for us.

Friends and stuff

2011-03-22T07:30:00.001Z

(from here via here)

This weekend was a rare treat full of friends.

Friday I took the afternoon off work and dedicated my spare time to cake and chat.

Saturday, O and I walked into town and got some messages then came home and watched the rugby (the fact that I worked at the same time is beside the point).

Sunday we met up with University friends for lunch, it is amazing the bond that is formed through the terror of having just left home for the first time. Some of these friends I haven't seen since graduation 8 years ago.

Times have changed, the 17 year old boy who couldn't make a Pot Noodle now cooks everything from scratch. The shyest boy imaginable came with his wife and baby girl. It was amazing how quickly we settled in to the same old banter.

The strangest thing was revisiting our student haunts which are now different, full of new (very young looking) students and do not look good in the daylight.

Monday (we were supposed to go to O's parents for the weekend but changed our plans so we could make the Sunday meeting), we had a rare week day off together without any plans. The men came and fixed our broken skylight only 6 weeks after a huge gust of wind took it off the roof. We finally got round to booking our hotel in Rome and got lots of household admin sorted. It is rare that we have efficient days.

Hope you all had a good weekend.

Concentrating

2011-03-21T11:30:00.010Z

(image by one of my family)

I told you I stuck my tongue out when I concentrate!

I'm not quite sure what I'm doing with the balloon, but given that this picture was taken Christmas day 1993 - anything could be going on.

In this picture I'm growing out my 'boy' haircut - not sure why that hairdresser listened to me when I asked for short hair. I think, I assumed that by making my hair shorter the curls would go away - no matter how short it will still curl! I had the curly mop haircut above in varying lengths for over 15 years until my current hairdresser insisted that I have much shorter layers put in. It was such an eye opener to no longer have triangular hair.

I still own the top I'm wearing in this picture - it is from the Guinness factory

I seem to have quite a few 'started' posts saved as draft but nothing that is fully thought through and ready to post.

I started drafting this post in November!

It's a book

2011-03-09T09:00:00.000Z

I'm a very lucky lady and was given a kindle for Christmas. I love it, I love going away for a week and only having to carry the kindle even though I read three and a half books in that time. I love being able to buy and receive books instantly (I'm an instant gratification type of a girl).

I still love books, our overflowing book shelves are testament to that. I got my love of books from my parents, while staying with them we managed to spend a long time browsing through a book shop. My Dad, a local primary school governor, came across this book and bought it for the school.

Kind of optimises modern day thinking on books.

I cringed when a colleague suggested buying a kindle for her 10 year old daughter. I just kind of think at that age you should still be enjoying the feel of a book and turning a page.

It's a book by Lane Smith (Amazon)

Salts Mill

2011-03-07T21:15:00.000Z

Last week I had to attend a work event in Sheffield. Instead of staying the week in a hotel on my own I decided to save my employers some money and stay with my parents who live about an hour from Sheffield in Leeds.

It was lovely to spend some time with my parents, even if I did miss O (it has been a long time since we've been apart for that long). My course ended on Thursday and I decided to spend the day with my parents and travel back north on Friday evening.

We spent Friday at Salts Mill, a place we went to several times some years ago but had fallen off our radar more recently for some reason.

Yorkshire and the surrounding area is full of huge textile mills but Salts Mill was special. Titus Salt opened Salts Mill in 1853, building a whole village (Saltaire) for his workers.The village included a church, school, park and an adult learning centre. Most mill workers lived in absolute poverty, the mill owners having little thought or concern for the welfare of their workers or the workers' families.

Salts Mill was lucky enough to fall into the hands of another forward thinking, community driven business man. Jonathan Silver, bought the Mill in 1987 and transformed it into a wonderful place of art, good food and shopping! Until he sadly passed away in 1997 Jonathan was an ever present supporter of the mill. I remember sitting in the diner having lunch while Jonathan chatted with his staff or came for a drink. The Silver family continues their support of Salts Mill in Jonathan's memory.

The third man that completes the Salts Mill story is David Hockney, who's art collection along with the works of other talented individuals lines the walls of the Mill. Currently on display on the top floor of the Mill is David Hockney's Fresh Flowers - the latest works of David Hockney created on his iPhone or iPad and emailed to the Mill.
We had a lovely lunch at the Diner, slowly strolled through the art galleries, the shops and spent and really long time in the book shop.

A most enjoyable way to spend a lazy afternoon. I would thoroughly recommend a visit.

pictures from Saltaire Village

My husband the robot

2011-02-23T19:00:00.001Z

*(source)

I think O might be a robot.

He sheds nuts and bolts randomly** all over our home.

Thankfully he isn't broken despite missing all these bits.

*I loved this book as a child

**I think they might come from his pockets but really why are his pockets so full of 'things'

Spring may have sprung

2011-02-21T19:44:00.000Z

(source)

I can not tell you how excited I was to see a snowdrop on Saturday.

Even the daffodils are starting to make an appearance.

I had very good intentions of posting actual, you know, sensible content this evening. Unfortunately I'm having to work so you get a picture of a flower.

Thank you for sticking with me through this rather quiet period.

Flying is like drinking

2011-02-15T15:00:00.003Z

(1, 2, 3)

I have decided that flying with a budget airline is similarto getting drunk. Every time I come off a budget flight, I promise myself Iwill not do it again. Similar to the way that in the depths of a hangover youusually mutter the tell tale words:

“I’m never drinking again” *groan*.

With alcohol I have learnt from my mistakes and misspent youth and setmyself a 2-3 drink maximum and that is only on special occasions usually I justdon’t drink. However, I just do not seem to be able to quit my budget airlinehabit. I remember the days when flying was a rarity and seemed so glamorous andI used to feel jealous of those who travelled a lot. Now it feels more likebeing cattle herded from one place to another and those who travel a lot havemy sympathy – I really hope you fly on better quality airlines and areallowed into the lounge!

When did flying become so mundane?

Six Months Left

2011-02-03T20:47:00.000Z

(source)

With the realisation that it has been six month since we gotmarried came the unpleasant realisation that I have sixmonths of my twenties left.

I’m not one for making lists of life goals and the thingsI’d like to achieve can happen just as easily in my thirties as they can in mytwenties. I don't feel a need to cram experiences into a certain decade - playing devils advocate though this could also be why I never get round to achieving any of my goals because I don't put a deadline on them.

O and I will be going to Rome at some point this year tocelebrate my thirtieth – I've wanted to go to Rome for years (see above!). We don’t knowwhen we will go, although the fact that we have friends with a spare room currently staying outside of Florence until July means probably sooner rather than later.

Any tips of where to stay, where to go and what to do wouldbe very much appreciated. Rebecca thank you so much for your email even if I haven’tactually managed to read it yet.

Tumble update

2011-01-31T14:00:00.003Z

(source)

So I promised that I would do an update on #2 after her fall. Shortly after I first posted about her fall, #2 went to the doctor and was signed off work until January. During the last 3 months, #2 has slowly started to recover.

She had train track braces put on to bring her jaw back into alignment ensuring that she could bite correctly. She had root canal on her front three teeth as the nerves in them have died. Her broken teeth have been repaired so that her smile is normal - she isn't completely happy with it but has spent so much time in the dentist's chair that she can't bear to go back yet.

The stimulus overload took a long time to get past but she was eventually able to go out alone. As she explained when you walk down a busy high-street there is so much going on. Traffic, weather, music from shops, and hundreds of fellow shoppers having hundreds of different conversations. When feeling 'normal' you filter all of this out, you focus on the shop you are trying to reach, sometimes tuning into a particularly interesting conversation or piece of gossip. #2 couldn't filter any of it, she experienced all of it bombarding all of her senses. Slowly she has been more and more able to filter to the point where she can now drive on her on - you need to be able to filter and focus all at the same time when driving.

Her work were incredibly good as part of their health benefits she was entitled to a counselling service which meant she had someone to talk through her issues and frustrations with - who wasn't one of the family. She began on a very slow staggered return to work, luckily she is able to work from home. She started doing an hour or so at home to spending some time in the office to spending full days at the office.

She never did receive a report from the police about what happened the day of the accident. Simply a letter that there would be no legal proceedings as a result of the accident.

When we visited at New Year you could tell that she was on the mend. However a couple of weeks ago we got emailed a photo from #2's boyfriend which was her on a bike ride! The first time she had been back on a bike since her accident and a sure sign that she is fixed!

Time flies...

2011-01-24T13:15:00.000Z

...when you are having fun.

I can't quite believe it has been 6 months already.

(recaps)

Urgh

2011-01-18T20:28:00.000Z

(source)

Today has been one of those days (there have been several recently) where big fat doo-doos hit the proverbial fan.

Both in my work life and my home life (why do my friends insist on acting like 13 year olds?)

Days like this exhaust me and make me want to crawl into bed and not get up again for a very long time.

Once I've watched One Born Every Minute and acted as a UN peace maker I'll be spending the rest of the evening here.

(source)

I'm sorry I had actually intended to write about something interesting today instead of moaning AGAIN.

My Spare Rantings

2011-01-14T18:45:00.000Z

Putting siren noises into songs that are then played on the radio when I'm driving should be banned. When I hear the siren I immediately start looking for blue lights trying to figure out where they are coming from and whether I need to give way.

Haven't figured out how to make an edit specifically for the radio when I'm driving so I've decided that sirens should just be banned from all songs - really what does it add?

Have a good weekend!

Sofa bonding

2011-01-12T21:18:00.000Z

O is in training for a big tournament in his stupid sport. This means that he is out every evening (hoping he might take Saturday off). However it is kind of a blessing in disguise. January TV listings seem to have heard my lonely cries and come up with the business. So for most of January you'll find me bonding with the sofa watching any of the following:

The Good Wife
Hustle
CSI: New York
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Glee (although O watches this with me)
One Born Every Minute
NCIS
Brothers and Sisters

Yup I need to get a life - can anyone help me?

2010

2011-01-01T09:00:00.001Z

What a year it has been.

January

Baby nephew was born

February

Our parent's met for the first time

March

My parents went to South Africa for three weeks. I've still not managed to look through all the photos that they took.

April

Two lovely ladies got married. Gaynor from Our Day by Design and Hockey one of my special women. I met a real life blogger in person and it wasn't that scary!

May

We both had our final single celebrations at our hen do and stag do. Catherine and Richard got married.

June

In June we filed our wedding notice and everything became much more real! I also travelled to London to do the Race4Life with my family.

July

WE GOT MARRIED - well come on it was a pretty big event this year.

August

We celebrated being engaged one year. I kept this blog going for a whole year. Another blog friend got married - Wellies' recaps are amazing.

September

We went on our first husband and wife holiday - I will get round to writing a recap soon.

October

Rebecca and James got married. #2 took a tumble (will do an update shortly - she is doing much better).

November

Anna married her Bean. I met some more lovely blog ladies.

December

The snow arrived. We went North for Christmas.

Who knows what next year might bring.

Hogmanay

2010-12-31T23:58:00.000Z

(source)

I've got a bit of a soft spot for writing in the sand.

Happy 2011

Having spent Christmas with O's family we are heading south for Hogmanay to spend time and have a second Christmas with my family.

Jealous

2010-12-30T13:15:00.003Z

Baby nephew was given a Cozy Coupe for Christmas.

I'm green with envy.

I spent so much of my childhood begging for one of these cars.

I would drag my Mum to the Early Learning Centre so I could play on theirs.

I didn't attempt to get in this one and have a play - some dreams you just need to let go of.

Baby nephew LOVES the car.

Family Camper Van

2010-12-29T13:15:00.000Z

My Mum-in-law gave me this tin of shortbread for Christmas. Only she cut up pictures of my family and stuck them to the windows so I didn't miss my family on Christmas day too much.

We had a fantastic Christmas, hope you all did too.

(source)

My pretty

2010-12-22T20:00:00.000Z

The cat lays claim to another bauble

if only it wasn't so cute to watch

Well my dears the Christmas madness has descended upon us all.

Pretty things are grabbing everyone's attention.

Tonight we bake cupcakes as our contribution to the food madness.

Hopefully the white stuff will stop falling from the sky because tomorrow we will make the long journey northwards to spend Christmas with O's parents. At least we'll have cupcakes to keep us going if the journey is too horrendous.

This will be my first Christmas away from my family. Although I will miss them I know that Christmas will be full of people, food and laughter - what more do you need?

I hope you all have a fantastic time

I'll be back after the madness

3 to 4

2010-12-17T09:59:00.000Z

3am Thursday morning

I was awake, I was wide awake, I was listening to the wind blow rubbish around the street this kind of sums up the thoughts in my head:

I’m thirsty, I’m awake, it is 3am, I’m awake, I don’t want to go to work tomorrow, I’m awake, it is 3am, I have to go to work tomorrow, I’m thirsty, (roll over). It is windy, it hasn’t been windy for ages, why is it always windy on bin day, how many beer cans do my neighbours collect or is that the same one, I’m thirsty (arms over head). I’m awake, it is 3:15am, why did I marry such a noisy sleeper, I’m thirsty (lie on side), the Apprentice was good, that beer can is really noisy, I don’t want to go to work tomorrow, I need to wrap my Christmas presents, I don’t have enough Christmas cards, need to post the cards I’ve got, I’m thirsty (roll over). I’m awake, what the HELL is he dreaming about, someone go and pick that bloody can up, I’m awake, I’m thirsty (leg out of duvet). I want to be asleep, will it snow tomorrow, will I get to my Christmas party, I don’t want to go to the Christmas party, I want it to be Christmas holidays now, I’m tired, I’m thirsty (too cold limbs under duvet). Why am I so awake, I’ve been awake for hours, must be nearly getting up time, maybe I should wake him up, sounds like he is having a nightmare (lie on side), I’m thirsty.

O wakes up, feels around for his glasses and sticks his nose through the blind to look at the weather.

Me “what’s it doing?”

O “windy”

Me “you ok”

O “weird dreams”

Me “you sounded like you were being chased by a murderer”

O ………………..snore…………………

Me “humf”

The inner dialogue continues:

How can he get back to sleep so easily, why can’t I just fall asleep, thirsty (lie on front). Maybe I should get up for a drink, this would be a good blog post, this would be a dull blog post, what would the blog post look like, thirsty (lie on side). Fucking beer can, need to sleep, will be useless tomorrow, don’t want to go to work tomorrow, need to sort stuff out for Christmas, wonder if the owl/cat is back in, she’ll be scared of the wind, I’m thirsty, (roll over). Maybe I should get up and write this blog post, don’t want to disturb him, maybe should just disturb him, not fair that he can sleep and I can’t, really thirsty (arms over head), will look at phone.

So I catch up on twitter

Inner dialogue continues:

Arhhh I’ve burnt my retinas, someone should invent a less burny retina phone, shouldn’t have exposed my eyes to the light, should be asleep. Would like to be asleep, it is 4:10 how can it only be 4:10 I’ve been awake for hours, when I find who is responsible for that beer can, they’re going to need to buy me a beer, I’m thirsty………

…………………

…………………

………………..

Hmmmm feels like waking up, it is waking up, nooooooo refuse to wake up…………….

……………….

……………..

……………..

……………….

Beep beep beep beep beep.

How’s married life?

2010-12-10T22:26:00.000Z

If O and I could get a £1 for every time we’ve been asked,“how’s married life?” we’d be loaded!

I’m sure I was guilty of doing it and for that I sincerelyapologise.

Option 1

How’s married life?
Great, amazing, we’re so happy, thanks for asking.
Aww you’re still in the honeymoon period that’ll pass :)
F**k you

Option2

How’s married life?
It’s ok, just the same as normal really
Aww passed the honeymoon period already? :(
F**k you

So how's married life? It is great I love my husband but itisn’t that much different to life before we got married. We still have to go towork (staring lovingly into each others eyes isn’t going to pay the bills and Ihate to admit it but it does get a little dull after a while). We have to cookdinner (well he does) we have to clean the bathroom (well I do).

Still to be married folk I have some really bad news for you. Time does not stand still. You have this momentous day, you make these life altering promises to each other and yet time keeps going. Your guests will go to work on Monday, the postman will still deliver your credit card bill. I'm telling you it was a shock to me. I was expecting there to be a pause. Also you don't look any different either (this is starting to sound like losing your virginity). When you go and pay for the petrol the guy behind the desk will not understand why you are grinning like a mad thing - he really just wants you to pay and leave already.

Married life is life but with extra jewellery, an extrasense of relationship security, an extra glow in my heart that he is my husband(don’t tell him that). The every now and again "wow we're married". A whole lot of extra paperwork (should have stuck withmy own name). Learning a new terminology– he is my husband not my partner or boyfriend and I’m his wife.

I had a fear that getting married would change us andperhaps it will with time. However, really I didn’t want our relationship tochange that much because I wouldn’t have married him if I wanted something or someonedifferent.

All of that aside – what is the right answer? Or what answer(not involving swearing) will make them shut up and go away?

*I first drafted this post when we'd been married for three months, the intensity of the questioning has reduced some so I not quite so angry and bitter as it might sound above.

The week and a bit that was

2010-12-07T22:30:00.005Z

You didn’t think you were going to get away without a post moaning about the weather did you. Oh foolish you, I’m in Scotland we’ve been dumped on from a great height – I therefore must moan. To be honest O and I have been lucky and have come off, so far, relatively unscathed.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin, it all started a week ago last Friday evening when we had a small snowfall, on the Saturday we had yet more snow and again on the Sunday. Sunday, O and I ventured out and walked to the shops to buy provisions for baking. We made Nana’s chocolate cake and Hummingbird bakery hazelnut and chocolate cupcakes (nomnomnomnom).

(if you kind of squint and tip you head to the side slightly you might be able to see a heart shaped hollow in the middle of the cupcake case)

On the Monday morning, O was rudely awakened at 6am by his boss, the member of their team who was on call had been trying to get to work since 3am. They were hoping that O, who technically lives the closest, would be able to get to work. During the winter part of O's job is to clear the car parks and footpaths of snow and ice. O headed off to work on his bike which to be fair was the only way he was getting to work other than walking – all trains were off and our car is technically a big sledge with wheels (as we discovered after far too many hairy moments in Jan/Feb).

I finally dragged myself out of bed and trudged to the bus stop – at this point the emails from colleagues stuck in their homes had started to flood in. I can work quite happily – and often more productively from home. However I am the closest member of staff to the office so it was really my duty to at least try to get to the office – which I managed all too simply. I was the first through the door at 9:15 and proudly declared our office open, the glory of my achievement was slightly tarnished by the colleagues who made it in from much further afield. By 3pm that day though everyone had scurried home trying to get back before dark, the snow had started again. I took the executive decision to close the office and get my ass back to the warmth of home.

The week continued with O working ridiculously long hours and coming home like a zombie – I even had to cook two nights (this is unheard of). On Friday morning, just as we were about to start celebrating no snow in a 24 hour period, just as I was about to brave taking the car out it BLOODY STARTED AGAIN and kept coming. Friday night was O’s work Christmas night out which meant I had to deal with a very drunk and then very hungover husband. He didn’t eat again until 6:30pm on Saturday night which I think is the longest I’ve ever known him to go without food. Luckily my plans for Saturday had been cancelled or I’d have been a more annoyed with being kept awake most of the night. Saturday had meant to be a spa day to celebrate Hockey’s 30th birthday later this month. However, with the weather and lack of public transport we decided it was best to cancel.

Saturday was a right off in terms of being motivated to do anything and Sunday wasn’t much better – we managed to the shops to stock up and we ran a few errands. O, who is on call now, went to work to grit the paths. We’d managed 48 hours without snow and things were starting to look better – it wasn’t to last. Monday morning just as rush hour hit the snow was back, O had left for work at 6am so missed the worst of it. I got to the bus stop having slipped most of the way there (soft snow on sheet ice doesn’t make for easy walking) to discover that all the buses were being recalled to the depot. I was cold and wet, I wasn’t getting any glory for making it in to work so I trudged back home again – stuck the heating on full blast and a bowl of porridge in the microwave. I am so grateful that I didn’t need to go anywhere yesterday – the horror stories of hours upon hours being stuck on the motorway make me shiver at the thought.

My husband is obsessed with the weather forecast – I’ve stopped believing anything it says, however if it is to be believed then we are due to have a thaw on Thursday. Wonderfully at the moment the temperatures are dropping so low that the salt and grit doesn’t work – making attempting to get anywhere futile.

Bay tree

2010-12-06T13:59:00.000Z

Dear Santa,

Please can I have a new bay tree for Christmas. I promise to take better care of the next one.

Thanks
R

Anna & Bean

2010-11-27T06:30:00.002Z

Today is the day!

Lovely Anna is marrying lovely Bean

In true Anna style

eeekkkaaabbbllleeesss

(image 1, image 2, image 3)

Loveliness

2010-11-23T22:06:00.000Z

The lovely Lisa Marie has given me this "One Lovely Blog" award and it is high time that I pass it on - rules say to pass it on to 15 lovely blogs.

I've chosen some long time favourites and some new finds.

Take my hand and my whole life too; Anna and the Ring; bunnies 'n' beagles; A Chocolate Lover's Confessions; We Ski Slow; shinyprettybits; the coffee girl; CraftMyLife; Red Boots; Some Vague Utopia; A Daisy Chain Dream; A Dandelion Mind; From becoming a wife to becoming a mama; Cakes and Bunting; Daydreams in Lace

There are many more that I love to read - but I'm always open to new finds.

So I'll be interested to see who you pass it on to.

Thank F*** It's Friday

2010-11-19T22:41:00.000Z

(which I think is that my husband felt like saying when I came home as useless as a chocolate teapot)

(image)

Turns out that time flies when you are working every hour of the day. Had a huge work deadline today which I managed to meet at 17:10! Huge relief!

Dinner, gossip and a couple of drinkipoos with the girls tonight has helped me de-stress.

Tomorrow we drive down south to Leeds to spend the weekend with my parents. Will also be seeing a good friend from high school who I haven't seen in almost two years - in which time she had a baby and I got married, so we have a LOT to catch up on.

I'M NOT BACK AT WORK UNTIL WEDNESDAY! Sorry I'm a little over excited about that.

I hope you all have something fun planned for the weekend. I'd love to hear about it.

(trying out a new font - opinions?)

Cee unveiled

2010-11-11T21:00:00.000Z

By telling me, that my blog did not appear very chipper Ceewas not having a go – what she was really saying was “You love writing, youlove your blog, and you’re not doing what you love. There must be somethingtaking up a lot of head space going on, what is it and how can I help”

I have been meaning to write about Cee for quite some time –let’s start with the fact that her name is actually Cass but as I’ve changedthe names of everyone on the blog that is what she got lumbered with. When Ifirst wrote about Cee as one of my Special Women I mentioned that she had herown blog and that, with her permission, I’d let you know about it. I wouldreally like to let you know about her blog – she is hilarious. In fact, you mayhave heard one of her stories – the ketchup incident. I think it has become an urbanlegend. When Cass first phoned to tell me about the ketchup incident, I washome from University on Christmas break, my Mum came into the kitchen to findme on the floor with tears streaming down my face. She very nearly phoned anambulance and it took a wee while for her to realise that I was laughinguncontrollably.

So what is the point of this rambling you are asking? Goahead and just link already! Well I would do but I am scared, it goes back tomy whole anxiety over anonymity (yes other than the photos of my face). As faras I am aware, no one who knows me in real life other than Cass and O hasactually found the blog and I would rather like to keep it that way. Cass onthe other hand is very public with her blog; she has sent the link round to allher friends and family and has posted it through her Facebook page. My fear isthat if I link to her blog then you lovely people go and read it (and you mightpossibly mention me) and if her friends and family get curious and link to you,they might find me. Paranoid me? YES big style!

If I do link to Cass’ blogand you comment you have to promise not to mention me (as R or SpareThoughts).

If you do go and read her blog – you have to promise to beNICE, not that I would expect you to be anything else but I am fiercely loyal.

Tumble

2010-11-09T16:30:00.001Z

There is nothing like your best friend telling you your blog doesn’t look chipper at the moment to kick start you into activity. Chipper is not exactly a word I would use to describe my mood or my life at present (or my blog - sorry).

Those of you that don’t follow me on twitter (why not?) won’t have heard that just over two weeks ago #2 (middle sister) took a tumble off her bicycle as she was on her way to work. That Monday O and I were driving home from our weekend with his parents. When we got home at about 4pm there was a missed call on my mobile with a voicemail from my Mum. “You’re probably still driving but give me a call.” There was no “asap” no “immediately” but from her tone of voice, I knew there was something wrong. I phoned and heard that #2 had come off her bike, no one is sure what happened but she was in hospital with cuts and bruises, about seven stitches to her lip, a broken cheekbone and four smashed teeth. Her CT scan was all clear and they were expecting to release her that evening – they kept her in. Her boyfriend and #1 (eldest sister) had been with her for the day and a wee while later I spoke with #1 to hear her side of the story. The theory is that #2 had swerved to avoid something (not sure what) and had hit the back of a van. She was taken to hospital on a full trauma call (team of doctors, strapped to the board, head in brace – have watched too many episodes of ER). However by the time her boyfriend got to the hospital (he works outside London) and by the time #1 got to the hospital (the one day a week she car shares) the police had left. No one could tell them what had happened. #2 cannot remember and is missing about 3 hours of the morning – she can remember cycling along and then being in the hospital and her boyfriend arriving, but none of the activity at the scene, none of the ambulance journey and nothing in the trauma room. Although she was apparently alert and conscious the entire time meaning, she must have answered all their questions correctly even if she cannot remember any of those conversations.

She will eventually receive a copy of the police incident report and have to deal with the repercussions if she was at fault and caused the accident – I had thought that if the only person she has hurt is herself then where is the blame to assign? However, if she has caused damage to another vehicle she will need to pay. Equally if she is not at fault, she is currently off work unpaid and has new teeth to buy (she has just started a new job and is not currently eligible for sick pay).

I was busy with work last week and whilst I wanted to see her, I didn’t really understand how I could help other than look at her and be there (plus she had a house full already) – I didn’t really understand her injuries at that point. Then I caught a cold and was told to stay away. The last thing she needed was a cold, plus she was under strict doctor’s orders not to blow her nose or she could put her cheekbone out of alignment. Feeling much better and a lot less contagious on Friday morning I boarded the plane to London, I was spending the weekend as my parent’s were going home to have a break and her boyfriend was flying to New York to run the marathon – which he did in 3 hrs 42 mins 58 secs – uhmazing!

I did not realise or I would have been there sooner.

(although not sure how I’d have dealt with the cold).

Externally she looks ok, her cuts and bruises had more or less gone, quite a few of the stitches in her lip came out while I was there and the swelling was going down. Her teeth still look terrible but it will take time for her jaw to stop aching (think she hit the ground, jaw first, with quite a clatter) she is fed up of mashed potatoes.

What I had not appreciated and had not been fully explained to me (trying not to worry me) is that she is constantly exhausted – I thought this was because of the bruises and the aching but actually, her brain is just tired, it took a big jolt.
She struggles to cope with more than one conversation at a time and found my parents and me chatting around her exhausting because she could not follow the numerous threads. She hasn’t managed to watch the TV although we did try watching Strictly Come Dancing – the movement of the screen, the bright lights and the noise made her incredibly tense, she frowned at the TV and tried to back away into the sofa. She struggles to use the computer for long periods because the flickering screen makes her head hurt. She doesn’t like going into the kitchen because the fridge is noisy, as is the dishwasher and washing machine and the clatter of the dishes. She is a wreck whenever she leaves the house, being in cars is extremely scary and even walking along the pavement because she feels everything is so unpredictable. We did go out for some walks and she is trying to go out more as she feels rather trapped inside – but it is taking small steps and she is a quivering wreck if a cyclist passes her.

Mum has been with her practically since it happened, leaving this weekend to have a break and only because she knew I was there – she is coming back on Thursday. Thankfully, Mum is a clinical psychologist with forty years experience so she has seen many, many victims of road traffic accidents and is putting all her skills to good use trying to build up #2’s confidence.

Having to leave her yesterday was just heart breaking as it was the first time she had been left alone since the accident, it was just for a couple of hours as her friend came in to make her food but she was in floods of tears. Trying hard to be strong but not really managing it. She is also feeling guilty that she cannot just snap out of it and get on with stuff.

It is obviously going to take time for her to recover and we will need to see whether she gets any memories back. Being the baby sister I am not used to having to be the strong one – not sure I like it much. Looking forward to having her fit and well again, no matter how long that might take.

Spooky Nights

2010-10-31T18:00:00.002Z

(source)

Happy Halloween!

I'll be spending Halloween having a girly night with some of my best friends.

Oh and trying to get used the change of the clocks which happened this morning. It means an extra hour in bed but also that we leave the house in the dark and come home in the dark - becoming vampires never seeing any daylight.

*Revision, I'm actually spending the night

with snotty tissues in front of the tv*

Work

2010-10-28T21:00:00.001+01:00

(source)

This picture perfectly illustrates my attitude to my job for the last few weeks.

I need to get out of this rut.

Anyone got any tips/ideas how to get my motivation back?

This morning

2010-10-26T17:15:00.000+01:00

(source)

*Sound of O’s alarm buzzing*
O: *grunt*
*Pause*
O: huh?
Me: *turns over attempts to get head inside pillow*
O: huh? Am I supposed to be getting up at 5:51?
Me: huh? I don’t think so.
O: then why does the alarm think I should?
Me: I don’t care switch it off and go back to sleep.
*5:56 sound of O’s alarm buzzing*
O: huh?
Me: *SIGH*

Writing a list

2010-10-25T18:00:00.001+01:00

Check out the other wonderful books from badbooks

Driving

2010-10-22T21:00:00.000+01:00

(source)

This weekend we are driving up North to spend time with O's family. I'm looking forward to homemade soups, baby cuddles, leaning on the rayburn to absorb as much heat as possible and listening to the rain and wind battering off the velux windows.

I'm also looking forward to the long drive with my husband where we get the chance in our little cocoon to talk about everything, anything and nothing. We'll sometimes listen to an audio book. We sometimes play car games - will there be more VWs or Fords passing us in the next 30 minutes? This only works when we go north (where there few motorways or dual carriageway) because it is hard and dangerous to play on the motorway.

#2 and her boyfriend are terrible in the car together they just argue and get stressed. I don't really understand that and they weren't impressed with my suggested car games.

I'm looking forward to my alone time with my husband.

How do you cope with long car journeys?
Do you have any nice weekend plans?

Mini Moon 2

2010-10-17T21:30:00.000+01:00

While we were driving back to Scotland from the Lake District, we had various thoughts about what we might want to do with the restof our time off. O has less holiday allowance than me and it seemed a waste tospend the weekend and three days annual leave loafing about at home (not thatthere is anything wrong with loafing at home in fact I could be aprofessional). We also couldn’t afford to spend any more time at the Duck whichis why the stay was short. We talked about heading up North to see his family,without the distraction of the wedding, so we could spend more time with ournephew who is growing and changing so rapidly. It turns out that people won’tallow you to hold babies while you are wearing a wedding dress they worry thatthey might puke on you – I was rather annoyed as I’d been looking forward tolots of baby cuddles. However when we got home we got some news from O’s familythat meant that we wanted to be with them.

So Saturday morning it was back into the car and on the roadup North. Our departure was slightly delayed by the fact that the DVDs with ourprofessional photos on arrived just before we were about to leave so we HAD tostop and look at them. We had a lovely trip with lots of family time, evengetting to see my parents who were on a tour of Scotland in their caravan. Wetook our nephew swimming (with his Mum and Dad) which was both lovely andterrifying. It is amazing to see his little limbs kicking about it the waterbut I was so scared that I might drop him or that he might swallow all the water,he was splashing everywhere. We were even given the privilege of baby sittingwhile his Mum and Dad went off for some couple time. At the time babynephew hadn’t figured out how to crawl yet and moved around the floor doingseal flops. He was particularly determined in his mission to bang his head offthe marble fireplace so it was a constant job to turn him round so he couldseal flop off in a different direction.

We left on Tuesday afternoon, leaving my parents with O’sparents – a scary experience don’t really trust any of them to behavethemselves without us acting as moderators. We spent Wednesday (my birthday)our final day of leave, after a long lie in, going to the different banks withour marriage certificate to get my name changed (living the high life).

Then it was back to reality and work.

Dreams of lace

2010-10-16T07:00:00.002+01:00

(image 1, image 2, image 3, image 4)

The amazing, fantastic, wonderful Rebecca is getting married today. I can't put into words how excited I am for her and James.

Wishing you both a day and future full of happiness

Enjoy your honeymoon but come back quick and tell me all about it.

I'm going to miss you!

I call upon these persons here present

2010-10-13T16:45:00.000+01:00

I’ve been trying to compose this post in my head for about a week and it hasn’t gone well so we’ll see how it goes written down. I do have a point really so please be patient.

Wedding range in size from teeny tiny to grand swaths of people, however no matter what the size you need to have two people other than you and your partner to make the marriage legal. Someone has to witness the promises that you have made to each other.

In most traditional services the couple being wed stand with their backs to the guests. Bride on the left and groom on the right. The Bride’s friends and family then sit on the left and Groom’s friends and family are on the right (or vice versa if you are looking from the registrars point of view). This means that when the bride and groom turn to each other and when they are not staring lovingly into each other’s eyes and when the bride sneaks a nervous look behind her all she can see is the groom’s friends and family.

Now when we met with the registrar we had stated that we didn’t care where people sat. When I gave instructions to our usher (nephew) via #1 I again stated we don’t care where people sit let them sit anywhere. I do find that it is a bit of a popularity contest – the groom had more people on his side or the bride had more. However when I started walking down the aisle I noticed that we did indeed have a grooms side and a brides side.

We’d made ‘reserved’ signs to be placed on seats for Cee and her husband (there was a chance they might have been running late), the piper O's brother and my Dad. For some reason the reserved signs for Cee and her husband had been placed in the front two seats on O’s side (where his Mum and Dad really should have been sat). It was no great disaster and it meant that I had a friendly* face to look at as I made my small glimpses at all these people watching us publicly declare that we would love each other forever.

Are you still with me?

*Now friendly is really unfair to O’s side. I love his parent’s to pieces and it was lovely seeing them smile as they welcomed me into their family. I get on very well with his friends and seeing them helped me not to take things too seriously or get over emotional.

HOWEVER these are not MY people, I would have liked to see my friends and family – I want to know if my Mum cried (although perhaps we’d have both been in pieces). I’m sure there is some deep seated tradition about looking forward to the family you are joining and having your family behind you or some such nonsense.

But if you are still to be wed it is worth considering even planting one of your friendly faces within the groom’s side to pull funny faces at you (maybe it is just me).
If you have already been wed did you have a bride and a groom side and is it just me that thinks it is a bit unfair?

AND please have a word with your venue about how they lay out the seats (unless of course your seats are fixed). Our venue laid out rows of 3! Which is great for any single people but most of our guests were part of a couple and therefore had to split up and spread themselves out! An annoying little detail that there was nothing I could do about by the time I was at the top of the aisle.

Mini Moon 1

2010-10-11T17:00:00.000+01:00

When we chose – were given – our July date we knew that wewouldn’t be going on honeymoon straightaway. O is a gardener and just couldn’ttake a lot of time off in the height of the summer (ha! what summer?). I also knew that I take a long time to wind down after periods of stress. Plus O thought planning our honeymoon after the wedding would give me something to do and look forward to.

We were, however still determined to have afew days away and enjoy some luxury straight after the wedding. As is always the way we had so much choiceof where to go it was very difficult to narrow down where to actually go. Afterlots of "I don’t mind", "I'll go anywhere" and "that looks ok" but no firm opinions given I was ready to tear my hair out. Thankfully around the time when I was reallylosing the plot Cee told me of a trip she was taking to the Lake District –more specifically to the Drunken Duck. She had a great stay and we thought it looked fab so to save having to look any further wedecided on the Duck!

Tuesday after the wedding wethrew stuff in the car and made our way South. Unfortunately we got stuck in ahuge traffic jam because of a particularly nasty accident. By the time we gotto the Lake District it was quite late in the afternoon. We stopped by at Castlerigg Stone Circle – but not for very long. Once we got to the Duck we wereoffered afternoon tea but chose against it not wanting to spoil our appetite.It is very important not to spoil your appetite because the food is AMAZING! So so delicious I could have eaten everything on the menu. Youneed to book a table well in advance because they were fully booked evenduring the week.

We were a little disappointed by our room it wasn’t huge –although the bed was. The problem being that the bed was huge because it wastwo beds pushed together and there was a tendency to fall down the gap in themiddle.

Wednesday morning was a bit drizzly so we decided to go to the spa towhich you get free access to. We enjoyed leisurelyswims, time in the jacuzzi and a bake in the sauna and the steam room – Iwasn’t brave enough to try the ice shower. Once the weather had brightened up a bit westopped in Ambleside to buy some lunch and headed to Coniston to hire a rowing boat – how romantic?! Until I turned into acomplete wreck. I have no idea why or where the fear came from but I panicked that we were going to fall in the water, that all of our belongingswere going to be ruined (camera, phones, car keys) and that we wouldn’t make itto shore. O being incredibly confident on the water thought this was hilariousand tried to show me how safe we were by rocking the boat. He stopped as soonas I burst into tears! I still don’t understand why I was such awreck, I’m an ok swimmer and I'd have been able to swim to safety, there were lots of people out on the water so a passing boatwould have helped. Once we were back on dry land I felt really bad because itshould have been such a lovely jaunt out on the water with O playing the strongguy doing the rowing and I’d ruined it with my completely irrational hysterics.

After I’d disgraced myself we headed back to the Duck for afternoon tea. We lazed about watching the tv and I had a long bathbefore dressing for dinner, there have been very few occasions in my life whereI have felt the need to dress for dinner, that is of course unless I’m notalready wearing clothes! We had another wonderful meal and fellasleep stuffed and a little fuzzy round the edges.

In planning our trip we'd had a look round to see what was on in the area and came across Ambleside Sports and that is where we headedon Thursday morning after checking out. I’ve never been to aHighland Games of anything like it and Ambleside Sports seemed to be theEnglish equivalent. There was fell racing, grass track cycling, Cumberland wrestling (with costume competition) and hound trailing, which we'd never heard of. They scent a path using aniseed and then let apack of hounds loose to follow the trail. The first hound back wins the race –this was the only event where there was bets being placed. I wasn't aware that you were allowed to let packs of dogs loose in the countryside.

After a long day of fresh air and some sunshine we began the long journey across country to Leeds where wewere had a free nights accommodation courtesy of my parent's house. Then onFriday morning we headed back up to Scotland.

Details: Thank you Gifts

2010-10-05T18:00:00.000+01:00

Thank you gifts were tough to decide on and I spent a long time trawling the internet.

My Mum: We didn't give my Mum a gift the weekend of the wedding instead we promised to make her a photo album once we gathered the photos together. We have kept that promise and sent her a photobook made by BobBooks - which she seems to love.

My Dad: We got him a bottle of Macallan whisky - it is his favourite whisky and we hope he will enjoy it.

O's Mum and Dad: We bought them a bottle of brandy - sourced by my brother-in-law handy having a wine merchant in the family.

O's sister: For playing the fiddle while we signed the register and as a New House gift we bought her and her husband a Le Creuset pan.

O#s brother: For being our piper and for his New Home gift we bought him and his girlfriend a Le Creuset pan too.

Debenhams had a sale on Le Creuset at the time.

#1 and #2: We bought them jewellery from here

Niece: We bought her an initial necklace from here and a clothes hanger from here (please note that Anna warns that it takes 8 weeks and it really does.)

Nephew: We bought his scrabble cuff links in his initials - as he informed us he doesn't have any shirt that requires cuff links but hopefully once he is older he'll need them.

Cee: As a thank you for reading during our ceremony we bought her a notebook for her blog ideas (need to do a post on this soon).

Recaps: Married Day 1

2010-10-04T13:00:00.000+01:00

After getting a few hours sleep – funny how it wascompletely different to the few hours sleep I had the night before – we wokeand dressed for breakfast. I’d forgotten a sweater and O had forgotten hisshoes (remember to pack for the next day too). Was quite tempted to put mydress back on but don’t think it’d have gone with the dragged back hair andclean face. We went down to the dining room for breakfast taking with us thethank-you gifts that we’d bought. We sat there for quite a while chatting withdifferent family members drifting in and out as they came for breakfast or leftto finish packing.

#1 and her family had to leave early to catch their flight andso the goodbyes began. After a while when everyone had at least started theirbreakfast we went back upstairs to start our own packing. The venue staff hadgathered together a lot of the bits and pieces, table slates, table plan, leftover order of services so that made things easier. All the vases of flowers hadbeen placed in a back room so we invited guests to take as many of the flowers asthey wanted and after taking plenty for ourselves left the rest at the venuefor them to decorate their tables with during the week. If you are havingflowers it is worth thinking about what to do with them afterwards – we didn’t.

Everyone was finally packed and putting bags into their carsso we said our final goodbyes and headed back to our flat. We’d let friendsstay in our flat so caught up with them for a while. Finally it was just thetwo of us and we sat slightly dazed still surrounded by wedding stuff.

Details: Table Names

2010-09-26T19:00:00.001+01:00

We named our tables after Scottish islands that we'd visited.

The top table was named after the island where O proposed.

We were worried that we were going to have to name a table Mull. Our holiday to Mull was not the greatest. The moment we got off the ferry there was an almighty hail storm and things did not get much better after that.

Luckily we remembered another island that we'd been to.

Our table names we displayed on roof slates with the names written on in chalk pen.

Are you planning on naming your tables? (We came very close to just numbering them - because really it is just another bit of DIY to do.)
What did you name your tables after?

Details: Jewellery

2010-09-23T19:00:00.000+01:00

Jewellery was a real struggle for me. The wedding magazines seem to have a clear view of what 'wedding' jewellery is supposed to look like. Pearls and diamanté are just not me. They are also very expensive. I wasn't prepared to spend a large amount of money on a necklace that I knew I was only going to wear once.

I finally decided to narrow it down to two options. The necklace that Rebecca kindly let me borrow and a necklace that my Mum lent me that I eventually, 2 days before the wedding, decided to wear.

My something borrowed was this marcasite necklace that my Mum got for £5 from a car boot sale. I'm not sure if I've broken the 'something borrowed' rules but my Mum has now given me the necklace to keep (yay). I was bought a marcasite watch for my 16th birthday so I wore that too. Unfortunately I noticed too late that the battery had died - so I have no idea if I actually got to the ceremony on time. I hate not knowing what time it is so after the meal I changed to a working watch.