So Long And Farewell

To 2011. It's not been the best of years, in fact it's been rather massively shite. If you regularly read my blog you'll know that the delights this year have brought have included 7 months out of work (so no money) for Hague, redundancy, wage cut and a nervous breakdown for me, plus the usual debt issues, failing to lose any weight whatsoever (and gaining even more),  and the ongoing court appearances and I think you can see why it's been one to forget....

However...

There have been some wonderful highlights! The long awaited and utterly enjoyed holiday in Cyprus, Hague getting himself a new job (I'll gloss over the ridiculous wait for a CRB check), earning £255 in cashback from good old Top Cashback and achieving one of my resolutions - completing my 365 Project :) Along with the 365, just using my camera every day has meant that I have learnt SO much about photography, definitely something positive to take away from the year.

Looking forward to 2012 I'm going to continue with 365, or as it will be next year a 366 project :). I'm going to be editing as well, so that will be another skill to learn.
I'm planning on losing some weight (for a change)! With my change in role I'll be more active at work anyway, and rather than "dieting" I shall be making a few changes to what I eat and just aim for losing 1lb a week that way rather than pressuring myself.

Apart from those, I want to focus on getting myself healthy, getting back to my old self and shaking off the depression and anxiety that has dogged me for so long. Finally I want to be there for Hague as we muddle our way through life - trying to keep smiles on our faces and determination in our hearts as we shove our way through whatever 2012 might throw our way!!

So in that vein, I shall take my leave for the evening. I'll be enjoying a few drinks with the man I love and the silly old furballs that share our home, I shall be positive, and smile and giggle my way through the last few hours of 2011, and merrily welcome in the New Year and the new start it always promises :)

Happy New Year! x

Far Too Quick :(

It doesn't seem two minutes ago that I was bouncing off the walls with excitement on Christmas Eve and now it's all over! Dinner has been demolished....

The presents have been opened...

And some presents are close to being gone already....

It was a lovely Christmas, the girls were on wonderful form, Hague got to talk to his boys lots over the holiday, including a short but fantastic call on Christmas morning, everyone loved the presents we got them and we got some lovely presents in return. I've been in a really good mood as well. Full of the spirit of the season if you like - with a smile on my face and a spring in my step!

Present wise, I got my main present in August (my new camera) so wasn't actually expecting anything, but I ended up with loads! Hague's Mum had treated us to a lovely food hamper and some delicious cheeses, money was also forthcoming from some and from my Parentals we got a new printer, a bottle of Jack Daniels, socks (ongoing family joke...) a really cute Basset figurine and a gorgeous Gok vanity case full of shimmery smellies :) Lucky old me :)

How cute?

With Boxing Day also spent at The Parentals it seems to have all passed in a bit of a whirlwind and so yesterday was spent relaxing in front of the TV with nibbles, but now....it's time to go back to work already. Sure it's only two days, but it's the signal that Christmas is over. New Year is obviously still to come, but the end of the year is very much nigh. I am 4 pictures away from the end of my 365 project, and my mind is now focusing on the turning of the year and everything that 2012 will bring, but that's a whole other blog!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and that Father Christmas brought you everything you wanted!

It's Christmas :)

I suppose Christmas starts at different times for different people. For children, Christmas is already here, starting when school finished. For some it's when they finish work, or put the decorations up. For some it's not Christmas until December 25th.
For me, Christmas begins when I finish work. That's when I can feel relaxed and festive. The busy parts are usually done by then....
Presents wrapped...

 Decorations up....

So the only thing to do is to embrace the season. Tonight's dinner shall be party food nibbles, and the drink of choice shall be eggnog. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, the day when traditions take over. To the Parentals as they cook the turkey and to indulge in my Mum's Fish Pie (not me obviously). It's also a chance to enjoy the super-mega hyperactivity of my Nieces. They are 8 and 5 and so time is short for Father Christmas, but they still believe this year - and it's beautiful to see the sheer excitement in their eyes as they wind themselves up into a frenzy over his visit!

Christmas Day will also be at The Parentals, after a nice relaxed morning of just me and Hague (and hopefully a phone call with his boys - double dose of mega excitement). My Mum never knowingly undercaters and so we will be rolling out of there in the late hours of the 25th.

So for now, I shall sup on my eggnog, in a room lit with fairy lights looking forward to the most wonderful time of the year.

Happy Christmas to you all, I hope each and every one of you has a magical Christmas full of joy and love.

Let Battle Commence

At this time of the year there are many traditions. Turkey, tinsel, cards, presents, shopping etc. One that is more recent is the race for Christmas Number One. Back in the days before X Craptor et al it was always an interesting race, would it be something Christmassy? Or something a bit more boring?

Once Cowell got involved it turned into a stream of nameless faceless nobodies who had their 5 minutes and then disappeared forever, until Rage Against The Machine made it there backed by a huge campaign. It's now become a sport to try and spoil the Cowell domination. I'll admit to downloading RATM and I was so chuffed that it was top of the charts for Christmas.

This year there are a hell of a lot of alternatives out there, The Only Way Is Essex, Military Wives and Nirvana. I had thought my download would be Smells Like Teen Spirit, but then for the first time in ages I was in the car early enough to listen to the Chris Moyles show, and was reminded of one of the best Christmas songs ever....

So there you have it. The MinxyMissK vote/download belongs to little Dominick the Donkey, so if you want to keep Little Mix (seriously....WTF have they done to Cannonball o_O) away from the top spot, get yourself to iTunes and download a proper Christmas song that will make you smile right through into the New Year :)

Download Dominick :)

SO Much Progress!

Wow, what a whirlwind few days! I was incredibly nervous about going back to work. It's been so long since I've been in that I was in a right old state at 2.45pm on Monday as I made my way into my new department to meet my new manager...He really couldn't have been nicer, and in the two 4 hour shifts I've completed so far he has been amazingly supportive. I guess that's in everyone's interest but it's nice to know that I have people looking out for me in my family AND at work. I did have to change the pattern we had decided on, as I'd planned to go into work on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, however I woke up on Tuesday feeling utterly drained, but a quick chat with my manager and it was all changed. I have one more shift to do this week, on Friday, but after how this week has gone, I know I'll be fine. It's a nice feeling to have, and a nice place to be on my road to recovery.

Progress has also been made in the Christmas department. ALL the presents are now bought! I'm glad they are all done and dusted now, I just hope they are all liked! We also got all the wrapping gubbings and the cards so that side of Crimbo is all done! Yay us!

Dan's contact over Christmas and New Year has also been sorted, so everyone knows what's happening, so that's another tick on the old To Do list.

The only job left to do now is to get the decorations up. Now I'm back at work I'm looking at Tuesday to get that done, as we have a few bits to do on Thursday and on Saturday I'd like to try and get up to Horsey to see the baby seals. I think me and Hague might just have this Christmas thing sussed already.

With my return to work progressing, as is Dan's CRB check it looks like (fingers very much crossed) that 2012 might just start off on a good foot - here's hoping eh?

Milestones

I AM finally feeling Christmassy. After much delaying I have finally written out the cards and they are ready for posting. I have to admit that I was aided and abetted by Elf, which happened to be on the telly and has well and truly switched on my Christmas Spirit! So from here on in I'm hoping this good mood lasts for the remaining 2 weeks until the big day :)

A second, way more scarier milestone will be passed tomorrow. I have been absent from work since August 4th after suffering from an apparent breakdown caused by stress and depression. With help from two counsellors, my doctor, a healthcare advisor, my family and of course Hague I am now in the position where I will be going back to work. Tomorrow...

Part of me sort of feels like it's not quite happening, I've been away for so long that it seems unreal to be getting back to normal. Another part of me is absolutely bricking it about going back to the place that laid the final straw on my overstressed back and knocked me for six. I know I won't be sleeping much tonight, but I'll do my best. I'm pretty sure my work trousers won't be fitting me after 4 months of eating crap, but that's a minor issue. I have silly things whizzing around my head, where are my keys? Where is my clocking card? Work shoes? Hat? Will climbing the four storeys of stairs kill me on the first day? How are people going to be with me?.....It's going to be a hard day, but...I have a new Christmassy spirit, I have support from my family and I will have Hague to wave me off and be there with open arms when I get home

How bad could it possibly be? 

The (Slightly Delayed) November Book Club!

The time has got away with me this month, and I only managed to read three books - and one of those I didn't finish until the 3rd! So this months book club will be slightly short, so perhaps not worth the lateness lol!

So here goes, the first book this month was;

Stephen King - Everything's Eventual
I decided to re-read this one as I'd finally seen the film 1408, despite mixed reviews I rather enjoyed it and it spurred me on to read this book as it contains the short story the film was based on. I'd forgotten just how much I enjoy Stephen King's short stories, and it has been years since I read this one. The 1408 story didn't disappoint and was one of my favourites, along with the autopsy room tale and Riding The Bullet. If you're a fan you'll enjoy this, no question. If you've not read a SK book before, it's a good introduction in bite sized chunks :)

Adam Ross - Mr Peanut
This one was a shot in the dark, it had good reviews so I took a chance. It's an odd book, and the reason that I only managed to read three books this month....The writing is sublime, I really loved how Ross wrote, his prose  really is something special and I could have easily got lost within his work, but, the story was too complicated, too long and too full of pointless twists and turns. You start the book presuming (perhaps wrongly) that it will be a straight forward who dunnit, but it's not. It's more of a dialogue on the state of marriage and the extremes that can happen within the lifes of seemingly normal couples. It also contains a novel within a novel, of another murder mystery. Much as I loved his writing, I was left annoyed and confused by the ending and carried on reading to finish it, rather than to find out what happened. I got bogged down in the middle and struggled to get through to the ending. Perhaps others may enjoy it more than me, perhaps others will see something deeper than I did? I don't know, I would try to read another Adam Ross book again, but I would hope he'd try not to be so clever next time, as too much story detracts from the joy of his skill.

Ben Hatch - Are We Nearly There Yet?
After trudging my way through Mr Peanut, I wanted something more lighthearted to read and so I stumbled upon this one. A story of a family taking a few months out of their life to write about family friendly attractions across the UK. It was exactly what I expected, funny in parts, and due to the authors Father contracting cancer, touching as well. It's nothing exceptional, but it's an easy enough read and at the end of it you feel you know the Hatch family really well - not a bad thing :)


So that's it for this month, I'm already well into the first of December's books and enjoying it immensely, so perhaps next months book blog will be a tad more interesting!

Ups and Downs!

December has so far been a bit busy! The 1st is always exciting as it's Hague's birthday, tight funds meant that we couldn't really uber-celebrate, but he loved his pressies (Two and a Half Men box set and a Karl Pilkington t-shirt). We managed to scrape together enough for a Chinese and some alkyhol and we had a lovely evening watching trillions of episodes of TAAHM :)

 Pressies!

The Birthday Boy!

The next day was a bit of a bummer. I woke up with a horrible sore throat and a headache, never fun - and it meant that I spent the day indoors rather than outside at the Christmas Fayre!
With the continuing down theme, I still felt rough on Saturday and despite getting up late was in bed at 8pm, partly as I felt poo and partly as we had to be up early to go to Barnsley so Dan could see his boys...

Sleepy, Grumpy Karen!

Unfortunately his youngest was a bit under the weather, and so Dan made the decision not to go up. It's not fair to drag a 6 year old who's feeling icky away from his Mum and then on buses, hopefully he'll see them next weekend.
Surprisingly we didn't go back to bed, despite being up at 7am, we'd both showered, and by the time Dan had made the decision it was past 8.30 and although we stayed in bed for a little while longer, sleep wasn't forthcoming and so we had that rarest of things....an entire Sunday spread before us, with nothing planned!
It made sense to finally head for the Christmas Fayre, it usually contains lots of foodie stalls with noms to taste and the odd crafty stall. This year was a bit naff to be honest, but it was being held in the church. Now, Great Yarmouth's Parish Church, St Nicholas is ENORMOUS, it's the largest Parish Church in England and as such it was rather lovely to have a wander around. There are displays and information boards all around the Church and we spent quite a while exploring and finding out little known facts...

1. The church was founded in 1101
2. Nelson returned in triumph after battles to the church to be blessed.
3. Bodies were stolen from the graveyard and taken down to London
4. In the 1500's 5 men were banned from the Church after bartering for Herring during a service.
5. The church was all but destroyed during WWII, but rebuilt in the 1960's

Fascinating :o) Of course I took lots of piccies too...

It truly is a beautiful Church, despite me being of Pagan persuasion, I can appreciate the beauty of the building and the various altars, chapels and windows.

So, not a bad morning at all really, add into that a rather impressive haul of 3, yes THREE fleeces and a bad day has turned out not so bad after all. Tonight we also have chocolate cake which was supposed to be a part of a birthday surprise for Hague, but now has to be eaten by us.....I've had worse days!

'Tis the season to spot fleeces...

Finally, I know I'm late with the Book Club, I have been a major slacker and only read 3 books this month (and I only finished one of those on the 3rd of December)....but I will let you know what I thought very soon!