Ready for the off!!!

Well, not really, but I have started to gather my things for the coming weekend away. Having seen the weather forecast on the BBC last night, I have no idea what to take to wear! SNOW? SLEET? RAIN? Where is the Easter Sunshine that rabbits so enjoy?!! I'd got a whole other wardrobe in mind, and now I am having to totally re-think my ideas. And looking at the next three days forecast for the Stafford area, it is rain, rain and then sleet.............no!! Just when I was getting my winter attire out of the wardrobe and into the dark recesses of my storage boxes, I am having to haul it all out again...........shame! So, what goes into the suitcase regarding clothing will be the last I put in...and if all else fails, then they do have shops in England, don't they?..... :-)

My car has gone for its MOT (APK) this morning so fingers crossed there is nothing wrong this year. Phoebe is going to have to last me many more years to come!! I took her for a clean on Saturday as my father always insisted that a clean car gets a better service and this is a small way I can honour his memory. He was so particular about cars!! She does deserve a thorough going over inside but that has to wait. I am hoping to get her back this afternoon before Peter has to go on a visit, otherwise I am grounded all day! Yikes!

On the Apple Tart front, Tim made his yesterday and we are planning to take it over to Loes's this evening for the exchange, and tomorrow he will take a slice from each to school for his teacher to decide which tastes the best!! Tim was on form when we did the shopping for it, and he used his own idea regarding the sugar he chose etc and that made me happy. It means he is thinking about how to adapt recipes to suit himself, thereby moving into a new phase in his learning process. We all know that when we learn something new, we follow instructions to the letter, but as we move through to being an 'expert' we are able to deviate and add or take away or totally revamp something because we are confident that the basics stay the same and it will work. So this third version is so much better than his first attempt, and his pastry worked better and he was quicker at it and it looks fantastic. I will add a photo later on. He has also got an order for his Chocolate Caramel Shortbread so maybe we can go into Home Baking soon!!!!!

Sue xx

We've sprung forward!!!

I've just added a clock to my blog as last night at 2am the clocks here sprung forward one hour into Summer Time!!! Luckily they do this in the Uk as well so the hour difference remains the same. I wonder when they will do the two year leap so that we are all on the same timezone? It is a debate that has rumbled on for years and years, and no-one makes a decision; but why is it so difficult????? No one knows!

I think my head must have been screwed on backwards yesterday because when I came down this morning I found that the cats dirt box was facing the wrong way round!!! Finka had been desperate to go during the night and had pooped in the hanging mats on the radiator which was the most sensible place actually, as I found it immediately and threw them in the washing machine!!! I have never done this in my life!! I find it even hard to imagine that I did it and didn't notice I had done it when I washed the floor..........so it must have been like it for hours............am I losing my marbles finally?!!

I guess yesterday was a terribly difficult and emotional day for me. I am so distraught about so many things right now, and my emotions feel very raw and near the surface. I felt lonely and sad and scared and worried and invisible to others and I still do this morning, so it is going to be a long day. Sometimes things just hit you, and the reality of a situation is more than you can bear, and fighting the urge to give in to it and sob your socks off is so difficult. I am a very private person and showing how I feel is something I reserve for only one or two people in my life. Writing my blog is my cathartic process - a sort of external and distant journalling that allows me to sometimes shed my burdens and let them go. Even so, it is just the tip of the iceberg that gets written about, and everything that is hidden in the murky depths below, stays well protected from above! Luckily I have my music, and that helps when I want to think about something other than myself, as I can just get my ipod and block out the world!!!

Well, that was my Sunday morning pep talk to myself so now I have to get up and attack the rest of the day in a more calm and serene manner so that I can fool everyone that I am doing fine. That's the way it works, right?

Sue xx

Time to prune!!

First of all let me say that the bag I won from Rebecca Sower arrived this morning and it is super! A little smaller than I was expecting from the photos but really nice and I will definitely be using it!!! Just the other one I ordered to arrive now and I will be satisfied..............

The trees have been pruned and at the moment the men are clearing all the branches from the drive and street. Very neighbourly!! It is a good thing that our neighbour can burn a lot of the thicker parts on his fire in the garden as otherwise all our bins would overflow!! I am the sweeper -upperer!! So cannot do more until the larger pieces of wood are gone. Fine, that suits me!!

Means I can get on with all the other inside jobs that take up weekends - don't you just hate that? I wanted to go to the opticians in town but decided to wait until Monday or Tuesday when it might be warmer. So many things to do before my weekend break - yes!!! I am so glad I am not flying with BA as they are on strike, I hear from my mother, otherwise a note of panic might have been noticed in my blogging. As it is, I am more concerned with planning the train to and from the airport, and my lifts and my washing/clean clothes etc. What the weather will be like, what do I need to take etc. It's only a couple of days really, but it always seems necessary to be prepared for a fortnight!!!! I have lists of what to bring home for everyone as well, so that needs space in my suitcase............ah, the joy of travel!!

Anyway, the joy in store for me next is cleaning the bathroom!!!

Sue xx

Thought for the day

"The three keys to more abundant living...

caring about others...

daring for others...

sharing with others."

{ william arthur ward }

a whole load of heavy stuff!!

There must be something in the wind at the moment because where ever I look or turn there are emotional fallouts happening!! It's like someone dropped a huge balloon of angst out of the sky and is busy spreading it far and wide. This whole week I have felt as though I have been given the residues from the contents of this balloon and expected to sweep them all up and wipe the world clean again. I am doing my best, but some are larger than others and will take more time, and hardly any are tiny enough to be just blown back into the wind!! The poster above my computer reads " KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON " - great! There is no additional sentence telling me how to do this!! Maybe they should have made a sequel to it " and when you are done carrying, lay your burden down. " That's what I do. I lay my burden down at your door and you take it up for me and make it weightless for a few hours until I have to shoulder it again. That brief rest is all I need to recover and regroup, and it is priceless. Thank you. I guess it is that old footsteps in the sand story...................being carried when times are hard and knowing that someone cares enough about you to take it on. Y'know the one I mean I am sure.

Lat night was a huge success. The school raised over 6,000 euros for the Vocational School in Vietnam. Our meal was good and we enjoyed the whole evening. To cap it all, my friend and her husband became grandparents on the same day so that was tremendous news for them. Tim was really tired when I picked him up around 11pm so today it was hard to get up and out to school so he went in a little later. We are both suffering this evening so I think it is bedtime now! I was almost asleep by mid-afternoon at work so was glad to get home and lay down for an hour to recover my senses. I think I will sleep like a log tonight!

Sue xx

Morning sunshine

That will hopefully last all day!! This is the warmest start to the day so far this year and although the sun is not yet out, it is warmer than before so I am thinking it is a day for planting my pots up! I have seen the first shoots of my perennials popping up through the ground so that is heart-warming, but I miss colour in the garden right now so that is what I am after. A bit of colour! I am not one for the brights - orange and yellow etc, but rather the more subdued and soft mauves and pinks and purples and blue hues. A splash of white is also good but Peter has ripped out my beautiful white ground covering plant by the pond because he thought it was dead!!! It was only lying dormant through the winter, but it is gone, and that is a shame. Still, I can buy it again sometime....so long as no-one touches anything else!!

As I type I am sitting here with my hair in some conditioning stuff that takes 10-15 mins to work, so this is my preparation for this evenings meal at Tim's school..for the school in Vietnam that they sponsor. I am looking forward to it very much. I got on my scales this morning as I felt I needed reassuring that my sacrifices are worthwhile, and yes, they have gone down again!!!! It is slow - but then again good in the sense that I need to do this properly and take it slowly to ensure long term results. I am almost at the magic number I want to fall below before I go to Becci's. The one where you get to before the weight ends in a 9!!!!!! :-) I think it shows in my face already but I tend to puff up with fluid retention so it varies from day to day!!

I so want to be able to wear one certain outfit that I haven't got into comfortably for a year now!!

I have some friends who are celebrating their birthdays today, so Happy Birthday to you guys!!!

Suexx

Sunday sunshine

Oh boy, it was really difficult getting through yesterday without falling into temptation! But I managed it so I feel very proud of myself! And the scales arrived ......and I stood on them this morning.......and actually I weigh less than I feared! Still far from good but I think that I must have lost about 2kilos already as that is where I thought I would be on them, and my jacket meets closer across my chest now, and my face is looking slimmer, SO! It is working, hurray!!! I have to lose 7kilos for me to fit some of the clothes I am longing to get back into for spring, so that is my first target. I know how much will make the difference because that is what I weighed last time I got into them and felt good. And if I get another 2 off before Easter - maybe three if I am very good, that will also make me feel better and fitter and more energetic and sit more comfortably on the plane!!!!

I have a good hour on skype yesterday with my best mate Peter, and he told me, Becci, that the trains are threatening a strike over Easter so we might have to re-think our travel to Manchester unfortunately. What a shame that they always pick peoples bright spots to highlight their own wants?! British Airways are currently doing the same and it is so disappointing for all their passengers as once again their plans are ruined. I understand that it is an effective means to a end, but it is costly to so many others and there ought to be a better way to negotiate than this!

So what do I have to look forward to today?!!! A run out to the supermarket probably as Finka is turning her nose up at the tuna and prawns kitten food I bought for her yesterday! I threw some of the dry food over it and she picked that out no problem, but the tuna was gobbled up by Genghis faster than a McDonalds burger!!!! We do have one super that is open on Sundays but one has to drive over there so I am waiting for a lift....it is looking better weather than I expected but of course that can all change before the morning is over.

And the rest of the day will pass in the usual manner although when Tim gets home we are trialling the apple tart again as next Sunday we have to produce the competition version!!! Tim is still refusing to include any ingredients he doesn't like himself, which sort of limits what he can add, but I think he has to go with his own ideas and we will see what he thinks of Loes's when he tastes hers. I am going to the school benefit dinner this week with Loes, Ann and Harry so looking forward to that too. But now I guess it is time to go downstairs and see what my feline friends are up to, and start the small amount of ironing that awaits me; what fun!!!

Sue xx

Saturday morning

Well I have been to the hairdressers this morning and feel quite a bit 'lighter' for it!! It's amazing how much hair needed to be cut off from the bottom and to thin my very thick hair on the top!! But it resembles ( vaguely) the photo I took with me, and I know it will settle down once I wash it myself tomorrow so not too bad overall. I have been traumatized by hairdressers in the past and tend to watch every snip they make, due to the fact that when I was about eight, I had very long hair indeed and could even sit on it, which I had grown especially to be like another older girl who travelled to school in the same mini-bus as I did, and then I was asked to be a bridesmaid a couple of years later, and my mother had it all cut off and false curls put in!!! I looked liked Goldilocks and hated it!! I was so unprepared for it that I have never forgotten the horror of looking in the mirror and seeing the result. So now I am careful, very careful!!! It will look so much better once there is a colour in it in ten days time. Now the only question is 'what colour shall I have?'..............

The rain persists here relentlessly so that one opportunity to get into the garden was well taken. So much more to do, especially the pruning but it is going to have to wait.

I am making soup. It is in my book so I can eat as much as I like of it and since I do feel kinda hungry this morning, I am looking forward to lunchtime folks!! I have a skype date with my best friend at one o'clock so that is also making me clockwatch a little.

I am delighted to have discovered that there are more books in the series Anna and I read/share, about the Ladies Detective Agency. I spotted them on Amazon this week and wanted them for her and I immediately!! Have you read any of them? I can really recommend that you do. There was a BBC series a couple of years ago which was lovely, but the books allow you to imagine the characters as you want them to be, and I find that more enchanting. I also saw so many other books I coverted........in my new home I just have to have a huge bookcase somewhere!!! I can go without many other things in this life, but books and music are too important to me to go without. I have always wanted a library in my home but that is not possible to date - who knows, one day it might happen??? - so I think masses of wall to wall bookcases is the only solution! Wouldn't that be so wonderful?....I can see it right before my eyes.

Now, what's next on my agenda today?..............

Sue xx

Let there be rain!!!

Well, overnight is fine but let it be gone by morning!! So far today I have done quite a lot without even setting foot downstairs!! Amazing how the morning disappears when I get up a tad later than usual!

I have to do some food shopping shortly but at the moment I am enjoying new music and songs and widening my musical knowledge-base!! Sounds more fancy than it really is I assure you! I am listening to Leona Lewis and I confess that until now I have not heard many of her songs over here. She won the X factor in the UK and was acclaimed as the british Beyonce because of her voice and looks. She is very good actually and seems to be making a name for herself in America right now - singing the title from Avatar and My Earth on the new Final Fantasy game which Tim has got his eyes on. That's how I came to listen to her this morning.

I am wearing my black jeans that I can only get into when I am a little slimmer so that is my proof today that this diet is working!!! Still no sign of my scales but hey, they have to come today, right?!!! I want to know the reality of the task ahead of me. Two weeks until I go to Becci so I have time to get maybe another 2 kilos off so that will all help the cause. I found a nice hairstyle that I will present to Paulien tomorrow to see what she thinks about it for my hair....it is one I have liked for a long time so maybe it is suitable for me. Fingers crossed!!!

So, ought to get on with breakfast since it is now almost 10am!!!!

Sue xx