I may be messy...

...but I'm not disorganised. Yes, 99% of the time the computer desk will have piles of paper all round the keyboard, but 99% of that time I can find exactly what I'm looking for (the 1% being if Anthony has been hurling stuff around).

But at the moment I am both messy and disorganised. I hate it. It makes me itch.

There'd been a strange lumpy bit in our living room floor for a very long time. It wasn't a major problem, we just stuck a chair over it. But then one day I moved the chair and realised that the lumpiness had spread to the wall...

So when Anthony's folks came round the following Sunday bringing a builder with them to look at fixing up the utility room to make it more weatherproof and secure, we got him to have a look at the floor instead.

Turns out that the heating pipes that run the length of that wall had been bodged together by the previous owner, and so one of the joints had been very very slowly leaking.

Just a case of patching that bit of floor and wall, yes?
No.
The area where the pipe had leaked was also where the bodger had pulled up the old hearth area, so none of that area was any good.

So a case of patching the hearth area of floor?
No.
The way the rest of the floor surface was breaking up made the builder suggest that we needed the whole sub-floor ripping up and a new concrete floor laid.

Since this was two weeks before Christmas, and the weekend before my 12 week scan, I was hoping for "we'll get rid of all the loose stuff, then do it properly after Christmas."

Not my decision to make apparently. (Not Anthony's either)

So the work actually started on the day of my 12 week scan. A week and a half's worth of no heating, lots of dust and noise, just when I'd started to be less stressed.

They did the floor in three sections in the end.

Each section was done about three days apart, to allow for the concrete to go off enough so that they could then use that surface when working on the next chunk.

For most of the time I got to keep a couple of bookcases in there. The rest are all out in the conservatory. I get extra itchy when I can't get at my books.

The next decision taken was to get the room redecorated while it was empty. A quote was obtained and a decision taken. (again, not by either of us)

Which is why I spent the week I was supposed to be on holiday with Anthony, staying with my mother while he and his dad decorated.

To be continued...

PAD Week 5...

...30/01/11 to 05/02/11.

It is absolutely...

...persisting it down in Wolverhampton today (as it seems to be across most of the country) and my first thought (well, after the inevitable "who am I? where am I? what time is it?" thoughts) this morning was "yay, a home day!"

A rainy day outside when I can stay indoors with Anthony and we can putter about tidying, decorating or watching TV and playing computer games. (he's playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II as I type)

Then I remembered that last night he said he wanted to go to a local Ford dealership to have a look at some cars.

In the rain. Like we did a few weeks ago. Yuck.

So I got up and dressed and came downstairs to ask what time he wanted to go out.

He looked at me like I was INSANE and said: "What? In this weather?!"

Jeans off, comfy trousers & hair dye on.

Hurrah!

I am a terrible person...

...I really really am.

Two years ago Anthony won his works Driver of the Year competition. The prize was a weekend away anywhere in Europe. We chose Monza.

What I thought I had blogged last year, but didn't (this is why I am so terrible) was that he won it AGAIN. This time they'd changed the prize so we got £500 of Co-Op holiday vouchers instead.

Well guess what...

THREE BACK-TO-BACK WINS!


(his prizes: the wine is all mine as he doesn't drink it; holiday vouchers in the yellow card, the iPhone (8G 3GS) means he may appear on Twitter, the FoleyCat we owned already.)

Last year there were plenty of jokes about him being better than Lewis Hamilton, this year he's better than Fernando Alonso and joins Ayrton Senna with his three titles.

Since we hadn't yet spent last years vouchers, we're now trying to decide if we want a totally free 4* holiday in Malta, or if we want to use some of them towards a long weekend in Valencia.

It's time for...

...a little bit of Maths.

(sorry)

Now I want an iPad. I do. I do. I do.

If I mention this to Anthony he will roll his eyes (nicely) and ask me why. I will then dribble on about blogging from the sofa and not hogging the PC for my random internet ptootlings when he really wants to go and kill some Murlocs.

This won't convince him.

So in an attempt to convince myself that I really can't afford one, I have been working out the costs in alternative currencies.

-------------------------------

The 64GB iPad with just WiFi is currently £599. If you want it with 3G too, then it goes up to £699 (plus £10 a month for 1GB of data).

So in cupcakes (from the Primrose Bakery, like I bought in London) at £1.85 a cupcake:

64GB WiFi iPad = 324 cupcakes.
64GB WiFi+3G iPad = 378 cupcakes (plus another 6 cupcakes a month)

---

In IKEA bookcases (that's a BILLY unit at £55 plus a height extender for £20)

64GB WiFi iPad = 8 bookcases (£1 needed to make it 8 rather than 7 and £74 left over)
64GB WiFi+3G iPad = 9 bookcases (£24 left over towards data costs)

---

The WiFi iPad is only £9 less than the cost of the daybed and chest of drawers (plus two sets of BILLY bookcases) that I want for our spare bedroom. Make it the 3G model and throw in another bookcase and have enough money left over for a take-away pizza (sod the data costs),

---

In £18.99 hardbacks it's 32 or 37 books, 47 or 55 if you take off my discount. 75 or 88 £7.99 paperbacks, 112 or 131 with discount!

---

Basically I could get a hell of a lot of other things I want, plus a lot of things that we actually need.

So why oh why have I still not convinced myself.

Silly brain.

Has it really...

...been three months?!

Doesn't feel like it.

Anyways, I am here and I am fine (but since most of you follow me on Twitter anyway you all knew that...) I've just been busy and had nothing to blog about.

Well nothing to blog about is a bit of a fib, after all I have bought my first home and moved into it in the past few weeks, but I just had no urge to blog about anything, so I didn't.

About the only thing I did fancy blogging about were the AMAZING cupcakes that I baked a couple of weeks back. Since the last time I made a cupcake or anything that wasn't a packet mix was back before Miss Emily started school (19 years ago) it was a little scary.

Here are my beautiful tasty cupcakes:



Nom, nom, nom, nom...

Otherwise, the boxes are gradually getting unpacked, work is crazy (but will settle down after tomorrow), Esme has been not very well but is getting much better, Foley is a cute little Terror, Anthony is grumpy cos I keep coughing all night (stupid winter colds) but looks very nice in a tux...


...and I'm getting bookshelves for my birthday.

Have a truly lovely Christmas folks, I'm not going to promise to post more in the New Year, let's just see what happens.

xxx

Today...

...would have been my Dad's 63rd birthday.

Happy Birthday Dad.



Miss you lots.

----------------------------

In other news.

Me and this daft man here...



...went to the bank today and got ourselves a mortgage.

I iz a grown-up.

I iz a HOT grown-up due to the air con at work not working.

Here is a picture of me looking hot:


In fact not just hot, hot AND sarcastic.

To celebrate both of today's events - beer. (in one of my Dad's glasses)




Cheers.

There is a fundamental...

...difference between love and romance that often gets confused.

Romance is things like buying flowers/chocolates for your loved one, love is buying them Marmite when you loathe the stuff.


***

Romance is cooking them a nice meal or taking them out for dinner, love is regularly doing the washing-up because they hate it.


***

Romance is presents at unexpected times, love is completely unexpected presents at expected times.


(love is also cropping huge cheesy grins out of pictures)

***

Today I smiled all day, a big twinkly smile that became infectious. I smiled because of something I was given yesterday, a gesture of love laced with a hearty dose of romance.

But when I came home tonight and the kitchen was tidy and the litter tray had been changed - then I smiled with love love LOVE.

***

Here's to clean litter trays, to washing-up, to Marmite, to Michael Schumacher 7-star caps...

...and here's to a rather perfect symbol of romance and love.


(and to a cat that must be in every single photograph ever taken while sat at this desk)

Today is the third...

...of three anniversaries.

Three years ago today a very nice man came to visit me and didn't go home for two days.

Today is the second...

...of three anniversaries.

Three years ago today a very nice man came to my house to watch a Grand Prix race, and got sucked into the World of Warcraft too.

This week I was supposed to have...

...four days at work before then having nine days off.

Then I got a letter from the hospital informing me that my appointment time had been changed AGAIN!

So I phoned them up and ranted a bit (and cried quite a lot) and the end result was that I could either take the new appointment time or wait until July for a new one.

So I then had long confabs with Anthony and with RichieFingers (who is a Rota God, seriously) and the end result is that Anthony and I will be at the hospital for our appointment time of 10.55.

I am stupidly scared and nervous. Although I know that it is very unlikely, my mind is already running through all of the worst-case scenarios that it can think of. The stupid thing is, even if one of them happens it won't have prepared me for it.

But we are prepared.

Anthony has Series 6 of Pokemon, I have Ashes to Ashes, Numb3rs, CSI:NY and Eleventh Hour (which I haven't seen any of yet, but it's got Rufus Sewell in it!) on the V+ box. Of course, we both have WoW for when the other one is watching TV.

I also have this:


It was in the Thornton's sale for £10 (from £30) and I couldn't just leave it sitting there...

Update: Home now. Got to see consultant a mere hour and 15 minutes after appointment time. Then she made me cry when she demanded to know why I wasn't currently taking folic acid.
Her - "But if you're trying to get pregnant you need to be taking it."
Me - "I'm not trying bloody anything til I know what went wrong last time, and that's what this appointment is for!"

The blood tests were all fine, the chromosome tests were also all fine. The only one that was slightly iffy was the blood protein one and so off I trooped to have some blood taken.

So basically, no idea what went wrong. But at the same time it's not a case of "give up, there's no chance".

Now I am going for chocolate egg and beer (the sun's past the yardarm) and since it's sunny I shall probably sit in the garden too.

Today is the first..

...of three anniversaries.

Three years ago today a very nice man came round and fixed my broadband.

I have had...

...a very relaxing five days off. Well, four so far and then rest of today which will be the only one of those days sans Anthony. Which has been lovely too.

We have both had haircuts, we've driven round various areas of Wolverhampton trying to find bits that we'd like to live in, we've been to Waitrose three times and Hobbycraft once and we've got the V+ Box down to 40 hours of free space (rather than 5).

Anthony showed amazing patience when helping me choose a new pair of trainers:
K - Not those ones
A - Why not?
They've got too much white on them
What about these ones?
Too grey
How about these?!?
Yuck!
These ones? (said through gritted teeth)
Hmmm....
Eventually I decided on a pair of the Hmmm... ones (what do you mean you can't tell the difference?)

(pictures (in order) for those who did not want to link click)




They also ended up being men's ones rather than women's, partly due to the fact that all the men's ones were out for people to try while you had to ask for the women's ones (and I couldn't put the poor shop guy through it).

That's the first pair of trainers I've owned in 15 years...my last pair were for PE at school and they lasted through my gym moments at uni too. Since then I've not really worn trainers, and the pair of Anthony's that I "borrow" are a size too big and so unrunnable in. Not that I'm about to take up running. Definitely not.

On Sunday I cooked up some Veal Scaloppine. Or at least I would have done had Waitrose had any veal left. They did not, so instead we had Pork Scaloppine.


I very slightly over salted it (due to not being used to using salt when cooking but following instructions in the book to the letter) but Anthony said it was "Bloody lovely". So that was a success.

In two weeks time I have promised to cook Chicken in Garlic Sauce for Angie, Paul and Joe - eeek! Cooking for real people! People who won't be afraid to tell me if it is actually inedible (Joe), but who will also pour me more wine if it is (Angie and Paul). Angie also hit the nail on the head when she called me a 'dinner party cook'. It's true, cooking is such a big event for me at the moment. One of the reasons she therefore decided I should have a dinner party!

Back to work tomorrow...I have three days in, then one off, then four in, then NINE off! (Then my next break is June, then Monza!)

I'm just so...

...in love with this view of London right now.

The Monument

When I went to London back in September the Monument was one of the places I planned to go as it's where Edie gets kidnapped by the Minotaur. But alas, it was closed, which made Anthony (not so) secretly relieved as he hadn't fancied climbing all those stairs.

I've been up there once on one of my London trips with Dad and I will get up there again on my next trip to the Big Smoke.

In the meantime this view will have to do, and it's pretty damn good.

(and yes, it does look a little Eye-ish at first, but it passes...)

I really am...

...the luckiest girl in the world.

I had a really bad day at work today. We were short-staffed, every customer had an idiotic question that took ten minutes to answer/explain to them that we couldn't order them a book that went out of print in 1983. I also had to explain to three people that we didn't have any job vacancies and could they now please move along so that I can serve the queue behind them as I have no colleagues free to help.

Instead of my usual hour and 30 minute breaks, I had three 30 minute breaks. This did chop the day up amazingly well, but also meant that although I wasn't hungry on my first break, by my second and third ones I'd gone past hungry to feeling like death.

This meant that today was fuelled by chocolate and coke.

Then I came home.

I came home to my beautiful bunches of red roses and red tulips and my limited edition pack of Marmite containing a Paddington Bear.

I came home to a fridgeful of food, all the laundry put away and a load ready to start.

I came home to a house that won't have my man back in it until 2am Friday night (silly 5-1 shift), but he is here all the time in the things he does for me.

I am the luckiest girl in the whole wide world and that is why today has been a VERY GOOD DAY.

Lazy Sunday...

...Afternoon.

Well lazy entire weekend to be honest. But oh my goodness I NEEDED it!

Last week was one of those weeks where nothing is simple and every task takes 15 times longer than it was supposed to.

Anthony was back on the 5-1 shift for the first time in ages which meant that up until Thursday night I only got to see him at 3am when he came up to bed, and at 7am when I got up. The whole balance between wanting to see him and wanting an unbroken night of sleep made me rather ratty I must confess.

At work everything was very stop-start. By Friday I reduced my To-Do list to one thing - Rearrange the 3 for 2 tables. It took me all flipping day!

(and I didn't blog in the week because I didn't want it to turn into one big moan...oops!)

So, a Saturday with Anthony sleeping in (his night shift meant he got in at 8.30am) and me pottering about doing laundry and ptootling. Saturday evening spent sewing and watching CSI:NY while Anthony kicked ass on WoW.

Today I have been kicking ass on WoW (haven't played for ages) and got myself up to level 75. Anthony has been in charge of the TV remote and also prodded me into tidying up the bathroom and throwing out all sorts of bottles of stuff that were never gonna get used.

This weekend was very much needed. Now it's February and that's always a better month. Plus, it's only four weeks until I'm off to Center Parcs again for a week family holidayness.

Ohhh, and I'm managing to keep my list of books read in 2009 up to date - last week was a real slow reading week!

Third Strike...

...and I'm down but not out.

I haven't been blogging much recently because I've been absolutely wiped out with a combination of extreme tiredness and nausea. Also because the reason for the tiredness/nausea was really the only thing I wanted to blog about.

I didn't want to blog about it til after Christmas, until my birthday in fact.

Then I could announce the fantastically good news that I was expecting a baby in late June and then everything was going well.

And it was.

Right up until the point during my first scan yesterday when I was lying there looking at the screen and making out the shape of my baby and the ultrasoundographer (is that even a word) said sorry. She said she couldn't find a heartbeat.

So I'm afraid that instead of joining the many blogging friends and friends from school with happy baby announcements, once again I have to buck the trend and be the one with bad news.

I'm off to the hospital this afternoon for what is referred to as "surgical management". Anthony is here and proving yet again exactly why he is the Yeti's polar opposite.

You know what? Next year I'm going to have a bloody fabulous Christmas, cos last year and this one are just too pants to count.

And if anyone would like to buy me an early Christmas present? I'd like this please. *grin*

Love you xx

Two and a half...

...years ago today, my new computer got fixed up with broadband.

I can't believe that I've been with Anthony that long, the time has just flown by.

Happy Anniversary my darling darling man.

Here's to the day when "That was a real proposal but we can't get engaged cos you're still married" no longer applies.

My week...

...was pretty good really.

Yes, the event was hellish in parts (I forget how rude teachers and librarians can be), the changeover was complicated by the staff shortages and the fact that half of my colleagues have a really nasty cold meant that we've all been flagging a bit.

But I have been extra kind to myself in the evenings, doing daring things like leaving the electric blanket on low all night (so that I don't wake up freezing cold) and not doing any washing-up again (which sounds terrible unless you realise that this means dirty plates/forks/knives/glasses x 4, and that's it).

Today I also finally got the affidavit for my divorce signed! I've been ringing the solicitors across the street ever day for the last few weeks and there's never been a solicitor in. (Always in court, says a lot about Wolverhampton). Today the receptionist went "Hi, there's someone here today! Will you be straight over?" (we've become quite chatty). So that is done and now just needs to be sent back to the courts and in 4/6 weeks I should get my decree nisi! The reason it's all taken so flipping long is that the Yeti took months to reply to it, I suspect his mother took her own sweet time about forwarding his mail.
Anyway, step 4 is now completed, not too much further to go!

I'm looking forward to this weekend. Anthony's car is still playing silly buggers, but he's being dropped off here later after work. Tomorrow we have plans for a lovely lie-in and then a day of doing who-knows-what. I have to get to bed early though, it's the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday - race start time, 13.30 local time, 05.30 BST.

Now I do actually quite enjoy the early morning races, once I manage to haul myself out of bed. The one thing that always throws me is when I decide I want a beer about mid-way through the race. I walk though to the kitchen, get a bottle from the fridge, open it, turn to walk back through the dining room and spot the time on the clock on the bookshelf - 6am. Yeah...
Never gonna be as bad as when I was tipsy by 8am after watching one of England's World Cup games back in 2002. That was the day I got together with the Yeti, think the match drinking might have been a factor?

It's been...

...a pretty good weekend considering.

That's considering the fact that I've been working both days and that Anthony's car is still playing up. The car thing meant that I saw him when he met me from work on Saturday night to go shopping (minimalist shopping since we had to carry it all) and that he spent last night and today here but has just left. He's very grumpy about his car, and very grumpy indeed that his car playing up means he has to cadge lifts from his dad - something he hasn't done for 17 years or so.

I now won't see him until next Saturday, probably. That's the main thing that's making me grumpy - I never know when he'll be able to get here or for how long he can stay, and if he can't get here at all it's rather depressing.

So last night and then when I got back from work today we did what Deanna describes as boating and what we think of as bed snuggling. We're not quite in the same league as her, for us it consisted of eating first (curry, yum), then lounging in bed watching Buffy until we both got too sleepy. The decision to do this last night was driven by the fact that neither of us could get warm and so bed with electric blankets was deemed very necessary.

My solitary form of snuggling has become me curled up on the sofa listening to audio books (rather than watching TV) and sewing. I've just finished listening to I Capture the Castle - in a very disjointed fashion as I realised I'd heard half of part one, then half of part two so had to match the story back up again. On Friday I had to choose between Sabriel (read by Tim Curry) or Stardust (read by Neil Gaiman himself). I went for Stardust and boy is it good. It's fabulous listening to the author read their own work, it means you know it sounds the way they want it to.

I have tomorrow off before a week of doom starts (out at an event on Tues, changeover Wed, generally short-staffed all week) and I think I just might have to listen to some more of it then. In fact, I shall put it on my to-do list for tomorrow.