Midlands Midlife

New Year!

2011-01-12T15:01:00.000-08:00

Hello blog readers, hope you're all having a great New Year, yes I know this post is a little late to be mentioning that, but better late than never eh!
Things have been a tad busy here, hence my other frizforthewin blog got abandoned too, right about the time we moved house and lost web connection for 2.5 weeks (ARGGGGHHHHHH I hear you gasp?!)
We'll it's all sorted now, but I don't recommend moving house 3 weeks before Xmas.....especially with the whole Santa thing to do, let alone trying to find the rest of...well...everything you've ever accumalated....particularly in the snow, as we did......I'm surprised I'm still sane (at least I think I am? answers on the comments please!)
Currently our New Year has started with all the kids deciding to be ill, oh the joys of cleaning up sick.....and now we're onto the horrible coughing bit, poor dd2 is sounding very rough.....might have to go to the Dr's with her yet :-(
Anyway it's late, so I'm off to bed! but I will post again soon :-) Have fun until then!

A wedding!!

2010-08-26T13:13:00.001-07:00

Oooh we're off to a wedding tomorrow for the day, not just any old wedding this one either, because it's at a zoo!! Chester Zoo to be precise www.chesterzoo.org I have to say our wonderful friends had a cracking idea getting married there, our kids are sooo excited! (as I do believe is theirs too) We apparently get to look around the zoo before the wedding, then afterwards apparently we get to play with the monkeys (more on this later of course!)
In the meantime I'm hoping I fit into one of two dresses that appear to be my options for wearing tomorrow....I've been that busy with work this last week or three that I've had no time to look for anything to wear! yikes......sure it will be ok!
Keep your fingers crossed that the weather clears up ok, we need a lovely day for the bride and her groom :-)

Life and the art of not posting

2010-08-18T15:33:00.000-07:00

Far too busy of late, but it's 23:34, tea is cooking in the oven, the girls are on holiday with Gran, stepson is at his mums and husband is still not back from work, so I have a few mins to post! and catch up with the world.

August is a whirl! we've done a week in Wales, at LARP (Live Action Roleplay) for those of you who don't know what the hell I'm on about www.ascendancylrp.co.uk is the system dh and I run with the help of lots of ref's and crew! It rained 5 days out of 7, particularly spectacularly the day MeridianAriel came to see us! thank goodness for the local McArthur Glen at Bridgend, or we'd have been a lot soggier (incorporating Starbucks obviously :-) )

(and now I have a cat trying to share my knee!)

This week, as above, the girls are away with Gran, so that we can both go to work, as we have staff off on holiday! (kids and working evenings do not go!) and we're trying to get the house painted up as we're putting it up for sale in the hope of moving (nearer the bbsitter - Gran!) I've tried to paint our bedroom celing tonight, but failed, as didn't have enough paint left in the tin, so it's half done! 'fail'

Gah gotta dash, husband has arrived and tea needs eating, before it's time to get up again.

Thank you gifts

2010-07-30T04:45:00.000-07:00

My lovely friend Meridian Ariel and her husband have helped our family out a heap over the last few weeks leading upto the holidays, as I needed a hand with childcare after school, due to staff holidays at work and then to top it all our car kept breaking down and her lovely husband kept flying to my rescue, from the roadside and then helped us again by ferrying us all around until we got mobile again.

This deserved a BIG THANK YOU, So I decided to make them something, (as handmade is always better than shop brought) but what do you make the queen of crafting and baking that she can't do better herself?

The only thing I could think of was scones, so that's what I did, here's the recipe and the photos for you to enjoy. I took them round with a pot of jam and some clotted cream, as that's what goes best. I also cheated and get her a bunch of flowers from the supermarket, but you can't really make those yourself can you eh?

Fruit Scones

Heat oven to 220
Grease a baking tray with margarine
You need:
8 oz of self raising flour
2 oz margarine or butter (softened if butter)
1 oz sugar
1 egg
Milk to make upto 125 ml or 1/4 pint of liquid
Salt and a Teaspoon
Fruit of your choice (dried is best but you could happily experiment!)
A rolling pin
A cookie cutter or a knife

1. Mix flour and half a tea spoon of salt, rub in the margarine until you get a fine consistancy.
2. Stir in the sugar and fruit
3. Mix the egg and milk together, then add most of it to the mix, (save a bit for the tops if you like) watch the mix doesn't get too wet here, as you need to be able to roll it out, if it does, add a bit more flour.
4. Kneed in the bowl or on a floured work surface, when your happy with it, (should be roll outable, a nice soft and spongy dough, not soggy, add extra flour until you're happy you can roll it out) turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out into 1cm thickness.
5. Grab your cookie cutter and get making scones! pop them onto your baking tray, if you want shiny scones, brush a bit of the egg and milk mix on the top, if not don't,
6. Bake for 10 minutes.

Chefs note: You don't actually need a cookie cutter, my mum uses a knife and makes triangles or squares.

Happy scone making!

Summer Garden Goodies

2010-07-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

This summer we've been busy trying to grow a variety of stuff in the garden with varying success. Peas have been great, the girls have had lots of fun shelling them (and eating them in the process) you can't beat fresh peas, they taste so great and are that easy to grow even I can do it! This year we did ours in a large garden pot, just sewed them in a z shape, as per the packet, and kept on watering them, the result is as below, with the only hardship being the purchase of some pea/bean netting for them to grow up (we scrounged the canes from my mum!)

I attempted a few lettuce too and the result is below, two Lollo Rosso just about ready to eat.

A few years back I purchased five strawberry plants that did nothing...then last year, they kicked into life and sent runners off everywhere and fruited like nobodys business! unfortunately I developed a slight rodent problem too, so we didn't get any fruit for ourselves, but this year, rodent issues sorted, I learn't my lesson and got the netting out, which miffed our local friendly blackbird, but got us a prize haul of strawberries for the last two weeks!

A strawberry ripening, they taste so lovely, freshly picked.

The end result, one days haul, ready for some sugar, cream or ice-cream!

The funniest thing was, after a whole week of eating strawberries, the kids started to beg me not to feed them strawberries the next week! so we made a huge pile of milkshakes and smoothies with them instead! (who ever thought we'd get sick of strawberries eh!)

10 Seconds to myself

2010-07-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

So what do you think of the new blog layout then? I've had 10 seconds to myself today! or at least that's how it feels, despite the kids being away at the grandparents for the weekend, husband and I have had so much to catch up on and do! (like spend an evening together, that's not at work or talking about work!) At last I've found the time to tinker and post though, hopefully will be doing a bit more of that, now that we're getting straighter :-) with life, work etc. I've even had time to read a few of my friends blogs too :-)

Little and Large Craft Swapping

2010-05-10T06:16:00.000-07:00

Dd1 and I decided to partake in a craft swap to help pass the Easter holidays, as she loves creating and crafting things, I thought this would be an ideal thing for us to do during the hols, which are usually wet and horrible, particularly as I was mainly off work! Typcially it decided to be lovely and sunny and thus the whole close came out to play for the two weeks, so dd1 didn't make quite as much stuff as she usually would have done for the swap, but as it was billed as adults too, I got cracking and I hope our recipients liked what we did for them. The picture above contains dd1's peg doll and bracelet, all made by her, then the Tooth Fairy pillow and the Head Band were crafted by myself. I added goodies from Lush, as noted on the swap info, along with some chocolate, Oreos and two packets of Tinker Bell sweets recently arrived from USA from dd1's friend H. (dd1 wanted to share, as you can't get them here!)

In return we got the goodies in the picture above, plus some yummy Green n Blacks Butterscotch Chocolate for me! As you can see we have a great Lion, Horse (who glows in the dark) and bracelet made by our small swapee for dd1. The fantastic knitted Pokemon, were knitted by our large swappee, who is a genius! if I'm right we have a Piccachu and a Jumpluff, plus a great Mario Mushroom :-) apparenlty they're amigurumi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amigurumi
I think you have to be more talented than I am to knit them, but I must say I am quite tempted to give it a go when I get time! dd1 is very impressed and will be taking them to Pokemon Hobby League with her this week, I bet all the kids will want them :-)

Gah I'm out of time, I have to dash to school, more from me soon! (ish) in my terms of blogging at the moment, that will be about another three weeks.....bye!

I want to blog

2010-05-04T14:52:00.001-07:00

I want to blog about some crafting stuff I've been doing, but sorry I can't yet folkes, as the recipient hasn't confirmed it's been recieved and just in case she's aware of this blog!! so coming soon....

Happy Eastes Sunday /Gardening against the odds

2010-04-04T04:24:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter Sunday! Whaddya think of my biscuit then? masterpiece eh! well the girls, their friend and I had fun doing those yesterday afternoon, kept us entertained. This morning however I have been doing other things.

The morning started with my lovley REM sleep being disturbed by a very excited daughter wielding an Easter Egg, all good, the Easter bunny has done his job well. REM 0, Kids 1. So dh distracted the kids by letting them eat an egg each and I got half way through my friends 'Kick Ass' Graphic, before an almighty crash signaled the end of 'A's plantpot and stand (very sad as inherited from his deceased mother) and one very upset dd1, as she realised the significance of what her dancing had done........

Fastforward a few hours, graphic finished (yay) and breakfast out of the way, I decide to pot on a few of our attempts at the growing of veg and flowers for the year.

Above are our lettuce seedlings, nestling in garden fleece, in a hope they may survive.

This is when I discover that a) its blooming freezing outside, despite a mixture of sunshine and showers and b) that dd2 has been attempting to kill several of the plants all by herself....it's enough to drive you to chocolate (and more coffee) I tell you!

Below is a picture of a surviving sunflower, dd2 has discovered that you can happily kill them by slotting your finger nails through the stems.......she's also re-discovered the naughty step and an unhappy mummy, I'm hoping she's learned her lesson?

So in the end I managed to pot on the remaining few Sunflowers, (shame dd2 killed the best 3, sob, sob) 6 Tomatoes and 6 Sweetcorn as well. The results are displayed on our dining room table below, with a variety of other flower seedlings still waiting to grow. I've dragged the table in front of the window in the hope that this will assist the growth, should the sun every escape the cloud for 5 mins?

Happy Easter

2010-04-03T05:32:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter to whom ever is out there reading this blog!
Today has been a busy one so far, but as Meri is away I thought I'd pick up the batton and post for the 2nd time this year about our baking adventures!

A, the girls and I whizzed to Beeston briefly this morning, and whilst dh did things at the Bank, we legged it around Wilkos to get big pots for our seedlings to transfer into (more on that in another post), I then snuck into Cafe Nero for a quick frappe latte, so dh had no choice but to join me :-) mwah haha...then grabbed some cupcake cases from Sainsb's and dropped A back at work in Ripley.

Got home, grew another child from down the road immediately, so I thought right, I know what will keep the kids entertained, a spot of baking! told them, they all ran a mile, seems playing mums with babies is what they'd rather be doing today. So I baked in peace instead!

I've created some lovely chocolate biscuits for them all to decorate later this afternoon, when their friend gets back from swimming, we have lots of sprinkles, eggs, and a variety of coloured icing to knock up, which they can spoon over to their hearts content.

I also knocked up the lovely vanilla cupcakes that you can see in the picture, what do you think of my piping, not bad for my 1st ever attempt eh? dd1 did the box at school, it says to mum on the other side, alas the chocolate goodies that were in it seem to have disappeared before I got a look in?! and the smaller daffodils, now in the cup, were on dd2's easter bonnet (which was minimalist, as I only realised about it all the day before, ahem) I'm sure the friends we have popping by tonight will help us shift this abundance of cakes, failing that I doubt very much that we'll struggle, in fact I may just try one now, with some lovely Mocha coffee that my mum brought me back from the Caribbean, mmmmmm.

Photo meme thing

2010-03-27T15:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought as I've not blogged for aeons (or so it seems) I'd slowly get back into things by doing the meme, which I apparently got tagged with, just by reading Meridianariels blog! so if you're reading this may I suggest you do the same too :-)
Open the first folder and pick the 10th picture. It's that simple! in my case it turns out to be a lovely Sunflower in the garden about 3 years ago. Lovely summery picture, seeing the sunshine in it is making me hope for warmer days soon, even if the forecasters do say we have a further bout of snow to hit us before Easter is out. So until the next time dear blog readers.

2009-10-03T06:56:00.000-07:00

Well, my family are going to benefit from my slightly foul mood this afternoon if nothing else. Normally, well no actually, not normally these days (as I have kids, who hamper my mood loosing abilities these days) but in days past, when someone has aggravated me enough to get me into a bad mood, I've been known to go and stomp the hills for a few hours/miles until I'm feeling fresh as a daisy again, full of lovely clean (ish) air and nature and its wonderful calming effects. This afternoon however, as I have the kids in tow, I cannot do that, (if I did it'd be fruitless, as the whinging a 3 and 5 year old can produce when being asked to walk up a hill to admire a view, is beyond the limits of comprehension) so between random shouts of 'mummy' and screams of 'she did this, she did that' I've attempted to therapeutically bake my way to sanity.

This has mainly worked, bar me just attempting to have 5 mins with the cat on my knee to write this, during which time I've upset dd1, as I asked her to leave me alone, just for a few minutes, so she's now stomping about upstairs very loudly.....

So what's put me in a mood, my dearest daddy of course. The only person in the world who can possibly wind me up so much (although dh comes a close 2nd some times, but I can divorce him right? so he's never managed to hit the mark quite like an errant parent can, dd1 is possibly thinking this about me right now too....) Anyway the issue arose, when I asked my dad to meet me at the hospital and look after my kids for 15-30 mins in the canteen, so I could go and see my gran, his mother, who I've not seen for a week, due to visiting hours starting at school finish time and ending at the kids bed time (which is just about when dh gets home, if he's not working an evening) He said no to meeting me at the hospital............he did say I could travel an hour to his, drop the kids, go to the hospital (half hour back where I'd come from, then back to his to get my kids, then an hour home) surprisingly I said no, or should that be NO!

He is now going to the hospital to visit her, himself with my mum, but has refused to look after my kids for half hour when he's there, so I can see her too. I tell you, WTF is that about then? other than him behaving like a child? a very selfish one at that......my mum tried to offer to have them with him, but he's told her she can't? I don't want to cause WW3 between them, so I've just left it and come to grrrrrrrrr at home on my own.

The result of my Grrrrrrrrr so far has been Apple and Blackberry Crumble for dh, Apple Muffins for the girls and I (and Richard if he wants some too) plus a now rising loaf of bread, which needs another kneed soon, before it hits the oven. (I'm gonna kneed that Grrrrrr right out of my hair)

The house smells lovely and Autumnal now, lots of cinnamon spice (which incidentally was the first smell to hit me, when I got to Meridians this am) The girls had fun baking the muffins with me and coating them with cinnamon sugar, so its not been all bad for them either, particularly as they get to feast on them shortly too!

We also picked up some Pumpkins for carving today too, although its a bit early for that, on Meridians recommendation we went to the farm that sells mainly apples and 'woot' only £1.00 per pumpkin, so we have two adorning the fire place now, I guess its a spot of crafting next then, after all October is the month to 'do' Halloween.

Tis the season....

2009-08-24T08:27:00.000-07:00

Tis the season to purchase new PJ's is what I say! well it wasn't exactly what I went out for initially, but you know, a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do right?

My day started ominously enough, with tummy ache, so I ignored the fact I'd pledged to my fattening tummy that I really would attend body combat today and instead accepted a cup of Earl Grey tea in bed, which promptly went cold as dh let me sleep for another hour, 9am wake up bliss! but I have kids, so cold tea is really not a problem, kinda the usual really (Mondays in case you hadn't guessed are a day off work here, and with the kids being off school an excuse not to shift!) I eventually surfaced, fed the kids and dunked and de loused them. (Yes folk's! we're a nit free house once again, stage 2 treatment complete 'salutes the air', well until summer club tomorrow again anyway, when I swear I will kill someone if dd1 brings them home again.....)
then I promptly left dh with the kids, as he'd kindly offered to 'look after them' whilst I went to meet my old friend Sue for lunch and a natter.

Obviously when girls get together, we can rattle on a bit, which we duly did whilst working our way around several home stores (including Ikea and Starbucks twice!) as we both needed a few ideas and bits of storage stuff, then it all kind of went awry when we just popped into Next for a look around and I remembered I needed some tights (its nearly autumn right) and then I saw some lovely new slippers, and well the PJ's next to them did match, so......gah! I brought them....after all the nights are drawing in and it was kinda cold last night, so surely I can't begrudge myself new PJ's eh? I did stop short of buying the hoodie top to go with them, I figured I may let myself have that later in the year, when it gets truly freezing......the good news is I didn't buy any actual clothes from there, as the only top I liked looked horrible on!

I get home to the ominous sound of dh exclaiming 'what have you been doing down here!'
'ah' thinks I before opening the door, classic absent parenting must have been going on whilst I was away (the sort that involves an X-Box for the man and the house and contents for the kids) ....I didn't stay long, just long enough to admire the mess, the kids in swimsuits? and a harassed dh, whilst saying 'I'll go to Sainsburys to get something for tea then dear' whilst he looked disgruntled.

When I got back again, the place was tidy with grovelling kids :-) So I coerced them into baking a lemon cake with me, which might yet be a drizzle icing one, as we've not gotten that far yet, because its still baking. I've even rustled up some chicken and Mediterranean vegetables now ready to cook for tea, not sure what's come over me? its the most domesticated I've been in weeks! maybe its the seasons running two weeks early (according to the BBC) is making me go all Autumnal and nesty now?

50's B Movie Craft Swap

2009-07-15T08:23:00.000-07:00

This is what arrived in the post this morning from http://miyasohoza.blogspot.com/ for the 50's B movie craft swap that Meridian sorted out for us all. Do you like my gwibbly blob monsters? the kids do, and guess which one they've been fighting over! that's right the Pink one, dd1 has won so far and its in her bedroom. I've also got some lovely choc to scoff whilst watching the enclosed DVD 'The Vampire Bat' eeeeeekkkk!!!!! plus a lovely eye mask to help me get some decent rest and more thread for stiching yay!

Here's what I sent to Miya, A Were Rabbit Tea Towel, some evil mushrooms to hang, a booklet for the warding of vampires, some knitting needle bracelets, plus yarn for knitting and some scrummy choc and choc covered popcorn for watching B Movies with!

What a cool swap, wonder if I can create the time for another one this year?

Gibber

2009-07-06T07:48:00.000-07:00

What on earth did I just do???
I've entered an online writing competition, yikes.....good news is its an American thing, so I won't even be keeping tabs on it, just waiting for the rejection email instead! still at least it means I've written something! gotta be in it to win it as they say.
Its all Meridians fault, she decided that we'd do something slightly different for the book and writing group this week and she found the competition! I'm hoping she's submitted her Poision Apple Tree story as its rather good, will beat my pathetic entry by far! mind you they're also two totally different types of fiction anyway!

Other news this week, Loki our new cat is settleing in well, he's got a reprieve on the VET for his injections until next week, as they want to be sure he's 9 weeks and cat rescue weren't sure if he was 7 or 8 weeks when we got him, so he's up for jabs next week instead. He's been shockingly using his basket, which in my experience cats just don't do, I mean come on, they're usually 'better' than that right, you know, entitled to use the bed/best seat they can find in the house, but hey I'm not complaining. He's been a star with the litter tray, no accidents so far and is slowly learning to jump from sofa to sofa and up onto the chairs. The table has been attempted a few times, but he's been immediately lifted to the floor, so has given up until we're not looking. Other news is, smoked cheese and curry are a must attempt to get to eat, no matter how much dh and I say no! thus he's generally spending mealtimes in a different room to us, as we hate to see him so disapointed! He's currently sitting on my tap as I type, trying to chew a bangle I crafted yesterday round at Meridians, I'll post pictures later, as I don't want to spoil my craft swap for the 50's B Movie swap, that Meridian has organised, as I've just posted it today, but its off to the states, so will take around 2 weeks to get there! keep your eyes peeled on these here pages!

Our new addition

2009-06-29T09:19:00.000-07:00

Meet Loki, our new addition to the family! We've been expecting an arrival for a few weeks, and on Sunday got the call from the Cats Protection League to say that they'd found us a suitable young man and I have to say I think they got it spot on.
He's 7/8 weeks old and has lost his mummy to a traffic accident........not that he's bothered now, as he's getting lots of fuss and attention here, let me tell you this is not a timid cat. The current reciept of his attention however appears to be the patio window blinds, a source of much amusement it appears, good job his claws were snipped this morning before we got him, so at least he's not climbing them today at least. Dd1 has so far drawn him two pictures of himself and re allocated her toy dog kennel for him to sleep in, dd2 is still at nursery so has yet to meet him, no doubt that will keep us amused until bedtime!

Strawberries Nil

2009-06-22T05:41:00.000-07:00

This year I've been attempting to grow various things in pots. We've not got much border in which to do growing left, as I seem to have covered it all in bushes and herbs! So in an effort to show the girls how to grow their own food (like they paid much attention really) earlier we sowed a few trays of seeds, plus a few outdoor pots and now here are the results starting to come through! The pot above contains spring onions, I nibbled two for a taster with some sausages yesterday lunch and they were lovely, although they could do with another week or two to grow a bit more yet, so I shall refrain from harvesting any more just yet (Richard its a good job I forgot to send you home with some!)

The pot garden in all its glory.

The Grow bags contain far too many tomatoes, so I'm expecting a bumper chutney season in Autumn, although I may loose one plant yet, that is growing sideways mainly I assume due to the wind, but its stem is getting rather waterlogged, so may rot......

You can also see (left to right) Spring Onions, (back pot) Strawberries, 2 x Carrotts and finally Peas! Hopefully we shall have good crops from all, but we shall see........one thing I have learnt is that the table could do with moving, as whenever I put up the umbrella, it puts half the pots in shade....sigh.

Here's a photo of my fantastic strawberries. Well they were fantastic, we've had some very good eating off them, right up until the point that a small rodent, I think its a vole, has decided to start nibbling them.......we saw it bold as brass yesterday, running through the patch, taking a nibble out of each of my lovely ripening fruits......it ran away for all of 10 seconds when it realised I had spotted it, then it crept back.....I need to borrow my friends cat.....or get one of my own, dratted vermin. So yesterday it was Strawberries nil, invading nibbler 6........I was going to get netting, but they tunnel right? (the strawberries are in the remains of the border) sigh, moggy it is. I really wouldn't mind, but these strawberries did nothing last year, bar chucking off other runner plants, so to get all this lovely fruit this year, was something amazing! yet now I'm foiled again, who'd have thought gardening was so painful?

Storms

2009-06-17T01:06:00.000-07:00

Monday late afternoon was a day for some good storms in the UK it appears! Although we didn't get a direct hit here, due to being up a huge hill and thus having some weird weather conditions at the best of times, this photo shows the storm front approaching from the west. It was a rather weird evening in all, as we could see the storms swirling around our house from all sides, but mainly we stayed in the 'eye' if you like (except it wasn't a hurricane, so surely can't have an eye?)

I wish I had a better camera, these photos do not do the cloud formations justice really.

What dh and I were seeing was 'proper' cgi, classic end of the world clourd swirls here, but sadly my little finepix camera, didn't quiet get the formations right.....I did call Meridian to get her dh to go out and take better pics with his mega equipment, but not sure if he got anything much from where they live? I'll wait for the rsvp on that one!

Anyway thought you might a like a few cloudy photos for a change, I may have to ponder on getting a better camera though (expensive hobby alert!)

Vive la France

2009-06-11T13:20:00.000-07:00

Well, after the week of rain we've had here in the UK, I thought I'd cheer myself up (and anyone else whose reading) with a couple of pictures of lovely sunshine!

The Marina at Frejus, Cote D'Azur, France.

So we're back from our jollies to lovely, sunny, warm France, straight back to torrential rain in the UK, nice to see some typical British Summer Weather again......very tempted to get straight on a plane back down there again, I'll tell you!

We had a lovely time, splashing in the 6 pools on the caravan/camping site we were on (yep 6!) This is where we stayed and I'd recommend it to anyone whose looking for a great cheap getaway for themselves or their family. http://www.labaume-lapalmeraie.com/ Their photos are lots better than mine too!

As we'd hired a car whilst down there (lovely Toyota Corrola Verso, want one!) I managed to drag the horde off camp a few times, so we enjoyed perusing the 'local' supermarket 'Carrefour', who are about as local as Walmart these days.....but they had some nice goodies in there, so no complaints here! was particularly impressed by the range of Graphic Novels and Manga in there, you wouldn't get that in UK supermarkets.

We managed a trip into Frejus, the local town, although I don't have any digital photos of that to share, which is a shame, as its a lovely old place, with an assortment of Roman ruins dotted throughout. I did remember to take a camera to the Marina and beach though, so you can enjoy a spot of summer sunshine through those.

This is the view towards Saint Raphael.

We also managed a visit to Port Grimaud http://www.portgrimaud.com/ which again shows the place far better than I can, lovely little purpose built little venice, opposite Saint Tropez, which is the otherside of the bay. We didn't go into Saint Tropez, as its a one road in, one road out town, and the queues are huge. Most people recommend a ferry across, but with 5 of us, it was a bit too pricey for our cheap holiday! So instead we sat in Port Grimaud, admiring the lovely boats on display, whilst ponder exactly how many millions they cost! As usual a week away wasn't long enough, but hopefully we'll get longer next year.

I came back to find that Meridian had sorted out the 50's B Movie swap and I have my partner! so now I have to get crafting, hmmmm what to do.......

Vive la France

2009-05-28T12:33:00.000-07:00

Says it all really, tarra, as they say round here, see you in a week or so, when I may finally have something worthwhile to post about, ttfn.

OMG its May!

2009-05-11T13:02:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delayed realisation that its May and I haven't posted for nearly a month, I seem to be having a rather busy time of life, but I promise you I will be posting more shortly! decorating is now all done (for now anyway) so definately will post again before the week is out, promise!

Easter Weekend

2009-04-15T12:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry my posts have been missing for a while, I was rather poorly last week, unanticipated as these things always are, a quick two days in bed with the worst case of D&V I've had in years.....not recommended during your kids Easter holidays.........but I was better just in time for the chocolate and had obviously a huge excuse to eat my fill and gain the weight I'd lost being poorly!

However Easter came and went with a calculated lack of chocolate in our household. I'd anticipated the possibility of chocolate overdose, and worked around it, so the kids only ended up with one egg and a few mini eggs each, hurrah, a less fattening Easter all round. The pictures below show a few painted
eggs by dd2.
This one is by dd1.

On Easter Monday we managed a day out at Papplewick Pumping Station (with the Grandparents) as they were having an open day, which also involved Egg Rolling. dd1 a surprising hit there, she got the hang of it and came 3rd, much to her and our surprise! The Pumping Station itself is a fantastic grand venue and I'm sorry I only had my phone with me, so my photos are still on it! It opens its door to the public every now and again, and they had the old Victorian steam driven workings pumping away for all to see, quite a sight, when you consider the effort put into building such a structure in the first place. I think it took 6 boilers to keep it stoked enough in the days when steam did the trick on a local level, rather than the huge power stations and the grid that does the trick now. A great little site for the kids to see though, and it had some nice play areas, both park and science based, so the girls now know a bit more about the water cycle, getting water out of underground reservoir's, to houses etc.

Our back garden looking slightly more spring like.

Ok so here I attempted to show the Cherry Blossom in full swing, but the photo sure doesn't do the view from our garden justice. What a week its been in the garden......RAT is the main cry, we'll actually it went 'mummy, is that a squirrel hanging off the bird feeder?' to which I replied, yuk, no.......and thus the catcher man from the council is coming around tomorrow sometime to sort out our lovely row of houses, as it appears that our neighbour has the actual nest, whilst the rest of us, have a run through our gardens......shudder....it put paid to me doing an egg hunt in the garden let me tell you........

Owl

2009-04-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd blog a picture of this fantastic Owl carving that we saw last week whilst away in Staithes, available from the local gallery there, although sorry folkes, I don't recall the name, but I'm sure if you search you'll find it! I also quite like the metal shoal of fish to the left of Owl, although you can't see them as clearly.

A trip up North

2009-04-13T12:33:00.001-07:00

Fishing Boats moored on the river.

The harbour is just around the corner.

Where's the pirates?

Ah there they are!

A view to the beach at Staithes.

Ok I'm working backwards here, because I did the stuff in this post at the Beginning of the kids Easter Holidays, but here goes!

Friday 3rd April, kids break up from school, dh and I do the decent thing and promptly take them to the grandparents for the weekend! Oh, I know this sounds callous, but this was to be our wedding anniversary weekend away, ok so it was a few weeks late, but better late than never and the kids got spoilt with a trip to the seaside whilst they were there and anyone who know us, will know the GP's (as we shall call them) didn't have the kids at all last year, so this year, they're unwittingly making up for it!

Dh and I made our way to York, to the lovely Premier Inn and had a lovely night, eating and drinking in the pub next door, followed by wonderful sleep, not disturbed by anyone or anything. Shame we couldn't say this on the next evening, when the bit of the pub we were in got invaded by 5 families (count 'em) of loud Liverpudlians, who proceeded to sit, women, kids and blokes across the whole area on seperate tables, then shouting across to each other........they also set the fire alarm off at 7am the next morning, not impressed. But anyway I digress.....

Saturday was spent wondering around Harrogate first, with dh and I miss timing breakfast at every cafe we attempted to go into, ie they'd all just stopped serving by 5 mins.......teach us to be leisurely in our day....no all day breakfasts up there! that we found anyway. So we browsed shops and book stores, then bailed out back to York for the afternoon, where we made ourselves at home in Borders, Neros and several other random stores, as we pootled around savouring the atmosphere.

Sunday we headed upto Redcar to see Mark and Amanda. As it was Marks 50th Birthday, we all headed to Staithes, on the Cleveland Coast, for a spot of lunch, at a fabby proper music and local type pub, that M & A have been gigging at recently. All lunched out, we headed down the hill to see what the village was like, and boy is it lovely, as the photos will attest to. A 'reete' good piratey place, if ever I saw one, which has been turned mainly by the looks of it, into holiday lets or gift shops, galleries and restaurants. Beautiful all the same, as I hope you can see from the pictures above.

I'll fill you in on the rest of Easter later on this week, but sleep beckons for now and work has to be done for rather a long time tomorrow, so until the next time, adieu.

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T03:54:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter to all, been a bit weird here lately what with hols, illness and then Easter, but will post properly to catch up with you all soon, some nice photos too I hope!

Creative day

2009-03-29T05:52:00.000-07:00

So with Mothers day gone (for the UK at least) and Easter approaching, what better thing to do on a Saturday afternoon with the girls, than create an Easter basket, in which you can store a multitude of things! These baskets were courtesy of Home Bargin's, cause I'm a busy mum! and they had a fab selection of quick things to do for Easter, so for about 79p each, we now have these all made up. There's an Easter Hen stuck to each side of the basket, with lots of great ready to stick eggs, eyes, beaks, which is fab, as it means dd2 doesn't need to be let loose with glue, always a good thing. So whilst the girls decorated their hens, I made the baskets and handles for the middle (i.e. I stuck them together). Everyone is pleased with the end results though, will be good for Easter Egg collecting, should an egg hunt arise?

Keeping with a crafty theme for the afternoon, we decided to make chocolate cup cakes (I tried to sway the girls to lemon, or vanilla, with no success) here's our recipe if you get the urge to try it.

8oz Self Raising Flour

8oz Margarine/Butter

8oz Sugar (in this case not caster, but brown, as it was all we discovered we had left! if you find this, I recommend extra beating)

3 Eggs

and around 6 teaspoons of Green & Blacks Coco Powder. (its an add to taste thing)

Oven 180 degrees, for around 20-25 mins.

We then waited for them to cool and iced them with Water Icing (icing sugar and water to desired consistency for those of you who aren't at all familiar with this sort of thing) and decorated in an assortment of ways (I did mine with just jellybeans, but as you can see the girls let rip!)

Dd2's cake

DD1's cakes

We had a lovely afternoon creating these cakes and can all testify they are yummy to eat too!

Changing Rooms

2009-03-26T14:36:00.000-07:00

As you can see the Buzz Lightyear orange has disappeared and we're now looking at a rather pink and purple room! Grandad came over today to paint the bed white at dd1's request and I think its looking quite good, although it needs another coat yet, and there are still all the skirtings to do and the inside of the door, plus windowledge to paint and re seal (inside and out, damn the poor quality of our houses windows/the people who put them in, but that's another story) Dd1 is very happy with the quality of things and is looking forward to choosing her new curtains, lampshade and no doubt other adornments.

Owl Swap

2009-03-11T13:14:00.000-07:00

WOW! How fabulous are these goodies? Can you tell I have a very big smile on my face! They arrived in the post today from Naturegirl in USA.
I have to say I'm very chuffed, as are the dd's. As you can see we have two lovely crafted Owl bags, an owl oven glove, A little blue owl, who is hanging up in the kitchen as I type, some lovely green owl fabric for me to craft with, and some funky napkins and owl and heart chocolate lollies, which I have managed to stop the girls all eating in one go.

I'm now hoping my swap was ok, as I'm sure there's more here than I sent to Naturegirl, which is a bit embarrasing, ahem.

Dora Birthday

2009-03-05T12:47:00.001-08:00

Dd2 was 3 on Wednesday, so as she was faced with a mid week birthday, which is always rubbish by celebratory standards we had a party on the Sunday before, so ss could join in too.
We didn't have anyone round really, just family, plus Auntie Lizzy and two of dd1's friends! We didn't invite any of dd2's nursery buddies, as she can hardly name them, or at least she didn't bother to name them until the morning of the party, when she suddenly started checking that a naughty boy she doens't like, wasn't coming! yikes.........I explained that this year she's just having a small party, she gets a bigger better one next year, once she knows who her friends are.

So Dora the Explorer was the theme, so I made a cake and cheated, by purchasing Dora figures and sticking them on top, well at least you can play with them afterwards right? Underneath the icing was a scrummy chocolate cake, in fact it was that lovely I'm debating replicating it this weekend so Richard and Dave can take some home with them (as Dh informs me they are visiting Saturday night) after all you can never have too much of a good thing.

Dd2 got lots of lovely presents, including a lavender wheat bag, which can be viewed on Meridians blog. Her actual birthday on Wednesday saw an additional glut of goodies including a fabby hobby horse from Auntie Liz, which I have had to extract from bed again tonight, as it appears one should sleep with ones horse and not put it in the stable, as I keep insisting!
In fact I'm that worn out by this week of partying I can't wait to slow down a bit on Saturday, I'm just hoping I've not accidently arranged to do anything? I think I need a day at home in peace and quiet.

OWL Swap

2009-03-01T13:07:00.000-08:00

Finally I can blog my little owl!
I stitched and sent this cute little fella across to Nature Girl in Meridians owl swap the other month, but it took slightly longer than the stated 7 days to get to her! She finally received it last Wednesday, phew! so now I can publish the picture for the world to see. Its not too bad for only my 2nd attempt since school! from Nature Girls blog, she seems to like it too, hurrah.
Also included in the swap were chocolate for mum and Nature Girl herself (though I think dad got the choc!) and some wool (or yarn if you prefer to call it that) but silly me I forgot to take a picture of it all together, doh, well it was my 1st swap, can't get it all right eh?
Will post more in the next few days, as have been very busy with dd2's 3rd birthday, but more on that tomorrow.

A glimpse of spring

2009-02-22T13:29:00.000-08:00

So I went into the garden today to play ball with dd2 and we finally spotted some new life emerging from the ground. Eventually the above photo will contain some lovely yellow daffodils, but at present, ours being the most forsaken garden on the planet, a few shoots is all that's being managed.

The crocuses are making headway here though! (although I did find a poor purple specimen elsewhere that couldn't support the flower head on top, poor little weakling)

Finally a little fairly lonesome snowdrop, I don't know why these don't grow so well in our garden, maybe the grubs or squirrells eat them?

My quick look around the garden did set me thinking though. I do think a bit of remedial work is needed out there, I can see certain weeds getting a good foothold already and the grass is starting to escape the lawn in places and invade my border, so I guess that needs a dig.

Next doors bamboo invasion needs sorting out too, before it reaches our lawn, as that stuff digs in for miles if you let it. I'm also debating getting a small greenhouse, but as I'm sure I've blogged before, those cheap ones, just blow out of our wind ridden landscape.

This year I'm fancying growing more of our own veg, but without a greenhouse it takes far too long to ripen. We managed carrotts and spring onions last year and the usual tomatoes, but they all took ages to get anywhere compared to my friends with the glasshouses, who kept donating me courgettes, tomatoes, potatoes etc, so as I like growing things, I figure a small investment will be worth it in the long run.

Goodbye L'Orange

2009-02-18T12:51:00.000-08:00

Specifically Buzz Lightyear orange. As the photo demonstrates, it's out with the old and in with the new, 1st magnolia, minimum of two coats, to prevent those orange undertones, then pink or purple to suit dd1, whose room it is becoming. SS in the meantime is heading into dd2's room and dd2 into dd1's (did you get that?) as too swap just two rooms about would be far to easy eh?

Valentines

2009-02-15T03:10:00.001-08:00

Well dh outdid himself yesterday, not only did I get the huge bouquet (pictured above) I also had a lovely morning out with him. Baby/child sitting was arranged and off we went. 1st to Belper, breakfast at Fresh Basil http://www.freshbasil.co.uk/ Dh had a fry up, I had Eggs Benidict, yummy. Then we popped over to the chocolate shop, as dh hadn't been in there before
http://www.i-shouldcocoa.co.uk/ we the sauntered down the main street, until we got to the newish alternative store there, http://www.ultravioletonline.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&zenid=tpeb0d3j9t4idn830aha61iid6 which has some lovely clothing, shoes etc and they're planning to expand into all sorts of things, including Comics......well the more the merrier is what I say!
We then sauntered upto the farmers market and perused a furniture shop that just wouldn't be done with the kids. Some time left enabled us to drive out to Scarthin Books, where we did coffee, cake and perused for a while. Lovely day.

Snowman

2009-02-05T08:48:00.000-08:00

This is the 2nd snowman of the day, the first we made round at Meridians with her ds too, but then we got home and decided we needed a proper one in our back garden too.

More Snow!

2009-02-05T00:49:00.001-08:00

The collective views from our house this morning.

As you can see, its a snow day here! wooo hoooo, the kids are very happy, dd1 in particular, as its her 1st snow day this year :-)

There a bit upset that Grandma isn't coming over to see them, as she's been on hols, so they've not seen her in a whole two weeks. I'm guessing they're also hoping she's brought them something back to eat or play with, so they're probably more disapointed that they have to wait for that. Fickle kids hmmmmm.

Dh says I'm happier than the kids and that I'm a total weather geek, so Karma got him back on that one, when he fell over half way down the road this morning, he did a fantastic sideways fall, in an 'argh did anyone see that, quick pick myself up and dust myself off before anyone spots it' sty-lie. Poor mite didn't have any gloves on either, as he left his with me, as we cannot find my ski gloves anywhere???? I may well have to go into the loft and get my ski trousers in a mo or two though, rude not to use them when you have chance.

The day the world went upside down!

2009-02-02T11:57:00.000-08:00

Sunday started happily enough, I ran Pokemon Platinum pre release, a well attended event, where everyone had fun, walked Gabe back home afterwards, then left dh handling the kids, whilst I went back to store to run YuGiOh! with Mike. All was going swimmingly till it started to snow. SS had to go back to Leeds. We rang his mum, no answer.....she never rang back.....so by the time it came to take him home as originally arranged in early evening, the weather was making things slightly tricky. So we braved it. The M1 north of Sheffield turned out not to be gritted (despite signs saying gritters were out, we saw none and it was obviously not gritted, a fact Ken Livingstone has suggested on the news this evening, was due to overtime costs on a Sunday, why do anything prior to midnight eh?) Thus, when the snow got heavier, the 3 lanes, turned to one, being tentativly driven by a stream of cars. We were however still moving, unlike the opposite side of the Motorway, who just past the Barnsley turning had a bus, on its side to contend with. We viewed the que and the weather with interest as we continued north.

SS was duely dropped back at his mums, who apologised for not ringing back earlier. We were then left with a choice. Go and sit in que from hell and wait in the increasing snow for the upturned bus to be removed (with two small children in the car) or attempt to find a hotel. We did the latter. The lovely people at Premier Inn at J39 had no room, so they rang the other local ones for us until a room was found at J41. We got back in the car and headed north.

I have to admit I do like Premier Inns, we don't stay in them often, as we usually have 5 kids in tow, the last time was when dd2 was still in a travel cot, they allow 5 in a room then! Most hotels don't do 5 people to a room, more's the pity. The kids got given some goody bags, with stickers, colouring and a bedtime story in them, which made them very happy. Then we dined in the oddly named Rhubarb Triangle pub next door, prior to retiring to our room, where upon I found Elbow in Concert, ideal for persuading the kids to sleep :-) although I have to say I quite like Elbow, but with the BBC Concert Orchestera in tow, it had the edge for getting the kids to sleep.

This morning dawned with someone thumping about in the room above us (5am to be exact), although I was the only person to notice this. Dh checked the snow at 6am, which was about 6" deep! So we decided to get up and risk the drive back to Ripley. We made it for 8.15am, just in time to change the kids, particularly dd2, who got travel sick 5 mins from home, bless her, she didn't know what was happening, having never thrown up since she was a baby, her face was a picture. Ripley didn't have lots of snow when we got back, but its sure made up for it since.

We were supposed to go to Spring Fair at Brum today, if the roads are ok, we may go tomorrow, am praying school doesn't throw a snow day.

Anyway I should post some snowy photos so here they are, complete with my snowman envy, the HUGE snowman is not ours, it belongs to a family down the road who've not long been living on our street. Dd1 goes to school with their little boy, though he's two years older, I think she may have a slight crush on him :-).

Our poxy snowman (I only had fleecy gloves, nearly lost my fingers)

The fantastic Snowman down the road (I hope you don't mind me blogging this! in fact this photo doesn't do it justice)

Our snowy street, I'm loving this weather, hasn't snowed like this in years, I fetched dd1 from school on the sledge! how fab is that :-)

Media Rant.

2009-01-30T14:10:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-30T14:09:00.001-08:00

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

Twitter

2009-01-29T12:23:00.000-08:00

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

Shameless

2009-01-28T03:13:00.000-08:00

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.

Girls Night In

2009-01-26T09:24:00.000-08:00

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.

Sad Loss

2009-01-25T14:55:00.000-08:00

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.

Who moved relocation relocation?

2009-01-21T12:50:00.000-08:00

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.

Momentary lapse in dieting

2009-01-18T13:19:00.000-08:00

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!

Birdy Twitterings

2009-01-14T14:17:00.000-08:00

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.

Brrrrrrrrrrr its cold/Home Shopping

2009-01-10T06:30:00.000-08:00

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.

How's the diet going?

2009-01-06T12:10:00.001-08:00

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?

Happy New Year

2009-01-02T15:29:00.000-08:00

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.

Temporary Rescue/Dept Store Hell

2008-12-30T12:37:00.000-08:00

True to their words, Meridian, her dh and ds we're at ours for 9am, so we loaded dd1 and myself into the car and set off into Derby.

The obligatory Starbucks was consumed, before we did a dash around the shops calling at Game for the kids to spend their xmas cash on Nintendo DS games and accessories, dd1 has purchased 'Dora saves the snow princess' whilst her friend got an Indiana Jones Lego cover and stylus set. I don't think they had the game he wanted, so he left it at that for today.
We scooted past the stationers, where Meridian got a fab storage box and headed back into the Westfield Mecca.

Cunningly Meridians dh then took the kids for a bite to eat, whilst we attempted to run around the shops. Monsoon came up tops and I have another daytime work type 3/4 sleeve warm jumper type top, whilst I got the kids the same top in different sizes (cream with sparkles) and dd2 got a leotard for ballet for a mere £4.50 :-)

Debenhams were next and I was giving them a go today as they usually have some ok stuff in there and they'd kindly sent me a £5.00 voucher to use, as I'd not shopped with them for a while and they wanted to tempt me back in. So voucher in hand off I went, I found clothes 2 x jeans to try on and a lovely Jasper Conran top. I went and stood in the que with Meridian, and waited, waited some more, drummed my fingers, tapped my feet, Meridian tried her tops on in the line as she got fed up.....the people in front of us, asked if any more changing rooms? no sorry, the other one is closed and the Warehouse one is full.......now from what I could see, we were in the entrance to a room, which could have held at least another 6 more cubicles than it appeared to have......we gave it another 5 mins, then Matt started calling to see where we were, so I passed the assistant my clothes and left. Meridian paid for her stuff, which was another one person on the till, 4 people deep que, so when she got to the front, not only did she complain, but I pointed out to the assistant that if their shop does go bust in the next few weeks, its not because of people not wanting to shop there, its due to lack of staffing in the right places and lack of rooms to try the damn product on in. Like most shop assistants these days, she just shrugged, another person not at all bothered to do a job well.

This has reminded me to stay shopping local, with stores whose proprietors and staff actually care about their customers. I shall be visiting Que's sale next week to get my jeans from there, they may be more expensive, but at least I can try the damn things on and get good service.

I dived into M&S to get some lovely desserts for New Years Eve, as we have a few people popping around for a glass of their choice and some games, although one person kindly told me yesterday that they will only be playing wargame based games, to which I sniggered and waved Articulate at them, so we shall see....I'm sure we can fit a few different ones in :-)

To finish the day off dd1 and I went for a swim, or rather more of a splash in her case, as despite my protestations about her trying to not wet my hair too much, I was drenched by the end of it, despite tying it up.....still her swimming on her back is improving, just really gotta get her feet off the floor when she's on her front, and it is pure lazyness that is making her put them back down, I think some more time in the big pool with her dad is needed. (I'm trying not to be pushy here, but her mates can happily swim on their fronts now and she will do it in class when asked, just never for me! oh the teenage years are going to be fun....)

Meridian to the rescue

2008-12-29T13:21:00.000-08:00

I'm being rescued tomorrow and taken into Derby, bless Meridian and her DH, exploits to be revealed tomorrow!

A nice paragraph from an old friend

2008-12-27T15:37:00.000-08:00

I found this, whilst perusing the internet this evening, from an old friend/associate John Harvey, who is also an esteemed writer, if your not in the know I suggest you check out his books, http://www.mellotone.co.uk/resnick.html
Sorry I'm a bit crap at the link thing, I must get Richard to sort me out!

'For most of the seventeen years I was in Nottingham, certainly once I'd started working on the Resnick novels, I would stroll around the city most days, sit on buses, walk the walk that Resnick took down through the centre to the Italian coffee stall in the market and sit there, never making notes, but watching and listening, occasionally chatting, feeling - if never quite rightly - that I belonged'.

That's nice to read, as mainly it was the 16/17 year old me that John was chatting to. Sometimes it was Sandra or Vito, but quite often me, (humour me fokes) he even turned up with a camera crew and Tom Wilkinson in tow one day (frapples ya got nowt on me mate) and thus I have appeared briefly on the BBC courtesy of John and his Resnick series. Last time I saw John I was running into a lift lobby, as he exited another lift, funnily enough in the Victoria Centre Complex Car Park, we both yelled Hi at each other, I still feel randomly guilty for not stopping and having a conversation, but sometimes you just don't you know? Hi anyway John, if you happen by this random post! doubtful I know, but Hope your doing good.

Bloody Garage

2008-12-27T08:17:00.000-08:00

Bloody Garage......grumble, isn't open again until 5th January.....grumble.....no car until then, minimum.....grumble, grumble, grumble.....

Yours sincerely stuck in Ripley.

Please visit if you happen to be in the vicinity, I may well go slightly bonkers otherwise.

Boxing Day and Christmas Car Tales

2008-12-26T13:18:00.001-08:00

Merry belated Yule/Christmas to all who may happen by this post.

A good Christmas here, including my present, which is why I'm on here Boxing day eve, a new laptop for me! Lots of lovely gifts this year, including some small dice, thanks very much Richard, chocolate bread mix (which will be interesting to bake) a fabby collection of Meridians homemade goodies, which have a multitude of uses from kitchen to bathroom and beyond. Booze a plenty and my humourous 'Office Goddess Mug' off set by dh's 'I don't do Perky' one, cheers to our staff for those :-)
Thus all is good bar the car issue on the Eve of the big day, which will no doubt cost lots of money...here is our tale....

Dh finishes work and calls me asking what I have done to the car? which he is retrieving from the car park. 'Nothing' says I....'but its grinding on the drivers side?' says he.....so he limps the car home. My dad and dh examine it on Christmas day, the front suspension has popped its moorings and is embedded in the front wheel.......eeeeek.....thankfully it didn't happen at 70mph or whom ever was in the car, probably wouldn't be here to tell the tale......not something either of us are happy about, as it only passed its MOT, last Thursday! One is now pondering if the garage have put the wheel on right? after said MOT, as according to ones father, if its not on right, what's happened can happen......argh! Anyway am going in with dh on Monday am, both of us, in person to discuss them picking our car up and sorting it out, whilst questioning if they could be the cause of the problem? as surely this would have been spotted if a hazard at the MOT? non???

The car issue put paid to our Boxing day trip to dh's brothers anyway, which is a shame, as the kids were all looking forward to it, plus now they're missing their presents too......plus as it was Dh's bro's birthday yesterday too, he's missing his birthday present as well, poor love.

Thus I/we are stuck in sunny Ripley. SS's mum is sending stepdad down to get ss tomorrow am, as we have now messed their weekend up with our lack of transport too.......

As we're stuck, I attempted to go out on my bike today. Foiled by dh, who insisted that we all go out together (I thought he was safely ensconsed on the Xbox, but alas no) So rather than get an hour to myself, I ended up dragging the kids across town with dh to Meridians for a coffee and some cake. Meridian was highly accomodating, as ususal and my intended pop by for a quick coffee, ended up in a two hour stay and assorted nibbles, kids playing on ds lites and various wii games, plus a scooter around the close. Still the walk blew the cobwebs away, for me at least, it was getting bitter on the way home mind, am glad to be inside tonight.

Thus we are now living in technological heaven, him on the xbox and me on the laptop, modern living is complete :-)

Its a win for me.....

2008-12-08T12:45:00.000-08:00

Ha, ha ha, ok sorry for the gloat but it has to be done, you see.......

Three weeks ago I thought I had over thrown the cold of wintery doom, so I booked onto pilates class. Tuesday morning I awoke and it was back with a vengance, so I called the leisure centre and cancelled, only to be told, not in time and a £3.80 charge was to be imposed....I protested, as at £28 per month that I pay for the use of their facilities, I wish to be able to cancel in good time and not pay extra, I feel the morning before a class justifies this. So I protested, they stood firm, so I cancelled my membership, (bearing in mind I haven't attended in a month at all due to said cold) que a week of wrangling, them saying, well how about this and me saying no, I want my £3.80 back, and thus it went on, I was offered 7 days membership for a friend, (I said I don't have any, like I'm gona recommend somewhere I'm trying to leave in a protest) and finally I win, they have given me back my £3.80 and have apologised for their crap policy. This does mean that I have agreed to carry on going for the time being (well it is winter, and its so cold outside for running, brrr) so its not a huge win of any great importance, but more a smaller challange to the larger silly bureaucracy I feel. Now I've got to start going again though, damn...maybe I should have thought that through more......

Goodies

2008-12-08T12:10:00.000-08:00

I've treated our house to a few goodies over the past few days, whilst I've been on my travels, which is good, as I've been searching for one thing in particular for quite a while. Its our new telephone stand :-) a £19.99 bargin.

O.K. so you now all know I'm totally bonkers, but I'm happily bonkers. I've needed a new place to put our phone since our hallway got its door through to the garage and we finally got a plug point in which to add the answerphone plug bit, so we can actually have an answer phone, so people know we're not toally ignorant and we can call them back. The problem has existed for where to put the phone since the house was built, and BT randomly whacked a plug point in the hall way half way up the wall, with no thought to where an electric point was at all......typical jobsworth bodge job. Thus all this time the phone has had to sit on the stairs, as it never had enough wiring or tacks to reach the living room (well actually it did for a bit, as the internet with wires, remember that folkes? lived in there for a bit, but it was miles of messy cabling across doorways, walls and celings, so it had to go with the advent of dd1) Anyway I finally found a plant stand that I could afford and which by a stroke of luck matches the new light too, huzzah, cheap can look good too.

I found the plant stand whilst out with my gran (great gran to the kids) who at the fantastic age of 94 is still just managing to hobble around without a walking stick, although she gave me several frights this weekend on the ice, by trying to insist on walking by herself, oh we're stubbord old things in our family, the women that is ;-) whilst I insisted that she hold my arm, and prayed the little ones didn't trip her up. I also got two lovely tea light stands for the Christmas dinner table, cheap as chips and the girls chose two dangly twiggy things with clear hearts on them, which are residing in a vase looking pretty now too.

Gran has enabled a lovely purchase for our family too, and we're very grateful to her, as she gave me and dh some money for Christmas, so we have wisely invested it in some new plates, which we have been needing for a long time, ok so its more of a dinner service, than just a few plates. It was a bargin however, as the shop we got it from had an offer on a 5 piece service. We've never had anything that looks remotely like a proper dinner service, so it will be a joy to eat from, particularly this Christmas, when we will use it with the lovely wine glassesthat Jon, M, Phil, Emma, Ashley and Jane clubbed together to get us when we got married :-) (that was a glass per person, you got it :-) ) crikey I'm sounding all grown up, that can't be right, mind you my friend hit 35 the other day, so that means there are only 3 more people, who I'm close to before its my turn, eeeeeekkkkkkkkkk, that's half way to 70, ok now I'm scared.

Crafting/the onslaught of Christmas

2008-11-17T11:25:00.000-08:00

Well folkes, its been a while, but whilst I'm babysitting at Meridians I thought I should sneak a little blog....

I've finally found time to do some crafting over the last week or so, as life has settled into a brief routine. This means i've managed sit at home, apparently ignoring dh, as I twiddle with things, some I can't mention yet and some I can, all will become clear after Xmas! mwah, haha. In fact when I'd finished the 1st item, dh was rather impressed, something I don't get out of him very often :-)

Carol knows about this so I can mention it! as she's commisioned me to do her a knitted belt for her larp, as we saw one up at the larp fair in barnsely, but rather than have her part with cash for it, I said, don't be daft I'll make you one for Xmas. Seems silly not to really, when the one thing I can do with a pair of needles is knit in a straight line. Thus this is my main project at present. In fact it'll be two belts, as I'm experimenting with one, whilst I find exactly the right shade of wool for the other, which is taking time. In fact I may feel a visit to Litchfield coming on in an effort to get what I want......its either that or oneline shopping, which I fear could be the opening of a very dark door, so I'm avoiding it like the plague.

So I am trying to get organised for Christmas.....to be honest I'm not doing that badly really. I have stuff for the kids, as they're not getting much this year, Santa being skint n all that jazz, but feel the odd stocking filler more may be required per child, not much mind, maybe just one more item each I think and the obligatory orange, just so I can listen to the chorus of 'I don't like these' from the eldest girl ;-)

I still have dh to buy for, and my mother, but that's it, everyone else is just about sorted. Not bad for mid Nov, oh that been said, a quick trip to Belper to
http://www.i-shouldcocoa.co.uk/about_us/ which is the fabulous little shop Meridian and I stumbled across the other week, whilst dh was in York, and I was letting our staff slave away in the shop. After all the kids needed entertaining dahling, and what better way to do it, than pop to the Farmers Market in Belper (they grazed their way around) followed by lunch a la chocolate shop (which is also opposite an amazing deli!) Which reminds me I have a problem for our next event, as parents away, one member of staff has left.....which leaves me.....paddle, creek, oh drat, back to the drawing board.

Our half term story

2008-11-05T12:44:00.000-08:00

I'm briefly online at the moment, as I'm still at work. The reason? dh is ill.....last seen in the vacinity of the toilet with a tummy bug, which we think ss had on Sunday night, probably picked up here in the store, by eating without washing his hands at a guess, after contact with who knows who? as its apparently going around.....I'm really hoping I don't get it, as dh is away this weekend (if he's better) running larp at York. Thus I need to be here to open and close the store (we have staff now, so they'll manage during the day)

Since I was last here we've experienced dd1's 5th birthday, a trip to the zoo, a trip around Meadowhall and the trip back home from ss's house, not all on the same day I hasten to add, but still the same week, in fact half term was positively mad.

The first Saturday we hitched a lift with C&M upto the LARP kit fair in Barnsley, I acquired some Xmas presents for Gabriel (being sent to Santa obviously) and had a nice pootle around a few of the buildings/stores in the same site, picking up a few other Xmas bits and bobs too. The Sunday was spent running Pokemon for me, whilst dh and the girls did? in the evening we trundled to H's birthday party, Halloweeon theme, which the girls enjoyed immensely. Monday the girls went to Butlins with the GP's (grandparents) whilst dh and I worked, mum kindly had the kids the next day till 4pm as well, so dh and I stole out to dinner via Toys r Us to get Birthday and Xmas presents. We attempted a romantic meal at Frankie and Bennies in Derby, only to be scuppered by knowing 3 people the moment we walked in, followed by a further 2 a few minutes later, lol.

Wednesday saw us attempting to pick ss up, we managed this bit, only to be scuppered on the way home, due to an unfortunate accident on the M1 (some poor soul died) thus a 4.5 hr trip home, via Sheffield, A61 to Chesterfield and the Ripley ensued. At 6pm I bailed us out into Frankie and Bennies again, as I was going potty in the car for 3.5hrs with the kids, who were being remarkably good in the circumstances, but teatime is teatime and an expensive one at that.

Thursday we all went to the Zoo to meet Auntie L and cousin W, I think the kids all enjoyed themselves, SS enjoyed the ghost train the most, even the bloke rattling the chains in the back. The dd's made witches hats and liked the rides there too, not sure how much interest the animals got, although dd2 keeps rattling on about the monkeys, so she must have paid some attention. T popped over in the evening and we had a lovely natter and catch up, as it's been over a year since I saw her last, due to work and life commitments on both of our parts. Doesn't time fly when your having fun?

Friday was Halloween, spent mainly at home, L was turning up, but postponed until Sat. I ran Halloween Pokemon in the evening, the joined dh at home, where I ended up back at Tescos, as we needed party food and stuff to sculpt dd1's birthday cake, a magnificent set of 3 swiss roll towers, in white icing :-) with an icing dragon and icecream cone towers, which dh and I completed in the early hours after much messing about, but it was worth it for the look on her face :-)

Saturday was dd1's birthday, L, finally turned up as did various relatives and fun was had by all. Plus a fair bit of catching up too.
Sunday was the birthday extension, as this time it was the friends party at a play centre, which was fun for them all too.

and that my readers is the story of the last week or so.... I hope you weren't too bored by it all, I'd love to post that I'd done crafting or something nice, but, oh hang on, actually I did manage a bit of cooking storage on Sunday whilst L was entertaing the kids for me, that was it, I peeled 30 apples, stewed and froze them, followed by par boiling and freezing the parsnips and making up soup for lunch which I also froze afterwards. Phew, I'm exhausted just thinking about it all.

AWOL

2008-10-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

Sorry if I've been AWOL for a while, I do have a good reason, no Internet access at home.
WHAT I hear you ask? no Internet?
Yes, that's right, I am net less, sob. The reason is not a lack of broadband, but rather a lack of computer at home. My pc has gone shopwards, as we now have an office upstairs there, so technically I can do accounts and personal stuff whilst at work, rather than at home. At the moment however this has not gone as planned, as our workload has increased on the run upto Christmas. Never mind, I'm sure it will all pan out in the long run, it'd better I only have a month left until year end......
So in the meantime I'm blagging the use of other peoples Internet, like Meridians now, as I'm babysitting round at her's, whilst waiting for Santa possibly to deliver me a cheap laptop of my own? maybe???

Hum, so what have I been doing for the last month anyway?

I can remember what I did yesterday. The kids, Meridian and I took a trundle out to Chatsworth House, for a wander around their farm park, with its fabulous play area. I took us some hot dogs in a thermos, for lunch, and I slipped down to the farm cafe to grab a take away hot chocolate, which I think tastes wonderful on a cold morning amongst the swirling leaves. Meridian begs to differ however, she's not into Styrofoam cups ;-)
We saw some roughly week old piglets, and a lovely Shetland pony, who had just been sold to the lady who had seen him before us. Plus the usual cows, sheep, goats, horses, guinea pigs and chickens.
The leaves at Chatsworth were a treat, not quite as red as you would get stateside, we don't get quite the same weather to create those colours, but there certainly was a lovely set of autumnal shades to the canopy, and we enjoyed sitting in a shower of leaves, whilst the kids ran riot around the park. When it got too cold, we retreated to the cafe for coffee and cake. Indulgent us?

I have to say this weekend was much better than last. I was supposed to be saying goodbye to my old friend Darren, who is off to New Zealand for a better life. As it was dd1 went down with tonsillitis on Friday, only it wasn't diagnosed until Monday, so whilst Andy was away larping all weekend, I was at home with a very poorly child (who yet again was supposed to have gone to Grans for the night, but was ill and unwanted because of that) so poor old me had to stay at home with sick kids, whilst all of my old mates went out to party and say goodbye (I have to say I developed a stinking cold too on the Sunday). Life really doesn't want me to party this year at all.

I did get around to Darren's to say bye on Thursday night, again with the kids in tow, and once dd1 had gotten over her screaming fit, we managed a drink and a bowl of ice cream and a play with his daughter too. I dare say I shall be popping back to Nottingham a few times to say goodbye to his wife and dd, who are following him later in the year, as the house still has to be sold, and things packed into containers etc. But I'm guessing it will be a long time before we see them again, bar via web cam, as New Zealand is quite a trek away.

If I ever get to go larping.....

2008-09-29T12:40:00.000-07:00

Scuppered again.....so just when we thought getting staff would do the trick and free me up to be able to do some more larping, my babysitting during the xmas party weekend in Dec has let me down, by ignoring the fact that they'd agreed to look after the grandkids, in favour of a lovely holiday in Tenerife, well you would really, wouldn't you? bugger and damn nation.

I bet the kids won't get up in the morning.....

2008-09-25T13:59:00.000-07:00

Cause Meridian and I kept them out far too late tonight!

Oopse bad parents we are, we ran off down to Asda (Walmart) in Spondon, to look at/purchase a few Halloween goodies for that fantastic evening that is Halloween.

I'm so glad that the English are starting to have fun with it like they do in the states, although I have to admit, that most of the stuff I brought, is for the shop, as its our Pokemon Evening, so I'll be there with lots of kids in tow having scarey fun. We also need to do the windows up for the month, so should look good now, with the bits I've brought! I still need to go to Sainsburys for the giant spiders though, as they have the best I've seen this year!

Meridian is now kitted out with stuff for her son's birthday party too, so all good there. dd1 and dd2 have new outfits for the day too, dd1 has gone girl devil, whilst dd2 witch, minus the hat, as it was the last costume on the rail in her size, and she wanted that one and only that one, but at aged 2.5 I doubt she'll wear a hat anyway?

What have I got? I purchased a 'bad fairy wig' so if you want to see what that looks like, may I suggest you visit the shop on halloween, or hope someone gets a photo of me in it! well it was that or the pink bob wig, that's lurking in the larp kit.......which reminds me, I have some bloodied angel wings in the loft......

Oh its Julie!

2008-09-22T14:56:00.001-07:00

My follower, bless you me dears. I knew someone out there was mad enough to follow me :-)

A Follower!

2008-09-22T14:54:00.000-07:00

OMG my pathetic excuse for a blog has a follower! must go and find out who it is now, I'm just in shock spotting it!

August and everything after (plus a snippet of July)

2008-09-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since my last post, mainly due to the kids summer holidays, which has meant all hands on deck in the shop, running games during the day and night time, whilst also juggling our own 3 kids (ok only 2 are technically mine, but I'm sure ss, will be happy to be included in the equation) and running the larp as well, phew, how do we do it! with exhaustion probably ;-)

I'm actually sat round at Meridians blogging away on her laptop at the moment, whilst babysitting her ds, so bless her for leaving me her internet access, plus access to great coffee and her wonderful apple muffins, which she hasn't blogged about yet, but surely should do as they're scrummy too.

I'm trying to think what we've actually done that's worthy of note during the month, so bear with me whilst I pootle on through.

The end of July saw me, the baby of the school year turn 34. On hand to help me celebrate were Liz and Jackie my old school chums, Merdian, Sarah and Alex, my maternity mates and Sue, my old UPS Pal and ex housemate, a lovely cross section of people from my various points in life. I also got a variety of apologies from other people, who opted out once we discovered I couldn't go out for the night, as it clashed with Magic the Gathering Eventide release at the shop. This was actually good, as not many more people would have fitted comfortably anyway. So instead we had a night in at my house, with pizza, nibbles and several bottles of wine, or none alcholic larger in Sue's case. Jackie kindly regaled everyone with tales of what a pair of minxes we'd been whilst growing up, including several incidents that I cannot remember happening (did I ever use a taxi and leg it down a twitchell (alleyway, or gunell, depending on where your from) without paying the driver :-O) She assures me I did, how embarrassing and slack of me, the things you don't remember when your drunk..... She also reminded me of poor old Oz, who apparently so wanted to be my boyfriend, only he never quite had the courage to ask, so just instead used to put up with me drunkenly snogging him when I'd exhausted my other options of an evening on a Friday night at Rock City.....oh yes, you can rely on your old mates to suitably embarrass you in front of your newer ones. I wonder what happened to the old crew we used to hang about with? neither of us see any of them anymore, yet we all spent a good 3-6 years in their company, before we stopped clubbing and drinking quite so much and got on with our lives.

Dh took me to see the latest Batman at the new Showcase Cinema De Lux for my birthday and it was lovely, now that is the way to do cinema. May I highly recommend you go and see both the film and the cinema. We had to do the old showcase the week after for Wall E with the kids and it was like sitting in a smelly cess pit in comparison. Lordy I'm turning into a cinema snob. Afterwards we attempted to go to Nando's for tea, but they decided to close early, thus denied, so we legged it back to our local pub and just scraped in before closing for a quick bite. I think I have a spot of karmic bother with Nando's however as the next time we went there, I was in my heals and went stunningly flat on my face ( keep your eyes on you've been framed for the footage off the cctv) when the nice young man seating us, took me by the hotplates, where the floor was covered in grease, and my legs went completely from under me on a lovely tile floor....good job I know how to land face 1st, or it would have been a very different story on the Suing front, as it was my Aikido and larp training was put to full use in a milli second and I merely stood up and dusted myself off, whilst wondering exactly how stupid I had just looked. The waiter did apologise, but dh for some reason did not get anymoney off the bill when he paid. We will not be visiting that branch again. (Westfield Derby in case your wondering)

DH did the 11 day larp event in Wales during August, whilst I shop sat and looked after the kids, with help from nursery, Meridian, my parents, Becki, Mike and Richard at the shop. Needless to say I am currently running behind with a lot of work, primarily the accounts after this, but I'm slowly catching up.

Dd1 started school the other day, along with Meridians ds and another good friend of her's, so she's happy with it all. In the week prior to her 1st day at 'Big School' she had a morning with her dad, where they went swimming, and then the afternoon with me, where she chose to go to 'Build a Bear' in Derby's Westfield Centre. This cost a small fortune, but at least its another thing that she can ask Santa for clothes for, right! Its quite sad that this is all we could manage with her this year, due to us having started the shop and having to work lots of hours, but hopefully come next year and the following years after all our hard work will pay off and we will be able to take weeks at a time to spend with the kids and hopefully have the money to spend on them too.

Meridian kindly took our dd1 with her ds to Warwick Castle for a lovely day out, before they started school too, so that kind of made up a bit for dd1 having to spend so much of her summer still at nursery. Now that she's at school of course, she's coming straight to the shop afterwards, so seeing more of us too, even if it is a working environment. She's started to do small jobs for us too, earning her pocket money, rather than just getting treats. So I now have a postal helper, who also cleans shelves in the store. She's also tidying her room at home and cleaning her school shoes :-) jobs mean cash prizes.

I guess that's been it really, not much of a summer to write home about, kind of like the weather really, shoddy with the odd snippet of sunshine to brighten up the week.

More coming soon

2008-09-12T05:14:00.000-07:00

Due to having been very busy, here's another coming soon post.
Once the accounts and vat are sorted out, then I'll be back on here properly.

Later this week

2008-09-08T15:21:00.001-07:00

This poor blog will get a proper, what's been going on in the last month post on it, honest.

Later this week

2008-09-08T15:21:00.000-07:00

This poor blog will get a proper, what's been going on in the last month post on it, honest.

Countryside Meanderings

2008-07-19T09:51:00.000-07:00

The girls and I had a lovely Saturday afternoon pootle today.

Dh brought the girls into work and we swapped over at lunch time, so we left him and ss in the shop, took a quick trip up the high street and grabbed some ham, sausage rolls and fruit and headed home for a quick lunch before we were on our way.

First stop was Crich Village Fete, so dodging the showers, and holding onto our coats as it was very windy, we admired the tractors, the girls slid on the inflatable slide, whizzed around on the waltzer ride (the girls not I, getting too old to get too dizzy ;-) and then manged to win two froot shoots on the Tombola, just in the nick of time for the girls, as they were getting thirsty. We also won a bottle of lemonade on the raffle and some nice bubble bath for me :-) I didn't get the bottle of Brandy I was after for dh, which was a shame, as it was a bloomin good bottle, but hey I reckon we got our monies worth.

We also played on the park and purchased some lovely homemade cakes and biscuits, which is what these very British fetes are all about surely. I also now know that Crich has a huge field in the middle of it, with a park attached, that I never knew was there before, I guess you wouldn't unless you live in the village, but for the size of house we need, its currently out of our price range. Oh and the other fact that its in the country, which dh maintains he'd be happy to live in, but I'm not convinced, or I think he'd be in far more of a hurry, he's a townie really, although loathe to admit it. I hate to say, but I think I may be pushing it to get him out of the small town we're currently in......

After the fete, we decided to go and feed the Ducks, so it was off to Cromford. We parked at Arkwrights Mill http://www.derbyshireuk.net/mills3.html and proceeded to get 30p's worth of duck food, which kept the kids and the ducks entertained in the random shower that appeared the second we got outside, thus I ended up drinking my hard earned coffee in the rain, whilst reminding dd2 to stay away from the edge of the canal, least I end up having to fish her out, a prospect I could do without.

As the rain was intermittent we decided a walk to the Troll Bridge (1st bridge along from where we were) would be a good idea, so goading dd2 with 'look there's another puddle' we bounced along the path, splashing Peppa Pig style in all the puddles (thanks to Crocs, no shoes were harmed in this process) to the bridge, and then it was goading everyone to walk back with the prospect of an ice cream at the van in the car park.

Ice creams consumed, we admired the old mill site, mooching around the stores and purchasing a notebook for dd1 and a pink watering can for dd2. We had a good look at the old water flow, which used to keep the mill running too, whilst I explained to dd1 how it was used to power the mill in the days prior to power stations. Then we headed home to eat pizza for tea, my lazy Saturday night treat to myself.

Blueberry Muffins

2008-07-17T13:54:00.000-07:00

Tonight I've made Blueberry Muffins.

Two ants were harmed during the making of this recipe, but none are in the cakes.

Heat your oven to 210 oc

Get a muffin tin and place paper cases inside.

Then get a bowl and a spoon

Put in the following:

12 oz self raising flour, sieved
4oz plain flour, sieved
3.5 oz of soft brown sugar
1 punnet of blueberries
and mix together.

In a seperate bowl or jug whisk the following

8 oz of milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence

make a hole in the flour mix and pour the milky mix in and stir.

Melt 4oz of butter or marg and mix this into the mix also.

A metal spoon is advised for use in this recipe, as the mixture sticks to it less.

Spoon into the Muffin Cases and bake for 30 mins, test to ensure the middle is cooked.

Enjoy with a nice cup of Earl Grey. (and no ants)

The March of the Ants

2008-07-17T13:28:00.001-07:00

Roughly two weeks ago today, I opened the cupboard next to our dishwasher, to find an invasion taking place. A small invasion, but none the less one that could grow in size if left un interuppted. Yes, we're talking about ants here, so I promptly set about squashing all the ones I could find with some kitchen towel. Highly technical I know. Dh said, 'we need to find where they're coming from' Sherlock that he is, so 'we' (read I) emptied out the cupboard, mainly cereals on the bottom shelf and sealed biscuit tin on the top one. I gave it a good clean and we waited a bit. When we looked again an hour later, the kitchen towel came in useful again, seems our invasion is coming up the water pipe, from under the cupboard. I can only sumise that when we paved over the lawn a few weeks ago, we upset the food chain somewhat, so they've decided to look inside for additional fodder. So 'we' set about putting a stop to it.

The next day I purchased an ant trap from Wilkos, courtesy of the company Nippon. This proceeded to sit in the cupboard until tonight, unopened, as the one thing I asked dh to do, two weeks ago, was to pop 4 holes in the side of it, put the bait in it and install it in the cupboard. This he failed to do.

I had thought that my squashing and constant cleaning efforts were working, as the ant population has been negligable in visibility for a about a week, but tonight, I've spotted two of the little munchers already. I'm pondering if it's the rain that's bringing them in? as it was rather wet, the first time we noticed them. Which ever it is, I've squashed two on the counter top tonight......and I've given up waiting for dh to do his bit in the household and have set up the ant trap by the water pipe myself. Fingers crossed, this should do the trick within the next week. I apparently have to top it up daily, so we shall see. Might be a bother if the ants are coming in elsewhere as well though?

Movie Fix

2008-07-09T14:11:00.001-07:00

Our family finally got a movie fix this Sunday with the release of Kung Fu Panda, it meant a movie had finally arrived that we could take the whole family too. So come Sunday teatime, dh and crew, shut the shop and arrived at our house. Crew I hear you say, yes, of course. We had a 'shop outing' and took Mike, Richard and Richard H along with us all too, hell, can't have too many grown ups going to a kids movie, without some kids in tow, right :-) Thus the 10 year old, 4 year old and the 2 year old, got to enjoy the movie with a pile more people to bug too.

SS bailed out into the 'boys' car at the 1st hurdle, leaving dh, the girls and I, to venture to Derby on our own. We convened in the cinema reception and loaded up with popcorn, sweets, drinks, and in Mikes case a hot dog and ice cream too. Unfortunately for us, we arrived a tad early, which I think was dd2's downfall in the end, as not only did we take her to the cinema for a 17:45 showing, we also made her sit there for longer than she wanted........yep you guessed it, the last 25 mins or so of the film got missed by dh, as dd2 threw a bored paddy! ho hum......he didn't have to take her out, his choice, I'd just have paced the back with her for a mo, but dd1 was cuddled upto me for the 'scary' bit, so I got away with it. Shame really as she sat through the whole thing that was Mims Island the other month.

Anyway seems on the whole Kung Fu Panda was a hit with the family and friends alike, so much so that I got begged for the sticker book and stickers earlier today, so now we're collecting those as well. Pondering how many wushi finger holds we'll see at the event this weekend.

Monday evening, saw Meridian giving dh and I a much needed night out, so whilst she looked after the kids, we did cinema again, this time to see Wanted. Woooo Hooooo, what a fab film, it doesn't stick too closely to the graphic (do these things ever?) but yay how cool was that. Angelina good in it (did you ever expect her not to be, she loves those chick with gun roles) James MacAvoy, wow, loved the metamorphosis in this one, mind you I liked him in Shameless too. Meridan made me laugh, with her comment of, 'when did he get hot' good to see that other English chap in it too, the one who was in Hustle and Game on, can't remember his name though!
So if you want to have a great action packed night out, go and see Wanted its marvelous.

This weekend I also inflicted my Banana cake on Richard H, which I think he liked? Dh says its nice too, but he could just be making the right noises. Dd1 likes it, dd2 is non plused by cake, unless she can eat the icing off the top, or its lathered in chocolate. Well what else is a girl to do with food that's heading for over ripe, and what with Gordon Browns blatherings this week, about food waste (like we ever have enough around to waste) .

Pink Cakes on Wednesday

2008-07-02T14:42:00.000-07:00

I've made some lovely Pink Cupcakes this evening.
The whole cake isn't pink obviously, just the icing, but I've tried one and they're yum.
I had a random 5 seconds where I didn't have much to do, so cakes to fill the cupboards it was.

If you want to make them, here's what I did

8oz Self Raising Flour
8oz Butter/Margarine
8oz Caster Sugar
3 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Essence

Mix the lot together and spoon into Muffin Cases.
Bake for 20 mins
I did mine at 180 oc in the Fan Oven, so you can guesstimate from there.

Leave to cool, then do an icing of your choice. I did buttercream

3oz Butter/Margarine
6oz Icing Sugar
half tsp Vanilla Essence and half tsp Red Food colouring

Sieve the icing sugar over the Butter and then mix it in, adding the essences. If the butter is a little stiff, you can add half a table spoon of milk, but margarine won't need it. Then pop on top of your cake.

It was nice to eat one of these and relax for a minute once they were cool, as it has been a rather hectic day, with pre-school runs, swimming, proper school settling sessions and ballet all in the mix. I even managed to attend the start of a local stores sale, where the dd's got a new umbrella each, which dd2 promptly put the curved end in her mouth and got it stuck, it retrieved fairly easily, but she got a sore mouth from it and wasn't impressed......trust a two year old to try and eat an umbrella.

100th Post

2008-06-29T07:51:00.001-07:00

Cripes, I've managed 100 Posts over the last year or so.
I blame Meridian for it all.

If I were crafty, I'd do a giveaway to the nicest comment, but I'm not particularly crafty at the moment, so I think I should do something else.....but what.....
Maybe I should do a cake give away? but how will I post it, if some random person from far away makes a lovely comment?
I could just be a total humbug and say stuff it, but surely that wouldn't be good....
Maybe if the nicest comment is local I could do cake, and if its far away I could get Meridian to do something, oh no, drat that will never do......
If in doubt I could resort to offering a bag of Crazy Bones! that's it, that's what I'll do, Crazy Bones x 1 pack to the nicest comment then, wonder how many people will now do this, just for the sake of their kids eh???

So disaster struck this weekend, or at least in the eyes of dh and I, as we had planned a wonderful night out without the kids, for the 1st time in over a year. As we have very busy lives at the moment and hardly see each other, let alone by ourselves, or see our friends, we had been really looking forward to this. Plus its about the only weekend until Xmas Day that we're in the same part of the country together, without work getting in the way, gah!
I drove the kids to grans (1 hr away) I drove back, I went to get dh and our friends, all 10 of them, we got to the pub, ordered a drink and my mother phoned and said 'come and get the kids, dd2 has been sick, she needs her mum' Which is not what I was hoping for at all...........
So dh and I drove an hour to mums, got the sleeping ill child, who remained fast asleep until 6am......and got dd1 who wanted to stay, but it appeared the gp's weren't interested in this........

Anyway dd2 is off her food a bit today, but bar that seems ok in herself.....so our one chance of a night out this year, without having to come home early for a babysitter has passed us by. Gutted sums it up I think.

Yoghurt Ambrosia

2008-06-29T07:36:00.000-07:00

So Richard popped by Friday night, so I thought I'd try out this recipe on him.

Yoghurt Ambrosia

300g of Greek Yoghurt (I have no idea why Greek? I used 0% fat btw)
300g of Double Cream (which is why I used the 0% fat Yoghurt!)
and Dark Muscavado Sugar
Ramekins
Clingfilm

Whip cream, then fold in yoghurt, spoon into Ramekins
Sprinkle the sugar over the top, then pop clingfilm over.
Place in fridge overnight, the Sugar melts into a gooey stickey layer.

Eat! I wasn't sure what these would taste like, but for a quick, icky sticky desert they're quite nice. Dh and Richard said they thought so anyway. Will try one out on Meridian later......

Sundays Cheesecake

2008-06-26T13:10:00.001-07:00

I'm avoiding walking down the driveway in the rain to put out the remainder of the recycling, I'm also trying to ignore the huge pile of ironing awaiting my attention, I really must try and buy more none iron items......

So whilst I'm taking evasive action I thought I'd share that cheesecake recipe I was rattling on about in my previous post.

1 x 300g pot of cream cheese
1 x 300g pot of double cream
150g of light brown sugar
about 10 digestive biscuits
50g of butter
and
Some ramekins (I use the empty Gu pudding ones, great for kids jelly's too) but you can use a larger dish if you like?

Pop your digestive biscuits in a zip lock bag, get a rolling pin and hammer until into little crumbs = very good if your in need of aggression release :-)

Melt the butter in microwave or a pan, then mix the biscuit crumbs into it. Pop into the bottom of your dish and then leave to set in the fridge for a bit, whilst you make the topping.

Mix the sugar and the cream cheese together

Whisk the cream in a separate bowl or jug until thick, then fold into the cream cheese and sugar mix.

Pop the mixture on to the top of the biscuit base and chill

Top with fruit, I went for Strawberries, but you can fold in berries to the mixture, or caramelise some apple and drizzle over the top, ooh the possibilities are endless.

Catching Up/Manic Sunday

2008-06-24T13:24:00.000-07:00

Sunday was spent catching up with a variety of people.

The day started with a family breakfast, all 3 kids, dh and I in the same place, at the same time, rarity these days. Eggs, Bacon and Blueberry Pancakes for all bar dd1, who insisted on Chocolate Brioche instead? 4 year olds eh! Oh and lots of lovely orange juice, got us all set for the day.

Dh and son headed for work, whilst the girls and I headed for McArthurGlen http://www.eastmidlandsdesigneroutlet.com/consumer.asp to meet Carol and Mike for coffee, catch up and the latest edition to our family, Carols old bike, which is getting no use from her, so she's loaned it to me in a semi-permanent move :-) I just need to get two new inner tubes and we're in business, yay.
A good vanilla latte later, with a spot of fruity toast, plus smoothies for the girls, we set about on a wander about, pausing mainly at the play area, where dd1 met a friend from nursery, which made the whole trip even better for her. She also got to spend her hard earned cash on Plasticine, which some fabulous sculpture work came out of later in the day too.

The afternoon saw me making Cheesecake in preparation for my friends coming over in the evening, but 1st we had dd1's nursery friends to contend with. The two girls and a boy arrived in due course and they set about playing, mainly nicely for the whole, just a small wobble from dd1, when she realised she had to share all her stuff with them, but she soon got over that. They all stayed for tea, then I took two of them home, whilst H, dd1's 'boyfriend' stayed later, as agreed, so his parents could get to see Iron Man (what a fabulous film) I left dh with instructions to get them in the bath, whilst I was gone (yeah like that happened).

A small run to a close by village, and up a wiggly road in the middle, 'bakers hill' which I later discovered was named as such as in days gone by, the community bread oven was at the top of it, where the whole village went daily to get their bread/bake it! One child was dropped off and the other on the run back into town a few minutes later.

Upon arrival home, the kids were still not in the bath, and of course the next set of people, my old friends Liz and Jackie, and Jackies Dh Kevin, arrived. I'm not quite sure what they made of the chaos that greeted them, but they treated it with good will, and approximately two hours later, we'd managed to pack all the kids to bed and Meridian and dh had met my friends, slurped a coffee, then extracted a very happy and excited son to his home. At this point we put Pizza in the oven for the starving and munched the remainder of the tea I'd also produced earlier with dual purpose for the kids (dips, cucumber, peppers, cold sausages, pesto pasta, cheese and of course the cheese cakes! I'll post the recipe soon)

We spent a lovely evening chatting amongst ourselves about life the universe and everything. It was nice to meet Kevin, Jackies dh, as if you're a reader of this blog, you'll realise we've not met before, as Jackie and I have only recently got back in touch after about 15 years of no communication, again just due to life, the universe and everything. I'd also missed Jackies BBQ on Saturday for her birthday, as we'd all concluded that the kids wouldn't stand the rain and Jackies house, didn't need a party plus our 3 manic kids being bored in it. So was very happy she'd made the effort to come over and see us, when we'd so spectacularly let her down the day before on her birthday.

As you can see it was a manic Sunday, but a lovely one, what better way to spend a day than with friends.

Rhubarb Cake/Rhubarb Fool

2008-06-17T14:25:00.001-07:00

Ok, so this post is a few days later than I'd promised, sorry life and the vat return got in the way.

Here's what you've all been waiting for anyway (or so I like to kid myself) the recipe for Rhubarb Cake, courtesy of my mother, who again got it from her mother, you get the gist.

Rhubarb Cake

1lb Rhubarb, stewed and liquidised (this should make approx half a pint of puree cold, you can just mush the Rhubarb if you don't fancy liquidising it)
6oz Golden Syrup
6oz Caster Sugar
6oz Margarine
1lb Self Raising Flour
(or 1lb of Plain and a teaspoon of Baking Powder)
2 tsp ground Ginger
2 tsp ground Cinnamon
2 Eggs

Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin.

Pre-heat oven to Gas 4 (about 160 works nicely on our fan oven)

Put the syrup, sugar and margarine in a saucepan and melt over a low heat.

Sieve the flour and spices into a bowl, mix, then make a well in the middle.
Pour in the syrup mixture from the saucepan, give it a good stir.
Lightly beat the Eggs and add these to the mixture, again giving it a good stir.
Then finally add the Rhubarb, again mix it all in well, with a wooden spoon or good none stick spatula.

Pour the mixture into your loaf tin, and pop in the oven for 1 and a half hours, if it needs a little longer, so be it, but don't forget to test your cake with a skewer to ensure the middle has fully cooked.

Please leave plenty of space above your tin as well, as this cake will rise :-)

Enjoy with a lovely cup of Earl Grey tea or a nice Coffee.

If you happen to have any Rhubarb left over, pop it in a few ramekins, chill, then top with whipped cream, with a sprinkle of sugar on top, for a lovely Rhubarb Fool desert.

Accessories

2008-06-15T04:51:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I worked in the morning, then after dh and I swapped it was time to do the chores and also accessorise the new driveway.

The kids and I dug the Fathers Day cards out and got those sorted, did a driveby on Carols and dropped her Birthday Card too, then it was onwards to the Garden Centre.
As obviously everyone was asleep when we got there, I had two very grumpy kids on the way around. Thus I opted to pop them into a wheely cart, which I discovered only upon our leaving, appeared to also have a battered note on it, stating that customers should refrain from putting there kids in, ahem, never mind eh? They had just take the best part of £25 off me in plants, so surely no reason for complaint.

Then we hit Tesco for the rest of the weekly shop type thing, I did only intend to get a few bits, but you know how it goes, I'm rubbish at sticking to lists, when there's a bargin to be had.

Once home I got all creative in the planting department, and with my trusty mob in tow we created two hanging baskets, and filed 3 Torbay Palms into some pots acquired from Ikea earlier this week, once I get a decent photo I'll post it up here. Then I managed to miss the begining of Doctor Who, which wasn't a bad thing as it wasn't a good episode by any stretch, but the reason was the Rhubarb Cake that I made, which shall be my next post on here later.

LARP and after.....

2008-06-12T15:18:00.000-07:00

So after Mallorca, spent a whole day at home, prior to leaving for Wales to run www.ascendancylrp.co.uk on behalf of my missing other half. He who decided that running D&D 4th edition, in store with 3 kids in tow was a good idea, ha, ha, haaarrrrrrrr (he won't be doing that again)

So basically I took the van to Wales, Grum organised the event (whilst being very poorly, so we stuck him in a directors chair and he did fine from there) and Colin, Richard and Jeff did a damn fine job of Refing it. I did reasonable hitty crew, along with the usual suspects and Iz did a great job with the kit as usual. From the feedback on the boards the players liked it too, so yay for good event all round. Made a huge change for me to be there sans kids, 1st time in 4 years I actually got a whole weekend of crewing with no nagging bother, love the kids, but bless em, nice to have a play without :-)

Since the weekend its been work, work and more work, with horrible tonsils and a bit of gah? inbetween.
Speaking of which dh has just rung me at 23.25 to say he's on his way home, can I get tea on (its cooking as we speak) let it not be said between us, that we're not working the hours to attempt to get this business to work.

Our driveway got finished by my Dad today, hurrah....on this note, I went into the kitchen earlier to find the sink mixer tap has split up the back WTF???? never heard of one doing this, not ever.....water spurts out of it when its on, merely trickles when its not........so more expense, just when it was looking like we were getting straight. Crap house.

Mallorca

2008-06-12T15:01:00.000-07:00

Lol, can't believe I got comments for my teaser post!

Oh cripes can't even think to write what the hell I've been upto....ok here's a rough guess.

Got out of bed at 'Oh God' o'clock and got on a plane. Did this without dh, as he had to stay and man the shop, but with two kids (insane yep) and my parents (barking I know) but hey, they paid for it, I only got to go, as I was needed to do the horrible bits with the kids, like the screaming tantrums etc......
Arrive at Mallorca at 10am ish, Raining, hard. Got luggage, which miraculously had survived transportation and baggage handling and got on taxi bus. Got to hotel, settled in, rambled onto beach, kids played, as vaguely sunny in afternoon, had hotel buffet tea (usual Spanish buffet oddities) took kids to kids disco, dd2 slept for 1st and last evening, dd1 partied, then we all went to bed.
Remaining days were breakfast buffet, poolside (pool bloody freezing dd2 refused to get in and exclaimed when we got into local pool for lesson yesterday, pool warm mummy!) or beach, with random coffee from shops (all Spanish local rubbish, no good lattes in sight) followed by buffet tea, kids disco and bed. 2nd day evening mighty horrible for me, as dd1 knackered and needed bed, but dd2 wouldn't drop, was still bouncing on my head at 1am demanding TV on mummy...'to which my answer of, but its all in Spanish, German or French and Porn dear' wasn't really getting the message over........she finally fell asleep to Rock World TV, a chip off the old block........
The kids had a great time, bar dd1's incident with a Jelly Fish, which had managed to get through the nets and stung her knee, but half an hour later, she got the requisite fix it cream, after I'd waved her inflating knee at the Pharmacist and mouthed loudly in English 'STING' at her, my Spanish for this incident being sadly lacking, ahem. Anyone know the Spanish for Sting?
I was quite thankful we got some stuff to shut her up though, as left to my Dad we'd have spent the night in hospital, with his declarations of 'her immune system will sort it out' as her knee inflated even more.......he shut up after I informed him, he'd be looking after the remaining child if I were to spend the night in hospital........
Rest of time was good, I got a whole hour a day on a beach roughly to myself, so managed to read a magazine in three days! woo hooo
I also got half hour snorkling with my dad, whilst gran played with dd1, dd2 being fast asleep, awww. Saw a starfish and several larger ones too, was also pleasantly surprised by the smaller fish actually coming right into shore, so both dd's could watch them swimming around their feet.

Flight back was amusing, 23.30.......last flight out for the night......dd2 all way home, after seeing Doctor Who in the inflight magazine kept saying, on repeat, Doctor Who, Monsters, Buzzy Bees.....her dad has something to answer for.......

Coming Soon

2008-06-10T09:23:00.001-07:00

A proper post! in which I details life the universe and everything since Mallorca, bet you can't wait.....

Blogging Meme

2008-05-29T12:11:00.000-07:00

1. Why did you start your blog?

I'll blame Meridian for that and possibly Richard. I think it came out of a novel writing course, that Meridian had spotted and I agreed to go to, so we could both get a kick up our respective bottoms, with regards to doing some proper creative writing, that might actually get published eventually. I think we reasoned that a blog would get us writing on a regular basis (if once a week is more regular than I used to write I may be doing ok....)

2. How did you come up with your blog name?

I thought at the time it kind of summed up where I am, however I'm not quite so sure I'm mid life these days, as the goal posts have shifted somewhat. Some people say 40 is the start of midlife now, whilst another programme I was watching on Genetics last night mentioned that our generation may live to 120-150 years of age, which doens't put me anywhere near mid life yet? So maybe I'm not midlife, but hey, I kinda feel it at the mo.

3. Do your friends and family know about your blog?

Some do, some don't, I don't keep it quiet, but I'm not sure who reads it, if they don't leave comments!

4. How do you write posts?

When I get time, which isn't often at the moment, as I seem to be on a constant loop of rushing around working, cleaning, working some more. Not much me time going around.

5. Have you ever had a troll or had to delete unkind comments?

Not that I've noticed.

6. Do you check your stats? Do you care how many people read your blog? If you do care, how do you increase traffic?

I didn't till I read this, but I've gone out of my way and taken 10 mins to install a stat counter! will see if my tinkering works now?

7. What kind of blogs/posts interest you?

I like to see what my friends have been upto, Meridians jewellery and recipes cheer me up, I keep tabs on Julies Sock adventures and enjoy having a laugh at Richard and Flames debarcles, bar that I don't hop about too much reading anything else I just don't have the time at the moment.

8. What do you like and dislike about blogging?

Like: All the different things you can find out about.
Dislike the time it takes up to post somedays and the fact that sometimes of the day you can never get a photo to upload?

9. Tag 5 other bloggers.
Yikes do I know 5? Julie, Richard, Flame, Charlie and erm, oh stuff it four will have to do!

Mark and Jen

2008-05-29T12:02:00.000-07:00

I just found this photo, whilst I was sorting out shop stuff from home stuff on my pc. It's from earlier this year, when Mark and Jen came over from the States, visiting Marks family and they found a spare evening to pop up and see us, so with us blagging Meridian to BB Sit, we legged it out to The Dog, a nice pub grub place at Pentrich for some food and drink. Mark and Jen are on the right of the picture, dh and I on the left. A lovely photo, to sum up a lovely evening in good company. Quite good to catch up, as our previous meet had been in Atlantic City, when Liz was still living in NJ, and so were Mark and Jen!! so, oooooh many moons ago, pre kids for me! about 6 or 7 years......far too long. We have stated it won't be so long next time, so its either Owings Mills (MD) for us, or maybe we can persuade them south to Florida sometime?

Under Construction

2008-05-21T14:15:00.000-07:00

Our front garden is finally taking shape or should that be the garden is on its way out and the driveway is finally on its way in.

This project was started last September, when dh and I de-turfed the lawn and then dad and myself dug out half of the soil ready for hardcore to go in. Then things ground to a halt until I got antsy about the mess a month or so ago and begged a lad, who kept appearing in our store during the day with not much to do, to come round and finish the hole digging, as everyone else appeared to not want to do it, but didn't want to say so.

Thus two weeks ago the hole was completed, last Thursday the hardcore went in and the whacker, whacked it down and then finally today another week on, some bricks arrived, along with edging stones, hurrah we're finally underway to having more parking space at the front of the house (and less grass and weeds to cut). I hope to post photos soon of the work in progress, fingers x'd it'll get finished without too much delay......and we can stop annoying the neighbours with cars all over the place.

Paris

2008-05-16T14:19:00.000-07:00

Oh what a fabulous two days we've had in Paris

:-)

Three mums, three kids, all four year olds and one very early flight out of East Midlands Airport (EMA) later (6.40am yawn) and we were on our way to Paris. Landing at 8.50am, a bit late due to French ATC delays, we were on our way into Paris. A quick negotiation of the terminal signs to the Gare, and a quick banter by another mum to a sour faced woman on information (the most miserable person in our whole time there) We were sorted out with two day transport passes and on our way via the RER B into central Paris. The train trip in confirmed that the place is far more civilised than England, one of the first things I saw, was a man, giving up his seat for a woman with a suitcase, which he did so out of common courtesy and genorousity, a practice sadly lost over here......

We emerged at Chatelet and after a false start at a cafe with no Pain au Chocolate (a must in our four year olds eyes) we re positioned ourselves at a Patissiere with the aforementioned breakfast bread and coffee and other delights. Once sated, we ambled through the streets towards the Pompidou Centre, where we sat outside admiring the architecture, phoning our respective otherhalves, telling them how wonderful and sunny it was, whilst they were being gutted back in the UK.

Our gloating ceased, we ambled down towards Notre Dame, pausing to wander around several shops. Photos outside the church over, we sauntered around the Latin Quarter, lunching at an extortonate pavement cafe, for the 1st and last time of the trip (random bread and cheese feasting took over, our wallets hammered) A walk through the Jardin du Luxembourg later, ice creams all round and a ride on the Carousel for the little ones, we mooched to our apartment (corporate, sorted out by another mum) by the Tour Montparnasse and put our feet up for an hour.

As we were ready to depart to discover more shops and items for tea, the heavens opened and a huge thunderstorm ensued, so we stayed in, with all the windows open, whilst the heavens rumbled, then it was time to grab food, whilst the kids ran around the store, marvelling at frozen snails filled with garlic butter, and choosing from a fantastic range of biscuits, cheese and meats for tea. The evening was spent persuading the kids to fall asleep in a room together, whilst us mums chatted, drank wine and hung out the windows savouring the atmosphere of Paris.

One of the mums braved it out for fresh coffee and pastries the next morning, and after our feast, we packed up and headed via the metro to the Eifel Tower, where we braved the 2nd floor, photos taken all round, we lunched underneath on our remenants from the night before.
Then Sacre Coeur called, so via RER C and the Metro we got there, the kids rode another Carousel and played for a bit, then we walked to Gare du Nord, decided it was an awful area, and metro'd it back to our original starting point, where dd1 and I legged it to a previous shop to get cards and presents, whilst our friends drank and snacked at a cafe. A last few photos by a fountain together and we legged it onto the RER for the airport, just making it through the security ques and into the waiting lounge in time for departure back to EMA. The kids yelling bye to Paris on the plane and hello to EMA amused our fellow passengers and I think dd1 summed it up, when she heard our friends planning to go back sometime soon, she asked to go too, the reply was 'what about your mummy'?, 'oh I don't need her, I can go with you,' she replied. She's been asking to go back since, including a 'can we go back after the weekend Mummy?' and 'can I go to school in France Mummy?' I think I've created a Francophile and I can't say as I blame her.

Weekly Post

2008-05-13T02:15:00.001-07:00

Seems I'm managing a weekly post on here these days, guess I must be busy eh?

Since I blogged last I've been royally doing the following:

Swimming with the kids on Wed.
Working in the shop www.chimeraccg.co.uk on Thursday

Then Friday I drove to Wales for www.ascendancylrp.co.uk
I got to site after the usual pootle around Tescos for about 15:30. Keiran was waiting by the gate for me to turn up, bless him, I did tell him, he could have gone in, but he was happy waiting. He then helped me put my tent up, the huge familysized Outwell 10 man one we have! which comfily sleeps all of us, plus roaming room when its raining, which being Britain, is quite often. I then unloaded the kit and greeted people arriving on site. Kick off was 9pm ish and I actually got time to roleplay, as dh and the kids didn't arrive until the next day! (just after I'd got a cup of tea, courtesy of Julie and Dave's kettle) and was about to sit down with a magazine and an almond croissant for a bit of me time, whilst waiting for the rest of the camp to wake up. I did get breakfast, but the magazine went out of the window.

Saturday went by in a blur of some role play, chasing the kids about, and general camping stuff. The kids slept most of the night ok in the tent, with dd2 waking once for the loo courtesy of the neighbouring Wedding (approx 2 miles as the crow flies) that was blasting out Venga Boys as max power.......sigh.......and once about 3am, when we took her in with us, to save any further hassle, oh yeah and again, randomly when she was sandwiched between dh and I, with a yelp of terror and a very scared look in her eyes, which I guess was just night terrors type thing, as we calmed her and got her back to sleep within 5 mins. Not bad for her 1st try in a tent, in a room on her own. (we figured she'd wake dd1 and ss if she slept with either of them, maybe when she's bigger she can share with dd1, and ss will probably end up too big to share with either of them soon, he's 10 in about a week, where did that time go?)

Sunday we finished roleplaying, cleared the site up and did the drive home, with dh having a paddy at the M5 seriveces, due to once again the Pizza place closing?????? at 7pm as we arrived for tea. What's that all about then? services closing? rubbish. We made do with Ginsters for ss (yuk) a shared ham and cheese toastie from Costa for the girls and I had the worlds worst Iced Latte, which I'm still debating complaining about, but don't think I can be arsed to be honest.

Work yest and today, Richard and Meridian came into keep me company, so between their visits the day passed quite quickly :-)
Dh is having two days off, though is grumbling about the amount of housework that needs doing today, but I did point out, that's my normal day off too.......
He's also sulking cause I'm swanning off to Paris tomorrow with dd1 and our friends :-) I did point out he can go anywhere he likes for his day off too? This is, after all a cultural trip for dd1, with our friends, before she starts school in Sept, right?

Ok I'm getting on with it

2008-05-06T15:22:00.000-07:00

Ok, ok point taken Richard, I've not been posting enough, random unconnected comments, yes I get the hint.

I've been busy alrighty?

What? you have been too?? mainly in our shop.....ok, point taken, Frizbe must make more time to blog.

Sooooo here's what's been going on.

Meridian came home, which was nice, poor woman had us camped out at her's for two days, in jubilation of the fact that decent company and coffee had arrived back in town. Now her neighbours have royally pissed her off, by letting their staffy dogs, stand on the table, next to the fence, over which they can leap if they want and eat all of our combined children, which is not good, so she's looking to move house. Hurrah, I can exercise my favourite passtime of house hunting :-) Sad I know, but its the builders daughter in me, I'd so love to develop, just not ever had the cash or the sense to save it. (me wasted my money in my yonger years, ahem)

Damn annoying for Meridian though, as the neighbour has her head in the sand about the dogs totally....she even avoids answering the door....and today cut the grass without shifting the muck, you can imagine the smell......poor Meridian, I hope they get a quick sale.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, or Chimera shop as it goes, here's what we've been upto.

International Comic Book Day on Sat 3rd of May was very busy, the girls, dh, Bridgette and I spent the morning in the shop, with dd1 helping give out bags to put comics in, which made her very happy to be useful and working. Then the mob got restless, so we bailed out for lunch, which turned into dh not wanting the kids back in the shop, even after good behaviour, so we went to Meridians as detailed above.

Prior to that the previous weekend was the Ascendancy Battle at the shop, which was attended by Richard, Julie, Mike, Jock, poorly dh (tell you about that in a mo) Jack, Sam and Colin, Richard and Amy for a few mins. I had initally thought it looked like the players were fighting over a giant cucumber, but was rapidly assured this was not the case :-) and that it was infact an amplifying artifact. Anyway full details can be found here www.ascendancylrp.co.uk but sufice to say the players just managed to win this one, phew. After it was all over, Julie, Richard, Mike and Jack(or is it Dave really) came back to ours for Chinese, which was lovely as usual, then I tempted people with M&S nibbles I'd grabbed on the way back from picking up Gabe the night before, tis rude to drive past M&S Food, without visiting surely? Have to say they do the best rocky road I've tasted, way better than Starbucks, and slightly better than Meridians, sorry M.

Dh was nursing his injury on Saturday, this being due to his 2nd vascetomy operation, one of these days, the big stud that he is will stop producing sperm. He'd had to go back for a 2nd op, as due to major healing factor, one of his tubes, upon closer inspection by the operating Dr, had apparenlty re sealed itself......good job we waited for those test samples, I know a few people who didn't, all of whom were aghast to hear our story.

Sure there is lots more to tell, but its late and brain fried. More anon.

Saturday night in Brum

2008-04-20T01:29:00.000-07:00

Went for a night out in Birmingham last night, with two of my oldest friends, Liz whom I met when our parents introduced us in our buggies, aged 6mths or so and Jackie, who arrived on our 'block' (our houses were on a 4 street mini block, which aged under 12 seemed like and age away from the rest of our village, where we weren't allowed to go and play as it was too far) aged about 7 I think? I do remember we were in 2nd year junior, Mr Everingtons class, so that guess should be about right? Jackie and I lost touch over the years, for reasons which we can't remember, or at least after discussion last night, we couldn't remember, I guess our lives just took different turns? Liz however has remained in touch with both of us over the years, so at Christmas she got us back in touch properly, so as we all still get on we met up again last night.

I was last to arrive as I had to wait for dh to get back from work. Surprisingly the girls had already nearly polished off a bottle of wine between them (I arrived at 7.15) so they kindly poured me a glass and insisted I catch up, whilst Liz did her hair and checked the train times into town, so save us waiting on a wet and windy platform, all of which failed, as we went with the listed times, but the train didn't.

We headed for the mail box for a meal http://www.mailboxlife.com/ avoiding Malmaison, as way out of our price bracket (wishful thinking). Instead we had cocktails whilst waiting for a table at Red Peppers, followed by Enchiladas for me, Moussaka for Jak and Moules Marinare for Liz (yuk!) another bottle of wine and desert with coffee. Later we pootled off to a bar called Red's, in town close to the Cathedral, where we continued to drink G&T's,(although I gave up at 12:00, and opted for lime and soda, as had to drive home at 7.30 this am. ) and we danced the night away to a bizarre selection of music, from R&B to Guns and Roses, the DJ was well and truly weird.

So a good night for all. Nice to catch up with the girls, although sad to hear that Jackies dh has been diagnosed with Parkinson's and that life will be not much fun from here on in for them, they're making the best of the quality time they have now, I guess everyone should really live for the moment, but how often do you eh? On a more positive note good to hear Liz appears to have kicked Mr America into touch, I'm hoping this time its for good. So on that note, we're shopping for a replacement bloke for her, any offers out there?

York

2008-04-14T13:46:00.000-07:00

Took ss home to Leeds this morning, (dropped him off at school) then carried on my merry way to York to meet Amanda for a swapping of Tardis Miniature Boxes for monies and a few Lattes on the way :-)

I arrived about 9.30 and took a mooch around a largely still unopen town, I guess they don't open till 10 cause of the tourists? so stay open later? I'd managed to park just outside the wall in Longstay for £4, which turned out to be a bargin, as across town, someone attempted to charge Amanda £10. Surprisingly she told them to stuff it, which sounds great in that geordie lit of hers.

Town only just opening I dived into WHSmiths and got myself a small journal to write in and headed for Starbucks. There I was presented with two drinks, when I'd ordered one, so got some money back off them (I'd ordered toast too and wasn't paying much attention to price, as not used to getting up at 6am) and there I waited for Amanda who was stuck beind a tractor, to get to me.....in the meantime I met a stressed out woman with a young son, whom I waved the spare seat at, boy did she need a coffee, turned out she was moving to Germany in three weeks and getting married in six (if you're reading this by random chance I hope it all goes well for you)

Amanda arrived in due course having wrestled with the carparking situation and several slow drivers and tractors and we pootled about York all day in a merry way. I attempted to look for some new trainers or shoes, but York is quite pricy for this, so I popped into McArthur Glen when I got home (didn't have time for York's one today) and got myself some new trainers, as my old ones have been falling apart rapidly, I will not be buying that brand again. So a lovely day of window shopping, bar a sleeping bag I brought for dd2, as now she's a big girl, she'll need her own for camping this year Oh and of course the brownies I got for tea and the kids cookies from Betties!

On my lonesome

2008-04-11T06:30:00.001-07:00

On my own today, everyones gone and left me stuck in Ripley on my own.......sob......well I've got the kids to keep me company tonight, but still all the adults are off having fun.......

Andy nearly had to stay, as the van wouldn't start this morning (after all my efforts cleaning it yesterday as well) So we called Manders Garage and they came and towed it round, sorted it out with a new battery and plugs, but they've said the starter motor is on the way out.....more expense ahoy. To be honest we need a new van, its too small anyway, plus its on its last legs, the undercarriage won't hold through the next MOT, this much we know, and we already had a major weld job done on it the previous year. It's an old R reg, so I think it's time to call it quits and get something newer and more environmentally friendly too. Now we just have to find the cash for it, time to save up.

So Andy is off to Candleston www.ascendancylrp.co.uk if you want details. To rub it in several of the local to here crew popped in the shop this morning, to say goodbye to me and tell me they'd miss me, which I appreciate, but sulk, I wanna go to, (throws dummy out of pram and stomps feet in a 3 year old manner)

Ben hasn't gone, so he popped in to keep me company this morning, so I took advantage of him and sent him to the post office with the days post (well he had nothing else on) and since then, I've had a few more teenagers in for a chat about life and games, so it's not been too bad really.

I'm missing Meridan too though, normally she pops by with a huge mug of coffee for me on a Friday afternoon, but she's off home to USA visiting her old haunt of San Francisco, followed by her parents in Idaho for the next three weeks or so. So I can't even have a girly gossip over a latte, what is the world coming to? I've been feeding her cats whilst she's gone in conjunction with Grandma Pam. I'm on morning shift, which includes hanging the washing out, then Grandma Pam takes it in dry later, this is the theory. In practise today, I think it may have rained on it all, before she's got there. It was fine till about 11am, then wooosh....ahem....might be heading for the dryer that load. Still at least April is being showery, which might just mean a reasonable summer (by UK standards, that's a teeny bit more sunshine than rain).

So I appear to have a working weekend spreading out before me. I wonder, do you think I should try World of Warcraft, whilst the boys are away?

A small white Tardis

2008-04-10T12:34:00.000-07:00

Today has been fill the van with lrp kit day.

3 hrs after I started on it I finished.

3 bags of rubbish have come out of it (how many empty Red Bull cans?)

Elbow grease and hoovering, plus lot of kit has gone into it. Plus one tent, two pillows, two sleeping bags and two airbeds for Dh and SS.

I'm quite proud of how clean the van is looking and of course, it still has at least one layer of sand in it, but compared to how it was looking before, it looks marvelous. Even the outside is clean. So if anyone sees a small gleaming white Tardis driving down the M5 this weekend, that's my hardwork, allright.

Attempted colouration

2008-04-09T15:08:00.000-07:00

Well tonight I attempted to dye all the hats that Dave acquired for larp from Primark.
This was my first attempt at dyeing something.

As soon as I read the instructions inside the dye pack, as opposed to the ones on the outside, it became clear that this was not going to be possible. So I gave them all a quick wash as perscribed anyway, just to see what state they were really in. I chose the four lightest coloured hats to attempt to dye (by seeing what would fit in the sink when squished down) One hour later and they were ready, they're drying at the moment, but I think we may have a spot of spotting on the top of two of them, wondering if it can be covered by pinning into a shape (tri-corn for instance) if I need to dye them again?
The kitchen table is covered in drying hats, as is the drying rack in the kitchen and in the hall. The dyed hats are drying on the utility floor, as I figured, it doesn't matter if any of the washed off dye ends up on the floor, as its being replaced eventually.

I've also sewn up two costumes tonight, so have been fairly productive all in all.

Kit, kit, oh the washing of kit

2008-04-08T14:06:00.000-07:00

The weekend went in a whirl.

Saturday, I worked all day, www.chimeraccg.co.uk, as the girls voted to see dh, as he's away with ds all next weekend, larping www.ascendancylrp.co.uk if you want to see what they're doing. Sunday was a pleasant resting day, with coffee at Starbucks, here at McArthur Glen http://www.eastmidlandsdesigneroutlet.com/consumer.asp
with Mike and Carol. It was here that dd2 attempted to kill herself again. Firstly by coming fact first down the cargo netting in the play area.....secondly by just jumping at the fireman's pole and missing, thus landing face first on the floor, which luckily was bouncy. I definitely have a two year old with no fear. I also know the play area said 3-12 only, but you try telling a two year old they can't go on it, especially one as willful as dd2. A small cry later and she was happy and having another go at it all, I do wish she'd listen, when either I or her sister tell her not to do something.
Sunday afternoon, Chris and Louise popped round with Freddie, their little one, its the 1st time we've seen him, and at 7mths old, he's quite big now and a lovely little chap. He sat happily on our floor, playing with some blocks, whilst the dd's negotiated their way around him. Once dh left work, we all met Richard http://richtea-xl5.blogspot.com/ at the pub for dinner and three hours passed in a flash, a good evening had by all. I even remembered to feed Meridians cats on the way home as she's gone Stateside for a visit to her folkes.

The beginning of this week has so far seen me mainly feeding cats, washing lrp kit and doing the accounts (yawn) The crew kit, is now finished, the last lot in the dryer as I type. I just have two things to attempt to sew up, a horribly ripped and heavily padded waistcoat and a robe. I have binned dh's favourite waistcoat, as he's ripped it top to bottom and being leather is a sod to fix, and as I don't have a machine, or any leather needles, I've declared it beyond repair (it might encourage him to get me a machine at some point!)

This evening I have also been left exhausted by aerobics followed by pilates......it was supposed to be Hula, but due to teacher being awol, and lack of replacement being found it turned into aerobics, much to all our shock and horror. The annoying thing was, in our class was another aerobics teacher, who had turned down the chance to do the class, as she didn't feel confident enough at hula, so when she had to do aerobics under another teacher, who was effectively taking the cash she could have had, had she chosen to wing it, you can imagine how annoyed that made her, and us on her behalf too. She's promised to wing it for us next time! Pilates has finished me off, so I'm going to head for my latest book now. Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett, if anyone fancies a good read? Hat's to dye tomorrow night....might tell you about it then.

Cake, I nearly forgot

2008-04-03T09:45:00.000-07:00

Dd2 and I made Cake yesterday and I nearly forgot to tell you.

Due to an excess of spotty bananas we rattled up a banana cake, we even took some to Meridian and her ds to cheer her up, as her boy is poorly......she liked it, although it was rather funny, as she was about to do the same and as you will see from her blog did, except she made muffins.

Our Banana Cake Recipe

3 x Bananas (add more if you have them)
325g plain flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Bicarb of Soda
200g of Sugar
65g Milk (any you have, though not sure skimmed is as good)
3 eggs
1 x lemon plus grated rind
1 tsp vanilla essence/flavouring

Grease your cake tin (any will do)
Mush Bananas
Chuck everything but the flour into a bowl
Mix it up
then add flour and fold in

Put into tin, put in oven at 180 degrees for 40mins.
Voila Banana Cake.

Eat with honey, Meridians Honey Butter, Maple syrup or a good Coffee ( I suppose Early Grey wouldn't go amiss either)

Random things

2008-04-03T09:31:00.000-07:00

This week I've mainly been doing a few random things.......

Monday night I went to aerobics, but ended up doing Tai Geri, as aerobics teacher off sick. Tai Geri can best be described as aerobic boxing, which was a refreshing change from the aerobics routine, as Mondays teacher likes to stick with what we all know. This is probably a good thing, as otherwise we all end up going the wrong way, Muppets that we are.

Tuesday night I managed Hula class followed by Pilate's, both of which are doing wonders for my fitness and I'm slowly getting to know other members of the class who go on their own too, so its not so scary by myself anymore. Meridian comes with me sometimes, but due to classes getting booked up and life hasn't made it for the past few weeks and is now off to USA for remainder of April.

Last night whilst dh worked late, dd1 and I tacked her room. This took two hours, but we threw out a bag of rubbish and 3 things to charity. Dolls and Ponies now live together, Powerranges and Railways together, Fuzzy Felt, Dora and Pens together, Cars, Potato Head and Magnetic numbers too. The result was the girls went to bed at 8 instead of 7, not that this mattered as dd2 excelled herself and stayed awake till 9.55 when dh walked through the door, another daddy's girl in the making me thinks. So with dd2 rattling to herself upstairs, I sat downstairs re sewing rips and tears in LRP kit for www.ascendancylrp.co.uk

Today I put the shirt box into the wash before I left for work, with instructions to my Mum, who is kid sitting to get it in the dryer and load another batch, so I have more to crack on with tonight/tomorrow. I've also been out and purchased black dye for the 15 assorted hats, Dave kindly picked up from Primark for us to convert. Which reminds me I need to link to Dave's blog if he has one?

So you can see my life has been a bundle of excitement so far this week (oh how I hate the fact that blogger won't let me use exclamation marks)

Driving around a bit

2008-03-31T12:50:00.001-07:00

We've been bobbing about in the car this weekend. The girls and I.
Saturday am we picked up Meridian and her ds. We headed over to Litchfield http://www.visitlichfield.com/dayout.asp for a lovely day out. Upon arrival, Meridan took us to a coffee shop she'd discovered, which did HUGE mugs of Latte, fab. Unfortunatley they were still doing the breakfast menu, as we'd opted to early lunch the kids prior to attempting anything else, but that was ok, we had muffins, with eggs, bacon and sausage (in varying degrees) and croissants to tidy our group over.
We then pootled around town, dodging the rain that had decided to plague us, with an amusing pit stop in Costa Coffee, where I mistakenly gave dd2 about 2 inches of dd1's milkshake in an open cup with a straw. Dd1 took her new spotty summer plimsoles off, and dd2 whilst fidgiting, dropped her milkshake directly into one of them......luckily I saw the funny side, as did the barista, who helped clear up. Meridian bless her, ran upstairs with the shoe and rinsed it out and blow dried it quickly for us.
We them mooched around town, picking up bits of stuff here and there, meringues and lettuce from M&S, with Percy Pig sweets for the kids, 3 more dress/skirt things for dd1 in the Sale at Adams and a HUGE Toadstool playhouse in a charity sale at ELC, which Meridian decided I should have for the kids to play in at Candleston, and being a sucker I agreed :-)

The bead shop was the next stop, with Meridian getting an assortment of goodies to craft with, so then I dragged everyone next door and got two new balls of wool, which I'm unsure what I'm doing with yet, but time will tell! I've been into the knit shop next to our shop today to get myself a crochet book (I'm trying Julie) but they were all out, so are ordering one in soon, so that hook you left me, may get some use yet. Which reminds me, I must get some dye for those hats tomorrow and continue washing the rest of the kit soon.

Our day was completed by a stop off at the American Diner, nachos and curly fries to share.
Lovely day out, thanks for suggesting it Meridian.

Sunday was lovely too! We headed to Grans, in the Trent Valley out towards Newark, gorgeous day, we walked down the river to feed the ducks, managed to prevent dd2 from falling in, by holding her firmly around the waist, as she has no idea of water = danger what so ever. Then we headed to the park, where she demonstarted her wanting to work for a circus tendencies, by attempting to slide then walk, then thought better of it, down the slide, my heart was out of my mouth by that point.....the other mothers must think I'm very lax, as I was sitting on a bench chatting to my mum when she did that, but what can you do, when your daughter is so obviously meant to be in the circus?

I Got Tagged

2008-03-28T13:37:00.000-07:00

Meridian's tagged me with the 4 things tag, so here goes:

4 Jobs:

Barista (although that was before the days of Starbucks) I worked on an Italian Bar Cafe, in Nottinghams Victoria Centre Market as a Saturday job, then during college holidays too, paid for my 1st motor bike that way.

Barstaff: Filly n Firkin

Office Manager: Alternative Armies, that was a fun job! lots of European Travel and Trade Shows, as well as the office stuff during the week.

Supervisor: UPS, Package Centre Supervisor, with a chain of jobs on the way up there.

4 Favourite Movies:

The Life of Brian, its so funny 'he's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy'

Star Wars (the original) Cause its a classic.

Nikita: Do I see myself as an ass kicking French Assasin?

XXX, I like a bit of Vin Diesel and its funny too. Shallow I know.

4 Places I've been:

Tilburg, NL: Stayed at Jos and Nicholes house with Mac, when we did a games convention in Eindhoven. Both nice towns, lots of schnapps and herring as I recall.

Essen in Germany, again games convention time! Lots more schnapps and sausage this time. Oh and scary woman shouting Kartoffle Salat at me, in an effort to make me speak German when ordering our stands food for the 3rd day running :-)

New York: When Liz was living in New Jersey, I spent a lot of time rambling around the streets of New York, fab town, very at home there, would happily move in an instant!

Las Vegas: Viva baby, Andy and I got married there, awwww, Happy Memories. 1st time there was with Sue though, courtesy of a Grey Hound bus, I'd had enough by the time we got there, and ordered a car on credit for the rest of our USA trek.

4 Places I've Lived:

Lowdham, Nottinghamshire: Born there.

Burton Joyce, Nottinghamshire: Brought up there.

Fairy Towers, Nottingham: My girly batchelor pad, frequented by lodgers and Sofa Dwellers (who got charged rent too)

Ripley, Derbyshire: My husband brought a house here, and I lost the coin toss on where we'd live. I keep planning our escape, but so far have been thewarted.

4 Favourite TV Shows:

Dexter: Its on late, so I generally manage to catch it, its kooky.

Dr Who: Surely its on everyones list?

Ashes to Ashes: Gene Genie need I say more?

The Fixer: Something Andy and I usually manage to watch together on a monday, its quiet well written.

4 Favourite Radio Shows:

Scott Mills: Radio 1: He's been my late night show, when he did early breakfast and I did lates. My driving home show, when he did breakfast and I did nights. Currently he's my Drivetime show again, he was lots funnier when he could get away with more on the very early morning show, but I like his humour all the same.

Chris Moyles: Radio 1: He's grown on me, as Andy likes having him on.

That's it, I don't listen to much radio.

4 Favourite Foods

Chicken Saag, mmmmmmm chicken and spinich curry.

Thai Green Curry: Chicken and coconut, mmmmmmmmmmm

Chocolate, that's a food stuff surely.

Strawberries, in season best, but yummy.

4 Places I'd Rather Be:

Having a good girly weekend, involving a good hotel, good food and good wine, with great company of my friends. (trouble is I have many assorted friends, so couldn't put them all in the same place at once, it'd be disaster)

At a lovley hotel in the Lakes, that Andy and I go to every couple of years for our anniversary.

Enjoying quiet time in a good book shop, with coffee, there was a great one where Liz lived in Montclair NJ for just such a thing.

On holiday somewhere warm, I'm longing for a proper summer this year.

So that's it, I guess I'd better tag somepeople then

Julie, Richard, Flame, Liz, you've been tagged!

2 Day Holiday

2008-03-25T06:07:00.000-07:00

Had a novel few days. Dh and I had our 1st two days off together since Christmas. So with the three kids in tow, we've been having a fun few days.
Easter Sunday we did nothing, and it was bliss. Well ok, not quite nothing.....as it had snowed overnight, I chucked the kids into the back garden, just before it melted as it goes! so a very small snowman got made. Later we ventured out to the swimming pool, over the road, and the dd's enjoyed showing off their jumping in skills to their dad, whilst dd1 even managed to show him, how much she can swim on her back by herself too :-)
Meridian, her dh and ds came over for tea, so I made Roast Beef, Yorkshire Puds and lots of nice veg, including swede, which I can only get away with, when there are other guests, as dh hates it and the girls aren't keen either, but I keep trying.
Meridian brought her rocket road with her (and left some too, its yummy) and she also brought easter muffins, with orange icing chosen by her ds and little eggs on top, the dd's think these are great.

Monday, we tootled out to Bakewell, as we rarely get to go out together due to one of us constantly working all the time, I insisted dh do this just once for the year. Dd1 spent her Easter money from gran on a new bangle and two pegs? (they have flowers on them) Dd2 was tired and crabby, so didn't buy anything or do much, but she did manage to behave for lunch at the Treeline Gallery http://www.artandcraftgallery.co.uk/, so all was not lost. I picked up some Homity Pie from Bloomers at Bakewell,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homity_pie a Fab little Deli that I frequent when in the area. I was sad to note that they were sold out of Stilton Bread though, but you can't have everything. As the snow worsened, dh insisted we go home, 10 mins outside of Bakewell no snow obviously.
We got home and played Carnival Games on the Wii, which dh had treated us to for easter, later that night dh and I played Resident Evil The Umbrealla Chronicles, our Zombie killing fix, which we needed, after watching Richards Zombie movie from the night before Planet Terror, what a laugh.
Shame we have to wait until Christmas to get a weekend together again.....or will we manage a summer holiday? tba.

Is lent over then?

2008-03-22T09:43:00.000-07:00

Has lent finished yet? was the enquiry of one of my dinner guests on Thursday night, as she eyed up the chocolates, she'd brought round to have with coffee. I think the rest of us were tempted to say no, but it was agreed, as she'd brought them round, she really ought to have one!

Due to the diet factor on Thursday as well, I made Ratatouille, which I figured is veg, so diet worthy. It would also suit any vegetarian guests, although our resident Vegi, couldn't make it this time, due to Easter weekend going away commitments. I also did plain chicken breasts and pasta to complement, with Parmesan as an optional extra.
Meridian took care of starter, lovely organic bread, olives, dipping oil of her own design and a cheesy dip, courtesy of M&S Foods, yummy. We chucked in a few random tortilla chips, just for the mix factor as well. S, provided desert, on behalf of L, whose poorly child kept her away too. So that was Mulled Plum and Almond Pudding, with Custard, again all supplied by M&S and lovely they were too. I'd been due to host dinner for a while, but with the dining chairs taking a while to repair, it had taken me longer than it should, so we just managed to squeeze this girly meet up in, before Meridian heads back to the USA for the whole of April. So it'll be May before I see anyone again by the looks of it.

Eeek, have just looked out the window and seen the snow, brrrrrrr, shiver.

The kids have enjoyed today. Mainly due to the free chocolate Easter eggs and free Easter biscuits being handed out at the garden centre, where we met my folk's for lunch. I did buy some biscuits as felt guilty at the amount my kids we're eating. I know, sucker eh! My mother, kindly brought me a door mat too, as the one outside our back patio door, is a bit shoddy. So I now have a nice new rubber one, replacing it. Will take a photo when its not snowing!

So have a happy Easter everyone. If it carries on like this we may get some sledging done soon!

Packet Pasta

2008-03-17T15:46:00.000-07:00

That's what they brought with them! Packet Pasta, I ask ya ...........
We ate lovely fahitas, whilst dh gloated :-)
I did nice fruit for pudding though, strawbs and rasps, which they could eat, with meringues for us (they are 3 sins apparently!) I vaguely remember they're a point on Weight Watchers, so you can tell which diet I prefer!
Dd2 got a lovely new pushchair from them for her birthday (the pushchair is for her dollies), its a Mamas and Pappas toy one, raincover and three position seat. Better than dd2's own real one, ahem.....
Had to lend SIL my slippers, as poor lass was freezing, due to our boiler having died again on Friday, sigh. We had the fire on full blast, and it wasn't cold like today is (I have dug Meridians electric heaters, which we loaned last time, out of our loft today) So we're all toasty now. We were toasty too yesterday, just SIL is nesh, by her own admission.

I'm doing dinner on Thursday for the girls. Well I'm hosting, one is doing drinks, another pud, Meridian is starter and I'm main! Had a txt today asking what I'm cooking, as guess what, another person on a Slimming World diet, I ask ya..........

Diets.....weird

2008-03-12T12:46:00.000-07:00

In particular, why is my BIL/SIL weird! yes, I'm being cheeky and talking about Andys brother and his wife, who are both lovely, but I txt'd them to say, what food would you like this weekend? and they texted back to say, don't worry we're bringing our own!! I replied, 'own? you can't go bringing your own, I can cook slimming world, its ok folkes' They replied don't worry we're doing really well and will bring our own, WTF??? how very odd?
Anyway I'm doing fahitas for us, which fit in nicely with slimming world, so if they only bring a lettuce leaf, I shall sit there and gloat! vanity, schmanity says I.