End of 2007

Today I got up early (yep around 8.00am!). How on earth am I going to get up at 6.00am again when I go back to work on Wednesday I have no idea - it's going to hurt that's for sure.

Anyway, I nipped up to the local Matalan to have a look around the sale. After nearly being crashed into by a learner driver who was practising in the car park, I made it into the store and had a mooch around for an hour. I ending up buying next year's Christmas cards, some earrings, a jewelery box (which is huge and I will be able to put all my costume bits and pieces which are scattered around various drawers in the bedroom into it). I ummed and arhed about a huge toy play set of dragons and castles and goblins and warriors which had started off at £79.99 and was reduced to £20.00 (I didn't buy it at the time but nipped back later in the day). It will be given to my nephew Joe on his next birthday (in October); yes I know, but if you see a bargain why not get it early?

Then it was back to the house to join Peter in waiting for Mr Sainsbury to turn up - we are back to normal food now and I'm quite enjoying the thought of eating plainly again, after all the rich food of Christmas. After the delivery we jumped into the car to go to Titchfield Haven as Peter was keen to up his Hampshire spotting numbers for the year. We parked facing the sea wall and wandered up to the Centre to pay - only to be very disappointed to see that it was closed! We never thought to check as today is after all not a bank holiday or anything - ironically it's open tomorrow which is!! We sat on the sea wall and ate our sarnies and did spot a Heron and some ducks whilst gazing over towards the hide area.

We decided to head over to Gosport and had a wander around the town ponds and harbour there in the hope of spotting a rare gull that is supposed to frequent there. A helpful individual approached us to say the gull had been there virtually every day before Christmas - however, we didn't see him. We then set off for Stokes Bay further on down the coast where there is a cafe right on the beach, where we had a very welcome latte. The cafe car park seemed to be where all learner drivers in the area come to practice reversing into parking bays - we must have seen half a dozen or so - we parked strategically to avoid being near them!

On the way home we called into Pets at Home to buy some Niger seeds for the birds at home - they are supposed to love them. I also nipped back into Matalan to buy Joe's toy.

Tonight we are just chilling and have watched the Spring/Autumn Watch Christmas special and are now watching a comedy drama on ITV called Double Time.

Like Anne, I've been thinking about what has been good (and bad) in 2007 and what I hope for 2008.

2007
1)Enjoyed some good holidays to Hereford and Norfolk
2)Finally got our roof done (it was stressful, but worth it in the end)
3)Changes at work have been stressful and upsetting this year - time to move on perhaps
4)Have formed stronger friendships with two ex work colleagues (it's funny, that once the work thing is taken out of the equation that some friendships can grow even stronger)
5)Life with Peter has settled down nicely and I feel secure and content

2008
1)Yep, will try to lose weight again - the last pig out will be this week and joining Weight Watchers again on 7 January
2)Try to not get wound up at work - it's only a job, a means to an end so why stress over it?
3)Do more gardening this year and maybe re-design the front garden
4)Book a fab holiday to Derbyshire
5)Get fit
6)Possibly join at group like the WI

Illness, Cancelling Guests and Copious Supplies

Been a quiet couple of days since I last blogged on Christmas Day - on Boxing Day Peter went to football and I chilled out for the day. On Thursday we ventured out to the Blashford lakes and did a bit of bird watching - a few hours in I started to feel my cold taking hold so Peter went around the second half of the reserve on his own whilst I sat in the car in the warm.

Yesterday, Friday, my cold really took hold so we didn't venture out at all and just relaxed and watched 'The Old Curiosity Shop' and other things I'd taped over Christmas. My friend Wendy has cancelled coming over on Saturday night so we are left with lots of surplus drink and food which we'll have to wade through in January I guess.

This morning mum phoned to say dad has taken ill with flu and has been really bad with a heavy fever and severe shaking - she said she has never seen anyone shake so much. Poor dad, and he and mum had flu jabs in the autumn - a lot of good that did them! Mum dragged dad into surgery in the state he was in (when do doctors ever come out these days?) and she has given him some strong drugs and anti-biotics in case it spreads to his chest. Mum and dad were going to come over to us on New Year's Eve but that is unlikely now as the last thing dad needs is to pick up another virus from us!

One of my uncles is also very poorly with Bronchitis and my aunt was concerned his breathing was getting too difficult - my aunt has MS and so can't get out of bed on her own and so was relaying all this to mum over the phone. Mum tried to help by calling social services to help my aunt (apparently her carers don't come out at weekends!) and the doctor for my uncle - but neither would help her as 'she was not next of kin or with the patient' - bloody hell, talk about making it difficult for people. My aunt has now had to call an ambulance to get help.

It's true what they say, there is a lot of illness about at Christmas. My theory is that when people stop work for a bit and relax the nasty bugs invade - couple that with staying indoors too much and mixing with lots of relatives and friends over the season - you have bug cocktail I guess.

I do hope everyone recovers quickly, mum had promised to phone me with an update on everyone tomorrow.

Christmas Day

Oh dear, I haven't blogged for ages what with it being Christmas and all. On Christmas Day we got up quite early and opened our presents whilst drinking some non alcoholic bucks fizz and eating chocolate croissants; I had lots of wonderful things including about 9 CD's, a beautiful fake Tiffany lamp, some binoculars, some books (thanks Keith and Anne - they look right up my street), a box set of all the series of 'Sex in the City' and 'Hammer' films, some jewelry, a Pashmina, a sparkly Christmas top and lots of edible goodies......

After all our unwrapping we drove to Andover to see my best friend and her family and stayed about an hour before heading over to my parents place for the day. Mum had gone to a lot of trouble with the cooking and had devised a couple of quizs to keep us occupied. We thrashed my parents at Scrabble and Yahtzee which was very rewarding as usually mum wins. Mum and Dad did nod off during the afternoon but we didn't mind as we watched one of Peter's presents about where to go birdwatching in the UK which was very informative.

Got home about 9 O'clock and watched TV for an hour or so before collapsing into bed - pooped from all the sitting around and eating.

Frozen Lakes & Frozen Treats

We decided to venture out today as we didn't really leave the house yesterday. We drove up to the local park/lakes and spent a couple of hours there. All of the lakes were frozen over so it was fun watching the ducks and seagulls coming in to land on such a slippery surface! The only low point was watching a family (parents and two young children) throwing things onto the ice and then turning round to see that they had deliberately left their rubbish behind - some people are so bloody lazy and what a way to bring up their children! Just before we got back to the car I briefly saw a fox but he had run off before I could point him out to Peter.

This afternoon I washed our absolutely filthy car which was so dirty I couldn't actually read the front number plate. As we don't have a hose pipe that runs to the front of the house it was hard work lugging bowls of water in and out of the kitchen but it was well worth it as it at least I can open the boot now without getting covered in grime.

Later in the afternoon we retreated into separate rooms, Peter in the conservatory watching wildlife in the garden and spotting planes and me in the lounge reading the papers and watching re-runs of All Creatures Great and Small on the box. Following tea (which we did eat in the same room) we had half a tub of Ben & Jerry's Bohemian Raspberry Ice cream - yum.

I'm thanking my lucky stars that we didn't book to go away this Christmas, what with the fog making driving so difficult and all the problems at the airports - it would be a nightmare trying to get anywhere right now; I feel so sorry for anyone who is going to spend Christmas trying to get somewhere.

On the news I saw a clip of a documentary about J K Rowling where she goes back to her roots and the flat where she wrote most of the first of the Harry Potter books. From previous articles I had read, her beginning had been painted as very bleak and I had imagined her living in an Edinburgh bedsit with mould on the walls and no hot water. Instead the flat she went back to was well above what the average person lives in, quite spacious, well decorated and with a nice view - hardly the squalid picture of her early life that had been painted. Sometimes it suits publishers to overhype the 'rags to riches story' just a little too much I think.

Chill Pills (in both senses of the word)

Popped out this morning to get the papers and to hunt for a working car wash as our car is in a disgusting state - covered in mud and salt. Got the papers but no luck with the car wash - the one at the local Tesco's, by the cashiers own admission, works for about a day and then breaks down again.

Back at home, settled in for the day and read newspapers and caught up on video recordings I had made. Watched 3 episodes of Oliver, my soaps and a couple of episodes of Loose Women (I seem to have become addicted to Loose Women and as it's on in the middle of the day when hardly anyone can see it, I've taken to taping it).

Peter's cold is a little better but still very much there, I bought all the remedies that Mr Tesco had to offer in the hope of zapping the darn thing.

In the post today we FINALLY had our letter from Building Control confirming, in writing, that our roof has passed the Building regulations. It has taken 3 months 3 days from the point of the first inspection until receipt of this letter - god the wheels of the Council certainly move slowly! The surprising thing is that our roofer hasn't sent his final invoice to us despite me asking for it - I left a message for him again today to ask him to send it. If I was him I'd certainly want paying prior to Christmas but that certainly won't be the case now.

I'm so glad we got our food shopping in early, my friend went into a large Tesco's this morning and the car park was almost full at that time!

This evening I guess we'll watch a film as most of the series we have been following on a Saturday night have finished now. It's been really nice today to not need to do anything urgently or to go anywhere - bliss!

Wintery Somerset & Getting Lost

I've been away for a few days at my brother's place, in a pretty village just outside of Bristol. I travelled up Thursday morning and arrived in time for lunch with my brother and the two kids (aged 6 and 3). Spent the afternoon making snowflake Christmas decorations and reading stories. We were joined by my brother's wife later in the evening as she had been busy working in their shop, it obviously being their busiest time of year. We had supper at around 9pm, by which time I was starving and it was delicious.

Today Becky was in the shop again, so the rest of us went to the local shops in bruv's camper van (left hand drive, so it was a bit scary being the front seat passenger). Then we visited a huge garden centre where the kids were kept amused by all the Xmas decorations and the pet section. We had a coffee and then headed back, stopping off on the way to get some free range eggs from a local farm - the farmer had thoughtfully left out a bag of sweets for his customers (you do get such thoughtfulness in the country I find).

After lunch, I decided to head home and scribbled down some directions to go the 'country route' home which would avoid Bristol, Bath and the motorways. Now everything was fine for a few miles and then it was like I had driven into Narnia - a thick fog appeared, there was compacted ice on the roads and the trees were shedding snowball size chunks of ice on the car. I took a wrong turn and then several more and must admit I was starting to panic a bit as I knew it would be dark in about an hour and I wasn't sure where I was. After several U turns in farmer's gateways, I luckily found a map in the back of the car and managed to back track and headed back towards Bristol - hoping to recognise a more familiar route. Thankfully, everything suddenly came right and I spotted a turning I was looking for earlier - phew! The rest of the journey was without incident and I got home not long after dark.

I was surprised to find Peter on the sofa when I got in, he hasn't been in work today as he has a horrible cold - I do hope he is feeling better for Christmas. Luckily we have absolutely nothing planned for this weekend so we don't even need to venture out at all which hopefully will give him time to get over the worst of it.

Shopping & Sofa

We had a busy morning this morning, our Sainsburys shopping turned up at 10.00am - if he had been 1 minute later we would have got a £10 voucher for him being late so boo to that. Unfortunately the one thing I had absolutely needed to be delivered was a present for my brother's wife and it was out of stock so that was a bit of a pain but it was a large order and the only other thing missing was three pints of milk, which Sainsers quickly refunded. I chatted with the delivery driver and he said he thought Armageddon was about to happen, the amount of stuff people were ordering - he has a point I think..........

We had just finished putting away the shopping and the delivery van pulled up with our new - well, second hand new, sofa. There were no less than three delivery guys who quickly got the sofa in - despite my worries it 'just' fitted through our largest door - thank goodness! I love it but it is rather large for our size of front room so we are going to be on the lookout for a slimmer coffee table and higher occasional tables as the arms are so high you can't easily reach over them when seated.

In the afternoon Peter changed the car tyre and we settled down to watch the first episode of the new BBC adaptation of 'Oliver'. As usual, it was littered with class actors but my one criticism is what's with the loud overbearing music? I shall no doubt stick with it as I am a huge Dickens fan.

Tonight Peter has his last band practice of the year and I have the laptop for the evening, so I'm catching up on lots of online stuff.

Wars of the Worlds

Pottered around this morning whilst Peter went for his second major dental appointment. He has had all the extractions he needs now and he now has some fillings to come, I'm so glad he is getting things sorted out.

Checked the car tyre pressures today and one of the tyres definitely has a slow puncture as it's down to 10lb when it should be 30! I seem to have spent a fortune on tyres this year, I just think I've got a decent set on the car, which will last for a good while, and then another puncture occurs. Peter is going to put the spare on tomorrow which thank goodness is brand new and I'll get the puncture repaired in the new year.

This evening we went to see 'War of the Worlds' at the Bournemouth International Centre. We left plenty of time to get there but the multi storey car park next door was still almost full and we had to park right up on the roof. The show itself was good but the auditorium was packed and the heating was up so high it was almost unbearable - the women in front of me was fanning herself with a book and I felt quite unwell in the second half. There was also less leg room than you get in an airline seat which also made me really uncomfortable - I hate that, when you are so uncomfortable that your wishing for the performance, no mater how good, to end. The last time I felt like that was in The Rose theatre in London where we saw a Shakespeare play once, the seats were so hard there I considered sitting on the floor!

I also felt a bit 'old' when Justin Haywood walked on the stage - he of the fresh face and blond hair. Well he's still blond but he certainly isn't fresh faced anymore - blimey I really felt my age seeing him.

Parcels & Robins

We hung around the house this morning as we were both expecting parcels and hoped the postman might bring them today, no luck though. Once the postie had been we drove to the Council tip to get rid of part of our collapsed sofa, an old TV, a broken mower and a computer monitor. Our local tip is ridiculously small for the size of the populace and has terrible access – meaning that any more than three cars in the queue to get in forces other cars to queue on a 2 lane dual carriageway – hmmm, health and safety anyone? Predictably we tuned up just as a huge skip lorry was in switching all the skips around – we must have waited 20 minutes before they let any cars in. Anyway, - it was good to get rid of some surplus items that had been cluttering up our house and shed. Next we went to Lidls as they were supposed to have some bargain scopes in but sadly they didn’t have any on display at all so their catalogue has been misleading. We did buy some other bits though, including some beers for Peter as he has been dipping into our Christmas supply……………

Once home we had lunch and then Peter hacked up the rest of our sofa for a supply of wood and then we watched a Christmas film. Later in the afternoon we moved all the stuff that had been cluttering our spare room back into the loft space – hoorah we have our spare room back and we can actually walk across the floor without stubbing our toes on boxes and suitcases!

Peter had a round robin letter and Christmas card from his Aunt Delia today – I don’t normally like round robins as they are often boastful letters about how brilliant people’s kids are but in this situation of an elderly aunt wishing to keep in touch, I think it’s acceptable and I think we should write back. Although I have never met her I have a very clear image of a kindly lady, surrounded by her pets (whom also sign her Christmas cards!). She has acquired a cat during the year to accompany her dog and she also enclosed a photograph of her son’s wedding during the summer.

It’s been a nice sort of pottering sort of day and with the nice warm glow of knowing you are not at work …………

Lovely Day at Home

Woke up annoyingly early today, so rather than laying in bed trying to nod off again I got up and did a bit of housework. Peter surfaced at about 8.30 and we ate toast and marmite in front of the news. We got bored with UK news which goes on 'rotate' -showing the same items over and over again on Saturday and Sunday morning - so we tuned into Russian TV, which is actually broadcast in English, and marvelled a lumberjacks cutting down a huge conifer in a woodland watched by people dressed up in bear suits and an interview with a Russian air hostess who saved 20 people from a plane wreck - handily backed up with the truly shocking crash statistics relating to Russian airlines (I always did thing Aeroflot were dodgy).

Peter went out at about 10 O'clock to a meeting of like minded plane enthusiasts in Bournemouth. I was half thinking of going but as they were going to be outdoors for a large part of the day, I decided to stay in the warm instead.

You know when you confide in someone about another person that has upset you and then the person that has upset you contacts you out of the blue, and offers you the very thing that you were upset about - well that happened to me today. I'm a little annoyed that the people I confided in have obviously tried to rectify things with the other party - however well intentioned I know they were. I have declined the offer made today anyway as it is a case of 'too little, too late' and I don't really like being at best an 'afterthought' and at worst only being included in something due to pressure brought to bear from others. I will probably forgive in time but it tends to take a long time for me to forget ..........

Today, I've done a bit of tidying, washed the kitchen floor and done some washing and hoovering - in between I've been watching a Stephen King Film and catching up with yesterdays' newspapers. It's been strange, and very nice, to know that I don't HAVE to do stuff I would normally get done today as I'm not in work tomorrow - such a wonderful thought...

Sad Dad, Door Punching, Chinese & Freebies

Nipped out to post office depot at 7.00am to collect a parcel. It wasn't the one I was expecting, darn it - I had hoped it was some CD's which I was going to give friends today but no such luck!

Came home for a few hours and then set off to go to mum and dads - leaving Peter to go to footie. Dad, who is usually very cheery and a cracker of jokes, was very subdued and admitted he is feeling a bit glum at the moment - mum and I jollied him along as best we could but he admitted that he and mum might go away somewhere next Christmas - and why shouldn't they? I'm totally happy for them to do what they want in their retirement and enjoy themselves.

Late morning I headed over to friend Wendy's place and we set out to collect friend Julie. As we got out of the car and walked towards her house we could hear Julie shouting at her eldest son (he's around 15 I think). Turns out he had just punched a hole in the living room door in retaliation for Julie not giving him money - NICE! She has 3 children who she is bringing up on her own and boy does she have a hard time of it - I really don't know how she copes. Anyway, she decided still to come out and leave the son to it - so we headed to town. Managed to park in the second car park that we circled and headed to the Chinese and had one of their bargain lunch time meals followed by a bit of shopping. I was quite restrained and only bought a stocking filla for Peter and, thanks to a voucher in The Telegraph, got two packets of Christmas baubles from Marks and Spencer's for free!

Then headed back to Wendy's for the afternoon and the swapping of presents. She is working so hard at the moment, her husband is out of work and she has one day off over Christmas, Christmas Day itself, which is very harsh really - working in catering is the pits that's for sure.

On the way home, picked up Peter from the Railway Station and we headed home to watch the X Factor and have a nice quiet evening.

Last Day at Work

Well not my last day ever but my last day for 18 whole days - I haven't had that long off since, eh, last Christmas actually, and boy am I looking forward to it.

It was quite a laugh today actually, I spent a few hours labelling and stuffing envelopes containing the College's calendar. It's nice to have a mindless job to do once in a while. Received a mysterious looking present from my work colleague and a less mysterious box of chocolates and bottle of wine from my boss - but still very nice of him of course.

This evening had an early night but did manage to perk up to watch 'Have I got News for You' which was good his week.

4 Days Into 1

Oh dear it's been 4 days since my last blog - how neglectful of me - it's been a busy week though so I'll do a quick re-cap.

Monday 10th December
Mysteriously I'd had a parcel delivered whilst we were out on Sunday (gosh do the Royal Mail really deliver then?) Therefore Monday morning I was at the sorting office at 7.00am in the dark, wind and rain waiting for them to open - so were several other people and the buggers kept us waiting for a good ten minutes. I was then greeted by not one but two grumpy post people (so full of Christmas cheer) who moaned and groaned as they tried to find my parcel which was eventually located and slung over the counter. Handed out all my work Christmas cards today, so feeling quite organised.

Tuesday 11th December
Very icy car this morning - took ages to defrost the car but it's a good time to be calm and chill out, I find, when you're sat in the car waiting for the ice to melt from the windows. Nipped into Sainsers on the way to work to buy party food for tomorrow night. Work was hectic, so many naughty students this year, which generates lots of paperwork.

Wednesday 12th December
Two ex. work friends came around tonight for an evening of nibbles and chat. Peter joined us for the nosh part and then very wisely departed upstairs so we could continue to natter as only a group of women can.

Thursday 13th December
It was the Secretaries/PA's Xmas lunch today at the local pub so I escaped for 2 whole hours and had a thoroughly nice time. AND the good news of the day is that finally our roof has passed Building Control regulations(verbally in any case). I won't quite believe it until I see it in black and white but good news all the same.
Looking forward to watching 'Buzzcocks' and 'Lead Balloon' tonight - Bill Bailey is back on the Buzzocks - hooray!

Books, Birds and Burgers

Saturday - we went to our favourite secondhand book sale. It was tipping down so we couldn't set outside the hall as usual with our coffee but stayed inside instead and were given free mince pies. We didn't buy as many books as usual, but still came away with a few bargains. Next it was off to our usual charity shop where I picked up a nice skirt for £3.50. Then over to mum and dads for lunch and a dice game or two and finally over to our friends Wendy and Mick to see their garden Christmas lights (and them of course). We didn't stay long as Wendy was shattered having cooked hundreds of Christmas dinners this week at the factory where she works as a chef.

Today we met Peter's brother Keith and sister in law Anne at the London Wetlands Centre. The weather wasn't brill but we didn't get too wet as it was a short walk between hides. We saw some interesting birds, including a Water Rail, spotted by Anne which definitely wins the award for best bird spotted of the day! There were some amusing moments especially the hide where the seats were so high that you couldn't see through the narrow windows in the hide! You either had to stand up and peep over the top or crouch down to child height. We had a nice lunch in the restaurant and this offered a much needed warm up as it was rather cold outside. We finished the day off with a mooch around the gift shop (but none of us bought anything) and then an exchange of Christmas presents in the car park. We've already had a bit of a prod at ours but we won't open them until the day honest !!! It was lovely to see you Keith and Anne - as you say, maybe we can meet up in the summer for a warmer birding experience :-)

Getting out of London wasn't too bad and we enjoyed spotting the Christmas lights in shops and gardens. We stopped at the motorway services for a burger so that we didn't have to cook when we got home.

This evening we are thawing out in front of the TV - it's been a good weekend - just a shame it's back to work tomorrow.....

Catch Up Blog

Haven't been able to blog for a few days as the link through our website was broken so lots of catching up to do........

Had a great weekend. Went to Shirley on Saturday for a mooch about and got some amazing bargains in the charity shops including a new sofa !!! Before we went out I went online to search on Ebay for a really obscure record that my dad used to play to death at Christmas (from 1968 onwards); so myself and my brother are very fond of it. Anyway, amazingly found it on Ebay and set my highest bid. A couple of hours later, went into a charity shop and I never look at the records section normally, but flicked through the first few in a box and there it was for £1.00 - what are the chances of that – it’s sort of obscure Tijuana stuff………… Needless to say I won the Ebay bid for £8.55 plus postage which is the only time I haven't been happy to win a bid.

Anyway, the last shop we went to was Oxfam which sells furniture. As soon as we walked in I instantly fell in love with a sofa they had in there – right colour, right shape – just what I had imagined in my mind would fit in our front room. I spent so long looking at it longingly that Peter said ok we could have it – unfortunately it won’t be delivered until 19th December (and I’m now worried it won’t fit through the doors of the house but I’m sure we’ll force it in somehow).

On the way back we went to The Range and bought a few Xmas pressies in there and discovered they had a coffee shop too!

Yesterday (what a day with the weather!!!) mum and dad came around for the day and we had lunch and during a break in the weather went to Blashford lakes http://www.wessexwater.co.uk/education/sub_centres.aspx?id=895
near Ringwood which has some excellent bird watching. One of the hides is right by a forest area where they have bird feeders and we saw two woodpeckers, pheasant, loads of chaffinches, tree creepers, nut hatches, black birds, song thrushes, squirrels (the fattest squirrels you ever did see!), blue tits, robins …………. I can only describe it as a feeding frenzy of birds – I highly recommend going. Didn’t get back until dark and had tea in front of the fire – bliss.

Today our roofer has been again and I have booked Building Control to come out on Friday – I’m taking the day off to be there as I’m going to get very firm if there’s any further hassle.

Not really a good morning at work – I had put a lot of hard work into organising the Secretaries/PA's Xmas lunch and I’d had to persuade some staff into switching days so that certain people could go on the same day as they had asked (we go over two separate days). Well 2 of them suddenly turned round today and said they had booked the day off as leave - can you believe it? Well sod them, I didn’t invite them to the alternative day as it’s clearly a ‘hidden message/protest’ type of thing in there - there's still a lot of resentment about post merger. I don't think I shall bother organising it next year – sad sign of the times.

I also have inherited organising a birthday card for all the PA's/Secretaries which everyone is invited sign for each other. This has also got very awkward – I’ve kept the group going and used my own cards for now and some people take part and others, don't – so very awkward when their birthdays’ fall and they get a card but don’t sign anyone else’s. In the New Year I’m going to email them all and ask if it’s worth bothering with so to speak and select the revised group from there – what else can you do?

Catching up with yesterday's papers this evening as we didn't really get chance yesterday. What with taking this Friday off this week I have only 8 more days of work until I break up for Christmas - god I so can't wait. I have 19 work free days to look forward too - bliss indeed.