The company...

...that Anthony works for do an event each year for their top drivers. People at each depot put themselves forward for it and the winner at each gets some Supercheques (that you can exchange for vouchers for most high street shops) and also gets to go on a jolly.

They all go up to ProDrive and speed around in fast cars, play golf, or demonstrate how well they can reverse park an HGV (eep), for doing all these better than anyone else they can win prizes too, but bascially they have a very nice time. At the end of the thing the company announce an HGV winner, a van driver winner and second and third place winners (either vehicle).

Two years ago Anthony won himself an iPod (my iPod...) and last year he won a video camera. Last year he also won the second prize, which was a weekend away in the UK - which we still haven't taken yet. That was a great win as he hadn't been going to go as it was the weekend after Dad died, but my mother insisted and then he won that!

Last night I'd gone to the pub with Angie (my ex-next-door-neighbour) while he was out on his jolly. About 11pm my phone rang.

Partly it was so he could tell me that Tim Harvey had driven him round the track in an Aston Martin DB9 (jealous drool), but it was also to tell me that he'd won another prize.

This time he won the big one.

H.G.V. Driver of the Year

I'm so immensely proud of him that I could burst! But I'm not going to. Otherwise I would miss out on my weekend away in Europe...

Monza in September 2009 has been suggested...

This day...

...last year was more than a little bit pants.
So when I woke up this morning I had no great expectations, I just wanted to get through the day without falling apart.

In the end it's been a pretty brilliant day.

• I've had paperwork from the divorce people at last. I just have to get an affidavit signed and then that's one step closer to my divorce coming through.

• Lovely Caroline's book arrived at work. I sent her pictures, and she has blogged them. (Yes I am pink, three flights of stairs I ran down to open the box they were in). I am up to page 275 and loving every second of it. Loving is a strange word to use about this book, but it works.

• My iPod has been spooky and played just the right songs at just the right moments.

• It rained a bit today, but whenever I've been outside it has been glorious sunshine.

• Lewis Hamiltwunt lost his appeal against his illegal overtake in Belgium.
  

Basically, life is good.

I am aware that it may all go a little pear-shaped later on in the evening, and it certainly will in the wee small hours when my usual night-time routine kicks in (sleep for two hours, wake up after a nightmare, cry for a bit, fail to sleep until about 5am then get two more hours of sleep).

But at this time, and in this place, life is good.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious...

...(oh yes, you knew that was coming)

I have never been a big fan of soup. I don't remember it coming up as a regular meal option at home, it would always be a choice of last resort when I was ill and particularly grumpy. Then it had to be Cream of Chicken, no other type would do.

But recently I have been wanting soup.

So I went out and bought some.



That receipt has had to be saved as proof that I had a soup moment, although the entries on it do not do my soup shopping justice.

Farmers Soup = Heinz Farmers' Market Roast Parsnip & Caramelised Onion Soup.
Soup = Heinz Farmers' Market Beef, Mushroom & Red Wine Soup
Ckn Broth = Heinz Classic Chicken & Barley Broth
Soup = Tesco Finest Sweet Potato, Butternut Squash & Pumpkin Soup
Soup = Tesco Finest Cream of Chicken Soup

(the Finest ones come in very cool pouches, and I was glad as the bag was very heavy anyway!)

As you can see, if I am going to eat soup, it has to be fancy soup.

We bought some nice ones from Waitrose yesterday too: Frances Robson's Tweedside Honey in English Parsnip Soup and Laura & Simon Thearle's Goats Cheese in Red Pepper Soup.

I have even been looking at some cookbooks at work to find myself a soup I can cook in the slow cooker one day. It's all part of looking after myself with this horrible lurgy that just won't go away.

I'm probably never going to eat soup in a restaurant (they always have either goats cheese or pate for a starter) but at the moment my diet is becoming soup based which is rather scary. I think it must be Anthony's influence, this last couple of years I've taken to eating all sorts of things that I would never have touched with a bargepole before.

Next thing you know I'll be drinking coffee!

Sorry...

...that I didn't post about soup the other night, I didn't get out of the bath til about 10pm (mmmmmm, lovely three hour bath) and then I got distracted by the widget again.

There will be a soup post at some point.

In the meantime I would like to say HELLO! to all the lovely people who have been here via the widget and hoped that I get better soon.

So hello and thank you to:

Trousers, nmj, spacedlaw, ken, Susan, Lady in red, Country Girl, Ashley Ladd, Kathryn, Papercuts, Brom, hullabrouhaha, liz fenwick, Nik's Blog, DK Green, Twinville, Pamela Terry and Edward, Crystal Jigsaw and Leigh. (I now have 35 new blogs in the Widgetness folder on Google Reader - wah hoo!)

Also big hugs to Michelle who has also had the lurgy (as have her two adorable boys), and of course the fabulous Caroline who wrote the book that needed the widget (as built by Stray) in the first place!

I am feeling much better today after an unfortunate incident yesterday when I laughed so hard at Lewis Hamiltwunt qualifying in 15th that I actually made myself sick.
Nice...
Luckily the afternoon/evening spent flopped on the sofa, flicking through cross-stitch magazines to find my next project (this one at last) while watching Season Three of Buffy has restored me to nearly normal again.

As I am feeling better I have been very grown-up and written myself a To-Do List.

1. Do washing-up.
2. Watch Italian GP, hopefully laughing at Lewis throughout.
3. Do some work on either my mothers present, or this cross-stitch (that I found in a drawer, half-finished and neglected since 2003).

I hope that you all have a very nice Sunday and I will leave you with Sebastian Vettel's reaction to getting pole position in qualifying yesterday (and becoming the youngest driver ever to do so)


(I just want to give him a hug!)

Edited to add: Hooray!!! Vettel just won his first Grand Prix. Youngest driver to do so and an absolute sweetie to boot!

Atishoo...

...meh.

I have got the horrible lurgy.

I hope it is not transmissible by widget because it is so nice meeting all these new people and I would hate to make everybody ill.

*sniff*

In an attempt to feel better for tomorrow (when I will hopefully see my man since he has been on night shifts and had car problems all week), I shall be spending this evening in a hot bath.

A hot bath with a Blackberry Bath Bomb in it.

With a mug of Lemsip, and possibly a large mug of an Instant Tea too.

Also a relaxing lovely book, haven't quite decided which one yet though.

Of course, I might well be really lazy and just stick the audiobook of I Capture the Castle (read by the lovely Jenny Agutter) on.

*sniff*

I shall try and post later, possibly about soup.

Widgets are very, very...

...distracting!

Lovely Caroline has a new blog widget for her beautiful new book Black Boxes.

<---- There it is! (possibly down a little bit too)

This is a brilliant widget because:

1. You get to go and visit loads of blogs that you may not have been to before.
2. Loads of people come and visit your blog!

However this is also a very bad thing because:

1. You get to go and visit loads of blogs that you may not have been to before - therefore you spend all your time reading so that when,
   
2. Loads of people come and visit your blog - all they get to read is a post from me saying I'm busy and not actually writing anything new (plus a scary Maths post).

So thank heavens for the Google Reader. Everywhere new that I end up I am adding to it (in a new folder called Widgetness) and everyone new that comes here and comments gets added too!

This way I still get to read lots of lovely new blogs and meet lots of new people, but when I decide to have one last go on the widget before bed, I can just add the new blog and read it when I have time.

I now have to go and read some of the 178 posts (!!!) that are waiting for me in Reader, so I shall leave you with a picture of some of the planes that hang from the ceiling at the Imperial War Museum.



(I am working on the rest of the London pictures, but you might get to see a few this week...if I can tear myself away from the widget!)

I fully intended...

...to blog tonight.

I was going to blog about my holiday week, statues, flooding, Lewis Hamiltwunt and my new passion for Cranberry & Raspberry Tea.

But I went back to work today and the first book I saw when I walked in the door was this. (and then I bought this one too).

So tonight, this is me...














You can always read my sister's insightful piece about Lewis instead.