Saturday 30 October 2010

The Time is Upon Us!

Just over 2 hours and counting.

The bags are packed.  I have packed emergency supplies of scarves and gloves and even a woolly hat - we are moving up the north end of the country for a few days after all.  The hot water bottle is studiously sat in the suitcase in case I get cold in the hotel.

You all think I am mad.  I would have to agree but for me I am being responsible; I have experience of that part of the country (well near it) when studying and more than enough experience of cold hotel rooms.

So yesterday, bills were paid, vet was visited, shopping was done, car was dropped off at the garage ( to find out how much more money we need to spend on it once we return from York) and Beautiful B and I went to the hairdressers.  I had the usual but am thinking of going from blond highlights to red streaks next month. 

I almost felt like I had bought a whole different person home.  Not only is almost all of Beautiful B's hair blond but she had a load whacked off it.  She looked at hair style magazines, found some she liked, stressed about having 7 inches cut off her hair.  Mum kindly took the books off her, browsed for a while and then said "What about this one?" Beautiful B said "Oooh, that's nice."  One wonders how she did not see it before, she had been looking at them for an hour.  She now looks (and if I am anything to go by, feels) like a new person. 

So, where was I?  Oh yes, bags packed which means the dogs are sulking and wandering around forlornly because they know that suitcases mean I am off on a trip.  Little do they know Hubby is going with me.  Beautiful B is looking after them this time:  I only hope she looks after the house the same way too.  Grampa is on standby to bob down the street and check on her a couple of times to make sure she is not throwing some wild house party or other similar heart attack inducing episode.

Hubby has packed most of his holdall.  It looks a bit daft - we are away for 3 days.  However, it means there is plenty of room for quaint Christmas decorations to make their way home to Blackpool with me.

Oh and the PS3 has been bought.  My mission to take over the house with blu ray games and films is afoot.  Now we just need the HD TV....

Thursday 28 October 2010

Today, I caught 3 dogs, a hamster, a giraffe and 2 elephants"

I quite like inventions that assist in my cleaning obsession regime.  Hubby regularly steers me away from anything with "NEW" splashed across it. 

Freddy fluff, the giraffe, moults like I have never seen.  The only other pet that could leave so many furballs around the house would be a persian cat - a cat he most certainly is not....

It can take an hour to hoover the stairs as not only does he moult at a mile a second, it sticks to the carpet like it's life depends on it.

So, when I discovered a new invention at the pet shop to get pet hair of the carpet, it went in the basket straight away.  Admittedly, I am strange - it's not normal to get so excited about something like that but Hubby knew as soon as I got through the front door that I had bought something new.  I think it was the manic shining expression in the eyes that convinced him.

The inventor may have been a window cleaner who owned a dog because "The Pet Magnet" looks like a window scraper type thingy and it works the same way - drag it across the carpet and it pulls the fur up for you to pluck off the carpet.  I was fascinated, the best invention I had found for a year.

I lined Hubby and Beautiful B up at the bottom of the stairs to show them how impressive I was.  The biggest reaction was a raised eyebrow and a shake of the head.

I went on a mad cleaning session, Hubby joined in if only to stop me working myself into a frenzy and claimed he dragged up all sorts of animals from the stairs.  I suspect he was secretly very impressed but could not be seen to be as impressed as he clearly was.

I now have a stock of them in the cupboard.

As you can tell, I am easily pleased.  The last time I was as weird was when I used Christmas money from everyone to buy a Dyson Animal hoover - advertised as good at picking up pet hair.

I lovingly (seriously!) unpacked it from the box, added the stairs attachment and set off on my mission.  I run in the living room shouting "You HAVE to get a load of this!!!!", dragged Hubby of the couch and made him watch a demonstration of just how fantastic the attachment was.  Cue, raised eyebrow but at the same time I saw the love and amusement in his eyes as though to say "...and this is why I love you so".

Said pet magnets are currently stored in the cupboard...you know, the one that is stuffed full of cleaning products (that are most certainly needed thank you!), patiently waiting for the day that the Dyson Hoover goes on strike and they are considered as important as they once were.

Little do they know, they will soon be needed.  We allow Freddy Giraffes hair to grow in Winter - after all, it's not fair to make him freeze just to protect the carpets.  They will pick up the worst of the tumbleweed to preserve the life of the hoover.

Wednesday 27 October 2010

Found it.....

Not that I am obsessed or anything but below is the link for Cheryl Coles performance on the X-Factor - you know the one with the zebra stockings that only she could carry off.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVd_-inKQQI

She's tiny, I'm tiny - in height anyway.  If I starved myself for 2 years and exercised like a mad woman I might be that thin one day. 

I wouldn't wear zebra stockings because that would just look silly in the office but I would be safe in the knowledge that I could....

On a different note Beautiful B and I are off to the cinema to watch Paranormal Activity 2 - I thought the first one was rubbish but the best bits are always about watching Beautiful B jump about in her seat like a Mexican jumping bean.  I must avoid the tacos, I must avoid the tacos.

Vampires vs Aliens

The only problem (if it can, indeed, be considered a problem) with having Sky HD fitted is that a) you have sooooo much more space to record things and b) they kindly fit the old Sky+ box in the bedroom for more inane recordings.

Since then I have been recording all sorts of things including Oprah.  I'm not really into it, so I tend to read the ditty about what that particular show is about and delete most of them.

I watched the Pink episode because, well, you just would and I missed her in concert (but I was with her in spirit), I delete all episodes related to doctor type things, I watched the episode about hoarders because I wanted to see if they were the complete opposite to me (they weren't).

However, I was intrigued by the episode with Stephanie Meyer so deemed that watchable.  I find it amazing that she, like the lovely lady who graced us with Harry Potter, just seemed to wake up and decide to write a story.

If her story is true, I have great respect for Stephanie - not many people have a freaky dream, wake up and think "mmmm, I am going to write about that", let alone make squillions out of it.  She seemed a bit obsessed about writing the story, I wondered if she even neglected her family for a while as a result of her obsessiveness.  If so, they will obviously have forgiven her now they live in a huge mansion and enough money to paper a small island.  I also wondered how she managed to write a whole story and not tell her husband what she was feverishly doing on the computer - I am sure my Hubby would have got suspicious or at least worried that I was losing what very few marbles I have left.

I have freaky dreams - I once dreamt about vampire zombie babies - I thought they were cute, my friend (in the dream) wanted to empty to petri dishes (because evidently that is where you would grow them if you decided to do so and on a cruise liner which was hanging off a cliff no less) and kill them.  I thought they were cute and wanted to keep them.  I remember wondering why the cruise liner was precariously perched on a cliff and not falling off, why we thought it would be an idea to hide on a cruise liner, how the fire that totally stopped the adult zombies from boarding the ship and eating us had got there and why I knew I was dreaming.

I did not, however, wake up and think I could write a story about them.  I just turned over and told Hubby about the dream.  He has since stopped asking what my dreams are about.  Unsurprising really.

I'm not convinced anyone would read a story that I wrote, my dreams tend to be totally out there and I don't think I would have the imagination to spin it out into a book.  Nor do I think that most of the population (or enough to provide me with a nice income) would be able to relate to the world that is my brain.....

Is it really ice?

So it is not even the end of October.  I got up at stupid o'clock in the morning, let the dogs out and thought "bbbrrrr, it's a bit chilly outside this morning" - not unusual in itself, it was only 5am after all and I am known to walk around with a hot water bottle in August.

I went upstairs, snuggled up in bed, thought about going to work for a couple of hours, ignored the little voices telling me I had enough work to last me a weeks worth of 24hr a day working and stayed there until 7.30am.

I dragged myself out of bed, threatened to make Hubby get the bus to work if he did not get out of bed.  The doglets snuggled into the warm spaces we left in the bed and hoped we did not notice.

Hubby would leave the bedroom curtains closed permanently - his argument being he gets home after work and closes them again to get changed into his scruffs - but being the good ex-army daughter that I am (or maybe just "normal"....there's a novelty) I opened the curtains and said "Wow, the car is iced up".

Here's where it got amusing for me.....

Hubby arrives at the window, ponders the green car that is mostly covered in ice and says "Are you sure it's ice?"

A small part of my brain......okay, all of it thought "What?!?" For a split second I pondered asking out loud rather than just to the aliens that live in my head "What else is it going to be, icing sugar?"  I mean, seriously, it clearly wasn't snow so what else could it have been.

"No dear, I am not sure.  Some random crazy person may have walked down the road and thought it would be a good idea to throw a bag of icing sugar over the car as a bit of fun."

I love Hubby, I adore him, I would walk to the ends of the earth for him....and that is saying a lot considering I haven't managed to walk to the gym in the last week....so I dismissed the aliens and didn't say it out loud.  After all, that could be construed as sarcasm.

So.....Winter is here, early even for the UK.  I do not like Winter, it's too cold for me.  I don't like getting out of bed.  The heating causes my migraines to be worse, Hubby gets too hot and has to go and fan himself outside in the cold at random points in time on a daily basis and I long for the days that I do not go to work in the dark and return home in the dark.

However, I can ignore that (most of the time) because it also means that it is nearly Christmas and I love all things Christmassy.  Hubby no longer allows me to put the Christmas Tree up on the 1st of November but he does follow me round shops and garden centres while I "ooh" and "ahhh" over the pretty decorations.  He tells me to buy them, I say no...I'll wait until the Boxing Day sale and he lovingly deals with the disappointment when they have sold what I should have bought in the first place.

Not this year though.....Hubby is taking me to York for a romantic weekend away.  Granted it is over Halloween but I KNOW they will have little quaint shops already selling all things Christmassy and so I will revert to being a child in the requisite sweet shop for the weekend and spend a fortune because this year when Hubby says "Darling, if you want it then buy it" I will indeed listen.

Sunday 24 October 2010

Drop Dead Gorgeous!!


I may have mentioned this before but I have no problem looking at other women and thinking "Wow! How gorgeous is she??"  Angelina Jolie is an often discussed subject and Hubby's friends are always commenting on how lucky he is to have someone who does not get jealous.  Mind you, the fact that they know they can ask me any question, no matter how rude, knowing I will answer it without batting an eyelid always helps. 

Suffice to say, the first time I met Hubby's best friends on a drinking session (after having been out with my friends for a few drinks which helped immensely), Sean enjoyed watching their chins hit the floor after he bet them they could ask me the rudest question they could think off and not make me blush, angry, embarrassed or upset. 

Cheryl Cole is the latest.  I think she is fabulous.  She seems down to earth but at the same time seems to effortlessly look damn good, all the time lol. 

Tonights episode of The X Factor was the latest episode of watching the TV and being amazed that she can wear some of the outfits she does and carry it off with such confidence and attitude.  Who else can strut around a stage with zebra type striped stockings and a jacket and get away with it. And don't even get me started on her legs - I could exercise 24 hrs a day for a year and not have legs like that! 




I can't find a picture of her outfit tonight but I like this one also!! 

I'm on a mission to lose weight and get fit.  If I can look half as good as this woman I will be over the moon.

One of my bestest friends in the whole wide world, A, is the same.  She wouldn't believe it but she is the same - effortlessly gorgeous, tiny, petite with a pixie haircut that frames her face and gorgeous eyes so wonderfully.  I will have to send her the link to this blog, because she needs reminding a lot at the moment, just how stunningly beautiful she is, inside and out when both well and poorly.

Friday 1 October 2010

All Things Gym

Jeez, she is going to drive us nuts with the gym!!  I won't....oh, maybe I will, just a teeny weeny bit.

So, since I was there last year it has almost trippled in size.  It takes a while to get round it - that's my excuse for not finding some of the new weight stations for nearly 3 weeks.  They weren't well hidden, I have to admit. 

I decided to be semi sensible and start off at my less than "jump in with both feet" speed and build up my exercise tolerance on the treadmill.  Then I worked my way to some of the weights that I used to use on an almost daily basis.  4 nights ago I worked my way round the other side of the weight stations and found the new stations.  One exercises the obliques, one the lower back and one the butt - Yay - all (all right, not all but my most stubborn) problem areas.

Beautiful B is busy now that college has started so between college, nursing placements, McDs and all the jabs she is being subjected to (latter being a whole other blogging session) she has missed a couple of gym sessions with me and is making up for them at different times than me.

I miss her, she does her own thing in the gym and I am glad - I don't understand the premise of going with a friend only to take turns on stations.  Surely that means you spend half of your time standing around doing nothing - is that a waste of valuable time or just me? 

Anyhoo, she wanders off, does her own things, wanders back for a quick smile and a wave and then goes off again.  She is that small that sometimes I wander round the gym looking for her like a little lost sheep and finding her hiding on a weight station - everyone else is tall enough that I can see their heads over them.

Maybe she leaves me alone when on the treadmill because I plug myself into my iPod and get my, often needed, fix of Morgan in Criminal Minds.  He is VERY fine!  I could watch him all day - the fact that I enjoy watching programmes about murderers and FBI profiling (because lets face it, in the pretend world all the bad guys get caught!) is an extra special bonus.

I am not obsessed yet.  Honest, I am not but now when I go I get a little flutter of excitement that I am off to the gym - I could say that is because I am going to spend a delicious 40 minutes with Morgan but I know that is not the only reason.  Sad?  Yes.  Bothered? Hell, No!

Beautiful B is working her little socks off at McDs all weekend after caring for our older generation in their homes (and loving every minute of their story telling) so I will have to enjoy my own company at the gym this weekend.  After all, no point staying at home as Hubby is spending it all watching the Ryder Cup. 

The only problem with all of this is that it may not just be the cost of the gym membership that I subject Hubby's bank account to but the cost of TV series downloads from Apple that I will need on a monthly basis.

Good job I work so hard earning half the money then.....

Toodles.

Wednesday 8 September 2010

Oh That's Where The Gym Is!!

Did someone move it I hear you ask?  Did it disappear into a black hole for a time?  Was it closed for refurbishment?  Well yes to the latter but that was a good few months ago and does not explain why my legs have not dragged me there since.

When did I say I was going to go to the gym?  Months ago I mentioned it, remember the girl on the bike with the gorgeous pair of legs I wanted to emulate?  I was supposed to start a gym regime in June but we were decorating. In July I decided to wait until exam results, so sure of the fail that I decided that if I failed I would not have time to go to the gym, August - decorating - honest! (and that is another story and one which I am thoroughly fed up with). Though not constantly so, yes I agree there was really no excuse.

Yesterday I got off my butt.  Despite being unhappy with my self image for as long as I can recall in this last year I have done nothing about it.  No-one to blame but myself, though as much as I love Hubby surely he has to take some responsibility for my lack of motiviation?  He constantly tells me he loves me as I am, I do not need to lose weight for him etc etc.  That boosts my confidence but it has given me an excuse to be lazy and try any type of food that has "New" splashed across it (though that relates to anything "new" not just food!)

I love "The Biggest Loser" - I think it is one of the best shows on TV at the moment (excluding Criminal Minds because that is all things FBI Profiling related and has gorgeous Morgan in it) but when I get to the stage where I eat whilst watching a bunch of people bigger than me sweat blood and tears to lose weight I figure someone is begging me to get a grip.

So off I went with Beautiful B.  What a godsend she was.  As well as the fact that she makes me smile flitting about onto different machines like a butterfly, randomly appearing again to give me a radiant smile reminding me how much I love her and how gorgeous she is, when setting up the direct debit the conversation went like this:

BB: "Oooh, do you get a discount like me?"
Me: "No darling, I am not 16 like you nor can I even argue I am a student any longer." (I was so tempted to say "No darling, I am not 4 ft 0 like you and can therefore reach all of the machines" but I resisted....
Reception person: "Do you work for the council or blah..."(and some other company that I cannot recall because my brain starting ringing potential money saving bells at this point)
Me: "No but I do work for the huge government department down the road"
Reception person: "That counts"
BB smiles at me with a silent "Yay" and imaginary punch in the air at her unexpected resourcefulness (feel free to replace with the word innocence).

We proceed to fill in forms, still without me asking how much I save because my British reservedness meant I felt that was a bit cheeky.  Luckily for me one of the forms provided such information and I heaved a huge sigh of relief that I did not have to wait until next months bank statement to see how much I was saving.....

Off we trolleyed to the gym upstairs (why is the gym upstairs!  Breaking me in gently I assume).  The gym is FANTASTIC.  New equipment as well as being 3 times the size it was last time I went. 

Whilst attempting to log myself in, I was notified my account had been suspended; I correctly assumed this was due to inactivity.  The nice gym instructor asked how long it was since I last attended.  I informed him "ooooh about 3 months" (thinking "more like 6") not wanting to have to be tortured whilst being shown how to use every piece of equipment again during what is otherwise known as an induction. 

When I did manage to log myself in the computer quietly informed me that I had last logged in on the 19th of September LAST YEAR.  Honest, that surprised me - it would appear time flies when you are stuffing your face with popcorn watching people lose weight on TV.

Added bonus: I can walk normally today.  No aches and pains so I must have been sensible finally (lets face it, eating and not exercising for a year is hardly sensible) and broken myself in somewhat gently.  I was surprised I did not get as breathless on the treadmill as I do when walking round the trail with Hubby and the fluffers - then I realised it was because I wasn't talking like I do on the trail.   Only because Hubby finds my aritculation of random thoughts cute and amusing whereas others may try to commit me to a mental institution by the end of the evening.......

Thursday 2 September 2010

Bugs!

Granted it does not take much to get me excited, I admit it, when Hubby said this morning "Ribena, I love you but you truly are a froot loop" I had to agree.  After all, not everyone lives with little Toy Story type aliens in their head on a daily basis.

However, each morning I check the blogs that I follow and I get all excited when I see one from the Queen B - she is fabulous and makes me laugh (and a few times has made me cry when reading the trials she has gone through and how strong she stays). 

Today's blog is about a school project that her daughter has to complete.  This project involves a "killing jar" and 30 bugs - in Queen Bs house for a whole number of days!  Not Queen Bs idea of fun and neither would it be mine.

Had Beautiful B come home and said that she had to collect bugs and then kill them in a jar, I would have refused, once I picked myself up from the floor after the requisite fainting spell.  It's not that they scare me; Hubby has a serious spider phobia going on and Beautiful B was bad with spiders before he moved in so I am the resident spider mover, they just make my skin crawl with their nastiness.

I have been reliably informed by a lovely work colleague who has just qualified as a counseller that I do not have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and that I just like cleaning.  Hubby maintains that I still have OCD, its just now Obsessive Cleaning Disorder.  Seriously though, my OCD would not cope with having bugs in my house; alive or dead.  I would lie awake at night worrying.

As much as I hate them, I'd worry about two things; 1, the mess/diseases/nastiness they fetch in the house on their feet and things (even if they are in a killing jar) and 2; the fact that we are killing innocent animals for some science experiment.  I know it happens in reality in science but surely not in my house.

I love the idea of living in the USA, I dream incessently about our upcoming holiday to Orlando and that is 2 years away, but this is the first time I am glad that we don't live in America.  Their school projects sound so much more intense than ours.  The most I did was grow Cress from seeds and wet cotton wool.  I have a fuzzy memory of dissection of a frog or similar in high school but I somewhat recall refusing to get involved and have obviously tried blanking it from my mind ever since.

Now, seriously - go check out Queen Bs blog - she fabulous!

Wednesday 25 August 2010

Losing the Will to Live

Seriously!  It's damn near 7pm, I've been here since 7.30 am and I will be here until at least 7.30pm and this is the 4th time in a week.  So I have signed off work and blogging to let you know that I will shortly lose the will to live.  Normally, I blog from home but when I get home I will be going straight to bed, not passing go and not collecting £200.

I hate deadlines.  I hate that someone, somewhere can tell a boss that a process can roll out in a month and then leave little old me to deliver the said process in (what I would have told him, had I been asked....) an impossible deadline.  Which is why they possibly don't ask us poor minions for that type of opinion!

I mean as much as I would LOVE to tell him "no chance" and laugh hysterically at him that it cannot possibly be rolled out in that time, but that isn't going to happen if I want to keep my job.

And the worst  best thing is, that my name is all over everything - so it is me telling people they have to do more work with the same number of people (soon to be 40% less if Mr Cameron is to be believed), not the person who made the decision.  If I allowed my picture to be taken I am sure it would be all over numerous dartboards by now.

I haven't badgered you all with insane twitterings because 1, I haven't had time and 2, my brain has gone into a coma or died by the time I get home.

I will be here until gone 7pm every night until Friday and then I may, just may, be able to relax a little.  That said, I am sure that something else will happen in the meantime that will require me to stay til stupid o'clock at work next week too.

Is 7.30pm late really!?  Are mostly 12-13 hour days at work a bad thing? In the grand scheme of things.  I have heard all sorts of stories about high flying big wigs in London that work stupid long hours regularly.  I know there are people that work long hours up this godforsaken Northern part of the country but seriously people lets make it clear that:

1.  I am a civil servant, we are not supposed to look out of the window in the morning, for fear of having nothing to do in the afternoon (apparently!!!! - that has never been the case and I have been here for longer than someone would serve a murder sentance so I should know)
2.  I do not earn the highfaluting (not even a word!) salary that would satisfy my requirement to work so late so often and for so long without something additional to show for it.

So why do I do it?
Yes, it is fantastic evidence for a promotion report and I am learning loads!!!! I am not just saying that, I am.  Which is why I am still sat here.  I can use the evidence in the future and it all assists in my plan to take over the accounting world (not really, just thought I'd say it to see what it sounded like).  If I was truly hating it, I would not be here.  I don't like letting people down.  My parents are to blame, I love them dearly but did they have to teach me responsibility, did they, really? 

I'm loving that I am learning lots of new things and stretching myself.  I am not good sometimes at pushing myself into the outer circle of the comfort zone and this is way beyond that and if I am honest, just what I needed.  I am just tired today, that's all.

I have to point out that I have 3 dogs and I seriously have begun to wonder if all the insane barking that occurs when I get home is because they think I am a stranger and they are trying to warn me that should I not vacate the property within the next 5 minutes, they will gnaw my ankles off. 

I have just realised that my comsumption since I woke up this morning has consisted of 4 cans of coke, a mars bar, a packet of cola flavoured chewits and a pack of pickled onion flavoured monster munch crisps....which may explain why my nerve synapses are firing at 1 million times a second and I am blogging!

Wednesday 11 August 2010

Put The Broken Windscreen Wiper in the Bin

When we were children we wrote a very special list - once a year, lining up different colour crayons and glitter and such to write a very neat list of things we would like Santa to fetch us for Christmas because we felt we had been good.  Ignore the fact that we had, during the year, ripped most of our books reasoning that we did not read them anymore and managed to fight with our sister each and every day of the year or sulked when mum would not buy us sweets (that may well just be me....).

I still write lists.  Previously, I wrote them when I was especially forgetful which was usually when I was stressed.  Lately, these have become more frequent, especially post qualification and I am wondering why.  I've decided that rather than trying to find things to fill ex-study time, I am getting a perverse sort of pleasure from being able to tick things off a list as complete.  I don't suppose it matters what is on the list or how quickly that task can be done (as the title shows).  As an example this was part of yesterdays list:

  • Polish/wipe airing cupboard (seen as I had emptied a whole forest worth of notes out of it and choked on the dust....)
  • Buy piggy bank for pennies (one without a hole in the bottom as I am strangely not tempted to dip into it if I have to smash it to get to the money)
  • Sweep up
  • Put CIPFA membership application in bag (note I did not put on the list to actually fill it in)
  • Update calendar with dates dogs were frontlined and when next due (because that is so important!)
  • Arrange night with bestest friends in the whole wide world (bar Hubby and Beautiful B off course)
  • Sort Tea for Tuesday (I forgot that we go to Hubby's mum's for tea every Tuesday - hence the need to write a list)
  • Pet magnet the stairs (another post for another day about this wonderful little invention)
  • Sort the clothes from the dryer
  • Sort paperwork out in drawer
  • Put plasterboard in car for the tip
  • Change the windscreen wiper
  • Put the broken windscreen wiper in the bin (now these were separated because I was putting the new wiper on the car at a different time than throwing the old one away - I DON'T know why!)
  • Put shredded paper in bin (after sorting paperwork in drawer obviously)
  • ........
and so it went on.  None of it important but all totally satisfying.

What about my work to do list?  Was that what you asked?  (rolling of eyes and whistling) - nothing ticked off that but my excuse is that those take much longer than a day to do.....



 

Wednesday 4 August 2010

Well! Would you believe it?!

I have no idea how I did it.

I don't really care.  I am too busy floating on a cloud of euphoria, only to be smacked in the face every now and again with the knowledge that I have finally finished the study. 

Then I laugh...because I am a fully fledged bonafide accountant. 

I truly did not expect to pass but somehow, I didn't just pass I got a whole 12% more than I expected to.  As for the other one, well I scored the best I have ever done and it just goes to show that twittering sometimes really does count.

Will I study again?  Never.

Was it Bond that said "Never say never"?

Hubby is giving me a year before I become bored and find something else to study.

Beautiful B is busy posting comments on Facebook about how proud she is of me, how much she loves me and how she never doubted my abilities, even if I did....she is a true darling and I am more and more proud to be her mum each and every day.

I apologised to Hubby and Beautiful B for how truly awful I have been (which was snappy - especially just after the exams).  Hubby told me "There was only you that ever doubted yourself....the rest of us never lost our belief."  Which explained the constant comments of "You will be fine...", "Stop worrying....we love you", "You have said this before and passed" - my response to the latter was "Yes, but this was worse and I really really mean it this time"

I bought them gifts and then some for my friends and my sister too. 

I took so long to post because I threw all the books and notes (of which I had not dared to throw a single note away in 5 years - you can only imagine the size of bonfire I was building) and then went on a cleaning frenzy until half way through the second day Hubby banned me from doing more.

So far I have not burned my books as promised but that is because it rained.  I firmly believe that is God's way of ensuring that I can prolong the celebrations to this weekend.  In fact, it is very sunny out the window at the moment........

Thursday 29 July 2010

Enlightenings!

Sometimes you just need a kick up the butt.  Granted God decided to give me a very stressful one but it was what I needed at the time.  There I was minding my own business, being unusually self-centred and stressing about all things that one cannot change; exam results being the biggest thing but also the inability to clean the house to my usual standard because of the long drawn out decorating that is still going on.

So God decided I needed a wake up call and Dad had a stroke.  As strokes go, minor but still we all stressed for a week and 2 days ago (comfortable in the knowledge he was well on the way to recovery and mum was not going to have another heart attack worrying about the love of her life) I realised that I had not worried about the exam results in nearly 2 weeks.

Because folks, lets face it, they are not that important in the grand scheme of things.  There is nothing I can do by stressing about them and dreaming about them (not being able to find my way out of a school when I haven't been in one for 20 years but I got the analogy) and yet my brain would not turn off so God did it for me.  Now I am not complaining, I needed that kick up the ass, the world does not revolve around me and I was making myself unhappy.  I had lost the ability to walk around thinking "it could be worse, get a grip" and actually doing what I told myself to do.

However, I have no nails.  Well peeps, exam results are out tomorrow morning, at 8.30 to be precise.  So what if I fail the exam I expect to fail, it means a re-sit, study for another 5 months and no room in the wardrobe for new pretty shoes but who cares? 

I think the little aliens that live in my head are stressing slightly however, they keep forcing me to nibble my nails when I am busy doing other things without realising it. 

However, on the off chance I pass both exams, I am then fully qualified and I will be dancing around a bonfire burning the books by the evening, probably on the verge of alcoholic poisoning.

What will I do immediately on finding out the successful results?  Cry (but then I do that when I pass or fail), join the gym spending the whole afternoon in there, then drink copious amounts of alcohol after ordering myself a new cross stitch to complete.  Yes, you may think me weird but I find them strangely relaxing.  I am thinking this one.....


or maybe this one:


both of which would go very nicely in the back room once we bother to put the new colours on the wall.

Alternatively, because I was Mrs Claus in a former life I am probably likely to go for this one:


despite Hubby telling me that I really do not need another Christmas picture in the house.  Really?  You think so, because I don't.....

Now, in some ways parts of my life are on hold.  I know I promised to go to gym I don't know how many blogs ago (think picture of the random woman on a bike who I took a picture of whilst on a bus) but lets face it, when I do bother to join I will live there and I cannot very well do that if I have to re-sit an exam. 

I only have my own self to blame if I fail but if I join the gym when I have to re-sit I may as well kiss the future pass good-bye.  So, I may well be destined to be more than slim (or less than whichever way you look at it) for another 6 months but as I said earlier, who cares?  There are much more important things to worry about.....

Tuesday 20 July 2010

Perspective

After whinging for the past few posts I am full of perspective today.  Dad had a stroke just over a week ago and suddenly the pass or fail of an exam is the furthest thing from my mind. 

He is much better, sounds more like my dad (as it affected his voice, face and throat) and we could tell when he was feeling better as he started being naughty in the hospital.

Poking his head round the door of his room when it was near visiting time at the hospital to see if we were waiting to get in the ward (cos you know, they lock them in - there will be a good reason for it, lets face it some of them will be confused and wander off to the shops or similar).  He'd then wander up to the doors and attempt to escape or attach himself to the doors like a limpet making us all laugh.

Mum has decided that the next time a hospital doctor says "We'll just keep them in overnight for observation" it really means "You will be here for at least 3 days".  Maybe it is a big conspiracy to make you spend more on the TV and phone cards - as it's £5 for a day and only £10 for 3 days (£20 for 6 days!!!) they are on a nice little earner.

Brains are funny things - I have slept okay for the most part while Dad was in hospital - unfortunately my brain didn't.  I'd wake up each morning and feel more tired than I did the day before.  I am sure I was seriously in need of a makeover, or at least some damn good foundation, by day 3....

I am so glad Beautiful B has decided to be a nurse.  She chose her uniform (the dresses are horrid apparently) and opted for a tunic and trousers - she was not impressed when I asked her (in total innocence, of course) if they do trousers in 4 feet nothing size......

So, as we are all to look after our parents in their older years, as is only right, Beautiful B will be qualified to look after me.  Let's face it, she is going to need all the help she can get, my memory is going already and I am still all of 18......

On the home front, Lily had decided that as we are not going to take her to the Bahamas for her doggy holidays she will take to lying on her back with her head hanging off the end of the couch ala sunbathing.  When someone walks into the room she slowly turns her head as if to say "Hello Waiter, I will have a gourmet biscuit please." 

Pictures to follow......

Wednesday 7 July 2010

Priorities

So, after feeling unsettled since I finished my exams I have been roaming the house like a mother bear who can't find her cubs whilst being unclear what I am looking for.

In true Ribena fashion, instead of talking it out I mused and mused and then....had the requisite meltdown.  Hubby kissed and hugged me better, told me I wasn't being stupid.  Then 2 days later.....I had another one.

I kinda figured that when the studying stopped my perfect live would return and I'd be settled and the house would be wonderful and the family would have lots of togetherness walking the dogs, going to the pictures, eating out, visiting friends.......and the list goes on.

Except, that is not what has happened.  The family has got used to living separate lives for 4 years while I have buried my head in study books - I live downstairs studying, Beautiful B lives upstairs or most often out with friends as she is growing up far too fast and Hubby lives upstairs loving all things sport on the TV.  So although I am no longer studying we all seem to still be living separate lives - World Cup not helping there.

I have continued to run around at the weekend doing the weekly shop, visiting all the family and finding myself on a Sunday night, not only wondering where my weekend went but also thinking we haven't spent time together.

So, I had my meltdown made worse by the fact that I am not one for moaning about being unhappy about my lot in life and for feeling guilty about being selfish.  We agreed to change our priorities.  Shopping has moved to a week night after work and visiting family has move to week nights.  This leaves the weekend to spend together as a family and re-connecting as well as giving time for much needed downtime after my usual mad cleaning sessions at the weekend - hopefully I will feel less like a hamster in a wheel.

Do I feel better?  Yes, I got stuff off my chest, I don't feel as nervous and out of sorts.  I feel incredibly guilty at the moment though because it is unnatural for me to be selfish and to think of myself over others.  I feel like I have let myself down as a mother and 'wife' who should be able to cope with all this and I also realise just how incredibly lucky I am to have a happy and healthy child and a hubby who worships me.  At the same time though, I recognise that connecting with the family is the most important thing as well as making sure they come first and are happy.  As a unit we can be stronger and happier and can give more than I feel we (okay, I) am doing at the moment.

I worry some of this will be coming from the unknown around the exam that I am 99.99% sure I have failed.  As this is a final exam, a failure means a further 6 months study and I am just plain fed up of studying so I can't relax.  After previous exams, I literally leave the exam room and don't think about it until the night before the results are posted, this time I can't stop thinking about it. 

So, yes, if by some miracle I pass then all this stress I am feeling may be for nothing and my meltdown could have been for nothing.  In the meantime, I am thankful that I have an understanding hubby who loves me no matter how crazy I get and an extended family that do not sulk when I change the rules.

Sunday 4 July 2010

Noise!

Today I am grateful that my daughter is alive, that she is well and that she is happy and that she knows she is loved.  What I am not so grateful for is the symphony of World War III coming from her bedroom.  Why it sounds like she is repeatedly kicking the side of her bed is beyond me, other than the fact that she probably is.

Today has been a somewhat lazy day.  The normal Sunday rounds of visits to my parents and to Hubby's mothers for Sunday Lunch.  A complete blessing but sometimes I sometimes catch myself wanting to just be and not do anything or something different.  Sounds completely selfish I know.  I will be back to my normal self tomorrow.

Tomorrow I start the gym, prepare for hilariousness. 

Okay just had minor heart attack at a beastie walking across the keyboard unexpectedly.  Who knew spiders could move so fast????

Friday 2 July 2010

As an aside.....

Just to keep you up to date in the assylum that is our home, Beautiful B thinks I have gone mad. 

Innocently enough I called her yesterday and asked if she wanted to see Eclipse tonight.  She was quiet for a minute so I jumped in with "It's on at midnight."  Silence.  Then.....  "You want to take me to the cinema in the middle of the night, at midnight, to see Eclipse?  Are you mad?"  (She was laughing by this point, she obviously thought I had made the time up in some alternate universe that is my brain).

"No, deadly serious, it's on at midnight, Hubby is away, you might be out with your friends, I am at a loss for what to do other than clean and wait for both of you to come home.....so?????"

Note, I had cleverly planted the seed that my life revolves around my family and that I live, breathe and eat for them.  It obviously has nothing to do with the fact that I could in-fact stay at home potter about, bob a few snakes on the head on a computer game, do some cleaning then happily read while I have the house to myself and that I am really not wanting to see the film as soon as is humanly possible.....honest!

Late last night, I saw Beautiful B's latest Facebook post which went something along the lines of:  "Mum is taking me to the cinema at mightnight to see Eclipse....nutter!"

Hubby says he has despaired of me.

Well peeps, it's because I live on the wild side and they don't......

I Love to Laugh

Soft ice-cream, the smell of freshly cut grass, spending time with the family, my fluffers, reading, all things sweet related, grapes, strawberries and pineapples - these are a few of my favourite things.

But laughing beats all of these hands down.  Besides the fact that you can burn quite a few calories doing it (and I need all the help I can get) it also apparently reduces the chances of a heart attack or something equally sinister (disclaimer: I may have made the first excuse up or imagined someone knowledgable told me this just to make me feel better).

So, anything that makes me laugh is a good thing.  It's easy to make me laugh, I'm not fussy and the silliest of things make me laugh (cue the Resolva advert) so I love getting funny emails.  Hubby was sensible enough to send the latest one to my home email address because had he sent it to work I would not have been able to hide the fact that I was laughing hysterically in the corner.  It wasn't rude but it made me laugh so much that I cried for 20 minutes, I hurt my sides (why I think holding them will hurt less I don't know....) and eventually my laugh sounded like it was mixed with a foghorn which may have worried me at any other time.

What were you looking at you might be asking.  Now I am not one for treating your animals unfairly but 2 of the pictures Hubby thought I may find amusing are below:

This was the first one I started crying at.  Not amazingly funny but my brain found it amusing that anyone can put a bag on their fluffers head and get them to just sit there nice and well-behaved.  My fluffers would not do that if I bribed them with a lifetime's supply of dog food.

This is the one that did me in peeps.  I mean, 1. Why? and 2. How on earth do you get your dog to do this?  I was still crying with laughter when I got to my friends 20 minutes later.  Hubby loves that this type of thing can keep me amused for hours, I love that he knows me well enough to know what will make me laugh and how much.

Thursday 1 July 2010

Things to be Thankful for

Well, for a start I have finished proof reading the annual accounts.  Mind-numbing?  Yes.  Boring? No.  I did find it rather interesting.  No I am not crazy peeps.  In my defence, it is the first time I have read these particular departments set of annual accounts so I have learnt lots of new things today for which I am thankful.  I enjoy being at work and learning new things and not being bored....boredom being one of the few things that I find hard to deal with.

Today, I am thankful as I often am for lots of things.  Specifically  2 things......

Firstly Beautiful B.....

She got herself a job at McD's peeps.  No laughing at how proud that makes me, I happen to think that it will teach her a lot about hard work and customer service.  Stop laughing, I am being deadly serious (for once). I am only saying stop laughing because for 3 years I was informed by my gorgeous daughter that there was NO WAY she was going to work in McD's.

Beautiful B is going to college (we are still waiting to hear which one which was extremely upsetting for her yesterday who wants a specific college and has been working herself up for 3 months to finding out at the end of the college assessment day if she was in or out only to be told on the day that she had to wait another week.  

Now we all now that in the life of a 16 year old a week is like a year long!!!!), however, I felt it important that she get herself a part-time job to ease herself into employment rather than it hit her full force when she starts her lifelong chosen career of nursing people back to health.  So in the caring mother (that I am) fashion I told her I was stopping her pocket money when she left high school so she would be forced motivated to find a job. 

Harsh?  I hear you say.  Maybe, but sometimes we have to be cruel to be kind and teach important life lessons.  There was a possibility of her spending most of the summer on her butt and I couldn't have that, I am all for a bit of hard work never hurting anyone.  And, anyways I worked every summer from being 12 in a rock factory and loved it, earning my own money totally rocked so therefore she can.

So she studiously went out and papered all of Blackpool with her CV, completed an on line application to McD's answering questions in a way I (as a fully fledged adult ) would be proud of.  They rang up for her at 9am the next morning and said they were very impressed with her responses to the on-line questions - I was very proud of her.

So she started today, picked up her uniform (which means Nanny will be taking all the trousers up about 5 inches over the next few days as she is tiny - all of about 4 foot 8 inches.  Any sewing goes to my mum because I cannot even hem a square piece of cloth - no seriously the teacher informed my parents of this when I was at school shortly before she told them she despaired of me because it was obvious I was trying very hard and still failing miserably).  No work on the tills or serving real people though today folks.  Oh no, just some more watching of short films and listening to lessons......  I wonder if she will know what has hit her when she does a real day next week. 

I am also concerned, you know seen as she is short short, that she won't be able to reach that far back on the counter that they store burgers on.  I will be blamed for that because, as she informs me, I have passed on the short gene.  I will have you know, I am not as short as Beautiful B - well not yet, my spine has not begun to compress in on itself as Nanny's has so I estimate I have a good 10 years or so before Beautiful B starts giving me a run for my money in the dizzy heights of 5 foot stakes.

Anyway, I digress.  Today went well for her (well, it would for anyone if we went to work and actually didn't do any work...), I am proud that she found herself a job and that she did not throw a strop about losing her pocket money and understood the life lesson I was teaching her instead of calling me the devil incarnate.

Secondly Angel.....

I am off to visit my longest running best friend (Y'all, I make that sound like I have tons of best friends - I don't, it takes a lot of energy to put up with me, by now I have exhausted my long running friend and she is too tired to run away from me).

She is hereon in known as Angel because that is what she is.  She would deny this but she is.  She would ask why and I would tell her that it would take at least 24 hours to list all the ways she enriches my life and at the end of it she would just say "Don't be daft" so we will just accept that she is because going round in circles makes one dizzy.

I first met Angel when she sat on my parent's front garden wall.  Some part of my brain, that part that I have no control over, obviously took objection to her sitting on the wall because when I jumped over the wall I accidently kicked her arm which was in plaster at the time.  Not a great start to a friendship but peeps, she considers herself lucky as I once had a 15 month relationship with a boy because I shattered his kneecap for picking on another friend.

Anyhoo, we have been friends now for ...... 23 years.  Wow!  Would she have become my friend had she not just moved onto our street?  Lets face it normal people avoid those who kick their broken arms but maybe she had no choice - she had a selective small pool of local friends at best at the time....so I took full advantage of it.

Angel is the one person I can pour my heart out too (other than Hubby but he's only just come along in the last 5 years so I am not counting him and anyway he is not a GIRL), she looked after me at my wedding to No1 and supported me in the No2 wedding plus the fall out of both.  We can go without seeing each other for ages and pick up where we left off.  Because of stupidity on my part we did not get together for 3 years at one stage yet when I turned up at her front door without warning one sunny day she opened the door with open arms and all she said "You've gone blonde" - how cool is that!

Angel has had lots of bad news these last couple of years.  She battles on bravely, she is incredibly upbeat and puts the rest of us to shame with how she copes with everything that is thrown at her.  She makes me proud to be her friend and I have put her on the highest pedestal.  She is the female version of Job.  She is a force to be reckoned with and I love her more than words can describe.  She is astounding peeps. Instead of feeling sorry for herself, instead of dwelling on what she can no longer do she turns around and finds something that she can do.  I am rarely one to feel sorry for myself, even when ill I am often heard to say that there are others so much worse off than me.  Angel says the same thing and it astounds me each and every time but it is a reminder of why we are such good friends.

What she has gone through has reduced me to tears on countless occasions.  When I first heard she will ill, honest to God all the oxygen disappeared in my house for about 5 seconds (well, okay but it felt like it). What her family goes through to help support her through everything exemplifies how families should help each other through.  To see the love that shines for her from her husband and children is amazing.  The protectiveness I feel towards her is breath-taking at times.
 
I cannot take a lot most  any of what she has to struggle with on a daily basis away.  My role is to love her, comfort her, be there for her, to listen, be a sounding board, counsel her and when she wants it be an advisor.  I try (though probably fail on occasion) not to give unsolicited advice on how she should run her life - I let her talk, get it off her chest and come to her own decisions.  Why?  Because that is what best friends are for, and because in a lot of ways we are so similar it is scary and that is what I would want. 

Peeps, Angel is a control freak.  We are cut from the same cloth in that respect. My OCDisness (a word only in my world) is mild in comparison to hers.  The woman was cleaning cement off her kitchen floor peeps when she was in labour for crying out loud.  She is banned from my home at the moment as she would have a heart attack at the unfinishedness (not a real word but a ribenaism) of the back room - alright, she wouldn't because she loves me but I would.

I love that I can sit and chat with someone who understands my need to clean when I am exhausted or poorly, who understands how it is impossible to just sit and be when there is cleaning to be done, who cannot face staring a basket full of ironing, someone who just gets me.  Hubby and Beautiful B get me but in a different way because they are not OCDish.

I love Angel, like a sister. She is one of the centers of my world.  She is a lifeline when I need her and if I mean half as much to her as she does to me then I have a friend for life who will stick by me through thick and thin.

Now, peeps if you haven't got that I am thankful for Angel then know this, she is family.  As I would walk to the ends of the earth for my family, I would do the same for her.  She enriches my life and as much as I hate the life lessons that she is going through at the moment and how they affect her, she and the way she is coping with the world at the moment enriches me constantly and I love that I can give back - I hate why I am giving back but that I am there for her means the world to me.

So, I am off round to visit, to listen and laugh....and hear all about the diving as this time she managed to dive without perforating an eardrum.

So, today I am grateful for Beautiful B (who I am grateful for each and every day because without B there is no air to breathe) and for Angel who has enriched my life for 23 years and will continue to do so.

And of course, Hubby who is off travelling at the moment.  He just rang, I just informed him of an "apparently mad" plan to see Eclipse at midnight tomorrow.  His feet are tired, it is too hot as he is 200 miles nearer the equator people.....

The Shoes are Comfortable I tell you....

So, after Hubby tortured teased me last week about the pointless retention of shoes that I did not wear, I decided I would wear them and to work, no less!  Well, 2 pairs out of about 20 but you get the idea.  He even noticed I was wearing said gorgeous shoes and asked "Are they comfortable?"  I confirmed they indeed were.  They did remain comfortable for the rest of the day, they did - the almost Orlando temperatures sunny Blackpool has been experiencing of late did not cause my feet to swell later in the day at all, your honour....

In other news, these pesky migraines are driving me nuts.  The pills work but I seriously cannot take a pill every night before bed or the GP may begin to wonder if I have started experimenting in some black market sales.  I love the sun and the heat, I really really do but my brain obviously doesn't.

Hubby is away for 2 days, Cardiff and Bristol - one city is obviously not sufficient for him.  He returns on Saturday.  Now I am busy wondering what peskiness I can get up to in his absence.

You can almost guarantee that peskiness will translate, if only in part, to cleaning which is not really peskiness. 

Beautiful B starts her new job in 10 minutes.  She will be calling me on her new toy blackberry (not that I am jealous in any way, you understand) on the way home to tell me all about it.  Obviously when she informed me that this would occur she conveniently forgot that I would be at work.  I will forgive indulge her, it is her first day after all.

I may or may not post how exciting her day has been later today - depends on whether I need lots of alcohol after proof-reading annual accounts all day.

More brain dumps soon peeps.

Tuesday 22 June 2010

Ta Da

Having thought about posting for a while now, I have realised how long it has been.  You are unlikely to have missed me.  If you had looked for me you would have found me either buried in a book or behind a computer screen furiously catching up with nothing (otherwise known as reading and playing computer games). Except yesterday, when mid migraine I was furiously and regimentally cleaning house.  Why? I hear you ask.  Well, because that is normal behaviour for me peeps.

I caught myself last Saturday afternoon thinking "Mmmm, am I bored?"  After some semi serious consideration - come on, I was busy bopping rattle snakes on the head at the time - I came to the conclusion that no, I was just doing something different.  Well, different than studying. 

Have I got to the gym yet? Well no.  My excuses - only having 2% left on the sky planner, books to read and catch up on, games to play and catch up on and plenty of time spent with family and friends, yes some of it drinking. 

Will I get to the gym?  Definitely - Beautiful B has decided she will be joining me in the quest for perfection.  She has done this before, enjoys the gym though admittedly the endorphins do not roll off her as much as they do me when she gets started.  I am honoured that she does talk to me every now and then in the gym rather than just pretend that she does not know the freakish woman who reads a book while on the treadmill or bike or stair climber thingy.  Mind you, I can't complain - I pretend not to know her when she is watching her oh so silly soaps whilst on the machines.

I must prepare to vacate the premises.  I have just been informed that a burger and more vodka, lemonade and lime is waiting for me at our good friends K and M.  I do believe I am pushing the boat out seen as we were there last night drinking vodka in the balmy warm evening.  I do not accept I was a little tipsy but will admit I was acting crazier than I should have been for the amount of alcohol I consumed.  It was a wonderful night, even if I choose not to ignore the fact that Hubby made me cry when he managed to convince me that he had got rid of some of my pretty shoes because "I don't wear them very often."

I think he thought he was winning the argument discussion until he said that I should sell some on eBay and my gorgeous friend, K, nearly fell out of her chair in shock at his suggestion responding in a squeaky voice "You can't sell designer shoes on the Internet!!!!!".  He does not understand why we love these shoes when they spend so much time living in nice comfortable boxes that prevent them from harm for most of their blessed lives.  He can be forgiven, he is a man.

There was discussion around selling them at a local car boot, before the eBay suggestion.  My freakishness can be up for debate in a future post about how weird I think it is that people sell used shoes to others but I am going on record now to say yes I agree it is likely to be something to do with my foot phobia which is excessive and probably totally unnecessary. 

Anyhoo, peoples, I am off.  The alcohol and resultant migraine awaits.......

Tuesday 1 June 2010

"Hello Mate....Over Here"

I watch a lot of TV, far too much, especially when I should be studying.  I will have an abundance of time to watch TV in less than 2 weeks.  Hours and hours of TV are being recorded while I sit in this hotel room in preparation for catch up.  I am quite selective in my programme choice, I don't watch any old thing, however some of my favourite things are adverts.

My glass is always at least half full, many times overflowing and I laugh at almost anything.  I find many amusing things in life, most of which no-one else finds funny.  When I was younger there was a Christmas advert for KFC which basically showed those of us that could not or would not cook over the Christmas period that they would be open.  Their way of doing this was to have a man walk into a glass door which was locked.  Not too funny I hear you say?  I would beg to differ!  My mother still talks about how much I laughed.  I hurt my side laughing.  I cried and cried and cried laughing and for days afterward would randomly burst out laughing again when thinking about the advert.  Doesn't take much you say?  I agree, I am easily pleased.

My favourite advert at the moment involves weeds.  I'm not keen on weeds, they annoy me.  I have very little in the way of plant life in the gardens at home for 2 reasons.  One is because I can think of better things to do than pull pesky weeds up and the other is because Fred the giraffe thinks he is a herbivore and ate them all when he first came home from the pet shop and continues to do so. 

However, this advert has me rolling about laughing every time.  I don't know whether Resolva is a better weed killer than others and I don't care.  I think these weeds are cute, I need some in my garden.  If weeds looked this cute I'd let them live in my garden - they could talk to me every morning before I went to work and they would set me up for the rest of the day.  I would even think it funny when they stuck their tongue out at me and blew me a raspberry. 

Weird?  Yes.  Childish?  Yes.  Do I care?  No, because the advert makes me happier than I already am and reminds me that life cannot be taken seriously.  The only problem is that they don't show it often enough.  I should record it so that I could play it randomly every day.....

Monday 31 May 2010

Hotel Beds

I miss my bed.  Desperately.  More than I thought possible.  I have decided that I am spoilt.  Nobody spoiled me, I managed to do that myself 5 years ago.  I went out and spent an extortionate amount of money on a tempur mattress and now I am spoiled.  Hubby has continued to spoil me in many random ways but that is by the by.

I love my bed.  I would live in my bed if I could get away with it.  I am not a lazy person by nature but it is so so very comfortable.  I think I could easily complete a necessary experiment to find out just how much one person could accomplish from her bed.

Maybe I am just getting old.  Every time I stay in a hotel of late, I wake up in the middle of the night with a pain in the shoulder I am sleeping on.  Bad enough to wake me up.  Either I am getting old and my joints are going into early retirement or I am spoiled.

The beauty of a tempur mattress is that it moulds itself to your body to ensure that you apparently lie in perfect alignment and do not put undue pressure on the joints that you are lying on.  I don't care personally, I just like the fact that I get in my bed and even now, 5 years later, in my mind I go "Ahhhhhh". 

Maybe I am not spoiled, maybe it's just my joints that are.  It's only my shoulder that hurts today and I do not have particularly bony shoulders (refer to previous posts about the desire to live in the gym for the next 6 months).  I've been out of bed now for a whole day and the shoulder is still telling me off for daring to subject it to such an inferior quality bed.

I am not the only one.  Hubby loves our bed.  He must because since we treated ourselves to a TV for the bedroom (under the pretence that I could use the, then, only TV to catch up on all my recorded programmes he would not be subjected to having to watch them also) he has spent most of his life in bed.  I have taken to calling him Grampa Joe because as per the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory story he spends most of his life in the bed but I can get him to get out of bed once in a while. 

Hubby claims that the bed is the most comfortable place to watch TV after a hard days work.  I would suggest to furniture manufacturers that they begin to make sofas and chairs out of tempur material but then I would never get to work let alone the gym or the housework.  Mind you, there's an idea - if they make work chairs of the stuff maybe they would get many of us to stay at work longer.

The fluffers have identified how comfortable the bed is and frequently try all sorts of covert moves to find their way into the bedroom to lie sublime on the top cover until I shoo them out of the room.  Then I get 3 looks of disgust and ignored for the rest of the day...well, until I tell them that it is teatime or time for a walk. Fred, the giraffe, has identified a way of opening B's door - he is either confused and forgets that B does not have a tempur mattress or finds our door handle much more difficult to manouvere. 

So, I am in this hotel room until Thursday morning.  I expect by that time that my shoulders will have gone on strike making the carrying and pulling of two suitcases (one of which is the approximate size of my house) almost impossible.  I wonder if I can find a random person on the street to drag said suitcases to the train.  Hubby has a meeting in some random town on the train route so he will be subjected to carry the suitcases the remainder of the way home.

The upside of all this travelling is the first night home.  After being flattened by the 3 fluffers while Beautiful B stands and waits for them to allow me to get up off the floor we all find ourselves sat on my bed as that is the first place I go.  I lie on the bed and say "I love my bed"....of course, after I tell the family I have missed them.

You will recall that I think Beautiful B is weirder than I.  One of my arguments for this line of reasoning is that she says our bed is uncomfortable and much prefers hers.  Now I don't torture my daughter - well not on purpose, apparently embarressing her (which I do on a frequent basis) is torture but personally I find that you can feel every spring in her mattress.  Maybe I should buy her a bed of nails and see if she finds that as comfortable, it really can't be much worse in my opinion.  Each to their own so for the moment, everyone else can think I am subjecting my daugher to an uncomfy bed; I, however, will know that she is secretly just weirder than me.