Friday 30 January 2009

Media Rant.

Argh, this country is truely going down the pan.

The BBC are currently hammering the state of the economy home again, like we want to know, how much doom and gloom they can possibly spin. Yes, we know its rubbish out there, but the media aren't exactly helping the sitution are they, christ, they've even whipped up a few frenzies and put otherwise stable companies out of business. Look what happened with Northern Rock, a slight wobble, made massive by the media and poof, nationalized to save its ass. Same thing has happened with several shops, poor old Land of Leather only stopped taking cash deposits over Xmas, as they couldn't bank the money and you don't want large cash deposits hanging around to get stolen (can anyone tell me why no banks have night safes any more?) then the media whipped up a frenzy and now they're out of business....I saw a good quote from the boss of River Island today the best thing the government can do for UK retail is "stay in bed all day and leave us all alone" I have to say, I agree, they don't have much idea about running a business at all, otherwise they wouldn't have arsed around with the bloody vat rate in the 1st place. Much better to give all businesses a years council tax break, now that would have helped us all out, particularly small businesses.

I'm seriously thinking of withholding our TV licence fee, until the media actually find something nice to put on the news, surely at least one item a day could be vaguely uplifting, seriously they seem to have East Enders syndrome, doom, gloom and more misery. There are nice things out there going on, they're just choosing to ignore them, bah. Actually I take some of that back, as local news just reported something nice, 'The Rebecca Adlington Swimming Centre' hurrah, one positive thing in a whole half hour.

Ah yes Richard

Ah yes Richard, but when will I see you next??? we still have your copy of Munchkin Cthulhu! come and play it!

Thursday 29 January 2009

Twitter

It's all Meridians fault, I'm now hooked on Twitter......gah.

Wednesday 28 January 2009

Shameless

Oh yay, how fab, Shameless is back on TV, boy that show makes me smile.
If you didn't catch it last night I recommend you do, classic.
A baby talking via telepathy to its parents. A hit, that went wrong, love down the pan and somone not having a baby! Watch till then end of the credits too, for the very last bit, teee heee, classic British entertainment, superbly written.

Monday 26 January 2009

Girls Night In

Well tea at Meridians last night was very yummy! Her dh can go away again :-)
Let me tempt your taste buds with the following treats.
Homemade Pizza (I had ham, mushroom and pepper) accompanied by homemade garlic bread and salad, with blue cheese dressing, very yummy.
Meridian then out did herself by producing a home-made chocolate cheesecake to die for.
Meri your a star!
Thus we chilled out and ate, whilst watching Pineapple Express on DVD, which if you've not seen it I recommend. A Lovely night in.

Sunday 25 January 2009

Sad Loss

Sadly this weekend I found out about the death of an old friend, back in Nov (I'd not been online to see any internet news, due to no home pc...... and we last saw each other about 10 years ago, so I wasn't on the list of people who would be told about these things) Plus the fact that he was moving in a different stratosphere to me now meant that I accidentally came across the news from a music article site I was perusing :-(
He was only 39, a sad loss to the music industry and to the world in general, for he was an effervescent chap, who lived life to the full, they do say the brightest stars burn out faster, seems true in this case.

Wednesday 21 January 2009

Who moved relocation relocation?

What were Chanel 4 thinking, there was I looking to do my HUGE pile of ironing, whilst watching Kirsty and Phil and they've only gone and put stoooopid Celebrity Big Brother on in its place, grump, they could have shifted another programme surely, swines......now I have to wait for Heston at 9pm before I can iron, honestly, what's a girl to do. (ignore the ironing perhapse?)

I've utilized my time wisely mind. I've managed to reply to Naturegirl via email! as she's my swap partner for the Owl swap. I didn't mean to be rude, not replying quickly, but I've just not had time to get on the computer much. I've also dived on here to update you all too!

Meridian has sent me a twitter invite, so I will get around to that over the next few days too, argh where is my time going?

This morning, I dragged Meridian out for a Starbucks breakfast, thinking it would be a nice treat for us and dd2 as well, I think dd2 agreed, she seemed happy enough. We then mooched to Next Homestore, Laura Ashley, BHS Homestore and finally Ikea. The reason? I needed to check out curtains for dd1's new bedroom, (dd2 having dd1's room, ss moving to dd2's room, dd1 into ss's room, do you follow?) as she has requested Butterflies.......I now have several pairs that I can show her at some point. I also picked up a new trofast unit for her bedroom storage, plus a new bookcase on half price sale, hurrah! dd2 can have the old bookcase currently bulging at the seams in dd1's room. I got a few ideas for ss's room too, as dh wants to set him (read them) up with a 'media centre'( = computer gaming room/boys hidey hole) and thus he'll need new units to pop his stuff on, rather than the current status of stuff all over the place, trust me a hazard warning sign is required at the moment! Most of it is dh's fault however, as he keeps dumping his man stuff in ss's room. Most men have a 'man drawer', or desk or somthing, in which they chuck all their junk, dh has ss's room....one of these days I will train him otherwise.

Sunday 18 January 2009

Momentary lapse in dieting

It was the damn Tirimisu, I tell ya, it didn't look 8.5 points, ahem.........but it was bloody lovely
:-) and as its the start of the dieting week, I'm sure I can work it off.......wanders off to find a carrot to nibble on or in fact do some Owly crafting as she should be doing!

Wednesday 14 January 2009

Birdy Twitterings

So I got my Owl Swap Partner today http://www.lifewithnaturegirl.blogspot.com/ I think her dd and my dd1 would get on great, we have gallons of fairy dust kicking around the house too :-)
The Owl swap can be found on Meridians blog, courtesy of my links page if you want more info, although in its basic form it is what it says on the tin, though not live ones obviously ;-) more of a theme there, just in case you were thinking of calling the RSPCA or the RSPB. Plus a few other goodies, as we all need a bit of cheering up at this time of year eh?
So I guess I'd better get crafting!

Today was a day off 'normal' work at the store as dd2 decided that I was her designated adult to go swimming with her! as its been dh for the past 4 months, I was rather shocked, but my hair needed washing anyway, so we had fun pouring watering cans over each others heads, her swimming has really come on and she transfers to water playgroup in March when she's 3, I have to say I'm sure she'll be swimming without floats very soon, she's so confident :-o, doesn't bat an eyelid at sinking or anything (reminds me of ss when he learnt to swim, drowning with style!) I did the school and ballet runs too, although dd1 only for ballet, dd2 and two older siblings belonging to other families played on my dslite (dd2 has her own, but it wasn't with us) happily instead!

When we got home we made some Bird Feeder cones, courtesy of Meridians ds's Cheerios Cookbook. Here's what you need to do if you want to make them:

1 x Ice Cream cone (we used flat ended ones)
String
Needle
Wild bird seed/peanuts without shells/sunflower seeds
Peanut butter
Knife
Tray

Thread your string through the needle, tie a knot at one end.
Take your Ice Cream cone and make a loop of string through the pointy or flat end (we only pierced the cone once, then made a loop above it, but you can pierce the cone twice if you like?)
You should now be able to hang your cone from a branch or hook.
Get your tray and cover it in bird seed.
Now open the peanut butter and spread the cone with it (I did this for the girls, as dd1 (5) tried it and her spreading lightly skills were not good on a wafer cone)
Now roll the cone in the bird seed and it should all stick to the sides. You can spend time merrily decorating it with peanuts, sunflower seeds etc in patterns and you can even add the cheerieos whose idea this whole thing was if you like!
Voila! Bird Feeder.

Saturday 10 January 2009

Brrrrrrrrrrr its cold/Home Shopping

Totally freezing here all day apparently -1 is the warmest its gotten. I'm really hoping this lovely cold winter, will bring about a proper spring and summer for a change too (or is that too much to ask of our knackered climate?)

In the spirit of a freezing Saturday, we have huddled at Meridians this am, the grownup's drinking coffee, whilst the kids played various ds games.....and watched some of Clone Wars, till they got bored. We've also crawled around Sainsburys, along with the rest of town, as it was mega busy. I don't know what the check out assistant made of us, but with one chicken (for roasting tomorrow) and rather a lot of soup (4 x tomato, 5 x dh for the week and 5 x weight watchers for me) plus bread and canned fruit, I'm sure she must have been giggling to herself in her head at my obvious health kick. There was a packed of chocolate biccies on there though, just because they we're half price and the kids nagged me, soft touch me eh!

Last night after work, I de-iced the car and Meridian and I popped over to a friends, who was having a Virgin Vie party, we were the last to arrive and things were in full swing, so we snuck to the back of the room and perused the catalogues, whilst our friend got her face made up and the products demonstrated. I've ordered ssomething that is supposed to diffuse light and make my eyes look human in the morning, plus some new foundation, as I'm not happy with some stuff I brought last year (not virgin product), not that I wear it much anyway, but I'm not getting any younger, so every little helps :-) They also had some facecloths on sale, at 2 x £1.50, which I thought was good, they're 99p each in Boots, so I got those too, if I don't use them, the girls will. So not quite a cheap night out for me, but good to see friends and get out of the house after my confined Christmas.

Tuesday 6 January 2009

How's the diet going?

Well Meridian asked the question, so I'd better answer it!

Yes, I've done the traditional new year thing and shoved myself onto a diet of sorts. I say of sorts, as actually this is how I should eat all year round, but living with 4 other people your eating habits tend to change, often for the worse. Thus I am attempting weight watchers once again. It worked for me after giving birth to dd1, when I'd put on loads of weight, mainly I think due to bagles in pregnancy (raisen and cinnamon ones to be precise) I didn't intentionally over eat them, just had one a day and well, you know what happens (kinda like Peter Kay says Chips = Hips!) It did take me roughly a year to loose the excess weight courtesy of dd1, it also took a lot of aikido classes and a spot of running too, once I'd had dd2, aikido became near imposible (sob) so I joined the local gym, which has pretty much kept me in trim (and it only took me 8mths to loose the dd2 weight) but I have to say over Xmas in particular, eating rubbish has taken it's toll, so its back on the wagon for me.

Thus we're now eating lots of healthy soups, which is good becuase dh likes those. I'm avoiding the really fattening things with mega points like bacon, (sausages not too bad they're even in the recipe book bit, that you get with the cd) and not having much pizza....can get away with a few slices and salad, rather than a whole pizza to myself, ahem (whispers, its living with dh you know!) There is some grumbling from dh's direction about, oh no, not roast veg again, which is silly, because its lovely, I guess that's just a man thing, most of the ones I know only 'do' peas.....

I've also been a very good girl and started using the gym more than once a week again (I missed it for the whole of Dec due to that row, see previous posts) I have advised dh, much to his glee (he can spend more time at work on online games when I'm not there to monitor him) that I will be missing from work for 1.5 hrs a day, due to excercise. (the benifits of self employment are finally being reaped 5 years on)

I managed gym yesterday, where I walked fast uphill (apparently better for you than running on weightloss stakes?) cross trained, rowed and weight lifted (are you feeling tired yet?) Today I did Yogalates, (Yoga/Pilates crossover), although I have to say I liked the look of the keepfit class which was on before too (another mum friend came out of that one and said it was good) So I will probably try that one next week. Tomorrow I have dd2 all day, so nothing going on, but Thursday I've scheduled a swim with Meridian and Friday its Yoga. Hopefully variation is the key to keeping it interesting and loosing my podgy middle bits, be gone muffin top, alakazam! we shall see?

Friday 2 January 2009

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all, although I've broken my resolution to write 1000 words of creative writing every two days (that can be 500 per day or 1000 in one day right!) but I have been at work 09:00-20:00 so surely that lets me off today, and yesterday I was hungover as hell, so you know...more on that tomorrow anyway as its late, goodnight all.