Christmas is here in my new lounge!

We've done most of the skirting and Ollie has built his entertainment unit. We've finally put the new curtains up and the new rug down. Brian refuses to walk on the rug and skirts around the tiny space around the outside. It's really funny to watch. Especially when you pick him up and drop him in the middle of it! He jumps off again real quick!

Thursday was our department Christmas do so Friday I was a bit worse for wear. I had to go home from work at lunch!

Random Photos

I took the photos off my phone this evening and thought I would share.

This is the arty photo of the Wembley arch...
Take That...
Christmas tree and lounge photos to follow tomorrow!

Christmas has finally arrived!

Yesterday started really badly. Our bunny, Fuzz, has been off her food since Saturday and her eyes all gunked up on Monday so we made an appointment for the vet yesterday morning. Unfortunately it was Myxomatosis and the kindest thing was to have her put to sleep. So we are now rabbitless and we don't think we will be replacing her. It's too hard when they get sick. The vet said that she was so unlucky as Myxi season is well over but it has a 2 week incubation period so she must have been bitten by the last infected mossie of the year.

Still after a quick trip to Hempsted Sainsbury's and B & Q we got stuck back into the DIY. We managed to fit the blind to the kitchen window before nan and granddad came to visit. Then we did the run of skirting in the lounge where the Christmas tree was to go. So finally I could put Christmas up! The tree is now in it's corner. I wasn't sure at first about the green in our red and gold colour scheme, but it looks really good. I'll try and get some piccies up at the weekend. I'm off out for my department Christmas party tonight and I'm staying at Bobbie's tonight.

Take That!

I went to see Take That on Monday!!! How very sad. It was absolutely brilliant!

These photos are from Clare as I can't get the ones off my phone at the moment.

We were 7 people away from Take That, we were in the second row on the floor at the O2 and at the end of our row was the mobile stage bit where they did a good few songs. It was the best concert ever! I knew all the words to all the songs apart from one from their first album (I wasn't really that big a fan the first time round)

It was a great girly night out and the 6 of us had all you can eat Chinese and some wine before hand and then sang along to the Take That CD in the car on the way home.

Plus we also saw on the way out we had been sitting a few rows in front of the guy that played Stuart in Neighbours! Real star spotting.

It was gone midnight by the time I got in and so I've been a tad tired the last couple of days - we went to Ikea last night as well and got a few bits for the house. We've also picked out the kitchen worktops that we want.

Ta Da!

Here is our finished bathroom!

Well I say finished, but I still need to seal around the bath (the sealant had gone out of date) and foam the hole in the wall where the waste pipe for the sink goes (the foam can had foamed itself shut!) I also need to give the tiles another scrub as there is still some grout on them. Plus I need to put the edging around the tiling on the sink. So not really finished, but a lot more finished than it was this time last week!

You can just see my lovelly tiling in the mirror in the picture. I am really proud of myself, even if I do have many cuts, lacerations and baddys on my fingers and about 17 less layers of skin on my hands.

Ollie has also been busy constructing the shelves for the TV accessories. (DVD player, Amp etc)

Wet

Today's challenge on the photography challenge blog is wet. Here is my attempt at wet, my bath running for me to get ready to go out to the pub tonight. It's going to be rare occurance - Ian, Helen, Alan, Ollie and me are all going to the pub together! Getting all of us together when 2 of us work in London, 2 of us do shift work and 1 of us lives in London but spends more time in the outer hebredies and works 14 hour days 4, 35 days in a row is quite a challenge!


For the first day of our week off I have been quite productive and made 6 Christmas cards. Only a few more to go now.
A Selection...

We also went to Sainsburys, fun! But we did get 2 more Christmas presents and a birthday present for Ollie's nephew who is 4 today.

Mum's birthday

Saturday was mum's birthday party. Laura did all the arranging which she did superbly, only asking me to get some sparklers!

Ollie had never let fireworks off before and being the pyromaniac that he is asked if he could be in charge. After years of standing while other people let one firework off at a time we joined forces and attempted lighting more than one at a time.

I managed to get my rockets to spin which was impressive. Halfway through we were interupted by mum's friend's bloke playing happy birthday on the bagpipes on our driveway!

Dad nailed the catherine wheel to the fence which got stuck and wouldn't turn round.

We continued with the fireworks, not exactly sticking to the safety rules but being careful until the last 3 rockets when we only had enough lighting stick left for 1 light. So we twisted all the fuses together and set them off. One went off in the sky, one into next doors garden and one in the tree!

Then we moved onto the 3 million sparkers Ollie had got which ended up in some strange places (in the firework pot, in a beer bottle and in the cake!)

Halloween Pumpkins

Unfortunately my pumpkin was not ready for Halloween. I is starting to turn orange but according to the guide I read on the net, it's supposed to be harvested when i is fully orange and then mature for 10 days. Well this photo was taken last weekend so it had no chance of being ready for yesterday.
Ollie enjoyed carving pumpkins so much last time that he wanted to do it again, so we got some pumpkins in Sainsbury's and took them to mum's on Sunday for the carving. Here is the end result!

Last night I refused to stay in the house in the dark (so the trick or treaters wouldn't know we were home) and went to yoga with Helen.

Guitar Hero Really Rocks!

We bought our own guitar hero from ebay. It was delivered just before all the postmen went on strike on Friday, so we have had loads of fun today!

Last night was the cricket club dinner organised by Laura. It was a good evening, even though we didn't really know anyone there. The dinner was alright, but the caterers were a bit poor. They managed to spill every course on the table and one even knocked over a bottle of wine on the next table to us! We left early because we were a bit tired and we were taking nan and Grandad home and they had been up since 4am to get mum and dad to the airport. So we missed the band who were good apparently. Grandad won the raffle - again.

Today I have been incredibly busy. We went to the gym and to Sainsburys this morning and I have planted the rest of my bulbs, painted the pipes in the bathroom and made 6 (yes 6) apple pies!

Guitar Hero Rocks!

Last night we went to Helen and Alan's for a poker night. It was a proper married couples evening with 4 sets of married couples! We did feel a bit old! It was lots of fun though. Afterwards we had a go on guitar hero which they had borrowed from Helen's brother. It is fantastic! It gets some getting used to but once you get the hang of it it's highly addictive. Ollie managed to get a high score on Sweet Child of Mine which was really hard.

So that's another thing for my Christmas list!

I went out with mum yesterday afternoon down to the craft shop in Margate. I only got a few sheets of paper but mum stocked up. We stopped off at Laura and Wayne's on the way home as I haven't seen it since it was a shell. It's very nice, I love what they've done. It's impressive thinking that they've built their own house.

Ol and me both won the lotto last night. I got 4 numbers for the first time ever and he got 3! So we treated ourselves to the 8 in 1 remote that we had seen in currys last week. It's a really funky touch screen one which will replace the 3 that we've got for the tv, sky box and dvd/amp. It was half price in the sale and we got another 10% off as the box had been damaged! Ollie's set it all up and I'm going to have a lesson in how to use it later! I think he's going to set up special buttons for me for the PS2 and X Box so that I don't have to remember what buttons I have to press on the tv and amp for it to work.

Body Shop party

Last night Tiff had a Body Shop Party. It was the girl's first party and she did really really well. I had a great time.

She has got me to agree to holding one as well so that should be a laugh!

Tiff got me a huge sparkly diamond (I'm presuming not real!) for my birthday which is now sitting on my desk sparkling away. I'd take a photo but I left my phone at home today. I've ordered my new phone - for the second time as the PAC code to transfer my number didn't work yesterday. When I get it I will be able to take photos and upload them directly to my blog! How cool is that!

Another Exam pass!

I passed my ACCA paper 1.2 on Wednesday! 74% this time. It was a really tough paper so I was really pleased with that.

To celebrate and to spend my bonus money for passing I bought Ollie a new PSP for the train. I went to Sainsbury's Maidstone but they didn't have any so they phoned Sittingbourne and reserved me one to pick up. So back to Sittingbourne and to Gamestation to get some games to go with it.

Ollie was really pleased with his suprise - until he realised I had been fobbed off with the old model for the same price as the new one! So I had to go back to Sainsbury's yesterday for a refund and we'll be going to Gamestation at the weekend for a new one! He felt really bad pointing out that I had got the wrong one - but I'd rather he had the better one and I didn't get conned!!!

He's not the Messiah he's a very naughty boy!

Yesterday Brian went missing for about 24 hours. Now we wouldn't have been worried if it had been Abby. She is always out and about and is more savvy and street wise.

Brian, however, rarely leaves the house for more than 5 minutes at a time as it tends to interfere with his sleeping and or eating. For him to miss 2 whole meals was unheard of! And let's face it, he can only be described as special needs and I'm not sure he's equipped with the necessary stuff to survive in the big wide world.

He finally turned up at 2.30 this morning minus yet another collar and cat flap magnet (I had unlocked the cat flap in case he had lost his key!) I had to get up (yes at 2.30am!) to find him a spare collar and door key.

So now we are quoting Monty Python at him as punishment.

Bored bored bored

I'm thoroughly bored of revising now. I've officially had enough!

I did have some time off last night to make some more cards...
And as promised a photo of my pumpkin...
And for those who are interested, Brian is actually sleeping in HIS bed today!

The life of Brian

It's such a hard life being a Brian. This is where he has been all day today...

I must point out that he tucked himself in all by himself with no help from me or Ol, Ol just found him like it!

And this is where he spent Friday afternoon...That bag by the way is what I use to put the recycling in from the spare room so he is sleeping in a bag with coke cans in!

I went outside earlier to take a photo of my pumpkin, got it all lined up. Turned the camera on and realised I'd left the memory card plugged into the computer! Doh! So I'll go out there again another time and take one.

Wow I did it!

I actually managed to grow something edible. Well I have done before but only mint and rhubarb! I even managed to kill of 3 lots of Basil! Last night we had the first crop of corn on the cob. It was really nice. It looked like corn on the cob, had the same texture and didn't taste too bad!

Considering all my other plants have died and the stinging nettles keep returning to invade my flowerbeds and lawn I was very pleased with myself.

Just in case you were wondering we had it with mash and chicken tonight hoy sin and balsamic vinegar sauce.

I even have a pumpkin growing! I'll have to take some photos for a pumpkin update diary!

Other than that I have found the challenge blog which gives you a word a day and you have to take a photo - I may give that a go when I'm not so busy with my studying.

Sunday Housework day

We've been busy again today. I went to Homebase this morning as we needed white spirit so Ollie could paint the other side of the door. They had some bulbs so I got some just because I was late planting them last year and they didn't come up.

I weeded one flowerbed and have planted some tulips and some other blue things that I can't remember the name of! And I planted some dwarf daffodils in a pot. But I've run out of compost for my other pots and the inclination to do any more weeding so the rest will wait until I get some (compost or inclination, whichever comes first!)

Ollie's busy doing his ironing. I've hoovered upstairs but have been banned from doing downstairs as it will throw dust onto Ollie's painted door.

Christmas Cards

Friday mum came to visit and bought her embossing powders to share with me which was really nice thank you!

So Saturday night to cheer me up after the football I made a few cards. (Needless to say my Magnolia stamps have all arrived! The photos are a bit rubbish, but it's the best I can do without going outside!

Football luck ran out

Saturday we had tickets for the biggest match of the season! The North London Derby, Tottenham v Arsenal. We caught an early train and got to the ground in time for lunch. Unfortunately the greasy spoon that I had gone in with Dad last time we went (4 years ago or so) had shut down, so we had to make do with a KFC type place. Which was OK, Ollie didn't go much on his but I thought the chips were nice.

We had a look in the club shop which was having a sale and I was going to get a t-shirt and a scarf, but the queue was too long!

We found our seats, conveniently in front of a gangway so that we could climb over to get out. The ground seemed very small when you have been to Wembley twice in the same week!

We played alright in the first half, going in 1-0 up. But we went to pot second half and lost 1-3. The last goal was unforgivable really, we were dead on our feet. We had 3 strikers on at the end, but they were all trying to stand on the penalty spot!

We made our way home very disheartened. We had never seen so many armed riot policemen. There were a row of them in the ground between the Spurs fans and the Arsenal fans. Then there was a row of vans with dogs, police horses and riot traffic police all along the High Road! The Arsenal fans were kept in the ground and then escorted to the tube! We didn't see any trouble though. We did see at the tube station a little boy of about 6 with his dad and he was wearing a white England shirt. When he bent over you could see that he was wearing an Arsenal shirt underneath! Silly dad letting him do it if you ask me!

I had another disappointing week at the fantasy football as well and James has pulled further into the lead.

Dinner at Helen's

We went to dinner at Helen's on Friday night. It was as usual lovely. Helen tried out a recipe from her baby food book and it was very nice!

Ethan is at that just learned to walk really cute stage. He can turn on the charm when he wants. Alan says he goes from strop to cute in 2 seconds flat! He had been finger painting that afternoon so I came home with a picture for my fridge.We gave up watching the rugby and turned the Wii on. They went out and got one after borrowing ours for a while. I came a close second at bowling and last at golf!