Tempted

Mr and Mrs JRTC are heading off to Vegas again in May, and even though I can far from afford it, I am sorely tempted...!

October?

Did we have one?

Yes, I have been significantly slack at posting yet again - though there should be light at the end of the tunnel as my mum is getting me a (secondhand) laptop for my birthday/christmas! Yay!!! I will be back in business in the new year for sure! And determined to have a more exciting year next year! (Yes ATM I think AG's prediction may be starting to take effect!)

So, in the missing month of October, plus the start of Nov, the following highlights have occurred:

My baby sister's 23rd birthday (yes, it is sickening!)
A really great Rod Stewart and Queet tribute night with Lily, Gerii, Ava and Meg
Some more musical enjoyment at a Seth Lakeman concert (check him out - I had never heard of him before but he was great)
My dad's 68th birthday
Completely drenched Halloween cum Fireworks night at The Bride's
Typical crap friendness by late posting of ATM's card and pressie for her 37th birthday (hahaha, no hiding the truth here ATM!)
A whole week of peace and quiet when X went away with the school
Having to pay for the week of peace and quiet when X was poorly and had to miss Disco's birthday meal at Moroccan restaurant

And that's about it!

See you soon.... hopefully!

Why I love...

...JRTC!

Another classic arrived in my inbox today. I think it speaks for itself...

"I know many people in the world live in worse conditions than me, I know many people in the world have less money than me, I know many people in the world suffer from illnesses worse than me... but I bet theres no one else in the world that gets an email from their mum and the first line starts....

Hi
Today I woke up with thrush.....

I do think that this may be the one thing I am missing out on by not having kids.... sharing my thrush stories in later life. I suppose I should be thankful that we weren't in the middle of Marks and Spencer as I still never got over the shock of that announcement..."

Requests

Extremely neglectfully I forgot to respond to requests from FB and JRTC! So, to rectify that unforgiveable oversight, a whole post dedicated just to them...

For FB, the "flowers"....

Yes, that should probably read "shrubs and bush type thingies"!

For JRTC, with shoes being FAR more important than incidentals like houses and gardens :-) The leopardskin shoes in all their glory....

Oh, and I should just mention that of course I didn't drive all the way there in those! Instead, my black 'vegas' dress (cleavage no extra charge!) was accompanied in the car by these...

And, yes, I was VERY glad to wear them driving home again too!

Moving

Have spent the whole day packing and moving boxes, and am now knackered!

Unfortunately, not to the house of my dreams but instead at work - in preparation for the premises move that occurs tomorrow. At least it will be out of the way before the home move!

Talking of house news, all is progressing. The house is getting there at last! Internally all appears to be done (from what I can see through the windows!), except the kitchen floor laying. Outside, which has been the hold up, the drive now has the first layer done, the fence has been erected, the path is laid, the mud is in! All it needs now is the pavements completing, the turf laying, plants planting and the drive getting its final tarmaccy layer.

Here it is yesterday (when fence wasn't quite finished!)

In other news, we have just been shortlisted for another award (the 3rd in the last 6 months!), a health one this time, and so myself and The Bride are off to a posh do next Wednesday evening to celebrate and find out if we've won. Time to get the posh frock out for that one! (If I can get into the damn thing!!)

On top of all that excitement, this weekend I will be attempting to entertain the lovely Jenn who is travelling from a land far, far away and stopping by to say hi to Vi and myself, (and Middy too I believe!) and will hopefully survive the excitement of Blah and the dullness of my little local area. So, if any of you happen to be passing our way this weekend, then please get in touch and join the international mini-blog meet!!

Finally, it would be completely remiss of me not to mention best friend JRTC's new family addition, their first Kiwi child, who is quite simply one of the most gorgeous creatures I've seen in a long time! Say hello to Derek ...

JRTC

There are lots of reasons why I love JRTC - excluding the fact she buggered off to New Zealand and abandoned me and her god-children of course! (Anything to get out of a bit of babysitting...!)

Anyway, I could list lots of reasons why she is my best mate, but I don't want her to get too big headed, so instead, I will share the email* I received from her today instead.

This email made me laugh out loud longer than I have for ages, so I figure as she will need to be "nice" on her blog (due to said parties reading it), I will give her the justice of reality here. Not to mention showing you exactly why I love her so!

To update you first - both sets of parents are visiting from England for a month, and they are currently on a road trip around New Zealand ...

Am on holiday currently with mum, mum and dad in-laws and Mr JRTC. Mr is currently watching TV, parents reading and I'm in bedroom hiding out before I machine-gun all of them. We must have been very bad in a previous life to deserve this.

My mum, previously known for her independence, has taken to doing anything that everyone else does i.e. will not make any decisions or say where she wants to go, lets people make her tea all day and not make any for anyone else, waits for her plate to be taken from her after dinner and when caught once or twice attempting to wash up she’s doing it with warm water - no washing liquid - and not putting it in the very modern dishwasher that would do it for her.

Mr JRTC's mum is mad for the saying "do you want to…?" which actually means "I want to and that means we're going to even if I have to manipulate any plans anyone else has to do it"!

Going to the supermarket is another "adventure". Mr’s mum will only eat healthy yoghurt, real orange juice, has to have blueberries on her muesli each morning, fresh bread, etc etc etc. Despite telling her I'm not eating meat she keeps asking me if we should have steak for dinner.

My mum does not care what we eat for dinner - but manages to put various cakes into the basket. Then my mum tries to explain to me that many vegetarians eat fish. We explain that those people are not vegetarians but simply people who don't eat meat, but she’s too busy still talking to understand anything we say.

We went for walk this afternoon and Mr’s mum wanted to go faster. After 2 minutes my mum looked like she was going to cardiac arrest but would not let us get the car. She then moped around the whole 20-minute walk - I think she forgot she is in the most scenic place on earth, and I have no idea why she came - apart from being nosey!

We have had one proper argument - she called me obtuse when I asked if she wanted a spatula to help stir the dinner, so I fulfilled her wish for the next couple of hours...

Still – Mr JRTC's dad is same as ever - doing as he's told! We've seen some nice stuff, and my mum keeps saying she’s having a nice time on the postcards...

13 days to go....

I feel your pain JRTC, I feel your pain!



* Names have been changed to protect the innocent - and their relations!

Seasonal shenanigans

So, I've been away for a while, time to catch up on the festive period I guess!

Christmas Day started with an early morning call from X at around 5.30am, which was (just about) delayed until 8am when I fuinally succumbed to getting out of bed! We have a Christmas Day rule in our house that nobody is allowed downstairs until everybody is up and dressed, and no presents are opened (excepting their stockings and the present on their bed from Father Christmas) until after we have all had breakfast. As such, we managed to make present opening last until about 11am, and then set off to collect my littlest little brother from worktown, before setting off to spend the rest of the day at my little sister's in Oxford, along with biggest little brother, mum and her partner. The journey there was pretty uneventful, and much teasing of the encountered RAF boys on the base ensued, before getting to my sister's, whose small house was positively brimming with unopened presents, opened presents and the debris from the latter!

I had a pretty good haul this year, including; new hair straighteners, cool Ug type boots, several new CD's, a bottle of Advocaat, Robbie Williams calender, some nice smellies, new cordless house phones, and a lovely bracelet from Y, which is an Argos copy of the Links of London sweetie bracelet I wanted. Bless him!

The rest of the day was fabulously festive, and Christmas dinner was positively scrummy! I haven't seen biggest little brother for 2 years, so it was great to catch up with him as well as the rest of the family crowd, and it felt like a real family Christmas this year, including the obligatory teasing, provoking and loudness from us all together. Both X and Y were well behaved, and apart from an hour being lost at 11pm at night after leaving, the day was great.

Boxing Day was a more local, and quieter affair, with a slower start to the morning and then a short trip to my growing up town, to spend the day with my dad, his partner, her grandson and littlest little brother again. Much quieter, (with some lovely boiled ham and cheese sauce on the menu), but a nice relaxed day nonetheless.

More travelling on Thursday, as we set off to mate Mick's, in Manchester. We didn't set off until late afternoon, as he was working, but the traffic was just dreadful. Finally arrived about 6pm, and cajoled him into ordering pizza in as we hadn't managed to stop off on the way to eat. After being shown round his new home, settled the kids to bed and then settled down for an evening of wine, chatting and more chatting. Suddenly found it was 2.30am and I had drunk nearly a whole bottle of wine, without feeling slightly pissed (a miracle for me!), and then made the mistake of finishing the bottle and feeling bladdered! Finally staggered up to to bed around 3.30am!

Friday was spent mooching in the morning before heading off for the Trafford Centre, where more mooching occurred before a really rubbish meal in an 'American Diner', and then more mooching! Headed out of there around 5pm and sat for literally 45mins in the car park without even moving an inch!! Fortunately, X and Y managed to amuse themselves by guessing the flavour of Jelly Beans in the back seat and after a decision to exit the other way, followed by an illegal U-turn we finally managed to escape the car park around 6pm! More putting the world to rights in the evening, with less wine but a box of chocolates, and a much more reasonable bedtime! Mick was working again Saturday, so we set off home again pretty early and managed to get back in good time. It was lovely to see him, as I haven't seen him since he came up for a wedding in August, but I was glad to be home and be able to relax properly for the next few days.

And relax we did! Sunday and Monday were spent at home doing pretty much nothing! Managed to chat to JTRC for rather longer than her phone bill would like, but other than that I didn't do very much at all.

So New Years Eve had rolled around, and we were lucky enough to all be invited to Lily's for an evening of food, friends and copious amounts of Nintendo Wii playing, christened by ourselves as New Years Wiive! Lily had made some fabulous chilli, and other yummy delights and Mr Lily had set up the conservatory with the Wii projected onto the wall, so there was lots of room for kids (and adults!) to compete! Not the craziest of evenings, but really good nonetheless, and considering the number of children (and the fact mine were there!) there was no squabbling or upset at all. All managed to stay awake for NY countdown, (including X - just about!) and we finally got home at 1.30am.

Another year is here I guess...