2007 Holidays

I had my new holiday form today, which got filled in almost straight away. We had already decided that we aren't going abroad this year, so 36 days holidays; that is a lot of camping! I have a booked a week off for Glastonbury because, even if we don't get tickets; we would go to the Eden Project instead http://www.eden-project.co.uk/.

We have planned a good, long camping week-end every month as well as another week in Blackpool, when the illuminations are on, end of August http://www.blackpooltourism.com/?OBH=742.

Despite of booking off an extra day for easter next March and 16 days for Christmas, I still have another 5 days left to use if Tessa is coming to stay, so that will be nice.

Chris has booked to go to the TT on the Isle of Man, in May, so he has used a lot of his holidays for that, but luckily he doesn't need to use his holidays to book weekends. When he is on nights; he gets Fridays off anyway and the same with all bank holidays.

Winter is here!!!!

What did I say? You never know what the weather will do. We had frost last night and little sleet yesterday. How ironic; we have had hardly no frost or snow all winter but now that it's time for spring; what happens.

All the daffodils are in full bloom so they will probably be suffering from this freak weather and I am thinking that it's only two weeks until we go camping. Could be fun....brrrr. Oh, never mind, just as well that we take the bbq and a fan heater.

Camping at Easter

We have finally set a date for our next camping trip, which is going to be on Thursday before Good Friday. We are going for 4 nights, so the weather had better stay good for us, or else...!Spring has been well on the way now, so It shouldn't be a problem, but you never know though; it is only beginning of April.

We are really looking forward to using the new gazebo we bought at Christmas, and we have also bought two proper beds instead of the tall king-size air bed that we had. That was a good bed but towards the end of last year, it sprung a leak and we couldn't find where it was so that it could be repaired.

Here is a photo taken from one of the 21 falls in we visited in yorkshire

EXAMS over, at last

Yesterday was the day of the exams and it was every bit as horrible as expected. I can only hope that I got through with the "half-point rule" because in the first one I run out of time and had to rush the answers for the last 3 questions (which was almost a thrird of the exam total).

In the second exam there was a question which I couldn't answer at all and the sub-questions for that one were probably wrong as well so that I can assume that I lost at least 4 marks on that question.

After speaking to the others; it sounded as they hadn't done much better either, so at least we are all in the same boat (so to say). I really, really hope that I got through because I'm not sure I can do this again and I would have to wait until December anyway. By then I will have forgotten what little I already know.

It will be at least 6 weeks before the results will come through, so I suppose I will let you know what happens. :-( At least now, I can put all my paperwork firmly out of the way, maybe the loft!!

EXAM DATES CONFIRMED

I think most of you already know that I have spent the last 12 months doing a college course on Community Care in Mental Health (CCMH for short).

For me it has been hard-going to say the least since it is an NVQ level 3 and I haven't done levels 1 or 2. If you remember, in January we were split into groups and had to do a 20 - 30 minute presentation, which we all dreaded. However, that went very well but now the worst part of the course is looming: the exams. They have been scheduled for the 14th of March and will in two separate sittings but both in the same day. 1 hour in the morning with an hour break and then another 1.5 hours later.

We are getting increasingly nervous even though we are meeting up regularly to revise. I shall be so glad to see the back of them. It will then take another 10 weeks before we have the results. The pressure is immense as we could potentially put our jobs on the line, should we fail. Not a nice thought!

Attention to all road users

If you drive a car, Read this. then ....send a copy to everyone...

Sarah Kennedy was on about this proposed car tax scheme on the radioapparently there is only one month left to register your objection to the'Pay as you go' road tax.The petition is on the 10 Downing St website but they didn't tell anybodyabout it. Therefore at the time of Sarah's comments only 250,000 people hadsigned it so far and 750,000 signatures are required to stop them introducing it.

This is legit... from the 10 Downing Street's website.Once you've given your details (you don't have to give your full address,just house number and postcode will do), they will send you an email with alink in it. Once you click on that link, you'll have signed the petition.Democracy in action?The government's proposal to introduce road pricing will mean you having topurchase a tracking device for your car and paying a monthly bill to use it.

The tracking device will cost about £200 and in a recent study by the BBC,the lowest monthly bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a deliverydriver. A non working mother who used the car to take the kids to schoolpaid £86 in one month.On top of this massive increase in tax, you will be tracked.

Somebody will know where you are at all times. They will also know how fast you have beengoing, so even if you accidentally creep over a speed limit in time you canprobably expect a Notice of Intended Prosecution with your monthly bill.If you care about our freedom and stopping the constant bashing of the cardriver, please sign the petition on No 10's new website (linkbelow) and pass this on to as many people as possible.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

My pet, (I was bored at work!)

Anyone got an idea for a name?

Glastonbury Festival

We have just pre-booked the tickets for this year's Glastonbury festival. I have never been before but Chris has been loads of times, when he was young. Tickets are outrageously expensive; we could go to spain for a fourtnight, rather than spending 4 nights in a tent, in rainy England, but I believe it's supposed to be worth it. That remains to be seen!

http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/

Presentation completed and exams to come!

Last Thursday, the day of the dreaded presentation finally arrived. My group was presenting next to last, which was late in the afternoon. This meant that we were watching everyone elses presentations and started to feel increasingly nervous.

We felt that we had done everything we could to answer the questions as accurately as we could and to cover all aspects, but after listening to everyone else, it appeared as they were mainly concentrating on the changes from "moving from an institutional home to independent living".

However, we did get an amazing response from "the audience", our tutor and the assessors. They all loved our case study and the way it was presented. It was Carol who created Summer and she presented her to the audience as herself. She was very good.

Afterwards there was a little presentation for our tutor, which caused her to be in tears. The head of Social Services was there and he was also in tears and one of the assesrs from the college got up and said that she goes to various presentations from all over the country, but these, last Thursday, were amongst the best she had ever seen, which ofcourse set Di off into tears again (and some of us).

All in all, it turned out to be a wonderful day, and it beats a day in the office anyway. Now I need to concentrate on the remaining two assignments and then it will soon be time for exams. Two exams of 1.5 hours each and they are both on the same day: 14th of March, only 6 weeks to go.

New grandson, Vidar

Here's a picture of my new grandson, born on Monday 22nd January 2007 at 7.40 PM. He weighed in at at nearly 10lbs and was 20" long. His name is Vidar [veedar] and in the piccie he is only 12 hours old.

Presentation, etc

Can you believe that it is past half-way through January already? I thought we were going to have some lighter evenings soon, but there are no signs of them yet. The weather, however, has been atrocious, which doesn't help. Gales and tropical rain every day and dead grey and miserable even when it hasn't rained. What happened to winter?

At work it has been very busy, as usual. Lisa applied for a support workers position and got it, so she will be leaving us soon. That is such a shame for us; we will miss her, but it is the job she always wanted, so we have to be pleased for her. We will enjoy the leaving party though, next Saturday.

My Mental Health course is nearing the end now and on Thursday we are having a group presentation. This has been booked in at a hotel, where we are going to have a carvery lunch and the head of social services is going to come and watch and also an assessor from the college. My group consist of Carol from maintenance, Laura from Partnership, Sue from the Club houses and me. We have done a case study on a 19-year old, white girl, who is suffering from depression.

It is first time for a very, very long time that Carol, Sue and myself have done a presentation as we are all over 40. However, Laura is only 22 so she is finding it a little easier and is helping us "oldies" a lot. We don't know what we would do if we didn't have her. We are absolutely dreading it and it doesn't help that someone in our class told us that last year 4 pupils failed the presentation. That will probably be us this year! The draw for the order which the groups are presenting has been done and my group will be hanging around waiting most of the day as we are presenting next to the last. I'll let you know how we went on.

Birthday, Christmas & New Year

Wow, haven't the last two weeks flown?

Since my last post we have had Works do, Chris' birthday, Christmas, stay at John and Ann's and a New Year. It wasn't as quiet as we thought it was going to be and, as usual, we didn't get done half of what we wanted to do. Never mind, we did enjoy the break though.

A few weeks ago, I bought a fish tank from the car boot sale. Chris had the lid and lights for his birthday and also a book about "Setting up an aquarium". After Christmas we went to a pet shop and bought the gravel, which took the two of us all evening to clean up and rinse through.

Last Friday we got the plants and 12 little baby goldfish and set it all up. We sat down and enjoyed the display as Rumpleteazer entertained us greatly with her curiosity. She was absolutely determined to get to the fish, one way or another. It took several days before she gave up, but it didn't half amuse us.

The works do at China Gardens was a great success; I had a fab time. Christmas Day was quiet but enjoyable. We had loads of present, some funny ones, some more serious ones, but they were all excellent, thanks to all our family and friends.

Boxing Day we went to John and Ann's and we had a wonderful time. Andy and Amy came as well as Mum and Margaret so we all played games until midnight. Chris and I had been invited to stop over, so there was no drinking and driving to worry about. Great Thanks!

Last Saturday we went to Lee and Pod's with Barb and Bill. Pod's mum, auntie Bet and John and Jimmy also came and another smashing time was had by all.

New Year's Eve we had planned to go on top of the hill again, as usual, but this year there were weather warnings and gales, so we gave it a miss and watched the celebrations in Sydney on TV. Sadly, most of the famous celebrations, such like Edinburgh and Glasgow, were cancelled due to the weather, but there were still some grand fireworks in London.

First Frost

I woke up this morning and found frost on the windscreen. It wasn't much and it wasn't at all noticable anywhere else, but we are getting there. This mornings wheather forecast was predicting that we might have a couple of degrees frost for Christmas as well, so that would be nice. So far there has been no sign of any snow and it's not likely to come this year :-(

It has been a long, slow week and it's still only Wednesday! Another two full days at work before Christmas. I am so ready for a break!!!

On Monday we had our Christmas meal at work and the "secret santa" came and gave me a beautiful knitted set of hat, gloves and a scarf. My secret santa was Dave and the person who I needed to buy for was Gary. I bought him a T-shirt with a caricature figure of a Port Vale fan peeing on a Stoke fan. He was over the moon with that; said he has a mate who is a Stoke fan, so he shall enjoy winding the mate up with it.

All week we have been listening to Christmas CDs at work. The athmosphere has been lovely and everyone are excited. The house is looking very festive, as usual, but there hasn't been much effort done at work. I have a bit of tinsel around my monitor but nobody else has done anything.

Joint Christmas Present

This year Chris and I decided to buy a joint Christmas present for each other. Last time we went camping, our gazebo got damaged by the wind. This was mainly due to the fact that it only was a cheap and flimsy thing in the first place; made of thin aluminium poles.

We have always wanted a proper steel gazebo, preferably a pop-up type but they are usually around £300. However, we did notice a while ago that they are being sold quite reasonably on eBay, so we thought that we could try to get one for less than Fifty (plus postage).

At last, this weekend we were lucky and managed to get one for £47.00 + £20 for postage. It arrived today, and it looks every bit as good as it seemed in the advert. It has 4 zipped sides, two plain green and two with windows. Judging by the weight it ought to be strong enough to withstand any normal windy night. Even the material seems stronger than our old one.

Here is a picture of Chris fine-tuning the old gazebo last summer. We always attach it to the tent to utilise the most of the space.

This is the picture of our new one as it was in the advert on eBay. We haven't put it up yet so we have no photos of our own yet.

Christmas Lights switch on

It's that time of the year again! Yesterday was the big switch on of the lights in Hanley. Santa's parade arrived, complete with Rudolph and the other reindeers. Signal Radio was there recording the event live and a quire was singing Christmas songs.

The best of it all, though, was the snow machine. It squirted out real snow in big flakes. It looked fabulous; glowing in the street-lamp lights against the dark sky, just as if it was snowing for real.

Tontine Square and all the surrounding area was absolutely packed with people. The atmosphere was wonderful, almost like a good football match.

At half past seven the Lord Mayer got on stage and switched all the town centre Christmas lights on and immediately we were all excited.

This was the start of the late night shopping and Debenhams had a sale on and were going to be open until midnight. We were all promised free parking after 6.30 every night until New Years Eve.

New Card - fingers crossed

Yes, I have finally managed to get all the relevant paperwork together to set up my new card. According to the logo on the Ryanair site, this card will be acceptable to them (hopefully!!!).

Just need to wait to get paid so that I can put some money in it and then I can get the tickets. It is really exciting, but I am still a bit concerned about it until I have actually tried it. Roll on payday.

Autumn Blues

It seems sad that I only seem to get around to write here when I’m off sick. Yes, I’m off again, with flu this time. Actually, I think I’m on the mend as I have had it since Sunday. However, this morning I did go to work but only after a few hours I was sent home again. Apparently, I wasn’t well enough but I’m hoping another few hours will make the difference tomorrow.

Last weekend we went off-road driving, which was great. Sadly, It was our last camping trip of the year but the site that we stayed at was fabulous. It had a narrow gauge steam railway station on one side of the site and a beautiful brook on the other. We definitely want to go back there some time in the future. At least we seem to have a bit more space now that the camping stuff has gone back up the loft.

This time of the year can be so depressing. The nights are starting to draw in and we are having to have the heating on in the mornings. I had to move the olive trees in to the corner and wrap some plastic around them, because the temperatures can drop below 10 degrees at night. I’m hoping to be able to leave them there for a couple of months yet as I still have tomatoes growing in the conservatory.

Only a couple of weeks until the clocks change and then it will be dark when driving back at night, not a nice thought. Still it could be an opportunity to catch up with some of those jobs that don’t get done in summer, such as the decorating. I noticed the other day that some of it is looking a bit tatty.

There has been no further development with the card problem. Ryanair have apologised for the inconvenience, but as yet they have done nothing to solve the problem. I suppose that they don't really know what the problem is themselves and unless a lot of people complain, they don't want to go to the trouble of finding out either.

Anyway, Chris is hoping to get another card, so maybe that will work with Ryanair. The trouble is that they are short-staffed at his works so he is working 12hour shifts. The extra money is useful but it doesn't leave him any time for anything else.

A few days ago we went to a car boot sale and I spotted a Mamas and Papas pushchair for sale at a very low price, so I got it. It needs cleaning but I’m sure it would be great for when Sanna comes because of the styling it can be used both for a baby or for a toddler, so if she comes in the next couple of years, it will be one thing less to bring. I’m sure with 3 kids the car will be full enough.

Here are some photos of both settings. I am hoping that Sanna knows how to fasten the shopping bag, because I don’t.

Pay Day

Never have i been waiting as long for pay day as i did this last month, but I think I might finally have recovered from the MOT fiasco, thank goodness. Now I can look forward to life returning back to normal again.

Even though the weather has been amazing, it is beginning to be noticable that we are coming up to that depressing time of the year again. It is already slightly darker in the house when I get home at night and it wont be long before the sun will have gone down by 5 and then before we know it, it's dark.

Never mind, on a brighter note we still have one more long camping weekend to look forward to at the end of the month. We have been invited by Landrover to take part in a half-day of off-road driving, so we decided to make a long weekend of it and go camping on Thursday to Sunday. It will more than likely to be the last time this year, so best to make the most of it.

Otherwise, life here has been quiet with nothing much to report. Chris is working overtime so he is working from 6 in the evening to 6 in the morning for 4 days in a row. My college work is getting there, slowly. I have done two assignments and working on the third. The cats are fine but still don't get on too well. The other night Teazer got her nose scratched but she didn't seem too bothered about it.

Can't think of anything else to write about. Good Night!

Debit Card problems

Ever since I promised Tessa to buy the tickets to come and visit in October, I have been trying to think of a way that I can buy them. Ryanair will only accept payment over the internet but they won't accept Paypal. As I don't have a debit card nor a credit card, I thought I'll open a new account where I could get one. For this I chose HSBC bank and filled in all the necessary forms, etc.

They soon sent me a letter saying they needed more information such as a "certified" copy of my current bank statement. After debating about what "certified" meant, I decided that it was an original paper statement sent to me from the bank which I then had their signature put on. Obviously, this was not going to happen (neither certified nor otherwise) as i have opted not to receive paper statements for many years ago. They are just a waste of paper and put an uneccessary strain on trees. I explained this to HSBC bank but to no prevail. They are not interested in having me as their customer. Ce la vie, in the long run it's their loss, not mine.

However, I still haven't solved the problem of buying the airline tickets and hope that the plane doesn't fill up enough for the prices to go up, by the time I have come up with a solution.

Stupid Japanese thrash!

My car is nearly 3 years old and therefore due its first MOT. I have known for a while that I need new tyres but since they were faulty I was hoping to convince Mitsubishi to give me something towards them but they wouldn't cooperate.

So, I decided to squeeze my purse and managed to scrape together enough money for two tyres and the MOT. I thought that I can always get the other two tyres in the next couple of months or so. It had completely got out of my mind that of course, the tax was also due at this time. So, not only did I need to fork out £150 for tyres and MOT but I had to also find another £80 for the tax. Then I had the shock of a lifetime. Never in a million years did I expect a car that had done 12,000 miles to fail the MOT, but it did. Brake pads, hand brake, CV joint, etc meant that now I had to immediately find yet another £150 to get it through the MOT.

The nature of my job, of course, means that if I don't have a car; I don't work. So the only thing I could do is to try to borrow the money of someone, quickly and luckily Chris' mum leant it to me. Consequently, ever since then and up to next payday, we have been living on beans and rice. It is extremely fortunate that I give a lift to a neighbour's lad who also works in Hanley. He gives me £5 per week for petrol, so i have been able to go to work.

So much for buying a new car so that I don't have these unexpected, huge garage bills!!!!