Vertigo

Gosh, I didn't realise just how long it has been since I updated my blog. Time just flies and before we know it another year will be gone.

I'm at home today because I'm suffering from vertigo. It's dead weird because I have never had it before. I recognise what it is from what other people have told me but it's horrible when everythime I move my head the room spins around and my vision gets blurred.

It's not too bad at this moment since I'm sitting down and updating a load neglegted stuff on the laptop. I still have an awful lot of name changes and yet another address change to do.

Alli and I got engaged last september and I have now officially moved in with her. Who knows, there might be another party on the cards soon.... I'll keep you posted.

House warming parties

Well I finally took the time to sit here and write again. A lot has happened since my last entry but the most memorable things are my two parties. The first one was for girls only and was a completely full house. I could not have fitted another person in. I felt terrible for Alli's friend, Ann, who uses a wheelchair and was stuck in the hall most of the evening. Much as I like my house, I do think the layout of the doorways are stupid at times.

As usual, I did far too much food but luckily there was plenty of salad stuff and healthy nibbles for the dieters. There were quite a few of them.

We had karaoke which went down very well. Alli, Vikki and Tracy all loved singing and were the best singers. Some of the others sang a few songs too and even i joined in to the group singing of "Like a virgin" when the mike wasn't around.

The party kept going until 5am and Ruth and Tracy were the last to leave.

The following week we had a lot more sedate party. Initially the idea was to have Alli's brother, Pete, playing the guitar. But he decided to pass on that but still came to the party. Lee and Pod also came and Will. Later on we had a visit from Ruth and Tracy again.

It was nice to be able to just have a chat with people, especially since some of them I hadn't seen for a while. We just laid on a basic buffet and some nibbles but people seemed happy with that.

Pete stayed the night and it was enjoyable to wake up and listen to him playing his guitar downstairs.

We are soon having another party but it will be a small one and I will tell you about that one another time.

Back to work

Well last monday, even though it was bank holiday, I decided to finally go back to work after being off for 5 weeks. The first few days were very hard-going. It didn't help that it was so uncomfortably hot all the time. I struggled myself and my heavy boots and rucksack up the steep bank from the car to the office. It is surprising how quickly you can become unfit. The first couple of days it was causing me pain in the chest. However, as the week went on it got a bit easier every day. I must be getting used to it already because on Friday I really enjoyed it. The weekend flew by, i think i blinked and missed it. I hope next week will be easier.

A new me?

Wow, it has been a long time since I wrote on here and a lot has happened in the last few weeks. The first thing is of course that I received my decree absolute on the first of July. A fantastic celebration was that, I gather, lol.

The next thing was that I moved in to my lovely house and spent days and days shopping and wearing out poor Wendy who was traipsing around with me everywhere. I have now more or less got it the way I want it so it was worth it though.

I decided that I need to make up for the last year of being cooped up in my bedroom so I want plenty of social life. Therefore I joined a ladies group who meet once a fortnight. I went to the first meeting and was told that there was going to be a barge trip (tomorrow) and a Stoke Pride. I promptly signed up for the barge trip and also volunteered myself to help out at the Pride, which is later today.

Sadly, even though the weather has been fantastic for weeks and weeks, it has now turned rather wet today. It is just about the last thing we needed. Anyway. I went to the second meeting and met the love of my life, Alli. She is absolutely wonderful, just the kinda person I have been looking for. We have been together exactly three weeks today but it feels like we've known each other for months. The best thing is; she loves me too.

I have been wondering what to do about my name. I have never been happy with my first names anyway and I couldn't see the point of being called after some bloke. I didn't want my maiden name since I never used it as a kid, so why now. The solution to the problem was to totally change my name to something similar but new.

Most people already know me as Lisa (or Lee for short) so it was obvious that I would shorten my original Sirkka-Liisa to just Lisa and my middle name used to be Paivikki so I just shortened that to Vikki. Then comes the question of the surname. Lockett is a type of jewellery so could i use some other jewellery instead? I couldn't think of anything suitable. I thought maybe ring but it didn't sound right so i thought of something to go with ring and that's how i came up with the name Gem. It's not very common and it could be a shortening of Gemini.

So there we have it. A new life, a new home, a new partner and a new name. Life couldn't get better than this, could it?

Housing Problems

Yesterday, I had a problem with my house. The estate agent rang to say that another bidder had gazzumped my offer and I have lost the house. I didn't realise that it was still allowed in England. Scotland and Wales have banned it but just typical isn't it that it happens to be legal here. I wasn't very happy with the estate agents so I have changed to another agent.

This time I'm using Potters Properties in Shelton. It's a lot smaller agent and they promise not to allow further offers when a house is sold. I have found a nice house in Oakhill which suits me great. It's up for sale at the same price and the owners accepted my offer. Better still, because it's empty, they will let me move in on wednesday, so i don't need to change any dates.

The house is in a cul-de-sac with just forty houses. It's a semi with a drive. Two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and kitchen and lounge downstairs. It also has a lean-to which can be used as a store room or laundry.

I can't believe I found another nice house so quickly. The area is nice and close for work and shops and close to both the A500 and A34. What more could I want? oh, yes, the keys of course. I can pick them up on Wednesday too.

Spider in the bath

Last time I saw my Counsellor, I asked her if she could help me with my Arachnophobia as it's so difficult to live with. She said that all the symptoms that I get when I see a spider or indeed even the word gives me the creep.

Apparently, it's nothing to do with spiders. It's the anxiety that I allow myself to get when I see one that is causing me the problems. The hyperventilation, the dizziness, the nausea, the feeling as if I got things crawling all over me, etc.

The first thing I need to do, she said, was to learn to say the word as I always try to avoid it. She had me saying it repeatedly, again and again until it no longer bothered me. I can no say "spider" and it means nothing. Over the years I had allowed the vision of a wolf spider to connect with the word which made it impossible to hear or say the word without seeing it.

Gill taught me to break that connection. I was allowed to connect it with something else so I chose to use the vision of a plastic, multi-coloured Fisherprice toy called Webster. Therefore I no longer have a problem saying it.

She also told me that as from now I am not to run out of the house screaming, when i see a spider. I should calmly just leave the room and shut the door and get someone to remove it for me. When I see a spider, I must think of Gill sitting in the room telling me to keep calm and leave the room.

I got to put this to test yesterday. I went to have a bath/shower and got in without realising that there was a fairly biggish but short legged spider in there. How in earth I managed to calmly just get out of the bath without screaming is beyond me. I never uttered a sound let alone screamed. I even managed to calmly wrap myself in a towel before going downstairs to get my friend to remove it for me.

She was amazed how calm I was and I said I was quite proud of myself. What amazing start. I can't wait to tell Gill about it.

Moving Home

I have finally managed to move out after a lengthy and difficult divorce battle that started almost a year ago. Last Thursday we went to court again but this time it did turn out to be the last time, thank God.

Five hours it took for our barristers to run backward and forward with various ideas before we eventually managed to settle out of court. In the end we settled on exactly the same as my solicitor suggested to Chris' solicitor in December. For some reason he had got it in his head that he would get away with paying a lot less. Well the Solicitor's bills at 10K each was just totally wasted and all the hassle we have had the last seven months. There is no logic to mens minds, is there?

Anyway, I moved out on Sunday. At the moment I'm only staying with friends but I have found the house I want and it's lovely. I haven't been given an exact moving in date yet but it will be some time mid next week. I had hoped it would have been saturday as I have arranged for my new furniture to be delivered then. I suppose I'll just have to postpone them.

My lovely house is the end of a row of 4 townhouses, so i suppose you could call it a semi. It's a corner plot and has a good long drive to it. A big kitchen with a seperate laundry room and a downstairs loo. The lounge covers the entire front of the house and is big enough to have a dining table in as well as the three piece.

The front bedroom is virtually the same size as the lounge. What a luxury to me having to have lived in such cramped conditions for 13 years. Wow, I'm going to get lost in all that space. There is also a good sized bathroom and the second bedroom is not a bad size either.

I just can't wait to get hold of the keys now. In fact I have already brought some plants around and I'm going to spend some time tidying up the gardens, which means that when I get the keys I can just concentrate on the indoors. I still need furniture for the second bedroom.

Splint free, at last.

Further to my previous blog I can now report that I went to the hand clinic Yesterday and the doctor told me that, although my finger is still very weak, he would take the splint off.

He said I must be very careful with what I do with it and mustn't lift or knock it. He had every intention to sign me off work for three weeks when I explained that I am able to find other work to do than Property Services.

At the moment I have been covering for Lynnette who is in France and normally does the job that I used to do. The funny thing is that I don't find it stressful at all. I don't know if that is because I feel better or because a lot of the stress has been taken off the job.

Lynnette has been given a newer computer that is capable of coping with the job better than the "museum piece" that I was using. She has also been given her own phone line so that whenever she needs to make a call there is a phone available for it.

The new offices have surprised me. I didn't have much faith in them but they are actually quite a lot nicer than I initially envisaged. Yes we have emptied both the stores and the shed in here and we are also having archives but surprisingly it appears to be more spacious than I realised, because it's not cram pt.

Tomorrow I'm going to hospital for a minor operation. I'm having some cysts removed from my womb which should, in theory, be a one day thing and not cause any complications. However with my past history it is probably more likely that I may have to remain overnight due to not being able to keep the blood pressure up and I'm also very prone to hemorrhaging afterwards. Well it remains to be seen what happens.

I will let you know when I next get the time. Fingers cross!

May 2008

Phew, what a busy month it has been, I didn't realise just how much time had gone since my last blog. It has been non-stop action since then.

When I returned from my holiday in Wales I went back to working in Property Services. It was fantastic to be back doing that again. No phones, no slow computers, no hassle. I was still on the phased back to work programme so that first week I did three haldays and two full days.

The weather was absolutely glorious all week and it got hotter buy each day. On friday I finished at one so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to have a bbq. Ours is a gas bbq which we both bought between us last year but it was still in the shed over winter.

I asked Chris for the keys to the shed and he refused point blank. It was barely after midday and already he was as drunk as a skunk and as argumentative as ever. There is no point in getting into an argument about it so I got some tools out of the garage and began removing the lock off the shed.

He snatched them off me so I tried to get back in the garage to get some more tools but he was blocking the way. He grabbed me in a headlock and threw me to the block paving. Consequently, I broke a finger, grazed my elbow, bruised my arm and got a egg on my head where it smashed against the floor.

I called Helen, who told me to ring the police, which I did and whilst I was waiting for them I rang the solicitor too. She told me to take photos of the injuries and then Helen and the police came. Chris was promptly arrested and we went to the a&e. My middle finger on the left hand was x-rayed and confirmed to have a spiral facture between the first and the second knuckle.

Apparently, they don't put fingers in plaster so they put this weird looking splint and bandage on it and gave me another appointment to come back in three weeks.

Of course, I could not then work in property services anymore so HR put me on reception. That was quite an experience but a nice change from the norm. It was also nice to wear some decent clothes as well for a change. Second week I worked two half days and three full days and then I was on leave again.

This time we went to Dorset. Helen hired a wonderful cottage in the countryside on top of a hill overlooking a valley. The views were out of this world. A really nice, relaxing week we had. It was so nice to be away from all the hassle at home and the moving of office at work.

Here are some photos...

Holyhead

We have just spent an absoulutely fantastic weekend in Holyhead, which is in Wales. we arrived here on saturday lunch-time and the weather has been great. It rained a bit both nights but i don't mind that as long as it's nice and sunny in the daytime.

On saturday evening we had dinner at the pub next door to our bed and breakfast. It was so hilariously funny, because I specifically ordered the lasagne with salad as suppose to the broccoly and cauliflower bake, which came with chips. However, when the dish was brought out it turned out that half the plate was full of pale, partly-cooked, soggy chips with a dish of lasagne and a tiny salad garnish.

I told the young waitress that I wanted salad instead of chips and she said in broad welsh accent "there is salad there" pointing at my garnish. I showed her the menu and said that the meal was supposed to be with salad only and no chips. She informed me that because it says "crispy" salad it means that it comes with chips. Wow, it really is true that you learn something new everyday!!! I must admit the lasagne itself was home-made and absoulutely gorgeous.

Yesterday, was a really nice day. We went on the beach and had a wonderful icecream whilst watching people launching their boats, some brave kids swimming, and people having picnics. We went for a nice walk on the sand and a paddle in the crystal clear water. The sea was actually not as cold as I expected but I wouldn't have wanted to swim in it though.

After that we went to visit Helen's stepmum. She was a lovely lady which I instantly liked even though I had never met her before. Very bubbly and talkative she was and I felt ashamed that the sea air made me so tired that I was nodding off whilst sitting there.



Last night we went to Anglesey, to a really nice pub restaurant. I had the most fabulous seafood salad I have ever had in my life. It was so nice that I had to take a photo of it. It consisted of: prawns, smoked salmon,crayfish, king prawn, olives, lemon wedges, orange slices and loads of salad stuffs. In the centre the was a pot of seafood sauce and there was also tartare sauce available. I felt like I was in heaven eating all that and didn't know where to start.





Today is the last day here and we are moving on to our static carvan holiday in Aberystwyth for a few days. It's 8am and sadly it's raining but we are hoping it will brighten up later.

Phased Back to Work Programme

Today was my first day back to work after my doctor gave me a clean bill of health yesterday. However, she did warn me that I might go to work for a couple of weeks and then end up being off again.

I went in this morning, a bit late because I forgot about the parking situation and didn't allow walking time from the car to work. Straight away I got thrown into a Health and Safety meeting, which was pleasant enough apart from the fact that I (me??) forgot to switch my mobiles on to silent and my personal one went off in the middle of the meeting. I couldn't believe it; that is something I usually sneer at other people for.

After the meeting I was asked to see HR regarding my back to work programme, so I went to see the HR manager. She informed me that I would be best coming back to work on a phased programme. IE I would work half a day today, off tomorrow, half a day on Friday, then work 5 half days next week and then I'm on annual leave anyway. That is when I'm going to Aberystwyth on the static caravan holiday. When I return, I will work 3 half days and 2 full days first week and 3 full days and 2 half days the second week.

On 19th of May I will return back full time. I guess this will avoid me getting stressed again as I found myself get wound up already about the slowness of the PC after just using it for a few minutes.

In the meantime I need to ring the HSA to arrange for counselling as it will be provided free and might well help speed my recovery. Personally. I think what I need is a place of my own but it just is going to have to wait.

Changes at work

Yesterday, I was called in to work to see a lady from OHT (Occupational Health Therapy) which went very well. She realised that under the circumstances it was not at all surprising that I was stressed and unable to work.

I must admit that I do miss work a lot but it would be silly to go back just because of that and end up getting ill again. However, whilst I was there anyway, I thought I might as well call in and see my manager to talk about the current situation and the proposed changes that are happening to our department.

She told me that the job that I had unofficially been doing the last 18 months had now been made into a position, which I was welcome to apply for. If for some reason, I didn't get it, I would automatically fall back on becoming a development assistant again, which is the job I wanted to do in the first place.

My dilemma now is that do I really want to go back to working under the same stressful conditions as I did before? We are moving offices soon but there would be no particular benefit to me from it as I would still be expected to share the phone line and the office exactly the same. That means that I have all the noise and distractions as I did before and if I need to make a phone call and someone else is using the phone I would have to wait. That in turn means that my phone call will most likely be forgotten.

On the other hand, working as a development assistant does no longer have the same appeal as it did before. I used to love having a property to myself and do everything that needed to be done with out any interfering. Now I would be sharing all the work with other people who do not have the same work ethic or the same views, which can cause personality clashes and apathy.

For the time being I have decided not to do anything. I will wait for the job description to come out for the SDM job and then decide which action to take. There is no need to make any rash decisions at this stage.

I shall keep you posted on my decision.

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.

What is wrong with the formatting???

Does anyone know why my formatting goes wrong when I press "publish post"? When I look at it in preview, it looks fine but when I look at it after publishing, the spacing goes all over the place. Even if I go back to edit and preview it still looks fine. It is immensly annoying and I want to find out what is going on. Do you have any ideas; please let me know. Thanks.

Skinhead

Haha, I did something rather stupid yesterday. I had been thinking for a while to have my hair cut but I'm fed up with pay extortionate prices for hair dressers when the wont cut my hair the way I want it. They always leave it too long and there is some excuse about it sticking up etc as to why they can't. What's wrong with sticking up anyway? I spend ages trying to make it stick up but as soon as it's dry it flops down again.

So, eventually, I got the idea to cut it myself, using the clippers that I use on Chris. Our biggest guard thing is size 4 so I thought that should be okay for the top and then I would have to use size 2 for the back and sides as size 3 is broken.

I was a little nervous when I started but thought, what the heck, whatever happens it will grow back. I started with the size 2 and shaved all the sides and what I could reach of the back. It wasn't looking too bad at all at this stage since I hadn't touched the top at all.

Then I changed the guards and finished off the top. Oooooops! It was a lot (and I mean a lot) shorter than I anticipated. Oh my God, I think I shall have to wear a hat, was the only thought I could get through.

Chris came back and I hid behind my bedroom door and asked if I could borrow his baseball cap. "Why" did he reply. I said "I just want to borrow it, isn't that okay?" He must have been thinking that something was odd at this stage. "Why do you want to borrow it, what have you done?" he said and barged the door open.

His face looked hilarious. I wish I could describe the initial shock and the later amusement that he displayed. Quite clearly, he just couldn't believe his eyes. Then it turned out that I had missed a lot at the back which were sticking out as a hen's backside. He couldn't stop laughing for ages. Eventually, he offered to tidy it up for me.

I put on a winter hat and felt rather foolish going in to Longton to get myself a baseball cap, wearing it when there was no snow or frost about. I managed to get a brand new, genuine Puma hat for 50p, with the authentication label still intact. What a bargain.

Later on I met Helen and she immediately wanted to know why I was wearing a hat. However, when I said my head felt cold, she seemed to accept it okay. However, later on in the evening she suddenly snatched the hat of my head. She was pleasantly surprised and shouted "Oh, I like it, it suits you" I could tell that she really meant it. She said "You don't need to hide it from me, I think it looks great".

By now, I'm actually getting used to it, and I am feeling quite pleased that I was brave enough to try it. So if anyone else has thought of doing something like this. I would say go for it. You might surprise yourself.

Stressed!

I went to the doctors yesterday regarding my memeory. It has always been rather poor but recently it has become terrible. I have even been making mistakes at work through not remembering things.

Anyway, I eventually got seen by my favorite doctor. I asked her if I could have a test for Alchimers (no idea how to spell it) or something like that. She asked me about my circumstances at home and at work and said that she thought it was most unlikely to be anything serious.

Apparently I am stressed. It doesn't really surprise me at all, as I have been thinking that myself at times. She gave me some tablets, which I haven't even looked at yet, and told me to stay off work for a couple of weeks.

Since I also happened to have an old problem with my wrist as well, she put that on the sick note. She thought it was better than admitting stress. I really don't think my boss would have minded as she already knows about the situation at home.

The rest of yesterday, I stayed in bed all day even though I didn't get much sleep. At least I was keeping my wrist warm and relaxed. Maybe it will get better soon.

Today I will put another heat wrap on my wrist and walk in to Longton. I'm sure the exercise and fresh air won't do me any harm and I have been meaning to make an appointment with optician for a while. This is a perfect opportunity to do it.

I own a bank!

Wow, I heard it on the news today. Yes, I own a bank and so do you if you are an UK tax payer. This is what the news said:

Chancellor Alistair Darling will put forward emergency legislation in Parliament to nationalise Northern Rock, with a Commons statement due later.

Mr Darling defended the decision to nationalise Northern Rock, saying the move offered the best value for taxpayers' money.

There was mixed reaction to the Government's announcement that Northern Rock is to be nationalised.

The decision was welcomed by John McFall, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, who said the Government had "explored every avenue".

"At the end of the day the biggest issue is the safeguarding of taxpayers' money. If nationalisation saves that money, that has to be the correct step in the long term," he said.

Nationalisation is "not the right answer" for Northern Rock, Sir Richard Branson said.

The head of the failed bid by Virgin for the beleaguered bank said the group had tried its best to save "Northern Rock and the jobs of the staff".

In a statement, Sir Richard said: "We have tried our best to save the Northern Rock and the jobs of the staff.

"We put all the resources of Virgin's senior management team on this for five months and we believe had a very strong proposal, an experienced team and one of Britain's best brands.

"We believe nationalisation is not the right answer and that a commercial solution would have been the best way forward."We wish the Rock and its staff the best of luck with the future," he added.

Until Sunday, Virgin Group was widely seen as the front-runner in the battle to secure troubled Northern Rock.

"Now the taxpayer will bear the full risk of lending £100 billion of mortgages in an uncertain housing market".

Oh, well, we'll have to see what happens

Looked at a couple of houses

Last week I looked at some websites showing rented accommodation and signed up with some Estate Agents for newsletters. I got one a few days ago which showed a few places that looked reasonable on paper.

Yesterday we decided to go and have a look at some of them (only from the outside) to determine what I could have for my money. I was horrified when I saw the first one; a terraced house in Shelton. It wasn't the cheapest property as it was approximately £400 per month, but it was hideous. I felt really defleted. There was absolutely nowhere to park and the whole street looked a complete dump.

We then proceeded to another terraced house in Hanley. The house looked okay and although there was still no driveway; it did seem to have plenty of room for parking in the street. I thought it might be walking distance from work but it wasn't really close enough.

I decided to forget that one and move on to the cheapest property on the list; a three bedroomed semi in Abbey Hulton. In the eigties Abbey used to have a reputation for being a bad area but over the years a lot of the council houses have been bought by the tenants and the area has improved enough for me to want to have a look.

The first house in Abbey Hulton was £350 per month and seemed great from the outside. I could see that it had a consevatory built on and the front garden looked quite neat and so did the windows. It captured my interest enough to ring the Estate Agents and make an appointment to view it.

The appointment was at one o'clock today. We got there first and shortly after the agent turned up along with a load of other prospects. To my disappointment the place was hideous on the inside. It was mingingly dirty and the floors had badly fitted and badly marked laminates which I hate. The bathroom had no shower and was shockingly pink. The kitchen had a really weird layout and extremely plain and dreadful. I thoroughly hated the place and could never see myself living there.

Lucky for us, the guy had made an appointment to go and look at the other house in the Abbey. I rejected that one yesterday because I thought that I would be paying nearly hundred pounds a month more for just a driveway.

We tagged along and had a look at that one and wow....what a difference. The bedrooms were a bit smaller but otherwise that place was fantastic. There was a greenhouse as well as a shed. The bathroom was upstairs and had a champagne coloured suite with a shower. The kitchen was large and modern with plenty of space for a dishwasher, washing machine and tumbledryer. The cupboard doors were made to look like hardwood. The sink was a proper 1 + 1/2 bowl kitchen sink located in front of the window overlooking the garden. There was even a huge larder.

It's really sad that I'm not really in a position to be able to take it up yet but at least it gave me a good idea of what is available and what it will cost. I was already feeling sad that it's time to go home tomorrow but now I feel slightly worse.

Washer has gone to heaven

Ever since we first went to Sioned and Anna's, we have had problems with their washer. It kept tripping the electrics and on Tuesday it packed up altogether. Yesterday, I got a chap to come and look at it and his verdict was that it needs to go to the washing machine heaven. There was no point in spending any more money on it. At least the guy managed to open the door and get the washing out for us.

I texted the sad news to Sioned and asked if we could do anything. After two weeks away, they are going to come back with a huge pile of washing. We thought that maybe they would like us to get a replacement, asap. However, the reply came back to say that they had not made their mind up what to do with it. I guess they will want to do it themselves.

We have been keeping the cats in for the rest of the week since it was getting so late before they would come back. Poor Jake was going mad trying to get to his girlfriend. He was jumping on the kitchen windowsill and knocking all the bottles off and crying by the back door. His girlfriend has been sitting outside the kitchen window every day. Aaaaw, Bless!

This morning we decided to let them out again as they were getting more and more restless. It doesn't bother Teazer at all as she loves being inside but the others just don't seem to like it.

I have really been spoilt now as the last couple of days I have been getting home made lunch as well as tea and today I have been schauffeur driven as well. No race to get out of the compound (the last person out has to shut and lock the gate) and no being stuck in traffic. How fantastic is that? I really shan't want to go home.

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Jake has a girlfriend!

On Monday morning, when I got up to make coffee and breakfast, I let Dizzy and Jake out again, as I normally do. They both stayed out all day. However, on Monday night I knew it would be difficult to get them in because it was raining quite heavily.

I fed Teazer at her normal time around 6pm in the hopes that it would entice the other two to come in but it made no difference. There was no sight or sound from either of them. Must have found a good shelter somewhere, I thought.

It was not until a couple of hours later that I managed to get Dizzy in. She finally braved the rain and scurried in to the food bowl. After feeding she just calmly laid down on her sofa for a sleep with no care in the world. At that stage there were still no sign of Jake and we started to get quite worried about him.

It was very difficult to relax as during every commersial break on the telly one of us was up looking for him. Eventually, it was nearly midnight before he decided to show up. By then we had decided that we weren't letting them out again as it wasn't worth the hassle.

Yesterday, all the cats stayed in without any problems really. Teazer has taken a liking to their cat box (as supposed to her own) and spent most of the day sleeping in there. The other two slept on the sofa. Doesn't look that I'm ny closer at getting the photo yet.

Helen told me that, earlier in the day, there was a black and white cat sitting on the kitchen window sill. She looked as if she was waiting for the door to be opened. We believe that she must have been Jake's reason to stay out so late. His girlfriend!

Last night was a lot easier without having to keep getting up looking for cats. There was a nice tea ready for me again. This time it was stuffed peppers which we had with real mash, veggies and gravy and it was very yummy. On Monday night we had Biriani made with Turkey, King prawns and vegetables.

Quiet Weekend

Did we have snow on Friday? Hah, of course not. However, I was quite pleased that we didn't as it meant that I didn't have to drive in it. I was spoiled rotten on Friday night. First a nice cup of coffee and then a wonderful tea of spag bol was ready for me when I got home. The cats were already in and waiting to be fed and I didn't have to a thing. What a nice change. We had a peaceful evening watching telly with a couple of glasses of wine.

On saturday morning there was a thin sprinkling of snow on the cars and payments but not thick enough to cover the grass. Dizzy and Jake went out as normal but Teazer of course had to stay in which suited her fine. She hates going out anyway. We also stayed in all day as we didn't have any reason to go out. The TV was rubbish so we just finished the wine and did some reading.

Sunday was very uneventful apart from the fact that we kept trying to do some washing but the washer kept tripping the electrics. Sioned did warn me about this so we were aware that it might happen. It wasn't so bad in the daytime but after it got dark it was a right pain. We went to Tesco earlier and bought a take-away curry which only needed heating up in the gas oven but it was still a right nuisance when the electrics tripped. I was cutting up a salad and suddenly it would go pitch black and even the telly went off. How in earth do they put up with that? We decided not to do anymore washing at night.

Last night I was getting worried because I was struggling to get the cats in. Eventually Helen managed to get Dizzy in about half past eight but Jake didn't come in until bed time. This morning he was the first one wanting to go out as well. I wonder if he has found a second home or Helen suggested that he might have a girlfriend.

Even though I had a wonderful sleep last night, I still felt very tired this morning. I let my phone snooze a couple of times before putting the telly on for GMTV. I still fell asleep again which scared me a bit as I could have easily overslept.

I was late leaving the house and couldn't believe it when I saw the car was frozen all over. I got the de-icer out but realised pretty soon that it wouldn't work, so I had no choice but to go back in and get the kettle. There was a massive que waiting to turn right on to the main road but luckily most drivers were in a good mood and let us out quite quickly. I was still one of the first at work so the frost must have caught everyone else out as well.

Two Weeks of Cat/House Sitting, Yeah!

Yesterday morning I got a text to tell me that Sioned and Anna were at the airport, ready to fly off to sunny Egypt. They informed me that they had forgotten to put the alarm on to which I promptly replied to say, it didn't matter as I was dropping Teazer and my stuff off before going to work. Therefore I can put the alarm on myself.

Jake and Dizzy greeted me at the door and Teazer seemed at home straight away. It seems that I did the right thing bringing her to be introduced earlier. By the end of the fourtnight I'm hoping to get all three cats together on the sofa for a photo.

At lunch time I did the shopping online and had it delivered to us later today. I still had to go and get a few essentials for last nights tea. Couldn't make my mind up for ages, at first, but eventually I settled for Chunky oven chips and breaded cod steaks with mushy peas, mixed beans and carrots.

When I got back, the cats all ate their tea peacefully in their respective order. There was only a little hissing but nothing to worry about. The possibility of a photo is looking more promising. We had a very peaceful eveing ourselves; had our tea, watched Emmerdale and an early night.

The weather forecast for today is saying that we may be getting snow this afternoon, so watch this space.... There is no sign for it at the moment though as the sky is blue and the sun is shining. What a wonderful day in every way!

Warmest January since records began

Wow, this morning I heard on the news that the average weather in January should be between 5 and 9 degrees. However, this month we have been experiencing temperatures up to 14 degrees and apparently, overall that is the warmest January since records began (whenever that was?).

It appears that last year's freak weather conditions are continuing. The daffodils are coming up in the garden and the grass and weeds have continued to grow all winter. We had a few frosty nights just before Christmas but nothing since.

I suppose we should be saddened by all this as it just proves that the Global Warming scares are very real. There are an awful lot of people in Britain that have already felt the bad effects of the warming of the ice caps. Large parts of the Midlands has just had their houses flooded for the third time in 8 months.

Much as I do love the winter conditions around Christmas time, I am secretly pleased that we haven't had any snow and all the obligatory chaos it brings. It isn't really worth the hassle on the roads for just a couple of inches which melt away after a few hours anyway. There are some advantages to the British weather after all.

Rumpleteazer's trip

This weekend we were cat sitting again. We are soon doing it for a whole fourtnight so Stan and Anna have said that I can bring my cat Rumpleteazer with me. I decided to bring her this weekend, just for the one night, so that she can meet the cats and get the feel of the place. Teazer is a seasoned traveller as she always used to come camping with me.


I think she could smell the dog because at first she spent several hours skulking behind the TV but eventually she ventured out to inspect the place. Stan's cats were not very friendly towards her but that was only to be expected. She was intruding on their space. Jake did a lot of growling and Dizzy just hissed at her but at least there was no dog.


By tea time they sorted out in which order they were eating and surprise, surprise it was Jake first, then Dizzy and Teazer got what was left over. Dizzy went to sleep in the kitchen whilst Jake and Teazer curled up on the sofas (one each, not together).


When I came down in the morning, I discovered that Teazer had been desperate for the toilet in the night but unable to recognise where it was despite of me showing her. She may have just forgotten or got disorientated, but yes there was a massive puddle on the floor, poor thing.


The rest of the day went well. I shoved her into the catlitter a couple of times and there were no more accidents. The cats seemed to tolerate each other even though they weren't exactly friends. We'll just have to see what happens when she stays for a fourtnight.

Sun Holidays

Last week the Sun news paper ran tokens for the £9.50 pp holidays every day. We had to collect 7 different tokens and then pick five different resorts and five different dates for a Monday to Friday break. Even though it's £9.50 per person, the minimum payment is for groups of four.

Helen has never been to the Lakes so we thought that would be our obvious choice to go. There were no resorts exactly in the Lake District but we found three that were quite near and then picked two others in North Wales.

We decided to choose two dates in April, one in May and two in September. We are hoping that because these dates are in relatively low season, we would have better chance in getting something. Apparently most people choose May and June (I wonder why?????!)

It has been a while since I've been on one of these holidays, as they are always demanding payment with a cheque. I don't deal with cheques and I don't believe it is safe to send any kind of payment via Royal Mail these days. In fact I would rather avoid sending anything with them. On this occaison I was talked into giving them the benefit of doubt.

However, It would be really nice to go away for nearly a week for just £38. Lets face it, it would be nice to just go away, full stop. Fingers crossed now that we manage to get something. I'll keep you posted.

Swimming

Last night Helen and I decided to go swimming. It sounded like a great idea even though neither of us have been swimming for years. It shocked me how expensive it was; £6.40 between us. We thought it was around £2 each. Maybe it shows how long it has been since we last went :-)

It didn't look very reassuring to arrive at the pool, only to find the car park almost full. We eventually found a space and trotted in. Changing didn't take long as we both had already got our cozies on. Helen used the freezing cold showers by the entrance to the pool but I had to que up for the only two proper showers which were both occupied by three kids, who were in no hurry whatsoever, before I could get in the pool.

The pool water seemed relatively pleasant after standing around waiting for the showers. It was just the right temperature for swimming in but perhaps a little cool for standing about in. I did a few brisk lengths and realised that I was not as fit as I would have liked to be as I was not able to swim the way I used to do.

We spent an hour partly swimming and partly floating about and talking. Eventually I had done more swimming than I could take so I was absolutely knackered. Then we were all asked to come out for a little while because they were doing a "change over" whatever that meant.

We didn't stop around to see what was going on as we were frozen so the warm showers were far more appealling especially as they were vacant. We grabbed them whilst we could and decided to leave. A cup of hot chocolate at McDonalds seemed very inviting especially as it was only around the corner from the baths.

To our disappointment the chocolate machine was broken so we had to make do with a cup of coffee and tea. It amused me that we had been in the pool and used up X amount of calories but as soon as we got out we were eating a large box of fries. Still, it could have been worse. We could have just eaten the fries and not bothered with the swimming.

All in all, it still turned out to be a very pleasant evening.

What a funny week

Yes, I went back to work on Wednesday, which ofcourse felt like a Monday. It's now Friday but to me it feels like a Wednedsay. Does anyone actually follow this?

Anyway, The last few days I had to try to cram in over a week's worth of tasks in order to catch up from the holidays. If I had even a half decent pc at work it would have probably been possible.

However, according to the IT company, my PC belongs in a museum and it is toatally inadequate to be used on the network. As I am spending majority time just waiting for the pc to stop doing whatever it's doing, I have not been able to complete those.

Yesterday we were promised a small amount of snow which would have been our first for the season. There were very mixed feelings about it but as it was it never actually happened. It went down to minus 1 degree but then it warmed up again without any snow showing.

This weekend it's time to take down the decorations for another year and in my case; I'm hoping it's the last time that I see them in this house. Hopefully I will be in my new house before too long. Keep you posted!

Happy New Year!

I spent a quiet New Year's Eve, in Longton (of all places), with Helen and we had a wonderful time. We watched an absolutely brilliant Take That concert live and had a nice Chinese meal and a couple of bottles of wine to go with it.

New Years Day was a relaxing day as I spent most of the day working on the laptop. I had a webcam for Christmas so I tried to set it up but I couldn't get it to work, so in the end I uninstalled it and re-installed. So far I did get the impression that it is working but I'm not hundred percent sure until I try it.

First day back at work was dreadful. I had developed a bad sleeping routine whilst I was off so I didn't sleep much and was not at all ready for the clock to go off this morning. Luckily the traffic was kind for a change, but when I got to work there was an enormous pile of invoices and gas safety certificates waiting for me. Nice? -NOT!