EASTER CHAOS

Heavy traffic looks set to worsen as Britain braces itself for a white Easter.

The country's main roads struggled to cope with the getaway rush, but motoring experts said the country was likely to see the worst Easter traffic ever.

The first among two million travellers have already headed off for a sun-soaked weekend abroad, but England's drivers and train passengers face the misery of rain, wind, sleet and snow.

Forecasters at Meteogroup, a division of the Press Association, said chances of Good Friday snow were about 90% in Scotland, 70% in northern England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and 40% in the southern England.

Meteorologist Tony Conlan said: "The snow is largely expected on higher ground, so driving conditions will mostly be affected by rain and sleet."

RAC travel advisers warned that traffic would be even busier, if drivers are also hindered by bad weather.

Spokesman Erik Nelson said: "Our latest reports say it has been incredibly busy on the roads.

"It will only get worse. Early indications show that all the motorways are seeing a huge increase in traffic.

"Because the school terms have not yet finished, everyone is trying to get away in the same four-day period."

The AA predicted 6.5 million cars would be on the road over the holiday period.

I'm so glad that I don't need to travel anywhere but it's terrible for those who do. My friend Bedelia is currently driving down to Devon. She has been on the road from 9.30 this morning and 5.5 hours later she still hasn't got there. I do feel for her.

Pumpkin seed bread

I'm getting to be quite bored now but the good thing is that I slept well again last night. In order to find something useful to do I decided to make myself a loaf of bread. I mean, I'm not the greatest bread eaters by far but I do occaisonally like a multi-grain seeded bread.

I got myself a small pack of multi-grain flour and thought that I shall add my own seeds to it. Tesco sold a little pack of mixed seeds but when I looked at the contents it appeared that it was made up mainly with sesame seeds and second mostly with sunflower seeds, there were only a very few pumpkin seeds in the pack.

Since the pumpkin seeds are my favorites I decided to buy just a pack of them. It made economical sense. I mixed the flour with the seeds and added water and that was all that was needed. The flour already had the yeast in it.

After various time spent, kneading and rising the dough, I eventually got it baked and wow. I cut myself two delicious slices whilst it was still hot, and spread a little real butter on them. Soked salmon on one and Spanish salami on the other and both topped with a sliced gherkin. Out of this world. In fact I'm going to go and get myself another slice whilst it's still warm.

Fantastic night!

I have had a lot of trouble at home recently so I haven't been able to sleep. It didn't seem to matter what I tried, I would still not go sleep until morning and even then only sleep a couple of hours.

Last night Sioned agreed that I could sleep at her house, so I picked her up from work at ten PM and then we had some beers and a couple of her mates came around later so we had a nice natter and more drink We all got nicely inebriated but what the heck, doesn't harm you now and then.

I don't know if it was the drink, or the fact that I was away from ll the hassle at home, but I had an absolutely fantastic sleep. I never heard Anna come home from her night shift nor did I hear Sioned get up this morning to let the dog out. I never woke up once until twenty past ten.

Now I feel really great as that heavy, lethargic feeling has gone and I feel more like myself again. Definitely a night to remember, for me, thanks to Sioned and Anna XX.

Time

Time is such a funny thing, isn't it? It is shared absolutely equally between every single person. We all have exactly the same 24 hours of it, so why is it that some people have time to cram a lot in and others get stressed by getting comparatively little done in the same time?

Since I have been off, I have been wondering how I actually have time to go work and still do everything that I need and want? At the moment it seems impossible. I have umpteen appointments with doctors, hospital, opticians, solicitors and the bank. All of these are during office hours and absolutely necessary.

So tell me, even if I wasn't already stressed, how would it have been possible to do all these things and go work as well? Lunchtime is usually the time that you can't get appointments because either everyone else wants them or the people simply have their lunch break.

Anyway, I'm ever so pleased that I have been busy as at this moment in time I actually want the time to go quicker. I have all these grand plans of what I'm going to do when I have my own place. It has been nice to have Helen bring me back to planet Earth at times. The other day I wanted to buy a set of table and chairs for have dinner parties on, but she stopped me in time and reminded me that I need a place to put them in before getting any furniture. Oooh, spoilsport!

One of of these days it will all happen and I will be sending out invitations to the Housewarming, but it is just going so frustratingly slow at the moment. Remind me to come back as a cat in my next life. XX

Nearly Spring and remembering past years

Sometimes it can be really nice that the time goes quick. At least when the weather is poor, it doesn't take long for it to clear again (we hope). The last few days has been very cold but with gorgeous sunshine and that reminded me that on the 21st of March it is officially spring. How nice is that?

This year has been a mixture of time going slow and going fast. The fact that this weekend we are halfway through March already seems like it has gone fast but on the other hand, when I'm waiting for my holiday, it seems like it's taking forever.

I sat here contemplating and wondered what I could change to make this year a memorable one for positive reasons. I mean last year was memorable for the terrible weather conditions we had here in the Midlands and also for my marriage breaking up. The only good thing that I'll remember 2007 for is the fact that I met Helen.

2006 was memorable for the heatwave and temperatures reaching 35C in some parts of the country, the World Cup and also due to us visiting Mexico for the first time in our lives. 2005 was memorable due to Sanna and Co coming to visit us at Christmas and for the holidays we had not to mention the fact that it was the year I started my current job, which I love.

2004 was one of those boring years when nothing particularly positive happened. I had several different jobs, each worse than the other and of course it was also the year that Ken Hall, my ex boss at Operon, died.

I think most people remember 2003 for the fact that We, Us, I'm talking about ENGLAND ofcourse, beat Australia in the Rugby World Cup and became World Champions. I wonder if the Aussies still remember that??? It was also the year that I bought my beloved "Hawkwind" (my car).

Anyway, going back to 2008. I have high hopes for a summer this year and who knows, maybe Tessa will come and visit when I have moved. Of course the move in itself means a new start, which in turn must be positive. Hopefully as time goes by there will be lots of good things to add to this list.