Advent

Last week I didn't take any photos at all so I've made a special effort today & joined in with HSMSHS. It's advent today, the 1st December, the countdown to Christmas & I love it :O) The tradition in our house is everyone younger than me gets a chocolate advent calendar. In the past Mum & Dad have bought the girls one too but for some reason only Elena got one this year? Never mind, Gemma, Lisa & Elena will always be my girls and I will always buy them one until a) they tell me not to, or b) I have no money lol. The photo today over at HSMSHS is advent so here it is, Elena's Advent calendar. Had a text message from Kerri today saying she was so excited, she's won an armful of dancing medals & trophies at Blackpool. I'm so pleased for her, we've been wondering all day at work how she's got on. I can't wait to see them all :O)

I'm celebrating tonight because finally, Brian Paddick has been voted out of the jungle! Inspector Clueso himself lol. Not long now till we find out who's won :O)

A Set of Bagpipes

I swear there were ice crystals in my blood this morning :O) Got to work at 9am and the office was freezing. I call it an office, it's a tin box really (or caravan) with a bit of tarting up on the outside to give the impression that it's our holiday park reception. The problem with tin boxes is that in the winter it's freezing & in the summer it's like an oven. Now I don't mind baking when the sun's out but this weather is only for the hardy Northern folk. Of course I used to be one but we have become soft living down in the South :O) Oh well.

Not a lot else to report today on the home front.

HSMSHS said 'Scottish' when I checked the word of the day this morning. I've never been anywhere near Scotland let alone across the border lol. So I asked my trusty Elena who always comes up with something. 'A cow' she said, 'take a photo of a cow'. Feeling very confused & wondering if she had understood what I'd said, I asked her why. 'Well' she said, 'according to Jimmy Clitheroe, all cows have their own set of bagpipes!' You just have to love her for that sense of humour don't you lol. So here it is, just for Elena, a set of bagpipes borrowed from the Internet. Here's my own feeble attempt of a Scottish thistle (Andrew assures me it's a thistle but I'm not convinced).

I Can Hear The Bells?

That sunshine did the trick yesterday. Got my act together & rang the doctors about a smear test. It's all booked for next Wednesday. Phoned the hair dressers & Caroline asked me if I was free now! So off I toddled down into Sandown and now my hairs all trimmed and feeling lovely. Me & Caroline had a long chat about House & all the films we've seen lately and couldn't stop laughing at the clips from the new Madagascar film. I can't wait to see it. It's out on the 5th December so may be a good film to take Elena & her friends to see, as it's her birthday on the 10th.

Had a chat with Andrew last night about an eye test and we're going to see what Tesco's have to offer on Saturday so that's me nearly sorted lol. Unless anyone can do anything about the onset of Alzheimer's lol?

Yesterday the postman bought us a wedding invitation from Emma & David. It's all very exciting :O) They are getting married next May at Languard Manor & then in December 09, Collie & Andy (from work) are getting married. They say these things come in three's so we need one more to make it a hat trick (hint, hint, Nik) :O)

Tonight, don't faint, we're going out! Some friends of ours, Jean & John, are visiting the Island this week. They are staying at the Shanklin Hotel. Jean phoned last night to see if we wanted to meet them for a drink. We had a lovely chat and arranged a time to see them. We're picking Gemma up from her flat first and then going down to their hotel. We can't stay out mega late becasue Elena has to get up for school tomorrow but it will be lovely to see them & catch up with all their news.

The HSMSHS word today is Spanish?!!!!

Well, you can't get more Spanish than the country itself, so here's 2 holiday photos from Pineda in Spain in 1981. We had gone with some very good friends of ours, the Sisson family.

Italian Fish & Houses

What's up with me? Andrew's running around doing 3 jobs at once & I've barely the energy to climb into bed at night? Maybe I should take Andrew's advice and 'do something'. Can I blame the weather? The time of year? Or is it just procrastination? I have a tonne of housework to do and keep thinking that I will tackle it a room at a time, but by the time I've finished I have to start at the beginning again. Why can't housework be done once a week and leave it at that? I have 3 outstanding jobs as well, a smear test, an eye test & my hair needs cutting. Instead of blogging about it I should just ring up and make the relevant appointments but something inside me doesn't want to. Why is that? I can understand not wanting a smear test ~ who does! I NEED new glasses, I can't see a flippin thing at the moment. Teresa lent me some books to read & the writing is so small I have no chance reading them so clearly something needs to be done. I am a Pisces so could it be something to do with that? Two fish swimming in opposite directions, one saying do this, the other saying no don't. If I believed in such stuff I could convince myself that this is the problem. Where's House when I need him?

Ooo talking of House, just watched the new episode :O) It was another good one! I was a bit confused though because the other day, when I went on the website, it said the new episode would be called 'Let them eat cake'. It wasn't at all, it was Emancipation! (Every time I here that word it makes me think of Bob Marley ~ Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery.) OMG I know what's up with me, I'm having Jamaican withdrawal symptoms PMSL! I digress, House was as brilliant as ever :O)

HSMSHS word today ~ Italian! All I'm going to say is this is as Italian as we get in this house ~ dried pasta lol. Just been outside and the sun is out! The thermometer is reading 15o ... and the skies are pure blue ...I'm off now to get me boots full lol ~ byeee!

I'm back :O) with my boots well and truly full of gorgeous weather & sunshine ...

Pirate Flags

OMG, OMG, I'm jumping up and down with excitement, I have 100 flags!! I have been waiting over 6 months for my Neocounter to reach a century ~ wow!

It's funny really because when we've had nothing to do at work this week & last, we've been playing the Geo Challenge game on face book. A bit of a competition has arisen between Kerri, Nicky & myself and although I lost my lead yesterday I regained the top score today :O) There are 3 stages, naming flags, naming countries & placing cities of the world in the correct place. It's very addictive lol. Tonight Andrew came home a bit earlier than usual so made the Christmas cake & mincemeat whilst I cleaned up after him. Team work hey! Took Elena to the dentist after school for her 6 month check up. The orthodontist signed her off in March but wrote a letter to the dentist saying when her upper right 5 breaks through she needs it extracting. Well it's broken through and is poking out the roof of her mouth. This is good news (although she says it feels horrible) because it hasn't affected the alignment of any teeth. Her appointment is in January.

I swear the words over at HSMSHS are definitely getting harder. Today's word is Fake?!!! Elena has come to the rescue again with a photo she took the other day in Ryde. It's a pirate ship in the fun fair on Ryde seafront. Talking of pirates have you seen the news about the Somali Pirates. I wonder how many more boats they're going to Hijack?

Does Size Matter?

What a productive weekend. Andrew's changed the radiator in our bedroom because the old one had started to leak. The new one is a different size as they don't make the old sizes anymore so he had to take up the floor boards, turn pipes round and re plumb the new radiator. He's wired in a new light in both ours & Lisa's bedroom, sorted out the paintwork round our window & undercoated all the architraves etc. It looks fab. He is SO clever but then he did spend 5 years at college learning carpentry and if that wasn't enough, he's got qualifications in electrics & plumbing too. You could say he's a very Handy Andy lol.

Now you'd think that decorating our bedroom would be enough for one person to do (as well as work 40 hours a week in a demanding job). But Andrew doesn't think so, he's changing the kitchen cupboard doors too. Again, all the sizes are different now. When did it happen? Who knicked all the old sizes? The ones he's taken off have only been up 15 years! Anyway, the doors have to be altered, every single one. At the moment we've got a selection of styles which I think is quite funky :O) Everything in our house is slowly turning white. I've left it up to Andrew so I think he's de personalising the house. The House Doctor says to depersonalise your house if you want to sell it so I think it's him being very sneaky. One day I'll wake up and we'll have moved lol. Nice try Mr H!

Me, I spent most of Sunday ferrying Elena to & from Ryde. Cleaned the conservatory and sorted out the plants. Washed the net curtains and cleaned all the windows inside.

We slept on the front room floor last night. Well not literally, we dragged the mattress out of our bedroom & slept on that. It's weird how everything 'sounds' different in the lounge and how new noises wake you up. The train, cars, dustbin men, people walking past the house. We'll just get used to it when we move back upstairs :O)

HSMSHS word today is button so here's a photo from my button box :O) A sneaky peek at the next episode of House ~ Let Them Eat Cake :O)

Grumpy Old Women :O)

What a lovely day we've had today. Been at work with Kerri & Nicky and had a great laugh. Yesterday we printed nearly 3000 address labels and stuck them on the envelopes ready for the 2009 brochures. Today we've had nothing to do again so filled the time talking etc. Wore my new Matalan jumper & necklace ~ snazzy hey! Got home & the postman had bought me a parcel from my bestest friend :O) I couldn't stop laughing when I opened it, just look it's a fridge magnet lol. The letter attached said ... I had to buy it for you because it reminded me of what we'd said we'd do when we're old. I can just see us sat in front of the TV watching 'Who Do You Think You Are' like the two old ladies in another 40 years time. lol Apparently Teresa's the one with the glasses, that looks like she's chewing on a wasp and I'm the sweeter looking one holding her hand :O) This goes back quite a few years when we made a pact. If we ended up on our own because the men in our lives had, well to put it bluntly, kicked the bucket lol, we would live together and rattle around in a big old house keeping each other company reminiscing about the 'good old days' lol. Thank you honey xXx

It's Pudsey Bear's day today and tonight in Morrisons, all the sales assistants were in fancy dress raising money for 'Children in Need'. I think we were served by Jack Sparrow's Dad lol. They had all made such a great effort you just couldn't walk away without making a donation.

Today's HSMSHS word was Music so here is the frog radio we keep in the bathroom. Talking of music, this is my favourite song today, Boyzone's Love You Anyway

Christmas Recipes

Pub. Mmmmm, not a place we usually go but HSMSHS wants a photo. Last time we went to a 'pub' was in Jamaica so this is just another excuse to show some holiday photos :O) Last night after tea Andrew had all the cookery books out in the kitchen trying to make a list of ingredients for a Christmas cake, Christmas puddings & mincemeat. No matter how hard he tried going from one book to another he couldn't get to grips with how many ounces of flour, dried fruit etc. we needed. After making fun of him trying to multi task, we made a table of ingredients we needed to buy, in a spread sheet on the computer (anal I know). We must have spent half an hour doing it as he kept adding to the list. As far as I'm concerned you buy marzipan in a block from the shop, but no, Andrew wants to make his from scratch. Andrew, I said, you can buy royal icing in powdered form from Tesco. Nope, he wants to make that from scratch too. I wouldn't mind but 10 minutes before the cookery books came out, he was planning the decoration of our bedroom this weekend and changing the cupboard doors in the kitchen.

Yes I know he's fab :O)

Anyway, we printed off the table of ingredients and got the packets of dried fruit, nuts & cherries out of the kitchen cupboards. Easy now we had a list. We soon fell about laughing, all the packet stuff was in metric and we had spent ages working out imperial measurements lol. Does that make us old or just daft???

The Game's Afoot

We have had to wait two whole weeks for the next episode of House & it's nearly killed me lol. Every day for the past 14 days I've got up, showered, got dressed & either gone to work or done something constructive. This morning has been pure indulgence. Stayed in bed till 10am (how lazy is that), put my dressing gown & slippers on. Booted up the laptop, made a cup of tea & sat & watched the next installment of House. It was worth waiting for. What a brilliant episode! I am so pleased they carried the story line on of House & Cuddy. I wonder if they'll ever get together? It was great to see a lot more of Cameron & Chase & it's so good to have Wilson back. What more could you want from your favourite TV show :O) Yesterday after work Elena & I went back to Matalan to see if we could find a plain T-shirt for drama. She's doing a show called Rock Nativity in a few weeks time hence all the rehearsals. It's harder than you think trying to find a top with no frills or extra colours but we managed. I bought 4 T-shirts in different colours for me at £3 each, (they'll do for work) when Elena spotted a drinks bottle for school. It's very snazzy with an inner core that you freeze so it keeps your drink cool all day. She was happy.

This afternoon I've been making Elena a Christmas hamper full of bath stuff. Wrapped most of the presents that I hadn't got round to last week, so I think I'm up to date now. I can't believe how organised I am this year lol. I'm sure the name Santa Claus lost something in translation, I swear it should be Mother Christmas :O)

Today's word over at HSMSHS was Game so here's my photo. It's Elena's favourite game on the DS at the moment. Now, I think Andrew thinks it's his birthday because, don't faint, I've cooked the tea :S Lasagne with garlic tear & share bread & salad leaves (Elena did the salad). Not only that, Andrew ate the lot. Cleaned his plate he did (in the past he's refused to even eat my cooking lol). Is this a sign of things to come??? Nah!

My favourite music today
Girls Aloud - The Promise
Josh Groban - To Where You Are (I've loved this song since the first time I heard it on Ally McBeal years ago) I've asked Father Christmas for his new album ~ Awake :O)
The Script - The Man Who Can't Be Moved (Elena's favourite song too)

Photos I've pinched from Lisa's facebook :O)
Liam & Tillett ...Lisa & Liam at Thorpe Park ... Lisa & Skateboard Steve ...

Remember Our Heros

It's the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month ~ who do you think of when the radio announces the 2 minutes silence? Well I think of my grandad who served in the WW2 and luckily survived & my great grandfather's brother Tom Bramwell who unfortunately lost his life in WW1.

Today's word at HSMSHS is remember so I have taken a photo of my poppy. It's attached to my bag at the moment. I'm hoping to download the song 'Hero' tonight (if I can get my flippin iTunes to work) as all the money from this single goes to the men & women who have been injured fighting for our country. It's an amazing charity and needs every ones support. I am against war & fighting & don't even get me started about Iraq! Having said that, I don't think the men & women joined the army, air force & navy to kill anyone. It's just a horrible side of their job and although the horrible side of my job is sorting out nasty customers it pales into insignificance when you know the sacrifices they have made & are still making.

Elena's Gone Spongebob Loopy!

Some of the words at HSMSHS are sooo difficult and today is no exception ~ clean! Yes, a lot of things are very clean in our house (and a few things are not so clean) but because it's never got light properly or stopped raining today it's been a job to find something that actually looks clean. Not only that, the winds have been so strong this morning we actually thought the office was going to blow away! I digress, back to clean. While I was hoovering tonight, Elena's been cleaning out Monkey's cage. So this will have to do for my 'clean' photo. As you can see, she seems to have gone Spongebob loopy :O) Elena's been an angel tonight and made cups of tea, made both our bed & her own, whisked up an Angel Delight for pudding and now she's in her favourite place ~ the shower.

Flatmates

It's SPS (self portrait Saturday) at HSMSHS today. Usually I don't join in because I hate seeing photos of me. I am much happier the other side of the lens. Today I've made an exception and put this one on my blog. I can't take any credit for it (obviously), as it was taken by my best friend in the whole wide world ~ Teresa :O) Although I am cringing at the sight of it I like it because it has encapsulates how I felt at the time ~ happy :O) Did I tell you we had a really fab time up north? (grin)

We've had a busy day today. Took Lisa to the doctors this morning and did a bit of shopping while I was waiting for her. Went to Tesco with Andrew & managed to get season 4 of House on DVD ~ yay!! Went to Newport this afternoon with Elena so I am definitely all shopped out this week :O) Andrew cooked us all a fabalicious roast chicken dinner with home made sausage & chestnut stuffing tonight with syrup sponge & custard for pudding. Then after tea we helped Gemma move all her stuff into her new flat. We made a chain of people down the stairs and passed things down from person to person until everything was moved from our bedroom to the bus, team work or what!! Then once we'd loaded it all in the bus we made another chain at Gemma's flat and passed it from outside right through to the front room. Hopefully now she'll be able to find all the stuff she knew she had but couldn't find :O)

A few weeks ago I was trying to find photos of the girls to make into calendars for the grandparents for Christmas. I realised how few pictures I have with all 3 of them. So I ceased the opportunity tonight. You can see by every ones red faces how hard we'd worked :O)

Clinging to the Dead Man's Chest

It was bonfire night last night so off we trotted down to the pier to watch the fireworks. They said it started at 6:30pm which is quite early for us so we didn't get down to the beach until 7pm. We needn't have rushed. The fireworks didn't start until 8 o'clock. We had missed most of the lantern parade but managed to watch the fire eaters on the beach. After that they put on a magic show called dead mans chest where they locked a man in a trunk perched on a bonfire and set light to it. The man had to escape before he was burnt to death. Amazingly he ended up being the fire fighter at the end of the show. The kids loved it lol. The fireworks were let off at the end of the pier so they looked fab over the sea. The cold wind & drizzle didn't put anyone off from shouting oooo & aaahhh every time they went off. Elena took these :O) Someone's having a laugh today at HSMSHS because the word is cling?!! I logged on before I went to work this morning and ended up taking the camera with me just in case inspiration struck. Asked the girls at work if they could think of anything ~ no! Picked Elena up on the way home from work and asked her ~ nothing! Intended to find something around the house but Mum & Dad called round to see if we'd had a good time last week. Of course we said yes :O) They had also been away a couple of weekends ago to Bournmouth so they presented Elena with a gift. Elena's eyes lit up, sweets maybe, a stick of rock, a small toy or cuddly bear, nope, a set of bathroom stuff they had found in their hotel room!!! How to make a grandchild think she's special hmmph! Anyway, when they'd gone we had a laugh & she got this out of the packet & put it on ~ eureka ... Cling!!