giggle giggle, and bake a chocolate cake

This is me with my short hair. As previously explained, we've had a few problems with the camera, but these are hopefully sorted out now, and I can finally upload a picture of the new hair.

Today has been a fun day, full of giggles and chocolate cake (which we don't get to eat till tomorrow). Joy came over (she's my really old friend, but for a long time, rather than her age being big). HP says that sentence made no sense, but I don't care. We also managed to scare HP's boyfriend, and if he's reading this I just want to apologise again. We really didn't want to freak you out that much, or actually at all.

Right, I have to take Joy home now. Back again soon.
We're visiting Grandparents tomorrow, and we get to see Bekki. Hurrah!

ps click on the one where they're hiding behind the cushions and you get to see HP's eye. This is Joy with HP BTW.

Camera

We discovered why the camera didn't seem to be charging properly - My Dad had switched it off at the plug! Now that it's turned back on again I ought to be able to take some photos again soon. In the meantime we'll have to make do with more photos from Monday. Oh, and this is the electricity pylon as it looked when we came out of Sainsburys.

I got my hair cut today - the first time I've had it cut since the last Easter holiday! Brian, my hairdresser, said it beautifully illustrated the fact that hair grows about an inch every two months. HP says it bears resemblance to Jonny Depp as seen in 'Charlie and the Chocolate factory', to which I replied that he must have a girly hair cut then (I haven't actually seen the film, although I have seen the trailers). It's basically a short bob, but without a fringe (which was what I had before I grew it out during the past year). Anyway, I will try to put a photo on for comparison purposes once the camera is once more functioning as it ought.

Today

S-P wasn't able to make it today after all, so instead I went to visit S in her flat. That was South of the river, which feels like you're in a different country. I survived it though, and it was good to finally get to see her flat.

We had a lovely afternoon chatting and catching up (we haven't seen each other since, hmmm, possibly half term? Or maybe even Christmas). Then we decided to go out for a meal for dinner. We went to Zizi's and I had a scrummy pizza called Sofia, which I would recommend to anyone who likes the taste of Rosemary (as it was quite strong)

For some reason the camera didn't want to work, although it seems ok now, so I've given you a photo I took yesterday instead. I like it anyway!

Supermarket shopping and taking photos - what a great day

These are just a few of my favourite photos - HP and I had a little competition going on which was 'Who can take the best supermarket photos' (well, she's got to keep experimenting with her new camera, and I've got to try to keep my blog looking bright).

Tomorrow I'm meeting up with two friends from University. We all live in London, but in the North, South and East. So we don't get to meet up as much as we would like. We're going to meet for lunch near where S-P lives.

Why is it always so tricky to get photos lined up how you want them to in a post?!

I'm also hopefully going to be able to catch up with J who's a really old friend (as in I've known her a long time, rather than being 102 or something). In fact, we first met when we were 7. She's at uni in York and I'm living in Cambridge a lot of the time, so when we are both in London we try to meet up.


I hope this photo doesn't freak anyone out too much. I don't actually eat fish, so not really sure why I took it. Probably because it's a bit odd. Actually I don't like Colman's mustard either. I just took that because it was yellow.

I'll try to remember to take my camera (meaning my Dad's camera, before anyone comments on that) tomorrow.

My weekend in pictures - final round up

In the sitting room: 10.30pm


I am typing while HP takes my photo. It's really weird. I'm trying to concentrate but it's odd when there are things flashing in your eyes. Here's one of the finishes articles. I don't really like it, but HP is off to bed, and it does at least show me typing on my blog.

I was planning to make this really interesting for my final round up of the weekend, but I've got a bit tired. I was distracted by reading some other people's blogs. Oh well, better make this quick. Thank you to my Daddy who has lent me his camera for the weekend, and also to him and the rest of the family for putting up with me saying 'stop a minute, I want to take a photo of that'. It's been really fun, and I want to do something like this again, although not too soon, so don't start worrying! It'll be fun to look back on this after a couple of weeks and see all the little random stuff I did this weekend, as well as the usual memories of the 'bigger' events.

Well how should I end this weekend of blogging? Why by looking to tomorrow of course: It looksl like we'll we having rain in the night, followed, more than likely, by rain tomorrow.


I took these as an experiment to see if I could photograph the television, and they're so funny I just had to put them on. When a facial expression is captured for a split second it can certainly have funny results. They're worth clicking on to get the larger versions. I hope you've all had a good weekend.

ps sorry for any typos on this post. I'm sure my editors (HP and my Mum) will draw them to my attention in the near future

My weekend in pictures 12

Dining room: 5pm

I played scrabble with my Mum and Dad. My Mum won (as she always does), but I came second so that's not too bad! It was fun though, and that's the main thing.

While we played we were listening to (as it was behind us and we couldn't really see it properly) 'Songs of Praise' on the telly. It was the Songs of Praise school choir of the year competition final. After we finished our game 'As time goes by' came on, so we all four sat and watched. It's a programme that can actually make us all laugh at the same time! Then I had some tea and wrote a bit more here on my blog. We plan to watch 'Mayo' at 8pm so I'm off now.

My weekend in pictures 11

HP's bedroom: 4.30pm

This afternoon HP finally got round to getting out the digital camera that she was given for her birthday in January. The photos below are some we took while experimenting to see what it can do. Yes, those are actually pictures of me for a change (well 2 out of 3 isn't bad. And I'm actually wearing my glasses in one of them. The middle one is of course none other than HP herself. Thought I'd leave it sideways because it amused me :-) ) Oh and these 3 were taken in our Bekki's bedroom\the room that might one day be reclaimed as a sitting room (We turned the downstairs front room into a bedroom for Bekki several years ago, but now she's moved up to Cambridge it's in a bit of a transitional period.)

My weekend in pictures 10

Kitchen: After lunch

HP washed up after lunch and I was doing some drying up, but she was a little slow, so I went between the kitchen and the computer, which was also being slow (loading the photos up seems to take quite a while, but that could be to do with trying to put as many in as possible.)

We had yummy lunch, but I'm trying to cut down on the more boring details of the day. (So I'm not gonna start saying things like 'I put a jumper on because it was cold, and then got hot so took it off again...' (Oops, I just did))

My weekend in pictures 9

After church, drinking tea and coffee in the Premier Bar: 12.15 pm
(Not that I drink either tea or coffee. This is the room in the cinema that they let us use for refreshments after the meeting. We also have some mid-week meetings in here.)






These are just some people I bribed to let me put their photos on my blog (so yes, HP features quite a lot. Maybe these posts should have been titled HP's weekend in pictures)
Also, if you click on HP's close up you'll get a big version of the photo which may show you that she has a face drawn on her nose. It's probably best not to ask why.

My weekend in pictures 8

Outside the front door: 9.05am
(I note the number of minutes past nine as this is somewhat of a record for us. We always try to aim to leave at nine, but things always seem to make it later!)

This is HP and my Dad just leaving the house on our way to church this morning. I felt a bit like I was a member of the paparazzi as I lent over the wall to try to take a photo, which included HP's beautifully bright pink boots, while she was walking down the path.

Our church meets in Enfield Cineworld, which was a little bizarre the first time we were in there, but now just feels normal. It's also quite a good talking point!






Today we met in screen 9.

My weekend in pictures (Saturday round-up)

Assorted pictures from today.






These are to show that I did go outside today, even if only in our garden (I was too busy baking!). Also some of the vast amouts of washing we were able to get done today because it was such beautiful weather. The pretty flowers (mind gone blank and can't remember what they are called) are also in our garden.






This is HP working on a puzzle and then the finished article, in all its glory, once she had finished. What this photo doesn't show very well is that the lion is made from lots of little pictures of other animals from lion territory, like giraffes and zebras. (think that makes sense!)

Anyway, I am off to bed. Not sure how many pictures there'll be for tomorrow, we'll just have to wait and see. Hope I haven't bored anyone too much - Just thought it would make a change to have multiple postings as opposed to none for days!

I wanted to include the picture I took of the sausage rolls we ate for lunch, but I can't get it to position correctly in this post, and I'm too tired to fiddle with it anymore. Goodnight :-)

My weekend in pictures 7

Dining room: 8pm-9.30pm







Mummy and Daddy were getting stuck on the jumbo crossword.
HP was reading a bit of the paper (yes that is a flying pig on the wall behind her)
HP and I were ready to head off to bed (except I had to put this on my blog first)

My weekend in pictures 6

Dining room: 7.30pm







This is me, taken (by me) just before dinner when I was hungry and trying to find things to do while we waited for the quiche to finish cooking (It's really not a good picture, and maybe one day I'll remember to take a photo like this while actually wearing my glasses). Also, the quiche after we had eaten most of it! (We were too hungry to wait for a photo before we cut into it). Finally, my Mum's hand as she ticks off a clue she'd just got in the quick crossword. Now we're about to eat the apple and blackberry crumble, so I'm off...

My weekend in pictures 5

In the Kitchen:5.45pm-6.20pm








These photos show the second half of making the hot cross buns. When they'd risen I piped crosses on them, and then we cooked them for about 25 minutes. When they came out of the oven I glazed them with a sugar syrup, and that was it. I'm sure my Dad looks forward to eating them.

(This is my 50th post. Hurrah!)

My weekend in pictures 4

Back in the kitchen: 5pm








This has been quite a day for baking (and drying washing, but for the moment I'm talking about baking). HP and I made Easter nests, my Mum has made\is in the process of making a blackberrry and apple crumble, quiche, a large mince pie and some jam tarts.

These pictures however are of the hot cross buns that she and I were\are making for my Dad (they are currently sitting in a warm place rising). He is a coeliac which means he can't eat anything with gluten in. He gets speacial flour on prescription and we make bread and cakes for him. He was diagnosed when I was quite young, so it just seems quite natural to make things from scratch so that Daddy can eat them, rather than buying things ready-made. Lots of people now seem to be 'wheat-free' in what they eat, but my Daddy is one of the originals!

I feel quite lucky because cooking just seems to come quite naturally to me since I've done so much over the years. It makes me laugh when I meet people who say they don't have a clue about how to cook. (Not that I'm laughing at them, just that it seems so easy to me).

My weekend in pictures 3

In the kitchen: 3.30pm






Last year we remembered how it was so fun to make Easter nests in cooking at primary school, and we decided to make some. So of course we had to make some more this year. We stopped off at Sainsburys on Friday on our way home from GC, and this afternoon we made them. They're just shredded wheat, melted chocolate and mini eggs on the top. They're now sitting in the fridge to set. They're great fun and really easy too. (And you get to eat the left over mini eggs while you wait for the nests to set.)

my weekend in pictures 2

My house: 2.15pm








My Dad is having a nap.
HP is catching up on reading some blogs.
My Mum is playing spider solitaire.
I am going round the house taking photos.

my car

I've been meaning to take a photo of my car to post on here, but I never seem to remember at the right time (so that's when it's not dark, and I'm actually in the same place as the camera and the car at the same moment). I still haven't done that, but while putting the photo on my last post I found this one (taken by my Dad) and worked out how to trim it so you couldn't see my registration plate (hence the funny shape of the photo).

This was taken on the very first day that I brought the car home. I am sitting in the passenger seat reading the manual (the first and last time I ever did, maybe I will again someday) and the lady standing next to the car is my Mum. Oh, and if you've read the previous post you may have noticed that it was her face that you can see a bit of at the side of the photo of our dining table.

My weekend in pictures

Every Saturday we get The Times and The Guardian newspapers. This started back when Bekki was still at home and she wanted The Guardian and my Mum wanted The Times. I think that although Bekki is now up in Cambridge my Mum got used to reading bits from the The Guardian and that's why we still get both.

Over breakfast (sometimes quite literally, in that there's no where to put your plate without someone plonking a bit of paper on top on it) these two papers get opened and spread around as people have developed their own preferences as to which bits they read first.

My Dad is in charge of buying the papers from the handy newsagents just up the road. Actually, from where we live there are newsagents in pretty much every direction, but he always buys them at the 'ding-dong' shop (so called by HP many moons ago. Something to do with the electric ping that sounds whenever someone opens the door of the shop. To be honest I don't even know if they have that still, but the nickname lives on in our house).

My mum usually starts with the actual news bit of the Times, although this photo was taken a bit later in the day when she's moved on to the magazines. It somehow takes my Mum more than a week to read all the different bits from both papers, which is unfortunate as we continue to buy them each week. The problem of building up papers is either solved by one of the rest of us sneaking bits into the recycling bin, or special catching up sessions in the holidays. (I found out later what she's reading in the picture was actually a magazine from last week, that just proves my point really)

Today HP started with the 60 page puzzle special - an Easter holiday special from The Guardian.

I always go for the Times magazine first, usually followed by Weekend from The Guardian and Body & Soul from the Times. After that I might read some news bits, but since we have Radio 4 on in our house a lot of the time, I am usually fairly up to date with the main news (like knowing about the swan found in Scotland a couple of days ago that died from bird flu).

spring cleaning

This evening after dinner HP and I are heading to my house in GC for a few days. Hopefully we'll get some sring cleaning done, and also have time for a bit of fun. I'm going to be working each morning, but HP says she might get some cleaning done while I'm out, and we'll have to get some done during the afternoons as well.

I've written a list of things that could be done. Mostly because I like writing lists, but also so that we don't sit around and wonder what to do next. Also, since the list breaks it down into small chunks we get to have lots of "yay it's done" moments as we go along.

Hopefully we will manage to get away from London in time to pick up Imogen from the station (she's been up in Scotland for the weekend, and will be in GC only for a couple of hours before her dad comes and takes her back to her home for rest of the holiday). I'm not sure why that all got to be in brackets, but never mind.

I'd better get back to putting things in the car. Will try to write more as soon as I can :-)

Oh, congratulations to Kathleen on reaching her 100th post. (and to me on (hopefully) creating my first successful link within a post) (It works, it works!)

I've got a few more posts to go, perhaps I'd better celebrate my 50th which will be arriving shortly.

If the day had 25 hours

I've been thinking about this lately, if a day had an extra hour what would I do with it? The most obvious answers seem either to spend it being awake or asleep. The past few days I would definitely have gone for the sleep option.

Although it's not all that pleasant waking up and finding your eyes are stuck together. The doctor gave me drops for my eyes (which there was no way I was gonna be able to put them in for myself, but HP and my Mum have been ever so kind and helping!) and they are getting better. I need to keep up with the drops for a while yet till they're totally clear and then a bit longer.

Anyway, back to the extra hour. I'm not talking about just a one off, like in the Autumn when we get our hour back again. I usually seem to end up being awake for that one and then regretting it afterwards. But what if every day was a bit longer? Why stop at one hour, if it was two hours you could be awake for an extra hour and sleep for an extra hour. If it were only one extra hour and you wanted to split it equally then you'd have only half an hour extra for sleeping and being awake. And that's not much, because after all, when you talk about how much sleep you've had you only ever count full hours slept.

After all that I think I'm ready for a nap, but might make do with a shower instead.

conjunctivitis and cracked ribs

I've got conjunctivitis, at least I'm fairly sure that's what it is, I'm going to the doctor at 4pm to confirm it and hopefully get something to treat it with. I don't have cracked ribs though, that's the boy that I work with at school. Let me explain.

At playtime he fell from the climbing frame and landed on his left side. Because he is French it was a little tricky for us to work out exactly was hurt, but luckily we have two fairly fluent French speakers who were able to come and help (I can generally understand more than I can actually say, and we get on ok till things go wrong and he starts saying more technical stuff and speaking more quickly). To cut a long story short, he was complaining of pain when he spoke and when he walked, and said it felt like the bones were rubbing (sorry to any screamish people reading this). He loves school and although he was in pain we persuaded him it might be as well for him to go home as the afternoon lessons were going to be PE and then clearing up the classroom and moving things round - neither of which he would be able to do very easily. So we rang his parents and his dad came and picked him up. So we don't actually know if he has cracked a rib or not, but they will take him to be checked out by a doctor.

After he had gone, the class teacher told me I might as well have the rest of the day off as my eye looked really nasty. After she had said that we actually discovered that anyone with conjunctivitis shouldn't really be at school because it's quick highly contagious, so that was double reason for me to come home.

I'm in GC at the moment, but after I see the doctor I'm heading back to London for the weekend. We are going to a barn dance this evening and have lots of other stuff planned for the weekend as well. Including an early morning church prayer meeting tomorrow, followed by a women's prayer breakfast. I'll write more about all that later in the weekend (peut-être).

wasp update and other thoughts

I meant to say in my wasp post that the bump was Imogen falling off her chair, but that there hopefully isn't any lasting damage, either to her or the chair.

I love being back in London. It's just so different to the village (GC) where I live in the rest of the time.
London is loud (we live just off a main road).
GC is really quiet (if one car comes up our road in the night it's a lot).

London is bright, even in the night.
GC is pitch black when you wake up in the night and try to feel your way to the bathroom.

London is where my family is.
GC is where Imogen is (not that that's a bad thing, but just different)

Oh, our house in GC has been really hot recently. I reckon all that heat that seemed to disappear for the last few months has finally decided to re-emerge from below the floor boards, and heat up the house. We've turned the heating right off and still it seems to be hot. I'm reluctant to open my window at night at the moment after the wasp incident, so I'm not quite sure what we'll do next. Certain parts of the house remain cool so hopefully this doesn't forecast a horrendous summer with a boiling house, but time will tell.

Is it just me, or are cliches more readily available when you're writing a blog post than at other times. (Blame my trail of thought on recently reading the Thursday Next seris by Jasper Fforde, see Bekki's blog for more stuff about him. The books are a bit odd, but fantastic even when reading them for the fifth or so time).

Right, enough random thoughts for this post. I may be back later with some more :-)

and all that jazz

I'm at home in London for the evening. I came to meet HP's boyfriend who is staying for a few days. I'm not sure he quite knows what to make of HP and me when we get together. Somehow all my silliness is unleashed, and we set each other off into giggles! He seems alright though, and he needs to know what he's letting himself in for by associating with this family :-)

I sometimes wonder who is the real me. I'm so different in every situation that I'm in. Whether it's at school, at home with my family, in my house with Imogen (that's my housemate, I got tired of referring to her as my housemate, and thought it was time she had a name!), or when I'm on my own. I suppose most people probably feel similar in that everyone recats to different situations in their life in different ways. If I do ever get married I would want it to be to someone that I can be silly and serious with. That may seem obvious, but I'm sure there is a side of me that normally only my family might see.

The title of this blog refers to my 'having a song for everything'. Particularly when I'm with HP and Bekki any word in conversation can spark me off to sing a song either with that word in, or that the word reminds me of. It's great fun, especially like when we take a word and try to come up with as many songs as we can with that word in. We're quite a singy family. When we were younger and went on long journeys (like to visit Grandparents) we would play games like the song alphabet game, where you think of a song beginning with each letter of the alphabet.

wasps

We've had another wasp situation in our study the last couple of days. My housemate was on the phone in there late Sunday evening and I was in bed when I heard a loud scream, a bump and a slammed door. It transpired that a huge wasp had suddenly flown out and scared her.
And before anyone starts commenting on 'girls and how they're wimps' I'll jump ahead to say that when I looked at it I saw that it was huge.

We couldn't really do anything about it at the time - I was too sleepy and she was too hyped and stressed out about it. So Monday evening when we got home from work we asked our neighbour (the one with a gun that shot the rat) to come and help us. Basically neither of us is keen on wasps and we knew that if we tried to go in (we'd had the door shut) it would take us forever. The problem was that it wasn't anywhere to be found. So we had to do what we needed to in the room as quickly as we could and then shut the door and leave it.

This morning my housemate had to come in here to get some papers to take to school (she's a teacher) and the wasp was sitting on the pile! She went to ask our neighbour to come and help us, and his wife told us he'd be over when he was out of the bath (this was 8 in the morning, so fair enough!). In due time he came over and we waited outside while he did it - we heard a few thwacks and then it was done. Hurrah!

Hopefully that will be the end of the wasps (although he did have to rescue us from two queen wasps on one day back in October). Oh, and he said this one was a queen wasp as well. He's offered to come back and fill in several holes in the airing cupboard for us, which might be the way that they are getting in.

this is post number 38

I've not been doing well with writing on here lately. I seem to have time to catch up on a few favourite blogs, but never to write on my own. I'm off to work in about 5 minutes, so this may have terrible typos becasue I don't have enough time to read back through what I've written.

It's really wet here - rain, rather than any plumbing accidents, but still a bit dark and miserable looking. Hopefully the kids at school will get a chance to have a break outside rather than having 'wet play' and being in under our feet and getting all hyper.

Gotta go. More soon I hope. Oh, I've having a 'performance management meeting' with the headteacher today. Which sounds scary, but it's really jsut a chat with the head to see how things are going (or so I get the impression that's what it will be, and what I'm hoping it will be..)

I was here, now I'm gone

I so meant to take advantage of being back with the braodband, but somehow time slipped away, and now I'm off back up the M11. It's been a lovely weekend, babysitting, being silly with my sisters, church all together, and the chance to cuddle a couple of beautiful babies. One of them was a tiny 6 day old girl, and the other a 6(+?) month old boy (can't remember how old exactly).

And now I must be on my way so that I get back before I fall asleep!

Oh, and I really will try harder at blogging over the next couple of weeks.

defenestration

is a word that I just learnt. It means 'act of ejecting through a window'. So obviously a word that you'd need every day! We were doing the crossword, and that was a clue. My little sister and I hadn't got a clue, but everyone else in the house seemed to know.

BTW I'm at home in London - HP was back from uni this weekend and Bekki came down yesterday as well, so we've had fun being all the family together.

today

I had a bit of a lie-in.
I dusted and tidied my bedroom - doing lots of filing I've been meaning to do for ages.
I hoovered the whole house (although I didn't do the dining room, so that's not strictly the whole house, but it didn't need doing because it doesn't get used so much as the rest of the house because we've been eating in the other room lately)
We are having homemade pizza for tea. Yummy :-)

cough still here

I spoke to my mum on the phone yesterday and one of the things I told her was that I had a cough. A bit later in the conversation I coughed and that prompted her to say "yes, you have got a nasty cough". It makes me smile when I hear that. It doesn't make the cough better, but it's one of those mummy phrases that I hear once in a while, and it shows that she loves me.

Talking, in a way, about noises (well, a cough is a noise) does anyone else have noises or sounds that you really like? For example, the sound of metal scissors cutting fabric on a wooden table definitely reminds me of when I was younger, listening to my mum making things, like clothes for us. I think I come from quite a creative family, as anyone who has read my sister's blogs or seen our living room wall will realise(explanation of that to follow at some point). I love cooking, even if it's just making the dinner day in day out (I tend to do the cooking in our house and my housemate washes up!).

Hmmm, the last paragragh seemed to have evolved from one thought to another totally different. Too tired to go back and sort it out. (yes, it's only 9.30 in the morning, but I haven't had breakfast yet, so I'm not properly awake). Please let me know if you have any favourite sounds.

cough cough

is the sound of our house at the moment. I still can't seem to shake off my cough, and my housemate is poorly and has a nasty cough. She's just gone off to bed, which is a place that I would love to be right now. I've just a couple of things to do before I do though, and I really wanted to get a post on my blog before people started thinking I was dead or something.
Not that many people do seem to read my blog. Right, that's a challenge. Who are you? And why haven't you recommended my blog to others (Ok, so Bekki and Kathleen have both made links to my blog, so they are forgiven). HP make your uni friends read it or something. Mummy, you haven't commented for ages, are you not reading*?Anyone else, it's lovely to have you reading about the generally mundane moments of my life.

* I do realise that if she's not reading then she can't comment, but she should be reading.

evening all

We've had a fairly busy day today - Doing lots of things like tidying, dusting, hoovering, washing (both clothes and people - I had a bath!) I'm feeling quite tired now, but my housemate is playing the keyboard, practising for tomorrow because she is playing at church, and then we've got to to finish cleaning the kitchen and mop the floor.

I can never remember which practice\practise is which. Does anyone have any useful suggestions?

I love supermarket shopping

To some people it may sound strange, but I love to go to the supermarket. Whether it's with my mum when I'm at home, or our regular trip on a Friday when my housemate and I tend to go a bit mad because it's finally the end of the week. When I say mad, it's not that we spend a lot, it's more just having fun, singing silly songs and generally not behaving like the sensible adults that we've been having to be all week. In fact, I don't even have to buy all that much, it's somehow just the excitement of going. I can't put my finger on the precise reason, I just love it.

One of the things I'm going to buying a lot in the next few weeks is tissues. Yes the hayfever season has officially begun. This I know because I have started sneezing just about all of the time. Some people, like my sister Bekki, have the luck to only be affected by one type of pollen, but for me it's all of them. And dust, and animal hair, and dust mites, and about a million other things. Oh well, I guess I'll just keep taking the tablets...

back to broadband

ok, ok, so I said I was going back to my other home, and I did for the a whole 36 hours or something, but I came back to London this afternoon. But for a good reason, and in fact I'm totally shattered now. Bed is calling, but I'm just making the most of the boradband before I go again.

Right, let me explain. As I said, our friend G is back in hospital, and J, his wife,has been feeling poorly, so as of yesterday morning they came over to my parents house to stay for a while (they being J and her 4 lovely kids). Today J was visiting G because he was seeing a consultant, and because my mum works afternoons she couldn't look after the kids (J home schools, so it was all of them that needed to be looked after). So J took them to a friends for the morning, and I drove back down the M11 after work (I was only working till 1 today) and went and picked them up and brought them back to my parents house. And looked after them all afternoon, including helping A to make a birthday cake (she is 8 today), and sorting out a few arguments and tired children (C didn't have a nap this afternoon which she usually does, so she was getting a bit cranky and tearful by the end of it.).

This evening we had a lovely birthday tea, and I've just been helping J to put the kids to bed and tidy up the tea stuff. It may not sound like a lot, but 4 kids can be quite a handful. They're fantastic and all know me really well and listen to what I tell them to do, but still.... I'm quite glad that they're all just about past the nappy stage (well, C is 90% potty trained now), although have got quite a dab hand at doing it having spent lots of time with them, especially since the youngest two were born. I don't think a lot of people my age would have a clue about looking after small children, but I'm really thankful to J&G who've given me lots of experience practising on their kids :-)

debs loves peas

I realised while eating my lunch that is most remiss of me to have not mentioned my love of peas before now. We had peas for lunch, and I love them. They are green and round and roll (unlike sweetcorn, which some might classify in the same category, which do not roll and are clearly of a lower standard).

I don't really remember when I started liking peas. I've always been the one out of the three of us (my 2 sisters and I) most likely to eat vegetables, and love tucking into things like roast root vegetables (I'll tell you about them sometime), but somehow peas are the best.
In my first year at university we had fridges in our hall or residence, but no freezers, and one day I decided I really wanted to eat peas. Now I don't know about you, but the smallest bags of frozen peas that I can ever find (the tinned ones just don't cut it) are 250 gram bags. I got one of them, and without a freezer they were gonna go soft quite quickly, so for two days running what I had for dinner was a big bowl of peas. It must have also been sometime during that year that I got a postcard that I stuck up on my door. It was circular, and had a big pea in the middle, and said 'pea brain'. Some people might have been insulted by this comment, but I decided it expressed to people how fond of peas I was, rather than how thick I was.

The last meal I ever had in my college dinner hall was also the time that my own personal tongue-twister was invented. It's very simple, just three words - debs loves peas, but you just try saying it quickly several times in a row and you'll understand. I personally thank Bex for helping it to come into existence. Bex could also tell you of some other interesting moments when it comes to me and food, but I won't go into them right now...
I would probably have to say that peas are definitely one of my favourite savoury food. Please comment and tell me what your favourite foods are :-)

goodbye to broadband

Well this afternoon I'm finally heading back to my other home. I came home to get better when I was feeling rough, and ended up saying with my parents for almost a month. It's been lovely being home, but I'll be glad to see people in Cambridge again. I decided to go to church here in London with my parents, and drive home this afternoon. And in the time between getting home from church and lunch being ready I'd make the most of our broadband conection to post on my blog and catch up with a few favourites. My other home only has dialup internet access, so my posts may not be quite as frequent as in the last couple of weeks.

I love the church we go to here in London. We meet in Cineworld cinema in Enfield, and it's fantastic to be so visible to people going to the cinema. We started off in one of the smalled screens, but as people have been added to our church we've been moving around a bit. This mornnig we were in screen 8 which is one of the really big screens. We by no means fill screen 8, but it's great to see the potential that the room has! This morning Adrian (http://www.adrian.warnock.info/) (I must find out how to make fancy links within a post) was preaching. If I had more time I'd write all about it, but check out his blog for more.

I need to start packing and hunting round my hosue for all my belongings, since having been home for so long things are all over the place.

my second Saturday

I was disappointed about my car not being ready on Thursday because I had been planning to drive up to Cambridge in the evening for a meal with my church growth group. Because it still needed a part they couldn't complete the job until Friday, so instead I went with my mum to her church community group (every church seems to call them different things, but they're generally pretty similiar). I enjoyed the evening with them - they're very friendly and made me feel very welcome. I love being able to be a part of a group that's made up of people from very different ages and background, but have something in common that overcomes the differences - the fact that we are Christians and believe the same things. While I was a student I enjoyed being part of the Christian Union in my college, but there was also something very special about meeting up with people who weren't students, and had a bit more life experience to share. Talking of those people, J and M from my current growth group got engaged this week, so congratulations to them.

Yesterday really felt like a Saturday, so it was a lovely feeling this morning, waking up for my second saturday this weekend. I've had a busy day, so I'm quite tired and it's only quarter to 8. We're having apple and blackberry crumble for pudding in a minute, so that should help to wake me up a bit. This morning we had a church prayer meeting, and then I visited some friends of mine. G&J have 4 children, and J home schools. While I was doing my A-levels I started visiting them one afternoon a week, and I've been going round ever since. G is currently in hospital, having been having breathing problems. I went over to catch up a bit as I haven't seen them for ages, and to just show them my love and support. C, their youngest daughter, was a little nervous of me to start with, but was soon jumping all over me like the rest of them! I love visiting them, and they always make me feel really welcome and a part of their family, not just a visitor.

Then this afternoon I met up with a friend from university. We met up at Victoria station just inside WHSmith because it's easy for her to get from south London, and me to get from the north of London. Unfortunately S, another friend wasn't able to join us because she's poorly. We had a lovely time eating lunch and wandering around Green Park and outside Buckingham Palace. We were playing spot the police van as there seemed to be hundreds of them drivnig around (ok, maybe a slight overestimate, but we saw more than 10, which to me seems quite a lot).

This evening I'm had some yummy tea with my mum and dad, and now I'm off to eat crumble. (with blackberries in that we picked in the late summer\early autumn and put in the freezer).
After that I need to do some packing as I'm finally back up the M11 tomorrow with my car. And my mum and I might watch 'House' that we videoed on Thursday night.

no posts since wednesday

So I'd better do one quick. It will have to b equick because we are off to visit my Grandma and Grandad for the day, and I'm supposed to be ready and I haven't been in the shower yet. Yesterday was a little disappointing, my car went to have it's headlights checked out, which we were hoping would be simple. But it wasn't, so my car is still at the garage and I can have it back tomorrow. Must go because I'm about to be shouted at...

yummy lunch

We had a lovely day in Cambridge. We parked near my old college and walked into town from there. It was really odd walking along the road that I used to walk along, some things looking the same and some things looking really different. We went to a few shops and then met Bekki for lunch down by the river. We had some yummy curry for lunch. And then after lunch we did some more shopping, ending up having a drink in a place called 'Eat', and then we drove back home to London. (And in case you've forgotten, or I didn't mention it, 'we' was me and my mum)

it takes a while but just look at his smile

The sun is shining and I'm in a happy mood. My mum and I are off to Cambridge for the day (or however much of the day is left once we make it out the house!) to go shopping and meet my sister for lunch. I'm enjoying being at home with my mummy and knowing how much we have in common. For example the "it takes a while.." phrase originates from a bath book that my little sister had when she was small. It was all about a crocodile brushing his teeth.

me

100_1078
Originally uploaded by the pig wot flies.

This is me, as taken by me. Which is why I think it looks quite odd, and not really lke me atall. Other people say it does though, so here it is. Also I'm not wearing my glasses because I quite often take them off in the house. I'm putting this on my blog using my sisters flickr account, so I'm not quite sure how it's going to work. I'll try it and see what happens :-)

The blog that made me think

I've just been reading a blog by a guy called Pete who lives in Venezuela. (I'm not gonna make a link to it just yet, but i'll keep reading it, so you never know). He is brand new at blogging, so I got to be first to comment on his blog, which was quite exciting for me :-)

Anyway, Pete is a Christian and made that very clear from the start of his blog. Reading it made me realise that all the stuff I've written about buying a new car, and going to the dentist and all that is part of who I am, but not the whole story. So, laying my cards on the table, I'll tell you that I am also a Christian. I believe that Jesus was fully man and fully God, and that he actually lived on this earth. He was born, and died for me, to take away my sins, so that I can have a relationship with God. You might be thinking "ok, that's for you, but not for me", but I don't believe that can be true. For me there is one absolute, not many, and that one absolute is God. I don't want to be all preachy, because that's not who I am, but I did want to get that out in the open so that anyone reading my blog from now on can understand how my faith affects the way I behave, the things that I do and say, and the person that I am. I'm sorry if that offends anyone, but that's just who I am and what I believe.

So, happy Tuesday :-)

dentist update

Everything was fine. I just need to floss more, and since I don't floss much that shouldn't be too tricky to improve on. I had an interesting chat to the dental nurse while we waited for the dentist to finish making a phone call. She had just started a few days before and seemed very nervous. She seemed nice, but Iwas glad she didn't have to do much when it came to the actual check-up - I like people to know what they are doing when they're doing something to my mouth.

I also had a wander down the market (Walthamstow market, apparantly the longest street market in Europe) although today there weren't many market stalls around, just all the usual shops. I bought some deodrant, some hair bits and a book. I hadn't been down there for ages, so it was nice.

monday monday

I have a dentist appointment at 12. Which makes this one of those waiting to go ot the dentist mornings. Which is not good. Every time I go I think maybe this time it will be ok, and if I admit it sometimes it is ok. But I just don't like sitting there having someone sticking things in my mouth, not knowing quite what they're doing or what they're going to find. Ok well, hopefully this will be one of the ok times.

Going to the opticians, on the other hand, I absolutely love. But you only get to go back to see them every couple of years, and you have to see the dentist every 6 months (although this time I left it 8 months, which means there's bound to be something wrong). Having my eyes checked is great fun. Getting to wear those bizarre glasses while they try out different lenses to see what's best. When I was little my best friend had glasses for a while, but I never needed them thne, even though I desperately wanted to have them. Now I do have glasses, and she doesn't (I haven't seen her for a while, so I could be wrong!). I don't have a very good track record with them either - must be to do with my accident-proneness. The other day I managed to get elbowed in the face by the boy work with (by mistake), luckily it didn't hurt, but still knocked my glasses off my face. I've also, in the past, stood on my glasses and squashed them, had them sat on....

The most bizarre one must be when we were on holiday the summer before last. We went up to Scotland which is beautiful. We had a week near Inverness, and then a week on the Isle of Skye (I would love to go back there). Anyway, somehow I managed to to loose the screw that held in one of my lenses while at church in the main town, at the other end of the island to where we were staying. That meant for the rest of that day I couldn't really see where I was going, and that on the Monday morning we had to go all that way back to the town to get them to put a new screw in them for me.

Hey, I've managed to distract myself from thinking about the dentist for at least 10 minutes by having that little flashback, so that can't be too bad! Only another hour and a half to go (and counting).

sleepy sunday

It's only 9pm and I'm really tired, so I think I might be heading for bed soon. I've gotta get up (rather than making the most of half term and sleeping in) so that I can drive MY car (so exciting!) to the garage along with my mum driving her car. That way we can leave hers there and I can give her a lift home. And she wants us to get the car there for 8am. Does that time even exist in the holidays? Or if it does, you ought not need to be dressed and out of the house by then!
Went to church this morning. I didn't drive my car because it seemed silly to drive 2 cars for 3 people! (Also, not earning much money it's far better to use someone else's petrol. Although strictly speaking my mum did pay for the petrol we put in my car).

Talking of my car and petrol. Because it's obviously not really worth it for him to put lots of petrol in, the guy we bought my car from had let the petrol get really low. So I had my first ever experience of seeing the little light on the dashboard come on. The one that says 'give me petrol now or else'. I come from a family of 'only let it get down to a quarter, that way you won't be using all the gunk in the bottom of the tank'. I don't really understand that, but at least it means you're unlikely to get stranded anywhere due to lack of petrol.

Right, must go to bed before I talk much more rubbish.

new car

We're off round the London north circular to pick up my new car. Hurrah!
Afraid that's all I can say for now because we do have to go right now.
More later if I have a chance to get on the computer.

the car saga continues

I'm sure there must be something to do with me and cars. I picked my mum up from the school where she works this evening. When we'd been home a while we noticed that there was a light on the car alarm remote that shouldn't be on. When we pressed a button it went out, but I thought we'd better check that it was still working to turn off the alarm on the car. It wasn't. Having tried various things we ended up ringing the AA, who sent a lovely man who managed to do something to make it stop coming on. But it's definitely got to show up for it's date with the garage on Monday (that we'd made on our way home, for something that we think is probably unconnected, although also to do with the electrics). At least by then we'll have my car to get around in when we need to.

It just occured to me that..

..I never wrote anymore about the drain. My housemate's dad sorted us out with some chicken wire to cover the drain up outside, and we've got a plughole cover inside as well. Although it doesn't always seem to want to stay in position, so we may be investigating other designs to see if we can find one that fits better. Our neighbours have also shot a couple of rats (not entirely sure what with, but we didn't feel like enquiring too deeply into that one), so hopefully that might help with the problem!

new car

Well D and my mum went and looked at the car. They found out that it hasn't got power steering, but other than than all seemed good. Since I was at work my mum couldn't get hold of me at the time, but decided that she'd go for it and put down a deposit. It may be a bit odd without power steering, but since it'll be a lot smaller and lighter than the cars I've driven lately, hopefully it won't be too much of a problem. After all, a couple of weeks ago I couldn't see myself driving my mum's car, but out of necessity I have, and that's been fine. So I'm sure I'll get used to it soon enough.
I just rang up my insurance company and sorted all that out too, so hopefully if all goes to plan we'll be picking up my car on Saturday afternoon :-)

wedding bells...

.... no not mine!
Today I recieved an invite to my good friend R's wedding to P. It's in July, and it's all very exciting :-) Also a little scary because R is 2 years younger than me, but we won't dwell too much on that one!

*car update*

I can't remember what I last said about cars, but the latest is that tomorrow my mum and D - a friend of the family who knows a thing or two about cars - are going back to Wembly to look again at one of the 3 we saw on Saturday. Since we saw them I've kind of been thinking of this one as 'my car' so I'm really hoping D reckons it's worth it. It seemed in great condition, and has only had one 'careful lady driver' so all seems good. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Once they've seen it and made a decision we might be a step further towards figuring out our plans for half-term, which is next week. We'd like to visit people like my 2 sisters, and perhaps my Grandma as well, but it all depends on the car situation. My mum's car has a continuing problem with its electrics which really ought to be sorted out, and if I have a car by then we'd be able to get around even if it takes a while them to sort it all out.

Oh, and talking of Grandma, it's her birthday today so HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

ankles

Those of you that have known me for a while (and since only about 3 people ever read my blog that's probably my mum and my sister) will know that I'm the most accident prone person in the world. (oh, I forgot my housemate - she's reading this to catch up on what I'm up to in London - make that 4 people).

Anyway, (thought I'd best start a new paragraph to get away from all those brackets)(doh), I've very good at going over on my ankle. The most memorable of recent occasions was while playing 'it' in the playgroud with some children at school. The boy I work with is very fond of the game, and although his classmates are very patient they do sometimes get bored, and hence I got roped in to play. I somehow managed to stumble and hurt my left ankle, and having survived the last 10 minutes of lunchtime pretending everything was fine, got to sit in the staffroom with an icepack on it for a significant amount of the afternoon before atempting to drive home. At least that was mostly on the motorway and I didn't have to change gear too many times.

Surprisingly that wasn't actually the story I was planning to tell you, just background information to illustrate just how accident prone I am. What I did today was come up stairs to tell my mum that dinner was ready, and while standing (yes, just standing, not even walking or moving in any way) I somehow managed to go right over on my ankle and cause myself lots of pain. I sat through dinner with an icepack on my ankle and it is feeling a bit better, so I don't think I've caused any major damage, but I'll try to be more careful with myself over the next few days.

Will anyone notice this now has a title?

I just managed to work out for myself how to set up a link. Well, I say by myself - in actual fact went into my blog settings and found the bit Bekki hd taken me to when she set up a link to her page, and copied what she did, only with a different website. But I think that still counts as by myself, since that was a while ago, and noone was with me this time.

On saturday we looked at 3 cars - all Micras. I test drove 2 of them - the other one was very blocked in, but we may go back and look at it again. It doesn't really seem like the end is it sight yet, but it feels like there might be hope...

The ceilidh at my church on Saturday was great fun, and I think Bekki, I and G enjoyed it as well. (To save on confusion, 'I' is my housemate, rather than me geting confused and putting myself in the list twice). It was great to see her and catchup on life since I was last in the house.

I'm so glad it's Friday

It's Friday, I don't have to go to work tomorrow. I made it to the end of the week - a whole 5 days at work without being ill. (or at least not too ill) That makes me happy :-)

A big hello to Kathleen, whose blog I posted a comment on, and she came and posted one back on mine. (Now that might seem a little thing to some people, but to someone who is still discovering the delightful world of blogging it's a very BIG thing.) Once I find out how to do it, it would be great to make a link from my site to hers, but I'll have to get back to you on that one.

This week I have worked in the every morning, and managed to make the boy I work with cry on two out of the five days. Now I realise that isn't necessarily something to be proud of, but he was being very silly and mucking around, and all I actually did was tell him he had to stay in for a couple of minutes at playtime. Perhaps next week he won't be so silly and I won't have to be so mean, but perhaps pigs might fly (although they do in our house, but that's another story).

Any minute now I'm going to go back to looking at websites about cars, in the hope that I can arrange to go and look at some tomorrow morning. Then tomorrow we'll hopefully look at some cars, and maybe even decide on one that we want to get. In the afternoon I'm going back up the Liverpool Street-Cambridge train line to my little village. And in the evening I'm going, with some friends, to a barn dance. Actually it's officially one of those Scottish words that begin with 'C' that I can't spell, and am not even going to try.

I'll have to come back to London on Sunday evening I expect, otherwise getting to work on Monday will be tricky. And that begins a new week. It occurs to me that if I posted more often I wouldn't have to keep updating you on my whole week. I'll try..

If I were a butterfly

Three reasons for today's post title -
1. Last time I saw my housemate (before I came home to London to be ill - I suppose that should really be coming home to get better) she wanted the words of this song to use in her class for the next day.
2. The children in my class have been writing 'explanation texts' writing about the life cycle of a butterfly, which made me think of this song.
3. We sang this song today in assembly, which is the first time I've sung it in school for years. (In fact, it makes me think of SMUFF (St. Mary's Under Fives Fellowship) which I went to when I was little.

Talking of memories from when I was little, I first remember learning about Chinese New Year at nursery - I vividly remember all being given red envelopes, and being taught to say 'kung hey fat choi' (that may not be spelt right) which (according to a site I just found) means 'May prosperity be with you'.

Anyway, what I was actually going to say today was that I'm feeling better, although not totally better yet. I went back to work yesterday, which wore me out, but it was good to be back and see everyone again. Hopefully I'll manage to survive 'till the end of the week.
No joy yet on the car front, but I'll let you know how that goes.

Friday evening

Well my car is officially dead and I am officially ill. Yesterday we drove back up towards Cambridge and went to the garage. I signed my car over to them to be scrapped, and rescued all the bits and pieces out of it. It's amazing quite how much can be in a car without you realising - all the tapes, boxes of tissues, pens, a torch, my road atlas, the list goes on. I felt quite strange afterwards - either down to the fact that I was saying goodbye to my first car, or that I was ill.
Then we headed to the doctor who told me I have an ear and throat infection and gave me antibiotics. I've started taking them, and possibly felt a little better today, although to be honest not a lot yet.
And then this evening we saught the advice of an old friend of the family and started our search for a new car. I'll let you know how that goes...

It's not fun being ill

I'm at home in London. My mummy came and rescued me from Cambridge last night as I was feeling so poorly. I'm still feeling ill, but at least I'm at home and in a warm house. (my house back up the M11 is not renowned for its warmness).

My car is still in the garage. I asked them give it a look over to see if it has any chance of passing its MOT which has to be done in the next month.
And the news is not good I'm afraid - in fact, too many things need doing for me to list them all here... so it looks like it's time for hunt a new car now. I say 'new' but what I actually mean is new to me.

I'm having confusion over its and it's. I know that 'it is' = it's, but I'm confused over the whole 'belonging to it' business. Perhaps when I feel better it'll all come back to me. Also, I'm very good at composing sentences in my head and then realising I don't know how to spell the words. (for example, in this blog I couldn't remember how to spell 'renowned', and had to check. Not convinced I've got it right now though).

Tell me why I don't like Tuesdays

First of all, Happy Birthday to HP. She's 19 today. However did she get to be that old?

This week so far has been mostly being ill and stressing about my car. I started the day feeling poorly and with a car without a working drivers seatbelt. I end the day still feeling pants, and with a car in the garage awaiting further attentions from the nice garage people.
Vaguely on the up-side, I have a rather bizare, but also fun ride home yesterday evening from Tesco in Great Dunmow with my car on the back of a truck (I was up front in the cab with the driver).

Hopefully things will be on the up soon.

bloging more

I've been asked to blog more, so I'm trying. It's just that my life never sems that exciting. But I'll just have to bore you if you insist...
Today I went on a course for teaching assistants working with EAL children (children with English as an additional language). It was quite interesting and encouraging too - I think I'm doing the right sort of things with the child I'm working with, so that's good!

This afternoon I got to meet my doctor for the first time. That means he can now start prescribing all the medicines I need to take. I get to go and pick them up tomorrow. It's my first experience of a village doctor's surgery and it's quite strange. You don't have to take the script to a pharmacy because they just do it all in the same place. Ok, for some people that may not be all that strange, but for someone that's always lived in big cities up till now it is a big deal.

This evening we discovered that the drain outside (that our kitchen sink drains into) was getting blocked up, and our neighbours had seen a rat eating the bits in there. So we had the dubious pleasure of clearing it out. We've also decided to try to get a plughole sieve thing to stop food getting down the drain. So if anyone knows where to get one please let me know :-)

Finally a belated happy birthday to S for last Sunday. Just thought she might like to see herself mentioned in print! (not sure if this counts as print, but I know what I mean)

It's almost Friday

I'm muchly tired, and very glad that it's almost the end of the week. Not that it hasn't been a good one, I'm just ready for a day that I don't have to get up and go to work. Hurrah for weekends! Although actually I am working on Saturday, but only for a couple of hours, and not quite so early as on other days.

What have I done this week? Some highlightsa - I popped back to Walthamstow on Monday to pick up a few bits and pieces, and then in the evening I went to witness Bekki signing her new contract. On Tuesday we had sausage casserole for tea (quite clearly the highlight of my day). Wednesday evening we were tidying the house up because today (Thursday) our landlord was popping round to do something. And that just about sums up my week so far, or at least the non-work related bits of it.

It's Thursday today

Or so I've finally realised. I spent most of the morning convinced it was Wednesday. Probably partly down to the school term starting on a Wednesday - I'm working as a classroom assistant in a primary school at the moment.

I've been going to write my next blog for days, but never quite known what I want to say. But today I decided I'd better just write - It's my life after all.

I'm glad it's Friday tomorrow. Somehow I forget how tired you can get working in a school, and it's handy to have a shorter week to ease in gradually. On Saturday I'm helping Bekki (my big sister) make her official move to Cambridge. She's been living with me for a few days, but can move into her house this weekend. And HP (my little sister) is back off to uni, so there'll be lots of mad packing gonig on. But by Monday everything should be back to normal.