Busy busy weekend

Ollie had Friday off and had the grand job of taking the cats to the vet for their booster jabs. This is not an easy operation as they are now too big (fat) to fit both in the carrier at once so one has to be bribed and into coming out of hiding into the carrier and taken off to the vet, and then when that one comes home it's the other one's turn! Ollie said that they were so noisy in the car and the vets!

We went to Ikea after work. Ollie had already been round lakeside by the time I got there and he had bought me a Jamie Oliver mug that says Foxy Lady on it! So we are now sad and have his and hers mugs now!

We got a new light for the stairs and the dining room as well as picture frames for the prints that I have ordered. Plus we got mirrors for the stairs to brighten them up a bit.

Having looked at the footstall that matches the sofa we decided it was too big. But we then came home and decided that we could put all the DVDs in the cd cases we have and store those with the game controllers in the storage in the footstall and put it where the DVD bookcase is.

So we will be off back to Ikea sometime in the near future I expect!

We insulated the attic on Saturday. We have already noticed the difference, not having needed the heating on all the time now it is mild. My legs really ached though with all the crouching and kneeling on the rafters.

Sunday we got the dining room ready for Ollie to paint it this week. I also cleaned and tidied the whole house. I also went to my local weight watchers meeting! I'm 10 pounds over my goal weight now so thought I'd better do something about it before it got out of hand. Ollie is also on it too to help me out and to loose some of the weight he has put on as well.

So it's going ok so far. I'm trying out the core plan. (No count to me!) Seems to be alright. I'm missing my bread though.

Finally some scrapping!

I've completed the second page of my wedding album!

I thought that while I was off sick but feeling a bit less sorry for myself I would do some scrapping. I'm a bit rusty so this is just a lift from a DC class, but it's good to get back into the swing of things.

The paper is Dream Sweet - Romantique Whimsical by Amy Teets.

I hand cut the title - it's Angelina.

Norovirus

Yes it's struck! I was sent home on Wednesday as I was being sick and I'm still off today.

It's the worse possible week for me to be off work. We are so busy I feel really guilty. And I was supposed to be working tomorrow as well so we could get our reports to the US in time. Still I think my boss has been taken over by a pod person as he is being really sympathetic. Most unusual!

I'm feeling much better today, I just feel hugely drained. Like I've been involved in a 24 hour endurance marathon of Wii boxing! Everything aches.

Of course we didn't get a new sofa until yesterday so I did have to spend a day and a half laying under a duvet on the rug in the front room. Ollie put the sofa together last night when he got home. I've never seen a flat pack sofa before but it's certainly a better way of doing things. You basically get a wooden frame covered in squishy stuff but you have to screw the back to the bottom, then put the arms and the legs on.

It needs breaking in a bit to make it more squishy but it's lovely and soft. We're also getting red velvet cushions which will match the curtains when Sainsbury's decide to get some in stock!

Brian seems to like it anyway!

Nothing to sit on!

I thought the Golden Compass was ok. (I haven't read the book yet) Ollie thought it was rubbish (he has read the book). This seems to be a common theme.

Our new sofa is being delivered on Thursday so we put the old one on ebay in the hope that we would make a few pounds and get rid of it in the process. Well we got £125 for it which was more than I thought. And they came to collect it last night! So we are sofa-less for 3 days!

Oh well it will be worth it when the new one arrives.

Not much else has been happening really. It's Nanna's birthday today so if I get out of this mad house that I call work then we may go down for a visit.

The End of Christmas

The Christmas decorations came down today.

I watched Ethan this morning while Ollie was out with Alan and we put all the Christmas decorations back in the box. He's such a good little boy bless him. I've never seen anyone have so much fun with a string of gold beads!

I didn't have any trouble from him all morning, he put things in the boxes and didn't take too many things out! Plus he helped me hoover up afterwards. We did watch 2 hours of Spongebob while we were doing it which I'm sure is enough to drive anyone mad but it was the only half decent thing I could find on any of the children's TV channels on a Saturday morning. Even winnie the pooh has gone 3d and Christopher Robin is now a girl!!!!!

This afternoon we put the first coat of coloured paint on the stairs with the aim of doing the second coat tomorrow.

We are off to the cinema later to see the Golden Compass so we'll see if it's any good.

Happy New Years!

New Years was spent at Helen’s. Ethan got a drum kit for Christmas, he is so cute. He was much better than he has been (he had really bad ‘flu) but had decided New Years Eve that he wasn’t going to eat again all day. We played a game of Cranium and the girls only narrowly avoided victory because we couldn’t answer the factual questions! Then it was bowling on the Wii and Singstar on the PS2. We left just after midnight as I had yet another headache.

Other than that we have spent the New Year break looking for a new sofa and we finally decided and ordered one from Ikea which is being delivered next Thursday. So we spent the rest of the weekend trying to find some cushions to match without real success. But we did find a new toaster that will match our kettle from Sainsbury’s although it then took 35 minutes to get out of the car park.

We did also manage to get the towel rack up in the bathroom for my towels so they don't have to live in the dining room and the white base coat done up the stairs ready for me to paint it this weekend.

Boxing day

Boxing day we had a bit of a lay in (8 o’clock!) and played Xbox for a bit before heading over to Nan’s, again via Gemma’s to collect our un-drunk wine and Ollie’s Grandma and Grandpa’s to give them a framed wedding photo that we had forgotten the day before. After another huge Christmas dinner we played a stupidly hard game of Trivial Pursuit but Ollie was feeling very sick so I had to take him home abut 4. He didn’t really feel better until he woke up to go to work the next day!

It's Christmas!!!!!

A distinct lack of blog updating has been happening over Christmas – oops!

Christmas was super busy. Ollie worked from the Wednesday through to Christmas Eve so I was stuck at home on my own for 3 days. I did manage to get the cheesecake made for Christmas day after a panic as the batteries in the scales had run out!

Christmas day was an early start at 5 to 6. Ollie and I opened our presents before getting ready and heading over to Laura and Wayne’s. We did have a detour via Gemma’s to drop off the cheesecakes which had almost ended up in my lap on numerous occasions during the journey! We called in to make sure mum and dad were ready but made the mistake of not geeing up Nan and Grandad who arrived at Laura’s almost an hour after we did!

We opened all our presents, I got loads of stuff that I wanted. Then it was off to Ollie’s Grandma and Grandpa’s for another cuppa and to say Merry Christmas before heading back to Gemma’s. More present opening, and peeling about 3 million sprouts.

Dinner was lovely and we all ate far too much. Ollie was feeling tired so I was allowed to drink and he was designated driver. Then at 5 o’clock we headed off to feed mum’s cat and then on to Carole’s (Gemma’s mum-in-law).

There the kids opened about 50 million presents each and Jenny and I spent ages playing with the Fifi garden and putting all the stickers on. It was loads of fun! Then I spent ages with Zoe playing with the fuzzy felt.

We left at about half 8 as I had a headache and Ollie was still very tired. So it was back home to play on the Xbox 360 for a bit and then bed time.

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!!!