New roof progress

I don't think I ever actually got round to posting 'before' and 'progress' pictures of the work being done on and in our roof, or mention that it actually snowed on HP's birthday. So here are some photos I took last week which illustrate those same points.
Here's the front of our house covered in scaffolding and a scattering of snow.
Secondly, this is our wheely bin with snow on the top. (Ok, so stating the obvious, but otherwise I don't feel like I've written anything, just cheated and filled up my post with pictures like I did last time!)
Finally, this is an important one - this is how the ceiling of our landing (at the top of the stairs looked before today) Actually, even this wasn't taken right at the beginning, you can see that the light had been moved. It was in position where you can see that little hole, and now it's the other side of that central beam thing (oh so technical language, you can see I know my stuff!)
Remember what this looked like, because next time you see it it will be different.
By the way, the blue room you can just see is my bedroom, and the room with the open door (one on the right) is the bathroom. We are still (started Autum 2005!) in the process of redecorating our hall and landing. But that's been on hold a while, and now definitely until after all the roof stuff is done.














I forgot to take a photo of the back of the house, so instead here's my car all covered in snow :-)

I'm back, but very tired

I've had great fun with three of Adrian's four lovely childen this weekend (the fourth stayed at his Grandparents). Here are some of the highlights (or the bits I had a camera handy for!)
I'm attempting to load up multiple pictures, so hopefully blogger will be nice, and that it won't take too long when you want to see them!

Bring bring

Debs cant come to the blog right now, but if you'd like to leave a message she'll get back to you.

Happy Birthday HP

I can't believe my little sister is 20 today. My little baby sister is definitely not so little, or a baby! I'm four and a half years older than her, and I can remember the day she was born. However did time pass so quickly?
I can't access my photos as they are on the computer at home, but these are a taste of what it's like to be HP, thanks to my facebook account (each person has an account, and if they are your 'friend' you can look at all the photos that have been tagged with that person's name. So I ought really to be thanking HP's friends in Exeter who took these photos. Oh, and featured with HP is Steve, her boyfriend)

Blog buisness

As I'm looking after the little one today at his home, and he's napping I'm able to get my daily dose of internet today. Unfortunately our internet at home is playing uo and either won't work atall or is so slow it takes about ten munutes just to load up the homepage. My Dad called NTL and they are sending an engineer later in the week, so hopefully I'll get sorted soon. In the meantime I'll jsut have to grab my opportunities to get on the web when I came. Oh, and also I'm not going to count this as breaking my new year's resolution to blog something every day, because I will blog when I am actually physically able to. Also, HP has exams this week and it's her birthday, so it's not really fair to expect her to guest post all the time.
SO instead, I'm make up for it by blogging several posts today! Cos there's a couple of things I want to say, and each deserves it's own post. And none of them can wait. Read the next (or previous, depending if you're reading from the bottom or the top of the page) to find out more.

Apologies (Guest Post by HP)

Debs is having issues with computer access at home so has been unable to blog in the last couple of days.
I for one have missed reading about her antics and will miss being wished a happy birthday unless things are sorted by tomorrow.

She asks that I let you all know and apologise for her absence. She hopes to start blogging agin soon when things get sorted out.

Thanking you for your patience. Happy Tuesday (or whatever day you read this on!!)
Signing out for Debs.
HP :-)

The joys of digital photography

This photograh is just one of many photos stored on my computer that have gone slightly wrong whilst being taken, and would probably really annoy you if you were using a camera with film rather than digital. However, that's the great thing about using a digital camera. You know straight away if the photo hasn't gone according to plan, and can try again, hopefully having not totally missed the moment you were trying to capture. And if you have missed it, well you can be safe in the knowledge you've got a few photos like this one hanging around, which you can use to embarass people with.

I apologise for the complete and utter lack of proper posts this week. Life seems to have caught up with me in the last seven days and I feeling really tired and run down (I've got the mouth ulcers to show for it as well). I'm planning to try to get an early (or earlier) night tonight, and do the same as best I can for the rest of the week. In the meantime I'll keep up with the healthy eating, and since I'm not too keen on marmite, I've got some vitamin B complex tablets which ought to help get rid of the ulcers and help me feel a bit more alive.

Tomorrow I will be working on a one to one basis with four different children (two at school, and then home tutoring two), so if I'm not totally shattered I might just do that meme I've been threatening to for days. On the other hand, I might just post some minor post. But at least you'll know it's cos I'm brain-dead!

Oh, and HP guest posted for me on Friday, so go down and say hello to her if you missed it.

my blog, a collection of random words

(With thanks to Rachel and Miriam for pointing me towards this)

The hidden life of a minidisc (Guest post by HP)

Apparently minidiscs are elusive creatures and almost impossible to find. Well long length ones are anyway. We can find all sorts of fancy short ones even in pretty colours!! But they wont be much good for the purpose for which i need to use them. 'What is that?' I hear you ask
Well it is to record my university lectures onto, in order to help me when revising and going back over the work. Also it means I dont have to worry about getting everything down on paper and can just try to understand (try usually being the operative word!!)
Since I have several lectures a week and several weeks of lectures I would quite like discs which can record more than just the one lecture.
Do any of you have any suggestions of where to look, or any similarly frustrating searches which might entertain me and make me feel slightly better?

Today

I really meant to do the meme I've been tagged to do by Mrs Wibbs. But I've feeling too tired and a bit down (I'm too tired to make her name a link, so if you want to visit her blog you'll have to click on the link on my blogroll).
I'm off to bed now, and hopefully I'll be more with it at the weekend.

Wordless Wednesday - Introducing the little one

For more WW go here
(See comments for more about this picture)

Just so I can say

I've written a post every day so far.
However, I've been looking after the little one all day, including babysitting him this evening, so I need to go to bed now. I'm looking after him again tomorrow too.

Local cafe invents meal names to try to up buisness

Recent polls suggest they might might have done better to come up with something slightly more original.

Introducing...

A week or so ago I discovered a new blog. This is something that happens most days, but this was one I was pretty sure I would want to keep reading, and then add to my blog roll. I discovered Rachel's blog through a comment she had left on Blest's blog, so I clicked through and upon discovering she was a fairly new blogger I thought I'd say hi. And we've been 'chatting' ever since. Rachel's a UK blogger, which is great, because I read a lot of US blogs, and it's easier to try to judge when people will post if they're in the same time-zone as you!

I've also discovered that Rachel goes to the same church in Reading as my aunt and uncle, and knows them and their family. In fact, we may even have been in the same place as each other as I've been to two baptisms (my cousins Laura and Lydia) in the last year. Perhaps if any more of my cousins (there are lots of them!) get baptised or we go vist for any other reason we'll get to meet in person :-) In the meantime I'll keep reading, and I'm adding her blog to my blog roll so you can click over to Mrs Wibbz' Wobbly Ways and go say hi.

What's a girl to do

when she has loads of different things to post about, and then when it comes to writing the post they all totally disappear from her brain?
And then, it's ok. She remembers one...

Some of you will remember me writing about how we were going to be having our roor redone. Actually, I can't remember if I wrote much about it on here, but I did say a fair amount in Kathleen's comments back when she was having her kitchen floor redone (so will we ever get to see the finished product Kathleen?). At the time we thought that it would be happening in the last week before Christmas and were frantically emptying out our loft - Although a lot of the work will be done from the outside, we are also having new insulation put inside, and they will floor the loft for us as well. In fact, it should be pretty good when it's all completed.
The original date was just an estimate, and depended on their other jobs. Due to the weather and things like that we were told that they would come in January. So we heaved a sigh of relief, stopped emptying and got on with the Christmas shopping (so we were late with that, as ever, but hey, that was never gonna change!)

We now know that they will be starting a week this coming Monday, and will be arriving to put up the scaffolding next Friday. So this weekend we needed to finish emptying the loft. When I say we, it was actually my Mum and Dad that did it. I was out this morning at a sunday school meeting. We had done most of the clearing, but they have now officially completed the task, apart from some bits of wood that are still on the floor to make walking around up there easier. Other than them it's just the joists of the ceiling below and you have to be careful not to step in the wrong place and put your foot right through.

Unfortunately we never took any before photos, but here are a few 'after' ones. Mostly so that Bekki and HP can see for themselves just what a transformation has taken place. I'll also hopefully take progress photos once the work gets started. As I say, there aren't any before photos, but to give you an idea you need to know we've got rid of at least 8 carfuls of stuff to the dump. We've got boxes and bits in most of the rooms in the house. We've sent loads of things to the charity shop next door, and put quite a lot out for recycling. It'll be great once it's all completed to sort through all the stuff we've got left once more and put it up there, knowing just what exactly is up there. Of course there are always things that you want to keep (like toys that belonged to my Dad when he was a child that he's still attached to) but it's always good if you know what they are!

We'll have to continue to live in chaos for a little while yet, but once that's over it'll be great.
Please remember it's National de-lurk week (see what I wrote here). I'd love it if you said hello. If you want an idea of something to say you could always tell me a joke, what your favourite colour is, or a subject to post on one day next week :-)

Also, apologies for all the spots on the pictures, I think the lens of my camera needed cleaning!

Friday evening

Hello to all you lovely people who have already de-lurked. Remember you aren't under any pressure to do so if you haven't already, but I would love to visit you if you do want to!

I'm off to a prayer meeting in the next few minutes, but I will be visiting people tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to it. See some of you then then...

National de-lurk week

It's official, according to several different blogs I just looked at, it is National De-lurk week. (Bekki, Arwen, Paper Napkin - ok, so that one was just following the link Bekki had, but three references seemed better than two!)

So, please please please de-lurk. I know several people who know me in real life read this blog, but don't comment much, so if that's you I especially want to hear from you. If you really don't want me to drag out a potentially embarrassing photo (like I did to Esther) and say so then I can try my best not to post one.

Secondly, if you don't know me in real life, I would love to have the chance to get to know you. I love reading blogs, and would definitely check yours out if you have one! And if you don't have a blog, well it would still be fantastic to hear from you.

Thirdly, if you already know me in cyber-space, for example any of the one weigh or another ladies, Kathleen, Chaotic Mum, or Rachel who I am just beginning to get to know, then I love it that you read my blog, and if you could spare a minute then it'd be fabulous to hear from you ;-)

Finally, if you feel you're in another category, for instance you just found my blog by googling 'how to put on a duvet' or 'you give a little love and it all comes back to you' then leave a comment too, since so many of you arrive here that way it'd be great to know what you were actually looking for, and maybe I could post that sometime too!

Finally finally, does anyone know why someone (or more than one person) keeps searching for the phrase 'I got my car fixed it's my birthday song' because if that's the lyrics to a song, then I don't know it. And if it's just a phrase picked out of the air then it's an unusual one.

Please leave me a comment (or more than one, if you like). I promise I will come visiting to meet you afterwards. Just say hi, or tell me your favourite colour, or share a joke. Whatever you say, say something. Remember, in cyberspace no-one can hear you read :-)

For Esther

Ok, ok, so I'll write a proper post

I don't seem to be very good at writing proper posts lately, I just try to fob you off with pictures. Unlike Kathleen, who manages to post fantastic photos and write something interesting to go with them. I think I need to stop thinking I need to write specifically about the photo, but just throw it in as extra entertainment value. That is, of course, assuming that you find my blog entertaining.

Hmmm, this blog is called It's My Life, so I ought to write about my life. As most of you know I'm back in London, living with my parents in the house I grew up in. In fact, the only house I've ever lived in in London. That's quite weird if you compare it to people like Blair or Blest with sons who are constantly moving every couple of years because of their husbands jobs. I have lived in lots of different places though, if you count all the places I lived while at university. Hey, I can feel a trip down memory lane coming on...

In my first year at university I lived in a building called West House, which was where the majority of first years at my college lived. I was on the first floor, which was high enough to not have people looking in your windows, but low enough to not have too many stairs to climb. I've got loads of memories from living in that room, but I can't share any here or this post will just be too long.

In my second year at Homerton I was once again in West House, but this time I was up on the top (fourth) floor. We were pretty glad they had lifts as well as stairs. When I think back to my second year I have very mixed emotions. I very very stressed out for a fair amount of the year, for a number of reasons, and developed stress migraines which made me sick. I don't get them much any more, apart from if I'm in contact with very strong smells, for example scented candles or perfume.

For my third year I made the decision to live with three delightful girls in a house out of college, which was also a bit of a stressful decision at the time, but I really enjoyed the time I spent living with Bud, Mucker and Anna (yes, Bud and Mucker are nicknames, in case you were worried). In fact, we got on so well that we continued living in our house in Blinco Grove for our PGCE year.

That takes me up to the summer of 2005. I failed my final teaching placement and was to retake it in the Autumn, so I needed to find somewhere to live, initially for a couple of months. Enter my friend Imogen, and the house she was rentiing in GC, south of Cambridge. IT would be clost enough to commute into Cambridge (which I did for church, and going into college) but also out in the countryside. I made the decision a couple of weeks into my repeat placement that I really didn't want to be a teacher, and then was offered a job at the school I was in. This was only going to be for a couple of weeks, but ended up extending to be for the whole of the school year. Imogen was willing for me to continue to live with her, so I did! That job came to an end at the end of July, so for financial reasons it was time for me to move back to London.

And that's where I am at the moment. My job situation at the moment is a little uncertain (more that I'm not enjoying it much than it coming to an end or anything like that.) However at the moment I'm sticking with it to earn some money, and looking after the little one two days a week as a bit of relief from the school sitaution. I'm not going to say any more about that at the moment.

Wow, look I can write a proper post when I put my mind to it. I'll try not to leave it so long 'till the next one. In the meantime you can always check out the sites on my sidebar. I'm going to be adding a few more site over the next couple of weeks, so do check them out when I do.

Ten in the bed...

There were ten in the bed and the little one said "roll over, roll over"... and he rolled over so far that he was at the end of the bed.

Evening all

I was going to post something (but I won't tell you what it is cos I'll do it tomorrow instead) but then I went out to a church prayer meeting instead. It was great, so I don't mind, I'm just now too tired to think about writing a proper post today.
So yet again I'm afraid you're getting very little from me. I'll see if Ican find a pretty picture to show you to make you feel better. And then I will definitely be back tomorrow.
Since Bekki did the sheep thing, I will too.

a taste of Christmas past

I'm on the upstairs computer which means my photos are all on the other computer, and I've only got old photos. Hence the picture of my cousin Dave looking stupid from last Christmas, and the fact that I'm only writing a short post because I hate this keyboard.

So that's all I have to say. See you tommorrow.

Questions and things to remember

Everyone knows what the big questions of life are. It's things like Why are we here? Is there a God? Why is the sky blue? (ok, I kind of know that one, in fact, I'd say I knew the answer to all of those, but I realise that not everyone necessarily does. I'll try to say more about them at some point, but most of my readers probably know I'm a Christian and have a fair idea of what I believe.)

But then of course there are does other questions. Questions like why doesn't that bit of hair at the back curl under like all the rest? Why do buses always come in threes? Why don't penguin's feet freeze? And they lead me on nicely to telling you about my Christmas present from HP. It's a book called Why don't penguins feet freeze? and it's next on my list to start reading. She has a book that answers the bus question, which I have read, but can't answer off hand without looking at it again. And the hair question? Well that's just something I wondered after blow drying my hair, and all of it going under perfectly apart from the bit at the back.

This things to remember bit of the post - well that's simple. If you take a picture from your car whilst waiting at lights you might want to note that since you're behind the glass you will see all the dirt on the glass, and it may well reflect some of what's in the car as well (look, at the top you can see my fingers on the steering wheel being reflected). But if you think it looks cool anyhow you can still put it on your blog. So long as you write a post a bit like this to explain it to all your readers.

blog birthday

I just noticed that I've actually missed my blog's birthday. I started this blog on the 30th December 2005, a year and six days ago. Here you can see my first and second ever posts (even then I was posting more than once on some days, and then not for several days! But it was because I was so excited to have a comment, and I do still get excited about comments, so nothing much has really changed.)

In my second ever post I wrote
"I wonder what on earth I'll be doing this time next year. Knowing what last year was like, I'm sure I won't be doing whatever seems most likely at the moment - This time last year I was expecting to be a primary teacher by now, however things happened slightly differently."

Yes, things are definitely different. I'm living back at home in London - last year I was living just south of Cambridge with a girl who'd been on a similar course to mine at the same college of the university. (Sorry Cambridge is a bit confusing, there are lots of different colleges, which are all part of the University). This time last year Bekki was only just moving to Cambridge, and I was the one firmly established there, that's now been reversed.

I'm still working in a primary school, but now it's a different one. I'm still supporting children on a one-to-one basis, but now it's in a slightly different role. I'm also back to helping in sunday school at church, which I had been doing in Cambridge before I started blogging, but had stopped because life had got to busy (although not too busy to start a blog, apparently!) The final difference I'm going to mention is that I've lost some weight since then.

So, Happy Belated Birthday to me and my blog :-)

In which we get reintroduced to an old friend

For those of you that may remember Basil I feel duty bound to resume the tale of his life. Although on numerous occasions it has seemed near definite that his demise was inevitable, he lives on to see a another day. He is scarely recognisable to those who might remember his big bushy stems, but he still has new growth appearing, and I feel confident he is not ready to leave us yet. I salute you Basil for your bravery. Long may you continue to be with us.

It worked for me

Ok, so this is going to be a really quick works for me, inspired by a search I just had to make, and failing and needing to come up with an idea quick. Basically we have a huge bottle of PVA glue and a little pot we can put it in, but then you need a glue spreader. And I couldn't find one, and I was too impatient to search for a long time. And then I thought, "hey, a cotton bud could work", and I tried it, and it did :-)
I tried taking a piture of me doing the glueing, but both tries came out blurry, so this is the after shot.Using a cotton bud if you can't find a glue spreader. It works for me :-)
Check out Rocks in My Dryer for more works for me Wednesdays

Cleaning and sorting stuff

I'm having a bit of an ill day today. I woke up a bit wheezy, and my cold is definitely still here. Taking my asthma medicine stopped the wheeze, but I've still got a very nasty sounding cough.
We'd been intending to go out shopping to try to buy me some clothes (I have a feeling this need might drag on a while) but we started doing some serious cleaning, dusting and hoovering lots of different rooms, and it got to the point that it seemed like we might as well carry on with that rather than go out. Especially since I wasn't convinced I felt up to trying on clothes, and that had been the main purpose for going out.

Yesterday I found a whole load of worksheets on the internet to use with the girl I tutor once a week. Today I've been sorting those out a bit and going through the file of stuff I had already, throwing out the things I didn't need anymore, and looking to see what I still needed to plan. I know some weeks I've ended up trying to make stuff up as I go along, so I'm trying to get some session plans sorted while I've got some spare time, and then I won't have to think about it for a while. This photo is one of the sheets I found a while ago on the internet, and printed it off to use, to help her with learning the times table facts. We've done a few of them already, and they just add a bit of fun to the work. After all she's already had a whole day of school work, so I try to make what we do fun as well as useful.

Happy New Year

Sorry, tried to think of an original way to title this post, but this one just had be written.

Having taken many many photos over Christmas I want to introduce to you some of my mad family, and share with you what it was like on Boxing day when we had 17 people in the house. Unfortunately I ended up sitting right by the door (almost outside the room) for our manic present session that day, so there was no way I'd be able to get a photo of the whole room, but here are a couple of pics to share a little of what the atmosphere was like.. (and I still missed off a couple of people)

With regards to New Years resolutions I don't usually make any, or if I do I usually manage to forget them before a week or two is past. However this year I have got a few ideas. I'm not sure I'm ready to share them with the world just yet, but I might do soon. I'll just leave you with a few hints - a couple will be weight loss and exercise related, but at least one will probably be blog related. And on that note, here are a couple of photos taken on our New Year's Day ramble with people from our church.