I have finally made some cards!!

Its been a while, but I have finally get down to it and made some cards, I love making cards but by the time I get home from work I am tired and really can't be bothered to get the 'stuff' out. Anyway last night I got stuck in and I felt so much better for it!!

I have used some Craftworks cards and some of their printed greetings. I really like the greetings, they are easy to use and look great. I also decided to dig out some of my 'old' (perhaps that should read ancient) stash and try and use some of that. I found a whole book of dimensional rub ons that were dated 2002 on the back (oh the embarrassment!!) I hadn't used a single one, so I used squares of the rub ons, edged the squares with chalk ink and mounted the whole lot on a green backing paper. I am pleased with the result, I am sure my Mum and Aunties would be pleased to receive one of these!!

If that was the weekend, I've had it!!!

Why is it that the weekend goes so fast???

This past weekend got off to a bad start, I felt so stressed out with the week I had had at work that I was really looking forward to some time off, just a couple of days to get my head sorted and to chill. Beth had her final youth performance at the Barn, we were enjoying a cold drink when we got a call, Beth had fallen over and hurt her wrist, the lady did not think it was serious they packed it in ice and called us. I just knew as soon as I saw her that it wasn't a  simple sprain, she was distressed and grey looking. I tried to calm her but she was getting herself in a state, she was in pain and although she could move her fingers her thumb was agony and she had pins and needles in her hand.

We decided to take her to hospital, arriving at 9.02pm, I know it was that time as the children's A and E closed at 9pm, the receptionist told me so.  We had a decision to make, have her seen at the QE2 and if she needed treatment take her to the Lister in Stevenage where we would go to the bottom of the pile and have to start queuing again. So we headed off for the Lister. She was seen and given pain killers, eventually she had X rays and saw another Doctor who said she had a fracture and that we would need to go back to the QE2 on Saturday morning for further checks. She was fitted with a a heavy duty splint and we were allowed to go. It was 1.15am. Not a good start to the weekend!!!

On Saturday morning I took her back to QE2 and they carried out further check and Xrays they said that she has fractured her Scaphoid bone in her hand and they referred us to the fracture clinic on Tuesday morning for the consultant to decide if she needs a cast. I have everything crossed that she doesn't, having the splint on is immobilising her hand and prevents her using it too much. So its goodbye to anymore County Discus for a while.

The rest of Saturday seemed to fly and Sunday gave us the chance to go shopping and finally get rid of the bags of waste plaster board, which now has to be taken to a specialist recycling dump. Its getting harder and harder to throw anything away, every visit to the dump is like an episode of the Krypton Factor trying to find where stuff should go. It might even be easier to go to work this week rather than taking a variety of people to different hospital appointments!! Poor Tom the taxi driver.

Twenty Seven Years!!

I can hardly believe that today is our twenty seventh Wedding anniversary, time has flown, in fact time has flown since our Silver Wedding anniversary two years ago. That is a sure sign that I am getting older! I can still clearly remember the day in question, it was boiling hot and sunny. The church was a breath of fresh air as it was so cool inside. It was amazing that we managed to actually have the wedding. My sister Val was in hospital until the morning, struggling with her diabetes. I had hurt my back and was strapped up and on Valium (so perhaps the marriage was not legal as I wasn't mentally functioning??)My back was so bad that we were unable to kneel and the priest put chairs in front of the alter for us to use. Dad had an infection in his foot and was only able to keep his 'posh' shoes on for the church, in the photos he is wearing brown sandals with his dark suit!!!! Still all of that added to the day, making it one that is still very clear in my head.

Today is a regular working day and we don't have any plans to do do anything special this year, although we might treat ourselves to a chandelier for our bedroom, how is that for wild???

Its been a slog.

I thought I would start with another picture from last week, little boats bobbing around in the water, it just says summer to me and seeing how today is the official start of summer and the longest day of the year I thought it was right to get into the summer mood!!

Yesterday we had a real slog to try and get Beth's room finished. The room changes have turned out to be far more complicated and long winded than any of us expected. We finally finished the most of Beth's room around 10pm last night. All that is left is the gloss around two doors which we decided to leave until today as we were walking by them yesterday and would have ended up wearing the paint. Tom is going to do that today. Now her furniture is in and her shelves are up and loaded with her 'stuff' it looks nice. She has chosen a white and turquoise colour scheme.(Turquoise has taken me straight back to a reading scheme I did when I was in the juniors about a million years ago, how spooky!!!)So I am hoping that Tom gets the time today to finish those bits of gloss and the two new skirting boards in Carl's room.

Carl's room is finished once the boards are glossed. So tonight I am going to see if we can get a carpet for his room and get his bed up in time for him to get back from holiday tomorrow.After that the rest of the room is up to him! Fingers crossed.

Back to a busy week at work, which I am not looking forward to.

Final Night - Inherit The Wind!

Last night was the final performance of Inherit The Wind, it was my first chance to see the play and although I am possibly biased as Beth had a role, I really thought it was fantastic. The performers had put so much time and energy into the play and the result was spectacular! The set was stunning, its a small stage that has depth rather than width and the set and stage managers made full use if it. It was a large cast of 38 actors and they all gave their all.

Beth was one of the towns people, one of the crowd. The play is set in 1925 in America so they were all dressed accordingly  along with modern day flat school shoes!! Beth is in the blue dress on the right.

This shot is the grand Finale, there were songs through the production and they all joined together to really raise the roof.

I managed to sneak a shot of Beth after the show, it was the last production in a run of nine shows, I was honoured that she let me take the photo as they were all clamouring to get to the after show party !

Its been a big commitment for all of us as there has been months of practices as well as the shows all that needed lifts backwards and forwards to the theatre. Now its time for a break before she decides what to audition for next!!!

I am back and doing the Washing!!

I have just returned from a very interesting week at UNISON Conference.I enjoyed lots of great debates and inspiring speakers. I think its a great time to meet other like minded folk (although there is quite a large variety of opinions voiced along the way!!) It was great to hear speakers such as Billy Bragg and the

Legendary anti-apartheid campaigner Denis Goldberg. I always come away from these events thinking that I can do things differently, think that in some way I can change a little bit of the world,

who knows maybe one day I will!!

One afternoon we decided to take a boat trip. There was a boat that left the pier at Bournemouth at 16.05, so we left Conference a few minutes early and took at trip!The trip from Bournemouth to Swanage took around 50 minutes, it was a beautiful sunny afternoon. I paid for that sun the next day, as I had just a touch of sunburn!!It was a really good trip, the boat was bouncing all over the place it was far rougher than the cruise on the Oceana!! We sat at the back and had the whole place to ourselves.

The above picture was taken as we were leaving Bournemouth.Our hotel was in front of the big building on the far left of the photograph. It was set back a bit so you can't actually see it. Each day we walked along the cliff down towards the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC) The back door to the centre was half way down the hill so it meant a walk of around 1/2 a mile.

Another shot looking back at the beach, The big 'brick' coloured building is the BIC, the Oceanarium on the front had a lovely little cafe where we had a freshly made baguettes for lunch!

When we arrived in Swanage we were greeted by beautiful views, a real picture post card town. Better than that it had lots of little antique junk shops. It was in Swanage that I made the purchase of the holiday, an antique brass horn, complete with black rubber bulb and a very satisfying deep HONK!!!!

Once we had looked around the place we stopped at a pub for a cider, I had a very nice one called Rosie, locally brewed and very tasty, I think it was called Rosie as that's the effect it had on our cheeks!! The pub that we picked had outside tables, but we hadn't realised that it was also the hang out of the local winos, so we were treated to all the local going ons, very loudly! They were typical winos. dog on a string and a bottle of white lightening under the table!! We then treated ourselves to a nice fish and chip dinner eaten outside it was heavenly.

On the way back we took a ride on an open topped bus, which was another amusing experience. All was well until we got to a stop in the very exclusives 'Sandbanks' when we were joined upstairs by a crowd of youngsters. They were all dressed up for a night on the town, but they were frightfully posh, very loud and in possession of vodka cunningly disguised in coke bottles. They were from a different world, discussing their school fees and the fact they were enjoying taking the bus instead of having one of daddies drivers take them out! The funniest thing was when they decided to to do drive by compliments. As the bus slowed they would shout at the people in the street things like ' You are wearing lovely shorts' ' Your hair colour compliments your skin tone' We were in fits. When we got off the bus, I treated them to a few honks on my horn which they were most impressed with as well!! As the bus disappeared into the distance we could still hear them shouting and laughing, I expect the bus driver was glad when they finally got off!!

Hello from Swanage

Tonight I am in the beautiful seaside town of Swanage. After conference we took the ferry from the pier in Bournemouth and crossed the sea to this lovely little town. After a quick look around the nik nak shops where I made a very useful purchase I had a nice cider and fish and chips for tea. We are now waiting for the open top bus to take us back past such well known landmarks as Sandbanks and Brownsea Island . It's been a great day with an inspirational speaker, Billy Bragg bashing the BNP !! Happy Days

Hello from Bournemouth!

Well my luck has finally broken for the past 4 years I have always managed to land the best room when we have booked for conference. Well this time I have the duff room,this one is smaller than my cabin on the Oceana!! On the other hand Mark has snaffled a double room with dual aspect and a king size bed. My bed was the hardest bed in the world it was like sleeping on the floor I managed to get the matress changed for a softer one and had a better nights sleep.
The conference has potential a bit of a curfuffle this morning between the NEC and Delegate after that it was business as usual.
Today the weather has been beautiful I finally got down to the beach and had a trip on the cliff lift. Tonight we are going to Swanage for tea.
Tomorrow the guest speaker is Billy Bragg I'm looking forward to that one!!

Bournemouth here I come!

Today I am heading off to Bournemouth. UNISON National Conference is being held there so I am going to represent our Branch along with a colleague, Mark. We have hopefully booked into a nice hotel (last time we were in Bournemouth, it was OK but not too brilliant!!)The sad thing is that this time I have to travel on my own, so I'll just have to pace myself.
Yesterday Carl got stuck into his new bedroom, he has decided on two walls white and two walls green. The green is really quite bright but now its up I like it. Once that is finished we can get a carpet down and start putting things like his bed back in,once that has been sorted we can start to get the rest of the stuff back in there. The only spanner in the works is that he goes away on holiday on Tuesday so its going to largely be on hold for a week.
Beth's room is also finished so If Tom gets time he will try and paint that this week and start to get some of her stuff back in the right places. Beth has also helped out, she has painted her shelves white, which took her far longer than expected and she got bored wit that a long time before she finished, but she has laboured on and finished one of them. She did the painting in the garden and we were having dinner when our resident pigeon family decided to all sit on the top shelf!! Luckily the paint had dried by then!
I am going to try and check in during the week I am worried that some low life might try and do it again!!!

Pretty Kitty!

Well it seems that since I have been battling Blogger and the hackers that things have changed and now I can finally post again everything is different. A new way of uploading photographs, a new font, a new layout. I will have to learn my way around it!! Yesterday I called around to see Mum and Dad. Their neighbour Karen was there with her new addition to the family, Cocoa!!

Cocoa is a tiny chocolate and white coloured kitten. She has the most gorgeous coloured coat . On the brown part the very ends of the fur is tipped with cream giving her a really unusual look.

As you can see she also has the most beautiful chocolate coloured eyes. ( I am positively gushing and I am not really a cat lover!!) I think if she had been mine I would have called her Galaxy!!

Cocoa fits right in with Karen's two other cats, Fudge and Muffin.

This week I have a few days away in Bournemouth at National Conference. I still have not done a single thing in preparation. I will have to get my finger out today or I'll be flapping in the morning.

The building work is just about finished the walls have been plastered and the skirting boards will go on in the morning. I am totally fascinated by the plastered walls, they are shiny smooth, I can't stop touching them, what a skill to have!! Once the skirting boards go on we can start the painting and start getting things slowly back into the rooms. For the past week we have been sleeping with a mattress propped up against our wall in our bedroom and piles of 'stuff' everywhere. It will be great to get it all put away.

Fingers crossed my site stays hack free!!

Blog Problems.

Last week Raymonde alerted me to a potential problem with my blog, it seems that my visitors were getting a red warning message advising them that there was a possible infection on my site and that I might have been hacked. This was a first for me and initially I couldn't find out what the issue was as it was still correctly displaying on my own computer. I was not getting any warnings.
Eventually I worked my way through the considerable help pages on Google and I managed to scan my site with a couple of different programs. These programs eventually identified a 'bad string' of code in the HTML of the blog. They identified it and told me what it was, but not where it was. It then took me a couple of hours to track it down, I eventually found it in one of the elements I was using on my page. It seems that the infection had come from that site.
Once I had eliminated that I had to reapply to Google to lift the ban on the site. On rechecking they have told me that they have lifted the ban and the site is now clear. The problem is that I thought I had enough protection as I have paid for anti virus software that covers my blog. I have had to change all my passwords and remove some blog elements. Beyond that its back to finger crossing and hoping it doesn't happen again!

Here comes summer!!

It has been a nice 'summery' weekend. Beth and I went to our first Summer Fete in Ware. We had a go a all the usual Tombolas, lucky dips and the likes. We are now the owners of a fizzy bath bomb, very nice but we don't have a bath!! We have some Banana shower gel and a useful bottle of orange squash. We also treated ourselves to some beautiful home made cakes.

On Sunday we had some work to do at home in preparation for the demolition of the wall this week, by the afternoon it was very hot so we decided to go to the School Pool and have a dip. It was the first swim of the season opened just for the Lifeguards and those people who helped prepare it for action.

I took these photos in the grounds of the school. Since Beth left as a pupil they have started a beautiful garden for the children to become involved with. One patch has been left for wild flowers. I love Poppies and there was a whole patch of them, mixed in were cornflowers, Daisy's and some very pretty yellow flowers, I don't know what they are!

The weather has turned and I think we are in for some rain and storms!!

Ahhhh Friday........

Considering this has been a four day week Friday has been a long time arriving!! Work is stupid busy and I don't know if I am coming or going. (going mainly as we move office again next Tuesday!) Home is still in uproar, we have 'stuff' everywhere due to the wall moving exercise planned for next Tuesday.
Carl has gutted his room all that's left is his bed, we need to take that down and then we will be clear. Beth needs to get her side sorted out, we will give her a hand to move things to the other side of the room. By next Friday we should be finished with just the painting and decorating to do, oh and the new flooring.
Yesterday was Toms birthday so we went out for dinner, his choice so we ended up in the local Indian. Had a very nice dinner, we are not very adventurous, we all had Korma's!!!
Beth is into her final week of rehearsals for her play, she is really enjoying it. They are now finally able to get on stage and practice so it feels as if they are almost there!!

Bargain Time.

Yesterday Beth and I took a trip to Dunelm Mills in Stevenage, it was packed and we had trouble finding a parking space. I am glad we eventually did because there were loads of bargains!!
I had planned on replacing my table cloth, I like the oil cloth that they do in there (PVC backed with cotton) So that was the reason for going. I did get some more oil cloth, this time in a lovely coffee coloured and cream spot, which is already protecting my table!!
Once we got there it was obvious that they were having a sale there were loads of things that I could have bought . One of the bargains of the day were the DCWV 12 inch pads which were half price at £7 a pad. There were lots of different ones but I bought Linen Closet and Nana's Kitchen, both have loads of designs I can see me using.
Beth is quite crafty and has been after a sewing machine for a while, (I can remember wanting one when I was a kid!) so we were amazed to find that they had 4 different types starting at £9.99. We eventually decided to buy one reduced from £44 to £32 which does straight stitch and 7 different zig zag stitches. I am amazed as it is a study little thing and stitches perfectly. She has already got to grips with it, raided my material cupboard and made a whacky doll. Today while I am at work she is planning on patchwork.
Dunelm also had bargain Candles and those giant sized 'sucky' bags where you load up the clothes and then suck the air out. I thought they might be useful while the wall is in progress for storing clothes.
Have a great week, off to work now!!