Just switched to new blogger software, another new password :-(
Spent four hours tidying up the house today. Didn't actually clean anything, but moved a lot of stuff around. Tis the season to be tidy.
Last day of term tomorrow. We're celebrating by going out for lunch and letting the kids go to kids club for the last time this term. I'm sure that the school carol service will be lovely but the church is just too small and unless you are prepared to get there half an hour early there is no chance of getting a seat. If you do sit down it is highly unlikely that your child will then be visible, such is the extent of overcrowding that occurs.
Sunday will be the church nativity and Christingle, now those I am looking forward to. I've even stuck cloves into some satsumas today just to give the living room that festive smell.
George has just appeared as he thinks he has a rat in his bedroom. So I now have to go and investigate. Having tried to tidy said bedroom today I can confirm that anything is possible.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Time for decisions
Christmas is nearly upon us again. I tend to get a bit fed up at Christmas. The TV vision of either joy and festivities, or misery and depression seems to go to extremes, with no middle ground.
I tend to feel it is the season to be depressed, if you are ever going to be depressed now is the time to do it.
For the past 4 years I've been working within my own company. All holidays and breaks from work have caused me to reflect on what I do and why I choose to do it. If you run your own company and don't 'go to work' there is no money. The thoughts 'surely it would be better/easier/less stressful to get a (proper) job' float through my head at these times when really I should be making the most of the quiet time. This year I feel more relaxed (at the moment) and I guess that each year the feeling will get better. Year 1 was terrifying, and now I know it is just how things are and something else will come along. Every week I am thankful that I don't have a proper job. I like the feeling of control it gives me, even if the cashflow can cause moments of stress...
I've got mental plans in place for the things I am going to start doing to promote the business and grow it beyond being mostly just me. They feel real and do'able now, probably for the first time I'm confident enough to admit publicly that I'm good at what I do and worth a premium sum of money. That looks a bit silly in print, but it took me a long time to remove myself from traditional employment and it has taken me a bit longer to start properly getting my head round the issues of what is good value and how I can provide it in a consultancy framework.
Similarly the pressure to buy everything to make things better is still there but I am getting a bit better. I still think I probably shop beyond my means but at least this year I have gone a whole year without a credit card - in itself that deserves a celebration.
I tend to feel it is the season to be depressed, if you are ever going to be depressed now is the time to do it.
For the past 4 years I've been working within my own company. All holidays and breaks from work have caused me to reflect on what I do and why I choose to do it. If you run your own company and don't 'go to work' there is no money. The thoughts 'surely it would be better/easier/less stressful to get a (proper) job' float through my head at these times when really I should be making the most of the quiet time. This year I feel more relaxed (at the moment) and I guess that each year the feeling will get better. Year 1 was terrifying, and now I know it is just how things are and something else will come along. Every week I am thankful that I don't have a proper job. I like the feeling of control it gives me, even if the cashflow can cause moments of stress...
I've got mental plans in place for the things I am going to start doing to promote the business and grow it beyond being mostly just me. They feel real and do'able now, probably for the first time I'm confident enough to admit publicly that I'm good at what I do and worth a premium sum of money. That looks a bit silly in print, but it took me a long time to remove myself from traditional employment and it has taken me a bit longer to start properly getting my head round the issues of what is good value and how I can provide it in a consultancy framework.
Similarly the pressure to buy everything to make things better is still there but I am getting a bit better. I still think I probably shop beyond my means but at least this year I have gone a whole year without a credit card - in itself that deserves a celebration.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
What I want for Christmas
~ A bathroom that works (ours hasn't for the past fortnight)
~ A new concrete floor on the back yard (currently rubble and holes)
~ A few thoughtful presents for everyone, not lots just for the sake of it
All of which seems promising at the moment as long as Jason doesn't find anything else to demolish in or around the bathroom and the kids don't start to seriously lobby for excessive presents - but I think I have trained them not to do that by now.
My Ebay account has been busy, buying not selling, in advance of the festive season. I've converted to using the various shops that sell via ebay so my bidding days are over, as I now prefer the Buy it Now prices offered by people who seem to be legitimate businesses.
The festive organic meat selection is on order, if I have to eat meat I want to avoid some guilt by avoiding mass farming methods. Sadly I only stayed a vegetarian for 5 years and that was before children appeared. I lapsed due to an irresistable craving for a bacon sandwich and that was it.
~ A bathroom that works (ours hasn't for the past fortnight)
~ A new concrete floor on the back yard (currently rubble and holes)
~ A few thoughtful presents for everyone, not lots just for the sake of it
All of which seems promising at the moment as long as Jason doesn't find anything else to demolish in or around the bathroom and the kids don't start to seriously lobby for excessive presents - but I think I have trained them not to do that by now.
My Ebay account has been busy, buying not selling, in advance of the festive season. I've converted to using the various shops that sell via ebay so my bidding days are over, as I now prefer the Buy it Now prices offered by people who seem to be legitimate businesses.
The festive organic meat selection is on order, if I have to eat meat I want to avoid some guilt by avoiding mass farming methods. Sadly I only stayed a vegetarian for 5 years and that was before children appeared. I lapsed due to an irresistable craving for a bacon sandwich and that was it.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Let the chemo begin...well not quite
If you received a letter from a hospital telling you to start attending chemotherapy appointments what would you think that meant???
After extensive tests and biopsies etc this is the only info that has landed on the doormat at my parents house. So off we all trotted last Thursday to the hospital (in Sunderland) where my parents were told all future treatments would take place.
Needless to say my mum has cried a bit about the implications of all of this...but somehow I feel it is all very bizarre. There are a few reasons for this.
There has never been a conversation with anyone about the results of all the tests...I'm talking a couple of days of tests here. There was no reason give as to why the chemotherapy was being recommended. Does this mean that if nobody says the big 'C' word that it doesn't exist. Or is this all precautionary as nobody seems to want to touch my mum with a scalpel or an anaesthetic if they can help it...which leads me back to the chemo appointment last week.
Having trekked 30 miles to the hospital, we got to reception in plenty of time and realised that we'd never noticed a sign to the department listed on the appointment letter. My dad was still somewhere in the car park with the map, and me and my mum were talking to the receptionist. Thankfully the receptionist really knew that there was no such department, and despite the letter head on the consultant's letter the REAL appointment was in a different hospital 12 miles away in Durham.
The Sunderland receptionist phoned the Durham clinic and explained where we were. My dad was gently prised away from the reception area where he briefly looked like he was contemplating whether to explode or cry with irritation, and we zoomed as fast as my car would go (within reasonable speed limits...and with due care and attention...particularly as there are speed cameras in Tyne and Wear), to Durham.
Then commenced the parking fiasco that is Durham hospital. Whilst the building is quite cosy, the car park is on the compact side and there is no way in the world that everyone visiting can park their cars. I have no idea where the staff park, I think they teleport in somehow. BEFORE the PFI hospital this place had a VAST car park...it is now a (very expensive) housing estate.
So I dropped my parents off at the door and went off to stalk people who looked like they were about to move their car. I have a mystic approach to parking, I imagine my ideal space, and usually it appears. The visualisation worked and I got a space within 5 mins and headed back to the hospital.
But my mum had the appointment letter and I couldn't remember the name of the unit...thankfully a helpful cleaner showed me where to go...where I found my mum, but my dad had gone looking for me. I'm still not sure how I missed him as there is only one corridor. So off I went back to the car park where I found him talking to another lady who had lost her relatives somewhere. I noticed there was quite a lot of this sort of thing going on in the car park...so if you screen people for confusion at the hospital I expect you'd find that the whole population is disorientated and confused..as it is very hard to be anything else.
Meanwhile back in the chemo unit they were reading out the drug sheet to my mum. When we got back it looked like everything was all systems go , so my dad and I headed off to the restaurant for a coffee...mainly to avoid my dad having to being to close to the chemo unit.
Soooo one hour later we went back to find my mum reading the Daily Mail and looking very perky. The reason being that as soon as the nurse doing the chemo read her notes she decided that the whole thing looked like a very bad idea. Something about warfarin, excessive bleeding and artificial heart valves seems to do this to the medical profession (it had a similar effect on the anaesthetist in Sunderland).
Turns out my mum had waited an hour for someone to find a registrar to find out about prescribing an antibiotic that my mum isn't allergic to and then to administer it intravenously before even thinking about the cancer treatment.
My mum appeared to be ok with the whole thing - a tribute to her new heart drugs which seem to have done the trick at last - but the nurses were apparently making a bit of a stand as they clearly don't want to risk the bleeding thing happening in their unit.
This Thursday they are going to try again. The whole process will start two hours earlier to allow for antibiotics to be given (prevents infection in heart valves so essential). My dad has printed out a list of all the things my mum is allergic to and my mum has promised to pay attention. My dad can find Durham and is quite happy to sit in the chemo lounge with his mp3 player on this week, which means I don't have to go.
Which only brings me back to the 'why is this happening?' question. I did ask my mum if she wanted to know the biopsy results, but her view is that whatever they are the medical profession have clearly got it into their heads that they need to give her chemotherapy so why bother asking.
I hope it all stays surreal like this, as it is much less scary this way. But very odd.
After extensive tests and biopsies etc this is the only info that has landed on the doormat at my parents house. So off we all trotted last Thursday to the hospital (in Sunderland) where my parents were told all future treatments would take place.
Needless to say my mum has cried a bit about the implications of all of this...but somehow I feel it is all very bizarre. There are a few reasons for this.
There has never been a conversation with anyone about the results of all the tests...I'm talking a couple of days of tests here. There was no reason give as to why the chemotherapy was being recommended. Does this mean that if nobody says the big 'C' word that it doesn't exist. Or is this all precautionary as nobody seems to want to touch my mum with a scalpel or an anaesthetic if they can help it...which leads me back to the chemo appointment last week.
Having trekked 30 miles to the hospital, we got to reception in plenty of time and realised that we'd never noticed a sign to the department listed on the appointment letter. My dad was still somewhere in the car park with the map, and me and my mum were talking to the receptionist. Thankfully the receptionist really knew that there was no such department, and despite the letter head on the consultant's letter the REAL appointment was in a different hospital 12 miles away in Durham.
The Sunderland receptionist phoned the Durham clinic and explained where we were. My dad was gently prised away from the reception area where he briefly looked like he was contemplating whether to explode or cry with irritation, and we zoomed as fast as my car would go (within reasonable speed limits...and with due care and attention...particularly as there are speed cameras in Tyne and Wear), to Durham.
Then commenced the parking fiasco that is Durham hospital. Whilst the building is quite cosy, the car park is on the compact side and there is no way in the world that everyone visiting can park their cars. I have no idea where the staff park, I think they teleport in somehow. BEFORE the PFI hospital this place had a VAST car park...it is now a (very expensive) housing estate.
So I dropped my parents off at the door and went off to stalk people who looked like they were about to move their car. I have a mystic approach to parking, I imagine my ideal space, and usually it appears. The visualisation worked and I got a space within 5 mins and headed back to the hospital.
But my mum had the appointment letter and I couldn't remember the name of the unit...thankfully a helpful cleaner showed me where to go...where I found my mum, but my dad had gone looking for me. I'm still not sure how I missed him as there is only one corridor. So off I went back to the car park where I found him talking to another lady who had lost her relatives somewhere. I noticed there was quite a lot of this sort of thing going on in the car park...so if you screen people for confusion at the hospital I expect you'd find that the whole population is disorientated and confused..as it is very hard to be anything else.
Meanwhile back in the chemo unit they were reading out the drug sheet to my mum. When we got back it looked like everything was all systems go , so my dad and I headed off to the restaurant for a coffee...mainly to avoid my dad having to being to close to the chemo unit.
Soooo one hour later we went back to find my mum reading the Daily Mail and looking very perky. The reason being that as soon as the nurse doing the chemo read her notes she decided that the whole thing looked like a very bad idea. Something about warfarin, excessive bleeding and artificial heart valves seems to do this to the medical profession (it had a similar effect on the anaesthetist in Sunderland).
Turns out my mum had waited an hour for someone to find a registrar to find out about prescribing an antibiotic that my mum isn't allergic to and then to administer it intravenously before even thinking about the cancer treatment.
My mum appeared to be ok with the whole thing - a tribute to her new heart drugs which seem to have done the trick at last - but the nurses were apparently making a bit of a stand as they clearly don't want to risk the bleeding thing happening in their unit.
This Thursday they are going to try again. The whole process will start two hours earlier to allow for antibiotics to be given (prevents infection in heart valves so essential). My dad has printed out a list of all the things my mum is allergic to and my mum has promised to pay attention. My dad can find Durham and is quite happy to sit in the chemo lounge with his mp3 player on this week, which means I don't have to go.
Which only brings me back to the 'why is this happening?' question. I did ask my mum if she wanted to know the biopsy results, but her view is that whatever they are the medical profession have clearly got it into their heads that they need to give her chemotherapy so why bother asking.
I hope it all stays surreal like this, as it is much less scary this way. But very odd.
Friday, October 27, 2006
We're back from Sweden. We managed to negotiate things so that everyone got to do everything they needed to do, so Elinor went on her school trip, but just left a bit early to get the ferry
It is a shame that the route from Newcastle to Sweden is finishing as we've enjoyed cruising off to Scandanavia. The new route is to Norway which is a new and exciting place to visit, but having had a look at holiday cottage prices it is also significantly more expensive.
If you do happen to be in Goteborg a great place to visit with kids is the Universeum. We've been twice now and it beats any other natural history/science museum I've been to.
You can watch their huge aquariam on a live webcam on
http://webcam.universeum.se/view/view.shtml
There can't be many museums with their own rainforest!
It is a shame that the route from Newcastle to Sweden is finishing as we've enjoyed cruising off to Scandanavia. The new route is to Norway which is a new and exciting place to visit, but having had a look at holiday cottage prices it is also significantly more expensive.
If you do happen to be in Goteborg a great place to visit with kids is the Universeum. We've been twice now and it beats any other natural history/science museum I've been to.
You can watch their huge aquariam on a live webcam on
http://webcam.universeum.se/view/view.shtml
There can't be many museums with their own rainforest!
Saturday, October 14, 2006
The perils of late night film watching
Just the other week I was complaining to someone at work about the tripe that they show on TV nowadays. 'All I want', I said, 'is non stop Pride and Predjudice'..and that sort of thing really. What with the recent stresses of hospital trips etc I've been having a challenging time unwinding of an evening, and my other half doesn't appreciate me reading into the late hours as my preference is to read in bed, and his preference is to sleep there.
Turns out my colleague has a large collection of all sorts of books and DVDs and the next day the following DVDs appeared on my desk.
1. Pride and Prejudice - the recent film version rather than the BBC one
2. Bride and Prejudice - the Bollywoodesque version
3. North and South - the BBC TV adaptation of an Elizabeth Gaskell novel and plotwise really a version of victorian Pride and Prejudice
So late at night, when everyone else has gone to bed. There I am glued to the TV watching these films. Bliss.
I heartily recommend watching all three. But I do have a warning for the North and South viewer, the full two DVD set is 233 minutes long. So, if like me, you start watching it at 10.45pm don't be surprised when it is 2.30am that you finally get to bed. Plus if you think Colin Firth has a good glare (you know what I mean), he is but an amateur compared to Richard Armitage in North and South.
Turns out my colleague has a large collection of all sorts of books and DVDs and the next day the following DVDs appeared on my desk.
1. Pride and Prejudice - the recent film version rather than the BBC one
2. Bride and Prejudice - the Bollywoodesque version
3. North and South - the BBC TV adaptation of an Elizabeth Gaskell novel and plotwise really a version of victorian Pride and Prejudice
So late at night, when everyone else has gone to bed. There I am glued to the TV watching these films. Bliss.
I heartily recommend watching all three. But I do have a warning for the North and South viewer, the full two DVD set is 233 minutes long. So, if like me, you start watching it at 10.45pm don't be surprised when it is 2.30am that you finally get to bed. Plus if you think Colin Firth has a good glare (you know what I mean), he is but an amateur compared to Richard Armitage in North and South.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
I'm currently experiencing an aversion to accounts. This would be all well and good if I wasn't an accountant. Trouble is I'm in procrastination mode. So one day very soon I'll need to do a very late night to catch up.
Deadlines are looming...arrgh...so is half term!!!!
Fortunately most of my paid work is for IT consultancy services . But if I don't sort out the small print on a couple of CT600s soon I'll be writing very grovelling letters to HMRC (see hmrc.gov.uk and try and find the 'don't panic page' , there isn't one, neither is the 'my dog ate corporation tax return' excuse going to work).
Deadlines are looming...arrgh...so is half term!!!!
Fortunately most of my paid work is for IT consultancy services . But if I don't sort out the small print on a couple of CT600s soon I'll be writing very grovelling letters to HMRC (see hmrc.gov.uk and try and find the 'don't panic page' , there isn't one, neither is the 'my dog ate corporation tax return' excuse going to work).
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Long distance hospital commuting
The daily trips to Sunderland have finished for the moment as my mum has now come out of hospital. Having had a wonderful operation day her recovery was not quite so straightforward and she lost a lot of blood, eventually requiring a transfusion. So it turns out the anaesthetist was correct, and that really the operation was the least of it!
It is a relief to have her home as the 50+ mile round trip for visiting became quite tiring after a week. I believe it is important to visit every day for a number of reasons, 1. it shows the hospital staff that someone cares about the patient, 2. it hopefully cheers up the patient, 3. it gives the visitor a chance to see what has changed in a 24 hour period.
In this case between Thursday and Friday the major change in my mum was that she went from pink to grey, stopped eating and couldn't stand up. Quite drastic.
I can understand why the NHS has chosen to create regional centres for certain treatments. What I don't understand is the point at which treatments become so expensively specialist that they need to be centralised.
As usual the human impact of trekking 26 miles to the hospital for the appointment, and then the 52 mile round trip to visit seems to have been overlooked. If I wasn't able to drive it would have taken hours for us to get visit. Totally impractical if it was just my dad, who doesn't relish the opportunity to discover the delights of Sunderland every day.
I wonder how many people feel isolated and overlooked in this current centralising service? When I was younger I worked in organisations that centralised, then decentralised. It is possible to generate very good arguments for cost savings and efficiencies on either side. Believe me, I used to do the figures, you really can prove this stuff either way. I also saw staff burst into tears with the stress of it all.
In 5 to 10 years time the NHS will happilly decentralise again, in the interests of patient care I expect. In the meantime all this change is so very costly and wasteful, if this is not immediately obvious in cash terms it is very obvious as soon as you become a patient and have to try to work out where you are in a very complicated system.
I also received a recruitment email today advising me that there are lots of opportunities due to the recent regionalisation of the NHS. So how exactly does that work? You reduce the number of organisations but you develop vacancies? Obvious isn't it, the staff who didn't feel like being merged, and who had enough length of service, have taken pay-offs because they don't want to travel to the new regional centre. Hmm so very efficient. All those one-off costs going through the books.
I truly hope that this centralisation stuff is central government stupidity again. Otherwise the regional people need to give themselves a good talking to for a lack of common sense and humanity, both towards their own staff and the general public who have little choice but to be NHS patients at some time.
It is a relief to have her home as the 50+ mile round trip for visiting became quite tiring after a week. I believe it is important to visit every day for a number of reasons, 1. it shows the hospital staff that someone cares about the patient, 2. it hopefully cheers up the patient, 3. it gives the visitor a chance to see what has changed in a 24 hour period.
In this case between Thursday and Friday the major change in my mum was that she went from pink to grey, stopped eating and couldn't stand up. Quite drastic.
I can understand why the NHS has chosen to create regional centres for certain treatments. What I don't understand is the point at which treatments become so expensively specialist that they need to be centralised.
As usual the human impact of trekking 26 miles to the hospital for the appointment, and then the 52 mile round trip to visit seems to have been overlooked. If I wasn't able to drive it would have taken hours for us to get visit. Totally impractical if it was just my dad, who doesn't relish the opportunity to discover the delights of Sunderland every day.
I wonder how many people feel isolated and overlooked in this current centralising service? When I was younger I worked in organisations that centralised, then decentralised. It is possible to generate very good arguments for cost savings and efficiencies on either side. Believe me, I used to do the figures, you really can prove this stuff either way. I also saw staff burst into tears with the stress of it all.
In 5 to 10 years time the NHS will happilly decentralise again, in the interests of patient care I expect. In the meantime all this change is so very costly and wasteful, if this is not immediately obvious in cash terms it is very obvious as soon as you become a patient and have to try to work out where you are in a very complicated system.
I also received a recruitment email today advising me that there are lots of opportunities due to the recent regionalisation of the NHS. So how exactly does that work? You reduce the number of organisations but you develop vacancies? Obvious isn't it, the staff who didn't feel like being merged, and who had enough length of service, have taken pay-offs because they don't want to travel to the new regional centre. Hmm so very efficient. All those one-off costs going through the books.
I truly hope that this centralisation stuff is central government stupidity again. Otherwise the regional people need to give themselves a good talking to for a lack of common sense and humanity, both towards their own staff and the general public who have little choice but to be NHS patients at some time.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
I've just got in from visiting my mum in hospital. Thankfully the operation she had today went very well. I didn't want to mention anything before as I am strangely supersitious about these things.
It is interesting to see my mum in hospital mode. I think she has been in and out of hospitals a fair bit, mainly because she got something called rheumatic fever as a child and it damaged her heart. So she started with that, and then had open heart surgery back in the early 1960's to unblock a heart valve, followed by regular annual checkups and then two new artificial heart valves on her 70th birthday in 2003, and a pacemaker just over a month ago.
Ever since I can remember my mum told me 'not to get too used to having her around', this was because of the heart thing. But today I've come to the conclusion that she must really have the constitution of an ox.
Despite artificial heart valves and a pacemaker, and having had a general anaesthetic (to say nothing of the actual operation), she was bright and alert and chatted on for a couple of hours. No problem. You'd think nothing had happened if it wasn't for the intravenous drip thing!
I'm just so impressed really.
It is interesting to see my mum in hospital mode. I think she has been in and out of hospitals a fair bit, mainly because she got something called rheumatic fever as a child and it damaged her heart. So she started with that, and then had open heart surgery back in the early 1960's to unblock a heart valve, followed by regular annual checkups and then two new artificial heart valves on her 70th birthday in 2003, and a pacemaker just over a month ago.
Ever since I can remember my mum told me 'not to get too used to having her around', this was because of the heart thing. But today I've come to the conclusion that she must really have the constitution of an ox.
Despite artificial heart valves and a pacemaker, and having had a general anaesthetic (to say nothing of the actual operation), she was bright and alert and chatted on for a couple of hours. No problem. You'd think nothing had happened if it wasn't for the intravenous drip thing!
I'm just so impressed really.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
justbloggin
The harvest festival season approaches. As with most things there is always more than one, this is a new feature of my life brought about by children, one event is never enough. There is the school harvest festival, then the church harvest festival. As the school is a church school the two are not that different.
One has a play involved, so there are words to learn, as well as a donation to produce. The other requires a donation of some kind and a few more well known hymns.
As with all things charitable it is hard to know what to give. Whilst veg is lovely stuff today's recipient of the harvest vegetables might not manage to eat them before they go off.
The nicecest part of the school version seems to me to be the fact that a couple of children are dispatched to the nominated people to deliver parcels and maybe have a bit of a chat.
Personally I rather like the songs, 'we plough the fields and scatter' as it reminds me of being the small child at the assembly with the vegetables. I don't really feel like it was that long ago that I was sitting cross legged in assemblies myself.
But I have started to notice that where I used to get quite sentimental at school services and similar child centric productions I've now started to observe the clock and wonder when the tea and biscuits will be served.
One has a play involved, so there are words to learn, as well as a donation to produce. The other requires a donation of some kind and a few more well known hymns.
As with all things charitable it is hard to know what to give. Whilst veg is lovely stuff today's recipient of the harvest vegetables might not manage to eat them before they go off.
The nicecest part of the school version seems to me to be the fact that a couple of children are dispatched to the nominated people to deliver parcels and maybe have a bit of a chat.
Personally I rather like the songs, 'we plough the fields and scatter' as it reminds me of being the small child at the assembly with the vegetables. I don't really feel like it was that long ago that I was sitting cross legged in assemblies myself.
But I have started to notice that where I used to get quite sentimental at school services and similar child centric productions I've now started to observe the clock and wonder when the tea and biscuits will be served.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Gotta be quick the battery is nearly flat
Well Im working on trying out the wine club's first delivery. It came in handy as the students who have been working for us during the summer have all gone back to University, with plenty of gifts, not limited to a bottle of chardonnay.
We decided to shut the second office as there isn't really anyone to sit in it at the moment. Closing the office has meant that we were rather oversupplied with IT equipment. Said 'stuff' is now relocating itself to student residences, parents houses, and our other office which is likely to look a teeny bit full up when we finally squeeze everything into it.
It has resulted in a major IT swap round at home as I refuse to let the kids have computers or televisions in their rooms. So I just had to go to Ikea to sort out the storage. Where I noticed that the staff have kindly located all the desks in the till area ready for the influx of 30,000+ students into the Tyneside/Durham area in the next few weeks. Which saved a lot of traipsing round the isles. Similarly Tescos are doing the same thing so my search for PC speakers (for the kids interactive games) and CD cases (for the games CDs) was rather easier than expected as everything was in the doorway. So despite the shops being packed it was a very painless experience.
The kids now go to the PC rather than the TV, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. They were playing some Viking board game on the computer tonight, looked a bit like chess. I've seen all their videos about ten times each already so it makes a change.
Thanks to the wonders of Ikea we now seem to have more space in the room, despite having added more furniture. Kind of makes me want to move to Sweden :-)
We decided to shut the second office as there isn't really anyone to sit in it at the moment. Closing the office has meant that we were rather oversupplied with IT equipment. Said 'stuff' is now relocating itself to student residences, parents houses, and our other office which is likely to look a teeny bit full up when we finally squeeze everything into it.
It has resulted in a major IT swap round at home as I refuse to let the kids have computers or televisions in their rooms. So I just had to go to Ikea to sort out the storage. Where I noticed that the staff have kindly located all the desks in the till area ready for the influx of 30,000+ students into the Tyneside/Durham area in the next few weeks. Which saved a lot of traipsing round the isles. Similarly Tescos are doing the same thing so my search for PC speakers (for the kids interactive games) and CD cases (for the games CDs) was rather easier than expected as everything was in the doorway. So despite the shops being packed it was a very painless experience.
The kids now go to the PC rather than the TV, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. They were playing some Viking board game on the computer tonight, looked a bit like chess. I've seen all their videos about ten times each already so it makes a change.
Thanks to the wonders of Ikea we now seem to have more space in the room, despite having added more furniture. Kind of makes me want to move to Sweden :-)
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Everything happening at once
I'm not too sure about Murphy's Law, which I think is the one that says 'if something can go wrong it will go wrong', but I think there should be a new law of 'if something can happen, at least 3 other things will also happen on the same day'.
A case in point. Who would have thought that DFDS the ferry company would sell off their vessel the Princess of Scandanavia just as we are due to go to Goteborg (aka Gothenberg) for the festival of lights in November?
DFDS are cancelling the route completely which means that any trips to Sweden via ferry from Newcastle have to take place before the end of October. Equally who would have expected that the only week we are available to go to Sweden is the week before the ferry service ends, and that it clashes with a school field trip week.
This would not be quite so odd if it wasn't for the fact that normally (ie every other year up until now) 8 year old pupils were not permitted on the week long residential field trip. But as a special concession this year they are allowed to go. A fact which we only discovered last week when a letter came home inviting said 8 year old to go to the trip, causing much excitement and sibling rivalry.
On top of which it is also my birthday in the same week, and I had decided that all things being equal said daughter should go on the field trip! It is a special birthday (with an '0' in the year) when one is meant to make a fuss, although I hate the idea of organising my own birthday 'do' which means that it ain't gonna happen. Unless someone hires someone to organise it, so it definitely won't happen.
Now the dilemma is which of the three possible events takes precedence. As I see it my options are;
1.Book the trip to Goteborg and cancel the field trip (wrath of small child forever)
2.Change the trip to Norway or Holland on a different date (new opportunity to locate clashing events, but more of the year to choose from as not restricted on dates up to the end of October)
3.Get my money back (means no autumn holiday :-( and everyone is unhappy)
I will consult 'she who must be consulted' on option1 and refer to 'him upstairs' for options 2 and 3. Unless anything else happens we'll probably end up in Holland...but the way things are going it could be next year!
A case in point. Who would have thought that DFDS the ferry company would sell off their vessel the Princess of Scandanavia just as we are due to go to Goteborg (aka Gothenberg) for the festival of lights in November?
DFDS are cancelling the route completely which means that any trips to Sweden via ferry from Newcastle have to take place before the end of October. Equally who would have expected that the only week we are available to go to Sweden is the week before the ferry service ends, and that it clashes with a school field trip week.
This would not be quite so odd if it wasn't for the fact that normally (ie every other year up until now) 8 year old pupils were not permitted on the week long residential field trip. But as a special concession this year they are allowed to go. A fact which we only discovered last week when a letter came home inviting said 8 year old to go to the trip, causing much excitement and sibling rivalry.
On top of which it is also my birthday in the same week, and I had decided that all things being equal said daughter should go on the field trip! It is a special birthday (with an '0' in the year) when one is meant to make a fuss, although I hate the idea of organising my own birthday 'do' which means that it ain't gonna happen. Unless someone hires someone to organise it, so it definitely won't happen.
Now the dilemma is which of the three possible events takes precedence. As I see it my options are;
1.Book the trip to Goteborg and cancel the field trip (wrath of small child forever)
2.Change the trip to Norway or Holland on a different date (new opportunity to locate clashing events, but more of the year to choose from as not restricted on dates up to the end of October)
3.Get my money back (means no autumn holiday :-( and everyone is unhappy)
I will consult 'she who must be consulted' on option1 and refer to 'him upstairs' for options 2 and 3. Unless anything else happens we'll probably end up in Holland...but the way things are going it could be next year!
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
My life would be so much easier today if someone hadn't thrown the toothpaste tube down the toilet!!!!!!!
This is a great example for performance management goal setting (think positive, whilst trying to find packet of mints for the morning). It meets all of the criteria;
1.Specific - toothpaste required
2.Measurable - one tube would do as there are only four of us in the house
3.Achievable - if I could be bothered to go to the shops at 9.45pm
4.Realistic - toothpaste is widely available
5.Timely - I need it now
Sadly this is beyond the current performance objectives of the small person responsible for flushing the toothpaste. But he did do the artwork.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
The odd image on the left is an ultrasound of a bladder polyp.
I was checking out the prognosis (as you do) because my mum seems to have developed one of these.
As a regular warfarin user it turns out this little thing got detected a lot earlier than it would normally have done. The trouble now is that nobody really likes to operate on people who take warfarin (aka rat poison like substance that can cause excessive bleeding, but also helps to thin the blood if you are prone to getting blood clots).
This is not 'the' polyp, the NHS only give you copies of certain scans and I don't think they do one of your bladder polyp to take away yet. I am hoping that the real one is much smaller. This will also be my mum's second operation in 6 weeks if they continue to run according to the current plan.
Monday, September 04, 2006
Some things to worry about
In no particular order...just off the top of my head
Bird Flu (thanks to the FT magazine this weekend for reawakening this one)
Mega volocano erupts on west coast of America (nice BBC program on volcanoes last week!)
Mega volcano erupts in meditteranean (ditto)
Global warming (seems to be happening)
Sea level rise (bound to happen if there is global warming so I'm happy to live on a hill)
Political instability when everyone is forced to stop working for the UK government, as we all seem to do either directly or indirectly!
Cashflow (immediate)
Cashflow (medium term)
Children (your own)
Children (other people's ...and their impact on your own children)
The state of society in general (respect, manners etc)
Care of the elderly (or lack of)
Schools (level of attainment, expectations and the differences between public and private schools)
Pets
Traffic (and the likihood of traffic, pets and children colliding in some form at any point in the future)
Crime
Terrorists
Lack of oil
Lack of water
The state of your car
The condition of your house (winter is coming)
Fuel prices (petrol, gas, electric)
Leaking gutters
Leaking bathroom roof
Lack of curtain rail in child's bedroom
Politicians (general ineptitude and appearance of their distance from reality)
Benefits culture and overdependence on handouts
Political correctness, and why it hasn't helped anyone
Inexplicable legislation and enforcers thereof - ref those who are about to be fined for not using their recycling wheelie bins enough
Wheelie bin collection dates (hence worrying about fine)
After school activity timetabling
Cleaning (no time)
Shopping (no time)
Health of parents
Prospects for business growth
Lack of spare time
What to feed the family today
What to put in a packed lunch for tomorrow
Upcoming social events
Parent with imminent hospital diagnostic tests (and their results)
Side effects of medicines (prescribed to said parent)
Fitting in work when there are so many other things to think about
Bird Flu (thanks to the FT magazine this weekend for reawakening this one)
Mega volocano erupts on west coast of America (nice BBC program on volcanoes last week!)
Mega volcano erupts in meditteranean (ditto)
Global warming (seems to be happening)
Sea level rise (bound to happen if there is global warming so I'm happy to live on a hill)
Political instability when everyone is forced to stop working for the UK government, as we all seem to do either directly or indirectly!
Cashflow (immediate)
Cashflow (medium term)
Children (your own)
Children (other people's ...and their impact on your own children)
The state of society in general (respect, manners etc)
Care of the elderly (or lack of)
Schools (level of attainment, expectations and the differences between public and private schools)
Pets
Traffic (and the likihood of traffic, pets and children colliding in some form at any point in the future)
Crime
Terrorists
Lack of oil
Lack of water
The state of your car
The condition of your house (winter is coming)
Fuel prices (petrol, gas, electric)
Leaking gutters
Leaking bathroom roof
Lack of curtain rail in child's bedroom
Politicians (general ineptitude and appearance of their distance from reality)
Benefits culture and overdependence on handouts
Political correctness, and why it hasn't helped anyone
Inexplicable legislation and enforcers thereof - ref those who are about to be fined for not using their recycling wheelie bins enough
Wheelie bin collection dates (hence worrying about fine)
After school activity timetabling
Cleaning (no time)
Shopping (no time)
Health of parents
Prospects for business growth
Lack of spare time
What to feed the family today
What to put in a packed lunch for tomorrow
Upcoming social events
Parent with imminent hospital diagnostic tests (and their results)
Side effects of medicines (prescribed to said parent)
Fitting in work when there are so many other things to think about
Friday, September 01, 2006
Just one last thing
Just discovered that the new version of a certain well known software program is not entirely compatible with an earlier version. Ironic considering the program is for file sharing...hmmm The rest of the beta version of wotsit 2007 looks promising so far.
My payroll program refuses to find the backup file...always does..always will. It does this every tax year end when I run the updates, so I'm not particularly surprised. I have paper files around the place to compensate for this known issue. Not that they are necessarily in order, but they are in the files. I only really swear at the computer when I need the paperwork for tax returns and the software plays up as well.
Fortunately the current tax year is on different software and on a different computer. The new software is much more user friendly, and about half the price AND it does multiple companies.
Still I've promised myself that this is the last thing I will update on my newly rebuilt laptop for the moment, as it is now 1.30am and all the chocolate has worn off! Well probably worn 'on' in a more permanent way by now.
My payroll program refuses to find the backup file...always does..always will. It does this every tax year end when I run the updates, so I'm not particularly surprised. I have paper files around the place to compensate for this known issue. Not that they are necessarily in order, but they are in the files. I only really swear at the computer when I need the paperwork for tax returns and the software plays up as well.
Fortunately the current tax year is on different software and on a different computer. The new software is much more user friendly, and about half the price AND it does multiple companies.
Still I've promised myself that this is the last thing I will update on my newly rebuilt laptop for the moment, as it is now 1.30am and all the chocolate has worn off! Well probably worn 'on' in a more permanent way by now.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
In praise of the charity shop..
Never has so much fun been had by two children for so little outlay...well cardboard boxes excepted. On a budget of £2 per child we now have a show jumping arena and a whole haulage yard/firestation setup in the respective bedrooms. I also got 16 Key Words Ladybird books all in A1 condition for 39p each, you can't beat that, even on Ebay.
Soo have now had 3 hours to catch up on paperwork as the kids have been heavily occupied with their new purchases. Paperwork is now in boxes waiting to be processed, but at least I have looked at all the paperwork now. It was developing into two worrying heaps (we have two limited companies) and I wasn't too sure what was in each one as the summer holidays have got in the way of anything like a weekly review. This should mean that I can zip through all of it on Monday when the kids go back to school :-)
My new hard disk is quietly formatting on my old laptop. The laptop has been dying for the past month or so. I finally got round to getting the hard disk and then left it for 3 weeks as the kids demanded my attention whereas the laptop could only beep and ask silently to be rescued (soundcard is off too).
The tax man is writing me letters chasing payments that I've already made. Their phone doesn't seem to work in Cumbernauld, and neither does their email, so I've resorted to a letter quoting bank reference numbers and dates. That took me an hour to sort out. I should start adding up how much time I spend on admin for the revenue people. If only I could charge them for the time I spend filling in forms. They are very nice on the phone, if you ever get through to them. I hate overdue notices though, much better to be able to deal with them immediately. Hence I find it highly frustrating that I cannot get an instant result and have to resort to the post.
It has taken 4 mini bars of chocolate to get through the afternoon. Good job I only have mini bars available. My balanced diet today = 1 large latte and 4 x 40g bars of chocolate and a snack sized Cadburys Twirl (which was breakfast). I am convinced I could lose weight this way. Trouble is everyone else in this house seems to expect an actual meal three times a day. I did once lose over 2 stone by just eating chocolate, fruit and diet coke!! Hey ho those were the days.
Soo have now had 3 hours to catch up on paperwork as the kids have been heavily occupied with their new purchases. Paperwork is now in boxes waiting to be processed, but at least I have looked at all the paperwork now. It was developing into two worrying heaps (we have two limited companies) and I wasn't too sure what was in each one as the summer holidays have got in the way of anything like a weekly review. This should mean that I can zip through all of it on Monday when the kids go back to school :-)
My new hard disk is quietly formatting on my old laptop. The laptop has been dying for the past month or so. I finally got round to getting the hard disk and then left it for 3 weeks as the kids demanded my attention whereas the laptop could only beep and ask silently to be rescued (soundcard is off too).
The tax man is writing me letters chasing payments that I've already made. Their phone doesn't seem to work in Cumbernauld, and neither does their email, so I've resorted to a letter quoting bank reference numbers and dates. That took me an hour to sort out. I should start adding up how much time I spend on admin for the revenue people. If only I could charge them for the time I spend filling in forms. They are very nice on the phone, if you ever get through to them. I hate overdue notices though, much better to be able to deal with them immediately. Hence I find it highly frustrating that I cannot get an instant result and have to resort to the post.
It has taken 4 mini bars of chocolate to get through the afternoon. Good job I only have mini bars available. My balanced diet today = 1 large latte and 4 x 40g bars of chocolate and a snack sized Cadburys Twirl (which was breakfast). I am convinced I could lose weight this way. Trouble is everyone else in this house seems to expect an actual meal three times a day. I did once lose over 2 stone by just eating chocolate, fruit and diet coke!! Hey ho those were the days.
Turns out I turned off my counter
Well anyone can do it. In a previous attempt to make this blog look pretty I fiddled about with the counter settings....it looked nice on the screen..but it turns out it wasn't counting anything!
Happily I spotted this little problem whilst waiting to find out what is going to happen at the end of 'The Cassandra Crossing', so much for having an early night.
I've checked out the stars on the web (Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardener, Richard Harris, Martin Sheen, Sophia Loren ...who always looks the same age irrespective of the decade the film was made), but at the moment I can't figure out if they all go over a cliff or not. In the good old days this would have been on the telly on a Sunday afternoon and I wouldn't be sat here are one in the morning.
Happily I spotted this little problem whilst waiting to find out what is going to happen at the end of 'The Cassandra Crossing', so much for having an early night.
I've checked out the stars on the web (Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardener, Richard Harris, Martin Sheen, Sophia Loren ...who always looks the same age irrespective of the decade the film was made), but at the moment I can't figure out if they all go over a cliff or not. In the good old days this would have been on the telly on a Sunday afternoon and I wouldn't be sat here are one in the morning.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Did I help - probably not
I was on my way back to my car today, I'd left it in Jesmond, a nice part of Newcastle upon Tyne, kind of Knightsbridge of the north east I suppose..but quieter.
Normally I'm reasonably immune to pleas for money but today, a lady asked me for money just as I was about to get into my car. She was polite, and I had saved money all week by parking on the street, rather than in the more expensive and heavily monitored card park. So I fished in my bag and gave her my whole bag of change (that I keep for parking), I don't know how much money was in it, not more than £5 I expect.
Initially I supposed I was going to find £1, but I thought it was mean to count out coins. She said she had been trying to get £7 to stay in a hostel for the night and had tried the police, the probation service and lots of other places but I wasn't really listening.
It did strike me that I had never seen anyone so thin standing up. Her eyes were hollow and her skin very pale. I know she will spend the money on drugs or drink. I wish that wasn't the case, but my judgement is that is what will happen - unless it rains I guess. I just hope she gets some peace from whatever she uses the money for.
It troubles me that people end up asking strangers for money. I would like to think that someone would help me if I was in that situation. I feel guilty that I don't have the courage to engage in a longer conversation, but I doubt that I could help, and I didn't want to sound patronising. It was clear that whatever she did need the money for, her need was significantly greater than mine.
It makes me grateful for what I have. I am credit worthy so I can borrow money. I am employable so I can work and I am blessed with my health, and my family.
Normally I'm reasonably immune to pleas for money but today, a lady asked me for money just as I was about to get into my car. She was polite, and I had saved money all week by parking on the street, rather than in the more expensive and heavily monitored card park. So I fished in my bag and gave her my whole bag of change (that I keep for parking), I don't know how much money was in it, not more than £5 I expect.
Initially I supposed I was going to find £1, but I thought it was mean to count out coins. She said she had been trying to get £7 to stay in a hostel for the night and had tried the police, the probation service and lots of other places but I wasn't really listening.
It did strike me that I had never seen anyone so thin standing up. Her eyes were hollow and her skin very pale. I know she will spend the money on drugs or drink. I wish that wasn't the case, but my judgement is that is what will happen - unless it rains I guess. I just hope she gets some peace from whatever she uses the money for.
It troubles me that people end up asking strangers for money. I would like to think that someone would help me if I was in that situation. I feel guilty that I don't have the courage to engage in a longer conversation, but I doubt that I could help, and I didn't want to sound patronising. It was clear that whatever she did need the money for, her need was significantly greater than mine.
It makes me grateful for what I have. I am credit worthy so I can borrow money. I am employable so I can work and I am blessed with my health, and my family.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Join the club
Turns out I have joined a wine club. Funny how that happens when you use a discount voucher and don't quite read the small print. I guess that companies are now wise to women seeking a bargain and stick all sorts of things in the small print.
I think something similar happened with the mobile phone insurance, at least I think that is what the £4.99 direct debit is for. I know I should check it/cancel it, but it is getting round to DOING something that is the problem. After all I won't go bankrupt because of £4.99 a month will I? OK I'll do it....this weekend, probably.
Anyway I got the friendly letter from the wine club today telling me that I am about to receive my mixed case (lucky me) unless I DO SOMETHING to cancel it. So off I go onto the website to cancel the thing I didn't think I joined in the first place. BUT...SHOCK...the other half thinks it looks like a good deal. Which I think is approval not to cancel the wine.
I'll give it a go, just this once, fully aware of the fact that once these things start they are very hard to cancel. Just becuase cancelling involves making an effort, how to you think book clubs suck you in.
I tell you these sales guys have totally cracked the purchasing psychology thing. Wish I was as good at selling stuff.
I think something similar happened with the mobile phone insurance, at least I think that is what the £4.99 direct debit is for. I know I should check it/cancel it, but it is getting round to DOING something that is the problem. After all I won't go bankrupt because of £4.99 a month will I? OK I'll do it....this weekend, probably.
Anyway I got the friendly letter from the wine club today telling me that I am about to receive my mixed case (lucky me) unless I DO SOMETHING to cancel it. So off I go onto the website to cancel the thing I didn't think I joined in the first place. BUT...SHOCK...the other half thinks it looks like a good deal. Which I think is approval not to cancel the wine.
I'll give it a go, just this once, fully aware of the fact that once these things start they are very hard to cancel. Just becuase cancelling involves making an effort, how to you think book clubs suck you in.
I tell you these sales guys have totally cracked the purchasing psychology thing. Wish I was as good at selling stuff.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
It isn't asleep!
Well I have just removed a dead weasel from my daughter's bed. Not something I expected to be doing on a Sunday afternoon. I had heard whispering, but thought that it was something to do with avoiding piano practice, or sneaking additional children into the house whilst I wasn't looking (like it normally is).
The garden is looking more garden like, and less major excavation works. So the kids are spending more time out there. However one of my neighbours must have put some rat poison down, hence the dead weasel.
I was admiring the new decking when Jason asked if the kids had shown me a dead animal, he thought it was a weasel or something similar. Hence the following conversation with a small child, ostensibly sitting sewing in her bedroom, oh so cute!..
'Where is the weasel?'
'Oh, Mum, who told you?'
'Ok, where is it then?'
Child goes to bed, lifts duvet, and extracts dead rodent, which has been wrapped in a tea towel.
'It isn't asleep you know'
'Oh'
'It will start to smell'
'Oh it smells already' holds dead weasel to mum's nose - yuk
The garden is looking more garden like, and less major excavation works. So the kids are spending more time out there. However one of my neighbours must have put some rat poison down, hence the dead weasel.
I was admiring the new decking when Jason asked if the kids had shown me a dead animal, he thought it was a weasel or something similar. Hence the following conversation with a small child, ostensibly sitting sewing in her bedroom, oh so cute!..
'Where is the weasel?'
'Oh, Mum, who told you?'
'Ok, where is it then?'
Child goes to bed, lifts duvet, and extracts dead rodent, which has been wrapped in a tea towel.
'It isn't asleep you know'
'Oh'
'It will start to smell'
'Oh it smells already' holds dead weasel to mum's nose - yuk
Monday, August 14, 2006
Chairoplanes
Back from hols, duly collected cats and dog, washed mountains of clothes and did the grocery shopping. Transported children to various swimming and sporting courses and visited newly pacemakered parent. So another normal day really.
Looking back on the holiday I think that a real highlight was our visit to Hollycombe Steam Collection in Liphook, on the Sussex/Hampshire borders. What a wonderful bit of nostalgia that was. I'm sure Elinor and George think I was around when the rides were first built, bless 'em they are convinced that anyone more than 20 years old can remember the olden days. In Windsor Elinor even suggested that I might have actually seen Queen Victoria when I was younger. Thankfully we used that as an opportunity to try out some mathematical skills to work out that I really couldn't have been there by a gap of some 60 something years.
Thought I'd pop in some pics of the steam powered funfair rides.
Yes there are real steam engines powering these things.
I didn't get the name of the ride in the first picture, so I'll just call it the spinny thing. It looks rather innocent at rest, but when it rises up, spins round and tips 45 degrees it is rather a different matter. Our ride was somewhat overwhelmed by the screams of George who wailed as soon as it tipped up 'I don't like it' and continued to sob the same thing until it stopped. I didn't like it that much myself, mainly because it felt too much like being in a tumble drier, but rather worryingly with a steam engine underneath, and I did wonder what would happen if the spinny bit flew off. Poor George was so pitiful I couldn't help but laugh (not terribly sympathetic I realise) but there was no point in joining in the panic.
Then there were the Chairoplanes, which seemed to have more safety straps than I remember. Jason and Elinor had two goes. Elinor would have continued spinning all day, but Jason developed a headache at that point.
George really liked the Austin Car ride though. These I do remember, somewhere there is a picture of me on one of these when I was about two years old. To see more on Hollycombe have a look at the website on www.hollycombe.co.uk. This beats all other funfairs hands down as far as I'm concerned.
Looking back on the holiday I think that a real highlight was our visit to Hollycombe Steam Collection in Liphook, on the Sussex/Hampshire borders. What a wonderful bit of nostalgia that was. I'm sure Elinor and George think I was around when the rides were first built, bless 'em they are convinced that anyone more than 20 years old can remember the olden days. In Windsor Elinor even suggested that I might have actually seen Queen Victoria when I was younger. Thankfully we used that as an opportunity to try out some mathematical skills to work out that I really couldn't have been there by a gap of some 60 something years.
Thought I'd pop in some pics of the steam powered funfair rides.
Yes there are real steam engines powering these things.
I didn't get the name of the ride in the first picture, so I'll just call it the spinny thing. It looks rather innocent at rest, but when it rises up, spins round and tips 45 degrees it is rather a different matter. Our ride was somewhat overwhelmed by the screams of George who wailed as soon as it tipped up 'I don't like it' and continued to sob the same thing until it stopped. I didn't like it that much myself, mainly because it felt too much like being in a tumble drier, but rather worryingly with a steam engine underneath, and I did wonder what would happen if the spinny bit flew off. Poor George was so pitiful I couldn't help but laugh (not terribly sympathetic I realise) but there was no point in joining in the panic.
Then there were the Chairoplanes, which seemed to have more safety straps than I remember. Jason and Elinor had two goes. Elinor would have continued spinning all day, but Jason developed a headache at that point.George really liked the Austin Car ride though. These I do remember, somewhere there is a picture of me on one of these when I was about two years old. To see more on Hollycombe have a look at the website on www.hollycombe.co.uk. This beats all other funfairs hands down as far as I'm concerned.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Only in England
Well we've spent the past few days visiting Norwich. Our hotel looked out over the cathedral gate, and we spent a peaceful few days exploring the city centre while the kids stayed with their grandparents in Lowestoft.
So after a nice day out utilising the old National Trust membership at Blickling Hall (excellent second hand bookshop) and Felbrigg Hall (got totally lost in the woods!!) we got back to the hotel and spied two sets of what appeared to be morris dancers jigging away outside the local pub.
It is a bit blurry in the picture but there were around 30 of them in two groups doing rather complex footwork, some in clogs, some in bells and some with rather large leafy arches. It turns out that they turn up and dance outside a different pub every Monday night, so if you happen to be in the area you never know you might just spot them.
Saturday, August 05, 2006
New gadget
Gadget of the week is the new mobile card for this laptop. I can now check my email anytime, anyplace, anywhere. So benefits of the new gizmo are that I can spend time deleting junkmail anywhere I choose....who are all these exotic people who keep wanting to involve me in their latest investment wheeze anyway...despite coming from lots of different countries and continents they all appear to be sending the very same email. I do wonder if anyone ever responds.
Anyway I'm sure that there was a legitimate reason for the new electronic expenditure. I just can't think what that was at this precise moment.
Anyway I'm sure that there was a legitimate reason for the new electronic expenditure. I just can't think what that was at this precise moment.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
justbloggin
Sometimes I wonder why I never seem to have any time. I always think 'ah next week will be quiet and I can catch up then' trouble is next week is never quiet, and I never do everything I intend to do. The ironing is so far down my list of priorities it is amazing that anyone in the family ever looks human, let alone groomed.
So last week kicked off with one resignation and one period of notice being proferred, thus reducing staff numbers from 6 to 4 in one fell swoop. The informal team is more informal than ever, and I am fairly guilty of being informal myself, ie. hardy ever there in person. Which means that I have now hassled everyone to get their Skype phones and email sorted out as I haven't managed to master long distance telepathy yet.
The kids kicked off the holidays with an assortment of kids club events including karate and squash, trips to the cinema, trampolining and arts and crafts. Elinor headed off to a sleepover and a day out. George did Yogabugs and more karate. He has also developed a very strong interest in snooker thanks to our 10 year old neighbour and some men he met in a pub while Elinor was at a birthday party...yes he is only 6...yes he was in the bar playing snooker for an hour!
My mum went off for her regular heart checkup and has been advised to get a pacemaker. This would be fine if they hadn't had a disaster the last time they tried to give her a pacemaker. Last time it turned out the scar tissue from her original valve surgery (back in 1963) prevented them from getting the wires in. You might think a bit of prior investigation would be sensible on someone that had a history of early open heart surgery...or is that me...oh well. Anyway the solution then was to implant two new artificial heart valves and to postpone the pacemaker. The valves have been ticking happily ever since but the pacing problem hasn't gone away. With the usual gung ho attitude of those not having surgery the medics are claiming that the whole thing can be done in a lunch time and all will be hunky dory. Sadly my mum isn't so sure, especially after last time. I'm not sure what the stress is doing to her, but it can't be good.
Still this Thursday is the pre-op checkup so with any luck they will manage to calm her down. I don't think she knows what type of pacemaker she is getting, two wires vs one. I'm assuming it might be two.
All the internet info I've looked at is very positive, apart from the references to 'twiddler syndrome' which is the rather unfortunate side-effect whereby sufferers develop a tendency to do a nazi salute if the wires get attached to the wrong thing. I won't be mentioning this AT ALL.
justbloggin
So last week kicked off with one resignation and one period of notice being proferred, thus reducing staff numbers from 6 to 4 in one fell swoop. The informal team is more informal than ever, and I am fairly guilty of being informal myself, ie. hardy ever there in person. Which means that I have now hassled everyone to get their Skype phones and email sorted out as I haven't managed to master long distance telepathy yet.
The kids kicked off the holidays with an assortment of kids club events including karate and squash, trips to the cinema, trampolining and arts and crafts. Elinor headed off to a sleepover and a day out. George did Yogabugs and more karate. He has also developed a very strong interest in snooker thanks to our 10 year old neighbour and some men he met in a pub while Elinor was at a birthday party...yes he is only 6...yes he was in the bar playing snooker for an hour!
My mum went off for her regular heart checkup and has been advised to get a pacemaker. This would be fine if they hadn't had a disaster the last time they tried to give her a pacemaker. Last time it turned out the scar tissue from her original valve surgery (back in 1963) prevented them from getting the wires in. You might think a bit of prior investigation would be sensible on someone that had a history of early open heart surgery...or is that me...oh well. Anyway the solution then was to implant two new artificial heart valves and to postpone the pacemaker. The valves have been ticking happily ever since but the pacing problem hasn't gone away. With the usual gung ho attitude of those not having surgery the medics are claiming that the whole thing can be done in a lunch time and all will be hunky dory. Sadly my mum isn't so sure, especially after last time. I'm not sure what the stress is doing to her, but it can't be good.
Still this Thursday is the pre-op checkup so with any luck they will manage to calm her down. I don't think she knows what type of pacemaker she is getting, two wires vs one. I'm assuming it might be two.
All the internet info I've looked at is very positive, apart from the references to 'twiddler syndrome' which is the rather unfortunate side-effect whereby sufferers develop a tendency to do a nazi salute if the wires get attached to the wrong thing. I won't be mentioning this AT ALL.
justbloggin
Friday, July 14, 2006
Giant darts big success at school fair
Not that I saw much of the rest of the school fair. I spent the afternoon on the school field with my box of sweeties and a dish full of change and raised £14.75 for school funds.
Picture to follow when I work up the energy to re-inflate the inflatable darts board. But if you are looking for a simple stall to run then pop along to your largest Te*co and give them a whirl.
I recommend taking a friend or like me you will find yourself glued to your dartboard by the seemingly endless stream of kids who want to have a go. It has to be said that I wasn't particularly strict with the rules. But then 10p is a fair price for a lolly, and my kids get a new game for the garden - until the dog eats the darts!
Picture to follow when I work up the energy to re-inflate the inflatable darts board. But if you are looking for a simple stall to run then pop along to your largest Te*co and give them a whirl.
I recommend taking a friend or like me you will find yourself glued to your dartboard by the seemingly endless stream of kids who want to have a go. It has to be said that I wasn't particularly strict with the rules. But then 10p is a fair price for a lolly, and my kids get a new game for the garden - until the dog eats the darts!
Let the parties begin
It was 7am on a sunny July morning and Elinor had stirred into action (remarkably early considering the fact that she went to bed very late). Somehow a bag of cards and presents had been left on her bedroom door handle, nobody knows how they got there.....
Monday, July 10, 2006
Social Whirl
There is a strong danger that I may become totally overwhelmed with the volume of social engagements my children are attending over the next fortnight. I think I may need to give up sleeping in order to do some work.
This week we have 2 family birthdays, one family birthday party, two other birthday parties that the kids wouldn't miss for the world. Next week we have another family birthday. We've turned down another party; if any more party like post comes I'm not going to open it.
On the school side we have the Summer Fair, which requires prizes to be donated and my attendance is required to help on the stalls. The kids think they will get more spending money that way. ie if I am there I can part with all my cash so that they can go on everything. They also tried the 'if you are there do I get to go on everything for nothing' line.
Then there is the whole school trip to Holy Island requiring careful packing of small rucsacks to cope with all weathers, and a long bus trip, as parents aren't allowed. Normally I try to go on school trips as I know I can then take all of the other things the kids will want to have; but won't want to carry.
These are closely followed by Sports Day, Prize Day, end of term party day, end of term church service etc....there is probably something else.
The house is full of party bags, cakes, presents for various ages, shapes and sizes. My diary overfloweth.
I spoke too soon another invite has just arrived, hand delivered, a rather lovely invite, which again cannot be refused. Hand delivered at 8.34pm
As an aside I have a feeling that my hairdresser has read this blog, either that or she is telepathic (quite likely). I was on the back foot as I got the appointment time wrong and had to be telephoned to remind me to go the four doors up the road to get my hair cut. In advance of the appointment I'd been revving up to ask for a 'bit less drama on the colour front' and had hardly stepped inside when I was told that my hair would stay 'a more natural colour' this time. Spooky. Thanks Trysh ;-)
This week we have 2 family birthdays, one family birthday party, two other birthday parties that the kids wouldn't miss for the world. Next week we have another family birthday. We've turned down another party; if any more party like post comes I'm not going to open it.
On the school side we have the Summer Fair, which requires prizes to be donated and my attendance is required to help on the stalls. The kids think they will get more spending money that way. ie if I am there I can part with all my cash so that they can go on everything. They also tried the 'if you are there do I get to go on everything for nothing' line.
Then there is the whole school trip to Holy Island requiring careful packing of small rucsacks to cope with all weathers, and a long bus trip, as parents aren't allowed. Normally I try to go on school trips as I know I can then take all of the other things the kids will want to have; but won't want to carry.
These are closely followed by Sports Day, Prize Day, end of term party day, end of term church service etc....there is probably something else.
The house is full of party bags, cakes, presents for various ages, shapes and sizes. My diary overfloweth.
I spoke too soon another invite has just arrived, hand delivered, a rather lovely invite, which again cannot be refused. Hand delivered at 8.34pm
As an aside I have a feeling that my hairdresser has read this blog, either that or she is telepathic (quite likely). I was on the back foot as I got the appointment time wrong and had to be telephoned to remind me to go the four doors up the road to get my hair cut. In advance of the appointment I'd been revving up to ask for a 'bit less drama on the colour front' and had hardly stepped inside when I was told that my hair would stay 'a more natural colour' this time. Spooky. Thanks Trysh ;-)
Monday, June 19, 2006
Stand back from the chocolates......
I’m having a fairly normal Monday morning. I’ve logged into the accounts software and checked that everything is pretty much keyed in. I emailed this week’s invoice proforma on Friday so got ahead of myself there.
I need to do a cashflow forecast and go into battle with the small print on a couple of CT600 forms and then read some stuff on Sarbox so why am I currently debating whether 15% and free postage is a better deal than £10 off orders over £30, and whether the trousers I’ve been looking at are any different to the ones I already have and if I really need them?
Meanwhile I have 50 minutes until my hairdressers appointment, I could do with attempting some exercise and at 2.30 I’m off on a school trip to watch my kids tour a football ground, and whilst I don’t like football I do like to go to these things to see what the kids get up to.
I still can’t find the missing email addresses. My daughter can’t remember how to spell the names of some of her classmates. This makes it rather difficult when it comes to sending them birthday party invitations. Especially as I’m always complaining about her terrible spelling (not that mine is great, and don’t even go there on the grammar).
And yes, for once, I spell checked this post!
Oh and I love my new screensaver – thanks Gillie.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Ninja is one year old this week
Here is the birthday boy, on the left with his special scoubie toy. Ninja thinks that playing with his toys is just about the best thing in the world. He carries his toys round with him and gets most upset if I won't play.
On the right we have Cinders, who is Ninja's mum. She may be tiny but she certainly rules the furry animal department in this house. The poor dog is often seen howling and running in the opposite direction as Cinders tends to hide behind the doors and pounce on him. Unlike Ninja she does go for the full claws approach.
Saturday, June 17, 2006
A few questions
1. Do you ever swap handbags just because the one you have been using has got so heavy that you can't face carrying it about all day...but you can't take anything out of it because you might need it later on?
2. Do you put things in such cunningly clever places that you can't find them yourself?
3. Do you spend ages trying to remember your super clever hiding place and then find a wonderful workaround, only to see the missing item the next time that you go into the room?
4. Do you write lists of the things your kids have done that annoyed you to see if they look as irritating when you see them written down?
5. Do you carefully write down someone's contact email and then lose it?
That's 5 out of 5 for me anyway. Today has been a particularly good day for 2 and 5. My desk looks like a bomb dropped and I still can't find my important bits of paper, which incidentally were somewhere in my incredibly heavy handbag. I'm going to leave the room now and wait for them all to re-appear.
2. Do you put things in such cunningly clever places that you can't find them yourself?
3. Do you spend ages trying to remember your super clever hiding place and then find a wonderful workaround, only to see the missing item the next time that you go into the room?
4. Do you write lists of the things your kids have done that annoyed you to see if they look as irritating when you see them written down?
5. Do you carefully write down someone's contact email and then lose it?
That's 5 out of 5 for me anyway. Today has been a particularly good day for 2 and 5. My desk looks like a bomb dropped and I still can't find my important bits of paper, which incidentally were somewhere in my incredibly heavy handbag. I'm going to leave the room now and wait for them all to re-appear.
Playing with the settings again
Another technological first, I finally found the 'publish comments' button!
Must load some pics on the blog..getting very texty methinks.
I've decided that my children have turned into early stage teenagers for the summer. I must catch them telling lies about 10 times a day each at the moment. It is getting rather tiring in terms of bothering to tell when I know they are lying. If I don't tell them does that mean that they are getting away with it....so I guess they have worn me down a bit this week in that I am now fed up with telling them off or catching them out.
The garden is undergoing an overhaul. A large quantity of railway sleepers turned up this morning and Jason is now artfully arranging them into raised beds. The dog is then tunnelling round the edges for an extra rustic effect.
Must load some pics on the blog..getting very texty methinks.
I've decided that my children have turned into early stage teenagers for the summer. I must catch them telling lies about 10 times a day each at the moment. It is getting rather tiring in terms of bothering to tell when I know they are lying. If I don't tell them does that mean that they are getting away with it....so I guess they have worn me down a bit this week in that I am now fed up with telling them off or catching them out.
The garden is undergoing an overhaul. A large quantity of railway sleepers turned up this morning and Jason is now artfully arranging them into raised beds. The dog is then tunnelling round the edges for an extra rustic effect.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
It's been a while...now that everyone else has gone to bed I figured it was time to catch up on the blog. The trouble with the lighter evenings is that nobody under the age of 10 seems to realise when it is getting late and as it takes me a good hour or two of peace to wind down for the day I'm rapidly becoming completely nocturnal. Which would be great if I didn't have to get up and organise breakfast in the morning.
Mostly it has been a busy time since half term. This week quite a few extra people joined the business. And very good they are too. The chronic organiser in me wanted to get the office set up for them but it turns out they are way ahead of me. This morning a full sized fridge had appeared in the new office, complete with its own set of Top Gear fridge magnets. I certainly didn't have it on my top 10 things to get for the office but now I think of it I am rather attracted to the idea of popping in for a cool drink when I happen to be passing. I may even store something in the fridge just in case.
To show how easily pleased I am with little technical breakthroughs. I got the online BACS software working on Tuesday and it is going to save me so much time. Why on earth I ever agreed to pay everyone weekly is beyond me, but at least I don't have to handwrite all the cheques every Thursday evening...hooray. I've even set up a payment template so I only have to put in the amounts. Now this one little thing makes me smile whenever I think about it - so how sad am I?
Fudgee the dog had the op on Tuesday. Not sure if it is working yet but he is certainly very wary of going on car journeys with me.
The kids birthday party season is almost upon us so I have had my party bag planner hat on. Parties are booked and the invites are going out soon. If the kids can try to keep their rooms tidy and not wind me up EVERY evening by not going to bed they might even get to go to the parties themselves.
Mostly it has been a busy time since half term. This week quite a few extra people joined the business. And very good they are too. The chronic organiser in me wanted to get the office set up for them but it turns out they are way ahead of me. This morning a full sized fridge had appeared in the new office, complete with its own set of Top Gear fridge magnets. I certainly didn't have it on my top 10 things to get for the office but now I think of it I am rather attracted to the idea of popping in for a cool drink when I happen to be passing. I may even store something in the fridge just in case.
To show how easily pleased I am with little technical breakthroughs. I got the online BACS software working on Tuesday and it is going to save me so much time. Why on earth I ever agreed to pay everyone weekly is beyond me, but at least I don't have to handwrite all the cheques every Thursday evening...hooray. I've even set up a payment template so I only have to put in the amounts. Now this one little thing makes me smile whenever I think about it - so how sad am I?
Fudgee the dog had the op on Tuesday. Not sure if it is working yet but he is certainly very wary of going on car journeys with me.
The kids birthday party season is almost upon us so I have had my party bag planner hat on. Parties are booked and the invites are going out soon. If the kids can try to keep their rooms tidy and not wind me up EVERY evening by not going to bed they might even get to go to the parties themselves.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Business is booming
Things are moving fast in software development land. From being an idea we now have 7 staff plus myself and Jason!! Not bad since we only started properly in February.
The development team are going to have to move into another office, 5 mins up the road, as we can't fit everyone in. I was considering introducing shift work and desk share policies but as it happens another office has unexpectedly become available.
Must post some pics.
Flippin eck
Jason is off to a posh business do tonight. Black tie, looked very smart.
Amazing how things just start to develop their own momentum.
Things are moving fast in software development land. From being an idea we now have 7 staff plus myself and Jason!! Not bad since we only started properly in February.
The development team are going to have to move into another office, 5 mins up the road, as we can't fit everyone in. I was considering introducing shift work and desk share policies but as it happens another office has unexpectedly become available.
Must post some pics.
Flippin eck
Jason is off to a posh business do tonight. Black tie, looked very smart.
Amazing how things just start to develop their own momentum.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
It was hairdresser day again today. Every time a new surprise colourwise. It turns out that they don't write down the colour they put on your hair as they can 'usually' remember. Possibly not that accurately judging by some of my recent colour adventures. I'm currently getting used to a new shade from today's experiment in hair pigments.
This time I did work up the nerve to object to the initial colour so thankfully I don't look too flame haired. The amended version is a bit more subtle and the kids have given it a nod of approval. Two hair cuts ago they agreed unanimously that I looked a bit like a Bratz doll, something to do with the purple highlights I think.
Anyway I was explaining that maybe it would be an idea to write something down in the book for next time. They've had a go...and it could be one of two or three colours, so they'll try the first of the other options in June.
Don't get me wrong I don't dislike the hair cut or the hair colour but it is sometimes hard to cope with the surprise! I think I need to avoid bright lights for a few days until the colour fades a bit. Do I sound stressed!!!!
I'm considering taking in a picture of Chorlton (of the Wheelies) and seeing if they can make me look like my profile photo. Now that would be worth a picture.
This time I did work up the nerve to object to the initial colour so thankfully I don't look too flame haired. The amended version is a bit more subtle and the kids have given it a nod of approval. Two hair cuts ago they agreed unanimously that I looked a bit like a Bratz doll, something to do with the purple highlights I think.
Anyway I was explaining that maybe it would be an idea to write something down in the book for next time. They've had a go...and it could be one of two or three colours, so they'll try the first of the other options in June.
Don't get me wrong I don't dislike the hair cut or the hair colour but it is sometimes hard to cope with the surprise! I think I need to avoid bright lights for a few days until the colour fades a bit. Do I sound stressed!!!!
I'm considering taking in a picture of Chorlton (of the Wheelies) and seeing if they can make me look like my profile photo. Now that would be worth a picture.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Things are moving along, the business is partnering with another open source company. We now have 3 staff! So our nice new office now has no space for me:-(
Still it is an ideal excuse to work from home.
The dog has gone all adolescent on us. So he is being walked on his lead as public displays of inappropriate behaviour can be rather embarrassing. Not that the lead stops him. He is not being snappy just rather overfriendly.
I've just bought the new First News paper for kids. The checkout assistant in Tesco's seemed bemused that I was paying £1 for a newspaper with only 24 pages. But as Jason has pointed out it doesn't contain any adverts. I think the writing is of a very high standard, I kind of wish the rest of the papers were as clear on the issues.
Still it is an ideal excuse to work from home.
The dog has gone all adolescent on us. So he is being walked on his lead as public displays of inappropriate behaviour can be rather embarrassing. Not that the lead stops him. He is not being snappy just rather overfriendly.
I've just bought the new First News paper for kids. The checkout assistant in Tesco's seemed bemused that I was paying £1 for a newspaper with only 24 pages. But as Jason has pointed out it doesn't contain any adverts. I think the writing is of a very high standard, I kind of wish the rest of the papers were as clear on the issues.
Friday, May 05, 2006
I feel like the Easter holidays have finally finished. Somehow I'm not so sure that it makes sense to have all the Bank Holidays bunched together up so much.
What with being in Scotland and then an extra day's school holiday + last weekends rush of parties and visits and another Bank Holiday + family visits it seems like today is the first day I have had without huge commitments to be somewhere.
I've decided to scale down the kids activities. Which means not going to quite so many swimming lessons but spending the time going swimming as a family, walking the dog or going out on the bikes. That way I might not find myself getting quite so resentful about being the child chauffer.
I've added a few business related links to the blog. This is mainly so I can keep an eye on them, and with any luck glean some information on what everyone else is doing in the service oriented open source market. It does look like the world of IT development is about to head into a step change. We're kind of riding on the coat-tails trying to keep up.
What with being in Scotland and then an extra day's school holiday + last weekends rush of parties and visits and another Bank Holiday + family visits it seems like today is the first day I have had without huge commitments to be somewhere.
I've decided to scale down the kids activities. Which means not going to quite so many swimming lessons but spending the time going swimming as a family, walking the dog or going out on the bikes. That way I might not find myself getting quite so resentful about being the child chauffer.
I've added a few business related links to the blog. This is mainly so I can keep an eye on them, and with any luck glean some information on what everyone else is doing in the service oriented open source market. It does look like the world of IT development is about to head into a step change. We're kind of riding on the coat-tails trying to keep up.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Back from a lovely easter holiday in Sandyhills, Dumfries. Did lots of walking, first time since the kids arrived that we've managed to go a decent distance without having to pick at least one of them up and carry them. The five mile walk from Sandyhills to Rockcliffe along the coastal path was wonderful, we didn't bump into another person en route and the scenery was great. We only meant to walk along the beach but ended up going on a bit of a trek.
The kids are very keen on cycling so it looks like more two wheeled outings are in the offing. I'm not quite sure how I've managed to convince myself that a mountain bike is a better investment than getting the exhaust on my car fixed (which is what I really should have done today) maybe it is the urge to get out while the weather is nice. I spoke to a nice shop in Chingford...ebay again...and the new Dawes MTB will be with me by this afternoon (Tuesday). With any luck I've got the frame size right and either myself or Jason will be able to ride it once the saddle has been adjusted. My trusty Claude Butler tourer is still in the garage, needs a bit of dusting off but is stil functional for when the whole family need to get out there and pedal.
I never did get a response from the National Trust on my query about why kids can't ride bikes at Gibside. Still it looks like we'll be riding the real cycle routes from now on. I just hope George can work out getting on and off a bit better. At the moment he throws himself off the bike, and refuses to get on without a push-off. When he is on the bike he pedals like a maniac and zooms off into the distance, rather than turning round and coming back to find us he usually throws himself into the side of the path and waits until we all turn up.
As usual the animals are having a settling in period after a week at the kennels. Fudgee is breaking records for chewiness, tally so far - drill cable (not our drill! the next door neighbours), two seals from the new drainage pipe, one sheet of blue damp proof membrane, and a flexi lead. Quite impressive as we only got back on Friday. The house is littered with official doggy toys but why chew them when you can chew everything in sight.
I'm trying a new method of protecting the kitchen cupboards from late night/early morning chwing - cayenne pepper mixed into a paste with white vinegar. It seems to be doing the trick at the moment but has a bit of a nutty aroma. It does blend in with the wood colour of the kitchen cupboards and hides the existing chew marks quite well. It helps that I have an industrial sized tub of cayenne pepper that I got from Makro years ago, which funnily enough I have hardly touched.
Fudge has also managed to forget that the cage is for sleeping not peeing and has discovered how to pee like a grown up dog - three legs and no wobbling. I guess he has been observing the other dogs at the kennels and I'm now having to watch him as he tried to territory mark the cat litter tray on Saturday. I have offered to re-home him (just yesterday - and I was serious) but Jason seems to have become attached, even if he is a one dog trail of destruction.
He is fast asleep under my chair at the moment, all cute and cuddly.
The kids are very keen on cycling so it looks like more two wheeled outings are in the offing. I'm not quite sure how I've managed to convince myself that a mountain bike is a better investment than getting the exhaust on my car fixed (which is what I really should have done today) maybe it is the urge to get out while the weather is nice. I spoke to a nice shop in Chingford...ebay again...and the new Dawes MTB will be with me by this afternoon (Tuesday). With any luck I've got the frame size right and either myself or Jason will be able to ride it once the saddle has been adjusted. My trusty Claude Butler tourer is still in the garage, needs a bit of dusting off but is stil functional for when the whole family need to get out there and pedal.
I never did get a response from the National Trust on my query about why kids can't ride bikes at Gibside. Still it looks like we'll be riding the real cycle routes from now on. I just hope George can work out getting on and off a bit better. At the moment he throws himself off the bike, and refuses to get on without a push-off. When he is on the bike he pedals like a maniac and zooms off into the distance, rather than turning round and coming back to find us he usually throws himself into the side of the path and waits until we all turn up.
As usual the animals are having a settling in period after a week at the kennels. Fudgee is breaking records for chewiness, tally so far - drill cable (not our drill! the next door neighbours), two seals from the new drainage pipe, one sheet of blue damp proof membrane, and a flexi lead. Quite impressive as we only got back on Friday. The house is littered with official doggy toys but why chew them when you can chew everything in sight.
I'm trying a new method of protecting the kitchen cupboards from late night/early morning chwing - cayenne pepper mixed into a paste with white vinegar. It seems to be doing the trick at the moment but has a bit of a nutty aroma. It does blend in with the wood colour of the kitchen cupboards and hides the existing chew marks quite well. It helps that I have an industrial sized tub of cayenne pepper that I got from Makro years ago, which funnily enough I have hardly touched.
Fudge has also managed to forget that the cage is for sleeping not peeing and has discovered how to pee like a grown up dog - three legs and no wobbling. I guess he has been observing the other dogs at the kennels and I'm now having to watch him as he tried to territory mark the cat litter tray on Saturday. I have offered to re-home him (just yesterday - and I was serious) but Jason seems to have become attached, even if he is a one dog trail of destruction.
He is fast asleep under my chair at the moment, all cute and cuddly.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
National Trust clamps down on rogue cyclists!
This is the last time the kids will be able to ride their bikes at Gibside. I admit the look likely to cause problems with the natural environment but due to a new rule (possibly made up on the spot) children on bicycles are now banned from riding their bikes at Gibside.
No matter that it was quiet, they have reasonable bikes and they don't deliberately go out to drive into anyone, we have officially been told by a man driving a tractor (who is causing the damage here...run that one past me again), that our children cannot ride bikes, even on the paths, as cycles could damage the environment.
They didn't even pull the 'health and safety' argument. The main concern was that they might ride their bikes on the grass. This was one of the few safe, traffic free places we could take them while they get used to riding in a straight line. The local cycle paths tend to be full of manic mountain bikers who do about 40mph and refuse to stop for anyone.
Jason did try to point out that driving the NT landrover and tractor and various quad bikes would be more damaging...but who are we to argue against the rules. One day when I get myself a guide dog and a disabled buggy I will deliberately go wild!!!!!!! There are laws to protect me then. Hmmph
Friday, April 07, 2006
It has officially been a busy week. We've interviewed and hired two designers, both students on 4 month placements who will help us to generate a great brand image. We've also found an excellent market researcher at Durham University who is doing a PhD in virtual networking...how spooky is that. Fortune currently shines upon us as a business team.
On the domestic front the end of term has required easter eggs to be decorated, rolling eggs to be provided and some interesting easter hat creations. The holidays are soon to be upon us.
George now appears to be free of nits. He is under strict orders to keep his head away from everyone else at school. Still I'll keep on checking. Rather unhelpfully my mum has told the local hairdresser, which I could really have done without as I have an appointment this Saturday - I think I might cancel it as I can't be bothered with 2 hours in the salon knowing that my hairdresser thinks I have nits (I don't think I have them personally).
The cats are all being kept indoors. Jason has got to fit the new magnetic dog flap this weekend to keep them in. Only the dog is allowed the necessary magnetic collar. Ninja - brother of Flash - is very unsettled, he has changed personality since last Saturday and is now very timid. Jasper and Cinders are their usual selves but things are very quiet around the house without Flash letting us all know what he thinks.
On the domestic front the end of term has required easter eggs to be decorated, rolling eggs to be provided and some interesting easter hat creations. The holidays are soon to be upon us.
George now appears to be free of nits. He is under strict orders to keep his head away from everyone else at school. Still I'll keep on checking. Rather unhelpfully my mum has told the local hairdresser, which I could really have done without as I have an appointment this Saturday - I think I might cancel it as I can't be bothered with 2 hours in the salon knowing that my hairdresser thinks I have nits (I don't think I have them personally).
The cats are all being kept indoors. Jason has got to fit the new magnetic dog flap this weekend to keep them in. Only the dog is allowed the necessary magnetic collar. Ninja - brother of Flash - is very unsettled, he has changed personality since last Saturday and is now very timid. Jasper and Cinders are their usual selves but things are very quiet around the house without Flash letting us all know what he thinks.
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Just had to load this picture, originally the light meant that you couldn't see Flash's face on this one. I opened the image and clicked on the auto lighten and there he is. Jason said the last time he saw him was this afternoon, we've had other children round to play and all the other cats had disappeared. Not Flash, he was sitting in the middle of the living room floor cleaning himself. You can see it in his eyes, no fear.
This is Flash on the window, watching me working. You can see his personality in this picture. All noseyness and whiskers. He was still a baby, only 10 months old, no road sense. I want to lock the others in the house now, just in case. I sometimes wish nobody had ever invented cars. Life would be much simpler and far fewer people and animals would get killed every year. Such a shame, my poor flashyboy.
I'm so sad, today my beautiful black and white cat Flash was killed on the road outside our house. I think we found him fairly soon after it happened and he must have died instantly as it was obvious the car had hit him on the side of the head. There were no other injuries. He'd been moved to the pavement.
I really loved this cat.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Currently frustrated as can't get to previous post to ad a 'v' into moving. I think it must be the keyboard...it can't be that I sit and type whilst looking the other way can it?
Finally finished sorting out the kids rooms. They are tidyish, well tidy enough. The new home office is full to the point of near explosion, mostly with stationery, but it does at least look tidy to the untrained eye.
George is has acquired some new friends at school, small insects that live on his hair. Which I could do without! So we are trying the Harvard Olive Oil Method of removal, which combined with a combing regime is meant to kill everything within 3 weeks. I hadn't realised how tiny they are. Apparently nits have evolved into smaller insects because they keep getting eradicated and only the smallest survive...wow..what a joy that is to know when you have to go looking for them.
So lesson for the day, nits are now smaller so cutting most of your hair off makes them harder to get rid of. And there was me about to shave his head.
Pics of George covered in olive oil and wrapped in clingfilm to follow.
Finally finished sorting out the kids rooms. They are tidyish, well tidy enough. The new home office is full to the point of near explosion, mostly with stationery, but it does at least look tidy to the untrained eye.
George is has acquired some new friends at school, small insects that live on his hair. Which I could do without! So we are trying the Harvard Olive Oil Method of removal, which combined with a combing regime is meant to kill everything within 3 weeks. I hadn't realised how tiny they are. Apparently nits have evolved into smaller insects because they keep getting eradicated and only the smallest survive...wow..what a joy that is to know when you have to go looking for them.
So lesson for the day, nits are now smaller so cutting most of your hair off makes them harder to get rid of. And there was me about to shave his head.
Pics of George covered in olive oil and wrapped in clingfilm to follow.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Four days of moving (spelling fixed hooray) stuff and I still haven't tidied it all up!
We started re-arranging the house on Saturday. Figuring that as we now have a proper office we don't two office rooms in the house. Having spent the last 8 months promising the children completely separate bedrooms (their old ones were adjoining and they only ever slept in one room despite the fact that there were at least 4 beds up there), we finally got round to taking some action.
Saturday involved a lot of heavy lifting as all the office cupboards got moved downstairs. Sunday saw the beds being moved and Monday and Tuesday were mainly devoted to sorting things. My love of stationery and stuff has been revealed. Things that had been in boxes and drawers for years had to be opened and re-sorted. I could easily open a stationery shop with all the things I've accumulated - or I would do if I didn't like it all so much.
I think I still have at least two more days to go to sort out the kids' stuff. Then there is the garage....and then Ebay. I have amassed an incredible quantity of packaging materials in anticipation of selling off surplus stuff. So much that it is taking up half a shed on its own. I did spend half an hour sorting it, so it is now boxed according to type.
To prove how much this is all appreciated the kids had moved a sleeping bag into Elinor's new room tonight as George was going to sleep on the floor. They have only been apart for one night. I expect they'll get used to it soon.
We started re-arranging the house on Saturday. Figuring that as we now have a proper office we don't two office rooms in the house. Having spent the last 8 months promising the children completely separate bedrooms (their old ones were adjoining and they only ever slept in one room despite the fact that there were at least 4 beds up there), we finally got round to taking some action.
Saturday involved a lot of heavy lifting as all the office cupboards got moved downstairs. Sunday saw the beds being moved and Monday and Tuesday were mainly devoted to sorting things. My love of stationery and stuff has been revealed. Things that had been in boxes and drawers for years had to be opened and re-sorted. I could easily open a stationery shop with all the things I've accumulated - or I would do if I didn't like it all so much.
I think I still have at least two more days to go to sort out the kids' stuff. Then there is the garage....and then Ebay. I have amassed an incredible quantity of packaging materials in anticipation of selling off surplus stuff. So much that it is taking up half a shed on its own. I did spend half an hour sorting it, so it is now boxed according to type.
To prove how much this is all appreciated the kids had moved a sleeping bag into Elinor's new room tonight as George was going to sleep on the floor. They have only been apart for one night. I expect they'll get used to it soon.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
I've noticed a couple of things today.
1. I bumped into a couple of folks today in Durham who I had not seen in a while and commented to both sets of offspring along the lines of 'haven't you grown'. It occurred to me that this is exactly what my great aunts used to say to me when I was little. At the time I remember thinking what a silly thing to say, but then children don't notice growing. As an adult bumping into children I now understand that height is the first thing you notice; especially if a child happens to be behaving him/herself, and as it is usually quite a striking difference it is very hard not to comment. Which I suppose means that I have finally grown up myself!
2. We are moving things around in the house becuase the kids are in desperate need of separate bedrooms. In theory they have this already, but because the rooms adjoin there is no real separation. Now the move is underway I am staggered by the sheer volume of stuff that we have. Jason always comments on our stuff quota, and it is true I have a pretty good hoarding instinct. I would like to point out though that so does my husband. So we are currently buried in boxes of stuff.
1. I bumped into a couple of folks today in Durham who I had not seen in a while and commented to both sets of offspring along the lines of 'haven't you grown'. It occurred to me that this is exactly what my great aunts used to say to me when I was little. At the time I remember thinking what a silly thing to say, but then children don't notice growing. As an adult bumping into children I now understand that height is the first thing you notice; especially if a child happens to be behaving him/herself, and as it is usually quite a striking difference it is very hard not to comment. Which I suppose means that I have finally grown up myself!
2. We are moving things around in the house becuase the kids are in desperate need of separate bedrooms. In theory they have this already, but because the rooms adjoin there is no real separation. Now the move is underway I am staggered by the sheer volume of stuff that we have. Jason always comments on our stuff quota, and it is true I have a pretty good hoarding instinct. I would like to point out though that so does my husband. So we are currently buried in boxes of stuff.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Well that is another 2 hours gone. Lost my links, got them back. Changed the template about 10 times. With any luck I can find a chapter in one of my new 'teach yourself technical things' books that will let me use an attractive template...with links. (they were the missing links...goodnight...oh dear terrible pun). Trouble is Amazon has yet to deliver so I will need to do that another day.
Playing with the Blog This! thing to see what happens.
I'm looking at other people's blogs (yes all those lovely scrapping ones) and wondering how you get such great layouts. I'm going to have a go at changing the layout, which might not be a good idea...
justbloggin
I'm looking at other people's blogs (yes all those lovely scrapping ones) and wondering how you get such great layouts. I'm going to have a go at changing the layout, which might not be a good idea...
justbloggin
Monday, March 13, 2006
Thought I'd take a picture of the office plants, we walked into a very fragrant room this morning as the hyacinths have had a busy weekend growing like little triffids.
I seem to be forever installing software at the moment. Skype and something called Pentaho this morning. If it isn't downloads then it is ordering more stuff from Amazon. I even found a book that may just interest me in programming...'Learn to Program' by Chris Pine. Apparently the book teaches you do program by getting you to do useful things like sort out your digital photo collection or get your webpage to send you emails. I can just about cope with that kind of thing, everyone I've worked with so far tends to stare at pages of minute text muttering about triggers and joins, and I nod and kind of think I might understand a bit of what they are saying. I never really got over the computer programming course that I did at university. So long ago that we used a VAX mainframe computer (not a model of vacuum cleaner, although today's vacuum cleaners probably have the same IT capability as the mainframe computer had in 1986). Anyway I was mystified by DOLOOPS and other jargon stuff, it all started to get very mathematical and I decided to blank out anything technical from then on!
Still here I am working in IT. Just goes to show what can happen if you don't make any kind of conscious career choices.
I seem to be forever installing software at the moment. Skype and something called Pentaho this morning. If it isn't downloads then it is ordering more stuff from Amazon. I even found a book that may just interest me in programming...'Learn to Program' by Chris Pine. Apparently the book teaches you do program by getting you to do useful things like sort out your digital photo collection or get your webpage to send you emails. I can just about cope with that kind of thing, everyone I've worked with so far tends to stare at pages of minute text muttering about triggers and joins, and I nod and kind of think I might understand a bit of what they are saying. I never really got over the computer programming course that I did at university. So long ago that we used a VAX mainframe computer (not a model of vacuum cleaner, although today's vacuum cleaners probably have the same IT capability as the mainframe computer had in 1986). Anyway I was mystified by DOLOOPS and other jargon stuff, it all started to get very mathematical and I decided to blank out anything technical from then on!
Still here I am working in IT. Just goes to show what can happen if you don't make any kind of conscious career choices.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Elinor has been off school poorly today. Jason stayed home to look after her and when I made a couple of calls to check progress during the day it seemed that all was well, and Elinor hadn't moved much beyond the telly.
Still appearances can be deceptive, on returning home Elinor still claims extreme poorliness but it is Jason who has retired to bed ill. Elinor has found the time to bath the dog, and I have sniffed him and he does smell very fragrant, and has clearly had both shampoo and conditioner.
Elinor has also exhaustively tested the bounce on the sofa bed during a home disco for her and her soft toys. She also escorted the dog on a walk round the block. Now George is pushing her around the house in her dolls' pushchair because she is too ill to walk!!! Good job her brother isn't more of a detective or he'd have spotted the fact that all the pink panther wafer biscuits went very quickly once Elinor openend them - another tell tell sign of a serious illness? (maybe not) Methinks she will return to school tomorrow.
Still appearances can be deceptive, on returning home Elinor still claims extreme poorliness but it is Jason who has retired to bed ill. Elinor has found the time to bath the dog, and I have sniffed him and he does smell very fragrant, and has clearly had both shampoo and conditioner.
Elinor has also exhaustively tested the bounce on the sofa bed during a home disco for her and her soft toys. She also escorted the dog on a walk round the block. Now George is pushing her around the house in her dolls' pushchair because she is too ill to walk!!! Good job her brother isn't more of a detective or he'd have spotted the fact that all the pink panther wafer biscuits went very quickly once Elinor openend them - another tell tell sign of a serious illness? (maybe not) Methinks she will return to school tomorrow.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Just spotted a typo on a previous post and just had to correct it!!!! And I wonder why I don't get anything done.
Meanwhile more gizmos are on order for the office. We are getting a Skype phone, as I'm too averse to paying line rental charges for a proper phone when we hardly call anyone at the moment. It has a speakerphone, so should be useful for telephone conferencing (ie Jason ringing me at home). I also noticed that webcams are now very cheap so there is one of them on the way as well. It means we can videoconference...and more importantly I can leave it looking at the office when I'm away and sneak a peek from home.
Jason is off to Henley for an SME Conference at the end of the month. I really must get on with the marketing info for that as we could do with generating a bit of business.
Meanwhile more gizmos are on order for the office. We are getting a Skype phone, as I'm too averse to paying line rental charges for a proper phone when we hardly call anyone at the moment. It has a speakerphone, so should be useful for telephone conferencing (ie Jason ringing me at home). I also noticed that webcams are now very cheap so there is one of them on the way as well. It means we can videoconference...and more importantly I can leave it looking at the office when I'm away and sneak a peek from home.
Jason is off to Henley for an SME Conference at the end of the month. I really must get on with the marketing info for that as we could do with generating a bit of business.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Success...wireless networking is officially a doddle. I think this shows the benefits of taking a break and not having access to the IT kit for a couple of days over the weekend. I actually had a chance to calmly check out the options for fixing the problem but couldn't get at the stuff to try it until I got back into the office this morning.
This has saved me loads of time because the solution I decided to try first worked!!! And I didn't get tempted to try all the other weird and wacky suggestions that other people had posted on troubleshooting forums, one of which was to completely reinstall XP! Pleeaasse.
Jason is looking at black screens with small type in a very technical kind of way. I'm just pleased I can connect to the internet without wires. Each to his/her own.
This has saved me loads of time because the solution I decided to try first worked!!! And I didn't get tempted to try all the other weird and wacky suggestions that other people had posted on troubleshooting forums, one of which was to completely reinstall XP! Pleeaasse.
Jason is looking at black screens with small type in a very technical kind of way. I'm just pleased I can connect to the internet without wires. Each to his/her own.
Friday, March 03, 2006
Ah the joys of wireless networking (being cynical again here). We're on our second set of wireless kit for the office - ordered the wrong bits first time so the slot wasn't the right type for the wireless card!! Unfortunately opened both packets so can't send them back.
The new cards are the right ones but will they install.......follow the instructions and get the mystical message 'Device cannot start (code 10) as with all Microsoft error messages this one is completely useless at actually explaining what the problem might be. So did the troubleshooting thing on the Netgear instructions....nothing. 1.5 hours later gave up and plugged in ethernet cable!!!
Turns out that there are a lot of irritated people with the same problem. As I found out once I got back onto the internet and did a bit of googling.
I will resume again on Monday by downloading the latest drivers, reinstalling then putting back the wireless card. All of which I will do with the router off so that it can't get its little wireless brain all confused. Grrrrrrrrrrrr
The new cards are the right ones but will they install.......follow the instructions and get the mystical message 'Device cannot start (code 10) as with all Microsoft error messages this one is completely useless at actually explaining what the problem might be. So did the troubleshooting thing on the Netgear instructions....nothing. 1.5 hours later gave up and plugged in ethernet cable!!!
Turns out that there are a lot of irritated people with the same problem. As I found out once I got back onto the internet and did a bit of googling.
I will resume again on Monday by downloading the latest drivers, reinstalling then putting back the wireless card. All of which I will do with the router off so that it can't get its little wireless brain all confused. Grrrrrrrrrrrr
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Just back from half term hols, kids are still very hyper after 4 days of non stop fun. They were the life and soul of the ceilidh dancing...pics still on camera...must download. The house is freezing thanks to my dad having an economy drive with our heating bill and switching it all off. I think he should try staying here overnight to see just how cold it gets. Ebay has managed to sell a few things for me while I was away so the next stop is parcel wrapping downstairs (even colder).
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Half term chaos and it is only Sunday, house has been invaded by sundry small children (not mine), husband is 'building' which is a euphamism for making another huge mess in the garden, which is then trodden round as mud all over the house by said children.
Today's game is playing police officers, I have written two notices advising the world at large, or those people who can read signs in a first floor window, that two 5 year olds are now active police officers.
Elinor is appalled at the noise, but not the mess. Wonder how long it will take for that to sink in. I've spent 3 hours tidying, a futile effort as the living room is now resembling a police station where the staff have gone crazy with the window paints!!!!!
Today's game is playing police officers, I have written two notices advising the world at large, or those people who can read signs in a first floor window, that two 5 year olds are now active police officers.
Elinor is appalled at the noise, but not the mess. Wonder how long it will take for that to sink in. I've spent 3 hours tidying, a futile effort as the living room is now resembling a police station where the staff have gone crazy with the window paints!!!!!
Friday, February 17, 2006
Kids are off to do their swimming badges and then we might just go to the cinema (Chicken Little in Durham) is it funny..who knows, maybe I'll just quickly read the reviews as I did notice that it is an 80 minute film and I might not be able to sit still for that long when there are so many other things to organise.
This office stuff is going to cause a massive reorganisation within the house as we'll actually get some space back and won't have half as much office equipment indoors. It is touch and go at the moment whether we live in a house or an office.
The best stuff is certainly office equipt as everything else is getting a bit shabby.
Elinor and George went to a party this evening, both looking very smart in new outfits courtesy of Tesco. George has worked out that nice clothes can help you look attractive, a good deduction for a 5 year old I think.
This office stuff is going to cause a massive reorganisation within the house as we'll actually get some space back and won't have half as much office equipment indoors. It is touch and go at the moment whether we live in a house or an office.
The best stuff is certainly office equipt as everything else is getting a bit shabby.
Elinor and George went to a party this evening, both looking very smart in new outfits courtesy of Tesco. George has worked out that nice clothes can help you look attractive, a good deduction for a 5 year old I think.
View from the office corridor
Well we got our office lease confimed today - moving in officially on the 27th Feb. That has sparked a frenzy of activity to organise insurance, VAT registration and general thinking overload. My laptop is so full of images of the office it is refusing to save anything longer than a couple of sentences to the hard disk! I went a bit mad with the camera phone just taking pics of where the business is going to be. Exciting times.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Busy day, kids are now in bed and it is time for a rest.
I'm thinking of setting up another blog to put comments on silly health and safety stories that appear in the press, something like RiskyClips ...
The dog is asleep on my foot, and the cats are all on the other chair so all is peace and tranquility here.
I'm thinking of setting up another blog to put comments on silly health and safety stories that appear in the press, something like RiskyClips ...
The dog is asleep on my foot, and the cats are all on the other chair so all is peace and tranquility here.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
After a massive gap in blogging I'm feeling inspired to have another go.
Lots of people seem to have lovely blogs with images and wonderful expressive entries. It all seems such a good way to leave a mark on the web!
Meantime back in the real world I guess it could also be just another way of procrastinating and avoiding doing something else :-)
I just wonder at how time flies by and I frequently can't remember what I did yesterday, let alone tell anyone about it.
For the record...yesterday I
Sat in front of the computer and switched between Ebay and Google quite a lot.
I read something called BDaily and decided I could do with getting some free consultancy to help out on brand imaging and then I went to get the kids from school.
After that it was off to Durham to see a potential tutor to help them with literacy and we got back at around 7.30pm...day gone! Well almost as I then spent some time looking for the Ladybird books that the tutor recommended, which involved more Ebay 'research' and a purchase from Amazon.
Today I've been double checking on the Ladybirds via Ebay and getting on with some project documentation. 3 hours to go until kid collection time!
Lots of people seem to have lovely blogs with images and wonderful expressive entries. It all seems such a good way to leave a mark on the web!
Meantime back in the real world I guess it could also be just another way of procrastinating and avoiding doing something else :-)
I just wonder at how time flies by and I frequently can't remember what I did yesterday, let alone tell anyone about it.
For the record...yesterday I
Sat in front of the computer and switched between Ebay and Google quite a lot.
I read something called BDaily and decided I could do with getting some free consultancy to help out on brand imaging and then I went to get the kids from school.
After that it was off to Durham to see a potential tutor to help them with literacy and we got back at around 7.30pm...day gone! Well almost as I then spent some time looking for the Ladybird books that the tutor recommended, which involved more Ebay 'research' and a purchase from Amazon.
Today I've been double checking on the Ladybirds via Ebay and getting on with some project documentation. 3 hours to go until kid collection time!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)