Our snooty neighbour's had a children's birthday party today. We think it was a wild west theme - probably for their Granddaughter. There was a big trailer with horses in the street and a big caboose thing (like the carriages you go around in at Disneyland) to go up and down the street. Yesterday a big marquee was erected and an awning and they have also been having landscaping done all week. These are the neighbours who have never said a hello to us at all in 4 years - even when we called the Fire Brigade for them as there was a fire in their yard. No surprise then that they never gave us a heads up about all going on today and all the cars parked around our driveway. These people could win a prize for being so rude.
Hubby has taken Paddy up to the mountains to check on the house and turn the heating down - that is the plan but it is below freezing up there and windy - may put their hike into more of a quick stroll I think - even though they went up with coats, gloves and scarves.
Bee and I have bene planting again in the garden. It is cool today and a bit breezy but we managed to get everything in and just got inside before the hail started. Yes hail.
So we are taking snaps whilst we decide what to do next...Library perhaps? We'll see. It is just a typical stay close to home day...Feels more like October rather than May..... USA Mother's Day tomorrow - not sure what the plan is but somehow or other I am gonig to get I lie in - I assure you!!
Midwife's Muse left this tag open to all......
Remove 1 question from below and add in your personal question, make it a total of 20 questions, then tag 8 people, list them out at the end of this post.
1. If you were a colour, which would you be? YELLOW
2. If you can turn into anything, what do you wish you can turn into? A SUCCESSFUL ILLUSTRATOR
3. How are you feeling now? NOT TIRED ENOUGH - WONDERING IF I'LL BE ABLE TO SLEEP TONIGHT
4. Where is the place that you want to go most? THAILAND
5. If you have one dream to come true, what would it be? TO KNOW MY CHILDREN WILL HAVE HEALTHY LIVES
6.Do you want more children? NO
7. Do you think religion is redundant? NO - SOME PEOPLE NEED IT MORE THAN OTHERS THOUGH
.
8. What cheers you up for the rest of the day? BREAKFAST MADE BY AND CLEARED AWAY BY SOMEBODY ELSE
9. If you meet someone you love, would you confess to him/her? NO
10. Do you still have feelings for your first love? YES
11. What are the requirements that you wish of your other half? TO BE MORE HANDS ON WITH OUR KIDS
12. What type of person do you hate the most? PEOPLE / PARENTS WHO ABUSE BABIES
13. What would you do if you won a million dollars? FUND AN ORPHANAGE
14. What would you wanna be remembered for after you’re dead? BEING A GOOD PERSON - A GOOD MUM.
15. If you have a chance, which part of your character would you like to change? MY CARING TOO MUCH WHAT OTHERS THINK
16. What do you think if you look out of your window right now? I REALLY MUST GET OUT AND FINISH THE GARDEN THIS WEEKEND.
17. What do you think is the most important thing in your life? MY KIDS' WELFARE.
18. If there’s one thing in your life you wanted to do but yet unable to, what would it be? TRAVEL MORE ALONE.
19. What do you see yourself as in the next 10 years? STILL A STRESSED OUT MUM OF 4 WITH A FEW MORE WRINKLES!
20. If you were an animal, what would you be? A .LEOPARD MAYBE?
Who to tag, who to tag.......
But I'm not going to mention it......just see if you swing on by and see yourselves on here...don't feel obliged to do it...but link it if you do.
Thanks.
I know I am not the only person to suffer from this. Hubby could win a Gold Medal for it - especially when it comes to taxes etc despite his accountancy background.....
Saw this an it is SPOT ON.
Whilst I love the new Mini and really regret getting rid of ours last year, the Mini Clubman.... not so sure. Had a friend as a kid though whose mum had a little Mini Clubman and I remember my friend Nichola once fell out of its back doors onto the road as they went around the corner...1970s - no seatbelts.
But the Mini Short = so so true. don't ya think?
Hubby has survived his boot camp fitness week. We invested in he US version of Deep Heat (as in aching muscles not porn film) and he is no longer limping. She said with a happy post coital sigh.
He got home last night and we had the following exchange:
Him: One of those Barbie girls has definately got implants.
Me: Mmmmm
HIm: I mean I wasn't staring or anything,. But it was just obvious from the treadmill
Me: Amazing
Him: Did you work out tonight?
Me: Yes thank you
Him: How much did you do?
Me: I ran 2 miles and did 2 1/2 miles altogether
Him: I've decided it can't be easy to run with all that extra weight on the front...
Me: Yeah.....what?
Him: I mean all the bouncing etc
Me: Doesn't Barbie have a sports bra then?
Him: I'd better shut up I think
Me: Good idea.
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I have lost 4 lbs this week. I am very pleased. I have my physical next Friday so this is my motivating factor for the short term.
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Apparently there are 4 levels to his fitness thingy. He is on level 2 as, you know, being a man you could never admit you didn't know at least something. (level 1 would be a sign of wekaness in his eyes.....pleeeease - serves him right that he aches).....like following instructions or asking for directions.
Level 3 meets at 5.30am so he isn't too sure if he'll do that - he still has to survive another 3 weeks of this one
Level 4 you work out with Navy Seals. Well that could motivate a gal, don't ya think?
I watched the final episode of Shameless Series 2 this morning - I had tivoed it but this morning was the first chance I had had to watch it. I think that UK is now onto Series 5? Not sure we'll get that far over here at all. Have to admit I cheated by reading the plot guide online. So I knew that Fiona would go off with Steve in the end...and now that is all done and dusted I am not sure I will even follow it anymore as I think that was the main story line that interested me....the love affair with the family in the way, and odds stacked against them... the whole loving the person despite the family being around all the time......
(Oh and the fact that the Steve and Fiona (James McAvoy & Anne-Marie Duff) are married now in real life...seems to make it even more romantic....)
Plus of course I think James McAvoy is a wonderful actor and would watch an advert even about paint drying if he were in it. And this was before I even knew that he was from Scotland. I had seen an interview with him after I had seen him as the plummy voiced Steve in Shameless and was amazed with his accent- that someone with such a strong Scottish brogue could do an English accent so very very well. It is almost shocking to hear him in interviews even though I am sure his accent is toned down somewhat since his move into mainstream movies.
I hear Glasgow has smartened itself up since the last time I was there (1990s). It seemed a bit scary to me back then - maybe I was just a bit too green.....
Putting James to one side for a moment.... (if we must) I had a boyfriend from the same part of Glasgow (Scotstoun) many moons ago when I was at University myself in St. Andrews. We were the most unlikely couple ever. Apprently he first asked me to dance with him at a Ceilidh (a Scottish dance) and I have no recollection of this. That would have been the one where my drinks were spiked, I fell out of my dress (literally) and was put to bed with a trash can beside my bed incase I puked/died of alcoholic poisoning. In the morning I woke up excited about the Ball that night.....then realised that my head was throbbing and why was I in my ball gown the night before the event? Then things clicked. I was amazed to have been included in group photos.....and then lots of people were telling me things I had said/done....it was not good. It was an eye opener. It was after this event some 18 years ago that I really decided to quit the drink - it sort of scared me that even though this was not my choice - to get as wasted as I did - there were dangers involved - my outcome that night could have been so much worse.
But Mr Glasgow forgave me and we had another try. He was a bad boy to say the least. I wonder whether this was some of the attraction? I had never really met anybody like him before. He grew up on a very rough estate...he knew every drug out there....he never had any money....he had loads of brothers and sisters....I remember he had no clue at all what I meant by 'Spag Bol' or even 'Spaghetti Bolognese' when I cooked it one time. We were poles apart., But it clicked. It really really clicked. And his accent - was to d i e for. Seriously. And it wasn't as though I hadn't dated accents before.......It was a whirlwind romance....but it just came at the wrong time in both our lives. I was on the rebound, he had just had his heart broken and was treading very very carefully......so we both met somewhere in the middle, summer came - he went back to Glasgow and I went down to England and then I broke his heart again it seems. The next year we were both back in the same place and we were together a little but there was always the underlying history that kept it from clicking fully again......But still to this day, a Glaswegian accent can so take me back - ridiculously so - despite being married now to a fellow Brit.......ah well.
And Mr Glasgow - he still isn't married. I am not sure he ever will be. He's still well playing the field and having a good life for himself. And despite his now living in England I know for a fact he still has the accent. And sounds very very similar to Mr McAvoy. But best not dwell on how I know...........
Yesterday
E-mails received. 83
E-mails I really wanted 4
E-mails I got excited about reading 4.
Real people spoken to on the phone (as in not making Drs appts or whatever) 6.
People spoken to overseas 3.
Loads of laundry I should have done 10
Loads of laundry done 3
Loads of laundry put away 0
= get off the computer. Big time.
One of the things I miss about England, as well as fish and chips- well it has to be the rain. Seriously. Maybe this is in the same way as my Postman Pat warped view of UK life. But that British weather....where you can stay in for days on end unless you really need to go out for something.....where a holiday can be wrecked if the weather isn't on your side.....where you can smell the 'damp dog' smell in shops where their carpets are wet from the rain and the store heaters....yes all of that and more - I sort of miss it.
When we lived in California the weather was beautiful. Occasionally it rained. Very very occasionally - and when it did it made the news headlines as basically there were so many accidents on the roads as people didn't realise they had to alter their driving patterns to accommodate braking distances etc. But I missed the changes in season and the weather it just seemed too nice. It was like we were always on holiday....and yes, we took it for granted. Admittedly it was quite novel to be able to assume that weather would never really be an issue - for a party, for a date - certainly we had no back up plan when we got married and the reception was outside. Didn't need to.
Well here in Colorado we do have the 4 distinct seasons but rain is quite rare. Hail is probably more usual than rain even. So when you wake up and here a pitter patter of rain on the roof - as we did this morning, it is actually quite a surprise. The kids were in a tizzy about what to wear for school (and they only really had to walk about 4 metres to get from the car to the school door). We found out that Mac's one 'raincoat' was about 2 sizes too small and ready to be handed down to Rory...and Rory himself kept shouting 'water, sky!' but refused to walk in the rain- insisting on being carried.
Me? I was just dead happy. When we dropped the kids off at school/pre-school I got Rory loaded into the car and instead of starting the engine I just listened to the rain on the roof. I think he thought I had fallen asleep or lost the plot. It reminded me a little of dismal holidays as a child - trapped in a caravan with a tin roof - listening to endless rain and not being able to escape.
But we drove home, taking it easy with the traffic...
There was more traffic and things were moving slower but luckily no accidents.
We stopped off at the drive thr Starbucks where everyone had the same idea as the line was pretty long...
and then we headed home to snuggle, watch the rain and see it get brighter as the day progressed. By the time the kids were home from school there was no trace left - it was warm enough for short sleeves again and playing in the garden but at least I had got my fix for a while....
.............working out.
Well some of us more than others. I am trying to be good I really am....if I could work out during the day more I would be in a far better place, but I am getting there. But the sex aspect is not down to me at all........
Hubby is however really going for it (the working out). The past year or so (now he is 40) things are catching up with him. He doesn't have to have as many fat cat business meals as a few years ago but he still doesn't have all that much daily exercise. Like lots of women, he has now learnt that what he eats now has an effect on his waistline. Luckily he doesn't drink so he doesn't have those calories to also contend with...but he is really trying to watch what he eats.
He has had a personal trainer come to the house for a couple of years. The kids always joke that they will tell her all the bad things he has been eating. They have put 2 and 2 together to worked out for themselves that if he eats chocolate and candy bars, then there really is no point in her coming.
But this week he has stepped it up a notch and believe you me, it is quite sickening to have to stand by and watch. He has started a 4 week 'boot camp' of circuit training from 7-8pm. He went for the first time on Monday night even though his trainer had been at 6.15am Monday morning. He said the trainer is ex-Military....made them all introduce themselves and say their goals etc. Apparently there are 2 Barbie doll girls there, very slim and fit to begin with who giggled their way through their introduction claiming that they just needed to tighten up their near perfect abs and buns of steel. I can imagine the sickening type of gal! And there were some 'I had a baby 3 years ago and I no longer have any excuse for my muffin top' ladies there. More up my street. Apparently they were giving Barbie twins looks of death as they giggled and flexed their implants. Hey, if Hubby even picked up on the vibes, it must have been pretty obvious!
Apparently the boot camp drill master doesn't really have them warm up or cool down...which I find a bit odd. He could well have told them to get their 5 minutes early and warm up beforehand - that is exactly the type of thing hubby would choose not to listen to.
Anyhow....Monday he had personal trainer in the morning and Boot camp in the evening - just 45 minutes though not the full hour as they'd done their introductions. Apparently the drill master had bid them farewell with 'If you ache in the morning.....' and hubby had expected him to add, 'then give it a miss tomorrow night' but he had actually added 'make sure you still get your butts back here at 7.' Hubby went to bed Monday night a little achy and was asleep within minutes.
Tuesday morning he went for his private workout swim in the pool at 6.45am. He was really stiff when he got out of bed but thought the water/swimming would be good for him. By last night he was thinking about whether or not he should go to boot camp. I was going out and had booked a sitter so really paid no attention. Anyhow he went but I wasn't here to see how red he was when he came home. But when I went to bed I could smell the vile scent of 'Deep Heat' which had been sprayed on his various aches and pains. And he told me not to go anywhere near his groin area. Wow! A first. And apparently my raucous laughter, which shook the bed, didn't help either.
This morning (Wednesday) he limped out of bed to his Blackberry to cancel his 6.45am swim. And he limped off to work with the gait of a 60 year old. Should be an interesting week then.
I was reading a post by geepeemum regarding her gorgeous little girl...and the matter of first kisses came about. She asked to describe your first kiss- the one you remember. And as we have few overlapping readers I wanted to ask the same......
The first time you puckered up...remember a name, a place? School involved? Start of something long term or something you cringe about now?
This is what I recall.............
First boyfriend. Piers Walsh. Aged about 7 I think. I remember sitting next to him on a school trip to Beamish. His mum had wrapped his water bottle in an old bread bag…but it was full of crumbs and they all stuck to the outside of his water bottle and I thought that was the most disgusting thing ever. Ha!!!!
your turn....................
4X4 meme
I was tagged by my friend of a friend Bunny Corcoran
So here goes.
4 places I have been (a place or situation)
1) In a wild, ear throbbing noisy nightclub under Frankfurt airport in Germany. I went a few times when I was out there working.. It was 1990 and house music was very much in. I dread to think what I was wearing at the time (!) but I recall being wise enough to stay away from the drug taking around me.
2) Watching the sun rise over Mont Blanc from the Italian side. I worked in the mountains near to Aosta, Italy for 2 summers in the 1990s. A group of us hiked from our base camp in the dark... it was a really hard route to take even in the daylight..but the views more than made up for it when we were huddled together watching the break of day.
3) In a waiting room at a top Pediatric cardiologist in a hospital in Connecticut.....who was running very late. The wait seemed like it took forever...it was probably 30 minutes. There were lots of other parents with even sicker kids than we had. But they weren't necessarily holding test results which showed gross abnormalities with their baby's heart beat - only because the nurse had input some of the baby's data wrong. That was probably the longest wait of my life.
4) The beach in Monte Carlo. It was full of very beautiful posing people. I was there alone feeling very self conscious. I remember going in the sea and being able to see the fish which were beautiful.....but feel them swimming around my legs which was really pretty creepy and made me leg it out of the water pronto!
4 jobs I have had.
1) I worked as a waitress in a coffee shop in my home village from the age of 13. I worked more hours than I was legally supposed to and spent the majority of my spare time there as a teenager. In a way it saved me from getting into a lot of pickles.....kept me on the straight and narrow. And it is also where I met hubby for the very first time. AFF - I know I still have to explain all that.
2) I worked in a card shop in UK called ATHENA for a summer - it actually sold prints, greeting cards and other silly things that were over priced and you generally never needed. It was in Leeds City Centre and the pay was really quite dire but it was an awful lot of fun. I was there just for the holidays....but loved serving people and seeing all the behind the scenes activity of a city centre store. The manager did nothing more than read the tabloids cover to cover. The week after I left he apparently took the days' earnings to the bank via the betting shop. His horse (a sure thing) didn't make it and the Police were called.
3) Worst job ever was whilst I lived in Essex. By this stage I had graduated from University, had my MA firmly under my belt and was about to go to Cambridge University....and I ended up working the worst job in a bubble making factory. Yes as in childrens' bubbles. It was factory production line work....clock in, clock out....mundane tasks such as putting the silly plastic wands in the bottles of liquid bubbles..all by hand. I think I did about 5 weeks there with overtime putting together Christmas party bags. Some poor sods had been there for years. One man had lost his arm in a dodgy machine of theirs but the bright side seemed to be that Gaffney's (the company) would never sack him...he was thus guaranteed a job for life. Yes, this was actually considered the bright side!!
4) I worked in Italy for 2 summers teaching English as a foreign language to spoilt Italian children. Their parents paid an arm and a leg to basically dump them in gorgeous mountain locations for a week and we lived in basic dormitories with bland Italian food doing day trips to interesting places and yelling at them using English phrases along the way. I recall helping at check in with my pigeon Italian and counting the millions of Italian Lire being left as spending money.
4 of my favourite foods.
1) Salt and pepper calamari. I lived off this during my pregnancy in Atlanta. It was my craving., And they did delivery service from the local Chinese restaurant. It was ridiculously over priced but I just needed it so much. Since we left Atlanta I have had this in other restuarants but it has never quite lived up to the way I recall it from there.
2) Carne Asada. I had never really had much Mexican food before I came to America but I discovered a really cheap and cheerful place in San Diego. I loved their food but so did my hips.....so I had to limit it whilst I was there. I guess this is where I discovered it and I am not sure whether it is the best - but the Mexicans working there were always so lively and cheerful I rarely ventured anywhere else to try it.
3) Fish and chips. Proper ones. As in the ones in England - not the 'English style fish and chips' served over here. Just not the same. I eat them way to often when I return to UK and so again gain all the lbs I don't need/want to.
4) A really good Sunday lunch at a UK pub. A nice one with a proper coal fire - not some chain with a laminated menu which offers the same things up and down the whole UK. Preferably with cauliflower cheese and carrots. And beef. Got to be roast beef.
4 scenes in movies I wish I'd written and directed.
This is a hard one.
1). The scene near the end in Goodfellas where Henry Hill has his busy day, dealing drugs, making his spaghetti sauce, driving all over town being watched by FBI helicopters and dealing with his dim babysitter who ultimately makes a call from his landline and gets him caught. It is his downfall - but the scene has such a pace to it - you feel its urgency in the way he tells the day's events...until it comes to a standstill.
2). The Cider House Rules. I loved this book but thought the film version was so far removed from the story...it really didn't do John Irving's book justice at all. The majority of the scenes with Michael Caine were quite badly written but his nightly readings of the bedtime stories to the orphans was just perfection.
3). Fargo. Frances McDormand playing the hapless pregnant cop Marge Gunderson was brilliant. She so deserved that Oscar. I especially liked the scene where she interviewed the suspicious husband in his car salesman office (William H Macy). If you have never seen the movie it is one to rent...although I told my best friend this and she couldn't get past the violence and told me I was sick for considering it such a good movie!!!
4). Secrets and Lies by Mile Leigh from 1996 - when Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn) is in touch with her distant brother Maurice (Timothy Spall) about the state of her house...the house they had grown up in but the one he had turned his back on to marry and move on up in the world. Very well acted and just perfect in the anger/denial between them.
We are supposed to tag 4 other people so I hereby tag
1. geepeemum
3. snickollet
4. Karen
But don't feel obliged you HAVE to do it.
But let me know here if you do!!
Recent Comments
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Hannah said:
Wow. That was a fantastic fundraiser. Your ring is lovely, absolutely gorgeous. read more
on Going once...... -
Hannah said:
I can only echo what Emma said, I just wish I had a figure like yours. read more
on Name and shame (the wobbly bits) -
AFF said:
Your neighbors sound like total asses. I would hate to live next to people who are too "good" & hoity... read more
on Saturday afternoon
Congratulations on the loss. That's a great start. read more
on Exercise update