Tuesday 24 December 2013

Even the dog is getting into the Christmas spirit

Hubby loves Christmas.  What he doesn't love is the run up to Christmas.  Fortunately he married me and I have enough for the both of us and more. 
 
It's Christmas Eve, the decorations are up, the food is bought, the turkey is defrosting and I have finished work to go into cleaning mode.  After a full day of it yesterday, today I have the Christmas table to set, the living room to polish, sweep and mop, the stairs to hoover and the bathroom to blitz.  Then I can go and get my hair and nails done to save me a much needed job tomorrow morning. 
 
Beautiful B is working nights so disappears to work at 9pm tonight and again tomorrow night doing the much needed job of caring for our sick and elderly in hospital during the holiday nights while we all sleep snuggly in our beds.
 
As Hubby is working today I sent him an email to help him start to get into the Christmas spirit.  It was simply this:
 
Abi rocking Christmas doggy attire

 
 
Now if that doesn't get him in the Christmas spirit I don't know what will!
 
Merry Christmas everyone.  Hope you and yours have a fabulous time.
 
See you on the other side.


 

Friday 20 December 2013

2 days and counting

This year I am taking two weeks off work for the holiday season.  Okay, I may have one day less than that as a workmate needs some help and despite her saying it can wait until the new year I want to help so she can relax over Christmas.  I know, I am soft.

I am particularly stressed this year because I like having everything sorted for Christmas on the 1st December; the Christmas decorations go up that day with lots of Christmas music and bah humbug moments from Hubby, the presents are bought and lovingly wrapped and the cards are written and posted.  

Despite starting out well by ordering all of my wrapping and pretty tape, tags and bows as early as March and the presents bought that is about all I have done.  The sitting room decorations only went up on the 9th of December due to travelling and illness and so the stress level started racheting up.  The dining room decorations were up on the 15th by which time I was that stressed I was wandering about doing things that were little more than useless despite having an organised list to follow.  

The cards are written and those that need posting around and out of the country are posted but that is all; the rest need to be delivered.  The presents still need to be wrapped.  I work from my dining room most of the week and so the Christmas table cannot be done until Monday and I have still got some of the 'stuff' to move from the dining room - our house is that small some of our possessions are just stored there.

I know this all sounds silly because seriously the world is not going to end if it all doesn't get done - well okay, important things like present wrapping is essential as are card deliveries because Beautiful B would just cry if she got unwrapped presents.

Except that we are hosting Christmer dinner this year which means that I also need to go into Operation clean mode.  My OCDish nature is not going to allow me to have guests in the house for an extended period of time without it being cleaned from top to bottom.

So, with delight I know I have two days to go and then I can get down to business.  There is much to do with haste.  There is a turkey to buy with all of the trimmings which is a trip with Hubby as he is the cook, a Christmas table to design and crackers to lay next to the tablewear, there are silly Santa hats to wear, and a special bah humbug apron for Hubby to wear and a special doggy suit for Abi so we can annoy Hubby.

There are Christmas films to watch, popcorn and Christmas sweets to be eaten, beer and alcohol to be bought for guests, visits on Christmas day to family to organise, a doggy cut for Lily so she looks pretty for Christmas, a party gel nail to fix after a mishap on a drunken work party, stuffing to make, a starter to prepare, afternoon entertainment to arrange to avoid the after-Christmas dinner snoozes and the list goes on.

All of this stress will be worth it and I will look at my family and thank my lucky stars for the bright lights in my life, for the happiness they all provide me and the love they give.


Thursday 19 December 2013

The bra that doesn't want chocolate

The only time I listen to the news, and by that I mean, put the TV on and listen to it while wandering aimlessly round a room, is when I am in a hotel and working away from home.  This morning a news item reminded me why I don't watch the news.....

.....a news item of a bra that doesn't like chocolate.

Now I know you are all thinking I have lost more than the one usual marble but hear me out.

Apparently scientists have devised a bra that detects when a woman is going to want to eat chocolate.  Now as I was wandering around the hotel room packing all the sweets and chocolate I didn't eat last night because I was too busy downing double vodka, lime and lemonades at the rate of at least 4 an hour I didn't fully catch how it does this.  Something about a raised heart rate or body temperature or some such thing.  Anyhoo, it registers whatever and texts the wearer to tell them they are likely to eat chocolate.

Lets ignore the fact that we are talking about women and we tend to know when we want chocolate, or are working up to being unable to resist those delicious morsals, and concentrate on who could possibly have decided it would be a great help to society if women were alerted to such danger.

I am not providing a blanket opinion here but I suspect it was a man.  Firstly, women know they want chocolate, secondly a man is more likely than a woman to suspect that women are not aware of such desire increasing and thirdly if a woman wants chocolate she is probably going to eat it regardless of the reminder.

I have to admit the bra was very pretty and immediately after thinking that I thought randomly 'bet they don't do that design for women with huge boobs.'

My next thought was that it was a rather dangerous product - and here is why I think it registers body temperature or increased heart rate - because it could be sending random text messages just as the woman is about to get hot and heavy with a man.  After all, increased body temperature and heart rate are both increased at that time.  






Wednesday 18 December 2013

What I learned this week



Let us see what I have learned this week


Work gets in the way of posting what I have learned this week

Despite it feeling like the dentist left part of a back molar in when removing a tooth for a good few weeks I should have faith because eventually what was evidently a small part of (non) removed tooth will fall out on it’s own.

I am rather proud of how well my nails are growing; okay, just my left hand because despite having ‘gel’ nails to make them stronger I still manage to break the ones on my right hand when doing things. 

Randomly finding a broken, you guessed it, right thumb nail during an extremely drunken Christmas work party will mean that you can’t even visit the bathroom safely.

Over the last few years Fredster has learnt that it is quite enjoyable to stand at the patio door and wagging his tail and watch all the pretty fireworks.  It appears he has worked out that it is much more enjoyable than throwing up in fear like he did when he was a youngster.

It is far too easy to pick up a takeaway on the way home from work and if I have 3 takeaways in a week Beautiful B will talk to me about how scared she is of losing me because she has already lost her dad.  Oooops.

Making ‘hard’ decisions about what series I have to forgoe on the TV so that I can have some spare time isn’t as hard as I thought.

Co-Codalmol 50/300g don’t make me as cuckoo as Tramadol even if I have to pop more of them to keep the pain at bay though they do give me migraines.

Thankfully, the severe operation I had 2 years ago to reduce the migraines has resulted in a lack of head pain during a migraine but it will take me 2 days of feeling sick, dizzy and having sore eyes to realise that I still have most of the other ‘effects’ of a migraine.

I am still giddy about the change of direction in my career 4 weeks after starting on the team. 

If I talk for more than 30 seconds in an air-conditioned room my voice gets quite gravely. 

After failing to find a Christmas stall to get my annual personalised Christmas tree ornament and ordering one from the intranet I will randomly find a stall in Sheffield.  So this year, we have two 2013 ornaments.

Reserving train tickets to return home on the 6.11pm train the day after the team’s work Christmas night out seemed like a good idea….until today when I am counting the minutes to catch that train after downing I do not know how many glasses of double vodka, lime and lemonades. 

So what have you learned this week?Usual rules apply - see below. I would love to hear from you if you also leave comments on my blog.


To join in Julie's What I Learned This Week carnival, simply follow these steps:


1. Any time this week, publish your What I Learned This Week post on your blog and comment on my blog hyper linking to your blog.


2. Then go and visit Julie’s blog at From Inmates to Playdates, find her latest “What I learned this week” and link up with the Mr. Linky form at the bottom of the post. Please put the link to your POST, not the front page of your blog.


3. Then visit the other participants and see what they learned this week.

Wednesday 4 December 2013

On the road again

I'm travelling more than I did when I was completing my accountancy training at the moment. Take this week as an example:  on Friday I travelled the Yorkshire, Saturday to Manchester and back to Yorkshire, Sunday back home, Tuesday to Sheffield and then to Leeds and I will travel back home on Thursday night. By the time I get home Hubby will be used to having the entire bed to himself! 

At least I have managed to keep track of which train I needed to be on at which time and trust me that no mean feat for me. 

This week I am staying in a budget hotel and despite the requirement to be a contortionist to stay wet in the shower while the faucet took a 360 degree turn on its own accord it is worth losing some comforts for the memory foam mattress. After all a good nights sleep is key. 

I can't get my work laptop to connect to the internet let alone the work intranet so there is plenty of time to read or watch I'm a Celebrity.

Though I am only on my first episode of the latter I found myself twittering at the stupidity of some celebrities. Comments such as "The stick insect looks like a stick but it has a brain and everything" don't really help one look more than stupid. Mind you, this is a 26 year old that was proud of learning how to tell the time "on a clock with hands and everything" so I really shouldn't expect much. 

I brought some club accounts to do tonight after my lean training course so I intend to keep myself busy. After all, important things such as decorating the house for Christmas must take priority this weekend!  

Beautiful B will be decorating the dining room on Friday while I am working in there. At least we can laugh and enjoy it together with Christmas music playing in the background and of course, I can supervise. On Saturday I can decorate the living room while Beautiful B is at work. 

I was going to fetch my Christmas cards with me to Leeds so I could write them in the evening. Having printed out my Christmas card list, however, I need to being 70 cards and for that I had to lose important things from the suitcase....like clothes. Therefore, I will write them on Saturday when I catch up with The X Factor as I have just realised that I haven't caught up with last weeks episodes. You see all this travelling is affecting my ability to catch up with all the programmes I record. 

Back to travelling. On the upside the benefit of working in Leeds is that there may be late shopping hours in force so I may just have a mooch around the shops  tonight. After all, I still haven't been able to find a store where I can obtain this years personalised family Christmas tree decoration. 2012's family decoration takes pride of place on the tree and it's lonely and needs a friend! 

Yes, that is what I will do before I sit down to do some snooker accounts tonight. 

Have a great day everyone.