Random Ramblings and Recipes

It's A Dog's Life

2012-01-30T01:13:00.002+01:00

We got a dog!! On Monday last week I spotted an advert on Gumtree from someone looking to rehome a ten month old black labrador. I spent the day exchanging emails with her on my phone and organised to go and see the dog in the evening. I met Frazer (because he was borrowing my car at the time) and we came home to pick Isla up first as we thought we all had to make the decision. The only problem was that we had to go to Winchburgh which is quite a long way from Peebles.

The difference between him and the dog we saw last Saturday was incredible. Whereas that dog sat and growled at us and shook for half an hour, this dog came running to greet us, licked us to death and then wanted to play. The decision was made, and we brought him home!

His name is Rocco and, as I said, he's a ten month old black labrador. He's a very handsome boy and has the glossiest coat. He's not been exceptionally well trained, but he is generally a good boy, and he has the loveliest nature. I think his previous owner made the mistake of thinking that teaching him tricks was training him. He can sit and give a paw but that's about it. He does come when he's called which is good, and he's good off the lead, but not so good on it! We're working on that one though!
On the first night he was completely hyper - probably a little bit scared, and he cried when we went to bed. And he's cried every night since! Only for about ten minutes but it's wearing. But tonight he's gone to bed in the kitchen very happily next to the aga. I've given him one of my fleeces so that he has something that smells of me (as he seems to have become my little shadow!), but he has also been for a massive walk in the woods today - we must have walked 5 or 6 miles! And with all his running around he must have done at least double that!

So, our little family is complete for now! It feels like a proper home with a dog here. The cat's nose is put firmly out of joint but we're making it up to him by letting him sleep on the bed with us for now! Spoilt moggy!

I have suggested to Frazer that he takes the dog to obedience classes so watch this space!

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Parent's Evening

2012-01-23T01:06:00.001+01:00

The dreaded first High School parent's evening took place last week! Isn't it strange that when you walk into a school you immediately feel as though you should be sitting outside the Head's office in disgrace for something! All schools smell alike as well - it must be a mixture of poster paints from the pictures on the wall, and sweaty adolescents!

The first teacher we were meant to see was the French teacher so we searched the corridors for the room he was meant to be in (I have no idea why the teachers couldn't have seen parents in the rooms they normally teach in so that the kids could find them!), only to find that he wasn't there because he had been taken ill at the last minute!

I was very proud of Isla all evening - the techy teacher said she was, and I quote, "the ideal pupil"! The science teacher was impressed by her, the maths teacher was too - in fact all of them were, except the Modern Studies teacher but hey, you can't be good at everything and he was a bit of a tosser anyway!

So, as we were so pleased with her we went for a chinese afterwards, and I gave her an extra £5 to spend at Claire's Accessories with her £10 voucher that she got for Christmas.

Keep up the good work Isla!

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A Good Day

2012-01-23T00:53:00.001+01:00

I just wrote a great big post and then I lost it. Pissed off does not even begin to describe it! Grrrr, note to self - remember remember remember to save as you go! You'd think I'd have learnt that by now!

Anyway...to summarise...we're getting a dog! We haven't found the right one yet, we're still looking. We went to see one yesterday but she was too nervy, growly and too little labrador and too much cringing collie. Don't get me wrong, I like collies, just not the ones with a tendency to cringe! What we're looking for is a labrador or a golden retriever, between one and two years old and playful enough and lazy enough! Isla has already agreed to come home at lunch times to let it out and play with it, so it's just a case of finding the right dog for all of us.

After we saw the dog we had to go to Livingston to see a car for Frazer. His crappy old Mondeo finally kicked the bucket last week so we have been car sharing, which isn't an ideal solution! Especially as he's regularly in Glasgow, and is actually away two days next week for a work thingy. So, he's now the proud owner of a gunmetal grey BMW 3 series, and he's picking it up on Tuesday.

The next item on the agenda was the Gyle centre so that Isla could spend her Claire's Accessories voucher that she got for Christmas. She got a nice little necklace and a hat. I hate hats but she really suits them. I got myself a new handbag, because I desperately needed one, and a wee Hello Kitty clock thing that attaches on to the bag. I used to have a similar one with a cherry clossom on it, but I left it on an old bag and threw the bag away. I didn't realise until the bins had been emptied. I was a bit upset as I had bought it in Japan.

That done, we went to the cinema to see War Horse. Now, some of the reviews I've seen haven't been hugely complimentary. All I can say is that's it's a Spielberg masterpiece. Brilliantly shot, excellent story, and it had me crying almost all of the way through! If I had one criticism it would be that the beginning part of the movie could have been squeezed into half an hour rather than taking up a whole hour. In all the quiet bits though, you could hear most of the cinema stifling sobs and sniffs! Even Isla cried!

We've had a lazy day today - it's been lovely. That's what Sundays are all about!

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Happy New Year!

2012-01-07T19:17:00.001+01:00

Well, that's it all over again for another year. The decorations are put away, the house looks bare after a month of tinsel clutter and there's the anti climax of going back to work and carrying on as normal with the only change being a new digit at the end of the date.

I love Christmas and New Year but it is always a bit of a downer once it's all over and you realise it's another year until it all starts again. And it hasn't even snowed properly this year - I know I complained about it for the last two freakishly cold winters, but it's a lot nicer than never ending greyness and rain. Snow makes everything seem so much brighter, and that in turn makes people so much more cheerful. So what if you've just struggled to get in to work - the sun is shining, the sky is blue and the ground is all white and you're in a great mood!I'm not really being grouchy. We had a lovely Christmas with Frazer's parents. The aga decided to misbehave on Christmas Day and I struggled to get everything cooked at the same time - for some reason using all three ovens at once reduces the heat in all of them so all my carefully timed (well, carefully-ish!) cooking went awry! We ate by about 7.30 so it wasn't too much of a disaster. I have realised why I loved Christmas so much when I was younger - my mum did all the work!! Even when I was in France we did all the work together. Frazer helps, but it's not the same. My mum taught me how to cook, so we do it the same way and work together as an excellent team. They'll just have to come over for Christmas next year, and possibly bring my dogs too once the passport laws have been relaxed. Yes Mother dearest, that is a hint!!!!

Frazer's mum and dad left on the day after Boxing Day, and Santa brought me a late present of a full blown cold! Thanks! Despite that, I had to go back to work on the Wednesday. Luckily it was completely dead at work which, on the plus side, meant that we were getting paid for nothing, but on the other hand was exceedingly dull!We had a lovely New Year - we hadn't really planned much so my friend Ailsa and her partner Brian and another friend Marj all came down to our house. I made a big Chilli, we all had a fair few to drink, saw in the bells and passed out one by one! So Happy New Year to all - here's hoping that 2012 is a great year for everyone!

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Location:Peebles,United Kingdom

A Day in the City complete with mini rant!

2011-11-20T22:08:00.002+01:00

It seems a bit daft to go into Edinburgh for a day out when I work in the centre of town every day! But, I never actually do anything in town, I get the bus into town, spend all day in the office, and then go home. So, yesterday we decided to spend some time in the city and maybe start a little bit of Christmas shopping.

Frazer had been curling with some mates in the morning so I got the bus up to Edinburgh to meet him - seemed daft to take two cars. We had lunch in a Chinese buffet - tried Saigon Saigon this time and it was excellent. I always think it must be a sign of a good Chinese restaurant when Chinese people eat in there! It was delicious, and, as normal, we had far too many of the startery things and ended up too stuffed! We had a wander through Harvey Nichols - mainly because I had never been in there - and saw the view from the restaurant at the top, which is stunning. Unfortunately, there were people sitting right by the window, so I didn't get a picture. Harvey Nicks was pretty amazing, but you'd need a mortgage just to buy half the stuff in there!

We walked past the protest camp in St Andrews Square a few times. I've looked up why they're protesting, and I do kind of get it, but I'd have more sympathy for them if they wen't just a bunch of immensely middle class students with enough money to buy brand spanking new smart massive tents to be extremely comfortable in. We saw one of the protestors wandering around chatting on his mobile which kind of gives off the wrong signals! I don't disagree with the principle, what I disagree with is that some of the people protesting are people who have quite clearly benefited from rich mummies and daddies and they're basically just looking for attention. Yes it's very unfair that the rich (and the banks) get richer and the poor get poorer - I think that's basically it. However, there are always jobs out there for those who want them - as long as you are willing to do anything to earn a penny. It's constantly in the news how there are so many unemployed graduates now - why are they hanging around waiting to jobs to present themselves to them, and why aren't they doing temping jobs (of which there are many if you look at temping websites) or working in Tesco or somewhere? I'm sure prospective employers would look far more favourably on a CV which states that someone has been temping for a year in a bank than being unemployed for a year claiming the dole. However, I digress...! Go ahead and protest if that's your thing - they do have a point after all - but don't be hypocritical about it and do it just because you're jumping on the bandwagon.

Anyway, from one extreme to the other...we went to The Dome for a drink, although we didn't actually manage to get one. The Dome used to house e head office of the Royal Bank of Scotland, but in 1993 the bank moved all the business to the St Andrews Square building (outside which the protesters are camped) and the building was transformed to what it is now. It is absolutely stunning - on a summer's day when you walk in, you feel as though you should order a Singapore Sling! In the winter it is full of lights and garlands with cinammon attached so not only does it look Christmassy, it smells it too! It is beatifully opulent! It was packed out though, so I just took some photos and we went back to the car slightly disappointed, but we had a really lovely day, just the two of us.

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Location:Edinburgh

Isobel's Coconut Slice

2011-11-20T20:28:00.004+01:00

I made this today for the first time in years. My dad's cousin Aunty Isobel used to make it, and she would always bring a big tin full of it every time she came to see us. Yummy :-) A word of warning though - blind bake the pastry first otherwise the botom ends up soggy, as I've discovered today!

Under the Weather

2011-10-06T16:41:00.002+02:00

I've been feeling a little below par for a while now. Really since the first gallbladder attack at the end of June. I haven't felt well since then, and I'm weary of feeling ill. I just want to be well again.

As you know, I had my gallbladder operation at the end of August. I thought that would fix me - I thought it was just a case of recovering from that and I would be back on track again. But my body obviously had other ideas. Last Friday I was at work, and about five minutes before my lunch hour started I started to get pain in my stomach. I waited until my lunch hour startedand went to the toilet thinking maybe I just needed to go. Within minutes I was again in intense pain, like the first attack, and I started panicking. My team leader came in and I managed to tell her I needed to go home. I told her what was wrong and how it felt, and she went off to get our first aider who, it turned out, had had the same problem herself so she understood every bit of it. I phoned Frazer to ask him to come and get me, but within five minutes an ambulance had been called, so I let him know to meet us at the hospital. Our first aider came with me, and it was a huge comfort to know that she understood everything I was going through.

It took ages to get to the hospital, and every bump in the road (Edinburgh roads are in a dreaful state) hurt as the morphine hadn't kicked in yet. When I got there they stuck me in a cubicle in A&E and left me for a while. A nurse came in to help me get changed, then left. A doctor came in eventually (she was about 12!!!) and asked a few questions and left. Another doctor came in after a while, asked some more questions, and left. I was left on my own, in pain for about four hours, bar maybe three visits of about 10 minutes each from doctors who asked the same questions again and again. Within that time they took me for an X-Ray. Eventually they allowed Frazer to come in - the first aid lady from work had had to leave by that point. The morphine had started to work by this point and the pain had eased a little. They took me down for an ultrasound, but couldn't find anything. My stomach was really hurting from all the prodding.

When I got back to A&E from the ultrasound there were no cubicles free, so I spent the next two hours in a corridor. I was less than impressed. Edinburgh Royal Infirmary has only been open about 5 years, and whoever designed it should be shot. They do not have the capacity to serve a city and they do not have enough staff. The service I received at Borders General Hospital when I was rushed in there was FAR superior. And yet you would think that it would be better in a brand new hospital in our capital city wouldn't you?

They gave me some more painkillers, and eventually decided that it would be better for me to go home, and request an MRI scan from Borders General. They think I still have a gallstone left inside, but it didn't show up on the ultrasound which is why they want the MRI. We waited another hour while they typed a letter for the doctor and a prescription. Despite us saying we had to get home to Isla they still did not stir themselves to get a move on. Unimpressed.

Anyway, I had every intention of going back to work on Tuesday after I had seen the doctor on Monday, but she signed me off for a week. The paramedics had said that I probably went back to early, and the doctor said that because of Friday, and because I am constantly tired and haven't been well for months that she would sign me off to "take things easy"! So, obviously now we have a pristinely clean house, I'm cooking interesting and never done before recipes, and I've made all my Christmas cards! There's organisation for you!

I'm still not feeling brilliant, but mymum and dad are coming over at the end of next wek for my mum's 60th, so I'm looking forward to that. Sometimes all you need is a bit Mummy hug!

Cranachan

2011-09-14T20:13:00.001+02:00

This is not the most diet friendly of desserts, but oh my god it is delicious!! Save it for a special occasion!

100 Fun Questions Survey

2011-09-10T12:04:00.001+02:00

100 Fun Questions Survey from Quizopolis.com

Do you sleep with your closet doors open or closed? - Closed
Do you take the shampoos and conditioner bottles from hotel? - Yes
Do you sleep with your sheets tucked in or out? - Out
Have you ever stolen a street sign before? - No
Do you like to use post-it notes? - Like is a bit of a strong word but I do use them
Do you cut out coupons but then never use them? - No
Would you rather be attacked by a big bear or a swarm of a bees? - Neither!
Do you have freckles? - Yes, on my back and shoulders
Do you always smile for pictures? - Yes
What is your biggest pet peeve? - Misuse of the apostrophe!
Do you ever count your steps when you walk? - Yes, all the time, a legacy of my grandma teaching me to count by walking up and down stairs!
Have you ever peed in the woods? - Yes
What about pooped in the woods? - Probably!
Do you ever dance even if theres no music playing? - No
Do you chew your pens and pencils? - No
How many people have you slept with this week? - 1
What size is your bed? - Superking :-)
What is your Song of the week? - Don't have one this week
Is it okay for guys to wear pink? - Kind of
Do you still watch cartoons? - Yes
Whats your least favorite movie? - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - I hated it
Where would you bury hidden treasure if you had some? - Not telling you - you'd know where to find it then!
What do you drink with dinner? - Diet coke or pepsi normally
What do you dip a chicken nugget in? - Garlic mayo
What is your favorite food? - Steak
What movies could you watch over and over and still love? - Anne of Green Gables, Love Actually, Mamma Mia
Last person you kissed/kissed you? - Frazer
Were you ever a boy/girl scout? - No, but I was a Brownie and a Guide
Would you ever strip or pose nude in a magazine? - If I was skinny, maybe
When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper? - Oooh, a long time ago
Can you change the oil on a car? - I can check it and top it up, but not change it - that's what garages are for!
Ever gotten a speeding ticket? - Yes
Ran out of gas? - Yes
Favorite kind of sandwich? - Ham or smoked salmon
Best thing to eat for breakfast? - Tattie scones and marmite!
What is your usual bedtime? - Around midnight normally
Are you lazy? - I definitely can be!
When you were a kid, what did you dress up as for Halloween? - I was a vampire once
What is your Chinese astrological sign? - Dunno
How many languages can you speak? - 2 - English & French
Do you have any magazine subscriptions? - No
Which are better legos or lincoln logs? - Lego, cause I have no idea what the others are
Are you stubborn? - Oh yes!
Who is better...Leno or Letterman? - Neither
Ever watch soap operas? - I used to, but I recovered :-)
Afraid of heights? - Yes
Sing in the car? - Yes
Dance in the shower? - No
Dance in the car? - No
Ever used a gun? - Yes, but only an air rifle
Last time you got a portrait taken by a photographer? - Never
Do you think musicals are cheesy? - Nope, love 'em!
Is Christmas stressful? - No, I love it
Ever eat a pierogi? - Don't think so
Favorite type of fruit pie? - Apple
Occupations you wanted to be when you were a kid? - Teacher ewwwww
Do you believe in ghosts? - I wouldn't like to say they don't exist
Ever have a Deja-vu feeling? - Yes, often
Take a vitamin daily? - No
Wear slippers? - Only in the winter
Wear a bath robe? - Yes
What do you wear to bed? - Nightie
First concert? - Never been to one
Wal-Mart, Target or Kmart? - Asda or Tesco
Nike or Adidas? - Nike
Cheetos Or Fritos? - Neither - ick!
Peanuts or Sunflower seeds? - Neither
Ever hear of the group Tres Bien? - No
Ever take dance lessons? - Only when forced to at prep school
Is there a profession you picture your future spouse doing? - Yes, being a civil engineer cause he is one!
Can you curl your tongue? - Yes
Ever won a spelling bee? - Yes
Have you ever cried because you were so happy? - Yes
Own any record albums? - Many!
Own a record player? - Not any more
Regularly burn incense? - On the very odd occasion - it's been a while though
Ever been in love? - Yes
Who would you like to see in concert? - Dara O'Briain
What was the last concert you saw? - None
Hot tea or cold tea? - Hot tea I suppose
Tea or coffee? - Tea I suppose!
Sugar or snickerdoodles? - Sugar
Can you swim well? - Yes, very
Can you hold your breath without holding your nose? - Yes
Are you patient? - Definitely not!
DJ or band, at a wedding? - Band
Ever won a contest? - No
Ever have plastic surgery? - No
Which are better black or green olives? - Neither, they're foul!
Can you knit or crochet? - I can knit, if someone casts on or off for me!
Best room for a fireplace? - Sitting room
Do you want to get married? - Yes
If married, how long have you been married? - Not married but been together 2 years now
Who was your HS crush? - HS? Dunno
Do you cry and throw a fit until you get your own way? - No, not my style
Do you have kids? - Yes, 1, Isla
Do you want kids? - Yes
Whats your favorite color? - Purple
Do you miss anyone right now? - My mum and dad
Did you watch, Next Great American Band on FOX? - No

Take This Survey at Quizopolis.com
http://www.quizopolis.com/survey/4769/100-Fun-Questions-Survey/

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Honey & Lime Marinated Pork Chops

2011-09-02T16:19:00.001+02:00

We seem to have a big of a pork chop theme going today!! This one is truly delicious!

Pork Chops With Mustard Sauce

2011-09-02T13:54:00.000+02:00

Flowers

2011-08-31T16:54:00.001+02:00

My mum and dad sent me a big bunch of roses this morning - aren't they beautiful! Made my day :-)

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Jobs and Ops

2011-08-30T16:47:00.001+02:00

There's lots to tell you today!

The first thing is that I have a job...it's working for the same company through the same agency, just in a different department, so I only had about ten days out of work. I have to say that the recruitment consultant has done a sterling job and I really appreciate all her help. I can't tell you much more about it as it's working for a bank, but I think I'm going to enjoy it. I'm working in the middle of Edinburgh now, rather than on the outskirts, so I have to use the Park & Ride. It's a brilliant and convenient service, but I don't think I'll ever be convrted to being a public transport lover!

The second piece of news is that I had my operation yesterday! I had been told it would be the middle of September, and when I got the letter from the hospital it said the 25th August, so I was all prepared to go in last Thursday, having organised time off work etc despite only having started on Tuesday! As I walked out of the office on Wednesday afternoon the hospital called to tell me that there was now an emergency booked in for Thursday so could we delay until Monday. It was a bit of a disappointment having got myself all psyched up for it, but it did mean that we could have a nice relaxing weekend with more than a few drinks on Friday evening!

So, at 7.30 yesterday morning we prresented ourselves at Borders General Hospital in Melrose. We spoke to two or three different doctors and nurses to fill in various different forms, and I was informed that there was a good chance they would have to perform open surgery rather than keyhole, so theere were a few tears as I had got myself a little worked up by that point! I was meant to be second on the list but got moved down to third, so I had to sit around in the most attractive get up you've ever seen! 1) a hospital gown, 2) Frazer's dressing gown, 3) surgical stockings - white and 4) my red slippers! Highly appealing! They let Frazer stay while we were waiting, and then they kicked him out as it was only a day ward and there was nowhere for him to wait. He walked me down as far as the theatre doors then we had to say goodbye. That was scary. They put me into a little ante room, beyond which was thr theatre itself. I had to remove the dressing gown and sit on a trolley while they did blood pressure etc all the while flashing my bum to the world through the back of the hospital gown! I was having a lovely little chat with the quite handsome nurse while he put in the venflow etc, and the next thing I knew was waking up in the recovery ward!

It hurt...a lot! I kind of drifted for a while - no idea how long as I wasn't exactly with it - but after a bit the surgeon came to see me. They did manage to perform keyhole surgery luckily, but the surgeon said that the gall bladder was extremely big and full of stones. Sometimes when there's something wrong with you you're not quite sure if you actually are in that much pain or if you're being a bit of a hypochondriac, so it's quite a relief to learn that there was actually something quite wrong with me! Strange logic perhaps, but it makes sense to me! Apparently the operation took about 2 hrs which is a long time for keyhole, and the nurse had told Frazer that because of the time she thought that it was probably open surgery. But no, they just had to hoik out a massive gallbladder!

Frazer and Isla came to collect me in the evening. I could have stayed in if I thought I needed to, but I thought I would be better off at home in my own surroundings and with the people who love me. And there was a bunch of flowers waiting for me! I never stop thinking how lucky I am!

So, I'm in quite significant pain, on a scale of 1 to 10 it's probably around a 6 having taken painkillers. So, I'm just taking it easy! I stayed in bed watching rubbish this morning, and sat on the couch watching rubbish this afternoon. Isn't daytime tv rubbish! I have got a bit addicted to Come Dine With Me though! I love how bitchy they are behind each others' backs, I love seeing what they consider to be fine dining, and I love love love the narrator!! He makes the programme! It's mindless nonsense that requires no brain power to watch - perfect recuperation watching.

I have a freezer full of home made soup, and am going to give Isla some cooking lessons over the week so I don't stretch myself. But doing nothing is boring...oh well, hopefully recovery won't be long!

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Banana Bread

2011-08-15T17:08:00.000+02:00

On The Hunt Again

2011-08-12T23:01:00.001+02:00

I had my pre-op appointment at the hospital yesterday. Apparently I'm fit and healthy enough to go ahead with the op, and it will happen mid-September but they can't be more specific than that just now because the bloody surgeon is on holiday. Ah well, I guess I'll find out soon enough.

After the hospital, which took all morning, I went up to Edinburgh Airport to collect Isla, my nephews and their mum. I had to take them into town to Waverley Station, which was immense fun at rush hour!! Trying to find my way around the new one way system in Edinburgh (due to the bloody tram works) with three bickering children in the back was less than fun!

After we dropped them off, Isla and I went to the cinema, just the two of us. We went to see The Smurfs, which was pants! Don't bother with it - it's one of those family friendly typically american supposedly heartwarming saccharine sweet movies! We had fajitas afterwards and then came home! It's nice to have Isla home - I miss her when she's not here! It's too quiet without her and I miss her huggles!

I felt a bit crap this morning after the doctor poking my stomach about yesterday, but I got up to go to work as normal. When I got there, the team leader asked to have a word and it turned out that they had had word from head office last night that the work was running out and they had to lose some staff, one of which was me. Today. As I was feeling 100% I didn't take the news very well and couldn't stop the tears, although I did try. I did feel a bit sorry for them though, as this one sprung on them last night, and it wasn't fair on them to have to give people the boot today with no notice. They did say I could go home and they would still pay me for today, so I did. Why stay after being treated so shoddily? The problem was that I was the first one they told, so when I went back to my desk to collect my things, everyone was asking me what was happening and I couldn't tell them because it was going to happen to some of them too but I didn't know who. They asked if I'd been transferred to another team and all I could say was "in a manner of speaking"!! I did tell them to facebook me to tell me what else happened today.

We always knew that the job was only going to last until the end of August, mid September at the lastest, so we were expecting that, but we weren't expecting at any point to come in to work and be told that was it on the same day. It's a crappy way to treat people.

I left the building and had a cigarette before I did anything else! I wasn't feeling at my calmest! I phoned Frazer and told him through sniffles, and he told me to come and get him fro, work and we went to a local pub for breakfast - sometimes there is nothing like a roll and sausage to make you feel better! We sat and had a chat, and I felt a little better. Got a big hug too, which was the main thing I needed!

I phoned the agency when I got home, and there is the possibility of another job in the centre of Edinburgh in a few weeks, but there's no start date yet, so I'm not counting on that. I have also applied for ten jobs today, which I think is a good start. I hope something comes up soon. I've got road tax to buy at the end of the month!

So, watch this space. The dole won't give me a penny because Frazer has a job, which I think is crappy considering all the lowlifes who live completely on benefits, but hey ho, such is life. No point moaning about something that's not likely to change any time soon!

I do have a couple of recipes for you that I will upload over the next couple of days. They're not diet ones, as they were tried before the diet started, but they are yummy!

So until then guys...happy jobhunting!

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Flipping gall bladder!

2011-08-04T21:23:00.001+02:00

Well, I've just had another day off work sick. Honestly, I can't wait to get this gallbladder out now - it's got to the point where I don't ever actually feel well, I have a constant aching stomach. Some days are better than others, but I am so fed up of feeling like this. Doesn't do much for the bank balance either as if I don't go to work I don't get paid. I have an appointment at the hospital next week - a pre-op appointment, where I should find out when the operation is going to take place. Sooner rather than later I hope.

On the plus side the weight loss is still going well. We had a bit of a naughty weekend, but it was Frazer's mum's birthday so we didn't stint on anything. I don't have the figures to hand, but when I post this weeks (we're doing it on Fridays now) you'll definitely see some improvement! In a way the gallbladder thing has been a blessing in disguise because due to the fat free diet I have to be on, it's pushed us into dieting, which we both need. It is immensely boring though! Although, Ben and Jerry's do low fat frozen ice cream, and it's £2 per tub in Morrisons at the moment! Happy days!

Isla's back on Thursday next week which will be good. I've missed her, and the house seems awfully quiet without her, although she's far from noisy! I cleaned her bedroom today in oreoaration for her coming home - not something I plan on doing often! Three hours, one whole load of laundry and a full black bin bag later and I was half way there! In the future she is going to clean her bedroom every single weekend before she's allowed to go out with her friends, and her pocket money will depend on it! Grrrr!

Will update over the weekend with this weeks weigh in.

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Monday's Measurements

2011-07-25T23:40:00.001+02:00

We've done not too badly at all this week. Had a a couple of wobbly moments, But that's normail in any diet.

Today's weigh in was:
Catherine 114.9 (-2)
Frazer 110.0 (-1.6)

Not bad for the first week. Long may the good work continue!

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Sunday Scales

2011-07-17T22:15:00.001+02:00

Right, due to the gall bladder problem I have to have a fat free diet, so we have decided to make the most of it and go on a serious diet, as both of us have a few stone to lose. We have joined the gym at Peebles Hydro and plan to go at least twice a week and once at the weekend. We have also set a challenge that whoever loses the most weight in the first month is treated to a nice meal (but still diet friendly) by the other. Neither of us are any good at diets on our own, so the competition will help us.

So, the first weigh in was today on a brand new set of scales.

Me - 173cm tall and 116.9 kg
Frazer - 175cm tall and 111.6kg

My goal is to be a size 16 by the time my best mate gets married next year. Let the competition begin :-)

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Journey Home

2011-07-16T20:51:00.001+02:00

I woke up on Wednesday morning with terrible stomach pains - they eventually went away with the help of painkillers and Gaviscon, but I didn't get any more sleep.

We got up at 6am, and left at 7am for Carcassonne to get our lane home. The kids had been given the choice of coming in the car or staying in bed...guess which option they chose!!

We both snoozed a bit in the car - great travelling companions for my mum! We got to Carcassonne with time to spare, we had checked in online but still had to join a massive queue to get our hand baggage weighed! Some woman tried to barge in front of us, and Frazer said no to her, but she barged in anyway! The Ryanair woman told her not to barge in, she told her she'd asked us, and Frazer agreed that she had, but he'd said no - she was then told to join the back of the queue like everyone else! The Ryanair woman was quite impressed with Frazer and told him that what he'd said was "almost french" - high praise indeed!

Anyway, we got through to the waiting room bit, sat there for about half an hour and no one seemed to know what was going on. Eventually someone said that the flight had been diverted - one of the passengers that is, not one of the Ryanair staff - so Frazer went to see if he could find out what was happening. Apparently the tannoy was only working at one end of the airport - it turned out that our plane had been diverted to Perpignan due to bad weather, and so had the next one. The weather was cloudy and a bit rainy, but not worth divting a plane for, and we'd just watched another plane take off for East Midlands, so it can't have been that bad. We were all herded outside, but still no one told us what was happening, so I went to find a Ryanair official who confirmed that our plane had been diverted so we were all being bussed down to Perpignan - a 2hr journey - to catch our plane. We were starving so I got some cash out of the machine as I'd given the rest of my euros to my mum, and we went and got a ham baguette which was deadly boring but marginally edible! We were eventually told over the tannoy that our bus would arrive at 11am, but at no point at all did any Ryanair official tell us anything directly apart from when I actually asked them. The bus eventually arrived at 11.30, it was almost 12 by the time we left after all the farting about getting on the buses. We were packed in like sardines, and managed to snooze listening to Pink Floyd on the iPad. Perpignan was hot and windy, the airport was a bit crap, there were no lights in the toilet, and again, no Ryanair officials to tell us what was happening. Eventually they told us on the tannoy when our plane was leaving, so we sat down at the cafe to have a drink. There were tons of flies, so we ended up outside having a cigarette. By the time we boarded the plane we were frazzled to say the least! Thank goodness they didn't play the lirrle fanfare at the end of the flight otherwise there might have been a mutiny aboard!

Although we eventually got home safe and sound, the service we received from Ryanair was nothing short of shocking. The flights weren't particularly cheap, but even if they had been I would still have expected some sort of customer service but there was none. To put it in a nutshell, Ryanair will certainly not have our custom again.

Once we landed at Prestwick we got a taxi back to Lyndsey's to pick up the car, then went to pick up the cat. Bloody mad cat woman had a moan because we were about ten minutes late, tried to charge me again until she realised I actually had paid when I dropeed him off, and eventually gave me the cat! He was very cross with us, and miaowed and yowled ALL the way home - all 2 hours of the journey! We got home, had a struggle lighting the aga, had a pizza for dinner from Francos in Peebles, and went to bed!

We had a fantastic holiday, despite the shitty journey home, but it is always nice to come home. We had a couple of days at work before the weekend, so we're having a good chillout today, groceries and a car boot tomorrow, and then back into the regular, normal routine on Monday. Next up is the gallbladder operation - just waiting to find out when. Watch this space!

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It's all going swimmingly :-)

2011-07-11T17:04:00.002+02:00

We just tried frogs legs for the first time! Frazer and my nephew were desperate to try them, so we bought some, cooked them, and I have no idea what all the fuss is about! The texture was a lot like chicken, but they were pretty tasteless! My mum and Isla really didn't like them, but Frazer, my dad and my nephew really did. I didn't mind them, but I certainly wouldn't bother again.We've had a lovely day today all in the swimming pool playing with a beach ball and swimming some lengths. It's the last day of sunshine before we go home so we thought we'd all make the most of it. I need to make sure the tan is top notch before going home too!

We got back from the mountains on Saturday evening and webhad a lovely time. When we got to St Lary Soulan there was a night market in the town and there was a lovely atmosphere. We had dinner at one of the pizzerias, had a wander around the market and then went back to the hotel. On the Thursday we decided to go across to Spain for the afternoon. It was a bit overcast, but the views were still stunning. We had lunch in Spain, bought my mum some cigarettes and my dad a monster bottle of Glenfiddich and then headed back into France. When we came through the tunnel though, the clouds had come down and we emerged into deep fog. Not fun when you're negotiating hairpin bends on the side of a mountain! We got back to St Lary and went out to look for a nice restaurant. We found a so-called Irish pub and had steak and chips and a litre of wine each and had a really lovely evening...at least until we got back to the hotel and my dinner decided to make a reappearance! Friday, by necessity, was a very gentle day! We had a lovely stroll around St Lary and just chilled out all day. We went to Carrefour and bought some bits and pieces and spent the evening watching rubbish on youtube - it was really nice actually.
Saturday was our last day away by ourselves, so after we checked out of the hotel, we went across to the Spa pool and spent an hour or so in there. It was really cool...they've made it all cave like in there and there were bits with jacuzzis, waterfalls and a sauna and steam room. We came out feeling brand new! We went back to the pizzeria we went to on the first night for lunch, and then we went up on the cable car. That was a white knuckle experience! It was cool, and I was determined that I wanted to do it, but it was still quite scary. Frazer took some video of us going up, and kept panning round to show my scared face - ratbag! It was all worth it when we got to the top - the view was stunning...it felt like being on top of the world! We had a nice walk around the deserted ski resort, had a drink at the only open bar, and then went back to the cable car for the descent, which was scarier than the ascent. I'm really glad I did it because the view from the top was so outstanding, but it was a tad scary!
After that we headed back home. Frazer got himself all comfy with a pillow and his feet up on the dashboard while I drove! He's a useless travelling companion as he's like a child...the car makes him fall asleep! Got back and had dinner and then an early night because I was shattered!

Sunday was a bit of a wasted day, as the excesses of our few days away caught up with me, and I spent most of the day in bed with a very sore stomach. I'm going to have to be good and self disciplined from now on unfortunately. I did revive myself enough, however, for Frazer and I to give my mum and dad another good thrashing at Trivial Pursuit in the evening :-)

Which brings us back to today...lazy day by the pool and in the pool, playing and topping up the tan, trying frogs legs, blogging by the pool, and then we're out for a barbecue at Matthew's this evening which will be nice.

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60 Questions People Dont Ask Survey

2011-07-05T11:27:00.001+02:00

When's the last time you ran? - Can't remember!
Do your jeans have rips, tears, and holes in them? - No, and when they do, they get thrown away or cut down to shorts.
What are you dreading right now? - An operation to remove my gallbladder.
Do you celebrate 420? - Dunno what 420 is so no.
Do you get the full 8 hours of sleep a night? - Normally.
If anyone came to your house on your "lazy days" what would ya'll do? - Sit them down, have a chat, and watch rubbish together.
Who last grabbed your ass? - Frazer probably!
Have you ever been on your school's track team? - No, swimming team though.
Do you own a pair of Converse? - Nope.
Did you copy and paste this survey? - Nope.
Do you eat raw cookie dough? - Oooh yes!
Have you ever kicked a vending machine? - No.
Don't you hate it when the radio ruins good songs by playing them over and over? - Yes
Do you watch Trading Spaces? - No
How do you eat oreos? - Take them apart and lick the creamy bit off first!
Have you ever stayed online for a very long time waiting for someone? - Yes, but don't have to any more as we live together now.
Are you cocky? - Can be
Could you live without a computer? - No!!!!
Do you wear your shoes in the house? - Yes
Who or what sleeps with you? - Frazer
At what age did you find out that Santa wasn't real? - About 6/7
How many phones, house phones and cell phones are in your house? - 6
What do you do when you're sad? - Mope about
Who would you call first if you won the lottery? - My mum!
Last time you saw your best friend? - Last week
Are you in high school? - No
What jewelry are you wearing? - None
Is anyone on your bad side now? - No one out of the ordinary! How's that for diplomatic?!
What's the first thing you do when you get online? - Check facebook!
Do you watch Grey's Anatomy? - No
How do most people spell your name? - In an intesting variety of ways!
Would you wear a boy/girlfriends clothes? - Yes
Where do you work? - In a banking office
What are you doing tomorrow? - Going to the Pyrenees
Is Justin Timberlake becoming the next Michael Jackson? - Dunno
Favorite name for a girl? - Arya
Favorite name for a boy? - James
Will you keep your last name when you get married? - No, probably not - if we do get married
When was the last time you left your house? - Last Tuesday
Do you return your cart? - Nope, I have a 12 yr old to do that!
Do you have a dishwasher? - Yes
What noise do you hear? - Frazer snoring next to me :-)
Would you survive in prison? - Probably
Who is the youngest in your family? - Only child :-)
If all of your friends were going on a road trip, who would most likey overpack? - Me probably!
Do you know anyone with the same name as you? - My ex step sister in law had exactly the same name as me but it was spelt a little differently
What's the last thing you purchased? - Cigarettes yesterday - last big purchase though was an iPad
Do your siblings ever pay for stuff for you? - N/A
What brand are your pants right now? - Ummm, Carrefour!!
Ever been to Georgia (the state)? - No
What irritates you most on the internet? - Adverts
What brand is your digital camera? - Olympus
Do you watch movies with your parents? - Yes
What song best describes your life right now? - The Lazy Song is how I would LIKE my life to be right now!
Do you own expensive perfume/cologne? - Yes, but not too expensive
Are you taking college classes right now? - No
Do you like sushi? - No, I hate fish
Do you get your hair cut every month? - No
Do you go online everyday? - Yes
Will you pass this survey on to 5 people? - Probably not

Take This Survey at Quizopolis.com
http://www.quizopolis.com/survey/4725/60-Questions-People-Dont-Ask-Survey/

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Back to France

2011-07-05T10:43:00.001+02:00

We're on our holidays! They let me out of hospital on Monday and we set off on Tuesday! We were flying from Prestwick, so it was a crappy drive across there, we dropped the cat at the cattery, and then spent the night with a friend in Irvine. We collected my nephew from his mum, and we all had a great evening playing a game like Guitar Hero on the PS3 - it wasn't Guitar Hero, it was a Lego game which included guitar, drums and singing - Lyndsey and I did the singing - we were amazing!!

We got a taxi to the airport at the crack of dawn on Wednesday and we flew Ryanair - never again! We only brought hand baggage because they charge you £40 to put a suitcase in the hold! And, what's more, they've started to weigh your hand baggage! Mine was over weight, so after an argument with the officious wee eejit, and a little reshuffling we we fine! We sat the kids together in front of us because I had put a couple of movies on Isla's iPod Touch for them to watch, and we sat right behind. No leg space at all! I had never flown Ryanair before, and I won't again! We managed to get comfyish, and sat and watched The Mighty Boosh on the iPad during the flight. It was cool!

We got in at about lunchtime, so went straight to Macdonalds as we were all starving. I had a couple of wraps as I thought they we probably the most fat free, but I suffered terribly in the car from indigestion type pains afterwards. It's just proved to me that no matter how much I fancy something I'm going to have to be really careful from now on and stick to the fat free diet as the doctors said. It won't hurt, and it's pushing us both into dieting, which isn't really a bad thing, it just sucks a little to know that I can't even have a wee treat now and again because I will suffer hugely for it.

Anyway, as soon as we got home (France home I mean) the kids were into the pool! We had a lazy afternoon, with a bit of a snooze and then got up again for dinner. We lasted admirably I thought, considering we had been up at 4.30 that morning! The next couple of days were beautiful so we spent lots of time by the pool, and the kids have hardly been out of it! My mum and dad took the out for the day on Saturday, so we had a really lovely and relaxing day by ourselves in and out of the pool.

On Sunday we had Isla's birthday party with all her French friends, and she had a ball! Even my nephew did well as he managed to get on well with the boys that came with his little bit of French, and their little bit of English! We had a party for grown ups in the evening, and I managed to catch up with all my favourite people, it was great!

Frazer and I took the kids to Accrobranche in Auch yesterday, as it was a bit overcast, and not really pool weather. They really enjoyed it, but I think they wimped out at Level 5! We picked them up, went shopping, came back and made fajitas for dinner, and then wiped the floor with my mum and dad at Trivial Pursuit! Great day!

Frazer and I are off to the mountains for a few days tomorrow which will be lovely. He's suffering a little from overheating at the moment, so the mountains will be a little cooler for him. We're also planning a day of exploring in Spain just over the border, so looking forward to that.

Will let you know how it goes :-)

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Galling!

2011-06-28T10:51:00.001+02:00

We've had a bit of a difficult weekend! Frazer was really ill on Friday, and starting to get better on Saturday when we went out for a friend's lunch. When we got home I had a headache, and by about half past ten was in serious pain with stomach and chest pains - I felt like there was someone standing on my chest. We went to bed, but I only stayed ere for about half an hour because I just couldn't get comfy anywhere. The pain got worse and worse, I threw up, and Frazer came downstairs, took one look at me and phoned NHS 24 who insisted on sending an ambulance due to the chest pains. The paramedics arrived and decided that I should be taken to hospital in Melrose of all places! Never been there before! They gave me some morphine which didn't actually stop the pain as much as stop me caring about it!

We were in A&E for a while and at about 6.30am they took me up to the ward and sent Frazer and Isla away. I kind of dozed in between bouts of pain, nurses doing obs, and various nurses and doctors coming in with questionnaires and forms to fill in etc! They wouldn't allow me even a drink of water for quite a long time, but eventually I was allowed "comfort sips"! They took me down to have an ultrasound which showed up that I have gallstones which had obviously flared up due to me catching Frazer's bug.

All the time I was there I kept telling them that I had to be better because I was going away on Tuesday! I think they's have liked to keep me in a bit longer to be honest because I was on IV antibiotics, but they've given me some tablets and let me go yay! I'll have to go back in a few weeks to have the gallbladder hoiked out, but apparently they can do that with keyhole surgery so I'm not too worried about it. The only bugger is that I have to have a fat free diet until then - sucks to be me!!

Also, I'm excited because this is the first post written on my spangly new iPad using Blogpress so hopefully it'll work!

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Housewarming

2011-05-12T18:20:00.000+02:00

We celebrated out housewarming and Frazer's birthday on Saturday. We had had about three weeks of glorious weather, but as soon as the barbecue was lit the heavens opened! Such is life! I met a whole load of Frazer's friends who I hadn't met yet, a couple of my friends came up from Dumfries, and we had a housefull! Tons of people, kids, dogs and one very perturbed cat who's not too keen on dogs. He's going to have his nose put well out of joint when we get one!

I'm still working, and in fact I'm starting another job on Monday - can't tell you too much about it, again for data protection reasons, but it's for a bank. Monday to Friday, 9-5, and I couldn't be happier about it. I've been working six days a week for the last months and it's really taken it out of me getting up every morning at 5.45am. Even on Sundays I can't seem to sleep in, and am still waking up at the same time. At least this way I get my weekends back, and it's a slightly shorter journey each day. Also, on days where Frazer doesn't need to be out and about we can even car share, saving fuel money. Liking that idea!

I managed to get him the best present - I'd been wanting to get a kindle, but at £111 they're a little pricey. Isla and I have had one since Christmas (well...it's really Isla's, but I think she's only read one book on it, I've had it since January!) and it's brilliant, and Frazer has been making the odd mutterings about it for a while now. So, that was my plan, until I went on the Asda website and found this. It's a Binatone Homesurf 7 Tablet computer and it's cool. It was £79, and I reasoned that not only could he use the Kindle app on it to read all the books we have, but he could also use the browser, music player, video player etc. So, it was a better deal than the Kindle because it can do more. The only slight drawback to it, is that it doesn't have the AppMarket widget thing on it, and in order to install apps you have to search for the .apk file online, download it to your computer, transfer it onto the tablet and then install it. Slightly irritating, but no biggie - there are a few sites that tell you where to find the files.

So, he's a happy bunny. He certainly wasn't expecting it, and he loved it so much that I found him downstairs at 4am (because it had finished it's first full charge) lying on the spare bed trying to figure it all out. And he has all of Terry Pratchett's books on there too. Happiness knows no bounds :-)

All Change!

2011-05-03T18:10:00.004+02:00

Well, we moved at the end of March and we’ve been a little busy since then! I ended up having to give up my job in order to move – I couldn’t get any more time off for interviews, so I had to be here to find a job. So I finished on the Tuesday, came up for a couple of interviews on the Wednesday and Thursday, back down to Dumfries for lunch with the girls on the Friday, and then moved up lock, stock and barrel the following Tuesday! Massively stressful!

As I wasn’t working to start with, it didn’t take too long to get the house into shape. Isla had a couple of days off school, and then started her new school, which she seems to be enjoying. Frazer’s getting used to a slight commute, but loving living somewhere that’s nicer than the centre of Edinburgh, and I’m enjoying having a nice big garden to sit out in on a nice day! We’ve had a few little teething problems, but nothing insurmountable – we’re both used to our own space, and Frazer’s never lived with a child before but we’re all finding our feet. It is lovely all of us being together all of the time, and not having to think about doing THAT journey every weekend!

And I have a job! Ok, it’s only a temping job, but it’ll do for now. It was originally just a 3 week contract but they’re keeping me on longer which is good. I’ve had a lot of interviews for permanent jobs too, so a lot of it is just wait and see. I was only actually unemployed though for 3 weeks, which isn’t too bad. I was panicking about being able to find something. The job is more boring than my last one, but an awful lot easier, the only bugger about it is that’s it’s an hour’s drive each way, but it’s a job! A better one will come along soon.

The house is lovely, and we’re all finding our own space in it. We’ve pretty much got it the way we want it, apart from Frazer’s study which he can sort out himself! There are piles of boxes and some of it is paperwork and such – not my department! I know where all my paperwork is – I’m great at filing!

The weather has been amazing since we moved, so I have been out and about with my camera the last couple of days just making the most of it. Peebles is a beautiful little town, with a couple of great ice cream shops! It has a real holiday feel when the weather is good. I will close now and give you some pictures of Peebles to have a look at, and will be back with you soon – a lot sooner than last time I promise!

Lemon Curd Cake

2011-02-27T17:19:00.000+01:00

Tough Week

2011-02-27T16:43:00.002+01:00

I’m having a totally relaxing weekend this week. Frazer stayed in Edinburgh and I stayed here. We had a girly drunken night on Friday, which was great, and then lots of catching up yesterday.

I’ve needed a weekend with nothing planned, as I’ve had a bit of a tough week. I had the dentist on Monday (thanks to him I no longer have a chipped front tooth!), a telephone interview on Tuesday for a job in Edinburgh Hospital working for the same company, a job interview near Penicuik on Wednesday evening and a house viewing, and the MOT for the car on Friday!

By the time Friday evening rolled around I was in desperate need of some total relaxation! I picked up my best mate Joocey, went to Tesco to buy booze and party food, came home and we were joined by the mum of Isla’s best ate, who shall henceforth be known as Snickers as she’s just changed her name and it’s a combination of the two as I never get it right!

We had a really great evening, drank too much, ate unhealthy food, and had a good laugh! We had a late night, and crashed out pretty much straight away.

Another friend from Castle Douglas came over yesterday and we had a brilliant catch up, and then I went in to town a bit later on so Joocey could catch a bus home, and Isla and I picked up a Chinese take away!

Today I am doing nothing apart from watching Arrested Development, catching up with blogs etc, chilling out, and missing Frazer.

Nothing planned next week, apart from signing the lease in Peebles on Friday. It’s all getting a little bit real, a little bit scary, but very exciting!

Moving

2011-02-27T16:09:00.005+01:00

Plans have changed somewhat. We’ve found a house, but in an entirely different place from as planned! We are now moving to…Peebles! It’s in the Scottish Borders, still within commuting distance to Edinburgh, and absolutely beautiful. We were looking in West Lothian, but it was impossible to find what we wanted within the right price range. Peebles will be a bit of a bugger if either of us has to work in the west, but for Edinburgh it will be fine, and for me it means that I can look for jobs not only in Edinburgh, but also in Selkirk, Galashiels and Peebles itself.

Frazer’s moving in a couple of weeks, and I’m trying to find a job as soon as possible so we can move up as well. As soon as I have a job, I can give a month’s notice on my job and my house, and organise the removal! Frazer needs to get a couple of bits and pieces for the house straight away as the flat he’s in at the moment is furnished, so it’s going to be a bit bare until I arrive with a house full of furniture!!

The house is about 5 minutes from Peebles High Street, apparently in the posh bit of Peebles! It’s got 3 bedrooms, a study, an amazing kitchen with a beautiful aga, a bathroom and an extra toilet, which is highly important living in the same house as a girl rapidly approaching teenagehood! It’s very cottagey, despite being in the middle of a town. It’s got a titchy front garden, which will look great with ports of geraniums and things, and a long back garden which only really needs grass cutting.

I think that once we are in there, with all the furniture, it is the sort of place where we can be really happy. I have visions of us spending most evenings sitting in the lovely large kitchen, by the aga, drinking glasses of wine. Note to self – learn to like wine!

Happy New Year

2011-02-05T00:27:00.000+01:00

We didn’t do much between Christmas and New Year, mainly because we couldn’t get out of the village. We eventually tried to go to town on the Wednesday, but we passed two serious accidents within about 3 miles of the village and turned round and came home. As we drove into the village, I tried to get the car up the steep hill that is Main Street. I got about half way up, and the wheels just started spinning. Frazer asked me if I wanted him to have a go, so I agreed, put the handbrake on, and we both got out of the car to swap places. Only the car decided it didn’t want to stay where it was, and started moving backwards. I hadn’t shut the drivers door, so tried to get back in, only because the road was so icy, I couldn’t get enough purchase on it to get myself back into the car, and spent what felt like an hour, but must only have been about ten seconds, trying to get back in. Eventually I did, and slammed on the foot brake as well, and the car did stop. We managed to slide it into a parking space, and went to the pub. We couldn’t drive anywhere, so we may as well get pissed! It was an interesting walk home, up that same steep Main Street, but we managed it eventually – I think being drunk helped actually!

For Hogmanay we went back down to the newly re-opened pub and had a fair few drinks. Isla’s best friend’s mum joined us, and we had quite a laugh down there. We went back up to her house where we collected her boyfriend and the girls, and came back up to our house in time for the bells. We had a good old sing song of Auld Lang Syne, and Isla’s friend stayed the night with us, while her mum and boyfriend staggered home! The girls had been listening to music when we collected them, and we heard Ellie Goulding’s rendition of Your Song (which is actually not bad), and on the way home Frazer was singing bits of it to me. Very sweet, quite drunk and very romantic!

We had a couple of days to recover from New Year, and then it was back to work and normality. Almost! We had plenty more snow during January, and I missed another couple of days work due to bad roads. We’re now spending our time scouring property websites to find somewhere to live around Linlithgow, and I’m job hunting again. It will be great when we’re all living together, it’s just getting to that point that is difficult!

So, 2010 in a nutshell – life changing.

2011 will be our year.

And Happy New Year (although belated) to all of you.

Christmas

2011-02-04T23:24:00.002+01:00

December was snowy all the way through. It started that weekend in Glasgow, and steadily got worse through the month. I missed a fair few days at work because the roads were just too snowy and icy. As you may remember, had two accidents in the snow last year, and there was no way this year that I was going to put myself, or my new car, at risk.

I managed to get two weeks off work, and so did Frazer, which was lovely. He actually got down here two or three days before I finished work, and the night he came down, I met him at Tesco to do the big Christmas food shop! That was an experience I am happy to repeat only once a year! It cost a fortune between us, but we were going to make damn sure we weren’t missing anything!

The day I finished work, I met Frazer and Isla in Castle Douglas for a Chinese. We sat down in the restaurant, and noticed that everyone else in there was still wearing their coats. It turned out that their heating wasn’t working, and they only had one little convector heater in there for a large restaurant. We decided to get a carry out instead, and when we got it home, we discovered that a couple of the things on the order weren’t even correct. We weren’t very impressed, but it was tasty anyway.

The next day was Christmas Day, and we tried hard not to be too busy as we wanted to enjoy it. Frazer’s parents were due to arrive late afternoon, and luckily I had already cleaned the house through thoroughly and made up their bed. Frazer started to make his trifle…the first time he’d ever made it, and it was an ambitious attempt, with different coloured jellies to give a traffic light effect! We lost the packet of Dream Topping that we had bought (I was very disappointed as I hadn’t had that for years) so we used whipped cream – probably better anyway! It was a triumph, but it was massive and there was too much, even for five of us!

Frazer’s mum and dad arrived, and we just had cheese and biscuits etc, and then lots and lots of drinks! Frazer and his dad were in the kitchen, and I was chatting in the sitting room with his mum. I can’t even remember what we were talking about, but I said I’d like more kids one day, and she was delighted! We all ended up in the kitchen talking and having a few more drinks, and then they went to bed and we stayed up for a bit. I mentioned to Frazer the conversation I’d had with his mum, and I can’t even remember how it came about, but he asked me to move in with him!!! We talked about it for a while longer, decided it was the best idea we’d ever had, despite being slightly scary, and went to bed after deciding there would be kids sometime too!

Christmas Day didn’t dawn too bright or early, and there was still snow on the ground which was lovely. Isla knocked on the bedroom door with her stocking, so we got sorted, I got Frazer a cup of tea, and she sat on our bed and opened all her little stocking presents. We then got up and got showered etc, and Frazer made breakfast, and then we sat down in the sitting room and opened all our presents! I had come up trumps for Frazer – he had said months ago that he fancied a coffee maker, but they were about a hundred pounds, so I had said no chance. But…then I found one on Tesco Direct at half price, so he got it in the end! Isla got him al the little coffee, cappuccino and hot chocolate pods that go with it. I got a terabyte hard drive from him, which was exactly what I wanted, as my multi media one is only 500mb, and I keep having to delete stuff! I got Isla a new mobile phone, and some new, really good speakers for her desk upstairs. Frazer gave her a Scotland rugby shirt, and £20, and she also got a kindle from my uncle. Amazingly, she loves it! Frazer’s mum and dad seemed to enjoy themselves too, and I think it was the first year off his mum had had, so she enjoyed relaxing.

We were meant to be having a very big roast chicken for Christmas dinner, but when I got the chicken out of the fridge it had gone off! I didn’t panic though, as we’d also bought a big pork joint for Boxing Day, so we had that instead. We had prawn cocktail as a starter, then roast pork, roast potatoes, parsnips, veggies and, because they always have it, mashed potatoes as well!! We then had the triumphant trifle for dessert. It was all yummy!

We didn’t have a very late night, as we’d been really late the night before. It was lovely to have a proper family Christmas, even though I couldn’t be with my own family.

Boxing Day was pretty chilled out. Frazer’s mum and dad went home early afternoon, and we just chilled out for the rest of the day.

Bad Blogger

2011-02-04T22:43:00.004+01:00

Yup, I’ve been terrible about updating since way before Christmas!

Our night out in Glasgow was lovely. The hotel was amazing, even if the drinks in the hotel bar were ridiculously expensive!

We went out to a very smart Indian restaurant where the food was delicious, and then went to a pub for a few drinks before Frazer’smate and his partner had to catch the train home. It started to snow really heavily on our way back to the hotel - it was really pretty and romantic, but bloody cold! We went back to the hotel bar and had a few more drinks and just sat and chatted. We woke up kind of late the next day and missed breakfast!

We had a lovely wander around Glasgow on the Saturday. I’d never been to the centre of Glasgow before, and always imagined it as kind of icky! It is nice though, and I would even go so far as to say that the shopping is better than Edinburgh! I didn’t buy very much except some card making stuff, but it was a great day.

Flooded and Spoilt

2010-11-23T22:43:00.001+01:00

And I don’t mean the weather, although we’ve had plenty of rain recently, and there have been quite a lot of little floods on the road. The River Nith in Dumfries hasn’t burst its banks yet, so we haven’t officially had proper flooding yet!

No, it’s not the weather, it’s the car.

I made a complete fool of myself yesterday. I felt like a pathetic, girly wuss.

Frazer was here for the weekend, and yesterday morning he headed off to work, as he had to do a site visit not far from here. As I was leaving to go to work, got into the car as normal, and tried to turn it on. Nothing. This is my nice, new car remember, so to say I was annoyed is putting it lightly. I thought it was the battery, so I called Frazer, who came back to try to jump start it. The last time I needed a jump start I discovered that there are loads of men, some living in my street, who don’t know how to do it! Incredible really. Every man should at least know how to ump start a car. Anyway, I digress…

The jump start didn’t work, and we decided that the battery was fine after all. I then called the autocare plan I have with the dealership where I got the car, and they said they’d send someone out.

An hour or so later, the nice AA man arrived (no, not Alcoholics Anonymous!). I explained what had happened, and he said he thought he knew what it was. He got into the car, turned on the ignition, and floored the accelerator until it started. Apparently the engine was just flooded. He asked me if I’d been anywhere the day before, or if I had just moved the car. I had only moved it, because we had spent Sunday afternoon cleaning the cars, and they were lovely and pristine! He said it’s a common fault in Vauxhalls, that if you start the engine and then stop it again within a few seconds, the engine floods, and because you haven’t let the engine run, it doesn’t un-flood. Not one I’ve ever heard of before – it never happened with the Corsa, and we had that for 13yrs. Anyway, he said that to sort it out you just put your foot down on the accelerator pedal and don’t pump it.

I felt such a fool. I buggered up Frazer’s work day and he had to resort meetings etc, I called an AA man out, and I was 2½ hours late for work, which I have since had to make up. All because the engine was flooded. He did say that he gets called out a lot for the same fault though.

So, not a good start to the week.

However, the end of the week should more than make up for it. After work on Friday, I am getting the train up to Glasgow to meet Frazer. Isla is staying over at her best friend’s house, and we are having a proper, grown up night out. I’ve never been to Glasgow, other than the airport, so I’m really looking forward to it.

Frazer told me he’d booked a cheap hotel for the night, which I was perfectly happy with, but then he told me he hadn’t actually booked that one, but the Grand Central Hotel instead! It’s seriously posh and smart, and I am so excited! We’re going out with some friends of his for a smart dinner (I have been told no jeans! L), and then some Christmas shopping on the Saturday before we come home. Massively excited, I’ve never stayed in a really posh hotel before! No idea what we’re eating, will wait and see!

And meanwhile I am preparing for Christmas. I’ve got quite a few presents sorted, and will get Isla’s and Frazer’s at the end of this week. Not a clue what to get my parents, but I’m sure I’ll find something! We’ve got a wee while to go yet!

Chavtastic!

2010-11-23T20:38:00.005+01:00

A more light hearted topic today – chavvy names people name their kids. I’ve been collecting the worst ones I’ve come across over the last few months, and some are truly awful! I have no idea where the parents find the names, or why they even think they are nice.

I think the easiest thing to do is list them and let you decide if you like them or not! Apologies to anyone whose kids’ names appear!

Lily-Maii

Emmie-Olivia

Morgan-Paige

Chelsea-May

Lo-Andri

Braedigh (Brady)

Destiny

Cayce (Casey)

Kaitelyn

D’Andre (pronounced dee-andray)

Precious

Braydon

Acer

Acerjoe (I think a few people love their computers far too much!)

Chance

Raggana

Evian

Ptolomy (maybe not chavvy but terrible anyway!)

Rubii (Ruby)

Lechelle

Keegan

Nevaeh (Heaven backwards!)

Tyreece

Acea

Jazmine (not too bad as a rule, but never with a Z!)

Kealan

Chanise

Kai

Brie

Tanicha

Tyrese

Kade

Tyrone

Andrewina

Tayen

Krystal

Carlene

Nimoy (maybe they didn’t like Spock?!)

Breock

Dememe

Daffodil

Amoy (Stirfry anyone?!)

Emaleigh

Abygayle

Talissa

Dilano

Prestella

Lemise

Antonesha

Neev (liked the name obviously but couldn’t spell it – it’s Niamh dimwits!)

Thomasina

Rio

Peaches

Jacy

Calice

L’Mel

Zakari

De’Kai

Blisse

And, of course, the old standbys…

Kayden and Jayden

What I can’t get over is the fact that some people like to name their kids perfectly nice, normal names, but for that little bit of “individuality” they muck about with the spelling – eg Emaleigh, Abygayle and Zakari - it's unique innit – what’s that all about? Perfectly good names until you mangled them! And adding “ii” onto the end of a name – unfortunately we have Jordan to thank for that with her Princess Tiaamii! Some of the names are clearly made up too.

I can’t understand why people would want to saddle their kids with appalling names. For example, how is Brie going to get on when she decides she wants to become a doctor or a solicitor? She’ll never be taken seriously! Dr Cheesey anyone? Or the Reverend Kayden? Or Destiny QC? Unfortunately, there is a section of our society that, in all probability, won’t get far in life, thanks to the names they have been saddled with by their parents. Thanks Mum and Dad, you ruined my dreams of becoming Prime Minister by naming me L’Mel!

I have looked at the top 100 baby names of 2010 for boys and for girls, and the vast majority of them are pretty normal. Some owe their origins to our multi-cultural society which is fair enough. And some are just simply awful.

What’s your opinion?

Britain vs France

2010-11-02T22:22:00.002+01:00

It shouldn't come down to this, but it does, time and time again. This post is in support of a fellow blogger who feels that she has been forced to stop her blog, due to some small minded people who seem unable to accept that there is another viewpoint to their own. I have had similar trouble in the past because of cyber bullying, and am sad and disappointed tht one of my favurite blogs is no longer being written. I am even sadder for the blogger, who really enjoyed writing it.

We have had similar experiences in moving back to UK from France, and it all happened around the same time, so it has been nice to be able to compare the experience.

I moved back here last year, and I have not regretted the decision one little bit. I do not miss France at all. If you are retired, and have the money to live there comfortably then yes, I'm sure it's a very lovely life, and good for you if that's the case. However, if you are younger and trying to eke out a living then it's a damned hard place to live. I spent nine years trying to get a proper job, and that's with fluent French. I spent all that time doing bits and pieces and living a hand to mouth existence. It's not living, it's surviving. And while I do know that not everyone has that experience, most of the people I know and knew, did have that experience.

My daughter went to school in France, and I actually had a good experience of the education system. She left half way through CM2 having been there since she was 3. The education was good, the teachers were brilliant, and the food was top notch. She made excellent friends there, and is constantly in touch with most of them still, through msn and facebook. The only complaint I had was that it was all a little too "learn by rote" for my taste, and I hated the fact that all french school kids have exactly the same handwriting, leaving little room for personality or creativity to shine through. My daughter is now at a school in Scotland and loving every minute of it. The education system in Scotland has always been regarded as excellent, and it gives her the chance for that creativity to blossom. The school food is ok - not a patch on that in France - but not as bad as I had feared it might be. Vegetables do actually appear regularly on the menu, despite what many people may think.

I don't get why some people get a perverse thrill from slagging off the country of their birth? They come up with reasons - I think they're excuses - as to their hatred of Britain.

It's too cold, it's too expensive, people are so miserable, it rains all the time, it's all so built up, it's all ugly, there is nowhere beautiful, the food is dreadful and so on and so forth. France is wonderful, France is this, that and the bloody other - get over yourselves! Why do you feel the need to do this? Does it make you feel big and clever to do nothing but criticise the country from whence you came? Does it give you pleasure?

It drives me mad!

OK, I used to live in France. But that does not mean that I hated Britain. In fact, it's quite the opposite. I love it, particularly Scotland.

OK, the weather in Britain isn't that great. But it's not constantly bad. On a sunny day there is no place more beautiful than, for example, Somerset or the Highlands, or Devon. The autumn in Scotland is the most beautiful season - the colours are incredible. In France the summers are hot, the winters are cold. Simple. The countryside is not as green as in Britain, and this is due to less rain. So, either more rain and beautiful, lush green grass, or less rain and brown dull fields. The one thing I desperately missed in France was the greennesss of Britain. Ok, we have to put up with more rain, but it’s worth it to not have to look out of the window and see brown, drab fields.

Too expensive - don't make me laugh! Have you tried filling your car up with petrol in France recently? It's cheaper in Britain you know. I generally shop in Tesco or Asda and the great majority of products are cheaper than you would find in Leclerc or Carrefour. Yes, this is probably due to the weak pound, but that's not going to change any time soon. About the only thing I can find that is more expensive is cigarettes and wine. Apart from them, most things seem cheaper. OK, in UK there is very expensive council tax, but for most people in France it's not that much cheaper. So stop whinging that Britain is expensive because, if you do your research, you'll find that it ain't necessarily so.

People are miserable? Durr, there's a recession on you know. And it isn't just in Britain either. Jobs are no easier to find in France, in fact it's harder to find a job in France, especially in rural areas, which is where most expats settle! In UK, people can find jobs, if they are willing to do anything. But stacking shelves or cleaning is so below some people that they would rather be on the dole and sponge off the government. And that's good why exactly?

It's all so built up is it? Have you ever been to rural Hampshire? Or Somerset? Or Dumfries and Galloway? The cities are built up, the countryside isn't. You could say the same of France, which has many cities that are hugely bigger than those in UK. Every country has its beautiful parts - don't generalise on the basis of inner cities.

The food in France is, in my opinion, not much cop. It's fine if you like steak, duck, greasy duck or goose liver, or baked bean with sausages which is all that cassoulet is. I'd rather have the Heinz variety personally. I have no idea where France's reputation as a gastronomic nation has come from. Britain, on the other hand, has some delicious food, and no, it's not all swimming in grease. Steak and Ale pie is the food of the gods! I know that Britain has some wonderful food, because I used to cook it for a living.

Compared to Britain, France isn't so wonderful. The thing that is wonderful about it, is that people can move there, where nobody knows them, and completely reinvent themselves, which is what a lot of people do. They can be anything they want to be, and there is no one around to contradict them. The expat community can be great, but you have to be careful who you tell what to, because if there is an opportunity to stab you in the back, there are many people who will do so.

The amount of people with whom I keep in touch, I can count on one hand. The friends that count are the ones I have had for years. Most of the people I knew in France were fairweather friends. Out of sight, out of mind, and that's just fine.

To those people who say they are “living the dream” – how I loathe and detest that phrase – are you really? Is it really your dream, and who are you trying to convince? Why do you think that you have to justify your overseas life by bashing the UK? For most of us it’s something we’ve tried because we quite fancied it. For some it works, and for some it doesn’t. Don’t criticise those who have had the balls to admit they’ve made a mistake and decided to go home again. Because it doesn’t matter how long you’ve lived in France, never forget that Britain is still home (in fact many people still have a house there so they have a bolthole in case it does all go horribly wrong).

So what's my conclusion? France has its good points, but so does Britain folks. And don't forget that, because, for most of you, it is Britain that is still paying your pension, your winter fuel allowance and your health care. Don't criticise the country that is paying for you to live out your old age in another country.

And don't be afraid to be proud to be British, whether it is English, Scottish, Northern Irish or Welsh. Well, maybe I'll let you off if you're Welsh!! But be British and proud. We should accept and embrace our own culture and country, and be proud of where we come from, and not deny our own roots.

Your country is not awful, it's actually a pretty great place.

Introducing F

2010-11-01T22:52:00.002+01:00

Ok, so for the last year or so (despite my absence of several months!) you’ve heard quite a bit about F. Well, he’s given me permission to use his name, not just his initial, so I’ll tell you a little more about him.

His name is Frazer, and we’ve been together for just over a year. We were actually at school together, and we went out for about three weeks at the end of 6^th year, back in 1995. It wasn’t the romance of the century, we decided we were better as friends, both went off to separate universities and lost touch for years. We kind of got back in touch through Facebook two or three years ago, but never actually corresponded. It wasn’t until I came back up here last year that we spoke again.

You know the story of me losing my job at the pub in Cheltenham and coming back up north? Well, Joocey arranged a night out in Dumfries for that first weekend I was back, and she contacted Frazer on Facebook and invited him along. As luck would have it, he was down that weekend for his mum’s birthday anyway, so he said yes. We had a great night out, and got on brilliantly again. We arranged that I would go up to see him the following weekend for a Festival show and a night out in Edinburgh. He’d bought a bottle of Moet for when I arrived, which I was impressed with! We had a great evening, and a really lovely weekend together, and have been together ever since.

Frazer lives in Edinburgh, but is working in Glasgow at the moment, so he’s down here more weekends that I’m up there, mainly because it’s easier with Isla, and she can still go out and play with her mates here, whereas she gets quite bored in the flat in Edinburgh, so we have to try to organise stuff to amuse her. Also, from Glasgow, it’s just as easy for him to come down here as it is to drive back to Edinburgh on a Friday night. We see each other most weekends, although now and again we have a weekend off to do our own thing. I miss him like mad during the week, but on the other hand, it makes the weekends more special, and after a year we both still make the effort for each other. He and Isla get on amazingly well, which was a massive worry.

We’ve had a few little ups and downs, but, without wanting to tempt fate, I’m really happy at the moment.

Lemon Meringue Pie

2010-10-13T22:43:00.004+02:00

This is the best Lemon Meringue Pie that I've come across. The biscuit base instead of pastry makes it a lot lighter, and I always do three times the amount of meringue that it says, because, as everyone knows, that's the best bit!

Can't claim it's my own recipe I'm afraid, but it's a goodie! Enjoy!

Technophobia

2010-10-13T22:37:00.002+02:00

It’s generally men of a certain age who are technophobes. Not even old men really, but late middle aged. In their last 20 or so years in work they must have worked with computers of one sort or another, yet they still stick firmly to their guns that they have no idea about “technology” – and they say it with the quotation marks too! Half the time I don’t even think they’re telling the truth. They must know something about computers, otherwise half of them wouldn’t have had jobs in the last 20 odd years or more. It’s not hard, most of these things are idiot proof and you just follow the instructions.

For some people it’s almost a badge of pride. “Oh no, I have no idea how to use this, I’m useless with technology”. They say this with a proud little smile, as though you’re meant to be impressed with that. Why would you be? When did this become something to be proud about? It’s all rather sad really.

As I said, it is generally men. Most women have had to come to grips with it, because the men won’t. It goes back as far as video players. How many people do you know who never knew how to programme their videos to record something? Or even now, refuse to embrace dvd’s because they’re to complicated?

I deal with this on a daily basis, and cannot understand how some people haven’t moved with the times. Fair enough, with the elderly people it is a bit difficult, but at least they have the gumption to ask for help. The technophobe man just shouts that he can’t do it because of course he’s just not very good with technology.

Why don’t these people pull their fingers out and join the 21^st century?

Interviews and Reviews

2010-10-13T22:23:00.002+02:00

A couple of links that you might be interested in looking at.

About 2 years ago I was approached by another blogger to do an interview about expat life in France which you can find here.

And the other night I discovered that my blog has been reviewed – favourably I might add – here.

Just thought I’d share these with you. You can find lots of other interesting blogs through these two links as well.

Interesting Weekend

2010-10-13T00:35:00.006+02:00

Well…that was an interesting weekend. I just met my biological father for the first time in 33 years.

To backtrack a little…on Bastille Day (14th July) my mum had been out for lunch, got home in the evening, switched on the computer, and found a message through Friends Reunited asking if she knew this particular person. She phoned me straight away, and basically said it was up to me what I did with the information. So I sent a message back via Friends Reunited giving my email address, and got an email back from his partner the same evening. He (J) doesn’t do email, so it was through his partner to start with. We started off exchanging a few letters and photographs, progressed to texting, then phone calls. And this weekend was the first actual meeting!

They came up on Saturday, and got here around 3ish. J and I nipped into town to get some steaks for dinner from the butchers, and left his partner here with Isla and F. Got back and had a lovely first evening – F and I got a bit sloshed – and we played Trivia which kind of broke the ice a bit – competitiveness will always do that! J&J went back to their hotel at about 2am! They stayed at the Lochinvar Hotel in the village, so was literally 2 minutes from the house!On the Sunday, F and I woke up slightly hungover! We had to go across to his parents’ to collect their car as F’s borrowing it this week as his clutch failed last week – the car saga continues! The only problem is, that that particular road is well known for making people ill! We had gone in J’s car, so it was me, F and Isla in the back. Neither F or I are good in the back of a car, but I wasn’t too bad. We had to stop though for F to get some fresh air as that road really makes him ill, even when he’s driving himself!! We had lunch in a café there, dropped F off at his parents, and I took J & J (his partner is also J so may have to think of something else other than initials!) into Dumfries to have a little look. We didn’t get out of the car but I showed them the nice places, and took them up to where I work. We then came home via Castle Douglas, and I showed them Loch Ken which is beautiful.

We had another lovely evening. I did a Raclette, which is a Swiss cheese dish where you grill meat on top and melt cheese underneath and have it with bread or cheese. It’s a very sociable meal and everyone was most impressed. We played Scrabble that night and I won! Obviously!

F had to go back to work on Monday morning (yesterday), but I had a couple of days off this week because it’s the October holidays. We went out in my car to a local distillery, Bladnoch, as J is a big single malt fan. We then went to the Isle of Whithorn, which is beautiful, and sat and had a drink by the little harbour there. Unfortunately, we got there just after the pub had stopped serving meals, so we went back into the town of Whithorn and found a café and had fish and chips. J and I did dinner together last night, and I set Isla to teach J (J’s partner J) how to use facebook, as she’s been on there for a couple of years but had no idea how to actually use it! While the dinner was cooking, J and I sat down and went through all the photographs he’s sent me so far, which was really interesting. Much better than just looking at them on my own. We had a lovely evening again, and they left about 11ish as they were leaving this morning.

So…today I’ve had a really lazy day! It was a lovely weekend, and very interesting, but it was nice to relax and wear scruffy clothes! All weekend I was well behaved, moderated my language, dressed nicely etc! Was nice to spend a day just slobbing! Went out to the doctors earlier, came back, had lunch and fell asleep on the couch! I woke up at 5.50, rushed down to the garage to get fuel for tomorrow – lucky that, as they close at 6!

So back to work tomorrow for a few days, and then it’s the weekend again! Phew! And next week I have three days off which will be lucky. Might be spending that weekend helping F pack up his flat as he’s trying to find somewhere else to live. We’ll see what happens!

Holidays

2010-09-24T23:41:00.012+02:00

In August, while Isla was in France, F and I went away for a few days on holiday. The original plan (his, I might add) was to take a tent and camp in the highlands for a few days. I was dubious about this, not being a tent kinda gal, but while I was checking out campsites on the web, I came across a website for the Loch Ness Caravan Park, which was offering Hobbit Houses. It’s like a barrel turned on its side, with a proper bed, a wee fridge and plugs for charging phones etc! Much more my style! Mentioned it to F and he duly got it booked.We went up during the second week of August, I’d arranged for a friend to come into the house and feed the cat every day. We decided to go in the Red Shed (the nickname for the Peugeot) as it used a lot less fuel than F’s car, and we were both insured to drive it so could share the driving. I went up to Edinburgh on the Friday night, and we headed off on the Saturday morning. Stopped for lunch near Perth – Perthshire is one of the most beautiful regions of Scotland, SO green and lovely! Made it to the campsite and found our wee Hobbit House, but were slightly disappointed as we didn’t have a loch view, it was obscured by bushes. We dumped our stuff, and went back into Fort Augustus (which we’d come through on the way) as it was the nearest place with shops and restaurants. We had the most delicious dinner – Balmoral Chicken – chicken breast on a bed of haggis with a rich and creamy honey, mustard and whisky sauce! It was totally delicious! I really must try making it at some point, and uploading the recipe if it works!The second day we decided to go up to Inverness to see Culloden and to try to find the Clava Cairns. We never did find the Cairns, and got hopelessly lost driving in circles around Inverness – honestly, they don’t believe in clearly signposting the way to their tourist attractions! We did, however, make it to Culloden. I’d been a few times before, but F had never been. I’d been there before in dreich sort of weather, and it can be quite an unsettling place to visit. You can feel the history all around you, and it can be quite bleak. That day however, the weather wasn’t too bad, and it just felt completely peaceful. It was lovely.We went back to the caravan site in the evening, to find a note on our door telling us to move along a couple of Hobbits. F had been to have a wee word with the boss that morning to have a bit of a moan about the lack of a loch view, and he said he’d do what he could for us. And lo and behold we got our loch view!We arrived to find a new bunch of people had moved in just for one night next door. They were sort of late 20’s, and were already sitting at the picnic table having already eaten and made a good start on a drunken evening. We quickly caught up, and had a really brilliant evening.Unfortunately, they left the next day, and we got the Weegie (Glaswegian) family from hell, who didn’t believe in talking to their children nicely when shouting would do the job so much better! Did wonders for our hangovers! We escaped to a very smart nearby hotel, where F mainlined pots of tea and I had diet coke, and we had a very nice dinner there too. We didn’t do a lot of exploring that day, but did drive quite a way along the loch so that I could take some pictures of Urqhuart Castle.The next day we went back into Fort Augustus and went on a boat trip up the loch. The weather wasn’t bad, and the boat trip was lovely.The plan then was to go back south into Perthshire to stay there and have a look at F’s clan castle. Well, we got down there, through some appalling weather. I’d have loved to have taken some gorgeous pictures of Glencoe as we drove through, but the rain was pelting down so hard that there was no way I was going to expose myself to it, let along my camera! F slept most of the way! He’s not the most exciting person for a road trip – he’s like a big kid, the car makes him go to sleep! Anyway, we got down to Aberfeldy, andcould find a hotel for love nor money. Well…that’s not entirely true. Money would have done it…and extortionate amount in fact. As we were only about an hour away from Edinburgh we decided just to get back there to F’s flat. We stopped off for dinner in Perth, when the car started to make a funny noise. We pulled up on the main street, and discovered we had a puncture. Looked for the jack…there wasn’t one! Luckily, F is a member of the RAC, so they came to change the wheel. In the meantime, we found a great little Chinese buffet style restaurant, just off the main street. I have to say, I was quite proud of the Red Shed – we did about 800 miles in it, and the only problem was a puncture. It did us proud!

We got back to Edinburgh and had a day or so to recover before we started our festivalling! I had never seen anyone famous, so we had a couple of shows booked. We saw Greg Davies (amazingly funny), Ardal O’Hanlon (brilliant), some skinny Australian dude called Sammy J, a freebie Ghanaian Scottish comedian and Axis of Awesome who were, in a word, awesome!! So, I got my fill of famous people! I also got winked at by a famous actor that I recognised, but still cannot for the life of me remember his name! Very irritating!

We had about 10 days off together and it was lovely, it was just a shame to have to come home and get back to work. I think we’ll have to go back up to Loch Ness at some point with Isla as she’d love it there.

Maybe next year…

Last 6 months in a nutshell

2010-09-24T23:00:00.004+02:00

Right, well…hmmmm…if I have any blog readers left then my sincere apologies for not updating since April! Jeez, that’s half a year ago! I can only hope that I show up on your RSS thingummyjigs, otherwise no bugger’s ever going to read this again!

Life has had its ups and downs since then; mainly due to cars, as you’ll know if you’re friends with me on Facebook! I had a wee bit of an accident in the Corsa back in June, rendering it unuseable ever again.Needing a car I jumped at the first one available (M reg Peugeot 405 estate) which, in retrospect, was a mistake.The first hint of mistakenness was when the alternator decided to pack up, leaving me broken down, outside the Caledonian Hotel in the middle of Edinburgh! This was not a good couple of days! The car got fixed, and I stuck with it for a few months until I was reliably informed that it would be more worthwhile taking it to the scrappies rather than getting the MOT done! To be fair, I was going to try to flog it anyway, even if it had passed the MOT, because it was far too big for me. I have no need for an estate car, and the engine was too big too. So, car was duly delivered to scrapyard, who gave me £100 for it, and I now have a nice Astra on HP.I decided that it was ridiculous buying a cheap car which would die on me in a couple of months, and it was worth seeing if I’d be accepted for finance to get something decent. So, happy bunny now!

So the car troubles have been a large part of my life for about the last four or five months! There have been some ups though, as well as the downs! I’m still seeing F, and he and Isla get on really well together, which is a big relief! Isla went back to France for her summer holidays, and F and I went away for a few days up north, which I’ll talk about in a separate post.

The job is still going ok, I’m trying to see if I can get further in it, as I’m kind of bored with what I’m doing, so we’ll see if that pays off.

Well, that’s kind of up to date in a very small nutshell! I will try to be better at blogging, I’ve just kind of let it lapse recently!

Must try harder :-)

What have you done?

2010-04-13T01:48:00.003+02:00

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to DisneyWorld
8. Climbed a mountain - sort of - have driven up the Pyrenees!
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bunjee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own veggies
19. Seen the Mona Lisa at the Louvre
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillowfight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not sick
24. Made a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Ran a marathon
27. Went skinny dipping
28. Rode in a gondola in Venice
29. Witnessed total eclipse
30. Seen a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run - in rounders!
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace/ home of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish country
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David in person
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Taken a ride in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted (Does art class in Std 8 count?)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower - three quarters of the way anyway!
50. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
51. Kissed in the rain
52. Played in the mud
53. Gone to a drive-in theater
54. Been in a movie (this one is a stretch I was in a TV advert).
55. Visited the Great Wall of China
56. Started a business
57. Taken a martial arts class
58. Visited Russia
59. Worked at a soup kitchen
60. Sold Girl Scout cookies
61. Gone whale watching
62. Gotten flowers for no reason
63. Donated blood, platelets, or plasma
64. Gone sky diving
65. Visited Nazi concentration camp
66. Bounced a check
67. Flown in a helicopter
68. Saved a childhood toy
69. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
70. Eaten caviar
71. Pieced a quilt
72. Stood in Times Square
73. Toured the Everglades
74. Been fired from a job
75. Seen the changing of the guards in London
76. Broken a bone
77. Been a passenger on a motorcycle
78. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
79. Published a book
80. Visited the Vatican
81. Bought a brand new car - well, have been bought a brand new car anyway!
82. Visited Jerusalem
83. Had your picture in the paper
84. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
85. Visited the White House
86. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
87. Had chickenpox
88. Saved someone’s life
89. Sat on a jury
90. Met someone famous
91. Joined a book club
92. Got a tattoo
93. Had a baby
94. Seen the Alamo in person
95. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
96. Been involved in a law suit
97. Owned a cell phone
98. Been stung by a bee
99. Swam in the Black Sea
100. Sold term life insurance
Go on copy and paste, you know you want to! Anyone can participate!

Six Month Anniversary

2010-04-07T02:10:00.002+02:00

Easter Sunday was the six month anniversary of when I moved into my wee house! Doesn't seem that long at all, and I'm amazed at how much I've achieved in that six months. The only room left to decorate is the sitting room.

We had a great Easter weekend. On Saturday we went down to Carlisle and met up with F, Joocey and her bloke and her sister. We went bowling, which was fun, and I almost equalled my previous best score! It was Isla's first time bowling, and she actually did ok!

We went back to Dumfries after that, had KFC, and then went home. F was down for the whole weekend, and we spent Sunday chilling out watching movies and eating chocolate (compulsory!), and on Monday we did some more chilling, then went swimming and had a Chinese before F had to go back up to Edinburgh.

Excellent weekend - the next one planned is May Bank holiday when we've got Edinburgh touristy stuff planned.

Hope your weekend was just as good!

Life As We Now Know It

2010-03-21T20:41:00.003+01:00

So, since then life has been just me and Isla. I’m at work, she’s at school and life is good! She's settled in at school brilliantly, has made a few friends, and is finding the work easy! We’ve been out for a couple of walks when the weather’s been good and seen friends. Last week was Mother’s Day, and our plan was to go to the fair. I’d also had a text from F the night before asking us if we wanted to join him and his mum at the cinema to see Alice In Wonderland. We got into town and the fair was shut, so we had chips, and met them at the cinema. The movie was pretty rubbish, and F kept falling asleep and starting to snore! Isla and his mum enjoyed it though, and afterwards we went and got a coffee (well, diet coke for me and Isla!) and had a chat for a bit. It was Isla and F’s first meeting, and they hit it off almost too well! Within minutes they were ganging up on me!! In a good way though!

After that, we went home via the Cat Protection place and got a pussy cat! He’s about 1 or 2, they’re not quite sure, and he’s gorgeous. He’s called Milo – not massively keen on the name but he seems to know it and no one has come up with a better alternative so it’s going to have to stick! He’s a bit nuts, but I think it’s the first time he’s lived in a house. He is lovely though, and since the second night he has slept on my bed and purrs louder than a steam train!
This weekend was meant to be a weekend of intense relaxation but it didn’t quite work out that way. I got home from work on Friday night, made dinner and fell asleep on the couch. Joocey phoned – she was in Edinburgh staying with her sister – to tell me that they had picked up a waif and stray (F) in the supermarket, were having a party and I should come up. F shouted that he’d pay my fuel – being the end of the month I’m a bit skint! – and so within ten minutes we were on the road having packed a bag, sorted out the cat and got going! We got up there eventually after a massive diversion that took us through all the highways and byways! Isla stayed up for a while playing Nintendo with F and whupping his ass! I mainlined the first vodka, and within an hour had caught up with all the others! I’m a lightweight when it comes to alcohol which is always god as it makes a cheap night out, and means I can arrive late at a party and be caught up with everyone really quickly! Isla went to bed, and after that it turned into a pretty raucous evening with motown music, dancing, learning how to throw bottles and juggling lessons! It was a brilliant night. F and I went back to his flat at about 4am – I woke Isla and we got a taxi and she went straight to bed when we got there. We stayed up another hour or so catching up, and then went spark out! The next morning we were both hungover but I got up and made breakfast and we all slobed on the sofa watching Fantastic Mr Fox, which was crap! We went across to Joocey’s sister’s to collect the car, Isla went into town with Joocey for a bit of a walk around Edinburgh, and F and I went back to the flat for a while.

I collected Isla around 7 last night, and we came home. I saw a shooting star over the Dalveen Pass which was pretty amazing. I’ve seen loads of shooting stars in France, but never one here.

And today we’ve managed to do some heavy duty relaxing. Although I’ve got a couple of jobs done too. I have birthday cards made until the end of May and managed to fix my coffee table so it no longer wobbles!

The next thing to look forward to is Easter weekend. We’re all getting together again and going bowling in Carlisle which should be a laugh. And then I have some time off work which will be fantastic!

Settling In

2010-03-21T20:33:00.003+01:00

February was spent decorating! My mum and dad came over at the end of the month, so before that I had to get Isla’s room decorated and the spare room, so most of my spare time was taken up doing that. Had another weekend in Edinburgh and went bowling again, and on the Saturday we had a great touristy day wandering around the old town and happy snapping which was great.
We had snow again though which wasn’t so great, as on my way to work one day, the day my parents and Isla were travelling up through France, I had quite a bad accident in the car. I hadn’t even got a quarter of the way there, got caught in a skid, couldn’t control it and went into a really deep ditch going into the back of the car who had got caught in the same skid about 10 minutes before me. I knew it was going to happen for about 30 seconds before it actually did and did this pathetic little scream as I was descending into the ditch! I then had to struggle to get out of the car as it was at such an angle in the ditch, and then had to stand around in the blizzarding snow waiting for my best mate and his dad to arrive to rescue me.We managed to find a farmer to pull the car out, and J drove it back to Castle Douglas while I went in the car with his dad. J took me down to their house, fund me some dry, warm clothes and I had a hot shower because I was totally freezing through to my bones. By 9pm tht night, the car was driveable home as they ordered the parts in the morning and got it done straight away. I don’t know what I would do without them.

And two days later, Isla arrived! She has settled in brilliantly! She and my mum and dad arrived on the Friday, we had Joocey over at the weekend, and Isla started school on the Monday. My mum and dad were here for a week, and during that time we got the kitchen decorated and my dad completed the list of jobs I had for him! It wasn’t really long enough though, as they had to get back down south to see Grandma for a little while before heading back to France.

Long time no see!

2010-03-21T20:27:00.003+01:00

I apologise for being a useless blogger over the last few months! Things have been pretty hectic and every night when I sit down on the couch I fall asleep, hence the reason the blog has been neglected!

The last post was New Year – a lot has happened since then!

January started off ok but we had loads of snow and I got stuck at home for four days as I couldn’t get the car out of the street! I was seriously bored! It’s fine being at home when you have the choice, but when you’re stuck it’s not exactly fun! It took 5 big, strong men, with sack loads of grit to push the car out of the ice patch it was stuck on! The problem was that the snow we'd had before Christmas hadn't melted and had just turned to ice, and then it snowed again on top of that! I love snow normally, but you can have too much of it!I had a great long weekend in Edinburgh staying at F’s and we went to see some comedy at the Stand which was good. The car broke down on my last day up there and I just fell apart! It wouldn’t start and F arranged for a garage to come and pick it up but it hit me really hard. My problem is that the small stuff gets to me…I can cope with big problems, but it’s the small ones that are the last straw. It turned out that it was just the spark plugs, but it really got to me for some reason.

I went bowling to in Ayr one weekend, got thoroughly beaten by F, who’s practically a flipping pro, but I hadn’t been since I was about 14! Oh, and on one weekend in Edinburgh I also got the chance to get a book signed by my favourite author, Diana Gabaldon, which was pretty cool. I only saw her for about a minute, but I have my book all signed! Went with a rotten hangover too so it was a struggle, but I was determined to get there! It's not every day you get to meet your favourite author!

Hapy New Year

2010-01-10T20:34:00.006+01:00

Yes, I know it's been ages! I've been a tad busy!

Christmas in France was great, although I did miss out on a UK white Christmas! The recent weather has made up for all that though, with me being snowed in last week unable to get to work! The problem is, that in my wee street the snow that fell before Christmas never cleared up and just turned into ice, so the more recent snow has fallen onto that and made driving pretty treachorous!

F was down last weekend, and we went out on the Monday for a swim and dinner before he headed back up to Edinburgh. I came home, parked the car, and overnight it snowed. I tried to get the car out the next day to go to work, but it was stuck on the ice and wouldn't move! I had to phone into work, and apparently I wasn't the only one not able to get in, which made me feel a bit better. I was off work for three days unable to get in. The only reason I got the car out eventually was because the other day I saw a van in the street with a bunch of men with grit and shovels. They put loads of grit under all four tyres, and it took the five of them to push the car off the ice! The road to Castle Douglas was dreadful, but Loch Ken was totally frozen over and snowed on - the first time in my entire life that has ever happened! It was spectacular!

It is stunningly beautiful at the moment - because the snow has been lying for so long, it's got that crispy crust on the top and during the day it sparkles in the sunshine. Driving home at night with the headlights on, it's like there are millions of tiny fireflies on the ground.

Despite the problems the snow brings, it is nothing compared to the problems they're having down south. Out main problem is a lot of ice, and no salt for the roads. In the south of England they have extremely heavy snow, and there are a lot of people left without power. So I'm not complaining! I spent my days off making soup and casseroles and filling the freezer up with nice, warming food!

My favourite author is coming up to Scotland too, so fingers crossed I can get my books signed! I know, it doesn't sound very rock'n'roll, but I've always been a bookworm, and Diana Gabaldon's books ust suck you in so that you believe you are living them. She's doing a book signing in Edinburgh so I'm hoping that I'll be able to get there. To learn more about her books, visit her website here or visit Karen Henry's brilliant blog, Outlandish Observations, about the books here.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

2009-12-09T00:14:00.004+01:00

I know I'm a bit early! In fact, my Christmas tree went up before December even began! But...I have an excuse for it! Throughout December everyone has things planned, that have generally been planned for ages, so there was only one weekend that I could do a full Christmas dinner for me, F, Joocey and her bloke A before I go back to France for a week over Christmas. And I really wanted to do a proper Christmas dinner, mainly because I really miss cooking for other people! It's no fun cooking for yourself.

So, we didn't have turkey, but I did a big roast chicken with all the trimmings, and it was delicious, followed by homemade apple crumble because I hate Christmas pudding, and I don't cook things I don't like! Also there are all these things that I keep telling F that I can cook, and apparently my excuse is generally that I can't because the ingredients/utensils/pots etc are in France! So it was apple crumble - with a Christmassy twist though, with ground cinammon and ginger in the crumble.
We all had small presents for each other to make it feel like Christmas, and ended up a bit pissed playing Trivial Pursuit! Joocey wasn't drinking because she had to drive, but the rest of us did!

So, apart from that, not a lot has been happening. I was off work for a week with gastroenteritis and only went back a week ago. On the plus side though, I did get all my Christmas shopping done while I was off - I love Amazon! I've got everyone sorted out, and my suitcase will have more presents in than clothes when I go to France!

Very little else has been happening in my life, mainly because I have spent a lot of time decorating my hall, stairs and landing! It no longer has a green ceiling and peach walls, and looks great! It is about 100 times brighter in there now!

Will try to blog before I go away, but the next post will, in all likelihood, be either from France or be after I get back! I've not been great at it recently!

So, if I don't get back to you before then, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Even Older Friends

2009-11-18T10:00:00.000+01:00

I got back to the UK, as I said, on the Thursday, and I had my housewarming planned for the Sunday! So, I had to do last finishing touches on the bedroom before Saturday! F came down on the Saturday evening, and I met him at my house after work. Did a lot of catching up, and ate sweet n sour chicken – the recipe for which I will post later – I’ve been very lax about posting recipes recently – I’ve got a few beauties! Anyway…everyone arrived on the Sunday, Joocey brought a great big tin of Roses, which disappeared very quickly, we had pizza and oven baked Camembert and French bread and had a great laugh! F had brought some sparklers with him, so we took L’s kids outside and they played with sparklers for the first time, and by the time they left they thought F was the greatest thing since sliced bread!!

They all left at about 6 because L had to get home with the kids, and Joocey had to get back to Carlisle to do some studying – she’s doing her PGCE at the moment. We had a quiet night, and the next day went to Ayr for the day. It was cold, but sunny and we had a lovely time wandering about. F had a flat tyre, which turned into a car maintenance lesson when he showed me how to put air in my tyres and check the pressures!! Been driving for 14yrs, and only just learned that one! Next lesson is changing a wheel!
So, the last few days have been quiet ones! I decided to have an easy week. No decorating, just chilling out between my shifts at work. I’m off today and tomorrow and today I’ve just sat quietly playing about on Facebook and watching rubbish! I’ll have another lie in tomorrow morning, and then go into Castle Douglas for lunch time and get a couple of Macaroni Pies and go to see some friends. Then it’s up to Edinburgh next weekend to help F do some decorating in his flat! My life is a constant round of excitement!

Old Friends

2009-11-17T10:00:00.000+01:00

The weekend before I went to France, my friend that I stayed with in Tewkesbury came up to see me. She had a hellish journey up due to weather, roadworks and accidents (I don’t believe the accidents bit – there are signs on the M6 saying accident but I can’t imagine there was an accident in exactly the same place two weeks in a row – I believe her, just not the roadsign!!). We spent a very lazy morning on the Sunday, and then went out and about and I showed her the house I grew up in, the house where my cousins lived, and took her to Castle Douglas to have a look and meet my best mate J, who wasn’t in!! But his wife L was in so we saw her and their wee girl who is extremely cute! So, my mate got to meet a couple of genuine Scottish people and I had to translate for her! Although the weather was a bit crap, she was bowled over by the countryside, and actually said she could see why I love it here and wanted to come back. The next day was better, so before she left we went into Dumfries so I could show her about, she bought a couple of souvenirs, and we had lunch in town. She thought the town was gorgeous too! So, all in all, it was a successful trip despite the weather! It was brilliant to see her and to catch up, and hopefully we’ll be able to do it again soon, and for longer so I can show her more, and take her to Edinburgh etc and meet up with some friends in town and have a night out. Is she ready for a night out in Dumfries I wonder? It’s certainly not what she’s used to!

Back and Forth

2009-11-16T10:00:00.000+01:00

I was in France for 5 days. The only flight we could find was from Bristol, so I had to drive down there. I had to leave at 5am, drive though the torrential rain most of the way, and eventually arrived at Bristol with about an hour to spare. I stopped at Tewkesbury for fuel, mainly because I knew Morrisons was only a spit from the motorway and I wasn’t willing to pay ridiculously inflated motorway prices! My mum phoned me a couple of times during the morning, and F phoned too which was great because they kept me awake! By that point I was seriously flagging! And before anyone says “oh but you shouldn’t use the phone when you’re driving” I was on Bluetooth!

France was great! When I got to the airport, Isla came rushing up to me on her roller blades, so she could roll straight into a massive cuddle! There wasn’t much time to relax while I was there – the first day we went shopping and had a party in the evening. All the usual suspects came, and it was brilliant to see everyone. They all seemed genuinely interested in what I’ve been doing, where I live and what I’ve been up to since April. God, is it really that long!? I didn’t get to eat much food, but drank a lot and ended up going to be feeling quite pissed!

The next day we went to Spain for the day! The mountains were spectacular, the weather was clear and chilly with blue skies, and we bought some cheap cigarettes in Spain, and some booze for Christmas!On the Wednesday I went to another party at a friend’s house, and saw some more people and had another great night! And then I flew back here on the Thursday. It really wasn’t long enough, but it was great to see Isla and get loads of cuddles! It did make me realise though that I don’t miss France at all – I miss the people there, but not the place. And it was brilliant to see everyone.

2009-11-15T22:25:00.003+01:00

This is my current favourite recipe! In Dumfries we have a great Chinese restaurant called The Pearl Palace (lovingly known as the Pearl Necklace!). I've eaten there a couple of times with F, and they do a great Sweet and Sour chicken. I decided to research the recipe to try to come up with the one most like it. This is it in it's entirety.

However...I have made certain time saving alterations!

In my head I have totally dispensed with all that time wasting chicken tenderising and battering - to be honest who can be arsed when Cap'n Birdseye does lovely Chicken Dippers! So, what I do is to make the sauce up first thing in the morning (without cooking it or adding cornflour) so all the flavours can intensify throughout the day. Then, when it gets to dinner time, I stick the chicken dippers in the oven - about six each - until they are nice and crispy. I then stick the sauce on the heat, add the pineapple, carrot (which I use a cheese slice to cut so you get nice slivers), and bit of onion and a few bits of green pepper. I use arrowroot istead of cornflour (two teaspoons to a bit of water, mix it up and chuck it in while stirring). When it's nice and thick, take out the crispy chicken dippers and put them in a bowl, put the sauce over and serve immediately with rice. If you're really lazy you can get microwave rice! The taste is great - it's like that really sweet sweet and sour sauce you get in crappy chinese restaurants whch we all scoff at but secretly love! By the way, F loved it!

Make and enjoy!

Another Award

2009-11-15T21:38:00.003+01:00

It's very remiss of me, but I haven't yet told you I got another award at the end of August from Karen over at Outlandish Observations. If you like Diana Gabaldon books - in particular the Outlander series, then I suggest you check out her blog. I haven't loked at it recently, mainly because I haven't read the new book yet, and I don't want to ruin the surprise! I'll be back over there though once I've read it!

Apparently I need to share three things about myself with you, and then pass it on to three other inspiring bloggers.

Hmmmm, here goes...

1) After nine years living in SW France I am finally living back home in Scotland and loving it.

2) I'm a big fan of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here - I don't care how z-list the so called celebrities are - it's a fun show!

3) I have just discovered Fruit Bread - it tastes like slices of Hot Cross Buns, and I have it toasted for breakfast every morning! I love this country! The food is fab!

Sorry it's not hugely exciting, but I couldn't think of anything else right now!

1) Home Is Where The Marmite Is
Another returnee from France - reading her blog made me realise that other people felt similarly to me living there, rather than just waffling on about the "perfect french lifestyle"! It's also her first award on the new blog so yippee!

2) Bring The Rain
Because Angie, the writer, is a truly inspirational woman. I'm not a religious person myself, but her blog has reduced me to tears more times than I care to mention.

3) Drover's Run
Because girl geeks are cool :-)

Getting My House In Order

2009-11-15T20:26:00.005+01:00

I’ve had a really busy few weeks, and I am shattered! For the last week I have done no decorating or anything, just taking life easy – in between going to work, which doesn’t half get in the way of relaxing!! My days off this week are being spent in the pursuit of doing absolutely nothing, nada, niente!

Since the end of August I’ve been working really hard at work, trying to make my mark there, as I’m still in my three month probation period there. I don’t forsee any problems, but still you do tend to be on your best behaviour for a while to start with!! I’m enjoying the job actually –it’s far more interesting than I thought it would be. Unfortunately I can’t really tell you any details about it – Data Protection and all – but all I can say is that the company I work for is Hospedia and they’re the people who deal with the personal TV and Telephone units by patients’ bedsides in hospitals across the UK. It’s nice to have a job that I quite enjoy, it’s not physically taxing, bar the hours, and I don’t have to wear my scruffiest clothes as I did when I was decorating, it’s not physically demanding like cheffing, and there’s not as much responsibility as dog sitting! I turn up, do my job, and go home again – it’s what I’ve wanted for a long time – just to be a wage slave for a while. And I have to say, I don’t miss the shagging lovebirds at one of the house I used to dogsit at!!

I moved into my wee house at the beginning of October, with the help of some of my favourite people! Since then I have been constantly on the go, first of all decorating the bathroom, as you saw in the last post! I’ve also decorated my bedroom now. It was pink before – dusky pink ceiling, different shade of pink on the walls, white cornices and old white skirting boards. The painting on the walls only went part way up – it stopped about six inches from the cornice. Obviously the previous tenants were going to put a border up but never got around to it! Anyway, I decided I couldn’t leave it, so decorated! The ceiling and cornices are white, the walls good old magnolia and the skirting boards dark purple – almost aubergine. I got some black silk (well, faux silk!) curtains from the B&M store (my new favourite shop as we don’t have The Range up here!), a new purple satin bedding set (which looks gorgeous but is slippy as hell – you lose your pillows overnight!) and hung some pictures on the wall and the room is now transformed! I can’t do much about the carpet right now unfortunately, but I can live with it. It ties in ok with the colour scheme! It’s a big room with very little furniture in it, but I’m still waiting for my stuff to come back from France. It will feel more homely eventually.
So, in the middle of decorating, I went to France for a week! I always set myself impossible tasks – one of them was finishing the bedroom before I went away, which didn’t happen! I had to do some last bits and pieces when I got back!

Back Home

2009-10-13T00:50:00.006+02:00

Well...where do I start? It's ages since I last updated my blog, and I'm sorry if you've all been desperate for news! I know you haven't been really, but it's a nice thought!

The last time I updated I hadn't been back up here very long. Everything has changed hugely. Within the first week I was back, I had an interview for a job in a local call centre. To be perfectly honest, I had no recollection of applying for it, so when they phoned me to invite me for an interview I was surprised to say the least! I've figured it out now - I had applied for a call centre job through an employment agency in Cheltenham - never realising it was actually up here! What's for you won't go by you and all that! Anyway, I got the job, and I've been working there for nearly two months and surprisingly I'm really enjoying it!

For the first few weeks I stayed with one of my best mates, Joocey, whose parents were brilliant and let me stay in their house. After a few weeks, I moved to one of my other best mate's house, Lara. She was also brilliant letting me stay there. I had a look at rentals, and the council and there was really nothing nice around the town where I could see myself being happy. Another friend phoned me one afternoon to say that he knew of a house being rented, in the village where I went to primary school. I went out to see it, met the landlords and really loved it. It needed a bit of TLC, but certainly nothing beyond my abilities. The only problem was that I didn't have the deposit. My mum and dad said they could manage to come up with it, but not until the end of the month, so I seriously needed to think about it.

I went up to Edinburgh for the weekend, which I've done quite a bit of...and talked it over with another friend. Joocey was off back at uni by then - she's studying to become a teacher - and Lara and I were like ships that passed in the night!! With both of us doing shifts we actually rarely saw each other! So, I needed to talk to someone about it just to get another point of view. Anyway, F, the friend in Edinburgh, said I'd be daft if I didn't go for it. I got a call while I was up there from the landlords saying that they had other people interested, but if I could come up with half the deposit up front they'd hold the house for me until the end of the month. I then didn't have a clue what to do, until F said he'd lend me half the deposit until the end of the month.

So...to cut a very long story short, I now have my own wee house! It's an ex-council house, right on the edge of a small village. Like I said, the house needs a little TLC, but I have made a start! I don't have any of my furniture from France here yet, but my best mate J and his family have lent me a few bits and pieces, and his mum has a furniture shop, so I've bought a few bits and pieces too. I have a lovely king size bed! I have already decorated the bathroom - it was definitely the most drastic - dark blue dolphin wallpaper! Looks much better now!

While I really appreciate everyone's help over the last couple of months, it is so nice to come home every night to my own wee house. I keep falling asleep on the couch though!!

The one downside is that I still don't have Isla here yet. I'm working shifts, and until I can sort out regular hours it's not do-able. She's really excited about coming over now that I have a house for us. I think she had visions of us living in a grotty little flat somewhere in a town with no garden, but instead we have a three bedroom house in a village surrounded by fields! She's starting to look forward to it, instead of dreading leaving France. I'm missing here like mad though.

It is amazing to be home. A fellow blogger recently had an article published in the Daily Mail - I know some of you read her blog too so have probably seen it. The comments that were left on the article by readers were incredible - people really have no idea of tongue-in-cheekness or humour, or even what expat life in France is really like. People have this Peter Mayle vision of delightful locals who'll welcome you with open arms and fawn all over you, but it's not like that. Life is hard - if you're working it's pretty much a hand to mouth existence. Something normally comes along when you need it, but you can't rely on it. There are some truly lovely people there, expats and French both, but there are also some real oddbods. There's a massive "arty" community down there - people move to places like that and totally reinvent themselves. They may have been an office manager in UK for example, move to France and suddenly become an "artist" - by the way, that little example is based on no one as I don't know any ex-office manager artists, so if it's you, don't sue me because I don't know you!

It is so refreshing being back in the UK, especially up here. Not down south so much, because a lot of people have too much to prove down there and they work too hard to have fun. But up here, generally with people what you see it what you get. I'm living in a village about three miles from where I grew up and loving it.

I really feel that I've come home.

All Change

2009-08-07T15:52:00.005+02:00

Well, it’s kind of hard to know where to start. My last post was about when my friend came down to Cheltenham to visit me. What I didn’t add was that before he arrived, in the kitchen I had the most almighty row with the boss about blaming the right people for the right misdeeds. It didn’t go down very well, and at one point he threatened to throw me out. Somehow we got over that little blip though, and I spent a really good couple of days off with my friend.

Fast forward two weeks. I’ve had no days off because I’ve been doing a painting job on my days off as I don’t earn enough. I haven’t eaten properly for weeks – working with food all day puts you off eating – I’m tired and run down, my stomach’s not right so I go to my mate’s house for a bit of TLC and Mummy type food.

On the Wednesday morning, I was due back at work. I drove back over to the pub feeling awful and went to find the manager straight away to tell him I wasn’t able to work as I had a stomach bug. It is a legal requirement that you have to do that, as you could spread all sorts of germs to the general public. He got angry with me, so I handed in my notice. Then I went upstairs to pack as I knew he wouldn’t want me working the week’s notice but would throw me out immediately.

He came up after about half an hour and knocked on my door. True to form he told me to be out by the end of the day. I told him that I would be out, but not until he had paid me to date.

Then I had a little fall apart – but not in front of him! I managed to get all my stuff packed, and into the car in the pouring rain and got totally soaked, in between frequent toilet trips as I was feeling quite seriously ill. I eventually did get my money out of him, but not without a little tussle.

So, from there back to my mate’s house where I started off. I stayed there for a few days and we had a lot of mutual support because she’s got crap to deal with too. Then, on the Tuesday I left and came back up to Scotland. I was coming up anyway, I just came earlier. I’ve been here for about ten days and it’s like I’ve never been away. I’ve caught up with loads of people who I missed, and other who I didn’t realise I’d missed! I’ve been madly applying for jobs and was offered a bar one that I didn’t want to take as it meant working until 3 or 4am. I had to spend fifteen quid on a pair of flat shoes I didn’t like for a job that I didn’t want! Anyway, I have had another job offer which is a much better one (not hospitality!) and more suited to me so I’m taking that one. It should enable me to get things on track to get Isla back here.

So, phew! That’s you up to date. I’ve actually had a ball being back, between job hunting. I’ve caught up with my very best friends, some of whom are practically family. I’ve explored some old haunts, and got pissed and sang karaoke with my best mates! I went to Edinburgh last Monday and am going back up this weekend for some festival stuff. I have to say, I am so happy to be home. The sooner I can get Isla back here the better.

Happy days!

The following photos are of my hometown. See...it doesn't ALWAYS rain in Scotland!!

2009-08-07T15:48:00.002+02:00
Madame VLiF,

Je te remercie pour mon prix de blogdom.

J'éspère que ta nouvelle vie sera fantastique et que la France ne te manquera trop!

Bisous,

Kat.

All Change

2009-07-25T13:03:00.002+02:00
There's a big update coming soon - everything has changed and I will explain it all later.

Have been a tad stressed over the last couple of weeks to blog! Sorry for the neglect!

Friendship

2009-07-13T01:35:00.001+02:00

I know I haven’t been very good about updating here recently but there’s been a lot of stuff going on and I didn’t really know where to start.

You remember I posted about Facebook the other day? Well I’ve got in touch with a few people from various schools that I’ve been to and it’s been nice to catch up and everything. Then the other week I found an old friend who I lost touch with years ago – I was 14 the last time I saw him! We chatted for a couple of days on Facebook and text, then a three hour phone call. Then last week he came down to see me and it was like the last god knows how many years hadn’t happened – no awkwardness or anything. It was great. It was like putting on your most comfortable trainers after wearing high heeled boots for hours. The first night we just talked for hours and hours! We had a lovely day exploring Cheltenham and Gloucester and just sat the second night chatting and watching movies.

It was really good to catch up and to feel like the years in between just melted away.

I found a great quote the other night that just sums it up perfectly – “True friendship isn't about being inseparable, it's being separated and nothing changes.” I have no idea who said it, but it’s a lovely sentiment and very true. I have other friends, who I don’t see from one year to the next, but when we do, the time in between is of no consequence because we just slot straight back into the easy friendship that it’s always been.

That’s the best type of friend to have.

Another Pointless Getting to Know Me Meme

2009-07-12T23:17:00.001+02:00
I'm very bored, so this is the best I can come up with at the moment I'm afraid!

1. How old do you look? Younger than my age apparently!
2. Where do you live? Just outside Cheltenham for now.
3. Are you waiting for something? I'm always waiting for something - I don't know what, but I will know it when it happens.
4. What’s one pet peeve of yours that is not common? Messy tea and coffee drinkers.
5. Do you want/have kids? I have one beautiful daughter but I would love to have more children.
6. Have you ever thought about converting your religion? I'm nominally a Catholic but consider myself a heathen so ummmm, no!
7. Last shocking news you heard? Michael Jackson's death - but am so sick of hearing his songs on the radio!
8. What was the last thing you drank? A can of Diet Coke - quelle surprise!9. Who do you most look like in your family? My mum!
10. If you could have something right now, anything, what would it be? Someone to snuggle up to and watch rubbish on the TV with.
11. Where does most of your family live? In France.
12. Where did you grow up? In Malawi until I was 9 and then SW Scotland.
13. Where do you want to go on vacation? Scotland - and I'm going in about two weeks.
14. Have you ever had a panic attack? Have had an asthma attack, but I don't think I've had a panic attack.
15. What can’t you wait for? My holidays in Scotland.
16. When’s the last time you told someone you loved him or her and meant it? Yesterday when I spoke to Isla.
17. Have your parents ever smoked pot? No, don't be silly!
18. Want someone back in your life? No, but I'd like a new someone in my life.
19. What do you order at the bar? Smirnoff Ice.
20. When was the last time you cried really, really hard? When I watched Marley and Me - I was inconsolable!
21. Ever licked someone’s cheek? Ummmm, no?!
22. What is your favorite thing to eat with peanut butter? Nothing - I can't abide peanut butter - I'm a Marmite girl.
23. Where were you on July 4th, 2008? I was dogsitting at the house of the shagging love birds.
24. What are your nicknames? Mummy - that's about it really.
25. If you could go back in time, how far back would you go? Oooh, maybe the sixties because I'd have been a great hippy.

Brief Update

2009-07-07T16:21:00.002+02:00
Very brief, as I don't have a lot of time today.

Sorry to report that there's not really a lot to tell you, so it's not much of an update! Work is getting busier, which is good, and I can't wait to go away at the beginning of August.

On an up note - got back in touch with a very old friend from school - haven't seen each other since I was 14! Isn't it weird how sometimes that amount of time with not even any contact doesn't seem to make any difference?

Sorry for the briefness, but places to go and people to see I'm afraid!

Meredith Brooks was right...

2009-07-03T01:51:00.003+02:00
...I'm a bitch apparently.

I've upset someone tonight and I'm not sure how, or what bit of it that I said upset him but I feel like a total cow.

He didn't call me a bitch by the way - that was me!

I feel bad now.

On a brighter note, I had a lovely afternoon. I went out in the car again - across to Winchcombe and tried to find Belas Knap which is an ancient long barrow - whatever that is! I never did find it, but had a lovely drive through the Cotswolds and took some pictures.

...updated to add...

Turns out to have all been a misunderstanding involving falling asleep at an inopportune moment! Yippee, I'm not a bitch after all!

Up In The Air

2009-06-30T22:36:00.003+02:00
I'm feeling a bit strange tonight. It's that sort of expectant feeling when you know something you don't like is going to happen - and I hate that. Sort of sinking butterfly-y feeling.

I don't know why I'm feeling like this. I shouldn't - I have stuff to look forward to. The problem is that I never believe that something is going to happen until it actually does. I try to be optimistic, but judging from past experiences, even when I think that the glass is half full, it normally turns out to be half empty. And that's not just pessimism, it's just the way things turn out.

Even when I went on holiday to Japan, I didn't allow myself to believe it was actually going to hapen until I was sitting on that plane at Heathrow! I kept thinking that there was going to be something that stopped it happening. And that's how I feel about my trip to Scotland. Not that it's not going to happen, but that it's not going to happen like it might. And I know that's cryptic - there's not much I can do about that. I've learnt my lesson on posting every inner thought, which just means that you only know half of what I'm on about.

I know that by the morning I'll have shaken this off - I'm probably just tired. I've had a few late nights in a row and could probably do with going to bed early. I also have far too much time to think - which is never a good thing!

To quote Lost, whatever happens, happens.

I'm On My Way!

2009-06-30T00:20:00.004+02:00
I do have other stuff to tell you, other than just rants and random crap! The only problem has been having the time and/or the inclination to sit down and do it. And rather than let the blog become like a chore, I have taken a bit of a step back, mainly until something blogworthy happens!

And it has! I'm going on a wee holiday soon - going to Scotland for five or six days at the beginning of August, and I can't wait. It's been over seven years since I've been back, and it feels like going home - that's how much I'm looking forward to it. I've never lived in England, not since I was three and a half, and it's a bit weird. The food is the same, the language is the same (well, sort of!) but it's all different.

So, I'm going home for a few days to chill out, meet up with old friends, enjoy nights out in my home town, and probably bump in to the odd ex now and again! Considering I grew up there there are one or two, at least one of whom I am bound to see because one particular friend of mine will probably make it inevitable - Lara! Just to let you know, I'm not averse to that - have to lay a few ghosts there I think. Oh, and the other one too - they're much bigger ghosts though.

I'm also going to go and see our old house - for old time's sake!

Probably too much to do in too little time, but it will all fit in, because I'll make it! And there's now nothing to stop me going up whenever I want to (except money obviously!) as I am now on the same land mass. So near, yet so far!

There is a bit more that I haven't told you, but I can't. Now that this blog is all out in the open and public there are certain things I'm afraid I can't divulge! Sorry!

The job is still fine - but bloody hell is it hot at the moment! And a boiling kitchen is the last place you'd want to be! So, am going to spend my afternoon off tomorrow at my mate's house sunbathing in her garden! Lovely!

Facebook and Blasts From the Past

2009-06-29T16:56:00.006+02:00
Isn't it weird - all these years you don't give a second thought to people from your past life, but nowadays, with the advent of social networking sites like Bebo and Facebook, to name but two, as soon as something makes you think of someone from your past you go straight to the computer and look them up. Sometimes you find them, sometimes you don't. Sometimes they haven't changed a bit, and other times they're quite unrecogniseable.

I've caught up with a few people that way. Every so often I do a Facebook cull - I go through my friends list and delete the people that I have had no contact with because, really, what's the point of being online friends with someone just to boost the numbers? People stay in touch, or don't, for a reason.

I was going through my friends list last night, while I was talking to Joocey, who apparently henceforth shall be known as Mary Poppins (what WAS she on when she thought of that one?) but we shall carry on, for the sake of you knowing who the hell I'm talking about, referring to her as Joocey. Anyway, we were looking through the list, mainly at people we both went to school with, and there are some of them that I wouldn't know if I fell over them in the street. I wouldn't say that there are any that I would actively cross the street to avoid, because I wouldn't have accepted them as Facebook friends, but there have been a few that I wouldn't make an effort to see. Hence the cull!

Sometimes, however, you get back in touch with people you wish you'd never lost touch with in the first place, and that is where Facebook can be a really useful tool. You can break the ice, see what the other person looks like these days, whether you still fancy them or not, if they're single or attached, and whether they are worth being in touch with again!!

Sometimes, it pays off, and other times you can wish you had never re-opened that particular can of worms.

Fingers crossed it pays off for everybody.

OverJacksoned

2009-06-29T00:06:00.005+02:00
or OverMichaeled? You decide.

It is a new term that I have coined. I think it'll take on myself, what do you reckon?

While I think it's sad that Michael Jackson has died, I have to admit that I am so incredibly sick of hearing his songs on the radio. I didn't like his music much before he died (except Black or White which had Slash on guitar so was acceptable!), so why am I going to suddenly change my mind just because he is dead? Harsh? Perhaps, but that's how I feel. A DJ this evening commented that it was a tragedy that he has died. No, it isn't. A tragedy is an aeroplane full of passengers disappearing into the Atlantic leaving no surviors and no clues as to what happened. His death is sad, a shame, but not a tragedy.

Do not make it into something it is not.

Happy Birthday Daddy Dearest

2009-06-26T14:28:00.001+02:00

Happy Birthday Pa. 71 today - not that you'd know it!

Expedition

2009-06-26T14:19:00.003+02:00
No, not a long expedition, just a little one! I was sitting in my room yesterday wondering what to do with my afternoon (I'd had a lie in!), when a friend suggested to me that I go out and take some pictures of where I'm living so that everyone could see them on Facebook. I ummed and ahhed about it for a bit, but then we had a power cut which pushed me out as there was nothing else to do.

So, I got in to the car and headed up to the top of Cleeve Hill, which you may remember me telling you is the dead posh bit just outside of Cheltenham. We have a beautiful view of Cleeve Hill from the pub, and I wanted to see if I could see the pub from there. If you click on the picture and look closely, you will see a little red cross which is about where I was.
I had taken some Tesco prawn sarnies - really pushed the boat out there! - and had a little picnic while I happily snapped away with my camera. There were no fabulous shots, just snaps, but I enjoyed it. A little bit of me time, which is rare at the moment as I seem to be working all the time.
After that, I went over to my mate's and had a curry. I had to drop over some magazines for my mum, Isla's Dr Who magazine, and most importantly my dad's birthday card. Stayed for a couple of hours, helped her pack, sorted out her computer stuff, and came back to the pub and finished my book. I came back via Tewkesbury though because I wanted to photograph the Abbey all lit up at night, so you can imagine my disappointment when I discovered that it's not lit up at all. Ah well, never mind!

A satisfying, relaxing and enjoyable day!

Random Snippets

2009-06-18T22:22:00.004+02:00
This post is just going to be a bit random. Nothing particularly interesting has happened recently, so it's just little snippets.

I am constantly amazed at what google searches people do when they stumble upon my blog. Today's interesting one was "catering foil ramekins "foil ramekins"". Pretty random! The last good one was "went gym" - probably the poor person thought they had found some great site about working out, and instead found a blog about family and food - they must have been well disappointed!

The other night I watched Marley and Me - I knew it was going to be a tearjerker, I had already cried my way through the book after all. I wasn't prepared for the level of crying it induced though - I was crying audible sobs - by the end of it you would have thought that my own dog had died, I was in that much of a state. I don't think that's one I'll be watching often! It was a great film, but I was an emotional wreck afterwards! I watched Music and Lyrics after that, and that was a really sweet film, and totally cheered me up. Always a laugh watching Hollywood stars trying to sing, and Hugh Grant was no exception!

Isla got her first parcel from me yesterday - when she was in UK with my mum she got hooked on the Dr Who magazines, so now I have to send her one a week, and I'm trying to add in little gifts each time like interesting sweeties! I remember how exciting it was to get post as a child, especially parcels, so as long as I can keep them coming Isla will be excited once a week!

My mate is going back to France next weekend for a few days. She's going to stay in my house, with my mum and dad, in my bed, with my daughter and my dogs. No, I'm not pissed off, I'm just a bit jealous that she'll get to see everyone, and sleep in my bed which I am missing almost as much as my family and dogs!

Do you remember that I said I didn't get a TV with my birthday money? Well, I've kind of done the next best thing - I've ordered, from Amazon, a USB dongle type thing that attaches to an aerial and gives you digital freeview direct to your computer. Cool eh - I just hope that the reception is really good. I think, from the product review I read, that you can even record shows if you're going to miss them. So, no excuse to miss the X Factor auditions when they start, seeing as I missed 90% of Britain's Got Talent! Ooh, I can also record Eastenders! Yippee! I also ordered a table fan, as I am dying of heat exposure every night! The heating is off, I sleep with the window open, but for some reason I just get really hot at night. I'm not used to doors and windows that fit, and I need some air movement overnight.

Gym

2009-06-14T00:00:00.002+02:00
Don't fall off your seats - I went to the gym the other day! My mate texted me and asked if I fancied a swim, and I said yes please! It was lovely - a 25m pool, just four other people in it and up and down and up and down until I have completed a kilometre. I want to work my way back up to a mile, but that was the first swim of the year. I have to say, in a bigger pool it takes a lot less time to do because there isn't so much turning - our pool in France is 12m and it feels like forever to do a kilometre because every eight strokes or so you have to turn round! I had forgotten how horrible chlorine is though - it really made my eyes sting.

It felt great, and to celebrate, we went out to a Chinese afterwards! I haven't had a Chinese in years (well, not a proper english one complete with MSG!) and it was gorgeous! Not very healthy perhaps, but yummy anyway!
There's not much else to tell you really - work is going fine and I only have one and a half days off a week, so I'm pretty knackered! And I'm going to have to go because I have cut the end of my index finger (the one that does most of the typing!) and it hurts! Also, I have Benidorm to watch!! Haha, guilty pleasures!

Mortified!

2009-06-04T23:16:00.002+02:00
I made a complete arse of myself the other day at work! I went out of the kitchen and behind the bar to get a drink and I saw these two guys sitting at the bar. One was on a bar stool, the other looked like he was sitting on a restaurant chair at the bar - he was really low down and I thought this was a bit odd.

I said "What are you doing down there?" and they both creased up laughing.

I was a little confused now, and thought to myself "oh my god, he's a bloody midget!".

He was only in a bloody wheelchair - I went bright red, apologised profusely, which only served to send them off in more hysterics. Funniest thing they'd heard that day apparently.

Since then, they have been in a few times, and every time they say "he's still sitting down there"!

They won't let me forget it! Soooo luckily for me they found it funny, otherwise I could have been sued for disabled bashing!

Birthday Girls

2009-06-04T16:37:00.009+02:00

As some of you might know, if you are friends on Facebook or if you have been reading my blogs for a year or more, I share my birthday with my daughter Isla. And it was on Tuesday. As luck would have it, she and my mum happened to be in the UK for the day - they were visiting my Grandma. I managed to organise to get three whole days off work, just two weeks into my new job, and head off down to Portsmouth to spend the day together.
I went down on Monday and came back on Wednesday, so we managed to have our whole birthday together. We went down to Southsea seafront on the Monday and paddled our feet and had Verecchias Ice Cream - the best in the world by the way, so if you ever go to Portsmouth look out for yellow ice cream vans!
The plan was that we would either go to the Isle of Wight or Brighton for the day, but they both worked out far too expensive, so we went out for lunch to the Royal Oak at Langstone instead. It's a really old pub which was frequented my both my mum and Grandma in their respective days. My mum used to go there drinking when she was in her twenties, and frequently had to move the car as the tide came in! Grandma used to go when she was really young - during the war. Her offive had been evacuated out to Warblington (near Chichester) and when they were meant to be on firewatch, they used to walk along the coast to the pub and sit and have a drink dangling their legs over the wall into the sea. My Grandma always says she had a really good war - I think she had a lot of fun during that time! Before we went to the Royal Oak though, we went into old Portsmouth where there is a man with a fish stall on the docks and we each had a little pot of prawn cocktail - in the knowledge that they had probably been in the sea still until that morning!
Anyway, we all had fish and chips in the beer garden, which was gorgeous, and then we went for a bit of a drive around to Emsworth and Bosham. We also went to buy Isla's birthday present - a new bike! We got it in Toys R Us, and the man that put the extra bits onto it was bloody gorgeous, and flirty! No wedding ring, but on the other hand he didn't ask me for a drink. Bugger! Lovely though!
On Wednesday (yesterday) we went out to buy my birthday present. Grandma had given me some money, and I was going to get a TV because I don't have one here, but then I decided I didn't need one because I don't get that much time to watch TV, and I have a laptop and a hard drive full of stuff to watch. Instead, I bought a computer desk, and a printer because I don't have one here, and I can't rely on my mate every time I want something printed. So I now have my little work station set up with desk, computer, printer, hard drives, speakers etc - in a techy geeky sense, I am totally sorted!

After that, I went along to Portchester Castle with my mum and Isla. Isla took her new bike, and I just wanted to go because it's one of my very favourite places in the world. If you are even in Portsmouth, make a point of going to the castle - it's stunning, and the views from the top of the Keep are spectacular. It's peaceful there, you can walk dogs, ride a bike around the outside or just have a little wander. Beautiful.
I came back up to Cheltenham last night - I didn't really want to leave - as I don't know when I'll get to see Isla again - but I've got a proper job now - I have to work the hours they tell me, not the hours I fancy like in France!

So, it's back to the daily grind. I'm not posting as much as before because, to be perfectly honest, I'm too damn knackered by the end of the day to do anything but slob and watch crap like Sex & The City at night!

I will endeavour to keep you all up to date with interesting stuff though!

Moving Day

2009-05-28T00:08:00.003+02:00
Well, I've moved! I am now no longer staying with my mate, not because we fell out or anything, but because there was accommodation available at my place of work! I have a large room with a bed and a couch and an en-suite shower room, and it's a bit like being a student again! It's only a short term solution, as I can't live here with Isla, so I still need to get myself on a housing list of some description. It's great though - instead of having to drive all of ten minutes home after work, I can actually have a drink and just go upstairs! I'm really quite pleased with it.

I moved in yesterday - I had Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday off to get myself sorted out. I was moved in by midday yesterday, and after that I didn't have a clue what to do with myself! For the last six weeks there has always been something to do - whether it be job interviews or job searching on the internet - I haven't had time to just sit and relax. And I have to say I found it very difficult. I sat and watched a couple of episodes of Sex & The City, had a shower, and then went downstairs to have a drink and a cigarette. Then, to my relief, my mate phoned me and suggested the pub quiz at her local! So, off I went back to her house, and we went to the quiz, which, naturally, we won again!! And there were only two of us! So, we got a £15 voucher which we will spend on dinner next time we go! Happy Days!

Apart from that, the job is going well - I was saying today that it doesn't feel as though I've only been here a week - it feels like I've always been here. Like I said before, they're a really nice bunch of people and it feels like they've made it easy for me to slot in.

The only dark spot on the horizon is how the hell do I fit the job in around Isla when I've got her here? I'll cross that bridge when I come to it...a house comes before I even start worrying about that.

I'm going to Portsmouth next week because it'smy birthday. Loyal readersmay remember that it's also Isla's birthday, and she so happens to be in Portsmouth with my mum visiting Grandma, so we'll get to spend our birthday together after all. I can't wait!

A Useful Member of Society Again!

2009-05-22T17:02:00.004+02:00
Well guys...I got a job! Not a nice desk job with sensible 9-5 hours though!

Last week, my mate and I were driving back from the garage and we passed a pub that had a board outside saying that they required a chef. So, we pulled in, and I dropped my CV off, and had a little chat to the boss. He invited me to come back for a trial day on Tuesday.

So, on Tuesday I duly turned up - much to their surprise! They have had several people come in for interviews and not bothering to come for the trial days, or coming in for one day and then buggering off. In UK, in order to receive the dole money, it's necessary to go to two interviews a week I think, so there are an awful lot of social scroungers who do the bare minimum just in order to keep their dole money without actually having to work to get paid! Anyway, I assured them that I wasn't on the dole, I was here because I actually needed a job!

It's been hard because I have been out of the business for nine years, but I'm getting there. The plan is that when I'm back up to scratch I'll be 2nd Chef. The first day I was ok, but I thought that the second day I was crap - second day nerves and all that! But it's getting better - it's just getting my head back into that mindset again. The rest of the staff seem to be a really nice bunch of people, and I think I'll really enjoy working here. My only problem is that I haven't a clue how to go about finding out about childcare. I've got the paperwork to fill in for the housing people, but no idea how to solve the problem with what to do about Isla when I'm on lates. How do single parent nurses manage? They have even worse shifts than chefs!

So, I am once again a useful member of society, and a British taxpayer again! I can start complaining about scroungers who are spending my hard earned tax money and all that! I too can moan like Jeremy Kyle!
Oh, I did get my car back by the way - got it back on Monday. It turned out that the fan had stopped working, MELTED the thermostat and the cam belt was shot. I was so lucky it didn't happen as I was driving up the motorway in France!

Out Of The Blue

2009-05-18T01:47:00.003+02:00
To make up for everything on Friday, I had a lovely surprise yesterday.

We were supposed to be going to a party in the evening, and I was umming and aahing about it because I'm skint, I was depressed about the car and just generally pissed off and I wouldn't know anyone anyway. I had a text in the afternoon, from Joocey, saying that her family were in Cheltenham for one night, and did I want to meet up for a drink? Silly question! So I texted back yes, and there was a party too, and it turned out to be a brilliant evening!

We met up with Joocey and her sister in town, had one drink and headed off to the party. A little while into the evening a discussion was had and it was decided that in order for us ALL to have a good night we'd leave the car at the party venue, and get a taxi, and my mate's sister (not Joocey's, the mate I'm staying with) would take my mate back to get the car in the morning.

So, we all got a bit hammered but not quite as much as Joocey's sister, who, by the way, got chatted up by an 18 yr old! It was a lovely surprise that they were there, we had a great night, and it was fab to see Joocey's sister again as the last time I saw her must have been about 7 yrs ago!

Was it Friday 13th?

2009-05-18T01:24:00.002+02:00
I'm sure it must have been. Too many unlucky things happened on the same day for it to just be coincidence.

First of all, the day started off ok. My mate had to take her car to the garage, so off we went in convoy. We passed a pub that was advertising for a chef, so I made a mental note of it. We went into Specsavers for my mate's new glasses, and I made a free eye test - thanks to Grandma's glaucoma I'm entitled.

Decided to come back to the house for a spot of lunch before having to head out in the afternoon to collect the car, and we also both had more applications to fill in. We got to the house, got out of the car talking about what we would eat, my mate went to get the keys out of her handbag and it suddenly dawned on her that she had given the keys to the garage man and left the house keys on there. So, we were locked out! And starving!

We went up to the local, and had the cheapest meals we could see on the menu, as we couldn't wait until the evening to eat.

I had an interview with another agent in the afternoon so off we went back in to town. We went to collect my mate's car after that, and stopped in at that pub on the way back. I spoke to the owners, and basically had an interview there and then, and they have asked me to go in on Tuesday for a trial day in the kitchen, so I am really hoping that goes well. After that, we headed home.

We pulled up at a set of traffic lights, and all of a sudden I saw steam pouring out of the bonnet, so I turned the engine off immediately, switched on the hazards and beeped several times to tell my mate (in front of me) that I had stopped. I leapt out of the car, opened the bonnet and was stunned to see that the coolant in the reservoir was actually boiling over. There had been no warning, the temperature gauge must have literally shot up because I hadn't noticed it being hot. I then had a panic! I'm REALLY good at panicking! A nice bloke stopped just behind us, and helped us to push the car into the pub car park opposite, where he poked his head in the engine and couldn't come up with much that was useful except to say wasn't he lucky he had a bloody german car and not a crappy Vauxhall, to which my mate agreed. I snapped that that was hardly helping me now was it, and they became a little more helpful! Vauxhalls, for the record, are not actually crappy - this one we have had for 11yrs, since it was 3 months old, and, apart from one little incident which was totally our fault involving no oil change before the winter and no use of the car involving the old oil granulating and requiring a new engine, we have never had a moment's problem with it. And I drove it 700 miles on Wednesday without a second's problem. Anyway, the bloke just so happened to have a tow bar in his car, so he offered to tow me back to the house, from whee I could phone for assistance. We did it, and I have never been so shit scared in my life (apart from Space Mountain at Disneyworld when I was 6 - it was on a par). He drove far too fast, my brakes and powered steering didn't work, and it wasn't much fun.

I phoned the French insurance when we got in, and they arranged for the RAC to come out - that's a good thing with French insurance - you get roadside assistance. The RAC man decided that he thought it was probably the thermostat, but as he couldn't get to it without dismantling the engine, which is too difficult by the side of the road, that we would organise for it to be picked up and taken to a garage the next morning. So, I got up bright and early (sacrificing my longed for lie in) to meet the very cute new RAC man. He towed it off to the garage we had been at just the day before (he's a friend of my mates, so trustworthy). All I know is that he's going to do a head test - the RAC guy said he thought it was unlikely that it was the cylinder head as if it was there would be black smoke pouring out of the exhaust and there definitely wasn't. So, please everyone keep your fingers very tightly crossed that it is the thermostat.

Incidentally, on our way back from the pub that day, we passed some gypsies - real ones with bright caravans and horses! It was lovely - like a scene from a postcard.

Going back to the Friday 13th theme...
My mate's daughter had a bad day too! Her partner locked himself out of the flat by mistake and had to get a lift to her place of work for the keys, she got into her car at the end of the day to realise that she'd lef the lights on and the battery was flat, and then once she got it going, she ran out of fuel on the way to the petrol station!

Don't you think sometimes we should all just stay in bed!

Aaargh!

2009-05-18T01:20:00.002+02:00
I've had a frustrating evening - well, except for watching LOST which was amazing and made me bawl my eyes out!!

Anyway...the trip switch went this afternoon - I think we were running too many things at once. Thought nothing of it at the time, until this evening when I tried to go online. No wireless signal - bugger! I tried all sorts of clever things, but nothing worked, so eventually I plugged in the ethernet cable and bit the bullet and phoned BT. The guy fixed it remotely, but it doesn't help that the call centre is in India. And it doesn't help that when you ask an intelligent question the person who is supposed to be helping you replies to the question he THOUGHT you asked, not the one you actually DID ask. Why do they have to be so patronising? And when will we get all the call centres for British companies back into Britain?

Onward and Upward

2009-05-08T23:30:00.003+02:00
So, having returned to France what are my job hunting plans from now on?

Well, I am going back to England on Wednesday and I have an interview on Thursday. I am leaving home at about 4.30am (again!) and driving up to Le Havre and catching the 17.15 ferry to Portsmouth.

I have enough money to last a little while, to keep us in food for a bit, and hopefully I will find a job. Having the car there will enable me to extend my job search, so keep your fingers crossed that the perfect job will throw itself in my direction!

Having spent three weeks in UK, it is clear to me that that is where I want to be, and not in France.

Watch this space!

Ride A Cock Horse

2009-05-08T20:16:00.008+02:00
On Bank Holiday Monday, we went up to Banbury to see my mate’s daughter, who has just moved into a beautiful little village. We went to the Carvery for lunch (I don’t think I could have eaten more if I had tried!), and then took her dog out for a long walk through the fields. We had to go through one field with cows in it, so she put the dog on the lead, and walked though the field. I couldn’t believe it though – both of them were shit scared of the cows! Unbelievable – what a pair of wussy townies! I tried to explain that cows are just nosey, but they would have none of it, and even though I explained that if they ran, so would the cows, they still didn’t listen. I walked right through the cows. The scariest thing about cows is falling over in a cow pat! I grew up in the country in Scotland, and my cousins and I would play in the fields all the time – cows are not scary!
We spent most of Tuesday painting in the house, and decided that we really needed some fun, so we went to the pub quiz. A friend of my mate’s came with us – completely changing the subject he brought me some Yumyums! He had mentioned them on the phone earlier in the day, and I wondered what they were so he brought some. They are like very light doughnuts, with icing on, and are absolutely gorgeous!
Anyway, back to the pub quiz…we went up to the pub, and had dinner there, as we had been working too hard to think of cooking! As the pub quiz started, the compere bloke said he was so pleased there was such a good turn out – there were six tables!! If that’s a good turn out, I’d hate to see it normally! We were joined by the chef and his wife, so there were five of us. We had a good laugh doing the questions, along with a bit of heckling! We did end up winning, and it really upset the boffin team, who apparently normally win! It’s good to give them a bit of competition! We had a really nice, fun evening – the sort of evening I’ve missed in France. Our local bar isn’t bad, but you never get the atmosphere of an English local. I mean, I’ve only been in this pub three or four times, and there are already a few people that I can say hello to in there and pass the time of day with.

Wednesday morning dawned bright and early, and we went out for our early morning walk. My mate does it every day; I do it if I’m awake when she goes. We then finished off a bit of painting, while we waited for another friend, LW, to pick me up to take me to Somerset. I was leaving Tewkesbury, spending the night with them in Somerset, then leaving from Bristol on Thursday. She got very lost trying to navigate along the temporary one way system in Tewkesbury, whilst having the wrong directions that Via Michelin had given me that I had sent to her. We had lunch – a really yummy meatball recipe that my mate does with cheese and cherry tomatoes – I’ll try to get it from her. We left around half one, because LW had to get back to pick her daughter up from school. Slight problem though, we got very lost in Bristol! There were roadworks in Cabot Circus, and the road we wanted was blocked, but it turned out that it was only partially blocked. We ended up, more by good luck than good management, on the right road out of Bristol, but LW had to phone her partner to pick her daughter up!
We had a lovely evening. I hadn’t seen her daughter since she was two, and had never met her youngest son. Her two older sons are hugely tall now, and very grown up! Her daughter is a really sweet little girl – one of those children that it is just a pleasure to spend time with, and her little boy is adorably cute! I’m sure that they are not always angels, but they were brilliant that evening! We were up until 2am - catching up on four years of gossip in one evening! The next morning I went with her to school, and then we went to Bristol.
We didn’t get lost this time, the airport is easy to find. I was a bit worried about my suitcase being overweight, and it turned out to be 22kg! The guy at the check in told me it was going to be £90, and I said I don’t think so. I don’t think he meant that, he was foreign (of some description) and I reckon he probably meant £19. Either way, I was not prepared to pay anything, so I did some juggling. I had ten packs of sausages, 2 pork pies, and numerous bags of sweeties for Isla which couldn’t go in my hand baggage, so I moved some other bits and when it got down to 20.6kg he let me off with the rest! I had to empty my hand bag though, fill my jacket and jean pockets with iPod and phone etc, just so I could get my bag into the little suitcase! What a hassle!

I got into Toulouse on time, and the first person I came across was the woman at immigration checking passports. I think if she had smiled or said Bonjour her face would have cracked – if her face was any longer she’d have tripped over it! Welcome back to France – I don’t think so. In three weeks in England I have come across nothing but friendliness and helpfulness – as soon as I get back to France I’m met by a miserable dour faced misery guts. Vive la difference!

Isla loved all the presents I brought with me, and we had to open the suitcases within minutes of getting back to the house! My dogs went bananas, except Murphy, who refused to speak to me until this morning!

Misunderstandings and Pipped at the Post

2009-05-08T19:17:00.008+02:00

Well, I got back to France yesterday. The last week or so has been kind of a blur because we’ve been so busy, so I’ll try to summarise it.

My last update was Saturday 25th April, so I have to think hard about what else has happened!

On the Sunday, we went to Gloucester, and met some of my mate’s friends for lunch. We went to a little pub/bistro which was amazing inside, and gorgeous outside. I had a Caesar salad which was enormous and not very expensive. We had a lovely lunch in the sunshine, and after we had finished, we were going to go to Guiting to an interview I had organised. The guy from the pub there had told me to come up either after five on Friday, or over the weekend. I had explained to him that I was dependent on my mate for transport at the moment, and that I would do my best to make it up as soon as possible. So, Sunday it was. I had the bright thought to phone before we got there to make sure that he was there. He said yes, no problem, see you in a bit, but then phoned me back within two minutes to say well actually don’t bother because you’ve left it too late. I wasn’t quick enough to think of a retort while I was on the phone but as soon as we got home (luckily we hadn’t driven very far out of town) I went upstairs to the office and wrote an email to him basically saying that he had said pop in over the weekend and as far as I was concerned Sunday WAS still the weekend. Well, it obviously was not meant to be, so I put that out of my head. We went out in the evening for an Indian, and after that we went to the local pub, where they were advertising for an Assistant Manager, so I applied for that too.

I spent most of Monday morning trawling the job sites on the internet. My phone rang halfway through the morning from one of the agencies, offering me an interview at 2pm in Tewkesbury. So, I went to the interview, thought it went really well, and went off into Cheltenham. The agency rang back saying that the company wanted me back immediately for a second interview. I got the feeling that I had a great chance at this job. I thought that the second interview went pretty well – it was with a different person to the first one, and I left with my hopes high. On the way home we called back into the local pub where we had a drink, and I gave them my CV, as there was more information than in the application form. Only to be informed that the position had already been filled, the staff had not been told, which was why I had been given a form to fill in. We stayed and had a couple of drinks, gave the new assistant manager a little light hearted abuse, and met a couple of people including a chef who I got a couple of good contacts from.

The rest of the week was spent waiting to hear about the job, going to the dentist with my mate – she ended up in serious pain and on antibiotics and painkillers, but at least it was al at the government’s expense! The worst thing is when you have to pay to be in pain!

I didn’t hear, and I didn’t hear, so eventually I phoned the agency to ask what on earth was happening. By this point I had accepted that I probably hadn’t got the job, but wanted confirmation of that. Apparently the person who deals with my file had been off, but the person I spoke to asked me what on earth went wrong in the second interview. I was stunned – as far as I was aware, nothing had gone wrong. The guy who had interviewed me had completely misunderstood what I had said. I had told him I was relocating back to UK, I had to collect my car in France, and that I would be back straight away. I said I was staying with a friend, and once I had a job I would be looking to rent my own house. He seemed to deduce from this that I was homeless and moving back to France. Apparently, I lost the job not through any shortcomings on my part, but through a misunderstanding. I was so disappointed. I had really wanted that job.

No point standing still though, back to the grindstone of applications and painting the house! We must have painted the hall stairs and landing (including the banisters) about five times! It’s done now though!
Last weekend, as in the Bank Holiday weekend, we went to a friend of my mate’s for lunch. She has a really cute little girl, and we all went to the docks in Gloucester after lunch. We had an ice cream while we looked at the canal boats, and then went into Gloucester to see the cathedral, which is gorgeous. Apparently, in the houses around the cathedral, they filmed the Christmas episode of Doctor Who. I did kind of recognise it from the show – does that make me sad or cool? You can see pictures of the filming here.

England 2009 - Day 13 Saturday

2009-04-25T22:40:00.004+02:00
Well, now we are well and truly up to date. I'm actually managing to write this on the very day!

Some more furniture arrived today! We now have dining room furniture, kitchen utensils and baking trays etc, bins, chairs - it's been like Christmas! My mate's friends arrived at about 8.30am, unloaded, had a quick coffee and shot off. We then spent the rest of the morning trying to make sense of the new mess!

We had considered carrying on painting, but we were both just too tired. Her daughters both came over for a while, and then they went, my mate went to see a friend leaving me all alone.

So, I am sitting in the dining room with my computer and my dongle, listening to Forth 1 (Edinburgh's radio station which I can't get in France!) and it's lovely and quiet. I am really enjoying a little time to myself.

I still haven't heard from sexy trucker, so I now think he's a write off. It's weird because he bothered to phone me last weekend, and the last text I got he still seemed really interested. I'm not quite sure what happened or why he stopped, but I suppose it's just one of those things. It was hardly a relationship, but maybe I thought we might actually meet up at some point but never mind. It's bugging me though!

England 2009 - Day 12 Friday

2009-04-25T22:31:00.002+02:00
Another day spent painting! We went out in the morning and had a long walk around the estate - it was nice - it cleared my head a bit. When I got back, another friend of mine phoned - she has to get up early, she has small children! We had a lovely long chat - I'm going to see her on the way back to France. She's taking me to the airport. There's a very long story there, but that's for another time!

We panted the dining room from top to bottom - literally! Ceiling, walls, woodwork - we did the lot! And, in the midst of all this industry, we had to pop out to Tesco (God I love England!!) to get shopping for my mum and dad. Some more furniture was due to arrive, and my box of goodies were being transported back to France. I spent over £50 on general provisions that just aren't available in France, like Heinz Beans, Spaghetti Hoops, Heinz Soup (they don't sell Campbells here any more by the way), Bisto and some interesting little goodies for those who may be interested! I managed to get quite a lot of own brand things because, quite frankly half the time they're just as good. It also left me a bit more money for a couple of little luxury things and a few bits and pieces for Isla. And yes, I did remember her MOST urgent request - for Monster Munch!

We had to nip into Homebase on the way back, and we were painting until about 10pm. We were well and truly knackered. Then it was more or less shower and bed.

England 2009 - Day 11 Thursday

2009-04-25T22:10:00.004+02:00
Managed an extra hour in bed on Thursday! Both of us keep waking up really early – I think it’s because there are no shutters. It’s not so bad for me because I’m at the back of the house, but it’s really bad for my mate as she’s at the front with street lights shining into her window! We are so used to the complete darkness of the Gers, and the street lights are a problem!

She had to go out in the morning, so I printed out a lot of CV’s and covering letters, and went on a cold calling mail drop in Cheltenham. I got the bus into town – now I remember why I don’t like public transport!! There are weird people on buses! I want a car here! I went to a few recruitment companies and a few mobile phone shops – I’m thinking long term – I don’t mind retail, as long as there is the prospect of promotion within a company. I had a bit of a wander around, and went into a music store. I asked if they had any vacancies, and the manager told me that they were actually interviewing that evening, and would I like to come along later? Obviously I said yes! I think it went ok – we’ll see. I should know either way by Wednesday.

I met up with my mate’s elder daughter in town and we sat outside and had a drink at a bar in Cheltenham. My mate turned up about an hour later. A water main had burst just up the road, and there was a river running down the pavement in front of the bar! Someone had made a little boat with a mast out of a cigarette packet, and we were all watching it go down the river!

We went out in the evening to a pub. I have been in some interesting pubs in my time – Edinburgh and Dumfries are chock full of dives – and this one was well up to dive standard! We had a laugh anyway!

Fell asleep on the sofa again in the evening – we haven’t stopped for a minute since we got into the country and I’m knackered!
I still haven't heard from sexy trucker. I'm starting to think he just wanted a bit of a text flirtation which surprises me as he seemed to be a genuinely nice bloke. Maybe I'm just rubbish at working out what blokes want - I'm a bit out of practice. Still, I'm a bit disappointed.

England 2009 - Days 9 & 10 Tuesday & Wednesday

2009-04-25T22:10:00.003+02:00
Tuesday and Wednesday were spent painting again, so not much of interest to report, except that I haven’t heard from sexy trucker for two days now. Bit weird, but not overly concerned as I knew he was driving through Europe.

My phone rang while I was painting and it was Gloucester Hospital saying that they had a cancellation and I could go in on Wednesday. Bugger! And after I’d changed my flight too. Isn’t that just bloody typical. It gives me a few more days to job search, but it’s still irritating.

The appointment was on the Wednesday, and it went fine – the consultant said I have absolutely nothing to worry about, which was a bit of a relief – not that I was hugely worried, but it’s nice to get confirmation.

Fell asleep on the sofa watching Holby – well, it’s crap and boring anyway isn’t it!

England 2009 - Day 8 Monday

2009-04-25T21:18:00.003+02:00

We were up bright and early on Monday morning for the carpet fitter again, who swears he’s the best lay in Cheltenham – it even says so on his van!

I had a doctors appointment in the morning – I have a mole that I wanted to get checked out and couldn’t afford to do it in France. The doctor wasn’t sure about it, so she told me she would try to get me an appointment but it would be sometime within the next two weeks. So I would have to change my flight to ensure that I was still here. Never mind, needs must and all that.

We had some good news from France, which I am not yet at liberty to divulge, but it put us in a great mood, and we went off to collect my mate’s daughter and we went off in the car for a little tour of the Cotswolds. It was a beautifully sunny day, and we went through Winchcombe again, and up into the hills to a little village called Guiting Power, which is all built in Cotswold stone and is stunning.
We had lunch there (I left my CV in the pub!) and then we had to get back to town. My mate had an appointment, so her daughter and I had a little wander down by the river with an ice cream, and spoke to my mum on the phone to tell her that I would have to be changing my flight. They have been out almost every day since I’ve been away! I’m starting to think that no one actually likes me because they have waited until I’m away to invite them!! No, really I know that it’s because of the good weather – people are tentatively coming out of hibernation, like moles!
We then went to sit in the beer garden at Wetherspoons. It was HOT – there were quite a few people in the garden with cold drinks, the cherry blossom was out and it was beautiful. We sat and did out own thing for an hour or so, and then eventually met up with my mate.
The weather has been amazing since I’ve been here – hot, sunny and no rain! I’ve been so lucky! And I love Gloucestershire. The job hunting is stepping up a notch because I really want to stay here – I don’t want to live back in France. I have never lived in England – not since I was three and a half – but I love it! Not as much as I love Scotland obviously, but it is slightly warmer here!
In the evening I managed to change my flight - at an extra cost of 22 quid I might add - so I now leave on the 7th.

Have had constant texts to and from sexy trucker – had to top up today!

England 2009 - Day 7 Sunday

2009-04-25T21:16:00.000+02:00
Sunday was an extremely busy day, and not much of note happened!

We spent the day undercoating the banisters and skirting boards in the hall stairs and landing before the carpet fitter arrived on Monday morning to put the carpet down in there. After the undercoating we did two coats of Farrow & Ball paint.
Joocey came over in the afternoon, had dinner with us and stayed the night.

England 2009 - Day 6 Saturday

2009-04-25T21:10:00.003+02:00

We didn’t get a much needed lie in on the Saturday morning, as the carpet fitter arrived. My mate had to go out and get the car MOT’d, and then I went out for the day with my mum’s cousin and her husband.

We had a lovely day. We had a little explore of Tewkesbury, Cheltenham and a walk around Sudely Castle in Winchcombe. The area is just gorgeous – I could definitely live here!
We had lunch in Tewkesbury in Wetherspoons and I had the steak and ale pie that I had been craving since we arrived! We had our drive around after lunch, and met Joocey in Cheltenham in the afternoon and had tea and scones! Well, I had a sticky bun which I think was a recycled hot cross bun, but it was yummy!

The sexy trucker phoned while I was still out and in the car, so I asked him to phone back in about an hour and he did! We had a nice chat! He seems like a nice bloke.

By the time I got back to the house, my mate and her daughter had put the beds together, so we were no longer sleeping on the floor! The new carpets looked fantastic!

We ended the day by watching Sex & The City – perfect!

England 2009 - Day 5 Friday

2009-04-23T02:10:00.001+02:00
On Friday, I went into Cheltenham to meet Joocey and do some clothes shopping. I particularly wanted to do this on my own as I needed new bras and I knew I’d be spending time trying loads on as I haven’t had new ones for ages and wasn’t sure of my size. It was boring, but I managed to sort it out by the time I met Joocey. I also got Isla a new pair of jeans and a cool, sparkly Hello Kitty t-shirt, and I got me a couple of new tops – one purple and one turquoise – both bright! Joocey bought two dresses – one bright turquoise and one a darker blue.

Oh, I tried a pretzel! A proper, big, doughy pretzel – and it was gorgeous!! Rolled in garlic – mmmmmmmm!

We got the bus back to the house, only we missed the one we were meant to get, so got the next one. We got off and had to walk a little way, and I knew of a short cut that my mate had told me about, so we tried to take it. Bad mistake – seriously bad mistake! We got so lost! We walked around and around in circles, until I eventually gave in and phoned my mate and
She came out to find us! We were actually right near the house by the time we caught up with each other, but we were knackered! Joocey and I, no matter where we are or what country we are in, always manage to have a little adventure, and this was obviously it!

We had dinner and showers and went out into Cheltenham for the evening. We went to my mate’s regular haunt, and she caught up with loads of people. Joocey and I got talking to some random people outside as I was having a cigarette, and the three of us chatted to them for a while, until their complete wanker mate decided it would be a great plan to pull his trousers down. On that note, they gave in to him and went to a different bar. We sat and chatted to a couple of Italian guys all evening who were a good laugh.

I drove back to the house in my mate’s car – first time I’ve driven in England for four years in a car that I haven’t driven very often, with three back seat drivers trying to give me directions. I tuned out two of them eventually, and listened to only one – the other one who hadn’t been drinking!

England 2009 - Day 4 Thursday

2009-04-23T02:09:00.002+02:00
On Thursday we went into Cheltenham for interviews. We both had two recruitment interviews, which seemed to be very encouraging, but I haven’t heard a word since, so I’m not counting my chickens!

One of the first things I did was to get a sim card sorted out for my phone, so that I could give potential employers a UK number. I hate being out of contact. We also spent ages trying to get online in town. We went to Starbucks, because they have Wifi. The only problem is that you have to pay £5 for the privilege of using it – and that’s on top of their extortionate drinks. And they don’t even have diet coke! We tried MacDonald’s next, only my laptop wouldn’t connect to it, and my mate’s laptop’s battery died! So, we decided to be proactive, and went into Phones 4 U to organise a reasonably priced alternative. We got a dongle! We went halfers on it as it will be useful for her now, and a couple of months down the line it will hopefully be useful to me. So, we have a dongle now – a shared dongle – and we’re very proud! The internet coverage is not bad, but it’s pretty crap for Skype. But…you can’t have everything.

We met Joocey in MacDonald’s, and I did a little bit of shopping with her. I managed to get the shampoo I wanted in Poundland – a pound a bottle!! I got three bottles of shampoo and three of conditioner for only slightly more than it would have cost me to buy one bottle of each in the supermarket. I also got some toastie bags – now they are the work of the gods! Make a cheese sandwich, pop it in the bag, pop the bag in the toaster and hey presto – a cheese toastie! They truly are fabulous!!

We took Joocey back to her Granny’s, and met her. She said that she remembers meeting me when we were at school, but I don’t remember at all! She has a better memory than I do!

England 2009 - Day 3 Wednesday

2009-04-23T02:07:00.000+02:00
On the Wednesday morning, we had to get up early and take the dog for a walk at the castle. It was a lovely morning – not very sunny, but bright enough and fresh. We had a lovely wander around, until my mate phoned Numpty to arrange to meet him. The plan was that we were to meet him at 9am somewhere in Portsmouth. But he had got off the ferry at just gone 6am and decided to head on up the road and meet us there. We knew that the earliest we could get there was midday, and we had to pick up the keys! Once again, he had managed to screw up. He was meant to follow us there.

So, we said goodbye and thank you to Grandma and leapt in the car and whizzed up the road to Cheltenham. We were talking and stressed and missed the turning off the motorway, and ended up going as far as Oxford before we could turn. Looking at it objectively, it was the only mistake we made in the entire journey north, but at the time it was just another added stress! We picked up the keys, and headed to the house, to find him outside, sitting in his van sleeping!

Another friend, Joocey, had come down to Cheltenham, partly to see me, but mainly because it was her Gran’s birthday. She got the bus to the house, and between all of us we unloaded the van in record time. The amount of damage found that day and since was incredible. The guy is no more a professional removal man than I am. I have seen excellent removal men doing their job, and this wasn’t it.

He buggered off up north to another job, and we got stuck in to getting the house straight with what furniture we had. We decided to get the beds made up, just on mattresses in the bedrooms, to discover that one mattress was torn and most of the bedding was not included in the packing. Typical. We managed to put together enough stuff to make up two beds, with various throws etc. We got the kitchen and sitting room sorted, with the TV and Sky etc all set up.

We went to the chippy for lunch – I had a Pukka Pie (Beef & Onion) with chips and it was heavenly!!

During the afternoon, the new owner of the dog turned up. My mate has decided that she can’t actually keep her animals here. She managed to re-home one of the dogs and the cat in France, and the other dog in England. The plan is that she will have a full time job, and to keep in three animals all day, when they have been used to complete freedom most of their lives, would just be unfair. The lady turned up with a massive bunch of gorgeous flowers for her, and I think the dog will be very happy with her.

We took Joocey back to Cheltenham, did some food shopping, and went out to a friend of my mate’s for dinner, which was lovely. It meant that we didn’t have to think about food, and was done so beautifully –a lot of effort had gone into it.

England 2009 - Day 2 Tuesday

2009-04-21T01:36:00.001+02:00
The next day we were up at 4am. I had made sandwiches for us, so we packed up our food and got it into the car. We were away from our house by 5am. By the time we reached Bordeaux it was daylight. We had a great run north, not following the directions that Numpty had insisted on giving me the day before. His plan, which was quite obviously the best one, according to him, was to go up the Route Nationale, through all the little towns and villages. Out plan was the péage – good roads, especially with a heavily laden car, and fast. Guess who took the better option!

The day went almost without a hitch - probably because Numpty was not involved in any way! We reached Le Havre over an hour before we had to get on the ferry. When we had to show our passports there was a problem with the dog passport, so we were sent to another person, who sorted out the small misunderstanding. He was a very cute person, I might add!

We managed to get the car on the ferry, very carefully, only grounding a couple of times. We were on the deck when we set sail, talking to a lady who was out there having a cigarette. We stayed there for about half an hour chatting, and then went in. I think we were looking for the shop or something and chatting about where we could find it, when a voice answered us. It was a Scottish voice, so I asked him where he was from. It turned out he was from my hometown in Scotland. We ended up chatting to him all evening – he was really nice! He’s a long distance lorry driver, so always back and forth on the continent, and we ended up all having a really good laugh and it also meant I had someone to join me in fag breaks outside on the deck. It’s the most enjoyable ferry crossing I think I’ve ever had! He and I went up to the top deck as we were entering Portsmouth Harbour. Anyway, we swapped numbers and have been texting since!

Getting off the ferry was a little less complicated than going on, as no one was interested in the slightest in seeing the dog passport. What’s the point of having them, if they’re not checked? We went straight to Portchester Castle so the poor dog could have a bit of a run, and then went to Grandma’s for the night. I do wish she would use her radiators as I was freezing all night! It was lovely to see her, but a very short, flying visit.

England 2009 - Day 1 Monday

2009-04-21T01:17:00.000+02:00
Well…I’ve been in England for less than a week and I can’t believe how much we’ve fitted into that timescale!

As you know, I’m here with my friend who has moved back for good from France. All her belongings were packed up on Monday – there’s a story in that alone! Obviously, as anyone would expect, we all expected a big lorry in order to moves someone’s entire life to a different country. But oh no, the bloke (who shall henceforth be referred to as Numpty) turned up in a transit van with a trailer. There was no choice but to use him, as it was far too short notice to involve anyone else. At one glance, we could all see that he wouldn’t be able to fit everything in, but he assured us (at least for the first hour) that it was possible. After that, he kept saying ‘We need to prioritise’ with a glottal stop and an Essex accent, which is actually quite hard to say! He managed to get the two sofas into the trailer, with nothing packed between them so there was a big empty space there. He kept asking for bags to fill gaps, but everything had been very efficiently packed in boxes. The next thing was “We can only fit in what we can fit in”, “We can only prioritise what we can prioritise”, “We can only do what we can do” – God that man was an idiot. Eventually, with the help of two other blokes the van and trailer were packed full. Without those two though, we would not have got half the stuff in the van that we managed to. The only problem was that there was the same amount again left in the house, which had to be removed in order for people to move in. My mate whizzed up the road and enlisted two French friends, who really came through for her. They arrived in another transit type van, much bigger than the original one, and managed to get all the rest of her stuff into it to transport it to another location for storage until Numpty was able to make a second trip.

The only problem was that after all his guff about prioritising, very little of the priority items had been packed. We had to pack the car with the entire contents of the kitchen, cases of wine (to be dropped off elsewhere on the journey), clothes for us to wear, food for the journey, the printer (for job applications and CV’s) and a dog. This is all in a normal estate car. The car was sitting at an angle, and on the small country roads in grounded on every bump. As soon as the house had been packed up, my mate had to rush off to the airport and I took her car back to our house as she was spending her last night with us. She had taken our non-loaded car to the airport!

When I got home, I discovered that my iPod didn’t work. Now, if you know me you will know that this would, indeed, be a tragedy of high proportions! Well, I panicked. Nothing I did seemed to work. I did the whole reset thing – pressing menu and select together and nothing happened. I just thought it was a shitty end to a shitty day. Luckily another friend phoned to wish us Bon Voyage, and he told me to reset it but to hold the buttons down until the screen changed. I did, and it worked! What a relief!

Back In Blighty!

2009-04-17T11:52:00.003+02:00
This is just a short post until I get more than five minutes to sit down and properly compose one! There's been a lot going on!

England is cold and rainy, but the weekend looks like it's going to be nice, so the camera will come out of hibernation! I am so enjoying the food - on the first day we went to the chippy and I got a beef and onion pie and chips and it was gorgeous!!

Had a couple of interviews so far - things are looking encouraging. Mobile phone is sorted, we bought a dongle for the internet, and I'm about to go shopping!

So, I will be back on in a couple of days.