November 09

November seems like it was pretty quiet. The usual work and travelling, Saturday nights critiquing Strictly Come Dancing with Gillian and Naomi, a catch up dinner with Susie and Emily from my old work - although I don't think I was so well at this one and ended up being sick at the restaurant and going home early. Went to see High Society, done by an amateur group in York. I also had someone come do a valuation on my house and I went to view another house, having had the idea put in my head that I might think about moving I decided to look into it a bit. I decided not to do anything more about it then but haven't completely dismissed the idea. That seems to sum up November.

No more gym!

I've decided to give up on the gym. For the amount that it's costing me compared to how much I'm going I've decided it's really not worth it. Now I know the argument there is to start going more often but that is just not going to happen so I've come up with a new plan.

I've bought a cross trainer. The machine in the gym that I like the least and avoid every time I go is now sitting in my spare room. I was going to go for a treadmill but for the amount that I wanted to spend the home machines looked like they could collapse as soon as you stood on them. I started looking at the cross trainers which looked much more stable and will just have to learn to like it. So now I just need to make sure I use it, so far so good. It went up on Friday night and I used it Saturday and Sunday morning so far, the plan is to use it for 20-30 mins most days so we'll see how it goes! As long as I use it more than I used to go to the gym then it was a good buy, but then that shouldn't be too difficult to beat!

Clear Out!

After spending the first half of today not moving from the sofa I decided this afternoon I needed to get up and do something.  So I went to my wardrobe and pulled everything out on to the bed and began sifting through what I wanted to go back in.  I decided to be quite ruthless and the clothes that I have avoided throwing away previously had reached their last chance, this time they were going.  I went through my wardrobe, the spare room wardrobe, the shelves and 4 drawers and then moved onto the shoes.  At the end of all that I had this pile of clothes and shoes -

which included: 20 tops, 10 v-neck jumpers, 6 big jumpers, 4 cardigans, 7 shirts, 3 skirts, 4 trousers, 2 jeans, 1 pair of boots, 2 pairs of trainers, 2 pairs of slippers and 8 pairs of shoes.  Now I'm just hoping that there is a charity shop collection coming soon, and that I've left enough in the wardrobe to find something to wear for  work on Monday!

...and a very cold new year!

My boiler had been a little temperamental before Christmas.  There didn't seem to be any common link as to when it would work and when it wouldn't so I had a plumber out to have a look at it a couple of weeks ago but by the time he got to the house it was working again.  Arriving back for an hour on Boxing Day put my mind at rest that it was sorted as it was warm in the house when I got back which meant that it had been working fine for a run of 4 days.  The excitement was short lived though and after another 5 days away from the house it had stopped again.  I got back on New Years Eve and after over 3 hours of sitting in a freezing house I escaped to Gillian's to get ready for the party in the evening and stayed over after.

New Year's Day I returned to the house full of expectation that I could somehow get it working again by staring at it, hitting it, praying over it, thumping it etc. but it turns out I'm not that skilled, so I called the plumber.  Thankfully he was willing to come out on a Bank Holiday, and declared that it had given up on me and the best thing to do was replace it.  An expense that I really hadn't planned for this early in the year, I was hoping it would get past the first day at least.  Thanks to the lovely parents though my bank account won't look completely bare but my savings account has taken a bit of a hit, but then I suppose that's what savings are there for.  So it was another night away from the house and thankfully Ruth was kind enough to lend me a bed for the evening.

The plumber came back this morning and has spent the whole day fitting the new boiler.  It's now 5pm on 2nd January and my head is slowing starting to raise itself from the very large neck of the very thick sweater, I think another 10 mins and I might even take off one of the five layers of clothes that I'm wearing.  So it's a new year and I've already ticked off one of my to do items for this year in sorting the boiler out, now I just need to figure out what else should go on the list for this year.

Let it Snow...and everything stops

I got up on Tuesday morning to find about an inch of snow had fallen overnight which I wasn't very excited about as I know many other people would have been. As Ruth and I have been walking into work now then she arrived ready to walk in as usual, it hadn't crossed our minds not to just because a little snow had fallen. So after a quick change of shoes after Ruth had skidded her way to my front door we set off on our usual route, but we didn't get very far. We were both slipping and sliding our way along the road so before we'd even made it to the next bus stop we had decided that it was better to spend the money on the bus than risk breaking numerous bones by continuing with the walk.

Wednesday was much better, the ground was just very frosty so we made it all the way to work with just one slip of the feet by me. Today was another matter though, when I got up this morning a few more inches of snow had fallen and it was still snowing. I needed to be at the other office in town today for a 9am meeting so I had already decided that I would get the bus in setting off a little earlier than usual. Off I went at 7.45am and was on the bus 5 mins later, it then took 2 hours for the bus to do it's usualy 30 min journey. It seems that when it snows here people get so surprised that everything either comes to a stand still or stops completely! There were numerous times that I wondered whether it would be better to get off the bus and walk but each time the bus would move a little further and as I'd paid for my ticket I wanted to get value for money! Suffice to say that arriving at the office at 9.45am meant that I'd missed my meeting so I just stayed for a cup of tea and a chat with people instead!

As it is officially winter now that it has snowed, I decided that this evening was a good time to put my Christmas tree up, so here it is.

Fifteen to One

I sit in an open plan office with a lot of people that don't work for the same company as me let alone the same department as me, and so annoyingly I can't tell any of those people to shut up when they talk so loudly! And there are a lot of them, I know so much about some people that I've never even said more than a hello to. There is one bloke that I notice talking a lot, probably because he sits fairly near to me, and probably because he does talk a lot and loudly. But the main reason I notice him talking is that he sounds exactly like William G Stewart, the presenter of Fifteen to One.

So now everytime I hear him, all I can think is "Question or Nominate?"

Heat

I've finally given in and put the heating on for more than an hour and it's great! It's warm and cosy and a lovely place to be. Now why didn't I do this weeks ago?!

Another Change of Route

Thankfully not the scale of changes that I had last week to Glasgow but instead of the planned driving miles to Sally's this weekend I ended up having to add in a trip to Swindon before hand. So the driving miles were reduced 86 with just the trip to Mum & Dad's for amazing praise, while the train miles increased by approx 600. I usually take the train via London for Swindon as it is quicker than the cross country route which meant that I could get a lift across to Southampton Airport on Friday and just had to get a train ticket from Southampton to Reading on the Monday to be able to use my return ticket that I had from work. So it cost me £7 to have a weekend in Southampton - must plan it that way again!

The weekend was lovely, Alicia came over from Bristol on Friday night so that we could have an early start at the Bridal shop on Saturday morning looking at bridesmaid dresses. We had seen a dress that we liked already (and bought already) but we wanted to check that there wasn't going to be anything that we preferred at the shop. It turns out there wasn't, and we've decided on the ones that we already have, which I'm very pleased about because I love it! Looking forward to getting to wear it for the day, just need to find some shoes to go with it that won't cause me too much pain.

Amazing Praise

It turns out I can still play the Cello, just. After getting the music last weekend, 6 days before the concert I didn't have much time to practice this week - and then on some days couldn't seem to raise enough energy to try. So Friday night I spent 2 hours with Mum going through all the music. I don't think we did too badly but it was useful to play things at roughly the right speeds and figure out which parts I wouldn't be able to get no matter how much we practiced. I picked out one in four notes that I knew I'd be able to play in some sections and wrote in the names and fingering for the notes in other parts!

Thankfully there were two other Cellos that came to the practice and concert on Saturday so I managed to claim the second desk, nicely hidden away behind the harp. The concert seemed to go well, everyone said that they enjoyed it and the main thing is no one seemed to notice that I hadn't been playing exactly the right notes in some parts! There were some lovely pieces of music, my favourite being Gabriel's Oboe which I think I'll have to find a recording of somewhere.

Now that I've made it through the concert again maybe I'll stick with playing and find somewhere in York to carry on, or maybe it will be the same as last year and it will stay at the back of the cupboard for another year!

Travelling

Mum complained that I hadn't blogged about anything for two weeks so I'm going to do a quick recap of the things I've done in that time.

I've driven 382 miles
- From York to Preston for work.
- From York to Manchester for Charlie's birthday - a lovely 2 days of mooching, shopping, walking, eating, drinking tea and admiring the new piano.
- From York to Kirklevington for another lovely weekend with Mum & Dad of eating (for Dad's birthday), shopping, reading and sleeping.

I've travelled approx 680 miles by train
- From York to Swindon via London Kings Cross for work.
- From York to Doncaster (twice) for work.

I've walked 34 miles
- From 7 days of walking to and from work.

In the next two weeks I should travel -
34 miles walking to and from work
400 miles on the train to Glasgow for work
600 miles driving to Mum & Dad's next weekend and Sal's the weekend after.

And during that time I will
- Be learning how to play the Cello again in time for next Saturday's Amazing Praise concert, having not played at all since December.
- Trying to find a place to hide the lovely chocolates that are tempting me to eat them so that when I get to Sal's in two weeks I fit into the lovely bridesmaid dresses.
- Get myself to Tesco because I've not had decent food in the house for two weeks.
- Clean the house, which desperately needs it and finally
- Throwing away the perfurme that felt like it had burned my neck this morning and has left it red and swollen.

Hole in the Wall

I had a quiet day today and watched a bit of tv, nothing all that good but the most bizarre and most hilarious has to be Hole in the Wall. I don't think I've seen anything so ridiculous! I'm sure it must have just been an after thought when the programmers realised that they had a half hour slot that they couldn't fill.

Dale Winton presents it, which gives you an idea of how ridiculous it's going to be and the two team leaders, Darren Gough and Anton du Beke are joined by two celebrities each. There are various rounds but the same idea runs throughout, which is that the celebrities have to jump through a hole in a wall - genius! As the wall comes towards them they have to make the shape of the hole otherwise they get knocked into the pool of water behind them. There are various different shapes of wall and some are individual walls and some are team walls. The worst thing about it is that the celebrities have to wear these awful silver lycra jumps suits which for most people look terrible anyway but for Dave Myers one of the hairy bikers, you've got to wonder at what point he decided that this would be a good idea.

A bizarre and very pointless programme but I have to say nothing else made me laugh quite so much on Saturday so if I have another quiet evening in then I'd have to say I'd definitely watch it again!

Sick Day

I've been off work for two days because I've got this stupid cold and rather than spread my germs around the office I've stayed at home. Yesterday I had a real sick day and just checked my emails a bit and ignored my phone, today I've failed at being 'off' sick and have decided to reclassify it as working from home day.

In the time that I have been at home I've watched 5 films so far Hairspray, Run Fatboy Run, The Bank Job, Ladies in Lavender and Michael Clayton. I've eaten much less than I would have done if I'd been in the office (and been fully well) and probably done more work than I would have in the office ;)

I also found out that I've got a pay rise this week - woo hoo! Now rather than putting some extra money towards nice lovely things for me, I can pay the ever increasing fuel bills :(

Sunday evening blues

I've got that Sunday evening feeling. Even though work hasn't been too bad (in the last week or so at least), I still have that feeling that I really don't want to go to work tomorrow. I've had two weeks of being incredibly busy as we try to put a case together to convince the UK Border Agency that even though we haven't been entirely compliant with our work permits, they'd really like to let us keep the 6 guys that they are threating to send back to the Phillippines. I think as the deadline to that draws nearer (Tuesday), I'd rather delay it coming around by it never becoming Monday.

I've also got a sore throat that started this afternoon and I can feel already is going to annoy me for the next few days and become quite painful probably by Monday morning, another reason for not wanting it to become Monday too quickly. Saying that I think it's time for an early night and another dose of paracetamol and will just have to give in to the inevitable and wait for Monday to arrive.

A new way to paint

I discovered this evening that there is a faster way to paint a kitchen. As soon as it happened so many blogging titles and comments sprang to mind but I decided just to let the photo explain it to you.

So my dinner was a little smaller than I anticipated this evening....

And another step

I decided as I had a quiet afternoon today I might as well go up to Currys and I came home with the new fridge, toaster and microwave that I mentioned before. So now everything - except the electric can opener - all matches in a stainless steel theme in the kitchen. So here's a picture of that side of the room:

The fridge is still in it's box for now as it needs to sit for a while before it gets plugged in, but I also probably need to paint before putting it in it's place. Just need to decide on a colour now so I bought a few more tester pots this afternoon as well. The picture doesn't really show them very well but any thoughts - particularly on the one on the left?

One more step...

Thanks to another visit by my lovely parents, the kitchen is now one more step closer to being finished! Yes 3 months since it started and all it now needs is a bit of paint and then (I think) it will be finished - plus buying new fridge, microwave, toaster....but all in good time!

So in honour of the wonderful work done by Mum & Dad on the tiling here are a few pictures so that you can see what it is looking like now.

The curious incident of the recycling box swap

Someone has taken my recycling box. This wouldn't be the first time, twice before I have had to request a new box from the council and return home from work a couple of days later to find a bright new shiny box waiting outside my door. The last time it went missing was after a particularly windy day after the contents had been collected and I've no idea where it ended up after being blown around the street. This time though is much more curious. Everyday when I leave the house I notice my recycling box sitting in the little gap next to my front step and all this week there has been a little slug sitting on top of it.

Not Friday morning, no. I leave the house for work, do my usual glance down to the recycling box and not only has little slug disappeared but the box has been switched!! I know this because the older boxes were lighter in green than the current ones and this is an older box than my lovely clean (except for the slug) new, dark green box. Not that I mind, at least I still have a box but why bother swapping one green box for another one? It makes no sense....

But the most important question for me, what happened to the slug??

Frozen Mash

Did you know you can buy frozen mashed potato? Ruth introduced me to this concept the other day when we were discussing frozen vegetables - you can see our conversations are very exciting. At Tesco on Saturday while I was studying which frozen vegetables I would fill my freezer with and trying to find the frozen peppers round she came from the other aisle with two bags of Aunt Bessie's frozen mash.

So I decided for my first good meal of this week I would fill myself up on frozen veg, fish and a bit of mash potato. I had to study the packet for quite a while reading and re-reading the cooking instructions as I just couldn't believe that you just put these 3 pieces of frozen potato (which look like white ice hockey pucks) straight into the pan. I was convinced there should be a need to add some water at some point, so even though it wasn't in the instructions I put some water in with it as well. However it turns out the instructions don't tell you to put them in water for a reason - you don't need any, the little white frozen pucks just melt away and become lovely mash potato in just 5 mins! It's amazing!!

I think I'll have some more tomorrow and this time without the extra water so it doesn't go runny and over mushed like todays did :-)

Still not finished

The kitchen is one more step closer to getting finished so I thought I'd post a couple of pictures to show the work in progress. The worktops were fitted the other day (mostly) although now that the tiles have been taken off I think it looks even more like it's still got lots of work to do on it.


The right hand side as you go in from the lounge has the worktop cut but it isn't fitted yet so this picture just shows a rough idea of what it should be like.

Lovely weekend

Apart from hearing that both Sally and Ben had accidents on their bikes this weekend (but not too serious thankfully), I've had a lovely weekend as Abi and Charlie came to visit. We found the Farmer's Cart farm shop on Saturday which provided a few hours of entertainment and a lovely lunch. As well as the shop and cafe they have rabbits, guinea pigs, pigs - and piglets, pony, goats, sheep and chickens.

It was the day of the sheep shearing so that provided some more entertainment as we watched the sheep being made bald! It's amazing how quickly they can get one sheep done, and more amazingly I learned that you can have quite a jet setting lifestyle travelling the world as a sheep shearer. One of the men there was from New Zealand and he was telling us that he's travelled to Europe, America, Australia but hasn't been to Norway or Iceland yet. We also learned that they wear funny shoes while they are shearing the sheep made out of wool, I thought it would be so that if they stood on the sheep it wouldn't hurt the sheep as much as big heavy boots but that wasn't it, the wool creates better friction when they are standing on a wooden board shearing and stops them from slipping when the sheep is trying to push away.


In the evening we went to see the ballet of Sleeping Beauty as Matthew and Charlie's friend Amber was in the production which was by the English Youth Ballet. I've never been to a ballet before and I can't say that I'd rush to see another one but it was a really good and professional performance. Having never met Amber I had to wait until Charlie spotted her which took until just after the interval as a group of girls all with their hair pulled back in a bun and wearing identical outfits all look pretty much the same!

Sunday was a really hot sunny day so we had a wander around York, chasing squirrels in museum gardens, Matthew was with us by this point as well having arrived to babysit on Saturday night. As usual though a visit from Abi and I'm shattered and recovered by having a little afternoon nap on Sunday!