wagwaan?

Where has the week gone?

I don't know what happened to this week. One minute it was Monday, and now it's already Saturday night! Weeks like that make for boring blog posts, I'm afraid. I haven't even uploaded the picture of the lovely narcissi I have growing on my kitchen windowsill - a bargain from Tesco recently.  This week has just flown by - long work days followed by evenings as follows:

Monday - Chanel makeover (oooh we both looked gorgeous but there was no light to take pictures) and then it was off to Slimming World (not brill; stayed the same)

Tuesday - Supposed to have a trustees' meeting but two of them didn't turn up so it ended up being a cuppa with the lady who runs the Community Centre while we tried to track them down. We never did...

Wednesday - Supposed to be Pilates but Dr O was running late and I ended up having an hour's meeting with her to run through all the messages and problems with clinics, followed by 2 hours typing at home.

Thursday - Dinner with some medical reps and nearly the whole Ophthalmology Department at a nearby Spanish restaurant. Yummy but not particularly low calorie. Great company though.

Friday - NOTHING!  My mind is blank and I can't remember what we did last night apart from flop in front of the final of Celebrity Big Brother, which I hadn't even particularly been following anyway!

Hmmm. A rather full week I think you'll agree, so apologies for the lack of interesting gossip. In my spare time I've been watching old episodes of thirtysomething on Youtube. It was my most favourite programme EVER when I was living in the UK back in the 80s. Sigh. I always wondered if it would come out on DVD and it finally has, but I'm enjoying it in 10 minute snippets on my iPhone in the meantime.

I'll finish with a picture that Claire took of our gorgeous Lyle. This version was uploaded from my iPhone as you can see!

 

Aww, love him!  Well nite nite everyone. 

Back to normal

It's nice to feel human again!  The cold is (more or less) gone, and so is the tiredness, and the week ended on a high because Claire and I went out to have a Slimming World dinner with our outgoing SW consultant. That's "outgoing" in the sense that she's leaving the role, but it can also be in the sense that she is bubbly and fun too!  We had a lovely time, it was us, Beth, another lady from SW called Trish, and Beth's husband. Well, he had to be there really, seeing as it was his house and he did half the cooking lol.  We enjoyed ourselves so much that we decided we should rotate and have it at someone else's house next time. 

Saturday was spent mostly doing many loads of laundry - I am not sure how dirty washing multiplies so fast, but it does. Then Claire and I popped out to Boots for a few necessities. When we are in Boots, Claire always wants to go past the Chanel counter for a quick squirt of perfume. My signature "parfum" is No. 5, which I absolutely adore, and Claire loves it too because it reminds her of me. She's sweet like that.   While we there we spied the brushes and paraphernalia of the make-up artist and I asked how much for a makeover. Imagine our delight when the lady said it was free and that the Chanel person would in fact be there this coming Monday!  I signed up for a "do over" first, then the lady asked Claire if she'd like one, so now we are BOTH having our faces done tomorrow - Claire in the morning and me at 4pm. How exciting! 

I've just finished watching Dancing on Ice, and I'll be tuning in for the skate-off later. It's only early in the competition and there are already some very good skaters. I used to skate. I was taking figure skating lessons when I damaged my cruciate ligaments when I was 18. My knee has never been the same since! I still enjoy the sport immensely, but what with the arthritis and being overweight I'm really hesitant about falling and hurting myself.  Can't wait for the Vancouver Olympics in February because there'll be plenty of skating then - and it's around my birthday too so I get to choose what we watch mwahahaha!

Talking of my birthday, this year it's a BIG one. One with a zero on the end.... And the other half's birthday is exactly 11 days later, and his is also a BIG one, albeit with a lower  number if you get my drift. He keeps me young.  I hate parties but I do like family get-togethers and I'm just sorry we can't afford to get over to France for one this time. Oh well, maybe later on in the year? We shall see. Now I just have to think of what to get the OH. Yikes!

Well, that's enough waffle.  Hope you are having a peaceful Sunday wherever you are, ready for the week ahead. I'm going to try and post some actual photos tomorrow *smile*  Nite nite all! 

I got an award :)

Thank you to my sweet friend LyzzyD who gave me a blog award.  I'm honoured darling!!

 Here are the rules

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
2. List who gave the award to you and use a link to her blog (or hyperlink).
3. List 10 things that make you happy.
4. Pass the award on to other bloggers and visit their blog to let them know!
5. I am not such a stickler for rules if you are like me: do as you please with it!!!

Well, here goes my 10 things then, in no particular order:

1. Spending time with my family.

2. Blogging.

3. Taking photos.

4. Slipping between clean sheets once a week!

5. Listening to music - and singing along. Badly.

6. Watching girly movies with Claire and "swooning" together.

7. Hugs from my man. Who needs diamonds when you get hugs like that?

8. Birdsong.

9. Being by the sea, especially in Bernieres....

10. Eating chocolate!!

Just some random thoughts that popped into my head, but they come from the heart.

I'd like to nominate some bloggers now, again in no particular order:

1. Hen at Henhouse.  I love her vintage posts, especially the ones when she, hubby and son all dress up in  40s gear!  I'm dead jealous!

2. The gorgeous Lucy at Attic 24 who I mentioned recently. Her blog has so much inspiration with all that colour, and she's had a darling little boy recently so I'm surprised she finds time to blog still.  I'm very grateful because I'd miss her if she didn't post. 

3. Audrey Woulard, a photographer I absolutely adore. She's just announced she's coming to the UK this year, so I'm first in line for THAT workshop, believe me!!

4. Stefanie at Ni Hao Y'All, first of all because of the amazing name she gave her blog, and then because she is living the life I thought I'd have: she is mother to (and I might be wrong  here) 4 biological kids and 5 adopted special needs Chinese kids.  I love the dynamic in that family, and the children are all absolutely beautiful. Growing up, I wanted to have loads of kids, some mine, some adopted. Life doesn't always work out the way you hope, but I can live it vicariously through Stefanie!

5. Koryn from Motherspreciousgems, no least because she inspires me so much, showing so much resilience and faith whilst battling breast cancer. Go Koryn!

There are so many more blogs that I love and my Google Reader is full, with Pioneer Woman, Tara Whitney, Beach Cottage, Katyboo, Cathy Zielske, and all my friends, too numerous to mention in one post, although I will mention my "bestie" from back in secondary school - Chrissie I'm so glad we found each other again! Maybe I'll do some more links another day.

I just feel that there is a whole sisterhood of wonderful women out there, and it's thanks to the World Wide Wobble that we get to hear about them. Sigh. Don't you just love it?

Men... pfffff!!

Today was one of those ones when I hit a wall and need to s l e e p!  It's supposedly all down to my arthritis and I must admit my inflammatory markers (in my blood) are pretty high despite the treatment at the moment. Anyway, every so often I just feel so cream crackered and today was one of them. I found it hard getting up, and then by 11am I was feeling so rough I told my manager I needed to go home for a bit. I am loving this temp situation because it means I can be flexible. I went home, had a half-hour power nap and then a quick lunch of scrambled egg on toast followed by fruit and a  Muller Light, and then I went back to the office.

I didn't stay late tonight, though, and when I went to hang out with the OH in his basement den, I thought I could smell gas. He was all "oh it's fine, I've checked it", but said if I was worried I should call the emergency number, which I duly did. I told the woman who answered that it was only a slight smell of gas, but to cut a long story short she told us we should evacuate the building (we didn't - it's dark! and it's cold!). Not long thereafter we got a call from the emergency gas man saying "I'm sorry, I'm in traffic, are you all alright? is everyone out of the building?" because the message HE got was "there's a smell of gas in the whole house and it's going to blow up". Lovely!  Basically, he came down to look at the installation, and pronounced it highly irregular and amateurish. I had forgotten the gas company had changed some pipes a couple of years ago; well, when they did, they did a botch job of it and it's probably been leaking ever so slightly, ever since!  I was freaked out.  The OH said "oh the window's been open all this time" because he has had it ajar due to the damp situation. Still, I thought he was taking it all a bit lightly, hence the title of this post. But I love him really, so I haven't told him that I went pfffff lol.

In other, slightly less dramatic, news, Claire and I got weighed in last night and I was humbled by my daughter's tenacity and achievement: She lost a whopping 4.5lbs, having been totally focused this week. Me, I lost 1.5lbs, which is ok but nothing to write home about.  Tonight we had chicken breasts, broccoli and potatoes, followed by Muller Light yogurts and fruit. We are determined this time to see the numbers go D O W N and not up and down and all over the shop. Wish us luck!

Right, that's me done in; I'm off to my bed now, having just had a lovely French "Saveurs du Soir" peppermint and liquorice herbal tea. MMmmmmm. Night night. 

I feel the need for colour

You know the feeling - Christmas is over, we've had snow and cold weather for ages and now we're all really bored with it. Well, one my little escapes in blogland is this gorgeous blog by Attic24. I love love LOVE her photos, always so colourful and so creative. I was never a fan of crochet, as I've said before, but hers is gorgeous and could really convert me, you know!  The beautiful way she mixes all those colours in her house together is very Kaffe Fassett and I admit to feeling the teensiest bit jealous (smile).  I know I keep harping on about wanting my house to be all white but I think what I really mean is a white backdrop to set off lots of bright and vibrant COLOUR.  I'll get there one day...

There's a lot more colour in my Goddess Journal that I recently purchased online from Goddess Leonie. 

It might sound a bit New Age to you guys, but after the awful year that was 2009 I felt the need for a fresh start. So far I'm really enjoying the journey. I'm on a voyage of discovery, printing just a few pages at a time. I love how colourful it is, and how Leonie starts by getting us to acknowledge what happened in 2009, both the good and the bad, to pat ourselves on the back for the good stuff and to let go of the bad stuff. It's fun and therapeutic at the same time and Lord knows I need me some therapy!!

Well, I'm not going to be staying up too late tonight as I have loads of typing to do tomorrow, so that's all from me folks. Take care and enjoy your weekend!

Help for Haiti

As you will have heard on the news, Haiti, already a very poor country, has suffered a devastating earthquake.  I feel so powerless when I watch the reports on the news, but I have donated what I can to one of the appeals (the Disasters Emergency Committee one).  For more info on how to help, go to the BBC website. Do it NOW. We may think we have problems but it's NOTHING compared to what these poor people are going through.  They are in my prayers.

::sniffle, sneeze, cough, sniffle::

Oh dear, I was feeling so smug not catching any bugs like everyone around me at work, and now I've come down with a bunged up nose and cough. I feel fine really - I just have a rather sore nose from constant blowing and I'm having to be extra sweet to the boyf to make up for all the disturbance at night from me tossing and turning when my nose gets all blocked up again and wakes me up. Oh well, there are worse things to put up with aren't there?

So, the most exciting thing that has happened to us here, apart from yet another covering of snow, is that the ol' man took himself off to the shops to get some extra RAM for this here old computer. It really was the slowest thing you ever did see and would cause us to alternate between yawning and trying not to fall asleep between clicks, and pulling our hair out in frustration at its s-l-o-w-n-e-s-s (if that's even a word).... A crisp 20 later and it's blisteringly fast and I'm having the time of my life reading blogs and updating here. What a change! Wish we'd done it ages ago.  We even opened Photoshop, iTunes AND Google Chrome all at the same time and it didn't even skip a beat. Yay!

Nearly as exciting as the new PC speed is the fact that my Pilates class started today. Ho boy, I have felt muscles today that I haven't felt in a looooong time (I know you hear me, Chrissie!). I loved every minute of it and can't wait for next week so we can do it all over again. 

I am trying to add some colour to this post, so I've had a look through some old photos to see what I could come up with... Let's see.....Well, I never tire of this one, do you remember it?  Such pink deliciousness!

 

and just one more for luck, that Claire took of a flower arrangement we bought my mama when we were visiting a couple of years ago.

Pretty, isn't it? 

So that's it, my little update of the day.  I'm going to make a nice cup of Raspberry and Cranberry herbal tea and take a long soak in the tub, if you don't mind, so toodlepip. Keep warm and see you soon!

Sunday

I know I haven't been around for a few days. I've been reading blogs on Google Reader on the iPhone but it's too much like hard work blogging on a touchpad so I haven't updated sooner.  

First off, Claire's appointment went well even though snow stopped her Consultant Ophthalmologist getting to work. She saw the orthoptist who I work with and who saw her when she was younger, and it appears her eye muscles have pretty much given up the ghost. Her vision is not affected, although it proved harder using the left eye than the right because she had to concentrate harder. Both eyes have a divergent squint. When she was little she couldn't do the cross-eyed thing and had orthoptist appointments back then to get her to exercise the muscles. Now it's really hard work converging, and although she can do it briefly she can't hold them in position and one always wanders off course. Because the Consultant wasn't in, the orthoptist got another doctor to write up the Waiting List card, and that has been sent off to the Waiting List Coordinator. The Consultant, Miss B, will see her for her pre-op assessment to decide once and for all which muscles to adjust, but so far it looks like it will be the left eye only, moving both the outer and inner muscles. Apparently, these days they can use "adjustable sutures", which the surgeon then adjusts in clinic!  Yikes, sounds interesting! They're not sure if that's what they'll use though. Claire's not in a hurry to have it done, but does have problems focusing now, especially watching television, and people are commenting on the wandering eye so it's also a cosmetic thing. 

Otherwise, it's been a pretty mundane week. Snow is paralysing most of the UK, and the rest of the Northern  Hemisphere as far as I can tell from the news. It's not so bad here at the moment, although the night sky has that pinkish tinge tonight that could herald more snow...  I find it boring if I don'tpost pictures so here are a couple from last week when the snow was quite thick. First, outside my office window, when it started to settle:

 

Then one of the side roads around here:

That first night, it took one of the other girls SEVEN HOURS to drive home. I think it's a 40 minute drive normally. Poor thing!
 

The eating plan is going great, except yesterday because, yes, I gave in and made the galette thanks to the recipe from my SIL in a previous comments section. It's all in French so if you want it, contact me. It was DEE-LISH!  If I had known how easy it was to make I'd have made one ages ago. I didn't have enough puff pastry and it had been in the freezer for a while, but it tasted ok. We even had a fève from Claire's collection. Guess who got it? Yep, that would be me.  I'm going through a lucky period actually, because not only did I get the fève, I also won on the Euromillions lottery Friday night. That's right! Apparently, though, it's just under a tenner so I won't be giving up the day job just  yet.

Well, I'm off. Take care everyone and hope you are not too cold where you are.

Are you all trying to sabotage my diet??

Well, I must say thank you for all the comments, and I'm drooling at the thought of that recipe, but I thought I told you I was being good and back "on the wagon"??!  I am seriously tempted to make a galette at the weekend but I'll have to save up all my "Syns" in order to enjoy it because I really don't want to scupper our healthy eating plan the first week of the new year!  Seriously, though, a big thank you to all my sisters :)

I'm sitting here, quietly, all alone, because the others went to bed early. Actually, strike that - I'm not alone because Lyle is sitting on the tumble dryer behind me, having a quiet wash and brush up.  Out of the window, if I peer closely (it's dark out), I can see the garden getting whiter and whiter thanks to the latest snowfall. Apparently it's going to get heavy overnight and we could have double or triple what we had before Christmas. That'll be fun - it paralysed the place then, so goodness knows what's in store. The doctors aren't sure they'll all be able to get in tomorrow, which is just our luck as Claire has her appointment with both the orthoptist and the consultant at 9 in the morning! Fingers crossed because she really does want to find out if she needs an operation or some other treatment to correct her lazy eye.

So, no photos today, but here's looking forward to some more lovely snow pictures. Stay safe if you have bad weather where you are. Nite nite!  

Catch-up picture post

Before I start uploading pics, thank you all for your lovely comments . I'm glad I'm not the only one with these issues lol!  We should start a support group...

Well I promised you photos, so here goes. I finally finished my December Daily book and I love it. I really enjoyed just scribbling a few lines down each night and printing out photos to add some colour. I would never have done it if I hadn't prepared it in advance, and I really want to do this again. Tell me what you think.

I used some cardboard from the packaging of some new sheets - it had two convenient folds in it, some book rings and some fabric from a swap I did a few months ago. So pretty and Cath-esque don't you think?  It's a shame about the lighting in these pictures, you can blame the darkness on the time of year.

 

A nice sense of satisfaction having it finished.

Next, I nearly forgot all about the picture I took of these fab tea towels from, where else, Primark. The Union Jack is certainly having quite a revival these days and at only a couple of quid they were quite a bargain.

I have done such a lot laundry since Friday that this pile was huuuge. Underneath are neatly folded black clothes - I didn't realise I had so much black!  Piled on top are loads of pillow cases needing ironing, and finally my white duvet cover. Another Primark buy as it happens. Lyle obviously thought it was comfortable although I feel there is something Prince(ss) and the Pea-like about this photo. He also thought it would be fun to reach out and touch his mama, bless him!  It's a good job I wash duvet covers inside out (it's easier to put them on that way, I learned that in Germany) because the other half wasn't too impressed thinking there's be cat hairs all over the place. Don't worry darling, they'll be nicely contained INSIDE the duvet cover, ha ha!
 
 

So, today Claire and I took the Christmas decorations down. I can't quite believe it's all over already - I would have waited for 12th night, but as that's a week night I thought it would be best to get it all done today. I can't help feeling that the house looks a lot tidier, although I do so love my Christmas decorations. Sigh. When we had taken the lights down, we decided to put them back up on the bookcase, although this time I started from the other end and was left with such a long piece I decided to continue them up and over the arch. I think it looks lovely and Claire took a snap on her iPhone to post to twitter. Here it is:

 

Photo taken from where we were sitting, on the sofa. As you can see, we live in a typical Victorian terrraced house, with the arch knocked through to make one long room. If we ever get around to doing the kitchen extension I would like to put the wall back so that we have one small front room, or den, and one long through room as a kitchen diner. That's just a dream for the moment though!   Talking of 12th night, we won't be having any Galette des Rois this year, I reckon. We're nowhere near France and the nearest Paul is in London I think. Good thing, really, given my previous post, right?!

There, I think we're nicely up-to-date now. Back to work tomorrow, so off I go to my nice warm bed. Nite nite all xx