Happy Easter everyone

Have a fantastic one....

 

An Easter/Christmas bunny

Last weekend my Hubby’s brother visited from Bristol, we hadn’t seen him since Christmas and it was lovely to catch up.  Hubby, his brother, his mum and I took the opportunity to go out for an early Easter lunch.

After exchanging Easter eggs, one of which was identical to the one we got mum because Hubby likes them just as much we disappeared out to the local pub and ordered enough food to feed a party of 12 – at least that is what it felt like by the time I got home.

The conversation meandering along nicely, getting funnier and funnier as it always does when we get together.  Hubby and his brother bounce off each other so well and take mum and I along with them.

How the conversation turned to bunnies I have no idea but mum suddenly said that when she was a child she had a bunny that was eaten for Christmas dinner.  The table went quiet and I said “Say that again” thinking I must have heard her incorrectly.

The story goes;

Mum was a young child when World War II started.  She went to school one day and the whole school was herded on a train later that day and she did not see her parents again for years.  She lived in the country for a number of years and loved it and vividly remembers her father arriving to collect her after the war (during which he had been posted in India for a while) and she refusing to go home because they had ‘left her’ so why should she now go home.

Obviously when she returned to her home rations were in force and turkey was not available for Christmas dinner.  She had a bunny who she lovingly fed with dandelion leaves and so did her best friend.  Unbeknownst to her both sets of parents intended to have the bunnies for Christmas dinner but knowing that the girls would not eat their own bunnies an agreement was made for bunnies to be swapped.

The girls were obviously not told until after the meal that their bunnies had provided the main course for Christmas dinner and being the children that we are it raised a number of questions to mum each increasing in hilarity at the complete absurdness of the situation:

• Did she not find it strange that her bunny mysteriously disappeared that day? Response: she does remember seeing her best friend’s father leaving the back garden earlier that day and thought it a bit strange.
• Did she know the bunny was not for life and just for Christmas? 
• How can she be sure that it was her friend’s bunny that she was eating?
• Was it difficult looking her best friend in the eye knowing she had eaten her beloved pet or did they console each other together?

 And the questions went on and on with mum rolling about laughing at our questions.

Yesterday I received an email from Hubby which simply said:

“Do you think we should get mum and Easter bunny and attach a note to it that says ‘can be eaten before Christmas’? to which I randomly fell about laughing in front of my computer at work.

I responded “or….An Easter bunny with a note attached to it saying ‘Feed this bunny dandelion leaves and the bunny gets it!”

The chocolate Easter bunny was purchased last night.  Tonight we attach a note to it, take a photo of it and sent it to Hubby’s brother to join in the fun before we present mum with it on Thursday.

Evil, we are, evil!           

Update:

And here is said bunny.  We added a label to say Eggbert could be eaten before Christmas.  We did contemplate saying: "This is Eggbert.  Give Ribena a huge warm bear hug or 'the bunny GETS it.'   A nice surprise for mum this afternoon....

'My name is Eggbert.  You are allowed to eat me before Christmas.  Love you xxxxx'

2 years and counting

 

2 years ago yesterday Cala fluff was finally able to get up the stairs without the 7 babies in her belly making it difficult for her.  Hubby, Beautiful B and I sat in amazement and watched more and more babies appear.  We already knew that we would keep one of the girls and she would be named after the nutty character, Abi, in NCIS (you know it was my choice!).

Having gone through the birth of 2 of Lily’s litters we knew what to expect and the next 8 weeks were rounds of cleaning, feeding, playing, cleaning, feeding, playing and on it went.  Abi was inquisitive and playful from the get go.  She was insistent she would not stay in the dog bed and she fell in love with Fred who, being scared of unpredictable little things, spent 6 weeks upstairs where they could not get to him.

Abi loved nothing more than running around Fred’s legs and tugging on his beard to beg him to play with her.  She was and still is completely fearless and did not care that she might get stood on.  She had endless fun trying to convince Fred that she wasn’t scary and slowly over time he learnt to trust her.  Now, if she goes to kiss Fred once a day she does it a hundred.

After the other puppies went to their new home at 8 weeks old we started what we thought would be the difficult training to teach her to walk off the lead as the other dogs do.  Amazingly she was happier off the lead than on but also obedient, happily following the other dogs along the 3 mile trail we walked daily.  To this day she must walk 6 miles to our 3 as she runs back and forth on the whole trail.

Abi is a lover of people and would happily follow us and the fluffers until someone walked in the other direction, when she would turn around and say hello - every single person fell in love with her.  We used training treats to teach her to come back to us, within 2 days she thought it was a great game to wander off after people, looking over her shoulder at using knowing we would call her back with a treat.  

Still, walking off the lead went swimmingly, except the time she thought she would it was a good idea to go swimming in the dirtiest brook she could find.  She hated the feeling of the mud on her paws, less so the more it dired and was was grateful for the bath when she got home.  She is still, to this day, happy to do as she is told until we walk back towards the car and put her back on her lead when she gives us the run around as she is not ready to go home.  Treats are still handy – I see a pattern emerging.

Abi does things at her own pace and refuses to be rushed with her tea; so much so her grandma eats in another room as she is like a tornado before she looks to hoover anyone elses remaining tea.  She wakes me up in a morning to go out and then insists on sleeping another 2 hours before she is ready for a play.  She is still happy to have me hold her upright against my chest cradled like a baby while I watch TV and she sleeps.  She keeps my feet warm at night – brave girl - and stands on my chest to wake me up whining until I listen to her.

Abi has a straight mouth and so we affectionately call her Zippy after the Rainbow character and she will give birth to more family members in the future so I can pass on all of this love and joy to other families.

Abi was 2 yesterday and time has flown since her birth.  She still looks like a puppy, she is still as playful as she was 18 months ago and just as scruffy as she is in these photos - ignore the strange woman with bags under her eyes that are begging for plastic surgery above.

 

Happy 2nd Birthday Abi Fluff!

Introducing Rachel - sort off

Whoop, I have now started introducing my friends to my blog - it's only taken me 2 years.

Ignoring the fact that initially it was mainly to dump my somewhat crazy thoughts out of my brain (already overflowing with little aliens) I was super conscious about people thinking I may be looking for people to fall in love with my blog.  Being a bit of a wallflower I really don't care but I have to admit I did/do want my friends to like it now/when I introduce them to it.

So Angel was yesterday and today was R, A and K.  R got in touch almost straight away and said I could call her by her real name.  I feel like doing a jig but seen as I am at work people will wonder what the strange woman in the corner is doing so it's an inside jig and the aliens are bouncing about the inside of my skull and in danger of causing spots in my eyes from the vibrations.

I do not have a photo of her on this computer so that will have to wait and I am going to try and introduce them all together, in picture form if nothing else if some of my besties still want pseudonyms.   

Anyhoo, R is now formally Rachel - say hello all you none people who read this blog......

What I learned this week

Random, random stuff this week folks.  This was supposed to have been posted about 4 weeks ago so I apologise.  On the upside; posting it this weeks means there is less for me to remember.....

• Beautiful B is setting the TV volume to 40 and her bedroom TV (with cinema surround sound) so high that you can almost feel the bass downstairs because she is completely deaf in one ear and can only hear slightly out of the left. 
• My child has taken the concept that 'if you are too poorly school/work will send you home' to the extreme.  Surely she should have had her ears looked at before she went completely deaf in one ear? A conversation may be needed.... 
• You do not need to buy all the expensive over the counter ear drops that are needed for syringing as olive oil does exactly the same job. Urgh! 
• There is hope that normal volume will resume next week.  Update - this took 3 weeks!
•  It is possible to buy Season 7 of Supernatural on DVD and completely forget where you have put it as well as a Kindle. 
• The concept of a non-cluttered house doesn't leave a lot of space for a collections of Pocket Dragons and Tuskers elephants.  Hubby will ask "What is the zoo all about?" when you relocate some of them (Update: he did) and Abi will sniff the ones at her height to determine if they are edible.  Cala fluff will be risking her life if she nudges them to make them rock like she does with bins and giraffes! 
• It's tiring to weigh so much more than you did 3 months ago.  The need to be in bed by 7.30pm is exhausting.  Being content as a newly married couple sometimes is not so good for the health.
• And a few more I learnt this week:
• It is possible to be an accountant and hate accounts.  On the other hand, when you actually get into doing it without hankering after playing computer games it can be interesting.
• I already know I will retract the last post when I try and balance the accounts for the financial year because inevitably they never balance first time!
• You can talk to your best friend, Angel, by email and still miss her.
•  Today would have been Hubby's dads birthday and you can miss someone you never met. 
• Each and every year you can hate having to do your annual appraisal and repeat again (as you do every year) that you wished your manager could just write a report and present it to you without you having to sell yourself first.  It's far too much hard work for someone who does not have the ability or self confidence to identify what good examples of the work they do.   

So what have you learned this week?  If you have a blog follow the steps below or alternatively leave a comment - I love comments!

To join in on the 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. Go visit Julie at FromInmates 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 on both blogs and see what they learned this week.

Decisions decisions

This post isn’t funny, not that I am generally funny but just a forewarning – I am sounding out my thoughts thinking putting it on paper might help me make a decision.

Going to work is handy (as handy as going to work can be without a lottery win) at the moment as Hubby and I work in the same direction from home – I drop Hubby off on the way to my office so the only issue I have is convincing him that he has to work the additional ½ hour it takes me to travel to and from my office from his.

The Government are rationalising their estate and closing a site in Blackpool, naturally this is the one that I work at.  In their position I would do the same thing, it is the oldest and therefore most expensive to maintain and the best site to sell in terms of real estate.  However, this causes issues because the site I am being moved to is in the opposite direction from home.

As much as I love Hubby, who refuses to learn to drive on account of him ‘being too old’ now (how old does that make me seen as I am older than he), I have refused (and not that he expected it) to drive in one direction to drop him off, turn around and drive past our house and beyond to drive to the new office twice a day.

Luckily some are being financially compensated for the forced move of offices as their daily travelling distance will increase.  Unfortunately we are not one of them as my new office is nearer than the current one and our household increase in expenditure cannot be taken into account, only mine.

Despite the obvious increase in travelling cost it drastically increases Hubby’s travel time as he will have to catch 2 buses to work (and back) which will add 2 hours to his day or use a bike which will add an hour to his day.  It will be amusing to watch him on a bike, though not as amusing as watching him from behind while he attempted hula hooping on the Wii Fit……

All of this leaves me with a decision to make.

I have a tendancy to work longer hours when I do not have Hubby insisting it is time to go home and without the regiment of picking him up that tendancy will increase.  My manager is already not too impressed with the additional leave I accumulate as a result of increased work hours as it leaves her work uncovered at times (strange that, seen as mine is always uncovered when I am on leave and she is part-time which exacerbates the situation).

For a long time I have hankered after working 4 days a week instead of 5.  We cannot afford the drop in salary, especially with increased travel costs but as Hubby will be out of the house for longer I could do 5 days over 4 – essentially fitting 37 hours into 4 days instead of 5.  This should be easy for me to do as I have a tendancy to work longer days anyway and will help in the unwanted accumulation of work hours.  I would still be out of the office the same amount as Hubby as a result of the increased travelling time he will incur.

I also hanker after being more productive at home as a wife and mother – and I am almost sure (because my memory is sieve like and useful on most days) that I have twittered about this previously.  The opportunity to be at home earlier than Hubby gives me the time to clean daily and cook tea for the family to eat together and still have time in the evenings to spend with Hubby and Beautiful B.

As you can see, these options are a direct contradiction of each other – longer days for 4 days of the week means I won’t be home until Hubby is home.

Hubby thinks that doing 5 days over 4 will put me under pressure at home and he is saying this purely because he knows that I get stressed when I cannot get the cleaning done that I want and potentially for 4 days of the week I am going to have to make a decision between cleaning and spending time with the family.

That option is obvious – family should come first which they would but it also means that I will begin to fidget, twitter and all round get stressed because I find it difficult to relax (in fact, impossible) if there is cleaning to be done – I blame my dad and the only other person that understands this is my longest friend and one of my best friends, Angel because she is worse than me.

So I’m at a crossroads and have no idea which way to go.  Do I do 5 days over 4 and blitz the house one day a week so I still have the weekends for the family or do I become the housewife that I hanker to become……

Decisions decisions

DIY and Hubby

Hubby hates DIY which is understandable as DIY appears to hate Hubby.  In previous years, Dad has tried to teach Hubby how to do DIY to no avail. 

Which is why, one of my Pocket Dragons is especially apt:

Hubby on the left and me on the right dreading the injury he could cause

One New Year's Eve a few years ago I received a phone call at work.  The office was quiet with few people in as people had party organising to do and I took one for the team.  

Hubby:     "Don't panic."  - why do people say that, because you know something is wrong!

Me:          "Which means I should.....what's wrong, what's happened?" - ears prick up throughout the office.

Hubby:     "I'm okay, I've cut my thumb and M is taking me to A&E as we think it needs stitches."

Me:       "Are you okay, I can meet you at the hospital...." etc, after all in my book work does not shine a candle to my family.

Hubby:  "No it's okay hon, I'm fine, I will meet you at home, don't panic." - which I did 

Having got over the initial shock of Hubby needing hospital treatment and knowing he was as 'okay' as he could be I asked what he did. 

Me:       "How did you do it honey?"

Hubby:  "I was sorting out your PS2."

Me:       "How do you end up needing stitches plugging in a PS2?"

Hubby:  "I used the kitchen scissors to cut the cable tie and it slipped."

Me:       "You used a blunt pair of scissors to cut it a cable tie and manage to cut your thumb to the extent that stitches are required?!"

Dad being the OCD clean freak (obviously where I get it from) had cable tied all my electrics to keep them neat and tidy.  Apparently not the best thing to have done where Hubby was concerned.  

I'm unsure how his thumb was even in the way but you can guarantee that instead of finding a sharp pair of scissors he used force and when the cable cut the force didn't stop.  

Only my Hubby could do the damage he did with a blunt pair of scissors. Hubby came home with the biggest dressing I have seen and REALLY strong painkillers.  Despite making him ill he took them and from that alone I could only imagine the pain he was in.  Instead of cutting down into his finger, he had cut across through and across the pad of his thumb.  All they could do was dress it and wait for new skin to grow.

Fast forward 2 days later when the dressing was first changed, I went to support him (watching all things murder and numerous operations on hospital I would be a tower of strength) only to sit in the corner feeling physically sick at the pain he was in because somehow they had put a dressing on that stuck to the open wound.

Not being able to put him though so much pain I refused to dress it for him and insisted that he was seen by nurses at our GP for the required re-dressing every 2 days as they could treat him properly.  After a month, it was my duty for another 2 months.  

Fast forward 6 months and the pain in his thumb is still extreme at the slightest pressure across his thumb and it is determined surgery is needed.  More dressings for 2 months as essentially they had to start the skin re-growth from scratch.

Fast forward to now and Hubby is reluctant to do DIY that involves any kind of implement that he can injure himself with, which is anything to be honest.  Understandable really.

   

Five Things Friday - Procrastination - Update

So Monday has arrived and at least I have remembered to update how I did.  Two words - EPIC FAIL!!

Do some social club accounts

I did some, not a lot, some which is a failure in my book.  It didn't help that whilst I was taking a break and playing a computer game which frequently distract me Beautiful B came for a chat and then when R arrived he joined her.  This gave me even more reason to carry on playing while catching up with the kids.

Lessons learned: Don't have a break, don't play computer games until finished and shoo Beautiful B out of the room when working.

Clean the bedroom carpet

Yay, I did this and it looks great!

Power wash the Indian stone paving in the garden

It snowed and with more threats of snow it would have seemed pointless.  Hubby looked at me like I had lost all of my 2 brain cells when I suggested doing it between snow flurries. 

Sunday, truthfully could have done it as the snow was almost gone but we were out visiting parents and catching up with Hubby's brother G over a gut busting meal out.  Having returned home too fat and full to move it didn't even enter my head until now - doh!

Sort out drawer in various cupboards and the wardrobes

Biggest failure of all - didn't even attempt this though in my defense I did think of it about 10 times over the weekend.  Which begs the question; surely I could have done at least one drawer in the time it took me to think about it.

Clear some of the Sky Planner (equivalent of TIVO for our USA friends)

I did get some of this done and definitely not as much as I usually do.  I was at 50% by the end of Friday night and over the weekend I am back down to 45% and still have some of last weeks to catch up on.  I will be hugely behind at the end of this week as every evening has to be dedicated to clearing accounts!

All in all I did 2 and a tiny bit off my list and yes I did add 14 things to the list but did clear 10 of those off.

I am officially a procrastinator even at procrastinating!  I am going to have to train myself to stop it!  Seriously, it's ridiculous.

A belated birthday cake

My 40th Birthday Cake

Well, it's not, because I did get this 2 days before my actual birthday but as you can tell I have somehow managed to find the link that allows me to upload photographs - I swear that it was not available up until 2-3 days ago!  

I figured I would record for posperity, you know in case Beautiful B ever stumbles upon this blog before I die or after she knows about it when I'm gone.  

Beautiful B and Angel were tasked with designing the cake.  I insisted actually; Hubby had looked like a scared rabbit between headlights so it was best to hand the mantle over to 2 people who know me better than anyone else in the world - after all, there was no way I was dealing with that on top of everything else and I wanted it to be a total surprise.

In no particular order:

Giraffe - I can only assume it has a Christmas hat on purposefully because I am as obsessed with Christmas as I am with giraffes and it killed 2 birds with one stone - giraffes are all over my house - I think they are so very strange looking but so very graceful with it.  Weird?  Probably but nothing new there.

Needle & thread - very boring of me but I love to do cross-stitch patterns.  It started when I got divorced the first time (don't ask) and moved back to mum and dad's with Beautiful B.  It was the one thing that allowed my mind to quiet.  I started and so far have yet to stop.  They make for fantastic presents - mum has 4 of them, all 4 of which she kept saying she liked when I started them for me - I soon saw a pattern emerging (see what I did there.....)

Pepsi Max - addicted.  It doesn't help that I don't drink coffee, tea, milk or anything similar (milk is only good for making cereal soggy - the remainder gets drained off and the dogs love me for it).  I stopped drinking milk when I was 6 months old (see!  awkward from almost the time I was born!) and mum had to make do with giving me milky puddings to top up the required calcium.  I drank pop and cordial throughout my childhood and have drank Pepsi as long as I can remember.  I prefer full fat Coca Cola but lets face it, the constant fluctuation in weight has a lot to do with the intake of that so Pepsi Max it has to be most of the time (though not at this precise moment in time when coca cola is back in favour but only for another few weeks before I tire of being so fat again).

I drink that much of the stuff that someone once took the time to count the number of cans I drank a day (admittedly Coca Cola at the time - shout out to Glenn).  In fact, if I recall he had a 5 bar gate going......

Anita Blake (Laurell K. Hamilton) books - I read copiously, admittedly usually murder, mayhem and serial killers (they ALWAYS get caught and the good guy always wins).  I found the Anita Blake books by accident and was hooked from book 16 (though I had to go back to book 1 to start the series) and have been hooked on that series ever since.  Her imagination is astounding and I don't know of many other authors who could spin a story out and extend the story line the way she has through 20 books.

Beautiful B wanted to know what my favourite books were.  Truthfully, I don't have one but as I had to name one (pretending I had no idea why she was asking) Anita Blake books are pretty much at the top. So these books signify my love of books. 

So there you have it, a cake that tells anyone what I am like mostly.  It weighed too much for one person to pick up as it was huge and the cake maker refused to add figurines of me, Hubby and Beautiful B, plus the 4 fluff bags and a cute alien (the other loves of my life) as she said it would look to busy.  I have to say I am quite disappointed, even Angel told her that was the point - I am always busy so the cake should be too.  Mind you, on the upside - it provides a great start for the 50th novelty cake!

Cala Fluff

My beautiful little Cala bags

This is Cala Fluff - she is the middle dog.  We have grandma fluff (Lily), mummy fluff (Cala) and baba fluff (Abi) and giraffe fluff (Fred).  The 3 girls are related and as much as it is not great to say it Cala is my favourite.  She is on this earth purely to love everyone to death.  I have NEVER seen the little fluff unhappy, snappy or quiet (other than sleeping and even then she snores very loudly).  She could generate electricity with her tail.  

Abi is the only child of her's we have.  Being one of 7 in a litter Abi will not have another brother or sister living with her as we fear that Cala will pop or at least do herself serious damage if she gets pregnant again.  At only 4 weeks pregnant you could see the puppies moving like little aliens in her belly and the risk to her health is just not worth it.

Which begs the question; why did I sit at home this weekend dutifully weighing out the girls dog food into individual bags (makes for an easier life when they are nibbling my ankles off at tea time) if I was going to add an extra 50g in without realising it?  Not only did I do that once, I did it for a whole batch of 60 bags.  

I will tell you why: it was either 'The Following', 'Grey's Anatomy', 'The Biggest Loser' or some other programme that I entertained myself with while doing it.  The older I get the further away the ability to multitask goes....

So Cala along with Abi and Lily fluff is going to get fat!  You could argue that it would be a waste of my time re-bagging it all but seen as Beautiful B and Hubby will just give them what is in the bag no matter how many times I tell them to split 2 bags between 3 I suspect that over this weekend I have dutifully sat there and re-bagged the whole batch......(Yes, I am writing this in advance so that it isn't another month before I post anything!).

Weather Warnings

For the second time this year we have been given weather warnings in the UK.  Both times it has snowed, and as I write it is snowing and quite strongly.  By quite strongly I mean at all as living by the sea doesn’t make for much snow.

We have been warned of 10-20 cms in our part of the country with higher land getting up to 40 cms.  That is a big thing for the little old UK.    I woke up last night to see Hubby peering out of the window to see whether it was snowing.  I’d like to say he is a big kid but he was probably already hoping it would mean a day off work.  He is obviously ever hopeful; the last time it snowed heavily enough for work to be affected Beautiful B was 18 months old…..I remember my boss at the time having to dig his car out of the snow mounds.

The snow is billowing about and while a lot of it is falling, none of it is ‘sticking’.  Hubby says the flakes aren’t big enough for it to stick – how big do they need to be…..  He sat in bed this morning peering out at the road watching the snow fall for over ½ hour – I’m not sure what he was expecting; a huge dollop of snow to randomly fall out of the sky so that we could stay at home maybe.

The sky is full of it and I hope it does begin to stick.  It calls to the childish nature of my personality and I want to have snowball fights in the street with Hubby and Beautiful B and I especially want to see my beautiful white doggies in snow deep enough to reach their little bellies.  Having said that, when it turns to ice I will be too scared to drive but I can’t have it all.

I like the idea of having to wrap up warm (well warmer than I usually do) at home and watch it fall outside the window and to have a legitimate reason to stay in my PJs and dressing gown all weekend to stay warm (shut up! I can pretend I don’t have central heating and that it isn’t going full blast!).

I can update the snowy weekend on Monday along with my progress on my Five Things Friday – though if it snows all weekend I have a legitimate reason not to power wash the garden; now there is a bonus.

Five Things Friday - Procrastination

As a procrastinator I am going to list 5 things that I am going to do this weekend and then return to it on Monday with an update as to how I did!

Do some social club accounts

One of them is straight forward enough.  I rather enjoy doing them.  The other annoys me no end.  You know that saying ‘I have ??,000 nerves and you are annoying every single one of them’?  I could attribute that to them; no so much the accounting, that is easy enough it’s the lack of co-operation when it comes to associated paperwork and audit requirements.  Anyhoo, I am going to get some of it done – I need to see my dining room table at least sometime this month.

Clean the bedroom carpet

After all, the steamer did such a great job of the stairs I can only imagine what a great colour the bedroom carpet is going to be.  Sad I know.

Power wash the Indian stone paving in the garden

I have 4 dogs, I don’t think I need to say anymore.

Sort out drawer in various cupboards and the wardrobes

I have put the brand new kindle somewhere safe – well, I did 2 months ago; I just don’t know where safe is.  I may not find it but at least some order will be restored in the drawers and will calm the OCD side of my nature down.

Clear some of the Sky Planner (equivalent of TIVO for our USA friends)

I watch copious amounts of mysteries, thrillers, criminal type programmes as well as anything vampire, werewolf, supernatural related.  As you can imagine I record copious amounts; after all, I rarely get time to watch it all seen as I ‘cannot sit still for more than 30 minutes and relax’ (paraphrasing lol).  Having 2 sky boxes, one of which is mostly recording 2 channels at a time, the memory capacity is reducing drastically.

Let’s see how much I can clear in-between household jobs.

These 5 things will clear off 3 of the things on my to do list but you can guarantee that I will have added another 10 things to that list before the end of the weekend.

I’ll update on Monday for all of you people that read the blog – none on a regular basis lol.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Gold Cup Day 2013; a blow by blow account

For those of you who are not of UK origin Gold Cup Day is the biggest horse-racing day of the Cheltenham Racing Festival week.  Historically Hubby and my brother C (who might as well be twins!) have spend the Friday afternoon each year in the pub watching the racing, screaming at the TV, spending copious amounts of money on beer and racing – though I am eternally grateful that Hubby can restrict himself to smaller bets than my brother even if it does my for smaller winnings.

This year, not only did I take the afternoon off work to spend with the boys I took the week off with Hubby – because he is worth it (not really an apt slogan seen as he has very little hair to speak of……)

So here goes:

• Thursday night we arrive at C’s house to spend time with his fiancée A.   Hubby loves their company but dreads their open fire place – I would spend my life in front of it if I could get away with it. 
• Hubby goes to bed muttering under his breath about nightmares after being subjected to ‘American Horror Story Asylum’ out of the corner of his eye while playing on line poker while A and I catch up on some episodes.
• A leaves me at 11pm watching more episodes as I was hooked – 3am came and went requiring a lie in the next morning.
• A swift dash home after dropping the boys off at the pub on realising that the admission tickets for the evenings charity event were safely tucked away in a drawer meant I had some alcoholic catching up to do when I eventually arrived at the pub.
• A quick dash for A and I to the charity shop to pick up some Comic Relief noses (a set of 3 meant we had to have them all) so we could mess about with them all afternoon.
• By 3pm the race winnings score was Hubby 1 – Ribena 3 – enough said.
• By 4.30pm A and I commiserate with C and Hubby after they narrowly miss scooping up winnings of £440 and £75 respectively as a result of jockey’s who forgot to put Velcro on the seat of their pants. 
• I’m guessing that commiserating by saying “C, you never had the money in the first place” wasn’t that helpful on reflection.
• After discussing all things wedding with A in preparation for being her matron of honour and making random videos of Comic Relief Red Nose getting drunk on vodka and filling up on chips we took off for cocktails (vodka count = 7).
• After being presented with a strawberry mojito an apology was in order after berating Hubby for not arguing with the barmaid over the absence of strawberry daiquiris when they were clearly on the menu.  After all, the mojito was beautiful even if it did have too many green leaves in the glass for my liking.
• Onwards and upwards to the charity evening raising funds for an operation to enable a special little girl to walk.  I walked more than well enough into that bar despite 7 vodka’s and a strawberry mojito, if I do say so myself.
• Swiftly followed by R and her hubby D, the bar beckoned as did crisps and unfortunately for me Pork Scratchings for Hubby – eugh!
• Brother C was ‘wasted’ for want of a better word; I knew he should have been eating more of those chips with me at dinner time and after selling the benefits of home made mashed potato and burgers he had to go home and lie down.
• Many trips to the sensible women selling pretend horse sponsorships and bets between copious amounts of lager (can you tell I was sending Hubby to the sensible women – I needed the drinking time…) and at the end of the evening we had won a grand total of £20 despite spending about £100 in total but were all the merrier for it all going to a great cause.
• Arriving back at C and A’s with a stomach filling 10 vodkas to my name both Hubby and I declared that we managed to have drank ourselves sober and fell into a blissful sleep until the next morning.
• Another lie in for me having realised that the lack of a lie in at home is the result of 4 very insistent fluff bags only to arrive downstairs to see Hubby getting excited at being 1 of 40 left in an online poker tournament he had been playing for 2 hours.  Even I had to get interested the more he kept throwing his arms up in the air with excitement.  A 2^nd place netted me us a nice £130 which would pay nicely for the basin and taps I wanted – who said you had to work for money.

What I learned this week

Firstly, special thoughts to Julie who is struggling, along with her family, at the minute.  My thoughts are with you all.

In no particular order this week, I have learned;

• I am still far too good at procrastinating;

• The old saying ‘good things in life don’t come free’ may be true if my blog is anything to go by because I cannot post photos any longer and despite trying everything I haven’t posted since mid February 2012 if my iPad is anything to go by which obviously is not correct;

Update: Being the dizzy mare that I am having just checked it appear that I may just have mistaken the last post for one I wrote last year so the blog site is not at fault.  I just haven’t posted since the middle of last month.  I may have to double check posting photos now as I may well have been stupid numerous times over when trying to post them…….

• I still don’t get all the excitement over Cheltenham Festival, even Gold Cup Day but I sure appreciate it being a good enough reason to take almost a week off (not including the 2 days worth of work trips I had to make) to spend some precious time with Hubby, Beautiful B, my brother C and A;
• Over-estimating the price of a replacement shower, especially if you do not realise you are over-estimating at the time, makes for nice surprises when you discover the actual price of replacement and fitting because it means you can buy a new basin and taps (I know easily pleased);
• As unfair as it sounds it is quite amusing to watch Hubby get more and more angry at the price of a basin (“with nothing else”), taps and a basin plug especially when he says that he “is feeling financially raped”;
• The installation of said shower will result in excitement at the idea of having a shower for the first time in a loooooong time; and
• It doesn’t matter how much work you have to do you can still feel bored, restless and fed up at work.

So what have you learned this week?

To join in on the 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. Go visit Julie 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 on both blogs and see what they learned this week.