Home Again and Sinking.....

I am sinking under a pile of washing that has taken over my kitchen,Its daunting at the moment as there is so much to do, We have emptied two of the cases and to add to that there is washing from Carl's Africa trip. He had made a start but there were only a couple of days between that and flying onto Amsterdam so I have a bit of a back log. I am at the stage this morning of not knowing what to do next, everything is piled up everywhere and we have suitcases and the likes all over the place. I just need a magic washing fairy to swoop in and sort it out.

The holiday was nice, I have never heard so much thunder or seen so much lightening, perhaps it was because we were in a  caravan and it was more obvious, but one morning we had thunder for an hour non stop, one rumble run into another and it just kept going, the sky was lit  up with lightening and then an hour in the rain started.

I will be back later with some photos, I found some great craft finds, not that I can see a time when I will be able to use them!!!!!

The eagle has landed!!!

For the first time in an absolute age all three kids have arrived on holiday together stand by for non stop entertainment !! We collected carl from the airport after a 30 minute flight now preparing to watch the third re enactment of 'grease' the Duinrell version!!!

The goodness for mcdonalds!!!

Free wifi is a blessing !!! We have had a good first few days with glorious sunshine today back to form with rain!!! We have shopped in Leiden and are now heading back soaked!! Fingers crossed the weather improves . Planning on hitting Amsterdam later this week x

Lots to do......

This weekend I seem to have been non stop busy but I have not very much to show for it. This morning we hit Stevenage and bought bits from Poundland, home bargains and Dunelm Mill. I have put it all away and now have tomorrow to pack everything up in preparation to our few days break.

I have finished the washing and tomorrow it will be go go go!!!

We are still having summery weather so Beth has been down the pool again. Its like having her own personal pool !! She loves it there!!

Yesterday we went to see mum, she was very happy and upbeat, she is going home on Thursday and is really looking forward to that. While she has been in hospital she has made friends with the lady in the next bed, Shirley. She is a lovely lady who had a stroke. Her family are lovely as well and Mum and Shirley have been good for each other. Sadly during the week Shirley was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, which was a terrible shock for everyone. There have been lots of tears all around. Shirley is going home tomorrow, she wants to go home even though she is not really well enough to go. She lives with her son who has got things sorted for her. I wish her well. 

During the day I have been trying to book up our girls weekend away in December. Its proving to be very difficult!!! We wanted to go to one of the Christmas markets. The one in Jersey sounded brilliant, so I found a nice hotel which was reasonable, the ferry was a non starter as they only do overnight crossings in December. So I looked at the flights, Luton would have been perfect and Stansted good, but they reduce the flights to three times a week in the winter. So I looked at Gatwick they have the flights but as always the prices quoted are nothing like the final price. The price looked like it was going to be £60 each but by the time you added on all the different 'additions' we were looking at £97 each!!!So that priced it out of the market, so Madeline if you are reading this, we are having a big rethink and may return to plan A, which is Lille. We just need to decide which hotel!!!!

Carl is down the mountain and we have had a few text messages from him. He will be chilling out now in Nairobi recovering from his climb. He is obviously missing my home cooking as he has asked me to make him some of 'specials' strawberry jelly's!!! That's what its like when you are a first class chef like me!!!!

Home Visit and Reaching the Summit!

Yesterday Mum visited home for the first time since March this year!! It was a major arrangement by the Hospital. I was there when she got there in the ambulance. It took two drivers, two physios and a social worker! Once they had got her over the thresh hold in a wheel chair she was able to walk to the arm chair in the front room. She sat and had a cuppa while the physios went upstairs and arranged the bedroom furniture.

Next she had to walk to the stair lift and get on it. That was a little harder but not impossible. With a bit of a shuffle she got on and got upstairs. Getting off at the top was easy and she walked into the bedroom.

The bed is a fully adjustable hospital bed so they put it down as low as it would go and Mum sat on it after a bit of a struggle she managed to get both legs on and lie back. She was also able to get back up again afterwards. So all in all it was a very sucessful day. All we need to wait for now is for Social Services to arrange the carers and she will get a home date. There is light appearing at the end of this very long tunnel!!!!

Carl has been out of contact for three days now, we had expected this as it was very unlikely that there would be a signal up Kilimanjaro!!!! According to my calculations he should have carried out the climb to the peak this morning at dawn and is likely now to be on the way back down again. I hope he has taken loads of photos!!!! His fund raising is going well and I know that there are pledges that he will collect once he is back.

He has now raised £1210 !!

Please check out his Just Giving Page

HERE

Silver Wedding Anniversary!! Madeline and John.

I can't believe it was twenty five years ago that my friends Madeline and John got married. I can so clearly remember the day, I was one of the bridesmaids sporting a trendy perm, Laura was ten months old and we all had a fantastic day. Madeline wore a beautiful dress, lace and very demure. We wore jade green.I have found a few of the earlier photos.

The celebrations started on the Hen Night which was a week before the big day we got her all decked out in the usual hen night garb.  In those days we would end a night out with a KFC (although back then it was still known as Kentucky Fried Chicken!!!) It was also usual for us to finish our chicken, drive home through the more affluent areas of Watford and chuck our rubbish up the drives of the big houses!!!

You can just see four of us bridesmaids at the centre of the photo, look at my lovely perm!!!

Madeline and John the happy couple!!

So here we are twenty five years later, where does the time go???

Here's to the next twenty five!!

Hot Hot Hot!!

We have been having a few hot days (which have been followed by some very variable and wet days!!) Beth has been desperate for a paddling pool, so we have obtained a 'birthing pool' from Emma and set it up in the garden!!! its been there for a few days and Beth has been in everyday (as long as we top it up with hot water!!) I am quite impressed with it and I am very tempted to get myself one of those garden spas that you inflate and heat up, I am visualising New Year in the hot tub, fantastic!!!!

About to climb......

Carl has been in Kenya for the past 5 days, he has been on a three night safari and tomorrow morning he starts the travel to the start of the climb. He has prepared well and has loads of equipment so

 I hope all goes well. 

So far he has raised a total of £1,180 its not too late to sponsor him, please visit his 'Just giving' page and support him. Thank you.

He has left the country!!!

This afternoon I took Carl to Heathrow airport, getting ready to go did not go without incident. Because he has a climb as part of the trip, he needs to take the right gear including boots, sleeping bag and sleeping mat, he also needs warm gear and safari gear. So at lunch time he had realised that one suitcase was not enough and we didn't have a suitable second case (for that what he meant was that he wasn't prepared to take my black case covered in red cherries!!) So Tina came to the rescue and loaned him one.

When I got home to collect him, he had both bags packed but one was over weight and one was under so we had a bit of fiddling to do to get them equal. It has been so hot that we were both dripping by the time we had finished.

We headed off and we were  less than a mile from home when his traveling companion called to say he had arrived and was waiting in the terminal!! We were lucky and managed the whole journey without a single hold up on the M25 (not the same could be said for my return journey!!)

So I was very good, I said goodbye and never shed a tear this time!! I am getting much better at this.

I still snuck a photo or two!!!

So here he is with Keith's Backpack, My purple case and Tina's red and black case!!

He refused to look back at me.Little sod!!

There he is disappearing into the terminal just a flash of red t shirt.

His flight was due to leave at 8pm but in the end didn't leave until 8.30pm I tracked it out of Heathrow on the computer and watched until it went into French airspace. I hope all goes well and that he has a good time.

Thank you to everyone who has sponsored him, the total now stands at £1145 !!

Finished!!

Well our garden is finally tree free, I admit to having a pang of regret having them removed, but its for the greater good. The fence is up and the stumps have been removed. The garden is covered in sawdust but I expect that will disappear over time. The grass is looking pathetic mainly due to lack of rain!

We have decided that we want a border so that I can grow cottage flowers and lavender to attract the bees. We will have to dig something into the soil as its been supporting trees for the past 30 years!!

I power washed the trampoline to get rid of all the sap, so we are all set for bouncing and soaking up the sun.

We have had some great weather over the past few days and last night we sat in the garden and saw some spectacular cloud formations.

I think this is called a Mackerel sky.

We have noticed that without the trees its a whole lot brighter and the sun stays right into the evening. We still have a lot to do out there including trying to disguise the god awful wheelie bins.

Today is the day that Carl starts his African adventure. I am very apprehensive about this trip I suppose because it is to a continent I have no understanding of and it doesn't feel as developed as a lot of the places he has been. He has been preparing himself physically for a while so I am hoping the trip up Kilimanjaro won't be too painful! There has been a last minute rush to sponsor him, so I would like to say a big thank you to all of you  who have supported him so far and would like to do a last minute call out to all those people who have been thinking about sponsoring but haven't got around to it, its not too late please take a look at his just giving page  The total to date stands at £1,115 .