Weddings and Beer and Glorious Weather!

I suppose it's getting quite near to the end of my glorious time off work. I'm 9 days into my 12 days off and I've had a wonderful time! I blogged last week about the wedding and seeing family but this week has been an absolute delight of doing pretty much close to nothing.....up until Wednesday we did nothing - we sat....we surfed FB....we ate crappy food...and relaxed. I think sometimes you just need a few days of that!!

On Thursday, doing nothing had become too much so we headed out. We ventured out and had a wander into town, buying a few retro games and getting a bit of exercise whilst we decided where to treat ourselves to lunch (how did you guess it was payday??). I took lots of photos and we somehow found ourselves at the Beer Festival....how did that happen?? lol! It was a wonderful day. The chief brewer of the local brewery is a UFC fan, so we seemed to endear ourselves to him quite well, which won't be a bad thing when we want to know when he brews up some more Dauntless :)



It was definitely a good day :) Friday was definitely spent relaxing again and today has been designated as the day to get drunk....for most of our lives we have to be grown up. Mature adults working to earn a living etc etc. So whilst we are having a holiday we have decided to have a drunken day. We have bought wine and vodka and shall be enjoying both as the day progresses. Mature? Maybe not.....Big and Clever?? Hell yeah :) There is something wildly amusing about getting merry, watching TV, watching films etc whilst being on the wrong side of sober :) Is it wrong that myself and Hague enjoy the wrong side whilst we're not at work?? Nah, didn't think so hehe!!!

We have sensible things to do whilst we're off, with a court appearance for Dan on the 3rd, but I think that makes the chilling days all the more delightful, all the more enjoyable. Sometimes you really need to unwind, and speaking for myself, I REALLY needed to unwind. These few days have given me that, so even though I've not managed to achieve the tasks on my "to-do" list, I've most definitely managed to relax, which was worth it's weight in gold :)

Nicely Chilled

I'm definitely feeling wonderfully chilled. This lovely, long break from work has been fantastic. Seeing family, an amazing wedding and for the last few days - relaxation.


Okay, so the relaxation may have been forced upon us in a small way as once again the month has laster longer than our wages, but it hasn't felt imposed. We have just enjoyed each other's company, having a few drinks and putting the world to rights, including adding more structure to the long-awaited dictatorship that will be Hague's Britain. Decisions made include working out our confectionery based currency (mainly based around curly wurlys and giant toblerones) and renaming the snooker balls around a theme of farmyard animals :) Well, you didn't expect us to do anything constructive did you??


Speaking of constructive, today has been the first time we have achieved something vaguely adult, as the washing is being done and the dining table is now clear (again). I'm starting to think that the highly anticipated bedroom sort out may not happen, but I do still have 5 days away from work in which to get something done ....although I'm not holding my breath lol!


I really do think this break is shaping up to be the break that I needed way back in October, so I'm making the most of it, although I know it's going to be very, very hard to head back to work on the 4th....ah well, I guess I have to earn the money to keep us in this lap of poverty that we merrily make the most of, but I shall not think of work just yet - I'm enjoying this feeling of freedom far too much!


Highlights still to come include more family visiting, the GY Beer Festival, and of course payday! :o)

A Wonderfully Happy Day!

Who doesn't love a wedding? Especially a wedding of two good friends? Our nice, relaxing week off has started off in rather a hectic manner to be honest, with family visits and the wedding, so I can now finally relax!


Yesterday we attended the wedding of Simon and Gemma, and it was a wonderful day in just about every way! The wedding was small and intimate, and very emotional. The venue was beautiful, the food was delicious, the weather was glorious and everyone was happy, friendly and in fantastic spirits to share such a special day!


I made the most of the day, taking tons of photos and chatting away to friends new and old. It made a lovely change to get all glammed up as well, all female guests had been asked to wear a hat or fascinator, so that upped the glam stakes!


I know all weddings are happy days, a celebration of love and happiness and a future to be enjoyed, but yesterday's was definitely one of the best I'd been to. I truly had a great time, and was so pleased to be part of their special day!


So...congratulations to the new Mr and Mrs Hatson, may your life together continue to be as wonderful as the day that started it all off :)


Snapshots of the day..

Finally!

The glorious break of fantastic-ness has arrived! 12 days away from work, relaxing with Hague, utter bliss! So many things going on, and quite a few things I want to get done! I am guessing that once again I shall fail to complete most of the things I want to get done - but cest la vie, I shall not be at work!! :o)


We have tons going on, with a wedding tomorrow, cousins visiting on Sunday, taking Boo back to the vets, more cousins visiting next week, then there is the Great Yarmouth Beer Festival to look forward to, then up to Barnsley for another court hearing, I get the feeling our feet won't be touching the floor a great deal!!


In the middle of all that, I'm hoping to have a huge, and long overdue sort out of our bedroom - I'm sure there are many lost treasures in there just waiting to be found, and as we're planning on a car boot at some point this summer we can dig out bits and bobs to put into the car boot box! 


I'm also hoping to have at least one long luxurious duvet day, where I spend as little time out of bed as possible, plus we want to start watching some of the many films and series we have built up on the Sky+ box over many, many months! Add to that the need to take a photo every day and these 12 days are suddenly starting to look not quite so relaxing!

Total Mood Lift :)

Today did not start well - I woke up at 6.30am for some reason, and seeing as the alarm was going off at 7.20 I didn't really go back to sleep. Hague was off work again, so as I drove into work I wasn't in the best of moods. This descended into a downright miserable mood as I settled into the office. My office isn't the cheeriest of places at the best of times, it's on a mezzanine floor overlooking the factory so you can't even see outside, but at the moment the air conditioning unit isn't working either. I'm sure you can imagine that a fabricated office in the middle of a factory isn't the coolest of places, but without the AC it's borderline unbearable, really stuffy and hot :o(


A single thought kept me going - a cold ice cream on the sea front. The thought of a cool ice cream enjoyed whilst sitting in the delicious breeze that always wafts along Great Yarmouth front kept me sane as the temperature kept climbing and my will to live slowly drained away!!


When work was done, I literally came in, got changed and out we headed again. The original plan was just to have an ice-cream and watch the world go by for a wee while before heading back.


Hague, enjoying his 99

Proudly showing how far he'd managed to shove the ice-cream down the cone....skillz ;o)

Instead of heading home we wandered through the amusements and decided to partake in a cold drink on the pier. After being stuck inside all day it was simply wonderful to sit in the fresh air and sunshine, enjoying the smell of ozone and a cold Guinness whilst chatting away about everything and nothing. Another drink, more chatting and nearly two hours had passed since we'd left home....add in some fresh chips bought for dinner on the way home and that was our afternoon in a nutshell.


It was nothing special, but the afternoon was just what I needed - a total mood lift, a precious memory created out of nothing, a simple afternoon just spent with the man I love, nattering away like an old married couple, laughing, talking, smiling and just enjoying being in each others company. 


Perfection :o)

Memory Lane

Dan isn't feeling too clever today, so I took the day off work so I could be with him. I used this unexpected day off work very constructively, by using the newly restored scanner to unleash some very old and not so old photos onto an unsuspecting list of friends on Facebook :o)


Some of the gems I've found.....
Me at a Hen Night when I was 22!

 Me and Blaine, an old school friend, when I was about 15.

 My 18th Birthday, a toast with my Dad.

Working my shades...I'm probably 2 or 3 :o)

I've had such a giggle going through them all, choosing which ones I'd upload, and reading the comments people have been leaving on them. It's always nice to be able to share photos with people, and that's the wonderful thing about digital photography, we can share in people's lives and memories almost immediately and all of these older pictures are locked away, in albums or boxes or lofts only enjoyed now and again.


I'm going to raid my Mum's picture box next time we visit, and see if I can add to this collection of dusty old memories that I'm freeing up.....I just hope everyone I've tagged enjoys them too....hehe!

Things That Should Be Made Illegal - Part One!

Like most people, I have a lot of things that annoy me, however quite a lot of things make my blood boil and as far as I'm concerned they should be made illegal. Should Hague and I ever take charge of the country, and the utopia of Hague's Britain finally becomes a reality, the following shall immediately be made illegal (and probably punishable by death).


1. Lorries overtaking each other
This is something that seriously does my head in. When you spend hours driving on single carriageway roads (as you have to if you live in Norfolk) there is nothing more likely to induce head exploding rage than finally reaching a teasingly short length of dual carriageway only to see a pair of lorries, side by side as one overtakes the other, moving past so slow that the naked eye can barely mark the progress - as these tortoises of the road play out a slow motion battle the rest of us mere mortals can only wait...and wait....and wait as our chance to overtake disappears and we resign ourselves to several more slow, tedious miles following behind. This of course also applies on motorways, and dual carriageways, as the ability to travel 1mph faster than the lorry in front of you is no excuse to prevent the rest of us actually getting to our destination whilst you prove you have a more powerful lorry!


2.Caravans
For pretty much the same reasons as above, plus the fact that part of a holiday is enjoying new surroundings, not sitting in the same caravan year after year in a procession of different fields.


3. Fuel Tax (in it's current form)
It's now gone beyond a joke. The government enjoys the ignorance of the population as the anger at the price of petrol is directed at the "greedy" fuel companies. This is despite 2/3rds of the cost of your petrol being tax. (Don't believe me? Take a look here) So when oil goes up, the tax man rubs his hands together! When it costs me over £50 to fill up a year old, 1L Micra, something is wrong!


4. Environmental Taxation
Climate Change, Carbon Footprint, Global Warming....Funny isn't it, what started off as Global Warming, is now called Climate Change as all the evidence was pointing to the planet actually cooling down. There is not one shred of proof that our behaviour as human beings is causing any significant damage to the planet - speeding up what will naturally happen maybe, but causing? No. As for Carbon Footprints....the governments of this world must be praising the lord for whoever coined that lucrative little phrase, we are now taxed for everything in the name of the imaginary Carbon Footprint we are supposedly leaving upon this world of ours. As far as I'm concerned it's all another way to make money, another way to tax us, and another way to charge more for something in the name of it being environmentally friendly - If the governments were REALLY serious about this sort of issue, they'd be cracking down on China and India etc.....


5. Righteous Wars
Strange isn't it, country after country in Northern Africa and the Middle East have toppled their governments recently with no Western intervention - Libya kicks off and in we go.....
Mugabe has been the worst sort of dictator for years, mistreating his own people and flushing his country down the toilet - Western reaction? Sanctions, basically a slap on the wrist.
Saddam Hussein does basically the same thing and in we go, gung ho and guns a blazing.
Now, I can see why the West want these people gone, they are mad dictators that their countries want gone.....but be honest, you've gone in because of oil, not for humanitarian reasons, there are evil, evil men in many places in this world of ours, but it seems to only be the ones sitting on oil that are deposed by the military might of the West.
We have our own problems, how about we put our limited resources to that eh?


6. The Current Benefits System
There is no way in the world that you should be better off sitting at home on your arse whilst the state looks after you. The State should provide the bare minimum to keep you fed, and to keep a roof over your head. What's wrong with providing food tokens rather than cash? Would stop benefits cash being spent on booze and fags, you want to smoke, drink or indulge in non-necessities? Find a job! Child Benefit would also be a casualty, seriously, we have 60million+ people living in this small island nation of ours, and we are paying people to have kids???? If you can't afford to have children, don't have children, end of story. Why should I pay for you to breed?
Now, of course sometimes people need help, are made redundant, have to care for someone, have a disabled child, are seriously ill or become unable to work for genuine medical reasons - that should be when the state is there to support you. To help you when help is needed. But right now, it's a lifestyle choice not to work, to stay at home and breed, to not get married all in the name of milking the system for as much as it's worth. So wrong :(


7. Fake Tan
Why on Earth would you want to make yourself look like the love child of an Oompah Loompah and the Tango Man? Tans are NOT orange, a nice healthy tan should be the result of a holiday. A golden brown hue that lifts the spirits for as long as it lasts. You do not get this from covering yourself in Ronseal coloured goo, you go orange. Which will be illegal when I'm in power ;)


8. Dark Chocolate
It's bitter. Chocolate should be sweet. Anything which calls itself chocolate but is in fact poisonous should be banned, simples.


I seem to have diverted to a bit of a rant - and I'm pretty sure I haven't covered half of the things that would be banned in Hague's Britain......this may only be Part One of many! :)

A Sad Realisation

A sad day today for Dan, a call from his ex resulted in him hearing the words that every Dad who lives apart from his children dreads – the children had asked if they could call their Mum’s new partner “Dad”

To her credit, she informed them that they will only ever have one Dad, and that is Dan, but accepted that they can’t continue to call her fiancé by his first name all the time. Between them they are going to sit down and find a name for him. This is all part of recovering after a divorce I guess, what makes is harder for me is the fact that far from having a name from the boys (although I’ll be happy with Karen!) I haven’t even seen the boys since the Autumn of 2008.

I’m happy for the boys that they have another person who loves them dearly, will look out for them and be there for them when Dan can’t be, but I can’t help but feel upset and angry at the lost opportunities of the last 2 ½ years. Dan never wanted to lose touch with his children, but ended up not seeing them for months on end. I am desperate to see them and my family are desperate to meet them, but so far this hasn’t happened.

I hope, once again, that things are progressing in the right way now – that the interaction between Dan and his ex can stay on this steady, mature ground. On a selfish note, I hope that I can become part of the boys’ lives – never as a Mother figure, they have their Mum, but as someone who loves them, loves their Dad and wants nothing but the best for them as they grow up with the support of four families that love them, rather than just two.

I *may* be dying.....

Or I may be exagerrating slightly...but today I woke up with a bit of a horrible shock that for once was even worse than the alarm clock going off at stupid o'clock (although it did indeed go off at stupid o'clock, which  today was 7.30am). Bleary eyed I stumbled to the bathroom to brush my teeth, raised my eyes to the mirror and got a rather unpleasant swift wake up!! My face was (and still is) covered with a rash, small red blotches everywhere! Now....I'm only allergic to one thing that I'm aware of, and that's nickel, and last time I looked my pillow wasn't made of that, I've not eaten, touched, slept on or washed with anything new so apart from being not particularly gorgeous to look at, I have absolutely no idea what has caused this.

A quick browse through NHS Direct gave me options of allergy, measles or meningitis, which had me more panicky than anything else - especially after the unexplained bruise appearance the week before last :o(

So...I am now stuck with a face that despite a strong anti-histamine tablet this morning is still blotchy, red, hot and ridiculously itchy! I even have a small lump on my eyelid that is reminding me of Woogy from Something About Mary, not a film character I've ever fancied looking like to be fair!

I have a wedding in 9 days and really don't fancy having to layer on an inch of foundation to cover up the mess that is currently my face :o(  Oh well, guess worse things happen at sea and all that..........they just don't happen to my face *sulky face*

Nothing To Report....

I guess this is a drawback of blogging - getting over the sameness of my existence! Going to work every day is a significant drag on my time, and isn't particularly varied so doesn't really inspire me to share titbits with the world on a day to day basis...


So that leaves the rest to talk about, and at the moment that consists of spending lovely quiet evenings relaxing with Hague and weekends of budget constrained fun. It's quite an eye-opener to see just what you can do with limited funds and I think we both find it quite an amusing challenge to see just how little we can spend on a fulfilling and healthy weekly shop! We managed this weeks for £14 :o)


A free LoveFilm trial helps, as does an extensive film collection. Being close to the beach is always wonderful, but never more so than when you want to get out of the house and not spend money......a 3 minute walk and there we are, on the beach, that's a feeling that is priceless at times!


In other news (as they say) I have now reached the 102nd day of my 365 project, and have lost 14 1/2lbs in 5 weeks on my diet, so the two most important challenges of the year are on track. I guess with us living within our budget (most of the time) means that the money challenge is on track as well.


Guess I did have stuff to report after all lol! Oh......and just 7 working days left until The Easter Days Off Bonanza :o)

Exorcising The Grumps

Today I have been as moody as hell. Grump-a-saurus chops ahoy! I woke up tired and not wanting to get out of bed and things went downhill from there really.


I have decided that the best way to get over today is to list all my annoyances so I can see just how stupid they were really - and am guessing it will get them out of my system as well!


So here goes, the annoyances from today...
The wholemeal rolls had gone green, so breakfast was two nutri-grain bars.
There are still no sheep (which means no lambs either) on the Acle Straight.
I didn't get to work early.
Someone was using my desk and my laptop powerpack when I got in this morning, so I couldn't get started straight away and had to shove all their stuff to one side to finally be able to get myself logged on.
The annoying bank had taken out a payment that I had changed the date of, so when I checked the bank today we were £130 short of paying the bills.
First day back at work for the week = tedious updating tasks which everyone else seems to think are pointless but are quick to moan about if they're not done.
Frustrating review meeting in which myself and my colleague are expected to magically make people see the benefits of what we'd like them to do, despite doing this for 6 months.
Being told that even though I'm only paid for 7 1/2 hours a day, I must be there for 8, even though I don't have lunch, and don't want to have lunch. So shall have to spend an extra 30 minutes at work every day sulking as I'd rather be at home.
Being stuck inside all day when it was utterly glorious outside, and not just stuck inside, being inside without even being able to SEE outside.
Not leaving work until 6.30pm.
Getting to the car and not being able to find the connector to plug the iPod in.
The low petrol warning going off on the drive home, meaning I had to stop to get petrol.
Not being able to find my anti-depressants which I took away for the weekend, forgot to take and now can't find.
The fact that it is now blatantly obvious that my improving moods are the result of the anti-depressants, not that I'm less stressed.
Having absolutely no idea what to take a picture of today, and scant motivation to actually take one.
Having to be in bed early tonight as I have to be out of the house for 7.15am in the morning.




I think I'm actually fully justified in being utterly narked after that day to be honest. However, I am home now, shall shortly be in the bath and Hague had dinner waiting and has just made me a cup of tea. And after today, surely things can only bloody improve??

The Countdown Begins Again!

This time to lots of lovely time off over Easter! We both have a mere 12 working days left until the amazing, bank holiday assisted 12 days away from work! :o)


Hopefully this will be the break that my week off in October should have been, albeit it will be both of us enjoying the time off rather than just me.


We have a wedding to attend, and although further plans have been thwarted by the bank, my free LoveFilm trial doesn't end until halfway through the 12 days so hopefully we'll get a chance to get a few more films under our belts too.


Anyway - it's stupidly late, we have work in the morning and there are still 3 days left of this week until we have a nice chilled weekend!


Night all!

Close to Perfect!

We have just had an amazing weekend. The original plan was to pop down and see our friends Chris and Anna for a Saturday night and this slowly evolved to us going down on the Friday and not leaving until Monday! A few plans were set out and so it was with happiness and excitement that we sent off on Friday afternoon.


The journey was swift, Bayleigh was more than happy to be staying with her Nanny (don't ask) and the rest of The Menagerie were left with more food that you can shake a stick at so we were all ready to have some fun!


The first evening was nice and chilled, friends catching up, having a take-away and a few drinks, a chance to put the world to rights with like minded people, act a bit silly and just generally have fun. I got the chance to play with some of Chris' lenses and now want about 3 more lol!


Saturday was spent in Camden. I hadn't been to the market in something like 20 years, so when it was suggested I jumped at the chance, especially as I'd be armed with my camera as well! I could quite happily have spent days wandering around and took tons of photos....


Camden, in pictures...

Thwarted by various factors, such as being too large and too skint, we didn't have much opportunity to spend money this time, but believe me, I'll be back, and shopping like a loon once I've got to my target weight!


For lunch we went to Gilgamesh, not cheap, but the food and cocktails were delicious and the surroundings were simply stunning. Carved wood everywhere you looked, all hand carved and the detail was amazing, it was the sort of place you could happily stay all day long, just relaxing, and it was like an oasis in the mayhem of the Market!


Lunch in Gilgamesh...

We had planned to go out clubbing in the city on Saturday night, but the combination of a few things meant that we stayed indoors. This wasn't a bad thing, we had a fun night, stayed up way too late, making cocktails, watching films and trawling through Chris' extensive iTunes collection for old skool choonage until 6am! 


Sunday was not an early start, unsurprisingly lol! We got up late, visited another, quieter market and treated ourselves to a few bits and bobs between us. I spotted some cows on the other side of the park and proceeded to drag everyone else over to what turned out to be the Vauxhall City Farm, unfortunately it was closed, but the cows were in the pens at the front, and both were very friendly (and happy to pose for photos).


Mooooooooooooo!

After annoying the cows with the camera, it was time to head back to Woolwich. Dinner was Italian, and yummy - with the added bonus of being a quarter free due to my Tastecard! When we left Prezzo, all stuffed full of dinner, the sky was a beautiful shade, the light was that gorgeous, mellow pink that signifies a stunning sunset is coming....When we finally arrived back to the apartment the view that greeted us was just breathtaking, no other words can describe it really.

Still full of dinner, we decided that relaxing in front of a film was the order of the evening, and we did just that, watching the new A-Team film. After such a hectic weekend it was no surprise when we all flaked out before midnight! This morning brought many hugs and thanks as we had to say goodbye to Chris and Anna and head home, but what a weekend! We have been smiling ever since we got home, as we remember little moments over the last few days.


There really is something to be say about having friends that you can totally relax with, who when they say "make yourself at home" mean it totally. Friends who you have known for what seems like forever, but the friendship is still fresh and lively and whose company you never tire of. Chris and Anna really did make this weekend, their company was the high spot of every day, and the relaxed, easy conversation of true friends was the foundation for the wonderful time we had. 


Roll on the next one :o)