Friday 31 January 2014

Five Things Friday - Facebook

The reason I am on Facebook

Because I find things like this: 



And this: 


and this:


this:


And this:


Happy Friday everyone! 

Wednesday 29 January 2014

Disorganised....much?

It was my intention to write a post for today last night.  There is little excuse other than working all day when I was already tired and then being stuffed full of food by my mum and dad.

I normally visit my mum at least once a week and always on a Sunday morning; it has become our ritual.  When Hubby is working over a weekend or as my mum puts it 'working because I forced him to' I still visit my parents on a Sunday.

Except when things come in three's, as my mum is always saying, I kind of didn't expect it to mean having to spend a lot of money three times; fixing an oil leak, having a new gate and the fences strengthened; and getting the tumble dryer repaired.  Which in theory doesn't stop me visiting my mum, after all she lives on the next road so it is not as if I have huge travel expenses to take into account.  No, it shouldn't except two of those job were being done on a Sunday morning.

Then travelling with work and lots of tasks, reports and products to produce got in the way of visiting my parents during the weekday evenings - pesky work!  

Anyhoo, Hubby suggesting calling them and asking if we could visit and have dinner with them.  Now, here is where I have had a problem.  My sister is used to calling them and inviting herself for tea.  She has done it for years and years.  Me?  No, I never did because I thought it was rude.  There I said it.  I thought it was rude to invite myself to my mum and dad's for dinner.  Except mum started saying I should.  So I did, and felt sick and awful doing it the first time.  Now I have to work myself up to it so although I know that guilty feeling is coming I am prepared for it.  Stupid right?  I mean after all my mum told me to do it but it still feels wrong.

So we trollied on round yesterday; not just me and Hubby but Beautiful B and Ry as well.  Beautiful B actually said she didn't want a sweet because her sides were sore she was that full.  No such luck with me; after all I am getting that fat I can fit anything in.  Probably even a whole tiny baby, or toddler.....

So add being food tired to already being tired and you imagine I was shattered.  What is food tired? Oh that is easy; it's that feeling you get after Christmas Dinner - you know, when you have had that much to eat you are guaranteed to fall asleep as soon as you sit down with the family to watch television repeats in the afternoon.  

On returning home Hubby proclaimed he was watching football and so I left him downstairs to shout at the television and tucked myself in bed to watch 2 Broke Girls and an episode of 1 Man, 3 Women - the life of a Mormon  or some similar title.  Each to their own but I have to say that I didn't see one women who appeared to be happy with her lot in life.  You know, sharing the husband you love with at least one other woman.  That is a receipe for disaster in my book.  But my book is quite small, with limited experiences so what the hell do I know!

I then started watching a programme on Amish teenagers taking themselves off to Los Angeles or somewhere similar and was asleep in 5 minutes.  It might have been me but that programme appears very staged and I suspect would annoy me if I actually managed to stay awake to watch it all.

So the moral of the story is when you go to your childhood home to eat with your family make sure you are not already tired because you will be after approximately 90 minutes when you have eaten too much of your mum's gorgeous food.

Later today I have telekit to discuss the agenda for a team away day at work - I even told my boss that I distinctly don't remember volunteering myself for it and one of my team colleagues agreed with me.  No reply from him yet so he has obviously decided that if he keeps quiet I will get involved anyway even though I have enough work already.  Now there is the main problem of going to work with your mentor of 8 years; they know you too darn well!

Happy Wedensday every one.

I am thinking of doing a 5 Things Friday this week - anyone any suggestions on what I should twitter write about?

Tuesday 28 January 2014

What I learned this week

This week has seen me travelling around the country and Beautiful B at another university interview - Go Beautiful B!

My lessons for this week are:
  • Week 4 of Fredsters slow release medication translates to very little medication left in his system and lots of padding about on his front legs and stamping up the stairs with effort....and lots and lots of Tramadol.
  • Taking 2 lots of Tramadol a day means that Fredster will start to learn to start accepting the pills and swallowing them rather than spitting them out.
  • When the weather man tells you to prepare for 80 mph gale force winds he isn't always right and some winds are better than losing the fence panels and worse.
  • Hubby will ask me to take him to work and pick him up when the winds are high.  A legitimate excuse even if it does add 90 minutes to my working day.
  • If I put the fire on in the front room when working all 4 fluffers will line up in a row in front of it and sleep most of the day off.
  • It is possible for me to finish Farm Frenzy 4 with gold on every single level - whoop.  Yes, I am a grown up!  Honest!
  • 12 Years a Slave left me speechless.  The only ever film to do that previously was Schindlers List.  While I understand that some people do not wish to see such suffering it serves a strong visual reminder, for me, of how so very very lucky I am.
  • Wearing a flat pair of shoes rather than heels to walk around London in order to save my feet from pain doesn't work.  I should remember that I have flat feet and walking around without specific insoles (which live in my trainers and for which my flat shoes are not wide enough) or heels will result in pain during any kind of walking especially after sitting for a time.
  • It is amazing how happy I am to be getting my weekly dose of Criminal Minds (mmm, Morgan.....) and Grey's Anatomy.
  • Before buying any more books I should check my spreadsheet, yes spreadsheet, of books I have already read.  So far this week I have discovered that I have recently bought 2 books that I read years ago.
  • Gingerbread men are scrumptious but only if the biscuit is chewy.
  • Working from home is great.  Here I can wear my fleecy dressing gown if I get too cold.  Oh and I can have music on in the background to help me through my day.
 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.

Monday 27 January 2014

Oh where for art thou, night?

My eyes are tired, a perfect start to a days work and all completely self inflicted.  

After a busy Saturday with mum-in-law weekly food shopping, cleaning, paying bills, collecting parcels, having the tumble dryer fixed I set about cooking dinner as some of our best friends Rachel and her hubby were coming round for tea and a good old catch-up, our first since Christmas.

Hubby, as usual, took himself off for an afternoon snooze as weekend nights are very late ones watching all manner of sport.  So I set about assembling all ingredients for the meal, a simple but tasty fare of Shepherds Pie.  Potatoes?  Check.  Cheese? Check.  Shepherds Pie Sauce?  Check.  Oh come on!  You have read this blog long enough, you know by now I don't have the culinary skills to make it from scratch! Mince?  Erm, sort of!  

On arriving home from the food shopping trip this morning Hubby casually mentioned that if the Tumble Dryer repair bill was going to be more than £100 then he was going to say thanks but no thanks and buy a new one.  What?!  That makes perfect sense now doesn't it?  Buy a new dryer for twice as much as the repair.  

Of course, Hubby was not convinced that dryers were that expensive so I set about googling the nearest electrical store to prove him wrong.  Which I did but that is by the by. Considering it more important to discover the price of a replacement tumble dryer I asked Hubby to put the frozen food shopping away.  Which he did, all the while telling me that although it would be more expensive, 'obviously', the current dryer would only break again should it be replaced.  

Yes, Hubby is an expert in tumble dryer DIY which is amazing considering he almost chopped the top of his thumb off removing a cable tie from around an electrical cable.  Anyhoo, as Hubby's brain was split between two tasks, none of which were related to sport, he wasn't really concentrating on what he was doing with his hands and put all of the chilled and frozen food in the freezer including, you guessed it, the mince.  

Having left it late in the day to make the dinner wanting to serve it fresh from the oven I was a little frazzled and went upstairs to talk to Hubby.  

Me:        Hubby, will do you me a favour and nip out and get some mince?

Hubby:   We have mince.

Me:        Yes, I know we have mince but I cannot use it.

Hubby:    Why not?

Me:         You put it in the freezer.

Pause while Hubby's brain gets into gear.

Hubby:     Oh shit, I put it in the freezer when I was talking to you about the dryer.
Me:          Yep.

So Hubby disappeared to the shop during which time I nipped upstairs for a shower (having left that until the last minute too).  Just about to get out of the shower and cue barking.  Not just any barking, the symphony of dog barking that tells me that someone is at the front door and isn't taking no answer for an answer.

So I am legging it downstairs after skidding along the wooden floor in the bathroom with wet feet doing my best impression of Tod Carty in Dancing on Ice because the rugs were in the wash.  I dripped all the way down the stairs to find out Hubby had locked himself out in the rain.  No mince at the butchers.

My choice then?  To get dressed and go to the supermarket because Hubby doesn't feel the need to learn to drive and so cannot help me out in that area or order in. 

Consdering that Rachel and her hubby were arriving in less than an hour I knew I didn't have time to shop, get home, cook tea and try and have a meaningful conversation with our guests from in front of the stove so we ordered in.

Do I feel guilty that the dinner cost us over 3 times what the Shepherds Pie would have done?  Hell no, it wasn't my fault unless we consider the need to either supervise Hubby and/or start to prepare meals earlier than the last minute. 

So that was Saturday's fun and games.

Sunday was a christening as one of Hubby's snooker buddies was christening his two beautiful children.  After watching the daughter, who is 3, drink Froot Shoots, cake with lots of frosting and much her way through whole handfuls of Wotsits I can only imagine her crash later in the day bless her.  

We had a peaceful late afternoon and evening catching up on sport and the sky planner.  I decided to do a little bit of cross-stitch...which is never a little bit.....which leads to me watching programme after programme as I don't get tired....which leads to late nights....or early mornings....as in 2am......as in the reason my eyes are tired.....as in self-inflicted.

Awake at 5.30 to do a full day of work and the cinema tonight to watch The Devil Inside.  Yes, my crash will be late tonight.  Tonight I will join our friends daughter in what it means to have too much of a good thing.

Happy Monday everyone!




 

Friday 24 January 2014

Which mobile is ringing again?

Do you recall that feeling when you get a new mobile phone and the first time it rings you have no idea it is yours?  Yes, well I had that today.  I sat at a desk in Sheffield and a phone started ringing and I sat there merrily typing away knowing it wasn't the Apple phone ringing because Cala Fluff wasn't smiling at me from it's screen.

Except it was for me.  It was the work mobile that was charging and vibratiing around the floor.  My new manager testing out my new number.  I should have answered the phone and said "Good evening, Battersea Dogs Home.  How may I help you?"

It has only taken 2 months to get the phone to me.  It's amazing how completed requests attached to emails get lost in the internal email ethos.  So there will be no more answering my personal mobile in a professional voice though I am not convinced I did that anyway and even if I did the fluff bags ruined it when they started barking in the background.

There will be no more worrying about whether my 750 contract minutes were going to stretch to all the hour long telekits I had been dialling into because my home phone randomly isn't working.  Or the amusement or lack off when the fluff bags decide they want to join in the conversation or is it rip the delivery person's leg off who has dared to try and do his job and deliver a parcel?

Except the phone is rubbish so I am tempted to divert it to the Apple phone but on the downside I will still have no idea if it is a work call or not as all internal work numbers are automatically number blocked.  At least I know it is a work call if the work mobile rings and I would know it wasn't the Apple ringing because I would never knowing choose such a bad ringtone.

I will also need a bigger handbag - it is already stuffed full of my purse, keys, phone and other unimportant equally important stuff.  After all, there will be less room for pop now!

Hubby rang on my Apple earlier and so I knew I was in trouble.  My hands and elbows are so painful today and having had to drag a suitcase around, along with a rucksack carrying the work laptop and paperwork that cannot go in the suitcase because it is too big to keep near me on a train, and my fit to bursting almost empty handbag I haven't really helped them.  The tramadol has to wait until I get to the hotel room as I cannot very well get here and say "Sorry, Tramadol calls I am off to the hotel for a couple of hours, will be back soon.  Ta Ta for now." can I?  

So Hubby was calling to check that I was safe and sound in a hotel room dosed up and resting my extremeties.  I should have gone there after my last training course and meeting finished at 3pm - except it was past 6pm, the person that lives in the tannoy has just announced that the building would close in less than an hour, and I had emails to do and documents to save to my desktop so I could work in the hotel room on the train to London tomorrow morning.

I could have tried lying but lets face it if the other extremely busy sad individual still at work at that time receives a phone call Hubby was going to ask why I have a man in my room.  Would he accept room service? So I told the truth and went home 5 minutes later, honest.

 


Thursday 23 January 2014

Contract Cross-Eyed!

It's 7pm on a Tuesday evening and I am sure I can think of something better to do than trawl through all the emails, finance documents, specification and invitation to tender documents for a procurement done in 2011 to do a cursory check that we have a sufficient audit trail for the VAT decision made.  You know, something better like picking my eyeballs out with a toothpick......

Remind me again why I decided that a 2 year stint learning all about VAT and how it affects government contract would be a great idea.

I have spent nearly 3 hours trawling through the documents and reading the specification and drawing up a nice excel table with my findings and VAT decision.  And that is just one contract out of 20 which apparently 'is the first half' of what I am to consider.

Of course being the freak that I am I can sit here and provide a list of why this exercise has been good for me.  For a start it gives me a level of confidence in my VAT understanding that I didn't have for 2 years and I am learning all about the documents I will soon be putting together for my own contracts.  My new manager thinks it's a great idea to give me a key work objective to upskill the commercial environment in it which could serve me well if I ever was stupid enough to want promotion.

Now you are all riveted aren't you?  Yes I suspect you are now wanting to shove those toothpicks underneath your finger nails.  After all, my confidence and knowledge level holds no interest for you guys.

So what else can I tempt you with?

The fact that I am listening to Christmas songs on the 21st of January?  The fact that it is an album of Christmas songs by a country music?  That I think their voices are lovely and gentle with that slight country twang to the tone of voice?  No?  Well, I thought that would have interested you.  After all, it may show that I am losing my marbles slowly.  On second reflection it may convince you never to read this blog again.

How about a story of how I was eating a family bag of Galaxy Bites earlier today and holding my hand stretched out to keep the bag open on my knee while I was playing a computer game with the other?  How that bag didn't stay on my hand and most of the bites dropped on the floor?  

I suspect you are not surprised by that at all; the fluff bags were though when they heard the clattering.  Within 2 milliseconds they were all started scurrying around to scoop them up.  Well except for Fredster Fluff who never gets involved in any shenanigans for fear of being told off.
 
How about how all 3 girlie fluffs then tried doggy handling my office chair out of the way to get the ones their little necks couldn't stretch too?  How about how Lily fluff has been intermittently trying to get to one she thinks is behind the computer desk and printer all afternoon?  How Abi thinks that as she is so much skinnier she can sneak in between the side of the office desk and wall to try and get to it without me noticing to get it when I am still sat in the office chair? 

How about how all 3 girlie fluffs then displayed a, what would have been impressive under any other circumstances, gang mentality not 20 minutes later when trying to convince me that time had stood still and it wasn't really 2pm but 3.30pm and time for their tea?  How I randomly shouted "SHUT UP! NO!" or that it had absolutely no effect whatsoever?  That it was probably the sugar kicking in that had them so excited because clearly they were not hungry because they had only just eaten so richly?

As you can tell I have been having fun today.


 

Wednesday 22 January 2014

Here I go again on my own

going down that lonely road I've never knownnnnnnnn
 
Well not really.  I am just on my travels again and it won't exactly be lonely because I will be with work colleagues.  Yes, today I am in Sheffield for some training and tomorrow I am in London.
 
As I decided it would be cheaper and less travel to stay in Sheffield than travel home for 2 1/2 hours just to do another 3 1/2 journey to London I am staying in Sheffield so the night will be my own.
 
What I find amazing is that Sheffield is about 100 miles further north than where I live and still I can get to London in less time. 
 
Having worked it out I will be on a train for 6 1/2 hours of the next two days.  So I had best make sure I have enough work saved on my laptop's desktop to keep me busy for that long.  Otherwise I may just have to continue reading my Karen Rose book about murder and mayhem.
 
My hands are sore and that is driving me nuts so dependent on the pain level tomorrow I may have no choice but to read my book instead of work but I am going to at least attempt to be dedicated.
 
Yesterday was awful weather wise.  I braved the cold as I had to go to 2 banks, yes 2...call me greedy and didn't realise just how cold it was until I was outside.  At least it made me rush to get home again.
 
In the afternoon it threw it down, all afternoon.  The girlie fluffs were driving me mad from about 2pm crying for their tea when they damn well knew they don't get it until 3.30pm at least.  I gave up on the dot of 3.30pm to save my sanity.
 
Fredster fluff stands at the back door to go out and being a fluffy fluff bag he was drenched in minutes.  Why he stands at the door to go out I have no idea - he just stood there in the rain looking forlorn; maybe the Tramadol are making him cuckoo and he has no idea what he is doing so his brain is just on autopilot. 
 
Yes, I know a normal dog would not ask to go out if on autopilot but mine does because as Hubby told me last night I trained him not to pee in the house too well.  Everytime he eats something he goes and stands at the back door to go out; every single crisp, piece of meat, satsuma,  etc and he stands there and intermittently looks at me saying "ahem, I know you see me, open the darn door!"
 
As a puppy he went out every time he ate something, even a puppy training treat.  So that is what he knows; in fact maybe he was a goldfish in a former life and does everything on autopilot.  Maybe there is no thinking at all just rote memory; it would explain a lot.....
 
Anyhoo, Hubby may arrive home at any time.  He rang to say he was working later so he could miss the rain.  I told him that looking at the sky it seemed to be staying around all day.  He wasn't having it.  He coudl be at work until midnight at this rate, waiting and waiting for the rain.  I wonder if he finds the sound of rain relaxing?

Tuesday 21 January 2014

What I learned this week


I have been travelling with work again this week but only an overnight stay so not as bad as previous weeks and I have been sensible enough not to arrange 3 nights out before travelling this week.  You see, I can learn from my lessons by being sensible every now and again.

I have a very productive week in terms of lessons:
  • It may have cost money to put a new front gate on but saved money from a seized engine in the long run when the carpenter noticed a not so small oil patch under the from of my car.
  • Apparently oil will leak out of the oil filter if the car mechanic doesn't tighten the oil filter enough when servicing the car.
  • The oil may not leak even though the oil filter is loose until I knocked it on the corner of the kerb I misjudged earlier in the week.
  • Doing an oil change and cleaning the oil filter and making sure it's tight is cheaper than replacing it because I put a hole in it driving carelessly.
  • It costs £90 to get the oil filter fastened on and tightened properly (after the person who serviced it before I bought the car forgot how to be a mechanic), the oil filter cleaned and changed and a new front tire put on the car.
  • If Beautiful B is getting on a train at 5.39am, the same time as me chances are it is the same train.
  • I won't realise I am almost holding my breath hoping she doesn't beat herself up after the university interview until I hear her on the phone when she calls to tell me all about it.
  • I will feel so very proud of my Beautiful B when she relays how she kept her cool and gave some fantastic answers at her first university interview.  10 years ago I thought she would never get to university and while I was as proud of her then as I am now I feel very privileged to have been able to watch her blossom during that time.
  • Other than thinking about things she thinks she should have said Beautiful B will feel it went okay and my heart sang.
  • It is possible to sleep in a hotel bed so hard that you wake up feeling like you are seriously bruised and that is saying something for a more than chubby person like me.
  • Hubby riding his bike to work instead of being driven there and back by me really does make me feel like I have much more time in the day to do jobs.
  • Hubby will come home in a bad mood after 2 days of riding his bike to work and back; it is so much harder to cycle when you have been laid up in bed with man flu for 2 weeks apparently.
  • A dog of Fredsters weight (20kg) can have 4 x 50mg Tramadol tablets 3 times a day – yes really!  The same Tramadol that humans take so my question is; how is that possible when I go cuckoo after taking 4 of mine?
  • I can crack my neck when moving my head to the left and right an awful lot the week before I am due to visit the Osteopath.
  • Playing a computer game for 8 hours on a Sunday will result in my right hand aching and being much weaker for a full week, yes a full week!
  • It feels really good to be able to buy my mum-in-laws weekly grocery shopping when she forgets her purse when going to the supermarket.
  • Hubby thinks that we do not need any more pineapple and coconut yoghurts during the weekly shop.  I will disagree and add them to the 7 I already have at home.
  • I have started to make really funny noises when asleep.  I woke myself up ‘wheezing’ so high that I was doing a great impression of a squeaky balloon.  I don't feel breathless though.....strange, but then it is me we are talking about.  And yes, as usual Hubby wants me to mention it to the nurse at my doctor's practice. 

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.







Monday 20 January 2014

When I said I would go to the cinema but didn't

Written on Wednesday night last week:

I arrived in Leeds from Sheffield an hour ago. I checked into the hotel, ate a takeaway and moaned at how the heat option from the hotel air con is not hot....again. 

I'm tired, I've been tired since this morning and as much as I want to see Mandela I know that if I do I will be exhausted tomorrow. Sitting in a room and brain-storming a colleagues financial and evaluation proposal formats is hard work and it hurts my brain (and has made me a little scared about the team having to help me get through my first one). 

Couple that with the risk that despite being tired I am likely to return to the hotel after the cinema and mess about for a further 2 hours. My warped brain is telling me to mess about for 2 hours now and then sleep. That's a more sensible idea isn't it? 

I packed my pillow to help my manky hands and neck which are both playing up and I could do with popping a couple of Tramadol. I also packed my snuggle; Angel bought it me as I live in my dressing gown (over my clothes in Winter) and I packed my hot water bottle knowing I'd likely moan at the limpet heat air con facilities. 

The films available in the hotel room are £8.95 each - that is ridiculous. One of the films 'We're the Millers' which is on Sky this weekend!  I can go to the cinema and buy a ticket and sweets for that! 

So instead of watching that I'm writing to you guys. 

Room service may be called for earlier but only to get some ice-cream. 

Tomorrow I work without a break because I am dialling into a telekit at lunchtime. This leading on a procurement business is time-consuming. 

I looked up at the TV and thought I saw a reflective mouse just now. Except I was wrong. The One Show makes you think you are losing your mind. 

Ah, they are talking about hidden or pretend animal cameras and how they are able to film animal behaviour never seen before. That explains it - maybe they are seeing if field mice will preen as much as budgies in a cage do. 

And there I was thinking I was going mental. Like that is ever going to happen..... 




Friday 17 January 2014

To paint or stain a gate

Oh what an exciting life I lead.....

Having stupid hands I find that when the wood on the front gate swells from the rain I struggle to close it fully. Which leaves it to blow about in the wind.  Which risks it breaking even further than it already is.  Which upsets Hubby.  

What upsets me is the postman.  He delivers post.  He has decided he also has to struggle to shut the gate fully.  So he doesn't bother.  I could say that one day the fluffy post biter will be able to get through the door to the person who posts the post.  Except that would be mean. Evil. Would probably get me sued. Charged by the police for handling a dangerous dog.  Which is ridiculous because he is afraid of the wind.  

Anyhoo, the nice man fitting the gate has asked me do I want to stain or paint the gate.  Both will protect it from the rain.  Especially if he returns to paint or stain it. To make sure that every last part of that gate is stained or painted.  To stop the rain getting in.  Because I wouldn't.  Not that I would want to miss any bits.  But because I would be busy trying to make sure I don't drip any on my nice block paving.  Which needs a good clean with a power washer.  I would drip paint or stain on them about as easily as I would drop my dinner down my front.  Which is more than very easily.

Seriously I just want to be able to shut the gate.  And not be the laughing stock of the neighbourhood.  For having a patched up gate. Which was done by a landscaper/gardener apparently.  I would questions his qualifications.  This man is doing an excellent job so far.

Right, so having decided that I should go with paint because there are so many more options in terms of colour and I am all for a splash of colour.  Red is my favourite colour (well, I also like purple, almost as much but that may look a bit weird on a gate and I am not sure you can buy exterior paint in purple).  I decided to email Hubby and tell him what I thought about in terms of colour.......and erm, a little decoration for the gate.  My email went like this:

A nice red gate would go well with the cream front of the house and the red wall…

'I could get a plague that reads - BEWARE - dogs will lick you to death'

or

'BEWARE - escaped mentalist lives here'

or

'Postman - don't drop your elastic bands in my garden or I may just strangle you with one if I catch you do it again...oh and shut the gate when you leave'

or

'All strangers leave as friends'

or

'The D*****d Family'

or

'SHUT THE DAMN GATE!!'

but some of them may appear a tad rude….
 

Does this email indicate I have a split personality or a good/bad side?  Hey I could play good cop and bad cop - I could have been Cagney or Lacey.

Hubby is either used to this kind of mental jumping about or got to a certain part of the email and went no further because his response was merely.....

why Red?

will look odd against the wall colour?
  

Why would a red gate look strange against a reddish brick colour?  He will want something boring like black.  He has stopped at 'red gate' and not even got to the part about an abusive/non abusive plague.  Either that or is not taking that part seriously.

I don't know why he bothers discussing it.  He will eventually let me have the gate whatever colour I want.