we're done :-)

The end of November is finally here, when I started on the first of the month I was sure I'd never make it to here but in a strange way its been very interesting to do and I'm sure in a few months it will be very interesting to go back and look at a month in my life and the weird and strange things I wanted to write something about.

The rate we're going with the roofer I will probably be writing about him actually doing the work next November but I guess we'll see about that.

If you've read this as the month has gone on thank you for taking the time to do that,  I won't be bothering you every day from now on but I might have more interesting things to say when I do.

So bye bye November and I'll leave you with a picture of my favourite place to sit and escape from the world.

asylum

Ok so I have no real idea what to write today, I promise I'll think hard about tomorrow as the last day of the month but for today I thought I'd just post some pictures of a really beautiful place that sadly no longer exists

 

I walked miles and miles in the grounds of this beautiful building in the last few weeks of my pregnancy with Shorty and I always thought it was very sad that it was being left to fall down.

I didn't know it looked like this inside, but I wish I'd had chance to have a look before they knocked it down.

It will be replaced by 700 houses over the next few years and eventually people will forget that people use to be sent here when it was an asylum and they used to think themselves lucky.  With beautiful countryside and a view of the sea this was the place to be sent apparently.

Anyway I loved the building and the grounds but sadly progress rolls.

internet dating!

Yesterday I was discussing meeting new people, specifically new men, with a friend who suggested I join an Internet dating site.  Really it didn't seem like a good idea but I've made friends on the Internet over the last year so I thought why not give it a go.  In the last 24 hours I think I have confirmed why I thought it was a bad idea.

I've been talking to one nice guy, who wasn't put off by my kids, or me technically still being married and who told me he has kids of his own and when he sees them.  1 nice guy (maybe)

BUT I have been called 'hun' by people I don't know, one guy was oh so lovely until he told me he was looking for adult fun 'in and out of the bedroom'  and 3 people who were looking for 'no commitment because I'm married' 

Do women really respond to creeps like that? Are some women that desperate for a man in their lives that they will have anything to do with men like that?


This is the side of the Internet that my mother warned me about ;-)

I think I will be deactivating my account pretty quickly although meeting new people when you're at home all day with the kids isn't easy so maybe not.  I don't know really but it's been a weird 24 hours.



One thing to assure anyone who reads this, I will not be getting on a train and travelling a couple of hundred miles to meet someone I've never met before in an underground restaurant because obviously no sensible person would do that ;-)

(in all seriousness I really wont be doing that)

November is nearly over

thank god! so much drivel has made its way on to this blog in the last few weeks I have started to wonder if it might collapse under the nonsense.

Today has been fairly pointless and not much has got done but hey its been a day and at least the place doesn't look like this.

rain rain everywhere

including down my wall!!

So this morning I woke up, got the kids up and took Tiny to change her nappy and was confronted by a rather wet patch of wall where water was coming in around the window.  I've been intending to replace them at some point but the time is obviously now.  Being someone who like to get things done I called a company, arranged an appointment and I am now expecting two new windows to be fitted in the first week of January.  I'll have to deal with the wet patch until then but that's one job sorted in a day :-)

The money I was promised arrived today so I can get all the balls rolling now :-)

This post really does require its tag.

Christmas time is here apparently

IT'S ONLY A MONTH UNTIL CHRISTMAS MUM, WE NEED TO WRITE LETTERS!

So that's what I woke up to this morning, Shorty shouted at the top of her voice while Tiny managed 'Time a get up mammy' at almost the same volume.

She is of course right and Christmas is very much on its way so we spent the morning making cards for Santa and writing letters asking him for presents.  Six things was all they were allowed, anything else they will just have to wait and see if Santa has them left over but now I have some idea of what they'd like.

Shorty wrote every word herself while tiny drew a nice picture around what I wrote for her but we had good and rather messy fun :-)

I was made to write a list, because how would Santa know what I would like if I didn't, but apparently its not ok to put Rupert Graves on the list I have to make do with a DVD of something he's in ;-)

HAPPY ONE MONTH UNTIL CHRISTMAS EVERYONE :-)

Mistakes happen

 

 

 

 

I've got a roofer :-)

Its a miracle but somehow I got a roofer to come and look at my roof today, he took all the measurements he needed and a few photographs and now I wait for a quote which should arrive by Monday.  It turns out that I know the guy as well, I met him while I was at uni so as long as the figures come in at a level I've been told to expect by a family member in the trade, but too far away to come and do it, I'm going to sign the guy up.

Who knows when he will actually be able to do the work but its step one towards redecorating my bedroom which is my Christmas present to myself so I am a very happy lady :-)

blank page

Furniture and Paint

I'm about to do some serious work on my house, I am being provided with a sum of money to make the house my own but I'm going to have to be rather careful with it if i want to do all the things I fancy so any advice on shops doing good deals on decorating stuff or good places to buy inexpensive but lovely furniture would be gratefully received :-)

I took Tiny to Homebase today, she loves running around the place looking at all the bright colours on the shelves and the pretty wallpapers, but today she had the remit of sitting on sofas and deciding if they were comfortable.  Sadly she doesn't have the greatest idea what comfort is and everything, including the cardboard box she sat on, was declared 'ver contabl mammy' I think I might need to have a bit of a rethink about my selection methods before I actually part with any cash ;-)

I have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, kitchen and dining room to decorate and I know nothing about what looks good with what and there is no one here to tell me I've got it wrong so the place could look very interesting in a couple of months time!!

First things first though I need a roofer and apparently the north east of England is experiencing a construction boom because I can't find a roofer who can even fit in coming and quoting never mind actually doing the job!  I might buy some slates and get up there and fix it myself in the end ;-)

this is a moan, sensible people will stop reading now you have been warned

So today I've been out and about getting rained on, its been dry all the time I'm inside but somehow it rains whenever I go out.

some days are writing days :-)

For weeks now writing anything has been like pulling teeth, every word was in doubt and every sentence took a day of re writes before I was not unhappy with it, a few times I have seriously thought about giving it up for a bit and my mum suggested that that might be the way to go when I was complaining about being stressed due to two challenge deadlines that I was struggling to even think about meeting but today is one of those days that makes it all worthwhile.

I have written almost 4000 words today and I really quite like a lot of them, I've also had a number of discussions with someone who is great at making me think about my characters as real human beings and that has really clarified the way the story is going I think.

 I should probably have been playing with Tiny or doing housework but the fact that I got words on paper that made me smile today is probably good for all of us :-)

Hard to do.

This blogging everyday thing is really quite hard to do but it does make you think a bit more about what's going on in your life and that can't really be a bad thing. 

Being a blog that hardly anyone knows exists this is quite an easy place to write anything I want but it would be interesting to know if anyone at all was reading it so please feel free to say hi if you drop by, anon or not everyone welcome :-)

A Funny day

My beautiful short people stayed in bed this morning until 730, which is considered a lie in at the minute so I woke up feeling like I'd actually been to bed :-) 

Granny took them shopping with her, Its strange that going shopping is a treat when Granny takes them and the worst thing in the world when I take them but a couple of hours with no kids and no housework to do because I'm in someone else's house was a great treat.  I spent the time writing and finishing an exchange fic so panic averted for now.

Football is Saturday afternoon's entertainment although it was more annoyance than entertainment today, the match will be remembered long into the season but only because of the most incompetent ref I've ever seen.

Its been a funny day but sleep and a real rest have made it quite a smiley one.

Its Christmas, well almost :-)

The things that make it nearly Christmas are different for every one but in our family the big one has always been the arrival of the Webb Ivory order and it came today! wrapping paper and toys and sweets and all the lovely things ready for Christmas :-)

Yes I know that a few days ago I was moaning about keeping Christmas in December but I given up the fight and I'm just going to embrace it :-)

too tired, long day!

Today my soon to be ex husband finally came and removed his stuff from the house, its only taken him three and a half months to get around to it but its done now and shorty has plans for decorating and changing things and making this a nice girly household so the future is probably pink ;-)

Who stole sleep?

Ok so who stole my sleep last night because I would like it back and quickly.  I was still awake at three and saw four and even had some awareness of five before the alarm went off at seven and I got up to start a day of running around after little people.

families are funny things!

I have often wondered if those families you see on the TV who are all happy and smiling everywhere and being nice to each other ever actually exist, how could they? how could a group of what are really random people be happy and friendly all the time?

I love my kids and they love me but we fight sometimes, not badly but its not all laughs and smiles its real life.  Do TV families leave us all feeling just a bit like we got it wrong somewhere?

Seriously if you have an opinion tell me I'm interested :-)

I can't believe I actually went to 'the game is on'

lots behind here about the Q&A and fandom friends

cos I have to

Long day, mega fun, loads of lovely people. Won't be home until after midnight so this is best you get for today. :-)

My murderous intentions

So last night I really would have taken any help in finding a way to get away with murder but I've calmed down now and really just think its very sad.

Personal moaning rubbish below do not feel you have to click read more.

technical help anyone? please :-)

So this isn't what I was intending to write tonight but it is something and its another day of the month I've completed :-)

How do you put a 'read more' in a post on this thing? if I want to write a lot or give people the option not to read it once they've even found this bloody blog how do I do that?

Please please please if you read this and know the answer let me know it's driving me mad.

To praise or not to praise?

An interesting discussion last night has had me wondering how you possibly bring up children and don’t screw them up somehow. 

Too much time with mum or too little time with mum

Too much independence or too little independence

Too much education or not enough

Too much praise, praise for the wrong things, or not enough praise of any form

Not enough encouragement of interest or so much that you are a ‘helicopter’ parent

The advantage of every day

The real advantage of trying to post every day is that it makes you think about things, I've spent months trying not to think about a lot of different things so its nice, in a way, to be pushed into it. Yesterday's thought was about where I should be living and it got lost in late night football but its kind of important so I'm going to write it down now.

I need to make a home for me, Shorty and Tiny that feels safe for all of us and in which I can actually sleep and I don't think its possible to do that in this house so I need to find a way to move.  The idea of moving house always excites me but the thought of doing it just me and the kids is also quite scary.  I know that I could very easily have thought about it and than stopped thinking about it so I booked some viewings and took myself off on my lonesome to have a look at what there is around. 

I've decided that I'm going to look for something that needs work so that I have something physical to do to make it our house and that I can afford resonably easily so they won't be in the best area or the biggest places but in the end it will be ours which is the important thing.

I've often wondered what makes a house a home and hopefully I am going to find out the secret in the next few months.

football stole my evening.

Crazy day of making decisions but an evening stolen by football leaves me no time to write about it so I'll do that tomorrow. Good match, great result, long trip home now hopefully no nightmares though.

Look what I got.

My beautiful daughter bought me these today, apparently "someone should buy you flowers mummy because you like them" so she spent her money from the tooth fairy for losing her first tooth on flowers for me.  I bought her a toy and some sweets so she got a treat as well but how lucky am I to have a daughter like that?

Half term holidays are over now, school is back in the morning and I feel quite sad about it BUT it will be nice to have time to put fingers to keys in some purposeful way again not that my brain is playing fair at the minute or having any ideas but hopefully more time will give my brain a chance :-)

look a motorbike

We had a strange day today because Granny and Granddad were ill this morning meaning we had to leave many hours before we normally do, Granddad normally cooks Sunday lunch while we sit around talking and distracting him and making him late for getting it ready in time for all the other guests.  Today though we did something I have never done before and we had lunch at McDonald's, it was supposed to be a treat for Tiny and Shorty for being good but in reality it came a very poor second to being sat in the car park when this parked up beside us.

Nothing will ever beat a motorbike for interesting as far as my kids are concerned and every time they fall in love with one it brings me one step nearer to buying one, I have been looking at learning to ride and I am really considering putting it in my 2013 plan for making a bloody good single life!

As days go by and I find more and more things no one is around to tell me not to do life becomes more and more exciting.

I think I would go for black or red if I bought myself a bike but I'm not sure, I'll have to do some research.

Trains, Football and friends (day 3 I'll give up soon I'm sure)

Tiny and Shorty spent their morning with Granddad playing with the largest train set in the world at a 'come and play' exhibition, the result is I now have to find a way of setting them up a train set at home because it is apparently the most fun EVER.  I used the time they were busy to do something I have never ever done before!  I find real people really hard to talk to, once I know people its not a problem but that first meeting normally scares the life out of me but today I met someone I have never met in person before and somehow it didn't feel at all weird or at all hard.  She was really lovely and I think meeting new people might be something I try and do more often :-)

The last few days have been a check-in, check-out routine with the little people really because I was back out for the afternoon, this time off to football to see Sean Dyche take charge of his first match at the Turf, If we play like we did every match I'll be smiling by the end of the season even if we are bobbing around mid table not really achieving anything because it was great fun to see the team look like they were having fun.

A good day of fun experiences, on to tomorrow and more fun I hope. :-)

cheese muffins (look I managed two days!)

Tiny, Shorty, cousin tall and cousin short made these this morning with the help of Granny, The day got a little turned about because things weren't open when we thought they were but baking cannot be missed.

They've played games, one of which was pretending to be a flute playing, talking, singing, pram pushing dog.  Odd kids, I don't know where they get it from ;-)

Swimming is to come later once the beans on toast and cheese muffins have settled in everyone's tummies, I'm not sure wrestling is the best way to make that happen but they seem to be trying it.

Half term is over tooooooooo soon.

Trip to Oxford (i will never manage everyday and no one will see it anyway)

6am- alarm goes off, quickly thumped and covered in the hope Tiny and Shorty aren't disturbed.

7am - the wonderful woman of mystery pulls up outside my house and whisk me away.

9.30 am - quick stop for breakfast and fuel

11 am - Oxford :-)

I've never been on a tour bus before but what better way to see the delights of Oxford than under the guidance of someone or something that knows the way around.


It was freezing but then that's what you get for sitting on the open deck of a bus in November





1.30 pm Magdalen College

 I have never seen anywhere like this before and I just couldn't resist going to have a look.  The change from the hussle and bussle of the street to the peace of the college was remarkable and the whole place was beautiful.

This is a beautiful sculpture we came across in the grounds

The sun dipping towards evening and some deer who happily live in the deer park in the college.


5 pm - Back in the car and off up the motorway

9pm - pre bed kiss and cuddle with Tiny and Shorty who think they've had as good a day as I have, they are of course wrong.

xx