Tuesday 27 March 2012

What I learned this week

So, I trollied off London yesterday for a meeting. I’d like to say it went without a hitch…..


1. When you go to bed early the night before in preparation for a 4am alarm, be prepared for baba fluff to throw up twice, only to put your feet under the covers and discover she has been there too and that you need to change the bedding. Don’t let her on the fresh bedding because you will find yourself having to change that bedding approximately 5 minutes later.

2. Hubby is the best hubby-in-the-making ever because at that point he will insist on sleeping on the couch downstairs so you can get some much needed sleep while he continues to clean up after baba fluff for the next couple of hours.

3. When getting in the car to set off to the station don’t get distracted and look over your shoulder at Freddy fluff who is peering at your though the window when you are shutting the car door, otherwise you forget your fingers are in the way.

4. Think yourself lucky that your control gene ensured you set off early enough to get to the station, only to discover that although trains leave at ungodly hours the ticket window does not open until a whole hour later and so you cannot get a car park ticket, because you have enough time to drive the car back home frantically phoning for a taxi to meet you there to get you back to the station in time.

5. Ensure you have sufficient change for a different car park in case this ever happens in future because you then don’t have to drive the car all the way home.

6. It’s important to get used to having to now book tickets for specific journeys and that may result in you sitting at Euston Station for 2 hours waiting for the train you can actually get on.

7. Make sure you definitely know what time you are booked onto the train because then you won’t be told by the conductor that you should have been on the train an hour earlier….because then you can get home before 9.30pm and get an extra hour of cuddles with Hubby as a bonus.

8. When you get home Hubby will tuck you up in bed and take all the fluff bags downstairs so that you can catch up on some much needed sleep.

9. Next time, don’t be a martyr for work and stay in London the night before because 18 hour days are a killer……

Friday 16 March 2012

Back to Thursday

So yesterday was Thursday.  Yes, I know you know, I frequently state the obvious. 

Thursdays are the new days for exhaustion apparently.  Dragging myself out of bed, in retrospect, seems like a waste of time as I was little more than useless at work yesterday.  It felt like wading through mud....with concrete blocks on my feet......which were chained to a wall.

So yet again, for the second week in a row I took myself off home as soon after 3pm would allow, bearing in mind that this wonderful governmentally security system takes 5 minutes to log my computer of.  Poor Hubby didn't even get a kiss hello yesterday as I walked through the door and immediately upstairs with only an "I love you" over my shoulder.

My brain was still able to make some informed choices however when Hubby asked "What time should I wake you?"   Sleeping for 2-3 hours only to be woken for dinner would likely result in me being awake at stupid o'clock, unable to sleep and trying to read a story on my iPhone under the covers so the light did not wake Hubby.  So, I stayed awake to watch Greys, Grimm and then Alcatraz before giving into the tiredness.

Granted I had to keep re-winding programmes every time I realised that I had nodded off.  After a power nap of what must have been only 5 minutes I managed to watch all but the first 2 minutes of Alcatraz without having to hit the rewind button.

Then I slept, and I slept all night which peeps is absolutely amazing for me at the moment.  I may have felt more awake when the alarm, otherwise known as Baba fluff, woke me at 4.30 am but it was still almost as hard to drag myself out of bed to come to work.

This week is Cheltenham Races week.  Hubby ALWAYS takes the week off and sits glued to the TV with the little race slips shouting "Come on, Come on, move it" at the TV - I don't know why he bothers - you can guarantee if he bet on it that horse ain't winning. 

There is some male excuse in there as to why he has been unable to do any housework because I am not counting keeping the kitchen clean because 1, you should do anyway and 2, he's eaten fast food every day so exactly what was there to keep clean.....

I don't know who I am kidding, there is only a woman able to take time off for say the Olympics and still manage to watch that and clean the house at the same time.

Today is Gold Cup day.....another day of racing but apparently extra special for a reason I can neither fathom or find the energy to care about.  Suffice to say, Hubby goes to the pub with my brother-in-law C, technically he is an ex brother-in-law but I always thought of him as a brother and always will; he is awesome and could be Hubby's twin in both personality and looks.  Gold cup day is expensive, they spend more on betting let alone the food and above all else beer.

Hubby asked me this morning if I want to meet them at the pub.  I could meet 
a, whom C left my sister for - that sounds awful but to be honest he left her for more than A, A was a symptom not the cause.  I have never met her before, having blamed both of them for nearly 2 years for my sisters unhappiness.  However, it is not in me to hate, I missed C and I began to see that my sisters unhappiness is her own undoing and when she realises she causes her own unhappiness she may start to turn a corner.....  Anyhoo, I would meet M which is probably an idea because I intend on inviting both to my 40th birthday bash. 

The only problem is that I don't know whether I have the energy to bother going.  There is cleaning to do and Hubby is working tomorrow so not there to help me and the lack of cleaning this week, through his race watching and my tiredness, is now beginning to drive me a bit bonkers and the aliens in my head are crying and bashing their heads against the insides of my eyeballs.....

.....Hubby would argue that when I am tired and feeling low (suffice to say the witch, she who must not be named, has been causing all sorts of issues this week and whilst outwardly I refuse to give her the satisfaction of seeing me upset and hiding the latest instalment from Beautiful B because she is very fragile at the minute I am obviously letting it affect me) it is the most important time to go out and spend time with people.  He is right, he made me go and see one of my bestest R last week and it did me the world of good.

I am so very tired though...... I could go out for a couple of drinks and then come home and crash into bed again ready for tomorrow. 

So until the long-term ramifications of major surgery decide to start waning, and I really really didn't expect to get so tired after 3 days of working 13 weeks into recovery from the operation, Thursday will be otherwise known as Tired Thursday and today and every other Friday will be Fatigue Friday....

Thursday 15 March 2012

Why hubby chooses to let me shop alone

Yesterday I was tagged in a "article" on facebook titled "Why one wife now chooses to shop alone" - I found it so amusing I promptly sent it to all my friends.  Hubby responded to the article adding his own comments (in red) along the way, as follows:

Here's proof of what can happen when a highly excitable woman drags her highly disinterested husband or boyfriend along when shopping.  This letter was sent by a British hypermart to a customer in Oxford Blackpool:

Dear Mrs Murray Mr Hubby,

While we thank you for your valued patronage and use of our store loyalty card, the manager of our store is considering banning you and your family from shopping with us, unless your husband stops his antics paying you for your almost wife's entertainment value.  Below is a list of just some of the offences over the past few months, all verified by our surveillance cameras:
1.  15 June: Took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in people's trolleys when they weren't looking.
Granted you haven't done this but you have, on my behalf, removed all Kenco cappuchino boxes off the shelf when half price and when other shoppers look at you strangely start to pet the boxes saying "My precious...."
2.  2 July: Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at five-minute intervals
Set ALL musical Christmas/Easter/Halloween teddies off and then danced to whatever song they are singing.
3.  14 Aug: Moved a "Caution - Wet floor" sign to a carpeted area
Required a "Caution - Wet floor" sign and went to find a mop after deciding it was appropriate to accidently knock over a jar of Lime jam off the shelf in order to get to the Lime and Lemon jam (and yes, I now accept that was wholly my fault because I only like the Lime and Lemon jam.....)
4.  4 Oct:  Looked right into the security camera and used it as a mirror to pick his nose Blew kisses to the security men and check out staff "because it is Christmas".
5.  3 Dec: Darted around the store suspiciously, loudly humming the Mission Impossible theme.
No!  But you frequently sing the Spiderman song but only parts of it because you cannot remember it all "Spidyman, Spidyman, does whatever a spidyman can, spins a web, dududu, du du dudu du du dudu" Then loudly "LOOK OUT, HERE COMES A SPIDYMAN" before going on with your shopping as though everything is normal.
6.  18 Dec: Hid in a clothing rack and yelled "Pick me, Pick me!"
7.  23 Dec: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, then yelled very loudly: 'There is no toilet paper in here.'
8.    Christmas Time: Sang and danced your way round the aisles to the Christmas music and then asked why Beautiful B and I laughing at you, having had no idea that you were doing it in the first place.
9.    Provided a customer suggestion that Christmas music be played all year round "because it makes people happier".
10.  Being accident prone, on at least 8-10 occassions every shopping trip will randomly let out "MEOW" like a cat at various volumes when you bang the trolley into something, drop something, narrowly miss the other poor folks with your wobbly wheeled trolley or when you see others being accident prone.  The more excitable you are, the louder you are.
11.  Think nothing of getting far too excitable at the check outs when packing things away "like only you can, because it is a woman thing" when in fact, it's not, its a Ribena thing.

.....but I wouldn't have you any other way sweetheart

Yours sincerely
Store Manager

In my defence, I may entertain myself regularly and frequently I do not realise I am doing it but surely we can agree that I am not as bad as this poor womans husband......

Wednesday 14 March 2012

40 going on 18

I hit the big 40 in just over 6 months. Unlike my mum, I am looking forward to being 40.

My mum hated the idea of reaching her 40th birthday, in fact we were told not to organise a party of any kind. Of course we ignored her and when she came home from work and saw the banner stretching across the front of the house congratulating her on her 4th decade she continued to drive past the house instead of stopping. She did eventually attend her party, after giving us all a good telling off, and of course enjoyed it.

I am looking forward to being 40. I am much more comfortable in my own skin and having struggled with my identify and self-worth as a teenager, I feel that I have now grown into a person that I quite like.

I don’t feel 40, in fact I feel about 18! Granted my body and energy levels can struggle with that at times but my mind is forever young and I randomly act like a complete maniac! Hubby fell in love with my unpredictability and zest for life and a lot of that is down to how young I mentally feel. I have such a loving Hubby and Beautiful B is my world and I have grown so much closer to my parents as I have grown older; all of that provides for a wonderful, happy life.

So, I have so much to celebrate and I intend on celebrating it with family and friends in September. Not with mum and dad, who are always away on holiday for my birthday. Being allergic to the sun (come on, I had to get the nuttiness from somewhere), mum has to travel at certain times of the year and I am certainly not expecting her to cut her holiday short to attend my party but they will be with me in spirit.

I have tasked Hubby, Beautiful B and Angel in the design of a cake. Being awkward, I want a novelty cake that depicts my personality and who better to design it but the 3 people who know me best?

The DJ is booked, although somewhat worryingly he appears to be not too well organised and has rang to confirm the booking twice already. Now we need to specify any particular songs I would like playing – 80s American soft rock will feature in there somewhere I am sure. I am still deciding on a buffet – do I spend a fortune and get a standard buffet (who knew they got soooo expensive) or do I go with a hot pot supper? Decisions, decisions.

I am still to design invitations. Having a creative friend certainly helps and I will enjoy helping to make them – memories such as these will be held dear when I am old and grey.

My 40th will be a celebration of my life so far and the beginning of the rest of my life. The old saying that “Life begins at 40” could in some ways hold true but I would prefer to say that my life truly began, for me, at 32 when Hubby arrived in mine and Beautiful B’s life. My 40th birthday party will be a celebration of how wonderful my life is, of how lucky I am to have such a fantastic family and friends and of how much I am looking forward to being as nutty as I am now into my golden years.

Tuesday 13 March 2012

Organising a secret

It’s a secret, not my secret, I’m sworn to keep it a secret….I’m not good with keeping my secrets secret! I can keep anyone else’s secret and take it to the grave but my secrets? Nope, not me, especially when I don’t want it to be a secret.

So, I am busy organising; organising a secret with only a very select number of friends and family in the know who in turn are all sworn to secrecy.

I need to organise one more bit and then that secret can extend to other people but not to people at work…oh no, that has to remain a secret at least until I can convince Hubby that it shouldn’t remain a secret.

I am so very excited about this secret, more than anything the family needs to be excited about something right now and this secret is probably the best thing to get excited about. Despite it being a secret, I am enjoying the organising and with each bit organised I get a little more excited. By the time all this is finished I will be that excited I won’t need any caffeine at all!

I am off to see one friend tonight, who knows the secret and is helping me with the secret, to discuss elements of the secret. I am not at all creatively minded but I think I am going to ask if I can be involved in creating this part of the secret with her as it would be wonderful to look back in the future and know that I helped to create it. It may well be that when I start to help her with this part of the secret that she determines I am far too uncreatively-minded and that I should just sit and watch. Then I can look back in the future and know that I designed this creative element of the secret.

I’m thinking that I need to get creative about convincing Hubby to allow me to reveal the secret!

Saturday 10 March 2012

Celebrity husbands

You know how some couples have lists, lists of people that they would if they could....

Well, Hubby and I don't have that list.  Its not Hubby's bag for a start and although I have the ability to look at another person and think "oooh, how cute, beautiful, gorgeous...." etc, I wouldn't go there even if I could because, well Hubby is all I want, need and desire.

However, with the ability to think (and say out loud because Hubby is as un-jealous as anyone can get) "ooooh, how gorgeous" has come Hubby's joke that Hugh Jackman is my celebrity husband.

What is amusing is that I am collecting celebrity husbands by the bucket load.....

Hugh Jackman - goes without saying;
then there is Morgan from Criminal Minds - a very fine speciman of a man;
Damon from the Vampire Diaries - who, is fine to look at but for me it is all in the eyes...
....ask Hubby, his best feature of his eyes - I could drown in his eyes.....

Why does Hubby not get jealous?  Well he is very special and I am very lucky, but it is because he has no doubt that even if I could go there, I wouldn't.  I know what I have and I wouldn't risk losing it if someone handed me the world on a platter.

And anyhoo, would I want to actually meet any of my celebrity husbands in real life?  No, because knowing my luck all of them would be complete pratts and that would just ruin the fantasy now wouldn't it!

Friday 9 March 2012

Too late now

Not that I am one to moan (despite the past few posts) but jeez, I am exhausted!  Day 5 of being back at work and the last time I recall being this tired Beautiful B was 10 months old and screaming through the night and would only allow mama bear to rock her back to sleep despite the fact that she had to work the next day.  That was a valid excuse, I am thinking that having been off work for 12 weeks isn't a valid excuse.

Granted I have had major surgery and granted I need time to recover from that and granted that after week 8 I was going to go back to the gym to pull up my exercise levels and granted funerals and all things related got in the way but still.....this level of exhaustion!  Really?!

I was falling asleep in my lunch break yesterday and was in bed by 7.30 pm and it would have been earlier had I not made prior arrangements to see our good friends K&M.  I slept all night and woke this morning feeling just as tired. 

I mentioned to Hubby that maybe I should have come back to work under part-time medical grounds for a couple of weeks and Hubby said "Well, everyone I have spoken too are shocked that you haven't."  Really?!  Maybe I am not being so silly after all - though if I had done some forward thinking I may have tested the waters with my boss before returning to work.

Now, I know that I am extremely lucky to be working here and that part-time medical grounds is on offer and that so many people are not in as lucky a position so I am not moaning - just doing my normal twittering.

Having said that....my clean gene is going to sleep this weekend along with the rest of me seen as I will be in bed for most of it trying to store up energy levels for the next week of work.  Hopefully, this tiredness will only last another week or so until my brain decides it wants to wake up along with the rest of me and get a move on already....

Thursday 8 March 2012

I'm Back.......

....as the drunken father in Independance Day said to the nasty aliens.....

So, I've been back at work nearly 4 days now and I am still alive and kicking.  Not exactly running at full steam - no-one thought to mention that coming back to work after a 12 week hiatus makes you tired.

My new office is beginning to take shape - I have taken it upon myself to order a white board and a magnetic one at that - oooeeeerrrr; which promptly initiated a call back asking why I wanted a magnetic white board - eeerrrmmm because I do!  It was obviously a man that asked that question because any woman would have worked out that the usage was doubled when magnetic.  After all, not only can I scribble inane rambling thoughts all over it but I can stick things to it with magnetic thingymajigs.  After explaining, the dual usage meant I was not asking for a pin board the caller seemed happy enough.

Oh and Damon's headshot is looking very cute staring at me with those sultry eyes from my notice board all day long.

Now I just need some potted plants.....